South Asia Citizens Wire | September 29-30, 2008 | Dispatch No. 2574
- Year 11 running
[1] Bangladesh: Jamaat's charter in clash with country's constitution
(Shakhawat Liton)
[2] Bangladesh and elsewhere: Woman Alone (Shabnam Nadiya)
[3] Nepal: The Monarch is gone but new the secular republic continues
to perpetuate obscurantism
[4] Pakistan: Ominous absence (Adeel Pathan)
[5] India: frying pan to fire
(i) Orissa: More Shame on India
- Nun was gang raped and priest brutally assaulted in Kandhamal
- Victim of anti-Christian mob describes experiences
(ii) Why if 'masterminds' have been held, do the bombs keep
going off ? Is the Police ignoring the bombers from Hindutva?
(iii) Warning of bloodshed over parliament notice to Bal Thackeray
[6] Announcements:
(i) Discussion : Lessons Learned from Mahatma Gandhi & Badshah
Khan (New Delhi, 2 October 2008)
(ii) People's March against communal violence and fanatics (New
Delhi, 2 October 2008)
(iii) 'Hotel Mohenjodaro' performed by Ajoka Theatre (Karachi, 15
October 2008)
______
[1] Bangladesh:
The Daily Star
September 29, 2008
JAMAAT'S CHARTER IN CLASH WITH COUNTRY'S CONSTITUTION
by Shakhawat Liton
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh will have to bring fundamental changes to
its constitution to get registered with the Election Commission (EC)
so that it qualifies for participating in parliamentary polls. If the
party changes its constitution to conform to the registration
criteria, it will definitely lose its characteristics as an Islamic
political party.
Among the registration criteria laid down in the revised
Representation of the People Order (RPO), two conditions infuriated
Jamaat leadership as those put the party's very existence as a
hardline Islamic party at stake.
One of the significant criteria for registration says that a
political party shall not be qualified for registration if the
objectives laid down in its constitution are contradictory to the
constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
Jamaat's constitution clearly contradicts the objectives laid down in
the country's constitution, the supreme law of the land. All other
laws, actions and proceedings must conform to the Bangladesh
constitution and any law, action and proceedings, in whatever form
and manner, is void if made in violation to the constitution.
The preamble to the constitution reads: "…. it shall be a fundamental
aim of the state to realise through the democratic process a
socialist society, free from exploitation, a society in which the
rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedom, equality and
justice, political, economic and social will be secured for all
citizens."
But the aims and objectives laid down in Jamaat-e-Islami's
constitution are to establish rule of Islam through all out efforts
and for establishing peace all over the world and welfare of mankind.
The party constitution also urges to end all types of repressions,
injustice by establishing rule of Allah and rule of honest people
through organised efforts.
In its preamble, Jamaat's constitution says that Allah has sent
mankind with the responsibility to establish Khelafat (Islamic rule)
and made mankind responsible for following and practising Allah-
directed life style without following and practising man-made ideology.
The Jamaat constitution disagrees with the aims and objectives laid
down in the Bangladesh constitution and it also rejected the
country's constitution saying "it was man made". There are many other
provisions in Jamaat's constitution that contradicts with the
country's constitution.
Article 7 (1) of country's constitution says all powers in the
republic belong to the people and their exercise on behalf of the
people shall be effective only under and by the authority of the
constitution.
To get registered with the EC, the Jamaat will have to change its
aims and objectives, laid down in its constitution, in line with the
objectives laid down in the preamble of the country's constitution.
Another significant registration criterion says that a political
party shall not be qualified for registration if any discrimination
regarding religion, race, caste, language or sex is apparent in its
constitution. The text of the criterion was taken from Article 28 (1)
of the country's constitution.
According to the constitution of Jamaat, only religious Muslims can
join the organisation and be members or leaders of the party.
To join Jamaat one will have to swear in as member or leader of the
party expressing total allegiance to Allah and his prophet (sm) and
promising to give topmost priority to abide by the order of Allah and
his prophet.
This means none but religious Muslims are eligible for being a member
or leader of Jamaat-e-Islami.
Legal experts say that this is absolutely discriminatory and
contradictory to the Article 28 (1) of the country's constitution.
