#balochistan violent protests

[beardedmrbean]

Two bomb explosions near candidates' offices in the Pakistani province of Balochistan killed at least 28 people and wounded dozens on the eve of general elections, officials said.

The first blast killed 16 people in Pishin district, north of Quetta city.

A second explosion left 12 people dead in Qila Saifullah to the east. There was no immediate claim for the attacks.

The vote has been marred by violence and claims of poll-rigging. Former PM Imran Khan is barred from contesting.

Police are still trying to determine the cause of the two blasts.

Resource-rich Balochistan - Pakistan's largest, and poorest, province - has a history of violence. It has seen a decades-long struggle for greater autonomy by various groups, some of them armed. Islamist militants, including the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), operate along the border with Afghanistan.

The bomb in Pishin, a town about 100km (62 miles) south-east of the Afghan border, went off in front of an independent candidate's party office. The provincial authorities said 25 people were also wounded.

Images on social media showed cars and motorbikes blown apart by the force of the explosion. Officials told the BBC the candidate was meeting his polling agent at the time.

The second blast targeted the election office of the JUI-F party. A senior police official told AFP news agency it took place in the main bazaar of Qila Saifullah, about 190km (120 miles) east of Quetta.

Twenty people were wounded in the incident and the number of casualties in the two attacks could rise, officials said.

There have been violent incidents in both Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces in the week before Thursday's vote, and the violence in Pishin and Qila Saifullah was not unexpected.

In mid-January, Baloch Liberation Army-Azad (BLA) insurgents released a pamphlet after claiming responsibility for bombing an election training office. The pamphlet urged people to boycott the elections. Soon after, reports of hand grenade attacks on political party offices were reported from various cities in the province.

Many voters in Balochistan feel neglected by the country's political parties, given the province has so few seats in parliament. They often feel candidates are foisted on them, with few if any links to Balochistan.

And many feel the vote is unfair. "It is a selection," numerous people told BBC Urdu in the city of Turbat last month.

Following Wednesday's attacks, the Balochistan government said Thursday's vote would proceed as planned.

"Rest assured, we will not allow terrorists to undermine or sabotage this crucial democratic process," provincial information minister Jan Achakzai posted on X, formerly Twitter.

More than 128 million voters are eligible to cast ballots in the election. In Pakistan's first-past-the-post system, 266 of 336 National Assembly seats are directly elected.

But many people are questioning the credibility of the vote as Khan and his party, the PTI, have been sidelined.

The PTI won the largest number of seats in the last general election but Khan was jailed on corruption charges last year and disqualified from running for public office. Last week he was convicted in three other cases and faces years in prison - he says all the charges are politically motivated.

The authorities deny carrying out a crackdown, but many PTI leaders are behind bars, in hiding or have defected. Thousands of the party's supporters were rounded up after protests - at times violent - when Khan was taken into custody last year.

PTI candidates are having to run as independents following the electoral commission's decision to strip the party of its cricket bat symbol. Electoral symbols are vital in helping voters mark their ballots in a country with high rates of illiteracy.

The man tipped to win Thursday's election is three-time former PM Nawaz Sharif, who himself was behind bars at the last election. Analysts say it appears he has done a deal with the military to facilitate his return to politics.

A high turnout will be key to the PTI's chances, many analysts say. How to tackle, and who to blame for, the country's economic crisis will be high in voters' minds. Results must be announced within 14 days of the election.

[newsaryavart]

पाकिस्‍तान में बलूचों का जोरदार प्रदर्शन, डरकर भाग खड़ी हुई पाकिस्‍तानी सेना बलूचिस्‍तान (Balochistan) में बलूच व‍िद्रोहियों के ख‍िलाफ अभियान चला रही पाकिस्‍तानी (pakistani army) की सेना को बुधवार को डरकर भागना पड़ा। बलूच व‍िद्रोहियों ने पाकिस्‍तानी सेना (pakistan army) के पोस्‍ट पर कब्‍जा कर ल‍िया और उसे आग लगा दी।

[thepostedia]

Amnesty International. At least 82 people killed in crackdown on protests in Zahedan, Iran

Amnesty International. At least 82 people killed in crackdown on protests in Zahedan, Iran

At least 82 people have been killed by Iranian security forces since protests erupted in the city of Zahedan in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Balochistan province on September 30, it said on Thursday. Amnesty International. At least 66 people, including children, were killed in a violent crackdown after Friday prayers on September 30, Amnesty International said. Since then, 16 people have been…

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Mir Ibrahim Bizenjo owns land – a huge amount of it – in various parts of the coastal district of Gwadar. He also owns a lot of large motorised fishing boats — some registered in Pakistan, others in Oman across the Arabian Sea from Pakistan’s Makran coast.

And he has a business partner, Mir Imam Bizenjo, who is known as far as the United States. The two are related too: Ibrahim Bizenjo’s son Charagh is married to Imam Bizenjo’s daughter.

The latter has been designated as a drug trafficking “kingpin” by the United States since 2009 under a law that bars “significant foreign narcotics traffickers” from doing business with American banks. A list of such “kingpins” issued by the American government referred to him with various aliases including Imam Bheel.

Imam Bizenjo has been in the news – both before and after that designation – for all the wrong reasons and yet he has not attracted much public attention.

Way back in 1998, he was named as a mastermind behind a passenger plane hijacking. The plane was flying from Turbat city in Balochistan to Karachi on May 24 that year when three armed hijackers forced it to land in Hyderabad, about 160 kilometres to the northeast of its original destination. The hijackers were overpowered a day later. During investigations, they claimed to be belonging to a student organisation from Balochistan and said they wanted to register their protest against Pakistan’s decision to conduct its nuclear tests in their province’s Chaghai district later the same month. They were subsequently hanged in 2015.

Imam Bizenjo was never arrested or tried in the case.

When General Pervez Musharraf removed Nawaz Sharif’s government in 1999, Imam Bizenjo sought help from Zubaida Jalal, a politician from his native district of Kech in Balochistan, to have his name cleared in the hijacking case. In return, he promised to help her win a National Assembly seat that then comprised Kech and Gwadar districts.

Jalal told Reuters news agency in 2012 that she agreed to help him because he said he had left drug trafficking “many years back”. After she won the election in 2002 and became the federal minister for education, a court hearing the hijacking case dropped charges against Imam Bizenjo over a lack of evidence.

Jalal and Imam Bizenjo had a falling out later so Imam Bizenjo put his son, Yaqub Bizenjo, as a candidate against her in the 2008 election. She lost the poll to Yaqub Bizenjo by a margin of 28,000 or so votes.

During his son’s tenure as a member of the National Assembly over the next five years, Imam Bizenjo and his family made headlines twice — and for violent crimes on both occasions. In the summer of 2009, a parcel bomb exploded at Yaqub Bizenjo’s residence in Karachi’s Defence area; in March 2012, Abdul Rehman Dashti, Gwadar’s district coordination officer, was shot dead allegedly by Imam Bizenjo himself in another part of the same locality.

A Baloch separatist group claimed responsibility for the first incident. Its leader alleged that Imam Bizenjo and Yaqub Bizenjo were helping intelligence agencies against the separatists and that the bomb was a warning for them to desist from doing that.

As for the second incident, investigation into it has not been completed even after six years. Imam Bizenjo was never arrested in the case, let alone interrogated or tried.

Why would Imam Bizenjo murder Dashti given that the two were known to be close to each other? There are unconfirmed reports that the murder was linked to Imam Bizenjo’s drug trafficking business. There are suggestions, also unverified, that it could be connected to Gwadar’s real estate sector that has become a multibillion-rupee affair after the 2005 construction of a deep sea port in the city.

Now his name is resurfacing — and again with reference to real estate.

Kalmat Khor lagoon looks like a large tree if viewed from the air. It is two kilometres wide and 12 metres deep where the Arabian Sea enters the land but seven kilometres into the land it expands enormously to 27 kilometres in width and 19 kilometres in length.

The lagoon, located 320 kilometres west of Karachi, almost halfway between the towns of Ormara and Pasni on the Makran Coastal Highway, covers an area of 102.25 square kilometres. It is surrounded by low hills which send a lot of sediment and silt into it during rains thus making it a perfect habitat for mangrove trees, say two botanists, Fayyaz Rasool and S M Saifullah, in a research paper published by the Karachi University in 1996.

The lagoon is also a fisherman’s paradise. Fishing can happen here all year long, even during the monsoon season in summer when the open sea becomes too rough to fish.

Local residents claim the Pakistan Navy is acquiring thousands of acres of land around the lagoon and, they allege, Ibrahim Bizenjo and Imam Bizenjo are the main beneficiary of this reported acquisition. Using their political influence and their ability to bribe government officials heftily, the two are said to have purchased more than 3,000 acres of land over the last few years from people living along the lagoon at paltry prices and are now expecting to make windfall gains by selling that land to the navy.

Syed Essa Noori, a member of the National Assembly between 2013 and 2018 from the region that includes Kalmat Khor, falls short of repeating these allegations but says he has heard from many people in Kalmat and Pasni towns about a land deal being done between Ibrahim Bizenjo and the navy.

Noori, though, blames a previous Balochistan government, headed by Dr Abdul Malik, for creating a land rush. That government revoked an ongoing land settlement process for Gwadar district’s Pasni subdivision, where Kalmat Khor is located, in 2013, thus mixing up state-owned land with privately-owned one, he says.

A new land settlement process that followed still goes on, according to Noori. And it has created opportunities for people with money and influence to encroach upon state land and have it registered under their own names, he alleges. It has also helped them purchase lands at lower than market prices from individuals who risked losing land in their possession to either the state or someone else under the new settlement process, he adds.

Malik denies any wrongdoing. When he became chief minister in 2013, he says, “land grabbers had encroached upon hundreds of thousands of acres of state land by having it declared as private land through bribes”. That is why he revoked the earlier settlement process. “The new settlement was done extremely transparently and more than 400,000 acres of state land was recovered from land grabbers.”

