Faiths unite in prayer to mourn asylum-seekers lost at sea

BY:PAIGE TAYLOR
From:The Australian
July 09, 2012 12:00AM

UNITING Church ministers have begun inviting Muslims and their imams into congregations across the country to jointly lament the deaths of asylum-seekers who drowned last month trying to get to Australia.

Yesterday inside Perth's Wesley Uniting Church, the central Perth mission that feeds 400 poor and homeless each day, the Reverend Don Dowling stood with imam Mukahtar Ahmadi Hussein Sadiq to offer prayers for the separated, the lost and the dead from two boat tragedies last month.

"This congregation wishes to express its deep regret at the events of the past few weeks," Mr Dowling said.

Australian authorities suspect a total of about 100 people, many of them Hazaras from Afghanistan, drowned last month trying to get to Christmas Island by boat; 109 people were rescued from a boat that capsized between Indonesia and Christmas Island on June 21, Six days later, 130 asylum-seekers were rescued in another deadly emergency.


The bodies of 28 people have been recovered.

Yesterday, Hazaras from Sheik Mukahtar's mosque in the northern Perth suburb of Nollamara sat in the first four pews of the inner-city church with heads bowed.

Some said later they were refugees who had come by boat as far back as 2000. The imam is a refugee too, although he arrived by plane.

Through an interpreter, Sheik Mukahtar told The Australian he fled political persecution in Afghanistan, heading for Iran where he applied to and was accepted by Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship 3 1/2 years ago as part of the nation's annual humanitarian intake.

"Our people have been persecuted in Afghanistan for 300 years, that is why they seek asylum," Sheik Mukahtar told the congregation.

"It is great that we can be here together in this church and learn more about each other -- two holy religions that live side by side in a peaceful and respectful way."

Sheik Mukahtar said the deaths of asylum-seekers at sea always affected his people deeply. Many of the regulars at his mosque were refugees and it did not matter that they knew nobody onboard.

"They felt it, they felt it," he said.

After a reading from the Koran, baritone David Bowyer sang Comfort, Comfort All My People.

Mr Dowling said yesterday's service was the second to remember the dead from last month's boat tragedies. The first was in Adelaide.

The Australians 

Killings of pilgrims

Monday, July 09, 2012
From Print Edition

The ruthless killings of Shia Hazara pilgrims coming from Iran is a barbaric act of terrorism. It is another incident of genocidal atrocity against the peaceful Hazara community living in Quetta for a long time. There is no doubt that the government of Balochistan has completely failed in providing security to its peaceful citizens. The Constitution of Pakistan guarantees security of life to all citizens of the country. It is tragic that both the provincial and federal governments are oblivious to its basic responsibilities. The judiciary which takes suo motu notice of cases of individual victimisation has also closed its eyes to this planned genocide of a peaceful community of our country.

It is strange that even civil society has failed to rise to the occasion and is silent on the brutal acts of terrorism against the Hazaras. It is time Pakistanis truly realised their social responsibility for the rooting out terrorism, to make sure that the lives of the citizens were protected. They should begin displaying this responsibility by universally condemning the killings of Hazaras.

A concerned citizen

Quetta

The News

خوب است ۔ ۔ ۔خوب است

ہفتہ 7 جولائی 2012

محمد حسن معراج4

میں کس کے ہاتھ پہ اپنا لہو تلاش کروں۔—اے ایف پی فائل فوٹو

پانی تقسیم چوک سے آرچرڈ ہاؤس کی طرف جانے والی سٹرک پہ مڑیں تو پہاڑی کے دامن میں ڈھیروں چمکتے جگنو سامنے آ جاتے ہیں ۔ کچھ تو اس قدر نزدیک کہ ہاتھ بڑھا کر مٹھی میں قید کیے جا سکیں ۔

کوئٹہ میں یہ تمام جگنو ہزارہ کے نام سے جانے جاتے ہیں۔ دبیز قالینوں میں دبے گھر ان لوگوں کی درویش صفتی کے عکاس ہیں، نہ مکینوں کو کسی کی باتیں چبھتی ہیں نہ ہی گھر میں کوئی نوکدار چیز ملتی ہے۔ رات کی روٹی اسی دسترخوان میں لپیٹ کر سو جاتے ہیں اور صبح اسی کا ناشتہ کر کے نکل جاتے ہیں۔

ایک ایسے شہر میں جہاں سے 1935 کا زلزلہ ابھی تک گیا نہیں، ہزارہ لوگ وہ جگنو ہیں جو اپنے مخصوص “خوب است۔ خوب است” سے پورے شہر کو اجالتے پھرتے ہیں۔

ہزارہ کے بارے میں پورے یقین سے کچھ کہنا تو ممکن نہیں مگر ہو سکتا ہے یہ لوگ 740ء میں خلیفہ وقت کے ہاتھوں شہید ہونے والے حضرت زید کی اولاد میں سے ہو ں، جو مزید استحصال سے بچنے کے لیے جارحیا تک منتشر ہوئے اور پھر مختلف مسلمان حملہ آوروں کے ہمراہ یہاں پہنچے ۔

یہ بھی ہو سکتا ہے کہ یہ سیاہ پوش خانمیں ، ایرانی تاریخ سے کسی نکتہ ء اعتراض کی مانند خارج ہوئی ہوں ، قاف لیگ میں شامل نہ ہوئی ہوں اور پھر اس شہر میں قافلوں نے پڑاؤ ڈال لئے ہوں ۔

یہ بھی گمان کیا جا سکتا ہے کہ وسط ایشیا میں جب آل رسول پہ قافیہ تنگ ہوا تو ان لوگوں نے یہاں ہجرت کی۔ ان تمام باتوں سے بے نیاز ، کوئٹہ بہرحال تقریباً ایک ڈیڑھ صدی سے ان کا مسکن ہے۔

جذبوں میں حلاوت اور محبتوں میں مسابقت کے یہ اصحاب کہف اب کوئٹہ کے ایک غار میں مقید ہو کر رہ گئے ہیں۔ اس غار کا نام ہزارہ ہاؤسنگ سوسائٹی ہے۔ آج سے چھ سال ادھر ایک شادی کی تقریب میں شرکت کا موقع ملا تو مجھے ان کی وسعت قلبی کا احساس ہوا ۔ نہ دولہے کی والدہ کو خیال آیا کہ میں پنجابی ہوں اور نہ ہی دولہن کی ماں کو میرا اہلسنت و الجماعت کا مسنون طریقہ نظر آیا۔

دونوں طرفین نے میری بھر پور پذیرائی کی ۔ مہندی پہ فارسی کے گیت ایک طرف اور پنجابی کے ٹپے دوسری طرف دم بدم چلتے رہے۔

اس وقت مہذب دینا میں ثقافتی حساسیت اتنی عام نہیں ہوئی تھی اور کچھ بوری بند لاشوں کا رجحان بھی نہیں تھا ، لہذا میں نے دولہے کی بابت دریافت کیا۔ پتہ چلا کہ سوئیڈن میں برسرِورزگار ہے۔ پھر دولہے کے ایک دوست کا پوچھا تو معلوم ہوا کہ یہ جرمنی میں ہے۔

تھوڑی دیر میں مجھے لگا کہ یہ کوئٹہ نہیں شائد سیالکوٹ کا کوئی نواحی قصبہ ہے جس میں ہر شخص بالواسطہ یا بلاواسطہ پردیس سے منسلک ہے۔ گفتگو ذرا آگے بڑھی تو پتا چلا کہ یہ ہجرت کسی سنت کا اتباع نہیں اور نہ ہی اللہ کے فضل کی جستجو ہے! مردِ مومن مرد حق نے ۱۹۸۰ کے عشرے میں جو پنیری لگائی تھی آج وہ بہار دکھا رہی ہے۔ آج کے یہ اصحاب کہف کسی رومی سپاہی سے نہیں بلکہ اپنے ہی نبی اور ان کے صحابہ کے سپاہیوں سے خوفزدہ ہیں۔

