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#Pakistan - Why Care for the #Baloch Women?

 

Tahira Khan

@TahiraGhilzai

Balochistan is a notorious place. It is a place where people are killed and disappeared on daily basis. More recently, women are found dead, targeted, tortured, detained, and killed owing to many known and unknown reasons. It has further led to many conspiracy theories and blame games to deflect responsibility.

In this context, where are we heading as a society? What is our stance at a point where women are disappearing, killed, and tortured and where civil society feels to not raise their voices? However, there are few voices from society and women’s organizations who are raising voices in favor of Baloch women but there is a lot more skepticism, nonsense, and unethical arguments.

In every society, the bond of relationships is ethics. Institutions may not feel to regard ethics of the society but society has to. These ethics and moral philosophies revolve around care. During times of conflict, civil society may not uphold the values of humanity but it can show some care. Care bonds people regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, and religion. It is also one of the pertinent features of many feminist discourses and moral theories like that of Ethics of care. The same goes for Baloch women, in particular, and the context of civil society, in general.

What’s the point of all this education if all we get blame games or conspiracy theories to define any mishap in society?  Aren’t we educated enough to show some concern when women are faced with violence and death threats? Certainly, care is not about our personal lives only. It is more like a practice and value embedded in the values and traditions of any society. According to many feminist discourses, it goes beyond private lives and encompasses far more realms such as the social, political, and legal framework of any society. It may also cover the arena of war and international relations.

Owing to the ethics of care, civil society should show some emotions toward the ongoing critical situation of Baloch women. This argument may seem irrational but empathy, sensitivity, and responsiveness are the need of the hour. These features are the foundational basis of any society and may also help to cultivate any reasoned stance at a time of crisis. Moreover, it is the only to diffuse the ongoing moral crisis in the province.

On the other hand, Baloch, as a nation, may show anger at this critical juncture where Baloch women are not only harassed but kidnapped and targeted as well. This is also a case of moral indignation because they are feeling humiliated and disrespected in so many ways. Besides, they have repeatedly argued how institutions and authorities have treated them inhumanely and unjustly. More importantly, this is how human beings react and feel when they are treated inhumanely and unjustly.

It is pertinent to note that anger of Baloch is not just a raw emotion. These sentiments have been cultivated for a very long period. It can’t go in a day. Accordingly, these emotions need appropriate reflection and if necessary some education as well. Therefore, many feminist thinkers argue that the rationalist perspective to define any emotional response is not sufficient to make sense of the overall situation.

In contrast, there are arguments for how emotional responses become irrational when it carries elements of vengeance and aggressiveness. In the context of Balochistan, these emotions carry a kind of plausible view because of the already beleaguered situation of Baloch women. Perhaps, it is not the proper time to decide rationality in the anger of people protesting for the respect and dignity of their women.

In addition to that, these women are already facing patriarchal structure and tribal ethos. Tribalism is a kind of conservative setup where women have less than fewer opportunities to excel in every walk of life. Moreover, men have dominated almost every good and bad aspect of tribal society.  According to the predominant tribal narrative, women’s respect lies at home where she is expected to do homely jobs. It is also suggested that these homely jobs require less hard work and are better suited for women.

Owing to these hard circumstances, women are still striving hard in every field of life. They are good wives along with being a good doctor, engineer, teacher, civil servant, etc. Whatever the profession is, women can excel in it and the world doesn’t doubt this fact. The same goes for the women of Balochistan. Baloch women have put every effort to uplift their conditions in the context of the political, economic, and social environment. All their efforts are commendable and must be appreciated at every level. And, there is no space for any kind of insensitive remark or statement.

Following that, there are some extreme values in our society. In particular, the moral standards of any society must not be stuck between extremes. In the case of Baloch women, these extremes may account for the egoistic standards of individuals, such as tribal leaders or state institutions, powerful security forces, and universal moral standards of humanity. Accordingly, society may seem to understand what are the standards of selfish individuals and what is humanity. Somehow both extremes are hard to handle and managed especially in cases of conflict zones or war-torn areas. Thereupon, the solution lies in other moral perceptions such as care for the fellow being. Civil society just needs to show some empathy, response, and sensitivity.

At this point, this debate also does not mean to forge or promote relationships but to have a collective sense of care for ourselves and Baloch women. There is a need to regard and respect Baloch women to value their honor and dignity. It is not a time to fuel more ethnic sensitivities or historical discord or ask unnecessary questions. It is also not the right the inquire about rationality in their emotional response. It’s time to show care for fellow human beings and regards their pain. That’s it.

https://www.balochistanvoices.com/2023/02/why-care-for-the-baloch-women/

Religious minorities in Pakistan face problems in obtaining national ID card: Report

 

A study into the legal barriers faced by religious minorities living in Pakistan revealed that a significant number of religious minorities have been reported as facing difficulty in obtaining computerised national identity cards (CNIC) or being unable to obtain one at all.

Numerous basic rights of citizenship in Pakistan are linked to having CNIC, The News International reported.

The findings of the study were discussed at the Access to Justice Conference organised by the Legal Aid Society, in collaboration with the National Commission of Human Rights. The study has called for updating outdated laws, bridging legal gaps, establishing systems of accountability to facilitate and improve investigation and formation of a statutory commission to protect, promote, and uphold the constitutional rights of RMCs, as per The News International report.

