SEHWAN: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf senior leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi has demanded the government immediately reopen the shrine of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, which had been closed in the wake of Thursday’s terrorist incident, and allow devotees to visit the revered saint.

No shrine could be kept shut for three months for security, and besides it was not a solution to the problem, said Mr Qureshi while talking to journalists during a visit to the shrine on Saturday.

He condemned the suicide blast at the shrine, which claimed more than 80 lives and left hundreds injured, and said his party was with the innocent devotees who were martyred in the blast, and their bereaved families.

He called for provision of adequate security at shrines and raising the standard of hospitals. It was strange that despite passage of three days, the government had not yet announced compensation for the blast victims, he said.

Later, Mr Qureshi enquired after the health of the patients who were injured in the blast at Sehwan taluka hospital.

Military courts need of the hour

UMERKOT: Talking to journalists at a village near here, Mr Qureshi said that military courts were the need of the hour but the federal government was still dragging its feet over the issue.

Mr Qureshi, also a spiritual leader of Ghausia Jamaat, arrived here on a six-day visit during which he would meet his disciples and engage in political activities. If the government had implemented the National Action Plan in letter and spirit, the situation would have been different today, he said.

He condemned the suicide blast at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine and termed it a cowardly act in which terrorists targeted innocent people. The Sindh government had completely failed to provide security to the shrine where thousands of people gathered daily, he said.

He expressed surprise that Sehwan did not even have a well-equipped hospital and the injured had to be shifted in donkey-carts in the absence of ambulances.

External elements, who planned to destroy Pakistan’s peace and hamper its march towards progress, were using Afghan soil and the border area to carry out their nefarious designs, he said.

India too wanted to spread anarchy in Pakistan but all political parties and the nation were united to save the motherland, he said.

He regretted that instead of tightening security the government itself was fulfilling the evil designs of the terrorists by sealing mausoleums and shrines, which spread the message of love, peace, pluralism and religious harmony.

About the upcoming census, Mr Qureshi said that a census conducted in a transparent manner was the need of the hour and it would happen after addressing reservations of all the stakeholders.

He expressed the hope the court’s verdict in Panamagate case would be announced within a week and the party would soon realise its dream of change, peace and prosperity in the country.

SSP, ASP removed

DADU: Jamshoro SSP Tariq Wilayat and Sehwan ASP Mian Rashid Hidayat were removed on Saturday in the wake of Thursday’s suicide attack at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine.

Tanvir Alam Odho was posted as the Jamshoro SSP and Dr Sami Malik was posted as Sehwan ASP, a senior police official said.

Before being removed, SSP Wilayat told reporters in Jamshoro that police strongly believed that the suicide bombing was facilitated by three suspects. He said their suspicious movements were noted in the footages of CCTV cameras.

Jamshoro Deputy Commissioner Munawwar Ali Mahesar was present at the press briefing. Insisting that police were present at the shrine when the blast occurred, the SSP argued that one police officer was among those who lost their lives. He said possibility of security lapse could not be ruled out but an investigation was under way.

The DC told reporters that cleaning of the blast site was completed under his supervision before visitors were allowed in on Friday evening.

Published in Dawn February 19th, 2017