PESHAWAR, March 25: Expressing concern over rocket attack on Peshawar, Awami National Party (ANP) has termed it a "spillover effect" of the military operation in South Waziristan and the country's Afghan policy.
"It is not difficult to gauge the proportion of unrest and sense of insecurity among the people of the country whose president and cities are being attacked," said ANP's provincial chief Begum Nasim Wali.
She was addressing a press conference after presiding over her party's provincial executive committee's meeting held at Bacha Khan Markaz, here on Wednesday.
She said the ANP was concerned about the missile attacks on Peshawar and viewed them as upshot of the military's ongoing operation in Wana. She said that her party believed that Pukhtoons were being made to pay the price for the country's wrong policies and role in the Afghan jihad.
"Those who encouraged innocent people to enter Afghanistan to wage Jihad against American troops with clubs and swords are now silent when Pakistan's cities are being attacked and innocent people are being killed in the tribal regions," Nasim Wali said. She said the missile attack on Peshawar late on Tuesday night could also be the handiwork of state agencies as part of their strategy.
"ANP would never allow anybody to cause harm to our land in the name of fighting America," she said, adding that "the USA and Pakistan are equally responsible for the deteriorating conditions".
Replying to a question, she said that making the tribesmen to pay the price of others' mistakes was not justified. "The tribesmen are being made scapegoat for the mistakes of those who laid the foundation of extremism in the country," said the ANP provincial chief. "The government should know the difference between innocent civilians and terrorists," she added.
Giving details of the provincial executive committee's meeting, she told newsmen that it was decided that the party would prefer entering into an alliance with Pukhtoon nationalist parties instead of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD).
It also constituted a special committee comprising the party's central president senator Asfandyar Wali Khan to establish contacts with leaders of Pukhtoon nationalist forces to explore the possibility of forging alliance with them. She said the party had decided not to go with the ARD because it did not respond positively to ANP's demands viz-a-viz provincial autonomy.
