 The Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) staged a rally in Mandi Kas, some five kilometres from Bara Bazaar, and announced a six-point charter of demands on Sunday. LI chief Mangal Bagh, commander Ghuncha Gul, Bara Doctors and Medical Practitioners Association president Niaz Badsha, Dr Habibur Rehman and other LI leaders addressed the participants. The speakers demanded:
* the government release Mufti Munir Shakir,
*hand over Pir Saifur RehmanÂ’s property to LI,
*evict security forces from Rabat Mosque and Arjli Naddi by releasing them to the Shalober tribe,
*punish security officials involved in the firing incident that killed four children and
*reconstruct the Malak Din Khel tribe’s demolished market in addition to compensating the affected people. They also criticised the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government and said it had created numerous problems for the tribesmen. “It [MMA government] blamed tribal elders for the deterioration of law and order by saying they had failed the political system through creating parasitic relations with the authorities,” they said. The speakers also called the demolition of Malak Din Khel tribe’s market ‘illogical’ saying the market was not an office of the LI, but was instead a workplace for more than 20,000 people. The speakers also demanded the government stop constructing security check posts in the area. |