Posts Tagged ‘Hangu’

Suicide car bomb kills 12 in Hangu: police

PESHAWAR: A suicide car bomb targeted a city police station in Pakistan’s northwestern town of Hangu on Thursday, killing 12 people and wounding more than 20 others, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Pakistan’s main Taliban faction have claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks against government security forces apparently [...]

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Via DAWN.com

Blast heard in Hangu

PESHAWAR: An explosion was heard in northwest Pakistan’s Hangu region on Sunday, DawnNews reported. Details are awaited.

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Via DAWN.com

Locals injure man over `desecration`

KOHAT, April 27: The residents of Kotki area in Hangu district shot and injured a person for alleged desecration of the holy Quran at a shrine on Wednesday.

Police arrested the young man under section 195-B and put him in the lockup of Hangu city police station. However, case against him was registered in Saddar police station because the incident occurred in its limits.

Sources said that police received anonymous threatening calls, threatening them of dire consequences in case they didn`t arrest the alleged blasphemer. Similar telephone calls were also received by local journalists, who were warned to file story about the incident or face consequences. Sources said that the calls were made by militants.

Sources said that 27-year-old Saiful Malook picked up few damaged pages of the holy Quran from a mosque and burned them at a shrine in Kotki area where he was spotted by some people. Locals beat him and opened firing on him, injuring his leg, they added.

He was brought to Hangu city police station and locked after registration of case for interrogation.

According to preliminary investigations the accused was a sensible man and just wanted to burn the damaged pages under the Islamic law to save them from desecration. However, officials of local police, when contacted, were tightlipped about the incident.— Correspondent

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Via DAWN.com

Militants blow up market in Orakzai

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PESHAWAR – Militants blew up a market in Jalka Mela, area of Lower Orakzai Agency, while a passer by was killed during exchange of fire between security forces and militants in Tora Wari, area of Hangu district, on Wednesday.
Sources said the market was owned by Mahboob Khan, a…

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The alphabet jungle

There is no doubt that in a country like Pakistan, education should be a top priority. It is believed that the country’s dismal literacy rates over the years has contributed in the rise of frustration and crime in the cities, and kept the majority of people in the rural areas ‘superstitious’ and an easy pray to the trickery of false pirs, and the exploitation of feudal lords, jagidars and maulvis.

A majority of state and government workers, along with various NGOs and donor agencies, who are involved in the uplift of education in the country have suggested that low literacy rates have helped extremist and sectarian organisations in easily ‘brainwashing’ the illiterate young men into committing acts of carnage and bloodshed in the name of religion.

For this purpose, these organisations use a warped mixture of cleverly selected verses from the Quran and sayings (hadith) of the Prophet  (PBUH) – giving it an un-scholarly and distorted interpretation – and an equally twisted worldview about international politics and the ‘sinister’ role being played by Hindus (India), Christians (US/West) and, of course, the Jews.

Nevertheless, there are some prominent intellectuals, educationists and scholars in Pakistan who, in spite of being at the forefront of lobbying for the implementation of far-reaching education policies, have been heading another debate regarding the issue.

Well-known intellectuals and academics such as Pervez Hoodbhoy, Rubina Saigol, A.H. Nayyar and Ahmed Salim along with historians such as Dr. Mubarak Ali and the late K.K. Aziz have for years been highly suspicious and critical of the kind of textbooks being used in schools and colleges across Pakistan, especially since the early 1970s.

Those who were already fretting over the way generations of Pakistani students have been taught skewed history lessons about Islam and Pakistan through state-approved history books, are now worried that the biased and distorted imagery of Muslims and other faiths in textbooks are being given glamorous currency even by certain TV personalities.

To quote Rubina Saigol: ‘After the 1971 break up of Pakistan and the war with India, educational discourse on nation building in Pakistan became much more introverted. The shock and horror of the defeat in East Pakistan led to the reconstruction of ideological boundaries in a much more narrow form. A violent, militaristic and negative nationalism, which saw enemies on every border, was reconstituted. This nationalism was not so much for progress or development as much as against Pakistan’s myriad enemies lurking behind every door.’

This new nationalism required a re-ordering of the past. Those unacceptable to the newly formed insecure national self had to be violently expunged. The pages of time had to be cleansed of the enemy’s presence. Ram, Buddha, Jesus Christ and several others, who had earlier been allowed in with a generous hospitality, had to make unceremonious exits from the pages of history textbooks. In their stead, the Khulfa-i-Rashideen, belonging to Arabia and to an ‘other’  alternative past, were welcomed warmly into the texts.

