09-23-2008, 01:08 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Murder as tradition </b>
Pioneer.com
D Suba Chandran
<b>Baluchis defend burying five girls, women alive</b>
These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them," thundered Israr Ullah Zehri, a Senator from Baluchistan, in Pakistan's Parliament on August 29, 2008. Obviously, the people of any democracy would love to see their elected representative defend their traditions, especially if it is centuries old. But what is the tradition that the Senator was defending? He was referring to the shooting of five women in Baluchistan by armed men, sometime in July 2008, and then burying the injured women alive.
No one is quite sure when this barbarism took place, though it came to light after the Asian Human Rights Commission made an urgent appeal in mid-August. The five women -- including two married women and three unmarried teenagers -- were about to leave for Usta Mohammed in Jafarabad district. Since the three girls wanted to marry men of their choice, which was not approved by their elders, they had decided to get married in the civil court in Usta Mohammed. A group of six armed men abducted the women, fired at the three girls, and then buried them alive. When the two elder women, an aunt and a mother of the victims, protested, they were also buried alive.
Who is responsible for this crime? What prompted it? And how has the state reacted? Abdul Sattar Umrani, who led the killing squad, is a brother of Sadiq Umrani, who is a PPP member of the Baluchistan Provincial Assembly and a Minister. Abdul Sattar Umrani, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission report, was also involved in a similar killing in January 2006, when his armed men killed three people, including a couple, who were about to get married in a civil court in Nasserabad district. Despite the intervention then by Iftikhar Chaudhary, the deposed Chief Justice, Abdul Sattar Umrani could not be arrested, thanks to the police and the local judiciary.
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Pioneer.com
D Suba Chandran
<b>Baluchis defend burying five girls, women alive</b>
These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them," thundered Israr Ullah Zehri, a Senator from Baluchistan, in Pakistan's Parliament on August 29, 2008. Obviously, the people of any democracy would love to see their elected representative defend their traditions, especially if it is centuries old. But what is the tradition that the Senator was defending? He was referring to the shooting of five women in Baluchistan by armed men, sometime in July 2008, and then burying the injured women alive.
No one is quite sure when this barbarism took place, though it came to light after the Asian Human Rights Commission made an urgent appeal in mid-August. The five women -- including two married women and three unmarried teenagers -- were about to leave for Usta Mohammed in Jafarabad district. Since the three girls wanted to marry men of their choice, which was not approved by their elders, they had decided to get married in the civil court in Usta Mohammed. A group of six armed men abducted the women, fired at the three girls, and then buried them alive. When the two elder women, an aunt and a mother of the victims, protested, they were also buried alive.
Who is responsible for this crime? What prompted it? And how has the state reacted? Abdul Sattar Umrani, who led the killing squad, is a brother of Sadiq Umrani, who is a PPP member of the Baluchistan Provincial Assembly and a Minister. Abdul Sattar Umrani, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission report, was also involved in a similar killing in January 2006, when his armed men killed three people, including a couple, who were about to get married in a civil court in Nasserabad district. Despite the intervention then by Iftikhar Chaudhary, the deposed Chief Justice, Abdul Sattar Umrani could not be arrested, thanks to the police and the local judiciary.
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