‘Over 150-year-old’ Hindu temple demolished in Karachi’s Soldier Bazaar
Shazia Hasan Published July 16, 2023
KARACHI: The Hindu community in Karachi woke up on Saturday morning to find the old Mari Mata Temple Soldier Bazaar had been razed to the ground.
According to residents of the area, the operation took place while the area was without electricity late on Friday night. That’s when the diggers and a bulldozer arrived to do their work. While leaving the outer walls and the temple’s main gate intact, they demolished the entire inside structure.
The residents have also reported that they saw a police mobile there to provide ‘cover’ to the men operating the machines.
They said that the Mari Mata Temple is located on Mukhi Chohitram Road, very near the Soldier Bazaar police station.
“It is a very old mandir,” Shri Ram Nath Mishra Mahraj of another very old temple nearby, the Shri Punch Mukhi Hanuman Mandir, informed Dawn.
“It is said to have been built over 150 years ago. We have also heard of stories about old treasures buried in its courtyard,” he said, adding that it covered about 400 to 500 square yards and there had been talk of the land grabbers having their eye on it for some time now.
“The mandir was under the management of the Madrasi Hindu community of Karachi and since it was being said that it was a very old and dangerous structure that might topple any day, the mandir management after much pressure reluctantly but temporarily moved most of their deities to a small room near the storm water drain until they could carry out some renovation work there,” he said.
“But last night the Mari Mata Mandir was just flattened,” he added.
A member of the Madrasi Hindu community, meanwhile, said that they were being forced to vacate by two persons, namely, Imran Hashmi and Rekha AKA Nagin Bai. There was also talk of the temple being sold off by the two named to another party for an amount of 70 million rupees and the buyers were looking to build a commercial building there. There was also a mention of some fake documents in the name of a person named ‘Navaid’, allowing transfer of lease of the amenity plot to a commercial one.
The community has appealed to the Pakistan-Hindu Council, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and the Inspector General of Sindh police to take notice and look into the matter on an urgent basis.
Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2023
https://www.dawn.com/news/1764986/over- ... ier-bazaar
ATROCITIES AGAINST NON MUSLIMS
Re: ATROCITIES AGAINST NON MUSLIMS
Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023. India’s top court Wednesday began hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the legislation passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019 that stripped disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, scrapped its separate constitution and removed inherited protections on land and jobs.
SHEIKH SAALIQ and AIJAZ HUSSAIN
Wed, August 2, 2023 at 1:34 AM CDT
NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top court Wednesday began hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the legislation passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019 that stripped disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, scrapped its separate constitution and removed inherited protections on land and jobs.
The five-judge constitutional bench that includes the Supreme Court’s chief justice is simultaneously hearing a series of petitions challenging the special status granted to the region after its accession with newly independent India in 1947. Such petitions were filed before the 2019 changes.
The unprecedented move divided the region into two federal territories — Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, both ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of their own. The move’s immediate implications were that the Muslim-majority region is now run by bureaucrats with no democratic credentials and lost its flag, criminal code and constitution.
“The case is before the country’s top-most constitutional bench. We are optimistic as we know our case is very strong,” said Hasnain Masoodi, a Kashmir-based Indian lawmaker who was one of the first petitioners challenging the Modi government’s decision. He also served as a judge at Kashmir's high court.
“This constitutional framework provided a mechanism to be part of the Indian union. The abrogation was a betrayal and an assault on our identity,” he said.
Masoodi, who is part of Kashmir region’s largest political party, the National Conference, said the 2019 decision “violated every norm and mechanism” under India’s constitution and its “gross violation in letter and spirit.”
Soon after, Indian officials began integrating Kashmir into the rest of India with administrative changes enacted without public input. A domicile law rolled out in 2020 made it possible for any Indian national who has lived in the region for at least 15 years or has studied for seven years to become a permanent resident of the region. That same year, the government also eased rules for Indian soldiers to acquire land in Kashmir and build “strategic” settlements.
Indian authorities have called the new residency rights an overdue measure to foster greater economic development, but critics say it could alter the population's makeup.
Many Kashmiris worry that an influx of outsiders could alter the results of a plebiscite if it were to ever take place, even though it was promised under the 1948 United Nations resolutions that gave Kashmir the choice of joining either Pakistan or India.
The stunning mountain region has known little but conflict since 1947, when British rule of the Indian subcontinent divided the territory between the newly created India and Pakistan. Kashmiri separatists launched a full-blown armed revolt in 1989, seeking unification with Pakistan or complete independence.
Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. New Delhi insists the Kashmir militancy in Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
Many Muslim ethnic Kashmiris view the 2019 changes as an annexation, while members of minority Hindu and Buddhist communities initially welcomed the move but later expressed fear of losing land and jobs in the pristine Himalayan region.
