Charsadda blasts widely condemned

WPP demands an overhaul in the country’s security apparatus.

The suicide attacks in Charsadda that claimed the lives of at least 80 people were widely condemned by political parties on Friday.

The Worker’s Party Pakistan (WPP) in a statement condemned the twin suicide attacks and said that in the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden affair, the establishment must be forced to abandon its old policy of using “strategic assets to defend its so-called national security”.

The WPP said the latest terrorist attack in Charsadda indicates that the government’s counter-terrorism policies have failed.

They said that American policy in the region is squarely focused on stipulated strategic concerns and has directly contributed to the radicalization of Pakistani society since the onset of the war on terror.

The WPP slammed the Punjab government for maintaining dubious relations with individuals and militant organizations such as Hafiz Saeed and the supposedly defunct Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

The party called for revision of the country’s educational curriculum to enable Pakistan reorient its priorities away from militarism and towards meeting people’s welfare by making peace with its neighbours, adopting a non-aligned foreign policy, and breaking free from the clutches of American and Saudi imperialism.

Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadees also condemned the suicide attack. Their leaders, Senator Professor Sajid Mir and Hafiz Abdul Karim, called the attacks a “foreign conspiracy” to weaken the country’s stability.

In their joint statement, the two leaders said that security operations are not the solution to militancy in the country and the government should distance itself from America and find a political solution to the problem.

Majlis Wahdat Muslimeen Pakistan issued a statement terming the suicide attacks in Charsadda a reaction to Bin Laden’s death and an attempt to scare the security establishment.

Awami Party Pakistan, Ayub Malik and Dr Hasan Nasir also condemned the attacks in their separate statements and demanded that the security apparatus in the country be overhauled.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2011.