February 21, 2016
[NOTE: I apologize for neglecting to post for a few months. The catch-up posts will be in the wrong chronological order. After that I promise to try and keep up my blog.]
March 16 marks 13 years that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui has been wrongfully imprisoned. Aafia was a foreign student from Pakistan who graduated with honors from MIT and Brandeis University. She and her children were kidnapped in Pakistan and held without charge for five years in Afghan prisons under US control. According to Reuters, Siddiqui was wanted by the FBI in 2003 for questioning for possible ties to al Qaeda and was detained by Pakistani authorities. Things went terribly wrong, and rather than admit their grievous error, which included killing her baby, the US accused her of attacking a US soldier - even though she is the one who got a bullet in her stomach. Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark has described Aafia's ordeal as "the worst case of individual injustice I have ever witnessed."
AafiaMovement.com/the-aafia-mobilizations
The Boston Rally on International Women's Day will be the first of four mobilizations for Dr. Aafia Siddique also planned for March 2016 in NY, DC and Fort Worth, Texas. Help us spread the word and build toward these actions. Contact Br. Mauri Saalakhan at peacethrujustice@aol.com for exact time and place, and to volunteer.
The issue is becoming increasingly urgent. There was an attack on Aafia's family's house in Karachi at 3am on February 16! The attempted kidnapping of Aafia's children occurred just a couple days after a February 14 huge Valentine's Day "We Love Aafia" march took place, which included many young children. Asmat Siddiqui, the mother of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, said that the attack of terrorists on the house of Dr Aafia in Karachi and the threats to the family are a message to them to keep silent on the issue of Aafia. The family is refusing to back down from their mission to bring Aafia home, despite being under threat of their lives; surely we have a deep obligation to support them!
In a statement released Tuesday, Aafia's mother said that the politicians have disappointed the nation of Pakistan on the issue of Aafia. They only did politics on her name. She appealed to the chief of army, Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, to play his role in bringing home Aafia and become immortal in history like Muhammad Bin Qasim. Briefing the media on the details of the attack on her house, Asmat Siddiqui said on the night between Monday and Tuesday at 3:00am, three unknown armed terrorists reached her house. They fed the dog some intoxicating substance and later beat up a volunteer of the Aafia Movement, Amir, who was guarding the house.
They asked Amir to tell them in which rooms the children of Aafia reside and which schools they attend. When Amir refused to reply to their questions, they told him they already knew. Then he was tortured mercilessly and fell unconscious. Between 6 and 7:00am when the occupants of the house came out, they found Amir injured and tied up with ropes.
Dr. Fowzia said police were informed about the incident. She asked which type of national security plan is this, in which the citizens are not provided any security. She said 13 years ago, on the day after the kidnapping of Aafia Siddiqui [and her children], we were also told to keep silent; otherwise, four dead bodies would be found on the back street of their house. She said this threat is being employed again "to pressure us not to raise our voices for the release of Aafia Siddiqui."
"As the Siddiqui family, frontline supporters of the Aafia Movement-Pakistan, and supporters from the US branch of the International Free Aafia Movement have already made clear, We Will Not Be Intimidated into a posture of Silence and Inaction! The struggle will continue!" writes Mauri Saalakhan, Aafia's unofficial ambassador in the US, who is organizing the upcoming mobilizations.
He is asking Muslims in the US to bombard the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, DC, with CALLS and E-MAILS. Phone: 202-243-6500 / E-mail: info@embassyofpakistanusa.org
In your communication please express your concern regarding the safety of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's family in Karachi, Pakistan; and demand that the Pakistani government do more to get their citizen released and returned home where she belongs.
Who were the kidnappers? What political objective could possibly be gained by re-kidnapping Aafia's children? Most importantly - what can we do, what will we do as Americans to bring attention to our fellow Muslims and neighbors regarding the plight of this young woman, who has become the international face of the Disappeared? Her situation is not that unique. Political kidnappings are quite common throughout the world.
