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Flood relief officer ‘ignores Shia village population’
Local residents gave a written statement to this effect on Monday.
A Pakistani man, who is a flood victim, walks at a relief camp in Charsadda. PHOTO: REUTERS
SIKANDRABAD: Esakhel tehsil resident Girdawar Muhammad Hashim Khan, who is in charge of relief goods has been accused of spreading sectarianism and is ignoring the Shia population of flood victims.
Local residents from Ranjhe Wala including Ghulam Shabbir, Amir Mukhtar, Riaz, Malik Saadat and others gave a written statement to this effect on Monday.
They said that Girdawar belonged to a diehard Sunni sect and hated the Shia community.
“He has continuously overlooked the Shia community in relief operations and has not even distributed goods to two entire villages because he knew they had a majority Shia population,” Mukhtar said.
They said most of the people in Ranjhey Wala belonged to the Shia community and that the official had removed the names of the Shia community from all distribution lists for the flood affected people. “The Ranjhey Wala area has not been provided a single bottle of water,” said Malik Saadat. Locals in the area said they suffered severely during the floods and added that many have lost their houses and livestock.
Residents in Sikandrabad said that Hashim Khan was fanning the flames of sectarianism in the area and was using abusive language against the Shia community in a local mosque. The people appealed to the provincial finance minister, Sargodha commissioner and Mianwali district coordination officer (DCO) to register case against the official.
Girdawar has termed the accusations baseless and said that members of the Shia community were against him because he had been given charge of relief operations for the area.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2010.
Reader Comments (26)
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No wonder the Taliban and the Lashkar’s agenda’s are working. Our people are not very different.Recommend
Come on is this a time for sectarian divide? And whether allegations are true or baselss, controversial men of any sect should not be given charge of any social relief work. There are bound to be issues arising with such people.Recommend
Its true that a controversial personality must not be given the charge of such an important duty; otherwise sectarianism would result in serious damages.Recommend
i am so suprised to see the news of ignoring shia community in flood relief. it is really a shocking fact i want to say why only our shia community has been targeted ever we have been the victom of terrorism also many sucide attacks have martyred our shia brothers in our religious processions in mosques and in our imam bargahs and now this was required to do shame on u all those who are spreading sacteriasam and hate. in the end i would appeal the high sources plz take immediate action against such people who are dividing the muslimsRecommend
I’m surprised to see that our dear readers are more vocal on condemning the ban over the hindu mythology cartoon, rather than being concerned over this discrimination! Looks like sounding “secular” is the new thing here!! We are a nation of words!!Recommend
how very cruel..is this PAKISTAN, a MUSLIM country?????Recommend
I know Mr. Amir Mukhtar who is Tehsil Municipal Officer at Tehsil Essakhail…Recommend
Where people are burning Quran, declaring our religion a cult of non-sense bigots, drawing caricatures of our Holy Prophet (Pbuh) depicting him as terrorist, we are sparing not a single opportunity to exhibit our tendency for sectarian voilence and hatred. Then we question why world call us terrorist, why they are defaming our religion. If we make our deeds upto the mark of our religion no one would dare to say anything against us.
alas! We made this division so prominent that foreign elements address us as sunni muslim and shia muslim..How egregious it is!!Recommend
Well I’m not really surprised about it cz it may be small villages and I’ve heard about a complete large area where Kabulis live…they r not even prefered a little…they really need it..
Our holy persons didn’t ignore any non muslim in time like this…and thats y Muslims were at the top, But now a Muslim z No more a muslim from heart…just take the example of sialkot…Recommend
its not all surprising especially in the presence of biased provincial government of pml(n) and shias are not the only minority who are being ignored other minorities are also suffering at the hands of religious hardliners but the irony of the fact is that the provincial government is standing right behind the same elements who are fanning sectarianism and media is completely silent and mum because there only job is zardari bashing….. i dont know when and how will we learn to recognise ourselves as a nation…..Recommend
if this is not true then shame on media for spreading furstration and point scoring.Recommend
United v fall divided v ??? This is nonsensical to discriminate in Humanity how would it b permissible in Islam while it preaches equality and justice and for this shameful incident I would say that in infant when one in a thousand might suffer with Polio the same one in a thousand might be mentally retarded, the above incident shows the same exhausted brain meanwhile people are donating and helping their brother with hearts and souls with out any discriminationRecommend
I am not surprised.
Ironically, some of us here condemn this news or doubt the credibility of it. Minorities are being targeted in Pakistan, not only by taliban, but also from taliban infested people who live among us.
This same reaction was seen when Tribune broke the story of discrimination with Ahmedis in the flood relief efforts on its front page…..
