India 'covering up abuses' in Kashmir: report

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India 'covering up abuses' in Kashmir: report

Kashmiri rights group documents structure of impunity and violence, including killings and enforced disappearances.

Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an increase in violence over the past two months [AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan]

The Indian government has covered up hundreds of cases of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances in the disputed territory of Kashmir, a new report has alleged.

Khurram Parvez, programme coordinator of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, told Al Jazeera on the release of the report, titled Structures of Violence: The Indian State in Jammu and Kashmir, that the Indian government had allowed systemic violence to take root in the Himalayan region hit by more than two decades of conflict.

Parvez, co-author of the mammoth 800-page report, released on Wednesday, said the International Peoples' Tribunal and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons had documented more than 1,080 extrajudicial killings and 172 enforced disappearances, as well as cases of sexual violence that go back to the early 1990s. The report took two years to compile.

The document details 333 case studies of human rights violations and names some 972 alleged perpetrators responsible for the crimes. These include 464 army personnel, 161 paramilitary personnel, 158 Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel and 189 "government gunmen".

"These crimes were happening with the full knowledge of higher level officers in the Indian government ... they must be all held accountable by international law," Parvez said.

'Structure of violence and impunity'

The allegations detailed in the report are supported by official records and testimonies and Parvez said that prosecution should not be limited to the individuals.

"We acknowledge that these are individuals forming part of a structure of violence and impunity that allows a massive institutional cover-up here in the valley," he said.

The report calls for the UN Human Rights Council to appoint a Special Rapporteur to investigate the crimes and appeals to the UN Security Council (UNSC) to exercise its power to refer the cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC). India is not a signatory to the ICC but the UNSC has the power to refer situations to the court.

Both Lieutenant Colonel N N Joshi, India's army spokesperson in Srinagar and Colonel Rohan Anand, India's army spokesperson in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera they had yet to see the new report and were therefore unable to comment.

Likewise, Naeem Akhtar, spokesperson for Government of Jammu and Kashmir state told Al Jazeera that he hadn't read the report yet and described the allegations leveled at the Indian government as a "generic statement".

"We are already looking into cases of human rights violations in Kashmir and we will give justice to the people"

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir state, said the party was looking into the claims made in the report.

"There have been some human rights violations in Kashmir ... and it is a fact [that] mistakes have been made on both sides and ultimately Kashmiris have suffered," Waheed-Ur-Rehman, spokesperson for the PDP, told Al Jazeera.

"We are trying our level best to provide justice to the people who have suffered in the past. Justice can never be anti-state, people will get justice," he said.

But Gautum Navalkha, a human rights activist and editorial consultant to the Economic and Political Weekly magazine in New Delhi, described justice as "a rarity" in the disputed region.

"Because of the militancy, Jammu and Kashmir is considered a 'disturbed area' [...] and there are two types of laws: one for common Indians and another for the 'disturbed areas'."

"There is no possibility of justice in Kashmir under these circumstances," Navalkha told Al Jazeera.

Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an increase in violence over the past two months, prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to raise concerns in August at rising tensions along the de-facto border between India and Pakistan.

At the time, the UN chief urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and take all steps to ensure the protection of civilians who continue to bear the brunt of hostilities between the two nations over their claims to Kashmir.

'Serious abuses'

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since both countries gained independence in 1947. Both nations claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety, with Kashmiris still staking a claim to self-determination. Since 1988, the Indian military has deployed hundreds of thousands of security forces to quell an insurgency against Indian rule.

In July, Amnesty International accused the Indian government of refusing to prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses in the region.

According to Amnesty, more than 96 percent of all allegations of human rights violations pitted against India's personnel in the disputed territory have been declared as "false or baseless".

"Till now, not a single member of the security forces deployed in the state has been tried for human rights violations in a civilian court. This lack of accountability has in turn facilitated other serious abuses," Minar Pimple, a senior director of global operations at Amnesty said.

