Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan - May 16 2009

[James B]

AoA, another IED mubarak

Bomb kills six Pakistan security officials

A roadside bomb ripped through a Pakistani security forces' convoy, killing five policemen and an army officer in a northwest town, officials said Friday.

[sunilUpa]

^^^ There is more to that latest IED mubarak, apparently a DSP and yes yes jee officer also killed.

SSG captain, DSP among seven killed in Mardan

MARDAN: At least seven security forces’ personnel, including three police officers and a Special Services Group (SSG) captain, were killed when the militants attacked a Buner-bound joint police and FC convoy at Natian, triggering a full-fledged operation in the area that continued till late Thursday night, sources said.

Military sources, however, denied the killing of the military captain. Also, there were reports of the killing of one militant and injuries to several others. The exact number of causalities from the militants’ side could not be ascertained. However, 32 people sustained injuries in the clashes.

Sources said police and security forces’ officers were part of the reinforcement that reached the spot after the militants targeted a convoy of police and the FC on its way to Buner to strengthen the fragile peace in the restive district.

The reinforcement party had a gun-battle with the militants during which DSP Rural Farid Hussain Bangash, SHO Rustum police station Sherullah Khan, ASI Rustum police station Hanan Khan, a police constable and a SSG captain, whose name could not immediately be ascertained, were killed.

Security forces after the attack started an operation in the forest area. Meanwhile, reinforcement was sent from Ambela region in restive Buner district that, too, came under attack at Haji Baba Kandao, resulting in injuries to three security forcesí personnel, sources said.

Earlier, the militants attacked the police and the FC convoy near Natian, a border town between Mardan and Buner, injuring at least 22 security personnel.Sources said some locals believed the militants hurled a grenade at a van carrying the police and security forces’ personnel near Surkaway village. Officials said a joint convoy of police and FC personnel was going to Buner district when the miscreants hurled a hand grenade at one of their vehicles.

[Philip]

I think many of us said it a long time ago,to let the devils in Pak start eliminating themnselves as the contradictions of the TSP developed into earthquake like cracks in the terrain.If 9/11 was blowback time for the US,then Benazir's assassination was blowback time for Pak.Since then it has all been downhill and the fireball rolling downhill is consuming the state.The US has in some study declared Pak as the most dangerous spot on the planet.Indeed.India's task is to "raise the barricades" as high as possible to prevent any fallout entering our fair land,keep our powder dry,rapidly and without too much noise build up our defensive and offensive forces and watch the "games" unfold next door on telly.Pak is splintering into even more factions by the day,all at loggerheads with each other and most at each other's throats.Asininely,the US is trying to be judge,jury,executioneer and peacemaker in the region and is getting itself even deeper into the conflict in Af-Pak.

The only worrying aspect of this most gripping scenario is that pak has not slowed or halted its nuclear ambitions one bit.On the contrary it is going ahead full steam if the Yanquis are to be believed-a quite plausible tale as we know that China has been supporting Pak to the hilt in every way to use it as its proxy against India.It is also quite possible that China is even giving Pak aid so that it can further terror against India through the ungodly species of jehadis found on every streetcorner in Pak these days.

[shynee]

Dawood Ibrahim injured in firing at Karachi

Karachi: According to unconfirmed reports, wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim's brother Anees Ibrahim has allegedly been shot dead by unidentified assailants in Karachi late last night. Elder brother Dawood was also injured in the shootout, however, the degree of injuries are yet to be confirmed.

Sources revealed that the assassination bid is being attributed to members of the Bhatti faction, a local gang that has an interest in controlling the drug trade in Pakistan. It is believed that the Bhatti gang is associated with Dawood's arch rival the Chota Rajan gang.

The incident comes as a major jolt to the D-gang after the sudden death of another brother Noora in April this year. The reigns of the D-gang are now in the hands of younger brother Mustaqeen.

Dawood's sympathisers in Dongri, Bhendi Bazar, Nagpada and Mira Road are in a state of anxiety. Most are turning to siblings Haseena apa and Iqbal Kaskar for confirmation of the news.

A senior Crime Branch official said that the news of the assassination of India's most wanted gangster is yet to be confirmed by RAW. Both Anees and Dawood are named in over 12 serious offences including the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.

[Rahul Shukla]

Now, Gilani asks US to waive all Pakistani debts

World Bank approves $900 mln in loans for Pakistan (Reuters)

WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - The World Bank on Thursday approved $900 million in loans to improve education in Pakistan's Punjab and Sindh provinces and support a poverty-fighting fund for local community groups.

The World Bank money comes as Pakistan struggles with a balance of payments crisis and fighting in the northwest of the country that has left 2.5 million people homeless.

[SSridhar]

Dawood Ibrahim injured in firing at Karachi

We should now be able to apply pressure on Pakistan to extradite the injured Dawood and ask for DNA samples of Anees under Interpol control.

[ramana]

quote="Nihat"

Oh , how I wish our SF were involved.

How I wish D had gone.

If we get the news that D is gone in next few days, then we can conclude that Indians are directly/indirectly involved.[/quote]

Not necessarily. It could be US as they are concerned about D gang and their proliferation activites with AQK.

[RamaY]

This Chakravyu needs to be broken. The only way to break this Chakravyu is to crush ISI over the heads of its customers and financiers, the Americans, the British, the Europeans, and others. In my view, it doesn't matter if for that one needs to take the help of the larger devil, Islamists, who are as extreme as its gets.

The Chakravyuha can be broken only by killing the Saindhava who is stopping us from attacking its center/core where PI is hiding. We need to find the real Saindhava in this chakravyuha. Is it the liberal/sekoolar leadership of this world or ISI?

[John Snow]

Dawood Bhai should live Hazaar Sal.

If he goes what will Pawar do?

