Bharat Rakshak

We hear Canny and family are all packed and ready to move lock, stock and barrel to the land Down Under. They say Canny’s apparatus Down Under is pretty comprehensive with investments made, real estate bought, all ready and prepared to receive Canny and family. The only hitch is the khakis themselves, we’re told, who feel that the exit from Pakistan of a chief so soon after his retirement will disillusion the rank and file and give his critics an opportunity to say “we told you so”. Sources say Canny’s been told to cool his heels for a bit, and postpone his final departure to a more opportune moment. -

The Sikhs, not Punjabi Muslims, constituted the toughest, most warlike component of the population of undivided Punjab. With Partition we got rid of the Sikhs and on our own we are giving proof everyday of being unable to handle the extremist mess we ourselves have created. Punjab in command and Punjab shaking at the knees – and Ranjit Singh, alas, not arising from his Samadhi to come to our rescue.

And on the bench of the Lahore High Court where once presided the legendary Rustam Kayani cometh another presiding spirit who after stepping down from the bench takes enormous pride in representing as his counsel that other hero of Islam, Mumtaz Qadri, who for the greater glory of the faith emptied his Kalashnikov magazine into the back of the Punjab governor whose bodyguard he was supposed to be.
In this climate of enlightened opinion scarcely surprising then if even after the slaughter of 23 FC soldiers at the hands of the Taliban – the unwatchable video promptly uploaded – our good and great in whose hands by a sardonic Providence has been entrusted our uncertain destiny should be hemming and hawing and still be in great and grave doubt as to what should be done. The Sikhs, not Punjabi Muslims, constituted the toughest, most warlike component of the population of undivided Punjab. With Partition we got rid of the Sikhs and on our own we are giving proof everyday of being unable to handle the extremist mess we ourselves have created. Punjab in command and Punjab shaking at the knees – and Ranjit Singh, alas, not arising from his Samadhi to come to our rescue.

A few years ago, our national nightmare came true. India invaded Pakistan. They killed our men at arms in droves, slaughtering those brave young men who had voluntarily spent their life training for the privilege of risking their lives for the rest of us. Their bloodlust unsatiated, they started to attack policemen and other security personnel, claiming that as armed representatives of the state, they too deserved death. Every whispered rumour, every hateful school text about India was true. But they had made a mistake. Somehow, our army outnumbered them vastly. Surely they would be crushed by our military, however long it took, with every true blooded Pakistani cheering them on. We are a proud people, so I've been told, and we would not suffer such horrors visited upon our own.
And then, incredibly, we decided we wanted to talk it out. We had no stomach for war, even when war had been cruelly thrust down our throat. ‘Not our war’ was the whimper.
You want to talk, as they kill your young police commandos, eliciting an unbearably plaintive request from the Punjab law minister that they at least refrain from murder while peace talks are in progress?You want to talk, as they execute 23 men from the Frontier Corps during these ‘peace talks’? You want to talk, as they threaten to blow up schools in KP that participate in lifesaving anti polio drives? You want to talk, as they openly boast that they will convert ‘unbelievers’ by the sword?

Anujan wrote:Ayaz Amir's latest towel

. . . and Ranjit Singh, alas, not arising from his Samadhi to come to our rescue.

shiv wrote:This image shows the parts of Karachi controlled by the Taliban
source

SSridhar wrote:

. . . and Ranjit Singh, alas, not arising from his Samadhi to come to our rescue.

That's quite an admission of failure, admission of truth and a longing to be part of the whole once again.