In a rare deviation from the norm, a military court sentenced five Indian soldiers to life imprisonment for the murder of three Kashmiri men in 2010. Omar Abdullah, the then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, described it as a "watershed moment".

Amnesty welcomed the move but cautioned that "for justice to be consistently delivered, security force personnel accused of human rights violations should be prosecuted in civilian courts".


Over the past two decades more than 60,000 people have been killed in the insurgency, and the dispute remains a perilous red herring in India-Pakistan relations.

Dowry: the price a woman pays

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Dowry: the price a woman pays

Wedding Procession: Bride Under a Canopy, Crica 1800 (Credit Wikipedia)

"The day my husband died, I did not shed a single tear," 52 year old Phoolmati, said in a medium shrill voice, her eyes hooked onto the utensils she was washing, as if she was both content and embarrassed.

"Of course I was sad but, I was content also. He would no longer abuse, beat and torture me in order to extract more money from my 60 year old father."

"Little did I know that my son would follow the same footsteps of his father and do the same to me, so I fled," Phoolmati, said with firmness in her voice.

She adds some chopped ladyfingers to a pan of hot oil and tucks her sari into her waist; the scars on her waist still visible despite her dark complexion. She was 42 when her husband died of alcohol poisoning but her problems did not end there. Her 26 year old son continued the trend of beating her to extract money from her father. This led her to flee, leaving behind her torment and her seven year old daughter.

"During my pregnancy, my sister had come from her village to look after me. My husband said to her,' you did not give me any dowry, that's why I have to work so hard; give me a good dowry and I will stop beating your sister'.

Even though her father had given one of the two lands he owned to his only daughter's husband and sold off some of his wife's jewellery to pay for the demands of her husband, it was not enough.

A few days into the marriage it became clear to Phoolmati that, 'sex and money' were the only reasons he had married her. During the first six months of her marriage she had lost 20 kilograms of weight, however, she now seems healthy.

Bent by age, 52 year old Phoolmati Singh from Sundargarh, Orissa works as a 24 by 7 maid in Delhi to save money for the dowry she assumes and expects she will have to give for her 17 year old daughter's wedding.

In her village, dowry is an explicit custom where people have no knowledge of dowry prohibition laws and the Panchayat turns a deaf ear to dowry related problems.

Phoolmati said: "One woman was burnt with cigarettes every time her parents failed to meet the in law's dowry demands. Her husband wanted money to pay his mortgage, that's why he had married her."

Phoolmati is just one of the hundreds of thousands of married women who are brutally abused by their husbands every day to extract dowry.

Anuradha Vinayak, a social activist of Jagori- Resisting dowry in India, said, "This abysmal state of women is an outcome of people in rural India treating women as a burden; they (women) are considered a liability".

According to the Indian national crime records bureau, the cases of reported dowry deaths in 2013 were 8083. There were 10,709 reported cases of dowry registered under the 'The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961'. Reports of crimes against women in India such as rape, dowry deaths, abduction and molestation have increased by 26.7 per cent in 2013 as compared to the previous year.

Every day, more than 22 women die -- mostly burned -- from violence inflicted on them by husbands or family over dowry demands. Over the last three years, nearly 25,000 women have been victims of what is called a 'dowry death', according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

One of the workers at Seva Samithi, a women's rights group, said that the figures are gross under estimates of the reality on the ground. Women are often too scared to come forward to report rapes or domestic violence for fear their families and communities will shun them.

A United Nations (UN) report based on a range of distressing social statistics rooted in gender and caste prejudice, said that India is the "most dangerous country in the world to be a girl in."

The UN report analysed differences between male and female child mortality rates. The report has revealed that over the last 40 years from 2000 to 2010, there were 56 deaths of boys aged one to five for every 100 female deaths.

It's very hard for us to put strategies in place if no one tells us it's going on," Manish Tripathi, sub inspector Sansad Marg Police Station said.

