Pakistan - Pashtun profiling

Afrasiab Khattak

Even their Pakistani Identity Cards wouldn’t help them as Punjab police and Federal Investigation Agency would block these cards after their arrests.

It is official now. The Punjab police has issued written instructions to its personnel to keep an eye on people with Pashtun/Afghan dresses and food habits as terror suspects. Police officials of Mandi Bahaudin were not shy of widely circulating written instructions for profiling of Pashtuns/Afghans with interesting details in this regard. According to credible press reports Punjab police is keeping thousands of FATA Pashtuns under surveillance and is considering the issuance of special NIC equipped with security chip in Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jehlum. Not that it’s new. This has been a policy implemented by the Punjab government during the last so many years. Deputy Commissioners of Attock, Bhakkar, Chakwal and some other districts of Punjab adjacent to Pakhtunkhwa had been issuing directions to the local population for not renting out or selling properties to Pashtuns hailing from FATA or Pakhtunkhwa.

Every wave of Punjab police action against “terrorists” would practically mean incarceration of large numbers of Pashtuns/Afghans. Initially the Afghan refugees bore the brunt of this policy of racial discrimination. But the IDPs from Malakand division and FATA also faced similar treatment when they were forced to leave their homes during military operations in their areas. Even their Pakistani Identity Cards wouldn’t help them as Punjab police and Federal Investigation Agency would block these cards after their arrests. Pashtun political leaders and parliamentarians have raised these issues on every level but the arrogant Punjabi bureaucracy has refused to budge. Ironically, the Punjabi political elite and their so called mainstream media that clamours a lot about the unjustness and unfairness of Muslim profiling in US fails to see the brazen racial discrimination against Pashtuns under their nose. The irony is further deepened by the fact that Afghan Taliban along with several other proscribed organisations feel quite safe.

The flow of Pashtun/Afghan population to the south and the east towards Indian subcontinent has been a constant phenomenon for a long time in the history of South Asia. From seasonal migration to military invasions and to empire building, these population movements have taken different forms. But by and large people migrating from the northwestern highlands were able to integrate with local populations and become part of their social and cultural milieu by enriching it. However the massive dislocation of Pashtuns over the last four decades has been caused by the devastating military conflict in Afghanistan and in the Pashtun belt of Pakistan. This is the biggest dislocation in Pashtun/Afghan history and also caused by the biggest catastrophe ever faced by them.

So far no scientific research has been conducted to ascertain the quantity and quality of the dangerous modern weapons used against Afghan/Pashtun people and the horrific devastation caused by them. But if such a research is conducted some day I am sure it will bring out the fact that both the arsenal used and the destruction caused by it are unprecedented in the history of warfare.

There have been a number of players from big powers like the former Soviet Union and the US as well as regional states who have shaped the conflict in and around Afghanistan by their political and military intervention. All of them are responsible for creating this large scale and long-term humanitarian crisis of refugees and displaced populations. But one player that has remained at the core of this conflict almost all the time is the Punjabi dominated security establishment of Pakistan and its policy of the so-called strategic depth. Taliban project is its favorite instrument for implementation of the policy of strategic depth. In recent years it has become the sole reason for prolonging the conflict. Victims of the humanitarian crisis will obviously feel greater pain when the policy of racial discrimination is devised and executed by the very player that bears the main responsibility for causing the crisis in the first place. Imagine the dilemma of the Pashtun IDPs from FATA who are still facing F-16 bombardments and heavy artillery firing in their own areas and extreme harassment, persecution and racial profiling when they enter Punjab to seek shelter for physical security.

The ripples created by the issue of racial profiling of Pashtuns also raises questions about the state-building and nation-building project in Pakistan. During the so-called Afghan Jihad which was supported by western powers and Pakistan Army in 1980s, Pashtun bureaucrats and religious parties were given prominence in Pakistan for supporting Zia-ul-Haq’s Afghan policy. That development had prompted some analysts to talk about the “cooption” of Pashtun elites as a “junior partner” in Pakistani power structure. But as soon as the Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan the aforementioned illusion was dispelled as Pashtuns lost prominence in the state system. In fact growing militarisation has deepened the Punjabisation of the state in the same proportion because security apparatuses of the country are totally dominated by Punjab. Even the devolution of powers to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment (which has yet to be fully implemented) is apparently of little help as the army dominated Apex Committees are ruling the entire country with military operations going on everywhere. There is no cut off date to this process and it seems to be taking deeper roots with the passage of time. The growing alienation is not limited to Pashtuns. Baloch are facing a military operation for long years and there is no visible effort to find a political solution to the problem.

The Pakistan Peoples Party functions as a bridge for Sindhis to connect them to the mainstream but at times even they are forced to shout out against the high handedness of the big brother. Urdu speaking population in urban areas of Sindh have their own grievances caused by oppressive state policies. The situation is further aggravated by the decline of the left in country’s politics because it was instrumental in connecting national question of the smaller ethnic groups with the class question, leading to a stronger democratic movement. Currently democratic movement is quite fragmented. This certainly doesn’t auger well for the future of the federation.

Formalisation of the policy of racial profiling of Pashtuns in Punjab is yet another challenge for federal democracy and rule of law in Pakistan. Much of the future will depend on response to such challenges.

Mugh you da Khybar Zalmi; Khyal M.

Pashtun Nationalist Song - Wake Up Pashtun - Za yam Droon Pakhton

Pakistan - Closing the gates on Pakhtuns

The vitriolic outpouring that has incessantly targeted ethnic Pakhtuns as a potential security threat has once again managed to tear apart the last vestiges of national unity. In a glaring spectacle of racial discrimination, an ongoing campaign by the Punjab police in the aftermath of the recent spate of terrorist attacks, public intelligence has been asked to be particularly vigilant against any person “appearing to be of Pakhtun or Afghan heritage”. An alleged anti-terrorism advisory, attributed to the MandiBahauddin police, is making rounds on the social media; being severely criticised for renewing communal hatred against Pakhtun citizens by associating them with terrorism at large.

