Baluch Missing Persons’ Issue and Misuse of Human Rights Watch

By Waziri

The appearance of Asia Human Rights Watch recent report on January 8, 2014, on Pakistani Baluchistan that 160 persons were extra judicially killed, 510 disappeared and 50 decomposed bodies were found during 2013 is a malicious propaganda against Pakistan. It is an effort to discredit the forum in Pakistan. Instead of focusing on real violation it is persistently engaged in propaganda against the country, Pakistan which has great sacrifices in the ongoing global war on terror. The forum is based in Hong Kong and being influenced by the foreign based Qadiani writers including Tarek Fateh, Beena Sarwar, Ahmad Rashid, Noorudin Mengal, Mehran Baloch and Haibyar Marri etc. Baloch leaders residing abroad are mostly kids of Baluch Nawabs and Sardars who, despite their rule in the province in the past, have not built even a single school and road in their respective areas of Kohlu and Dera Bugti.

 The sitting Chief Minister Dr Malik Baloch is from the common masses and an educated person who can take care of the poor masses of Baluchistan. Now when these Nawabs and Sardars are out of the political scene in the province and people have elected a common man as the captain of the ship, these foreign based Baluch leaders have no other option but to take the support of international conspirators. They have joined hands with Ahmadis and Qadianis to malign Pakistan abroad. Their apparent aim is to undermine Dr Malik’s government in Baluchistan and weaken Pakistan’s position in the comity of nations.

It is an open fact that on the orders of Supreme Court, a Joint Task Force was formed in Baluchistan headed by the Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs Capt (R) Akbar Durrani and concerned Police Stations were directed to register FIRs to investigate the cases. Relatives of the missing persons were requested to come along with details of such missing persons. Thorough investigation was made by the provincial government in each case especially in Baluch cases not in the brutal killing of settlers and LEAs personnel.

 The cases which came to limelight were figured around 300. Yet the sub nationalist leaders who are enjoying luxuries abroad and their few followers continued insisting on the figures in thousands which were neither proved in the Task Force nor in Police Stations. The 300 hundred figures also included persons sitting in Afghanistan like Mir Wadood Raisani. Mir was adversary of the then Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani and escaped political victimization. He is still sitting in Qandhar, Afghanistan under the umbrella support of Indian Consulate there.

In these 300 missing persons, about 130 were recovered by the Police and JTF. About 120 dead bodies were also recovered including those killed in tribal feuds or died natural death. While only few are still missing.

A Paris based Baluch journalist Noorudin Mengal was the architect of a well-known teacher Shazia Marri story which never existed. Mengal’s aim was to get political asylum in France. He, while in Khuzdar jail on criminal charges, propagated the story through the visiting ICRC team. A good number of Marries and Bugtis are residing in a rented accommodation in Qandhar and are engaged in training of militancy and terrorism sponsored by Indian and Afghan Intelligence Agencies with the aim to destabilize Western Pakistan.

The so called leader of Baluch Missing Person leader Qader Mama has personal grudge. His late son Jalil Reki was a militant Commander of Baluch Republican Army led by a Switzerland based separatist Brahmdagh Bugti and was a killer of hundreds of non Baluch and poor workers including barbers, milk sellers and daily wages labour across Baluchistan. Likewise Chairman of Missing Persons Mr Nasrullah has a personal interest to become a leader. His missing cousin was involved in sectarian violence and was killed in such clashes during Liaqat Bazar suicide bombing, he knows it.

Yes, Nawab Akbar Bugti was a veteran politician and ranked among the founders of Pakistan. His death was a state blunder like Lal Masjid operation but he was not killed by the poor non Baluch people in Baluchistan. About 1500 men, women, children from ethnic Punjabis, Pashtuns, Hazaras and Sindhi communities of Baluchistan were brutally killed by BLA, BRA and BLF militants across Baluchistan. Where was this AHRW, writers and foreign based separatist Baluch leaders?   

Qadiani leaders spare no opportunity to malign Pakistan as shown by their specific propaganda on the Human Rights forum. There is nothing against the actual brutalities across Kashmir being perpetrated by the Indian seven hundred thousand forces on innocent Kashmiri Muslims. UN recognizes such accesses in Kashmir, therefore, passed several resolutions for Kashmiris’ right of self-determination but all these writers misusing AHRW forum cannot watch it because they have an Indian prism on their eyes.

