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Police Terrorism in Hunza
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Aug 16, 2011 1:08 pm
1214 Views
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If James Hilton, the British Author of the best seller, Lost Horizon published in 1933, had visited Hunza valley on Thursday, 11th August, 2011, it would have shattered his dream of a Shangri-la, the fictional land of harmony, peace and tranquillity.
On that day, paradise was turned into hell; it was like paradise on fire, and seemed like the Ultar mountain demon, the evil spirit had come down the valley, and entered the evil body of the police officers, who sprayed bullets indiscriminately at innocent, unarmed and peaceful protestors, who’s homes, land and everything they lost on January 4, 2010, in the Attabad landslide lake. The shooting, killed a father and a son and injuring dozens of others.
As one speaker, addressing the spontaneous crowd of over 8,000 people who gathered the other day in Aliabad, at the crime scene, to condemn state terrorism and demanded arrest of the killers, said, ‘yesterday the sky was also weeping, you saw the sudden black clouds up above the valley and the heavy rain shower for almost one hour’, he said while crying. ‘Never before in the history of Hunza, such barbaric act of violence has ever happened, those buried in their graves for centuries, might have shaken as to what happened in Hunza, the land of peace and heaven on earth’, said another speaker.
Termed as a worldly paradise and a permanent happy land between the Himalayas and the western end of the Kunlun mountains, bordered with western Xinjiang Province of China, Hunza remained fiercely independent state for over 1000 years, and has close historic ties with China, before it was attacked and occupied by the British colonialists in 1892, and later, the British installed rulers joined and lead the other occupied neighbouring states to annex the whole Gilgit-Baltistan region with newly carved state of Pakistan in 1948.
The overt reason cited for the brutal killing was, the police force on forward security protocol duty along with the entourage of the Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan, who was visiting to distribute cheques to the same unfortunate victims of Attaabad lake who were protesting, wanted the road to be clear of any protest to pass the caravan smoothly.
In a similar pattern of incident, five days earlier, on August 5, 2011, over hundred armed mafia group linked to border trade with China, entered Hunza from south, passed quietly through all the police check posts, with no hindrance and boarded boats at Attabad spillway and reached Hussaini lake harbour upstream, attacked the small village of around 60 households, terrorized women and children, broken into houses, torched shops, tents and motor bikes, and inured dozens in a clash with local wage-labourers and local people. The police on site remained aloof and as spectator.
The reason for this act of terrorism and barbarism at Hussaini was that the local wage labourers and youth who are internally displaced and unemployed due to submerging in the lake of their houses and land and the only highway linking the valley down with Hunza. While the mafia and trade groups want a total business control at both ends of the Attabad Lake, which was unacceptable to the local people.
Later a peace delegation from the neighbouring valley visited Hussaini, and condemned the acts of the mafia, and apologized to the people and promised that such incidents will not happen again.
“We are born soldiers. We know how to fight and die for our land and our people. Look at the list of martyrs of 1948, 1965, 1971 and the Siachen and Kargil wars’, said an ex military officer from Hunza, ‘but we will never be such a coward to shoot at unarmed, civilians, terrorize women and children. Don’t be mistaken by our patience and love for peace, we know how to defend ourselves, and protect our people and our peace of mind, he added.
Other speakers at the gathering in Aliabad also draw a pattern in what happened on 5th August and what happened on 11th August. Obviously there is merit in many of the points raised. Who is for example interested in containing China, by delaying the widening of Karakoram highway (KKH), and draining of the lake that has blocked the KKH; who is interested to control the newly established Hunza-Nagar district, which is an important trade corridor with China; what is the interest of the vested interest groups in gaining petty shares in the existing booty from the illegal sale of relief goods including fuel oil at the spillway; What happened as a mob response damaging public property and buildings, was it pre-planned by the same vested interests who attacked Hussaini and killed IDPs or was it just a spontaneous reaction of teen-aged boys frustrated for many other reasons? who actually ordered the DSP to shoot and kill? Who armed the people and provided boats to transport to Hussaini?
There is a need to look back at what happened, and what is being planned to happen as a result of these two recent events, and may be other twists that are coming.
Who is watching these and the early signs?, who will take pre-emptive measures, and issue early warnings? Who is responsible for preparedness and response in the event of such man-made disasters?
