Protest Rally In Australia Against Closure of Roads To Parachinar.

Protest Rally In Australia Against Closure of Roads To Parachinar. vid-1



Protest Rally In Australia Against Closure of Roads To Parachinar. vid-2



Protest Rally In Australia Against Closure of Roads To Parachinar. vid-3





The rally was organized by the Parachinar Shia Community in Australia. The aim and objectives of this rally was to draw attention of Government of Pakistan, the international community, international organizations and media to the extra ordinarily atrocious situation of Parachinar located in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.

It is vital to mention that this catastrophic situation in Parachinar is much worse than the Gaza situation. The notorious cruel Taliban and their local extremist supporters have killed more than eight hundred (800) innocent Shia Muslims in Parachinar and its surrounding areas. Most importantly these Taliban and their supporters have been blocked all the surrounding routes to Parachinar since April 6, 2007, which has caused intense humanitarian crises in the area. There is a constant blockage of the innocent Shia population in Parachinar and a huge number of people, most of them are women and children, have been died due to the absence of the medical facilities and lack of food in the area.

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PML-N fails to submit bill in NA for repealing 17th Amendment

www.thenews.com.pk
PML-N fails to submit bill in NA for repealing 17th Amendment
Saturday,
January 31, 2009
By Asim Yasin

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly session, which continued for 19 days, was prorogued on Friday without doing any legislative business except completing the debate on the presidential address to the joint sitting of parliament and adopting a vote of thanks.Just before reading out the prorogation, Chairperson Shakeela Khanum Rashid, who was chairing the session in the absence of Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza, also read out the information to the National Assembly that the PML-N had voluntarily withdrawn the requisition for the National Assembly’s session.Just before the start of the session, the PML-N had announced that it would submit a constitutional amendment bill in the National Assembly to repeal the controversial 17th Amendment but failed to do so. The Friday’s session was dominated by points of order.Bashir Mehmood Virk of the PML-N asked on a point of order whether the Article 270 AAA was part of the Constitution as it was incorporated through the PCO of November 3. He said members of this House had taken oath under the 1973 Constitution. But in its present form, it contains the Article 270 AAA and it is appropriate to form a committee to decide whether the members took oath under the PCO or the 1973 Constitution. However, his question remained unanswered.Ahsan Iqbal, senior legislator of the PML-N, put the government on defensive when he raised the issue of character assassination of Mian Nawaz Sharif and other leaders of his party through the Press Information Department.He said the PID was sending articles by ghost writers to newspapers that contained language that comes under the purview of character assassination of Mian Nawaz Sharif and other leaders of the PML-N. “This is against the norms set by both the parties in the Charter of Democracy,” he added. He warned that continuation of such personal attacks would revive the culture of 90s.Replying to a point of order, the minister for parliamentary affairs observed that while criticism was justified there should be no personal attacks. He said the government respected the opposition and will take up this issue with the information ministry.
Munir Khan Aurakzai said the displaced persons of the Kurram Agency had again threatened to close the Parachinar-Peshawar Road if no steps were taken for their rehabilitation. He said the people of Fata were facing great hardships and the government should take immediate steps for their rehabilitation.
Justice (retd) Fakhar-un-Nisa Khokhar drew the attention of the chair to the arrest of Zarina Baloch and asked why she had not been produced before the court of law. Syed Asif Hasnain, on a point of order, said seven officials of the Landhi-Korangi Industrial Estate had been kidnapped for ransom and the workers of the industrial estate had threatened to go on strike if the officials were not recovered. He said such incidents were on the rise in the area and demanded deployment of Rangers for protection of the local people. Engineer Amir Muqam of the PML-Q raised the issue of irregularities in the distribution of Zakat in the NWFP and said the provincial government, led by ANP and PPP, had appointed party men for distributing Zakat, making its distribution a political issue.Minister for Zakat and Usher Noorul Haq Qadri conceded that there were complaints not only in the NWFP but also in the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. He said a special committee, comprising Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan and Law Minister Farooq H Naek, had been assigned to formulate a comprehensive monitoring system.Meanwhile, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Malik Amjad Khan on Friday told the National Assembly that Chitral-Nawapass (Afghanistan) route would be opened in a couple of days. He was responding to a call attention notice of Shahzada Mohiuddin, Dr Abdul Kadir Khanzada and Muhammad Nawaz Allai about the closure of passage to Chitral, resulting in difficulties to thousands of stranded passengers in Peshawar and Chitral. The minister said after the closure of Lowari Pass in the winter season, permission was sought from the government of Afghanistan for use of Randu-Nawapass route. He said this year too the issue was raised with Afghanistan but due to security situation on the border, the route was not considered safe for journey and, therefore, permission was not granted. He said now that the Afghan government had given permission and the route would be opened for traffic within a couple of days. Minister for Communications Arbab Alamgir Khan told the National Assembly that the Lowari tunnel had been completed but for the time being people could not use it as heavy machinery was still moving there. He said the Lowari tunnel is a project of national importance and the completion date of the project was September 2010. Shahzada Mohiuddin asked the Chair to take up the issue with the Afghan foreign minister in his upcoming visit to Pakistan that the people of Chitral be allowed to bring essential commodities with them from Afghanistan as they were facing severe shortage of essential commodities in Chitral.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=19991

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Jirga continues in Kurram Agency

Updated at: 1140 PST, Saturday, January 31, 2009

PARA CHINAR: A jirga would continue on Saturday for restoration of peace and recovery of kidnapped persons in Kurram Agency. According to sources, armed men had kidnapped five persons including a tribal leader Pir Syed Askar Ali Shah Naqvi and killed one person in Chappri and Torghar areas three days ago. In reply, rival tribe had kidnapped several people. On Friday, a jirga of notables of Tori, Hamzakhel, Mastukhel held in Para Chinar to discus recovery of kidnapped persons and restoration of peace. According to jirga sources, a jirga would be held again today in which members of peace jirga would take part.

