India's Modi meets China's Xi amid warming ties; visit marked by rare personal diplomacy

President Xi Jinping praised China's warming ties with India during a meeting Thursday between the leaders of Asia's rising powers and rivals, which included a rare touch of personal diplomacy for a Chinese leader.

Xi met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a sprawling government guest house in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province, from which the president's family hails. China-India relations "are experiencing stable development and facing broad prospects," Xi was quoted as telling Modi by China's official Xinhua News Agency.

The exchanges highlight warming ties between the two powers — the world's most populous nations with a combined 2.6 billion people — despite their continuing rivalry and contrasting political systems. That trend has gained momentum by the personal authority enjoyed by the two men, who are widely seen as their countries' strongest leaders in years.

Modi's visit will "push forward the bilateral strategic partnership to achieve new progress, which has potential for greater development," Xi said.

Clad in traditional Indian dress, Modi earlier visited the museum dedicated to China's famed Terra Cotta Warriors and a Buddhist temple housing works translated from Sanskrit — a reminder of the ancient cultural links between the two Asian gians.

Amid heavy security, large crowds turned out to greet his motorcade, prompting the prime minister to tweet: "Am very glad to see the enthusiasm among the people of China. People-to-people ties are always special."

The visit to the central Chinese city marks the first time Xi has hosted a visiting foreign leader in his ancestral home, a conscious display of hospitality underscoring his intention to build a strong personal relationship with Modi.

Xi is reciprocating the Indian leader's invitation to his own hometown of Ahmedabad during a visit to India last year. Chinese leaders almost never receive their foreign counterparts in anything other than formal settings in Beijing.

Xi said his September to India visit resulted in "an important consensus on promoting the bilateral strategic partnership of cooperation and forging a closer partnership of development," according to Xinhua.

China is looking to India as a market for its increasingly high-tech goods, from high-speed trains to nuclear power plants, while India is keen to attract Chinese investment in manufacturing and infrastructure. With a slowing economy, excess production capacity and nearly $4 trillion in foreign currency reserves, China is ready to satisfy India's estimated $1 trillion in demand for infrastructure projects such as airports, roads, ports and railways.

Modi's top priority in China is finding ways to reduce India's $48 billion trade deficit with its neighbor through greater market access for Indian goods and services and by convincing Chinese companies to manufacture in India.

Indian and Chinese officials have said the sides plan to sign investment deals and trade agreements during Modi's visit worth about $10 billion, the official China Daily newspaper reported Thursday.

Xi and Modi are also expected to discuss efforts to end a border dispute that sparked a bloody monthlong conflict in 1962. No resolution is expected soon, although the sides have been in close contact to avoid flare-ups.

India has also grown increasingly concerned about forays by Chinese naval vessels, including submarines, into what New Delhi considers its strategic backyard. China's navy is active in the Gulf of Aden as part of anti-piracy patrols, and Beijing has heavy invests in port facilities in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Another divisive issue is China's deep ties with Pakistan, India's archrival, where Xi received a lavish reception last month. China has committed to invest up to $46 billion in Pakistani power generation and other projects.

Meanwhile, the presence of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in India rankles Beijing, although New Delhi has avoided using him as a diplomatic foil. China reviles the Buddhist cleric, who fled to India in 1959, as a separatist.

Beijing is also concerned about India's improving relations with Japan and the U.S. — China's chief rivals for influence in Asia. Xi's desire to build a strong personal bond with Modi can be seen as an attempt to ensure China ranks high in his affections and improve coordination on regional and international issues.

Both countries are members of the BRICS grouping of emerging economies, which is now establishing a formal lending arm, the New Development Bank, to be based in China's financial hub of Shanghai and headed by a senior Indian banker.

India was also a founding member of the embryonic China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which seeks to emulate institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Modi will talk with officials including Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on Friday before going to Shanghai for activities focusing on trade relations.

Anti-Ismaili attack spotlights Pakistan's intensifying sectarian violence

Gunmen in Karachi have opened fire on a bus carrying religious minorities killing scores of people. DW examines the reasons behind sectarian violence in the South Asian nation and how to eliminate it.

