WEEKLY BANG-E-SAHAR SATURDAY,MARCH 22-28,2008

WEEKLY BANG-E-SAHAR SATURDAY,
MARCH 22-28,2008

Earthquake 2005Recovery of missing girls demanded:

The escape of a 16-year-old girl, who was among hundreds of women missing after the October 2005 earthquake, from a brothel in Punjab and return to her hometown in Bagh with terrifying tales of agony has opened a Pandora’s box and shaken the conscious of people not only in Pakistan but all over the world. Hundreds of women including school girls missing after the catastrophic earthquake have still not been accounted for and to absolve themselves of the responsibility to trace them the authorities concerned have been claiming that they might have died and buried under the rubble.But with the return of the Kashmiri girl after over two and a half years has indicated that gangs involved in human smuggling and flesh trade had succeeded in their nefarious designs of kidnappng many women and girls when the nation mourned the tragedy. The Kashmiri girl also revealed the presence of four more girls in the same brothel from which she escaped. She said she was forced to work at various sin houses in Rawalpindi, Sialkot and Lahore during the past over two and half years. When the catastrophe struck the region, people from around the world reached the disaster zone to help the victims. However, among those extending a helping hand to the affected people were such unscrupulous elements who considered it a golden chance to take benefit of the miseries of the people and abducted many women and girls and sold them to human smugglers and other gangs. The escape of the Kashmir girl and narration of her agony and that of four other girls still in the sin house points towards a tsunami of more horrific cases in which other innocent girls and women might have been taken away and used as sex workers. The returned girl said two of the four girls still with the gangs belonged to Rawlakot and two to Bagh. They were students of Azad Jammu Kashmir University and were staying at the university hostel when the earthquake hit the region. The girls wer injured in the eartquake and some people came to them under the guise of aid workers and took them away.Though the startling disclosure of such a barbaric and inhuman crime that too committed during the greatest tragedy of our times shows criminals active in flesh trade can go to any extent but the governmnet cannot be absolved of its negligence as it has still not been able to bust such gangs and recover the missing women. People in the country and abroad launched protest demonstrations soon after the news of the girl’s return and disclosure of the crime. The National Students Federation and an action committee had given the deadline of March 20 to the government to recover the other girls but no progress was made on the issue. Bang-e-Sahar reached political leaders and activists of various parties of Kashmir in this regard for their reaction. Ex-leader of Jammu Kashmir National Awami Party and APNA’s spokesman Professor MARK Khaleeq said Pakistani leaders have always kept a negative attitude towards us. `Those whom we had considered our saviours made our daughters the assets of brothels. Pakistan always considers itself as the advocate of Kashmir issue but has failed to bring the culprits of this heinous act to justice.’ Talking to Bang-e-Sahar, the secretary general of Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Front and All Parties National Alliance Arif Shahid said Pakistan was taking no interest in resolving the issue. This incident puts a question mark on the role of Pakistan. Pakistani police are equally involved in the crime as without their connivance such gangs cannot operate so easily in the urban areas, said Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, the chairman of UKPNP and general secretary International Kashmir Alliance in a mesage from Switzerland. He said they would raise voice against the issue at the international level including the European Union and the United Nations. Spokesman for International Kashmir Alliance in London, Dr Shabir Chaudhry said the innocent victims of the earthquake had not been recovered due to lack of governmnet support. “We strongly condemn this evil act and demand that every effort should be made to recover and rehabilitate the victims of the earthquake,” he added.
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