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Tag: Pakistan

  • Veena Malik And Husband Appeal 26-Year Blasphemy Sentence

    Bollywood actress Veena Malik and her husband Asad Bashir Khan reportedly filed an appeal on Monday in response to a most bizarre court ruling.

    Last week, the pair were hit with a ‘blasphemy’ conviction, for which the punishment included thousands of dollars in fees and a 26-year prison sentence.

    A Pakistan court made the ruling following months of outrage over the appearance of Malik and Khan in a mock wedding where some viewers believed that the two made an unwelcome reference to the wedding of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad’s daughter.

    Veena Malik had admitted that she didn’t expect the backlash to be so severe, expecting it to go away overnight.

    However, Malik said that she and her husband had multiple criminal complaints filed against them by the time they left Pakistan.

    Undeterred, the actress is fighting back in an effort to clear her name.

    “[My husband and I] are very happy to see our voice has been heard in all corners of the world,” said Veena. “All the leading publications from the world over have covered the issue strongly.”

    Not only are international news sources reporting the unusual case, but DNA reports that Amnesty International is taking up Malik’s case. With multiple human rights organizations watching the case closely, Veena Malik feels very confident that her family will experience a just outcome.

    More so than the accusation of blasphemy, Malik said that she feels hurt that her obedience to her faith is being called into question.

    “As a Muslim, I strongly believe in the institution of Islam and [h]old the Holy Prophet PBUH and His respectable family and the Sahaba e Karam at the highest esteem and regard,” said Veena Malik.

    She said it was outside of her “wildest imagination” that she could ever be part of a scandal that ” directly or indirectly disrespects” her religious faith.

    Rather than stand down, Veena felt it was important to set a positive example and stand up to what she believed was unjust treatment.

    Said Veena Malik, “I would request each and every person who believes in basic human rights to stand up and be my voice against this unfair verdict.”

  • Stoned To Death: Pregnant Woman Killed By Family

    Arranged marriages are common in Pakistan and the consequences of refusing a husband picked for a woman by her family are severe. A 25-year-old woman was recently stoned to death by her family outside of a courtroom in Pakistan after she chose to marry the man she loved instead of one her family had chosen for her.

    Stoning is common in Pakistan but still illegal. The brutality of this case has shocked everyone. Even worse, the woman was pregnant at the time and inevitably, her unborn child died during the incident as well.

    The woman’s father, two brothers and a former fiancé threw bricks at her repeatedly and although she was taken to the hospital after the attack, she died shortly after the incident.

    Although the woman was pregnant, the police are only charging the men who stoned the woman with one count of murder.
    Police are searching for the people involved in the stoning and all of them escaped except the woman’s father.

    Details about the events leading up to the stoning are unclear, but police believe that the woman’s family had registered a kidnapping case against the man she had planned to marry and she had come to court to argue that she was marrying him of her own free will.

    After the family left the courtroom, the stoning occurred in the streets. There were many witnesses but no reports of anyone trying to stop the stoning from happening.

    “This is a huge flaw in the law,” a police officer said. “We are really struggling on this issue.”

    It is not known if the man that the woman had hoped to marry was present during the stoning but he publicly vowed to get justice for his lover and was devastated by the loss of the woman and his unborn child.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Farzana Parveen’s Husband Demands Justice

    Farzana Parveen’s Husband Demands Justice

    Farzana Parveen, a three month pregnant Pakistani woman, was stoned to death by brick wielding attackers as she made her way to testify in favor of her husband Muhammad Iqbal at the Lahore’s High Court.

    Among those who attacked Parveen were her brothers and her father, who believed that Iqbal had kidnapped Parveen and forced her into marriage. Parveen had explained that that was not the case, and was at the court to set the record straight, on the day she was murdered.

    Now, Iqbal is demanding justice in his wife’s death. “We demand justice,” he said, during a telephone interview with AFP from his home in Jaranwala after burying his wife . “We were being threatened since we got married.”

    Iqbal then recounted the events that happened on that tragic day. “On Tuesday as we were going to court from our lawyer’s office almost 30 people attacked us, including her father, brothers and cousins,” he said. The people who were accompanying Parveen and Iqbal were shocked at the suddenness of the attack, and fled in different directions, leaving them to fend for themselves. “One of her brothers shot at her but missed, then the women in their group fell upon her and her brother and father finished her off,” Iqbal added.

    Iqbal said that what hurts the most is that nobody even tried to save her. “The most painful thing is that nobody came forward to save my wife, the police were there and hundreds of lawyers were there along with ordinary men, but they all just watched like spectators.”

    Tahira Abdullah, a women’s rights campaigner, explained that there were hundreds of people who witnessed the scene, but no one will come forward because of the possible repercussions. “The incident occurred in front of hundreds of people but nobody stepped forward to save them because people are afraid of mob justice,” she said. “People don’t speak up because they fear that they would either be framed for blasphemy or declared un-Islamic.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Stoned to Death: Pakistani Woman Dies Anachronistically

    In late middle school or early high school, we all had a deep-seated fear of stoning placed in us by Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”. In said story, members of a town draw slips of paper until one family is singled out by drawing the paper with the black dot. Ultimately, the family draws papers again until a single person is determined the winner of the lottery, only to receive stoning as their reward. All of this is done in order to ensure a good harvest for the summer.

