Grieving families demand justice for slain soldiers

[Omar1984]

Grieving families demand justice for slain soldiers

“I want to tell our soldiers that they should avenge the killing of Usman and other soldiers like him,” Azra Bashir said. —AP Photo




SAHIWAL: Azra Bashir spoke by phone to her son Usman, holed up in a freezing border outpost on the dangerous Afghanistan-Pakistan border, only hours before NATO air strikes killed him and 23 other Pakistani soldiers. The 23 year-old captain told his mother not to worry about him, and reminded her to watch her health.

As Pakistan and the United States argue about the sequence of events that led to the attacks, Bashir is struggling with the pain of losing a child. Her anger, and that of other relatives mourning loved ones killed by a nominal ally, helps explain the uncompromising stance Islamabad has struck toward Washington since the incident.

“I want to tell our soldiers that they should avenge the killing of Usman and other soldiers like him,” Bashir said in an interview in her home in Punjab province. As she spoke, she kissed a framed photo of her son, who also left behind a wife and two-month-old daughter.

Bashir’s call for revenge has been echoed in daily protests held in Pakistan’s major cities, many of them organised by religious and right-wing parties who have long said that America and NATO – not the Taliban – are the prime enemies of Pakistan.

The border incident has greatly strengthened that narrative, reducing the political space for those who argue that cooperation with Washington is in the country’s interest. The army, which has received billions of dollars in US aid since 2001 in exchange for its cooperation, however limited, against militants, has fuelled the hard line by accusing NATO of a “deliberate act of aggression.”

The 24 deaths by apparent American friendly fire come on top of the 3,000 Pakistani security force members who have been killed over the last 10 years fighting insurgents, mainly in the northwest close to the Afghan border.

Many in the country, including leading politicians, say the war has been foisted upon them by America. They say the violence would end if Islamabad severed its ties with Washington.

“How long will we sacrifice our youths, our soldiers for others?” said Capt. Usman Bashir’s father, Bashir Ahmed. “This is not our war. This is their war.”

American and NATO officials have expressed sympathy over the deaths, saying the incident was a mistake and is being investigated. The border area is infested with militants, whom NATO has long complained receive safe haven on the Pakistan side to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

“What kind of mistake is this that kills innocent poor people?” asked Asfandyar Khan, who lost his 22-year-old son in the attacks. “We don’t want your investigation and inquires. I want justice. I want real action against those responsible.”

He fought back tears as he spoke, sitting feet away from the freshly dug grave holding his son, Najibullah Khan.

The grave in the family’s village of Kabuli Kili in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was covered in wreaths of flowers donated by military officials. A green and white Pakistani flag flew from a bamboo pole nearby.

“You are calling us friends,” Khan said of the United States. “Is this the way you people treat friends? If this is friendship, we have had enough, and don’t want such friendship.”

Pakistan has retaliated for the incident by closing its Afghan border crossings to Nato supplies, by demanding the US vacate an air base used by American drones attacking militants along the frontier, and by boycotting an international conference in Germany aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan.

Washington is keen to repair damage done to the relationship. It wants to get the supplies moving again, and also sees Islamabad’s links with Afghan insurgent leaders on its soil as a key asset in negotiating a peace deal in Afghanistan which will allow the US to withdraw its combat troops by the scheduled 2014 deadline.

Pakistan relies heavily on American aid, and it too wants to avoid a rupture in ties.

The Nato attack was the latest in a series of crises to beset the relationship this year.

In January, an American CIA contractor shot two Pakistani men who he said tried to rob him, sparking outrage. The May 2 unilateral raid that killed Osama bin Laden was also portrayed as a gross violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, largely drowning out questions over how the al-Qaeda chief was living undetected in an army town for five years.

Most experts believe the two countries will patch things up this time, and that the border closure will be temporary, chiefly because Washington and Islamabad still need each other. But the Pakistani reaction since the strikes has betrayed the lack of trust at the heart of the relationship, and bodes ill for meaningful Western cooperation with Pakistan over ending the Afghan war.

“The time has come for 180 million Pakistanis to choose between a life of respect or ignominy,” said Shahbaz Sharif, the head of the ruling party in Punjab after visiting Bashir’s family this week. “American foreign aid is drenched in the blood of martyrs and we will have to give it up and get back up on our own feet,” he was quoted by local media reports as saying.