When asked if any strategy is being implemented to encourage women to report such incidents like offers of speedy trials, Tripathi said, "This may be difficult to implement and we may need to create some sort of new system."

"Every month I see around 10-12 cases of dowry related violence and in most cases, domestic violence forces women to report," he added.

What is dowry system?


Dowry is a centuries old custom which involves a woman's family paying her new husband's family. It is still prevalent in some parts of South Asia, Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. It's also practised in some communities of Britain. It's when the husbands do not receive 'enough' money in exchange for marrying their new bride that women can come to be on the receiving end of horrifying abuse. Worldwide, around 14,000 dowry deaths have been recorded according to a UNICEF report.

Bride on wedding illustration

Laws against Dowry

Dowry was banned by the Indian government in 1961. 'The Dowry Prohibition Act', which makes it clear that anyone giving or receiving dowry can face up to five years imprisonment and a hefty fine but remains largely unenforced. In 1986 an amendment was made that any death of, or violence to a wife within the first seven years of marriage would be treated as dowry related violence.

Human rights lawyer Falak Naaz, said, "The anti-dowry law needs to be amended and the government's decision to make section 498-A compoundable, will serve in favour of women."

"There will be scope for settlement or compromise between the complainant and the accused but not at the cost of legal provisions," he added.

Indifference, apathy and corruption of the many and varied government departments and village Panchayats, have led to people having no faith in the police or the judicial system which results in the vast majority of dowry crimes, as with other crimes against women going largely unreported.


The infamous system of dowry, a corrupt illegal method of financial exploitation and violence, is sanctified by the waters of tradition and culture and is a manipulated term often employed to maintain prejudicial social conditioning and resistance to change. Despite all the negative ramifications and the legal, social and moral boundaries, the reality remains that the dowry still prevails in India and so does the violence and deaths associated with it. Women are still treated with prejudice, burnt alive or tortured, just to fulfil the insatiable lust for money in the name of 'dowry'.

Pakistan mosques under attack

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Pakistan mosques under attack

Suspected Taliban fighters attack mosques, killing scores in towns near Peshawar.

At least 71 people have been killed in northwest Pakistan after two mosques were targeted by suspected Taliban fighters.

The first attack happened as Friday prayers ended and a man blew himself up in Darra Adam Khel, leaving 66 dead. Later just outside Peshawar, grenades were thrown into a mosque killing five people and wounding eleven.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reports from Islamabad.

Karachi's divided streets

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Karachi's divided streets

More than 70 people killed in Pakistan's largest city this week against a backdrop of political tensions.

More than 70 people have been killed in Pakistani coastal city Karachi this week, following political tensions leading up to a local by-election.

The by-election was called to fill a position left vacant after Raza Haider, a politician in Karachi's dominant Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), was killed two months ago, sparking widespread violence. The party is facing a challenge from the ANP, which is mainly supported by the city's ethnic Pashtun population.

Karachi has a long history of sectarian violence and was a main target of al Qaeda-linked fighters after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, when Pakistan joined the US-led campaign against such groups.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr finds out how political parties have been blamed for the recent violence in Pakistan's largest city.

Deadly blast in central Karachi

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 Deadly blast in central Karachi

Large explosion hits Criminal Investigation Department in Pakistani city, killing at least 15 people and injuring 100.


A car bomb has destroyed a police facility in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi, killing at least 15 people and wounding 100 others.

A group of fighters opened fire on the building before detonating a bomb at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) compound, leaving a crater of about 12 metres across and four metres deep in front of the site.

Pakistani Taliban swiftly claimed responsibility for what was a rare attack on government security forces in Karachi, a politically tense city of 16 million in the south of the country, far removed from Taliban strongholds in the northwest.

Witnesses and police said the CID building collapsed, trapping people under the rubble.

Rescue workers at the site were ferrying people on stretchers into ambulances, while dazed civilians stumbled into the street amidst a mass of twisted metal.

