PESHAWAR: The members of Christian community demonstrated here on Sunday against the government for not fulfilling its commitment to compensate the families of the victims of the twin suicide blasts which took place in the All Saint’s Church at Kohati Gate here in September 2013.

Speaking at the protest demonstration held outside the Peshawar Press Club, United Church Movement (UCM) chairman Iqbal Azad, senior vice-chairman Ishaq Jan and vice-chairman Khurram Yaqoob said that some of the families had been compensated but most of them were yet to get any financial support despite promise by the government.

They said that the twin bomb blasts had killed 80 people and injured many others of Christian community with most of them belonging to poor families.

Sharing further information, they said the federal government had announced Rs200 million as compensation for the victims’ families, but half of the deserving people were still awaiting the financial support. They said 84 victims of the bomb blasts were yet to be compensated. Besides, they said dozens of the injured people awaited medical treatment but the government failed to pay them proper attention.

Iqbal Azad said the Sindh government had also announced compensation for the blast victims, which was also not paid to half of the victims. He blamed the federal and provincial governments for not paying heed towards their demands despite repeated protests and meetings with officials of the relevant departments.

The UCM chief pointed out that families of most of the victims were poor and needed ration and other items of daily use on urgent basis. He said the government should allocate a fixed amount of money as financial relief for the families to ease their misery.

The protesters, who were holding placards and banners inscribed with their demands, also shouted against the authorities concerned for delaying compensation.

UCM general secretary Musa Jan, joint secretary Naveed Javed and the victims’ families also shared views on the occasion and warned to move to Islamabad for holding a sit-in if their demand was not met at the earliest.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2019