Bharat Rakshak

Peregrine wrote:............

WASHINGTON: As part of change in its strategy, a major section of Pakistan's army wants to give dialogue with India a chance, but wants to retain all other options including sub-conventional warfare its cowardly and traditional use of murder and terrorism..........

Jhujar wrote:................
Is all Pakistan slum bering?

.............The people of Pakistan have been fooled and dust has been thrown in their eyes..............

There is a report in the National Geographic Journal of May 2014 that a ‘Handmade Dam’ was constructed in India by 125,000 workers in 1972....

Anujan wrote:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27258566

Ahmed Rashid's latest: Viewpoint: India risks destabilising Afghanistan

Fellow argues that India helping Afghanistan will cause Pakistan to train terrorists and further bloodshed in Afghanistan so it is all India's fault.

The Special Branch of the Punjab police has alerted law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to remain vigilant after three persons, including a lawyer, threatened a senior attorney of dire consequences for representing an alleged blasphemer. The threats were made against Advocate Rashid Reh­man Khan, a coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), inside a courtroom in the Multan Central Jail, The Express Tribune learnt. The HRCP wrote to the Punjab government on April 10 to express its concern.

Human Rights Advocate Rashid Rehman Khan was gunned down by unidentified attackers in Multan, DawnNews reported late on Wednesday night. Initial reports suggest that Khan was targeted by two gunmen inside his office at Kachehri Chowk.

In an odd method of protest, a parliamentarian on Wednesday gave the call to prayer inside the National Assembly after the deputy speaker declined his request to announce a delayed prayer break.

Instead, Zaman stood up at his desk and gave a second call to prayer – this time himself – on the floor the house and then stood in front of the desk of the speaker to offer prayers along with Jamat-e-Islami’s Sher Akbar Khan and Jamshed Dasti. The protest seemed to have worked: the deputy speaker hastened to adjourned the session and everyone left the hall.

According to the 2012-2013 Pakistan Demographics and Health Survey, 45pc of all Pakistani children under five are stunted or too short for their age. Stunting is most common amongst the children of less educated mothers, and those from the poorest households. Stunting is more common in the rural areas, 48pc as compared to 37pc in the urban areas. Wasting, an indication of chronic malnutrition, occurs amongst 11pc of Pakistani children, with 30pc of all children being too thin for their age.

At Rs50 a kilo, ata or wheat flour, is now almost a luxury for those who live on or below the poverty line. According to eminent economist Dr Akmal Hussain, two-thirds of Pakistan’s people live in a chronic state of food insecurity. According to another able economist and former chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Pervez Tahir, the issue of land ownership and distribution of resources is paramount and yet almost totally neglected in the government’s frenzy to forge ahead with the construction of flyovers and underpasses and jangla bus interchanges as a solution to the systemic injustices and structural inequities suffered by society.

Anujan wrote:Fellow argues that India helping Afghanistan will cause Pakistan to train terrorists and further bloodshed in Afghanistan so it is all India's fault.

shiv wrote:

jash_p wrote: AOA
WHO will grant 15 days grace period and order polio viruses to remain quarantine for 15 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


On a serious note how authentic those certificate issued by corrupt Paki goberment? Best thing is to test polio IgM level in blood before letting those Pakis in.

15 days is more than enough for Pakhanastan to conquer polio. (Inshallah!!) If Allah ain't Insha on this matter then we will know after 15 days.

shiv wrote:15 days is more than enough for Pakhanastan to conquer polio. (Inshallah!!) If Allah ain't Insha on this matter then we will know after 15 days.

Dilbu wrote:
I was thinking of setting up a booth in Indian consulates for vaccination. Any paki applying for Indian visa should appear at the consulate for vaccination days before and get a certificate for the same issued by Indian consulate. The applicant will have to pay for this ofcourse. Can't trust paki certificates. I am going to email this to some one responsible in the new govt.

The head master of the school, where Ajmal Kasab had allegedly studied, appeared before an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi where he presented educational records and stated that the person whose record was submitted was alive and could be produced in court if needed

Mudassir was asked about his last contact with Kasab, to which he replied that he had met with Ajmal Kasab a few days earlier

His belief in “economic diplomacy”, said Nawaz Sharif, stemmed from the fact that “foreign policy has virtually become economic policy”.

