Bharat Rakshak

If you are a Mehsud tribesman and you are living in Karachi, South Waziristan or any other part of Pakistan, your case will be dealt with by the area office where your family originally came from. . . We were going to meet Mufti Noor Wali from the Sajna group who controls Mehsud tribesmen in Karachi from his headquarter in Miranshah. Karachi has the largest Mehsud population in Pakistan and all their disputes are put before Mufti Noor Wali for resolution. For the readers’ information, the Sajna group has banned jirgas (village courts) for Mehsud tribesmen in Karachi so whatever the dispute, small or big, the parties have to go to Miranshah and present their case in the court of Mufti Noor Wali.

. . . one cannot derive a linear vision of Pakistan from the ideas of Iqbal and Jinnah. Many different and contradictory visions can be culled out of their statements and writings.

Canada and its allies must take a united front against Pakistan because it is a state sponsor of terrorism that threatens world security, says Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander.

Alexander, a former ambassador to Afghanistan, said the fight against the Taliban and groups like al-Qaeda will never be won in Afghanistan alone because it is a “cross-border conflict” supported by the Pakistan government.

SSridhar wrote:Iqbal & Jinnah's Visions of Pakistan - Ishtiaq Ahmed, DT

. . . one cannot derive a linear vision of Pakistan from the ideas of Iqbal and Jinnah. Many different and contradictory visions can be culled out of their statements and writings.

This is important to realize.

SSridhar wrote:Iqbal & Jinnah's Visions of Pakistan - Ishtiaq Ahmed, DT

. . . one cannot derive a linear vision of Pakistan from the ideas of Iqbal and Jinnah. Many different and contradictory visions can be culled out of their statements and writings.

This is important to realize.

Iqbal died before Pakistan came into being. The nearest we can come to understanding his idea of spiritual democracy is what his son Dr Javed Iqbal has to say about Pakistani nationalism: “Muslims do not have a notion of Pakistan as the ‘fatherland’ or ‘motherland’. They do not believe in worshipping the geographical features of a country called Pakistan. They are not prepared to lay down their lives merely for Pakistan’s dust, trees, deserts, mountains or rivers. This form of patriotism, according to them, is idolatrous. But in their native soil Muslims are ready and willing to lay down their lives for the religio-cultural principles on which the state of Pakistan is founded” (Ideology of Pakistan).

Dr Javed Iqbal has to say about Pakistani nationalism: “Muslims do not have a notion of Pakistan as the ‘fatherland’ or ‘motherland’. They do not believe in worshipping the geographical features of a country called Pakistan. They are not prepared to lay down their lives merely for Pakistan’s dust, trees, deserts, mountains or rivers. This form of patriotism, according to them, is idolatrous. But in their native soil Muslims are ready and willing to lay down their lives for the religio-cultural principles on which the state of Pakistan is founded” (Ideology of Pakistan).

SSridhar wrote:[Iqbal & Jinnah's Visions of Pakistan[/url] - Ishtiaq Ahmed, DT
. . . one cannot derive a linear vision of Pakistan from the ideas of Iqbal and Jinnah. Many different and contradictory visions can be culled out of their statements and writings.

HYDERABAD: A number of residents of various localities of Tando Allahyar city and activists of religious parties took to the streets against alleged desecration of the Holy Quran and attacked the home-cum-worship place of a man belonging to the Ahmedi community for his involvement in the alleged sacrilege.The charged crowd rushed to Tahir Ahmed’s place and went on the rampage in the worship place on the ground floor. He took refuge on the upper floor, where his family lived, and the crowd did not pursue him there.A heavy contingent of police and Rangers arrived at the spot and detained Mr Ahmed while protesters threw stones at the suspect and injured him.According to sources, 12-year-old Salman was coming from a seminary in Mansoor Colony, Tando Allahyar city, when he was intercepted by two men riding a motorbike and snatched the Quran from him and beat him up.Salman crying went back home and told his family and others that Mr Ahmed and an unknown man riding a motorbike had roughed him up and snatched the Quran and desecrated it.Then a big charged crowd gathered and chanted slogans against the suspect and reached his home in Mansoor Colony. Salman lives in the neighbourhood of the suspect. The crowd went on the rampage on the ground floor of the house, said to be a small worship place.
The protesters burnt tyres and resorted to firing in the air, forcing traders to shut their businesses. Tando Allahyar was tense till late in the night.A couple of Ahmedi families live in Mansoor Colony and many more families of the community live across Tando Allahyar district. After the registration of the case, the crowd dispersed.He said that according to Tahir Ahmed’s wife, Salman and their son had fought over some petty matter in the afternoon .Tando Allahyar SSP Javed Baloch told Dawn that police were investigating the case from different angles and had beefed up security measures for the Ahmedi community in Tando Allahyar and were patrolling the streets also.According to sources, it was rumoured that some people wanted to grab Tahir’s house.

