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Murder of democracy Baig’s ‘fatwa’ |
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The healing touch
Crushing the Naxalite virus
Prophecies
Afghan treasures return home Ignorance about sex persists in society Delhi Durbar
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Murder of democracy BENAZIR BHUTTO is no more. Her enemies have unfortunately succeeded in their second attempt on her life. She fell to the bullets of her assassin. Whoever had planned the murder would be having the last laugh as the whole of South Asia reconciles itself to the death of the Daughter of the East. The Pakistan People’s Party leader knew that her life was in danger when she narrowly escaped a dastardly attack on her on October 18 in which 140 people were killed. She even mentioned that she knew the conspirators behind the attack but the Musharraf regime did little to protect her. Her only fault was that she returned to Pakistan from her self-imposed exile to contest the elections and thereby make an attempt to rule the country once again. But the very prospect of the return of democracy would have unnerved the extremist elements in Pakistan who did not wait to plan her extermination. The PPP leader was arguably the most charismatic political leader in Pakistan. This itself would have steeled the resolve of her enemies to bump her off. It is unfortunate that like many in her family — father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged, her brother Murtaza Bhutto who was shot by the police and another brother Shahnawaz Bhutto who died in mysterious circumstances in Paris — she had an unnatural death. It is an irony that Benazir, who was the first Muslim woman to become Prime Minister in the world, could not complete her tenure both times she occupied the post. Her popularity, particularly in Sindh province, never waned as was underscored by the huge turnout of her supporters in Karachi after her return to Pakistan. Reports that she had entered into a deal with President Musharraf did cast a shadow on her image but later events proved that there was no love lost between the two. The attack on a rally addressed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Rawalpindi on the same day shows that the enemies of democracy are out to disrupt the January elections. They want to create political instability in Pakistan. It is doubtful whether the Musharraf regime has the will or the ability to bring the extremist forces — whether religious or political — under control. Its own credibility and commitment to usher in democracy are suspect, particularly after the General imposed the Emergency and curtailed the democratic rights of the people. It is in the Musharraf regime’s own interest and in the interest of Pakistan that every step is taken to bring to book the conspirators behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. |
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Baig’s ‘fatwa’ COMING as it does from no less a person than Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig, one cannot but take notice of it. If he has his way, he will ban dancing of girls on the stage “in and outside J&K” which means all over the world. What caused righteous indignation to the minister is the dance performance by Kashmiri girls while taking part in a cultural programme organised by the state to promote Gulmarg as a popular tourist destination. His objection is to the use of “our girls as a source of entertainment” because “our culture and religion do not permit these things”. Mr Baig seems to be wearing his religion and culture on his sleeves. Kashmiri culture, in which dancing was not just tolerated but allowed to flourish, predates the religion Mr Baig talks about. The two have coexisted for several centuries with each enriching the other. There has never been any clash between the religion and the culture except in the warped minds of the bigoted who, like the minister, may wear Western suits for their own comfort and, yet, want the poor Kashmiri to use the poisonous smoke-spewing kangri to fight the cold. His advice that “we should not look at the girl as a dancer but as our daughter” only exposes his own mindset. There are countless parents who happily and willingly encourage their daughters to learn dancing and enjoy their performance without any qualms of conscience. The minister’s holier-than-thou attitude reminds the people about the campaign launched by his counterpart in Maharashtra who banned dancing in bars and a former Central minister who prescribed a dress code for television newsreaders. Surprisingly, all such fiats are invariably directed against women. It is an open secret that deprived of the dancing jobs by the shenanigans of the minister, some of the girls were forced into the world’s oldest profession. As Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Baig will do well to improve the level of education of the girls of J&K and create suitable jobs for them. And if some of them find dancing, too, as a vocation, he should do everything possible to fulfil their dream. For that he should disabuse himself of the belief that a dancer cannot have any virtue and character.