If Only Dawood lives we have opportunity to send faxes to TSP

[SSridhar]

Selected Nuggets, L&G

Pakistan’s blunders

Retired General and former Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told Nawa-e-Waqt that Pakistan made three blunders: taking part in war against terrorism, attacking Lal Masjid and killing Akbar Bugti. He said now new plots are being laid: India is openly on the warpath, Russia is bent upon taking revenge, and America is after our nuclear assets.

Please create Pakistani Taliban!

Writing in Express Abdul Qadir Hasan stated that all the Taliban fighting in Pakistan were actually organised by India to fight a covert war against Pakistan because it could not dare fight openly because of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. But if the Taliban are all India’s creation why can’t someone create some Pakistani Taliban as a reply to India?

Winning war on morale not arms

Pakistan’s former army chief Aslam Beg wrote in Nawa-e-Waqt that America had the latest weapons but it could not win the war in Iraq. Now India has bought a whole lot of new weapons which needlessly worries Pakistanis. But wars are not fought and won on the basis of new weapons but with passion.

Zardari has exhausted his cards

TV personality Dr Shahid Masud wrote in Jang that President Zardari had played out all his cards and was at the end of his road as he went to the US to meet President Obama to ask him to help support his party in power in Pakistan.

Big army needs enemy!

Columnist Nazir Naji recalled in Jang that in 2004 he had said that Pakistan had set up such a big army that it now needed an enemy to fight with. He also said that if we did not stop going to war with India a new enemy will be created in the northwest to force us to forget about India.

Condemn India and Israel!

Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that Pakistan government should strike at those who violated the agreement on Swat, talk to the Baloch, condemn American drone attacks and condemn India for Kashmir and condemn Israel for Palestine. As long as Palestine is simmering the people in Pakistan will not be happy.

Forget Kashmir think of Pakistan!

Writing in Jang Haroon Rashid said that JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was wrong when he said, “Forget Kashmir and think about Pakistan”. Was he made chairman of Kashmir Committee so that he could say this one day? Maulana also said that the Taliban were in the neighbourhood of Islamabad.

[SSridhar]

6 securitymen killed at Mardan

"An army captain and five police officials were killed when a remote-controlled device planted on the road exploded," a senior military official said. Local police chief Waqif Khan confirmed the death toll, saying it had been a police convoy escorted by an army vehicle.

[shynee]

I'm safe, says underworld don Anees {damn !!!}

[sanjaykumar]

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/daw ... nation-569

At least one Paki seems to have escaped the corrosive effect of 'allele conservation'.

[krithivas]

For your utmost entertainment ..... kindly please

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp ... 9#31124029

June 5: The kind-hearted clerk (Pakistani) in new York who showed mercy on a weeping would-be robber by giving him $40 and a loaf of bread was busted for selling illegal drug paraphernalia, officials said

R. Krithivas

[KLNMurthy]

I think many of us said it a long time ago,to let the devils in Pak start eliminating themnselves as the contradictions of the TSP developed into earthquake like cracks in the terrain.If 9/11 was blowback time for the US,then Benazir's assassination was blowback time for Pak.Since then it has all been downhill and the fireball rolling downhill is consuming the state.The US has in some study declared Pak as the most dangerous spot on the planet.Indeed.India's task is to "raise the barricades" as high as possible to prevent any fallout entering our fair land,keep our powder dry,rapidly and without too much noise build up our defensive and offensive forces and watch the "games" unfold next door on telly.Pak is splintering into even more factions by the day,all at loggerheads with each other and most at each other's throats.Asininely,the US is trying to be judge,jury,executioneer and peacemaker in the region and is getting itself even deeper into the conflict in Af-Pak.

The only worrying aspect of this most gripping scenario is that pak has not slowed or halted its nuclear ambitions one bit.On the contrary it is going ahead full steam if the Yanquis are to be believed-a quite plausible tale as we know that China has been supporting Pak to the hilt in every way to use it as its proxy against India.It is also quite possible that China is even giving Pak aid so that it can further terror against India through the ungodly species of jehadis found on every streetcorner in Pak these days.

this is a sagacious analysis and advice, I hope the policymakers work on these lines, though there are serious doubts. On a specific issue, we should be working on 'hardening' our systems and public services to handle the aftermath of a nuclear attack which will be a when not an if.

[Mahendra]

One person goes blind every five seconds in Pakistan

Madrassa maths at display. If every five seconds a person goes blind, a day with 86,400 seconds, a total of 17,280 people should go blind and so, each year around 6.3 million people should go blind. With a population of 170 million, Pakistan should go blind completely in 27 years.

Pakistanis have been blind for 62 years, what's new now

[Kakkaji]

From the 'Such Gup' section of this week's TFT:

Persuasion

Rumour has it that Hubby had to be persuaded to go to Swat and visit the refugee camps to offer solace, support and material relief. They say he was reluctant to go because he was not sure about the security arrangements. Our mole reports Hubby began to change his mind and plan his trip to Swat after he received some not-so-subtle hints from Uncle Sam.

More equal

When that terrible bomb went off in Lahore a few days ago, buildings far and wide registered the impact, not least an elite boys’ school some distance from the ISI’s provincial headquarters that was the suicide bombers’ target. And as we all know, all students are equal, especially in times of trial, but some students are more equal than others. In this case, we hear the grandson of an exalted personage is a pupil at the school and was bundled out hurriedly to his home immediately after the bomb explosion took place. Other students had to await their turn to go home.

Indiscretion

We hear the great fast bowler has been turfed out of our team for an indiscretion that has caused him great discomfort. It has also caused discomfort to the Pakistan Cricket Board. Asked for the reason why the fast bowler was not included in the team, officials had no answer and responded with an embarrassing silence. The bowler, it appears, has been keeping dodgy company and has picked up a bothersome affliction . This was revealed when he underwent the requisite physical examination. His exclusion from the team followed swiftly thereafter.

