Bharat Rakshak

"The death squad shows up in uniform: black masks and tunics with the name of the group, Khorasan Mujahedin, scrawled across the back in Urdu. Pulling up in caravans of Toyota Corolla hatchbacks, dozens of them seal off mud-hut villages near the Afghan border, and then scour markets and homes in search of tribesmen they suspect of helping to identify targets for the armed U.S. drones that routinely buzz overhead. Once they've snatched their suspect, they don't speed off, villagers say. Instead, the caravan leaves slowly, a trademark gesture meant to convey that they expect no retaliation.

Pakistani authorities have cleared the import of 16 vegetables and raw jute from India through the Wagah land border in order to bring down prices in the domestic market and added 18 more items to the list of goods that can be imported from the neighbouring country.

Among the vegetables whose import has been allowed by the Commerce Ministry are cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, capsicum, green chillies, okra, bitter gourd, radish, green coriander and ginger fresh.

THIS month’s prospective meeting of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue Group comprising seven states sharing the rivers rising in the Greater Himalayas would be a watershed event as the group is expected to adopt a joint initiative to minimise the impact of glacial melt. The group comprises Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. All these countries share river basins originating from the water roof of the region — the Himalayas. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka account for more than 21 per cent of the world’s population but own barely 8.3 per cent of the global water resources. This makes Chinese-controlled Tibet very important for South Asian countries. The water-rich southern Tibetanbelt is the source of two major river systems, the Indus and the Brahmaputra, as well as of several other South Asian rivers.The 1,550km-long Sutlej which flows through India to ultimately drain into the Indus also originates in this belt, from the southern slopes of Mount Kailash. The flood plains of major rivers including the Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus and Meghna owe their sustenance to the Himalayan ecosystem and support life for over 1.5 billion people. The Ganges river basin alone is home to about 600 million people.As the glaciers recede, significant declines in flows will become inevitable. According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, by 2050 the annual run-off in the Brahmaputra is projected to decline by 14 per cent and the Indus by 27 per cent. The melting Himalayas pose a serious risk to the sustainability of water resources in the region.
South Asia with a large population base is susceptible to greater disasters in the wake of climate change. More than 750 million people in the region have been affected by at least one natural disaster in the last two decades. In May 2011, the secretary general of Saarc presented a draft agreement on the Rapid Response to Natural Disasters to an intergovernmental meeting of the organisation. He said that over the past 40 years, South Asia has faced as many as 1,333 disasters that have killed 980,000 people, affected 2.4 billion lives and damaged assets worth $105bn.Very large populations in these countries owe their sustenance to water resources. Himalayan-fed rivers shape the economyand society. Hence glacial melt could have catastrophic socio-political implications for the region. Regional cooperation becomes even more desirable in the wake of hydro-meteorological disasters.By 2050, South Asia’s population is likely to exceed 1.5bn to 2.2bn. With more than 600 million South Asians subsisting on less than $1.25 a day, a single catastrophic incident could push millions into further poverty and misery. A major threat comes from the fast-melting Himalayas that dominate the monsoon dynamics in the region. The system is the lynchpin of the river network in the region.Relentless glacial melt would also cause an ominous rise in sea levels. South Asia has a long and densely populated coastline with low-lying islands that are dangerously exposed to sea-level rise. The region has a coastline of 12,000km and a large number of islands. Hence snowmelt in the Himalayas makes the region highly vulnerable to an array of natural disasters.

An important dimension in regional cooperation has been to bring China on board, as is seen in the composition of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue Group. The challenges faced by South Asian countries pertaining to shared waters, climate change and disasters are inextricably linked with China, as major rivers of South Asian countries originate from the Tibetan plateau. It is therefore of utmost importance that, along with boosting joint efforts among its own members, Saarc should also engage meaningfully with China on regional cooperation on water resources, climate change and disasters

