Janikhel sit-in continues in Bannu

BANNU: The residents of Janikhel area have been protesting for the last 20 days against the incidents of target killings in the district.

They had announced to march towards Islamabad along with the body of Malik Naseeb, who was killed about three weeks ago. However, the march was postponed on the request of provincial Minister for Transport Malik Shah Mohammad Khan and his brother Gulbaz Khan.

They had sought three days’ time from the protesters. However, nobody from the government has bothered to approach the protesting residents of Janikhel. The protesters categorically said that they would leave for Islamabad to stage a sit-in in the federal capital as three days had passed, but nobody from the government approached them to help redress their grievances.

The Janikhel tribesmen had staged a protest when the bodies of four teenagers were found. The killings had prompted the locals to stage a march towards Islamabad along with the bodies. However, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government signed a settlement with them.

In the eight-point agreement, the government had promised to provide compensation to the families of the slain youth, bring the perpetrators to justice and take steps to maintain law and order to avoid the occurrence of such incidents. However, the protesters complained that the killings continued unabated and the promises made under the agreement mostly remained unfulfilled.

The Janikhel tribesmen announced to stage a march towards Islamabad when a local elder Malik Naseeb was gunned down by unidentified gunmen. They had even announced to exhume the bodies of the four slain teenagers, who were buried when the government signed the agreement with the Janikhel tribesmen and to march towards the federal capital along with the corpses.

Meanwhile, members of the Ahmadzai Wazir have also pledged support to the Janikhel sit-in. The pledge was made at a jirga, which was attended a large number of elders from the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe. The elders included former councillor Haleemzada Wazir, former tehsil nazim Fida Mohammad Khan, former district councillor Ghufran Khan, Malik Najeeb Wazir and others.