GILGIT: The Supreme Appellate Court Bar Association announced to challenge in the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court the decision of the local anti-terrorism court sentencing to life imprisonment the Progressive Youth Front president Baba Jan along with 16 others in connection with the Hunza riots case.
HunzaNews( Jamil Ahmed Nagri) Sept 27,2014
Talking to reporters here, the bar`s president Ehsan Ali advocate said that legally and constitutionally the ATC and other special courts didn`t exist in the region and alleged that the court had given its verdict against peaceful people on the direction of the government. Mr Ali said that the police had opened Ere on the affected people of Attabad lake, who were protesting against the regional government in Alibad, Hunza in 2011, to clear the road for the motorcade of the Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah, that resulted in the death of two people, and injuries to three others.
Later, the police had registered cases against dozens of peaceful protesters. The lawyer accused the police of causing Hunza riots as they had been booked in the FIR in the murder of two people, a man and his. `No action has been taken against the police officials who shot the father and his son, and instead peaceful people of Hunza were victimised,` he said. Mr Ali said that the then DSP Babar, who was officer in-charge at the spot and had ordered crackdown on the protesters, had been promoted to the rank of SP before his retirement a couple of years ago.The lawyer said that they expected justice from the region`s higher court. Meanwhile, the Awami Workers Party has condemned the anti-terrorism court`s judgement, sentencing Progressive Youth Front leader comrade Baba Jan, who is also the AWP vicepresident, terming the decision unjust, illegal and completely devoid of any factual basis.
According to a press release issued by AWP Islamabad office on Friday, the party declared that Baba Jan and his comrades were being victimised due to their efforts to organise the people of GilgitBaltistan to demand their rights. AWP central information secretary Nisar Shah said that the party had called on the Supreme Court, parliament, and national and international human rights organisations to stop such repressive measures against political activists in Pakistan`s smaller provinces. Mr Shah said that Baba Jan was a committed and peaceful political activist who had always raised his voice for the oppressed sections of society in GilgitBaltistan and elsewhere. `Baba Jan is being victimised for helping the affected people of the Attabad Lake to demand compensation, he added.
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