By Aijaz Sindhi
Virginia, USA

There was news about 5 women having been buried alive in Balochistan. They were first beaten by 17 ‘honorable brave’ Baloch, and then hit by a speeding tractor with the blade in its front. Then, the women with their skulls shattered were dragged along by the tractor blade into a ditch, and buried still alive.

Then there was another news of a barbaric act which involved throwing a woman in front of vicious dogs. They mauled her, and chewed her while the ruthless spectators mercilessly watched the horrified woman running helplessly fighting for her life, and dying. All this happened in the name of honor.

All these victims (women) were accused of being “karis”.

Atrocities to women in Pakistan are not a new thing. What is most disturbing is the fact that all these medieval barbaric acts against women are taking place under the watch of the so-called champion of democracy and human rights - the PPP. Ironically, these ugly incidents took place in the provinces that are run by none other than the PPP Jialas, that is in Sindh and Balochistan.

Any act of violence against women which go unpunished deepens the ugly scar on the face of the ruling junta. Thanks to Iftikhar Chaudhry, who has taken suo moto action against the burial of 5 women alive in Baluchistan This is the province that complains the most of human rights violations. I wonder if the Baloch human rights groups found this to be the violation of the human rights. I even wonder if the so called U.S. based Pakistani human rights activists even noticed these atrocities against women in Sindh and Balochistan.

I am deeply in pain. Ever since I watched the appalling video of girl flogging on BBCUrdu.Com, I am restless. Doesn’t this case fall under human rights violation as well? Are there any America-based Pakistani human rights activists who feel the pain in their hearts by every flog that landed on the back of this poor underaged girl? Did those screams poke a spike into anybody’s soul?

My heart throbbed with each of the strokes of the flog: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21-22 - 23- 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 - 32 - 33 - 34… Is this Islam? Would anybody issue decree of 100 lashes against those mullahs for publicly raping the humanity?

Maybe this girl is not a Sindhi, Punjabi, Mohajir, Baloch, or Pathhan. Maybe she is a faceless feminine gender caught by some barbarians at a wrong time and at the wrong place. I am shocked and disgusted at the sinful silence of the people of bruised conscience.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/multimedia/2009/04/090403_swat_flogging.shtml

This act of naked barbarism is no match to the pain those poor women endured before meeting their Maker. There are no words to describe the agony of suffering blows in front of the tractor blade, or being mauled and chewed by the vicious dogs. It’s a human tragedy. Call it Islam, or call it honor. A woman in rural Pakistan has no refuge. If she is spared by the barbaric Islamists in the tribal areas, she will surely be encountered by the honor dogs of Balochistan and Sindh.

Women have been tortured, killed, maimed, raped, and burned all along in every government and in every times in Pakistan. However, we can no longer accuse the past governments, or the Musharraf regime, for that matter, for the ills of the country. The most powerful man in the PPP is at the helm of the government. We thought the change would come after the PPP came to power.

Indeed, the change did come. But, it came for the worst.

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