Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan (TSP), Jan. 29, 2010

[SSridhar]

arun, a fine effort by you in highlighting the 'Aman ki Asha' types from across our borders. From, what you have posted,

Al-Maseeri also claimed that another Pakistani, also a supporter of Al-Qaeda, had been involved in assassination operations using poisonous gases and other lethal substances.

[shaardula]

kamran shafi on AK Antony's intervention in the recent land scam case.

Well done, Mr Antony (Dawn)
By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 02 Feb, 2010

... is it possible that our government and its generals will draw some lessons from what is happening in India? Will they see and appreciate the openness with which this case has been handled, and the resultant good press that the process has received not only in India but across the world? Or will they continue to remain in their hull-down positions, a law unto themselves?

That seems to be the case. Why else is it that we hear nothing about the many earth-shaking incidents that have happened in our country? Such as the surrender of over 250 men along with their commanding officer to less than a dozen militants in Waziristan something like three years ago?

Yes, the Commando was ruling the roost then, in more ways than one. Were those responsible for the disgraceful episode proceeded against? What were the findings of the inquiry if any was held? Was anyone punished?

What, please, is this thing about our brass hats? Why do they consider everyone else inferior to themselves, despite the fact that they do not have much to show for all the billions that the country spends on keeping them in splendour that would make the nabobs envious? Why are they as arrogant as they are? These are questions that we must have answers to if the country is to progress to a better tomorrow. If the brass hats continue to feel that they can walk over anyone, any institution including the superior courts of the country, we are done for.

Witness the open defiance of the Peshawar High Court by the ‘agencies’ of the army in refusing to answer questions relating to the disappeared. This does not bode well for anyone: the government or the opposition or the judiciary. For if it is the government which is being defied today, it will be the opposition which will be defied tomorrow, when it comes into government.

Asif Zardari is hardly the biggest problem facing the country today; he is but one individual. Our problem is an arrogant, sinister and secretive security establishment that looms darkly over the country’s future.

Which reminds me, for the nth time, where is the cruel and sadistic Muslim Khan, the chief spokesman of the cruel and sadistic Mullah Fazlullah, the butcher of Swat? And the actual butcher whose name slips my mind but who was said by the ISPR to have been the person who used to slaughter people with a blunt knife on video? Why have they not been put on trial so many months after their capture? What is going on? Why this ambivalence when dealing with these confirmed yahoos?

Or are we right to assume that Muslim Khan & co are being kept wrapped in cotton wool for other missions at some future date?

Thats two people in two days asking the same question. what exactly happened to M.Khan and his friends?

[Rahul M]

Off-late, I am finding myself in a difficult position when dealing with discussions on TSP. Some of you might have possibly experienced this as well.

What would you do if you are called a right-wing Hindutvadi esp. when talking about Pakistan?
This happens usually when the opposite party is cornered and use this as their last line of defence. This leads to a shutdown of brain activity and the repeated use of the said term!
What is the comeback?

it's a variation of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum
respond appropriately.

[James B]

kamran shafi on AK Antony's intervention in the recent land scam case.

Well done, Mr Antony (Dawn)
By Kamran Shafi

Kamran Shafi has been writing a lot on anti-TSPA articles lately. There were also reports in DAWN that there was an attempt to attack him and threats issued for his anti-TSPA writings. He might get his 72 sooner if he continues on this path. Keep watching.

[SSridhar]

shaardula, Muslim Khan 'surrendered' to PA as claimed by it towards end of last year. Nothing is known since then.

[shaardula]

Karachi is on simmer.

Two more killed as Karachi violence enters fourth day (Dawn)

KARACHI: At least two people were killed as violence continued unabated for the fourth consecutive day in Karachi, DawnNews reported. Earlier Tuesday, another person was shot dead in the city’s Orangi Town area. (I wonder which part of the town this is). Many markets in the city’s affected areas still remained closed and public transporters were reluctant to take their vehicles to certain areas.
...
Intermittent firing continued in different parts of Karachi as unknown gunmen continued to wander around unchecked. — DawnNews

Quick answers in this edit
Karachi violence continues (Dawn)

A disturbingly familiar pattern of violence is once again emerging in Karachi, where over 15 people belonging to specific ethnic backgrounds have been killed since Friday. The latest round of violence began with the killing of an MQM activist, which led to greater bloodshed.

