Bharat Rakshak

Anujan wrote:I think this sectarian violence is a reaction to what is happening outside Pakistan and Paki hand at it. Pakistani ex-servicemen were recruited to put down Bahraini uprising (by the Shia majority). And now the Saudis want Pakis to train Syrian rebels. There is a huge Shia vs Sunni fight going on in the Middle east and Pakis are providing men and training for that. Surely the Shia community in Pakistan should be reacting to these developments. I am not sure all the Shia-Sunni bhai bhai kumbaya and Loudspeaker ordinances will solve these issues. They run deeper.

Army took control of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Kohat and Hangu cities and a curfew was clamped down, following an attack early on Monday on an Imambargah Said Habib in Zargaran Bazaar area of Kohat district.

Station House Officer Cantt Police station Mazhar Jaan told Dawn.com that the unknown miscreants attacked the Imambargah Said Habib in Zargaranabad earlier in the morning which left three people, including two policemen and a civilian, dead during an exchange of fire between the two rival groups.

He further said that several others were injured while in the clash adding that an angry mob of a religious group set on fire a number of shops in Tirah Bazaar.

The ASWJ activists had taken out a protest rally against the Rawalpindi incident

Following the growing tension the law enforcement agencies imposed a curfew in Kohat and Hangu and the army took control of both the two cities

Friday's violence in Rawalpindi erupted when a procession of Shia Muslims marking Ashura reportedly coincided with a sermon at a nearby Sunni mosque.

The authorities imposed a curfew on Rawalpindi, twin city of Islamabad, which was only lifted on Monday morning.

A ban on gatherings of more than five people remains in force.

Troops were also deployed in Rawalpindi as well as in the southern Punjab city of Multan to keep the peace.

Situation in parts of the city of Rawalpindi remained tense on Monday following the lifting of a curfew which was imposed after a clash between members of the Sunni and Shia communities on Friday that left 10 dead.

According to DawnNews, the army had taken control of Rawalpindi's Rawal Town once again and Section 144 remained imposed in the garrison city.

Traders in the city also staged a protest demanding that the administration compensate for the losses incurred by them during the Friday clash.

Shops in the city’s Raja Bazaar, Gawalmandi and Murree Road areas had also been closed.

Moreover, the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) in Rawalpindi announced that examinations scheduled for 2 pm today stood postponed.

The district administration also restricted the sale of petrol for motorcycles.

On Friday, a curfew was imposed in the city and the army was called in to take control after at least 10 people were killed and 56 others were injured during clashes that took place between members of the Sunni and Shia communities as an Ashura procession was passing in front of a seminary in Rawalpindi's Raja Bazaar area.

The curfew was lifted early on Monday after which schools and offices were scheduled to reopen.

Commission to probe Friday clash

The Punjab government has constituted a three-member judicial commission to probe the Friday incident in the garrison city.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, the provincial law minister said the commission, headed by Justice Mamoon Rasheed Shiekh, would present its report in 48 hours' time.

The fact-finding commission has also been formed with the task to interrogate junior to senior level police officials, he said, adding that those found involved in negligence will be disciplined as per rules.

He alleged that the clash was the result of a conspiracy. {Yes, it is a Yahud, Hanud Nassara conspiracy}

Deploring the loss of precious lives in the incident, the provincial minister said the death toll has risen to 10 with the expiry of one injured today in the hospital. Fifty-six others were injured in the incident.

Sanaullah has said the government was assessing the damage to property in the Rawalpindi incident to pay compensation to those affected.

ISLAMABAD: Ten entertainment television channels in Pakistan have been slapped with Rs 10 million fine for airing excessive Indian and foreign content, a media report said on Monday.

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority imposed the fine on the channels and issued warning letters to them to desist from such practice in future, The News report said.

It quoted a document of Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, as saying that the local channels were airing excessive Indian content, much more than the prescribed limits.

