Killing of party members: PML-N threatens to launch civil disobedience movement

Hundreds take to the streets in Mirpur and Bhimber, give govt one week to arrest the killers.

MIRPUR:

Leaders and workers of Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) held protest demonstrations in Mirpur and Bhimber districts on Monday against the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government’s inability to arrest or penalise the people involved in the killing of nine members of the party during the past three months.

The members of the opposition party threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement if the people responsible were not brought to task within one week.

In Mirpur, PML-N workers and their supporters took out a rally from Quaid-i-Azam Chowk and marched till Central Shaheed Chowk against the murder of nine party members in two separate incidents in Bhimber, one involving the police. The protesters carried black flags and banners inscribed with anti-government slogans to mark their indignation. Addressing the rally, speakers said that government has failed in ensuring security to its citizens. They also accused the government of showing a “soft corner” for police officials responsible for the death of a PML-N worker outside the district courts in Bhimber.

Senior local PML-N leaders including former ministers Chaudhry Munsaf Dad and Chaudhry Rukhsar Ahmed, former Mirpur Development Authority Chairman Amin Chaudhry, AJK PML-N Central Secretary Finance Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed and others attended the rally.

A similar protest rally was taken out by PML-N workers in Bhimber, where the two incidents took place. The rally was attended by AJK Legislative Assembly Opposition Leader Raja Farooq Haider Khan, AJK PML-N Secretary General Shah Ghulam Qadir, AJK Legislative Assembly Deputy Opposition Leader Chaudhry Tariq Farooq and others.

In the first incident, eight members of a family were shot dead in broad daylight on July 11 in Garoun village of Samani valley. The men were gunned down allegedly by a rival party when they were headed towards the district courts to attend a hearing. No arrests have been made in the case so far.

In the second incident, a PML-N worker was shot dead while another was injured outside the district courts on September 18 when police opened fire at an unruly mob protesting registration of a case against an activist of an opposition party.

Deputy Commissioner Bhimber Khawaja Muhammad Naeem and Superintendent of Police Jamil Ahmed were removed from their offices with orders to report to the AJK Service and General Administration Department in Muzaffarabad. However, no legal action was taken against the officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2012.