PESHAWAR, June 2: Activists of Jamiat Tulba-i-Islam, the student wing of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F), staged a demonstration outside the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday to denounce the assassination of prominent scholar Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai in Karachi.

They held the Sindh government responsible for the killing of Mufti Shamzai and urged the federal government to remove Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad, who was a nominee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

Speaking to protesters, Ehsanul Haq, a local leader of the JUI, said that US lackeys were involved in the targeted murder of Mufti Shamzai. The US and its local agents were afraid of his (Shamzai's) campaign against America's monopolistic designs in the oil-rich Middle East region and Asia, so they got him killed, he added.

The MQM, he alleged, had gunned down a number of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal workers during by-elections in Karachi. He demanded that the federal government arrest the killers of Mufti Shamzai, stop military operation in Wana and withdraw troops from South Waziristan immediately, otherwise the MMA would decide about these issues with the help of tribesmen.

He alleged that the killers of Mufti Shamzai were being sheltered by the MQM-dominated Sindh government. He also criticized NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Husain Shah for hurling threats at Nek Mohammad and his colleagues and providing shelter to the Arsala group, which was involved in kidnapping for ransom and killing of scores of people in Lakki Marwat area.

He denied that Nek Mohammad or his people were inviting the US wrath by providing shelter to foreign elements.Mr Haq held the NWFP governor responsible for displacing the poor tribesmen and destroying their business in South Waziristan and other parts of the province.

He demanded immediate removal of Sindh and NWFP governors for their alleged partisan role in dealing with political issues in Karachi and South Waziristan, respectively.

JTI provincial president Ahmed Ali Marwat held Islamabad responsible for the killings and violence in Karachi. He said the nominee of Islamabad, Sindh governor, was indirectly involved in the assassination of Mufti Shamzai. The protesters blocked the vehicular traffic for some time and held a meeting outside the press club.