Political violence of this kind usually has a political explanation, and it appears that a turf war may have broken out now that the tentative date for the next local government elections has been announced. Lending credence to this theory are the areas in which the violence has broken out: neighbourhoods and townships such as Qasba and Orangi have pockets of Pakhtun populations and the ANP may be harbouring ambitions of electoral gains there — ambitions that are sure to be fiercely opposed by those who believe that these areas ‘belong’ to them.

However, there is this fact, too: in certain areas inhabited by a specific ethnic group, no ‘outsider’ can even sit on a bus and pass through a ‘rival’ neighbourhood without being forced to disembark and questioned about his ‘unauthorised’ and ‘unwanted’ visit. So, whatever the grievances, whatever the rivalries, whatever the fears, the political parties must bluntly be told to take their hands off the trigger and in fact to exert their influence in a way that reduces, instead of exacerbates, ethnic tensions. Karachi is as much a tinder box for historical reasons as it is for the proclivity of its present masters to readily turn to violence, a proclivity that needs to be decisively curbed. We have said it before: there is something truly awful about the fact that Karachi is no safer from ethnic strife despite the fact that the three major parties in the city are all in government together. We did not expect democracy to be an immediate panacea. But neither did we expect a return to the bad old days so quickly.

[chetak]

kamran shafi on AK Antony's intervention in the recent land scam case.

Well done, Mr Antony (Dawn)
By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 02 Feb, 2010

A journalist of the eminence of kamran shafi should have had the basic decency to research the names of the Indian generals and write them correctly.

Lt Gen PK Singh (sic) instead of Lt Gen VK Singh

Lt Gen Avadesh Prasad (sic) instead of Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash

as he has written.

I don't think that the mistake is so innocent, as the author was once in the pak army.

Once a paki, always a wretched paki.

Three lieutenant generals of the Indian army are to be tried by court martial for their part in an alleged land scam. The orders to try them were passed by Defence Minister A.K. Antony when he saw that the army chief was trying to whitewash the alleged crime of one of the accused, just two days before Lt Gen Avadesh Prasad went into retirement.

Prasad was military secretary at the army HQ and was therefore close to the army chief, Gen Deepak Kapoor. It is to be noted that whilst the inquiry officer, Lt Gen P.K. Singh (who is also India’s next COAS), had recommended that Prasad face a court martial for his part in the scam, Kapoor had disagreed with him. In stepped their boss, the defence minister.

[archan]

SHAHID Afridi is alleged to have taken chunks from the ball with his teeth. Afridi was caught on camera furtively biting into the ball like it was an apple during Rana Naved's 45th over in Perth.

I wonder if pakis found out beforehand what kind of leather (hope it is not pig's) they use in making those balls? it takes something to bite chunks off of leather.

[Tamang]

Why Pakistan can never be a great neighbour

Is it not barbaric that we choose to continue playing cricket with a people whose compatriots routinely massacre our innocent civilians? I find it uncouth when we walk over the dead bodies of the carnage of 26/11 and extend a 'loving' hand to Pakistan and Pakistanis? This suggests that we care little for the lives of our citizens and more for our image and entertainment.

[chetak]

quote="anupmisra"

SHAHID Afridi is alleged to have taken chunks from the ball with his teeth. Afridi was caught on camera furtively biting into the ball like it was an apple during Rana Naved's 45th over in Perth.

I wonder if pakis found out beforehand what kind of leather (hope it is not pig's) they use in making those balls? it takes something to bite chunks off of leather.

I sure as hell hope that it was pig's leather!

This guy is a tribal. Table manners are not his long suit.

