In addition to the decades of conflict and violence Afghanistan has endured, the country suffered an immense loss on May 12, when gunmen attacked a maternity ward in the capital city of Kabul. A total of 24 people were brutally killed, among them mothers, nurses, and two newborn infants. The attack lasted four hours as assailants systematically shot their way through the ward, leaving at least 20 injured, in addition to those killed, Al Jazeera reported. Following the attack on the maternity ward, some of the assailants engaged in a shoot-out with Afghan security forces resulting in death; the total number of attackers is still unknown.
While no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The U.S. Special Representative for Peace, Zalmay Khalilzad, has claimed that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was behind the shooting. In a tweet, he wrote, “ISIS has demonstrated a pattern for favoring these types of heinous attacks against civilians and is a threat to the Afghan people and to the world.”
The USG has assessed ISIS-K conducted the horrific attacks on a maternity ward and a funeral earlier this week in Afghanistan. ISIS has demonstrated a pattern for favoring these types of heinous attacks against civilians and is a threat to the Afghan people and to the world.
— U.S. Special Representative Thomas West (@US4AfghanPeace) May 14, 2020
While the Taliban has denied involvement, the Islamic State has not yet commented on its involvement in the incident. According to BBC News, ISIS has confirmed it was behind another attack that occurred later on the same day, targeting the funeral of a police commander in Nangarhar. Thousands had gathered for the funeral, halfway through which a suicide bomber detonated their device, killing 32 people and injuring 133. In an airstrike on the same day, 10 more people were murdered and many others injured in the northern Balkh province. The Afghan Defence Ministry has maintained that victims of the airstrike were militants, while residents and the Taliban have claimed they were all civilians.
According to VOA News, The maternity ward was part of a hospital opened in 2014 by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Dasht-e-Barchi, a neighborhood populated primarily by Hazaras—a Shiite ethnic group. Attacks on Shia-majority areas in the past have been attributed to the Islamic State, which, like the Taliban identifies itself as Sunni Muslims. However, the Taliban has not perpetrated deliberate sectarian attacks on the Shia community on the same scale as the ISIS, which considers the minority group polytheists and heretics.
Frederic Bonnot, MSF Head of Programmes in Afghanistan, described the most chilling details of the attack in a statement, calling it “methodical” and “a systematic shooting of the mothers.” The attackers entered the hospital wearing police uniforms during the day and began throwing grenades and shooting. Approximately 140 people were inside the hospital at the time of the attack. A doctor who was able to escape the assault told AFP News the hospital was experiencing “total panic” and chaos. While there were other buildings and wards closer to the hospital entrance that the gunmen entered from, MSF staff present at the time of the attack said that the assailants went straight to the maternity ward.
“During the attack, from the safe room, we heard shooting everywhere and explosions too… They came to kill the mothers,” Bonnot said.
In total 26 mothers were reported hospitalized in the ward at the time of the attack, MSF said in a statement. While 10 victims managed to find shelter in safe rooms during the attack alongside healthcare workers, 11 were killed and 5 suffered injuries. Three of the 11 killed were in the delivery room with their unborn babies at the time of the attack. Among the fatalities were two baby boys, as well as an MSF midwife from Afghanistan. The 19 newborns who survived the attack were transferred to the nearby Ataturk Children’s Hospital. Those who lost their mothers in the attack are to be placed in the custody of relatives, Atiqullah Qaati said, head of Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital.
According to BBC News, one of the two newborns who died in the attack was a baby boy named Omid. The name, meaning “hope” in Dari, was chosen by his mother Zainab, who as a result of difficulty had taken seven years to conceive. Her long-awaited child was only four-hours old at the time of his death.
Another woman gave birth during the attack while hiding in a room with other pregnant women and hospital staff, Al Jazeera reported. A midwife who helped deliver the baby girl described the mother trying not to make any noise despite being in pain and putting her finger in the newborn baby’s mouth to stop her from crying. The midwife severed the umbilical cords with her bare hands while the women in the room used their headscarves to wrap the baby and the mother.
The Dasht-e-Barchi hospital attack will undoubtedly alter the trajectory of Afghan peace talks, which were initiated earlier this year. In February, a troop withdrawal agreement was signed between the U.S. and the Taliban, aimed at ending the 18 years of war that have devastated the country. According to Al Jazeera, The U.S.’s post-Sept. 11 invasion of Afghanistan and the ensuing years of conflict have resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Afghans since 2009, when the UN Assistance Mission began documenting casualties.
