Bharat Rakshak

Banned in Pakistan, thriving online: 65 organisations still active in recruiting, raising funds and inciting the faithful against India-ruled Kashmir
65 organisations banned in Pakistan, either because of terrorist links or as purveyors of sectarian hate, are still visible online
Activists, journalists and rights groups say the banned groups active on social media operate unencumbered because several are patronised by the military
Other sources of support come from politicians looking for votes
'There is no place on Facebook for terrorism,' Facebook spokeswoman Clare Wareing said in an email reply to The Associated Press

By Associated Press and Mailonline India
PUBLISHED: 07:12 BST, 11 July 2017
It's dusk. The shadows of three men brandishing assault rifles welcome the reader to the Facebook page of Lashkar-e-Islam, one of 65 organisations that are banned in Pakistan, either because of terrorist links or as purveyors of sectarian hate.

Still more than 40 of these groups operate and flourish on social media sites, communicating on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Telegram, according to a senior official with Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, or FIA, who is tasked with shutting down the sites.

They use them to recruit, raise money and demand a rigid Islamic system. It is also where they incite the Sunni faithful against the country's minority Shiites and extoll jihad, or holy war, in India-ruled Kashmir and in Afghanistan.

A Facebook site that features one of India's most wanted, Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned organisation and a U.S. declared terrorist group, in Islamabad, Pakistan +5

'It's like a party of the banned groups online. They are all on social media,' the FIA official told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition his name not be used because agency officials are not allowed to be quoted by name.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is waging a cyber crackdown on activists and journalists who use social media to criticise the government, the military or the intelligence agencies.

The Interior Ministry even ordered the FIA, Pakistan's equivalent of the American FBI, to move against 'those ridiculing the Pakistan Army on social media.'

The FIA official said the agency has interrogated more than 70 activists for postings considered critical. All but two have been released and a third is still under investigation, he said.

Pakistani social media rights activist Haroon Baloch, talks to The Associated Press in Islamabad, Pakistan

Activists, journalists and rights groups who monitor Pakistan's cyberspace say the banned groups active on social media operate unencumbered because several are patronised by the military, its intelligence agencies, radical religious groups and politicians looking for votes.

Even the FIA official concedes state support for some of the banned groups but said it is a global phenomenon engaged in by all intelligence agencies.

'Everyone is protecting their own terrorists. Your good guy is my bad guy and vice versa,' he said, adding that some sites belonging to banned groups are intentionally ignored to gain intelligence.

Haroon Baloch, a Pakistani social media rights activist looks at a Facebook page of a religious group, that refers to their leader as a 'true leader,' in Islamabad +5

On one Facebook page, the Afghan Taliban flag welcomes viewers, its masthead emblazoned with Arabic script identifying the page as belonging to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Still another Facebook site features one of India's most wanted, Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, another banned organisation and a US declared terrorist group.

Saeed even has a $10 million US-imposed bounty on his head. Yet his group, which has been resurrected under several names, is billed as a charity and has several Facebook pages.

Currently called Falah-e-Insaniat, the group boasts of its community work, but its pages feature anti-India videos, they call Syria a bleeding wound, and rail against India and chastise the Pakistan government for siding with the US following the 9/11 attacks.

Facebook and Twitter have said that they ban 'terrorist content.'

In the second half of last year, Twitter said on its site it had suspended 376,890 accounts because they were thought to promote terrorism, although they say less than 2 percent of the removals were the result of requests from governments.

Facebook, meanwhile, said in a blog last month it uses artificial intelligence and human reviewers to find and remove 'terrorist content.'

A social media rights activist points to a Facebook page of a militant group featuring their late leaders, describing them as, 'innocent martyrs,' in Islamabad +5

'There is no place on Facebook for terrorism,' Facebook spokeswoman Clare Wareing said in an email reply to The Associated Press.

'Our Community Standards do not allow groups or people that engage in terrorist activity, or posts that express support for terrorism. We encourage people to use our reporting tools if they find content that they believe violates our standards, so we can investigate and take action.'

