{"id":6600,"date":"2013-04-30T15:47:37","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T10:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pakistanpressfoundation.org\/?p=68618"},"modified":"2013-04-30T15:47:37","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T10:47:37","slug":"civil-society-organizations-hiding-their-identity-for-fear-of-militants-in-balochistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/civil-society-organizations-hiding-their-identity-for-fear-of-militants-in-balochistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil Society Organizations hiding their identity for fear of militants in Balochistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
A grave situation prevails in Balochistan where the civil society organizations have removed boards and name plates from their office buildings, their staff and officials do not carry ID cards or any other document while travelling for the fear of militants. According to them the NGO people are the main target of militants and other criminals who kidnap them for ransom. <\/p>\n
Almost all the representatives of NGOs attending the consultative workshop on \u201cWorking with Media on Human Rights\u201d organized by Pakistan Press Foundation here told that militants consider them lucrative, as they believe that NGOs are heavily funded by international organizations. Quoting certain incidents of kidnapping of NGO officials in Balochistan, the participants informed that ransom demanded by kidnappers, ranges up to twenty million Pakistani rupees.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n The NGO people also receive threats from tribesmen. In such a situation, the organizations have restricted their work. \u201cFor example, we do not spread our work to more than one village and keep on working silently in a village so that we are not exposed to other people,\u201d Ahmed Nawaz, CEO, National Capacity Building Program, told. <\/p>\n He said, \u201dWe avoid releasing news to the media and instead prefer to post it on website, Twitter and other social media so that the kidnappers and militants do not know about our activities.\u201d <\/p>\n The situation deteriorated since 2008 when the NGO officials were kidnapped for ransom or killed for non-payment of ransom. The threats to NGO people are now order of the day. <\/p>\n The participants also had complaints against media persons. They contended that newspapers and TV channels do not support NGOs working for human rights. They leveled serious allegations of corruption against the journalists. Some of the participants told that journalists used to cover their events in the past but now they avoid it as the journalists too receive threats from militants. A representative from Loralai area told that journalists have stopped covering NGO activities after receiving threats. <\/p>\n