Monday, February 22, 2021
Pakistan army preparing to escalate its offensives in Balochistan
The Pakistani army is preparing for fresh offensives in different areas of Balochistan including Kohistan Marri’s Kahaan region, Bolan, Harnai and surrounding areas.
According to the details, a large number of the Pakistani army have been seen moving toward the Kahaan area from the military cantonment in Kohlu.
Locals fear the extraordinary movements and sudden increase of troops in the number suggests that the Pakistani army plans to intensify its offensives in Kohistan Marri’s Kahaan region where Baloch freedom fighters have been frequently attacking them.
Similar bloody aggressions were carried out last week in Kharan, Bolan, Harnai and many other areas of Balochistan in which many innocent Baloch were killed and injured.
Several people including women and children were abducted during the latest offensives.
On Sunday, the federal interior minister Sheik Rashid met the Inspector General Frontier Corps North, Major General Muhammad Yousuf Majoka in Quetta and appreciated the role of “FC Balochistan in maintaining law and order.”
Pakistani media sources quoted Rashid as saying, “implementation of all points of the National Action Plan (NAP) will be ensured.”
He also said steps would be taken to ensure internal security and ‘enemies of the country would not be allowed to succeed in their nefarious designs.’
He also warned, “Terrorists who want to destabilise Balochistan would not have a place to hide.”
The federal minister who is known for his hatred for the Baloch people is on a four-day-tour to Balochistan.
The latest military development and increase in deployments of troops is being seen as the result of Rashid’s go-ahead to escalate military offensives in Balochistan.
https://balochwarna.com/2021/02/22/pakistan-army-preparing-to-escalate-its-offensives-in-balochistan/
Concerns over Pakistani PM's visit to Sri Lanka
Human rights defenders are suspicious of the motives behind Imran Khan's two-day visit.
A regional network of human rights defenders has called on the governments of Pakistan and Sri Lanka to respect the rights of all minorities guaranteed in their constitutions and to address their concerns while providing equal treatment to all.
South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) issued its statement ahead of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Sri Lanka.
Expressing concern over the timing and purpose of Khan’s Feb. 22-23 visit, SAHR said: “We further urge the governments of Sri Lanka and Pakistan to use this occasion to celebrate true South Asian camaraderie while working together to address human rights concerns of all citizens in the region."
The visit coincides with the virtual launch of the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), where it is reported that a new resolution on Sri Lanka will be discussed.
“This is also at a time when the government of Sri Lanka has been criticized for forcibly cremating the corpses of Covid-infected Muslim persons against WHO [World Health Organization] guidelines,” the group said.
“SAHR believes that the prime minister’s visit is to garner support from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to vote against a resolution on Sri Lanka that is due to come up on February 23.”
Khan is expected to address the rights concerns of Muslims and will hold talks with key government officials and party leaders.
Sri Lanka is to allow burial of Muslim coronavirus victims after a global outcry over its mandatory cremation policy.
“While commending PM Khan's willingness to address the issues faced by the Sri Lankan Muslim minority during his visit, we are also apprehensive of the impact these talks will have on the Tamil minority in the country,” the group said.
In February 2020, Sri Lanka’s government informed the UNHRC of its decision to withdraw its co-sponsorship of resolutions calling for a process of transitional justice promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights, saying it wanted to pursue a domestically designed and executed policy.
Support from Pakistan and other countries would permit the Sri Lankan government to deliberately bypass the proper process of transitional justice for victims who are mainly among the Tamil and Muslim minorities in the country.
SAHR said numerous restrictions on people’s freedom of expression and right to peaceful protest are common across the region.
The increase in nationalism and religious extremism leading to marginalization of minorities, shrinking civic space, journalists being targeted by state and non-state authorities, and activists and opposition members being vilified and detained without due process and persecuted through the misuse of laws and undue influence of executive powers are rampant in South Asia, the group said.
Indian climate activist Disha Ravi’s arrest is the latest example of the rapid degradation of human rights, it added.