At least 43 people were killed and more than a dozen others injured on Wednesday, May 13 when armed men fired at a bus carrying members of the Ismaili community - a minority Shiite Muslim sect - near Safoora Chowk in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. It was the worst anti-Shiite assault in Pakistan since January 30, when a suicide attack in a mosque in the southern Shikarpur district claimed 61 lives.

"Six terrorists came on three motorcycles; they entered the bus and began firing indiscriminately. They used 9 millimeter pistols and all those killed and injured were hit by the 9mm pistols," Ghulam Hyder Jamali, police chief of Sindh province, told journalists.

The Jundullah group, affiliated to the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. "These killed people were Ismaili and we consider them kafir [heretics]. We had four attackers. In the coming days we will attack Ismailis, Shiites and Christians," Reuters news agency quoted Jundullah spokesman Ahmed Marwat as saying.

DW's Karachi correspondent, Rafat Saeed, however said the Pakistani authorities did not confirm that Jundullah carried out the attack: "I spoke to the Sindh province's Inspector General of Police, Ghulam Haider Jamali, and he told me that a banned militant group was behind the attacks. He did not name the group," Saeed said.

Over the past several years, conflicts between the Islamic Republic's Sunni Deobandi and Shiite Muslim groups have increased in brutality, frequency and mortality. Shiites make up around 20 percent of the country's predominantly Muslim population.

Sectarian violence has claimed thousands of lives in the Islamic Republic in the past decade

Sectarian violence has claimed the lives of approximately 2,300 people in the country's four main provinces and some 1,500 people in the tribal area of the Kurram Agency since 2007, according to a recent report by the Middle East Institute (MEI).

Sectarian conflict

A number of analysts trace the origins of sectarian violence in Pakistan to the Afghan War of the 1980s. They say that Pakistan's former military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq made it a state policy to fund and arm extremist Wahhabi groups in the 1980s, using these organizations against the Shiites to curb Iran's support in Pakistan and to increase Islamabad's influence in Afghanistan.

Experts say the latest round of sectarian violence in the country is merely a continuation of the targeting of Shiite Muslims by various militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan, who are mainly from the Wahhabi sub-sect known as the Deobandis.

"It's therefore important that we identify this as not a Sunni-Shiite conflict, but a conflict between Sunni Deobandi and Shiite Muslims - with Shiite civilians bearing the brunt of the violence," said Arif Rafiq, Pakistan expert and president of Vizier Consulting, which provides strategic guidance on Middle East and South Asian political and security issues.

Sectarian violence in Pakistan is also not limited to any particular region or community. In recent years, prominent members of both the Sunni and Shiite groups have fallen victim to the violence in nearly every province and main city in Pakistan.

Hundreds of Shiites have lost their lives in a wave of terror attacks targeting them in the country's restive Balochistan province since 2010.

Analysts point out that although the lives of Shiite Muslims are under threat all over Pakistan, those living in Balochistan and the northwestern Gilgit-Baltistan region face a systematic onslaught by the Taliban and other militant groups.

Government's failure

Human rights groups say the Pakistani government has largely failed to stem the tide of sectarian violence, despite its efforts to prevent the killings of Shiites.

The federal and provincial security forces provide security for Shiite processions, close off the border to prevent attacks during Shiite holy days, and have killed and arrested LeJ terrorists, analyst Rafiq told DW. "But at the same time, as one hand of the Pakistani state fights the terrorists, the other hand engages in deals with their political affiliates, such as the Ahl-e Sunnat Wal Jammat (ASWJ) group," he added.

Some activists also accuse the country's powerful security establishment of backing Sunni militants and failing to protect the minority groups.

"The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which allegedly receives support from units of Pakistani intelligence agencies, has accepted responsibility for most attacks on Shiites in the recent past," said Malik Siraj Akbar, a Balochistan expert in Washington.

"The organization is closely connected to the Afghan Taliban and has renewed connections with Jundullah, the anti-Iran Sunni militant group. All these groups share abhorrence for the Shiites," he said.

Reversing the tide

While sectarianism has become mainstreamed in nearly all regions of Pakistan, the country is far from being divided on sectarian lines in the way Iraq and Syria have been, experts stress, noting that by confronting the ideas and networks behind sectarian violence, the Pakistani state has the capacity to reverse its tide.