He thus wanted the country to cash in on its relations with the Middle East and the Gulf

Pakistan’s strategic position has been utilised by the country to its immense advantage in the past

A roadside bomb martyred at least eight soldiers and wounded several others in North Waziristan on Thursday

"Several security forces personnel are critically injured."

Why do we constantly try to project a ‘soft’ image of our country? Why do we urge writers, actors, artists to try and do so, depicting a different picture of reality. The truth is that there is really less and less that is ‘soft’ about us.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, chapters on Pakhtun heroes such as Bacha Khan and Ghani Khan are being removed from textbooks to be replaced by ‘national’ heroes, including, we are told, Mohammad bin Qasim.

Malala Yousafzai was one of the most disliked people in the country. We have clearly lost hold of rationality.

On social media, a receipt from a grocery store in the Defence area of Karachi has been doing the rounds. The receipt states that items used for shaving will be sold to customers only if they use them for purposes other than shaving beards – an act described as a ‘huge sin’.

We have to keep in mind that simply existing on the map year after year is not enough.

anupmisra wrote:The hard truth about image
...........................The receipt states that items used for shaving will be sold to customers only if they use them for purposes other than shaving beards – an act described as a ‘huge sin’.

..

SSridhar wrote:

shiv wrote:15 days is more than enough for Pakhanastan to conquer polio. (Inshallah!!) If Allah ain't Insha on this matter then we will know after 15 days.

Shiv, AFAIK Allal Tha'ala has never shown any Insha to Pakistan in its 67 years.

Dilbu wrote:Good old GUBO, in another words.

QUETTA: Two people were killed and 15 others, including a woman and child, were injured in an bicycle-borne explosion on the busy Double Road in Quetta on Thursday.
Two of the injured were in critical condition.

“[A] police patrol vehicle was passing by the area when the blast occurred. It seems, they wanted to target us,” said Mohammed Shaukat, Station House Officer (SHO) Industrial Police Station.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Police Syed Mobin Ahmed said police have started investigations into the incident. “All the injured were passers-bys.”

A Shia religious leader’s decision to leave Pakistan highlights increasing sectarian violence in the country Khanum Tayyaba Bukhari has left Pakistan. Chicago is her new home. Like others before her, she doesn’t know whether or when to return.A firebrand and saucy speaker, she recently emerged as a voice of the Shia community. She is media savvy, with regular appearances on talk shows challenging her detractors.“My mother was really worried after I received serious threats to my life. I made this decision with a heavy heart. I am leaving and I don’t know when I will return,” Khanum said.Last Moharram, she escaped an assassination attempt. After that, she had to keep her movement secret, and whenever she had to travel, the people in charge of her security made sure there was no loophole in the arrangements.Khanum is one of the highest paid religious speakers of the country. Perhaps, therefore, she can afford to live in the United States. She already set up a small facility to deliver religious sermons without fearing someone awaiting her outside the Imambargah to silence her.Recently, the Interior Ministry told the Senate that more than 2,000 people had lost their lives in sectarian violence in the last five years.In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 867 people were killed on sectarian grounds. The troubled province of Balochistan came second on the list with 737 people dead, mostly in attacks targeting the Shia Hazara community in Quetta, and the buses of Shia pilgrims going to or coming from Iran. In Sindh, the target killing of doctors, professors and religious leaders continued in the last five years. More than 252 of them were killed over sectarian differences. In Punjab, which also witnessed worst sectarian riots last Moharram, more than 100 people were killed in sectarian violence. More than 100 people were killed in sectarian violence in Gilgit-Baltistan, where attacks on Shias have risen in the recent years. There were only 22 sectarian related casualties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Five people were killed over their faith in Islamabad.When the report was presented in the upper house of Parliament, some senators contested the figures. They argued that the actual number of casualties was much higher than what the government had claimed.While some commenters claim the Shia-Sunni conflict dates back 1,400 years and cannot be resolved, there is evidence that inter-sect harmony was at its peak in undivided British India and sectarian violence only grew after the so-called Islamization process initiated military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq.The Zia era and entire decade of the 1990s tainted the history of so-called religious harmony in Pakistan. It all began with the assassination of a prominent Shia scholar Alama Arif Hussaini, in August 1988. Years before he died, he formed Tehrik-e-Jafaria Pakistan (TJP) to respond to attacks by Deobandi outfits.In February 1990, a known Debandi cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi was assassinated. Jhangvi was the founder of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) which targeted Shias.Later, two known operatives of SSP broke away from their mother organization and went on to form their separate group called Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). One of those operatives was Riaz Basra, who after dodging law enforcers for years, reportedly died in a shootout in May 2002. The co-founder of LeJ was Malik Ishaq.Lt Gen (r) Talat Masood argues that some ‘brotherly’ Islamic countries are fighting proxy wars in Pakistan. He said Iran, Saudi Arabia and some other states gave money to sectarian outfits of their choice.

