Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan - Jan 04, 2014

[Sonugn]

it is also true that India would have no interest in Pakistan if it were not for the numerous terrorist groups that Pakistan supports.

This certainly would create lots of burnol/constipated moments from across border.

[Nandu]

^^^
Ten fictions that pakistani defense officials love to peddle
Should this go in the first page of TSP dhaga?

Yes. I don't see a way to edit it now, but if I start the next thread, I will add this.

[Peregrine]

^^^
Ten fictions that pakistani defense officials love to peddle
Should this go in the first page of TSP dhaga?

From the article,

PAKI CLAIM: “Pakistan has an enduring interest with peace with India.”

Really? Tell me more. Pakistan has started every war with India over Kashmir and then failed to win any of them. Pakistan continues to sustain a flotilla of militant groups whose stated objectives are to coerce India to make some concession to Pakistan on Kashmir and generally to foment communal violence between India’s Hindu and Muslim communities. These groups now operate throughout India. Under Pakistan’s expanding nuclear umbrella, these groups have been able to undertake attacks far beyond Kashmir including the 2001 attack on India’s parliament, the 2006 attack on Mumbai’s commuter rail system and the 2008 multi-day siege of Mumbai among numerous other lesser known rampages. While it is true that Pakistan must implement a defense policy based on India’s defense capabilities rather than assumptions about India’s most magnanimous intentions, it is also true that India would have no interest in Pakistan if it were not for the numerous terrorist groups that Pakistan supports.

So, is she off or on her meds?

anupmisra Ji :

Could might possibly / probably be that the USG-DD-SD etc. are sending a Message to the Land of the Pure and Home of the Terrorist i.e. behave or else!

Cheers

[ramana]

Nandu, I added under Miscellaneous Items in the first post....

[A_Gupta]

On the F-16s from Jordan, there is now an independent source, saying not exactly the same thing.
http://www.janes.com/article/34610/paki ... nian-f-16s

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is "close to concluding a deal" for the purchase of up to 13 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter aircraft currently flown by the Royal Jordanian Air Force, a senior Pakistani government official has told IHS Jane's .

The official said the PAF has also made inquiries with at least two other countries to buy F-16s although he declined to name them.

......

"The discussions with Jordan are at an advanced stage. We are looking at 12 F-16As and one F-16B Block 15 version," said the Pakistani official. "I hope a deal will come together soon and the aircraft could land in Pakistan in the next few months," he added.

A senior Western diplomat in Islamabad said Jordan may have agreed to sell the aircraft after being persuaded by the United States and possibly Saudi Arabia.

....

(truncated for fair use considerations)

[A_Gupta]

PAKI CLAIM: “Pakistan has an enduring interest with peace with India.”

True claim: Pakistan has an enduring interest in pieces of India.

[Philip]

The Pakis exporting terror again,Stingers to the Afghan rebels,now Paki built missiles for the Syrian rebels (courtesy the Saudis).

http://www.defensenews.com/article/2014 ... y=nav|head

Russia Warns Saudis Against Giving Syria Rebels Missiles
Feb. 25, 2014 -

MOSCOW — Russia on Tuesday warned Saudi Arabia against supplying Syrian rebels with shoulder-launched missile launchers, saying such a move would endanger security across the Middle East and beyond.

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned” by news reports that Saudi Arabia was planning to buy Pakistani-made shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles and anti-tank systems for armed Syrian rebels based in Jordan.

It said that the aim was to alter the balance of power in a planned spring offensive by rebels on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“If this sensitive weapon falls into the hands of extremists and terrorists who have flooded Syria, there is a great probability that in the end it will be used far from the borders of this Middle Eastern country,” the foreign ministry said.

Long-existing tensions between Russia and Saudi Arabia have intensified further as a result of the Syria conflict, with Moscow standing by Assad but Riyadh offering open support for the rebels.

Russia is widely seen as Assad’s last remaining major ally in a conflict that has left an estimated 140,000 people dead since it began as a peaceful uprising in March 2011.

[ramana]

Instead of warning they should say will provide to TTP as tit for tat.

[saip]

They might have already said that. Until it is a done deal we might never know.

[SSridhar]

From that Janes Defence article posted above by A_Gupta,

"Recently there has been speculation that the US and Saudi Arabia - for different reasons - are keen to boost Pakistan's potential given the coming events," he said in reference to increasing signs that the PAF could be deployed against Taliban targets in the semi-autonomous tribal areas along the Afghan border ahead of a Pakistan Army ground offensive. The United States has urged Pakistan's civil and military authorities to undertake this mission for years.

