HYDERABAD: Popular soc
ial and political activist Veeru Kohli has received pre
sidential award for her services against the bonded slavery and for the c
ause of human rights especially for religious minorities.
After receiving the award presented to her by Pre
sident Mamsoon Hussain at the Pre
sident House in Islamabad, she told journalists here that she would continue her struggle for the c
ause of human rights with more passion than before.
Veeru said that she had b
een striving for the human rights and for the rights of the minorities since the last more than two decades and the award was a recognition of those services she has rendered so far. “Receiving the award is an honour not for only me, but also for all those oppressed who suffered violation of rights, especially our girls who were being forced to change religion by some influential,” she said.
She said that she had been raising voice for the oppressed people especially of Thar and would continue her struggle. Opposing the Thar coal project, she said that every development project must be beneficial to the people while the (Thar coal) project would displace hundred
s of local people from their villages. This project would turn their fertile lands into barren, she said.
She demanded of the authorities to shelve the project at earliest. Unlike other local women, Veeru has seen the some other parts of the world as well. Besides different cities of India, she also visited Los Angeles in 2009 on receiving the Fredrick Douglas Freedom Award.
