Khadim’s Quetta

khAdim DuRRani Quettawaal

On the evening of April 4 2009 about 45 people were found dead, near Quetta, in a large container that was carrying 110 Afghans who intended to enter Iran via Pakistan; they were put on the container at Spin Boldak, an Afghan border town between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the door was locked from outside. In the afternoon from Chaman, a central west Pakistani town, the container started off its journey and after about 140 kilometres’ drive it stopped at Hazaarganji Bus Station (bus adda) about 18 km southwest of Quetta where the driver decided to have early dinner because he had to travel another 800 km to get to the south-western Pakistani border town of Taftaan, between Pakistan and Iran. It has been reported that once the driver got off the vehicle, for some strange reasons the air conditioning and ventilation system of the container stopped working. When the container occupants felt the need for extra oxygen/air, they tried to draw the attention of the driver and outsiders by banging hard the container walls.  Luckily there were still people around at the bus station who when heard the cries for help quickly came to rescue them; within 5 to 10 minutes they broke the outside lock. Sadly for some of them the help had arrived too late as they were suffocated to death; in the first instance 40 dead bodies were removed followed by 70 living, some of them were in a state of semi-unconsciousness. They were all immediately taken in the ambulances and trucks to the local hospitals where 45 people were officially certified to be dead. According to news reports the victims were mainly young, ranging between the ages of 12 and 35, of Pashtoon, Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek ethnicities. Those who survived this tragedy were lucky because they were near Quetta city where immediate medical help was available; had they continued their journey to Taftaan then no one would have survived to recount their distressing and shocking ordeal.

Each of them had paid a hefty sum to human traffickers to be taken to Iran, from where they would have ultimately slipped into turkey and then finally into Europe – a destination of choice for the majority of economic migrants and asylum seekers.

The Quetta tragedy is not an isolated one. Unfortunately, similar tragedies have been taking place elsewhere in the world, sometimes people die a suffocating death in a container and on other occasions the ships and boats carrying them capsize or even worse they die in the vast oceans out of hunger, thirst or due to diseases. For example  in the year 2000, fifty eight (58) illegal Chinese migrants were found dead in a container that had entered into the UK from Rotterdam and that was in addition to 18 of other illegal Chinese cockle pickers who were drowned, in February 2004, in the waters of the high tide of Lancashire’s Morecambe Bay (UK). The Mediterranean Sea is another hot spot where from time to time many illegal migrants from African and Asian countries perish  (1, 2, 3) while attempting to reach Spanish shores. These incidents need to be looked at in the light of global economic and geo-political situations of the countries from where these ill-advised victims come.

The poverty is on the rise around the world, in particular the situation is more precarious in the war ravaged regions of the planet, and, Afghanistan my grandfather’s birth place is one of them. Thirty years of war with invaders, factional infightings, and, neighbouring countries’ interference have not only destroyed its administrative and physical infrastructures but also its economic life line has been badly affected. Under the great game plan Afghans were made to fight Soviet troops when they invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans died fighting back, millions got maimed and millions of them sought refuge in the neighbouring countries of Pakistan and Iran. Finally, the Soviets were defeated; they left, but with Russians the financiers of Afghan jihad left as well, leaving behind a war torn country where the vacuum was filled by various factions of the Mujahideen who were then in turn supported by various countries of the region to safeguard their own strategic interests in the country, thus the ensuing infighting led to further instability in the country and finally the Taliban appeared on the scene with the help of their backers. They did not last long because the United States of America blamed the Taliban regime to be behind the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (September 11, 2001); the destruction of Twin Towers became a casus belli for USA to invade Afghanistan. It’s ironic to see now how the main financier and instigator of Afghan Jihad has become the de-facto occupier of Afghanistan, while a country like Pakistan which was used and was allowed to be used as the main conduit for the Afghan war operations by the then military dictator General Zia has suffered tremendously as a result. Unfortunately the western powers never allowed democracy to flourish in Pakistan or in any other underdeveloped country and we were naive enough to have played in their hands. The situation now is such that Afghanistan’s bloody battlefields have been moved to Pakistan. This is what happens when an individual dictator kicks aside the constitution and the whole nation is taken hostage to dance to his tunes; his own survival takes preference over country’s survival.

Although the Soviets were defeated but the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan seem to be the main victims of that war. These days only suicide bombings and target-killings make the news headlines in Pakistan.

The deaths of Afghans in Afghanistan and in containers and boats should only be seen as the continuation of that war which ended the Soviet Empire, but, the miseries of Afghans have not come to an end yet; now Pakistanis are too paying for a war which was not theirs.

Afghans need a true reconstruction; its sovereignty and geographic integrity should be respected by all parties concerned. On the other hand, the world cannot afford witnessing a new humanitarian crisis that could be in making if destabilization of Pakistan is allowed to carry on by those powers who want it to happen for their strategic policies. Pakistan is a populous country, destabilizing it would mean, destabilizing the whole region, perhaps the world.

I do not support any political party in Pakistan as democracy does not exist in any party’s  ranks and files, there is not a single genuine democratic political party that could claim a democratic hierarchy. However, I do  support the fledgling democratic process which if continued uninterrupted or is allowed sincerely to continue would bear fruit for the future generations to benefit from, but, I despise all the dictators and their sycophant supporters, holding them directly responsible for the present chaos in Pakistan.

Finally I can only hope things will change for better in the region or else we will have to brace ourselves for many more human packed containers that will be heading to various destinations around the world, just to escape the mayhem in the region. The recurrence of Quetta like incidents might not become unavoidable then. The mafia of human traffickers will be only there to make most out of opportunities that present themselves under such circumstances.