PESHAWAR, May 30: Provincial general-secretary of the Awami National Party Mian Iftikhar Hussain has expressed anguish over increasing terrorism incidents in the NWFP and tribal areas and termed it a conspiracy against the Pakhtun population.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, he asked the federal and provincial governments to quit power.

Mr Hussain said that Pakhtuns had been left at the mercy of terrorists while some ‘hidden hands’ continued to mastermind bloodshed and turned the region into a battlefield.

By nature the Pakhtuns were peaceful, democratic and tolerant people and there was hardly an example of violence, sectarianism and terrorism in their centuries-old history, he said, adding that for the last three decades, the Pakhtuns had been presented as a violent and terrorist nation through a conspiracy.

The ANP leader said the fire from Afghanistan had now reached the tribal and settled areas of Pakistan. He said it was unfortunate that the federal and NWFP governments were involved in a blame game instead of finding a solution to the crises, adding that neither the central government nor the NWFP government could be exempted from the responsibility in presence of poor law and order conditions in the area.

He said that if the provincial government headed by the MMA actually believed that the central government and secret agencies were behind the bomb blasts in NWFP then there was no justification for the alliance to remain in power.