As Pakistan erupted in ecstasy over a breathtaking cricket win against India this summer, five-year-old Noeen lay dying in the country’s northwest, the tiny victim of an often deadly tradition: celebratory gunfire.
Unloading a few rounds into the air is a well-established custom to celebrate weddings, religious ceremonies and sporting victories in Pakistan, where firearms stuff black markets along the Afghan border and gun crime is rife in its major cities.
In Nowshera, in rural Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Laeeq Shah was with his son as the festivities kicked off in the park when a stray bullet struck the five-year-old in the head.
“One can ruin the house of another unknowingly,” Shah said.
In the tribal northwest, Pakistan’s obsession with guns is particularly visible, with firearms cheaper than smartphones and most men traveling armed. Weapons are so ubiquitous they are almost seen as jewelery.
Pakistan’s deeply rooted gun culture was exacerbated further in the 1980s after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, when the US and Saudi Arabia began funneling weapons to Mujahideen fighters battling communist forces across the border.
The deluge of arms into the region gave rise to what was later labeled “Kalashnikov culture,” with automatic weapons readily available in gun bazaars across the country.
Kalashnikovs and military-grade weapons soon replaced the bolt-action and flintlock rifles of old at social functions, with revelers spraying bursts of automatic fire into the air to celebrate weddings and sporting victories.
However, the time-honored tradition has come at a fatal price.
While there is no official number for the deaths caused by stray bullets, authorities say that hundreds have been killed over the years.
After his son’s death, Shah decided to act. In the deeply religious area, he canvassed mosques and called on religious leaders to instruct their communities at Friday prayers to abandon the tradition.
“In the past, people used to celebrate with aerial firing because we had open fields,” Shah said. “Now every bullet fired in the air will hit someone and no one is certain it will land in an open place.”
Local authorities have also taken up the mantle, with police in Nowshera and other districts distributing pamphlets and posters along with pushing community engagement initiatives to combat the scourge.
Peshawar Police Chief Tahir Khan called on would-be revelers to consider donating the money they would spend on ammunition to charity.
A license is required to possess a gun, while special permits are needed to carry large-caliber weapons and automatic rifles.
However the status quo could yet change, with newly elected Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Abbasi vowing to crack down on the possession of automatic weapons.
People caught firing guns into the air are fined up to 1,000 rupees (US$15.59) for the offense, Peshawar’s Nothia Qadeem neighborhood Mayor Safdar Khan Baghi said — but the rule remains loosely enforced.
In a bid to combat the spread of the nation’s gun culture, provincial authorities have passed a raft of measures over the years banning the sale of toys resembling weapons to children.
However, a visit to Peshawar found the city’s largest bazaar full of toy replicas resembling pistols and Kalashnikovs.
“The government has banned the selling of toy guns, they say it distorts the minds of kids, so better to give them pens or any other toys,” shopkeeper Sharif Khan said. “But the kids have no other alternative, nothing else is available to play with.”
In the Shah household, the damage has been done.
“Why do people celebrate with aerial firing?” Noeen’s sister Warisha said. “If you are happy then just say thanks to Allah.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to