Cowards and barbarians

Taliban Militants Attack Pakistan School: More Than 140 People, Mostly Schoolchildren, Are Killed at Military-Run School in Peshawar

Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in northwestern Pakistan and killed at least 141 people, methodically shooting schoolchildren in the head and setting fire to some victims in a horrifying 9-hour rampage.

Shahrukh, a 17-year-old survivor of Tuesday’s attack in Peshawar, said many students were assembled in the school auditorium when the gunmen burst in and started spraying bullets. He was shot in both legs and fell to the ground.

“I saw them set one of our teachers on fire in front of me,” he said.

That's the only way I can describe those who would do this, particularly in the name of God.

So terribly senseless

In Lahore, pregnant Pakistani woman stoned to death

In an apparent 'honour killing', a 25-year-old pregnant woman was brutally beaten and stoned to death on Tuesday outside the high court here by her father and brothers for marrying the man of her choice.

Sad that there are still those

who want to ram their religious beliefs down others' throats at sword point (or in this case, gun muzzle).

Pakistani Taliban threaten Kalash tribe, Ismailis in Chitral

The Pakistani Taliban have announced an “armed struggle” against an indigenous tribe and Ismaili Muslims in the picturesque northern Chitral Valley, calling on Sunnis to support their cause in a video.

The valley was once dominated by moderate Ismailis and is also home to the Kalash, a polytheistic people who claim descent from Alexander the Great and who have maintained separate cultural traditions to the predominantly Muslim country.

But migration in recent decades has meant that Sunni Muslims are now the majority in the area, while the Kalash way of life has come under threat by the Taliban, who have also carried out a number of attacks against security forces in the area.

The Taliban's 50-minute long video released on February 2 on their media wing's website opens with a scenic view of the mountainous valley that is popular among domestic tourists and famed for its annual polo festival.

The narrator warns the Kalash, who are thought to number only 3,500, to convert to Islam or face death.

Brave democracy despite the danger

Pakistani elections hit by bomb attacks: Blasts in Karachi and Peshawar and gun battle in Chaman leave at least 22 dead and scores more wounded

Pakistan's Taliban, who regards the elections as un-Islamic, have focused their violent campaign on secular-leaning parties, such as the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan People's party (PPP) and the ANP.

In response to the threat, the government has deployed an estimated 600,000 security personnel across the country to protect polling stations and voters.

"Yes, there are fears. But what should we do? Either we sit in our house and let the terrorism go on, or we come out of our homes, cast our vote, and bring in a government that can solve this problem of terrorism," Ali Khan, a voter in Peshawar, told the Associated Press.

Good luck to them. Something has to be done, and I hope the people's vote is heard and that peace can come to the region.

I have not read the news for two days

One thing I am glad to hear about is the physical improvement and increasing support within Pakistan of Malala Yousufzai, the fourteen-year-old peace activist and advocate for girls'education who was shot, along with two classmates, by the Taliban. I meant to write about it here, and then well, you know the rest. I don't do cutting and pasting well on the tablet, so I won't link to a particular story, but I did manage to get her name right should you want to search.

I can't imagine living in such a repressive environment as that advocated by theTaliban, nor can I understand why anyone would try to kill a child for daring to suggest that all children should be allowed to go to school no matter their gender. School was such an important place for me as a child. I can't imagine not having that. My best wishes are for their recovery, and for peace and access to education for boys and girls alike in her country.

Crazy

Christian woman faces death for blasphemy
Welcome to Pakistan, where you can be beaten and sentenced to death by hanging for insulting the Prophet Mohammed without uttering anything about him, especially if you don't belong to the Islamic faith.

Disaster strains the physical and cultural needs of women in Pakistan

Pakistan floods: 'Cultural shock' for women in camps

Health and sanitation is a big issue. One camp set up in a government building had no bathing facility. Whereas the men and young children can take baths outside on the school lawn, women don't have that option. Many people didn't have a chance to pick up their belongings when the floods hit their village so they have no change of clothes. Many are wearing what they left home in and without being able to wash and women's hygiene in particular has deteriorated. The situation is even worse for menstruating and pregnant women.

The camps are also culturally shocking for women and girls. Many have never been around a man who isn't a member of their family. Now they are amongst hundreds of men who are complete strangers.

It's not just a matter of physical health and saftely, either:

In some sectors of Pakistan society, apart from the religious notions of covering up and not mingling with males outside one's family, women are considered to be the custodians of male and family honour.

This notion of honour is linked with women's sexual behaviour so their sexuality is considered to be a potential threat to the honour of family. Therefore, the systems of sex segregation known as purdah are used by the society to protect the honour of the family.

Let us hope aid and recovery come sooner than later. The scope of this disaster is immense, and the health and safety of everyone, especially women and children, are precarious.

Still in desperate need

Reports of looting, violence surface in flood-ravaged Pakistan

Desperation erupted into violence Tuesday in flood-ravaged Pakistan, as survivors who have yet to receive aid scrambled to put food in their empty bellies.