    At the time of reading such a story, it is easy to dismiss such a practice as archaic. One never thinks about the reality of such an incident occurring. Unfortunately, fiction reflects reality all too often.

    On Tuesday, 25-year-old Farzana Parveen was stoned to death by her family outside of a court house in Lahore, the second biggest city in Pakistan.

    The reason for the outpour of violence had to do with the person Farzana Parveen chose to marry. In Pakistan, and many other cultures in the eastern hemisphere, it is common practice for the family to construct an arranged marriage for the children, and marriage for the sake of love is seen as a transgression against the honor of the family.

    Instead of marrying her cousin as her family insisted, Parveen decided to elope with the love of her life, Mohammad Iqbal.

    Upon hearing of the two sneaking off to marry, Parveen’s father filed an abduction case against Iqbal.

    As Parveen and Iqbal were attending a court session Tuesday to contest the claims of abduction, 20 of Parveen’s family members, including her father and brothers, began attacking her and her husband with bricks from a nearby construction site.

    Parveen was taken to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead due to head trauma.

    Unfortunately, all of the attackers escaped except for Parveen’s father, who surrendered and admitted to the killing, saying it was a matter of honor.

    Honor killings are horrendously common in Pakistan, with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reporting 869 such honor killings in Pakistan in 2013.

    However, the honor killings are usually not as brutal or public as the stoning Parveen suffered.

    “I have not heard of any such case in which a woman was stoned to death, and the most shameful and worrying thing is that this woman was killed in front of a court,” stated Zia Awan, a lawyer and human rights activist.

    Despite the fact that this murder was carried out in broad daylight in front of many witnesses, Pakistani law will most likely allow the perpetrators to walk free.

    According to Pakistani law, the family of a murdered woman has the right to forgive the murderer and allow him or her to escape punishment. When the murderer is also a family member, it creates a loophole in the system that is unfixable.

    Knowing that Parveen’s father has a great chance to walk free is terribly disheartening for the advancement of human and women’s rights in the Middle East, especially considering he has no remorse for his actions: “I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it.”

    Parveen’s body has been given to her husband, Mohammad Iqbal, for her burial.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIrlyx1cC7s

    Image via YouTube

  • Saudi Prince Hunt Pisses Pakistanis

    The houbara bustard is a rare bird, nearly-extinct, in fact. In 1997 there were only 500 in existence. In Pakistan it is protected in wildlife refuge areas. Hunting of the bird is extremely limited. In fact, locals are not allowed to hunt them at all. But exceptions are occasionally made, licenses granted to VIPs to allow them to hunt the bird, with some very restrictive provisos.

    This was the case recently when a Saudi sheikh went a-hunting in Chagai, Pakistan. Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud was granted a license to hunt 100 of the birds, with the restriction that he not hunt within a particular bird sanctuary. Apparently the prince did not like being told what to do.

    According to the Daily Mail, in a three-week span, Prince Fahd ventured into the very refuge zone he was supposed to stay away from and killed 2,000 birds. His aides killed over 300 themselves. And the people of Pakistan are looking at this as an outrage.

    What would the prince want with 2,000 birds? Apparently the meat of these birds is considered an aphrodisiac by the royalty in Saudi Arabia.

    In response to the prince’s hunting of all these birds for their supposed aphrodisiac properties, a Change.org petition was started, asking that the prince be granted a lifetime supply of Viagra. The petition read, in part: Please save these magnificent birds by providing his Royal Highness with the means to revive his libido.

    The outrage over the callous disregard for the life of an endangered species is carrying over into the Western world, with political overtones mixed in with the huff.

    The birds are hunted with falcons, and the pursuit of them is a great sport for Saudi royalty.

    Image via YouTube

  • 9-month-old Arrested in Pakistan for Attempted Murder

    It appears that in some countries, no matter how old you are, if you do the crime, then you face the possibility of doing the time.

    And strangely enough, a 9-month-old child faced criminal charges on Thursday.

    A Pakistani baby boy was arrested alongside his family for attempted murder, threatening a police, and interfering in state affairs.

    As Muhammad Mosa Khan sat on his father’s lap in a Pakistani Court Thursday, he and his family faced charges in a crime that involved police raiding a group of 25 protestors in the city of Lahore.

    The police department claim that the group was suspected gas thieves. Officers at the scene also accused the group for stoning them at the time of their arrest.

    However, Khan’s father, Ahmed, said that the group was falsely charged for a crime they didn’t commit.

    “Our crime is that we had protested against non-availability of electricity in our locality,” Ahmed said.

    Ahmed told authorities that they were only protesting in reference to an electrical shortage.

    Whether they were protesting peacefully is unclear.

    Judge Rafaqat Ali authorized police officials to obtain a statement from baby Muhammad, but realized he was quite too young and granted him bail. 

    The case has been postponed until April 12.

    Attorney Irfan Tarar said that the baby boy would be presented before a judge during next week’s trial.

    According to Senior Superintendent of Police Rana Jabbar, there was a disagreement among the officers whether to book the minor. The sub-inspector was later suspended for filing charges against Muhammad.

    Since the case is not under Judge Ali’s jurisdiction, he was unable to dismiss the case against the child.

    Image via YouTube

     

  • Pervez Musharraf Indicted For Treason

    Former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf was indicted by a Pakistani court this week on charges of treason. The former leader faces five counts of high treason and could receive the death penalty if convicted.