Malik also claims he did not leave the settlement process unfinished but completed it during his tenure (that ended in December 2015). “I have nothing to do with the process of land settlement being done in Pasni now.”

Whatever the reality, land settlement in the subdivision is still under way and its completion has been further delayed because Pasni does not have a land settlement commissioner. The post is lying vacant, says Muhammad Omer, the local assistant commissioner, who, in a green T-shirt and blue jeans, looks more like a sportsman than a government official.

Omar acknowledges having received a Pakistan Navy request for land acquisition but insists that it cannot be entertained before the land settlement process has been finalised.

Many residents of the subdivision claim that, regardless of the local administration’s refusal to acquire land for the navy without a final land settlement, there are signs that a silent acquisition is already taking place. They allege the navy’s checkpoints are appearing overnight next to their villages and towns in the vicinity of the lagoon.

Fishermen in Kalmat town say their access to Kalmat Khor has been blocked by security posts being built by the Pakistan Navy. Those from a village near the lagoon found their fishing nets burnt down to ashes early one morning in March 2018 near an under-construction Pakistan Navy post.

They see the incident as a warning to them to stay away from the lagoon. Otherwise, they say, how could anyone burn the nets after the personnel at the post had assured them that they could leave their nets there without fearing any damage to them?

When some fishermen later wrote social media posts about the torching of the nets, officials from the state approached them and gave them 50,000 rupees as compensation.

Fishermen complain the compensation is not just inadequate but is also meant to suppress their grievances over the expansion of the navy’s physical presence in their area without a consultation with them.

Haji Iqbal set out from his home in Turbat city on a cold morning in January 2010 to visit his farmland in a neighbouring area called Koh-e-Imam (or the leader’s mountain). When he reached there, he says, surveyors associated with the Pakistan Navy stopped him and did not allow him to enter what he thought were his own fields.

The surveyors told him the navy had acquired the land that he claimed to be his and had also paid its price to the provincial government’s revenue department.

Iqbal was shocked. No government official had told him that his land was being acquired by the navy. Nor had he received any money in return for it.

He was also surprised. Why, he wondered, would the navy need his land located more than 100 kilometres inland from the Arabian Sea.

Scores of other farmers in the area have similar complaints — that their land was acquired by the Pakistan Navy without their knowledge. “We only became aware of it when the navy started construction on our farmland and we were stopped from visiting our fields,” says Shabbir Ahmed Dashti, who claims to have lost 90 acres to the acquisition.

Earlier, in 2008, the navy acquired another 2,500 acres of land in Kunchati village of Dasht subdivision which, like Turbat, is a part of Kech district. The method of acquisition in this instance, though, was different from the one applied around Koh-e-Imam.

A team of navy officials is said to have approached Sohail-ur-Rehman who, as executive district officer revenue at the time, had the power to acquire any land in the district for official purposes. They reportedly apprised him about their desire to acquire land in Kunchati for a naval base but apparently asked him to find a way that allowed them to bypass the lengthy official procedures. The land was needed urgently.

Rehman came up with a novel idea. He informed landowners in Kunchati that the provincial government was going to acquire their land at an official rate (which is usually much below the one obtained in the market) but they could avoid the acquisition if they willingly sold the land to the navy — at a premium.

He then prepared two documents. One was an application by individual landowners. Its subject read: “Payment of compensation in lieu of area affected because of construction of a naval base (defence)”. The text of the application stated that x amount of land owned by person x was going to be affected by the construction of the naval base for which the government was paying compensation. “Please pay the compensation money,” the application asked the executive district officer revenue on behalf of individual landowners.

Each landowner put down his personal particulars and that of his land in the application and signed it (or put the impression of his thumb on it if he was unlettered).

The second document was an affidavit in which the landowners stated that they had received the compensation money. They also declared in it that they would hand over their land to the government after having received the compensation.

The two documents were meant to give the process of land acquisition a semblance of being legal but it is still far from legal, say law experts. According to a high court lawyer based in Turbat, land acquisition by an institution of the state becomes legal only if it follows the laid down official procedures. No other process, however elaborate it may be, makes it legal.

Yet the fact remains that none of the landowners in Kunchati has challenged the process in a court of law and the whole transaction is being seen as complete — and forgotten.

There is another important aspect of this particular land acquisition. Kunchati, like Koh-e-Imam, is more than 100 kilometres inland which, in the opinion of political and human rights activists in the area, makes it a less than ideal location for a naval base.

Also, no base has been built in the village even though almost 10 years have passed since the applications were submitted, affidavits signed and land acquired.

Officials associated with the Pakistan Navy’s public relations department say land acquisitions in Gwadar district are being made to implement a new arrangement for the security of Pakistan’s coast and sea waters. Called Regional Maritime Security Patrol, according to a non-classified Pakistan Navy document, this arrangement will be implemented “in critical maritime areas/choke points within [the] Indian Ocean … in order to maintain a robust security posture and protect national and international shipping”. It will “contribute in projecting Pakistan as a responsible state shouldering Regional Maritime Security” and will enable the Pakistan Navy to protect national and international ships plying in the Indian Ocean from threats of piracy and maritime terrorism as well as to counter drug trafficking, arms smuggling and human trafficking. The patrols will also help the navy “in generating rapid support to contingencies like Humanitarian Assistance, Search and Rescue and Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations in times of need”.

Another non-classified Pakistan Navy document explains that maritime activity is “set to grow exponentially” as soon as the Gwadar Port and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) become fully operational. “This will include increased shipping activity to/from our ports as well as development of maritime economic zones along the coast.” But the success of both the CPEC and the Gwadar port is “intrinsically linked with conducive maritime environment along our coast”. The Pakistan Navy, therefore, “has taken a number of initiatives to ensure” the security of CPEC-related projects and those linked to the Gwadar Port as well as “to augment maritime security arrangements all along the coast”.

The second document says the navy has raised a Coastal Security and Harbour Defence Force to “enhance vigilance and to respond to any emerging threat”. As a part of this force’s operations, a number of security stations, each equipped with surveillance and monitoring equipment, will be set up all along Pakistan’s coastline, from Jiwani in the west and Sir Creek in the east, it explains.

The Pakistan Navy also raised Task Force-88 on December 13, 2016 for ensuring the security of the Gwadar Port, “its seaward approaches as well as CPEC-related and other maritime projects”. This task force includes air units, unmanned aerial vehicles, fast attack ships and shore-based surveillance equipment.

It is because of these operational requirements that the Pakistan Navy is asking the government in Balochistan for land acquisition in various areas along the coast, says a navy official in Karachi. But, he adds, no land is being acquired directly from private landowners even though they are always “happy to sell their land to the Pakistan Navy”. This, he explains, is because they know the navy will never make them undersell their land. “They understand we will give them the best price for their land.”

If it were not for his grey hair, Naeem Bazai looks rather young. Sitting behind a large wooden desk in his office in Gwadar city, he is poring over a stack of office files and looks too busy to have time for responding to queries regarding land acquisition for and by the navy and other armed forces. As deputy commissioner of Gwadar district (he is now transferred elsewhere), he had a huge area under his jurisdiction – the district’s coastline alone is around 600 kilometres long – and, consequently, a huge amount of administrative issues to take care of.

When I finally get the chance to ask him about the land being reportedly purchased by the Pakistan Navy in Pasni from Imam Bizenjo and Ibrahim Bizenjo, he pushes the files aside and asks, “Are you from the navy?”

He has already seen my business card before allowing me into his office but I introduce myself again. He then says he is not bound to share official information with journalists and advises me to contact revenue officials in Pasni to get the answer to my question.

When I ask him if he has received 47 different demands for land acquisition in various parts of Gwadar by various state institutions, mainly the military ones, he responds: “This office does not initiate any land acquisition process merely on the request of the armed forces as they often do not deposit in advance the mandatory 25 per cent price of the land to be acquired.” He then pulls the files back in front of him as a signal for me to leave.

Before I exit his office, he shoots another exhortation in my direction: “Official matters better be kept official.”

His roundabout responses are certainly unhelpful in clearing the air of mystery and mistrust surrounding land acquisition by the armed forces which, according to official sources, is going to be larger than ever before. Official documents reveal that the ministry of defence, Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Air Force and National Logistics Cell (NLC) – all military-linked institutions – have asked the Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) to find more than 60,000 acres of land for them in different parts of the district. Most of the land the three armed forces want to acquire, though, is in Gwadar subdivision — closer to where the Gwadar Port and the Makran Coastal Highway are.

A GDA official discloses, on the condition that he is not mentioned by name, that the Pakistan Army wants to acquire 45,000 acres of land for building a garrison near Gwadar city. It is also seeking land for its Special Services Group (190 acres), for NLC (1,000 acres), for joint defence purposes (9,270 acres) and for setting up another garrison in Gurandani South area (2,500 acres) besides asking for many smaller patches of land for other purposes. Similarly, says the official, the Pakistan Navy wants to acquire around 1,500 acres of land in different parts of Gwadar district.

These demands have sent jitters among local realtors.

On a hot and humid evening a couple of months ago, many local estate agents are sitting on plastic chairs in a circle in the porch of a bungalow in Gwadar city. They are discussing what kind of impact these massive land acquisitions may have on the real estate market in the area.

One of them explains that a lot of land being sought by the armed forces falls in localities where private firms and individuals have invested billions of rupees in real estate. If and when those lands get acquired by the state, he says, their owners will get the official price for them which is always lower than the market rate and may turn out to be below their own purchase price.

“What will happen to their massive investment?” he wonders.”

- Maqbool Ahmed, “The mysterious case of land acquisitions in Balochistan.” Herald. November 23, 2018.

