PESHAWAR: The 16/12 Action Forum, a grouping of civil society organisations, on Wednesday announced its activists would block roads in the provincial capital on December 31 to protest the last week’s militant attack on the Army Public School.
Falak Niaz of the 16/12 Action Forum told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that activists of the forum along with political workers and students would hold a candlelight vigil at Amn Chowk near Gora Qabristan at 4pm before staging demonstrations on the roads in the city.
Accompanied by colleagues Sana Ijaz, Tariq Afghan, Arbab Sheharyar, Ajmal Afridi and Riaz Marwat, he said the forum had contacted different organisations of transporters, traders and political parties for joining its protest.
Falak Niaz said 2015 would be marked as the year of peace.
He asked the people to play due role for restoration of peace in the country.
Say transporters, traders, politicians requested for joining protest against Dec 16 carnage
The forum’s representative said the government was not serious about changing its foreign policy and therefore, terrorists were frequently attacking innocent people.
He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata had been a battlefield since 1979, where thousands of people had been killed, injured or displaced, while infrastructure had been in ruins.
Falak Niaz said no one in authority had the plans to check bloodshed in the region.
He said the war on terrorism had led to the closure of around 1,800 industrial units, destruction of hundreds of educational institutions and mass displacement in the province and adjoining tribal areas.
The forum’s representative said the war on terrorism had caused massive unemployment and increased crime rate, especially that of the kidnapping for ransom and extortion, forcing the people to flee the province for safer places in the country or abroad.
He said around 4,000 tribal elders and political activists had been killed in terrorist activities.
“It is the duty of the government to change its foreign policy, crack down on all banned outfits, and punish the sympathisers of the Taliban terrorists. This is the only way to stop terrorists from shedding more blood,” he said.
Falak Niaz asked the government to compensate the terrorism-affected families, send injured students abroad for necessary treatment, and declare Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata a war-hit zone.
He also said the government should establish a library and educational institutions in the name of the Army Public School students, while survivors of the December 16 attack should be treated for trauma.
Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2014