    According to an Associated Press report, Musharraf himself appeared in court on Monday and delivered a defense of his presidency. He has pleaded not guilty to the treason charges.

    The report also throws into doubt whether the trial will ever reach a conclusion. Musharraf’s legal team has requested that the former president be allowed to leave Pakistan to visit his mother, who is in poor health. The judge presiding over the treason case has claimed that the issue is out of his hands, as Musharraf’s position on Pakistan’s customs black list is up to the Pakistani government. According to the AP report, Musharraf’s legal team is considering a government petition for his requested travels.

    Musharraf also claimed during his court appearance on Monday that he was present against the advice of his medical team. Musharraf has been living in a hospital in Rawalpindi since January 2014.

    Musharraf was Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff when he rose to power during a 1999 military coup. After taking power that year the leader suspended the constitution of Pakistan and instituted a state of emergency in the country.

    Musharraf’s treason charges stem from the former president’s actions in 2007. That year Musharraf won a landslide general election in Pakistan due to the forced absence of key opposition party leaders. The election sparked political controversy throughout the country and Musharraf once again declared a state of emergency, suspending the country’s constitution. Pakistani Supreme Court judges were detained in their homes and state media was cut off as protests against Musharraf’s rule grew. These circumstances eventually led to the president’s forced resignation in August 2008.

    In addition to charges of high treason, Musharraf has been indicted in Pakistan for the murder of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He also faces an investigation into his alleged role in the assassination of former Balochistan Province Governor Akbar Bugti.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Teen Stops Bomber in Pakistan, Saves 1,000 Students

    Sometimes the biggest of heroes can come in the smallest of packages.

    Aitazaz Hassan Bangash, a 14-year old ninth-grader from Pakistan, foiled the plans of a suicide bomber while he was walking to school in an area known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The story was first reported by CNN.

    While walking, Hassan and his cousin, Musadiq Ali Bangash, noticed a suspicious looking man eerily dressed like one of the students, which tipped the boys off that something was out of order. And when the man asked for directions to the school, they were convinced that something was definitely wrong and tried to take immediate action.

    And when the man tried to gain entrance to the school, Aitazaz attempted to hold him back, which in turn made the bomber panic and detonate his bomb. Tragically, Aitazaz was killed, but he was immediately dubbed a hero. The bomber, whose name has yet to be revealed, was also killed.

    According to the cousin Musadiq, Aitazaz was the only one who tried to stop the bomber when he tried to give chase. “The other students backed off, but Aitazaz challenged the bomber and tried to catch him,” he said. “During the scuffle, the bomber panicked and detonated his bomb.”

    Amazingly, Aitazaz saved the lives of 1,000 Shia and Sunni students, as many of them were gathered in one place for a morning assembly, so obviously the results could have been even more disastrous if Aitazaz didn’t stop the bomber in time.

    Some in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are looking for ways to honor the young hero and give him and his family the recognition they truly deserve. “He saved the lives of hundreds of students,” said Nawaz Khan, a member of the local community. “He deserves more recognition than Malala Yousafzai,” referring to the the young Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for voicing her opinions about equal education for women.

    Image via YouTube

  • Haqqani Leader Killed in U.S. Drone Strike

    The AFP reported on a U.S. drone strike that took place in Pakistan last Thursday. This particular strike was a rare happenstance: it is only the second drone strike targeted outside of Pakistan’s tribal zones.

    Previous drone strikes had targeted the frontier Bannu region and a North Waziristan tribal district in an effort to reduce the influence of Taliban leaders. Accurate casualty counts are hard to come by because of the forbidden nature of the Pakistani tribal districts: no journalists, reporters, or foreign aid workers are allowed inside.

    The drone fired a missile at a religious seminary that fell under the umbrella of the Haqqani terror network, security officials acknowledged. At least six people were killed in the attack, including a high-level Haqqani spiritual leader by the name of Maulana Ahmad Jan.

    Local police sources, speaking to the AFP about Jan, said “He was the spiritual leader and head teacher of the Haqqani network… He was receiving people who were coming to [sic] condole the death of Nasiruddin Haqqani because followers of were not able to meet any other member of Haqqani family.”

    One Haqqani source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said “The seminary served as a base for the network where militants fighting across the border came to stay and rest, as the Haqqani seminaries in the tribal areas were targeted by drones.”

    Pakistani officials responded as expected: by condemning the drone strike as “a violation of sovereignty and counterproductive to efforts to end militancy.” Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, insisted last month in a meeting with President Obama that he stop the drone attacks.

    Despite Sharif’s protests, the drone attacks will most likely continue, as they are considered by the U.S. to be a necessary tool in eliminating militants.

    The Haqqani terror network has long been targeted by Washington, D.C. over their Afghan insurgent attacks, including a 2011 assault on the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Various estimates place the number of “drone war” casualties between 2500 and 3700, and Amnesty International thinks the U.S. may be guilty of war crimes over the attacks.

    [Image via Facebook]

  • New Taliban Leader: Same Boss Who Wanted Malala Dead

    CBS News and The Week have both reported that, following the drone bombing of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, a new leader for the Pakistani Taliban Movement has been chosen.

    The AP confirmed the ascendance of a new leader with a statement from the Taliban’s leadership council. Mehsud, in particular was a difficult target to hit, with several previous reports of his death proving false and a $5 million bounty placed on his head. But the official word from the Taliban indicates he is quite dead this time, and has been replaced by a man named Mullah Fazlullah.

