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641 Pak prisoners
from Oman return home
KARACHI, Jan 18: Another batch of 641 Pakistanis, who
were arrested and held in various Muscat jails for illegally
entering into Oman in search of jobs, returned home
today. The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International
and Community Welfare Section of the Pakistan Embassy
at Muscat have played a vital role for their release
and return back.
421 Pakistanis released from Oman jails
arrive: KARACHI, March 03:
A group of four hundred and twenty one Pakistani
prisoners, smuggled to Muscat by human smugglers for
slave labour, and arrested few months back, arrived
today. They had been released from Oman Jails and brought
back to Pakistan by human rights activist Ansar Burney.
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Italian
Ambassador assured justice with 15 Pakistanis to Burney:
By Mary on Monday, October 07,
2002 - 12:37 am:
ISLAMABAD, (HRNI): The Italian government has assured
renowned human rights activist Ansar Burney that the
competent Italian Court of Law is investigating the
case of the 15 arrested Pakistanis in Italy with extreme
care, and the truth will prevail soon.
In a letter to Ansar Burney, Chairman, Ansar Burney
Welfare Trust International, the Italian Ambassador
His Excellency, Gabriele de Ceglie said; All further
investigation, aimed at finding out who the arrested
people really are, what
country they come from, and what unlawful actions they
may have committed, are to be carried out by the competent
Italian Judicial Authorities. We will learn the results
in due course.
“I want to emphatically assure you that I share
your concern about the need to avoid putting any blame
on persons who might later be found innocent. This is
also the concern of the Italian Authorities. The competent
Italian Court of Law is now investigating the case with
extreme care, and we must have no doubt that the truth
will prevails, Ambassador Added.
While lauded the unforgettable and commendable services
of Mr Ansar Burney and his Trust for humanity and human
rights, the Italian Ambassador wrote, “It is most
unfortunate that the international media (Press and
Television) have hurriedly spread some information which,
while damaging the reputation of Pakistan, might well
be wrong. The only thing that I know for sure –
because I have learned it from my Authorities and not
from the press - is that the arrested people showed
to the Italian police some Pakistani identification
documents. Such documents, however, were later declared
false by the Embassy of Pakistan in Rome.
Meanwhile; Ansar Burney, Advocate has thanked the Italian
government for considering the appeal of Ansar Burney
Welfare Trust International that the 15 arrested Pakistanis
are innocent and had nothing to do with terrorism.
Ansar Burney said he is also grateful for the clarification
of the Italian government regarding the reputation of
Pakistan and Pakistanis
in the greater interest of justice and human rights.
In Pakistan and abroad people are congratulating Ansar
Burney in his great efforts for the release of innocent
Pakistanis from the foreign Jails.
1383
more Pakistani prisoners, released from Oman jails,
arrived home
KARACHI: Another batch of 1383 Pakistanis,
held for illegally entering into Oman in search of jobs
at Muscat Jails, arrived here on Tuesday morning in
two different Boats Al-Mohammadi-II and Al-Fajar.
The Boat Al-Mohammadi-II brought 700 Pakistanis while
683 came on Boat Al-Fajar, where Syed Fahad Burney,
Vice Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International,
received them.
According to Mr. Burney, these Pakistanis belong to
various parts of the country and were arrested some
time back while trying to enter into Oman illegally
via sea route in search of lucrative jobs.
These innocent Pakistanis were smuggled to Middle Eastern
countries by the influential Pakistani human smugglers.
These deportees were smuggled to the Gulf state through
Iran after they paid huge sums of money to the agents.
On arrival from Muscat, Oman at at seaport Ghasbander,
Keemari, they were provided food, drinking water and
clothes arranged by Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International.
Ansar Burney also paid cash money to most of the returnees
so that they could be able to go to their homes in the
far-flung areas of Pakistan.
Describing the condition of these Pakistanis Ansar
Burney said that they had been in jail for several days,
some of them from several weeks, months and years, where
their condition had deteriorated due to malnutrition
and lack of basic facilities.
Most of them were in dirty torn-clothes and bare-footed.
The Pakistan Embassy in making arrangements for their
release and returning home extended the Ansar Burney
Welfare Trust International all out support.
The Vice Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust
International and Prisoners Aid Society, Syed Fahad
Burney, thanked and appreciated the kind cooperation
of the Government of Oman for the release of Pakistani
Prisoners.
He also appreciated the efforts of the Pakistan Embassy
in Muscat, specially its Community Welfare Attache,
Mr Sohail Siddiqi in this regard.
Fahad Burney said the relatives of other prisoners
in Foreign Jails could also be contacted to Ansar Burney
Welfare Trust International at 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh
Road, Karachi or by phone; (021) 2626274, 2628719, 2623382,
2623383.
Many of them have reportedly died while attempting
to enter the Gulf to earn better livelihood. Coastguards,
who are supposed to check the illegal human smuggling
through sea, have yet to take effective measures to
cope with the problem, he added.
It may be recall here that in the last 24 years Ansar
Burney Welfare Trust International has so far been able
to get release of more than 650,000 (Six
hundred and fifty thousand) innocent prisoners who were
illegally imprisoned in Pakistan as well as in other
countries.