Shahzad Ahmed, of the Islamabad-based social media rights group BytesForAll, said Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence agencies are waging a 'communication war' against progressive, moderate voices and those who criticize the government and more particularly the military and its agencies. They use radical religious groups to promote their narrative, he said.

'Their connectivity on the ground, the mosques, madrassas and supporters translates into social media strength and they are (further) strengthened because they feel 'no one is going to touch us,'' he said.

Journalist Zafar Achakzai, who was held for sharing content criticising security forces on social media, sits in his office after being released from jail, in Quetta, Pakistan +5

Ahmed Waqass Goraya is a blogger who was picked up and tortured by men he believes belonged to the country's powerful intelligence agency, known by its acronym ISI.

He said Pakistan's social media space is dominated by armies of trolls unleashed by the military, intelligence agencies and allied radical religious groups to push their narrative.

That narrative includes promoting anti-India sentiment - India is Pakistan's longtime enemy against whom it has fought three wars.

Critics who openly accuse the military of using extremists as proxies are under attack, said Goraya.

He fled Pakistan after social media was used to suggest the he and other bloggers were involved in blasphemy, a charge that carries the death penalty. In Pakistan even the suggestion that someone insulted Islam or its prophet can incite mobs to violence.

Earlier this month, Taimoor Raza, a minority Shiite, became the first person sentenced to death under Pakistan's blasphemy law for a social media posting.

Taha Siddiqui, a Pakistan-based journalist with France 24 and an active social media user who often criticises heavy handed actions of the military or its agencies, has taken the FIA to court to demand to know why he is under investigation after being ordered to come in for questioning.

His resistance is taking its toll with family, friends and colleagues, who plead for him to be silent, he said. 'They worry someday I will just disappear.'

At FIA headquarters in the capital, Islamabad, the official told the AP that banned groups use proxy servers that reveal IP addresses buried somewhere in other countries, making it impossible to track.

That explanation was called 'lame' by Haroon Baloch, a social media rights activist who has studied the free-wheeling use of social media by banned groups and purveyors of sectarian hate.

He said sites can be blocked, users located and the persons running the pages stopped.

Bloggers like Goraya had elaborate safeguards but still were tracked down by authorities, said Baloch.

Unlike the banned groups, Baloch said bloggers, social media activists and journalists are found and stopped because Pakistan's civilian and military intelligence agencies are on the offensive against them.

'Agencies have established a new wing to monitor 24/7, to counter liberal and progressive debate and particularly anything that criticizes their policies,' he said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/in ... z4mbZL4sp0

Singha wrote:Hayder al-Khoei Retweeted
Karl Sharro‏Verified account @KarlreMarks Jul 7

Karl Sharro Retweeted Richard N. Haass
I love how they assume that Anglo-Saxon hegemony should be the norm, like it's their birth right or somethingKarl Sharro added,

Richard N. HaassVerified account @RichardHaass
Increasingly the world is being shaped without the leadership of the US and the U.K., the two principal architects of the post-WW II order

IndraD wrote:suspect arrested

JE Menon wrote:^^The article says:
__________________
However, the Indian view is that the nationality of an individual can only be established by an investigation conducted by Indian agencies, and not on the basis of information provided by UK authorities. The investigation involves police in India confirming the identity of those suspected to be illegal in the UK, which can take weeks, if not months.
__________________

After the games our friends in Bartanistan have played, I think this caution is well advised.

Neela wrote:

JE Menon wrote:^^The article says:
__________________
However, the Indian view is that the nationality of an individual can only be established by an investigation conducted by Indian agencies, and not on the basis of information provided by UK authorities. The investigation involves police in India confirming the identity of those suspected to be illegal in the UK, which can take weeks, if not months.
__________________

After the games our friends in Bartanistan have played, I think this caution is well advised.

Is Vijay Mallya on the list ? I am sure Indian police can help expedite the process in some cases.

Lisa wrote:Because their justice is superior! Sarcasm Off!

Personally, this extradition treaty needs to be revoked as they are for the taking and India is for the giving.

Until the UK is willing to reciprocate, put the treaty into abeyance. Now it will not matter to them but when the India economy is much larger than watch them struggle with this actions implications. Either way what do we lose. All and sundry wanted in India are living freely in the UK anyway.

