Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti on Friday said “terrorism and militancy” were a serious threat to the future of Pakhtuns, urging local leaders to work for the return of peace and tranquillity. “External forces are not only involved in fuelling extremism and terrorism but are making attempts to dictate the Pakhtuns for safeguarding their own evil designs,” Hoti said while addressing the inaugural session of the two-day World Peace Conference at Nishtar Hall Peshawar. The moot, being held under the auspices of World Pakhto Congress, was attended by Pakhtun intellectuals, writers, poets and analysts from all over Pakistan. Around 120 delegates from Afghanistan and representatives of various Pakhtun groups from western and European world attended the moot. The Seraiki Movement leader Abdul Majid Kanjo and Awami Party chief Hassan Nasar were also present.
The chief minister said, “We must confess to the mistakes made during invasion of former Soviet troops in Afghanistan and after the 9/11 tragedy. Such mistakes led to the worst kind of genocide of Pakhtuns and destruction of their living and economic infrastructures.” He said people must feel their responsibility towards keeping peace, adding that combating terrorism was the only way to prevent it from slipping into Punjab and Sindh. Expressing pleasure over assembling of intelligentsia of Pakhtuns from all over the world, Hoti said, “It is an exemplary jirga, in which the participants could come up with solid conclusions. Decisions of the jirga are always binding on the Pakhtuns, therefore, all of them must ensure implementation of the declarations of the jirga to be adopted at the end of the peace moot.” He urged the participants to unite on ending violence and terrorism.
