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'Come look for POWs yourself'
Hindustantimes.com, September 6, 2001

K J M Varma (PTI)

Islamabad, Sept 6: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has invited relatives of 54 missing Indian prisoners of war (POW), allegedly lodged in Pakistani jails, to visit the country and see for themselves that no soldier of the 1971 Indo-Pak war languished in its prisons.

"With the investigations by higher officials of the Pakistan armed forces, interior ministry officials and other official agencies into the allegations of Indian POWs drawing blank, the president has instructed his officials to invite the family members of the 54 missing Indian soldiers to visit any Pakistani jail and scrutinise records," defence spokesman Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi told PTI here today.

He said those who wanted to visit Pakistan to look for their missing kin could approach the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and obtain necessary travel documents.

Musharraf has asked the foreign ministry officials to facilitate the visit of any kin of the Indian POW willing to visit Pakistan, Qureshi said.

He said in pursuance of the commitment given to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his India visit in July, Musharraf ordered a comprehensive probe into allegations of Indian POWs being lodged in Pakistani jails which only maintained earlier findings that no POWs were housed in any of the country's prisons.

A Pakistani human rights activist, Ansar Burney, said that foreign prisoners were housed in about 77 jails across Pakistan. Last month, he said, his organisation Burney Welfare Trust began its own investigations into the allegations and promised to come out with details in about two months.

A government spokesman here last night officially declared that no Indian prisoners of war was being held in Pakistan prisons.

"No Indian prisoner of war is held in any prison or jail in Pakistan. This fact has been reconfirmed after thorough investigations conducted by ministries of defence and interior, pursuant to president Pervez Musharraf's directive," he said in a statement.

The statement was issued after defence and interior ministry officials submitted their inquiry reports to Musharraf directly at a cabinet meeting two days ago.

A report in the local daily Dawn said the interior ministry apprised the cabinet that it had checked all the prisons in the country but found no Indian POW.

The cabinet has been told that the pictures of the POWs, which were provided by the Indian government, were also circulated to all the prisons and all intelligence agencies, including ISI, were involved in the combing of the country's jails to locate Indian POWs, it said.

The official inquiry reports confirming that no POWs existed in Pakistani prisons were released as officials of India and Pakistan geared up for a second meeting between Vajpayee and Musharraf at New York on September 25.

Burney promises to start tracing Indian POWs
6th September 2001

KARACHI: Human rights activist Ansar Burney will start his search for Indian prisoners of war in Pakistan jails from the second week of next month. The process will be completed within two months.

In an interview with VOA in Washington, Ansar Burney termed it as a humanitarian issue.

“It is a humanitarian issue as 1971 war had ended 30 years ago. We immediately moved in after reading news that Indian Prime Minister had taken up this issue with President Musharraf. You might be knowing that we, on behalf of Ansar Burney Trust, frequently visit various jails the in country, therefore it was quite strange for me that a prisoner is detained in a jail for 30 years and I did not know him. I have been engaged in this work for about 22 years and my organisation has got many prisoners released from jails,” Burney said.

“We have written a letter to Indian Prime Minister and sought details of POWs. We have also written to Pakistani President that we want to solve this humanitarian issue. Our government has no objection to it but we have not received any reply from the Indian government even after over 20 days. We have written in letter that if it is not a political stunt, then it is really a shocking thing for us and we fully sympathise with relatives of POWs,” he added.

“Then I again handed over a letter to Indian embassy in Washington. We wrote to the Indian Prime Minister to give us details. But if it is a political issue, then Ansar Burney Trust will not participate in it as we do not want to enter into any politics. We have announced that we will start searching these POWs from second week of September. There are nearly 77 main jails where foreign prisoners are also kept,” he remarked.

Referring to the response of his initiative he said, “I have received a large number of e-mails and my step has been much lauded. Being human rights organisation, we have no concern with any government as we only talk about humanity and human beings whether they are Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs or Jews. We have formed a committee consisting of independent journalists, which will visit all jails with me to search the POWs. But for that purpose, Indian government must provide details of its POWs to us. We will undergo the exercise even if the Indian government does not give any reply to us”.

When asked how much time will he take to complete the investigation, he said that there are about 30 to 35 jails where foreign prisoners are kept. “If these POWs are found, we will immediately contact the concerned courts and government for their release. If any POW is found, we will take him to his home in India so that we could share their joy,” Burney concluded.

Burney Trust points to Indian silence on POW details
Sept 08 2001 21:32 IST

Washington, Sept 8 (ANI): Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has offered its services to trace the Indian prisoners of war (POWs) who may be still languishing in Pakistan jails.