So, the ruse and the fraud are playing out exactly as we predicted here. The recent PAF attacks on empty mud houses in SWA & NWA and claims of killing dozens of TTP members were indeed the ruse to gift more F-16s to TSPAF. This exact ruse has played out before when US justified its sale of F-16s last time. The fraud is that the US and KSA are somehow coercing an 'unwilling' Jordan to part with the F-16s. This is all well planned by all 'players' involved. The US is agreeing to the transfer (and, mark my words, is going to upgrade the older version and this news will come out later to soften the blow to India), KSA is paying for all of it, Jordan will be compensated in other ways, the US will make it appear as a deal between two other nations and Pakistan will have its way.

[SSridhar]

^^^
Ten fictions that pakistani defense officials love to peddle

Not everything that Pakistan says is 'fictional'. They may not be the complete truth but cannot be dismissed as 'rubbish', as Ms. Fair does so contemptuously.

For example, when Pakistan says, "The US is an unreliable ally", it is generally true. In the context of the US-TSP relationship, the Pakistanis might have contributed evenly to this unreliability through their double-dealing and fraud. Nevertheless, the US is by no means a reliable ally even to its closest friends.

Or, "The US used Pakistan for its anti-Soviet jihad". Of course, this was the US plan in which Pakistan acquiesced too for its own nefarious reasons. A myth was created that the Russians were seeking access to warm waters of the Indian Ocean and were about to overrun Pakistan after seizing Afghanistan. Again, Pakistan is partly true in this accusation.

"The US created the Taliban". To attribute the creation of Taliban to the US may be an overstretch, but certainly they sustained it, overtly and covertly.

[shiv]

In retrospect Sridhar, with 20/20 hindsight I think we Indians were lucky because we were different enough from the US for US officials to treat us differently. Our customs and weird (for the US) vegetarianism, moral lectures and anti-alcohol stance, as well as the fact that we really are SDRE more or less, made it easier for the US to see us as an "other". Pakistanis on the other hand were convinced that they were equals (tall fair-skinned meat eaters, just like Americans) and US officials genuinely liked Pakistanis. The Paki elite had no hang ups about alcohol or meat. Ayub Khan was genuinely liked, and Gary Bass' book (The Blood Telegram) has numerous references to the fact that Nixon actually liked Yahya Khan as a good person; they had great chemistry that stood in contrast to Nixon's loathing of Indira Gandhi.

But Pakis were mistaken. Badly mistaken. The US is a dangerous ally.

[SSridhar]

Shiv, I agree that we were insulated from the US embrace for a long time for the reasons you mentioned while the Pakistanis went ahead with their 'Made-for-each-other' friend. But, the last fifteen years have been different for us and the effects are beginning to appear on the horizon fairly rapidly.

[Dilbu]

3 suspected militants killed in shelling

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: At about 10:00 am on Thursday, gunship helicopters began shelling in tehsil Kulachi, FR Dera Ismail Khan in which three suspected militants were killed, a security official told The Express Tribune.
However, it was not clear as to which group the slain militants belonged.
This marks the first time that the Pakistan military conducted shelling in the settled area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as the recent airstrikes have been taking place in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
According to a local elder of the Gandapur tribe, he witnessed helicopters flying into the area and the ensuing shelling. However, according to another resident, only two cows, owned by members of the Gandapur tribe, were killed in the shelling. He claimed that there was no loss of human life.
Tehsil Kulachi is attached to Darazinda and is suspected to be a hideout of militants.

[Dilbu]

Eminent religious leaders killed in 25 years

Before we proceed with the dates and names of clerics killed so far, it must be added that a few lucky ones including the likes of JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and former PPP Federal Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi etc have managed to live on by defeating death.Here follows the list of some of the major incidents that have claimed the lives of prominent Shia and Sunni leaders/known activists during the last quarter of a century:

On March 30, 1987, a globally-acclaimed Sunni religious scholar, Allama Ehsan Elahi Zaheer, had succumbed to his injuries after battling with death for 22 hours at a Riyadh hospital. He was seriously injured in a bomb blast. Zaheer had survived the blast and after initial treatment at Lahore’s Mayo hospital, he was transferred for further medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

On December 19, 1990, Sadiq Ganji, the sitting Director General of Iranian Cultural Centre was shot dead in Lahore.

On March 7, 1995, Dr. Muhammad Ali Naqvi, a founder president of Imamia Student Organization, was killed.

On June 15, 1996, noted Shia leader and poet, Mohsin Naqvi, was killed in Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Town.

