Swat sees another round of protests

PDM, PTI lead separate rallies in Charbagh, Pir Kot

SWAT:

Local residents on Friday continued their large scale protest demonstrations across Swat, demanding arrest of culprits responsible for the school van attack in Charbagh and operation against militants camped on the mountain tops in the district and challenging the writ of the state.

A large rally was held in Charbagh and another one in Pir Kot on the call of PTI Swat.

Provincial President Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Amir Muqam, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) leader Sanaullah Khan and other political leaders addressed the gathering in Charbagh.

The protest was attended by local residents, civil society, political activists, school children and people from all walks of life in large number.

Amir Muqam accused the PTI provincial government of being behind the unrest in Swat and said that blaming the federal government was not right because law and order is a provincial subject.

“Nothing less than a peaceful Swat is acceptable because the people of Malakand and especially Swat have rendered great sacrifices for it,” he said, adding that people of this region were left homeless and displaced in their own country and province for the sake of peace.

“The provincial government is engaged in a blame game just to hide its own failures in Swat,” he observed, adding that peace was not the priority for the PTI government because it was using all its energies on ‘Islamabad March’.

A separate protest was organized in Pir Kot area by PTI because in the last protest, PTI leadership had not been allowed on stage and people held the provincial PTI government responsible for inaction in Swat.

The Pir Kot rally was attended by Provincial Minister Housing Amjad Iqbal and other party workers who said that the return of militants was not acceptable to anyone. They said that no one will be allowed to enforce their own violent ideology on the people at gunpoint.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2022.