Terrorism – Page 10 – Aboard The Democracy Train

May 14, 2015

Gunmen kill 43 in bus attack in Karachi, Pakistan

KARACHI, May 13 – Gunmen on motorcycles boarded a bus and opened fire on commuters in Pakistan’s volatile southern city of Karachi on Wednesday, killing at least 43, police said, and militants affiliated with Islamic State claimed responsibility.

The pink bus was pockmarked with bullet holes and blood saturated the seats and dripped out of the doors on to the concrete.

“As the gunmen climbed on to the bus, one of them shouted, ‘Kill them all!’ Then they started indiscriminately firing at everyone they saw,” a wounded woman told a television channel by phone.

Police Superintendent Najib Khan told Reuters there were six gunmen and that all the passengers were Ismailis, a minority Shi’ite Muslim sect. Pakistan is mostly Sunni.

Militant group Jundullah, which has attacked Muslim minorities before, claimed responsibility. The group has links with the Pakistani Taliban and pledged allegiance to Islamic State in November.

“These killed people were Ismaili and we consider them kafir (non-Muslim). We had four attackers. In the coming days we will attack Ismailis, Shi’ites and Christians,” spokesman Ahmed Marwat told Reuters.

Later a Twitter account from militants identifying themselves as Islamic State claimed responsibility. It was not possible to verify their claims and they did not provide details of the attack.

“Thanks to God 43 apostates were killed and close to 30 others were wounded in an attack by the soldiers of Islamic State on a bus carrying people of the Shi’ite Ismaili sect … in Karachi,” said a statement distributed on Twitter by a group calling itself Khorasan Province Islamic State.

Several Pakistani splinter groups have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, and some individuals claim to have been to the Middle East to meet IS militants. But so far there are few signs of major operational, financial or personnel links.

At least 43 people were killed in the bus attack and 13 wounded, provincial police chief Ghulam Haider Jamali told media.

Outside the hospital where the wounded were taken, and where the bus was parked, scores of young men formed a human chain to block everyone but families and doctors.

Emails and Facebook posts on Ismaili pages encouraged the community not to respond or say anything that might further endanger them.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he was saddened by the attack.

“This is a very patriotic and peaceful people who have always worked for the wellbeing of Pakistan,” he said. “This is an attempt to spread divisions in the country.”

MILITANT THREATS

Uzma Alkarim, a member of the Ismaili community, said the bus took commuters to work every day. The Ismailis had faced threats before, she said.

“Around six months ago, our community elders had alerted us to be careful because of security threats but things had calmed down recently,” she said.

English leaflets left in the bus were headlined “Advent of the Islamic State!” and used a derogatory Arabic word for Shi’ites, accusing them of “barbaric atrocities … in the Levant, Iraq and Yemen”.

The leaflets also blamed Shi’ites for a deadly sectarian attack in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, and raged against extrajudicial killings by police, naming a local officer.

In January, 60 people were killed when Jundullah bombed a Shi’ite mosque in the southern province of Sindh. The Taliban bombed another Shi’ite mosque in the northwest city of Peshawar weeks later.

Both the Taliban and Jundullah claimed the bombing of Wagah border crossing last year, which killed 57 people. Jundullah also claimed a church bombing that killed more than 80 people in Peshawar in 2013.

Many religious minorities accuse the government of not doing enough to protect them. Police are underpaid, poorly equipped and poorly trained.

(Reporting By Katharine Houreld)

April 28, 2015April 28, 2015

Progressives in Pakistan see dark future after Sabeen’s murder

Sabeen's murder sends shock waves (Credit: news.yahoo.com) — Sabeen’s murder sends shock waves (Credit: news.yahoo.com)

ISLAMABAD, April 27: The killing of Sabeen Mahmud – a prominent rights campaigner – on Friday has sent shockwaves through the country’s progressives, as those who speak out against alleged abuses by the state say they are under increasing threat.

Mahmud, the 40-year-old director The Second Floor cafe in Karachi which regularly hosted debates and arts events, was killed when gunmen attacked her car as she left the venue minutes after hosting a seminar on abuses in Balochistan.

The same talk – featuring prominent Baloch activist Mama Qadeer who has campaigned for the “missing people” of Balochistan – had been cancelled by the prestigious Lahore University of Management Sciences weeks earlier after members of faculty reported pressure from intelligence agencies.

Police say they are examining whether she was targeted because of her work at the cafe, which held talks against religious extremism as well as state brutality.

“She had no personal enmity so there is much possibility that she might have been targeted because of her intellectual activities. She was getting threatening calls from some unknown callers. We are working (out) who they might be,” senior police official Jamil Ahmed said Sunday.

Her death led to an outpouring of grief with hundreds of mourners attending her funeral Saturday, as the United States and the European Union joined Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in officially condemning the killing.

But most analysts say there is little chance her murderers will ever be brought to justice given the recent history of impunity among those who target the country’s marginalised liberals.

