Pakistani State Brutality Condemned at the Toronto
Protest Gathering
Authorities should be charged with Crimes against
Humanity
Toronto,
May 6, 2012 – Baloch Human Rights Council (Canada) and the International Voice
for Baloch Missing Persons jointly staged a peaceful protest condemning the
brutal police/paramilitary operation in Lyari, Karachi resulting in the death
of scores of innocent civilians including an eight-year old child crushed to
death by an armoured personnel carrier of the security forces. The siege of
Lyari by the police force that lasted eight days was an ordeal of worst form of
human rights abuses witnessed by the 1.7 million inhabitants in its entire
history including the periods of military dictatorships of the past.
Members
of the Baloch, Sindhi, and Kashmiri communities took part in the peaceful
protest in large numbers to express their anguish and solidarity with the
people of Lyari. Mr. Khushk, President of Sindhi Association of North America
(SANA) and Mr. Kolachi former President SANA; Ejaz Sheikh, leader of World
Sindhi Congress; Mumtaz Khan, Director, International Centre for Peace &
Democracy; and Abu Sufyan, spokesperson of Alahwaz Democratic Popular Front
attended the protest gathering among others.
Participants
held placards and chanted slogans, condemning the police brutality against the
Baloch and Sindhis in Lyari and other parts of Karachi as an ongoing state
policy of repression and forced displacement of the indigenous populations in
collaboration with MQM for dominance over the economic and industrial nerve
centre of Pakistan. Participants also condemned in the strongest terms the
opportunistic policies of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, Sindh Government,
and President Asif Ali Zardari for selling out Baloch and Sindhi inhabitants of
Karachi to the land mafia and MQM thugs who run the criminal gangs in the city
directly from the Governor House.
The
peaceful protest at 250 Front Street, Toronto was called by BHRC (Canada) and
IVBMP to express solidarity with the people of Lyari, Karachi and condemn the
brutal police operation in which 700 security personnel, 4 armoured personnel
carriers, automatic weapons, and unlimited rounds of live ammunition were
indiscriminately used against civilians, families, and children. During the
siege of Lyari, the authorities blocked all aid to civilians including
medicine, paramedics, food, and water – considered a crime against humanity by
the ICJ and ICRC.
Zaffar
Baloch,
President,
Baloch
Human Rights Council (Canada)
Imtiaz
Baloch,
Secretary
Information,
Baloch
Human Rights Council (Canada)
International
Voice for Baloch Missing Persons
Please click on the link below to view the pictures of the event,
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