LAHORE  - On the call of Peace and Tolerance Partnership, an alliance of civil society organizations, people from different walks of life marched on The Mall here Thursday and voiced a clear “No” to Talibanization and all forms of extremism paralyzing their lives, particularly of the women and religious minorities of the country.
“They are killers of women, culture, sports, media, lawyers and education”, the participants of the rally said of Taliban while demanding of the government to launch full-fledged operation against the militants.
A good number of renowned rights and political activists including Justice (R) Nasira Javaid Iqbal, Salman Abid, M. Tahseen, Farooq Tariq, Imtiaz Alam, Dr. Nosheen Hameed, Sajida Meer, Pandhit Bhaghat Lal Khokhar, Fr. William Basharat,  Saeeda Diep, Bushra Khaliq and others were part of the rally.
The participants of the peaceful march chanted slogans against religious extremism. They said “No to Talibanization”, “No to Religious Extremism”, “No to Religious Intolerance”. They also chanted slogans in favour of the respect of the freedom and human rights of all the citizens without any discrimination and on equal basis.
They expressed their concerns and criticized the government’s policy of dialogue with the killers of thousands of the innocent citizens.  They were of the view that the government and state machinery seemed to have failed in dealing with the armed militants and there was no clear policy and strategy to end Talibanization and religious extremism prevailing in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, senior journalist Imtiaz Alam said that the dialogue process with the present leadership of Taliban was a mere wastage of time because their leadership was against the constitution of Pakistan.
“We support the dialogue process only with those groups who voluntarily surrender and follow the constitution and moral values of the society. We want peace in the society”, he remarked.
Civil Society Network President Abdullah Malik rejected the ongoing dialogue with the TTP, saying both the committees were actually representative of Taliban forces which are against the present system of Sharia being followed by the majority here.” We demand that the state must ensure safety of life to the common citizens and launch full-fledged operation against the militants”, he observed.
Centre for Human Rights Education’s Director, Samson Salamat said that religious extremism will destroy the unity of the nation and federalism as the terrorist extremist groups wanted to impose their own version of  Sharia at gun point.  .