However, this is a girl who went to school in Massachusetts, who was known. She gave speeches during Muslim events, she was a leader in enthusiastic charity efforts and was even quoted in the news saying that if Americans learned about the beauty of Islam, they would all want to become Muslims! You can't just disappear someone like that and pretend it didn't happen. And indeed, she has become the Daughter of Pakistan. In many ways, her fate will determine the future of her nation.
http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1642.htm
Showing posts with label Pakistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pakistan. Show all posts
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Pakistan Bombing Linked to US Pressure
July 10, 2014 by TMO
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A man along with a woman clad in burqa, both fleeing from the military offensive against Pakistani militants in North Waziristan, walk away with a wheelbarrow of relief handouts after receiving from a storage tent of the World Food Programme (WFP) at a distribution point for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Bannu, located in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province July 6, 2014. Picture taken July 6, 2014. REUTERS/Khuram Parvez
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On Wednesday, July 2, the Pakistani lawmakers amended Pakistan’s anti-terrorism law, doubling the maximum prison sentence for those convicted of “terror offenses” and allowing security forces to detain suspects for up to 60 days. Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, voiced concern that it could provide legal cover for disappearances. Rights groups accuse the government of holding people in secret and failing to put them on trial. Meanwhile, the Pakistani government forced the evacuation of North Waziristan, near the border with Afghanistan, then bombed the region, also in the name of rooting out “terrorism.”
The half a million who fled North Waziristan, mostly on foot, are facing severe food shortages. Pakistan’s cruel decision to launch this military offensive during the month of Ramadan has reportedly sharpened anger towards the government. Beginning on June 15, the carpet bombing destroyed even mosques. Civilians who were injured described the bombing as “indiscriminate.”
Millions of livestock and countless children have died or are dying. 74% of the displaced are women and children. People were given very little time to prepare. Farmers had to leave their animals behind. People have lost everything they could not carry.
Muhammad Aziz, a 31-year-old laborer, reportedly lost four of his nine children on the two-day trek undertaken by thousands who fled his village to a camp in Bannu.
“It was a dark day for me and my wife would not stop crying for four days,“ said Aziz.
But on the fifth day, his children were found by a relative. His family’s joy increased when his wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy — whom they named Azb Khan, which is also the name of the military offensive.
Of the over half a million people the Pakistani government has displaced, only about 340 have chosen to take the government’s offer to house them at the Bakkakhel camp, the only such camp that has been set up.
Instead, most have gone to the adjacent town of Bannu, where they are either renting at twice or three times the regular rate, or staying with relatives, reports Al Jazeera. The World Food Program is running six food distribution centers but their budget is too small to meet the need. Sanitation and clean drinking water are severely lacking.
Inayatullah, 44, a native of Miranshah fled along with his family of 13 when bombs dropped near his home. “I have been standing in line all day yesterday, and have been in line for six hours again today. They are treating humans worse than animals.”
In the town of Bannu, Niaz Wali Khan, a 55-year-old pharmacy owner, told AFP he had been queuing for four days but was turned away without rations each time. “We are depressed,” said Khan.
“Most of the patients here are suffering from dehydration and acute respiratory infections,” says Dr Faqir Abdullah, 28, who treated many of those who arrived at the Saidgi checkpoint, on the border with North Waziristan.
“Most of them are confused and anxious, because many of them have travelled on foot. These people had left their homes, and we saw they were in a state of shock.”
With most of the population now “cleared,” curfews have been reimposed, and no movement is allowed on the roads leading to and from the tribal district. The BBC reported that when families of IDPs reach the margins of a town, they often have to wait long hours in the intense heat, before they can obtain the security clearance to enter the area.
Most of the families have sought refuge in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. There are also reports of families now arriving in Punjab and Balochistan. Almost all the internally displaced people are being hosted by local communities.
“The U.S. and its allies have urged Pakistan for years to clear out North Waziristan, a sanctuary and training center for Pakistani Taliban, al Qaeda and Afghan insurgents,” reports the Wall Street Journal. The terrible way this was done demonstrates total contempt for people living in the tribal area.
On June 30, the military started a ground invasion to “eliminate Taliban fighters.” The Pakistani military claims to have killed hundreds of terrorists but not a single civilian.
Mansur Mahsud, from the FATA research centre said the operation could take three to four months. “Once this area is cleared the militants are forced to shift to Afghanistan or the mountains.”
Jamaat-Islami Information Secretary, Ameerul Azeem, issued a statement after visiting the IDPs camps, appealing to the entire nation to step forward for the help and assistance of the operation affected people. He said the provision of basic necessities including the Sehr and Iftar of the displaced persons should be the foremost concern of all.
The operation, dubbed Zarb-i-Azb, began on June 15 following the breakdown in peace negotiations between the government and the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) in response to an attack on the Karachi airport by the TTP and Uzbek militants. However, Ismail Khan writes in the NYT that “A military campaign was anticipated before the Karachi attack.”
During the current ground offensive, land forces are “combing through” North Waziristan’s valleys and taking over villages and buildings. Air raids have continued daily.