Just before Prime Minister Vajpayee’s “Lahore Bus Yatra”, his predecessor Inder Gujral told me that Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appeared to be a realistic, reasonable and rational leader. He recalled a conversation on Jammu and Kashmir; Sharif, a Kashmiri hailing from Anantnag, who was known to be an uncompromising hardliner on Kashmir, had realistically remarked: “Hum janthein hain ki ham Kashmir aapse lein nahin sakte aur aap humko Kashmir dein nahin sakte”.

(“I know we cannot seize Kashmir from you and you cannot give Kashmir to us”.) Sharif’s comments were made after his election in 1997 when, with his patronage, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed emerged as the most influential jihadi leader in Pakistan, dedicated to “unfurling the green flag of Islam in New Delhi, Washington and Tel Aviv”.

Bonding over Bollywood

Sharif was an impeccable host when Vajpayee visited Lahore. He is a great fan of Bollywood films and loves listening to Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar.

These hits were played during a lunch Sharif hosted for Vajpayee. But his authoritarian streak was evident when he refused to allow the Leader of the Opposition Benazir Bhutto to meet Vajpayee. Moreover, unknown to Indian intelligence and the army, units of Pakistan’s Northern Light Infantry were being infiltrated across the Line of Control in J&K. Despite his denials, there is evidence that Sharif was briefed about these deliberate transgressions of the LoC, both in Rawalpindi and Skardu. Did he not see the contradiction between embracing Vajpayee, on the one hand, and urging the Pakistan army to cross the LoC, on the other?

On February 12, 1993 multiple bomb blasts rocked Mumbai, resulting in 350 fatalities and around 1,200 injured.

While Mumbai mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, now resident in Karachi, allegedly organised the explosions, the trail led to the involvement of Sharif’s handpicked ISI Chief, Lt Gen Javed Nasir. The attack was also a prelude to Sharif’s ouster by then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Army Chief Gen Kakkar.

Despite what Sharif told Gujral, the reality is that he has not hesitated to raise the issue of Kashmir at every conceivable occasion in Pakistan and when abroad. Sharif has for long sought to present Kashmir in the Islamic World as an issue of occupation of Muslim lands.

Whether he would be amenable to adopting a more realistic path, in keeping with what he told Gujral, remains to be seen. Sharif entered politics as a protégé of President Zia ul Haq and Zia’s Governor of Punjab Lt Gen Ghulam Jilani Khan. His father, long persecuted by Bhutto, was a natural ally of Zia’s military regime.

After a brief tenure as Chief Minister of Punjab, Sharif was catapulted to power as Prime Minister in 1990, heading an alliance of Islamist parties put together by Army Chief Gen Aslam Beg and ISI Chief Lt. Gen Asad Durrani.

But the strange thing about Sharif is that, despite having been catapulted to power by the Army, he has been at loggerheads with successive army chiefs.

The Islamist connection

During his first term he was accused by the wife of Army Chief Asif Nawaz of being responsible for the General’s death.

He was then sacked by Nawaz’s successor Waheed Kakkar following differences with President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

In his second term, he chose to sack the mild-mannered Army Chief, Gen Jehangir Karamat. Gen Musharraf, whom he appointed to replace Karamat, ousted him from power before incarcerating and exiling him to Saudi Arabia, over differences on who should take the blame for the Kargil fiasco.

Even in his third term, Sharif’s relations with his handpicked Army Chief Raheel Sharif have been uneasy, over the manner in which Gen Musharraf is being treated in cases filed against him. Disregarding the advice of the army, Sharif has got involved in an uncertain “peace process” with the Tehriq e Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Sharif is involved in a political contest with Imran Khan about who is the greater supporter of extremist Sunni Islamist outfits. Matters are complicated by the symbiotic relationship between the TTP and the Afghan Taliban. An already volatile situation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is set to become even more tense and complicated.

