Senators accuse govt of derailing war on terror
Sunday, March 08, 2009
By Mumtaz Alvi
.......................MQM’s Abbas Kumaili painted a grim picture of security with reference to Dera Ismail Khan, Quetta and elsewhere. “Daily people are being mercilessly massacred and even funerals are being ambushed,” he lamented. “But the government is totally unmoved to these bloody acts,” he alleged.
He questioned why governor’s rule was not being imposed in the NWFP and Balochistan, where innocent people were being targeted. “After people are killed and maimed in suicide attacks, they are then fired at and the police and administration remain totally indifferent to the gory crimes,” Kumaili said.
The lawmaker from Karachi asked the government officials and legislators to visit PIMS or Polyclinic, where victims of the DIK and Dera Ghazi Khan blasts were admitted for treatment to learn about the horrifying account of the recent suicide attack. “Is not DIK part of Pakistan?” he wondered.
“The police have been seen firing at those who survived the suicide attacks. They say, an MPA of a banned outfit has got recruited favourites in police who are doing this heinous act,” the senator said. Kumaili lamented that people were being assaulted freely in mosques, hospitals and even at Muharram processions. He sought an inquiry into police raids at houses of those who had been wounded in the recent suicide attack in Dera Ghazi Khan.
“Valuables, including ornaments, were taken away by the police,” he said.There is no sign of government writ in the NWFP and Balochistan, but the Punjab is chosen for governor’s rule, he continued and said in 1971, linguistic hatred was spread and today sectarianism was being promoted.
He regretted that neither President Asif Ali Zardari nor Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had visited the bereaved families in DIK or Quetta, where people were being gunned down every day................
Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=20811
Showing posts with label sectarian terrorism in dera ismail khan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sectarian terrorism in dera ismail khan. Show all posts
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Bleeding Dera Ismail Khan: Who Will Heal It?
When the peace talks are underway in the Swat area, the rest of NWFP is as restive as it was. Two blasts were reported in Sirai Norang area of Laki Marwat and the blast in the Dera area is very much the reminder of the grim situation in the tribal belt and its adjacent areas.
Dera Ismail Khan is the target. At least 32 persons were killed and 85 others injured in a powerful suicide blast during funeral procession of Shia elder near Shobara hotel. The funeral procession accompanying the body of Shia elder, Sher Zaman killed yesterday by unknown gunmen, was moving towards the graveyard when it reached near Sobara hotel a powerful explosion took place.
After that it was mayhem. The whole of NWFP dripped in the gloom and doom. Peace efforts have been quashed in Dera Ismail Khan. Its the same hand which is creating unrest and chaos in the country just to destabilize the affairs. Hidden enemy is now trying to fan the flames of sectarian violence.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif and NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, should come out of their palaces and visit the restive areas to heal the wounds of surviving people.
Source: http://www.chowrangi.com/bleeding-dera-ismail-khan-who-will-heal-it.html
Dera Ismail Khan is the target. At least 32 persons were killed and 85 others injured in a powerful suicide blast during funeral procession of Shia elder near Shobara hotel. The funeral procession accompanying the body of Shia elder, Sher Zaman killed yesterday by unknown gunmen, was moving towards the graveyard when it reached near Sobara hotel a powerful explosion took place.
After that it was mayhem. The whole of NWFP dripped in the gloom and doom. Peace efforts have been quashed in Dera Ismail Khan. Its the same hand which is creating unrest and chaos in the country just to destabilize the affairs. Hidden enemy is now trying to fan the flames of sectarian violence.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif and NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, should come out of their palaces and visit the restive areas to heal the wounds of surviving people.
Source: http://www.chowrangi.com/bleeding-dera-ismail-khan-who-will-heal-it.html
Pakistan, Can You Hear Me?
Pakistan, Can You Hear Me?
By Rakesh Mani
The recent suicide attack in Dera Ismail Khan that targeted the funeral of a Shia Muslim cleric who was gunned down, Sher Zaman, was shocking enough. But what is even more shocking is the sheer passivity in the reaction of people in Pakistan to recent events in Dera Ismail Khan and Swat.
It is appalling to think that Pakistanis are ever-ready to take to the streets, shouting slogans and burning effigies, when Salman Rushdie writes something controversial or when offensive cartoons are published in Danish newspapers but are curiously silent when the funeral of a religious leader is bombed in sectarian violence. Or when Taliban forces capture Swat and start beheading people for religious insubordination.