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The healing touch WEST BENGAL Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s reaction to the Nandigram depredations by his party cadres has turned 180 degrees. After saying that they had paid back the agitators protesting against the forcible acquisition of land in the same coin, he first expressed regret over the shameful incidents. Now, he has finally visited the place and announced a big rehabilitation package for the residents who suffered. Not only that, he has also said categorically that no land will be acquired in Nandigarm and the proposed chemical hub will be built at nearby Nayachar, instead. Had his government displayed such flexibility and responsiveness right from the start, things would not have come to such an ugly pass. The packages for rebuilding Nandigram and rehabilitating the affected people will, hopefully, help cool down the situation. But that will depend on how the other functionaries of the government and the party implement the Chief Minister’s reconciliatory gestures. So far, there has been no sign of any actual change of mind on the issue. Only on Tuesday night, four villagers were injured in attacks by CPM cadres at Kalicharanpur near Nandigram after they refused to join a CPM rally. If Mr Bhattacharjee really wants the wounds of Nandigram to heal, he will have to make sure that the people guilty of killing unarmed agitators are punished and all those who have suffered are compensated. His expression of regret will not be meaningful unless those who perpetrated the horrendous crime are also sorry about what they did. If they are not, it is the government’s job to make them feel so. If they get away lightly, they can be depended on to enact another Nandigram sooner than later. The leniency shown to them will also strengthen the impression that whatever they did had the blessings of the party and the government. The government should also ensure that at Nayachar, the farmers are given adequate compensation for the land acquired from them. This should include not only liberal monetary benefits but also a stake in the projects coming up there.
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Sentence structure is innate but whining is acquired. — Woody Allen
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Crushing the Naxalite virus
AT the recent day-long conference of state Chief Ministers devoted entirely to the Naxalite menace, there was no mistaking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s deep and sincere agony over the persistence of this admittedly “biggest single” internal security threat to India. But at the end of the day the country was no wiser about what, if anything, the Union and state governments are likely to do to make their hitherto ineffectual response to the spreading challenge more vigorous than hitherto. There was doubtless talk of strengthening intelligence, encouraging state governments to organise “dedicated task forces” modelled on Andhra’s “greyhounds”, raised during the time the Telugu Desam leader, Chandrababu Naidu, was in power, and so on. But this was little different from what has been said before. As it happened the discussion on Naxalism, though scheduled earlier, took place a few days after the stunning jailbreak in Chhattisgarh, yet again masterminded by Naxalites, which added to the embarrassment of all concerned. For, the mass escape of nearly 300 prisoners, including 100 Naxalites in one of the worst affected areas, was clearly pre-planned and showed all signs of crass collusion between Naxalite activists and the jail staff. The Prime Minister’s own chilling description of the state of affairs needs to be quoted at some length. There were, according to him, only three warders to deal with the huge prison population at that time. He did not mention where the remaining nearly a dozen members of the jail staff had disappeared and why. All he said was, “Inadequate, ill-equipped, ill-trained, poorly motivated personnel cannot take on Naxal extremists who are increasingly better equipped and organised”. If this is the stark reality on the ground, then shouldn’t something have been done to set right the horrendous situation long ago? Or, at the very least, shouldn’t remedial action begin this instant so that there might be some impact of it at least a couple of years later, judging by the government’s usual speed? After every Naxalite outrage — almost always involving the looting of the weapons of the police or the jail staff — there is the usual brisk official announcement, “Security has been beefed up; a massive manhunt has been launched”. Hardly any of the culprits is ever apprehended, but never mind, officials must follow the routine. In the present case at Dantewala jail in Chhattisgarh, however, things took a different course. Rather than act immediately, the state government announced that its “combing operations” would begin three days later! The Naxals, instead of fleeing, lingered on in the vicinity to, and ambushed the police party sent after them, killing at least 12 policemen. If this is not a shockingly casual approach to an extremely well-organised and increasingly ominous challenge, what else is it? Sadly, instead of innovative strategies for combating Naxalism, all that one hears is a string of clichés. The government and its experts must think, and so should Parliament because it is not absolved of the responsibility of safeguarding the country’s security. But, unfortunately, the implacable hatred between the two mainstream parties, the Congress and