We need to come out of this all such divides and only think on humanitarian lines. One of the biggest problems with us is that we have habit to live in state of denial.
Isnt true that some hate mongers want to shun all minorities in Pakistan? Isnt true that some of these people want to sow the seed of hatred among different sects living peacefully for centuries?
The answer is yes!Recommend
This is not new happening in our beloved country, with shia population.
What happening in parachenar since more than two years…… have anyone taken notice?Recommend
E’m very sad to know about the sectarian differences while distributing relief commodities. These type of These Government officers should be arrested and must be put into judicial remand so that they may feel wot those innocents victims r suffering from!Recommend
I wish if Quaid could get enough time to mould this country into a true Secular society. His death only provided opportunity to elements who used religion only for personal gains, what to say about Shia, Sunni, Wahabi, Christians, Ahmedi or any other faction.
Those elements have till date failed to present true picture or interpret Islam in real spirit and tampered Ahadith according to their own taste and environment. Maudoodism play havoc with the rest of the Islam that prompted Dr. Israr Ahmed and even Haider Farooq Maudoodi to qjuit Jamat Islami.
Those element simply promoted Intolerance in the society agaisnt each other and never preached
real real Islam of the Final Prophet (PBUH) that resulted in present culminating of modern society into Sectarian Society where Shias and Sunnis are not tolerating each other as a result an new and concocted version of “Talibani” Islam has emerged which neither spares soofi saints like Hazrat Data Sahib, Imambargah, Churches, Temples and even Masajid all over the country.,
Is this the real teachings of Islam? We should not ponder why areas with shia majority ignored
we should rather think what are the major causes of God’s Wrath only in Pakistan in the shape of natural disasters like earthquake and killer flood. Are we respecting human rights. What about killings of two real brothers in Sialkot during the holy month of Ramazan recently. Shame.Shame. In defiance of the teaching of Holy Quran, how many humanities were are killing every day, did any one bother to calculate ?
Mussarat Hussain,
Washington DCRecommend
its true that we r means pakistani nation faces worst flood calamity so kindly my brave nation kindly come for ward and help those stranded people..Recommend
who made him incharge of the flood relief operationsRecommend
what a bunch of clowns. Non muslims from around the world sent billions in aid without thinking about the religion of pakistanis and now pakistanis are themselves discriminating against their own people. guess Fasi was right about them being human cockroaches. Pakistani hurl the most racist abuses on the net and the minute you crticise them they brand you a racistRecommend
The hate mongering ignored by most as religious rhetoric, has been imbibed by some as religiously sanctioned. Hazrat Umar worried about a dog going hungry and this officer is ignoring God’s superior most creation.Recommend
This flood is just the beginning. If we keep this up, we will soon be wiped off the face of the earth. Quran is not a storybook with tales of people from the past. It is a warning to us to mend our ways or our fate would be the same as many before us.Recommend
The local resident Giradwar Khan is a classic example of a complete deterioration of mental faculties which has been brought about by the racist and hate propaganda blared out by the masjid’s main occupant, which is the education devoid molvi. You can always expect from the half wit, bigotted local molvi an act of ‘dementia’.
The war on education and employment was lost a long time back and now we are losing the war against UNITY. The schism between sects is widening and the gulf is filled with ‘fire’ and ‘brimstone’. Except to a large extent in Karachi and is prevalent only where these dim wits are illegally occupying ‘qabza properties’.
Salams and best wishes to all non-racist peace lovers.Recommend
@ Jai
we’re not the best peopel around and yes that idiot shoudl be made answerable and if found guilty – capital punishment shoudl be the order of the day. As a previous commentator wrote, Hadhrat Umar made sure not even a dog was left hungry!
As regards us being the most racist! LOL think again our neighbours take that pole position!Recommend
I salute to the Tribune Pakistan highlighted the discrimination against Shia Population in Pakistan. Shia is not only victim of Al-Qaeda but also being victimised by Govt. level. Govt. of Pakistan needs to clean the bureauecracy with suppoters of Al-Qadeda, Taliban & LoT.
STOP THE DISCRIMINATION & GENOCIDE OF SHIA MUSLIMS, WE MADE PAKISTAN AND WILL SAVE IT FROM AGENTS OF ZOINIST.Recommend
@Ammar Yasir STOP THE DISCRIMINATION & GENOCIDE OF SHIA MUSLIMS, WE MADE PAKISTAN AND WILL SAVE IT FROM AGENTS OF ZOINIST.
I am with you brotherRecommend
Nearly in all institutions of GoP hatred and discrimination is formalized.It definitely jeopardizes the Security of Pakistan,as a whole.Well wisher forces of Pakistan must com forward for avoiding any catastrophe. .Recommend