Protesters stay put as sit-in continues in Bannu

BANNU: Thousands of people stayed put at the Police Lines Chowk in Bannu city to voice concern over the worsening law and order as protest sit-in continued here on Monday.

The protesters in Bannu have been demanding the government to tackle lawlessness by taking action against the armed groups operating in the district. The administration had placed containers on the roads leading to the cantonment. A heavy contingent of the police was deployed in the Bannu city to avert any untoward incident. The police had beefed up security across Bannu.

A partial strike was observed in Bannu city and its surrounding localities. Most of the commercial markets remained closed in the city despite that the organizers of the sit-in had called for holding a peaceful protest and not to observe the strike.

The protesters vowed to continue the sit-in till the acceptance of their demands.A large number of people turned up to attend the protest. The leaders of various political parties, student wings and members of the civil society participated in the sit-in.

The speakers criticized the Federal Minister for Information Ataullah Tarar for making a statement against the protesters.Meanwhile, a delegation of the representatives of the protesters presented their demands before the commissioner of Bannu and the deputy inspector general of police, Bannu Range to convey them to the chief minister.

The protesters said that the second phase of the protest would be launched if their demands were not met. Also, the district administration formed a 45-member committee to hold talks with the representatives of the protesters.

The committee included incumbent and former parliamentarians, representatives of the business community and other social as well as political figures, including Member National Assembly Maulana Syed Naseem Shah, provincial Minister Pakhtun Yar, Member Provincial Assembly Zahidullah Wazir, MPA Adnan Wazir, former minister Syed Hamid Shah, Taimur Baz Advocate, Engineer Malik Ihsan Khan, Zafar Hayat, Abdul Samad Khan, Maulana Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, Dr Abdul Rauf Qureshi, Ghulam Qaibaz Khan and others.