In January, 1997, the main leader of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi was killed in a bomb blast near Lahore’s Sessions Court.

On February 20, 1997, an attack on Multan’s Iranian Cultural Centre had killed Director Agha Mohammed Ali Rahimi.

On August 5, 1998, the then Tehrik-e-Jafaria Pakistan Chief, Arif Hussain Al Hussaini, was killed in Peshawar. After having prayed at a local mosque, he was confronted by two gunmen and shot.

On April 12, 2000, an attack on a Shia Majlis in Shia leader Sajid Naqvi’s hometown had killed many of his blood relatives.

On July 26, 2001, Managing Director Pakistan State Oil, Shaukat Raza Mirza, was killed in a targeted killing incident in Karachi. Mirza was a Shia.

On July 30, 2001, Syed Zafar Hussain, Director Research and Development in the Ministry of Defence, was also killed in a targeted killing incident in Karachi.

On October 10, 2001, the Sindh Karachi Sindh Board of Technical Education Chairman, Syed Hassan Zaidi, was gunned down in Karachi too.

On December 21, 2001, Ehteshamuddin Haider (the elder brother of former Sindh Governor and an ex- Pakistani Interior Minister Lt. Gen. (R) Moinuddin Haider), was shot dead by assailants near Soldier Bazaar in Karachi.

On March 4, 2002, one of the country’s most well-renowned nephrologists, Dr. Alay Safdar Zaidi, was assassinated in Karachi.

On May 7, 2002, noted religious scholar and television personality Professor Dr Ghulam Murtaza Malik was shot dead by two gunmen in Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Town. His driver and a policeman had also perished in this attack.

On August 30, 2012, a Shia Sessions Judge, Zulfiqar Naqvi, was killed in Quetta.

On October 6, 2003, Sitting MNA Maulana Azam Tariq, chief of the Millat-i-Islamia (formerly Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) was assassinated by unidentified gunmen along with four others in Islamabad.

On May 30, 2004, a senior Deobandi religious scholar and head of Islamic religious school Jamia Binoria, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, was gunned down in his car in Karachi.

The April 2006 bombing at Karachi’s Nishtar Park had also claimed the lives of many Sunni scholars commemorating the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

On July 14, 2006, Allama Hassan Turabi, a Shia religious scholar and chief of Tehrik-e-Jafaria Pakistan, was killed in a suicide attack near his Abbas Town residence. The cleric’s 12-year-old nephew had also lost life in this incident. The suicide bomber was later identified as Abdul Karim, a Bangladeshi, resident of a shanty town in the central city area of Karachi.

On September 15, 2007, unidentified assailants assassinated a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Hassan Jan in Peshawar. Maulana Hassan was a former MNA and Vice Chairman of Wafaqul Madaris. The noted religious leader had also issued a decree (fatwa) against suicide attacks, and was among the Pakistani clerics who had travelled to Afghanistan in 2001 to convince Mullah Omar that he should expel Osama Bin Laden from Afghanistan to avoid American attacks.

On August 13, 2008, a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) cleric Haji Namdar was killed. Haji was the leader of a banned local outfit “Amr Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munkar.” Haji Namdar had earlier escaped a suicide attack on May 1, 2008.

On January 10, 2009, a fierce gun battle between rival sects in Hangu had seen the killing of Mufti Rustam, the deputy chairman of the local chapter of the Ahli Sunnat Wal Jamaat. Official sources said that at least 26 people had lost lives in this incident.

On January 26, 2009, Hussain Ali Yousafi, chairman of the Hazara Democratic Party, was allegedly shot dead by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in Quetta.

On February 19, 2009, a Shia leader Sher Zaman was gunned down in Dera Ismail Khan. Tension had then led to imposition of a curfew in the city and Army called in to quell the riots, which had actually sparked after a suicide bomber had killed at least 30 Shias and injured another 157 who were attending Sher Zaman’s funeral.

On June 12, 2009, a leading Sunni Barelvi scholar Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi was assassinated at the Jamia Naeemia madrassa situated on Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Road in Garhi Shahu locality. Six mnore people were also killed in this suicide attack. Known for his anti-Taliban views, Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi had been known all his life for his candid views.

On January 1, 2012, Askari Raza, leader of a Shia political organisation “Pasban-e-Jaferia,” had breathed his last in a sectarian-motivated target killing in Karachi by two armed men. He was critically injured on the New Year’s Eve. At least 15,000 Shia protestors had then staged a sit-in outside the Sindh Governor House on the first day of January to protest the assassination.

