Black Hole
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Police Raid A Civil Society Discussion on Repatriation of Afghan Refugees Islamabad Police, led by the Ramana SHO Alamgir raided The Black Hole in G-11 sector where a panel discussion was to take place on the issue of repatriation of Afghan refugees.
Eminent politician Afrasiab Khattak and the author and researcher Sajjad Azhar were to be on the panel. The SHO ordered the program to be cancelled and claimed that it was the order of the Deputy Commissioner, but he failed to provide a written order to this effect.
Senior Journalist, TV host/analyst and YouTuber Matiullah Jan raised the issue by sharing his Tweet today.
Instead, the police manhandled the The Black Hole staff, punching a senior staff member and throwing him in the police van. However, when the police noticed the arrival of a few news reporters with cameras and mikes, they backed down and left.
The SHO, however, hurled threats of dire consequences on a senior staff member of The Black Hole. Although Mr. Khattak and Mr. Azhar refused to be intimidated by the police threats, the program had to be abandoned.
The Black Hole is a community space created for open discussions and creative discourse on various social issues, working since early 2022.
It may be mentioned that it hosted over 450 events in one year since its inception. It has a large viewership in the country as well as globally because it fills the gap of informed discussions on crucial socio-political issues.
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar condemns Gaza bombing
Meanwhile, American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said that Israel has thrown more bombs on Gaza in the last 10 days when the United States exploded in a year in Afghanistan.
Speaking at an event she said, “How could you (members of Congress) look one atrocity wrong and other is not. Where is the humanity and we are we not paying attention to slaughtering of children and women in Gaza.”
She said that a little attention is paid by most of the American media and political class to what humanitarian groups working on the ground in Gaza—and their international allies—have to say about ending the death spiral in the Middle East. But leaders of these groups are speaking with moral clarity about the need to take immediate steps to end the sheer horror that has cost more than 5,500 Israeli and Palestinian lives in the two weeks since the October 7 Hamas assault on Israeli kibbutzim and a music festival.
The officials with Save the Children International, Oxfam International, Handicap International/Humanity & Inclusion, Plan International, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and a number of European affiliates of Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) issued a joint statement urging world leaders to demand an immediate cessation of hostilities.
