Ongoing protest in Quetta; mourners refuse to bury their dead until action is promised

Posted on January 12, 2013 by beenasarwar
Haunting photo of grieving protestors sitting with coffins in the freezing cold in Quetta

Haunting photo of vigil by thousands of protestors gathered around the shrouded bodies of the blast victims; they’ve been there for 15 hours now, braving freezing cold and rain.

In a powerful statement of grief, rage and protest, demonstrators, including women and children are sitting in the freezing cold and rain holding vigil over 86 shrouded bodies at Alamdar Road, the site of the bomb blasts in Quetta. No one from the government has yet met the mourners who are refusing to bury their dead until the army promises them protection. See video footage of the dharna, ongoing for 15 hours now, broadcast online by Such TV. In solidarity, protestors began gathering at the Karachi Press Club starting at about 3.00 am, galvanised into action by Syed Ali Raza Abidi‘s tweets. By 5 am , some protestors also started gathering in Islamabad. A protest called by the Institute of Peace and Secular Studies is already scheduled from 5-7 pm at the Liberty Roundabout in Lahore today, Jan 12. (UPDATE: Karachi protest Sat, Jan 12, 2.30 pm at Karachi Press Club) Continue reading →

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Three journalists killed in Quetta bomb blasts

Posted on January 11, 2013 by beenasarwar

Three journalists lost their lives in the blasts that rocked Quetta on Jan 10. Here’s a moving obituary in Baloch Hal for one of them, Saif-ur-Rehman, a reporter for Samaa TV. Below, some tweets from a young journalist friend from Lahore:

Continue reading →

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Bomb blasts in Quetta target Hazaras, claim over 100 lives #RIPKhudiAli

Posted on January 11, 2013 by beenasarwar

There was devastating news today about the triple bomb blasts today in Quetta, one of them at a snooker club, all targeting Hazara Shia areas. Over 100 killed, including three media men who rushed to cover the blasts. It is hard for the human mind to taken in the mind-numbing numbers, but when someone you know is among the dead it really hits home. Our young friend and comrade Irfan Ali lost his life while helping others when the second blast took place. Continue reading →

Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: , , , , | 6 Comments »

Commemorating Jan 8, 1953: 2013 events, Jan 6 and 8, by DSF and NSF

Posted on January 3, 2013 by beenasarwar

2012 Jan 8-NSF Demands Day

Re-blogged from Dr M. Sarwar:

As we remember Jan 8, 1953 Demands Day and those who gave their lives for the cause of students’ rights, it is good to see that progressive young people in Pakistan are organising and work for students’ rights, with the revival of Democratic Students Federation and the National Students Federation. In keeping with the rallying cry of the original movement – ‘Student Unity’ – activists of DSF and NSF must put up a united front, and attend and support each others’ events even if they don’t merge into one organisation. Demands should include lifting the ongoing ban on student unions. Below, information about several events being organised this year, some on Jan 6, in different cities of Sindh and Punjab by DSF, and NSF event on Jan 8:

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Filed under: Dr M Sarwar, Progressive politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

“It’s not just India….”

Posted on December 30, 2012 by beenasarwar

It’s not just India… 

Nilanjana S Roy's avatarnilanjana s roy

That girl, the one without the name. The one just like us. The one whose battered body stood for all the anonymous women in this country whose rapes and deaths are a footnote in the left-hand column of the newspaper.

Sometimes, when we talk about the history of women in India, we speak in shorthand. The Mathura rape case. The Vishaka guidelines. The Bhanwari Devi case, the Suryanelli affair, the Soni Sori allegations, the business at Kunan Pushpora. Each of these, the names of women and places, mapping a geography of pain; unspeakable damage inflicted on women’s bodies, on the map of India, where you can, if you want, create a constantly updating map of violence against women.

For some, amnesia becomes a way of self-defence: there is only so much darkness you can swallow. They turn away from all the places that have become shorthand for violence beyond measure…

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V-Day and One Billion Rising

Posted on December 30, 2012 by beenasarwar

Gender-based violence has been recognised as a global epidemic for years (see Unicef press release of 2000). And yet the phenomenon continues.

What can we do? Each of us has a voice. Let’s use it. Check out the One Billion Rising website:

Screenshot of OBR website, Dec 29, 2012

Screenshot of OBR website, Dec 29, 2012

Join V-Day on 02.14.13 in a global strike to demand an end to violence.