Last week we witnessed the unsightly spectacle of government negotiators virtually pleading with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) negotiating committee to agree to a ceasefire and end violence across the country in the wake of numerous suicide attacks and at least one massacre. The TTP initially deflected blame for the incidents on dissident groups and a mysterious ‘third force’ working to scuttle negotiations. When denials became untenable, particularly after the execution of 23 Frontier Constabulary personnel, a TTP statement claimed the attacks were in response to security forces’ actions against their members. The group claims the government is hunting down their operatives in various parts of the country and that several of their members were killed in police encounters and in custody, but the evidence for any of these claims remains scanty. In fact, it is almost comical that TTP denials of violence finally gave way first to tacit admissions, to now slinging accusations to justify their continuing butchery. The media, which covered the negotiations extensively, would hardly miss an opportunity to investigate allegations that actions against the TTP continue, but the evidence simply doesn’t exist. However, there is evidence that the tables are turning on the TTP in their attempt to browbeat the government and that their reason for continuing with talks is because they sense a tactical advantage in doing so. Yesterday TTP negotiators urged the government to continue negotiations, saying they are ready for a ceasefire, will ‘moderate’ their demands, and remove preconditions. However, from the government’s point of view, the demands don’t look very different: withdrawing the army from the tribal areas, a ground reality that hurts the militants and limits their movement, is not on the cards since it would practically cede a portion of the country to terrorists. If the last two weeks are any indication, the ‘pause’ would only buy a temporary respite, if that. The release of TTP prisoners, similarly, needs reciprocity in the release of TTP-held hostages such as Shahbaz Taseer and Ali Haider Gilani. The alleged demand of TTP spokespersons for the military to release ‘women and children held in illegal custody’ reeks of tragic irony, coming from an organisation that views women as subhuman thralls.

Throughout this process the military maintained a stoic silence, which only broke yesterday with a curt statement from security officials that 114 military personnel have been killed in terrorist acts since the All Parties Conference last September. More telling was a late night raid by Pakistan Air Force jets on militant hideouts in Waziristan and Khyber Agency, which reportedly killed the mastermind behind the February 13 attack on a police bus in Karachi and destroyed a bomb-making factory. COAS General Raheel Sharif held a meeting with US Central Command General Lloyd Austin, in which he specifically requested help in eliminating terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan. The meeting signifies growing awareness within the military of the threat the TTP poses to the country as a whole. The gravity of this threat is measured in Interior Minister Chaudry Nisar’s statement that the country’s urban areas face severe terrorism from cells of different organisations, and that the federal capital Islamabad is in perhaps the most danger. The violence that may follow any attempt to subdue the TTP is of course frightening. However, the prospect of violence won’t decrease by allowing the militants breathing room or acceding to even a limited number of demands. The government’s tougher stance pushed the TTP into asking for a ceasefire. While any further actions must carefully take the human cost into account, it is clear that only by positively pursuing the option of the mailed fist inside the velvet glove can the government expect any positive results. *

SSridhar wrote:sadhana, to add to your observation, we must also recognize the tacit or agreed understanding between some of the foreign governments and these elites, that allows them such easy migration after retirement.

partha wrote:Pakistan should withdraw 800,000 army men from Waziristan who are oppressing innocent Muslims.

Jhujar wrote: xcuse me, Where can i find Paki mind?
Yindia, India, Hindia ,Everywhere Bheendia

Wait. Apparently, it wasn't India who did all this. It was our very own Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. And that's different. Obviously. I cannot guess as to how, but it must be, else only two equally sobering conclusions remain: either I have lost my mind, or a great many of my countrymen have.

Addressing a press conference at an undisclosed location, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said the government wanted Taliban to accept the constitution of Pakistan through dialogue. He said this constitution did not have a single Islamic clause in it.

Shahid said TTP wanted to continue dialogue process

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (or BBZ) tweeted his response to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid’s statement that there was not a single Islamic clause in Pakistan’s constitution

He clearly can’t read.

No one will ‘dry’ lease planes (planes without crew and staff) to PIA because they don’t trust them to take good care of them, and PIA can’t lease planes without crew and staff because it cannot afford the high insurance premium that insurance companies charge PIA, as a notoriously a high-risk user. This is what happens when you have planes that routinely fail international safety standards, when drunk pilots are arrested at European Union airports, and when crew members are caught smuggling illegal items.

Enter Corendon Airlines of Turkey and Smartwings of the Czech Republic, neither of whom are world beaters of any sort. Today, they fly Pakistani passengers on wet leases for internal Pakistani routes, on the national flag carrier. This is happening because PIA is an untrustworthy borrower of money and planes, and an incapable user of airline industry equipment.

SSridhar wrote:{quote="Anujan"}Ayaz Amir's latest towel

partha wrote:Pakistan should withdraw 800,000 army men from Waziristan who are oppressing innocent Muslims.

Peregrine wrote:

Jhujar wrote: Wait. Apparently, it wasn't India who did all this. It was our very own Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. And that's different. Obviously. I cannot guess as to how, but it must be, else only two equally sobering conclusions remain: either I have lost my mind, or a great many of my countrymen have.

