Bharat Rakshak

People belonging to minority communities of Pakistan and Bangladesh, staying in India on a Long Term Visa, will soon be granted Indian citizenship, claims report.

Reportedly, the Ministry of Home Affairs has come up with various draft amendments which will exempt Pakistan and Bangladesh’s minority citizens from being categorised as illegal migrants.

With the amendments such refugees will be legally allowed to stay in India and also apply for citizenship.

Though the exact number of minority refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan living in India is not known, according to rough official estimates there are around two lakh such people, mostly Hindus and Sikhs.

There are around 400 Pakistani Hindu refugee settlements in cities like Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jaipur, Raipur, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Kutch, Bhopal, Indore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Delhi and Lucknow.

The Ordinance promulgated by the President (of Pakistan) on April 26, 1984, goes a long way in accepting the most extreme demands and transforms much of the daily life of the Community into a criminal offence.
-Yohanan Friedman, Prophecy Continuous (1989)

On June 4, 2016, an Ahmadi doctor, identified as Dr. Hameed Ahmed (65), was shot dead by unidentified militants in the Islam Colony area of Attock District of Punjab. Dr Hameed had been facing threats and intimidation on account of being an Ahmadi. In 2014, his clinic had survived an attempted arson attack.

On May 25, 2016, another Ahmadi, identified as Daud Ahmad (55), was killed in a targeted attack while he was waiting for his friend outside his house in the Gulzar-e Hijri area of Gulshan Town in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.

On March 2, 2016, in another such attack, an Ahmadi, identified as Qamarul Zia (35), was killed for his faith in the Kot Abdul Malik city of the Sheikhupura District of Punjab. Zia was killed while he was leaving his house to fetch his children from school. Zia's murder marked the first killing of an Ahmadi in 2016. Zia had survived several attacks in the past. Six months ago, he was attacked by cadres of the Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatm-e-Nubuwwat (MTKN/Organization for the Preservation of the End of Prophethood. Zia had also been attacked by some religious clerics in 2012.

According to Persecution of Ahmadis, an organization that documents violence against Ahamdis in Pakistan and rest of the world, at least 194 Ahmadis have been killed in Pakistan since 2001 [data till 2015]. Two Ahmadis were killed in 2015, 11 in 2014, seven in 2013, 10 in 2012, five in 2011, 99 in 2010, 11 in 2009, six in 2008, five in 2007, three in 2006, 11 in 2005, one in 2004, three in 2003, nine in 2002 and 11 in 2001.

According to South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) data, at least three Ahmadis have been killed in targeted attacks in 2016, thus far (Data till June 19, 2016).

In the worst ever attack on the Ahmadis, at least 86 worshippers of the community were killed and another 98 were severely injured in a suicide attack at Darul Zikr and Baitul Noor mosques in the Model Town and Garhi Shahu areas of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, on May 28, 2010. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack and congratulated Pakistanis, calling people of the Ahmadiyya community “enemies of Islam and common people”. The outfit urged Pakistanis to take the “initiative” and kill every such person in “rage”.

Ahmadis differ with other Muslim sects over the finality of Prophet Muhammad as the last Prophet. The Ahmadi branch of Islam was founded on March 23, 1889, by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Qadian town of pre-partition Punjab. They believe in the Prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and have endured discrimination and violent persecution for holding this belief. An estimated 10 to 20 million Ahmadis live all over the world, representing 1 per cent of the total Muslim population. The core community lives in Pakistan, mainly in Punjab and Sindh Provinces. The estimated population of Ahmadis in Pakistan is 2-4 million out of the total population of over 192 million, amounting to 3.1 per cent to 4.2 per cent of the total.

The campaign against Ahmadis started soon after Independence in 1947, when religious clerics in the newly created Pakistan demanded that Ahmadis be declared a non-Muslim minority, and that Pakistan's first Ahmadi Foreign Minister, Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, be removed from the cabinet for adopting Articles 18 and 19 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), providing for the freedom of conscience and freedom to change one's religion. Khan had then argued that these articles were compatible with and recognized under Islamic Law (Shariah), and declared the adoption of the provisions of the UDHR as an "epoch making event." Article 18 of UDHR influenced Article 20 of the then Pakistan Constitution, which read:

Subject to law, public order and morality:- (a) every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice and propagate his religion; (b) every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.