PEMRA monitoring system is working round the clock to ensure the compliance of code of conduct and code of advertising, the report said.

Private TV channels of the country have been authorized to air only 10 per cent foreign content and 60 per cent of that 10 per cent should be Indian or other content and 40 per cent of the 10 per cent may be English content.

chetak wrote:Pakistan TV channels fined Rs 10 million for excessive Indian content

Anindya wrote:If Pakistan can do this....

Pakistan TV channels fined Rs 10 million for excessive Indian content

Why can't India charge a terrorism tax for any money made by Pakistani individuals or businesses in India?

[Remember, this has been suggested by N Venkatesh before]

KOHAT : Two policemen were among three people killed during clashes between two groups here on Monday.

(There are even claims that the country’s army commander, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, descends from Shiite roots, though his precise genealogy is unclear.)

@MehrTarar Pls brng 2 govt hi officls notice #ASWJ hoodlums grps roamin in #Rawalpindi crryin weapns n torchin ImamBargahs..6 burnt till now

kenop wrote:Pardons in advance for mistake:
Isn't Kiyanahi a shia?

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Monday announced advocate Zulfiqar Abbas Naqvi as the special prosecutor in the treason case to be initiated against former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, DawnNews reported. Moreover, the Sindh High Court hearing the petition seeking to remove the name of former president Musharraf from the Exit Control List adjourned its hearing until Nov 22.Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had announced on Sunday that the government will try the former military ruler for treason for imposing emergency rule in 2007.A report for Musharraf's treason trial would be submitted in the apex court today.

The struggling kebab-maker told me that he had owned a video shop, until a few days earlier, at least. Now he was trying out a new career, but it seemed like he didn’t have much of a future in Pakistan’s booming barbecue business, either; his eyes were teary from the smoke billowing off his improvised pit. He tried to make a handful of minced meat stick to a skewer, and said, sardonically, “See here, true Sharia has finally arrived in Swat.” In 2009, the Pakistani Army launched an offensive to drive the Taliban out of Swat—and forced Fazlullah across the border, into Afghanistan. These days, the valley is relatively peaceful, and Pakistani tourists have returned in droves. Fazlullah kept himself busy in exile: among other things, he issued the order to shoot Malala Yousafzai, the young education activist from Mingora. But he got a promotion earlier this week, when the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (usually known simply as the Pakistani Taliban, or T.T.P.) elected him as their new leader. In his very first statement, he declared that he would refuse any peace talks with the country’s government, which had finally managed to get a mandate from all political parties to hold such talks. Instead, Fazlullah’s first priority will be to take revenge for the death of his predecessor, Hakimullah Mehsud.

