GILGIT:
Following a week of sectarian strife, the capital of Gilgit-Baltistan on Monday saw temporary relief as Chief Minister Mehdi Shah succeeded in deferring the strike called by the aggrieved Shia community.
Though no untoward incident was reported in any part of the region, residents avoided visiting markets in the city amid fears that fresh violence could break out, after it escalated last week when 16 people were killed in Kohistan.
Following Sunday’s clash in Baseen that left three men injured, including a Gilgit scout official, security was beefed up in the city as another 100 policemen were moved in from Skardu.
Police and scouts carried out body searches of those travelling by car and foot all day at various check posts, resulting in long queues of vehicles.
At least three people have been killed, with five injured, following the Kohistan bus incident last week.
Earlier, Mehdi Shah met Shia clerics in a bid to retract the strike call.
The clerics, following a meeting with Interior Minister Rehman Malik in Gilgit last week, had given a week’s deadline to the government to fulfill their demands, including the arrest of perpetrators and enhanced compensation to the victims of the Kohistan tragedy, army patrols on the Karakoram Highway and the extension of Gilgit airport.
An official from the G-B government said that “Mehdi Shah, along with some cabinet members, met the clergy in the central Imambargah and convinced them to put off the strike call.”
The clerics, however, made it clear to the chief minister that the situation would slip out of their control if the government failed to honour its commitments.
Meanwhile, the district administration in Skardu also imposed Section 144 in the city to discourage public assemblies.
Sunni clerics in Gilgit have termed the bus incident a conspiracy against Gilgit-Baltistan. In a statement issued on Monday, they said that if G-B cannot become a constitutional province, the region should be annexed with Azad Jammu Kashmir.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2012.
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"Sunni clerics in Gilgit have termed the bus incident a conspiracy against Gilgit-Baltistan. In a statement issued on Monday, they said that if G-B cannot become a constitutional province, the region should be annexed with Azad Jammu Kashmir". This is the politics in Pakistan to drag others into the trouble they are in. The issue of Kashmir is the core livelihood of militant organizations in Pakistan.
@ dear disgusted, I don't blame Sunnis rather I blame them for harboring terrorism in their no go areas. I am not saying this based on reason that all areas hold by hard core sunnis (not all sunnis), please correct me if North, South region in KPK are rule by terrorist who bombing schools, mosques and what not. One can't correct without accepting the realities on ground. I am intentially doing it as it may help my muslim brothers who have problem accepting other muslims as muslims.
you are pointing sunnis as terrorist, why dont you say flagranlty. it is not true just come out of this perception and think positively. you always blame sunnis and it is dangeruos to say with out any any reason just for the sake of animosity.
What a shame that all conspiracies are being hatched and executed in the areas where hard core muslims are settled. I have never seen such conspiracies in the area where minorities sects like Shia, Ismaili, Norbukhshi and such other sects. Take the example of North, South parts of KPK. Take the examples from tribal areas of Balochistan. Take examples from South Punjab. Not a single school, mosques and individual was killed in the region hold by minority sects. Should i conclude this here that all crimnals gangs, insurgents and anti state elements have found safe heavens in some particular sects in Islam who are promoting fake Jihad to earn dollars from enemies of Islam and Pakistan.