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terrorism Residents
of Queens Road MOOD STREET Town
Talk transport City character
terrorism Lahore, the high insecurity zone The cultural capital of the country becomes the target of militancy yet again
By Waqar Gillani Central to last week's terrorist attack in Lahore is a
message to the Pakistani forces struggling against militancy -- that
militants are omnipresent and well-organised. The attack that killed 26 people including one high ranking official of Pakistan Army and injured more than 339 was the first strong reaction of terrorists after the start of army operation in Swat at the beginning of this month. Previously, there were a couple of blasts in Peshawar at public places. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a banned militant outfit led by Baitullah Mehsud, reportedly claimed the responsibility of the attack, warning the government that Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Islamabad, and Peshawar are the prime targets of TTP in future, an ultimatum they proved with series of bomb blasts in Peshawar a day after the attack on security forces' buildings in Lahore. The May 27 Lahore attack, reportedly, made with over 100 kg explosive material, affected all the buildings in a radius of up to two kilometres. It also damaged about 70 vehicles in the area, according to the police report. According to a Home Department official, Punjab chief minister along with his cabinet, was fully briefed in the last cabinet meeting on May 7, 2009, that Lahore will be the prime target of terrorists after the start of the Swat operation. The major targets of most of the attacks in Lahore have
been law enforcement agencies. The last four blasts on The Mall have taken
place on one side of the city's busiest road. A number of important
government and private offices are located here. Punjab Home Secretary, Nadeem Hassan Asif, said the security was already high and that is why the forces managed to respond to the attack quickly and failed the attackers to reach their main target. "We have also declared red alert now and the security of government buildings and installations, important political and government figures have been highly increased," he said, adding, "The buildings that have been put under high security zone include Civil Secretariat, Chief Minister Secretariat, Chief Minister House, Governor's House, United States Consulate, Wapda House, Railways Headquarters, Railway Station, Punjab Assembly, Police Lines and other police offices and residences, televisions and radio stations and public places." He said these places have been declared "high security zone". Prof. Hassan Askari Rizvi, political analyst, believes that Lahore has been selected by the Taliban because "it is the main political city and Punjab holds key to Pakistan's stability. A large number of people of Punjab serve in the armed forces and the bureaucracy." He adds the Taliban think by targeting Lahore they can send a message to the government that they have to stop attacking them in Swat and tribal areas. "They also think that these bombings will undermine government's credibility in the eyes of the public and would build pressure to pull out of the Swat area." He said another assumption is that the government of Pakistan cannot afford to have the major urban centres destabilised because that undermines economy and will force the government to withdraw from counter terrorism. He said, "Government needs to strengthen intelligence network which should penetrate into these groups and get prior information. The bombers who come from tribal areas spend time with local militant groups (Taliban facilitators) to observe the situation and then launch an attack. It is into these local facilitators that intelligence should penetrate and monitor." He viewed that prior warnings to the police are usually 'general warnings'. vaqargillani@gmail.com
Residents
of Queens Road "I was doing household chores when I heard the blast. My house was shaking. I felt that the blast had taken place right where I was," says Aziz Begum, a 65 years old widow who lives at 5 Queens Road, hardly 100 meters from the Rescue 15 building, the target of May 27 terrorist blast in Lahore. The blast has shattered her house -- doors and windows are
broken and walls are cracked. "One of my daughters has been injured
because a ceiling fan dropped on her. Most of the crockery is broken. My
kitchen looks like a battlefield," she said pointing to a pile of broken
household items like pots, glass, picture frames and clocks. A poor widow
with three daughters, she has no money to repair the house. There are 13 houses in the locality. All of them badly damaged while most of the families are not well-off to get their houses repaired. "A total of nine people have been injured in our locality due to the blast," said Maqsood Ahmed who was released from hospital after two days. He got his right hand injured when a broken glass window hit him. "We are living under a permanent fear of being killed at any time. The loss is not of property or health alone. In the last one and a half year, we have faced four big terrorist attacks in the surroundings in which around 100 people have died." Ahmed said his son was playing outside his house when the blast occurred. "He also received some injuries as some broken glass pieces from nearby shops hit him. He is so terrified that he has refused to go to hospital for treatment. On May 27, security forces asked us to vacate the houses in