Mehsud, who had been “killed” by American drone strikes on at least two previous occasions, was actually killed by another drone strike at the start of November—transforming him overnight, in the eyes of Pakistani politicians and commentators, from a mass murderer into a martyr. During his four years as the head of the T.T.P., Mehsud raised the Taliban game in Pakistan. No longer were they just tribal men fighting to preserve their way of life; they started dreaming they could convert everyone to it. Mehsud consolidated a number of small but ruthless militant and sectarian groups into close-knit fighting units that seemed able to strike anywhere at will. He ordered attacks on Pakistan’s military bases, organized a couple of spectacular jailbreaks, and sent an endless stream of suicide bombers after politicians and religious scholars who didn’t meet his exacting standards. After his men kidnapped an Army colonel, Mehsud delivered a short speech, and then shot him in front of a video camera. Yet the state seems to have lost the will to fight its old foe, Fazlullah, and his followers. When Mehsud was killed, instead of celebrating or letting out quiet sighs of relief, politicians and journalists reacted as if they had lost a favorite son. He had killed many of us, but we weren’t craving vengeance; we were ready to make up and cuddle. Why does Pakistan’s political and military élite celebrate the very people it is fighting? ( Khusra Nacche Ga Nhai Tho Kya Karega)The logic—or its absence—goes like this: Hakimullah Mehsud was our enemy. But the United States is also our enemy. So how dare the Americans kill him? And how dare they kill him when we had made up our minds to talk to him? If the United States is talking to the Afghan Taliban, why can’t we talk to our own Taliban? According to Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, our Taliban are not a fighting force with clear goals but merely people “who are mentally disturbed and confused.” These confused people have attacked mosques, Air Force bases, and anyone who looks remotely like a Shiite; in Swat, they barred all women from leaving home without a male companion. Not to mention shutting down girls’ schools. (One of my friends and fellow-journalists once told one of Fazlullah’s commanders, You can get away with slitting people’s throats in public squares, but shut down girls’ schools, and there will be a lot of very irritated and angry parents. The commander was not persuaded.) The popular narrative in Pakistan holds that the Taliban’s fight is simply a reaction to American drone strikes: it’s a war between American kids sitting in front of LCD screens eating their TV dinners and our own men in the north, who are better Muslims than we are. The Pakistani logic seems to be that if America stops killing them, they’ll stop killing us. But the truth is that the Taliban leadership has made no such promises. They have only said that if the government stops drone strikes, and stops coöperating with America’s war in Afghanistan, they would be willing to talk. But what would they talk about? The little problem they have with Pakistan is that it’s an infidel state—almost as bad as America, but with some potential; they believe that they can somehow make us all better Muslims. Our Taliban are simply saying, “Save us from the U.S. drones, so we can continue to kill you infidels in peace.” Pakistan’s rulers have developed a strange fetish for lionizing its tormenters. Watching the proceedings in Pakistan’s parliament last week, after Mehsud’s murder, you could have mistaken it all for a Taliban meeting. “This is not just the killing of one person,” Pakistan’s interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said. “It’s the death of all peace efforts.” It was mentioned, but only in passing, that since Pakistan had proposed talks with Mehsud in September, the peacemaker and his allies had killed an Army general, blown up a church filled with worshippers, and killed hundreds of other civilians.
The head of Pakistan’s oldest religious party, Maulana Munawar Hassan, has declared that Pakistani soldiers killed at the hands of the Taliban are not martyrs—so, in a way, worse than dogs. This debate was still going when Nasiruddin Haqqani was martyred last weekend, while buying bread at a bakery in the suburbs of Islamabad. He was the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, whom the Pakistani Army considers a valued ally—a tenacious commander who spares us and restricts his jihad to Afghanistan. The Haqqanis, who spread terror on the other side of the border, are our friends—unlike Fazlullah, who lives over there but kills over here. You can see how this might get complicated. It’s no wonder our politicians are so confused.
Pakistani soldiers are trained to shout “allahu akbar” when attacking their enemies. But the enemy they face shouts “allahu akbar” much louder. The Taliban are not mentally disturbed, as our Prime Minister suggests—they believe in something. The state doesn’t. There is no real threat that the T.T.P. will take over Pakistan: there are far too many girls’ schools for them to blow up, and they face a huge military, which may fight on both sides of the war but knows that there can be no Army without a state. But in their collective hankering for one true Sharia, the leaders of Pakistan’s political and security establishment—and their American backers—have long since lost their bearings.

There are even claims that the country’s army commander, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, descends from Shiite roots, though his precise genealogy is unclear.)his precise genealogy is unclear.

