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Afghanistan

'Pakistan is interfering in Afghan affairs'

2006-10-29

QUETTA: Mahmood Khan Achakzai, president of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), on Saturday accused Islamabad of being involved in the “armed interference in Kabul’s affairs”. At a public gathering in Pishin district, Achakzai said that Islamabad was “deliberately causing regional devastation by directly interfering in the affairs of the Karzai-led government and supporting armed groups”. He appealed to religious Afghan leaders to hold dialogue with Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed to determine whether “the acts of interference” were jihad or terrorism.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Seven PONM activists remanded in police custody

2005-04-03

KARACHI: Justice Amir Hani Muslim of the Sindh High Court, who is also the administrative judge for the anti-terrorism courts of Karachi region, remanded seven activists of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) in police custody on Saturday. Faizullah, Almagir, Waris, Anwer, Mohammad Ashraf, Amir Khan and Basher had been booked by the Nazimabad police for setting ablaze a vehicle of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation on Sharah-e-Noorjahan in Block 3 of North Nazimabad during the strike called by PONM. The judge, after going through the case file and remand papers, allowed only two days' remand with the directive to the police that the accused be produced before the court again on April 4 with case progress.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Anti-Punjab strike hits Pakistan

2005-04-01

Businesses have closed in a number of Pakistani cities following a strike called in protest against the influence of the Punjab in national life. Riot police moved in to disperse protesters throwing stones in Peshawar in North-West Frontier Province. Nationalists demanding greater political and economic rights also took to the streets in the restive south-west province of Balochistan. Supporters of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) disrupted normal life in Balochistan, Sindh and North-West Frontier Province. The shutdown was most effective in Peshawar and in Quetta, capital of Balochistan. Hundreds of supporters of the regional and nationalist groups stayed on the streets of cities in Balochistan during the day to ensure a shutdown. Reports from the interior of Sindh said businesses in most of the cities there were also closed and there was also a partial strike in Karachi, with shops shut in the suburbs and most public transport off the roads. A government official said transport companies pulled buses off the roads because of overnight violence during which several vehicles were set on fire. Three more buses were torched on Thursday morning. In Peshawar, PONM supporters took to the streets on Thursday morning, throwing stones at passing vehicles and shops that had opened. Outlets of the Subway food chain and Honda cars were damaged. There were also reports of sporadic clashes in some parts of Balochistan, but officials say by and large the situation remained under control. PONM is an alliance of several groups that aspire for greater rights for smaller provinces. The alliance accuses the bigger province, Punjab, which has largely ignored the strike call, and the federal government of denying people rights in other areas. They say that people in smaller provinces are not given their due share of jobs. Its main demand is for a new national constitution to ensure equal rights. The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says that recently the alliance has been rallying around armed Baloch nationalists, who in their campaign for greater rights have started what is effectively a mini-insurgency by targeting government installations in Balochistan.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Pakhtoon leader calls strike against Sui 'operation'

2005-01-25

Pakhtoon leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai has called a strike on February 12 to condemn an alleged military operation in Sui and the establishment of cantonments in Balochistan. "We are opposed outright to the military operation in Sui," Achakzai said at a public gathering here on Monday. The government denies a military operation is underway in Balochistan. Achakzai, a leader of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement and chairman of the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, urged the government to give the Baloch control over the natural resources in their province, otherwise their could be more violence. "It is a 50-year dream of Punjab to crush the Baloch tribes and use their gas and mineral resources," he said. He said the Pakhtoon people were also ignored in Pakistan. He called for a separate province where Pakhtoons could practise their own culture and have control of their own resources. Party leaders Mustafa Khan Tareen, Maulvi Nazir Akhund, Abdur Rauf Lala, Fazl Qadir Shirani, Sardar Raza Muhammad Burraich, Usman Kakar, Kahar Khan, Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai and others also spoke at the rally. ... and said about the same thing.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Jamaat-i-Islami congregation begins (Target rich environment)

