Dawn: A “cracker” of a job confusing the public with euphemisms – by Qudsia Siddiqui
Related article:
Attack on Shia students in Karachi: An ISI-Sipah-e-Sahaba production
After receiving the news of the blast at Karachi University, I quickly checked the news coverage including the “Breaking News” section of DAWN.
Here is how they reported it:
“KARACHI: A blast reported at the University of Karachi on Tuesday was probably caused by a firecracker, police said.
“It was a low intensity blast and was caused most likely by a cracker,” Karachi police chief Fayyaz Leghari told Reuters.
Leghari said three people were wounded in the incident, though a senior university official estimated at least six.
“The blast took place outside the main cafeteria of the university and at least six people were wounded,” said Kaleem Raza Khan, registrar of the University of Karachi.
This is the first such incident at an educational institution in Karachi, though the campus often sees regular, violent clashes between rival student groups.
Leghari said Tuesday’s incident may be related to these rivalries but added police were investigating.
Last year, two suicide bomb blasts at the International Islamic University in Islamabad killed six people, including the bombers, and wounded at least 20.”(Source)
Reading this report, one would get the impression that this is simply a fire cracker accident that injured six university students. I wonder, was this some festival that they were celebrating; a belated Christmas, Jinnah day or some such sort. Then there is a vague description of “violent clashes” between “rival student groups”
Who are these “student groups” ? Are they the dissident wings of the Bader Meinhoff or the Red Army Brigades?? “I love Miandad” vs “I worship Imran and His Holiness Chaudhary Iftikhar”. How about MQM vs every other ethnicity of Pakistan!
The conclusion is even more interesting where a reference is made to two suicide bomb blasts at the “International Islamic University” thereby creating a causal link between that event and today’s. Now I get it; it must be that damned “foreign hand”; that dark consortium of Jews, Hindus and Blackwater/Xe blonds, as we all know muslims can never do this and Islam had been targeted in the university blasts in Islamabad!!
Nope, as always, no details are provided. After all, that would be completely contrary to DAWN’s style of reporting; you know fudging and obfuscating facts, falsely linking two events and dishonestly presenting the sheer terror tactics of IJT and Sipah Sahaba as an equal force to its various victims.
There is NO reference to the facts that this was no fire cracker but an elaborate remote control bomb with bearings that was used to target Shias students. Ofcourse, the 20 that were injured was casually reduced to 3 and no mention was made of the fact that 2 are in serious condition. Such insensitivity has become the norm for much of the media in reporting attacks on Shias and other minority groups and DAWN is hardly the exception. On the contrary, its disgusting bias just shines through…
The more important context to this would have been the press conference by Shia cleric and activist outside the Press Club just days ago of the abduction of Shia youth by the ISI! Or the threatening SMSs that were sent to scores of Shias since the commencement of Muhurrum in early December. No, such facts would hurt the reputation of DAWN as an establishment rag whose insensitivity for minorities is directly proportional to its fawning over the Judiciary and its dubious cause.
The irony of highlighting Jinnah, the SHIA founder of Pakistan, as the founder of DAWN escapes its ownership who themselves are allegedly Shia. Ingratiating themselves with the establishment is probably more lucrative for DAWN than honest journalism and caring for the plight of minorities.
Carry on DAWN, no one can do euphemisms better than you. In doing so, you churn out the best de-contextualized reports that ensure that the establishment and its Islamofascist proxies will never be held to account for the crimes against the Pakistani people!
I have never liked the vagueness of reporting where either different ethnicities are clashing or being targeted. They say some people belonging to certain ethnic group were killed in targeted killings….that doesn’t tell us anything… everybody then sits around trying to fill in he blanks…were they Pashtuns, maybe Baluch or Mohajir??? That leads people to come up with their own version of the story filling in the blanks to the best of their knowledge. One thing you can be sure of …if MQM people die they will definitely say MQM workers were targeted but when other ethnicities are targeted then they don’t have a name or a description…just some ethnicity. Are they afraid of offending certain parties or that this is just their level of reporting?
can you provide more details? who was targeted and why?
Good job, Qudsia, for exposing the deliberately blurry reporting in our “free” media.
It seems that someone from Dawn has NOW paid attention to what Qudsia highlighted in her post.
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Four students hurt in KU explosion
From the Newspaper
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Dec 28: At least four students were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off on the Karachi University campus on Tuesday.
