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India-Pakistan

Akbar Bugti's lover aide surrenders

2006-04-30

Nawab Akbar Bugti's lover aide and chief of the Kalper Bugti tribe Wadera Qamar Din has surrendered and become an approver against Akbar Bugti, Aaj television reported on Saturday. Din surrendered his arms before Wadera Jalal Khan Kalper, gave his tribal chief's turban to the latter and accepted him as the new chief of the Kalper Bugti tribe, the channel said. "A tribal chief's turban? For me? Oh, you shouldn't have!" Akbar Bugti made Din chief of the Kalper tribe in 1994 and gave him the traditional tribal chief's turban. Din was one of the most wanted men in Balochistan with 27 cases of terrorism against him. He was also reportedly involved in the Dr Shazia Khalid rape case. Din, a former Sui gas employee, has been an absconder for the last six months, the channel said. With Din's surrender, it is said that the whole Kalper Bugti tribe has turned against Akbar Bugti.

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Afghanistan-Pak-India

UK grants asylum to Dr Shazia

2005-11-25

Dr Shazia Khalid and her husband have been granted political asylum by the British government. The couple's application for immigration to Canada is being processed by the Canadian authorities and it is expected to be approved in a couple of months. Dr Khalid and her husband are due to arrive in New York at the invitation of a women's rights organisation called Equality Now, which will honour the rape victim from Pakistan at a ceremony on December 14. She is also planning to travel to Florida where Somi Ali of the Asian American Network Against Abuse of Women is planning to host a ceremony honouring her. A visit to Washington and the West Coast, to be arranged by Equality Now, is also expected.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Another Pak rape victim encounters difficulties

2005-06-30

This was the case where some Army officers raped a lady doctor, then in an attempt to cover it up, the government put the victim into a mental institution, and protected her rapists. Meanwhile a tribal jirga ordered she be killed. Luckily she got assylum in the UK. A lady doctor whose rape in the southern province of Balochistan last year sparked tribal clashes says she is still terrified. “I was threatened so many times in Pakistan that I still feel scared,” Dr Shazia Khalid told the BBC. She is currently living in London and has spoken about the incident for the first time since leaving Pakistan. Dr Shazia’s rape led to a violent confrontation between Baloch tribesmen and security forces. “I cannot tell you how many times I was threatened. My life was made impossible. I am still terrified,” she said in the interview with the BBC Urdu service. She said she had never been satisfied with the inquiry conducted by the government into the incident. “My whole career was destroyed, as was my husband’s. That was why we left our country. “Instead of getting justice, I was hounded out of Pakistan,” she said. “I never wanted to leave Pakistan but I had no choice.” The government has denied that Dr Shazia suffered any harassment from any quarter. In an earlier interview with the BBC, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said: “She has been sent out of the country by some NGOs and the government has nothing to do with it.” Dr Shazia has been invited to address a function organized by the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Women (AANA) in the United States on July 2. The function is a substitute for the organization’s earlier plans of inviting gang-rape victim Mukhtaran Mai whose case is now in the Supreme Court in Islamabad. Online adds: Reacting to Dr Shazia’s latest interview, the information minister said that allegations about threats were baseless. He said that Dr Shazia herself wanted to go abroad. The minister called for setting up a commission by international media to review the cases of Dr Shazia and Mukhtaran Mai. He said he would like to know which vested interests had kept Dr Shazia quiet for so long.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Tension Simmers In Pakistani Province

