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Actually, Many Pakistanis I have come across feel the Taliban are not so bad and they are doing it because the Amreekans are torturing the Muslims in Afghanistan and will go once the Americans leave!!!
3 suicide bombers in Lahore kill 35, wound 175 at Sufi shrine
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The problem is similar to the proposal of a good Taliban and a Bad Taliban, there are no good terrorist or extremists once the Pakistani public accepts this most of the problem will e solved.
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The chaos in Pakistan is not surprising.
When a People find themselves in total confusion, they fall back on Divinity and that too, of the radical type.
Pakistan, as is well known and would unnecessary to recount, has been a failure in every department of statehood and identity. It is more so horrifying to the Pakistanis because Pakistan was carved out of India to find a just and equitable State for Muslims of undivided India. It was to be the Land of the Pure and great dreams were woven to prove that Muslims living beyond the shadow of other Majority religions can eke out a better existence and find their place in the sun.
With each passing year, Pakistan has sunk closer to the unlimited chasm in every field. They have no democracy. The times they had democracy, the Army still called the shots. The economy, except for a short period under Ayub, has been a downslide and has always required shoring by the World Bank and the IMF. Their military prowess got the shock of their lives in 1971 and Kargil. Their social structure is a confusion that cannot balance secular laws with the Sharia. In short, Pakistan's identity and aim remains in a flux.
In such an environment, religion alone is the only factor that is without contradiction or debate. Possibly, that is why a confused people seek solace in something that is tangible. It is more attractive since those who are in the forefront championing religion i.e. the Taliban and AQ (succcessors to the Mujahideens) have proved them to be slayers of the superpowers USSR in Afghanistan and US in 9/11), a feat none other has done! This is the only area where a demoralised people can seek some perverted solace. Hence, the illiterates and semi literates of Pakistan, steeped in the interpretation of religion of self serving mullahs are enamoured by the murder and mayhem of the Taliban, which they conveniently attribute to a religious zeal, not realising that the Taliban is a congregation of psychopaths!
Therefore, bombings in Pakistan will continue in the name of religion and the majority of the people of Pakistan (illiterate and semi literate) will not oppose the same. The kith and kin of those killed will lament and breastbeat and all will be taken as AAllizwell!
The target of the Taliban will be those who are not of the majority Sunni sect. In this manner they will cleanse Pakistan of non Sunni elements like the Shias. Ahmediya, Sufis, Aga Kahnis, Dawoodis and so on.
When a People find themselves in total confusion, they fall back on Divinity and that too, of the radical type.
Pakistan, as is well known and would unnecessary to recount, has been a failure in every department of statehood and identity. It is more so horrifying to the Pakistanis because Pakistan was carved out of India to find a just and equitable State for Muslims of undivided India. It was to be the Land of the Pure and great dreams were woven to prove that Muslims living beyond the shadow of other Majority religions can eke out a better existence and find their place in the sun.
With each passing year, Pakistan has sunk closer to the unlimited chasm in every field. They have no democracy. The times they had democracy, the Army still called the shots. The economy, except for a short period under Ayub, has been a downslide and has always required shoring by the World Bank and the IMF. Their military prowess got the shock of their lives in 1971 and Kargil. Their social structure is a confusion that cannot balance secular laws with the Sharia. In short, Pakistan's identity and aim remains in a flux.
In such an environment, religion alone is the only factor that is without contradiction or debate. Possibly, that is why a confused people seek solace in something that is tangible. It is more attractive since those who are in the forefront championing religion i.e. the Taliban and AQ (succcessors to the Mujahideens) have proved them to be slayers of the superpowers USSR in Afghanistan and US in 9/11), a feat none other has done! This is the only area where a demoralised people can seek some perverted solace. Hence, the illiterates and semi literates of Pakistan, steeped in the interpretation of religion of self serving mullahs are enamoured by the murder and mayhem of the Taliban, which they conveniently attribute to a religious zeal, not realising that the Taliban is a congregation of psychopaths!
Therefore, bombings in Pakistan will continue in the name of religion and the majority of the people of Pakistan (illiterate and semi literate) will not oppose the same. The kith and kin of those killed will lament and breastbeat and all will be taken as AAllizwell!
The target of the Taliban will be those who are not of the majority Sunni sect. In this manner they will cleanse Pakistan of non Sunni elements like the Shias. Ahmediya, Sufis, Aga Kahnis, Dawoodis and so on.
Who is responsible?
