#Pakistan - ‘Unsilencing #Balochistan’

By Desmond Fernandes

Just over 4 years ago, “on the evening of April 24, one of Karachi’s most prominent social activists, Sabeen Mahmud, was shot dead after leaving an event called ‘Unsilencing Balochistan’ [Take 2], that her organization, The Second Floor, had arranged”. This event had been organised “after a previous roundtable on the same topic, … scheduled to include [Mama] Qadeer and [Farzana] Majeed as panellists, was cancelled at a leading private university, the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Faculty there said they had to cancel the talk because of threats received from Pakistan’s top spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI]”. The Chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department had notified students, staff and faculty at LUMS that the event had been cancelled “on the orders of the government”.

The event had “featured [the aforementioned panellists], two of Pakistan’s most vilified human rights activists”, the Chair and General Secretary of Voice for Missing Baloch Persons, “who have worked to raise awareness about the south-western province Balochistan’s ‘missing people’”.

“Mahmud knew she was taking a risk by holding the event and discussed the possibility of ‘blowback’ with a friend … But she wrote to another friend, ‘I just want to leave everything and join the Baloch march for the rights of their missing’”.

At that time, as the Voice for Missing Baloch Persons had estimated, “around 21,000 people ha[d] gone missing in Balochistan”, with 6,000 mutilated bodies found. Two months after Sabeen Mahmud’s murder, Pakistan’s army continued “to enforce a blockade of the towns of Kolowah, Malaar, Geshkor, Zeek & Machi. No one, including town residents and district officials of the Pakistan-backed provincial government”, were “allowed access to the targeted towns. A district official, on condition of anonymity, said they were denied access to the affected areas by Pakistan Army and Frontier Corp units and were told that operations” were “still underway. District officials said the towns ha[d] been subjected to intensified bombing by the Pakistan Air Force”.

Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian, Tariq Ali and others, just a year prior to Sabeen Mahmud’s target killing, had voiced the following concern in an Open Letter:

On March 18th 2014 around 5:00 pm in Quetta, Zahid Baloch, chairperson of [the] Baloch Student Organization – Azad (BSO-A), was abducted at gunpoint. Banuk Karima, the vice-chairperson of BSO-A, witnessed the abduction. She notes, ‘Pakistan’s secret agencies and security forces abducted Zahid Baloch, I along with three other members of BSO-A witnessed the abduction’ …

According to Voice Of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) – an independent advocacy group run by the families of those who are missing – more than 19,000 Baloch persons are missing. Other organisations put the figure in the range of 600 to 5000. Most human rights organizations and activists accuse Pakistani secret agencies and military forces for these abductions. This fact was acknowledged by the Pakistan Supreme Court. Not only are Baloch systematically being disappeared. They are also being tortured and murdered…

Baloch activists claim that Balochistan was annexed by Pakistan on 27th March 1948 by the Pakistani army on the orders of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The Baloch, since this date, have variously demanded either increased provincial autonomy in a confederal political system or independence. The Pakistani state has heeded neither demand. Instead, by both civilian-led governments and military dictatorship, the Baloch have been answered by bullets.

Besides the abductions, torture and murder of Baloch activists, the state has carried out major military operations in Balochistan, often in civilian areas. Alarmingly, military forces have also started raiding and destroying educational institutions. In the past four months, study centres and schools have been raided with students and teachers among those who have been abducted. Shockingly, bookshops have been raided and bookshop owners arrested. Life for students in Balochistan has become unbearable…

We … call on the Government of Pakistan to stop all military operations in Balochistan, to stop raids on educational institutions, to stop raids on bookshops, and to stop forced abductions of Baloch activists. We further call for the immediate release of Zahid Baloch and all others held by Pakistani security forces. We call on intellectuals and activists to take note of these atrocities being committed in Balochistan for which we hold the Pakistani state responsible and complicit. We appeal to all readers to raise the issue of the atrocities against the Baloch at all political and social forums.

Five years on from this assessment, the ongoing process of destruction, military operations in Balochistan, raids on educational institutions, raids on bookshops, forced abductions of Baloch activists, women, children and students and “kill and dump” targeting of the Baloch still fits the pattern of colonial genocide identified by Raphael Lemkin (who coined the term genocide) and other scholars, human rights activists and political commentators. I have already extensively documented the genocidal and politicidal context of such targeting at length in two books. For Adana Usmani, “the conflict today resembles the dynamics characteristic of any protracted clash with an occupying authority”.

It is notable that Imran Khan, when leading his party in opposition, as PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) chairman in February 2016, had promised that he would act differently with regard to Balochistan if he came to power, as he understood the full scale of injustice and “the crimes against humanity” faced by the Baloch. He said, for example, and as quoted from the Pakistan Tribune newspaper, he would “fight for the rights of Balochistan, claiming he did not have an idea how rights of smaller provinces were suppressed until his party formed government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa [KP] … Imran assured the people of Balochistan that his party will never use force against them. [Quote]: ‘I will never start a military operation in your province but will respect your right to protest’ [end quote], he said, claiming that he understood why Balochis were struggling for their rights”.

In a speech uploaded on 26 January that same year he is heard passionately stating before an audience:

I, in 1971, when [the] Pakistani army took action in East Pakistan, I was the one who was standing with the Pakistani army, praising the soldiers, ‘they’re doing this’ and ‘great job’, and its only ‘foreigners’, ‘terrorists’ and ‘militants’ [who are being targeted]. It was three years later that we realised that the army butchered civilians – women and children. And so we’re doing exactly the same thing in Balochistan. They are bombing people. How can you bomb people? Is this an army you’re bombing? There are women and children there. But for us, it’s very important to understand how we’re just bombing our own people. Just think of the immorality of bombing villages, where there are women and children.

