Saturday, May 10, 2008
LAHORE: The Women Action Forum (WAF) has released a report on May 12 killings in Karachi at the Lahore Press Club on Friday.

The report gave details of the victims of the May 12 incident, as the representatives of the WAF had searched their relatives throughout Karachi in a bid to fix responsibility of this mishap. The report stated that many of the people, who were eliminated on that day, were innocent and unarmed, as many of them left their homes peacefully to participate in the rally, which was to be organised to welcome deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

The WAF has interviewed families of 28 out of 50 victims of May 12 carnage. The report said those people had wanted to see dominance of the rule of law in the country. The report added that some of the political parties had provided them with the addresses of the victims but it was difficult to reach some of the families, as their loved ones did not belong to any political party.

The report concluded that the May 12 incident was a pre-planned killing of innocent people and it was not merely a confrontation between two armed groups. The people did not have any idea that they could be victimised. Those who were killed on that day belonged to the deprived-class of the society, the report added.

The report revealed that all the people were not killed on their way to the rally but they were kidnapped and victimized from various places of the city. The report blamed the MQM for that killing besides the federal government, which failed to protect the lives of the people on that day.

WAF President Hina Gillani said the state should provide protection to its citizens and killing of people on account of political and religious affiliations should not be carried out. She said the people had political and civil rights in any country and their rights should be given priority by the government.

She said the media had played a crucial role in highlighting cruelties committed by terrorists in Karachi on that day when many innocent people had been deprived of their lives. She said the people had started feeling scared even from the law enforcement agencies.