جاتے وقت دلہن کی سہیلیوں نے میرے دائیں ہاتھ کی چھوٹی انگلی پہ مہندی لگا کر ایک چھوٹی سی پگڑی جما دی ۔۔۔۔ میں نے جواباً کہا۔۔۔۔”میں کس کے ہاتھ پہ اپنا لہو تلاش کروں” اور سارے میں خوب است خوب است کی پس پردہ موسیقی پھیل گئی ۔

پہلے محرم کے جلوس پہ بم پھٹے پھر چہلم پہ نا معلوم افراد کی فائرنگ کی خبریں آنا شروع ہوئیں ۔ اور اب ہر روز کہیں نہ کہیں کوئی نہ کوئی ہزارہ زندگی کی جنگ ہار جاتا ہے۔ یہ سفر لگ بھگ پانچ سات سالوں کی کہانی ہے۔

مگر یہ بم دھماکے اور فریقہ واریت اتنی تکلیف دہ نہیں جتنی وہ بے حسی جس کا مظاہرہ ہم تما م لوگ بحثیت قوم کر رہے ہیں۔ اپنے آسودہ گھروں میں بیٹھ کر اس واقعہ کو بیرونی ہاتھ سے جوڑ دینا آسان ہے مگر انتہا پسندی کے جن کو بوتل میں بند کرنا مشکل۔

شادی کی اس تقریب کا جواب آج پوری ہزارہ قوم کا سوال ہے۔ میں کس کے ہاتھ پہ اپنا لہو تلاش کروں۔ مگر شاید اب “خوب است” کہنے والا کوئی بچا ہی نہیں۔

Dawn Urdu 

TOLOnews 01 July 2012 FARAKHABAR/فراخبر ۰۱ جولای ۲۰۱۲

Peace and poverty in Bamiyan - 12 Nov 07 -

KARWAN TV SHOW; Band e Ameer 96th - 7.06.12

Impact of foreign aid on Afghanistan's poorest province

"I Love You, But I'm Leaving": Afghanistan's Alimony

Posted: 07/06/2012 5:44 pm

The World Bank forecast approximately US $7.8 billion will be required annually to finance the non-security aid gap in Afghanistan for the decade post-2014. Last year, I was involved in collecting some of the data that eventually filtered into this projection. My colleague and I drove around the Bamiyan valley, back and forth past the hollowed Buddhas, pressing local government officials to produce tallies of their operation budgets and assets. I left disillusioned. The Bamiyan Department of Justice was whittled down to two rooms in an entire complex of un-plastered pillars. We were told construction was paused years ago. Their function appeared equally paused. The local Department of Interior was frustrated by the lack of water to supply their offices. Apparently, inside deals had led to a line of administrative offices being perched upon a barren plateau. Yet, as I think back in the midst of the stampede to rush out of Afghanistan, I am reminded of children pacing the lush fields putting lessons to memory, farmers tending to crops, the bustling single-street bazzar. Suddenly, beneath the encumbrance of cynicism, the task in Afghanistan has begun to seem monumental but not Sisyphean. It is our abandonment that will make it the latter...Continue Reading...

PAKISTAN: Killings of Shiite Muslims under the very nose of the military -- the 'independent judiciary' turns a blind eye while the government continues its policy of appeasement

July 4, 2012

The killings of the Shiite Muslims continue un-abated in those areas under the control of the military and Para-Military forces where the banned Muslim organizations operate freely and without hindrance.

In the latest killings on June 28 at least 13 pilgrims were martyred and several others injured in a bomb blast attack on Zaireen's bus in Hazar Ganji, Quetta, the capital of Balochistan where the city remains under the tight control of the Frontier Corp (FC), a unit of the Pakistan Army. In the city it is not possible for anyone to move without being body searched by the FC and other law enforcement agencies yet the militants pass freely. The reports say that a police officer was also killed in the attack.

The bus carrying at least 40 persons from a Shiite religious group was coming from Taftan, Pakistan's border city with Iran. The pilgrims had gone to Iran on a pilgrimage tour. The banned organization, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has claimed responsibility for the massacre.

During the month of June alone, 31 Shiites were killed in the Quetta and Mand areas of Balochistan by the LeJ bomb blasts and target killings. All of them were from Hazara ethic groups who are associated with the Shiite sect of Islam.

More than 600 persons from the Shiite sect of Islam have been killed during the past four years. According to the provincial home department report more than 400 Shiites and Hazaras had been killed in more than 200 incidents in the four-year span through 2011 and about 100 pilgrims had been killed in the first half of this year alone.

Balochistan province, the Gilgit and Baltistan and Kurram agency of northern area, is well known as a Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and has become a killing ground for the Shiite sect that consists of 24 percent of the Muslim population in Pakistan. These are the places where the contingents of the Pakistan army, its Para-Military forces and the Frontier Corps (FC) are stationed and control all the roads, besides having check posts all around the major cities. In the same areas the banned militant groups are operating along with the military organizations and in these areas the military provide safe passage to them. There is also a huge presence of spies from the infamous intelligence agency, the ISI. As a result banned Islamic militant organizations feel at liberty to operate freely under the patronage of the law enforcement agencies.

In Karachi alone, which is not considered a military zone, not a month passes without target killings of Shiites and the militant organisations overtly take collections from the streets to fund their operations.

The civilian intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), in its latest report has warned that organisations such as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Jundallah are more powerful now than they were in the '80s and '90s when they wreaked havoc across the country through sectarian attacks.

"Even today they pose a challenge as big as al Qaeda and they are getting more powerful. Imagine where they will be in a couple of years," said an official who was a member of the IB team that prepared the report. Some of the contents of the report were shared with The Express Tribune, which stated that the SSP and LeJ had already extended their network outside their traditional strongholds in South Punjab, the southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Pakhtun belt of Balochistan, including Quetta.

"Now they are everywhere…from interior Sindh to the base of the Himalayas," added the official. The SSP and LeJ were among several outfits that were banned by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf back in 2002, but their infrastructure and manpower remained untouched.

An activist of the SSP who would only give his last name said, "We went into hiding for some years but our system was very much there,"

The killings of Shiites, Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus and other communities from religious minority groups are of no concern to the state as a whole and the elected representatives of the assemblies including the governments of Pakistan and the provinces. Massacres are taken, nowadays, as routine issues and the main concern is the numbers of deaths. If the body count is lower than the previous one it is generally thought that it was not so important.

The so-called 'independent judiciary' turns a blind to these massacres though it is famous for taking Sou-Moto action in politically sensitive cases. In fact, the courts have released many militants, at least one of which has spoken in public calling for the killing of Shiites in the service of Islam.

In one instance, a militant, Malik Ishaq, filed action in the session court of Rahim Yar Khan calling for the banning of the Shiite Azan (the call for prayers). The court issued notice to the police to take action on the plea even though it was beyond its authority to do so.

This is just further proof of the appeasement attitude of the government and the courts towards the militants and terrorists. Where is the protection guaranteed in the Constitution of Pakistan for freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions? Section 20 (b) states:

Every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.

Furthermore, Pakistan has ratified the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its article 18 which binds the state parties to:

....assure freedom of thought on all matters, personal conviction and the commitment to religion or belief, whether manifested individually or in community with others.

