India asked to apologise for misuse of slain MPA’s photo

Says formal protest will be lodged for showing Manzar Imam as Hyderabad blast suspect.

KARACHI:

Pakistan has asked the Indian government to apologise over the inappropriate use of a picture of slain MQM lawmaker Syed Manzar Imam while depicting an alleged suspect linked with last week’s twin bombings in the Indian state of Hyderabad.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik made the demand on Monday, saying that false claims by the Indian media and government had exposed how they were implicating innocent people for terrorist acts.

“Manzar Imam was assassinated much before these blasts in Hyderabad. We will also summon the Indian high commissioner to protest the false claim,” Malik said. He went on to add that the MPA had been killed by terrorists in January in an attack claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

“Manzar Imam was innocent and he had nothing to do with terrorist and criminal activities,” he said.



Punjab government supports Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

On Monday, Malik picked up from where he had left off with his diatribe against the Punjab government. He said there would have no terrorist attacks in Karachi or Quetta if the Punjab government had not supported the banned sectarian militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). “The government has proof how Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has been supporting LeJ terrorists,” he alleged.  Malik further said that the Supreme Court should summon the Punjab chief minister failing to take action against Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Asked whether Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan had tendered his resignation, Malik said President Asif Ali Zardari had not received any resignation, adding that Ebad was still acting as governor of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2013.