BY SANA SALEEM ON 07 6TH, 2010 | NO COMMENTS
Lahore is often known as the heart of Pakistan; the hub of culture and arts, the centre of education, the city of gardens, with the prominent aspect of the city being its ancient history and its deep-rooted connection to Sufism. Living in a city steeped in heritage and culture, Lahoris are known for their fun-loving spirit. This very spirit was attacked on July 1, when two suicide bombers attacked Data Darbar, shrine of the patron saint of Lahore.
The attack killed 45 people and left more than 175 injured.
This is not the first time a shrine has been attacked, previously the shrines of Rahman Baba and Mian Umer Baba in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have also been attacked.
Attacking Data Darbar on a Thursday night was an obvious target – that is the night when the shrine is teeming with worshippers as well as those seeking shelter and food from all walks of life. There is no question that the attack was well-planned – CCTV footage showed scenes of carnage and the bombers just moments before they blew themselves up. The footage showed a security guard chasing after one of the bombers shortly before the bomb went off – body parts and blood splattered everywhere as the survivors fled in all directions.
The most common reactions after the attack are that of denial, with many pointing fingers at foreign involvement. Statements such as "these terrorists can neither be Muslims nor Pakistanis" echoed from the common man to those in authority. Despite a history of intolerance towards Sufism, the notorious TTP has also declined any involvement in the attack claiming they do not attack 'public places' Usman, 16, who was identified as the alleged suicide bomber by the authorities, was later reported to be a victim of the attack.
I was asked a similar question : What does the attack on the Ahmedis and on Data Darbar mean? Is this sectarian violence or do terrorists not have a religion? According to The Pakistan Security report (http://san-pips.com/index.php?action=reports&id=119) there have been over 249 terrorist attacks across the country, killing around 1182 and leaving over 995 injured. Not a single so-called 'foreign' terrorist has been arrested so far, clearly ruling out the possibility of foreign and/or non-muslin suicide bombers at work. As for the possibility of a conspiracy that foreign agencies could be involved, we must understand that the nature of such involvement is opportunistic.
At the end of the day we need to look within ourselves. The attack on the shrine was not just another terror attack; it was an attack on the Sufi saints who have taught us peace, tolerance, spirituality, co-existence and universal brotherhood. It is important we acknowledge that a certain faction of our society continues to harbour hate that can, and has, incite violence. These are not a group of underground terrorists but ordinary citizens who openly declare their disapproval to anything that doesn't fit within the confines of their strict ideology. One such example can be seen on this forum where a user started a thread suggesting a call for "demolishing 'centres' of shirk like Data Darbar and the likes"
The seven-page discussion thread ends with CCTV videos of the attack on the shrine, with one user rightly pointing out, "I have an issue with the title of this thread. 'Demolish.' I wonder if it is this type of language that creates confusion and hatred, which leads to suicide attacks, like the one in Lahore on Thursday. Even if those attacks are done by external forces, they leverage internal hatred. Thoughts? [sic]"
Indeed, something that we need to seriously think about. While talking to reporters on the Data Darbar attack Nawaz Sharif repeatedly emphasised that he will not indulge the blame game and refused to point fingers.
I think it is time to point fingers but in the right direction.
The creeping coup
As I sit listening to possibly the greatest song — 'Alif Allah Chambey Di Booty' by the incomparable Arif Lohar, and the remarkable Meesha Shafi — to come out of the Land of the Pure for many, many years, especially after the passing away of the great (and unlamented in this barren desert of a country) Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and start to write this piece, with tears in my eyes at the beauty of the music and the lyrics, there comes the news that upwards of 35 devotees have been killed at Data Sahib, Lahore by two suicide bombers.
Curiously, and sadly, the news comes at exactly the time that Arif sings beautifully, followed by Meesha so very beautifully too: "Wangaan charrha lo kurrio mere Data de Darbar diaan."
I was already in tears, but down they came, coursing down my cheeks. Damn you, and your black hearts I say to those who so cruelly killed the devotees of the Sufi saint, the guardian of the city and the people of Lahore. Is nothing sacred to these beasts anymore, I ask. These monsters who go about mowing down poor people in the name of religion?
For it was mainly the poor who got blown away at Data Sahib, most of them the poorest of the poor come there to ask Ali Hajveri's intercession with the Almighty for His munificence. Most, indeed, to partake of the free food always on offer at the shrine, donated by those who feed the poor in God's name.
What sort of beast is this whose hunger for innocent blood is seemingly insatiable? Who unthinkingly blows himself up taking tens of innocent bystanders with him? What sort of twisted thinking do his handlers and exploiters have that they are so empty of even an iota of kindness and compassion that they cause the killing and maiming of fathers and sons, brothers and husbands, mothers and daughters, sisters and wives of other human beings?
