PESHAWAR: Members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday condemned the massacre of over 600 peaceful protesters in Babara area of Charsadda district on August 12, 1948, and said the brutal killing of women, children and the elderly was a national tragedy and an attempt to derail democracy in the nascent country.

During a session chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati here, lawmaker of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Mohammad Sajjad complained about a lack of public awareness about the incident.

“Pro-democracy people, including women and children, were shot in the chest during a rights protest in Barbara, but over 90 per cent of the country’s population doesn’t know about their sacrifice despite its mention in several books,” he said.

Mr Sajjad said had the incident occurred before August 14, 1947, it would have been attributed to outsiders.

Complain about lack of public awareness about incident

He complained that the activists of Khudai Khidmatgar Tehreek, who were shot at, were asked to pay the cost of the bullets fired at them.

The lawmaker also highlighted the “imposition of religion at gunpoint in KP unlike Punjab.”

He said Pakhtuns were accused of transporting militancy from KP into Punjab but nobody talked about water, natural gas, power, and petroleum products supplied from KP to Punjab.

“Punjab supplies only wheat to us,” he said.

Ahmad Karim Kundi of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party said not only Pakhtuns but members of other communities also were martyred in Babara.

He criticised the government for suppressing freedom of speech and accused all major political parties, including PML-N, PTI and PPP, of such practices after coming to power.

The MPA recalled that Khawaja Saad Rafiq from Punjab and Asif Ali Zardari from Sindh would attend the National Assembly sessions after the issuance of their production orders, but former NA speaker Asad Qaisar from the PTI didn’t allow lawmakers to talk about production orders for their colleagues, Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar.

“A society can only progress if people don’t fear asking questions,” he said, proposing a resolution on the matter Mohammad Nisar of the opposition ANP said Khudai Khidmatgar Tehreek leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his son, Khan Abdul Wali Khan, were behind bars during the Barbara protest.

He said the August 1948 massacre of some 600 people, including women and children, in broad daylight on the orders of Qayyum Khan Kashmiri was a black day, and likened it to the Karbala tragedy.

The lawmaker claimed that a minority government was installed after the ouster of a minority one.

Treasury member Shafiullah said the incidents like Babara killings happened every year.

“The same incident was repeated on May 9 when 14 of our workers were killed. Detentions are continuing,” he said.

JUI-F’s Adnan Khan drew parallels between the August 12, 1948, incident and earlier massacres, such as the one in 1930, and flayed the recent firing on a peace march in Bannu that led to two deaths.

“May 9 was the continuation of the Babara incident,” he said.

The lawmaker alleged that military officers were violating their oath.

He said the security establishment should have nothing to do with the government’s affairs and should focus its attention on defending the country’s borders.

The lawmaker urged the chief minister to order withdrawal of all FIRs registered against PTI workers over the May 9 protests.

Earlier, during the question hour, member of the opposition PML-N Sobia Shahid reported the rising incidence of gender-based violence and complained that only a few of the cases were decided.

She said 267 cases of violence against transgender persons were registered between 2019 and 2023 but only one accused was convicted.

The MPA also said the same period reported 8,299 cases of violence against women but only 140 accused were punished.

She said only 81 convictions were made against 3,598 cases of violence against children.

Law minister Aftab Alam Afridi claimed that the people wouldn’t report such cases in the past but due to better public awareness, the reporting had improved.

He said the police investigated those cases and took them to the courts for decision but mostly, the accused were released due to reconciliation between the relevant people.

The house unanimously approved an adjournment motion by MPA Kundi for a detailed discussion on government priorities for the preservation of Gandhara Heritage.

The chair later adjourned the sitting until 2pm on Friday.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024