It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Over 100 members of persecuted religious minority held at Turkish border
Members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light seeking asylum in the European Union have been detained in Turkey since May.
Members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light arrive at the Turkish-Bulgarian border on May 24, 2023. Photo courtesy of Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light
(RNS) — On May 24, 104 members of a minority religious group arrived at the Turkish-Bulgarian border expecting to find asylum. Instead, they were met with clubs and gunfire.
“They started getting attacked by the Turkish border guards. They started beating them with batons,” said Alexandra Foreman, a United Kingdom-based member who was at the scene. “And it was very much like a war zone. There was blood everywhere.”
Almost four months later, the asylum-seekers — including more than 20 children — are still being detained in Turkey, hoping to make their way into the European Union. The asylum-seekers say they left their countries of origin due to religious persecution. They are members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, a small minority religious group with thousands of members from around the world, many from a Muslim background.
Members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light, which was established in 1999, see their faith as an extension of Islam. They believe one of their leaders, Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq, is the “Mahdi,” a messianic figure and divine messenger who will bring salvation.
Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq. Photo courtesy of Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light
The group is not connected with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a group of 10 million to 20 million believers called Ahmadis who have also been persecuted for their beliefs in Muslim-majority countries.
The asylum-seekers presented themselves at the Kapikule border crossing point hoping to gain entry into the European Union by way of Bulgaria, but were instead herded onto buses and taken to a Turkish police station. Witnesses, including Foreman, reported that at the station, several group members were beaten, and women and children were forced to stand outside — without sleep, and without sitting or lying down — for three days.
On May 29, the group was transferred to the Edirne migration center, where witnesses reported being crammed into rooms and having insufficient water and soap, no sanitary pads for women, poor food and inadequate medical care. Some reported beatings and sexual harassment.
Foreman, a freelancer who was at the border to create a documentary, was arrested along with the group and was released after two weeks.
“The weeks that I spent there was just so horrible. It was the worst experience I’ve ever been through. It was completely traumatizing,” said Foreman, who is now back in the United Kingdom. “We want to get them out and safe, somewhere they can be safe to practice their faith. It’s crazy that in 21st century they can’t practice faith peacefully.”
All but three of the members have been ordered to return to their countries of origin, including Thailand, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Algeria and Azerbaijan, as well as the Palestinian territories. However, experts say these places are unsafe for the faith members.
Turkish border guards use batons on members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light when at the Turkish-Bulgarian border on May 24, 2023. Photo courtesy of Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light
“These followers are from a number of Islamic countries, and some are particularly brutal toward apostates,” said Paul Diamond, a religious freedom lawyer in the United Kingdom. He told Religion News Service that regardless of how people view the religion or how small the group is, the believers at the Turkish border are “in a perilous situation” and “have a right to religious freedom.”
Staying in Turkey isn’t an option for the group either, according to Diamond. “They have no status in Turkey. And they don’t want to claim asylum in Turkey because that’s an Islamic country. It doesn’t solve the problem.”
Willy Fautré, director of the Brussels-based organization Human Rights Without Frontiers, has been advocating for the detained members to receive humanitarian visas in European countries. He plans to plead their case at the annual Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe human rights conference in Warsaw, Poland, next month.
“We will push day after day, week after week, so that they finally accept them as immigrants in need of special protection because of their religious practices,” Fautré told RNS.
“Since the inception of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light in 1999, its members have been labelled as heretics and infidels and are often subjected to threats, violence, and illegal detention,” the experts said. “They are particularly at risk of detention due to blasphemy laws, in violation of their right to freedom of religion or belief.”
In August, Turkish officials responded that deportation decisions had been conducted lawfully, though the deportation procedures have been halted pending an appeal of the decisions.
The group’s leader, Aba Al-Sadiq, published “The Goal of the Wise” in 2022, a book of teachings faith members view as their gospel. Many of the faith’s teachings, including its affirmation of reincarnation, the belief that we are living in the end times and an assertion that the Kaaba is in Petra, Jordan, are viewed by outsiders as controversial.
In an April 2023 sermon, Aba Al-Sadiq declared that he is the messenger sent by God to invite humankind into the final covenant with God, a covenant that would save them from the imminent punishment of humanity via illness, meteors and global wars.
Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq preaches in April 2023. Video screen grab
Hadil El-Khouly, the human rights outreach coordinator for the group, said the faith is often perceived as being radical because of its progressive teachings, including that women are not mandated to wear a headscarf, members don’t need to do the five daily prayers and the group is open to LGBTQ people. (These beliefs are held by some members of mainstream Muslim groups as well.)
“I would say it is incredibly liberating, it is profoundly inclusive, and it’s everything that I, as a human rights activist and person who seeks justice and freedom and peace in the world, was looking for,” El-Khouly told RNS.
Foreman said that in Turkey, asylum-seekers were interrogated about teachings in “The Goal of the Wise,” and some were sexually assaulted on the grounds that the faith accepts LGBTQ members.
“The aggression was just so extreme,” she said, adding that LGBTQ people were among those detained.
Members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light community mingle around a bonfire. Photo courtesy of Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light
On Aug. 22, after the arrest of eight members of the faith in Malaysia who protested in favor of LGBTQ rights, Aba Al-Sadiq released a video statement explicitly welcoming LGBTQ people who “believe in what we believe” to the faith. He had previously argued for the inclusion of LGBTQ people in his 2022 book.
One U.K.-based LGBTQ member of the faith, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, told RNS that growing up, he’d been taught his sexual orientation doomed him to hellfire. Though he’s now been a member of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light for years, he was encouraged by the video announcement. “I know what many people go through, how alone they can feel, how hopeless. The rates of suicide testify to this. I was extremely happy to know that they can find out that they are welcome into religion and to God and into faith without compromising their own person.”
Pope Francis warns Bill Clinton of ‘wind of war that blows throughout the world’
Pope Francis spoke to former US President Bill Clinton online during a conference addressing urgent global issues.
Former President Bill Clinton, left, speaks with Pope Francis, on screen, via video during the Clinton Global Initiative, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023 in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In an online conversation with former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Monday (Sept. 18), Pope Francis stressed the importance of people and nations coming together to care for the environment and to put an end to global conflicts.
“It’s time to shift toward peace and brotherhood. It’s time to put down the weapons and return to dialogue, to diplomacy. Let us cease the pursuit of conquest and military aggression. That’s why I repeat: no to war!” the pope said, answering a question by the former U.S. president.
The conversation between the political and spiritual leaders was livestreamed at the 2023 meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, taking place in New York City Sept. 18-19. The event seeks to address urgent global issues, such as climate change and the flow of refugees.
To these challenges, Francis added another: “the wind of war that blows throughout the world,” fueling what he described as “the Third World War, fought piecemeal.”
The pope urged all nations to take responsibility and stressed that “no challenge can be faced alone — only together, sisters and brothers, children of God,” he said.
Pope Francis has been a vocal advocate for peace following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has sought a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. He appointed Cardinal Matteo Zuppi as a peace envoy to meet with the main stakeholders in the war, including President Joe Biden in July.
In his message, the pope also stated that “it is time to work together to stop the ecological catastrophe, before it is too late,” and repeated his intention to publish a new version of his “green” encyclical, “Laudato Si,” for the care and protection of the environment.
Clinton said he had a “wonderful meeting” with the pope at the Vatican in early July.
“You make us all feel empowered and that is perhaps your greatest power as the pope,” Clinton said during the conference. “You make everybody, even those who aren’t members of the Catholic Church, feel like they have power and share in the responsibility.”
The Clinton Global Initiative was created by Bill Clinton in 2005 and collaborates with over 10,000 organizations aiming to provide actionable solutions to global challenges.
Among the main reasons for the online meeting was raising awareness for the Pediatric Hospital Bambino Gesù, commonly referred to as the “pope’s hospital.” The pope spoke of the care that the hospital provides despite its small size, including helping Ukrainian children fleeing the conflict.
“There are illnesses that cannot be cured, but there are no children that cannot be cared for,” he said.
Allegations against Tim Ballard, inspiration behind ‘Sound of Freedom,’ explain rebuke by LDS Church
The church distanced itself from the 'Sound of Freedom' hero.
Tim Ballard during a television interview in July 2023. Video screen grab
(RNS) — Late last week, news outlets began reporting that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had issued a statement distancing itself from Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, which uses quasi-military sting operations to combat the sexual exploitation of children. The organization was celebrated in the recent movie “Sound of Freedom.”