The blast occurred when students belonging to the Imamia Students Organisation (ISO) were about to offer Zuhar prayers on a lawn near the central cafeteria, police said.
The wounded students were rushed to a nearby private hospital. Two of them, Wajid Ali of the statistics department and Ammir Abbas of Islamic learning department, were admitted to the Patel Hospital, where they were operated upon.
One of the wounded was bleeding from the ear while the other had suffered injuries in the abdomen, SSP Naeem Shakih said.
And Irfan Abbas and Israr Husain of the geology department were discharged from hospital after necessary treatment.
“They were getting ready for the prayers when the blast occurred. Something placed close to a small tree exploded. Following the blast, we shifted the wounded students to hospital,” Sabir Ali, a student of the political science department told .
The tree near which the IED exploded came down and the windowpanes of the cafeteria were shattered by the impact of the blast. The explosion was heard across the campus.
“It was an IED, laced with a small number of bearing balls and about a kilogram of explosives, placed under a small tree near the area where the prayer leader was supposed to stand while leading the prayers,” said SSP Raja Umar Khattab of the Special Investigation Unit.
Clearly, the target was students belonging to the ISO, he added.
A timer might have been used in the blast. If a remote control had been used, it could have been detonated when the prayers were to be in progress, the SSP said.
A small crater, around one-foot-deep, was created by the blast.
SSP Naeem Shaikh of Gulshan Town said it was not yet clear as to how the explosive was detonated. Either a cellphone or a timer was used or a remote control employed, he wondered.
Shrapnel from the blast were collected by officials of the Bomb Disposal Unit and taken away for an analysis.
Following the blast, students belonging to the ISO gathered and took out a rally. They marched on different roads on the campus and went up to the main gate, where they dispersed, SSP Shaikh said.
“We have assured the university administration that security would be provided on the campus if they wanted to open the university on Wednesday,” SSP Shaikh said, adding that they wanted to rule out the presence of any explosive material or unwanted persons on the campus.
An FIR about the incident was yet to be registered at the Mobina Town police station as representatives of the ISO told the police that they wanted to be the complainant in the case and they would lodge the FIR as soon as they got time from the hospital where the wounded were being treated, the SSP added.
Panic after blast
Panic and chaos ruled the Karachi University campus following the IED explosion that occurred at around 1pm.
Most students were busy chatting outside their classrooms after finishing their morning papers while others were either preparing, or coming to the university, for their papers scheduled in the afternoon when the explosion occurred.
“There was a loud sound of the blast that panicked us. We immediately approached our teachers who, too, had no clue as to what had happened,” a student at the arts faculty said.
The chaos and fear forced the university administration to cancel papers scheduled for later in the day. Dawn
Speaking to , teachers expressed fears that the incident could heighten tension on the campus in the future and the administration needed to be more careful.
Giving their suggestions on how to improve security on the campus, they said the administration must ban all student organisations on the campus as they were the sole cause of violence.
“Notwithstanding today`s explosion, the current episode of violence is evidently linked to student groups backed by political parties. The situation on the campus would never improve until political parties stopped their interference,” a teacher said.
Prof (Dr) Abid Hasnain representing the Karachi University Teachers Society said the teachers` representatives had once again apprised the vice chancellor of their serious concerns about the lack of security on the campus.
“The vice chancellor had nothing to say today in response to our concerns which we have been raising for the past three years. The security is not inadequate; it simply doesn`t exist and it`s not unexpected to encounter such incidents in these conditions,” he said. Recommending some security measures that the administration needed to take immediately, Prof Hasnain said: “We want a visible change. That means an increase in the number of security personnel, who should have proper training in the use of modern equipment.
“The university has not yet recruited new security staff for which it gave an advertisement in newspapers a year ago,” he added.
Karachi University Vice Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim visited the site of the blast on Tuesday.
http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/29/four-students-hurt-in-ku-explosion.html
LUBP! Thanks for this brilliant post. It proves that our group’s bloggers at The Terrorland are right in calling the administration of the Dawn Media Group, especially editor Zaffar Abbas, “intellectual terrorists”, who have disguised themselves in may ways… their intellectual dishonesty is now a part of the journalist history of our country…
According to the time and space, they use religion, ethnicity and nationalism for their personal benefit. They want personal gain at the cost of democracy and our country!
How can you blame the media when Rehman Malik also calls it a fire cracker.
Perhaps they want to be politically correct.