BBC News – Pakistan MQM’s Altaf Hussain attracts UK police interest

Thursday, 16 May 2013. Police in London say they are investigating complaints against a UK-based Pakistani politician to see if he has violated UK law.

Altaf Hussain, leader of the MQM party that controls Karachi, addressed supporters from London last Sunday after Pakistan’s general elections.

In response to accusations of electoral fraud, he is alleged to have threatened his accusers with violence.

Mr Hussain says that his remarks were taken out of context.

London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed to the BBC that an investigation had been launched “following complaints concerning comments made in a broadcast” by Mr Hussain.

Since the mid-1980s, the MQM has won every poll it has contested in Karachi and it did so again in last Saturday’s general election.

But this time, it is facing strong and widespread allegations of rigging and electoral fraud.

Half a dozen smaller parties, led by former international cricketer Imran Khan’s Movement for Justice Party (PTI), have been holding rallies and sit-ins to demand a re-run in Karachi.

On Sunday, addressing party workers from London, Mr Hussain responded to the allegations by appearing to threaten protesters with violence, and suggesting that if his party’s mandate was tampered with, Karachi would have no choice but to separate from Pakistan.

During his speech he referred to protests taking place near the Three Swords roundabout in Karachi.

“Those people who are protesting – and grandstanding – near Three Swords – I don’t want to fight or quarrel, but if I order my supporters now, they will go to Three Swords and turn them into a reality.”

He added: “MQM is blamed for everything. I say, oppose us with respect and decency, and with proof, otherwise I will soon unleash my supporters.”

Karachi is wracked with violence – much of it politically motivated.

Mr Hussain has since said that his remarks, which were broadcast on live TV, were taken out of context.

Possible prosecution

On Wednesday, the British High Commissioner in Pakistan, Adam Thomson, told a news conference that the UK took allegations of inciting hatred very seriously.

He said it was up to the police in London to determine whether Mr Hussain’s remarks violated British laws, and whether or not he could face prosecution.

The BBC’s Shahzeb Jillani in Karachi says that Mr Hussain effectively controls the city of 18 million people from his MQM headquarters in north London.

He has lived in the UK since 1991, saying his life would be at risk if he returned to Pakistan.

The MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement) is supported mainly by Muslim Urdu-speaking people whose families moved to Sindh province at the time of the partition of India in 1947.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22559282

BBC News – Three US soldiers killed in Afghanistan blast

Tuesday, 14 May 2013. Three US soldiers with the Nato-led force in Afghanistan have been killed by a roadside bomb, officials say.

A government spokesman in the southern province of Kandahar said the soldiers were in a convoy in Zhari district. Several others were reported wounded.

Taliban insurgents announced the start of their spring offensive in March.

This is the latest of a series of attacks this month on international troops, who are due to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Some 100,000 soldiers are still serving with the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in the country.

Hostages freed

“We can confirm that three soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan today (Tuesday),” Isaf spokesman Maj Bryan Purtell was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The spokesman added that the earlier death toll of four had been revised down and a recovery operation was taking place at the scene.

The coalition and local Afghan officials confirmed that all the victims were Americans.

On Monday, three Georgian soldiers serving with the Nato-led Isaf force died in an attack in the neighbouring province of Helmand.

On 1 May, three British soldiers died in a roadside bomb blast. Three days later, seven Isaf soldiers were killed in separate attacks.

In another development, the Taliban is reported to have freed the last four of eight Turkish civilians who were seized in April.

The Turks were in a group of 11 people captured in eastern Logar province when their helicopter was forced to land in bad weather.

The fate of two pilots, from Russia and Kyrgyzstan, and an Afghan translator remains unclear.

On Monday, Reuters quoted the Taliban as saying that the three captives were still alive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22529417

BBC News – Pakistan election: Sharif edges closer to majority

Nawaz Sharif is hoping to secure a majority in Pakistan’s parliament and form the next government after claiming election victory.

Unofficial results suggest his Muslim League will win easily, though Mr Sharif has reportedly opened talks with independents to guarantee a majority.

He has already been congratulated by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and US President Barack Obama also pledged to work with the new administration.

Mr Sharif is set to become prime minister for the third time.

Former cricketer Imran Khan, whose Movement for Justice Party (PTI) is in a close fight for second place, has promised to provide genuine opposition.