Police said the compound was used to detain high-profile criminals. It also contained a women's and a men's police station whose nearby residential quarters were also badly damaged.

Rising death toll

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said that the death toll was likely to rise.

"The CID office is a highly secured area that is frequented by a lot of important people," Hyder said.

Semi Jamali, a doctor at Karachi's Jinnah Hospital said more than 100 people were wounded and that one police woman was among the dead.

A Reuters photographer on the scene saw dozens of motorcycles destroyed and windows were shattered up to 2km away. He also saw two wounded children evacuated from the scene.

Amir Lateef, a local journalist, told Al Jazeera that at least 10 police officers were killed in the blast.

"We can see cars turned into wreckage, the building turned into complete rubble. Lots of people are injured, including women and children," he said.

"[The attackers] came in a car. First they engaged police by opening fire. Then they hit the building with the car full of explosives," Zulfiqar Mirza, the interior minister of the southern province of Sindh, said.

"It was a huge blast, which created a big crater, a bit like the Islamabad Marriott hotel," he added, comparing the explosion to a massive attack that killed 60 people at the five-star Marriott hotel in Islamabad in September 2008.

Political violence

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Karachi, said that the blast comes after the launch of new Pakistani army operations in the northwest.

"Investigators will be looking for clues as to what type of explosive was used," our correspondent said.

Around 3,800 people have been killed in suicide attacks and bombings, blamed on homegrown Taliban and other armed groups across Pakistan, since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad three years ago.

The Karachi bombing came less than a week after a suicide bombing on a mosque packed with worshippers killed 68 people in northwest Pakistan.

That attack on Friday in the Darra Adem Khel region, was followed hours later by a grenade assault on a second mosque in the same area that killed four people.

The US wants Pakistan to do more to stop fighters from crossing into Afghanistan and fuelling a nine-year Taliban uprising against more than 150,000 US-led Nato troops.

Karachi has already suffered its most serious bout of political violence in years, with 85 people killed after a politician was shot dead in August.

The city is Pakistan's economic capital, home to its stock exchange and a key port where Nato docks its supplies ready to be trucked overland to support the war in Afghanistan.

Karachi grapples with Taliban recruitment

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Karachi grapples with Taliban recruitment

Pakistan's largest city combats what some refer to as growing Talibanisation of ethnic Pashtun areas.

Though US drone strikes on Taliban targets in northwest Pakistan have become routine, the group continues to have a presence in the country's south.

Several members of the Pakistani Taliban have been arrested in the southern port city of Karachi.

However, despite the crackdowns, the Taliban continues to use the city as a hub for funding and recruitment.

Amir Latif, from the Online News Network in Karachi, told Al Jazeera that the Taliban are hiding in Karachi.

"It's very true they are in here. Karachi is the commercial hub of Pakistan. They can get finance from many resources; direct funding from their supporters here as well as through illegal funding from outside," he said.

"However, it is impossible for the Taliban to capture land here or establish their own government in line with the tribal regions [like Waziristan and Swat Valley]."

But there are those who disagree - the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, which represents Urdu-speakers, allege the Taliban have set up base in the mountains round the city.

Pashtuns who live there deny that - for them such allegations are aimed at countering the mass migration of Pashtuns who have been escaping the violence in northwest tribal regions.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Karachi.

Pakistani Taliban makes blast claim

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Pakistani Taliban makes blast claim

Homegrown group says it was responsible for explosion in police facility in Karachi that claimed at least 15 lives.


The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for a car bomb that destroyed a police facility in Karachi, the country's biggest city, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 100 others.

A group of fighters opened fire on Thursday on the building before detonating a bomb at a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) compound, leaving a crater of about 12 metres across and four metres deep in front of the site.

"We accept responsibility for this attack. They used to arrest and torture our comrades here. We will target everyone who does this in the same way," Azam Tariq, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman, told the AFP news agency from an undisclosed location.

