Abdul Wahab Baloch is afraid to talk on the phone. In 2008, he was picked up by security agencies after leading a rally through Karachi protesting the 10^th anniversary of Chagai-I – the notorious underground nuclear tests that polluted a Baloch district to serve Pakistan’s national security interest. After a post-rally search for a friend[i] ended in a brutal three-day torture fest involving baggings, beatings and injections, Wahab is convinced that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is tapping his phone to keep an eye on his movements. Carefully surveilling where he is, who he is with, and what he is saying. Another manifestation, says Wahab, of the oppressive state of Pakistan.

Wahab is among several hundreds of Baloch who have been kidnapped, tortured and (at times) brutally killed by Pakistan’s military and intelligence institutions. Their crime: Political sympathies or activities furthering the cause for a more autonomous, or outright independent, Balochistan. Their fates have been met with a silent (or silenced) Pakistani media, where news of the atrocities only started trickling in during the summer of 2011.

According to Wahab, this spate of state-led pick-ups has not taken place in a vacuum. Rather, it is part of a “historical pattern of betrayal”, where the Pakistani state has repeatedly broken specific agreements around the accession of Balochistan to Pakistan, the governing of the province and the sharing of Balochistan’s natural resources.

It is easy to excuse Wahab’s indictment of history as a separatist fantasy, one unsupported by facts or experience. He is, after all, the Chairman of the Baloch Rights Council and a member of the Baloch National Front, a coalition of separatist political parties fighting for an independent Balochistan. Separatist to the core, a sarmachar[ii] even, according to one bystander who observed our interview from afar. But Wahab and his companions are not alone with their memories of Pakistani betrayal. Baloch parties across the political divide share their sentiments. From the more pro-federation and pro-Pakistan Baloch National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) and National Party (NP), to the separatists of the Baloch National Movement (BNM) and the Baloch Republican Party (BRP). Diverging in their solutions, they unite in their memories. These memories have largely been silenced and, though difficult to reconstruct into an air-tight and unified narrative, they paint a picture of forced agreements, promises made and broken, of power brokered and un-shared, and of deep poverty amidst great wealth.

The First Betrayal: Annexation, not Accession

“We are Muslims, but it is not necessary that by virtue of our being Muslims, we should loose our freedom and merge 
with others. If the mere fact that we are Muslims requires us to join Pakistan, then
 Afghanistan and Iran, both Muslim countries, should also amalgamate with Pakistan.”

Ghaus Bux Bizenjo, Speech at Dar-ul-Awam, Dhadar, Balochistan, December 14, 1947

Wahab Baloch has agreed to meet with me after a flurry of texts has been exchanged between my phone, and his numerous mobiles. Tightly holding on to the microphone I’ve handed him, he speaks in a low voice, narrating a (hi)story that remains hidden to most Pakistanis outside Balochistan. Already in the first few words, he begins to part ways with the conventional narrative.

“In March 1948 the Pakistani military forcibly annexed Balochistan. It is impossible to understand our demands, if you do not understand this fact. You see, we never wanted to be a part of Pakistan. That is why we declared our independence on August 11, 1947 — three days before Pakistan. Our wishes were betrayed. By the British, and then, by Pakistan in March 1948 when their troops marched into Balochistan and forced us to sign an accession treaty.”

The conventional narrative does not tend to the particularities of Balochistan’s entry into Pakistan. Usually, it limits itself to the occurrence of accession in March, 1948, followed by a swift move to the narration of parallel events around the country. But sometimes, Pakistani historians refer to a conference held in July, 1947, two months before Pakistan’s independence in August, where selected Baloch leaders called for Balochistan’s accession to Pakistan.

Political activists like Wahab contest the idea that Balochistan voluntarily acceded to Pakistan. They point out that the June 1947 conference is misrepresented by Pakistani historians, who claim that it reflected the wishes of the Baloch. A closer look at the conference reveals that its participants were limited to British-appointed Sardars (tribal leaders), and municipal authorities from what was known as “British Balochistan”, a northern strip of land ruled directly by the British and dominated by the ethnic Pashtuns. British Balochistan was separate from the much larger, southern Kalat State, dominated by the Baloch and governed by the British through a policy of indirect rule. Under this policy, the Khan of Kalat, and a loose network of Sardars were paid a regular fee in exchange for leasing their territory to the British Empire, and for promising their services and loyalty during the so-called “Great Game” with Tsarist Russia.[iii]

Neither the Khan of Kalat nor the Sardars of Kalat State participated in the July 1947 conference. When the Khan signed the accession treaty in March 1948, people like Wahab argue, it was under duress.

The idea that the Khan signed the treaty under compulsion is contested by some scholars and by the Khan in his own autobiography. However, the Khan admits that he signed the document because he feared for the very existence of Pakistan, and that he did not have the mandate to take the province into Pakistan in the first place.

The very existence of Pakistan was at stake. I realized that I must act now, and I must act quick. Therefore, without obtaining the formal sanction from the tribal Sardars, I signed the merger documents in my capacity as Khan-e-Azam on 30^th March 1948. I confess I knew I was exceeding the scope of my mandate.[iv]

The Khan-e-Kalat’s autobiography served a political purpose, to disarm the new state’s animosity toward the Khan. The Khan ignored the very instrument that he had created prior to the accession, the two-chamber Kalat Assembly, consisting of a lower Dar-ul-Awam (House of Commons) house and an upper Dar-ul-Umara (House of Lords) house.[v] The houses are still criticized as being unrepresentative – many of its members appointed by the Khan of Kalat himself – but since no other institution or referendum took place in Balochistan to represent the interests of the Baloch, it is typically considered the only reflection of Baloch interests at the time. Both houses declared that they did not want to join Pakistan, and it was as a member of the former that Ghaus Bux Bizenjo, at the age of only 29, spoke words that still reverberate among Baloch today. He argues that being Muslim does not equal being a nation, and that though he was prepared for an “honorable relationship,” he did not want Balochistan to join Pakistan,

I do not propose to create hurdles for the newly created state in matters of defense, external affairs and communications. But we want an honorable relationship and not a humiliating one. We don’t want to amalgamate with Pakistan.

Later, Ghaus Bux Bizenjo became a pro-federation man, serving in government and contesting elections within Pakistan. Today, he is the symbolic father of the pro-federation National Party, and the father of Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo. But despite his pro-Pakistan actions, he never disowned his speech, and even the most ardent pro-federation politicians today are hard-pressed to suppress the declarations of the only people’s institution at the time: that Balochistan wanted independence.

The Second Betrayal: Pakistan’s Broken Promises.

One week later, I meet with five students from Quetta, all members of the Baloch Student’s Organization-Azaad (Freedom). Just like Wahab, they have been difficult to get a hold of. But after various phone calls from different borrowed cell phones, I manage to set up a meeting.

I meet them in their large and roomy homes. The boys sitting around me are no more than 22 years old, ardent supporters of an independent Balochistan. Knowing that there are a fair number of political parties and groups within Balochistan who prefer engaging with the Pakistani state, I ask whether working with rather than against the government makes sense. “Only a fool or a traitor would do that,” they answer. “What’s the point of negotiations with a state that never keeps its word? It’s time to pick sides.”

These young people are obviously in favour of an independent Balochistan. But they are not alone with their views. These are broadly shared, even by the likes of Jahanzaib Jamaldini, the Acting President of the pro-cooperation Baloch National Party (Mengal). From him one hears the tales of Prince Abdul Karim Khan and Nawab Nouroze Khan Zarakzai, two Baloch heroes remembered as leaders of the First and Second Baloch Uprisings (1948 and 1958) and both betrayed by Pakistan.

Prince Abdul Karim Khan fled to Afghanistan after 1947 with seven hundred armed followers, arms, ammunition and treasury funds. He had fled to gain Afghan support for a revolt in Balochistan, a move that was perhaps encouraged by his brother, the Khan-e-Kalat.[vi] There is a dispute about what happened in Kabul: the dominant Pakistani narrative suggests that Karim’s forces were substantially expanded by Afghan support, but most Baloch nationalist historians point out that Kabul refused to support Karim (Kabul wanted Balochistan to be part of a Pashtunistan state). Karim decided to return to Pakistan after the new government threatened reprisals against his brother, the Khan. Karim was offered “safe conduct and amnesty” by the Pakistan government, but when he crossed the border the state’s forces attacked and arrested Karim and his followers. His arrest became the first broken promise of the Pakistan state in Baloch memory.[vii]

The second broken promise followed ten years later, and is now celebrated as Martyr’s Day every July 15. On October 6, 1958, one day before Ayub Khan established Pakistan’s first military regime, the military arrested the Khan-e-Kalat, seized his treasury funds, beat his supporters and “detained fifty of his retainers as well as an estimated 300 Baloch political leaders in other towns.”[viii] According to the dominant Pakistani narrative, the reason for these actions was that Abdul Karim and an uncle of the Khan were negotiating with Afghanistan for support. Scholars, such as Selig S. Harrison, dispute this. The only visit to Kabul around that time took place when the Khan’s wife visited the Afghan city on holiday. Nevertheless, the Pakistani military’s actions sparked a revolt, and it was the 750-1000 man strong guerrilla force of the then ninety-year old Nawab Nouroze Khan Zarakzai, the chief of the Zehri tribe, that proved to be one of the most successful. For over a year the elderly Nouroze Khan fought for the return of the Khan and the abolition of the newly formed One Unit Plan. Observing that the fighting would have no end, the army and Nouroze Khan’s guerrillas met in early 1960 to negotiate a peace deal. According to the dominant Pakistani narrative nothing came of the discussions. But Baloch historians say that the army promised an abolition of the One Unit Plan, a return of the Khan and amnesty to the guerrillas. The safe return of the guerrillas was, according to popular stories in Balochistan, promised with one hand on the Qur’an. When the time came for Nouroze Khan to return with his guerrillas, however, they were arrested and “his son and five others were hanged on treason charges July 15^th, 1960.”[ix]

In his book on Balochistan, Harrison describes the hanging and its place in Baloch memory.

Popular accounts relate that the condemned cried, ‘Long Live Balochistan!’ as they went to the gallows. One of them reputedly tied a copy of the Koran around his neck, shouting that if he were hanged, the Koran must also be hanged, since the government had broken its holy oath. Nauroz Khan’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he died in Kohlu prison in 1964, a martyr to the Baluch cause. Stories of his alleged torture by the army are still a staple commodity of Baluch magazines. On a visit to Quetta headquarters of the Baloch Students Organizations in 1978, I saw a montage, covering an entire wall, which showed Nauroz next to scenes of his son’s hanging and other atrocities.[x]

The feeling of distrust towards the Pakistani state continued into the Third Baloch Uprising of 1962, among others, led by the Lion of Balochistan, Sher Muhammad Murree. To symbolize their distrust towards the Pakistani state, the (now more organized and strategic) guerrilla force under Murree called themselves pararis, someone whose concerns cannot be solved by talk.

The Third Betrayal: Trumping Self-Rule

Hasil Khan Bizenjo looks a lot like his father, the larger-than-life historical symbol of Balochistan, Ghaus Bux Bizenjo. Now the Vice-President of the National Party, Hasil Khan serves as a Senator in the National Assembly.

Puffing on a cigarette in one of the parliamentary lodges in Islamabad, he makes his views crystal-clear. He is a pro-federation man, through and through, just like his father, but one who still believes that provincial autonomy and self-rule has eluded his province for too long.

Whether separatist or pro-Pakistan, Baloch political activists agree that Balochistan has gotten a raw deal from the beginning. Like their neighbouring Pashtun province, NWFP now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, they were livid at the One Unit Scheme, and both the Second and Third Baloch Uprisings were a response to this. They were also enraged with the aggressive military presence of the scheme, led by none other than General Tikka Khan. His leadership tactics earned him the title, the Buther of Balochistan, foreshadowing his future sobriquet, the Butcher of Bengal.

By the end of the 1960s and early 1970s, the Baloch resistance seemed to pay dividends. In 1969, General Yahya Khan ordered the withdrawal of the much-criticized One Unit Scheme. The next year, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto allowed the Baloch to have their first provincial government, with local stalwarts like Ghaus Bux Bizenjo and Ataullah Mengal in charge under the auspices of the National Awami Party, a coalition of nationalist and left forces.

The hopeful mo(ve)ment was short-lived. When Bizenjo and Mengal wanted to replace Punjabi bureaucrats with local Baloch, the central government resisted arguing that such demands went against constitutional provisions. The continued involvement of the military further aggravated local rulers. Baloch remember a local government with limited authority to decide on its internal affairs.

The arrangement fell apart on February 12, 1973. Nawab Akbar Bugti told Bhutto about the London Plan, which was a alleged conspiracy hatched by the Baloch and the Pashtuns with Iraq and the Soviet Union to overthrow the Pakistan (and Iran) government. It is unclear if these accusations have any merit. Harrison argues that a split between Sher Muhammad Murree – who wanted a far more aggressive and armed approach to the Pakistani state – and Ghaus Bux Bizenjo – who was pro-negotiations – might have opened up the possibility of a conspiracy. The conspirators were arrested. The Hyderabad Trials were highly one-sided, giving credence to the Baloch view that the state sets up bogus institutions to give a veneer of legality to its illegal actions.

The Baloch feel a certain kinship with Pakistan’s former, eastern wing, Bengal. Bhutto’s dismissal of the Baloch government came only two years after he rejected the outcome of national elections that gave the Bengali leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the Prime Ministership and Rehman’s National Awami Party a majority in the national assembly. For the Baloch, Bhutto’s dismissal of their provincial government was a repetition of his historical mistake in Bengal.

Bhutto’s subsequent legal charade did not prevent the Fourth Baloch Uprising of 1973-78. The government responded with 80,000 Pakistani troops and Irani pilots flying F-14 Fighter Jets and AH-1 Gunships (courtesy of the Shah of Iran). Bugti handed in his resignation on January 1, 1974, to protest the Pakistani assault.

Assaults against the Baloch mirrored the bloody civil war that Pakistan had just exited in Bengal. But a media blackout on the Bengal issue was followed by a similar blackout on the attacks in Balochistan. Pakistanis around the country knew little of the events that transpired.

A few years later, Zia’s takeover temporarily relieved Baloch leaders. Zia released the leadership and declared a ceasefire. Self-rule was out of the question, as it was across the country, now in the grips of a military regime. Zia installed Lieutenant General Rahimuddin Khan, a pashtun who did not support the idea of an independent Balochistan, and who successfully crushed all rebellions. Political parties were banned, and an iron fist was used against the revolt. Here Balochistan was a mirror to the rest of Pakistan. Zia told Harrison that he had no sympathy for the “Baloch problem”.

“We want to build a strong country, a unified country. Why should we talk in these small-          minded terms? We should talk in terms of one Pakistan, one united, Islamic Pakistan.”

According to Harrison, Zia attempted to implement the “ontology of Islamic nationhood,” supporting the establishment and flourishing of right-wing Islamist parties in the province in an indirect attempt to quench Baloch opposition.

Today, these parties are becoming increasingly powerful, especially in the pashtun-dominated areas of northern Balochistan, including Quetta. A drive through Quetta reveals an overflow of Islamist slogans written by the likes of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an outfit known for its targeting of the city’s Shiite Hazara minority, the same ethnic group that was a target of genocidal killings in neighbouring Afghanistan during the Taliban regime. Quetta is also home to the pro-Baloch Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and the Hazara Democratic Party, but both operate without the state sanction. Baloch parties, on the other hand, are targets of the Frontier Corps, the notorious paramilitary unit of the Pakistani armed forces.

In the 1990s, Balochistan’s sardars began to hold genuine power. Both Bugti and Mengal served as Chief Ministers and Governors during this period, intermittently replaced by various central government loyalists. The inclusion of Baloch leaders and political sentiments of all stripes to head provincial governments reduced support for secession. But it did not give the Baloch a sense of achievement. The federal government continued to resist attempts by Baloch leaders to replace Punjabi and Mohajir[xi] bureaucrats with local Baloch. As Pakistan Today’s Shahzada Zulfiqar put it,

Look at the Saindak Gold and Copper Project that started in 1993. Bugti wanted to have a local Baloch head the project, but the federal government refused, insisting that someone from outside the province should take over its reigns. Baloch looking back at that period see a very deliberate policy to maintain central government hegemony by ensuring that Mohajirs and Punjabis remain in administrative power – whether it was in the bureaucracy, the police or the military.

Attempts at provincial autonomy were resisted by Islamabad. That had to wait untill the passage of the 18^th Amendment and the Aghaaz-e-Huqooq Package more than a decade later.

The Fourth Betrayal: ‘In the National Interest’

On a visit to Gwadar Port, water rights activist, Sharif Shambazi, met a machera – a fisherman. Living on the banks of the multi-million dollar warm-water, deep-sea port project, the machera spoke words that Shambazi found hard to forget,

They enter our homes and turn us out, settling others from far away. If someone breaks into your home and throws you out, and you scream your powerless scream, can you be blamed? These people think we oppose mega-projects. We don’t. But we’re never consulted. None of this is built for us.

Built in 2007, Gwadar Port was one of the Musharraf era’s notorious adventures into multi-million dollar investments for the Pakistani economy. Strategically located at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, the port has come to represent much of what the Baloch feel has gone wrong with Pakistan’s adventures into mega-projects and other initiatives “in the national interest”. The Gwadar Port itself has been accused of not employing local labor (preferring to import labor from other provinces) and selling the surrounding land at rock-bottom prices to influential politicians and brokering unfavorable deals with the Port Authority of Singapore (PSA), the contractor that now manages the port.[xii] One NGO, the South Asian Partnership Pakistan, has said that the Port creates “a new power structure which places the local people at the lowest wrung or (…) simply (… throws) them out.”

Islamabad argues that Balochistan should share of its resources. They argue that the province is sparsely populated but covers over 40% of the land constituting Pakistan. From a national planning perspective, Balochistan should share.

But Baloch of different political stripes disagree. According to them, Balochistan gets little benefit from Gwadar and other major investments. Pro-federation politician Jahanzaib Jamaldini points to the unfairness of Islamabad’s development strategy.

“Would it be fair for me to ask Punjab to give me one of their rivers? No. In the same           way, it is unfair of Punjab to constantly ask Balochistan to share of itself, especially when we get next to nothing in return.”

The Port is not the first instance of the imbalance. The story begins in the 1950s with the Sui Gas Fields, and is repeated in the 1990s with the Saindak Gold and Copper project. “If you go to the Sui Gas Fields in Dera Bugti,” Jamaldini points out, “you’ll see a cantonment protecting personnel, ensuring that they are supplied gas and electricity all day, everyday. But if you walk around outside the cantonment, you’ll find Baloch living without access to gas. That too in an area that supplies gas to the entire country.”

The mega-projects fall into two categories: developmental and extractive. The former include Gwadar Port, Mirani Dam, the kacchi irrigation canal and a Coastal Highway linking Gwadar to Karachi, built primarily for transporting goods from the port to the country’s closest commercial hub. Shambezi, who was visiting Lahore with his four-man team when I met him, has been actively campaigning against the Mirani Dam. Like the port, Mirani Dam has been accused of putting the interests of locals last. Built in 2001, local activists were concerned that the Mirani Dam construction team led by Descon Engineering Ltd. failed to take local knowledge of the Dasht River on which it was built into consideration, instead erecting man-made constructs ill-suited to the river’s natural flow and cycle.

