Author Topic: Deliberate marginalization of Muhajirs  (Read 2487 times)

Offline iram

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Deliberate marginalization of Muhajirs
« on: May 05, 2008, 05:19:18 PM »
Deliberate marginalization of Muhajirs

The MQM claims that Ayub Khan's government was guilty of systematic discrimination against Muhajirs in urban Sindh, and perceives Ayub's decision to move the capital from Karachi to Islamabad as a deliberate attempt to marginalize the Muhajirs.[8]

In June 1992 the Pakistani army launched Operation Cleanup. This operation, according to the prime minister and several federal ministers, was targeted at dacoits, kidnappers, and other criminals. But is was obvious soon after the launch of the operation, that MQM was a major target. The specific picking out of MQM members and supporters was quite evident and there arose widespread allegations of extreme partisanship. "Investigations carried out by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan have revealed that the October 11, 1985 killing of MQM (Altaf) activists was not the result of an ambush or a shoot-out but was part of an ongoing police practice of eliminating suspected criminals or terrorists."[9]

In September 1988 more than 250 people, mainly Mohajirs, were killed when about a dozen gunmen, allegedly led by Jayee Sindh leaders Qadir Magsi and Jamu Arain, opened fire on unarmed people in Hyderabad. And in May 1990 a demonstration led by Mohajir women and children was brutally crushed by the predominantly Sindhi police in Hyderabad and led to the deaths of over 60 demonstrators."[10] There was allegedly a backlash in Karachi by MQM members killing 40 Sindhis.

Testifying before two subcommittees of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in Washington on March 17, Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck criticized the government of Pakistan for harassing its political opponents and suppressing the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. He also accused government security forces of "serious human rights abuses, including extra judicial detention, and torture of prisoners and detainees.[11]