Twirp : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Republic Pakistan 3

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Thus at this time the Government of India should start to build up its Border Defences with Pakistan to ensure that 50 to 100 Million Terroristani Refugees do not enter India!!!<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nareshji,
Brave men will go towards west of Pakistan for 72 houris, coward will fly towards West, from Dubai to Fresno. Only "Seculars" will head towards India.

[Naresh]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Apr 12 2009, 11:24 AM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Apr 12 2009, 11:24 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Nareshji,
Brave men will go towards west of Pakistan for 72 houris, coward will fly towards West, from Dubai to Fresno. Only "Seculars" will head towards India.
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<b>Mudy Ji :</b>

There are no “Secular” Muslim, whether in Pakistan or elsewhere.

As such you will definitely get up to 100 Million Terroristani Muslim crossing over to India.

It is the Secular Indians of the WKK Ilk who will stand at the Border to welcome their long-lost Terroristani Brothers.

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

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->There are no “Secular” Muslim, whether in Pakistan or elsewhere.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, they will stay away from India. Only if encouraged by China. Indian Seculars will try to open Wagah border, Punjabis will start "open kitchen" for "Secular" Pakis. Only hatred towards Hindus Banias will keep them away. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

<b>Militants torch trucks along US-NATO supply line</b>

They need more money fast. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

<b>Held Pakistanis were already identified as terror suspects</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->LONDON: Now it turns out that the Pakistanis arrested on Wednesday on the suspicion of being terrorist plotters were actually identified as possible terrorists even before they left Pakistan.

The Independent on Sunday quoted security sources as saying that a<b> number of those being held were identified as possible terrorist plotters by intelligence agencies before they left Pakistan, and were ‘allowed to run’ to Britain through the student visa system, where they were tracked for several months. </b>
........
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[Naresh]

[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Obama threatens Pakistan - Roedad Khan</span></b>[/center]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->As I listened to President ObamaÕs address to the nation and his wartime rhetoric, I held my breath. He didn’t speak softly. His tone was harsh and threatening. He carried a big stick. That was quite obvious. The spontaneous reaction of all those present was that Obama had learned nothing from history and was not going to change course in Afghanistan or Pakistan. As they say, it was deja vu all over again. <b>What he said was no different from what George W Bush had been saying for years.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<b>Aha! Finally the secret is out!!</b>

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>If you want to know what happens to an ill-led and ill-governed, small country, which attaches itself to a powerful country like the United States, visit Pakistan. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Nuclear Pakistan has lost its independence. It is now virtually an American satellite, without its manhood, its honour, its dignity, and its sense of self-respect.</span></b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<b><i>The writer is a former federal secretary. Email: roedad@comsats.net.pk, www.roedadkhan.com</i></b>

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

[Naresh]

<b>‘Indo-Pak water meeting in May’</b>

LAHORE: Indus Water Treaty Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah has said that India has been told of Pakistan’s reservations over the construction of Kishan Ganga Dam on Indus River. Addressing in a seminar titled ‘Pak-India Water Disputes’ here on Sunday, Ali said an Indo-Pak meeting would be held in May in Pakistan on water reservoirs in both countries. <b>He said that India could construct only those dams that were included in the Indus Water Treaty.</b> online

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

[acharya]

Congress created Pakistan, Pakistan created the BJP?

A potentially sinister event has prompted this column. It is my sense from a few visits to Pakistan beginning with 1997 that a large number of Pakistanis prefer the rightwing religious revivalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to rule India. On the other hand, they are wary of the Congress. This tendency, I gather, is more pronounced within the Pakistani bureaucracy and the military. I know of Pakistani diplomats and officials who would be privately praying for the BJP to win the April-May elections in India.

To some extent this is true also of some of the journalists I have interacted with from different parts of Pakistan. They include those that claim to work for peace and dialogue between the two countries. The BJP has sold them the myth that it can alone solve the Kashmir dispute, not the Congress or anyone else.

There is a counter grouse among Pakistanis. Many of them feel, and they are probably spot on, that the bulk of the Indian establishment, including that media which works with the establishment, has a subcutaneous liking for the military in preference to civilian governments in Islamabad, and, in recent days, for General Pervez Musharraf in particular. This was reflected in some ways in the standing ovation the former army chief received recently at the end of a televised interaction he had with the movers and shakers of Delhi. And who was the one person Musharraf wanted to meet in Delhi but couldn’t? It was none other than his favourite BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee.