People in Sindh province blocked a highway to protest the slowness of aid delivery and clashed with police, the United Nations said. In a hard-hit district of Punjab, hungry mobs unloaded two aid trucks headed to a warehouse. Local aid agencies reported other incidents of looting.

An aid agency worker said distributions were hampered because of the crowds stopping the convoys and because large numbers of people were living along the road.

About 20 million people have been affected by the relentless monsoon rains that began falling three weeks ago, leading to massive flooding from the mountainous regions in the north to the river plains of the south.

About one-fifth of Pakistan is submerged, and entire families waded through filthy water, pleading for help.

More than 1,400 people have died. Health officials fear a second wave of fatalities from waterborne diseases, including cholera, which is endemic in Pakistan and now threatening to become a major outbreak.

UNICEF is reporting a shortfall in their water and sanitation programme that is threatening to hamper aid to the millions of children and their families at risk for disease. The aid organisation is delivering safe drinking water, critical medical supplies, food and family hygiene kits to more than a million people a day. But so many more need help. Please see UNICEF USA for more information about how you can help and to donate, if you can.

Oh, no, as if they're not having a bad enough time of it

Cholera confirmed in flood-ravaged Pakistan: River Indus is now more than 15 miles wide in places

A case of the deadly, waterborne disease cholera has been confirmed in Pakistan's flood-ravaged northwest and aid workers expect it is not isolated, the U.N. said Saturday.

The chilling discovery underscores the latest threat to the millions whose lives have been disrupted by the crisis and came as new flood surges hit the south.

In a press conference Saturday, Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani said that so far 1,384 people were known to have died, with more than 1,000 of those in the country's northwest.

He added that more than 1,600 had been injured with some 20 million people affected. Aid workers have warned that diseases spread in the aftermath could raise the death toll.

Cholera is a real threat whenever you have contaminated water. Modern sanitation goes a long way to prevent it, but in a case where you have major flooding and people homeless and in the midst of a major natural disaster, sanitation goes out the window, it could spread quickly, killing more than the floods.

My prayers are with the people in Pakistan.

And of course, another part of Eurasia has horrible floods

Pakistan floods 'hit 14m people'

The worst floods in Pakistan's history have hit at least 14 million people, officials say.

Twelve million are affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, while a further two million are affected in Sindh.

In Indian-administered Kashmir, at least 113 people died in mudslides.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that a charity connected to a group with alleged al-Qaeda links has been providing flood relief.

Flooding has submerged whole villages in the past week, killing at least 1,600 people, according to the UN.

And the worst floods to hit the region in 80 years could get worse, as it is only midway through monsoon season.

According to the federal flood commission, 1.4m acres (557,000 hectares) of crop land has been flooded across the country and more than 10,000 cows have perished.

A UN official, Manuel Bessler, told the BBC that with crops swept away by floodwaters, some Pakistanis could be forced to rely on food aid to get through the winter.

So awful. My thoughts and prayers are with them. Here are some organisations helping:

CARE
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Oxfam International
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders

If you have the wherewithal to donate, please consider it.

A rare pagan culture is endangered

Ancient race confronted by militant Islam, modernism

Pagans that are thought by some to be descendants of Alexander's troops, the Kalasha number about 2,500 to 3,000. Men and women mix freely. Living in the northwestern tip of Pakistan, the only road in winter actually goes to Afghanistan. They are increasingly pressured by Islam (and certainly were during the Taliban rule of Afghanistan) and modernism. A new road promises to bring trade, but also will expose them to outside influences.

At the height of their civilisation (between 900 CE and 1320 CE), their kings ruled over much of the area. Their religion 'may be a survivor of the early beliefs of the Indo-Persian area, embodying an early Hinduism and pre-Zoroastrian faith.' It would be a shame to have them assimilated into the greater whole of Islamic culture.

Oh, this is soooooo wrong

I found News For Blondes through a comment on Pakistan's blocking of YouTube (and subsequently temporarily blocking it for everyone else), when someone suggested that Burqa Speed Dating may have been the offensive material. But then I found this gem...

Warning: this may offend you if you have no sense of humour. You have been warned.

'Mistaken Rapture'--News for Blondes

Chaos

Pakistan's Bhutto Killed in Attack

Benazir Bhutto, 54, Lived in Eye of Pakistan Storm

This puts the January 8th elections into uncertainty in a country with nuclear capability. That's troubling, especially as Bhutto was a strong supporter for democracy. But her record wasn't perfect, as the second article explains. Still, she was the first female prime minister of a Muslim country and had a remarkable career. It's sad to see anyone killed by extremists, and this will throw the elections into chaos, especially with accusations against President Pervez Musharraf for not providing adequate security or even that he could be behind it. Emotions are riding high with demonstrations and disturbances in the streets.