the BJP, has virtually paralysed Parliament. The saffron party constantly taunts the Congress for being “soft on terrorism” and for having “thoughtlessly repealed POTA (the Prevention of Terrorism Act)”. The Congress blames the BJP for the attack on Parliament even though POTA was very much on the statute book. No wonder, the much-needed national debate never takes place on two pertinent issues the Prime Minister raised at last week’s conclave. One, though extremely noxious, the Naxalite threat is different from other brands of terrorism afflicting this country inasmuch as it is completely devoid of any religious or ethnic connotations. It is based on both ideology and despair, bred by poverty and deprivation that are not just grinding but dehumanising. The Prime Minister’s pithy phrase is “developmental divide” that surely needs to be bridged, but when, by whom and how? The government and indeed the country have every right to crow about the 9 per cent rate of growth. But it cannot be overlooked that this growth has taken place during the period when in the UN human development index India has shamefully fallen two places behind — from the 126th place to 128th. It is this that explains the tragedy that each year the Naxalites are able to widen both their recruitment base and areas of activity. In any case, the doctrine that in fighting Naxalism the country must address the needs of both equitable development and law enforcement remains valid. In fact, some attempts in this direction have been made in the past but to no great effect. In 2003, the previous government had selected 55 Naxal-infested districts for accelerating economic and social development there. But rather than launch an imaginative scheme with its unique socio-economic needs, the Union government, in the best bureaucratic tradition, merged it with other projects, run by the Planning Commission, including some complicated ones specifically meant for the abysmally poor districts of Bihar and Orissa. Consequently, none of them seems to have made headway. The second major issue that found a mention yet again is, in some respects, the heart of the matter. As one of the worst victims of terrorism of various brands and hues, India has the dubious distinction of not having a federal agency to combat this scourge. No wonder, some states start talking peace with the Naxals while some others, using organisations like Salwa Judam, outsource the fight against them, with catastrophic consequences. Attempts by both the Vajpayee-led NDA government and the UPA to set up a federal agency have failed because state chief ministers are jealous about “state rights”. National security thus becomes a victim of the “compulsions of coalition politics”. It does represent a slight advance that this time around, the conference authorised the Cabinet Secretary to head a special Central Task Force on Naxalism — either as part of an existing organisation such as the Border Security Force or the Central Reserve Police Force or independently. But the authority of the CTF would be limited to “assisting and coordinating with” the state task forces to be raised with the Union’s financial assistance. In any case, only a few chief ministers have accepted the idea of a central task force. Others continue to plough their own furrows. Why cannot the Central government request these CMs to take on the responsibility for deciding how to combat terrorism countrywide and devise their plans
accordingly?
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Prophecies
What I am telling you, friends, is truth and nothing, but the unadorned truth. It happened when I was 12 years of age i.e. back in 1942 in Rawalpindi. A Hindu astrologer, known for the veracity of his astrological calculations, discovered just by chance that the celestial conglomeration of planets predicted that pralaya (doomsday) was at hand and that within two years it would be on us. He toured the length and breadth of Punjab, lecturing in Hindu temples and Sikh gurdwaras foretelling the severity of the events to come. A very rich man of Jehlum helped him bring out a million copies of a booklet called Chetawani (warning) in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi for free distribution. I read that booklet in Urdu. It said that within two years hundreds of thousands of people would be killed; there would be death and destruction all around from the Indus to the Jamuna and beyond. Nothing could be done about it, the booklet said. The astrologer was so sure of himself that he vowed to commit suicide at the end of 1944 if his predictions didn’t come true. There were yajnas, hawans and akhand paths in temples and gurdwaras to ward off the calamity or at least to lesson its severity. Heathen that I was even at that age, I laughed outright. Whenever the subject came for discussion in my household, I told my dad and mom that it was hogwash. Well, no one could even think back in 1942 that the doomsday might not be a natural calamity but a political upheaval of violent dimensions. People in their millions read the book but never could think in terms of the partition of India. When, finally, the partition came, they had already forgotten about the book, because the astrologer, as promised by him, had committed suicide back on 31st December 1944. It is a different story, not entirely unrelated, how (according to unofficial estimates) three and a half million people lost their lives on both sides of the border. There was anexchange of populations and millions migrated from one country to the other. During one of my