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Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Exiled MQM leader Altaf Hussain's urgent appeal to PM Narendra Modi over Muhajirs
Altaf Hussain, the exiled founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has issued an urgent appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to take note of the alleged persecution of the Muhajir community. Muhajirs, who are Urdu-speaking migrants from India that settled in Pakistan post-Partition, were the focus of Hussain's plea, which he delivered during a live broadcast from London. Praising Modi's support for the Baloch people, Altaf Hussain said it is a brave and commendable act. He further urged Modi to voice his support for the Muhajir community, which Altaf claims has faced decades of systemic discrimination, violence and state-sponsored oppression in Pakistan. Highlighting the oppression by Pakistan's military establishment, Altaf Hussain said since Partition, Muhajirs have never been acknowledged as rightful citizens of the country. "The MQM, which has consistently fought for the rights of marginalised communities, has endured multiple military actions,' he said. According to him, these actions have led to the deaths of more than 25,000 Muhajirs and has led to the disappearance of thousands more. He also denounced recent occurrences in the United States, particularly a pro-Pakistan event that took place in Dallas, Texas, on May 23. Hussain mentioned that the Pakistani Consul General in Houston, Aftab Chaudhry, showcased a video at the event depicting Altaf Hussain and the MQM as Indian agents, a claim the MQM leader argues is part of a wider disinformation strategy designed to undermine the Muhajir cause. Hussain expressed that Muhajirs have been rendered voiceless and powerless in Pakistan. He urged Modi to highlight the struggles of the Muhajirs at international platforms and to collaborate with global human rights organisations to ensure their safety, dignity, and fundamental rights. "The Muhajirs are unarmed and endure dire living conditions. For over 61 years, they have faced repeated cycles of economic hardship and physical destruction. Their plight can no longer be ignored," he said. (With ANI Inputs)
India Gazette
7 days ago
- Politics
- India Gazette
MQM leader Altaf Hussain urges PM Modi to raise Muhajir persecution at global forums
London [UK], May 28 (ANI): The exiled leader and founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Altaf Hussain, has made an urgent request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to bring attention to the persecution of Muhajirs (Urdu-speaking migrants from India who migrated to Pakistan after Partition) at international venues. This appeal was made during a live broadcast from London. In his remarks, Hussain commended PM Modi for his public support of the Baloch people, calling it a brave and commendable act. He further urged PM Modi to also lend his voice in support of the Muhajir community, which he claims has faced decades of systemic discrimination, violence, and state-sponsored oppression in Pakistan. 'Since the Partition of India, the military establishment in Pakistan has never completely recognised the Muhajirs as legitimate citizens,' Hussain said. 'The MQM, which has consistently fought for the rights of marginalised communities, has endured multiple military actions, leading to the deaths of more than 25,000 Muhajirs and the forced disappearance of thousands more,' he added. He also denounced recent occurrences in the United States, particularly a pro-Pakistan event that took place in Dallas, Texas, on May 23. Hussain mentioned that the Pakistani Consul General in Houston, Aftab Chaudhry, showcased a video at the event depicting Altaf Hussain and the MQM as Indian agents, a claim the MQM leader argues is part of a wider disinformation strategy designed to undermine the Muhajir cause. Hussain expressed that Muhajirs have been rendered voiceless and powerless in Pakistan. He urged PM Modi to highlight the struggles of the Muhajirs at international platforms and to collaborate with global human rights organisations to ensure their safety, dignity, and fundamental rights. 'The Muhajirs are unarmed and endure dire living conditions. For over 61 years, they have faced repeated cycles of economic hardship and physical destruction. Their plight can no longer be ignored,' he said. (ANI)
News18
18-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
State-Engineered Repression Of Urdu-Speaking Muhajirs Who Left India In Search Of Dreamland Called Pakistan