Two of the most common comments I receive through emails are: ‘If only Pakistan imposes a true Islamic system, we’ll be able to get rid of the hypocrisies committed in its name.’ Of course, such suggestions are proposed by fellow Pakistanis. The other comment is usually from readers in India or the West. It’s a simple question: ‘Why are Pakistanis always so engrossed in religion?’
I am no scholar (religious or otherwise), but a student of history with a keen interest in understanding it through the lens of cultural anthropology. You see, most of us living in Pakistan have always been advised to look at cultural studies with suspicion. It has been embedded in us that this sort of enquiry leads one to question the very foundations of the country’s ideology.But the problem is, the less equipped or inclined we are to question what we’ve been told is our ideology, the more one-dimensional remains our understanding of the diverse range of people that reside in Pakistan; and also, we become more venerable to the continuous volley of half-truths and glorified delusions that have been coming our way from dictators, textbooks and the usual media crackpotsIn the absence of the kind of rigorous democracy that a diverse nation requires, this all-encompassing Muslim nationalism only ended up alienating the centuries-old cultural moorings of a number of ethnicities in Pakistan. So, as the Baloch, the Sindhis and the Pashtuns rose up in anger, as had done the Bengalis in the former East Pakistan, who eventually decided to rip themselves away from Pakistan’s ideological equation.Though the anti-diversity dynamics of Muslim nationalism was by and large successful in keeping this ideology’s more radical advocates at bay, the 1971 East Pakistan debacle left this ideology vulnerable to the influence of what was once dismissed as the Islamist fringe.Gradually, especially with the arrival of the dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq, the ideology’s early modernist Islam was turned on its head when the new ideologues wanted to Islamise the modern. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan gave way to Abul Ala Maududi
Has not this ideology irst of the modernist ‘One Unit’ Islam variety, and then the exhibitionistic and militarist version of it completely failed to achieve what it wanted to? That is, to turn a diverse Pakistan into a united, ideological whole based on religion.
It was always an over-ambitious and Utopian task. We were never ‘one people.’ The majority of us were Muslims (and still are), but our understanding of faith is intricately linked to and informed by the cultural moorings of our own distinct ethnicities and sects.

shravan wrote:New Year Night Celebration: 4 Killed; 40 Injured In Karachi
at least four people were killed and several others wounded by dint of aerial firing incidents amid celebrations for arrival of New Year here in the financial hub of Pakistan, Karachi, SAMAA reports late Saturday.

ISLAMABAD: Human Rights Watch (HRW), an American-based international human rights organisation operating across the world, is against the Islamic provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan, the Toheen-e-Risalat Act, and is working to bring about a change in them.

“See, how the Supreme Court could declare a legislation made by the Parliament as null and void only terming it in contradiction to some Islamic provisions,” Dayan said during an extensive interview with The News on Friday evening.

Dayan said that Aasia Bibi was innocent in a case blasphemy of Holy Prophet (PBUH) but the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued pre-emptive preventive order that president couldn’t grant her pardon despite the fact the Constitution gave the Office of President powers to pardon any sentence.

Asked despite his severe criticism on the blasphemy law, not a single person has been executed under this law in the whole history of Pakistan because of severe requirements of proof and evidences, and any lower court sentences were overturned by superior courts, so in a way the blasphemy law was acting as a protective shield for the minorities in Pakistan, Dayan said, “We have a difference of opinion here.”

LIAQUAT ALI’S DIFFICULTIES

“The daily ‘Waqt’ and ‘Safina’ of Lahore published the following poem in their issue of March 8, 1950:

“‘I am preparing for Jehad.

I shall crush enemy forces.

The infidels cannot stand in front of me.

One day, I shall hoist Pakistan’s flag in India.

My Motherland: I will achieve glory for you.’

Brad Goodman wrote:Happy New year to all readers

Political Conspiracies in Pakistan

LIAQUAT ALI’S DIFFICULTIES

“The daily ‘Waqt’ and ‘Safina’ of Lahore published the following poem in their issue of March 8, 1950:

“‘I am preparing for Jehad.

I shall crush enemy forces.

The infidels cannot stand in front of me.

One day, I shall hoist Pakistan’s flag in India.

My Motherland: I will achieve glory for you.’