“We were proved right,” says Shambezi. In late June 2006, Cyclone Yemyin struck the area around Mirani Dam. The dam worsened the effect of the cyclone. Subsequent floods demolished 6,500 homes, displacing thousands of people. Five years later Shambezi, his team and the thousands around Mirani Dam are still waiting for compensation.[xiii]

The other set of projects facing similar criticisms fall into the extractive category. Based on the lucrative Tethyan Belt that stretches into Waziristan and Afghanistan, Balochistan has extensive tapped and untapped resources (copper, gold, oil, gas, lead and zinc). A cursory glance at a map reveals the Reko Diq and Saindak Copper and Gold mines in the eastern Chagai district, the oil and gas fields in the districts of Kohlu/Lorelai and Dera Bugti, home to the Bugti and Murree tribes, and the lead and zinc mines down south in district Lasbela. The projects tend to be criticized for furthering a state and elite-centered rather than people-centered paradigm.

According to Shamezi, Jamaldini and others like them, mega-projects are problematic because of their structure and output. On the one hand, unfair ownership arrangements, exorbitant costs, inefficient processes and unfavorable profit-sharing agreements between either the contractor or the federal government and the Balochistan government or the locals frustrates the Baloch. On the other hand, Musharraf and the formally democratic central government’s promise of socio-economic development, employment and poverty reduction has not been fulfilled. In the eyes of the Baloch, the lucrative outputs from the mega-projects in their province is pocketed by contractors from China to Chile, and a federal government that does little to address their people’s rampant poverty.

Project Structure: ‘Unfair’

Jamaldini in not alone in thinking that there “needs to be a proper investigation into these project.” Those down south face problems with Gwadar Port, and those a little further north – like Shambezi – are still dealing with Mirani Dam. Move a little west and witness the extraction projects in the Saindak and Reko Diq Copper and Gold Mining Projects. Operations for copper and gold mining in Saindak is currently leased out to the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) by the federal government who, according to a source within the mining department, leased the site from the provincial government in 1982 under the reign of Zia ul Haq (begging the question of whether the lease was voluntary). The same source argues that the Chinese are known for “over- and under-invoicing”, and the Asia Times Online journalist Syed Fazl-e-Haider argues that the Chinese have been over-producing at Saindak, “Such a high rate of production may end the life of the mine, previously estimated at 19 years, before the 10-year lease of the Chinese firm expires if excessive mining goes unchecked,” Syed notes.[xiv] The federal government has increased the lease to the Chinese for another 5 years seemingly leaving out the Balochistan government – and local residents – from their decisions.

The Reko Diq Gold and Copper Mining Project faces an even larger – and far more public – criticism. Twenty-six senators and other plaintiffs filed a petition to the Supreme Court demanding a cancellation of the Reko Diq contract with the Tethyan Copper Company (TCC – co-owned by Canadian Barrick Gold Corporation and Chilean Antofogasta). They protested what they perceived as project delays, demanding a larger share (at the moment the Balochistan government owns 25% of the project) and disagreeing with the US$ 3.3 billion cost estimate presented by the company (arguing that two-thirds of it was budgeted to build a pipeline from the mine to Gwadar Port, to ease exports of minerals for refining in Chile – something the Baloch have read as siphoning off minerals rather than building a refinery in Pakistan). Some observers say the province is to blame since its government agreed to the deal in the first place. But whether you believe one or the other, one thing remains true according to Maqbool Ahmed and Nasir Rahim in a Herald investigative report on Reko Diq (“Treasure Denied” in Herald March 2010) – everyone has forgotten the people.

The Chamalang Coal mines in Lorelai and Kohlu further east in Balochistan have moved from words and court paper protests to gunfights and army intervention. A few years ago, the Pashtun Looni tribe fought the Baloch Murree tribe over ownership rights of the mines. In an attempt to intervene and control the situation, the state has stationed the Frontier Corps in the area. This is at a time when the Pakistani armed forces face enormous criticism in the province for abductions and extra-judicial killings of Baloch activists – of which the Murree tribes with their history of rebellion are prime targets. Though the army portray themselves as peacemakers, their current reputation across the province in general, and in that area particularly, betrays another story.

Project Output: ‘Putting the Baloch Last’

“We have the most impoverished population in Pakistan… But we’re also naturally endowed with minerals, resources and the longest coastline in this country. We could be self-sufficient, but we’re not,” Jamaldini says. “That in itself tells you a lot.”

Officially the government, military and various corporations are attempting to co-invest in social sector projects. At the moment, the TCC has invested in clean water and women’s health in the Reko Diq area, and the Saindak project has some local labor requirements (some even claim 80% local labor currently operating there though the number cannot be verified). The army is currently building schools and making other social investments around the Chamalang coal mines. According to Jamaldini and Shambezi, the rampant poverty around many of the mega-projects tell another story, and attempts by the military to invest in socio-economic development is a white-wash – especially at a time when they are accused of a host of other atrocities. According to them, the Baloch are at the bottom of the rung, less important than company profiteering and national interests.

From Sui to Saindak, gas and gold leave the province. Instead, the Pakistani state is seen as having replaced it with trash at the end of the last century. At Chagai, in 1998, the state deposited atomic material into the province, devastating the health of nomads and cattle living in the region.

“And the betrayal continues…”

“Nothing has really changed over the last 60 years,” Wahab says. “If anything it has gotten worse. Since July last year the Pakistanis have been kidnapping and killing our people.”

People around us have started to look over their shoulders, whispering to each other and recognizing Wahab, “the sarmachar”. About an hour ago, the waiter brought two cups of tea, but with the heat of the city and the conversation we haven’t touched our chai. The thin film of malai on the tea and sweat on our brows seems to betray our less-than-innocent conversation to all those around us. A conversation that is finally reaching its end-point, unfolding the betrayals of today.

In July 2011, Human Rights Watch unveiled a much-awaited report slamming the security agencies for extrajudicial kidnappings and killings in the province.[xv] Earlier, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had produced a confirmed list of one hundred and forty tortured bodies that have been discovered on empty roads and desolate mountaintops across the province.[xvi] And according to a local organization, Baloch Voice for Missing Persons (BVMP), several more hundreds have died, and several thousands are still missing. Whether there is talk of a few hundred, or many thousands, there is little doubt that the security agencies are carrying out crimes against what the Pakistani state claims are its own people. In a continued attempt to push the state, media and security institutions to do something about the atrocities committed against the Baloch, BVMP sets up a daily camp outside the Quetta Press Club. Of the four families and friends of missing persons that this writer met in Karachi and Quetta, at least half of the missing persons have been found dead.

To assuage Baloch frustrations, the state has attempted to recommend and implement various reforms. In 2004 the then Prime Minister Chaudhury Shujaat Hussein formed two parliamentary committees comprised of sixteen Senators and twelve members of the National Assembly drawn from a wide range of Baloch political parties (not including, of course, the separatist ones). And on November 23, 2009 the Pakistani government introduced the Aghaaz-e-Huqooq package, meant to initiate a wide variety of political and socio-economic reforms and initiatives to address some of the grievances in the province.

A cursory look at this latest agreement between the Pakistani state and Balochistan confirms that the central government has done little or nothing to implement most of the proposals in the package. The monitoring committee responsible for overseeing its implementation was originally headed by Senator Raza Rabbani, but after little to no progress was made on the package, Rabbani resigned in protest. In his capacity as Interior Minister, Rehman Malik replaced Rabbani. Anyone who has visited Quetta or met Karachi’s Baloch political activists knows that Rehman Malik is anything but popular. A thirty eight-page progress report presented to parliament in March 2011 confirmed the ways in which the package has been stalled. Only a quarter of the proposals have been implemented in the last two years.[xvii] And some of these include proposals like the replacement of the army by the Frontier Corps. According to Malik Siraj Akbar, the editor of the Pakistan Telecom Authority-censored Baloch Hal, an online news magazine, the Baloch see no difference between the army and the Frontier Corps.[xviii] For them, both are arms of a central state that kidnaps and kills their people, and both are not to be trusted.

Rabbani took over the monitoring committee at the request of the prime minister, but Islamabad’s package has not moved to implementation. Rabbani, as well as the provincial government, are questionable representatives of Baloch interests. Visit Balochistan and many will point out that a large range of political parties boycotted the provincial elections in 2008, resulting in more pro-central government parties in power. Furthermore, those political parties that represent separatists in the province have no place in the formal seats of power in the provincial government. The very idea of contesting elections would negate their agenda.

The interview is over and Wahab is ready to go home. The entire interview has been a murmur of a conversation, barely audible from where I have sat across from him on the rickety plastic chair. He excuses himself but as soon as those around us can see he is finished, he is approached. Can he come speak about torture at a human rights seminar? Is he available for an interview? Wahab has more to say, recounting Balochistan’s betrayals to all those who listen. The lament, however, is joined by a hope of changing the fate of his land and its people.

Source

Anti-Shrine, anti-Barelvi and anti-Shia SSP-LeJ-ASWJ terrorists at the mausoleum of the Founder of Pakistan (Mazar-e-Quaid) Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (who was a Shia himself)!

Apparently the SSP-LeJ-ASWJ militants harassed the Pakistan Army guards at the Mazar-e-Quaid on the eve of the Difa-e-Pakistan Rally Karachi (comprising extremist Wahhabis of JuD and extremist Deobandis of SSP-LeJ-ASWJ). They also chanted slogans against Shia Muslims on the mausoleum of Jinnah, a man who himself was a Shia Muslims.

If Pakistan armed forces cannot save Jinnah’s grave from the SSP-LeJ-ASWJ militants, who can we expect them to save Jinnah’s Pakistan from the same Jihadi-sectarian terrorists?

The news report refers to people of Parachinar as ‘Parachinaris’, ‘Turi-Bangash tribes’, ‘Anti-Taliban’ et al, but ignored their most important identity, the one they are targeted for: their faith. Not once in the entire piece have they been referred to as Shia. This is disgraceful.

The people of Parachinar are Shia; they have resisted the Talibanization of their area, disallowed the use of their area as a conduit for terrorist activities, and refused to act as ISI’s terror tools. And this is what they are being punished for by the ISI through Taliban. This is the real story, even if not a scoop!

Last but not least, ET seems to be short of photographers or cameras because no picture of the actual protest was published. Here’s one picture with very clear message about who do Parachinar’s Shia Muslims consider responsible for their ongoing massacre and persecution. Read this banner in the Shias protest in Islambad: Who is behind the SSP-ASWJ-Taliban bombers? Pakistan army! The picture was published by Pakistan Today.

Condemning the parachinar blast: Youth of Parachinar workers protest against the suicide bombing in Parachinar targetting Shia Turi tribesmen at D-Chowk in Islamabad. ONLINE

Here is a copy of the full report (in Urdu):

سال2011 اور ملتِ جعفریہ پر ظلم و بربریت

(صدائے مظلومین کی تیار کردہ تحقیقاتی رپورٹ)

سال2011ملتِ جعفریہ کے لیے بہت سخت ثابت ہوا جس میں ملت کے خلاف202دہشت گردانہ کاروائیاں کیں گئیں اور ان میں246شیعانِ حیدرکرار شہید اور356زخمی ہوئے۔صدائے مظلومین کے شعبہ شماریات کے مطابق2011 میں ملتِ جعفریہ پر ڈھائے جانے والے مظالم پر مبنی ایک رپورٹ تیار کی ہے جس میں سیاسی یا ذاتی واقعات شامل نہیں کیے گئے۔اس رپورٹ میں ماہوار اور علاقائی رکارڈ ترتیب دیا گیا ہے جس میں246شیعہ شہید ہوئے جن میں بچے،بوڑھے،عورتیں اور مرد سبھی شامل ہیں۔

تفصیلات کے مطابق ملک بھر میں246شیعہ شہید،58اغواء اور354 افراد زخمی ہوئے۔سب سے ذیادہ دہشت گردی کے واقعات کراچی میں ہوئے جنکی تعداد44رہی۔کوئٹہ میں23،ڈی آئی خان میں18، پاراچنار میں16اورگلگت میں16واقعات رونماہوئے۔ان واقعات میں سب سے ذیادہ شہید کوئٹہ میں ہوئے جنکی تعداد95رہی جبکہ پارا چنار میں41،ڈی جی خان میں35 اور کراچی میں38شہادتیں ہوئیں۔

دہشت گردی کی سب سے ذیادہ کاروائیاں ماہِ دسمبر میں محرم الحرام کے مہینے میں ہوئیں مگر بہتر سیکیورٹی کی وجہ سے سب سے کم شہادتیں بھی اسی ماہِ دسمبر میں محرم الحرام کے دوران ہوئیں۔اس سے اس امر کا اندازہ بخوبی لگایا جاسکتا ہے کہ اگر حکومت،انتظامیہ،اسکاوٹس و رضاکار درست طریقے سے انتظامات کریں تو ملک بھر میں دہشت گردی کو ختم کیا جاسکتا ہے اور ملک بھر میں امن قائم کیا جاسکتا ہے۔

حکومتِ بلوچستان کی نااہلی کی وجہ سے سب سے ذیادہ جانی نقصان کوئٹہ اور مستونگ میں ہوا جس میں سب سے ذیادہ زائرین کو نشانہ بنایا گیا۔

ٹارگٹ کلنگ کی سب سےذیادہ کاروائیاں کراچی میں ہوئیں جن کی تعداد38رہی۔دہشت گردی کا نشانہ بننے والوں میں مذہبی رہنماوں سمیت ڈاکٹرز، وکلاء، پروفیسرز، لیکچرارز، بنکرز، پولیس اہلکار، طالب علم، عزاداراور اسکالرز شامل ہیں۔درجنوں جگہوں پر علم مبارک،ذولجناح، آئمہ کرام کے اسمائے مبارک اور امام بارگاہوں کی بے حرمتی کے واقعات رونما ہوئے۔مقدسات کی بے حرمتی کے سب سے ذیادہ واقعات صوبہ سندھ میں پیش آئےجہاں پر مقدسات کی بے حرمتی کے ساتھ ساتھ جلوسوں پر پتھراو اور فائرنگ کے کئی واقعات رونما ہوئےاور غلیظ وال کاکنگ بھی کی گئی۔

ملک بھر میں58شیعانِ علی ابن ابی طالب علیہ السلام کو اغواء کیا گیا جن میں سے21کو اغوا کے بعد شہید کردیا گیا،34کو بازیاب کرا لیا گیا اور3لاپتہ ہیں۔اغواء کے سب سے ذیادہ واقعات پاراچنار میں ہوئے جنکی تعداد50ہے،ان میں سے15کوشہید کردیا گیا،32بازیاب اور3لاپتہ ہیں جبکہ پشاور میں2کو اغواء کے بعد شہید کردیا گیا،کراچی میں بھی2کو اغواء کے بعد شہید کردیا گیا،گلگت میں1کو اغواء کے بعد شہید کردیا گیا،بھکر میں2کواغواء کیا گیا جس میں سے 1شہید اور 1کو بازیاب کرالیا گیا۔سال کا دہشت گردی کاپہلا واقع3جنوری کوڈی آئی خان میں پیش آیا جب گومل یونیورسٹی کے پروفیسر سید منیر حسین شیرازی کو ٹارگٹ کرکے شہید کیا گیا اور سال2011کا آخری واقع جناب عسکری رضاکی شہادت پر31دسمبرکو ہوا۔

Source: SM

There are reports coming from various sources that Sipah-e-Sahaba terrorists gather information of momineen using internet also.

Some fake (shia) webistes are in place for the purpose. Also, there is a possibility that they advertise for JOBS and ask Momineen to submit Resumes, CVs, Address, Phone number, photographs etc.

All momineen, particularly males, be very careful in providing such data. Avoid submitting identification information to unknwon sources, even if it appears to be a Shia source.

Be extremely careful in adding unknown people on facebook, and try that your photographs can not be seen by unconcerned people. (Source: Karbala-e-Quetta)

We support the above word of caution and expand the scope of this advice to all rights activists including but not limited to Shia, Barelvi, moderate Deobandi and Salafi, Ahmadi, Christian, Pashtun, Balcoh, Hazara etc.

Surely, SSP-LeJ-ASWJ-Taliban-AQ terrorists are now monitoring the internet (facebook, twitter, blogs, email groups). Don’t share personal details with unknown persons.

Based on experience, we advise all human rights activists to use pen name (or multiple pen names) and do not provide personal details (name, address, travelling details) to anyone. Exercise maximum care, the enemy (SSP-LeJ-ASWJ, Taliban, Al Qaeda) is ruthless and is also supported by Pakistan’s security agencies.

Many people may request, urge or dare you to reveal your true identity or personal details to them. In view of the ongoing target killing of the Balcoh, anti-Taliban Pashtun and Shia activists and also in view of the tragic murders of Saleem Shahzad, Javed Nasir Rind and many other Baloch and Pashtun journalists, you must not share your personal details with any person, and report all such suspects (interested in or revealing real life identities of activists and authors) to law enforcement agencies in Pakistan and abroad (as appropriate) and also advise other fellow activists to be careful of such suspects.

Related post: A comment on Difa-e-Shia Conference – by Allama Arif Najafi

A very large number of Shia Muslims (estimated number: 200,000) today (19 Feb 2012) participated in the Difa-e-Shia Conference (DSC) (or Difa-e-Tashayyo Conference) in Karachi to protest against the ongoing target killing of Shia Muslims in various provinces and areas of Pakistan by banned Jihadi-sectarian groups, namely: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan SSP camouflaged as Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat ASWJ, and their allies namely Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Taliban.

The speakers and participants at the conference warned that Pakistan army’s intelligence agencies and Pakistan’s supreme court were supporting and protecting killers of Shia Muslims, and that Shia Muslims are left with no choice but to use licensed arms to kill those who come to attack them.

A number of resolutions were passed by the Difa-e-Shia Conference (DSC) urging government to ensure protection of Shia Muslims, urging Shia and Sunni Muslims to be united against Takfiri militants (SSP-ASWJ-Taliban), urging Pakistan army and its agencies to refrain from tacitly supporting and reviving banned Jihadi-sectarian groups (Jud, SSP-ASWJ etc) in the guise of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), urging government to enforce ban on banned sectarian militants and arrest their terrorist leaders (Ludhianvi, Malik Ishaq, Khadim Dhillon, Aurangzeb Farooqi etc), urging judiciary to award exemplary punishments to sectarian killers, and urging Shias to use legal weapons to kill any terrorists who approach to attack them.

