Re: Muslim Problem, Hindu Solutions: Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
(AFP) – 2 hours ago
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's
Khyber district, where troops are fighting against militants in the
tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday.
Militants detonated explosives overnight at the government-run school
in Bazgarah town, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Peshawar,
capital of the violence-plagued North West Frontier Province.
"The building had 21 rooms. All have been completely demolished,"
local administration chief Shafeerullah Wazir told AFP by telephone.
There were no casualties because the property was empty at the time.
"Taliban and their local allies are responsible. They are destroying
educational institutions to avenge the military operation against
their hideouts in the area," said Wazir.
"This was the ninth educational institution blown up in Khyber over
the past six weeks," he added.
Islamist militants opposed to co-education and subscribers to sharia
law have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest
Pakistan in recent years.
The fabled Khyber tribal region is the main land bridge to
neighbouring Afghanistan and the principle supply route for NATO
troops fighting an eight-year Taliban insurgency across the border.
Pakistani troops launched an offensive in Khyber in September in a bid
to flush out the Taliban and homegrown militant group Lashkar-e-Islam
(Army of Islam) led by local warlord Mangal Bagh.
The United States is increasing pressure on Pakistan to crack down
more on militants hunkered down in its lawless tribal belt, branded
the most dangerous place on Earth and the chief sanctuary of Al-Qaeda.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.
There were no casualties because the property was empty at the time
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5izrDVEHq8nBxylR9Wv0o727NVDrw
...and I am Sid Harth
chhotemianinshallah
PTI Sunday, December 20, 2009 13:50 IST Email
Islamabad: Pakistan witnessed an unprecedented wave of militant
attacks, internal political turmoil and stalemate in Indo-Pak ties in
2009 as the country failed to punish the perpetrators of 26/11 terror
strikes.
Rocked by an unprecedented wave of militant attacks and suicide
bombings, casualties in Pakistan in terror violence jumped to an all
time high of more than 3,000 in 2009, marking it as one of the most
dangerous places in globe.
Though Pakistan has begun cracking down on groups threatening its
security, India is still not convinced it has done enough against the
perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh met Zardari on the sidelines of an
international summit in Yekaterinburg in June and later his Pakistani
counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-
Sheikh the following month but the two sides were unable to bridge
their differences, particularly on the issue of tackling militant
groups operating from Pakistani soil.
The terrorist onslaught added to the problems of the Pakistan ruling
People's Party-led government, which was already grappling with a
crippling energy crisis, economic woes and shortages of food items
like sugar.
PPP chief and president Asif Ali Zardari was on shaky ground a little
over a year after assuming the post and facing fresh challenges as the
Supreme Court struck down a graft amnesty granted to him and close
aides in corruption cases under an expired law.
Singh's unprecedented step of acknowledging Pakistan's concerns over
interference in Balochistan created a storm back in India, and the
situation was compounded after Islamabad claimed it had evidence of
the alleged Indian role in fomenting unrest.
Though no stranger to terror attacks, the country specially its
lawless north-western frontier witnessed a spate of suicide attacks as
security forces launched a campaign to wipe out the home grown Tehrik-
i-Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign militants.
The militants struck back carrying out suicide attacks all over the
country with impunity. Terrorists carried out some of the most brazen
and audacious assaults this year, hitting the army's fortified General
Headquarters in Rawalpindi, ISI's offices in Peshawar and Multan and
several other security facilities.
The army cracked down on the Taliban in Swat in May after militants
took advantage of a peace deal to extend their influence to districts
located 100 km from Islamabad.
Another offensive was launched in Waziristan in October after a spate
of terrorist bombings. The military claims it has killed over 2,000
rebels in these two campaigns but the Taliban, under the leadership of
the brash Hakimullah Mehsud, demonstrated that it retained the
capability to strike almost at will.
Soon after soldiers backed by tanks and jets captured most Taliban
strongholds in Waziristan, the militants struck a crowded market in
Peshawar, ISI offices in Multan and Peshawar, police training centres
and a commercial hub in Lahore and the naval headquarters in
Islamabad.
Over 400 people have died in these attacks. Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, described by New Delhi as the mastermind behind
the Mumbai attacks, continues to be at large as Islamabad says there
is no evidence against him.
The JuD too has not been formally banned by Pakistani authorities and
the group is continuing its activities in the guise of Falah-e-
Insaniyat.
Though seven men, including Lashker-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman
Lakhvi, were arrested by Pakistani investigators for their involvement
in the Mumbai attacks, their in-camera trial has become mired in
controversy and confusion.
Security experts also say little has been done to rein in other anti-
India groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed though there is growing evidence
they were linked to the planning and execution of recent high-profile
attacks blamed on the local Taliban.
The political uncertainty and terrorist attacks throughout the year,
coupled with pressure from the West for more action against militants,
meant that the government could give little attention to reviving the
composite dialogue with India, suspended since last year's Mumbai
attacks.
chhotemianinshallah
Written by Moin Ansari Pakistan Dec 24, 2009
The Pakistanphobia against Pakistan plus the the paranoia against all
Pakistanis is the root cause of the hatred emanating from Delhi. The
history taught in Bharat is really the history of the Indian National
Congress (INC). Thus all those who opposed the INC are put into a
docket (Bose, Jinnah, Khan etc).
Murtaza Razvi is only partially right about the Quaid e Azam, however
he does bring out some potent points about those that have written
biographies about the greatest polititican of Asia. His poignant
question to both Ayesha Jalal and Akbar S. Ahmed add value to the
discourse. The abscence of Stanley Worlpert’s name from those who
wrote about Jinnah is surprising.