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46 Die in Taliban Attack on Pakistani Troops

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
Published: January 11, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/world/asia/12pstan.html?hp

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan —
At the same time, a separate and equally deadly battle played out just 60 miles to the south. Gangs of Sunnis and Shiites fought each other, rampaging through the villages of the Hangu district over the weekend, destroying dozens of homes and leaving at least 40 people dead between the rival groups, according to reports from authorities carried by Pakistani news media and accounts from local residents. Hundreds of Taliban fighters rushed in to support Sunni gangs, as government attack helicopters hovered overhead, trying to intimidate gunmen into withdrawing.
“Both sides are trying to overrun each other’s villages,” said Abdul Rehman, a Sunni and resident of Hangu. He estimated that 60 people had died and said the incoming Taliban fighters appeared eager to drive Shiites out of the region. “They seem to be bent on settling this Shia question for good.”
Taken together, the battles underscored the persistent lawlessness in Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan, where Taliban militants and other warlords have tightened their grip despite the Pakistani military’s attempts to make inroads in the past year.
The assault in Mohmand was particularly troubling. In the past, militants have often pulled away from high concentrations of Pakistani troops, only to return later. But this time, an estimated 600 Taliban fighters directly assaulted a paramilitary base at Mamad Gatt, according to Frontier Corps officials.
The western tribal areas have been a haven for Pakistani Taliban forces who stage attacks in Afghanistan, and they have been a focus for American diplomats, who have pressed the Pakistani government to do more to disrupt the flow.
But this attack involved mostly Taliban from the Afghan side of the border, who flooded into the mountainous area and joined with Pakistani fighters in the assault.
Armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns, the militants swarmed the Mamad Gatt fort on Saturday night and fought heavily through the morning, according to one Frontier Corps officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information. By Sunday afternoon, he said, most militants had left, though there were still scattered skirmishes.
The battle took place in a district formally known as the Mohmand Agency, one of seven semiautonomous agencies along the border. Mohmand is northwest of Peshawar, the frontier hub city of three million that has come under increasing pressure from Taliban encroachment.
The Frontier Corps’ estimate of 40 dead militants could not be independently confirmed. According to some local reports, a number of Pakistani soldiers were captured, in addition to the six killed and seven wounded.
According to a Pashto-language television channel, one Taliban fighter who was killed was a midlevel commander in his 20s, Muslim Khan, also known as Garang, who was responsible for detaining a reporter and photographer for The New York Times in Mohmand in July.
The fighting over the weekend also followed the Pakistani military’s decision in late December to move about 5,000 troops abruptly from deployments in western Pakistan eastward to locations that would allow the military to defend the border with India more quickly if armed conflict broke out. Pakistani officials say more than 100,000 troops remain in the west.
The separate violence, in the Hangu district, involved a flaring of sectarian tensions after Shiites protested that a curfew forbade them from turning out for an important religious procession.
According to local residents, a large number of Shiites who live on the road from Hangu to Kohat marched toward Hangu to confront authorities about the curfew. Fighting then erupted with Sunnis who live in the area.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters — some in pickups with truck-bed-mounted machine guns — flooded into Hangu from the neighboring Orakzai district prepared to fight on the side of the Sunnis, despite reports that an assembly of local tribal elders had agreed to a cease-fire on Sunday. Sunni guerrillas fired on Shiite enclaves with mortars and reportedly seized a Shiite mosque and madrasa.
The Taliban from Orakzai Agency are under the command of Hakimullah Mehsud, a lieutenant of the warlord Baitullah Mehsud. Most of the Sunnis in Hangu belong to the same tribe as the Orakzai fighters.
The Shiites got help from members of the Turi tribe from another adjoining district, Kurram Agency, some residents said.
“Our force consists of young and inexperienced boys who are educated and as such don’t know the art of fighting heavily armed Taliban,” said one Shiite resident, Muzaffar Khan

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Terrorism and future of Pakistan

Friday, December 19, 2008

Wajih Abbasi

The United Nations Security Council’s ban on Jamaatud Dawah (JuD) and four other personalities associated with it, including its Amir, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, is a new twist to the events which started after terrorist attacks on Mumbai last month. Even before the UN decision, Pakistan government had started operation against the camps maintained by JuD) and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) in Azad Kashmir during which several people, including operational head of LeT was arrested. The operation was intensified after the UN resolution and was extended to the Punjab and other provinces where bulk of assets of at least JuD are situated.

This is not for the first time that such actions against militant outfits have been taken in response to the international pressure after major terrorist acts in different parts of the world. Similar actions were taken after 9/11 attacks in New York in September 2001 and attacks on the Indian Parliament later in December that year as well as attacks in London and Madrid. Irrespective to the veracity of accusation being pointed towards Pakistan from time to time and after every major terrorist incident in the world, it is unfortunate that the name of Pakistan has been made synonymous with terrorism and militancy turning the country into nearly an international pariah. The accusations have put the security and integrity of the country and well being of its people under constant threat. Every terrorist incident allows the enemies of the country to point their guns towards Pakistan and try to array an international coalition to punish Pakistan.

The danger posed by these accusations needs soul-searching and making strategic decisions about the whole issue of militancy and jihad and its utility to our national security objectives. We have to ask ourselves whether the policies started after the Sour Revolution in Afghanistan in 1978 which were continued to be tolerated after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from that country in 1989 and collapse of the PDPA government in 1992 have anyway helped Pakistan in the attainment of its strategic and security interests or these policies tarnished Pakistan’s image, made it less secure and increasingly isolated it in the comity of nations.

A lot has been written in Pakistan as well as internationally on how the US planned and executed its proxy war against former Soviet Union in Afghanistan and how militants and weapons from across the world were collected in the name of jihad to bleed the Russians in order to avenge the US defeat in Vietnam. Pakistan’s territory and its institutions were used for this purpose. Pakistan, then ruled by short sighted military junta, groping for its own survival needlessly pushed the country into a quagmire which is constantly pulling Pakistan into an abyss despite best efforts of the country to extricate itself.

The chaos that the US financed jihad created in Afghanistan has engulfed the length and breadth of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and NWFP. The menace is threatening the whole country seven years after the US decision to invade Afghanistan under the UN banner to fight the same forces it had created during the heydays of the Cold War. We should look back and ponder whether a modern, liberal and forward looking Afghanistan which the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan wanted to establish would have served Pakistan better than the lawless swath of territory we have today.

The Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent dismemberment of the Soviet Union coupled with collapse of communism in the whole Eastern Europe and North and Central Asia gave a sense of false victory to the Muslim radicals and extremists and their supporters in the country. They soon started to propagate similar type of operations in other parts of the world, including the Central Asia, China and Eastern Europe as well as Kashmir. Their activities estranged Pakistan’s relations with the newly independent states in the Central Asia and deprived the country of the vast potential which the collapse of Soviet empire had created in terms of trade and commerce and as a conduit of petroleum exports from the region. They also created wedge between Pakistan and its times tested friend China besides raising concerns in certain Muslim countries as Egypt and Jordon. The genuine desire of the people of Kashmir for independence or merger with Pakistan has also given a bad name by these organisations allowing India to use unprecedented repression against the Kashmiris in which over 0.1 million people were killed. Last but not the least it tarnished the image of the ISI, an inseparable arm of Pakistan’s defence apparatus, to the point where these organisations are being used by the enemies of Pakistan to pressurise the country.

The militant organisations, militancy, terrorism and extremist generated by these groups have created doubts among the international community about stability of the country. It allows different organisations to dub Pakistan as failing state. The voices become even stronger because of the fact that Pakistan is a nuclear armed country with big arsenal of short and medium range missiles. Recently a report to the US Congress has described Pakistan as a place where weapons of mass destruction and terrorism intersect. The enemies of Pakistan would like to use these voices against Pakistan to deprive the country of its strategic weapons and take other punitive measures to destroy whatever has been built during last 60 years.

Internally, the forces unleashed by Pakistan’s involvement in the Afghan war have unleashed the forces of sectarian extremism, intolerance, narrow-mindedness, militancy and lawlessness. Leaders of militant organisations are behaving like warlords, who have established their own zones and consider themselves as above the law of the land and norms of society. During last three decades the country has witnessed the growing menace of not only Shia-Sunni but even intra-Sunni terrorism. Each pronouncing the other infidel and calling for jihad against the same. The weaponry used in Kurram Agency in Shia-Sunni feud recently was not even witnessed in the African civil wars.

In this situation, it is important for us as a nation to rethink our priorities and policies and put our house in order. The action taken against the JuD and LeT should be expanded to other militant organisations and individuals. Nobody should be allowed to keep and raise private armies in the name of ‘lashkars’, Jaish, sipha or whatever. The religious schools throughout the country should be brought under the law. The government should get their accounts audited every year and should have complete data of staff and students as well as the curriculum being taught in these institutions. The madrassas not complying with the government orders should be taken over and converted into schools where students should be imparted the religious education along with the normal education.

Financing of madrassas and religious organisations by some oil rich nations of the Middle East has worsened the situation. In most of the cases such aid has sectarian connotations and helps promote that sect in Pakistan which is dominant in the donor country. On the one hand, it provides undue influence to the donor government in the internal affairs in Pakistan. On the other hand, the aid promotes sectarian strife in the country. It is high time that the Pakistan government take bold stance on the issue to stop direct foreign donations to religious and sectarian organisations.

The writer is a former APP staffer and a freelance columnist based in Islamabad

SOURCE: http://thepost.com.pk/OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=196894&catid=11

75 more hostages freed in Kurram Agency

Updated at: 1500 PST, Wednesday, December 17, 2008 PESHAWAR: Seventy-five more persons made hostage by tribes have been released here brought the number of hostages released to 159 since Tuesday. According to sources, armed men killed one, injured another person and kidnapped three others near Hangu two days back. They were belonged to Kurram Agency. After the incident, Tori and Bangesh tribes abducted dozens of people belonged to each other’s clan among which 75 were released today. Efforts are underway for the release of remaining people. http://www.geo.tv/12-17-2008/30852.htm

Tuesday, December 16, 2008, Zil Hajj 17, 1429 A.H Kurram Agency rivals swap 53 abductees

Updated at: 1322 PST, Tuesday, December 16, 2008 PESHAWAR: Kurram Agency rival tribesmen swapped each other’s yesterday 53 abductees, which included 41 women and children. Sources said that yesterday some armed persons attacking a Kurram Agency vehicle near Hangu had killed one person and injured one, while three persons were abducted, which let loose a violent reaction to the incident during which the tribesmen kidnapped each other’s scores of persons. Later, the Jirga members and Political officials brokered the release of the 53 abductees including 41 women and children. Jirga members said that talks were underway with the rival groups for the release of the remaining abductees also.

Kurram Agency rivals swap 53 abductees

Tuesday, December 16, 2008, Zil Hajj 17, 1429 A.H PESHAWAR: Kurram Agency rival tribesmen swapped each other�s yesterday 53 abductees, which included 41 women and children. Sources said that yesterday some armed persons attacking a Kurram Agency vehicle near Hangu had killed one person and injured one, while three persons were abducted, which let loose a violent reaction to the incident during which the tribesmen kidnapped each other�s scores of persons. Later, the Jirga members and Political officials brokered the release of the 53 abductees including 41 women and children. Jirga members said that talks were underway with the rival groups for the release of the remaining abductees also.

Man killed in Hangu shooting

Tuesday, December 16, 2008, Zil Hajj 17, 1429 A.H


Updated at: 1420 PST, Tuesday, December 16, 2008
PESHAWAR: Gunmen shot dead one person and injured another in Hangu.

According to police sources, a family of five members travelling from Kurram Agency to Peshawar when armed men opened fire at their jeep in Kotaki area in Hangu.

One person was killed and another injured in the firing whereas rival tribes have kidnapped more than 30 men of each other clan.

Police have cordoned off the area and start search operation for the recovery of abducted persons.

‘Peshawar blast conspiracy to spark sectarian violence’

Sunday, December 07, 2008

By Daud Khattak

PESHAWAR: Perpetrators of the Friday’s terrorist act in Peshawar failed to achieve their aim to ignite sectarian violence in the city, officials told Daily Times on Saturday.
“The target was well-chosen and the attack was part of the series of blasts carried out in Hashtnagri (Peshawar), Orakzai Agency and Dera Ismail Khan over the previous few days,” said the official who did not want to be named.
The time selected for the bomb blast revealed that it was not a simple terrorist strike, said the official, who believed the perpetrators chose evening hours when most of shops in the congested area are closed. He said common citizens were not the target of the terrorist bid.
“Had the explosion taken place in the morning or afternoon, which is the peak timings in that area, the death tally would have been a hundred or more,” said the official while pointing at the gravity of the blast.
The Jehangira Ward, the area where the explosion took place, consists of Koochi Bazaar, Kohati and Koocha Risaldar. There are 11 small and large imam bargahs in that area, and the Alamdar-e-Karbala Imam Bargah, outside which the explosion took place, is one of those.
The target was well-chosen as the area is mostly populated by people belonging to Shia sect and a brisk reaction against people of the opposite Sunni sect was expected, said the official.
He said mostly Shia people from Parachinar area of Kurram Agency, which has witnessed the worst-ever sectarian violence in the previous months, were living in that area.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\12\07\story_7-12-2008_pg7_33

