Difa-e-Pakistan: Peshawar rally demands release of missing persons

Speakers focus on missing persons in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, demands release through resolution.


Manzoor Ali March 09, 2012

PESHAWAR: The Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) held a rally in Peshawar on Friday, demanding the immediate release of missing persons in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Ismail Darvesh of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam - Fazl (JUI-F)  and Jamaatud Dawa leaders also addressed the rally. They termed the unrest in Balochistan an international conspiracy against Pakistan and stated that the DPC will not allow this to continue.

The rallydemanded the immediate release of missing persons through a resolution and said that those in the custody of the military and in jails should be released. Their emphasis regarding missing persons focused on those in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

It also demanded an end to military operations.

Earlier, small rallies from across Peshawar had convened at Chowk Yadgar for the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) rally and later moved to Chowk Shaheedan, where the rally is being conducted.

The first group to arrive belonged to Millat Islamia and was left by Divisional Ameer Tariq Haideri. Around 100 protestors were part of the group that had left Madrassa Khulafa Rasheeden Pipal Mandi. Another group of around 60 people from Nowshera led by Maulana Syed Yousaf also joined the gathering.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) activists numbering around 80-100 also joined the rally.

Background

Difa-e-Pakistan Council is a coalition of over 40 religious and political parties that has been vocally demanding the government to keep Nato supply routes closed and withdraw its decision to grant India the status of most-favoured nation.

The first DPC rally was held in Lahore and was organised by Jamatud Dawa (JuD), whose leadership is in charge of coordination and communication between all members of the group. Rallies have also been organised in Karachi and Rawalpindi.

Calling for the Nato supply routes to stay closed, the DPC has several times, in their past rallies, threatened to besiege the parliament in case the government decides to reopen the routes.

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COMMENTS (15)

Anwar | 12 years ago | Reply

History will show that Hamid Gul's contribution to Pakistan was even worse than Zia's. That man has caused more suffering in more families than any other.

Falcon | 12 years ago | Reply

@linga0123 and @Hafeez: I am not saying extra-judicial measures are justified. All I am saying is that just making laws against agencies for curtailing their actions is not good enough. We need a comprehensive national strategy to contain violence and terrorism. If you look at the lifecycle of how currently a terrorism related case is handled in the system from lack of availability of resources to police to political intervention by influentials to lack of appropriate security at jails to lack of protection for lawyers, judges, and witnesses, everything needs to be fixed; otherwise, we will fix the problem in one place and it will show up in other place.

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