Pakistan News And Discussion-11

Naresh · 07-15-2007, 09:33 PM

[center]THIRTY TWO <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /> [/center]

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

07-15-2007, 10:07 PM

QUOTE(Naresh @ Jul 15 2007, 09:33 PM)[center]THIRTY TWO <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /> [/center][right][snapback]71224[/snapback][/right]

QUOTEAbout 90 people, most of them paramilitary soldiers and police, have been killed in attacks in the northwest since July 3

and counting ........... <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

Naresh · 07-15-2007, 10:24 PM

Mudy Ji :

[center]Bin Ladenâs deputy behind the Red Mosque bloodbath[/center]

Now the Fun and Games start! <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' />

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

Naresh · 07-15-2007, 10:30 PM

Mudy Ji :

Lo, Kar Lo Baat!

[center]Two suicide attacks in Swat, D.I Khan kill at least 47[/center]

QUOTEDERA ISMAIL KHAN/SWAT: Over 47 people including 12 security men and 13 cops were killed and over 100 others were wounded in two separate suicide attacks in Swat and Dera Ismail Khan on Sunday, the media reports said.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

07-15-2007, 11:38 PM

Hit or hug Musharraf?

Swapan Dasgupta

There is understandable confusion in India over whether to endorse President Pervez Musharraf's assault on the Lal Masjid or to welcome the Islamic backlash that may end up unsettling the regime.

At one level, modernists will take heart at Musharraf's blunt assertion to "not allow any madarsa to be used for extremism" and argue that India should show a similar determination against seminaries which have become centres of subversion and treason. It is a different matter that Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi wasn't the only fanatic calling for jihad and an Islamic State.

The military authorities in Pakistan have either turned a blind eye to other citadels of terror or even financed them so long as they directed their jihadi energies against either India or the Hamid Karzai Government in Afghanistan. The Bush Administration which has been supportive of the military action in Lal Masjid has simultaneously been extremely critical of Pakistan's encouragement of Taliban insurgents across the Durand Line.

That Musharraf is a slippery customer, willing to be either a moderate Muslim or a soft Islamist when expedient, is well known. He has made innumerable "path-breaking" speeches against terrorism and extremism and then proceeded to do precisely the opposite. His credibility was always low in India and has also touched an all-time low in the West because he is seen to be wavering on his commitment to restore democracy in Pakistan.

Of course, it is not merely a problem of Musharraf doing a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde act too often. Regardless of what the Daryaganj boy actually thinks - and I have no doubt that he comes across as an eminently sensible chap in dinner table conversations - he is a creature of the military. The faults attributed to him are actually the shortcomings of a military establishment that will maintain a delicate balance between the Islamists and the Americans.

The suggestion that this brinkmanship is impossible in the long run is wishful thinking. Pakistan's geography accords it a strategic manoeuvrability. With China banking on it as the opening to the Persian Gulf and a counterweight to India, and the West looking to it as the springboard to Afghanistan and Iran, Pakistan can afford to play an inordinate number of games. Duplicity is a defining principle of Pakistan's foreign policy - a visceral hatred of India being the only non-negotiable element. Musharraf epitomises this perverse national consensus.

The Pakistani PLUs who are agitated by the inflammatory rhetoric of the "fundos", including Ayman al-Zawahiri's threat to unleash the Al Qaeda on Musharraf, are not insincere. They would like nothing better than to have a more equitable relationship with the West - one which allows unrestricted travel - and a mutually exploitative relationship with the Muslim ummah. Ideally, they would love a grand alliance of the Generals, Benazir Bhutto and, just for glamour, Imran Khan to fight the turbulent Pathans and the fanatical bazaar rabble. Maybe, this is what the Americans too would love -another sensible Muslim State like Jordan that can be showcased in opposition to Islamophobia.

For India it makes only a marginal difference which faction of the establishment is in power. There is a Pakistani elite which has a lot in common with its Indian counterpart - the younger generation in both countries studied in the US. However, while commonality extends to pop culture, opulence and bad ghazals, a common political ground has proved elusive. The Pakistan elite, for example, would love to extricate itself from the jihadi mess by exporting its troublemakers to war zones in the Kashmir Valley and Afghanistan. India, on its part, would love to emasculate Pakistan with its "soft power" and enlightenment.