Pak-US Joint Attacks on Tribal Areas

Strained Relationships Due to the growing concerns in the Pakistani establishment about the Afghan government's allegedly surreptitious meddling in the area, The Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, asked US visiting under secretary for South Asia, Richard Boucher, to help stop militants infiltration from Afghanistan. Zardari did not directly blame the US troops stationed in the Afghan border province, Kunar, of having hands in the facilitation of militants penetration into Pakistan, but it is commonly believed that all these are done under the knowledge of the US agencies. Zardari implicitly said that drug traffickers in Afghanistan were funding the infiltration of militants into the tribal areas. Previously, during the reign of Musharaf's government, Awais Ghani, then governor of Baluchistan and currently governor of North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) had accused the Afghan government of arming and sending the Baluch militants. The Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA)is believed to be involved in many attacks on the Pakistani army. It is noticed that during the battles among the tribes in Parachinar, a border Pakistani town, many soldiers of the Afghan National Army in civil uniforms were fighting on the side of the Tori tribes. Similarly, hundred of Tori tribesmen have taken refuge in Jaji district, and Khust province of Afghanistan, close to the border of Parachinar. Kabul is earnestly seeking to maintain good relations with disgruntled Pakistani tribes to spread its influence over these areas. In the light of the new circumstances, it is suspected that the old players are again in the field trying to utilize the backlash of the operations in tribal areas. By giving them shelter in Afghanistan, they want to consequently prepare refugees for agitation in the tribal areas. New Delhi may have a lion share in this adventure in order to put pressure on Pakistan either to hands off Kashmir or to agree to Indian conditions on the issue. It can be used to dilute Pakistan’s attention and stand on strategic issues like Siachen Glaciers and water distribution between the two countries. Strategically, it is in the interest of Pakistan to accommodate the Pakistani Taliban rather than push them into the hug of hostile forces. Pakistan should learn the lesson from American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Despite seven years of iron-fist strategy in the country, Afghanistan now is acknowledging that it has to talk to the Taliban for a permanent solution of the conflict. Should the main outsiders once ensconce themselves in the tribal areas, then the solution will slip from Islamabad’s hands, and this will consequently result into unpredictable outcomes, which will not augur well for the integration of this nuclear Islamic power.

Suhail Shaheen is a former Chief Editor of the Kabul Times and a freelance Journalist. He can be reached through Muslim.Affairs@iolteam.com. your comments needed on this information

Editorial: Bajaur: attacking the jirgas

Editorial: Bajaur: attacking the jirgas

The Salarzai tribe that had begun to oppose the Taliban in Bajaur has been attacked near the town of Khar, the headquarters of Bajaur tribal agency. Their jirga was attacked by a suicide bomber who rushed into the gathering of elders and exploded himself on Wednesday. In all 22 elders were killed, including the leaders and commanders of the lashkar (militia) that they had put together to fight and expel the Taliban and their affiliated “foreigners” from the area. Forty-five members of the 300-strong council of elders were wounded.

An organisation of obscure origin has claimed the deed. This is a pattern and tells us how the Taliban and their patron Al Qaeda have come under pressure lately from the jirgas and reacted. In March, they had to massacre a jirga in Darra Adam Khel and last month they repeated the deed on a jirga in Orakzai agency, killing over a hundred elders. This is stage two of the strategy employed by the terrorists. They began by killing the maliks and single individuals of influence in the Tribal Areas to replace the traditional system of self-governance. Stage two is now upon us and is more problematic.

The jirga remains the apex of the system of authority among the tribes. When the maliks were being killed, the jirgas remained silent, linking the killings to “injustice” in Afghanistan. But as the Taliban began to impose their rule over them with punishments serving as instruments of fear, public reaction to them began to change. The problem was that the state at that time was not around to reassure them that they would be supported if they defied the terrorist regime. But now in Bajaur, for the first time, the Taliban and their “foreigners” are getting hurt in their confrontation with the Pakistan army, as is apparent from the suing for peace by Baitullah Mehsud, their “caliph” in South Waziristan. So now the tribes and jirgas are beginning to reassert themselves.

The Salarzai showed patience when their economy was being demolished and their schools were being pulled down by the Taliban. But after the army began operations in Bajaur, the Salarzai began to express their true response to the Taliban, something that has not happened elsewhere in the Tribal Areas, either because the military operations there have been fitful or have not succeeded. Therefore the attack on the Salarzai jirga clearly shows a new trend in the adventure story of the Taliban-Al Qaeda combine: they are becoming unpopular among the tribesmen and trying to cow them down by attacking their jirgas.

But the jirga killings are simply going to damage the Taliban’s cause further. Nowhere was the popular reaction against the “foreign” terrorists more intense than in the Malakand division (Swat, Dir, etc). But the people there were “softened” in favour of the Taliban by the MMA government in Peshawar which ruled in the area, just as it did not encourage the people of FATA to rise against the terrorists. Thus when the elections rolled around, the Swatis clearly indicted the MMA government for not looking after them. They also began to condemn the government when the military operations inflicted a lot of damage on them without eliminating the terrorists. So the fear factor came in and their message was: leave us to the mercies of the Taliban.

Fortunately, things changed after the exit of President Pervez Musharraf from the scene and his policy of mollifying the MMA because it helped him stay in power through the 17th Amendment. With the PPP in power in Islamabad and an apolitical army chief in the person of General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani heading the army, the scene has changed for the better and the pressure on the Taliban has started to build up. This must be kept up and, more importantly, other tribal agencies should be brought under military operations.

South Waziristan, where the last military operation in May this year discovered the “suicide academy” where suicide-bombers were trained for the whole of Pakistan, is back in the hands of Baitullah Mehsud whose second marriage was celebrated by subservient tribesmen on the occasion of last Eid to show that he was still the “caliph”. Kurram Agency is also a place gradually going out of the territorial jurisdiction of Pakistan. Since Peshawar failed to re-establish the traffic on the road going to Parachinar, the agency’s economy has become connected to Afghanistan. If you want to send food and medicines to Parachinar, you have to first smuggle them to Afghanistan. Since the Pakistani state could not come to the help of the besieged tribes there, their co-tribals from Afghanistan are coming in to defend them. This is not a situation which Islamabad can take for very long.