One of the key issues which dominated the talks were on the visa issue. Sir Keith Burnett, the vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield, had joined the UK prime minister on her recent trade visit to India. In his blog in Times Higher Education, he wrote,”When I talk to Indians, the hurt is plain. I feel truly ashamed, and don’t want that hurt to be ignored or unheeded. In fact, I’m sure that we need a full-scale response to the danger it heralds. I have tried to stay positive for the past four years as I’ve seen things rot. I have groaned as changes in visa regulations pushed more and more potential students away. The government has assured us that it was not deliberately trying to reduce the numbers. Well, that may be the truth, but the results are in. A 50 per cent drop! Other countries are rubbing their hands with glee at our stupidity. Ms May is announcing that her trade mission to Europe has seen £1 billion in deals announced for the UK. But remember that international students are worth £14 billion to the UK economy every year. That’s equivalent to more than one major trade mission a month.

ashvin wrote:^ It is a shame that the rape, pillage and abject destruction of Bharat has been white washed by the Indian curriculum. I recently started reading the book by Shashi Tharroor, Inglorious Empire and its quite an eye opener. It could be a good idea for the erstwhile "Gangadins" to read the book and have their eyes open. The book is a veritable indictment of British crimes on the people of India. The local media and press should shed more light on this. It should never be forgotten, because history always repeats for those who forget!

CR: In the 1940s, Britain’s initial understanding of how Europe might work after the Second World War was precisely this idea of “Eurafrica”, as a third way between the United States and the Soviet Union – which was in a way modernising and forward-looking, whilst also being rooted in imperial power. Now, there’s the idea that Britain will go back to a type of Commonwealth trading – but the Commonwealth that’s imagined is always a white settler Commonwealth.

GB: It’s CANZUK: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

CR: Yes! The MEP Daniel Hannan, who was one of the main architects of the Leave campaign, has as his Twitter header photo this sort of mocked-up flag of CANZUK, which has the Canadian maple leaf and New Zealand and Australian flags mixed with the Union Jack. It’s this explicitly white Commonwealth imaginary view of Britain’s future. Brexit is obviously a way in which this concern with the imperial past has become very contemporary – and I wondered how far you thought that Brexit represents a type of imperial nostalgia.

GB: I think that played a part within the rhetoric in the lead-up to the referendum. There was this strange juxtaposition of two contradictory ideas. On the one hand, there was a visceral anti-immigrant, anti-EU and anti-darker British citizens feeling. It wasn’t just about immigrants or the EU, it was also about British citizens who don’t “look” right according to the people making those types of arguments. At the same time, there was this idea that leaving the EU would enable us to establish our old Commonwealth links, with Leave supporters arguing that it was unfair that EU citizens could come to Britain without any connection to the country but that the grandparents or relatives of people in Britain from the Commonwealth couldn’t do the same. What people didn’t seem to understand is that when Britain was negotiating to enter Europe in the 1970s, it used the argument that entering the EEC would enable it to stop Commonwealth migration – and now apparently we were leaving the EU in order to enable Commonwealth migration. These contradictions do not really stand.

CR: The idea of nostalgia feeds back into this discussion about Britain’s place in the world. There is both an anxiety about Britain’s place now, but also a discomfort among many people in Britain with any argument that the Empire was a bad thing. There is a sense that not only does Britain need to reclaim its “greatness” – which apparently also involves not having pink passport covers any more and all sorts of things – but also that Britain should be able to celebrate aspects of its past that many people might believe are not appropriate to celebrate.

The Conservative Party contracted a secretive call centre during the election campaign which may have broken data protection and election laws, a Channel 4 News investigation has found.

The Conservative Party contracted a secretive call centre during the election campaign which may have broken data protection and election laws, a Channel 4 News investigation has found.

An undercover reporter working for Channel 4 News secured work at Blue Telecoms, a firm in Neath, South Wales.

In an area plagued by unemployment and low wages, the call centre hired up to a hundred people on zero-hours contracts. For weeks, they contacted thousands of potential voters in marginal seats across the UK.

