Demand inquiry into the killings of people from Kurram Agency. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
Representatives of various political cum religious organisations on Saturday held the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa responsible for repeatedly failing to secure the Shias against targeted killings in the provincial capital.
Jamia Shaheed Arif Hussainul Hussaini, Turi-Bangash Supreme Council, Youth of Parachinar and Imamia Students Organisation (Peshawar division) held a joint demonstration and press conference at the Peshawar Press Club to condemn the killing of Dr Syed Riaz Hussain, the latest victim in a series of target killings of prominent Shia persons in Peshawar.
Riaz, a gastroenterologist and Pakistan Peoples Party’s Kurram Agency chapter president was shot dead on January 9 in Dabgari Garden while en route to his clinic.
Protestors held placards inscribed with slogans against target killings and demanded the provincial government to arrest Riaz’s killers and take action against elements involved in spreading sectarian hatred in the province.
They also demanded a proper inquiry into the killings of people hailing from Kurram Agency as well as those targeted in Quetta, Gilgit and Karachi.
Addressing the press conference later, former senator and head of Jamia Shaheed Arif Hussainul Hussaini, Peshawar, Allama Jawad Hadi said, “Terrorists are continuing their killings without an iota of fear and it was shameful for the K-P government that none of the killers are ever caught.
The government keeps harping on about not sparing terrorists even if they have to follow them to Waziristan, but they are helpless in the capital city of the province and cannot safeguard people against target killings”.
“We hold the provincial government responsible for the target killing of people from Kurram Agency and we are making it clear that we cannot afford to shoulder more funerals.”
In response to a question, Hadi maintained a specific terrorist group was carrying out target killing in the name of religion, but that both Sunnis and Shias were vulnerable.
Meanwhile, doctors and paramedical staff of the Agency Headquarters Hospital, Parachinar also condemned the assassination of Dr Riaz Hussain and demanded the immediate arrest of culprits.
A meeting to this effect was also held in the hospital on Saturday wherein the family members of the deceased also participated.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2013.
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Shia genocide continues.