Protesters demand security for ANP leader Iftikhar Hussain

Showing concerns over severe security threats to the Awami National Party’s central secretary general, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Pakhtun Students Federation (PkSF) in a protest criticised the government for not providing state security to the veteran leader.

Hussain, who is also a former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister, has been receiving threat alerts from the security agencies for the past few weeks. The PkSF, an ANP’s student wing, organised the protest outside Karachi Press Club.

A number of protesters held aloft placards and banners while raising slogans against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal and provincial governments, accusing them of completely ignoring the security needs of senior opposition members.

Addressing the participants, the speakers deplored that despite threats, the government was not providing security to Hussain. “Hussain is constantly receiving security alerts from intelligence agencies, including the National Counter Terrorism Authority, in which he is warned that a suicide bomber has been dispatched by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and even the names of the bomber and his tribe and sub-tribe have been shared,” said Sher Afridi, a PkSF leader.

The TTP had killed Hussain’s only 27-year-old son in an attack in hometown of Nowshera in July 2010. Afridi said that the government and law enforcement agencies were supposed to act in case of threats to a public figure instead of issuing alerts to the target.

Protesters also pointed towards the fatal suicide bomb attack on ANP leader Haroon Bilour in Peshawar during his election rally which claimed Bilour’s life along with those of 21 others while leaving over 60 people injured.

The government and the law enforcement agencies had completely ignored the security needs of the ANP leadership in the recent elections despite warnings, speakers said. ANP Sindh leader Noorullah Achakzai also spoke to the protesters.