CM Raisani spends hours gazing at shoes as Balochistan burns

Amir Mateen

Sunday, May 27, 2012
From Print Edition

"QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani is a paradox. His admirers will tell you that he is a happy-go-lucky person “who will not say ‘no’ to you for anything that you might ask.”

Well, that could be a good trait as well as bad, depending on what one is asking. He’s got his unique, casual style that is amply posted on YouTube as Pakistan’s most funny videos. In one video he is trying to address a public gathering visibly stoned. He tries to mutter a few sentences then takes long — really long — pauses and finally collapses on stage. His media managers will tell you it was migraine but even a child can tell that it’s not. This style is reflected in everything around him. It seems his clowning around fits every other stakeholder in power."........

........"The province was already beset by sectarian and target killings that saw 1,388 people killed in the last four years, 434 of them from law enforcing agencies. In the ever-growing sectarian strife, 287 Hazaras, Shias, Hindus and Christians were targeted in 88 incidents. Tragedy gets lots in these figures. In this sleepy old town that was known for its beautiful, breezy evenings, everybody seems to be killing everybody else."........

"It’s not just the insurgency but the normal crime rate that has shot up. Criminals are having a field day in the absence of any governance. Murders have gone up from 636 in 2008 to 1,270 in 2011. Robberies have also shot from 240 to 386 in the same period. Kidnapping for ransom has increased from 181 to 421 and still growing into 2012. This has impacted businessmen particularly. Many do not wear good clothes or use good cars to avoid being identified as rich. The very soul of the city seems shattered. An extra stare by a stranger can sometimes cause shivers."......Continue Reading...

Threatened Pakistani Journalist Seeks Asylum in Australia

A Pakistani minority journalist being held at theCurtin Immigration Detention Centre, 40 kilometers southeast of Derby in West Australia, says he now feels "protected" from Islamic terrorist groups that had threatened to kill him in his home country.Amjad Hussain, 38, a print and broadcast journalist, was the only reporter from the often marginalizedHazara ethnic community working in Pakistan's mainstream media in Islamabad, the nation's capital. In less than a decade, extremist groups have killed nearly 600 Hazaras for practicing a Shia version of Islam in Sunni majority Pakistan. Hussain describes himself as a Hazara modernist, a secular professional who has come under attack for his ethnicity and for highlighting the human rights abuses committed by extremist groups and certain segments of the Pakistani security forces...Continue Reading...

Moderate quake hits Balochistan

IANS

Islamabad, May 25, 2012

An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale hit Pakistan's Balochistan province late on Thursday, a media report said.

The quake's epicentre was located some 90 km from Khuzdar district of Balochistan, reported Xinhua quoting Pakistan's ARY news channel. Tremors

were felt in different areas of the province, including Quetta city, Khuzdar and Kalat.

There was, however, no immediate report of any loss of life or property, said officials of seismic monitoring centre in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

Hindustan Times

Quetta: One shot dead at Sariab Road

QUETTA: Unknown men gunned down a man at Sariab Road in Quetta on Thursday, Geo News reported.

According to police, the victim Ameer Mohammad, resident of Hazara Town, was on his way to work when unidentified men riding a motorcycle opened fire on him.

He was rushed to Bolan Medical Complex but he succumbed to his injuries on the way to hospital.

Police termed it a ‘target killing’ incident while the culprits managed to escape from the scene.

Geo Pakistan

Another Hazara Targeted in Quetta

Picture of the Hazara labor, who was targeted killed by terrorist, this morning at Killi Chakar area of Sariab, Quetta. He was on his way to work, when armed men riding on motorcycle targeted him.  He was identified as Ameer Mohammad s/o Haji Hasan, a resident of Hazara Town.

Planned Extermination: Balochistan’s Shia Hazara Community

By Nadir Hassan 18 MAY 2012



Photo: AFP

You don’t need to travel to Balochistan to understand how it has been systematically separated from the rest of the country. There is a cell-phone company advertisement at the airport in Karachi showing off the breadth of its network. A thousand points of light illuminate most of the country. However, Balochistan is mostly shrouded in darkness.

It has now become a journalistic cliché for an outsider to breathlessly report on the diversity of a city and Quetta, Balochistan’s capital city, certainly is diverse. But what is truly astounding is how diversely militarised Quetta is. There is the XII Corps of the Pakistan Army stationed there, now headed by Lt Gen Aslam Khattak and moved to the city in 2004, just before the Baloch rebellion began. A base of the Pakistan Air Force is maintained at Samungali and the Frontier Corps headquarters in the province is also maintained in Quetta and headed by Major General Obaidullah Khattak. That the military presence in Balochistan has such a strong Pakhtun component is not coincidental, for reasons that will become apparent. In addition, it is hard to walk any place in Quetta that doesn’t have policemen from the provincial police force patrolling the streets. It’s as if Pakistan’s security establishment is playing the world-domination board game Risk and has decided the best strategy is to move all its pieces to one tiny area.

However, in the minds of locals, because of this overwhelming military presence, Quetta may be one of the most insecure places in the country. By now everyone knows that a separatist rebellion is exploding in the province; less attention is being given to an organised war against minorities in the province’s capital. The most systematic of these campaigns may be the one against its Shia Hazara community...Continue Reading..

The Hazara of Afghanistan: Cultural Exhibit & Lecture