ABBOTTABAD – As many as 16 people including two 10th class students were shot dead and over 300 sustained bullet injuries after clashes erupted between police personnel and the protesters during the demonstrations held against the renaming of NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa here on Monday.
According to details, hundreds of thousands of protestors who gathered in Abbotabad on Monday in pursuit of their demands regarding separate province and renaming of NWFP against their wishes fell prey to the provincial government sponsored terrorism.
Police killed 16 protestors including two minor school children, over 300 injured and around 100 critically injured in the protests that were started peacefully in Abbotabad city but turned violent when police fired at the peaceful protestors. The angry protestors torched two police vans and a city police station. Former Deputy Speaker National Assembly, Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob and Sardar Haider Zaman got injuries during the indiscriminate shelling of police.
The ANP Government that remained to be the architect of this melodrama had imposed Section 144 on Sunday night, a day prior to the protests and arrested some key leaders of Hazara Action Committee in order to sabotage the peaceful movement of the people of Hazara. In addition heavy contingents of police and Frontier Constabulary (FC) were called from other cities of NWFP including Mardan, Bannu and Peshawar to suppress the protests.
The security agencies floated rumours about the assassination of Sardar Haider Zaman, the central key leader of Hazara Action Committee and former Nazim District Abbotabad, in order to discourage the protesters to file their peaceful attempts seeking justice against the suppression of their rights by the ANP Government.
The PML-N leadership that received wide criticism in the wake of its failures to keep in consideration the sentiments of the people of Hazara Division by signing the controversial draft of renaming of NWFP in the 18th Amendment, did not show up in Abbotabad to organise the convention due to strong opposition of general public against PML-N. PML-N MNA, Murtaza Abbassi tried to enter Abbotabad but was restricted to Havelian at a local hotel with his friends for some time, took food and returned back to Islamabad.
The central leaders of Hazara Action Committee, Sardar Haider Zaman and Sardar Yaqoob vowed that cowardly acts of the ANP Government would not refrain them from their peaceful and just agenda. They told this correspondent during an exclusive conversation that ANP Government had set new records of tyranny by killing innocent children and protestors. Another key leader of Hazar Action Committee Sardar Shafqat said that the provocative statements of Asfandyar Wali had infuriated the masses of Hazara, who would not stop their protests specially after they had sacrificed nine precious lives. Sardar Haider Zaman said that the policemen who came Abbotabad from different cities of NWFP for terrorism would not be spared at any cost. He reiterated that now that people of Hazara Division would accept nothing short of provincial autonomy. It is estimated that 200000 people participated in protests including women, youth and children in Balakot, Mansehra and Abbotabad in favour of provincial autonomy and against the renaming of NWFP. The protests have been going on for the last two weeks.
Riaz Utmanzai adds: These people were killed and injured when Blackwater personnel on the directives of Chief Minister NWFP Amir Haider Khan Hoti opened indiscriminate firing on the peaceful protesters.
The Pashto speaking personnel in plain cloths were reportedly transported from Peshawar.
The protester, however, after forced to leave the Fawara Chowk due to excessive tear gas shelling and the target killing at the hands of Pashto speaking police and mercenaries. Some injured personnel of the Blackwater were brought for first aid in the hospitals as well.
Meanwhile, while talking to TheNation Barrister Javed Abbasi, MPA of the PML-N held Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain responsible for MondayÂ’s killings at Abbottabad.