Qadianis are misusing Baluch missing persons for their own interest to malign Pakistan, Pakistan Army, FC and Pakistan premier Intelligence Agency ISI. In the January 8 article of AHRW. They picture is that of Hazaras who were killed in a suicide attack by the Baluch sectarian activists led by Uman Saifullah Kurd and Shafiq Ring. Instead it has been shown as mass grave of missing persons.

The mass grave discovered in Khuzdar can be result of tribal feud between Sardar Attaullah Mengal of MNP (M) and Mir Nasseer Mengal of PML (Q) groups of Wad, District Khuzdar.  The one identified as Naseer Ahmed was a supporter of Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

The pictures displayed by a Torento Qadiani, Tarek Fateh showing Pakistani Baluchistan as occupied Baluchistan and a map showing Azad Jammu & Kashmir as part of India is clear indication of his biased approach and forwarding the agenda of Pakistan’s foes.  

The writer is Islamabad based freelance Journalist

  

   

US Laws Exposed Actual Indian Face

By Tariq Rizwan

The arrest of Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade on Dec. 12 has exposed the problems, faced by civil society in India. She worked as a consular official in New York City and was charged with perjury and visa fraud. The offenses pertained to documentation that she had signed attesting to the terms of employment for a housekeeper whom she’d had brought from India.

Her arrest in New York City has triggered a diplomatic row between the United States and India, threatening to damage the very edifice of bilateral relations and rapprochement between the two. The cause of the row is relatively trivial, but it has assumed monstrous proportions as a result of the emotions invested in the dispute.

She was accused of knowingly inflating the amount of money she would pay the domestic and understating the number of hours the housekeeper would work. The real terms of employment violated local laws.

Khobragade was arrested after dropping her children off at school. She was handcuffed, taken to a detention facility, strip-searched and subjected to a DNA swab. While she complained that the treatment was humiliating, U.S. officials countered that all procedures were carried out according to law and for her own safety. Moreover, they say that Khobragade was even afforded special treatment and allowed to make phone calls to sort out personal matters.

Though the arrest triggered uproar in India, yet it is not the first event of its nature. Indians continued to commit such fouls at their will in the past as well. In 2010, Indian maid Shanti Gurung filed a case against the then Indian Consul General of New YorkConsulate Dr Neena Malhotras and her husband Mr Jogesh regarding ill treatment. The case was decided in favour of the maid who was awarded $ 1.5 million, however money has never been paid either by Malhotra nor by Indian government.

            Again in 2011, another maid filed a case against Indian Consular General in New York Prabhu Dayal who was accused of several charges like forced labour, less pay and misconduct. The case was, however settled out of court between the parties to avoid embarrassment to Indians in US.

            A Sikh group has also filed a case in New York against Sonia Gandhi and others for involvement in 1984 ANTI Sikh riots. Sonia has been given time till Jan 2014 to respond. The Federal Court has also given ruling against Indian UN Mission in New York in 2008 to pay $ 42.4 million on the charges of using its office for residential purposes.

Instead of correcting its ugly tactics of using diplomatic immunity for individual benefits, the Delhi government responded angrily by curtailing privileges afforded to U.S. diplomats in India, removing security barricades in front of the U.S. embassy and snubbing a visiting of U.S. Congressional delegation. Delhi is also checking the tax status of Americans working at schools in the country and has ordered the U.S. embassy to stop “commercial activities on its premises.” Indian media is also reporting that U.S. Embassy cars could be penalized for traffic violations, and there have been protests outside U.S. consulates across the country.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed “regret” over the incident but did not apologize for the arrest. Nor did he attempt to stop the legal proceedings — which he could not do in any case since they were pursued by the U.S. attorney in New York City. Delhi expelled a U.S. diplomat in turn, the standard diplomatic response to such incidents, regardless of cause.

India tried to end the controversy by transferring Khobragade to the United Nations, where she would enjoy full immunity, but the State Department has noted that immunity would not be retroactive. As tensions mounted, the Indian government finally decided to withdraw Khobragade (who is married to a U.S. national). Instead of condemning the ill tactics, at least abroad, she has been given a hero’s welcome in India.

