Tag Archive | "Lal Masjid"

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Are Liberals to blame for Pakistan’s Extremism?

Posted on 11 February 2012 by Tea Server

Kashif. N. Chaudary

Imran Khan is Pakistan’s sports superstar. His philanthropy is also admirable. This, however, does not mean I should not exercise my right to criticize Khan’s politics. Sadly,Imran Khan’s followers do not take criticism all that well. Anyone who calls him Taliban Khan is quickly ascribed a set of views and labeled a “pseudo-liberal” and “fascist”.

In a recent interview, Imran Khan said he believed in engaging the far right and justified being represented at rallies of extremist groups by stating that his was a political party that believed in engaging marginalized groups. Will Imran Khan also engage the ostracized Ahmadi Muslims, Hindus and Christians of Pakistan? Or is his engagement limited to those that preach and execute their killings?

Imran Khan has been represented at rallies organized by banned terrorist outfits such as the Jamaat-ud Dawa and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. His vice president has spoken at pro-Mumtaz Qadri rallies and has been in attendance at anti-Ahmadi rallies organized by the extremist Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. Khan believes this approach of friendship with the radical right will help bring them to the center. It will soften them and with time, allow them to shun their extremist ideology.

If Imran Khan genuinely believes in coherence, he should employ the same approach of engagement with the far left to make them more centrist, right? Surprisingly, he ridicules them openly, calling them “the scum of Pakistan.” He does not stop at that. He also blames all the extremism in Pakistan on the liberals living within. For example, in a recent interview, he said:

“These liberals. I don’t know these liberals, because these liberals back bombing of villages. They back drone attacks. I mean, I don’t call them liberals. I call them fascists. In my book these people are fascists…Because of them we have extremism in this country these liberals, so called liberals, applauded the incineration, where they bombed this mosque when there were children and women in it, students in it. And these liberals were in the forefront. I don’t call them liberals. I agree. I really think these are the scum of this country.”

Let me remind Imran Khan that liberals were not in the forefront at Lal Masjid. It was the Army. Also, drones do not take off from atop liberals’ houses; they take off from army bases. But I understand it is much easier to criticize vulnerable unarmed liberals than take on the Military-Mullah nexus.

I am flabbergasted. I am also confused. Does Imran Khan and his die-hard fans really understand the words he uses? A fascist is a person who is dictatorial and suppresses criticism and opposition through use of force. Scum refers to a low life, worthless or evil person.

I am yet to meet a “so-called liberal” who bombs mosques and attacks shrines. I am yet to see a “so-called liberal” who kills fellow Pakistanis citing differences of faith. I have never come across a “so-called liberal” who persecutes Pakistan’s very own minorities and razes their places of worship. I am yet to come across a “so-called liberal” who delivers sermons of hate against Shia and Ahmadi Muslims, inciting their killings.

Let me remind Imran Khan that it is the religious fanatics he engages that are the real fascists and the real scum of Pakistan. It is they that are responsible for all the extremism in the country.  Lest he has forgotten, it is they that bomb mosques and shrines. It is they that murder fellow Pakistanis they despise, namely the Ahmadi and Shia Muslims, and non-Muslim Pakistanis. It is they that have made life in Pakistan a living hell for everyone, especially its minorities. It is they that spread hate and incite violence against any and all voices of reason and moderation. Many have had to flee after being threatened by these bigots.

Now, why the far left liberals should be considered scum and unworthy of engagement while those who openly carry out and endorse acts of terror be considered worthy of engagement is beyond me!  Why must only the far right be brought to the center and the far left subjected to ridicule and left isolated? Why must one end of our political divide be
befriended and the other rejected? Above all, why must the heavy burden of sins of one be taken off its shoulder and placed on the shoulders of the other?

Is this justice? Is this Insaaf?

Imran Khan’s justice appears to favor the rightist and the strong. Unless he garners courage to blame extremism on those that actually perpetrate it and relieve the “so-called liberals” of unbefitting slander, his party will increasingly be seen as TPI (Tehreek-e-Pseudo Insaaf) and not PTI.

God Save Pakistan!

Syndicated from: Pak Tea House

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Battlefront Pakistan: A Political Retrospective of 2011

Posted on 04 February 2012 by Tea Server

What were the biggest events of 2011 that impacted Pakistan’s internal security and foreign policy imperatives?

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Incidents involving Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan

Posted on 28 January 2012 by Tea Server

2012
  • January 2: Chief of ASWJ Aurangzaib Farooqui and three others were booked in December 31, 2011 murder case of Shia leader Askari Raza on Rashid Minhas Road in Karachi, while SSP of the CID’s AEC Chaudhry Aslam also came under interrogation. DIG South Commander Shaukat said that SSP Aslam was automatically suspended since he came under investigation. ASWJ spokesman Taj Hanfi termed the decision as conspiracy against his organisation. The Shia protesters were demanding lodging of an FIR against the killers and taking prompt action against Chaudhry Aslam, who is said to be involved in killing.
2011
  • December 29: At least ten people, including journalists, were injured in a clash between two sectarian groups in Khairpur District. Armed men from both sects continued aerial fire, though a heavy bout of tear gassing by the police forced many to leave. The markets in the area have been closed and Khairpur is reportedly deserted, save for the Police and Rangers patrolling the streets. Other reports claimed that there was a virtual curfew-like situation as no one was allowed on the streets. People are afraid of the clash escalating further because the tussle is between two religious groups,” said a citizen, Irfan Phulpoto. He said that the tense areas were Nao Goth, the stronghold of one group and Panj Gula, the stronghold of another sect. Some 600 Policemen and 200 Rangers officers were reportedly deputed to patrol.
  • According to the report, SSP has a considerable presence in Khairpur District. In 2009, SSP leader Allama Sher Hyderi was killed in the District. SSP leader Malik Ishaq is accused of killing 70 people in over 40 cases.
  • December 26: ASWJ strongly condemned Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s December 25, 2011 allegations regarding the SSP involvement in the March 2, 2011 murder of former Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti. ASWJ leaders rejected the allegations levelled at their organisation declaring the statement deceiving and misleading. The organization’s Central Deputy Secretary Allama Masoodur Rehman Usmani and its Islamabad patron Chief Maulana Abdul Razaq Haidri in their joint statement said that the Interior Minister had continuously blamed their party to hide the Federal Government’s failure in solving the murder case.
  • According to reports, ASWJ had decided to approach the court regarding Malik’s allegations. The organisation claimed that Malik’s allegation, against them, was due to pressure from external forces. They added that this was to create a rift between Muslims and Christians and that the allegations have no credibility. ASWJ demanded that Malik should provide evidence and present it in court or else the party will challenge his allegations in court. They reiterated that their organisation had no links with terrorism, “We never talk about avenging the death of one person by killing a 100.”
  • December 25: Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik said that red warrants for assassins of former Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti had been issued and soon they would be brought to justice. “The two assassins are activists of the banned outfit SSP. They had managed to reach Middle East. However, we are making efforts for their arrest and will bring them back to the country,” he said.
  • December 6: Two policemen were injured when SSP militants pelted the Ashura procession in Jhang District.
  • November 28: About 100 suspects from two outfits were arrested in an overnight operation, following the November 27, 2011 killings of two Security Force personnel at a Shia camp in Numaish Chowrangi area in Karachi. Rangers and Police cracked down on the SSP – that works under the new name ASWJ, and LeJ activists.
  • November 27: Two SF personnel, identified as Zain-ul-Abideen and Azhar Hussain were shot dead and 11 others wounded when some participants of a protest rally organized by SSP opened indiscriminate fire on Shia camps at Numaish Chowrangi area while returning from Karachi Press Club in Karachi. SSP had organized a rally against the November 26, 2011 NATO attack in Mohmand Agency of FATA that killed 25 SFs. Abideen was affiliated with Butarab Scout and Hussain was serving for Pak Hyderi Scout camp. Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Hussain Wasan claimed to have arrested 16 armed assailants near Aalmi Majlis-e-Khatm-e-Nabowat and ordered officials to conduct an independent inquiry into the incident.
  • November 14: A cadre of a SSP, identified as Abdul Rehman, was shot dead at his clinic in Babar Market within the limits of Landhi Police Station. Rehman was a resident of Zamanabad Landhi. “He belonged to the Ahl-e-Hadees sect and was said to have been trained in Afghanistan.” Some say that he was affiliated to a banned outfit. However, Inquiry Officer Abdul Latif said that it was unclear if the victim was affiliated to any banned outfit.
  • October 30: The Malir town President of SSP, Jabbar Qureshi was shot dead while his companion, Imdadullah, injured in a target killing incident at Korangi Crossing in Karachi.
  • October 24: Police recovered two hand grenades, detonators and 75 cartridges from the house of a SSP cadre in Dera Ismail Khan. Cantonment SHO Mohammad Nawaz Gandapur said that they were informed that Imran Ali and Jamshed Mohammad, both cadres of SSP, were hiding in the house of Merajuddin Mehsud in Gulshan Jamil Colony. “We raided the house but didn’t find the activists there. However, we arrested Merajuddin Mehsud for possessing illegal arms and registered a case against him under Anti-Terrorism Act,” he said.
  • August 18: An armed clash between the activists of Sunni Tehreek (ST) and SSP claimed two lives, while four others were injured in Godhra within the limits of New Karachi Industrial Area. The clash started between two religious parties before Iftar, when two armed groups opened fire at each other. Resultantly, two persons, one Ghulam Dastagir and another Taufeeq, Mohammad Hussain, died on the spot, while four others Akhter, Shahnaz Bibi, Siraj received bullet injuries. Leader of Jama’at Ulema Pakistan (JUP), Tariq Mehboob claimed that victim Ghulam Dastagir was an activist of his party.
  • July 1: SSP and Sunni Tehreek cadres exchanged fire over the control of a hospital located near Muslim Stop in Godhra area of New Karachi locality killing seven cadres and injuring seven others.
  • June 30: A clash between two religious groups, Sunni Tehreek and ASWJ, formerly known as SSP, claimed three lives, including one woman, and injured 12 others in Godhra area of New Karachi.
  • June 27: One Kashif Wakeel, a cadre of ASWJ, formerly known as SSP, was shot dead at Do Minute Chowrangi in the remits of Bilal Colony Police Station in Karachi.
  • June 8: Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, an adviser to the Prime Minister after his visit to a jail in Haripur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province came up with the observation that jails have become breeding grounds for extremists because outfits like the TTP and the SSP have taken their “ideological campaign” to prisoners.
  • April 22: A former cadre of SSP, identified as Mohammed Nadeem, was shot dead in Sharea Faisal near Star Gate.
  • March 6: A SSP cadre, Zeeshan, was killed and his friend Mansoor sustained injuries in an incident of target killing in Orangi Town within the limits of Iqbal Market Police Station in Karachi.
  • March 5: The SSP ‘leader’ Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Madni, who is also the brother of slain party chief Maulana Azam Tariq, was shot dead along with his son Abu Bakar in an incident of targeted killing in the Khawaja Ajmair Nagri Police Station area of Karachi.
  • March 4: A SSP cadre, Syed Muzafar Alam Nomani, was shot dead in Burmy Colony within the limits of Landhi Police Station in Karachi. Sources said that the slain cadre was the custodian of Madrassas Omar bin Abdul Aziz situated at Jumma Goth and was the vice President of the Burmy unit of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) formerly known as SSP.
2010
  • December 29: A cadre of SSP, Imran, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Sector 11-G near Nullah Stop in the limits of New Karachi Industrial Area Police station.
  • December 27: Five persons, including a minor girl, were killed and three others were injured in sectarian violence in different parts of Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.
  • November 28: A local leader of the SSP, Abdur Rehman, was killed while his friend, Mohammed Faisal, injured in the Sharifabad Police Station area of Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.
  • November 27: The Government announced a reward of PNR 10 million to anyone providing information about the TTP. “The government will make arrangements to settle the informers and their families anywhere in the country, even abroad, if they fear that the Taliban might hurt them,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. Rehman Malik said that most militants belonged to the LeJ and SSP.
  • October 28: A SSP militant, identified as Abdullah, son of Amanullah, was arrested by Police under Chaki Wara Police Station area near Lyari Town in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.
  • October 5: A teacher of the Jamia Binoria Al Almia shot dead in Site area. Police said 50-year-old Maulana Mohammad Amin was going to visit his relatives when at least four assailants fired from the front and rear at the jeep he was driving. According to the Police, Maulana Amin was once associated with the SSP as its divisional chief in Karachi and later quit the party after it was banned.
  • September 24: Police arrested SSP leader Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi from Jhang in Punjab.
  • August 2: Interior Minister Rehman Malik, however, accused SSP for the assassination of Haider. Talking to reporters at the Parliament House, Malik said there were reports of death threats to Haider’s life, which had been conveyed to certain senior officials.
  • July 11: The SFs arrested at least 53 suspects, including the former chief of the SSP, during the ongoing crackdown against banned organisations in Southern Punjab. Sources said that Police arrested former SSP ‘chief’ Tanveer and 19 other suspects of the same outfit from Khanewal.
  • July 1: A cadre of the SSP, Qari Noor Muhammad (35), was shot dead in Khokhrapar Police Station area of Karachi. Sources said Qari Noor Muhammad, a Pesh-Imam of a mosque, and his friend Muneer (35), received bullet wounds when four assailants riding on two motorcycles opened fire at them while they were sitting outside the mosque.
  • June 14: A leader of the SSP was shot dead by two unidentified assailants in the Mobina Town Police limits at Karachi in Sindh.
  • June 5: Unidentified assailants riding a motorcycle shot dead a SSP cadre, Shehzad (25), in Petal Wali Gali under Gulbahar Police Station area of Karachi in Sindh.
  • May 28: A person belonging to the Shia community was killed and some others were wounded in a clash between two rival sects at Islam Chowk in Orangi Town of Karachi in Sindh. The clash took place between activists of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), the frontal organisation of SSP, and a Shia group. The slained Shia person was identified as Shehzad alias Sajju.
  • April 23: A Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) cadre, Athar Jadoon, who was injured in an attack, succumbed to his injuries. Athar was shot at near the Darul Uloom at Korangi in Karachi on April 22.
  • April 22: A senior cadre of the SSP, Athar, was critically injured following a shot at incident near Darul Uloom locality under Awami Colony Police Station of Korangi town in Karachi. Landhi Town SP Haider Sultan said the incident occurred in Sector 28 of Korangi where unidentified assailants opened fire on the victim Athar while he was passing by on his motorcycle.
  • March 30: A SSP cadre was shot dead by unidentified motorcyclists in Karachi. According to the Police, the deceased, Mohammed Nisaar, was sitting at his shop in Godhraan Camp Wali Gali, when four men on two motorcycles came over and opened indiscriminate fire at him, killing him on the spot. The four men managed to escape after leaving a motorcycle behind.
  • March 11: An attempt was also made on Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, a leader of the SSP, in which he was injured, while his son lost his life. Maulana Ghafoor Nadeem was shot at on his way to the city courts near Annu Bhai Park in Nazimabad in Karachi.
  • March 2: The Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the SSP and TTP were involved in terrorist activities in the country and warned of strict action against them. Referring to the SSP, the interior minister said it had close links to al-Qaeda and Taliban. Malik also added that he was facing serious life threats himself and had received threatening letters.
2009
  • November 20: In a suspected sectarian incident, the general secretary of the banned Sunni outfit SSP Karachi chapter, Engineer Ilyas Zubair, was shot dead and provincial information secretary, Qari Shafiqur Rehman Alvi, wounded at Teen Hatti under the Jamshed Quarters Police Station jurisdiction in Karachi. The two men were going to a mosque near Teen Hatti shrine, when unidentified men on a motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire at them.
  • October 23: Police claimed the arrest of a Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan terrorist, Qaisar Mauvia, from Sector F-12, and also apprehended 60 suspects from different parts of the federal capital Islamabad. Police said Mauvia was involved in target killing and other illegal activities in the country. Meanwhile, a senior Police officer said the Police had arrested 80 suspects in the last three days. He said the Police continued the operation on October 23 and arrested 60 suspects from Dhok Noon, Dhok Makhan, Bhatta, Sohan, Pind Warian, Khana Dak, Khana East, Koral, Ghori Town, Kalinger and other slums in the Aabpara and Margallah police precincts. The official said police had seized 22 guns, 10 pistols, two Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition and 102 bottles of liquor from them. Most of the arrested persons were from Waziristan and Afghanistan. Separately, Police arrested four alleged terrorists from Farooqabad during a crackdown on suspicious persons.
  • October 19: Unidentified assailants shot dead a former activist of a banned outfit near his house in the Rehan Colony of Bahawalpur in Punjab province. Islamuddin had been divisional convener of the banned Sunni outfit, the SSP. After its proscription, he used to reportedly earn his livelihood by selling edibles on a handcart. He was coming from his house near Shama Cinema on the Multan Road when two motorcyclists shot at him and fled. He later died at the Bahawal Victoria Hospital.
  • September 26: An activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) was shot dead near Naeem Hospital at Malir No. 15 within the limits of Saudabad Police station in Karachi. Police said Mudasir, 30, was on his way on a motorbike when unidentified assailants shot at him and managed to escape. The victim, an area distributor of a food company, succumbed to his injuries later. The deceased was also a supporter of the SSP and was the witness in five high profile cases of sectarian killings.
  • September 20: Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies are searching for 83 high profile terrorists wanted for various crimes, ranging from the attack on former President Pervez Musharraf to fanning the separatist movement in Balochistan. According to a list maintained by the Interior Ministry, 41 of the most wanted terrorists belong to Punjab, 21 to Sindh, 13 to Balochistan and eight to the NWFP. Of the 83 terrorists, Bramdagh Bugti tops the list with 31 information reports registered against him. The available data shows the majority of the terrorists belong to various sectarian and terrorist organisations, including the HUJI, SSP, LeJ and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP). The majority of the “most wanted” belong to the LJ and the SMP and are wanted in various high profile cases, including assassination attempts targeting Musharraf, former premier Shaukat Aziz and the Karachi Corps commander; the blasts at the Sheraton hotel and foreign embassies; arms smuggling; target killings of rival groups, doctors, Police and intelligence officials and personnel; kidnapping for ransom; and attacks on imambargahs (Shia places of worship) and mosques.
  • September 1: Police and security agencies arrested two suspects affiliated with the banned SSP outfit and involved in arranging manpower for terrorist activities. Official sources identified the alleged terrorists as Abu Waqas and Mohammad Akram. The arrest was made during a raid by a joint team of the capital police and security agencies in Bhara Kahu. Literature regarding jihad, cellular phones and SIMs were recovered from their possession. The duo is accused of arranging potential recruits for the outfit’s cause in the capital’s rural area and its adjacent cities and towns for education and training. First, they used to arrange potential recruits and bring them to a seminary located in Bhara Kahu where they were indoctrinated. Subsequently, the selected recruits were shifted to Waziristan in FATA for training in terrorist activities, including suicide bombing, ambush and handling of weapons and explosives. The suspects recruited a large number of teenage boys and youth, the sources added.
  • August 17: Armed men shot dead Allama Ali Sher Hyderi, chief of the banned SSP, along with his associate Imtiaz Phulpoto at Khairpur in the Sindh province. Sources said Allama Hyderi was returning home after delivering a speech at a religious gathering in the Dost Muhammad Abro village within the limits of the Ahmedpur Police Station when he was attacked. Police sources said one of the attackers, identified as Aashiq Ali Jagirani, was also killed in retaliatory fire by Hyderi’s bodyguards. The murder reportedly bore all indications of a sectarian killing, with the head of the local police saying “it was a targeted attack on Allama Hyderi”.
    The SSP leader’s murder triggered violence in major towns of Sindh. There were reports of aerial firing and armed SSP activists forced shopkeepers to close their shops. The Army and the Rangers were called out to assist the Police in maintaining the law and order. The protesters removed the main railway tracks, suspending train link to the upcountry. There were reports that the house of the suspected killer had been torched by the people in Luqman town. Two persons were killed and another sustained injuries in firing by paramilitary forces that tried to stop an angry mob from removing railway tracks.
    Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi has been named as successor to Allama Hyderi. Allama Hyderi, who hailed from Khairpur, was the fourth SSP chief to be killed since it was formed in the late 1980s. After the Sunni outfit was banned by former President Pervez Musharraf in February 2002, it was operating under the name of Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama’at.
  • August 11: The Government told the National Assembly that it had asked provinces to keep a watch on the banned Sunni militant outfit SSP, which is accused of fomenting recent violence in the Punjab province’s Jhang and Gojra towns. Interior Minister Rehman Malik acknowledged there was a lot of truth in concern voiced by an opposition lawmaker from Jhang who said the Government must act against the SSP to avoid the kind of situation it had to face in Swat valley of the North West Frontier Province after Taliban militants were allowed to thrive there. Malik reportedly said it was a fact that the SSP had had been involved in terrorist activities in the past and added “The provincial governments have been asked to keep a watch on its activities.” The PML-Q member Sheikh Waqqas Akram said all of some 200 SSP activists arrested in Jhang after a judge took a Suo Motu notice of the July 21 violence were later released “one by one” and that he learned during a visit to Gojra that members of the same group attacked Christians in Gojra for unproven blasphemy, burning seven of them alive. He also that a SSP leader had been allowed to address the arrested group’s militants in jail and to go around the country without regard to what he called restrictions for banned organisations.
  • August 9: The SFs killed a SSP leader after an exchange of fire in the Malanari area of Dera Ismail Khan District of NWFP. Official sources said Miftahullah, a SSP leader who was allegedly involved in sectarian killings in Dera city, was shot dead during a search operation.
  • August 5: The Government announced that 25 extremist and militant groups and welfare organisations affiliated to them have so far been banned because of their involvement in terrorist activities. In a written reply submitted on August 5 in response to a question in the National Assembly, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the banned organisations included Al Qaeda, SMP, Tehrik Nifaz-i-Fiqah Jafaria, SSP, JuD, Al Akhtar Trust, Al Rasheed Trust (ART), Tehrik-i-Islami, JeM, LeJ, TTP, Islamic Students Movement, Khairun Nisa International Trust, Tehrik-i-Islam Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), LeT, Lashkar-i-Islam, Balochistan Liberation Army, Jamiat-i-Ansar, Jamiatul Furqan, Hizbut Tehrir, Khuddam-i-Islam and Millat-i-Islamia Pakistan.
  • August 2: Paramilitary troops were deployed in the Azafi Abadi village, also known as Koriaan, in the Punjab province where 10 people were killed in violence between Muslims and Christians over the alleged desecration of the Koran. Pakistan Rangers personnel took up positions in and around Azafi Abadi, a day after it witnessed communal clashes. Persons from the two communities reportedly exchanged fire and over 80 homes of Christians were set ablaze by mobs. However, despite deployment of the Pakistan Rangers, the situation in the area remained tense throughout the day as some Christians refused to bury their dead until Police registered a complaint against those responsible for the killings and arson. “We have arrested a number of suspects and exemplary punishment will be given to those involved in heinous crimes. This is a crime against humanity,” Rana Sanaullah, Law Minister of Punjab, told reporters. He said some outlawed religious groups were involved in the violence but did not name them. A Police source said that activists of the banned SSP and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) were involved in the violence. “Their armed activists from other parts of Punjab gathered in Koriaan village,” the source said. Violence erupted in the village, part of Gojra sub-division of Toba Tek Singh District and located 160 km from Lahore, when a group of Muslims alleged three Christians burnt pages of the Koran during a wedding last week. At least seven Christians, including four women and two children, were burnt alive. Three others were killed in Police firing on August 1. The Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and provincial minister Sanaullah, however, said no Christian was involved in desecrating the Koran.
  • July 16: Two more activists of the outlawed Sunni group SSP, including a guard of the group’s central leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, were killed in Karachi. One of them died at a hospital after being injured in the clash a day earlier while another’s body was recovered from Model Colony.
    The body of 26-year-old Anwar Ali alias Murad, a resident of Orangi Town and the personal security guard of SSP central leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, was recovered from Malir Saudabad in the evening. He had been abducted from the RCG Ground Malir a day earlier. Deputy Superintendent of Police, Farooq Sher Zaman, said Anwar Ali was abducted when he, along with some other SSP cadres went there to force shopkeepers to shut their businesses down. “The police found his body from a railway track in Saudabad. He was brutally tortured before being killed. A single bullet was shot at his forehead following the torture, killing him instantly,” Zaman said. Another SSP cadre, Ghufran, a resident of Future Colony in Landhi, who was wounded in the violence on July 15, succumbed to his injuries at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre hospital. Ghufran is reportedly the younger brother of Hafiz Amanullah, a SSP militant who was killed on June 3, 2009 in Gulshan-e-Iqbal when he, along with his children, went out for recreational purposes. Two other SSP cadres, Saqib and Arshad, were also injured in the violence on July 15.
  • July 15: Unidentified men killed the central legal adviser of the outlawed Sunni group, the SSP, Hafiz Ahmed Buksh, in Model Colony in Karachi. Buksh’s vehicle was indiscriminately fired at when he was on his way home and his driver, Nasir, was also killed in the attack. Saudabad Supervisory Police Officer Farooq Sher Zaman told that the assailants used 9-mm pistols in the attack, adding that the incident took place shortly after the deceased left the Masjid-e-Ibrahim mosque.
  • June 18: In a crackdown, the Bahawalpur and Vehari Police arrested 40 people who allegedly remained associated with banned outfits and sectarian groups. Raids were reportedly conducted in Bahawalpur, Ahmedpur East, Hasilpur, Khairpur Tamewali and Uch Sharif. The Bahawalpur Regional Police Officer Mushtaq Ali Sukhera confirmed that activists of former “jihadi or sectarian groups” had been arrested during these raids. He said those people had been taken into custody whose names figured on the Police’s fourth schedule, which carries the names of those people who violate their surety bonds of good behaviour and non-participation in objectionable activities. In case of non-compliance, they are liable to be detained or face new cases on these charges, he stated. Among those arrested were Abdul Ghani, a SSP activist from Mauza Qaimpur near Hasilpur, Aamir Shahzad of Ahmedpur East and Habibur Rehman of Khairpur Tamewali, who was allegedly present on the premises of Lal Masjid in Islamabad when an operation was launched during the regime of Pervez Musharraf. 25 activists of a banned outfit were arrested during the crackdown in Vehari District. Sources said eight persons were arrested from Vehari and the rest from Mailsi and Burewala.