Urdu report:

دفاع تشیع کانفرنس۔ شیعہ عوام کا طاقت کا مظاہر ۔ علماء کا طاغوت شکن خطاب

آج کراچی کے علاقے انچولی سوسائٹی امروپہ گراونڈ میں شہید عسکری رضا کی چہلم کی مناسبت سے دفاع تشیع تانفرنس کا انعقاد کیا گیا۔ دفاع تشیع کانفرنس کو شیعہ کلنگ نے براہراست نشر کیا۔کانفرنس کی تیاری گزشتہ ایک ہفتے سے جاری تھی۔ شہر کے مختلف مقامات میں بینر، پوسٹر، لگائے گئے تھے۔

کانفرنس میں مختلف شیعہ عمائدین، نوحہ خواں، شعراہ، اور مختلف حلقے سے تعلق رکھنے والوں نے شرکت کی۔ تمام علماء کرام نے ملت تشیع کے اتحاد کی طرف زور دیا۔ علماء کا کہنا تھا کہ ہمارا رشتہ صرف ایک ہے وہ رشتہ ہے امام علی کی ولایت کا۔ علماء بار بار اتحاد کا درس دیتے ہوئے نظر آئے۔

علامہ ماجد رضا عابدی کا کہنا تھا کہ گھر میں رہنے والے بھائیوں میں اختلاف ہوسکتا ہے۔ مگر بھائیوں میں لڑائی نہیں ہونی چاہئے۔ وہ ہم سے نہیں ہے جو شیعہ کو شیعہ سے لڑوانے کی بات کرتا ہے،

علامہ ناظر عباس کا کہنا تھا کہ اب وقت آگیا ہے ہمیں اپنا دفاع کرنا ہے علامہ ناطر عباس کا کہنا تھا کہ فون کرکہ بتایا جاتا ہے کہ ہم شیعوں کے گھروں میں حملہ ہوگیا ہے۔ مین اُن لوگوں سے کہنا چاہتا ہوں کہ تم نے کیا چوریاں پہنی رکھی ہے؟ خبردار اب کسی مولانا کو مدد کے لیے نا بولانا۔ پہلے جواب دینا ہم تھمارے پیچھے کھڑے ہے۔ علامہ ناظر عباس کے خطاب کے دوران انتہائی پرجوش مناظر دیکھنے میں آئے۔ تمام افراد اپنی سیٹھوں سے کھڑے ہوگئے اور علامہ ناطر عباس کو لبیک یاحسین کہہ کر جواب دیتے رہے

کانفرنس میں استاد سبط جعفر بھی شریک تھے۔ اس کے علاوہ شادمان رضا، شجاع رضوی، مختار فتح پوری، علی دیپ رضوی اور اس کے عللاوہ تمام ماتمی انجمن کے نمائندے ایس ایم نقی بھی شریک تھے۔ ایس ایم نقی کا کہنا تھا کہ ملت کا اتحاد ہی تمام مسائل کا حل ہے۔

کانفرنس کے اختتتام پر شہید عسکری رضا کی بیٹی نے خطاب کیا۔ شہید کی بیٹی کا کہنا تھا کہ میرے بابا نے اس ملت کے لیے جان دی ہے۔ اُن کا خواب تھا کہ ملت کے درمیان اتحاد رہے۔ شہید کی بیٹی نے فرمایا میرا اور آپ کا رشتہ امام علی کی ولایت کا رشتہ ہے۔ہم تمام افراد کو صرف ایک علم کے نیچے جمع ہونا ہےکانفرنس میں ہزاروں افراد شریک تھے۔ جنہوں پوری ملت کو صرف اتحاد کا درس دیا۔

Source: Shia Killing

Video: Allama Nazir Abbas Taqvi’s address

The following is a quick copy-paste of some tweets based on the live broadcast Read from bottom to top:

Media’s silence

Zaeem Zia @ZaeemZia
@MubasherLucman take some time of politics to support neglected communities. Media covers ssp and lej.. No diffa e shia? Wow

Mustafa Ahmed @mustafaa80
@iamthedrifter @Razarumi Would it harm your liberal credentials if you tweeted about the Shia Conference in Karachi against the terrorists?

Ali Salman Alvi @alisalmanalvi
@MaleehaManzoor For more than 30 years Shias are being killed. Nobody in Pakistan has the guts to even talk about it let alone stopping it.

Mustafa Ahmed @mustafaa80
@HamidMirGEO No words on the Shia Conference in Karachi against the terrorists?

Zaeem Zia @ZaeemZia Reply
Shame on Biased- Sold out Pakistani Media/NewsChannels. Shame on Media which is driven by self premises- Money and fears- Shame Shame Media Shame!!! Loser hay Media Loser hay- Pakistani Media Loser hay- The formula to get media Attention- Either to pay the money- or Threaten them to death???? WOW!!! Good Job

Mohsin Raza @alteridom
no coverage of #DifaeShiaConference by media may be bcz shias don’t support talibans and their allies #ISI #LeJ #SSP

Mustafa Ahmed @mustafaa80
@ejazhaider Hey Ejaz Jhangvi! Iranian-backed Shias organized a threatening Conference in Karachi! Write something against them..

Mustafa Ahmed @mustafaa80
@omar_quraishi Hello editor Saab! Would it harm ur liberal credentials if you tweeted abt the Shia Conference in Khi against the terrorists?

Naeem Shamim @naeemshamim
How many Sunnis were killed in Parachanar? Calling it a Shia-Sunni cavalry is a dishonesty of the highest degree. #Dawn

Tatom @tatom2k
I wonder Y no coverage in print media 4 the DifaiShia conference where atleast 100K+ ppl gathered against systematic shia killings! #Karachi

Iftkhar Chdhry Kana @IftikharKanaChd
media to mujh se bee Ziada biased hay bhai. @Laibaah1 @AbdulNishapuri @HamidMirGEO @husainhaqqani

Zaeem Zia @ZaeemZia
Not a single channel covers the #Shia conference in Karachi???? Why media supports Let, LeJ and SSP? Psuedo Liberals- Fascistic media- should be questioned for its biases-

Masooma Reza @MasoomaReza
#DifaeShiaConference #ISI #LeJ #SSP Shia should have to establish their own international news channel.

……………..

Conference

AuonMusvi @AuonMusvi
Must watch Live: Defence of Shia Conference in Karachi Pakistan: pakshia.com/ur/live/

Abdul Nishapuri @AbdulNishapuri
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Our next public meeting will be at the Mazar-e-Quaid and that will be the direct action day!

If Govt didn’t meet our just demands, we will be forced to take ‘right action’ against our killers

We condemn SSP-ASWJ terrorists attack on Shia Muslims houses in Hasan Colony, Karachi.

We condemn all State agencies (ISI, MI) involved in supporting SSP-ASWJ-LeJ terrorists.

Archen Baloch @ArchenBaloch
@Laibaah1 We Baloch condemn Pak Army with strongest words for the killing of Shia Muslims in Parachinar,

Karachi_Post @Karachi_Post
Salfi mosques are the safest places in #Pakistan,never attacked despite thousands of attacks on barelvi,Shia and ahmedi mosques #karachi

Ali.Abdullah.Noorka @AliNoorka
@AbdulNishapuri #DifaeShiaConference Insahallah we will do it Salam ya hussain a.s

Abdul Nishapuri @AbdulNishapuri
We condemn State’s support to banned sectarian terrorists in DPC

We urge Pakistan govt to immediately arrest DPC-SSP-ASWJ leaders Aurangzeb Farooqi and Ludhianvi

We urge Pakistan govt to arrest Orangzeb Farooqi who was allowed by ISI to participate in DPC

We ask Sindh High Court to immediately inquire into murder of Askari Raza.

We ask Pakistan govt to provide full protection to Shia Muslims of Parachinar, Quetta and Khanpur

We condemn the genocide of Shia Muslims in Parachinar and Balochistan.

We demand that all those terrorists who attack or harass Muharram processions are arrested.

We demand the ban on banned militant organizations SSP, JuD, LeJ to be enforced in true spirit.

We demand Pakistan govt to provide full protection to Shia Muslims.

We demand Pakistan govt to immediately arrest the leaders of banned organizations ASWJ-SSP-LeJ

We reject Pakistan army’s support to Taliban and the Qatar Office

Fear the time when Shias of Pakistan follow the path of Mukhtar Saqafi & start killing our killers

Taliban are integrally linked with banned sectarian groups SSP-ASWJ-LeJ.

Activation of SSP-ASWJ-LeJ and JuD is linked with the establishment of Taliban’s office in Qatar.

Banned organizations have been activated by State agencies.

Ali.Abdullah.Noorka @AliNoorka
@AbdulNishapuri #DifaeShiaConference Insahallah

Abdul Nishapuri @AbdulNishapuri
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live Very important resolution. Pakistani media must cover!!

Abdul Nishapuri @AbdulNishapuri
Final resolution of the conference is being presented.

Very loud chants in the crowd against SSP-LeJ-ASWJ killers of Shia Muslims.

Our salam be upon Askari Raza who was killed by ISI-backed SSP Aslam.

Our Salam be upon Allama Arif Al Hussaini who was killed by General Fazl-e-Haq of Pakistan army.

Our grief is not as great as that of the family of the Prophet.

We can follow the path of Mukhtar Saqafi and Hasan Nasrallah to punish those who are killing us.

Our Imam Hussain gave us the lesson of Jihad and Shahadat. Don’t force us to kill our killers!

Our enemy is cunning, supported by State agencies and Arab Sheikhs. We will defeat our enemy.

I urge all Shias and Sunnis to unite against SSP-ASWJ-DPC terrorists.

Shaheed Askari Raza’s daughter speaks NOW

ali haider @alvs4
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live Labbaik Ya Hussain Ki Barchi Utar do (in the chest of the LeJ-ASWJ-SSP attacker)

Laibaah @Laibaah1
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live We are not afraid of Yazidi, Yazidi agencies and their tools.

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Askari teray khoon say, inqalab aaye ga (crowd chants)

My father embraced an honourable death. Despite all threats, he did not bow down.

Mujhay fakhr hay main aik shaheed ki beti hoon

Shaheed Askari Raza’s daughter arrived under a black chadar

Hazir Hain Ya Zehra, Hazir Hain Ya Abbas

No political flag at all in the meeting. Take it MQM goons. You wanted to hijack the event?

Next, Askari Raza’s daughter speaks. Her father’s murder by ISI-LeJ-SSP-ASWJ ignited the Shia reaction in Karachi.

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Should I name the progressive rats (anchors/columnists) on Twitter ignoring a crowd of more than 100,000 Shias: #DifaeShiaConference

Did you see all those progressive liberals on Twitter wiping out this conference? #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@Difaepak DPC-LeJ-SSP-ASWJ-PTI terrorists must be having a heart attack today? #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@Difaepak Here’s Pakistani nation’s response to your ISI-backed project: #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Laibaah @Laibaah1
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live Shadman Raza now.

Abdul Nishapuri @AbdulNishapuri
Hundreds of thousands of Shias and Sunnis reject ISI-backed DPC. Watch live: #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

A very large crowd, much larger than the #DifaePakistan goons #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Mohsin Raza @alteridom
no coverage of #DifaeShiaConference by media may be bcz shias don’t support talibans and their allies #ISI #LeJ #SSP

ali haider @alvs4
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live Labbaik Ya Hussain Ki Barchi Utar do (in the chest of the LeJ-ASWJ-SSP attacker)

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Where have all the ISI-backed DifaePakistan rats vanished? #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Laibaah @Laibaah1
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live If a Shia has to die, he must kill his killer too before getting killed. (Allama Hussaini)

Human Being @Trackerinblue
@Laibaah1 unfortunately, everywhere in the world, so much h8 & misunderstanding, intolerance & fear. ppl have rt 2 religious freedom!

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@Trackerinblue Thanks for your support to the most target killed faith group of Pakistan.

Human Being @Trackerinblue
@Laibaah1 well done! Wishing all the best for their protest! #DifaeShiaConference

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@Afrin_Abbas Hazrat Abu Talib is another mazloom of Islamic history. @shahbazzahid

Laibaah @Laibaah1
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live Labbaik Ya Hussain Ki Barchi Utar do (in the chest of the LeJ-ASWJ-SSP attacker)

Live Shia protest against target killing by Pakistan army backed LeJ-SSP-DPC

Abdul Nishapuri @AbdulNishapuri
Dear General Kayani, This is Pakistani nation’s response to your DPC brainchild: #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live Enjoy the slap!

Zaeem Zia @ZaeemZia
Shame on Biased- Sold out Pakistani Media/NewsChannels- @AbdulNishapuri @romarizvi

Laibaah @Laibaah1
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live Lahu kay ashk bahanay say kuch nahin ho ga

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Sirf Sog Mananay Say Kuch Nahin Ho Ga (Recitation)

Amjad Ali @amjoo
Taliban ripped Army griped. Death toll rises in Parachinar town owing to the Army indiscriminate firing on protesters. @Laibaah1 @yasmeen_9

Ali Salman Alvi @alisalmanalvi
@Laibaah1 Allama Hussaini has given an expression to the sentiments of common Pakistani Shia. Shias need to fight it out for their survival

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Next speaker, innocent daughter of Askari Raza (target killed by SSP Aslam on ISI’s orders)

We know that LeJ-SSP-ASWJ footsoldiers are supported by Pakistan army agencies and Arab kings.

Haihaat Minnaz-Zillah. (Zillat is away from us, we won’t bow down in front of terrorists)

Pakistani media gives full coverage to SSP-ASWJ-DPC terrorists. Mazloom Shias are ignored. Why?

Shia youths are ready to sacrifice their lives in the name of Hussain. Be organized and defend!

If we have to die, why to die in target killing. Why not pre-attack the SSP-ASWJ-DPC attacker?

We urge Shia Muslims to get licensed weapons & kill the LeJ-SSP-ASWJ attackers. (Allama Hussaini)

Powerful chants by a very huge crowd. Labbaik Ya Hussain. #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

This conference has given heart attack to DPC-SSP-LeJ-ASWJ-PTI lovers.

All institutions in this country have failed to provide peace to Shias.

This country has no law. This is a ruthless state in which there is no mercy for Shias.

If Shias are not ready to defend themselves against their killers, they are not Shias of Ali.

Zaeem Zia @ZaeemZia
@Laibaah1 this is crazy- I am searching all chanels no one covers it- Hell with Paki media!

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Hundreds of thousands of Shias chanting against SSP-ASWJ-DPC killers in Karachi.

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Break the teeth and hands of those police officers who refuse to lodge FIRs against SSP killers.

Allama Hussain urges Shias to do Defensive Jihad against ASWJ-SSP to secure peace in Pakistan

Shia Muslims must learn from Karbala. They must boldly defend against the SSP-LeJ-ASWJ attackers.

Every Shia should get read for a defensive Jihad against their killers. (Allama Hussaini)

Farrukh Khan Pitafi @FarrukhKPitafi
@ZaeemZia Well to b honest I agree with u that these groups don’t use coercion and fear hence not covered. Media for u @mughalbha @Laibaah1

Laibaah @Laibaah1
It’s Shia scholars religious duty to speak against oppression. (Allama Hussaini)

This is a most peaceful protest by a target killed community. Very large crowd.

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@mughalbha @FarrukhKPitafi @ZaeemZia This is not a religious event. This is a political protest against faith based target killing.

Zaeem Zia @ZaeemZia
@Laibaah1 @SALSIKandar @naveenaqvi @NasimZehra @MubasherLucman why is not being covered on news channels??? Darn it????

Dr Anand @dranandjee
@Laibaah1 I support your work

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@SALSIKandar @ZaeemZia @naveenaqvi @NasimZehra @MubasherLucman #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Pakistani media provides live coverage to DPC. Why no coverage to this? #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Here comes Allama Abid Hussain Al Hussaini of Parachinar, the Karbala of #Pakistan.

Ay Qom Kay Shaheedo (A tribute – recitation)

Allama Abid Hussain Al Hussaini of Parachinar is next speaker.

Hundreds of thousands of Shias chanting slogans against government and agencies.

Pakistan government and military state has failed to protect innocent Shia Muslims.

Shias know how to defend themselves. But what’s the responsibility of police and army?

ISI-backed LeJ-ASWJ-DPC Yazidis are killing Shia Muslims.

From Karachi to Parachinr, Shia Muslims are being target killed every where.

If we chose the path of Hazrat Mukhtar, we will hunt down our SSP-ASWJ-DPC killers like rats.

Pakistani State and its agencies must not force Shias to become Mukhtar Saqafi.

Your bullets are not stronger than our love for Imam Hussain.

We represent the ideology of Imam Hussain. We will accept martyrdom, never forsake Hussainiat.

Army-supported ASWJ-SSP-DPC terrorists are killing Shias. We won’t bow down before our killers!

You can’t harass us by target killing. Terrorists are being supported by the Pakistani State.

Allama Fruqan Abidi speaks now.

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@y2raza They are a refined version of LeJ-SSP-ASWJ.

sar765 @y2raza
@Laibaah1 btw all the “liberal” bloggers are paying real good attention to the cricket match and Whitney Houston’s funeral, look at their TL

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@FarrukhKPitafi Thanks. May we have more of you in the media.

Farrukh Khan Pitafi @FarrukhKPitafi
@Laibaah1 Why not. Media has been infected by mad cow & foot in mouth diseases but still some of the dying voices still want to talk sense:)

Laibaah @Laibaah1
MQM’s goons in #Karachi tried to stop this conference. #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live MQM = Army touts!

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Number of participants in this one is at least four times the ISI-sponsored DifaePakistan Drama: #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Dear Pakistani media, please cover Shia Muslims voices against DPC beasts: #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@FarrukhKPitafi This crowd is not silent. Will media cover their voice against DPC beasts? #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Laibaah @Laibaah1
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live Jald Aaiye Maula, Intaqam Lena Hai (recitation)

Pakistani State has allowed banned organizations (DPC) to spread hatred against Shias & Barelvis

Khan Pur Shia massacre was enabled by ISI and Supreme Court, they released Malik Ishaq of LeJ.

Shias and Sunnis are united against ISI-supported Takfiris (ASWJ-SSP-DPC).

We will cut those tongues which spread hate against Shia Muslims. Shias are united with Barelvis.

Allma Jawadi warns Pakistan army, its agencies to refrain from supporting SSP-ASWJ-DPC militants

Shia Muslims have the capacity to punish our attackers and the State agencies supporting them.

Allama Jawadi warns that Shias must not be forced to uproot ISI and other agencies supporting DPC

Very large crowd of Shia Muslims in Karachi, much larger than ISI-supported DPC terrorists.

In Hangu, we have seen 40, 50 Shia Muslims slaughtered by State agencies supported terrorists.

Hundreds of thousands of Shias chanting Labbaik Ya Hussain

This large crowd shows Shias of Pakistan are ready to defend themselves against TTP-ASWJ killers.

We are following the path of Hazrat Ali Akbar (son of Imam Hussain)

Enemies want to harass us via target killings, suicide bombers, rocket launchers.

I pay tribute to Shaheed Askari Raza of Karachi. (Allama Jawadi)

Allama Jawadi from Hangu speaks now. #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Take it MQM goons. You wanted to sop this conference? #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live

clarisse_carnets @clarissecarnets
Live: Shia scholars urge Shia Muslims to use licensed weapons to kill the SSP-ASWJ attackers. pakshia.com/ur/live/

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Plz distribute via RT #DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live Live Conference against ISI-backed Jihadi-sectarian terrorists in Pakistan

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Shaheedo Zinda Bad, Heart wrenching recitation.

Laibaah @Laibaah1
@AnjumKiani Watch the LIVE conference. Those who are being target killed know the killers and their apologists. pakshia.com/ur/live

Laibaah @Laibaah1
#DifaeShiaConference pakshia.com/ur/live We condemn State supported terrorism against Shia Muslims in #Pakistan.

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Shia Muslims chanting slogans against agencies, SSP-ASWJ & Difa-e-Pakitan militants.

DifaePakistan is an ISI-supported project against Shia Muslims.

This conference promotes love between Sunni and Shia, but no love for TTP-SSP-DPC terrorists.

Shia Muslims are untied with peaceful Sunnis against Taliban-SSP-ASWJ terrorists.

ASWJ-SSP terrorists are supported by Pakistan army.

