My Voice - Junaid Qureshi examines the role of APHC in Jammu and Kashmir struggle. Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVIxalT04Q0&feature=youtu.be
Saturday, 11 July 2020
Friday, 10 July 2020
My Voice, my guest is Dr Misfer Hasan, President Liberation League, Britain.
In programme My Voice, my guest is Dr Misfer Hasan, President Liberation League, Britain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5RUJ1-l-xQ&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5RUJ1-l-xQ&feature=youtu.be
Militancy in Kashmir: What have we gained - Jamil Maqsood explains in my show, My Voice.
Militancy in Kashmir: What have we gained - Jamil Maqsood explains in my show, My Voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IpEfuDq_BI&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IpEfuDq_BI&feature=youtu.be
When Fatima Jinnah Was Declared Traitor.
When Fatima Jinnah Was Declared Traitor.
By The Powers-That-Be News Desk July 9, 2020
July 9 marks the death anniversary of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, and as the masses recall her struggle and the services she rendered for the country, they are also reminded of how she was declared a traitor by the powers that be.
Even after the passage of so many years, anyone who raises their voice against the state and authoritative forces is labelled a traitor or is deemed to be working against the interests of the country.
Let us look at the circumstances in which Fatima Jinnah was given this label, how she was pushed against the wall and was ultimately forced to confine herself in her own home.
Fatima Jinnah had bravely resisted the self proclaimed rule of Field Marshal Ayub Khan. She was seen by the masses as Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s natural successor following his demise in 1948. General Ayub is believed to have manipulated the system to malign the stateswoman and involve her into controversies. The anti-democracy forces used negative tactics, to the extent of tampering the 1965 presidential election results to defeat her.
Their efforts were aimed at suppressing her voice, so much so that they stopped her speech from broadcasting on Quaid-e-Azam’s death anniversary. Ayub Khan went on to declare Fatima Jinnah a foreign agent , despite the fact that it was him who himself established the Pak-US bond.
The sagacious stateswoman, politician, a dental surgeon by profession was a close adviser to her brother and a co-founder of Pakistan Women’s Association, which played an important role in the settlement of the migrant women at that time.
Fatima Jinnah breathed her last on in Karachi on 9 July 1967 due to a heart failure. Her demise is also a subject of controversy as it is shrouded in mystery, with some reports claiming she died of unnatural causes.
Tuesday, 7 July 2020
In Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, ‘Jihad’ Encourages Sexual Slavery
In Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, ‘Jihad’ Encourages Sexual Slavery
Terrorists waging jihad in the name of liberating Kashmiris from Indian control use Kashmiri women as sex-slaves.
The ruler of the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India in 1947 while adhering to the British constitutional mechanism for Subcontinent’s partition. His decision became an excuse for the newly-sired Pakistan to occupy Gilgit and Muzaffarabad districts. Sensing Pakistan’s vacillation on withdrawal, the representative of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan warned that the illegal presence of Pakistani troops and Islamic mercenaries posed grave threat to life, honour and assets in Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) and delayed a peaceful settlement on Kashmir.
As if trying to fulfill this prophecy, Pakistan with its seven-decade long colonial approach has reduced the inhabitants of PoK into disenfranchised subjects. The policy to maximize strategic gains from issue of Kashmir has motivated the military oligarchy to lease PoK to Islamic Jihadi outfits, which sets major impediments to socio-economic sustainability and casts long shadows over democracy and civil liberties.
Kashmiri Women Used as Sex-Slaves in the Name of Jihad
During an interview, Nasir Aziz Khan—the spokesperson of United Kashmir People’s National Party—revealed that many jihadi outfits sustain their operations in PoK by managing sex rackets. While referring to the recent video leak of Syed Zameer Bukhari, chairman of Al-Muhafiz Foundation, Aziz informed that Bukhari was affiliated with Hafiz Saeed’s Jamat-ud-Dawa. Bukhari used the foundation’s office space in District Bagh to souteneur local girls to government officials. As per Aziz, the Pakistani secret service agents and local ministers have thrown their weight behind Bukhari to halt judicial prosecution.
