Chehlum attacks aimed at spurring sectarian violence
February 12, 2010
Karachi
The City Council on Thursday bemoaned the deaths of at least 35 mourners who fell prey to the terror attacks on Chehlum, day and pointed out it was aimed at spurring secterian violence in the megalopolis but thanks God the marauders could not succeed in their nefarious designs.
While Leader of the House Asif Siddiqui pointed out that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain had been warning against “Talibanisation” of Karachi for more than two-and-a-half years, leader of the Awami National Party (ANP)-backed Khidmatgar panel, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed, retorted that the late ANP leader, Khan Abdul Wali Khan, had warned in the early 1980s that patronising Jihadi elements in Afghanistan and Pakistan would have a deadly fallout.
On a point of order, Imran Baghpati asked why law enforcement agencies failed to provide security to elected members of the House or the common folk. Abdul Razzak blamed ‘Black Water’ for target killings and acts of terrorism in the country.
Leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-backed Awam Dost panel, Jumman Darwan, said that Indian and Israeli agents engineered terrorism in the city. He urged political parties and religious parties, in particular, to forge unity among their ranks against the wave of terrorism.
The House also observed a minute’s silence on the killing of six members of a Christian family in the bomb blast that ripped through the emergency centre of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, hardly two hours after the bomb blast at Nursery on Chehlum day.
The deaths of Awami National Party leader and eminent Pashto poet, Ajmal Khattak, senior journalist Irshad Ahmed Haqqani, Haq Parast member Nazim Khalil Ahmed, and Arif Shafique were also condoled by the House.
City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil, who was presiding over the session, said that Mohammad Khalil, a union council (UC) Nazim of Saddar Town, was a very honest and hard-working person, and was always on the forefront to help people.
She said that he went to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to donate blood for those injured in the Nursery blast, but became a martyr himself. She said that terrorism should not only be condemned but a strong message should also be sent out that all elements who are adamant in destroying the peace of the city have been rejected by the city. The next Council session will be held next Monday, and could be the penultimate or last session.
The City Council on Thursday bemoaned the deaths of at least 35 mourners who fell prey to the terror attacks on Chehlum, day and pointed out it was aimed at spurring secterian violence in the megalopolis but thanks God the marauders could not succeed in their nefarious designs.
While Leader of the House Asif Siddiqui pointed out that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain had been warning against “Talibanisation” of Karachi for more than two-and-a-half years, leader of the Awami National Party (ANP)-backed Khidmatgar panel, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed, retorted that the late ANP leader, Khan Abdul Wali Khan, had warned in the early 1980s that patronising Jihadi elements in Afghanistan and Pakistan would have a deadly fallout.
On a point of order, Imran Baghpati asked why law enforcement agencies failed to provide security to elected members of the House or the common folk. Abdul Razzak blamed ‘Black Water’ for target killings and acts of terrorism in the country.
Leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-backed Awam Dost panel, Jumman Darwan, said that Indian and Israeli agents engineered terrorism in the city. He urged political parties and religious parties, in particular, to forge unity among their ranks against the wave of terrorism.
The House also observed a minute’s silence on the killing of six members of a Christian family in the bomb blast that ripped through the emergency centre of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, hardly two hours after the bomb blast at Nursery on Chehlum day.
The deaths of Awami National Party leader and eminent Pashto poet, Ajmal Khattak, senior journalist Irshad Ahmed Haqqani, Haq Parast member Nazim Khalil Ahmed, and Arif Shafique were also condoled by the House.
City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil, who was presiding over the session, said that Mohammad Khalil, a union council (UC) Nazim of Saddar Town, was a very honest and hard-working person, and was always on the forefront to help people.
She said that he went to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to donate blood for those injured in the Nursery blast, but became a martyr himself. She said that terrorism should not only be condemned but a strong message should also be sent out that all elements who are adamant in destroying the peace of the city have been rejected by the city. The next Council session will be held next Monday, and could be the penultimate or last session.