“Moreover, there have been numerous instances of people’s rights and respect for democratic values been blatantly violated by governments using the pandemic containment as a facade,” SAHR said.
“In Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the intensification of militarization, especially the military leading Covid-19 containment measures as well as the civil administration, business and other aspects of civilian life, have further reduced freedoms and civil liberties.
“The agony and suffering faced by minorities in Pakistan and the use of the draconian blasphemy laws have sometimes pushed them to become refugees in neighboring countries. The ruthless measures taken to curb the students’ movement and Pashtun movement without attempting to find sustainable solutions to their problems raises concerns of PM Khan's legitimacy to address issues of the Muslim minority in Sri Lanka.
“We believe that such bilateral occasions should not be used to address issues of one minority community while overlooking the concerns of another.”
https://www.ucanews.com/news/concerns-over-pakistani-pms-visit-to-sri-lanka/91491#
4 Aid Workers Are Shot Dead in #Pakistan
By Zia ur-Rehman
The attack could portend a resurgence of militant violence in the former tribal areas of Waziristan, once a hub of the Pakistani Taliban.Gunmen killed four aid workers in an ambush in the northwestern Pakistani district of North Waziristan on Monday, police officials said, an attack that could signal a revival of insurgency in the region bordering Afghanistan that was once a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban.A vehicle carrying the aid workers, who were all Pakistanis and who were affiliated with a program for developing household skills for women, was fired upon by unidentified attackers in the town of Mir Ali, the police said.The four aid workers, all women, were killed and the male driver was wounded. A fifth aid worker, also a woman, survived the attack by taking refuge in a nearby house, the police statement said. The attackers fled into the nearby mountains. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the attack and demanded that the government bring the attackers to justice. “It is the responsibility of the authorities to protect the lives and property of citizens at all costs,” the commission said in a statement. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the ambush. But the shooting fits a pattern of attacks against aid workers and anti-polio medics across the country that officials have attributed to the Pakistani Taliban. Waziristan was the hub of the insurgent group for years, until a strong push by the Pakistani military around 2014 cleared most of the militants, bringing a semblance of security to the region. Analysts and residents now fear that various factions of the Pakistani Taliban who had sought shelter from military operations in the bordering provinces of Afghanistan have regrouped. Frequent reports of targeted assassinations of tribal elders, roadside bomb attacks, and clashes with security forces have raised fears that the region, which had a tribal status before fully integrating into the rest of Pakistan through legislation in 2018, will relapse into militant control. Mohsin Dawar, a member of Parliament elected from North Waziristan and a leader of an ethnic Pashtun movement that seeks equal rights, wrote on Twitter, “The wave of indiscriminate killings continues unabated in our region with no end in sight.” “Where is the State?” he asked. In a separate attack, five members of the military were killed and another wounded when militants attacked a security checkpoint in South Waziristan late Thursday night, according to the Pakistani military. The Pakistani Taliban, in a statement, claimed responsibility for that attack, saying that the military unit had been conducting an active operation against the group in the region.The military also said that two militants and a member of the army were killed during a search operation carried out on Friday night.Muhammad Amir Rana, director of Pak Institute of Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based research organization, said that the rise in assaults in the former tribal districts was a cause of concern for national security. But, he added, the militants might not be able to regain their old strength because the security forces continue to hunt them actively. “Reunification of the Pakistani Taliban has been posing a threat in former tribal districts, but now they are not in a position to gain the strength it had before 2014,” Mr. Rana said. The killing of the four aid workers has also renewed security fears among charity and aid groups working in Pakistan, particularly in the former tribal districts. An aid worker in the tribal areas, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a fear of reprisals, said that both the government and the militants viewed him and others who work for aid groups with suspicion since the raid on Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in 2011. The United States intelligence service had reportedly staged a fake vaccination campaign in the area to gather DNA samples to confirm Bin Laden’s presence. The aid worker said that the recent attack would again force aid organizations to rethink their security measures and decide whether they could continue to work in the former tribal areas. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/22/world/asia/pakistan-aid-workers-killed.html
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