{"id":53841,"date":"2024-05-19T04:53:05","date_gmt":"2024-05-19T04:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/19\/are-those-mimes-spying-on-us-in-pakistan-its-not-a-strange-question\/"},"modified":"2024-05-19T04:53:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-19T04:53:06","slug":"are-those-mimes-spying-on-us-in-pakistan-its-not-a-strange-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/19\/are-those-mimes-spying-on-us-in-pakistan-its-not-a-strange-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Those Mimes Spying on Us? In Pakistan, It\u2019s Not a Strange Question."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/15\/multimedia\/00pakistan-conspiracy-1-cqgm\/00pakistan-conspiracy-1-cqgm-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Are Those Mimes Spying on Us? In Pakistan, It\u2019s Not a Strange Question.\" title=\"Are Those Mimes Spying on Us? In Pakistan, It\u2019s Not a Strange Question.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The street performers first appeared a few years ago along busy intersections of Islamabad. Coated head to toe in eye-catching gold paint, they stood perfectly still, leaning on glimmering canes and tipping their top hats open. Some cracked a smile or offered a slow nod when they earned tips from passers-by.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Perhaps in a different place, the emergence of mimes on the street looking to earn a few dollars might go unnoticed. But this is Pakistan, where things under the security state often are not as simple as they seem. So as the number of golden performers grew, so, too, did the intrigue around them. Could they be informants for the country\u2019s intelligence agency? Lookouts for powerful politicians? Maybe spies for the C.I.A.?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIn any other country, if you see a beggar, it\u2019s clear he\u2019s a beggar,\u201d said Habib Kareem, 26, a lawyer in Islamabad, the capital. \u201cBut here, you see a beggar and you think to yourself, \u2018He\u2019s working for them,\u2019\u201d he added, referring to Pakistan\u2019s powerful intelligence services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Today, the \u201cgolden men\u201d of Islamabad have been added to the ranks of the conspiracy theories sprouted, knocked down and rehashed every day across the city. In Pakistan, where the hand of the security services is seen everywhere, conspiracy theories have been embraced in the mainstream for decades, driving conversations among street vendors, politicians and everyone in between.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Suspicion has become so universal that wild tales take root after almost every news event. In the wake of catastrophic floods in 2010, people asserted that they had been caused by C.I.A. weather-controlling technology. Media pundits claimed that an American \u201cthink tank\u201d was behind a failed car bombing by a Pakistani American in Times Square that year, and that Osama bin Laden was actually Jewish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Others were convinced that the C.I.A. staged the assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai, the girls\u2019 education activist, in 2012 after a local newspaper ran <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1048776\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a satirical \u201cinvestigation\u201d<\/a> describing the plot with outlandish details. (A disclaimer was later added to the article, which was meant to poke fun at the country\u2019s love of conspiracy theories, to clarify that it was fiction.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some trace Pakistan\u2019s embrace of conspiratorial thinking back to the Mughal emperors of the 16th and 17th centuries, whose reigns consolidated Islam in South Asia and were full of palace intrigue. In more recent decades, fantastical notions have sprung from the mythology that has built up around the Pakistani military and the main intelligence service, the seemingly all-seeing forces guiding the country\u2019s politics from behind the scenes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In such a climate, everyone \u2014 even street performers \u2014 can be seen as potential tools of the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSome of those guys are definitely from the agencies,\u201d said Aqsa Batool, 24, who was sitting at an outdoor cafe with her friend Shiza Kajol, 23, on a chilly spring evening in Islamabad. They leaned back from a red plastic table while cradling cups of sweet, milky tea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Spend enough time in the city, they explained, and you develop a trained eye to spot informants working for the primary spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I., and other intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They have certain tells: They all wear casual shirts and pants but have on dress shoes. The cuffs of their shirts are always buttoned. Their clothes are stiff, as if properly pressed. They often hold phones to their ears but do not actually talk into them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cDid you see the man who was just here?\u201d Ms. Batool said, by way of explanation. She was referring to a man who had approached a table where I was sitting with friends a few minutes earlier. The man held a coat draped over his head and mumbled about spare change before sitting on a curb nearby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYeah, yeah, that guy! He was in a very different get-up,\u201d Ms. Kajol said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAnd he went right to your table because you\u2019re a foreigner,\u201d added Ms. Batool. Both agreed: He was most definitely I.S.I.