Foolproof security demanded across educational institutions. PHOTO: FILE/NASEEM JAMES
MULTAN:
Lawyers across the Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur divisions on Friday observed a complete strike in connection with Wednesday’s Bacha Khan University (BKU) carnage.
Lahore High Court Bar Association Multan president Syed Muhammad Ali Gilani said lawyers had offered special prayers for those martyred in the deadly terrorist assault. He said lawyers had also organised protest meetings across respective bar associations. Gilani said lawyers appearing at courts had been sporting black armbands. He called on the federal and provincial authorities to quickly nab those responsible for orchestrating the attack and award them exemplary punishment. Gilani called the carnage a failure on part of law enforcement agencies.
Vice chairman Farah Ejaz Baig said protest meetings and rallies to condemn the carnage had been organised province-wide. She said the attack could have been prevented had those involved in previous acts of terror been punished. She called for foolproof security across educational institutions.
Condemning the attack, she said terrorists had no faith or religion. She stressed the need for adequately securing educational institutions to thwart such attacks from happening again. Advocate Mohsin Hamdani said the sacrifices of the students would not go in vain. He said the assault was a demonstration of terrorists’ cowardice as they had chosen to attack educational institutions to spread fear by targeting innocent students. Advocate Shahbaz Gurmani said terrorists wanted to spread fear among the people by attacking children. He said what they did not know was that they were intrepid enough to protect themselves and the nation. Gurmani said such acts of cowardice would not deter people from getting educated.
Advocate Faheem Gill said the very people who had earlier killed innocent schoolchildren in 2014 had orchestrated the assault. He said the government and the military should work in tandem to eradicate them and their sympathisers. Gill said foolproof security should be ensured at educational institutions to prevent such untoward incidents from happening again. He said the assault had proved that the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism was not being effectively implemented.
Advocate Ali Siddique said educational institutions should be comprehensively searched as great planning went into executing these attacks that were not possible without internal assistance. He said there should be zero tolerance for terrorism.
Special prayer meetings were also organised across south Punjab by various civil society organisations.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2016.
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