M WAQAR.....
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
--Albert Einstein !!!
NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.''
تل ده وی پثتونستآن
Sometimes, in some places, wherever you look, you can only see wolves pretending to be human.
The town of Shahrag is one such place.
Situated in a valley in Harnai district in Balochistan, Shahrag boasts “300 to 400” coal mines that are mined by “over 30,000 men.” There are children working the mines, too, but an official count does not exist.
The district is predominantly populated by Pashtuns but a sizeable population of Marri Baloch are also scattered across its mountainous areas. Pashtuns own the majority of tribal lands in Shahrag and also live in great numbers in the town. The southern part of the Shahrag tehsil is where coal-laden mountains exist. And it is also here that the Marris live and work.
“In Shahrag,” in the words of a local Pashtun dweller, “one cannot remain jobless thanks to these mountains. If someone brings 200 men to me this very instant, I can appoint them straight away at the coal mines.”
This is why most workers here are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. There is also a chunk of workers who come from across the Afghanistan border. Together, these constitute about 80 percent of the workforce while the remaining 20 percent workers are locals and Baloch, especially from the Marri tribe.
Shahrag in Balochistan is known as a coal-mining town. But it also hides an ugly secret
On the face of it, Shahrag is a traditionally patriarchal society and fairly religious, too. Women hardly come out of their homes and men tend to rule the roost around here.
But Shahrag is also completely cut off from the rest of Balochistan. Nobody there quite knows what is happening in the rest of the country. Nobody in the rest of the country cares much for Shahrag either.
In this isolation, Shahrag has managed to hide its big, ugly secret: its boys are not safe from its men.
In the name of 'responsibility'
When 13-year-old Kaleem* reached the coal mines from Dir earlier this year, he didn’t expect much fanfare upon his arrival. But a colony of miners was waiting for that day to arrive.
And as soon as he set foot on the Al-Gilani branch of the mountain, where some eight coal mines are situated, the excitement became tangible. News that Dir’s coal miners had brought in a new guy to the mines spread like wildfire. He became the talk of the town and even miners from other coal mines arrived to take a look at the new boy. Kaleem wasn’t quite the new bride but quickly became the new boy that many men were lusting after.
Nestled in the mountains are cottages housing miners. ─ Photo by author
I left Shahrag city to head to the mountains early one day to meet Kaleem who I had been told about by locals. Along with about 20 others, including two boys around his age, Kaleem is housed in a mud-and-stone cottage at the top of a mountain. There are only two bedrooms and one kitchen. In the room where we sit down for a chat, there is no light other than whatever little comes from the burning stove.
Kaleem is wearing a black shalwar kameez over a yellow sports shirt. Fortunately, he is alone in the house at the time, around 3pm, because his elder colleagues are working “probably 1,700 feet below surface inside the coal pit.”
There is a big, black teapot on the stove filled with water which is boiling. He tells us that, over the last week, the weather has become frigid in Shahrag. Sitting alone next to the stove, he looks neat and clean, his black hair combed through the middle. After welcoming us, he does not utter a single word; instead, he goes out to wash two cups. Without saying a word, he pours black tea to serve us.
Kaleem is quite shy. He evades almost all questions put to him. After a series of monosyllabic answers, he blurts: “I do not have a father. I have come here to work to financially support my family back in Dir.”
What kind of work?
“I am a cook here,” he replies with a grim smile.
[Parents] turn a deaf ear to any complaints on the basis that these children are earning money ... This is why Shahrag’s children have “friendships” with people as old as their parents.
Kaleem has come to Shahrag to replace his brother. They are four brothers. According to him, they belong to a very poor family. He studied till primary back home but had to leave school because the family was reeling in poverty.
“All children, including me, work here because we either do not have elders [parents, uncles] or they are disabled and senile,” Kaleem adds. “I am paid 10,000 rupees monthly.”
Herein lies the ugly reality of Shahrag’s coal mines.
Children such as Kaleem are brought here from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and even from Afghanistan for the sole purpose of sexually abusing them. They are used as sexual partners by mature coal miners — these boys are either unable to say no to unwanted advances or need the cash offered in exchange for providing sexual services.
At first, even Kaleem does not want to talk about his situation. When asked if his body is used for sexual services, he does not reply. He simply leaves the room.
Miners return from their shift. ─ Photo by author
The first shift at the mines ends just after 3pm and the miners begin to emerge. All of them come to sit with us and we quickly change the discussion. The talk is now about the vulnerability felt by the coal miners in the mines. As we are about to leave, I spot Kaleem sitting on a big rock and chatting with a tall man.
“He [Kaleem] is their special guy,” relates a local miner accompanying me. “The monthly payment he is given is remuneration for satisfying their lust, not to work. They do not let him in the coal mine because he will get blackened.”
Such treatment is not meted out to Shah Farman*, a 16-year-old who arrived from Swat in 2017. Since then, he has been working as a coal cutter against a monthly salary of 35,000 rupees. But while he is at the mines, he has been routinely raped by adult men. Nobody bats an eyelid at what happens to Shah Farman almost every day. They tell me, “It’s all normal.”
Abuse as a way of life
Sexual abusers come in all forms and sizes. But they present themselves as ordinary human beings with an ordinary lifestyle.
For example, take Saqib*, a local coal miner in his early 40s. He is a tall man. There are white patches in his black beard and moustache. On the day we meet him, he wears a white cap and an old chador with which he has wrapped himself up. He has been in the mining business for the last 15 years.
Saqib meets us at a playground situated away from Shahrag city, near the Harnai road.
“The information you want to extract from me is strange,” he shouts when I ask him the question. “How can I tell you that we sexually abuse boys?”
But once he has settled down, he begins talking.
“Yes, I have had sex with boys in coal mines and even outside,” says Saqib. “This is not new. Swatis and other Afghans have chhothus [young sidekicks] who are their sexual partners. I do not have one because I am a local. I cannot afford that.”
