PESHAWAR: Traffic remained suspended on the GT Road near Pabbi area district for many hours as scores of people protested the police’s failure to arrest the killers of a lawyer.

The protesters, including residents of Cherat Road villages and lawyers, warned that if the police didn’t arrest the killers of Sajid Waseem within a week, a large demonstration would be staged outside the Nowshera Police Lines near the offices of the district police officer on Feb 4.

Gunmen killed Mr Waseem on Nov 19, 2022, by ambushing a car he drove on the Cherat Road.

Prolonged disruption of traffic was also reported on the Peshawar-Nowshera GT Road. Motorists used alternative roads through nearby villages to proceed to their respective destinations. Long queues of vehicles were witnessed on both sides of the road.

The protesters were addressed by Pakistan Bar Council member Tariq Khan Afridi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council representative Nomanul Haq Kakakhel, general secretary of the Nowshera Bar Association Usman Khan, former presidents of the association Attaullah Khan, Ijaz Mohammad Khan and Shehzad Gul, Pabbi Tehsil Bar Association president Mian Zakir, Aman Supreme Council chief Haji Sher Afzal and others.

Protesters set week’s deadline for arrests

The speakers flayed the Nowshera police over failure to trace and arrest killers of Mr Sajid Waseem even more than two months after the murder.

They warned that if the killers weren’t arrested, the protest would be extended to the entire province and major highways would be blocked.

The speakers said after the killing, the DPO had promised the arrest of gunmen within a week but the promise was still unfulfilled.

They said the deceased was the son of the soil, so residents of the area would continue protesting until the killers were taken into custody and punished.

They said Mr Waseem was a peace-loving person and had no enmity.

The protesters said the lawyer was killed near a police post speaking volumes about the inefficiency of the police.

They said that the last provincial government had failed to maintain law and order in the province, so it was the responsibility of the current caretaker political dispensation to look into the matter.

The protesters said if the killers were not arrested, then the people would consider the state to be behind the crime.

They claimed that instead of performing their duty of maintaining law and order, the police were mostly busy minting money from poor street vendors on different pretexts.

Also, the participants unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden. They demanded of the federal government to sever diplomatic ties with Sweden and urged the people to boycott all products imported from that European country.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2023