The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the government of Pakistan and its parliament to bring to an immediate halt the targeted killings of Shiites and all other minority and religious groups. The government must also conduct independent enquiries into the massacre of Shiites and provide special attention to the killings of persons from religious minorities. Legal action must be taken against the perpetrators of the violence and also the police and judicial officers that turn a blind eye to these atrocities.
Document Type :
Statement
Document ID :
AHRC-STM-136-2012
Countries :
Pakistan
Issues :
Extrajudicial killings, Military

AHRC

Muhammad Yasin Hazara, who was targeted killed in Kuchlak

سرک ها در بامیان با کیفیت بد ساخته شده اند

دويچه وله دری / گزارش های بازسازی

گزارش های بازسازی

سرک ها در بامیان با کیفیت بد ساخته شده اند

در بامیان هنوز از تطبیق پروژه های بزرگ خبری نیست. آنچه را نمایندگان محلی حکومت در این ولایت "بزرگترین دست آورد انکشافی" طی ده سال گذشته می نامند، قیرریزی بعضی از شاهراه های این ولایت است که کیفیت خوبی ندارند.

از چند سال به این سو کار روی شاهراه کابل - بامیان از دو مسیر دره غوربند و حاجی گگ جریان دارد. اما بخشی از سرک در این مسیر که ازمنطقه شش پل الی دوآب بروله حدود ده کیلومتر فاصله دارد، پس از یک سال تخریب شده است. این فاصله توسط شرکت راه سازی "کابل گروپ" ساخته و سال گذشته به بهره برداری سپرده شد.

نبود سرک مناسب مردم محل را در زندگی روزانه با مشکلات زیاد مواجه می کند. رضا یک موتروان در مسیر کابل بامیان می گوید، ساختن این پروژه درست نبوده و با گذشت یک زمستان تخریب شده است. او از حکومت خواهان ترمیم این سرک به شیوه درست و اساسی است. کاکا شیر، موتروان دیگر در همین مسیر نیز ازهمین ناحیه شکایت دارد.

محمد سجاد محسنی، یک تن از بزرگان بامیان مسوولین حکومت را به بی توجهی در امر نظارت از پروژه ها متهم کرده می گوید:"از پخته شدن این سرک خامه بودن آن بهتر بود، ما رفتیم سرک رادیدیم؛ نه شورای ولایتی، نه والی نظارت نکرده اند."

نبود سرک مناسب مردم محل را در زندگی روزانه با مشکلات زیاد مواجه می کند

این همان مسیری است که مسوولین همواره از آن به عنوان "دهلیز شرق و غرب" یاد می کنند. در صورت بسته شدن تونل سالنگ، برای رفتن به شمال افغانستان نیز از این مسیر استفاده می شود.

درهمین حال، حبیبه سرابی، والی بامیان بی کیفیتی این پروژه را تایید می کند: "این سرک هنوزهم تسلیم گرفته نشده است[رسماً به مقامات حکومتی واگذار نشده است]". به گفته او این سرک از طرف تیم "پی آرتی نیوزلند" مقیم بامیان ساخته شده است و آنها با مسوولین آن در زمینه صحبت کرده اند؛ قرار است آنان روی شرکت فشار آورند تا روی سرک دوباره کار شود. او راه اندازی و طرح پروژه ها را از مرکز(کابل) بدون هماهنگی با مسوولین محلی در راستای ساخت و ساز، یک چالش تلقی می کند.

احمد شاه وحید، معین تخنیکی وزارت فواید عامه دولت افغانستان می گوید:" برای تسلیم گیری پروژه ها ما شرایط و دستورالعمل های خاص خود را داریم. سرک هایی که ساخته می شوند، یک سال گرنتی دارد؛ پس ازیک سال اگرعوارض گیری نشود و یا مشکل تخنیکی درپروژه وجود داشته باشد - تا دوباره ترمیم نگردد، ما تسلیم نمی شویم."

علاوه برتخریب سرک یاد شده، قسمت هایی ازسرک داخل شهر بامیان نیزتخریب شده است که سه تا چهار سال از قیر ریزی آن نمی گذرد.

کریم جاوید، بامیان

ویراستار:مبلغ

DW.DE

Ibrar Hussain fell a victim of sectarianism; Ali Moeen Nawazish

COMMENT : Denigrating the Hazaras — II — Dr Mohammad Taqi

The Hazara claim, if there is one, is perhaps the most benign one, i.e. asking for a right to exist peacefully. They have no irredentist designs or nationalist demands for autonomy or self-determination from Pakistan

We have been discussing an op-ed, “Balochistan: sectarian strife or Hazara community targeted?” written by M Surat Khan Marri that appeared in these pages a few days ago. In his condescending piece, Mr Marri has alleged that the Hazaras are Iran’s proxies who are allied with the Pakistani state and are working against the Baloch liberation/autonomy cause. He made a lot of fuss about the Hazara presence in the Pakistan army, calling them akin to gurkhas. Interestingly, the writer could not produce more than two names who made it to the higher ranks in the services. No evidence was produced to show if the Hazara were recruited disproportionately to the armed forces. The fact is that no more than a handful of Hazara officers have served in the military at any given time in our history. Hazaras were no more a collaborator of the Pakistani state than any Baloch, Pashtun or Urdu-speaker has been. If anything, they were under-represented in the civil and military services despite their stellar education rate.

Labelling anyone a collaborator, whether of the Pakistani state or of foreign powers, has very serious consequences, which no one would know better than the Baloch. The 1972 Iraqi arms cache case leading to the toppling of the National Awami Party (NAP) government of Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal and subsequent stigmatisation of the NAP leadership was a sad episode. The blame-game and the personal rivalries that had started with a fateful NAP meeting that kept out Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti resulted in a mess that damaged the Baloch national cause. Selig Harrison records, “One of the few top-ranking Baloch leaders who knew about this scheme, Akbar Bugti, leader of the Bugti tribe, proved to be a turncoat. By tipping off (ZA) Bhutto, Bugti unseated his arch rivals Bizenjo and Mengal...and obtained the governorship for himself.” The Hazaras of Quetta had nothing to do with the Baloch internecine rivalries. If anything, scores of Hazaras were ideologically committed members of the NAP at the time and did not take sides in the intra-NAP bickering. When Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s pilots bombed the Baloch nationalists on ZA Bhutto and Nawab Bugti’s watch, the Hazaras were not the ones collaborating with Iran.

Over a decade later, Nawab Bugti was to take oath as an elected chief minister of Balochistan. Incidentally, General Musa remained the governor of the province throughout Nawab Akbar Bugti’s tenure. Evidently, the great Baloch nationalist leader neither had a problem working with the Hazara governor nor raised the issue of whether the Hazaras were an indigenous tribe of Quetta. Nawab Sahib, having remained part of the Pakistani establishment, was acutely aware of its machinations to pit leaders against one another and nations against each other. Creating ideological, ethnic, sectarian and personal rifts is the establishment’s time-tested modus operandi. Infiltration within political parties and revolutionary outfits is not unheard of. Seemingly well-meaning people have been duped by this strategy before and, unfortunately, it may be at play in Balochistan again.

The rise of the Baloch national movement — boosted by Nawab Bugti redeeming himself with his blood — and the international support it is gaining has the establishment worried. Playing up the existing fault lines in Balochistan to create a controlled chaos is what they wish to do. Baloch against Pashtun, Sunni against Shia, Baloch against Hazara and everyone against the settlers, has the potential to create a mess to justify a tremendous and prolonged military presence in the province. Additionally, those who could have been opposing the military would end up bleeding each other white. And in no other place can this scenario play out more ominously than in Quetta. As the coveted political prize, Quetta could become Balochistan’s Jerusalem. A stalemate here can effectively throw a wrench in the Baloch liberation struggle and the Pashtun demands for autonomy.