    Fazlullah’s age isn’t accurately known, but he rose to fame in 2006 when he started broadcasting Islamist messages from a pirate radio station he called “Mullah Radio” in the Swat Valley region. Fazlullah’s broadcasts encouraged a return to Sharia criminal law, the closing of all girls’ schools and the complete cessation of female education.

    In 2009, Pakistani military forces attempted to wrest Swat Valley from Taliban influence. Many homes were looted in the fighting, but a tentative peace was established; Fazlullah dodged the Pakistanis in a game of cat-and-mouse, taking him through the mountains on the border with Afghanistan. He is suspected to be directing operations in both countries using that same mountain range.

    2012 saw Fazlullah step up his campaign against women’s education, particularly when he ordered an inspirational 14-year-old named Malala Yousafzai shot for publicly condemning his desire to close girls’ schools. She survived the attempt, and became an international symbol of defiance against Islamist hardliners in a way that remains similar to her namesake, Malala of Maiwand, who became a symbol of defiance against British Imperialism in the 19th century.

    The Taliban’s previous leader had indicated a willingness to go to the negotiating table. Fazlullah is an extreme propagandist, who appears regularly on YouTube encouraging violence while carrying a U.S.-made M4 assault rifle, perhaps a wartime trophy. After Malala survived the assassination attempt, Fazlullah made additional threats against her and her family.

    Fazlullah and his fellow Taliban hardliners believe they are the sole inheritors of Mohammed’s vision of society in Medina, a mystical egalitarian community that the Islamic Prophet allegedly created in Saudi Arabia. But that vision sometimes clashes with the tribal rules and laws that the Taliban leaders must follow, as their insurgents need shelter, sustenance, and supplies — which they would not get if they operated outside their tribal structure.

    [Image of the old Taliban leader via YouTube]

  • Osama Bin Laden: As Pakistan Oppresses Ethnic Minorities, US Resumes Aid

    Two and a half years after the widely publicized US Navy Seal raid, which killed Osama bin-Laden at his hideout in the heart of Pakistan’s military-political establishment, Washington DC has quietly resumed overt foreign aid to Islamabad.

    The decision to resume billions of dollars in aid comes in the face of crushing unemployment, worsening inflation, and a tsunami of $100+ trillion debt staring at American people. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exY6D497on0

    Despite growing but muted opposition to foreign aid, a paralyzed and pliant America has resigned itself to decisions crafted by policy makers in Washington DC. Declining standards of living over last several decades have led to a situation where an aging and bankrupt US, with below replacement fertility, is boosting the finances of Pakistan with explosive fertility and rapidly multiplying population.

    Pakistan’s ethnic minorities, which are deeply resentful of Islamabad’s oppressive rule, are bracing for further attacks on their communities and dignity, as White House revealed plans to transfer more than $1.6 billion to Pakistan, including $305 million in “security” assistance.

    Newly elected Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Punjab is scheduled to meet with White House staff and US Congressional leaders, where plans for future aid will be elaborated.

    “As part of our annual funding process, throughout the course of this past summer the State Department notified Congress of how it planned to program funds from several different accounts for various programs in Pakistan…While this is part of a long process of restarting security assistance cooperation after implementation was slowed during the bilateral challenges of 2011 and 2012, civilian assistance has continued uninterrupted throughout,”

    State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in an email.

    Tens of billions in security aid to Pakistan’s military over last several decades has strengthened its grip on restive minorities, including Balochis and Sindhis, who have sought independence with varying degrees of intensity.

    Last month, the ethnic conflict between Baloch minority and Punjabi majority came under international glare in the aftermath of powerful earthquake in the province of Balochistan, that took 400 lives and displaced more than 300,000. US congressional hearings on Balochistan have revealed the extent to which American aid to Pakistan has been used to suppress Balochistan’s freedom struggle and right to self determination.

    Following the lead of Balochistan, separatists in Pakistan’s Sindh province have redoubled their efforts towards political independence from Pakistan, as American foreign aid enriches the Punjab province, home to Pakistani military-political-financial establishment.

    It remains to be seen if American people’s opposition to foreign aid can be channeled into political action, so that the cycle of oppression, death and destruction of Pakistan’s ethnic minorities, followed by ever increasing aid by Washington DC, can be broken.

    [image from wikimedia]

  • Malala: Better Off Without A Nobel?

    When Malala Yousafzai was passed over for a Nobel Prize, an ABCNews story noted Irish betting magnate Paddy Power’s odds for her as an 8/15 favorite mere days before the prize would go to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Other betting favorites included transgender Wikileaker Chelsea Manning (25/1) and U2 frontman Bono (100/1), but ABC’s piece did not mention the prize’s actual winner, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, as a contender.

    Why would an organization that seeks to prohibit and dismantle chemical weapons, especially in the wake of Syrian chemical weapons use, not be a favorite contender for the Nobel peace prize, even though that organization would win the award over Malala?

    The Washington Post‘s political reporter, Max Fisher, believes he has the answer: because to award Malala with the prize is to formally validate her new Western celebrity, and he concisely argues that Malala’s new celebrity status is a subconscious effort by Westerners to cope with the cultural issues they played a role in creating.

