Pakistan's own Boko Haram?

[Zarvan]

my dear, i don't which part of Pakistan you belong to but you surely have no idea what you ar talking about,what Co-education has to do with sending girls to school?
You can clearly see in the article taht the problem lies with Women going school and getting education, regardless of the fact coed or not.....

for that government needs to go with Iron hand and destroy the dumbos and also put Tafseer and Hadees and Fiqh among school education and college education

 

[Capt.Popeye]

@Armstrong @Oscar @HRK @Irfan Baloch @Akheilos @Hyperion

Is there a return possible or are we already past the point ? Do we now look at a done deal , an irreversible action ? Is this a no-win scenario ? I mean , all these people they had ample time and yet all they have had done is turn progressively worse .

Do think about how and why things have come to this sorry pass?
Could it be: because People who knew better and were even capable to act; remained passive and silent?

 

[Dubious]

Do think about how and why things have come to this sorry pass?
Could it be: because People who knew better and were even capable to act; remained passive and silent?

Not really, the people who knew better were out numbered and pushed to silence....then another pressure "westernization" an alien culture scared many to run to protect what the Quran terms "they prefer what their forefathers did"....instead of taking the best out of anything heading your way they kind of sank inside out into a "protective layer" of ignorance!

 

[A.Rafay]

Pakistans Boko Haram are its own people.

 

[Multani]

Welcome to the war on "vulgar, western education" in Balochistan
Hina Baloch
Published a day ago

Wearing her traditional Balochi dress, Rabia stood tall with great poise and confidence, in a hall filled with teachers and students, at a local high school in Richmond, Virginia.

This was her twelfth presentation in one week and, by now, she was visibly confident in speaking to a foreign audience in her Balochi-accented English.

Rabia spoke about her hometown of Turbat and the culture and life of the people of Balochistan. Sixteen-year old Rabia is an exchange student in the US. In just one year, Rabia has made a mark for herself and her country; she has been on the honour roll twice already.

Zeenat is a 19 year old female student. After returning from a one-year high school exchange program in the US, she is now working towards bringing change in the lives of young girls like her in her hometown of Gwadar, Balochistan.

An excellent writer, who blogs regularly, Zeenat dreams of becoming a lawyer. In addition to working towards her undergraduate degree, Zeenat is also helping the women in her community learn the English language and gain some basic computer skills.

Parents, students and residents of Panjgur protest against threats to schools. — Photo by author.
Both, Rabia and Zeenat, can credit their achievements to their early schooling experience in Makran.

While the government wholly ignored the education sector, there were many young, often self-driven and educated, individuals from the region that moved forward to fill-in the gap.

The youth of the area has remained actively involved in community service and, most impressively, established an indigenous network of private schools and English language centers.

Although these schools are run on nominal fees, they provide the youth with their only life-changing opportunity to acquire basic education, computer and modern language skills.

Panjgur, a district of Makran bordering Iran, is home to beautiful palm trees and is an exporter of the largest variety of dates found in the region. Panjgur has a reasonably large network of small private schools imparting education to girls and boys.

The entire private education network is run by local teachers and administrators. The schools generally cater to both girls and boys, although in some schools the genders are taught separately in two shifts.

With the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa affronted by militant attacks on girl’s education facilities, Balochistan, until now, had been spared the senseless violence that has engulfed educational facilities in the north.

Balochistan’s education-based hardships have traditionally been confined to a lack of government support, access and quality issues.

While the region of Panjgur has remained at the center of the Baloch nationalist insurgency and serves as the battleground for military offensives, girls’ education system and allied facilities have never been targeted by any group.

Tragically, it seems, all of that is about to change forever.

Terror in a letter
Recently, all the private schools of Panjgur received a letter from a previously unheard extremist group called Tanzeem-ul-Islami-ul-Furqan.

The letter, addressed to the owners and administrators of all private schools, accuses them of corrupting the minds of young girls by exposing them to a ‘western education’.

It goes on to state that ‘all private schools must immediately disallow girls from seeking an education regardless of them being at a co-education or an all-girls facility.’

It also includes a message for van and taxi drivers in the area, ‘warning them of dire consequences if they continue to transport girls to schools’.

The note goes onto warn parents as well. It asks them to keep their daughters away from English language centers and schools.