Last Updated: What began as political marginalisation has evolved into a state-sponsored campaign of violence, exclusion, and erasure In a nation supposedly created as a homeland for Ashraf Muslims, the very architects of Pakistan – the Urdu-speaking Muhajirs – have become its most persecuted and abandoned minority. What began as political marginalisation has evolved into a state-sponsored campaign of violence, exclusion, and erasure. Nowhere is this more brutally evident than in the military police crackdown during the infamous 1992 'Operation Clean-Up', which left thousands dead and millions terrified. Cities like Karachi and Hyderabad were effectively turned into open-air prisons for an entire ethnic community. FROM FOUNDERS TO TARGETS The Urdu-speaking Ashraf Muslims who migrated from India to Pakistan during the 1947 Partition – collectively known as Muhajirs – were instrumental in building the foundations of the Pakistani state. They led the bureaucracy, judiciary, media, and education sectors in the country's early decades. Yet, as political power became centralised in the hands of the Punjabi military elite and Sindhi political class, the Muhajirs found themselves increasingly sidelined. The emergence of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the 1980s was not an act of terrorism, as the state portrayed – it was a political reaction to systematic exclusion, land and job discrimination, and ethnic profiling. Today, nearly 16 million Muhajirs – approximately 7.6 per cent of Pakistan's population – reside in urban Sindh. Yet, they remain politically voiceless, economically deprived, and culturally vilified. The repression of Muhajirs reached a gruesome climax in June 1992, when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's administration, under military command, launched Operation Clean-Up. Ostensibly a campaign against crime, this operation rapidly mutated into a genocidal mission targeting MQM sympathisers and the broader Urdu-speaking populace. According to reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, between 2,000 and 3,000 Muhajirs were killed in 1992 alone. Over the next seven years, the total number of those killed, disappeared, or tortured exceeded 10,000. Mass graves were discovered on the outskirts of Karachi. Once-thriving neighborhoods like Orangi Town, Liaquatabad, and Latifabad in Hyderabad turned into war zones. Children were abducted. Women were assaulted. Entire families were burned alive in raids carried out under the silent watch – or direct participation – of state forces. Torture cells operated from Rangers' headquarters, local police stations, and unofficial military dungeons. Meanwhile, Pakistan's judiciary remained disturbingly silent – effectively complicit in this slow, systematic genocide. NASEERULLAH BABAR: THE BUTCHER OF KARACHI The name Naseerullah Babar still sends shivers down the spine of many Muhajirs. As interior minister during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure (1993 to 1996), he led what he chillingly referred to as a 'cleansing" of Karachi. Babar issued shoot-on-sight orders, granting blanket authority to security forces to kill on suspicion – no trial, warrants, or accountability. Babar had famously declared: 'We will clean Karachi at any cost.' That cost was paid with the lives of innocent Urdu-speaking civilians. Reports from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) from that time documented widespread enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and institutionalised torture – all carried out under the watch of Babar's interior ministry. Instead of being held accountable, he was celebrated as a national hero. Among Babar's enforcers was Chaudhry Aslam, a so-called 'encounter specialist", who functioned more like a death squad leader than a law enforcer. Under the guise of anti-terror operations, Aslam became infamous for extrajudicial killings, particularly of young Muhajir men. More than 100 deaths are attributed to his unit – many in staged shootouts or during custody. Human rights organisations like HRCP and Amnesty International repeatedly flagged his operations, citing enforced disappearances and custodial torture. Yet, Aslam was never punished. Instead, he was awarded medals – another chilling example of how Pakistan's deep state rewards impunity. The Pakistani state didn't limit its war on Muhajirs to police and military operations; it also outsourced violence to criminal gangs. Zeeshan Qadri, linked to the 2012 Baldia factory fire that killed 258 workers – most of them Muhajirs – operated under the political protection of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Similarly, Bahadur Shah, a notorious gangster from Lyari, carried out deadly attacks on MQM strongholds using grenades and automatic weapons – often with logistical and intelligence support from the state. While the MQM was relentlessly demonised as a terrorist group, the state itself armed criminal militias responsible for killing Urdu-speaking civilians. This calculated hypocrisy laid bare the ethnic and political motives behind the violence. MASSACRES THAT STILL HAUNT Long before Operation Clean-Up, the warning signs were there. In 1986, during the Qasba-Aligarh massacre, more than 300 Muhajirs were slaughtered by ethnic mobs while law enforcement watched passively. In 1992, dozens of mourners at a funeral in Khajji Ground were gunned down in broad daylight. These were not spontaneous riots. They were planned massacres – part of a broader strategy to terrorise, silence, and ultimately erase a community. