The area of Karachi (ڪراچي) was known to the ancient Greeks by many names: ‘Krokola’ and ‘Morontobara’ port (probably the modern Manora Island near the Karachi harbour), from where Alexander the Great’s admiral Nearchus sailed for back home. The Arabs called it the port of Debal, from where Muhammad Bin Qasim led his conquering force into Sindh.
Continue reading Karachi, Sindh was known to the ancient GreeksTag Archives: Bin Qasim
O shahar debal shall – Manzoor Solangi
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The Alafis in Sindh
By Salman Rashid
he Alafi tribe of western Hejaz were among the earlier converts to Islam. Since before 680 CE, a large body of them frequently travelled back and forth between their country and Makran. Now, Makran at that time seems to have been very much like modern day Fata. Though part of the kingdom of Sindh under Raja Chach, it appears to have been only loosely held with a substantial foreign element running wild in the country.
In 684, when Abdul Malik bin Marwan took over as caliph, his deputy in Iraq, Hujaj bin Yusuf, appointed one Saeed of the family Kilabi to Makran. The man was entrusted with collecting money from this country as well as neighbouring regions wherever he could exercise pressure.
Somewhere in Kirman on his way east, Saeed met with one Safahwi Hamami. The Chachnama is not explicit about this man, but gives the understanding that while he had “no army under (him)”, he was nevertheless a man of significant social standing. The man may, therefore, have been a merchant.
14 blasts rock Sindh railway track
KARACHI/HYDERABAD: Lengths of railway track were blown up in Bin Qasim, Nawabshah, Hyderabad, and Pud Eidan, Khairpur and Ghotki somewhere before and after dawn stopping the up and down traffic, Geo News reported Saturday.
According to police, two blasts were heard before they found out a sizable part of the main track, going through Long Khan Kairio village area of Nawabshah, has been damaged.
Later, a couple of similar blasts were also reported from Qasimabad area of Hyderabad, where 1-2 feet long rail tracks came off in the wake of explosions. To boot, blasts near Latifabad area also reportedly damaged the rails taking the tally to four in Hyderabad alone that too within hours.
Moreover, culprits, also targeted rails near Pud Eaidan area using the same modus operandi i.e. two IEDs planted close by detonating one after another.
Reports of a similar sabotage also came from Kotri, Ghotki and Bin Qasim.
All the up and down trains have been stopped to safety. Railway sources told that Zakaria and Fareed Express were stopped at Sadiqabad.
Fortunately no passenger/cargo train was anywhere near the blast sites, otherwise major casualties could have been the outcome of these perpetrations.
Police have condoned off the site to launch an investigation as well as search for probable explosive devices or the culprits hiding nearby.
Courtesy: The News
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-36919-14-blasts-rock-Sindh-railway-track
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Current wave of extremism in Pakistan
Statistical ambiguity society
Just how some recent events of our surface politics offer an interesting study of the deep politics
By Dr Ahsan Wagha
It started with the worst ideological polarisation promoted by the military generals in the 1970s when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was forced to invite Saudi ambassador Riaz Al-Khatib to mediate between him and the opposition, a practice that was reverberated during the Musharraf-Nawaz conflict and has almost culminated into becoming one of the basic features of our foreign policy. The phenomenon can be investigated in the background of the history of Arab colonisation of this region.
A Must read Humor : God Instructed Me To Kill
God Instructed Me To Kill – by Junaid Sahibzada
The chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, has taken suo motu notice against the murder of governor Punjab, the late Salman Taseer. …
Read more : CHOWK
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