Jinnah out of the docket in Bharat. Finally. Or is he? This time the
verdict absolving him of the many charges Indian historians have
heaped on him comes from Jaswant Singh, until recently a top BJP
leader who, if you were to ask Madeline Albright, the former US
Secretary of State, was someone single-mindedly obsessed with
Pakistan’s role in destabilising India as the Clinton administration
opened up American diplomacy to forge a new strategic partnership with
New Delhi in the 1990s.
Even Strobe Talbott, the chief US interlocutor tasked with interfacing
with Mr Singh over the years, and whom the latter calls his friend,
could not get over Singh’s vitriolic view of Pakistan, including its
foundation. Why then this sudden change of heart and mind?
The answer lies in Singh’s well know erudition, and his quest to get
to the bottom of matters that have bothered him. His research into the
life and times of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and probe into partition of
India, which remains the starting point of any Indian response – be it
academic or political – to its historically dogged relations with
Pakistan, comes across as intellectual honesty and bravery. More so,
because what has emerged went against his own hitherto held
convictions. Singh is a man steeped in Rajasthan aristocratic
mannerism; as a chess enthusiast, he is used to doing a lot of
thinking before he makes his moves.
Not surprisingly, the BJP has reacted to the book with a lack of
vision and moral courage to own up to its – now expelled – leader’s
revisionist stance on the creation of Pakistan.
Singh has minced no words in analysing the results of his probe into
Partition and the role of India’s all time favourite demagogue,
Jinnah. And he has been vociferously defending his conclusions. Soutik
Biswas, a BBC blogger who has been following the debate in the Indian
media since the launching of Singh’s book, documents:
Mr Singh goes on to say that India misunderstood Mr Jinnah “because we
needed to create a demon”. He insists the Congress party’s
majoritarian instincts were responsible for the federalist Mr Jinnah
turning away from the idea of India and asking for a separate nation
for Muslims.’
This is conceding more than what Mr L K Advani did on his visit to
Jinnah’s mausoleum in Karachi some four years ago. He had called
Jinnah the only truly secular leader of stature in India’s freedom
movement, and caused a similar uproar in India. What is this popular,
negative reaction in India to the book and its author if not the very
kind of majoritarian tyranny that Jinnah feared for his Muslims? Singh
has now also testified to it by saying that most Indians still
consider Muslims as somewhat alien to India.
That said, the redeeming factor in India is that democracy as an
uninterrupted process will continue to cough up whistleblowers on
historical and political myths created by ‘patriotic’ historians of
the past—and that too from the least expected quarters. By comparison,
in Pakistan, our academics can be seen to have lacked similar moral
courage or the conviction with which to lay historical facts bare;
that is, even if someone is able to see the reality from a non-
established viewpoint.
Consider Ayesha Jalal’s monumental work on Jinnah; she only sheepishly
tries to apportion blame on Congress for the partition of India. Akbar
S. Ahmed, the decorated British-Pakistani scholar, was even more
evasive when, in the movie Jinnah – supposedly a tribute to the
founder of Pakistan – he literally put Jinnah in the dock in the
hereafter. Shying of giving an unequivocal verdict, the case is
resolved by God giving Jinnah the benefit of the doubt and sending him
to paradise, simply because some of his papers have gone missing from
divine records! God is truly forgiving.
Now, with the help of Singh’s authoritative, thoroughly researched
book, would Ahmed consider revising his script? He won’t be that
lonely anymore in supporting his own conviction – if conviction is the
right word in this context – of Jinnah’s role in partition of India
http://www.daily.pk/anti-pakistanism-and-jinnahphobia-in-bharat-13196/
chhotemianinshallah
PTI Thursday, December 24, 2009 19:27 IST
Hyderabad: The withdrawal of 30,000 troops from Jammu and Kashmir does
not mean that the situation has become normal in the militancy-
affected state, defence minister AK Antony said today.
"I don't claim that the situation has become normal (in J&K). As long
as terrorist camps are operating across the border, we have to be on
alert," he told mediapersons after attending the passing out parade of
Flying Officers at Dundigal Air Force Station near here.
Criticising Pakistan, he said despite repeated requests from India,
the neighboring country has failed to take steps to curb infiltration.
As long as the terror camps are running, the Army is determined to
push back the infiltrators, the minister said.
Antony said two Army divisions, comprising around 30,000 troops, have
been moved out of Kashmir after improvement in the security situation
there.
He said the decision to withdraw troops from J&K was taken by the
armed forces and the Union government did not impose any decision on
them.
Antony declined to comment on the Telangana issue, saying he has come
to the city as defence minister and not as a politician.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_situation-has-not-become-normal-in-j-and-k-ak-antony_1327140
chhotemianinshallah
Brainwashed boy bomber flees Taliban
In the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan, a 14-year-old boy ‘came to’
just before pulling the pin on his suicide jacket
Daud Khattak in Bajaur and Nicola Smith
Ghani: drugged and beaten
USMAN GHANI was a 14-year-old schoolboy when he was forcibly removed
from his family and trained as a Taliban suicide bomber. His story —
revealed in the week that yet another blast brought the death toll to
more than 500 in barely two months — reflects the tragic tales of many
young Pakistanis brainwashed by the Taliban to bring terror to the
country’s cities.
Living in the remote town of Khar, in the Bajaur tribal agency of
northwest Pakistan, Ghani was an easy target for the Taliban militants
who control the area with their potent mixture of arms and
fundamentalist beliefs.
His father Lal Zaman, a blacksmith, had been caught selling hashish, a
crime punishable by death under the Taliban’s harsh code. Zaman was
given a cruel choice: to hand over his eldest son or be executed.
Ghani was forced to pay for the “sins” of his father. Militants took
him and he was driven, blindfolded, to the Taliban-infested Bandai
area of Bajaur, where he learnt his fate. “Three leaders said because
my father was guilty of selling hashish, as a punishment I would have
to carry out a suicide attack or be slaughtered,” he said.