Apparently Ballard himself found out about the rebuke via a media report, rather than through the church. “I called my stake president and said, ‘Did you know about this?’ No. No idea,” he told a group of supporters in Boston over the weekend. “I don’t believe the church did this. I truly don’t.”
Sources familiar with the situation said that the self-styled anti-slavery activist, who appears to be preparing for a Senate run, invited women to act as his “wife” on undercover overseas missions ostensibly aimed at rescuing victims of sex trafficking. He would then allegedly coerce those women into sharing a bed or showering together, claiming that it was necessary to fool traffickers. Ballard … is said to have sent at least one woman a photo of himself in his underwear, festooned with fake tattoos, and to have asked another “how far she was willing to go,” in the words of a source, to save children. These sources requested anonymity because they fear retaliation.
Vice said attempts to contact Ballard or his current organization were unsuccessful, but Operation Underground Railroad told the magazine he had exited the organization in June and that “O.U.R. is dedicated to combatting sexual abuse, and does not tolerate sexual harassment or discrimination by anyone in its organization.”
Before the news broke, the church in its statement already seemed eager to downplay any relationship between Tim Ballard and M. Russell Ballard, the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They are not related, but the church acknowledged that both Ballards had been friends in the past, drawn by a mutual interest in caring for children, but said the friendship is very much over.
The church’s statement cited “the unauthorized use of President Ballard’s name for Tim Ballard’s personal advantage” and also said that Tim Ballard had engaged in behavior that was “regarded as morally unacceptable,” though it didn’t specify what that behavior was.
Tim Ballard, left, speaks to a group during a tour in Boston over the weekend of Sept. 16-17, 2023. Video screen grab
The Vice article explained, perhaps, Ballard’s speech to an audience on an American Covenant Tour in Boston this weekend in which, while claiming he had never traded on Elder Ballard’s name, he proceeded to trade on Elder Ballard’s name.
He began his remarks by saying that Elder Ballard has been “like a grandfather” to him. Over the course of his comments he also managed to slip in the facts that Elder Ballard had blessed and set apart his son for an LDS mission and that Elder Ballard had enthusiastically attended the very same heritage tour they were all currently taking.
He emphasized that Elder Ballard sought him out. “He asked me to take him on this tour! President M. Russell Ballard asked me to take him on this tour. … It wasn’t my idea.”
This was in the same section of the talk where he also said, “I have never used Elder Ballard’s name, ever! I have never traded on his name, or asked for anything. I’ve never had any business dealings with him. He’s like a grandfather to me.”
Then he became more aggressive in discrediting Vice.com, which had carried the story of the church’s denunciation. “Do you know Vice? Do you think the church would make a statement to Vice?” he asked his supporters, who responded with derisive laughter.
“Vice magazine has promoted the concept that pedophiles should be called ‘minor-attracted persons.’ To normalize it. Vice Magazine has done more hit pieces on the church than maybe any other. I can’t imagine that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints would make a statement to a tabloid. I can’t imagine, but I can’t confirm it.”
Ah. When in doubt, call your accusers pedophiles or supporters of pedophiles. As a secondary self-defense, claim that any criticism of you is politically motivated. Tim Ballard went there, too.
“Three days before that horrible story launched, it was leaked to the press that I was going to run for the U.S. Senate,” he said. “Do you think that’s a coincidence?”
The problem with Ballard’s assertion that this is a liberal hatchet job is that Vice wasn’t the only news outlet that apparently received the statement from the church and reported on it. Fox News, which can hardly be dismissed as a leftist rag, ran the story. Utah’s KUTV, a CBS News affiliate, is also reporting that it received the statement.
Tim Ballard returned a couple of times to how devastating the attack has been on his children, “who are being harassed right now” because everybody believes that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that he’s long defended, has turned against him. “I’ve written how many books, made how much money for Deseret Book?” he said.
Tim Ballard’s episodes on the church’s official “Come Follow Me” podcast and “All In” podcast appear to still be available on Deseret Book’s website as of this writing, as well as his many books promoting Christian nationalism and the unique role the Book of Mormon is supposed to have played in the founding of the United States of America.
According to Vice’s second article, O.U.R. acknowledged that it has “retained an independent law firm to conduct a comprehensive investigation of all relevant allegations” about sexual misconduct but declined to comment further while the investigation is underway.