Violence against Ahmadis started in March 1953, engulfing Punjab to claim over a dozen lives. However, the persecution of Ahmadis was systematically institutionalized on September 6, 1974, when the Pakistan National Assembly under the leadership of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto declared them as a ‘non-Muslim minority’. The process to dilute the provisions of Article 20 was, in fact, initiated by Bhutto, in 1974. Later, in 1984, President General Zia-ul-Haq issued an ordinance to amend the Objectives Resolution of 1949, in an effort to placate Muslim clerics and establish the principal of religious conformity in Pakistan. Under this resolution, Pakistan was to be modeled on the ideology and democratic faith of Islam and all rules and regulations were to be framed in consonance with Islam, allowing a greater role to the Ulema, who felt emboldened by this recognition.

Thereafter, five Criminal Ordinances explicitly or principally targeting religious minorities were passed by Parliament in 1984. These new laws restricted the freedom of faith for Ahmadis, among others. The five ordinances included a law against blasphemy; a law punishing the defiling of the Qur’an; a prohibition against insulting the wives, family or companions of the Prophet of Islam; and two laws specifically restricting the activities of Ahmadis. Zia-ul-Haq issued the last two laws as part of Martial Law Ordinance XX, on April 26, 1984, suppressing the activities of religious minorities, specifically including the Ahmadis, by prohibiting them from “directly or indirectly posing as Muslims.” Since then, a number of Ahmadi Muslims have been jailed for either reciting the Qur’an, or praying like a Muslim, or identifying themselves as Muslims.

Even as the persecution of Ahmadis was legalized and institutionalized in Pakistan, the hard-line Islamist clergy demanded a systematic purge of the Ahmadis. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) aggressively pushed this agenda and its leaders boasted of the anti-Ahmadi initiatives as the Party’s most noteworthy achievement. Indeed, even today, former Prime Minister and PPP leader Raja Parvez Ashraf, speaking at a political rally in Kotli, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, on April 29, 2016, declared,

No one has been able to compete with Pakistan People's Party, if someone has served Islam! Only the Government of Martyr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto did it. 90 Year Old Problem, the Problem of Qadianis [Ahmadis] who challenged the Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, (PPP) shut them up, broke their neck and buried the [Ahmadi] Problem (sic).

The rally was also attended by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and another former PPP Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani. Such statements by a former Prime Minister reek of hate and intolerance and are a demonstration of the dangers of religious prejudice and persecution that are nurtured by the Pakistani establishment and that have now travelled beyond Pakistan’s borders.

The ideology of intolerance and hate, which triggered the growth of extremism in Pakistan, also operates within the Pakistani Diaspora. The hatred for the Ahmadi has thus been exported to western countries as well. Recently, in an unprecedented anti-Ahmadi incident in the UK, an Ahmadi shopkeeper, identified as Asad Shah (40), was stabbed to death by another British Muslim in Scotland on March 24, 2016. Shah’s killer was identified as Tanveer Ahmad, a 32-year old Pakistani Muslim. Ahmad expressed no regrets for killing Shah and claimed that he had committed the act because Shah had “disrespected Islam,” and was a blasphemer. Significantly, Ahmad received praise from radical Sunni groups for this “courageous act”. The Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e- Nubuwwat (AMTKN / International Organization for the Preservation of the End of Prophethood), the sister organization of the MTKN, congratulated all Muslims on Asad’s cold-blooded murder on its Facebook page, in a gloating message “congratulation to All Muslims.”

Further, on April 10, 2016, leaflets calling for the killing of members of the Ahmadi sect were found in the Stockwell Green Mosque located in south London. The leaflets warned Ahmadis to either convert to ‘mainstream Islam’ within three days or face “capital punishment” [death].

Back in Pakistan, a Canadian cardiologist, identified as Mehdi Ali Qamar (51), was shot dead on his return to his home in the Chenab Nagar town (also known as Rabwah) of Chiniot District in the Punjab Province on May 24, 2014. Qamar had come to Pakistan on a short visit to render voluntary service to the Tahir Cardiac Hospital and was killed outside the Ahmadi graveyard located in Rabwah.

Shah’s murder in Glasgow and the targeted sectarian killings in Pakistan bring an embedded culture of sectarian hatred to the forefront. This culture is fostered by organizations like MTKN that have gained political, legal and constitutional legitimacy in the ‘Land of the Pure’.