The coal mines are approximately up to 6,000 feet deep. According to Saqib, children are also not spared there.
“We do have two to three children working inside the coal mines with us,” discloses Saqib, “At the time of coal cutting, deep inside the coal mines, we, the elder coal miners, have had sex with them, too. And [all this] is routine.”
He pauses to stare into the distance.
“The more you work inside the coal mine, the more you start hating it.”
He seems to imply that abuse is a form of escape.
The Red Cat and the mutkuli children
Central to most activity in Shahrag is a bus stop — those bringing coal from the mountains into the town or those leaving the town all tend to make a stopover at the adda for tea and refreshments.
We are seated at a restaurant in the adda. Around us are dozens of trucks, big and small. Some have already made the trip to the mines while others are about to embark on the journey. Amidst the bustle, we are waiting for a man known as Sira Pishi or ‘Red Cat’.
Boys volunteer their services at the Shahrag bus stop. ─ Photo by author
Sira Pishi is actually a 56-year-old man who is a notorious child abuser in the area. In the adda, he is known as Red Cat because he is red-skinned and has a red beard and moustache. He emerges out of a corner, wearing a black chador, a red Afghani cap and a beige coat. He greets us and then says nothing. I put my cup of tea in front of him which he refuses. Instead, he retrieves a few almonds from his kameez pocket, breaks their shells one by one with a stone, and starts munching on them.
“Do you think I am a lunatic that I will speak to a man holding a pen and notebook?”
Sira Pishi kept on eating his almonds as he waited for me to put the pen and notebook back into my bag. Eventually, like Saqib, he too confesses to having sexually abused children.
“Sometimes children come themselves,” claims Sira Pishi. “If not, then I can smell which children can be lured [into having sex.]”
Although children, by and large, get some kind of work at the adda, but when they don’t, sex work is always available as their fallback option.
A teenager is the centre of attention for adult miners. ─ Photo by author
His line catches me off guard. There are scores of children at the adda. As we find out later, most are aged between seven and 18 years. How many of them are vulnerable?
If Sira Pishi is to be believed, almost all these children have been sexually abused by someone or the other. One of his victims is nine-year-old Zulfiqar, who works as a mutkuli separating clay, sand and stone from the coal. He has been working since he was six years.
“This [sexual abuse] is nothing new,” Zulfiqar waves the question of abuse away. “Because all that we want is money. Our parents send us here to earn money, no matter what it costs.”
Zulfiqar has four brothers and one sister. His father is unable to work in his old age.
And he ended up at the adda because his mother wanted him to start earning a wage as soon as possible.
“My mother once saw a neighbour’s children going out to work,” describes the nine-year-old. “She saw that these kids would hand their mother money for whatever work they could find at the adda. And so she also started sending me to work.”
Zulfiqar’s main job is to help load trucks — everyday, he carries at least 60 kg of coal on his little shoulders.
“I do so all on my own. Sometimes, I load four trucks along with other children,” he claims, while wrapping himself up with a chador to save himself from the cold.
“There are four children required for each and every truck. Against it, we are paid 400 rupees per day.”
But such jobs require the boys to mingle with the men. In most cases, they are supposed to work with mature men. This often means that they give up their agency over their body as the men tend to inappropriately touch them and spank them. This is the least of it; the more extreme form is rape.
“I want to become a truck driver,” shares Zulfiqar, “not more than that.”
More probing into the whys of this dream reveals an uglier reality: truck drivers tend to travel with a young sidekick who they can molest and abuse at will. Twelve-year-old Faqir*, for example. All day long, he sits in the driver’s seat of a truck and is only used as a sexual partner by the men. He gets 400 rupees per day as compensation.
Although children, by and large, get some kind of work at the adda, but when they don’t, sex work is always available as their fallback option. Sira Pishi claims there are children who come to him themselves because they know he will pay. Interviews with about 20 of these boys also suggest that due to the fear of returning home empty-handed, they agree to get raped. In some cases, children are shown greener pastures or given the promise of a gift. ‘Red Cat’ claims he regularly ‘used’ a boy in exchange for a cell phone. Other incentives for these boys include drugs.
Background interviews with Shahrag’s children suggest that their parents, in most cases, are aware of their children’s sexual exploitation. But they turn a deaf ear to any complaints on the basis that these children are earning money. And they desperately need this money to make ends meet. This is why Shahrag’s children have “friendships” with people as old as their parents.
Meanwhile, Sira Pishi tells us he accosts children standing near trucks. One boy is his favourite; he invites him over often during the afternoon. Intercourse takes place in the confines of Sira Pishi’s home where the boy can be made “to feel special.”
Mine to mine
Legend has it that 12-year-old Nasir was “attractive and handsome, as most Afghan boys are.” His family had fled from Afghanistan and sought refuge in Pakistan. To make ends meet, Nasir would sell everyday items to coal miners. According to some accounts, coal miners would try to sodomise him. He would refuse sexual favours but often had to go back to the same men to financially support his family.
Nasir’s worst nightmare came to pass one day.
He went to one of the mines on his own but on his way back, he was kidnapped, allegedly by two Afghan coal miners. After brutally raping him, they killed him out of fear of reprisals and the police. They buried him in a nearby mine so that the police and family members could not track him down. Before anyone could find his grave, the culprits had already fled to Kandahar, Afghanistan, and they could not be arrested.
The story is used by some locals to claim that most of the sexual abuse is happening in and around the mines and not in Shahrag town proper. Others explain this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Situated next to Harnai Road in Shahrag town is the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) office. On its website, the PMDC claims to have leased over 6,551 acres of land in Shahrag. Over a cup of black tea, young office assistant Shah Abbas Shah claims the department owns between 300 to 400 coals mines in the town but only just over 500 of workers are registered with them.