In February, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) raised concerns over the continued marginalization of religious minorities in the country, Dawn reported. In its report titled A Breach of Faith: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2021-22, HRCP has observed with considerable alarm developments during 2021/22 that belie the state’s commitment to freedom of religion or belief.

The incidence of forced conversions in Sindh has remained worryingly consistent, according to the report. Reports of religious minorities’ sites of worship being desecrated have continued. However, no response from the state has been reported when such incidents involve sites associated with the Ahmadiyya community, according to the Dawn report.

The HRCP has called for a representative and autonomous statutory national commission for minorities in the spirit of the 2014 Supreme Court judgement of Justice Tassaduq Jillani. The HRCP has also said that urgent legislation is needed to criminalise forced conversions, as per the news report.

Furthermore, the HRCP has demanded that the state makes a concerted effort to counter sectarian violence by implementing the National Action Plan (NAP) and developing a national narrative that unambiguously eschews religious extremism and majoritarianism.

The HRCP called for a re-evaluation of quotas for religious minorities in education, employment and accountability mechanisms to ensure that these quotas are implemented, as per the Dawn report. According to HRCP, Pakistan will continue to foster a climate of impunity for perpetrators of faith-based discrimination and violence unless these measures do not come into effect immediately. 

U.S. arms left in #Afghanistan surface in #Pakistan Taliban insurgency

ZIA UR REHMAN

Advanced sniper rifles and night vision goggles used in attacks on police.

Modern weapons and sophisticated night vision devices left behind by U.S.-led coalition forces withdrawing from Afghanistan and fleeing Afghan troops are being used by Pakistani Taliban militants to intensify attacks on law enforcement, police and experts say. Plagued by an economic crisis, plunging currency and political polarization, Islamabad is also scrambling to contain the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a banned militant group. Emboldened by the Afghan Taliban's victory, the TTP has essentially gone to war against the Pakistani government. The group was responsible for 89 attacks across Pakistan in 2022, mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank. That was up slightly from 87 in 2021 despite a roughly four-month cease-fire with Islamabad that was scrapped by the militants late last year. In some attacks, police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa determined that the TTP militants used advanced weapons and gadgets that had belonged to U.S. or Afghan forces to carry out nighttime ambushes. After one such attack in the suburbs of Peshawar on Jan. 14, Moazzam Jah Ansari, the provincial police chief at the time, revealed that the TTP had conducted a "coordinated" strike using high-tech equipment like thermal weapon sights. The attackers killed three police officers, including a senior official.

Ansari said that TTP militants had used similar equipment in ambushes in Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Lakki Marwat, the most volatile districts in the province. Police statistics show 118 officers were killed in terror attacks in the province in 2022 alone. U.S.-funded military equipment valued at $7.12 billion was in the possession of the former Afghan government when it fell to the Taliban in August 2021, according to a U.S. Department of Defense report last year.After February 2022 attacks on two Pakistani military camps in Balochistan province, Pakistan's then-Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad also claimed that Baloch Liberation Army separatists had used modern weapons left by the U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The Taliban regime in Kabul issued several denials that the TTP and other militant groups had access to the abandoned equipment. Yet recent TTP propaganda shows militants practicing with modern American-made weapons apparently from the Afghan army, noted War Noir, a weapons and conflict research group. They include M24 sniper rifles, M4 carbines with Trijicon ACOG scopes, and M16A4 rifles with thermal scopes.

Security experts and police officials say that the sophisticated weaponry puts cash-strapped law enforcement agencies at a disadvantage. "By using night vision devices TTP militants can see easily and target police personnel, performing their duties in the dark while policemen cannot see them coming," said a midlevel police officer in the Dera Ismail Khan district, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

He suggested that the Afghan Taliban may have given some of the spoils of war to the TTP in return for the Pakistani group's help in recapturing most of Afghanistan in 2021.

In late January, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government provided a few dozen night vision devices to police in some volatile districts, in an attempt to counter raids under the cover of darkness. But resources are limited. Ihsan Ghani, a security expert and former provincial police chief, said that after declaring a successful crackdown on the TTP and other violent groups in 2017, the Pakistani state had reduced the funding and capacity-building of law enforcement agencies. "Terrorism and counterterrorism measures are like quickly shifting sand," Ghani told Nikkei Asia. He said terrorists will fight with "at-hand technology." Muhammad Feyyaz, a security expert and academic associated with the University of Management and Technology, Lahore, agreed that groups like the TTP are quick to adapt. Since 2002, militants in Pakistan have used weapons ranging from remote-controlled explosives, improvised explosive devices and suicide vests to Kalashnikov rifles and rockets.

But Feyyaz said the more modern arms enhance the "TTP's capability to undertake operations under all visibility conditions and give the terror group an edge over poorly equipped law enforcement agencies, which are struggling even to [fill ranks] and have a morale problem." Experts draw parallels between the departures from Afghanistan by Soviet troops in 1989 and the Western coalition in 2021. In both cases, they say, leftover weapons have ended up with myriad insurgent groups in other countries, particularly Pakistan.

Abdul Basit, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said the TTP as well as Baloch separatist groups and Jihadi outfits in Indian-administrated Kashmir have obtained small quantities of modern arms and devices, including long-range sniper rifles and night vision goggles, that the U.S. had provided to Afghan forces.

"Usage of these weapons has increased the lethality and accuracy of the terrorist attacks in Pakistan," Basit said.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Terrorism/U.S.-arms-left-in-Afghanistan-surface-in-Pakistan-Taliban-insurgency