Violence is on the rise in Balochistan: Report

By Zahid Gishkori / Creative: Faizan Dawood

Published: January 3, 2013

Sectarian strife and targeted killings continue to claim more victims by the day. DESIGN: FAIZAN DAWOOD

ISLAMABAD: 

The past five years have been difficult for Balochistan according to statistics revealed by the home department. Violence in the province has claimed over 2,100 lives and left 3,845 injured in over 3,232 incidents of bomb blasts and rocket attacks in this period. Amidst rising sectarian strife and targeted killings, the government’s inability to deal with the situation appears more jarring than ever.

Throughout the province, sectarian killings remain the biggest challenge. From 2008 to 2012, 758 members of the Shia community were killed in 478 incidents. Of these, 338 victims belonged to the Hazara community, indicating that Hazaras remain the prime targets of these aggressions.

The province has become a base for a decade-long insurgency as well as a killing field for various sects. Banned outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi allegedly keeps targeting Shias throughout Balochistan. Accordingly, officials have beefed up safety measures from Quetta to Taftan and are even planning to hold meetings with Iranian authorities to discuss possible arrangements to facilitate the movement of Hazaras from Marriabad to Hazara Town and Hazar Ganji.

“The shia community, the Hazaras in particular, remains the prime target of violent groups in the province,” Balochistan Home Secretary Captain (retd) Akram Durrani told The Express Tribune when asked about these statistics. “We are struggling against militants, but the situation is not as bad as [what is] being reported.”

He added that the increasing trend of violence in Balochistan is alarming, regardless of the disparity between the reported numbers and the actual happenings on the ground.

The findings also uncover staggering ‘kill and dump’ statistics. Around 570 dead bodies have been found strewn throughout the province, with 370 of the victims belonging to the Baloch community and 89 to the Pashtun community. The rest remain unidentified to this day.

Further still, over 402 non-Baloch have been killed in 498 incidents, and over 486 injured in multiple attacks.

Not surprisingly, security personnel have also suffered great losses. As many as 340 Frontier Corps personnel and 380 policemen have lost their lives in the line of duty, and 508 security officials in total have been left wounded.

Analysts say that despite the staggering figures, the provincial government is yet to review regulations pertaining to the movement of pilgrims under the Travel Agency Act of 1976. In one instance, police decided to refer the investigation of ‘sensitive cases’ to the Crime Investigation Department after the arrest of alleged terrorist Sher Dil of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, also known as Babu, in a bid to curb violence in Balochistan.

Sectarian target killings

Number of incidents: 478

Number of Hazaras killed: 338

Total number of members of the Shia community killed: 758

Loss of security personnel

Frontier Corps personnel killed: 340

Policemen killed: 380

Security officials wounded: 508

‘Settlers’/ Non-Baloch target killings

Number of incidents: 498

Number of those killed: 402

Number of those injured: 486

‘Kill and dump’

Total number of bodies found in sacks: 570

Number of victims from the Baloch community: 370

Number of victims from the Pushtun community: 89

Unidentified victims: 111

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2013.

Portuguese billionaire adds works inspired by Bamiyan Buddhas to his vast sculpture park

José Berardo plans to add sculpture by Fernando Botero and Tony Cragg among others to Quinta dos Loridos north of Lisbon

By Gareth Harris. Web only

Published online: 01 January 2013

José Berardo's sculpture was initially created in homage to the sixth-century Bamiyan Buddhas, destroyed by the Taliban in 2001

The Portuguese billionaire José Berardo has added an homage to the sixth-century Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 to his sculpture park in Quinta dos Loridos, north of Lisbon. “We have not recreated the Buddhas themselves, rather we commissioned 6,000 tons of stone sculptures from [Chinese] artisans in the Shijiazhuang area,” says Zaid Abdali, the project manager, adding “6,000 tons being the estimated weight of the lost sculptures”. There are 1,217 sculptures dotted around the 35-hectare park, which has opened in phases since 2006. There is even an army of 45 terracotta warriors based on the real one discovered protecting the tomb of the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huangdi.

On 26 February 2001, the leader of the then Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, issued an order calling for the destruction of “all statues of non-Islamic shrines located in the different parts of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”. Within five days the Taliban said it had destroyed two-thirds of the country’s statues, including the Bamiyan Valley’s colossal Buddhas. Berardo, the chairman of the investment company Metalgest, says he was “profoundly shocked” by the iconoclasm, prompting the ambitious sculpture project. 

A new area dedicated to Modern and contemporary sculpture, due to open by this summer, will feature gargantuan works by Fernando Botero (Male Torso, 1992), Tony Cragg (Line of Thought, 2006) and Danny Lane (Stairway, 2005). 

Lynn Chadwick’s stainless steel sculpture Ace of Diamonds III, 2003, and Zadok Ben-David’s bronze female figure Looking Back, 2005, also due to go on display. They were bought in 2007 by the collector from the Cass Sculpture Foundation, a charitable trust based in Goodwood in the south of England. Wilfred Cass, the charity’s co-founder, told The Art Newspaper in March 2007 that at the time, the number of works sold to Berardo was the largest single purchase ever made from the foundation by a foreign collector. Berardo’s acquisition budget for the park is undisclosed.