No one talks about, yeah … about the 6 million people [also] in the tribal area that are being bombed. Their economy has been destroyed. They are living in refugee camps. There are about 2 million internally displaced people in Pakistan. How are they surviving? All under the heading of ‘the Taliban’.
And the extra-judicial killing that is going on. How many times have you heard [about] ‘so many militants killed’. Is there any [independent] verification? Has there been any [independent] identification? Who are these people that have died?

So, this is a crime against humanity, what is going on …

Since Imran Khan became Prime Minister, of course, the army has continued to do the very same things – i.e. extra-judicial killings, abductions, disappearances, the ‘bombing’ of ‘villages, where there are women and children’ – that it was doing in 2016 when he had clearly labelled such concerns ‘a crime against humanity’. Prime Minister Imran Khan needs to ask himself the same questions that he had posed to the prime minister of the time in 2016: “How can you bomb people [in Balochistan?] … There are women and children there … Just think of the immorality of bombing villages, where there are women and children … And the extra-judicial killing that is going on. How many times have you heard [about] ‘so many militants killed’. Is there any [independent] verification? Has there been any [independent] identification? Who are these people that have died?”.

Balochwarna News and other outlets and organisations continue to document, on a weekly basis, the women and children, elders, students and others who continue to be abducted, tortured and ‘disappeared’ by Pakistan’s army of occupation and linked forces. Just think of that immorality and lack of accountability of the same government that warns India about its military occupation and shameful human rights record in Kashmir. Just two months ago, in June, the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (Hakkpaan) reported that:

In completely under-the-blanket operations, the mighty military of Pakistan has militarized the entire Balochistan, its north-western, most mineral-rich but least developed region with lowest human development. [The] military suppressed the rights movements that blame the military and the central government for their backwardness…

Balochistan seemed a war-zone during the month of May 2019 as well. We have received hundreds of reports of human rights violations [which confirmed that in May 2019 alone], … seventy persons were picked up by [the] military and forcibly disappeared. Eight of them were released later, while [the] whereabouts of 62 civilians remain unknown … Decomposed bodies of five persons were found dumped. All were beyond recognition … Silence over Balochistan has shaped [the] military’s attitude towards any rights movement all over Pakistan.

[The] military repeated [the] same in Waziristan, KPK region on 26 May 2019. It attacked a peaceful rally, killing more than a dozen and wounding more than forty-five. [The] rally was organized by [the PTM] Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement, a rights group developed in Pakistan’s KPK region. [The] leadership of the group – legislators the local people elected – were said to be the aim of the attack. One of the legislators, Ali Wazir went missing for a few days, after [the] military arrested him from the attacked protest, while the other, Mohsin Dawar was declared a wanted man. He finally surrendered himself to a court of law … [The] military, it seems, wishes to control the minds of each individual and does not [wish to] allow any space for the voices of people.

The Human Rights Council of Balochistan’s May 2019 update confirmed by name that Baloch children and university students were identified amongst the ‘disappeared’. The HRCB’s report entitled 2019 Balochistan: The State of Human Rights further confirmed from its sources that in “March 2019, sixty people were forcibly disappeared by security forces, fifteen were shot dead and seventeen unidentified bodies were recovered. The abductions include[d] women and children, particularly those who are related to campaigners and political workers. These people are often taken from their homes by the military and kept in isolation for weeks, sometimes even months. They are then moved to illegal detention centres, run that by death squads, but supervised and sponsored by the military”.

Investigative journalist Julia Micevska earlier this month, having highlighted the HRCB’s findings and arrived at the determination that Pakistan’s military “continues its ‘Kill and Dump Policy’ in Balochistan”, further concluded (and in this, she joins a large number of human rights analysts who have arrived at similar conclusions) that the construction of the Gwadar deep sea port and road infrastructure which forms “part of the planned China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has [additionally] resulted in untold human rights abuses that the Baloch people liken to ‘ethnic cleaning’.

“The Pakistani military has used a heavy hand to seize the resources of Baluchistan”, she reports, “especially its oil, gas and rare earth metals. Additionally, the Pakistan military regularly carries out strategic military exercises in the region, including nuclear testing and storage. Villages that block any proposed route are burnt to ashes and the people forcefully removed. It is generally believed that the military of Pakistan is beyond accountability, and cannot be controlled by any civilian institution, including the Pakistan Parliament and judiciary”.

Investigative journalists, for their part, in Balochistan, Pakistan and overseas – who cover Pakistan state-inspired terror and atrocities in Balochistan – continue to be targeted. As Shah Meer Baloch reported in November 2017 (and the situation has not improved since then): “Balochistan is the most hazardous province for journalists. According to Khalil Ahmed, president of the Balochistan Union of Journalists, 43 journalists have been killed in Balochistan, including by bomb blasts and targeted killings. Twenty-five journalists have lost their lives in targeted killings while reporting in the conflict zones in Balochistan, Ahmed said”.

Many others live under the constant fear, in Balochistan, Pakistan and internationally, of being targeted by state-inspired death-squads. In this regard, we must not forget those who have sought, despite these threats, to expose genocidal realities whilst celebrating Baloch culture and resistance towards a genocidal regime. We must not forget Dr Arif Barakzai, a member of the BSO (Baloch Student Organisation) and a lecturer at Uppsala University in Sweden who was murdered after ‘accidentally falling’ 11 floors from the balcony of his apartment in 2008. He ran the website, The Baloch Artist, dedicated to Baloch culture.

The European Commission and governments which claim to be inspired by the refrain ‘Never again!’, meanwhile, need to be publicly held to account for pursuing their own cynical geopolitical and ‘deep political’ agendas that enable these horrors against the Baloch to continue. As an Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) report entitled “Land of Forsaken Voices: The Geopolitics of Justice, Impunity and Human Rights in Balochistan” noted in 2016: “Pakistan’s partners in the West pay mere lip service to changing the horrendous status quo. Their half-hearted approach oscillates between public allegiance to international human rights norms and realpolitik based on considerations of power and economic interests”.http://balochwarna.com/2019/09/08/unsilencing-balochistan/

Baloch, Sindhi, Pashto groups seek Modi & Trump’s help, allege rights violations by Pakistan

LALIT K JHA 

Members of these groups will hold a demonstration in front of Houston’s NRG stadium, where Modi & Trump will take part in the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event Sunday.

