The Pakistan Update

Courtesy: AP Opinion:

The attacks on Ahmedi mosques that killed over 80 people once again underline that such terrorism is unstoppable until you get at the infrastructure that trains and guides these terrorists

Terrorists (Punjabi Taliban) simultaneously attacked two Ahmedi sect mosques in Lahore during Friday prayers and killed over 80 people. First thoughts on this evil attack: The choice of target is easy to understand. Ahmedis are a persecuted and vilified minority in Pakistan and “mainstream” news organizations feel no compunction about attacking them, so the ground is already prepared. e.g. (more…)

Tags: Ahmedis, Featured, Jihadists, Lahore attacks, Pakistani Taliban, Punjabi Taliban, Taliban, Terrorism

Posted in Blog, News | 1,216 Comments »

By Prof Ishtiaq Ahmed

A controversy is raging in Pakistan these days over the events that led to the execution on April 30, 2010 of a former ISI agent, Khalid Khawaja by a hitherto unknown group called the Asian Tigers. He was found dead in Miranshah, North Waziristan on April 30, 2010 — a month after being kidnapped by the Asian Tigers. He had gone there along with the legendary Colonel Imam (Sultan Amir Tarar) and a Pakistani-origin UK journalist Saad Qureshi who was making a documentary on the life of Colonel Imam. Khalid Khawaja’s body was found riddled with bullets. A written note left by the executioners stated that such was the fate of all agents of the US. Khalid Khawaja was a squadron leader in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) before he changed career to become an ISI officer. He was very close to Osama bin Laden. Apparently he was dismissed from the (more…)

Tags: Al Qaeda, Hamid Mir, ISI, Khalid Khawaja, Osama Bin Laden, Punjabi Taliban, Taliban, Terrorism

Posted in Blog | 2,228 Comments »

By Dr Manzur Ejaz

We may console ourselves by parroting the ‘conspiracy against Pakistan’ mantra over and over but the fact remains that most bombers are traced back to Pakistan. American-Jewish-Hindu conspirators may be out there to target Pakistan, but how does one explain the failed Times Square bombing attempt by Faisal Shahzad, or Aimal Kansi, all originating from Pakistan? It is a puzzling question if one goes a bit deeper.

Afghanistan is occupied by the US, Palestine by Israel and Kashmir by India, but how come none of the terrorists caught in Mumbai, Washington or New York is an Afghan, Palestinian or Kashmiri? Why do the nationals of these countries struggle on their own land instead of throwing bombs in far off places like Mumbai and New York? (more…)

Tags: conspiracy, Featured, ISI, Mumbai Attacks, muslim countries, Pakistan, Taliban, Terrorism, Times Square

Posted in Blog | 2,001 Comments »

By Pervez Hoodbhoy

The man who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square was a Pakistani. Why is this unsurprising? Answer: because when you hold a burning match to a gasoline tank, the laws of chemistry demand combustion. As anti-American lava spews uninterrupted from the fiery volcanoes of Pakistan’s private television channels and newspapers, a collective psychosis grips the country’s youth. Murderous intent follows with the conviction that the US is responsible for all ills, both in Pakistan and the world of Islam.

Faisal Shahzad, with designer sunglasses and an MBA degree from the University of Bridgeport, acquired that murderous intent. Living his formative years in Karachi, he typifies the young Pakistani who grew up in the shadow of (more…)

Tags: Democracy, Drone Attacks, Featured, ISI, Military, New York, NY, Pak army, Terrorism, Times Square, US Aid

Posted in Blog, News | 2,331 Comments »

By Sol W. Sanders – World Tribune

The Battle of Pakistan is underway. While slower minds concentrate on the Israel-Arab conflict, the largest Muslim nation — 150 million — is near a death rattle.

For ironically, like Israel, Pakistan is a miracle with multitudinous contradictions. It was, after all, a poetic notion that the British Indian Empire was two “nations”, one overwhelmingly majority Hindu, one minority Muslim. Muslim leadership turned after dominating “Indian” nationalism for almost a century before Mohandas Gandhi arrived, arguing the two communities could not live together. In fact, Pakistan’s founders maintained a “modern” state could only be created in the (more…)

Tags: Beijing, china, Featured, India, Islamabad, Israel, New Delhi, Pakistan, Terrorism, US

Posted in Blog | 2,232 Comments »

A delegation of senior military officers of Pakistan Army, Navy, and Air Force from National Defence University (NDU) of Pakistan visited Sri Lanka on a study tour from April through May 01.

