KHAR: People belonging to different walks of life have expressed grave concern over crackdown on the residents of Bajaur Agency residing in different cities of Punjab province following the Feb 13 suicide blast in Lahore.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, the leaders of various political and religious parties, rights activists, tribal elders and lawmakers asked the Punjab government to stop arresting ‘innocent’ residents of Bajaur and release all those detained.

Shahbuddin Khan, the PML-N lawmaker, pointed out that numerous tribal people earning livelihood in different areas of Punjab had been arrested by the authorities following the suicide blast.

The lawmaker also expressed concern over surveillance of tribal people in Punjab. He vowed to raise the issue in the National Assembly.

Former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor Engr Shaukatullah Khan also condemned arrest of the people and said though the alleged facilitator of the suicide attack belonged to Bajaur, it did not justify to link every tribesman with the bombing. He said the people of Bajaur had been angered over the arrest of their relatives in Punjab. He said the people of Bajaur were patriotic and peace loving citizens who had greatly suffered in the war on terrorism.

Shaukatullah requested the Punjab government to stop treating all the people hailing from Bajaur as suspects.

Qari Abdul Majeed, president of All Bajaur Political Parties Alliance, criticised the Punjab police for wholesale arrest of the people of Bajaur. He said detaining scores of residents during the crackdown tantamount to discrimination against the poor tribal people.

He noted that all those arrested in the crackdown had no link to the terrorist attack. He urged the Punjab government not to punish every person for the fault of a single man.

He also asked the tribal lawmakers to take up the issue with the Punjab and federal governments.

Malik Fazal Waheed, an elder of Mamond tribe, showed grave concern over the arrest of scores of people of Bajaur in several cities of Punjab. He said the crackdown had forced hundreds of people to leave their businesses there.

He appealed to the leaders of political and religious parties and tribal lawmakers to pressurise the Punjab government to stop arresting ‘innocent’ people.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2017