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Pakistani media – under the thumb of the military and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – imposed a near-total blackout on Muhajir persecution. Journalists who tried to expose the truth were exiled, intimidated, or killed. The MQM was framed as an Indian proxy, and Muhajirs were branded as traitors – justifying the bloodbath in the name of national security. Even in the digital age, censorship continues. In 2023 alone, more than 1,200 social media accounts were suspended for raising concerns about Muhajir disappearances or criticising the military. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act has become a digital blasphemy law – used not to protect citizens, but to criminalise truth-telling. THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES: 2025 AND BEYOND Despite claims of democratic progress, the systematic repression of Muhajirs continues in 2025. The 2024 general elections saw blatant gerrymandering of Karachi's constituencies to dilute the Muhajir vote. Enforced disappearances remain common. According to the HRCP's 2023 report, at least 44 Urdu-speaking political workers were abducted in Karachi that year alone. None have returned. Economically, Muhajirs remain excluded from civil services, police forces, and government jobs. Despite Karachi contributing over 20 per cent of Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP), its Muhajir-majority neighbourhoods face chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, and relentless police brutality. GLOBAL SILENCE, NATIONAL HYPOCRISY While Pakistan continues to posture as a champion of global Muslim causes – from Kashmir to Palestine – it has waged a decades-long war against its own citizens. The silence of the international human rights community is deafening. No tribunal has investigated the 1992 atrocities. No court has indicted the generals, ministers, or encounter specialists behind this genocide. This is not just a domestic failure, it is an international disgrace. A HUMAN APPEAL FOR JUSTICE As a human being, and as someone who believes in justice, I say this: Muhajirs do not seek revenge. Muhajirs seek acknowledgement. They demand truth, accountability, and dignity. Those responsible for the 1992 massacres must be named and prosecuted. The disappeared must be brought home. The media blackout must end. And Pakistan must confront the truth of what it has done. top videos View all Until the state reckons with its crimes against Muhajirs, it cannot truly be called a democracy. It will remain, in essence, a militarised ethnic state built not on unity, faith, and discipline, but on blood, silence, and impunity. (Shariq Adeeb Ansari is the national working president of the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views) tags : Islam Muslims religion Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: May 18, 2025, 07:00 IST News opinion Opinion | State-Engineered Repression Of Urdu-Speaking Muhajirs Who Left India In Search Of Dreamland Called Pakistan
BreakingNews.ie
09-05-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Pakistan denies Indian accusations of attacks on military bases
Pakistan has denied Indian accusations it has attacked military bases amid the growing conflict between the two neighbours. India's Headquarters of the Integrated Defence Staff, a central coordinating arm for all Indian armed forces, said military stations in Jammu, Udhampur and Pathankot were targeted by Pakistan using missiles and drones. It said the attacks were repelled and no casualties were reported. Advertisement Shesh Paul Vaid, the region's former director-general of police, said the Jammu Airport likely was also under attack and that some of the 50 loud explosions he heard likely were because 'our defence system is at work'. Jammu and Udhampur are close to the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan. Pathankot is in India's Punjab state. Supporters of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan party chant slogans during a rally to condemn Indian missile strikes in Pakistani areas, in Karachi (Fareed Khan/AP) Sirens were also heard in some parts of the region's main city of Srinagar, residents said. It was followed by a blackout in the city and other parts of the region. Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement rejected the Indian claims that Pakistan launched attacks on Pathankot, Jaisalmer and Srinagar, saying 'these claims are entirely unfounded, politically motivated, and part of a reckless propaganda campaign aimed at maligning Pakistan'. Advertisement It added that 'such actions not only further endanger regional peace but also reveal a disturbing willingness to exploit misinformation for political and military ends'. India fired attack drones into Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least two civilians, the Pakistani military said. India acknowledged it had targeted Pakistan's air defence system and accused its neighbour of attempting its own attack. Islamabad said it shot down several of the drones while India said it 'neutralised' Pakistan's attempts to hit military