2004-10-02

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed has said that President Pervez Musharraf is part of "global terrorism unleashed by the United States and its western allies", and not a partner to anti-terrorism movement. He claimed this while making an opening sermon at his party's three-day general congregation at the Azakhel Park, some 20kms northeast of Peshawar in his own constituency, Nowshera. Thousands of JI members, activists and sympathizers, who converged here from every district of the country, listened to their chief's captivating remarks, who was too critical of President Musharraf's pro-US stance on various issues. "too critical"? For once the Pakistani transliterator gets one right. The JI chief alleged that the US and its allies had made lives of the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechneya, Palestine and held Kashmir miserable. The oppressed Muslims were being slaughtered across the globe, but the rulers of Muslim countries were silent over these atrocities, he lamented. "Oh woe is us! The evil Jooooos and 'Merkins slaughter us across the globe! Is there no brave Muslim who will step forward and deliver us?!" "Duuuh, Qazi, why don't you deliver us?" "Oh Mahmoud, I couldn't, but if you insist, hokay, I'm here!" Contrary to the wishes of Muslims, he said, Gen Musharraf was carrying out the political agenda of the United States and making his own countrymen victim of terrorism in South Waziristan and Balochistan. This state of affairs was alarming as tribal people could retaliate to their own forces, which were defenders of the country's borders, Qazi Hussain said. He said the US was waging a war against weak and poor countries to impose its political hegemony on them. The Muslims, who believed in brotherhood, rule of law and justice, could not be dubbed terrorists. "P'shaw! Can't be us, we're just peace-loving Muslims! Why, Mahmoud here wouldn't hurt a fly, ain't that right Mahmoud!" Instead, he added, the secular and infidel forces were responsible for world's chaos, terrorism and people's genocide. He said Gen Musharraf was not a real representative of Pakistani people, "rather he was a usurper who had assumed power at gunpoint." He had served the interests of imperialism and exploiters, who had introduced the new world order. The United States wanted to rob Muslims of their faith and dilute their commitment to Jihid "for which Gen Musharraf had tried to change the curriculum in Pakistan, but the JI foiled that bid," he added. The Jamaat chief observed that the US wanted to deprive Pakistan of its nuclear assets, but patriotic Pakistanis would defend them at all cost. It was the US which had bombed out thousands of innocent Japanese in Hiroshima and Naga Saki in 1945 to extend its military-cum-political writ up to Asia, he added. Qazi does seem to have missed the obvious lesson of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hasn't he. Referring to the 'uniform' issue, he said it was the only and respectable way for Gen Musharraf to shed his uniform by Dec 31, otherwise people would force him (Musharraf) out of the presidency. "We will not tolerate him even for a day after Dec 31". He defended the 17th amendment which, he said, had bound him (Musharraf) to quit his one office. He urged the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) to cooperate with the MMA and prepare themselves for a protest movement against Gen Musharraf. Qazi Hussain Ahmed said they would not allow any 'adventurist' in the future to topple any government and seize power. It was MMA's commitment with the nation that it would not accept any military rule in the future. "We want a constitutional government, not a military one, for the interest of the country," he added. He said the United Sates wanted to establish India's hegemony in the region for which it had forced Pakistan to back out from its principled stand on Kashmir. Earlier, Sheikh Mohammad Siamus Saleh, a former imam of the Al-Aqsa mosque, delivered the Friday sermon and led the prayers at Azakhel's open ground. Note that Jamaat-i-Islami is a local branch of terrorist outfits throught the world. Sheikh Mohammad Siamus Saleh, a former imam of the Al-Aqsa mosque, delivered the Friday sermon and led the prayers at Azakhel's open ground that means that Musharraf is not doing enough to prevent the terrorists from coming in Pakistan.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Separate province for Pakhtuns?

2004-09-04

Mahmood Khan Achakzai, chairman of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), on Friday said that Pakistan was a multi-nation state where each nation should have equal rights and control over its own resources. Mr Achakzai said that Pakhtuns wanted to live in a separate province. He demanded a new constitution because he believed the 1973 Constitution was an impediment in their way. Mr Achakzai said his party wanted equal rights for every "nation" in the country and that each "nation" should have control over its own resources. "That's what the UN Charter says," he added. We're halfway to what we want. They get a separate nation, now all we need is the razor wire and moat for the border. The nationalist leader from Balochistan strongly opposed the role of the army and intelligence agencies in the country's politics. "Unless they (army and intelligence agencies) stay away from politics, Pakistan can never stop experiencing internal political crises and external threats," said the PkMAP chief while speaking at a Peshawar Press Club programme. Mr Achakzai, whose party is part of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), urged all religious and political parties to get together at one platform to struggle for a separate Pakhtun province with a name other than the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). He said the army and the intelligence agencies blackmailed and bribed politicians to change their loyalties and join other parties, which was earning Pakistan a bad reputation. "The country has seen three prime ministers in three months at the behest of a general which is dangerous politics," he said. He added that his party wanted democracy and supremacy of parliament. Mr Achakzai said the 1973 Constitution did not exist anymore as it had now been transformed into the Legal Framework Order (LFO) by a uniformed president. "It's martial law and the chief martial law administrator and his corps commanders are ruling the country. It's dangerous for the survival of the country," said Mr Achakzai. The Pakhtun nationalist held the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leaders Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman responsible for accepting the 17th Amendment and strengthening the hands of President General Pervez Musharraf. "The general was all alone and had no way out of the situation but the MMA provided him safe passage by accepting the LFO in the form of the 17th Amendment," he said.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Pashtun join hands with the Baloch in Balochistan

