PESHAWAR, May 11: Speakers at a ceremony here on Sunday called upon the government to bring to book the persons involved in the last year Karachi carnage as it was well organised act of terrorism leaving scores of poor people killed.

They said that innocent people came out of their residences and were heading for receiving Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry when the miscreants attacked them in different parts of Karachi.

They were addressing the launching ceremony of a book “12 May, 2007: Black Day of Karachi” compiled by the Women Action Forum.

Members of the forum compiled the book after an in depth inquiry into the incident and had visited around 30 families of the killed persons. The WAF has reached the conclusion that the May 12 violence was not a clash between two rival groups rather it was a well planned conspiracy to stop Justice Chaudhry from visiting Karachi.

The details of different killed persons showed that they were mostly Pakhtuns labourers of Karachi.

The speakers called upon Pakistan People’s Party to restore pre-Nov 3 judiciary. They added that the masses would never forgive Asif Ali Zardari is he continued to drag his feet on the judges issue.

The speakers included the chairperson of WAF, Ms Anees Haroon, provincial senior vice president of Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, Dr Said Alam Mehsud, vice-chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Ms Mussarat Hilali and resident director of Aurat Foundation, Ms Rukhshanda Naz.

Ms Haroon stated that to verify the claims made by different political parties regarding deaths of their workers they had asked them for details but only Awami National Party provided them lists of their slain workers.

She said that they collected information from media and political parties and visited the families of victims to ascertain the factual position. “Most of the killed persons were poor people mostly daily wage workers and main bread earner of their families,” she said.

The families of the killed persons, Ms Haroon said, were passing through agonising times. She said that the families of ANP workers told them that they were asked by their leaders not to bring any sort of weapons in the rally and due to same reason they were helpless when attacked by armed terrorists.

She regretted that the Sindh High Court was hearing the case regarding the May 12 occurrence and Barrister Faiz Isa was appointed amicus curiae but after the imposition of the Nov 3 emergency the judges who took oath under the PCO dismissed the case.“The killers could be easily identified as the TV cameras had captured various gory scenes when the perpetrators were firing at unarmed persons,” Ms Haroon said adding that the people talking about reconciliation should bear it in mind that peace could not come without redressing the grief of the people whose dear ones died on that unfortunate day.

Dr Mehsud said that MQM was a terrorist outfit and it could not be countered through the theory of non-violence. “May 12 is the blackest day of Pakistan and not only of Karachi. If the killers were held responsible that time they won’t have indulged in violence again on April 9,” he said.

He warned that in case Justice Chaudhry and other judges were not restored the people who believed in rule of law would also adopt the principle of ‘might is right.’