targets. It was not possible to verify all of the claims. Advertisement The exchanges came a day after Indian missiles struck several locations in Pakistan, killing 31 civilians, according to Pakistani officials. New Delhi said it was retaliating after gunmen killed more than two dozen people, mostly Hindu tourists, in India-controlled Kashmir last month. India accused Pakistan of being behind the assault. Islamabad denies that. An Indian flag lies in front of a damaged shop following an overnight artillery shelling from Pakistan at Gingal village in Uri district, Indian controlled Kashmir (Dar Yasin/AP) Both sides have also traded heavy fire across their frontier in disputed Kashmir, and Pakistan claimed it killed scores of Indian soldiers. There was no confirmation from India. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to avenge the deaths in India's missile strikes, raising fears that the two countries could be headed toward another all-out conflict. Leaders from both nations face mounting public pressure to show strength and seek revenge, and the heated rhetoric and competing claims could be a response to that pressure. Advertisement US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Thursday to the Pakistani prime minister and India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, urging both sides to de-escalate the situation, the US State Department said. New Delhi, meanwhile, accused Pakistan of attempting 'to engage a number of military targets' with missiles and drones along the Line of Control that divides Kashmir and elsewhere along their border. 'The debris of these attacks is now being recovered from a number of locations,' it said. At a news briefing, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday rejected India's claim that Islamabad carried out any attack in Indian Punjab. Advertisement 'These accusations are an attempt to incite anti-Pakistan sentiment among the Punjabi Sikh population in India,' he said. Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told parliament that so far, Pakistan has not responded to India's missile attacks, but there will be one. Later Thursday, Indian authorities ordered a night-time blackout in Punjab's Gurdaspur district, which borders Pakistan.
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First Post
30-04-2025
- Politics
- First Post
PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi targets India again over Pahalgam attack: ‘Will pay heavy price for choosing path of destruction'
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who also happens to be the country's Interior Minister, made the statement during his meeting with Federal Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Wednesday in which they discussed the ongoing tensions between the two neighbors. read more Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi has targeted India once again in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, stating that they will have to 'pay a heavy price' and that they are headed on a 'path of destruction'. Naqvi, who has been Pakistan's Interior Minister since March last year, made the statement during his meeting with Federal Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Wednesday, according to Pakistan news portal 24News Digital. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Naqvi had met Siddiqui to discuss the ongoing tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours following the deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, in which 26 people were killed, a majority of whom were summer tourists. India has blamed Pakistan for the attack given the latter's long history of harbouring terror groups on its soil and allegedly promoting cross-border terrorism. Pakistan will give befitting response to acts of aggression: Naqvi The 46-year-old brief the chairman of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement party about the decisions of the National Security Committee meeting in their meeting on Wednesday, and added that Pakistan's citizens and army were united against India and that they will be able to give a befitting reply to any acts of aggression by New Delhi. Naqvi, who had taken over as PCB chief in February last year following Zaka Ashraf's resignation, had recently slammed the Narendra Modi-led Indian government for the non-military measures taken against Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack – the deadliest terror attack involving civilians on Indian soil since the 26/11 attacks in 2008. 'Pakistan's economic stability is intolerable for India. The world must see how the country that claims to be the largest democracy is using terrorism to achieve its objectives,' Naqvi was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune in a press conference in Lahore on Sunday. Since the attack, India has suspended the Indus Waters Treaty and closed the Attari-Wagah checkpost in Punjab besides suspending visas for all Pakistani nationals. The Indian government has also blocked several YouTube channels, including that of iconic cricketer Shoaib Akhtar, in the aftermath of the attack.