They call on provincial and local officials to enforce existing laws that empower them to curb hate speech and incitement, and limit the movement of individuals on terrorist watch lists. The political leadership at the federal and provincial levels also has to bring radical Sunni Deobandi and Shiite leaders together, getting them to agree to a code of conduct, said analyst Rafiq.

Furthermore, the military as well as civilian politicians need to ease out of partnerships with groups that foment hate toward Shiites and other minorities in the country, he underlined. "The longer Pakistan's leaders continue to directly or indirectly aid hate groups, the longer it will be struggling to put out the fires started with its own hands."

London-based Pakistani journalist and scholar Amin Mughal said that the policy of supporting Islamist groups had backfired and that the Pakistani state was no longer in a position to control the situation.

"It is a logical consequence of state policies which are based on religion," Mughal told DW, adding that the only way out of the crisis was for "true secular parties" to come to power and change the course of state affairs.

Stoltenberg: NATO, Afghanistan Agree Civilian-Led Mission

NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance and Afghan leaders have agreed on a framework for a future joint military-civilian presence in Afghanistan when the bloc's current mission ends.

Stoltenberg made the announcement on May 13 after a session of the NATO foreign ministers meeting in the Turkish city of Antalya attended by Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani.

He said that, while the new mission would have a military component, it would be led by a civilian. 

NATO is currently leading the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan to train Afghan security forces after the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) wound up at the end of last year.

Stoltenberg said NATO offices had been tasked with working out a plan for the new mission by the autumn. 

It is not yet immediately clear when the Resolute Support mission will end and the new mission would start.

Stoltenberg said the numbers of a future mission would be smaller than the present number of personnel, which comprises around 12,500 troops.

The Man Who Keeps Tabs On U.S. Money Spent In Afghanistan

By David Welna 

John Sopko, the man whose job is to watch over U.S. government spending in Afghanistan, says it's not his job to be a cheerleader — it's to speak truth to power.

"I am often the bringer of bad news to people. Or at least that's what some people think," he says.

Addressing a crowd of Afghanistan analysts and contractors in Washington, Sopko says he's had just one objective since President Obama appointed him three years ago to be the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction:

"To seek facts and aggressively protect the U.S. taxpayer's enormous investment in Afghanistan."

Congress is voting this week on more funding for Afghanistan's security forces and that raises the question of how well they are performing in their fight against the Taliban.

After U.S. forces pulled out of Iraq, the self-styled Islamic State fighters moved in and Iraq's security forces all but collapsed. Those watching Afghanistan warn the same could happen there unless the U.S. keeps a small force and carries on with its work to build up the Afghan troops.

In addition to all the American money spent fighting in Afghanistan, the U.S. has spent $110 billion for the country's reconstruction, with the largest portion — more than $60 billion — going to build the Afghan security forces, known collectively as the ANDSF.

Even when adjusted for inflation, that $110 billion is more than the U.S. contributed to the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II.

Chronic Management Problems

And yet Sopko says his quarterly audits strongly suggest "that Afghanistan still lacks the capacity — financial, technical, managerial or otherwise — to maintain, support, and execute much of what has been built or established during the more than 13 years of international assistance."

Sopko says the Afghan security forces continue to be plagued by high attrition rates and low self-sufficiency.

"News reports from Afghanistan as recent as this week are noting record casualty levels in the ANDSF," he says. "We have heard of Afghan army units clearing areas of insurgents, handing it over to the local police or the national police, who then find that they cannot stand up to insurgents on their own."

The U.S. ended combat operations in Afghanistan last year. Close to 10,000 U.S. troops remain to advise and assist the Afghan forces, though they're scheduled to by the end of next year. Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, says that will only lead to disaster.

"It'll be the same movie we saw in Iraq: complete withdrawal without a residual force to provide them with the capabilities they don't have. They will lose," McCaain says.

McCain sees no reason to reduce U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan any further.

"Just keep doing what we're doing," he says, referring to the small U.S. force that remains. "Our casualties in Afghanistan now are at a real minimum, but we leave, we lose. It's not complicated."

