Mutilated Afghan girl

You can see the cover story of Time magazine showing a girl brutally mutilated by her in-laws in Afghanistan. They printed this picture to show us “What will happen if We (US and others) leave Afghanistan”.

This is an individual event which happened under the Karzai rule not the taliban. Saying this I do not in anyway support such cruelty. No religion in the world allows this and Islam gives more respect and honour to women then the rest. Women in India are subjected to more serious domestic violence. Are there any American plans of saving them too!

If the coalition forces are justifying their stay in Afghanistan to save Afghan women then it does not make sense. Can anyone of us recall how many thousand or maybe hundredthousands people are killed by these American forces with their partners? By the way those people had they ears and noses intact but they were no longer living.

To show the whole picture the next issue of the magazine will no doubt feature those scores of wedding parties blown to pieces and thousands of horribly mutilated civilians by the coalition forces rushing to the aid of the culturally deprived Afghan people? Those bombs never spared Afghan women or young children, if they have the right to kill innocent Afghan men!

Angel of Death

What will happen if we stay in Afghanistan?

Lets have a look at their future plans in Afghanistan or plan for the betterment of Afghanistan and human race on the whole. This “Angel of Death” will not be tried on their countries off course. Its high explosive 105mm shells, each packed with 5lb of TNT, rocket towards their target at 1,548ft per second. On contact, the shells can destroy buildings and spread shrapnel over a ‘kill’ area of up to 1,500 yards. I hope these bombs are women sensitive!!!

Technorati Tags: afghan women, angel of death, coalition forces, karzai, taliban, time magazine, war on terror

Rahman Bunaireeri

(The Nation)U.S. immigration officials have released a Pakistani journalist who reports for Voice of America’s Deewa Radio and whose home was destroyed by Taliban militants last month in northwestern Pakistan.

Rahman Bunaireeri, 33, was freed Wednesday, more than one week after he arrived in the United States and was taken into custody at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. According to VOA, the Department of Homeland Security has refused to comment on his case, citing privacy reasons.

Bunairee was let go after U.S. customs authorities apparently resolved questions about his visa, the VOA News reported on its website. The journalist’s ultimate legal status and right to remain in the U.S. will be determined at a future immigration hearing. The journalist is currently reviewing his legal options with his attorney.

VOA’s parent agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, issued a statement welcoming Bunairee’s release, describing him as a man of extraordinary courage and dedication. The BBG said it expects Bunairee will in due course be able to undertake the assignment at VOA for which he has come to the United States. Bunairee traveled to Washington to help VOA develop its broadcasts to the troubled Afghanistan-Pakistan border region through the Radio Deewa service. Bunairee came to the United States after a group of militants came to his residence early last month in northwestern Pakistan’s Buner district and blew up his home.

The reporter, who was not present at the time, said the militants allowed 11 members of his family to leave. No one was reported hurt in the blast, but the journalist said militants threatened to take further action if they found him.

Technorati Tags: radio deewa, Rahman Bunairee, rahman bunaireeri, taliban, VOA, voice of America

Strategic aims: how Britain is faring in Afghanistan

Stop terrorist plans for attacks on the UK

* MoD’s main stated aims include: “Deny al-Qa’ida its Afghan base”.

* Terrorist bunkers bombed out, training camps disrupted.

* Operations did not prevent attacks on London transport network.

* Fear plotting continues among terrorists in Pakistan and fghanistan.

Verdict: Failure

Avoid a bloody war

* Former defence secretary John Reid said he hoped British forces would leave without “a single shot being fired”.

* More than four million bullets fired by the British Army in a year, as conflict intensified.

* More soldiers have died there, 184 in all, than in Iraq.

Verdict: Failure

Catch Osama Bin Laden

* Post 9/11, al-Qa’ida’s most recognisable figure became world’s most wanted man.

* Afghanistan refused to extradite him before he went into hiding.

* His whereabouts unknown, remains an inspiration to insurgents.

Verdict: Failure

End Taliban rule in Afghanistan

* Taliban rule included laws against educating women and activities such as watching TV. Al-Qa’ida operatives were provided with shelter.

* Military intervention ended its control in 2001.

* Taliban still an insurgent force with undeterred remnants proving a dangerous enemy.

Verdict: Pass

Bring democracy to Afghanistan

* First elections run solely by the Afghan government take place next month.

