Pakistan: Now or Never?
Perspectives on Pakistan
India turns up the heat on Pakistan, where will this end?
The language is deliberate, the signals unmistakable: India is turning up the heat on Pakistan for the Mumbai attacks that have killed at least 195 people, and there is no knowing where this downward spiral in ties between the uneasy neighbours will end.
Beginning with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s warning that a cost will have to be paid by neighbouring nations that allow militants to operate, to Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s direct call to Islamabad to “dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism”, there is a sharp, cold edge to the tone that you can’t miss even factoring in the immediate anger and sense of outrage the attacks have evoked across India.
Then the signs: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in India on a previously scheduled visit to review the peace process packing his bags and heading home because Indian political leaders cancelled meetings with him following the attacks.
We have been here before, for sure. A 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, for which like the Mumbai attacks, the Lashkar-i-Taiba was blamed, triggered a set of measures by New Delhi including breaking sporting and cultural links, downgrading diplomatic relations, and the deployment of the military in full combat readiness all along the Pakistan border.
That military stand-off ended six months later after considerable diplomatic pressure from the United States, Britain and other powers worried about two nuclear-armed nations on the brink of war.
So what are the options for Delhi this time around, beyond striking a menacing posture to force Pakistan to go after elements there which it believes are responsible for violence in India?
The patience of the world is running out. Pakistani leadership needs to deal with the Islamists quickly and forcefully. Pakistan IS the problem in this region of the world and for the sake of the many law abiding citizens of Pakistan their leadership needs to get its act together quickly. Time is running out.
Battleground India but Delhi clueless?
An attack of the scale and sophistication unleashed on Mumbai would not be possible without months of planning, and yet it completely went below India’s intelligence radar.
Indeed, so unaware were the security agencies that even when the attacks began, the first reaction was these were probably gangland shootings that India’s financial capital is known for. So if the agencies have been so clueless about an attack so mammoth in its sweep, the question experts are beginning to ask is how safe are India’s vital assets?
The nuclear facilities for instance ? A chilling thought but one that must be answered, says B. Raman, a former top officer at India’s Research and Analysis Wing. “I shiver and sweat at the thought of what is waiting to happen tomorrow and where. The mind boggles as one tries to think and figure out how the terrorists could have planned and carried out terrorist strikes of such magnitude, territorial spread and ferocity without our intelligence and police having been able to get scent of it,” Raman, one of India’s foremost intelligence experts, wrote. “I could not sleep the whole of last night. One question, which kept bothering me again and again was : how safe are our nuclear establishments and material?”
Of course nuclear installations are far more heavily guarded than a public place such as a hotel, hospital or a railway station and Raman probably means to rouse what he thinks is an establishment gone into deep slumber. But after the attacks on Mumbai, no longer can Indian experts be be going around saying Pakistan is unique in not having a grip on the militant threat. After repeated attacks beginning in Varanasi last year to Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi twice this year and finally Mumbai, and still no wiser as to who is behind them, New Delhi looks as much at sea as its counterpart in Islamabad.
It is sad that those claiming the moral high ground in today’s world, the religious leaders, propagate organizations that cultivate extremists. If religions continue to behave in an uncivilized manner, maybe the time has come for civilization to benefit itself by making faith a private matter only and no longer a global menace
Frankly this whole thing is just bizzare. The americans who thing there are the kings of the world are trying to provoke both pakistan and india to have war like they did in 1946 when they seperated and became different countries. And even if someone from pakistan did bomb mumbai, then its a small group, why harm the whole country for a small group of people. Its totally unfair. and plus so many bombings have happened in pakistan in the past; pakistan has never gone blaming india are taking real big action against india. Everyones just getting too hyped up about the whole sistuation nd not understanding that the real culprits should be punished and not a whole nation.I’m not going to be biased about anything because everyone is human and well; this world has this thing against muslims anyways; where ever terrorism comes, oh its muslims and the next target muslim country is pakistan and totally unfair;you cant just wipe out a country because you say a few people from that country bombed mumbai. For god sake. Thats just being stubborn. next thing you knwo, oh an earthquakes apperared and its pakistan.all everyone needs to do is sit and think; without being biased
Pakistan’s Zardari: a little bit Pakistani and a little bit Indian
“There is a little bit of Indian in every Pakistani and a little bit of Pakistani in every Indian and I speak today as a Pakistani, as much as the little Indian in me”- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari quoting his assassinated wife Benazir Bhutto.
Words spoken straight from the heart, and directly to the millions of families on either side of the border, mine included, with common customs, language and roots until severed by Partition into two nations, two people unable or unwilling to live at peace with each other ever since.
Zardari was addressing a conference in New Delhi via videolink where he also unveiled a proposal to commit his smaller nation to a no first use nuclear policy, highlighted in an earlier post on this blog.
But he also spoke about making it easy for people to travel to each country, perhaps with some kind of an electronic card. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has also proposed visa free travel between the two countries, an idea so daring given the tortured India-Pakistan relationship in which most of us grew up up thinking the other to be enemy number 1, that it has been quietly allowed to languish.
