Protest continues against arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman

PESHAWAR: The workers of Jang, Geo and The News continued protest on the 54th consecutive days against the arrest of their Editor-in-Chief

Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman outside their offices on Tuesday.

Carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans in favour of their demands, the participants chanted slogans demanding the immediate release of Mir Shakil and the withdrawal of cases against him.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) provincial spokesman Abdul Jalil Jan visited the camp to extend solidarity with the Jang Group workers.

Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Jalil Jan condemned the illegal detention of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman in a three-decade-old property case.

He said the government’s action was aimed at stifling the press.

He recalled that the JUI-F had always supported those rendering sacrifices for highlighting the truth, saying the media was once again in chains.

He said that Mir Shakil was kept behind bars for the last two months even without any proof and the registration of any case against him.

These are the cheap tactics through which the rulers want to muzzle the press, he said, adding that the media and its workers had always rendered sacrifices for democracy and reporting the truth.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl head Maulana Fazlur Rahman, he said, had himself visited the camp of the Jang Group workers to condemn the arrest of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.

Abdul Jalil demanded immediate release of Mir Shakil, withdrawal of false cases against him and stopping the economic murder of the workers.

Journalists Arshad Aziz Malik, Shakeel Farman Ali and others in their separate speeches condemned detention of Mir Shakil.

They posed a question as to what type of democracy was this where the independent press was being strangulated. They asked the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take suo moto notice of Mir Shakil’s case and provide him justice.