Sectarian attack: Bus attack in Kohistan leaves 18 dead

Outlawed terrorist group Jundallah has claimed responsibility for an attack a bus on Karakoram Highway in the Kohistan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which killed 18 people on Tuesday.

18 victims, most of them Shia pilgrims, were returning home when attack took place

Jundallah’s commander Ahmed Marwat, who contacted media persons soon after the attack, claimed responsibility for the assault.

The attack took place when gunmen opened fire on the bus which was en route to Gilgit from Rawalpindi with 39 passengers on board. The bus was owned by Mashaburum private bus service.

Seven armed men stopped two buses and a coaster. The armed men were reported to be in Army uniform. They asked the passengers to get off the bus and shot them after checking their CNICs.

Most of the victims were pilgrims who were going back to their native areas after visiting holy shrines in Iran.

A source in the district administration in Dassu told The Express Tribune that residents of Tangir’s Darkai valley, Commander Abdul Qayyum, Saddar Shariat and Burhan Shariat, sons of Gul Shahzada: Abdul Karim and Abdul Qadeem, sons of Abdul Ghafoor are suspected to be involved in the massacre.

Driver Muhammad Younus of Nagar valley, Najibullah, Suhail Ahmed are among the deceased.

“All the people on board were Shia, and at the moment it looks like they were targeted by armed men from the local Sunni community,” a senior police official had earlier told Reuters.

“Armed men hiding on both sides of the road attacked the bus,” local police chief Mohammad Ilyas said.

“Initial reports said 18 people have died and eight wounded,” he added.

Police officials said the bus came under attack in an area inhabited by two Sunni tribes about 165 km (102 miles) north of Islamabad.

The ambush happened near the town of Harban Nullah. DCO Chilas confirmed the incident.

The bodies of the deceased have been kept at Shatial hospital.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has sought an investigative report from the Inspector-General of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Section 144 has been imposed throughout Gilgit after the attack.

Pakistan refutes Indian media reports about ignoring Kashmir’s issue

Pakistan has categorically rejected reports that it has decided to shelve the Kashmir dispute ‘for the time being’ due to internal crises.

Reacting to a report published in a section of the Indian media which claimed that “Pakistan may junk the Kashmir issue temporarily,” Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit called it ‘misleading and far-fetched’.

The Times of India had reported that the Pakistani establishment, in a bid to carry forward its peace plan on Kashmir, had invited leaders of both factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) to Islamabad for talks to explain its ‘changed position’ on the long-standing dispute.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner in New Delhi Shahid Malik, accompanied by a few other members of the diplomatic staff, drove to hard-line APHC leader Syed Ali Geelani’s winter address in Delhi on Saturday and handed him an invitation from Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

The report said: “Malik has already invited the chairman of the moderate wing of APHC, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, along with Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan to Pakistan for talks on its change perception on Kashmir.”

However, Pakistan denies the assertion.

“There was no change in Pakistan’s principled position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” added the Foreign Office spokesperson.

“The government and people of Pakistan strongly believe that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute should be resolved in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”

Pakistan will continue extending its moral, political and diplomatic support to valiant Kashmiris in their legitimate struggle for right to self-determination, Basit added.

Muslim based NGOs in Jammu & Kashmir face discrimination

Jammu and Kashmir has 158 NGOs authorised to collect foreign donations, 17 of them Christian religious organisations, besides 10 Buddhist, four Hindu and two Muslim organisations.
And in the last five years, two of the Christian NGOs, most of them working for the downtrodden sections of society and victims of violence, and one of the Buddhist organisations have received foreign donations over Rs 1 crore. The highest donations have gone to Catholic Social Service Society, which is not registered as a religious organisations.

None of the other Buddhist religious NGOs, nor any of the Hindu or Muslim organisations, received over that amount in that period, government figures show.

The top three received over Rs 36 crore between them. According to the Union Home Ministry, which maintains records of these NGOs under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), Jammu-based Catholic Social Service Society got Rs. 15.26 crore from five foreign countries. According to its website, CSSS works in 172 villages of Jammu region.

Diocese of Jammu-Srinagar St Mary’s Church received Rs. 14.74 crore, the donations coming from nine countries. And Kashmir Evangelical Fellowship received Rs 6.06 crore from Canada, USA and UAE in last four years.

The list of Hindu organisations includes the Amarnath Shrine Board, Ramkrishna Mission and two trusts related to Mata Vaishno Devi. The two Muslim religious groups are Madarsa Taleemul Quran and Salfia Muslim Educational Research Trust. Among the 10 Buddhist NGOs, the one that got over Rs 1 crore is Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre.

The CSSS website lists its target groups as “youths, minority, victims of violence, differently abled people, drug users”.

The 17 NGOs got FCRA registration after they had declared themselves “religious, Christian” organisations. The CSSS is registered as a “social” organisation.

