Image: Top row (from left): Sima Samar, Kanak Mani Dixit, Hamida Hossain. Bottom row (from left): Uma Chakravarti, Shahidul Alam, Pamela Philipose, Beena Sarwar.
Activists, academics and journalists from across South Asia have issued a statement in solidarity with the artists, thinkers and ordinary people of Sri Lanka.
New Delhi: In view of the recent wave of bombings in Sri Lanka, in which over 250 people were killed, a group of 243 activists, academics and journalists from all across South Asia have issued a statement in solidarity with the artists, thinkers and ordinary people of Sri Lanka.The signatories, as the statement says, have been at the forefront of facing the wrath of similar realities in their respective nation-states for decades.They include human rights activists from Afghanistan and Bangladesh, journalists from Nepal, Pakistan and India, and historians and feminists from India and Pakistan, among many others.
Read the full text below:
We the undersigned, who are from and live in the various nation-states of South Asia, express our deepest condolences to all those who have lost loved ones in the serial bomb blasts in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. We express our solidarity with those working tirelessly to address the needs of the injured in the aftermath of this carnage and to sustain interfaith and community relationships.
While we support all justice efforts that seek to hold the perpetrators of violence accountable, we also urge the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that, in the name of combating terror and ensuring national security, fundamental human rights and dignity of all concerned are not violated.
We say this because in all our countries, investigations into terror and anti-terror legislation have been accompanied by consistent and continuing violation of civil and democratic rights. Furthermore, in the name of ensuring national security, successive governments in the region have sought to legitimise their various acts of impunity – directed against not only purported or possible suspects but entire sections of the civilian population. This has led to unaccountable loss of life and a steady erosion of democratic guarantees and institutions, including unaccounted for deaths and disappearances.
We note with concern that media reports and remarks by state officials and political leaders in Sri Lanka have pointed to State inaction with respect to warnings by intelligence agencies about possible acts of terror. Such inaction and indifference, we regret to note, amounts to State complicity with the violence that subsequently unfolded.We are also concerned that the ‘owning up’ to these acts by the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (Daesh) might encourage Islamophobic attitudes and expressions, both on the part of the Sri Lankan Government and sections of civil society. Should this happen, Sri Lanka would be tragically drawn in to a familiar international discourse and practice to do with ‘Islamic terror’ with all the resultant tragedies, as we have witnessed across Asia. In a country that has barely recovered from decades of civil mistrust, war and violence, this cannot bode well for its sovereignty, civil peace and economic and social life.
We wish to point out that the so-called war on ‘Islamic terror’ has resulted in large numbers of the Islamic faith being persecuted, both in their countries and across the world – and this sadly only enhances the appeal of those who seek to wage war in the name of Islam and what they perceive as Islamic concerns and interests. Thus is set in motion a cycle of violence that benefits no one but the arms trade and industries, and political powers that seek to establish their hegemony in the region at all costs.
In this context:
nWe support all struggles to ensure transparent and fair pursuit of justice for the victims of the blast. At the same time, we stand with those who are against undemocratic anti-terror laws in Sri Lanka, even if they are purportedly deployed for purposes of investigation and national security.
nWe protest attempts to target or persecute those of the Islamic faith, in the name of countering terror, whether by the state or vigilante groups.
nWe support Muslim communities in the region that have called for peace and are critical of voices from within that endorse extremist religious positions, which polarise everyday life and interactions, and vitiate meaningful dissent and dialogue.
nWe affirm the resilience of diverse cultural and religious traditions in the region that have fostered longstanding habits of mutuality, trust and co-existence. We do not wish for the specificity of local beliefs and traditions, of all faiths, to be drawn into polarising global discourses of religious ‘unity’ and ‘singularity’ imposed from above.
