ISLAMABAD, May 27: The All-Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) has demanded that the government should provide protection to the Christian community in Charsadda against threats by radical Islamic groups.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, chairman APMA Shahbaz Bhatti rejected claims of the Charsadda police to have solved the mystery behind threatening letters to the Christian community. He demanded that the government should arrest the responsible and curb growing religious extremism in society.

Mr Bhatti expressed concern over the procedure of investigation by the Charsadda police, who claimed that a fifth grade student had written the message.

However, he added, the boy had denied the allegation that he had sent letters to the Christians of Charsadda giving them an ultimatum to embrace Islam within ten days or face the consequences.

He said the government’s higher authorities were informed of the situation and threats faced by the five hundred Christians in Charsadda but the officials had responded halfheartedly to their concerns.

He said extremists should not be allowed to force anyone to change their religion, as it was against the constitution of Pakistan, religious freedom, universal declaration of human rights and the tenets of Islam.

The APMA chief said in Mardan and Charsadda, all the video and barber shops had received hand-written threatening messages before being destroyed in bomb blasts.

He said it was the duty of the government to protect the life and property of its citizens including minorities. The government should not allow extremists to jeopardise the law and order situation and challenge the writ of the state.

“The extremists should not be allowed to create terror in the minds of Christens and other minorities who played significant role in the development and prosperity of Pakistan.”

PPP: The Pakistan People’s Party has deplored the threats issued to the Christian community in Charsadda, PPI reports.

The Christian community in Charsadda is living in a perpetual state of fear as the grip of extremists over the region tightens. Early this month, scores of barber and video CD shops were burnt down in two bomb blasts.

Denouncing the incident, Sherry Rehman, the central information secretary of the PPP, termed it “a natural outcome of the Musharraf regime’s incessant backing of the Talibanisation of the society.”

She noted that the extremists’ offensive against the citizens had never been as blatant in the history of the country as it was today.

She said Charsadda was turning into another Waziristan where the Islamic radicals openly issued and executed threats.

“The centre and the NWFP government are duty bound by the constitution to provide protection to the minorities and ensure them their fundamental rights,” she said.