BBC News – Shot Pakistan girl Malala Yousafzai thanks well-wishers

Friday, 9 November 2012. A 15-year-old education campaigner shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan has thanked people around the world for supporting her.

Malala Yousafzai was flown to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, after being shot on a school bus in October.

Her father Zianuddin Yousafzai said she wanted to thank well-wishers for helping her “survive and stay strong”.

Meanwhile, more than 60,000 people have signed a petition calling for Malala to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Doctors in Birmingham, where Malala has been receiving specialist treatment, have said she stands every chance of making a good recovery.

She had campaigned for the rights of girls to have an education and had written a diary for the BBC Urdu service when the Pakistan Taliban controlled her home area of Swat.

‘Grateful and amazed’

Since the attack, the teenager has received thousands of goodwill messages from around the world.

Mr Yousafzai said in a statement issued by the hospital trust: “She wants me to tell everyone how grateful she is and is amazed that men, women and children from across the world are interested in her well-being.

“We deeply feel the heart-touching good wishes of the people across the world of all caste, colour and creed.”

In the UK, Shahida Choudhary has begun a campaign calling for Malala to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

She said: “Malala doesn’t just represent one young woman, she speaks out for all those who are denied an education purely on the basis of their gender. There are girls like Malala in the UK and across the world. I was one of them.

“I started this petition because a Nobel Peace Prize for Malala will send a clear message that the world is watching and will support those who stand up for the right of girls to get an education.”

Events are expected to take place around the world on Saturday to mark one month since Malala was shot.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20259845

BBC News – UK doctors hopeful for Malala Yousafzai

UK, 16 October 2012. Doctors at the UK hospital where 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai is being treated after a Taliban gun attack say they are hopeful she can recover.

The Pakistani girl, who arrived in Birmingham on Monday, had a bullet removed from her skull last week.

The Taliban said they targeted her for “promoting secularism”.

Hospital Medical Director Dr David Rosser said some UK colleagues who had been in Pakistan believed she had “a chance of making a good recovery”.

“Clearly it would be inappropriate on every level, not least for her, to put her through all of this if there was no hope of decent recovery,” he told reporters shortly before Malala’s arrival at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on Monday.

Doctors have already carried out a series of tests on the teenager and a hospital spokeswoman told the BBC they hoped to give an update on her condition on Tuesday morning.

Malala Yousafzai was flown from Pakistan via the United Arab Emirates by air ambulance, almost a week after she and two other schoolgirls were attacked as they returned home from school in Mingora in the Swat Valley.

She became widely known as a campaigner for girls’ education in Pakistan as a result of a diary she wrote for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban, when they banned all girls from attending school.

The gunman who boarded the van in which she was travelling asked for her by name.

Surgeons in the north-western city of Peshawar removed the bullet that had entered her skull from close to her spinal cord and she was then moved to a military hospital in Rawalpindi for more specialist treatment.

A military statement said a panel of doctors had recommended she should be “shifted abroad to a UK centre which has the capability to provide integrated care to children who have sustained severe injury”.

Dr Rosser said that specialists at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham were “in a good position to treat her” because they had 10 years of experience in treating UK military casualties – and her condition was much the same as a “battle casualty from a physiological point of view”.

Once Malala recovers sufficiently, it is thought she will need neurological help as well as treatment to repair or replace damaged bones in her skull.

The Taliban have threatened to target her again. She was given tight security for her journey to the UK and officials in Birmingham said they also took security very seriously.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-19957402

Special to the Tribune – UK Sikhs divided over attack on Lt General Brar

Shyam Bhatia in London

While the British Police continues their efforts to round up all those involved in the knifing of Lt General K S Brar, discussion in Southall is dominated by questions about the real motives of those behind the attack.

Also known as Little Punjab, Southall is close to London’s Heathrow airport and has seven gurdwaras serving the local Sikh population , including those who live in the adjoining areas of Hounslow and Greenford.

This is where supporters of Khalistan mix freely and easily with other Punjabi NRIs in the area, making this London suburb a unique listening point for views on the incident.

One surprisingly held view is that the Brar affair was a “false flag” operation, another way of suggesting that this was a put up job for political reasons. “The Congress is weak and they need something to galvanise the votes before the next election”, one unnamed Sikh told me at the popular Singh Sabha Gurdwara on Park Road, Southall.

He and his family make a weekly pilgrimage to this gurdwara where they take langar every Sunday before settling down to listen to the day’s kirtan. “Otherwise how is it possible that four people failed to overcome and kill one old man? There is more to this than meets the eye.”

A similar kind of argument also resonates with supporters of the militant Dal Khalsa movement in the UK. “We are facing a mass anti-Sikh media campaign by Hindutva India,” says a statement published on behalf of Dal Khalsa. “This is being done to finish off our morale to speak out against human rights abuses, to create suspicion amongst each other to divide us and to instill fear within the community up and down the UK.”

