Bangladesh & 1971 syndrome
Bangladesh is again plunging itself into another phase of political turmoil and violence. The decision by the Dhaka-based International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) to award capital punishment to two key leaders…
A partial reckoning
Abdul Quader Mollah certainly did himself no favours when, earlier this month, he flashed a smile and a V-sign as he emerged from a hearing of the International Crimes Tribunal…
Justice or revenge?
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) set up in Bangladesh in 2010 by Prime Minister Hasina Wajid’s Awami League government, sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah, a senior Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader, to life…
Dead or disappeared
When President Asif Ali Zardari signed into law the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation, 2011, almost nobody noticed. Then, as now, Pakistan was in the midst of its…
A chance beckons
Following the imposition of governor’s rule in Balochistan and the burial of the victims of the Quetta attacks, the sit-ins and protests that erupted across the country against the wanton…
The curse of silence
We are watching a genocide take place before our eyes; Shias are being killed mercilessly. The Hazara community in Quetta has been decimated. The Hazara Shias – numbering some 700,000…
A problem of perception
It was the worst massacre in Quetta in over a decade and even in such a city, stalked by death and haunted by terror, it marks a new standard. This…
Fury of a patient people
Nothing in recent times, perhaps with the exception of Israel, has exposed the ineptitude and sheer spinelessness of the United Nations and the blessed international community as Syria has. All…
Lessons for the US
There were significant moments in the 20th century when heightened awareness of major human values – freedom, justice, order, security etc – forced American, and other western thinkers and academics…
The case against Musharraf
IN the last six decades a significant number of so-called state leaders have been prosecuted and brought before various domestic and international courts and tribunals for their official and unofficial…