the locality as they thought some terrorists were still hiding in the nearby area. The whole family left the house but my son refused and his mother had to stay with him in the house. Now, after five days, he has started getting normal," he said. So far no government official has visited his locality even to give a sense of security to the people. May 27 terrorist attack in which 30 people have been killed and more than 350 injured was the fourth terrorist attack in an area of one and a half kilometre radius of the city. One can hardly find an undamaged building in a kilometre radius area of the bomb blast sight. The area is a famous business centre with many multi-storey plazas, car showrooms, medical laboratories and stores, law chambers and media offices. Piles of debris and shards of glass are scattered in the surrounding localities and municipal staff is busy clearing the mess created by the bomb blast. "I have witnessed all the attacks in my surrounding areas," said Ghulam Rasool who runs a general store at Lawrence Road near Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education. "They all were terrifying but the last one was the worst. My shop was damaged; some jars broken, when the terrorists hit the FIA building last year. But this time, the whole shop has been turned into a pile of debris," he points to the broken showcases, eggs, jars of jams and bottles of soft drinks. "Everything is destroyed; I will have to remake the whole shop. I don't know why this has happened to me." He expects the government to repay his damages. As yet no government team has come to him to assess the damage. District Coordination Officer (DCO) Lahore Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta says that government has formed nine survey teams of engineers and revenue department officials to assess the loss to property due to blast. "They will prepare their report in a week and then government will take further steps." He tells TNS that relief will be provided to the people according to policy of the Punjab government once the survey is complete.
A heartbeat away
By Ali Sultan "You never get bored do you?" my wife asks and
smiles while I get down to reading an essay by the influential French film
critic André Bazin. Being a cinephile, audiophile and bibliophile -- in no
particular order-- certainly means that you never actually have time to be
bored. Consider the following schedule of the past two weeks: Film viewings included Orson Welles's Macbeth, Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, Wim Wender's Wings of desire, Carl Dreyer's Ordet, Guru Dutt's Kaagez ke phool, Peckinpah's Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia, Chris Marker's Sans soliel, a public show of Zinda Laash, heavy dosages of Michael Ondaatje's English Patient, snippets of Dylan's latest album and not to forget small dosages of writings by Pauline Kael, Manny Farber and Harlan Ellison, which makes sleep very peaceful. My first loves at twelve going on to thirteen were a fat Leonard Maltin movie guide and a rock music encyclopedia, which I would read hours on an end. Who would want to read Biology and Physics when one could enter the darkness of a film theatre or having the wonderful feeling of hearing the Beatles for the first time, even if it meant deducing these feeling from printed words. What endlessly fascinated me as a child and even more so today when everything seems to be going wrong is the comforting fact that every word in a book, a paint stroke on a painting, an image, a sound means that man has always tried to understand his/her world and others. There is a certain look that belongs to the - phile (This not refering to the intellectual snob who is knowlegeble and treats the ones who are not as inhuman, but to the ones who share and understand conspiracy which means "to breath together"). The gleam in the eye, the fits of laughter, the drooling, the nervous ticks caused by sudden, awful pangs of fear when you think you might die before cramming in every film, book and album in the world. The computer becomes the siamese twin, the clicking mouse becomes the extension of the heart, beating away at every download. Listening to two or more of them taking apart a film, album or book has the mystical feeling of hearing love expressed in a foreign tongue. From knowing thousands of small facts and anecdotal stories concerning their favourite films, albums and books, being able to repeat and retain large portions of script and poetry from their favourites, to collecting merchandise and associated paraphernalia, the air is always filled with passion, intense and on fire. Make no mistake, the internet is second heavan for the Pakistani – phile, but there is also heartache. Where once the haunt was every old book shop, hallucinatory searches in the buring heat of the summer sun, where once VCR tapes of precious films were taken from the other side of the city, consumed and then returned the next day, money collected, penny by penny for a Rs 110 tape of life-changing music, now everything is available in the bedroom, darkness except from the light of a computer monitor, a click away, a heartbeat away.
- Critical Mass event - 'Weekend cycling ride' today at Zakir Tikka intersection on Sarwar Road, Cantt at 5:45pm.
- Exhibition: Shoaib Mahmood's paintings on display at The Drawing Room Art Gallery. Today is the last day of the show.
- Exhibition of paintings titled 'Rhythms of Colours' by Ghazala at Coopera Art Gallery. Tomorrow is the last day of the show.