While deeply unpopular in Kashmir, the move resonated in much of India, where the Modi government was cheered by supporters for fulfilling a long-held Hindu nationalist pledge to scrap the restive region’s special privileges.
In New Delhi’s effort to shape what it calls “Naya Kashmir,” or a “new Kashmir,” the territory’s people have, however, been largely silenced, with their civil liberties curbed, as India has shown no tolerance for any form of dissent.
Kashmir’s press has also faced major difficulties. Many journalists in the region have since been intimated, harassed, summoned to police stations and sometimes arrested. The administration also implemented a new media policy that seeks to control reporting.
SHEIKH SAALIQ and AIJAZ HUSSAIN
Wed, August 2, 2023 at 1:34 AM CDT
NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top court Wednesday began hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the legislation passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019 that stripped disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, scrapped its separate constitution and removed inherited protections on land and jobs.
The five-judge constitutional bench that includes the Supreme Court’s chief justice is simultaneously hearing a series of petitions challenging the special status granted to the region after its accession with newly independent India in 1947. Such petitions were filed before the 2019 changes.
The unprecedented move divided the region into two federal territories — Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, both ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of their own. The move’s immediate implications were that the Muslim-majority region is now run by bureaucrats with no democratic credentials and lost its flag, criminal code and constitution.
“The case is before the country’s top-most constitutional bench. We are optimistic as we know our case is very strong,” said Hasnain Masoodi, a Kashmir-based Indian lawmaker who was one of the first petitioners challenging the Modi government’s decision. He also served as a judge at Kashmir's high court.
“This constitutional framework provided a mechanism to be part of the Indian union. The abrogation was a betrayal and an assault on our identity,” he said.
Masoodi, who is part of Kashmir region’s largest political party, the National Conference, said the 2019 decision “violated every norm and mechanism” under India’s constitution and its “gross violation in letter and spirit.”
Soon after, Indian officials began integrating Kashmir into the rest of India with administrative changes enacted without public input. A domicile law rolled out in 2020 made it possible for any Indian national who has lived in the region for at least 15 years or has studied for seven years to become a permanent resident of the region. That same year, the government also eased rules for Indian soldiers to acquire land in Kashmir and build “strategic” settlements.
Indian authorities have called the new residency rights an overdue measure to foster greater economic development, but critics say it could alter the population's makeup.
Many Kashmiris worry that an influx of outsiders could alter the results of a plebiscite if it were to ever take place, even though it was promised under the 1948 United Nations resolutions that gave Kashmir the choice of joining either Pakistan or India.
The stunning mountain region has known little but conflict since 1947, when British rule of the Indian subcontinent divided the territory between the newly created India and Pakistan. Kashmiri separatists launched a full-blown armed revolt in 1989, seeking unification with Pakistan or complete independence.
Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. New Delhi insists the Kashmir militancy in Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
Many Muslim ethnic Kashmiris view the 2019 changes as an annexation, while members of minority Hindu and Buddhist communities initially welcomed the move but later expressed fear of losing land and jobs in the pristine Himalayan region.
While deeply unpopular in Kashmir, the move resonated in much of India, where the Modi government was cheered by supporters for fulfilling a long-held Hindu nationalist pledge to scrap the restive region’s special privileges.
In New Delhi’s effort to shape what it calls “Naya Kashmir,” or a “new Kashmir,” the territory’s people have, however, been largely silenced, with their civil liberties curbed, as India has shown no tolerance for any form of dissent.
Kashmir’s press has also faced major difficulties. Many journalists in the region have since been intimated, harassed, summoned to police stations and sometimes arrested. The administration also implemented a new media policy that seeks to control reporting.
Re: ATROCITIES AGAINST NON MUSLIMS
Curious case of Priya Kumari
Shahab Usto Published April 18, 2024 Updated about 21 hours ago
IT was on Ashura, Aug 19, 2021, when nine-year-old Priya Kumari went missing. Just before her disappearance or abduction she had been happily helping her father — a syncretic Hindu who runs a sabeel every year in Muharram in Sangrar, a small town near Sukkur serve sherbet to thirsty mourners. It is a curious case. For one, she ‘disappeared’ from a place that was thronged with hundreds of people, and yet, reportedly, the police found little by way of evidence or even a witness. And for another, her tragedy touches upon every element that has rent apart society, ie, faith, gender, class, and abuse.