Not surprisingly, their threat warns that ‘the mujahedeen of Al-Furqan are ready to brace martyrdom to stop the spread of vulgar, western, education in Balochistan’.

The letter ends with a list featuring names of all prominent owners of private schools in Panjgur.

To assert their writ and spread fear, the group carried an attack on a school immediately after sending out the letters.

Schools in Panjgur remained closed for several days. Soon after their reopening, unidentified gunmen set a school van, transporting female students and teachers, on fire on 14 May 2014.

Although there were no major casualties, the gunmen, belonging to this newly claimed extremist group, ensured the owner of the private school received their message loud and clear.

The owner in this instance was driving the van at the time of the attack. According to eye witnesses, to spread fear and panic, the gunmen fired multiple gunshots in the air - just meters away from a nearby stationed Frontiers Corps (FC) convoy that simply chose to ignore the proceedings.

Unidentified gunmen set a school van, transporting female students and teachers, on fire on 14 May 2014. — File photo by author
Interestingly enough, the entire Makran region, particularly Panjgur, is a heavily guarded and militarily-fortified area. Convoys and check-posts of the FC can be seen placed at all district entry and exit points and on every major road and intersection across the locality.

The security forces, who carry with them an abysmal human rights record (they have been accused by local and international human rights organisations of regularly attacking political activists, journalists and student workers), have yet to arrest any individual from an extremist group or a banned organisation.

It is also worth noting that just recently Atta Shad Degree College in Turbat was raided by FC personnel during a book fair. Masterpieces, like the autobiographies of Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Che Guevera, were brandished by the FC in front of the media – the works were labelled as ‘anti-state’ literature.

Surprisingly, the activities of many religious madrassas, suspected to be recruiting centers and training grounds for extremist forces, have never been disturbed let alone investigated.

With religious intolerance and sectarian violence - an unheard of phenomenon for the secular Baloch populace - now mysteriously at an all-time high, it is alleged that the state is playing that dangerous game of curbing nationalism by stoking religious fanaticism once again. And in doing so, re-asserting its historic (and myopic) doctrine of ‘strategic depth’ – by providing tacit support to non-state actors for short-term strategic gains.

The alleged strategy, or rather the folly, has already wreaked havoc in Kashmir and KPK and resulted in Pakistan’s increased international isolation and condemnation.

Madrassas, madrassas everywhere

While it is becoming increasingly difficult for private schools to function in Balochistan (government schools are either non-existent or non-functional in most parts), the numbers of madrassas continue to increase exponentially.

According to the latest figures there are 2,500 registered and 10,000 unregistered madrassas in Balochistan.

It is pertinent to ask, if the national economy is still nudging at a sluggish rate and abject poverty haunting the average man, then where exactly are these funds coming from?

Housed in impressively built fortress-like structures and ably providing lodging and boarding facilities to hundreds of thousands of students, how exactly are these Madrassas sustaining themselves financially?

Where are the funds that are leading to their mushroom growth across Balochistan (a historically secular and pluralist society) flowing from?

These are some mysterious, not to mention uncomfortable, questions – the answers to which the government and the establishment both appear unwilling to divulge.

The Balochistan public education scenario reflects a grim picture and the future outlook, worryingly, remains equally bleak. Years of administrative negligence, insufficient funding, systemic corruption, dysfunctional curricula and poor teaching conditions have resulted in a collapsed provincial education system.

According to the latest figures, the current literacy rate in the province stands at 56 percent, this also includes people who can barely write their names.

The female literacy rate, at 23 percent, is one of the lowest in the world.

According to the British Council Pakistan’s Education Emergency Report, ‘with the existing pace of growth, Balochistan will not be able to reach the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals for Education in even the next one-hundred years’.

It was just last year in June when the Sardar Bahadur Khan University was attacked by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi killing 14 female students.

With the culprits still at large, and rising suspicion amongst the local populace of the state’s complicity in those attacks, the people’s confidence in the government’s ability to deliver at any level stands shattered.

Since the recent warning by Tanzeem-ul-Islami-ul-Furqan, parents of female students in Panjgur have decided they have had enough. They have marched onto the streets and expressed solidarity with the schools and their owners, urging the local administration to take immediate action against the militants.

The district teachers association has also asked the provincial and federal government to intervene in the matter. But for now, it looks like female education is not really on the priority list of the provincial or federal government.

