JI leader condemns increase in incidents of target killings

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) provincial president Prof Mohammad Ibrahim Khan has condemned the increasing incidents of target killing in the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and urged the law-enforcement agencies to ensure peace.

“It is a matter of great astonishment that incidents of target killing of political workers and other people were on the rise despite the security agencies’ targetted operations against militants in the southern districts from Kohat to Dera Ismail Khan,” he told a press conference here on Sunday.

He condemned the killing of a local leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Malim Rahmanullah, in North Waziristan a day earlier. A year ago, he said, Al-Khidmat Foundation North Wazistan’s President Asadullah was killed by the target killers and a few days back and a year after his killing, his younger brother Engineer Hidayatullah was killed.

He said that Malik Rahmanullah did not have an enmity with anyone. “We strongly condemn his cold-blooded murder. The government and the security forces should expose the unknown killers and award them exemplary punishment,” he stressed.

He came down hard on those responsible for maintaining peace and security for their failure to come up to the expectations.Prof Ibrahim said that investigation and prosecution was the job of policemen. “Therefore, the matter should be handed over to the police,” he added. Also, he stressed, the management of ‘target operation’ should be handed over to the civil administration.

He was also critical of the reported threats given by an official of the top spy agency of the country to the tribal elders. Prof Ibrahim said that the number of ‘martyrs’ in the country had crossed 0.1 million during the past two decades of so-called war on terror. Started during the reign of General Pervez Musharraf, the series is still continued unabated, he added.

“Two decades of the so-called war have passed and the people of the country, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, are still longing for peace. We cannot fight with the army. But the army too should stop fighting with us,” he added.

He welcomed the Army Chief General Asim Munir’s statement about his awareness of their constitutional limits. He asked General Asim Munir to bring out the army from civilian matters and hand over the civil issue to civil administration. The interference of security forces in civilian matters was affecting the performance of the security forces, he argued.

Owing to the deployment of security forces in a government college and hostel in Lakki Marwat was affecting the studies of students there, which, he said, should be vacated immediately.

Flanked by deputy secretary general of the party Maulana Hidayatur Rahman and secretary information Syed Jamaat Ali Shah, the JI leader said that thousands of incidents have taken place from 2001 to 2024, but fair and transparent investigation of any one of these incidents could not be made.

The parents of the school kids massacred in Army Public School in 2014 were still asking about the killers of their children but no satisfactory answer was given to them, he added. “We are shocked at the killing of our dearest colleague. Other political parties too were mourning the killings of their leaders and workers. Let us avoid our personal and political differences and get united for peace in the country,” he urged all the political forces.