“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” tweeted the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, on the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on August 23.

While this is the aspiration of the world’s democracies, the concepts of human rights and equality are mocked every day in illegally occupied territories of Jammu-Kashmir (PoJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), which mostly go unnoticed under tyrannical rule and censorship. This is in total contradiction to the Secretary-General’s tweet.

Kashmir is no “complicated international conflict”, as suggested in the recent opinion piece of Pakistan’s national daily, The Nation. The article makes preposterous, farce claims about the land of Jammu and Kashmir which made an independent decision to accede to India in October 1947, when the Pakistan Army sent thousands of tribesmen from their territory to annex J&K. Disturbing an independent princely state in hopes of colonizing it, looting its resources, and using its geostrategic location as a terror-breeding sanctuary to keep India in fear, that is Pakistani mentality till date.

This isn’t an assumption. The live evidence is the mortal remains of what we call Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK). Land grabbing, and plundering of resources like water, minerals, forest derivatives, crops, etc. has been the ongoing business since day one. Over the years, 20-hour load-shedding periods, starvation, and lack of basic amenities like hospital access, schools, and clean drinking water, have been normalized. Threatened with force, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances, residents are given just enough to remain alive.

Pakistan calls the new airport in Skardu and the Mangla Dam in Mirpur advancement, but never addresses the environmental catastrophe it has caused. The airport has snatched the livelihood of people who anyway cannot afford its use, and the dam has caused floods and submerged thousands of homes. Every economic activity in this territory is only for the state’s interests.

Citizens’ demands from the government, their pleadings, and requests resulted in a revolt for dismemberment from the state of Pakistan decades ago. These uprisings have been silenced with open firings. Despite repeated warnings by the UN, Pakistan continues its human rights violations in PoJK and GB.

Ironically, Pakistan beats its chest beating for the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. But on what grounds does it invoke the UN Security Council Resolutions of 1948, when it hasn’t adhered to any of its conditions itself? It never withdrew its tribesmen or Pak nationals from the Indian territory of Kashmir, as laid down in condition one. On July 7, 1948, the Pak Army had three Brigades of regular troops in Kashmir. To this, Joseph Korbel, a member of the UN Commission said, “This disclosure of Pakistan had changed the entire complexion of the Kashmir issue.” The SC Resolution of 1948 was violated in letter and spirit by Pakistan, making it defunct.

Today the UT of J&K is at least a hundred years ahead of PoJK. Accounts of exiled citizens of PoJK reveal appalling details of the Pak Army’s loot and colonization. Every week there is a story of terror launchpads budding in the region preparing for jihad in Kashmir. Their Kashmir jihad strategy was so popular among Army circles that it is being replicated in the progressive, colonized province of Balochistan!

Pak Army’s motto, ‘Rules for thee, not for me’, will not work anymore. History cannot be erased by raising slogans of ‘Free Kashmir’, when Pakistan has done everything in its power to neocolonize it. The pains of Kashmiris under Pakistan rule cannot be invalidated and forgotten. Rather, they should serve as a caution to Pak sympathizers as to what this rogue nation is capable of.

After three wars, countless armed skirmishes, and daily battles by Pakistan over Kashmir, it is ludicrous to view Pakistan as a stable entity, let alone a peace-loving nation. Pakistan has gaslighted itself into believing its false narratives. But their derangement is understandable; after all, it is only the Kashmir tantrum that keeps them relevant in 2023.

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid

During his 44 months rule as Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan mainly concentrated on exposing earlier ruler’s corruption, ignoring his duties towards his countrymen. After his ouster, he was exposed for corruption. He told the truth about his opponents and the opponents told the truth about him when they came to power. The sum total of these truths was moral collapse that has kept Pakistan in political and economic anarchy.