The prime minister, since taking charge of his office, has been busy signing deals with China on siphoning Balochistan’s natural resources to the rest of the country and beyond. His government’s grand designs include a $12 billion economic corridor extending from the Gwadar deep seaport in Balochistan to the southern-belt of China and parts of Central Asia through spanking new road, rail, air and fibre links.

Local development in Balochistan, especially in Gwadar, is heavily assisted and influenced by the security forces. It almost always excludes locals under the pretext of security concerns and instead utilizes labor and expertise from other parts of the country.

The Baloch people and their welfare is seldom discussed, let alone ever addressed. The functioning private education system, one of the last straws of hope for the girls of Makran, now also stands to be plucked and destroyed by extremist forces and their benefactors.

In the center, former Oasis School student and teacher, recipient of prestigious fellowship who would be attending Harvard Kennedy School this fall.
With little trust in the government or the law-enforcement agencies to protect their lives and property, the local private schools association in the area has decided to shut down schools for an indefinite period.

If this current downward spiral in women’s education continues across Balochistan, disenfranchised and impoverished districts like Makran will not be able to see anymore Rabias and Zeenats in the coming future.

That would not only be a loss for Makran but, more importantly, for the province’s human development and socio-economic progress.

With not much having gone in its way, the last thing Balochistan needs is to have its girls forced to sit at home instead of the classroom.

Note: Names of the female students have been changed to protect their identity.

Welcome to the war on "vulgar, western education" in Balochistan - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

the Baloch are a very traditional, conservative people just like any Pakistani traditionalist, but stll unique in their own way

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a salafi Qutbi Jihadi group, the EXACT same ideology as TTP. The Baloch however, are essentially anti TTP, because their society is heavily Sufi based.

Pakistans Boko Haram are its own people.

are you Boko haram?

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Not really, the people who knew better were out numbered and pushed to silence....then another pressure "westernization" an alien culture scared many to run to protect what the Quran terms "they prefer what their forefathers did"....instead of taking the best out of anything heading your way they kind of sank inside out into a "protective layer" of ignorance!

I'm not inclined to agree.
Silence can never be a Protection and Ignorance can never be an Excuse.........
For People who were taught (and who learnt) to think, speak and act appropriately (wisely and courageously) whenever required to.

So its not a "Silence of the Lambs", but more like "Silence of the Vultures and Hyenas".

 

[Multani]

I would like to suggest an ammendment Boko Haram should be renamed as Boko Haramzada

boko haramzada means "western education is haramzada"

 

[A.Rafay]

the Baloch are a very traditional, conservative people just like any Pakistani traditionalist, but stll unique in their own way

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a salafi Qutbi Jihadi group, the EXACT same ideology as TTP. The Baloch however, are essentially anti TTP, because their society is heavily Sufi based.



are you Boko haram?

Am i "western education is forbidden"? No!
I am a western educated guy.
More than 40% illiterate people of Pakistan are Boko Haram.

 

[Dubious]

I'm not inclined to agree.
Silence can never be a Protection and Ignorance can never be an Excuse.........
For People who were taught (and who learnt) to think, speak and act appropriately (wisely and courageously) whenever required to.

So its not a "Silence of the Lambs", but more like "Silence of the Vultures and Hyenas".

You dont need to agree or disagree...I stated the fact...Westernization was seen as a threat...Dont deny, it was similar in rural areas of India as well...Western education was seen as a threat and people actually went to protect their culture (and some actually seemed to have picked up rubbish called honor killing and now sectarian killing and went to extreme ends)

Only problem was Pakistan started off from nothing (with more people from rural areas) and had to build and with its lovely location always had "other" things of much important worry from the LoC to Afghan border to Iranian border...

Then those (few educated) who could speak were busy with their livelihood ...since they were not involved they didnt bother...

Those who wanted to speak were silenced by the minority with guns or labelled something or another and shun...And also just like Europe that migrated to USA...many from Pakistan migrated to UK (with British India passport it wasnt hard), USA or other parts of Europe (you would be surprised as to how many people whose generations have been living in Italy, Germany and Norway from Pakistani background you can find)

 

[Capt.Popeye]

You dont need to agree or disagree...I stated the fact...Westernization was seen as a threat...Dont deny, it was similar in rural areas of India as well...Western education was seen as a threat and people actually went to protect their culture (and some actually seemed to have picked up rubbish called honor killing and now sectarian killing and went to extreme ends)

Only problem was Pakistan started off from nothing (with more people from rural areas) and had to build and with its lovely location always had "other" things of much important worry from the LoC to Afghan border to Iranian border...