By a similar logic, the rule governing the more perverse cross-border affinities should apply to the Taliban and others sharing its mindset. All their acts of terrorism and zealotry within Pakistan, Afghanistan and beyond serve to consolidate rightwing religious politics in India with a more hardened hard-line state to boot. Erosion of democracy and liberal ideals inherited from Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru is a major consequence. The irony is that nothing suits the BJP more than the Taliban-type religious bigotry. It works brilliantly as a counterpoint for its communal mobilisation.

It is ironical too that the most liberal and secular leaders that India ever produced – Messrs Gandhi and Nehru – were responsible in their on ways for eventually edging out an equally secular and liberal Mohammed Ali Jinnah from the Congress. (He is the only of the three who had a love marriage, with a woman not of his religion!) For better or worse, a piqued Jinnah helped create a separate state for a large number of India’s Muslims.

In this sense a mathematical equation has been doing the rounds in my head for some time now: The Congress created Pakistan, and Pakistan, by doing everything to undermine secularism in India, created the BJP.

Let me flesh this out in broad strokes. Firstly, the affinity between the Pakistani establishment and the BJP is not recent. It is grounded in a common ideological corner they shared during the Cold War. Before the advent of Manmohan Singh as a Congress factotum 1991, the BJP was seen as India’s main pro-America party. So were the military establishment and its religious accoutrements in Pakistan. Moreover, having never got to govern India until 1996, when it formed a 13-day government under Atal Behari Vajpayee, the BJP was not directly involved in the bruising wars with Pakistan. The 1971 encounter, which won for Indira Gandhi the sobriquet of Goddess Durga from Vajpayee, left a deep wound in the Pakistani psyche, more so the military and its religious companions.

When Mrs Gandhi was assassinated in 1984, Indian supporters of Pakistan’s Jamaat-i-Islami exulted how all three leaders they held responsible for the dismemberment of the Islamic state of Pakistan – Mujibur Rehman, Zulfikar

Ali Bhutto and Indira Gandhi – had died violent deaths. There was silence from the group though when the Jamaat’s main benefactor Gen Zia ul Haq too perished in similar circumstances. The Cold War had ensured that Indira Gandhi, the closest ally Moscow ever had in India, never visited Pakistan.

Her son was the first prime minister since Nehru to go across the border.

In this vein an ideological tit for tat occurred when Mrs Gandhi decorated Pakhtoon leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan –intensely disliked by the Pakistani military– with the highest civilian award of Bharat Ratna. Zia got his chance for a comeuppance when India briefly had a pro-American government, in which the BJP was a key partner. He decorated then prime minister Morarji Desai with Nishan-i-Pakistan although another reason cited for this was Desai’s steadfast refusal to be involved, as opposed to Mrs Gandhi’s petitioning of Zia, to save Bhutto.

At least two factors could be cited to explain the apparent soft corner the Pakistani establishment – initially the rightwing, now the centre-right as well – harbours for the BJP. One is rooted in a myth the other in religion.

The myth is that only the BJP and none else can solve the intractable issues with Pakistan, including the Kashmir dispute. To keep the story warm the BJP continues to issue periodic warnings to Congress governments and others against a ‘sell-out’ on Kashmir. It did so just before the Mumbai attacks. The reality is different. The toughest resolution to date on Kashmir was passed by parliament during Congress stewardship under the late Narasimha Rao.

Religion is a different kettle of fish. For a long time the BJP had peddled its idea of Hindutva as an aspect of cultural nationalism, distinct from religion. But in practice the idea and its party both worked precisely for religious consolidation, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, all. It is commonplace that the BJP’s idea of India gives heart to the religious caboodle in Pakistan, and in turn fortifies what they would like their idea of Pakistan to be.

Columnist A.G. Noorani last week quoted an encounter Nehru had in 1963 with young and senior foreign ministry officers. His foreign secretary Y.D. Gundevia reminded Nehru that the communists had won power in Kerala in 1957 and asked: ‘But what happens to the services if the communists are elected to power, tomorrow, at the Centre, here in New Delhi?’