MTKN was established by its mother organization, Majlis Ahrar Islam Pakistan (Organization for the freedom of Islam in Pakistan) prior to the 1953 anti-Ahmadi riots and soon after the partition of the sub-continent. It declares on its website,

Its sole aim has been and is to unite all the Muslims of the world to safeguard the sanctity of Prophethood and the finality of Prophethood and to refute the repudiators of the belief in the finality of Prophethood of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad.

The MTKN cult of violence against the Ahmadis, which includes endured discrimination, violent persecution, criminalization of identity, vandalizing of mosques and homes; and desecration of graves, has been transported to the west. A 2010 AMTKN calendar read, “The only cure of Qadianis (Ahmadis): Al Jihad, Al Jihad.”

The anti-Ahmadi culture and sentiment thrives with the unchecked circulation of hate literature. The anti-Ahmadi text ‘Tohfa Qadianiat’ written by Maulvi Yusuf Ludhianvi, in which he urges ‘ true Muslims’ to “not to leave a single Qadiani alive on earth”, is openly sold across Pakistan. Significantly, on June 10, 2011, the All Pakistan Students Khatm-e-Nubuwwat Federation, the student wing of the MTKN, issued pamphlets branding members of the Ahmadiyya community as “wajib-ul-qatl” (obligatory to be killed). The pamphlet, circulated in the Faisalabad District of Punjab Province, read, “To shoot such people is an act of jihad and to kill such people is an act of sawab (blessing).” Worse, in an outrageous attempt to further restrict the religious freedom of Ahmadis, the Government of Punjab on May 10, 2015, banned more than 90 books and publications by the members of the Ahmadi community. These books primarily include the whole body of work by the founder of the community.

Such state-backed religious zealotry has cost many innocent Ahmadi lives. Anti-Ahmadi violence persists inside Pakistan, with little to no effective Pakistani Government response at Federal, Provincial, or local levels. While the claims of “success against the militants” in tribal areas continue to resound at high decibels, attacks on Ahmadis occur unchecked. On November 13, 2013, Mehboob Qadir, a retired Brigadier of the Pakistan Army, wrote in Daily Times “The state has lost its sense of responsibility, control, direction, leaving the field open to all sorts of rogues, ruffians and assassins from all over the world in the name of jihad.” Regrettably, there is little evidence that the Pakistani state is now prepared to abandaon this long-standing policy of employing terrorism as an instrument of state policy and for domestic political management.

LAHORE: All 46 people accused of attacking a church and houses of Christians in a neighbourhood near Sanda police station were exonerated by a court on Thursday over faulty investigation and prosecution.

A mob had attacked the Christian neighbourhood after accusing one of the residents of blasphemy. In his 17-page judgement, Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Aaqib Nazir wrote that prosecution had failed to prove charges against the accused.

The judge ordered release of Liaqat, one of the accused who had been in police custody, the judge said. Muhammad Intizar, another accused, was declared proclaimed offender as he did not turn up before the court. During investigation, 21 nominated suspects were declared innocent while the rest were set free by the court.

According to the FIR, registered under Section 295, 295-A, 436, 452, 395, 353, 337-F1, 337-A1 and 148 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act on the complaint of a police official on May 24, 2015, nearly 800 people had broken the gate of Saint Joseph Church in Dhup Sari and ransacked the building. The FIR said they had also attacked neighbouring houses of Christian residents and stolen and destroyed personal belongings.

Operations DIG Haider Ashraf and Millat Park SHO Naveed Akmal were injured in the incident. The judge noted that police had committed some serious blunders in the investigation and that no one from the aggrieved community had appeared before the court.

Two Christian witnesses had appeared before the court. They vouched for the accused and denied their involvement in the incident. The court was informed that police had nominated one Muhammad Maalik who died in 1986. Two prosecution witnesses – Constable Mumtaz Hussain and Constable Arif Hussain – were declared hostile by the prosecution. The DIG did not record a detailed statement before the court. He named only one of the accused but could not recognise him when shown his picture.

Sub-inspector Anees told the court the suspects had broken into the houses of Alamgir Masih and Saleem Masih and stolen household goods. Alamgir and Saleem said that no one had broken into their homes.

Advocate Nadim Anthony, a council member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, criticised the judgment. He said it was the outcome of a faulty justice system.

