PESHAWAR, Sept 7: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the NGOs has demanded of the provincial government to take action against culprits involved in lobbing hand-grenade on the office of Global Development Programme (GDP), Bannu, on Aug 8.

Speaking at a joint news conference here at Peshawar Press Club, GDP chairman, Mian Salimur Rehman, Human Resource Management and Development Centre director Bushra Gohar and social activists of other NGOs condemned the unfounded propaganda against the NGOs and social activists in different parts of the province.

They said the JAC had time and again urged the government to provide them protection, who were against the social uplift work being undertaken by various NGOs. However, they lamented that the government was not taking any action against fundamentalist groups.

Mian Salim said the GDP, with the help of various organizations, had spent Rs 90 million in Banuu on development schemes. “We are running a women health project in Kohat and operating 10 schools in tribal areas with the support of National Education Foundation, Islamabad,” he informed the newsmen.

Under the community infrastructure programme (CIP), they were running various projects in village Bozakhel, Koti Sadat, Ismael Khel, Sorki (urban slum) in Bannu, Kotla Feroz, Landi Jalindhar and village Sorani. The GDP had provided drinking water to about 32 villages from Kurrum river and spent Rs 500,000 on plantation of trees in Daraga, he added.

He said a particular religious party was running a smear drive against their social work in these backward areas. This party, he said, wanted to keep the poor villagers ignorant through baseless propaganda against the NGOs involved in development work.

He said: “Whenever Afghanistan undergoes a political turmoil it also envelops tribal belt and the extremists exploit the situation to advance their political ends. They exploit the anti-US drive and target NGOs as US agents,” he added.

These fundamentalists, he said, had turned the southern areas into an area where only their laws are followed.

He said they were hurling threats to social organizations, but the police were not taking any notice. The government should provide them protection, he demanded.