    “Like a sort of slacktivism writ large, awarding Malala the Nobel would have told us what we wanted to hear: that celebrity and ‘awareness’ can fix even the worst problems,” Fisher wrote. “It would have made us less likely to acknowledge the truth, which is that it takes decades of hard work, not to mention a serious examination of our own role in the problem, to effect meaningful change.”

    Fisher goes on to note that the OPCW oversaw the dismantling of 80 percent of Planet Earth’s declared chemical weapons, a number that included all the deadly nerve agents in South Korea and India.

    Unfortunately, as University of North Carolina assistant professor Zeynep Tufekci wrote in his blog, “There is an abundance of them [courageous, oppressed people like Malala], especially in poor, authoritarian countries. If you think Malala is rare, that is probably because you have not spent much time in such countries. Most Malala’s, however, go nameless, and are not made into Western celebrities.”

    During Malala’s Daily Show interview with Jon Stewart, Tufekci felt something telling passed between host and guest when Jon Stewart praises the girl’s father only to express his desire to adopt her. “Such a striking sentiment,” he said, “in which our multi-decade involvement in Pakistan is reduced to finding a young woman we admire that we all want to take home as if to put on a shelf to adore.”

    [Image via Wikimedia Commons]

  • Christiane Amanpour Interviews Malala Yousafzai Who Defied Pakistani Terror

    Malala Yousafzai, the teenager who defied Pakistani terrorists, and almost lost her life to defend freedom and women’s right to education, was interviewed by famed journalist and opinion moulder Christiane Amanpour this week. The full interview will be aired as a special report “The Bravest Girl in the World” on CNN this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.

    Yousafzai has become the global face of oppressed Pakistani and Asian women who are quietly mobilizing by the millions to fight for equal rights and universal secular education. Malala was shot in the head in a barbaric assassination attempt by Pakistani terrorists on October 9, 2012, while she was returning home from her school.

    The brave teenager’s life was saved at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where she underwent intensive rehabilitation, that helped recover her mental faculties, her hearing and speech. The assassination attempt did not kill Malala, but only made her stronger.

    She has redoubled her efforts since February this year to spread worldwide awareness on the inhuman treatment of women in Pakistan and West-Asia and the challenges they face to their dignity in daily life. On July 12, she spoke in front of the United Nations on the power of girl child education, and why pen is mightier than the sword. She has been feted with accolades, honors and awards across the globe including this year’s nomination for Nobel Peace Prize.

    During the interview, Amanpour asked Malala whether she hoped to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Malala responded, “If I get the Nobel Peace Prize, I think it will be such a great honor, and more than I deserve, and such a great responsibility as well…It would help me to begin this campaign for girls’ education, but the real goal, the most precious goal that I want to get and for which I am thirsty and I want to struggle hard for, that is the award of seeing every child to go to school.”

    She added, that being shot had only strengthened her resolve:

    “They can only shoot a body, they cannot shoot my dreams…They shot me because they wanted to tell me that, ‘we want to kill you and to stop you campaigning’, but they did the biggest mistake: they inured me, and they told me through that attack, that even death is supporting me, even death does not want to kill me.”

    And in a clear warning to Pakistan’s patriarchal society, she made her ambitious clear:

    “I want to become a Prime Minister of Pakistan, and I think it’s really good. Because through politics I can serve my whole county. I can be the doctor of the whole country…I can spend much of the money from the budget on education…

    International organizations and leaders have rallied to Malala’s clarion call for women’s freedom and education rights, and here is what Malala had to say at an event hosted by World Bank today:

    As Malala’s heroic speeches and worldwide campaign for women gains steam, Pakistani terrorists are increasingly desperate to hold back human progress. The world is watching, but the world must also act – to help young girls like Malala, as they yearn to breathe free.

    [image from youtube]

  • Balochistan Pakistan Home To Powerful Earthquake

    On Tuesday afternoon, a strong earthquake blew through Balochistan. 328 people have died while more than 400 people are injured and about half of those are in critical condition.

    According to The Telegraph, “The doctor in charge of the largest hospital close to the epicentre in Balochistan province told The Daily Telegraph his staff were working in chaotic conditions and with poor facilities to save lives but many victims remain stranded in remote villages beyond the reach of the rescue services.
    “It’s a complete chaos here at the hospital. And we do not have 4×4 ambulances, so its really tough to reach out to the affected areas, to bring the injured or even the dead bodies to the hospital,” said Dr. Noor Baksh Bizenjo, medical superintendent of the district hospital in Arawan.”

    The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 and covered a 13 mile area.

    Many houses have been destroyed and a lot of people are moving to different areas to live for the time being.

    It has also been reported that a small island has appeared after the earthquake. It is located off the coast of Gwadar, Pakistan. According to Discovery News, “A mud volcano is a likely possibility because Gwadar’s coastline already has several of the gurgling, steamy cones, both onshore and at sea. One suddenly popped up where sea level was 30 to 60 meters (100 to 200 feet) deep on Nov. 26, 2010, creating an island.

    Balochistan is the largest province in Pakistan. Although it is a large area, it only holds about 7 million people. It is a plateau made up of rough terrain.