[IndraD]

I'm safe, says underworld don Anees {damn !!!}

Ya how can some one survive when dozen bullets are fired from all over, either bullets were of rubber or Dawood and Co have consumed amrit some time ago.

[Anujan]

Holbrooke fears US troops to push more Taliban into Pakistan

The arrival of more US troops in Afghanistan could lead to a huge influx of Taliban fighters into Pakistan, threatening to destabilise the country, the US special envoy to the region said Friday."I don't want to be alarmist here, but I'm predicting some massive influx," Richard Holbrooke told reporters, responding to questions about the impact on Pakistan of a reinforced US military presence in Afghanistan.

[ramana]

He is sounding like a Yawn apologist!

[Anujan]

I know this has been posted before, but it contains a listing of baksheesh ( so far) obtained by selling GOAT, in the post mushy timeframe.

Pakistan PM urges US to write off debt

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday urged the United States to write off its debt to help his cash-strapped nation grapple with insurgency, humanitarian crisis and global recession.

* US administration was seeking more than 300 million dollars in emergency relief

* A bill that would triple US civilian aid for Pakistan to 7.5 billion dollars spread over the next five years

* The International Monetary Fund in November had to approve a 7.6-billion-dollar loan to help Pakistan avoid a balance of payment crisis

* International donors in Tokyo in April also pledged more than five billion dollars to stabilise Pakistan

* The United Nations is appealing for an additional $454 million to assist nearly two million Pakistanis displaced by fighting between army troops and Taliban militants in Swat Valley

This is over and above Military assistance.

Also recall a similar appeal made in 2001, when Pakistan was able to obtain debt restructuring, military assistance and grants. That worked tremendously well guaranteeing a comfortable life for Crore commanders and Jernails, a few AWACS, a few F-22p frigates, some subs, F16s, AMRAAMs, TOWs, M109 howitzers ...

To be fair, the civvies should be given a chance too !

[Anujan]

He is sounding like a Yawn apologist!

The baksheesh and noises about "Understanding" Pakistan's problems indicates that US is comfortable with Kayani-Gilani-Zardari arrangement (so far). The noises of bringing in Badmash has subsided. Maybe Unkil just used him as a bogey to get more concessions. Note that nobody in recent times (openly at least) visited Badmash.

We will know more when Hillary visits.

[Kakkaji]

The memoirs of Shahryar Khan get interesting in this week's edition of TFT:

From Bhopal to Pakistan

Shahryar M Khan
relates the story of how his mother Princess Abida Sultan abandoned a life of luxury to become a Pakistani

My mother, Princess Abida Sultan had once again defied her father, Nawab Hamidullah Khan of Bhopal, and he would make life very difficult for her. It was the even of independence and she had already decided to move to Pakistan. She believed that I, her son, would have a level playing field in Pakistan. The son of a Muslim Nawab, even if he were well-educated, could not, in her opinion, have a level playing field in India.

My mother did not have a lot of money in the bank, since all her expenses were taken care of by the Palace. So she resorted to selling her jewellery in Indore through a friend: a Hindu doctor called Dr. Ram Narayan. My mother got a fair sum of money for the jewelry, around Rs 800,000 which was a considerable amount in the late 40s. (A cunning yindoo gave her a fair deal?)

She now made plans to take me to London and put me in a public school there. She would stay in London until she got a visa which would enable her to move to Pakistan. His Highness had squeezed my mother financially, but he had left an allowance for my education.

And so it was that in 1948, we travelled to the United Kingdom by ship. We watched the 1948 Olympic Games in London, where among other things, I saw Bradman batting. (Bradman batting in Olympics?)

My mother wrote to Mr Jinnah, asking for his permission to move to Pakistan. She thought that because of her tension with her father, Jinnah would not approve of this, since it might antagonize His Highness (who also wanted to move there). But Jinnah wrote back, telling her that she would be welcome in Pakistan. He told her, however, that Pakistan would not be able to provide her with jagirs, palaces and the luxurious lifestyle she had had in Bhopal. My mother never cared much for mundane luxuries, and made up her mind to move to the new Muslim state.

She was in for a shock, though. One fine morning, in September 1948, she arrived at the Pakistani High Commission in London, only to find that Jinnah had died. Her plans for moving to Pakistan now seemed to be in jeopardy, and she was receiving a stream of telegrams from home, asking her to return, since she was the heir-apparent. My grandmother, too, was telling her that the situation in Bhopal was worsening, and that she ought to come back immediately.

So my mother returned to India, travelling to Bombay and then to Bhopal. She found the atmosphere there even worse than when she had left for London. His Highness would now barely recognize her. She offered salaam, and he turned his face away. She sat there dutifully for a few moments, then offered another salaam and left. The tension between daughter and father was at its height.

She was also told by sympathetic people in the Court that His Highness was now determined to go to Pakistan and that he was thinking of what to do, since he had lost confidence in her. They suggested that she make up with him. My mother was too much of a hardliner for this. His Highness was squeezing her financially, and the only money he gave her from his resources was the allowance for my education, which could be stopped at any moment too.

The last straw, however, came when she found out that her favourite horse, Young Soldier, had been sold by His Highness. This broke her heart. If His Highness could go so far as to sell her beloved horse on the open market, knowing how much she loved it, this was the end of their relationship.

She now had no option but to move to Pakistan, if not that year, then in 1949. And so she came back to London and found lodgings there.

While my mother was in London, waiting for her visa for Pakistan, she played squash at the Indian High Commission. Among others, she played with the famous author Khushwant Singh, then the Commercial Attaché at the High Commission. Later, he would tell me how my mother mercilessly hit him with the squash ball when he got in her way.

