Taliban district chief arrested in Bamiyan province

By SAJAD - Sun Jun 24, 12:09 pm

According to local authorities in Bamiyan province of Afghanistan, Afghan security forces detained Taliban district chief in Saighan.

The officials further added Mullah Abdul Kabir was arrested by Afghan security forces along with some weapons and ammunition including 1 RPG, 2 missiles, 120 rounds of AK-47 and PK ammos, some explosive materials and 3 remote controls.

Provincial security media office chief Ahmad Aliyar said Taliban district chief Mullah Abdul Kabir was arrested after carrying out a failed suicide bomb blast to target Saighan district chief.

Mr. Aliyar further added Afghan security forces seized some documents from Mullah Abdul Kabir which shows he had conducted his classes in a religious school “Jame Ashhad-ul-Tawhid” in Peshawar city of Pakistan and was later send to Bamiyan province of Afghanistan.

In the meantime Mullah Abdul Kabir said a number of religious clerics of Afghanistan is also being trained in religious Madrasas in Pakistan.

He said he was elected as district chief for Saighan while he was being trained in Peshawar city of Pakistan.

Mullah Abdul Kabir also said Taliban group was being supported and organized by United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) and 25 other Islamic and Western nations.

According to local security officials, this is the second time Afghan security forces arrest nominated Taliban leader in Bamiyan province of Afghanistan.

Afghan security forces arrested nominated Taliban provincial governor Mullah Burhanuddin for Bamiyan province last yet.

Taliban militants group yet to comment regarding the report.

Khaama Press

Daily Times, the latest pen-killer of Shia Hazaras of Quetta – by Ali Muntaziri

Pakistan media usually promotes the agenda and discourse of military establishment.

Update/Editor’s note: Op-ed editor of Daily Times has now apologized and assured to be extra careful in the future. We appreciate this gesture and hope the mainstream media will publish factual and sympathetic articles on Shia Hazaras, one of the most persecuted and target killed community of Pakistan. The exchange on Twitter is reproduced in the comments section below.

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Daily Jang’s long held stature as the military establishment’s top media ally has been thrown into jeopardy all of a sudden. There is a new candidate for the throne in town, albeit, new only in butchering facts and replacing them with outright fallacies. The victims are not new, however, it’s the Shia Hazaras of Quetta who find themselves on the receiving end of misrepresentation again.

But this is no minute propaganda, mind you, the article published in Daily Times today (written by Surat Khan Marri)is so replete with factual lies that it would have made Joseph Goebbels a very proud man.

A community besieged and terrorized at the hands of religious fanatics should normally expect some sort of solace from the educated elite of the mainstream press. I, for one though, have long let go such hollow expectations because the more one believes in the transparency of Pakistan’s electronic and press media (both Urdu and English press), the more likely are the chances for the person to end up in sheer bewilderment as to how such an insulting written piece finds its way into one of the leading newspapers in the country.


Surat Khan Marri, an ISI mole or an LeJ-Taliban operative?

What adds to my utter inconvenience is the fact that the writer of this outrageously unrealistic article claims to be a Baloch, whose community has always found an able supportive friend in Hazaras during the entire course of their struggle against the injustices that they have been targeted with. Read Mr. Surat Khan Marri’s written piece, then reread and then reread again, still, the search for a single instance of truth would prove futile. Quite contrary to the claims that Hazaras are the beneficiaries of the Balochs’ miseries is the reality that both communities continue to be the subjects of genocide at the hands of a ‘common enemy’.

Let me be blunt, the military establishment kills and abducts the Balochs and the military establishment kills Shia Hazaras, of course with the use of its strategic assets-LeJ- in this case. The Balochs and Shias (both Hazara and non-Hazara Shias) should counter this collective genocide together, any such notion that tries to create animosity between the two should be quashed left, right and center, be it one from a Hazara or a Baloch.

