New Delhi, January 15
The northern areas in Pakistan are once again in the grip of sectarian clashes and rioting, which has grim overtones for Islamabad.
Hundreds of people have been killed and the property worth millions destroyed since sectarian violence started in the region in the 1980s. After 56 years, the locals have openly begun to express their regrets about handing over the administration of the region to Pakistan.
The latest phase of rioting started following the killing of Agha Ziauddin Rizvi, the prayer leader of Central Imania Mosque, Gilgit. The Shia leader presumably was the victim of sectarian killing. So far, 17 persons have been killed and another 15 injured in violence after this incident.
The unabated violence forced the Pakistan Government yesterday to airlift two thousand army men to Gilgit, Skardu and Hunza where round-the-clock curfew has been imposed, Pakistani papers reported today.
Gilgit has been witnessing sectarian violence for quite some time, as the majority Shia community is up in arms against Islamabad’s move to change the school curriculum. The local population considers the change in the curriculum unnecessary, unwarranted and against their faith.
Similar protests had erupted in Gilgit three months ago and police action on protestors spiralled into sectarian violence that claimed several lives. The town remained curfew-bound for 13 days and the stranded foreign tourists had to be evacuated.
The situation was grim and has every potential to further the sectarian divide in Gilgit and Baltistan, which were parts of Jammu & Kashmir State prior to 1947 but were at present under direct control of Pakistan’s Federal Government.
Gilgit and Baltistan, which Pakistan calls Northern Areas, have no constitution. The Pakistan Government has not given the region any status and is ruling directly from Islamabad.
By banning political activities in Gilgit and Baltistan, Pakistan made it very clear to the locals that nothing has changed for them after the departure of the British. The Britishers’ idea behind keeping the ban on political activities was apparently to prevent political unity between the two occupied areas of Kashmir-PoK and northern areas.
According to “Horizon” of Peshawar, Baltistan has only 20 primary schools, two middle schools and one high school. The position in rest of northern areas is no better. The newspaper talks of a “deep conspiracy” to brainwash young children to believe that they are second-rate citizens of Pakistan.
There is a deliberate policy of not teaching children the history, geography and culture of northern areas. Instead, they are being taught history, geography and culture of Pakistan and are told about Pakistani heroes and Pakistani Generals.
Besides, the federal government of Islamabad is pursuing the policy of bringing about a demographic change in Northern Areas by a well-planned infiltration of outsiders, who threaten to reduce the locals into minority. The outsiders are mostly anti-Shia Punjabis and Pakhtoons who reject regional cultures and who threaten to change the demographic composition of the region in not too distant a future. This has raised the level of ethnic and sectarian conflicts. In addition to this, the ISI has been using the soil of Northern Areas to train Taliban-like militants for terrorist activities in Kashmir and also in the Xinjiang province of China.
There is a suspicion that the name “northern areas” has been given to this area not only to destroy the inhabitants of the regional identity but also to create an impression that they are not part of state of Jammu and Kashmir, as it existed in August 1947. In other words, it is a perfidious attempt to subvert United Nations resolution by which Pakistan swears day and night. Writing in the “Dawn” today, columnist Ahsan Ali Khan said: “The government has completely failed to protect the life and property of the citizens. It has not learnt from the experience of June 2004 when a weeklong curfew was imposed after the bloody clashes erupted over the issue of the Islamiyat syllabus and has not put in place any contingency plan to deal with such kind of eventualities.”
Northern areas are suffering because the power has not been transferred to the Northern Areas Legislative Council and it continues to be under the Chief Executive who operates from Islamabad.
