Targeted killings on rise in Pak's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: PDM chief says Armed people ruling province

Islamabad [Pakistan], August 1 : Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is an ally of the ruling Shehbaz Sharif government of Pakistan, held a protest over the rising incidents of targeted killings in southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and alleged armed people are ruling the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa adding that PTI and police have become "powerless" in the region.
His statement comes in the wake of after a few unidentified gunmen on Monday killed a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) (JUI-F) councillor-elect Malik Murtaza. He was elected councillor during the second phase of the local body elections.
It is pertinent to mention that Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had been ruling Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for almost nine years.
While speaking to the reporters after a meeting of a tribal jirga of North Waziristan district, the PDM chief said all the southern districts of KP province, including Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Lakki Marwat, Karak, and North and South Waziristan, were under the control of armed people.
He also recalled that the Utmanzai tribe from North Waziristan protested against the incidents of targeted killings in Pakistan. The protesting tribesmen had staged a sit-in camp on Friday outside the press club building in Miranshah to protest against the rising incidents of target killings in North Waziristan.
"A few days later, four or five other people were also killed," Fazlur added, reported Dawn.
No one is secure in North Waziristan, the JUI-F leader said. "Local tribesmen know how to protect their area; however, the government has snatched their arms from them and put an end to practices like maintaining Lashkar, leaving the tribesmen hapless," he lamented.
He attributed the killing and the "armed rule" in KP province to the poor governance of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party.
The PDM chief expressed concern over the situation in the province and stressed that those wielding guns are completely independent as they raid areas and kill people at will.
He lambasted the state administration and termed them "weak" to tackle the sorry state of affairs. The chief said that all of this is causing despair in the general public, as per the media outlet.
Rehman demanded the protection of the rights of the people and regretted that those wielding powers lacked sense and those having sense lacked power.
In 2018, Pakistan passed a bill to enact the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan which calls for the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, tribals were always against this and wanted a reversal of the merger.
Commenting on the merger, Rehman said that tribal youth were given hopes that after the absorption of the region that they will come on a par with those in settled areas. However, he claimed, the situation has rather taken a turn for the worse.
He said it was not clear as to what the establishment was up to at the time of the merger or what kind of "international pressure" it faced as they did not pay any attention to the JUI-F's opposition to the plan.
"Now there is no administration, police or development activities in the merged districts," he said. Furthermore, he said that the money which was meant for the development projects was falling prey to extortion.