<b>A warm, understanding and caring person</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->My last conversation with Benazir was four days ago. Roughly a week before that, I had interviewed the National Security Adviser, MK Narayanan, who had expressed doubts about Benazirâs ability to deliver on her promises to India. He pointedly mentioned that in 1988 she had made certain commitments to Rajiv Gandhi, which she had, he claimed, failed to deliver on.
This infuriated Benazir. Within hours of the interview being broadcast, she rang me, upset and angry.
âWhy did he say this?â she asked. âIf he had questioned my constitutional position caught between the President and army chief, I could have understood, but he didnât. Instead, he questioned my ability to deliver. He seemed to be questioning my integrity.â
I tried to assure her. I told her that she was reading too much but she would not listen. âWhat is worseâ, Karan, she added, âis that he then went on to mention an incident in 1988 when he claims I made a commitment to Rajiv which I did not deliver on⦠The truth is that Rajiv made a commitment to me that Rajiv backed out of. But I never spoke about that and I never will. So why are these false allegations being made.â
Days later, I mentioned this to G Parthasarthy. In â88, Partha was part of Rajivâs PMO and had visited Islamabad with Rajiv. Years later, Partha was high commissioner to Islamabad. Partha confirmed that what Benazir said was correct and the NSAâs scepticism of Benazir was misplaced.
Partha told me that Rajiv had made commitment on Siachen which he had not been able to keep. When I said if he would say this in public and set the record straight, he laughed but declined: âI cant defend Benazir by letting down Rajiv.â
Tonight, when Benazir is dead, and so tragically killed, I hope Partha will understand if I make this story public and I hope the NSA will appreciate the reason why I am sharing with the world Benazirâs side of the story.
That conversation led to two or three more. I warned her to be careful.
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So Thapar is saying MK Narayanan is lying or misleding or just khaki.
very interesting. Now who is working against India.
MK Narayanan credibility is below average anyway and this incidence will make it worse.
Agents who have lost their utility get burnt. I wonder if Chacha-ji came to the conclusion that her utility was limited and decided to remove complications. The reactions from Chacha-ji's mouthpieces seem to vindicate this.
<b>It was not a bullet, president told at high-level meeting</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sources said the meeting was also informed that Benazir Bhutto had taken her seat in the rear of the jeep but saw an emotional crowd waving at her. She opted to respond by coming out of the sun-roof and waved at them. The suicide bomber saw her and blew himself up, hitting her in the neck with a piece of shrapnel
.............
The initial report that was submitted to the high-level meeting disclosed that Benazir Bhutto was hit by the ball bearings of the suicide bomberâs jacket that hit and cut her jugular vain.
It caused her excessive internal and external bleeding. As a result, she died in no time. The report was submitted before the post-mortem was performed on her body. The exact nature of the wounds would be determined by the post-mortem report.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>India fears terror upsurge, goes on red alert</b>
IB should stop spying Sonia's opposition party or Sister-in-law and concentrate spying IM, Mosques and Madarsa all over Indian border.
Qaeda Eyed in Slaying of Bhutto
Assassination Is Laid to Team of Precision Snipers
BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 28, 2007
WASHINGTON â American and Pakistani military leaders are seeking to account for what may be renegade commando units from the Pakistani military's special forces in the wake of the assassination of Pakistan's opposition leader and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.
<b>The attack yesterday at Rawalpindi bore the hallmarks of a sophisticated military operation.</b> At first, Bhutto's rally was hit by a suicide bomb that turned out to be a decoy.
According to press reports and a situation report of the incident relayed to The New York Sun by an American intelligence officer, <b>Bhutto's armored limousine was shot by multiple snipers whose armor-piercing bullets penetrated the vehicle, hitting the former premier five times in the head, chest, and neck. Two of the snipers then detonated themselves shortly after the shooting, according to the situation report, while being pursued by local police.
A separate attack was thwarted at the local hospital where Bhutto possibly would have been revived had she survived the initial shooting.</b> Also attacked yesterday was a rival politician, Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister who took power after Bhutto lost power in 1996.