Last year, prominent TV host Raza Rumi narrowly escaped a gun attack on his car in Lahore that killed his driver, while another anchor, Hamid Mir, survived being shot in the stomach in Karachi shortly after hosting a TV programme about Balochistan.

No perpetrators have been brought to justice in either case.

TV anchor Mir, whose brother quickly pointed the finger at the Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI) for the attempt on his life, said he saw several parallels with the attack on Mahmud.

“The most common factor was Mama Qadeer Baloch because I received threats when I invited him on my show,” Mir told AFP.

“I got six bullet injuries, she got maybe four. I was attacked by the people who were riding a motorcycle, she was too. My attackers were guided by some people who were sitting in a car and this was the same case in her incident.”

Hashim Bin Rashid, a leftwing columnist and activist, says that there is a growing atmosphere among the country’s urban middle classes that encourages the silencing of dissenting voices.

“The overall atmosphere of fascism… is much more worrying – where anyone is offering any dissent is going to be called a traitor,” he said.

Activists who write about the rights of Baloch people on social media, or condemn the killing of minorities, are often loudly berated and receive death threats that are never investigated, while on the other hand the government blocks pages belonging to progressive groups on Facebook, he added.

Mir said the room for freedom of expression on Balochistan had significantly narrowed in the mainstream media.

“Since I was attacked last year, the media has been facing a lot of pressure,” said Mir, who now travels with an armed escort.

“They feel they are helpless, they cannot express their views in the media openly, they cannot get justice. They feel anyone who speaks truth or people who become voice for the voiceless will be silenced. This is not good for democratic society.”

Abid Hussain, a Karachi-based journalist who attended Friday’s seminar and had known Mahmud for more than a decade, described her loss as “unquantifiable”.

“I truly hope we are able to rally around her and do our best to continue her legacy and what she taught us… but the sceptic in me says that it won’t be possible,” he said.

The first test, he said, would be whether a talk on Baochistan scheduled to be held at the University of Karachi next month is allowed to go ahead – and safely.

April 28, 2015

Sabeen Mehmud, Pakistani rights activist, shot dead

Sabeen Mehmud (Credit: nytlive.nytimes.com)

Islamabad April 27: A leading member of Pakistan’s small band of liberal social activists has been gunned down outside the pioneering Karachi arts venue she founded, in an apparent bid to silence discussion about the country’s brutal efforts to smother separatism in the restive province of Balochistan.

The murder of Sabeen Mahmud on Friday sent shockwaves through Pakistan’s embattled intelligentsia both because she was much loved but also because the killing happened immediately after an event she organised with Mama Abdul Qadeer, an elderly Baloch activist campaigning on behalf of so-called “missing people” abducted by the state security apparatus.

Witnesses said she was shot several times by unknown gunmen in her car just after she left the talk at The Second Floor, or T2F as her cafe and arts space is known. Her mother was also critically injured in the gunfire and rushed to hospital.

On Saturday Pakistan’s army spokesman Asim Bajwa decried the killing of Mahmud as “tragic and unfortunate”.

Intelligence agencies had been “tasked to render all possible assistance to investigating agencies for apprehension of perpetrators and bringing them to justice,” General Bajwa said.

Although Mahmud had also made enemies among religious militants – not least with her counter-protest against Islamist attempts to stop Karachites marking Valentine’s Day – many of her friends believe the country’s “deep state” is responsible.

Pakistan’s military establishment is extremely touchy about the issue of Balochistan, where a nationalist movement has developed into a potent insurgency in the last decade.

The separatists are demanding independence from a Pakistani state they claim is oppressive and only interested in extracting the province’s energy and mineral resources.

Authorities are particularly sensitive about Qadeer, the 73-year-old who in 2013-14 walked 1,200 miles from the Baloch capital of Quetta to Islamabad to protest about missing people, including his own son who was found dead and mutilated in 2011 having vanished in 2009.

In March he was banned from travelling to the US to attend a human rights conference in the US.

This month the Lahore University of Management Sciences, one of the country’s most prestigious colleges, was forced to cancel an event to which Qadeer had been invited.

Senior faculty members told Dawn, a leading Pakistani newspaper, they had been forced to scrap the “Un-Silencing Balochistan” talk on the orders of the Inter-Service Intelligence directorate, the military’s powerful spy wing.

Following the cancellation of the LUMS talk Mahmud was all too aware of the risks and asked her circle of friends on Facebook about what “pre-emptive measures” she should take before hosting what she called “Un-silencing Balochistan (Take 2)”.

“A lot of people did say there would be blowback but nobody thought they could shoot someone dead like that,” said Taha Siddiqui, an outspoken journalist and one of Mahmud’s many friends on Pakistan’s liberal-left.

“Shooting dead seemed a little too brutal, something that happens only in remote areas of Balochistan,” Siddiqui said. “But now they are doing in in Karachi.”

The country is extremely sensitive to the threat from nationalists, given it lost half its territory when East Pakistan seceded to form Bangladesh in 1971.