Where is the conscience of a nation? Where are the protests and the million-man marches? Where are the voices that rally dormant citizens to action - on television, in the newspapers, on Facebook even?
If no one protests, it just sends a signal that this is OK. It is OK to bomb a Shia funeral, but it is not OK to write an irreverent story or draw cartoons that poke fun at religion. Where are people’s priorities? How much deeper into the abyss is Pakistan going to sink?
Islamic fundamentalism’s biggest draw is that it is a utopian alternative to the miserable realities of people’s lives. But everywhere that fundamentalists have come to power, their sheen has worn off. Think of Bangladesh, Turkey and Iran. People realize that mullahs can preach all day, but they can’t run a country. So if sectarianism, and militancy in the north-west areas, is Pakistan’s big problem then perhaps it is also Pakistan’s big solution.
Maybe the harsh Zia era was not enough. Maybe what Pakistan needs, finally, is for the Islamists to actually come to power, impose draconian edicts and provide the country with a final inoculation against excessive religiosity.
Maybe then, after suffering through medieval laws against adultery and blasphemy, ordinary Pakistanis will shed their passivity, agitate to separate the state from the tentacles of the mosque and loudly cry no to religious education in high schools, to religion lines on their passports and to rhetoric that urges them to subordinate their citizenship to their religious beliefs. Perhaps Pakistan needs a bitter pill that will forever taint this notion of the religious right being the ultimate defenders of flag and faith.
Because at the heart of Pakistan’s crisis is a national tendency to over-emphasize religion, whether in politics, or at home. Sure, religion can be a good thing. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. It will only help if Pakistan begins a massive religious re-discovery movement, its own vernacular version of Protestantism.
But must we go down that dangerous path? Is it really not possible for people to realize what is happening to what is left of their country? Atrocities like the bombing of funerals and the usurping of freedoms from the people of Swat provide opportunities for everyone to clearly see the many evils of excessive religious zeal and of outfits like the Taliban.
Pakistan is the global epicenter of Islamic fundamentalism because of a dysfunctional political system and its underlying difficulty of being born as an Islamic state. Even today, there are too many in Pakistan’s upper echelons – bureaucrats, politicians, power players, journalists and intellectuals – who are uncomfortable with the prospect of secularism, modernism, growth and an open society.
Pakistan’s elites are a paradox. They are largely secular and confident in their professional and social roles. In New York and London, they announce themselves as a part of today’s thriving, bustling modern world. Countless Pakistani men and women throng Wall Street’s biggest banks and Manhattan’s hottest nightclubs. But in Karachi they are more guarded and cautious, and readily cow down to orthodoxy. How they change and fit their modern lifestyles into parochial Pakistan is one of the greatest exercises in hypocrisy.
But as they continue to avert their eyes, Pakistani society is being overrun with cruel, medieval attitudes toward women, education, economic liberalization and modernity in general. Bringing change to Pakistan – reforming a political system and revolutionizing an entire culture – sounds like an impossible challenge. But all the mullahs in the world can’t stand up to the combined will of an agitating and determined citizenry.
There are positive signs coming from Pakistan, however. Yeh Hum Naheen – an NGO headed by producer and media consultant Waseem Mahmood – has put together a musical movement that stands up against terrorism and tells the world that the Pakistani people sing the songs of peace. They claim that more than 62 million people have put their name to the organization’s petition against terrorism, more than the number who voted in the last election in Pakistan. And as Barkha Dutt eloquently pointed out in a recent column, “Pakistan’s media understands that if it doesn’t speak up, their country’s existential crisis could spiral out of control.” No-one can deny the Pakistani media’s extraordinary bravery in light of the challenges they face.
But let more Pakistanis come out on the streets to protest against the Taliban, against violence and against the murder of their own people. And for peace and dignity and friendship with their neighbors. Let them pressure their state to take action and soon enough the world will unite around their courage and share in their battle.
But if they decide to stay at home and say nothing, they will be sanctioning evil itself.
Published in Outlook India, 24th February 2009
Source: http://www.chowk.com/articles/15482
By Rakesh Mani
The recent suicide attack in Dera Ismail Khan that targeted the funeral of a Shia Muslim cleric who was gunned down, Sher Zaman, was shocking enough. But what is even more shocking is the sheer passivity in the reaction of people in Pakistan to recent events in Dera Ismail Khan and Swat.
