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Posts published in June 2013

China’s far west erupts in violence 2nd time in 3 days

Report in the Frontier Post, June 29 BEIJING (AP): A tense minority region in China’s far west erupted in violence Friday for the second time in three days, barely hours after the government called the earlier unrest a “terrorist attack” and raised the death toll to 35. State media gave few details in a brief dispatch about Friday’s unrest, saying it was “a violent attack” that took place on a pedestrian street in Hotan, a…

3. Ethnic riots rock Chinas Uighur area, 27 killed

By Saibal Dasgupta  in the Times of India, June 27 Beijing: At least 27 people have died, 10 of them in police firing, following a communal clash in China’s restive Xinjiang region bordering Pakistan and Central Asia on Wednesday morning. The deaths include those of nine policemen. Official sources said police opened fire after a mob armed with knives attacked police stations and a local government building in Turpan prefecture of the western China province,…

2. 27 Die in Rioting in Western China

by CHRIS BUCKLEY  in The New York Times, June 26, 2013 HONG KONG — At least 27 people died in rioting in far western China on Wednesday, when protesters attacked a police station and government offices and the police fired on the crowd, state media said. It was the worst spasm of violence for years in Xinjiang, a region troubled by tensions between Uighurs, an overwhelmingly Muslim ethnic minority, and China’s Han majority. The confrontation…

More changes in GB administration; By Haider Naseem in The Express Tribune, June 28

ISLAMABAD: In yet another round of reshuffle in the top bureaucracy, Captain (retd) Usman Zikriya, a BS-20 officer presently posted as inspector general of police Gilgit-Baltistan, has been directed to report to the Establishment Division with immediate effect. According to sources the decision was made due to terrorist attack on foreign tourists at Nanga Parbat base camp in Bunar Das despite intelligence reports of possible terrorist attack on foreigners, no steps were taken to avert…

High and dry: The empty mountains and valleys

By Noorwali Shah in The Express Tribune, June 28 PESHAWAR: Muhammad Alam is regretting his decision to leave the part-time job of producer in a local radio station because he pinned all his hopes on tourism picking up with the new and promising government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). Alam was sure he would earn decent money from the tourists coming to Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) in this season. The tragic incident of June 23 shattered his dreams, when…

Nanga Parbat attackers still at large despite identification

GILGIT: Despite the identification of attackers who killed foreign tourists in Nanag Parbat, terrorists are still at large five days after the unprecedented incident occurred in the peaceful area. IG Gilgt Baltistan Usman Zakaria told Geo News that the attackers were still hiding in the mountains, expressing the hope that the law enforcers would soon arrest them. “The culprits are within the territorial jurisdiction of Diamer and we will arrest them soon”, he said. He…

G-B could attract drone strikes, says lawmaker

By Shabbir Mir  in The Express Tribune, June 28 GILGIT: Local people should detach themselves from the militant outfits or else Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) may become the next destination for drone strikes, warned Advocate Amjad Hussain, Chairman Standing Committee in G-B Council on Thursday. Hussain’s comments came a day after regional police chief in Gilgit revealed identities of those involved in the massacre of 10 foreign tourists and their guide at the foot of Nanga Parbat,…

1. Rights Report Faults Mass Relocation of Tibetans

By ANDREW JACOBS in the NY Times, June 28 BEIJING — In an effort to reshape rural Tibet, the Chinese government is pursuing a mass relocation project that since 2006 has moved more than two million farmers and other people from centuries-old villages into concrete, roadside settlements that often cut off inhabitants from their traditional sources of income, according to a study released Thursday by Human Rights Watch. Citing official figures, the report said that…

Nanga Parbat killings: less talk, more action: By Tariq Masood Malik in Express Tribune, June 25:

The writer has worked for the non-profit sector in Pakistan We were just coming to terms with a blast that wrecked a student bus in Quetta recently and the bomb that destroyed the Ziarat Residency this past week. Then, news broke in the northern most part of the country of 10 foreign mountaineers — belonging to Ukraine, China, Slovakia, Lithuania, Nepal and the US — who had been shot dead in the early hours of…

Einstein’s wisdom; Editorial in daily Times, June 25

About 20 gunmen dressed in Gilgit Scouts uniforms tortured, then riddled the bodies of 10 foreign tourists with bullets at the Fairy Meadows, Diamer base camp near Nanga Parbat on Sunday. A Pakistani woman mountaineer and local guide were also reportedly amongst those killed in an unprecedented attack in an area hitherto free of violence and militancy. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar conceded in the National Assembly (NA) that the area had no security escort arrangements…

Why this aversion?; Editorial in the Frontier Post, June 25

If the country’s name stood already trashed internationally for the stalking terrorism mowing down the people freely like flies in every nook and cranny of the land, the Saturday’s horrific lethal terrorist strike on foreign tourists at Nanga Parbat base has reduced it just into dust. In every world street, the country’s image lies in tatters. Yet the hierarchs seem still stuck up with their self-imbibed assumptions having not the remotest bearing with hard realities.…