PESHAWAR, Sept 18: A three-member facts finding committee of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association left for South Waziristan Agency on Saturday to collect facts about civilian casualties and violation of basic human rights during the ongoing Army operation there.

The secretary-general of the association, Wali Khan Afridi, is leading the team and the other two members are Mohammad Khurshid Khan and Kareem Mahsud.

The committee was constituted by the association in its general body meeting on Sept 14.

The meeting had passed a resolution through which the Wana Operation was condemned and the government was asked to forthwith pull out troops from those areas.

The meeting had expressed concern over the killing of innocent people in the operation and violations of the fundamental rights.

The committee members had reached Tank district, adjacent to South Waziristan Agency, on Saturday evening and recorded statements of various people including the MNA from the agency, Maulana Merajuddin.

When contacted, Wali Khan Afridi told Dawn from Tank that they had recorded various statements which would help ascertain the real situation.

He added that various persons had informed the committee about the atrocities meted out to civilians people in the agency.

Despite the closure of routes, he said they would try to reach Wana and record statements of the affected people there.

He regretted that the statements of the people suggested that the official media had been giving wrong picture of the situation whereas the local media had also not been covering the events in an independent manner.

The committee would submit its report to the association after it would return to Peshawar. A joint meeting of the High Court Bar Association and Peshawar District Bar Association would be held on Tuesday wherein the report would be discussed.

The meeting would also be attended by the two MNAs of the agency, Maulana Merajuddin and Maulana Abdul Malik.