PAT raps government over Balochistan killings

LAHORE:

Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) president Raheeq Ahmed Abbasi on Saturday lambasted the killing of 20 people working at a dam site in Balochistan on Friday.

He was speaking to party officials from Kasur and Gujranwala at the PAT Secretariat in the city. Abbasi said it seemed that the federal and the Balochistan governments had handed over the province to terrorists. He demanded immediate arrest of the gunmen. Abbasi said the suspects should be tried at a military court and be given exemplary punishment. He said such incidents were commonplace in Balochistan and the government had done nothing to prevent their recurrence.

Abbasi said Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif would not have said that the military would weed out militants hiding in the urban areas of the nation if the government had implemented the National Action Plan against terrorism. He said the credit for successful anti-militant operations rested with the army and the Pakistan Rangers. Abbasi said militants had taken refuge in all major cities of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2015.