LARKANA: Activists of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) brought out processions and staged sit-ins across the province on Friday in protest against the targeted killing of the party’s general secretary for Sindh chapter, Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, and earlier suicide attack on party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in Quetta.

Almost all nationalist parties, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and trade and professional organisations had supported the party’s protest and their leaders and activists participated in the rallies and demonstrations in large numbers.

In Larkana, Rashid Mehmood, son of the slain JUI-F leader and head of Jamia Ishaatul Quran wal Hadith, said while addressing a rally if the government failed to arrest killers of his father his party would block all roads leading to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto on Dec 27.

He announced fielding JUI-F’s candidate for NA-207 against Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in the upcoming elections. So far neither the chief minister nor any of his cabinet members had condoled with him on his father’s murder, he said.

Hyderabad

JUI-F activists took out a procession after Friday prayers outside the press club at which JUI-F Sindh spokesperson Maulana Taj Mohammad Nahiyoon, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leader Abdul Waheed Qureshi and Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP) leader Shaukat Abro demanded resignation of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.

They said the chief minister, secretary and inspector general of police had not made any contact with JUI-F leadership since the killing of Dr Soomro. The Sindh government had failed to protect lives and property of people, they said.

They said that Dr Soomro’s murder was part of a conspiracy to destroy peace of the province. Foreign hands were involved in killings of religious scholars and intellectuals, they alleged.

Similar protests were held in Karachi, Dadu, Badin, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Umerkot and their adjoining towns after Friday prayers where JUI-F leaders condemned the murder and criticised the Sindh government for not making any headway in the Dr Soomro’s killing probe.

They demanded that the federal and provincial governments should arrest culprits involved in the murder of the JUI-F leader and activists of nationalist parties.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2014