* Provincial polls took place after Taliban’s fall.

* Elections generate waves of violent protests.

* Nato warned the new government “remains limited” and prone to corruption.

Verdict: Pass

Keep the region stable

* Armed forces want to contain targets to Afghanistan.

* Taliban insurgents crossed borders, leading to bloody battle with Pakistan army in Swat Valley, with tens of thousands fleeing their homes.

Verdict: Failure

Make the streets safe

* Troops completed missions to clear unexploded mines.

* Soldiers gain increasing trust of civilians.

* Nato recently warned recently the number of civilian deaths “remains a serious concern”.

* More than 2,000 Afghan civilians died last year in insurgent attacks.

Verdict: Failure

Improve life for Afghanis

* British money repaired dams and provided irrigation.

* Massive increase in children going to school, including large numbers of girls for the first time.

* Average life expectancy is 44, while disease and poverty are widespread.

* Large swathes of the country are unconnected to safe water supplies.

Verdict: More work needed

Stop the drug trade

* Concentrated battle against poppy field drug barons who supply world’s heroin market from Afghanistan.

* US experts fear blowing up poppy crops backfired, driving desperate farmers to sympathise with insurgent forces.

* Farmers struggling with alternative crops in the dry conditions.

Verdict: Failure

Preserve oil/gas access

* Afghanistan traditionally a perfect route for exporting oil and gas to Western countries.

* US set up deals with Afghanistan’s neighbours to ensure smoother exports.

* Agreements criticised for being made with countries having poor human rights records.

Verdict: Pass

Technorati Tags: british forces, independent, osama bin ladin, taliban, war in afghanistan

1- You refine heroin for a living, you have a moral objection to beer.
2-You own a $3,000 machine gun and $85,000 rocket launcher, but you can’t afford shoes.
3-You have more wives than teeth.
4-You think vests come in two styles: bullet proof and suicide.
5-You can’t think of anyone you HAVEN’T declared Jihad against.
6-You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.
7-You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.
8-You have often uttered the phrase “I love what you’ve done with your cave.”
9-You have nothing against women abd think everyman should own at least one.
10-You love to create “fassad” on earth!

Contributed by Imad Khan, You.

Technorati Tags: funny taliban, have a laugh, humor, taliban

Everyday Big brother, US, has something to say about us, Pakistanis. One day a show of support and the next day a threat! The next news is about the activities of Taliban in Pakistan. I am clear about one thing all Pakistanis wish to have peace and long term peace. Then who is behind these so called Taliban, who have no jobs, no business, no productivity but have the latest sophisticated weapons worth more than the monthly income of  20 poor families living in Pakistan. Who is supplying them the weapons? Food? Living expenses?

Their activities are leading Pakistan into chaos, so who’s interest and motives are being achieved by these Taliban who are bringing a bad name to Islam and Pakistan. Our ruling elite should put their heads together with all the honesty to get Pakistan out of this mess.

Otherwise the common man will have to come out like they did with the lawyers in the movement for the revival of judiciary.

Technorati Tags: humor, pakistan politics, taliban, US, who is financing taliban

Dr Farrukh Saleem writes “Would the ‘Switzerland of Pakistan’ now be like Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia’s per capita book readership is one of the lowest on the face of the planet. Saudi Arabia is yet to produce a Nobel prize winner (Israel has produced eight). Saudi Arabia has no more than 5,000 scientists (200 per million) while the US has 1.5 million (4,000 per million). Saudi Arabia hasn’t invented anything of consequence for the human civilisation in its 77 years of existence. Saudi Arabia officially practises a comprehensive gender-based apartheid system whereby 14 million Saudi women have different legal rights than Saudi men, an “unequal access to property and jobs, and restrictions on freedom of movement… (Saudi women were not allowed to vote in the municipal elections of 2005).” Would the ‘Switzerland of Pakistan’ now be like the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ (as Afghanistan was from 1996 to 2001)? No political parties, no politics, no elections — and absolutely dictatorial. No TV, no chess, no kites. For women — restricted employment, no education, no sports, no nail-polish. For everyone else — no videos, no music, no dancing, no clapping during sports events — and a beard “extending farther than a fist clamped at the base of the chin.” No paintings, no photographs, no stuffed animals — and no dolls.”