They said if any organisation wants to discriminate based on religion
and claim such discrimination as its rights, the constitutional
guarantee against non-discrimination will obviously have to be thrown
away.
If Jamaat now wants to get registered with the EC meeting the
criteria, it will have to change its constitution allowing non-
Muslims to join Jamaat.
Jamaat also opposed the criterion that says that a political party
willing to get registration shall have a specific provision in its
constitution fixing the goal of reserving at least 33 percent of all
committee positions for women including central committee and
successively achieving this goal by the year 2020.
After the new provisions in the RPO were incorporated in an ordinance
promulgated on August 19, Jamaat's Secretary General Ali Ahsan
Mohammad Mojahid filed a writ petition with the High Court (HC)
challenging the three provisions.
In the writ Jamaat claimed that the provisions are unconstitutional.
Following the writ, the HC issued a rule up on the government and the
EC on August 28 asking them to explain within two weeks as to why the
three sections of the RPO, 2008 should not be declared illegal.
The rule remains pending while the EC's timeframe for applying to it
for registration is running out. Political parties must apply to the
EC by October 15 for registration.
In this situation, Jamaat, a key partner of BNP-led electoral
alliance, now wants cancellation of the registration process and it
has also successfully made the BNP to back its stance. BNP, however,
does not have any such problem and it can easily bring changes to its
constitution and apply for registration.
Interestingly, the Special Powers Act (SPA), 1974 does not allow
Jamaat and other Islamic political parties to run their activities in
the name of or on the basis of religion. The parties have been going
on with their activities for the last three decades due to non-
enforcement of the laws.
The 1972 constitution banned formation and functioning of any
association or union or political party based on religion. Jamaat,
which opposed the country's birth in 1971, was automatically banned
by the constitution. The provision for ban was later repealed during
the rule of Ziaur Rahman allowing Jamaat to resume its activities.
However, the SPA, 1974 is still in force and calls for ban and
punishment for violation of the provision.
All successive governments since August, 1975 changeover used the SPA
to suppress opponents but turned a blind eye to banning political
activities in the name of or based on religion.
o o o
(ii)
Daily Star
Eid Supplement
October 2008
WOMAN ALONE
by Shabnam Nadiya
The first time I was sexually molested I was about six. I remember
the incident precisely; I can even smell the petrol fumes in the air.
It was by the filling station at Nilkhet, beside the row of lep-
toshok shops, where we used to wait for our Jahangirnagar University
bus. Most of the shopkeepers knew us and would even offer us stools
to sit on if the wait got too long. I was with my father that
particular day. We had just crossed the road from New Market where
I'd had a cupcake slathered with purplish-pink frosting from Lite
Bakery. The crossing and then the petrol pump were a bit traffic-mad
as only Nilkhet can be and my dad had to be careful negotiating them
with a child. We had just climbed onto the slightly raised pavement
when it happened. It wasn't much of a molestation actually as these
things go, just an intrusive hand that forced itself into the crack
of my butt over my printed-denim skirt very briefly and was gone. I
did not tell my father what had happened.
The second time was years later, on the Jahangirnagar bus. I was with
my mother. It was the 8 o'clock trip from Dhaka. It was probably a
“community bus”, because there were both students and teachers on the
bus and it was very crowded. Usually students weren't allowed on the
“teacher buses”. My mother found a seat for me at the end of a three-
seater and then went to the back of the bus, certain that as she was
a teacher someone would vacate a seat for her. On my right sat a
female student. The drivers habitually turned out the lights during
the nighttime trips as the light inside bothered their vision, so it
was almost dark in the bus. It was very hot, I remember -- the warmth
of too many bodies in too small a space. There was hardly room to
stand for those unluckies who had no seats -- students naturally.
They stood bent over the seats, grabbing onto the seatbacks to
maintain balance. At some point I felt a hand on my left breast. A
skinny little runt, I hardly had any breasts at 14, but the hand
seemed to be satisfied with what it found since it decided to remain.