ISLAMABAD: Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Chief Director General Lt. Gen Zaheerul Islam flew into the Prime Minister house after a meeting of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) discussed much debated issue of Pervez Musharraf’s exit from the country.The powerful military leaders arrived in a helicopter after the Prime Minister postponed a meeting on national security where both the army chief and the spymaster were invited.Gen Sharif and Islam were informed about the postponement of the meeting by the prime minister house.

TEHRAN: A prominent lawmaker demanded Pakistan to transfer security control over its shared borders with Iran to the Islamic Republic over “Islamabad’s failure in several cases to stop operations of terrorist groups which take shelter in Pakistan’s territories after attacking Iran”.The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that since Pakistan is not capable enough of securing its common borders with Iran, it should entrust this arduous task to Iran,” member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Evaz Heidarpour said. The remarks of the Iranian lawmaker come after the Iranian security guards were kidnapped by militant group from about 15 km inside of Iranian territory and their security was unable to prevent the kidnapping or apprehend them.He explained that the volatile situation along the Iran-Pakistan common border could open a Pandora’s box, and said, “Tehran has proposed that Islamabad hand over to Iran the full responsibility of ensuring security along the border, but Pakistan has not yet given a response in that regard.” Another prominent Iranian legislator asked the Pakistani government to take stern action to set free the Iranian border guards who were abducted by Jeish Al-Adl terrorist group in early February and one of whom was killed last week. “Pakistani government is responsible for the safety of the abducted Iranian border guards,” rapporteur of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said on Sunday.

Jhujar wrote:Manza on Ganza; First warning Issued

Army chief, spymaster reach PM House

ISLAMABAD: The powerful military leaders arrived in a helicopter after the Prime Minister postponed a meeting on national security where both the army chief and the spymaster were invited.Gen Sharif and Islam were informed about the postponement of the meeting by the prime minister house.[/b]

partha wrote: Positive news: army chief and spy master reach PM's house by helicopter and not a tank. Democracy is alive and thriving in Pakistan.

ramana wrote:
That is why I call TSP a kabila or a camp. Its 'state in being' given a Westphalian construct by UK and now protected by US.
If Muslims of TSP are not ready to lay down their lives for its borders, but only for religio-cultural prinicples for which the state was formed, then he is outright defining a roving kabila that drops a tent where it can and taking sanctuary attack other states!!!

Army chief General Raheel Sharif is said to have suggested to the government let Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf go abroad for his medical treatment and to look after his ailing mother. The issue of Musharraf’s possible exit was discussed during a meeting between Gen Raheel and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday. Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam also attended the ‘informal consultations’ to decide the fate of Musharraf.

Jhujar wrote:Iran asks Pakistan to transfer border security to it
Aaj Naa Chorrenge Tumko Poaqeli: Kamsin Like Angela Jolie: Buddhe Doc Ki khyali Saheli

TEHRAN: A prominent lawmaker demanded Pakistan to transfer security control over its shared borders with Iran to the Islamic Republic over “Islamabad’s failure in several cases to stop operations of terrorist groups which take shelter in Pakistan’s territories after attacking Iran”.The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that since Pakistan is not capable enough of securing its common borders with Iran, it should entrust this arduous task to Iran,” member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Evaz Heidarpour said. The remarks of the Iranian lawmaker come after the Iranian security guards were kidnapped by militant group from about 15 km inside of Iranian territory and their security was unable to prevent the kidnapping or apprehend them.He explained that the volatile situation along the Iran-Pakistan common border could open a Pandora’s box, and said, “Tehran has proposed that Islamabad hand over to Iran the full responsibility of ensuring security along the border, but Pakistan has not yet given a response in that regard.” Another prominent Iranian legislator asked the Pakistani government to take stern action to set free the Iranian border guards who were abducted by Jeish Al-Adl terrorist group in early February and one of whom was killed last week. “Pakistani government is responsible for the safety of the abducted Iranian border guards,” rapporteur of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said on Sunday.