Amid times when ethnic Pakhtuns and Afghans are becoming increasingly hostile towards the state for its failure to embrace them as fellow Pakistanis, this legislation would only serve to further exacerbate their racial oppression. Despite having come into force only to tighten the noose around militant strongholds, even the National Action Plan remains tarnished because of its alleged unfair implementation, especially along the ethnic lines. Alienating the Pakhtun communities and scapegoating them for the government’s misgivings, which, in turn, would compel many to challenge the Pakistani statehood in due time (if it has not already); the anti-terrorist drive has definitely not provided solace to the grief-stricken. A security report submitted last year indicated how at least 3,416 Afghans were deported to their “country of origin”. As if this marginalisation of the refugees was not distressing enough, a similar xenophobia also prevails the interactions pitting Pakhtun workers based in Punjab against the provincial law enforcement officials. While frequent raids on Pakhtun-dominated areas and their ad-hoc arrests have largely added to their distress on not yet gaining the trust of a country they call their home; the societal demonisation that appears hell-bent on taking the entire community to trial because of a crime committed by one does not ease their grievances either.

The self-defeating cycle of xenophobia that continues to spew venom at their ethnicities— perpetuating its own biases by depriving Pakhtuns of the very rights of survival and prosperity guaranteed to them by the country’s constitution—would only act to further divide this already divided nation. In a spectacular oblivion to the state-sponsored unacceptability of our own countrymen in our own country, we oft-lament the fear and the hatred braved by Pakistanis in the western countries. Given the persistence with which some of the Pakhtun nationalists have repeatedly shown their disregard for Pakistan, even going to the extent of facilitating militant outfits with both breeding grounds and volunteers to further their ill intentions, Pakistani authorities cannot be blamed for gearing up against the security threat. However, making use of this rationale in an extensive and grotesque criminalisation of Pakistani Pakhtuns cannot be tolerated by any civilised society. If we actually believe in undermining the vicious tentacles of terrorism, we can only do so with the entire country standing by our side. Ill-planned initiatives that would only increase the vulnerability of an already hostile population to militant recruiters should not be pursued in the name of security. Let us fight this menace threatening our lives and our liberties together, please

Video - Da Pukhtunistan Dey - ( AZAD PAKHTUNISTAN SONG )

Marwat not welcome in #PPP, say Bakhtawar, Aseefa

Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s daughters are unhappy with their father’s decision to welcome Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPA Irfanullah Marwat into the party.

Both Bakhtawar and Aseefa Bhutto Zardari vented their frustration on Twitter on Saturday, saying Marwat should not be allowed to join the party.

“Mr Irfanullah Marwat should not be in PPP,” tweeted Aseefa. “One of the core PPP values is respect for women! His repulsive and illegal actions are reprehensible,” she said.

Aseefa B Zardari ✔ @AseefaBZ Mr Irfanullah Marwat should not be in #PPP 1 of the core PPP values is respect for women! His repulsive&illegal actions are reprehensible 7:54 AM - 25 Feb 2017

Bakhtawar took an even harsher line, tweeting that “the sick man should be rotting in a jail cell somewhere not coming anywhere near PPP.” “A party that was led by a woman will not tolerate such people,” she added.

Bakhtawar B-Zardari ✔ @BakhtawarBZ Sick man should be rotting in a jail cell somewhere not coming anywhere near #PPP. Party that was led by a woman will not tolerate such ppl. https://twitter.com/chiltan/status/835466497086664704 …

Marwat joined PPP on Friday after a meeting with Asif Zardari the same day. He has held numerous portfolios in the Sindh government since 1989, including transport, health, home, education and mines and minerals development.

The former PML-N lawmaker was implicated in a rape case in the 1990s, which is why Bakhtawar and Aseefa lashed out at him on social media.

Aseefa Bhutto takes Punjab govt to task over false information on Lahore blast

In the midst of the mysterious blast that rocked Lahore’s upscale Defence Housing Authority (DHA) neighbourhood, Aseefa Bhutto, daughter of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, took it upon herself to call the Punjab government out for spreading misinformation.

The public spat broke out due to multiple claims regarding the nature of the blast, with the Punjab government saying the blast was caused by a generator at the DHA’s Y block. However, many refused to accept the provincial government’s claim given the intensity of the blast and the recent wave of terror attacks across the country.

Gulberg Lahore hit, after the blast in Y Block Lahore. #LahoreUnderAttack .

 — Shehryar Taseer (@shehryar_taseer) February 23, 2017 When former Punjab governor Slaman Taseer’s son Shehryar Taseer tweeted that a blast had struck Lahore, PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s daughter Aseefa Zardari wondered why the provincial government still insisted that it was a generator blast. “Govt of Punjab still thinks it’s a generator,” she tweeted.

Aseefa B Zardari 

✔@AseefaBZ

Cc @GovtOfPunjab still think its a generator ? https://twitter.com/shehryar_taseer/status/834676657625653251 …

3:20 AM - 23 Feb 2017

Aseefa B Zardari 

✔@AseefaBZ

Perhaps Govt of Punjab should stop playing politics & funding terrorist activities from Muirdke. Patronising https://twitter.com/govtofpunjab/status/834681069630787585 …

THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAM - '' Like Sheep To Slaughter ''

•  '' Like Sheep To Slaughter ''

“Sheep get butchered everyday. Don’t be afraid of sacrifice,” said Maulana Tariq Jameel yesterday, easily glossing over the pain of hundreds of families in the aftermath of blasts in Lahore and Sehwan Sharif, from the safety of the pulpit. In a time when people are clearly panicked, our religious elites must refrain from glorifying death. Our physical lives can be happy peaceful ones. We don’t need to be slaughtered for our eternal reward. The anger of people must not be diverted from terrorists. On the face of it, statements that call these tragic deaths martyrdoms give our grieving communities some comfort, but they also repress our outrage, and our desire to demand justice and retribution.

