Saturday, December 3, 2011
Pakistan: Protect Shi'a Muslims, say rights group
03-12-2011
New York, (HRW): The Pakistani government should urgently act to protect Shia Muslims in Pakistan from sectarian attack during the Muslim holy month of Moharram, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today. In recent years, Sunni extremist groups in Pakistan have been implicated in a number of deadly attacks on Shia during Moharram, which in 2011 began on November 26.
Concerns are greatest for possible attacks on Shia processions marking Ashura, the 10th day of Moharram, which this year is on December 6. Ashura processions have been attacked each of the past two years. In December 2010, a grenade attack on a Moharram procession in the city of Peshawar killed one person, a child, and wounded 28. In December 2009, a suicide bomber killed 30 and wounded dozens of mourners at a Moharram procession in Karachi. On February 5, 2010, a double-bombing of a follow-up Shia procession killed 25 and wounded over 50.
“Shia in Pakistan should be able to participate in Ashura processions without fear of attack,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Pakistani authorities need to address the severe danger faced by the Shia population with all necessary security measures. They can start by arresting extremist group members responsible for past attacks.”
Human Rights Watch has recorded at least 18 sectarian attacks on Shia in 2011. Since Pakistan’s return to constitutional rule in 2008, hundreds of Shia have been killed across Pakistan by alleged Sunni extremists. Human Rights Watch research indicates that at least 275 Shias, mostly of Hazara ethnicity, have been killed in sectarian attacks in the southwestern province of Balochistan alone since 2008.
On November 29, Mohammad Danish Alam, a Shia teacher at Balochistan University, became the latest victim of an apparent sectarian killing when he was gunned down by unidentified men in the Zarghoonabad suburb of Quetta, Balochistan’s capital. Local police reported that Alam, a science and information technology lecturer, was on his way to the university on his motorcycle when gunmen opened fire and killed him.
On October 4, gunmen on motorbikes stopped a bus carrying mostly Hazara Shia who were headed to work at a vegetable market on the outskirts of Quetta. The attackers forced the passengers off the bus, made them stand in a row, and then opened fire, killing 13 and wounding 6 others.
On September 19, near the town of Mastung in Balochistan, gunmen forced about 40 Hazara who had been traveling to Iran to visit Shia holy sites to disembark from their bus. They shot 26 dead and wounded 6. Although some of the Hazara escaped, gunmen killed another three as they tried to bring the wounded to a hospital in Quetta. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni militant group, claimed responsibility for this attack.
Pakistani and international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have made numerous calls to Pakistan’s authorities to hold those responsible for the attacks to account. While authorities claim to have arrested dozens of suspects, no one has been charged in these attacks.
“The ongoing targeted killings of Shia send a chilling message to all Pakistanis that their government won’t necessarily act to protect them,” Adams said. “The government’s failure to break up the extremist groups that carry out these attacks calls into question its commitment to protect all of its citizens.”
Some Sunni extremist groups are known to have links to the Pakistani military and its intelligence agencies. Groups such as the banned Lashkar-e Jhangvi operate with impunity even in areas where state authority is well established, such as Punjab province and the port city of Karachi. In Balochistan, where local militants challenge government authority, and elsewhere across Pakistan, law enforcement officials have failed to intervene or prevent attacks on Shia and other vulnerable groups.
Human Rights Watch called on Pakistan’s federal government and the respective provincial governments to apprehend quickly and appropriately prosecute those responsible for Alam’s killing, the September 19 and October 4 attacks, and other crimes targeting the Shia population.
“Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders should recognize that their tolerance for extremist groups is killing their own citizens,” Adams said. ”They need to stop appeasing extremists and start holding them accountable.”
The Muslim News
New York, (HRW): The Pakistani government should urgently act to protect Shia Muslims in Pakistan from sectarian attack during the Muslim holy month of Moharram, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today. In recent years, Sunni extremist groups in Pakistan have been implicated in a number of deadly attacks on Shia during Moharram, which in 2011 began on November 26.
Concerns are greatest for possible attacks on Shia processions marking Ashura, the 10th day of Moharram, which this year is on December 6. Ashura processions have been attacked each of the past two years. In December 2010, a grenade attack on a Moharram procession in the city of Peshawar killed one person, a child, and wounded 28. In December 2009, a suicide bomber killed 30 and wounded dozens of mourners at a Moharram procession in Karachi. On February 5, 2010, a double-bombing of a follow-up Shia procession killed 25 and wounded over 50.
“Shia in Pakistan should be able to participate in Ashura processions without fear of attack,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Pakistani authorities need to address the severe danger faced by the Shia population with all necessary security measures. They can start by arresting extremist group members responsible for past attacks.”
Human Rights Watch has recorded at least 18 sectarian attacks on Shia in 2011. Since Pakistan’s return to constitutional rule in 2008, hundreds of Shia have been killed across Pakistan by alleged Sunni extremists. Human Rights Watch research indicates that at least 275 Shias, mostly of Hazara ethnicity, have been killed in sectarian attacks in the southwestern province of Balochistan alone since 2008.