This stalemate won't be broken in a hurry. There is a Cold War of attrition between the two countries which seems set to continue indefinitely, or as long as neither side blinks. The Lal Masjid fallout provides India with a good opportunity for some effective undercover fishing. Unfortunately, the UPA Government lacks the anatomical wherewithal to take advantage of the enemy's discomfiture.

07-16-2007, 06:54 AM

Operation likely as army division moves to Swat 
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=8894

Naresh · 07-16-2007, 02:33 PM

[center]Pakistani investigators hunt bombers as toll rises[/center]

QUOTEISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani investigators were hunting on Monday for links between a surge of violence in the northwest and an assault on a mosque in the capital as the death toll from two suicide-bomb attacks on Sunday rose to 45.

Nearly 100 people, most of them members of the security forces, have been killed in attacks in the northwest since July 3 when government forces surrounded Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, after clashes erupted.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

Husky · (This post was last modified: 07-16-2007, 05:51 PM by Husky.)

QUOTE(Naresh @ Jul 11 2007, 02:23 PM)ISLAMABAD : Renowned social worker Abdus Sattar Edhi said on Tuesday the government had asked him to prepare shrouds for 800 more bodies after already sending 300 to the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. Edhi termed the incident the worst of its kind in Pakistan. Edhi volunteers are carrying on their work to recover the bodies from the seminary and the mosque.

So we know that the "Death Toll" in this Operation Carried out by the Valiant Islamic Warriors of the Pakistani Army is at least ELEVEN HUNDRED - IF NOT MORE[right][snapback]71077[/snapback][/right]I've been waiting and waiting for Teesta Seetalwaddle's customary screeching. Where is she? The death toll of the faithfullest of faithful islamis - of a mosque no less - has in this case passed 1100. That's way over the ~700 muslims claimed by the Gujarat riots. Yet no Teesta still. Shock. No booing at Pakistan, no calling it a 'genocide'. Not a sound. Poor mullah and the other shaheeds. Teesta doesn't care. She never did. Perhaps Shabana Azmi will step up...? No? Hmmm

And where are all the Babri whiners gone to? Musharraf has committed gory sacrilege in a mosque (assuming such an event is considered sacrilege in islam) in a dar-ul-islam and in one that's actually in use , and yet the global ummah is quiet. Communists are too. It's all so strange.

Hush mind. Such thoughts are blasphemy. There could be no hypocrisy here. How could I think such a thing.

07-16-2007, 07:41 PM

QUOTEI've been waiting and waiting for Teesta Seetalwaddle's customary screeching. Where is she?
Whole gang is working day and night on pre-Gujarat election efforts.
She is not pregrant. <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

07-16-2007, 08:57 PM

Here you go <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />
QUOTEUS to pour $ 750 million into Pakistan's tribal areas: NY Times WASHINGTON, July 16 (AFP) The administration of President George W. Bush plans to pour 750 million dollars worth of aid into Pakistan's tribal areas in a bid to wrest it away from Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, The New York Times reported on its website late Sunday. But citing unnamed officials involved in the planning, the newspaper said some people were warning of the dangers of distributing so much money in an area where oversight is impossible. Who will be given the aid has quickly become one of the most contentious questions between local officials and American planners concerned that millions might fall into the wrong hands, the report said. (Posted @ 09:48 PST)

07-16-2007, 09:01 PM

QUOTEPakistan in talks to save peace deal ISLAMABAD, July 16 (AFP) âPakistani authorities held crisis talks with tribal elders Monday to save a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants, as thousands of people fled the tense tribal region of North Waziristan, a day after the locals scrapped the peace accord they had struck last year with the government. A government representative met elders in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, âto find out the status of the pact after the reported statement by Taliban commanders that they are scrapping it,â a government official told AFP.. The talks also dealt with complaints by tribesmen that troops have taken up positions at checkpoints which were abandoned under the deal, and about unpaid compensation for previous military operations, local sources said. Bazaars were deserted on Monday as hundreds of families fled Miranshah for safer areas, and state-run Radio Pakistan went off the air when broadcasters joined other government officials in leaving the area, local residents said. Troops also stepped up security around the town's fort. Meanwhile the chief minister of North West Frontier Province, Akram Durrani, on Monday summoned a meeting of key clerics, tribal elders and lawmakers to discuss the security situation, his spokesman told AFP.Â Link(Posted @ 17:24 PST)