    [Photo via Youtube]

  • Pakistan’s Idle Hangmen May Return to Work

    “The prison hangman loitered in a Lahore graveyard…” sounds like the beginning to a great novel. Rather, it’s the first line of the New York Times feature on Pakistani hangman Sabir Masih, who has been idle since Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari declared a 2008 moratorium on capital punishment. Masih is featured in a couple of interviews since 2011, so at least there’s that…

    Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently announced an investigation into the moratorium, which his adviser, Sartaj Aziz, says is, “not legal.” Zardari will be out of the President’s office on Sunday and will be unable to combat the review, though he has said he will maintain his position against capital punishment for the remainder of his time in office. The Pakistani military also generally supports capital punishment.

    Possible reinstatement of the death penalty has drawn out an odd collection of groups in opposition, namely human rights activists and the Taliban.

    Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists—who fear the spotted history of Pakistani trials when it comes to convicting guilty and innocent alike—penned a joint letter to Sharif speaking against capital punishment, saying it represents, “a major step back for human rights in the country.” A warning from a European Union trade delegation official, Ana Gomes, closely mimicked the letter, saying Pakistan’s trade future would suffer, “a major setback,” if hangings resumed.

    On the other side of the spectrum—though favoring a continued stay for all executions—a Taliban commander in mid-August threatened attacks on Sharif supporters if they moved forward with executing imprisoned jihadists.

    Meanwhile, Masih, whose career has racked-up about 200 executions over three years, still reports to work at the Kot Lakhpat prison bordering Lahore. He receives a monthly salary of $120 but he reveals that the majority of his day is spent drinking and smoking at the graveyard with fellow Christians (and out of sight of Muslims, who are restricted from alcohol use).

    Some rumors indicate that incoming president, Mamnoon Hussain, may be in favor of extending the ban. Zardari was unable to completely prevent all executions in the last years but he had the power to prevent the majority.

    Lamenting the lack of work, Masih says, “My job requires courage… because one moment a person is alive, the next he is gone.” Masih is practical about possibly resuming his duties. He calculates that if the hangings are loosed, “I might have to hang three or four in a day.” He sets his record in one day at six hangings.

    Pre-moratorium, Pakistan’s predilection to hangings kept men like Masih plenty busy in comparison to other nations. Up to 27 violations from blasphemy to computer crimes are hanging-offenses and at last count by Amnesty International (excluding China numbers, which probably outrank Pakistan), 8,000 Pakistanis on death row account for about one-third of those serving death sentences worldwide.

    Masih has admitted to finding executions difficult initially but he, “learned not to think about it.” He said, “I believe in the Bible and it teaches us, just like the Qu’ran, that it is an eye for an eye. People convicted for murder do not deserve to live, unless the aggrieved party pardons them.”

    Masih explains that it is not his job to judge those he hangs, “I just follow orders.” About his customers, Masih says that some cry and most pray. The Lahore hangman revealed some of the science of his work during his interviews, explaining rope measurements, weighing inmates and typical dialogue as the convicted approach the noose.

    Note: Video contains some comments of a sensitive nature. Not for all audiences.

    Masih, now 29, shared early memories of accompanying his father to the gallows with interviewers back in 2011. The hereditary occupation has been a part of the family since the British ruled the region, involving his father and grandfather. The work is not just in Masih’s immediate family line; his cousin travels around Punjab to perform executions since not many will do the job, and he boasts that the brother of his grandfather was, “the famous executioner of Bhutto.”

    Passing the executioner’s craft from father to son is common throughout history as the position is not often coveted. The Sanson family of Paris carried the profession through multiple generations back to the 1600’s. At the height of the French Revolution, Reign of Terror period, Charles-Henri Sanson along with his son and assistants employed the guillotine to execute up to 50 victims a day. Sanson’s memoirs reflect a pragmatic but compassionate practitioner who also considered judgment outside of his jurisdiction.

    [Image and Video via YouTube.]

  • Zubin Mehta Concert Promotes “Message of Peace”

    Indian-born conductor Zubin Mehta lived a dream Saturday, conducting a concert in Indian-administered Kashmir. Maestro Mehta directed the Bavarian State Orchestra in a German Embassy-sponsored concert attended by almost 2,000 guests. This is the first cultural event of such magnitude in the area. Mehta and the 98-member orchestra were rewarded with a standing ovation.

    Mehta said before taking the podium, “I am very happy today. I have waited for this moment all my life.”

    Kashmiri separatists protested the event, labeling the concert an attempt to legitimize Indian-rule of the disputed region. Hundreds of police and paramilitary officers covered the city to provide protection for the high-profile event after sections of the Kashmir Valley were threatened by a day-long strike initiated by veteran separatist chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Checkpoints were erected around the city.

    The Kashmir region is claimed by neighbors India and Pakistan and separatists have, often violently, opposed Indian-administration of the area dating from 1989.

    Mehta and German sponsors, including the Ambassador, stayed positive in their statements and both denied the concert carried political motivations.

    Contrary to accusations by organizers of a parallel protest concert, Ambassador Michael Steiner said the intent was not to force the Kashmir conflict under rose-colored glasses, the concert aspired to, “reach the hearts of the Kashmiris with a message of hope and encouragement.” Steiner said the concert bridged the distance between cultures… German and Kashmiri cultures, that is. “The distance between Munich and Srinagar is 7,076km. Tonight, music reduced this distance to zero.”

    Mehta apologized for not being able to get more attendees into the space, the concert was held in Shalimar Gardens in Srinagar. From Delhi, the Friday before the concert, Mehta said that he was using music, “the only language I know and hope to spread the message of peace with this performance.”