[fastworldnews1]

Opposition lawmakers, supporters clash with police outside Balochistan Assembly

Chaotic scenes erupted outside Balochistan Assembly Friday as scores of protestors and Opposition lawmakers and supporters holding a protest outside the assembly were baton charged by police.

Police said Opposition lawmakers had locked all four doors of the Balochistan Assembly to prevent the budget session from taking place today.

Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan and a few lawmakers arrived at the assembly.

The budget session commenced under the chair of Speaker Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo. Opposition MPA Nasrullah Zehray accused the police of using violent methods to disperse the "peaceful protest" outside the assembly.

Sana Baloch, another MPA, lashed out at the government, saying that the province was at its worst state since its inception.

He said lawmakers Abdul Wahid Siddiqui and Babar Rahim Mengal had been injured by the police's armoured vehicle.

Balochistan Finance Minister Mir Zahoor Ahmad Buledi presented the budget during the session.

Earlier, the Opposition's protest and clashes intensified, as per reports, when the chief minister arrived at the assembly.

The parliament had been convened today at 4:00pm to present the budget.

Clashes erupted when police arrived to the assembly gate at the MPA Hostel when Opposition lawmakers and police exchanged heated words.

Police had managed to open the doors of the assembly so that the government lawmakers could enter for the budget session.

Opposition has proven how 'non-serious' it is: Liaquat Shahwani

Speaking to Geo News, Balochistan Information Minister Liaquat Shahwani said the clashes had proven how ill-disciplined and non-serious the Opposition was.

"Assembly is a prestigious institution and they have attacked it. The same assembly whose members these people themselves are," he said, attacking Opposition MPAs.

"They are doing this by design and deliberately," he said. "They have proven they do not follow any democratic values and to protect their personal interests, they [Opposition] are ready to go to any length."

Shahwani said if the Opposition was serious, it would have properly gone through the budget and recommended its suggestions.

"Have you heard their proposals or demands?" he asked. "This is the best budget in Pakistan's hsitory and will be presented today," he added.

He rejected reports that the Balochistan chief minister had been hit by a flower pot, adding that the Opposition supporters' act of hurling objects was "shameful".

"After this, they will not be able to even take the name of democracy ever again," he added.

Supporters of Opposition parties have blocked national highways in several cities of Balochistan over the past four days. The Opposition has accused the government of ignoring development projects in the budget.

Opposition lawmakers had warned they would not let the provincial government present the budget on Friday.

Leaders of the Opposition parties, according to Dawn, said they would not allow any MPA to enter the assembly on Friday if their proposed development projects were not included in the provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP).

https://ift.tt/3iMka0y

[xtruss]

Indian Investigative Reporter Exposes RAW's Covert Ops Against Neighbors

Indian Investigative Reporter Exposes RAW's Covert Ops Against Neighbors

Indian investigative reporter Yatish Yadav’s “RAW: A History of India’s Covert Operations” confirms what many of India’s neighbors and long known and experienced: Indian intelligence agency RAW sabotages and subverts governments through its proxies and its assets in neighboring countries. India promotes and exacerbates local grievances to overthrow governments and break up nations. Yatish Yadav says “R&AW spooks relentlessly bribed, cajoled and blackmailed India’s enemies”.

— August 03, 2020 | SouthAsiaInvestor.Com

In a new book titled "RAW: A History of India’s Covert Operations", Indian investigative journalist Yatish Yadav has essentially confirmed some of what India's neighbors have suspected for a long time. Yadav has added to the revelations contained in a earlier book titled "Mission R&AW" written by ex Indian spy RK Yadav.

Indian RAW in Afghanistan:

Yatish Yadav has revealed that Indian intelligence recruited three top Afghan leaders, including Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masood, in 1990s. Two other leaders, not named by Yadav, are still active in Afghan politics. The Americans knew about RAW's activities in Afghanistan. Although it is not clearly stated in the book, it appears that Indian intelligence continues to have its assets at the highest levels of the government in Kabul. One of India's Afghan assets that is still active but not been named is most likely Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's current "Chief Executive". Abdullah has close ties with New Delhi. Members of his immediate family live in India.

Here's an excerpt of the book about Afghanistan:

"R&AW also created immense goodwill in many countries; it helped a top Afghan politician and former warlord to escape the Taliban and even got his relative a job in Turkey. R&AW spooks relentlessly bribed, cajoled and blackmailed India’s enemies".

RAW Vs Pakistan:

Yatish Yadav confirms what is already well known: India had carved Bangladesh out of East Pakistan. Indian intelligence continued its covert actions in Bangladesh after its creation. Here's an excerpt of the book, as published in the Indian media:

"Set in the turbulent ’70s to the ’90s, R&AW spooks toppled dictators like General Ershad in Bangladesh and Fiji’s Colonel Rabuka by organising public protests and trading loyalties of people in their inner circles respectively.

Although the book makes no reference to it, Indian agent Kulbhushan Jhadav's arrest in Balochistan has confirmed that RAW agents, based in Afghanistan and Iran, are actively carrying out violent covert ops in Pakistan.

There are 4,000 Indians working in Chabahar, Iran, according to Indian journalist Karan Thapar. Some of them, like Kulbhushan Jadhav, work undercover for Indian intelligence agency RAW. It is hard to believe that the Iranian intelligence is not aware of the presence of undercover Indian agents among the 4,000 Indians working in Chabahar. After all, Jadhav had two passports, one in his own name and another in the name of Hussein Mubarak Patel. The Indian Express and Asian Age, both Indian publications, suggest that Jadhav had links with Uzair Baloch who has been convicted by for working for the Iranian intelligence in Pakistan. Kulbhushan Jadhav has confessed to orchestrating deadly terror attacks in Balochistan and Karachi. He has said that India's RAW funneled money through Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandhar (Afghanistan) and Zahidan (Iran) to BLA and TTP for terror attacks in Balochistan and Karachi. Targets of terror attacks included people, mosques, roads, port and Balochistan's Hazara Shia community.

RAW in Sri Lanka:

The book claims that RAW fueled the conflict in Sri Lanka by playing both sides. Here's an excerpt:

"In Sri Lanka, R&AW played a double game, helping the Sri Lankan Army to destroy the LTTE while protecting Indian assets against the Tigers and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s hit men. According to a R&AW spymaster in Colombo, MEA bungled and allowed the Chinese to get a foothold in the island. Avinash Sinha arrived at Colombo Fort Café on the morning of 3 December 2005, looking forward to what he had been told was the best Sri Lankan breakfast in the city. Avinash, a R&AW operative, perhaps a few autumns younger than Kosala Ratnayake, had returned to Colombo that October after three years. He had recruited Kosala, a top functionary in the Sri Lankan government, over several wet evenings in January 2002. That was when the Sri Lankan regime had been seriously engaging with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for peace talks".

Summary:

Indian investigative reporter Yatish Yadav's "RAW: A History of India’s Covert Operations" confirms what many of India's neighbors and long known and experienced: Indian intelligence agency RAW sabotages and subverts governments through its proxies and its assets in neighboring countries. India promotes and exacerbates local grievances to overthrow governments and break up nations. Yatish Yadav says "R&AW spooks relentlessly bribed, cajoled and blackmailed India’s enemies".

[esytes69]

New Post has been published on https://acqro.in/coronavirus-why-pakistans-doctors-are-so-angry/

Coronavirus: Why Pakistan's doctors are so angry

Quetta has been a focal point for doctors’ protests

It was supposed to be just a picture of Pakistan’s president taking precautions during an official meeting.

But instead the image of President Dr Arif Alvi wearing the high-end N-95 medical mask – tweeted out on social media – has further inflamed tensions between Pakistan’s government and those on the front line of the fight against coronavirus.

The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) noted that while “politicians and bureaucrats are often seen wearing N-95 masks during meetings and visits… health professionals are facing a dire shortage of (these masks) and PPE (personal protective equipment)”.

Indeed, while many countries around the world regularly take to the streets to applaud their health workers during the crisis, doctors in one city – where almost 25 medical officials have already tested positive – were beaten by the police, for daring to protest over the lack of PPE.

Dr Alvi has since explained that he was given this mask in China during a recent visit and had been re-using it until its straps broke. He is now using a common face mask.

But doctors are still not happy.

PPE shortages have been in the headlines ever since the coronavirus pandemic struck early last month, mainly because it was an unprecedented situation and the magnitude of demand could not have been foreseen.

For the 200,000 or so practising doctors in Pakistan, the outbreak came just six months after they were stunned by a controversial government decision to close the country’s top health professionals’ regulatory body, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

That decision left 15,000 fresh medical graduates without certification, while around 30,000 doctors still await their routine five-year registration renewal which is necessary for them to continue to practise medicine in Pakistan and abroad, a source in the PMDC said.

The near absence of protective gear triggered unrest among this already strained community, with doctors all over the country resorting to brief protests and strikes.

There were clashes between police and doctors in Quetta

But nowhere were these protests as violent as in Quetta – and there are some good reasons for this.

Balochistan province is already under-resourced, with only two tertiary-care hospitals, both in Quetta, the capital. The region has often been politcally neglected. A low-intensity separatist insurgency has been going on for two decades.

The province was also the first recipient of coronavirus, which arrived with the thousands of pilgrims who crossed over from Iran during February and March.

Soon after the virus was detected, the government set up a quarantine camp at the Taftan crossing, but the arrangement was “grossly inadequate and unprofessional”, says Dr Yasir Khan, president of the Balochistan chapter of the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA).

“People were crowded together in tents so that those who had no infection also got infected,” he says.

Concerns were further raised when 40 out of the 96 people who tested positive in Quetta some two weeks ago were found to have no travel history, indicating community transmission.

As doctors demanded protection, supplies were arranged by the federal government, and the hospitals were made to sign receipts for N-95 masks.

But they turned out to be K-95 masks, mostly used by barbers and beauticians in haircutting salons, Dr Shah says.

