Indus Highway blocked to protest killing of student in Peshawar

BANNU: The elders and members of the Ahmadzai Wazir tribes, Wazir Qaumi Ittehad and almost all political parties on Wednesday blocked the Indus Highway to protest the killing of student Mubashir Ahmad allegedly by cops in Peshawar recently.

The protesters blocked the Indus Highway for all kinds of vehicular traffic and chanted slogans against the police and government failure to provide protection to the law-abiding citizens. The protesters threatened to launch a phase-wise protest movement if the affected family was not provided justice forthwith.

They demanded the government to add terrorism sections to the case and initiate a judicial probe into the incident so that the accused could be awarded exemplary punishment. Speaking to protesters, Wazir Qaumi Ittehad president Akhtar Jan, Arif Wazir, Member National Assembly Mohsin Dawar, Rahmatullah Khan, ex-lawmaker Fakhar Azam Wazir, Awami National Party secretary general Naz Ali Khan, former nazim and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam activist Musharraf Alamgir Wazir, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf president Israr Wazir and others threatened that they would set up a protest camp outside the Inspector General of Police office in Peshawar if their demands were not met.

They said that they stood with the family of slain Mubashir Ahmad and vowed to get justice for the family at all costs. The speakers said that Mubashir had gone to take admission and continue his studies but he was murdered in cold blood.

Later, protesters reopened the Indus Highway after the police high-ups rushed to the spot and held successful talks with the elders. It may be mentioned that two policemen had allegedly shot dead the young student Mubashir Ahmad, a resident of Bannu, near the City Railway Station on the Dilzak Road in the limits of the Faqirabad Police Station in the wee hours Monday last.

The police had later identified the two cops as Roohullah and Rustam who were arrested and the station house officer of the Faqirabad Police Station was suspended after the protest by the University of Peshawar students, who had blocked the Jamrud Road to express anger at the killing.