Concern voiced over threats to Perween’s family, OPP officials

Karachi
Prominent civil society activists have expressed concern about recent threats to Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) officials and family members of Perween Rehman, slain director of the project who was killed more than two years ago, over pursuing her murder case.
In a joint press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Chairperson Zohra Yusuf, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research Director Karamat Ali, OPP Chairperson Arif Hasan and trade unionist Habibuddin Junaidi announced a campaign to put pressure on the authorities to resolve the case and protect Rehman’s family members and OPP officials.
Rehman was shot dead near her place of work in Orangi Town in March 2013.
“Not only has the government despite its vast financial, administrative and intelligence resources completely failed to ascertain in the last over two years as to who murdered Rehman and for what purpose, but what is most disturbing is that it has also failed to protect the people working at the OPP from the constant threats,” said Ali.
He said the threats had virtually caused the OPP work to come to a halt.
The OPP, one of Pakistan’s most successful non-profit organisations, has been working on projects as diverse as sanitation, health and mirco-finance credit, mainly in Orangi Town, one of the largest slums in the city. But the project of documenting land in the city was its important project, which, experts on civic issues believe, led to Rehman’s murder.
In collaboration with the provincial ministry of Kachi Abadis and under the leadership of Rehman, the OPP’s mapping section helped the residents of hundreds of Goths to regularise their areas. According to OPP officials, more than 1,000 Goths had been regularised by the ministry till the time of her death, but not a single Goth has been regularised since her killing.
The OPP has moved its mapping section to the office of the Urban Resource Centre after receiving constant threats.
“The OPP’s micro-credit sections have still been working at its office, but we have moved our mapping office, especially after the attack on Saleem Alimuddin, an OPP director, near the office, which he survived,” Hasan said.
He said the situation became alarming recently when Rashid was forced to leave the city because of the imminent threats to his life and the reluctance of police to protect him.
Also, two unknown persons visited Rehman’s residence and warned her sister and mother against pursuing the murder case.
Hasan said the relocation caused the OPP’s ongoing work in and around Orangi Town to slow down. “It is very difficult for the OPP to continue our community-based work far from the area.”
The speakers of the press conference also criticised the government for spoiling the Rehman murder case and demanded transparency in the investigation.
The OPP colleagues said that after the arrest of Ahmed Khan alias Pappu Kashmiri, a prime suspect in Rehman’s murder case, from the Mansehra district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, threats had been issued to colleagues and family of Rehman recently. They believed that Kashmiri had revealed to the investigators some more names regarding the murder.
A day after Rehman’s murder, police said, Qari Bilal, an alleged leader of the outlawed Terheek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who was killed in an alleged police encounter, was the mastermind of her murder. However, after the apex court ordered a fresh probe dismissing the police’s claims, a joint investigation team was set up to probe the murder.
In the beginning, police linked the murder with the TTP and then tried to blame it on the water tankers’ mafia, on which Rehman had written a report in 2009. All of it was aimed at damaging the case.
The speakers demanded of the government to fulfil its constitutional obligation to provide security to Rehman’s family members and colleagues and to ensure the functioning of the OPP free from threats. They also announced they would go to the Supreme Court again where the murder case is pending to bring to its notice the recent alarming situation.