LAHORE, Sept 7: The Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) leadership criticized on Saturday the PML-N’s Punjab government for its failure in capturing those killing Shias in the province and threatened to launch protests. “The PML-N government has failed to stop killings of our people. We cannot tolerate it anymore as the situation is worsening rapidly,” Shia leader Allama Syed Imtiaz Kazmi said at a press conference here.

He said in a short span of time various Shia notables, including Prof Shabiul Hasan, Shakir Rizvi advocate, Mubashir Rizvi (trader) and Syed Arshad Ali Shah advocate, had been killed.

Similarly, he said Syed Fazeelat Ali Shah alias Phool Shah was shot dead along with his sons and grandsons in Gujrat on Friday.

Flanked by Allama Azhar Hussain, Baqir Hussain and other leaders, Mr Kazmi said the police tried to divert the attention of the people from the Gujrat tragedy by declaring it the result of an enmity.

He alleged that leaders of a banned militant outfit openly threatened the Shia community in their Friday’s rally in Lahore.

He said those who attacked Pakistan army and police officials were involved in the Gujrat incident. “We are wondered why the Nawaz Sharif government is playing the role of a silent spectator in the killing of the Shia community at the hands of Punjabi Taliban militants whose influence is growing rapidly in the province,” he said.