Authorities are especially keen to quell the insurgency now the province is slated to play a critical role in the grand strategic plan to turn Pakistan into a land corridor connecting China with Arabian Sea.

Last week Chinese president Xi Jinping made an important stat visit to Pakistan where he signed off on a multi-billion dollar spending splurge which hopes to turn Gwadar, a town on the coast of Balochistan, into one of the world’s great trading hubs.

Many Pakistani activists and journalists have learned that it is best not to publicly scrutinise the Balochistan issue.

Hamid Mir, the country’s most famous television news presenter, was seriously wounded by gunmen in Karachi following a confrontation with the army over his coverage of Qadeer.

Mahmud’s funeral procession began on Saturday at T2F, the cafe she established to organise debates and art events.
Local novelist Mohammed Hanif described T2F as “a space for Karachites to come and play and create”.

“The deep state already controls media in reference to Balochistan coverage,” said the acclaimed writer and journalist. “Now Baloch voices can’t be heard in private spaces.”

April 26, 2015

Keep smiling, Sabeen

KARACHI, April 25: Those who knew her will remember her smiling. Sabeen Mahmud was a bastion of art in a forsaken city, a city where 20 million live a life of death. In a city of lifeless droves, Sabeen was alive. Today, she is more alive than ever. She is alive because one cannot imagine she is not. She is alive because if she isn’t, are we? No, we’re dead. She’s alive.

She turned the T2F into a haven of art. If you wanted a space to have a stimulating conversation over a cup of coffee, you went to T2F. If you wanted a space to perform, you went to T2F. If you wanted to rehearse with your bandmates for your upcoming gig, you went to T2F. If you wanted to get away and read a book, you went to T2F. And when you went to T2F, you saw Sabeen smiling. You saw her cherishing the art she had surrounded herself by, reaching out to amateurs, reassuring the professionals. I cannot imagine going there and not seeing her warm, smiling face.

One cannot overstate Karachi’s loss. It has lost its voice; it has lost the best of its inhabitants. One cannot help but despair, to sit in stupor ― silent, catatonic. But knowing Sabeen, this is not how she would want to have us be. No. She would want us to speak up, louder than before. Louder, so that those who silenced her can hear. Louder, lest they think they have won. Louder, so that they are deafened by the noise. Louder, so that they may never silence anyone again.

Even in their immediate grief, Karachi’s shrinking community of artists and intellectuals is taking stock. “It can frighten some people, but it can also inspire others to take a stand as she did, with courage and bravery. We have to keep fighting for our freedom of speech and expression and not let this city become a dead city. Arts and culture ― dance, drama and music ― are the best methods to combat violence,” classical dancer Sheema Kermani told The Express Tribune.

Musician Louis J Pinto, aka Gumby, has played at some of the grandest venues of the world. Yet, his new band decided to have its first performance at T2F recently. For artists, young and old, this was the space where there was no other. Sabeen made sure of that. “Her contribution to society is her legacy, which we should continue to move forward. As an artist, I think we should all continue doing what we do best. It’s the right thing to do and that’s what Sabeen would have wanted,” said the drummer.

Dancer Joshinder Chaggar agrees. “As an artist in Karachi, Sabeen is so intimately woven into our lives. But for me, this has only magnified her presence and cause. I am in awe of this woman who really, truly lived. She lived large, passionately; she supported others. I mean she was a magician. In terms of taking her legacy forward, we need to start living like her. Really LIVING, and singing our song and standing up for what we believe in. Sabeen is still alive; her soul is resonating through the city and vibrating in our hearts.”

Assistant Professor and Chairperson of the Social Sciences & Liberal Arts department at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Dr Framji Minwalla says of her, “This is a devastating loss. Every life we lose is a devastating loss. I have met few people like Sabeen: brave, honest, genuinely caring and committed, an idealist who found astonishing ways to ground those ideals in concrete action. It’s difficult for me to imagine Karachi without her in it. She made at least my work and world easier to manage. She made me a better, more engaged thinker, and for that and much more I am immeasurably grateful. The deliberate targeting of activists, thinkers, people of conscience, people working hard to make this country saner, progressive, more equitable will not silence the growing anger we feel. The work will continue because the many people Sabeen touched will make certain it continues.”

Today, Karachi is draped in despair, but the heavens must be rejoicing. To them has returned a curator nonpareil. We’ll meet at the seventh floor, Sabeen.

(Additional input by Hasan Ansari and Saadia Qamar)

April 9, 2015

Nuclear Fears in South Asia

The world’s attention has rightly been riveted on negotiations aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program. If and when that deal is made final, America and the other major powers that worked on it — China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — should turn their attention to South Asia, a troubled region with growing nuclear risks of its own.

Pakistan, with the world’s fastest-growing nuclear arsenal, is unquestionably the biggest concern, one reinforced by several recent developments. Last week, Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, announced that he had approved a new deal to purchase eight diesel-electric submarines from China, which could be equipped with nuclear missiles, for an estimated $5 billion. Last month, Pakistan test-fired a ballistic missile that appears capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to any part of India. And a senior adviser, Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, reaffirmed Pakistan’s determination to continue developing short-range tactical nuclear weapons whose only purpose is use on the battlefield in a war against India.

