PESHAWAR, Aug 23: The Pakistan Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL) has asked the government to impose a ban on the use, manufacture and stockpiling of the landmines to save the unwary people from being killed or handicapped.

This was stated by the director of the PCBL, Faiz Mohammad Fayyaz, at a gathering of tribesmen at Landi Kotal, Khyber Agency on Friday.

He said landmines was a new phenomenon for the people in this part of the world but owing to the Afghan war the devilish weapon made its way to the tribal parts of the NWFP.

He said about 5,000 had been killed or handicapped by the landmines in tribal areas, parts of the country and urged the need to impose a complete ban on its business, manufacture and transportation. He said 95 per cent victims of the deadly weapon, were innocent people. He added the worst affected areas in the country were Kurram, Bajuar and Waziristan Agencies where the people fell pray to landmines for no fault of theirs.

He  added that a convention calling  for  complete eradication of the landmines had been signed by 140 countries at Ottawa conference in 1997 whereas 115 countries  including Pakistan had approved the convention. He asked the government to sign the convention immediately to save the innocent people from being affected.

A representative of the tribesmen, Haji Gulab  Shinwari extended full cooperation on the part of tribal people to destroy and ban the anti-personnel mines. He asked the people to create awareness among the people so that they could be protected from the dreaded weapon.