It was here that the Indian High Commissioner Krishna Menon, over glasses of lemonade after my mother’s squash sessions, tried to convince her in his broken Urdu to stay in London instead of moving to Pakistan. He said to her, “Princess, you are going to Pakistan, but there is nothing for you there. I know about your fight with your father. But don’t go to Pakistan, stay here in England and we will provide you with a luxury flat and an allowance for you and your son to live here. After all, we’ve done the same for the four Hyderabad girls. Both the daughters-in-law of the Nizam are living comfortably in London and we have provided them with all the facilities and finances that they might need. So you too should stay here.”

He called her to dinner in his attempts to persuade her to stay, and was very gracious to her. (Ya Allah, these cunning yindoos try to kill us with their kindness) But my mother had made up her mind to seek her future in Pakistan, and politely declined all his offers. She moved to Karachi in due course and settled down there.

In 1956, eight years after Jinnah’s death and five years after Liaquat Ali Khan’s assassination, my grandfather called me as usual to Claridge’s Hotel, where he stayed when he was in London. I was in my last year of college and as always, I hastened to meet him. While my mother and aunts had a tense relationship with him, he had taken care to maintain affectionate relations with me. Every year he would invite me to London and I would treat him and his second wife Aftab Bia with deference. He clearly appreciated this attitude on my part. He would send me and Aftab Bia off to the cinema, take us out to dinner and give me gifts. I was his link to his family.

When I was summoned in January 1956, he met me alone in his drawing-room, greeted me affectionately but then adopted a serious attitude and said to me: “I have decided finally to proceed to Pakistan. I therefore want to discuss an important matter with you, because you are now an adult. You are a wise and balanced young man. My proposal is that you should take over from me as the Nawab of Bhopal. After all, this is your heritage and your right as my oldest grandson. You are now educated and mature, so you must come back to Bhopal to inherit your rightful position. I will make all arrangements for you to return, and arrange an Indian passport for you. However, I realize that your mother is an extremely difficult and obstinate woman and so you need to discuss this with her before making a final decision.”

Naturally, I was shocked and perturbed by my grandfather’s proposal. I had never opposed His Highness in anything that he said. I was left to ponder over perhaps the most important decision which I had been called upon to make. But I knew in my mind that I didn’t want to go back to Bhopal. I had decided to become a Pakistani and it would not be right to vacillate on this issue. I couldn’t also separate myself from my mother, who was living in Karachi. I therefore summoned up enough courage to tell my grandfather that I couldn’t accept his proposal and that it was not necessary for me to consult my mother.

My grandfather took my reply with equanimity and didn’t make his displeasure apparent. He was obviously disappointed, because his chosen successor was declining the (hollow) crown he was offering. And of course, his plans to move to Karachi were now in disarray.

We did our rounds of the cinemas with Aftab Bia and parted on the most affectionate terms, as if this encounter had never taken place. I then wrote to my mother of my decision. She mentioned it in her memoirs and I still have that letter in my possession.

Shahryar M Khan, a distinguished diplomat and former Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board lives in Lahore

Mother and son must have rued their decisions afterwards. MAK would not have been called "Nawaab", and SAK not the "Chhote Nawaab" if Shahryar had accepted his late grandfather's offer.

Of course mother and son have been vindicated, as Yindoo India has ruthlessly discriminated against the grandson and the great-grandson of an erstwhile muslim Nawaab by allowing them to captain the Indian cricket team, and become a Bollywood heartthrob respectively.

Abdicating the title and riches of Bhopal, for the stinking cesspool that Pakistan ended up being. What idiots!

Shahryar's children must be cursing their Dad and Grandma for having given away their inheritence.

[Hitesh]

All I can say is good riddance!

[Kakkaji]

A very interesting article in this week's TFT, about the Urdu poetry before, during, and after the events of 1857. Posting in full, I have bolded the parts that indicate that the seeds of Pakistan were sown in the minds of the muslim elite in the aftermath of 1857. Admins please edit if inappropriate:

Rising phoenix

Rakshanda Jalil
reviews the Urdu poetry of struggle

After the fall of Delhi, several poets speak of the weeping, homeless men and women, carrying bundles of precious belongings on their heads, who flee Delhi only to be robbed or murdered on the way

The turbulence of 1857 was witnessed by some of the finest poets of the age – the ‘Bloomsbury Group of Delhi’ as it has been called. They saw and commented, yet few scholars and historians have seized upon their testimony. The history of 1857 is still being constructed largely from English language accounts

‘Politics and history are interwoven, but not commensurate,’ wrote Lord Acton. So also politics and poetry. In the Delhi of the nineteenth century, everybody – from the king down to the beggar – was smitten by poetry. Before 1857, poets dominated the city’s cultural and intellectual landscape; they were held in greater esteem than the Mughal emperors whose ‘rule’ did not extend beyond the shabby grandeur of the Quila-e-Moalla, or the Exalted Fort, as the Red Fort was then called. After 1857, especially in its immediate violent aftermath, the political climate became far too volatile for poets and writers to chart the course of the city’s fortunes. They could, at best, defend or decry – depending upon their lot – the causes and effects of the year that was to change their lives irrevocably. And this they did in prodigious amounts of poetry written in Urdu during and after 1857.

However, just as there is no generalized or undifferentiated response to the Revolt of 1857 among the Muslim intelligentsia of the late nineteenth century, there is no uniform, un-variegated, one-dimensional reflection in contemporary Urdu poetry of what would later be dubbed the First War of Independence. It reflects a bewildering and often contradictory array of opinions. Reactions vary from nostalgic lament for a lost age, to fixing blame and apportioning responsibility for the terrible misfortunes that had befallen all those who had actively participated in the rebellion. The Muslims in particular felt they had been singled out. In the poetry of this period, heroes become villains and vice versa: the mutineering soldiers referred to as mujahid (martyrs, or those who bear witness) by some, become balwai (rioters) for others. So also the Firangi and the Mughals, both of whom invite varying degrees of criticism and approbation. Two worlds – the decaying and the emergent – fuse and merge. Pathos, confusion and conflict reign supreme. It had to take several decades for the clouds of uncertainty to part and the debate on the Old Light versus the New to usher in the Lamp of New Learning. But for that to happen, Delhi – the focus of the ‘Dilli Chalo’ movement, the worst victim of its worst excesses and also the markaz or centre of the finest Urdu poetry of its time had to first rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes of its siege and slaughter.

