HYDERABAD: Activists of Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) and Shia Ulema Council (SUC) held a demonstration on Friday in protest against the recent acts of terrorism in Sindh and attempted suicide attack on an imambargah in Shikarpur during the Eid prayers/congregation on Tuesday.

Speaking to the protesters, MWM general secretary Rehman Raza Abbasi and SUC leader Allama Agha Mohammad Qambrani claimed that the police had failed to check the suicide bombers; actually members of the general public had noticed their presence and they risked their lives to catch one of the two terrorists.

They said the incident was a proof of the government’s incompetence which had dealt a severe blow to the National Action Plan as well as the ongoing military operation against terrorism. If the government could not protect faithful at imambargahs and mosques now, how could it ensure safety of mourners participating in Muharram processions and majalis, they argued. They said it was a prime duty of the government to ensure protection to the life and property of citizens. The government must ban bogus clerics, fake seminaries and terror organisations and launch a crackdown on them, they said.

They demanded that all offices of banned organisations be sealed and the legitimate ones holding mourning processions and majalis be protected.

They called for immediate arrest of the culprits of the failed Shikarpur attack and exemplary punishment to them to deter terrorists from hatching such conspiracies in future.

Allama Gul Hassan Murtazvi, Syed Shamim Naqvi, Allama Noor Hassan Hussaini, Maulana Mulazim Hussain and activists of Imamia Student Organisation participated in the demonstration.

Shia organisations held similar demonstrations in several other towns of the province after the Juma prayers.

SUKKUR: Speaking at a press conference at the Jacobabad Press Club on Friday evening, MWM leaders Allama Ameen Shaheedi and Allama Maqsood Ali Domki announced that a protest movement would be launched in Muharram to force the government to take effective measures against terrorism and implement the agreement reached between the MWM and Sindh government after the Jan 30, 2015 carnage in Shikarpur.

Allama Shaheedi said that the then chief minister had promised to build a memorial at the blast site but no progress had been made in this regard while most of the affected families had not been provided the promised compensation. Nor had any member of the bereaved family been given a government job so far, he added.

The MWM leaders said that the government’s attention had repeated been drawn towards the terrorists’ training camps within Jacobabad, Shikarpur and certain other districts but no action was being taken to wipe them out.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2016