PESHAWAR, Nov 2: The Amnesty International has expressed concern over Bajaur killings and called for an impartial investigation to bring to justice those responsible for ordering the air strike and carrying it out.

“Amnesty International is concerned that at least 82 people in a madressah may have been extrajudicially executed in an aerial attack at dawn of 30 October in Bajaur, a designated tribal area near the border with Afghanistan,” says an AI statement issued here on Thursday.

“Amnesty International would like to remind the Pakistani authorities that if these killings were deliberate and took place without first attempting to arrest suspected offenders, without warning, without the suspects offering armed resistance, and in circumstances in which suspects posed no immediate risk to security forces, (then) the killings are considered extrajudicial executions in violation of international human rights law.”

The AI pointed out that arbitrary deprivation of life was always unlawful and no circumstances, “war or any public emergency” may be invoked as a justification for such executions. All allegations of extrajudicial executions must be immediately and impartially investigated with a view to bringing to justice those responsible for ordering and carrying them out.

“Under international human rights standards, security forces may only use firearms when a suspected offender offers armed resistance or otherwise jeopardises the lives of others and less extreme measures are not sufficient to restrain or apprehend the suspected offender.”

The Amnesty also noted with concern that journalists going to the area were turned back by the army, which resulted in absence of independent reporting from the area. The organisation regretted that no attempt had apparently been made to arrest the victims described by army spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan as some 70 to 80 militants who were training and learning terrorist tactics in the seminary.

“Local people said the victims were clerics and students of the school, many of them under 18. Correspondents said that amongst the dead were children as young as six years old. The people stated that the initial attack was carried out by drones. Villagers have reported hearing loud explosions and observing the destruction of the madressah. This was followed some 20 minutes later by the appearance of two helicopter gunships which also fired rockets into the area,” according to the statement.

Also, in its recent report titled “Pakistan: human rights ignored in the war on terror”, the Amnesty called upon the government to ensure that all cases of possible extrajudicial execution were investigated and perpetrators brought to justice.