It was a rare attack on government security forces in Karachi, a politically tense city of 16 million in the southern Sindh province - far removed from Taliban strongholds in the northwest.

Witnesses and police said the CID building collapsed, trapping people under the rubble.

Salahuddin Babar Khattak, the Sindh police chief, said the CID building was used to hold anti-government fighters in custody. But no important suspect was in detention at the time of the attack.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said "the CID office is a highly secured area that is frequented by a lot of important people".

Looking for clues

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Karachi on Friday, said that the blast followed the launch of new army operations in Pakistan's northwest.

"Investigators will be looking for clues as to what type of explosive was used," he said.

Karachi police had announced on Thursday the arrest of activists from Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, a group linked to al-Qaeda.

Pakistani Taliban members too had been rounded up in recent weeks, Pakistani officials said on Friday.

"We detained at least 10 suspects from the bomb site and the nearby impoverished neighbourhoods," one security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We think they have links with [Pakistani Taliban] and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. We have arrested quite a large number of suspects in the last few months from Karachi and it shows that these groups have penetrated into the city. It seems as though these people have gained strength in Karachi."

Political violence

Around 3,800 people have been killed in suicide attacks and bombings, blamed on homegrown Taliban and other armed groups across Pakistan, since government troops stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad three years ago.

The Karachi bombing came less than a week after a suicide bombing on a mosque packed with worshippers killed 68 people in northwest Pakistan.

Karachi has already suffered its most serious bout of political violence in years, with 85 people killed after a politician was shot dead in August.

The city is Pakistan's economic capital, home to its stock exchange and a strategic port where Nato docks its supplies ready to be transported overland to support the war in Afghanistan.

Up to six more months of Pakistan flood water: EU

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Up to six more months of Pakistan flood water: EU

Unprecedented monsoon rains triggered catastrophic flooding across Pakistan in July and August, ravaging an area roughly the size of England and affecting 21 million people in the poverty-stricken country's worst natural disaster

ISLAMABAD: A senior EU aid official warned Friday that flood waters could linger up to another six months in Pakistan, where he said the magnitude of the crisis meant people were still going without aid.

“There is nearly water everywhere,” Peter Zangl, the director general of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), told a news conference in Islamabad after a five-day visit to Pakistan.

Unprecedented monsoon rains triggered catastrophic flooding across Pakistan in July and August, ravaging an area roughly the size of England and affecting 21 million people in the poverty-stricken country’s worst natural disaster.

Parts of Sindh province remain under water in southern Pakistan, where people are still camping on roadsides after the floods washed away their homes and swallowed up rice and wheat fields.

“The only perspective of getting rid of the water is evaporation. Depending on depth and climate conditions, this will take between two and six months,” Zangl told reporters.

The displaced “need everything to survive and to live with minimum respectability and this situation will continue for several months,” he said.

UN and Western officials have described the floods as the biggest natural disaster to face the international aid community and Zangl said the magnitude of the crisis was “tremendous”.

“This explains that quite often we are confronted with a situation where aid is not being provided to everyone who is in need.

“This is something which is unfortunate. This is something on which we are working from the humanitarian community… but it’s totally impossible to make sure that everyone gets aid under the circumstances,” he said.

ECHO has provided 150 million euros, around 210 million dollars, as part of a control contribution from EU member states of 415 million euros.

Under US pressure, the Pakistani cabinet this week agreed to increase income tax in a bid to raise 470 million dollars for the victims of the floods.

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have estimated damages at 9.7 billion dollars, almost double the amount caused by Pakistan’s 2005 earthquake

Pakistan mosque attacks kill scores

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Pakistan mosque attacks kill scores

Suicide bombing claimed by Pakistani Taliban leaves at least 67 dead in first of two blasts in country's northwest.

At least 67 people have been killed and dozens of others injured after a 17-year-old suicide bomber struck a Sunni Muslim mosque in northwest Pakistan during Friday prayers, in the first of two attacks on mosques in the region.