The prevailing situation can only strengthen the Wahhabi-oriented extremist armed groups in Pakistan, as Sharif and Imran Khan compete for political space across the radical Islamic right. Given the sullen mood in the army, which has its own axes to grind when it comes to its projects of “bleeding India with a thousand cuts” and seeking “strategic depth” via the Taliban in Afghanistan, the present situation is a recipe for the breakdown of governance in large parts of Pakistan.

Sadly, few of our national leaders, perhaps with the exception of Narasimha Rao, understood how to deal with a complex personality like Nawaz Sharif.

As a new Government is scheduled to assume office soon in South Block, it will hopefully avoid getting starry-eyed about the prospects of immediate “breakthroughs” in relations with Pakistan.

The author is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan.

SSridhar wrote:Many deceptions of Nawaz Sharif - G.Parthasarathy, Business Line

Sadly, few of our national leaders, perhaps with the exception of Narasimha Rao, understood how to deal with a complex personality like Nawaz Sharif.

As a new Government is scheduled to assume office soon in South Block, it will hopefully avoid getting starry-eyed about the prospects of immediate “breakthroughs” in relations with Pakistan.

The author is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan.

WHO: 'Pakistan is one of the taps for poliovirus'

The World Health Organization has identified Pakistan as one of the countries posing the greatest risk of spreading polio. WHO spokeswoman Sona Bari explains how various international outbreaks are linked to the country.

On May 5, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the spread of polio an international public health emergency, with three countries identified as posing the greatest risk of further exporting the virus beyond their borders: Syria, Cameroon and Pakistan. Among other things, the organization recommended that the governments of these three states require citizens to obtain a certificate proving they have been vaccinated for polio before traveling abroad.

Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal viral disease that mainly affects children under the age of five. Pakistan registered 91 cases of the disease last year, up from 58 in 2012, according to WHO figures. Islamabad reacted to the WHO's alert by announcing it would set up mandatory immunization points at airports to prevent its polio outbreak from spreading to other countries. But Health Minister Saira Afzal Tarar also accused the WHO of playing into the Taliban's hands, saying the health body's recommendations had isolated the country and would make life harder for ordinary Pakistanis.

In a DW interview, Sona Bari, spokesperson for polio eradication at the WHO, responds to the allegations and explains that the situation is critical as almost 80 percent of new polio cases worldwide are reported in Pakistan.

DW: How critical is the current poliovirus situation in Pakistan?

Sona Bari: Pakistan is one of only three countries worldwide that have never managed to put a stop to the transmission of polio. The other two endemic countries - Afghanistan and Nigeria - have made considerable progress against the disease recently, reporting fewer cases in 2013 than 2012 (which was the year we saw the fewest cases in history). Pakistan, on the other hand, saw an increase in cases in 2013 compared to 2012, and 59 of the 74 cases reported globally so far this year - or almost 80 percent - were reported in Pakistan.


The poliovirus is very adept at finding unvaccinated children. In every 200 people infected with poliovirus, only one will actually be paralyzed. This means that the virus can hitch a ride with travelers and move quickly and silently, which is why surveillance for the disease has to be very sensitive.

Virus originating in Pakistan is moving to other countries and paralyzing children. Four cases in Afghanistan this year are all linked to this Pakistani virus, as is the outbreak in the Middle East. Virus of Pakistani origin has been found in the sewage in Israel and has paralyzed children in Syria and Iraq. Pakistan is one of the taps from which poliovirus is flowing. If we turn off the tap at the source, we'll be a lot closer to ending this disease, thanks to progress on all other fronts in polio eradication.

Why has the disease been allowed to re-emerge to the extent of becoming a public health emergency?

Polio can only spread when there are pockets of children who aren't being reached with polio vaccine. The distribution of wild poliovirus has been shrinking geographically, but it is increasingly confined to areas with severe security constraints where communities cannot access vaccination. The transmission of polio in areas without active vaccination taking place, such as parts of north-western Pakistan and some areas of conflict or siege in Syria, has particularly increased the risk of international spread.

Which are the most affected parts of the country and why?

North and South Waziristan together account for more than half of Pakistan's polio cases. Children in North Waziristan are at particular risk, as a ban on vaccination has been in place in the region since June 2012.

Why is the disease endemic in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan and could the disease have spread due to the porous border between the two countries?

All cases in 2014 in Afghanistan are related to virus originating in Pakistan. The close cultural and travel ties between the countries and the porous border mean that the virus can travel easily between the countries.

Since Pakistan keeps witnessing a rise in the number of reported cases, has Islamabad been pursuing the wrong approach in terms of fighting the disease?

