Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Body of little girl found in Quetta
Thursday, August 23, 2012
From Print Edition
QUETTA: The Police found a body of an eight-year-old girl from Karani road area of the provincial capital.
From Print Edition
QUETTA: The Police found a body of an eight-year-old girl from Karani road area of the provincial capital.
Police said that it received information about the body of a little girl in a garden on Karani road. The police took the body into custody and shifted it to hospital morgue for identification. Further investigation is underway.
Quetta as it used to be
Thursday, August 23, 2012
From Print Edition
It is depressing to read accounts of what Quetta was once like as a city. In the past, people thronged to its cinemas, wandered through the bazaars without fear, dined out, attended parties and children played safely on the streets. The city was a much-loved home to the generations who grew up there as well as a cool oasis for holiday-makers from other parts of the country escaping the summer heat. But that was before strife and trouble hit the once-tranquil city. Balochistan’s capital has today changed beyond recognition. Bomb blasts and incidents of ethnic and sectarian violence are reported almost every day, with check-posts, bunkers and road blocks now ubiquitous. The latest incident of violence took place on Eid, killing one and wounding eight when a vehicle belonging to the security forces was targeted. There have been numerous similar attacks as well as others based on sectarian or ethnic motives. In targeted killings, teachers have been shot dead and abductions and disappearances have become a regular affair. The people of Quetta and many other parts of the province now live in a state of perpetual fear and avoid going out after dark. There is simply no law and order and no sense of security.
As a result of all this, settlers from other provinces who have lived in Balochistan for generations have been forced to pack their belongings and leave. The Hazara community of the city feel equally insecure given the chilling frequency of attacks on them. In desperation, many have restricted their movements and others have made attempts to leave the country. Little heed has been paid to their protests by the authorities. Many Baloch young men, meanwhile, continue to live in the fear of being abducted and joining the ranks of ‘missing persons’. In these circumstances, it is almost impossible to believe that Quetta was once a place of joy and calm. Old pictures from more peaceful times now seem difficult to recognise. Certainly, the generation that has grown up in the Quetta of today find it difficult to even relate to such happier times. Can anything be done to halt this slide of a once-graceful city towards anarchy? Is it already too late for the provincial government to wake up from its deep slumber and accept its responsibility of protecting the people? Do the top political leaders of the country really understand what is happening and what their role is in stopping it? The Supreme Court continues its efforts to persuade the authorities to impose some kind of order in Balochistan. But the task, given the callous and indifferent attitude of those responsible for maintaining law and order, appears to be beyond the court’s abilities. The future of our largest province is shrouded in deep uncertainty and it falls upon all of us to try and find solutions before it is too late.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Leaving is better than staying to face death
August 20, 2012
Muhammad Khani
I want to talk about my people, the Hazara people. The emigration of Hazara people started about 200 years ago. In the 1890s, the British-backed Amir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan, killed 64 per cent of Hazaras, by some accounts, because they were Shiite Muslim and had different faces from those of other nations in Afghanistan.
The Taliban regime also killed many Hazaras for the same reason. After they captured the town of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998, the Taliban killed 4000 ordinary Hazara villagers in one day.
Under the current President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, it is still going on. One example is the suicide bomb attacks on the Ashura [day of mourning] commemoration in 2011, which killed 150 Hazara Shiites in Kabul.
Because of these problems, people have long emigrated to a safer place.
Advertisement
At first they emigrated to Iran and Pakistan. But in Iran they have never been accepted. In Pakistan, every day, the Sunni militant organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi kills Hazara Shiite Muslims for the same reasons we have always been killed.
Just last week, two innocent 10-year-old boys were killed, and on Thursday three more people were killed.
When Hazara people hear about Australia - that they accept asylum seekers - they become happy that we have found a safe place to live.
Many Hazara people have been to [the United Nations' refugee agency] UNHCR offices but got no response from anyone. After that, people started to reach Australia illegally. It was a great source of hope for them to get there.
