Daily Archives: 03/07/2010

Pakistan, Politics, Punjab, Religion

Now Populous Punjab Province in danger of terrorists takeover?

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Hiding In Plain Sight

Combating terrorists in Pakistan’s borderlands was hard enough. Just wait until they take over the country’s most populous province.

BY AHMAD MAJIDYAR

Pakistan’s Punjab province is not usually cited among the areas in danger of imminent takeover by terrorists, but that will likely soon change. On July 1, suicide bombers had no problem launching a triple attack on a famous Sufi shrine in Lahore, its bustling capital city. At least 35 were killed and over 175 injured in the assault. In fact, it was only the latest in a string of terrorist attacks that have rocked Pakistan’s densely populated heartland over the past year. Last month, Taliban gunmen torched 50 U.S. and NATO supply trucks headed for Afghanistan just outside Islamabad in northern Punjab. And the problems are likely to get worse in Punjab before they get better.

While U.S. and Pakistani military strategists focus on the terrorist threat in Pakistan’s tribal areas, the Taliban and al Qaeda are expanding into Punjab and teaming up with local terrorist organizations such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, the alleged recruiter of Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.

Read more >>- ForeignPolicy

Pakistan, Sindh

MONOPOLY

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by: Dr Ali Akbar Dhakan, Karachi

The federal Bank in Pakistan is called State Bank of Pakistan. There is Governor’s office and MD’s office. The Function of both is  same but only the tax payer citizens’ money is spent twice. The exchequer is to be spent lavishly on two managements but the function & nomenclature, staff and management is  same. For Karachi offices, the recruitment is open for whole Pakistan but for Punjab Offices the recruitment is meant for the People of Punjab only. So the staff or officers belong dominantly at least more than 90% to Punjab and the rest 10% for three provinces including other places i.e. AJK, FATA, NATA etc. The loss is therefore accrued by the People of Sindh.

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News

K. B. Bhutto passed away

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Islamabad/California : July 3, 2010: K. B. Bhutto passed away in USA. He was a sincere and solid political worker and a former president of PPP California Chapter. The widow of K B Bhutto said that her husband will be long remembered in the party circles for his struggle for the restoration of democracy and his struggle against dictatorships.  K. B. Bhutto was a selfless and devoted worker of the Party. He was an organizer of many political events. President Asif Ali Zardari has also condoled the death of K B Bhutto.

After the demise of KB Bhutto; there is a feeling of dissatisfaction among PPP workers across the states against the PPP- USA because KB Bhutto was removed from the office of President PPP CA chapter in Jan 2010 with a few unfounded allegations. Since then, KB had been struggling to restore his status for which he went through severe anxiety and stress, he got admitted into the hospital 2 times and third time he could not survive it. The body of K. B. Bhutto is being brought to Sindh for burial.

History, India, International, Politics

Terrorism is not a Muslim monopoly

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– Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar

“All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.” This comment , frequently heard after the Mumbai bomb blasts implies that terrorism is a Muslim specialty, if not a monopoly. The facts are very different.

First, there is nothing new about terrorism. In 1881, anarchists killed the Russian Tsar Alexander II and 21 bystanders. In 1901, anarchists killed US President McKinley as well as King Humbert I of Italy.

World War I started in 1914 when anarchists killed Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. These terrorist attacks were not Muslim. Terrorism is generally defined as the killing of civilians for political reasons.

Going by this definition, the British Raj referred to Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and many other Indian freedom fighters as terrorists. These were Hindu and Sikh rather than Muslim.

Guerrilla fighters from Mao Zedong to Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro killed civilians during their revolutionary campaigns. They too were called terrorists until they triumphed.

Nothing Muslim about them. In Palestine, after World War II, Jewish groups (the Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) fought for the creation of a Jewish state, bombing hotels and installations and killing civilians.

The British, who then governed Palestine, rightly called these Jewish groups terrorists. Many of these terrorists later became leaders of independent Israel — Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon.

Ironically, these former terrorists then lambasted terrorism, applying this label only to Arabs fighting for the very same nationhood that the Jews had fought for earlier.

In Germany in 1968-92, the Baader-Meinhoff Gang killed dozens, including the head of Treuhand, the German privatisation agency. In Italy, the Red Brigades kidnapped and killed Aldo Moro, former prime minister.

The Japanese Red Army was an Asian version of this. Japan was also the home of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist cult that tried to kill thousands in the Tokyo metro system using nerve gas in 1995.

Read more >>- THE TIMES OF INDIA

Courtesy:  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1794203.cms