“When I refused, they tied me down with a rope and started beating me.
Eventually I said I was ready to carry out an attack just to make them
stop.”
Ghani was subjected to months of indoctrination. He was imprisoned
with two other teenage boys and forced to listen to militant sermons
every night. “They told us that a suicide attack is the direct path to
paradise, where beautiful women and all the happiness of life are
waiting for you,” he said. “They said we were lucky to have been
chosen by God for this noble purpose.”
When Ghani showed the slightest sign of reluctance, his captors
switched tactics. “They came and forced me to eat a tablet. After
taking the pill I couldn’t understand what was right or wrong.
Whatever they said to me I would answer ‘yes’ and it seemed justified
to me.
“The pills made me forgetful and I stopped caring about my brothers,
sisters or parents. The only thing before me was paradise and I agreed
to carry out an attack for the sake of Islam.”
He was taught how to operate the suicide jacket and assigned a target
— Malak Rahmatullah, a tribal elder opposed to the Taliban.
He received final, hate-filled sermons from Maulvi Faqir, deputy
leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and Maulvi Omar, the Taliban
spokesman. “Omar told me to go to a nearby mosque for prayer five
times a day and to stroll through the streets so no one in the village
would suspect me as a stranger.”
He was ordered to target Rahmatullah during Friday prayers. When he
protested that there would be civilian casualties, he was told: “God
knows best. He will send all the pious among the slain straight to
paradise, while those who are sinful will find their place in hell.”
Ghani was put into his suicide vest and taken to the mosque. “They
directed me to get into the second row behind him [Rahmatullah] and
then draw the pin, which was fixed to the left side of my chest.
“I’d been fully prepared to carry out the suicide attack but when I
reached the mosque I realised that something was wrong. There were
copies of the holy Koran everywhere and old people and young children
were coming to pray.
“I asked myself how I could kill all these innocent people to send
myself to paradise. Then I suddenly thought of my younger brother
playing in a field outside our house and calling me.” Ghani fled,
knowing he would incur the wrath of the Taliban who were waiting for
news of carnage.
He was savagely beaten and imprisoned for six days before escaping to
his family’s home. For weeks he lived in fear of recapture until he
was finally arrested by the Pakistani army. As the army continues its
offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, a tribal region on
the Afghan border, many more suicide bombers are believed to have
infiltrated the urban population. Army chiefs claim to have killed
almost 600 militants and cleared more than 80% of Waziri territory,
but none of the Taliban’s leaders has been captured.
A blast that killed four on Thursday in Peshawar brought the death
toll since October in the northwestern city to 225. More than 500 have
been killed throughout Pakistan.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6968382.ece
chhotemianinshallah
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Dec 26, 2009 at 1542 hrs
Jammu:
Congress will facilitate dialogue with other parties and groups on
Justice (retd) Sagir Ahmed's report on Centre-state relations, Jammu
and Kashmir Congress president Saifuddin Soz said on Saturday.
"My party will facilitate discussions with all on the report," Soz
told reporters at PCC headquarters here.
We want a debate on it since the report has many areas of workable
solution, he said adding the report is recommendatory in nature and
the decision will finally be taken by the Prime Minister.
Soz said he had objected to the BJP's demand for abrogation of Article
370, guaranteeing special status to Jammu and Kashmir, during the
meetings with the commission.
"During the meeting, I had said that Article 370 cannot be abrogated
and it has to stand in the Constitution," he added.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/congress-will-facilitate-dialogue-on-sagirs-report-soz/559457/
chhotemianinshallah
But the Pakistani government has balked at going after the Haqqani
network in North Waziristan, which Islamabad considers a potential
ally in Afghanistan.
Pakistani paramilitary soldiers guard the border checkpoint at Chaman.
Islamabad has resisted driving into North Waziristan, saying it
prefers to focus on preventing militants from establishing new bases.
(Matiullah Achakzai / EPA / December 17, 2009)
By Alex Rodriguez
December 28, 2009
Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan - As Pakistan forges ahead with its
bid to uproot Taliban fighters from tribal areas along the border with
Afghanistan, its troops are bypassing an enemy that the Obama
administration desperately wants confronted.
Rather than expand on its gains in South Waziristan and drive into
North Waziristan to tackle the Haqqani network -- a wing of the
Taliban that views U.S. and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan as its
principal target -- the Pakistani military is now focusing its
attention on driving Taliban militants from their strongholds in the
surrounding tribal regions of Kurram, Orakzai and Khyber.
One reason Pakistan has refused to go after the Haqqani network, a
senior Pakistani official says, is that it doesn't have the manpower
to fight concentrations of militants on multiple fronts. Pakistani
troops are deployed in the Swat Valley, from which they drove out
Taliban fighters in a large offensive in the summer. An additional
30,000 troops are winding down major operations in South Waziristan,
the Pakistani Taliban's primary hub.
Many of those fighters fled to nearby tribal regions, such as Kurram
and Orakzai, which is why the Pakistani military has stepped up
airstrikes in those areas to prevent militants from establishing new
bases. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani said the
army's next major deployment of ground troops may target Orakzai.
"First we would like to consolidate and stabilize, and not get into
something that overstretches us," said the official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
The bigger reason for Pakistan's reluctance to cooperate, however,
lies in the government's ardent belief that the Haqqani network, led
by Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son, Sirajuddin, does
not pose a direct threat to Pakistan.
Instead, a friendly relationship with the Afghan Taliban is seen by
many Pakistanis as a valuable hedge against Pakistan's archrival,
India, meddling in Afghanistan. Pakistanis also view the Haqqanis and
the rest of the Afghan Taliban as crucial players in Afghanistan's
future once the U.S. pulls out. At that point, Pakistan would prefer
the Taliban as an ally and not a foe.