The school saving boys from sexual abuse. ─ Photo by author
Although Shah tells Eos that they monitor safety measures in the mines on a daily basis, as well as look after the protection of children working at the coal mines, the reality in the mines is obviously different. One measure taken by the government is that it runs a school for coal miners’ children. Although it is a high school, it wears the look of a primary school in a dilapidated state. The building’s walls are cracked. It neither has water nor a bathroom (either for children or the teachers). Yet, it is a ray of hope for children — in large part due to the efforts of Islamiat teacher Hafiz Basheer.
Basheer wears a black waistcoat over white clothes and a white turban. Among his colleagues, he is known as a “principled” teacher. He goes to the coal mines and asks the parents to send the children to school, instead of sending them to work. Sometimes, the parents relent; at other times, he is shooed away.
“More than anything else,” says Basheer, “the sole purpose of his asking children of coal miners to come to the school is to protect them from social evils.” He acknowledges the fact that these children are routinely sexually exploited. This is what always perturbs him, too.
Shahrag is among the places in Balochistan where children seem to have been desensitised to the intimacy associated with sex. Intercourse seems to be something to profit off of or a source of employment to forget some other worry. And among the children, sexual exploitation has been normalised to the extent that boys themselves show the same desires of lust and rape. This is even before they have turned 16.
“When they first get admission here,” relates Basheer, “they arrive not knowing anything. They know nothing about the outside world or what is considered civilised. It is somewhat like living in the Stone Ages. Through education, we are trying to get them to understand right from wrong. We are trying to teach them their rights.”
The Government of Pakistan has also set up schools in Shahrag for both boys and girls. Other than these schools, there are also madressahs in the town. Having interviewed some parents about why they send their children to a madressah instead of a school, the near-unanimous response was that only religious education could help their children to heaven on the Day of Judgement. This is the foremost reason that their children seek education in madressahs, not in schools.
Basheer himself, despite being an Islamiat teacher, has been unable to convince parents to send their children to school instead. One major reason why parents are reluctant is the case of a student from Dir named Abid Siddique.
Siddique was a position holder in his school till 2008 and completed matriculation from there. Although his teachers had big dreams and expectations of him, he is now back at the same coal mine, in the Al-Gilani mountains, where he used to work as a child.
Between the lines, the teacher alludes to the psychological damage that has been dealt to boys in Shahrag. Those raised on abuse will abuse someone else, just as they were abused when they were children. There is ample research that suggests that child abuse will repeat itself from generation to generation. This cycle of abuse gravely impacts those who have been at the receiving end of prolonged abuse because, once grown up, they are likely to become the abusers and prey on children.
But there is no psychological or law-enforcement help at hand in Shahrag. In fact, Quetta-based Chief Inspector of Mines Engineer Iftikhar Ahmad Khan tells Eos that, “there are no children working at the coal mines in Shahrag.”
Without acknowledging that a crisis exists, how can there be any remedy?
Sexual abuse of boys and young men is not just a phenomenon particular to Shahrag. Sahil, an Islamabad-based NGO that works with child victims of abuse, notes in its 2018 report Cruel Numbers that as many as 3,445 children — 2,077 girls and 1,368 boys — were sexually abused in Pakistan in 2017. Balochistan reported only 139 cases of sexual abuse. These incidents were all reported in the press but the number of unreported cases might well be higher.
The report makes the claim that among reported cases, 467 cases were reported under rape, 366 under sodomy, 158 under gang rape, 180 under gang sodomy and 206 under attempted child sexual abuse. It also describes that 29 boys and 36 girls were murdered after being made victims of sexual abuse. Around 961 victims fell in the age bracket of 11 to 15 years while 640 cases of sexual abuse surfaced where the survivors were aged between six and 10 years. In the 16 to 18 age bracket, 351 cases were formally reported.
Perhaps what sets Shahrag apart is the normalisation of child abuse. Consider government records, for example. While the mines department has recorded the number of adult miners working in Shahrag, the figure is under-reported. These estimates have, in fact, not recorded the number of children working in the mines or those working as house help etc.
On the other hand, the law in Pakistan does provide some safeguards for children. The Pakistan Penal Code, for example, was amended back in April 2017 to include stipulations against crimes aimed at children. Section 292-A criminalises any exposure of children to seduction. Similarly, Section 328-A describes the offence of cruelty to a child and its punishment. Sections 377-A and 377-B are explicitly about the offence of child sexual abuse and its punishment.
The problem comes at the implementation end.
Desolation and desperation are accepted in Shahrag as justifications for the practices of child labour and child abuse. The government neither keeps a record of children working at the mines nor as support staff. And any notion of child protection seems out of place because of the prevalence of the practice.
“Sometimes, as teachers, we also become hopeless,” laments Hafiz Basheer. “I thought Abid Siddique would be a role model for other children of coal miners and he would be an officer somewhere in a government sector. Contrary to expectations, he has started working again as a coal miner. This is why children of coal miners always give me his example when I request them to come to study in the school.”
Former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari has urged the PTI-led Pakistan government to cooperate with Iran over the recent terror attack near Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchestan.
He advised so, responding to a query at a press conference in Islamabad yesterday.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman Zardari said that situation arising after the terror attack is very dangerous.
“Iran is our neighbor and we should be mindful that it is a very large army so we should not have any problem with them,' said Asif Ali Zardari.
He said: 'We should cooperate with them to address their concerns.'
The recent killing of more than 40 Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir by a suicide bomber belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant group in Kashmir’s Pulwama district has put Pakistan and India into another confrontation. In retaliation, India has not only withdrawn Most Favored Nation Status (MFN) from Pakistan, but has also announced that it will take important steps to completely isolate Pakistan internationally. Moreover, reportedly Indian “armed forces have been given a free hand to formulate appropriate retaliation strategies.” However, the subject of retaliation strategies is an approach that doesn’t necessarily call for an immediate military response and it can can take weeks and months to put in place a long-term plan to counter and deter such incidents.
Arguably, the most important takeaway from India’s response to the incident is that New Delhi has decided to ramp up escalation with Pakistan on the political front rather than going for the military option, at this point. There are a number of reasons why India may have decided to take this policy course rather than immediately hitting back militarily.
