Hoti asks Sindh govt to ensure justice for Mawach Goth victims

Awami National Party acting chief and former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti said on Saturday the Sindh government should ensure justice for 13 people who lost their lives in the grenade attack carried out on Independence Day.

He was speaking to a condolence gathering held in the Sherpao Colony of Landhi to offer their condolences and express their sympathies with the relatives of the victims. The extended family belonged to ANP leader Farman Ali and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mairaj Muhammad Khan, who lost six women and seven children of their family in the terror attack that occurred in Mawach Goth on August 14.

Hoti said that his party would not rest until the perpetrators of the attack were brought to justice. He said incidents of terrorism had been resurging in various parts of the country, including Karachi.

“Providing safety to the people is the main responsibility of the state,” said Hoti. “Therefore, we demand of the government and state institutions to curb such incidents and unmake the groups involved in the Mawach Goth terror attack.”

He said the victims’ families had no personal enmity with anyone. “It is against the history, culture and custom of the Pashtun society to throw bombs on children and women,” he said.

The ANP leader said residents, political activists and affected families were protesting as they wanted action. The ANP workers and the Pashtun community had rendered sacrifices of their lives for the restoration of peace in the region, particularly in Karachi, he added.

MNA Agha Rafiullah, JI District Malir chief Muhammad Islam, ANP Sindh president Shahi Syed, PPP provincial leader Shah Jahan and other leaders also spoke at the event.

The terror attack

Seven women and six children had lost their lives and several others had suffered burn injuries in the grenade attack in the Mawach Goth locality on the night of August 14. The family had been returning to Landhi’s Sherpao Colony from Pareshan Chowk after attending a post-nuptial ritual in the Pashto tradition called Wama (seventh).

On August 7 Farman Ali had hosted the wedding reception of his younger brother in an Eidgah ground located in front of his home. And since August 15, after the victims’ burials, he has been receiving condolences from people in the same ground.

Originally from the Swat valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Ali’s family has been residing in Karachi for the past several decades. He was a central council worker of the ANP, while Mairaj Muhammad Khan, who also lost his wife and children in the attack, was a former Dawood Chowrangi union committee chairman and a JI district leader.