    The concert was broadcast around the world on multiple television stations. The 90-minute program opened and closed with a specially-composed Kashmiri folk tune by Abhay Rustam Sopori and played by Kashmiri musicians. Afterward, the audience was entertained by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore Overture #3 in C major and Symphony #5 in C minor; Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major featuring Soloist Andreas Öttl; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for violin and orchestra in D-major with Soloist Julian Rachlin.

    Mehta’s connection to Germany dates back to 1961 when the internationally-known conductor was the youngest ever to direct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

    [Image from Germany Embassy New Delhi Facebook.]

  • Malala Yousafzai: Books Are Anti-Terrorism “Weapons”

    Tuesday, at the opening of the largest public library in Europe, 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai praised pens and books as, “the weapons that defeat terrorism.” The Pakistani teen, who gained attention when she was shot by the Taliban for advocating education for girls, is now one of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize nominees. Take that, Taliban!

    “Let us not forget that even one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world,” said Yousafzai. The last book to enter the library was her copy of Paulo Coelho’s, The Alchemist, which tells the story of an Andalusian shepherd boy with lessons about listening to our hearts and ultimately following our dreams.

    The new library (pictured below) is located in the town where Yousafzai attends school, Birmingham, England. The building now houses over a million books and the opening drew a crowd 1,000-strong.

    (image)

    Yousafzai has given herself a challenge, “I will read thousands of books, and I will empower myself with knowledge.” She said further, “I truly believe the only way we can create global peace is through educating not only our minds, but our hearts and our souls.”

    Yousafzai used this opportunity to call for peace and to, “speak up for the children of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan who are suffering from terrorism, poverty, child labor and child trafficking.”

    Last October, after a Taliban gunman shot Yousafzai in the head on her school bus, she was flown from Pakistan to the UK for emergency treatment. Tuesday, she thanked the medical staff, teachers and townspeople for supporting her in, “my second home,” of Birmingham.

    The teen inspiration is due to receive the International Children’s Peace Prize later this week. On her birthday in July, she experienced a different sort of present, addressing the UN’s youth assembly; the day was declared Malala Day. She has also garnered a place as one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” and though not apparently directly affiliated, her story has sparked new age heroines of all sorts.

    [Images via Facebook Fan Page and Wikimedia Commons.]

  • Osama bin Laden Raid: New Details Leaked

    While President Barack Obama’s administration prepares to annually declassify the number of people and businesses covered by National Security Agency surveillance, the Washington Post this week divulged details on NSA targeting that helped exterminate al-Qa’ida head honcho Osama bin Laden. The revelation comes from classified documents leaked by NSA-contractor-turned-fugitive Edward Snowden; the documents detail US intelligence budgets for 2013 and only make brief reference to the events surrounding the offensive.

    The May 2011 assault on the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in which Bin Laden was killed, is marked as a banner success for US intelligence and the Obama administration. The Post article describes how the documents exposed some of the methods employed by the various agencies involved, including a group of satellites aimed at Pakistan in order to collect electronic and signals intelligence about al-Qa’ida whereabouts. Leading up to the operation, NSA tracked cell phone use of al-Qa’ida operatives and the National Reconnaissance Office collected almost 400 images of the location. Central Intelligence Agency analysts combined that data with other reporting to locate Bin Laden’s hideout. A team of US Navy SEALs conducted the strike and, in the hours afterward, Defense Intelligence Agency analysts confirmed the corpse indeed was Bin Laden. Despite employing the full arsenal of tools and techniques, intelligence provides analysis (not evidence), and US intelligence officials reported to the President that the odds were 40/60 that Bin Laden would be present.

    Flown up with the satellites, an RQ-170 stealth drone collected electronic transmissions and the CIA recruited individuals to try using DNA evidence to identify Bin Laden or his relatives. A Pakistani doctor and public health workers attempted to obtain blood samples through a vaccination program.

    The doctor, Shakil Afridi, is currently confined in a Peshawar jail while awaiting a new trial. Thursday, a Pakistani appeals court overturned a 33-year jail sentence convicting the doctor of “conspiring against the state” by providing funds and medical help to a banned militant group, Lashkar-e-Islam. Afridi denies the charges.

    Washington has been vocal about Afridi’s heroism in the Bin Laden raids and Congress withheld $33 million in aid (assigning $1 million per year of Afridi’s original sentence). Islamabad considers the US operation illegal, which puts a spotlight on Pakistani officials for not taking action, and they consider the doctor a traitor for his involvement. Health workers and vaccination teams have been the victims of increased threats and even killings in the aftermath.

    UK officials reported on Friday that the Snowden-leaked documents confiscated this week at Heathrow airport include over 58,000 classified British files. The documents apparently contain revealing, identifying details of British intelligence workers in-country and abroad. London assesses, based on Snowden’s travel record, that the data was exposed to foreign governments. The materials were obtained under special terrorism authorities from David Miranda who was en route to Brazil. Miranda is the boyfriend of Glen Greenwald, British journalist and the mouthpiece for most of Snowden’s leaks.

    [Image via US Government.]

  • Google May Face Full Pakistan Block Over “Blasphemous” Materials

    Google May Face Full Pakistan Block Over “Blasphemous” Materials

    Pakistan’s new IT and telecommunications minister has a problem. She wants to end to longstanding ban on Google’s YouTube, but she also needs assurances that Google will work to block “blasphemous and objectionable” materials from the world’s most popular video sharing site.