I first remember Ghazi Salahuddin as a co-host of Kasuti along with Ubaid Ullah Beg which was a very interesting pakistani quiz show. I really admired both of them with great respect. Now I make it a point to read his thoughts every sunday but he is equally hopeless. Here is what he writes “ What is imminent seems instantly recognisable, except to those who are in power. International response to Nizam-e-Adl is quite instructive. Many Pakistanis, with their distrust of American intentions, may tend to ignore the comment made by the White House that the accord to put part of the country under Islamic law was against human rights and democracy. However, the Human Rights Watch, an independent group based in New York, was more candid in its observations. It said that Nizam-e-Adl would take Swat back to “dark ages”.Meanwhile, more and more think tanks and area experts are losing hope in Pakistan. The latest report, published in newspapers on Saturday, said that a growing number of US officials and experts now believe that it may be impossible to prevent Pakistan from disintegrating. Even if this is too pessimistic a stance, what are our rulers doing to deal with the challenges that are posed by the rise of the Taliban, religious extremism, social disintegration and a national sense of anxiety about our future?”

I find Shandana Minhas interesting as she has something unique in most of her articals. I  read her on Chowk  before she started writing for The news.  She gives somewhat accurate description of taliban “The Taliban do not distinguish between good Taliban and bad Taliban, and neither should we. While their foot soldiers might start out as the brainwashed sons of poverty, deprivation, illiteracy, sold on a vision of paradise through the creation of hell on earth, and their ideological leadership tech savvy and highly intelligent, they are all dedicated and focused on one particular goal. That goal is to destroy Pakistan as we know it, and build in its place a medieval dystopia.The Taliban are not seeking to create this dystopia – dubbed Absurdistan by one commentator and Jihadistan by another- for the betterment of humankind. They are not seeking to redraw borders for the oppressed to be able to practice their religion without fear of persecution or indignity, or under the imposition of somebody else’s agenda. That already happened. It was called partition. ”

She ends the artical well “Here is why President Zardari or Prime Minister Gilani or Saudi proxy Nawaz Sharif are happiest when looking at the Taliban through their peripheral vision. It is a point made ceaselessly by Dr Pervez Hoodhboy and others. The Taliban’s philosophy, abhorrent as it is to some of us, clearly resonates with others who are no more sociopathic or psychopathic than we are. Their vision is seductive because it hints at a society that will bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots (unless you’re a woman, in which case it’s more like had nothing then, have nothing now). Our leaders cannot or rather will not engage fully with this desi Frankenstein because to do so would require them, and the other privileged among us, to engage with issues that are anathema to our existence, for example income redistribution and dispute settlement that does not favor the powerful . Enter speedy justice and land reform, Taliban style. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.”

Technorati Tags: america, Dr Farrukh Saleem 19 April 2009, Ghazi Salahuddin, mizam-e-adl, Shandana MInhas., taliban, zardari

What an idea: joint US-Pakistan military operations in the tribal belt. If the “war on terror” policies pursued in Pakistan under the Bush administration have not already succeeded in making a complete mess of Pakistan, it seems that the action plan being evolved by the Obama administration will. The idea that joint operations in the tribal areas can help eliminate militancy in the tribal belt represents such a flight of imagination that it is actually scary. It indicates that the US administration is simply clueless about the recruitment dynamics of Islamic militancy and also of the very basic characteristics of the Pashtoons. A sense of injustice is the primary mobilising tool for the Islamic groups, and “revenge” and “honour” are the two defining characteristics of the Pashtoon culture. In such a context, military operations led by the Pakistani army themselves are enough to mobilise more resistance, adding the US military to it is a recipe for making Pakistan another Afghanistan.

The real problem with the US planners and Pakistanis who are in favour of military operations as a solution to the militancy is that they refuse to understand how Islamic militants groups operate. They rely on a heavy moral discourse to justify their acts. It is a vocabulary of justice, of honour. The Pakistanis who went to fight in Afghanistan during the Soviet war were not mainly madrasa students, they came from all walks of life, many came from Pakistani universities. They went to Afghanistan because they were convinced of the injustice against Afghan Muslims.

