A year after: Youth hold peace walk to honour Bashir Ahmed Bilour

Bilour, a senior minister in the previous ANP-led government of K-P, was killed in a suicide attack last year.

KARACHI:

To pay homage to the slain Awami National Party (ANP) leader Bashir Ahmed Bilour on his first death anniversary, members of the National Youth Organisation (NYO) held a peace walk outside the Sindh Secretariat on Sunday.

Bilour, a senior minister in the previous ANP-led government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, was killed in a suicide attack in Dhaki Nalbandi in Qissa Khawani on December 22, 2012.

The NYO is a sister organisation of the ANP. Holding red flags and pictures of Bilour, NYO members marched from Shahrah-e-Liaquat towards the Sindh Secretariat and then gathered at Kabootar Chowk, where they shouted slogans glorifying the sacrifices of Bilour for restoring peace in Pakistan.

“We are gathered here to give a message to those who are behind the assassination of our leader Bashir Bilour that his mission of bringing peace in the country has not been hindered by his murder. In fact, there are thousands of others ready to take his mission forward,” said NYO Sindh acting president Aijaz Aslam, while leading the walk.

“We offer an honorary red salute to Bilour who always stood beside the victims of militancy and shared their grief.”

He said Bilour was a man of principles and did what he promised. “He used to say that he would prefer to die while working in the field against extremism. His martyrdom came on those lines only,” said Aslam.

“The people who hate humanity can kill Bilour but not his philosophy, ideas and thoughts. His values will help our people forever and he will be remembered whenever someone speaks about peace,” said NYO Sindh acting secretary-general Attaullah Khan. He further said that over 950 activists and leaders of the ANP have been killed in the militancy but they are not opting for revenge as they are the followers of Bacha Khan’s philosophy of non-violence.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2013.