Afghanistan's situation is getting worse every day. The government does not have any control during the night outside of the capital, Kabul - so just think about what the situation is in other cities.
Democracy in Afghanistan exists only on paper. Nothing more. No one obeys even the simple rules of democratic government.
When NATO's army said it would be leaving Afghanistan in 2014, everything in Afghanistan stopped. People don't build anything any more and are sending their money out of the country. Most think the Taliban will come back after NATO troops leave.
In my case, I had two choices - one bad and one worse. The worse way was to stay there and uselessly die. The bad way was to find a safe place in Australia. If I had any other choice, I would never come in this way.
I want to say to Australians that we are seeking justice and safety. We need help. We are human and we want the rights of human beings.
The feeling of being targeted by your enemy, who will kill you, is very hard to describe. That is what forced me to select this risky way out.
Muhammad Khani, 22, is an electrician from Afghanistan who has left to come to Australia. He is waiting in the Indonesian town of Cisarua for a boat to take him to Christmas Island. He says he will come, despite the federal government's harsh new laws, because he has no choice.
SMH
I want to talk about my people, the Hazara people. The emigration of Hazara people started about 200 years ago. In the 1890s, the British-backed Amir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan, killed 64 per cent of Hazaras, by some accounts, because they were Shiite Muslim and had different faces from those of other nations in Afghanistan.
The Taliban regime also killed many Hazaras for the same reason. After they captured the town of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998, the Taliban killed 4000 ordinary Hazara villagers in one day.
Under the current President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, it is still going on. One example is the suicide bomb attacks on the Ashura [day of mourning] commemoration in 2011, which killed 150 Hazara Shiites in Kabul.
Because of these problems, people have long emigrated to a safer place.
Advertisement
At first they emigrated to Iran and Pakistan. But in Iran they have never been accepted. In Pakistan, every day, the Sunni militant organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi kills Hazara Shiite Muslims for the same reasons we have always been killed.
Just last week, two innocent 10-year-old boys were killed, and on Thursday three more people were killed.
When Hazara people hear about Australia - that they accept asylum seekers - they become happy that we have found a safe place to live.
Many Hazara people have been to [the United Nations' refugee agency] UNHCR offices but got no response from anyone. After that, people started to reach Australia illegally. It was a great source of hope for them to get there.
Afghanistan's situation is getting worse every day. The government does not have any control during the night outside of the capital, Kabul - so just think about what the situation is in other cities.
Democracy in Afghanistan exists only on paper. Nothing more. No one obeys even the simple rules of democratic government.
When NATO's army said it would be leaving Afghanistan in 2014, everything in Afghanistan stopped. People don't build anything any more and are sending their money out of the country. Most think the Taliban will come back after NATO troops leave.
In my case, I had two choices - one bad and one worse. The worse way was to stay there and uselessly die. The bad way was to find a safe place in Australia. If I had any other choice, I would never come in this way.
I want to say to Australians that we are seeking justice and safety. We need help. We are human and we want the rights of human beings.
The feeling of being targeted by your enemy, who will kill you, is very hard to describe. That is what forced me to select this risky way out.
Muhammad Khani, 22, is an electrician from Afghanistan who has left to come to Australia. He is waiting in the Indonesian town of Cisarua for a boat to take him to Christmas Island. He says he will come, despite the federal government's harsh new laws, because he has no choice.
SMH
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Shia killings on the rise
From the Newspaper |
Thursday’s execution-style killing of Shia citizens in Mansehra district and the killing of Hazaras in Quetta were only the latest incidents in what is now a clear trend: targeting innocent members of the sect — not necessarily members of any political or religious organisation — and killing them for no reason other than their religious affiliation. The Mansehra attack had a particularly disturbing aspect to it, with passengers made to show their identity papers and those suspected of beingShia, on the basis of their names or tribal affiliations, being picked out and killed. Like other recent sectarian killings in Balochistan, Kohistan and Orakzai, the approach used resembled ethnic cleansing in its chilling focus on identifying and killing innocent citizens simply because of their membership to a particular community. And while the Hazara community under attack in Balochistan is relatively small and powerless, the same is not true of Shia communities elsewhere in the country. If not arrested, this trend could well spiral out of control, turning the issue into a much larger conflict.