Seems to be a fairly regularly feature in Bijapur

Brad Goodman wrote:Happy New year to all readers

Political Conspiracies in Pakistan

LIAQUAT ALI’S DIFFICULTIES

“The daily ‘Waqt’ and ‘Safina’ of Lahore published the following poem in their issue of March 8, 1950:

“‘I am preparing for Jehad.

I shall crush enemy forces.

The infidels cannot stand in front of me.

One day, I shall hoist Pakistan’s flag in India.

My Motherland: I will achieve glory for you.’

ravi_g wrote:{quote="Brad Goodman"}Happy New year to all readers

Political Conspiracies in Pakistan

LIAQUAT ALI’S DIFFICULTIES

“The daily ‘Waqt’ and ‘Safina’ of Lahore published the following poem in their issue of March 8, 1950:

“‘I am preparing for Jehad.

I shall crush enemy forces.

The infidels cannot stand in front of me.

One day, I shall hoist Pakistan’s flag in India.

My Motherland: I will achieve glory for you.’

Land of the Ghazwas would have been a better choice of words for the Pakis.
My Motherland, seems too Indic for their present direction.

Brad Goodman wrote:Happy New year to all readers

Political Conspiracies in Pakistan

LIAQUAT ALI’S DIFFICULTIES

“The daily ‘Waqt’ and ‘Safina’ of Lahore published the following poem in their issue of March 8, 1950:

“‘I am preparing for Jehad.

I shall crush enemy forces.

The infidels cannot stand in front of me.

One day, I shall hoist Pakistan’s flag in India.

My Motherland: I will achieve glory for you.’

sum wrote:Wonder what does it say about the mettle of our agencies given that we seem to have held up pretty well against this big league rogue agency.

sum wrote:

surinder wrote:Steve Coll's book is terribly engrossing.

Some tidbits from it:
.....

Just couldn't resist after reading your post and have immediately ordered this book on FlipKart. Should be nestled in my hands within 2 days!

sum wrote:

chetak wrote: Sirjee,

If it is ghost wars you are talking about, mobi and epub versions are available from the usual shady sites.

Somehow, havent got upto reading and enjoying the PDF versions of these books. Like the print version better.

Case in point is Mitrokhin archive which i plodded through in PDF but once i got the print version, pages just flew by.

JE Menon wrote:Yes Ghost Wars is well worth a read, and is a useful reference as well. Totally American perspective of course (why should we expect any different?), but Coll pulls no punches. Books such as these set helped to get the Americans thinking about Pakistan slightly differently than they used to. BTW, Coll was a friend of Daniel Pearl and was involved in supporting and facilitating in the early days after the kidnapping. Marianne Pearl's book reveals this, and also I believe Bernard Henry Levy's book on the Pearl murder.

Security sources said that Kamran was involved in various attacks on security forces, particularly a suicide attack in Shabqadar in May 2011 in which more than 90 people were killed. He was also involved in the June twin bombing in Nowshera that killed over 20 people and a suicide attack in Risalpur cantonment in August that killed a police assistant sub-inspector.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/315131/ttp-commander-qari-kamran-killed-in-khyber-agency/

Vivek_A wrote:

surinder wrote: Like they sold the US heli to PRC this year near Kakul.

What heli? You mean the tail section?

Mahendra wrote:^You Kaffir, don't you see that they are firing at the New Year perhaps hoping to hit Santa Claus who escaped on the 25th

hnair wrote:ISI from big leagues?

Any agency of the "big leagues" seem to have a) analytical division b) action division. Now a) is what distinguishes an intel agency from a goon squad. In ISI case, a) seems to be just a mullah reading aloud from a book and it is only about b) we hear about all the time. Anything to do with a) is abject failure on their part - from Afghan to Kashmir, ISI's failures in predicting anything are many.

SSridhar wrote:Last time, such maal-e-ghanimat [acquired with consent] was accumulated, it went up in a puff raining on unsuspecting people of the twin cities for days together. This time, they want to covet maal-e-ghaneemat and no one knows how it will end.

