South Asia Citizens Web

Mahenaz Mahmud the mother of Sabeen Mahmud remembering her daughter (audio - BBC interview) | Zaheer Kidwai a mentor and friend of Sabeen reads out a tribute in urdu (eacpe video)

In 1971 Ravi Shankar and George Harrison organised a concert in New York City’s Madison Square Gardens to fund relief efforts for war-torn Bangladesh. The album featured the image of a starving child on the cover, which became a symbol of an impoverished country emerging out of the rubble of war. Forty-four years later, another image is now associated with Bangladesh: that of the abandoned refugees who float on the Andaman Sea with no hope of rescue.

A wise man once said, “I am not sure if Pakistan was created in the name of religion but it sure is being destroyed in the name of religion.” The bus attack in Karachi claiming at least 45 innocent Ismaili lives is just one in a series of such heinous religiously-motivated atrocities that Pakistanis continue to face on a regular basis. Whether the victims are the Hazaras of Quetta, Christians of Youhanabad in Lahore, Bohras offering Friday prayers in Karachi, or the children targeted in the Army Public School attack in Peshawar, the root cause is the same.

There was so much hope for her as a moral leader in Myanmar, but power (or politics) has changed her

Giving logic a back seat has led to more than diminished math or science skills. The ordinary Pakistani person’s ability to reason out problems of daily life has also diminished. There is an increased national susceptibility to conspiracy theories, decreased ability to tell friend from foe, and more frequent resort to violence rather than argumentation. The quality of Pakistan’s television channels reflects today’s quality of thought.