Analysts say Mr Sharif, 63, is in a far stronger position than the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which led a weak coalition often on the verge of collapse.

The PPP of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto appears to have been badly beaten in Saturday’s election. It was one of several secular parties unable to campaign freely due to Taliban attacks.

An election commission spokesman said turnout had been around 60%. In 2008 it was 44%.

On Sunday evening, Pakistani media said the PML-N had so far captured 94 seats with the PTI securing 21 and the PPP 19.

Analysts said the PML-N was likely to get around 130 seats and should be able to make up the required majority of 137 with support from independents and small parties.

Once it achieves a majority, Mr Sharif’s party would be allocated a majority of 70 other parliamentary seats reserved for women and non-Muslim minorities.

The election appears to have paved the way for the first transition from one elected government to another in a country prone to military takeovers.

Mr Sharif – who was toppled in a military coup in 1999 and spent years in exile – spent Sunday in talks on forming a government.

Imran Khan, still bedridden after a fall at a campaign rally, said the election would boost Pakistan’s young democracy.

But he said his party was collecting evidence of alleged vote-rigging.

“We are now moving towards democracy. I congratulate the nation on the numbers in which they turned out to vote,” he said.

‘New course’

President Obama congratulated Pakistan on successfully completing the election and said he looked forward to working with the government that emerged.

He welcomed the “historic, peaceful and transparent transfer of civilian power” but stopped short of naming Mr Sharif.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he hoped for a “new course” in relations between the two countries.

“PM extends his congratulations to Mr Nawaz Sharif and his party for their emphatic victory in Pakistan’s elections,” he said on his Twitter account.

He invited Mr Sharif to go to India “at a mutually convenient time”.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he hoped for co-operation to root out what he called terrorist sanctuaries.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are engaged in a long battle with Taliban Islamist militants.

In the run-up, more than 100 people died in election-related violence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22506036

BBC news – Pakistan goes to polls in landmark election

Saturday, 11 May 2013. Voting is under way across Pakistan in landmark national and provincial elections.

The vote marks Pakistan’s first transition from one civilian government to another in its 66-year history.

However, the run-up to the election has been marred by violence in which more than 100 people have been killed.

A bomb blast in the port city of Karachi on Saturday morning was reported to have caused several casualties.

Tens of thousands of troops are deployed at polling stations after the Pakistani Taliban threatened to carry out suicide attacks.

Hours before polls opened, Pakistan sealed its borders with Iran and Afghanistan in a bid to keep foreign militants at bay.

Officials said the borders would remain closed for the next three days.

Queues started forming before polling stations opened at 08:00 (03:00 GMT) on Saturday.

At one polling station in the capital, Islamabad, more than 200 people waited patiently to vote.

Abdul Sattar, 74, said: “We want change, we are really fed up with old faces coming back to power every time and doing nothing for the nation.”

EU observers in the eastern city of Lahore told the BBC that voting there was going smoothly and without any interruptions.

The BBC’s Saba Eitizaz in Peshawar reports long queues of women waiting to vote. Many are voting for the first time and are excited about being part of a historic change, our correspondent says.

Polling stations will close at 17:00.

The Taliban on Friday warned voters to boycott polling stations in order to avoid attacks on the offices of political parties.

The militants have been blamed for numerous attacks throughout the campaign on Pakistan’s three most prominent liberal parties.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) along with the Karachi-based Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have been singled out for attacks by the Taliban.

As a result, the parties were forced to curtail their election campaigning.

Around two hours after polling started, a bomb attack was reported in Karachi, apparently targeting an ANP candidate. There were several casualties, officials said.

Militants have so far avoided targeting the campaigns of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party of Imran Khan.

In a in a bid to clamp down on corruption, election officials say electoral rolls have been refreshed and a text messaging service will provide voting information to individuals.

In previous elections there have been accusations that candidates and some state institutions rigged the vote by setting up ghost polling stations and creating millions of fake voters on the electoral rolls.

However, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Friday expressed “acute concern” about the manner in which the violence has “impaired the fairness of the elections almost beyond repair”.

It called on all institutions to “stretch themselves to their absolute limit to ensure security of voters, candidates and polling stations on Saturday so that the people can exercise their right to choose their representatives”.