Gundevia records: ‘He pondered over my long drawn out question and then said, looking across the room, ‘Communists, communists, communists, why are all of you so obsessed with communists and communism? What is it that communists can do that we cannot do and have not done for the country? Why do you imagine the communists will ever be voted into power at the Centre?’ There was a long pause after this and then he said, spelling it out slowly and very deliberately, ‘The danger to India, mark you, is not communism, it is Hindu right-wing communalism.’

If the Pakistani establishment disliked Nehru, the BJP and its Hindutva partners hate him. Chances are that Nehru’s warning will not go unheeded in the coming elections. But the BJP, meanwhile, has been surreptitiously working at another attempt to convert the secular state into an obscurantist possibly also a theocratic one. A little known letter written by the BJP’s prime ministerial hopeful Lal Kishan Advani to the clergy of different religions was published in The Telegraph of Calcutta on Sunday.

The letter says: ‘It will be my endeavour to seek on a regular basis the guidance of spiritual leaders of all denominations on major challenges and issues facing the nation. For this, we shall evolve a suitable consultative mechanism.’ Iran’s higher interior ministry is known as the Ministry of Islamic Guidance.

Advani’s letter, according to The Telegraph, follows a charter of demands from the Dharma Raksha Manch, a body supported by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad that claims India’s identity cannot be religion-neutral and has demanded the country be declared a ‘spiritual nation.’

‘The Manch has representatives from all major religions but draws its sustenance from the larger RSS fold. Many of its demands –on conversions and the protection of the cow, the Ganga and the Ram Setu– find mention in Advani’s letter,’ according to the report. If he succeeds, neither the Taliban nor the Pakistan military has to try to unravel Nehru’s India. They have the BJP to do the job even better.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-c...created-the-bjp

[Naresh]

<b>Mudy Ji :</b>

I think forum members should “Congratulate” Col. Harish Puri on getting away with this Article in a Pakistani Paper.

The Stupidos will think that this is an earnest request – I think it is a Parody!

<b>An open letter to Gen Kayani</b>

<i>View from the other side Col ® Harish Puri</i>

Dear Gen Kayani,

Sir, let me begin by recounting that old army quip that did the rounds in the immediate aftermath of World war II : To guarantee victory, an army should ideally have German generals, British officers, Indian soldiers, American equipment and Italian enemies.

A Pakistani soldier that I met in Iraq in 2004 lamented the fact that the Pakistani soldier in Kargil had been badly let down firstly by Nawaz Sharif and then by the Pakistani officers' cadre. Pakistani soldiers led by Indian officers, , he believed, would be the most fearsome combination possible. Pakistani officers, he went on to say, were more into real estate, defence housing colonies and the like.

As I look at two photographs of surrender that lie before me, I can't help recalling his words. The first is the celebrated event at Dhaka on Dec 16, 1971, which now adorns most Army messes in Delhi and Calcutta. The second, sir, is the video of a teenage girl being flogged by the Taliban in Swat -- not far, I am sure, from one of your Army check posts.

The surrender by any Army is always a sad and humiliating event. Gen Niazi surrendered in Dhaka to a professional army that had outnumbered and outfought him. No Pakistani has been able to get over that humiliation, and 16th December is remembered as a black day by the Pakistani Army and the Pakistani state. But battles are won and lost – armies know this, and having learnt their lessons, they move on.

But much more sadly, the video of the teenager being flogged represents an even more abject surrender by the Pakistani Army. The surrender in 1971, though humiliating, was not disgraceful. This time around, sir, what happened on your watch was something no Army commander should have to live through. The girl could have been your own daughter, or mine.

I have always maintained that the Pakistani Army, like its Indian counterpart, is a thoroughly professional outfit. It has fought valiantly in the three wars against India, and also accredited itself well in its UN missions abroad. It is, therefore, by no means a pushover.<b> The instance of an Infantry unit, led by a lieutenant colonel, meekly laying down arms before 20-odd militants should have been an aberration. But this capitulation in Swat, that too so soon after your own visit to the area, is an assault on the sensibilities of any soldier. What did you tell your soldiers? What great inspirational speech did you make that made your troops back off without a murmur? Sir, I have fought insurgency in Kashmir as well as the North-East, but despite the occasional losses suffered (as is bound to be the case in counter-insurgency operations), such total surrender is unthinkable.</b>

I have been a signaller, and it beats me how my counterparts in your Signal Corps could not locate or even jam a normal FM radio station broadcasting on a fixed frequency at fixed timings. Is there more than meets the eye?