It is important to note that India is buzzing ahead of an election season. The government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is primarily focused on winning the next general election, which is scheduled to take place in the next few months. While military action against Pakistan at this point may win the BJP some electoral support domestically, it’s unclear what sort of military action can attain such a desired result and whether the government, which is uncertain about its own future in power, has the political will to follow-through.
About two years ago, India allegedly carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan in response to a militant attack that took place in Uri, in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan for its part never admitted that such a military strike was carried out by India. However, for India, the declaration of carrying out a surgical strike served the purpose of containing the ratcheting war rhetoric domestically while for Pakistan, the denial meant the strikes never took place. Hence, Islamabad didn’t need to respond militarily in return, which could have become necessary had Pakistan acknowledged that Indian troops had entered Pakistan’s territory and targeted some areas.
Arguably, if India’s alleged surgical strikes have not been able to deter terrorists from planning more attacks than the next military response from New Delhi has to be bigger than what happened two years ago. However, that’s an area which is filled with a lot of risks, miscalculations and escalations triggers and clearly, the government in India which is about to go to the polls doesn’t want to enter into a phase that could have blowback impact on its electoral gains. For now, by putting the blame for the incident on Pakistan, the government in India has already achieved some electoral mileage.
Even for Indian authorities, beyond the blame game and war rhetoric, it’s too early to confirm whether the bombing had any support from Pakistan at the state level. So far, India maintains that by not taking decisive action against the leadership of the JeM, Pakistan is actually fomenting terror in Jammu and Kashmir. Moreover, it’s unclear whether the attack was solely the work of local Kashmiri militants that carried out an attack in association with JeM’s name.
Regardless, from Pakistan’s perspective, it doesn’t make sense why the country’s military and civilian leadershipwould want to undermine their own efforts of rapprochement with India. The argument that Pakistan’s security establishment doesn’t support the civilian government’s recent initiative to improve ties with India doesn’t stand for two reasons: One, it is Pakistan’s security establishment that is interested in developing a workable relationship with New Dehli and it has clearly owned the current government initiatives in this regard. Two, if Pakistan’s security establishment wants to undermine the elected government’s efforts of reaching out to India, the former doesn’t need to support an incident of such magnitude. Historically, firings across the Line of Control (LoC) have achieved such results when desired.
Moreover, the timing of the attack doesn’t make sense from Pakistan’s perspective. The tragic incident has taken place when the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Bin Salman, is visiting both India and Pakistan. The visit adds an interesting twist to a situation, which has the potential to escalate to a major crisis between the two regional powers. The last thing Islamabad would want to do is to undermine a state-level visit from a powerful figure who is bringing billions of dollars’ worth of investments to Pakistan. While the leadership in India is planning a response to the incident, both New Delhi and Islamabad are likely to consider the presence of the crown prince as a significant factor when they devise the response measures in the coming week.
If one takes away the argument of alleged state-level support from Pakistan, it cannot be denied that some elements that aim to undermine Pakistan and India’s ties are clearly at work. Addressing the same challenge, Pakistan’s current foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in a recent interview said that “there will be spoilers, there will be events that will scuttle [Pakistan-India] peace process but terrorism is a global phenomenon. Instead of getting to a blame game we have to cooperate more.”
If one is to go with what Pakistan’s foreign minister said recently then clearly there are elements in Pakistan that are acting on their own and are not in the state’s control. It’s undeniable that JeM leadership is based in Pakistan’s Punjab province and the Pulwama suicide bombing was claimed by the group. While JeM remains a banned group in Pakistan, the group’s leadership is not necessarily isolated in Pakistan when it comes to the outfits movement and networking in the country. While Islamabad has officially condemned the attack on Indian forces, New Delhi clearly blames Pakistan for the attack. If Pakistan’s government and military leadership are serious about improving ties with India, then some sort of action against the leadership of the JeM has to take place in Pakistan.
The attack in Pulwama doesn’t only appear to be an effort to undermine Pakistan’s ties with India, but also an effort to push the region into a dangerous phase. In any case, what is scary is that the region will become increasingly hostile in the coming months.
A tribal elder, Abbas Khan, was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in the Norak area of Mir Ali tehsil (revenue unit) in the North Waziristan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on February 13, 2019.Khan was on his way home when the IED hit his car.
At least four Policemen were killed and aStation House Office (SHO) was injured on February 12, 2019, in an ambush in the Maharah area of Parowa tehsil in the Dera Ismail Khan District of KP.The District Police Officer (DPO) disclosed that the Police party retaliated, but the terrorists managed to escape from the incident site.Two passers-by sustained injuries in the shootout. Hizb-ul-Ahrar (HuA), a splinter group of the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack.
On January 29, 2019, unidentified militants killed a Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) staffer in Qurishian Street in the jurisdiction of the City Police Station in Dera Ismail Khan. The assailantsmanaged to escape.
According to partial data compiled by the Institute for Conflict Management (ICM), KP has accounted for at least 11 terrorism-related fatalities in 2019, thus far (data till February 17, 2019). During the corresponding period of 2018, the Province had accounted for 19 terrorism-related fatalities (two civilians, 11 SF personnel, and six terrorists).
Through 2018, KP recorded a total of 181 fatalities (88 civilians, 52 SF personnel, and 41 terrorists) as against 124 such fatalities (42 civilians, 26 SF personnel and 56 terrorists) registered in 2017. KP had witnessed declining trendsin fatalities since 2013, till the renewed surge in 2018.
However, 96 of the fatalities in 2018 were reported from seven new Districts which became part of KP onMay 31, 2018, due to the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into the Province. These seven Districts were earlier part of FATA and were called Agencies. Between June 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018, KP (excluding the newly merged areas of FATA) recorded 57 fatalities, as against 55during the same period in 2017.