No one is openly talking about it but both Baloch and Pashtun stake a claim to Quetta — historically a Pashtun city. The Hazara claim, if there is one, is perhaps the most benign one, i.e. asking for a right to exist peacefully. They have no irredentist designs or nationalist demands for autonomy or self-determination from Pakistan or its potential successor state(s). The Hazara through their numbers can potentially tip the balance for/against the Pashtun/Baloch and hence the efforts to woo or bully them. The latter has already begun as is evident from the sectarian tirade in Mr Marri’s article. His allegation about the imaginary Iranian support for the Hazaras is a red herring intended to divert attention from the security establishment’s moves to start a three-way Baloch-Hazara-Pashtun conflict in Balochistan.

The creation of new provinces in Pakistan would inevitably lead to the demand for a southern Pashtun province, in which case the demographics of Quetta would become crucial. No leader says it out loud but the status of Quetta is becoming contentious. From the establishment’s standpoint nothing can stall the Baloch liberation struggle more effectively than a direct confrontation between the Baloch and Pashtun over Quetta. The sectarian attacks on and the targeted killings of the Hazaras are designed firstly, to force them into retaliating and secondly, to take sides in the broader conflict that is emerging. The Hazaras, especially, would be well advised to exercise utmost restraint and remain within the framework of secular politics.

It is imperative that the honourable leaders like Nawab Khair Bakhsh Khan Marri, Sardar Ataullah Mengal, Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal, Mahmud Khan Achakzai, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Afrasiab Khattak, Sardar Saadat Hazara, Haji Qayyum Changezi and others step forward to discuss what is brewing in Quetta before it is too late. A formula regarding the Quetta issue and the Pashtun access to the port was once discussed, and agreed upon, by Sardar Ataullah Mengal and the late Afzal Bangash. It may serve as a useful template even today.

Mr Surat Khan Marri has tried to muddy the already treacherous waters. It behooves anyone genuinely concerned with the Baloch liberation struggle to steer clear of denigrating any vulnerable populations and many Baloch nationalists were swift to denounce his piece. He may be doing a disservice to the Baloch and Pashtun cause as only the Pakistani establishment stands to gain from chaos in Quetta. But on the bright side, at least we are talking about the real issue and not the red herring Mr Marri wanted us to chase.

(Concluded)

The writer can be reached at mazdaki@me.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/mazdaki

Daily Times

Drive-by shooting: Senior official among three killed near Quetta

By Our Correspondent
Published: July 4, 2012


Gunmen on motorcycle opened fire on a car going from Pishin to Quetta. PHOTO: FILE

QUETTA: A senior government official and two others were killed in a drive-by shooting on Wednesday on the outskirts of Kucklack, some 25 kilometres from the provincial capital.

Muhammad Saeed, the assistant director of local governments in Pishin district, and his office superintendent, Yasin, were travelling to Quetta from Pishin when gunmen opened fire on their car with automatic weapons, according to the police.

The pair died instantly and their driver sustained critical gunshot wounds. The injured driver, identified as Muhammad Akbar, was driven to Quetta’s Civil Hospital – but he succumbed to his injuries before he could be provided treatment, medics said.

Muhammad Saeed belonged to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa while Yasin was a member of the Hazara community, a local ethnic group which is Shia by sect.

A purported spokesperson for the banned sectarian extremist outfit, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Abu Bakar Siddiq claimed responsibility for the triple murders in a phone call to journalists in Quetta.

Express Tribune

Three gunned down in Quetta

By Nasir Khan - Jul 4th, 2012

Quetta: At least three people have been killed in Kachlak area of Quetta, police said on Wednesday.

Police said that unknown armed men opened fire on a vehicle, leaving two dead and another injured.

The police said that the injured sccumbed to injuries while he was being taken to a hospital.

The deceased were government employees, police said. The bodies have been shifted to a hospital for medico legal formalities.

Heavy contingent of police rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area.

The News

Editorial: Stop Terrorism Not The Bus Service

Added by Admin on July 4, 2012.

The decision of District Administration in Quetta to shut down bus service for Shia pilgrims going to Iran is outrageous. Such a decision curtails people’s right to religious freedom and it also emboldens extremist Sunni groups. The government justifies this decision referring to recent attacks in Quetta and its outskirts on Shia Muslims (most of whom belonged to Hazara ethnic community). The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni militant group, has claimed responsibility for all attacks on Balochistan’s Shia Muslims.

Since many of the pilgrims travel via Pakistan-Iran border town of Taftan on bus, the extremist groups find it very easy ambush the passenger buses in the outskirts of Quetta. Except for suicide bombings, no other form of attack on the Shia, Hazara community has proved as deadly as attacks on the buses. Besides the attack on a university bus on June 18, the dead toll in every other assault has exceeded double-digit figure.

Regular protests and meeting by Shia, Hazara leaders with senior government officials in Balochistan have not helped in ending the killing of innocent citizens. There has also been uproar at the international level, mainly from human rights organizations, against the senseless killings. Yet, the situation has not received ample attention from foreign governments and the United Nations to force Pakistan to act swiftly to protect people who do not share the religious and political views of the majority in Pakistan. The State should take ownership for guarding every citizen’s freedom to religious and political views....Continue Reading...

VIEW: Who to blame for ethnic persecution of Hazaras? —Liaquat Ali Hazara

Government of Pakistan must also be pressured to the extent of taking reasonable steps against the terrorists, executing targeted operations in the areas of Quetta in which attacks have occurred frequently

The incessant targeted attacks on the peaceful denizens of Quetta city have mostly hit the Hazaras who have lived there for centuries. Numerous authors, writers, intellectuals and columnists analyse the ethno-religious killings of this under-represented and oppressed ethnic group based on reviews and published articles, but I will try to look into it from a different perspective as I hail from the same ethnicity and city.

On various occasions, I have seen terrorists perpetrating acts of targeted attacks and then leaving the scene without fear of being caught by the law enforcement agencies. For instance, the incident of June 8, 2003 when 13 Hazara police cadets were gunned down on Sariab Road, Quetta in broad daylight, which left seven others critically wounded. In less than a month, the terrorists broke into the Grand Mosque on Prince Road, known as Imam Bargah Hazara Kalan, to wreck the Friday congregation prayers with suicide bombing and fierce firing on worshippers, killing about 67 people and injuring about 70 others. The third major attack happened on March 2, 2004 when terrorists targeted the annual Ashura procession in Liaquat Bazar with hand grenades and AK-47s, killing 45 and injuring 100 people. The third orchestrated attack could not have happened without the support of the intelligence agencies of Pakistan as all entry and exit routes around Quetta city were sealed off by the law enforcement agencies three days prior to the main procession. All adjacent hotels, restaurants and inns were being checked several times a day to ensure security measures are in place. Thousands of paramilitary troops and police were deployed with barbed wire, blockades and obstacles blocking the important routes to avoid any untoward situation. Nonetheless, the terrorists successfully struck the heart of the procession with hand grenades and automatic weapons to murder innocent people. The firing of terrorists, in the third instance, did not kill as many people as the targeted firing of the anti-terrorist force (ATF) — the elite commando group to combat terrorism — killed innocent people. For obvious reasons, the fire orders could not have been executed without the instructions of their superiors. Government immediately announced to probe the Ashura carnage under a serving high court judge, which took months of inquest to complete but without bearing fruit as the report was never made public. I later learned through some well-placed friends that the judgment too was implicated as it blamed the mourners for the mass human loss.

In the above mentioned first and second example, I was not at the scene of the crime but I reached about half an hour after the incidents, among mayhem, to shift the dead bodies and the injured to the Sandeman Provincial Hospital, who were later referred to the Cantonment Military Hospital for better care and treatment. In the third instance, I was literally at a distance of 10 metres from the main scene of the crime when terrorists were firing at people. Fortunately, my friend and I were standing in the opposite direction of the culprits’ firing and due to restricted hand movement, they were unable to fire in our direction. Later that day, I witnessed how the members of the ATF were shooting at the protesters from armoured vehicles and many succumbed to their injuries instantly. Shahbaz Mandokhail was the superintendent of police (ATF), but no government official was ever investigated or held responsible for the killings of those innocent people.