The trip was usually around 70 minutes. The long, mostly uninhabited
stretch of road between Dhaka and Jahangirnagar was the darkest. The
hand explored my breast for about half an hour in that darkness,
possibly more. It seemed an eternity. Several times I tried twisting
away my torso, to shield myself with my shoulder or my back, but that
didn't work. My movements made my adult seatmate turn to me with a
warm smile, “It's so crowded, are you uncomfortable?” Like a fool, I
blurted out, “That guy's touching me.” The swiftness with which she
whipped her head away would've made Muhammad Ali proud. I realize now
that she herself was barely an adult then, that back then one didn't
acknowledge in public that these things happened -- to oneself or to
others. For the rest of the trip she didn't turn to look at me once.
I don't remember how I felt at six, but that evening I remember
taking a l-o-n-g shower when I got home.
***
Before I read Taslima Nasrin, I read bits and pieces of Beauvoir,
Millet, Friedan and Greer. A compilation of excerpts from their work
was one among the hundreds of books in our household. The book also
included Wollstonecraft, Mill, Woolf. My version of Feminism 101 came
from a secondhand bookstore in a cheap, slightly soiled, old-
fashioned green paperback. It would be years before I would actually
manage to get hold of copies of The Second Sex, The Feminine
Mystique, Sexual Politics. Added to all this was the deceptively
gentle subversion of our own Rokeya. But before I got to those
classic tomes, blessedly I discovered Taslima's NirbachitoKolum.
I was a teenager when Nirbachito Kolum first came out in book form.
I'd heard of her of course, and even read a few pieces here and
there. But to me, back then -- rabidly in love with words -- Taslima
was more the radical poet Rudra's ex-wife than a feminist writer. It
was the book that exploded her into my life.
As much as I had tried to absorb the Western feminists, the history
of the suffragettes, second wave feminism, even Rokeya's words --
their writing was consumed, judged and digested at some intellectual
level, connected to but not truly part of what it meant being woman
in Jahangirnagar, in Dhaka, on the bus, in rickshaws, in school, at
home everyday. But Taslima! Taslima was the real thing, she was the
ashol chini for me and countless others of my generation. We might
not have agreed with everything she said, but that she said those
things at all was, for then, enough.
There were those of us who stood hours waiting at Boi Mela to get a
glimpse of her. And not just girls either -- there were the Notre
Dame boys who searched out her house to knock on her door on a
winter's morning to say, “Apa, we read your book, we wanted to see
you, just once.” Boys who admitted that if Taslima had asked they
would cheerfully have jumped off a building. We would have done the
same.
I wept when I read Taslima describing a young man burning her arm
with a cigarette in public. Or when I read, “Women who emerge from
the home to set foot in the street; those women -- not only me -- are
all prepared to bear silently any obscene remark in the streets.”
This was the first time I realized that what had happened to me on
that bus and later as well, happened to others, and was NOT MY FAULT.
I cannot begin to describe what that meant to a guilt-ridden teen,
who lacked the knowledge that sexual harassment or molestation was
not an isolated incident, that it happened everywhere everyday, that
it could happen to anyone. Twenty years ago -- these were not things
discussed in bhodro society.
***
The literary quality of Taslima Nasrin's oeuvre has been discussed
and questioned by many. For me, as a reader, Taslima's strength has
always been her non-fiction: her topical columns intertwined with her
personal experience is what granted her writing such visceral power.
Her discussions on religion -- apart from several choice quotes from
a number of religious texts -- lacked the depth and reflection
necessary to germinate impetus towards interrogation and examination.
However, when she writes about the soon-to-be-abandoned young wife
made infertile because her husband had her first pregnancy
terminated, or the poetry-quoting friend of her youth lost to a bad
marriage, or when she speaks of her aunt (one of the countless women
raped by the Pakistani soldiers) who committed suicide, for her
return from war was a matter of shame and sorrow unlike the
triumphant return of Taslima's guerilla uncles -- it is our hearts
she holds in the palms of her hands.
These days it seems that a lot of her non-fiction is over-
generalized, catering to certain audiences. She remains strangely
silent on certain issues that should arouse a writer worth the
calling, and then overly and needlessly voluble over others. Some of
the choices she has made over the years remain open to question.
