DOES THE SO-CALLED SHARIAT OF NAWAZ SHARIF APPROVE OF INHUMAN TORTURE ON INNOCENT MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN ----- RESIDENTS OF GHARIBABAD, KARACHI

Karachi: 7 December 1998

For more than 15 hours, residents of Gahribabad were kept hostage by the Police and Paramilitary Rangers. The entire area of Gharibabad, Bandhani Colony and the areas on outskirts of Liaquatabad faced the worst kind of brutalities at the hands of law enforcement agencies. They carried out raids on houses of innocent Mohajirs, while maintaining siege for more than 15 hours. Heavy contingent of Police and Paramilitary Rangers, in armoured vehicles had surrounded the area, kept the population confined to their houses with heavy firing and teargas shelling. No one was allowed in or out of the area for over 15 hours. Mothers could not even buy milk for their children or medicines for the sick. Even media reporters were not allowed in. During raids, the Police and Paramilitary Rangers used abusive language, ransacked the houses and stole the valuables.

Speaking to the Members of MQM Central Co-ordination Committee, who visited the area after the siege was called-off, elderly members of the area, with tear in their eyes described the behaviour of Police and Paramilitary Rangers during the 15 hours siege as; "treatment meted out to occupied territories and prisoners of war. We are certainly not free people if the sanctity of our houses is not safe from so-called law enforcers. Is this the kind of Shariat Nawaz Sharif wants to introduce?" An elderly man asked Nawaz Sharif, "whether his Shariat approves of such inhuman torture on innocent men, women and children; and plundering their hard earned valuables?"

According to Daily Public: When our correspondent was talking with the women who had gathered outside the Sharifabad Police Station, an armed police constable came towards us and threatened the women not to tell anything to the press reporters otherwise their family members who had been arrested during the siege operation would be implicated in false criminal cases. The same newspaper also reports that more than 600 persons have been arrested for interrogation.