"The Americans will leave in 18 months, and the Taliban won't be
defeated. If Pakistan has earned the hostility of the Afghan Taliban,
it will be in trouble," said Javed Hussain, a retired brigadier and a
former special forces commander. "This concern of Pakistan's is
genuine. We cannot afford to earn the wrath of the Taliban and the
Haqqani group."
In recent weeks, President Obama has sent several top officials to
make the case for going after the Haqqani network, including Gen.
David H. Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Michael G.
Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and James L. Jones, the
national security advisor. Although Pakistan so far has balked at
Obama's demands, U.S. officials have not given up.
"I'm not going to give a grade to a work in progress," said Richard C.
Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, during
an appearance on PBS' "The Charlie Rose Show" on Dec. 21.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's reluctance may prompt an increase in U.S.
Predator drone strikes in North Waziristan and the rest of the tribal
areas. On Dec. 17, U.S. drone strikes killed 16 people at suspected
militant hide-outs near Miram Shah, North Waziristan's largest town.
The next day, another drone strike killed six suspected militants in
the same area.
Drone strikes have become a cornerstone of Obama's strategy against Al
Qaeda and the Taliban in the border region. At least 10 suspected
senior Al Qaeda operatives have been killed in such strikes since
August 2008. The use of drones has angered Pakistanis, who argue that
the strikes kill mostly civilians and trample on their country's
sovereignty.
But the Pakistani government tacitly allows the strikes, which
frequently target the Haqqani network.
"These drone attacks are disadvantageous for the U.S.," said Fakhrul
Islam, a tribal areas expert at Peshawar University. "The Pakistani
population isn't happy with these attacks, and they give the Taliban a
chance to talk about the killing of innocent people as a result of
drone strikes."
Pakistan's stance toward the Haqqani network is rooted in its nearly
30-year relationship with Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Pashtun warlord who
organized mujahedin fighters against Soviet troops in the 1980s. At
the time, he had nurtured ties with Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence agency, as well as with the CIA.
Haqqani has maintained strong ties with Pakistan despite Islamabad's
alliance with Washington. Now believed to be in his late 50s, he has
handed over control of his network to his son, Sirajuddin. Hussain
said the Haqqanis run a fighting force of about 5,000 that splits its
time between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Haqqanis' alliance with Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, also
based in North Waziristan, further complicates Pakistan's strategy in
the area. Bahadur agreed to not interfere with the army's operations
in South Waziristan against the rival Pakistani Taliban faction led by
Hakimullah Mahsud. A military push into North Waziristan now might be
viewed by Bahadur as a betrayal of that agreement.
Some of the Al Qaeda militants who fled South Waziristan are believed
to be hiding in North Waziristan. The desolate, largely ungoverned
territory may also have become a sanctuary for top Al Qaeda leaders.
Although U.S. leaders say they have no firm knowledge of Osama bin
Laden's whereabouts, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said this
month that the Al Qaeda leader is probably in North Waziristan.
Pakistani officials say that Al Qaeda remains a priority for them but
that now is not the right time for troops to move into North
Waziristan.
"Uzbek and Arab fighters from South Waziristan are on the run, and
there are elements of [Al Qaeda] in North Waziristan," the senior
Pakistani official said. "But when one has the plate full, one does
not want to get into a conflict where you dilute your power. Then you
achieve nothing."
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-north-waziristan28-2009dec28,0,7204537.story
chhotemianinshallah
PTI 28 December 2009, 05:06pm IST
WASHINGTON: North Korea, with the help of Pakistan, may have opened an
alternative way to clandestinely build nuclear weapons as early as
1990s by constructing a plant to manufacture a gas needed for uranium
enrichment.
Pyongyang may have been enriching uranium on a small scale by 2002,
with maybe 3,000 or even more centrifuges and Pakistani supplied vital
machinery, drawings and technical advice, The Washington Post has
reported citing an account by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of
Pakistan's atomic bomb programme.
The Post quoting a US intelligence official said Khan's information
adds to their suspicions that North Korea has long pursued the
enrichment of uranium in addition to making plutonium for bombs.
The paper quoted the Pakistani scientist as saying that there was
tacit agreement between the two governments that his labratory "would
advice and guide them with a centrifuge programme and that the North
Koreans would help Pakistan in fitting the nuclear warhead into the
Ghauri missile".
The paper quoted Khan as saying that during his visit to North Korea
in 1999, he was taken to a mountain tunnel, where his source had
showed him components of three finished nuclear warheads.
chhotemianinshallah
www.chinaview.cn 2009-12-28 18:59:05
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani security forces killed 15
militants in the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan tribal agency
bordering Afghanistan during the last 24 hours, the army said in a
press release Monday.
The army said the miscreants raided the Boya Narai check post in
South Waziristan on Sunday night and as the security forces
effectively responded, 15 miscreants were killed including terrorist
commander Zainual.
Two security personnel were killed and three troops were injured
during the clash, said the statement.
It said the security forces also conducted a search and clearance
operation in Marobi Raghzai and Zhawar Killi and recovered caches of
arms and ammunition in the troubled tribal region in Pakistan's
northwest.
The Pakistani Army is wrapping up a full scale military operation
coded as Rah-e-Nijat, or path of salvation, in South Waziristan, where
militants have safe havens and from where they planned to attack
government installations.
Meanwhile in the ending operation in Swat and Malakand, the army
said, three militants voluntarily surrendered to the security forces
at Roringar and Devolai as they carried out a search and clearance
operation in Mingora and other areas, where caches of arms and
ammunition were recovered.
