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Posts tagged with: Conflict
Oct 24, 2012    |       2 comments

The Battle for Malala

A brutal attack on an innocent little girl has finally nudged awake our sleepy collective conscience. Will this be the long awaited moment of truth, or will Malala be remembered as just one of those endless sad events that have now come to be part of our daily existence?

Both claiming to be defenders of Islam, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the savage militants operating from what they term as Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, are locked in a bloody war of survival. What are the strengths, weaknesses, differences and commonalities of the two warring sides, and what are the chances of success for Pakistan? Let us look at a few key performance indicators.

Despite their convoluted mindset, the Taliban seem to know much more about what they are doing, who their enemy is and why they must attack a certain individual. The state, on the other hand, seems completely clueless. It was the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who announced that they had carried out the attack on Malala and that it had nothing to do with education. Their spokesperson explained with great clarity that they attacked Malala for her pioneering role in preaching secularism and moderation. On the other hand, the closest the Pakistani parliament could come was to name the enemy as some “savages and beasts”. Surely a chicken-hearted, inept and amorphous approach towards such a grave situation.

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Nov 4, 2009    |       110 comments

New Iran – New Intentions

Guest blog by Ishaal Zehra

The attack which killed the National Deputy Commander of the ground forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (RG), General Noor Ali Shooshtari and the provincial commander for Sistan-Baluchistan, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh along with some senior officers and 42 others in a homicide bombing inflicted Iran’s worst military casualties in years.

Quick after the mishap, an Iranian military official went as far as to raise the prospect of a possible military offensive into Pakistan against the group blamed for the attack. “There is even unanimity that these operations (could) take place in Pakistan territory,” the ISNA news agency quoted MP Payman Forouzesh as saying. While the headquarters of Iran’s armed forces blamed the bombing on “terrorists” backed by “the Great Satan America and its ally Britain,” Fars News Agency said Sunday.

Islamabad strongly denied the allegations and said the attack was an attempt to “spoil ties” with Iran. “There are forces which are out to spoil our relations with Iran. But our ties are strong enough to counter these machinations,” said the Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit while dismissing the allegations.
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Oct 29, 2009    |       13 comments

Different Flavors of Public Protest in India and Pakistan

india-pakistanIndians and Pakistanis are discussing the leadership crisis in their respective countries, but for different reasons and with different implications. India’s inability to wield influence on the world stage is being blamed on the lack of good leadership. In Pakistan, people feel that the political leaders have failed to instill confidence and provide direction when the country is consumed by the threat of terrorism. Are these leadership demands signs of widening and maturing democracy in the two countries? Or are the Indians and Pakistanis wanting to re-live the hope and optimism characterizing the era of Nehru and Jinnah? Whatever may be the rationale, the demand for better leadership is showing different traits of the public in India and Pakistan.

Dawn Columnist, Cyril Almedia wrote a timely article, “Where are you, our leaders”, on the October 23, 2009. The opening lines of his column are illustrative of what many Pakistanis are thinking:

As the country burns, parents agonize over whether to send their children to school or not, offices of businesses local and foreign ramp up their security measures, the average citizen thinks twice before venturing into crowded locales or government buildings, a simple question for our leaders: where are you? Where are you, President Zardari? Where are you, Prime Minister Gilani? Where are you, Nawaz Sharif?
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Dec 14, 2008    |       9 comments

Indian Jets intrude Pakistani Airspace – a technical analyses

Considering the heated debate surrounding the Indian Jet ‘inadvertently’ invading Pakistani airspace yesterday afternoon.  Saad Abdullah analyses the situation in detail, he believes the Indians deliberately needed to test the preparedness of the PAF which has inferior aircrafts.  But considering the quick intercept done within 4km of the intrusion it does go to show that PAF has truly outdone its readiness. The article analyses the controversy from both sides of the argument, what might be the Indian agenda and conversely the poor political response by the Pakistani government which has cowered behind accepting it to be a mere technical error, without so much as issuing a strong condemnation.  Bottom line, hats off to the Pakistan Air Force for having stood their ground – Read the entire article on Saad Abdullah’s Blog

Sep 29, 2008    |      Comments Off on The News reports on PR Seminar with Hamid Mir

The News reports on PR Seminar with Hamid Mir

Most militants fighting to avenge military actions’
Published in The News: Monday, September 29, 2008

When Corps Commander Ali Jan Orakzai had deployed troops for the first time in Mohmand Agency in 2003, he gave an impression that the military intended to build schools, hospitals and roads there but he rather launched an operation against the militants that ultimately created further problems for civilians, as a result separatist tendency increased there. And this was the beginning of the conflict there.

Senior journalist Hamid Mir said this while speaking at a seminar “Military action in Fata, reality, myths and implications”, held at Justice Cornelius Library of the newly built National Law University, Clifton, on Sunday.

“The concept of Pakistan has almost ended there as the insurgency is taking shape of separatism,” he added.

According to him, there exist around 10-15 militant groups, which are not Taliban and they are not well organized. “They lack command structure and sometimes they also fight with each other. They are insurgents and separatists,” he claimed.
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Sep 17, 2008    |       8 comments

CBS ’60 Minutes’ edited Ahmadinejad’s comment on Israel/Palestine: ‘Solution Is Democracy’

About two years ago CBS ’60 Minutes’ did an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Recently at the request of the Iranian President, the FULL UNEDITED version was shown on C-SPAN. The aired edited 60 Minutes was followed by the full 90-minute interview, to give viewers a window on what is left on the cutting room floor

A very diligent blogger has reported on what “60 Minutes” cut out of the interview when it initially aired. When Mike Wallace confronted Ahmadinejad with the “wipe Israel off the map” threats, Ahmadinejad said that “the solution is democracy” in Israel and Palestine, but it seems the CBS team decided to cut this all important section and continued to paint this leader in a negative view.

We can see what they cut out, a call for democracy. This is another example of Mainstream Media’s continuing suppression of basic facts concerning Israel and the Palestinians and other dramatic details related to the Middle East. It is a scandal for news editors to suppress the fact that democracy is being denied to people and that U.S. policy makers are behind the injustices. It is a scandal that the mainstream media suppresses the fact that the President of Iran is calling for democracy.

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