Since then, the perpetual targeted killings of the Hazaras have touched new heights with new tactics and a renewed gusto from the terrorists. The number of death casualties for this oppressed ethnicity has crossed the figure of 700, with double this number injured. Most of them are paralysed for life, due to unaffordability of medical bills by the victims and their families. 

Then another tragic incident occurred in the heart of Quetta city, which killed six innocent Hazaras and several others were critically injured. Reliable sources have confirmed that the terrorists came on two motorcycles and fired on a shoe shop to target the Hazaras.

In three weeks in just the month of March, Hazaras were attacked four times in different areas of Quetta city. A simple arithmetical calculation reveals that it comes to burying one person a day. Most of the human loss consists of young adults whose estimated age is18-25.

The Pakistani media is deliberately silent, mostly, about these atrocities. The federal government, including the president and the former prime minister of Pakistan, were content with verbal consolation to the victims’ families and condemned these incidents, without any directives to arrest the perpetrators.

The Balochistan Chief Minister, Aslam Raisani, who hits headlines with his preposterous statements about the loss of Hazaras’ lives, spends most of his time in the capital Islamabad, which evidently depicts his interests in running the affairs of the province. Instead of seeking an amicable solution to these problems, he was quoted as saying last September that he would send a truckload of tissue paper for the victims and their families and that killing of some people would not affect the overall population of the province. 

These religious fanatics were produced under the patronage of the Pakistani intelligence agencies, with financial support of some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia. In a terrorist attack that targeted a moving Suzuki pick-up van on Spini Road, Quetta, on March 29, 2012, the police check post was literally at a distance of 15 metres from the main scene of the crime. This check post is manned 24 hours a day but the security personnel turned a blind eye to the scene. Had they counter-fired on the terrorists, they could have thwarted their plan to kill innocent people.

The provincial government claimed to have deployed about 3,000 paramilitary troops and police in Quetta city but they could not stop these heinous attacks. The provincial Interior Minister Mir Zafarullah Zehri spoke in TV interviews, numerous times, about the involvement of provincial ministers in these targeted killings and kidnappings of innocent city dwellers, but still the government and the judiciary showed passiveness to take any action against the culprits and their supporters.

It is high time Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights organisations as well as the international community exerted meaningful pressure on the government of Pakistan to protect the lives of minorities. Government of Pakistan must also be pressured to the extent of taking reasonable steps against the terrorists, executing targeted operations in the areas of Quetta in which attacks have occurred frequently.

The writer is a London-based freelance journalist and the Chairman of Hazara United Movement (HUM) — a political organisation working for the rights of the Hazara Diaspora with its head office in London

Daily Times 

Afghanistan's Hazara Minority Outraged By Science Academy Insults

A Hazara laborer poses in Kabul's old quarter. Hazaras are generally considered to comprise the third-largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, together with Uzbeks.

By Abubakar Siddique

July 03, 2012
Documenting Afghanistan's diverse ethnic makeup would seem like an innocent enough endeavor, but a recent attempt has left a team of academics facing possible criminal charges.

The source of the problem is the innocuously named "Ethnographic Atlas of Non-Pashtun Ethnic Groups of Afghanistan," published in June by the government-appointed Academy of Sciences Afghanistan.

Certain passages have Afghanistan's Hazara minority seeing red.

"The Hazaras are liars, dishonest, and unreliable people," reads one passage cited by the "Daily Outlook Afghanistan" newspaper. "Bodies of their women are hairless except on the head. The Hazaras are the sons of Mongol Khans living in the mountains of Afghanistan. These people [know] nothing except fighting."

The newspaper goes on to report that the book, which RFE/RL was unable to independently obtain, describes the Hazaras as "rafizi" -- worse than infidels.

The resulting outcry from Hazara politicians was enough to prompt President Hamid Karzai to step in. In mid-June, Karzai banned the atlas, dismissed four academics from the Academy of Sciences, and ordered an investigation into their reasons for publishing the comments.

The four now face possible criminal charges for stoking ethnic tensions, pending the findings of a lengthy questionnaire they have been asked to fill out.

'Face The Force Of Law'

Deputy Attorney General Enayatullah Kamal, who is overseeing the investigation, has said that if it is determined that the insults were intentional, the academics will have to answer for their actions.

"Fanning differences among the ethnic groups of Afghanistan is forbidden," Kamal said. "Anybody violating this has to face the force of law."

Karzai has described the contents of the book as "grossly offensive" and "an insult to all the resident ethnicities and thus the entire Afghan population."

Sayed Amin Mujahid, the author of the atlas, has defended the book, in part by claiming that most of the contested passages were based on the writings of a Hazara historian, Fayz Muhammad Kateb.

Mujahid says everything he wrote was clearly referenced and that the contents are being distorted for political reasons.

"An academic and scholarly issue has now being turned into a political one," he says. "I am saying this because in cases people are only told about the first half of a sentence, but they are being kept away from the second half."

'Lowball' Estimates

The Academy of Sciences Afghanistan is no stranger to controversy when it comes to the Hazaras. In late 2011, leaders of the predominantly Shi'a-minority group took umbrage at what they considered lowball estimates of the Hazara population that were contained in an almanac published by the academy.

An academic and scholarly issue has now being turned into a political one.
Sayed Amin Mujahid
The reference listed the Hazaras as making up 9 percent of Afghanistan's estimated population of 26 million. They claimed the figures were heavily biased in favor of the Pashtuns, who were listed as comprising 60 percent of the population.

Hazara politicians widely cite the figure of 20 percent in estimating the minority's share of Afghanistan's population.

Exact figures are unavailable, largely due to the fact that no accurate census has ever been taken in Afghanistan. The last attempt, in the late 1970s, was never completed. Calls for a new census following decades of war have never been realized.

Generally accepted figures cited in UN documents and by other international bodies list the Pashtun population at just over 40 percent, followed by Tajiks at less than 30 percent, and Hazaras and Uzbeks at around 10 percent. Various smaller minorities account for the rest of the population.

Such statistics are an important issue among minorities, who can use greater numbers to argue for greater political influence. Observers say politicians commonly exaggerate the population of their tribes or ethnic groups.

Hussain Yasa, a Hazara and editor of the "Daily Outlook Afghanistan" in Kabul, says the latest controversy does not augur well for the future of a country preparing to maintain security on its own.

He says it will not be easy to end discord over Afghanistan's ethnic makeup but that a comprehensive population census would be a good place to start.

"This is not only about which community is larger than the other community," Yasa says. "The census is one of the very important things for our development and even for our security."


With contributions from RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan

Radio Free Europe

استاد محقق

Ban imposed on Iran-bound bus service

Tuesday, July 03, 2012
From Print Edition

QUETTA: The district administration Quetta on Monday imposed a ban on operation of bus service from Quetta for Iran via Taftan border gate.

Official sources said that bus service operating between Quetta and border town of Taftan for providing travelling service to passengers and pilgrims who want to visit Iran has been asked to stop their service with immediate effect.

The district administration issued the orders after a series of attacks including bomb blasts and firing on buses.The district administration sources further said that the said bus service would be restored after improvement in law and order situation.

The News

France 24; Pakistani extremists film massacre of Shiite minority group

02/07/2012 / PAKISTAN

Pakistan’s Hazara population, a predominantly Shiite Muslim ethnic minority, has long been subjected to persecution, and in recent months, increasing violence. Yet in a disturbing new trend, members of the Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has claimed responsibility for several attacks targeting the country’s Hazara, have begun filming deadly assaults on the community and posting the videos online.