  • May 27: Another activist of the banned Sunni outfit SSP was shot dead in the Aziz Bhatti Police limits of Karachi within three days of the murder of another SSP activist. The incident sparked tension in Gulshan Town, as armed men resorted to aerial firing, forced the shopkeepers to pull down shutters and also attacked Imambargahs (Shia places of worship) in the area. 38-year old Qari Amanullah was shot dead while his son Sufian was injured by two gunmen near a Tandur in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. According to Police, the deceased was a former Sipah-e-Sahaba unit in-charge.
  • May 24: A senior activist of the banned SSP was shot dead in a target killing. 40-year old Allauddin was the Lines Area Unit in-charge of the banned Sunni outfit, and had earlier worked for the LeJ. A source in the Criminal Investigation Department told that the deceased was currently engaged in re-organising the SSP in Karachi. Following the incident, participants of Allauddin’s funeral prayers started shooting guns in the air outside Imambargah-e-Ali Raza. Subsequently, dozens of people belonging to the Fiqa-e-Jafferia gathered on the road and started rioting by burning tyres and pelting stones on passing vehicles.
  • April 20: The Islamabad Police announced the arrest of two hard-core terrorists from the federal capital who were acting as planners and facilitators for carrying out terrorist acts in the city. The SSP, Tahir Alam Khan, said Khairullah Mehsud, a resident of South Waziristan, who was living in Sector G-9/2, was arrested from F-9 Park. Intelligence agencies have reportedly traced his links with terrorist groups in South Waziristan, which he developed after the Lal Masjid incident. “He was in contact with Gul Bahadur in South Waziristan and Misal Khan in Akora Khattak. During the course of investigations Khairullah made certain revelations, which eventually led to the arrest of another terrorist identified as Khurram Shahzad son of Lal Afzal who had undergone terrorism training at the camp of a banned terrorist organization,” the SSP said. He said Khurram Shahzad had visited the tribal areas as well as Hangu, Bara and Peshawar quite frequently and during those visits he had taken ‘recruits’ from Islamabad for training in camps established by the terrorist groups there. The SSP also said Khurram Shahzad and other ‘recruits’ who accompanied him on those visits, got training to handle explosive materials, especially making lethal ‘oil canister’ bombs.
  • March 23: A member of the banned Sunni group SSP was killed in an apparent sectarian attack in Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP. Abu Khan, an SSP activist, was near his shop on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan when two gunmen shot him dead and later escaped on their motorbike, witnesses told. A boy on the street was also wounded. Local Police official Rasheed Khan said “He was an active member of Sipah-e-Sahaba… It seems to be a sectarian killing.”
  • March 16: 12 activists and leaders of the outlawed Sunni group SSP were arrested in a crackdown by Police in Dera Ismail Khan. Sources said the Police had launched a crackdown on the SSP and arrested 12 activists, including principal secretary of provincial legislator Khalifa Abdul Qayyum. Raids were reportedly conducted in Alam Sher Colony, Madena Colony, Shiekh Yousaf Adda and Katch Painda Khan.
  • February 2: Unidentified men shot dead a former secretary general of the banned Sunni group SSP. Chaudhry Muhammad Yousuf, also a close aide to the local Member of National Assembly Sheikh Waqas Akram, was on a morning walk when armed men attacked him near Mohallah Babrana in Jhang. Yousuf, along with Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, had founded the SSP in 1985.
2008
  • November 23: The Taliban are present in Karachi and have links with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and other banned religious organisations, but they have no intention of carrying out attacks in the provincial capital if not provoked by a political party or the Government, said Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Mullah Omer.
  • November 21: Malik, the Adviser on Interior Affairs said there were 17,000 seminaries in the country and 3,000 of them were in Karachi alone. He said the Government would regularise them in consultation with religious scholars of all schools of thought. He stated that al Qaeda was using the LeJ, SSP and TTP for carrying out its activities.
  • July 30: Unidentified militants killed the Dera Ismail Khan District Account Officer Syed Arif Hussain Shah, police said on July 30, Daily Times reported. Two motorcycle borne gunmen opened fire at Shah, who hailed from the Shia community, near the Pir Zakori graveyard on Zhob Road, when he was en route to office. The police termed the incident a possible act of sectarian violence. While the gunmen escaped after the firing, no group has claimed responsibility for the killing so far. Angry people blocked the road in front of the District Hospital in protest and reportedly shouted slogans against the banned Sunni militant outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and the local administration. Soon after the incident, unidentified persons reportedly opened fire and wounded two activists of the Ansarullah, a branch of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), at Din Pur Chowk, The News reported.
  • July 12: According to Daily Times, banned sectarian and jihadi groups are flouting the Government bar and are re-emerging in various parts of Karachi. Dawn News stated that sectarian slogans, flags and posters of defunct sectarian groups are visible on walls across the city, indicating re-emergence of the banned groups. The Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), the Shia group Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) and Mukhtar Force are the most conspicuous groups, the report added. The channel quoted sources as saying that the sealed offices of the groups have reopened, working under different identities. Some of the groups held meetings in Qayyumabad, North Karachi and Soldier Bazaar, the sources said.
  • June 24: The banned SSP has once again rolled up its sleeves and started getting active across Pakistan, and especially in Karachi, but with a new name Ahle Sunnat wa Aljamaat Pakistan (ASWJP) which roughly translates into The Sunni Party. It has started by requesting Sunni people to voluntarily shut down their businesses and offices on Youm-e-Shahdat (the day of martyrdom) of Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique (RA) on the 22nd of Jumadi-Uthani, June 27. The central information secretary of the SSP and ASWJP, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem said that they had started work in the name of the ASWJP because of the ban on the SSP. “The case against the ban is in court,” he added. The SSP was banned in 2002 by the government and most of its leaders were arrested. The leaders were released in 2003-04 and started limited work under ASWJP. It organized a rally in April 2008 in Karachi after surfacing after six years.
  • February 29: The banned Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) reportedly drew several hundred supporters near its headquarters in Karachi as it denounced the blasphemous caricatures of the holy Prophet published in some Danish newspapers, and declared jihad against Denmark and the West if they continued to insult Islam. It was the fist major public rally by the SSP since it was banned in 2001. The SSP’s protest took place after Friday prayers at the SSP headquarters at Masjid-e-Siddique Akbar in the Nagan Chowrangi area.
  • February 10: The security agencies arrested 40 people suspected to be activists of banned militant groups. Sources said that the operation was launched after the list of militant activists was revised by security agencies after the suicide attack outside the Lahore High Court on January 10. The Ghaziabad police arrested 30 men from a rented house near Muhammadpura railway crossing. Separately, police raided the RA Bazaar and arrested seven suspects. The arrested belonged to the banned Sunni group LeJ and were allegedly involved in the Rawalpindi blast. During another raid in Saddar Bazaar, police arrested three members of the LeJ. The Mughalpura Superintendent of Police, P. Sajjad Manj, said Rustam Ali, who was a member of the proscribed SSP, owned the house. However, he escaped the raid. Two Kalashnikovs, three 222s, a shotgun and rifles were seized from them.
2007
  • December 9: A team of Lahore Police arrested a wanted terrorist from the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan after a two-hour long shootout in Mandi Bahauddin. Muhammad Saleem alias Hafiz Bilal, a resident of Gujranwala, had planted a four kg improvised explosive device at the Bab-al-Imran mosque in Malakwal on June 30, 2006. Police also seized two Kalashnikov rifles and more than 2,000 bullets from the Saleem’s possession. Authorities had announced a PKR 500,000 reward for Saleem’s arrest.
  • August 24: In a suspected sectarian incident, unidentified assailants shot dead an activist of the banned SSP in the Dera Ismail Khan city of NWFP. 22-year old Kaleen Ullah was shot dead in the Tareenabad Colony in Cantonment Police Station’s jurisdiction.
  • August 12: The provincial secretary-general of the SSP, Aslam Farooqui, was shot dead in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Alam Zeb, brother of the deceased leader, caught hold of one the attackers and handed him over to police. A police official said one Shoaib Hussain of Parachinar, who belonged to a paramilitary force, had been arrested.
  • July 9: Unidentified assailants shot dead an activist of the outlawed Sunni group SSP in the jurisdiction of Shah Qabool police station in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Police officer Latif said that Hayat Khan was shot dead at around 2 a.m. outside his Nishtarabad house.
  • July 7: Police in the Mansehra district of the NWFP released four central leaders of the outlawed Sunni group SSP, a day after their arrest. Hafiz Alam Tariq, Maulana Amir Mahavia and two other leaders were reportedly arrested from the district’s Ghazikot area along with two triple-M licensed guns. Sources said they were released following interrogation.
  • June 7: Police at Dera Ismail Khan in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) arrested Rauf Baloch, a leader of the banned Sunni outfit SSP, who was wanted in various cases of sectarian terrorism and murder.
  • April 17: Activists of the SSP are conspiring for the release of their imprisoned colleagues from various jails through violent means, according to intelligence reports submitted to the Interior Ministry. The intelligence reports revealed that SSP leaders have directed the group’s district presidents to tell their jailed colleagues to create trouble in jails. Intelligence reports said that SSP presidents of southern Punjab districts, Lahore, Gujranwala, Karachi, Sukkur and Dera Ismail Khan have been directed to help their jailed comrades escape from police custody on their way from jails to courts. 48 SSP activists have been imprisoned at Adyala Jail and eight of them are on death row. Most of the SSP activists have been detained in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, the Bahawalpur Central Jail and jails in Karachi.
  • April 16: Intelligence agencies have warned that three would-be suicide bombers have set out for Islamabad to target government functionaries if security agencies crack down on the Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia seminaries in the national capital. Intelligence agencies submitted reports to the Interior Ministry a few days ago warning that the three men, including two Uzbeks, had left Darra Adam Khel in the NWFP for Islamabad to carry out suicide attacks. 20-year old Ikramullah, a resident of Gedaro Killi, Zarghun Khel and member of the banned SSP, reportedly heads the group. The group, trained at a camp located in Shawal, Waziristan, was reportedly sent by Tariq Mazid Khel, who runs a training camp at Zarghun Khel and claims to have contacts with intelligence agencies.
  • March 29: SSP asks President Pervez Musharraf to help resolve the ”decades-old conflict” between the Shias and Sunnis.
  • March 13Gunmen on a motorcycle killed Maulana Farooq Ahmed, a Sunni cleric, and reportedly a member of the outlawed SSP in Dera Ismail Khan.
    Gunmen injured Hafiz Ishaq, a SSP activist in Dera Ismail Khan.
    March 8: A suspected member of banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) outfit, identified as Sarwar Alam alias Alami, was shot dead by gunmen at Dera Ismail Khan on March 8, reported Daily Times.
  • February 24: Three suspected militants were killed at Cheechawatni near Multan in the Punjab province on February 24 when the explosives they were carrying on a bicycle detonated, The Hindu reported. Police said that two of the men were from a Madrassa (seminary) that had links with the banned Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahiba Pakistan (SSP).
  • February 20: The Government on February 20 claimed to have traced a network of terrorists allegedly involved in the killings of former Member of National Assembly Maulana Azam Tariq (chief of the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan [SSP], provincial minister Pir Binyamin and 41 other people in various incidents that occurred in Punjab and Islamabad between 2003 and 2006. “Two members of the network have been arrested by Islamabad Police’s CID department from Sector G-6/2 and efforts are being made to catch their six accomplices who are reported to be hiding in the capital,” a senior official of the interior ministry told Dawn. The arrested were identified as Mudassar Ali alias Usman Chaudhry and Mohammad Ali alias Abbas.
    The official informed that in October 2003, the accused had intercepted Azam Tariq’s car near Golra More Toll Plaza in Islamabad and opened fire, killing Tariq, his three security guards and a driver.
2006
  • October 31: Two activists of the banned Sunni group SSP, Shahnawaz alias Shani and Shaukat alias Javed alias Chand, are sentenced to death by a Karachi court for killing six employees of the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) during an attack on their vehicle in October 2003.
  • October 18: Police at Mianwali in the Punjab province arrests three alleged terrorists, identified as Noor Muhammad, Abdul Waheed and Rao Saifullah, belonging to the defunct Sunni group SSP. They reportedly wanted to carry out an attack on a Shia shrine in the Sheikhupura district.
  • September 2: An anti-terrorism court in Peshawar sends the owners of four video shops arrested on August 31 to jail after charging them with selling CDs and cassettes containing anti-Shia speeches by leaders of the banned group SSP.
  • April 7: Activists of the outlawed SSP hold a rally in Islamabad and reportedly vowed to establish a global caliphate, beginning with Pakistan. In a rally attended by thousands of activists of the banned group to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, SSP leaders called for an Islamic theocracy in Pakistan
  • April 4: Five SSP activists are sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi on charges of killing a police constable and an under-trial prisoner in an ambush on a prison van near the city courts in 2002.
  • February 21: The authorities in Karachi detain two top SSP leaders, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, in a bid to contain the wave of protests in the city.
2005
  • December 30: Police believe a member of the SSP has entered Japan with the aim of setting up a base in that country.
  • December 5: Intelligence agencies have uncovered a plot by leaders of the banned Sunni outfits, SSP and LeJ, who had directed their operatives to form suicide squads to kill Shia members of the Legislative Council of the Northern Areas.
  • November 6: Security agencies in the Punjab province detain 32 of 190 activists, listed by the Government, of banned religious organizations, including SSP, during Eid celebrations from Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha and Faisalabad ahead of the cricket Test match between Pakistan and England.
  • August 12: Despite a ban imposed by the Government on the participation of defunct extremist outfits in the forthcoming local bodies’ elections, the SSP, a sectarian outfit banned twice for terrorist activities, is actively taking part in the elections.
  • July 20: Security agencies arrests Maulana Ali Sher Haidery, patron-in-chief of the SSP (now known as Millat-e-Islamia), from his native town of Khairpure Meeras in the Sindh province.
  • July 18: President Pervez Musharraf accuses banned groups like the SSP and JeM of forcing their ideology upon others, although he did not link them to the London bombings.
  • May 4: A leader from the defunct Sunni group SSP, Tariq Javed, is arrested in New York for allegedly lying on his immigration papers about his terror links.
  • April 15: Four SSP cadres are arrested for their alleged involvement in the bombing of a Shia shrine in the Jhal Magsi district on March 19, in which at least 50 people were killed.
  • March 3: An Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi acquitted an activist of the proscribed Sunni group, SSP, identified as Mohammad Faisal alias Pehalwan, in a sectarian killing case. He was accused of killing Dr Sibtain Ali Dosa and two of his associates in the Kharadar area of Karachi on May 2, 2000.
  • February 15: Tatheer-ul-Islam, an absconding most-wanted activist of the banned SSP, is arrested from the Lyari area of Karachi. His name was reportedly included in the Red Book of the CID.
  • February 3: The police in North West Frontier Province arrests Qari Anwar Khan, a SSP leader, from Charsadda in connection with the assassination of Shia religious leader in Gilgit, Agha Ziauddin, in a suicide bomb attack at Gilgit in the Northern Areas of PoK on January 8. The suicide bombing had led to sectarian violence that claimed at least 17 lives in Gilgit.
  • January 30: Two unidentified men open fire outside the Jamia Mamoor mosque on Tariq Road in Karachi, killing a cleric, Maulana Haroon Qasmi, belonging to the outlawed SSP and his bodyguard, Aqil Ahmed. Consequently, hundreds of agitated SSP cadres, primarily seminary students, indulged in arson and damaged some vehicles and also attacked a police check post.
2004
  • October 18: Special instruction are issued to the provinces not to allow Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (erstwhile SSP), Islami Tehirk Pakistan (erstwhile Tehrik-e-Jaffria), Khuddamul Islam (erstwhile Jaish-e-Mohammad), Jama’atul Furqaan and others banned outfits to collect donations during Ramazan and on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.
  • October 7: At least 40 people are killed and more than 100 injured in two bomb blasts in the city of Multan when hundreds of people had gathered to mark the first anniversary of the killing of Sunni leader and SSP chief Maulana Azim Tariq outside Islamabad.
  • August 6: Police in Vehari, Multan, arrests, Qari Ubaidullah, a terrorist of the outlawed SSP.
  • April 22: Waris Ali Janwari, the father of defunct SSP chief Allama Ali Sher Hydri, is killed in an exchange of fire between police and SSP activists over the issue of a plot of land in Khairpur. Hydri’s three brothers and two police personnel are reportedly wounded during the encounter.
  • April 2: A Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi grants bail to Amanullah Sial, former member of the National Assembly and one of the accused in the murder case of Maulana Azam Tariq, leader of the outlawed Sunni group SSP on October 6.
  • March 26: The Lahore High Court orders release of Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi, chief of the Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP, now known as Millat Jaferia Pakistan), who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of Sunni leader and chief of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Maulana Azam Tariq.
  • March 19: The Lahore Police arrests former Member of National Assembly, Amanullah Sial, who had been declared a proclaimed offender in the Maulana Azam Tariq (SSP leader) murder case.
  • March 7: Police have registered complaints lodged by relatives of some of the 47 slain people, who named seven activists of the outlawed SSP, blaming them for the March 2 attack on Shias in Quetta, capital of the Balochistan province.
  • March 5: At least two activists of the outlawed SSP are injured in a shootout with the police in Gilgit. The incident occurred when the police tried to remove the hurdles put on the road by SSP activists, who had gathered at Napura, where a procession was to be held by the rival Shia community.
  • January 3: Security agencies in Lahore arrests six terrorists, belonging to the outlawed SSP and JeM, in connection with the December 25, 2003, assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi.
2003
  • December 4: Authorities in Pakistan occupied Kashmir outlaws six terrorist groups, including SSP (now known as Millat-e-Islami).
  • November 21: Law enforcement agencies seal eight offices of proscribed terrorist groups in the Sialkot district, including two offices of the SSP.
  • November 16: Law enforcement agencies seal many offices of three proscribed terrorist groups, including SSP, during a countrywide crackdown.
  • November 15: The Federal Government proscribes three religio-political outfits under the Anti-Terrorist Act 1997, including SSP, now known as Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan.
  • October 7: One person is killed as angry mourners indulged in violence in Islamabad after the funeral of Maulana Azam Tariq, chief of the outlawed Sunni group SSP, who was assassinated on October 6.
  • October 6: Maulana Azam Tariq, SSP chief and a Member of the National Assembly, is assassinated along with four other persons by three unidentified gunmen in Islamabad.
  • May 17: An activist of the proscribed Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP, now known as Millat-i-Islam Party), is shot dead by unidentified assailants when he was returning to his residence at an unnamed place in Multan.
  • April 20: Maulana Azam Tariq, SSP chief, says that he and his followers had formed a new party to work for the “enforcement of Islamic edicts” in Pakistan. He said the new group is called Millat-e-Islamia (MeI) and said it wanted to bring about an Islamic revolution.
  • April 18: SSP President, Maulana Azam Tariq, asks Lahore High Court to suspend the Government’s orders freezing his party’s bank accounts and imposing functional restrictions on it, till his petition against the ban on his party is decided.
  • March 7: An SSP cadre is killed in North Karachi area, under Khwaja Ajmer Nagri police station-limits, in Sindh Province.
  • January 6: Four SSP leaders are arrested in Peshawar after a court dismissed their pre-arrest bail application. The accused are charged of taking out a protest procession against the killing of a person in Karachi during 2002.
2002
  • November 15: An anti-terrorism court in Dera Ghazi Khan issues non-bailable arrest warrants against SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq in a case against him and four others for allegedly delivering highly provocative speeches at the Nabuwwat Conference, in Jampur, on July 31, 2000.
  • October 30: SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq is released after 11 months in detention at a prison in Rawalpindi.
  • October 29: An SSP activist is killed by two unidentified terrorists within the precincts of Clifton police station in Karachi. 
  • October 27: Lahore High Court orders that SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq be set free after the expiry of his detention period on October 30.
  • October 12: SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq declared elected as Member of the National Assembly (MNA) in the October 10-general elections. 
  • September 4: The dead body found in a Karachi graveyard on September is 1 identified as that of one of the sons of Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, a founding member of the SSP. 
  • August 13: SSP secretary general Khadim Hussain Dhalu is arrested in Jhang district.
  • July 6: SSP activist Muhammad Aslam Muawia sentenced to life imprisonment by a special Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore for the January 11, 1998-Mominpura graveyard massacre, in which 27 Shias were killed and 34 more injured.
  • July 2: 12 SSP terrorists arrested for allegedly planning attacks on religious places in Rawalpindi.
  • May 22: Local SSP leader killed by two unidentified armed assailants in Gulistan-e-Mustafa, Karachi.
  • May 17: Karachi Anti Terrorism Court sentences two SSP cadres to life for killing 10 persons in an attack on a mosque in the Al-Falah Colony, Karachi.
  • May 11: Front ranking SSP leader Mehmood Madni arrested for the May 8-Karachi bomb blast in, which 16 persons, including 11 French nationals, were killed.
  • May 9: Maulana Ehsanul Haq Farooqi, an SSP leader, arrested by Sialkot police for delivering a speech against President Musharraf in Wadala Sindhian village, Daska.
  • May 5: SSP cadre killed by two unidentified gunmen in the Gulbahar area of Karachi.
  • April 27: A Karachi Anti-Terrorism court awards two death sentences to an SSP activist in separate murder cases.
  • April 15: Two SSP cadres indicted by a Karachi Anti-Terrorism Court in a sectarian killing case in which 10 persons were killed and five others injured in Al-Falah Colony, off Shahrea-i-Faisal.
  • March 30: A review board of three Lahore High Court judges recommends continued incarceration of SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq.
  • March 16: Five SSP cadres killed near Merik Sial in Jhang by a group of 10 unidentified assailants.
  • March 15: Karachi police arrests six SSP cadres allegedly involved in approximately 27 major incidents of sectarian killings in Karachi, including that of six doctors.
  • March 13: North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government extends detention of senior SSP leader Khalifa Abdul Qayyum for further 30 days.
  • February 28: Police allege that the SSP was responsible for the February 26-massacre at a Shiite mosque in Rawalpindi, in which 11 persons were killed and 14 others injured.
  • February 11: SSP files formal review application before the government seeking reversal of its proscription.
  • January 15: In a crackdown on accounts of banned organisations, SSP’s accounts are seized by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
  • January 12: President Pervez Musharraf announces proscription of the SSP during a televised address to the nation.
  • January 5: 200 SSP activists arrested in a series of raids by security agencies on January 4-5 in Sindh and Punjab provinces.

