Hundreds of clerics and their supporters in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, protested against a local family park, urging the management to close it.
The protesters stated that thousands of couples had visited the park on 14 August, which, they claimed, is against local traditions and promotes indecency.
The Bannu Cantonment family park was established and opened to the public a year ago but was met with criticism from orthodox circles.
Students from religious seminaries staged a protest outside the family park and the Bannu Press Club on Sunday, demanding that the authorities close the park or face consequences. They highlighted that vulgarity disguised as entertainment would not be tolerated in Bannu and that such parks have no place in the district.
They chanted slogans against the district and the park administrations and warned that women would not be permitted to enter parks under any circumstances.
A local seminary student reportedly revealed that “a meeting was held of all local clerics first at Masjid Hafiz Jee in which a decision was made to stage a protest, after which the protest demonstrations were held”.
He opined that women should not be permitted to roam freely or visit parks in the district.
Subsequently, the district administration invited the leading clerics to a meeting to discuss the issue and negotiations were ongoing during the day today.
An official stated that “locals residents stayed away from the protest but still there were around two thousand students of seminaries and the authorities feared they could attack the park”, adding that they chose not to take the law into their own hands.
Masla park ka nhe h masla us tarbiyat ka h jo in logo ne apne bacho ki ke h
Thanks to valiant people of bannu, atleast they won’t be having the kind of decadence we see in big cities across Punjab & Karachi!
Backwards society
Perhaps these clerics should ban themselves for looking at our women with such vulgarity.