As part of the recent agreement, the Taliban agreed to enter talks with the Afghan government, something they had previously refused to do. Following the recent attacks, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered the military to begin executing offensive operations against the Taliban. The Taliban, in response, called Ghani’s statement a “declaration of war,” The Washington Post reported.
June 21, 2023June 22, 2023 4min readBy BrownGirlMag
The following open letter is written by Hindus for Human Rights, an organization advocating for pluralism, civil and human rights in South Asia and North America, rooted in the values of Hindu faith: shanti (peace), nyaya (justice) and satya (truth). They provide a Hindu voice of resistance to caste, Hindutva (Hindu nationalism), racism, and all forms of bigotry and oppression.
Dear President Biden,
As Indian-Americans, human rights organizations, and concerned allies, we are writing to urge you to engage publicly and meaningfully to push back against the Indian government’s escalating attacks on human rights and democracy, especially ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States.
Despite objective evidence that India’s democracy is under critical attack, you have not spoken out about this crisis. In early 2023, Indian authorities conducted retaliatory raids on the BBC’s Delhi and Mumbai offices for releasing a documentary about Prime Minister Modi. The week before the Summit for Democracy, the Indian government made three successive attacks on Indian democracy. First, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party expelled Rahul Gandhi from Parliament. Second, the Indian government shut the internet down in Punjab, severely impacting the rights for Sikhs to peacefully organize and protest. And third, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that Indians can be found guilty by association for terrorism. And yet, not one representative from the Biden Administration said anything about even one of these developments. Instead, while Islamophobic violence gripped India in late March, you invited Prime Minister Modi to speak at the Summit for Democracy. Mr. Modi visits DC at a time when the state of Manipur has experienced heavy communal and anti-Christian violence after Modi’s ruling party pushed an initiative to undermine Indigenous rights in the state.
“As privileged members of the diaspora, it’s our duty to challenge the repressive practices of the current regime in India. We stand in solidarity with those … opposed to the government’s attempt to reshape the country into a Hindu nationalist state. https://t.co/RxU9wUy2Zy
— Hindus for Human Rights (@Hindus4HR) June 19, 2023
Even when confronted with questions by Indian reporters about human rights in India, your administration has only had private two-way conversations about how both of our governments can always improve. Quite frankly, we find it unacceptable to see such equivocation on Indian democracy from an administration that has been strident in its defense of American democracy and the rule of law.
India is one of the fastest autocratizing nations in the world, mostly thanks to the current government. Freedom House has rated India as a “partly-free” country for the past three years, and has blamed Prime Minister Modi’s government for a rise in discriminatory policies, including persecution against Muslims and caste-based violence against Dalit and Adivasi communities; harassment of civil society, protestors, academia and the media, and the targeting of political opponents. It has also rated Indian-administered Kashmir as “not free,” citing violations of human, civil, and political rights after the Modi government revoked the territory’s autonomous status. In Reporters Without Borders‘ press freedom ranking, India has dropped to 161 out of 180 countries in 2023. India has appeared in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Impunity Index — which examines accountability for unsolved journalists’ murders — every year for the past 15 years and currently ranks in 11th place worldwide. According to PEN America’s Freedom to Write Index, in 2022, India was one of the top 10 countries that jailed writers globally. The Varieties of Democracy Institute characterizes India as an “electoral autocracy” and blames India’s descent into autocracy on Prime Minister Modi. And the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has said India has been one of the top 15 countries at risk for a mass atrocity event every year since 2017, which reflects the toxicity of Indian politics under Modi.
“If the President meets with PM Modi, then the protection of the Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India is something worth mentioning…if you do not protect the rights of ethnic minorities, there’s a strong possibility India starts pulling apart.” Thank you @BarackObama! https://t.co/RhcMNfiqaR
— Hindus for Human Rights (@Hindus4HR) June 22, 2023
Given the magnitude of this crisis, we ask you to engage directly with Indian-American and human rights civil society leaders to explore solutions to address India’s human rights crisis. We also ask you to employ the tools at your disposal to ensure that the Indian government cannot attack Indians’ human rights with impunity. As the 2022 Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor report details, several government individuals have committed human rights violations that, under U.S. law, would qualify them to be sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act. Indian security forces that have engaged in human rights violations should have security assistance rescinded, under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
Finally, we urge you to publicly call on the Indian government to honor its commitments to human rights, including calling on Prime Minister Modi and his cabinet to halt the use of anti-terror laws to arbitrarily detain political critics. You can publicly denounce the rising numbers of political prisoners and the weaponization of the rule of law in India to shut down criticism. Even if you are not willing to personally criticize the Prime Minister, you have ample opportunity to criticize the Indian government’s misuse of public trust and public institutions to consolidate power and undermine the will of the Indian people.
