Abbottabad violence claims 16 lives

presstv.ir

Tue, 13 Apr 2010

At least 16 people have been killed after clashes erupted between police forces and protesters against the renaming of

Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.

The riots broke out when thousands of protestors who had gathered in Abbottabad district to express discontent with changing the name of the mountainous northern province to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa clashed with security personnel after police used tear gas shells and also opened fire to disperse the crowd.

The angry protestors torched two police vans and a city police station.

Over 300 people sustained bullet injuries in the protests.

The district administration has declared emergency across Abbottabad as violent protests have started spreading to other cities and tension has gripped districts like Mansehra, Haripur and Hawelian.

Meanwhile, the provincial government has decided to hold a judicial inquiry to probe into the riots.

« The perpetrators of the violent clashes would not go unpunished. We have decided to hold a judicial inquiry into the tragic incidents in Abbottabad, » the information minister of North-West Frontier Province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, told a press conference in Peshawar.

Six killed during protests in Abbotabad

dawn.com

Tuesday, 13 Apr, 2010

ABBOTTABAD: Six people were killed and more than 200 people injured on Monday when furious mobs, protesting plans to rename Pakistan‘s North West Frontier Province, clashed with police, officials said.

Several hundred ethnic Hazara people gathered in Abbottabad chanting slogans against the government and demanding a separate province for their community, local administration chief Muneer Azam said.

Angry protestors burnt two police mobiles, one Edhi ambulance and also set on fire the Cantt Police Station. The protestors also damaged a number of billboards on the main Karakuram High Way.

Police fired tear gas shells and opened fire to disperse the crowd as the authorities had banned public gatherings in the city, said a senior police official.

Meanwhile, spokesman of the Anti Pukhtoonkhawa movement Naseer Khan Jadoon said that they were carrying out peaceful protest when the police started shelling and opened indiscriminate fire.

Ayub Medical Complex Administration has confirmed that 40 injured were brought to the emergency department.

Emergency has been declared in the hospital and all sorts of leaves have been cancelled. The hospital administration also calls upon the public for blood donation.

NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti condemned the protest, accusing the protesters of wanting to create chaos and unrest.

He said that the government imposed section 144 in Abbotabad to avert any untoward situation.

Hoti said his government was trying to resolve the issue through negotiations and he would never allow anyone to disrupt the peace in Hazara.

“Those violating section 144 have no political agenda. They are not struggling to gain political objective. They have a single point agenda and that is to create law and order situation,” said the chief minister.

A landmark constitutional reform bill to strengthen parliamentary democracy and devolve greater power to the provinces seeks to replace the British-colonial name of North West Frontier Province with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The 18th amendment was voted through the lower house of parliament in a unanimous vote last week and is due to be presented on Monday to the upper house of parliament, from where it is expected to pass into law.

The demonstrators included supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q faction.

The party has said it would oppose constitutional reform package, which accepts ethnic majority Pashtun community’s longstanding demand to rename the province, in the senate or upper house.

Several opposition senators slammed Monday’s killings and urged the government to resolve the issue through a consensus.

“More than half the province is burning. The government should not rush, it must find a political solution to the crisis,” said Senator Zafar Ali Shah, from the Pakistan Muslim League-N party led by former premier Nawaz Sharif.

“If there is bloodshed over one clause in the bill, the government should defer it. A political consensus should be evolved for the sake of the nation’s unity,” PML-Q senator Wasim Sajjad said.

The fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami party also called for a “negotiated settlement” of the issue to avert crisis in the province, which is already plagued by Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militant violence.

Three killed in Pakistan protest over province name

Reuters

Mon Apr 12, 2010

By Abrar Tanoli

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) – Violent protests broke out in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad on Monday over the government’s move to rename a province, killing at least three people and wounding nearly 100, hospital officials said.

Pakistan’s National Assembly last week passed unanimously a set of constitutional reforms that include changing the name of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to « Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa » to reflect the ethnic Pashtun group which dominates the region.

However, non-Pashtun communities, particularly Hindko-speaking groups in Abbottabad and nearby areas, oppose the new name and have been protesting over the past few days.

Renaming the province is highly unlikely to derail the reforms, mainly aimed at curbing sweeping powers of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Protesters turned violent in Abbottabad on Monday after police charged them with batons and fired tear gas. Witnesses said there had been exchanges of fire between police and demonstrators in several places.