07-16-2007, 09:06 PM

QUOTELal Masjid
IT was disturbing to see army spokesman Maj-Gen Wahid Arshad smiling while giving the gruesome details in which innocent children and women were killed. A few yards away, the tormented relatives of those besieged children were crying their hearts out.

Somebody should have told the general not to degrade public sentiments and to show some sensitivity towards the innocents who were caught in the basements of that killing field. It clearly shows how detached the army mindset is when it comes to public emotions

GHAYUR AYUB
London

07-16-2007, 09:41 PM

QUOTE(Mudy @ Jul 16 2007, 09:06 PM)<div class='quotetop'>QUOTELal Masjid
IT was disturbing to see army spokesman Maj-Gen Wahid Arshad smiling while giving the gruesome details in which innocent children and women were killed.
[...]
It clearly shows how detached the army mindset is when it comes to public emotions[right][snapback]71248[/snapback][/right]</div>This is the callousness of the faithful islami army of TSP when it comes to their own kind: muslim women and children.
Can't even begin to imagine how they treated the poor Bangladeshi Hindu victims of 1971. <!--emo& Sad

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' />

07-16-2007, 09:58 PM

QUOTECan't even begin to imagine how they treated the poor Bangladeshi Hindu victims of 1971. 
They have long list -
1971 Bangladesh
1972 Balochistan
1969 Palestien
1982 onwards Kashmir
2003 onwards Balochistan
2007 Lal Masjid

07-17-2007, 08:12 PM

It is from HT, can't trust this newspaper anymore but -
Pakistan Govt considering imposition of emergency

Naresh · 07-17-2007, 09:31 PM

Mudy Ji :

From The Nation of today :

Govt re-evaluating Emergency option

QUOTEâThe powers of the judiciary stand reduced when the emergency is imposed in the country,â the source said.

Cheers <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' />

07-17-2007, 09:33 PM

Two more dead âforeignersâ identified as PakistanisQUOTEISLAMABAD: The governmentâs claim about the presence of foreigners in Lal Masjid during the operation virtually turned false as two more bodies of suspected aliens, were identified as Pakistanis.

The dead were identified by their parents through the photographs. One of them is Muhammad Umer from Kahuta, while the other, who the government claimed to be an Uzbek, was Zainullah, 15, from South Waziristan.

The parents of these children scoffed the government for launching the operation against Lal Masjid. They also cursed the intelligence agencies for giving baseless reports to the government about the existence of the foreign militants, bombs, suicide bombers and mines. Many Lal Masjid students remained in contact with The News during the operation and denied the presence of any foreigner in the mosque.

Battle of nerves

07-17-2007, 09:55 PM

QUOTEWho derailed mosque deal at last minute? 
By Umar Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Who jammed the mobile phone of late Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi when he virtually agreed to the demands of Chaudhry Shujaat is the question still haunting the minds of negotiators with some pointing fingers towards the agencies.

Information pouring in from different sources suggests a totally different reason for the breakdown of the final negotiations between the government-Ulema committee and late Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, from what has been generally reported and said.

A key negotiator who suspects the agenciesâ role in bringing the dialogue to a halt, equally blames the leaders of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris for the tragic episode that left many stunned. Notwithstanding his controversial Islamic doctrine, late Ghazi left scores of his opponents weeping who still repent their haplessness in the last moments, as they could not avert the disastrous end of the Lal Masjid saga.

