ISLAMABAD, June 9 The federal government has directed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to review the recently released report of a judicial inquiry into the death of seven people during demonstrations in Abbottabad on April 12.

Since the release of the judicial commission's report on June 4, calls are being made to review its findings. The inquiry has been conducted by Justice Abdul Aziz Kundi of the Peshawar High Court.

The ministry of human rights said in a statement on Wednesday that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been directed to review the report. It was the democratic right of the people to hold peaceful demonstrations, it said, adding that inhuman treatment was meted out to protesters in Abbottabad.

The ministry has also sought post-mortem reports of the victims to determine the cause of deaths, according to the statement.

Talking to Dawn, Federal Secretary for Human Rights Justice Riaz Kayani said during a recently held meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Human Rights he had pointed out certain discrepancies in the statements made by police officials who were directly involved in maintaining law and order in Abbottabad on the day of the killings.

Particularly, Justice Kayani said, the Abbottabad's DPO was reluctant to provide post-mortem reports of the victims.

In the inquiry report, police claimed that people were killed by firing by protesters.

Speaking at a press conference the other day, Tehrik-i-Hazara chairman Ali Asghar Khan called upon the chief justice of Peshawar High Court to issue directives for review of the inquiry report.

He said the commission had failed to fix responsibility of the incident and find exact death toll. The commission, he claimed, issued an ambiguous report which held the district, divisional administration, police, local politicians and the general public collectively responsible for the incident.

He claimed that the report was prepared under pressure from the ANP-led provincial government.

Riots had broken out in Abbottabad and other towns of Hazara division after parliament passed the 18th Constitution Amendment, paving way for the renaming of erstwhile NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Local political groups, traders and lawyers had launched a movement, demanding a separate province.

The judicial commission blamed two political parities — PML-N and PML-Q — for drawing political mileage out of the crisis, and specifically mentioned PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain who had visited Abbottabad before April 12.