Let us start from today and from this piece of trash published by Daily Times. Whatever economical, educational and social progress the Hazaras have made while being in Pakistan is a testament to their hard work, dedication, patriotism, determination and willingness to move forward as a developing community unlike some others who have a sense of pride in sticking to their cave houses and guns and illiteracy. Anyone who puts pen to paper in order to repaint history with lies should be ashamed of oneself. While such attempts fail audaciously in tainting the glorious reputations of Shia Hazaras, they serve only to unveil the hatred and bias that exists within some people.

I don’t normally dwell into conspiracy theories, but the notion that the Military-Mullah-Media alliance is fully bent on pitting the local communities of Balochistan against one another is as legit as they come. On the one hand is the exceedingly naive assertion that majority of the terrorists of LeJ/SSP, killers of Shia Muslims (including Shia Hazaras), are local Balochs. While on the other hand are the nonsense claims linking innocent Shia Hazara youth with the assassination attempts on Sunni scholars. Most people might not discern the grave consequences of reactions once people of Balochistan start believing in these lies but allow me to state that disaster will ensue. As yet, though, sanity has prevailed and any such propaganda has been met with strong negative response on all fronts. May the truth seekers continue to emerge victorious from every battlefield.

CriticalPPP.Com

Ending religious discrimination: ‘The tolerant majority needs to take charge’

By Our Correspondent
Published: June 23, 2012


" We will not respond to violence with violence. This is the lesson everyone needs to learn," Hazara community member Aftab Hussain. DESIGN: FAIZAN DAWOOD
LAHORE:

“Those who believe in peace and tolerance are a majority and must take charge of the country,” Justice (retired) Nasira Iqbal said on Friday.

Justice Iqbal was addressing a convention organised by the Peace and Tolerance Alliance (PTA) in collaboration with the Strengthening Participatory Organisation Pakistan (SPO-Pak) at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) offices.

She said that Jinnah had dreamt of a Pakistan where all citizens would have equal rights irrespective of their religious affiliations.

However, she lamented that religious minorities had been deprived of rights in the country.

“We have to do more than putting the rights of minorities in the constitution,” she said. “We have to ensure that these rights are also upheld.”

She said the blasphemy laws were being used to persecute minorities and deprive them of their property.

“Most blasphemy cases are used to unjustly occupy land,” she said.

She said that a number of people that had served the country had belonged to religious minorities.

She praised the late Justice Alvin Cornelius as the most competent judge in the country’s history.

Mehboob Ahmed Khan, a human rights activist, said that a country which persecuted religious minorities through both unfair laws and social discrimination could not progress.

He said that the Jinnah’s dream was being mocked.

He recalled that Cecil Chaudhry and said he had put his Pakistani identity above his religious.

“He fought in wars to safeguard the entire country, not just Christians,” he said.

Amarnath Randhawa, a representative of the Hindu community, said that Hindus are one of Pakistan’s largest religious minorities. “We were promised a lot, from equal rights to respect,” he said.

He said that there were more than 500,000 Hindus in the Punjab. Most of their worship places had been unjustly occupied, he said. “We suffer at the hands of the majority in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan where the state religion promises security to religious places,” he said.

He said that educated Hindu girls were being forced to stay home for fear of forced conversions.

Aftab Hussain, a member of the Hazara community, said, “The silent majority needs to wake up and fight for the rights of the oppressed.”

He said that despite persecution, Hazaras had decided to fight their war peacefully.

“We will not respond to violence with violence,” he said. “This is the lesson everyone needs to learn.”

“Minorities must be brought into the mainstream to end social disparity,” Hussain said.

SPO regional director Salman Abid said that religious extremism had increased due to a weak democratic system. He said that the failure of political forces meant that the state had become party to religious discrimination.

The convention ended with PTA convener Samson Salamat putting forward demands that were unanimously adopted by the participants of the convention. These included ensuring that state policies and laws are free of religious discrimination, the blasphemy laws be ended and the curricula be revised to end discriminatory content.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 23rd, 2012.

