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| India-Pakistan |
| Mullahs hindering humanitarian work in Bagh |
| 2007-06-01 |
| The Mullah threat that brought the reconstruction and rehabilitation work in the quake-hit Bagh district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to a halt earlier this month is still a danger to the national and international agencies that hire female staff for their projects. It has been learnt that clerics have been exploiting the people’s sentiments for their vested interests. On the other hand, the AJK government and the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) have been making efforts to thwart their designs, with the implicit support of the army, to ensure continuity of the reconstruction work. However, some clerics of the area have been expressing reservations about female workers and demanding they should be replaced with male staff as, they think, that their culture is being tarnished and obscenity is being promoted due to women’s working alongside men. Sources said that these religious elements backed by chief cleric of the city’s Jamia Masjid, Maulana Abdul Manan, and some other clerics affiliated with a religio-political party, made a so-called Awami Action Front (AAF) in collaboration with some locals. The AAF had organised several protests in Bagh a few months back and threatened the relief organisations in the district, but the local administration did not pay any heed. The issue caught the media’s attention when on May 9 the UN announced to suspend work and pulled back its entire staff, citing “security” reasons from the area. The UN did not provide further details about its decision and the authorities kept mum due to the sensitivity of the issue. According to UN sources, miscreants set ablaze the house of UNDSS official Kamran Khan on May 7, who was chief of security affairs of these organisations, working in a cluster. “The house located only a few metres from the office of UN Habitat was apparently set on fire by unidentified persons and was completely gutted,” said the UN documents based on the notes taken during the proceedings of an internal meeting of the humanitarian community held at the American Refugee Committee’s (ARC) Islamabad office on May 7. According to the documents, two local female staff of the ARC went for a picnic to Sudha Gali near Bagh with a male official of the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) on May 1. The AAF informed the police, who arrested all the three on alleged charges of promoting vulgarity. After this, the UN Habitat’s vehicle was damaged and the driver was beaten up. On the night of May 6 when the ARC vehicle was dropping the kitchen worker at his house, unidentified people threw stones at the vehicle. On the morning of May 7, the house of an official from the UNDSS was gutted. After all this, the ARC suspended its operations in the district and stopped all types of field and vehicle movements. The agency that had 575 staff in Bagh evacuated all but four staff members, citing serious security concerns. In a panic, all relief agencies including WFP, UN Habitat, Save the Children, Islamic Relief, Mercy Corps, Action Aid and others also suspended their activities and asked the local female staff not to come to offices till the situation improved. The international agencies in their meeting held at ARC office in Islamabad on May 7 also complained that the local administration was not extending cooperation to ensure security of their staff. “One way to solve these issues is to write a consolidated letter from all INGO/NGOs to the AJK chief secretary as the Bagh DC does not seem to be supportive,” the minutes of the meeting quoted the participants as saying. Then a high-level delegation of the organisations led by UNDSS chief security advisor met with AJK chief secretary in Muzaffarbad and discussed the situation. The chief secretary directed the DIG police and commissioner to take immediate measures to control the situation and “sternly deal with the clerics causing unrest in Bagh”. The international donors had threatened that if the situation did not improve all the operations would be rolled back, which could cause a great loss to the Bagh people. It is further learnt that after intervention of the government at highest level and the ERRA ensuring security to all the humanitarian community in Bagh, these agencies agreed to resume their work again a week ago, but still the staff, especially the local women, were concerned about their security. Daily Times has also learnt that the clerics have also lured some local opportunists into exploiting the situation by managing to lease out their buildings and open plots at high rents to international agencies. Sources said that the clerics were also exploiting sentiments of the people over, what they term, slow pace of reconstruction work in the area. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Let the locals starve long enough until they realize how important it is to kill these obstructionist mullahs. This is what needs to happen with Islam in general. Sufficient numbers of Muslims must be made to suffer for the atrocities of their jihadist indoctrinators until they start killing them in large numbers. Nothing else promises even minor results. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-01 23:38 |
| #1 Not surprising, they want to live like the 1200's, so let them. How can people who still shit on the ground be worried about women helping rebuild their villages? |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2007-06-01 12:44 |