Bharat Rakshak

Roperia wrote:Target killings: Two killed in Karachi violence | ET

The Karachi slum is getting out of hand.

Mahendra wrote:The Karachi slum is getting out of hand.Out of whose hands

India can be forgiven for having a land-centric view of defense needs given that since independence, neighboring Pakistan has been the primary threat to India. Wars, fighting, tension, terrorism, and now nuclear weapons have kept India looking to their west even as Chinese power over the Himalayas mountain range grew.But as Indian power has outstripped Pakistani power, the real land threat to India is now over the mountains and not across the flatter terrain to the west. This Indian author thinks India needs to rethink their strategy:
I found during my recent interactions in New Delhi that our strategic thinking continues to be largely enchained to ground-based perceptions and that we are unable to reach for the skies and the seas.The skies and the seas have realities of their own distinct from ground realities. Unless we are able to perceive them in due measure and make them an integral part of our strategic thinking and planning, any exercise to modernise the national security mechanism will remain unsatisfactory.The author wants a new naval strategy for India. I agree, but I think even a naval reappraisal takes second place to an emphasis on air power. With the primary ground threat to India now over the mountains, India's ground defense needs are more localized and less likely to be a decisive fight. By default, Indian defense needs are shifting to the air (first) and the sea, as I wrote here:The basic point is that the two most populous nations on the planet don't really have a front for a decisive land war despite their long common border. Ironically enough, despite their size and border, the main arena for a war would lie at sea and in the air.And given that neither has a fleet ready to reach the usual patrol areas of the other, the main method of fighting in the near future is in the air--where India is badly outgunned.

India's path to rebalancing their defenses will be shorter with our pivot to Asia and the Pacific that will absorb more Chinese attention than otherwise. India needs to take advantage of our reorientation to redress defense imbalances that have built up over many decades to counter Pakistan and which no longer make sense for India's future defense needs.And it is time for India to stop dwelling on our past support for Pakistan:

Roperia wrote:Target killings: Two killed in Karachi violence | ET

The Karachi slum is getting out of hand.

1965 (67 years ago

This is with reference to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s recent comment in a television interview, while he was in the UK, when he was told that a survey revealed that as many as 30 per cent of all Pakistanis would emigrate if they had the opportunity to do so. I would say that the harsh truth is that the proportion would be far higher than 30 per cent.

It is not just simple economic opportunity that is driving away many Pakistanis because most of those who want to leave or have left come from privileged and financially sound backgrounds. Of course, the bulk is still from the middle class, which must be shrinking with every passing year.

As long as our national focus is on hating India and America, which is done to divert attention from the real enemy within, we remain doomed. Rampant lawlessness, murderous bigotry, and an ever-expanding military empire all contribute to our existing condition where much of the rest of the world sees us as nothing more than a state that harbours and sponsors terrorists.

Dr Mervyn Hosein

Roperia wrote:World View: India-US strategic dialogue more hype than substance? | CNN IBN Video

kshatriya wrote:Must see ..... Especially part 5

Mahendra wrote:Shivulla... laang time coming IED Mubarak to you my birather!

Anujan wrote:^^^
It is more of ethnic bloodletting than anything else.
What you are now seeing is a round of Pakiness between MQM (Mohajir) -- PPP (Sindhi) -- Pathans (ISI/Army) -- PML-N (Pakjabis) killing each other as they have done since the 50's

Roperia wrote:
Thanks for that post. I was under the impression that the Karachi problem had to do with long term impact of population explosion, illiteracy and unemployment. The violent streak of Karachites going back till 60s is news to me.

shiv wrote:

Mahendra wrote:Shivulla... laang time coming IED Mubarak to you my birather!

Mubarak ho birather

kshatriya wrote:Must see ..... Especially part 5

Anujan wrote:

Roperia wrote:Target killings: Two killed in Karachi violence | ET

The Karachi slum is getting out of hand.

This is nothing new. Karachi was always like this. This is just the annual summer people-shedding. For example, ....... {Snipped} ........

Usually summer people-shedding is followed by relative calm in first 3 weeks of July, after which a HUGE flood sweeps over sindh in July/August and Pakis go with a begging bowl to the entire world claiming that the Sindh Floods were bigger than the tsunami (yes, Pakis actually claimed that).

Then the Jihadis come out of the woodwork, take the money and set up relief camps, eat half the money and with the relief they provide recruit more Jihadis.

Yearly Pakistani cycle. Nothing special.

Rangudu wrote:Anujan

One more data point on Malik Riaz that I forgot to mention the other day - Riaz gave money and land to the Burqa mullah of Lal Masjid fame and he also financed the rebuilding of the madrassa that was damaged during that siege. Riaz is clearly not a religious type guy, so he must have done this on behalf of his patrons. Jihadi/TSPA establishment are the only ones who have an interest in keeping Lal Masjid types happy.

Riaz is so not a PP guy. He is an army stalking horse.

sunnyP wrote:23 killed, 54 injured in blast at Landi Kotal market

http://tribune.com.pk/story/394603/land ... al-market/

(CNN) -- Islam Mohmand and his two wives have so many children that he sometimes gets confused and needs help to remember all of their names.

They have 20 kids in all but would be happy to bring even more into their small family house.

But population experts in Pakistan, where the Mohmands are from, say families like theirs are fueling a population explosion that is fast becoming the country's most dangerous crisis.