On January 30, 2012, Haji Akhunzada, a commander of a banned militant outfit called “Ansar-ul-Islam,” and three others were killed following a suicide attack outside the stalwart’s home on the outskirts of Peshawar.

On September 26, 2012, Mohsin Anwar Kazim, a member of the Shia community, was gunned down outside his office in Quetta city.

On November 6, 2012, Agha Aftab Haider Jaffari, a prominent Shia leader was shot dead in Quetta.

On January 1, 2013, Malik Mukhtar Hussain, a prominent licensed organizer of Shia processions and majalis in Chiniot, had breathed his last after he was gunned down in an Imambargah on December 31, 2012 by six armed men.

On January 9, 2013, Engineer Syed Ali Hyder Jafri, a 48-year-old shia activist and owner of a private school, was shot dead in North Karachi. Same day, yet another well-known Shia leader Dr. Riaz Hussain was gunned down in Parachinar. In Khuzdar, again on the same day, a Hazara Shia leader, Zawar Shah, was targeted lethally outside his shop.

On February 18, 2013, a prominent Professor of Vitreoretinal Surgery, Dr. Syed Ali Haider and his 11-year-old son, Murtaza, were shot dead, in Lahore. It is suspected that the attacks were carried out by the banned Sunni extremist group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

On December 6, 2013, firing at Lahore’s Ravi Road had claimed life of an “Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat” leader Maulana Shams ur Rehman.

[Dilbu]

Where is the counter narrative to Taliban?

We just hope there is also a socio-cultural package to back the operational plan. The standards of obscenity and morality exist in a relative world. My view of vulgarity can vary from yours. We notice tolerance for plurality of parallel thoughts exists in most Islamic countries from Lebanon, Dubai to Turkey and Central Asia— Ya habibis being an exception. It is only in our Republic that we try to be so puritanical.

It made sense in a united India where Muslims felt insecure as a minority. Why Islam is endangered in a country which has a Muslim population of over 97 per cent. Imran Khan better introduce puritanical thoughts of his pious brigade in his manifesto so that we know where he stands. His coalition partner Jamaat-i-Islami did that and it has four seats in a Parliament of 447. Or at least ask his young guns not to impose their standards of morality on us.

The skipper lived a wholesome life in his youth, some say he does that even now, and his children do the same. Why can’t other have a semblance of that freedom? In the meantime, Dastis of the world will do what they do best: create fuss. Perhaps he under-estimates the power of the un-pious.

Khujli against purest of pure sharia hainji? This is so worthy of getting bull cultet.

[SSridhar]

Where is the counter narrative to Taliban?

. . . Ya habibis being an exception.

[Dilbu]

Shia scholar, cleric shot dead in Karachi

KARACHI: Gunmen shot dead a Shia scholar in central Karachi as he travelled on a busy road on Thursday, police said, in what appeared to be a sectarian attack.

Allama Taqi Hadi Naqvi, a cleric who was also an employee of the government educational board, was targeted as he returned home in a rickshaw. "He was riding in an auto rickshaw when two riders on a motorcycle shot him," police officer Afaq Ahmed told AFP. Hadi died on the spot as two of the bullets hit him in the face, the officer said, adding that the motive appeared to be sectarian. The killing has sparked an outcry from members of the city's Shia community.

[Dilbu]

This was only a matter of time. Liberals in TSP will be culled with no mercy.
Liberal newspaper Express Tribune cowed into silence by Pakistani Taliban

When it was launched four years ago, the Express Tribune set out to become the house newspaper of liberal-minded Pakistanis.

A newcomer to a market dominated by conservative-inclined papers, it made a point of writing about everything from the relentless rise of religious extremism to gay rights.

But in recent weeks the paper has been cowed into silence by an unusually blatant display of power by the Pakistani Taliban.

The paper was forced to drastically tone down its coverage last month after three employees of the media group, which includes another newspaper and television channel, were killed in Karachi by men armed with pistols and silencers on 17 January.

The attack was later claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a large coalition of militant groups, which accused the media group of disseminating anti-Taliban propaganda.

Immediately following the killings, the paper's editor, Kamal Siddiqi, sent an email to staff outlining the paper's new policy.

Henceforth there would be "nothing against any militant organisationand its allies like the Jamaat-e-Islami, religious parties and the Tehrik-e-Insaf", the rightwing party led by Imran Khan, that strongly opposes military operations against the TTP.

There would also be "nothing on condemning any terrorist attack", "nothing against TTP or its statements" and "no opinion piece/cartoon on terrorism, militancy, the military, military operations, terror attacks".

