Express Tribune | Evidence in motion: PA’s threatening stance ruffles feathers in Bajaur (posted on social media on Mar 23.2016)
Tag Archives: fata
News 03.18.2016
In Kurram Agency, the political agents assistant fires gunshots in an examination centre, beats up students #Fatapic.twitter.com/OjfHs23oZX
— Iftikhar Firdous (@IftikharFirdous) March 18, 2016
2. Drivers in Bajaur decry ‘highhandedness’ of political administration
KHAR, 17 March: Drivers in Bajaur Agency have complained that the political administration officials unnecessarily tease them and confiscate their vehicles.
The local drivers alleged that despite having proper driving licences and other documents, the administration officials bother them and confiscate their vehicles to mint money. A driver told TNN that his driving licence was stuck in Timergara due to an issue.
“Despite having all other documents, they manhandled me and impounded by vehicle. They are doing it for money. We demand the administration to stop this practice of teasing peaceful citizens,” he said.
Another driver said there is no licence office in Bajaur. “Licence law does not apply on our area as we are governed under the Frontier Crimes Regulation,” he told TNN.
On the other hand, Assistant Political Agent Khar said the crackdown against underage drivers and those not possessing mandatory documents has been initiated over public complaints. He said a number of drivers have been arrested and their vehicles confiscated for violating rules. He said the crackdown will continue.
3. Mobile service restored in Bajaur
KHAR, 17 March: Mobile telephone service has been restored in Bajuar after remaining suspended for two days, local residents informed.
The signals have been restored on Wednesday evening as people from different parts of the agency confirmed the connectivity has been gradually reestablished. However, there are still complaints of poor signals in some areas.
According to sources in the political administration services of all the telecom companies were cut off as they had not obtained the no objection certificate (NOC) from the relevant quarters which is required for operation.
The sources maintained that services on more than 10 towers of the concerned telecom companies have been restored as they obtained the relevant documents.
This after cell phone service was suspended.
Constitutional changes; Pak Army kills Pakistanis
Six people were killed in the earliest fall-out from the 18th Amendment now making its way through Pakistan’s Parliament. The bill, which makes major changes to the constitution sparked protests among ethnic Hazara for one of its amendments: changing the name of Pakistan’s North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) –so named by British Lord Curzon in 1901 when he formed the province–to the Kyber Pakhtunkwa province after the dominant ethnic Pashtun majority there.
Even as the country is poised for significant changes, Pakistan’s Army killed literally hundreds this last week. Approximately 60 civilians were killed when Pakistani fighter jets dropped bombs in Khyber Agency in Fata. The initial attack was on Hameed Gul’s house and it killed 3 children and 2 women. This is what happened next:
“After 10 minutes of the bombardment when the villagers and labourers working on nearby water channel approached the house to retrieve the bodies, the fighter jets again bombed the house killing and injuring more than 150 people,” Sadiq Khan, an injured and eyewitness, told this scribe in the Civil Hospital Jamrud.
In case you find the second bombing confusing, please note that the same tactic was seen in the leaked Wikileaks video of American soldiers firing on Iraqis followed by a second round of killing when a van showed up to help the injured. And, it’s often used by Israelis in occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Another 54 people were killed in Orakzai which the Army claims were militants.
Meanwhile the 18th Amendment abolishes changes made by Paksitani autocrats over the years to accrue greater powers to the President. The amendment devolves greater authority to the provinces, reserves a few seats for non-Muslim members in the Senate and makes it a crime for the High Court to validate acts that abrogate the Constitution in the future. These changes come roughly a year after the success of the lawyers’ movement and David Kilcullen’s pronouncements that Pakistan had only six months left to survive.
Boots on Our Necks
My cover story on Pakistan’s restless province, Balochistan, “Pakistan’s Broken Mirror” appears in the The National this week. An excerpt:
To the west and north, the province is bounded by Afghanistan and Iran, each of which has its own Baloch population; the Pashtuns who predominate in the northern part of the province also spill across international borders. The province’s location at this explosive geopolitical crossroads – as well as its vast mineral resources and valuable coastline – have focused the anxieties of international powers near and far, suggesting that a new Great Game may take Balochistan as its target. Tehran worries about what conflicts in Balochistan will mean for its own Sistan-Balochistan province, whose Baloch population has been brutally suppressed by the state. The Americans are concerned about the Taliban who have taken refuge in the province’s Pashtun belt and the leaders of the Afghan Taliban long believed to be operating out of Quetta. Washington is also concerned about China’s increasing involvement in the area, most visibly the deep-water port at Gwadar, built with Chinese investment and intended to provide an Indian Ocean foothold for Beijing.
But for the government of Pakistan – and particularly for its army – Balochistan is first and foremost the epicentre of a stubbornly secular Baloch national rebellion whose endurance poses a threat to the state’s ideological and geographical coherence.
Balochistan is a looking glass for Pakistan today, reflecting the tortuous struggle to imagine a national community. How the state handles the rising tide of Baloch nationalism will also determine the future of Pakistan’s nationalist project.
And, in case, one needs more reminding about the Army that owns a state, here’s a story from Antiwar.com about the military attacking civilians in Fata’s Orakzai Agency, killing 61 people.
Pakistani warplanes attacked a number of sites in the Orakzai Agency today, including a mosque, a school, and a religious seminary, killing 61. Security officials initially labeled all 61 “suspected militants,” though locals later conceded that a great many of them were actually innocent civilians.
cover of the Review in this week's The National