Representatives of Sindhi, Baloch and Pashto groups have gathered in Houston to hold a demonstration in front of the NRG stadium on Sunday to draw the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump for gaining freedom from Pakistan.

Scores of members of the Balochi American, Sindhi American and Pashto American communities landed in Houston on Saturday from various parts of the US to hold the first-of-its-kind demonstration in America, wherein they will collectively urge the leaders of India and the United States to help them get freedom from Pakistan.

Members of these groups alleged on Saturday that the Pakistani establishment was carrying out gross violation of human rights against their communities.

“We demand freedom from Pakistan. India and the US should help us in the same way as India had helped the people of Bangladesh in 1971,” Nabi Baksha Baloch, the US representative of the Baloch National Movement, told PTI.

“We are here to request Prime Minister Modi and President Trump to support our cause. There has been gross violation of human rights against the Baloch people by the Pakistani government,” he said.

More than 100 Sindhi Americans arrived in Houston on Saturday. They are planning to gather outside the NRG stadium, where the “Howdy Modi” event is scheduled to be held on Sunday, with the hope that their posters and banners of freedom will catch the attention of Modi and Trump.

“This is a historic rally by the leaders of the free world — the largest and oldest democracies. We the people of Sindh want freedom from Pakistan. Just like India supported for the freedom of Bangladesh in 1971, we want a separate nation for the people of Sindh. Pakistan is a theocratic country,” Zafar Sahito, from the Jeay Sindh Mutahida Muhaz, said.

A Professor’s Killing Sends a Chill Through a Campus in Pakistan

By Ben Farmer

Prof. Khalid Hameed’s devotion to teaching often led him to arrive early for work, and the day he was killed was no different. Professor Hameed, a senior English lecturer at Government Sadiq Egerton College in the Pakistani city of Bahawalpur, parked at about 8 a.m. on March 20, signed the staff room register, unlocked his office and walked in. His killer came up from behind, hitting him in the head with a heavy padlock and stabbing him several times. Professor Hameed, 59, who was six months from retirement, died immediately.

One of his students, Khateeb Hussain, was detained by the police. In a video of his interrogation, Mr. Hussain said he killed Professor Hameed — a devout Muslim, according to his family — because he had insulted Islam. Six months later, no charges have been brought against Mr. Hussain, or against a preacher from Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a hard-line Islamic group, who the police say incited him to kill.

The murder has devastated Professor Hameed’s family and chilled his colleagues at Sadiq Egerton College. They see it as a horrifying new chapter in a campaign against liberal education, which small but influential extremist groups in Pakistan consider unacceptable. Many of the teachers are now wary of speaking freely to their students.

“Actually, this teacher was a symbol of all liberal education,” said Irshad Ahmad Tabasum, an associate professor in Professor Hameed’s department.

Professor Tabasum and some of his colleagues stressed that Professor Hameed was no provocative liberal firebrand, just a dedicated, well-liked teacher. They said the college had not previously had trouble with religious extremists, and they were at a loss to explain what could have motivated the killer.

A day before Professor Hameed’s death, anonymous pamphlets were distributed that called for banning a campus gathering that he was coordinating. The pamphlets claimed, wrongly, that men and women there would be allowed to dance together. But investigators said Mr. Hussain was not behind the pamphlets, and teachers at the college doubt there is a connection.In the video of his interrogation, Mr. Hussain — who had been pursuing a degree in English literature — said Professor Hameed “used to bark against Islam and utter derogatory remarks every day.” But he did not cite any specific comment that angered him.Like English literature classes around the world, Professor Hameed’s roamed across broad themes in philosophy, history, religion and politics, his colleagues say. They resent speculation about what he might have said that enraged Mr. Hussain, seeing it as an attempt to find justification, or at least sense, in his murder.But they also say that the shock of the killing has made them wonder about their own teaching — and that they have started to skirt potentially contentious subjects.

“For the last 25 years, I have never felt the pressure as I am feeling now,” Professor Tabasum said. He said he had long taught “Oedipus Rex” in his classes on Greek tragedy but was now worried about doing so.

“Because every single word can create a problem for you,” he said. “This is what has been inculcated in me after this incident. Before that, whatever I felt, I expressed that.”

Teachers have found themselves reluctant to let classroom discussions get too philosophical, said Mahmood Ahmed Shaheen, an assistant professor at Sadiq Egerton. “Obviously it is a fact, when such incidents happen, they affect our sensibilities, they affect our perception,” he said. “We feel a bit insecure when you are studying and discussing something in class, and particularly if it is related to religion.”

Such fears have spread well beyond Bahawalpur, a conservative city 380 miles southeast of Islamabad, the capital.

“I think that it would be wrong and foolish to think that such terrible incidents could only happen elsewhere,” said Shaista Sonnu Sirajuddin, a former professor of English literature at the University of Punjab in Lahore. “I dread and fear the time that we, too, can become victims.” Vigilantism by religious extremists has been a problem on Pakistani campuses since the 1980s military dictatorship of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, who emboldened them with his Islamization of the country's laws, said Tahira Abdullah, a human rights activist.

“It’s just getting worse and worse, and it’s more visible now,” she said, adding that “if you invite a progressive speaker, that speaker will get shouted down, drowned out or run off campus, or not even allowed to speak.”

Two years ago, a 25-year-old student at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, in northwestern Pakistan, was dragged from his dormitory room and killed by a mob after rumors spread that he had posted blasphemous writing online. The student, Mashal Khan, had described himself as a humanist and covered his room at with posters of his political heroes and slogans celebrating free speech.

