KHAR/ISLAMABAD, 5 November 2006 — The Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) will move the Supreme Court against the killing of 80 people in an airstrike on a madrasa in Pakistan that has caused outrage.
“We will move the apex court against the extra judicial killing of innocent people, most of them students who were learning the Qur’an,” said Sahibzada Haroon Rasheed, an MP from Bajaur where the attack took place.
MMA, Pakistan’s largest rightwing alliance, is part of the coalition governments in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan and has a strong presence in the National Assembly.
It is spearheading the protests across Pakistan against the attack on the madrasa.
While government has said the attack was caused by the presence of Al-Qaeda activists in the madrasa, the opposition parties insist that the victims were innocent students.
MMA leaders say the madrasa had no links with Al-Qaeda or the Taleban.
Rasheed said his residence was one-and-a-half kilometers from the place of the tragedy and he was sure that there were no militants or terrorists in the madrasa.
“We have hundreds of witnesses who can be produced in the Supreme Court to prove the fact that the attack was carried out by Americans and there were innocent people inside the building,” he said.
Rasheed alleged that US missiles hit the madrasa, and later the Pakistan Army helicopters fired some rockets to show as if it was a Pakistani operation.
“The attack was pre-planned and the Pakistan government had prior information of the incident,” he said.
Rasheed alleged that the US launched the attack after its drone aircraft had monitored the area throughout the holy month of Ramadan. He said that no human rights organization or media team were allowed to visit the site of the tragedy. “We hardly managed to gather the scattered parts of bodies in sacks for burial,” he added.
Meanwhile, more than 10,000 protesters rallied in a remote northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border yesterday to condemn the attack.
Chanting slogans “God is great!” and “Down with America!” the protesters also briefly blocked a road in Salazai, a town in the Bajaur tribal region.
Yesterday, Mohammed Sadiq, a member of Parliament from Bajaur, told demonstrators that the army had “killed innocent people to appease America” and that the school had no links with Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group. “If the government has any evidence to prove its charges, it should make it public,” he said. Sadiq also urged the government to “admit its crime” and pay compensation to the families of those who perished in the raid.