According to the army statistics, Pakistani security forces have
killed over 600 militants since they launched the ground assault on
October 17 in the South Waziristan, advancing towards the main base of
Taliban militants in Pakistan. The army said that about 30,000
soldiers are in place to take on an estimated 10,000 hard-core Taliban
militants in the lawless area.
The army have so far controlled major bases of militants and are
consolidating their positions while large quantities of insurgents
fled the tribal belt.
Editor: Xiong Tong
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/28/content_12718231.htm
chhotemianinshallah
Monday, 28 Dec, 2009
Militants attacked the police post late Sunday in Badghis province,
killing two officers. Three Taliban fighters were also killed in the
hour-long gunfight. –AP/ File photo
KABUL: Taliban-linked militants stormed a police post in northwestern
Afghanistan, sparking a gunfight that killed two police and left three
others missing, an official said Monday.
The militants attacked the post late Sunday in Badghis province,
killing two officers, provincial police chief Sayed Ahmad Sameh told
AFP. Three other policemen were missing, he added.
Three Taliban fighters were also killed in the hour-long gunfight, he
said.
Elsewhere in the province, eight Taliban militants were killed in an
ongoing Afghan police and army operation backed by international
troops, he said.
The police chief said a gunfight between two armed groups from rival
tribes killed another five people in the same province.
Afghanistan is gripped by an increasingly deadly insurgency in which
followers of the Taliban regime, ousted by the 2001 US-led invasion,
are trying to overthrow the Western-backed government in Kabul.
The insurgency has gained pace each year, with 500 Western troops
killed in 2009, the deadliest year since the 2001 US-led invasion. –
AFP
chhotemianinshallah
Agencies
Posted: Monday , Dec 28, 2009 at 1126 hrs
Jammu:
Normal life was on Monday paralysed in Jammu as complete bandh was
observed in the city on a call given by Jammu and Kashmir National
Panthers Party (JKNPP) to protest against Prime Minister's 5th working
group report headed by Justice Sagir Ahmed.
The business establishments and market places remained closed and
traffic was off the road as the day-long bandh started amid high
security arrangements in the winter capital on Monday, officials
said.
The bandh has been supported by Jammu Bar Association, Shiv Sena,
Jammu State Morcha and several trade and transport organisations.
Large number of policemen have been deployed in the city.
However, there was no untoward incident reported from the city, the
police officials said.
JKNPP activists raised anti-working group and anti-Sagir slogans.
"The recommendations made by the Working Group are anti-people, fraud,
trash and biased. It should be dumped into dustbin without any further
discussion," JKNPP Chief Bhim Singh told reporters.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bandh-paralyses-normal-life-in-jammu/560580/
Sid Harth
Editorial
Posted On Monday, December 28, 2009
Islamic history witnessed the biggest terrorist action 1329 years ago
on 10 October 680 BC, when Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet
Mohammad was assassinated along with 72 members of his family in the
city of Karbala on the banks of river Euphrates. A particular sect of
Muslims mourns this day in different ways. Majlis' are organized,
processions are taken out, devotees of Hussein walk on fire and beat
themselves with swords and chains to pay obeisance. Different types of
mourning programmes are held to remember Imam Hussein for his
sacrifice for saving Islam from Yazid who, unfortunately, was a
'Muslim' ruler of Syria and was the real enemy of Islamic principles.
As the festival of Vijayadashmi celebrated as the victory of truth
over evil, in the same way, Moharram is also observed as the victory
of truth over evil. The only difference is while Lord Rama achieved
victory of truth by killing the devil Ravana, whereas Imam Hussein,
along with his family and relatives, bravely fought the huge force of
Yazid. Cruel, characterless and egoist Yazid killed Imam Hussein and
all his colleagues.
But, indeed, the martyrdom of Imam Hussein is the symbol of the
victory of Islam. Historians are of the view that had Imam Hussein,
being the grandson of prophet, accepted that paramountcy of the cruel
'Muslim' ruler Yazid, it would have been the blackest incident of
Islamic history. But Hussein preferred being killed along with his
family, children and colleagues, rather than accepting Yazid as Muslim
ruler of an "Islamic country".
Today, terrorism has spread over the entire world and maximum
involvement of Muslims in it repeatedly raises the question that what
are the real teachings of Islam? To kill innocent people, carry on
suicide attacks or to devote oneself for the protection of truth,
justice and humanity? The world remembers the sacrifice of Hussein
because he never tried to use force or kill anyone so as to protect
Islam. This is the reason that today even the people of the
communities other than Muslims, also remember him. Through his
sacrifice, Imam Hussein proved that to achieve the goals of justice,
one should be ready to give his life also. This incredible courage
made him an ideal martyr for the entire world. In the words of famous
poet Josh Malihabadi- Kya Sirf Musalmaan ke pyare hain Hussein?
Charakh-e-nave basher ke sitare hain Hussein. Insaan ko bedaar to ho
lene do, har qaum pukaregi, hamare hain Hussein. . (Is Hussein only
loved by the Muslims? Husain is a Shining star .Let the human being
awakened, every community will say, Husain is ours. Another famous
Indian poet Kunwar Mahendra Singh Bedi 'Sahar' was a great fan of
Hussein. In many of his works, he remembered Hussein. He says- *Zinda
Islam ko kiya toone, hakk-o-batil dikha diya toone. Ji ke marna to
sabko aata hai, mar ke jeena sikha diya tune.* (You made the Islam
alive, you shown, justice & injustice. Everybody knows how to die
after live. But you taught how to live after death. Considering
Hussein as a property of humanity 'Sahar' continues- *Tu to har daur
ke har deen ke insaan ka hai, kam kabhi bhi teri tauqeer na hone
denge. Hum salaamat hain zamaane mein to insha allah, tujhko ik qaum
ki jageer na hone denge.*(you belong to the people of every era and
every religion, we will never less your highness. By the mercy of God,
we are until alive in this world, I would not let you belong to a
single religion).