Ansar Burney, chairman of the group, presented a letter in this connection to the Indian embassy here.

Later, talking to the press, he said that immediately after having come to know about such a problem, he wrote letters to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Foreign Minister and Home Minister.

However, none of them sent any reply.

He also said that last month he wrote to the Indian High Commissioner at Islamabad, suggesting him to send all the details of such POWs to the Trust's office in Karachi or communicate with it in Washington.

But the mission did not respond, Burney added.

In his note to Vajpayee, he mentioned the reference made to he prisoners during his talks with President Musharraf during Agra summit.

"I felt it my duty as a human rights campaigner to offer my humanitarian services to search for those unfortunate prisoners", Burney said in his letter, seeking full information on them.

"If it is not a political game and the issue is real, then it is a very serious humanitarian issue and we would be very much pleased and willing to help in the matter. We would make every efforts to search for such prisoners and get them released," he added.

Burney announces to take two bodies back from India
The News International, Thursday, November 07, 2002

LAHORE: Renowned human rights activist, Ansar Burney advocate on Wednesday asked the Indian government to provide him the details with proof of the nationality of the two innocent persons killed by the Indian armed forces in a New Delhi shopping mall last week.

In a letter to the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad, Ansar Burney demanded an impartial judicial inquiry in the brutal murder in the name of terrorism in India.

He said it is a joke that after killing these two innocent persons without any interrogation or proof, the Indian government claims that these two were terrorists and came from Pakistan to India to kill their deputy prime minister. "The horrible killing of two innocent human beings in India by its armed forces and such a drama requires an immediate international investigation," Burney said.

He said the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has already started its investigation in New Delhi into the killing. In his letter to the Indian government, he said: "It's a brutal murder of humanity and the international community, including the United Nations and its human rights commission, should take a note of it."

Burney also requested the relatives (if any) of these two unfortunate men in Pakistan, to contact the Trust at 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi; Phone: (021) 2623382, 2623383, 2626155 and mobile 0300 8243459.


Delhi Police Encounter "Cold Blooded Murder"
Wednesday, 13 November 2002, 11:58 am

Ansar Burney declares Delhi encounter as “cold blooded murder”
Facts finding report:

KARACHI: The renowned human and civil rights activist, Ansar Burney, Advocate has declared the Police encounter in a busy Delhi shopping mall, Ansal Plaza in New Delhi on Sunday, 3rd November, as fake, fabricated and stage-managed cold blooded murder of innocent humanity, after receiving the fact finding report from India.

According to Indian claims, the two men were militants, killed by the Indian Security Forces in the basement of a busy shopping mall. The men, said to be from Gujranwala and Kasur in Pakistan, were accused of being members of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and accused of planning to kill Indian Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani.

"We have received more information through our fact finding team from New Delhi, India. According to our new information, the encounter was totally fake; fabricated by Indian Intelligence agencies that have inhumanely killed two unarmed prisoners, who were already in their custody." Ansar Burney said.

Burney claimed that the two unknown unfortunates were already in the custody of Indian intelligence. They were brought in a car to Ansal Plaza shopping mall. Once there, the two were asked to come out from the car and then were fired upon and shot dead by police.

“Before taken to the encounter spot, we believe the two men were badly tortured. They were in such a state that they were unable to stand or walk properly. The men when coming out of the car were unarmed and seemed to be in severe pain.” Ansar Burney Trust fact finding mission reported from New Delhi.

The ABWT fact finding team also reported that even the Delhi Police Commissioner R. S. Gupta, when contacted, was unable to prove the encounter as genuine.

The report raises an important question; did New Delhi police have prior information that the terrorists are planning to storm Ansal Plaza? And, if yes, why were the so called militants allowed to come to a busy shopping plaza and not stopped before they actually went to the Plaza’s basement parking?

The report claims that the New Delhi police were unsure about the faces, car number, color of the car or any other details regarding the so-called terrorists. With no-evidence, it is hard to understand how the police were able to identify the persons.

The only other explanation is that they were murdered, and the whole incident was pre planed, the report explains.

“Actually, the two unfortunates brutally murdered as militants in New Delhi, belonged to a contingent of Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners, air-lifted by India from Northern Alliance prison at Bagram and Shibbergan in December 2001 and again in March 2002.” Ansar Burney claimed.

“Afterwards, these prisoners were shifted to different jails in India, including Jodhpur and Ranchi, under the supervision of Indian Intelligence agencies, who staged this brutal and inhumane drama.” Burney continued.

On December 05, the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust reported that an India plane landed at Bagram Air Base, some kilometers north of Afghanistan's Capital Kabul. The plane took on prisoners, believed to be prisoners of the Northern Alliance.