Pakistan
to move ICJ against Macedonia
By Our Staff Reporter
LAHORE, March 18: The Pakistan government will raise
the issue of killing of six Pakistani youths by the
Macedonian police on March 5 last year at the International
Court of Justice , while the Punjab administration has
decided to initiate action against human smugglers.
This was stated by PML-Q president Shujaat Husain at
a ceremony held here on Tuesday to distribute cheques
among the heirs of the six victims. He donated Rs3 million
on the request of the Ansar Burney Trust.
Both the Zahoor Elahi Trust and the Ansar Burney Trust
will jointly take up the case before the ICJ as Mr Husain
will bear the costs.
Mr Husain said the government would also consider severing
of diplomatic relations with Macedonia if it did not
cooperate in bringing the accused to the ICJ.
The youths, Bilal Kazmi, Omar Farooq, Asif Javed, Khalid
Iqbal, Ijaz Ahmad and Muhammad Riaz, arrested from border
area had entered Macedonia in a bid to illegally cross
over to Greece in search of a better future.
They were killed before the US embassy on "suspicion"
of being Al-Qaeda members who had entered the country
to sabotage US interests.
The US embassy refused to buy the Macedonian police
story saying the victims were not a threat to American
interests.
The victims were buried without holding any proper
funeral service and rites, said Mr Burni who was present
at the ceremony. The six bodies did not decompose as
these were identified just with the help of the victims'
pictures when the graves were dug six months later,
he added.
He said the Macedonian foreign office had admitted
in response to a letter of the Burni Trust that the
police could not establish any link between the victims
and the Al-Qaeda. What the police could recover from
the pockets of the victims were some pages of Holy Quran.
Senator S. M. Zafar told reporters that the case against
Macedonian government would be filed with the European
Parliament and the process would take six months.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government has announced that
it will take action against human smugglers.
Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi told reporters after the
ceremony that police would register cases on charge
of fraud against the agents involved in illegal smuggling
of people promising them a bright future abroad.
Burney
meets 15 Pak prisoners in Italy jail
SICILY: Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International Chairman
Ansar Burney on Sunday visited Caltanissetta Jail in
Palermo and met 15 Pakistani prisoners, detained on
terrorism charges.
Italian Police arrested 15 Pakistanis on August 02
last year on suspicion of terrorist activities from
the southern Sicilian port of Gela in Italy on a cargo
ship from Morocco.
Mr Burney said they were arrested because one of them
had a mobile phone with a picture of Osama bin Laden
on it. He thanked the Italian government and it’s
ambassador in Islamabad for granting him special permission
to meet the prisoners in the jail.
Mr Burney who is the member of American Bar Association
(USA) and International Bar Association (UK) said he
would also meet the officials to discuss with them the
human rights issues faced by the prisoners. “I
got the details of their arrest and am confident that
these Pakistanis are innocent.
They committed only one crime, they came to Europe
as illegal immigrants,” he added.
He said the code of terrorism, which the Italian police
recovered from them was a name of place in Pakistan.
“It all was happened on some incorrect information
received by Italian authorities. It was only a joke
and nothing”, he added. —SANA
Pakistan
asks Italy to resolve issue of 15 imprisoned Pakistanis:
ISLAMABAD, May 21: Pakistan today asked the Italian
government to resolve the matter of 15 Pakistanis languishing
in Italy jails for the last nine months on false charges.
A Foreign Office spokesman said today, following the
meeting of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and social worker
Ansar Burney with the Italian Ambassador, the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs has once again impressed on the Italian
government the need to resolve the matter at the earliest.
He said an early solution of the issue would ease the
burden on both the prisoners, who have been languishing
in jail for nine months, and their families here.
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Ansar
Burney visits Macedonia
KARACHI: Human and civil rights activist, Ansar Burney,
Advocate on Sunday visited Rashtaniska Lozja village
in Macedonia, where six Pakistanis and an Indian migrant
were brutally murdered by the Macedonian Forces in March
2002, said a press release issued on Sunday evening.
It was said that the Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare
Trust International and Prisoners Aid Society, Ansar
Burney along with the team of Macedonian lawyers and
journalists visited Rashtaniska Lozja near Skopje on
Sunday and enquired about the murder of the innocent
immigrants, who were killed by the Meanwhile, Burney
also took up the issue of brutal murder these Pakistani
and the Indian with the Macedonian authorities in Skopje.
768 Pakistanis
deported from Muscat
By our correspondent
KARACHI: As many as 768 Pakistani released from Muscat
jails arrived in city on Wednesday.
These people belong to various cities and villages
of the country, said a press release issued by Ansar
Burney Welfare Trust (ABWT).
They were distributed food and cloths by the trust
on their arrival.
Talking to newsmen, In charge of ABWT, Syed Sarim Burney,
called for the arrest of fake travel agents, who lure
the innocent people and deprive them of their money.
He said some of these youths are those who went legally,
but living even after expiry of their visa.
Nine Pakistanis
drown in Arabian Sea
ISLAMABAD: An international welfare trust on Sunday
urged the governments of Pakistan and Dubai to help
search nine bodies of Pakistani immigrants, drowned
by human smugglers in the Arabian Sea. Omar Zaman, only
eyewitness who survived the incident, told the Ansar
Burney Welfare Trust International that his nine companions
from Mandi Bahauddin were drowned by the human smugglers
near Dubai.
19
more Pakistanis released from Yemen arrive home
"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 Sunday. 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 Sunday 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.
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