The influential Maulana, heard by hundreds, did not clearly condemn the blasts, or the Taliban, nor did he mention the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar by name. We can argue that he implied it, by the “sheep being killed by dogs” analogy, but it is time to call out such illogical tirades. Just one influential religious leader, naming and shaming these terrorist groups, speaking out against these attacks and pledging help and obedience to Pakistan’s security agencies would go a long way in making sure terrorist groups have no support in our communities. These clerics are in positions of mass influence over communities, and if they had sided with the state, vocally and actively, there would be no influence extremist groups would be able to peddle with the masses. Pakistan’s community of religious scholars and clerics could have been a huge bulwark against the apologists for terrorists.

Our religious parties have not fared well in advocating peace in Pakistan. On February 2, they actually protested against the NAP at an All Parties Tahufiz-i-Namoos-i-Risalat Conference with JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, JI Amir Senator Sirajul Haq, Jamiat-i-Ahle Hadith (JAH) Chief Senator Prof Sajid Mir, and Difa-i-Pakistan Council (DPC) Chief Maulana Samiul Haq all rejected the NAP and demanded the government delink religion from it. Rather than condemn terrorism and hate speech, these leaders ended up condemning the state’s plan to protect people from dying. Too much time is spent by these leaders criticising Ahmedis, or people calling for the debate on the blasphemy law, both groups that are peaceful and ultimately harmless to Pakistan’s security.

We must uproot this paranoia that Islam is in threat, no less in a state that is an Islamic republic with a 98 percent Muslim population. But Pakistanis are at threat, from terrorism that emanates from misguided interpretations of Islam – something that out religious leaders have disastrously failed to keep a check on.

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Russia and Pakistan's Reluctant Romance

By Saddam Hussein

Over the past decade, Pakistan and Russia have been repairing a relationship badly damaged during the Cold War.

State-to-state relationships are not grounded in emotions, but based on shared interests. No one is a friend or a foe forever; the convergence or divergence of mutual interests decides the nature of the relationship between two countries. Though relations between Russia and Pakistan remained turbulent over the years, they have been warming up over the last decade, with top political and diplomatic meetings. Moscow is reaffirming its role in its immediate domain and beyond, whereas Islamabad is seeking new avenues of opportunity, lessening its reliance on the United States in particular and the West in general.

Between 1947-50 and 1965-69, the two countries were engaged in trade as well as educational and cultural exchanges. The 1966 Tashkent Summit between Pakistan and India, which ended the 1965 India-Pakistan War, even materialized in part due to the labors of Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin. Pakistan Steel Mills remains a towering reminder of well-intentioned Pakistan-USSR bilateral relations during this period. Nonetheless, Soviet efforts at friendly ties were diluted by the Soviet Union itself. Moscow’s condemnation of Pakistan’s position in the 1971 war with India deteriorated bilateral relations, and many people in Pakistan assumed that the August 1971 Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Peace, and Cooperation encouraged India’s invasion of East Pakistan (today’s Bangladesh). Ensuing Soviet arms sales to India, amounting to billions of dollars on concessional terms, strengthened this argument. The USSR also kept vetoing each resolution regarding the East Pakistan situation that Pakistan brought to the United Nations.

Other incidents such as Soviet Union support for Afghanistan on the Pashtunistan issue and the U-2 episode shattered mutual trust. Relations experienced a nose dive and touched the lowest ebb during the 1980s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, in which Pakistan sided with United States — the Soviets’ Cold War arch rival — to obstruct further Soviet expansion from knocking at Pakistani borders.

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The chill continued even after the disintegration of USSR in 1991. It wasn’t until 2003, when President Pervez Musharraf visited Moscow, that Russia and Pakistan re-established political contact.

Presently, however, in the wake of contemporary regional and international challenges Pakistan and Russia are forging closer relations. In 2007, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov paid a three-day visit to Pakistan and discussed the prospects of economic cooperation. A few years later, in 2011, then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed Pakistan’s bid to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). That year the Kremlin also condemned the NATO strike on Salala check post in Pakistan, calling it an assault on the state’s sovereignty. Moscow also offered assistance in the expansion of Pakistan Steel Mills, technical support for the Guddu and Muzaffargarh power plants, and announced interest in Thar Coal Project.

Moreover, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani received Colonel General Vladimir Chirkin in 2013 in Pakistan, where the two discussed mutual defense and security cooperation. In October that same year, both countries pledged to jointly control the production and trafficking of drugs and narcotics. Defense collaboration between Russia and Pakistan got a new boost when Russia lifted its embargo on arms sales to Pakistan in 2014. It enraged India, which was opposing the sale of Mi-35 helicopters to Pakistan at the time. Later, in November, the defense ministers of both countries signed an agreement to expand defense and military ties. On December 23, 2014, Pakistan and Russia inked a much-needed energy deal, worth $1.7 billion, that will see a liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline linking Karachi to Lahore. Then in June 2015, former Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif paid a three-day visit to Moscow where he was warmly received by the Kremlin; both sides held crucial military talks against the backdrop of emerging regional re-alliances.

Russian Consul General Andrey Vladimirovich Demdov, while speaking at the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries on May 1, 2013, aptly stated: “The history of our bilateral relations saw both good and not so good. But irrespective of the state of the relations, both countries always felt the necessity to maintain good contacts.” This implicitly shows the maturity of Russian diplomacy and its cognizance of geopolitics and realpolitik.

The expansion of Russia-Pakistan ties will help in bringing stability and prosperity in the region. For Russia, Pakistan is significant in two dimensions. First, it serves as an outlet to the Central Asian Republics and the Kremlin would never desire instability there. Second, the strategic location of Pakistan means it can connect the Central Asian region with the Middle East and Indian Ocean — thus Russian goods can access the international market very conveniently through Pakistan. Moscow also wants to invest in Pakistan’s agriculture technology, including grip irrigation and desert farming.

Pakistan, for its part, can benefit from the Russian defense industry, as Russian military equipment is cheaper than America’s. In addition, Russia has banned agriculture imports, especially food, from Europe. Pakistan in this scenario can be a competitive source of agricultural and textile goods for Russia, which offers a $16 billion market in the agriculture sector alone. Energy is another potential sector where Pakistan can reap huge benefits by fashioning friendly relations with the Kremlin.