The airlift, reportedly took place when the international conference on the future political structure of Afghanistan was being held in Bonn, Germany.

“While the world's attention was focused on the German conference this clandestine move was made by the Indian Air Force with the active co-operation and participation of the Northern Alliance commanders" Ansar Burney said.

“The prisoners were then later involved in fabricated terrorist activities, which were blamed on Pakistan. The purpose, it seems, is to present these unfortunate prisoners as saboteurs, by creating incidents of violence in India in an attempt to involve Pakistan.”

“The current Delhi shootout and many other incidents, including the attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001, were all staged and the men blamed for these activities were already prisoners of the Indian Intelligence Agencies.” Burney claimed.

The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust has already informed the Pakistan government of its findings and report.

“I am sorry to say that Pakistan failed to take any step to save its own nationals and instead of demanding an enquiry from the International bodies against illegal and brutal acts against its nationals, the Pakistan government did not even bother to confirm whether the two prisoners killed in New Delhi were of Pakistani nationality.” Ansar Burney added.

Ansar Burney Welfare Trust is reported to have informed the Indian Authorities that if the Pakistani government is not ready to take the dead bodies of two unfortunate persons, than in the greater interest of humanity and human rights, the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International is ready to take these bodies back from India.

He asked the Indian Authorities to provide him with a date and time for the handover of the dead bodies of two innocent deceased prisoners.

“For now, we are searching for the families of these 2 unfortunate prisoners in Pakistan and planning to lodge our protest against Indian authorities in the United Nations and other platforms.” Ansar Burney said.

He requested the families of 2, killed in New Delhi, if any in India or Pakistan to contact "Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International" at 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi, Pakistan. Phone: (021) 2623382, 2623383, 2626155 Fax: 2623384 and mobile 0300 8243460. Trust could also be contacted by email at ansarburney@hotmail.com to provide the details.

Ansar Burney announced digging of deep wells in drought affected areas:
Thursday October 30, 2003 (1453 PST)
28th March 2001

KARACHI: Renowned human and civil rights activist and Chairman, Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, Ansar Burney, Advocate has said that Pakistan is once again facing acute drought conditions in Thar, Umerkot and certain other areas of Sindh and Balochistan, and has warned that some areas could face a famine.

Ansar Burney said under these circumstances, to please Almighty Allah and to save the dying humanity, he has announced for the digging of a further 15 more wells in the most affected and far flung areas of Sindh and Baluchistan.

“Wells have run dry, streams and rivers are parched, so Ansar Burney Trust has decided for the deep digging of new wells. These wells will help the most affected humanity in getting the desperately needed water for themselves and for their animals” He added.

After touring affected areas, experts from the international relief organization, Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, which is preparing to launch a relief efforts again, said that a wide band stretching from southern Afghanistan to Pakistan and Gujarat in India had been badly affected by the severe drought. Many of the areas have been parched of rainwater for four consecutive years, with an almost total lack of rain during the past winter.

“Hundreds of innocent and poor human beings have died and thousands of people have migrated from these dry-lands in search of food and water. Some in the camps worry about those they left behind. It is the need of the hour to help this affected population and vulnerable communities through both long and short rehabilitation plans” He said.

"The situation is very, very bad with wells drying up in affected areas of Sindh and Baluchistan, thousands of livestock animals already dead and people forced to sell their remaining animals.” Ansar Burney further added.

Nearly 10 million head of livestock had died in the drought last year. The arid countryside is littered with the carcasses of dead animals. Officials say most of the livestock that has survived is diseased.

"Livestock is the main source of income for these people. If their livestock dies, so does these peoples source of income" Mr Burney said.

"People are running from one place to another in search of water. Small children are dying. If they are not helped, many more will die". Ansar Burney said.

He requested the well off people to come forward and strengthen the hands of Ansar Burney Welfare Trust in this regard.

Ansar Burney Trust can be contacted at: 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi. Pakistan. Phone: +92 21 2623382, Fax: + 92 21 2623384. Mobile: + 92 300 8243459.

"Inshallah, we will do everything we can to help these people in this time of need. With the digging of these wells, we hope to help a lot of people survive and stand up on their feet. If their livestock lives, they can again generate income and start to take care of themselves" Mr Burney added.

Ansar Burney announced that the digging of deep wells Will start from the second week of April. But he explained that more help would be needed to start more projects and send more relief to these people. He asked for people to join hands with Ansar Burney Trust in this mission to help crying humanity.