The Taliban threat sparked a major security operation leading up to the vote.

More than 600,000 security and army personnel have been deployed to guard against possible attacks on polling day.

On Thursday, the son of former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was abducted during a rally.

Opinion polls indicate there could be a record turnout, higher than the 44% in the last elections in 2008.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22487805

BBC News – Pakistan inmate Sanaullah Ranjay dies in India hospital

Thursday, 9 may 2013. A Pakistani prisoner who was attacked by a fellow inmate at a high-security prison in Indian-administered Kashmir has died in hospital, doctors say.

Doctors say Sanaullah Ranjay, who was in a coma, died of multi-organ failure at a hospital in India’s Chandigarh city early on Thursday.

Ranjay suffered injuries in the attack at Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu last week.

He has been in prison for the past 17 years on militancy-related charges.

“His condition was extremely critical. He died early morning,” a doctor at the hospital told the AFP news agency.

Ranjay was attacked by a former Indian army soldier convicted of murder after a row between the two men on 3 May, police said. The former soldier has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

The attack on Ranjay happened on the day that an Indian prisoner, who died after being attacked in a Pakistani jail, was cremated in India.

Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death by Pakistan in 1991 for spying, had been attacked with bricks by inmates in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail a week earlier.

On Tuesday, two members of Ranjay’s family – brother-in-law Mohammed Sehzaad and nephew Mohammed Asif – visited him in hospital in India.

On Wednesday, India’s Supreme Court said it was “pained and concerned” at the attack on Ranjay and wondered why adequate steps were not being taken to protect prisoners.

“We are more concerned why such incidents are happening in jails. Lives of inmates are put in danger. It is a serious matter and can’t be accepted,” the court said.

India says the attack is being investigated and the “guilty will be punished”.

A foreign ministry spokesman said an “advisory had been issued to strengthen security for Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails”.

There were 535 Indian prisoners, including 483 fishermen, in Pakistani jails and 272 Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails, the spokesman said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22460865

BBC News – Sanaullah Ranjay’s family due to visit India

Tuesday 7 May 2013. The family of a Pakistani prisoner who was attacked by a fellow inmate at a high-security prison in Indian-administered Kashmir is due to visit him in hospital, reports say.

Sanaullah Ranjay’s condition in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Chandigarh city continues to be “critical”, doctors say.

Ranjay suffered injuries in the attack at Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu last week.

He has been in prison for the past 17 years on militancy-related charges.

Police said Ranjay was attacked by a former Indian army soldier convicted of murder on Friday morning after a row between the two men.

Pakistan High Commission spokesman Manzoor Ali Memon told AFP news agency that Ranjay’s relatives from Pakistan were due to visit him in hospital on Tuesday.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had granted visas to Ranjay’s brother-in-law and cousin.

On Monday, Pakistan’s top diplomat in India, Salman Bashir, visited Ranjay at the hospital.

“His condition is critical. The outcome [chance of survival] is bleak,” Mr Bashir told reporters.

The attack on Ranjay happened on a day when an Indian prisoner, convicted of spying in Pakistan and killed in a Pakistani jail last week, was cremated in India.

Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death by Pakistan in 1991, died after being attacked with bricks by inmates in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail.

Pakistan’s government has expressed “deep concern” over the attack on Ranjay and said it was “obvious retaliation” for the killing of Sarabjit Singh.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22430296

BBC News – India and China ‘pull back troops’ in disputed border area

Monday, 6 May 2013. India and China have pulled back troops from disputed territory near the two countries’ de facto border in the Himalayas, Indian media reports say.

Soldiers were said to have set up camps facing each other on the ill-defined frontier in Ladakh region last month.

The two sides held a series of talks to resolve the row and the troops were withdrawn on Sunday, the reports added.

The two countries dispute several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in 1962.

Tensions flare up from time to time. They have held numerous rounds of border talks, but all have been unsuccessful so far.

Reports in the Indian media quoting official sources said that Indian and Chinese commanders ended a near three-week long stand-off on the border after four rounds of talks, ordering troops to remove camps 300 metres apart on Sunday evening.

There has been no official confirmation of the development from either side yet.

Indian officials had accused Chinese troops of straying 10 km (six miles) into Indian territory on 15 April and putting up tents in the Depsang valley in Ladakh, in eastern Kashmir. China had denied reports of an incursion.