Professor Sirajuddin said most pressure felt by professors did not include overt threats of violence. But in Pakistan, an accusation of blasphemy can lead to mob violence or even an actual death sentence, and that is intimidating enough.

Professor Sirajuddin, who still teaches, said she had come to accept that if one day a student accused her, she would be on her own. “There will be very few people, there will probably be no one, who will have the courage to stand up and say she did not blaspheme,” she said.

Professor Hameed’s wife and four children say he was deeply religious, and that he made repeated pilgrimages to Mecca during a five-year stint working in Saudi Arabia. He often took a special interest in poor students, figuring that a degree could transform their lives and those of their families, according to colleagues and graduates of Sadiq Egerton.Mr. Hussain, who was reported to be either 20 or 21 years old, is still in custody, but formal charges have not been filed. The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan preacher who was detained on suspicion of inciting the killing, Zafar Gillani, has also not been charged and is now free on bail.

Shafiq Qureshi, the public prosecutor in the case, said the investigation report was complete and that formal charges could be filed this month. He said he hoped a court hearing would soon follow.

The case is being closely watched by students, teachers and other Pakistanis, said Diwan Asif Shahzad, an assistant English professor at Sadiq Egerton. He believes that bringing murder charges would send a strong message in defense of liberal education, but as the weeks have passed, he and other teachers have grown increasingly worried.

“We are all the way scared as to what will be the final decision,” Professor Shahzad said.

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Birth Anniversary Of Noor Jehan Being Observed

The birth anniversary of renowned singer of sub-continent Noor Jehan is being observed on Saturday (September-21)

The birth anniversary of renowned singer of sub-continent Noor Jehan is being observed on Saturday (September-21).

Melody Queen', Noor Jehan was born in 1926 on this day in Kasur. She had also performed as an actress in film industry.

Her famous films included Chan Wey, Dopatta, Mirza Ghalib, Qaidi, Baaji and Khandaan.

She sang in several languages including urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi, and recorded over 10,000 songs in her career.

She received the Life Time Achievement Award twice, besides achieving the highest Pakistani civilian awards Pride of Performance, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and Sitara-e-Imtiaz.

She died on December 23, 2000 as a result of heart failure and was buried in Karachi.

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/showbiz/birth-anniversary-of-noor-jehan-being-observe-717158.html

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For Pakistan’s own good, it should stop worrying about Indian Muslims

SHIVAM VIJ 

Seventy-two years after Partition, Pakistan continues to define itself through India.

Since the creation of Pakistan would lead to a large number of Muslims staying back in India, the founders of Pakistan wondered about the rights and well-being of Indian Muslims. They propounded the “hostage theory” whereby Pakistan’s treatment of Hindus and Sikhs in the country would depend on how India treats its minorities.

An Independent India, on the other hand, always believed in granting equal rights to its minorities because it’s the right thing to do, it’s what its Constitution says, and not because it fears the repercussions for Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan.

India did not want to define itself through Pakistan.

But, 72 years after Partition, Pakistan seems as obsessed as ever with the perpetual need to justify the two-nation theory. It is one thing for Pakistan to worry about Kashmiris, given its dispute with India over territorial claims on Kashmir. But what territorial claims does it have on Assam that it is worried about the NRC process there?

Ever since India decided to change the status of Jammu & Kashmir as a union territory under its own constitutional scheme, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has been going on and on about Hindu nationalism in India. He often makes the point that religious minorities are better off in Pakistan than in India. He makes Pakistan sound like a secular state, and India a majoritarian one. Regardless of who wins here, Pakistan is doing itself a disservice by making such a comparison in the first place. It is making its self-image incumbent upon India.

This renewed concern for Indian Muslims in Pakistan is not a fallout of the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on 5 August 2019. In December 2018, Imran Khan told Baloch students in Islamabad, “The way Muslims are treated today in India has made people realise now why Pakistan was born.” Does he realise how insecure and unsure the Pakistani nationhood looks with a statement like that? Seventy-two years after Partition, Pakistanis are now realising why Pakistan was born?

Nauseating schadenfreude

As Narendra Modi rose to power in 2014, some Pakistani friends told me, “Achcha hua! Secular nakaab utra (Good, India is taking off its secular veil).” It’s as if they were happy that Indian secularism was threatened by Modi’s rise. How else would the two-nation theory get a spring in its step?

The trouble with the two-nation theory is that it does not seem to have a historical end-date: Not 1947, not 1971, not the Lahore Declaration and not even 5 August 2019. The two-nation theory seems to be an argument that refuses to end. The Partition continues.

Since 2014, the Pakistani schadenfreude over Hindu nationalism in India has been nauseating. It’s as if some Pakistanis are waiting with bated breath to hear of yet another case of a Muslim being lynched in India. It’s as if they are watching a spectator sport and are about to scream, ‘Two-nation theory won!’ I wonder if someone is even maintaining a score.

The rise of Hindutva in India since 2014 has definitely been a factor in determining how the Pakistani government sees India. With Modi as the Prime Minister, India-Pakistan peace seems even more impossible for Pakistan.

Imran Khan is now taking it to a new level. He’s started sounding like an opposition leader in India, ranting against Hindutva. The Nazi-inspired RSS is carrying out a project of Hindu supremacism, he says, and Modi wants to establish a Hindu Lebensraum. After they are done with Muslims, they will “come after” Dalits and Sikhs, he warned a Sikh delegation in Pakistan. Ironically, around the same time, there was a controversy over the alleged forced conversion of a Pakistani Sikh girl.

A specious concern

It does Indian Muslims no favour when Pakistan worries about them. It only makes things worse for them, reinforcing the Hindu nationalist narrative of Indian Muslims being ‘Pakistanis’. If Pakistan really cares about Indian Muslims, it should stop talking about them. Pakistan’s concern for Indian Muslims is specious and serves its own need for validation. Pakistan and Pakistanis must ask themselves what this says about their national self-identity, which still depends on the plight of Indian Muslims.