[Aditya_V]

Imagine planting a story in a TSP artcile stating Kookabura and Duke Balls used Leather obtained from Pig Skin and only the SDRE SG Balls are Halal. The WHole thing will go Ballistic.

[CRamS]

Afridi's ball tampering ban, however, is Pakistan's greatest embarrassment from a humiliating tour.

Lets give it to the Ozzies. See how methodocially both on & off the field, they have decimated TSP's EtchYenDee . Some comfort, however miniscule, for us SDREs, although a lot of TSP's EtchYenDee is still intact because they know they still have the SDRE's by their you know what, and thats all that matters for the TSP nation.

[shiv]

Imagine planting a story in a TSP artcile stating Kookabura and Duke Balls used Leather obtained from Pig Skin and only the SDRE SG Balls are Halal. The WHole thing will go Ballistic.

Pig skin. or for that matter even pig shit will not bother Pakis because Islam is a tool used to bash kafirs - that's all. The beliefs are not for real. It's a way of saying "us vs them" - not the belief of some devout people. An Iranian once told me about Iraqis (Arabs) and their Islam. he said this guy (Iraqi) was at a London nightclub, a woman hanging on each arm and a drink in his hand when a waiter approached with ham sandwiches. The Iraqi put on a look of horror and said "No Pork. I am a Muslim!". So all this business of Islam is only when they can screw someone else. if it is unsuitable "moderation", "secularism" and a huge doses of taqiyya rapidly set in.

This is why I believe that people who call for terrorists' bodies to be cremated in the belief that this will be an insult are mistake. Those terrorist too are frauds whose Islam lasts only so long as it benefits them.

[RamaY]

This is why I believe that people who call for terrorists' bodies to be cremated in the belief that this will be an insult are mistake. Those terrorist too are frauds whose Islam lasts only so long as it benefits them.

We might be underestimating the Pakiness here.

They will use the "cremation of terrorists" as a proof of them not being true muslims and YYY being agents. Then they will blame India for sponsoring terrorism in its own soil so to blame Pakistan and religion of peace. Terrorists are cremated because they were hindus to start with and India accepts this fact by cremating them.

These terrorists come as muslims (doesn't matter where they are from) and are fighting against kufrs and are praising Allah while killing innocents. That is the truth. No need to hide it to achieve a self-goal.

[skaranam]

I sure as hell hope that it was pig's leather!

This guy is a tribal. Table manners are not his long suit.

According to Rameez Raja on Times Now, it is his Afghan mindset that caused him to do that. Thus has 400% freedom to see the cricket ball as an apple...after all he was 400% hungry....

[sum]

"A bilateral meeting" is hardly equal to "Resumption of composite Dialog". For one ,I'll be happy with another few empty promises. After all , TSP has been doing this to us for the longest time , about time we did the same.

Err, never assume anything when MMS is in a one-to-one meeting with any Paki.

SeS and Havana come to mind when that happens.

[sum]

I sure as hell hope that it was pig's leather!

This guy is a tribal. Table manners are not his long suit.

According to Rameez Raja on Times Now, it is his Afghan mindset that caused him to do that. Thus has 400% freedom to see the cricket ball as an apple...after all he was 400% hungry....

He actually said Afghan mindset to describe Afridi?

[harbans]

With people like this on top, why bother about enemies?

Hail Kasab: A Role Model for MP Top Cop

[sum]

Door for talks with Pak never shut: Krishna

India [ Images ] on Tuesday said the doors for talks with Pakistan were never shut but remained non-committal on resumption of dialogue with it amid reports of Home Minister P Chidambaram's [ Images ] likely visit to Islamabad [ Images ].

"On talks with Pakistan, the doors were never shut," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna [ Images ] told reporters when asked whether the composite dialogue process with Pakistan was set to resume.

He made it clear that even in the previous dialogue with Pakistan, the focus had always been on terror and terror instrumentalities that exist there and had to be dismantled.

