JUI-F flays suicide attack

LAHORE, March 30: The Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) staged a demonstration here on Wednesday to protest the suicide attack on party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. The Maulana was on a mass-contact drive in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when a suicide bomber exploded himself close to a camp set up to welcome the JUI-F chief. Some 11 people were killed and several others injured in the attack. Carrying banners and placards inscribed with writings against the "imperialist" forces and their local agents, activists of the party gathered outside the Press Club here and chanted slogans condemning the terrorist hit. Speaking to the protesters, central information secretary Maulana Amjad Khan said the attack was a 'response' to JUI-F leader's getting a unanimous resolution passed from the parliament against use of force in the tribal areas. He said the JUI-F would continue its peaceful struggle to root out imperialist system from the country and replace it with the Islamic system. Demanding the government expose 'facts' behind the attack, he said the party would not postpone or cut short its mass-contact drive. He said as the Awami National Party government had badly failed to bring peace to the province, it should immediately resign accepting its responsibility. JI: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Syed Munawwar Hasan and Secretary-General Liaquat Baloch also condemned attack on the JUI-F chief. In a joint statement here, they said the federal as well as the provincial governments had completely failed in the protection of life and property of the masses. The JI leaders said such subversive activities would continue as long as CIA agents and 'terrorists' like Raymond Davis were freely roaming in the country.