Cut down those who are killing Sunni Barelvis and Shias.

Cut down the tongues which say Shia Kafir.

Use licensed weapons to kill the ASWJ-SSP-Taliban attackers.

karbala-e-quetta @karbalaequetta
نام نہاد مسلمان شیعہ کافر کا نعرہ لگاتے ہیں جن کو اس ملک کا آئین مسلمان تسلیم کرتا ہے. – دفاعء تشیع کانفرنس ہے… ‎fb.me/1FGGzixmw‏

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Watch this live to understand Shia Muslims concerns: pakshia.com/ur/live/

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Live: Shia scholars urge Shia Muslims to use licensed weapons to kill the SSP-ASWJ attackers. pakshia.com/ur/live/

Must watch, Live: Defence of Shia Conference in Karachi, Pakistan: pakshia.com/ur/live/

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Who is killing our doctors, engineers, why no killer sentenced? ISI-backed judiciary is being challenged by Shia Ulama: pakshia.com/ur/live/

Laibaah @Laibaah1
Live stream: Shia scholars directly challenge ISI supporting SSP-ASWJ terrorists: pakshia.com/ur/live/

Live: Hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims in Karachi condemn ISI-backed Difa-e-Pakistan terrorists: pakshia.com/ur/live/

Videos

Shaheedo Zindabad – by Mukhtar Hussain

Dawn News reporter Aizaz Syed asks Pakistan’s former army chief (1988-1991) General Mirza Aslam Beg if he might be court-martialled due to his role in the distribution of money to anti-PPP political parties before the 1990 elections.

He also asks General Beg that in view of his questionable role against democracy in 1990, was he not morally obliged to return the Democracy Medal (Tamgha-e-Jamhuriat) that was awarded to him in 1988 by the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in good faith that he (Beg) will keep supporting the budding democracy in Pakistan after General Zia’s longest military rule (1977-88).

Of course, these questions were painfully and bitterly true for General (R) Aslam Beg who first tried to run away from the reporter to avoid the questions and then decided to manhandle the reporter himself and also tried to damage the recording equipment.

Here is some background information about the Asghar Khan Case which is currently being heard in Pakistan’s apex court:

Dr Jaffer Mohsin Rizvi, a doctor by profession and a Shia by faith, became a victim of the ongoing wave of ethnic and sectarian violence in Karachi last month.

He was brutally killed in front of his house (A-614, block 12, FB Area) at 9:30am on January 28, by two unidentified man who were on a motorbike and were wearing Burqas. They asked him about an address when he was reading a newspaper. He received two bullets. Nobody came to his help for the next twenty minutes. He was taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital by his son Ali Mohsin who was in the house. He was declared dead in the hospital. A large number of people gathered in the hospital to protest the killing.

Dr Rizvi was associated with the Imambargah Aal-e-Aba, located in FB Area block 13 Karachi, as a trustee for a long time and was also the CEO of Karvan-e-Aal-e-Aba (Pvt) Ltd. He left behind a widow, two sons Ali Mohsin and Hassan Mohsin and three daughters. At the time of the incident, his wife, son Hasan Mohsin, Hasan Mohsin’s wife and Jaffer Mohsin’s younger daughters were in Iran.

According to people who know him, Dr Jaffer Mohsin was an active social worker and he once carried out a Rs150,000 operation on a child in the neighbourhood for free.

He was also an avid cricket supporter and used to host local cricket events along with Dr Mohammad Ali Shah. Some people believe that he was a political activist and associated with the MQM, but according to Shahbaz Zahid, a close family friend and a journalist by profession, “Dr Jaffer was not associated with any political party. Nor did he take part in any political activity. But he had some differences with the Aal-e-Aba administration a few years ago.”

SHO Raja Tariq suspected that he might have been murdered on the sectarian grounds as he was a prominent and practising Shia who was actively involved in religious proceedings.

Dr Jaffer Mohsin’s funeral was held on Monday, January 30 2012 at Ancholi Society, Block 20, FB Area, Karachi after Zohrain prayer and he was laid to rest at Wadi-e-Hussain on Super Highway Karachi.

His son Ali Mohsin said, “My father was only killed because he was Shia.”

The target killings of Shias began in Balochistan with violence against Hazara Shias in Quetta. On October 6 1999, unknown gunmen attacked ex-education minister Sardar Nisar Ali Hazara. He survived but his driver and a guard died. The killings intensified in 2003. On July 4 2003, a suicide attacker blew himself up in Hazara Kalan Imrambargah on McCongi Road, leaving at least 53 people dead and 150 injured.

“The Pakistani government should take all the necessary steps to ensure the security of Shia Muslims in Pakistan and the government should hold accountable those responsible for ordering and carrying out a campaign of targeted killings against the Shia,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, “The targeted killings of Shia are a barbaric attempt at sectarian and ethnic cleansing and the government failure to break up the extremist groups that carry out these attacks calls into question its commitment to protect its citizens. And as far as protecting the Shia is concerned, Pakistan’s government has been all talk and no action.”

More than 5,000 people have been killed in sectarian acts of terrorism in Kurram Agency since 2001, and a majority of them were Shias. The tribal agency is besieged by militant and extremist organisations. The Thal road has been close since 2007, and every time it has been opened, Shia and Bangush tribesmen are killed or abducted.

In December 2009, around 50 Shias were killed in a bomb blast in Karachi, when they were having their yearly mourning processions. The killers are still at large.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called upon President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to take immediate, direct and personal initiative to prevent the killing of Shias in Karachi and of the Hazara community in Quetta, and ensure action against all those who have failed to protect the citizens’ lives.

HRCP chairperson Zohra Yusuf said in a communication with the President Zardari and the Prime Minister Gilani: “These killings must cause your government serious anxiety for a number of reasons. First, these killings and the failure of the administration to stem the odious tide or to apprehend the culprits reveal a state of lawlessness no civilised government can countenance. That this is happening in a city swarming with Rangers and Frontier Constabulary personnel can only be attributed to the federal authority’s failure to exercise due control. Secondly, the fact that victims are members of a religious sect that is in a minority is causing alarm. Failure to protect the lives and property and basic freedoms of the Hazara people will have serious law and order implications across the country and make Pakistan a pariah in the comity of nations. Finally, whatever their faith and calling the Hazaras are as honourable citizens of Pakistan as anyone else and the protection of their lives and liberty is a duty for which you will be held accountable. On behalf of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan I therefore call upon you to personally intervene in the situation, take all necessary steps to protect the lives and all other rights of the Shias in Karachi and Hazara, including issuance of appropriate directives or requests to the Balochistan government and the security agencies concerned. All those who have failed to fulfil their duty to protect the people’s lives in Balochistan have forfeited their right to hold their positions and all of them should be made to pay for their incompetence and insensitively to the killing of innocent citizens and the sufferings of their families.”

Hassan Naqvi is a journalist based in Lahore and tweets @Hassannaqvi5

Source

Photo credits: Aown Ali

The notice reads (in Roman Urdu): ba ittefaq-e anjuman-e-hanafiah wa hukm-e-shara-sharif yeh qarar paya keh koi wahhabi, rafizi, naturi wa mirzai masji haaza mein na aaway aur khilaf-e-mazhab-e-hanafi koi baat na karay – faqir ghulam qadir mutwalli masjid begum shahi 1313 A.H.

English Translation: With the consent of the Hanafi Muslim Association and also in accordance with the Islamic Sharia, this was decided that no Wahhabi (Salafi), Rafizi (Shia), Naturi (rationalist Muslim) and Mirzai (Ahmadi) is allowed to enter this mosque nor is anyone allowed to say anything against Hanafi sect in this mosque. By Faqir Ghulam Qadir, Custodian of the Begum Shahi Mosque, 1313 A.H. (1895 A.D.)

It may be noted that Hanafi Muslims (comprising Barelvis and Deobandis) represent almost 65-70% of total Muslims in Pakistan. Shias represent 20%, Wahhabis represent 10% while Ahmadis are estimated to be 3% of Pakistan’s Muslim population.

In sum, the above notice identifies four sects or groups of Muslims who are in numerical minority in Pakistan, and remain subject to various forms of social stereotypes, persecution and (in case of Shias and Ahmadis) target killings.

1. Wahhabi: Salafi or Ahl-e-Hadith Muslims are those who do not follow any specific school of jurisprudence including that of Imam Abu Hanifa. They are routinely stereotyped in Pakistan by majority Sunni Hanafi population (Barelvis, Deobandis) as well as by Shias and Ahmaids as Saudi agents or lesser Muslims. They have been subject to sporadic violence by Deobandi Jihadi-sectarian groups, e.g., massacre of Wahhabi Muslims in Kunar province of Afghanistan by Deobandi militants of Jamaat-e-Islami and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

2. Shia: Shia Muslims follow the jurisprudence of Imam Jafar Sadiq, and consider Imam Ali as the first and foremost rightful successor to caliphate after Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) death. Shia Muslims are routinely stereotyped as infidels, lesser Muslims and Sabai (Jewish) agents by extremist Hanafis and Wahhabis. Shias are also the most target killed faith group in Pakistan.

3. Ahmadi: Central to the Ahmadiyya Muslims is the belief in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the Promised Messiah and Mahdi. Ahmadis are the most persecuted faith group in Pakistan because the constitution and laws of Pakistan do not allow them to call themselves as Muslims nor are they allowed to practice their faith in a free manner. They are routinely harassed, stereotyped as British agents and remain subject to violence and target killing.

4. Rationalist: Naturi is a derogatory label used for those Muslims who try to rationally interpret and practice Islam. A key example of rationalist Muslims is Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan who believed that “work of God (nature and its laws) was in conformity with the Word of God (the Quran)”, an adage that earned him the title of Naturi. Followers of Sir Sayyid, Ghulam Ahmed Pervaiz and Javed Ghamidi etc are variously labelled as Naturi by other sectarian Muslims.

The attack left five workers on the spot, while two others failed to recover from their injuries and passed away in Turbat Hospital. (Photo: Dawn)

Turbat attack leaves 7 dead, 2 injured
Source: Express Tribune, February 14, 2012

At least seven people were killed and two were injured in Turbat’s Kech district when they came under attack from a group of armed men on Tuesday. According to Balochistan Levies, a group of men armed with sophisticated automatic weapons opened fire on the labourers, who had camped along the under construction road. The assailants also torched the machinery and three company vehicles. The assailants managed to escape after the incident, while the banned Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) claimed responsibility for the attack.
Talking to reporters from an unspecified location, BLF spokesperson Duda Baloch said that his organisation carried out the deadly attack and warned that they will target companies involved in construction or exploration (oil and gas) projects.
The deceased and injured had been shifted to the district headquarters hospital.
The victims, belonging to Sindh and Waziristan, were identified as Ahmed Khan Bashir s/o Haleem Khan, Shah Amanullah, Zarman Den, Naseeb Khan, Sheikh Salam, Asmatullah, Rafiullah.

We strongly condemn this act of violence by Baloch militants, particularly in view of the fact that they chose to attack poor, non-Baloch labourers who are as deprived as the majority of the Balochs. It is our considered opinion that acts of violence against on-combatant civilians undermines the Baloch nationalists’ legitimate struggle for equal rights or/and freedom. While we don’t indulge in false neutrality between systematic violence by Pakistan army and its various agencies against the Balochs and the acts of reactionary violence by Baloch nationalists, we strongly condemn all forms of violence by all parties against non-combatant civilians.

The bodies kept falling and we, the Baloch activists, kept counting. In January 2011, within a span of just few months, the number of bullet-riddled bodies grew up to 70. The pile kept growing and I moved to London for further studies. Then a time came when we lost the count but the killers continued their job. 200… 300… 400… and it went on. When you live away from your motherland the love for it deepens. My day, like many other activists living in diaspora, starts with Twitter and Facebook with a prayer in mind that we don’t get news of another brutal murder. But they say nothing is on the oppressor’s side. Same is the case with us, as often our prayers go unanswered and the rest of the day is ruined. We get enraged at times and mostly cry our heart out. But the bodies keep falling and the bloodthirsty beasts pursue their quest by murdering at times eight or nine Baloch activists a day.

There is no single Baloch family who hasn’t been affected by this brutal “kill and dump” policy. Being a member of the BSO-Azad, I lost few very good friends in the last two years. Qamber Chakar, Qayyum Baloch, Zubair Sarparah, Sami Mengal, Asmatullah Sarparah and Sangat Sana were all members of our organisation and very good friends. They are not the only ones who were killed. In fact BSO-A has lost more than 100 very active members in the last two years. The cream of Baloch society is being targeted.

In the beginning, the killings were confined only to low-profile Baloch activists but it seems now they have ran out of stock. Now the targets are high-profiled popular Baloch leaders. Or may be because of a silent media and criminal judiciary the killers are now more brave in their acts. Jaleel Reki, Ghaffar Langove and recently Sangat Sana were all very famous Baloch leaders.

I first met Sangat Sana in Quetta when he was the vice chairman of the Baloch Students Organisation. Unlike his strict stance on Balochistan, Sangat was a very soft spoken and articulate man in his late twenties. We had a chat over a cup of tea with other BSO-A office-bearers. Baloch politics had seen sudden and very disheartening developments in those days with the death of Nawab Akbar Bugti and later on the unexpected demise of Nawabzada Balaach Khan Marri. Brahumdagh was in hiding whereas Hyrbiar Marri was facing grave political sanctions in Britain. Baloch youth were lacking a compelling leader to devise policies and lead them in time of such distress.

The BSO-A leadership took the initiative and decided to take the heavy burden of standing against tyranny on its own. Few students belonging to the lower-middle-class and some to very poor families stood like the mountain of Chiltan without even giving a second thought about the consequences. Zakir Majeed, Sangat Sana and Waja Basheer Zeb emerged as charismatic leaders and later on changed the very political set up and mentality of the Baloch nation. The organisation surfaced as the most powerful and adored political organisation in politics. The state forces never liked the organised and rebellious politics of Baloch youth, which was restraining them from functioning properly in looting and plundering Baloch resources. They retaliated with full force and the student organisation paid very heavily for the strict stance it had adopted.

The leadership of BSO came under the direct wrath of oppressive forces. Zakir Majeed, the senior vice chairman of the BSO-A, was abducted by officials of intelligence agencies near Mastung on June 8, 2009. It has been 981 days since Majeed went missing and bearing inhumane torture in illegal custody. There have also been four murder attempts on Waja Basheer Zeb, the chairman of the BSO-A.

Various attempts were made to abduct or kill Sangat Sana before they finally succeeded in abducting him on December 7, 2009. Sangat Sana belonged to a very rich and influential tribal family but he preferred activism to family business. His soft-spoken nature and strict ideology made him a very respected student leader among Baloch students. Everyone praised his leadership skills and Sangat preserved these skills even in the face of cruel torture of government forces.

An abducted Baloch activist, after being released from the government torture cells, narrated stories of how Sangat Sana bravely countered his investigation team and other torturers in a military cell. According to him: “We were being held in a military torture cell near Serena Hotel in Quetta. The conditions were very bad. We only got food two times a day and that too in very little quantity. Almost every day new activists were brought in there. Later, we realised that Sangat Sana is also in the custody cell. He always argued with military officers and would leave them speechless with his arguments. He tried to organise us and slowly changed the environment of torture cell with his bravery and skills. The agonising and dreadful environment now changed into a fearless and brave atmosphere but the torture and inhumane conditions never stopped. He would always quarrel with officers on the condition of food and later on with a few other activists he staged a hunger-strike. Though the condition of food didn’t improve but his stance nonetheless annoyed and made things difficult for the military officers. He was continuously threatened for his life.”

So next time when you are enjoying a lavish dinner in Serena Hotel or living in the presidential suites of the hotel for a work trip sponsored by your newspaper or on the invitation of the Pakistan Army, don’t forget that the owners of Baloch land are being subjected to inhumane torture only a few yards away.

The released Baloch activist told us this story a year ago but his account was confirmed with the pictures of inhumane torture on the body of Sangat Sana. His bullet-riddled body was found on February 13 from Murghaap Turbat. The cruel forces couldn’t break his determination so they tried to break his body. His body was tortured to an extent that shames humanity. There was not a single place on his body which had no scars of brutal torture. His chest was ripped off and he was shot 28 times on his chest and head. The bloodthirsty beasts couldn’t satisfy their thirst with killing the Baloch leader so they mutilated his body beyond recognition.

The question arises what is the point in mutilating the bodies and the answer rests in the mentality of the security forces. This is nothing but sheer terrorism to stop the Baloch nation from asking for their basic human rights. But there has been some misjudgment or miscalculation while making policies in Islamabad. With their terrorism they are doing nothing but boosting the morale of the Baloch nation and making them more determined that their future doesn’t lie in a state which abuses their mothers, disgraces their sisters and kills their brothers.

Source: Daily Times, 15 Feb 2012

Sangat Sana Baloch missing no more – BBC Urdu Report

Both of these events signify all what is wrong with Pakistan today. Both groups (DPC and KLF) remain aligned with Pakistan’s powerful military establishment due to various reasons. The DPC are Jihadi-sectarian assets of a military state which wants to increase and maintain its influence in Afghanistan and other countries via proxy Jihadis. The KLF comprises urban elites whose socio-economic interests remain dependent on the powerful classes (security establishment) thus forcing them to maintain their silence on the ongoing massacre of the Balochs, anti-Taliban Pashuns and Shia Muslims by Pakistan army and its various agencies / proxies.

In other words, source of genocides of the Baloch, Pashtun, Shia is to be found at the right-wing DPC, source of silence on the genocides is to be found at the (fake) liberal KLF.

Both groups are aligned with the military establishment, however, DPC is much more transparent in its agenda than the KLF because the KLF crowds claim to be champions of social justice, reforms and human rights.

The reasons why we have the DPC militants in Pakistan today are to be found within the KLF. When authors become conveniently silent or selective moral on genocides and persecutions, societies become intolerant.

Between the KLF and DPC, we will choose DPC any day. At least they are transparent in their loyalties and agendas; don’t give us false hope. Otherwise, there is not much difference between KLF and DPC; both groups are generally silent on genocides of the Baloch, Pashtun and Shia, persecution of Christians, Ahmadis and other groups etc.

A leading Pakistani analyst frankly admitted: crowds don’t understand that source of DPC and KLF is essentially the same.

How many people at the KLF have written on the ongoing genocides of the Baloch, Pashtun and Shia?

By the way, does Mohammed Hanif’s recent, token column on missing Balochs (which he first wrote in English for Dawn and then also translated into Urdu for BBC to save himself from the trouble of writing two article on the Balochs) have something to do with his appearance at the KLF?

Are the usual suspects trying to repair their image? First Hanif wrote on Qadeer Baloch, now Hamid Mir: http://jang.com.pk/jang/feb2012-daily/13-02-2012/col5.htm

Apparently, such token columns are a case of impression management. In the past, we have seen some other champions who sold the Baloch cause (e.g., Najam Sethi, Malik, Siraj Akbar, Urooj Zia etc) for personal gains. A few month ago, we saw another suspect (Omar Waraich) presenting three other suspects as anti-ISI journalists (Ejaz Haider, Hamid Mir, Najam Sethi).

Kudos to Mohammed Hanif and Hamid Mir on covering the (mis)deeds of Pakistan Army in Balochistan but like every other effort this too is too litl too late.