Look at Bangladesh, a country that does not use India to define itself. The result is that Bangladesh, once a basket case in the region, is today racing ahead of both India and Pakistan in its development indicators, economic growth and job creation. Confident nations don’t feel the need to define themselves in comparison to others. When Pakistan’s science minister Fawad Chaudhry celebrates the crash landing of an Indian mission to the moon, the joke is on him, and his country.

To Pak Media's Questions On Kashmir, UN Gives "Clear Opinion"

 "Our capacity is related to good offices, and good office can only be implemented when good offices is accepted," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
The United Nations on Wednesday indicated its acknowledgement of the Indian stance that Jammu and Kashmir is a bilateral issue and said dialogue between India and Pakistan is an "absolute essential element for the solution". India had reiterated its stand on Jammu and Kashmir at the UN Human Rights Council last week and accused Pakistan of attempting to "politicise" the forum with "hysterical statements with false narratives". On Wednesday, asked by the Pakistani media about a "solution to this crisis", United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, "Our capacity is related to good offices, and good office can only be implemented when good offices is accepted, and on the other hand it is related to advocacy and the advocacy was expressed and advocacy will be maintained".

"I will go on with the clear opinion that human rights must be fully respected in the territory and I go on with a clear opinion that dialogue between India and Pakistan is an absolute essential element for the solution," he added.

Last week, following yet another effort by Islamabad to flag Kashmir at the UN Rights Council meeting, India said: "We should call out those who are misusing this platform for malicious political agendas under the garb of human rights".

Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, expressing his opinion about a possible "genocide" in future.

Strongly rebutting his claims, the foreign ministry said, "Some Pakistani leaders have gone as far as calling for jihad to encourage violence in Jammu and Kashmir and third countries, in order to create a picture of genocide which even they know is far from reality". Since August, Pakistan has been unsuccessfully flagging the Centre's move to end special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate it into two union territories at various international forums.

Days after the government's announcement, at a closed-door meeting held at the UN, the participating nations -- barring China -- had sided with India, agreeing that the changes in Jammu and Kashmir were an internal matter.

In Pakistan-Held Kashmir, Growing Calls for Independence

By Maria Abi-Habib, Jalaluddin Mughal and Salman Masood

In Pakistan-controlled Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the simple fact of the region’s name — with azad meaning free — is a declaration that Kashmiris here enjoy a liberty denied to their kin across the border, in the Indian-held portion of the disputed territory.

But even in Pakistan-held Kashmir, the message has been clear, residents say: No talk of independence will be allowed.

As an Indian crackdown on the other side of Kashmir has led to massive civil unrest and new calls for a Kashmir free from either India or Pakistan, local activists and officials say a parallel security operation is being pushed inside Pakistan.

Pakistan has long prided itself on being a champion for Kashmiris, who are predominantly Muslim. And the government has chastised India for suppressing calls for freedom in the portion of Kashmir that New Delhi controls.

But New York Times journalists who were granted rare access to Azad Jammu and Kashmir in recent days found a toughening Pakistani security response to a growing independence movement here.Residents say the upwelling is rooted in fears that their ability to reunify has been slowly slipping away ever since India increased its control of the divided territory and Pakistan did little to stop it other than to offer negotiations that India refused.

The Pakistani crackdown also has another focus, locals say: As outrage over India’s move to end Kashmiri autonomy last month has galvanized militants, Pakistani officials fear they could face international sanctions if they don’t rein in the armed groups.

On both sides of the border, Kashmiris are expressing frustration that no one is on their side.

“Both countries have gone to war over Kashmir. But Kashmiris have never had a voice in any of these disputes,” said Abdul Hakeem Kashmiri, a prominent journalist in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-held Kashmir.

“We love the Pakistani Army and the Pakistani people, but we have our own culture. And people know what the unspoken red line is: independence,” Mr. Kashmiri said. Pro-independence demonstrations that once attracted dozens of protesters are now attracting thousands, residents say. In one case this month, some 5,000 Kashmiris tried to march to the Indian border in Poonch district in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, local police officials said. Protesters charged at Pakistani security officers while chanting, “We want freedom on this side and we want freedom on the other side,” and “Foreign oppressors, leave us alone.” Police batons cracked into the protesters, halting their advance and leading to scuffles that left 18 demonstrators and seven Pakistani police officers wounded, officials said. The protests were barely covered in Pakistani media, and mobile phone and internet were cut off for awhile in the area. One military general dismissed the demonstrators as “Indian agents.”

Despite appeals from the political leadership of Pakistan-held Kashmir to stop marching to the border area, Kashmiris say they plan to press on. They have called for massive protests on the border with India on Saturday and in early October that are expected to be the biggest demonstrations yet.

“The independence struggle on both sides of the border is being suppressed,” said Anam Zakaria, the author of “Between the Great Divide: A Journey Into Pakistan-Administered Kashmir.”

“There is a frustration that they have been on the front line of the conflict and are pawns in this greater game between India and Pakistan,” she said.

Last month, India stripped the autonomy from the portion of Kashmir it holds and strengthened New Delhi’s hold on the territory, detaining local politicians and activists and imposing a curfew and communications blockade that has entered its second month.

The protests are channeling civilian anger at the “line of control,” the de facto border that splits Kashmir between India and Pakistan, slicing through valleys dotted with wildflowers and pine trees, down the middle of rivers and through entire towns.

Sheep graze over the heavily mined boundary. Shepherds accidentally cross it, oblivious to its contours, only to be shelled by Indian or Pakistani soldiers, or detained.The line demarcates the point where, in 1947, Indian forces repelled invading Pashtun tribal fighters that Pakistan drew from its border area with Afghanistan — the beginning of a longstanding Pakistani strategy to use militant proxies to weaken its neighboring rivals.Originally, the line of control was meant to be temporary, with plans for a referendum that would allow Kashmiris to choose whether to join India or Pakistan. That vote never happened, and now, after decades of fighting, many Kashmiris fear that the temporary boundary will become a hard border, dividing the territory permanently.