1 OF 3. Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade gives the ''namaste'' gesture of greeting next to her father Uttam Khobragade (R) upon her arrival at Maharashtra Sadan state guesthouse in New Delhi January 10, 2014. T

CREDIT: REUTERS/STRINGER

 

India has to improve her image in the region and mend rifts with her neighbors for fulfilling the desire of becoming a world power the way China and Russia are doing with no harm and interference for all, else a big democracy may become a large and uncontrolled crowd of uncivilized people.   

India: Torturing Regime of the Bloody Century

By Tariq Rizwan

 

Year 2014 completes a century of cruelty and torture since the start of World War I which surpasses all the previous centuries on account of killing and torture. The death toll of the past 100 years has been more than that of any other century and our region, for one, continues to be mired in violence. What was supposed to be the war to end all wars turned out to be one of the many bloody conflicts since then. The dispute of Jammu and Kashmir is a shining star in the whole galaxy of world disputes, coloured with the blood of innocent Kashmiri Muslims.

September 11 and the wars that it spawned are some of the biggest and bloodiest stories of our times. The Middle East and South Asia were the troubled regions. People of Jammu and Kashmir also continue to suffer under Indian occupation. Third Degree tactics, torture and cruel treatment in the interrogation cells were the plight of Kashmiris under Indian Army custody. Pakistan came into existence amidst bloodshed, remained victim of Indian expansionist policies through proxy and exploiting our internal divisions; the case of East Pakistan and Baluchistan.

India, despite apparent posture of peace, secularism and democratic mode, actively engaged and exploited US presence in Afghanistan to her advantage.  Indian goals of destabilizing Pakistan’s Western Belt through use of Afghan soil and enmity especially Afghan Northern Alliance. India is making all possible efforts to create long standing rift between the two friendly neighbours; Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Indian mindset has never accepted Pakistan as independent state and is bent upon depriving it of the right of existence; the issue of asset of distribution and the right of self-determination for the Kashmiri Muslims who are overwhelmingly in favour of Pakistan due to common religion and common cultural bondages are pending since 1947.

  

Hindu extremists have killed and tortured hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants in 1947. Babri Mosque and attacks on Pakistan cricket team are clear examples of Hindu bania. Kashmiris are living under extreme pressure due to presence of seven hundred thousand troops in the valley. More than 75,000 Kashmiri families are in black list of Passport Office while women are giving birth to Childs on road due to security barricades across the valley.

 

Though few in number, but these extremists are not ready to go back an inch from their stance on Jammu and Kashmir; not giving right of self-determination to the Kashmiris and, rather using terror tactics against the Muslims living both in India and Pakistan.

Prashant Bhushan, leader of India’s emerging political force Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has exactly reflected the mind of common Indian by demanding referendum on the Indian Army presence in the Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), Indian media reported on Monday.

In an interview with a news channel, Bhushan called for a referendum in occupied valley to decide whether or not the Indian Army should be deployed in the IHK. "People should be asked whether they want the army to handle the internal security of Kashmir. Any decision which does not have the backing of the people is undemocratic. If people feel that the army is violating human rights and they say they don't want the army to be deployed for their security then the army should be withdrawn from the hinterland," he said.

Caps off to Indian Aam Aadmi Party and Prashant Bhushan who nuanced his views, adding, "The government can decide if the army needs to be deployed to deal with external threats along the border. The government can also decide if the army needs to be kept to help protect the minorities in the valley. But “there should be a referendum on whether people want AFSPA to continue in the valley or not."

When pressed on what would happen if the referendum suggested that the people of Kashmir wanted to break away from India, Bhushan said, "Secession from India is unconstitutional. We have to find solutions within the purview of the constitution. We have to win the hearts of people in the valley who have moved away from the mainstream since they feel that they army has been deployed in Kashmir against their wishes and is violating their human rights."

Bhushan had stirred a hornet's nest in September 2011 when he had called for a plebiscite in Kashmir at a press conference in Varanasi and had said that Kashmir should be allowed to break away from India if Kashmiris did not want to stay as part of India. Bhushan is an Indian and not a Pakistani who no longer supports serving Kashmir from India and backs the idea of a referendum on the army deployment. The Hindu extremism have no third prism to look at Bhushan if he is not a Pakistan and Hindu extremist.