………………. When we reached Miranshah, it seemed to be a different land. ………………….. I saw vehicles that belonged to the Afghan army, Afghan police and NATO forces but such vehicles would pass by the Pakistani military checkpoints without being checked or stopped. Common people were thoroughly searched ………………………

SSridhar wrote:My Trip to North Waziristan - Part I, DT Op-ed

ISLAMABAD: An overwhelming majority within the PML-N is reported to be against allowing former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf to travel to the UAE to see his ailing mother and get treatment for his own heart ailment.

A party source privy to an intense meeting of the PML-N’s top leadership held at the Prime Minister Office on Tuesday to discuss the issue told Dawn that only a few were in favour of lifting the travel ban on the former army chief, who was indicted by the Special Court on Monday for high treason.

The media wing of the PM Office remained silent over the meeting, which was presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. It was attended, among others, by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Defence Minister Khwaja Asif, Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister for States and Frontier Region retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch, Information Minister Pervez Rashid, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi and special assistant to the prime minister, Irfan Siddiqui.

According to the source, the meeting lasted about three hours and witnessed some cogent arguments. The prime minister remained tight-lipped throughout the huddle and patiently listened to his party’s senior colleagues. He exhorted the participants to speak their mind over the issue.

sum wrote:Have to catch hold of this book:
ISI tried to hijack Rajiv-piloted plane

Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had planned to hijack a plane steered by Rajiv Gandhi, then a pilot with Indian Airlines, in 1971, but the Indian spy agency thwarted it by arresting one of the agents hired by the neighbouring country, a soon-to-be-released book by former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer R K Yadav has claimed.

The book, “Mission R&AW”, said the author, will deal with a variety of issues involving the spy agency, and important incidents like the 1962 conflict with China and the role of Indian intelligence agencies in the 1965 war with Pakistan, among other issues.

In his book, Yadav describes how the RAW, under the leadership of R N Kao, thwarted the ISI attempt to hijack a plane from Srinagar.

“This was in early 1971. The agency arrested an ISI agent in Srinagar, and during questioning, he told his interrogators he was there to hijack a plane. The plan was to hijack a plane in which Rajiv Gandhi was the pilot,” Yadav told Deccan Herald.

However, the RAW leadership decided to use this to get back at the ISI. They made the agent “hijack” a plane and it was landed in Lahore.

“This incident gave us the opportunity to ban flights from Pakistan from using our airspace, and hampering military transport to East Pakistan (Bangladesh). This was a masterstroke from Kao,” he said.

A top government functionary on Tuesday told TOI that former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf would soon be allowed safe passage out of Pakistan on "humanitarian grounds" after a direct intervention from Saudi Arabia as part of a secret deal. No sooner the buzz about Musharraf's exit grew, it was reliably learnt that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif went into a huddle with his top aides to weigh the option of removing Musharraf's name from the exit control list.

sum wrote:However, the RAW leadership decided to use this to get back at the ISI. They made the agent “hijack” a plane and it was landed in Lahore....This was a masterstroke from Kao,” he said

Government has announced that it has been able to locate hidden dissident organizations in Taliban ranks, responsible for post-dialogue, ceasefire terrorism.

sum wrote:However, the RAW leadership decided to use this to get back at the ISI. They made the agent “hijack” a plane and it was landed in Lahore....This was a masterstroke from Kao,” he said

nachiket wrote:Couldn't they have done it without giving reasons beyond "national security"? Every country reserves the rights to open or close their airspace to whoever they want.

nachiket wrote:

sum wrote:However, the RAW leadership decided to use this to get back at the ISI. They made the agent “hijack” a plane and it was landed in Lahore....This was a masterstroke from Kao,” he said

I don't find this believable. They put innocent people through a hijacking ordeal (which could have gone horribly wrong) just to get an excuse to ban overflights? Couldn't they have done it without giving reasons beyond "national security"? Every country reserves the rights to open or close their airspace to whoever they want.

Paul wrote:The Kabila mindset of the Pakis coupled with indifference to their natural surroundings around them seems to be a common theme with the Wahabis as well and by extension a trait of the Sunni mindset in the middle east.