"Well, the focus has always been on terror and terror infrastructure in Pakistan. The terror infrastructure in Pakistan has been the focal point of dialogue with Pakistan and will continue to be the focal point," was Krishna's refrain when asked whether the home minister was scheduled to visit Islamabad.

And so after all the hard work in printing ( in triplicate) all the dossiers and lugging them across to the Paki embassy ( for which Pakis promptly showed the finger as a thank you), we finally go back to where we were pre 26/11.

The more things change in Desh, the more they remain the same.

[amdavadi]

Who knows, may be afridi was thinking ball was actually a granade.He wasnt biting but opening a pin
of granade to throw at infidel down under.

[Nihat]

Well , what was he supposed to say then. That the door is permanently shut and we will never ever talk to TSP again because they have betrayed us time and again. Within days the Unkil types would be jumping on our backs and we'd be painted as aggresors then who don't have a long term view.

SM Krishna is a foreign minister and he must talk like one , following it up with actions may be a completly different kettle of fish (as we have seen before).

[anupmisra]

Door for talks with Pak never shut: Krishna

There's a "door"? It was always a wide yawning opening as far as GOI is concerned.

[KLNMurthy]

A journalist of the eminence of kamran shafi should have had the basic decency to research the names of the Indian generals and write them correctly.

Lt Gen PK Singh (sic) instead of Lt Gen VK Singh

Lt Gen Avadesh Prasad (sic) instead of Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash

as he has written.

I don't think that the mistake is so innocent, as the author was once in the pak army.

Once a paki, always a wretched paki.

Give him a break. He says elsewhere in the article that one of the names escapes him. He is not exactly a professional journalist; just a retired army officer with a flair for writing. I don't think he meant ill. Kamran Shafi and Irfan Hussain are a couple of the vanishingly small tribe of sensible and humane pakis.

[KLNMurthy]

I sure as hell hope that it was pig's leather!

This guy is a tribal. Table manners are not his long suit.

He is a paki, period. Not to be too PC but why drag in tribals? Some of India's finest soldiers are tribals of the North East.

[KLNMurthy]

With people like this on top, why bother about enemies?

Hail Kasab: A Role Model for MP Top Cop

This Rajendra Kumar is living proof that education (8th standard or IPS) has nothing to do with intelligence and ability.

[pgbhat]

Rajendra Kumar, Inspector General of Police (Special Forces)

[archan]

Door for talks with Pak never shut: Krishna

There's a "door"? It was always a wide yawning opening as far as GOI is concerned.

There is a Gate(s).

[chetak]

I sure as hell hope that it was pig's leather!

This guy is a tribal. Table manners are not his long suit.

He is a paki, period. Not to be too PC but why drag in tribals? Some of India's finest soldiers are tribals of the North East.

He is their tribal, boss.

Our social niceties don't apply to them.

I was only commenting only on his uncouth behavior, period.

[shaardula]

This write up is a response to Mr. Varadarajan’s opinion, “Absence of dialogue is hurting India,” in The Hindu dated Feb 02 2010.

Has dialog benefited India? ...

Ideally this should be in readers' response on the hindu site appended right below the article. but that is not going to happen.

if we can dream. i would like to know what exactly has TSP done to deserve talks and normalization of relations? i would like to know the whys of things like 26/11, kargil etc. who is fine. how is better. but the real answer to why 26/11, why kargil, and not just hand wavy arguments, is where the crux of the matter is. without answering any of this what are you going to talk about especially when gilani is on record saying that he cannot guarantee repeat of 26/11 - sugar prices?

[ramana]

Pulikeshi, Try to set up a blog with link to SV's article and your reply to it.

[AdityaM]

[quote="KLNMurthy"][quote="harbans"]With people like this on top, why bother about enemies?

Hail Kasab: A Role Model for MP Top Cop[/quote]

This Rajendra Kumar is living proof that education (8th standard or IPS) has nothing to do with intelligence and ability.[/quote]

Cut it out guys. Can you point out what was wrong in what he said?
He is perfectly ok to tell his men that when a 8th class drop out from Pak can with a year of training start using guns and sat phones proficiently, then why cant his own men who are more educated and better off.
So what is wrong in it?