His ideal comments come on a day the Aam Aadmi Party announced ambitious plans to contest the general elections of 2014 and the party's views on national issues are now being put under intense scrutiny.

It is question mark for the champions of human rights and opponents of capital punishment; European Union, US, how to ignore the UN Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir and the demand of Prashant Bhushan. It is ripe time for all the democratic states and human rights’ champions to free the Kashmiris from the clutches of ruthless Indians and give them the right of self-determination.

  

 

India: Torturing Regime of the Bloody Century

By Tariq Rizwan

Year 2014 completes a century of cruelty and torture since the start of World War I which surpasses all the previous centuries on account of killing and torture. The death toll of the past 100 years has been more than that of any other century and our region, for one, continues to be mired in violence. What was supposed to be the war to end all wars turned out to be one of the many bloody conflicts since then. The dispute of Jammu and Kashmir is a shining star in the whole galaxy of world disputes, coloured with the blood of innocent Kashmiri Muslims.

September 11 and the wars that it spawned are some of the biggest and bloodiest stories of our times. The Middle East and South Asia were the troubled regions. People of Jammu and Kashmir also continue to suffer under Indian occupation. Third Degree tactics, torture and cruel treatment in the interrogation cells were the plight of Kashmiris under Indian Army custody. Pakistan came into existence amidst bloodshed, remained victim of Indian expansionist policies through proxy and exploiting our internal divisions; the case of East Pakistan and Baluchistan.

India, despite apparent posture of peace, secularism and democratic mode, actively engaged and exploited US presence in Afghanistan to her advantage.  Indian goals of destabilizing Pakistan’s Western Belt through use of Afghan soil and enmity especially Afghan Northern Alliance. India is making all possible efforts to create long standing rift between the two friendly neighbours; Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Indian mindset has never accepted Pakistan as independent state and is bent upon depriving it of the right of existence; the issue of asset of distribution and the right of self-determination for the Kashmiri Muslims who are overwhelmingly in favour of Pakistan due to common religion and common cultural bondages are pending since 1947.

 

Hindu extremists have killed and tortured hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants in 1947. Babri Mosque and attacks on Pakistan cricket team are clear examples of Hindu bania. Kashmiris are living under extreme pressure due to presence of seven hundred thousand troops in the valley. More than 75,000 Kashmiri families are in black list of Passport Office while women are giving birth to Childs on road due to security barricades across the valley.

Though few in number, but these extremists are not ready to go back an inch from their stance on Jammu and Kashmir; not giving right of self-determination to the Kashmiris and, rather using terror tactics against the Muslims living both in India and Pakistan.

Prashant Bhushan, leader of India’s emerging political force Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has exactly reflected the mind of common Indian by demanding referendum on the Indian Army presence in the Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), Indian media reported on Monday.

In an interview with a news channel, Bhushan called for a referendum in occupied valley to decide whether or not the Indian Army should be deployed in the IHK. "People should be asked whether they want the army to handle the internal security of Kashmir. Any decision which does not have the backing of the people is undemocratic. If people feel that the army is violating human rights and they say they don't want the army to be deployed for their security then the army should be withdrawn from the hinterland," he said.

Caps off to Indian Aam Aadmi Party and Prashant Bhushan who nuanced his views, adding, "The government can decide if the army needs to be deployed to deal with external threats along the border. The government can also decide if the army needs to be kept to help protect the minorities in the valley. But “there should be a referendum on whether people want AFSPA to continue in the valley or not."

When pressed on what would happen if the referendum suggested that the people of Kashmir wanted to break away from India, Bhushan said, "Secession from India is unconstitutional. We have to find solutions within the purview of the constitution. We have to win the hearts of people in the valley who have moved away from the mainstream since they feel that they army has been deployed in Kashmir against their wishes and is violating their human rights."

Bhushan had stirred a hornet's nest in September 2011 when he had called for a plebiscite in Kashmir at a press conference in Varanasi and had said that Kashmir should be allowed to break away from India if Kashmiris did not want to stay as part of India. Bhushan is an Indian and not a Pakistani who no longer supports serving Kashmir from India and backs the idea of a referendum on the army deployment. The Hindu extremism have no third prism to look at Bhushan if he is not a Pakistan and Hindu extremist.