No wonder the church could not distance itself fast enough. I am bracing myself for further revelations in this sordid, ugly story.
Update, Sept. 19: After this story went to press, Tim Ballard issued a statement in which he emphasized his commitment to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and reiterated his suspicions that last week’s statement from the church was merely a media hoax, since the church had not “publicly verified its authenticity.” He also depicted himself as the victim of character assassination because of his work rescuing children. “Evil pedophiles will stop at nothing, and they have allies in government, in the media, in big corporations, and even in public institutions. They continue to lie about and attempt to destroy my good name . . . and they will never stop,” his statement said.
(RNS) — I have long thought that the climate crisis was a spiritual crisis, a crisis in how we think about the world and what we value. It’s a reflection of a fundamental breakdown in the way we treat each other and the Earth. Our religious traditions must take responsibility for helping us navigate the troubled waters we are facing.
When we dig more deeply into our religious roots, we find ancient wisdom that can draw us closer to God’s green Earth, cultivate in us a generosity toward all beings and steer us on paths of justice and righteousness that will ensure a healthy future for the Earth and all of us.
In my own tradition right now we are observing the Days of Awe — the sacred period that begins with the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, the day that the Earth and all the creatures were born. Each year at this time, we and the whole creation are renewed. The language of awe and renewal we use at Rosh Hashana helps to tune me into the Earth and its seasons: the trees communicating with each other through vast mycelial networks, the planets running their circuits in the sky, the very miracle that I am a breathing, pulsating being in this body speaking to you all.
The Hebrew word for awe, Yira, also carries the meaning of fear, dread, terror. And indeed, this is true of the English word awe — when you consider the word aw-ful. The space between awe and fear is thin indeed. This combination of awe and fear is my natural state these days. I’m simultaneously awed by the connectedness that underlies all life and terrified by the imminent possibilities of destruction when those connections break down.
It’s amazing when you think about how the archaic fossil fuels — decomposed plants and dinosaurs hundreds of millions of years old that those of us in the Global North particularly use to power our cars — yield so much carbon dioxide that we are overheating our precious life-sustaining atmosphere, drying out the Earth, creating deserts throughout the world, deeming habitats uninhabitable. We are contributing to forest and grass fires, displacing or wiping out whole communities, not to mention the creatures and entire ecosystems. I am awed and terrified by the damage we have wrought.
This week I was honored to participate in an international conference on women, faith and climate, Faith in Her, organized by an interfaith coalition, convened by the Muslim World League, called Faith for Our Planet. I’m inspired by the opportunities that a conference particularly oriented toward women can bring to the climate crisis. Women have a special aptitude for nurturing relationship and communities and paying attention to the body and its intuitive wisdom.
In Hebrew, the word for compassion, Rachamim, is rooted in the word rechem or womb; in Aramaic, rechem means love. It is as if the rechem, the womb of the female body, is the source of compassion and love. There is nothing we need more at this time.
Though many people recognize that we are faced with an existential crisis and even understand the science behind the crisis, many have still not found ways to meaningfully participate in the healing of our Earth. While some assume that the scientists and the technocrats or politicians will manage the situation, others are just too overwhelmed by the sense of gloom to do anything at all.
If, instead, we approach the climate crisis from the place of love, a spiritual perspective, a woman’s perspective — a perspective that honors the Earth’s body, its biodiversity and its own healing capacity — many more possibilities open up.
We can see the possibility of using traditional and Indigenous farming and forestry methods to help sequester carbon in the ground. We can see that growing our own foods in community gardens, supporting local economies, cultivating tiny forests that help cool sweltering cities, fostering alternative energy and supporting women entrepreneurs are all achievable steps we can take. There are so many life affirming activities that we can engage in that simultaneously help balance carbon in our atmosphere while cultivating our relationships with the natural world and nurturing our local communities.
Today, so many of us but especially young people are frightened and grieving about their future. Participating in embodied, community-oriented projects can help soothe troubled minds and hearts and ease suffering and anxiety that have arisen as a byproduct of the climate crisis.
At Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, Jews greet each other with the words shana tova, A good year. Yet shana also means change, so we could just as well wish each other A good change. The tradition invites us to look inward to consider what we need to change to become the best version of ourselves — better able to meet the challenges of the world — and to change what must be changed in these fraught times.