There is another truth as tweeted by a Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Muzaffar Khokhar. This truth relates to the relations of the people of occupied Kashmir to Pakistan. It says “Now the people of PoJK have to decide whether they have to accede to a state (Pakistan) facing moral decline and political anarchy or live free and independent like a dignified country and nation in the world”. Addressing the PoK people, he asked them to observe Pakistan’s independence day as black day. He said the creation of Pakistan did not mean Islam, iman (faith) and deen (religion). He said Pakistan killed and raped their own Muslim brothers and sisters and created Bangladesh. This spoke of moral degradation of Pakistan.

Kashmiri leaders, who left the National Conference to revive the Muslim conference at the behest of Muslim League Chief Mohammad Ali Jinnah were moved by Jinnah’s awe and not by Kashmir’s long-term interest.  They were blinded by their sycophantic feelings towards Jinnah. As against them, Sheikh Abdullah favoured India because of its respect for Constitutionalism.

After 1947, Muslim Conference (MC) leaders in PoJK realized if you are on the right side of the Pakistani rulers especially its Army, the occupied territory is for you to loot. MC supreme Sardar Abdul Qayym considered himself born ruler of PoJK. He and his son made money left and right without any fear of accountability. In other words, PoJK could not be any better than their counterpart Pakistani masters.

For their own selfish motive, MC leaders have always harmed the interest of fellow PoJK Kashmiris. In April 1949, MC leaders signed an agreement with Pakistani government handing over to Karachi (then national capital of Pakistan) administration of Northern Areas (now Gilgit Baltistan). This formally divided Pakistan controlled Kashmir into so-called Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas. All the communication between the two was permanently cut off. An Azad Kashmiri could go anywhere in Pakistan but could not cross the Luxman rekha to see his brothers and sisters in Northern Areas.

Sardar Qayyum collaborated with the Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to prepare the 1974 Provisional Constitution for PoJK. This was very openly a document of slavery of Kashmiris in PoJK. This document has been ruling PoJK for almost six decades but no squeak from anywhere.

There are no protests as Arif Shahid writes in his Urdu book “kaun azad kaun ghulam” slave Kashmiri of PoJK have been given an injection to put the high in the belief that they are azad.

JKLF leader Khokhar says PoJK Kashmiris do not understand that Pakistan wants to stab them in the back. He tweets Pakistan is in favour of splitting Kashmiri in pieces. Favour of gifting Kashmir to Daddy China.  Favour of being a so-called administrator and then grabbing land.  Favour of forcefully taking our rights.

From day one, Pakistan has been known for political murders, for palace intrigues, deceit, corruption in high places and sectarian and communal hatred.  All this has boiled down to the present anarchy and despair. Can such a country woo Kashmiris?

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

With India’s successful landing on the moon on Wednesday, social media is discussing how Pakistan is lagging behind its neighbour in the field of science and technology. While the factors that contributed to this lack of progress in scientific research in Pakistan are multifold, religious bigotry has been one of the main hurdles. Pakistan’s first Nobel laureate Dr. Abdus Salman, who was once leading the country’s efforts to develop its space and nuclear programmes and had founded Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Corporation (SUPARCO), was later shunned due to his Ahmadi faith.

In 1961, Dr Abdus Salam collaborated with late Pakistan Air Force (PAF) commodore WJM Turowicz to set up SUPARCO. When SUPARCO was established, its founders and scientists who were part of it worked tirelessly to develop scientific research in Pakistan. Pakistani scientists were connected with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It was expected that within a decade or two, Pakistan would be able to send its own satellites into space. But this dream soon came crashing down.

Dr Abdus Salam’s collaborations with NASA eventually stopped after he was snubbed with the Ahmadi community being declared non-Muslim through an amendment to the Constitution in 1974. Salam then left Pakistan for England, orphaning the country’s space programmes and quitting his efforts of developing scientific research in Pakistan. Thereafter, the government of Pakistan lost interest in improving Pakistan’s space programme with the help of international researchers and scientists.