Faith: Priya, a Hindu girl, was targeted when she was engaged in religio-cultural services for Muslims. She symbolised a tolerant tradition that goes back centuries, ie, peaceful cohabitation of various communities in Sindh, and beyond. In defiance of an obscurantist mindset that has spawned violence against religious minorities, she and her father transcended faith-driven fault lines. Her victimhood, therefore, not only exposes a corroded criminal justice system, but goes deeper into the conceptual recesses of a state caught between two conflicting philosophies. The state can either be viewed in terms of a benevolent democracy that accords equality before the law, and grants freedom of worship to every citizen, regardless of colour or creed. Or it can be seen as an ideological tool cast in the mould of a particular policy strand. Priya and many other individuals, groups and communities come under the latter.
Gender: Priya’s tragedy shows the threat to ‘gender justice’, which envisages the systemic removal of inequalities between men and women in both law and practice. She is among the countless children and women who are targeted for their gender, in different forms and to varying degrees. Thus, many of the better educated and more aware urban women are less vulnerable to extreme forms of gender crimes, though they may also face incidents of violence, abuse, or harassment. But the hotbeds of gender-based crimes are largely located in the rural and tribal areas where a combination of feudal, tribal, and obscurantist elements continue to regulate rural life, aided by an ineffectual or complicit state machinery.
Even here, the ratio of gender-based crimes — forced marriages, ‘honour’ killing, domestic violence, kidnapping for ransom, etc — is relatively higher among the half-literate and poorer sections. Clearly, the state has been criminally negligent in enforcing the rights of these hapless women — largely on account of the substantial influence that the local feudal-tribal patriarchy exercises over social policy and governance. But can the state flout local and international laws — particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women that obligates states to protect women’s rights — just to appease its local surrogates?
The missing young girl’s tragedy can be seen from the lens of multiple societal factors.
Class: Priya’s plight also highlights the social angle of crimes against women. She comes from a poor family and is possessed of all the vulnerabilities that accompany indigence and disempowerment. Statistically, a majority of sexually victimised children come from poorer and underprivileged classes. Perhaps the offenders are emboldened both by the victim’s incapacity to bring them to justice, and the state’s routinely tepid response. As a result, these ‘ordinary’ cases are left undetected, or invariably ‘settled’.
Recently, we saw two instances of our lame-duck criminal justice system. In 2021, Nazim Jokhio, a wildlife activist, was brutally murdered near Thatta when he tried to stop the hunting of protected birds. His was, as they say, an open-and-shut case. But the powerful offenders were ‘pardoned’ by the victim’s family out of desperation and helplessness. In August last year, Fatima Fariro, a nine-year-old maid, died in mysterious circumstances in Ranipur, located near Khairpur. The investigation report (including the video footage of the crime scene) has attributed the cause of her death to the abuse and torture allegedly committed by her employer, an influential pir. But the prosecution remains to be concluded, despite the lapse of many months. It is feared that the delay, even if not intentional, will be used to settle the matter out of court.
Abuse: Priya’s case pertains to ‘disappearance’ or ‘abduction’, but abuse cannot be excluded. Child abuse is on the rise. Of the 2,227 abuse victims reported in 2023, more than half (54 per cent) were girls. Let’s not forget that children, like women, enjoy multiple protections under general, special, and international laws. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular requires the state to ensure the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. But it is unfortunate that child abuse, like forced disappearances, is rampant and neglected — more so if the victim comes from a poorer background. In fact, most successfully prosecuted cases are those vigorously pursued by the victim’s family; otherwise, they end up in the amnesiac entrails of our criminal justice system.
Priya is lucky that the media, civil society and political activists have kept her case alive. Recently, the government constituted another JIT under public pressure. But will the new JIT bear fruit in terms of recovering her and ensuring justice for her? The answer hinges on many variables, including the victim-family’s perseverance, the investigator’s diligence, the suspect’s clout, the prosecutors’ capacity, and more importantly, the court’s willingness to decide the matter expeditiously and justly.
In a curious way, Priya’s unexplained disappearance, Fatima’s unending prosecution, and the ‘pardoning’ of offenders by Nazim’s family reflect respectively the incapacity, dysfunctionality, and discomfiture of the entire criminal justice system — the law, police, investigation, prosecution, and adjudication. Ergo, a perception is gaining ground that our legal order has lost its effectiveness, hence, legitimacy. Desperate people are taking the law into their own hands. ‘Mob justice’ and vigilantism are on the rise. Which raises the critical question: can a state see stability and advancement without an effective and legitimate legal order?
The writer is a lawyer and an academic.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1828152/curio ... iya-kumari
Shahab Usto Published April 18, 2024 Updated about 21 hours ago
IT was on Ashura, Aug 19, 2021, when nine-year-old Priya Kumari went missing. Just before her disappearance or abduction she had been happily helping her father — a syncretic Hindu who runs a sabeel every year in Muharram in Sangrar, a small town near Sukkur serve sherbet to thirsty mourners. It is a curious case. For one, she ‘disappeared’ from a place that was thronged with hundreds of people, and yet, reportedly, the police found little by way of evidence or even a witness. And for another, her tragedy touches upon every element that has rent apart society, ie, faith, gender, class, and abuse.