2005-04-28

EFL: The Pakistani government's economic development plans for Baluchistan -- the country's poorest, yet strategically most sensitive province -- threaten to provoke an armed uprising by local tribesmen. The prospect of ongoing instability could have a considerable economic and social impact on countries throughout Central Asia. Earlier in April, the risk of a large-scale clash between government troops and local tribesmen appeared acute. Both sides had built fortified military positions along a highway and in the surrounding hills outside the town of Dera Bugti, not far from the Sui gas field. On April 16, though, regional officials announced a negotiated end to the stand-off, and the bunkers and other military strongholds were abandoned. The confrontation traces its origin to early January rape of Shazia Khalid, a doctor. Local tribal leaders accused a Pakistani army officer of the crime and armed tribesmen took the law into their own hands, disrupting gas supplies from the Sui complex and engaging in other acts of defiance toward central authorities. Officials at first denied the officer's involvement, and a government inquiry subsequently cleared him wrongdoing. But the government's actions did not satisfy local concerns and festering tension eventually exploded. A day-long firefight March 17 between tribesmen and government soldiers left dozens dead and wounded, including a large number of civilian victims of an army artillery barrage, tribal leaders alleged. Although the latest stand-off was connected to a matter of honor, the tribal resistance to the Pakistani government is deeply rooted in economic issues. Over the past decade, Pakistan has been trying to develop several mega-projects in the impoverished province, and in connection with these efforts, President Pervez Musharraf's administration has bolstered the Pakistani military's local presence. The projects have stirred concern among regional residents and their political leaders, prompting Baluch nationalist leader to call for a detailed political agreement that would cover economic and military expansion projects.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Dr Shazia reaches UK

2005-03-19

Sui rape victim Dr Shazia Khalid arrived in the UK on Friday along with her husband and appealed to Baloch nationalists not to politicise her ordeal and let her start a new life abroad. Talking to Online prior to her departure to London at the Islamabad International Airport on Thursday night, Dr Shazia said that she had gone through a horrific incident and that did not want to repeat the gory details. She regretted that some people were politicising her ordeal and asked them to refrain from tormenting her by throwing dirt at her. She also appealed to Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti not to make things worse. She said her ordeal should be treated as a criminal case and not as a political issue. "I have left my case to God and even if the rapist escapes justice in this world, I believe that he cannot escape the court of God," she said. Dr Shazia said," I do not know who Captain Hammad is as I have never heard his name before the incident. I cannot recognise the rapist me but I can identify his voice".

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Balochistan governor hints at foreign hand in unrest

2005-02-10

Balochistan Governor Owais Ghani has claimed that a foreign country is involved in unrest in the province, but would not say which country. Samoa? Finland? Mauritania? Elbonia? Talking to Geo TV, he said modern weapons worth Rs500 million had been smuggled into Balochistan for 'terrorism'. "We have informed the Afghan government and the US about the arms smuggling," he said. Responding to a question, Ghani said the name of the country allegedly involved in fanning trouble in Balochistan would be disclosed at an appropriate time. "When I say so!" He rejected claims by tribal chiefs that they were being forced to negotiate at gunpoint. "Rather it is the government that is being forced to negotiate at gunpoint," he said. Meanwhile chief of Bugti tribe, Nawab Akbar Bugti said he was not averse to dialogue with the government. But he made it clear it would not be possible until the government arrested persons responsible for rape of lady doctor Shazia Khalid. Bugti claimed that the army captain accused of the rape was being protected as he had influential relatives. Plus, he's a man. Speaking to journalists at home town Dera Bugti, Akbar Bugti said tribesmen were being threatened with military action if they did not give up their protests. "But this is not possible," he added. Akbar Bugti said the female doctor was not a 'kari' (consensual) but victim of a heinous crime. He said the tribesmen consider her to be "pure and innocent" adding that "the captain is the sinner."

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Lady doctor denies reports of gang rape, but demands justice