Both Hamid Mir and Mohammed Hanif are at least 2 years late. Jalil Reki was kidnapped 2 years ago, killed three months ago!

Dear Mohammed Hanif, Hamid Mir and other rights champions at the KLF, Haji Jan Muhammad Marri Baloch was abducted today (11 Feb 2012) from Karachi. Write on him before it is too late!

An elite acclaimed film-maker at the KLF refused to make a documentary on Shia killing in Quetta due to fear of army. She is a rights champion!

At least one person attending the KLF wrote articles on “atrocities of Bahraini demonstrators” against “innocent Pakistanis” (mercenaries)!

Another author attending the KLF opportunistically wrote once a year token column on Baloch missing persons only a day ago before the KLF.

At least two authors at the KLF routinely misrepresent all Pashtuns as the Taliban.

Review the #KLF hash-tag on Twitter to see that most of those attending or interested in this event are silent on genocides of Baloch, Pashtun, Shia, persecution of Ahmadis and other groups.

Imran Khan sent TammyHaq to KLF while Ejaz Chaudhry was sent to DPC. That’s how world and the hereafter go hand in hand.

Dear KLF authors, perhaps writing on each Pashtun, Baloch or Shia target killed by the Deep State may be too much for you. Can you promise to write on ever 10 Shias, 10 Balochs and 10 Pashtuns killed respectively?

Or should we hope that Mohammed Hanif, Ayesha Sidddiqa, Raza Rumi, Tammy Haq, Maliha Lodhi, Ahmed Rashid, Hamid Mir etc will write a token column on Shia genocide (or Pashtun genocide) immediately before the KLF 2013!

Some pictures from KLF (Source)

How many of these people have written on the ongoing massacres of Balochs, Pashtuns, Shias?

Some pictures from DPC Karachi 12 Feb 2012

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Who in the world is Sami Shah? Have you heard of him or know what he does? For a long time I had no knowledge of this individual or his raison d’être. Till I read a post on PB (Pakistan Blogzine) about how a group of prominent (read notorious) urban (read Karachi and Lahore based) ‘liberals’ had flattered their way into the social circle of Tristram Perry, the Information Officer at US Consulate Lahore.

Within that post, extracts of a conversation between noted human rights activist @Laibaah1 and some of these ‘liberals’ had been copied and pasted. One of those conversations involved the use of absolutely vulgar and demeaning language by a @samishah whose bio identifies him as “Comedian, Writer, Graphic Designer, Producer, Sapien.” Disrespectful thug would be a welcome addition to this list considering the guttural vocabulary of his discourse.

After I had completed reading the post in question, I tweeted through my Twitter profile (@ravezjunejo) how @samishah had acted as a “D-bag” (a word that would not be out of place in his vocabulary) and that the PB post by @Laibaah1 that used his tweets had brought unnecessary attention to him. (NOTE: Tweets have been colour-coded in that BLUE tweets are of @samishah and RED tweets are of @ravezjunejo)

“Wow @samishah is a total D-bag!” “Ironically I didn’t really know who @samishah was until @Laibaah1 wrote that post abt him. She brings them so much unnecessary attention ” (See screen cap S1).

As I had expected, I got an angry response from @samishah instead of a reasoned reply. To my pleasant surprise, there was a swear word in there for me too!

“@ravezjunejo wait there is a post about me? In which i am a douchebag? And you wanted me to know? Thanks cunt.” (See S2)

Normally I would be ashamed of using the language that I was forced to use by this person. But my inhibition was weakened by my resolve to teach this one rowdy brat a proper lesson in a language he’d understand. Be comfortable with really.

“@samishah cunt? Im not your mother asshole.”

“@ravezjunejo Good one! You suck your dad off with that mouth?” (See S3)

“@ravezjunejo  lets remember u insulted me out of the blue. Much like Laibah did, who went on to write column w/o mentioning i was trolled” (S4)

Now this last tweet seemed somewhat defensive. Maybe he realised he was way out of line with his unwarranted verbal attacks at me and tried to rationalise them by blaming me on bringing this fusillade of abuses onto myself. Not that he stopped swearing afterwards.

“@ravezjunejo and u did the same. Trolled me for no rhyme or reason. My cursing is inappropriate? You are acting like an asshole. Thats ok? ” (S5)

By this time I realised that, the sensitive child that he was, @samishah was probably offended by the word that I used for him. Which puzzled me considering his verbal attacks at @Laibaah1 had been much more vulgar, to say the least. So I ventured a defence of my own.

“@samishah NOTHING gives you the right to use the language you and your people use against her! I called you on ur behaviour with her.” “@samishah Before reading her post abt ur tweets to her I didn’t know or care who you were OK mister?! Btw when did asking Qs become troling?” (S6)

“@ravezjunejo I have no “people” genius. There is no agenda and no grand plan. So stop making this out to be bigger than it is.” (A word of advice for @samishah at this point. Over-emphasis on one word within a larger sentence is a sign of mental retardation.) “@ravezjunejo Laibaah came at me for being friends with someone they didn’t like. Then kept harassing me online rudely. I retaliated.” “@ravezjunejo You, meanwhile, called me a “d-bag” and made sure I knew about it by putting my username in the tweet. So you picked a fight.” My suspicion was confirmed! “@ravezjunejo Next time, don’t pick a fight and expect people to not respond. Stop acting like a dick and grow the fuck up.” (S7) All of this, mind you, just because @Laibaah1 dared to tag @samishah in a list of urban liberals. Not abusing him or his family. Only for calling him what he was, and apparently, is proud to be according to one of his OWN tweets!

“@samishah I’m sorry I cudnt respond to ur ranting. Apparently between the two of us I actually have a life outside of Twitter!” “@samishah Harassing you online rudely? Wow that’s a lot coming from a guy who swears at people at first contact!” “@samishah Pray tell what ignominious filth did that “bot” use against you?! Did she abuse ur parents like you did mine?!” “@samishah And for the LAST time, I called you a D-bag ONLY because of your unnecessarily acidic behaviour with her.” “@samishah Oh and since you get so emotional and hurt if someone calls u a bad name (you poor thing!) I’ll just leave out the swearing.” “@samishah I owe a wierd-abusive-stranger-I-never met atleast that much.” “@samishah Wow I caught you at a very bad time. It must be that time of the month for you huh?” (S8)

This very forceful response seemed to do the impossible. It actually managed to shut the ‘Comedian’ up! The last I heard from that man was the tweets below.

“@ravezjunejo Ok sure. Thought I might try to get you to see that you and yours started it by acting inappropriately. Clearly a waste of time.” “@ravezjunejo Enjoy your judgmental life with warped values. So long.” (S9)

I was a little amused that @samishah would use such an abusive, and frankly wierd, way of trying to show me or @Laibaah1 the error of our ways. Anyone who reads this exchange or his previous one with @Laibaah1 would naturally assess @samishah’s intention being to abuse and insult rather than converse and understand. But that was the claim with which he sought to end the conversation with me before he blocked me.

The reason behind his blocking me, though, was not this conversation. Recently I came across a picture of @samishah speaking at a little known bloggers event in 2011 grandiously titled the ‘Pakistan Blog Awards’ where his comedic performance was apparently panned by some audience members of that event (http://www.pakistanprobe.com/2011/12/pakistan-blog-awards-2011-review.html). It was then that I realised who @samishah was! I recognised him as the host of two shows on the defunct English language version of the (now Urdu language) Dawn News channel. As I recall, the first was a movie review show he apparently did with his sister. The second was a version of the American ‘Daily Show’ that he helmed (http://www.youtube.com/user/newsweakly/featured). I remember never watching more than a single episode of both those shows because of their absolute dreariness. On the second show which had an overtly comical setting, I never found a one-liner or quip of @samishah worth even snickering to! For the life of me, I cannot comprehend why this terribly unfunny man would claim to be a comedian! By the way, both of the shows of his were scrapped (probably due to low ratings) and such programming ultimately led to the downfall of Dawn News English. It was when I related this revelation to @Laibaah1 while also tagging @samishah in that tweet did I find myself to be blocked from his profile.

In the end, his ego was hurt not so much by my swearing at him as it was by my reminding him of his past failures.

S1

S2

S3

S4

S5

S6

S7

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S9

سلیم صافی پاکستان کے ان صحافیوں میں سے ہیں جن کے پاکستان کی فوجی اسٹیبلشمنٹ کے ساتھ طالب علمی کے زمانے سے گہرے تعلقات رہے ہیں – زمانہ طالب علمی میں اسلامی جمیعت طلبا میں شامل ر ہے سی آئ اے، آئ ایس آئ اور سعودی عرب کے ایجاد کردہ نام نہاد جہاد افغانستان میں شامل ہو کر افغانستان جا پنہچے اور بے گناہ افغانوں کے خون میں اپنے ہاتھ تر کیے -

امریکہ پر القائدہ کے گیارہ ستمبر کے حملوں کے بعد انہوں نے جماعت اسلامی سے تو اپنا ناطہ توڑ لیا لیکن فوجی اسٹبلشمنٹ ، خاص طور پر آئ ایس آئی سے اپنے روابط کو مستحکم رکھا -

یہی وجہ ہے کہ آج اگر کسی نے پاکستان کی فوج کی خفیہ پالیسیوں کا اندازہ کرنا ہو تو اس کے لیے سلیم صافی اور ان کی طرح کے دوسرے آئ ایس آئی یافتہ صحافیوں کا مطالعہ کافی ہے – اس طرح کےدیگر صحافیوں میں رحیم الله یوسف زئی، ہارون رشید، جاوید چودھری، مبشر لقمان، انصار عباسی، مجیب الرحمان شامی وغیرہ شامل ہیں انگریزی میڈیا میں اس طرح کے آئ ایس یافتگان میں اعجاز حیدر ، نجم سیٹھی ، موید پیرزادہ، طلعت حسین، نسیم زہرہ ، مشرف زیدی اور سایرل المیدہ کے نام آتے ہیں -

آجکل دفاع پاکستان کانفرنسوں کا شور غوغا ہے سب اہل نظر جانتے ہیں کہ دفاع پاکستان کا کاروبار آئی ایس آئ کا شروع کردہ ہے جس میں آئ ایس آئ کی حمایت یافتہ جہادی فرقہ وارانہ جماعتیں سپاہ صحابہ ، جماعت الدعوه ، پاکستان تحریک انصاف ، عجاز الحق ، جنرل حمید گل، سمیع الحق وغیرہ شریک ہیں -

آئ ایس آئ کے ہمدرد صحافی آج کل دفاع پاکستان کونسل کی شان میں قصیدے لکھ رہے ہیں اور ان قصیدوں کی آڑ میں در اصل مذہبی فرقہ واریت پھیلانے والی دہشت گرد تنظیموں کو پاکستان کے عوام کے لئے قبل قبل بنانا چاہتے ہیں - جنگ اخبار میں گیارہ فروری کو شایع ہونے والا سلیم صافی کا مضمون بھی اسی مقصد کے لئے لکھ گیا ہے جس میں صافی صاحب نے پاکستان کے سب سے متشدد گروپ سپاہ صحابہ کی صفائی پیش کی ہے – چند اقتباسات حاضر خدمات ہیں -

یوں ہر پاکستانی کا حق ہے کہ وہ اس کے وجود اورکردار سے متعلق سوال اٹھائے لیکن جس بنیاد پر اس کے خلاف رحمن ملک اور میڈیا کے بعض حلقوں نے شور اٹھا رکھا ہے‘ وہ نہایت لغو اور فضول ہے ۔ ان کو اعتراض ہے کہ بعض کالعدم تنظیمیں دوسرے ناموں سے دفاع پاکستان کونسل کے پلیٹ فارم سے متحرک ہوگئی ہیں‘ اس لئے اس کونسل کا راستہ روک دینا چاہئے حالانکہ میرے نزدیک اس کونسل کی واحد خوبی یہ ہے کہ وہ کالعدم تنظیموں کو مین اسٹریم میں لا اور ان تنظیموں کے رہنماؤں کو شیخ رشید احمد اور اعجاز الحق جیسے پرویز مشرف کی ٹیم کا حصہ رہنے والے سیاستدانوں کے ساتھ بٹھا رہی ہے ۔
جن تنظیموں کو کالعدم قرار دیا گیا ہے‘ ان میں تین قسم کی تنظیمیں شامل ہیں۔ جہادی تنظیمیں فرقہ وارانہ تنظیمیں اور علیحدگی پسند قوم پرست تنظیمیں۔ اب کوئی جہادی تنظیم ایسی نہیں ہے جس نے بحیثیت تنظیم پاکستانی ریاست کے خلاف جنگ کا اعلان کیا ہو۔ تقریباً تمام تنظیموں کے رہنما گزشتہ دس سالوں میں پاکستان میں رہے، ان میں سے بعض جیلوں میں بھی رہے اور عدالتوں کا بھی سامنا کیا لیکن کسی کو سزا نہیں ہوئی۔ لال مسجد کا واقعہ ہو یا جی ایچ کیو پر حملے کا‘ ہر موقع پر ان تنظیموں کے رہنماؤں نے حکومتی اداروں کے ساتھ تعاون کیا۔ اگر جیش محمد ‘ حرکة الانصار یا کسی اور جہادی تنظیم کے بعض وابستگان القاعدہ کے ساتھ منسلک ہوکر ریاست پاکستان کے خلاف جنگ کے مرتکب ہوئے ہیں تو اس طرح تو جماعت اسلامی اور جے یو آئی جیسی تنظیموں سے بھی بعض لوگ ٹوٹ کر وزیرستان منتقل ہوگئے ہیں یا پھر پیپلزپارٹی‘ ایم کیوایم اور بلوچ قوم پرست جماعتوں کے بعض وابستگان بھی سنگین جرائم کے مرتکب قرار پائے ہیں۔ اگر یہاں چند افراد کی غلطی کی سزا پوری تنظیم کو نہیں دی جارہی ہے تو پھر جہادی تنظیموں کے ساتھ یہ امتیازی سلوک کیوں؟ جہاں تک فرقہ وارانہ تنظیموں کا تعلق ہے تو یہاں پر بھی سپاہ صحابہ کے ساتھ امتیازی سلوک روا رکھا جارہا ہے۔ جس طرح سپاہ صحابہ کے وابستگان نے نئے نام سے کام کا آغاز کردیا ہے‘ اسی طرح تحریک نفاذ فقہ جعفریہ بھی نئے نام سے متحرک ہے جو متحدہ مجلس عمل اور اس کے ذریعے پارلیمنٹ اور حکومت کا بھی حصہ رہی ۔ اب اگر وہ قابل اعتراض نہیں تو پھر سپاہ صحابہ کے ساتھ یہ امتیازی سلوک کیوں؟ اگر ایسا ہوتا کہ ملک میں مسلک اور فرقے کی بنیاد پر تنظیم سازی کی اجازت ہی نہ ہوتی تو پھر سپاہ صحابہ کو بھی اجازت نہیں ہونی چاہئے تھی لیکن اگر اس وقت بھی ملک میں فرقے اور مسلک کی بنیاد پر ہزاروں تنظیمیں سرگرم عمل ہیں تو پھر صرف ایک تنظیم نشانہ کیوں؟ رہ گئی بات بی ایل اے جیسی تنظیموں کی‘ تو تماشہ یہ ہے کہ جو لبرل عناصر جہادی اور دینی تنظیموں کی سرگرمیوں پر معترض ہیں‘ وہ بھی یہ مطالبہ کررہے ہیں کہ بلوچ تنظیموں کو مذاکرات کے ذریعے راضی کرلیا جائے۔ میں خود بھی ان لوگوں کا ہمنوا ہوں اور اپنا بھی یہ مطالبہ ہے کہ طاقت کے استعمال کی بجائے سیاست اور مذاکرات کے ذریعے بلوچ نوجوانوں کو راضی کرکے مین اسٹریم کا حصہ بنا لیا جائے لیکن اپنا مطالبہ یوں مختلف ہوجاتا ہے کہ میں اس فراخدالی کا مظاہرہ جہادی اور دینی تنظیموں تک دراز کرنا چاہتا ہوں لیکن بعض لوگ ایک طبقے سے متعلق فراخدلی اور دوسرے سے متعلق تنگ نظری کا مظاہرہ کررہے ہیں۔
اگر جہادی اور فرقہ وارانہ تنظیموں پر پابندی کا مثبت نتیجہ نکلا ہوتا تو میں بھی اس کو برقرار رکھنے کا مطالبہ کرنے والوں میں شامل ہوتا لیکن ہم دیکھ رہے ہیں کہ اس نام نہاد پابندی سے انتہاپسندی اور دہشت گردی میں اضافہ ہوا ہے اور کسی طرح کی بہتری سامنے نہیں آئی۔ وجہ صاف ظاہر ہے، جب آپ کسی کو آزادانہ طور پر سیاسی طریقے سے رائے کے اظہار اور اپنے نظریات کے پرچار کا موقع نہیں دیں گے تو پھر وہ دوسرے راستوں کی طرف جائے گا۔ اگر ان تنظیموں کے قائدین کو آزادانہ طور پر سیاست کرنے دی جائے گی تو وہ انتہاپسندی اور دہشت گردی کی طرف جانے والے لوگوں کو بھی اپنے ساتھ منسلک رکھ کر مین اسٹریم میں لائیں گے لیکن جب ان کے پاس پُرامن سرگرمیوں کے لئے پلیٹ فارم نہیں ہوگا تو ان کے باقی ماندہ کارکن بھی تشدد کی طرف جائیں گے۔ ایک زمانہ تھا کہ عوامی نیشنل پارٹی اور بلوچستان کے بعض قوم پرست کابل میں بیٹھ کر پاکستان بم بھجوایا کرتے تھے لیکن جب ان لوگوں کو مین اسٹریم میں آنے کا موقع دیا گیا تو آج وہ پُرامن جماعتیں تصور کی جاتی ہیں۔ اگر جہادی اور فرقہ وارانہ تنظیموں کے بعض لوگ تشدد میں ملوث پائے گئے ہیں تو یہی کام کسی زمانے میں پیپلزپارٹی کے زیرسایہ الذولفقار تنظیم نے بھی کیا اور یہی پارٹی آج حکومت کررہی ہے۔ ایم کیوایم پر بھی تشدد کا الزام ہے لیکن جوں جوں ایم کیوایم مین اسٹریم میں آرہی ہے توں توں اس کے تشدد کا پہلو مدہم ہوتا جارہا ہے۔ ہمیں سمجھ نہیں آتا کہ یہ آزمودہ نسخہ جہادی اور فرقہ وارانہ تنظیموں سے متعلق کیوں نہیں آزمایا جاتا اور انہیں دیوار سے لگانے کی کوشش کیوں کی جارہی ہے؟جیش محمد‘ حرکة الانصار اور البدر مجاہدین جیسی جہادی تنظیموں کا معاملہ تو یوں بھی زیادہ تکلیف دہ ہے کہ ان کے وابستگان کو ہمارے ریاستی اداروں نے بالاتفاق اس کام پر لگایا۔ انہیں مراعات بھی ملتی رہیں اور شاباش بھی دی جاتی رہی۔ آج بھی کہیں نہ کہیں ان لوگوں سے بوقت ضرورت ملک کے وسیع تر مفاد میں کام لیا جاتا ہے لیکن دوسری طرف پابندیاں لگا کر ان لوگوں کو خواہ مخواہ تشدد پر ابھارا جاتا ہے۔ یہ ملک سب کا ہے، بہتر یہی ہوگا کہ سب شہریوں کے ساتھ ایک جیسا سلوک کیا جائے ۔ تمام کالعدم جہادی اور دینی جماعتوں پر پابندی ختم کردی جائے، سب کو عام معافی دی جائے۔ سب پر یکساں طور پر لاگو قاعدہ اور ضابطہ بنا دیا جائے پھر جو بھی قانون کی خلاف ورزی کرے ‘ اسے سزا دی جائے اور جو لوگ قانون کا احترام کریں وہ کسی بھی جماعت یا پس منظر کے حامل ہوں‘ ان کو اپنی مرضی کے مطابق سیاسی اور دعوتی سرگرمیوں کی اجازت دی جائے۔ افغانستان کا نقشہ بدلنے کو ہے، امریکہ وہاں سے نکل رہا ہے اور دو تین سال بعد خطے کی حرکیات یکسر بدل گئی ہوں گی ۔ اس نئی بساط کے بچھنے سے قبل ضروری ہے کہ ہم بھی داخلی محاذ کی طرف توجہ دیں اور پہلا کام یہ ہونا چاہئے کہ ریاست سے باغی عناصر کو عام معافی اور ان کی تنظیموں پر عائد پابندیوں کا خاتمہ ہونا چاہئے۔ سخت قوانین بناکر ان پر عمل درآمد کو یقینی بنایا جائے اور اس کے بعد کوئی خلاف قانون کام کرے تو اسے سخت سزا دی جائے ۔ اگر قومی دولت لوٹنے والوں اور ہزاروں انسانوں کو قتل کرنے والوں کو ”این آراو“ کے تحت نہ صرف معافی مل سکتی ہے بلکہ وہ پاکستان کے سیاہ و سفید کے مالک بھی بن سکتے ہیں تو پھر جہادی اور دینی تنظیموں کے بارے میں ایک اور این آر او کیوں جاری نہیں ہوسکتا۔ حالانکہ اول الذکر لوگوں نے جو کچھ بھی کیا بدنیتی کی بنیاد پر کیا جبکہ موخرالذکر لوگوں کا کام جتنا نقصان دہ ہے ‘ شایداتنا ہی ان کی نیت نیک ہو۔

