ABBOTTABAD: The ongoing protest against the renaming of the NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and favouring creation of Hazara province took an ugly turn when the enraged protesters and the police clashed outside the Ayub Medical Complex here on Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses said the police resorted to heavy baton-charge and fired teargas shells to disperse the angry protestors. They said that during the clash, protesters pelted police with stones and closed the roads for all kinds of traffic. Windowpanes of a number of vehicles, gates of shops and laboratories were damaged in the violent incident.
The angry protestors also chanted slogans against the police and the government during the clashes, which continued for one-and-a-half hour. The ANP District President, Hamayun Khan, lodged a report with the police against the president of the Movement for Hazara province Sardar Haider Zaman, PML-Q Provincial Secretary General Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, Sardar Qaiser Latif, Naseer Khan and dozens of others after the protesters ransacked the central office of the party.
The Cantonment Police Station registered the case against the nominated persons under sections 506, 148, 149 and 477.A large number of protestors had come out and blocked the Karakoram Highway. They staged a sit-in on scores of points on the road and burnt tyres on the highway to register their protest on the renaming of the NWFP.
The furious protestors also smashed the windowpanes of many vehicles and ransacked the central office of the ANP.Scores of youth wielding sticks and riding bikes closed several markets and bazaars in the city by force. There were reports of clashes between shopkeepers and the protesters.
Some of the protesters also forced their way into private educational institutions where they reportedly ransacked the furniture and threatened the staff and students of dire consequences if they did not close the institutions. All roads were closed and fear and panic prevailed in the city and its outskirts due to the tense situation.
Later, a big protest meeting was held at the Jinnah Square. Leaders of various political parties, including Sardar Haider Zaman of Movement for Hazara province, former deputy speaker of National Assembly Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob, former provincial minister Sardar Muhammad Idrees, Mushtaq Ghani of PML-Q, Naheed Gul Abbasi of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Zardar Awan of Jamaat-i-Islami, Qazi Azhar, Dr Azhar Jadoon, Gulzar Abbasi, Wali Muhammad Khan and others addressed the rally.
The speakers vowed to continue the protest campaign till the creation of the Hazara province. They rejected the renaming of the NWFP and termed it a conspiracy to disintegrate the country.
The speakers warned the district and divisional administrations to remove the signboards of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. They came down hard on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) head Nawaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari, alleging that both the leaders had deprived the people of Hazara of their identity.
Violent protests erupted soon after the government and opposition parties agreed on a constitutional reforms package prepared by Senator Raza Rabbani-led parliamentary committee on March 31.
The 27-member constitutional reforms committee, representing almost all the political parties, revisited the 1973 Constitution and proposed a number of amendments besides renaming the NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=233201
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