The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is shocked by the October 30 air attack on a religious school that reportedly killed around 100 persons at Damadola, near Khar in the Bajaur tribal district on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
There are many serious questions arising from the attack. Among them, the two most pressing are:
1. Who ordered it and who carried it out? Although the Pakistan army has claimed responsibility, eyewitnesses have been quoted as saying that unmanned United States aircraft fired missiles at the school compound before Pakistani helicopters arrived. The government of North-West Frontier Province, where the attack occurred, was not even informed about it in advance and its assembly has unanimously condemned it and called for compensation to the victims’ families.
2. Who in fact was killed? Major General Shoukat Sultan of the Pakistan armed forces said after the attack that those killed were all militants training for suicide attacks. The president, General Pervez Musharaff, the next day justified the attack before diplomats and scholars from abroad, saying that none of the persons killed were innocents. However, the AHRC has received the reports from local authorities, politicians and media personnel that the persons killed were all 10 to 25 years old, most under 20, and were simple seminarians.
The only way to answer these questions is through immediate independent inquiries. As all institutions in Pakistan are compromised by the military government and its interests, and as this may be an international incident if US-guided weapons were involved then these must also have international involvement and be subject to outside scrutiny.
The Asian Human Rights Commission therefore calls for the composition of an independent judicial inquiry within Pakistan at the highest levels with the authority to launch legal investigations and proceedings into the incident where criminal wrongdoing is uncovered.
The AHRC also calls for the UN Secretary General, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Council and UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions all to take special interest in this incident with a view to also establishing an international inquiry into the incident and monitoring the actions of the government of Pakistan to determine whether they are aimed at revealing or concealing the truth.
Finally, the AHRC calls for free access to be given to journalists, human rights defenders, and other concerned persons within Pakistan in order that they may verify the facts for themselves.
What happened at Damadola? Both the people of Pakistan and the world demands to know.