No Easy Exit

However, former University of Alabama political scientist Donald Snow, who has written extensively on other wars the U.S. has found hard to exit, says it's not that simple.

"What we're doing is trying to put lipstick on a kind of an ugly pig and try to get out with with some saving grace of appearing to support what we really know is a battle that we can't resolve," he says.

Snow says no other country has ever prevailed in Afghanistan, a reference to the Soviets, the British and others who waged military campaigns in Afghanistan that ultimately failed.

Meanwhile, enthusiasm of many U.S. lawmakers is wearing thin. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, who also serves on the Armed Services Committee, says, "My goodness, we've already spent what, two and a half trillion? I can't go home in West Virginia and justify that."

Manchin's figure is higher than most estimates. Sopko says nobody's really sure how much has been spent in Afghanistan.

But for all the problems that country presents, he does say he believes it's still worth spending the $8 billion dollars a year to keep U.S. officials on the ground there.


The U.S. forces are "insuring that we can kind of oversee what's going on, because that's the insurance policy for the entire trillion dollars and all those troops we lost and all those civilians we lost," he says.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/may/14/the-man-who-keeps-tabs-on-us-money-spent-in/

Bangladesh - Another blogger

Freedom of expression suffered yet another deathly blow on Tuesday when Bangladeshi blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death on his way to work on the streets of the northeastern city of Sylhet. Four masked men came at him with cleavers and machetes, their signature weapons in their war against secular opinion. Ananta Das was a secular blogger who contributed to Mukto Mona (free thinkers), a blog founded by another secular blogger, Avijit Roy, who was murdered in the same manner in February on the streets of Dhaka. His wife was also attacked but she survived the horrific ordeal. In March, Washiqur Rahman was also hacked to death by those who cannot bear anyone taking down their draconian, oppressive version of religion. These Islamists — the people behind the deaths of these three bloggers in almost as many months — have made it their agenda to go after anyone championing the liberal cause, doing it so savagely and brutally that one is left numb by the butchery these beasts are perpetrating in the name of Islam.

With so many free thinkers being murdered in such a grisly manner, one would think that the government in Bangladesh would be on its toes trying to bring to justice those who commit daylight atrocities such as these. However, it seems people like Bangladeshi Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina are averse to sticking their necks out for people of principle because these rabid Islamists might just come after them (according to reports, Sheikh Hasina’s son was assailed by folk in the US wanting to know why nothing is being done to protect Bangladeshi intellectuals, and he cited fear of Islamist repercussions as the reason). This will not do; if the government is unable to protect its citizens who are being killed with impunity, it has no right being in power.

The entire Muslim world is in turmoil when it comes to accepting rationality and opinions based on science, logic and secularism. Those who have hijacked Islam have made all Muslim countries convulse with the kind of terrorism that leaves society devoid of its thinkers, poets, writers and opinion-makers. Bangladesh is not alone in this malaise but the kind of savagery on display is on a whole different level. Governments and people need to come together in solidarity and confront this monster whilst there are still some moderate and sane voices left. Otherwise there will be no one left to question the validity of these Islamists and their doctrine of hate and bloodshed.

Pakistan - The extremism within

THE country has an extremism problem. To state that is to suggest the obvious. But the state appears to be either in denial of Pakistan’s extremism problem or afraid of its true dimensions. After each new, grotesque low in the militants’ war on Pakistan, the state responds in the same manner. Emergency meetings, long huddles, promises to double down on the existing militarised security strategy — and some vague promises about doing something about the peddlers of hate. Then, unsurprisingly, as the media gaze turns to the next scandal or atrocity and the memory of the previous attack recedes, nothing of substance is done to crack down on extremism. That is a fundamental problem because there is an extremism continuum: from the doctrines of intolerance and hate on the non-violent end of the spectrum to the armed militants who perpetrate atrocities such as the Peshawar school attack and the Karachi bus attack. Simply eliminating armed militants will lead to little long-term success when there is still in existence a vast network of extremism busily indoctrinating the next generation of jihadis.