« Two dead bodies were brought to the hospital while one of nearly 100 wounded being treated in hospital expired of his wounds, » said doctor Rehmatullah Wazir.

« I could not confirm whether those who died had bullet wounds as there is absolute chaos inside and outside the hospital, » Wazir said, as protesters set fire to a police van outside.

The constitutional package was prepared by a parliamentary committee, made up of ruling and opposition parties. The bill has yet to be passed by parliament’s Senate upper house Senate and to be signed into law by Zardari.

New province name sparks deadly riots in Pakistan

AFP

12 04 2010

ISLAMABAD — Six people were killed on Monday when furious mobs protesting at plans to rename Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province after its Pashtun majority clashed with police, officials said.

The bloodshed triggered an uproar in the upper house of parliament and at least temporarily delayed the scheduled presentation of a constitutional reform bill, which enshrines the new name Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

More than 200 ethnic Hazara people went on the rampage in the northwestern city of Abbottabad, chanting slogans denouncing the government and demanding a separate province, local administration chief Muneer Azam said.

The protesters set a police station on fire, torched a police vehicle, pelted police with stones and blocked roads, he said.

Police fired tear gas shells and opened fire to disperse the crowd as the authorities had banned public gatherings in the city, senior police official Imtiaz Altaf told AFP.

« Our information is that six people have died in the violence, » provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters.

Hospital officials said more than 100 people were wounded in the clashes.

The bloodshed has been provoked by a landmark reform bill designed to strengthen parliamentary democracy and devolve greater power to the provinces, as well as replace the British-colonial name of North West Frontier Province.

The 18th amendment was voted through the lower house of parliament in a unanimous vote last week was due to be presented later Monday to the upper house of parliament, from where it was expected to pass into law.

The demonstrators included supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) led by an ally of Pervez Musharraf — the general who seized power in a 1999 coup and was replaced by the current elected civilian government in 2008.

The party has said it would oppose the constitutional reform package, which accepts the ethnic majority Pashtun community’s longstanding demand to rename the province, in the senate or upper house.

Several opposition senators slammed Monday’s killings and urged the government to resolve the issue through a consensus.

« More than half the province is burning. The government should not rush, it must find a political solution to the crisis, » said Senator Zafar Ali Shah, from the Pakistan Muslim League-N party led by former premier Nawaz Sharif.

« If there is bloodshed over one clause in the bill, the government should defer it. A political consensus should be evolved for the sake of the nation’s unity, » PML-Q senator Wasim Sajjad said.

The fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami party also called for a « negotiated settlement » of the issue to avert crisis in the province, which is already plagued by Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militant violence.

The package curbs President Asif Ali Zardari’s powers to fire the prime minister, dissolve parliament and appoint chiefs of the armed forces.

Its passage could be delayed if the senate returns the bill for a review over the controversy triggered by renaming the province.

North West Frontier Province chief minister Amir Haider Hoti condemned the protest, accusing the protesters of wanting to create chaos and unrest.

Hoti, who leads the secular Awami National Party — the main ruling faction in the province and dominated by Pashtuns — told reporters his government was trying to resolve the issue through negotiations.

Pashtu speakers make up 70 percent of the population in North West Frontier Province and the non-Pashtu-speaking Hazaras 30 percent, Hussain said.

6 killed in riots over renaming of Pakistan’s northwest province

peopledaily.com.cn

April 12, 2010

Persistent protests of minority groups staged across Pakistan against the renaming of its restive northwest province went violent Monday as people began to get killed, complicating the renaming process as a constitutional reform package has been sent to the senate for deliberation.

Since last week, protestors belonging to Hazara division gathered against the renaming the North West Frontier Province ( NWFP) as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in major cities including Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Abbottabad and Tarbela.

Irate protestors attacked and torched police station and vehicles before exchanging gunfire and fighting pitch battles with police following an early baton charge and tear gas shelling by the law enforcers, leaving six persons dead and dozens injured on Monday morning in Abbottabad in the northwest.

« Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will never be acceptable, and Hazara will be made a new province, » said Sardar Haider Zaman, a former legislator.

Transport remained thin and shops closed during most of the day, as a partial strike was being observed in Abbottabad and other main towns. Small rallies shouted in protest demanding a separate province. Some pockets with Hazara inhabitants in the garrison city of Rawalpindi also observed a partial strike.

