Tag Archives: bombing

International, News

Bulgaria bus bombing suicide bomber was a Canadian

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Bulgaria bus bombing suspect had real Canadian passport, lived in B.C. before return to Lebanon at age 12

By: Stewart Bell

The suspected organizer of a Hezbollah bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a local driver in Bulgaria last July has only tenuous links to Canada but still possessed a genuine Canadian passport, the National Post has learned. ….

Read more » National Post
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/05/canadian-citizen-confirmed-as-suspected-organizer-of-deadly-bulgaria-bus-bombing/

Pakistan

Is Rohrabacher wrong on Balochistan? By Pervez Hoodbhoy

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Excerpts;

…. Dana Rohrabacher’s resolution in the US Congress states that the Baloch people “have the right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country”. Expectedly, this unleashed a torrent of anger in Pakistan’s government and media which overwhelmingly saw this as a conspiracy to break up the country. Pakistan-US relations have descended another notch; attempts by the US State Department, as well as the currently visiting group of Congressmen, to distance themselves from the resolution have not worked. …

…. The official Pakistani response to Rohrabacher is still more flawed. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar termed the tabling of his bill “a violation of UN charter” and of Pakistan’s sovereignty. But this line of defence could forfeit Pakistan’s moral right to criticise other states, Syria and India included.

Consider the fact that on February 17 Pakistan voted for an Arab League-sponsored resolution in the UN General Assembly which calls upon Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to step down. This surely constitutes interference in the internal matter of a sovereign country. But Pakistan did well. In a civilised world national sovereignty must come second, and human rights first.

Pakistan has also long criticised India — and justly so — for its human rights abuses. But more people are dying in Balochistan today than in Kashmir. For all their brutality against stone-throwing Kashmiri boys, the Indians have not yet used helicopter gunships and fighter jets against Kashmiris. Pakistan, on the other hand, uses airpower as a matter of course in Balochistan and Fata. ….

To read complete article » The Express Tribune

Current Issues, International, News, Pakistan, Politics

Geo Tv – Kamran Khan on the failure of Pakistan Army & ISI

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The language of the program is urdu (Hindi).

Courtesy: Geo TV (Aaj Kamran Khan Ke Sath), YouTube

via WICHAAR.COM

International, Life, News

Christian Taliban – Norway shooting suspect Anders Behring Breivik?

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– Who is Norway shooting suspect Anders Behring Breivik?

Norwegians are mourning the victims of a massacre at an island youth camp and a bombing in the capital Oslo. At least 85 people died when a gunman opened fire at the Utoeya camp on Friday, hours after a blast in the government quarter killed seven. Police have charged, a 32-year-old Norwegian man, with both attacks. The BBC’s Frank Gardner reports on the man at the centre of the investigation.

Courtesy: BBC

India, News, Pakistan, Personalities, Politics, Religion

Maududi: Islamisation Will Destroy Pakistan

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Syed Farooq Haider, a son of Maulana Maududi. The language of the talk show is urdu (Hindi).

Courtesy: The Express TV (Front Line with Kamran Shahid and Farooq Haider)

via Wichaar, YouTube

Current Issues, Economy, International, Pakistan, Politics

THIS ARTICLE SHOWS NO HOPE FOR POOR PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN IN NEAR FUTURE

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Something has changed

By: Huma Yusuf

TWO weeks after Abbottabad, the jury’s still out on Pakistan. Who knew? Who didn’t? And does anyone at all feel bad about the whole thing?

While international journalists and US lawmakers continue to ask these questions, Pakistan observers are at pains to point out that the answers matter little given that nothing has changed — the status quo has been maintained.

Continue reading THIS ARTICLE SHOWS NO HOPE FOR POOR PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN IN NEAR FUTURE →

Current Issues, International, Pakistan, Politics

Is it not time for Gen Kayani to call it quits and take along with him the DG ISI and the air chief?

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Time for heads to roll – By Babar Sattar

Excerpt:

OUR military and intelligence agencies stand indicted for being complicit with terror groups and our best defence seems to be to plead incompetence.

Osama’s refuge in the shadows of the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul and his killing without the knowledge or permission of Pakistani authorities have not only raised piercing questions about the country’s willingness to function as a responsible state but also cast fundamental doubts on the ability of our national security apparatus to protect Pakistan against foreign intervention.

An ISPR release after Thursday’s corps commanders’ conference that broke the security establishment’s silence on the Osama operation is mostly gibberish.

While admitting “shortcomings in developing intelligence” on Osama’s presence in Pakistan, it goes on to blow the ISI’s trumpet for extraordinary achievement all around. The commanders feel betrayed by the CIA for not telling the ISI where Bin Laden was hiding.

The release doesn’t say why the military failed to detect foreign choppers and troops in our territory for an hour and 40 minutes. ….

…. In a functional democracy, these gentlemen would be sacked after such a debacle. Unfortunately, national security related decisions in Pakistan fall within the exclusive domain of the military, which jealously guards its turf. But responsibility must accompany such power. And the responsibility for erosion of our international credibility and increased threat to security personnel and citizens from terror networks nestled within Pakistan rests squarely on the military’s shoulder.

Be it a rise in suicide bombing and terror incidents within Pakistan, an increase in US drone strikes in our territory, the Mumbai attacks or the Osama operation, the threat to Pakistan’s interests for being perceived as a pad for terrorist activity and to its citizens as targets of terror has proliferated under Gen Kayani’s watch. Is it not time for Gen Kayani to call it quits and take along with him the DG ISI and the air chief? Shouldn’t these heads roll to account for failing to do their jobs?