These investments reflect the Pakistani Army’s continuing obsession with India as the enemy, a rationale that allows the generals to maintain maximum power over the government and demand maximum national resources. Pakistan now has an arsenal of as many as 120 nuclear weapons and is expected to triple that in a decade. An increase of that size makes no sense, especially since India’s nuclear arsenal, estimated at about 110 weapons, is growing more slowly.

The two countries have a troubled history, having fought four wars since independence in 1947, and deep animosities persist. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India has made it clear that Pakistan can expect retaliation if Islamic militants carry out a terrorist attack in India, as happened with the 2008 bombing in Mumbai. But the latest major conflict was in 1999, and since then India, a vibrant democracy, has focused on becoming a regional economic and political power.

At the same time, Pakistan has sunk deeper into chaos, threatened by economic collapse, the weakening of political institutions and, most of all, a Taliban insurgency that aims to bring down the state. Advanced military equipment — new submarines, the medium-range Shaheen-III missile with a reported range of up to 1,700 miles, short-range tactical nuclear weapons — are of little use in defending against such threats. The billions of dollars wasted on these systems would be better spent investing in health, education and jobs for Pakistan’s people.

Even more troubling, the Pakistani Army has become increasingly dependent on the nuclear arsenal because Pakistan cannot match the size and sophistication of India’s conventional forces. Pakistan has left open the possibility that it could be the first to use nuclear weapons in a confrontation, even one that began with conventional arms. Adding short-range tactical nuclear weapons that can hit their targets quickly compounds the danger.

Pakistan is hardly alone in its potential to cause regional instability. China, which considers Pakistan a close ally and India a potential threat, is continuing to build up its nuclear arsenal, now estimated at 250 weapons, while all three countries are moving ahead with plans to deploy nuclear weapons at sea in the Indian Ocean.

This is not a situation that can be ignored by the major powers, however preoccupied they may be by the long negotiations with Iran.

April 7, 2015April 7, 2015

On the road to nowhere

Punjab Governor Salman Taseer's killer acclaimed (Credit: demotix.com) — Punjab Governor Salman Taseer’s killer acclaimed (Credit: demotix.com)

While the media is brimming with tall claims of no relaxation to terrorists, three big fish managed to wriggle out of the clamped jaws of law during recent weeks. Simpletons are told that their lawyers were consummate enough to outshine the official mavericks in the court so the jury was constrained to let them walk free.

The case of Mumtaz Qadri is even more intriguing. In a baffling verdict while his death penalty has been maintained, the judges were convinced that the act of killing a sitting governor is not terrorism.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict says that is amazing to note that appellant (Mumtaz Qadri) took protection and rights guaranteed by the constitution, but deprived the deceased (Salman Taseer) of all constitutional guarantees. It is beyond any reasonable doubt that the murder of Salman Taseer at the hands of appellant Mumtaz Qadri was pre-planned, cold blooded and gruesome.” However about the charges of terrorism, the court observed that “it was not applicable because the incident did not create panic among the public.”

It is baffling that if a failed attempt on Gen. Musharraf can lead to hanging of the convicts, how the “pre-planned, cold blooded and gruesome” murder of the governor of a province is less than terrorism? Article 6 (2-n) of The Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 defines terrorism as an action that involves serious violence against a member of the police force, armed forces, civil armed forces, or a public servant. Also it is hard to comprehend how the grisly act did not create panic among the public? If the prosecutor was too naïve to prove these explicit facts, one even with a severest flu would still smell a rat.

More flabbergasting was the performance of two counsels for the felon. Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, a former chief justice of the Lahore High Court while arguing before the court showered his profound eulogy for the gunmen who attacked French weekly Charlie Hebdo and pronounced them “heroes”. He also pleaded before the court that the shooting of Salman Taseer was not an act of terrorism. Another lawyer of the convict, a retired judge from Punjab Mian Nazir Akhtar expressed his vehemence by saying that “I am sure Salman Rushdie would also be killed if he were to come here”.

When the IHC remarked that even a judge cannot touch an accused after awarding him punishment, yet the defence counsel insisted that a person can kill another person under unusual circumstances. These observations leave one dumbfounded as both the lawyers adorned the seat of justice for several years with such ethos. How accused of blasphemy or heresy would have been treated by an adjudicator who ardently justifies killing by the lunatic fringe. Both lawyers must also be aware that in September 2014, a prisoner guard at Adiala Jail shot a septuagenarian British-Pakistani accused over blasphemy charges. An internal inquiry revealed that the shooter was incited by Mumtaz Qadri while he was deployed outside his cell. He became a disciple of Qadri and used to seek religious lessons from him.