Prior to the merger, KP had accounted for 28 fatalities (16 SF personnel, six civilians, and six militants) in the first five months of 2018 as against 69 fatalities (34 militants, 24 civilians, and 11 SF personnel) in the first five months of 2017. Thus, within the original jurisdiction of KP (excluding the subsequently merged FATA region) the declining trend established since 2013, was maintained in 2018.
According to statistics released by KP Police on June 7, 2018, only 21 terrorist incidents took place in the first five months of 2018, compared to 53 incidents in 2107, 113 incidents in 2016, and 108 incidents in 2015. Similarly, incidents of target killings dropped across the Province, and only 10 were reported in first five months of 2018, as against 29 in 2017, 77 in 2016 and 55 in 2015. Only 10 cases of extortion were reported in the first five months of 2018, while the figure was 44 cases in the same period of 2017, 67 cases in 2016, 58 cases in 2014, and 113 cases in 2015. Similarly, only three incidents of kidnapping-for-ransom were reported from across the Province in the first five months of 2018, as compared to seven in 2017,16 in 2016, and 26 in 2015. [Comparisons are for the first five months of each year].
According to KPPolice, the Province (including the newly merged areas of erstwhile FATA) recorded a total of 28 targeted killing incidents in 2018, as against 29 such cases in 2017;36 extortion cases through 2018 as against 42 cases in 2017; and registered a decrease of 16.6 per cent in cases of kidnapping-for-ransom –with five casesreported in 2018 as compared to six cases in 2017.
The improvement in the security situation in the Province has been the result of counter offensive measures undertaken by the Pakistani Forces against domestically oriented terror formations across the tribal areas of Pakistan since the Army Public School (APS) attack of December 16, 2014, at Peshawar (the capital of KP), in which 135 school children, ten school staff members, including the Principal, and three soldiers, were killed.
Security analyst and former additional chief secretary for FATA, Brigadier (Retd.) Mehmood Shah, according to a January 1, 2019, report,attributed the drop in terrorism in the Province to the Army’s Operations Zarb-e-Azb(‘Sword of the Prophet’, also ‘sharp and cutting’) and Radd-ul-Fasaad (RuF, Elimination of Discord). Shah observed,
This Zarb-e-Azb, followed by RuF, was the turning point which proved to be successful as militants were rooted out from their sanctuaries. Intelligence-based operations (IBOs) proved to be successful since small pockets in Kurram and Khyber tribal districts where militants had taken shelter after Zarb-e-Azb, were being raided and militants could now only escape to Afghanistan.
Despite successful operations, however, the hope of a return to peace to the area dwindled with the major suicide attack ofNovember 23, 2018, in which 33 persons, including 22 Shias and three Sikhs, were killed and more than 51 were injured near an imambargah (Shia place of worship) in the Kalaya town of Lower Orakzai District.
Moreover, while the general populace of KP has experienced a largely improved security situation, the Aman Lashkar(Peace Committee) members, who have been the frontrunners in the Government’s war against terrorism,have been under continuous targeted attacksby the terrorists. There was a spike in such incidents and resultant fatalities in 2018, after a noticeable decline observed in 2016 and 2017, in comparison to previous years. According to partial data compiled by SATP, there were fiveincidents targeting tribal elders, resulting in the death of sevenelders across Pakistan’s tribal areas (KP and FATA). During 2017, two tribal elderswere killed in three incidents of targeted attack in the tribal areas. Through 2016, there were two such deaths in two incidents. The tribal areasrecorded 11 such incidents, resulting in 14 killings through 2015.2019 has already accounted for the killing of two tribal elders. The first incident was reported on January 19, 2019, when unidentified militants shot dead KP peace committee chief Malik Mir Alam Afridiin the Hayatabad area of Peshawar, while he was travelling from Peshawar to Bara.The second was the killing of Abbas Khan in an IED explosion in the Norak area of Mir Ali tehsilin North Waziristan District on February 13, 2019 (mentioned above).
Moreover, Policemen, who are first in the line of defence,are also targeted systematically by the militants. A Superintendent of Police (SP, Peshawar, KP), Tahir Khan Dawar, was found dead in Afghanistan on November 13, 2018, around 18 days after he was abducted by unidentified militants and whisked away to Afghanistan. Dawar left his residence inIslamabad for an evening walk on October 27, 2018, but did not return.His abductors released a picture of him along with a letter from the Khurasani faction of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claiming responsibility for the abduction and killing.Shaukat Yusafzai, Information Minister of KP,observed that Dawar was ruthlessly killed by his abductors inAfghanistan. Out of 1,689 Policemen of KP who died with their boots on since 1970, at least 1,304 were killed during the last 13 years, after violence escalated in the Province, according to data compiled by the Central Police Office in Peshawar. The Police have been the prime victims of terrorist attacks, suicide bombings, blasts, ambushes, rocket and mortar barrages and target killingsacross Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2006.Those who died during the last 13 years included two Additional Inspectors General of Police (Ad IGs), two Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs), seven SPs and 19 Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSP).
Not only militancy, but governmental and departmental negligence, and corruption, have also proven fatal in the fight against militancy. The Secretary of Defence Production Lieutenant General (Retd.)Muhammad Ijaz Chaudhry,on February 12, 2019, accepted that jackets purchased for the KP Police were not bulletproof, due to which many personnel had lost their lives.He made this revelation while addressing the Senate’s Standing Committee on Defence Production, presided over by the Committee Chairman LieutenantGeneral (Retd.) Abdul Qayyum. Chaudhry informed the panel that the jackets were purchased from private organisations, but heavy losses of life were incurred since they turned out not to be bulletproof. He disclosed, further, that the Inspector General (IG) of KP Police, Malik Naveed, has been arrested in this case.
While the province has been gathering the fruits of successful operations in terms of declining terrorism and related fatalities, irritants persists, with violence disrupting tranquillity at regular intervals.
Reacting to the arrest of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani on Wednesday, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called Rawalpindi “Karbala for the Bhutto family”, demanding that all trials against his party be shifted back to Sindh.