The terrorists who wage jihad in the name of liberating Kashmiris from the clutches of Indian control use Kashmiri women as sex-slaves. Recently Indian police raided a Jihadi hideout in Kashmir and recovered steroids, sex pills, contraceptives and pornographic material. One female rape victim told the media that a member of Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit, which rules the roost in that locality, kidnapped her from her house in broad daylight.
Silence and ‘Honour’ Prevail Over Justice
Justice becomes a distant dream for rape victims in a warzone like PoK where rapists use political connection and collaboration with the military establishment to secure immunity. Sofia Bano was gang-raped in the hometown of the Prime Minister of PoK. Sofia said that the rapists were related to the PM. Her husband received death threats and eventually abandoned the case as they couldn’t afford to expose the family to prolonged dangers.
Another victim of gang-rape from Chehla Bandi said that she was raped by members of ruling party, Muslim League, who have since created hurdles for the police to halt the case.
A gang-rape victim from Hussainkot said that her family chose honor over justice. One of the rapists, a policeman from her neighborhood, filmed the incident to extort money and the family paid him for his silence.
A large majority of families cannot afford to face the ordeal as their daughters would become “unmarriageable” and fail to find suitable husbands. Such girls also face daunting challenges to continue education or find jobs. In addition, the families risk losing social status, assets or businesses for confronting the high-powered culprits. Some families even get ostracized and eventually migrate to other towns to avoid shame and revenge.
Sexual Assault in Bunkers is an Epidemic
Jalaluddin Mughal is a local journalist from PoK who wrote a feature on molestation and rape in the security bunkers. Many of these bunkers were constructed in the 1990s by the Islamic Relief Foundation which retains ties with the global Muslim Brotherhood movement. Raja Saeem Manzoor, a political activist from Chikar, informs that one needs military clearance to construct and manage such bunkers where women take shelter at night during mortar-fires from the Indian side of Kashmir.
Mr. Manzoor revealed that sexual assault in bunkers is an epidemic that no one mentions.
Many times the rapists are soldiers who get away with the crimes since police and civil courts have no authority to pursue cases against military personnel. Further, emboldened by their relationship with the military, the bunker owners also demand sexual favors from women in exchange for security.
Women of PoK are caught between a rock and a hard place. There is risk to life for staying at home during the shelling and risk to honor for spending nights in these coop-sized unlit bunkers, says Sajjad Raja, who chairs Kashmir’s Equality Party, and currently resides in Manchester, UK. “Speaking up against sexual assaults is a double whammy. Why risk losing a spot in the bunker by embarrassing the owner when there is no hope for justice due to owner’s political clout”, asks Raja.
PoK Women Live to Tell the Tale And Suffer
Anam Zakaria in her feature in Daily Dawn mentions two local women Mehnaz and Nasreen who decided to make the painful choice of staying inside their homes during shelling. Nasreen told Zakaria that she once made the mistake of dragging her children to find safety in the bunker. There, an older man raped her 13 year old daughter, Ayesha. Nasreen said that the man had a knife and had threatened to kill Ayesha for speaking up. Few months later, Ayesha got pregnant and the council decided to marry Ayesha to the rapist to save her honor. Unable to handle the pain of birthing at such tender age, Ayesha hemorrhaged to death in labor. Her child also died a few months later. Zakaria mentions that many families opt to abort rape related pregnancies at home and not involve doctors to avoid social stigma which enhances risks to lives.
Amidst this gloom and doom, one gang-rape victim, Ms. Maria Tahir of District Bhimber stands tall. The unrelenting threats to life and honor failed to discourage her from exposing the rapists who have found shelter among government ministers and military officials. During a press conference in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, Ms. Tahir informed that rapists videotaped the vile incident to extort money, and when she refused, they kidnapped her along with her child. She says that the same gang burned another rape victim to death for speaking up.
The police while trying to protect the culprits registered defamation case against Ms. Tahir to deter from pursuing the case. The police also forced Ms. Tahir to sign documents declaring the rape as consensual sexual activity, which means she could be prosecuted for adultery. Sensing no let-up in her determination, the law enforcers tortured her family and asked the village council to diffuse the matter. Ms. Tahir has written forty-two letters to the Chief Justice of PoK, and his response should shock everyone reading this article. During a conversation in the court chamber, the Chief Justice said to Ms. Tahir, “You are already married, not a virgin. You should not mind rape. Please drop the case”.