<b>A working theory, according to this American source, is that Al Qaeda or affiliated jihadist groups had effectively suborned at least one unit of Pakistan's Special Services Group, the country's equivalent of Britain's elite SAS commandos. This official, however, stressed this was just a theory at this point. Other theories include that the assassins were trained by Qaeda or were from other military services, or the possibility that the assassins were retired Pakistani special forces.</b>
"They just killed the most protected politician in the whole country," this source said. "We really don't know a lot at this point, but the first thing that is happening is we are asking the Pakistani military to account for every black team with special operations capabilities."
Bhutto survived a suicide bombing attack in October and then went public with a list of former and current security and military officials she said had been plotting to kill her. At the time, she asked for the FBI to investigate the attacks.
The prospect that Bhutto's attackers were trained special forces operatives raises profound questions for America's policy of giving financial aid to Pakistan's military. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, America has provided the Musharraf regime with more than $10 billion.
A close associate of Bhutto for more than two decades, Hussein Haqqani, yesterday said he believed Pakistan's security services were complicit in the assassination of his friend. "I don't think they were complicit, as in, they did it, I mean this as they allowed this to happen. Of course that includes the possibility of actual complicity. I think her security needs and concerns were not addressed," he told the Sun.
Mr. Haqqani pointed to prior attempts to assassinate President Musharraf and the attacks earlier this month against Pakistan's interior minister. "In all of these attacks, no one could penetrate the security cordon. People were killed, but the targets survived," he said.
Mr. Haqqani said he thought it was a possibility that Al Qaeda and affiliated jihadists had penetrated the security services Islamabad has promised would catch them. <b>"The fact of the matter remains that Pakistani security services have many people in it who worked very closely with several jihadi groups that now work with global jihadi forces," he said. "Is it possible some of the security personnel have developed sympathy for the people with whom they used to work? Absolutely. Do we know this with certainty? No, we do not."</b>
Violent protests reportedly were spreading throughout Pakistan yesterday. A Pakistan expert at the Rand Corporation, Seth Jones, said he would need to study the technical details of the assassination to determine if it was an inside job. "If there is anywhere to fault the national security establishment, it would be not protecting her well enough," he said.
Already Al Qaeda has claimed credit for the attacks. The Italian news agency, Adnkronos International, or AKI, reported the first claim of responsibility for the attack from Osama bin Laden's organization. In a dispatch datelined from Karachi, Pakistan, the agency quoted a Qaeda spokesman and commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa abu al-Yazid, in a phone interview saying, "We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahedeen."
Al Qaeda has openly called for Bhutto's assassination in the past and has also claimed responsibility for attempts on the life of Pakistan's current president, Pervez Musharraf. Nonetheless, the group has not yet issued an official statement claiming credit on its two largest jihad Web forums, Ekhlaas Forum and al-Firdaws.
An analyst who closely monitors the jihad Web forums, Nicholas Grace, said those two Web forums went dark yesterday between 12:05 p.m. and 1:05 p.m. EST, suggesting a major announcement was forthcoming. Al Qaeda uses these forums to communicate with its rank and file throughout the world and to indoctrinate new recruits into its terror network.
"Al Qaeda has gone on the record as stating its intention to assassinate Benazir Bhutto. The Qaeda rank and file on the Internet are at this point celebrating her assassination and also calling for the assassinations of Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf," Mr. Grace said yesterday. "Al Qaeda has increasingly issued claims of responsibilities for major attacks much more rapidly than in previous years, and the current activity on the major global jihadi Web forums suggests a claim of responsibility is imminent."
A White House spokesman, Scott Stanzel, said, "Whoever perpetrated this attack is an enemy of democracy and has used a tactic which Al Qaeda is very familiar with, and that is suicide bombing and the taking of innocent lives to try to disrupt a democratic process." President Bush yesterday condemned what he called a "cowardly attack."
A senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Daniel Markey, who just returned from Pakistan, told reporters on a conference call yesterday that there were plenty of people around Mr. Musharraf "who were angry with Benazir Bhutto, but I don't believe they would have taken this step. ... To take this step now works against Musharraf's interests and his party's interests." Mr. Markey said Mr. Musharraf would also benefit ultimately from a power-sharing arrangement that would give his unpopular government legitimacy. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for January 8.
The assassination is particularly troubling for American policy. For the last year, the State Department in particular has tried to broker a power sharing agreement between Mr. Musharraf and Bhutto, reasoning that Mr. Musharraf alone lacked the legitimacy to wage a full military war against Al Qaeda.
In 2006, Pakistan's military cut a series of agreements with the governorates of the federally administered tribal areas on the border with Pakistan, giving local tribal leaders the equivalent of home rule. The Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are believed by American intelligence agencies to reside in these areas. American forces in Afghanistan on occasion will fire missiles at select targets in these areas, and Pakistan's military will claim official credit. Over 2007, however, it became clear to American policy makers that a sustained ground offensive would be needed to disrupt Al Qaeda's new home base.
This is from Paki analysis and future of Pakistan from dumb fora
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I think the following is a possibility:
Attacks on Punjabis in Karachi and Sindh.
Rise of trouble in FATA and Balouchistan.
Attack on Pak Army units in Sindh.
Major attacks on Sunni and Shia groups
MQM aligning with Sindhi elements in openly calling against Punjab.
Indian Amry moving some asset onto the border under the guise of trouble. Most likely in the Rajastan sector.
India covertly supporting Sindhi elements asking for succession
US pushing Pakistan for more open access moving assets into Pakistan. Some high profile predator attacks with considerable collatral damage, raising greater resentment.
A high profile attack in Balouchistan and seat of governance in Isb or Pindi.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Very promosing future ahead. <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Bhutto died trying to duck from blast, not bullet or bomb: ministry </b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's interior ministry said Friday that Benazir Bhutto died from hitting her vehicle's sunroof when she tried to duck after a suicide attack, and that no bullet or shrapnel was found in her.
Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said the opposition leader had died from a head wound she sustained when she smashed against the sunroof's lever as she tried to shelter inside the car.
<b>"The lever struck near her right ear and fractured her skull," Cheema said. "There was no bullet or metal shrapnel found in the injury."</b>
But he said intelligence services had intercepted a call Saturday from the man considered to be Al-Qaeda's top figure for Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, congratulating a militant after Bhutto's death.
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Now they are spreading lies. People who were sitting inside Car or photographer who took pictures claimed that first gun fire, then she dropped inside car and then bomb blast.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2701481_pf.html
U.S. Brokered Bhutto's Return to Pakistan
Friends say Bhutto asked for U.S. help. "She pitched the idea to the Bush administration," said Peter W. Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador and friend of Bhutto from their days at Harvard. "She had been prime minister twice, and had not been able to accomplish very much because she did not have power over the most important institutions in Pakistan -- the ISI [intelligence agency], the military and the nuclear establishment," he said.
"Without controlling those, she couldn't pursue peace with India, go after extremists or transfer funds from the military to social programs," Galbraith said. "Cohabitation with Musharraf made sense because he had control over the three institutions that she never did. This was the one way to accomplish something and create a moderate center."
<b>Pak warns India leaders against attending Bhutto funeral</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->External Affairs Minister <b>Pranab Mukherjee has dropped his plans to attend Benazir Bhutto's </b>[Images] funeral following a security advisory from Pakistan government.
Pakistan government advised India against sending any delegation for the funeral of Bhutto citing security reasons, sources said.
<b>The Indian government was actively considering dispatching an official delegation </b> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo--> led by Mukherjee for the burial at her ancestral village Garhi Khuda Baksh at Larkana near Karachi.
Security at the Indian high commission in Islamabad was also strengthened after Bhutto's assassination in Rawalpindi on Friday evening, the sources said.
<b>India has also temporarily suspended the train and bus services to Pakistan.</b>
The sources said a decision to re-start the transport links with Pakistan will depend on the situation.