The Abbottabad district administration has imposed Section-144 in the city prohibiting rallies, processions, exhibition of arms and sealed all entry points leading into the city, as the ongoing protest entered its 12th day.

However, ethnic Hazaras started gathering at the main Fawara Chowk, or fountain roundabout, of the city in the morning in defiance of orders, local sources said.

« People are injured by gunshots, tear gas shells and hit by police batons, » Muhammad Amjad, a businessman told Xinhua by telephone from Abbottabad.

Additional police force has been called in from adjoining districts as the protests ruled by violence and rage seemed to intensify, said a spokesman of local administration.

Amid protests in the Hindko language speaking belt of the province, the renaming was approved by the National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistan last week, as a part of the landmark 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill that has now been tabled in the upper house of the parliament, the Senate on Monday for formal approval.

Informations

Abbottabad (Urdu: ایبٹ آباد) is a city located in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan and is the third-largest city in the province after Peshawar and Mardan. The city is situated in the Orash Valley, 150 km north of Islamabad and 200 km east of Peshawar at an altitude of 4,120 feet (1,260 m).

analyses

Ethnicity main cause of clashes

Gulfnews.com

Hindko speakers in Hazara Division feel left out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

April 14, 2010

Dubai: The proposed renaming of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has led to series of bloody clashes between the security forces and residents. The province is already witnessing a war on terrorism for the past few years.

The week-long skirmishes in Hazara Division — the second largest of the seven divisions of the NWFP — have left 12 dead and more than 200 injured.

The proposal to change the name has infuriated the more than five million Hindko-speaking community. They comprise one-fourth of the 21 million population of the province.

The community is mainly settled in Hazara Division bordering with Islamabad, and the centre of resistance against the renaming has been the main city of Abbottabad. A peaceful city and a great tourist attraction, it saw the bloodiest clashes in its history on Monday after protesters clashed with the police.

Protests started as soon as the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms proposed a constitutional package on March 31 this year to the National Assembly that included changing the Province’s name to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The renaming of the NWFP as Khyber Pakthunkhwa has gone down badly in the Hazara region and there appears to be genuine grassroots dissent against a name that the non-Pakhtun, Hindko-speaking population of the region does not identify with.

Pakhtunkhwa means ‘land of Pakhtoon’ (Pakhtoons are Pushto-speaking community who are in a majority in NWFP. As such the renaming has left other communities fuming.

Hindko speakers are the second largest community in the province and largely live in Hazara Division. There is a huge presence of Seraiki and Balochi-speaking community in D.I Khan Division of the province and they are also not happy with the renaming issue. Protest rallies were also held in Haripur and Mansehra districts of Hazara Division.

Political parties also added fuel to the fire as they tried to cash in on the situation. Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) which lost the elections to Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in this division is reportedly blaming Sharif’s party for not protecting the rights of the people in their areas.

What happened in Abbottabad appeared to be tied to a struggle between the PML-Q and PML-N in the first instance and the lack of a prompt public-awareness campaign in the Hazara region, generally by the Awami National Party (ANP) led provincial government.

The renaming proposal was added into the constitutional package called the 18th amendment as it was a major condition of ANP leaders to form an alliance with the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government.

« The government is trying to divide the province on the bases of ethnicity and language and this move would lead to unrest, » said Iftikhar Khan, a Dubai-based former mayor of Haripur district in Hazara.

Referendum

He proposed the government should hold referendum in the province and should rename the province with consensus if it is necessary at all.

« The government should focus on other pressing issues such as terrorism, unemployment, education, health and price hike instead of playing with the sentiments of the people, » he said, adding that the renaming bid would lead to division of the province into smaller provinces.

It was in 1901, when the North West Frontier Province was carved out of Punjab. The province was merged into what was called ‘One Unit’ in 1955, with Lahore becoming the capital of the new administrative unit.

General Yahya Khan dissolved the ‘One Unit’ in July 1970 and restored the provinces of the NWFP, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. The 1973 Constitution continued with the British nomenclature.

The Pakhtun nationalist parties including ANP, however, continued to press for a change of name.

Alternatives included Pashtunistan, Pakhtunkhwa and Afghania. NWFP borders Afghanistan to the north west, Gilgit-Baltistan to the north east, Pakistan-administered Kashmir to the east, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to the west and south, and Punjab and Islamabad Capital Territory to the south east.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 12 avril 2010.

Publié dans दंगा, émeutes, riots