Quetta horrors

Editorial

Thursday, June 21, 2012
From Print Edition

Quetta’s descent into a hell zone where there is no peace continues. Will the city ever find the calm that once existed there and which its people yearn for? We simply do not know. Certainly, there is no sign that this is going to happen any time soon. In yet another sectarian attack on Monday, claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a bomber targeted a bus carrying students of an IT institute of the city. Five were killed and at least 70 injured. Many of the students were Hazarwals. A large number of the injured are still in a critical condition. Tuesday saw protests in Quetta after a teacher said to be close to veteran Baloch politician Nawab Khair Bukhsh Marri was target-killed by ‘unknown’ persons. The blame and suspicions in this case have been directed towards the security agencies. Over the last few weeks we have had many meetings and conferences on the Balochistan issue and the collapse of law and order in the province. The matter also lies before the Supreme Court. There were talks of a conference involving all stakeholders in Balochistan. But nothing concrete has been done so far in this regard. The killings continue; blood spills again and again.

The police appear unsure if the bus was hit by a suicide bomber or by explosives planted along the road. In many ways this is irrelevant. The fact is that the groups behind the various kinds of violence need to be tracked down and their leaders brought to justice. There is no evidence at all that this is being done. Because of this negligence feelings of anger among the Baloch have risen to the extreme. Hazara and other nationalist parties in Balochistan have staged — understandably so — angry protests in the city. The Hazara community, targeted on both sectarian and ethnic bases, has strong grounds for complaint. Can anyone solve the maze that is leading Balochistan towards greater and greater chaos? Once more we have heard the usual words of regret from key officials. But such expressions will not bring back lives or halt the terrorists in their tracks. We keep hearing from the government that a plan for Balochistan has been worked out. We wonder why this is being kept a secret. Each day a new terror hits the province and makes matters even more difficult to manage while the government appears unmoved. This is the most frightening element of all.

The News 

Afghan academics fired for ‘offensive’ ethnic book

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday sacked four academics from a leading research centre over a book that sparked fury for reportedly insulting the Hazara ethnic group.

The head of the Afghanistan Academy of Science and three other scholars were dismissed and referred to the attorney general’s office for questioning, Karzai’s office said in a statement. The “Ethnographic Atlas of the Tribes of Afghanistan”, published recently, reportedly described Hazaras as liars, stubborn, violent and anti-Islamic, prompting outrage from Hazara politicians.

“The content of the book is grossly offensive and considered an insult to all the resident ethnicities and thus the entire Afghan population,” the statement quoted Karzai as saying. Hazaras make up an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the war-torn nation’s ethnically diverse population, and Hazara Shiite Muslims suffered brutal persecution under Taliban rule in the 1990s.

Karzai’s government is a delicate mix of the three main ethnic groups — Pashtun, Tajik and Hazara — and has ordered the book withdrawn from circulation. The publication led to fierce debates on television chat shows, and was condemned by Hazara lawmakers in parliament.

Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, leader of the Afghanistan People’s Unity Party, one of the main Hazara political factions, condemned the book and called for the authors to be punished. Asadullah Sahdati, an MP from the Hazara-majority central province of Deh Kondi, condemned the book. “The book contains non-scientific contents, and in some parts is childish. We welcome the move by the president sacking those behind it,” he said.

However, he said he did not want to see the book banned. “I want this book to be circulated, distributed to all Afghans, especially to every Hazara, so they understand the situation and the (hostile) feeling towards them,” he said. “We’re proud of our ethnic group and welcome any academic research into it.”

Ethnic divisions have led to some of the most brutal conflicts in Afghanistan’s bloody history. The mountainous country’s total population is estimated to be between 24 to 35 million, but no census has been held since the 1970s due to three decades of war. afp

Daily Times

The colour of my blood

Mubashir AkramThursday, June 21, 2012
From Print Edition

The definition 2(b) of the word Callousness in Merriam-Webster dictionary reads: “feeling or showing no sympathy for others.” And this precisely is what describes the state of the majority in Pakistan toward the Hazara community in Balochistan.

They are more interested in “bigger issues” such as the Malik Riaz case, the disqualification of Yousuf Raza Gilani, NRO and loadshedding etc, as the patriotic and peaceful Hazaras are targeted systematically.

