Police open investigations into wall chalking in Skardu

Police has expands its investigations into who is responsible for walking chalking against a particular sect.

GILGIT:

Police has expanded its investigations into who is responsible for walking chalking against a particular sect in Skardu, officials said on Sunday.

The wall chalking had sparked widespread protests in the town. All business activities came to a halt in Skardu on Saturday after hundreds of people took to the streets in protest as some unidentified people painted walls with slogans against a sect. Reacting to the wall chalking, clerics demanded the arrest of the plotters.

“Initially we had arrested four suspects but released them today after investigation,” the official said.

Meanwhile, Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Mehdi Shah, who belongs to Skardu, told reporters that the culprits will be nabbed.

Last week, hundreds of people had staged a sit-in in the town to protest against ‘derogatory statements’ against religious leaders of a sect by members of another sect. The matter had hardly cooled down when the chalking appeared.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th,  2011.