Naqeebullah Mehsud murder: Malala urges top civilian, military brass to take notice of Pashtuns’ demands

LONDON: Pakistani education activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai on Tuesday requested the top civilian and military brass to take notice of the demands of people of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), who have been staging a sit-in in Islamabad.

I express my solidarity with the ongoing peaceful #IslamabadSitin and appeal the Prime Minister, the Chief of Army Staff and the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take immediate notice of the genuine demands of the people of FATA and Pukhtoonkhwa.#PukhtoonLongMarch#JusticeForNaqib

— Malala (@Malala) February 6, 2018

“I express my solidarity with the ongoing peaceful “IslamabadSitin,” said Malala, who was appointed the UN Messenger of Peace by the body’s secretary-general earlier this year.

Malala, 20, also appealed to “the Prime Minister, the Chief of Army Staff and the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take immediate notice of the genuine demands of the people of FATA and Pukhtoonkhwa”.

The demonstrators, who have set up tents outside the National Press Club in Islamabad, are also demanding the arrest of Rao Anwar, a Karachi police commander who has been accused of killing Naqeebullah Mehsud— an aspiring model shot by the police in Karachi who claimed afterwards that he was a Taliban militant —and who is now on the run.

They also say they want the army to clear landmines from the tribal areas, particularly the South Waziristan district.