KARACHI, April 13: A number of religious and political parties, traders’ organizations, transporters, etc, have extended support to Friday’s strike called in protest against the killing of 47 people in a bomb blast at Nishtar Park on Tuesday.
The strike call has been given by the Markazi Jamaat Ahle Sunnat Pakistan.
The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, Sindh, on Thursday supported the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat’s strike call for Friday. The decision was taken in ARD’s meeting presided by its provincial president, Zain Ansari.
It was also decided that to protest against the tragic incident and to push for the arrest of the culprits, the ARD’s provincial chapter would hold a demonstration at Regal Chowk at 3pm.
Addressing a news conference, Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Ansari pointed out the “contradiction” in the statements of the DIG and CCPO. They deplored the bomb blast and termed it a heinous act of terrorism.
They said that while one official was terming it a suicide attack, the other was saying that investigations were still on and it would be early to say anything before they were completed.
The All Pakistan Shia Action Committee also supported the strike call of the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat Pakistan as well as the Sunni Tehreek, and announced that protest against the bomb blast would be carried out all four provinces as well as the Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Northern Areas. It also demanded for the immediate arrest of those involved as well their patrons.
The committee also expressed concern that intelligence agencies were trying to mislead investigations, and that innocent people, who had attended the Nishtar Park meeting and were injured in the blast, had been arrested, while efforts were being made to shelter the “real culprits”.
It also criticized efforts being made to create a link between the suicide bomber and youngsters from the Northern Areas.
The Jamaat-i-Islami also extending support to the strike call urged people to observe the strike peacefully, besides asking its supporters and members to keep a watchful eye on miscreants, who might try to take advantage and create law and order situation to give bad names to the organizations calling the strike.
Prof Shah Faridul Haq of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, extending support to Friday’s strike call, urged traders and transporters to participate in the strike too.
He also urged the federal government that investigations should be carried out under its monitoring, as the provincial government, which, according to Prof Haq was involved in the incident could not be trusted.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf at a meeting with its Sindh President, Zubair Khan, in the chair on Thursday supported the countrywide strike call given by the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat and appealed to traders, transporters and people from all walks of life to observe a peaceful strike.
The meeting also appealed to people to remain peaceful and united and demanded the government to take precautionary measures for protecting the lives and properties of people, adds PPI
Meanwhile, the transporters of the city on Thursday also announced to observe a complete strike on Friday to express solidarity with the ulema and citizens martyred in the Nishtar Park tragedy.
The leaders of the Anjuman-i-Ittehad Bus Malikan Karachi, Muhammad Ashraf Banglori, Chaudhry Mazhar Hussain, Ghulam Farid, Chaudhry Riaz and Nazeer Banglori, in their joint statement announced that they would keep their vehicles off roads on Friday as a token of solidarity with the ulema and citizens.
They criticized the government and said that the Nishtar Park tragedy occurred due to the irresponsible behaviour of the government. They said the government had failed to provide security to ulema.
They said the role of the police and law enforcing agencies had been limited to VIP duties and providing protection to an army of ministers and high officials.
They said the government had no policy of providing security and safety to the masses. They charged that the government had left the citizens at the mercy of terrorists. They demanded that a probe into the Nishtar Park tragedy should be completed and all culprits should be taken to task.
The Karachi Electronics Market Dealers’ Association has also announced support to the strike call on Friday and said all shops in the market would remain closed.
The All Pakistan Organization of Small Traders and Cottage Industries (APOSTI) on Thursday announced complete support to the nationwide strike call of Friday given by the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat.
The Central Coordinator of APOSTCI, Abdul Ghaffar Khanani, said that traders would observe a peaceful shutter-down strike throughout the country.
They said traders had also kept businesses shut on Thursday in all major cities of country including Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad, Bahawalpur, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Larkana and other cities.
Acting Chairman of the APOSTCI Mian Akbar Rasheed regretted that the rulers failed to declare the Nishtar Park incident a national tragedy.
He said the rulers and some higher officials were trying to dub this tragedy as an act of extremism at the behest of one of the coalition partners.
He condemned this and asserted that ‘political vendetta’ was the main factor behind the Nishtar Park tragedy, as had been declared by the Sunni Tehreek leaders in their press conference of Wednesday.
He demanded of the federal government to conduct a federal level inquiry into this issue.