Addressing a press conference in London, he said, “PPP workers say that Karbala is created for PPP in Pindi every time and there is history to it but we are not scared of Pindi; I demand that shift all other trials to Sindh and I am ready to face trial in Pindi; there cannot be two laws in Pakistan. If I can be tried in Rawalpindi than others should be tried in Sindh.”
He said that the fake accounts case, involving his father Asif Ali Zardari and his aunt, should not have been transferred from Sindh to Rawalpindi. He said that the alleged crime scene is in Sindh and the case should have been heard in Sindh but the Supreme Court rejected his petition asking the NAB to hold an inquiry into the fake accounts case in the twin cities.
The PPP leader, while quoting his party workers, said that Rawalpindi has never offered justice to his family. “As in the case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged in the same city, and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in Rawalpindi in a bomb attack. And now the fake accounts case,” Bilawal said.
Bilawal alleged that double standards of justice were on full display as his family was being victimized while Imran Khan, his sister Aleema Khan and PTI leaders Jahangir Tareen and PTI’s allies were outside of the remit of accountability. He said that the transfer of fake accounts cases to Rawalpindi was violation of his rights as a citizen of Pakistan.
The PPP chairperson strongly condemned the arrest of Durrani, saying that the attack on the speaker is unacceptable and it is an undemocratic attempt to dislodge Sindh government.
Report reveals $36m taxpayer funded weapons system deal destined for Saudi Arabia
Defence officials have today confirmed reports that the Australian Government has spent taxpayer funds to support the development of a weapons systems bound for Saudi Arabia – a country which has been accused of committing war crimes against civilians in Yemen.
$36 million to one weapons systems manufacturer in Canberra stands in stark contrast to the Australian Government’s contribution to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen which stands at just $23 million in direct funding over almost 4 years of the conflict.In August 2018, the UN found that actions taken by the Saudi and UAE led coalition in Yemen – including rape, torture and using child soldiers as young as eight – may amount to war crimes. Save the Children is demanding an immediate ban of Australian defence export licenses to Saudi Arabia and other parties to the Yemen conflict which has seen 85,000 children die since 2015.Save the Children Director of Policy and International Programs Mat Tinkler said that Australia’s exportation of weapons to countries engaged in warfare that violates international law is leaving us globally isolated.
“Australia is becoming increasingly isolated in our support for the Saudi led coalition in this way,” said Mr Tinkler.
“The world over, nations have taken steps to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in light of the UN’s finding of possible war crimes.”
In addition to the Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian governments, in recent days both the UK Parliament and the US Congress have taken moves to stop arms sales and other military supplies to parties to the Yemen conflict.
The Department of Defence today confirmed in Senate Estimates that the Australian Government has granted export permits to an Australian company that sold 500 weapons mounting systems to Saudi Arabia.“The fact we’re still exporting defence equipment to Saudi Arabia and the UAE raises serious questions about what role we’re playing in prolonging this war, in prolonging the suffering of children in Yemen.”“Many Australians would be rightly be shocked to learn that Australia could potentially be contributing to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”
“Unfortunately, the secrecy has continued in Senate Estimates this morning, with the Government refusing to disclose what has been sold to Saudi Arabia and what safeguards exist to ensure Australian exports are not being used in support of the war Yemen.”
The Australian Government announced in January 2018 its ambition to become a top 10 defence exporter in the world.
“The Australia Government is clearly pursuing big defence export deals with countries engaged in warfare around the world.
“The question for the Australian Government to answer today is at what cost to taxpayers, and at what cost for children. Because every war is a war against children.”
This month Save the Children released a flagship report, Stop the War on Children, which revealed that almost 1 in 5 children are living in conflict zones around the world and for every 1 fighter killed, 5 children are killed in war.
In 2019, it’s Centenary year, Save the Children will be calling on the Australian Government to do more to stop the war on children, including an end to defence exports to parties to the war in Yemen.
By Hilary Whiteman, with Ivan Watson and Sandi Sidhu
The night they fled, Reem and Rawan didn't dare sleep.
It was September 6, 2018. The two Saudi sisters were on a family vacation in Colombo, Sri Lanka. For weeks, they had helped their mother organize the trip, feigning excitement at the possibility of two weeks away from Riyadh, but knowing that if all went to plan, they'd never go back.
Failure was not an option. Every step of their escape from Saudi Arabia carried the threat of severe punishment or death.
"We knew the first time, if it's not perfect, it will be the last time," Reem says.
CNN has changed the sisters' names and is not showing their faces, at their request for their safety.
The sisters say years of strict Islamic teaching and physical abuse at home had convinced them that they had no future in a society that places women under the enforced guardianship of men, and limits their aspirations.
"It's slavery, because whatever the woman will do it's the business of the male," Rawan says.
That's why they say they renounced Islam.
And that's why aged 18 and 20, they stole back their own passports, hid their abayas under the bedcovers, snuck out of their holiday home and boarded a flight from Colombo to Melbourne, via Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong stopover was supposed to take less than two hours.
Two hours has turned into five months.
Why they fled
"Good girls" do what they're told, are quiet, don't argue or risk embarrassing their families. Reem and Rawan say they had turned being "good girls" into a fine art.
"In our house, we (were) always the good girls they wanted us to be. So, if they want us to clean, we will clean. If they want us to cook, then we will cook," 18-year-old Rawan says.
"The last two years it was really bad, because I just forget who I am, I am just pretending (to be) like an Islamic girl," says her 20-year-old sister, Reem.
They went to school, studied hard and avoided confrontation. Of course, the same rules didn't apply to their brothers. Beat your sisters, the siblings say their brothers were told, it'll make you better men.
Reem and Rawan are reluctant to talk about the abuse at the hands of their family. They say it didn't happen all the time, just enough to remind them of the rules. And enough to fill them with terror about what might happen if anyone found out about their plan or, worse still, caught them carrying it out.
The escape
Leaving Saudi Arabia is not a simple undertaking for women who rebel against the system. Permission is needed from a male guardian for many basic activities, including international travel.