Attacking the jirgas is a sign of weakness in the Taliban “movement”. More and more tribesmen are going to turn against them as their elders are exterminated. More citizens’ militias will be formed against the Taliban; but the terrorists will be rolled back only if the Pakistan army goes in and helps its own people to defend themselves. This is the war that Pakistan has to fight, and from it hangs the prospect of what will happen in the region in the coming weeks and months. *

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Genocide of indigenous people of Parachinar,Kurram Agency in Pakistan by Taliban

Genocide of indigenous people of Parachinar,Kurram Agency in Pakistan by Taliban

Currently, over half a million of people residing in Kurram Agency of tribal areas of Pakistan are facing a catastrophic genocide due to the complicity or ineffectiveness of the Government of Pakistan to establish the rule of law in the Kurram Agency. These people living in the Kurram Agency on the Pak-Afghan Border, are the indigenous population facing the wrath of the extremist militants known as Taliban across the region. The crime of these indigenous people is that they do not subscribe to the ideology of Taliban.

Parachinar is the headquarter of the Kurram Agency, one of the FATA agencies in the North Frontier areas of Pakistan near the Afghanistan border.  This agency is surrounded by other tribal agencies where Taliban and their supporters have strong hold.  But they still have to take over the headquarters of Kurram Agency to establish their complete rule in the region. Violence is their major tactic, including shooting down straight away, beheading or lynching to death. Most of their opponents either have left the areas or submitted to Taliban rule.

The world has become alive to the grave threat of the terrorism to the civilised world since the attacks on the twin towers of New York on 11 September, 2001. But the terrorism perpetrated by those very forces which are now identified as Al-Qaeda and Taliban, is not new to several areas of the tribal belt, known as Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). It has been playing havoc since the 1980s when the Western world had complicity colluded with the “Mujahideen” to wage a covert war against the Soviet forces that had occupied Afghanistan.

The Mujahideen, with their extremist Islamic worldview, continued to perpetuate in Afghanistan, as well as in Pakistani tribal areas even after the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan. Later, they surfaced in the form of the Taliban and took over the whole of Afghanistan. Their counterparts in Pakistani tribal areas also tried to impose the Taliban brand of Islam in these areas, but faced resistance from the local people of Parachinar Kurram Agency.

The Taliban have been killing and plundering the villages around Parachinar and pose a grave threat to the existence of its indigenous people. It’s only people of Parachinar who have been guarding their “Taliban-free” character, and that’s the main reason that the Taliban are bent upon destroying these local people. It’s Parachinar which has got the highest literacy rate in the tribal areas where girls also go to schools, something the Taliban do not tolerate!

These indigenous people of Parachinar had been subjected to many attacks since the 1960s, but now, since 2007, not only the people of Parachinar have been attacked by the Taliban several times, roads coming to this town have also been blockaded by Taliban and their supporters. The Pakistan Government has been complacent or actively complicit in the whole affair on the side of one party, the Taliban, who through violent means are trying to increase their control over the Kurram Agency.

In April 2007, 60 people were killed when Taliban attacked the Parachinar city. Later, the authorities imposed a curfew and no one was allowed to move in or out of the Parachinar town for over two months. This was the first indication of the Taliban infiltration in the Kurram Agency. The Taliban want to use the Kurram Agency like other bordering towns and areas to carry out their insurgency along with Afghan Taliban across the border against the Kabul Administration and NATO forces.

However, the peace loving people of Parachinar opposed the Taliban who had become infuriated and had started taking revenge for their failure by attacking, blockading, kidnapping and beheading innocent people to terrorize their opponents. Since then, there has not been a single day when violence has not struck the Parachinar valley. In November 2007, the Taliban and their supporters, again, attacked the people of Parachinar. This attack left 75 people dead and over 300 wounded. Since then, there has been no reprieve for the people of Parachinar.

Due to the complicity of the minion officials of the local security agencies, and ineffective policies at the higher level, the Taliban were so much emboldened that they started attacking in front of security forces. On 16 April 2008, a convoy of 20-25 vehicles accompanied by the security forces, including the Pakistani Army, was attacked by the Taliban at a town known as Sadda, which falls on the main road between Parachinar and Peshawar.  Four people were killed of the convoy, but the security forces remained silent, perhaps they were not ordered to take any action against the Taliban.

Organized ambushes and attacks aside, the Taliban also carried out two suicide bomber attacks on the people of Parachinar, one on 14 August 2007 and the other on 16 February, 2008, killing 15 and 58 people respectively. It has also been ascertained by the local people of Parachinar that as much as 40 people were slaughtered on different occasions from the only main road link between Parachinar and Peshawar. The Taliban last year took over a contingent of Pakistan security forces spared all of them but beheaded one of them. His only crime was that he belonged to Parachinar.

Recently secondary school examinations were postponed by the Pakistan government because the authorities were not able to maintain law and order situation in Kurram agency. But students in a very unusual way came out on the road and demanded for the holding of exams because they did not want to waste their academic year. Pakistan authorities later restored the examination schedule. But during the examination, two students of village Alizai of the Kurram Agency, were kidnapped by the Taliban. One of them was shot dead straight away, while the other was slaughtered by them at a grave of one of their dead collaborators near village Bagzai.

Moreover, during the same period, the Pakistan Army also killed two local people who were returning to their home. An ambulance carrying patients to a Peshawar from Parachinar was attacked with a rocket-propelled gun by Taliban on a main road. This resulted in the death of seven people including several women. Nowadays Taliban have started target killing of the people of Parachinar who are living, studying and working in Peshawar and other cities of the country. The Pakistani government, as well as its army failed to take any action against Taliban to stop the killings of innocent people. Locals say that the Taliban are being supported by Pakistani government which has given them a free hand for some other gains best known to the authorities.

Posted by hasnain

http://hasnain.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/stop-the-humanitarian-crisis-in-parachinaar-pakistan/

Almost one million people of Parachinar remain stranded for more than a year by the criminals of Taliban, Sipah-e-Sahaba & Al-Qaeda,

Almost one million people of Parachinar remain stranded for more than a year by the criminals of Taliban, Sipah-e-Sahaba & Al-Qaeda

Appeal for help to the international community

PESHAWAR: Delay in reopening road delays return of peace to Kurram

By Zulfiqar Ali

PESHAWAR, Oct 23: Delay in reopening of Thall-Parachinar Road despite an agreement, reached between the warring tribes of Kurram tribal region in Murree on Oct 16, is likely to shatter people’s confidence.

