PESHAWAR, Dec 25: Traders of Peshawar on Thursday launched a protest campaign against the increasing crime rate, especially kidnapping of people for ransom, and called upon the government to “protect us or tender resignation”.
The traders as a first step of the campaign displayed black flags and banners at prominent places in the city, which were inscribed with slogans like “government should protect lives and properties of people or step down”.
The traders formed an action committee with Haleem Jan as its president, Malak Mehr Ealhi as general secretary, and Sher Zada Khan, Malak Zahid Hussain, Jamil Qadir and Shakil Saraf as members.
The committee secretary told Dawn that they were forced to taken the decision to launch the campaign because many businessmen had been kidnapped for ransom and the government had failed to provide protection to them.
He said it was a phase-wise programme, which included a protest march on city roads, shutter-down strikes, protest demonstrations and setting up of hunger strike camps outside the Peshawar Press Cub.
If the government, he said, did not take notice of their protest, they, instead of holding meetings with the chief minister and other ministers, would meet the Peshawar Corps Commander to apprise him of the problems being faced by people.
Mr Malak warned that if the government did not fulfil its responsibilities, traders would stop paying utility bills and resort to ‘jail bharo’ movement.
The action committee, he said, would take into confidence the leaders of different organisations, including lawyers, journalists and social workers, because the people who had been kidnapped belonged to different walks of life. After that, he added, a joint meeting of the associations would be held so that the next line of action could be devised in this connection.
Meanwhile, traders of the University Road held a meeting at a local guest house under Khalid Ayub, which seconded the decision taken by the Tajir Ittehad to launch the protest campaign against the government.
Those who spoke at the meeting included Amjad Ali Qadri, Asif, Aslam, Ashraf Khalil and Habibullah Zahid. They expressed dissatisfaction over performance of police and urged the government to provide them with arms permits or ensure protection to them against kidnappers.
They said traders were compelled to abandon their businesses because they had no security. They also formed an action committee of local shopkeepers and decided to positively respond to strike calls by the central action committee of traders.