Law and order: Negotiations to ensure sectarian harmony

Adviser to PM says the govt will not let violence claim lives.

GILGIT:

Terming the existence of peace necessary for sustainable development, Adviser to Prime Minister Attaullah Shahab has said that negotiations will be held with influential religious leaders in Gilgit-Baltistan [G-B] to maintain sectarian harmony in the region.

“We will hold negotiations with Sunni and Shia clerics for sustainable peace in the region,” said Attaullah Shahab, a G-B Council member who was recently appointed adviser to the prime minister for G-B affairs. He was supported by G-B Health Minister Gulbar Khan and legislator Haji Sarwar at the press conference in a local hotel on Monday. He said they will not sit on the sidelines and let violence claim innocent lives, “It is our responsibility to come forward and play our role.” He said the government should establish its writ and punish those involved in these crimes.

Shahab, who is also a senior JUI-F leader of in G-B, said that the involvement of an ‘external hand’ in fuelling violence in the city cannot be ruled out. He demanded that the government root out networks that are bent upon ruining the law and order situation in the valley, which has five people were killed and seven others injured in violence during the past month.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2011.