Due to his Ahmadi faith, Dr Abdus Salam was never duly acknowledged and celebrated for his achievements despite being the country’s first Nobel prize winner. Salam passed away in 1996 in Oxford, United Kingdom, and was laid to rest in his hometown, the Ahmadi majority city of Rabwah. The epitaph on his tomb initially said “First Muslim Nobel Laureate”, but the then government of Pakistan removed the word “Muslim” and left only his name on the headstone. The way Salam was shunned for his religious identity in spite of his dream to take Pakistan’s space programme to new heights reflects how bigotry and extremism has always cost Pakistan dearly.

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid

In 1972, when he had been made the Chief Martial Law Administrator-cum-President of the just truncated Pakistan by country’s defeated Army, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said the problem of Baluchistan was its Sardars.  He was hostile to them because in the December 1970 elections, under their influence, Baluchistan totally rejected his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

The Sardars demanded that their Victorious National Awami Party (NAP) be allowed to form the government in Baluchistan.  Bhutto did not like it but since the support of this party was unavoidable for the passage of the under-preparation constitution, he gave in. The NAP had unchallenged position in Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province- NWFP- (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-KPK).  So, Bhutto willy-willy allowed NAP government in Baluchistan.  However, after the passage and promulgation of the Constitution on August 14, 1973, Bhutto dismissed the NAP government in Baluchistan on charges that it was getting arms from Iraq to attack Pakistan.  He ordered military crackdown on the population of Baluchistan and jailed all top NAP leaders including its Chief Khan Abdul Wali Khan. Wali Khan alleged jailed NAP leaders were subjected to slow poisoning.

The Baluch went up the hills with their weapons to fight the bombing Army.  A large number of the Baluch fled to Afghanistan where Khair Bux Marri organized military training for NAP Chief Minister in the dismissed provincial government. Ataullah Mengal went away to London to return home after about six months with a vow not to speak Pakistan’s national language Urdu.  This Sardar thus, isolated himself from Pakistan’s social and political life.

Nawab Akbar Bugti made himself an object of Baluch distrust and contempt by betraying Ataullah Mengal’s Provincial Baluchistan government by telling Bhutto that this government was getting arms from Iraq.  Bhutto rewarded Bugti with the Governorship of Baluchistan.  But Bugti’s allegation was never proved. It, however, helped Bhutto to fill up the Provincial Assembly with his own party’s defeated candidates just as governor general and Muslim League leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah did in NWFP in 1947 after removing Doctor Khan Saheb’s Congress government.

Bugti must have felt double crossed by the Pakistan establishment when the rival Bugti tribe rose against him. Then he tried to rehabilitate himself by demanding return of natural wealth, including Gwadar, of Baluchistan to its people.  “Our Wasael and Sahil” (our natural resources and coasts) became his slogan for which he was killed by the Army in 2006.

A powerful Sardar, Ataullah Mengal quietened himself. Bugti was removed from the scene and now there is a conspiracy to eliminate Ataullah’s son Akhtar Mengal.  He is a non aggressive but capable politician. The Army does not want to see him in power. He had become chief minister of Baluchistan in the 1990s.  He was removed and subsequently put in a cage in Karachi. But in his media interviews, he showed no cantankerous feelings for anybody. He is now facing threats to his life for demanding Baluchistan’s right to its natural resources.

Like rival Bugti tribe against Akbar Bugti, a death squad headed by one Shafiq Mengal has been set-up to eliminate Akhtar Mengal. Shafiq from Khuzdar has been made very powerful by the Army. He belongs to rival Mengal tribe and said to be responsible for many deaths and disappearances.  He has set up Baluch Armed Defence Organisation, a pro-Army tribal militia. This militia was established ten years after the killing of Bugti. Shafiq Mengal has grabbed Akhtar Mengal’s land, unleashing a war between the two rival armies of Mengal tribes.

Bhutto had cursed Sardar influence in Baluchistan. But, alas, Baluchistan has become a lawless province with official mechanizations.   The rule of lawless elements like Shafiq Mengal is not surprising.

