ISLAMABAD: Two truck drivers were killed in Nagar’s Chalt valley of Gilgit-Baltistan in reaction to the massacre of 19 Shia passengers, sources told The Express Tribune by phone from Gilgit. One of the victims was identified as Muhammad Ishaque from Mohmand Agency. A sepoy of the Rangers was also shot and injured in Gilgit, Daily Express/Express News correspondent Shakoor Azam told The Express Tribune. In a related development, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf called G-B…
Posts published in August 2012
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad As I write this column it is being reported in the media that 25 passengers were hauled up from buses near the fringes of Babusar Pass and brutally murdered after their identification. From all the signs it appears to be killing on sectarian grounds. The scourge of sectarianism in the multi-religious society of Gilgit-Baltistan is eroding the social and moral fabric of society. Without the moral…
Yesterday’s chilling target killing of 25 Shias in the Babusar area of the Mansehra district left the nation stunned. Identified by ID cards after they were dragged off their bus, the travellers were shot at point blank range. The attack was claimed by the Terhreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, the same day as it claimed responsibility for the Kamra airbase attack. The same day, three men from the Hazara community were shot dead, travelling back from their place…
Thursday’s execution-style killing of Shia citizens in Mansehra district and the killing of Hazaras in Quetta were only the latest incidents in what is now a clear trend: targeting innocent members of the sect — not necessarily members of any political or religious organisation — and killing them for no reason other than their religious affiliation. The Mansehra attack had a particularly disturbing aspect to it, with passengers made to show their identity papers and…
Thursday morning’s brutal sectarian massacre of 22 passengers travelling through the Babusar Top area of Mansehra district was a bloody iteration of a chilling pattern of attacks against religious minorities, including members of Muslim minority sects. In the early hours of the morning, terrorists ambushed four buses, hauled off passengers, checked their national identity cards and summarily executed the Shias. A spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the killings. While there was legitimate…
SKARDU: A second day of complete shutter-down was observed in certain areas of Gilgit-Baltistan, with demonstrations and rallies being held in different areas in protest of the killing of 25 people by terrorists, Express News reported on Friday. Following protests and a call by Shia clerics of Anjuman-e-Imamia Baltistan against the delay in the arrest of the perpetrators, the local government also announced three days of mourning, with educational institutions and offices being closed for…
By Umer Nangiana in The Express Tribune, Aug 18 MANSEHRA / ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced on Friday that a sum of Rs100 million has been allocated for the security of the Karakoram Highway (KKH) a day after 19 Shia passengers were mowed down by masked men near Babusar Top in Kaghan Valley. The minister, condemning Thursday’s killing of Shias in Babusar Top Pass, insisted that the main routes along the Karakoram Highway were…
MANSEHRA, Aug 16: Terrorists ambushed four buses, pulled out the passengers and shot at least 19 of them dead in the Babusar Top area of Mansehra district on Thursday. Before killing the passengers, the assailants had checked their identity cards and shot them because they were Shia. “More than 50 terrorists wearing commando uniform intercepted a convoy going from Rawalpindi to Gilgit-Baltistan before 7am, hauled off passengers from four vans, identified them through their national…
MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 15: Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) High Court here on Wednesday admitted for regular hearing a writ petition seeking annulment of the transfer of AJK’s former Accountant General (AG) Tahir Mahmud as well as probe into the alleged financial corruption in the AJK Council. The petition was filed in the second week of July by Raja Akhtar Hussain and Raja Mumtaz Khan, president and secretary general, respectively, of the AJK Pensioners Association under section…
GILGIT, Aug 15: The newly-appointed Inspector General of Police Usman Zakaria who landed here to assume charge of his office faced a major embarrassment when the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan issued directives that “joining of new police chief shall not be entertained” and the region’s Chief Court endorsed the status quo. Acting IG Wazir Muhammad Ali, a BS-20 officer, had filed a plea with the Chief Court complaining that his right was being infringed by…
GILGIT: Four religious parties in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) have joined hands to promote sectarian harmony in the region. They expressed the concern that G-B had become the centre of foreign powers’ attention over the years owing to its geographic location. The decision was taken by the leadership of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM), Jamat Islami (JI) and Shia Ulema Council (SUC) during an Iftar dinner held here recently. “Since the political government has failed…