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Had they lost their mind, If Sonia want to get rid of his minister, she better pick other ways not in Paki land.
They should suspend transport links forever.
No visa for match or trade show.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->From DAWN
Nine including grandson of Wali-i-Swat killed in bomb explosion SWAT, Pakistan, Dec 28 (APP):
Nine persons including Asfandyar Amirzaib, the grandson of Wali- i-Swat, were killed and several others injured in an explosion after an election meeting in Mingora on Friday. Asfandyar Amirzaib, a former provincial minister and district Nazim, was a pro-Musharraf PML-Q party candidate for a provincial assembly seat (PF- 81), police said. As he came out of the meeting, a powerful explosion occurred killing him and eight others on the spot, witnesses said but the police confirmed death of only four persons including Manglore Union Council Nazim Bakht Mand Khan. It could not be confirmed whether it was a suicide bombing or the bomb was triggered with a remote control device. (First Posted @ 15:00 PST; Updated @ 17:35 PST)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Compare this with Indian election, difference between civilized and barbaric world.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Jihad comes to Mush's door </b>
Pioneer.com
B Raman
Since 9/11, there has been hardly any jihadi terrorist strike anywhere in the world in which there was no Pakistani connection. Since 2002, there has been hardly any jihadi terrorist strike in Pakistani territory in which there was no connection of the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army. By GHQ, one does not mean the entire Army, but certain elements in the GHQ.
The first wake-up call about the presence of sleeper cells of Al Qaeda in Rawalpindi came in March 2003 when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who allegedly orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US, was found living in the house of a woman's wing office-bearer of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Rawalpindi. She had relatives in the Army, including an officer of a Signal Regiment.
The second wake-up call came after the two attempts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi in December 2003. The Pakistani authorities have not so far taken their people into confidence regarding the details of the two plots. All that they have admitted is that four junior officers of the Army and six of the Air Force were allegedly involved.
One of the Army officers, Islamuddin, was court-martialled and sentenced to death even before the investigation was complete. Another Army officer, Hawaldar Younis, was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment. Much to the discomfiture of the authorities, one of the Air Force officers, a civilian, who was being held in custody in an Air Force station, managed to escape.
There are still many unanswered questions about the conspiracy to kill Mr Musharraf. Who took the initiative in planning this conspiracy? The arrested junior officers of the Army and the Air Force, or the leaders of jihadi organisations? When was the conspiracy hatched? How did Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Directorates-General of the Army and the Air Force remain unaware of this conspiracy despite the fact that the conspirators had allegedly held some of their preparatory meetings in their living quarters in cantonments and Air Force stations? Was there a complicity of some in the intelligence establishment itself? If so, at what level? Why was the Government unable to identify those in the intelligence establishment involved in the conspiracy? Was there an involvement of the Hizbut-Tehrir?
These questions re-surfaced in the wake of the arrest of Abu Faraj al-Libi of Al Qaeda and the re-arrest of the civilian employee of the Air Force involved in the conspiracy, who had managed to escape from custody in November 2004, while under interrogation. That there were apprehensions in the minds of those close to Mr Musharraf over the role of sections of the intelligence establishment in the entire conspiracy and over the failure of the investigating agencies to unravel the entire conspiracy became evident from an interview given by Aamir Liaqat Hussain, the then Minister of State for Religious Affairs, to The Daily Times on May 5, 2005.
Well-informed sources in Pakistan say that apart from the failure of the intelligence establishment to identify and weed out the pro-jihadi elements in the armed forces and the intelligence establishment, another cause for serious concern is the continuing failure of the intelligence establishment to identify all the Pakistani leaders of the highly secretive Hizbut-Tehrir and its supporters in the forces and arrest them.