(The Author can be reached at Samuelbaid.work@gmail.com)

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid

The emotion of love and hate that marked India-Pakistan relations in the past did not allow the stalemate between the two neighbors to persist without an end. But Pakistan’s political leadership that replaced seasoned leaders in 2018 did not show any sensitivity about relations with neighbors. In fact, they did not show adequate interest in the four provinces of own Pakistan- then what to talk of the region.  For example, when former Prime Minister Imran Khan talked of Pakistan, he mainly confined himself to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK). Sindh and Baluchistan did not seem to be existing for him.

On the other hand, India is adamant that it will talk to Pakistan only if it drops its policy of using terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy.  Pakistan cannot do that. India has experienced that all peace efforts have been sabotaged by the terrorist activities against it or by dismissal of pro-normalization leaders.  Cash-strapped Pakistan has been producing lakhs of terrorists every year.  Their utility is only to the Army by keeping India disturbed. Former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif admitted in February 2023 that terrorists roam around in Pakistan.  Those who breed the army of terrorists do not seem to understand how this always begging country can afford to support an army of unproductive people.

Shehbaz admitted the presence of terrorists in his country but tries to deny that they enjoy official patronage or they had safe havens in Pakistan or that they were settled on any tract of Pakistan.  He said they had not been able to settle in any part of the country.  Going by Shehbaz’s claim, it looks Pakistani terrorists are like ghosts who roam around everywhere but the government does not know where they park themselves.  However, the people know where the establishment provides them safe houses in the four provinces.

The fact is that the just gone government of Shehbaz Sharif as also of his predecessor Imran Khan were beholden to the Army for the PM post.  Both of them were new to this post, but they knew no PM can exist in Pakistan if she or he tries to normalize relations with India.

Imran was ousted from power not because he made overtures to India, but because of his tiff with the Army Chief Gen. Javed Bajwa.  As for relations with India, he had blocked chances of normalization by pre-conditioning  them to the restoration of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which gave Kashmiris a special status in India.  Imran had miserably failed in the United Nations General Assembly to condemn abrogation of Article 370. He spoke for longer than the time allotted to him and exposed his immaturity in diplomacy.  Muslim countries did not support him. In fact, India and Muslim countries’ relations became cordial as never before.  India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was warmly welcomed in all the Muslim countries he visited in the past two years, i.e. after Imran’s UNGA speech.

The erstwhile Shehbaz Sharif government was hesitant to talk about relations with India. Shehbaz fears the Army’s displeasure and Imran’s reaction just when the general elections are near. However, he made a neither-here-nor-there statement.  In January this year, he told Dubai-based news channel ‘Al Arabiya’ that three wars between India and Pakistan only brought more misery, poverty and unemployment to the people. He said a dialogue between India Pakistan would have no meaning without taking up contentious topics. That was an obvious reference to Kashmir.  And that means as Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto said, restoration of Article 370.

At the inaugural session of the Pakistan Minerals Summit in Islamabad early this month (August) Shahbaz stated that it was equally important that our neighbor (India) understood that we cannot become normal neighbors unless abnormalities are removed and until our serious issues are addressed through peaceful and meaningful discussions.

It is notable here that Shehbaz is emphasizing on Kashmir for peace but he is completely ignoring India’s complaint about Pakistani terrorist activities against it.

One uncharitable truth about Pakistan that we should keep in mind is that terrorism if it does not target the Pakistani Army is no terrorism. A Pakistani terrorist is produced not by economic or national forces but by distortion of religious teachings. Thus a terrorist who targets India is made to believe that he is fighting a jihad. That is why there is no punishment for him. Those terrorist who attack India live in safe houses in Pakistan under the protection of the Army. Was Shehbaz joking when he said India should understand “our serious issue.”