Cheers

Paki forget that having mind is against Paki Deen !Be happy that it got lost otherwise Taliban would have to shoot a hole in his head to remove Kafir Mind.
Kaffir, Ahmadi, Shia, Kalash,Ismmaeli, Munafqueen
Sarree Talibano Marre
Waqqat Ayya Dekho Pure Malsi Ke Nazzarre!!

President Obama has become the unwitting spokesman for contraband **** pills in Pakistan, according to a report from Agence Mush-Press.Drugs like **** are illegal in the conservative Mideast nation. But enterprising smugglers have brought the drug across the border from Afghanistan and begun selling them in packages emblazoned with the American president's image, the news agency reports.One package spotted by reporters has the present giving a thumbs-up. Another depicts the president in a tuxedo with a pistol, à la James Bond.A package of four of the fake **** pills costs $1, and their use has become increasingly popular among younger Pakistanis. But there are some risks to the black-market drugs: while some Obama pills are copies of legitimate erectile dysfunction pills, others have reportedly caused paralyzations

"I am writing a script now and I wish it represents Pakistan at an international platform and people get to see that side of Pakistan which usually is not shown to them," Ali said here in an interview. He wonders why Pakistan is "always shown in bad light". "Pakistani people are good...it has its own kind of colour, culture, art, it has its history...people are so bubbly. Moreover, there is so much of scenic beauty there, then why such things about Pakistan are not shown in the international media?," he added. "I think it's important and the time I has come when people like me need to bring this facet of Pakistan in front of the whole world," he added.

Modi, who is now the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for April-May this year, is an extremely polarizing figure in India.

He is loved by the majority of Hindu nationalists, whereas many Muslims and secular Indians hate him. But nowhere is the 63-year-old more feared and despised than in the neighboring Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The journalist explains that Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is also pursuing a policy of appeasing the Taliban, who are strictly against India. "Across the border, Modi is gaining popularity. This doesn't augur well for the nuclear-armed South Asia,"

KOHAT : A Shia leader and administrator of an imambargah was shot dead in Kohat on Friday.

The country is facing rising sectarian violence, with militant groups linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban often attacking gatherings of Shias, who make up some 20 percent of the country’s overwhelmingly Muslim population.

Brad Goodman wrote:Ali Zafar penning scipt that shows Pakistan in new light

...side of bakistan which usually is not shown to them...people are so bubbly

Brad Goodman wrote:'Anti-Muslim' Indian leader Modi 'hated' in Pakistan

...but here in bakistan, perceptions are stronger than reality

SSridhar wrote:sadhana, to add to your observation, we must also recognize the tacit or agreed understanding between some of the foreign governments and these elites, that allows them such easy migration after retirement.

‏@TarekFatah Feb 14
After 100s of corrupt #Pakistan Generals including ISI plants got Candn passports, Ottawa dumps 'Investor' immgrtion http://o.canada.com/news/national/feder ... p0.twitter …

Here are three strange but instructive instances of pride, pique and prejudice in modern India at different levels of state and society. To some Indians, they could represent the might and glory of the newly assertive motherland; to others of a perhaps more paranoid bent, they might indicate a creeping new culture of illiberalism and intolerance:
Scene 1: The American scholar and veteran radio broadcaster David Barsamian is a well-known Indophile. He has frequently advertised India’s virtues and subtleties to the world, but he has also criticised the Indian nation, most crucially on its stance over Kashmir. On Sept 23, 2011, Barsamian arrives in New Delhi, but he is promptly deported by immigration authorities, who tell him he is “banned” from the country. No official reason, however, is given for his dismissal, and Barsamian’s letters to the Indian government and Indian embassies in the United States and a signed petition by a roster of prominent Indian intellectuals go unanswered. It’s clear Barsamian is not welcome in India again, and the government wants to let him know he can’t expect to criticise it and yet be allowed into the country. “I hope the government of India, in its mysterious Byzantine ways, will reconsider its ban on me,” he says in an interview. “I am, you know, hardly a threat to the Indian Union.”