اپنے اس کالم میں صافی صاحب ارشاد فرماتے ہیں:

سپاہ صحابہ اور دیگر جہادی فرقہ وارانہ جماعتوں کا کام جتنا نقصان دہ ہے اتنی ان کی نیت نیک ہے – اس اعتبار سے جتنے جس لشکر جھنگوی، سپاہ صحابہ کے دہشت گرد نے بریلوی، شیعہ ، احمدی یا مسیحی قتل کیے ہیں اتنا ہی اس کو نیک نیتی کا ثواب مل رہا ہو گا – کیا کہنے ہیں دہشت گردی کی حمایت اور اس کو خوبصورت بنا کر پیش کرنا اسے ہی کہتے ہیں -

سپاہ صحابہ کے دہشت گردوں کے اپنے جائز حقوق کے لیے لڑنے والے بلوچ نوجوانوں سے کیا موازنہ – بلوچ حریت پسند پاکستان کی فوج سے لڑ رہے ہیں جبکہ سپاہ صحابہ کے دہشت گرد پاکستان کے طول و عرض میں بے گناہ شیعہ مسلمانوں کا قتل ام کر رہے ہیں -

سلیم صافی صاحب نے اس بات کو مکمل طور پر بھلا دیا کہ سپاہ صحابہ کا نشانہ کوئی خاص تنظیم تحریک جعفریہ وغیرہ نہیں بلکہ تمام شیعہ مسلمان ان کے نشانے پر ہیں ان کا شیعہ کافر کا نعرہ پاکستان اور دنیا بھر میں رہنے والے ہر شیعہ کے خلاف نفرت کا اعلان ہے جس پر عملدرآمد سپاہ صحابہ کے دہشت گرد بے گناہ شیعوں کو قتل کر کے انجام دیتے ہیں -

سلیم صافی صاحب نے بد دیانتی سے کام لیتے ہوۓ سپاہ صحابہ کا موازنہ شیعہ مسلمانوں سے کیا ہے – پاکستان کے سنی مسلمانوں کی اکثریت بشمول بریلوی، دیوبندی اور وہابی مسلمان سپاہ صحابہ کی پر تشدد اور نفرت انگیز کار وائیوں کی مذمت کرتے ہیں اور ان کو رد کرتے ہیں – سپاہ صحابہ کسی مذہب یا فرقے کی نمایندہ نہیں ہے – بریلویوں کی تمام جماعتیں سپاہ صحابہ کو دہشت گرد سمجھتی ہیں – دیوبندیوں کی سب سے بڑی جماعت جمیعت علما اسلام فضل الرحمان گروپ نے سپاہ صحابہ کو ہمیشہ رد کیا ہے – اہلحدیث ان کو اپنے سات منسلک کرنا گوارا نہیں کرتے – سپاہ صحابہ دہشت گردوں کا کسی مسلک یا مذھب سے کوئی تعلق نہیں -

سپاہ صحابہ اور شیعہ مسلمانوں کے درمیان تشدد کا موازنہ بد دیانتی پر مبنی ہے – یہ ایسا ہی ہے جسے ہم اسرایل کے جنگی جرائم کا موازنہ فلسطینیوں کو تشدد سے کرنا شروع کر دیں یا کشمیر میں حریت پسندوں کے تشدد کا موازنہ بھارت کی جارحیت سے کریں – تشدد ہر طرح کا قبل مذمت ہے لیکن حقیقت یہ ہے کے پچھلے تیس سال سے پاکستان میں شیعہ مسلمانوں کا قتل عام ہو رہا ہے جس کی ذمہ دار صرف اور صرف سپاہ صحابہ اور اس کے پیچھے موجود پاکستان کے فوجی خفیہ ادارے ہیں -

آپ نے شیعہ مسلمانوں کو سپاہ صحابہ کے ساتھ کھڑا کرنے کی کوشش کر کے پاکستانی اسٹیبلشمنٹ کی اسی روایتی پالیسی کی ترجمانی کی، جس میں وہ نام نہاد توازن اور برابری کا فارمولا قائم کرتے ہوئے فرقہ پرستوں کو اسلام پرستوں کے ساتھ، دہشتگردوں کو امن پسندوں کے ساتھ، پاکستان دشمنوں کو محب وطن تنظیموں کے ساتھ اور قاتل گروہوں کو مقتول فریق کے ساتھ کھڑا کرتے ہیں

کیا آپ نہیں جانتے کہ شیعہ مسلمان خواہ ان کا تعلق کسی تنظیم سے ہو یا نہ ہو، ہمیشہ ر دہشتگردی کا شکار ہیں۔ کیا کسی شیعہ تنظیم نے دیوبندی کافر کا نعرہ بلند کیا؟ کیا پاکستان کے شیعہ پاکستان کے شہریوں یا فوج کے خلاف کسی بھی طرح کی دہشت گردی میں ملوث رہے ہیں؟ شیعہ لیڈرز نے کبھی دہشتگردی کرنے، دہشتگردی سوچنے اور دہشتگردی کا پرچار کرنے کی تعلیم نہیں دی۔ انہوں نے خودکش حملوں جیسی اذیت ناک دہشتگردی کے باوجود اپنے لوگوں کو صبر کی تلقین کی ہے اسی وجہ سے ان کے مسلک میں موجود انتہاپسند معتدل شیعہ قیادت کے مخالف ہیں۔

لیکن دوسری طرف سپاہ صحابہ کی بنیاد ہی دہشتگردی پر رکھی گئی ہے، آج بھی لشکر جھنگوی کا سربراہ ملک اسحاق اور سپاہ صحابہ کا سربراہ محمد احمد لدھیانوی مل کر جلسے کرتے ہیں اور شیعوں کو قتل کرنے کا واضح اعلان کرتے ہیں۔ سپاہ صحابہ اور لشکر جھنگوی کے قاتل کے ہونے میں اس لئے شائبہ نہیں کہ آپ کے سامنے انہوں نے نہ صرف شیعہ مکتب فکر بلکہ اہل سنت بریلوی، دیوبندی اور اسلام سے باہر قادیانی، عیسائی و دیگر مذاہب کے پیروکاروں اور پاکستان کے مہمانوں کا قتل عام کیا ہے۔ اگر شک ہے تو خود مولانا مفتی حسن جان پشاور کا قتل، مولانا فضل الرحمن پر قاتلانہ حملے، جماعت اسلامی اور جے یو آئی کے متعدد افراد کے بہیمانہ قتل کے واقعات کا مطالعہ فرما لیں۔

ف سپاہ صحابہ کسی مسلک یا مکتب کی نمائندگی نہیں کرتی۔ مسلک دیوبند کی نمائندہ جماعتیں جے یو آئی (ف) یا پھر جماعت اسلامی ہے۔ ان جماعتوں کو صرف مسلک دیوبند کے پیروکار نہیں بلکہ تمام مسالک اور مکاتب کے پیروکار تسلیم بھی کرتے ہیں اور ان کا احترام بھی کرتے ہیں۔ لیکن سپاہ صحابہ کو دوسرے مسالک تو درکنار خود دیوبندی حضرات بھی اپنا نمائندہ یا ترجمان تصور نہیں کرتے، بلکہ انہیں انتہا پسند اور دہشت گرد کہتے ہیں۔

اس حقیقت کے موجودگی میں آپ کی طرف سے شیعہ مسلمانوں اور سپاہ صحابہ کو ایک ہی پلڑے میں تولنا کس قدر زیادتی ہے؟

سپاہ صحابہ نے اپنا منشور نہیں بدلا، اپنا جھنڈا نہیں بدلا، اپنے غلیظ نعرے نہیں بدلے، اپنا طرز عمل نہیں بدلا، حتٰی کہ اپنی دہشتگردانہ کارروائیوں سے بھی توبہ نہیں کی، بلکہ حال ہی میں لشکر جھنگوی کے سربراہ کی رہائی کے بعد ہونے والے جلسوں میں دہشتگردی کو ازسرنو شروع اور منظم کرنے کے اعلانات کئے ہیں۔ اس واضح فرق کے بعد بھی آپ سپاہ صحابہ اورشیعہ مسلمانوں کو ایک صف میں شمار کریں تو اللہ ہی حافظ ہے؟

دوسری طرف سپاہ صحابہ کی بنیاد ہی کفر کے فتوے کے اوپر رکھی گئی۔ آپ کی سماعتوں میں وہ نعرہ ابھی تک نہیں گونج رہا کہ ’’کافر کافر شیعہ کافر۔ جو نہ مانے وہ بھی کافر‘‘ یعنی پورا عالم اسلام جو شیعوں کو کافر نہیں مانتا وہ بھی کافر ہے؟؟ کفر اور اسلام کے واضح فرق کے باوجود بھی آپ شیعہ مسلمانون اور سپاہ صحابہ یعنی قتل اور مقتول کو مساوی قرار دیں تو اس سے بڑی ناانصافی کیا ہو گی؟

Urgent: Please sign and widely distribute this petition: Ban the Difa-e-Pakistan Council

According to news report, PTI senior vice-president Ejaz Chaudhry spoke at the Difa-e-Pakistan rally in Karachi (12 February 2012) as a formal representative of Imran Khan and PTI, thus reconfirming the widely known fact that PTI is in close partnership with banned Jihadi-sectarian militant organizations. Ejaz Chaudhry congratulated the DPC Jalsa participants on their noble cause (defence of Pakistan against enemies such as India, USA and Iran) and also assured them that Imran Khan himself will participate in the next DPC rally. He claimed that the spirit of change had spread through the country and how Pakistan needs to be “cleansed of America”.

Two key components of the ISI-sponsored Difa-e-Pakistan are: Jamaat-ud-Dawa (aka Lashkar-e-Taiba) and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (aka Lashkar-e-Jhangvi). The SSP is banned in Pakistan and internationally, while JuD is internationally banned and is also in the Government of Pakistan’s Watch List.

Difaepakistan @Difaepak
Is mulk k mujrim hukmarano ko, mujrim sadar or wazeer e azam ko bardasht na kia jaey @ImranKhanPTI ‘s message via Ijaz chaudry

Difaepakistan @Difaepak
I was talking to @ImranKhanPTI on my way, his message for you is, “Pakistan’s foundation is La’Ilaha’Ilallah” – Ijaz chahdry – PTI

Difaepakistan @Difaepak
@PTIofficial Ijaz chahdry speaking to thousands at DPC rally

Previously in December 2011, Imran Khan had sent a PTI envoy to the Difa-e-Pakistan rally in Lahore who read Khan’s special message in the rally. The Difa-e-Pakistan rally in Multan (January 2012) was organized by the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, in which Lashkar-e-Jhangvi chief (killer of more than 70 Shias and Barelvis) Malik Ishaq was specially invited to the stage.

Malik Ishaq (LeJ chief) was a special guest at the DPC rally in Multan.

Imran Khan’s vice president Ejaz Chaudhry has previously participated in a number of Jihadi-sectarian corner meetings organized by Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (camouflagerd as Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat), Tahaffuz-e-Khatme-Nabuwat (TKN) and other organizations known for hate speech and violence against Shias, Barelvis and Ahmadis. Some details of his links with the Sipah-e-Sahaba can be found in this post: Imran Khan’s Vice President Ejaz Chaudhry’s links with sectarian terrorists!

Here is the news report about PTI VP’s participation in the Karachi DPC rally on 12 Feb 2012:

Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC)’s Karachi rally, being organised with the support of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), began today (Sunday) at the Quaid’s mausoleum where several religious and political leaders are due to give their speeches, reported Express News. JI chief Munnawar Hassan, Maulana Samiul Haq, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Hameed Gul, former federal minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, Chief of Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ i.e., Sipah-e-Sahaba) Ahmed Ludhianvi, late General Ziaul Haq’s son Ejazul Haq, among many others, will address the rally. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) senior vice-president Ejaz Chaudhry was also seen at the rally. The security cordon around the stage was broken when ASWJ (i.e Sipah-e-Sahaba) workers stormed the ground when Karachi leader Orangzaib Farooqi took the mic to address the rally. The roads leading to the venue were packed with Jamaatud Dawa and ASWJ (Sipah-e-Sahaba / Lashkar-e-Jhangvi) supporters. The DPC has also been promoting the rally online through a newly launched website and the microblogging website Twitter (@Difaepak). (Source: Express Tribune, 12 Feb 2012)

PTI hand in hand with Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa? Birds of a feather flock together!

Ejaz Chaudhry is Imran Khan's key contact person to liaise with banned terrorist organizations.

Majority of peaceful Pakistanis including Sunni Barelvis, Shias, Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus and others have rejected the ISI-sponsored Difa-e-Pakistan Council (comprising ISI-sponsored extremist Deobandi and Wahhabi militants), and have also rejected Imran Khan’s ongoing partnership with such groups.

Here is an example of what Pakistan’s Shia Muslims think about Imran Khan: http://criticalppp.com/archives/68795

Some pictures from DPC Karachi 12 Feb 2012

Ahmed Ludhianvi’s speech Karachi 12 February 2012 Difa e Pakistan Conference

Her article in Express Tribune is an example of dishonest journalism

For an example of biased, dishonest journalism, read Pakistan blogger Tazeen Javed’s op-ed in Express Tribune in defence of Najam Sethi’s racist tweets: “Calling out the real bullies”

The article is an unsuccessful attempt by the Najam Sethi fan-club to repair Sethi’s unrepairable image.

In her article, Tazeen did not mention Sethi’s habit of passing casual racist remarks. Previously it was Pashtuns, now it is Jews, next Hazaras perhaps?

Moreover, she dishonestly did not include or refer to Najam Sethi’s racist tweet which forced Jemima to post a response. This is what Sethi had written:

najamsethi Najam Sethi
@qumarmc Brit media described Jemima as a “jewish heiress”. Google her. But it doesn’t matter. Love transcends. Didn’t she convert to Islam?

However, wiping out the entire context which was not only widely discussed on Twitter but was also published in a Pakistan Blogzine post, Tazeen tried to twist the episode, and tried to blame the victim (Jemima Khan) by blaming her poor Urdu comprehension abilities and ‘not so bright’-ness. Tazeen writes:

Jemima Khan, Khan’s ex-wife, heard the words “Imran Khan, Jewish lobby, conspiracy” and without actually watching the programme or asking anyone with a better grasp of Urdu, jumped to the conclusion that it was Najam Sethi who was stirring up trouble for Khan.

Of course, what Jemima later wrote reconfirmed what Pakistan Blogzine had written in its previous post. It was Sethi’s tweet which was clearly racist, however, we, with clear understanding of Urdu language and Sethi’s racist history know that he wanted to stir antisemitic hatred against Imran Khan in a subtle and refined manner.

Jemima Khan @Jemima_Khan
@najamsethi The point is not what you said on the programme- It’s your tweets I object to and your relentless, hate campaign over 15 yrs

Jemima Khan @Jemima_Khan
@najamsethi You and yr wife only suspended yr hate campaign to turn up uninvited at our house to gush & fawn over Princess Diana.

Jemima Khan @Jemima_Khan
@najamsethi You’re entitled to criticise IK and myself. But don’t use the race card, chk facts and don’t sacrifice principles for glitzy party

Tazeen also hid the fact that she was previously engaged in a Twitter brawl with Jemima last year when she alleged that Jemima’s twitter account was fake, forcing Jemima to published her passport page on Twitter. However, Tazeen (not unlike Sethi) did not deem it fit to apologize, and kept on annoying Jemima as an immature troll, forcing Jemima to block her on Twitter. It was at that point that Tazeen herself used racist remarks against Jemima Khan on her blog by using these words: “…I mean I know she is a blonde and not particularly bright.”

Thus, Tazeen defending Sethi is no surprise to anyone because this is the case of a racist defending another racist!

It is a fact that by re-broadcasting Fazlur-Rehman’s hate speech against Jews, Najam Sethi cunningly tried to ignite antisemitic hatred against Imran Khan.

We are no Imran Khan apologists. This, however, doesn’t mean we endorse antisemitic remarks against him or Jemima by Fazlur-Rehman and Najam Sethi.

Here is a copy of Tazeen’s article:

Calling out the real bullies
By Tazeen Javed
Published: February 10, 2012

The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance communications consultant. She tweets @tazeen and blogs at http://tazeen-tazeen.blogspot.com

Bullies; we have all heard of them at some point in our lives, the more unfortunate ones amongst us have faced the wrath of bullies at no provocation at all. However, very few of us stand up to them. In fact, people who get bullied would lash out at their well-wishers who either point out the fact that they are being bullied, or tell them to bully their opponents right back.

Something similar happened with Najam Sethi on the eve of February 7. In his TV show, Najam Sethi ran a clip where Maulana Fazlur Rehman was alluding that Imran Khan was politicking at the behest of some nameless and faceless Jews. He also ran a clip of the PTI chief saying that Maulana Fazlur Rehman is one of the three people responsible for the mess the country is in. Sethi later said that Imran Khan should have been more vocal in his defence and should have denounced the Maulana more vociferously than he did because the latter will not let go of Imran Khan’s Jewish connection (Khan’s ex-wife and mother of his children is of Jewish, Catholic and Protestant heritage) and will use it against him again and again during the elections later this year.