In the same way, many other non-Muslim poets have paid homage to Imam
Hussein. Disturbed by the bloody game played by Yazid in Karbala,
poets Kehar Singh and Mahendra Singh said- *shah ke rauze se jab chal
ke hawaa aati hai, dasht ke zarre se khushboo-e-wafa aati hai. Kitne
bedard the woh aapke qaatil maula, hum to hindu hain magar sunke hayaa
aati hai*.
A controversial truth about the sacrifice of Imam Hussein is that a
particular sect of Muslims, calling itself 'true and real followers of
Islam', oppose to observe the sacrifice of Imam Hussein in a mournful
manner. To show their protest, these 'true and real Muslims' call the
activities of Moharram like *Majlis, Maatam, Juloos, Taaziya, Alam*
(symbol) etc. as *Biadat*. *Biadat* means some kind of evil and anti-
Islamic activity. It is necessary to note here that the tall symbol
which is raised during Moharram, is known as *Alam*. According to the
history of Karbala, this *Alam* was in the hands of Abbas, the brother
of Imam Hussein. He was also martyred. Remembering Abbas, Indian poet
Kishanlal says- *Mit nahin sakta kabhi makhmoor gham abbas ka, naqsh-e-
sajda ban chukka hai har qadam abbas ka. Gar musalmaan biadatein
kehkar alag ho jayenge, ho ke hindu hum uthayenge, alam abbas ka.*
Anyhow, the above sentiments could only be the result of truth and
sacrifice of Hussein. May be less among Muslims, but there are a large
number of people loving Hussein in other communities. The same group
of Hussein lovers is once again compelled to think that the Islam
which Hussein protected by giving away his life, is in the wrong hands
of so called 'saviours' of Islam.
Tanveer Jafri
http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=22904
Sid Harth
(AFP) – 55 minutes ago
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban blew up a girls' school on Monday in
northwest Pakistan, where troops are battling the militants, police
said.
Islamist insurgents opposed to co-education have destroyed hundreds of
schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent
years as they wage a fierce insurgency to enforce sharia law.
The five-room government primary girls school in the town of Shabqadar
was destroyed when two bombs planted by Taliban militants exploded,
senior police official Mohammad Riaz Khan told AFP.
A nearby house was also damaged but there were no casualties, Khan
said.
Pakistan's military is engaged in offensives against Islamist fighters
across much of the northwest including the tribal areas bordering
Afghanistan, a region branded by Washington as the most dangerous
place on earth.
About 30,000 troops poured into South Waziristan in mid October to try
and dismantle the strongholds of the Taliban leadership, enraging
militants who have responded with a surge in bomb blasts and attacks.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hTqVtKu1UBBdo3jq5EqicWnOos_g
chhotemianinshallah
Mock anti-terror drill by Mumbai police creates panic
PTI Monday, December 28, 2009 17:05 IST
Mumbai: A mock anti-terror drill conducted by police at a mall in
suburban Goregaon today triggered panic among people in the vicinity.
The exercise caused chaos in the area as it coincided with Muharram
today, the day when Muslims observe the martyrdom of the grandson of
Prophet Mohammad, Imam Hussain, who died on this day.
Armed with AK 47s, other advanced weapons and combat vehicles, about
250 policemen, including Quick Response Teams (QRT) took positions
inside and outside Oberoi Mall in Dindoshi area, and carried out the
exercise for about two hours.
Additional police commissioner (north) Ramrao Kadam said they were
testing their preparedness by conducting such drills.
"This would make the personnel battle-ready and counter or tackle any
terror acts. We will also know our response time in case of adverse
situation and can measure our overall performance," he said.
The cops had studied the topography of the area and had swiftly taken
positions with the help of photographs, he said.
He refuted that police had not taken locals into confidence before
conducting the drill. "We had told people inside the mall and
residents in the locality about it," he said.
However, agitated locals gathered near the mall came down heavily on
police saying that they were never informed about any such exercise.
"My children were watching a movie in a theatre inside the mall when I
was told that cops surrounded it. I thought something has really gone
wrong," said Pranali Joshi, a resident in the area.
Unaware of the drill, passersby said the timing chosen by police was
not right as today is Muharram. "The police should have remained busy
on maintaining law and order. This exercise has led to a lot of panic
in the area," said Praveen More.
The mock drill also caused heavy traffic jam on the Western Express
Highway as onlookers stood on the road to see the exercise.
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_mock-anti-terror-drill-by-mumbai-police-creates-panic_1328400
chhotemianinshallah
PTI Tuesday, December 29, 2009 14:52 IST
Karachi: The toll in a suicide attack on a Muharram procession of Shia
Muslims in Karachi rose to 40 today even as Pakistani authorities
struggled to control a major blaze in a market caused by rioting that
followed the terror assault.
Officials said a total of 40 people had died so far while over 100
injured were being treated in hospitals.
The bomber mingled with hundreds of people participating in a
procession for the Islamic holy month of Muharram and detonated his
explosives on MA Jinnah Road, a key thoroughfare in the heart of
Karachi, yesterday.
About 30 people were killed instantly while others died later in
hospital.
The attack, the third terrorist assault in as many days on a Shia
procession in Karachi, sparked widespread rioting and violence across
the city.
Mobs went on the rampage, torching cars and shops, firing in the air
and beating up police and paramilitary personnel. Hundreds of shops on
MA Jinnah Road and in Boulton Market were set ablaze.
The fire continued to burn till this morning and authorities pressed
over 40 fire tenders into service to bring the flames under control.
A multi-storey building collapsed in Boulton Market and the fire was
exacerbated by chemicals stored in shops dealing in plastics and
perfumes, officials said.