During General Ziaul Haq’s dictatorship, religion as an instrument of homogenisation and control became centre-stage in educational policies.

An elaborate study conducted by a group of distinguished Pakistani historians and educationalists in 2003 states the prevalence of a theocratic vision in social studies textbooks.

,The report, noticed the following in Pakistani social studies and history books:

* Insensitivity to the existing religious diversity of the nation.

* Incitement to militancy and violence, including encouragement of jihad and shahadat.

* A glorification of war and the use of force.

* Inaccuracies of fact and omissions that serve to substantially distort the nature and significance of actual events in our history.

* Perspectives that encourage prejudice, bigotry and discrimination towards fellow citizens, especially women and religious minorities.

* Omission of concepts that could encourage critical self awareness among students.

During the Zia era, science too faced the dictator’s Orwellian Islamisation process.

As Professor Hoodbhoy explains in his reveling book, Science & The Islamic World (1988), sullied science and farcical concepts of religion came together in an official conference called by Zia (at the cost of millions of rupees) in which papers on the following, (and absurd) topics were read: The harnessing of Djinns to create an alternative energy source; chemical compositions of Djinns; measuring the temperature of Hell; calculating the formulae for sawab (blessing); and measuring the speed of Heaven!

Further down the hole

Almost every educated Pakistani (after the early 1970s) has received ‘education’ based on the above-mentioned criteria.

However, it is also true that the blatant historical and theological distortions present in school textbooks have been cleverly and subtly built in (mainly by ‘pro-establishment historians and ulema’) into the books.

This means that although many Pakistani children grow up believing certain historical biases and prejudices to be a ‘historical fact,’ there is always room for many to inquire about and revise their understanding through further study and books by genuine historians, progressive Islamic scholars and secular intellectuals.

However, there is now an attempt (mainly by non-state and non-governmental elements) to infiltrate and clog even this space as well.

More than ever, many puritanical organisations which may not necessarily be militant, have started publishing literature to counter the claims of secular historians and intellectuals.

And this doesn’t just stop at Urdu book stores because the religion and history sections of even the most upscale book stores in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad are now graced by books that give so-called historical, theological and ‘geo-political’ arguments for exactly the kind of distortions people like Hoodbhoy, Nayyar, Saigol and Dr. Mubarak have been warning against.

But whereas this particular tussle between the two opposite spectrums has so-far remained intellectual in nature and restricted to middle-class interests, educationists working in the field of schools catering to the lower-middle and the working-classes have been facing an altogether more worrisome phenomenon.

Take the shocking example of a Class-I Urdu book that this writer was made aware of (see picture below).

The contents of the book (being taught to very young children) are all about implanting radical jihadi imagery in young minds (to produce ‘educated jihadis?).

For example, the word and image used to explain the Urdu alphabet ‘bey,’ an illustration of the Kalashnikov and the word ‘bandookh’ (gun) is given.

For the letter ‘tay,’ the word used is ‘takrao’ (impact) and an illustration of a plane hitting the Twin Towers in New York is shown.

For the letter ‘jeem,’ an image of a white jihadi flag and the word ‘jihad’ is used.

For the letter ‘khay,’ an image of a hunting knife (with blood dripping from it) and the word ‘khanjar’ (knife) is used.

For the letter ‘hey,’ an image of a woman fully covered in black cloth and the word ‘hijab’ is used.

For the letter ‘zey,’ the obscure word used is ‘zunoob’ (sin) and the illustration is that of a bonfire made from a pile containing a TV set, a satellite dish, a board game and a guitar.

According the available information, these pages were from books found in certain low-income schools in Karachi’s lower middle-class areas.

On further inquiry it was found (by this writer) that these books were first printed in Karachi (about seven years ago)  for the purpose of being sent to places like Swat, Hangu, Malakand and Waziristan in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

It is not known how many schools these (or similar) books were used to teach school children or whether – especially after the government’s and the Army’s successful operations against jihadi groups in Swat a year ago – they are still being taught.

It is also not known how many schools in Karachi are (or were) using such books. It is however believed that these books were introduced in schools and madrassas being run and funded by certain militant organisations or their ‘front organisations that mainly function as ‘charity outfits.’

