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Saturday, October 19, 2013
KP on the move after law minister killed on Eid dayBy Iqbal Khattak
PESHAWAR: The cabinet of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has taken some serious decisions a day after Law Minister Israrullah Gandapur was killed in a suicide attack on his residence in Dera Ismail Khan district on Wednesday.
A cabinet minister said the meeting approved the establishment of anti-terrorism task force to be led by province’s police chief Nasir Durrani. “The new force will comprise of all the law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, including the military, Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary,” the minister told on condition of anonymity on Friday. The special cabinet meeting was held in Peshawar the day when soft-spoken Israrullah Gandapur was laid to rest in his ancestral village Kullachi tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan city, some 200 miles south of Peshawar.
Israrullah is the second Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister to have fallen to terrorism after Bashir Ahmed Bilour, who also died in similar circumstances in December 2012. Provincial Health Minister Shaukat Yousafzai confirmed his cabinet colleague’s death in the attack besides putting the total death toll at eight. More than 30 people were wounded in the attack, including Gandapur’s elder brother, said Irfan Mahsud, the assistant commissioner of Dera city. The law minister was exchanging Eid greetings with people at his residence in Kullachi Tehsil, about 50 kilometres from Dera Ismail Khan city, when the suicide bomber blew himself up, local police said.
Israr had won the PK-67 (Kullachi) seat for the third consecutive time as an independent candidate. He extended his support to the PTI-led government getting the ministerial status for the first time after sitting on opposition benches during the last two governments. He was the son of former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Sardar Inayatullah Gandapur. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Taliban militants are prime suspects. The killing of Gandapur was described by his cabinet colleagues and parliamentarians as a “major setback” to parliamentary form of politics in the province.
“Pakhtunkhwa lost an astute parliamentarian, a decent Pashtun and a brave leader in the martyrdom of Israrullah Gandapur. May he rest in peace,” Awami National Party leader Senator Afrasiab Khattak tweeted. The provincial government announced a three-day mourning, cancelling all programmes in relation to Eid. Return of the Frontier Constabulary’s platoons to the province from Centre was also demanded during the special cabinet meeting, with a plea to deploy these platoons at sensitive places for controlling law and order and fighting terrorism in KP.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk