PESHAWAR, April 2: The Alliance for Protection of Human Rights, a group of civil society organisations, has expressed concern over letters issued by a religious group to owners of internet cafes, video and audio-cassettes shops, asking them to wind up their businesses.

“A society where poverty and unemployment is already on the rise, such acts of terror will add to problems and deprive people of their basic right to entertainment and access to information. It will limit their livelihood sources, ultimately resulting in an increase in rate of crimes and violations,” observed participants of a meeting of the alliance held here on Monday.

The meeting had been convened to take stock of a string of events in different parts of the country showing the breakdown of law and order. Representatives of member organisations – SPO, Aurat Foundation, Shirkat Gah, Human Resource Management and Development Centre, Khwendo Kor, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Noor Education Trust and the Sungi Development Foundation – attended the meeting and urged the government to provide security to people.

The participants voiced concern over the recent kidnapping of a woman, her daughter and daughter-in-law by students of a religious school in Islamabad on the charge of promoting vulgarity. They said even if they had proofs to support their allegation, they had no right to take the action.

“The proofs should have been produced before authorities concerned and legal procedure should have been adopted to settle the issue. Such regrettable actions will lead to harassment and chaos and encourage more incidents of this kind,” they said.

The meeting also expressed concern over what it called alarming law and order situation in the Tank district and urged the government to ensure security of people and protect their fundamental rights.

It also took notice of threatening letters issued to girls’ schools in Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda and other districts wherein students had been asked to wear veils. The use of private FM radio stations to persuade people to stop sending girls to schools was also criticised.