Is Pakistan Occupied Kashmir a Rerun of East Pakistan?
Ms. Tahir cannot return to PoK due to death threats. Daring rape victims like Ms. Tahir need widespread recognition or such bravery and sacrifices will be all for naught. She recently got a shot in the arm when several right-activists from different parts of the world spoke on her behalf at the spring session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Pakistan is signatory to the United Nation’s Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women which espouses for gender equality, justice and guarantees protection to life, honor and assets.
Yet, this remains a distant dream for the people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir as rulers use sexual violence against women as a tool to prolong occupation.
PoK is a rerun of East Pakistan where local women were at the mercy of Pakistani soldiers for decades before local Bengalis sought Indian help to throw Pakistani military out. The United Nations should send members of its Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to PoK to find role of Pakistani officials and military-led Islamist terrorists in crimes against women. Further, the international community must help India resume control of PoK as this is the only way to establish constitutional supremacy to secure citizens’ rights and eliminate terror outfits to restore local freedoms.
(Author is a researcher and human rights advocate born in Pakistan-occupied- Gilgit-Baltistan. He was a visiting fellow to the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, New Delhi in 2009. He runs a Washington DC based Institute for Gilgit Baltistan Studies. He tweets at @SengeHSering. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
Why don’t Kashmiri women want to hide in bunkers during cross - border firing?
Why don’t Kashmiri women want to hide in bunkers during cross - border firing?
Anam Zakaria 26 March 2019
“When you’re so close to each other, in this small space, you can understand what would transpire.”
“After the 2005 earthquake, several girls were kidnapped, sexually abused or raped in the camps. We had all heard stories about what happened to them… we didn’t want to risk our safety or that of our children… so we picked up our belongings and came here instead…”
Iam sitting amidst four Kashmiri women in Bara Kahu, on the outskirts of Islamabad. Five families, including half a dozen children, are cramped inside this house.
On the outside, it seems as if India-Pakistan tensions have de-escalated. Just recently, officials from both countries met to discuss the Kartarpur peace corridor.
However for Kashmiris, peace remains elusive. The events of and after February 26th have resulted in deaths, injuries and displacement in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). The internet is still shut and cell phones are hardly working. Those living across the Line of Control in the Indian-held Kashmir have been caught in the crossfire too.
The women I sit with today have been displaced from a village near Chakotti, which has faced the brunt of firing over the past few weeks. They tell me that the stories of what happens to girls in relief camps and community bunkers are known across Kashmir.
That’s why they didn’t want to move into the temporary shelters set up by the government. Instead, they came here, to Bara Kahu. They are one of the fortunate few families who could afford to do so.
Despite promises, the government has failed to provide individual bunkers to families even in areas that have faced heavy shelling for years.
The communal bunkers, several of which were built by relief agencies like the Islamic Relief in the 1990s, are small dark spaces of about 13x7 feet.
During heavy shelling, anywhere between 20 to 30 people have to cram inside, hoping against hope that a mortar won’t come their way. I am told that it is within these bunkers and camps that sexual exploitation takes place.
These cases, however, go unreported and undocumented. Notions of ‘shame’ and ‘honour’ have pushed generations of abuse survivors into silence.
Women thus remain reluctant to speak about the prevalence of abuse, though I am told it is an open secret. At most they say they have heard that it happened to ‘others.’
No one wants to share their own experiences; for years they have been hushed into silence, told that their ‘honour’, their ‘future prospects’, their ‘respect’ hinges on staying mum.
The ‘dishonour’ rests not so much in the act as it does in speaking about the act. Those whose abuse becomes known are shamed far more than those who abuse.
Some men, however, are more forthcoming. The fact that ‘honour’ is associated with women frees the men to speak about what they witnessed or even engaged in.
Society is structured in a way that even abuse endured by women can often only be spoken of by men. That space too is not theirs to claim.