At least 17 doctors and five paramedics in Quetta have so far tested positive for Covid-19. Even more worryingly, none of Quetta’s infected health workers were involved in directly handling coronavirus patients, Dr Khan said.

It is not the only affected province: according to the YDA, 16 medics are infected in KP, and there are reports that two doctors have died in Gilgit-Baltistan region and Karachi. The federal health ministry was repeatedly approached by the BBC to confirm country-wide infections among health professionals, but it did not respond.

By Wednesday, tensions had reached boiling point. Hundreds of doctors and paramedics went on strike, gathering at Quetta’s Civil Hospital, from where they started a protest march towards the chief minister’s residence.

Police stopped them halfway to the venue, and when they tried to break through the cordon, they were pounced upon and beaten with sticks and fists.

Many were injured, and more than two dozen were arrested.

They have since been released and have decided to call off their strike. But their protest continues as PPE supplies, which the government claims to have dispatched, have yet to reach them.

[lollipoplollipopoh]

Kashmir and Balochistan: Will Pakistan own up to rights abuses? | UpFront (Full) by Al Jazeera English In this episode of UpFront, we challenge Pakistan's Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari on the country's support for groups that have carried out attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir; enforced disappearances in Balochistan and treatment of religious minorities. And in our Arena, author Grace Blakeley and financial policy analyst Diego Zuluaga debate the state of capitalism in the world today. Pakistan defends its rights record in Kashmir and Balochistan The Pakistani government's support for internationally designated terrorist groups came under scrutiny earlier this year when the Pakistan-based group Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed 40 Indian soldiers in Pulwama in Indian-administered Kashmir in February. Pakistan has long been accused of supporting violent groups like JeM, but the country's Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari says that was in the past. "Yes, in the past, we have backed some freedom fighters, and we had bad groups supporting those freedom fighters, that was a long time ago," she said. The Paris-based watchdog, the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF), said Pakistan is still helping to fund groups like JeM, and that it is not doing enough to curb terrorism. Though the watchdog says Pakistan has only addressed five of its recommended 27 "action items", Mazari says Pakistan is complying with FATF demands. "Our government is not only compliant, we are supporting, we are trying to improve our sort of structures ... we are cooperating with them." Mazari also defended Pakistan's record in Balochistan. The government is accused of abducting and killing tens of thousands of people there throughout a decades-long rebellion. She conceded there were cases of enforced disappearances, but said the government was dealing with the issue. "We have now prepared a bill against enforced disappearances. We have a commission which is focusing on checking out enforced disappearances ... anybody can complain, and if there is a problem, it will be dealt with, within the law of the land," Mazari said. Mazari also defended Pakistan's treatment of religious minorities. Critics say Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which carry the death sentence for anyone who insults Islam, have been used to persecute members of minority faiths. "Coming now to the non-Muslims citizens, yes, there have been problems. But now the Supreme Court has set a very good precedent that false accusations on blasphemy charges will be punishable and those who do it will be punished," Mazari said. This week's Headliner, Pakistani Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari. Are we in the death throes of capitalism? From Lebanon to Chile, from Iraq to Ecuador, there has been a wave of protests across the world this year; a groundswell of anger, and all of it directed at the ruling class. Each protest movement is unique: some are demanding more democracy and greater political freedoms, while others are fuelled by anger over corruption. Amongst all these grievances, however, there appears to be a common underlying theme: frustration over the economy and rising inequality. Grace Blakely, author of the book, Stolen, How to Save the World from Financialisation, believes that many of the protests, particularly in Latin America, are driven by economic discontent. Blakeley argues that we are seeing cracks in the capitalist system. The problem, she says, is that corporations have become "financialised"; they are so focused on profits for shareholders that working people are losing out. "They (corporations) will do anything to boost their short-term share price, even at the expense of long-term investment and paying their workers," she says. Diego Zuluaga, a financial policy analyst at the Cato Institute, doesn't believe we are seeing a breakdown in the capitalist system and contends that people are generally better off economically. "I think we haven't had a period in the history of the world like the last 30 years in which the vast majority of the global population, even in the most deprived places, have suddenly and finally gained access to the most basic essentials and necessities. And that has been driven universally by liberalisation," Zuluaga says. In this week's UpFront Arena we debate the state of capitalism with Grace Blakeley and Diego Zuluaga. - Subscribe to our channel: https://ift.tt/291RaQr - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://ift.tt/1iHo6G4 - Check our website: https://ift.tt/2lOp4tL

[omgstupendousbouquetbasement]

Saudi Minister: Iran Harboring al-Qaida's 'Board of Directors'

Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of harboring what it said was "the board of directors of al-Qaida" and rejected charges Riyadh was behind last week's suicide car bombing that killed against 27 personnel of the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir made the remarks Monday during a visit to Iran's neighbor Pakistan. Iranian authorities allege Wednesday's deadly bombing against IRGCin the border province of Sistan-Balochistan was "planned and carried out from inside Pakistan" with support of the intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran also threatened to take unilateral military punitive action against the perpetrators if Pakistan failed to do so. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Pakistan's ambassador on Sunday to protest the attack. "Iran has been harboring virtually the board of directors of al-Qaida, including Osama bin Laden's son since the events of 9/11," Saudi Foreign Minister Al-Jubeir told a joint news conference in Islamabad along with his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi. He declared Iran as "the world's chief sponsor of terrorism." Al-Jubeir added: "Iran has been facilitating the transport of terrorists across its territory and so the last country in the world to accuse others of supporting terrorism is Iran." Osama Bin Laden was accused of plotting the September 2001 attacks on the U.S., commonly referred to as 9/11, from Afghanistan before fleeing to neighbouring Pakistan. The U.S. military in 2011 tracked and killed the al-Qaida chief in a unilateral operation against his hideout in the Pakistani city of Abbotabad. Foreign Minister Qureshi, for his part, told reporters that he spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Jawad Zarif, on Sunday,assuring him of Pakistan's cooperation in investigating last week's terrorist attack. "If they have evidence they will share with us and we will be helpful. We have been dealing with these issues in the past we have cooperated with each other to overcome these difficulties and we will do so in the future as well," Qureshi noted. He urged Iranian leaders to desist from issuing threatening statements against Pakistan. "Iran is our neighbor and we would not want to cause any problem for them. We respect their sovereignty and their territorial integrity and I am sure they respect ours," Qureshi cautioned. Saudi Minister Al-Jubeir said that by blaming outsiders for violent acts on its territory, Tehran was trying to to deflect attention from domestic pressure and problems facing the Iranian regime. He did not elaborate. Iran itself has been implicated in terrorist attacks in his country, in South America and Europe, he added. Al-Jubeir again accused Tehran of establishing groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen for promoting terrorist activities. Crown Prince's Pakistan Visit Al-Jubeir is in Pakistan as part of a big delegation, which arrived in Pakistan on Sunday on a two-day state visit under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The two countries signed unprecedented bilateral investment projects worth $20 billions in oil refining, petrochemicals, energy and other sectors. The crown prince, also known as MBS, at the request of his Pakistani host, Prime Minister Imran Khan, also ordered release of more than 2,100 of about 3,000 Pakistanis being detained in Saudi jails for various crimes. He also assured Khan of addressing complaints and ensuring better treatment of about 2.5 million Pakistanis working in the Saudi Kingdom mostly as laborers. Pakistan has always walked a tightrope while trying to maintain a balance between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Predominantly Sunni Pakistan has deep religious, cultural, political and defense ties to Saudi Arabia, but it shares a porous border with Shi'ite Iran, stretching over 900 kilometers. A fifth of Pakistan's more than 200 million residents are Shiite Muslims who maintain close cultural and religious ties with the Iranian nation. Iranian leaders have long alleged that anti-Iran Sunni-militants use the Pakistani province of Baluchistan for planning cross-border attacks. Islamabad in the past has arrested fugitive Iranian militants and handed them over to Tehran. Recently, the Iranian government acknowledged Pakistani forces rescued five of nearly a dozen border forces who were kidnapped by militants during a raid on one of the Iranian border outposts. from Blogger https://ift.tt/2DZVr2V via IFTTT

[currentbalochistan]

More than 785 persons were forcibly disappeared from Balochistan in 626 different operations during the year 2019.

sangar publication

- 27 Jan, 2020 at 8:20 am

Sangar Report

By Chief Editor Dosten Baloch

The state brutalities in Balochistan continued unabated like the previous years. This year, the Occupied Balochistan also showed a barbaric picture, where the occupying state continued military operations, killing of Baloch dissidents, forced disappearances during operations, torturing of people, looting houses and then burning them and forced evacuations of inhabitants from their ancestral villages.

The occupying state intensified its tactic of forcibly disappearing of Baloch women and children.

On one side the state tyranny and atrocities continue and on the other hand, armed activities of Baloch militant organizations had also continued implicating losses of life and resources to the state forces. In these activities, one attack, Gwadar attack, got international attention. The attack was claimed by the Baloch liberation army, carried out on Gwadar Continental Hotel. The attack continued nearly for 26 hours. In this attack four Baloch freedom fighters were martyred whereas occupying state’s armed personnel, many Pakistani and foreign investors were killed.

Apart from the militant Baloch armed organizations, peaceful Baloch independence political parties, and human rights organizations have continued protesting nationally and internationally. They strived to show Pakistani human rights violations in Balochistan. They also strived to lobby internationally and to get Baloch nation their natural rights.

The year saw the exploitatory and strategic Pakistan China Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) situation dwindle. The hassle bustle in construction activities and Chinese movements in Balochistan had reduced significantly giving an appearance that the projects might be delayed or fail together. The corridor’s apparent failure and china’s disinterest has provoked occupying the state to increase their atrocities and restrictions on the Baloch people. It seems to be a desperate approach to satisfy Chinese security requirements which have devastated the whole region and increased latent anger and dissatisfaction against the State.

