ISLAMABAD, March 1: Politicians and members of the civil society have asked the government to scrap the plan to mine the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area and sign the Mine Ban Treaty as every year hundreds of innocent civilians fall prey to landmine blasts in tribal areas, Balochistan and Kashmir.
In 2006 alone, different types of landmines had caused 403 casualties, as against 212 registered in the previous year. A majority of those falling victims to these ‘silent killers’ are women and children, many of whom are now spending miserable lives without limbs.
Leaders of the People’s Party Parliamentarian, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Awami National Party as well as strategic experts and civil society members have expressed concern over the rising number of landmine casualties in the conflict-hit Balochistan province and tribal areas near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
They were speaking at a conference titled ‘1997-2007: Ten Years of the Mine Ban Treaty, a Success in Progress’ organised here on Thursday by the Sustainable Peace and Development Organisation (Spado), the Pakistani chapter of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Data gathered by Spado reveal that the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), especially Bajaur and Kurram agencies, are the worst affected by landmines.
The area has been contaminated with landmine since the attack of the former USSR on Afghanistan in December 1979 while Pakistan is not in a position to sign the treaty even now due to what it calls strategic concerns.
According to the data based on registered cases, at least 212 new human casualties were reported in 2005. The casualties included death for 64 persons and injuries for 148 others. Some 127 of those killed or injured were civilians, including nine children and 15 women.
This was a steady increase compared to 195 -- 67 killed and 128 injured -- in 2004.
Between 2002 and 2005, Spado has recorded 656 casualties – 237 killed and 419 injured.
Speakers said there was no comprehensive reporting or data collection system in Pakistan and many mines-related cases went unreported while the media had yet to focus on the repercussions of the issue.
They said there were no specialised medical, surgical or first-aid facilities for landmine victims close to the mine-affected areas.
According to the speakers, victims are transported to hospitals in large cities mostly by private vehicles or in some cases by ambulances. There are no rehabilitation programmes for landmine survivors supported by the government in the mine-affected areas. Prosthetic facilities are available, but mine survivors generally have to cover the cost.
They said such casualties had further deteriorated the socio-economic conditions of poor communities in the tribal areas. The incidents had mostly occurred in agricultural lands, pathways leading to schools, mosques and in rough terrains and made people limbless, they said, adding that student victims were seldom able to continue their education.
The conference was told that Pakistan was one of the few countries still producing anti-personnel mines. Since January 1997, the Pakistan Ordnance Factories had been producing detectable version of hand-emplaced blast mines. Before, 1992, the country was a major exporter of landmines.
However, there is no official information available on Pakistan’s stockpile of anti-personnel mines.
They said people of areas in Kashmir along the Line of Control still complained of the existence of landmines there.
Those who spoke on the occasion included Deputy High Commissioner of Canada Stuart Huges, Senator Akram Zaki, ANP’s Haji Adeel, Qamar Abbas of the PPP and Syed Alam Masood of the PKMAP.
Spado Executive Director Raza Shah Khan said 153 states had singed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty which entered into force on March 1, 1999.