Reporters have been banned from describing a movement responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians, soldiers and police as "outlawed" or "militant".

The terrorist attacks that rack the country on an almost daily basis are covered on the news pages, but are pared down.

Other changes include a more conservative approach to photographs of female models in the paper's lifestyle sections and weekend magazine.

Worst affected are the opinion pages. Once-feisty leader writers have almost entirely overlooked the near-continuous attacks that have rocked the country in recent weeks.

Ali Dayan Hasan, of Human Rights Watch, said: "The Taliban and other armed groups have threatened the media over their coverage for several years, but now those threats are ratcheting up by accompanying attacks.

"It's an extremely effective tactic that does far more than just censorship, it also skews the entire national debate."

Siddiqi, the editor, said he could not risk any more lives.

"The fact is three people have been killed and no one out there is protecting us," he said, pointing out that no arrests had been made in connection with either of the attacks on the company.

"We are on our own. We have to look out for our own people."

[Dilbu]

LeI commander Memon Afridi killed in Khyber Agency shootout

BARA: Three militants including the one key-commander were killed and three sustained injuries in a shootout with the security forces in Tehsil Bara of Khyber Agency, Geo News reported.

The motorbike riders were signaled to stop at Shalobar in Tehsil Bara, but they opened fire, which the security forces retaliated that killed three militants and three others sustained injuries, while two security personnel were also injured, sources close to security forces said.

Among the dead, a key commander of Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI), Memon Afridi is also included, sources further said.

[Brad Goodman]

Khewra mines: worth their salt

“Imagine our salt is not even known as Pakistani salt around the world. They call it Himalayan pink salt, and it is thought to be from Indian Punjab because we haven’t been able to market it well ourselves.”

[Lilo]

^
Paki Salt comes replete with Coprolites of fourfathers (and their horses) since Bin Qasim.
I petetion that GI recognition be granted for this unique haraam namak having thirteen hundred years of tradition behind it.

[Anujan]

Little birdie tells me that many of the Express tribune journos got personal calls and letters. The rich dad RAPEs who fancied themselves as "journalists" downhill skied, took vacation to UK. the journos-for-a-living types are walking with one hand covering their mouth and the other hand covering their musharraf.

Don't expect any sort of informed or nuanced pieces about TTP or the Taliban in the express tribune.

[Anujan]

Also as I mentioned before the F16 sale news seems to be credible. Obviously I don't know the motivations for the sale (its not hard to guess) and the price extracted for it. Obviously the deal might not conclude either.

But what I do know is that it is not one of the "Iran pipeline has been approved and will be built by jumma along with granting MFN to India" types nandi droppings.

[shiv]

y.
Liberal newspaper Express Tribune cowed into silence by Pakistani Taliban

"It's an extremely effective tactic that does far more than just censorship, it also skews the entire national debate."

Well I have a quibble with this. Pakistan is an Islamic country and news portals in an avowedly Islamic country have absolutely no business calling into question the acts of people doing things in the name of Islam. How can sharia be bad for Pakistan?

If you think the TTP are bad, you are buying into US propaganda. TTP and sharia is just what Pakistan needs.

Once the Taliban take over, all will be well. The world id replete with examples of the financial and technological success of islamist regimes - starting from the Mughal empire to modern day Saudi Arabia. The Taliban will bring peace to Pakistan. Islam means peace.

And a stable Pakistan is in India's interest. The Chinese too will find a peaceful Pakistan helpful. They can build the Karakoram highway and pump oil from the gulf to Xinjiang where the light of Islam burns bright under the benign watch of the Chinese communist party.

It would be a sad day to see Pakistan survive as a rump state with the creation of a Pashtunistan where the Taliban rule supreme. Better that the whole of Pakistan get the Taliban.

[Anujan]

Also remember how many articles used to remind us "Pakistan with its rich vibrant media" to assure everyone that coups are not going to happen again? A few fellows (Mosharraf Zaidi, Omar Qureshi etc) even wondered if Pakistani media is more brave and free than Indian media. One phone call fixed that. Also fixed the "Pakistan is a largely secular society and religious parties have never won more than 10% of the votes"

[Dilbu]

Who needs a vote when a bullet can settle the matter.

[shiv]

Also remember how many articles used to remind us "Pakistan with its rich vibrant media" to assure everyone that coups are not going to happen again? A few fellows (Mosharraf Zaidi, Omar Qureshi etc) even wondered if Pakistani media is more brave and free than Indian media. One phone call fixed that. Also fixed the "Pakistan is a largely secular society and religious parties have never won more than 10% of the votes"

All these things are true. The rumours about Taliban intimidation are lies to sully the fair name of Pakistan.