<b>I am told that it is difficult for your troops to "fight their own people." But you never had that problem in East Pakistan in 1971, where the atrocities committed by your own troops are well documented in the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report. Or is it that the Bengalis were never considered "your own" people, influenced as they were by the Hindus across the border? Or is that your troops are terrified by the ruthless barbarians of the Taliban?</b>

Sir, it is imperative that we recognise our enemy without any delay. I use the word "our" advisedly – for the Taliban threat is not far from India's borders. And the only force that can stop them from dragging Pakistan back into the Stone Age is the force that you command. In this historic moment, providence has placed a tremendous responsibility in your hands. Indeed, the fate of your nation, the future of humankind in the subcontinent rests with you. It doesn't matter if it is "my war" or "your war" – it is a war that has to be won. A desperate Swati citizen's desperate lament says it all – "Please drop an atom bomb on us and put us out of our misery!" Do not fail him, sir.

But in the gloom and the ignominy, the average Pakistani citizen has shown us that there is hope yet. The lawyers, the media, have all refused to buckle even under direct threats. It took the Taliban no less than 32 bullets to still the voice of a brave journalist. Yes, there is hope – but why don't we hear the same language from you? Look to these brave hearts, sir – and maybe we shall see the tide turn. Our prayers are with you, and the hapless people of Swat.

<b>The New York Times predicts that Pakistan will collapse in six months. Do you want to go down in history as the man who allowed that to happen?</b>

The writer is a retired colonel of the Indian army who lives in Pune. Email: hbpuri@hotmail.com

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

[Guest]

Nareshji,
How dare they printed this article?
Very honest article, it means Paki Army is not controlling press at this stage.
Which also means, Paki army is very much tied up with Swat. new US administration and ofcourse lack of money.
Desperate situation may lead to coup. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Naresh]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Apr 14 2009, 07:51 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Apr 14 2009, 07:51 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Nareshji,
How dare they printed this article?
Very honest article, it means Paki Army is not controlling press at this stage.
Which also means, Paki army is very much tied up with Swat. new US administration and ofcourse lack of money.
Desperate situation may lead to coup.  <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
[right][snapback]96411[/snapback][/right]
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<b>Mudy Ji :</b>

I had not highlighted the following but they seem to be the reason for the "Editor" to publish Col. Puri's Letter as these bolded Words & Sentences do massage the Pakistani "Ego" :

Para 4. The surrender by any Army is always a sad and humiliating event. Gen Niazi surrendered in Dhaka to a professional army that had outnumbered and outfought him. No Pakistani has been able to get over that humiliation, and 16th December is remembered as a black day by the Pakistani Army and the Pakistani state. <b>But battles are won and lost – armies know this, and having learnt their lessons, they move on.</b>

Para 5. Last Line : <b>The girl could have been your own daughter, or mine.</b>

Para 9. Sir, it is imperative that we recognise our enemy without any delay. I use the word "our" advisedly – for the Taliban threat is not far from India's borders.<b>And the only force that can stop them from dragging Pakistan back into the Stone Age is the force that you command. In this historic moment, providence has placed a tremendous responsibility in your hands. Indeed, the fate of your nation, the future of humankind in the subcontinent rests with you.</b> It doesn't matter if it is "my war" or "your war" – it is a war that has to be won. A desperate Swati citizen's desperate lament says it all – "Please drop an atom bomb on us and put us out of our misery!" Do not fail him, sir.

Para 10. But in the gloom and the ignominy, the average Pakistani citizen has shown us that there is hope yet. The lawyers, the media, have all refused to buckle even under direct threats. It took the Taliban no less than 32 bullets to still the voice of a brave journalist. <b>Yes, there is hope – but why don't we hear the same language from you? Look to these brave hearts, sir – and maybe we shall see the tide turn. Our prayers are with you, and the hapless people of Swat.</b>

Under normal circumstances these statements on their own would be expected from those of the Huggy-Huggy Kissy-Kissy Lovey-Dovey Juphian tay Pupian Hindu Secular WKK "Eunuchated" Brigade!