    And in order to ensure that happens, the new minister is making a sort of blanket threat against Google – clean it up here in Pakistan or face an all-out ban.

    According to The Times of India, Anusha Rahman Khan sees the total Google block as a last resort.

    “It all depends on our negotiation clout. If they persist with their stance, we can block Google in Pakistan as a last resort as there are many alternative search engines available on the web,” said Khan.

    Khan made it clear that she wishes to get started in unblocking YouTube – but certain assurances from Google need to be in place.

    “Our ministry is responsible for policy decisions, so it’s our job to ensure reopening of YouTube as soon as possible with thorough screening of objectionable material. I will immediately start work on it after a presentation by ministry officials on Monday…We will pump in extra money if needed and do whatever is in our capacity to bring YouTube back to Pakistan without compromising our ethical values,” Khan told Dawn.

    The Pakistani government has had a rocky relationship with YouTube over the past few years. The site was first banned back in 2008 after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority cited a rise in “non-Islamic, objectionable videos.” Shortly after, the ban was lifted when much of the material was removed from YouTube servers.

    The site stayed open and accessible in the country until 2010, when Pakistan again blocked YouTube in response to “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.” About a week later, the site was reinstated.

    The latest ban has been the most longstanding. Pakistan blocked YouTube back in September of 2012 in response to the controversial YouTube video “Innocence of Muslims,” which depicts the religion’s prophet as a fool and a child-molesting deviant. Google decided not to remove the video from YouTube.

    Of course, YouTube isn’t the only site that the Pakistani government has been known to censor. They’ve blocked Twitter in the past, and a few years ago made a sweeping ban on many porn sites.

    Khan seems to want to make sure she can assure Google’s compliance before making any sort of decision.

    “We cannot face the embarrassment of opening the website and closing it again after protests. We have to ensure that proper filtration system is in place before we open the website,” said Khan.

    [via CNET]

  • Pakistan’s Mobiilink Offers Free Tweeting to Its Customers

    Whenever a country that has a history of internet censorship gains better access to one of the internet’s most important tools, it’s big news.

    And that’s exactly what has happened today. Starting today, Pakistan’s largest provider of cellular services has announced that its prepaid customers can tweet away – for free.

    “Data charges for accessing Twitter have been made ZERO for all Mobilink prepaid subscribers. Subscribers don’t require to subscribe to this offer since it is available for all prepaid subscribers by default,” says Mobilink.

    That means that users can tweet and retweet all they want without incurring any data charges. This removes one of the impediments from Pakistani Twitter users, who have faced state censorship of Twitter in the past.

    Back in May of 2012, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority shut off Twitter access for the entire country for approximately 8 hours following the circulation of content deemed blasphemous on the network. Some speculated that the move had less to do with the specific content and more to do with a simple test as to whether a state-wide blockage was feasible.

    As far as the rest of the internet goes, the Pakistani government has a history of censorship in the areas of so-called blasphemy and pornography. Recently, that censorship has moved to content that falls in the realm of political speech. In a country with this track record, free access to Twitter is a significant opportunity for its people – considering access remains open.

    There are some caveats to the deal. Mainly, tweets must be sent via mobile.twitter.com – not Twitter’s native apps.

    Also:

    “[G]oing on external links will result in data charging. Whenever a subscriber clicks on an external link, he will be shown a notification indicating that standard data charges apply to view the link. External link will be opened after subscriber’s consent only.”

    But for the purposes of simply communicating (being that all-important amateur reporter), this is a great thing for Pakistani tweeters.

  • Twitter Blocked By Pakistan’s Government Due To ‘Blasphemous Content’

    Social media has already proven that it’s one of the greatest bastions of free speech on the Internet. A lot of governments that don’t protect free speech hate social media because it’s so open. Countries like China block Twitter and Facebook because it allows people to be critical of the government. Pakistan has joined the ranks of countries that block social media.

    Reuters reports that Pakistan has now blocked access to Twitter starting today. The country’s Telecommunication Authority, Mohammed Yaseen, confirmed the block saying that people post “blasphemous content” to the micro-blogging site. He also said that the country has been in discussion with Twitter for some time now on trying to rid the site of blasphemous content.

    It seems strange that the entire country has lost access when Twitter already provides tools for countries to censor select Tweets. It makes it seem like the “blasphemous content” that Pakistan wanted to block wasn’t really blasphemous. Pakistan isn’t saying anything beyond what they told Reuters. What makes it even more strange that the country’s ISPs have been told to block Twitter, but were given no reason as well.

    This isn’t the first time that Pakistan has dabbled in trying to censor the Internet. The country blocked access to YouTube back in 2008 for the same reason – blasphemous content. The country has also recently taken up the idea of trying to create a country-wide firewall similar to China that would block access to sites that the government deems offensive. After numerous companies publicly refused to help Pakistan, the country seemed to have given up its hopes to censor the Internet.

    All of that back story makes this latest block all the more confusing. The country told Reuters that they would unblock Twitter after they had resolved problems with blasphemous content. Who knows when that will happen though? I’m sure Twitter wants to get access back up in Pakistan, but they also have to work out what is really blasphemous and what’s not. Blocking joke and criticism about Mohammed is understandable, but Twitter should make sure that Pakistan is not trying to block political dissent as well.