2001
  • July 6: SSP activist Muhammad Aslam Muawia sentenced to life imprisonment by a special Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore for the January 11, 1998-Mominpura graveyard massacre, in which 27 Shias were killed and 34 more injured.
  • July 2: 12 SSP terrorists arrested for allegedly planning attacks on religious places in Rawalpindi.
  • May 22: Local SSP leader killed by two unidentified armed assailants in Gulistan-e-Mustafa, Karachi.
  • May 17: Karachi Anti Terrorism Court sentences two SSP cadres to life for killing 10 persons in an attack on a mosque in the Al-Falah Colony, Karachi.
  • May 11: Front ranking SSP leader Mehmood Madni arrested for the May 8-Karachi bomb blast in, which 16 persons, including 11 French nationals, were killed.
  • May 9: Maulana Ehsanul Haq Farooqi, an SSP leader, arrested by Sialkot police for delivering a speech against President Musharraf in Wadala Sindhian village, Daska.
  • December 30 – Five SSP cadres arrested during raids by law enforcing authorities on the outfit’s Karachi office.
  • December 4 – SSP Karachi’s Finance Secretary, Engineer Ilyas Zubair, voluntarily surrendered before the Chief of Crime Investigations Agency (CIA), who later detained him under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO).
  • October 28 – A police personnel and 17 members of the Christian community including five children were killed and nine others injured when six unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire on a church in Model Town, Bahawalpur. The SSP is suspected to be responsible for the massacre.
  • October 19 – Pakistan authorities, in response to anti-US protests, barred SSP chief Azam Tariq from entering Sindh province where major rallies and protest demonstrations against US air strikes in Afghanistan were taking place. The ban was applicable for 30 days.
  • October 16 –SSP leader Maulana Fazl-i-Ahad said in Peshawar that the outfit had decided to send its cadres for waging Jehad against the US. He indicated that a group of 80 SSP cadres were ready to leave for Afghanistan.
  • October 15 – An SSP leader, Maulana Allah Wasaya Siddiqi, said that US air strikes on the erstwhile Taliban regime in Afghanistan “proved that America was the biggest terrorist of the world.”
  • October 12 –SSP’s Senior Vice-President Khalifa Abdul Qayyum speaking in Dera Ismail Khan said that the US government had “proved itself to be a terrorist state.” Commenting on the air strikes against the erstwhile Taliban regime in Afghanistan, he claimed that Osama bin Laden was only being used as an excuse and the US was attempting to establish camps in the region.
  • October 11 –At a protest rally in Peshawar, SSP provincial chief Maulana Fazal Ahad said that the US should withdraw from Afghanistan, failing which it would “taste fatal upset just like former Soviet Union during Afghan Jihad.” He also asked the cadres to enlist their names with the SSP high command for waging Jehad against ‘infidel forces’ and reiterated that the outfit would fight with the Taliban side by side after getting an approval from SSP central chief Azam Tariq.
  • October 9 – SSP leader Syed Paryal Shah said in Khairpur, that US action in Afghanistan was not a war against Taliban but against Islam, and therefore, it was essential for the Muslims to declare Jehad against the US and its allies.
  • September 29 – A news report said that 38 SSP activists were arrested during the preceding nine months in Dera Ismail Khan.
  • September 16 – The SSP at a meeting in Peshawar, said Muslims of Pakistan would not tolerate any assistance by the Federal government to the USA in its possible attacks on the erstwhile Taliban regime. While declaring the US as the ‘biggest criminal in the world’, SSP leaders alleged that the terrorist acts in New York and Washington DC were a conspiracy to defame Islam.
  • September 15 – SSP Sindh chapter Vice President Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem arrested from Karachi in connection with two cases in which five persons, including four brothers, were killed in 1995.
  • August 14 – LeJ proscribed by President Pervez Musharraf
  • July 1 – Two unidentified gunmen at the Basti Tareenabad in Dera Ismail Khan killed a SSP activist.
  • June 23 – Two police personnel and an activist of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) were injured in Gilgit following an exchange of fire between security forces and activists of the SSP and the Tanzeem Ahle Sunnat.
  • May 21 – Various Sunni sectarian outfits alleged that the country’s intelligence agencies were responsible for the killing of Maulana Saleem Qadri, the Sunni Tehreek chief on May 18, 2001. According to these outfits, the agencies were utilising the SSP to trigger sectarian violence among the Shia, Sunni, Deoband and Barelwi sects.
  • May 21 – Four persons were killed in separate incidents of sectarian clashes in Dera Ismail Khan. In the first incident, an activist of the SSP, who was released from the local prison a few days earlier, was killed. Official sources indicated the involvement of Shia groups in the incident. Sources also said that the violence erupted consequent to the arrest of a Shia leader, Syed Hassan Ali Shah Kazmi, on a charge of allegedly delivering anti-state speeches. In apparent retaliation, certain SSP activists killed a Shia youth and injured two others. Police sources added that two more persons were killed in the clashes on the same day.
  • April 30 – A Karachi Anti-terrorism Court holds two SSP activists guilty of killing a police personnel and his son on February 22, 2001 and sentences them to death.
  • April 3 – Eight SSP activists arrested from Korangi in Karachi following clashes between two sectarian outfits.
  • April – An anti-terrorism court sentenced two SSP activists to death for killing a former Deputy Superintendent of Police and his young son on February 22, 2001.
  • March 12 – Nine persons including the a local SSP chief were killed and 11 others injured as three unidentified terrorists opened indiscriminate fire on a congregation at the Hayat-e-Islam mosque in Lahore. According to official sources, the attack was carried out in the most sensitive locality of Lahore where agencies like Garrison Security Force, Military Police and others are located. Sources also said that the attack was carried out despite tight security measures adopted in view of the presence of Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf in the city. The mosque is administered by the SSP. Official sources indicated that the attack could be in retaliation for the March 4 sectarian violence at Sheikhupura. An SSP spokesperson, Qazi Bahaur Rehman, alleged that the TJP was responsible for the massacre.
  • March 4 – 13 persons, including two police personnel, were killed and four others injured in a series of four attacks by a group of six terrorists in Sheikhpura Four of the terrorists were arrested. Official sources said that the killings are alleged to be an outcome of SSP activist Haq Nawaz Jhangvi’s execution. SSP Sheikhpura chief, Zahid Mahmood Qasmi however, denied the outfit’s involvement in the attacks.
  • March 2 – Two SSP activists arrested from the Orangi Extension area in Karachi for their alleged involvement in the killing of a TJP activist.
  • March 1 – 13 persons were killed in sectarian violence at Hangu in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Official sources maintained that this followed an incident in which an unidentified person opened indiscriminate fire killing three persons and injuring another. Other sources however held that the killings were an aftermath of the execution of SSP activist Haq Nawaz Jhangvi.
  • February 28 –SSP activist Haq Nawaz Jhangvi was executed in Mianwali Jail, Lahore after being held guilty for the December 1990 assassination of the Iranian Consul General, Agha Sadiq Ganji. Police had arrested hundreds of SSP activists for fear of violent protests after Jhangvi’s execution and possible clashes between rival sectarian groups from the majority Sunni and the minority Shi’ite sects. However, one person was killed and six others injured in an encounter between the protesting SSP activists and police at Mohallah Piplianwala in Jhang on the same day of the execution. Later at the funeral of Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, SSP leader Sheikh Hakim Ali, while warning of countrywide protests, said, “The government is responsible for killing our brother. It is done to please Iran.”
  • February 22 – A former Deputy Superintendent of Police and his son killed. Later in April 2001 an anti-terrorism court sentenced two SSP activists to death for the killings.
  • February 15 – , SSP General-Secretary Abdur Rauf Baloch arrested in the Gomal area of Dera Ismail Khan for his alleged involvement in the killing of five persons in Fateh village, on April 26, 1999.
2000
  • November 18 – A Karachi anti-terrorism court sentenced an SSP activist to a seven-year term for possessing illegal arms and creating terror.
  • November 5 – Two SSP activists were killed and another injured when unidentified terrorists fired at them in Mirpurkhas. The SSP blamed the TJP for the killing.
  • October 22 – Two SSP activists killed and eight others injured when two unidentified persons attacked their van in Karachi. The next day, two activists of the TJP were arrested for their suspected involvement in the killings.
  • 1996 – A section comprising radical and extremist elements of the SSP walked out of the outfit to form the LeJ
  • 1994 – 73 persons killed and more than 300 injured in Punjab’s worst year of violence. The SSP along with several other Sunni and Shia organisations were suspected to have participated in this violence.
  • June 1992 – SSP activists for the first time, use a rocket launcher in an attack which killed five police personnel.
  • December 1990 – Iran’s Counsel General in Lahore, Sadeq Ganji killed.
  • February 1990 –SSP co-founder and chief, Maulana Jhangvi killed
  • 1988 – A leader of the Shia outfit, Tehrik-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafaria (TNFJ) Arif Hussain Al-Hussaini killed.
  • 1987 – Prominent Sunni leader Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Yazdani assassinated.
  • 1986 – Prominent leader of the Sunni Ahl-e-Hadith, Allama Ehsan Elahi Zaheer assassinated
Syndicated from: AKC

