Seminary blast: Shia clerics announce protests until security is ensured

Say the provincial government has failed to devise a strategy to end targeted attacks.

PESHAWAR: The Shia Ulema Council (SUC) has decided to launch protests against the provincial government until security is granted to the sect. The decision comes after an attack on Hussaini Madrassa last Friday, which killed 15 people and injured another 27.

While addressing the media at the Peshawar Press Club on Sunday, SUC Provincial President Alama Muhammad Ramzan Tauqeer said the present government got the masses vote with the slogan to restore peace but they have failed to device a successful strategy to end the continuous violence. “Not a single party member visited the injured,” Tauqeer said.



Several other prominent shia leaders including Alama Abid Husain Shakir, Alama Jameel Husain and Muzafar Akhunzada were present at the press conference.

Tauqeer added religious scholars from all schools of thought should come forward and take a unanimous stand against suicide attacks. “The clerics must either condemn or support these attacks,” he said.

He said militants were killing innocent people every day and stressed that the provincial government should take strong action against them. “We have asked the provincial government several times to provide proper security to imambargahs, but they just ignore our request.”

The ulema asked the provincial government to provide free medical treatment to the injured victims and give a million rupees to the families of those killed in the Hussaini seminary blast.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2013.