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As for the golden men, the two young women were wary of them but less certain. On the one hand, the street performers could not really eavesdrop while standing at a busy intersection, they mused. On the other hand, they could keep tabs on the cars passing through.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019d have to see them doing something obvious, like taking pictures of the cars on their phones, to be sure,\u201d Ms. Batool said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As with many conspiracy theories, the suspicions came from kernels of truth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pakistan\u2019s security services not so subtly hint at their vast powers to keep politicians and others in check.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Political scandals erupt from voice recordings or videos captured presumably from bugs inside people\u2019s homes and then mysteriously leaked. Intelligence agents occasionally tail people of interest, sometimes overtly (and occasionally even offer a friendly hello from their cars). Ride-share drivers sometimes admit to being paid by the intelligence services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">People so widely assume they are being surveilled that they speak in code, referring to the military as the \u201csacred cow\u201d and the I.S.I. as \u201cour friends\u201d in case intelligence agents are listening in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere\u2019s been a meta narrative that our intelligence agency is the best in the world, it\u2019s everywhere, it\u2019s always watching whether you are in your house or outside, there are eyes watching you,\u201d Mr. Kareem, the lawyer, explained. \u201cIt\u2019s been intentionally constructed by the state itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For most of Pakistan\u2019s 76-year history, the surveillance was a routine \u2014 if slightly resented \u2014 facet of daily life. But in recent years, frustration with the military\u2019s role in politics has exploded, making its ever-present eyes and ears less tolerable for many people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWith the political atmosphere being so polarized, we\u2019re becoming more suspicious of being watched or who is listening,\u201d said Ali Abas, 25, who was sitting outside a tea stall late one afternoon with his friend Amal, 26.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s getting worse nowadays,\u201d Amal said, referring to the surveillance. Amal, who preferred to go by his first name for fear of retribution, took a slow drag of his cigarette, fiddling with a pack in his other hand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPeople are getting more frustrated with it all,\u201d Mr. Abas chimed in. \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of: Are we safe in our house? Is there someone watching us right now? Is there someone roaming on our street to watch us? It\u2019s too much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the other side of Islamabad, Mustaq Ahmed, 53, stood on a grassy median of a busy intersection. His jean jacket, canvas pants, walking cane and top hat were all spray-painted gold. Gold makeup was caked onto his face and hands and smudged onto his bright green, blue and purple sunglasses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ahmed calls himself the Golden Thakur of Islamabad, a nod to a famous Pakistani actor and comedian known as Iftikhar Thakur whom he \u2014 slightly \u2014 resembles. Each golden man has a different repertoire of poses, each with its own name, he explained. His favorite was to extend his left heel and cane in a precarious lean \u2014 what he refers to as \u201cLondon style.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Ahmed once sold umbrellas on the side of the road, but became the Golden Thakur three years ago after he overhead another golden man saying he made up to 8,000 Pakistani rupees \u2014 or nearly $30 \u2014 each day. It was more than five times what Mr. Ahmed was taking home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That cash has dwindled recently as the novelty of the golden men has waned, he said. When asked if he would ever supplement his income with a little side work for the intelligence agencies, he immediately replied: \u201cNo, no, no.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Was there any chance that the other golden men in the city were earning a few extra dollars that way? He paused and shifted his cane between his hands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMaybe,\u201d he said with a shrug. \u201cIt\u2019s Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Zia ur-Rehman<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/19\/world\/asia\/pakistan-islamabad-golden-men.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The street performers first appeared a few years ago along busy intersections of Islamabad. Coated head to toe in eye-catching gold paint, they stood perfectly still, leaning on glimmering canes and tipping their top hats open. Some cracked a smile or offered a slow nod when they earned tips from passers-by. Perhaps in a different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/15\/multimedia\/00pakistan-conspiracy-1-cqgm\/00pakistan-conspiracy-1-cqgm-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[53387,264,1728,23504,24138],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53843,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53841\/revisions\/53843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}