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

[Naresh]

<b>Mudy Ji :</b>

Response of the “Glass Bangle Wearing” Terroristani :

<b>Open letter to General Kiyani</b>

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

This is in response to Colonel Harish Puri's unbecoming "open letter" to the COAS of the Pakistan army published in your newspaper on April 14. It is by no means intended to be on behalf of, or in defence of, General Kayani – his dignified persona and rightfully august office would not even consider any such move. Probably, neither would ISPR.

Firstly, straight off the bat your quote and the wild googly on the "surrender" in 1971, are nothing but silly remarks. May I suggest that Colonel Puri read chapter 12 of Shuja Nawaz's excellent book Crossed Swords – Pakistan: Its Army, and the wars within.

Regarding the colonel's snide remarks insinuating "surrender" to the dreadful 'Taliban' in Swat, and inaction of the army against the perpetrators of the dastardly flogging of the 17-year girl, the matter is sub judice in the Supreme Court and shall not be commented upon. As for the army, it is in Swat as required/in support of and in assistance to the civil security forces and to the NWFP government. It is not in a war zone and nor is it is a judicial/policing force and hence cannot take any independent action. From one honourable retired soldier to another honourable retired soldier: best wishes, and may the light of understanding envelope you.'

Brig (retd) Mateen M. Mohajir / Karachi

****

This is with reference to an open letter written to Gen Kayani by a retired Indian colonel. What is going on? Whose interest is this letter serving? This is outright poor journalism on part of The News -- our newspapers should not become a tool in the hands of the foreign agents and publish such articles. Freedom of press does not mean compromising on the values that we cherish/hold and protect at all cost. One such value is the pride and glory we take in the professionalism of the Pakistan Army and its soldiers. The retired Indian colonel should focus more on writing open letters to his own COAS and on the atrocities happening on a daily basis in Occupied Kashmir by the Indian army. The retired colonel wrote that he was perturbed to watch a girl in Swat being flogged. I hope he is equally moved when women are raped and murdered in Occupied Kashmir? If the Pakistan Army is trying its best to allow the politicians to find a peaceful solution to the problem that is the best course it is taking.

Security forces are only a tool to implement the broader agenda/security polices designed by governments. On one hand India accuses Pakistan of lack of democracy and on the other hand it keeps looking up to the generals in Pakistan for solutions.

Mohammad Ali Ehsan / Karachi

*****
I protest the publication of "An open letter to General Kayani" by a retired colonel of the Indian army (April 14). This letter should not be taken lightly as it is the most provocative piece written by anyone against the leadership of our Army in living history, and a befitting reply from the Army must come forth, without further delay. How dare the writer suggest that Pakistani soldiers would perform better (in Swat) under Indian officers, as our own have turned into property dealers. And how dare he propose that we slaughter the Taliban in the same manner in which we (allegedly) butchered the Bengalis back in 1971. And even if we did, will we never be allowed to learn from our past mistakes?

How the DG ISPR will respond to the Indian colonel, I don't know. However, being a true nationalist, I am going to give my own befitting reply to him. Let it suffice if I tell him (and our enemies) to stop hatching conspiracies against our nationhood (and our strategic weapons), as this time we have the Taliban on our side, against whom no known antidote exists. A country governed by the Taliban and armed with nuclear weapons has the potential of becoming the next real superpower of the 21st century. No wonder our opponents look terrified. And no wonder General Kayani is abiding by "national interest."

Shabbir Ahmad / Islamabad

*******

This is with reference to Colonel Harish Puri's 'open letter' to General Kayani. As far as writing of the said article is concerned it was a good effort but without much substance. The colonel highlighted many points of which a few were correct while most others were based on assumptions and have no bearing on the current situation which the world is facing. While mentioning the role of Pakistan army the Indian colonel tried to give a bitter toffee wrapped in chocolate paper.

First of all let me clarify the abnormal situation of our western front in which our brave army is operating. Here we have to be very clear that who is the enemy and who is a citizen. Before blaming us, the Indian colonel should have seen what is happening in India. What about the insurgencies in Kashmir, Assam and other parts of India? The same thing we are facing by the curtsy of your intelligent agencies. Being an army officer, Colonel Puri must be aware of who is behind all this unrest in Pakistan. The writer quite cleverly has tried to hide the role of the Indian government which is behind all this mess as it operates from a veritable safe haven in Afghanistan. As for the flogging of the Swat girl, yes it is barbaric and has been condemned by one and all. However, surely such barbaric acts – and worse – have happened and do still happen in India as well.