“How a Christian can appear before court when he has no protection?” he said. “Christians and Ahmadis are the most vulnerable segments in our society and avoid recording statements against Muslims because they fear backlash.” He said it was the responsibility of the state to ensure protection of witnesses and dispense justice regardless of religion. “The same thing will happen with those behind the Joseph Colony arson,” he said.

arun wrote:Non-Mohammaddens learn what it is to be a Dhimmi Kaafir in the world’s first Ideological Muslim State

Besides demonstrating that one has good power of memorization what aptitude for a Medical Degree does memorizing the Quran demonstrate?

For minority students, no marks for learning scriptures

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has acquitted for lack of evidence 115 suspects accused of torching more than 100 houses of Christians at Joseph Colony in the city following an alleged blasphemy incident in 2013. Judge Chaudhry Muhammad Azam on Saturday accepted the arguments of defence and ordered acquittal of the suspects, observing that evidence presented by prosecution against the suspects was “insufficient” to convict them {Oh yes. That must be correct. Evidence against Ajmal Kasab was fabricated. There is no evidence against Hafiz Sayid or Masood Azhar or Lakhvi and the whole lot. 'Bad Taliban' are hanged through military courts without any proper trial or appeal. Omar Saeed Sheikh is still in jail, obviously being taken care of well, while appealing for release. Justice in Pakistan is impeccable indeed} .

Falijee wrote:Cousin of Nobel laureate Abdus Salam gunned down in Nankana Sahib

A history of persecution

In December, a charged mob of around 1,000 people had besieged an Ahmadi place of worship in Chakwal. Two people were reportedly killed and one injured in the attack.
In 2015, an enraged mob had set an Ahmadi place of worship on fire in Punjab's Jhelum district.
In 2014, 11 Pakistani members of the Ahmadi minority were reportedly murdered.
In 2013, seven members of the community were killed.
In 2012, 19 members of the community were murdered over the year.
In 2010, militants had attacked two Ahmadi places of worship during the Friday prayer service. According to government officials, the death toll was 80, but the community spokesman put the toll at 95.
In 2008, two leading members of the Ahmadi community were gunned down.
In 2005, eight people were killed and 18 others injured when three men on motorbikes opened fire on them as they were offering prayers. In the same year, all Ahmadi students were expelled from a medical college in Faisalabad.
In 2000, unidentified gunmen opened fire during prayers, killing five worshippers and injuring several others.
In 1995, two members of the community were stoned — one of whom died — in Peshawar.
In 1984, Ahmadis were restricted from 'misusing' the epithets, descriptions, titles, etc reserved for certain holy personages or places of Islamic origins. Ahmadis could not call themselves Muslim or propagate their faith.
In 1974, the then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s regime amended the constitution to include the definition of a Muslim and listed groups that were consider non-Muslim.

Saleemuddin, the Jamaat’s spokesperson, said the government had failed to implement the National Action Plan because no action had been taken against those inciting hatred against Ahmadis. As many as 700 articles were published in national dailies last year.
On Dec 12, 2016 extremists attacked an Ahmadiyya place of worship in Dolmial, in Chakwal district, Mr Saleemuddin said. The mob occupied the place for some time and police seemed to be helpless.
The report said that by Dec 31 last year, 260 Ahmadis had been killed and 377 of them had become victims of attempted murder.
In addition, 27 of their places of workshop had been destroyed and 33 of them sealed by the administration.
The report added that 17 of the worship places had been seized illegally.

In the remote village of Ghorghasht in Buner District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Priya Rani, a 17-year-old Sikh girl was on her way to school on Thursday when she went missing. Hours later, Muslim neighbors started knocking on her family home’s doors, congratulating her relatives of her marriage and her conversion to Islam. The parents, the siblings and the extended family – who all live under the same roof – were shocked.

“She is seventeen. She did not know what was going on. She has been tricked into this. We went to the police and complained,” Mahinder Lal, her uncle, who is one of the complainants in the case, told WION's Taha Siddiqui.But it was not easy getting the police to register such a case. “They kept saying it’s a matter of religion and now nothing can be done,” he adds.

But pressure from higher ups has led to the police registering a case and arresting the alleged husband, named Wajid Ali. They have also formed a joint investigation team to look into the matter. Meanwhile, Priya has been sent to a women protection center. The police are to complete their investigations in 15 days and then the fate of Priya is to be decided.