Sunday’s reported pull-out comes days ahead of Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid’s visit to China, ahead of a scheduled visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to India.

Mr Khurshid is visiting China on 9 May, ahead of Mr Li’s visit on 20 May for his first overseas trip.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22423999

BBC News – US announces Burma sanctions move

Friday, 3 May 2013. The US has extended targeted sanctions against Burma for another year but lifted a visa ban on officials.

The State Department said the move both rewarded progress and aimed to prevent backsliding on reform.

It cited human rights concerns and the continued detention of political prisoners as factors in extending the annual sanctions order.

Last month the European Union lifted the last of its non-military sanctions on Burma.

The US has already lifted most trade and investment sanctions against Burma amid a series of reforms in the South East Asian nation.

The State Department said the latest moves both acknowledged the important changes that had been made in Burma and the challenges that remained.

Extending the sanctions order would “maintain the flexibility necessary to target specific bad actors and prevent backsliding on reform”, a department official said in a briefing.

It would allow for targeted restrictions against doing business with companies or individuals who “slow or thwart reform in Burma, commit serious human rights abuses or propagate military trade with North Korea”.

But a 1996 visa blanket ban that targeted officials from the former military regime and their families was terminated, the State Department said.

Unrest challenge

Since being elected in November 2010, the civilian administration of President Thein Sein has freed many political prisoners and relaxed censorship.

It has begun to work with the Aung San Suu Kyi-led opposition, which now has a small presence in parliament after by-elections deemed free and fair.

But controlling anti-Muslim violence that has erupted in a number of places has proved a challenge for the government. Fighting has also taken place in the north of the country with Kachin rebels and a number of political prisoners remain in jail.

Earlier this week, more anti-Muslim violence erupted north of Rangoon, leaving one person dead and dozens of houses razed. It followed violence in April in the centre of the country that left more than 40 people dead.

The recent clashes follow more widespread unrest between Buddhists and mostly Rohingya Muslims last year in Rakhine state, where two outbreaks of violence left about 200 people dead and up to 100,000 people – mostly Muslims – displaced.

In Indonesia, security was tightened around the Burmese embassy and ambassador’s house in Jakarta after two men suspected of plotting a bomb attack were arrested.

Boy Rafli Amar, Indonesia’s police spokesman, said that for the time being police still were not sure whether the embassy was indeed the target and were still investigating.

Five pipe bombs and explosive materials were found at the suspects’ rented house, police said.

Many Indonesians have expressed sympathy for Burma’s Rohingya Muslims, some of whom have found their way to Indonesia, living in detention centres until the government decides what to do with them, reports the BBC’s Karishma Vaswani from Jakarta.

A rally on the issue was due to take place outside the embassy on Friday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22393696

BBC News – One killed in Burma Oakkan town religious violence

Wednesday, 1 May 2013. Fresh religious violence that erupted in Burma on Tuesday killed one person and injured nine more, officials say.

The anti-Muslim violence broke out in Oakkan, north of Rangoon, after a Muslim girl on a bike bumped into a monk.

Police say they have arrested 18 people after Buddhist mobs attacked mosques and torched at least 77 homes.

Last month, at least 40 people were killed in anti-Muslim riots in Meiktila in central Burma.

At least one of two mosques near Oakkan was badly damaged by the riots and some shophouses were also destroyed.

Soe Myint, a resident of Mie Laung Sakhan village, told AFP news agency: “About 200 to 300 people arrived in our village on motorcycles and destroyed the mosque. All the villagers ran away. We were scared and didn’t resist. They destroyed until they were satisfied.”

Terrified families could be seen hiding in forests and crouching in paddy fields as their homes burned, AP news agency reported.

Police were deployed to Oakkan on Wednesday to prevent any further violence. Army soldiers were also seen in Oakkan on Tuesday night.

Last year, deadly clashes between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslims, largely thought to be Rohingya Muslims, left 190 people dead and 100,000 people – mostly Muslims – displaced.

In March, a dispute at a gold shop in the central town of Meiktila led to more violence between Buddhists and Muslims. Entire Muslim neighbourhoods were razed, more than 40 people were killed and about 12,000 Muslims were thought to have fled their homes.

