The Kidnapping of Another Baloch Journalist | Baloch Hal editorial

Posted on September 15, 2011 by beenasarwar

Since the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has blocked the website Baloch Hal in Pakistan, here’s Malik Siraj Akbar’s editorial that Pakistanis should have access to:

The Kidnapping of Another Baloch Journalist

Javid Naseer Rind, the former Deputy Editor of Daily Tawar, a leading anti-government Balochnewspaper published in Urdu language, was kidnapped on Saturday by unidentified people. Friends and family members of Mr. Rind, who is a widely respectednewspaper columnist and a reporter, have raised fingers at the state intelligence agencies for whisking him away. He was picked up in Laseba District of Balochistan along with another relative of his Abdul Samad Baloch. Since then the whereabouts of the Baloch journalist are unknown. Continue reading →

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Protests against Police Brutality in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore

Posted on August 10, 2011 by beenasarwar

Call for Protest Rally against the brutal attack on Nairang Gallery, Lahore  and its curator and staff by SHO Shadman Police Station Rana Zulfiqar – Please also see facebook event THREE Protests against Police Brutality in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore  

Artists, art critics and gallerists and civil society members will demonstrate in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on August 13, 2011 (details below) to show solidarity with Nairang Gallery, Lahore, which was attacked on August 2, 2011 and register their protest against the reprehensible behavior of the police. They will demand a public apology by SHO Rana Zulfiqar and his dismissal from the police force for beating the curator and staff of Nairang Gallery. All concerned citizens must unite to stop police violence against citizens. Continue reading →

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The murder of Mir Rustam Marri, champion of IDPs and human rights, Balochistan

Posted on June 28, 2011 by beenasarwar

Below, please read this recent editorial from Baloch Hal, inaccessible to readers in Pakistan since the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority blocked it in Nov 2010.  We’re reproducing it here in the interest of freedom of expression and democratic rights, and in protest at the PTA’s censorship of a sane, moderate voice from Balochistan.

Editorial: Killing of a Man Who Stood For IDP Rights  Continue reading →

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Update and some questions: Karachi Rangers killing

Posted on June 10, 2011 by beenasarwar

UPDATE: The Supreme Court has taken suo moto notice of this incident, which, because it was captured on camera and circulated on the Internet, broadcast on TV channels, cannot be ignored like the other extra-judicial killings and murders taking place. But as Ali Dayan of HRW asks, “Will there be justice as a result?”

Some questions: It has been learnt that the video was shot by a man with a digi-camera who was with an Awaz TV reporter who was at the scene. Since one of them kept filming (granted, it was critical for him to continue and document the abuse), why didn’t other call for help? How come they were there in the first place? And how did Rangers let them film this scene? (further update: a team of three people from the Sindhi TV channel Awaz to film

HRW on Karachi killing: What we are seeing is visual records of what we have long documented: the culture of impunity in Pakistani law enforcement agencies. What is becoming clear is that the free for all, the culture of wanton abuse and killing, is becoming untenable in the age of new media and cell phone cameras.

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Campaign against the genocide of progressive Pakistanis

Posted on June 4, 2011 by beenasarwar

Prof. Nazima Talib of Balochistan University

Prof Saba Dashtiyara 'Waja' of Balochistan University

Prof. Saba Dashtiary of Balochistan University

Modified from a post just sent to my yahoogroup: We need a campaign against the genocide of progressive Pakistani intellectuals and activists at the hands of those who have been distorting religion for political purposes, criminal and ethnic mafias. One or other of these elements is responsible for the murders of Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti, Naeem Sabir (HRCP coordinator in Khuzdar, Balochistan), former senator Habib Jalib of Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal),  Saleem Shehzad and Prof. Dashtiyari. Baloch journalists killed include: Rehmatullah Shaeen, Ejaz Raisani, Lala Hameed Hayatan, Ilyas Nazar, Mohammad Khan Sasoil and Siddiq Eido and Abdus Rind. Also the fisherfolk leaders Haji Ghani and Abu Bakar spearheading a movement against the land mafia; Nisar Baloch who was fighting against the land mafia in Karachi; Latifullah Khan, the Communist Party member from Dir, and Nazima Talib, the professor of Balochistan University shot dead a year ago, and so many others. Continue reading →

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RIP Prof. Saba Dashtiyari… Tujh ko kitnon ka lahu chahi’ay ay arz-e-watan

Posted on June 2, 2011 by beenasarwar

Prof. Saba Dashtiyari giving an interview. Photo courtesy Homayoon Mobaraki

The situation in Balochistan continues to be volatile. The latest victim of the violence and anarchy in Pakistan’s largest province is the well known Baloch rights activist and professor, Saba Dashtiyari, gunned down in Quetta on June 1, 2011.  Words are not enough to express outrage and grief at this continued genocide of Pakistan’s liberal, secular, progressive citizens.

“As young kids, we had heard charming stories about a Baloch professor who was an atheist but, ironically, taught theology and Islamic studies at the University of Balochistan. Another thing that fascinated us about him was the narrative that he spent most of his salary on the promotion of Balochi language academies and preparation of Balochi text books,’ writes Malik Siraj Akbar in his moving obituary for the slain professor in Baloch Hal.

Video of Prof. Dashtiyari speaking at Karachi Press Club at a seminar last year on missing persons  – at the start a woman ‘journalist’ tries to interrupt him but he rightly insists on having his say and presents a strong argument about the situation in Balochistan, giving a historical and political perspective   Continue reading →

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‘Pro-jihadi, anti-India’ policy #fail

Posted on May 30, 2011 by beenasarwar

“’Pro-jihadi, anti-India’ policy #fail” – my column Personal Political published in Hardnews, India, and in The News on Sunday. Many in Pakistan have been saying this for a long time, and been attacked and branded as traitors, Indian agents and kafirs for going against ‘the establishment’. Now, for the first time, this argument is in the public domain, being discussed on live television. Recently, Asma Jahangir Chairperson Emeritus of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, lashed out at the Pakistan army’s self serving policies and demanded that they stay out of politics – in words that one would never have heard on television before. Her view reinforces what I wrote a few days earlier, below (predictably, efforts are afoot to portray her as ‘anti-national, pro-Hindu, pro-India’. These efforts too, will #fail). Continue reading →

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‘Kary Logar’ ain’t the issue

Posted on October 22, 2009 by beenasarwar

My article on the ‘Kerry Lugar Bill’ and the crisis Pk faces today – a slightly edited version of which was published in Dawn today as KLB is not the issue

Photo from the demonstration on Oct 11. Courtesy www.dawn.com

Photo from demonstration on Oct 11. Courtesy http://www.dawn.com

‘Kary Logar’ ain’t the issue

Beena Sarwar

As pressure mounted in South Waziristan with the army action, and retaliatory bombings began, a demonstration in Karachi by parties that claim religion as their raison d’etre underscored some key conflicts Pakistan faces: the requirements of justice under due process of law versus tribal, extra-judicial punishments, tensions between the elected civilian government and the ‘establishment’, and conflict between a long-standing foreign policy versus new domestic compulsions.

Continue reading →

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