I met Taslima last year at a colloquium of women writers, in Delhi. I
was disappointed. The self-preoccupation, the endless recounting of
the same saga (which most of us knew anyway), the insipid
regurgitation of her victimhood was not what I wanted to come back
with. Where was the belly-cleansing fire? Where the searing empathy
for our bee-stung hearts? I wanted that other Taslima, the Taslima of
the Nirbachito Kolum. The one who could make the radical proposal
that all men be tested for syphilis prior to marriage, who knew that
the “kick of manmade laws” descended on both the women of the slums
as on the women “empowered” through education, who called upon women
to become “hungry” enough to attack their aggressors, who declared
that she had thickened the soles of her shoes because she would have
to traverse the long path of this life by herself, who questioned an
actor who had committed suicide when her husband divorced her, “Why
should this rough terrain assail you so, when the rest of us women
are used to this roughness, grow speedy and lively upon it?”
But that Taslima seemed to have disappeared in a confused welter of
self-pity, the essence of her words consumed by a careful crafting of
columns and essays redolent of repetitious expediency, a
simplification of issues that are complex and intertwined. The
machinations of a fearful government bent on placating
ultraconservative forces in the trash-pile of Bangladeshi politics
led to her exile; Taslima's dismissal of what she derisively calls
“tactics” isolated her further, not only from the land of her birth,
but from the heartland from which her writing emerged. Not for her
the full flowering of her intellect, the free flow of thought and
ideas that contain the possibility of rebirthing known reality on
alien soil. The resulting disconnection from language, culture and
community has muted the thunder of Taslima's eloquent rhetoric. I
find it tragically ironic that she had once written, “…I am not
growing. Sometimes I feel so suffocated within these tiny confines
that even if I make the rounds of this city seven times, this city,
this country seem as miniscule as a matchbox.” The exiled Taslima
traveled to distant and vast metropolises, but what borders were
crossed in the landscape of her imagination?
Exile for an artist can be soul-sapping in many ways. To the extent
that Taslima's writing seems to be a rollercoaster ride spiraling
inwards, it seems that the mollas have, unfortunately, won after all.
The sharp blade of her rhetoric has transformed into a blunt weapon
of intent; where she had stormed onto our consciousness, the enforced
cloister of exile has snapped the thread of continuity with her land
and her people.
Taslima opened a lot of doors for the likes of us. It's a pity that
she has become a travesty of who she used to be.
***
As I reread Nirbachito Kolum today, I am struck by the datedness of
some passages and this, I think, is a good thing for a book of its
kind. It indicates that some areas that she wrote about have
progressed, moved ahead; that these issues demand a reappraisal in
the altered landscape of our social, political and cultural reality.
At the same time it's true that the revolutionary way of looking at
ourselves, our bodies, that we learnt from her, the exigencies of the
good girl-bad girl divide, is still, I think, as appropriate and
needed in today's Bangladesh as it was two decades ago when I was a
teenager. Women still chat on shallow shangsharik issues, girls still
judge each other, themselves and boys at levels superficial such as
clothes, appearance, money -- and men continue to remain boys (too)
late into life. But here, perhaps, I over-generalize.
Yet those are the kinds of over-the-top statements which made me both
adore and disagree with Taslima Nasrin so strongly. Taslima's writing
then and now is not the place to seek sociological analysis,
intellectual conceptualization, a true representation of the state of
things or the state of womanhood in Bangladesh or South Asia. Her
value resides in how jubilantly she flung open doors that had been
shuttered by genteel conservatism, by niceness, by ignorance and
denial, to clear the way for understanding and discussion of issues
that so desperately needed to be addressed.
Yet the question begs to be asked: is that enough anymore? For
someone who has gained Taslima's stature, someone who had come to
represent a certain face of Bangladesh, she seems curiously oblivious
to the nuances or the politics of her situation. Her pop-shot
remarks, “Before me, women would write love stories or advice on
childcare and cooking.” (interview with Irshad Manji, 2002); “I don't
find any difference between Islam and Islamic
fundamentalists.” (interview with 'Free Enquiry' magazine), her not
acknowledging how her warped upbringing in a severely dysfunctional
family shaped her as a person, her discounting the efforts of
countless men and women within Bangladesh who hid and spirited her
out of the country during volatile times, who protested at the
mindless injustice of her exile -- none of these attributes serve to
heighten our sense of her dependability and veracity either as a
writer or as a social reformer. Not to mention the allegations of
pandering to certain tastes in the marketing of her books (can one
not think of Amar Meyebela being translated/re-titled as Meyebela: My
Bengali Girlhood: A Memoir of Growing Up Female in a Muslim World by
her Western publisher?), a charge which she dismisses offhand.
