It did not take Dawood long to choose a new product ... and started trafficking in drugs, chiefly in heroin bound for the European market and Mandrax for South Africa. And in Dawood’s part of the world, if you want to guarantee the success of a narcotics business, there is only one organisation you need to cozey up to – the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s secret service. Misha Glenny, McMafia
Mr President! [General Zia-ut-Haq]
In recent weeks you will have read unflattering reference to yourself in our so-called liberal press. Pay no attention! Most of us realise that a backward people such as yours needs, and appreciates, the smack of firm government ...
Could you oblige with a photo, Mr President? It would have pride of place, next to the late lamented Generalissimo Franco, in my gallery of great international Conservatives. Henry Root, The Henry Root Letters, to General Zia-ul-Haq 26th April 1979
‘Two and a half million troops from India, Pakistan and the rest of the sub-continent formed the biggest volunteer army in the history of the world’. Saul David, World War II: A Timewatch Guide, BBC 2016
More than 1,000 women are murdered in Pakistan each year by male relatives who believe the victims have dishonoured their families. A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness ***** 2015
‘Saba had a gunshot wound on the left side of her face which made it almost impossible to recognise anything.’ ibid. doctor
‘They shot her and threw her in the river.’ ibid. rozzer
‘I will never forgive them.’ ibid. Saba
After leaving the hospital Saba went into hiding. ibid.
‘This is what happens when honour is at stake … No woman should ruin her parents’ reputation.’ ibid. mother
‘People who visit my father tell me he is asking for forgiveness.’ ibid. Saba
‘If there is no justice, you can imagine how terrible the police will feel.’ ibid. rozzer
‘I am called an honourable man.’ ibid. father
‘In my heart they are unforgiven.’ ibid. Saba
This is the Wagah border crossing between India and Pakistan. Every evening the flags of these two great nations are lowered in a hugely popular display of national pride. But just seventy years ago this border didn’t even exist. In 1947, 200 years of British rule came to an abrupt end and this vast sub-continent was divided between an independent India and the new Muslim homeland of Pakistan. My Family, Partition and Me: India 1947, BBC 2017
The first outbreak of Partition violence occurred in the summer of 1946 in Calcutta. Reports of atrocities against Muslims spread throughout Bengal, and in Noakhali district roaming gangs … began a campaign of terror against Muslims. ibid.
Known around the world as the Great Calcutta Killings: they set the pattern for the Partition violence that was to engulf India for the next two years. ibid.
The worst violence of all took place in Punjab. ibid.
This is the north Indian city of Amritsar. And a few miles in that direction is the Pakistani border. But just seventy years ago that border didn’t even exist. My Family, Partition and Me II: India 1947
West Bengal – ten months after they fled, the line of partition divided the state, and their village Mandari became part of the new Muslim homeland of East Pakistan. 1,500 miles to the west, Partition also split my Sikh family’s home of Punjab down the middle. ibid.
Lahore A Blazing Inferno: Life Completely Paralysed. ibid. Amrita Bazar Patrika 23rd June 1947 headline
This is one of the world’s most dangerous borders holding neighbours India and Pakistan apart. 2,000 miles long it slices through extraordinary landscapes and divides millions of people who once lived alongside each other. Dangerous Borders: A Journey Across India and Pakistan I, BBC 2017
Karachi: a vibrant metropolis of over 20,000,000 people. ibid.
These African Pakistanis have been on the Indian subcontinent for hundreds of years. ibid.
There’s only three places on the entire border between India and Pakistan where you can cross. ibid.
There has been frequent conflict along this border. To this day very few can cross. Dangerous Borders: A Journey Across India and Pakistan II
This [solar park] is just one part of a huge collaboration between Pakistan and China. ibid.
We’re in the beating heart of the Punjab: Lahore. ibid.
It’s estimated that up to two million Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus died, and over fourteen million people were forced to move during partition. ibid.
70% of Pakistanis are under the age of 20. ibid.
I plan to explore Pakistan’s remote north heading to the city of Gilgit, passing through the Hunza valley and ending my journey in Thalay, just twenty-five miles from the disputed border with India where troops face each other in a bitter stand-off. The two countries have fought four wars since partition: In 1947, ’65, ’71 & ’99. Dangerous Borders: A Journey Across India and Pakistan III
Jammu & Kashmir: I’m three hundred miles away … Here they are just as battle ready. ibid.
28 people were killed last year by cross-border shooting and shelling. ibid.
Last year during four months of mass protests against the India army more than 100 Kashmiri civilians were killed and 17,000 were injured. ibid.
On 15th August 1947 Britain gave up its Indian empire partitioned into two newly independent created countries – India and Pakistan. The seven days leading up to the handover of power were some of the most tumultuous of the twentieth century. By the end of the week one of the biggest migrations in human history had begun. Seven Days in Summer: Countdown to Partition, BBC 2017
But the Muslim League, a political party led by British trained barrister Mohammad Ali Jinnah, demanded a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. ibid.
When Lord Mountbatten announced back in June that partition would take place in just 61 days he shocked everyone including his own advisers. ibid.
An event that’s had a huge impact on all our lives – the Partition of India. In 1947 the British divided India in two creating a newly independent India and a new country – Pakistan. People of different faiths turned on each other: seventy million people became refugees overnight and over a million lost their lives. India’s Partition: The Forgotten Story, BBC 2017
The answer depends on who gets to tell it. ibid.
Pakistan itself means Land of the Pure. ibid.
Divide and Rule … The vast majority of Muslims did not prescribe to this … so what changed? ibid.
Jinnah … remained adamant that the Muslim League will represent all Muslims. ibid.
The violence was allowed to go on unchecked. ibid.
Mountbatten oversaw the negotiations for the final end of British rule … Nobody was happy with the Mountbatten plan. ibid.
‘Covert plans to launch a military strike if necessary against Pakistan’s nuclear facilities’ [The New York Times] could have been written today. Yet that article in The New York Times was published nearly thirty years ago. In August 1979 Washington was every bit as worried as it is now about events unfolding in Pakistan. Such a military strike may well have been viewed as an act of war; so what pushed President Jimmy Carter’s government to even consider such a drastic option? Document: Stop Pakistan, BBC Radio 4 2008
In Pakistan it is cheaper to buy a kilo of heroin than food. The country is infamous as a major transit point for heroin and cannabis from neighbouring Afghanistan to the rest of the world. But it is fighting its own battle with addiction. Drugged Up Pakistan: A Billion Dollar Narcotics Trade: 101 East, Al Jazeera 2014
Pakistan is in the grip of a raging drug epidemic … It’s a deadly scourge that has now infiltrated every class and every age group. Drugs are cheap and easily available and they are destroying countless lives. ibid.
Parts of Karachi have been overtaken by gang violence and narcotics abuse. Addicts are sprawled on street corners and roads across the city. ibid.
31 October 2018: Political rally, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) Religious party: ‘[chant] Behead All Blasphemers! Storyville: The Accused: Damned or Devoted? BBC 2020
‘If anyone challenges the Holy Prophet or challenges his status as the Final Prophet that is considered blasphemy under Shariah law. This is such a serious offence, it is unforgivable.’ ibid. religious dude
The Blasphemy Law was introduced under British Rule in 1860 and was intended to protect all religions in the Indian subcontinent. The maximum penalty was 10 years in prison plus a fine. In 1986 President Zia Ul Haq’s government added a new provision to the law: it introduced the death penalty for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him). Since 1986 there have been over 1,500 cases of blasphemy in Pakistan. ibid.
Violent incidents have taken place in courts in Pakistan. Many of those who defended people accused of blasphemy have been murdered. ibid.