The family has little hope for an outcome in their favor, given the environment that now prevails in their village. “The Muslims took out a big rally where they talked of jihad against us, if the girl was returned. The authorities are not even letting us meet her. They are intimidating her, and threatening us to back down too,” says another relative of Priya, who wishes to remain anonymous.

Following these almost-violent protests by local Muslims on Friday, the family of Priya and some 35 Sikh families who live in the same neighborhood and own local shops have been forced to shut down their businesses. Many of them have restricted their movements. On the other hand, just down the road from where these shops are located, Muslim neighborhoods are thriving with business activity.

A visit to the police station where the case has been registered reflects how the law enforcers have already made up their minds, confirming the fears of the Sikh family. “She converted by her choice. She was in love with the boy. That’s the story – nothing more,” says one police officer at the station, who is part of the investigation team.

When told that she was underage and not mature to make such a decision, they disagree. They also underplay the threats against the religious minority. In the nearby city of Peshawar, the provincial capital, a fact-finding mission, led by Baba Ji Gurpal Singh visited the village following the incident.

“The police are under pressure. There were lots of mullahs when I went to the police station to talk to the investigation team. This is definitely a case of forced conversion,” says Gurpal Singh, who headed this fact-finding mission, under directions from one of the largest Sikh temples in the city. Singh, who is also a human rights activist points out that attacks against religious minorities in Pakistan have seen an increase. “The Muslims forcibly take Sikh and Hindu girls, who are usually under-age and then claim to convert them, just to keep them,” the activist adds.

Back in the village, a relative of the family also feels tensions are more recent. According to him peace between the Muslims and others, especially the Sikhs has started to worsen in their village after neighboring Swat Valley’s take over by the Pakistani Taliban. It is believed that many fighters of the Pakistani Taliban managed to escape Swat when the Pakistan army took it back from the militant group in 2009. Such escapees have now scattered and settled in areas like this district of Buner, which borders the valley.

Only last year, The Pakistani Taliban shot down Soran Singh, a Sikh member of the provincial assembly, belonging to the ruling party and hailing from Priya’s district. The Sikh community feels he was targeted due to his faith. Even before Priya’s return, which they are unsure of, her family is planning to move away from the neighborhood.

“We appeal to the world, don’t let us be killed. Help us,” says Priya’s uncle as he breaks down in tears, and ends the interview.

Nearly 1000 underage girls from minority religions are forced to convert to Islam each year in Pakistan. In Sindh province, where such cases of abduction are more prevalent, government recently tried to introduce a law to ban forced conversion of religious minorities and marriage of girls who have not turned 18 yet, but the religious lobby took to streets, calling the law anti-Islam, forcing the provincial government to take it back, with a promise of introducing it after a review.

Among the 200 million population, religious minorities comprise of less than 2% of Pakistanis, as per current estimates. Many of them are fleeing, human rights observers say, making them a fast disappearing segment of society.

UMERKOT:

In yet another incident exposing the lack of conformity to safety rules and the alleged apathy of medical practitioners, a sanitary worker suffocated to death on Thursday in Umerkot. The deceased, 30-year-old Irfan Masih, fell unconscious along with three other sanitary staff while cleaning a manhole on Chorr Road in Umerkot.

He died hours later in the government hospital in front of doctors who were allegedly reluctant to treat him because Irfan was drenched in sewage sludge. The other three sanitary workers, Faisal Masih, Yaqoob Masih and Shaukat Masih, were referred to Hyderabad and later Karachi for medical treatment.

All of the workers fell unconscious while cleaning the central manhole, which had already claimed the lives of two sanitary workers, 25-year-old Krishan Gujrati and 28-year-old Nawaz Masih, in September 2012. Local residents pulled out the staff from the manhole and shifted them to the hospital.

“The doctors refused to treat him because they were fasting and said my son was ‘napaak [unclean]’,” claimed Irshad Masih, the mother of the deceased. …………..

At least four people belonging to the ethnic Hazara Shia community were shot dead when unidentified gunmen opened fire on their vehicle near Balochistan's Mastung area on Wednesday, police sources said.

A woman is among the slain victims. According to police sources, the incident was an act of targeted killing. …………………………

Balochistan has been experiencing incidents of violence and targeted killings since more than a decade. More than 1,400 incidents targeting the minority Shia and Hazara community have taken place in the province during the past 15 years.

While sectarian terrorism in Balochistan has disproportionately targeted the Hazara community, easily identifiable because of their distinctive physical appearance, other Shias — especially pilgrims travelling to and from Iran — have not been spared either.