Are these instances of naiveté or artifice? The banalities with which
she faced Karan Thapar in last year's Devil's Advocate interview,
especially in her evasion of his succinct questioning of her personal
ethics in “compromising third parties” gives one pause. In this
interview -- as well as in others -- this woman who is so soft-spoken
in person bulldozes her way through discussion and debate through
simply stating a monosyllabic positive or negative, or a single
sentence that is essentially no more than sloganeering and sticking
to it no matter what.
In some respects Taslima seems as uncompromising and rigid as the
mollas she opposes. But does this ideological inflexibility come
across as strength of purpose? Or as a stubborn refusal to take into
consideration a viewpoint that differs even slightly than her own
version of truth? Her truth seems to have lost it's Bengali small
town beginnings in recent years; despite her claims to the contrary,
her truth seems to have acquired a capital T, transforming itself
into an inalienable, transfixed Truth.
Taslima's discounting of her writerly lineage, of collectivity in the
context of Bangladeshi feminism and -- more hurtful perhaps to women
not directly related to either academia or the writing community --
the impassive denial of any experience that belies her own diminishes
her. Yes, abusive, transgressive sexual practices are often the lot
of girl children, brutalizing fathers/father figures are not rare,
nor are women who find aberrant religious practices the only recourse
to the crises of life. But are these the only norms of Bangladeshi
society? I myself grew up in a fairly liberal family, my mother a
professional woman, my father not given to deciding our lives for us.
Yet if I extrapolate my own experiences to pronounce on the “normal”
lives of all middle-class Bangladeshi families, I do a disservice not
only to myself but to others as well. And if my stated aim of writing
is to “change society,” I place myself in an even more contentious
position.
***
And yet I cannot help but remember. I remember walking through the
Boi Mela gate arm in arm with other young girls so would-be molesters
got no chance to jostle and molest us at the overcrowded gates. I
remember the anger shaking me as I held a college friend weeping as
she described how her old chacha had raped her for years and her
parents had refused to believe her when she told. I remember marching
in rallies at Dhaka University to support the anti-rape movement in
Jahangirnagar. I remember walking into Boi Mela, Gausia market,
Gulistan with opened up large-size safety pins to stick into male
hands daring to come near our breasts, our buttocks. I remember
staying up late munching chanachur-makha, trading stories and
laughter on how we had and how we could deal with remarks, leers,
invasive hands in public and private places.
There were others who helped, other writers, other activists, other
women -- women who worked, walked the streets, who cooked, cleaned,
and taught us what it meant to be female, what potential that word
had. And there was Taslima. Who stormed the barricades of bhodro
feminist discourse, with her graphic detailing of abuse, her
unflinching depiction of the eternal exile of being an articulate,
affirmative woman, who suffered no injustice gladly. Taslima was
right when she said “woman has no country” -- this was true for her
perhaps even before she was forced into exile; at some level, true
for the rest of us as well.
***
This essay is not just about Taslima Nasrin. This essay is about me.
This essay is also about Farah, who I am honored to call my friend
because she once grabbed and displayed a male hand in a crowded
London tube to ask, “Does anyone know who this hand belongs to?
Because I just found it on my tit!”; about the tiny but wonderfully
feisty Shilpi from Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall who once took her
shoe off and jumped up repeatedly to smack the cheek of the tall old
man who had touched her butt on the New Market overbridge; and the
young women who organized the “stoning” of a man who would come to
stand on the boundary wall at the back of Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree
Hall to flash the residents. This essay is about the beginnings of
courage, the glimmerings of hope, of understanding that although for
some of us gender is destiny, gender need not be all of destiny.
