Protesters call for Rao Anwar’s arrest in their five-point charter of demands

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentarians, elders and youths hailing from the terror-struck Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have vowed that their protest sit-in would continue until acceptance of their five-point charter of demands.

The speakers at the sit-in here in front of Islamabad Press Club were unanimous on the point that the killer of Naqeeb Mehsood, former Malir Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rao Anwar should be apprehended forthwith and must be hanged so that no one ever dares to kill an innocent citizen in such a brutal manner.

MNA Maulana Jamaluddin of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami-Fazl (JUI-F), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Senior Vice President Ajmal Khan Wazir, Hameedullah Afridi, Bushra Gohar, a senior leader of Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Maulana Saleh Shah, Ali Wazir and a social activist Manzoor Pashteen, along with others addressed on the occasion.

The march of the tribal people, who are around four to five thousand, reached Islamabad on foot from Waziristan on Thursday and joined the protest camp set up in front of Islamabad Press Club. The participants vowed that they would not budge an inch from their stated position until acceptance of their demands.

They presented their charter of demands that Rao Anwar and his network involved in the extra-judicial killing of Naqeeb Mehsood should be apprehended and hanged.

They demanded that a judicial commission under the direct supervision of the chief justice of Pakistan should be set up aimed at investigating the extra-judicial killings of Pashtuns in Karachi, FATA and other parts of the country.

Their third demand was that missing persons, especially from FATA, should be recovered and those who responsible for their illegal detentions should be punished.

The fourth demand was that the law enforcement agencies should not resort to indiscriminate and disproportionate measures, like using violence, abduction and imposing curfew in FATA in general, and in Waziristan in particular, after any untoward incident in the region. They said that all these actions should be taken after a thorough investigation.

The fifth and the final demand was that the law enforcement agencies should clear FATA and Waziristan of mines and armed groups as 78 people were handicapped in mines and IEDs blasts and 18 people lost their lives in such incidents.

It is pertinent to mention here that the apex court conducted a suo moto hearing of the case pertaining to Naqeebullah Mehsood’s assassination in Karachi and gave a ten-day deadline to the authorities to nab Rao Anwar.

Mehsood, a 27-year-old hailing from South Waziristan, was gunned down on January 13 in Shah Latif Town by a police team headed by Rao Anwar. The preliminary probe had declared that Mehsood was tortured and killed in cold blood and had no terror links.