Filmed just outside of Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s western Balochistan province and home to a large Hazara community, the video below contains graphic images. A number of Hazara fruit and vegetable sellers were en route to Quetta from a suburb dubbed “Hazara Town” on October 4, when the bus they were travelling on was forced to stop by a group of armed men. Aiming their weapons into the vehicle, the assailants killed 13 of the passengers in cold blood.

The incident was reported by local media, and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has ties to both al Qaeda and the Taliban, came forward to claim responsibility for the massacre. Footage of the attack later surfaced on the Internet.

WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS DISTURBING IMAGES

Though the video is several months old, it is representative of the kind of deadly violence that has become increasingly commonplace in the region. The last known attack happened on June 28, when a car bomb struck a bus carrying a group of Hazara on a road near Quetta. Thirteen people were killed and 25 others injured. The next day, members of the city’s Hazara community staged a demonstration to protest against the bloodshed.

According to Abdul Qayuum Changezi, head of the organisation Hazara Jarga, approximately 60 Hazaras have been killed since January alone, while more than 600 have been killed since 2000.

In addition to the threat of deadly violence, Pakistan’s Hazara population are also faced with persecution, and are regularly targeted by Sunni extremists who settled in Balochistan, which lies near the border with Afghanistan, after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

CONTRIBUTORS

Hamza qasimi

“We’re an easily recognisable target for terrorists, because we look like Mongolians”

Hamza Qasimi, a Hazara, lives in Quetta. In the video, the terrorists are speaking in Baravi, a local Balochistan dialect. They are shouting ‘Kafir, Kafir!’ which means ‘non-Muslim’. To them, we are infidels. It’s not the first time that the Taliban have filmed themselves executing members of my community. Other videos are circulating on the Internet, often set to Taliban chants. To them, killing Hazaras is a demonstration of power, and a source of pride.

Video of an attack targeting Hazaras in September, 2011. In it, Taliban chants can be heard. 

We’re an easily recognisable target for terrorists because we look like Mongolians. Sometimes, they hunt us down in our stores in Quetta. My father had a shop near the central marketplace but he decided to leave town, it had become too dangerous to live here.

Hamza qasimi

This article was written with FRANCE 24 journalist Peggy Bruguière. 

Rebuilding smiles

By LIM WEY WEN
star2@thestar.com.my

On the barren mountains of Bamyan, Afghanistan, Malaysian troops employ creative approaches to help the community improve their health and quality of life.

WINTER was approaching at the central Afghanistan province of Bamyan when the third Malaysian Contingent for International Security Assistance Forces (Malcon 3 ISAF) arrived at the Kiwi Base in October.

However, the harsh weather conditions and subzero temperatures were only the first of a long list of challenges the teams faced in the poorest province in the war-torn country.
Oral help: Besides providing dental services, the Malaysian team in Afghanistan also offered a course to train Afghan students in basic dental techniques. In this photo, Malcon 3 ISAF dental officer Kapten Dr Naili Hayati Abd Mukti (centre) supervises two of her students while they treat a local in Bamyan. — Photos by Malcon 3 ISAF

The mountainous terrain, isolated villages scattered across them at more than 2,400m above sea level, and barren soil with no trees in sight were also daily obstacles to grapple with.

“We felt very sad because although we are living (in the 21st century), there are still people living in caves,” says Lt Kolonel Nordin Mohd Yusof, head of the Malcon 3 ISAF team who had returned from the mission in April. He and his team members shared their experiences with us recently in Kuala Lumpur.

“There is no electricity or water. People have to get water from the rivers or wells, some electricity comes from solar panels (supplied by international missions like Malaysia’s), and light from lamps using kerosene or whatever oil they make locally,” Nordin says.

Nordin led a team of 40 staff members to continue Malcon-ISAF missions in several districts of the Bamyan province, including the capital, Bamiyan, and rural districts such as Yakawlang, Wasar, and Panjab.

His team, which was the third deployment on a six-month rotation from Malaysia, comprised officers and enlisted personnel from the Royal Medical and Dental Corp, as well as administrative and security personnel from the Malaysian Armed Forces.

“Our mission is to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Bamyan so that they will be able to reconstruct the province,” explains Nordin, adding that “we are focusing more on capacity building.”
With female officers in its ranks, the Malcon 3 ISAF team managed to promote family spacing among Afghans who are generally very resistant to family planning. Soon, people began approaching Kapten Dr Nor Azima h Zakaria (in uniform, above) for advice as well as listening to her speak on national radio (left) in the country’s national language, Dari.

While the previous Malcon-ISAF teams focused on providing medical assistance, Nordin’s team has expanded Malaysia’s assistance to helping the community achieve some form of clinical governance, where systematic programmes are devised to help healthcare professionals in the province better care for their own people.

Together with dental surgeon Kolonel Dr Kamal Abdullah, senior medical officer Mejar Dr Mohd Zaki Mokhtar, and Kapten Dr Nor Azimah Zakaria, who led the dental, medical and health promotion teams respectively, Nordin worked with the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) to come up with innovative programmes to help the people of Bamyan gain access to clean water, an uninterrupted power supply, better oral care, and access to information on family planning.

“We do not want to implement just any programme that we bring from Malaysia. We want it to be led by the (Afghan) people for the people,” says Dr Zaki.

Clean water
By distributing toothbrushes and toothpaste to schools and orphanages, the team hopes to start young Afghans on the road to better oral health.

One of the first programmes the Malcon-ISAF team discussed with the MOPH was to introduce a water filtration system that is made locally from materials that can be found in the region.

Although there are NGOs helping to dig wells and provide containers to collect water, Dr Zaki says the need for the people to have a sustainable way of accessing clean and safe drinking water still remains.

“We are not the first to introduce a water filtration system there – organisations like the WHO (World Health Organisation), Unicef (UN Children’s Fund) and the World Food Programme have introduced some – but we were thinking of something that the Afghan people could claim ownership of,” says Dr Zaki.

“That is why we came up with the polycarbonate water filter, which you can build by using gravel, pebbles, big stones, and sand available from the river bed,” he explains.

However, during the long winter months, these filters tend to be abandoned as the water inside freezes. The Malcon 3 ISAF team overcame this by building an insulation box around the filter.

“(The water filtration system) is now available in the bazaar, and every time they go to hardware shops, they can see their own filters,” says Dr Zaki.

Healthy smiles

Another one of the team’s programmes was to work with the MOPH to come up with a system to provide dental care for the people of Bamyan.

“When we went there, we found out that there were no organisations in the MOPH that deals with oral health,” says Dr Kamal, who heads the dental team.

“They have a very simple dental clinic, which was not managed by people with licenses or degrees to practise,” he says
To help peripheral clinics in Afghanistan gain access to continuous power, Malcon 3 ISAF have embarked on a solar panel installation programme in the province of Bamyan. In this photo, Dr Zaki (second from right) and his team are helping one of the clinics install a new solar panel.

Those who provided dental services there were somewhat like the “dental carpenters” Malaya had in the 1950s, he says.

What’s more, as most people live in isolated villages spread across the mountains, many had to walk as long as three hours to get even that basic level of dental care.

“Generally, the incidence of periodontal problems (like gum problems and loose teeth) among adults is very high there,” says Dr Kamal.

“There is also a lack of dentures ... so when they have extractions done they do not know where to get (their teeth) replaced,” he adds.

The team started out by putting seven locals through a basic clinical dental training course, a 10-week programme that teaches basic dentistry techniques.

After that, the team started offering dental services at its base and later at mobile clinics it set up at hospitals in the capital Bamiyan and the Yakawlang district.