Published July 15, 2017 Associated Press

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani police say a Christian teenager has been detained on blasphemy charges for allegedly using derogatory remarks against Islam's prophet Muhammad.

Umair Ahmed, a police officer in the town of Kharian in eastern Punjab province, said Saturday that the teenager, 16, was booked a day earlier and relocated for his safety. Ahmed said the youth was working at a local hospital. ............

CPEC represents colonization of Pakistan for enrichment of China, says expert

By: ANI || Updated: 22 Jul 2017 08:05 AM

London [UK], July 22 (ANI): A senior teaching fellow and a PhD candidate at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) has said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) represents the colonization of Pakistan for the enrichment of China.

Speaking at the conference "Wall of Silence: Human rights in Balochistan", Burzine Waghmar said Pakistan's statehood is based on a fragile framework with no national basis in which Pakistani military acts with no legitimacy and with violence against local populations.

The conference was jointly organized by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and the World Baloch Organization (WBO) at the House of Lords in London.

The event which was hosted by Baroness Jenny Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party for England and Wales), discussed Pakistan's suppression of human rights in Balochistan, focusing on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and on the shutdown on journalists and international organistions.

Distinguished experts from various backgrounds presented their experiences and ways forward, in a fruitful exchange of ideas at the British Parliament.

Waghmar during the conference also highlighted with concern the fact that China is unlikely to take into the consideration the contexts of the various ethnic groups in the country while pursuing the implementation of the economic corridor.

He presented a historical overview that showed how China's regional ambitions have affected disadvantaged groups in Pakistan for decades and how the Pakistani government has collaborated with these ambitions even before the Indo-Pakistani deal in 1947.

Baroness Jenny Jones de Moulsecoomb opened the event with an overview of the situation in Balochistan, from extrajudicial killings to economic exploitation and the persecution of those who oppose the implementation of CPEC.

The Baroness talked about the importance of raising awareness about these issues and of gathering international support to bring peace to the Baloch people.

Noordin Mengal, human rights campaigner (WBO), who was also the moderator of the panel in the conference reminded the audience that CPEC is not the first project of exploitation of natural resources by outsiders in Balochistan: natural gas and copper are key resources that have been exploited by Punjabis and Chinese, while the government denies the local population their rights to partaking in the richness that results from the use of the resources of their own land.

Angela Stanzel, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, highlighted the centrality of Balochistan in Pakistan-China relations, considering the amount of investments dedicated to the region by the Chinese, mainly for the Port of Gwadar.

According to Stanzell, CPEC has been fueling conflict in Pakistan and particularly in Balochistan, as it became a target for political opposition and extremist groups.

She noted that the feeling of Baloch people of being neglected and left behind was not born with CPEC, having been consolidated throughout history while Balochistan was subjected to exploitation and while its inhabitants were denied their rights.

Stanzell also drew attention to the fact that CPEC seems to be a model for the projects that China intends to implement worldwide, which must be regarded with concern considering that no investment is directed to local communities, increasing tensions in regions that are already unstable and raising censorship and violence against those who dare to oppose the project.

Carlotta Gall, who spent ten years in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, talked about her experiences under the intimidation and the violence to which both foreign correspondents and local journalists are subjected by Pakistani intelligence officers and military in Balochistan.

According to Gall, journalists are followed by Pakistani intelligence officers from the moment they touch ground in the region and are intimidated not only with physical violence, but also with threats to the safety of their loved ones.

She affirmed that her experience proved to her that Pakistan is not interested in allowing the Baloch people to have a voice - their focus is solely allowing military plans and economic projects such as Gwadar to move forward.

Approaching the fact that journalists, students, political activists are often arrested, tortured and murdered, she concluded that people are given little choice to be active in helping their communities, which fuels the rising of groups that resource to violence in order to fight for survival and dignity.

Peter Tatchell, from the Peter Tatchell Foundation, focused on the possibilities for Baloch people to succeed in their struggle for peace and respect for their rights.

He reminded the audience that Pakistan is widely dependent on western support, which means that raising international pressure in the context of IOs and CSOs is likely to have a strong impact in reducing the military pressure on the Baloch people.

He highlighted the importance of a well-delineated plan that gathers different Baloch organizations and groups, based on principles of social justice, human rights and democracy.

