KARACHI – The Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), formerly known as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, on Sunday demanded the government take notice of killing of their workers, warning that they will initiate a protest drive across the country for an indefinite period if killers were not arrested forthwith. A large number of religious workers and supporters held sit-ins at five different area, Daud Chowrangi, Lasbella Chowk, Nagan Chowrangi, Lee Market and Banaras Chowrangi. The sit-ins were staged against the killings of ASWJ men, attack on ASWJ rally on Rabiul Awwal 12 in Khairpur, and blasphemous remarks on Hazrat Mohammad Prophet’s (Pbuh) companion in Hyderabad. The participants blocked the roads for vehicular traffic by erecting barricades. They shouted slogans against target killing of their leaders, workers and supporters as well as government and law enforcement agencies. Extra contingents of law enforcers including Rangers and police were deployed at protest sites to avoid any untoward incident. A major protest was held at Nagan Chowrangi which ASWJ central leader Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqui addressed. Maulana Farooqui, in his telephonic address, criticised the government and said that it had completely failed to stop the target killings of ASWJ men, adding that the rival sectarian group was being backed by the neighbouring country to disrupt peace of the city. He said that over 300 ASWJ men were killed in the last year while dozens had so far been killed this month, but the government neither arrested any killer nor compensated victims’ families. He warned that ASWJ always kept patient despite the killings of several of its party’s men but it could lost its patience if government did not fulfil its demands.