Shaan is the most famous male actor we have, Pakistan’s Shahrukh Khan if you will. Actually, considering he’s been around since the 1980s, Shaan is our Anil Kapoor, Shahrukh, Aamir and Salman Khan all rolled into one big, round package.
..
a set somewhere in North Waziristan and it is here, amidst the inexplicably Mughal architecture, that the bearded terrorists twirl their mustaches with practised glee as they plan how to wipe out the good people of the Land of the Pure.
..
Some accents are worse than others (“Moojtaabah,” says the head of intelligence, “its tayum for youuo tah cam bayck tah us.”).
..
the Pakistanis are duskier G.I. Joes, rescuing the country (and, ambitiously, the world) from a threat we don’t even know exists yet; NGO workers aren’t always to be trusted , lest they sedate you and steal your dam away; the terrorists in the north want to kill the spirit of the people and have to be dealt with so we aren’t shown up in front of “our best friends” (practically the only mention of the Americans in the script); women with hipster glasses and skinny jeans hack into terrorist cell networks on their Macs and are in high positions of power; and people spontaneously salute pictures of national leaders because they feel like it.
..
Once the killing starts elsewhere, our two agents decide to do a Dance of Desire. (I know y’all like dances but be warned, this is the only one in the film.) It’s not like it’s just a flickering montage either, no no no. It goes on for a good few minutes as the movie shifts between realistic scenes of men being riddled with bullets to Meesha Shafi running through corridors, arms aloft, waiting to be lifted up like her life is the end of Dirty Dancing.

partha wrote:Hello,

I'm considering buying the good Haqqani's "Magnificent Delusions". Has anyone read it? Is it worth the money?

Pakistanis have become accustomed to seeing the world through the prism of an Islamo-nationalist ideology.

In response to these answers, Bourke-White wrote disapprovingly: “In Jinnah’s mind this brave new nation had no other claim on America’s friendship than this—that across a wild tumble of roadless mountain ranges lay the land of the Bolsheviks. I wondered whether the Quaid-e-Azam considered his new state only as an armored buffer between opposing major powers.”

Khwaja Nazimuddin, who later became Pakistan’s second governor-general as well as its second prime minister, candidly told a British governor that “he did not know what Pakistan means and that nobody in the Muslim League knew.”

senior-most generals held several meetings at army headquarters, commonly called the GHQ, in Rawalpindi to war-game for the Meyers team visit. The meeting’s participants included three men who would later serve terms as Pakistan’s president. Between them, Iskander Mirza, Ayub Khan, and Yahya Khan (then only a brigadier) ruled Pakistan for sixteen years, from 1955 to 1971....In addition to concealing any intention of using US-supplied weaponry against India, the meeting’s participants were to ensure that every Pakistani who met the Americans spoke with one voice. The meeting’s premeditations were to be treated as a state secret. The group met at least three times before meeting the American delegation.

partha wrote:Hello,

I'm considering buying the good Haqqani's "Magnificent Delusions". Has anyone read it? Is it worth the money?

partha wrote:Hello,

I'm considering buying the good Haqqani's "Magnificent Delusions". Has anyone read it? Is it worth the money?

pri.org/stories/2013-11-16/google-ad-has-moved-people-tears-across-indian-and-pakistan

This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan
by Qurratulain Zaman, pri.org
November 16th 2013
Google Ad still.png

A series of short ads by Google India showing how their search engine can facilitate the bridging of hearts and help re-connect people separated by distance and man-made barriers has gone viral across India and Pakistan.

Released on 13 November, 2013, the Google Search: Reunion ad from Google India, is seen to be emotional and engaging. There is a playlist of five ads in this series, including ‘Fennel’, ‘Cricket’, ‘Anarkali’, and ‘Sugar-free’, but the most widely circulated one is ‘Reunion', which has already garnered over 1,523,788 views.

The three-and-a-half-minute ‘Reunion’ ad is about friendship, fond childhood memories, separation and reconnecting to a tender past. In the ad, available on YouTube with English sub-titles, an Indian Punjabi is shown telling his granddaughter Suman about his fond childhood memories in Lahore, Pakistan.

He mentions his childhood friend Yousuf and the sweet shop his friend's father owned in old Lahore, and how he and his friend were separated by the partition of 1947. Suman then searches on Google the whereabouts of her grandfather's childhood friend and contacts him. Finally, the two friends re-unite.

