Pakistani Protesters ask govt to curb targeted killings, extortion

PESHAWAR: Activists of Shia organisations on Saturday held a protest demonstration outside Peshawar Press Club against the targeted killings and warned to besiege the Chief Minister House if government didn’t provide protection to them.

The protesters burnt tyres and chanted slogans against the government for failing to curb terrorist attacks.

They were holding banners and placards inscribed with demands for provision of safety from terrorists, extortionists and target killers.

Leader of Imamia Rabta Council Mohammad Asghar Rajai, and workers of Majlis Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen attended the demonstration.

Condemning the targeted killing of Shia community members, Mr Rajai said that on the one hand security forces were chasing terrorists in the forests and hills, but on the other the target killers were active right under the nose of the rulers in urban areas.

The government, he said had failed to take action against the outlaws who were freely roaming to target innocent people.

Mr Rajai alleged that innocent people were being killed under a conspiracy being hatched by foreign forces, but the successive governments had never bothered to devise an effective strategy to counter the anti-state elements.

“The friendly operations and arrests of the so-called outlaws is no solution to the problems rather such tactics further complicate the situation and increase unrest among the affected communities,” he said. The Shia leader said that during the past three days two persons belonging to the community were gunned down in Peshawar and no arrest was made in that regard.

The situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said was forcing people to migrate to other cities. He said that target killers and extortionists had made lives of people miserable as they could not continue their business activities with freedom.

Mr Rajai said that the Sikh Community was also under attack as several Sikh traders had been gunned down inside their workplaces which had scared the community across the province.

The government, he said was duty bound to take pragmatic action against the terrorists, get the people rid of the menace of extortion and remove the sense of insecurity among them.

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