JK News Today
Jammu, October 08:
Gilgit-Baltistan is in the national discourse of Pakistan where the Establishment is working to make the region as its fifth province by brutally suppressing rights of the people , who want to be treated as civilised people not as slaves of the powers that call shots in the neighbouring country. Activists who speak for rights of the people are treated as terrorists .This is what Pakistan wants to perpetuate the region by making it a fifth province.
There are legal issues that Pakistan army has overruled as it is intoxicated by the backing of militarily powerful China that has its own interest in GB to accomplish its Belt Road Initiative and a big project named as China-Pakistan Economic Project passes through the territory.
Pakistan army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa has visited the region on Tuesday ( October 6, 2020) . He reviewed the operational preparedness of Force Command Northern Areas troops . This was more to do with a message for the locals that they should not dare to raise their voice against anything being imposed on them .
Gen. Bajwa’s visit came a day after the people of Gilgit-Baltistan staged a massive protest against Pakistan for suppressing their rights . The people are angry with Pakistan that they have been treated harshly .
Dawn in its editorial on Thursday ( October 8) titled ,” G-B Politics” warned the Pakistani establishment that,” When movements for rights gather steam, these are quickly subdued with often harsh penalties imposed on political leaders.,”
The newspaper cited the case of Baba Jan , Hunza based activist who has been in jail since 2011. He was handed over sentence of 71 years by an antiterrorism court . Baba Jan’s crime was that he had raised his voice for the relief and rehabilitation of 250,000 residents who were dislocated by landslide caused lake of Attabad . This was a simple case of petitioning for the rehabilitation of the victims and the compensation for the people who lost their lives in that incident .
Such activism is greeted with zero-tolerance in Gilgit-Baltistan where Pakistan is ruling like a colonial power where the so-called elected representatives have to subject themselves to whims and fancies of the imported bureaucrats from plains of Pakistan .
“Hundreds of people held a protest in Aliabad, Hunza, on Monday demanding justice for Baba Jan and 13 others who have been in jail since 2011. The protesters slammed the application of terrorism charges against the activists, and called for the release of all political prisoners,” the Pakistani newspaper said.
In Gilgit-Baltistan , those who speak for rights of the people are dubbed as terrorists.