The approaches of both Islamabad and Moscow seem very pragmatic in the wake of contemporary challenges. Russia is flexing its muscles again, defying the unipolar world dominated by United States for the past few decades. Moscow wants to assert its influence in the region, anticipating the departure of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and the resulting developments. By conducting joint military exercises and signing a defense pact with Pakistan, the Russians may also be signaling India to be cautious in its intimacy with United States. Moscow has been nurturing relations with India for decades, and will not let go of such a significant partnership that easily, but the move toward Pakistan will give the Indians an indication that Russia has other options in the region, too.

On the flip side, Pakistan has to diversify its diplomatic and strategic portfolio. It is acting practically by moving toward Russia. Islamabad wants respectful treatment from United States on an equal basis — not just Washington’s usual demands for Pakistan to “do more.” Otherwise, Pakistan is demonstrating to the United States that it has other allies in the area and also ones that Washington may not like. Russia is Pakistan’s natural ally. The regional block of China, Russia, and Pakistan can be a win-win partnership for regional peace, stability, and robust trade. If this block is actualized, then there is a distant possibility of Russia and China playing a positive role in mediating between Pakistan and India and also between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Why Pakistan needs a new state narrative

By Shamil Shams

Amid a new wave of terror attacks in Pakistan, the country's army has launched a fresh counter-terrorism offensive. But experts say that instead of more military operations, Pakistan needs a change of narrative.

A series of deadly attacks has shaken Pakistan, which has been grappling with Islamist militancy for over a decade. Just ten days ago, a Taliban suicide bomber targeted a rally in Lahore and killed more than 13 people. 

On February 16, a jihadist affiliated with the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" terrorist group attacked one of the most beloved Sufi shrines in the southern Sindh province, killing more than 90 people.

Attacks perpetrated by militant Islamist groups are not a new occurrence in Pakistan, but prior to the first Lahore bombing there had been a relative lull in violence in the country. Many Pakistanis attributed it to the efforts of the South Asian country's former army chief, Raheel Sharif. He launched a military operation, called Zarb-i-Azb, against jihadist outfits across the country after the Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar in December 2014, massacring over 140 children.

While some rights groups and security experts say that Raheel Sharif's offensive failed to rein in terrorists, supporters of the army claim it significantly reduced the capacity of Islamist groups to launch massive attacks in the Islamic country.

General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who succeeded Raheel Sharif in November last year, has vowed to continue with the military action against jihadist organizations. After the attack in Sehwan on Lal Shahbaz Qalander's shrine last week, he launched a new counter-terrorism operation called "Radd-ul-Fasaad," an Arabic word that translates roughly to "elimination of discord."

A change of heart?

But Bajwa's offensive appears to be more serious and wide-ranging than his predecessor's. For the first time, a military drive covers the central Punjab province, of which Lahore is capital, which is seen by many as a recruiting ground for extremist groups fighting the state and aiding insurgents in Afghanistan as well as in the India-administered Kashmir.

"(The) operation aims at indiscriminately eliminating residual latent threat of terrorism, consolidating gains of operations made thus far and further ensuring security of the borders," said a military statement.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been reluctant to allow the military to operate in Punjab - Pakistan's most populous province and also the premier's political stronghold - for the reason that it would prove his administration's incompetence in dealing with the issue. Some analysts also say that some members of Sharif's Muslim League party have close ties with banned Islamist organizations and that is why he didn't want the army to interfere in the province.

But even some military critics have praised General Bajwa for his resolve against militancy. The reasons for Bajwa's determination might be both a strong public demand and international pressure. They say that despite a string of deadly attacks, positive signs are also emerging. 

The army is finally taking strong action against banned Islamist groups, including Jamaat-ud-Dawa, whose leader Hafiz Saeed is accused of orchestrating the 2008 terrorist attacks in India's commercial capital Mumbai. 

"General Bajwa is different from Raheel Sharif in his understanding of the militancy issue. Also, he has no other choice but to act against the terror outfits. Don't forget that Pakistan is facing an enormous pressure from the international community to curb militancy," Khalid Hameed Farooqi, a Brussels-based Pakistani analyst and senior journalist, told DW.

"The good thing about General Bajwa's 'Radd-al-Fasaad' is that it will focus on the Punjab province, which has been spared by other army chiefs. Punjab is a major breeding ground and a supplier of militants to Sindh and Baluchistan provinces."

The analyst underlines that in the past, the army, too, didn't want to include Punjab in its anti-terror campaign because most of its cadre comes from the province. Despite several US demands that Islamabad acts against Punjab-based jihadist groups, the military generals had obstinately refused to comply, Farooqi pointed out.

"Hafiz Saeed had been put under house arrest several times in the past, but this time his detention shows the state's seriousness," Farooqi said, adding that Pakistan needs internal cohesion as well as the support of the international community to put an end to a violent insurgency that has severely harmed the country.

Regional cooperation needed

Security experts say that one of the reasons behind the recent surge in violent attacks in Pakistan could be the apparent change of the military establishment's policies. But rights groups are of the view that military operations alone will never eliminate militancy from Pakistani soil. For that, they say, the state has to adopt a narrative that does not support jihadism. 

Much of the militancy problem in Pakistan is related to the country's hostility towards India, and if General Bajwa and Prime Minister Sharif could mend ties with New Delhi, that would be more effective in reining in terrorist groups than any army offensive.

Experts say that over the years, thousands of people have been killed in terrorist attacks perpetrated by Pakistan-based Islamist groups, but instead of re-evaluating its own flawed security policies, Pakistan's establishment continues to point fingers at neighboring India and Afghanistan.

The bombings in Lahore and Sehwan were followed by Islamabad's harsh criticism of Kabul and New Delhi, with Pakistani authorities vowing to target insurgents inside Afghanistan.

But the "blame game" is not new in the South Asian region. India and Afghanistan also react to terror attacks by blaming Pakistan and that is how all these countries try to conceal their own shortcomings and responsibilities.

Pakistani PM Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi embarked on a peace process in 2014. The two leaders, along with their countries' military leaders, need to reset their ties if they are serious about tackling the militancy issue. A rapidly increasing presence of "Islamic State" in Afghanistan and Pakistan could threaten the stability of the whole region. Military operations won't resolve the conflict as long as a jihadist narrative exists in South Asia.

