Mobile banners in Durban to protest Pakistan rights abuses

Ahead of the 12th anniversary of Mumbai terror attack, many mobile banners have been rolled out in Durban to protest against human rights abuses in Pakistan.

Durban:Several mobile banners have been rolled out in Durban, South Africa, protesting against human rights abuses in Pakistan, ahead of the 12th anniversary of the heinous Mumbai terror attack in 2008, which claimed the lives of over 160 people.

"#Free Balochistan from Human Rights Abuses by Pakistan," read one of the posters, while another poster said: "Save Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Other Religious Minorities in Pakistan."

Pakistan has always been targeted worldwide for perpetuating violence against its minorities, as continuing attacks on them is manifested in various forms of targeted violence, mass murders, extrajudicial killings, abduction, rapes, forced conversion to Islam, etc., making Pakistani Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas, and Shias the most persecuted minorities in the region.

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The Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 lasted for four days from November 26-29, killing 166 people and injuring over 300. In these gruesome attacks, nine terrorists were killed and the lone survivor, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was caught and was sentenced to death at Yerwada Central Jail in Pune in 2012. On November 11, 2012, Kasab was hanged in Yerawada Jail in Pune.

10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had arrived in Mumbai via a sea route from Pakistan, and Kasab and another terrorist Ismail Khan carried out a series of coordinated shootings and bombings, first at a railway station, then moved on to a business residential complex, and then carries out the third attack at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, reported The Post, a Durban-based newspaper.

According to The Post, reports informed that none of the employees at the Taj had fled the scene to protect themselves, and instead had helped the guests by risking their own lives, including a general manager named Karambir Singh Kang, whose wife and sons were killed in the attack.

Since the attack, the Indian government has taken several decisions to upgrade security measures.

Meanwhile, victims of the dastardly attacks in 2008 were honoured at a multi-faith peace prayer in Durban on Sunday. The event, taking place at the amphitheatre on North Beach, was hosted by the Indian Association of South Africa (IASA), together with social and faith-based organisations, reported The Post.

Read:|Top generals review national and regional security situations: Pak army

"Sometimes in the face of unimaginable horror, sorrow and evil all people can do is pray...Many prayers thus begin with the phrase svasty astu (may there be peace). Therefore, we pray that the entire universe be blessed with peace and hope," said Amit More, President of IASA.

On November 19, an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Thursday had sentenced and Jamat-ud-Dawa head, Hafiz Saeed, who was the mastermind behind Mumbai attack, to 10-year imprisonment in an illegal funding case, and ordered his properties to be confiscated.

ANI