Given the close relationship between social reality and literary texts, it is important to re-visit and re-examine the literature produced during times of great social upheaval. Often, it gives a far more nuanced understanding of historical events than official records and documents. In Urdu, there exists a body of poetry known as shehr ashob (‘misfortunes of the city’) to express political and social decline and turmoil. While much of it is melodramatic, self-pitying and exaggerated, with a great deal of rhetoric and play upon words in the best traditions of elegiac poetry such as nauha, marsiya and soz, shehr ashob also affords ample opportunities for the poet to paint graphic word pictures of what he sees and experiences at first hand. Using the conventional imagery of the Persian-Arabic tradition, shehr ashob allows the poet to speak of his personal sorrows and losses while, ostensibly, bemoaning a crumbling social order. When Sirajuddaullah was killed by the British in the Battle of Plassey (1757), his friend Raja Ram Narain Maozoon expresses his anguish thus:

Oh! where have the mad lovers who once roamed the desert gone
And where have those days of love vanished

Over the years, events conspired to give plenty of fodder to the Urdu elegist’s mill. There was the decline and dismantling of the Mughal empire, subsequent invasions of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Marathas and Rohillas, establishment of British control over Delhi in 1803, and the most cruel blow of all –the annexation of Awadh in 1856 – which turned even loyal Muslim supporters of the British into discontented suspicious malcontents, if not ardent jehadis. With each fresh catastrophe, the Urdu poet evolved a vocabulary to express his angst, clothing his sorrow in a time-honoured repertoire of images and metaphors. Some favourite synonyms for the Beloved sitamgar, but, kafir, yaar – now began to be used mockingly for the British.

And then the Revolt happened. It divided the Urdu poets into two camps; those for it and those against. Some were for Zafar but against the ghaddar (the traitors in the British army); others gave vent to their ire against the emperor too. Interestingly, these poets not only contradict each other, often they contradict themselves too; against the British before and during the siege of Delhi, they turn into fervent admirers of British rule in Hindustan shortly after the fall of Delhi. A great many, however, refuse to take sides, preferring instead to chronicle the end of an age and a way of life.

A staunch ‘royalist’ Dagh writes:

Calamity has seized the populace, misfortune befallen the city
The coming of the Purabiyas has spelt God’s doom for the city

Muhammad Sadruddun Khan Azurdah, a poet, scholar and magistrate, however, directly attacks the people of the Fort and holds them responsible for the calamity:

Misfortune befell the city because of the fort
Due to their evil deeds retribution came upon Delhi
Calamity arrived with the black men from Meerut

Azurdah goes on to catalogue the woes of Delhi after the kale are defeated by the gore: the massacre of innocents, men pulled out of their homes on the flimsiest of pretexts (often their being Muslim being reason enough), but his real concern is with people like himself, the aristocracy of Delhi. He mourns the loss of his friends, in particular Sehbai, the teacher, poet and scholar, the leading light of the Dilli College, who was shot dead by the British troops. Azurdah writes:

Why shouldn’t Azurdah go crazy and run to the wilderness
When Sahbai is killed so brutally, though he was guiltless

The notion of ‘guilt’ itself is interpreted differently by different Urdu poets of this period. On the one hand you have poets accusing the Indians of being guilty, others such as Fazle Haq Khairabadi and Munir Shikohabadi hold the British guilty of unleashing terror upon hapless Muslims. Writing in his island prison, an unrepentant Fazle Haq says:

I did not commit any crime except this
I did not like them (the British), nor was I friendly with them
* * *

On 20 September 1857, Delhi fell. British soldiers entered the Jama Masjid, desecrated it and set about unleashing the most terrible atrocities. In one week, 25,000 people were killed, the rebels and their sympathizers summarily executed, 160,000 inhabitants driven out of the city limits and forced to camp in the open countryside. Qazi Fazal Husain Afsurdah holds the soldiers and spies guilty for the madness that spirals out of control and catches both the ‘guilty’ and the ‘innocent’:

Calamity came with the coming of the soldiers
The spies added fire to the fury
Both the guilty and the innocent were arrested

Several felt that Muslims were singled out for reprisals. Shah Ayatollah Johri rues the desecration of mosques and holy places, claiming that the Brahmins prosper while the Muslims suffer and the masjids remain desolate while in the temples the conches can now be heard:

The House of God lies in darkness whereas the lamps are lit in the temples
The traditions of the infidels thrive whereas the light of faith flickers
The mystically inclined Syed Ali Tashnah, a much-loved poet of Delhi, blames the outsiders who robbed and pillaged:

The Tilangas came and looted the entire city
As the saying goes, the naked came to rob the hungry

Several poets, such as Zaheer Dehlvi, Hakim Agha Jaan Aish, Nawab Mirza Dagh, Qurban Ali Beg Saalik, Mohsin and Kaukab speak of the weeping, homeless men and women, carrying bundles of precious belongings on their heads, who flee Delhi only to be robbed or murdered on the way. Some speak of unemployment and acute poverty. Dagh writes ‘the only job left for Muslim men is to fill up the prisons’, and Sehr says ‘it has been an age since one has seen the face of a rupaiya’. Ruing the slaughter of an age, Zaheer Dehlvi writes:

