UN decides to observe Balochistan situation

South Asian News Agency (SANA) ⋅ August 25, 2012 ⋅

ISLAMABAD, (SANA): United Nations has decided to send a delegation to Pakistan for reviewing the situation in Balochistan. Foreign office has been informed in this regard.

The UN authorities has written a letter to foreign ministry mentioning that seven-member US delegation would visit Pakistan from September 10 to 20 to review the situation in Balochisatan.

The UN delegation would visit Quetta, Karachi, Peshawar and Islamabad. Members of the UN delegation would also hold meetings with Prime Minister, interior Minister and the provincial authorities.
Ends-SANA-AK-AA

Controlling extremism

Jang 

Dunya @ 8 with Malick -- Khaliq Hazara on Hazara Massacre 22nd August 2012 - p1

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.

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.

The News

Quetta as it used to be

Editorial

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.

The News

Dunya @8 with Malick - 22August 2012 - Hazaras massacre in Quetta, Pakistan

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