Under the peace agreement, signed by the rival parties, a 30-member jirga had to proceed to Parachinar on Wednesday last by road to end yearlong blockade of the area bordering Afghanistan.

Former federal minister Malik Waris Khan Afridi, who is leading the jirga, told Dawn that plan had been revised and mediators comprising notables and former parliamentarians from Fata and Hangu district along with 34 local elders were likely to go to Parachinar on Saturday.

“Both parties want lasting peace and have agreed to reopen the main road and resolve the disputes. Now this is the government’s responsibility to facilitate the process for the jirga to proceed to the area by road in order to rebuild confidence of the local people,” he maintained.

He said that further delay in reopening of the main road might shatter peace process, adding that according to the agreement negligence on the part of the local administration or any other government agency might be considered a deliberate move to sabotage the peace process.

“If administration takes jirga members to Parachinar by helicopters then it will not serve the purpose and will spoil all the efforts,” he said and urged that the government should rein in trouble makers to save the peace process.

Upper parts of Kurram had remained cut off from the rest of the country since November 6 last when fierce clashes broke out in the region.

The blockade had badly affected socio-economic activities in the region which forced local people to travel to Peshawar via Afghanistan.

The political administration had made an abortive attempt to open the road in June last for transporting food to Parachinar but the convoy was attacked near Sadda in Lower Kurram.

Sajjid Hussain, an MNA from the area, said that around 1,600 people had been killed and more then 3,000 wounded in fighting, causing large scale displacement and destruction. He said that Fata Secretariat in coordination with the Federal Interior Ministry was working out a plan for road safety.

Sources said that one of the reasons for delaying visit of jirga was immediate transfer of political agent Mohammad Azam Khan, who was posted as managing director of Sarhad Tourism Corporation.

Officials said that as the political agent was transferred after he was promoted to grade 20. Only grade 19 officer can be posted as political agent of Kurram.

“Transfer of Azam Khan at this very moment was not a wise decision on the part of the government.

His transfer conveys a clear message that government is not sincere in restoration of peace in Kurram,” said a jirga member from Parachinar. He said that Azam Khan should stay in Parachinar once joint jirga reached by road to start dialogue.

Sources said that normalcy was fast returning to Kurram valley and rival groups had voluntarily vacated trenches in sensitive areas and stopped plundering and destroying each other properties.

In Parachinar town, the administrative headquarters, local elders have voluntarily placed complete ban on display of weapons. Peace committees have been set up to check the movement of miscreants. (Dawn)

By Zulfiqar Ali

http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/2008/10/almost-one-million-people-of-parachinar.html

ANALYSIS: Blind to the threat —Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

ANALYSIS: Blind to the threat —Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

If the Taliban agenda was nothing more than the expulsion of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan their efforts to expand their domain to some of the settled districts of the NWFP makes no sense. And what is the justification of the sectarian violence in Kurram Agency?

The government and major opposition parties are euphoric over the unanimous passage of the resolution on militancy in the tribal areas during the joint session of parliament. They think that they have evolved a credible approach to dealing with the insurgency and its violent fallout in mainland Pakistan.

The government is pleased with the resolution because it can easily project this development as an indication of growing political harmony among Pakistan’s diverse political actors. Opposition parties had initially used the joint session to build pressure on the government. The PMLN leadership, for instance, criticised the government for its refusal to honour the commitment to restore all superior court judges through an executive order. The government also faced criticism for its inability to halt the current economic downslide. The unanimous resolution eases some pressure on the government for the time being.

The PMLN, the Jama’at-e Islami and the JUIF are happy that the resolution neutralises, if not negates, the official argument that the war on terror is Pakistan’s war. The resolution accommodates the major positions of these parties on militancy and the operations in the tribal areas by calling for the withdrawal of regular troops from the region.

The resolution serves the interests of the Pakistani Taliban, who must be pleased that the resolution endorses their major demands without asking for any reciprocal commitment. It suggests the end of the army operation and consequent withdrawal, something the Taliban have been demanding since the beginning of the operation. It also calls for negotiations with the Taliban on the contentious issues.

What does the government get in return? Nothing. The Taliban have not made any commitment so far on suspending their violent activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan in response to the resolution, not to speak of agreeing to function within the framework of the Pakistani constitution.

The optimism surrounding the passage of this resolution is misplaced. It is well known that a parliamentary resolution, even when adopted unanimously, is not binding on the government. It has moral and political implications, but they are usually not acted upon. Even if they are, it is selective. It would be interesting to know how many members were present in the session with the resolution was approved ‘unanimously’.

The resolution is a good declaration of intent, with emphasis on the peaceful and negotiated settlement of differences. However, it does not outline ways and means to operationalised its basic ideas into concrete policy measures. Some suggestions are not likely to be implemented at all, which will start a new polemical debate between the government and the opposition.

Representatives of the military provided detailed briefing to the parliamentarians to underline the major threat to internal security and stability posed by the Taliban, and to highlight that the Taliban were trying to establish an alternate authority by paralysing the Pakistani state. The current political government shares this perspective. The president and the prime minister have issued several statements over the last two months supporting military action. It is clear from their policy statements that they would like these operations to continue till state authority is firmly established.

The army wanted the political parties to support it in its venture in the tribal areas. Such support is needed because the army and paramilitary forces have lost over three thousand personnel in these operations over the last five years.

Yet the resolution does not have a word of sympathy for the armed forces, which is likely to disappoint them. Parliamentarians should have appreciated their efforts and then asked for limited or no use of force in the tribal areas. It seems that the parliamentarians hardly paid any attention to the briefings and drafted the resolution based on their pre-briefing perspectives.

The Islamist perspective, which does not view the Taliban as a threat to Pakistan, seems to dominate the resolution. The Taliban are portrayed as one of the ‘stakeholders’ in the political equation. There is no condemnation of suicide attacks or the blowing up of girls’ schools or public executions.