On November 29, Mohammad Danish Alam, a Shia teacher at Balochistan University, became the latest victim of an apparent sectarian killing when he was gunned down by unidentified men in the Zarghoonabad suburb of Quetta, Balochistan’s capital. Local police reported that Alam, a science and information technology lecturer, was on his way to the university on his motorcycle when gunmen opened fire and killed him.
On October 4, gunmen on motorbikes stopped a bus carrying mostly Hazara Shia who were headed to work at a vegetable market on the outskirts of Quetta. The attackers forced the passengers off the bus, made them stand in a row, and then opened fire, killing 13 and wounding 6 others.
On September 19, near the town of Mastung in Balochistan, gunmen forced about 40 Hazara who had been traveling to Iran to visit Shia holy sites to disembark from their bus. They shot 26 dead and wounded 6. Although some of the Hazara escaped, gunmen killed another three as they tried to bring the wounded to a hospital in Quetta. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni militant group, claimed responsibility for this attack.
Pakistani and international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have made numerous calls to Pakistan’s authorities to hold those responsible for the attacks to account. While authorities claim to have arrested dozens of suspects, no one has been charged in these attacks.
“The ongoing targeted killings of Shia send a chilling message to all Pakistanis that their government won’t necessarily act to protect them,” Adams said. “The government’s failure to break up the extremist groups that carry out these attacks calls into question its commitment to protect all of its citizens.”
Some Sunni extremist groups are known to have links to the Pakistani military and its intelligence agencies. Groups such as the banned Lashkar-e Jhangvi operate with impunity even in areas where state authority is well established, such as Punjab province and the port city of Karachi. In Balochistan, where local militants challenge government authority, and elsewhere across Pakistan, law enforcement officials have failed to intervene or prevent attacks on Shia and other vulnerable groups.
Human Rights Watch called on Pakistan’s federal government and the respective provincial governments to apprehend quickly and appropriately prosecute those responsible for Alam’s killing, the September 19 and October 4 attacks, and other crimes targeting the Shia population.
“Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders should recognize that their tolerance for extremist groups is killing their own citizens,” Adams said. ”They need to stop appeasing extremists and start holding them accountable.”
The Muslim News
Tight security for Ashura in Balochistan
By: Bari Baloch | Published: December 04, 2011
QUETTA - Strict security arrangements have been made in different districts of Balochistan, including the provincial capital, for Ashura.
According to officials, about 5,500 personnel will be deployed around Majalis and procession routes on Muharram 10 while Rescue workers and volunteers will discharge their duties during 9th and 10th of Muharram.
“As many as 60 special posts have been established throughout the city to cover the religious procession,” a senior police official said, adding that about 200 Levis Force personnel had been deployed to assist the police in and around the provincial capital.
He went on all routes and streets would be sealed on 9th Muharram.
Sources said over 32 closed-circuit cameras had been installed in the city to monitor the situation. “Muharram procession will also be given aerial surveillance,” they added.
They said special checkposts would be set up in the sensitive areas, including Mariabad, Hazara Town and Aalmdar Road to avert any untoward incident.
Sources said the government had already imposed a ban on pillion-riding in the provincial capital besides warning of taking stern action against those found in wall-chalking and misuse of loudspeakers in the metropolis from 1st of the holy month.
Balochistan Home Secretary Naseebullah Bazai told a meeting that all hospitals of the city had been put on high alert and Edhi ambulances were also on standby position to cope with any emergency situation.
Emergency has been declared in the state-run hospitals, including Bolan Medical Complex Hospital and Civil Hospital of Quetta, while holidays of doctors have been cancelled.
Foolproof security arrangements have also been made in other towns of Balochistan, including Naseerabad, Sibi, Machh and Mastung and a large number of personnel of law enforcement agencies have been deployed to thwart any untoward incident.
THE NATION
QUETTA - Strict security arrangements have been made in different districts of Balochistan, including the provincial capital, for Ashura.
According to officials, about 5,500 personnel will be deployed around Majalis and procession routes on Muharram 10 while Rescue workers and volunteers will discharge their duties during 9th and 10th of Muharram.
“As many as 60 special posts have been established throughout the city to cover the religious procession,” a senior police official said, adding that about 200 Levis Force personnel had been deployed to assist the police in and around the provincial capital.
He went on all routes and streets would be sealed on 9th Muharram.
Sources said over 32 closed-circuit cameras had been installed in the city to monitor the situation. “Muharram procession will also be given aerial surveillance,” they added.
They said special checkposts would be set up in the sensitive areas, including Mariabad, Hazara Town and Aalmdar Road to avert any untoward incident.
Sources said the government had already imposed a ban on pillion-riding in the provincial capital besides warning of taking stern action against those found in wall-chalking and misuse of loudspeakers in the metropolis from 1st of the holy month.
Balochistan Home Secretary Naseebullah Bazai told a meeting that all hospitals of the city had been put on high alert and Edhi ambulances were also on standby position to cope with any emergency situation.