Scene 2: The American scholar (what, is there a pattern here?) Wendy Doniger has long been the subject of hostile attacks by Hindu nationalist groups, who view her copious work on the core texts and myths of Hinduism as “sexed up” and disrespectful to one of the world’s great religious traditions. The debate is an interesting and even necessary one. But earlier this month, it suddenly judders to a halt when Penguin Books India, Doniger’s publisher in India, abruptly withdraws her book The Hindus: An Alternative History from the market: Fearing a drawn-out legal battle, Penguin has reached an out-of-court settlement with the Hindu nationalist group that invoked, in its lawsuit against Doniger and her publishers, Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code, which proscribes “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class.”
Scene 3: In Sept 2011, Narendra Modi, the bellicose, polarising chief minister of the western state of Gujarat (and currently the man most likely to be India’s next prime minister), is given something like a “clean chit” by a special investigative team appointed to look into the religious violence that raged across the state in 2002, shortly after Modi took office. Modi has always strenuously denied critics’ accusations that he had a direct hand in orchestrating the violence. It has now become clear that if he wants to run for prime minister in 2014, there is little to no chance the law will throw a spanner into the works. That’s good reason to celebrate, but Modi’s response is fantastically over the top: he sets up a massive, self-congratulatory three-day pageant, where politicians from the Bharatiya Janata Party and figures from public life arrive to sing his praises while he sits behind them like a medieval potentate. And in a curious act of fusion — one that reveals either a man who, like Walt Whitman, “contains multitudes” or, more distressingly, a state of 60 million people who are willingly indivisible from their elected leader — he says generously that he intends to forgive those “who defamed Gujarat or me by making false allegations”.
The virtues that Modi would bring to office are many, and they should not be underemphasised. The religious riots aside, his administrative record in Gujarat is impressive, even if the lineaments of his growth model are not to the liking of some. He has a clear view of what India’s development problems are, and how red tape is a drag on India’s economy. He has something to say to the aspirations of millions of young Indians, with whom — unusually for a man of 63 — he has struck a real chord. If he becomes prime minister, he will have risen to the country’s most powerful office from humble beginnings and at a great distance from New Delhi’s English-speaking elite (unlike his rival candidate, the Congress party’s bumbling dynast Rahul Gandhi). That would be a sign of how far Indian democracy has taken the country since the feudal and colonial worlds that preceded it
But in voting Modi to power, the bargain India’s citizenry and corporate world would probably be making — with what consequences in the long term no one can quite predict — is the privileging of economic growth and “good governance” over intellectual freedom and the long-standing secular consensus of a Hindu-majority but multi-faith country (often denounced as “pseudosecular” by the BJP).Even if Modi now resolutely speaks the language of development and social cohesion, he has never explicitly repudiated his record of provocation with its basis in anti- Muslim prejudice. There’s no doubt that his victory would be a tremendous incentive to Hindu right-wing groups in their campaign to interpret a religious tradition monochromatically and to rewrite history textbooks in Indian schools (well- described in the writer William Dalrymple’s long essay “India: The War Over History”). This would bring about a tremendous constriction of India’s public sphere.Modi has also positioned himself as a strongman who wants a robust Indian state that will regain its long-lost status as a world power. Many Indians find this reassuring. He speaks repeatedly of his “chhappan inch ki chhati,” or 56-inch chest. There may be an upside to his rhetoric of “pride” and “honour,” but it’s certainly not a line that will lead to a regime that will brook criticism of its policies from abroad. Mr Barsamian, if you’re already unwelcome in India, you’ll be really unwelcome very soon. Stay put in America.And, perhaps worst of all, Modi has shown repeatedly that when it comes to dealing with points of view that are critical of his own, he believes not in the power of argument but in the easy, crushing power of the ban. No Indian politician today has shown less faith in the idea of dialogue or difference. While he has been chief minister of Gujarat, films that depict or interpret the religious violence of 2002 cannot be shown in the state’s theatres. Much of the time, Modi has implemented a private agenda of thought control in Gujarat in an unofficial way; where he sees the chance, though, he is perfectly happy to attach his name publicly to the repression of intellectual freedom. In 2009, his government even banned a book written by a member of his own party, Jaswant Singh, because it contained references to the Gujarati leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel that, in Modi’s eyes, distorted “historical facts”. His government said it was acting in the “wider public interest.” Once such a line is taken, there’s no end to the things that could be banned, or people repressed, in the wider public interest, including (perhaps in an extreme case) Muslims.Those are the depressing implications for India’s vibrant but intermittently censorious public sphere, then, of the rise of a shrewd, capable demagogue who has so far successfully fought off all attempts to “defame Gujarat or me”. Can we imagine such a perspective beginning to bear down on attempts to “defame India or me”?Yes, we can.
—By arrangement with Bloomberg-Washington Post

India reacted to Maulana Masood Azhar, founder of the banned Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM), recently speaking against India by stating that “as far as we are concerned, even one utterance of a threat against India, is one threat too many.”

