KARACHI, Dec 15: The London-based founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Altaf Hussain, has demanded constitution of inquiry commission, comprising judges of the Supreme and High courts, to investigate the bloodbath in Qasba and Aligarh colonies 17 years ago.

He made this demand while addressing the party activists in Karachi and Hyderabad via telephone to pay homage to those killed in the carnage and those who perished in the former East Pakistan.

He urged the prime minister to constitute the commission so that relatives of the affected people could get justice and the hidden hands were exposed.

Mr Hussain said that the political and religious parties, who claimed to be champions of human rights, remained criminally silent over gruesome killings and denial of justice within the country. However, he added, when the interests of these religious parties were threatened they talked of human rights to exploit people’s sentiments. He was critical of religious parties and alleged that they were not at all sincere to the cause of common man.

He said that 17 years ago armed men unleashed terror for six hours on the residents of Qasba and Aligarh colonies, where houses were torched and people were burnt alive. Women were raped and slaughtered, but, police did not came to their rescue. He said that more than three hundred people were killed in the carnage.

He regretted that no commission was constituted to investigate the incident despite the lapse of 17 years. He claimed that those religious parties, which did not deplore such killings in the country, had no right to raise their voice against killings anywhere else.

The MQM chief regretted that those religious parties and generals who were responsible for the East Pakistan debacle had not been brought to justice despite the publication of Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report.

He claimed that the religious parties, which opposed the creation of Pakistan, were active in exploiting the name of religion and sending people on jihad.

Mr Hussain alleged that the Jamat-i-Islami exploited Urdu- speaking people in the name of jihad during East Pakistan crisis and dubbed Bengalis as traitors and justified their killings. In # reprisal to that, Bengalis slaughtered more than 700,000 Urdu- speaking people after partition.

He said that it was on record that Jamat-i-Islami through Al Shams and Al Badr organizations was responsible for the killings of a large number of Bengalis.

He demanded of the prime minister to discuss the matter with the Bangladesh government for rehabilitation of the stranded Pakistanis in 66 camps of Red Cross.

Referring to a claim by PPP leader that his party was not in power during the East Pakistan crisis, Mr Hussain said the PPP leader forgot that it had not accepted the mandate of Shaikh Mujeebur Rahman and its leader had threatened to break the legs of those who dared to travel to Dhaka.