The strategies to eradicate polio are well-established and have been effective in most of Pakistan. These approaches need to be tailored to the remaining areas where communities are not able to access vaccination, through local leadership and ownership. All parents in Pakistan want to protect their children, and the WHO is there to support national and local leaders in ensuring they can do so.

Saira Afzal Tarar, Pakistan's state minister for Health Sciences Regulation and Coordination, said officials had yet to work out the details of when and how the policy would be implemented. How urgent is the need to control the outbreak?

The WHO's Director General has concluded that the increased international spread of wild poliovirus, especially after the progress made on other fronts against polio, constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. It therefore requires urgent and internationally-coordinated action. We fully understand that governments will need some time to work out the specifics of how they will put the recommendations into action and the WHO's role is to support governments in doing so.

But Saira Afzal Tarar also criticized the WHO for playing into the Taliban's hands. She was quoted by news agency AFP as saying, "By recommending travel restrictions on Pakistan, the WHO has strengthened those forces who actually banned polio drop." What is your view on this?

The measures recommended by the Director-General are purely intended to help reduce the international spread of poliovirus while the remaining polio-infected countries interrupt transmission, in a manner that is internationally coordinated, while avoiding unnecessary interference with international transport and trade.

What is your view on the Taliban and other militant groups' violent opposition to polio vaccination campaigns, arguing that they are a cover for foreign spying?

The delivery of healthcare is impartial. WHO has repeatedly stated that public health interventions should not be used for any other purpose than the improvement of people's health.

How does the WHO intend to convince people of its vaccination program as there are still widespread public fears in the country that the vaccine leads to infertility?

The Pakistani public actually wants vaccination and has some of the lowest refusal rates in the world (less than one percent nationally). In parts of the country, there is mistrust of outsiders which is channeled into vaccination mistrust and rumors.

Various Islamic Institutions, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Islamic Advisory Group for polio eradication, have been leading the work with communities to increase public understanding, access and demand for polio vaccination. Furthermore, a network of thousands of community mobilizers - many of whom are volunteers - are working to reassure parents in their own communities that polio vaccines are safe and effective.

Sona Bari is spokesperson for polio eradication at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

The interview was conducted by Gabriel Domínguez.

Nigeria Is Not Pakistan

The state isn't trying to use Boko Haram as a political tool -- it's just been totally useless in doing anything to defeat it.

BY Leela Jacinto

MAY 8, 2014

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain was scheduled to arrive in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on April 21 with a group of around 70 officials and business leaders for a three-day visit aimed at boosting bilateral trade.

Days before Hussain's arrival, a Pakistani Embassy official in Abuja told reporters the presidential agenda would include discussions on how Pakistan could help Nigeria address its energy and domestic gas challenges. Pakistan providing energy expertise -- fancy that! This from a country where power cuts grind factories to a halt, bodies decompose in morgues, and the rich are forced to fan themselves in the peak of the summer heat when their backup generators blow up from overuse. The heart of the problem is corruption, of course, which everyone knows but no one seems capable of handling.

After decades of covering the AfPak region, my standard of comparison is so skewed that I tend to see hope where most of my colleagues only smell despair. I know the bar has been set too low, for instance, when I start comparing the Islamists' women's rights track record to the Taliban's. If outage-hit Pakistan can offer its energy distribution expertise to Nigeria, it makes for an interesting study in the pecking order of mismanaged states.

But in the end, the lights went out on that plan. Hussain -- sometimes known as Pakistan's "invisible" president -- canceled his Nigerian visit. Not due to security concerns, insisted a Pakistani Embassy official in Abuja, but nobody believed him.

In the week leading up to the Pakistani presidential visit, the Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram raised its profile in the terror charts, conducting attacks that have shocked even the group's fellow jihadists. …………………………………..

In the immediate aftermath of the April 14 kidnappings -- a critical time for security experts to start tracking abductors and their hostages -- as the days turned to weeks, my horror turned to panic as I heard some Nigerian journalists on the airwaves explain that even in countries with far better militaries, such as Pakistan, terrorism takes time to tackle.

Let's be clear: Terrorists may be clever, committed, well-trained, and well traveled. They may employ asymmetrical tactics, seeking soft targets and sowing a level of terror disproportionate to their military abilities. But in the end, jihadi groups are only as effective as states, governments, and security services enable them to be.