The blast collapsed part of the mosque's roof on top of worshippers, and there are fears the death toll from the explosion could rise. A local official in Darra Adam Khel, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said 11 children were among the dead, Dawn newspaper reported.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistan Taliban Movement, claimed responsibility for the attack, which was not the first against the mosque, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reported.

The suicide bomber's explosives weighed between 10 to 15kg, he said.

Darra Adam Khel is a town renowned for its arm bazaar and located around 40km south of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as North West Frontier Province.

Second attack

A second attack struck another mosque later on Friday in Badabher, a town near Peshawar, killing at least three people and wounding at least 20 others.

The imam of the mosque was killed after the attackers threw three hand grenades into the mosque during evening prayers, AP reported.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has experienced continual violence over the past year and a half, as Pakistan's government has battled Taliban and other pro-Taliban groups on the country's porous border with Afghanistan.

"There is a steady pattern emerging, and mosques are not spared," Hyder said.

He said the attacks on religious sites are causing widespread anger in Pakistan.

"[The Taliban] have been dislodged from many areas ... [they] are not able to regroup and challenge the writ of the government," Hyder said.

"It's more guerrilla tactics. They're choosing targets of opportunity, soft targets at that."

Darra Adam Khel lies on a highway that serves as a main conduit between Peshawar and scenes of heavier fighting to the south in North and South Waziristan, regions that lie in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Around 3,800 people have been killed in suicide attacks and bombings since government troops raided the Red Mosque in Islamabad in 2007, according to Dawn.

A member of a local anti-Taliban militia, or lashkars, reportedly attended the mosque in Darra Adam Khel - a possible motive for the attack.

The absence of a hospital in or near the town meant that residents had to transport bombing victims up the highway to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.

Haji Razaq Khan, a member of Pakistan's senate from Darra Adam Khel, said that Malik Wali Khan, a local tribal elder who had been encouraging people to stand against the Taliban, used a guest room next to the mosque and may have been the target, the Associated Press reported.

It was not immediately clear whether Malik Wali Khan had been hurt.

Khalid Umarzai, a regional administration chief, suggested the attack could have been in retaliation for military operations in the area targeting fighters.

In October, a bomb attack at a Sunni mosque on the outskirts of Peshawar killed three people and wounded 22. It also occurred during Friday prayers.

Human trafficking victim recounts tales of terror

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Human trafficking victim recounts tales of terror

Sadiq Hussain talks about surviving terrors and being whisked off to Iran illegally.