The year also saw the so-called Baloch nationalist who previously participated in the Pakistani parliament and was part of these projects changing to different kinds of approaches to save their positions. National Party (NP) who had previously played a key role in implementing this strategic economic corridor (CPEC) started opposing this economic corridor through its newspaper statements. The party started raising slogans against the state to restore their trust with the Baloch nation. Whereas we see this change in their approach as a blackmailing tactic against the establishment to remake their position in parliament. Whereas BNP was stuck with the slogans of ‘six points’ while they remained partners to the Imran Khan government in the center.

This year four women got forcefully disappeared from Awaran by state agencies. Widespread anger and protests helped in getting them released. The BNP declared this as their success while BNP leaders also expressed their wish for greater provincial autonomy and the inclusion of historical Baloch lands in Balochistan which currently are part of Punjab.

On one side Baloch pro-independence organizations and parties are playing their key role in the struggle of freedom and on the other side the state has increased its strategic policies and oppressions. The situation has also cleared and exposed the role and integrity of the parliamentary nationalists.

Balochistan’s freedom fighter’s success has seriously weakened the state’s apparatus in Balochistan. This can also be seen in the internal happenings of Pakistan’s establishment.

This year, the occupying state’s one of the biggest party Ulma -e- Islam opposed the government by their protests and then many party leaders joined them. Besides these political parties, the occupier’s courts and military organization’s atmosphere was overheated over the extension of the post of army chief and then former Pakistani general and president Pervaiz Musharaf’s execution.

International economic organizations and FATF have listed Pakistan in the list of grey countries that show their economic difficulties. Pakistan has been totally reliant on IMF and Saudi Arabia to keep its economy afloat.

The condition of minorities and oppressed nations in Pakistan also kept deteriorating. The protests for the release of thousands of enforced disappeared persons continued. While many political workers’ mutilated bodies had been dumped by the state in different parts of the country. In this situation, all those nations in Pakistan who want to redeem their lives from this state have to come on a single platform to gain salvation.

If we see this internationally then this year was a bad example between regional and international powers especially middle east situation because of that Iran, America, Russia, and at last of year violation from Turkey and negative views from America and Europe countries, Iran and Saudi’s relations were also tense especially attacks on oil installations. North Korea and America’s relations have been tense.

Because of violent protests, this year in Iran and Iraq reigning has been changing sometimes this side that side by using their military powers to trample protests. The presidential elections in Afghanistan were successfully conducted and Ashraf Ghani once again succeeded. Afghan region has been in limelight in media with the America and Taliban table talks.

The south Asian countries, Pakistan and India also continued with their cold war and at times the situation gave an impression of an all stage war. The news was also focused on America and China’s trade war which can push this region into complexities.

The situation in Occupied Balochistan deteriorated deeply. Hence 2019 has shown a bloody picture like the previous years. The occupying state carried out 626 military operations against the Baloch nation. In those operations, 785 persons have been forcefully kidnapped and disappeared including a large number of women and children. This year 302 dead bodies were found. 80 had been killed by forces while the exact motives of 144 killings were not found and 78 dead bodies went unrecognized.

The burning and demolition of houses, looting them had also continued, more than 1416 houses were looted under the state barbaric policy during operations and 200 houses were burnt.

321 persons were released from the torture cells of state forces and 42 new check posts were built in Occupied Balochistan.

Furthermore, no motives were found for the deaths of the missing person. Because of state barbarism, thousands of Baloch families were compelled to migrate to Iran, Afghanistan and in internal areas of Balochistan and Sindh and southern Punjab.

If we compare the devastation in Balochistan, it is in no means lesser than to those many regions which have been declared war zones by the United Nations and many superpowers. Balochistan’s situation is worse but they do not bother to focus on Balochistan. Thus giving the occupying state exemption to increase its policy of barbarism in Balochistan. So Baloch freedom fighting organizations and parties are struggling and showing the real image of Pakistan in front of the world.

The Voice for Baloch Missing Persons completed its struggle of 10 years. They have been trying to show and uncover the state barbarities in front of the world.

This year Baloch freedom fighting organizations seemed busy for human rights issues and they struggled for the concentrations of the world toward the Baloch nation. This is clear that internationally Baloch is not raising voice in a single platform. Because these negative impacts are being on the Baloch struggle for that Baloch independent parties should have to struggle on a single platform so that they would not face difficulties concentrating world toward them. This act will double the hopes of the Baloch nation for freedom. Baloch leadership has to agree on some decisions for national interests then internationally this struggle will get the concentration of the world toward them. These decisions will give another advantage that Baloch parliamentarians who want to brighten their political shop on every step and counter Baloch national struggle their dialogues will be gated if that is National Party (NP) or Balochistan National Party to further enslave Baloch nation or Baloch genocide policy. Especially in this situation this ideology will be important further where one side occupying state is depressed economically, politically and socially and in a world tussle between superpowers like China, America, and Russia, and with consideration especially on southern Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, and middle east’s tense situation has impacted the whole world, Balochistan’s war needs more strength & power to ascertain itself so knowing today’s situation Baloch national leaders should make their policies according to current situations. Because of these policies, there will be no stop on Baloch struggle and second will be a way to get their destination.

DostenBaloch

@DostenBaloch1

https://www.sangarpublication.org/more-than-785-persons-were-forcibly-disappeared-from-balochistan-in-626-different-operations-during-the-year-2019/

[topfygad]

Is Iran safe in 2019?

One of the frequent questions I normally get requested for is what’s the greatest nation I’ve ever visited. 

It’s a very difficult query as, mainly, there isn’t a proper reply, and the reason being that each nation has it personal magnificence, its execs and cons, so it’s simply unimaginable to find out which one was the perfect, particularly as a result of it additionally is determined by numerous elements, out of your temper to your luck, the folks you meet and the time you spent within the nation. 

Nevertheless, whereas it’s troublesome to say a favourite vacation spot, mentioning a bunch of nations the place you had a few of your greatest experiences is unquestionably simpler and, for some purpose, Iran all the time makes it to the checklist.

I like Iran and I completely loved my time there, not solely as a result of that is residence to essentially the most placing Islamic structure and a few of the most hospitable folks I’ve ever met but in addition, as a result of Iran is among the most secure international locations on the planet.

True story.

This information is a private and thorough evaluation that can take you thru all the explanations why Iran is secure, with out forgetting all its inside political issues and, in fact, a sequence of tremendous helpful security ideas.

For all the sensible data to go to the nation, don’t neglect to learn my journey information to Iran

    Index:

My private expertise Iran right this moment

Delicate areas  Security ideas

Solo feminine journey Individuals and British in Iran Driving in Iran Conclusion

Be taught right here easy methods to get a visa for Iran

  Is Iran secure? My private expertise

I’ve been to Iran twice.

The primary time, I barely spent 10 days. 

On my second time, I spent 2 months. 

Now, I’m planning a 3rd time, and I’m fairly certain there will probably be a fourth.

Iran is superb.

On the one hand, the nation is large and it’s residence to infinite various things to see, from dreamy islands to alpine mountains, desert and historic cities. Every area has one thing very completely different to supply and it might take an eternity to go to all the things.

If you wish to know the locations I visited, test my 1-month itinerary.

Then again, Iranians are nice folks, extraordinarily hospitable, well-educated, kind-hearted and, general, stunning people who find themselves very curious to satisfy foreigners and assist them, more often than not anticipating nothing in return.

Do not forget that, due to the sanctions, most journey insurance coverage firms, together with World Nomads, don’t present protection for Iran. The one which does, nevertheless, is IATI Insurance coverage, a European-based firm that gives plans for all sorts of vacationers, from backpackers to households. Moreover, the readers of this weblog can get an unique 5% low cost. BUY IT THROUGH THIS LINK TO GET YOUR 5% DISCOUNT

Pleasant locals are those who make you all the time really feel secure in Iran

It’s a kind of international locations the place you might be constantly making native mates.

Tea and home invites, infinite random conversations, sharing road meals…

Throughout my journey, the native interactions had been all the time nice, and real, and this is among the issues that can make you notice that Iran is a secure vacation spot, as a result of Iranians make you’re feeling so.

I can’t suggest Iran sufficient and, primarily based on my great expertise, I’m actually snug sufficient to say that that is certainly one of many most secure international locations I’ve ever been to.

Nevertheless, there are some things it is advisable to find out about security in Iran and that is the rationale why I wrote this publish. Proceed studying to know extra. 

With Vali’s household in Mashhad

  Is it secure to journey to Iran? The scenario these days

In keeping with Wikipedia, official sources say that in 2013, Iran reached 4.76 million overseas guests and, since then, the nation has elevated massively in recognition, which implies that the determine could have simply doubled and even tripled – only a guess.

These statistics are simply insane for Iran, particularly if we take note of that the Western media, particularly American, has been portraying the nation because the worst, most harmful and repressive of all international locations.

At present, historic Persian cities such as Shiraz, Esfahan or Yazd, are stuffed with each vacationer teams and impartial vacationers, completely lined memento stalls and cute boutique accommodations.

And this could solely imply one factor: Iran is secure as hell.

The structure is really attractive

  The media: is Iran harmful due to the Western media?

After all.

If anybody thinks Iran is a harmful nation is due to the media. 

For many years, the American newspapers have been promoting a very biased picture about Iran, solely centered on nuclear weapons, non secular fanatics, human rights abuse and, mainly, a dictatorial regime. 

In Europe, it was the identical story however I really feel that they’ve softened their speech and right this moment, whereas they’re nonetheless speaking about all of the loopy issues happening there, they’re constantly publishing reviews and chronicles speaking about its nice vacationer sights and other people, and this is among the the reason why many vacationers began to think about Iran as a secure vacation spot to journey to. 

