Posted on February 13, 2015 by beenasarwar
Alamdar Road, Quetta (file photo): Shia Hazara protestors with coffins of those killed in a 2012 attack sit in the freezing cold to demand government action. #NeverForget
Another attack at a Shia Imambargah in Peshawar. More loss of innocent lives as the “good” Taliban strike again. The Pakistan military machine goes after the “bad” ones, while those who kill Shias and Ahmadis are allowed to function as they further outdated foreign policy objectives re India / Kashmir and Afghanistan. (see Pakistan Must Discard its ‘Good Taliban, Bad Taliban’ Narrative)
Pakistanis will keep protesting, the perpetrators will keep attacking. Continue reading →
Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: Afghanistan, APS attack, civil society, global vigil, good taliban bad taliban, Imambargah attack, India, Pakistan, peshawar, Shia | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 12, 2015 by beenasarwar
#AllLivesMatter My heart goes out to the family and friends of Deah, Yosur, and Razan, the beautiful young people whose lives were so cruelly snatched in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, ostensibly over a ‘parking dispute’.
It’s not front page or breaking news in the US mainstream media the way that racial killings or murders committed by Muslims make the news. Those defending the media in this case say that the murders were not motivated by Islamophobia, and that to highlight the religion of those involved is to create conflict. Continue reading →
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Ahmadis attacked, Chapel Hill shooting, Islam, Islamophobia, Pakistan, Peshawar APS, school schootings, Shikarpur attack, usa | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 1, 2015 by beenasarwar
8-year old Samar Abbas in critical condition at AKUH: He has a blood clot in his brains, a broken jaw and a collapsed respiratory system. Photo: Anas Mallick
UPDATE Shikarpur blast: Over 60 were buried in Shikarpur, funeral prayers attended by an over 10,000-strong crowd. 15 survivors were airlifted to hospitals in Karachi, of whom two have passed away. Urgent need for blood at the Agha Khan University Hospital laboratory in Karachi, including for critically injured 8-year old Samar Abbas is in urgent need of O+ blood. Below, extracts from my article yesterday in Scroll also linked here: Bombing of Shikarpur mosque is a deliberate attack on Sindh’s tolerant Sufi culture
Continue reading →
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: #ShikarpurBlast, Activism, democracy, Jundullah, martial law, Mastung blast survivors, military interference in politics, Pakistan, Pakistani Hindus, Shikarpur, sindh, Sufi culture | 2 Comments »
Posted on January 26, 2015 by beenasarwar
Pakistanis against terrorism: Shehroz Hussain speaking at the global protest vigil on Jan 16, in Boston
Shehroz Hussain was a foreign student from Pakistan, a freshman at college in the USA, when Taliban or their affiliated groups shot dead his father, Dr Riaz Hussain Shah, in front of his clinic in Peshawar in January, 2013. “In August 2012, as I stood at the airport to say goodbye to my family, I did not know I would never see one person again,” said Shehroz, speaking at a protest vigil last Friday in Boston’s historic Copley Square. “That person was the one with the most tears. He cried so much that relatives joked with him. I will never forget that night when I was woken up in the middle of the night on 9th January, 2013, to the sound of my crying brother on the phone: ‘Baba ko Maar Diya‘. They have killed Baba.” Continue reading →
Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: blasphemy law, Jibran Nasir, Pakistan, Shaan Taseer, Shama Shahzad, Shehroz Hussain, shia killing | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 4, 2015 by beenasarwar
Vigil for Salmaan Taseer: File photo
On Jan 4, 2011, the Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer was assassinated by his bodyguard who believed in the propaganda that had been orchestrated against Taseer falsely accusing him of ‘blasphemy’ (See: Salmaan Taseer: The political context of a ‘religious’ assassination, my article for Viewpoint). Vigils commemorating him are planned in several cities around Pakistan. Here is the information I have about some of them:
* Islamabad: Kohsar Market, 5 pm
* Lahore: Liberty Roundabout, 5 pm – Facebook event
* Karachi: Do Talwar, 8 pm – Facebook event
Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: Activism, Pakistan, salmaan taseer, vigil for Salmaan Taseer | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 3, 2015 by beenasarwar
Hamid Ansari, 27, MBA, Rotarian from Mumbai… missing since Nov 2012
Update to case below: Hamid Ansari was produced in court, tried in a military court and awarded three years’ vigorous imprisonment starting from December 15, 2015. He has appealed to be treated not as a spy.
