Pakistan: Jamaat-e-Islami launches protests against lawlessness

Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has launched a protest sit-in against a surge in lawlessness, crimes and narcotics in the Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the News International reported on Sunday. The protest continued for the second day in a row on Saturday as people from all sections of society including doctors, lawyers, students, teachers, social workers, traders and activists of various political parties participated in the protest sit-in to put forward their demands. JI district head Inayatur Rahman addressed the protest sit-in and lamented the district’s law enforcement agencies, police, and government’s abject failure to eradicate hunger, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, terrorism, violence, and drug smuggling. The JI activist took a sharp dig at Pervez Khattak, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf provincial chief, who served as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s chief minister for five years and the defence minister for four years, blaming him for the region’s plight and issues like hunger, and poverty, the News International reported. As a whole Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province experienced an exponential rise in violence whereby the fatalities there went up by 108 per cent. According to CRSS, total fatalities from terrorist violence were as many as 973 – a 14.47 per cent spike compared to 2021. The major percentage of victims of violence were civilians, government officials, and security personnel while the militants, insurgents and other outlaws were counted for the remaining 38 per cent of all fatalities this year.