inter-university seminar engagements back in 1967, I met a well known astrologer in Madras. he had never heard of the book Chetawani, and I explained in details about its contents. He had a ready explanation. He said that the only reason why that particular astrologer’s predictions proved to be wrong was that he had slightly miscalculated and predated the event by two or three years. Since astrologers calculate by lunar calendar, even the littlest departure of one pal, ghari, or pehr, he said, could’ve taken him off course. He said: “The astrologers are never wrong; they sometimes inadvertently miscalculate. “Then he added, “Don’t you agree that the partition and the suffering it caused to crores of people was no less than a pralaya”. I asked him the crucial question, “Can you try and re-calculate it now?” “No,” he said. “I can’t and I won’t. How can past be predicted? I deal with future and future only.” Well, do I believe in astrological predictions now? Don’t ask me, friends, if I am still the skeptic that I was when I was 12 years old. I really dont’t know.n |
Afghan treasures return home The returnees are not people but things: rare and priceless treasures, including a foundation stone that might have been touched by Alexander the Great, a tiny statue of Buddha and coins that changed hands 2,000 years ago. The items are back in the rugged, battle-scarred land of their origin, which has served as a crossroads between the Middle East and Asia for millenniums. It is a rich history that Masoudi, the director of the Kabul National Museum, has dedicated his life to preserving. Welcoming home pieces that were pillaged from his institution or shipped overseas for safekeeping is like being reunited with old friends. “We are really happy,” Masoudi said. “Very important and precious pieces were among these artifacts. ... Afghanistan has a very ancient civilization. We have to preserve them.” For more than a decade, the museum here in the Afghan capital has been a symbol of the country’s suffering. Once a repository of one of the world’s most valuable collections of Central Asian artifacts, it turned into a building full of broken hopes and dreams, its shell shattered by civil war, its guts ripped out by the Taliban. The museum is now struggling to get back on its feet, its progress mirroring the often painfully slow improvements underway in the rest of Afghan society since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban six years ago. Reconstruction of the museum building, its roof blown to bits by rocket fire, is nearly finished. Glass panes wink back sunlight from what were ugly, empty window frames. Workers have cleaned more than 1,500 pieces and repaired 300 others damaged by the Taliban, whose rigid version of Islam considers graven images blasphemous. The repatriation of nearly 6,000 antiquities this year from Europe was a badly needed vote of confidence for both the museum and the government of Afghanistan, which has been battling a resurgence of Taliban militancy. In a sign of how much more needs to be done, however, virtually all of those objects remain in boxes, awaiting proper treatment and somewhere to put them on show. The museum has enough glass cases to display 250 of the tens of thousands of items it owns. Visitors too are in short supply – a couple dozen a day on average, many of them university students. During final exams, the corridors are even emptier. But like the country as a whole, the museum is hoping to rebuild on the strength of foreign assistance and the return of the Afghan diaspora, in this case the many native works and objects of art that found their way abroad both legally and illegally. The first batch to come back this year, in March, consisted of 1,423 pieces that had been packed off to Switzerland in the late 1990s. The collection, spanning centuries and empires, went on display in northern Switzerland, in possibly the world’s only museum-in-exile. It featured exquisite ivories from Bagram, a 2,300-year-old gargoyle and fly swatters made of yak hair. When the Afghan government requested last year that the items be returned, and U.N. officials determined that it was finally safe to do so, curator and art expert Paul Bucherer-Dietschi, who took responsibility for the collection in Switzerland, was both relieved and pleased. “It never belonged to me. It belonged to the international community, and it’s correct that Afghanistan, where it was found, is caretaker of it,” Bucherer-Dietschi said. “I was quite happy to bring this material back, as it is a sign that Afghanistan (is getting) back to normality.” Perhaps the most prized possession of the lot is a phallus-shaped stone bearing the Athenian symbol of the owl, part of the foundation of the ancient city of Ai-Khanum, which might have been founded by Alexander the Great. If so, it is likely that the legendary warrior handled the piece himself. “If it would go to auction, the price could be unlimited,” Bucherer-Dietschi said. An even larger cache of artifacts was handed over by Denmark, more than 4,300 pieces that were presented directly to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in May. Danish police had seized the antiquities a few years ago, a trove of plundered and stolen goods containing animal figurines and coins dating to the first and second centuries B.C. Looting plagues Afghanistan’s historical sites and excavations; authorities hope to assemble an archaeological police force to combat the problem. In February, the International Council of Museums published a blacklist of smuggled goods to alert auction