Feb 14, 2013 is the 15th Anniversary of V-Day, the non-profit that began using The Vagina Monologues  the ground-breaking play by Eve Ensler to raise awareness and money to end violence against women. Continue reading →

Filed under: Gender | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

We must move beyond outrage against selected rape cases

Posted on December 29, 2012 by beenasarwar
Protest at India Gate against gang rape in Delhi. TOI photo

Protest at India Gate against gang rape in Delhi. TOI photo

Grieved to hear that the student who was gangraped in a Delhi bus has passed away in the Singapore hospital where she was flown for treatment. And about the teenage gangrape victim in Patiala who committed suicide – one of countless, not just in India but elsewhere in Southasia. And the 42 year old woman. And the two girls – minors – in Umerkot, Sindh who were raped. And that a woman is raped every 22 minutes in India – I don’t know what the rate is in other South Asian countries, but doubt it’s much better elsewhere. But will the outrage at the “Delhi Gang Rape case” and the victim’s death change things for women in our part of the world – not just in urban but in rural areas, not just for women? And for those, including minor girls and boys, who are routinely subjected to sexual abuse, not only by strangers and security forces, but most often by family friends and relatives? And for the countless who are subjected to ‘revenge rapes’ or forced to marry their rapists or exchange girls and women for peace? We need to move beyond outrage at selected cases and work towards changing attitudes, not just of of society but of law enforcing agencies and courts that shame victims more than perpetrators.

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Five years on, same questions…

Posted on December 26, 2012 by beenasarwar

BB shaheed Bashir Ahmed Bilour Was her courage in vain, or do we still not know?

Text of editorial in Economic & Political Weekly, JANUARY 5, 2008:

Benazir’s Last Battle

Benazir Bhutto died battling the “state within the state”. Can Pakistan rid itself of the cancer?

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s former prime minister and opposition leader, on December 27 at the conclusion of an election rally in Rawalpindi has sent shockwaves across the world. Bhutto’s party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and the public at large held the government of president Pervez Musharraf responsible for the murder, while the government and its allies pointed the finger at Taliban and Al Qaida. The first reaction of US president George Bush also appeared to deflect blame from the Pakistan government and in the direction of Islamic militants. Continue reading →

Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: , , , | 4 Comments »

You know it’s India-Pakistan when… (The sad case of Idrees Alam, ‘The Nowhere Man’)

Posted on December 19, 2012 by beenasarwar
Kanpur: Idrees (left) shares a laugh with K. M. Yadav of IPFSA...but...

Kanpur: Idrees (left) shares a laugh with K. M. Yadav of IPFSA…but…

My article in Aman ki Asha today, re-posted here with links and more photos/documents. I’ve since been informed that Idrees is living in the compound of Police Administration (Police Line), Kanpur, under constant surveillance by two officers. He last communicated with his family over a year ago. 

You know it’s India-Pakistan when… overstaying a 15-day visa after a family tragedy leads to ten years in prison and a man’s continued 13-year separation from his wife and four sons .

Idris Alam - Mahesh Pandey

…but his eyes reflect the bleakness of his existence without hope, without family. Photos: Mahesh Pandey

By Beena Sarwar

The case of Mohammad Idrees Alam is a prime example of how people suffer due to the bureaucratic wrangling between India and Pakistan.

Stuck in India, he has been unable to meet his wife and four children in Pakistan for the last 13 years. Pakistan and India both refuse to verify his citizenship. He is, as the BBC termed it in a radio report of Oct 22, 2012, ‘The Nowhere Man’.

Originally an Indian citizen, he went to Pakistan in 1986 to visit relatives. While there, he got married and opted to stay on, obtaining Pakistani citizenship. In 1999, his father Ahmed Jan in Kanpur became seriously ill and in May, Idrees went to India on a 15-day visa. His father passed away, and Idrees, embroiled in last rites and legalities, overstayed his visa by a couple of months.
Continue reading →

Filed under: Pakistan-India, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

India-Pakistan ‘reunification’? Why not a South Asian Union?

Posted on December 19, 2012 by beenasarwar

himal_southasia_south-up_mapThe respected retired Indian Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju at a recent function New Delhi said that “the only solution to the Kashmir issue is reunification of India and Pakistan under a strong, secular, modern minded government which does not tolerate religious fanaticism or bigotry and suppresses it with an iron hand.” Continue reading →

Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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