Daily Bang-E-Sahar (Gilgit Baltistan)

As the constitutional and political status of Gilgit-Baltistan has remained in limbo for over six decades, violation of basic human rights is a common norm in the constitutional starved land including the curbs on freedom of speech. An unseen shackle remains coiled around the local press in the form of financial constraints whereas access of international press is either very limited or dose not e

xist at all. Keeping in view the violation of basic human rights and the obstacles that lay in the way of a free press in the region, Bang-e-Sahar started its publication in the form of a monthly magazine from Karachi. The fearless and bold policies of the magazine unearthed an endless tale of bulldozing of basic human rights, massive corruption and financial embezzlements and ruthless bloodshed in the name of either religious beliefs or an assumed and self invented fake national identity. These achievements made the magazine a widely read and people termed it their sole representative but applauds and embracing from the largest segment of the society invited the wrath of a small but powerful segment well known as the establishment. The establishment left no stone unturned to bare the publication of the magazine and detract its publisher from his stance. These were the most difficult times for Bang-e-Sahar as copies of the magazine went mysteriously ‘missing, before reaching the market while the publisher was implicated in a number of fake cases some of which are still pending in various courts of Gilgit-Baltistan. Even the people associated with the magazine were not spared as various free lance contributors, reporters and press people were physically assaulted and mentally tortured by creating hurdles for their families as firing their loved ones from government jobs and making obnoxious threatening calls to their family members. The magazine, despite all the barriers went ahead without accepting a slightest shift in its policies and in 2007 it changed it status from a monthly publication to a weekly newspaper while following the noble legacy of the magazine. The new shape of the publication as a weekly paper too gained the support of the masses and it is evident from the fact that the weekly paper had a circulation more than the collective circulation of all the weekly and daily local publications of Gigit-Baltistan. The milestones of success did not lasted here and the weekly paper started its daily publication from Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan on 21st March 2010. Bange Sahar believes in following professional ethics while performing its duties and its slogan of bringing the wrongdoings by the political bigwigs and establishment of the region to the court of the masses and the international community no matter at what cost. Bang-e-Sahar secured yet another feather to its cap as it started publication of an English weekly Baang thus taking the shape of a group of publication registered as Sahar Publishing Network (SPN). The team well come’s intellectuals, lawyers, politicians, journalists, students and the common masses of the region to join in Bang-e-Sahar to fulfill its mission of voicing the woes of an enslaved nation and struggle to uncoil the shackles that have tied the region for over six decades.