List of signatories:
Afghanistan
Massihullah, Kabul Afghanistan
Sima Samar, Afghanistan
Nepal
Anju Kandel, Nepal
Deepa Gurung, Nepal
Hari Sharma, Kathmandu, Nepal
Kaalo.101, Nepal
Kanak Mani Dixit, Kathmandu
Kunda Dixit, Kathmandu, Nepal
NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, Kathmandu, Nepal
Niranjan Kunwar, Kathmandu, Nepal
Sarita K.C, Nepal
India
Mangai, India
Abha Bhaiya, India
Abirami Jotheeswaran, India
Amar Kanwar, New Delhi, India
Anuradha Bhasin, Kashmir Times, India
Anuradha Kapoor, India
Arundathi V, India
Ashish kumar Dey, India
Bindu Doddahatti, India
Deepti Sharma, New Delhi, India
Dia Da Costa, India
Dipta Bhog, India
Farida Khan, India
Forum Against Oppression of Women, India
Geetha V, India
Huma Ahmed-Ghosh, India
Indu Vashist, India/Canada
Iram Saeed, India
Jinee Lokaneeta, India/USA
K, Lalita, India
Kamla Bhasin, India
Khalida Saleem, India
Madhu Mehra, India
Mamta Singh, Women Right Activist, India
Mary John, India
Maya Sharma Vikalp (Women’s Group), India
Meena Gopal, India
Meera Velayudhan, India
Mohan Rao, India
Mrinalini R, India
Nandini Manjrekar, India
Nandita Shah, India
Nastasia Paul Gera, India
Neelanjana Mukhia, India
Neeraj Malik, India
Nupur Basu, India
Pam Philipose, India
Panchali Ray, New Delhi, India
Ponni Arasu, India
Poonam Batra, India
Prathama Raghavan, Hyderabad, India
Rafiul Alom Rahman, India
Ramakant Agnohotri, India
Rita Manchanda, India
Ritu Dewan, India
Ritu Menon, India
Roshmi Goswami, India
Sabeena Gadihoke, India
Sahba Hussain, India
Saheli Women’s Resource Centre, New Delhi, India
Sameera Iyengar, India
Sara Abraham, India
Shohini Ghosh, India
Shrimoyee N, Ghosh, India
Snigdha Chakraborty, India
Sujata Patel, India
Svati Shah, India/USA
Swarna Rajagopalan, India
Tanvi Mishra, New Delhi, India
The Queer Muslim Project, India
Uma Chakravarty, India
Vanita Nayak Mukherjee, India
Veena Shatrughna, India
Mamatha Karollil, India
Afshana Bano, India
Supriya Madangarli, India
Pakistan
Abeera Tanveer, Pakistan
Ailya Khan, Pakistan
Ajwah Nadeem, Pakistan
Aminah Waheed Chaudhry, Pakistan
Ammar Ali Jan, Pakistan
Amna Durrani, Pakistan
Amna Iqbal, Pakistan
Amna Mawaz, Pakistan
Anis Haroon, Pakistan
Anoosha Shaigan, Pakistan
Arooj Aurangzeb, Pakistan
Asma Malik, Pakistan
Awami Workers Party, Punjab
Ayra Indrias, Pakistan
Baila Anjum, Lahore, Pakistan
Basmina, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Beena Sarwar, Pakistan
Beenish Muhammad Ali, Pakistan
Bonnie Mende
Candas Anjum, Pakistan
Qasim Iqbal, NAZ Pakistan
Faiz Younas, Pakistan
Farida Batool, Pakistan
Farida Shaheed, Pakistan
Fatema Bhaiji, Pakistan
Fatima A. Athar, Pakistan
Fatima Butt, Pakistan
FemSoc at LUMS, Pakistan
Feroza Batool, Pakistan
Fiza Khatri, Pakistan
Furhan Hussain, Pakistan
Ghausia Rashid Salam, Pakistan
Ghazala Anwar, Pakistan
Gwendolyn S. Kirk, USA/Pakistan
Hadi Hussain, Pakistan
Hameeda Hossain, Pakistan
Have Only Positive Expectations – HOPE, Pakistan
Hiba Akbar, Pakistan
Hira Mohmand, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Huma Fouladi, Pakistan
Huma Majeed, Pakistan
Humraz society, Karachi, Pakistan
Jamaima Afridi, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Jawad Anwar, Pakistan
Kashmala Dilawar, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Khawar Mumtaz, Pakistan
Khushbakht Memon, Pakistan
Kishwar Sultana, Pakistan
Kyla Pasha, Pakistan
Lubna Chaudhry
Madiha Latif, Pakistan
Maheen Asif Khan, Pakistan
Malik Moeed, Pakistan
Manal Yousuf, Pakistan
Mani AQ, Pakistan
Maria Rashid, Pakistan
Maryam Hussain, Pakistan
Maryum Orakzai, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Masooma Fatima, Pakistan
Mehlab Jameel, Pakistan
Melanie D’souza, Pakistan
Momina Jahan, Pakistan
Momina Pasha, Pakistan
Muaaz Ali, Pakistan
Naazish Ata-Ullah, Pakistan
