Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed displeasure over measures taken by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police to curb sectarian killings in Dera Ismail Khan and sought a report from the provincial chief secretary, a private TV channel reported.

During the hearing of a suo motu case, the bench was informed that the provincial police had conducted raids to arrest suspects involved in sectarian killings and also banned the use of loudspeaker. Unsatisfied by the steps, the chief justice dismissed the report prepared by inspector general of police and directed the provincial chief secretary to submit a report detailing measures taken by the provincial government.

Previously, a report submitted by the KP police had claimed that certain politicians were using sectarian violence in the district to promote their own agendas. It had also stated that most members of sectarian outfits had become political workers.

The report said that both Shia and Sunni communities lived peacefully side by side in DI Khan till 1985 when the first sectarian riot took place during a Muharram procession. The trend, however, changed in the 2000s and a surge in sectarian violence was witnessed in 2007-08. The report added that the ratio of kidnapping for ransom and targeted killing of police officials and Shia community members increased the same year.

The report detailed that at least 164 Shias, 92 Sunnis and 60 police officials had been killed in target killings in the district since 1985. A total of 112 Sunnis, 245 Shias and 182 police personnel have been killed in sectarian violence and terrorism. Twelve terrorism cases were reported during the last six years wherein six accused were nominated and one was arrested.

According to the report, the KP police had arrested 71 terrorists in different cases since 2017 while a list of more than 350 individuals on the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act had been circulated amongst station house officers with necessary directions to open personal files and carry out ground checks.

Published in Daily Times, September 14^th 2018.