Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Shutter-down: Quetta closed after Hazara killings
By Shehzad Baloch
Published: March 30, 2012
The community leaders said they will not bury the bodies until and unless the arrested protestors are freed. PHOTO: PPI/ FILE
QUETTA: A complete shutter-down strike was observed in Quetta on Friday to protest against Thursday’s killings of five people, including a woman of the Hazara community.
At least five people were gunned down on Thursday morning while six others were injured, when a van carrying people belonging to the the Hazara community was ambushed on Spini road.
The Hazara community continued their protest for the second consecutive day by staging demonstrations.
Addressing a news conference at Hazara Graveyard, the Vice President of the Shia Conference said that police have rounded up several people of the Hazara community during a peaceful protest.
“We will not bury the bodies until the arrested Hazara people are released,” he said.
The strike call was given by the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP), Shia Conference and backed by Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), Jamhoori Wattan Party (JWP) and other nationalist parties condemning the incident.
Trade and business activities in Quetta remained at a halt. All shops, trading centers, retailers and commercial establishments on Prince Road, Masjid Road, Liaquat Bazaar, Joint Road, Saryab Road, Alamdar Road, Hazara Town, Marriabad, Abdul Sattar Road, Zarghoon Road and others were closed.
Traffic remained thin and all street bore a deserted appearance.
Stringent security measures have been put on place with the heavy deployment of Frontier Corps (FC), police and other law enforcement agencies to thwart any unpleasant incident.
The Hazara community had staged a protest at the graveyard demanding an immediate arrest of culprits involved in targeted killings of the Hazara community.
The angry protestors burnt tyres on Eastern Bypass and raised slogans against the government and law enforcement agencies for their failure to protect the life and property of people.
A police official Mukham Raza was also killed during the violent protests triggered by the killings yesterday.
Police have rounded up dozens of suspects so far during their investigation.
Express Tribune
Published: March 30, 2012
QUETTA: A complete shutter-down strike was observed in Quetta on Friday to protest against Thursday’s killings of five people, including a woman of the Hazara community.
At least five people were gunned down on Thursday morning while six others were injured, when a van carrying people belonging to the the Hazara community was ambushed on Spini road.
The Hazara community continued their protest for the second consecutive day by staging demonstrations.
Addressing a news conference at Hazara Graveyard, the Vice President of the Shia Conference said that police have rounded up several people of the Hazara community during a peaceful protest.
“We will not bury the bodies until the arrested Hazara people are released,” he said.
The strike call was given by the Hazara Democratic Party (HDP), Shia Conference and backed by Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), Jamhoori Wattan Party (JWP) and other nationalist parties condemning the incident.
Trade and business activities in Quetta remained at a halt. All shops, trading centers, retailers and commercial establishments on Prince Road, Masjid Road, Liaquat Bazaar, Joint Road, Saryab Road, Alamdar Road, Hazara Town, Marriabad, Abdul Sattar Road, Zarghoon Road and others were closed.
Traffic remained thin and all street bore a deserted appearance.
Stringent security measures have been put on place with the heavy deployment of Frontier Corps (FC), police and other law enforcement agencies to thwart any unpleasant incident.
The Hazara community had staged a protest at the graveyard demanding an immediate arrest of culprits involved in targeted killings of the Hazara community.
The angry protestors burnt tyres on Eastern Bypass and raised slogans against the government and law enforcement agencies for their failure to protect the life and property of people.
A police official Mukham Raza was also killed during the violent protests triggered by the killings yesterday.
Police have rounded up dozens of suspects so far during their investigation.
Express Tribune
Pictorial report of Protest over killings of Hazaras in Quetta
Pictures have their own language and they do speak...
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A protester murdered by Police
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Police beating and arresting protesters
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A protester murdered by Police
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Police beating and arresting protesters
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Build bridges for harmony
Ram Puniyani on how divide-and-rule dynamics can be slowly erased in South Asia
LIFE IS full of paradoxes, and not all of them are upsetting. Some of them give a pleasant cozy feeling too. Recently, on March 25, 2012, people saw the Pakistan Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Khurshid Khan polishing the shoes of devotees in Gurudwara Rakabganj, Delhi. This work is part of seva (service) in gurudwaras. This particular tradition is part of Sikh gurudwaras. Kurshid was doing this to atone for the sins of the Taliban, who have tormented the Sikhs in many ways. He also was doing it to heal the wounds of minorities who have suffered the violence. The Taliban had abducted three Sikhs, demanding ransom. One of the Sikhs was killed. Khurshid felt the Taliban had done something inhuman, which is against Islam. Pained by this, he started this mission of bring peace and amity amongst religious communities....Continue Reading....