Consider the basic indoctrination that may have led to the murder of some 50 Ismailis in Karachi on Wednesday. At some point, the killers would have been taught to believe that the victims were deserving of death for their religious beliefs. Perhaps that indoctrination came within the narrow confines of life as an Islamist militant: the physical and psychological training of the killers done directly by the group responsible for the attack. But it is easy for the seeds of that indoctrination to have been laid in any number of ways by the vast extremist mosque-madressah-social welfare network that blankets this country. Even the largest, seemingly benign alleged centres of learning routinely spew hate against other sects, other religions and even peaceable followers of the same sect deemed too soft on others. Pore over the literature, listen to the speeches, scan the online message boards and forums where minority sects in Islam are routinely declared non-Muslims, and it will become apparent where the seeds of mistrust that can lead to violent hate are sown. Can the intelligence set-up be truly unaware of this? Militancy does not exist in a vacuum — it never has and it never will. It was possible for men to fire bullets into peaceful citizens on Wednesday because there exists a milieu that allows hate to masquerade as religion.

Surely, the answers to the extremism problem cannot be the same as the strategy to fight militancy. The first approach is essentially preventive in nature; the latter, curative. Prevention is more difficult — the extremism-fuelling narrative and infrastructure are far more diffuse than militant groups. And it requires greater will — a willingness to reach into the heart of society and re-engineer it. If it is not fought, however, the country may find itself winning the battle, but losing the war.

RELIGIOUS SEMINARIES BECOME HEADACHE FOR PAKISTAN

“Religious seminaries in Pakistan have become headache for the state, as their takfiri teachings are causing hatred among the masses in the country. There are numerous cases of torture, rape, violence and terrorism connected to madaris. Takfiri seminaries like Lal Mosque surround Pakistani capital, which is considered a security threat for the state.

Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif is required to extend Zarb-e-Azb operation to religious seminaries and muftis too. About 90 per cent of foreigners studying in religious seminaries across the Punjab have expired visas.

Madrassas spread takfiri and Wahhabi ideology to students, which is also being spread in the society, to the families and extended families of these students. Madrassas also spread sectarian hatred, and do not allow pupils and society to look at alternative perspectives within the religious discourse.”

The citizens while talking to Shiite News on Thursday expressed these views. They denounced the Karachi-Bus incident, in which 45 people were killed in an attack of takfiri terrorists on Wednesday.

A professor, declined to be named, said that tafiri terrorists have killed more than 1000 Shia Muslims during the last two years in Pakistan. Now they targeted Shia Ismaili community, he said and asked the government what law and order situation will make the government to take action against these seminaries promoting extremism and terrorisim in the country, he said.

Touseef Ahmed, working in a shipping company, said that religious seminaries were playing role as nursery for religious terrorism in the country. Following the agenda of Saudi Arab, these seminaries want to extend Wahhabism in the country; their students and muftis spread hatred among the masses, but the government is playing the role of silent spectator in the whole situation, he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that there are around 18-24,000 registered madaris in Pakistan. There are countless more unregistered seminaries. There are as many as 83 illegally constructed mosques and seminaries only in Islamabad alone.

Farhan Lakhani, a member of Ismaili community, said that the government has failed to protect its citizens. The citizens are left on the mercy of takfiri terrorists. In Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Iran, the state controls religious learning to prevent sectarian disharmony in society, he added.

“The killing of 45 people in the Bus-Incident has exposed the intelligence failure. The head of extremist takfiri clerics, Mufti Naeem and his seminary Jamia Banori are doing the same in Karachi. He recently issued a decree against the federal information minister Pervez Rasheed, in which the extremist Mullah declared the minister infidel for his remarks against the seminaries,” he said.

Maulana Ahmed Iqbal said that the present democratic government of PML-N was openly supporting the Saudi Arab-backed takfiri banned outfits in the country. The government is hesitant to demolish illegally set up madrassas fearing a violent backlash like Laal Masjid.