Incompetence and connivance of a matching magnitude was evident in the case of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Punjab government’s slouchy demeanour was too unveiled that eventually set free Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, an alleged architect of November 2008 Mumbai carnage. Not much different is the case of Malik Ishaq, leader of a proscribed outfit who was put at ease by the Punjab government when it withdrew an appeal for extension of his confinement. The government opted to plead a weak case and facilitate his acquittal.

The list does not end here. There are even more privileged names to count who receive a VIP treatment in official corridors. An astounding news report revealed that website of TTP could not be blocked because of lack of legal mechanism. The concerned authorities have expressed their inability to this effect under the pretext of absence of requisite legal instruments. One wonders why such legal tools are not required to block word press and other sites where public opinion is aired.

According to a newspaper report, a survey carried out by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has made a startling revelation about illegally constructed mosques in Islamabad. The report disclosed that out of 492 mosques in the city, 233 are illegally erected on state land encroaching non-perennial streams, right of way of major roads and other such expropriated public and private locations. The CDA mentioned the number of such mosques 83 in 2011. In other words, such mosques have grown threefold during past four years.

According to another survey jointly conducted by the CDA and police, the city has 160 unregistered madrassas and 72 day scholar Quranic institutes. Deobandi madrassas take the larger share of 193 out of total 329 seminaries in the city. Interestingly only one month ago, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, while replying to a question in National Assembly, claimed that Islamabad has only 30 unregistered madrassas. This indicates the lack of credible information at high level decision making forums.

A newspaper reported that in line with the recommendations of the National Action Plan, provincial Auqaf departments have gathered data of madrassas from all provinces. The survey revealed that there are 8,135 unregistered seminaries in the four provinces with an enrollment of 0.3 million students. Punjab tops the list with 4,125, followed by KP with 2,411 such seminaries. Sindh and Balochistan are not immune either and are home to 1,406 and 266 such institutions respectively.

Another report puts the number of unregistered seminaries in Punjab at 6,550.
Intelligence reports have been indicating that foreboding signs are ripe in the capital city and cannot be just dismissed with flippancy. All these facts corroborate the assertion of an Interior Ministry official that the federal capital is an “extremely dangerous” city. A senior official of the Interior Ministry made this ominous disclosure while making a presentation before the National Assembly standing committee in February 2014. The official claimed that the capital city had been at high risk and has become a sleeper cell of banned organisation members, including al-Qaeda, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). In a bid to quell the horror feelings, the Interior Minister dismissed the report and termed Islamabad a safe and secure city.

Not just Islamabad but much of the Punjab is also infested with militants. Leadership and administration of Punjab has been eschewing any confrontation and always attempted reconciliation with militants. This approach has provided safe bastions to militancy. Recently, the Interior Minister told a top level meeting that the number of proscribed organisations engaged in terrorism and extremism in Pun jab had reached 95.

Several newspaper reports indicate that intelligence agencies have been warning the Punjab government about spiraling militancy in the province but the cavalier Punjab government remained unfazed and conveniently ignored all such red alerts and slept over sprawling sleeper cells. This lax attitude of the Punjab government is not mere inaction or apathy of the PML-N government but it represents a segment within civil-military establishment that continues to believe in the fallacy of considering militants as strategic assets.

These intransigent elements always see foreign hand in every macabre incident occurring in Pakistan. This self-deceiving contentment is far from reality on ground where copious of evidences indicate internal hands as the real cause of prevalent malaise. It would be pertinent to mention that in 2013 a new chapter was added in the army doctrine that describes homegrown militancy as the biggest threat to national security. The army doctrine deals with operational preparedness and inclusion of this fact marked a major shift in the security paradigm. It is, however, yet to see how this cardinal doctrine is mainstreamed and policies and practices are fully synchronized across the board.

March 19, 2015

MQM uses us like ’tissue papers’ – Death row inmate Saulat Mirza

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: Saulat Mirza, in a video statement aired on Geo News, hurled startling allegations on Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and its top leadership, just a few hours before his execution was scheduled to take place on Thursday at 5:30AM. Mirza’s execution has now been postponed for 72 hours.

Mirza said he was an MQM worker and received direct orders from MQM leader Babar Ghauri to assassinate KESC chief Shahid Hamid. “I was summoned at Babar Ghauri’s house where I took Altaf Hussain’s orders via telephone. Altaf Hussain would usually pass on instructions through Babar Ghauri,” alleged Saulat Mirza.

Speaking to ARY News, MQM Chief Altaf Hussain said, “Without any proof or evidence, Saulat Mirza’s statement will not have any effect on the party.” Hussain termed the allegations a conspiracy against MQM.

Babar Ghauri speaking to Geo News dismissed Mirza’s statement as a “fable” and denied having given any order for a murder.

“This is a made up story, we are not allowed to call workers to our house and deal with them there,” he said. When asked if Saulat Mirza has never come to his house, Ghauri said “no”.

“When he [Mirza] was in North Nazimabad, I met him then as an MPA,”.
“Then he was removed from the party and I maintained no communication or relationship with him.”