houses, curators and collectors. Masoudi reckons that more than half the museum’s original holdings, which comprised 100,000 works before civil war reignited in the early ‘90s, have been destroyed or pilfered and sold off to private international collectors. During the war, museum staff transferred many items to secret locations around Kabul, braving danger to save irreplaceable pieces. When a mob of Taliban acolytes barreled into the museum and smashed statues and figures that had survived the depredations of centuries, some workers wept. Brick by brick, with money from the government of Greece and other countries, the institution is being slowly restored. Specialists have helped build up new departments of photography and ceramics. Foreign largesse has enabled the museum to acquire cameras, scanners and printers. Japan and the Netherlands are providing more display cases. What Masoudi really wants is a bigger facility in the center of Kabul, to replace the ash-colored building the museum has occupied since 1931 on the city’s western edge, which was never intended to be a museum but rather a municipal office.“This is a priority,” Masoudi said. “The museum should be in the center of the city so that everybody is able to visit.” Until then, he and his staff of 65 soldier on in the drafty halls of the present building, which soon will be bitterly cold from winter. A plaque at the museum’s entrance keeps their eyes on the prize: “A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive.” By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Ignorance about sex persists in society The
importance of sex education has been brought out graphically by a Delhi helpline that has recently analysed over 57,000 phone calls it has received from people of 12 to 70 plus years, seeking information on sexuality, the male and female anatomy and the joys and risks in a sexual relationship. Eighty per cent of the callers were men and almost 70 per cent of them spoke only in Hindi - an indication that these people either did not have access to this information on were too shy to ask their teachers, parents and peers. Over 150 calls (0.3 % of all calls) were from and about transgendered/transsexual people and issues. In India we have chosen to ignore these people and their sexual preferences. Section 377 in the Indian Penal Code, makes it difficult for some NGOs to openly provide HIV prevention services to men who have sex with men, as happened in Lucknow when the staff of the Bharosa Trust, affililiated to Naz Foundation International, were arrested in 2001. Again in Lucknow in 2006, four men were arrested on the charges of running a gay internet club. People who do not conform to heteronormative codes and live freely and unashamedly are denied vital health care services. To affirm sexuality all these variables need to be looked into, says Radhika Chandiramani, the executive director of TARSHI (Talking about Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues) that has been running the helpline since 1996. Chandiramani participated in 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights and spoke on sexuality being more than pleasure and on the new issues in affirming sexuality in the Asian region. In fact the youth participants to the conference came out strongly is support of sex education in schools and colleges. On the TARSHI helpline, we also see how people who are resistant to safer sex messages are afraid that they will be required to do things that will result in a loss of sexual pleasure for themselves and their partners, says Chandiramani. “Our approach is one that validates their fears and their desire for pleasure, which after all is one of the many reasons why people have sex to begin with, and goes on to looking at what they can do to enhance pleasure rather than reduce it, while at the same time, protecting themselves from unwanted negative consequences.” Pleasure in sexuality includes not only orgasms but notions of desire, positive self-image, emotional happiness, and so on. It is because of this that a negative, or a disease and danger focussed approach to sexuality yields few positive results, says Chandiramani. The helpline frequently receives calls from young men about to enter an arranged marriage, expressing their fears about the suhaag raat: They are afraid they won’t be able to ‘perform’, should they go to a sex worker for ‘practice’, what will the new wife think, their friends say they ‘did it’ five times the first night, etc…but at the same time they don’t want her to be afraid and hate him because they have to spend the rest of their lives together, they do want to have a happy sexual relationship, and so on. In the telephonic counselling they are asked what they really desire and they say that in an ideal situation they don’t want to be pressured into having sex with a stranger but would like to take it easy as they would if they had a girlfriend. They are asked what stops them from doing that and they reply that it is the pressure of proving that “I am a man” to her, as well as to their friends. So they are told that the to-be-wife is probably as, if not more, terrified about the first night and that the friends were probably bragging, and nothing stops the caller from saying that he ‘did it’ five or more times as well, as the friends are not there to watch in any case. The counsellor then asks what they would have done if the wife was a girlfriend and their answer is “I would go slowly. Start by holding her hands, kissing her, romancing her, making sure she is comfortable before having sexual