PESHAWAR, Aug 30: The NWFP chapter of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy on Wednesday held a demonstration in Qissakhwani Bazaar in protest against the killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and demanded that the government hand over his body to his family.

Earlier, leaders and workers of the alliance offered funeral prayers for Nawab Bugti at Qasim Ali Khan mosque. Maulana Yousuf Qureshi led the prayers, after which hundreds of workers carrying placards inscribed with slogans against the government came out of the mosque and held the demonstration in Qissakhwani Bazaar.

The protesters chanted slogans against President Pervez Musharraf and held him responsible for the assassination of the former governor and chief minister of Balochistan.

They demanded that the military rulers return to the barracks forthwith and hand over power to a caretaker set-up.

Provincial chief of the People’s Party Parliamentarians Rahimdad Khan said the federal government had deliberately created confusion about the killing as its spokesmen had issued contradictory statements on the matter.

Leaders and workers of the PPP, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party participated in the demonstration.

The women wing of the PML-N in its meeting here condemned the assassination, terming it an attack on the federation and unity of people of the country.

The wing’s president MPA Imtiaz Sultan Bokhari said Nawab Bugti was a patriot who had supported annexation of Balochistan with Pakistan in 1947. She said Nawab Bugti’s murder had exposed the intentions of the rulers towards political forces.