ISLAMABAD:
Taking notice of the recent sectarian strife in
Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on
Thursday accused the Kashmir Affairs minister and chief minister of G-B
for not taking steps to implement the Mosque Regulation Act, adopted
with consensus by the Legislative Assembly on May 24, 2012.
Addressing a press conference, PML-N’s Chief Coordinator for
Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Mohammad Siddiqul Farooq
held the Kashmir Affairs minister, interior minister and chief minister
of G-B responsible for the killings of the 19 Shia passengers at the
hands of over a dozen armed men at the Lulusar area in Naran Valley of
Mansehra District on August 16.He also blamed the ministers for the killing of two traders on Tuesday at the hands of gunmen on the outskirts of Gilgit. “If immediate remedial measures had been taken after t he Lalusar incident, additional losses and sectarian tension could have been avoided,” Farooq said.
He added that PML-N President Nawaz Sharif was seriously concerned over the deteriorating situation in the area and issued special directions to the party’s G-B chapter President Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman.
He pointed out that on the direction of Nawaz Sharif the PML-N has played a special role for sectarian harmony in G-B.
However, Farooq criticised the local and federal government for creating hurdles in PML-N’s efforts to bring peace and order. Responding to a question, the party’s chief coordinator added that he was continuously lobbying to the G-B government to effectively deal with terrorism and sectarian tension in the region. But due to its inefficiency or to divert attention of the people from its failures, the federal and G-B governments were not paying attention towards their moral and constitutional obligations, he said.
Farooq stated that so far 200 innocent people had lost their lives in the violence, but the local leadership was more interested in saving its own skin rather than the lives of the poor masses.
He emphasised that his party considered G-B a collective home of Sunnis, Shias, Ismailis, Noor Bakhshi and Ahle-e-Hadith and it was vital that harmony existed among them. He said the people of G-B believed that there was a need for unity among them for economic and social development of the area. The PML-N leader also warned that a handful of anti-social elements had created a ‘no go area’ in G-B and due to its vested interests, the provincial government was not taking steps to curb these elements.
He concluded that despite a heavy deployment of the army, Frontier Constabulary and police officials and intelligence agencies in G-B, terrorism and sectarian violence was an ongoing menace that has not been rooted out so far.
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