In late September, as Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan breathed fire and brimstone at the United Nations General Assembly over India’s alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, hundreds of protesters outside the New York building were blaming Khan for something similar. These were his own tribesmen—the Pashtuns from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Lending support to the Pashtuns— who held aloft the banner of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement—were men and women from Pakistan’s Balochistan and Sindh provinces. Most of them were from the Baloch Republican Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz.
Their slogans echoed the sentiments of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi, who had decried the 1947 partition with the words: “You have thrown us to the wolves.”
To most Pashtuns, Baloch, people of Gilgit-Baltistan and even the Sindhis, the military-controlled Pakistan state is that wolf; it has been fattening itself at the expense of the tribesmen and the peripheral provinces for years.
At the time of partition, Muhammad Ali Jinnah had justified the creation of Pakistan by pointing to the identity crisis Muslims were facing at the time. However, in the 1970s, problems in the faith-based two-nation theory were exposed. Bangladesh was created based not on religion, but ethnicity and language. And, since then, newer fault lines have appeared on the body politic of Pakistan.
Chief among them is the Baloch movement, spearheaded by the Baloch Republican Party. “The situation in Balochistan is critical,” BRP president Brahumdagh Bugti, living in exile in Geneva for nine years, told THE WEEK. “No day passes without a village being attacked, civilians being harassed or a bullet-riddled body of previously abducted Baloch political activists being dumped in deserted places.”
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 01, 2019 من THE WEEK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 01, 2019 من THE WEEK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
A golden girl
One of India's most formidable beauties passed away earlier this month. The odd thing is she would absolutely hate this obituary; she hated being written about and avoided publicity for all of her nine decades. Indira Aswani was 93 when she died. But anyone who encountered her, even briefly, was in such awe of her grace and poise, and one could not but remember her forever.
The interest in wine is growing delightfully in India
The renowned British wine writer and television presenter Jancis Robinson, 74, recently came to Delhi and Mumbai to reacquaint herself with India's wine industry. This was the Robinson's fourth visit to India; the last one was seven years ago. On this trip, Robinson and her husband, restaurateur Nicholas Lander, were hosted by the Taj Hotels and Sonal Holland, India's only Master of Wine.
United in the states
Indian-Americans coming together under the Democratic umbrella could get Harris over the line in key battlegrounds
COVER DRIVE
Usage-driven motor insurance policies offer several benefits
GDP as the only measure of progress is illogical
Dasho Karma Ura, one of the world's leading happiness experts, has guided Bhutan's unique gross national happiness (GNH) project. He uses empirical data to show that money cannot buy happiness in all circumstances, rather it is family and health that have the strongest positive effect on happiness. Excerpts from an interview:
India is not a controlling big brother
Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay considers India a benevolent elder sibling as the \"big brotherly attitude\" is happily missing from bilateral ties. He thinks the relationship shared by the two countries has become a model of friendship not just for the region, but for the entire world. \"India's attitude is definitely not of a big brother who is controlling and does not allow the little brother to blossom and grow,\" says Tobgay in an exclusive interview with THE WEEK.
Comrade with no foes
Lal Salaam, Comrade Yechury-you were quite a guy!
Pinning down saffron
In her first political bout, Vinesh Phogat rides on the anti-BJP sentiment across Haryana
MAKE IN MANIPUR
Home-made rockets and weapons from across the border are escalating the conflict
SAHEB LOSES STEAM
Coalition dynamics and poor electoral prospects continue to diminish Ajit Pawar's political stock