HYDERABAD, June 25: The Awami National Party (ANP) President Asfandyar Wali Khan has described the May 12 bloodshed in Karachi as the worst example of state terrorism and held General Pervez Musharraf equally responsible for the tragedy, besides provincial and federal governments.

Speaking to a meeting of party workers at the Shah Makki road on Sunday night, Asfandyar Wali Khan said that he had been asking some questions of vital importance about the tragedy for last 40 days but no one had so far come up with their answers.

Nobody was ready to tell him why emergency was declared in hospitals in Karachi on May 12 and whether it suggested the foreknowledge that something was going to take place that day, he asked. He said that it appeared Gen Musharraf did not even watch TV channels in his presidency to see Karachi bathing in blood.

“I don't accept him as president because he is the president of MQM and not of the country. I had expected that he would take notice of the tragedy but he didn't,” he said.

He slammed Gen Musharraf’s address to a PML rally in Islamabad on May 12 in which he had declared ‘even before the martyrs’ blood dried up’ that MQM had shown its power in Karachi.

Asfandyar Wali Khan said that a message had been driven home to the inhabitants of Karachi through May 12 killings, and an attempt had been made to convert it into an ethnic issue.

A group wanted to terrify people into its obedience but Pukhtuns, who were followers of Bacha Khan, were not expected to do so, he stressed.

He said that institutions were considered supreme in a civilised country but in Pakistan attempts had been made to weaken judiciary and mockery had been made of the parliament.

He said that he would participate in the multi party conference in London and warned that if he was not allowed to hold a meeting in Karachi or Hyderabad then the MQM, too, could not hold its meetings in Karachi or Peshawar either.

Pukhtuns were being pushed against the wall and there was no option left to them but either to kneel or resist, Asfandyar Wali Khan warned.