[Anujan]

Why do we need newspapers when we can all hear mullah FM's radio station hain ji ?

[Prem]

Who needs a vote when a bullet can settle the matter.

1 Islamic Boollet is equal to 100 Koofar Votes .

Maulana Moohamad IkBall

[saip]

Also remember how many articles used to remind us "Pakistan with its rich vibrant media" to assure everyone that coups are not going to happen again? A few fellows (Mosharraf Zaidi, Omar Qureshi etc) even wondered if Pakistani media is more brave and free than Indian media. One phone call fixed that. Also fixed the "Pakistan is a largely secular society and religious parties have never won more than 10% of the votes"

That is the biggest lie that I ever heard and the western media swallowed it hook, line and sinker. What they never said is that ALL parties in Pakistan ARE religious fundamentalists as the members have to be good Muslims to even to think of becoming a PM or President. Their own constitution clearly says the country belongs to allah and allah alone. If that is not religious fundamentalism, I don't know what else is religious fundamentalism. On the other hand the same western media never fails to denigrate BJP calling it a Hindu fundamentalist party even though in India (at least in theory) the Constitution is supreme and no God is invoked in it.

[partha]

Also remember how many articles used to remind us "Pakistan with its rich vibrant media"

Independent too. "vibrant and independent media" like "independent judiciary", "independent army", "independent non state actors"

[anupmisra]

Why do we need newspapers when we can all hear mullah FM's radio station hain ji ?

Taking the extension a little bit further, why do the pakis need newspapers and FM radios to learn about real islam when it is being practiced in its purest form everyday and everywhere in bakiland, and that too in broad daylight? K'rachi residents now consider nightly gunfire as white noise to rock yourself to sleep. Proforma condolence letters are sent to the murdered shia and other minorities after every carnage. Heck, condolences are offered even before the actual incidents occur.

[vishvak]

About TFTA martial blooded ET going into silence mode, wasn't the first law minister of pakilands a Hindu who was then forced to flee the peace lands. It is only a mild surprise why TFTA don't welcome Taliban who are even more green and give targeted condolence letters even before targeted killings.

[anupmisra]

According to Altafbhai Lundunwalley, Taliban rule most parts of Karachi. Just K'rachi?

Addressing party workers on Friday by telephone (from lundunistan)

demanded army should take over if the government didn’t come up with a clear policy.

Hussain (for good measure and also in jest) said that he was flogged and sentenced to nine months imprisonment during Ziaul Haq’s era

Now, now, now, Altafbhai! That's not a nice thing to say about the three trimesters your ammi carried you in her tummy. I am sure your were not an easy delivery either.

[anupmisra]

2 killed in firing outside Karachi mosque

At least two people have been killed and two others injured in a firing incident outside a mosque

If it is an attack on a "mosque", then its the shias attacking their greener brothers, the sunnys. Prepare for reprisals.

[Prem]