According to some media reports, “There are at least 22,052 registered madaris in Pakistan as per record of the Interior Ministry while there is a little record of the unregistered seminaries in the country which also run into thousands. In the federal capital alone there are at least 187 registered madaris as per record while reportedly there are at least 446 unregistered madaris built on the green belts of the capital having around 22,000 students and no one dares to touch the illegal Madaris. According to the Interior Ministry data, Punjab has 14,954 registered Madaris; Sindh has 4,264; there are 1,400 registered religious seminaries in KP and around 1,247 registered madaris in Balochistan. The registration of Madaris started with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter Faith Harmony in 2005 after promulgation of Madrisa Registration; Societies Registration (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2005.

http://www.shiitenews.org/index.php/pakistan/item/16051-religious-seminaries-become-headache-for-pakistan-citizens

The Karachi bus attack is proof that Pakistan is battling terrorism—but losing the war

First witness reports testify that Wednesday (May 13) morning’s attack in Karachi on a Shia Ismaili bus was conducted with precision.

Eight attackers boarded the bus, purportedly dressed in security uniforms. They subdued the driver and instructed the passengers to lower their heads. Then, starting from the back, the attackers shot them in the heads at point blank range with 9mm pistols. In all, they killed 43 people. A security officer told the Dawn newspaper, “One young girl hid and survived. Three or four others who were brought to the hospital have survived…the rest are all dead.”

The attack is hardly unprecedented.

In January, a suicide bomber killed 61 people at a Shia mosque in the nearby town of Shikarpur. Shias across the country—from the shores of Karachi to the mountains of Gilgit—are experiencing sustained, targeted persecution, whether in massive attacks like this, or ritual assassinations by militant groups, many of which are tolerated, if not supported, by the state.

Despite being Muslims (unlike Ahmadis, the state has not declared Shias to be non-Muslims yet), their persecution has implied that Shias, about 20% of Pakistan’s population, fit snugly as “religious minorities” with the Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadis.

Ismailis in Pakistan are an influential, well-knit community known for operating hospitals, universities, schools, charities and infrastructure projects. Their spiritual leader is the Aga Khan, who summarily condemned the attack.

Beyond the immediate barbarity and shock (if not surprise), Wednesday morning’s attack also highlights the increasing limitation of Pakistani militant groups.

Like the school attack in Peshawar last December, the attackers chose a soft target; in this case, an unguarded bus. That’s perhaps because major fortifications and security overhauls have been undertaken in government buildings, cantonment areas, mosques, markets, schools, and other public places.

Coupled with a sustained military operation in Pakistan’s tribal areas and a joint paramilitary and police operation in Karachi, security forces have managed to bring down the number of terrorist attacks and targeted killings, and the resulting fatalities.

Alternatively, it has made the most vulnerable and defenceless—passengers going to work—militants’ preferred targets. These kinds of attacks are more difficult to defend against, and possibly unlikely to stop.

Nonetheless, the attack revealed security lapses on a local and provincial level. The longtime chief minister of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah, of the Pakistan Peoples Party has come under fire for the spiralling violence and extremism that has markedly increased in his province under his watch.

A spate of kidnappings, threats, vandalism, and killings—including the Shikarpur blast—have all added to the perception that Sindh, historically known for its religious diversity, is slipping into the same radical ideology that has engulfed other parts of the country. Shah suspended local officers of the Sindh Police (another institution under scrutiny) pending an investigation, while the usual rounds of empty condemnation have poured in from other politicians.

But there’s a bigger problem: Both the armed forces and Pakistan’s civilian government are yet to confront the ideology that drives these attacks.

Malik Ishaq, the founder of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, perhaps the deadliest of the anti-Shia militias, oscillates between incarceration and freedom; Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed roams free under government protection. Media commentators still point to India and the US as Pakistan’s biggest threats.

Meanwhile, educationist Bernadette Dean fled after receiving threats to her life. And last month’s murder of Sabeen Mahmud indicates that free expression, diversity, and secular values are still anathema to the particular version of the Pakistani state that militants, and some sections of the government itself, envision.

Both the civilians and the military should know that military action forms only one face of a multifaceted approach that must also include reforms in education, intelligence gathering, foreign policy, and institution building.

Till then, the attacks will continue.

http://qz.com/404483/the-karachi-bus-attack-is-proof-that-pakistan-is-battling-terrorism-but-losing-the-war/

Pashto Music - Sardar Ali Takkar - IHSAS - POETRY AFRASIAB KHATTAK