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QUETTA, Dec 1: Members of Christian and Hindu communities on Wednesday staged a demonstration on the call of a minority councillors' forum to denounce government's in different attitude in recovering a Hindu girl kidnapped from Loralai on Oct 1, 2004.
Protesters, holding placards inscribed with anti-government slogans, assembled in front of the press club and chanted slogans against the Loralai administration and police officials who have failed to get the girl released.
Speaking on the occasion, William Barkat, councillor of Zarghoon town, said activists of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Balochistan, had staged a demonstration last month against the kidnapping, but the government and police officials did not take notice of the protest.
He alleged that due to the passive attitude of the government, criminals were encouraged to victimize members of minority communities. After the kidnapping of Sabna Kumari from Loralai, a five-year-old girl was raped in Ziarat, but the administration did not act in any of the cases.
The councillor demanded that the government should direct the administration and police officers of Loralai and Ziarat to arrest the kidnappers and molesters.
GOVT CRITICIZED: Balochistan PML-N president Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasar has said that the party would not compromise on the constitution of 1973, president in uniform and the rule of army generals.
Speaking at a party meeting here on Wednesday, he criticized the acting president for signing the bill on president's uniform and described this act as an unconstitutional and unlawful move.
MNA Sardar Nasar said party leader Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had preferred to go abroad instead of endorsing the military dictatorship. The PML-N leader denounced army's interference in political matters and claimed that people considered parliament a rubber stamp of President Musharraf to carry out anti-people policies.
The party, he said, would participate in the local body polls scheduled for next year and urged party members and sympathizers of Mian Nawaz Sharif to mobilize people.
Sardar Nasar said that activists of the party had braved excesses and oppression of the rulers, adding that the government had failed in its efforts to separate members from the leadership. He said the PML-N, along with other political parties in the ARD was waging struggle to revive the constitution and restore democracy in the country.
BOMB BLAST: The Turbat town was rocked on Wednesday when a remote control bomb exploded in the main city area. The bomb was planted in a motorcycle, police said.
Though no person was killed or injured, the windowpanes of a nearby hotel and other buildings were smashed. The motorcycle was parked near the hotel and the bomb went off after a while, which created a three-feet deep crater. No arrest was reported so far.
