Pakistan Press International (04 June 2007)
COPYRIGHT 2007 Asia Pulse Pty Ltd

LAHORE, June 04 (PPI) : The human rights group Ansar Burney Trust International Monday sent letters to all major political parties in Pakistan, to request for information on the killing of political activists on the 12th May 2007 in Karachi.

The letters, sent to the heads of various political parties, including Altaf Hussain, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Imran Khan and others.

The Chairman of the Trust and Member of the International Bar Association (UK), American Bar Association (USA) and Karachi Bar Association, Mr. Ansar Burney said that claims made by some political parties regarding the death toll are much higher than the official figures. He said that as per reports from the government, the number of those killed is around 40, but if political parties are to be heard, the number of those killed is well above 100. Each political side blames the other; and it was very important to determine the true number of those killed and who was responsible for their murders.

Ansar Burney, as chairman of the Ansar Burney Trust , an international non-governmental, non-political and independent human and civil rights organization, stated that to this day, it is not entirely clear how many innocents were killed as a result of the horrific violence on May 12. Due to the politics being played, we dont know who died, how they died and who killed them. And as a human rights organization, it is our duty to find these answers and bring to justice those responsible.

But some political parties, instead of condemning the violence and mourning the death of these innocents, were instead busy politicizing the issue, associating the dead victims with their groups and rejoicing the death as they gave more political attention to their parties Burney said.

Senior lawyer, Ansar Burney said that some of the political parties are playing with the sentiments of the people of Pakistan and politicizing the issue of dead activists. He stated that various parties in Pakistan were exaggerating the number of their activists killed and playing down their own role in the riots and murders that occurred. This has resulted in misinformation and lack of support and compensation for the actual family members of victims.

He said that due to the lies and false information being spread, his organization has started an investigation to determine the true death toll, how the victims were killed, who was responsible, location of death and any association to any political party if any. Once this information was available, the Ansar Burney Trust will reveal the true list of casualties and work towards providing support and compensation for the actual families of the victims - which to this day had not been done. The Trust will also work towards bringing to justice those responsible for the violence and deaths. (THROUGH ASIA PULSE)

Press Back on your browser to Return