(The Author can be reached at Samuelbaid.work@gmail.com)

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid

United States former Secretary of States Hillary Clinton must have sounded like a voice in the wilderness when she warned Pakistan against rearing poisonous snakes in its backyard. By these snakes she obviously meant terrorists in the garb of Islam. They project Islam as a face of terrorism. This is more satanic than the Islamophobia in Europe, Holy Quran burning in Sweden or Satanic Verses of Salman Rushdie.

India’s neighbour Pakistan and now Afghanistan abound with such snakes. Names like Sipah-i-Sahaba, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Lashkar-i-Tayyiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa and many others have begun to sound obsolete in the face of about the daily killing of Muslims by the Tehreek-i-Taliban, Pakistan (TTP) and its factions and the Islamic states in Iraq and Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-K) in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda remains active in these countries as a guide of terrorists.

The TTP’s main targets in Pakistan are the Army and the Police.  The ISIL-K’s target in Afghanistan are the ruling Taliban. Pakistan, too, is its target. On December 2 last year it attacked Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul targeting Pakistan’s Charged’ Affaires Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani. He escaped unhurt but his guard was critically injured. Subsequently, the Taliban government killed 8 ISIL-K men who were involved in the attack on Pakistan’s embassy.

Again on July 30 this year, the ISIL-K staged a suicide attack in Pakistan, on a convention of the workers of Islamic Party Jamiat-ul-Ulema-i-Islam killing 54 workers in Khar area of Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). As said above, the Army and the police are the targets of the TTP. It has also threatened Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto. A TTP statement said “if these two parties Nawaz Muslim League and Pakistan People’s Party remain firm on their position and continue to be slaves of the Army, action will be taken against their leading people”.

TTP has been mighty emboldened to attack Pakistan, ironically, after Pakistan planked the Taliban on Afghanistan against its people’s will for the second time in about 20 years in August 2021. Pakistan in its twisted wisdom hoped that with the Taliban in power in Afghanistan it would have practical suzerainty over that country and the Taliban fighter could be used against India in Kashmir. But things would go the other way: the Taliban announced they would not be used against another and the soil of Afghanistan would not be used against another country. This was considered to be the Taliban’s reply to Pakistan’s design. In addition to this, the Taliban’s Pakistan-based ideological juniors, the TTP, announced its programme to increase attacks on Pakistani Army. And true to its word, it increased its almost daily attacks on the Army and the police.

Their biggest attack was early this year when they suicide-attacked a large mosque in Peshawar which was patronised by the policemen.  More than 100 worshippers were killed.  Earlier in December, the TTP took over a police detention centre in the garrison city of Bannu (KPK) and held Army and police official hostages after snatching their weapons and released some prisoners.

On January 2,Pakistan’s National Security Council sternly told the Taliban to stop patronising those terrorists who have fled from Pakistan to safe havens in Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s reply is:

1. The TTP has safe heavens in Pakistan and not in Afghanistan.
2. The Taliban tell Pakistan they signed the Doha agreement not to let foreign terrorists operate in Afghanistan with the United States, not with Pakistan. Therefore, Pakistan cannot ask them to honour this agreement.

• Pakistan should have direct talk with the TTP

1. To Pakistan’s threat of using its right of hot pursuit into Afghanistan, the Taliban reminded it of its Army’s meek surrender to India’s Army in December 1971

The Taliban who have much to thank Pakistan for their emergence what they are today, don’t seem ready to sacrifice their benefactor’s enemy number 1, the TTP. Perhaps the Taliban seriously believe in the assumption that an unstable country needs an external enemy. It is becoming clear that the Taliban cannot control the TTP. The TTP has come close to al-qaeda and other terrorist groups. There are already emotional issues between Afghanistan and Pakistan like the Durand line and Pakistan’s credibility in the eyes of the Afghans.

Pakistan’s problems like the Taliban, the TTP and many others are the product of its policy of mischievously exploiting the name of Islam. All Pakistani leaders right from the country’s creator Mohammad Ali Jinnah, have depended on the exploitation of Islam because none of them had a clear vision of Pakistan. As a result, poisonous snakes are covering the soil of this “God-given” country.