[ramana]

Its the DDM spin in the headline.

[Karna_A]

He may have been better giving example of Tukaram Omble as how a determined Policeman with standard issue arms can stop highly trained terrorist with advanced weapons.

[anupmisra]

Ball-gate, the continuing saga! Now its towel-throwing time from the editorial boards of various paki noosepapers. Lots of chest beating and rhona-dhona.

Caught out!

It was cheating, plain and simple. Who will lead this lacklustre side that has been comprehensively thrashed by an Australian side and that many commentators and cricketing pundits regard as their weakest for a generation? The chief selector of our national cricket team fell on his sword and resigned on Sunday. We follow it (Cricket) with an avidity that borders on obsession and it is a barometer of our national morale – which is close to rock-bottom today. There is no 'quick fix' for cricket anymore than there is for the railways or any other struggling institution for that matter. Growing good players takes years and successfully managing them is an art born of maturity rather than cronyism and political preferment. Perhaps the best we can hope for is that this is indeed the bottom of the curve and the only way is up. Not bloody likely. Wait till international referees start reviewing all paki on-field acts in the past one year since T20 with a magnifying glass. Remember, the art of reverse swing is supposedly a paki strength. Now you know why.

Ball-tampering fiasco

Just when we thought Pakistan cricket had hit rock bottom, along comes another shocker. True he (Afridi) apologised for his moment of madness, which resulted in a two-match ban, and promised it would never happen again. But at the same time he claimed that all teams tamper with the ball, only he did it in a different way and was caught. It remains to be seen if this frankly libellous statement will land the cricketer in more trouble in the days to come. The ball-tampering fiasco perhaps sums up the sense of hopelessness surrounding this Pakistan team. One thing is clear: the team is in complete disarray and the players’ confusion is matched only by the cluelessness of those at the helm of the Pakistan Cricket Board. Matched by the cluelessness of the people at the helm of the country.

[Prem]

http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.co ... -1965.html
India - Pakistan relationship - Peace means the summer of 1965
By M.J. Akbar

There are two defining dates in the Indo-Pak relationship, only one of which is recognised for its spawn of consequences. There have been, in effect, two partitions of India: the one in 1947 is in every child’s history book; the one in 1965 has not been adequately understood. 1947 divided the land; 1965 divided the people. Till Pakistan launched, in 1965, its second effort to seize our part of Jammu and Kashmir through a formal military offensive, people travelled freely on easily-available documents, the rail border at Wagah bustled with business even if the occasional customs officer bristled with pompousness in an effort to disguise harassment and petty corruption, the border on both wings was so porous that humans and goods were easily smuggled in both directions, businessmen retained cross-border investments, media was freely available and conflict was the prerogative of politicians and military brass. In 1965, we built a wall between neighbours that the Cold War architects of the Berlin rampart could have envied.
Those who want to reverse the reality of 1947 are either fanatics or fools. [Terrible as they are, the former could be less troublesome than the latter.] India and Pakistan are separate nations, and may they retain their present borders for eternity. Those Pakistanis dreaming of breaking India should be sent to a mental asylum, where they can befriend those Indians who want to capture Islamabad. ( MJA is wrong in equal equal , No Indian can stand the stink of Islamabad. Pakistan and Paki were like the puss in a infection on India's body,thanks Jinnha who sucked it all out)
Sanity demands a return to the summer of 1965 [war began in September] and not a return to the summer of 1947 [partition came in August]. This objective has the merit of being possible. If we link Indo-Pak harmony to a solution of the Kashmir problem, we will remain frozen in a subcontinent-wide Siachen. Harmony will induce steps towards a solution; not the other way around, because there are impenetrable barriers on the way around.

[anupmisra]

There is a Gate(s).

You mean Mr. Phathak.