intercourse.” The counsellor then suggests “Maybe you can do that with your wife too.” Then they go on to ask “What are the signs of sexual arousal in a woman? Will she be ready when I am? Do women ejaculate? How will I know that I have satisfied her? ” Then begins a process of giving them information about how women’s bodies function, the importance of foreplay and so on. We have got calls back from a number of these young men four or five weeks later thanking us and saying that they are now having a wonderful sexual relationship where both are enjoying it. However, a number of young women have phoned in to say that their first marital sexual experience was traumatic. These young men who could be termed ‘marital rapists’ are in need of basic information about sexuality and a validation of their masculinity, says Chandiramani. Sixty-eight per cent of the callers to the helpline were below 30 years. A little over 12 per cent of the callers were between 15 to 19 years and their most frequent questions were about general sexuality information. They want to know about basic things like sexual anatomy and physiology. These calls came from both English and Hindi speaking persons revealing the pressing need for introduction of comprehensive sexuality education in the school curriculum. Currently, there is a huge controversy in the country over the Adolescence Education Programme that was to have been introduced in the CBSE affiliated schools, and the primary objections are centred on the fear that it is antithetical to Indian culture and might lead young people to engaging in sexual relationships. The evidence, on the contrary, shows the opposite. Of the 57,000 plus calls received, close to 14,000 were blank, non serious or unclear. The remaining 43,888 calls were analysed. Just 7798 were by women. Gender differentials in the helpline data reflect the reality that men have better information about and access to services. However, even though women do not call the helpline themselves, their male partners do sometimes access helpline services on their behalf. The number of married people seeking information/guidance from the helpline was more than that of single persons-18,815 as against 16,924. A very small number of separated, divorced, widowed also called for information. Over 8000 did not disclose their marital status. |
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Delhi Durbar That Union labour minister Oscar Fernandes and his wife Blossom are a devoted couple is well-known in the Capital’s political circles. Blossom is always by Oscar’s side (and that includes official programmes) and the two can always be spotted holding hands as neither is shy of displaying their affection in public. Not just that but the minister recently confessed to a Congress colleague that he never opens any invitations when his wife is out of town as she gets upset if he does so. She likes to scan all the invitations he receives and it is entirely her perogative to decide which of these are to be accepted. So even if Oscar were to receive an invitation from Congress president Sonia Gandhi in his wife’s absence, it would just have to wait till Blossom’s return.
Inside story Veerappa Moily, chairman of the AICC media department, was at his sarcastic best after the Gujarat election results. He wished the victorious BJP chief minister Narendra Modi well and hoped he would now treat all citizens equally. Moily, however, did not fail to point out that contrary to popular perception, Modi did not win on the development plank but was only able to surge ahead because of his Hindutva agenda. So does it mean the people of Gujarat are inherently communal, he was asked. Moily was quick to dispute this statement and instead described Gujaratis as intelligent and enlightened and then added as an after thought, “After all, my son-in-law is a Gujarati”.
Failed formula The Gujarat poll results also provided Union fertilisers and chemicals minister and LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan an excellent opportunity to hit out at his rival Dalit leader BSP chief Mayawati. Her party failed to win a single seat, though she had fielded candidates for virtually all seats. Paswan did not name Mayawati but could not hide his glee when he remarked that the replication of social engineering outside Uttar Pradesh had totally failed. Ironically, for somebody who constantly talks of defeating “communal forces”, Paswan’s main poliitcal adversaries are Mayawati and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD.
Madhesis’ plight A group of Nepalese journalists, largely from the Madhesi community, was in town last week with a one-point agenda: to sensitise the Indian press about the problems of the Madhesis. One visiting journalist went to the extent of saying that when the Indian press does not bother about developments in Jharkhand or the North-East, it caannot be expected to show any senstivity about the Madhesis. Incidentally, Madhesis constitute more than 45 per cent of the total Nepalese population. Their grouse is that they are living in their own land like aliens for centuries. India shares a 1,751-km-long with Nepal and a large chunk of the border areas are inhabited by the Madhesis. Contributed by Anita Katyal, Prashant Sood and
S.Satyanarayanan. |
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KABUL – Emotional homecomings have been a big part of Omara Khan Masoudi’s job this year. In the past nine months, he has witnessed the return of thousands of Afghanistan’s lost and wayward charges from exile or detention abroad.