Then those (few educated) who could speak were busy with their livelihood ...since they were not involved they didnt bother...

Those who wanted to speak were silenced by the minority with guns or labelled something or another and shun...And also just like Europe that migrated to USA...many from Pakistan migrated to UK (with British India passport it wasnt hard), USA or other parts of Europe (you would be surprised as to how many people whose generations have been living in Italy, Germany and Norway from Pakistani background you can find)

Of course; we do not have to agree or disagree........

And of course; obscurantism has plagued South Asia as a whole. And its vestiges are to be found all across the region, but in varying amounts. However, only in some regions is it of an alarming proportion.
Then do remember that in 1947, both India and Pakistan started at the same level (of ignorance). Now there is a difference. What changed the trajectory? And what changed the level of acievement?

About Westernisation; let me tell you on the basis of personal experience. I've spent a great deal of my life outside India, but I have a strong India connect and a good bit of it is through an activity that I and my family support.
On my last visit home; I attended an event in an Urdu-medium school in Western India, where the parents came to share there views and feed-back about a specific non-curricular program being run for Grade 2 and 3 children. One reaction that I got (and which I treasure immeasurably) was from the mother of a boy called Farzaan. She is not much educated, but turned out to be unusually aware. She spoke in her own way and gave some us some of the most intelligent and intelligible responses that morning. But the most wondrous thing was that she was beginning to learn English from her little son! That shook me up. Now we are adding a new aspect to the program, where the children will share (and teach) at home to siblings and parents if possible. I'm sure that it will work.

Human beings are born to learn and have always wanted to learn. That has been decided by Nature or Creation. But (Cunning and Crafty) Humans then come and control (to the extent of even stopping) that Learning.
Think about that.

 

[Dubious]

Of course; we do not have to agree or disagree........

And of course; obscurantism has plagued South Asia as a whole. And its vestiges are to be found all across the region, but in varying amounts. However, only in some regions is it of an alarming proportion.
Then do remember that in 1947, both India and Pakistan started at the same level (of ignorance). Now there is a difference. What changed the trajectory? And what changed the level of acievement?

We didnt start on a similar level....The rich Muslims left sub continent and went to UK...Most of the poor Muslims are the ones who came to Pakistan in large populations (at least in the 1st round because they didnt have anywhere else to go ...no money to go abroad)...while India still had their rich and poor as it always did....only minus tons of poor Muslims..i do not deny there was also an influx of rich Muslims but the poor were alot too...

Then the problem of integration....Punjab took it well...While somehow in Sindh the people wanted to be called different and because they were rich and educated wanted some difference or what not....Balouchistan was another problem we had and ignored....then we have the biggest enemy of the state Monarchies in the form of feudal system...This was prob the turning point between India and Pakistan....India abolished it while Pakistani politicians get have campaign supports and other things from these feudal lords in return for favours such as crimes brushed under the rug! It is true some are good, and the land is really theirs and the people working on it are paid but we also have the mentally sick ones who think they are Sultans of the land and anything they do is not questionable....Like in Indian movies...the bad guys abuse the weak under them...and it is the hero who saves em all...we never got any heros!

About Westernisation; let me tell you on the basis of personal experience. I've spent a great deal of my life outside India, but I have a strong India connect and a good bit of it is through an activity that I and my family support.
On my last visit home; I attended an event in an Urdu-medium school in Western India, where the parents came to share there views and feed-back about a specific non-curricular program being run for Grade 2 and 3 children. One reaction that I got (and which I treasure immeasurably) was from the mother of a boy called Farzaan. She is not much educated, but turned out to be unusually aware. She spoke in her own way and gave some us some of the most intelligent and intelligible responses that morning. But the most wondrous thing was that she was beginning to learn English from her little son! That shook me up. Now we are adding a new aspect to the program, where the children will share (and teach) at home to siblings and parents if possible. I'm sure that it will work.