Do you assume whether or not Iran is secure? Anti-American propaganda simply exterior of the previous American embassy in Tehran

This isn’t the case of the American media, nevertheless, particularly with the present Authorities, who retains on contaminating the general public opinion with the concept Iran is the last word arch-enemy and one of many unfriendliest international locations on Earth.

You’ll be stunned to know what number of Individuals consider that. 

In actual fact, I’ve had just a few small arguments on social media, just like the day when that American dude replied to one in all my tweets – see under – saying that why would somebody need to go to in such a harmful place and, to assist his reasoning, he posted one article from Fox Information. Hilarious. 

I’m conscious that this has been stated again and again, however don’t belief what the media has to say a couple of nation and do consider the lots of of hundreds of vacationers who’ve been there.

Do not forget that, due to the sanctions, most journey insurance coverage firms, together with World Nomads, don’t present protection for Iran. The one which does, nevertheless, is IATI Insurance coverage, a European-based firm that gives plans for all sorts of vacationers, from backpackers to households. Moreover, the readers of this weblog can get an unique 5% low cost. BUY IT THROUGH THIS LINK TO GET YOUR 5% DISCOUNT

  Issues: is it secure to journey to Iran now?

Is Iran secure to go to regardless of all the present issues?

Certain, Iran is secure for vacationers, however we are able to’t ignore that they’ve some critical inside points.

Iran is a dictatorial regime dominated by Islamic Legal guidelines – As a lot as I like Iran, we are able to’t ignore that this can be a repressive dictatorship that violates human rights once in a while. Nevertheless, having a nasty Authorities doesn’t make their folks unhealthy as nicely and, so long as you observe some easy guidelines – extra on that later – you shouldn’t be anxious about it.

Violent protests (replace 2019) – You in all probability heard about some violent protests in 2019 which concerned a number of useless civilians and the Authorities shutting down the web for practically per week. Certain, the Authorities’s response to demonstrators will all the time be repression and extra repression, however that is occurring internationally, together with in Chile, and I don’t see Donald Trump complaining about it. The perfect you are able to do is to keep away from any public demonstration. 

Terrorist assaults – There have been some terrorist assaults in Iran, the final massive one being in 2017 in Tehran, the place a number of Iranians died. It was an unlucky occasion however terrorist assaults additionally occur in Europe – extra typically than in Iran – and, within the USA, there’s a mass taking pictures each different day.

Ladies at Tehran metro exit

  Areas in Iran which aren’t secure for vacationers

In accordance to the FCO Recommendation, the province of Balochistan and the areas bordering Iraq and Afghanistan are suggested towards all journey, for apparent causes. 

The remainder of Iran, nevertheless, is completely secure for vacationers.

Nonetheless, there are two issues it is advisable to find out about these harmful areas:

To begin with, they’re distant from all touristic locations

Second of all, the FCO recommendation will all the time be totally exaggerated

Comparatively harmful areas in Iran

Border with Iraq – There could also be some pressure within the southern a part of the border however I crossed myself the northern Iran-Iraq border, on the Kurdistan half, and I can guarantee you that that a part of Iran is secure to go to. 

Border with Afghanistan – I haven’t been there however intrepid vacationers cross that border on a regular basis and, to this point, I’ve by no means heard of any unhealthy experiences or reviews.

Balochistan – Balochistan is a province whose majority of individuals are Sunni so, for the previous couple of years, there have been some tensions however the scenario has improved plus, with the rise in recognition of Pakistan, this area is day-after-day receiving increasingly more vacationers on their approach to Pakistan.

As I stated, I strongly consider the FCO Recommendation could be very biased however, in case you are undecided about it, you simply want to stay within the touristic and secure a part of Iran.

The Iran-Iraq border

  Is it secure to go to Iran? – My prime security ideas

These are just a few further security ideas for Iran:

behave in Iran (cultural etiquette)

As I stated, Iran has some strict Sharia guidelines however they’re really extra relaxed than in Saudi Arabia for instance, a rustic with a big Western expat group.

For males, the one factor you’ll be able to’t do is sporting shorts.

For ladies, it is a little more difficult however all it’s a must to do is protecting your hair and never displaying any of your curves.

Apart from that, simply apply frequent sense and know that public reveals of affection are usually not tolerated – like in Dubai – and alcohol just isn’t allowed, though it’s extensively out there within the black market and locals do drink typically.

About faith in Iran In Iran, most individuals are Shia, a department of Islam completely different from Sunni, the prevalent department throughout the Arab international locations. By nature, Shia individuals are extra relaxed than Sunni, which implies that, relating to faith, Iran is extra liberal than contries like Oman or the United Arab Emirates, plus Iran has additionally a big inhabitants of atheist folks, greater than every other Arab nation, and you will notice it while you go there. In any case, faith nonetheless performs an necessary position within the nation, so be all the time respectful such as you can be in every other Muslim nation.

I feel mannequins are the one scary factor in Iran

  Is there a hazard of being arrested?

One other of the the reason why Iran is commonly perceived as harmful is as a result of each time a foreigner will get arrested, it seems all around the information, and reviews say that foreigners could also be locked down in a cell room for months with out having the ability to talk with the skin world.

Nevertheless, there are two sorts of foreigners who get arrested: journalists and vacationers doing silly issues, like these bloggers who obtained arrested as a result of they flew a drone over a army facility or these Individuals who had been caught crossing the Iranian border illegally from Iraqi Kurdistan. 

Simply be good and you may be positive.

  Journey insurance coverage for Iran

One thing it is advisable to find out about journey insurance coverage is that it is among the necessities for getting your visa on arrival. In case you don’t have one, they may make you purchase a dodgy one on the airport.

Furthermore, keep in mind that, due to the sanctions, most insurance coverage, together with World Nomads, received’t present protection for Iran.

The which does, nevertheless, is IATI Insurance coverage, a European-based firm that gives loads of completely different plans for any sort of traveler, from funds backpackers to households.

Furthermore, the readers of this weblog can get an unique 5% low cost.

BUY THROUGH THIS LINK TO GET YOUR 5% DISCOUNT

  Maintaining your cash secure in Iran

This isn’t a security tip however a precaution. 

In Iran, worldwide bank cards don’t work, which suggests that you’ll want to hold all of your money for no matter time you might be within the nation.

For this, you’ve two options:

Purchase an area bank card and prime it up – There’s a service for foreigners which consists of an area debit card which you top-up with money upon your arrival, so that you don’t want to hold all the cash. Mah Card is one in all these providers which you’ll belief.

Guide your accommodations, home flights, and bus tickets ONLINE by 1stQuest – 1stQuest is an area firm that gives a big number of reserving providers for Iran, together with accommodations, bus & flight tickets, and so on. You received’t be capable of buy these providers on-line by an area web site – as they don’t settle for bank cards – however 1stQuest is among the only a few firms which does so, not less than, you received’t want to hold all of the money for accommodations or home flights, which is perhaps half of it. The perfect of it’s that readers of this weblog get an unique 5% low cost. How? Through the use of the promo code ATC-QST. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT 1STQUEST

  Browsing the web safely

As you might know, in Iran the web is censored, so a whole lot of web sites are blocked, from Fb to YouTube. 

With the intention to entry these web sites, you’ll need one thing known as a Digital Personal Community (VPN) and yow will discover extra details about it right here.

However, isn’t it unlawful to make use of a VPN? Why ought to this be a security tip?

Sure, utilizing a VPN is unlawful however everyone in Iran makes use of it – actually, everybody – and the one individuals who get punished for utilizing it are, for instance, those that use the web to arrange protests towards the regime.

Additionally, a VPN is not going to solely can help you entry blocked websites but in addition, it permits you to browse extra privately and safer and, in these sort of authoritarian regimes the place anybody may very well be spied at, you actually need to use one. 

I personally use ExpressVPN, one of many quickest VPNs out there out there.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ExpressVPN

If you wish to know extra about this subject, learn: discover the appropriate VPN for Iran

The extra distant you go in Iran, the safer it will get!

  Is Iran secure for solo feminine vacationers?

This is among the questions I get requested for extra typically from girls.

Is it secure to journey in Iran as a solo lady?

Effectively, I’m a person, so I clearly obtained a really completely different expertise than most girls, however I don’t know a single girl who didn’t have an exquisite expertise so, primarily based on their opinions, I can definitely inform that Iran is a secure vacation spot for ladies. 

If you wish to know extra particulars about it, I interviewed Eveline from Earth Wanderess, who shares her journey experience about solo feminine journey in Iran. 

Eve from Earth Wanderess in Iran

  Is Iran secure for Individuals and British?

The million-dollar query.

No one has ever requested me this as a result of I’m neither American nor British, however I do know some folks from these international locations who’ve been to Iran and all of them stated that it didn’t actually make a distinction.

As I stated, Iranians are curious to satisfy any foreigner and, really, they may in all probability be extra excited to satisfy an American than every other vacationer.

Furthermore, I can guarantee you one factor which is that an American will really feel 10x safer and extra welcome in Iran than an Iranian will really feel within the USA, the place they is perhaps subjected to racism and prejudices, True story.

On this publish, Jackie wrote about American vacationers in Iran.

  Is driving secure in Iran?

Like in most international locations within the Center East, the locals don’t actually observe the visitors guidelines, so automotive accidents do abound. 

Nevertheless, I felt that in locations like Egypt or Saudi Arabia, the locals are crazier.

Crossing the streets in Iran

One of many potential threats most vacationers face in Iran is crossing the road, particularly in Tehran, as crosswalks are fully ineffective so, when attempting to cross, automobiles don’t cease and easily keep away from you.

The primary few instances you do it, you assume you’re going to die however after some apply, you get used to it. In any case, it’s all the time advisable to cross the highway subsequent to an area particular person.

Public transportation in Iran

The entire of Iran is tremendous well-connected by a super-effective and environment friendly bus community, so it’s the preferred method of transportation amongst impartial vacationers. 