Mirza, however, said workers like him were used as “tissue papers” by MQM, and were disposed off when there was no use left for the party. “Other workers should take a lesson from my ending,” said Mirza. “Criminals in the party would get protection under Governor Sindh,” he claimed.

Meanwhile Sindh Governor’s spokesperson has stated that Dr. Ishratul Ibad has never supported any accused or criminal.

Saulat went on to say that workers in the MQM who gained popularity among the public are eventually sidelined.

“Mustafa Kamal was humiliated and then sidelined from the party because he had grown popular and Azeem Tariq was murdered for the same reason,” Mirza said.
“I have no vested interest in making these allegations at this hour. I just want to leave a message for those who wish to join, or are part of political organisations, to learn from my mistakes,” said the death-row inmate.
Meanwhile, Machh Jail Deputy Superintendent Sikandar Kakar while talking to DawnNews confirmed that they have received orders to postpone the hanging of Saulat Mirza for three days.

Mirza was found guilty of murdering the then managing director (MD) of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), now K-electric, Malik Shahid Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi, and his guard Khan Akbar outside Hamid’s residence in DHA on July 5, 1997.

Previously a resident of Block J in North Nazimabad, Karachi, Saulat was his parents’ fourth child.

Having received his intermediate education from Pakistan Shipowners’ College in Karachi, he became active in student politics and joined the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation (APMSO), the students’ wing of MQM, then an acronym for Mohajir Qaumi Movement.

His name first appeared on intelligence and security agencies’ radar in 1994, after the killing of two US diplomats at Karachi’s Shahrah-i-Faisal and murder of four workers of an American oil company, Union Texas, near PIDC bridge.

He was believed to have been arrested from Karachi airport after his arrival from Bangkok; police confirmed his arrest at a press conference on December 11, 1998.
During that press conference, in the presence of the then Karachi DIG, Ameen Qureshi, Saulat Mirza made revelations about his involvement in the murder of scores of innocent people, including several high-profile personalities.

Mirza was initially detained by FIA immigration officials for traveling on a fake identity but was handed over to the then Station House Officer (SHO) of Gulbahar police station, Mohammad Aslam Khan (Chaudhry Aslam), who was also present at the airport on intelligence reports.

March 15, 2015

Noose tightens around MQM

Rangers raid 90 (Credit: thenews.com.pk)

Shrugging off allegations of being politically motivated, the law enforcers showed Wednesday morning that even the big guns could be silenced. A heavy contingent of Rangers raided Nine Zero, the headquarters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi’s Azizabad area, detained around 20 criminals and seized a large cache of illegal weapons and ammo.

In the operation, which was managed and executed by members of the paramilitary force alone, a number of party workers, including MQM’s Rabita Committee member Amir Khan, and notorious convicts were detained during the raid which also incidentally claimed the life of a young MQM supporter.

After breaking barricades leading to MQM headquarters, Rangers personnel cordoned off the area and searched through departments of the party’s offices. During the raid, the Rangers cut off the telephone lines at Nine Zero, disabling communication with MQM’s international secretariat.

Scores of activists and party members protested the raid by Rangers by chanting slogans. Aerial firing also ensued outside Nine Zero as activists attempted to break the Rangers’ cordon. As the situation turned chaotic, Waqas Ali Shah of MQM’s Central Information Committee was killed during the raid while Express News cameraman Waseem Mughal was injured in the firing.

Shah’s death invoked the need of an enquiry into the incident as it remained unclear if he died due to Rangers’ aerial firing or someone at the spot killed him.

MQM spokesperson Wasay Jalil claimed that Shah was killed in straight fire by Rangers personnel around 7:45am Wednesday.

“Dozens of mobiles of Rangers appeared at Nine Zero around 6am. Personnel proceeded to raid 50 offices in our headquarters. They went to each office, went through all the files and broke telephones.”

Sindh Police Additional IG Ghulam Qadir Thebo said that Shah was not shot by Rangers personnel, but that the bullet fired was from a handgun.

Rangers Director General (DG) Major General Bilal Akbar said that MQM activist Shah was shot with a TT pistol and the fact would become clear once the medical board’s report is received.

SINDH CITIES COME TO A STANDSTILL:

MQM announced a day of peaceful protest against the search operation by Rangers and urged for transport services to be suspended throughout the day.

MQM leader Farooq Sattar termed the raid “deeply upsetting and worth investigating”. He said that MQM is compliant of all laws and instead of appreciating the party’s efforts of promoting peace, it is being treated with contempt.

He demanded of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar and Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad to play their due roles. Sattar also warned that the situation could be a setback to the enhancement of democratic process.

Commercial activity was suspended with shops, markets and educational institutions remained closed not just in Karachi but in other cities of the province, such as Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Jamshoro and Mirpur Khas.

Petrol pumps and private schools in several areas of Karachi were also reportedly shut down as activists in large numbers protested against the Rangers. Children who managed to get to schools were sent back to their homes and examinations were cancelled in colleges and universities.

While the MQM has maintained that the protest against the Rangers raid will be peaceful, a bus was set alight at Gulistan-i-Jauhar while a rickshaw was torched in Karimabad.