Pakistan - TWO DAESH TERRORISTS KILLED IN KARACHI

The police gunned down two Daesh activists in a raid in Manghopir area in the wee hours of Friday. Daesh aka ISIS ot IS, a Wahhabi takfiri terrorist group, is run by allied Deobandis such as Taliban, ASWJ (Lashkar-e-Jhangvi) in Pakistan.

According to SSP West Nasir Aftab, when police conducted the raid, the two suspects opened fire at the personnel, leaving one policeman injured. In the retaliatory fire, both the suspects were killed while their accomplices managed to escape the site.

Weapons and laptops were found from the suspects' possesion.

The SSP said a hit list was found on the laptop, that included names of police officers and other government officials.

The deceased were identified as Saifullah and Haneef.

http://www.shiitenews.org/index.php/pakistan/item/27375-two-daesh-terrorists-killed-in-karachi-police

Pakistan - Another operation

TERRORIST outfits in the country have conveyed a chilling message over the last few weeks, and even yesterday in Lahore: no one is safe, neither civilians, nor law enforcement, nor the armed forces in the militants’ escalating campaign of urban terrorism. And what seemed inevitable in the wake of this violence has now come to pass. A military operation has been launched across the country with the stated objectives of eradicating residual terrorist threats, consolidating the gains made in counterterrorism operations thus far and tightening security along the borders. The operation, codenamed Raddul Fasaad, entails coordinated action by all wings of the armed forces as well as paramilitary organisations, civilian law-enforcement agencies and intelligence outfits. Even though the offensive has a countrywide canvas, Punjab — that has long been a hotbed of violent extremist groups that the provincial government has treated with kid gloves — is clearly the focus. This was underscored not least by the fact that the operation was announced after a high-level security meeting in Lahore chaired by the army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa.

Despite appearances however, Raddul Fasaad was not inevitable, had the government — both at the centre and in the provinces — not fallen short in countering extremism and terrorism. For this was the much-vaunted aim of the National Action Plan agreed upon in the anguish of post-APS Peshawar. The civilians were to supplement Operation Zarb-i-Azb that was targeting terrorists in northern Pakistan by taking action against hard-line madressahs, cracking down on terrorist cells in urban areas where such elements can easily find cover, initiating reforms in the criminal justice system, etc. Crucially, the centre and provinces had also pledged to craft a counter-narrative to push back against the poisonous ideology that has fuelled extremism in the country. Instead, they have demurred, obfuscated, clamoured for military courts and, most damningly, refused to acknowledge the dynamics of terrorism. Consider Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan’s statement that banned sectarian organisations could not be equated with terrorist outfits. Or take Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah’s shifting the blame for the Mall Road suicide bombing in Lahore on protesters gathered there, or the fact that groups like the ASWJ have taken out rallies despite being banned.

The reality is that a military force can only carry out kinetic operations; it cannot effect a change in mindset. And extremism is a mindset, one that has percolated through society for decades now. Only the government can counter it through an intelligent use of the resources at its disposal, that too if it displays a steely resolve that has been lacking so far. At the same time, even while recognising that a level of secrecy is necessitated by the situation, transparency must inform the operation: the military should clarify who it is targeting and specify a time frame for the campaign. A vague, open-ended engagement is never good strategy.

Pakistan - Hollow claims

Had it been an ideal world, even the unfortunate yet expected losses of soldiers fighting on borders would not have occurred. However, when the horrors of terrorism are unleashed upon innocent civilians going about their business, far removed from the battlefield, the uncalled war zone that ensues amid screams and panic cannot and should not be tolerated under any circumstances. The fear and chaos that seem to have completely engulfed the country after yet another blast in Lahore’s shopping district killed at least nine people, wounding many more, on Thursday, serve as an uncomfortable reminder that terrorism can strike anywhere and anyone. With all politicisation of this national tragedy aside, the authorities could have played a more meaningful role in standing by the bereaved families and the injured as they braved their loss and shock. However, as before, the attack only served to put the indifferent officials back into a defensive mode; wading controversial statements in a futile attempt to save their own skin.

The conflicting reports that originally downplayed the blast as a mere “generator explosion”, only to later confirm the presence of an explosive device (that, too, by the CTD spokespersons) clearly validated the government’s resolve to at least paint an illusion of normalcy before the public even when the reality says otherwise. It is quite unfortunate that the present circumstances expose our vulnerability to the fast-increasing influence of militant outfits despite much-touted governmental claims of having the terrorists on the run. The ever-wider reach of these terrorist groups has claimed more than 100 lives in a series of suicide bomb attacks across Pakistan. Last week, an alleged supporter of the Islamic State struck a crowd of Sufi dancers at the shrine of Sehwan Sharif, claiming at least 90 lives. This attack on the country’s moderate voices occurred only days after a suicide attack near the provincial assembly in Lahore killed over 10 people that included two senior police figures in Punjab. The blood tapestry adorning the walls in all provinces and even the tribal agencies in the last few weeks has, thus, exposed as hollow all claims of establishing order and “breaking the back” of terrorists in Pakistan.

It is not to say that the civilian and the military leadership are sitting idle as terrorist organisations continue to satiate their civilian bloodlust in order to test the state’s resolve. An extensive counter-terrorism crackdown, Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad, has already been initiated by the armed forces across the country while yesterday’s blast saw the provincial law enforcement personnel evacuate the site of the explosion for further forensic investigation. Nevertheless, much more still needs to be done if the authorities actually aspire to undermine this ever-intensifying threat that has already thrown down many horrific gauntlets to the Sharif administration. In lieu of playing the old blame game, it is high time that all political elite gather to carve out a combined line of action against militant violence in the country. Given that the law agencies failed to prevent losses of precious human lives despite having received various bomb threats in the same market, Pakistani intelligence community, as well as police officials, also need to gear up to better anticipate such eventualities in order to take stronger preventive measures.

