PESHAWAR, May 10: The Awami National Party has expressed concern over the killing of ‘innocent’ people in the war on terrorism and asked the government to bring an end to the killings in the tribal areas.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the ANP’s provincial Secretary-General Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that the people in the tribal areas were gripped by intense fear due to the US-sponsored war on terror.

He said that lives and properties of the people were unsafe whereas the government had failed to curb militancy.

He said that terrorism was not the product of the Pukhtun population but a handiwork of intelligence agencies which had information about whereabouts of the terrorists.

The government, he said, should make efforts to arrest the militants instead of killing and harassing the innocent people.

The ANP s leader said that a certain lobby in the establishment was patronising the terrorists, which had made things worse.

He said that the situation was so pathetic that the government had lost its writ in South and North Waziristan agencies.

The ongoing operation against the militants, he said, could spell disaster for the entire country if it was not stopped forthwith.