As one of my respondents from liberal elite circles in Islamabad once said, “all the people that I can recall from my university who went for jihad in Afghanistan were actually the more committed people. It takes courage to come out on a street to protest, it takes further courage to take the police beating, and it takes even more courage to go to jail in defence of the cause that you believe in. The real jihadis are such people, who have a strong sense of justice, a strong will, and the ability to take pain.” Of course, other factors such as a sense of adventure, the nature of networks, and a sense of purpose in life, also play role in attracting people towards the militant group. The other main factor, which has been shown to be important in my research, is the sense of revenge.

This is not to argue that the leaders of the militant groups are all noble people but to suggest that in order to mobilise people to join a militant group they have to adopt a very moral discourse and a discourse based on justice. A recent publication analysing the speeches of leaders of Al Qaeda shows how the discourse is built all around justice and morality. The US support for Israeli aggression against Palestinians, the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are the central mobilising tools for militant groups across the Muslim world. Knowing all this and yet proposing more military operations and that also joint ones thus raises serious concerns about Obama administration’s ability to check militancy in Pakistan. The casualties emerging from these operations only further raise the mobilising power of the militant groups they don’t reduce it.

The more the Obama action plan is being unveiled the more difficult it is becoming to see the differences between the proposed policies and those of the Bush administration. Military operations in the tribal belt and unchecked flows of aid to military and civilian elites in Pakistan were the two main pillars of the policies of the Bush administration in Pakistan. The former has increased the recruiting power of the militant groups, the latter has built vested interests within the military and civilian elites to perpetuate militancy in Pakistan because the aid flows that these elites have so much started to enjoy are contingent on Pakistan continue to have militancy.

To say that pursing more of the same set of policies that have created a complete mess of Pakistan in the past seven years will deliver a new dawn is asking too much from the Pakistani public. Unless the US administration can show how its proposed military operations will differ from the options pursued in the past, it presents no hope for ordinary Pakistanis. The real cause of militancy in Pakistan as seen today are not the Taliban, it is the vested interests within the Pakistani elite who are using the myth of the Taliban to keep the Pakistani public and the world community hostage. Unless the US can figure out a way to deal with them, more aid will only mean more militancy in Pakistan.

The biggest concern however is that increasingly it is not clear why US is concerned about Pakistan. Is it actually that is fears an attack from likes of Baitullah Mesud or is it that after Sept 11, the US administration has to show the US public that it is doing something to fight Islamic militancy and having casualties in Pakistan just becomes a way of proving to the US citizens the government’s resolve to protect them. Who were the Pakistanis who were killed in these operations, and how these operations are destabilising the Pakistani nation are in then questions better not asked.

The writer is a research fellow at the Oxford University. Email: mb294@ hotmail.com

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, honour, joint strikes, masooda bano, Pakistan US, Pashtoon culture, real jihadis, taliban

Zabihullah Mujahid said: “Prince Harry’s presence in Afghanistan encourages our fighters to launch more attacks on British forces.

“The Royal Family is now directly participating in the aggression against Muslims.”

Mr Mujahid also suggested the British are facing defeat in Afghanistan and that news of the prince’s deployment was deliberately leaked in order to raise spirits.

He said: “We think Prince Harry has been sent to Afghanistan only to boost the sagging morale of the British forces which are in serious trouble.”

Speaking to The Times, he added: “For us he is just a part of occupation forces. He should understand that the occupation cannot last long.”

There are also fears that Prince Harry will be targeted by Islamic jihadists when he returns to Britain and he has been warned to stay away from his favourite London nightclubs.

He could be back home as early as tomorrow following the decision by military chiefs to withdraw him from the front line immediately.

But sources say they fear he could now become the “number one target” for terrorist cells in Britain, having spent 10 weeks fighting the Taliban.

He is expected to be ordered back to the Household Cavalry barracks at Windsor and to keep a low profile over the coming weeks even though in an interview in Afghanistan he declared: “I don’t want to sit around in Windsor.”

The prince faces being banned from his favourite nightclubs including Boujis, Amika and Mahiki while security is stepped up to the highest level around him.

Late nights at the clubs were a fixture in his social life before his deployment but are now seen by senior officers in Scotland Yard as too high risk.

In a statement released today the MoD said that the decision to remove Harry from Afghanistan was ‘regrettable’.

Military chiefs are now making final preparations to remove the prince from the front line and fly him back to Britain.

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Harry had sworn to quit the Army if he was not sent to fight

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, Prince Harry, taliban