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Published 02 Jun, 2008 12:00am

MANSEHRA: Hazara group rejects renaming of province

MANSEHRA, June 1: Hazara Quami Mahaz (HQM) has asked the federal and provincial governments to desist from renaming NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa, saying that the organisation would resist the move at any cost.

“Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has proposed the change of nomenclature of NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa in the proposed constitutional package to bribe Awami National Party (ANP) in return of its support for the government but we would never allow any such move of destroying the unity of the people of the province,” said HQM office-bearers.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday HQM chief organiser Ali Ahmad Khan Swati, vice president Mohammad Nawaz Khan and provincial vice president Haji Ghulam Rasool Khan said that the Mahaz had foiled all such attempts by ANP in the past and it would shatter the dream once again. “We will not allow any one to change the old name of the province,” he added.

HQM leaders said that they did not want to create law and order problems for the government but it should not be considered their weakness. They said that without consulting other communities of the province the government should not propose new name for NWFP.

They said that people of Hazara region had been demanding separate province or affiliation with the federal government since many decades but the government instead of fulfilling their demand first, wanted to change the existing name of NWFP, which would never be allowed.

They said that they would launch movement against the renaming of NWFP. “We are optimistic that PML-N will never allow PPP and ANP to change the present name of the province as it did in the past,” they said.

CALL FOR JIHAD: Chief of defunct Lashkar-i-Taiba, Professor Mohammad Saeed, said here on Sunday that infidels had launched crusade against Muslims and were killing hundreds of thousands people in the name of terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the world but instead of waging jihad against them, Muslim rulers were extending them full support to kill the innocent people.

He was talking to journalists after leading the funeral prayers of Maulana Masood Janbaz. He said if Muslim countries did not unite and come out against the conspiracies of the infidel agents, they would be smashed completely one by one. He said that freezing of his outfit’s account by the America in real sense didn’t affect it as he had no account in America.

Mr Saeed said that it was the high time that like the people of Muslims world, their leaders and governments should also follow the anti-American stance to save their countries.

He said that their stance on Kashmir had been proven right as the issue would not be solved peacefully and it should be snatched by force. The government failed to solve the issue peacefully since last three decades, he added.

He said that government should not scrape the Kalabagh dam project unilaterally, without consulting the people of four provinces as Pakistan was passing through difficult stage because of the energy and power crisis.

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