- Exhibition: BNU Degree Show 2009 at Alhamra, The Mall till May 4. The gallery remains open from 11pm to 7pm.
- First-Ever Group Miniatures Exhibition at Alhamra, The Mall till June 20. The exhibition will remain open from 9am to 6pm daily.
- All Pakistan Music Conference tomorrow at Alhamra Hall III, The Mall at 6pm.
- Socrates Cafe: Discussion on language at Lahore Chitrkar on June 1 from 8 to 9pm.
- Rally spearheaded by Jamia Naeemia's administrator Dr Sarfraz Naeemi on June 2 in support of Swat military operation. The rally will be taken out from the shrine of Hazrat Ali Hajveri (Data Darbar) and would march up to the Regal Chowk on The Mall.
Route cause There just aren't enough buses on the roads
By Saleha Rauf The commuters on public transport are increasingly
finding it quite expensive. Besides, they have to wait for long to catch a
bus that is usually overloaded. The standard waiting time is 5-15 minutes,
according to Punjab Transport Authority's agreement with different
companies plying buses on different routes in the city. At least five routes were advertised in newspapers in 2006 for which the government never took any commitment from a transport company to ply buses. They are R.A. Bazar to Thokar Niaz Baig, General Bus Stand to Green Town, Daroghawala to Chungi Amar Sidhu, Railway Station to Liaqatabad, Railway Station to Green Town. The Regional Transport Authority (RTA) says it intends to start bus services here very soon. Apart from the advertised routes, there are about 18 routes where there is no bus service nor is there is a plan, for example, there is no transport service from Railway Station to Sharaqpur via Saggian Pull, Railway Station to Rana Town, Chungi Wahga to Chungi Amar Sidhu etc. Mrs. Rafia, a working woman, says she had to wait for a bus for more than half an hour at route number 33. Samra, a student, says at times she has to wait for one and a half hour at route 77 number. Both these routes are run by the same company, Makks. Manager Operations Makks Metro Bus, Jehanzeb Warraich, says, "Our bus routes are a victim of VIP movement: we ply on The Mall, Canal and pass by the Governor House. People suffer consequently." Zarmeen who travels from Allama Iqbal Town to downtown on route 40 says, "Sometimes I have to wait for the bus for 15 to 20 minutes and sometimes for more than 40 minutes." Transporters do not buy this and insist that the bus comes every eight to ten minutes. The bus service's chief executive Azam Khan Niazi says, "Government gives us no subsidy. No country of the world has such an attitude towards transporters. We are running constantly in loss. We should be facilitated by the government and it should reduce the price of diesel." RTA Inspector Yousaf Rafiqui says, "Four people in
Lahore check route permit, frequency and overloading of buses but the
truth is that transporters don't run the agreed number of buses."
Decidely, a staff of four people is not sufficient to perform the job
well. According to an estimate of RTA, New Khan Metro Bus is running 100 to 150 buses out of the promised 260, Premier Bus Service is running around 190 out of 246 buses, BHK Transport Service 27 out of 44, Niazi Express Bus is running 30 out of 52, Makks Metro is running 12-20 out of 40 buses, Baloch Transport Company is running 10-12 out of 22. So the shortage of buses is posing serious problem to commuters. 95 buses were required on the routes where Daewoo is running but only 67 buses are plying. Whatever buses Daewoo has, are on road. Secretary Provincial Transport Authority Ch. Muhammad Iqbal says, "The Punjab Government has imported CNG buses from China which will hopefully reach Pakistan in mid June. We are establishing an institution Lahore Transport Company especially for Lahore's traffic. 25 percent of the illegal vehicles have been removed from the bus routes. Now transporters are hopeful after 5 years to run new buses on roads." Managing Director New Khan Metro Bus Service Lahore Sheikh Muhammad Ashraf says, "Government should help increase business viability for transporters. Diesel rates are very high and illegal vehicles are plying on our routes. That's why transporters are bank defaulters and we haven't seen any new vehicle for six years. Moreover, buses are running on the VIP routes. Especially, on Mall and Canal we face difficulties." He admitted that around 175 out of 260 buses are on road. Chief Transport Planner, Ghulam Dastgir, Khan says, "Bus frequency and number of buses are notified and conveyed in agreement with the transporters. The number of buses is very low and demand is high. We have sent showcause notices to the transporters who are not running agreed number of buses." According to the advertisements given by RTA in newspapers on March 14, 2006, 36 routes buses were required on route B-34 but 16 permits were given to the concerned bus company, 22 buses were required for B-38 but only 11 buses got route permit and 34 buses were required for B-20 but only 22 buses were registered. Transporters say they are running into losses with the existing fares and diesel rate. They want subsidy from government to improve their business viability. Ghulam Dastagir Khan says, "18 to 20 percent rate of return is acceptable for transporters all over the world and transporters in Lahore are earning much more than this." A complaint that has come from commuters on different routes is of overspeeding in order to overtake another bus. Consequently, commuters suffer and are left waiting in the heat while buses pass by, without stopping for them. There should be a check on transporters and government should take steps to ensure that there are sufficient buses on the roads.