The youth, nationalist and democratic leaders and activist need to call an all parties MARAKA to address these issues, draw lessons and chart a plan of action to defend the people and protect the Shangri-La from the evil spirits.
Rise up again, before our Shangri-La is shattered, and we are LOST in the Horizon!!
By Amin Baig Pamirtimes.
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Skardu Baltistan
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Aug 12, 2011 12:19 pm
1183 Views
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Skardu, capital of Baltistan is perched 2,438 metres above sea level in the backdrop of the great peaks of the Karakorams. Balti people are a mixture of Tibetan and Caucasian stock and speak Balti, an ancient form of Tibetan. Due to the similarity of its culture, lifestyle and architecture with Tibet, Baltistan is also known as the "Tibet-e-Khurd" (Little Tibet). It borders on the Chinese province of Xinjiang and Indian-occupied Kashmir. The tourist season is from April to October. The maximum temperature is 27 C and minimum (October) 8 C. Apart from its incomparable cluster of mountain peaks and glaciers Baltistan's five valleys - Shigar, Skardu, Khaplu, Rondu and Kharmang are noted for their luscious peaches, apricots, apples and pears.
Skardu is linked to the national capital, Islamabad by PIA, which operates one flight daily. The air journey is full of thrills and would itself be regarded as the highlight of the visit. After following the same air route, which connects Gilgit to Islamabad/Rawalpindi, the plane turns right and flies over the gorge of the Indus River. Enormous rock faces rise on either side or at times it seems as if the wing tips of the plane would almost scrape against them. They never do. Baltistan is known as the "Tibet-e-Khurd", or Little Tibet since its life-style reflects that of the Roof of the World and the Land of Lamas.
It borders on the Chinese province of Xinjiang and Indian-occupied Kashmir. The tourist season is from April to October. The maximum temperature is 27 C and minimum (October) 8 C. Apart from its incomparable cluster of mountain peaks and glaciers Baltistan's five valleys, - Shigar, Skardu, Khaplu, Rondu and Kharmang are noted for their luscious peaches, apricots, apples and pears.
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Fairy meadows Gilgit Baltistan
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Aug 9, 2011 11:35 am
1279 Views
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Fairy Meadow is a lush green plateau, at 3300 m, offering a breath taking view of Majestic Nanga Parbat (The Killer Mountain). Many people have called it the "Heaven on Earth". These lush, green meadows and forests lie at the base of Nanga Parbat at the western edge of the Himaliyan range in Pakistan. Fairy Meadows is a very peaceful and relaxing place to enjoy the mountain atmosphere and hospitality of the local people. The name Fairy Meadows is part of the legend that Fairies have their heaven on this lush green plateau. Hermann Buhl, the Austrian climber who made the first ascent of Nanga Parbat in 1953, named it Fairy Meadow due to its wonderful scenery.
It is about 540 km drive through Karakorum Highway, from Islamabad to Raikot Bridge (1400 m). Where local Jeeps will take you up to the Tatto village, it is one and half hour exciting drive from Raikot Bridge to the last village of Tatto (2900 m). Crossing through the most impressive view of Karakorum Highway & River Indus. On arrival at Tatto village, it starts trekking on very easy and simple route to Fairy meadows. It is a great experience to have overnight in fixed camping side, or in the traditionally built wood Huts, which offers magnificent view of the North face of the Nanga Parbat. There are several short walks on this plateau, including the full day excursion up to the base camp (3900 m) of Nanga Parbat. It is very easy walk through the forest till then the edge of the plateau call Beyal Camp (3500 m). Whereas the trek from Beyal Camp to base camp is little difficult along the Raikot glacier. Nice hotels and bungalows are available at the meadows, but you may also choose to camp in the grassy sites. After reaching Raikot Bridge one has to take a one and a half hour jeep ride just to get to the hiking point, at this point the track becomes very narrow and jeeps aren't accessible beyond it. Then after an at least two and half hour hike straight up the hill you reach Fairy Meadows.