2004-08-20

The establishment is trying to figure out whether the Pashtun will join up with the Baloch in the event of a full-scale military operation against Islamabad The Baloch nationalist leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal is not mincing his words nowadays. Last week he was in Islamabad and declared open war on Pakistan army and the Frontier Corps. How'd he make it home alive? Was it just bluster? Is that a trick question? The military top brass and the interior ministry don't think so. Small wonder that officials are in a clutch debating the many alarming questions the situation in Balochistan presents to Islamabad. The hot question for the establishment is whether the army and the paramilitary should launch a full-fledged military operation in Balochistan a la 1974 to flush out the "miscreants" Sources in the interior ministry say Islamabad is looking back at that period and trying to draw lessons. "We don't want any surprises and we certainly do not want this thing [an operation] to backfire," says a high official. The Baluchistan insurgency is heating up again. Inspired by the independance of Bangladesh a few years earlier, the Baluchs launched a seperatist campaign which was crushed by the Army. It's possible Afghanistan is playing a covert role here to pay Pakistan back for supporting Taliban and Hek. Yet another question being debated in the official circles is the likely reaction of the Pashtun nationalists to a military operation in Balochistan? Will the Pashtun activists, who have been traditionally fighting the Baloch, join the armed resistance unleashed by the Baloch or will they step aside and let the Baloch fight the army? In the seventies the Pashtun had stayed away from the insurgency. "That may not be the case now," says an observer who thinks the common cause could be the bad deal given the province by Islamabad. Some officials say the government is receiving mixed signals from the Pashtun nationalist forces, particularly since the start of the 'limited military operation' in Balochistan in the wake of the violence. The troubling fact for Islamabad is that this is the first time the Baloch and the Pashtun have jointly launched a struggle for their rights. "This bothers the government. It's better to keep them divided. The establishment doesn't like the fact that the two warring ethnic groups have joined hands on the platform of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement," says an analyst. This fact, confirm official sources, has so far blocked any major decision on the military operation in Balochistan. The PONM consists of the Balochs, Pashtuns, Sindis and Serakis; who are opposed to the Punjabis who have dominated the army and bureaucracy since independance, although Musharraf isn't a Punjabi.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Fear stalks Pakistan's anniversary

2004-08-14

Pakistan celebrates its 57th anniversary on Saturday in an unprecedented atmosphere: what should be a joyous occasion to mark independence from British India will be overshadowed by the threat of terror attacks across the country. Security agencies fear retaliation for the recent arrests of two top jihadi leaders Maulana Fazalur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Akhtar and the possible apprehension of other key jihadi leaders in coming days under US pressure. The possibility of attacks has been confirmed to this correspondent by sources close to jihadi circles. They say that top Pakistani officials as well as key strategic installations and institutes will be targeted in suicide attacks. In an effort to take some of the heat out of the situation, President General Pervez Musharraf has officially announced that plans for military operations in troubled Balochistan have been shelved and that his special representative has been sent to the province to speak to nationalist Baloch leaders in an attempt to get them to end their insurgency. Musharraf has also sent exclusive messages to members of the United Jihad Council for Kashmir in which he assured them of his support for the armed struggle against the Indian army. However, the moves might not be enough. The Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) has already announced that it will celebrate August 14 as a "Black Day" because of the situation in Balochistan, where nationalist insurgents are conducting an ongoing campaign for more control over the region's vast natural-gas and mineral resources, as well as for increased political and economic rights. Pamphlets have also been distributed all over South Waziristan in which schools, colleges and government institutes are urged not to celebrate Pakistan's national day as a protest against the on-going military operations in tribal areas and economic sanctions imposed in the region. Tribal troubles In the tribal areas near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Kabul government has been working on different options for the past two years to turn Pakistani tribes against Islamabad and to induce them to ally themselves with their original roots - Afghanistan. Recent signals suggest that remarkable progress is being made in this mission. Tribal chiefs of South and North Waziristan attended a loya jirga in Afghanistan at the invitation of President Hamid Karzai in which Karzai restored their titles and honorary positions in the Afghan army that they enjoyed a few decades ago for not declaring their loyalty to Pakistan. Chiefs also came from Mahmond Agency, Bajur and Orakzai agencies. And in a strange development, a few weeks ago residents near Mahmond agency announced their "annexation" with Afghanistan. The same announcement was made last year in a village in Mahmond agency, after which skirmishes started between the Pakistan army and Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan. The skirmishes continue.

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India-Pakistan

Sindh govt challenges acquittal of 33 accused of murder

2003-09-07

The Sindh government on Saturday challenged a sessions judge’s order to acquit 33 people accused of a massacre in Hyderabad on September 30, 1988 in which about 300 people were shot dead on the roads by terrorists. The accused include Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party (STPP) Chairman and Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) Sindh President Dr Qadir Magsi and his close aides. The Hyderabad additional sessions judge acquitted the accused on July 25, 2003. Hyderabad and Latifabad police had booked them for involvement in 68 cases. The division bench comprising Justice Mohammed Roshan Essani and Justice Ameer Muslim Hani issued notices to all the respondents, calling their comments on the plea by the applicant. Additional Sindh Advocate General Masood Ahmed Noorani filed the application on the Sindh government’s behalf. He called the acquittal order illegal because the judge acquitted the indicted people despite their confession to the crime and their being identified by prosecution witnesses in a magistrate’s presence. “The trial court acquitted the accused persons putting all the facts of the cases aside,” Mr Noorani said. So it was a fix? And a blatant fix? Who'da thunkit? That never happens in Pakland, does it?

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