Major (retd) Anwar Pasha / Lahore

*******

In his article 'An open letter to Gen Kayani', while highlighting the Taliban threat, Col (retd) Harish Puri has actually tried to malign the Pakistan Army by distorting the facts. He has probably forgotten the bashing that the Indian Army took from a handful of Kashmiri Muhahideen and later by the brave Pakistani soldiers led by dynamic young officers in tactical encounters. He should have better consulted his colleagues who took part in the Kargil operations to find out that a Pakistani post of about 10-15 persons equipped with small arms was able to withstand several assaults by a battalion of about 800 soldiers of the 'valiant' Indian army.

Before stories about the Pakistan army, the Indian colonel should first look around in the rank and file of his own army to see its moral bankruptcy, professional incompetence and low morale.

Brigadier (retd) Shahid Masud / Rawalpindi

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

[Naresh]

[center]<img src='http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/images/2009/04/15/20090415_ed03.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />[/center]

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

[Guest]

Letter had given lot of heart burn. Col Puri should send another missile.

Obama Administration is seeking $7.5 Billion for 5 years for Pakistan in current defence budget. This is addition to hafta and rental fee they get.

[Naresh]

<b>9 policemen among 15 killed in Charsadda suicide attack</b>

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->CHARSADDA : At least 15 people were killed, including nine policemen, and several others wounded after a suicide bomber slammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a police check-post in Charsadda on Wednesday.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

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

[Guest]

<b>Pakistan slips into anarchy</b>

[acharya]

Lift the veil on our war aims

By Gideon Rachman

Published: April 14 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 14 2009 03:00

The Darul Aman palace is a huge neo-classical pile with hundreds of rooms, set against the backdrop of the snowy mountains that surround Kabul. From a distance, it is an imposing sight. Unfortunately, as I discovered when I visited a few weeks ago, it is also a ruin. The palace was all but destroyed in the Afghan civil war of the 1990s.

Darul Aman was built in the 1920s by Amanullah Khan, a reformist king who also promoted women's rights and discouraged the wearing of the burqa. Ninety years later, the king is long dead, his palace is a wreck and the burqa is ubiquitous in Kabul.

I thought of King Amanullah's reforms this week, as debate flared over a law recently passed by the Afghan parliament. The statute, which applies to the country's Shia minority, would require women to get their husband's permission to leave the home and make it illegal for them to refuse to have sex with their husbands.

News of the law was a severe embarrassment for the Nato alliance, just as it was announcing a new strategy to prop up the Afghan government and fight off the Taliban. One of Nato's most popular arguments for the war has long been that the Taliban are medieval, women-hating savages. Western officials stress the number of girls who have been able to go back to school since the fall of the Taliban seven years ago. Laura Bush, the former first lady of the US, once argued that "the fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women".

The new Afghan law is now said to be "under review" by President Hamid Karzai - while the perils faced by women's rights activists were underlined this weekend by the murder of Sitara Achakzai in Kandahar. Similar problems are surfacing in Pakistan, now that the government has conceded control of the Swat valley - just two hours from the capital, Islamabad - to Taliban-style militants.

Since then, a horrifying video has circulated of a young girl being flogged by bearded mullahs for some alleged act of immodesty. Last week Pakistan's human-rights commission reported that the Swat militants have destroyed 131 girls' schools since they took power earlier this year.

Both the Pakistan and the Afghan governments are key allies of the west in the conflict formerly known as the "war on terror". But is it also our business to prevent Afghans and Pakistanis waging a "war on women"?

Western leaders seem confused. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the outgoing Nato secretary-general, condemned the new law and said of the Afghan war: "We are there to defend universal values." President Barack Obama took a slightly different line. He called the new law "abhorrent". But he also said that people should remember that American troops are in Afghanistan to fight for US national security and that "we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda".

So which is to be - universal values or national security? The easy way out of the argument is to say that there is no conflict between these aims. The Taliban and al-Qaeda oppress women and threaten the west. By defeating them, you advance western security and women's rights.

