ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: People’s Party Parliamentarians chairperson Benazir Bhutto has condemned an attack on Ghotki city PPP president Rafiq Ahmad Daheri and demanded arrest of the assailants and punishment to them.

Mr Daheri was going home from a bank when he was intercepted by armed bandits who snatched Rs700,000 from him and shot at him when he offered resistance. Mr Daheri was severely injured and taken to a hospital in Rahim Yar Khan.

In a statement, Ms Bhutto said that the government had failed to protect life, honour and property of the citizens as it was using efforts and national resources against its political opponents.

She said that on the one hand, lawlessness reigned supreme in the country and, on the other, a reign of terror had been let loose by the ruling party which feared a countrywide defeat in the forthcoming general elections.

She recalled that last month in Mirpur Khas, PPP activists Jehangir Moghul and Junaid Bulund were sentenced to 10-year imprisonment and Rs30,000 fine each in a politically motivated case. Both the youths were asked to leave the PPP and on their refusal, were nominated in a firing case, she added.

MS Bhutto said that the ‘dictatorship’ had failed to eliminate either bandits or terrorists because it lacked roots among the people and did not consider itself accountable to the people.

She claimed that the PPP government in the past had made people’s life secure by firmly dealing with terrorists, militants and insurgents.