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Against an incessant surge in targeted killings across Pakistan, numerous residents blocked roads and observed a strike as part of a 'protest movement' in North Waziristan tribal district on Thursday.
The protests had begun against the growing incidents of targeted killings in the district as dozens of people lost their lives in those incidents, Dawn reported. Tens of thousands of agitators took to roads suspending vehicular traffic for long hours and also also burned old tyres. A fifty membered-strong committee led the protest as the residents placed boulders on the Bannu-Miramshah Road, Thall-Mirali Road, Ghulam Khan Road, Razmak Road, Datakhel Road in the region. According to Dawn, business centres, markets and shops were closed in Miramshah, Mirali and other small towns of the district on the call of a jirga of Uthmanzai tribe. Initially, the residents had organised protests in Eidak village but later extended it to the entire district. Senior officials of the district administration also held several meetings with tribal elders in an attempt to persuade them to call off the protests on Wednesday. However, committee head Malik Rab Nawaz said the North Waziristan Political Alliance, transporters and other associations 'fully' supported the protest. The committee also announced that the sit-in participants would go to Islamabad if targeted killings didn't stop. Locals in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district staged a sit-in blocking the main highway connecting Miramshah with other areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the previous week as well to protest against the targeted killings and lawlessness in the area. A 30-member jirga comprising elders of all branches of the Uthmanzai tribe was constituted to discuss the situation with the local officials. Notably, there have been several cases of such killings in North Waziristan over the past months. Earlier, the workers of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and other political parties also been protesting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's North Waziristan against the killing of its local leaders and lawlessness in the district. They continued a sit-in protest against lawlessness in Eidek village and demanded early arrest of the killers of JUI-F leaders Qari Samiuddin, Hafiz Nauman and others, Dawn reported. (ANI)
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