The Pakistani military team headed by Air Commodore Nadeem Anjum of Pakistan Air Force was in Colombo to learn about the anti-insurgency operations conducted by the Sri Lankan Army against the LTTE.

The visiting delegation met the Army Commander Lieutenant (more…)

Tags: LTTE, Pakistan Army, Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers, Terrorism

Posted in News | 228 Comments »

By Trudy Rubin – Philadephia Inquirer

One year ago, this frontier city and its surrounding districts were under siege by the Taliban.

But things here have changed dramatically over the past 12 months in ways helpful to the U.S. effort in Afghanistan. The Pakistani armed forces have undertaken a major anti-Taliban offensive in nearby areas along the Afghan border.

Some U.S. officials and experts contend that Pakistan’s military is playing a double game – attacking Pakistani Taliban groups that threaten the state, while avoiding Afghan Taliban with whom it has long ties, and whom it views as crucial to peace talks in Afghanistan.
Yet this argument overlooks how much the Pakistani military’s attitude toward the Afghan Taliban has also changed (which I’ll write more about in a subsequent column). And it distracts attention from its impressive gains on the ground. (more…)

Tags: Afghan Taliban, Al Qaeda, Featured, haqqani network, India, Kashmir, NATO, Pakistan Military, Swat, Swat Operation, Taliban, Terrorism, War on Terror

Posted in Blog | 2,248 Comments »

By Faiz Lalani

Since founding, Pakistan has supported insurgencies and terrorism, training and funding groups as a tool of warfare against a burgeoning giant next door, India. In 1947, barely two months into independence, Islamabad ordered lashkars — or insurgent armies — to raid Kashmir after the Maharaja decided that the Muslim-majority state would join India, cementing a pattern Pakistan’s establishment would follow decades later. Pakistan to this day covertly aides Kashmiri insurgents (though recent reports suggest that the support is now at an ebb), and India refuses to negotiate over Kashmir until Pakistan rids the region of terrorism. It is the lack of a permanent peaceful solution between India and Pakistan that provided — and provides — the impetus for Pakistani terrorism. (more…)

Tags: Foreign Policy, India, Indo Pak peace process, Kashmir, Lashkar e Taiba, Mumbai Attacks, Pak-India Relations, Pakistan, Terrorism

Posted in Around, Blog, India | 1,705 Comments »

In almost every briefing pertaining to South Asia, the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke says that he won’t use the ‘K word,’ by which he means Kashmir. This is sensible of him, knowing that any statement could escalate into an exchange of hot words between India and Pakistan (and India has made it clear it has no intention of bowing down before an meddling intermediary). Hence Ambassador Holbrooke understands the seriousness of the situation and thus avoids the “K” issue.

There is another increasingly controversial “K” that U.S. officials should refrain from using, especially in a derogatory manner. And that “K” stands for Karzai. (more…)

Tags: Abdullah Abdullah, Af-Pak, Afghanistan, AfPak, Ambassador Holbrooke, Barack Obama, CIA, Featured, Hamid Karzai, Insurgency, Pakistan, President Obama, Richard Halbrooke, Taliban, Talks with Taliban, Terrorism, us media, War on Terror

Posted in Afghanistan, Around, Blog | 1,191 Comments »

By Dr Manzur Ejaz

Pakistan is going into a strategic dialogue with the US, believing that it has staged a policy coup against India withreference to Afghanistan. There are many versions of the coup, making it hard for commoners like us to believe which one is true. Furthermore, the question arises if Pakistan’s new or rehashed policy is based on emerging economic realities in Afghanistan or the old assumptions.

One version of the policy coup against India tells us that Pakistan has shown the US that it has all the cards to set the future policy in Afghanistan by establishing its writ in Swat, Malakand and South Waziristan and by arresting key Taliban and al Qaeda leaders. It is highly probable that arrests of key Taliban leaders were meant to scuttle a deal being negotiated between Kabul and the insurgents without (more…)

Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Bilateral Talks, India, Pak US relations, Taliban, Terrorism, US Aid, Zahir Shah

Posted in Afghanistan, Blog | 901 Comments »