With my lice towards all

Luv Toward All Fourlegged: Paki Deny One of FourFathers

Afghanistan as a country predates Pakistan geo-politically and historically. Pakistan is relatively a younger state. Unfortunately, there is lingering animus between the two which does not necessarily stem from state practices entirely of Pakistan’s making but has roots in history, which surfaced when the bitterness of a powerless loser during Sikh rule (1799-1849) was carried into the British Empire’s court after the latter’s conquest of the Sikh Empire in Punjab. Festering resentment between the two recalcitrant neighbours is anchored in these factors and seems to have been indelibly branded in the minds of rulers, including the now extinct Taliban regime, since 1947.
The Sikhs took the Afghan province of the Frontier (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) by conquest, which then passed on to imperial Britain in 1849, who went on to acquire the Quetta valley from Afghanistan by dint of superior diplomacy and military strength. Afghanistan lost these territories forever. It appears that what Afghanistan could not regain or retake from the resolute and vastly more powerful British India, is gettable for them from a shaky Pakistan now. Even when Pakistan looked stronger they continued to foment trouble for it on the western border regions commonly known as FATA. Their grand design was always to keep Pakistan on the hot seat by keeping the issue of sovereignty over the tribal regions alive through diplomacy and subversion. Afghanistan did not recognise the nascent Pakistani state and went on to officially raise the Pushtunistan flag in Kabul in the presence and patronage of King Zahir Shah. The bogey of Pushtunistan nagged Pakistan for the next three decades, forcing many catastrophic political errors by the government, including keeping the nationalist, secular political mass away from national power centres. That space was occupied by the Islamists with horrific consequences for the country and the region. It was to cost the people of Pakistan dearly, once when East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, revolted against the Centre and broke away, and secondly when the deadly scourge of extremism descended upon us in the guise of jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan, later transforming into a cry for a nostalgic caliphate and sharia. The bloodshed in our country continues because of these barbarians to this day. After the Afghans lost their trans-Hindu Kush territory and the strategic Quetta valley, there came the Durand Line demarcating the border between British territories from Afghanistan. This treaty was signed and ratified by both sides in 1893 and laid the foundations of a simmering territorial dispute between a successor state and Afghanistan half a century later. The Great Game was then in full swing. Russian spies and soldiers were repeatedly found in Iran, Central Asia, Kashghar, Yarkand, Kabul and right up to Tibet. Concurrently, imperial China had a firm hold over Tibet, which was closed by imperial order. Any Moghul, Hindustani, Pathan or Farangi (European) found in Tibet would be put to death. That made Tibet literally terra incognita, but Afghanistan, Eastern Iran and Central Asia were open for British spies and soldiers-of-fortune to play in.
At that time, the British Empire had its gaze fixed on Central Asia and Tibet for reasons of imperial security and lucrative regional trade. Afghanistan was merely considered a useful landmass to gain time and diplomatic mileage should the Russians undertake their feared invasion of India from that direction. Thus perforce Afghanistan became part of the British Empire’s zone of influence, a nettlesome entity to be maintained at a certain level of domination. After Calcutta and New Delhi, Kabul became the forward pivot of strategic British diplomatic manoeuvres, and Kashghar and Yarkand its field outposts to keep Russia at bay. The British embassy in Kabul became an object of awe, heroism and tragedy unequalled in modern history. The ameer (head) of Afghanistan was virtually a vassal of the British ambassador in Kabul, albeit with a false sense of suzerainty and self-worth.Perhaps then we can address the myth of ‘historic’ Afghan sovereignty and any territorial claims that might ensue from it. This notion is erroneous on two counts: first, Afghanistan was not a country, as we know it, before the 18th century when it was briefly brought under singular rule by Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1747. Before that, it was a lawless region inhabited by perpetually warring tribes ruled in fits and starts by neighbouring Persian, Indian and Turkish empires. Secondly, Afghan inhabited regions invariably had to be secured by regional empires as they sat astride two major trade and invasion routes into and out of the Indian subcontinent and flanked the Silk Route passing north of Oxus.

In 1749, Ahmad Shah acquired Punjab, Sindh and Kashmir by arm-twisting the ineffectual Mughal ruler just as he conquered Nishapur and Meshad while Afsharid Persia was falling apart. However, he exercised a very tentative suzerainty over these territories. As a result, soon after his death, the Afghan empire quickly disintegrated and eventually Ranjit Singh seized these provinces. This then is the feeble basis that Afghanistan bases its obscure claim over FATA on. Essentially, it is folklore and poetic fancy, like the Greeks one day claiming all territories conquered by Alexander the Great. In the real world, such untenable claims find their place in the dustbins of foreign ministries. This reality check remains lost to Afghanistan even now.The Afghans continued their opposition to the Indian empire that was paying for Amir Abdur Rehman’s extravagance, arms for his soldiers and their salaries. It was this amir who signed the Durand Line border treaty in 1893 with the British and began to renege as the money he received began to run out. The Afghans were powerless against British might and hence resorted to inflaming Pathan sentiments in the tribal regions. With this perspective, it becomes clear that armed insurgencies in FATA are not a recent phenomenon and do not owe existence to al Qaeda or Taliban ideologies alone, though these ideologies gave them additional resources and acceptability for their militant agenda. Loaded slogans like caliphate and sharia might appeal to a small minority among them but the rest mainly want the government to stay away and allow them to revel in their centuries-old way of life. They have no love for far-fetched ideologies like pan-Islamism and so on. If FATA is to be opened and pacified, a different model of power and persuasion has to be applied. They have to be cordoned and contained in their traditional geographical zone and allowed their tribal ways but given incentives to modernise and follow a responsible code of conduct vis-à-vis the government and the settled districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. That may cause the Durand Line to take root and hopefully cause Afghanistan’s resentment to subside with the absence of a receptive audience in our borderlands. We should remember that the Pathans are capable of showing respect and even affection for a strong and just adversary and likewise for a friend.

[Prem]

http://www.dawn.com/news/1090138/is-the ... -pakistani
Is the Taj Mahal Pakistani?