People have been pulled out of their homes
Corpses line the road, layers upon layers
Neither grave, nor shroud, nor mourners are left

Many of these poets belonged to the privileged classes who were the worst hit. So there is an element of personal sorrow and loss mingled with the general lament and mourning. Occasionally there is also an attempt to shift the ‘blame’ for the terrors and afflictions on those who opposed the British. Ghalib, the pre-eminent Urdu poet, who stayed in Delhi all through the siege and fall of Delhi, writes:

Now every English soldier that bears arms
Is sovereign, and free to work his will
Men dare not venture out into the street
And terror chills their heart within them still
Their homes enclose them as in prison walls
And in the Chauk the victors hang and kill
The city is athirst for Muslim blood
And every grain of dust must drink its fill…

A self-confessed namak-khwar-e-sarkar-e-angrez (an eater of the salt of the British government on account of his pension, incidentally stopped after 1857), Ghalib tries to be diplomatic in his Persian Diary, called Dastambu meaning a ‘Posy of Flowers’ – an incongruous name for a document so grim. He calls the rebellious soldiers from Meerut ‘faithless to the salt’ and ‘black-hearted killers’. He terms the revolt ‘unwarranted’ and expresses joy when Delhi is ‘divested of its madmen and conquered by the brave and wise.’ But this joy is short-lived, as his letters prove: ‘We live in anxious thought for bread and water, and die in anxious thought for shroud and grave.’ As Delhi becomes a city without a ruler, a garden without a gardener, he writes, ‘By God, you may search for a Muslim in this city and not find one – rich, poor, and artisans alike are gone.’ He records how Hindus were allowed to return by January 1858 ‘but on the walls of the homeless Muslim homes the grass grows green, and its tongues whisper every moment that the places of the Muslims are desolate.’ Several verses too bear testimony, albeit obliquely:

If Ghalib sings in a bitter strain, forgive him;
Today pain stabs more keenly at his heart
And
We kept writing the blood-drenched narratives of that madness
Although our hands were chopped off in the process.

Ghalib’s hands were not chopped off. He lived another twelve years after the Revolt and witnessed the confusion and disarray that followed the loss of power and patronage. With time, two groups of Muslims emerged who soon established themselves as two opposing camps. One camp made no effort to camouflage their hostility to the British, choosing to do one of two things: either, establish cloistered citadels of traditional learning based on religion; or, live in the hope that one day their lost glory would be miraculously restored. The other group – and here it must be said that this lot had suffered a mere clipping of wings and not the devastation that one section of Muslims had indeed experienced – took the diametrically opposite view. They figured that the old Muslim elite could never recapture their lost ground; the best they could do, under these irrevocably changed circumstances, was to build bridges between the Muslims and the British and hitch their star to the wagon of western learning which would, in turn, open the doors to employment in the government.

The champions of this second camp – Sir Syed, Hali, Azad, Nazir Ahmad and Maulvi Zakaullah – felt the need to brush the ashes of 1857 from their feet and move on. At a mushaira in Lahore in 1874, Hali read the Nauha-e-Dehli:

Dear friends, I beseech you, speak not of the Delhi that is no more
Even the traces of what reminded us of the city’s destruction are gone
Dear Heaven, can there be greater oblivion than that?

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, a new voice arose, the satirical doubting voice of Akbar Illahabadi who could fully support neither the new nor the old, but did feel the need to admonish those who had forgotten the lessons of the Revolt:

The minstrel and the music – both have changed
Our sleep has changed, the tale we told has changed.

To conclude, the turbulence of 1857 was witnessed by some of the finest poets of the age – the ‘Bloomsbury Group of Delhi’ as it has been called. They saw and commented, yet few scholars and historians have seized upon their testimony. The history of 1857 is still being constructed largely from English-language accounts. Elsewhere in the world, literature is increasingly being used to supplement archival material. It is therefore in the fitness of things that in both India and Pakistan the various regional literatures be used to write national narratives.

Rakhshanda Jalil is Director, Media & Culture, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

[Samay]

poetic history ,from a terrorist's pov

[krithivas]

Pakistan takes up water compensation issue with India

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 009_pg7_31

Demanding compensation ... again!

R. Krithivas

[ramana]

poetic history ,from a terrorist's pov

The Tilangas came and looted the entire city

Payback for Kakatiyas? Need to research this aspect.

[Rahul Shukla]

Indian Navy kills Pak fisherman (Daily Times)

THATTA: A Pakistani fisherman was killed and several others injured when the Indian Navy fired at their boat near the Jatli coastal area in Sir Creek.

A private TV channel claimed that the fishermen had been fired at in Pakistan’s water limits. According to sources, 50 fishermen on 30 boats are missing and the coast guard has no information on their whereabouts.

Indian Navy or Coast Guard? And that's a lot of Paki fisherman + boats missing...

[ramana]

All those missing ones flew the coop.

[svinayak]

poetic history ,from a terrorist's pov
The Tilangas came and looted the entire city
Payback for Kakatiyas? Need to research this aspect.

People Wonder why War Of Independence 1857 and its 150th anniversary is not being celebrated by Pakistani elite. It was the end of Moghul Empire once and for all.

If they celebrate the anniversary it means the end of Pakistan also.

http://books.google.com/books?id=RDw4AA ... ry_s&cad=0

In 1872 a British scholar and civil servant in India, W. W. Hunter, published a now historic book entitled The Indian Musalmans, in which he gave the views of various sects of Islam on the question of whether Muslims were duty-bound by their religion to wage a war-like jihad against the British government of India. We quote below from the second edition, published by Trubner and Co., London, 1872.