(The writer can be reached at samuelbaid.work@gmail.com)

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid

From the Karachi newspapers in the early 1970s, one gets an impression that there was harmony between Shias and Sunnis. To some extent, it was reflected in the matrimonial advertisements in the Urdu newspapers. Some of them said: “we are cultured people from UP (India).  Gentlemen from Punjab and Kashmir should not bother to reply.” Such ads did not say Shias or Sunnis should not apply indicating that matrimonially, they were mutually acceptable.

And why not? Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a Sunni, married Nusrat, an Iranian Shia. He was made Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA) and President of Pakistan after its breakup in December 1971. Later, on August 14, 1973, he became the country’s Prime Minister on the inauguration of the new constitution. But, Shias were not destined to live a peaceful life in Pakistan, which had been created by their fellow-Shia Mohammad Ali Jinnah and where they accounted, it is said, for about 30 percent of the population.

The 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran turned out to be the beginning of Shia’s nightmare in Pakistan. Gen Zia-ul-Haq, who had already completed about four years in usurped power after overthrowing Bhutto’s government in Pakistan in July 1975, did not like Ayatullah Khomeni. Khomeni looked askance at Zia’s Islamisation claims. His change in school text books and tax on agricultural income were rejected by Shias because they considered them against Shia’s teaching. They protested. Zia felt the Iran revolution had emboldened them.

Zia decided to tame them not by direct police action but by promoting Sunni hatred for them and the demand that Shias be thrown out from the pail of Islam as were Ahmadiyya’s by the Parliament in 1974.

There already existed Sunni Madarsas like Jamia Benuria in Karachi which preached against Shias. In addition, Shia helped in the establishment of notorious Lal Masjid in the heart of the national capital of Islamabad. This masjid believed in militant Sunni Islam and, therefore, was anti-Shia and home to Sunni terrorists.

At the same time (around 1986), Zia blessed the launching of Sipah-e-Sahaba, Pakistan (SSP). The SSP began a character assassination campaign, calling Shias immoral. This was a reference to the old Iranian practice to allow foreigners, who come to Iran for job, to have live-in relationship with local women and leave behind the woman and children while returning, with some money.

The SSP also campaigned for the ouster of Shias from Islam and killed them. It was considered the mother of all terrorist organization. But terrorists like Malik Ishaq accused the SSP of being not tough enough against Shia.  Thus Lashkar-e-Jhangvi emerged vowing in 1946 to cleanse Pakistan of Shias. Ishaq was responsible for the death of hundreds of Shias, but courts could not punish him because witnesses did not turn up. He started genocide of Hazara Shias in Quetta (Baluchistan) with impunity. It was very easy to kill Hazara Shias because they are not fighting type; they are more interested in education and progress.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi gave birth to a more poisonous outfit, called Lashkar-i-Jhangvi Al Ahami. Thus, today Pakistan is bristling with terrorist groups who consider killing of fellow Muslims as a great service to Islam, thanks to Zia’s Islam.

Zia was irritated by Shia-majority Gilgit-Baltistan’s demand of civil rights and a constitutional identity. Zia gave them two replies:

• Increased the Army’s presence in the occupied territory and;
• Push armed Sunni hordes who destroyed local’s farms, shops and attacked Shias. Consequently, locals demand for civil right changed into Shia-Sunni riots in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Zia had a special grouse against Shias of North-West Frontier Province-NWFP- now, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). During, the Afghan war in the 1980s, a very large number of Shias were butchered in KPK. This news was suppressed because it clashed with America pro-war propaganda blitz. However, much later, some Urdu newspaper briefly reported this by writing that these Shias were accused of trying to stop Pakistani Mujahidin to go to Afghanistan to join American Jihad; Obviously, this killing of Shias were ordered by Zia.