OF COURSE, this is an absurd question. How on earth could the Taj Mahal ‘be Pakistani’ and claim a nationality which was only imagined 400 years after the mausoleum was constructed, and one hopes that no one in their senses would ask such a preposterous question. Yet, in a class of undergraduate students at one of Pakistan’s best universities, precisely this question was animatedly debated during a session on Pakistan’s history, with some students stating that the Taj was part of Pakistan’s history, and others implying that it was ‘Pakistani’.These students had all taken a course in Pakistan Studies prior to starting their undergraduate degree. Clearly, the highly controversial and contested nature of how history is constructed in Pakistan, given the numerous possibilities of framing a history of Pakistan, allows for multiple competing narratives, including a claim to the Taj ‘being’ Pakistani.

Given the eventual partition of British India and the creation of Pakistan, some historians have claimed that Pakistan was ‘created’ in 712 AD when an Arab invader came to what is now part of Pakistan. This is incorrectly called the beginning of Muslim contact with what is now referred to as South Asia, yet it supports one of the many official narratives of when Muslim ‘consciousness’ and identity were created in this region. Other competing narratives look to the Delhi Sultanate, or the Mughal Empire, or events in the 19th century and 1857, crystallising into a separate Muslim identity which, inevitably led to Muslim ‘separatism’ and to the creation of Pakistan. The question, when was Pakistan ‘created’, is one which simply works around a Muslims-are-different-from-Hindus discourse, culminating in a separate homeland. Hence, if the history of Pakistan is the history of Muslims in India, and just as Mohammad bin Qasim can become part of a certain legacy and heritage and can be caricatured as the ‘first Pakistani’, so too can the Taj as ‘being’ Pakistani. Pakistani history and a history of Pakistan’s people and their land, become two conflicting narratives.

As a consequence, ‘Pakistani’ history, ignores the history of the people who live in what was Pakistan (West and East) and what is left of it. Mohenjodaro, Harappa, and the history of the people of Pakistan is dominated by a north Indian (largely Hindustani) Muslim history, and that too only of kings and their courts. The Pakistan ‘freedom movement’ of course — and not the movement for independence from British colonialism for all Indian peoples — shapes this discourse more teleologically, once politics dominate undivided India in the 20th century.The actors, or at least the heroes are almost always Muslim, and students seldom hear about the role Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Patel and Bose played in bringing about freedom for the 300 million Indians under colonialism. One only hears of a handful of Muslim men who brought about freedom for Muslims from a Hindu majority. The British imperialists are inconsequential in this narrative, and are only responsible for making a mess of partition by not giving Pakistan many of the districts which are claimed on the basis of them being Muslim-majority areas.
In the most ingenious and creative recent book to be published on Pakistan’s emergence as a political idea, historian Faisal Devji in his Muslim Zion raises some fascinating and sophisticated arguments which complicate any simplistic notion of what passes as Pakistani history. His book is a highly nuanced and multilayered understanding of the ideas which led to the justification and creation of Pakistan, and while many of Devji’s conceptualisations need to be contested, for our purposes his statement that Pakistan’s history lies outside its borders, gives rise to some of the problems of imagining a history of Pakistan described here, and allows some to claim the Taj Mahal as ‘Pakistani’.Moreover, if this claim that Pakistan’s history lies ‘outside its borders’ is valid, and indeed in many critical ways this is certainly the case, it also implies, that the country which came into being called Pakistan, in this hegemonic notion of history, really has no history of its own. The so-called ‘freedom movement’ was fought in a foreign land, the land of the Taj Mahal, not the land of the people who inherited a country called Pakistan where their ancestors had lived for millennia.
.If Pakistan is imagined ideologically, then all one has to do is determine when Pakistan came in to being, clearly no easy task, and limiting oneself to a history of the Muslims in India, or a history of Islam in South Asia. If Pakistan is imagined geographically, the connotations of how the history of the peoples and lands of Pakistan is taught and understood, varies hugely

[Dilbu]

This is incorrectly called the beginning of Muslim contact with what is now referred to as South Asia, yet it supports one of the many official narratives of when Muslim ‘consciousness’ and identity were created in this region.

Pakis do make a spirited effort to rename 'Indian subcontinent' as South Asia but as usual they are fooling no one but themselves.

[RCase]

As leaders of the ummah, the Kabaa is also Pakistani. Pakis should make every effort to recapture this as it is part of their history. Meanwhile more Shariah compliant, powerful Afghani herbs need to be shipped to those undergraduate students of elite Paki universities.