A man lights candles to mourn the victims from the Army Public School in Peshawar. PHOTO: REUTERS
Members of civil society are set to hold a press conference today to announce worldwide protests against terrorism on January 16 to mark the one month anniversary of the devastating Peshawar attack.
The protests will also be held in solidarity with the victims of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan's massacre at the Army Public School on December 16 in Peshawar, which killed 150 people, including 134 children. Further, they will demand the arrest of Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz.
ATTENTION!!! Update for Islamabad. The new and final location for the protest on 16th Jan is Aabpara Chowk 6pm Friday pic.twitter.com/GStxa9CKes
— M. Jibran Nasir 🇵🇸 (@MJibranNasir) January 14, 2015
Following the attack, the government swiftly lifted the ban on death penalty and formed a National Action Plan committee.
However, the Lal Masjid cleric, open in his support of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, justified the action and refused to condemn the massacre.
Civil society members took to the streets and registered an FIR against Aziz at the Aabpara police station on December 19, leading to a threatening call from the spokesperson of a TTP faction to political activist Jibran Nasir who spearheaded the protests.
Further, a court in Islamabad on January 3 issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for the Lal Masjid cleric in the backdrop of the ongoing protests.
The decision comes against the backdrop of ongoing protests organised by civil society members
The cleric later submitted to a huge outcry from civil society and apologised for failing to unconditionally condemn the massacre but protests continue demanding his immediate arrest.
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@ironMan!:
This moulana Aziz has numerous cases against him after Lal masjid operation, but the case was never pursued by the successive govt for reasons best known to them, so all those cases can be revived if govt wants...beside, very recently his mosque administration supported the video made in support of " Daish / IS " claiming support to IS chief Baghdadi by " the women wings of Lal Masjid - Madarasa Hafsa. Are not all these not against the new 21st amendment ? These action of moulana calls for his immediate arrest as a supporter of a terrorist organization IS....
@ironMan!: Dude, seriously? Public pressure? If the "law of the country" was actually being implemented, this mullah would have been behind bars right now for inciting violence. Its because of our spine-less state institutions that the civil society has been forced to take to the streets, despite numerous threats of violence.
you can't arrest people due to Public Pressure! Remember Ferguson, anyone? the law of country should be supreme!