The Reunion ad touches upon the sensitive issue of partition and how it separated friends and families. In 1947, prior to their departure from India, the British rulers partitioned India into the Dominion of Pakistan (later Islamic Republic of Pakistan and People's Republic of Bangladesh) and the Union of India (later Republic of India), primarily along religious lines, to stem the growing tensions between the Hindu and Muslim communities.

The partition however, left both the nations devastated. People were forced to migrate across borders in massive numbers and rioting and acts of violence left deep scars on people's psyche. Up to now, the wounds left by partition have not healed and the relationship between the two countries is often strained, marred by wars, border disputes, military stand-offs and a continuing conflict over Kashmir.

The partition tore apart friends and families, many of whom have not been able to find each other and/or reconnect. Though the two countries have made attempts to improve their relationship, even today the relationship is fragile and it is very difficult for Indian and Pakistani nationals to travel across the border due to stringent visa procedures.

Given this backdrop, it is interesting to see how the ads touched an emotional chord, with bloggers across the two countries reacting positively to the heartwarming ads.

Beena Sarwar, a journalist, blogger, human rights activist and lead campaigner for Aman ki Aasha, a campaign for peace between India and Pakistan, tied the ad into the ‘Milne Do’ campaign against visa restrictions between India and Pakistan:

"If it doesn’t move you, you’ve got a heart of stone. And if oh, it was that easy. For Pakistanis and Indians to get visas to visit each other’s country is just short of impossible… If the Reunion ad moved you, go to the Milne Do (Let people meet) petition link and sign (and share) the campaign against India Pakistan visa restrictions. Every voice counts."

Blogger Mehreen Kasana wrote on her blog:

"Many families in Pakistan don’t have family in India including mine, but at the same time there are many who have loved ones across the border. This is probably the most beautiful video I’ve seen on the subject…Got a little teary, not gonna lie."

Umar Alam from Pakistan, commented on the YouTube video of the ad:

"Such an Awesome effort by Google. Love and respect from Pakistan"

There are interesting tweets from both India and Pakistan discussing how the ad had an impact on viewers, leaving them touched and emotional.

Pakistani author and publisher, Musharraf A. Faroqi tweeted:

Google will go to Heaven because of this: http://t.co/JzyI2yqjPZ #Reunion

— Musharraf A. Farooqi (@microMAF) November 14, 2013

Anthony Permal, known as Tony Khan among twiterrati in Pakistan, tweeted:

I just watched the Google #India ad for the 4th time and I'm STILL being moved to tears. :')

— Anthony Permal (@anthonypermal) November 13, 2013

Blogger Muna Khan tweeted about how the ad made her father nostalgic and eager to connect with his old friends:

I showed the Reunion video to my dad who wants me to google the names of his school friends in India so he can have his own reunion. Uh oh

— Muna Khan (@muna_khan) November 14, 2013

Journalist and photographer Sukanto Mukherjee (@Humerus) from Kolkata, India linked to the actual sweet shop featured in the ad:

So this is the actual Fazal Sweets in Lahore wrt Google ad http://t.co/YS08rRAjoz [thanks for sharing @ShirazHassan ]

— SM (@TheHumerus) November 13, 2013

Indian journalist, Tripti Lahiri tweeted:

Many a Delhi Punjabi refugee will sigh, perhaps even shed a tear over Google Search's Partition/Reunion ad http://t.co/VRIzdNy8HW

— Tripti Lahiri (@triptilahiri) November 14, 2013

Twilightfairy (@twilightfairy), a professional photographer based in India, commented:

So many partition afflicted souls need healing! Google India's ad – Reunion – http://t.co/hKPYcE6x6o

— twilightfairy (@twilightfairy) November 13, 2013

Roopa Gulati (@roopagulati), chef-blogger from India agreed. According to her:

Emotive Google ad…Will have resonance with so many from my Dad's generation who went thru 1947 Indo-Pak partition http://t.co/cbQwOJGN6F

— Roopa Gulati (@roopagulati) November 14, 2013

Some people were more critical of the ad. For example, Shivani Mohan, a corporate communication professional from India, tweeted:

I liked the Google reunion ad but it is best to take these things with a big pinch of salt!