When terrorist threats or insurgencies drag on for years, with death tolls running into the thousands and with millions displaced -- as has happened in Nigeria and Pakistan -- there are invariably policy and structural issues at play.

In Pakistan, as we all know, the problem is official duplicity. Yes, since 2004, more than 4,000 Pakistani soldiers have been killed in security operations in the lawless tribal areas, according to military statistics. Pakistani officials often cite these figures when they are confronted with U.S. allegations that they are an insincere partner in the war on terror.

But the awful truth is, the victims of Tehrik-i-Taliban (or the "bad Taliban") are also victims of a shortsighted Pakistani military-intelligence strategy of supporting Islamist groups -- including the Afghan (or "good") Taliban -- in order to try to extend "strategic depth" (as it's known in policy circles) in neighboring Afghanistan. Nothing is going change this: Pakistan will not stop trying to spread its influence in Afghanistan or getting at India. This problem is here to stay.

In Nigeria, the picture is more nuanced. It involves poverty, corruption, geographical and sectarian grievances, impunity, inefficiency, and some levels of local political complicity. These are problems this former British colony has battled since independence.

But here's the good news for Nigerians who compare themselves unfavorably to the other former British colony in South Asia and who are seeking counterterrorism training and cooperation from Pakistan: The Nigerian problem is inefficiency, which is easier to tackle than an official, intractable policy of duplicity. …………………………………….

anupmisra wrote:AoA and all that. IED blast martyrs eight soldiers in N.Waziristan

venug wrote:AoA!
Blast Hits Pakistani Army Convoy, Killing 9 Soldiers

The COAS also shared the details of Thursday’s terror attacks in Miranshah in which twelve soldiers were killed.

arun wrote:Leela Jacinto writing in Foreign Policy. Does a decent hatchet job on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s Honor and dignity


From here : Foreign Policy

Peace process: Army plans response to North Waziristan blast

Pakistan has the capacity to produce 100,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity for the next 200 years as the country has reserves of coal comparing to combined oil reserves in energy equivalent terms of Iran and Saudi Arabia.

SSridhar wrote:Alla'h Ta'ala has at last shown mercy.

Pakistan has capacity to produce 100,000 MW electricity for 200 years !

Pakistan has the capacity to produce 100,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity for the next 200 years as the country has reserves of coal comparing to combined oil reserves in energy equivalent terms of Iran and Saudi Arabia.

By Kamran Shafi
Published: May 9, 2014

And now to the ‘wow’ election in Afghanistan. The brilliant (Dr) Omar Ali, son of my long-time friend, the peerless Colonel Nadir Ali, called the recent presidential elections the ‘Wow’ Election in one of his postings on his blog: “Brown Pundits”

It is also heartening to hear our prime minister repeatedly say that Pakistan will not interfere in the affairs of other countries and that Pakistan will be a good and helpful neighbour to Afghanistan. One hopes that India will also realise that its aggressive posturing in Afghanistan does not help matters and that it must exercise restraint.

India has to realise that an unstable Pakistan is not in its interest at all.

GUJRANWALA:
Two pilots of the Army Aviation on Tuesday lost their lives as their trainer aircraft crashed in Gujranwala’s cantonment area at about 11:00 am minutes after taking off.

It is learnt that two pilots – Major Ali and Captain Shujaat – were onboard the Mashaq aircraft, which developed some technical fault just after leaving the ground. Due to the error, the plane lost its balance and, crashing close to a residential area near the airbase, broke into two pieces and caught fire

For the first time, Abu Hamza announced that his blindness in one eye and amputated hands occurred not in Afghanistan as always thought, but in Pakistan. He said the accident happened during an explosives experiment with the Pakistan Army in August 1993.

shiv wrote:

SSridhar wrote:Many deceptions of Nawaz Sharif - G.Parthasarathy, Business Line

Sadly, few of our national leaders, perhaps with the exception of Narasimha Rao, understood how to deal with a complex personality like Nawaz Sharif.

As a new Government is scheduled to assume office soon in South Block, it will hopefully avoid getting starry-eyed about the prospects of immediate “breakthroughs” in relations with Pakistan.

The author is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan.

Goes to show how the entire Indian government bureaucracy who advise the government as all equally stupid in imagining that there can be any breakthroughs with Pakistan... I will be at the forefront of the criticize Modi campaign if his government is as blind as the Sonia-MMS combine

SSridhar wrote:What intrigues me is that North Waziristan is 'good Taliban' land after all.