Author: Wilson John
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 9, 2006
Will the allies of the Pakistani dictator
scrutinise the role of Pervez Musharraf in ordering air raids on his own people?
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has been
a really clever dictator, successfully hiding from the world his regime's
gross human rights abuses. While former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has
been sentenced to death for killing and torturing his own countrymen, the
international community seems blind to the atrocities committed by their "staunch
ally" in the war on terrorism.
Early last week, Gen Musharraf ordered bombing
of a madarsa in Waziristan saying it was training Al Qaeda and Taliban jihadis.
Some 80 persons were killed. Gen Musharraf insisted that they were all militants.
It was a lie. A majority of the dead were children at the religious school.
In any case, spy cameras had caught only students doing calisthenics and other
exercises; no weapon was found in the precincts.
Though it is true that Al Qaeda and Taliban
terrorists are regrouping in Waziristan, thanks mainly to Gen Musharraf's
truce two months ago, it cannot be anybody's argument that all the tribals,
children and women included, are terrorists. Knowing the truth about the death
of innocent young students, Gen Musharraf's justifications only betrays his
dictatorial tendencies. The bombing was instigated by a wrong US intelligence.
In Balochistan, Gen Musharraf's record is
far more grim. He ordered the killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti
and tried to justify it by saying Bugti posed a serious threat to Pakistan's
integrity. Bugti's hide-out was bombed by rockets and mortar shells and he
was later executed. For all the bombings, as detailed by the official spokesman,
Bugti's spectacles and wrist watch remained unharmed. And, why was Gen Musharraf
hell bent on keeping his coffin padlocked and buried without his family being
present? Was it to conceal state execution?
Bugti's killing is not the only instance of
state killing dissenters in Balochistan. During the year-long stand off between
the tribals and the military, several young Balochis were picked up from their
homes, never to return. These Balochis had the gumption to criticise or protest
the state's demonic oppression. The Balochis want a share in the progress
which the military regime led by Gen Musharraf is not willing to accept. A
large number of Balochis were charged under false cases and jailed after brutal
interrogations. Several of them were either liquidated or died in police custody.
These deaths and disappearances could not have taken place without the consent
of the establishment headed by Gen Musharraf.
In PoK, Gen Musharraf has managed to keep
Kashmiri refugees in virtual bondage. The families of terrorists who had fled
the Indian Kashmir to PoK fearing detention by Indian security forces are
forced to live in tented camps and other encampments surrounded by deplorable
conditions.
Amnesty International has cited gross human
rights violations in the area by Pakistani authorities.
In the Northern Areas, Gen Musharraf's regime
is playing another diabolical game. The regime is systematically widening
the sectarian divide by provoking the Shias by inserting objectionable chapters
and sentences in school textbooks and by encouraging Sunnis to settle down
in otherwise Shia-dominated area. In fact, it was Gen Musharraf as Brigadier,
on the orders of President Zia-ul Haq, who led a mixed contingent of soldiers
and tribal fighters to put down a Shia rebellion in the region. The operation
witnessed slaying of women and children.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, the oppression is reflected
in the way media is bridled. Criticism is rewarded with deportation. Pakistan
has no institutional mechanism to reward journalists for courageous or investigative
reporting. On the other hand, journalists daring to criticise or investigate
are browbeaten and intimidated physically.
Investigative journalist Ghulam Husnain was
picked up by ISI and locked up in a secret cell for a few days after he reported
Dawood Ibrahim living in Clifton, Karachi, in Herald, an English monthly.
His expose appeared when Pakistan had denied all knowledge about Dawood.
Another investigative journalist Kamran Khan
was made to tow the line after he wrote articles on the Daniel Pearl murder
case in The News, an English daily. In fact, Pearl, the American correspondent
for the Asian Wall Street Journal, was killed for probing ISI's links with
Al Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Several foreign journalists were
intimidated and deported if they asked disturbing questions. Gen Musharraf's
dirty tricks department in the ISI has intimidated Indian and American scribes
for reporting on jihadi and nuclear issues in particular.
Two years ago, Mr Brad Adams, Executive Director,
Asia Division of the Human Rights Watch, aptly summed up Gen Musharraf's despotic
regime: "Since the coup, the Pakistani Government has systematically
violated the fundamental rights of members of the political opposition and
former Government officials. It has harassed, threatened, and arrested them.
It has removed independent judges from the higher courts, banned anti-Government
public rallies and demonstrations.... in addition, the last four years have
also witnessed the rise of extremist political activity and an increase in
sectarian killings.''