Nabiha Meher Shaikh, Pakistan
Nageen Hyat, Pakistan
Naheed Aziz, Pakistan
Naila Naz, Pakistan
Nasim Begum, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Nasreen Rahman, Pakistan
Neelam Hussain, Pakistan
Nighat Dad, Pakistan
Nighat Said Khan, Pakistan
Nimra Akram, Pakistan
Noreen Naseer Pakistan
O Collective, Pakistan
Omer Arshad, Pakistan
Outcast Magazine, Pakistan
Palvashay Sethi, Pakistan
Queer Karachi, Pakistan
Quratulain Faraz, Pakistan
Rafia Asim, Pakistan
Rahma Muhammad Mian, Karachi
Roohi Khan, Pakistan
Rubina Saigol, Pakistan
Rukhsana Rashid, Pakistan
Saadia Haq, Pakistan
Saadia Toor, USA/Pakistan
Saba Gul Khattak, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Sabeen Andleeb, Pakistan
Sadaf Aziz, Pakistan
Sadia Afridi, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Sadia Khatri, Karachi, Pakistan
Saima Jasam, Pakistan
Saima Munir, Pakistan
Saleha Rauf, Pakistan
Saman Rizvi, Pakistan
Samavia Malik, Pakistan
Samina Orakzai, Pakistan
Samina Orakzai, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Sana Naeem, Pakistan
Sarah Humayun, Pakistan
Sarah Suhail, Pakistan
Sarah Zaman, Pakistan
Sehrish Tariq, Pakistan
Shafeeq Gigyani, Peshawar Pakistan
Shagufta Rehmat, Pakistan
Shazia Shaheen, Pakistan
Shirkat Gah – Women’s Resource Centre, Pakistan
Shmyla Khan, Pakistan
Shumaila Kausar, Pakistan
Shumaila Shahani, Pakistan
Syed Raza Haider, Pakistan
Tabitha Spence, Pakistan
Tahira Kaleem, Peshawar, Pakistan
Tehreem Azeem, Pakistan
The Enlight Lab, Pakistan
Wafa Asher, Pakistan
Women’s Action Forum, Pakistan
Yusra, Pakistan-Afghan Border
Zahra Durrani, Pakistan
Zakia Majid, Pakistan
Zeenat Afridi, Pakistan – Afghan Border
Zeenia Shaukat, Pakistan
Zehra Keshf, Pakistan
Ambreen Ahmad, Pakistan
Bangladesh
Amena Mohsin, Dhaka Bangladesh
Anusheh Anadil, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Arup Rahee, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Adilur Rahman Khan, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dr Asif Nazrul, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dr Hameeda Hossain, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dr Ridwanul Hoque, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Faustina Pereira, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Shahidul Alam, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Shahnaz Huda, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Fahmidul Haq, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Firdous Azim, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Galiba Rabbani, Bangladesh
Gitiara Nasreen, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Hana Shams Ahmed, Bangladesh/Canada
Inclusive Bangladesh, Bangladesh
Khushi Kabir, Bangladesh
Nur Khan, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Meghna Guhathakurta, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mirza Taslima Sultana, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mohammed Iqbal Hossaion, Bangladesh
Monika Biswas, Bangladesh
Perween Hasan, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Rahnuma Ahmed, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Reetu Sattar, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Rezaur Rahman Lenin, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Rina Roy, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Selima Sara Kabir, Bangladesh
Shaheen Anam, Bangladesh
Shamsul Huda, Bangladesh
Sharnila Nuzhat Kabir, Bangladesh
Shireen P Huq, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Sultana Kamal, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Zareen Mahmud Hosein, Bangladesh
Others
Aurangzaib Alizai, Thailand
Kumkum Dey, New Jersey
Rumah Pelangi Indonesia
(Source: https://thewire.in/south-asia/sri-lanka-urged-not-to-violate-fundamental-rights-in-the-name-of-combating-terror.)