January 12, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 02,1429

PESHAWAR, Jan 11: The provincial president of the women’s wing of PML-Q, Tahira Bukhari, who is the party’s nominee for the NWFP assembly, has received a threatening letter asking her to stop her activities and start wearing ‘veil’.

Mrs Bukhari, who is a district councillor and also runs a women’s resource centre, told Dawn on Friday that she had received a letter on Jan 3, warning her that she was on the hit-list of the Sipah-i-Islami, which it claims to be ‘Chota Al Qaeda’. She said that the letter in Urdu warned her that she would be punished if she did not abandon her activities and was seen outside after 3 pm.

“I have been warned to stop my work and remain inside my home and observe veil,” she said.

The letter said that the organisation had decided to warn her beforehand because of her services for the people.

However, Mrs Bukhari said she was not bothered by such threats, and believed that it was not from an extremist organisation, but from “someone who is jealous and is around”.

She suspected that the letter had been sent by someone who did not want women to enter politics. She said that she was also running a resource centre and, someone who did not like her work there could be behind the threat.

She said she had informed her party’s provincial president Amir Muqam and Capital City Police Office Tanveerul Haq Sipra about the letter.

The CCPO was not available for comment when contacted on the phone.

She said the police had assured her about security in the office but no one could provide full security, she said.