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No to vigil-aunties: thousands protest media’s moral policing in Pakistan

Posted on 25 January 2012 by Tea Server

A morning show broadcast in Pakistan on Jan 17, 2012, on Samaa, a Pakistani television channel, has catalysed what could well be the beginning of a media consumer rights movement.

In the show, Subah Saverey Maya kay Sath (Early Morning with Maya), the host Maya Khan, charges through a public park looking for dating couples to interrogate. With her is a battalion of other women, who join her in self-righteously lecturing the couples they come across – does your family know you are here, why don’t you meet at home if you are engaged, and, most outrageously, if you are married, where is your nikahnama (marriage certificate)?

When the harassed couples ask for the camera to be turned off, the Samaa team pretends to acquiesce but carries on filming with sound. As several people have pointed out, this intrusive behaviour could result in putting those couples in life-threatening situations in a country where forced marriages and ‘honour killings’ continue to be the norm.

The first time I saw a link to this show was on Jan 22, shared on a facebook group, on Jan 21, 2012. I, and many others, began sharing the Youtube links on facebook and twitter. As it spread, the outrage grew. People were shocked at the level of intrusion and vigilantism on display. From India, came comments on twitter about the Saffron vigilante brigade that has been known to drag couples into temples and force them into instant marriage. Which reminded me that the mentality we are protesting is not limited to Pakistan – see my article ‘Peaceful Pink Panties to Tame Right-Wing Goons‘ about the Sri Ram Sene goons in India. This was in 2009 but I hear they’re gearing up again against Valentines Day… Of course it’s always the poor, who can’t meet in secure hotels and cafes, who are always most vulnerable against this kind of moral policing.

Maya Khan’s antics on Samaa TV triggered off several articles and reports – starting with blogger Mehreen Kasana letting rip in her post (with doodles) An Open Letter to Maya Khan, Jan 22, 2012.

But most importantly, the outrage was channelized into a loosely organised protest. Dozens of people sent in complaints to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) at the online feedback form, shared quickly via facebook. On Jan 22, lawyer Osama Siddique drafted a brief letter expressing outrage at the  :highly intrusive, invasive and potentially irresponsible behavior on the part of the host – a kind of vigilantism no different than the Lal Masjid variety” (referring to the black-robed women armed with sticks called the Hafza Brigade, associated with the Red Mosque in Islamabad, who went around beating up and terrorizing women whose behaviour or looks they deemed ‘immoral’ or ‘unIslamic’).

The letter protested this moral policing, and pointed out that “this kind of programming is likely to also lead to legal action for violation of dignity of man under the Constitution – which legal action we as signatories will support, propagate and promote.” It demanded an end to “this irresponsible programming”.

A group of citizens emailed the letter to the Samaa head Zafar Siddiqi (President CNBC Pakistan, with which Samaa is affiliated), and an expatriate Pakistani in California, Ali Abbas Taj, uploaded it to Change.org as an petition titled STOP “Subah Saverey Maya kay Sath” vigilantism like Lal Masjid.

Within 24 hours, the online activism had the following unexpected effects:

* In about 24 hours, there were over 2000 signatures, and by the following day 4,800 people, in Pakistan and around the world, had endorsed it.

* Samaa TV pulled off Youtube links of the show, but some people have managed to download and save it as evidence in case it is needed for future action.

* Maya Khan’s facebook page was closed, probably in response to the number of comments being made on it. Some of those comments were highly abusive and threatening, which we condemn and have nothing to do with.

* Maya Khan on her show of Jan 23, 2012 acknowledged that what she did could have hurt people and said that was not her intention – but she has not apologised, and appears completely unrepentant and unaware of the dangers of her actions.

* CEO Samaa TV Zafar Siddiqi wrote back to the people who had emailed him saying:  ”I have travelled to Khi to look at this matter and yesterday Maya apologised in her program for this. I can assure this will never happen again. Samaa is a progressive channel.
“There are certain other directives that have been put into place as of yesterday.
“I thank everyone concerned in bringing this matter to my attention. It’s really appreciated.”

So not married and sitting with a man in a park LOL... Mehreen KasanaThe citizens’ response:

* We do not accept Maya Khan’s statement in her show of Jan 23 as an apology. Nor are we satisfied with Mr Siddiqi’s attempts to placate us. We want an unconditional, public apology from both Maya Khan and Samaa TV.

* We do not hold Maya Khan solely responsible for her actions; it is the producer and channel owner who set policy and allow this kind of programming to happen. We want to know what steps are being taken and what policy directives given to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

* Maya Khan should apologise publically not just to viewers but also to the couples she harassed in the park.

* There’s also outrage against a 2010 moral policing show by ARY reporter Yasir Aqeel, who is if possible even more offensive than Maya Khan, and takes harassment to another level. We protest these intrusive tactics by TV channel owners to boost ratings by harassing peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

* We would like to know what ethical guidelines TV channel owners and producers are setting down to ensure that this doesn’t happen.

* We are in contact with the commercial sponsors of television shows and will impress upon them the need to pull advertising from programmes and channels that violate basic media ethics.

BOTTOM LINE: Media is not a business like any other. It carries greater responsibility and we want its workings to be transparent and ethical.