But what of India ? Is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of those whose ancestral home falls on the other side of the border, up to it ? (more…)
I think that i have heard enough of what Islam means …what it is supposed to do and what not…..
I want to ask only a few simple plain questions …
why is it that there is a wide scope of misinterpretation of quaran ?
Why only quran,…..why not the bible or gita or guru granth sahib or any other religious book infact..
Why do all the religious militants have to be Muslims ?
They have troubles with Christians , Hindus , Jews , animals ,cd players , Dvd’s , statues , history and what not.
Jokes go where pundits fear to tread
One of the most common questions I get asked by Pakistani acquaintances is: “Where is this country going?”
After watching the tumultuous events of the past couple of years, and knowing that 12 months ago the idea of Asif Ali Zardari becoming president figured nowhere on my list of scenarios, I’ve learned to hedge.
“It will probably get worse before it gets better” always seems like a safe response in Pakistan, as it seldom seems to get better for long.
More imaginative Pakistanis however compiled their vision of the future in 2020 with a mock-up front page of Dawn that’s been circulated through e-mail.
The headlines were, of course, humorous, though there is probably an uneasy feeling among many people that perhaps the jokes could come true.
Working from the top down: Petrol Prices Hiked – 440Rs/Ltr President Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has removed his uniform President Ashfaq to visit neighbouring country Balochland Seminar on the 9th Death anniversary of Sharif Brothers & Zardari Pakistan Rupee hits record low, crosses 178 per dollar Geo TV is back after 12 year ban Will Osama be captured? Pakistan Lost The Series against Hong Kong Shoaib completed his 12 year ban Imran still not satisfied Meera’s 25th Birthday
Okay, well you have to be Pakistani, or Indian, to understand some of those jokes.
This is the time when India and Pakistan join hands and embrace each others as long-lost brothers, and forget about all past differences for a new dawn and for the betterment of next generation. Religion is not going to solve any problems of people living within the boundaries of these two nations. These nations were created by zealots disappeared long time ago from the face of this earth, and left others to suffer. Good Luck!!!
America’s expanding war in Pakistan
U.S. military operations crossed another threshold in Pakistan this week when a Predator ‘drone’ aircraft fired missiles into Bannu area in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), away from the seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas where it has conducted raids with impunity.
Attacking the self-governing and semi-autonomous FATA on the Afghan border, considered a haven for al Qaeda and Taliban, is one thing. Targeting the North West Frontier Province, or settled areas as Pakistanis call it, is quite another.
This is a province governed by the national assembly – unlike the tribal areas which are not subject to the national assembly – and therefore represents an expansion of U.S. operating area into Pakistan proper.
Pakistanis are worrying that if the United States can attack deep inside the North West Frontier Province, then what stops them from raining down missiles on Pakistani cities in pursuit of al Qaeda, according to a report in The Hindu. They are wondering just how far will the United States go in its battle against the militants. (more…)
Even though a geo-political line has been crossed by attacking Bannu, US has been successful in eliminating the top rung leaders of Al-Qaeda.
US has made its intention clears when Mr. Obama said that he will act if Pakistan deosnt have the will or means to take out Al-Qaeda & Bin Laden. It seems there is a lack of will on Pak side to act. Everytime after a missile strike, details are revealed that some senior members and foreign nationals being eliminated. Though Pak has suffered collateral damage in these strikes the best way out for Pakistan from this jihadi mess is to support the war on terror. It shall be a difficult task for Mr. Zardari to convince his citizens to support this war, but the future of pakistan lies in who wins this war.
Post Kargil, India contemplated of eliminating training camps in PoK by cross-border raids. US is now doing the same. What you cannot do as an ememy can be done by being a friend.
US and Israel together with the UK have security issues therefore they fear the world but sorry for them it\’s a new world rising and finally people now stand up together… No one will be bullied.
http://thetruereligion.wordpress.com
you guys out to blame each other on the political diversity or talking about navy might either the talibans,fidyaeens and the corrupt politicians in pakistan throughout the same nook or corner the suffering is only paid by common persons.Same is the scenario in the viscinity for the indians the dead root politicians, Laskhre toiba singing the swan song of Kashmir on the name of prophet and killing innocent which prophet will receive to the hell of killing innocent live either it is the bomb blast in Mariot hotel in Karachi and the killing of the people in Taj. By using nuke and the byproducts of western people to destroy the calmness of this subcontinent and by merely mudslinging no one will be benefited .My dear counterparts either pakistani or indian create the world as harmonious as europe so that the western will sing the song of our expertise either it is the natural beauty of swat valley in pak and the flourishing tea garden in darjelling .Let peace prevail that is Gita and Quran??else everything lies on you
Indian media has posted pictures of so-called terrorist and say they were muslims and from Pakistan, however the truth is otherwise because the picture clearly shows terrorist was wearing thread band on his right hand which is symbol of hinduism and they wear it to have success in their mission.
Please people watch out. Whoever did this deplorable act wins if both countries fall into their trap and suspend peace talks and recent warming up of relations between both countries.If these countries go back to confontration guess who wins. The crazies with ulterior motives.