2005-02-06

Lady doctor Shazia Khalid has denied reports that she was gang-raped in Sui and said only one person was involved when she was also being beaten and tortured in her bedroom the whole night. In an e-mail message sent to a prominent anchor of a TV channel which he broadcast, Dr Shazia said she continues to face immense pressure to term the incident as a dacoity. The authorities have done nothing to ensure justice to her. She disclosed that one month after the incident, the Naseerabad police have contacted her saying they have recorded voices of about 200 people for her to identify the culprit. The lady doctor gave her telephone numbers in the e-mail message to the anchor who then talked to her and her spouse Khalid, an engineer by profession. Dr Shazia told him that Khalid was under intense pressure from his parents to divorce her but he had vowed to stand by her even though he had also lost his job in Libya. Maybe we should give the doc and her family asylum in the U.S. Graphically describing the incident on the nights of January 2, Shazia said she had returned from hospital and went to bed at about 10 evening after locking her house and bedroom. At night, she was suddenly woken by somebody who pulled her hair and blindfolded Dr Shazia. When she resisted, the man beat her, wounding the lady doctor in the process. He remained in the bedroom the whole night. The intruder said he was not an ordinary person and threatened her he would burn her alive if she raised an alarm. On occasions he also called somebody named Amjad. She said that after her tormentor left the house, she freed herself and went to hospital seeking help. She was simply administered injections to keep her unconscious most of the time. Her pleas for informing her brother in Karachi were ignored. After two days she was driven to another town and then flown to a mental asylum in Karachi next morning. She was treated for so-called psychological disorder while she needed treatment by a physician. The lady doctor regretted that her case had been politicised while no body had tried to ensure justice. "My entire social life and honour has been destroyed. I have thought of committing suicide a number of times. I would have done so, had my husband not stood by me at this critical hour," she added. The e-mail found its resonance in the Senate as well where Overseas Minister Tariq Azim read it out. He said the lady doctor has not implicated army captain Hammad by name. Though she remained blindfolded all the time and could not see her assailant, it has emerged from the account narrated to others that he was a bearded and tall man. Hammad is cleans-shaven and shorter in stature. "It is apparent that Hammad has been unfairly implicated and the institution of the army maligned without waiting for findings of an inquiry that is underway," Azim said. Senator Mushahid Hussain conceded that massive cover-up had aggravated the situation but quoted President Musharraf as declaring at a meeting with top commanders and aides that no one guilty would be spared irrespective of the fact whether he is in khaki or mufti.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Police medical report confirms Dr Shazia's rape

2005-01-29

A police surgeon in Karachi has confirmed in her medical report that Dr Shazia Khalid was raped, according to the BBC Urdu Service. The police surgeon has written to the Sindh health secretary that Dr Khalid was raped at a hospital in Sui, according to BBC. The medical report identified eight wounds to Dr Shazia's body. Nasirabad district police chief Ghulam Muhammad Dogar brought the lady doctor to Civil Hospital, Karachi, saying she was sexually abused on January 13. Medical Officer Rohina Hassan admitted Dr Shazia to the hospital and examined her, according to BBC. Online adds: Three senior Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) officials have been arrested in Sibi in connection with the gang rape of Dr Shazia, police said on Friday. Naseerabad Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ghulam Mehmood said the three officials — a Sui gas field manager, a chief medical officer and his deputy — were apprehended and presented before the Sibi sessions court on Friday morning for confirmation of interim bail. However, they were denied bail and arrested, he added. The three accused were named in the FIR registered by the female doctor, the DSP added. He said further investigations were being made. He also said the female doctor was currently in Karachi and under the government's protection. That's because the jirga suggested she should be killed to avenge the honor of... ummm... somebody or other. It's the Pashtun thing to do. Meanwhile, the newlywed military officer who was originally named as the rapist would seem to be off the hook, which is a good thing for his feet.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

2 linked to Sui rape case held, released

2005-01-23

LAHORE: Police on Sunday arrested two doctors wanted in Dr Shazia Khalid rape case, but released them later, ARY news channel reported. It said Jaferabad Police arrested Dr Muhammad Ali, the chief medical officer at a Sui hospital, and his colleague Dr Muhammad Usman in a raid and released them after investigation. The channel said that law enforcement agency officials from Sui captured the Jaferabad Police Station and held some staff. Policemen fled their offices and took refuge at the Kashmore Police Station, the channel quoted unofficial sources as saying. Balochistan Home Minister Shoaib Nosherwani denied the report.

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