THATTA, Dec 15: Speakers at a seminar on Situation of Human Rights in Thatta District have expressed concern over the rise in human rights violations and stressed the need for activating the state machinery in close coordination with NGOs to provide protection and relief to the people.

The seminar was organized by the Web for Human Development Thatta — an NGO — and chaired by the district Naib Nazim Shoukat Ali Malkani at the local press club on Sunday in which the speakers while accusing various government departments and law enforcement agencies of committing human rights violations, said lack of sincerity, vested interests and political interference were the main causes of such abuses.

The district Naib Nazim said official negligence towards health and education were also part of these violations and admitted that the district was one of the worst examples of such cases and added that the education department was virtually non- existent in Thatta.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (Thatta) official Nazir Jakhro said that the police kept people in illegal confinement for months and frequently humiliated women besides usurping the rights of fishermen and added that law enforcement and coastguard personnel were a permanent threat to the people living along the coastal belt.