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Published 01 Nov, 2006 12:00am

Opposition seeks debate on Bajaur attack

ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: Opposition members belonging to the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on Tuesday submitted separate adjournment motions to the National Assembly and Senate secretariats seeking debate on Bajaur killings.

The motion submitted by the ARD members has signatures of 12 MNAs belonging to the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League-N. The MMA’s motion has been signed by 23 members.

The MMA members have claimed that the attack on a Bajaur seminary was carried out by the US aircraft and those killed in it were children aged between 10 and 15.

The MMA’s motion, submitted under rule 92 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly 1992, says: “The US aircraft bombed Madressah Ziaul Quran located at village Inam Khurd Channa Gai in Bajaur at 5.02am on October 30 (Monday) killing 80 children between 10 to 15 years of age.

“The US had already committed the same brutality in Bajaur twice in the past and the government of Pakistan is extending its full cooperation to the US with closed eyes. The US bombardment on innocent children and unarmed people of Bajaur and insensitivity of the Pakistan government is a clear proof of the government’s failure to protect the people’s fundamental rights and the life, property and honour of its citizens as enshrined in the 1973 Constitution.”

Prominent among the signatories were MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Liaquat Baloch and Asadullah Bhutto.

According to the motion submitted by the ARD members, “...this action of the Pakistan armed forces was brutal against the Pakistani Muslims which had destroyed the Madressah, its adjacent mosque and copies of Holy Quran which were there for the students.”

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