Stranded roads sans any usual roar of traffic, petrified families confined inside the so-called refuge of their homes, and the rumoured cancellation of numerous events in the local circuit, the militants have definitely stridden, if not succeeded, towards proliferating fear amongst the masses. Even if the government is not blamed for its lack of security provision to citizenry today, it would not be able to enjoy this immunity for long. In conjunction with the military-led operation, it should also work towards establishing more efficient civilian structures. Failure to do so would only highlight it as a fundamentally weak state, both in the eyes of militants and the general public.

TOP WICKET FALLS: PTI LEADER NADIR LEGHARI JOINS PPP

A top leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to join Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Nadir Leghari, who had joined PTI in 2010, was elected president of the party’s Sindh chapter in March 2013 and the chairman of Insaf Professionals Forum-Sindh.

The former senior PTI leader announced his decision to join PPP after he met with the former president, and president Pakistan Peoples Party parliamentarians, Asif Zardari at the Bilawal House. Mr Leghari was said to have expressed complete confidence in Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s, leadership.

A day earlier, former PPP MNA Nabil Gabol, who has a strong support base in Lyari had announced rejoining the PPP.

Pakistan - ISIS Hates Our Saint Because He Belongs to Everyone

By FATIMA BHUTTO

Last Thursday a suicide bomber affiliated with the so-called Islamic State attacked Sehwan Sharif, one of the most revered Sufi shrines, in the southern Sindh Province of Pakistan, killing more than 80 people, including 24 children, and wounding more than 250.

Why the terrorists hate Sehwan is why we love it. The saint and his shrine at Sehwan belong to everyone, to Sunnis and Shiites, to Hindus and Muslims, transgender devotees, to believers and questioners alike. The inclusiveness, the rituals and music born of syncretic roots make shrines like Sehwan Sharif targets in the extremist interpretations of the Islamic State and other radical Wahhabi militants.

As a child in the late 1980s and early ’90s, I would visit the town of Sehwan with my family on our way from Karachi to Larkana, my family’s hometown. After driving along bumpy roads deserted but for palm trees and solitary men standing on the open highways selling lotus flower seeds, we would stop near the western bank of the Indus River to visit the shrine of Sehwan’s patron saint, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, a 13th-century Persian mystic and poet who was a contemporary of Rumi.

Qalandar, whose real name was Syed Mohammad Usman Marwandi, is adored in music and poetry as the Red Falcon. As you drive through the narrow, dusty streets of Sehwan, the air becomes perfumed with the scent of roses, sold in small plastic bags and body-length garlands that devotees lay at his tomb.

I was 7 when I first saw Sehwan during Ashura, when Shiites mourn the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussain, who was killed in 680 by an unjust ruler at Karbala, in what is now Iraq. I remember thousands of men and women together in collective, ritualized mourning in the courtyard of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s shrine. They walked barefoot over glass and the embers of burning cigarette butts, their black shalwar kameez drenched in sweat, their palms striking their chests rhythmically. Even as a 7-year-old, I found something hypnotic, something fierce, something pure about Sehwan.

Over the years, I kept returning to Sehwan to sit in that courtyard, the shrine illuminated by red and green fairy lights, its golden dome and turquoise minarets soaring above a town of modest roofs.

The cool tiled floor of the shrine is often carpeted with devotees, some carrying tiffins of food on outings with their children, others in fraying and torn shalwar kameez prostrate in prayer. Even wealthy urbanites visit to lay their anxieties at the feet of the buried saint, tiptoeing gingerly through the crowds. In a country built and maintained on immovable divisions of ethnicity, gender, class and belief, the shrine at Sehwan welcomed all. It was an egalitarian oasis formed by the legacies and practice of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism merging into one.

On Thursday evenings people congregate to listen to the religious songs called qawwali and perform a devotional dance, dhamal. They arrive with offerings of bruised rose petals, sugared almonds and what money they can spare. They seek solace from their pain; pray for safety in a harsh, unjust world; beg for an answer to a forgotten prayer. Those who can’t offer anything arrive empty-handed. Sehwan’s shrine promised the weak, the worried and the poor that they would always be safe here.

Every time we visited the shrine, a deaf and mute man named Goonga welcomed my brother, Zulfi, and me. A servant and a guardian of the shrine, Goonga wore his hair in a turban and had a matted beard. On the breast pocket of his shalwar kameez, he sometimes wore a picture of Hussain. Goonga would walk us through the shrine that was his home and refuge.

In the courtyard of the shrine, men in flowing robes and long dreadlocks sing:

O laal meri pat rakhio bala Jhoole Laalan, Sindhri da Sehwan da, sakhi Shahbaaz Qalandar, Dama dam mast Qalandar,

which translates to:

O red-robed, protect me always, Jhule Lal, Friend of Sindh, of Sehwan, God-intoxicated Qalandar, Every breath intoxicated by you, Qalandar.

No matter how far from Sehwan I have traveled, how far from lands where Urdu is spoken and heard, just to hear “Dama dam mast Qalandar” is to be transported home. My brother called me after the attack on the shrine. “Goonga,” he asked. “Is he alive?” We were trying to find out. But no one had seen Goonga since the blast. We Pakistanis always believed our saints protected us. In Karachi, where we live by the sea, we believe that the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, overlooking the Arabian Sea shore, saved the city from cyclones and tsunamis.

Before Qalandar arrived here, before Islam came to the subcontinent, Sehwan was known as Shivistan after the Hindu god Shiva. In time, the town’s name was changed, but Sindh has long remained a home to all faiths. At the annual festival of Qalandar, a Hindu and a Muslim family together drape a ceremonial cloth over Qalandar’s grave. A lamp-lighting ceremony reminiscent of Hindu rites is also performed.

The shrine in Sehwan was attacked because it belongs to an open, inclusive tradition that some in Pakistan would rather forget than honor. Though it was founded as a sanctuary for Muslims, in its early incarnation, Pakistan was a home for all those who wished to claim it. Parsis, Sikhs, Christians and Jews remained in Pakistan after the bloody Partition in 1947.

Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan’s brutal military dictator in the 1980s, aided by Saudi money and supported by the United States, destroyed Pakistan’s progressive, syncretic culture. In the 11 years that General Zia presided over Pakistan, our textbooks were rewritten, exclusionary, intolerant laws were passed, and primacy was given to the bearers of a closed, violent worldview. Pakistan never recovered. Only pockets of the country still imbibe the generous welcome once afforded to all faiths. Sehwan is one of them.

After the attack, Pakistan’s military closed the border with Afghanistan and complained that the attackers had been given haven in Afghanistan. In retaliation, 100 people accused of being terrorists have been killed by the military.

Sehwan has no proper hospital, no trauma centers. For all its historical, religious and cultural significance, it was — like so much of this wounded country — abandoned by those who rule the province. There is no real governance here, no justice and no order. For life’s basic necessities, people must supplicate themselves before dead saints.

On the morning after the blast, the caretaker rang the bell, just as he always had. Devotees broke through the police cordons and returned to dance the dhamal on Saturday. Zulfi texted, “Goonga is alive.”

On my last visit to the shrine, after Goonga walked me through the crowded marketplace selling food and offerings, I sat on the floor besides a mother who had brought her son, crippled with polio, in the hopes that her prayers would ease his suffering. I had come to the shrine to see the blue and white floral kashi tiles, to walk around the perimeter and to be in a part of Pakistan that still operated on that rarest of currencies: hope.

دہشتگرد انسانیت کے دشمن‘ قوم کو شہید اہلکاروں پر فخر ہے: بلاول

کراچی (این این آئی) پیپلز پارٹی کے چیئرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا ہے کہ دہشت گرد انسانیت کے دشمن ہیں اور سکیورٹی فورسز کے جن باہمت اہلکاروں نے دہشت گردوں سے لڑکر اپنی جانوں کا نذرانہ پیش کیا ہے پوری قوم کو ان پر فخر ہے، پیپلز پارٹی دہشت گردی کے خلاف مہم میں سکیورٹی اداروں اور پوری قوم کے شانہ بشانہ ہے۔ انہوں نے یہ بات بدھ کو بلاول ہاﺅس میں پارٹی عہدیداروں سے گفتگو کے دوران کہی۔ بلاول بھٹو نے کہا کہ دہشت گردی اندرونی ہو یا بیرونی اسے ختم کرکے دم لیں گے۔ ان کا کہنا تھا کہ تمام امن پسند عالمی قوتیں دہشت گردی کے خلاف پیپلزپارٹی کے ساتھ ہیں، انسانیت کے دشمن دہشت گردوں کو اللہ اور عوام معاف نہیں کریں گے۔ نیشنل ایکشن پلان پر عمل ہوتا ہوا دکھائی نہیں دے رہا ہے، صرف سندھ حکومت اس پر عمل درآمد کررہی ہے، باقی صوبے بھی نیشنل ایکشن پلان پر عمل کریں۔ علاوہ ازیں بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے صوبہ سندھ میں پارٹی کی تنظیم نو کے حوالے سے ڈویژن اور ضلعی عہدیداروں کی تقرری کے لیے امیدواروں سے انٹرویوز لینے کا سلسلہ شروع کر دیاہے ۔بدھ کوبلاول بھٹوزرداری نے بلاول ہاﺅس میں لاڑکانہ ، سکھر ڈویژن اور ان سے منسلک اضلاع کے عہدیداروں کے امیدواروں سے انٹرویوزلیئے۔ اس موقع پرپیپلزپارٹی کی رکن قومی اسمبلی فریال تالپور،قومی اسمبلی میں قائد حزب اختلاف سید خورشید احمد شاہ،پیپلزپارٹی سندھ کے صدرنثار احمد کھوڑو ودیگر سینئر رہنما بھی موجود تھے۔اس موقع پر خطاب کرتے ہوئے بلاول بھٹوزرداری نے کہاکہ نئی تنظیم پر بھاری ذمہ داری عائد ہوگی کیونکہ پارٹی آئندہ سال ہونے والے عام انتخابات کی طرف جارہی ہے۔

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The Blood-Drenched Return of Pakistan’s Taliban

Donald Trump’s new national security advisor, Gen. H. R. McMaster, will be seeing some familiar names and some familiar problems coming across his desk in the next few days, and months, and very likely years. And they’re not good news.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are coming back into view as centers of terror and unrest potentially every bit as dangerous to the United States as the so-called Islamic State that operates in Iraq and Syria. And Afghanistan’s a part of the world where McMaster discovered his hard charging left him with limp results.

In 2010 his mission was to curb corruption in the U.S.-backed Afghan government—graft, bribery, and theft that undermined everything Washington thought it was trying to do. But some of the people that the United States sent out to build the Afghan nation turned out to be just as corrupt as the locals. And McMaster, even though he worked to understand the Afghan culture, sometimes lost patience.

Asked at a teleconference what he thought Afghans saw as an acceptable level of corruption, McMaster shut down the questioner, acting as if the inquiry made no sense at all and was, indeed, completely unacceptable.

Of course, the problem continued. And what we see now confirms what Af/Pak hands have known all along: the corruption is not just about money, it’s about the whole record of the Afghanistan and Pakistan conflict. You can’t trust the governments you support, not when they are talking about money, and much less when they talk about peace or about “victory.”

What we have seen in the last few days is a bloody reassertion of killing power by various factions of the Pakistani Taliban, known as the TTP—the same group that came very close to blowing up an SUV full of explosives in Times Square in May 2010.

Within the space of a few days, and after almost two years of relative calm, Pakistan has been hit by five suicide bombings and other attacks: On Feb. 13, the target was a protest rally in Lahore, in the rich province of Punjab that used to be considered the peaceful heart of Pakistan. Thirteen people were killed, including two senior police officers. One of those, Mueben Ahamd, was an intelligence officer known for his extensive operations against militants. The Taliban splinter group Al Ahrar claimed the attack.

On Feb. 14, as police tried to defuse a bomb in Quetta it went off, killing two people and wounding 11 . On the 15th, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed a government van carrying senior judges in Peshawar, and other bombers hit a government compound in Mohmand.