Faith: Priya, a Hindu girl, was targeted when she was engaged in religio-cultural services for Muslims. She symbolised a tolerant tradition that goes back centuries, ie, peaceful cohabitation of various communities in Sindh, and beyond. In defiance of an obscurantist mindset that has spawned violence against religious minorities, she and her father transcended faith-driven fault lines. Her victimhood, therefore, not only exposes a corroded criminal justice system, but goes deeper into the conceptual recesses of a state caught between two conflicting philosophies. The state can either be viewed in terms of a benevolent democracy that accords equality before the law, and grants freedom of worship to every citizen, regardless of colour or creed. Or it can be seen as an ideological tool cast in the mould of a particular policy strand. Priya and many other individuals, groups and communities come under the latter.
Gender: Priya’s tragedy shows the threat to ‘gender justice’, which envisages the systemic removal of inequalities between men and women in both law and practice. She is among the countless children and women who are targeted for their gender, in different forms and to varying degrees. Thus, many of the better educated and more aware urban women are less vulnerable to extreme forms of gender crimes, though they may also face incidents of violence, abuse, or harassment. But the hotbeds of gender-based crimes are largely located in the rural and tribal areas where a combination of feudal, tribal, and obscurantist elements continue to regulate rural life, aided by an ineffectual or complicit state machinery.
Even here, the ratio of gender-based crimes — forced marriages, ‘honour’ killing, domestic violence, kidnapping for ransom, etc — is relatively higher among the half-literate and poorer sections. Clearly, the state has been criminally negligent in enforcing the rights of these hapless women — largely on account of the substantial influence that the local feudal-tribal patriarchy exercises over social policy and governance. But can the state flout local and international laws — particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women that obligates states to protect women’s rights — just to appease its local surrogates?
The missing young girl’s tragedy can be seen from the lens of multiple societal factors.
Class: Priya’s plight also highlights the social angle of crimes against women. She comes from a poor family and is possessed of all the vulnerabilities that accompany indigence and disempowerment. Statistically, a majority of sexually victimised children come from poorer and underprivileged classes. Perhaps the offenders are emboldened both by the victim’s incapacity to bring them to justice, and the state’s routinely tepid response. As a result, these ‘ordinary’ cases are left undetected, or invariably ‘settled’.
Recently, we saw two instances of our lame-duck criminal justice system. In 2021, Nazim Jokhio, a wildlife activist, was brutally murdered near Thatta when he tried to stop the hunting of protected birds. His was, as they say, an open-and-shut case. But the powerful offenders were ‘pardoned’ by the victim’s family out of desperation and helplessness. In August last year, Fatima Fariro, a nine-year-old maid, died in mysterious circumstances in Ranipur, located near Khairpur. The investigation report (including the video footage of the crime scene) has attributed the cause of her death to the abuse and torture allegedly committed by her employer, an influential pir. But the prosecution remains to be concluded, despite the lapse of many months. It is feared that the delay, even if not intentional, will be used to settle the matter out of court.
Abuse: Priya’s case pertains to ‘disappearance’ or ‘abduction’, but abuse cannot be excluded. Child abuse is on the rise. Of the 2,227 abuse victims reported in 2023, more than half (54 per cent) were girls. Let’s not forget that children, like women, enjoy multiple protections under general, special, and international laws. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular requires the state to ensure the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. But it is unfortunate that child abuse, like forced disappearances, is rampant and neglected — more so if the victim comes from a poorer background. In fact, most successfully prosecuted cases are those vigorously pursued by the victim’s family; otherwise, they end up in the amnesiac entrails of our criminal justice system.
Priya is lucky that the media, civil society and political activists have kept her case alive. Recently, the government constituted another JIT under public pressure. But will the new JIT bear fruit in terms of recovering her and ensuring justice for her? The answer hinges on many variables, including the victim-family’s perseverance, the investigator’s diligence, the suspect’s clout, the prosecutors’ capacity, and more importantly, the court’s willingness to decide the matter expeditiously and justly.
In a curious way, Priya’s unexplained disappearance, Fatima’s unending prosecution, and the ‘pardoning’ of offenders by Nazim’s family reflect respectively the incapacity, dysfunctionality, and discomfiture of the entire criminal justice system — the law, police, investigation, prosecution, and adjudication. Ergo, a perception is gaining ground that our legal order has lost its effectiveness, hence, legitimacy. Desperate people are taking the law into their own hands. ‘Mob justice’ and vigilantism are on the rise. Which raises the critical question: can a state see stability and advancement without an effective and legitimate legal order?
The writer is a lawyer and an academic.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1828152/curio ... iya-kumari