In addition:

A college student in Karachi, started a facebook ‘cause’ on Jan 24 demanding that Maya Khan apologise to the youth of Pakistan, especially Karachi

Some activists began an sms campaign, sharing Zafar Siddiqi’s Dubai cell number with this message: Please send this sms to Mr. Zafar Siddiqui, CEO SAMAA TV if you want to raise your voice against the moral policing by Maya Khan: “Dear Mr Siddiqi, pardon the intrusion. I’m part of a citizens’ group protesting Samaa TV and its host Maya Khan’s irresponsible ‘moral policing’. We expect an unconditional apology, and this show withdrawn or at least suspended until new parameters are worked out. Thank you. “

It hasn’t all been about anger and outrage though. Predictably, Pakistanis have derived considerable mirth from the situation, some of it rather unkindly expressed. There’s this outrageous post by Urooj Zia: Things Maya Missed (relevant to my Pink Chaddis report for IPS linked above).

Some funny graphics were created – like park signs saying “Beware of dog – and Maya Khan” (unkind, yes, but then, people are angry), posted by Arif Iqbal (@eusuphxai on twitter), who also posted this, that I especially liked: a still from the old Indian film “Bobby” with its famous song “Hum tum aik kamre mein band hon…” with the next line changed to “Aur Maya aa jaye” (the original line can be translated as: “what if we were locked up in a room… and the key got lost” – changed to: “… and Maya turned up”

There have also been some really nasty shares, including videos of Maya dancing, and an animation in which she gets slapped, but let’s ignore those for now, with just this comment, that we do not condone abusive language, personal insults or threats of violence.

More important, the issue has catalysed some relevant, thought-provoking reports, analyses and discussions, including those listed here:

Wusatullah Khan in BBC Urdu website, Jan 22, 2012: ‘Aap tau naib khuda hain

BBC Urdu report, Jan 23, 2012:TV channel ka anti-dating squad

BBC Urdu Radio report, Jan 24, 2012: ‘Sawerey ka chapa’ par sakht tanqeedin which Samaa senior producer Sohail Zaidi rejects civil society concerns, defends show, saying, “I am not answerable to anyone”.

Vigil-aunties (a term coined by Anthony Permal) by Bina Shah, Jan 24, 2012: ‘At the very least, the channel and the anchorperson owe an apology, if not compensation, to those two individuals who had hurt nobody on that day when they were ambushed and harassed by the television anchor and her Moral Aunty Brigade. The irony is that she describes herself on her Facebook page as “very fair and honest in her dealings”. I think that girl in the niqab, crying in the park, and her blameless friend, as well as any sane person with a conscience and a respect for other people’s privacy, would beg to differ.’

Big Brother (and Sister) is watching youNadeem F. Paracha, Jan 23, 2102, on the history of what he calls ‘pussycat vigilantism’ – “This strange phenomenon is not just about simple hypocrisy, it is also and actually about glorifying this hypocrisy through gung-ho acts in which pussycat media vigilantes prey upon soft targets to exhibit their ‘bravery’ but squeak away if ever an opportunity arises to do the same to those who can and will bite back.” He says the first reported case of moral vigilantism that he stumbled upon was reported in Dawn, 1980. Must read.

In the parks of Karachi, by Ejaz Haider, Jan 24, 2012 - “From the terrible scarcity of information we now have a nauseating excess of it.”

Media ethics and responsibility at Afia Salam and Faisal Qureshi’s online talk show Off the Cuff, discussing the need for a legal framework.

p.s. Well before this issue blew up, Hosh media, which aims to bridge the gap between online and mainstream media, sat down with veteran journalist and former Editor of DawnAbbas Nasir to initiate “a crash course in some of the stickiest subjects that journalism in Pakistan now faces”. Four of the six part series are online at the Hosh website, that Sahar Habib Ghazi wrote about at The great ethics debate (published Jan 23, 2012).

Updates will continue to be posted on the petition link. Watch this space.

Syndicated from: Journeys to democracy

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Pakistani Media is God’s Vice says BBC!

Posted on 23 January 2012 by Tea Server

A very intersting and comprehensive article by BBC Urdu’s Wussatullah Khan can be read in detail here. The author has tried to question the limit for the media – the so-called TV Channels. Accroding to him, television  is NOT doing any service for the society but instead is endangering the lives through its unthoughful and provocative programs (where people’s private lives becomes a tamasha on TV..why???) and this menace MUST STOP!

There is a famous proverb: “jis ki laathi uski bhains”  or simply put: who has the power has his say.
In case TV channels do NOT know how to use their power in a right and just manner – keeping in view the morals and ethics to do a program - then they must be sued and heavily fined. These days our media ceases to understand that with a camera in hands – they must act responsibily!

In our system, nobody is trying to find wrong within their own ranks and that is interesting for me.

We all remember Madrassa Hafsa’s Burqa clad girls (of Lal Masjid Crisis). A detailed report by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) can be read here. Professor Adil Najam in an article entitled “Laathi Raj: Jamia Hafsa’s Offensive on a Divided Offensive”  wrote:

“…if one believes that the violent and coerced imposition of any one view – conservative or liberal; secular or religious – is wrong, then one has to reject all laathis (sticks). One has to be as opposed and as appalled at the laathis being wielded by the burqa-clad women on Jamia Hafsa as one was a few weeks ago to the laathis wielded by the police at lawyers…”

Two wrongs don’t make a right!

Since the introduction of endless TV channels, degradation of moral, ethical values is on the rise, insanity prevails and the reports and programs have gone from bad to worse which has added fuel to the fire in an already crazy and evil system!

FOR FURTHER READINGS

1-  An Article by DAWN News: Big Brother (and Sister) is Watching You

2- Another post at Zee News here.

3- BBC Artile: Moral Policing of Taliban Style by a Pakistani Private Channel.

Syndicated from: sarahinsouthkorea

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Future of Pakistan’s Western Frontier

Posted on 20 January 2012 by Tea Server

Prof Farakh A Khan’s exclusive contribution for PTH

The aggressors have called people of what are now Fata and of Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa different names at different times of history labelled as terrorists or freedom fighters. The ten-year war has taken toll of the American purse and its fighters. On the other hand the Afghan people are constantly suffering. The Americans are openly talking to Afghan Taliban leadership since November 2010 to end American occupation of Afghanistan. The talks are at a crucial juncture where a Taliban office is to be opened in Qatar. The Americans have released five Taliban leaders from infamous Guantanamo prison to be stationed in Qatar. Team led by Marc Grossman from the American side and Qari Yousaf Ahmedi from Afghan Taliban side are in discussions (DeYoung, Karen. US links Taliban talks to Karzai’s consent. Dawn/Washington Post/ Bloomberg News Service. January 13, 2012). The Americans feel greater threat from Iran and want to windup operations in Afghanistan as early as possible.

We need to explore the background of resistance of the people in the area before we make sweeping judgments.

The invasion of Afghanistan by the British ‘Army of the Indus’ in 1839 led to annihilation of the army in its retreat in 1842. The Afghan invasion was pushed by the then Governor General Lord Auckland. This was the time when Britain was the sole super power. British arrogance led them to disaster. To boost army’s moral Sindh was conquered in 1843. This was followed by annexation of Punjab in 1849. These British moves sent clear message about future British intentions to the hill tribes in the north west of the expanding British Empire. Starting in 1850 the British were regularly sending in punitive expeditions into the Tribal belt.

During the Sikh Darbar the Sikhs held the plains but the mountains in the west were independent. Places like Hazara, Bannu, Kohat, DG Khan and DI Khan in the later Sikh period were under the British Deputy Commissioners. During the Sikh wars Amir Dost Mohammad of Afghanistan moved into the Peshawar valley up to the Indus. He made a grave miscalculation by sending a contingent of cavalry to aid the dying Sikh rule.

During the Sikh rule Peshawar valley (Kabul River) up to Jamrud in the west was held with great atrocities. In 1849 the British took over the Sikh Darbar territories and established pickets (check posts) along the eastern banks of Indus and in Kabul River valley along the bases of mountains to restrain raids from tribes beyond in the mountains. The first incursion of the British forces through what was Afghan tribal area took place when their army attacked Ghazni and Kabul in 1839 what became the disastrous 1st Afghan War. This was followed by revenge attack in 1879-80 (2nd Afghan War) when the invading British forces brutally killed people of all ages and both sexes. The scenes of massacres were still fresh in the memory of the tribes when the British forces launched Frontier War in 1863. The idea of this war was to teach a lesson to the tribes of Bonair to stop raids into the settled areas under British control and to ‘Hindustani fanatics’ of Wahhabi Islam who considered the British as occupier of their lands across India making jihad legitimate. The British felt that Hindustanis were also spreading Wahhabi Islam in Fata and had to be stopped (Albinia, Alice. Empires of the Indus. John Murray, London. 2008).

The Hindustani Wahhabi Fanatics were receiving funds from ‘Southern’ Bengal. The Mulka village of Syeds of Bunair housed left overs of Syed Ahmed Shaheed (d 1830) in Mahabun Mountains was eventfully burnt by the locals under a British detachment. Between 1850 and 1863 the British launched 20 expeditions into the mountains beyond the plains occupied by the British forces. Each time the number of invading forces increased. In Sitana campaign (1863) more than 5,000 troops were used and later enforced. The initial force was trapped in Ambela Pass and Gen Sir Sydney Chamberlain was evacuated with severe wounds. The cost of the expedition was worrying for the British administration. The tribesmen had few matchlock guns and mostly relied on swords and stones. Swords were used when they came close to the enemy (Adye, John. Sitana: a mountain campaign of the borders of Afghanistan in 1863. Published 1867).

The main issue of attacks by the British beyond its borders into Tribal Areas of Afghanistan was raids (cattle lifting) by tribes supported by ‘Hindustani Fanatics’ in the area. In 1858 the British army raid destroyed Sitana on the southern slopes of Mahabun Mountains. This was followed by destruction of ‘Hindustani settlement’ of Mulka located on the northern slopes of Mahabun Mountains in 1863. The British army in another raid destroyed ‘Hindustani village’ of Mundee in 1864. The other British approach was to stop supplies of funds and fighters from British India. For the people of Fata fear of British occupation of Punjab was an indication of their advancement and occupation of their areas (Punjab Administration Report, 1863-64 and 1867-68).

The British continued its policy of ‘Butcher and Bolt’ in retaliation of tribal raids. After subduing the lashkar the villages of ‘miscreants’ were torched or blown up, the crops burnt, waterways destroyed and cattle rounded up. Each time a new agreement was made with the tribal elders. Starting in 1917 the British troops used ‘Air Service’ to attack the tribal lashkar (now drone strikes by the Americans and bombing by Pakistani F16). In Tirah the tribes were asked to remove ‘Turk and Afghan’ settlers (foreign fighters) which they did sending them back to Afghanistan (Obhrai, 1938). It seems that nothing has changed in the 21st century.

From times immemorial the Pakhtun belt now located between Afghanistan and Pakistan has not changed although they were Hindus at one time then converted to Buddhism and finally to Islam. Babar (early 16th century) records his attack into Bonair to gather cattle and make a pyramid of heads of the local population (a Turkish tradition of Central Asia). The tribes were in constant war with each other but united against any invader. Nothing has changed.

When the British left in 1947 Pakistan reversed the ‘forward policy’ and pulled out the troops from Fata. We had peace in Fata till 2004.

Let us jump to recent events shaking Fata and Afghanistan. The bookshops today are full of bewildering array of publications on Afghanistan, Taliban and Al Qaeda. Most of the modern authors have little understanding of the area, people or its history under discussion. Al Qaeda as an entity appeared on our radar screen through American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Al Qaeda has a foreign agenda and is irrelevant for Pakistan’s Fata problem.

The Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 galvanised the tribes and people of the country against the occupiers. This time Russian had helicopters and tanks but in this asymmetrical war the Afghans had the terrain on their side and supplies of manpower and ammunition from America, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Al Qaeda was born out of this triple marriage. The supply of Stringer missiles by the Americans negated Russian air power. The American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 united the Fata tribes once again into military opposition. People of Pakistan are also opposed to American intervention. They are supplying manpower and funds to Taliban as seen in 1860s. The ‘Hindustani fanatics’ are now ‘foreign fighters’ or called ‘Punjabi Taliban’. The Pakhtun ‘raiders’ of 1863 were transformed into Mujahedeen during Russian occupation and then into Taliban when the Americans came in. AK47, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and suicide bombers now affectively replace the Stringer missiles. The Pakhtuns are innovative. Pakistan became an enemy of the Taliban fighting the American and Nato armies because of Pakistan government support to Americans in the form of supplies and drone attacks. We saw spate of suicide and IED blasts in major cities of Pakistan.

The incidence of Lal Masjid in Islamabad and attack of the Pakistani army into South Waziristan in 2004 was the last straw for peace. Most of the students who died in Lal Masjid in the army assault were from Fata and KP. Then came the incidence of US troops killing 24 FC soldiers in cold blood in North Waziristan followed by freeze of Nato supplies through Pakistan and returning of Shamsi Air Base used for drone strikes in Fata. Earlier CIA agent Raymond Davis was held for shooting two motorcyclists in Lahore and then released. This was followed by the killing of Osama in an American raid in Abbottabad, which produced bad blood between the two countries. The people of Pakistan were told of thousands of visas issued by Pakistan to dubious people considered as CIA agents.