His ideal comments come on a day the Aam Aadmi Party announced ambitious plans to contest the general elections of 2014 and the party's views on national issues are now being put under intense scrutiny.

It is question mark for the champions of human rights and opponents of capital punishment; European Union, US, how to ignore the UN Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir and the demand of Prashant Bhushan. It is ripe time for all the democratic states and human rights’ champions to free the Kashmiris from the clutches of ruthless Indians and give them the right of self-determination.

  

Problems faced by USA in Afghanistan

Posted by Tariq Rizwan

While 2013 is at its fag end, so far there is no light at the end of the tunnel as far as breakthrough in US-Taliban peace talks is concerned. Stalemate has made the US position rickety. Although the US officials including Obama are repeatedly mentioning that Pakistan is a key country in the Afghan endgame, however, the American commentators gave the twirl that Pakistan has had a real change of heart and is now prepared to play a constructive role in negotiating an Afghan settlement. They tried to sell the thesis that Islamabad has eventually realized that so long as the Afghan war continues, Pakistan too will remain unstable and, therefore, only an Afghan settlement can resolve its own conflict with TTP insurgents. Secondly, an enduring Afghan settlement needs to be riveted to a broad-based power sharing arrangement that accommodates all Afghan groups. Thirdly, peace dividends are more to Pakistan’s strategic advantage than a continued pursuit of the military option of supporting the Taliban.

Apart from the tension of stalled peace talks with Taliban since last June because of Karzai’s misdoings, Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) has cropped up as yet another big issue for USA because of Karzai’s refusal to sign it. Karzai is insisting that the BSA will be signed by next elected President after the elections in April 2014. He is acting tough since he wants to extract personal favors from USA. Addicted to regular pocket money from CIA, he wants the same to continue even after he is out of power. Suffering from paranoia, BSA is the last card he holds. Once he signs it, he will have no leverage left to get things done his way.

Besides failure on political front and lingering problem of BSA, the US is beset with host of other problems in Afghanistan. Large number of seriously injured war veterans, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) cases and suicide cases are worrying the US military command. The rate at which troops are being hospitalized for mental health illness has risen by 87% since 2000. Every one in five who served in Iraq or Afghanistan suffers from PTSD.  266,810 service members received traumatic brain injuries between 2000 and 2012. Suicide cases in the three military services started to surge up from 2006 and soared to 310 in 2009, 301 in 2011 and to a record 349 in 2012, far exceeding combat deaths in Afghanistan. There were 109 cases in first four months of 2013. One suicide has taken place every 18 hours. Attempted suicide cases are much higher.   

Another perturbing factor is the IEDs which has caused much more fatalities and injuries upon the occupation forces and ANSF than combats. IED technology is continuously improved and changed to prevent detection. Even specially designed and thickly armor-plated armored vehicles are not safe from IEDs. NATO fatalities in Afghanistan have crossed the figure of 3300 which include 2500 American soldiers. Injured are well over 50,000. During the Vietnam War, fatality rate of US soldiers was very high and body bags streaming into USA disturbed the American people. Body bags became a major factor for the US administration to quit Vietnam hastily. The US is not much bothered about financial pressure, fatigue of troops, home pressure or fatalities; what concerns it the most is the seriously injured as a result of IEDs, PTSD cases, suicides and in-house attacks. These factors together with meltdown of economy, having suffered a loss of $ 6 trillion in war on terror, impelled Obama to announce drawdown of troops from Afghanistan. 

Insiders’ attacks are another menace which is giving shudders to US military leaders. From January 01 to March 31, 2013, 172 attacks took place resulting in 140 fatalities and injuries to 208 ISAF soldiers. Attacks increased by 120% between 2011 and 2012. 2012 was the deadliest for ISAF in which NATO lost 63 soldiers and injury to 85 at the hands of insiders, mostly belonging to Afghan Local Police (ALP), in 48 attacks. In every combat death was on account of green-over-blue attacks. This trend scaled down in 2013 due to tough measures taken and reduction in interaction between ANSF and foreign troops. This was however at the cost of erosion of trust between 12-year old allies.

