No let-up in protest against journalist’s murder

LANDI KOTAL:

People of all clans took to the streets against the deteriorating law and order situation and the brutal murder of senior journalist Khalil Gibran in Landi Kotal in the Khyber tribal district.

They observed a sit-in near the Khyber Market while carrying black flags and placards and chanting slogans against the government.

Thousands of people also took out a protest rally from Takiya to Haji Ayub Kali.

Addressing the sit-in, Tehsil Chairman Shah Khalid Shinwari, Awami National Party (ANP) leader Shah Hussain Shinwari, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Amir Murad Hussain Afridi, Shakir Afridi, Malik Abdul Razzaq Afridi, Malik Darya Khan Afridi, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Shah Rehman Shinwari, Ziaul Haq Afridi and others said terrorism was being spread systematically.

The problem is not just in Sultan Khel, the unrest will spread everywhere if those behind the attack are not arrested, they said.

“People will have to gather in large numbers. Pakhtuns are affected on both sides of the border and this has to be stopped,” they added.

Many brave tribesmen have been killed without inviting any attention from the quarters concerned. Scholars, students, businessmen, doctors and all clans should widen the protest, they said.

They further said nothing would happen with the change of the District Police Officer (DPO) and the Commandant and that the policy needed to be changed altogether as war had become a business. They stressed that people would have to rise to bring about change.

Learn from the past and do not cooperate with terrorists, the speakers urged the administration, adding that their resistance would continue. “We will show the world that protest is only possible when unity is adopted. The administration should carry out permanent planning and the state should fulfil its responsibilities to protect the locals.

The speakers added that Khalil Gibran’s children now felt insecure and that, if the administration could not provide peace and security, the forces, instead of staging a ‘drama’, should move out of the mountains and locals would protect themselves.