PESHAWAR: Arrest of killers demanded

Published September 10, 2002

PESHAWAR, Sept 9: Activists of Al-Khair Huqooqul Ibad have asked the government to arrest the killers of the trust’s chairman Malik Attaullah and provide them with justice.

Scores of the group activists on Monday held a protest demonstration in front of the Peshawar Press Club. They alleged that former health minister and ANP leader, Jan Mohammad Khattak, and an ANP candidate for PF-15, Khalil Abbas, were involved in the murder of Malik Attaullah.

They said the police had shown itself helpless in arresting them, and even after the passage of two months since the trust chief was killed, the assassins remained at large.

Holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the police and the alleged killers, the demonstrators also staged a sit-in on the premises of the press club.

Bilal Ahmad, son of slain Malik Attaullah, told journalists that an FIR of the murder had been lodged at the Akora Khattak police station, Nowshera district, some two months back.

He expressed his apprehension that the SHO of the police station concerned might be protecting the accused. He alleged that the police had taken graft from the accused and were therefore reluctant to lay hands on them.

“The police arrest the relatives of the poor people when they commit a petty crime but do not arrest the influential people even if they commit as heinous a crime as murder,” he said.

“From whom should we seek justice?” he queried.

Bilal said the police, instead, were forcing them to enter into an agreement with the killers.

He demanded of the government to arrest the killers and try them in a speedy trial court. He also urged the NWFP governor to order an inquiry against the SHO Akora Khattak “for protecting the killers.”