The PMLN, the PMLQ, the Jama’at-e Islami, the JUIF, the Tehreek-e Insaf and a host of Islamist groups take a naïve view of violence in the tribal areas and beyond. Instead of viewing the Taliban as Pakistan’s adversary, they sympathise with them as they are fighting US and NATO troops in Afghanistan. They hold the view that the Taliban will have no reason to use violence if American troops quit Afghanistan, since Pakistan’s support for the war on terror is the main cause of insurgency east of the Durand Line. In other words, changes have to be made in Pakistan’s policies, not in the Taliban’s.

American presence in Afghanistan can be viewed as one of the factors responsible for the Taliban resurgence. However, by now, the Taliban have expanded their agenda to include the establishment of a political and administrative domain in and around the tribal areas by neutralising the writ of the Pakistani state.

If the Taliban agenda was nothing more than the expulsion of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan their efforts to expand their domain to some of the settled districts of the NWFP makes no sense: no American troops are present in these areas. And what is the justification of the sectarian violence in Kurram Agency?

It is not clear if US troops in Afghanistan can be put under pressure by the Taliban policy of threatening Pakistani businesspeople and warning them against involvement in any ventures that are unacceptable to the Taliban. The main target of the Taliban is the Pakistani state, yet the resolution fails to take this into account.

Given the expanded Taliban agenda, the government of Pakistan will find it difficult to completely withdraw forces from the tribal areas and leave the security of the region to the insufficiently trained and equipped paramilitary forces. The resolution gives some leverage to the government by suggesting that the army be replaced “where possible with civilian law enforcement agencies with enhanced capacity”. However, the opposition expects a total cessation of military operations, which the government cannot initiate in the absence of a commitment by the Taliban to respect Pakistani state authority and end all violence.

If the opposition parties, the JUIF and parliamentarians from the tribal areas are interesting in evolving an amicable settlement of the trouble in the tribal areas, they should set up a committee for initiating non-official dialogue with the Taliban leadership to formulate proposals for a possible solution. Both sides will be expected to interact within the framework of the constitution. If some credible proposals can be evolved, the opposition would have a better case for implementing the parliamentary resolution.

Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi is a political and defence analyst

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\10\26\story_26-10-2008_pg3_2

october, 26, 2008

Bodies swapped in Kurram Agency

Bodies swapped in Kurram Agency

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Our correspondent PARACHINAR: Taking initiatives for bringing normalcy to the area, the Peace Jirga of the local elders Tuesday exchanged at least 24 bodies and two prisoners between Tori and Bangash tribes at Balishkhel checkpost Tuesday. A meeting was held at the checkpost which was attended by the members of the peace jirga, including Sajid Hussain Tori MNA, Senator Engineer Rasheed Ahmed, Bismillah Jan, former Senator Abdul Aziz, Maulana Khurshid Anwar Jawadi, Malik Abdullah Jan and others. Addressing on the occasion, the speakers said the jirga formed to restore peace in the area would perform its responsibilities efficiently, adding that it is the only opportunity to bury grudges and hatred and try to live brotherly. About 2,000 families had been displaced from the areas, including Gulbazana, Parachinar, Sadda, Arawali, Bagzai, Monda, Jalamay and Chardiwar, would be brought back to their villages, they said. A large number of the local residents arrived at the checkpost to receive the bodies of their relatives, who were killed during the sectarian clashes. About 21 bodies were handed over to Bangash tribe while 3 bodies to Tori tribe besides swapping prisoners. They said the jirga would also resolve other issues like closure of Peshawar-Parachinar Road, taking back the properties occupied by the rival groups, facilitating the hospitals lacking medicines and restoration of power supply to the area that has been suspended for the last three months. So far 1,500 people have been killed and 5,000 injured during the clashes in Kurram Agency. Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Hidden Truth about Parachinar!

Hidden Truth about Parachinar!

Sarwan Ali-an honest man, is a retired Lance Naik from the village Malana in the outskirt of Parachinar and has been living with his wife in a single room. Not any more. Now, he is fighting for his life in Agency HQ Hospital, Parachinar, from a gunshot wound. Wounds inflicted from bombs, snipers, splinters and guns have become part of daily life in Kurrum agency mostly linked to sectarian strife. But his wound is different. He was not shot by the opposing group for his affiliation to any sect. His is a self inflicted wound. Reason? Before the sectarian conflict, he would go to Parachinar and work on ‘Dhiari’ (daily wages) to earn enough to sustain himself and his wife. After the escalation in war, situation has changed dramatically. In a short span, the death toll has reached hundreds and the injured thousands. The prices of daily commodities have rocketed sky-high as the only road linking Parachinar with mainland Pakistan remains closed. This has paralysed the life in Parachinar, closing the markets and stopping the construction work.

As a consequence, the poor are suffering the most. The days of ‘Dhiari’ are over and they, like Sarwan Ali, are jobless and with no income. Many mornings, he went to the town expecting to earn a few rupees and every evening he came back empty handed with shattered hopes. Many nights he and his wife went to bed without proper food with bellyful of boiled leaves from the nearby ShahTut tree. He was too proud to beg and too honest to steel. He sold all their possessions, except for his rifle. In the Pukhtun culture, rifle is considered to be a man’s honour; he couldn’t sell his honour. He returned home one evening feeling low and disheartened after another fruitless day and found his grief stricken wife shivering like a leaf. He knew it was Malaria as he saw her in that state before. But still, he put his trembling hand on her forehead; she was burning hot. He also knew she needed medicine to bring the temperature down and to treat the Malaria but this time, unlike the previous time; he didn’t have money to buy the needed medicine. The feeling of desperation hit him hard and the sense of worthlessness stabbed him deep. He couldn’t bear to see the pain on her pale face. He knew she was not only sick but also weak from lack of food. Filled with despondency, he moved to one corner, picked up his gun, loaded it and turned around to face her. Tears were rolling down her face. She knew what he was about to do. “You’re an honourable man Sarwan Ali. Do what you have to do.” She closed her eyes waiting for the end. He pointed the gun at her but could not bring himself to shoot her. He started crying like a child and for a long time, the two caring souls broke the silence with their agonising sobs. Then slowly, he eased the pressure on the trigger and started walking towards the door. He decided to sell his honour, his gun, in Parachinar to buy medicine for his dear wife. He went to a chemist shop and offered to sell his gun and get medicine out of the price. He was told that there was no medicine because none was coming through the blocked roads from Peshawar. Sarwan pleaded with him and told him about his wife’s condition. The man felt sorry for him and handed him over two Paracetamols. Back in the room, he gave the tablets to his wife and after a while she stopped shivering and went to sleep. He watched her sleep for a long time, then got up slowly, performed Wazu as if he was preparing for prayer; picked up his gun and without a second thought shot himself. The bullet passed through his chest. This is the life in the war-torn Parachinar, where death is as cheap as sipping water from a stream; a town, which was known for pleasant weather and natural beauty.