[KLNMurthy]

Cut it out guys. Can you point out what was wrong in what he said?
He is perfectly ok to tell his men that when a 8th class drop out from Pak can with a year of training start using guns and sat phones proficiently, then why cant his own men who are more educated and better off.
So what is wrong in it?

First of all you don't need a big education to learn to operate weapons. Functionally illiterate teenage boys in Los Angeles do it all the time.
Second of all, officialdom has seen to it that the Indian cop who has to face terrorists have only silly .303s, or give them enough ammunition to train on the modern weapons they do have, so it is outrageous to talk to the men as though their lack of training is their own fault, and they are worse than a paki terrorist for that reason.
Third of all, it is utterly disgraceful and demoralizing to present terrorist scum to rank-and-file as a fine example to emulate.

In short, this Rajendra Kumar is unfit for command and should be cashiered.

[krithivas]

Drone-acharya strikes again

Code: Select all

U.S. drone strikes tend to kill fewer than 10 people, though one last year reportedly killed 60, said Katherine Tiedemann, a policy analyst at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington.
A death toll of 29 would represent the highest single-day death toll this year from a drone strike or strikes in Pakistan, she said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... tml?hpt=T2

Though this is almost old news .. feels good to read about bunnies (including H & D) being blasted.

[amdavadi]

I got my hands on "To live or to perish forever" by Nicholas Schmidle. This guy almost became second
Daniel Pearl.I would say, every paquistan watcher should read this book.There is a whole lot regarding
relationships between pakiban & TSPA.It also gives you inside into lives of Elite class.

[BijuShet]

..It also gives you inside into lives of Elite class.

Here is an opinion piece from "The News" written by a rape baccha. This guys wants to improve the lives of people who serve him. He offers solutions that others need to implement but does not offer to make a single change in his own home or lifestyle. He is a student at LUMS, rated as Pakistan's primier university for Business Studies and Economics. He is a good example of the future leadership of TSP.
What we owe to our Shazias

Tuesday, February 02, 2010 - Daniyal Khan

The death of 12-year-old Shazia has been widely condemned in the media as an example of the harsh treatment to which domestic servants are so often subjected in Pakistan. As part of the low-income class, household servants cannot do anything about their maltreatment by their employers.
...
I, for example, almost never have to worry about washing and ironing my clothes, for the housemaids do it. I also don't have to spend time on other personal chores, such as the cleaning of my room. When I leave home, I hardly ever have to deal with the traffic of Lahore. I commute to and from my university every day, making what I think is good use of my daily time, thanks, of course, to the services of the household driver. Time that would have otherwise gone to these tasks goes to activities which contribute, in my opinion, to the furthering of my education. Relieved of the responsibility of performing these tasks, I can be better focused on what may be called my "professional" identity, that of a student.

Servants thus may contribute to the better performance of a CEO, a judge or a doctor, making these people's work easier by freeing up their time which would be taken up by household activities. In some cases, the servants may be attached to households for such long periods of time that they may even be trusted with the keys of the house in the absence of the homeowner. In such pessimistic and troubling times, such servants are a blessing.

Having seen how servants contribute to a household, let us see what they get in return.

First, they get a miserable income which hardly helps them make ends meet, let alone educate their children -- if they aren't children themselves. Second, abuse is widespread, the verbal kind being more frequent than the physical.
...
People do not pay the full cost of the services their servants provide: what the servants get in return for their services is, more often than not, humiliating treatment and the hardships accompanying the pathetic wages they are given.
...
What should be done is to begin with the provision of the following: greater monetary compensation, along with the assurance of their physical safety, dignity and respect and -- last but certainly not least -- the recognition that they truly serve the household.
...
The term "servant" is considered by many to be disparaging. I don't agree. They do truly serve as they subsidise the very lives of the better off and the rich, despite their low-incomes, misery, toleration of suffering and patience. For such service they must be repaid, and it is about time they started getting their due.

The writer is a LUMS student. Email: [email protected]