Pakistan city rocked by wave of violence

[longknife]

by The Associated Press

KARACHI, Pakistan — Bodies are piling up in Pakistan’s largest city as it suffers one of its most violent years in history, and concern is growing that the chaos is giving greater cover for the Taliban to operate and undermining the country’s economic epicenter.

Is Obozo going to get us involved in our “ally's” problems? Read more @ Pakistan city rocked by wave of violence - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

The article reports: Police tallies put the dead at 1,897 through mid-October. Good Lord! We lose more than that every month in automobile accidents!

 

[waltky]

More murder and mayhem in Pakistan...

Teachers, aid workers killed in Pakistan
Thu, Jan 03, 2013 - Gunmen on motorcycles sprayed a van carrying employees from a community center with bullets on Tuesday, killing five female teachers and two aid workers, but sparing a child they took out of the vehicle before opening fire.

The director of the group that the seven worked for says he suspects it may have been the latest in a series of attacks targeting anti-polio efforts in Pakistan. Some militants oppose the vaccination campaigns, accusing health workers of acting as spies for the US and alleging the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile. Last month, nine people working on an anti-polio vaccination campaign were shot and killed. Four of those shootings were in the northwest where Tuesday’s attack took place. The attack was another reminder of the risks to women educators and aid workers from Islamic militants who oppose their work. It was in the same conservative province where militants shot and seriously wounded 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai, an outspoken young activist for girls’ education, in October. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest shootings.

The teachers and health workers — one man and one woman — were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province on their way home from a community center in the town of Swabi, where they were employed at a medical clinic and primary school. Their driver was also injured. Javed Akhtar, the director of Support With Working Solution, said the medical clinic vaccinated children against polio, and many of the nongovernmental organization’s (NGO) staff had taken part in immunization campaigns. Militants in the province have blown up schools and killed female educators. They have also kidnapped and killed aid workers, viewing them as promoting a foreign, liberal agenda.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, formerly called the Northwest Frontier province, borders the tribal areas of Pakistan along the frontier with Afghanistan to the west. Militant groups such as the Taliban have used the tribal areas as a stronghold from which to wage war both in Afghanistan and against the Pakistani government. Often, that violence has spilled over into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. The injured driver in Swabi told investigators that the gunmen stopped the vehicle and removed a boy — the son of one of the women — before indiscriminately opening fire, police officer Fazal Malik said. The woman’s husband rushed to the scene after receiving a phone call alerting him to the shooting. “I left everything and rushed towards the spot. As I reached there, I saw their dead bodies were inside the vehicle and he [his son] was sitting with someone,” Zain ul Hadi said.

Swabi police chief Abdur Rasheed said most of the women killed were between the ages of 20 and 22. He said four gunmen on two motorcycles fled the scene and have not been apprehended. The NGO conducts education and health programs and runs the community center in Swabi, Akhtar said. The group has been active in the city since 1992 and started the Ujala Community Welfare Center in 2010, he added. Ujala means “light” in Urdu. Tuesday’s attack worried even veteran campaigners. Maryam Bibi, who founded an organization called Khwendo Kor, which carries out education and development programs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the nearby tribal areas, said she and many of her employees live in fear that they will be targeted next.

More Teachers, aid workers killed in Pakistan - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

More violence against polio workers in Pakistan...

Roadside bomb kills 2 polio workers in NW Pakistan
January 31, 2013 | A roadside bomb killed two Pakistani polio workers on their way to vaccinate children in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border on Thursday, an official said.

The two men were on their way to Malikhel village as part of the U.N.-backed anti-polio campaign when the bomb hit their motorcycle, said government administrator Yousuf Rahim. The attack — the third this week against polio workers in Pakistan — took place in the Kurram region, a known militant stronghold. On Tuesday, gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a policeman protecting a polio team in Gullu Dheri village of Swabi district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The polio workers escaped unharmed in that attack.

In a separate incident in the northwest on Tuesday, a man wounded a polio worker with an axe. Rahim said it was not immediately clear if the two workers killed Thursday were the actual target of the bombing. Javed Husain, a doctor at a hospital in the town of Parachinar, said the slain men were working as contractors for the government-run anti-polio program in the area. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but suspicion fell on Islamic militants.

Some of the militants oppose the vaccination campaign, accuse health workers of acting as spies for the U.S. and claim the polio vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile. Pakistan is one of only three countries where the crippling disease is endemic. The virus usually infects children living in unsanitary conditions; it attacks the nerves and can kill or paralyze. As many as 56 polio cases were reported in Pakistan during 2012, down from 190 the previous year, according to the United Nations.

Most of the new cases in Pakistan were in the northwest, where the presence of militants makes it difficult to reach children. In December, gunmen killed nine polio workers in similar attacks across Pakistan, prompting authorities to suspend the vaccination campaign in the troubled areas. The U.N. also suspended its field operations in December as a result of the attacks, though it has since resumed some activities.

Source

 

[waltky]

NGO's not safe in Pakistan...

Viewpoint: Pakistan civil society under threat
8 February 2013 - Members of the Shia Hazara community feel the government is not doing enough to protect them

Religious radicals, right-wing politicians and some elements in the security services are increasingly harassing non-governmental organisations (NGOs), human rights workers and other civil society groups, even as Pakistan enters into a delicate political phase with polls imminent, writes author Ahmed Rashid. The space for NGOs and civil society workers appears to be shrinking as they receive threats, several have been killed and others forced to go into hiding. There appears to be less protection for NGO workers at a time they are badly needed as the state fails to carry out basic functions such as education and health care.

