Activists demand government take effective measures against extremism. PHOTO: EXPRESS
KARACHI: Civil society activists held a protest outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday to condemn the bomb blast in Jacobabad on Muharram 9.
The demonstration was arranged by the Secular Sindh Forum and Qazi Faiz Muhammad Memorial Committee. The protesters shouted slogans against increasing extremism and in favour of religious harmony.
Javed Qazi, a writer, said that sectarianism has ruined the country. “Sindh is Sufi and its society is secular, but unfortunately its identity is being distorted by such terrorist attacks,” he said.
The participants, Younis Maher, Qurat Mirza, Nadeem Wagan and Punhan Sario, accused the Sindh government of not maintaining peace across the province. They said that compensation alone to the victims’ families was not enough.
The participants said that more people died in the hospital because of lack of medical services. They said that the hospitals in rural Sindh are in a pathetic condition. “It is not just terrorism that is killing people; poor health infrastructure is also failing the victims,” said Sario. According to Wagan, peace will not be restored until and unless banned outfits are completely restrained. He said that education is the only way to eradicate extremism and fundamentalism from society. “All religious seminaries should immediately be regularised,” he stressed.
Adal Soomro, a poet, expressing grief on the massacre of 13 innocent children, said that every home in Sindh is aggrieved over this barbaric attack. He said that the focus of security establishment during Muharram was on major cities, adding that small towns were vulnerable and terrorists picked up defenceless citizens. “Sindh is paying the price of the state’s policies,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2015.
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