Reem and Rawan say they had been planning their escape in secret for two years. They didn't dare discuss it in case they were overheard, so, instead, they swapped WhatsApp messages, even while alone at night in their shared room.
Before they fled, the Sri Lanka vacation was just like any other. They wore their niqabs to the beach and sat away from the surf while their brothers swam and joked. They cooked the meals, and spent most of their days inside. It was humid. Their niqabs stuck to their skin and made it hard to see.
"We travel to move from a box to another box. From home to hotel, nothing will change," Rawan says. "They will go out, they will live freely, the men, of course we will sit away, watching them doing what they want."
Their five-year-old sister played in the sand, but their 12-year-old sister, like them, didn't. She too was learning that it's OK to be a girl in Saudi Arabia -- until you grow up.
During the trip, Rawan turned 18. The timing was no accident. The vacation was planned with gentle persuasion to coincide with a birthday that, unbeknown to their mother, allowed Rawan to apply for an Australian tourist visa.
On the last night of the trip, the sisters launched into action. Reem pre-booked the taxi. It was Rawan's job to retrieve their passports from a bag stored in their parents' bedroom. Around 2 a.m., she tip-toed past them as they slept, took the bag with their passports, then snuck back in again to return the bag so as not to raise suspicion.
"It's a really great memory, exciting," Rawan tells CNN, smiling. Of the two sisters, she's the more talkative, taking the lead and occasionally looking to her sister for advice on the right word in English. Reem is more reserved. She's careful about what she says and who to trust. They both have dark, short, curly hair and being small in stature seem much younger than their years.
When the cab driver arrived at 5 a.m., the sisters say they did something they'd never done before. They pulled on jeans they'd bought in secret and walked out of the house without their abayas.
It was only after they arrived at Colombo Airport that the sisters booked the flight they'd meticulously researched online: SriLankan Airlines flight UL892 departing Colombo at 9 a.m., arriving Hong Kong at 5:10 p.m. local time. From there, they'd take Cathay Pacific flight CX135 departing at 7:10 p.m. for Melbourne, Australia.
They had no trouble boarding the plane for the roughly six-hour flight to Hong Kong.
It was after they arrived in at Hong Kong International Airport that things started to go wrong.
Arriving in Hong Kong
What happened in the transit area was something the sisters might have anticipated had they known their uncle had connections to the Saudi Interior Ministry or had realized the power Saudi officials could have over local airport staff.
As soon as the women stepped off the plane, they say two men approached them and asked if they were going to Melbourne. The women say the men asked for their passports and boarding passes, first saying they might miss their flight, then suggesting there was something wrong with their Australian visas.
In a letter to the sisters' lawyer obtained by CNN, SriLankan Airlines has identified the men as Naeem Khan, SriLankan Airlines station manager, and Noman Shah, a staff member for ground handling agent, Jardine Aviation Services.
The sisters say the men led them to another area of the airport, where their lawyer Michael Vidler says they canceled the women's Cathay Pacific flight to Melbourne and booked them, without their knowledge, on an Emirates flight to Riyadh, via Dubai.
Cathay Pacific tells CNN that the sisters' flight was canceled by representatives of SriLankan Airlines.
SriLankan Airlines told CNN its staff members canceled the flight at the "explicit request" of the Saudi Consulate, which had already booked the sisters on the flight to Riyadh.
The airline said consular officials told its staff the women's father had phoned and said the sisters needed to go back to Saudi Arabia "as soon as possible" as their mother was terminally ill.
The women knew their mother wasn't ill and were quite sure there was nothing wrong with their visas.
"We allege that they were the subject of an attempted kidnapping in an international airport in a restricted area," Vidler tells CNN. "The Saudi Consulate was actively trying to deceive them."
CNN has approached the Saudi Consulate in Hong Kong and the Saudi Foreign Ministry for comment on the sisters' claims and has not received a response. Hong Kong Police have confirmed that they're investigating the allegations.
SriLankan Airlines says at no time did the sisters indicate there was a problem. The women disagree.
Vidler says that closed circuit television seen by his team appears to confirm that Saudi Consul General Omar Al Bunayan and Vice Consul Abdullah Hussain A. Al Sharif were at the airport, speaking to the women and airline staff.
The presence of senior Saudi officials at the airport filled the women with dread. They'd heard about Dina Ali Lasloom, the 24-year-old Saudi woman who was forced onto a plane to Riyadh at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila in April 2017. Her hands, feet and mouth had been bound with duct tape, one witness told Human Rights Watch.
Reem and Rawan feared the same could happen to them.
They excused themselves to go to the bathroom where they made the decision to flee. As they emerged, they said they saw one of their passports on the table. Rawan tried to grab it.
The teenager says one of the men immediately slapped her hand, prompting the sisters to scream in Arabic, "You kidnap us!"
The sisters say they caused such a scene that the Consul General suggested they move to a quieter area where he presented them with their passports and new boarding passes -- for Dubai.
They ran. First to the Cathay desk where counter staff told them their flights had been canceled. Then to the Qantas desk, where they'd hurriedly booked the next flight to Melbourne, QF30, departing at 7:00 p.m.
Soon after they were issued boarding passes, the women say Shah, the ground handling staff member, tried to snatch them.
Jardine Aviation Services, whose staff member carry out a number of tasks within the airport, says its employees didn't tell the women their mother was ill or that was there was an issue with their Australia visas. It denies its staff members slapped Hawan's hand or tried to grab the sisters' boarding passes.
Hong Kong's Airport Authority has refused to give CNN a closed-circuit recording of the events that unfolded due to privacy concerns.
The women shared selfies they'd taken of their life before they fled. They wore niqabs in public from the age of 11 and at home were told to wear long gowns, so as not to tempt their brothers.
For the second time in two hours, the sisters say senior Saudi officials stopped them from flying. The sisters say Saudi Vice Consul Al Sharif told staff at the Qantas check-in desk they were running away, had stolen money, and weren't tourists.