According to the leaders of the Hazaras residing in Quetta, there are a little over million ethnic Hazaras residing in Pakistan. Majority of them is concentrated in Quetta where their estimated population is around 450,000.

A vast majority of Pakistanis, and particularly Punjabis, do not know much about them. For them, they are population from some other planet and hence, perfectly ignorable - even if they are brutally killed.

Hazara as a community hovers around the middle and lower-middle class stratum and claim to have nearly 90 percent literacy rate. Though ancestrally peasants, hardly any Hazara in Pakistan is in agriculture. They choose becoming small traders, businessmen or prefer joining government jobs.

I have this very strong feeling that probably 90 percent of the Punjabi population would not know that General (r) Muhammad Musa, the commander in chief of the Pakistan Army from 1958 to 1966 was a Hazara.

He also governed West Pakistan from 1966-69 and Balochistan from 1985-91. A true son of the soil, he served his country with pride and left a legacy for his community, and Pakistan, to take pride even after 21 years of his death.

Hazaras’ plight is nerve-racking, really, and as these lines are being written, 783 Hazaras have been killed with thousands injured in Balochistan. Ninety-nine percent of the violence has been committed only in Quetta district. Their crime is that they belong to the Shiite sect of Islam and hence are direct targets of the sectarian terrorists operating with impunity in Balochistan.

They have been attacked in more ways than one could count: indiscriminate firing on the Moharram processions/imam bargahs, kidnapping and decapitation, random firing on their vehicles, targeted killed, identify-and-kill incidents in passenger buses, raids at their homes, storming their shops and burning them subsequently.

The degree-fame chief minister of Islamabad, err, Balochistan, Mir Aslam Khan Raisani, has essentially worked merely as an extension of what his party’s government has been: poor governance and political and administrative failure.

His critics and friends alike say that he prefers to spend most of his time in Islamabad, “shopping for shoes,” as Amir Mateen eloquently put on May 27, 2012 in The News.

He could be full of humor but he is empty of many things including political wisdom, administrative vision, the will to govern, creative thinking and most particularly working hard while considering Baloch “his people” beyond statements.

When would and how could this end? Governing Balochistan, 44 percent of Pakistan’s geographical mass, could be a problem but what about Quetta alone? Quetta has a population of 1.5 million and once was a sleepy little cantonment. No one truly pondered over the unruly and disorganised growth of this martial-town in all irregular directions possible. Now, it is a melting pot of all kinds of intrigues and forms of violence from local to international.

On June 9, 2012, Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, head of the judicial commission on missing persons, blamed “foreign agencies” for deterioration of law and order in Balochistan. My question is very simple: should we, the Pakistanis, ask the Martians to come and police Balochistan?

Quetta has a corps headquarter. The FC is omnipresent. Police is ruthless, and with full authority. Every other day we hear stories of the intelligence operators running amok, at will. We hear that the inspector general of FC, Maj-Gen. Ubaidullah Khan Khattak refuses to appear before the court and then getting away with it until now. A small-sized, restless capital city slipping out of the hands of the Pakistani state is shameful. More shameful is the absence of any coherent strategy to bring peace to the people living there.

Seeing the “performance” of the incumbent federal and provincial governments, I am tempted to say that they have failed themselves - and the people of Balochistan.

There could be any number of reasons, and conspiracy theories, but the fact remains: the PPP’s federal and provincial governments lacked the political wisdom and administrative will to control situation in Balochistan.

I fear the day when an otherwise peaceful Hazara community decides to shun peace and respond to violence. I fear the day when their youth would refuse listening to their community leaders and take things in their hands.

“I am tired of this violence and have lost many relatives. I do not have much reason to believe that the government would ever catch these terrorist. How do you want me to react and respond if the violence knocks at my door? What do you think the colour of my blood is?” an enraged Hazara friend said in a wounded voice.

I know, but do the government and the state apparatus know the colour of the Hazara blood? I doubt that they do!

The News

Ary urdu khabrain 18 june 2012 Quetta: Blast hits University bus, 5 kill...