Traders' associations estimated that the blaze had caused losses
running into crores of rupees. Thousands of police andPakistan Rangers
personnel were deployed across Karachi to maintain calm.
Officials of the bomb disposal squad said the 16kg of C4 explosives
were used in the suicide attack.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack but interior minister
Rehman Malik blamed the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-
Jhangvi, a banned militant group that has often been linked to
sectarian violence and attacks on Pakistan's minority communities.
Till yesterday's suicide attack, Karachi was untouched by a recent
wave of terrorist strikes across Pakistan that has killed over 500
people since October.
However, the city has often been rocked by ethnic, sectarian and
political violence.
President Asif Ali Zardari and prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
appealed for calm in the wake of the attack.
Zardari said the suicide bombing could have been an attempt to divert
the government's attention from the ongoing war against militancy.
"A deliberate attempt seems to be afoot by extremists to turn the
fight against militants into a sectarian clash and make the people
fight against one another," Zardari said in a statement.
Gilani appealed to the religious and political leadership to help in
calming the situation.
Authorities also ordered an inquiry into the incident.
chhotemianinshallah
By Omar Waraich / Islamabad Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
ENLARGE PHOTO+
An angry mob charges towards police after setting ablaze shops and
vehicles at the site of a suicide bomb attack on a procession of
Shi'ite Muslims commemorating Ashura in Karachi on Dec. 28, 2009
Athar Hussain / Reuters
Pakistan was rocked on Monday, Dec. 28, by a vicious suicide bombing
that killed at least 32 people and injured almost twice as many amid a
major annual mourning procession of the country's minority Shi'ites in
the heart of Karachi, the largest city and commercial center in the
nation. As the death toll mounts, the country's political leaders have
united in their condemnation of the attack. It was the third such
assault in Karachi in as many days, crushing the city's hopes of
evading the current wave of bombings, deepening fears of further
sectarian attacks and underscoring the militants' deadly ability to
seemingly strike anywhere at any time.
In chilling scenes, television footage captured the moment that the
bomber struck. A tightly packed crowd, dressed in black and holding
aloft banners, solemnly shuffled down one of Karachi's main roads.
Some performed the matam, beating their chests as they mourned the
death of Imam Hussain, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was
killed in 680 A.D. in the Iraqi city of Karbala. On all four sides,
well-armed policemen and paramilitary guards surrounded the marchers.
But even beefed-up security measures were unable to thwart the bomber,
who blew himself up near the back of the crowd. After a loud blast,
large plumes of white smoke filled the air. Some of the marchers fell
to the ground, while others fled in a panic. "It was an inhuman act of
terrorism," Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, told
TIME. Suspicion immediately fell on the Pakistani Taliban.
(See Karachi's defiant fashion week.)
The failure to stanch the anti-Shi'ite bloodshed has drained ordinary
people's faith in the government. In its place, there is now raw
anger. After ambulances rushed the dead and wounded to hospitals, some
of the marchers defiantly continued. Less patient ones lashed out at
government officials and journalists in the area, local media
reported. Across Karachi, large buildings and more than 15 cars were
torched. The fear is now that the city may see more such attacks and
tit-for-tat reprisals. "I want to appeal to the people, to my
brothers, my elders, to stay calm," said Mustafa Kamal, the city's
mayor. "I am hearing people are clashing with police and doctors.
Please do not do that. That is what terrorists are aiming at. They
want to see this city again on fire."
(See Karachi's megacity-size dreams.)
Since the 1980s, Pakistan's Shi'ite community has been subjected to
brutal attacks from extremist Wahabi-inspired militant groups that
regard them as heretics or apostates. With the emergence of the
Pakistani Taliban, that threat has intensified. In recent years, the
town of Parachinar in the wild tribal areas along the Afghan border,
Baluchistan province's capital of Quetta, Dera Ismail Khan in the
northwest, and parts of Punjab have been among the areas scarred by
anti-Shi'ite attacks. The latest bombing will call attention to the
Taliban's long-standing but murky presence in Karachi. Until this past
week, they have resisted mounting attacks in the city, preferring to
use the sprawling metropolis as a base for recruiting, smuggling
weapons and racketeering for funds. Now there is fear that the city's
Pashtun-speaking communities (where the Taliban find refuge) may come
into conflict with Karachi's huge Urdu-speaking majority.
Monday's bombing comes at a sensitive time for Pakistan, as President
Asif Ali Zardari appears to be battling for his political survival. A
day earlier, while marking the second anniversary of the slaying of
his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Zardari raised a
defiantly worded warning that democracy was imperiled. Since the
Supreme Court earlier this month struck down an amnesty that had
cleared Zardari and some of his closest aides of long-standing
corruption charges, pressure has increased on the presidential palace,
slowly eating away at the occupant's authority and raising the
prospect of a destabilizing clash between the government and the
judiciary.
Speaking near his wife's grave on Sunday, Dec. 27, Zardari railed
against unnamed forces that were conspiring to derail his shaky and
unpopular government and Pakistan's democracy. Writing in the Wall
Street Journal the same day, Zardari said that "a litany of ancient
charges of corruption — the modus operandi of past plots against every
democratically elected government in Pakistan — now threatens to
undermine the legitimacy of our government." The blame, he added, lies
with those who refused to stand with him against terrorism and his
opponents in the media.