Books have always been very important to me -- too important some
would say. There were books that I read and reread simply for the
beauty of what they had to say, for the sheer joy of the words; books
that opened my mind and my heart to new ideas, different ways of
thinking, to the very process of thinking itself. I felt such
admiration for these, that they spawned within me a lifelong ambition
to be a writer myself. And there were books that impacted me so
deeply as a person that what they aroused within me was simply a
sense of abiding personal gratitude.
Nirbachito Kolum set off fireworks at various levels, in spaces both
public and intensely private. For me it was a connection between my
reading and my everyday lived life -- a bridge spanning the wild
waters of tradition, culture and community and the relatively
rational shores of a mind that rejected unexamined acceptance of
conventionalities. It was from that book that I -- and so many others
my age -- first learnt in terms that we could relate to that our
bodies and our urges were not things to be ashamed of, that the words
we spoke, how we related to the world and the world to us were
gendered down to the minutest detail. Taslima Nasrin wrote in
Nirbachito Kolum, “I know that my path is not smooth. I have to walk
removing stones in the way. Not only me, so does every woman.”
Despite our disenchantment, disappointment and dashed hopes, there
are those of us who forever hold close to our hearts the moments when
Taslima helped us remove some of the stones littering our paths.
© thedailystar.net, 2008. All Rights Reserved
______
[3] NEPAL: The Monarch is gone but new the secular republic
continues to perpetuate obscurantism
BBC News - 29 September 2008
Maoists appoint 'living goddess'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7642798.stm
______
[4]
The News on Sunday
21 September 2008
OMINOUS ABSENCE
The killing of the two members of Ahmadi Jamaat in Nawabshah and
Mirpurkhas has triggered a fresh debate on the treatment of
minorities in the region and is a poor reflection on the role of the
authorities in helping matters
by Adeel Pathan
Sindh is popularly hailed as the land of sufis and saints like Lal
Shahbaz Qalandar, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sachal Sarmast and
Abdullah Shah Ghazi, all of whom spoke of peace and stood for
tolerance before its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society.
Unfortunately, this very message seems to have become lost on the
Sindh that we see today. Incidents where the people belonging to
'minority' groups have become victims of 'intolerance' at the hands
of the religious extremists are growing ominously. The recent
'target' killing of two office bearers of the Ahmedi Jamaat (Qadiani)
in interior Sindh is one inglorious case in point. It has triggered a
fresh debate on the treatment of minorities in the region and is a
poor reflection on the role of the authorities in helping matters.
The first victim of religious intolerance (read extremism) who was
gunned down in Mirpurkhas -- Dr Abdul Mannan Siddiqui -- was the
Sindh chief of Ahmadi Jamaat and ran a medical hospital named Fazal-e-
Umar Medical Centre (FUMC).
Dr Raj Kumar, who had the chance to work with (late) Dr Siddiqui,
talked to TNS about the incident. He said that he had heard of two
unknown assailants who waylaid Dr Siddiqui as just as he arrived at
the medical centre.
"It appears that they (culprits) were lurking around the place,
waiting to attack Dr Mannan Siddiqui. They wanted to take no chance
and fired 17-odd bullets at him. Dr Siddiqui expired on the spot. It
was quarter to two in the afternoon. Dr Siddiqui's guard and two
other people were also wounded but they survived."
Dr Kumar who has been employed at FUMC for the past seven years, also
spoke of Dr Siddiqui's "untiring efforts" in the upkeep of the
centre. "For over three decades, it has been providing medical and
health facilities to the people of Mirpurkhas and adjoining areas.
Today, the centre is a bigger, 60-bed facility."
When asked whether the members of the Ahmadi Jamaat protested against
the murder of Dr Siddiqui in broad daylight, Dr Kumar said, "No, but
the civil society and human rights activists did. Besides, a case was
registered by the administrator of the medical centre against the
unknown culprits."
The Ameer of Ahmadi Jamaat was killed in Mirpurkhas, while the 65-
year-old Yusuf succumbed to injuries at a local hospital in
Nawabshah, the hometown of President Zardari.
According to the report registered by his brother, Yusuf was heading
towards his prayer place in Liaqat market, in the centre of the city,
when two assailants opened fire at him, killing him there and then,
and fled the scene on a motorbike.
The case was registered against two unknown culprits in the wake of
protests by the people belonging to the Ahmadi Jamaat.