When the schools that this writer visited (in some of the city’s working-class and lower middle-class areas), no such literature was found, even though some teachers did acknowledge the fact that some schools were using such books (but they declined to give any further information).

Whether such books are still in use or were being taught during the height of jihadi activity in Pakistan (between 2003 and 2009), one has to continue keeping an eye not only on what is going on in the militant-infested hills and mountains of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the remote plains of South Punjab, but also in certain educational institutions where extremist outfits have found ways  to preach violence (in the name of religion) to young children.

Jihad (Pvt.)

More so, even many private colleges and universities are not free from this malaise.

Whereas politics on state-owned campuses is still a highly charged ‘Islamist/conservative vs. progressive/liberal affair between student organisations, on private campuses it is being subtly and silently penetrated by some elusive socio-political groups.

These groups were unsuccessful in gaining a foothold on state-owned campuses mainly due to the presence of conventional student parties.

The target audience of these new groups are the urban middle-classes.

These groups (at least in educational institutions) do not operate like the conventional student political outfit. In fact, they claim to shun politics and pretend to help students become better and more successful Muslims.

The two main groups having access to private-owned campuses are both Islamic in orientation. One is the apparently harmless but ultra-conservative Tableeghi Jamaat and the other is the controversial Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

The Tableeghi Jamaat and the Tahrir have been making deep inroads into privately-owned universities and colleges for the last decade or so.

The consequences of this are not entirely apolitical because at least the Tahrir is a political organisation with an agenda to ‘unify the ummah’ (through a modern-day caliphate). It is also supposedly banned in Pakistan.

Even though it was Abul ala Maududi’s ‘political Islam’ that was introduced into the once secular Pakistan Army by Ziaul Haq, by the early 1990s the Tableeghi Jamaat began having a bigger impact, turning the politics of the institution into a strange fusion of Maududi’s political Islam and the Jamaat’s social aspirations.

That is why the political impact of the Tahrir and the Tableeghi Jamaat’s preaching in private universities and colleges sees the affected students eventually coming close to the worldview peddled by some in the conservative military establishment.

,,Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn

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Via DAWN.com

Militancy scaring away teachers from Hangu

KOHAT, April 4: Teachers have been avoiding posting in the restive Hangu district, thereby leaving almost all the government schools understaffed and thousands of students at the mercy of terror groups for the last one decade.

Due to worsening law and order situation, about 250 teachers of high schools posted in Hangu over the last few years have got themselves transferred to other districts. The local students have been left in the lurch because the lengthy government policy of inducting teachers through Public Service Commission also takes months to select and post the education staff in various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Due to terrorist activities in the area the Senior English Teachers (SET) – usually responsible for teaching 9th and 10th grade students – start trying to get transferred to another district within a month of posting, which is why the number of vacant posts in high schools has increased during the past decade. Fresh teachers also hesitate to serve in Hangu and they use all resources to avoid posting in the area,” the executive district officer of education, Hangu, Jan Mohammad, told Dawn.

He said that that they had been sending monthly reports about vacant posts and other problems to the provincial education directorate while in the meanwhile junior certified teachers (CT) were given the task to take care of the classes in about 20 high schools. He said that there was deficiency of teachers of all cadres in Hangu schools, but the SET posts were vacant in 20 of the 45 high schools.

Mr Jan hoped that most of the vacant posts would be filled by September, but at the same time there was no guarantee that the newly-appointed teachers would stay in Hangu if the security situation did not improve.

The situation in other government departments and hospitals was also not satisfactory where non-governmental organisations had come forward to fill the gap. The government servants also frequently skip their duties on the plea that the Kohat-Hangu highway was not safe for travel to and from their destination.

The emergency unit of the only civil hospital in Hangu, which receive scores of victims of attacks on passenger vehicles on Parachinar highway and blasts, has been already been taken by an international NGO.

MNA from Hangu, Pir Haider Ali Shah told a delegation the other day that he had informed Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti about the problems of people. The delegation told the MNA that there was a deficiency of 70 per cent teaching staff in all the government schools of Hangu.

Due to weak writ of the government in Hangu and the adjacent Orakzai and Kurram Agencies and unsafe Parachinar highway, the business community and other residents had already left Hangu and settled in Peshawar, Kohat, Kashmir and Punjab.