The violence has posed a challenge to Burmese President Thein Sein, who has previously warned that the government would use force if necessary to stop “political opportunists and religious extremists” from fomenting hatred between faiths.

On Monday, an official commission delivered its report on the Rakhine clashes.

It recommended doubling the number of security forces in Rakhine state, and said that the segregation of Muslim Rohingyas and Buddhists should continue, although it acknowledged that that was not a suitable long-term solution.

The Burmese government does not recognise the Rohingya as Burmese citizens, saying they are relatively recent migrants from the Indian sub-continent. The UN says the Rohingya are one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22362992

BBC News – Caste and entrepreneurship in India

Soutik Biswas, Delhi Correspondent

New Delhi, 19 April 2013. The story of India’s economic surge is dominated by two conflicting narratives.

The sceptics insist that growth has been largely jobless and deepened inequality in an already hierarchical society.

The optimistic refute this gloomy thesis and believe that the rising tide has lifted all boats.

As an example, they point to the emergence of a small but growing class of Dalit (formerly known as untouchables, the lowest in India’s wretched caste hierarchy) millionaires.

So much so that Dalit activists like Chandra Bhan Prasad like to call it a “golden period” for Dalits where “material markers are replacing social markers”.

Studies have also shown that the wage gap between Dalits and other castes have narrowed and their standing has improved. There is even a Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

But new research by Lakshmi Iyer, Tarun Khanna and Ashustosh Varshney paints a less rosy picture.

Remarkable

Delving into the relationship between caste and entrepreneurship, the researchers have found that scheduled castes and tribes, the most disadvantaged groups in Hinduism’s hierarchy, owned very little businesses despite a decade of sprightly economic growth and a long history of affirmative action.

Mining information thrown up by the 2005 economic census covering more than 42 million enterprises, they found schedule castes owned only 9.8% of all enterprises in India in 2005, well below their 16.4% share of the total population.

The scheduled tribes owned only 3.7% of non-farm enterprises despite being 7.7% of the population.

However, ownership of business among OBC’s – an acronym for Other Backward Castes or the “middle castes” who “neither suffering the extreme social and economic discrimination of the Scheduled Castes, nor enjoying the social privileges of the upper castes” – has grown.

OBCs comprise 41% of India’s people. Their members owned 43.5% of all enterprises in 2005, and accounted for 40% of non-farm employment.

This is a remarkable achievement considering that affirmative action for this group was widely introduced only in the 1990s.

The pattern of dismally low ownership of businesses among the most disadvantaged groups, the researchers found, is not specific to any one region or state in India.

Even in states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra that were among the first to have social movements to end caste discrimination, ownership of enterprises is low.

States with high population of the disadvantaged groups also show that they are under-represented in ownership of businesses.

‘Takes time’

The researchers say there could be a host of reasons – caste discrimination itself (members of other castes refuse to work with the lowest castes), lack of knowledge, illiteracy, and problems with securing finance.

“All these factors,” they say, “can prevent scheduled castes from entering industries that have significant economies of scale.”

Growth possibilities are limited by differences in the size of worker networks – scheduled caste owners find it easier to work with scheduled caste workers.

I asked Dr Varshney, who teaches at the US’s Brown University, whether the findings really came as a surprise, given that deeper social changes in societies like India take a lot of time.

He said he wasn’t.

“I should, however, add that the story of the rise of the Dalit millionaires is not small either. Though numerically insignificant, it is politically, economically and socially very significant,” he told me.

Over time, he believes, the rise of Dalits “may well become comparable” to the rise of Nadars – a southern caste – in Tamil Nadu.

Until about 150 years ago Nadars – mostly “toddy tappers” – were condemned to a near untouchable status.

Today, they are a leading business community in the state and are found in all classes.

I asked Dr Varshney whether increased representation in politics had anything to do with higher ownership of business for different caste groups? I cited the example of the increasingly influential OBC-led politics in the country.

“Whether that happens remains unclear. The correlation undoubtedly exists, but the causes are still to be sorted out,” he said.

I also wondered why decades of affirmative action and more than two decades of economic liberalisation hadn’t still unleashed entrepreneurial energies among the most disadvantaged.

“Such transformations can take a long time,” he said. “The rise of the Nadars, for example, took nearly eight to 10 decades, depending on how one defines the rise.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-21972989