By: Engineer Manzoor
Hussain Parwana
When the police constable stopped
a Skardu bound bus at the Shangla check post and asked for the identity cards,
it made many passengers turn pale with fear. Without wasting any time, many
ducked their heads behind the backrest while others pretended to fall asleep.
Some even dropped their ID cards under their seats. It was only after the
constable checked few of the ID cards and got off the bus that the passengers
felt like a heavy weight was lifted off their chests.
At first sight, it might not seem
a normal reaction to many except to those who have read about the unfortunate
incident of February 28, when several armed men in military uniforms pulled 18
Shias out of four Gilgit bound buses and shot and killed them in front of their
loved ones. The incident occurred in the broad daylight and very close to the
two check posts located in Kohistan district. Yet, the vehicles carrying more
than 20 assailants were able to disappear from the crime scene without any
trace.
After the bloodshed, many in
Gilgit Baltistan raised the slogans, like “Yeh Jo Dehshetgardi Hai; Is Ke
Peechay Wardi Hai”, which suggests that the people of Gilgit Baltistan believe
that the assailants had support of the Pakistani agencies. The recent incident
reminds them of the Shia massacre of 1988, when military dictator Zia-ul-Haq
directly supported the militants during attacks on fourteen villages of Gilgit
Baltistan. Thousands of people lost lives, honor and property during that
episode which lasted for sixteen days. The slogans also show that people have
lost faith in the law enforcement agencies in their responsibility to maintain
law and order in the region. They accuse the paramilitary of fueling
sectarianism in Gilgit Baltistan to weaken the masses and tighten control over
the strategically located disputed region.
As terror has engulfed the
region, even routine checking of vehicles at police and military check posts
frightens the passengers. Now the peaceful and innocent people of Gilgit Baltistan,
who are known worldwide for their hospitality and loud laughter, are forced to
undertake the journey from Islamabad to
Gilgit Baltistan in the shadow of death. Now people are even hesitant to leave
the vehicles to use toilets or obtain food from the restaurants as are too
scared. They feel that the lofty and graceful mountains of Diamer and Kohistan
have become very unfriendly to them; the same mountains which once drew
thousands of climbers every summer.
For the people of Gilgit
Baltistan, travel on the Karakoram
Highway is no joyride. Some among the
passengers are students attending the universities of Pakistan ; others are temporary employees in
different urban centers of the country; while some are patients on their way to
the hospitals in Islamabad and Lahore . If government
plans to provide jobs, and health and educational services in Gilgit Baltistan,
then these people would not have to travel and risk their lives like this.
They ride these buses and vans
out of compulsion since they have no alternative means to travel. KKH is the
sole road that links Gilgit Baltistan with Pakistan . On the other hand, air
travel is extremely expensive and poor people of Gilgit Baltistan, where the
per capita income is one-fourth of that of Pakistan ’s average, cannot afford
to ride a plane.
A soldier attached to the
Northern Light Infantry (NLI) and currently stationed in North Waziristan
Agency accompanied the scribe in the same bus. While talking about safety
measures during the travel on KKH, he said, “The travellers especially the
Shias have to prepare in advance to conceal their identities to ensure
personnel security. The journey is emotionally and psychologically exhausting.
If we travel without ID cards, then the security forces hold us back, but if we
carry the cards, then we lose our lives”.
On average, 5,000 people travel
daily on KKH between Gilgit Baltistan and Islamabad . This means that in Gilgit
Baltistan, there are more than 5,000 families which have to spend hours in
stress, fear and pain, until their loved ones have made it to the other end of
the journey. Many mothers, sisters and wives spend millions of rupees daily to
make religious offerings as part of their prayers for the safety of the
passengers. On occasions, people slaughter domestic animals as part of the
offerings to God while women even make offerings of their jewelry on the
shrines and sacred tombs. One might not realize, but paying for life insurance
through religious offerings does affect the financial stability of these
families.
When the bus reached Besham Qila,
Ali Hussain, one of the passengers, received a call from his mother, who had
sold her jewelry for ten thousand rupees to pay for his airfare. She had
strictly forbidden her son to travel by road given the looming danger in the
aftermath of the Kohistan killings. However, after waiting for four days, and
experiencing repeated flight cancellations due to bad weather, Ali Hussain
embarked on the same bus with the scribe for Skardu. He lied to his mother
about his whereabouts and ensured to continue to wait for the plane ride.
People like Ali Hussain find it very difficult to justify paying for daily
hotel and taxi charges, especially if the same money was needed somewhere else
to pay for a child’s tuition fee or health care of a family member. After
finishing the conversation with his mother, Ali Hussain then called his friends
in Islamabad and
requested them to follow his version of the story, if his mother or any other
relative ever called them.
The case of Kohistan killings
will be forgotten like the previous incidents. The corrupt and incompetent
government has as usual blamed it on the religious groups and called it a
sectarian issue. It distracts the masses temporarily and hides the crimes of
the real culprits who live under the protection of state. At the same time, it
leaves longer lasting negative impacts on the society.
A hotel owner in Kohistan who was
serving tea to the bus passengers said, “Government is looking for excuses to
start a military operation in Kohistan. Our people are not involved in the Shia
killing but our land was used by the assailants. The Karakoram Highway is dotted with
security check posts every few miles and yet, the assailants escaped
conveniently. For us, KKH is the lifeline. The vehicles, goods and passengers
which travel on this road sustain our economy and livelihoods. How can we think
of destroying our own livelihood by killing passengers and customers? It is
beyond anyone’s imagination. We will starve to death if there is no traffic on
KKH. Now the people of Gilgit Baltistan are demanding to open the Line of
Control (LOC) and travel to Kargil. If that happens, then it will be a
significant financial loss for the businesses on the KKH.”
The Sunni youth from Darel who
tried to protect the Shia passengers and got himself killed in Kohistan reminds
us that the issue is not about Shia and Sunni differences. On the same day, a
Sunni passenger from Gilgit claimed one of the Shia passengers as his brother
and saved his life, which is a testimony that Shias and Sunnis desire to
co-exist peacefully. It is a shame that the government has failed to arrest the
real culprits and has resorted to blaming the Sunnis of Darel and Kohistan for
the mayhem.
Now the government is planning to
establish 30 more check posts on the KKH and few more in the Gilgit city.
Kohistan incident has become yet another excuse to beef up security in Gilgit
Baltistan and convert the region into a jail. This will also add to the time of
travel on KKH.
From Islamabad ,
it took 34 hours to reach at Alam Bridge Indus River
(Engineer Manzoor Hussain Parwana, Chairman
Gilgit Baltistan United Movement,,Skardu
1/4/2012
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