LAHORE, March 30: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called upon the government to read the threat to national integrity and wellbeing of people implicit in the recent doings of the militants in the name of religion and realise its duty to safeguard the lives and freedom of all the citizens.

HRCP Secretary-General Iqbal Haider said in a statement that a series of extremely grave and alarming happenings had been reported over the past few days. “The militants attack on public and private properties in Tank in which several lives were lost, the Islamabad female students raid on private residence and attempts to administer private justice, and the attack on a security establishment in Kharian were all fruits of establishment’s vacillation in the face of fanaticism and gangsterism if not its connivance with them.”

He said that “there was no doubt about the government’s inability to answer the threat of Talibanisation in a straightforward and transparent manner had enabled the militants to extend their control over large areas in FATA and FANA.

“The Islamabad affair was a direct consequence of allowing a petty affair to drag on for months. The keenness of official spokespersons, including ministers, to woo the Islamabad group of female students and their male supporters for peace on their terms had emboldened the perpetrators of an unlawful attack on a private residence. Nobody would approve of brothels but to allow vigilantes to take law and lives of people into their own hands would land Pakistan in greater chaos and pose greater danger to its integrity than it had hitherto known.”