Updated on
Summary
At least eight persons were killed while over 100 injured during the ongoing public-police clashes as the protesters turned violent during their demonstrations against the renaming of NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Abbottabad on Monday. The fuming protesters torched two police cars and a police station. Despite the imposition of section 144, the protesters gathered at Fawara Chowk and chanted slogans against the government and demanded a province status for Hazara Division. The police resorted to fire and baton-charged the protesters and also teargas shelling.Resultantly, eight persons were killed while over 100 including former deputy speaker national assembly Sardar Yaqoob. Meanwhile, in Haripur, the demonstrators blocked Shahra-e-Resham. Protesters want to create chaos and unrest: Hoti Chief Minister NWFP Ameer Haider Khan Hoti said that to protest against renaming NWFP is the basic right of the people of Hazara however no one would be allowed to break the law. He said that PML-N is being targeted in Hazara.Hoti condemned the protest, accusing the protesters of wanting to create chaos and unrest. Hoti told reporters his government was trying to resolve the issue through negotiations.Hoti said that the objectives of the protestors could be realized from the fact that they tried to hold their own program in place of an already arranged PML-Ns Workers Convention. Iftikhar Hussain to convince Hazara residents over renaming Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said he will reach out to the people of NWFP protesting against the province being renamed Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa, hoping to convince them to drop the opposition. He said that the Abbotabad tragedy took place due to the differences between PML-N and PML-Q. Pashtu speakers make up 70 per cent of the population in North West Frontier Province and the non-Pashtu-speaking Hazaras 30 per cent, Hussain said.