<b>The Hizbut-Tehrir ideology and operational methods were imported into Pakistan from the UK by its supporters in the Pakistani community there in 2000. In five years it has been able to make considerable progress, not only in setting up its organisational infrastructure but also in recruiting dedicated members, including from the armed forces. No other jihadi organisation has been able to attract as many supporters from the armed forces.</b>
There are two alarming aspects of the security situation in Pakistan. The first is the upsurge in acts of suicide terrorism directed against security and intelligence personnel and their establishments. These give clear evidence of the penetration of pro-Al Qaeda jihadi elements inside the armed forces, the intelligence agencies and the police. The second is the inability or unwillingness of the police to vigorously investigate these incidents, including the attempt to kill Benazir Bhutto in Karachi on October 18.
Nobody knows definitively till today who are responsible for these suicide attacks - tribal followers of Baitullah Mehsud of South Waziristan or those of Maulana Fazlullah of Swat Valley or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the anti-Shia sectarian organisation, or Al Qaeda, or the angry students of the two madarsas run by Lal Masjid in Islamabad.
Â
<b>I do not believe Mr Musharraf had prior knowledge of the plot to kill Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi. But he has to be held responsible for failing to provide effective physical security to her. He and his officers kept disregarding her growing fears about threats to her security. He failed to ensure a vigorous investigation of the first attempt to kill her at Karachi on October 18.
The infiltration of traditional fundamentalist political parties into the GHQ started under Gen Zia-ul-Haq. Since Mr Musharraf took over, there has been an infiltration of Al Qaeda into the Pakistani Armed Forces and into their sanctum sanctorum in Rawalpindi. These elements are against Mr Musharraf too, but they were much more against Benazir Bhutto because she was a woman and had been saying openly that she would allow the US to hunt for Osama bin Laden in Pakistani territory and the International Atomic Energy Agency at Vienna to interrogate AQ Khan, the nuclear scientist.
They have succeeded in killing her. They will now step up their efforts to eliminate Mr Musharraf. Whoever was responsible for killing her could not have done it without inside complicity. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>If Al Qaeda already has sleeper cells in the GHQ, there is an equal danger that it already has sleeper cells inside Pakistan's nuclear establishment too.</span>
Mr Musharraf is either knowingly dishonest or is living in a makebelieve world of his own, unaware of the ground realities. Only a few days before Benazir Bhutto's assassination, he was bragging to officer trainees in the Defence Services Staff College in Quetta that he had defeated the terrorists outside the tribal belt and would soon be defeating them inside the tribal belt, too!
It is high time he and his patrons in the US realise that Al Qaeda is not just in the tribal belt. It is right under his nose in Rawalpindi.</b>
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xpost
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>A dangerous situation </b>
Pioneer.com
India shouldn't remain indifferent to growing lawlessness in its neighbourhood, says Jaswant Singh
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a matter of sadness to the entire region, not just Pakistan. She represented a great Pakistani hope, which has gone with her. She carried with her the aspirations of the new generation of Pakistanis who desired to see the construction of the semblance of a civil society. One by one, the elements within Pakistan are themselves destroying all the possible support systems of a functional state.
<b>It takes many years of struggle for a party or a country to produce a leader of her stature, but only a minute to destroy</b>. Voices have been raised publicly that the responsibility rests on the present regime in Pakistan. While it is premature to comment on that, it is largely true that they surely carry the burden because in the ultimate analysis, the Government of the day must take the blame for an assassination of this magnitude.
Under the present circumstances, no election would be possible in January. But President Pervez Musharraf should not try to extract satisfaction from the situation arising out of the elimination of a democratic alternative. <b>We, in India, cannot shut our eyes to the dangerous developments as we are uniquely placed -- in the centre of gravity as it were -- with respect to our neighbours. So, it is naïve to work on the basis that what happens in any one of these countries does not affect India.</b>
<b>It is unfortunate that the National Security Adviser of the UPA Government had recently gone on record with certain views about Bhutto to the effect that she could not be "trusted" by India. This amounted to trivialising the role she was playing. Moreover, the NSA had chosen a television interview to make public what I assume was his Government's "character certificate" -- such a casual attitude was regrettable. </b>
<b>What further underscores New Delhi's apparent insistence on diminishing its own importance in the world was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's refusal to appear personally in public with his condolences, which ever global leader of any significance has done. Instead, he chose to speak through an aide</b>. <!--emo&:thumbdown--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>This is but manifestation of the UPA's totally incomprehensible foreign policy.</b> As I see it, its global outlook stands on two legs -- timid inaction and utter subservience to signals issued by Washington.