The Shias have holy places like Zainab's tomb, Karbala, and Mazar-e-Sharif where they remain vulnerable to attacks from the Wahabis. They cannot vacate these places are willing to take horrendous casualties to defend these places. This is viewed as a weakness by the Wahabis. In contrast Recall the news item a few years ago about the Wahabis razing the Prophet's home.

They have imbibed it in their mindset to remain a moving target and thus reduce their painpoints. They may learnt from past experiences like the destruction of the Ismailis by the Mongols and put them to good use.

This way their brand of islam will survive an attack even on their holiest places should it ever happen. There was a senator from Denver IIRC had threatened to nuke Mecca.

Ganga was one of the oldest aircraft in the Indian Airlines fleet and was already withdrawn from service but was re-inducted days before the hijacking.[2]

Nearer home, many remember the hijack of the Indian Airlines Fokker Friendship aircraft Ganga in the early part of 1971. The aircraft was hijacked by two Kashmiris, Butt and Hashim Quereshi. One of them was a Border Security Force man.

The Pakistanis fell into the trap, hailed them as heroes and burnt the aircraft. This gave India the excuse to ban overflights by Pakistani aircraft, which had a significant impact on situation in erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

The Pakistanis soon realised their folly, branded the hijackers as Indian agents and sentenced them to prison terms. What made the affair curious was the fact that Ganga was one of the oldest aircraft in the Indian Airline fleet and was already withdrawn from service but was re-inducted days before the 'hijack'.

Even more tellingly, a deputy inspector general of the BSF based in Jammu, bristling at the involvement of one of his men in hijack, had gone public to say that he had objected to the induction of Butt into the BSF but was overruled by a 'higher intelligence agency'.

Pakistan continues to assert that the episode was stage managed by India. The Indian side has, for obvious reasons, never responded to this charge.

ramana wrote:

Paul wrote:The Kabila mindset of the Pakis coupled with indifference to their natural surroundings around them seems to be a common theme with the Wahabis as well and by extension a trait of the Sunni mindset in the middle east.

The Shias have holy places like Zainab's tomb, Karbala, and Mazar-e-Sharif where they remain vulnerable to attacks from the Wahabis. They cannot vacate these places are willing to take horrendous casualties to defend these places. This is viewed as a weakness by the Wahabis. In contrast Recall the news item a few years ago about the Wahabis razing the Prophet's home.

They have imbibed it in their mindset to remain a moving target and thus reduce their painpoints. They may learnt from past experiences like the destruction of the Ismailis by the Mongols and put them to good use.

This way their brand of islam will survive an attack even on their holiest places should it ever happen. There was a senator from Denver IIRC had threatened to nuke Mecca.

Will Durant in his "Oriental Heritage" writes about how the Muslims would sorround the Chandra temple at Multan(Moolsthana) and claim to pull it down and the local Hindus would come out and negotiate an unequal treaty.
This happened time and again.

The godfather of Taliban and the jihadi non-state actors was hoping for the nuking of Mecca for then they would claim Af-Pak to be the new Medina.

This is quoted on this very forum in one of the many TSP news threads.

ISLAMABAD : In an ambiguously-worded communique, the Interior Ministry has informed General (retd) Pervez Musharraf that the government was “unable to accede to his requests” to remove his name from the Exist Control List (ECL) “on the basis of record pronouncements of the superior courts.”

The communication read:

To: General Pervez Musharraf

Subject: Deletion of name from ECL.

I am directed by the competent authority to communicate with you with reference to your request on the subject cited above dated March 31, 2014. The requests have been considered on the basis of record pronouncements of the superior courts on the cited subject and pending criminal cases in various courts. The federal government is unable to accede to your requests in public interest.

Sources privy to the developments and meetings say, however, that the vaguely-worded communique has its reasons – mostly political. It has been suggested that Musharraf’s legal team approach relevant courts in order to have the defendant’s name removed from the ECL (which is why it was placed on the ECL to begin with).

ramana wrote:

Paul wrote:They have imbibed it in their mindset to remain a moving target and thus reduce their painpoints. They may learnt from past experiences like the destruction of the Ismailis by the Mongols and put them to good use.

This way their brand of islam will survive an attack even on their holiest places should it ever happen. There was a senator from Denver IIRC had threatened to nuke Mecca.

The godfather of Taliban and the jihadi non-state actors was hoping for the nuking of Mecca for then they would claim Af-Pak to be the new Medina.

Peregrine wrote:Govt expresses 'inability' to remove Musharraf's name from exit control