Jemima Khan, Khan’s ex-wife, heard the words “Imran Khan, Jewish lobby, conspiracy” and without actually watching the programme or asking anyone with a better grasp of Urdu, jumped to the conclusion that it was Najam Sethi who was stirring up trouble for Khan. She was never considered particularly bright by anyone of note, and now even less so when she took to the microblogging website, Twitter, to start a personal attack on Najam Sethi where she wrote that — he had always been critical of Imran Khan except when his (Sethi’s) wife and him wanted an invitation to dine with late Princess Diana. Her intention, clearly was to undermine Sethi’s credibility as a journalist.

What followed was just as crazy as any other war of words on social media, but it is significant in revealing that politics based on religion is quite flourishing in Pakistan. No one is willing to take on this issue head-on, instead, they either try to shoot the messenger — in this case Najam Sethi — or join forces with the those spreading vitriolic hatred. It was Maulana Fazlur Rehman who first spoke about Imran Khan’s Jewish connection, but it was Sethi — an easier target who can perhaps only retaliate with arguments instead of something more sinister or dangerous — who got burned for just pointing his fingers to the bully in question.

Some really charged-up PTI members even started an online campaign demanding Sethi be removed from the air for “making some immoral remarks about Imran Khan’s ex-wife Jemima Khan”. The fact that the campaign has received 631 signatures as yet, tells us a lot about how people form opinions — divorced from reason, nuance, logic — when deciding whom to vote for.

In the past, Imran Khan has been roughed up by the goons of the Islami Jamiat Talaba in Punjab University but we have not heard such vehement condemnation for them, either because of political expediency or because of the fact that the PTI was afraid of a repeat performance. Whatever the reason is, no one is calling out the real bullies who are getting away with all kinds of transgressions.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2012.

Comments on Tazeen’s article in Express Tribune.

alifbaypay:

I think it is writer who had a quick look at the tweets and proceeded to write an article (she has done something similar in a blog post of her’s where she had not properly researched the subject being discussed).
Jemima was not commenting on the Najam Sethi’s programme (as the writer asserts) but on his tweet. Here is what happened:
A user on twitter called @qumarmc said this to Najam Sethi: Whatta Try To distort facts To say IK married a jew woman even her father wasn’t jew he Was catholic ..u better b careful
Najam Sethi replied to the above with this: @qumarmc Brit media described Jemima as a “jewish heiress”. Google her. But it doesn’t matter. Love transcends. Didn’t she convert to Islam?
It was on the above tweet of Najam Sethi that Jemima sent a number of tweets on the issue. Later she herself clarified that she wan’t commenting on her programme but on the tweet as can be seen below:
@najamsethi The point is not what you said on the programme- It’s your tweets I object to and your relentless, hate campaign over 15 yrs
Tazeen Javed used to boast of her ‘faraghat’ in her Twitter/Blog bio some time back. Seems that she is only faarigh enough to jump to conclusions and write a quick article; not quite interested in writing in checking the facts first.

Neutral:

Imran Khan in his recent speeches and interviews that I’ve seen has criticised Fazul Rehman in the most ferocious manner, so how could the writer imply that Imran Khan is afraid of the real bullies. Perhaps, the writer has some sympathy for Najam Sethi for whatever and is using this forum to fool us. Nejam Sethi is on the payroll of secret agencies.

Phantom:

Clearly Tazeen is a member of the flatterers club (Najam Sethi fan club) along with Mehmal, Ejaz Haider, Malik Siraj Akbar, Raza Rumi, Beena Sarwar and some others.

Abu Bakr:

Did he or did he not say Imran married a Jewish woman? Isn’t that false? Isn’t there anti-antisemitism in our society? Why play the tapes and reiterate these arguments at all if you are concerned? Seems like the point of your piece is to call everyone who thought was Sethi did was wrong, completely stupid and ignorant.
The problem is not what Najam Sethi thinks is right or wrong or who he is defending. The problem is that he believes Jemimah Khan is/was Jewish, which is not true, and in a sick way gives the Molana’s argument undue substance. In my opinion this shouldn’t even involve Imran. Najam Sethi said Jemimah Khan was Jewish, she said he was wrong.

Rafay:

Sethi? credibility? wow….never thought they could be used in the same sentence

Ahsan Mlk:

Watch here:

He does not say that Maulana Fazlur Rehman thinks like this. He used the words himself. He WAS NOT defending IK. We do not need anyone to defend Imran Khan or anyone else. Only the truth needs to be spoken.
So your whole article seems to be based on your own wrong perception. Do go through the clip again (and again if need be).

Raza Bashir:

This blogger needs to get her facts right. Jemima responded to Najam Sethi’s tweet and not his programme. Secondly Imran has repeatedly reminded his workers and fans about the Jamaat Islami attack on him. He even wrote about it in his new book. Thirdly passing derogatory remarks on Jemima reflect her bias rather then provide an actual description about the incident and persons she is writing about in a supposedly fair manner. She needs to do her homework next time.

Syed Awais:

At the risk of sounding another bully to which the learned writer referred to above, I disagree with the notion that Sethi Saab was defending Imran Khan because he simply wasn’t. In fact he explained the Jewish lobby allegation made by Fazl-ur-Rahman and in the process quite clearly and WRONGLY labeled Jemima Khan a Jew when she isn’t one.
So yes there wasn’t anything anti-Semitic about what Sethi Sb said but it was factually incorrect to call Mr. Khan’s ex-wife a Jew and purely from the journalistic point of views warrants an explanation. I know many of my liberal friends here would say that calling someone a Jew shouldn’t be a big deal (and I completely agree with them) but in a society which is as myopic and narrow-minded such as ours and where religious bias is at an all-time high, it is indeed an issue that should be tread with caution. After all, Fazl-ur-Rahman while making such an accusation is fully aware of the psyche of the bigoted constituency which gives precedence to someone’s religion over his/her character.

Jamshed:

Well you Missed the point I dont think jemima really watch najam sethi’s show … she replied to the tweet of najam sethi where he said “@qumarmc Brit media described Jemima as a “jewish heiress”. Google her. But it doesn’t matter. Love transcends. Didn’t she convert to Islam?
”
that when it all started ..

Usman Khan

What is wrong with checking the facts? Another ‘writer’, same story. The fact that the author wrote an opinion piece to clarify the exchange of words between Jemima Khan and Najam Sethi but did not bother to do any research into what really transpired speaks volumes about the author herself. She then goes on to make sweeping statements about Jemima such as ‘Jemima…heard the words “Imran Khan, Jewish lobby, conspiracy”…jumped to the conclusion…’ and ‘she was never considered bright..’

http://tribune.com.pk/story/334538/calling-out-the-real-bullies/

—————————–

Further comments:

Phantom:

Tazeen’s heart very dishonestly hid the fact that she had previously attacked Jemima Khan by alleging her Twitter account to be a fake. When Jemima put a part of her passport picture, then she remained adamant instead of apologizing. Then what can you expect from someone (Tazeen) who celebrates that Mohammed Hanif (another urban fakester) has left a comment on her blog?

Yasir Hussain Sheikh @yasirsheikh
@tazeen so today’s was personal attack. you had a fight in the past with @Jemima_Khan http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/517746.aspx #low

Jemima Khan @Jemima_Khan
@yasirsheikh @tazeen she couldn’t report my timeline- I blocked her ages ago as she was weird, angry stalker.

Press Trust Of India
Islamabad, March 11, 2010

Jemima posts passport details on Twitter

Jemima Khan, the former wife of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, put out her passports details on Twitter recently in a desperate bid to prove that she is not a fake! Jemima, currently working on a book on Pakistan and quite active on Twitter, got irked when two Pakistani women tweeted about her being an imposter.
She surprised the two women by replying to their tweets, and when they pondered about her genuineness, she scanned her passport and put it up on Twitter.

“In order to prove that she is the real McCoy she (Jemima) scanned her passport with all the details and put it up on Twitter! I mean I know she is a blonde and not particularly bright (she married Imran Khan after all) but who puts up their passport on a Twitter account which is public?” noted blogger Tazeen Javed wrote on her blog.

Javed was among those who had questioned whether Jemima was a fake.

“As if that was not enough drama, some desi men jumped in acting like knights in shining armour, advising Jemima to remove her passport details. She then put up another photo of her passport – minus the details,” wrote Javed, who was making fun of Jemima along with friends.

The tweets that followed at Jemima’s expense made her angry and she decided to call Javed “twalker” (that’s twitter stalker) and “tweak” (twitter freak).

Yet Javed had the last word. “If only Ms Goldsmith had actually spent some time in college in her younger days instead of playing house with an aging Lothario, she would have known that tweak is actually a proper word in English language,” she wrote.

One of the fondest memories from my childhood is my ever craving for Shezan mango juice; bottled juices, later tetrapaks, were abundantly bought by my father and consumed by all family members on a regular basis.

When I was in grade 9, one day a class mate told me that Shezan was a Qadiani company (i.e., a company owned by Ahmadi Muslims, considered infidel or non-Muslims by some extremely sectarian sections of Pakistani society), therefore, we must not buy Shezan food products. When I informed my father about this “news”, he laughed and said that we could disagree with Ahmadis’ sect but we had no right to treat them as less Muslim or less Pakistani. He taught me that it was a part of Islamic religion to treat people of all faiths and sects with equality and respect and that it was our duty as a Pakistani to treat all Pakistani citizens as if they were our brothers and sisters. My father not only kept buying Shezan juices but he also started buying other Shezan products (pickles, squashes, jams, chutneys etc) to express his support for a Pakistani company producing finest quality products.

My father’s non-sectarian, pro-humanity teachings remain an eternal part of my approach to religion and citizenship.

Therefore, I felt very much upset when I learnt that on 10 February 2012, a lawyers association in Lahore, influenced by pro-Jamaat-e-Islami, PML-N and other sectarian lawyers, has decided to boycott Shezan food products, including Shezan juices, in the court premises.

Here is the news item:

The Lahore Bar Association (LBA) has banned Shezan drinks from subordinate court complexes and vowed tough action against those found buying or selling Qadiani-owned products on court premises. The decision was reached on Thursday at the LBA’s bar room in the LDA plaza following a motion by Advocate Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, president of Khatme Nabuwat Lawyers Forum (KNLF). LBA president Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali told The Express Tribune said that more than 100 lawyers unanimously voted for the ban on Shezan drinks for being the product of Ahmadis. The house also vowed to ban other products at a later stage. Zulfiqar said that the association had launched a campaign to ensure a complete ban on Shezan drinks in subordinate court canteens etc. He said that he had constituted a team to enforce this decision. He added that strict action would be taken against canteen owners found selling Shezan drinks in subordinate courts. KNLF President Advocate Choudhary said the LBA president had directed LBA Vice President Rana Javed Bashir Khan to coordinate enforcement of the ban in sessions courts, district courts, banking court, special court, Aiwan-i-Adl, in Model Town and Cantonment courts.(Source)

On behalf of all pro-human rights, pro-equality Pakistani citizens, I condemn this discriminatory and illegal decision by the Lahore Bar Association. I will not be surprised if I came to know that many of those lawyers who took this criminal decision against Shezan were also a part of the crowd showering rose-petals at Mumtaz Qadri, the unashamed killer of Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer.

The LBA’s illegal decision would not only hurt a law abiding, Pakistani food company which makes quality food products at affordable prices but will also hurt Ahmadi lawyers and other Ahmadis in general who may feel further ostracized and othered in an extremely intolerant society.

Clearly, the LBA resolution is not only condemnable but also against the law. If some lawyers did not like the product they could stop using it but not enforce bans based on religious hatred and discrimination.

This action takes discrimination against the Ahmadi community to new heights. We can only wonder if the instigators of this plot imagine that sipping the ‘offensive’ drink will in some way contaminate their minds, or alter beliefs. Everyone, after all, has the right to follow the religious philosophy they adhere to — and no drink can alter this. The real aim, of course, is to attempt to hurt the economic interests of the Ahmadis — who have through the decades been subjected to violence in all kinds of different forums, whether it is through physical acts such as murder or other means intended to prevent them from occupying a place as equal citizens in society. The Shezan Company has also been targeted before, during mob violence and through other such means.

The LBA president has said that around 100 lawyers voted in favour of the decision. It is frightening that a so-called ‘educated community’ of professionals could take a decision such as this. The evil of ignorance has obviously sunk deep within our society, leaving scars everywhere. The knives which inflict these wounds are carried by groups dedicated to spreading intolerance and campaigning against the minorities. The Ahmadis, of course, draw the special wrath of the forces committed to acting against them. When professionals such as lawyers, who should know more about justice than most, join hands with them, we can only wonder about the future of our country and ask what grim abyss we are headed for. The direction we have set out in does not augur well for the coming years — with this move also certain to hurt Ahmadi lawyers who practice at lower courts. (Express Tribune)

It is my appeal to Pakistanis of all faiths, ethnicities and sects to condemn LBA’s illegal boycott of Shezan, and start supporting Shezan by buying and consuming Shezan products on a regular basis, not as a favour to Shezan or Ahmadis, but as a favour to Pakistan, Islam and humanity.

Three Murderers

On 10 January 2012, an Atif Aslam musical concert at the Al Hamra Arts Council, Lahore (organized by Mian Amer Mehnood’s Punjab Group of Colleges) turned into a tragedy when three girls got killed while five were critically injured in a stampede.

It is possible to identify three parties responsible for the tragic death of the innocent girls:

(1) Mian Amer Mehmood, CEO of Punjab Group of Colleges. The Punjab Group administration is notorious for collecting large sums of money from students converting academic institutions into ruthlessly commercial businesses. They sold more than 8000 tickets for the Atif Aslam concert whereas there were only 4000 places in the venue (Al-Hamra Cultural Complex);

(2) Atif Aslam and other members of his band; they contributed to the tragic death by: (a) agreeing to perform in an overcrowded hall; they were paid Rs500,000 in addition to the concert fee to keep their mouth shut, (b) enabling a stampede by providing autographs to girls in an already overcrowded hall, and (c) lack of public safety considerations in their extremely expensive concerts; and

(3) Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Lahore Arts Council including the Al-Hamra Cultural Complex.

All of the aforementioned parties had clear commercial stakes in the concert in question; their greed and mismanagement resulted into death of three innocent girls.

This is not a case of homicide, this is a case of cold-blooded murder; the police must arrest Mian Amir Mahmood, Atif Aslam and Atta-ul-Haq Qasmi and start criminal proceedings rejecting all forms of political or media pressure.

According to news reports, the Atif Aslam concert was held on 10 Jan 2012 at Lahore’s Al Hamra Cultural Complex. When the girls tried to exit the venue after the event, there was a stampede resulting in three young girls stumbling and getting crushed. According to reports, the deceased girls were students aged between 17-22. They were Maheen Naseem, 17, Sara Nawaz, 22 and Nimra, 16. There were reportedly between 6000 and 7000 girls at the concert, much beyond the venue’s capacity.

Here is a video report of how a family mourns the loss of their loved one!

Talking to The Express Tribune, Maheen’s father Naseem Abbas blamed the organiser, Punjab Group of Colleges’ administration for mismanagement. “Why they allowed more students in the complex when there was not enough space,” he asked. An eyewitness Bismah said that a lack of security contributed to the tragic incident. She added that the stampede started when a larger door was opened to let attendees out. Extra people at the venue had caused a rush when the concert ended. (Source)

It is, however, a fact all of the three accused parties are highly influential.

1. Mian Amer is the owner and CEO of Dunya News TV Network (employing people such as Mubashir Lucman, Nasim Zehra, Meher Bokhari, Rauf Klasra etc), owner and chairman of the Punjab Group of Colleges (University of Central Punjab) and a former nazim (administrator) of Lahore City District Government. He started his political life as an activist of Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing (Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba) at the Punjab University and was known as a tiny-terror at the PU because of his habit of brandishing firearms in the university premises along with other IJT militants. After having done his MBA from the Punjab University, he launched the Punjab Group of Colleges in 1985 that culminated into the University of Central Punjab. He joined the PML-Q (a pro0army political party) and was considered very close to the military dictator General Musharraf and the Punjab CM Pervez Elahi. Currently he is known to be about to join the new pro-army party, i.e., Imran Khan’s PTI.

2. Atif Aslam, a mediocre singer by all standards, who has been able to hoarde much more wealth and fame than probably what he deserved, thanks to increasing Western-copycatism and declining indigenous culture in Pakistan. He is rumoured to have bribed the Punjab Police to remove his name from the FIR.

3. Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi is a paid propagandist of the PML-N. He was elevated to the position of Ambassador of Pakistan in Norway and Thailand during Nawaz Sharif’s reign from 1997 to 1999. Currently he is a chairman of the Lahore Arts Council (including Al Hamra).

On 7 February 2012, the police finally registered a murder case against Mian Ahmer Mehmood. We welcome this step, justice must be visibly and transparently served in this case. A similar FIR should be filed against other two culprits, Atif Aslam and Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi.

All three of the accused, Mian Amer, Atif Aslam and Qasmi must be arrested and awarded exemplary punishments so that such tragedies do not recur in the future.

Copy of the murder case FIR (police report) against Mian Aamir

Gulberg Police registered a case of murder against Mian Amer Mehmood, the chief executive of Dunya News and chairman of the Punjab Group of Colleges, and 63 other officials of the Punjab Group of Colleges late on Wednesday night. The case was registered on the complaint of Muhammad Nawaz Warraich, a resident of Canal View, against Mian Amer, Dr Sohail Afzal, Tahir Aagha, Major (r) Saleem and 60 other unidentified people. Warraich claimed in his complaint that his two daughters Farah Nawaz and Zainab Nawaz were students of the Punjab Group of Colleges and on January 9, he dropped them both off to attend a cultural show organised by the college administration where both sustained serious injuries along with dozens of other girls in a stampede. He said Farah later died at Services Hospital while Zainab was discharged after treatment. He said in his complaint that the people he had named were responsible for the death of his daughter, so police registered a case against them.

However, as expected, the Dunya News TV and its paid employees (journalists, anchors) have started making false hue and cry, politicizing a purely criminal case against their CEO. While Dunya TV anchors and other paid propagandists of Mian Amer Mehmood want to politicize the case, by presenting it as a conspiracy against free media, the police and the judiciary as well as the Punjab government must not bow down to the blackmailing tactics of Mian Amer Mehmood. He, along with all other accused, must be arrested and justice must be seen to be served.

Ironically, the champion of justice and rule of law, Imran Khan too has decided to support and protect the killer by politicizing the murder case. This is what Imran Khan wrote in a Twitter message on 10 Feb:

ImranKhanPTI Imran Khan
All pls forward message: PML-N resorted to death threats to owner and anchors of Dunya TV. Let world know true nature of these people
9 Feb 2012

In the meanwhile, Dunya TV is busy in the baseless propaganda misleading other journalists and media organizations:

Dunya News Bureau Chief Salman Ghani told reporters that the case was registered by the police on the instructions of the Punjab government in order to stop Dunya News from telling the truth about it and exposing its misdeeds, especially the negligence of the Punjab government in the spurious drugs scandal.