Grieving families demand justice for slain soldiers | Provinces | DAWN.COM

 

[Shardul.....the lion]

A single photo is more than equal to 1000 words.

 

[Omar1984]

Bereaved Pakistanis demand end to 'America's war'

In a picture taken on December 2, 2011, Tasleem Akhter (L) mother of Pakistani soldier Rizwan Abbas who was killed in a NATO air strike sits with others in the village of Natowala, some 130kms south-east of Islamabad. Furious with the Pakistani government and fed up with the American alliance, bereaved families of soldiers killed in NATO air strikes are demanding an end to the war.



BHAGWAL, Pakistan — In a muddy courtyard next to the cemetery where a Pakistani flag flutters over her husband's grave, Mussarrat Bibi sits sobbing with the mourners still coming to pay their respects.


Sergeant Mumtaz Hussain was one of 24 Pakistani soldiers killed by NATO air strikes when he was deployed to fight the Taliban on the Afghan border, leaving behind a devastated mother, widow and two young children.


They say their anguish is all the more bitter because he died in an American war they don't believe Pakistan should be fighting.


"This is not the first time that the U.S. attacked our soldiers, but our government is not responding," shrieked Mussarrat. "It's not enough to kill innocent soldiers who are breadwinners for their children."


A widow at just 24, she says her priority is her children.


"On the day he died, the kids missed him so much. They told me they didn't want to go to school, they just wanted to see him and wouldn't go to school until they had. My son still doesn't believe he's dead," she said.


The killings at two border posts in the early hours of November 26 brought Pakistani-U.S. relations to a fresh low and elicited a furious response from Islamabad, although there has been little outpouring onto the streets.


Pakistan will boycott Monday's international conference on Afghanistan in Germany, has shut the Afghan border to NATO convoys and ordered Americans to leave an air base, reportedly used as a hub for covert CIA drone strikes, by December 11.


Angry with the government for allying with the U.S., bereaved relatives say the only answer is ending the relationship and banning the covert CIA drone war against Taliban commanders in the border region.


"India is our enemy and if we have to sacrifice our sons against India, we would be proud. But what's the use of sacrificing our sons for this meaningless war, which is not our war?" asked Hussain's uncle, Muhammad Nazeer.


"If our government decides to come out of the U.S. alliance, everything will be OK. The Taliban won't attack us and we will grow. These drone strikes are fuelling terrorism and strengthening the Taliban," said Nazeer.


Islamabad says its frosty relationship with the U.S. and NATO is under review, although it remains unclear to what extent the government or the military will force through substantial changes.


Pakistan is dependent on billions of dollars in U.S. aid.


"This war should end now," said Said Beguman, Hussain's 70-year-old mother, a shawl covering her grey hair, sitting in her humble home deluged by mourners in Bhagwal village, 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Islamabad.


"This is bringing destruction to our country," she added. "I want peace for the sons of other mothers. This war serves nobody and our government must come out of it," said Beguman.


Her son lies in the graveyard behind the house, a mound of fresh earth covered in rose petals and bouquets from President Asif Ali Zardari, army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.


Pakistan believes it has paid too high a price for signing up to the U.S.-led "war on terror" in the dark days after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.


Homegrown Taliban are bombing cities and waging a bitter insurgency in the northwest. The government says 35,000 people have died in 10 years, including more than 3,000 soldiers killed in battles with Islamist militants.


Thirty kilometres east of Bhagwal, lies the village of Natowala that like the rest of Chakwal district is a premier recruiting ground for the army where scores of families depend on military salaries and pensions.


Tasleem Akhter says she is more upset by the government than the death of her 20-year-old son, Rizwan Abbas, who was recruited last year.


"This was his desire and mine that he sacrifice his life for the nation. I can sacrifice my three other sons for my homeland but our government should change their policies," said the 35-year-old.


On his previous trip home, childhood friend Jameel Akhter said Abbas had a premonition that it might be his last.


"While we were out walking in the streets, he told me this might be his last trip to the village and asked me to change the national flag on his grave regularly after his death," Akhter told AFP.


"He always told stories about fights against the Taliban. I never expected the Americans to kill him," he said.




Bereaved Pakistanis demand end to 'America's war'

 

[VelocuR]

A respected mothers should NOT sit and staring on the floors, we should gave them comfort places due to their dying sons/soldiers in respect honor way.

Is that how Pakistan treated them?