The investigation has uncovered what appear to be underhand and potentially unlawful practices at the centre, in calls made on behalf of the Conservative Party. These allegations include:

● Paid canvassing on behalf of Conservative election candidates – banned under election law.

● Political cold calling to prohibited numbers

● Misleading calls claiming to be from an ‘independent market research company’ which does not apparently exist

Tonight the Conservative Party admitted it had commissioned Blue Telecoms to carry out ‘market research and direct marketing calls’ during the campaign, and insisted the calls were legal.

A_Gupta wrote:Acid attacks on the rise in London, and in UK in general:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40559973

NewsUKUK Politics
Fifteen Tory MPs 'to sign Theresa May no confidence letter'
48 signatures are required to trigger a leadership contest

Samuel Osborne @SamuelOsborne93 6 hours ago27 comments

Theresa May, the Prime Minister, told plotting MPs: 'It's me or Jeremy Corbyn' AP/Matt Dunham
At least 15 Conservative MPs have reportedly agreed to sign a letter of no confidence in Theresa May.

It comes after the Prime Minister told plotting Tory MPs "it's me or Jeremy Corbyn," as she insisted a leadership challenge would trigger another general election.

Although the letter of no confidence falls short of the 48 names required to trigger a leadership contest, Parliament's summer break could prove critical for Ms May's future.

A former minister told The Sunday Times: “The numbers change from day to day depending on what’s happened but there are about 15 who are fairly consistent in their desire for change.

“If she has a quiet summer and there are no crises and things are not mismanaged then she might be able to cling on beyond conference, but that is still a big if."

At a summer party last week, Ms May pleaded with her MPs to “go away and have a proper break and come back ready for serious business”.
“No backbiting, no carping. The choice is me or Jeremy Corbyn - and no one wants him,” Conservative MPs who were present reported her saying."

The Sunday Times' source added: "The break will either have dissipated some of the resentment towards her for gambling away the party’s majority or the rumblings around her leadership will start to flare up again."
David Davis topped a survey of Tory members as the candidate to replace Ms May as leader, but most wanted the Prime Minister to remain in post.
READ MORE
Tory members 'want Theresa May to quit by Christmas'
Corbyn is a 'real threat' to May's premiership, top Tory says

More than a fifth, 21 per cent, of Conservatives want the Brexit Secretary to take over from the ailing premier, according to a study by academics.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is his main rival on 17 per cent while backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg made a surprise entry as the third choice with 6 per cent, the party members project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council found.

But more than a quarter, 26 per cent, did not know or declined to say who they wanted to see as Ms May's successor, according to the data obtained by The Observer.

And 71 per cent said they were reluctant for the PM to quit now compared to 22 per cent who want her to go.

Senior members of the 1922 Committee, which represents Conservative backbenchers, have indicated there is no appetite for a leadership election and that Mrs May would have their backing if she sacked plotters.

Additional reporting by Press Associatio

In the 1940s, Britain’s initial understanding of how Europe might work after the Second World War was precisely this idea of “Eurafrica”, as a third way between the United States and the Soviet Union – which was in a way modernising and forward-looking, whilst also being rooted in imperial power. ...

Papers unearthed by the BBC reveal that British and American commanders ensured that the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was seen as a "whites only" victory.

Many who fought Nazi Germany during World War II did so to defeat the vicious racism that left millions of Jews dead.

Yet the BBC's Document programme has seen evidence that black colonial soldiers - who made up around two-thirds of Free French forces - were deliberately removed from the unit that led the Allied advance into the French capital.

By the time France fell in June 1940, 17,000 of its black, mainly West African colonial troops, known as the Tirailleurs Senegalais, lay dead.

Many of them were simply shot where they stood soon after surrendering to German troops who often regarded them as sub-human savages.

Their chance for revenge came in August 1944 as Allied troops prepared to retake Paris. But despite their overwhelming numbers, they were not to get it.


The leader of the Free French forces, Charles de Gaulle, made it clear that he wanted his Frenchmen to lead the liberation of Paris.

