Karachi launches campaign against TTP

KARACHI – An awareness campaign against atrocities by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has begun in Karachi, denouncing its inhumane and un-Islamic acts and declaring the militant group “fitna” (a sower of chaos and sedition). Posters and handbills denouncing suicide attacks and the slaughter of civilians by TTP miscreants have been plastered onto walls throughout the [...]

RIP Mukarram Khan Atif, another journalist killed in Pakistan

Anguish and anger. Yet another journalist in Pakistan, Mukarram Khan Atif of Mohmand Agency, shot dead in cold-blood. The Taliban have claimed responsibility. They are out to eliminate our best, our brightest and our bravest. They will not succeed. Read Tazeen on how Atif helped her look “beyond the stereotype of a stern and unyielding tribesman with [...]

Protest against murder of Zarteef Khan Afridi: “He followed his truth till the end! Respect and Salam”

Sharing the grief of friends who have suffered this great loss. I first heard of Zarteef Khan Afridi in 1995, when he wrote to Asma Jahangir offering to come to Lahore with a tribal lashkar to protect her when she was under threat during the Salamat Masih case. I met him later at an HRCP meeting [...]

Pakistan army should butt out of politics: Asma Jahangir says it like it is

Clip from Crossfire in which Asma Jahangir, the indomitable Chairperson Emeritus of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, says it like it about the Pakistan armed forces, in a talk show with the  ever sensationalist Meher Bokhari, on Dunya TV on May 26, 2011. View the [...]

Moving out of the downward spiral

The questions arising from Taseer’s assassination indicate that some forces in Pakistan are continuing along the old trajectory. The assassin, 26-year old Malik Hussain Qadri, was assigned to the elite force guarding the Punjab Governor. It now emerges that he had been removed from the Special Branch because he was perceived as a security threat – so how did he end up on the security detail of a Governor who was already receiving death threats?

Communist Party member Latifullah Khan murdered

Comrade Latifullah Khan, 36, belonged to District Dir upper. He was an educationist and the one enlightened person in the education department consisting mostly of obscurantists. Comrade Latifullah was an active progressive student leader and a member of the district cell of the Progressive Pukhtoonkhwa Front (linked to the Communist Party of Pakistan).

The long war – Personal Political column in Hardnews

Pakistan is at war. The entire country is the battleground. The series of bomb blasts gained momentum as expected, in the run-up to Oct 17 when the army launched its ground offensive in South Waziristan. At the time of writing, over over 8,000 people had been killed in terrorist attacks this year

The humanitarian crisis of Swat’s Internally Displaced People – Omar Foundation

Further to my earlier note on how to help those forced to become refugees in their own land – the largest internal displacement ever in Pakistan as the army finally takes action against the Taliban – see this appeal by a journalist friend in Karachi.

Women to Reclaim Public Spaces

WAF believe Talibanisation is a mind set which cuts across all ethnic lines and must be resisted by all, and in no uncertain terms. This mind-set abuses Islam by using it to control others. We believe religion is a private matter and all citizens of Pakistan are equal citizens We believe peace and justice must be the guiding light for Pakistan to become peaceful and just society. To achieve our goal we must discuss matters together and resolve to act collectively for greater public good, for this is what democracy is about.

India trip, the ‘attack’ and some articles

No Pakistani journalist was attacked or roughed up at the New Delhi media discussion. One man disrupted the meeting – briefly, from the back of the auditorium. Most papers and channels used photos and footage of the scuffle. The interruption lasted for maybe a minute or so. The heckler turned out to be from the Sri Ram Sene, which tried to prevent Valentines Day celebrations in India, to whom thousands of people sent ‘pink chaddis’ in response