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Biafo Glacier
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Aug 8, 2011 12:05 pm
1376 Views
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The Biafo Glacier is a 63 km long glacier in the Karakoram Mountains of the Northern Areas, Pakistan which meets the 49 km long Hispar Glacier at an altitude of 5,128 m (16,824 feet) at Hispar La (Pass) to create the world's longest glacial system outside the polar regions. This highway of ice connects two ancient mountain kingdoms, Nagar (immediately south of Hunza) in the west with Baltistan in the east. The traverse uses 51 of the Biafo Glacier's 63 km and all of the Hispar Glacier to form a 100 km glacial route.
The Biafo Glacier presents a trekker[1] with several days of very strenuous, often hectic boulder hopping, with spectacular views throughout and Snow Lake near the high point. Snow Lake, consisting of parts of the upper Biafo Glacier and its tributary glacier Sim Gang, is one of the world's largest basins of snow or ice in the world outside of the polar regions, up to 1,600 m (one mile) in depth.
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Chitral......
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Aug 6, 2011 1:06 pm
1484 Views
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In the northwestern region of Pakistan lies the remote and peaceful valley of Chitral. Lying in the midst of Hindukush Range, it is one of the world’s most beautiful regions. Chitral offers enchanting scenery in the shadow of majestic Trich Mir, which, at 7,708m is the highest peak of Hindukush Ranges. The people of Chitral, the “Kho”, show traces of Persian and Turkish ancestry. They are known for their peaceful, uncomplicated character and unique culture.
Chitral is more famous, however, for the Kalash people who inhabit the southwestern part of the region. The “Kalash Country” is spread over three Valleys; Bomboret, Birir and Rumbur. The Kalash have always fascinated anthropologists and historians by their obscure origins, colourful festivals, and curious customs and rituals.
These days I am here in this beautiful valley.
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CHILIM JUSHT FESTIVAL 15 May to 21 May.
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Apr 26, 2011 3:54 pm
1858 Views
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The Chilim Jusht Festival is celebrated by the Kalash people residing in the valleys of Birir, Rumbur and Bumburate. The six day festival is the Kalash way of welcoming the spring season. The beautiful valley of Chitral is at its best during the month of May. The arrival of spring and the weather conditions make the valley an ideal place to visit during the festival that’s why you can see a lot of tourists in Chitral at this time of the year. The Kalash are extremely hospitable people and welcome the visitors with open arms.
The locals begin preparing for the festival by making new clothes, renovating and repairing their houses and buying new utensils to replace the old ones. Singing, dancing and feasting are part of the festival. Milk and honey is distributed among the participants from every house in the village. A mass wedding ceremony is the main feature of the festival. This ceremony is attended by the whole tribe. The festival concludes with the dance performed by the women in their traditional costumes.
While enjoying the gaieties of the festival, you can also check out the local handicrafts and food and participate in the regional sports. Hiking and sightseeing are other things you can do or you can simply lay back and enjoy the abundant beauty around you
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Those Eyes
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Nov 26, 2010 5:05 pm
2886 Views
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My Eyes were given a chance by full moon.
Rains were having a dance in the month of june.
Great cool wind was whistling it's tune.
Something happier and great was going to happen very soon.
Suddenly a figure appeared intelligent and wise.
My heart got a feeling very nice.
I saw those Dark kind innocent eyes.
How to describe how they were.
Looked dark, innocent and so kind.
As if deep thoughts stored in mind.
Looking here and there.
As if searching someone they had to find.
Stored in them were sincerity or sadness,
This i could'nt determine.
How much ever i tried,
I could'nt forget those dark kind innocent eyes.
Slowly disappeared those eyes,
Again one day they appeared in my life.
This time talking with me,
Bringing along with them a beautiful smile.
Slowly started disappearing that smile,
Bringing in my heart a sudden fright
The only thing which did'nt change behind those glasses,
Were those dark kind innocent eyes.
So simple those eyes used to be,
Not so simple now as they walk on the street.
A mystical relationship heart relates with them,
Telling those eyes somewhere i had seen.
Not knowing those eyes i had seen when,
Still they appeared to be mine,
Those dark kind innocent eyes.
