The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) released a press statement on Thursday after the briefing by the Foreign Secretary M Syrus Sajjad Qazi accusing the Hindutva regime of extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings of two Pakistani citizens, that of Shahid Latif and Muhammad Riaz. I won’t go into details – you can read the press statement which discusses the links of the assassins to Indian agents.
I would prefer to focus on some pertinent points. I do not know if the journalists at the press briefing asked these questions but in my experience the bar of “mainstream” journalism is low in Pakistan. Pakistanis should not be offended by my harsh words – they are intentionally so. Mainstream journalism is poor in most countries given the unhealthy relationship between those in power and paid hacks who benefit from writing what is asked to be written rather than what should be written. You simply have to witness the sheer nonsense published about October 7th and since by Israel’s allies despite the glaring genocide occurring in full view. But I won’t distract right now on the tight Jewish grip over western powers.
Without a shadow of doubt, Hindustan would be targeting Pakistanis of importance – the Hindutva regime, like the Jewish terrorists, have no compunction about breaking international law or showing complete disregard for basic human rights – the atrocities against Muslims in India and in IOK by Hindutva mobs are evidence of that. It is not believable that this issue is new nor that Pakistanis and Kashmiris would not be the primary target of RAW.
However, it took a Canadian and US government to bring this to light. Why? Is it only when western countries take umbrage at their sovereignty being violated that Pakistan has the courage to follow suit? The MoFA even used language reminiscent of the Canadians when it cited that it had “credible evidence” of links between Indian agents and the assassination of two men.
Muhammad Riaz was assassinated in September 2023 in Al-Quds mosque in Rawalakot and was a former freedom fighter in IOK. The Indians had accused Shahid Latif of being behind the Pathankot airbase attack but had released him in 2010. Despite the negotiated release, the Indians – like the Israelis – appear to be unable to honour agreements as he remained on their “wanted list”. He was gunned down whilst also offering prayers in Sialkot. Several other Kashmiri freedom fighters had been targeted last year including Bashir Ahmed Peer, a former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, who was gunned down in Rawalpindi. Syed Khalid Raza was said to be a former commander of Al Badr Mujahideen group operating in IOK and was killed in Karachi. These cases are fairly obvious cases of desecration of Pakistani soil by RAW perhaps without the involvement of other agencies although they rarely operate alone.
Indeed, in September I wrote in TLTP about the Canadian case and questioned the ease with which Pakistani media had leapt on that story as if the west had given them a license. They were reporting on the assassination of a Sikh activist yet the murder of Farooq Ali, a Biochemistry postgraduate of Imperial College London and a political intellectual was not just ignored but deliberately avoided. This was more than just not of interest – Farooq had been a UK citizen and he had been killed in one of the safest hotels in Islamabad (Ramada by Wyndham) used even by the British embassy. Readers will recall the recent furore of a shooting of a UK citizen, Tasaraf Hussain, after he arrived at Islamabad Airport. Again, the police agencies were competent – within days the assailants had been killed in a shoot-out. Rough justice served at least.
Immediately after the event there was a statement released by the UK MP Tony Lloyd calling on Pakistan for answers and demands of a probe. Contrast that to the public silence of Bradford MPs Naz Shah and Judith Cummins and Leeds East MP Richard Burgon despite repeated requests. Naz Shah had to be pushed to even tweet once and she, Judith Cummins and Richard Burgon repeatedly refused to take the issue to Parliament demanding answers that the British Foreign Office would not give. Naz Shah even ridiculously stated that although she had written to the President of Pakistan and to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, she didn’t expect a response! What lunacy and disrespect to a grieving family that you would undertake such a futile action. Richard Burgon refused to meet my sister Dr Rehiana Ali from last year. Pakistanis and Kashmiris can console themselves that it’s not just they that have a broken political system but the UK one is just as defunct.
The difficulties that my sister and I have faced from the UK authorities has previously been partly shared. I have already re-published some of Farooq’s writings of the genocide in IOK and his works on Palestine. It shouldn’t need me to remind people that the pen can be mightier than the sword. Or that an idea more dangerous.
Just a few days ago, I re-tweeted Farooq’s 2008 article on ‘Time for the Gaza AirDrop?’ . Within it, Farooq had written the following “Arab and Muslim states need to do more to deter Israel in its actions in Gaza, independently of the US. And options do exist. On the diplomatic front they could deter Israel’s ‘genocidal tendencies’ … ..A renewed ban on Israelis at all sporting events in the Middle East would also be a start. For, make no mistake, sport is extremely important to Israel’s image on the world stage (as anyone who has seen the way that Israelis will attempt to link themselves to Muslim tennis stars will attest (Marat Safin in 2001 and Qureshi of Pakistan being prime examples over the past decade). But besides attempts to punish or deter Israel in its actions in Gaza direct relief to the territory may also become essential in the longer term. …Airdrops of essential foodstuffs to Gaza may not seem a practical idea at the moment (the UN FRA only suspended its operations temporarily not abandoned them altogether) but other ways of getting relief to the territory need to be explored.
It is not difficult to envisage that further sieges of Gaza may occur in the years and decades to come. The salient point here is that Muslim states need to prepare themselves for the worst – a real crisis in Gaza sometime in the future – and a world in which the US is even more impotent than it is now.
For the last 17 years and particularly the last four months, Gaza needs that #AirDropAidForGaza now trending on X – yet 16 years ago my brother raised the fact that it may be needed. Pakistani publications are usually short on analysis – there’s usually just regurgitation of the latest western think-tank yet here was an intellectual who had a strategy to deal with the Jewish menace. Had Farooq shown foresight?
I have said repeatedly that my brother’s assassination was against Pakistan’s national interest and that, given our treatment in the UK, not the action of only RAW. The MoFA stated that there were other cases under investigation – will it take a special and almost unprecedented type of courage to address my brother’s assassination?
– Yasmin Ali was a banking lawyer in the UK and was ‘blacklisted’ by Zionists. She works full- time on the JusticeForFarooqAliKhan campaign – her brother Farooq was allegedly murdered at Ramada by Wyndham Hotel in Islamabad – she deems it as an extrajudicial killing. She can be followed on Twitter @Justice4Farooq.
-Views expressed in this Op-ed and following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the TLTP.
