India/Pakistan: ‘Peace is a process, not an event’

Posted on February 15, 2016 by beenasarwar

My first monthly column for Himal Southasian (Feb 2016 issue), a Kathmandu-based magazine I’ve been associated with since its launch in 1997. The headline derives from something I remember a Naga woman from India saying at a conference I attended in Colombo, Sri Lanka many years ago. I focus my piece on what links the Pathankot and Bacha Khan University attacks, Modi’s Christmas Day visit to Pakistan and beyond – the issue may have died out from the headlines, but remains relevant. Article below with additional links and photos.vxtvfzk
By Beena Sarwar

If Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stopover in Lahore to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on 25 December last year came as a surprise, the subsequent militant attack in India barely a week later on 2 January did not. Continue reading →

Filed under: Pakistan-India, Resistance, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

In wake of Pakistan university attack, the voices grow louder – stop glorifying the dead

Posted on January 23, 2016 by beenasarwar
Screen Shot Hamid Mir-Geo TV

Screenshot from Hamid Mir’s Capital Talk, Geo TV, Jan 20, 2016

I wrote this piece on Jan 20, 2016 on the barbaric attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda. Published in Scroll.in on Jan 22, 2016.

As Pakistanis look for solutions, a consensus is emerging that people killed in such attacks should not be called ‘martyrs’ or ‘heroes’.

By Beena Sarwar

There is now a numbing familiarity to the kind of news that broke on Wednesday morning from Pakistan.

This time, heavily armed militants in suicide vests scaled the walls of a sprawling university campus near Charsadda, a picturesque town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as North West Frontier) province near the Afghan border. Gunfire and explosions starting at about 9 am resounded through the dense fog enveloping Bacha Khan University, set idyllically amidst sugar cane fields some 13 km from Charsadda.

The four assailants killed at least 19 students and teachers before themselves being killed by the police and army in a three-hour long gun-battle.

The casualty rate was far lower than the attack on the Army Public School in nearby Peshawar just over a year ago on Dec 16, 2014 in which militants killed some 150 school children and teachers.

The relatively low casualties, pointed out Senator Rubina Khalid of the Pakistan People’s Party, is not a basis for self-congratulation.
Continue reading →

Filed under: Terrorism, Violence in the name of religion | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Personal note: Flood relief in remote Kohistan, by Rashida Dohad

Posted on August 26, 2010 by beenasarwar

Agreeing on the process of distribution, Kandia Valley, District Kohistan. Photos: courtesy OAK Foundation

Distributing food in Kandia Valley, Kohistan

Below, a personal note of Aug 25, 2010 about flood relief efforts in Kohistan, from Rashida Dohad, who works with the Omar Asghar Khan Foundation (see website for updates, an overview of their flood relief efforts and photo gallery). As explained on the website, floods have affected 16 (nine severely) of the 24 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “Many in need of urgent aid are difficult to access as areas are isolated due to road/bridge destruction/damage; and blockages due to landslides. The Foundation is initially focusing on the following districts: Nowshera, Charsadda, Shangla, Kohistan, Battagram and Mansehra.” Read on for Rashida’s account of their rather dramatic recent trip to the remote Kandian Valley in Kohistan: Continue reading →

Filed under: Floods | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Flood relief – Charsadda, Nowshehra, Pubbi and Peshawar motorway

Posted on August 12, 2010 by beenasarwar

Adnan Mufti, a young chartered accountant I know in Karachi, sent information about relief efforts by a group of educated, dedicated and committed individuals he knows working in parts of Charsadda, Nowshehra, Pubbi and Peshawar motorway areas. Charsadda, incidentally, was the home of Bacha Khan, the ‘Frontier Gandhi’ (see report Charsadda lies in ruins). >

Filed under: Environment | Tagged: , , , | 6 Comments »

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