Grief-stricken Karachiites protest against Peshawar carnage

Various Shia groups in Karachi on Friday voiced their anguish at the deadly suicide attack on a mosque in Peshawar, in which 57 people died and almost 200 others were wounded.

The Shia Ulema Council announced a three-day mourning to show solidarity with the victims of the bombing, while the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen organised a protest rally to condemn the horrific attack.

Addressing a press conference, SUC central leader Allama Nazir Abbas Taqvi said Pakistan had again become a target of terrorism, while the state had failed to protect its citizens even in mosques.

He demanded of the authorities to pay compensation of five million rupees each to families who had lost their dear ones in the terror attack, and to provide the injured with proper medical care

Taqvi also announced that peaceful protests would be held in the entire country, including Karachi, on March 6. He said the state’s claims about eradicating terrorism and the success of the National Action Plan had proved baseless.

“Terrorism has been on the rise in Pakistan for the last several years, and neither the state nor the administration has failed to control it,” he said. “The state should declare that it has failed, so that the citizens can protect themselves.”

The MWM and the Imamia Students Organisation also organised protests in Karachi and termed the bombing a complete failure of the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments.

The protest rally was organised from Mehfil Shah Khorasan, Numaish Chowrangi to the Governor House, in which various Shia organisations’ leaders, including Allama Mukhtar Imami, Allama Baqir Abbas Zaidi, Allama Sadiq Jafari, Dabaj Raza and SM Naqvi, participated.

Addressing the participants, the leaders said that the tragic incident in Peshawar had left the entire country in mourning, and the loss of precious human lives was tragic. They said the nation was facing dire consequences of its desire to bring anti-national elements into the national mainstream. They also said that the chapter of the state’s policy of reconciliation with terrorists should be closed forever so that more tragedies could be avoided in future.

The leaders demanded from the government to ban the proscribed parties in a genuine sense and take immediate legal action against those who spread terrorism. The prime minister should immediately go to Peshawar and stand by the grieving families, they further demanded.