Zia died in a plane crash in 1988.  But it was no cause of relief to Shias.  The SSP he had created led to other Shia killing organizations like Tehreek-i- Taliban, Pakistan (TTP) is also anti-Shia.

KPK’s Kurram district has been a Shia-Sunni battle ground for decades.  The district is a war-like situation. Social media reports claim that Taliban fighters have crossed Pak-Afghan border to join Sunni tribes against Shias in Kurram. Pakistan has not been able to firstly fence the border and disputes, especially, after the merger of FATA with KPK in 2018, are responsible for 3,000 deaths in Shia-Sunni violence. Kurram Agency has already seen prolonged Shia-Sunni riots between 2007 and 2014 which claimed 5,000 lives.

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

Despite all the hue and cry, the crime of kidnapping young Hindu girls to force them become Muslims to marry Muslim men goes on and so goes on destruction of Hindu temples to make them become shopping malls. Last month (July) two heinous crimes took place in Karachi within the space of about more than a week. The first incident of demolishing a 150 year old Hindu temple took place in Karachi’s Soldier Bazar under the very nose of the local police station.

In the second case three daughters of a Hindu businessman were kidnapped in Sindh’s Dhatki area. A leader of the Minority Right Group Shiva Kachhi said inspite of several pleas by his organization the kidnapping, forced conversion of Hindu girls and their forced marriage to Muslim men goes on. He said the police and authorities don’t help at all. It is said that after Seema Haider, a mother of four children ran away to India to join his Hindu boy friend Sachin, attacks on the Hindu community have increased. She had befriended Sachin online.

There is no logic in retaliating against Seema’s escape to India and against Hindus in Sindh. Did Pakistanis retaliate against Chinese in Pakistan when Pakistani girls ran away to China some years ago in search of suitable boys? Coming to the first incident, one hundred and fifty year old Hindu temple Mari Mata in soldier Bazaar was demolished with a bulldozer when the area was pitch dark because of no electricity. When the Hindus got up in the morning, they were shocked: there was no temple, only its boundary walls and gate were there. The residents said the police helped in the demolition. The Soldier Bazar Police station was just there.

Builders are always on loot for derelict Hindus places of worship, which after Hindus left what became Pakistan, became easy target for them because of the confusion about their ownership. For example, builders seem to be sure nobody will have ownership papers of the land (about 500 sq. yards) of Mari Mata temple. .

The Madrasi Hindu community manages the affairs of this temple. A member of the community said two persons were forcing them to vacate the temple. There was also talk the two had already sold the temple land for Rs. 70 million to a party which plans to build a commercial building there.

There is also a talk of a person possessing fake documents to allow transfer of lease. A place of worship is destroyed not merely for land grab but more so for blind hate. Thus it is not only Hindus’ temples, Christians’ Churches, ‘Ahmadiyyas’ places of worship but also Barelvis’ mosques by their fellow Sunni Deobandis we want to destroy or grab their mosques. Notably a Barelvi mosque is burnt together with the copies of holy Quran. No public protests are made.

Similarly, churches of Christians, whom they call Ahl-i-Kitab or the people of the same book are destroyed although the same God is worshipped there. During the 1965 war, Pakistani bombers wanted to target Ambala Cantt’s Military hospital but could not do so because the steeple of the Church came in the way of the bombers. Gen. Ayub Khan ordered the pilots to destroy the church. Pilots obeyed and the beautiful church was razed to ground in seconds.

Hindus and Buddhists, have given Pakistan a treasure of ancient temples which if developed as a tourist attraction can attract millions of tourists every year and remove the stigma of world beggar at the doors of non-Muslims in China, America and Europe. But Pakistan will have to first cross the seemingly impossible river of blind hate.

Pakistan is like a foolish man who slaughtered his hen who laid golden eggs every morning.

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.

By Samuel Baid

Tehrik-e-Labbaik, Pakistan (TLP) seems to have made anti-Ahmadiyya campaign in Punjab as its election campaign this year end.