America is bleeding like its predecessor the Russians in Afghanistan. The 1st World armies require expensive services, which are not appropriate for war in the 3rd World. With killing of Osama the main reason for invasion of Afghanistan has been removed. The motivational force for the American troops in the field was to make ‘America safe’ by removing Al Qaeda leadership has been achieved. The Americans have killed enough Afghans to settle revenge for 9/11. The US soldiers in the field are now fighting a war where it is ‘them or us’. It is time they got out without giving an impression that they have their tail between the legs. Americans do not need troops on the ground in Afghanistan to ward off any untoward incidence. They have 50 bases in the Middle East and Qatar and Bahrain bases are not far from Afghanistan. For surveillance the Americans have ample supply of drones and settilites. Their troops can be moved into Afghanistan at short notice. I do not see how the Americans can maintain Karzai as the leader of Afghans once they leave.

The other player in Afghan scene is Pakistan. Afghans never had soft corner for the Pakistan. The bone of contention between the two is the 2,640 km 1893 Durand Line Agreement inherited from the British for fixing ‘spheres of influence’ between the two countries. Thus the British claimed Fata and what is now most of KP. Today neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan can dictate to the Fata tribes. Both keep Durand Line as a porous border and bone of contention. The attacks into Pakistan by Taliban or its splinter groups have been worrying. Like the Americans Pakistani leadership has made agreements with the various groups of Pakistani Taliban, which each side claim were broken by the other.

The ‘hull’ for Fata is not war but economics. Fata is heavily dependent on food, electricity, infrastructure, petrol and some places gas from Pakistan and survive on smuggling and jobs in rest of Pakistan. We are not sure of mineral wealth of Fata since no survey has been carried out. We should use the carrot rather than the stick to solve Fata problem. Gun shall make the situation worse. Above all we need professional research of the area and a ten years planned strategy with the consent of the Fata tribes. Before we plan for a long-term policy for Fata it has to be taken off the hands of the Pakistan Army.

Selected Bibliography
Elliott, JG. The Frontier 1839-1947: the story of the North-West Frontier of India. Cassell, London. 1968.

Wylly, HC. From the Black Mountain to Waziristan. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. London. 1912.

Steven, Coll. Ghost Wars. Penguin Books. 2004.

Barthorp, Michael. Afghan wars and the North-West Frontier 1839-1947. Cassell & Co, London. 2002.

Jan, Abid Ullah. Afghanistan: the genesis of the final crusade. Pragmatic Publication. Ottawa. 2006.

Ridedel, Milton A. In search for Al Qaeda: its leadership and future. Vanguard Books, Lahore. 2009.

Razvi, Mujtaba. The frontiers of Pakistan: a study of Frontier problems in Pakistan’s foreign policy. National Publishing House Ltd., Karachi. 1971.

The Second Afghan War: 1878-80. Complied by Charles Metcalfe MacGregor and India Army Intelligence Branch. Army Education Press. 1975.

Caroe, Olaf. The Pathans. Reprint by Oxford University Press, Karachi. 1975.

Pakistan: the militant jihadi challenge. Asia Report No. 164. March 13, 2009.

Fata- a most dangerous place. Principle Author Shuja Nawaz. Centre for Strategic & International Studies. 2009.

Obhrai, Divan Chand. The evolution of North-West Frontier Province. First published 1938. Reprint Saeed Book Bank, Peshawar, 1983.

Saleem, Shahzad. Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: beyond bin Laden and 9/11. Pluto Press, London. 2011.

Hussain, Mujahid. Punjabi Taliban: driving extremism in Pakistan. 2012.

Syndicated from: Pak Tea House

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Spiritual Solution to Energy Crisis in Pakistan

Posted on 08 January 2012 by Tea Server

I have been a resident of Islamabad since 1986. That makes about twenty-five years to date. I remember some electricity load-shedding, while there used to be no gas load-shedding. And the electricity load-shedding would not exceed a limit that would cause our daily routines to disrupt. Rather, in the summers, that one hour load-shedding at night would give all of us a great opportunity to take a break and have a nice stroll in the street under the star-decked night-sky. With all the black out on ground, the stars took stage to shine piercingly. In the winters, the same hour would see the family huddle in front of the heater, eat peanuts and talk.

It was the winters of 2007. I sat huddled in a cold, dark room, holding my one-month old first-born. No, God forbid, I was not in any kind of detention center (After the mind-blowing abduction of Aafia Siddiqui along with her children, such descriptions bring detention centers to the mind). This cold, dark place was my very own home which had always been used to lights, warmth and laughter. This was the first winters I was experiencing with electricity and gas load-shedding happening together. We had resorted to candles for light. The rooms were so cold. And there was no warm water in the taps, for the geyser was not running. I was so scared my new born baby would fall ill and die.

Why this dreadful situation? I thought. And my mind rocketed back to the tragedy of three months ago…

Islamabad, Operation Silence, July 2007: Lal Masjid was attacked by the Musharraf regime for the so-called crime of demanding rule-of-Shariah-Law within the land, setting a deadline for it and attempting a couple of incursions to implement it. Prior to the attack and during the siege, the dwellers of Lal Masjid were subjected to food-supply cut-off, electricity, gas and water supply cut-off, harassment and terrorism.

Soon after, Pakistan was afflicted with the worst kind of wheat and sugar shortage, electricity and gas crisis, drone attacks by the US escalating from four to thirty-three per annum and the onset of suicide attacks. Indeed, The Islamic Republic of Pakistan had committed a suicide attack upon itself when it sought to crush an Islamic movement to appease its dollar-masters.

The pattern match was not lost to the observant eye and heart and very soon the print media was buzzing with the commentary of Nature’s recompense upon the Pakistani nation for staying mute upon the Lal Masjid Operation in the heart of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

Today, the whole nation; men, women, children and senior citizens, are turning out on the streets protesting the horrendous electricity and gas load-shedding which has wrecked the most basic routines of people. Despite the record-breaking inflation of sixteen percent this fiscal year, even if people are managing to buy some ration for their kitchens, their children are still going to schools without breakfast for there is no gas to cook food on.

However, these protests will lead to nothing. For Nature’s rule works upon ‘An eye for an eye…’, and Nature will not forgive and restore our facilities until we restore the facilities of those whom we rooted out unjustifiably. Jamya Hafsa, Lal Masjid’s girl’s madrassah was demolished to the ground post Operation Silence. A year later, in 2008, the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave the ruling for the reconstruction of Jamya Hafsa. Three years later, in 2011, the court order still remains unheard.

The civil protests on the roads today might not have been needed had these protests been made prior and during the days of Operation Silence when religious students and religious social workers were subjected to hunger, thirst, electricity, gas and water cut-off, harassment and terrorization. Today the whole nation is suffering exactly the same. Perhaps we can get out of this mess if instead of taking to the streets to get back our basic facilities, we go back a little way and seek the reconstruction of Jamya Hafsa and restore their basic facilities to them through donations. For the students of Jamya Hafsa are resilient students; when their roof was taken away, they did not choose to go home or to other fancy universities as President Musharraf had offered at that time, but continued to study in make-shift arrangements, eat meager meals and sleep at night in open, windy corridors during the piercing winters of Islamabad.

Syndicated from: Al-Af’idah…

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Do or die — 4 options for unified state pillars to sack the generals

Posted on 26 December 2011 by Tea Server

The Terrorland Special Report

BRAVO! Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani finally took the courage and warned the gang of three rogue generals of the Pakistan Army who are allegedly involved in political activism. Mr. Gilani said in the House that the elected Parliament would not accept “a state within the state” indicating towards the military establishment. He also exposed the military-dominated Osama bin Laden Commission’s hidden efforts to protect the real culprits who provided a safe heaven to the Al Qaeda leader, and allowed him to operate from Pakistani – a house near the Kakul Military Academy in Abbotabad.

Pakistani people believe that the political activism of three serving generals of the Pakistan Army – Army Chief Gen. Ishfaq Parvez Kayani, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt-Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) head Maj-Gen. Athar Abbas – has put the future of the military, democracy and country in danger.
After the warning of the Prime Minister, the next day, Army Chief Gen. Kayani said that he was not planning a takeover. The same day, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry also said that no military takeover was possible in his (Justice Chaudhry’s) presence, stressing that Pakistan will now have supremacy of the Constitution. Then former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said that the genie of the army and ISI’s intervention needed to be bottled up for stability of democracy in Pakistan.
Earlier, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party-sponsored blog had claimed that three Punjabis – Mr. Sharif, Justice Chaudhry and Gen. Kayani – were playing a “dangerous game” against democracy and Pakistan, and had requested the Parliament to remove the Chief Justice of Pakistan for allegedly playing in the hands of Army Chief Gen. Kayani.
Whatever the fact may be, but looking at the track record of the three accused generals since the beginning, it’s the demand of the majority of the over 184 million people of Pakistan to remove the three accused generals to save the military as a national institution.

“There are better and professional soldiers in the Army to lead as Army Chief,” said a retired military office. “Gen. Kayani, Pasha and Abbas have become politicians in the uniform. That is why the country’s security has become a national challange.”

Generals lost trust of the nation: The people of Pakistan have been asking many questions about the activities of the accused generals, some of them are given here:
‎1- Why the minor part of the so-called memo in the Military-gate – allegedly seeking American help to stop a feared military coup in Pakistan – has been taken to the Supreme Court?
2- Why the major part of the military-gate – ISI chief’s seeking help of Arab countries for staging a military coup in Pakistan – is being ignored by the apex court?
3- Why the ISI spread the news that Al-Qaeda may kidnap a senior member (Justice Javed Iqbal) of the Osama bin Laden commission?
4- Why the investigations of Osama bin-Laden’s presence in Pakistan and assassination of journalist Saleem Shahzad are going so slow but the ISI wants a an “immediate decision” in the so-called memo case?
5- Who is using Iran Khan as a bargaining-chip to force Nawaz Sharif to be an ally of the accused generals?
6- How Nawaz Sharif – who had been made hostage in his Raiwand farmhouse – suddenly got liberated and started addressing public rallies even in Sindh, the base of the ruling PPP? 
7- Who is funding the anti-government public rallies in the country? 

8- Who allows leaders of banned religious organizations to participate in anti-government rallies?

9- What kind of new political alliance is in the minds of the three accused generals to complete their hidden mission? 

10- Millions are being spent by the ISI to form new alliances like the IJI which can prove fatal for the country? 

The people know the answer. But Army Chief Gen. Kayani, ISI chief Gen. Pasha and the military’s media war chief Gen. Athar Abbas seem clueless in this regard!

Charge-sheet against generals: There are plenty of allegations against the accused generals – Army Chief Gen. Kayani, ISI chief Gen. Pasha and the military’s media war chief Gen. Athar Abbas seem clueless in this regard. Some of them are underneath:
1- Selling Pakistan-controlled Gilgit-Baltistan region to China so that the neighboring country could support a military coup like it supports the regimes in North Korea and Myanmar.
2- Making a “state within the state” by violation of the Constitution; conspiracy against the elected government; seeking help from foreign countries to stage a coup in Pakistan.  
3- Sheltering international terrorists like Osama bin Laden and making the whole political and judicial systems of Pakistan hostage for the last four years.
4- Involvement in high profile assassinations including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, Cabinet Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, elderly parents of Supreme Court judge Justice Javed Iqbal, Major-General Ameer Faisal Alvi, journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, Col. Imam, Javed Khwaja, forcing Shumaila Faheem (widow of Faheem Shamshad who was killed by an American Raymond Davis in Lahore) to take poison to pressurize the American government, and other criminal cases.
5- Besides the massacre of students at the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), killing of Shia Muslims in Quetta, Bajore and other places; attacks on the Ahmadis and the war crimes in Swat and Fata.

6- The generals are also accused of committing crimes against humanity by arranging terrorist attacks on civilians and military targets in the country as a part of their so-called “brinkmanship strategy” to show the world that Pakistan was also under attack from the so-called Taliban, an effort to get more dollars.

