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Resolution at People’s SAARC Condemns The Murder of Salman Taseer

by sacw.net, 20 January 2011

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A resolution was presented to condemn the murder of Salman Taseer Shaheed, during Peoples SAARC meeting/conference in Dhaka on January 18-19 th, 2011. Resolution was unanimously adopted by the house. Please find attached the names of the signatories and scanned copy of the original resolution and signatures

scanned copy of the original resolution

RESOLUTION TO CONDEMN THE MURDER OF SALMAN TASEER

We the development practitioners, political workers, civil society leaders, representatives of social movements, peace and human rights activists, writers, journalists and concerned citizens of South Asia and the participants of Conference on ’Envisioning New South Asia: People’s Perspectives’, 18-19 January, 2011, Dhaka, Bangladesh condemn the brutal murder of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab, Pakistan, by a religious extremist and demand that the culprit should be brought to justice immediately and the government of Pakistan and other states of South Asian region should stop using communalism and religious fundamentalism to persecute religious and ethnic minorities to divide and rule the peace loving progressive and secular peoples of the region.

Country
- Name of the signatory

Pakistan
- Karamat Ali

Maldives
- Latheff Mohamed

Srilanka
- Mohammad Maruf

India
- Meena Rukmini Menon

India
- Jatin Babu Desai

India
- Lalita Ramdas

India
- Kamla Bhasin

Nepal
- Sarba Raj Khadka

Nepal
- Netra Prasad Timsina

Nepal
- Rachita Sharma Dhungel

Manila
- Jenina Joy Chavez

Pakistan
- Farrukh Sohail Goindi

Pakistan
- Zulfiqar Ali Halepoto

Pakistan
- Mohamed Ilyas

Pakistan
- Hasil Khan Bizenjo

Pakistan
- Mohammed Aslam Meraj

Pakistan
- Najma Sadiq

Pakistan
- Zahida Parveen Detho

Pakistan
- Sharafat Ali

Pakistan
- Nadeem Ashraf

Pakistan
- Shaikh Asad Rehman

India
- Kamal Aron Mitra Chenoy

India
- Neera Chandhoke

India
- Babulal Sharma

Srilanka
- Sunila Abhey Sekhara

India
- Ashok Ghosh Chowdhury

India
- Roma Malik

Nepal
- Kapil Shrestha

Nepal
- Gopal Krishna Siwakoti

Nepal
- Liladhar Upadhyaya

Nepal
- Bushnu Pukar Shrestha

Afganistan
- Raz Mohd Dalili

India
- Gautam Mody

India
- Dr. Amrita Chhachhi

India
- Anil Kumar Chaudhury

Nepal
- Dinesh Mani Tripath

[Related news report on People’s SAARC Meet in Dhaka]

Daily Times
January 20, 2011

Democratisation of state urged to combat religious extremism

* Experts say income inequality, control of resources by rich, rise of corporate interest adding new tensions to region

DHAKA: Speakers at the People’s SAARC seminar on Wednesday laid emphasis on increasing democratisation of the state to combat growing religious extremism.

They also stressed on creating a SAARC parliamentarian forum to bring the legislators from all countries together to envision a common future of the region. They said the situation in the South Asian countries was deteriorating with a large number of people resorting to violence and extremism after being devastated in socio-political life dominated by the elite.

Income inequality, control of economic resources by the rich and the rise of corporate interest dominating the state institutions were adding new tensions which destabilised nations, and greedy politicians were exploiting the situation to perpetuate their power, they added. They feared the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan might lead to Balkanisation of the region, including India.

Former Indian naval chief, M Ramdas, said of $1,200 billion arms trade last year, 30 percent went to India, followed by 14-15 percent purchases made by Pakistan.

He said the region must try to thwart external influences to avoid destabilisation and the countries should allow domestic forces play their role to bring prosperity to the poor and marginalised people.

Speakers also stressed on remodelling the education system to induce the spirit of democracy and secularism so that the madrassa education and its impacts on younger minds could be minimised. New Age editor Nurul Kabir said secularism and an equitable distribution of wealth could provide the basis of a sustainable state. He pointed out democratic tolerance and pluralism could only satisfy the need of the nation state. “It may also provide the basis of a South Asian union,†he added.

Some participants stressed that governments guarantee constitutional rights to tribal people so that the majority in a society could not exploit their situation and force them into taking extremist stands.

They said state should become people centric to support its citizens as only this could safeguard peace and stability in all SAARC countries. Kamal Chenoy, Hasil Bizenjo, Bishunu Shrestha, Muhammad Lateef, Lalitha Ramdas, Karamat Ali, Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Netra Timsina, Najma Sadeq and others spoke on the occasion.