Allied High Command agreed, but only on one condition: De Gaulle's division must not contain any black soldiers.

Haresh wrote:Land of hope and glory

Whiskey and soda at 4 PM sharp, and don't forget the dammed ice!!!!

Get the pukkha going as well.

The comments are hilarious, and they wonder why they are not getting the business!!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... amily.html

British Pakistani men ARE raping and exploiting white girls… and it’s time we faced up to it

BRITAIN has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.

There. I said it. Does that make me a racist? Or am I just prepared to call out this horrifying problem for what it is?

Sex gang from Newcastle – the most recent to be found guilty on a range of child sexual exploitation charges

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Sex gang from Newcastle – the most recent to be found guilty on a range of child sexual exploitation charges
For too long we have ignored the race of these abusers and, worse, tried to cover it up.

No more. These people are predators and the common denominator is their ethnic heritage.

We have to have grown-up conversations, however unpalatable, or in six months’ time we will be having this same scenario all over again.

The irony of all of this is that, by not dealing with the ethnicity of the abusers as a fact, political correctness has actually made the situation about race.

The perpetrators are criminals and we need to deal with them as such, not shy away from doing the right thing by fearing being called a racist.

I’m writing this as I don’t know what else to do to try and protect our children from grooming and sexual abuse by gangs.

Child sex exploitation scandal in 2014

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Child sex exploitation scandal in 2014
I became the Member of Parliament for Rotherham in November 2012 and, within a month, I heard the abbreviation CSE (child sexual exploitation) for the first time.

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council had been hauled in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee to justify their failure to protect young girls who were victims of this vile crime.

I sat stunned in the committee room, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

It was shocking. Mainly white pubescent girls were being sexually groomed and exploited by gangs of mainly British Pakistani men.

I had to do something. I would not be another person who turned a blind eye to these crimes.

Victim’s harrowing account of years of abuse from a gang

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Victim’s harrowing account of years of abuse from a gang
Working with the children’s charity Barnardo’s, I launched a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into child sexual exploitation. We found that the judges were not properly supporting the victims in court.

Police weren’t always aware of the crime and the law needed changing so that police could act swiftly to prosecute on the first whiff of sexual grooming.

Most importantly, victims and survivors were not being believed or given the support they needed to rebuild their lives.

This had to change.

Following my inquiry, judges and the police receive better training and are now more aware of the crime. I changed the law on grooming.

However, victims did not — and still do not — get better support.

Sickening details of the depraved band of paedos

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Sickening details of the depraved band of paedos
Jump to August 2014. Professor Alexis Jay releases her report into the failings in Rotherham.

She conservatively estimates that there are 1,400 victims of child sexual exploitation in the town by British Pakistani men. There is international outrage and the Government commissions a report by Dame Louise Casey. She confirms Alexis Jay’s report to be accurate.

February 2015. I spend four hours at 10 Downing Street with David Cameron and his cabinet. I present a simple five-point plan outlining how to prevent child sexual exploitation:

Set up a task force of experts
Give primary school children education on healthy/unhealthy relationships
Launch a national CSE awareness campaign
Supply mandatory training for professionals in the field
Provide support for victims and survivors.
Two-and-a-half years later we have warm words and still no action.

In fact, it is worse as we have less police, cuts to social workers, education, children’s services, courts and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Child abuse is massive in this country. Children’s charities estimate that one in four girls and one in six boys will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18.

Victim’s testimony to her years of abuse

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Victim’s testimony to her years of abuse
More than 90 per cent of abused children know their abuser — it is usually someone from within the extended family — and the vast majority of convictions are against white men acting alone.

However, as the latest case in Newcastle proves, we must accept that for gang-related child sexual exploitation, the convictions have largely been against British Pakistani men.

The Government must act now to understand why this is.

We have a large group of men behind bars, let’s do some research and find out why these monsters think it is acceptable to abuse children in this way.

Unless we know why they do, we can’t prevent it.

Our children deserve better.

Sarah Champion is the Labour MP for Rotherham and Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities
Rotherham paedo gang victim claims 'authorities made me feel like a racist when I reported attacks 14 YEARS ago'