Defections from 350,000 strong ANSF are another source of worry for the US as well as Kabul government. The latest defection took place on October 20, 2013 in which Afghan Special Forces Commander joined Hizb-Islami taking with him guns and high-tech equipment. Desertion rate is very high and so is casualty rate. The US has so far invested $54 billion to arm, train and sustain ANSF but overall results are far from satisfactory.   

Poor performance of ANSF upon which colossal amount has been spent by USA to make it an effective and efficient force is yet another cause of exasperation for the US. Majority of soldiers and policemen are addicted to drugs, they accept graft and other gratifications and are involved in discipline cases. Opium trade called Tariab is flourishing in Afghanistan because of involvement of higher ups in Kabul regime including present Karzai as well as Afghan warlords, CIA and other intelligence agencies. There was a high upsurge in drug trade in 2012/13 and it touched the figure of $3 trillion.

Notwithstanding that poppy cultivation is done in Afghanistan, the chemical and processing plant without which raw opium cannot be processed come from western countries. Poppy cultivation had been banned by the Taliban when they were in power and had brought the drug trade to almost zero level. Taliban are now also involved in drug trade especially in poppy rich Helmand to supplement their war effort. The US wants CIA and others to continue with this illegal trade but doesn’t tolerate Taliban to indulge in this trade. It was not an unwanted but a deliberate miscalculation, rather a blunder for which the world is paying a heavy price.

Creation of ALP called Arbaque under the Afghan Ministry of Interior was the brainchild of Gen David Petraeus. Every incumbent draws a monthly salary of 8-10,000 Afghanis. The force funded by the US had been drawn up on the pattern of tribal peace lashkars in tribal belt and settled areas to guard against militant threat in villages. The inductees are imparted just 2-3 weeks training and handed over a weapon. Over the years, this private force has been extensively armed over which the Interior Ministry or ANSF or NATO has little control. It has become a nuisance for Afghan regime and the creators since it is highly undisciplined and has become a huge security risk because it has been extensively infiltrated by Taliban.

In case of a political settlement with the Taliban in which Pakistan will be one of the major guarantors, the US will have to agree to exercise ‘zero option’ and also modify election rules in consultation with the Taliban, expedite releasing all prisoners and grant general amnesty.  In case the left over 87000 troops of ISAF minus 10,000 depart by December 2014 without arriving at a negotiated political settlement with the Taliban, by mid-2015 the Taliban would establish their government in eastern and southern Afghanistan where they already enjoy complete sway, with Kandahar as capital of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Kabul will fall sometime in 2016 making Bagram base untenable. Although Afghanistan will split into two distinct parts on ethnic basis however, 2017 will see insurrectional war shifting entirely into northern Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance devoid of leadership will find it difficult to stop Taliban offensive and may once again get confined to Panjsher Valley, which had once become the unassailable den of Ahmad Shah Masood.  

India which at present is in a domineering position in Afghanistan will find it exceedingly difficult to retain its heavy presence in all departments and strong influence after 2014 and is likely to wind up its consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad and bulk of intelligence units deployed in major cities. Pakistan’s presence and influence on the other hand is likely to increase particularly in Pashtun inhabited regions. Pakistan will continue to play a constructive role in patching up differences and in forming a broad based government as it had done in the 1990s. China and Iran are also likely to play a productive role.      

Apparently some thaw has occurred in Pak-US relations but the US reservations against Pakistan still exist. It refuses to cease drone attacks and continues to host Baloch absconding leaders in USA and espouses their separatist agenda. Sustained vile propaganda aimed at discrediting Pak Army and ISI, Raymond Davis incident, independent intelligence collection networks, Black Water, Abbottabad operation and unceasing intelligence operations crowned by Salala massacre without subsequent remorse, provocative attempts to get Dr. Shakil Afridi released, coercing Pakistan to cancel Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, refusing to stop drone war, deliberately killing Hakimullah Mehsud to scuttle peace process and withholding CSF cannot be termed as friendly acts by any score. Pakistan will have to tread its steps in 2014 with great amount of watchfulness, tact and discretion.  (Asif Haroon Raja)

Qader Molla Execution Unmasks the External Hand in Bangladesh

By Tariq Rizwan

Execution of Dhaka of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Qader Mollah has prompted violent protests across Bangladesh. Found guilty of involvement in the death of civilians during the civil war of 1971, he was hanged in Dhaka under Indian pressure, putting the interests of Bangladeshi business community abroad. The European Union is strictly against executions and considers it as violation of human rights. The step, which was not encouraged by founder Sheikh Mujibur Rehman himself who warned against retribution and held on to this position till his 1975 assassination, shows political motives on the eve of December 16.

