PESHAWAR, Oct 28: The Awami National Party has accused secret agencies of deliberately creating law and order problems in the Swat valley. This has been done, they allege, in order to get the general elections postponed.
The party has called for judicial probe by Supreme Court judges into clashes between militants and law-enforcement agencies.
Addressing a news conference on Sunday, ANP’s provincial president Afrasiab Khattak said that military rulers and secret agencies were creating an artificial crisis in the settled districts of the Frontier pro-vince after disturbing the tribal belt.
“The crisis in Swat could have been averted if the government had taken serious steps against law-breakers when they were strengthening their hold by setting up illegal FM channels and amassing arms and ammunition.”
He said missiles and rocket launchers had been smuggled into Swat from other areas.
Mr Khattak said the ANP considered the ongoing war on the Pakhtun soil a conspiracy against the Pakhtun nation.
He warned that if the rulers and agencies did not stop the Pakhtun genocide, the nationalists might take the issue to the international war tribunal.
He said that it was the basic responsibility of the state to provide security to its citizens and their property but it had failed to do so in the tribal belt and the NWFP.
He said the government should either quit immediately or allow the people to make arrangements for their own safety.
The ANP leader said that the party had warned the government about the emerging situation in Swat a year ago but no action was taken at that time.
Criticising the caretaker government in the NWFP, Mr Khattak said that the interim set up had been formed by rulers in Islamabad without taking major political parties of the province into confidence.
He said that besides holding free and fair elections, restoration of peace and normalcy were major issues in the province which could be solved only by a neutral and impartial caretaker administration.
Demanding the dissolution of the present caretaker set-up, he said that the ANP had opposed militancy and terrorism by any means but it did not mean that whole communities should be punished for the wrong-doing of a handful of mischievous elements.
He said that people in Swat had some social, political and administrative problems, which should be addressed, adding that one of the reasons of the uprising in Swat was lack of proper judicial system.
He said that the ANP would shortly convene a grand peace jirga of all political parties and civil society to address the crisis in the tribal belt, Swat and settled areas of the province.
He urged the government to pay compensation to the people killed or injured and damage to property in operation in Swat and said that schools should be opened up immediately and businesses should be allowed to operate in the valley.