Some of these organisations are based in areas that were earlier heavily affected by terrorism, such as Anantnag, Baramula, Srinagar. But the bulk, 10 of the 17, are based in Jammu, which is a Hindu-majority area.

Says the website of Kashmir Evangelical Fellowship, while calling for donations for terror-affected families, “Our missionary families are called by God and resolute in their commitment to reach their world for Christ in the face of great obstacles and under threat of life from terrorist groups.”

The 17 Christian religious NGOs listed as such include Society of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary (Baramula), North India Pentecostal Fellowship (Jammu), St Paul’s Church (Jammu), Diocese of Jammu (Jammu), Jammu-Kashmir Presentation Society (Jammu), Krist Jyoti Social Welfare Society (Jammu), CMI Service Society (Jammu), J&K Darul Fazal Home for the Zoram Evangelical Fellowship (Srinagar), Perfecture Apostolic of J&K Catholic Church (Srinagar), Emmanueal Mission Hostel (Jammu), Indian Pentecostal Church of God (Udhampur) and Samjee Pappy Kallimes Church of Christ.

Human Rights Violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir

ZoneAsia-Pk

“In consistence with their policy that in the case of any State where the issue of accession has been the subject of dispute the question of accession should be decided in accordance with the wishes of the people of the State, it is my Government’s wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in kashmir and her soil cleared of the invader, the question of State’s accession should be settled by a reference to the people”.

Lord Mountbatten, Governor General of India, October 27, 1947

The Violence Update Since 1989

Total Killings: 93,712
Houses/Shops Destroyed: 105,936
Orphaned: 107,434
Women Molested: 10,019
Widowed: 22,762

Karnataka Three ministers filmed watching porn in assembly quit

Three BJP ministers “voluntarily” resigned on Wednesday over the shocking sleaze row to rock the Karnataka Assembly. Mangalore in-charge Minister Krishna Palemar, Co-operation Minister Lakshman Savadi and Karnataka Women and Child Welfare Minister CC Patil tendered in their resignation during a BJP core committee meeting that was held early on Wednesday morning. The ministers said they were resigning to save the party’s image.

This is not the first time CC Patil has found himself roiled in a controversy. In January this year, he assumed the high moral ground on womenswear, saying, “I personally don’t favour women wearing provocative clothes and always feel they need to be dignified in whatever they wear.” He also said that women should know how much skin they should cover.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj has accepted the trio’s resignations.

Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda said after receiving the resignations, “Three of my ministers, Lakshman Savadi, CC Patil and Krishna Palemar have voluntarily handed in their resignations in spite of the fact that they are innocent in the matter… I have accepted their resignations.”

BJP leader Dhananjay Kumar, however, argued that the BJP must be appreciated for its “swift act” as it had “asked” its party members to resign.

He added, “The BJP has taken this seriously. We uphold morality in public life. What has happened is unfortunate.”

CC Patil and Lakshman Savadi were caught watching an obscene video on their mobile phones on Tuesday while the Assembly was in session. A regional TV channel aired the footage of the duo watching the clippings when the Assembly was debating the issue of hoisting of Pakistan national flag in a town in Bijapur district on the New Year’s day.

The footage showed Savadi watching the video and later joined by Patil for a brief while.

Savadi had earlier tried to explain away the controversy saying the video was a “value addition” for a discussion on the rave parties that happened during a tourism festival in coastal Karnataka.

“I have done nothing wrong and I will not resign. I was watching a foreign rave party scene sent by one of my colleague minister Krishna. I did it to understand what rave party means,” Savadi had said.

The two ministers were at the receiving end of the Kannada activists’ ire, who went on the rampage, shouting slogans in front of their houses late on Tuesday night.

“We won’t tolerate it, if such people soil the image of the temple of Karnataka. The sacred place that’s Vidhan Souda,” Karnataka Rakshana Vedike activist Lokesh Gowda said.

BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain had earlier said that the party would take action against those found guilty.

“I would say that a politician should lead an honourable life because people repose their faith in them. If the minister is found guilty then we will take action against them. We will give a statement once we get the details.”

The Congress, that will look to cash in on the incident, came out strongly on Wednesday, slamming the BJP for the “shameless” conduct of its party leaders.

“It is shameless on the part of those ministers,” said Congress leader and Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily.

“This has been going on in the BJP party. Many BJP ministers have been involved in such crimes. They should be straight away sacked from the party. Even in Udupi, a rave party has been taking place for three days. The whole BJP party in Karnataka standing on an immoral ground,” he added.

Karnataka’s ‘sleazy’ past:

- Ex-Chief Minister BS Yedyurappa allegedly had relations with a Cabinet minister

- Excise Minister Renukacharya was caught kissing a nurse. The nurse claimed Renukacharya had raped and threatened her.

- Ex-BJP MLA Halappa was allegedly caught on camera raping a close aide’s wife.