LIFE IS full of paradoxes, and not all of them are upsetting. Some of them give a pleasant cozy feeling too. Recently, on March 25, 2012, people saw the Pakistan Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Khurshid Khan polishing the shoes of devotees in Gurudwara Rakabganj, Delhi. This work is part of seva (service) in gurudwaras. This particular tradition is part of Sikh gurudwaras. Kurshid was doing this to atone for the sins of the Taliban, who have tormented the Sikhs in many ways. He also was doing it to heal the wounds of minorities who have suffered the violence. The Taliban had abducted three Sikhs, demanding ransom. One of the Sikhs was killed. Khurshid felt the Taliban had done something inhuman, which is against Islam. Pained by this, he started this mission of bring peace and amity amongst religious communities....Continue Reading....
Our sectarian monster
By Editorial
Published: March 29, 2012
It is most tragic that the Hazaras are now being made to feel like strangers in their own land . PHOTO: AFP/ FILE
Five more people, including a woman were killed in a drive-by shooting in Quetta on March 29, in what the provincial government described as “an incident of sectarian targeted killing” while two NGO workers were shot dead the same day by unknown assailants in Mastung. There has been a manifold increase in sectarian attacks in Balochistan recently, and it seems as though the Hazara community is specifically being targeted. In addition to yesterday’s attack, there have been numerous other incidents of violence against the Hazara community. Last September, a bus full of Shias were murdered near Quetta, while a few weeks before that there was an Eid massacre of Shias in Balochistan. Amidst the military’s offensive against separatists, we tend to forget that there is another war being fought targeting the most vulnerable community in the province.
The roots of the sectarian violence, like most discrimination against minority communities, can be traced back to the military dictatorship of Ziaul Haq. In his eagerness to impose a hardline Sunni interpretation of Islam in the country, Zia created and strengthened militant groups that initially fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir, but later turned their guns on the Shia community at home. Unfortunately, successive governments in the 1990s did nothing to throttle these militant groups and the situation kept getting worse over time.
Even before that, however, the Hazara community has been singled out by those who condemn them as imposters and infidels. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan was vicious against them. In Pakistan, it was the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that first started issuing edicts against the Hazaras. For a community that is over half a million strong, it is most tragic that the Hazaras are now being made to feel like strangers in their own land. Although efforts are being made by the government to beef up security in the city as Frontier Corps and the police have jointly launched a search operation in different areas of Quetta and arrested suspects, more needs to be done to ensure that no more lives are lost.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2012.
Published: March 29, 2012
Five more people, including a woman were killed in a drive-by shooting in Quetta on March 29, in what the provincial government described as “an incident of sectarian targeted killing” while two NGO workers were shot dead the same day by unknown assailants in Mastung. There has been a manifold increase in sectarian attacks in Balochistan recently, and it seems as though the Hazara community is specifically being targeted. In addition to yesterday’s attack, there have been numerous other incidents of violence against the Hazara community. Last September, a bus full of Shias were murdered near Quetta, while a few weeks before that there was an Eid massacre of Shias in Balochistan. Amidst the military’s offensive against separatists, we tend to forget that there is another war being fought targeting the most vulnerable community in the province.
The roots of the sectarian violence, like most discrimination against minority communities, can be traced back to the military dictatorship of Ziaul Haq. In his eagerness to impose a hardline Sunni interpretation of Islam in the country, Zia created and strengthened militant groups that initially fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir, but later turned their guns on the Shia community at home. Unfortunately, successive governments in the 1990s did nothing to throttle these militant groups and the situation kept getting worse over time.
Even before that, however, the Hazara community has been singled out by those who condemn them as imposters and infidels. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan was vicious against them. In Pakistan, it was the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that first started issuing edicts against the Hazaras. For a community that is over half a million strong, it is most tragic that the Hazaras are now being made to feel like strangers in their own land. Although efforts are being made by the government to beef up security in the city as Frontier Corps and the police have jointly launched a search operation in different areas of Quetta and arrested suspects, more needs to be done to ensure that no more lives are lost.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2012.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
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