Killing of 3 businessmen in NW: Bannu Jirga threatens to launch protest drive

LAKKI MARWAT: The members of the Bannu Bachao Tehreek on Thursday threatened to launch a protest movement against the killing of three young businessmen in North Waziristan.

The tehreek’s founder, Pir Syed Qaisar Abbas Shah, told journalists after a meeting of grand jirga held in Bannu city that the slain young men were jewellers by profession and they had gone to the tribal district to establish a business there.

“Members of the business community get respect when they travel to other areas but the situation is different in North Waziristan where people from Bannu and other areas are being murdered,” he added.

He said that the lawmakers and elders from the district should come forward and play a role to stop such gruesome and gory killing incidents.

“When tribespeople of North Waziristan faced a mass exodus due to militancy and military operations in the recent past the residents of Bannu had provided them with shelters,” he said, adding, “Now the local residents are receiving bodies from the tribal district every other day.”

He asked the lawmakers from both Bannu and North Waziristan districts to play an effective role to improve law and order, promote peace and harmony and stop lawlessness in the region.

Meanwhile, the Bannu chapter of the Zargar (goldsmith) Association held a demonstration in the city to protest the killing of their three colleagues in North Waziristan.

The association’s president, Muhammad Sajjad, led the procession wherein local bodies’ members, area elders and people from different walks of life also participated.

Raising slogans against the brutal killing of three businessmen, they passed through different bazaars and converged in front of the press club building.

Speaking on the occasion, Muhammad Sajjad, Mian Mahfuzur Rehman, Malik Iqbal Jadoon Khan, Malik Hikmatyar Khan, Janan Wazir, Mureed Hayat and others condemned the murder of jewelers in North Waziristan tribal district and asked the government to bring the killers to justice.