On December 10, 2000, International Human Rights Day, RAWA staged a demonstration in Islamabad to condemn the gross human rights violations by the Taliban and Jehadi fundamentalists in Afghanistan.

The demo started around 10:30am at Peshawar Mor. Around 1,500 Afghan women, some of them along with their children, were holding high banners, placards and pictures of Rabbani, Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, Massoud, Sayyaf, Dostum, Mulah Omar and Khalili inscribed with “WANTED”. Some of the slogans protesters were shouting are as follows:

Women Rights are Human Rights!
Neither Taliban nor Jehadis, a free and democratic Afghanistan!
Hekmatyar is the killer of my brother.
Gulbaddin is the father of criminal Zardad!
Jehadis are worst criminals then the Taliban etc.

Speakers also condemned all the warring factions in Afghanistan and urged the world community not to recognize the Taliban or Jehadis and should support democratic-minded forces of Afghanistan. Thousands of copies of RAWA’s resolution, in four languages, were distributed.

At Karachi Company, at a point where they wanted to end the rally, a group of Pakistani, Afghan and Kashmiri fundamentalists from Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamit-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and International Islamic University in Islamabad shouted slogans against RAWA and while using abusive languages, pelted stones and attacked the demonstrators with sticks.

The protesters, the security personnel and some Afghan in the area, who were witness of the attack, resisted in self-defense while police remained as silent spectators and did nothing but to use teargas and baton to disperse RAWA’s supporters and the demonstrators.

Meanwhile, the fundamentalist attackers, in order to provoke the religious sentiments of the people, resorted to a fabricated claims that RAWA and its supporters have torn apart and set in fire the copies of Holy Qura’n and other religious books.

The demonstrators repeating “Down with the Taliban”, and “Down with Jehadis” resorted to self-defense. Some Afghan men witnessing the situation come to help the women. But as the attackers were protected by the police and they were pelting stones on the protesters, about 17 RAWA members got injured, 8 of them seriously. A five-month pregnant woman who was hit at her abdomen had a miscarriage. At least 8 RAWA male supporters and dozens of Afghan supporters have been arrested by police and as three of them were beaten badly by the fundamentalists, were also taken to hospital.

It will be an effective step if you send email to the following newspapers of Pakistan in support of RAWA and condemnation of its anti-democratic and fundamentalist opponents:

The Frontier Post: info@frontierpost.com.pk; fpost@paknet2.ptc.pk
The News: editor@jang-group.com and thenews@comsats.net.pk
Dawn: letters@dawn.com
The Nation: editor@nation.com.pk
Pakistan Observer: observer@best.net.pk
Wahdat: wahdat@pes.brain.net.pk