At the same time there is growing intolerance in society as the use of violence and weapons to address grievances rather than courts of law is on the increase. At least 19 male and female officials working with a countrywide children's polio immunisation campaign have been killed by the Taliban and other Islamic radicals since last July. The worst incident took place in December when five health workers were shot dead by militants in different parts of the country.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the killings, with Mr Ban saying they were "cruel, senseless, and inexcusable". But nobody has been caught and the government appears paralysed - unable to prevent further killings. In a worrying development this year, policemen escorting polio teams are now being deliberately targeted. The vaccination drive remains partially suspended in two of Pakistan's four provinces - Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) - and despite the deployment of security forces, there is no indication when the vaccination drive can be completed.

Vicious campaign

Last October the young but prominent educationalist Malala Yousafzai was attacked in her school bus and had to be flown to England for a series of operations. Her attackers were self-proclaimed Pakistani Taliban. Malala, who is only 14, has become an international celebrity and has now been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but it is still not safe for her to come home. Asma Jahangir, the country's leading human rights lawyer and women's rights advocate, has been forced to respond to a campaign launched by right-wing politicians such as Imran Khan and religious leaders who have called her unsuitable to become the caretaker prime minister when parliament is dissolved.

More BBC News - Viewpoint: Pakistan civil society under threat

 

[adeel_sami]

Violence has become a part of daily life in here.

 

[waltky]

Moderates havin' a hard time of it in Pakistan...

Pakistan election: Taliban threats hamper secular campaign
4 April 2013 - The cancellation of a key political rally that was to kick-start the election campaign of one of the largest political parties in Pakistan is seen by many as indicative of hard times for the country's secular political forces in the coming days.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) abandoned plans for Wednesday night's rally in its native stronghold of Larkana town following what party leaders called "security threats" from militants. The PPP is one of three parties recently named by a spokesman of the Pakistani Taliban as "legitimate" targets for militant attacks during the elections, due in May. The other two parties on the hit list are the Karachi-based MQM, and the Pashtun nationalist ANP party which has its main base in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and also enjoys sizeable support in Karachi. All three are professedly secular, and were partners in the government that completed its five-year term last month.

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has held a number of major rallies

Similar Taliban threats forced former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, also known for his secular leanings, to cancel a welcome rally on 24 March, the day he returned to the country after a four-year long self-imposed exile. These threats follow huge election rallies already held by former cricketer Imran Khan's PTI, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's PML-N and Maulana Fazlur Rahman's JUI-F. Parties like Jamaat-e-Islami and the political wings of some of the jihadi and sectarian groups also have an open field for campaigning. All these parties are either overtly religious, or are run by right-wing liberals with religious leanings.

Campaign of attacks

The question is, can the secularists defy the militant threat and assert themselves to ensure a level playing field in the vote? An answer would depend on how serious the militant threat really is, and whether the country's intelligence-cum-security apparatus has the competence or the will to deal with it. Thus far, the militants have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to attack the secular parties, while the security forces have failed to clear them out of their known sanctuaries in the north-west. The ANP party, which led the outgoing administration in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been the worst hit.

In October 2008, the party's chief, Asfandyar Wali, narrowly escaped a suicide bomb attack near his residence in Charsadda. Since then, the party's top leaders have limited their movements and have avoided public exposure. A recent report by BBC Urdu said that more than 700 ANP activists have been killed by snipers or suicide bombers during the last four years, including a top party leader, Bashir Bilour. In recent weeks, low-intensity bombs have gone off at several local ANP election meetings, reducing its ability to conduct an open campaign.

Wings clipped

 

[waltky]

Pakistani polio drive results in policeman's death...

Gunmen kill Pakistani policeman during polio drive
10 Apr.`13 — Gunmen shot to death a policeman protecting a team of female polio workers in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, the latest in a series of attacks on people working on the U.N.-backed vaccination campaign, police said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but suspicion has fallen on Islamic militants. Some have voiced opposition to the campaign, accusing health workers of acting as spies for the United States and claiming the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile. Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio is still endemic. Health workers have made progress in combatting the disease in recent years, but the attacks threaten to reverse that progress.

An Afghan refugee girl, center, uses her head scarf to cover her sleeping sister, while walking in an alley of a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, April 9, 2013. Pakistan hosts over 1.6 million registered Afghans, the largest and most protracted refugee population in the world, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

The attack on Wednesday occurred in the district of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said police officer Mohammed Nabi Khan. One policeman was killed and another wounded. No polio workers were harmed since they were inside a home giving polio drops to children at the time of the attack, said Khan.

In December, gunmen killed nine polio workers in different parts of Pakistan. Several more workers have been killed since then, as well as policemen who were protecting them. The U.N. said last month that some 240,000 children missed vaccinations since July in parts of Pakistan's tribal region, the main sanctuary for Islamic militants, because of security concerns.

Source

 

[Sunni Man]

Yes, lets focus on Pakistan.

And ignore the daily slaughter happening right across our southern border. ...

 

[longknife]

Yes, lets focus on Pakistan.

And ignore the daily slaughter happening right across our southern border. ...

Of which the Mexican government and people are doing something about.