PESHAWAR:
Speakers at a Difa-e-Pakistan Council’s (DPC) rally at the fabled Qissa Khwani Bazaar on Friday vociferously demanded that the government recover all ‘missing persons’ who, they said, are in the custody of the country’s spy agencies.
In a resolution passed at the rally, they also asked for an immediate end to military operations across the country.
Around 300 people, representing component parties of DPC – including Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Samiul Haq (JUI-S), Jamaatud Dawa (JD), and Millat-e-Islamia (formerly Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) – first gathered at Chowk Yadgar and then marched to Qissa Khawni Bazaar, where a demonstration was held at Shaheedano Chowk.
The resolution passed at the rally blamed the security forces for targeting madrassa students and religious scholars in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Although the event was organised to express solidarity with the Baloch people, other than rhetorical pronouncements, little of substance was said about Balochistan itself.
Rather, their usual anti-America rants ate up most time of the speakers who called the Balochistan unrest a part of an ‘international’ conspiracy aimed at dismembering Pakistan.
Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) activists did not take part in the rally. However, one of its Peshawar chapter office bearers, Maulana Ismail Dervesh did turn up.
Maulana Dervesh told the participants that ‘foreign’ elements were responsible for the increase in Balochistan unrest over the past few months.
Speaking on the occasion, JI Peshawar chapter chief Bahrul Haq criticised the Pakistan Army, saying that it had abandoned the path of jihad. He said the ‘Arab Spring’ revolts have led to the decline of American influence in the Middle East, where Islamists had registered impressive wins.
“The same results would be replicated in Pakistan,” Haq said.
JUI-F stance on Nato supply
At a separate political rally in the Tehkal Bala area of Peshawar, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) General Secretary Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri asserted that his party would not allow the resumption of Nato supplies in the country.
Accusing the ruling political elite of working on an American agenda, Haideri criticised the government, censuring it for its ‘utter failure’ to stop drone strikes after the Salala check post attack.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 10th, 2012.
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