“Kashmiris are trying to take their fate in their own hands. We realize that we can only rely on ourselves,” said Haris Qadeer, a young Kashmiri who joined the protests and whose newspaper in Muzaffarabad was shut down in 2017 for its pro-independence stance.

“The line of control is what separates us, it is what makes us refugees in our own country,” Mr. Qadeer said.

The police force used against protesters this month was a “preventive measure,” said the president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Masood Khan, saying that the police response was restrained compared with that used by Indian forces on the other side of the line, who he said at times open fire on protesters trying to cross the border, resulting in serious injuries. “There is a high degree of tolerance for dissent. There is an overwhelming pro-Pakistan sentiment in Azad Kashmir and Indian-occupied Kashmir,” Mr. Khan added. But Kashmiri nationalists are forbidden in government. Elected officials like Mr. Khan must sign a declaration before they can run for office stating that they “believe in the ideology of Pakistan” and in Kashmir’s eventually accession to become a formal part of that country.

Some here say that Pakistan’s response is also rooted in the fear that militants the Pakistani security forces once mobilized to fight India in Kashmir are gearing up again right as Pakistan faces the threat of international sanctions if it does not crack down on terrorist groups. One former Kashmiri militant said he was angry at what he saw as a hypocritical betrayal by Pakistani officials, who recently shut down the border after pushing various militants to cross it in the 1990s. The militant, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal by the authorities, said Pakistan’s military had “polluted” the Kashmiri cause by using the issue as a rallying cry for various terrorist groups in Pakistan to fight India, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, which took part in later attacks against India’s parliament in 2001 and in Mumbai in 2008.

“We were freedom fighters, made up from the Kashmiri people. But then Pakistan pushed groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba on our movement. People began to confuse our struggle for freedom with a desire for terrorism,” the former militant said.Under heavy international pressure to cut links to militants, Pakistan is squeezing the jihadists who once operated freely in Muzaffarabad city, a nerve center for anti-Indian groups, locals say.

In Muzaffarabad, the local office of Hizbul Mujahedeen, a leading faction in the deadly insurgency that wracked Indian-held Kashmir in the 1990s, has been shuttered by officials since May.

“Jihad had once become a way of living,” said Manzoor Gilani, the former chief justice of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Now, “not every Tom, Dick and Harry can stand up and say they will go for jihad,” Mr. Gilani added. “The jihadists are now styled as terrorists. They served the interests of Pakistan at one time, but now Pakistan feels it was a bad way of doing business.”

But with India moving unilaterally to finalize its grip on Kashmir, some residents say Pakistan has chosen the worst time to shift gears.

Abdul Rashid Turabi, the former head of Jamaat-e-Islami, believed to be the political arm of the militants Hizbul Mujahedeen, insisted that his group still hoped for peace. “That and dialogue are the priorities,” he said in an interview.

But he added that time was running out for a diplomatic solution to the crisism, and that many here were unwilling to hold back.

“Narendra Modi is driving people to jihad, not me,” he said, referring to India’s prime minister.

Other residents were less restrained.

“The only solution is war,” said Muhammad Arshad Abbasi, a shopkeeper in Chakothi, one of the last border towns before the line of control. “It has been 70 years, and what has talking with India achieved? There is no way other than jihad.”

Pakistan among 10 violent places in world

Iceland continues to top the Global Peace Index (GPI) as the world's most peaceful place.

Pakistan has slipped two places on the annual global index on peacefulness, finishing at 153 among 163 countries. The index was released on the occasion of the International Day of Peace on September 21. It's also known as World Peace Day.

In its annual report, the Institute for Economics and Peace presented a comprehensive data-driven analysis on peace, economic value, trends and how to develop peaceful societies.

The Sydney-based think-tank said the global peacefulness improved slightly in 2019. But overall peacefulness has deteriorated 3.78 per cent since 2008.

While Iceland continues to top the Global Peace Index (GPI) as the world's most peaceful place, Afghanistan has replaced Syria as the most violent place.

India, together with the Philippines, Japan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan are the nine countries with the highest climate hazard risk.

India also has the seventh-highest overall natural hazard score in the world.

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/international/pakistan-among-10-violent-places-in-world

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باجوړ بدامني: ''لکه بیا چې پخوانی حالت تکرارېږي''

 په قبایلي ضلعه باجوړ کې په دا ورستیو کې د هدفي وژنو، تښتونې او بدامنۍ زیاتو شویو پېښو د سېمې خلک اندېښمن کړي دي. د سېپتمبر پر ۱۹ مه نامالومه وسله والو د ناوګۍ له تحصیله ډاکټر جبار خان وتښتولو. په همدې ورځ د ماموندو په ترخو کې د وحیدګل په نامه یو زلمي وروست شوې مړی وموندل شو. هغه له دې درې ورځې مخکې د خپل کور له څنګه ورک شوی و.

تېره اونۍ د ماموندو په ډبر کې په بمي چاودنه کې فضل علیم په نامه یو تن وژل شوی و.

له باجوړه د قامي اسمبلۍ غړی او د واکمن تحریک انصاف سیاستوال ګل ظفر وایي، په ضلع کې امنیتي وضعه نه یوازې خرابه شوې بلکې ورځ تر بلې نوره هم خرابېږي. نوموړي د سېپتمبر پر ۲۰مه مشال رېډیو ته وویل له ناوګۍ تښتول شوی ډاکټر یې خپلوان دی چې د راخلاصولو هڅې یې کوي.

"د بدامنۍ وجه مرجر [انضمام] ده ځکه چې له دې مخکې به انتظامیې واک لرلو، اوس هېڅ نشته. نه سم د پولیسو نظام راغلی او نه هغه پخوانۍ لېویز پاتې شول."

د ۲۰۱۸ م په مې کې قبایل پر خېبر پښتونخوا ورګډ کړل شو او پولیس نظام او عدالتونه هم وروغځول شو.