Meanwhile, where is the outrage from the security forces and politicians? We know these groups are willing to launch aggressive messaging campaigns when they wish to. Take, for example, the army’s response to Salala, the PML-N’s reaction to the government’s refusal to write the ‘Swiss letter’, the ruling party’s defensive posture on threats to democracy or the PTI’s campaign against drone strikes. And while it is unclear what judicial activism can achieve in such cases beyond raising their profile, where is the judiciary that otherwise takes suo moto notice of everything from the price of sugar to violence in Karachi? As each of these groups tries to focus on topics they think will boost their populist or nationalist credentials, the campaign to eradicate a minority community continues to receive less official attention than it should.
Beyond the messaging failure, little appears to have been done to confront the physical danger. Providing security escorts to pilgrims’ buses and changing the routes Shia travellers take has not been enough. Whether combating the problem is a matter of improving intelligence-gathering to prevent attacks, pre-emptively going after the groups that are carrying them out, improving policing in vulnerable areas or other intelligence or security measures, further delays are inexcusable. The state needs to demonstrate what it is doing to combat this threat. If not, Pakistan may as well give up any pretence of being a state for anyone other than its majority religious community.
Thursday’s execution-style killing of Shia citizens in Mansehra district and the killing of Hazaras in Quetta were only the latest incidents in what is now a clear trend: targeting innocent members of the sect — not necessarily members of any political or religious organisation — and killing them for no reason other than their religious affiliation. The Mansehra attack had a particularly disturbing aspect to it, with passengers made to show their identity papers and those suspected of beingShia, on the basis of their names or tribal affiliations, being picked out and killed. Like other recent sectarian killings in Balochistan, Kohistan and Orakzai, the approach used resembled ethnic cleansing in its chilling focus on identifying and killing innocent citizens simply because of their membership to a particular community. And while the Hazara community under attack in Balochistan is relatively small and powerless, the same is not true of Shia communities elsewhere in the country. If not arrested, this trend could well spiral out of control, turning the issue into a much larger conflict.
Meanwhile, where is the outrage from the security forces and politicians? We know these groups are willing to launch aggressive messaging campaigns when they wish to. Take, for example, the army’s response to Salala, the PML-N’s reaction to the government’s refusal to write the ‘Swiss letter’, the ruling party’s defensive posture on threats to democracy or the PTI’s campaign against drone strikes. And while it is unclear what judicial activism can achieve in such cases beyond raising their profile, where is the judiciary that otherwise takes suo moto notice of everything from the price of sugar to violence in Karachi? As each of these groups tries to focus on topics they think will boost their populist or nationalist credentials, the campaign to eradicate a minority community continues to receive less official attention than it should.
Beyond the messaging failure, little appears to have been done to confront the physical danger. Providing security escorts to pilgrims’ buses and changing the routes Shia travellers take has not been enough. Whether combating the problem is a matter of improving intelligence-gathering to prevent attacks, pre-emptively going after the groups that are carrying them out, improving policing in vulnerable areas or other intelligence or security measures, further delays are inexcusable. The state needs to demonstrate what it is doing to combat this threat. If not, Pakistan may as well give up any pretence of being a state for anyone other than its majority religious community.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Sectarian scourge
Editorial
Saturday, August 18, 2012
From Print Edition
Thursday morning’s brutal sectarian massacre of 22 passengers travelling through the Babusar Top area of Mansehra district was a bloody iteration of a chilling pattern of attacks against religious minorities, including members of Muslim minority sects. In the early hours of the morning, terrorists ambushed four buses, hauled off passengers, checked their national identity cards and summarily executed the Shias. A spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the killings. While there was legitimate outrage across the country over Thursday’s Kamra airbase attack and the subsequent loss of lives and damage to national assets, the slaughter of innocent civilians belonging to the Shia community was not met with quite the same amount of indignation. In fact, if the past is a benchmark, the 22 victims of Babusar Top will have died as insignificantly as they had lived, with no one held responsible or answerable for their deaths. In a state where the concept of national security does not yet incorporate the crucial element of human security, the symbols of state authority seem to matter more than the citizens whose protection and well-being constitutes the very raison d’être of the state. Thus, while the airbase attack unleashed a debate about the militants’ determination to target Pakistan’s most sensitive installations and raised questions about their safety, the more elemental questions were lost in the cacophony: are Pakistan’s citizens safe? Can Pakistan protect its minorities? Is any part of Pakistan free from the scourge of sectarian terror?