Australian immigration officials were summoned on the phone and after a conversation with the women, Canberra canceled their visas.
"The only issues with the visa occurred when the Vice Consul made what we believe to be false representations to the Australian authorities at the boarding gate of Qantas airlines," Vidler says.
A spokesperson from Australia's Home Affairs department declined to comment on individual cases. Qantas also declined to comment but a spokesman pointed out that the airline does not make visa assessments.
The sisters say they stayed at the airport for three hours before asking Cathay Pacific counter staff for permission to leave. They wrote their names and a fake Hong Kong contact address then caught a train to the city.
Khashoggi case puts Saudi Arabia under scrutiny
Reem and Rawan escaped Saudi Arabia weeks before the world's attention turned to the kingdom and the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. They watched from Hong Kong as gruesome details emerged of Khashoggi's murder inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, allegedly by a team of hitmen who cut up his body with a bone saw.
In November, a source told CNN that the CIA had determined that Khashoggi was killed on the instruction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, known as MBS, a claim the kingdom denies.
The Saudi sisters shrug when asked if they are surprised by Khashoggi's murder and the allegation that their country's de facto leader ordered it.
"We know that Saudi Arabia can do stuff like this," Reem says. "They are chasing innocent girls, not even important girls," Rawan agrees. "We're just normal young women trying to find a life far away from violence."
Soon after the women arrived in Hong Kong, their father and uncle came to the city to find them. Hong Kong police confirmed to CNN that a missing persons report had been filed.
Using a passport tracking system linked to hotel check-ins, Hong Kong police officers located the sisters on Monday, September 10 and took them into custody for questioning.
The women say they were held in a room in the imposing Wan Chai police headquarters for six hours, where they repeatedly refused requests from their father and their uncle to see them.
Police eventually drove them back to their hotel. By that time, it was after midnight and the women hurriedly packed their bags and fled.
In the five months since, they've moved from shelter to shelter, hotel to hotel, to evade detection and their potential forced return to Riyadh.
The sisters have not sought asylum in Hong Kong, however. Doing so would have put them at the end of a long queue of claimants caught in Hong Kong's Unified Screening Mechanism (USM), a system used by the government to process asylum claims. The UNHCR doesn't assess claims in Hong Kong.
Through their lawyer, Reem and Rawan are seeking a visa in a safe country. Vidler says they have few options. Their Saudi passports have been canceled and they don't have formal permission to stay in Hong Kong.
Life in Saudi Arabia
At home in Riyadh, the sisters say they were beaten by their father and brothers "for a reason and no reason."
One day when she was 14, Reem says her brother started hitting her for talking and laughing with Rawan. "He said that people will hear my voice and it will bring shame," she says.
The sisters knew it was likely there would be an arranged marriage. There was talk of Rawan marrying her younger cousin, a boy still in high school.
Reem was the first to renounce Islam in October 2016, followed by Rawan in May 2017. They didn't dare tell anyone but say they announced it under fake names on Twitter.
"I knew If I told my family they will hurt me and I'll be killed. Because that what we studied in schools, that whoever left Islam should be killed. I knew no one will protect me because all my family are so religious and none of them will support me. I was afraid of them finding out," Reem says.
There are no firm figures on how many Saudi women have escaped the country -- or how many have failed in their attempt to leave -- but the total number of Saudi asylum seekers is rising.
According to the United Nations, 575 Saudi nationals applied for asylum in 2015. Two years later, that figure had more than doubled to over 1,200.
The period coincides with the rising influence of MBS who in June 2017 was appointed heir to the Saudi throne by his father King Salman.
Since then, MBS has made it clear that dissent won't be tolerated, even as the kingdom has earned international plaudits for new female-focused policies, including lifting the ban on women drivers.
Rana Ahmad, a 33-year-old Saudi national who runs the Atheist Refugee Relief agency in Germany, says the jailing and torture of the same women who campaigned for the right to drive had sent a message to some Saudi women that they have no future in the country.
"They look at these women, they're trying to do something and the government puts them in jail. So they see no hope anymore, they want to leave," she said.
Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), says women whose escape plans are thwarted are at serious risk of abuse.
Punishments range from being locked in their room for months on end or banned from using a mobile phone, to criminal prosecution by the state for disobeying their parents or harming the kingdom's reputation. The women themselves say they fear they'll be killed by their own families.
Coogle says there are few safe corridors for women to leave, because of political pressure the Saudi government applies to some foreign countries to return "runaways" without giving them the opportunity to claim asylum or put their case forward.
"Anywhere you go that doesn't have some sort of respect for refugee law or a strong record of rule of law is a problem because they're the countries where Saudi Arabia can apply its diplomatic pressure to get countries to cooperate," he says.
Few regrets
Reem and Rawan say they could see signs of change in Saudi Arabia, but it wasn't moving fast enough for them. They laugh at the suggestion that progress was made by giving Saudi women the right to drive.
"Driving cars is not something to celebrate," Reem says. "There is a woman abused in the house, and no one hears their voice, and they want us to celebrate a car?" Rawan adds.
In Hong Kong, the sisters watch Netflix to pass the time. Wearing jeans and trainers, they could easily be mistaken for one of the millions of tourists that come through the city each year.
Sometimes Reem wears lipstick. She seems relaxed but has a habit of picking at the skin on her fingers when she's nervous. Sometimes, she does it so much that they start to bleed.
The sisters are anxious about what comes next. But even after five months of uncertainty and fear, they have few regrets.
"I regret not waiting, but not leaving," Reem says. "From my childhood, I knew this is not my home. I always knew my rights would be taken."
Rawan says she too knew there was no life for her in Saudi Arabia.
"When I was growing up I saw my brothers do whatever they want, have whatever they want. But for me, I should be a good girl, a good woman, to marry someone, my cousin, because I should not even dream to choose my husband, to choose my partner.
"I want to study what I want, I want to work what I want, I want to choose the day I marry. To choose the man I marry. Even if I don't want to marry, I want the right to choose."
