ISLAMABAD: Special Representative to Prime Minister on Religious Harmony Hafiz Mohammad Tahir Ashrafi on Monday voiced concerns over the continuous faith-based target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Hafiz Ashrafi, who is also the chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), said the KP government should probe the matter as several persons belonging to Ahmadi faith had been killed in Peshawar in the recent past.

“Law and constitution of Pakistan categorically defined rights for minorities and the Muslims but any kind of extrajudicial killings or target killing cannot be justified,” he said in a statement.

“It is the responsibility of the state to ensure protection of the rights of all citizens,” he added.

“It is our collective responsibility to ensure protection to lives and properties of all Pakistanis irrespective of their faith and identities,” Hafiz Ashrafi said.

“Those involved in such killings are only murderers and were not rendering any service to Islam, the Muslims or the country,” he maintained.

He said that the federal government had directed the KP government to ensure transparent investigations into the killings of Ahmedi community in Peshawar during the last few months.

“It is the responsibility of KP government to arrest the killers of Ahmedis and the details of the investigations have to be made public so that those elements involved in killings of Ahmedis in Peshawar were exposed and their network has to be abolished,” he added.

Special representative to prime minister on religious harmony, also said that interfaith harmony councils would be established all over the country after Nov 16, that will help promote coordination among various communities and strengthened the bonds of friendly neighbourhood in the society.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2020