Hunza Valley Shooting: Speaker terms killing of two family members by police a conspiracy

“It wasn’t an accident, it was a conspiracy against the people and the valley,” GBLA Speaker Wazir Baig.

GILGIT:

The shooting of two protesters in Hunza and the subsequent events are a plot to defame Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), said G-B Legislative Assembly Speaker Wazir Baig while presiding over the second day of G-B Legislative Assembly session on Tuesday.

“It wasn’t an accident, it was a conspiracy against the people and the valley,” Baig said referring to the incident in which the police opened fire on two protesters after they demanded compensation for their losses caused by the landslide in Attabad.

Commenting on the arrests and the registration of 350 cases in the wake of the riots, the Speaker said action should only be taken against those who are found guilty.

Two men, father and son, died spurring the masses to ransack government offices and the police station. In the incident’s aftermath, the speaker, who is a resident of Hunza, was severely criticised for not being able to protect the interests of “innocent people who had voted him into power”.

However Baig later held the Hunza administration responsible for the tragic incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2011.