HYDERABAD: Students, teachers, trade unionists and activists of political, religious, nationalist and national parties staged rallies and demonstrations in Hyderabad and Sukkur on Friday to condemn the militants attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda.

The leaders said that if the government had implemented the National Action Plan (NAP) in letter and spirit the tragic incident could have been averted.

Instead of enforcing it, politicians were bent on making the plan controversial underaconspiracy,they said.

In Hyderabad, students, teachers and staff of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) and activists of the Awami Workers Party (AWP), Sindhi Shagird Tehreek (SST), Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Sunni Tehreek (ST) and All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union staged rallies and demonstrations to condemn the tragedy.

MUET students, teachers and staff took out a rally on the campus which was also attendedbyofHce-bearersof the MUET teachers association also attended the rally.MUET acting vice chancellor Dr Ghaus Bux Khaskheli and registrar Prof Dr Taha Hussain Ali who led the rally said that dastardly attacl(s on educational institutions could not deter students from getting education as the entire nation was united against extremism.

They paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the attack and offered Fateha.

Activists of SST took out a rally, which started from the Sindh High Court building and culminated at the press club where they observed a token hunger strike.

They paid tribute to students and teachers of Bacha Khan University and urgedthe government to provide them security and compensation to the bereaved families of the victims.

AWP`s Dr Bukshal Thallu and Inayat Shah and JUI-F`s Maulana Taj Mohammad Nahiyoon led demonstrations, condemning the tragic incident and demanding exemplary punishment for the attackers.

ST organised special prayers in mosques for the departed souls. A local ST leader Khalid Hassan Attari said that rulers had become insensitive to people`s issues and politicians were bent upon malcing the NAP controversial under a conspiracy as it had exposedtheir corruption.

He said the public representatives sitting in parliament were not sincere with the country and its people.

At a time when the country was faced with war-like conditions rulers were raising questions over the plan, which was further encouraging terrorists, he said.

Activists of the Workers union organised a commemorative meeting at labour hall to pay tribute to the victims of the university massacre. The union president Abdul Latif Nizamani who chaired the meeting urged the government to take bold steps to eliminate terrorism.

In Sul
Maulana Ali Bux Sajjadi, Syed Hassan Ali Shah and others who led the rally said that if NAP had been implemented in letter and spirit the tragic incident could have been averted.

Members of New Pind Shopkeepers Association held a condolence meeting for the victims of the attack and demanded that Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif take immediate action to arrest culprits involved in the cowardly attack.