The Art Newspaper 

New York Times; Pakistan's Sectarian Death Squads

Hazaras’ appeal for security

From the Newspaper

THE rampant menace of extremism is slowly and steadily taking over the minds and souls of every individual in society.

Some time back I happen to visit the Capital City Police office in Quetta and noticed that a board on which photographs of police martyrs were placed was in a bad condition.

Pictures, specially of those belonging to the Hazara community, were torn apart.

I asked one of the officials about the cause of the destruction. He told me that last night the photographs were torn apart by some unknown person and it is still under investigation about who could have done such a shameful act.

However, the causes are still unknown. Being a member of the Hazara community, as well as a member of the police department, I was really shocked to see this and thought that the situation has came to such a pass that they could not even bear the photographs of the martyrs being placed in a government building, let alone spare our lives.

On the other hand, the police department, which has to provide security against such extremists, has to face terrorists having such mindset.

Another tragedy recently occurred at the Central Police Office, Quetta. The name plates outside the offices of the Hazara police officers were broken by some unknown person or persons while dirt was splattered on the plates.

In such a situation, I am afraid that the noose is being tightened around our neck and we are left with no option but to live in fear not only because of extremism, but also because of people around us with whom we have everyday business.

Or should I say we have to fear our shadows as well?

This is the situation we are living in. Through these columns, I want to alert the authorities having power to eradicate this menace. I would like them to act quickly.

Otherwise, the situation will get from bad to worse.

TAQI RAMZAN
Quetta

DAWN 

’پاکستان میں بڑھتی ہوئی دہشتگردی نفرت انگیز‘

آخری وقت اشاعت: پير 31 دسمبر 2012 

’یہ اندوہناک دہشت گردی کے واقعات کسی کسی مقصد یا محرومی کی توجیہہ نہیں بن سکتے‘

اقوام متحدہ کے سیکرٹری جنرل بان کی مون نے پاکستان میں دہشت گردی کے بڑھتے ہوئے واقعات ’نفرت انگیز‘ قرار دیا ہے۔

اقوام متحدہ کے سربراہ نے بیان میں اتوار کے روز پشاور کے نزدیک ایک چیک پوائنٹ سے اغوا کیے گئے اکیس نیم فوجی اہلکاروں اور صوبہ بلوچستان کے علاقے میں مستونگ میں انیس شیعہ زائرین کی ہلاکت کی مذمت کی۔

بان کی مون کے ترجمان مارٹن نیسرکی کا کہنا ہے کہ سیکرٹری جنرل نے خاص طور پر پاکستان میں کلِکاقلیتوں کے خلاف دہشت گردی کی کارروائیوں کی مذمت کی ہے۔

ترجمان کے مطابق انہوں نے پشاور کے نزدیک سے اغوا کیے گئےکلِکاکیس نیم فوجی اہلکاروں کی شدت پسندوں کے ہاتھوں ہلاکت کی بھی سخت الفاظ میں مذمت کی ہے۔

بیان میں کہا گیا ہے ’یہ اندوہناک دہشت گردی کے واقعات کسی کسی مقصد یا محرومی کی توجیح نہیں بن سکتے۔ ایسی کارروائیوں میں ملوث افراد کو انصاف کے کٹہرے میں لایا جائے۔‘

اقوام متحدہ کے سیکرٹری جنرل نے حکومتِ پاکستان اور عوام کو یقین دلایا کہ عالمی تنظیم ان کے ساتھ ہے اور ’اداروں اور آزادی کو دہشت گردی کے نرغے سے بچانے کی تمام کاوشوں کی حمایت کرتی ہے‘۔

واضح رہے کہ جمعرات کو پشاور کے نزدیک ماشو خیل میں ایک چیک پوائنٹ سے اغوا کیے جانے والے اکیس نیم فوجی اہلکاروں کو شدت پسندوں نے اتوار کے روز گولیاں مار کر ہلاک کر دیا تھا۔

پاکستانی حکام کے مطابق پشاور سے تقریباً چالیس کلومیٹر دور جنوب کی جانب نیم قبائلی علاقے حسن خیل سے اکیس لیویز اہلکاروں کی لاشیں ملی تھیں۔

تحریک طالبان پاکستان درہ آدم خیل کے ترجمان محمد نےایک نامعلوم مقام سے فون کر کے ان اہلکاروں کی ہلاکت کی ذمہ داری قبول کی اور بتایا کہ یہ مولانا گل نصیب، عبدالحمید، فیصل اور پیر صاحب کی مبینہ طور پر زیر حراست ہلاکت کا بدلہ تھا۔

اتوار ہی کے روز صوبہ بلوچستان کے علاقے مستونگ میں شیعہ زائرین کی بسوں پر کار بم حملے کے نتیجے میں انیس افراد ہلاک اور پچیس زخمی ہوگئے تھے۔

صوبہ بلوچستان میں شیعہ مسلک سے تعلق رکھنے والے افراد کی ٹارگٹ کلنگ میں کافی اضافہ ہوا ہے۔

BBC URDU

بی بی سی ; حمله انتحاری به یک اتوبوس زائران در پاکستان