Mr. Azhar was among the militants taken to Kandahar by then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh in 1999 in exchange for passengers and crew of a hijacked Indian Airlines plane.

In the speech, Mr. Azhar vowed revenge for the execution of Afzal Guru for his involvement in the 2001 Parliament House attack.

Speaking to newspersons, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin emphasised that Azhar belonged to an organisation banned not by only India but also by the United Nations Security Council and Pakistan.

Pakistan responds
Meena Menon reports from Islamabad:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Tasnim Aslam on Thursday said that comments made by an individual belonging to a banned outfit should not concern India much. She was replying to questions posed to her at a weekly media briefing.

“Yes, we have seen media reports that he has addressed a public meeting, but probably this is a one-time event. He escaped scrutiny and did it, but I am sure you are aware that his organisation is banned in Pakistan and their activities are monitored.”

Ms. Aslam said one question that was not being asked was how Pakistan felt about the frequent provocative statements made by the Indian Army Chief. In response to a question on reports that Mr. Azhar was planning to address a university gathering in Punjab, Ms. Aslam said she would not comment on speculation.

On Mast Gul, a terrorist who escaped after a gunfight at Charar-e-Sharif near Srinagar in 1995 and joined the Taliban, Ms. Aslam said if Mr. Gul had claimed responsibility for the Peshawar attacks then he was a threat to Pakistan and its people.

anupmisra wrote:..........................

Addressing a press conference at an undisclosed location, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said the government wanted Taliban to accept the constitution of Pakistan through dialogue. He said this constitution did not have a single Islamic clause in it.

So, how do you address a press conference without anyone knowing about its whereabouts?.............................

Brad Goodman wrote:Ali Zafar penning scipt that shows Pakistan in new light

"......."Pakistani people are good.....people are so bubbly.

...

A racist Muslim who threatened to blow up police officers and cut off one's penis has been jailed for almost three years.

Haroon Rashid was chased by police officers after he punched a man in the face with a homemade knuckle duster.

When they caught up with Rashid he launched into a tirade, saying: "I am going to cut off your dick, you f***ing white infidels

He also threatened to "blow them up".

Ten days later, Rashid then also threatened a member of staff at an an unemployment advice centre with knuckledusters

We hear Canny and family are all packed and ready to move lock, stock and barrel to the land Down Under. They say Canny’s apparatus Down Under is pretty comprehensive with investments made, real estate bought, all ready and prepared to receive Canny and family. The only hitch is the khakis themselves, we’re told, who feel that the exit from Pakistan of a chief so soon after his retirement will disillusion the rank and file and give his critics an opportunity to say “we told you so”. Sources say Canny’s been told to cool his heels for a bit, and postpone his final departure to a more opportune moment.

Polio re-emerges amid paranoia in Pakistan

Conspiracy theories about polio have been rampant; the myth usually involves someone attempting to rid the world of Muslims.

By: Mariya Karimjee GlobalPost, Published on Sat Feb 22 2014

KARACHI, PAKISTAN—When health workers approached Zulfikar Quaid about inoculating his three children against polio, Quaid picked up an old cricket bat and waved it at them. “Get out of my house,” he yelled. “My children are Muslim and we don’t need your dirty Hindu drugs.”

The health workers were stunned — though they’d become accustomed to some resistance to vaccines, they’d never heard it linked to a Hindu conspiracy.

Zarmina, the lead health worker, asked Quaid’s wife why they were refusing the drugs. “The Hindus are lacing it with pig’s blood to send us all to hell,” she explained. ……………………..

arun wrote:..............

Polio re-emerges amid paranoia in Pakistan

KARACHI, PAKISTAN—When health workers approached Zulfikar Quaid about inoculating his three children against polio, Quaid picked up an old cricket bat and waved it at them. “Get out of my house,” he yelled. “My children are Muslim and we don’t need your dirty Hindu drugs.”

“The Hindus are lacing it with pig’s blood to send us all to hell,” she explained. ……………………..

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