Highlights of the November 2008 issue
Interviews
Exclusive Online
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By Shayan Rajani
Since 2002, at least 1,635 people have been killed and 3,907 injured in 113
suicide attacks in Pakistan. On average, 14 people lose their lives and 35 are
injured every time a suicide bomber attacks. The Herald takes a look at the
various trends in suicide attacks over the past seven years.
The authorities have only just begun to realise the
extent of the humanitarian crisis created by the Bajaur conflict
When electronics shopkeeper Akramullah moved – lock, stock and barrel – from
Charmang, a sub-district of Bajaur Agency, to the settled areas of the North
West Frontier Province (NWFP) in mid-September, it was for the second time
within a month. His elderly parents, wife, children, brothers and sisters
had previously undertaken a similar trip in mid-August on foot to flee the
air strikes and artillery fire, covering a distance of 30 kilometres and
crossing hilly tracks and plains, to reach the adjoining Mohmand Agency. And
from there, a hired Datsun pickup took them to the Pirpai camp (this camp
was closed when the ceasefire was announced), set up by the government on
the outskirts of Peshawar for people displaced from Bajaur. The family
decided to go back home when the federal government announced a ceasefire in
Bajaur at the start of Ramazan. The truce proved to be fragile, however. “We
had been home for only three days when the army resumed bombing and we had
to leave again,” Akramullah tells the Herald. His family is now lodged in
the Benazir Camp for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Risalpur.
Akramullah’s misery is by no means an isolated case. Hundreds of families
remained on the move during this period because of the intense bombing.
Timergara, a small town on the outskirts of the Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (Fata), became the convergence point for the uprooted people
who left their homes behind during both stages of the military operation.
Starting from August, in the first six weeks, the Bajaur operation was
largely restricted to aerial and artillery fire. From September 10 onwards
the army mounted a ground offensive to ferret out militants from their
hideouts.
By Maqbool Ahmed
The battle between the Pakistani security forces and militants in the once
serene and beautiful Swat Valley rages on more than a year after it first
began. Ironically, the area’s civilians are suffering the most as a war
aimed at their own safety continues to be waged around them and the
government is making no obvious effort – even as a key battle tactic – to
win hearts and minds of the locals. This may turn out to be its worst and
gravest mistake.
By Sadaf Halai
With
only a month and a half left to go before the National Academy of Performing
Arts (Napa) has to vacate its Hindu Gymkhana premises as per government orders,
the conflict between the performing arts institution and Sindh’s Culture and
Tourism Department shows no signs of abating. The latter claims that Napa should
be evicted because it violated the Gymkhana’s status as a protected cultural
heritage when it razed the site’s auditorium to construct a new facility. Napa
claims that it was given permission to do so under the government of former
President Pervez Musharraf. But the core of the controversy is not limited to
the preservation of a protected site — the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) argues
that the Gymkhana belongs to the city’s Hindu community and is lobbying, along
with the Sindh’s culture minister, for it to be handed over to Hindus for use as
a community centre. The Herald sat down with some prominent figures involved in
the controversy – Sassui Palejo, Arshad Mehmood, Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani and
Yasmeen Lari – to get their views on the situation.
By Nadia Jajja
Shisha smoking is on the rise among young adults, but smokers are often unaware of the health risks involved
Even
though it’s a weekday, all three floors of a popular cafe on Zamzama are filled
to capacity. Beverages, though, are not what’s most in demand, or what everyone
around is ordering. “Our best selling item is shisha,” says the manager, Hamza
Khalid. “Most of our regular customers come and sit for two to three hours every
day, having shisha.” As we talk, almost as if on cue, a group of teenagers file
in and wait to be shown into the hazy basement where shisha is served. “Even
though we are primarily a coffee shop, there isn’t much of a coffee culture in
the city,” shares Khalid. “In fact, it was after a year that we introduced
shisha on our menu. Needless to say, so far our profit turnover has been 100 per
cent.”