While women express the general fear and vulnerability they feel, it is men who go into the details of what happened. I spoke to one such man, on the condition of anonymity.
A resident of Neelum Valley, he spoke of the abuse he had perpetrated on women when he was a young teenager in the 1990s. The term he used for all instances he engaged in — from molestation to penetrative rape — was ‘setting’. Larki ke saath setting ho gaye (I got in a setting with a girl) is a common phrase.
While the phrase may denote consent from both parties, what women feel about such ‘setting’ is often ignored, their consent either assumed or not deemed significant.
As the man said to me, “larkiyan tou shuru mein sharmati hi hain” (women are always shy in the beginning). Women’s rejection of men is dismissed as mere shyness or nervousness; they must all be willing, they must all come around to liking it.
However, in other cases he himself admits, “kuch zabardasti bhi karte thay” (sometimes we would force it). He said he had engaged in seven or eight such ‘settings’. Below is an edited excerpt from our conversation:
“Five or six families from the mohalla (neighbourhood) would hide inside the morchas (bunkers) together… during firing, everybody is trying to save their own lives… we are not concerned with who is a man or a woman… but once the firing halts, things change.
“Usually, families who have come from the mohalla to seek refuge in the community bunker stay the night. They are too scared to leave in case the firing starts again.
“There used to be many of us squeezed together… sitting, lying down next to each other in the pitch dark… there would be no light.
“When you’re so close to each other, in this small space, where you can even hear each other’s breath… aap samajh sakti hain kya hota ho ga… (you can understand what would transpire).
“All the senior boys in my school would talk about how many settings they had in bunkers. I did my first setting when I was 15 or 16 years old.
“When the elders would sleep, that’s when it would start… yes, many times the girls didn’t like it. They would pull back, they would try moving away… they were women of all ages… as young as 13 or 14 and as old as 35-40. Some of them were married, they had children…
“In our society no one wants to speak about such things. Even when the elders in the family found out, no one wanted to bring any attention to what had happened.
“They would say ‘inse shaadi kon karega?’ (who would marry them [the girls]?)… if ever there was any noise, a tamasha, the families themselves would try to cover it up. They would say ‘keera kaat gaya kuch nai hoa’ (nothing happened, she yelled because of an insect bite)…”
He tells me that there were a few incidents that did became public.
Once, a man caught raping a girl was tied to a pole for three days as punishment, but the girl became unmarriageable in their community.
“Eventually, she was married off in a far away village, where nobody knew what had happened to her.”
Another girl, who was 'caught' being raped by her cousin, was forced to marry him overnight. “She hated her cousin, she would always be cursing him but her family got a moulvi and married her off to him the same night.”
In cases where girls were impregnated as a result of rape, emotional and physical abuse followed. Taking them to the hospital would give away their identity and so these women were subjected to home abortions.
He tells me of one girl who was operated on at home to abort the pregnancy; the premature stillborn baby was then thrown away by the women of the village, only to be discovered later in the mouth of a donkey.
***
The recent escalation in firing, the setting up of relief camps and the refurbishing of community bunkers has triggered memories of the abuse endured by many residents of AJK over the past decades.
The women I meet in Bara Kahu demand that bunkers should be built for each home in areas prone to firing so they don’t have to risk their safety any longer.
Their demands and protests have, however, gone in vain so far.
As the conflict heats up again, families are left oscillating between the fear of death from shelling and the threat of sexual violence in what are meant to be communal safe havens.
A few weeks back in Neelum, fellow journalist Jalaluddin Mughal asked a widow why she didn’t hide with her daughter in the community bunker during the firing. She responded: “hum jaan bachayein ya izzat bachayein?” (Should we save our lives or our honour?).
Anam Zakaria is the author of Footprints of Partition: Narratives of Four Generations of Pakistanis and Indians and Between the Great Divide: A Journey into Pakistan-administered Kashmir
In programme My Voice, my guest is Dr Misfer Hasan, President Liberation League, Britain.
In programme My Voice, my guest is Dr Misfer Hasan, President Liberation League, Britain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5RUJ1-l-xQ&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5RUJ1-l-xQ&feature=youtu.be
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