In the case of Pakistan, this is probably true. The decision to concede the Swat valley to the Pakistani Taliban is a security disaster. It has given Islamist militants and foreign terrorists new resources and safe havens. This is dangerous for both Pakistan and the west.

So the sooner the Pakistani government can re-assert control over the area, the better. The US and the UK should use all their powers of persuasion - including financial and military aid - to persuade the Pakistanis to be less supine in Swat.

The case of Afghanistan is trickier. Nato is openly looking for an exit strategy for western troops. This could well involve dealing with those elements of the Taliban that are not committed to a global jihad - and so making some accommodation with their ferociously reactionary social values. Sadly, these do have roots in Afghan society. Things would be much easier if western views of women's rights were indeed "universal values" - but they are not, at least not among Pashtun tribesmen. It is significant that

Mr Karzai is thought initially to have approved of this new law as an electioneering gambit, ahead of the presidential poll in August.

After seven years of fighting, the US and European public now deserve some clarity about our war aims in Afghanistan. We are not fighting for women's rights. We are fighting to prevent the country ever again becoming a base for attacks on the west.

This does not mean that the protection of women should be a matter of indifference for the US and for the European governments that have sent troops to Afghanistan. By invading the country, we took some responsibility for the government that is left behind. So while the west still funds and protects the Karzai administration, we should lean on the Afghan government not to accept outrageously misogynistic laws.

But we should also be realistic about what Nato can achieve. The very phrase "exit strategy" acknowledges that we are on our way out. Once western troops have left, it is the balance of forces within Afghan society that will decide whether girls' schools remain open and women can walk the streets in freedom.

There are modernisers and brave individuals within Afghan society who will fight for women's rights, long after Nato has left. But, as the fate of King Amanullah's reforms suggests, there can be no guarantee that the modernisers will win.

gideon.rachman@ft.com

[Naresh]

<b>An open letter to General Kayani</b>

Thursday, April 16, 2009

I appreciate Colonel Harish Puri's bold letter to Gen Kayani published on these pages on April 14. The writer seems to have pitched Pakistani generals, people and politicians against each other and the intention seems to be to drive a wedge between the people of Pakistan and the Pakistan army.

Injecting hatred among Pakistani masses against the armed forces, creating divisions between the army and the government, differences between state and religious parties and ethnic groups in Pakistan is what India does best and feels that is necessary for its own survival. I think the good colonel should also write a similar letter to his own army chief, reminding him of India's poverty rate and asking him to do something about the millions of people who sleep on the roads in India. He should also ask the Indian army chief about the atrocities committed by Indian soldiers in Kashmir and about the shenanigans of RAW. Of course, he should also not miss out asking the Indian COAS to rid Indian society of Hindu extremists, who are all giving a bad name to India.

While the Indian media highlights and concentrates only on India Shining, the reality is that India has the world's highest number of poor people and hundreds of millions have no access to clean drinking water or proper healthcare or education.

Col (retd) Liaquat Ali

Rawalpindi

*****

This is with reference to the open letter written to Gen Kayani by an Col (retd) Harish Puri. I strongly feel this letter should not have been published because it is tantamount to undermining the morale of the Pakistan Army. While talking about the surrender by the Pakistan Army in 1971, Col Puri forgot to mention that the Indian Army attacked East Pakistan with three corps backed up by around 175,000 Mukti Bahinis – and that they faced three divisions of the Pakistan Army – which is roughly a 100,000 troops. Army fought a great war with such less manpower and without air cover and that too without any reinforcements that is a pre requisite of any war.

As for the flogging of a teenaged girl in Swat, Colonel Puri would do better to concentrate on the murder and rape of unarmed civilians in Occupied Kashmir by the Indian army. The Pakistan army is helping politicians to find a peaceful solution to the problem in the tribal areas particularly Swat and have succeeded in bringing two factions to strike a peaceful settlement.

Gen Kayani knows what to do and does not require any advice from any direction.

Lt Col (retd) Mukhtar Ahmed Butt

Karachi

*****

This is with reference to Col ® Harish Puri's open letter to General Kayani (April 14). Being a retired soldier I could not hold back my pen to write a worthy response to the Indian colonel. The colonel has in fact done us a favour to remind us of our defeat in 1971, thereby telling the younger generation of our soldiers who our real enemy is.