په باجوړ کې په ۲۰۰۵م کې هم د بدامنۍ پېښې پيل شوی وې چې وروسته بیا په ځینو سیمو وسله وال واکمن شوي ول. هغه مهال هم د هدفي وژنو، تښتونو او نورې پېښې پکې مخې ته راتلې.

د باجوړ یو فعال او بلاګر بشیر خالوزی وایي، د بدامنۍ د پېښو تر زیاتیدو وروسته یو ځل بیا پر امنیتي پوستو د عادي خلکو تالاشۍ پیل شوي، خلک په اوږدو اوږدو قطارونو کې ودرول کیږی خو د امنیت لپاره عملي ګامونه نه پورته کیږي.

"داسې ښکاري لکه یو ځل بیا چې پخواني حالات تکرارېږي. امنیتي ځواکونه شته خو صرف تر خپلو تاڼو محدود دي. په کلیو او ښارونو کې هیڅ ګزمې نه کوي. د شپې د خلکو ورونه ټکول کېږي، هدفي وژنې او تښتونې او ویره ده."

خلوزی وایي، پخوا به د داسې حالاتو د پیدا کیدو په مهال قبایلي مشرانو د حل هڅه کوله خو په ورستیو کې دغه مشران د هغه په وینا د یو سازش د لاندې کشمیر ته استول شوي دي.

د سیمې امنیتي وضعې ته په کتوضلعې انتظامیې د ماښام نه روسته د موټرسایکل په چلولوبندیز لګولی دی.د ضلعې ډپټي کمیشنر عثمان مسود وایي، د پوره امنیت بحالولو هڅې کوي.

"په ورستیو کې ایف سي سرتیرو ټوله شپه ګزمه شورو کړې. بمي چاودنې او هدفي وژنې ورسره کمي شوي. باجوړ په پوله پرته سیمه ده نو ځکه د بل لوري نه هم طالبان راځي او دا ډول بریدونه کوي. هڅه کوو چې حالات قابو کړو."

په باجوړ کې په ۲۰۰۸ کال کې د وسله والو پر ضد پوځي عملیات شوي و. چې د هغې وروسته پوځ سیمه له وسله والو پاکه اعلان کړې او له سیمې کډه شوي زرګونه کورنۍ بېرته ستنې شوي دي.

https://www.mashaalradio.com/a/30175343.html

Anti-vaxxers and ‘blackmail’ fuel polio comeback in Pakistan

Some two million Pakistani households have refused immunisations for children since April. An anti-vaccination movement rooted in suspicions of modern medicine. Unsubstantiated rumours fuelled by social media. Children infected with a disease that had been all but wiped out.

Polio is making a troubling comeback in Pakistan, and it is being driven by some of the same forces spreading measles in the United States. Two years after health officials declared they were on the verge of eradicating the crippling childhood disease from Pakistan, one of the last countries where it remains endemic, at least 58 children here have tested positive for the virus since January.That is nearly five times the total of all of last year, and the most in a calendar year since 2014 – a major setback for a US$1 billion-a-year global eradication campaign. Some two million Pakistani households have refused immunisations for children since April, when reports circulated on television channels, Facebook and Twitter that children had fallen ill after a vaccination drive at a school in the northern city of Peshawar.

None of those adverse reactions were serious enough to require hospitalisation, according to health officials.But the rumours revived long-standing myths about the dangers of vaccinations in Pakistan that the decades-long eradication effort has fought to dispel. Opponents of the Pakistani government are also using the vaccinations as a political tool to put pressure on the new Prime Minister Imran Khan. In dusty Bannu, centre of an impoverished northern district of more than 1 million people, some traders and small retailers recently threatened to boycott an upcoming round of vaccinations if authorities didn’t withdraw plans for a new sales tax.

“The new taxation system for retailers is like economic murder of our children,” said Saleem Rehman, president of a shopkeepers association. “The polio virus can disable a child and will not kill him, but our children will die of hunger if we surrender to the government’s new taxes.” Three-quarters of the new polio cases have been found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the adjacent tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan, the world’s last major corridor of polio transmission.Afghanistan has recorded 13 cases this year and is the only other country where the disease continues to infect children.Pakistani health officials have been baffled by the idea that parents would risk exposing their children to the virus to make a political statement.

“It’s a joke,” said a frustrated Aziz Memon, national chairman of the PolioPlus programme in Pakistan led by the charity Rotary International. “But these are just blackmailing tactics. The government is taking care of this in a serious way.” The resurgence of the virus has embarrassed Khan, who pledged to make polio eradication a “topmost priority” and launched a new communication strategy – backed by US$10 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – to combat misinformation. Memon said the government has replaced anti-polio officials in poor-performing districts and redoubled efforts to win over tribal and religious leaders, some of whom have denounced vaccinations as a Western plot to sterilise Muslims. At the request of Pakistani officials, Facebook said it deleted 36 posts for spreading vaccine misinformation “that had the potential to incite violence against health workers on the ground”.

In the next round of vaccinations, due to begin in November, officials have said they would distribute food rations in poor areas to rebuild public support. In Pakistan, the door-to-door campaign to inoculate all children younger than five has been hampered by insecurity and lack of government authority in certain areas. This year alone, five polio workers have been killed. Shah Wazir, president of the Bannu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said his organisation would boycott the next vaccination drive, because previous demonstrations against Khan’s fiscal policies haven’t worked. “This was the only way to register protest against the government’s economic policies and seek the attention of the international community,” Shah Wazir, 60, said.

Other groups in the tribal area have also tried to condition their support for polio vaccinations on political demands. One tribe in South Waziristan announced it wanted the government to build roads to connect villages to schools. Another tribe in North Waziristan demanded compensation for houses damaged in Pakistani military operations against militants. Officials said they wouldn’t negotiate with such groups or administer vaccinations by force, relying instead on the information campaign and anti-poverty efforts.