What is significant is that we have got into the habit, rather like a scared child, of trying to cover up everything that has gone wrong and then denying we had anything at all to do with it. The example of Bangladesh is also pertinent in this case. For us, it appears that placing curtains around the truth and veiling our eyes has become the solution to everything – just as was the case in Bangladesh.

The sentencing of the JI leader, with more trials set to follow, raises a host of questions of a big impartiality. The opponents included professors, doctors, students and others – with Mollah’s walk to the gallows coming, ironically enough, just a few days before 

At home we should be asking other, different questions. We have for the past four decades refused to face up to what happened in what was then the eastern wing of our country. The torture, the killings, the mass rapes committed there has been buried away, deep under multiple layers. There are many, indeed most, who do not know what happened; we often forget that the green and white flag of Pakistan once flew over Dhaka.

Bangladesh was not a colony of Pakistan rather part of it. But this event  apprises us again that the red disk that floats across the green of the Bangladesh flag is intended to depict not only a sun rising over a new land but the blood that stains it. That blood, of students, children, men and women, was shed uselessly. Calling Molla a ‘patriot’ as the JI leader at home, as Munawar Hasan has done, insisting Mollah would count as such even in Bangladesh on the basis that the two countries were then one, can only be ranked as a remark of insensitivity and ignorance.

Some other comments from political leaders have been barely better. Certainly there is very limited suggestion that we should be looking back at what happened, facing up to it and learning from the sordid events of 1971. This goes well beyond the matter of Abdul Qader Mollah and whether or not he should have been hanged

The violent approach at the behest of external hand can solve no problems at all. Instead they will worsen and become more entrenched. We saw this happen in what was then East Pakistan. The signs of trouble were visible many years before the 1971 war. The people of that part of what was then our country had pointed out discrimination and injustice again and again. This is visible even now in documented figures. They show that though East Pakistan had a larger population than the western part of the country, the resources spent on it since the 1950s were only about 40 percent of the budget available – in some periods, falling even below this.

Naturally, the development in which all people of a country should have had an equal share never took place there. Today, we see precisely the same pattern unfold again, with startling disparities between provinces and districts in allocation of funds and development. The perceptions of unfair play are a key reason for the anger directed against the state and in turn the violence that shakes Baluchistan. This violence has already left deep scars across it. While the Baloch recall the events that led up to the formation of Bangladesh, it is questionable what the future of that remotely populated stretch of miserable territory is to be with its regular haul of mutilated bodies that turn up in street corners. Even the recent dramatic march made by the relatives of the disappeared from Quetta to Karachi has not really changed matters.

We seem to have lost sight of this reality. The ability to accept what is happening and act to deal with it in many ways marks nations that are successful. We are certainly not headed along this path. The same mistakes are being repeated once more and the same story of wrongdoing in other places told. Our history books say too little about Bangladesh and quite how that country took form as an independent state on the map. This is something we should all know about and something we should make sure our children know of too.

The issue of Abdul Qader Mollah reminds us about the history, that if the amendments needed were not made, then further problems may arise. We should today be examining all that went on in Bangladesh before posting messages on social media about Mollah or what is happening in Dhaka. Quite irrespective of the trial of JI leaders underway in that country, it is the doings they are alleged to have been involved in that is of key importance.

If we keep projecting people like Mollah as heroes what Munawr Hassan does or refuse to put before the public all that, he and others like him did there can be no change. We will have only more brutality, more bitterness and greater division within a country that has been torn apart before – and risks this happening again. Our assignment for the future must be to ensure this can never happen and that this is prevented by accepting what is going wrong, tackling crime and brutality wherever it exists and giving people everywhere in our country the equal treatment and respect for their rights which they deserve.

Pakistan and Bangladesh are still good partners which can benefit from their potentials. They have to make sure, it is not happening again; come out of the clutches of past rivalries, forget about the past and nourish in new era to benefit from their common culture and religion to establish lasting partnership in the region.