There are two kinds of buses, regular and VIP and, with the intention to journey safer, it’s best to get the VIP one, because it solely prices 20-30% extra, which is just a few extra € and, since they’re newer and greater, they’re undoubtedly safer. 

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Alternatively, if you wish to keep away from touring by highway and, since distances in Iran are big, it’s best to contemplate taking home flights and, as soon as once more, you are able to do it by way of 1stQuest and in addition reap the benefits of my 5% low cost.

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  Conclusion: Is Iran a secure nation to go to?

Total, Iran is a secure vacation spot and that is the rationale why the nation has suffered a vacationer growth within the final couple of years. 

Like in every other nation, nevertheless, there are, in fact, some small threats however the excellent news is that these tiny risks are usually not explicit from Iran however they do occur in lots of international locations internationally. 

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Islamic State Comes for South Asia

Last month, the Islamic Condition (IS) formally introduced the creation of wilayah (provinces) in Pakistan and India. The announcement was created by the Islamic State’s media entrance, the Amaq News Company.

The two provinces have been carved out of the erstwhile Islamic Point out of Khorasan Province (ISKP), which encompassed the Af-Pak border region. ISKP, which was started in January 2015, months immediately after IS experienced declared its so termed caliphate in the Iraq and Levant, spearheaded all action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and was the resource of IS-affiliated militant action in India as very well.

The two IS provinces in India and Pakistan ended up introduced in the speedy aftermath of the team claiming responsibility for gun attacks on safety forces in Shopian district of Indian-administered Kashmir. For the duration of the same 7 days, IS claimed a related gun attack in Mastung district of Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

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A thirty day period prior to the Islamic State’s creation of the Wilayah Pakistan, the team bombed the Hazarjangi industry in Balochistan’s capital of Quetta, killing 20 individuals. April’s Quetta bombing specific the Shia Hazara ethnic team, which, alongside with the local Christian neighborhood, has been routinely focused by the Islamic Point out and its affiliate marketers, in line with the ideological goal of purging religious minorities from areas it intends to occupy. Pakistan’s Hazara group has been the Islamic State’s most frequent targets, many thanks to an virtually two century-previous record of violent persecution in the location owing to their Shia identification, and quickly identifiable physical options owing to their Uzbek and Turkic ancestry.

The existence of currently marginalized religious communities, coupled with Balochistan’s multipronged volatility – owing to a Baloch separatist movement, jihadist turf wars, and a continuum of military services functions – would make the province the ideal floor for IS. After getting been pushed out of the Center East, it is in Balochistan that the Islamic Condition observed a pathway into South Asia.

While ISKP continued to concentrate on Afghanistan, after obtaining shaped its regional hub together the Af-Pak border, it has intermittently introduced fatal assaults in Pakistan as reminders of its ambitions in the region. These attacks incorporated the deadliest massacres in the nation due to the fact the development of ISKP. In February 2017, 72 persons ended up killed when the Sehwan sufi shrine in Jamshoro District was bombed. Very last year’s Mastung bombing, in the direct up to the general elections, was the 2nd deadliest assault in Pakistan’s historical past.

The expansion of IS in Balochistan and Sindh has been monitored and reiterated by impartial security analysts and militancy experts. Having said that, the official placement of the Pakistan Military has been entire denial of any IS presence in the state.

“They’ve introduced their chapters into the al-Qaeda structure, which has affiliates instead of a caliphate. They feel they will be able to create human useful resource and sort a network,” Muhammad Amir Rana, the director of Pak Institute for Peace Experiments (PIPS) and creator of Dynamics of Taliban Insurgency in FATA, informed The Diplomat.

“However, the stability forces are functioning on thwarting the menace posed by IS. NACTA [the National Counter Terrorism Authority] has fashioned a database for all people who has returned from Iraq and Syria. Equally, the full target of the CTDs [Counter Terror Departments] is on comparable cells affiliated with IS and al-Qaeda,” Rana added.

Resources within just the military reiterate that the assaults claimed by IS in Pakistan are carried out by their “foot soldiers” in the state. These local groups operate underneath the umbrella of the Islamic State, which does not have operational ability in the region. The most prominent between these is the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), whose al-Alami faction has cast an alliance with the Islamic Condition.

“Most of the so called IS operatives in Balochistan are either affiliated with the LeJ or some faction of the Pakistani Taliban. All of them are local, and none from the Middle East. These teams, which have mostly been decimated in Pakistan, are gravitating towards IS to retain by themselves pertinent,” a senior military official based in Balochistan instructed The Diplomat.

Last month, militants affiliated with the Islamic State and LeJ had been arrested in Dera Ghazi Khan and Sialkot. IS cells affiliated with Kashmir-bound Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) have been busted in Punjab in the past. Similarly, IS affiliates have been arrested from Karachi’s Sakran and Manghopir place, underlining the group’s existence across the nation.

Armed service officers retain, off the report, that sympathizers for jihadist teams like the IS and LeJ are existing inside the Army. Pakistan Army Chief Normal Qamar Javed Bajwa has also conceded that some armed service officers are facilitating assaults in Balochistan though speaking to Hazara protesters last 12 months.

When officers preserve that jihad sympathizers in the Pakistan Military are a fringe team that is remaining tackled, there has been international concern above the armed forces shielding jihadist groups to progress their strategic aims in the location.

Over and above reiterations of this by international powers trying to get to force Pakistan more than its duplicitous stability policies, this is also confessed by previous Military chiefs and spymasters. Specified this, it seems probable that the Islamic Condition asserting provinces in Pakistan and India – two nuclear armed states, which had been on the brink of war as not too long ago as February this calendar year – will multiply the group’s opportunity threat even further.

In India, the Islamic Point out is eyeing a existence in Jammu and Kashmir, capitalizing on the existing separatist motion, which has morphed into jihad. Just like disintegrated jihadist teams in Balochistan, the condition-backed violence in Kashmir gives the Islamic Condition a recruiting floor.

However, equivalent to Pakistan, the Indian protection agencies are downplaying the IS menace.

“What we have in Kashmir is a couple flags by some men and women who may possibly be camp followers, sympathizers, admirers who romanticize medieval brutality. There is no network no genuine IS terrorist,” previous chief of India’s intelligence agency, the Investigation and Analysis Wing (Raw), Vikram Sood informed The Diplomat.

“There are no liberated zones in Kashmir the place they could have operated. The intelligence and SF network in Kashmir is really strong and productive as a person can see from the numbers eliminated, supplying them very low shelf existence,” he added.

When the Islamic State’s operational capability may possibly not rival what it had throughout its heyday in the Middle East, its ideological lure is seen throughout South Asia as the team orchestrates attacks across the region. This year’s Easter bombings in Sri Lanka, related to latest attacks in Pakistan, underline that the Islamic Condition has finished its shift as an entity from the Middle East to South Asia.

“The Sri Lanka church bombings could have ripple results in southern India and this would be a matter of some problem for the protection companies. There have been scenarios of people heading throughout from South India but minimal in amount. This is probably because of indoctrination in UAE or KSA [Saudi Arabia],” mentioned Sood.

Nevertheless, though India and Sri Lanka have witnessed gory manifestations of IS existence in the region, albeit with contrasting devastation, it is Pakistan exactly where the team is wanting to capitalize on a jihadist vacuum.

Lieutenant Standard Talat Masood, a previous secretary at Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense Generation, warned the Pakistani management in opposition to the perils of underplaying the Islamic State’s presence in the state.

“They may be downplaying the group’s foothold in the region owing to the present financial circumstance, especially given the simple fact that there are threats of sanctions nonetheless looming about Pakistan,” he stated, referring to terror watchdog Economical Action Endeavor Force’s (FATF) warnings to Islamabad, indicating a possible blacklisting.

“But they must keep in mind that it [the Islamic  State] is contrary to any other team that has functioned in Pakistan in the previous. It is the only team that has managed any territory, and its ideological overreach continues to be unparalleled,” Masood included.

The post Islamic State Comes for South Asia appeared first on Defence Online.

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Attack in Iran raises spectre of a potentially far larger conflagration

A podcast version of this article is available at https://soundcloud.com/user-153425019/attack-in-iran-raises-spectre-of-a-potentially-far-larger-conflagration

By James M. Dorsey

An attack on a military parade in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz is likely to prompt Iranian retaliation against opposition groups at home and abroad. It also deepens Iranian fears that the United States. Saudi Arabia and others may seek to destabilize the country by instigating unrest among its ethnic minorities.

With competing claims of responsibility by the Islamic State and the Ahvaz National Resistance for the attack that killed 29 people and wounded 70 others in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, which borders on Iraq and is home to Iran’s ethnic Arab community, it is hard to determine with certainty the affiliation of the four perpetrators, all of whom were killed in the incident.

Statements by Iranian officials, however, accusing the United States and its allies, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, suggest that they see the Ahvaz group rather than the Islamic State as responsible for the incident, the worst since the Islamic State attacked the Iranian parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran in 2017.

Iran’s summoning, in the wake of the attack, of the ambassadors of Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark, countries from which Iranian opposition groups operate, comes at an awkward moment for Tehran.

It complicates Iranian efforts to ensure that European measures effectively neutralize potentially crippling US sanctions that are being imposed as a result of the US withdrawal in May from the 2015 international agreement that curbed the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.

Ahvaz-related violence last year spilled on to the street of The Hague when unidentified gunmen killed Ahwazi activist Ahmad Mola Nissi. Mr. Nissi was shot dead days before he was scheduled to launch a Saudi-funded television station staffed with Saudi-trained personnel that would target Khuzestan, according to Ahvazi activists.

This week, a group of exile Iranian academics and political activists, led by The Hague-based social scientist Damon Golriz, announced the creation of a group that intends to campaign for a liberal democracy in Iran under the auspices of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the ousted Shah of Iran who lives in the United States.

