The curfew in Gilgit City prolonged for the second day and all educational institutions, offices and market remained closed. There is hardly any news of the sufferings from within the city as communication and cellular service have been dismantled. The city has been taken over by the Pakistan Army.
After the protests, vandalism and extreme unrest the law enforcement authorities have imposed section 144 of penal code of Pakistan to prevent exhibition of unlawful weapons and an assembly that may likely to become unlawful.
Travellers, residents and school kids have stranded in various chaotic conditions and, according to local information, efforts are underway to ensure public safety and family reunifications.
There is complete strike in Skardu and all the public institutions, offices and markets are closed. GEO news reported that unknown people torched a Gas Station at Hotto in Skardu. Local media reported that a large protest really was heading towards Gilgit that was stopped and dispersed midway. Peaceful protests were also reported from Nagar, Hunza, Ghizar and Astor where people were chanting slogans against government’s inability to restore peace in the region. People expressed their mistrust in the local political leadership that only exists in media statements and magazines headlines.
“My Gilgit-Baltistan is burning and Mehdhi Shah is busy in paying homage to the graveyards in Nowdero and cutting the Birthday Cakes of Zardari’s kids. Where is the titular leadership? ” Jabbar a resident of Jutial,Gilgit, outraged.
Reports claimed that notables and residents of Astore District have decided not to allow any outsider into the district for as long as the unrest stops. In Nagar Valley, residents shown their frustration through protests and condemned the killings in Bonair Das where 9 travellers of a specific sect were secluded and sprayed with bullets. Reports claimed that 3 passengers jumped into Indus River and died fearing the attack on the buses by unknown miscreants. However, witnesses of the incident claimed that the assailants tightened passengers up and hurled them into Indus River.
In Chilas people also protested against the hand grenade attack on a protest rally in Gilgit that killed at least 5 people and injured as many as 45. According to the detail unknown assailants threw propelled grenades in the protest really that was marching through the city against the arrest of Movlana Attah Ullah, a religious cleric who also leads a religio-political party
One could smell the trouble ahead, as protests were being planned and verbal threats from mosques in Gilgit City were being murmured. The law enforcement agencies, however, remained numbed. Residents blamed that the government, for unknown, reasons abets the criminals in Gilgit city. Others questioned: ‘why such an enormous pressure and oppression in Gilgit while most of the brutal killings either happened in Diamer or were supported by Diamer’. Protesters in Baltistan demanded military operation in Kohistan and Chilas.
According to detail the unrest in the region triggered when 16 innocent Shia Muslims were brutally murdered in the mountainous Kohistan region of Pakistan. Aggrieved communities chiefly remained patient to provide enough opportunity for the government to hunt the terrorists.
As per local residents, the government of Pakistan and its Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, attempted to resolve the issue on the lines that PPPs clever politics suggested. No practical intention was shown to arrest the culprits but attempts were made to please some religious groups who neither had a blood relation with the victims nor were at good terms with rival parties and groups. It was then the anger aggravated and people-to-people discomfort started burgeoning.
Political and Legal experts believe that the government’s approach to deal with the law and order situation either has been sceptical or inapt, for it only seems to reward the aggrieved without necessarily touching the aggressors. ‘Compensation and reward can never end crimes’, a local notable told.
A report on the situation has been submitted to interior minister of Pakistan. People in Gilgit-Baltistan, however, hardly trust Rehman Malik who is considered the most controversial politician of Pakistan.
Nationalist parties in Gilgit-Baltsitan demand implementation of the State Subject Rule, under which no outsider can either settle down or buy property in the area. The demography here, unfortunately, has been reengineered. The local residents have been overwhelmed by mass ethnic flooding from other parts of Pakistan. Indigenous people of Gilgit-Baltistan complain that the newly settled outsiders have brought militancy, violence and crimes into the region.
People in Gilgit are in fear over the unrest. It is feared that if the government continues giving cold shoulder to the region the situation here can turn into a chaotic situation. They say: ‘when the law breaks every man is for himself’ and, such is a situation in Gilgit-Baltistan.
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