From Kalat to Karachi: ‘Orphans’ with parents

Children sent to orphanage to save them from a life scarred by militancy.

KARACHI:

They are 48 in number. It is three months since they arrived in Karachi, and this big, bad metropolis they have been flung into is still new to them, but they are accepting this as home.

In an orphanage which houses some 145 children, these 48 usually stick together. They take time to open up. Residing in this orphanage in the posh Defence area of Karachi, these young people who are not orphans talk about their homes and families they left behind in Balochistan.

Saving sons from militancy

What would force parents to separate their growing children from them is a gnawing question one is forced to ask. “When asked, their parents replied ‘we were concerned about the future of our boys as they are kidnapped when they are 12 or 13 years old and then sent to Afghanistan for militant training. We don’t want them to become militants or suicide bombers’. This is how most of these children ended up here,” explained the general manager of the orphanage, Sirat-ul-Jannah, Ammar Farooq Qureshi.

“The law and order situation is very bad in our village called Anjeera, near Kalat. I saw people getting killed in firing; it was a horrifying experience. That’s why our parents sent us to Karachi,” said 16 year old Khalid, a student of grade 10th. “I want to become a journalist to highlight Balochistan’s issues,” said Khalid.



“We cannot say that Baloch children are not being used in militant activities,” said child rights activist Iqbal Detho, adding that according to a report published in newspapers on 14th March 2013, Balochistan police arrested 11 children aged between 11 and 16 years for their alleged involvement in carrying out the Bacha Khan blast in Quetta.

A better future ahead?

Khalid’s 17 year old brother Nasir has different dreams. “I wish to become a doctor. The education system was very poor in our village and here we are getting good education,” he said.

The children are aged between 7 years to 17 years, and include both girls and boys, almost all belonging to Kalat. Their parents and other family members visit them often. Most of the children are too young and they cannot communicate in Urdu. Therefore, the boys are sent to a school in Mehmoodabad where they are being taught just Urdu for the time being, he added.

“It depends how long the boys want to live here as most of them are too young now. “After completing education if they would like to live in Karachi we will help them get a job or set up businesses on a small scale,” he said. “I miss my village but after completing my education if I get a good job in Karachi I will prefer to settle down here,” Nasir said.

“I don’t miss my parents that much. We watch TV and go to picnics,” said eight-year-old Muhammed Yousuf.

Too many mouths to feed

However, a fear of militants picking up the boys is not the only reason. An NGO official who hails from Qalat spoke to The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity. He said that the people of Anjeera are extremely poor and their entire property could be just four goats. Qureshi also admitted that the girls were sent to the orphanage because their parents were unable to feed them due to poverty.

Shamim, 17, is here with her two sisters and a brother. “We are nine siblings and our father doesn’t work due to illness,” she said.

Fear of kidnapping

Detho was of the opinion that the people of Kalat are not inclined towards religious and political organisations and according to reports, these people send their children to safer places due to kidnappings for ransom. “There are orphanages in Quetta but they are not good enough,” said Detho.

According to the afore quoted NGO official, children in the Pashtun belt were mostly kidnapped to be sent for militant training while in the Baloch belt there are reports of tribal rivalries. “Enmity is not water that it would dry out. It continues to live on in generations,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2013.