Rabbi Ellen Bernstein. Courtesy photo
In this season of new beginnings, we are given an opportunity to do it right. I hope you will join me to take advantage of this propitious moment.
(Rabbi Ellen Bernstein is the founder of Shomrei Adamah, the first national Jewish environmental organization, and author of the forthcoming book “Toward a Holy Ecology.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)
Once again, American bishops are at odds with the Vatican.
Bishop Joseph Strickland speaks during the fall General Assembly meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Nov. 17, 2021, in Baltimore. Video screen grab
(RNS) — In a private meeting with fellow Jesuits in Lisbon, Portugal, last month, Pope Francis didn’t turn the other cheek in response to a question about hostility to his leadership on the part of many American Catholics, including some bishops.
“You have seen that in the United States the situation is not easy,” he said. “There is a very strong reactionary attitude. It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”
While some conservative Catholics professed to be dismayed by the pope’s remark, no one disputed that America is a hotbed of anti-Francis criticism. Or that American bishops are leading the charge
Foremost among them is Cardinal Raymond Burke, whom Francis dumped as head of the Vatican’s top court in 2014. Most recently, Burke wrote the foreword to a widely distributed pamphlet attacking the Synod on Synodality that was announced by the pope two years ago and that convenes in Rome next month.
“Synod” and “synodality,” Burke declared, “have become slogans behind which a revolution is at work to change radically the Church’s self-understanding, in accord with a contemporary ideology which denies much of what the Church has always taught and practiced.”
And then there’s the bishop of Tyler, Texas, Joseph E. Strickland, who tweeted in May, “I believe Pope Francis is the Pope but it is time for me to say that I reject his program of undermining the Deposit of Faith,” using the phrase for Catholic belief in sum. In June, the Vatican conducted a formal investigation of Strickland’s diocese.
Last month, the incoming head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, told an interviewer from the conservative National Catholic Register: “Now, if you tell me that some bishops have a special gift of the Holy Spirit to judge the doctrine of the Holy Father, we will enter into a vicious circle (where anyone can claim to have the true doctrine) and that would be heresy and schism. Remember that heretics always think they know the true doctrine of the Church.”
Let the record show that American Catholicism has been here before. In the 1880s and 1890s, a group of progressive American bishops led by the archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, John Ireland, advocated on behalf of individual initiative and conscience, separation of church and state, and democracy as the form of government best suited to their faith — all anathema to the 19th-century Vatican.
“The people is king now,” Ireland told an audience in Paris in 1892, freaking out conservatives in the French church. The eventual result was Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical “Testem Benevolentiae” (1899), which denounced various liberal views attributed to Isaac Hecker, an American Catholic priest and missionary much celebrated by the progressives.
Such was what came to be known as the Americanism heresy. Where it challenged the anti-modernist hard line of the church after the First Vatican Council (1869-70), its successor is a riposte to the reformist vision of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) that Francis has reanimated.
Although coming from the opposite end of the ideological spectrum more than a century later, the new Americanism heresy shares with its predecessor some classically American traits. “No power on earth can force us to violate our conscience,” Strickland tweeted earlier this year, in a right-wing echo of John Ireland — a view akin to the “Protestant principle” that no authority should be accepted which is at odds with one’s own understanding of truth.
The readiness of the new Americanists to reject papal teaching on the death penalty, the Latin Mass and the possibility of divorced and remarried Catholics receiving Communion is of a piece with the old Americanists’ refusal to toe Rome’s line on church-state separation and religious pluralism.
In a word, American Catholic exceptionalism is once again sticking in the Vatican’s craw. But back in the day, no American bishop criticized “Testem Benevolentiae,” and none was relieved of his position. This time around, at least one is pushing his luck. Hard.
PAKISTAN
In Gilgit-Baltistan, climate change is changing how people dream
Shifts in seasons, abnormal water flows and stubborn glaciers are wreaking havoc in Pakistan's mountainous regions.
Mohammad Hassan, a 26-year-old aspiring photographer, was stuck in a dilemma when he found out that his wheat yield, the primary source of income for his family, had dramatically fallen from the usual five sacks to three. An acute water shortage had gripped his hometown, Skardu, located in the heart of the Karakoram mountains, bringing the lives of its residents to a halt.