The first is manifested richly in our own neighbourhood, where the UPA Government chooses either not to react or meekly hang its policy on to the hooks of individuals. So, much like the United States which has patented such an approach (especially in South Asia), New Delhi too ends up in a blind alley.
<b>In Nepal we have ended up totally misreading the situation and, therefore, misapplying our efforts, losing, in the bargain, sight of our original historical responsibility towards that nation.</b> In Pakistan's case, there was an uncanny resemblance between our policy and that of Washington -- to structure everything around the person of Mr Musharraf. In addition, domestic vote-bank considerations play an important part of the UPA's external outlook configurations, often at variance with national security interests.
<b>The effect of American interference on our dealings with third countries is also quite apparent. Take for instance, the State Bank of India's recent step to close down operations in Iran, when China, Russia and even the Gulf countries refused to toe Washington's diktat.</b>
Bhutto reminded us of the need to look at Pakistan in a larger canvas. <span style='color:red'>Traditionally, India's dealings with Pakistan were either about lighting candles in Wagah or an extension of Punjabi Papiya-Japhiya </span> <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->Â <b>There is need to recognise the aspirations of the larger Pakistani nation comprising Sindhis, Baluchs and other ethnic groups. We should not lose sight of the fact that Sindh is home to the largest Hindu concentration in Pakistan. That's another aspect about her passing that would be difficult to fill.</b>
Bhutto's tragic end should also serve to end the complacency of those who had buried their heads under sand about terrorism. Like Frankenstein, terrorism is now turning on its maker, the Pakistani establishment. The US-led 'war against terror' lacks conviction as it has got grounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pakistan is today the crucible of terrorism. Much like locusts in desert regions, terrorism respects no international borders, moves from field to field destroying all. In India, our response to terrorism has become blunted by domestic political motives. We must recognise that India has got to devise its own response to this evil.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>BSF intensifies patrolling on Indo-Pak border</b>
Chandigarh: The Border Security Force (BSF) has intensified patrolling on 553-km-long international border with Pakistan in Punjab following the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and reports of violence breaking out in some cities in that country.
BSF special Director General of police (DGP) GS Gill said that border security formations of the force had been put on alert following the latest disturbance in Pakistan. <b>"We alert our frontline formations whenever there is a major disturbance in the neighbouring country</b>," Gill said
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<!--emo&:bevil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/b_evil.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='b_evil.gif' /><!--endemo--> Bismillah ur Rahman ur Rahim <!--emo&:bevil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/b_evil.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='b_evil.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Our dear friend Shaikh Osama bin Laden has said that he will release yet another Most Merciful video, according to some TV channel here. Man, I can almost feel the love! No word on when the blessed premiere screening will happen.
Are they going to show what they did to BB, or praise to their biggest buddy Mushy or self gloating fest?
Today, I was listening to Paki channel, it seems they keep on making lot of Muslim to Kufir, and pious muslims were asking religious person on TV that, Is it ok to have friemdly relationship with new Kufir family? They were worried about themselves will be labeled as Kuffir.
I have no idea about this concept. Lot to learn about this confused land.
CNN Video showing person shooting BB and blast later. Clear shot, no question now. Mushy is lying from his behind.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/200....bhutto.gun.ptv
<b>30 railway stations, 12 coaches, nine bridges torched in Sindh</b>
<i>* PR suspends services between Lahore, Karachi and Quetta
* 10 passenger trains stranded before reaching destinations, sent back
* GM operations says PR is helpless</i>
After Indira assissanation, Indian Congress Party performance was better in destructing Govt. property.
Pakistan or PPP is far behind even in this area.
[center]<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Sniper Teams Kill Pakistanâs Bhutto Prior To Meeting US Lawmakers</span></b>[/center]
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Heard from Pakistani that Bhutto's are Shia. Didn't know that.
