Peshawar, Quetta blasts: ANP leader wants Sheikh Rashid grilled about his predictions

PESHAWAR: Condemning the blast at a religious seminary in the provincial capital, the Awami National Party (ANP) has demanded that federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed should be included in the investigation that on what basis he had predicted that terrorist attacks might take place in Peshawar and Quetta.

Speaking at a news conference at Bacha Khan Markaz here on Wednesday, ANP provincial information secretary and MPA Samar Haroon Bilour said her party’s leadership had condemned terrorist attack at a Madrassa in Peshawar that claimed eight precious human lives and injured more than 70 students and teachers of the seminary. However, she added that the statement of Sheikh Rasheed about possible terrorist attacks in Peshawar had surprised the people in the provincial capital that if the federal minister had information about terrorist attacks then why the government had not taken steps to avert them. “We demand that Federal Minister Sheikh Rasheed must be asked on what basis he had made the prediction,” she added. ANP Information Committee members MPA Salahuddin Khan, Taimur Baz Khan, Hamid Khan, Rahmat Ali, Dr Zahid and Shaheen Zameer were also present. Samar Bilour said that the ANP respected all religions and faiths and opposed terrorism and violence in Pakistan, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. She condemned the blasphemous caricatures that were published in France, saying that the sacrilegious act had deeply hurt the sentiments of the Muslims. However, she added that the incumbent government was not that much serious about this case as the foreign minister had stated the government would recall its ambassador from France while in reality there was no Pakistani ambassador in France for the last many months.

The ANP MPA expressed grave concern over the government’s non-serious attitude towards developmental work and rehabilitation process in the merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, demanding that the federal as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments should release funds for former tribal areas. She condemned the termination of hundreds of employees from University of Peshawar and Radio Pakistan and said that the PTI government had claimed that provide jobs would be provided to millions of people but now it government had deprived hundreds of government servants of jobs.