For Hassan, however, matters were much worse. After years of forethought, he had planned to talk to his parents this summer for permission to go down to Karachi and finally pursue his dream of becoming a professional photographer.
But with the crops scorched and meagre savings, it would be near impossible for him to convince his family. Eventually, he buried his Canon camera, a gift from a foreigner, in a sandook and settled for a job at a construction company in Astore, a town located at a five-hour distance from Skardu.
Earlier this year in March, water in the Sadpara dam — the city’s only water source which caters to all water, drinking, power and irrigation needs of residents — had fallen dead, pushing the city towards a water and food shortage.
The Sadpara dam, once full to the brim, dried up in summers.
“I remember there were days when we used to get water for just 20-25 minutes in the entire day,” Hassan recalled, “and we even saw times where two brothers were fighting each other for water.”
“Such scenes were not seen before in our valley’s long history,” he added.
While the water shortage was soon countered by the ways of mother nature, it left behind a grave warning of the treacherous impacts of climate change in one of the most remote places in the world.
Seasonal shifts
According to the district administration, the Sadpara dam receives water from melting glaciers during the summer season. Usually, the inflows, from May to October, are enough to run the city and fulfil its needs.
This year, however, the inflows were insufficient as water flow from melting glaciers remained irregular due to bad weather, preventing the dam from reaching its maximum level.
According to Dr Muhammad Raza, professor at the Karakoram International University, this phenomenon is called seasonal shifting — changes in the timing of seasons.
Typically, there are four distinct seasons in GB — spring (March-April), summer (May-August), autumn (September-October) and winter (November-February). The timing of these seasons is extremely important because precipitation over the northern mountains melts in early summer and maintains sustainable river flow for irrigation before the onset of the summer monsoon. Similarly, the winter bearing rain systems yield substantial rainfall in plains and sub-mountainous regions.
This year, however, Dr Raza told Dawn.com, the weather stayed cloudy till May and summers arrived by the end of June. “May is a very important month for us because of irrigation and cultivation of crops, and it requires flow in the rivers.
“But instead, the weather remains cloudy till May with even occasional rains,” he rued. “This weather prevents the glaciers from melting, disrupts the water flow and ultimately adversely affects our produce.”
Likewise, summer in the region, although short, is more intense now with temperatures crossing 30 degrees Celsius. Exploring Skardu’s streets in mid-July has now become nothing less than a challenge, not only for visitors but also for locals.
“The scorching sun melts the glaciers, but now that water has metamorphosed into a raging monster that wipes out roads, houses and even people,” the professor explained.
Raza’s argument was also corroborated by a research study on varying temperatures in GB. Carried out using temperature assessments and daily data spanning over the period of 1955-2018, it found a declining trend in summers in GB.
“The falling trends in summer temperatures decreased the flow of water in the Indus river and its tributaries, which seriously disturbed water supply in the upper valleys and lower plain areas for agricultural purposes,” the research noted.
Moreover, Autumn season saw a significant rise in temperatures, which too contributed to the abnormal flows in the rivers.
“The snow and ice area in the form of glaciers is the major source of water for the Indus river, any change in this area will disrupt the water supply down the stream,” the study added.
Shrinking crop yields
This seasonal shifting in Skardu, and the water shortage it brought, has severely affected agriculture in the city. It is important to understand that for the residents of GB, farming is both a means to fulfill their local food consumption and also bring home money.
But this year, the varying temperatures wreaked havoc, leaving behind broken dreams and empty stomachs.
Muhammad Saeed, a local green grocer, was among people who suffered severe losses this year. “A field of vegetables that would normally bring us Rs10,000 was not even sold for Rs1,000,” he told Dawn.com.
Crops of tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, eggplants, carrots and spinach were scorched due to water shortage, leaving behind dead leaves. “The few vegetables that were cultivated turned out to be sarhi hui [rotten],” Saeed said.
The image shows scorched crops in GB.
The farmer recalled that, desperate to make some money, he had even bought water tankers for his farms, but one tanker cost between Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 — way out of his budget.
Amjad Ali, who grows wheat, had a similar story to tell. He said a parcel of land that would ideally yield five sacks of wheat could never produce one this year.
In most of the cases, crops were also not sown on time which created other issues for farmers. In Skardu, the timing of sowing and cultivating fields is extremely important because the vegetables and fruit grown in the city are sold in the markets downstream and hence depend on seasonal sales.
