ISLAMABAD: The president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Ali Zafar, called upon the government on Thursday to deterthe scourge ofkidnapping for ransom and targeted killings by devising a long-term strategy.

`I believe that the killing of popular Qawwal and Naat Khawan Amjad Sabri and the kidnapping of the son of Sindh High Court chief justice is a fresh wave of terrorism aims at instilling fear among common citizens and to create divisions among them by attacking important personalities [of] culture and arts,` Mr Zafar said while talking to reporters at the Supreme Court building.

Earlier, Mr Zafar held a meeting of the SCBA to discuss the recent acts of terrorIsm in Karachi, especially the kidnapping of Awais Ali Shah, the son of the chief justice of the SHC, and the assassination of popular Qawwal Amjad Sabri.`The assassination of famous Qawwal and Naat Khawan Amjad Sabri is a great loss to Sufi culture of Pakistan,` he regretted, adding that the targeted killing of artists comes under the category of terrorism and for extremists the arts and culture is always the first target.

`But we need to show calmness like a mature nation instead of demonstrating a knee-jerk reaction to such incidents, he said.

`Amjad Sabri`s assassination is not an isolated incident, rather a part of a series,` Mr Zafar said.

`This is also evident from the fact that for the last two days we have been pointing fingers and blaming each other for such tragedies while rumour mills are working overtime to churn out all sort of uncertainty in the country.` The SCBA meeting urged the Inspector General of Sindh Police, Director General of Rangers and all law enforcement agencies to coordinate and implement a thorough plan for eradicating such acts of terrorism.