Security woes: Chilas blasts termed a plot against Diamer dam

PML-N threatens to launch protest campaign across the region if the hidden hands behind the blast aren't exposed.

GILGIT: Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) has threatened to launch a protest campaign across the region if the ‘hidden hands’ behind recent blasts in Chilas, headquarter of the Diamer District aren’t exposed.

“It is the responsibility of the government to apprehend the terrorists involved in the attacks,” said the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly’s Standing Committee on Works Chairman Janbaz Khan on Monday. Khan, who belongs to Chilas, where a series of blasts ripped through two girls’ schools and a mosque two week ago.

The PML-N parliamentarian calling it a test case for the government, said that if it failed to unmask the hidden hands the PML-N will stage demonstrations.

The blasts triggered a strong reaction in the region as 12,000 people gathered in Chilas two days after the blasts, calling them a conspiracy against the proposed Diamer-Bhasha Dam.

Khan said that people of Diamer were peaceful and that it was the responsibility of the government to expose the conspiracy hatched against the region and avoid eruption of a situation such as
that of Swat.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2011.