MQM leaders and activists gathered outside the headquarters but were not allowed to enter its premises.

RANGERS MAKE IT CLEAR:

A press release issued by Rangers soon after the raid on MQM’s headquarters said: “Pakistan Rangers Sindh has conducted a series of targeted raids at surrounding areas of 90 including Khursheed Memorial Hall today. During the above mentioned action, following hardcore criminals have been arrested: Faisal Mota, Farhan Shabbir aka Mullah Amir, Nadir and Ubaid K 2.”

Faisal Mota was awarded the death sentence in absentia on March 1, 2014 by an anti-terrorism court in the murder case of Wali Khan Babar, a Geo TV reporter while Nadir had also been convicted and sentenced 13 years imprisonment.

Rangers spokesperson Colonel Tahir called the two-hour raid a “purely information-based operation” and divulged that the Khursheed Memorial Hall at Nine Zero has been sealed and will be handed over to police for further investigation.

Col Tahir added that ammunition stolen from NATO containers was also seized during the search operation.

Speaking to media, MQM leader Faisal Subzwari and Haider Abbas Rizvi admitted that weapons were seized during the raid, but said that they were all licensed and were being kept for security in view of the threats being received from “the Taliban and other extremist elements”.

“After the Army Public School attack, even schools and colleges are now being asked to keep weapons for security. We were also told to keep weapons for our security,” Subzwari said.

MQM CHIEF DILLYDALLIES:

Contrary to his party leaders’ statement, MQM chief Altaf Hussain claimed that the weapons presented were “brought by the Rangers themselves in blankets”.

Claiming that the Establishment does not tolerate MQM’s presence, he maintained that the ammunition seized from Nine Zero by Rangers does not belong to MQM. He further said that if the weapons belonged to MQM, they would not have been stored in Nine Zero.

In a telephonic address, Hussain denounced the raid by Rangers on Nine Zero and said that this was the first time that the house and office of a political party chief was raided.

Addressing Rangers personnel, he remarked that Rangers have authority but “they are unable to deliver justice”. Claiming that more than 60 people were arrested during the raid by Rangers, he demanded that “terrorism in the name of search operations” be stopped.

However, later retracting from his stand point, MQM chief told a news channel that he was supportive of cracking down on criminals irrespective of where they were. In the same breath, he maintained that his party headquarters was not harbouring terrorists but “they were just living in the vicinity”.

Earlier, the MQM chief had stated in a telephonic address that “people who had committed mistakes should not have stayed at the MQM headquarters as they had jeopardised the security of others”. “Such people should have sought refuge elsewhere as I have been staying in Britain for the last 20 years,” said the MQM chief.

After condemning the raid, Altaf Hussain apparently appreciated the “valour” of Rangers personnel for “having dared to raid his house”. In an apparent naked threat, Hussain said that the Rangers’ officers who participated in the raid at his elder sister’s house “would soon become a part of the past”.

The MQM has in the recent past accused the Rangers of involvement in illegal detention and extrajudicial killings of its members and the raid and arrests appear to be the climax of the complex dynamics between the two sides.

The Rangers last month in a report implicated the MQM in the Baldia Town factory inferno fire that claimed the lives of at least 258 factory workers, a charge the party vehemently denies. The JIT report also contains several other disclosures about the involvement of MQM workers in several criminal cases as well rigging in the 2013 general elections.

March 15, 2015

Suicide Attacks on Churches in Pakistan Kill at Least 15

Taliban attack Punjab churches (Credit: dawn.com)

LAHORE, March 15 — Suicide bombers attacked two Christian churches during Sunday services in the Pakistani city of Lahore, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens in the latest attack on religious minorities in the country.

The attacks occurred in quick succession outside Catholic and Protestant churches in Youhanabad, one of Pakistan’s biggest Christian neighborhoods.

A man rigged with explosives blew himself up outside the main gate of St. John’s Catholic Church after being prevented from entering by a security guard, said Haider Ashraf, a senior police officer.

A second blast went off minutes later in the compound of Christ Church, about half a mile away.

In the aftermath of the attacks, an enraged crowd lynched two people suspected of being accomplices in the bombings, one of whom was wrenched from police custody. Local news outlets reported that the mob set their dead bodies on fire.

The crowd also prevented the police from entering the scene of the attacks, and angry protests spread across the city. Demonstrations were also reported in Karachi and other cities.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Local television stations broadcast images of wailing and distraught relatives in hospital corridors. One woman wept hysterically as relatives tried to calm her.

Pervez Masih, 45, who was in one of the churches, said the explosion went off just as the prayer service was concluding. “Afterward people were running here and there, trying to save their lives,” he said.

Religious minorities including Shiites, Christians and Ahmadi Muslims have been under violent attack for years in Pakistan. At least 85 people were killed in an attack on All Saints Church in Peshawar in September 2013.

There have also been sporadic attacks on Christians in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, often triggered by accusations of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad.