A town, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto fell in love with and wanted to turn it into a settlement like Switzerland. That was the time when Shah of Iran had friendly relation with Saudi King. That was the time when Sunni-Shia misunderstandings did not change into hate. That was the time when skirmishes between Sunni and Shais remained local and were settled amicably by the administration. That was the time when Afghanistan was not taken over by Taliban. And that was the time when general Zia was still serving as army chief under ZAB. Things changed when Shah was deposed in Iran, when Zia took over in Pakistan, when Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviets, when America supported fanatic Sunni Arabs against Soviets, and when it helped Sunni Pukhtuns against Iran. Things changed radically. What people didn’t realise was that America was using Muslim religious sentiments for its own gains. It poured money into the pockets of Afghan Warlords with the help of general Zia and turned American war into ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ with tremendous consequences to Pakistan. It took advantage of Zia’s sectarian leanings and put Pakistan on the road to political and religious vulnerability. It was then, when Parachinar was caught in the middle of sectarian strife. Iranian clergy started supporting the Shias in Parachinar through prominent local Syeds, and the Saudi Wahabis pumped money to the local Sunni Mullahs. Sunnis fought Afghan war to please Saudis and Shias safeguarded Iranian interests. Soviets were defeated in Afghanistan; American won the ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ and left the spoils in the hands of fanatics. The spill over was bound to effect Parachinar. And it did in a big way. The beautiful town has never since returned to its previous grace. The time rolled on.

The strong corporations in America required an enemy to replace the dismembered Soviets. They found one in the garb of ‘terrorism’ creeping out of Afghanistan. It was moulded in the same outfit as their Jihadi friends in the not so distant past. Now, they needed the change of guards in Afghanistan to target it. They got lucky; the history favoured them twice; once when Musharaf sacked a democratic government in Pakistan; again, when the Towers were brought down by the terrorists. The White House didn’t need much persuasion to seek help from ‘moderate’ Musharaf who made a U-turn in Afghan policy. With change of policy the enemies changed. Now, the Americans were not fighting the communists; they were fighting the terrorists who happened to be Muslims; and Musharaf was not fighting the infidels, he was fighting the same Muslims. In this way, the moderate Musharaf surpassed those barriers which even zealous Zia dared to tread, exposing Pakistan to massive internal turmoil. Today, Parachinar is burning in a fire lit by fanatic Zia and spread by moderate Musharaf; a fire which is different from the one seen in rest of the tribal area. It is not linked to sentiments against Pakistan army or even America. It is based on emotions against Taliban.

Majority in upper Kurrum are Shia and they despise Taliban. Taliban in return, reciprocate their sentiments by sending decapitated bodies of Shias captured during their journeys to Peshawar. The Internet is full of grotesque footages. The Shia-dominated upper Kurrum is sealed by the surrounding Sunni-belt having a strong influence of Taliban. In the middle of it, Parachinar is in virtual siege with no food items, no daily commodities and no medicines. In desperation, the Shias are turning to Afghan government for help after seeing apparent apathy from Pakistan. This is a bizarre situation, the like of which was once historically seen in early 20th century, when a Shia Turi tribal Chief, Noor Khan (alias Dur Khan) sought British help when he found Shias under siege in identical circumstance. Today they are asking Afghan government to help them against the Taliban. In the middle of this bizarre turn around, the poor people of Parachinar from both sects are slaughtered like animals in sectarian hate and others like Sarwan Ali are killing themselves for reasons other than that hate. This is Parachinar burning in a fire not lit by the locals but by those whose political and religious interests lay outside Pakistan.

Written by 

Dr Ghayur Ayub

 

MQM seeks relief for Kurram violence victims

By By Mumtaz Alvi  9/20/2008

ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) legislator Abbas Komaili on Friday called for emergency relief measures for hundreds of thousands of people stranded in the restive Kurram Agency, affected by the violence that started last year. Talking to The News, Senator Komaili, who, on several occasions, had raised the burning issue on the floor of the Senate, was concerned about the plight of traumatised women and children and the injured, as there was severe shortage of food items and medicines since long. He complained that the government was either facing pressure from within or had failed to comprehend the enormity of the human sufferings in Parachinar, where an element, enjoying foreign support, was targeting the local population, consisting of both Sunnis and Shias. The MQM parliamentarian pointed out that the PML-Q government and then the caretakers, and now the PPP-led ruling coalition had been describing the volatile situation in Parachinar differently.  Some time, it was termed as a result of infighting, violence between Sunnis and Shias and even a feud between two tribes ie Turi and Bangash.Komaili, who claims to have been in constant touch with some prominent people in Parachinar, said that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had promised on the floor of the Senate recently that medicines would be supplied there by helicopters, but, according to his information, there had been no significant progress so far on this count. He said a well-organised and well-coordinated effort was crucial to alleviate sufferings of the violence-hit population.Parachinar, spread over 1,305 square miles, is the capital of Kurram Agency. It is facing violence for the last 18 months, which has claimed hundreds of lives. "I just wonder, what really are the causes, which have barred the government from intervening and restoring peace in Kurram Agency. The nation wants to know why no effective corrective measures have been taken," he maintained. Asked why the incumbent government had so far not been able to restore normalcy, he said that the rulers were primarily engaged in political matters, having hardly any time to address this particular issue.

Recovery of kidnapped activists demanded

Recovery of kidnapped activists demanded

Saturday, September 20, 2008 By our correspondent PESHAWAR: Activists of the Imamia Students Organisation (ISO) on Friday staged a protest against the killing of fellow students and kidnapping of two others in Khyber Agency. Chanting slogans and holding placards, the students gathered outside the Peshawar Press Club and demanded of the government to provide security to them. They also voiced their concern over the closure of the Tall-Parachinar Road for more than a year and asked the government to take effective measures for opening the road for general traffic.  The protesting students said unknown persons had kidnapped three activists of ISO from Khyber Agency and later killed one of them. They said the government had failed to maintain its writ and provide security to people. They demanded the government to take effective steps for safe recovery of the two kidnapped students. The NEWS International Monday, September 22, 2008, Ramazan 21, 1429 A.H