— Shivani Mohan (@Chevane) November 15, 2013

Some netizens also pointed out that the idea and storyline for the Google ad was “stolen” or “completely inspired” from a Pakistani short film called “RESPECT”, a short film about friendship and the power of communication in the context of Pakistan and India produced by Pak Sar Zameen Productions in August 2012.

Taha Kirmani (@TahaKirmani1), who directed the film, responded:

Pakistan: Pakistan's Supreme Court said the government formally started the process to try former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf for treason. The court said the government sent a letter Monday asking Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to choose three high court judges to try Musharraf. According to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, "the government had asked the Supreme Court to establish a special panel to try General Musharraf on accusations that he subverted the Constitution in late 2007 when he imposed emergency rule and fired much of the judiciary."

Comment: In a separate court proceeding, Musharraf has requested permission to travel to Dubai to visit his ailing mother. He might be allowed to go. This would create conditions potentially for Musharraf to be tried in absentia. As mentioned in previous editions, Prime Minister Sharif and Chief Justice Chaudhry have personal reasons for bringing Musharraf to trial. Musharraf is the constitutional usurper who ousted Prime Minister Sharif in his 1999 coup d'etat. Musharraf in 2007 declared an emergency on his own authority during which he suspended the constitution and had Chief Justice Chaudhry arrested, shortly after Chaudhry and the Supreme Court declared Musharraf's actions unconstitutional. Musharraf is prima facie a constitutional criminal. The larger constitutional issues involve the political inclinations of the generals in the Pakistan Army. Something is wrong in their training that produces the idea that generals think they can overthrow constitutionally elected governments, which they have done for half of Pakistan's history. The treason proceedings are intended to instruct the Pakistan Army that the days of generals taking the law into their own hands have ended. It might take some time, but consequences will follow ineluctably.

Musharraf’s return to the country earlier this year in a quixotic effort to enter politics clearly backfired, and even his parent organisation, after he ignored advice to stay away, was unable to prevent the ignominy of a former COAS being dragged through the courts.

JE Menon wrote:Somebody pls send me the Haqqani PDF to jemenon at chacha

harbans wrote:Have a friend who's Lutyens Delhi, Aman ki Asha kinds. So Beena Sarwar and the entire jazz and conversations keep coming on my FB page. It's getting depressing and pukeworthy opening facebook these days and reading these people. Yet i read them now coldly. I know the errors they make, the biases they have, their shortcomings, where exactly their minds switch off rational. Man i could write a book! lol. Now my friend has started rejecting any friend who is an NM fan. I don't talk much politics on my FB page for many reasons, but i do push in a bit here and there on my TL to create some awareness. But please do go thru the Aman ki Asha page and the Pappi Jhappi will make you puke. This is ignorance of the highest kind.

Aditya_V wrote:If they so love Pakis why not emigrate thier or walk through the loc?

SSridhar wrote:^^ Beena Sarwar: "If it doesn’t move you, you’ve got a heart of stone."

I am proud to have a stone heart.

Being a kafir Hindu, I already have a small heart too, of which also I am proud.

Gus wrote:

SSridhar wrote:^^ Beena Sarwar: "If it doesn’t move you, you’ve got a heart of stone."

I am proud to have a stone heart.

Being a kafir Hindu, I already have a small heart too, of which also I am proud.

in another place, people were all pappi jhappi and one said to me "this humanises the conflict"..

i usually ignore this, but could not and let out a "i don't need an ad from google to humanise this. when i read in news that a paki terrorist has killed a civilian or an army man, i can immediately see the human who lost their life and the humans who mourn that loss".