In recent days, the President's allies and some observers have lashed
out against the Supreme Court, accusing it of overstepping its role by
lifting the amnesty on Zardari's corruption charges. A potentially
destructive confrontation between the two is now feared. Meanwhile,
the political opposition is slowly ratcheting up pressure on Zardari
to step down, something he is no mood to do. The bad news for Pakistan
is that, yet again, its rough-and-tumble politics may mean that not
enough attention will be paid to defeating the terrorists who hit
Karachi on Monday.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1950322,00.html
chhotemianinshallah
IANS First Published : 05 Jan 2010 12:43:25 AM IST
GANDHINAGAR (GUJARAT): Gujarat police have begun search operations in
the temple town of Dakor in Kaira district following reports that the
three Pakistani terrorists who escaped from Delhi Police last week
were hiding there.
Acting on leads, police set up roadblocks and virtually surrounded the
town in search of the terrorists who are believed to be the ones who
had managed to escape from the Delhi police.
The tip off came from a mother-daughter duo who had gone to Dakor to
pay obeisance at the main temple on Saturday and had noticed some
suspicious looking people.
According to Director General of Police, S.S. Khandwawala, the mother-
daughter told police the men looked similar to the faces being flashed
on television of the terrorists and informed the state police control.
The development comes soon after the alert to Gujarat earlier that the
state could be a plausible destination of the escaped terrorists.
The police has been raiding guest houses, hotels and other public
places in the town, but so far had not been able to find anyone
matching the description of the escaped militants. Other towns have
also been put under watch and vigil tightened, particularly at
religious places.
Comments
It happens only in India run by Congress government.
By Natarajan
1/5/2010 7:45:00 AM
pOLICE conducted themselves very pathetically. Why shd they take all 3
together, why were they so complacent? In USA the prisoners go to
hospital inchains They dont get to walk an inch away from pokicemen
ever until they get back to prison. The rison warden shd be suspended
along with all the others involved in the transportation. On a
sidenote, we have not seen any sleeper cells being exposed ever. Whats
going on home minister, are u saying there arent any there whatso
ever. Im afraid an slew of attacks will be unleashed in all the cities
pretty soon and all the sleeper cells are waiting for instructions
from Pakistan.Wake up MMsingh and PC
By Surya Chicago
1/5/2010 4:36:00 AM
bademiyansubhanallah
Talking to separatists
Hiranmay Karlekar
Centre must not wilt on Jammu & Kashmir
The Union Government, which is engaging secessionists and others in
Jammu & Kashmir over the State’s future, must approach the issue with
extreme caution. Any settlement that weakens India’s military position
along the international border with Pakistan and the Line of Control
will be ruinous for national security.
This becomes clear on recalling certain basic facts. India captured
the strategic Haji Pir pass during the September 1965 war with
Pakistan only to hand it back at Tashkent in January 1966. It
recaptured it in the war in December 1971, which led to the liberation
of Bangladesh, but returned it at the Shimla summit between Mrs Indira
Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in July 1972. It is now the main route
through which armed terrorists of fundamentalist Islamist outfits like
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Mohammed infiltrate from Pakistan to
perpetrate terrorist acts in Jammu & Kashmir and elsewhere. India can
deal with the situation now thanks to the massive presence of its
military and para-military forces in Jammu & Kashmir and the fact that
it has made infiltration generally difficult along the LoC and the
international border. Besides, there is intense pressure by the United
States on Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism against India and
put terrorist groups like the LeT and JeM out of business.
On their part, Pakistan’s Army and Directorate-General of Inter-
Services Intelligence, its principal intelligence-gathering and covert
operations outfit, which has been in charge of its unconventional war
against India through cross-border terrorism, are fully extended by
the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which they have been fighting since end
April. Things will be very different if Indian troops are not strongly
entrenched along the LoC and the international border and have a
greatly-reduced presence in Jammu & Kashmir at a time when American
troops have left Afghanistan following intense domestic pressure, and
the Taliban and Al Qaeda are in control of both Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
Apart from American pressure, the present Government of Pakistan is
restrained by thoughts of the consequences that might follow if India
is pushed too far. It is aware of India’s military strength and the
dangers of a nuclear war in the sub-continent which will cripple India
and destroy Pakistan. The Taliban and Al Qaeda — as also organisations
like the LeT and JeM — are unlikely to be swayed by such
considerations. They celebrate not life but ‘martyrdom’. Death in
jihad will immediately whisk one off to heaven and shower one with a
multiplicity of rewards.
Heady with their triumph in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and convinced
that they will defeat India as they have defeated the Soviet Union and
the United States, the Taliban and Al Qaeda are likely to think
nothing of launching several 26/11-type terrorist attacks, ignoring
the risk of provoking a full-scale military response by India. Should
a war follow, they will have little difficulty in breaking through a
poorly manned LoC and international border in Jammu & Kashmir and
sweeping through inadequately garrisoned Kashmir to the plains of
Punjab. Simultaneously, there will be offensives in the Chhamb area,
across the Wagah and Sindh-Rajasthan borders.
The hundreds of sleeper cells of the ISI, often linked to the LeT and
JeM, that have sprung up in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other parts of
the country, will then sabotage India’s defence efforts. Many ISI
agents and jihadis may pour in through the porous Indo-Nepal border,
particularly if that country’s administration has by then been
undermined by a resumption of Maoist uprising. Things will be worse if
a coalition Government, led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, is then in power in Dhaka. Both parties
being pathologically hostile to India, their Government may sponsor
terrorist strikes along the narrow Siliguri-Islampur corridor to
prevent transfer of Indian troops from the North-East to the western
front.
Any argument that the scenario sketched above is a figment of a
paranoid imagination and that the Taliban and Al Qaeda would never
control Afghanistan and Pakistan, holds little water. Given the
contradictions in American President Barack Obama’s AfPak policy and
the growing tiredness in the US with the Afghanistan war, the US may
well leave Afghanistan without defeating Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In
such an eventuality, the segment of the Pakistani Army and civilian
administration that is fighting the TTP will crumble. The rest will
follow.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/224723/Talking-to-separatists.html