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Via DAWN.com

Security forces’ counter attack kills 15 militants in North West

Eight militants died in Hangu and seven in Tirah valley, one security forces’ official died and three got injured as well. – File Photo by AP

PESHAWAR: Pakistani security forces on Sunday killed at least eight militants in a counter attack in Hangu.

One officer was killed and three got injured in an ambush from militants earlier, whereas in Tirah valley security forces claimed to have killed seven militants, DawnNews reported.

According to sources two factions of Lashkar-e-Islam were fighting with each other in ,Khyber agency, as well, as chief of the banned outfit ,Mangal Bagh, was facing rebellion from his own former commanders.

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Via DAWN.com

Five killed in Hangu suicide bombing

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A suicide bomber rammed an explosives laden vehicle with a police building in Hangu killing five persons and injuring 25 others on Thursday. A huge explosion razed the police station and several nearby buildings to ground. Relief and rescue operation was started after the incident and injured, including 11 policemen,…

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Blasts rock Peshawar, Hangu

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PESHAWAR – A donkey cart rider was killed in a bomb blast planted by suspected militants, while two electric towers were blown up in outskirts of the provincial metropolis on Thursday.
Placed by suspected militants, a planted bomb exploded in middle of a link road at Matni area in suburbs…

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Lack of security mars oil, gas exploration in Tal Block

KOHAT, March 18: The Hungarian Exploration Company MOL and Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL), which are operating 19 wells in the Kohat division as part of the Tal Block, still feel unsafe and are at the mercy of extortionists even after being involved in the region for more than a decade.

The Tal Block contracted to these companies by the government in 1999 and 2001comprises Kohat, Hangu, Karak, Orakzai Agency of Kohat division, Bannu and parts of Waziristan Agency.

The region is teaming with unbridled criminals who have for centuries made large swathes as no go areas where their main source of income is kidnappings for ransom and drug trafficking.

Only recently, rouge elements attacked OGDCL facilities and vehicles and occupied the company`s new Sheikhan site, forcing the OGDCL to suspend its production on different points in Kohat district.

Influential people and landowners often forcibly stop the oil and gas exploration work demanding jobs and extra cost of their land used by the company.

Mushfiq Paracha, the regional chief who administers whole Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and parts of Punjab, told this correspondent on telephone that some of the matters concerning recent incidents had been resolved. But the safety of the installations and the staff required much more security.

The MOL company officials have requested the commissioner Kohat division, Khalid Khan Umerzai, at several meetings held in recent months to provide the staff and installations with security especially after kidnapping of their staff and firing incidents.

They also demanded elimination of the criminal gangs who pose constant threat to their installations.

A one such meeting was held on Thursday. But the MOL officials in Kohat and Islamabad, when contacted, refused to comment only saying that they were not allowed to speak about such matters.

A couple of months back unknown criminals attacked a vehicle of the MOL company and kidnapped its official Fayyaz Khattak. The incident occurred in Sarki Mela area between Kohat and Hangu districts. The MOL operates 10 wells of oil and gas in the region and is also assessing new reserves at sites in Hangu district.

Officials of both the companies and police said that extra troops of Frontier Constabulary and police check posts had started functioning after a long period of negotiations in view of the extreme vulnerability of the national and foreign companies to the criminals.

The interior ministry had sanctioned extra platoon of FC, establishment of two posts and round the clock patrolling of the region. But the situation is still far from safe.

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Via DAWN.com

Eight killed as helicopters target militants in Kurram

PESHAWAR, March 18: Gunship helicopters pounded suspected positions in central tehsil of Kurram Agency on Friday and killed at least eight alleged militants and wounded seven others, officials said.

Helicopters attacked militant hideouts in Chinarek area of central tehsil. Two hideouts were attacked which left eight militants dead and seven others injured. The official claim could not be verified from independent sources.

Meanwhile, unidentified persons kidnapped two drivers from Lower Kurram on Thursday. They were going back to Thall in Hangu district from Parachinar when armed men stopped their vehicle and took them to some unknown location.

In another incident, a tribesman was killed in a clash with militants in Upper Kurram on Friday.

The militants fired rockets on tribal people in Pewar area from the nearby mountains. One of the mortar shells fell on a house and as a result a tribesman, Nasrat Hussain Turi, was killed. The tribal people retaliated and the crossfire continued for some hours with intervals.

The local people expressed concern over the growing number of attacks and asked the government to take stern action against the militants.Separately, five militants were killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces in Matta tehsil of Swat valley on Friday.