Let me start with the real motive of this letter, that is to discourage the army from support the Swat peace deal – which has now been expressed as the collective will of the people of Pakistan through a resolution passed by the National Assembly.

Being a disbeliever, the colonel may not understand the power of Islamic ideology. If for a while we assume that suicide bombers were motivated through Islamic ideology to die for a cause then we should stretch our imaginations as to what wonders can we perform if we motivate ourselves to live in accordance with the injunctions of Islam. That happens to be the collective desire of the people of Pakistan as enunciated in our constitution. Probably the time has come for operationalization of Article 2-A of the 1973 Constitution. Therefore, the colonel correctly perceives the threat to Hind.

Notwithstanding the circumstances that led to the passage of resolution by National Assembly, it should not be seen as collapse of the present system or failure of the state, but rather the will to move forward towards the accomplishment of Pakistan as desired by our forefathers who decided to lead their lives according to their own ideology.

Colonel Puri's dream to command a Pakistani soldier is a misplaced desire. If it is based on a perception of the motivational power of Islamic ideology then the colonel must write to his own army chief to enroll the Muslims of India into the Indian army. – so that they can be uplifted beyond being cobblers, barbers and washermen.

Aneela Anjum

Quetta

+++++

<b>An open letter to Gen Kapoor</b>

Thursday, April 16, 2009

For decades, I have been reading closely about the feats of the Indian army. Like me, many round the globe look at the Indian Army with a mix of awe and fascination. As I move further with my research on Indian security mechanisms, I found that while the Indian Army is one of the largest military machines in the world, in reality it does not even come close to the periphery of what is seen as a universally-respected soldierly ethos.

India's defence budget is increasing every year by leaps and bounds – this year it was 345 per cent higher compared to last year's outlay. Surely, this comes at the expense of the poverty-stricken in India. Despite this, you are raising two new mountain divisions each of which will cost the poor nation between Rs6.5-7 billion. Apart from this, the Indian media has reported of late on the involvement in corruption by senior military officers. Certainly, you will not deny that in recent years dozens of your officers have faced charges of misappropriation, embezzlement, fraud, cowardice, falsification of official documents and fake encounters. Because of this, the confidence of your troops in the officers' cadre must be at a low ebb and this must mean that the gulf between the officers and troops is fast widening.

Your predecessor General J J Singh during his visit to Srinagar on Nov 3, 2006, publicly said that "on average" the army had "about 100 suicide cases a year in the past four to five years" and that these were "mainly in the insurgency-hit areas". As for Pakistan, suicide is a word missing from the dictionary of its armed forces. From 2004 to 2006, only 282 Indian soldiers had been killed in militant attacks whereas 333 committed suicide and 75 had been murdered by fellow soldiers. This all must be an eye opener for you. The news of forced rape of a 26-year-old Australian tourist on board the Jaisalamer-Jodhpur Express by Naib Subedar Attar Singh of your army might also have come across your studious eyes.

An Indian civilian hailing from the state of Gujarat met me abroad with tears in his eyes saying that the Indian minorities were under constant threat from the follies and failings of your subordinates? Indian minorities are scared of your officers like Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit who was involved in the Samjhota Express bombing and the 2008 Malegaon blast. I hope action will be taken against him as well.

Ehsan M Khan

Rawalpindi

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

[Naresh]

[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Regret</span></b> <!--emo&tupid--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pakee.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pakee.gif' /><!--endemo-->[/center]

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The News recently published an article by Harish Puri on its op-ed pages. The piece did not merit publication as some of its content was false and malicious and ran counter to the policy of the newspaper. The article did not go through the regular and rigorous process of vetting and was printed without clearance from senior editors of The News. The feedback received from the vast majority of our readers has also been one of indignation at the distorted presentation of facts, and indeed, at the publishing of the article itself.

<b>The article should not have been published by The News and we sincerely regret that it was. --<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Editor</span></b>

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

[Naresh]

<b>Bomber sows terror in Charsadda; 16 killed</b>

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->CHRASADDA : <b>Nine police personnel, including a DSP and an SHO, and seven passers-by were killed</b> while 10 others were injured after a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a police checkpost on Wednesday evening.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

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