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Your body is my map
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Nov 2, 2010 2:29 pm
2846 Views
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raise me more love… raise me
my prettiest fits of madness
O’ dagger’s journey… in my flesh
and knife’s plunge…
sink me further my lady…
the sea calls me
add to me more death …
perhaps as death slays me… I’m revived
your body is my map…
the world's map no longer concerns me…
I am the oldest capital of sadness…
and my wound a Pharaonic engraving
my pain…. extends like an oil patch
from Beirut… to China…
my pain… a caravan…dispatched
by the Caliphs of "A’Chaam"… to China…
in the seventh century of the "Birth"…
and lost in a dragon’s mouth…
bird of my heart… "naysani"
O’ sand of the sea, and forests of olives
O’ taste of snow, and taste of fire…
my heathen flavor, and insight
I feel scared of the unknown… shelter me
I feel scared of the darkness… embrace me
I feel cold… cover me up
tell me children stories…
rest beside me…
Chant to me…
since from the start of creation
I’ve been searching for a homeland to my forehead…
for a woman’s hair…
that writes me on the walls… then erases me…
for a woman’s love… to take me
to the borders of the sun… and throws me…
from a woman’s lip… as she makes me
like dust of powdered gold…
shine of my life. my fan
my lantern. declaration of my orchards
stretch me a bridge with the scent of oranges…
and place me like an ivory comb…
in the darkness of your hair… then forget me
I am a drop of water… ambivalent
remaining in the notebook of October
your love crushes me…
like a mad horse from the Caucasus throwing me under its hoofs…
and gargles with the water of my eyes…
add to me more fury… add to me
O’ prettiest fits of my madness
for your sake I set free my women
and effaced my birth certificate
and cut all my arteries…
by Nizar Qabbani
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My Spiritual Leader.. Aga Khan
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Oct 31, 2010 2:48 pm
2698 Views
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The genteel, moderate Aga Khan’s network is on the rise in Canada
by John Geddes. 27th Oct, 2010.
Of two notable speeches from very different Muslim leaders scheduled this month for influential audiences in Canada, only one was delivered. In Ottawa, Zijad Delic, executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, had been asked to speak at National Defence headquarters, but that invitation was revoked by Defence Minister Peter MacKay over charges that the congress’s leaders have taken extremist positions in the past (even though Delic is widely seen as a moderate). There was never any doubt, however, that the second speech would go off without a hitch. The Aga Khan, hereditary leader of the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims, gave the Institute for Canadian Citizenship’s annual LaFontaine-Baldwin lecture in Toronto with his customary cosmopolitan suavity.
The contrast in the tale of the two speeches is not one that the diplomatic Aga Khan, or his expanding network in Canada, might want to highlight. Yet his ability to present himself, and Ismailis in general, as a constructive, non-threatening face of Islam is a striking achievement in an era when other Muslim groups often struggle even to be heard. It’s nothing new. For five decades, His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan has championed pluralism, and Ismailis have earned a reputation as quick adapters in societies that welcome diversity, including Canada. “I am impressed by the fact that some 44 per cent of Canadians today are of neither French nor British descent,” he said in Toronto, praising the Canadian example as “an asset of enormous global value.”
If it sounds like an old smoothie flattering his audience, facts on the ground show there’s more behind his words than graciousness. The global interests the Aga Khan heads—a multi-billion-dollar blend of business, philanthropy and quasi-diplomatic work—are dramatically increasing their presence in Canada. In 2008, the embassy-like Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat opened on Ottawa’s Sussex Drive, at a prestige address not far from Foreign Affairs headquarters. Last spring, Prime Minister Stephen Harper conferred honorary Canadian citizenship on the Aga Khan, who lives in France, at the sod-turning for a sprawling Ismaili cultural complex in Toronto, slated for completion in 2013, which will include a major museum of Islamic art. And earlier this month, the Aga Khan chaired the first board meeting of the Global Centre for Pluralism, a new Ottawa-based research institute, launched with $30 million from the federal government and $40 million from his own Aga Khan Development Network.
All this action has given the Ismailis a bigger Canadian presence than ever before. The history of the community in Canada goes back to Idi Amin’s expulsion of South Asians, many of them Ismaili, from Uganda in 1972. As a long-time friend of Pierre Trudeau, the Aga Khan picked up the phone during the crisis to ask the prime minister to make Canada a safe haven. Trudeau’s government opened the doors. (The Aga Khan was an honorary pallbearer at Trudeau’s funeral in 2000.) About 5,000 Ismailis from Uganda immigrated, followed by a steady flow from other East African countries. They now number about 45,000 in Canada, their success underscored this week by Ismaili Naheed Nenshi’s election as Calgary’s mayor.