An operation of this scale is impossible without the involvement of the United States, whose forces in neighboring Afghanistan have “crucial intelligence” on the location of militant bases and training camps around the region, reports Reuters.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
UN Exploits North Waziristan Genocide
650,000 Civilians Ousted from their homes by Pakistani army
NewTrendMag.org
On June 10, 2014 ten members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan joined by Uzbek fighters took over the Karachi airport and engaged in a shootout which left 30 people including all of them dead. According to CNN, the TPP posted on their Facebook page:
"The biggest reason for attacking Karachi airport is because it serves as the biggest air logistics center supplying goods for the Crusaders' war in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
According to Rolling Stone magazine, the CIA got permission to use Pakistani airspace and airports in exchange for doing Pakistan the favor of assassinating a local chief with a Predator drone, even though he posed no threat to the US. “The CIA wanted access to airspace to conduct drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal regions, which that country had previously considered a breach of sovereignty. The two countries made a deal.”
In response to the airport attack, the Pakistani government launched “Operation Zarb-i-Azb” against North Waziristan five days later. The military warned the population via pamphlets distributed at local mosques. People had very little advance notice.
Hundreds of thousands of people and their animals marched from their homes in the blazing heat with few provisions. Children are dying of heat exhaustion on the side of the street.
"Poor people were walking on foot. They looked like a human sea, of youngsters and adults. Some people fainted, so people poured water on them to revive them."
“They have launched this operation just before the Holy Month, but these militants were living here for years. Why now?” a man named Khan lamented to a reporter.
Given the advance notice, the Taliban and Uzbek foreign fighters disappeared. The Pakistani government has been shelling North Waziristan with helicopters without actually fighting anyone. The families are the ones facing the hardship of travel.
"We could only manage to get ourselves out of Miranshah," one man told UNHCR staff, referring to the capital of the mountainous North Waziristan region. "We left all our belongings. The Pakistani government was bombing our villages."
The death toll of cattle is a crime in itself - 1.5 million cows have died because farmers were forced to leave them behind, or if they tried to bring them out of the war zone, the cows died of broken limbs or exhaustion along the way.
“I let all my 10 cows loose after they refused to come along,” said Gul Wazir with tearful eyes while remembering his animals he “loved like my children.”
Why would a government decide to evacuate an area but provide no food or water or transportation along the way? Why do they want the area “cleared out?” For what?
Many have sought safety in the Khyber-Pakhtunkwa province. A former refugee in Pakistan, Wali said: "We were assisted by Waziristanis during the 1980s, when we fled Khost [during the Soviet occupation]. They welcomed us and extended their generous support. It is now our moral duty and obligation to assist and help these needy families."
That is wonderful, but whose idea was it for Pakistan’s government to uproot an entire region of the country and then decide that it would be the UN’s duty to make sure the people don’t die? The US is said to have encouraged these bombings. Why?
According to CNN, talks between TTP and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif led nowhere. The government and the security forces found it impossible to accept TTP demands like enforcement of Sharia, withdrawal of the army from the tribal regions and a peace zone for itself. In retaliation for breakdown of government talks with the Taliban, the army began pounding Chinese Uyghur hideouts in the Waziristan mountains. Why not just give them states rights? Why punish the Uyghurs? It gets crazier.
So far this year, 54 of Pakistan's 83 confirmed polio cases have been in North Waziristan. Taliban militants banned vaccinations in the summer of 2012, denying UN access. Frustrated, the WHO made plans as early as February to be prepared “if anything happened.” They were immediately ready for action, despite official claims that they had no advance notice of Pakistan’s ethnic cleansing campaign.
The UN is using this upheaval as their glorious opportunity to circumvent local government. Dozens of checkpoints are set up along the roads where refugees are registered and then given drops of the oral polio vaccine. As of June 30, 468,000 individuals had been registered. Reportedly very few are refusing the vaccine. UN officials have already admitted the vaccination campaign is useless since multiple doses are required for immunity to take place. There is no central place in which to give vaccinations. Almost all the refugees have refused to reside in the government-run camp. However, UN officials are now using vaccination as an excuse to do door-to-door registration of all residents of areas where refugees are settling.
This is a very bizarre campaign considering the main way to stop the spread of disease has to be via basic water and sanitation. Huge numbers of people are living in close, dirty conditions creating perfect conditions for every kind of illness, the most commonly reported being upper respiratory infections and heat exhaustion.