A source said that the moment the late Ghazi had shown willingness to meet the demands of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in terms of the release of 15-20 persons, his phone dramatically got jammed. Whereas a close aide of late Ghazi has alleged the team of Wafaq-ul-Madaris for their lukewarm response to the conciliatory efforts. According to him, they were more worried about the betel leafs (Paan) they needed to fulfil their addiction. Moreover, they were more interested in taking over the Lal Masjid complex instead of resolving the crisis, Ghaziâs close aide alleged. 

Shujaatâs excitement was worth seeing after he got to know from the Jihadi commander, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, that the late Ghazi had softened his stand. Khalil had tried to convince Ghazi. âLook Ghazi, death is dancing around and the circumstances have entirely been changed. So you should give up your stubbornness and come to terms,â a source quoted Khalil as talking to Ghazi on the phone. This conversation had taken place after Shujaatâs negotiations had failed. Soon after Khalil had convinced Ghazi to release the persons in accordance with the demand of Shujaat, he rushed to the PML president to share with him this development.

The news had brought excitement for Shujaat who had asked Khalil to dial Ghaziâs number. Many efforts were made but Ghazi could not be reached on the phone. The repeated failure in getting Ghazi on the phone had perturbed Shujaat and Khalil.

According to a source, Ghaziâs phone seemed to have been jammed by the intelligence agencies after this development that had taken place at a time when the decision-makers had decided to start the operation. 

Ghazi could not be contacted despite repeated efforts. âNetwork busyâ, was what appeared on the screen every time they tried to contact Ghazi who was available just minutes earlier. In the meanwhile, the guns started raining bullets on the basements that was housing Ghazi and his supporters.

The ever-smiling face of Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani had worn a dismal look when he earlier returned empty-handed together with other government negotiators. It was later on when late Ghazi had shown flexibility but it could not work after the jamming devices allegedly disconnected his external links.

Many government people, on the other hand, confirmed that last-ditch efforts to contact Ghazi would not work. Shujaat during the press conference had admitted that he was very upset and had nothing substantial to say.

The time he was leaving the place, the journalists put forward a number of questions to which he had no answer. As he tried to reply, his younger brother, Wajahat, asked him that it would be futile to say anything when the situation has got out of control and the real decision-makers had given a go-ahead for the âfatefulâ session.

According to a source, Ghaziâs close friend, Khalil was not happy with the role of the religious leaders representing the Wafaq-ul-Madaris. As the government members and Ulema team made advance towards Lal Masjid for a dialogue with late Ghazi Rashid on mega phone, Wafaq-ul-Madaris members were concerned about taking control of the Lal Masjid complex, once the beleaguered clerics had been evicted from the place. While there was a huge issue of the lives of so many people, these Maulanas were in a hurry to go to bed instead of making sincere efforts to resolve this issue, a close aide of Khalil said.

07-17-2007, 10:08 PM

Nareshji,
still counting ....

Report: Islamabad blast kills fourQUOTEISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) -- A blast rocked the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Tuesday at a court where the country's suspended chief justice was due to speak and at least four people were killed, Dawn TV reported.

A reporter for the television station at the scene said he could see four bodies on the ground. Suspended chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had not arrived at the court to speak to lawyers at the time of the blast, Dawn TV said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blast

Bomber targets Pakistan lawyers QUOTEAt least seven people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a lawyers rally in Islamabad, Pakistani police say.Here comes emergency <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

07-17-2007, 10:23 PM

LinkQUOTEISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) â A suicide bomber struck a security post in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least four people and undermining government efforts to rescue a peace deal meant to contain Islamic militants in the lawless Afghan border region.

Three others were wounded in the attack in the lawless North Waziristan region, security officials said. He said the bomber parked his car nearby and approached the roadside security post on foot.

Parking his car nearby, the bomber walked to the post and detonated the explosive on a road linking Bannu and Miran Shah, North Waziristan's main town, the officials said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their jobs. Three soldiers and a passer-by were killed.

Earlier Tuesday, powerful dynamite blasts destroyed two unmanned security posts in North Waziristan's main town, Miran Shah, another intelligence official said. No injuries were reported
 <!--emo& Big Grin

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />
and counting .....

Login




Remember me Lost Password?