May 08, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 20, 1428

PESHAWAR, May 7: Emotionally charged workers of the Pakistan People’s Party on Monday torched a fire engine and burnt tyres on the Grand Trunk Road minutes after the funeral of their leader Syed Qamar Abbas, who was killed on Sunday night.

Police fired tear-gas shells and resorted to firing in the air to disperse the crowd. People ran for their safety as traffic on the G.T. Road remained blocked for at least one hour.

Security was tight in the Jinnah Park area where the funeral took place. Protesting party workers chanted slogans against the government.

They also demanded the immediate arrest of those responsible for the double murder.

The funeral of Mohammad Ali — son of Anwar Ali Akhunzada, who was killed in the attack on Mr Abbas — was held earlier in the day.

Syed Tahir Abbas, the brother of Qamar Abbas, has nominated a number of persons in the FIR registered under section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code.

The people accused of killing him include Awami National Party senior vice-president and former federal minister Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, his brothers senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour and MPA Bashir Ahmad Bilour, and Bashir’s sons Haroon Bilour and Usman Ahmad Bilour.

Qamar Abbas was accused with his two bodyguards of murdering Shabir Bilour, son of Haji Ghulam Bilour, at a polling station during elections for the NA-1 (Peshawar) constituency in 1997.

He was acquitted by the court in that case, but no patch-up had taken place between the two families. He remained in prison for about three years.

Qamar Abbas — son of a literary figure Farigh Bukhari, a noted poet of Urdu and Hindko languages — joined the PPP in 1970 and twice served as provincial minister.

Those who attended his funeral included ARD secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, PPP’s secretary general Jehangir Badar, PML-N provincial president Pir Sabir Shah, NWFP PPP chief Rahimdad Khan, provincial information minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai and MNA Noorul Haq Qadri.

Mohammad Ali, who was killed with Mr Abbas, was the son of Tehrik-i-Jafria Pakistan secretary general Akhundzada Anwar Ali, who was assassinated four years ago.

Following the funeral of Mohammad Ali, the provincial senior vice-president of Tehrik-i-Jafria Pakistan, Allama Jalil Shah Naqvi, warned that if the killers were not arrested bloodshed would not end.

He claimed that the Akhundzada family had the will and strength to take revenge if the administration failed to bring to book the culprits.