ISLAMABAD, July 29: The All Pakistan Minorities’ Alliance (APMA) has threatened to hold protest demonstrations outside the four provincial assemblies and the Parliament House in Islamabad if killers of Father George Ibrahim are not arrested by August 5.

This was announced by three minority MPAs of the Punjab Pervez Rafiq, Naveed Amir and Najmi Salim while speaking at a news conference here on Tuesday.

The MPAs, belonging to the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), regretted that the police had been unable to arrest the culprits and bring them to justice despite the passage of over three weeks time. The Catholic priest was murdered in Renala Khurd only hours after the terrorist attack in Quetta on July 4.

They said the Okara police had been making promises with the Christian community that the killers would be arrested soon, but there was no headway in the case so far. They accused the police of using delaying tactics to squash up the case. “The ultimate blame for any reaction from the community will lie fully with the police”, they added.

The MPAs feared that the police would stage a shootout and kill some victims and then claim that it was hard to follow up the case because a key culprit had died. “We want to make it clear if such an excuse is made, a case will be moved in the anti-terrorist court against the police itself for protecting the terrorists”, they said.

They alleged that a former headmistress of a school was behind this murder. They further alleged that she was using the school for Jehad training camps and supported banned militant organizations in the area. They said even the education department did not take action against her when she violated the orders of the governor when he ordered closure of the school in 2001. “She also threatened George Ibrahim many a times”, they said.

They were of the view that the government had been making false statements of wiping out terrorism from the country and reaching out to its roots.

They further criticized the government for not taking notice of those elements working for intolerance in the country. This involves various government departments, including the education department, which has prescribed books that are detrimental to the country, they added.