Official sources said that on a tip-off the security forces cordoned off Baha area of Matta tehsil.

They spotted suspected militants entering to Swat via Dir.

The forces asked them to surrender but they opened fire. Five alleged militants identified as Imtiaz Ali, Fazal Hadi, Fazal Wahid, Akber Hussain, and Mohammad Rahim were killed in the ensuing encounter.

All the dead hailed from Charbagh tehsil and wanted to security forces in various case of violence.

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Via DAWN.com

Six militants killed in Hangu

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HANGU – As many as six militants were killed and three others got injured during a clash with security forces here on Tuesday.
Reportedly a group of armed militants attacked a security forces check post situated at Torghar area of tehsil Tal, district Hangu, with sophisticated arms. However, the forces…

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Six militants killed in Hangu clash

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At least six militants were killed and several others were wounded in a clash with security forces in Hangu district, 150 kilometres southwest of Peshawar, on Tuesday, report said. The clash occurred when militants attacked a security forces check post in the area. The forces retaliated, killing six militants. Militants…

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Six militants killed in Hangu clash

The clash occurred when militants attacked security forces in the area. — Photo by AP

HANGU: At least six militants were killed and several others were wounded in a clash with security forces in northwestern Pakistan’s Hangu district, 150 kilometres southwest of Peshawar, on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.

The clash occurred when militants attacked a security forces check post in the area. The forces retaliated, killing six militants.

Militants are engaged in a ,campaign of violence, against security forces in Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led “war against terror”.

Around 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since 2007.

The bombings have been blamed on terror networks linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda.

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Via DAWN.com

10 passengers die in Hangu ambush

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HANGU – At least 10 persons were killed and seven others got injured when their vehicle was ambushed by armed assailants here at tehsil Tal on Sunday.
The security forces came into action immediately after the attack and killed three attackers. Carrying a total of 17 passengers from Parachinar, Kurram…

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Hangu: Eight killed, seven injured in attack on bus

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Militants opened fire on a passenger van in a lawless northwestern town on Sunday, killing at least eight Shia Muslims and wounding seven others, police said. The incident took place in Hangu district, 150 kilometres southwest of Peshawar. “Militants intercepted a passenger van at Mamoo Khwar village in Hangu district…

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Students back in schools in Orakzai

According to an official, girls could not go to schools in some areas because of security reasons. – Photo by APP (File Photo)

KALAYA: About 9,000 children have started going to schools in lower and central tehsils of Orakzai Agency after the authorities made makeshift arrangements for students of 68 boys and girls schools, which were destroyed in militancy.

“Around 172 tents have been provided to these schools and classes are regularly being arranged for around 9,000 children, who recently returned from relief camps in Kohat and Hangu districts,” said Orakzai Agency Political Agent Riaz Khan Mehsud while talking to media persons on Sunday.

He said that a foreign donor agency had donated tents for the militancy-hit government schools.

However, an official told this correspondent that girls could not go to schools in some areas because of security reasons. He said that militants were still present in some pockets of the central tehsil and the authorities could not reopen schools in these areas.

Orakzai Agency is considered the most backward area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and has the lowest literacy rate among tribal regions. Recently, militants have blown up the only degree college for women in the area.

“Girls are not allowed to go to schools in this tribal region, particularly in central tehsil,” the official said and added that educational institutions in upper tehsils were still closed due to the military operation against militants. He said that majority of the female teachers were non-locals, who could not join their duties.

Mr Mehsud said that normalcy was returning to the areas, which had been cleared from militants. He said that the security forces had restored the government writ in 90 per cent areas of Orakzai Agency.

“Reopening of schools show that the government’s writ has been restored in many areas,” he maintained.

The political agent said that over 140,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) had returned to their homes in Goyeen, Ferozkhel, Meshti Mela, Meshti bazaar and Utmankhel areas. He said that the return process of the remaining IDPs would be resumed very soon.

He said that lady doctors of the Army Medical Corps had been deputed in main hospital Kalaya while mobile health units were also working in the conflict-hit areas.

Mr Mehsud said that peace committees comprising elders and local officials had been set up in militancy-free areas. He praised the role of these committees and said that law and order situation had improved in their respective areas.

Meanwhile, the directorate of forests will carry out tree plantation over 700 acres in Orakzai Agency during the upcoming spring. Officials said that Levies personnel and students would be engaged in the plantation campaign.

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Via DAWN.com