Pakistan's population has grown from around 33 million in 1947 to more than 180 million people in 2012, making it the sixth most populous country in the world. It is also one of the world's poorest, with 60% of Pakistanis living on just $2 per day, according to the World Bank. The majority of the population -- 70%, according to the United Nations -- is largely illiterate and resides in rural areas lacking the most basic services.

With only one in five Pakistani women using modern birth control, the United Nations estimates Pakistan will become the world's third most populous country after China and India by 2050.

"I consider the population problem the biggest problem of this country," said Akbar Laghari of Pakistan's Department of Population Welfare. "The future is bleak because of this." {It is Allah's will onlee}

He admitted the government has to share the blame as not enough is done to offer effective family planning services and teach people about birth control.
I think it's an ignored problem. We're brushing it away and I'm afraid we're losing time.
Zeba Sathar, Population Council

"We don't have that much mobility, we don't have the resources," he said.

"Because of the political upheavals in the country and frequent changes in government ... they [the government] are not giving it top priority."

With widespread poverty, an energy crisis, woeful public services, and a bloody, resource-draining insurgency, Pakistan can ill afford to see this rapid growth continue.

"Naturally there will be epidemics, there will be wars -- there will be fights for food, water and everything," Laghari warned.

"It's a huge concern that we're growing at one of the fastest rates in Asia," said Zeba Sathar, Pakistan country director for the Population Council, a non-profit organization that specializes in public health research in developing countries.

"I think it's an ignored problem. We're brushing it away and I'm afraid we're losing time."

Sathar says many people are unable to make informed decisions because support services such as family planning are lacking. "The poor end up with many children because they don't have access to right kind of information," she said.

"We're doing a lot of research where women say 'we didn't want that many children,' or they wanted to have them later but they just didn't find the services.

"The philosophy is we're not into controlling the number of children. If you can bring up a healthy family with 20 children, kudos to you. It's a question of running out of resources. It's when the 15th one suffers."

But the Mohmand children are already paying the price -- the family can only afford to send four of their offspring to school, the rest have to work to support the family.

A lack of education is not the only challenge. Pakistan is a deeply conservative country, where some view birth control as un-Islamic.

"None of these methods is allowed in Islam," said Maulana Tanveer Alvi, a Muslim cleric. "Whatever is born in the world -- animals, humans, anything living -- God is responsible for their care.

"The process of reproduction will go on until God stops it. Why should a Muslim worry about the increase in population when God has taken responsibility for everyone's care?"

Culturally, many women are often confined to the marital home and deprived of the right to make important decisions such as whether to have a child.

"Women don't always get to choose ... they require permission from their husband or even their mother-in-law," said Laghari.

However, other Muslim countries with similar problems to Pakistan, including Bangladesh and Iran, have introduced measures to curb their growing populations.

Experts say those countries started with the political will to do something and spent a lot of time and resources on family planning efforts.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says government field workers and satellite clinics are the two crucial elements in the campaign in Bangladesh -- which saw its population grow from 75 million when it gained independence in 1971, to more than 142 million currently.

It said thousands of Health and Family Welfare centers have been upgraded nationwide, while Family Welfare Assistants provide door-to-door visits giving millions of couples family planning support and sexual health education.

But it set no deadline for a solution

A powerful car bomb went off in a busy market in the restive Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan today, killing at least 25 people, including three children, and injuring nearly 60 others. The blast occurred in a market in Landi Kotal town of Khyber Agency. Officials at a local hospital said they had received 18 bodies while seven persons died while being taken to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. The children who died were aged between nine and 12 years, officials told the media. Officials said 57 people were injured and several of them were in a serious condition. The bomb was hidden in a pick-up truck that was parked in the market. About five kilograms of explosives were used in the attack. The blast targeted members of the pro-government Zakakhel tribe, who are opposed the banned Lashkar-e-Islam, officials said. Several shops and cars were destroyed by the blast. Gas cylinders stored in a shop blew up, triggering a fire. Police and security forces cordoned off the site and launched a search operation. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Lashkar-e-Islam are active in Khyber Agency. In a separate development, the bomb disposal squad foiled a terrorist attack by defusing a bomb at Kohat Road in Peshawar. The bomb was hidden in a pressure cooker that was left on the roadside, officials said.

Kanishka wrote:Family's 20 kids highlight Pakistan's population explosion

Pakistan is a deeply conservative country, where some view birth control as un-Islamic.

"None of these methods is allowed in Islam," said Maulana Tanveer Alvi, a Muslim cleric. "Whatever is born in the world -- animals, humans, anything living -- God is responsible for their care.

arun wrote: “Good” Mohammadden Terrorist group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur with whom the uniformed jihadis’ of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has a non-aggression pact threatens action against anyone carrying out an anti-polio vaccination campaign in Waziristan:

arun wrote:On display the antediluvian attitudes that are prevalent in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

“Good” Mohammadden Terrorist group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur with whom the uniformed jihadis’ of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has a non-aggression pact threatens action against anyone carrying out an anti-polio vaccination campaign in Waziristan:

AP via Google:

Pakistan militant warns against polio vaccinations

AFP via Google:

Taliban ban anti-polio drive in Pakistan tribal area

Reuters:

Pakistan militants ban polio jabs, threaten action

Nandu wrote:If we supply electricity to the Pakis, it will become another "red line" and they will try to project any disruption in the supply, intentional or accidental, as an act of aggression by India.

Kanishka wrote:Family's 20 kids highlight Pakistan's population explosion

"None of these methods is allowed in Islam," said Maulana Tanveer Alvi, a Muslim cleric. "Whatever is born in the world -- animals, humans, anything living -- God is responsible for their care.