Why is Chitral being targeted -letter2

After reading Mr Rehman's letter on the subject, I went through the said article in daily Dawn and failed to find anything objectionable. Rather, I feel we should be thankful to the lady writer for raising such a burning issue which has been ignored by successive governments leading to displacement of hundreds of people in Sonoghor and Brep villages in Chitral and endangering the lives and properties in other parts of the area as well.

Mr Rehman has exposed his bias against a particular community and also done a disservice to Islam by confusing the matter with religion through misinterpretation of the holy Quran.

Instead of appreciating those organizations including the AKDN for conducting studies on the phenomena of natural disasters and training the local people in handling them to protect properties and human lives, he suggests that we should do nothing against such happenings and disasters as these are sent by God. And to support his parochial idea, he does not even hesitate from quoting a verse from the holy Quran which says: "Fasad, the evil has appeared on land and sea because of what the hands of men have earned that Allah may make them taste a part of that which they have done."

In other words, Mr Rehman implies that the glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) in Sonoghor and Brep were a punishment from God for some Fasad committed by the people?

Sir, I would not like to comment more on such a rhetoric and misinterpretation of Islam for one’s own self interest. Suffice it is to say that such interpretations of the golden principles of Islam by narrow-minded people for their political and commercial gains have brought Muslims all over the world to near destruction, and I am very sad that there is no dearth of such elements in our own land either.

In the holy Quran, God repeatedly asks us to use our intellect and take lesson from the many creations in the world, adding in every creation there is a lesson for man to learn. Even, the revelation on the holy Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him) starts with an emphasize on knowledge and education. Alas, we did not follow the teachings of Islam and lagged behind and the West took full advantage of the Quran and the Sunnah and reached the height of progress and development in science and technology.

Mr Rehman advises us not to write and say anything about natural disasters as they occur due to God’s displeasure. For such people, the holy Quran says: “Those who do not use the intellect are like a herd of goats, deaf, dumb, and blind (213) no better than the lowest of beasts. (214)

May Allah Almighty enlighten our hearts and minds and give us sense to follow the teachings of Islam which stress promotion of tolerance, moderation and peace.

Javed Karim,,

Chitral.

06 Oct 09.

Why is Chitral being targeted -letter

I have an article before me regarding earthly matters published in Daily Dawn October 4, 2009.

The writer Rina Saeed Khan has captioned the article with a photograph of Chitral and titled it "flooding from glaciers".
 

She writes "I was in Chitral last week to have a closer look at new phenomenon caused by climate change called GLOF( Glacial lake outburst flood) which is devastating where ever it occurs due to the shrinking of glaciers. She further writes, hanging glaciers located at low and mid altitudes in mountain valleys are the most at risk from global warming when they burst as they have in Chitral and Gilgit, the villagers lives have disrupted and they find it very difficult to recover.

She refers to Brep and Darkhot glaciers, which, one can see for above the village is a vast glacier and some fear that it might start melting again. She warns at the end ‘the people of Chitral did not cause global warming but they are paying a heavy price because of it’.

Without the knowledge of Glaciology, one cannot guess the effects of the global warming on the glaciers but the humans can see the exemplary equilibrium and the balance which the Creator of the universe has maintained in it.

Disasters and catastrophes are of two kinds: natural as well as man made as mentioned in the Holy Quran.
"Fasad, the evil has appeared on land and sea because of what the hands of men have earned that Allah may make them taste a part of that which they have done" Verse: 41 Surah: 30, Al-Rum.

I don’t know the knowledgeable writer is referring to the man made catastrophe or otherwise. What kind of new phenomena of GLOF the writer is pointing out about Chitral for its ‘close look’ she has recently travelled to Chitral? She refers that "19000 volunteers in Chitral district have been trained to alert community members and escape to safe routes. They also supply each village cluster group with emergency supplies that are kept in store in case there is a disaster like a landslide, avalanche, earthquake, flashflood or GLOF". She refers to an Indian glaciologist Syed Iqbal Husnain whom she met at Khatmandu during a climate change media training workshop who had pointed 52 dangerous Glaciers. The Indian advocated close monitoring and putting early warning systems in place.

We may guess that the Indian expert refers to man made disasters for which he & Rina Saeed Khan issues warning to those people who never receive warming even in summer season in Chitral.
Thus, the people of Chitral have the right to ask the government agencies what is going on? Who is behind the scene and what kind of technology is being used for this negative purpose? Why these kinds of warnings in the name of warmings are being issued in newspapers and media especially in the month of October which has been categorized as the "month of Vengeance" according to the ancient Jews Semitic calendar? WE need an answer, why Chitral & peace loving Chitralis are being targeted??

Habibur Rehman Chitrali,

Islamabad.

04 Oct 09.

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