Open Letter to
Musharraf Condemns Siege, Killings by Army in Okara
Special
SAT Report
STOCKHOLM,
Sweden: Dozens of Pakistani residents in Europe have signed an
open letter to General Pervez Musharraf condemning the siege of
Okara and deaths of innocent women and children because they were
not allowed by the occupying army to proceed to hospitals for
emergency treatment. Those dead included a women who was in labor
and died because she was not allowed to leave the army cordon.
The
letter has also been sent to several other Army Generals and paints
a grim picture of the situation which the writers call a human
tragedy similar to that seen in East Pakistan in 1971. Following
is the full text of the letter:
Dear
Sir,
With
reference to the appended news reports, retrieved from the online
edition of a mainstream national newspaper highly regarded for
its objectivity and unbiased journalism, we, the signatories of
this petition, write to express our utmost disgust, sorrow and
shock.
To
learn about the deplorable treatment being meted out to fellow
Pakistanis by the military establishment of the homeland was the
last thing we were expecting out of those on whom, one of the
poorest nations on the face of the earth, squanders most of its
scarce resources.
..."Denial
of access to medical aid has resulted in death of four residents
of the Okara military farms since the law-enforcement agencies
cordoned off the area. Residents told Dawn that Naseem Bibi of
Chak 45/3-R died because she was not allowed to go outside the
military farm when her labour pains started. Abdul Sattar of the
same village died of a cardiac arrest as he was also not allowed
to go to hospital. Farzand Ali Jat of Chak 3/4-L and Haneef Jat
of Chak 10/4-L had injured during a police-Rangers action on May
4. Farzand was hit by a teargas shell while Haneef was severely
baton-charged. Both died without getting medical aid."
Sir, are we not observing a sickening replay of the dreadful events
of East Pakistan? Wasn’t exactly this type of mindset that
alienated East Pakistanis and resulted in the agonizing split
of our beloved motherland? Regardless of the underlying ‘facts’
or circumstantial details, the tragic killing of Nasreen Bibi
is an affront to our nationhood, insult to our human values and
should be a matter of infinite shame for every Pakistani, not
yet spiritually dead. For God sake, have some mercy. Nothing,
absolutely nothing can justify barbarism on this scale.
The
reported code of conduct is beyond all norms of humanity and definitely
one of the most effective ways to seed repugnance against the
military among masses. We are outraged, ashamed and petrified,
to say the least, to discern moral squalor of our messiahs. Not
in our most sombre anticipation of national affairs could we conceive
of that even in the year 2003, Pak Fauj could stoop to such viciousness
and indignity. The rage eventually prompted this outcry. No, sir,
we are not blowing things out of proportion. Please, enlighten
us, how should one react to an on-the-spot testimony like this
one. (Dawn Report)
…
“Roadblocks are everywhere, manned by soldiers with automatic
weapons as well the lighter-armed police. Four-wheelers with mounted
machine guns prowl menacingly on the dirt roads next to the irrigation
canals, raising huge clouds of dust as they move between villages.
For all practical purposes, the nearly one million people of Okara
are under military occupation. “And then, as if the floodgates
had broken, villagers came to show us wounds on their bodies,
some now turning septic. One, who led me aside, broke down sobbing
and told a tale that cannot be related here for reasons of propriety.
A visit to the neighbouring village, Chak 4-L, showed the situation
there to be virtually identical. Broken limbs, hollow faces, sunken
eyes, and marks of beatings were in abundant evidence there too.”
Sir, should we call it apartheid á la former South Africa
or compare it with fascist tactics regularly applied by Israeli
armed forces in the occupied Palestinian territories? To be straightforward,
are these one million besieged Pakistani citizens better off than
the hapless Palestinian residents of Gaza, Ramallah, Hebron and
Jenin? Pretty doubtful. With the exception of a spiteful aspect
that at Okara, Pakistanis are under the occupation of their own
army, maintained by their own sweat and blood; what is the difference?
Though
discussing legalities over here would be superfluous for obvious
reasons. Nonetheless, to any sane person, this is a crime against
humanity, by any definition of the term. This self-defeating chauvinism
must be halted – at once. Justice must be served: the [in
command] culprits responsible for the callous murder of Nasreen
Bibi must be taken to task, at the earliest. Slaughter, harassment,
torture, persecution and arrest of landless tenants of Okara must
come to an immediate end. A just and fair settlement of the issue
must be reached before matters get out of hand.
In fact, one really wonders, where are we heading? One day, there
are reports of Pak army firing on and killing agitating unarmed
tenants demanding the fulfilment of the promises made to them
by the Chief of the Army Staff himself during his referendum campaign.
And, on the other, military authorities imposing “martial
law” on civilian shops, and incarcerating poor law enforcement
officials because they [unknowingly] insisted on respect for the
law from future army officers. Have a look.