They have the fearsom Pathans eating out of their hands. They managed a complex relationship with CIA and kept the focus on their needs and goals. They engaged KSA's GID. From them they extracted money & arms to the tune of one billion dollars a year. They took on USSR's Red Army in a covert war. They engaged with the Chinese agencies. They managed a world-wide network of izalamic insurgents which waged the biggest atankvadi network known to man. They harbored the most wanted man 50 miles from their capital. This is in addition to their links with British MI6.

1. A Pakistani border official has accused Iranian security personnel of crossing into Pakistan, shooting to death one man and wounding another.

2. Iranian forces took the two men from the Mazah Sar area of southwest Baluchistan province back across the border after the incident Sunday evening.

3. Pakistani border officials followed the foreign forces into Iran, retrieved the two men and brought them back to Pakistan.

4. They also detained three Iranian border security personnel.

CRamS wrote:Surinder, add to that list what they have done to us over the years.

But there has been a huge cost to TSP, in terms of the state the country is in, although the interesting things is that when viewed as pakijabis do, its not a cost at all. TSP national psyche has been to hold India at bay, and strike at the opportune moment to first ride their horses in downtown Srinagar, and slowly proceed to the red fort in New Delhi. Thats their dream and its still alive in their minds despite whatever the outside world thinks the cost to TSP has been.

r_subramanian wrote:Drone strike kills five in North Waziristan

The online edition of The News is reporting that 'Drone strike in Ghulam Khan village of North Wairistan killed five people on Tuesday, Geo News reported.'
Has Kiyani given his approval?

URL: http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.as ... ive-in-NWA

A PAKISTANI warehouse worker swooped on by intelligence services, who deemed him a security risk, says he is not an extremist and has pleaded to be released.

Salman Ghumman was taken in to custody on December 21 by Immigration Department officials at Merlynston Station, just days after he was quizzed by authorities about phone calls made to Pakistan, NATO attacks, his movements and why he was in the country.

But the 23-year-old denied he was an extremist and said he was not a threat.

"I've got a beard. I can't think of any other reason (my visa was cancelled)," he said.

"I've got no future. I'm not a threat to this country."

Mr Ghumman's Facebook site links to a group backing terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani doctor with extensive terror links jailed for 86 years in 2010.

But authorities won't tell Mr Ghumman why he is being thrown out of the country.

"Then they interviewed me again and they were asking me one by one about my friends ... Most of friends are in Pakistan. I don't have (many friends) in Australia."

Mr Ghumman, who is being held at the Maribyrnong detention centre, came to Australia in July 2010 to study accounting at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE.

He lived in Melbourne's northern suburbs, worked in warehouses and attended mosques in Fawkner and Preston.

The Department of Immigration declined to say why Mr Ghumman's visa had been cancelled, but said he was now in the country unlawfully.

"The person no longer met the legal criteria to hold a visa, therefore the visa was cancelled making him an unlawful non-citizen and subject to detention," a spokeswoman said.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General's department also refused to say why Pakistani authorities had been contacted or whether he faced charges.

"It would not be appropriate to comment on operational matters," she said.

Liberty Victoria president Spencer Zifcak said adverse security assessments from ASIO meant people could be kept in detention indefinitely.

"The problem is these people cannot find out the reasons for these assessments," he said.

"To hold people indefinitely on no charges without appeal is in breach of virtually every human rights convention Australia has signed on to."

surinder wrote:

Vivek_A wrote: What heli? You mean the tail section?

Yes the debris of the Heli near abbotabad, near Kakul.

I can't think of any other reason (my visa was cancelled)," he said.

ISLAMABAD: Renowned lawyer Asma Jahangir on Sunday refused to continue as former Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani’s counsel in the memogate case, DawnNews reported.Asma Jahangir said that she did not trust the commission formed by the Supreme Court to investigate the memo-scandal, alleging that the Supreme Court judges were under the establishment’s influence.Asma also told DawnNews in an exclusive interview that Hussain Haqqani feared the powerful spy agencies may force him into giving a statement. This fear was the reason behind the former ambassador’s stay at the prime minister’s house, she said.Moreover, she said that the Supreme Court’s decision on the memogate petition was a victory for the country’s establishment. The law was being used to transform the country into a ‘security state’, she said.