MUTTAHIDA QUAMI MOVEMENT (MQM) CANCELS ITS PUBLIC RALLY IN HYDERABAD AIMED GOVERNMENT TERRORISM SIMILAR TO THE "TRAGEDY OF PUCCA QILLA" ON 26&27 MAY 1990

URGENT…IMMEDIATE ATTENTION

MUTTAHIDA QUAMI MOVEMENT (MQM) CANCELS ITS PUBLIC RALLY IN HYDERABAD AIMED GOVERNMENT TERRORISM SIMILAR TO THE "TRAGEDY OF PUCCA QILLA" ON 26&27 MAY 1990.

26 August 1999-Hyderabad

Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) has announced to cancel its public rally of 27^th. August 1999 at "Pucca Qilla" in Hyderabad in wake of the information that Nawaz Sharif Government has planned to carry out massive killings in Hyderabad on Friday. The committee appealed to the people of Hyderabad to stay inside their houses and keep their businesses and transport closed on Friday to foil the government conspiracies. The announcement was made through a press statement issued on Friday evening.

The Committee, in the statement, said that this decision was hurriedly made upon the receipt of highly reliable information that the Government of Nawaz Sharif has hatched yet another conspiracy of blood shed on the pattern of the tragedy of "Pucca Qilla". Elaborating on the Tragedy of "Pucca Qilla", the Co-ordination Committee said that on 26th^.and 27^th. May 1990, the police and other government forces, having sieged the entire area brutally massacred hundreds of Mohajir men, women and children. Committee said that Authorities having severed all utilities imposed curfew to stop the dissemination of the news of the massacre and also forced the families to bury their dead in the compound of their houses.

The Co-ordination Committee said that contingents of Police Force of Punjab have been called from Karachi to specifically deploy in Hyderabad who, according to the Government's orchestration would commit bloodshed on the pretext of maintaining law and order, a similar ploy used on 26^th. and 27^th. May 1990.

The Committee said that the Police have already cordoned of the MQM's Zonal office in Hyderabad and it is apprehended that the arrest of MQM office bearers and workers may be made any time. Stating the machination and the undemocratic steps of the Nawaz Sharif Government, they said that the police have flooded the entire "Pucca Qilla" ground and have dug ditches and bunkers all over the ground to stop the assembly of hundred of thousands of people expected tomorrow to attend MQM's rally.

The Co-ordination Committee further said that the Police have already started the campaign of siege, search and arrests of the MQM leaders, office bearers, workers, sympathisers and their relatives on the instructions of the Prime Minister, Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. The Police and other law enforcement agencies are unleashing a violent campaign of harassment and intimidation upon the workers of MQM and the public of Hyderabad.

Amongst the arrested, the Zonal Incharge of the MQM Hyderabad, Mohammad Salahuddin and an MQM Member of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh, Afzal Shah are included.

Moreover, the Co-ordination Committee said that the Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is terrified of the unity of Mohajirs and Sindhis and has secretly advised the Authorities in Sindh to commit massacre to include Sindhis so that the gulf between Sindhis and Mohajirs is widened instead of being bridged.

The Members of the Co-ordination Committee said that the security of the people and their properties are more sacrosanct for the MQM than its public rally. Therefore, in the public and national interest, we have cancelled tomorrow's public rally.