If the Aga Khan’s link to Canada began with a personal bond and an urgent need, the connection has deepened. “What the Canadian experience suggests to me is that identity itself can be pluralistic,” he said in Toronto. “One can embrace an ethnic or religious heritage, while also sharing a sense of national or regional pride.” Still, few Canadians know much about the Ismailis. They are a minority within the minority Shia branch of Islam, dispersed through South Asia and Africa over centuries, and more recently into Europe and North America. Ismailis often experienced persecution, sometimes from larger Muslim groups.
Amyn Sajoo, an Ismaili author and visiting scholar at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University, says having to fit in has made them “extremely adaptive” to the cultures around them. “You don’t misread tradition,” Sajoo says, “as a comfortable home where you can hide from changing realities.”
The Aga Khan embodies the Ismaili reputation for embracing modernity. Born in 1936 in Geneva, he grew up partly in Nairobi. He was still studying at Harvard University when his grandfather died in 1957, after choosing his promising grandson as his successor—passing over young Prince Karim’s father. The Aga Khan now runs a major international aid network, closely allied to his businesses, based in Geneva. He’s also a famous breeder of thoroughbreds—on the day before his Toronto lecture, his stable’s Shalanaya placed third in the E.P. Taylor Stakes at the city’s Woodbine Racetrack.
In Toronto, the Aga Khan was introduced by former governor general Adrienne Clarkson, and interviewed on stage after his speech by her husband, author John Ralston Saul. Clarkson and Saul are the driving forces behind the yearly LaFontaine-Baldwin lecture, named for the pre-Confederation reformers who laid the key groundwork for Canadian democracy. The Aga Khan linked Canada’s version of federalism to struggles around the world to knit together diverse ethnic, religious and language communities. He pointed out that India’s constitution defines rights for eight cultural groups. In Kenya and Kyrgyzstan, he said, reforms to decentralize power to ease ethnic tensions are now under way.
Yet the Aga Khan balanced his call for governments to find ways to safeguard diversity against the need for citizenship to mean something. “Afghanistan is a case in point,” he said. “In contrast with places where inflexible nationalism can be a problem, Afghanistan suffers from the opposite condition—an inability to imagine, let alone create, a broad sense of nationhood.”
And Afghanistan is where Canada’s foreign interests and the Aga Khan’s concerns intersect most clearly. His aid arm is very active in the country, in some cases working in partnership with the Canadian International Development Agency. That work, mainly in Afghanistan’s central highlands and northern provinces, is overshadowed by the fighting in Kandahar, but is expected to continue long after Canada withdraws from combat next year.
Sustained co-operation in Afghanistan is likely to further strengthen ties between the Canadian government and the Aga Khan’s network. At home, though, the influence of Ismaili institutions on the way Muslims are seen in Canada is harder to predict. Yvonne Haddad, a professor of Islamic history and Christian-Muslim relations at Washington’s Georgetown University, says the ingrained view of Ismailis as a clearly separate minority within Islam limits their impact. Although Haddad says the Aga Khan’s organizations have helped educate “a core of articulate scholars of Islam,” she says these Ismaili professors sometimes have trouble being heard beyond the universities. “They are just wonderful people,” she says, “but they can’t be mediators.”
Simon Fraser University’s Sajoo disagrees, pointing to the goodwill and practical working relationships created by the Aga Khan’s far-flung philanthropy. “The majority of beneficiaries, thousands of people in Africa, Asia, the Balkans and the Middle East, are not Ismaili at all,” he says. “So interaction with other Muslims is profound.”
The need for moderating influences, both among Muslim communities and between the Islamic world and the West, has rarely felt more pressing. The economic downturn has only exacerbated post-9/11 stresses. The Aga Khan cited economic fears as a cause of rising anxiety in Europe about Muslim immigrants. He said conflict in developing countries among ethnic groups goes hand in hand with diminished prospects of rising out of poverty. “The codependent nature of economic deprivation and ethnic diversity,” he said, “is evident throughout most of Asia and Africa.”
As a businessman who grasps economics, and a religious leader acquainted by necessity with the perils and possibilities of diversity, the Aga Khan is well qualified to talk about that linkage.
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