The unfortunate murder of Anwar Khetran served two purposes. First, he was killed so that a vocal opponent of the tribal elite of Barkhan was eliminated. Second, the more sinister intent behind this killing was to spread fear among all other citizen journalists and to give them a message that ...
Read More »FOR AN ALTERNATIVE TO POLICING!
In light of the George Floyd protests, it’s important to note that the very institution of policing is rooted in the slave trade, plantation owners, and slave catchers of the 18th and 19th centuries in this country. When slaves were emancipated by Abraham Lincoln on paper in 1863 with the ...
Read More »A Baloch ‘blogger’
IF you are an unemployed journalist and no newspaper accepts your contribution and your own publication folds for want of resources, what do you do? Most such journalists might become clerks somewhere or start selling chholey. But a Baloch journalist found a different answer more than 40 years ago. He ...
Read More »Sammo
Sammo spends her life among the sheep grazing in the hills of Rustarani and fetches water from long distances. She bare-footedly follows her herd. It doesn’t befit a radiant face to be among the nibbling sheep.
Read More »NON-FICTION: BALOCHISTAN’S NARRATIVE CONUNDRUM
For the last 15 years, Balochistan has been experiencing perpetual conflict between Baloch nationalists and Pakistan’s federal governments. The causes and the drivers of this conflict are often debated, with conflicting opinions. One line of thought is that the current situation in Pakistan’s largest province is driven only by the ...
Read More »…
Once he was unwilling to concede his defeat. I heard him, he was whispering in executioner’s ear You, You …… You cannot erase me i will detour your minds and that of your ruler’s to tease them to death. You will cease to exist i will cease to be a ...
Read More »Right to be forgotten
ASKED how he would like to be remembered, Lee Kuan Yew, that legendary leader of Singapore, is supposed to have said that he would like to be forgotten. While many amongst us strive to be remembered for our achievements, real or imagined, there are countless others who want to be ...
Read More »Still I Rise
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. ...
Read More »The Grievance
Oh God, I know not what I want! What am I after day and night? Why am I so depressed? What do my tired eyes are wishing to sight? I run away from the gatherings of the friends; alone I stay aloof, and faint! My gaze fades beneath the veil ...
Read More »Creeping religiosity
IT is not by accident that the dark forces of bigotry and obscurantism have become stronger than ever in Pakistan. The phenomenon is all too visibly rooted in the government’s acts of omission and commission. The regularisation of madressahs and the reform of their curricula were given top priority in ...
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