While Iran appears to be targeting exile groups in the wake of the Ahvaz attack, Iran itself has witnessed in recent years stepped up activity by various insurgent groups amid indications of Saudi support, leading to repeated clashes and interception of Kurdish, Baloch and other ethnic insurgents.

Last month, Azeri and Iranian Arab protests erupted in soccer stadiums while the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps reported clashes with Iraq-based Iranian Kurdish insurgents.

State-run television warned at the time in a primetime broadcast that foreign agents could turn legitimate protests stemming from domestic anger at the government’s mismanagement of the economy and corruption into “incendiary calls for regime change” by inciting violence that would provoke a crackdown by security forces and give the United States fodder to tackle Iran.

The People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran or Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK), a controversial exiled opposition group that enjoys the support of serving and former Western officials, including some in the Trump administration, as well as prominent Saudis such as Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief, who is believed to be close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has taken credit for a number of the protests in Khuzestan.

The incidents fit an emerging pattern, prompting suggestions that if a Gulf-backed group was responsible for this weekend’s attack, it may have been designed to provoke a more direct confrontation between Iran and the United States.

“If the terrorist attack in Ahvaz was part of a larger Saudi and UAE escalation in Iran, their goal is likely to goad Iran to retaliate and then use Tehran’s reaction to spark a larger war and force the US to enter since Riyadh and Abu Dhabi likely cannot take on Iran militarily alone… If so, the terrorist attack is as much about trapping Iran into war as it is to trap the US into a war of choice,” said Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council.

Iran appears with its response to the Ahvaz attack to be saying that its fears of US and Saudi destabilization efforts are becoming reality. The Iranian view is not wholly unfounded.

Speaking in a private capacity on the same day as the attack in Ahvaz, US President Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, declared that US. sanctions were causing economic pain that could lead to a “successful revolution” in Iran.

“I don’t know when we’re going to overthrow them. It could be in a few days, months, a couple of years. But it’s going to happen,” Mr. Giuliani told an audience gathered in New York for an Iran Uprising Summit organized by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities, a Washington-based group associated with the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

Mr. Giuliani is together with John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security advisor, a long-standing supporter of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq that calls for the violent overthrow of the Iranian regime.

Mr. Bolton, last year before assuming office, drafted at the request of Mr. Trump’s then strategic advisor, Steve Bannon, a plan that envisioned US support “for the democratic Iranian opposition,” “Kurdish national aspirations in Iran, Iraq and Syria,” and assistance for Iranian Arabs in Khuzestan and Baloch in the Pakistani province of Balochistan and Iran’s neighbouring Sistan and Balochistan province.

The Trump administration has officially shied away from formally endorsing the goal of toppling the regime in Tehran. Mr. Bolton, since becoming national security advisor, has insisted that US policy was to put "unprecedented pressure" on Iran to change its behaviour”, not its regime.

Messrs. Bolton and Giuliani’s inclination towards regime change is, however, shared by several US allies in the Middle East, and circumstantial evidence suggests that their views may be seeping into US policy moves without it being officially acknowledged.

Moreover, Saudi support for confrontation with Iran precedes Mr. Trump’s coming to office but has intensified since, in part as a result of King Salman’s ascendance to the Saudi throne in 2015 and the rise of his son, Prince Mohammed.

Already a decade ago, Saudi Arabia’s then King Abdullah urged the United States to “cut off the head of the snake” by launching military strikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.

Writing in 2012 in Asharq Al Awsat, a Saudi newspaper, Amal Al-Hazzani, an academic, asserted in an op-ed entitled “The oppressed Arab district of al-Ahwaz“ that Khuzestan “is an Arab territory... Its Arab residents have been facing continual repression ever since the Persian state assumed control of the region in 1925... It is imperative that the Arabs take up the al-Ahwaz cause, at least from the humanitarian perspective.”

More recently, Prince Mohammed vowed that “we won’t wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia. Instead, we will work so that the battle is for them in Iran.”

Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent UAE scholar, who is believed to be close to Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, played into Iranian assertions of Gulf involvement in this weekend’s attack by tweeting that it wasn’t a terrorist incident.

Mr. Abdulla suggested that “moving the battle to the Iranian side is a declared option” and that the number of such attacks “will increase during the next phase”.

A Saudi think tank, believed to be backed by Prince Mohammed last year called in a study for Saudi support for a low-level Baloch insurgency in Iran. Prince Mohammed vowed around the same time that “we will work so that the battle is for them in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia.”

Pakistani militants have claimed that Saudi Arabia has stepped up funding of militant madrassas or religious seminaries in Balochistan that allegedly serve as havens for anti-Iranian fighters.

The head of the US State Department’s Office of Iranian Affairs, Steven Fagin, met in Washington in June with Mustafa Hijri, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), before assuming his new post as counsel general in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The KDPI has recently stepped up its attacks in Iranian Kurdistan, killing nine people weeks before Mr. Hijri’s meeting with Mr. Fagin. Other Kurdish groups have reported similar attacks. Several Iranian Kurdish groups are discussing ways to coordinate efforts to confront the Iranian regime.

Similarly, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) last year appointed a seasoned covert operations officer as head of its Iran operations.

Said Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Khalid bin Salman, Prince Mohammed’s brother: President “Trump makes clear that we will not approach Iran with the sort of appeasement policies that failed so miserably to halt Nazi Germany’s rise to power, or avert the costliest war ever waged.”

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and co-host of the New Books in Middle Eastern Studies podcast. James is the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog, a book with the same title and a co-authored volume, Comparative Political Transitions between Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa as well as Shifting Sands, Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa and just published China and the Middle East: Venturing into the Maelstrom  

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New Post has been published on https://acqro.in/coronavirus-why-pakistans-doctors-are-so-angry/

Coronavirus: Why Pakistan's doctors are so angry

Quetta has been a focal point for doctors’ protests

It was supposed to be just a picture of Pakistan’s president taking precautions during an official meeting.

But instead the image of President Dr Arif Alvi wearing the high-end N-95 medical mask – tweeted out on social media – has further inflamed tensions between Pakistan’s government and those on the front line of the fight against coronavirus.

The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) noted that while “politicians and bureaucrats are often seen wearing N-95 masks during meetings and visits… health professionals are facing a dire shortage of (these masks) and PPE (personal protective equipment)”.

Indeed, while many countries around the world regularly take to the streets to applaud their health workers during the crisis, doctors in one city – where almost 25 medical officials have already tested positive – were beaten by the police, for daring to protest over the lack of PPE.

Dr Alvi has since explained that he was given this mask in China during a recent visit and had been re-using it until its straps broke. He is now using a common face mask.

But doctors are still not happy.

PPE shortages have been in the headlines ever since the coronavirus pandemic struck early last month, mainly because it was an unprecedented situation and the magnitude of demand could not have been foreseen.

For the 200,000 or so practising doctors in Pakistan, the outbreak came just six months after they were stunned by a controversial government decision to close the country’s top health professionals’ regulatory body, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

That decision left 15,000 fresh medical graduates without certification, while around 30,000 doctors still await their routine five-year registration renewal which is necessary for them to continue to practise medicine in Pakistan and abroad, a source in the PMDC said.

The near absence of protective gear triggered unrest among this already strained community, with doctors all over the country resorting to brief protests and strikes.

There were clashes between police and doctors in Quetta

But nowhere were these protests as violent as in Quetta – and there are some good reasons for this.

Balochistan province is already under-resourced, with only two tertiary-care hospitals, both in Quetta, the capital. The region has often been politcally neglected. A low-intensity separatist insurgency has been going on for two decades.

The province was also the first recipient of coronavirus, which arrived with the thousands of pilgrims who crossed over from Iran during February and March.

Soon after the virus was detected, the government set up a quarantine camp at the Taftan crossing, but the arrangement was “grossly inadequate and unprofessional”, says Dr Yasir Khan, president of the Balochistan chapter of the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA).

“People were crowded together in tents so that those who had no infection also got infected,” he says.

Concerns were further raised when 40 out of the 96 people who tested positive in Quetta some two weeks ago were found to have no travel history, indicating community transmission.

As doctors demanded protection, supplies were arranged by the federal government, and the hospitals were made to sign receipts for N-95 masks.

But they turned out to be K-95 masks, mostly used by barbers and beauticians in haircutting salons, Dr Shah says.

At least 17 doctors and five paramedics in Quetta have so far tested positive for Covid-19. Even more worryingly, none of Quetta’s infected health workers were involved in directly handling coronavirus patients, Dr Khan said.

It is not the only affected province: according to the YDA, 16 medics are infected in KP, and there are reports that two doctors have died in Gilgit-Baltistan region and Karachi. The federal health ministry was repeatedly approached by the BBC to confirm country-wide infections among health professionals, but it did not respond.

By Wednesday, tensions had reached boiling point. Hundreds of doctors and paramedics went on strike, gathering at Quetta’s Civil Hospital, from where they started a protest march towards the chief minister’s residence.

Police stopped them halfway to the venue, and when they tried to break through the cordon, they were pounced upon and beaten with sticks and fists.

Many were injured, and more than two dozen were arrested.

They have since been released and have decided to call off their strike. But their protest continues as PPE supplies, which the government claims to have dispatched, have yet to reach them.

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WION Gravitas: Pakistan Army Chief - hawk or dove?

Pakistani Army has mediated between protesters and government to calm the violent protest. Army Chief has experience in Kashmir and Balochistan. WION discusses whether Pakistani Army Chief Qamar Jawed Bajwa is a hawk or dove.

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If there`s a referendum in Balochistan, people will vote for India, says top Baloch leader

If there`s a referendum in Balochistan, people will vote for India, says top Baloch leader

The statement comes as Pakistan deploys additional security in the region fearing violent protest by the people of Balochistan over the project.