That is indeed interesting...I know many who are learning from their kids but this is not something that is not happening ...and people do yearn for education but there really are mentally ill people who oppress this need in people just like the mentally sick who kill the polio vaccine workers

Human beings are born to learn and have always wanted to learn. That has been decided by Nature or Creation. But (Cunning and Crafty) Humans then come and control (to the extent of even stopping) that Learning.
Think about that.

I did say that...I never objected learning...I told you the mindset and what happened as you asked of that....The people were made to be afraid of Westernization with stupid scares such as it will make your kids wear jeans, make your girls go wild (wear short clothes)....I asked you not to deny India went through that too...we heard a Fatwah from India where your Mullah (we have the same sect in Pakistan) said TV was a fitnah! A similar fatwah was thrown in Pakistan and people all went crazy...This is why I want to behead these Mullahs...they speak rubbish, scare the people into ignorance all because they themselves are uneducated and afraid of things they dont know!

 

[Capt.Popeye]

We didnt start on a similar level....The rich Muslims left sub continent and went to UK...Most of the poor Muslims are the ones who came to Pakistan in large populations (at least in the 1st round because they didnt have anywhere else to go ...no money to go abroad)...while India still had their rich and poor as it always did....only minus tons of poor Muslims..i do not deny there was also an influx of rich Muslims but the poor were alot too...

Then the problem of integration....Punjab took it well...While somehow in Sindh the people wanted to be called different and because they were rich and educated wanted some difference or what not....Balouchistan was another problem we had and ignored....then we have the biggest enemy of the state Monarchies in the form of feudal system...This was prob the turning point between India and Pakistan....India abolished it while Pakistani politicians get have campaign supports and other things from these feudal lords in return for favours such as crimes brushed under the rug! It is true some are good, and the land is really theirs and the people working on it are paid but we also have the mentally sick ones who think they are Sultans of the land and anything they do is not questionable....Like in Indian movies...the bad guys abuse the weak under them...and it is the hero who saves em all...we never got any heros!


That is indeed interesting...I know many who are learning from their kids but this is not something that is not happening ...and people do yearn for education but there really are mentally ill people who oppress this need in people just like the mentally sick who kill the polio vaccine workers

I did say that...I never objected learning...I told you the mindset and what happened as you asked of that....The people were made to be afraid of Westernization with stupid scares such as it will make your kids wear jeans, make your girls go wild (wear short clothes)....I asked you not to deny India went through that too...we heard a Fatwah from India where your Mullah (we have the same sect in Pakistan) said TV was a fitnah! A similar fatwah was thrown in Pakistan and people all went crazy...This is why I want to behead these Mullahs...they speak rubbish, scare the people into ignorance all because they themselves are uneducated and afraid of things they dont know!

So the long and short of it is simply this; YOU and PEOPLE LIKE YOU need to get off your backsides (a better word is ARSES) and act. All the namby-pambying and pussy-footing is for people who are determined to remain impotent.
Which is why things are as they are.

 

[Dubious]

So the long and short of it is simply this; YOU and PEOPLE LIKE YOU need to get off your backsides (a better word is ARSES) and act. All the namby-pambying and pussy-footing is for people who are determined to remain impotent.
Which is why things are as they are.

Very nicely said....

First you were headbend on trying to get me to blame the state when that didnt work...blame the people and that too rudely! We dont need people like you who dont even know a zilch about the situation (I literally had to repeat myself few times) but want to boss about? Seriously!?

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Very nicely said....

First you were headbend on trying to get me to blame the state when that didnt work...blame the people and that too rudely! We dont need people like you who dont even know a zilch about the situation (I literally had to repeat myself few times) but want to boss about? Seriously!?

Yeah; seriously.....
Which is why things are what they are and there seems to be LITTLE HOPE for any improvement.
Really, mark my words, 10 years later this kind of thing will keep on happening then and will keep on getting to be a subject of a thread here on PDF.

And I'll still not be bothered about it, while at least some of your country-men will HAVE to be. The sane ones remaining behind to face the "heat" that is. You seem to have made a quick "getaway" already, good for you.........

But that will not change the facts: the sheer complicity of the State and some People that have let matters turn out this way.

 

[474474]

for that government needs to go with Iron hand and destroy the dumbos and also put Tafseer and Hadees and Fiqh among school education and college education

No they don't. i don't want my taxes to be used for teaching all that.