On Feb. 16 the attack was on a Sufi shrine in Sehwan in the south of the country, and 88 people died. An offshoot of ISIS claimed responsibility for that atrocity, but in the complicated web of jihadist factions, there are links between ISIS and the Taliban on both sides of the Af/Pak border.

Pakistani authorities promised a merciless crackdown. Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, the chief of the Pakistani army, promised that “each drop of [the] nation’s blood shall be avenged, and avenged immediately.” He vowed there would be “no more restraint for anyone.” And roundups of suspected terrorists began immediately.

But on Tuesday, at least five people died when suicide bombers tried to storm a courthouse in northwest Pakistan.

All this comes after the Pakistani military has conducted several massive military operations against the TTP and other jihadist groups, repeatedly proclaiming that the back of the organization is broken. What the latest attacks prove is that the organization may be wounded, but it is far from dead. Which is, of course, the point the Taliban on both sides of the border want to make.

Muhamamd Khorasni, a spokesman for the TTP militants, sent an email last week announcing that all the fractured Taliban groups are coming together and have appointed a new deputy head of the organization, uniting what had been separate factions.

Another TTP source told The Daily Beast that the organization was dispersed after government offensives that began in 2014, but their ideology and commitment remained and they were able to rebuild. “Your Western media forecasted that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan collapse, but the Taliban regrouped and reorganized. That is exactly what the TTP has been doing since the Pakistan army operations. It bounced back , reorganized, and will take revenge.”

“TTP leaders had a meeting on Jan. 20 near the Af/Pak border,” this source claimed. “All the groups agreed in principle to combine attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

At the same meeting, according to this source, some leaders suggested a general amnesty for those ex-TTP Taliban who had switched their allegiance to ISIS. “We hope they will come back,” he said.

The feeling is that ISIS has no future in the Af/Pak wars, according to several TTP sources. An Afghan Taliban source told The Daily Beast there have been “no clashes between Afghan Taliban and the Afghan chapter of ISIS for a long time, and the Afghan Taliban want ISIS to merge with them.”

The chances of that apparently have improved after U.S. drone strike took out Afghan-ISIS leader Hafiz Saeed Khan last summer. According to this source, he has been replaced by Abu Haseb, who is Afghan, but who used to be a commander in the Pakistani Kashmiri organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.

None of this bodes well for the United States. As a former TTP commander told The Daily Beast, “We are very clear about our Jihad to install an Islamic regime in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but of course the United States are our lifetime and definite Enemy Number One.”

The ongoing blame game between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, each blaming the other for allowing if not indeed encouraging the rebels fighting their neighbor, has given the Taliban on both sides of the frontier a chance to resume their activities and regain strength.

A well-placed European diplomat notes that the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan are now deeply interconnected, and unless the governments of those two countries find a way to pursue the same anti-Taliban agenda, ”terrorists will remain at large in the world’s most  dangerous region, Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

For all these reasons, Gen. McMaster probably would agree with one of his former subordinates who said Af/Pak has been “a sucking chest wound for the United States for the last 15 years.”

Now as U.S. national security advisor, McMaster has the chance as he never has before to try to stop the bleeding. But if he is as smart as many of his colleagues say he is, he probably knows that is just about impossible.

Sami Yousafzai reported from Islamabad, Christopher Dickey from New York

Bomb kills at least 10 in shopping district in Pakistan's Lahore

By Mubashir Bukhari A bomb blast in an upscale shopping center in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore killed at least 10 people on Thursday, a provincial government spokesman said, the latest attack in a surge of violence that has shaken the country.

 "It was a bomb blast with a huge sound impact that smashed the windows of almost all the buildings around," said Punjab government spokesman Malik Mohammad Khan. He said the blast caused a huge crater and authorities were investigating the exact "nature and motives" of the blast. Punjab police spokesman Nayab Haider said the explosion was caused by a bomb that was detonated either remotely or by timer. Pakistan has been struck by a wave of militant attacks in recent weeks which have killed at least 130 people.

One attack at a Sufi shrine in southern Sindh province killed 90 people. Rescue officials said security forces cordoned off the site of Thursday's blast, in a residential neighborhood which also houses banks and coffee shops, after what one bank worker described as a frightening explosion.

 "We left the building and saw that the motor-bikes parked outside were on fire and all the windows in the surrounding buildings were shattered," eyewitness Mohammad Khurram told Reuters. Reports of a second explosion in the city turned out to be a tire blow-out, a government official said. Thursday's bombing was the second attack in Lahore in two weeks. A suicide bombing on Feb. 13 killed at least 13 people at a protest near the provincial assembly. Government and military officials have vowed to hunt down militants across the country and Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has been shut down due to security concerns. After the shrine bombing, Pakistani security forces said they had killed more than 100 suspected militants in targeted campaigns across the country.

Pashto Music Video - Gul panra - Tapay

Pakistan - Anything Over A School

The children of Pakistan struggle as it is to attain an education, without having the government evict them from the few schools that exist in non-urban parts of KPK. Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak has ordered the evacuation of a high school to establish a training centre for aircraft maintenance. He directed the Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) Department to vacate the building of Government Higher Secondary School, Pir Piai, in Nowshera district, and to put the building at the disposal of the Pakistan Air Force. The centre will put 165 schoolchildren out of school, with no other options of attaining an education, as there is no other government higher secondary school in a distance of 15 to 20 kilometres. A vocational training centre can be built anywhere; the school did not have to be its casualty.

The move has triggered anxiety and uncertainty among the students of the school and their parents who could not afford education in private schools. The parents have been approaching the officials going as far as saying that they were ready to provide free of cost land for constructing a building for the training. The children of these conflict-ridden areas are already suffering due to the security situation, and instead of providing innovative solutions to ensure each child attends school, the government is taking away the little opportunities they have.

To attain an education is an inherent right of every child, yet it is unfortunate that the government prioritises everything else over it. The students of Government Boys High School Rukanpur have been forced to hold classes under the open sky as their school building has been demolished for a road project. The PML-N decided to demolish the building to build a motorway. The school had two portions, one for high school classes and other for the elementary classes on total 51 kanals of land, educating 200 children, that now have no other alternatives.