From Print Edition
Thursday morning’s brutal sectarian massacre of 22 passengers travelling through the Babusar Top area of Mansehra district was a bloody iteration of a chilling pattern of attacks against religious minorities, including members of Muslim minority sects. In the early hours of the morning, terrorists ambushed four buses, hauled off passengers, checked their national identity cards and summarily executed the Shias. A spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the killings. While there was legitimate outrage across the country over Thursday’s Kamra airbase attack and the subsequent loss of lives and damage to national assets, the slaughter of innocent civilians belonging to the Shia community was not met with quite the same amount of indignation. In fact, if the past is a benchmark, the 22 victims of Babusar Top will have died as insignificantly as they had lived, with no one held responsible or answerable for their deaths. In a state where the concept of national security does not yet incorporate the crucial element of human security, the symbols of state authority seem to matter more than the citizens whose protection and well-being constitutes the very raison d’être of the state. Thus, while the airbase attack unleashed a debate about the militants’ determination to target Pakistan’s most sensitive installations and raised questions about their safety, the more elemental questions were lost in the cacophony: are Pakistan’s citizens safe? Can Pakistan protect its minorities? Is any part of Pakistan free from the scourge of sectarian terror?
As things stand, this is the third attack this year that has specifically targeted Shias on buses. Meanwhile, Hazara Shias are routinely murdered in Balochistan, including the three more killed on Thursday, while sectarian violence has become a regular feature of life in Mansehra District, Kurram Agency, Dera Ismail Khan as well as south and central Punjab. The country’s financial hub of Karachi too has witnessed more than its fair share of sectarian attacks in recent days, with a blast near a bus carrying Shias to a rally on Friday killing at least one. The thick sectarian tide in the overall wave of militancy sweeping Pakistan can be explained by the fact that sectarian groups here have linked up ideologically with global jihadism. Overtly sectarian and jihadi elements are also increasingly seen occupying the same stage as mainstream religious parties. Meanwhile, those behind repeated acts of violence - such as the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi - are rarely caught or punished. Indeed, killing minorities in Pakistan seems to have become fair game while those responsible for securing citizens remain helpless, leaving minority communities to believe the security establishment is protecting the perpetrators. The mysterious escape of the local head of the LeJ, Usman Saifullah, and a key leader, Shafiq Rind, from a very well guarded Anti-Terrorist Force jail in Quetta Cantonment, is a case in point. A deadly pattern is emerging: terrorists are on a murderous rampage against Pakistan’s minority sects while the authorities have failed to prove themselves capable of taking them on. Virtually all terrorist outfits operating in Pakistan have donned the religious cloak. It is this criminal abuse of religion that the state must check against. And yet, the state is doing nothing to identify, capture, prosecute and punish those involved in sectarian terrorism. Thus, the scandal here is not just that Shia after Shia is being killed; it is that the state has become a silent onlooker in the massacre. Flaccid behaviour is too often empowering for a cunning enemy. Today, this logic is creating a dangerous moment in Pakistan where those on a killing spree are asserting themselves for little reason beyond the conviction that they can, while those who can stop them do nothing. In Pakistan, the triumph of evil may have become more and more possible under a silent, impotent state emasculated by religious extremists.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)