Call For Sanity: JI to organise conference on August 9

KARACHI:

The Jamaat-e-Islami will seek consensus from political parties against the rising incidence of extortion and target killings in the city and organise a Shahadat Conference next month, said JI Karachi chief Mohammad Hussain Mehanti on Wednesday.

The conference will be held on August 9 and JI will urge political parties to unite over a one-point agenda, of restoring peace in the city, said Mehanti during a press conference at the Idara-e Noor-e-Haq. The party will also protest against extortion and targeted killings on Friday at Akbari Masjid in New Karachi.

The JI leader said that nearly 1,200 people had been targeted in the city since January, and called for an end to the indiscriminate killings. “The government and its allies, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party, are responsible for the killings of innocent citizens.”

Mehanti demanded that the government arrest the culprits responsible for destroying peace in the city, and also condemned the recent targeted killing of a JI activist, Abdul Rasheed Farooqui.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2012.