“We hope that with these changes, things move in the right direction,” Memon said.

“We are heading into the low transmission season in November and December. If we are able to do a few good rounds of vaccinations, we will be able to halt the virus.” https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3026217/anti-vaxxers-and-blackmail-fuel-polio-comeback-pakistan

Deaths in custody — the culture of police torture in Pakistan

 Haroon Janjua

Recent cases of custodial deaths have angered the Pakistani people, who are demanding immediate justice for the victims. But reforming the "police torture culture" would be a mammoth task. Haroon Janjua reports.

Muhammad Afzaal, an elderly man with a long white beard, is sitting among a group of mourners in his home in the Gorali village of Punjab's Gujranwala district, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. All these people are mourning the death of Salahuddin Ayubi, Afzaal's mentally disabled son, who was allegedly tortured to death in police custody.

60-year-old Afzaal tells DW he learnt about the news of his son's arrest on August 30 after a local news channel showed Ayubi breaking into a bank's ATM counter. A video of Ayubi mocking the CCTV camera went viral on social media. Later, police officials arrested the 27-year-old.

"They brutally murdered my son," Afzaal said.

"I saw the torture marks on my son's body. His right arm was burnt, either with hot water or electric shocks. There were bruises on his entire body," Afzaal said.

Punjab police denied torturing Ayubi and said he died a natural death. The authorities said he was behaving like a "mad person" and fell unconscious when they brought him to hospital.

"We condemn any form of violence and torture. It could be an individual act. We are investigating whether a police official was responsible for Ayubi's death," Inam Ghani, a spokesman for Punjab police, told DW.

"To avoid such acts in the future, we are introducing changes to make the police force more people-friendly and helpful," Ghani added.

A forensic report on Tuesday confirmed that Ayubi died of physical and mental torture.

Deaths in police custody

There is no credible data available on custodial deaths in Pakistan, but human rights groups point to a spike in police torture cases. They say that the "culture" of police torture is more prevalent in Pakistan's most populous Punjab province than in other parts of the country.

Ayubi's death has put a spotlight on the issue of custodial deaths in the South Asian nation.

"Ayubi's death in custody is not the first case of police torture. Custodial torture is actually a routine in Pakistan," Usama Khawar, a lawyer hired by Afzaal, told DW.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that members of marginalized communities are particularly at risk of police abuse.

"A lack of accountability in police excesses has fostered a culture of impunity. Pakistani police are often under-resourced and ill-equipped to deal with the challenges of the modern world. The police force needs to be modernized, and police officials involved in custodial deaths and other rights violations should be held accountable through a transparent and efficient mechanism," Saroop Ijaz, a Pakistan researcher for HRW, told DW.

Rights activists say that Pakistan lacks comprehensive legislation to prevent and criminalize police torture. Although the Police Order 2002 prohibits torture and imposes a penalty on police officials committing torture, most police officials consider themselves above the law. There is a lack of accountability in the police force. 

"Police officials involved in torture should be brought to justice, but unfortunately not a single police official in confirmed torture cases was held accountable for his actions. This shows that we don't have independent district and provincial monitoring bodies that can investigate torture allegations," Sarah Belal, the executive director of Justice Project Pakistan, told DW.

Read more: Uproar in Pakistan over 'torture and sexual abuse' of Christian youths

Need for police reforms

Earlier this year, police officials killed several members of the same family in Punjab's Sahiwal town on terrorism suspicion. Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the killings and promised to initiate police reforms to avoid torture and extrajudicial killings.

"I will review the entire structure of Punjab police and start process of reforming it," Khan said in January.

But so far, no action has been taken in this regard.

Experts say that police reforms would be a long-term measure; for the short term, it is vital to pass a law to criminalize all kinds of torture, institute legal safeguards for the protection of witnesses and victims of torture, and form independent bodies to investigate torture cases.

"There is definitely a need to reform police that consider torture an 'effective method' to curb crime," underlined Belal. "Trainings, of course, can be an effective medium to sensitize police officials and make them understand that the job of police is to protect citizens and not control them," she added.

Police spokesperson Ghani says that people will soon "see positive changes in police," although to reform the entire policing system would not be easy.

https://www.dw.com/en/deaths-in-custody-the-culture-of-police-torture-in-pakistan/a-50474723

#MurtazaBhuttoShaheed - Bilawal Bhutto pays tribute to Murtaza Bhutto

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has paid glowing tributes to his uncle Shaheed Murtaza Bhutto on his 23rd martyrdom anniversary which will be observed on Friday.

In his message on the day, the PPP Chairman said that Shaheed Mir Murtaza Bhutto waged a brave struggle against the dictator Zia ul Haq and suffered heavily at the hands of the dictatorial forces. At a very young age his father, former Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged under a conspiracy plot woven by the dictator and a part of judiciary. This ilk continues to operate in different ways against the democratic forces to crush people’s will and real mandate, he stated.

Bilawal further said that Murtaza Bhutto and his younger brother Shahnawaz Bhutto were forced into exile and were hounded where ever they went finally being martyred.

The PPP chairman said that his was the third generation of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s, which also continues to be the target of the remnants of tin-pot dictator Zia under the prolonged conspiracy.

However, those inheriting Bhutto’s legacy won’t be silenced through gallows and guns or the modern ugly tactics and tools. So-called accountability for political engineering and mud-slinging against PPP leadership was the oft-repeated tool but it will fail again, he added.

Bilawal pointed out that Murtaza Bhutto was killed under a “Kill A Bhutto to Get A Bhutto” plot to dislodge people’s government led by his sister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and initiate fabricated cases against former President Asif Ali Zardari.

He said that Murtaza Bhutto will remain in our memories forever as an icon of bravery and democratic struggle adding that PPP would continue democratic and human rights of the people of Pakistan without any fear.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/528926-bilawal-pays-tribute-to-murtaza-bhutto-ahead-of-martyrdom-anniversary