But Pakistan has been particularly on edge in recent months since a Taliban assault on a Peshawar school that killed at least 150 people, most of them children.

Nabila Ghazanfar, a spokeswoman for the Punjab police, said the deaths from the attack on Sunday included 13 worshipers, two police officers deployed for security outside the churches and the two suspects beaten to death by the mob, in addition to the two bombers.

Television images showed police officials struggling to keep the angry crowd away from one of the men who was later lynched.

Dr. Muhammad Saeed, the chief doctor at Lahore General Hospital, where scores of the wounded were brought, said that many were in critical condition.

Sohail Johnson, a witness who lives close to the churches, said the Sunday services were usually attended by more than 1,000 worshipers.

Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015

OBL-Sharif connection revealed in Abbotabad Files

Files recovered from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbotabad reveal that the prime minister’s brother, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, sought to strike a peace deal with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) through al Qaeda, The Long War Journal reported.

The files were revealed in terror convict Abid Naseer’s trial by a Brooklyn jury earlier this month. One of the files is a letter written by Atiyah Abd al Rahman (Mahmud), who was then the general manager of al Qaeda, to Osama bin Laden (identified as Sheikh Abu Abdallah) in July 2010.

The letter reveals a complicated nexus involving Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and the ISI.

According to one letter from Rahman, one of bin Laden’s top deputies, dated July 2010, Bin Laden was informed that Shahbaz Sharif wanted to cut a deal with the TTP, whose leadership was close to Bin Laden. The government “was ready to reestablish normal relations as long as [the Pakistani Taliban] do not conduct operations in Punjab.”

Attacks elsewhere in Pakistan were apparently acceptable under the terms of the alleged proposal.

Rahman’s letter stated that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif initiated negotiations with the militant group. In the letter, Rahman informed TTP commanders Hakeemullah Mehsud and Qari Husayn that Shahbaz Sharif “sent them a message indicating they [the government] wanted to negotiate with them, and they were ready to reestablish normal relations as long as they do no conduct operations in Punjab.”

Rahman clarified that the deal was limited to the “governmental jurisdiction” of Punjab and did not include Islamabad.

“The government said they were ready to pay any price…and so on,” the letter states. “They told us the negotiations were under way.”

Read: Osama wanted to rebrand Al Qaeda: Whitehouse

Rahman then made it clear that the TTP was to keep Al Qaeda leadership in the loop at all times. “We stressed that they needed to consult us on everything, and they promised they would.”

According to the report, Shahbaz Sharif’s willingness to negotiate is consistent with his public opinion at the time. The chief minister was a vociferous critic of General Pervez Musharraf’s policies and “blamed the escalation of violence in Pakistan on Pervez Musharraf.”

ISI’s role

The report states that al Qaeda’s negotiating tactic was simple. They wanted Pakistanis to either leave them alone, or they would suffer more terrorist attacks. Rahman’s letter reveals how bin Laden’s men sought to convey their message. They relied on Haqqani Network leader, Siraj Haqqani, which has been supported by the military and intelligence establishment.

One of Pakistani intelligence’s emissaries was Fazlur Rehman Khalil, leader of Harakat ul Mujahedin (HUM). Khalil was an ally of Osama bin Laden ally. The intelligence agency used Khalil’s HUM to send al Qaeda a letter.

“We received a messenger from them bringing us a letter from the Intelligence leaders including Shuja Shah, and others,” Rahman wrote, according the US government’s translation. “They said they wanted to talk to us, to al Qaeda. We gave them the same message, nothing more.”

Read: Pakistan probably knew Bin Laden’s whereabouts, says former ISI chief

Beyond his role as a leader in Pakistani intelligence, “Shuja’ Shah” is not further identified in the letter. Ahmad Shuja Pasha was the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency at the time. Some have alleged that Pasha knew bin Laden was located in Abbottabad.

Pasha has repeatedly denied this. Rahman’s letter does not indicate that “Shuja Shah” or Pakistani intelligence knew of the Al Qaeda chief’s whereabouts, but it shows that they knew how to get in touch with his top lieutenants.

ISI got in touch with al Qaeda again a “little later,” sending the “same man” who had acted as a messenger the first time.

Rahman noted: “This time the surprise was that they brought Hamid Gul into the session, and Fazlur Rehman Khalil attended with them as an adviser!” Hamid Gul headed the ISI in the late 1980s.

“Be patient with us for a little bit,” Rahman quoted them as saying, indicating that the Pakistan had requested a cooling off period of up to two months.

If “we can convince the Americans,” the Pakistanis said, then we “have no objection to negotiating with you and sitting with you,” the letter states further.

‘Al Qaeda was cautious, but willing to make a deal’

In July 2010, Rahman wrote another letter to bin Laden, revealing that group was cautious but willing to strike a deal with the negotiators.

“Are the Pakistanis serious, or are they playing around and dissembling?” Rahman wrote. He believed that “Caution is mandatory, as is preparedness, awareness, and staying focused on the mission and resolve.”