The president of Nawabshah Press Club, Anwar Sheikh notes that 400 to
500 people in the city have their affiliations with the Jamaat.
Discussing the reasons behind the killing of the 65-year-old, Anwar
is categorical, "It is target killing.
"Such incidents might've been motivated by some monetary concern,
especially considering the fact that the Ahmadi Jamaat is facing
several challenges -- internally -- because it gets foreign aid and
works like a missionary organisation," he adds.
Sanaullah Abbasi, Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Police, Hyderabad
region, also spoke to TNS about the incidents. He said, "It is too
early to arrive at a conclusion as to who is behind these killings.
But one thing is clear that this is an act of terrorism.
"In this regard, we have arrested 22 suspects who are associated with
the banned jihadi outfits. We are monitoring them and also probing
the Nawabshah killing which has its obvious link to the other
incident of killing that occurred in Mirpurkhas."
In response to a question, Abbasi said that there had been complaints
from the Ahmadis living in Badin and Jamshoro district who attributed
these incidents to the law-and-order situation. "But I see them as
pure terrorist attacks.
"We tried to address the issue on a local level," he continued,
"After these incidents we have revamped our security network and are
guarding the places of worship of the Ahmadis."
Abbasi said that the police had taken all necessary preventive
measures. He claimed that after they arrested a number of banned
jihadi outfits, the police had managed to contain the incidents of
target killings.
However, he was of the view that different investigation teams had
been assigned to investigate the matter and the outfits belonging to
banned jihadi organisations had been asked to submit their daily
itinerary in the local police stations to keep track of them on a
regular basis.
"We have been able to restrict the scope of these killings. After the
security was tightened around the Ahmadis' places of worship and
their residential areas, things are under control."
Sarwan Kumar, human rights activist based in Mirpurkhas, informed TNS
that the family of the deceased was not willing to speak to the media.
He said that those who had killed Dr Mannan Siddiqui had actually
killed a generation of people that had benefitted from the services
of the deceased's medical centre. He added that there had been a
series of protests in Mirpurkhas after Dr Siddiqui's murder and
termed the tragic incident as a result of religious extremism. A
religious seminary close to the FUMC was also attacked several times.
The deceased was the Sindh chief of Ahmadis and his dead body was
taken to Rabwah (near Faisalabad) for burial, the rights activist
revealed.
Despite claims by the authorities, the incidents of target killings
continue to haunt the resident minorities that were earlier leading a
peaceful co-existence in the province.
For its part, the government will have to devise a solid mechanism to
avoid any future incident of crime in the region. The religious
scholars have already condemned such killings and called for a show
of tolerance.
TNS tried to get in contact with the media representative of the
Ahmadi Jamaat in Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah, but to no avail. The
people were not willing to talk to the media.
More recently, the issue of the Ahmadi Jamaat being victimised
acquired a new significance as Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief
Altaf Hussain claimed that the killings were linked to the rise of
Talibanisation in Sindh.
______
[5] India: from frying pan to fire
(i) HINDUTVA'S HORRORS IN ORISSA
Concerned Citizens’ Independent Fact- Finding Mission
Kandhamal, September 2008, Orissa
http://www.sacw.net/article61.html
Nun was gang raped and priest brutally assaulted in Kandhamal
FIRs filed but no arrests by State government; no response from
Centre; Sister Nirmala wrote to CM and PM appealing for protection to
Christians
http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/30/stories/2008093050460100.htm
Victim of anti-Christian mob describes experiences
‘Why did you kill the swamiji? How much have you given to the
killers?’ the armed crowd asked as it assaulted Father Chellan
http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/30/stories/2008093050030100.htm
o o o
(ii) WHY IF 'MASTERMINDS' HAVE BEEN HELD, DO THE BOMBS KEEP GOING OFF ?
[Blasts again kill in certain areas in Maharashtra and Gujarat, In
Ahmedabad the police find dozens of bombs that go off, unusual this.
There are serious doubts and obvious questions that lead many in the
direction of Hindutva activists and their violent record, since all
the SIMI masterminds have already all been arrested. The state must
crackdown now on the Hindu right. A public campaign is needed now
asking for a ban on The RSS / VHP and Bajrang Dal with immediate
effect.]