But due to lack of water, there was a delay in planting crops, and those that were already sown ended up burnt. This disturbed the entire agricultural cycle in the city and now poses a threat of khoshksali (food shortage) in the near future.
According to Skardu Deputy Commissioner Shehryar Afridi, the city houses nearly 45,000 kanals of agricultural land, but the crop yield in the area was not even half of what it had been the previous year. Fruit trees, too, saw a similar fate.
Photo of wheat gone bad shared by locals on social media.
“Skardu has a demand of 13.4 million gallons per day, but the water supply only amounts to 8.06MGD,” he explained. Because of the persisting 5.34MGD shortage, 120,000 people in the valley face water loadshedding of up to 22 hours everyday.
Afridi said residents of the area are solely dependent on the Sadpara dam for all its water needs. “During the irrigation season, people divert existing drinking water supplies for irrigation purposes, exacerbating the crisis,” he added.
But as the impacts of climate change are now coming forth, he continued, “we can no longer depend on the Sadpara dam and need better alternatives”.
Plan B and C
Desolate and desperate, the local administration of Skardu has prepared a plan B and C to mitigate water shortage in the area.
The first proposition is to install water boring systems across the city. These are quite simply a hole drilled from ground level down to the underground water level or aquifer to obtain water.
DC Afridi told Dawn.com that 13 sites in the city have been identified for this purpose.
List of sites selected for water boring in Skardu provided by the district administration.
The water pumps, he said, would be powered by solar panels. “The boring system will add to the existing water supply infrastructure and negate the need for further infrastructural development.”
For the implementation of the project, the Aga Khan Rural Support Program and Aga Khan Agency for Habitat would provide technical support to the locals.
The institutions, the district commissioner went on to say, would mobilise the local community to install water storage tanks and collect Rs100 from each household through community committees for repair and maintenance.
“This intervention would lead to an increase of 1.5MGD in the water supply and benefit approximately 100,000 people.”
On the other hand, Plan C relies on lifting water from the Indus river for which two sites, comprising four units have been identified — that are not vulnerable to erosion.
The map shows areas identified for lifting of water from the Indus. — Image courtesy district administration
Pumps used in the water lifting would be powered by inhouse diesel generators and increase the existing water supply by 2MGD.
According to Afridi, the GB cabinet has recently approved a water boring project, worth Rs132 million, to meet the immediate needs of the city. Similarly, a lift water supply project worth Rs350 million has also been approved.
“What we have to see now is how and when these projects are executed,” he added.
Frequency of climate disasters
In the last few years, GB has faced the brunt of climate change. Several homes, schools and fields spread over thousands of acres have been washed away by flash floods and lake outbursts.
According to the United Nations Development Program, a total of 3,044 glacial lakes — formed due to rapid melting of glaciers — were found in GB and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2022. Of these, 33 were determined to be dangerous, with potential of severely disrupting downstream communities, infrastructure and human settlements.
It added that in July and August last year, at least 30 instances of glacial lake outbursts were reported from the northern areas of the country. Visuals of these events showed massive floods storming down rocky mountains, gulping down everything that came in their way.
On the other hand, rains in GB last month claimed over a dozen lives while landslides blocked the Karakoram Highway and Juglot-Skardu roads — two important highways that connect GB with the rest of the country.
Muhammad Iqbal, a driver based in Skardu, was among the hundreds of people who were stuck in the landslides. “I was bringing tourists to the city, but we were stuck for nearly eight hours at one spot,” he told Dawn.com.
There were flash floods in streams along the river, the 50-year-old recalled, adding that because of the wet and slippery roads, several accidents were taking place on the highways on a daily basis.
“These events are not new to us,” Iqbal, who has been driving in and out of GB for the past 20 years, said. But he admitted that these incidents had substantially increased in the past two to three years.
Laila Naz, communications manager at the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), termed this an increase in the frequency of erratic climate patterns. Both a resident of and having closely worked with mountain communities, she said climate disasters were nothing new and had been taking place as long as the Earth has existed.
“What has instead changed is that climate events that were taking place once in 600 years are now occurring every year.”
As a child, Naz recalled, she had heard about massive floods in bedtime stories narrated by her grandmother. “But in the last one decade, I have witnessed shaking grounds, frightening thunders and massive torrents.”