7- The three generals are allegedly involved in the murder plot of journalist Habib R. Sulemani and his family members, which was exposed in the first phase of the systematic killing.
What can be done? Enough is enough, people say in the terrorized country. If the elected President, Prime Minister, Parliament, Supreme Court and leaders of all political parties still behave like a terrorized submissive servant, then it will prove their death in silence—not only political but physical demise too as many believe that the accused generals are ruthless killers. “Yes, just see the track record of the generals,” said an reporter in Peshawar.
Mr. Sulemani had suggested on the Twitter: “Army, ISI, ISPR chiefs encroachment: President, PM & Parliament must tell whole truth to the nation before taking action to save Pakistan!” Therefore, the elected and non-elected leadership of Pakistan along the Supreme Court of the country should dare to speak the truth to the nation before sacking the three generals to save the country. Truth is more powerful than the guns of criminal generals in the world.
There are four options to take action against the ruthless and powerful generals:
1- President Asif Ali Zardari can dismisses or retire the accused generals and appoint new Army, ISI and ISPR chiefs as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Pakistan. Indeed there would be the new breed of generals who would follow former Armey Chief Jehangir Kiramat, who always respected the orders of the elected government according to the Constitution.
2- If the President is too much afraid of sacking the almighty generals, then through the Supreme Court the job can be done. And the people of Pakistan believe that the military will follow the orders of their political leaders and court not accused officers.
3- If the apex court is also unable to bell the cunning cats, then the Parliament should show that it’s not a “rubber stamp” of the ISI and should take a bold and historic action against the generals, who have become isolated in the entire world due to their alleged illegal activities. Pakistan will get global respect in this way only.

4- It’s possible, as The Terrorland had written earlier, that the Corps Commander of the Pakistan Army force Gen. Kayani, Gen. Pasha and Gen. Abbas to resign gracefully.

Related Post

Dirt on uniform — public waiting for removal of Army, ISI, ISPR chiefs
  

Syndicated from: THE TERRORLAND

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Dirt on uniform — public waiting for removal of Army, ISI, ISPR chiefs

Posted on 26 December 2011 by Tea Server

The Terrorland Report

IN a time when the over 184 million people of Pakistan hate three serving
generals for their alleged
involvement in political activism, and want legal action against the powerful army officer, who run the country without being accountable to the elected civilian government, judiciary and Parliament, still the secret agents are trying to win the lost battle through engineered political rallies and cyber activism in the country. The common people in Pakistan are just waiting for removal of Army Chief Gen.
Ishfaq Parvez Kayani, Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) chief
Lt-Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Inter-Services
Public Relations (
ISPR) head Maj-Gen. People say they are watching TV and waiting for removal news of the three generals. “The government must remove them from offices in the best national interest,” says a journalist in Islamabad.
Independent analysts believe that the three accused generals have become the most controversial army officers in the 64 year history of Pakistan… more controversial than the military dictators of the past. They must resign or face legal action for the allegations like high treason and assassinations. 
See this encounter in the cyberspace:
        REHMAN PAK: ‎”Innocent people are
forcefully made Taliban/mujahideen by the ISI and MI, and then killed…
innocent students are first gathered in the Lal Masjid and they are told to
protest violently, and then are brutally killed on camera… innocent
journalist Saleem Shahzad for pointing out crimes of the generals, was killed,
elderly parents of Supreme Court judge Javed Iqbal (after the judge’s remarks
against ISI) was brutally killed. Col Imam, Javed Khwaja and Dr Imran Farroq
also killed. They sell and cash deaths of innocent Pakistanis.” http://theterrorland.blogspot.com/2011/12/terrorland-team-will-be-razed-with-huge.html
        ALI ZAIN: all this is the bullz shit
you are talking about…….. you dont even know the single side of th
picture……
        REHMAN PAK: But how, Ali?
       
        ALI ZAIN: bcz the picture i have seen
is greater than yours, and i strongly condemn your personal views…. you
expressed above.
       
        REHMAN PAK: Tell me one simple thing:
why do you love ISI chief Gen Shuja Pasha this much?
       
        ALI ZAIN: bcz i knw the gen pasha who
goes to america for a meeting with pannetta and comes back with in half hour
after the meeting , does not stay there in hotel bcz he says the money i am using
is by my nationz blood.
       
        REHMAN PAK: The whole Pakistan
considered him a double-faced man who butchered innocent Pakistanis, and you
make him a hero… what a shame. You don’t remember the cry of the orphaned
students betrayed and killed at Lal Masjid and other places… may Allah guide
you on the right path. Ameen. Bye.
       
        ALI ZAIN: at the time of lal masjid gen
pasha was no where…… you have a bad memory i think, he became dg isi in
2008
       
        REHMAN PAK: You’re
not aware of the truth, brother. Still he was a planner and right hand-man of
Gen Kayani as MI chief. Remember, when I say Pasha, it mean the gang of three:
Kayani, Pasha and Abbas. Pls read The Terrorland blog archives to get the re
al face of those who are the enemies of the country in
the guise of patriot generals. They have sold a part of the country secretly
recently, trying to keep the nation in the dark…
        In the country of over 184 million, no
one believes in Army Chief Gen Kayani, ISI chief Gen Pasha or ISPR chief Gen
Athar Abbas… not even their family members anymore… they need more
extension in their services… no matter for that how many people die or land
is lost…
       
        ALI ZAIN: you are making a big lie
dear, i assure you that more than 170 million people of pakistan dont even know
the ISI, and the names of Army chief and dg ISI, never formulate theories while
sitting in bed room, go and move arround in the public then ask for the
facts…. you need to explore your thoughts dear……
       
        REHMAN PAK: One correction, pls, it is
MO not MI. Gen Pasha was DG military operations when Lal Masjid tragedy
happened. I’m daily going around as a part of my job as a human rights
activist, i know that fact. Either you are a relative of the accused general or
a brainwashed would-be suicide-bomber…. May God guide you. Ameen. Bye.
       ALI ZAIN: i am not a brain washed guy
dear, but may be some one appointed to track the misguided persons like
you….. allah almighty may help you to be on the right side…
       REHMAN PAK: You’re the only guy i have
met in the cyberspace who loves an “criminal” general… lol… i was
surprised… but thanks for making things clear… a member of the ISI’s cyber
brigade… Now no more argument :)
       ALI ZAIN: you are once again miss taken
dear……

After a day, Ali Zain messages Rehman and says: “Hey, I don’t like this post. Please remove it: Treason case against generals & Chief Justice of Pakistan

Rehman answered: “pls ask the admins of the blog, thanks.” And there was silence!

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‘The Terrorland Team will be razed with a huge blast!’

Posted on 05 December 2011 by Tea Server

The Terrorland Report

WE are presenting here a cyberspace communication between a senior member of The Terrorland Team that runs this group blog, The Terrorland  and an unknown person (WA). It’s unedited and without any editorial comment.

WA: who is this? whats your full name and from where do u belong? do u work for Nexus?
THE TERRORLAND: You had tagged me. I am a member of The Terrorland Team that runs this group blog: “With its Hindi dialect, Urdu is considered as the third major language of the world after Chinese and English. How English language has given birth to Roman Urdu? What is the future of the language, poets and writers? http://t.co/4kWENkcZ
WA: Don`t worry if you want to get fucked you will be fucked soon. The agencies will open up ur and ur team`s ass and then put this terrorland there and make a huge blast.
THE TERRORLAND: Blast! Yes, that is what they are doing with the over 184 million innocent people of our beloved Pakistan, Waqar Ahmad saab. Innocent people are forcefully made Taliban/mujahideen by the ISI and MI, and then killed to get personal gain… innocent students are first gathered in the Lal Masjid and they are told to protest violently and then are brutally killed on camera… innocent journalist Saleem Shahzad for point their crimes, and elderly parents of Supreme Court judge Javed Iqbal (after the judge’s remarks on ISI) are brutally killed. If you are from the ISI, MI or their terror-alliance MQM-Altaf, then remember Waqar, people like you are also killed (look Col Imam, Javed Khwaja and Dr Imran Farroq). They sell and cash deaths of innocent Pakistanis. How much destruction they want? We believe in God. Man proposes and Allah disposes! The generals can’t harm our beloved country for the sack of their personal gain anymore. Allah will protect us all. May Allah guide you towards peace. Ameen.
WA: Lolzx i always smile on guys like you. Whats your point? what do u want to say? whats ur age n wht do u do?
THE TERRORLAND: I am a human rights activist, can you tell me about yourself?
WA: why are you doing all this? what do u want to achieve? what will change by your efforts?
:) don`t worry abt me. I have`t got any tag for myself yet. I am a human being and thats all.
THE TERRORLAND: To stop the generals and agencies their criminal policies, which were made in the Gen Zia era, and retired generals of that era are still forcing every army chief to go on with that criminal and anti-Pakistan policies. See what Gen Aslam Beg and Gen Hamid Gul are doing…?? They are the brains of Army Chief Gen Kayani and ISI chief Gen Pasha…
THE TERRORLAND: Their so-called brinkmanship has destroyed Pakistan but still there is a ray of hope if these criminal are brought to justice as our group blog, The Terrorland, says: [Let's bring those people to justice who use religion, race and nationalism as weapons against humanity, and those criminal minds who want to make planet earth a terrorland in the universe.]
WA: lolz i will smile on u again. Nothing is going to change by ur stupid activities of promoting terrorland and stuff. You have got no value and nobody is going to listen you no matter if you do whatever you are doing your whole life if you are innocently doing this.(which i think is true) but if you are paid to do this then i will say keep on doing and i would also like to join hands with you if return is great ;)
Anyways nice to talk to you. You got respect in my eyes the way u responded to my harsh language and i think you must be very mature. I said that because thats the way they work here in Pak. You know better then me. Accept the reality, Nothing is going to change. Those who got the power and authority in their hands got everything and a say against them will get u destroyed. I would suggest you to focus on your personnel well-being:)
THE TERRORLAND: Thanks, Waqar. Be blessed. Bye.
WA: http://www.javed-chaudhry.com/main-bhi-wali-muhammad-hun-javed-chaudhry/

Syndicated from: THE TERRORLAND

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Military 1, Democracy 0

Posted on 25 November 2011 by Tea Server

By Ali K Chishti

Published: November 24, 2011
The memogate scandal — which had been brewing for some time and went viral with Mansoor Ijaz publically naming Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador to Washington — might as well have been the equivalent of the Lawyers Movement and Lal Masjid combined for the PPP-led democratically-elected government. While there are lots of questions which need answers, the issue seems to have been blown out of proportion by obvious actors who wanted to capitalise on the situation and undermine and hijack certain aspects of democracy. After speaking to various stakeholders including the Americans, Mansoor Ijaz and even security personnel, I am convinced that Husain Haqqani indeed wrote that controversial memo. However, before passing judgment, one needs to understand very dispassionately that this particular memo was written just after US-Pakistan relations were at their lowest point post the OBL assassination and that this is not the first memo ever written by a Pakistani to the US.
A detailed look at the memo reveals nothing shocking and, in fact, it appears that it was a desperate attempt to save US-Pakistan relations and establish a new social contract between the two countries which went terribly wrong. Interestingly, points one and two in the memo promised to form an independent committee — like the 9/11 commission — to probe the OBL fiasco, which incidentally was implemented with the approval of the military. The second point said: “It is certain that the OBL commission will result in immediate termination of active service officers in the appropriate government offices and agencies found responsible for complicity in assisting OBL” — a valid promise which is indeed also in the interests of the Pakistani military, as the military itself had been trying to purge the force from radicals within. Point three talked about establishing a “new national security team” and allowing US personnel to carry out raids and handing over al Qaeda members and other fugitives, something which the military had been doing since 9/11 by allowing drone attacks and joint raids (such as the one that led to the arrest of Mullah Baradar in Karachi). The fourth point, which was widely criticised, said that “the new national security team is prepared with full backing of the Pakistani government — initially civilian but eventually all three powers centres — to develop an acceptable framework of discipline for the nuclear programme”. Calls for bringing the nuclear assets under “a more verifiable, transparent regime” one widely misunderstood since General (r) Khalid Kidwai had been in charge of the command and control authority and the memo was reflecting a deep fear of potential stealth raids on the country’s nuclear assets. Compare this to General Pervez Musharraf who had transformed the nuclear command and control authority to please a foreign power. Or Dr AQ Khan who was involved in the proliferation of our strategic weapons for financial gain? Husain Haqqani comes across as a saint and a small fry.
Point five was about eliminating the ISI’s S section, something which   needs to be discussed and debated. Finally, the last point talked about “bringing all perpetrators of Pakistani origin to account for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, whether outside government or inside any part of government including it’s intelligence agencies”. This, too, would seem to be a legitimate point which the Pakistani government has always advocated.Finally, one should understand that this particular memo had been the first one drafted by a civilian, as all such drafts had previously been prepared by uniformed officers, and this obviously didn’t go down well with the military — and perhaps that explains its reaction. Husain Haqqani expectedly resigned on November 22 but he will remain a living martyr for democracy. Sherry Rehman’s appointment as the new ambassador shows that President Zardari and the PPP will remain in government, but the memogate scandal itself is indicative of how civilians have to prove their loyalty to this country every day, while uniformed soldiers not only remain unquestioned, but wear badges of patriotism.
Military 1, Democracy 0.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2011.

Syndicated from: AKC

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