MULTAN/KARACHI: Surviving the terrors of jungle and living to tell his tale, after being whisked off to Iran illegally, has been the fate of Sadiq Hussain of Jahanian.
Jahanian is a small town near Khanewal, in Punjab. Sadiq Hussain, an employed man in his 40s, lives there with his wife and family. Narrating his story, he said that it all began with the acquaintance of two women, Rukhsana and Basheeran. They befriended his family, and led him to dream about employment abroad and of contacting an agent who would help him find work in a foreign country.
The agent was Khadim Hussain from Sialkot. In return for Rs200,000, he promised to send Sadiq abroad. Sadiq managed to raise Rs100,000 and was told to come to Karachi. In Karachi he realised that he will be sent abroad illegally, but agreed after falling prey to the lure of finding lucrative employment.
Sadiq was taken to Gwadar and from there to Iran. In Iran, Saqiq was made to live in a jungle where a large camp had been set up, with several hundred people living there. Presumably, they had also been brought there by human traffickers. Rukhsana and her son Khurram went along with Sadiq and kept pestering him about handing them over the remaining Rs100,000. Sadiq received death threats and was beaten up and was told to contact his family and ask them to arrange the remaining amount.
Using a land line telephone, Sadiq contacted his family for the money. When he learnt that his family was unable to raise the required amount, Sadiq decided to make a run for it. After remaining at the settlement for two weeks, he slipped away under the cover of darkness. He pretended as if he were going to relieve himself.
After walking for hours, he met people who told him that he was in Jask, Iran.
Sadiq still had had Rs5000 on him, which he had managed to conceal from his so-called benefactors. An Iranian national also provided him with some money, besides providing him a transport. Sadiq managed to cross the border and return home about a month after he had left.
Right after he returned, he became very ill. He did not contact the police partly because he feared for his life and partly because he did not trust them in any way. He said that he kept getting threatening calls from the human trafficking gang which had taken him illegally to Iran.
People often contact dubious elements to go abroad for employment. Most of these people are covertly working for human trafficking gangs and the adventure cost most people their lives and money.
There are other ways that people fall victims to these gangs: They may not have been sent abroad illegally, but the little money they had, they gave to people like Khadim in the hopes of getting employment in a foreign country themselves.
Abdul Rehman of Jahanian has given Rs60,000 to these people. Hanifia Bibi told of her son Sharafat Ali who has given Rs10,000 and a one-tola gold ring to Khadim to help him go aboard.
Abdul Hai, the provincial co-ordinator of the HRCP, said: “Human trafficking is an old problem. People are taken to Gwadar and from there onwards to Iran and Turkey. To curb this menace, rules have been changed over the years, but they are of no use without enforcement. Unemployment is the main factor aggravating the problem. It creates opportunities for these unscrupulous elements who exploit simple people. All departments are corrupt. Border forces are involved. Everyone knows everything but there is so much corruption and so little interest in (saving) human lives that nothing is being done to stop this. It is a huge business”.

Flood-hit youth being pushed to prostitution

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Flood-hit youth being pushed to prostitution

UMERKOT: As reported by the Dawn News on Tuesday, floods washed away the infrastructure, economy, houses, hearths crops and livestock but mafias are taking advantage of the situation shattering the dreams of future generations by sending Sindh’s youth into male prostitution. Floods have made many a princes pauper bringing them to a naught. Their homes, belongings and future prospects all drained down in waters. Fifteen-year-old Nadeem Chandio of Larkana lost everything to floods and was living with his family in a roadside camp in Hyderabad. He fell in an ugly trap for substance. He was lured for a waiter’s job by an Ustad (mafia man) but is learning to dance. This is only a tip of the iceberg as many thousands of vulnerable children are being trained first to become dancers and subsequently prostitutes. Exploitation of children is now a lucrative business for those in this business and they find ample of opportunities to milk these innocent boys. Chilling realities came to fore when Dawn’s correspondent bumped into some youths who were staying in hotels near railway stations. The place, it came to knowledge, was previously occupied by some dancing boys which was now replaced by some new comers. Further investigation revealed that a mafia was on a lookout for flood-affected families and their children. Posing as gentlemen, mafia people first gel into families through fake kindness and then successfully become guardian of their children by promising job and money both, while children end up as dancing boys who are then sent to festivals, private functions, dance parties and prostitution. Not only their dreams get shattered but their education, social and physical prospects are totally drowned in the sea of vice. These poor chaps wearing anklets not only dance to the tunes of music but are also used for sexual amusements. Ustad Hashim Chandio is busy exploiting the vulnerability of such families by hiring their boys for fake jobs while brain-washing their innocent mind with his evil thoughts. Nadeem is not alone as there are scores of boys from Thatta, Dadu, Ghotki, Sukkur, Larkana, Qambar Shahdadkot and Jamshoro districts and were tricked into becoming dancers and languishing in hotels-cum-sexual amusement dens near Karachi, Lahore and Mirpurkhas railway stations and at places near Badin stop, new bridge, Railway station Hyderabad. Another 16-year-old boy hailing from Tando Adam narrating his ordeals said that he came to Hyderabad three years ago with one of his teenaged relative who said that he was working at a bungalow. The two boys shared the same hotel room where his relative sexually exploited him and eventually he too, became like his relative. Few among them work as masseurs for enticing such customers. Ustad Chandio’s den is near Mirpurkhas railway station. He blames is diabetes for not letting him do a proper job work and thus teaches dancing to teenage boys and sends them to festivals with each earning Rs1000 to Rs1500 per night, of which he bears expenses of transportation, makeup, laundry, food and accommodation and gives Rs7,000 to parents of each boy. He doesn’t fear any action for having good relations with local politicians while paying police its share regularly. He says that he is not the only man involved in this business as many Ustads in Sindh and other provinces provide entertainment to politician, feudal lords and police officials, he said. Recruitment of children for dancing is a severe crime and falls into the domain of child trafficking or forced labour. Moreover, Prevention of Human Trafficking Ordinance 2002 prohibits any kind of exploitation in which children are exposed to abuse.

