anti-riot police officers walk to supporters of executed Islamist Mumtaz Qadri during an anti-government protest in Islamabad on March 27, 2016. PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD: Human rights activists, while condemning the terrorist attack at a public park in Lahore on Sunday, questioned federal government’s resolve to fight extremists and terrorists.
They expressed their strong condemnation of the Lahore bombing and also raised serious reservations over the ongoing sit-in at D-Chowk staged by pro-Mumtaz Qadri protesters.
The activists not only questioned the “silence” of the government over the issue of sit-in in the capital but also what they called “ineffective implementation” of the National Action Plan (Nap).
“We stand in solidarity with all our bereaved, grieving compatriots, especially Christian Pakistanis, who were celebrating Easter,” the rights activists said in a joint statement issued on Tuesday.
They also raised the issue of the “timing” of the suicide attack in Lahore, and the march of religious-political workers who damaged public property in Islamabad, the same day.
“They are still encamped there, making outrageous, blatant demands, taking full advantage of the government’s familiar appeasement policy, strategy and tactics,” the statement reads.
On the other hand, they said, in the name of “security”, civil society and rights organisations were harassed, whilst militant groups are permitted to operate with impunity.
They called for implementation on demands including removal of hate speech and jihadism from public school curricula and textbooks, registration and screening of all madrassas, arrest of hate preachers, a ban on such individuals and their organisations from all media, and ban on private militias to deal with the issue of extremism and terrorism.
They asked the federal government to brief the nation about progress on the Nap, the National Internal Security Policy (Nisp), and performance of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta).
They questioned government’s claims made of stamping out extremism from across the country after massacres at the Army Public School and the Bacha Khan University.
We demand answers to these and many other burning questions of loyal, committed but grieving and suffering Pakistanis, who are fed up of being fed “lies”, the statement reads.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2016.
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