…”This is not an isolated show of 'military might'
here in Multan. On April 22, a police squad intercepted three
young men riding a motorcycle near the Aziz Hotel Chowk for breaking
the law under which only one person could ride pillion. The young
men got infuriated and exchanged hot words with the police. It
led to a scuffle. They happened to be cadets of the Pakistan army
and called in a contingent of the army. A case was lodged with
the cantonment police on the report of cadet Rizwan Ahmad against
the four police officials under sections 341, 355 and 379/34 of
the PPC. The police officials, head-constable Mohammed Riaz and
constables Mohammed Jameel, Zulfiqar and Mohammed Arshad, are
languishing in the prison in judicial custody these days. As a
result of another recent incident, a tea-stall owner of the cantonment
area, Mohammed Ali, is languishing in the prison under Section
337 of the PPC on the report of Maj Naveed. The major got into
a scuffle with Mr Ali over parking his car in front of the latter's
tea-stall. “
What
a disgrace, Sir. A poor tea-stall owner is languishing in jail
because he dared to ask His Lowness [Minor Naveed] not to block
his bread-earning venue with his sacred car. Imagine, Pakistanis
being treated as slaves by Pakistani military lords. We are horror-struck
to observe the quality of our army officers, the standard of their
training and the mental approach of the defenders of our geographical
and ideological borders. May we ask: can you envisage something
very remotely reminding of, let alone resembling to these ghastly
events in any of “civilized” countries or by “civilized”
people anywhere else in the world?
Sir, what type of men is it that this institution produces and
nurtures? Without exaggerating, these individuals are grave security
risk. To tell the truth, their professional (in)competence apart,
they are not worthy to be considered even as human beings. They
should be better kicked out, before they take the institution
too down the drain with themselves? And, it is personal, foremost
duty of the top layer of Pak army to ensure that there will NOT
be any recurrence of the sort. Relenting in this regard will be
tantamount to total moral bankruptcy.
At the same time, it must be kept in mind that zullam
(injustice) has an extraordinary propensity to boomerang. When
a defending force becomes an oppressing tool of a few, states
crumble from within. The day, people got up to this hegemony,
Sir, you and your colleagues wouldn’t find any place to
hide. Thus, it is in your own interest to realize that despots
are no more beyond the reach of justice. Fear the wrath of Allah
Almighty. The fate of Saddam Hussein, Milosevic et.al should serve
as a warning signal to you all.
As
you might have observed, without getting into political, constitutional
debate we kept ourselves confined strictly to indubitably lamentable
episodes. Otherwise, there are gigantic amount of implicating
material, ample corroborating data, first hand experiences, numerous
eyewitness accounts, accumulated over the last three and a half
years, substantiating the total meltdown of the character and
professionalism of the armed forces. Logically, what distresses
us most is that the aforementioned incidents cannot be the only
cases of this nature. How many analogous “operations”
go unnoticed or forcefully keep out of public notice is a depressing
assumption.
Anyway, let us also solemnly clarify, while representing a broad
social and geographical spectrum of Pakistan, we are absolutely
apolitical simple Pakistanis, with NO affiliation whatever with
any political, religious, sectarian, ethnic or jihadi organisation/outfit.
Perhaps, most importantly, none of us has any direct stake either
with the abovementioned instances.
In
short, this letter is neither due to any personal animosity nor
because of any ideological, political inclinations. Hopefully,
you will try to understand the gravity of the situation and not
casually discard our earnest request to keep your house in order
by declaring us traitors and/or Indian agents.
Similarly,
instead of grading our ‘patriotism’ or chanting much-abused,
meaningless mantra of “supreme national interest”
some concrete steps to tackle the rot would be far nobler a service
to the nation. Failure on your part to take visible measures to
contain despotic trends and weed out black sheep will only cement
the image of Pak army as a rogue force.
Yours
sincerely,
Some
of the signatories to the letter are: Altaf Chaudhary, Qaisar
Ghayoor, Najia Ghayoor, Abdus Salam , Chowdhry Muhammad Asif,
Hozeifa Akbar, Maqsood Shah, Rafique Khan, Muhammad Rauf, Yousaf
Khan, Aqil Khan Afridi, Tajummal Hussain Kazmi, Muzaffar Bhatti,
Raffaqat Ali, Ms Razia Sultana, Jamal Ashraf, Sadia Chisti, Iram
Shahzadi, Farzana Babar, Zubia Ahmadzai, Mahnal Qureshi, Muhammad
Asif Warraich, Imran Anwar, Mian Aziz ud Din, Haq Nawaz Chatha,
Malik Mansoor, Raja Zubair, Tariq Ali, Mahnoor Butt, Khalid Dar
and many, many more.
Click
to View the Signatures Page
