Three injured at JI rally

Published October 9, 2001

LANDI KOTEL, Oct 8: Three persons received bullet injuries, two of them seriously, on Monday when security forces opened fire on a tribal rally organised by the Jamaat-i-Islami to protest the US strikes against Afghanistan at Landi Kotel, Khyber Agency, on Monday.

Two wounded were rushed to Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, where the doctor termed their condition satisfactory, while one injured was admitted to the Agency Headquarters Hospital.

Eyewitnesses said that a few hundred tribesmen, carrying the JI flags, assembled at Millad Chowk in Landi Kotel Bazaar at 10.30 am to stage demonstration against the US military strike on Afghanistan.

They started chanting anti-US and anti-government slogans to express their anguish against the US-led air strikes on the neighbouring Afghanistan.

The rally organisers held the agency administration responsible for the mishap, saying that the protesters were peaceful and the security forces resorted to firing.

As a result of the firing three persons including Syed Faqir Afridi, Mohammad Khan Shinwari and Syed Faqir Shinwari received injuries.

The firing incident sparked violence in the border town and the armed tribesmen blocked main Peshawar-Torkham road

The enraged mob broke the signboards and erected hurdles on the road.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the US strikes the agency administration has called out 500 civil defence workers to meet any eventuality.

The administration has installed sirens on various points of the agency.