Is the UN using Pakistan to unload outdated vaccines? Islamic organizations need to inquire whether these polio vaccines are the “killed virus” used in the West or if they are “live viruses” probably expired since the US stopped using them a decade ago.
NewTrendMag.org
On June 10, 2014 ten members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan joined by Uzbek fighters took over the Karachi airport and engaged in a shootout which left 30 people including all of them dead. According to CNN, the TPP posted on their Facebook page:
"The biggest reason for attacking Karachi airport is because it serves as the biggest air logistics center supplying goods for the Crusaders' war in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
According to Rolling Stone magazine, the CIA got permission to use Pakistani airspace and airports in exchange for doing Pakistan the favor of assassinating a local chief with a Predator drone, even though he posed no threat to the US. “The CIA wanted access to airspace to conduct drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal regions, which that country had previously considered a breach of sovereignty. The two countries made a deal.”
In response to the airport attack, the Pakistani government launched “Operation Zarb-i-Azb” against North Waziristan five days later. The military warned the population via pamphlets distributed at local mosques. People had very little advance notice.
Hundreds of thousands of people and their animals marched from their homes in the blazing heat with few provisions. Children are dying of heat exhaustion on the side of the street.
"Poor people were walking on foot. They looked like a human sea, of youngsters and adults. Some people fainted, so people poured water on them to revive them."
“They have launched this operation just before the Holy Month, but these militants were living here for years. Why now?” a man named Khan lamented to a reporter.
Given the advance notice, the Taliban and Uzbek foreign fighters disappeared. The Pakistani government has been shelling North Waziristan with helicopters without actually fighting anyone. The families are the ones facing the hardship of travel.
"We could only manage to get ourselves out of Miranshah," one man told UNHCR staff, referring to the capital of the mountainous North Waziristan region. "We left all our belongings. The Pakistani government was bombing our villages."
The death toll of cattle is a crime in itself - 1.5 million cows have died because farmers were forced to leave them behind, or if they tried to bring them out of the war zone, the cows died of broken limbs or exhaustion along the way.
“I let all my 10 cows loose after they refused to come along,” said Gul Wazir with tearful eyes while remembering his animals he “loved like my children.”
Why would a government decide to evacuate an area but provide no food or water or transportation along the way? Why do they want the area “cleared out?” For what?
Many have sought safety in the Khyber-Pakhtunkwa province. A former refugee in Pakistan, Wali said: "We were assisted by Waziristanis during the 1980s, when we fled Khost [during the Soviet occupation]. They welcomed us and extended their generous support. It is now our moral duty and obligation to assist and help these needy families."
That is wonderful, but whose idea was it for Pakistan’s government to uproot an entire region of the country and then decide that it would be the UN’s duty to make sure the people don’t die? The US is said to have encouraged these bombings. Why?
According to CNN, talks between TTP and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif led nowhere. The government and the security forces found it impossible to accept TTP demands like enforcement of Sharia, withdrawal of the army from the tribal regions and a peace zone for itself. In retaliation for breakdown of government talks with the Taliban, the army began pounding Chinese Uyghur hideouts in the Waziristan mountains. Why not just give them states rights? Why punish the Uyghurs? It gets crazier.
So far this year, 54 of Pakistan's 83 confirmed polio cases have been in North Waziristan. Taliban militants banned vaccinations in the summer of 2012, denying UN access. Frustrated, the WHO made plans as early as February to be prepared “if anything happened.” They were immediately ready for action, despite official claims that they had no advance notice of Pakistan’s ethnic cleansing campaign.
The UN is using this upheaval as their glorious opportunity to circumvent local government. Dozens of checkpoints are set up along the roads where refugees are registered and then given drops of the oral polio vaccine. As of June 30, 468,000 individuals had been registered. Reportedly very few are refusing the vaccine. UN officials have already admitted the vaccination campaign is useless since multiple doses are required for immunity to take place. There is no central place in which to give vaccinations. Almost all the refugees have refused to reside in the government-run camp. However, UN officials are now using vaccination as an excuse to do door-to-door registration of all residents of areas where refugees are settling.
This is a very bizarre campaign considering the main way to stop the spread of disease has to be via basic water and sanitation. Huge numbers of people are living in close, dirty conditions creating perfect conditions for every kind of illness, the most commonly reported being upper respiratory infections and heat exhaustion.
Is the UN using Pakistan to unload outdated vaccines? Islamic organizations need to inquire whether these polio vaccines are the “killed virus” used in the West or if they are “live viruses” probably expired since the US stopped using them a decade ago.
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