It is appalling to think that Pakistanis are ever-ready to take to the streets, shouting slogans and burning effigies, when Salman Rushdie writes something controversial or when offensive cartoons are published in Danish newspapers but are curiously silent when the funeral of a religious leader is bombed in sectarian violence. Or when Taliban forces capture Swat and start beheading people for religious insubordination.
Where is the conscience of a nation? Where are the protests and the million-man marches? Where are the voices that rally dormant citizens to action - on television, in the newspapers, on Facebook even?
If no one protests, it just sends a signal that this is OK. It is OK to bomb a Shia funeral, but it is not OK to write an irreverent story or draw cartoons that poke fun at religion. Where are people’s priorities? How much deeper into the abyss is Pakistan going to sink?
Islamic fundamentalism’s biggest draw is that it is a utopian alternative to the miserable realities of people’s lives. But everywhere that fundamentalists have come to power, their sheen has worn off. Think of Bangladesh, Turkey and Iran. People realize that mullahs can preach all day, but they can’t run a country. So if sectarianism, and militancy in the north-west areas, is Pakistan’s big problem then perhaps it is also Pakistan’s big solution.
Maybe the harsh Zia era was not enough. Maybe what Pakistan needs, finally, is for the Islamists to actually come to power, impose draconian edicts and provide the country with a final inoculation against excessive religiosity.
Maybe then, after suffering through medieval laws against adultery and blasphemy, ordinary Pakistanis will shed their passivity, agitate to separate the state from the tentacles of the mosque and loudly cry no to religious education in high schools, to religion lines on their passports and to rhetoric that urges them to subordinate their citizenship to their religious beliefs. Perhaps Pakistan needs a bitter pill that will forever taint this notion of the religious right being the ultimate defenders of flag and faith.
Because at the heart of Pakistan’s crisis is a national tendency to over-emphasize religion, whether in politics, or at home. Sure, religion can be a good thing. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. It will only help if Pakistan begins a massive religious re-discovery movement, its own vernacular version of Protestantism.
But must we go down that dangerous path? Is it really not possible for people to realize what is happening to what is left of their country? Atrocities like the bombing of funerals and the usurping of freedoms from the people of Swat provide opportunities for everyone to clearly see the many evils of excessive religious zeal and of outfits like the Taliban.
Pakistan is the global epicenter of Islamic fundamentalism because of a dysfunctional political system and its underlying difficulty of being born as an Islamic state. Even today, there are too many in Pakistan’s upper echelons – bureaucrats, politicians, power players, journalists and intellectuals – who are uncomfortable with the prospect of secularism, modernism, growth and an open society.
Pakistan’s elites are a paradox. They are largely secular and confident in their professional and social roles. In New York and London, they announce themselves as a part of today’s thriving, bustling modern world. Countless Pakistani men and women throng Wall Street’s biggest banks and Manhattan’s hottest nightclubs. But in Karachi they are more guarded and cautious, and readily cow down to orthodoxy. How they change and fit their modern lifestyles into parochial Pakistan is one of the greatest exercises in hypocrisy.
But as they continue to avert their eyes, Pakistani society is being overrun with cruel, medieval attitudes toward women, education, economic liberalization and modernity in general. Bringing change to Pakistan – reforming a political system and revolutionizing an entire culture – sounds like an impossible challenge. But all the mullahs in the world can’t stand up to the combined will of an agitating and determined citizenry.
There are positive signs coming from Pakistan, however. Yeh Hum Naheen – an NGO headed by producer and media consultant Waseem Mahmood – has put together a musical movement that stands up against terrorism and tells the world that the Pakistani people sing the songs of peace. They claim that more than 62 million people have put their name to the organization’s petition against terrorism, more than the number who voted in the last election in Pakistan. And as Barkha Dutt eloquently pointed out in a recent column, “Pakistan’s media understands that if it doesn’t speak up, their country’s existential crisis could spiral out of control.” No-one can deny the Pakistani media’s extraordinary bravery in light of the challenges they face.
But let more Pakistanis come out on the streets to protest against the Taliban, against violence and against the murder of their own people. And for peace and dignity and friendship with their neighbors. Let them pressure their state to take action and soon enough the world will unite around their courage and share in their battle.
But if they decide to stay at home and say nothing, they will be sanctioning evil itself.
Published in Outlook India, 24th February 2009
Source: http://www.chowk.com/articles/15482
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