The police in Pakistan have confirmed that the ISI and MI have custody of Hamid Ansari, the young Indian national who has been missing in Pakistan since 2012. So will we see him produced in court as directed by the honorable judges? See my earlier post Hamid Ansari: Mumbai man missing in Pakistan (we treat each other’s citizens differently). On second thoughts, not that differently. Our security agencies treat their own citizens as badly. Plenty of examples all over both countries — Kashmir, Balochistan, Sindh, Assam, Manipur, to name some areas where such violations take place routinely. The documents below, presented to the Peshawar High Court, provide details of Hamid Nihal Ansari’s case. Continue reading →
Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: Hamid Ansari, Hangu, India, isi, Karak, Kohat, MI, missing in Pakistan, Pakistan, social media | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 29, 2014 by beenasarwar
Note: The TNS article referenced in the first line of the blogpost below is no longer available on the web. Here is the report I did for InterPress Service on the same issue, titled: Pakistan’s Ahmadis: Faced with death or exile
I recently wrote ‘Poison in the body politic’, published in The News on Sunday, on the persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan, the hate-speech against them in public spaces and the impunity their attackers enjoy. One of the people I spoke to was Farooq Kahloun, an Ahmadi leader and successful businessman in Karachi who had to leave everything behind in Pakistan and take political asylum in the USA after a murderous attempt on his life that killed his son Saad Farooq two years ago. Four bullets lodged in Kahloun’s body are a permanent reminder of the attack (details below) — and of the poison in Pakistan’s body politic, the menace of takfirism. Continue reading →
Filed under: Blasphemy Laws, Human rights, Media | Tagged: #ArrestAbdulAziz, #ReclaimYourMosque, Aamir Liaquat, Abdul Aziz, Ahmadis, Lal Masjid, Pakistan, Red Mosque, Taliban | 6 Comments »
Posted on December 19, 2014 by beenasarwar
Pakistan needs to counter not just those who come out on the street in support of Taliban Inc. but also those who support them tacitly.
Thanks to The Huffington Post for inviting me to write this opinion piece, published on Dec. 17, 2014.
By Beena Sarwar
The world looks on with horror at the Pakistani Taliban’s barbaric murder of 145 children and teachers at a school in Peshawar.
Although Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has termed the Peshawar attack a national tragedy, announced three days of national mourning and promised to eradicate the terrorists, real change won’t occur unless Pakistan discards the “good Taliban, bad Taliban” narrative and moves to decisively uphold the rule of law. Continue reading →
Filed under: Terrorism | Tagged: 'War on terror', Ahmadis, Church attack, democracy, Pakistan, Pakistan surrender at Dhaka, Peshawar school attack, rule of law, Taliban | Leave a comment »
Posted on December 18, 2014 by beenasarwar
RIP Tahira Qazi, principal of Army Public School who had reportedly been rescued but ran back to help her students and was brutally killed.
On BBC World Have your Say this morning one of my fellow guests was a singer in Peshawar, Rahim Khan. He had been a student at the Army Public School on Warsak Road, Peshawar, from 2001-2003, in grades 11 and 12. In this clip he recalls a reunion at the school ten years later with the principal Tahira Qazi, who was so brutally killed in the attack on Dec 16. Rahim remembered singing in the very auditorium where so many were killed. We shared some more thoughts on Twitter later; see below. Continue reading →
Filed under: 'War on terror' | Tagged: Pakistan, Peshawar school attack, Tahira Qazi, Taliban | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 16, 2014 by beenasarwar
Devastated at the news from Peshawar. Unless and until Pakistan doesn’t get out of this confusion of ‘good Taliban’ and ‘bad Taliban’ and treat every single criminal act as a criminal act and move to punish those who perpetuate it, whether in the name of religion or for whatever justification, we will not begin to move out of this morass. Sharing a statement from Malala Yousafzai that was just released: “I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us. Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this. I condemn these atrocious and cowardly acts and stand united with the government and armed forces of Pakistan whose efforts so far to address this horrific event are commendable. I, along with millions of others around the world, mourn these children, my brothers and sisters – but we will never be defeated.”
Filed under: Pakistan | Tagged: fasadis, Malala, Pakistan, Peshawar attack, Taiban | 4 Comments »
Journeys to democracy 