According to Tatchell, by uniting around some central demands - such as the release of political prisoners, a UN-sponsored ceasefire and a referendum on independence, and free access to the region for human rights organizations and journalists - Baloch people will be able to mobilize a comprehensive international solidarity movement to support their struggle.

Fernando Burges, UNPO Programme Manager, noted that the situation of ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan stand out as particularly dire and noted that events such as "The Wall of Silence" are of paramount importance to give a platform for these peoples' voices to be heard, while they are silenced in their own countries.

The conference came to an end with Mengal urging states such as the United States and the United Kingdom to revise their policies regarding Pakistan, taking in consideration the situation of disadvantaged communities that have been suffering with human rights violations for decades. (ANI)

A Conversation With Shahid Khaqan Abbasi
Past Event — September 20, 2017 4:45pm EDT …………………..

Q: Herbert Levin, Council member.

In New York, we have a number of Waziri and other people from the tribal areas. And they complain that they are neglected by Islamabad, both in terms of representation in the government and also for budgets for schools and things. What do you think the future is of the integration of the tribal areas into real Pakistan? That’s one question. The other question is, I don’t know if you ever took the bus trip to China, but I really wonder what the future is for Pakistan’s economy over those mountains through China. They’re great railroad builders, but I really wonder how you view that.

ABBASI: Well, as far as our tribal areas are concerned, last week we moved the first-ever law in Pakistan to start the integration process for the tribal area into the rest of Pakistan, and to have the laws of Pakistan apply to the tribal areas. We started that process. It has general support within the political community and the people of FATA. The process is not easy. This is a system that has been there for over 100 years. But one of the elements to bring it into force is equalize the tribal area with the rest of Pakistan economically and as far as the infrastructure is concerned. So a tremendous amount of money has been committed for that. That process will start as soon as the parliament approves that bill. So Pakistan today is committing to integrating the FATA, the Federal Administered Tribal Areas, into Pakistan.

The CPEC is a major part of our economic development today. Over $60 million have been committed. And as I mentioned earlier, power plants are being built, highways are being built, other infrastructure is being built, industrial zones are being built. And it will evolve. Gwadar is a key part of—port of Gwadar is a key part of that, the CPEC process, and the trade into western China is also a key part of that process. And this is all a part of the One Belt, One Road initiative of the—in fact, today it’s the only visible part of that initiative that the Chinese have undertaken.

We have a long economic relationship with China. If you recall Dr. Kissinger, when he visited China for the first time in ’70, Pakistan supported that effort. And it’s part of the history which ties China, the U.S., and Pakistan.

STATEMENT BY INDIA

Universal Periodic Review (U PR) Working Group (28’ Session)
3 UPR of Pakistan — Interactive Dialogue
Monday, 13 November 2017, 09:00 am - 12:30 pm

Thank you, Mr. President

We welcome the delegation of Pakistan. We recommend the Government of Pakistan followIng :

1.to provide freedom to the people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir by ending its Illegal and forcible occupation;

2. to dismantle Special Terrorist Zones, safe havens and sanctuaries and take verifiable actions, including on terror financing;

3. to bar military courts from trying civilians and allow their monitoring by International observers and human rights organisations;

4. to allow due legal processes and judicial review by the High Courts and Supreme Court for cases tried by Military Courts;

5. to fulfill International obligations under ICCPR and VCCR, including consular access for foreign nationals without discrimination;

6. to end harassment of minorities and place procedural and institutional safeguards to prevent misuse of blasphemy law;

7. to end forced conversions and marriages of minorities, Including Hindu, Sikh and Christian women, and prosecute all cases;

8. to stop targeting political dissidents and legitimate criticism in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa;

9. to stop torture, enforced disappearances and unlawful killing, including that of journalists and activists, by its security agencies and prosecute perpetrators;

10. to review the educational curriculum, including In Madrassahs, to remove extreme prejudices, religious intolerance and historical distortions;

11. to stop sectarian violence, systemic persecution and attacks on Muslim minorities, such as Shias, Ahmadiyas, lsmailia and Hazaras;

12. to stop awarding death penalty to juveniles and execution of persons with disabilities.

The full statement along with the recommendations Is available on UPR Extranet.

Thank you.

As many as 15 bullet riddled bodies have been found in Turbat Tehseel of Balochistan, Geo News reported on Wednesday.

The sources later said 11 bodies have been identified as residents of different areas of Punjab while identification of four was yet to be established.