* Regarding the Shiah sect, Hunter writes:

"Their present declaration of the non-obligation to rebel is spontaneous, and it is well that such a declaration has been put on record. It comes to us stamped with the highest authority which the Shias can give to any document, and will be permanently binding on the whole sect."
(p. 121)

* Regarding the Sunni Hanafis, the majority sect, he then adds:

"I now pass to the Formal Decisions of the greater sect. The Sunnis, as they are the most numerous class of Indian Musalmans, so they have of late been the most conspicious in proclaiming that they are under no religious obligation to wage war against the Queen. To that end they have procured two distinct sets of Legal Decisions, and the Muhammadan Literary Society of Calcutta has summed up the whole Sunni view of the question in a forcibly written pamphlet…

"The Law Doctors of Northern Hindustan set out by tacitly assuming that India is a Country of the Enemy (Dar-ul-Harb), and deduce therefrom that religious rebellion is uncalled for. The Calcutta Doctors declare India to be a Country of Islam (Dar-ul-Islam), and conclude that religious rebellion is therefore unlawful."
(p. 122)

The two rulings (fatwas) referred to here are given in English translation in Appendix II and III of The Indian Musalmans.

* In the first fatwa, the following question was asked:

"What is your Decision, O men of learning and expounders of the law of Islam, in the following: Whether a Jihad is lawful in India, a country formerly held by a Muslim ruler, and now held under the sway of a Christian government, where the said Christian Ruler does in no way interfere with his Muslim subjects in the Rites prescribed by their Religion, such as Praying, Fasting, Pilgrimage, Zakat, Friday Prayer, and Jama`at, and gives them fullest protection and liberty in the above respects in the same way as a Muslim Ruler would do, and where the Muslim subjects have no strength and means to fight with their rulers; on the contrary, there is every chance of the war, if waged, ending with a defeat, and thereby causing an indignity to Islam."

The fatwa given on this question, dated 17 July 1870, is as follows:

"The Musalmans here are protected by Christians, and there is no Jihad in a country where protection is afforded, as the absence of protection and liberty between Musalmans and Infidels is essential in a religious war, and that condition does not exist here. Besides, it is necessary that there should be a probability of victory to Musalmans and glory to the Indians. If there be no such probability, the Jihad is unlawful."

This fatwa bears the seals of the following: Maulavi Ali Muhammad, Maulavi Abdul Hai, Maulavi Fazlullah, Muhammad Naim, and Maulavi Rahmatullah, all of Lucknow, Maulavi Qutb-ud-Din of Delhi, Maulavi Lutfullah of Rampur, and others. See pages 218-219 of The Indian Musalmans.

* In the second fatwa, given by Maulavi Karamat Ali of the Calcutta Muhammadan Society, it is first determined that India is Dar-ul-Islam, and then it is added:

"The second question is, `Whether it is lawful in this Country to make Jihad or not.' This has been solved together with the first. For jihad can by no means be lawfully made in Dar-ul-Islam. This is so evident that it requires no argument or authority to support it. Now, if any misguided wretch, owing to his perverse fortune, were to wage war against the Ruling Powers of this Country, British India, such war would be rightly pronounced rebellion; and rebellion is strictly forbidden by the Islamic Law. Therefore such war will likewise be unlawful; and in case any one would wage such war, the Muslim subjects would be bound to assist their Rulers, and, in conjunction with their Rulers, to fight with such rebels."
(ibid., p. 219)

http://www.muslim.org/allegs/fhunter.htm

http://www.storyofpakistan.com/articlet ... =A023&Pg=2

The British administrators deliberately followed a discriminatory policy against the Muslims, even in filling minor jobs. Advertisements inviting applications for government jobs specifically mentioned that Muslims would not be appointed. Hunter admits that the exclusion of the Muslims was so complete that in the government offices of Calcutta they could not accept a post higher than that of a porter, messenger, filler of inkpots and mender of pens.

By a series of revenue and financial measures, the British smashed the political and social position of the Muslims. In the province of Bombay, the government appointed "Inam Commission" to inquire into the land grants of the Muslim times. The Commission took away 20,000 estates from the Muslims and thus ruined many families and institutions of the community.

The Company's commercial policy eliminated the Muslims from internal and foreign trade. When the Europeans came to the Sub-continent, the Muslim merchants lost much of their commerce with foreign countries. But they maintained their hold on internal trade and their commercial activities extended to the Persian Gulf and the coastal territories of the Arabian Sea. During the Company's rule, the Muslim traders were pushed out of this area as well by the competition of the Company's traders who enjoyed many special concessions.

The newly introduced English system of education had many drawbacks for the Muslims, mainly because it made no provisions for religious education. As a result, they stayed away from it. Thus, within a few years of loss of political power, the Muslims lost all avenues of employment, were dispossessed of their estates and deprived of the benefits of education. A highly cultured community turned into a backward and poor people. In their place British-educated Hindus began to occupy positions in governments offices formerly held by the Muslims.

[Rahul Shukla]

^^^ Some more details...

Pakistani fishing boat comes under fire (The News)

The Pakistan Navy has said that a Pakistani fishing boat had come under fire by an Indian helicopter when it was fishing in a sea area not properly demarcated between the two countries, causing bullet injuries to two Pakistani fishermen. The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon when Pakistani fishing boats left the Jati Creek area near Thatta and went into the sea where there was no proper demarcation of maritime boundary between Indian and Pakistan.

“It is a congested fishing area and boats there operate without proper navigational aids causing trouble to them,” said Commander Salman Ali, a spokesman for the Pakistan Navy. He said that two Pakistani fishermen received bullet injuries, in their leg and foot respectively, and once eight fishing boats came under fire they retreated to the Pakistani Creek area. The Indian helicopter first made reconnaissance of the area and then fired warning shots on the Pakistani boats, he said.

[Naidu]

poetic history ,from a terrorist's pov

The Tilangas came and looted the entire city

Payback for Kakatiyas? Need to research this aspect.