And then we are told that they should be brought to the negotiating table. Are these the sort of people who will listen to reason? Is this beast to be trusted, especially when you speak to him from a position of confirmed weakness? To negotiate what? The terms of surrender of the state? How much more harm must come to the people of Pakistan before those who matter realise that what is going on is a planned takeover of the state by the barbarians?
Make no mistake, gentlemen, this is nothing but a creeping coup d'état by the forces of darkness, a coup that will spare no one, including politicians of every hue. There is no right or left for these beasts, it is them against everyone else — an Islamic Emirate of Pakistan is the goal.
Recall their takeover of Swat and areas of Hazara division until they were barely 50 miles from Islamabad, the capital of the Islamic Republic. Remember too their in-your-face arrogance when they went as far as to conduct a flag march on the motorway itself, from the Swabi to the Mardan interchanges. Wake up to reality, please, before this country is taken over by the obscurantist forces in conjunction with their cousins in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Republicans have quite rightly attacked President Obama's announcing a timeline for starting the withdrawal from Afghanistan, something that has been written about in this space several times. Senator McCain is absolutely right when he says the Taliban will just wait for the withdrawal to start and then increase their attacks.
Gen Petraeus, the new commander of US and ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) in Afghanistan, too, has announced that ISAF and the United States are in Afghanistan until a favourable outcome of the war against terror. We in Pakistan should applaud this because it is important the Taliban are kept busy by the Americans so that they don't turn their kind attentions towards us.
And now for some civil society gup shup. The Pakistan Ex-Servicemen's Association (Pesa) is a worthy organisation which was part of the effort to oust Musharraf, and which also played a part in the movement to restore the superior judiciary. It was a rather sharp thorn in Musharraf's side because it is made up of senior retired officers of the three services, now well led by the good Adm Fasih Bokhari.
It so got up the Commando's nose that he had the effrontery to refer to Pesa's members as "spent cartridges" a typical army term of disrespect and ridicule. Of course, what it immediately showed was that Musharraf was much rattled by his own turning against him.
Pesa has now taken up the matter of all civil society organisations (CSO) to come under one umbrella, verbatim: "Pesa has repeatedly been asked by a number of civil society organisations to take the lead in bringing all CSOs under one umbrella to give a stronger, more united, consensual and balanced voice to the aspirations of the people of Pakistan". Pesa further envisages a watchdog role for the new umbrella organisation also, which might "require calls for peaceful rallies or demonstrations, where action by government is not seen to be timely or adequate".
Its main concern seems to be holding the (civilian) government to account for its acts of omission or commission: might one suggest it first hold its own member's former organisations to account? The three services have clothed themselves in shrouds of secrecy so that nothing about them comes out in the public domain. For example, while we are daily regaled with how much an MNA costs the state, there is nothing about how much a lieutenant general or a major general costs.
While we hear of massive corruption in the award of civilian contracts we hear nothing of the mega defence deals, ever. The excuse is secrecy, lest the enemy finds out. I don't suppose we have heard of Jane's which will tell you exactly what Pakistan bought and when, in one minute flat!
Darbar attacks
Blackwater factor be checked: CJ
Blackwater factor be checked: CJ
Saturday, July 10, 2010
By Our Correspondent
LAHORE
LAHORE High Court Chief Justice Khwaja Sharif observed on Friday that involvement of Blackwater in the suicide attacks on Data Darbar had been discussed in some media reports and police should also investigate this aspect.
He made the observation as Capital City Police Officer Aslam Tareen submitted a progress report on the attacks to the LHC, saying efforts were being made to apprehend the culprits and the Home department had constituted a joint investigation team, including DIG Investigation, SSP Investigation and representatives of the ISI, MI and special branch.
The CCPO said pursuant to the court's order, the DIG investigation had collected the remains of dead bodies from site of blasts and sent them to the forensic science laboratory for DNA tests whose results would be received within 15 days.
A request had been made to the director general National Crisis Management Cell for provision of technical assistance through National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), including verification of finger prints and facial recognition for finalisation of the case on merit, the CCPO's report said. It further said that statements of police officials, volunteers (Razakars) and other people on duty had also been recorded, adding that the material collected from the site, including pieces of suicide jackets and explosives, used in the attacks had been sent to the civil defence for analysis. The CCTV footage had been sent to the director general forensic science laboratory for enlargement of photographs through modern digital photography and the statement of former mayor Lahore Khawaja Riaz Mahmood had also been recorded, the report said.
The DIG investigation had requested the sector commanders of ISI and MI, Punjab, and additional IGP special branch to nominate their representatives in the teams, the report concluded.
Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif said since the CCPO had sought time as DNAs test was still being awaited, therefore, the case was adjourned till July 23. "During this period, I want to see progress of police in the case," he remarked.
The CJ was holding proceedings against twin suicide attacks on Data Darbar, which apparently happened due to a security lapse.
Let's negotiate
Due to the demands of a majority of Pakistanis and leaders like Shahbaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Munawar Hussain and other such groovy people, the Pakistan government has signed a peace agreement with the Taliban in Waziristan and South Punjab.
The peace deal comes after several rounds of negotiations and many glasses of orange juice.
The major points of the agreement are as follows:
- Strict and puritanical LBW Laws would be imposed in the Swat and Waziristan cricket league.
- The government and the Taliban will exchange prisoners and gifts – the government will gift Shahid Masood to the Taliban to fatten their pleasure of paranoia and a liking for conspiracy theories, while the Taliban will gift the government a goat.
- The Taliban will halt attacks on barber shops, music shops and girls' schools and instead, attack saunas, discos and driving schools. Even though there are no saunas and discos in Waziristan, the government will build a few just so the Taliban can destroy them for fun.
- The Taliban cannot display weapons in public, especially suicide bombers. They will now have to explode themselves up in caves.
- The Taliban cannot operate training camps, other than only for holding ballet classes.
- The Taliban will denounce suicide attacks. However, they can hail heart attacks in the name of faith.
- A ban would be placed on raising private militias; but holding public floggings is allowed.
- The Taliban will cooperate with the government to vaccinate children against polio – especially that variant of polio that causes delusional migraines. Thus, instead of bullets, the government will now fight terrorism with aspirin.
- Only licensed FM radio stations would be allowed to operate in the region. However, the Taliban will get to pick their own RJs.
- The Taliban will allow goats of Swat to perform duties at their work place without any fear. The women of the region, however, will have to wait for this opportunity. They are way down in the Taliban's priority hierarchy, bellow men, suicidal boys, men, goats, more men, and Yeti, the abdominal snowman.
A similar agreement was signed with the Taliban in 2007. But the Taliban promptly disobeyed the terms of the deal and began to overrun police stations and enforce strict LBW Laws through coercion. The Taliban had blamed the government's plan to paint the Red Mosque in magenta colour. They hate magenta.
Historically, the Pakistani Taliban is the group behind the ideological inspiration for the Afghan Taliban, which is the group behind the ideological inspiration for the Chinese Taliban, which is the group behind the ideological inspiration for the Luxemburg Taliban, which is the group behind the ideological inspiration for the Martian Taliban. It is fair to remind people that the Pakistani Taliban had sent over 10,000 fighters into Afghanistan to fight Darth Vedar and his evil forces in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was quite a trip, man. Like, far out.
The government is also close to signing a deal with Luke-ul-Skywalker, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban who was allegedly behind the brutal suicide attack that knocked off Mian Nawaz Sharif's brand new toupee.
Cricketer-turned-politician-turned-turnip, Jim Khan, who taught some of the Taliban the art of bowling reverse swing, is not happy with the peace accord. In protest, he decided to join the Jamat-i-Islami's 'long march' (which is merely 200 kilometres compared to Mao Tse Tung's 6,000 kilometres long march, but who's counting?).
Disagreeing with the accord, Jim Khan hurled accusations at the present government and said he was right to boycott the February 18 elections because the results have brought nothing but blood, bombs and ball tempering.
He then set out with his party workers (all seven of them), to march against the government to instate the jirga system in the Diplomatic Enclave in Islamabad.
Hearing this, President Zardari, while having orange juice with his Chinese counterpart said: "I say, old chap, it will be a ghastly understatement to suggest that this fellow is rather confused," to which his Chinese counterpart said something that nobody understood but Sherry Rehman insisted it meant "yea, baby, yea!"
Interestingly, the terms of the Swat peace deal do not call for the Taliban to halt cross-border attacks inside Afghanistan, not that there is much left in Afghanistan to attack, except maybe some shaky magenta coloured ruins. They hate magenta.
Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Khwaja Sharif, is on the rampage. During the trial of Professor Hafiz Saeed saheb, he asked why Pakistan should worry about the UNSC Resolution on JuD & the Professor when India has not implemented the 1948 UNSC Resolution. He has been releasing all jihadis/jihadists for lack of evidence. Then, he said that the Hindus of Pakistan were funding terrorists. He recently said that PPP should withdraw from the coalition government in the Punjab. Now, he is talking about the US being involved in Data Durbar. No wonder he is known as a 'pro-jihadi' judge that even the CJP did not want him in his SC bench.
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