Any other Shias in places of power?
<!--QuoteBegin-Viren+Dec 29 2007, 07:18 PM-->QUOTE(Viren @ Dec 29 2007, 07:18 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Heard from Pakistani that Bhutto's are Shia. Didn't know that.
Any other Shias in places of power?
[right][snapback]76585[/snapback][/right]
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<b>Viren Ji :</b>
There is a large number of Shias among the Sindhi Muslims.
In addition Jinnah was a Shia as also a sizable number if Indian Muslim League Leaders who went over to Pakistan.
The following Article throws light on the Shia-Sunni situation - especially the Leadershi - in Pakistan :
<b>Pakistanâs Transition from Shia to Sunni Leadership</b>
Pakistanâs founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was an Ismaili by birth and a Twelver Shia by confession, though not a religiously observant man. He had studied at the Inns of Court in London and was better versed in English law than in Shia jurisprudence, was never seen at an Ashoura procession, and favored a wardrobe that often smacked as much of Savile Row as of South Asia. Yet insofar as he was Muslim and a spokesman for Muslim nationalism, it was as a Shia. His coreligionists played an important role in his movement, and over the years many of Pakistanâs leaders were Shias, including one the countryâs first governor-generals, three of its first prime ministers, two of its military leaders (Generals Iskandar Mirza and Yahya Khan), and many other of its leading public officials, landowners, industrialists, artists, and intellectuals. Two later prime ministers, the ill-fated Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his Radcliffe-educated, currently exiled daughter, Benazir Bhutto, were also Shia. Feeling the wind shift in the 1990s, Benazir styled herself a Sunni, but her Iranian mother, her husband from a big Shia landowning family, and her fatherâs name, the name of Aliâs twin-bladed sword, make her Shia roots quite visible. In a way, Benazirâs self-reinvention as a Sunni tells the tale of how secular nationalismâs once solid-seeming promise has given way like a rotten plank beneath the feet of contemporary Pakistanâs beleaguered Shia minority.
Benazirâs father came from a family of large Shia landowners who could afford to send him for schooling to the University of California at Berkeley and to Oxford. He cut a dashing figure. Ambitious, intelligent, and secular, he was a brilliant speaker, with the ability, it is said, to make a crowd of a million people dance and then cry. His oratory manipulated public emotion as the best of Shia preachers could, and his call for social justice resonated with Shia values. His partyâs flag conveniently displayed the colors of Shiism: black, red, and green. Although he never openly flaunted his Shia background, he commanded the loyalty of Pakistanâs Shia multitudes, around a fifth of the population. What he lacked in the area of regular religious observance he made up for with his zeal for Sufi saints and shrines, especially that of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, the widely popular Sufi saint of Shia extraction whose tomb is a major shrine in southern Pakistan.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhuttoâs years in power (1971â77) marked the pinnacle of Shia power in Pakistan and the high point of the promise of an inclusive Muslim nationalism. But the country that Jinnah built and Bhutto ruled had over time become increasingly Sunni in its self-perception. The Sunni identity that was sweeping Pakistan was not of the irenic Sufi kind, moreover, but of a strident and intolerant brand. Bhuttoâs Shia-supported mix of secularism and populismâsullied by corruption and his ruthless authoritarianismâfell to a military coup led by pious Sunni generals under the influence of hard-eyed Sunni fundamentalists. In April 1979, the state hanged Bhutto on questionable murder charges. A Sunni general, Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, strongly backed by Sunni fundamentalist parties, personally ordered that the death sentence be carried out, even after Pakistanâs highest court recommended commutation to life imprisonment.
The coup of 1977 ended the Pakistani experiment with inclusive Muslim nationalism. Shia politicians, generals, and business leaders remained on the scene, but a steadily âIslamizingâ (read âSunnifyingâ) Pakistan came to look more and more like the Arab world, with Sunnis on top and Shias gradually pushed out. Pakistan in many regards captures the essence of the political challenge that the Shia have faced. The promise of the modern state has eluded them as secular nationalism has been colonized from within by Sunni hegemony.
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