This is strictly OT, but...

There are references to the Tilangas in the Dalrymple's "The Last Moghul". If I remember right, it was a generic term used for all British-trained Indian troops who fought against the Moghals in 1857. Most of these troops were from Bengal, Bihar, etc. (essentially Purbias), but the "Tilanga" name stuck. Telugu troops were first recruited by the British for their campaigns in the South against Tipu, etc., I believe.

[aryank]

U.S. experts: Pakistan on course to become Islamist state

"If you look out 10 years, I think the government will be overrun by Islamic militants."

"The Punjabi elite has already lost control of Pakistan, but neither they nor the Obama administration realize that," the official said. "Pakistan will be an Islamist state — or maybe a collection of four Islamic states, probably within a few years. There's no civilian leadership in Islamabad that can stop this, and so far, there hasn't been any that's been willing to try."

Several U.S. officials said that the Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy that President Barack Obama unveiled last month is being called into question by the accelerating rate at which the insurgency in Pakistan is expanding.

[hnair]

The Indian helicopter first made reconnaissance of the area and then fired warning shots on the Pakistani boats, he said.

only warning shots? Kasab did not fire any warning shots. so why take risk?

[Guddu]

Strat commenting on Saeed Muhammad's release...

"Analysis

The U.S. reaction was not very strong, suggesting Pakistan is using the offensive in Swat as a lever to keep Washington from opposing the release too vocally. India, on the other hand, has been more voluble in its opposition to Saeed’s release, and has announced arrests of key associates of Saeed allegedly planning fresh attacks in India. At the same time, New Delhi realizes that while Islamabad has yet to meet India’s expectations in terms of taking action against those responsible for the Mumbai attack, the Pakistanis are embroiled in a very difficult situation with the jihadist insurgency on their own soil.

From Islamabad’s point of view, while it is dealing with India and the United States on the issue of transnational Islamist militancy, it has a much more immediate concern on the home front in the form of Pakistan’s largest-ever counterjihadist offensive in the Swat region in the North-West Frontier Province. Islamabad faces a great challenge in terms of preventing the Taliban from staging large-scale attacks in major urban areas of Punjab — such as the one May 27 that targeted the provincial headquarters of the country’s main intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, in the provincial capital of Lahore. The Pakistani security establishment faces a major dilemma in deciding how to combat the jihadist forces that have gone rogue while simultaneously maintaining influence over those that have not.

As a Kashmiri Islamist militant group that has continued ties with the Pakistani state and simultaneously maintains relations with the al Qaeda-led transnational jihadist network and pursues goals independent of Islamabad, Saeed’s movement is at the center of this issue. While the Pakistanis want to maintain influence on JuD as a long-term asset against India, Islamabad has been forced to crack down on the group and its allies within the security apparatus because of their role in the Mumbai attack.

Although Islamabad’s influence over the group has eroded over time, a key difference between JuD and other Pakistani militant groups is that, unlike the Pashtun jihadists, JuD it is not staging attacks in Pakistan. This means JuD could help Islamabad with its struggle against rogue Islamist militants in the immediate term. The security establishment could use Saeed’s release, which resulted from an internal struggle among various institutions of the state (in the government, judiciary, army and intelligence sectors), to help counter the Talibanization of Punjab. This is critical to making sure the jihadists remain contained in the northwestern Pashtun areas.

Though a champion of the Kashmiri cause and a major player in the Kashmiri Islamist militant landscape, JuD is dominated by Punjabis and is based in Punjab. A Punjabi himself, Saeed could use his influence to undermine Punjab-based jihadist groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which are playing a key role in facilitating Taliban attempts to make inroads into the province. It should be kept in mind that JuD has ties to certain Pakistani Taliban factions and that Saeed has criticized the Swat offensive, which is why the nature of any assistance the group could offer remains unclear. Should Saeed and his movement decide to work with the government, they will not do this simply because they oppose undermining the Pakistani state; instead, they will do so as a means to gain respite from the international crackdown they face, and to enhance their own political fortunes in Pakistan.

With JuD’s assistance, the Pakistani state could thus gain some tactical advantage over the rogue jihadists. In the longer term, however, this ultimately would lead to the empowerment of Islamist forces that may not fight the state, but still wish to change Pakistan into a more radical Islamist state. And any efforts on the part of Islamabad to collaborate with groups like JuD will make matters worse with India and the United States. Pakistan cannot fight every single jihadist group operating from its territory, but aligning with some to fight others will only cause international tensions. And in any case, the days when the jihadist entities were nothing more than proxies of Islamabad are long gone."

[Guddu]

deleted

[p_saggu]

Here
Greater Pakhtunistan’ map signboards appear in NWFP

Dirty trick the Daily Times plays, their URL has 'slashes' "\" instead of backslashes "/". Change all slashes to "/" and the URL will be correct.

[anupmisra]

Sherry due in Delhi
Can the groper be far behind?

Sherry to address Pak-Afghan-India trialogue in Delhi

ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister for information and broadcasting Sherry Rehman would be delivering a keynote address at the Delhi Policy Group Meeting on Afghanistan-India-Pakistan Trialogue on Sunday.

The three-day long meeting (June 6 to June 8, 2009) will deliberate on important aspects of bilateral and trilateral relationship between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India with an aim to find common ground for regional security and progress.

Key sessions include Afghanistan-India Strategic Dialogue, Afghanistan-India-Pakistan Trialogue, and The Wider Context (of trilateral cooperation). Key participants in the meeting include former Indian Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, Pakistan’s MNA Bushra Gohar, Senator Afrasiab Khattak, Members Afghanistan National Assembly Shukria Barakzai, Mir Ahmad Joyenda and Shinkai Karokhel.

[anupmisra]

DusPercenti on another world tour
This guy is more out of than in pookistan.