With them in the driving seat it might neither be possible to hold a transparent inquiry into the security breaches that led to the Osama operation and its execution without Pakistan’s knowledge nor engage in a rethink of our perverse national security mindset. Can we shed some baggage and create room for untainted faces and ideas?

The concept of sovereignty assumes control over the territory a state claims. We cannot continue to shirk responsibility for the men, material and money transiting in and out of Pakistan and simultaneously wail at the disregard for our sovereignty. It is time to publicly articulate our legitimate security interests linked to the future of Afghanistan and develop a regional consensus around it, instead of vying for the whole hog.

It is time to completely liquidate the jihadi project and cleanse our state machinery of those who believe in its virtue. And it is time to shun the delusions of grandeur and conspiracy that prevent us from realising our potential as a responsible and industrious nation.

Read more : DAWN

International, News, Personalities, Poetry

Anna Yablonskaya

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Anna Yablonskaya (July 20, 1981(1981-07-20) – January 24, 2011(2011-01-24)) was born Anna Grigorievna Mashutina (Russian: А́нна Григо́рьевна Машу́тина) in Odessa USSR (now Ukraine). She was a Russian-language playwright and poet, and one of the victims of 2011 Domodedovo International Airport bombing.

Under the pseudonym Anna Yablonskaya (Russian: А́нна Ябло́нская) Yablonskaya published over a dozen playscripts. Many of them were staged at venues in Russia, in particular, in St. Petersburg — the last city she visited just a month before her death. Since 2004 Yablonskaya received several awards in different literary and dramatic events in Russia (Moscow, Yekaterinburg) and Byelorussia (Minsk)[2]. She also wrote a series of lyrical poems.[3]

Half an hour before the explosion Yablonskaya arrived in Moscow on a flight from Odessa to attend the presentation ceremony as one of the 2010 winners of the award established by the Cinema Art magazine.

Read more : Wikipedia – More details : BBC urdu

News, Pakistan, Politics, Sindh

The bombing in Karachi

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Attack on police building in Karachi, Pakistan, kills at least 18 – By Karin Brulliard

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – Gunmen and a vehicle bomber attacked a police building in the center of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, late Thursday, killing at least 18 people and injuring scores, officials said.

In what appeared to be a well-organized assault, about six militants opened fire on a criminal investigations office in Karachi’s “red zone,” a highly secured area that houses the provincial minister’s residence, elite hotels and the U.S. Consulate. That was followed by a massive truck bombing that was heard across the city and that reduced much of the police building to rubble.

Violence is common in the southern port city, which is riven by ethnic and sectarian rivalries. But large-scale bombings are rare ….

Read more : Washington Post

Economy, Pakistan, Politics

Collective Volunteerism: An Approach that May Work to Rebuild Pakistan

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by K. Ashraf

Social, cultural, economic and political problems are growing in leaps and bounds in Pakistan on daily basis. The situation is so fluid no one can really predict the events of next moment. Is there going to be a suicide bombing, or sniper attack, or some other devastating accident, no one really knows. Fear, desperation, and helpless are the real rulers of Pakistan.

The other day the world press simultaneously broadcasted two news: One out of Mogadishu Somalia and the other from Swat Pakistan. A suicide bomber killed 20 people offering prayers in a mosque in Mogadishu . Another suicide bomber killed 11 people in Swat in Pakistan.

Is Pakistan any better than Somalia ? Perhaps, it is. Somalia does not have a government where as Pakistan does. However, Pakistani government is not any better than non-existent government in Somalia.

Like there is no government in Somalia to control the things there is a government in Pakistan but like Somalia it does not control anything. Pakistani government is nothing, but a herd of incompetent individuals who know how to boast but do not know how to deliver. There incompetence, or lack of desire to deliver, is further complicating the matters.

Pakistan is a country of one hundred and seventy million people. With several large size cities with completely broken life supporting systems, Pakistan is worse than Somalia . One can see horrible scenes across the country every second and feel sorry for the people, but without any effect or impact on its purblind rulers.

President and Prime minister look more sort of jackasses not up to the job they are holding. They are creating more problems in the country through inappropriate actions instead of helping the country move out of shadows of miseries, death and destruction. They spend more time on blaming others than spending half the time on fixing Pakistan’s problems.

There is a parliament in the country. Common Pakistani folks describe it as a rubber stamp or the debating club of thieves and thugs which is not interested in solving peoples’ problems. Within last two years, they have not taken up any issue faced by the people of Pakistan.

Is there a way out for the people of Pakistan? What should they do to resolve their problems? How should they compensate government inadequacies? We suggest they should develop the habit of collective volunteerism. They should form committees at street and city levels to deal with their day to day problems. If they develop the mechanism of collective volunteerism in all communities throughout the country they may start solving their trivial problems. They can help each other fix their broken systems and improve the quality of life in their communities. If they become really organized they can do miracles.

In many countries, the common folks have done these miracles. The people of Pakistan are not any lesser than any other people. They can also rebuild the broken social, cultural, economic and political systems in their communities through collective volunteerism.

Pakistanis are great charity givers. They should erect system to pool in their charities to rebuild the broken systems.

With every thing falling apart, may be collective volunteerism is the approach that may help Pakistanis to rebuild their communities and improve their lives.

Courtesy: CRDP, May 2, 2010