This morning in DC, on the lawn of The White House at the welcome reception for Modi.
As President of the United States of America, you hold a unique position to lead the fight against authoritarianism. Prime Minister Modi will listen to you when you speak. But he and his allies will only change if you take a stand publicly. We urge you to listen to those of us who care about India and ensure that one man cannot steal the futures and the rights of our loved ones in India.
— Signed by countless organizations and individuals leading the charge (linked here).
Every year on August 5th, the Sikh American community remembers one of our community’s most devastating tragedies in recent memory — the Oak Creek massacre. On this day in 2012, a white supremacist gunman entered the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, a gurdwara (Sikh house of worship) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin where he shot and killed six worshippers and severely injured others. This violent attack was the deadliest mass shooting targeting Sikh Americans in U.S. history, and at the time, was one of the worst attacks on a U.S. house of worship in decades. Six worshippers — Paramjit Kaur Saini, Sita Singh, Ranjit Singh, Prakash Singh, Suveg Singh Khattra, and Satwant Singh Kaleka — were killed on that horrific day. An additional community member, Baba Punjab Singh, was severely paralyzed and ultimately passed away from complications related to his injuries in 2020. Others, including Bhai Santokh Singh and responding police officer and hero, Lt. Brian Murphy, were seriously wounded during the shooting.
In 2022, the community came together to demonstrate that we are undaunted. My organization, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) joined in supporting the anniversary observance at Oak Creek: a remembrance eventcentered around the theme of “Heal, Unite, Act.” The Oak Creek Sikh community hosted a series of in-person events, including the 10th Annual Oak Creek Sikh Memorial Anniversary Candlelight Remembrance Vigil on Friday, August 5, 2022. The program included a representative from the White House, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Oak Creek Mayor Dan Bukiewicz, and representatives of the families who lost loved ones. Being there in Oak Creek 10 years after the tragedy was deeply meaningful — both to see the inspiring resilience of this community and to remember how much remains to be done.
In D.C., SALDEF continues to fight for policies that improve the lives of Sikh Americans. I had the honor of chairing the most recent iteration of the Faith-Based Security Advisory Council at the Department of Homeland Security, providing recommendations at the request of Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas. Consequently, the three subcommittees published a report that emphasized the importance of greater accessibility, greater equity, and greater transparency in counterterrorism efforts that for too long revolved around surveilling populations like the one that was senselessly attacked at the Oak Creek gurdwara in 2012. Leading the FBSAC as a Sikh woman, and representing a community that was highly targeted alongside Muslims by both white supremacists and in post-9/11 counterterrorism profiling, was an opportunity to push the Council to advocate more fiercely for further information-sharing between communities and law enforcement, extending grant opportunities for security for Gurdwaras and other houses of worship, and building trust between the government and Sikh communities. In addition, I advocated for accountability for the damage needlessly caused to Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and Hindu (MASSAH) communities by federal agencies historically pursuing “counterterrorism” objectives which has resulted in eroded trust rather than the development of strong partnerships.
Although we have made great strides in this country, there is still more to do. Through our work we have partnered with many across the nation to come together and find solutions through tenets central to Sikhism and America — unity, love, and equality.SALDEF continues to strongly endorse the policy framework articulated across the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act (H.R. 350 / S. 963); Justice for Victims of Hate Crimes Act; and the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) Improvement Act (H.R. 6825). We believe strongly in mandating federal agencies to create dedicated offices to investigate domestic terrorism; allowing prosecutors to feasibly indict perpetrators of hate crimes; and allowing religious nonprofits to access federal funding to enhance their own security.
While 11 years have passed, the effects of the Oak Creek shooting are never far from the minds of Sikh American advocates and the community we serve. SALDEF will not stop taking a stand against senseless violence and hate crimes. We continue to work in unity with our community and movement partners, and fight for better policies that will actively keep all of our communities safe. Through tragedy, we find hope. We know there can be a world where people from all backgrounds and cultures can practice their faith freely and, even though it has eluded the Sikh American community in the past, we still believe this world is possible.
Photo Courtesy of Amrita Kular
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Kiran Kaur Gill is an accomplished professional with exemplary executive experience. In her role as Executive Director, she is responsible … Read more ›