"India airlifting prisoners from Afghanistan"
The Milli Gazette; 15th August 2002

Pakistani, Kashmiri and Arab prisoners presently incarcerated in Afghanistan prisons are being allegedly airlifted by India, Pakistani newspapers have reported. Quoting diplomatic sources, the reports said that India has airlifted a third group of Pakistani, Kashmiri and Arab prisoners from Afghanistan's capital city Kabul on July 16 by a special aircraft.

Indian newspapers have so far refrained from publishing the reports, although the prominent daily The Times of India, July 29, carried excerpts from a Pakistani newspaper The Frontier Post.

Reports said that on earlier occasions two batches of prisoners were respectively transferred to India from Afghanistan.

The first batch of prisoners to be taken to India comprised 110 Pakistanis, who were taken into custody after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Pakistan's popular daily Dawn (December 20, 2001) quoting two top Pakistani officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said that "Afghanistan's northern alliance handed over 110 detained Pakistani Muslim militants to India and that Afghanistan then airlifted them to New Delhi for interrogation."

According to Pakistani officials, India sent an aircraft to Afghanistan's Bagram air base, 40 kilometers north of Kabul, on December 5 to pick up the Pakistanis, who had been detained by the anti-Taliban northern alliance. Before picking the prisoners, the Indian Air Force planes flew over the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan, reports said. The sources also said that the reported airlifting took place when the conference on future political structure of Afghanistan was being held at Bonn in Germany.

In June, 30 Pakistani prisoners in Afghanistan along with some Arabs were shifted to India from northern Afghanistan town of Kunduz via Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe. Two helicopters were sent for the purpose.

Officials at India's Defence Ministry and at its air force have said that they had no information on the accusation, according to the reports.

India has maintained good and steady relations all along with the leaders of Northern Alliance. It has been quite close to them during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and lent them full moral and material support to fight the Taliban regime. Even after the fall of the Taliban, India is continuing with its support and is trying to make its political presence felt in Afghanistan, now being ruled by Hamid Karzai of Northern Alliance.

Pakistani human and civil rights activists have raised deep concern over India's reported actions. Ansar Burney, noted human and civil rights activist, expressed apprehension and said that India would use the prisoners in a manner so as to defame Pakistan in the eyes of the world, even when it would not be involved in disruptive activities inside India.

Mr Burney said, "I fear that India would present the prisoners as saboteurs by creating incidents of violence in its own country and would attempt to portray Pakistan as agent provocateur. After committing the acts, they would release the photographs of these prisoners to the international media for their so-called involvement in various self-created terrorist activities and incidents of violence in India and in its part of Jammu and Kashmir, aimed at giving credibility to their claims that Pakistan is a terrorist state."

Northern Alliance may have tried to return its due to India for its continued and unstinted support. The leaders in the northern alliance harbour deep aversion for Pakistan, and therefore their cooperation with Indians.

But all along, the entire episode raises some disconcerting questions. Why should India be interested in getting some Pakistani prisoners from Afghanistan? Why should the Afghan captors hand them over to India and not Pakistan? What are the likely adverse consequences and implications for Pakistan? Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, noted Pakistani columnist, asked in the News, a reputed Pakistani newspaper.

19 more Pakistanis released from Yemen arrive home
The News; Saturday February 14, 2004

KARACHI: The 19 more Pakistani crewmen who were on slave labour in a private jail on a dead ship in deep seawater of Aden, since last two years and got released by the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International from the clutches of human smuggler agents, arrived back home on Saturday. The authorities found their travelling documents in order.

The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has already brought 197 such Pakistani youngsters back to Pakistan from Yemen, in the last few months, who were smuggled from Pakistan to Aden by the human smuggler agents, where they sold them to another agent for slave labour.

Those who arrived on Saturday were from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Lahore, Mandibahauddin, Karachi, Peshawar and other parts of Pakistan. All of their expenses were borne by the Ansar Burney Trust.

Syed Fahad Burney, Vice Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International and other volunteers of the Trust received them at the Karachi Airport.

After arrival these Pakistanis thanked Ansar Burney and said they were in slave labour camps where they spent their time in miserable conditions. To quench their thirst they were drinking seawater after boiling it. They were starving and had no medical facilities on the dead ship.

The released Pakistanis revealed that hundreds of Pakistanis are still waiting for someone to come to their rescue.

"Misery started two years ago when some agent took these Pakistanis to Yemen and sold them to another Yemeni Agent like cattle where they were asked to do slave labour on the ship. The owner of the ship has not paid a single penny to these Pakistani youngsters since their arrival, as a result of which they were facing pathetic and crucial time on the port," Fahad Burney, Vice Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, said.

Syed Fahad Burney, said that these Pakistani seamen went to Yemen through legal procedure and their local Yemeni agents, received all the seamen at the airport and got them cleared with the immigration.