“Dental equipment was lacking there, so we also innovated the multi-purpose dental chair,” says Dr Kamal with justifiable pride, adding that the team eventually built three dental chairs with the help of local metallurgists.

At the same time, the team also worked with the Afghanistan Education Ministry on school dental health programmes and distributed close to 4,000 pairs of toothpaste and toothbrushes at schools in Bamiyan and Yakawlang.

“The team’s aim is to set up a model oral health service in one district, Yakawlang,” says Dr Kamal, adding, “If we can achieve that, the other districts can follow on their own.”

Giving gifts of life

With female officers among its ranks, the Malcon 3 ISAF team have also achieved something that was previously difficult even for local healthcare professionals: promoting blood donation and family planning.

Although family planning facilities are available in hospitals around the province, it is not well accepted.
With education and promotion, the Malcon 3 ISAF team managed to hold two blood donation drives that gained the participation of the Afghanistan national police and army.

“From what we understand, some think that they might not be able to have children after that, and that it is a way of making the Afghan population smaller,” Dr Zaki explains.

What the Malcon 3 ISAF team did instead was to introduce the concept of “family spacing” – ie, that families should wait for a few years before having another child.

“Our advantage is that we have female Muslim doctors who can talk about it,” says Dr Zaki, adding that Dr Azimah also spoke regularly on radio programmes to provide information about family spacing in the Dari language (Afghanistan’s national language) to local women.

“We have also approached the Mullah, their religious leader, to convince him that this is necessary,” says Dr Zaki.

Soon, the concept of family planning began to be more accepted by the locals and women even started approaching Dr Azimah for advice.

“With blood donation, the locals think that if they donate blood to another patient, it will take all of their blood away and they will die,” says Dr Azimah, explaining, “That was why in the past, only close relatives or family members were willing to donate blood.”

To correct these misconceptions, the team gave out flyers, put up posters in the Dari language, and educated the local community about blood donation and common diseases such as Brucellosis (an infectious disease that can pass to humans from stock animals or their products) and typhoid.

“We have even managed to conduct two blood donation drives, first with the Afghan national police and then with the Afghan national army as well,” says Dr Zaki.

“We have also called on the local press to raise public awareness about the benefits of blood donation.

“Hopefully, there will be more people who are willing to come forward to donate in the future.”

As the Malcon-ISAF teams are committed to maintaining their presence in Afghanistan until 2014, team members intend to make their programmes as sustainable as possible.

After training healthcare workers and more than 800 police, army and special forces personnel in providing basic life support, the Malcon 3 ISAF and Malcon 4 ISAF (currently in Afghanistan) started “training trainers” so that the Afghan people can eventually run the training programmes themselves.

Other efforts the teams are involved in include ensuring that peripheral clinics have access to continuous power; this involves helping those clinics install solar panels.

Worth the sacrifice

“Our message to the Afghanistan people is that the ball is at their feet, so they must take advantage of our suggestions and start doing something concrete with them,” says Dr Kamal.

While the physical demands of running these projects amidst harsh weather and environmental conditions could be overcome, Dr Zaki says that it is the emotional longing for the comforts of home that is most trying.

His fourth son was born when he was over 4,000km away from home, and Nordin welcomed his first grandson at the time.

“We could communicate with them through Skype (over the Internet) but we also wanted very much to be there for our families,” says Dr Zaki.

So is all the hardship and time away from loved ones worth it, we wonder?

It will be, say the team members, if the programmes they started continue to be practised in Afghanistan.

That would be the best reward, they conclude.

The Star

خا مو ش حکمر ان

سید طلعت حسین

Saach TV

Tony Abbott & Julia Gillard, there's a better way

Hazara holocaust and the deafening Pakistani silence

Saturday, 30 June 2012 23:01

by Anas Abbas 

Political and religious parties in Pakistan take no interest in the plight of Hazaras since none of the influential politician represents Hazara community and the issue lacks fundamental ingredients of anti Americanism which sells in public



In Pakistan, the non state actors who implement the policy of “Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die,” have been belligerently persecuting the Hazara community since 1998. A concise historical persecution account of the Hazara people was well documented by Dr Saleem Javed in his Friday Times article. He writes: “On July 4, 2003, 53 people died and 150 were hurt in a suicide attack on a Hazara mosque in Quetta. It was the first attack of its kind. Since then, more than 700 Shias, most of them Hazaras, have been killed in violent mass killings and suicide bombings in Balochistan”.

Recently these attacks have gained significant momentum as 14 were killed and 45 injured in a suicide attack on a bus in Quetta which had just returned from Iran carrying pilgrims including women and children

So the questions are:

Why Hazara community is being targeted in Pakistan?

Who are the perpetrators and what is their motive? .... Continue Reading... 

Agar - 30th June 2012

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; Shia pilgrims’ killing exposes state’s criminal negligence

In a statement issued on Friday, the Commission said: “HRCP shares the grief of the families of those killed and injured in Thursday’s terrorist attack in Quetta...

Lahore, June 29: The killing of Shia pilgrims in Balochistan on Thursday again demonstrates that terrorists persist with their vicious and systematic campaign to target citizens on account of their religious beliefs as state has either been unwilling or increasingly unable to prevent the blatant killings, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Commission said: “HRCP shares the grief of the families of those killed and injured in Thursday’s terrorist attack in Quetta that targeted a bus of Shia pilgrims. After the brazen attack on a bus of Iran-bound pilgrims in Mastung district of Balochistan last year, it was certain that unless the culprits were brought to justice they will strike again. They did so on Thursday. This time the bus had a police escort and yet, as in the Mastung attack, neither the attack could be foiled nor perpetrators captured. About the only difference was that those dead and injured were taken to hospitals relatively quickly. The number of Shias killed in systemic and targeted attacks in Balochistan in 2012 alone has exceeded 60. Everyone knows who the perpetrators are. With each attack, allegations of the attackers enjoying sympathy and support among the security forces gain more credence, at least in the views of the targeted community. In the circumstances, the Shia population of Balochistan, and the Iran-bound pilgrims in particular, understandably feel like sitting ducks. Little wonder then that many young people from the community are prepared to take their chances to flee the country in search of safety, often risking travel in rickety boats in shark-infested waters to do so. At least 70 young men from the community had drowned in one such attempt in Indonesian waters in 2011.

“HRCP unequivocally condemns the attack and is shocked by the authorities’ inability or unwillingness to act against terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has repeatedly claimed responsibility for these attacks. The promised probe into the attack must also look into charges of support for the terrorists among the security agencies. It has also been alleged that the Iran-bound pilgrims targeted on Thursday were originally sitting in various buses but the authorities asked them all to go in one bus, which was later targeted. Some members of the community have interpreted that as proof at least some elements in the law enforcement agencies working hand in glove with the terrorists. HRCP cannot vouch for the veracity of this claim but that too should be investigated. The government should try and imagine the plight of the community whose systematic targeting is now little short of naked persecution. HRCP is sure that unless unambiguous will of the state to bring the killers to justice is demonstrated Pakistan will become an even more unlivable place than it already is.”

Zohra Yusuf
Chairperson

HRCP

صدها تن در اعتراض به انتشار آمار جمعیت بامیان تظاهرات کردند

به روز شده:  09:10 گرينويچ - 01 ژوئيه 2012 - 11 تیر 1391

معترضان بامیانی خواستار تحقیقان قانونی نهادهای باصلاحیت در باره آمار منتشر شده از جانب اداره آمار شده اند

شماری از ساکنان ولایت بامیان در اعتراض به انتشار آمار جمعیت این ولایت از سوی اداره مرکزی ا‌حصائیه (اداره آمار) دست به تظاهرات زده اند.