Restoring the confidence of Muslims
by Vidya Subrahmaniam
Muslims fear a witch-hunt, and are in denial of terrorism. For this
to change, police investigation must become transparent and the
innocent should be offered full protection of the law.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/30/stories/2008093055671000.htm
Indian Police Accused Of Using Undue Force On Terror Suspects
by Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 29, 2008; Page A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/
AR2008092802415.html
(iii)
Indian Express, September 30, 2008
RAJ SETS CAT AMONG TIGERS, WARNS BLOODSHED OVER LS NOTICE TO THACKERAY
Mumbai, September 29 Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray may be facing a
Lok Sabha privilege committee summons, but it is the unstoppable Raj
Thackeray who is threatening to walk away with the political capital.
In a written statement, the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS)
president on Monday warned that no elected representative or official
from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar would be allowed to set foot in
Maharashtra to serve the notice to his estranged uncle.
The Lok Sabha committee had earlier decided to summon Thackeray in
connection with his “intemperate” comments against MPs in the party
mouthpiece Saamna, of which he is the editor.
“If this notice comes to Maharashtra, no officer or elected
representative from UP-Bihar will be allowed to set foot at the
Mumbai airport. Delhi will have to first take the lives of 11 crore
Marathi people,” said Raj, adding he would “first face the breach of
privilege”. He also said the issue showed the “arrogance of Delhi and
UP-Biharis”.
______
[6] Announcements:
(i) To Commemorate Mahatma Gandhi and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (the
Frontier Gandhi)
Discussion on:
Peacemaking Today: Lessons Learned from Mahatma Gandhi & Badshah Khan
India International Centre, Auditorium
Lodhi Estate
Thursday 2 October 2008
10:00 -14:00
Speakers: Shri Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs;
Mr. Afrasiab Khattak, Secretary-General, Awami National Party (NWFP),
Pakistan & former Chairman, Pakistan Human Rights Commission; Mr.
Suleiman Layeq, former Minister of Tribal Affairs, Afghanistan, and
currently Senior Advisor, UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan;
Prof. Mushirul Hasan, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia; Mr.
Bakhtany Khedmatgar (Retd.), Academy of Social Science, Afghanistan;
Mr. Nazir Ahmed Nazir, Youth leader and poet, Afghanistan; and others
Presentation on Mahatma Gandhi
By three Gandhi Smriti Fellows at the Mandela Centre
Screening of a short documentary on Badshah Khan in India
(Collaboration: Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace & Conflict
Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia)
_____
(ii)
IN DEFENCE OF PLURALISM, HARMONY AND PEACE
Come and join
People's March on 2nd October
Mahatma Gandhi's birthday and the International Day of Non-Violence
The march is a protest against communal violence and increasing
brutal attacks
on innocent people, minorities and human rights' defenders by
fanatics and terrorists of all kinds
The March will start at 1400 hours (2 pm) from Jantar Mantar till
Rajghat
PLEASE come in large numbers for a show of strength and solidarity!
_____
(iii)
Hotel Mohenjodaro is dedicated to the victims of terrorism in Pakistan
Brought to you by Ajoka Theatre in collaboration with PeaceNiche / T2F
Date: 15th October 2008 | Time: 8:00 pm | Venue: Karachi Arts
Council Auditorium
Ghulam Abbas, the great Urdu short story writer, wrote Hotel
Mohenjodaro in 1968. The story appears to be an account of a TV
reporter from a troubled tribal area, or from the scene of a
devastating suicide bombing. The retrogressive and intolerant
ideology of religious fundamentalists, propagating an orthodox, rigid
interpretation of Islam, the acquiescence of the establishment and
the disastrous consequences of following the logic of a theocratic
state, are so evident now. The mindset hasn’t changed: primitive
thinking, deep-rooted prejudices, an irrational worldview, and a
burning desire to destroy civilization and to self-annihilate …
The total take over by the turban-brigades of the story doesn’t seem
unimaginable anymore. The havoc wreaked over the last few years, in
the name of Jihad and Talibanization, is pushing us over the
precipice and before we know it, we will be hurtling down into the
abyss.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.
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