But not all Sikhs share this perspective. Another elderly Sikh, a retired teacher, also visiting the Park Road gurdwara, told me: “There is another side to the community, the educated Sikhs, and they feel that this kind of action (stabbing Lt General Brar) gives a bad reputation to Sikhs abroad. We can convey our message through media platforms that the action of the Congress government in 1984 was not fair and it brought dishonour to the whole country.”

At the bigger, gold domed Singh Sabha Gurdwara on the Havelock Road, opinions are similarly mixed. But the same is not true in the smaller Miri Piri gurdwara in another part of Southall. The Pradhan here is a self-proclaimed Khalistan supporter, Jaswant Singh Thekedar. He wants the revival of the kingdom of Banda Singh Bahadur, a disciple of Guru Gobind Singh, who defeated the Mughals in Sirhind, abolished zamindari and created a sikh kingdom based in Lohgarh.

“I am a Khalistani, I want independence, the Khalistan movement is not dead, nor will it die”, says Thekedar. “We are not an underground movement, we are open. We are not afraid of anyone.” When queried if the attack on General Brar is linked to a revival of Khalistani sentiments, Thekedar replies: “It is nothing to do with Khalistan, it is purely a religious issue. Brar did wrong.”

There are also Sikhs in the UK who strongly disagree with Thekedar but do not wish to be quoted. One of them, the former head of another Southall gurdwara, commented, “Remember what Guru Gobind Singh told Saif Khan: ‘I cannot attack an unarmed man.’ As far as Brar is concerned, the guy was on holiday with his wife. What happened to him is not right.”

Those community leaders willing to be quoted include Mahinder Singh Mandair, a businessman who lives in Birmingham, more than 100 miles from Southall. “Of course the Khalistanis will applaud what happened to Lt General Brar, but any decent human being will say its bad, it is wrong.. Whatever Brar did in 1984, he was only obeying instructions from his superiors. He was a General and he fulfilled his duty.”

Path in memory of Vaidya’s assassins

Amritsar: The SGPC on Tuesday performed “bhog” of Akhand Path in memory of Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha, assassins of former Army Chief General A S Vaidya, the architect of Operation Bluestar, at the Golden Temple Complex in Amritsar. Jinda’s brother Bhupinder Singh and Sukha’s kin Surjit Kaur were presented “siropas” on the occasion.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121010/main6.htm

BBC News – Birmingham murders: Second man arrested

15 January 2012. A second man has been arrested on suspicion of murder over the death of a couple in Birmingham.

The 41-year old is being questioned over the murder of Carole, 58, and Avtar Kolar, 62, who were found dead at their home in Handsworth Wood.

Post-mortem tests confirmed the couple died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head and that both had been struck a number of times.

A 24-year-old man arrested on Friday has now been released on bail.

The couple’s bodies were discovered on Wednesday by their son, Jason, a serving police officer.

‘Unbearable pain’  

West Midlands Police vowed to work “around the clock” to find the killer with more than 60 officers working on the case.

Detective Superintendent Richard Baker, who is leading the investigation team, has described it as “a horrendous attack”.

Crimestoppers said the double murder was a “vile crime” and has put up a £10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

The couple had four children and eight grandchildren.

Four note cards and three heart-shaped balloons were attached to a floral tribute on a patch of grass close to the house.

One message read: “Mom, why? No life will ever be the same without you.

“We adore you and miss you so much, the pain is unbearable. Love always, your children.”

Another said: “Dad, why? Our life has stopped, it will never be the same. We miss you so much, the pain in our hearts will never ease. Love always, your children.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-16566760

The Hindu – Man held over Birmingham couple’s murder

London, 15 January 2012. A 24-year-old man was on Saturday arrested in connection with the murder of Avtar Singh-Kolar and his wife Carole in their Birmingham home earlier this week, as post-mortem tests confirmed that they died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head and that both had been struck a number of times.

The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested at a house in Birmingham and was being questioned.   Police suspect that the couple may have been victims of a botched burglary after it emerged that there had been a sharp increase in “nasty” burglaries in the area.

They have announced a reward of up to £10,000 for information that could help in tracking down the killers.

“Horrendous attack”

Detective Superintendent Richard Baker, leading the investigation, described it as “a horrendous attack.”

“We continue to follow a number of lines of enquiry and we thank those who have called us so far. We encourage anyone with information to speak to us no matter how insignificant they feel the detail is,” he said.

Police played down speculation that it was a revenge attack by someone with a grievance against the murdered couple’s son, Jason, a serving police officer who discovered his parents’ bodies on Wednesday morning when he went round to their house after failing to contact them on the phone.

Mr. Baker said that at the moment there was “nothing to suggest at all” that Jason’s job was relevant to the murder.

Kolar (62) and Carole (58) had been married for 40 years and lived in the Handsworth Wood area for most of their lives.

They are survived by four children and eight grandchildren.

The couple’s daughter Michelle Kirwan (39) said her parents were “the sweetest and kindest people I have ever met.”

“Our hearts have been broken forever,” she said.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2801788.ece