اخیرا این اداره در پی بررسی وضعیت اقتصادی، اجتماعی و جمعیت‌شناسی ولایت بامیان، اعلام کرد که جعمیت این ولایت بیشتر از ۳۶۸ هزار نفر است.

اما تظاهرکنندگان بامیانی این آمار را "سیاسی و مغرضانه" دانسته و گفته‌اند که جمعیت بامیان بسیار بیشتر از این است.

محمدسجاد محسنی، از سازمان‌دهندگان این تظاهرات روز یکشنبه، ۱۱ سرطان/تیر به بی‎بی‌سی فارسی گفت که اداره احصائیه کار خود را در سرشماری جمعیت بامیان به درستی انجام نداده است.

آقای محسنی گفت: "چگونه این‌ها (سرشمارهای اداره احصائیه) اعضای خانواده‌ها را شمرده‌اند؟ اصلا آنها آمده‌ و دروازه‌ها را نشانی کرده‌اند و کسی به یاد ندارد که از رئیس خانواده سوال کرده باشند و یا آمار نفوس(جمعیت) خانواده را پرسیده باشند."

او افزود: "من در جایی هستم که خانه‌ام با مرکز احصائیه (ولایت بامیان) دو دقیقه راه فاصله دارد. به خانه‌های ما کسی نیامده و نپرسیده که چند نفر نفوس هستید."

این عضو سابق شورای ولایتی بامیان گفت در صورتی که صحت آمار اعلام شده از جانب اداره احصائیه پذیرفته شود، تعداد نمایندگان بامیان در پارلمان و دیگر امتیازات سیاسی و اقتصادی این ولایت کاهش خواهد یافت.

اما عبدالرحمان غفوری، رئیس اداره آمار افغانستان در واکنش به این تظاهرات، به بی‌بی‌سی فارسی گفت که این اداره هیچ علاقه‌ای ندارد که آمار جمعیت بامیان را کم نشان بدهد.

عبدالرحمان غفوری، رئیس اداره آمار افغانستان ادعای معترضان بامیانی را رد کرده است

او افزود: "ما هیچ ضرورت و نیازی نداریم که نفوس جایی را کم یا زیاد کنیم. ما در این مشکلی نداریم که با آنها (معترضان) در این رابطه صحبت کنیم."

این نخستین بار است که آمار جمعیت یک ولایت از سوی اداره آمار افغانستان اعلام و با واکنش منفی ساکنان آن مواجه می‌شود.

آنگونه که آقای غفوری گفت، پیش از این در افغانستان سرشماری کامل صورت نگرفته است و آمارهای موجود در این زمینه معتبر نیست.

او افزود که اداره آمار یک طرح آزمایشی را در بامیان برای بررسی وضعیت اقتصادی، اجتماعی و جمعیت شناسی این ولایت انجام داده و هنوز مشخص نیست که آیا چنین طرحی در ولایتهای دیگر هم اجرا خواهد شد یا نه.

به گفته رئیس اداره آمار افغانستان، بررسی جمعیت شناسی بامیان با حمایت صندوق جمعیت سازمان ملل انجام شده است.

پیش از این اداره آمار در وبسایت خود آمار تخمینی جمعیت ولایت بامیان را ۴۲۵ هزار نفر نوشته و تظاهرکنندگان گفته‌اند که بر اساس آمارهای نهادهای دیگر، جمعیت بامیان بیش از ۷۰۰ هزار نفر است.

تظاهرکنندگان در قطعنامه پایانی تظاهرات خود خواستار "تحقیقات قانونی" نهادهای باصلاحیت در باره آمار منتشر شده از جانب اداره آمار شده‌اند.

BBC Farsi

Over 400 killed in Balochistan sectarian violence: Report

By Zahid Gishkori
Published: July 1, 2012


Official data shows an alarming increase in killings. PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:

The government seems to be at a loss to explain the escalating sectarian strife in Balochistan, which has claimed more than 400 lives in more than 200 incidents of ethnic and sectarian violence in the past four years.

The decade-long insurgency recently turned into a battleground for politically motivated attacks on religious sects with banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi allegedly targeting the Shia and Hazara communities throughout the embattled province.

The provincial home department said in an official report last week that cross-border influence, among other factors, was fuelling the sectarian violence.

The official report which covers a period of four years states that over 400 Shias and Hazaras, who account for nearly a fifth of the country’s 170 million population lost their lives as a result of the aggression. Around 100 pilgrims have been killed in just the first half of the current year.

Another 450 people were injured in over 110 sectarian attacks from 2008 to 2011.

The increasing trend of violence is alarming. Over 120 members of the Shia and Hazara communities were gunned down last year while close to a 100 sustained injuries, compared to 81 fatalities and 200 casualties in 2010.

In 2009, 39 members of the Shia community were killed and 20 injured in over 30 incidents of ethnic violence, while only 15 were killed and 10 injured in 2008.

The police have arrested alleged terrorist Sher Dil, also known as Babu, for his reported ties with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in a bid to curb the violence. Others who have been arrested include Hafiz Muhammad Usman alias Abbas, Dawood Badeeni, Jalil Ababkki and Shafiq Rind. However, some suspects such as Usman Saifullah and Ziaul Haq still remain at large.

Alleged terrorists Khalid Bungulzai and Majeed Langove are said to have been killed in police encounters and the government has constituted a high-level inquiry committee headed by the home minister of Balochistan to further probe the incident.

The provincial government has decided to refer the investigation of “sensitive cases” to the Crime Investigation Department and called for a review of the regulations pertaining to the movement of pilgrims under the Travel Agency Act, 1976.

The provincial home secretary also held meetings with the Iranian consul general. Both sides agreed to beef-up security arrangements from Quetta to Taftan and discussed possible arrangements for facilitating the movement of members of the Hazara community between Marriabad to Hazara Town and Hazar Ganji.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2012.

Hazara’s genocide

Rocket Attack on Hazara Pilgrims' Bus from an Artist's Perspective

Saturday, June 30th, 2012 3:33:03 by

  Faisal Farooq

The gruesome incident in which a bus of Shia pilgrims was attacked in Quetta coupled with numerous others in Balochistan over the past few months is part of baleful conspiracy to divide the country vertically and horizontally.

More than dozen people, who were returning from Iran, were lost their lives while another 30 sustained severe injuries when their bus was attacked in the outskirts of provincial metropolis.

If we focus on the pattern of attacks, the incompetency of the provincial government and law enforcement agencies to protect the community becomes the foremost reason of the dreadful incident.

This community mainly targeted along the set routes that buses take when transporting pilgrims to and from Iran, the neighboring Shia-dominated country.

Although law enforcement agencies increased security along these routes, they will have to develop a proper setup to monitor and identify suspicious activities in the future.

The police escorts which accompany pilgrims in these journeys are adequate at all. Local politicians of the province have been provided extensive and expensive security arrangements, but why not proper security and protection is being given to Hazara community.

Rather making efforts to prevent already planned attacks at the eleventh hour, the more effective way to tackle the issue is chasing the militants and dismantling their infrastructure.

The anti-Shia militancy in the province has modified itself into a force having its own motivations, operational bases and centers of propaganda and misinformation.

The law enforcement agencies have identified the locations of seminaries involved in propagating anti-Shia views. They also found some bases of the Lahskar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) who train militants and terrorists for such attacks.

Despite having information about the attacks and those behind them in the face of such a predictable pattern, the failure to prevent them has only intensified speculation that law enforcement agencies are deliberately not taking action against secretarial violence.

Such theories reflect mistrust among the stakeholders in the province, which is seen as being focused on cracking down against separatist forces.

The continued attacks on the Hazara community are increasingly becoming a massive abdication of responsibility on part of the state whatever it is thinking.

News Pakistan