South Asia Citizens Web

Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) warmly welcomes the heartfelt concern expressed by the people of Pakistan for the people of India as they struggle to overcome the dire impact of the present surge of the Covid 19 contagion which recognises no borders or nationalities.

Call for immediate release of Hidme Markam and end state excess on adivasis in Bastar
21st Apr, 2021: Deeply outrage by the arbitrary incarceration of Hidme Markam, an adivasi human rights defender and environmental activist, for over 40 days, more than a thousand activists, academics, concerned citizens from across the globe sent a petition to Mr. Bhupesh Baghel, the Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh calling upon him to immediate ensure the release of Hidme Markam and take pro-active steps to end the cycle of repression against adivasis in Chhattisgarh. They also appealed that false charges against Hidme and other adivasi activists be dropped and an independent inquiry be conducted into all instances of sexual and state violence.

On 10 February 2021 the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) did the unthinkable and demanded a UN investigation into alleged corruption in the country’s military. The call followed an Al Jazeera documentary alleging that the army’s chief secretly provided illegal support to his two fugitive brothers, with the tacit approval of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It also claimed that the army acquired Israeli-made spying equipment that can be used against the opposition and critics of the government.

En octobre dernier [2020], 80.000 personnes se sont rassemblées à Dacca, la capitale, pour protester contre les caricatures de Mahomet et brûler des photos du président français, Emmanuel Macron. Ces événements ne sont en fait que la partie visible de l’iceberg.

Editors Guild of India demands withdrawal of Kashmir Police’s advisory forbidding journalists from reporting live encounters with militants on the specious plea that it is “likely to incite violence” or that it can promote “anti-national sentiment”. Nothing can be further from the truth. Visibly, the police is giving an impression of trying to maintain peace by attempting to control the fallout of violence in a high strung environment, but what is being instead done is an attempt by the security forces to escape from any kind of media scrutiny about the flow of events behind the violence.