Finally, Dunay TV and Mian Amer were successful in their dirty pressure tactics, the Punjab government’s law minster announced that the murder case against Mian Amer was being suspended:

In a late night development, the Punjab government directed Punjab Police to suspend the first information report (FIR) against Mian Amer and the others. Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters that the case registered against Mian Amer and others was illegal as police could not register two cases of one incident. He said the home secretary had conducted an enquiry earlier in which he held former Model Town Division superintendent of police (SP) Malik Awais responsible for the incident in which the girl lost her life. On the recommendation of the home secretary, he said, the Punjab government had transferred and suspended Awais, who later got the case registered against Mian Amer and others. He said the Punjab government had ordered Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Maj Mubashar Ullah to conduct an enquiry into the negligence of police in this regard. Mian Amer later on called the presidents of all unions of journalists and thanked them for their cooperation.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/02/police-register-murder-case-against-mian-amer-63-others/

We note with concern that Pakistan’s media as well as bloggers are generally silent on this episode. Except BBC Urdu and Pakistan Today, the news of the murder case against Mian Amer was blacked out by all Pakistani newspapers and channels. Almost all human rights organizations and activists too are silent on this case because of blackmailing tactics of Dunya TV and also because many of them are personal friends of Dunya TV anchors Nasim Zehra, Mubashir Lucman etc. Pakistan Blogzine refuses to be a part of this criminal silence!

Ironically, a section of the media had downplayed the entire incident which left the students in utter awe. The section of media includes some newspapers and TV channels, either owned by the same group of colleges or in commercial relations with each other. Sultan Malik a student of PCC said, “The media had created its hegemony and trying to silence those speaking against their commercial interests; it’s really sad.” (Source: Pakistan Today

Pictures

A woman escort her injured daughter to the Services Hospital following a stampede at a concert at the Alhamra Cultural Comlpex on Monday night. (Photo: Pakistan Today)

Comments (various sources)

Alvi:

Just bcause CEO of Punjab Colleges has a TV channel he should get away with homicide. These were three young girls who died because of criminal negligence of a school owned by this man who gained prominence under Mush and has become billionaire. Please remember this paper claims to be legacy of a prominent journalist, a man who stood up for principles.

Is the media going to behave like a mafia of the lawyers?. Mian Amir must be tried for death of these 3 innocent young girls. This blackmail by this channel must not be allowed.

Tariq:

Mian Amir a beneficiary of a dictator whose anchor ML was a minister in that cabinet should not be allowed to get away with blackmail and abuse and evade prosecution for Culpable Homicide of 3 innocent teenagers who died in a stampede while attending an overcrowded musical concert arranged by a school owned by him at a hall with inadequate capacity and emergency exits for an emergency evacuation. Media should behave with responsibility instead of grouping together for a man like Mian Amir who has used his channel to blackmail others and help him get away with criminal irregularities and violations of law.

sumbal:

Mian amir was city nazim of Musharf now he is working for pti .dunya channel is mafia .our media is going to destroy our country.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/02/police-register-murder-case-against-mian-amer-63-others/

…..

Zainab Iqtidar
Jan 10, 2012

One of those “five critically injured students” is my sister and they could not go any more beyond misrepresentation as they already have. They Did Not transfer her to the hospital, if it wasnt for some random student there who saw my sister being stampeded over and dragged her aside, she would have died. The girl called us through my sister’s cell phone and then when we tried to get to the place to pick her up, they wouldnt even let us anywhere near the area. The entrances were closed and the police was neither helping the students themselves, nor letting anyone else get inside to do it. We finally made contact with someone on the inside of Gaddafi stadium. They picked up my sister, while she was unconcious, covered in blood and had been run over by hundreds of girls. And when I say “hundreds” I do Not exaggerate. We found our own way to Services hospital and still were unaware of what had actually transpired. There, a media personnel informed us of the event. Just right now, as my sister is still in the hospital, recieving Oxygen and undergoing X rays and Ultrasounds, we have found out that it was the College Guards that started the stampede by raising their sticks on the girls that were running after Atif Aslam and started the entire panick. There was NO Bomb threat. I repeat. There was NO Bomb Threat. That is the fancy cover up created by “The Private College’s” media smartasses. If Punjab College Management feel that they can keep this under the wraps, then they are sorely mistaken, I went thier too, a few years ago, and I have great respect for the education system. However, this is intolerable! They are responsible for the death of three innocent students. They are responsoble for the physical and pshycological damage caused to multiple other students. They will be held accountable. If the media in our country really is as free as it claims to be: you might want to print the truth.

Rana Umair
Jan 10, 2012 – 6:30AM

@ zainab iqtidar
Sorry about your sister. Your comment is full of disappointment and anger as it should be. Dont know if you want to even think about this right now but the punjab group of colleges actually owns a lot of our media. You must have seen ads on private news channels and just before hourly news sessions that show that they actually sponsor and fund a lot of media channels. That said, it still doesnt mean that no action will be taken. Your sister is lucky that she was rescued and i pray for her health. Why was she taken to services hospital when there is a hospital right next to gaddafi stadium called hameed lateef hospital? Was it because of the pressure of circumstances at that time or because of some other reason?

Giri
Jan 10, 2012 – 7:26AM

The organisers haven’t learned from what happened in India few days back in Delhi. They should have anticipated this and not just go for collections. They have to arrested and thrown in jail.

Usman
Jan 10, 2012 – 9:27AM

I am shocked to read this news. This is horrifying to imagine how 3 poor little girls were killed and 10 others injured. The administration of Punjab College must be held responsible. There was no bomb threat, they are lying through the media they own.
They brag of bringing Atif Aslam to their concerts, yet could not control any untoward situation. And let more and more people come in and try to create a ‘Mahol’ for the bloody singers. They don’t care about their students, all they care about is to control the people like animals with their uncompetitive guards.
At anytime the faculty of Punjab College who have no expertise to control such situations would order to close the doors without analyzing the situation of the crowd.
Years back we faced the same situation. And i remember if i didn’t have a support of my friend i would have died in the hands of the mad crowd trying to get in to watch Atif Aslam.

Zaki Khalid
Jan 10, 2012 – 10:41AM

It is more digusting to note that Mian Aamer Mehmood (Punjab Group of Colleges Director) also owns Dunya News and has a major stake in the Lahore-based C42 channel. Both channels did not air this news the whole night, not for a second. Shameful!

Fuad
Jan 10, 2012 – 12:42PM

Another case of negligence by an ignorant school administration. Unfortunately, like the Kalar Kahar Bus incident, where the owner of the school was taken into custody, here the mighty influential Mian Amer will go unpunished, rather untouched. Our sympathies are with the parents of the deceased girls, as our heads hang in shame for this traversity of justice.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/319062/starstruck-3-die-5-injured-in-stampede-at-atif-aslam-concert/

….

Alia Haider

The security guards are not responsible for this..Since i had been the part of the same institute and such stupid events had been happening all the way..Guards do what they are asked to.Catch the admin and parents also should think once before sending their childern to such places.

Zainab Iqtidar
My sister was one of the five critically injured students. The Media is not highlighting the extent of damage done to the students. The girl on the next bed to hers had a fractured Spinal Cord! Two had fractured legs and their faces were beyong recognition. My sister is on oxygen right now. They need to be held responsible! The cant just shrug this under the rug. The guards baton charged the girls and they failed to open the gates. They opened them when a huge pressure had already built up by the panicked girls, scared of the guards. Students flooded through the gates and those who fell got crushed.

Zeeshan ·

My sister was also there Thanks to Allah that she manage to safe her life but her friend she died and they both fell during stampede ….We all are here in Saudi Arabia we just send our sister in good hands for study …but just imagine this is the good hands ..after two days nobody will remember about this accident….what about the media this is our independent media….These girls wese innocent…my sister stil in shock her mom is weaping and crying since last night….just imagine the feelings of those whs lost their daughters ……plz Pakistan we are still watiing for only one thing which can benefit your people…we are being abused by other societies because we are responsible

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/01/concert-stampede-fir-registered-against-college-administration/

……

From Twitter:

ZainabFatimaa Zainab Fatima
Father of Farah lodged FIR against Mian Amir.She ws killed in stampede at Atif concert.they politicized this issue2avoid arrest #DuniyaGardi

Mian Amir was named in an FIR by the father of a girl who died in the stampede. That’s why the propaganda.

According to a source in #PTI, Mian Amir is expected to drink Tabdeeli Cola soon. Explains why Imran Khan and his fans are defending him.

#PTI siding with Dunya TV shouldn’t be a surprise. Musharraf ki team kay loag, Musharraf kay dost Mian Amir kay saath hi rahain gay hamesha.

ZainabFatimaa Zainab Fatima
#duniyatv ws established just2praise Ql league during Mush era by Mian Amir,who ws mayor of LHR.but Alas!Q got Kicked out #Duniyagardi

FawadKhalid Fawad Khalid
how many hours of tranmission you done on saleem shahzad murder with “bol k lab azad hae tere’ song in background? #DuniyaGardi

Faiza_PK Faiza
Educational Entrepreneur Mian Amir Mahmood & @MubasherLucman don’t know what Transparant Journalism is. Shame on #DunyaTV for #DuniyaGardi

a_w123 Abdul Wahab
@MubasherLucman If u want FIR at Shebaz for building collapse then why u cry if Mian Amir is held culprit for girls killed in his college

Tariq_Vaid Tariq Vaid
According to a source in #PTI, Mian Amir is expected to drink Tabdeeli Cola soon. Explains why IK & his fans r defending him. | #DuniyaGardi

zainkhan_ Zain Khan
@Umair_Tarar an FIR was launched against mian amir & duniya news was being given threats. Though later yest night the fir was taken back

akchishti akchishti
Duniya and Mian Amir Mehmood along with Mubisher Lucman are serial blackmailers. They are reacting to a FIR.

tazeen T a z e e n
What is more ironic? Shahbaz Shareef quoting Habib Jalib or Dunya playing Faiz’s Bol ke Lab azad hain for Mian Amir?

3 students died in Lahore due to Mian Amir, while Geo New is misleading viewers by attributing it to bomb scare

After nearly six and a half decades of annexation and prolonged journey of injustice, of discrimination, death and hopelessness, Today Baloch voice was heard in the fortress of United States, in a congressional hearing convened by the congress republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, focusing Balochistan, which was attended and rejoiced by the Baloch diaspora and pro-Balochistan activists. The Committee’s unprecedented hearing on Balochistan is the witness of of ongoing uncared-for Balochistan crisis. Rohrabacher has previously stated in one of his articles “Perhaps we should even consider support for a Balochistan carved out of Pakistan to diminish radical power there (in Pakistan)” where as the US house committee hearing has definately annoyed Pakistan’s government considering it an internal matter, and some years ago Pakistan government had refused to allow the US to open a consulate in Balochistan.

The hearing held in Rayburn House Office Building February 8, 2012 in Washington DC USA, chaired by Dana Rohrabacher. Key witnesses to speak in the hearing were C. Christine Fair (Ph.D. Assistant Professor Georgetown University), Mr. Ralph Peters (Military Analyst and Author), Mr. T. Kumar Director (International Advocacy Amnesty International USA), M. Hossein Bor (Ph.D. Counsel Entwistle & Cappucci, LLP), Mr. Ali Dayan Hasan (Pakistan Director, Asia Division Human Rights Watch)

Full scale Baloch genocide far exceeding to what Selig. S. Harrison said about a slow motion genocide two years ago, and the indigenous people’s deprivation of right to self-determination were the most significant points of discussion which were also agreed upon by all the key witnesses in the hearing. There is substantial evidence the fact that the people of Balochistan are deprived of their right to self-determination, they are being tortured forefully abducted and dumped in remote areas, over the past years there has been a gruesome increase in these human rights abuses, also highlighted by various human rights organizations (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Asian Human Rights Commission)

Ironically out of all the witnesses Mr M. Hossein Bor was the only Baloch representative present in the hearing reflecting the true picture of the Balochistan Crisis. Mr Hossein highlighted the forceful annexation of the Balochistan province calling it an occupied territory, with his astute observation Mr Hossein reported the actual number of extra-judicial killings and fored abductions by the state sponsored institutions, he said “Extra-judical killings include 23 bullet-riddled bodies found in the first month of this year (2012), from 2001 till date around 4000 baloch have been disappeared” to which Chairman Rohrabachr expressed astonishment, in 5 minutes allowed by the chairman Mr Hossein discussed a brief but and articulated history of Balochistan highlighting the historic Durand line and Goldsmith line of 18th century, he also mentioned the Baloch insurgencies and uprisings of 1948, 1958, 1973, & 2005 till date, these insurgencies have been dealt with force and brutal military operations in which thousands of Baloch were killed. In the recent past, in 2011 alone atleast 300 bullet riddled bodies (on an average one each-day) were found, Mr Hossein also argued that the Humanright abuses were the main impediment in the process of dialogue in the province.

Christine Fair, a fairly controversial representative and an intense supporter of Pakistan with anti-India stance was also amongst the speakers. Just a week before the hearing she tweeted that “The ethnic Baloch are a minority in Balochistan” she also accused Dr Ralph peters a fellow witness of being a “nut”. Dr Ralph Peters is also known as the “Map re-drawing man” who In a June 2006 article titled “Blood borders: How a better Middle East would look“, conducted a thought experiment by changing the borders in the Middle East, wherein Balochistan was shown as an independant territory covering Baloch population of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, which are the historic borders of greater Balochistan.
Christince Fair in her five mintues talk voiced against extra-judicial executions and various human rights abuses, she also refuted her tweet regarding her question of Baloch majority in the province saying “Baloch are the largest ethnic group in the province” She also highlighted the target killings of Shia muslims in the province by extremist millitant groups, there is enough evidence of millitant groups (Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sahaba) backed by Pakistan millitary and Intelligence agencies perpetrating against the ethnich shia minority in Balochistan.

The only representative from Pakistan Mr Ali Dayan hassan who is also the Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch, was also provided an opportunity to speak at the US house committe hearing, he clearly stated that he being HRW representative takes no position on the Independance of Balochistan, he further added that there is not just one but multiple actors including state and non-state actors perpetrating in Balochistan involved in human rights abuses, he also said “At-least 40% of the population of Balochistan are non-Baloch” .
It is widely known that Baloch because of their small population are a minority in Pakistan, being 4% but claiming nearly half of the country’s geographic land. In Balochistan, the ethnic Baloch are atleast 75% of the total population, the southern part being a Pashtun majority, a part of British Balochistan to which Balochistan and the ethnic-Baloch historically does not have any claim, other minority ethnic groups based in Balochistan include Pashtuns, Hazaras, Urdu-speaking, Punjabi, and Sindhis. The province is sub-divided in 30 districts out of which only 9 disctricts (Ziarat, Zhob, Pashin, Quetta, Chaman, Mosakhel, Qila abdulah & Qila saifullah, Loralai) are of Pashtun majority and the remaining 21 being Baloch populated areas.
Mr Dayan’s testimony submitted to the US house committee chairman also stated ” Militancy in Balochistan has been fueled by ethnic Baloch anger over the Pakistani government’s efforts to harness local mineral and fossil fuel resources, maintain large numbers of troops in the province, and construct the Gwadar deep-sea port at the mouth of the Persian Gulf with non-Baloch workers”. If we go back half a decade we actually find out that the current insurgency was never against ” government’s efforts to harness local mineral, or against construction of the Gawadar-port”, the region is currently going through its fifth insurgency, which was ignited after the brutal assassination of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in 2006 by General Musharraf in his dictatorial regime who before the brutal assassination openly said ” “We (millitary) will hit them (Baloch) in such a way they wouldn’t even know what hit them” The aftermath of General sahab’s millitary operation executing Nawab Bugti and state’s conolization policies which can be seen without manifestation are reasons that transformed a rights movement into a freedom movement, harnessing the resources of Balochistan, maintaining large number of troops and construction of Gawadar port are secondary issues.

Before the hearing was aired live, Pakistani embassy in Washington held that it has taken strong notice of the scheduled meeting and Pakistani officials claimed that some foreign hands are involved in fanning the violence in the province along the Afghan border. Instead of inventing another conspiracy theory out of the legitimate hearing, Pakistan government and officials should rather reconsider their colonial policies lodged against the Baloch, If Balochistan had any hopes from the state, ‘independant’ judiciary, or media, this issue would not have been picked up by the Republicans who may aswell regain power in forthcomming elections. The ordinary people of Balochistan have been tolerant for six prolonged decades, witnessing horrific executions, endless stories of deception, and shallow promises, but this day in history will be marked as a new begining of diplomacy voicing the Baloch rights, new era of  endurance and expectations. The Baloch might have to pay a high price for being heard but will hope that justice will be ‘served’ than ‘denied’

[Recording] US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations,Baluchistan

Related post: Tazeen Javed supports Najam Sethi: A racist defending another racist

Najam Sethi is known for making racist remarks during his weak, candid moments. A few weeks ago he was caught unguarded on Twitter when he frankly stereotyped the Taliban militants as representing the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Today (8 February 2012) he was seen using racist, antisemitic remarks against Jemima Khan (Imran Khan’s ex-wife) by falsely and dishonestly alluding to her Jewish background.

Antisemitism is described as a suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. In the following Tweet (dated 8 Feb 2012), Sethi clearly refers to Jemima Khan’s Jewish heritage while in full knowledge of the troublesome implications of such allegation in conservative, sectarian sections of Pakistani society.

najamsethi Najam Sethi
@qumarmc Brit media described Jemima as a “jewish heiress”. Google her. But it doesn’t matter. Love transcends. Didn’t she convert to Islam?

(Not that it matters but it’s a fact that the Jewish religion goes through the mother – Jemima’s father’s mother was a French Catholic and her own mother is Protestant.)

Only a day ago, on 7 Feb 2012, Najam Sethi tried to ignite same antisemitism card against Imran Khan through his talkshow on Geo TV (Aapas Ki Baat) when he gave coverage to Mullah Fazlur-Rehman’s hate speech against Jews to paint Imran Khan as a Jewish lobby stooge. Watch from the 2:30 min mark:

Whether Sethi wants to create trouble for Imran Khan in a subtle manner is anybody’s guess. Apparently, Pakistan’s military establishment is currently investing in the Difa-e-Pakistan Council, an alliance of banned militant organizations (Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and Jamaat-ud-Dawa) and retired army generals, in order to create a noisy, forceful right-wing pressure group in Pakistan. Any allusion to Imran Khan’s support by an imaginary Jewish lobby might dissuade the right-wing supporters from his political party (PTI) who might switch their support to the Difa-e-Pakistan Council. Given Najam Sethi’s long association with Pakistan’s military establishment, this could be a deliberate attempt to restarting a vicious propaganda against Imran Khan.

Even if the above conjecture is not true, one thing is abundantly clear, i.e, Najam Seth’s racist attitude, which must be condemned without any apologist excuses or argumentations.

Here is a transcript of how Jemima Khan responded to Sethi’s racist tweet:

Jemima_Khan Jemima Khan
@KAMRAN_FAR00Q @najamsethi My mother is a Protestant

Jemima_Khan Jemima Khan
In any case, pathetic & irresponsible that you should use your position to play the race/ religion card & stir up the fanatics @najamsethi

Jemima_Khan Jemima Khan
FYI @najamsethi Not that it should matter but the Jewish religion goes thro the mother- My father’s mother was a French Catholic

Jemima_Khan Jemima Khan
You call yourself a journalist @najamsethi ? Then check your facts

Jemima_Khan Jemima Khan
@najamsethi You have always been a critic of IK’s (except when you and your wife wanted an invitation to dinner with Princess Diana OBVS)

Jemima_Khan Jemima Khan
@najamsethi what rubbish. Sounds like you’re trying to make trouble