QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly through a unanimously adopted resolution on Saturday condemned the killing of two journalists and an employee of a news agency and demanded that culprits be brought to justice.

Minister for Planning and Development Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai tabled the resolution over Thursday’s attack on the office of the bureau office of Online new agency in Quetta in which journalists Irshad Mastoi and Abdul Rasool Khajak and accountant Mohammad Younus were killed.

The resolution assured the bereaved families that killers would be arrested and brought to justice.

Also read: Two journalists among three gunned down in Quetta

Speaking on the point of order, Abdur Rahim Ziaratwal, Hamid Achakzai, Yasmin Lehri, Dr Shama Ishaq, Haji Islam Baloch, Syed Liaquat Agha, Nawab Mohammad Khan Shahwani, Manzoor Kakar and Sardar Abdur Rehman Khetran urged the federal government to implement a resolution that the house had adopted earlier and take action against the participants of the sit-ins being staged in Islamabad for the past two weeks.

They said that protesters had been unconstitutionally and unlawfully demanding dissolution of assemblies and resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

They said undue importance was being given to protesters who wanted to create an anarchic situation to press for their demands.

The lawmakers urged the federal government to remove the protesters from the “red zone” because allowing them to continue their sit-in would encourage undemocratic elements.

Meanwhile, opposition members staged a token walkout from the house against not being allowed to speak on the law and order situation in the province.

They said 37 people, including three media personnel, had been killed in different areas of the province over the past 10 days, but not a single suspect had been arrested yet.

Earlier, journalists staged a walkout from the press gallery and held a demonstration at the main gate of the assembly to protest against the police failure to arrest the killers of the media workers and slow pace of investigation into the case.

The general secretary of the Quetta Press Club, Abdul Khaliq Rind, regretted that despite a lapse of 48 hours police had not arrested the killers and were not informing journalists about progress in the investigation.

Later, Speaker Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali adjourned the session indefinitely.

Published in Dawn, August 31, 2014