Syed Fahad Burney further said right now Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International did not have sufficient funds to bring all such stranded seamen back to Pakistan for their rehabilitation, as their parents were also very poor. He asked the well-to-do people to come forward and extend a helping hand to Mr Ansar Burney to help the crying humanity in our society.

He said Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International could be contacted at; 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi, Phone (021) 2626274, 2623382.

Self-immolation threat by 18 women fails to materialise
The News; Monday March 29, 2004
By our correspondent

KARACHI: None of the 18 women, who had threatened self-immolation to protest against social evils in front of the Mazar-e-Quaid, turned up on Sunday, nor did they contact anybody, including Ansar Burney Trust to whom they had sent letters about their suicide attempt.

A good number of mediamen, including press photographers, waited in front of the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah for hour-and-a-half but no untoward incident took place. However, a Rangers personnel received a phone call, inquiring about details of the event and
he replied, "the situation is
peaceful".

The women had reportedly stated in their letter to Ansar Burney Trust that they would torch themselves around 4pm on Sunday, but they did not turn even till 5:30pm.

On the directives of the Sindh government, heavy contingents of police and Rangers were deployed along the roadside of the Mazar and personnel of law-enforcement agencies kept patrolling the area till filing of this report. Besides, Fire Brigade vehicle and ambulances of Edhi and Alamgir Welfare Trust were present at the Mazar to avoid any untoward incident.

Ansar Burney, who was also present there along with his team, appealed to the women to immediately contact either the government, or the Trust for getting their grievances redressed. The government has assured that their (the women’s) genuine demands would be fulfilled, he said, adding that despite government’s assurances if any of the women took the extreme step, he would prefer to support the law and not the women.

"This is the problem of every common man, we are one nation irrespective of any cast or creed, and Pakistan is our identity. It’s high time that we should fight social evils, like poverty, corruption and injustices," he said but added that suicide was not solution to all these problems.

Activists of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf turned up in a considerable number at the Mazar. They were holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans, like "War against suicide", "Struggle for rights instead of burying yourselves", "Raise voice against the callous attitude of rulers", etc.

On the occasion, talking to this scribe, Ansar Burney said PTI chief Imran Khan was worried about the situation and had asked him to give minute-to-minute report to him.

This (the suicide threat) might be a political stunt to gain political mileage, Burney speculated without naming any particular political party. "However, we must be cautious, as the women may take ‘the extreme step’ at some other time if their problems are genuine and there is no political motive behind this," he warned.

Italy granted indefinite stay to released 15 Pakistanis for brighter future in Europe
The News; Saturday July 12, 2003

ROME: The very hectic efforts of world-renowned Pakistani human rights crusader and Chairman Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, Ansar Burney, Advocate has once again borne fruit as by means of his untiring efforts Italian government has granted indefinite stay to the released 15 Pakistani prisoners to make their future brighter in Europe.

These 15 Pakistanis were released last week only because of the personal involvement of Mr. Ansar Barni and his Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, against who the worst kind of terrorism charges were levelled. They were detained in Sicily Jail since August last year.

Mrs Shaheen Burney, Vice Chairperson of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has especially thanked to Gabriele De Ceglie, the Ambassador of Italy to Pakistan, Pak Ambassador in Italy Zaffar Hilali and Deputy Ambassador Qasim Muttaqi for their kind support and cooperation in this matter.

It may be recalled here that these 15 Pakistani prisoners were detained in Caltanissetta Jail in Palermo, Sicily, since last more than 10 months on a crime they had never committed. Mr Burney who all the way came to Italy met these prisoners in Jail and informed Italian government for their innocence. The Italian government had granted special permission to Ansar Burney to meet Pak prisoners in Sicily Jail.

Senior Lawyer, Ansar Burney who is the member of American Bar Association (USA) and International Bar Association (UK) also met the Italian officials and informed them the innocence of 15 Pakistani prisoners. By evidences he proved that 15 Pakistanis were innocent.

Later the interpreter translated incorrectly and falsely and turned the innocents into worst kind of Terrorists.

“I am grateful to the Italian government, Italian Justice Court and Italian Ambassador in Pakistan HE Gabriele De Ceglie, for the kind cooperation Italy had always provided to Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International in the matters of humanity and human rights, specially in the release of 15 innocents on Ansar Burney Welfare Trust’s appeal,” said Mrs. Shaheen Burney

Meanwhile She asked the relatives of them to contact Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International at 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi, Pakistan or phone + 92 21 2626274, 2623382, 2626155, 2623383 or Mobile 0300 8243459 in this regard.

 
   
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