Local Shia organisations on Friday staged a demonstration to condemn the killing of 25 Shias in the Babusar area of Mansehra. More than 200 activists of Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) on Friday staged a protest demonstration against sectarian violence in the country and urged the government provide security to the Shia community.
Carrying flags and banners, MWM workers gathered at Chowk Ghanta Ghar and raised slogans against the government and condemned elements involved in terrorist activities, resulting in killing of Shias in Mansehra and Quetta on Thursday. Addressing protesters, office bearers of MWM, including Allama Taqi Naqvi, Bashrat Qureshi and Allama Nayer Abbas condemned the relentless targeted killings of Shias and criticised the government for its failure to maintain law and order in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
Stressing the need for taking immediate action against elements behind the sectarian killings, protestors warned of a nation-wide protest if justice was not done. They regretted if the government had moved swiftly and arrested people behind the Kohistan bus attack, the Shia community would have not suffered more casualties. They claimed hundreds of people had been killed in Parachinar, Mansehra, Hangu, Quetta and elsewhere in Gilgit-Baltistan while the authorities played the role of silent spectators. They warned that Shias were not afraid of terrorists and would continue to resist them with full force.
AL-QUDS DAY Meanwhile, the Imamia Students Organisation (ISO), Pakistan, on Friday observed International Al Quds Day across southern Punjab. A demonstration was organised by ISO and Shia Ulema Council. Participants were shouting anti-Israel and anti-US slogans. They also burnt an Israeli flag to express solidarity with Palestinians.
Addressing the demonstrators ISO's President Javed Jafri said that they were expressing solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine and raising voice against the illegitimate occupation of Arab territories by Israel. Rejecting the impression that the Quds Day rally was an ISO-specific event, they said that almost all other organisations were also participating in these rallies.
ISO leaders said that they believed in unity of Muslims and participation of various political forces helped strengthen that unity. Later the ISO president said that ISO was not scared of terrorists, adding that the people of Quetta had defied terrorists and would staged a Quds Day rally as usual next year.