Nothing but the best An award-winning harmonium-maker has given music lovers the best harmoniums that there are
By Altaf Hussain Asad Meet Muhammad Akhlaq alias Bundu Khan who is making
harmoniums for quite some time. Aged 75, he is fit and alert. His fingers
are as agile as they were in his younger days. He can manufacture a
harmonium within ten to twelve days. But it was not harmonium-making that was the forte of his family. "Our family profession was Sitar making. We have been making Sitars for nearly two centuries. I was the first person in my family who started making harmoniums," states Ustad Bundu Khan. Born in Ambala in 1943, Bundu Khan attended school only till grade IV. His future was in musical instrument-making which was the profession of his family. His maternal uncle Sufi Abdul Khaliq took him under his wings and taught him the delicate art. But Bundu Khan was destined to follow a path that he selected on his own. Harmonium-making became his passion. According to him, an average harmonium has a price range from ten to fifty thousand rupees. He can make three or four such average harmoniums in a month but there are others which need a lot of time and care. "At times, customers demand harmoniums of high quality which usually takes one and a half month. I use Sagwaan for making high quality harmoniums. I charge fifty thousand rupees for such harmoniums," claims Ustad Bundu Khan. A soft-spoken person, Bundu Khan sits alone all day in his shop located in Langay Mandi inside Taxali gate Lahore. His two sons are not helping him in his profession. Both are teachers by profession. They refused to join the father as they felt no attraction in his job. Top class singers of the country have come to his shop over decades. Be it Mehdi Hasan, Noor Jahan, Farida Khanum or musicians like Master Abdullah, Master Ghulam Haider and Khwaja Khurshid Anwar, all these giants have visited his shop. Ustad Bundu Khan lives in a rented house in Karim Park. Although he received Pride of Performance award in 2006, he thinks the government should have allotted him a house too. He tells me proudly that some of his harmoniums can be found in England, America, Germany, India and even in Afghanistan. Since his shop is in the vicinity of Lahore's red light area, he finds a few customers who come to him for repair of their harmoniums. Such repair work helps him earn money to run his hearth as it is not every day that he gets order of making new harmoniums. He gets order from all over the country for making harmoniums. It is not easy to manufacture harmoniums. "An intelligent man can learn to make a harmonium in at least ten years. It's not an easy art to learn. I had a pupil who learnt a lot from me but he still can't make a harmonium. He can repair a harmonium only. One can only learn this art if one has a passion." Ustad Bundu Khan states in a matter of fact tone. His ancestors used to make swords initially. He calls himself Multani Lohars who came to the subcontinent with Muhammad Bin Qasim and later settled in Multan. Interestingly, he does not know how to play a harmonium. It was once his desire to learn the art but he could not do so. He can make a Sitar too but it was harmonium making which made him famous, so he ignored Sitar. His father-in-law, Sher Muhammad received presidential award in 1988 for making Sitars. He is happy to get the attention of media after receiving Pride of Performance award but nobody offered him any financial help at all. From 1975, he is sitting in this shop where he caters to his clients. Earlier, his shop was located elsewhere which he started in 1964. Nearly 45 years have passed but Muhammad Akhlaq is doing service to music with undying passion. He never thought of changing his profession as he gained recognition from harmonium making. There are other shops too but classical music lovers come straight to him as they trust Bundu Khan. "Tafu visited a shop in Mumbai which sold musical instruments. He showed them a harmonium that was made by me. He were immensely impressed", Bundu Khan says proudly.
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