Flood-affected youth being tricked into ‘evil’ jobs. Courtesy: Dawn News

 

 

 

The complete article can be found at Dawn News

Pakistan for information sharing to thwart terror threat to West

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Pakistan for information sharing to thwart terror threat to West

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday stressed the need for sharing of information and real-time intelligence from Britain to enable the Pakistan authorities to take pre-emptive measures against any possible threat to the UK and other Western countries from terrorists.

The Pakistan top leadership also told Ms Theresa May, UK home secretary and minister for women and equality, that Pakistan and Britain should consider recreation of a mechanism as well as parameters for cooperation between their security agencies.

Ms Theresa May separately called on President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Matters relating to Pakistan-UK bilateral relations and cooperation, strategic dialogue, fight against militancy, floods relief and rehabilitation works, trade access to the EU for Pakistan’s goods, multifaceted collaboration between Pakistan and the United Kingdom, and various measures taken by the government for women development and empowerment were discussed in the meetings.

Talking to Theresa May at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, President Zardari said Pakistan and the United Kingdom had a common enemy and both shared a common stance to neutralise the threat posed by extremist elements.

He underlined the need for greater international cooperation to counter the menace. “The democratic dispensation evolved a domestic consensus against the extremist elements and all that is needed is capacity enhancement for effectively dealing with the threat of terrorism,” he added.

The president also appreciated the UK’s assistance during the recent devastating floods. He also thanked the British government for advocating Pakistan’s case to get access to the EU markets.

About women’s empowerment in Pakistan, President Zardari said the democratic government accorded top priority to empowerment of women with special emphasis on their welfare and equal rights to ensure gender equality in the country.

Theresa May lauded the contributions of Benazir Bhutto to the empowerment of women and strengthening of democratic institutions. Acknowledging great sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in the war against terror, she said the UK would continue to support Pakistan in all sectors and at every forum to seek maximum support for the people of Pakistan.

British High Commissioner Adam Thomson, Special Adviser Nick Timothy and other senior officials accompanied the British home secretary. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Narcotics Control Minister Arbab Muhammad Zahir, Secretary General to President Salman Farooqui, Adviser on Women Development Yasmeen Rehman, Senator Sughra Imam, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and other senior officials also attended the meeting.

“Despite daunting challenges, Pakistan will continue to fight against the menace of terrorism for the sake of peace and prosperity of the world,” Prime Minister Gilani said, while talking to the UK home secretary and minister for women and equality. He said he was looking forward to receiving the British prime minister in Islamabad in December to formally relaunch the strategic dialogue between the two countries. He said he hoped that Prime Minister Cameron’s visit would impart a new impetus to the cooperation in areas of finance, industry, defence, security, agriculture and cultural activities.

Prime Minister Gilani reiterated his government’s resolve to introduce economic reforms in the country, broaden the tax base and fulfil the commitments made by his government to the IMF and other international financial institutions.

He expressed his concerns over inordinate delays and high rate of rejection of visas to Pakistani politicians, businessmen, professionals and students by the UK High Commission in Islamabad.

He said the British visa service for Pakistani citizens should be resumed from Islamabad at earliest because the underlying reasons for its shifting to Abu Dhabi did not exist anymore.