The TLP is the re-christened name of Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA), an organization of Barelvi fanatics who rose from the grave of Mumtaz Qadri, who had been executed for killing Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer in January 2011 for demanding amendment in blasphemy laws.

The rechristening of the TLYRA came ahead of the 2018 general elections in the wake of rumours that the Army wanted to mainstream Islamist groups as political parties. It was here that the TLYRA decided to take part in elections as the TLP. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) registered it as a political party in 2017. In the following general elections in 2018, the TLP fielded about 750 candidates but won two seats in Sindh. However, it emerged as the fifth largest political party in Pakistan signaling success of the Pakistan Army’s strategy to mainstream Islamist groups as political parties.

The Army had helped TLP’s parent body, the TLYRA, in many ways to emerge as terror for the government. It gave financial help to the participants of the TYLRA’s dharna that kept road communication between Islamabad and Rawalpindi blocked for many days. The Islamabad High Court sternly told the government to use its police force to get this dharna dispersed. But to the chagrin  of the court, the government succumbed to the Army’s intervention to impose a compromise with the TYLRA. The government as a result had to withdraw cases against dharna participants; pay for the damage they had caused and remove the Law Minister who changed the electoral law which did not differentiate between Muslims and Ahmadiyyas in its column of religion of election forms. TYLRA did not want the identities of Muslims and Ahmadiyya to be submerged. That showed its hate for Ahmadiyyas.

As said earlier, the TYLRA had roots in Barelvi philosophy. But Barelvi chief Shah Ahmed Noorani believed in non violence. He had opposed the gun culture being promoted among the Pakistani youth to fight the America’s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Barelvis were among those Islamic groups in united India who opposed creation of Pakistan. But once Pakistan was created they shifted to the new country and joined against Ahmadiyyas who, they said, could not call themselves Muslims in a country created in the name of Islam. Former Chief Justice of Pakistan Muhammad Munir, who held the inquiry into anti-Ahmadiyya riots in Punjab in 1953, does not say in his Book from “Jinnah to Zia” (Lahore 1979) if Barelvis took any part in the riots. We used to get the image of Barelvis as pacifists.

As said above, Barelvi Chief Shah Ahmed Noorani had opposed arming of young people to fight America’s war in Afghanistan. Gen. Ziaul Haq, who was benefitting from this war, became hostile to anyone who opposed this. He was friendly to those who helped in war efforts. Thus Deobandis of Maulana Fazul ur Rehman who produced thousands of young people from his ISI-funded madarsas to fight in Afghanistan freely attacked Barelvi’s mosques and captured them.

Barelvi youths were thus radicalized to protect their mosques. They set up Sunni Tehrik in 1990 and became Sunni sectarian militant outfit. Mumtaz Qadri, who had killed Punjab’s governor for demanding amendment to the Blasphemy laws, was a member of the Sunni Tehrik.

The success of its dharna in protest against the Law Minister’s change in the election form must have convinced the TLYRA that anti-Ahmadiyya plank could be the most vote catching strategy in elections. Perhaps it was because of this that it decided to fight the July 2018 general elections in the name of TLP- and it did well.

The TLP has started a campaign against Ahmadiyyas in Jhelum (Punjab). It has threatened to destroy places of worship of Ahmadiyyas if the police do not destroy them by the end of current month. The police at once came into action and pulled down the minarets of a newly built place of worship of Ahmadiyyas. The TLP said the minarets made the structure look like a mosque – which is illegal, according to rules laid down by Gen. Ziaul Haq. These rules said Ahmadiyyas must not show by word or signs that they are Muslims.

If an epitaph on the gravestone of a dead Ahmadiyya suggests he was a Muslim it is blasphemy. Therefore, fanatics like the TLP break such graves. They also do not allow Ahmadiyyas to celebrate Eid. At the time of just- ended Eid-ul-Zuha, sacrificial animals were snatched away from Ahmadiyya faith folks.

Note: The views  and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinion of the author.