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India-Pakistan
Tribesmen forced to end protest after police move in
2013-01-17
[Dawn] In a late night development, police was called in to disperse protesting rustics outside the governor house and move the bodies to a cold storage, DawnNews reported.

Police used tear gas and shelled at the rustics and others who had joined in the protest. The bodies were loaded on to trucks and taken to a morgue by the police. The move came following the rejection of an agreement between the tribal elders and Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
Masood Kausar by the protesting rustics over the killing of 18 rustics in Bara tehsil.

According to the agreement, the government would conduct an impartial inquiry into the killings and punish those involved. The inquiry committee will also comprise judges and other stakeholders who would be included into the committee with the consent of the tribal elders.

The protesting rustics however rejected the settlement between the representative jirga and KP governor and are refused to bury their dead, saying they would continue with the sit-in protest until rustics were provided security.

PM takes notices of killings

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, had taken notice of the protest in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, telephoned KP Governor Masood Kausur and directed him to address the protesters' grievances.

Governor Kuasar while speaking to the media after the jirga, said that seven lakh rupees each would be provided as compensation to the dear departed's family and four lakh rupees for burial of the dear departed. Protestors however refused to accept the compensation amount and assurances to conduct an inquiry into the killings.

The KP governor had said that an impartial inquiry would be conducted into the incident and if there were excesses proved, against anyone, the culprits would be penalised according to the law.

"It will not be a judicial inquiry, but it will have members of the judiciary as well," he said.

The governor stated that if the tribal elders could guarantee no terrorist activity in their areas, the government would be ready to call back security forces. However he said that the army had been deployed at the request of tribal elders when they were unable to resist the cut-throats onslaught.

Earlier on at least 400 to 500 rustics had marched from Bara to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa bustling provincial capital, carrying the bodies of the dear departed in pick-ups and demanded justice for the victims.

The protestors accused security forces of the killings and demanded that the governor and authorities provide them justice. Security forces claim that the turban group Lashkar-e-Islam, led by Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
, is behind the murders.

An elderly man, who was also protesting the killings, told Dawn.Com that his colleagues killed were simple labourers who had been killed in their homes allegedly by the security forces.

"They were taken out of their houses and were rubbed out by the forces, it's a routine now they don't care who is being killed when they open fire, we have been tolerating it for almost four years," he said.

Peshawar's main Railway Road was blocked for traffic due to the protest. Traffic on Sunheri Mashid and Peshawar Cantt roads was also suspended and security forces had sealed the entire cantonment area to stop protestors from entering the red security zone.

Protestors had carried placards and banners calling for an end to the ongoing military operation in their areas.

The rustics protested that undirected mortar bombs and artillery shelling have killed a number of innocent people in their area.

Security forces denied the allegations.
No, no! Certainly not!
claiming that the dead included a former Frontier Corps soldier's father and four brothers -- all five bumped off by cut-throats on Tuesday night, they claimed.

Military sources said that cut-throats from the banned Lashkar-e-Islam group had raided the house in Dogra area of former FC-man, Shabbir Ahmed, and bumped off his father and brothers.

"I was a government servant but I don't know why this injustice done to me," former FC official, Shabbir, who was also among the protestors outside the Governor House, told Dawn.com.

"I am serving the nation and working for the security of the country but don't know why and who has killed my four brothers and father. The government must answer why this has been done to me," he said.

Security forces claimed they had also launched a counter-attack after cut-throats attacked several check-posts, killing six soldiers and injuring 28 others on Tuesday. Four cut-throats were also killed in the festivities, they said.

The officials claimed that Lashkar-e-Islam turbans, dressed in FC uniforms, were also involved in the killings of innocent rustics in a bid to malign the security forces.

They also further denied that any operation was carried out by the FC force in the area where the bodies were found.
Posted by:Fred

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