Baba Jan is a prisoner of conscience and Leftist political activist in the Gilgit-Baltistan administrative territory of Pakistan. He is the vice-president of the socialist Awami Workers Party. His hometown is Nasirabad in the Hunza Valley.
Baba Jan is currently serving a lifetime prison sentence after being convicted by an anti-terrorism court of participating in political riots related to the 2010 Attabad landslide.
The massive landslide on January 4, 2010 led to the formation of a huge landslide dam which submerged several villages and left over 1,000 people homeless. Baba Jan organized the displaced people to lobby the government for compensation and rehabilitation.
While several families were compensated, some 25 families had still not been compensated by August 2011. On 11 August 2011, some of those families protested by blocking a highway on which the then Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Mehdi Shah was due to travel. Police fired teargas and gunshots to disperse the protesters for the Chief Minister's convoy, killing a father and son. When news of the killings spread through the Hunza Valley, angry protests erupted in many towns in which a number of government buildings and police stations were torched.
Baba Jan was subsequently arrested and tortured, and charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act. In September 2011, an anti-terrorism court sentenced him and eleven other activists to life imprisonment. Human rights organizations have demanded Baba Jan's release, and an international petition for his release has been signed by Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, David Graeber, and several others. During his time in prison, it has been reported that Baba Jan has been involved in organizing prisoners and promoting sectarian tolerance between Sunnis and Shias.
The massive landslide on January 4, 2010 led to the formation of a huge landslide dam which submerged several villages and left over 1,000 people homeless. Baba Jan organized the displaced people to lobby the government for compensation and rehabilitation.
While several families were compensated, some 25 families had still not been compensated by August 2011. On 11 August 2011, some of those families protested by blocking a highway on which the then Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Mehdi Shah was due to travel. Police fired teargas and gunshots to disperse the protesters for the Chief Minister's convoy, killing a father and son. When news of the killings spread through the Hunza Valley, angry protests erupted in many towns in which a number of government buildings and police stations were torched.
Baba Jan was subsequently arrested and tortured, and charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act. In September 2011, an anti-terrorism court sentenced him and eleven other activists to life imprisonment. Human rights organizations have demanded Baba Jan's release, and an international petition for his release has been signed by Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali, David Graeber, and several others. During his time in prison, it has been reported that Baba Jan has been involved in organizing prisoners and promoting sectarian tolerance between Sunnis and Shias.
Posts
Hello, my name is Naseem Sanwal. I'm a 25-year-old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
No comments:
Post a Comment