While the unpredictability and invariability of nature cannot be ruled out, human intervention should equally be blamed for these recurring natural disasters.
Human intervention
According to a 2023 study titled ‘Mountain and Climate Change’, the main cause of climate change is the increase in human population and its activities, particularly the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
Deforestation and landfills, it added, are major contributors to climate change.
The photo shows agricultural land in Skardu post the water shortage.
Meanwhile, Karakoram university’s Dr Raza blames the increased commercialisation and construction in the mountainous regions for the exacerbating climate crisis in the region.
“You need to understand that the ecology of mountains is very fragile and the slightest of change in it can wreak havoc,” he told Dawn.com. For example, construction. “These people here blow up rocks using explosives to create roads and buildings, this releases radiation in the air — poison for an environment as fragile as the one in Skardu.”
Similarly, the professor recalled, there were nearly 50,000 mud houses in the city alone that have now been replaced by concrete structures, which absorbs and emits heat into the environment, contributing to the rising temperatures in the region.
Dr Raza further mentioned the burning of fuel, which he counted as another contributor to the climate crisis. “Every day, nearly 50,000 litres of fuel in burnt in Skardu for various purposes. This releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air, which causes global warming.”
AKDN’s Naz concurred. “Overpopulation has reduced land available in the region and led to over-utilisation of resources,” she lamented.
Local grazing in the area, she continued, has increased over the past few years which has softened the soil and scraped forests — which play a vital role in the stopping floods.
“When we receive rainfall, trees located on mountains act as hurdles in the way of the fast-flowing waters and absorb it in their roots, preventing floods.
“Simultaneously, in the absence of rains, these trees send the water stored in their roots to streams and rivers, consequently creating the perfect balance in the sustainable flow of water,” Naz elaborated.
“So without these trees, the floods are more severe, faster and deadlier.”
Course correction
First and foremost, risk areas, specially those up north, need to be identified and people living there need to be relocated to prevent loss of life.
On the other hand, areas that are sensitive and remote, such as Deosai Plains, need to be demarcated as green zones by district authorities.
“To do this, you need indigenous knowledge. Local tribes and people living in the mountains know things you and I don’t. For example, they know that sandy areas are more prone to flooding, hence advise against building houses there,” Naz said.
Secondly, there’s a need to move from cutting wood to producing electricity through solar and hydro energy. “At AKDN, we teach watershed management — the process of implementing land use practices and water management practices to protect and improve the quality of the water and other natural resources — to the locals, encourage tree plantation and use renewable energy for electricity.”
Separately, Naz also stressed the need for “responsible tourism”. Access to remote places across Pakistan, such as Skardu, have increased over the years. In 2021, a record 700,000 tourists — both local and domestic — visited GB.
But the surge in tourism has put these fragile areas at risk.
A visit to the Deosai Plains last month showed how a location, often also called the second roof of the world, at a height of over 4,000 meters, is left at the mercy of visitors. In a place abundant with flowers, trash is surprisingly also common in sight, despite dustbins at ever point.
Diapers can be seen lying near streams, plastic bottles thrown at the bank of lakes and the list goes on.
“I have been bringing tourists here for 10 years now and can now seen the impact of the influx in tourists is having in the area,” Iqbal, the driver, told Dawn.com.
He said the plains were blanketed with snow till late June and early July this year, which as per him was strange. “Usually, the area is open throughout the summer months, but the weather has become very unpredictable lately.”
Iqbal added that even though Deosai was popular for its bears, the animals were now in danger because the number of people visiting Deosai Plains is increasing. “They are now retreating to mountain peaks because their homes are being encroached.”
The solution to this, in Naz’s opinion, is educating tourists.
“We can’t blame them, neither can we stop them because tourism is the only industry that sustains in the area,” she said. “But what we can do is educate them about the fragility of these mountains.”
For one, tourists entering GB can be given brochures, pamphlets or sessions where they are told about the do’s and don’ts, where they are taught that the beauty of this area depends on its ecosystem and carelessness would take away all of this from us.
“But none of this can be done without the government’s support,” Dr Raza told Dawn.com, adding that authorities should “think of us as their own”.
“They need to take responsibility and bring sustainability to the area,” he emphasised.
Header image: The Sadpara dam, once full to the brim, dried up in summers this year. — All photos by author
