KARACHI: For Saira Kumail it has become a routine now to reach Numaish Chowrangi every day for the sit-in to protest against the killings in Parachinar.

“Today it is the fifth day that I reached here around noon from my home in Soldier Bazaar and I expect to leave as usual at 4am,” she informs Dawn on Saturday afternoon.

“After reaching home, I say my Fajr prayers, I rest a little before getting up to prepare breakfast for the family. Then by noon, I am back here with my husband and four children for the sit-in,” she says.

“It’s all for an important reason, an important cause. We want the blocked way to be opened in Parachinar. And we want compensation for the dead to be paid to their families,” she adds.

Participants of sit-ins share thoughts on sufferings of Kurram people, and what drives them to stage dharna here

Shehla Rizvi has a bad back. She cannot sit on the hard road like the others. Someone has provided her with a plastic chair. It is not very comfortable and rickety but she is determined to be there with the others and be part of the sit-in. “This pain is nothing against the pain I feel in my heart for the poor souls of Parachinar,” she says.

Shagufta is there with her 14-year-old daughter Kashaf. Asked if the daughter got bored from the protest, it is the daughter who shakes her head. “No Aunty,” she says. “We are momin. We have to stand up for our brothers and sisters when no one else seems to care about them,” says the child.

Many ways to Numaish Chowrangi are closed to traffic for the protection of the protestors. There are buses somewhere, blocking the way. There are water tankers at other points for the same purpose.

“But still life has not come to a standstill. No one is killing you here. There in Parachinar, life has come to a standstill. People cannot move, they are not getting food, they are not getting medicines,” says Kashaf’s mother Shagufta.

Politicians arrive to address the sit-in.

A delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan also arrived at Numaish to participate in the sit-in. The delegates condemned the killings in Parachinar and expressed solidarity with their families and protesters.

Former Sindh governor Imran Ismail says that what is happening in Parachinar is nothing new. “Earlier, pilgrims on their way to Iran for ziarat were also stopped, which is sad,” he says. “This kind of thing is the result of discriminating, differentiating and not seeing everyone as equal even though God has made us all equal,” he adds.

Also showing solidarity with the protestors at Numaish, the former member of the National Assembly, Mahmood Baqi Moulvi said that what was going on in Parachinar had been ignored by not just the federal government, but also the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. “Have they been sleeping?” He asked. “It is the government’s mandate to make sure no one is wronged. If they cannot solve matters politically, then the establishment and the armed forces must step in,” he adds.

At Rizvia Chowrangi in Nazimabad, again one track of the road was blocked by heavy vehicles at many points, adding to congestion when the other track is made two-way by default.

There are three generations of a family sitting on the footpath here — grandmother Zeba Mohammed Ali Zaidi, daughter Sakina Zaidi and 11-year-old granddaughter Syeda Zainab Raza. Asked if the children give them a hard time for being brought to the sit-in, the grandmother and mother shake their heads. “We live close by in Rizvia Society. We come and go home when we need to. Besides, the volunteers are very nice here. We just had tea and daal chawal before that for lunch,” says Zeba.

From the side of your eye you notice a volunteer distributing poppadoms among the protesters. Some had also brought French fries for a few finicky children. “This little hardship of sitting here under the open sky in this cold is nothing. Think of the people of Parachinar sitting there in minus temperatures,” said Mehreen Fatima, another protester. “Parachinar is surrounded with helpless people trapped in the middle. Why do people see them as just Shia? Why can’t they be seen as human beings with human rights?” She questions.

Raza Rizvi, a protester, said that they would rather have held a sit-in at Parachinar itself. “But the routes are closed. So we are holding our sit-in here,” he says. “We are currently holding sit-ins at 15 points in Karachi and we are provided security here by the police. It is their responsibility to do so. But what about the government’s responsibility for Parachinar?”

“The state should be like your mother, protecting you at every turn. But here the state is doing nothing. If we look at our army, it seems to be more interested in making butter, juice and cornflakes. Who is to do their work. Are we expected to pick up arms ourselves? What is happening in Parachinar is the Frontier Corps failure. They should be court-martialled,” he concludes.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2024