Emergency has been declared in the state-run hospitals, including Bolan Medical Complex Hospital and Civil Hospital of Quetta, while holidays of doctors have been cancelled.
Foolproof security arrangements have also been made in other towns of Balochistan, including Naseerabad, Sibi, Machh and Mastung and a large number of personnel of law enforcement agencies have been deployed to thwart any untoward incident.
THE NATION
Muharram rally marches peacefully to destination
Staff Report
QUETTA: The seventh Muharram rally marched peacefully to its destination in the provincial capital on Saturday.
The rally set out from the Khalah imambargah and passed through Archer Road, Art School Road, Liaqat Bazar, Mccongy Road, Mir Ahmed Khan Road and ended on Prince Road.
Strict security arrangements had been made by the government, which had deploy over 5,000 personnel of law enforcement agencies and paramilitary troops. Personnel of police, Frontier Corps and the Anti-Terrorism Force were deployed along the route of the procession. All roads, streets, and shops leading to the procession were sealed with barbed wires. Journalists were issued special passes for coverage.
This year, tough security measures were arranged by law enforcement agencies with the cooperation of volunteers from the Jaloos Management committee. The number of participants was observed to be large.
Daily Times
QUETTA: The seventh Muharram rally marched peacefully to its destination in the provincial capital on Saturday.
The rally set out from the Khalah imambargah and passed through Archer Road, Art School Road, Liaqat Bazar, Mccongy Road, Mir Ahmed Khan Road and ended on Prince Road.
Strict security arrangements had been made by the government, which had deploy over 5,000 personnel of law enforcement agencies and paramilitary troops. Personnel of police, Frontier Corps and the Anti-Terrorism Force were deployed along the route of the procession. All roads, streets, and shops leading to the procession were sealed with barbed wires. Journalists were issued special passes for coverage.
This year, tough security measures were arranged by law enforcement agencies with the cooperation of volunteers from the Jaloos Management committee. The number of participants was observed to be large.
Daily Times
Profiles in Politics: Azra Jafari of Afghanistan
Posted on September 29, 2011 by Administrator
- By Hanna Trudo
It’s not just her gender – a woman in male-everything Afghanistan – or her role as the country’s first female mayor that makes Azra Jafari revolutionary.
Jafari, who was a refugee in Iran for several years to escape the Taliban’s Islamist fist, returned to Afghanistan in 2001 when the country was in need of parliamentary strength post-U.S. invasion.
Many women who fled from Afghanistan during Taliban control stayed in neighboring Pakistan and Iran for education and work opportunities. But Jafari, the daughter of Afghan refugee parents born in 1978, sought to impact the poor province of Dai Kundi, and was named mayor of Nili, the capital, in 2008 by President Hamid Karzai.
Jafari left her former roles in teaching, editing, and welfare rights activism to join a government that was, and still is, unused to a mother filling a traditionally-male mayor’s seat.
Two years after the Taliban took control of the Afghan government in 1996, Jafari became the Editor-in-Chief of Farhang Magazine, a social and cultural publication in Iran in 1998. She also created an elementary school for Afghan refugees in Iran during her seven-year commitment to the Refugees’ Cultural Centre as Officer in Charge.
In 2001, Jafari joined the Emergency Loya Jirga in Kabul – the consultative council that dates back three centuries – where she organized a seminar for female members and participated in the election process that ultimately led to President Karzai becoming the new leader of Afghanistan.
The following year, Jafari’s activist instincts led her to a one-year stint as the Deputy Director of the Equal Rights Association, based in Kabul, before she enrolled in the Institute of Health Science. In 2007, Jafari graduated with a concentration of midwifery.
Before President Karzai declared Jafari the country’s first female mayor, she headed the gender and rights division of Armanshahr/OPEN ASIA, an independent, non-governmental organization that focuses on peace building, women’s empowerment, and human rights in Middle Asia. On Thursday last week, she was awarded the Meeto Memorial Award at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts for her work and commitment to social development.
Just two weeks into her role as mayor in January 2009, Jafari worried that conditions for women had worsened, and that Afghanistan wasn’t ready for a woman to work alongside men in the government.
Jafari told Reuters, “Unfortunately, Afghan society has not yet become a society which can accept that women are able to do this job, like any other person.”
But female-political opposition in Afghanistan didn’t deter Jafari in her new role. As mayor, she commutes, twice a month for two days, from Nili to Kabul across danger zones to get the job done.
Surveying the government transition time from 2002 to 2004, before President Karzai came into more permanent power, Jafari said women were in a better place then, according to Reuters.
“Unfortunately, day by day, the position of women fades… We had three or four women ministers during the interim government period, now we have one. President Karzai himself wants to see women progress and wants to seem them strengthen as part of a democracy, but Afghanistan is a male-dominated society,” Jafari said.
The risks involved with being a female government official in a male-centric land are real, but Jafari continues to work valiantly to combat poverty in Dai Kundi. Her efforts are fueled by the desire to make a difference in the disenfranchised community because she is a citizen and activist, not because she is a woman.
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