Courtesy Lokmanch*, the popular Hindi blog, I picked up this worrying bit of information:
- Between Jan - Jul 2008, almost 30% of Pakistani citizens who travelled to India did not go back after the expiry of their visas
- The actual number is 9635 people (until July ‘08 alone)
- In 2007, 7404 Pakistani citizens did not go back on expiry of their visas
- Of those who arrived in 2006, 7650 overstayed and are not traceable
- Of the ones that came in 2005, the number is 7043
…which means that more than 30,000 Pakistani citizens are now officially untraceable in India…and this in the last four years alone.
To make it worse, even if we detect and try to deport them, there is no guarantee that they will be taken back.
P.S. According to this exchange in Parliament, apparently 10 million (yes, you read that right) foreigners from Bangladesh, Pakistan etc are staying illegally in our country…
* For my readers unfamiliar with Hindi, here is a ToI report mentioning these statistics.
Related Posts:
North-East “burning”
Bend over backwards…
An eye-witness account of *militants* crossing into J&K
.
October 24th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Human Rights and Legal Issues, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Terrorism in India |
4 comments
…for India.
Picked this up y’day morning…(Courtesy Paul Kedrosky) ” Pakistan, The Land That Financial Bad News Forgot: Part II“. The really scary bit is towards the end…(in bold - emphasis mine):
Given all the pain in markets last week, I thought it would be a good time to check in again on The Land That Financial Bad News Forgot. Yes, Pakistan.
If you recall, the wise folks running the Karachi Exchange decided back in August that they would put a floor under the KSE at 9100. After watching stocks tumble 40% in the preceding six months, no longer would investors have to worry about their stocks falling further. They could only drop enough to take the index to 9100, and then … well, they couldn’t fall further. Bad news be damned!
…After a few palpitations, the Karachi market has now flat-lined. …Volumes have collapsed, going from a healthy 186-million shares a day to a comatose million shares a day, a 99.4% decline. It is simply no longer a viable exchange, with companies unable to raise money and investors unable to get liquidity or — heaven forfend — buy shares. Nothing. Traders are reduced to sleeping and playing video games.
…At the same time, the “badla” rate, a sort of interest rate at which investors can borrow money, soared to 100% on Friday, making the record-high Libor look positively like a giveaway. It is, in short, really, really bad.
But the news gets even worse.
The country’s debt has been downgraded by S&P deep into junk status; it has just enough foreign reserves to pay for two months of imports; and Pakistan looks increasingly like it will default on a major loan on Friday, plus it has $3-billion more in upcoming debt payments. Unless something happens quickly, we are about to see what happens when you have a systemic collapse in a nuclear power next door to a terrorist hotbed.
Paul slightly amended his last sentence in one of the comments to:
…Let’s call it a systemic collapse of a country containing a sizable terrorist faction.
Also stumbled on this earlier today: Pakistan’s “Macabre” Economics in which Desh has this memorable sentence:
Aid was Pakistan’s “monetary and fiscal policy”. When it was absent, then it was Nuke and military sales.
Adjacent Posts:
Terrorism and Public Opinion in Pakistan
India - Pakistan: Notes from an Island
Emergency in Pakistan: Opportunity or Headache? Part-II and finally,
The “Raja-Mandala” approach to containing Pakistan
October 14th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), Global Terrorism, Pakistan related |
6 comments
From a BBC report: “‘Another US strike’ hits Pakistan“ (emphasis mine)
Five civilians and seven militants have been killed in north-west Pakistan in a suspected US missile attack, local officials say. Missiles hit two buildings near Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border.
It has emerged that President Bush recently authorised US raids against militants in Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad.
There is growing concern in Pakistan over unilateral US military action.
…It is the fifth time since the beginning of this month that US forces have carried out cross border strikes, according to local people.
…The attacks follow persistent US accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to eliminate Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the border region.
An unnamed senior Pentagon official told the BBC that at some point within the past two months President Bush issued a classified order to authorise US raids against militants in Pakistan…
Contrast this with:
(National Security Adviser) Mr. Narayanan said the government had proof of how terrorism was controlled from Pakistan and in this regard mentioned the arrest of two foreign nationals in the aftermath of the Mumbai blasts…
…”What (evidence) we have is stronger than what the US had (against Taliban) after 9/11″ which prompted America to launch a war on Afghanistan. [ link ]
But thats nothing new…we have been saying this for almost 10 years now and Pakistan has consistently rejected “…(the) baseless Indian allegations of support for so called cross-border terrorism”.
Related Posts:
We know its Pakistan but we hope its not!
Blasts? What Blasts? ‘Yeh to hota hi rahta hai’
Now You See Him, Now You Don’t*
September 13th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Global Terrorism, India & Its Neighbours, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Terrorism in India |
one comment
Amidst the flurry of Op-Ed pieces in mainstream (English language) media, suggesting granting Kashmir “complete autonomy (Khushwant Singh) ” or holding a plebiscite (Swaminathan S Aiyar) or a referendum (Vir Sanghvi), I failed to spot even one Op-Ed suggesting that the answer may lie in scraping Article 370 forthwith.
I believe it is time to say, “One Country, One Law”…and turn Jammu and Kashmir into a normal “State” in the “Union of India”.
This is my 3-point prescription to get out of this mess for good (I do need to think through the consequences in some more detail though):
1. Stop ALL talks with Hurriyat, PDP and other assorted outfits who demand “azaadi”.
2. Stop ALL aid and grants…forthwith (to get an idea of how much money is poured down the drain in Kashmir, read below)
3. Scrap Article 370 and begin an active programme to re-settle and rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits back in the Valley.
Will this work? I don’t know.
Will Madam Gandhi and co. even consider it? Dream on.
Keep Reading…
August 17th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Identity, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History |
25 comments
….and the world remained silent….
For those of you who are not old enough to remember how it all started, here is a brief excerpt from The bushfire of Hindu rage (emphasis mine):
…For the benefit of those who have come of age in the last two decades, among them many of the 24×7 news channel anchors who talk utter gibberish while donning an air of supreme confidence to camouflage their limitless ignorance, let me recount the events of January 1990, which mark the beginning of the latest crusade against the Hindus of Jammu & Kashmir. Since ’secularists’ are allergic to events of the distant past, we need not go into the details of how Hindus were decapitated by the Sword of Islam wielded by the original Islamists. The present will suffice to highlight the duplicity of those whose hearts beat for the hate-India hordes in Kashmir.
Srinagar, January 4, 1990. Aftab, a local Urdu newspaper, publishes a Press release issued by Hizb-ul Mujahideen, set up by the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1989 to wage jihad for Jammu & Kashmir’s secession from India and accession to Pakistan, asking all Hindus to pack up and leave. Another local paper, Al Safa, repeats this expulsion order. In the following days, there is near chaos in the Kashmir Valley with then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his National Conference Government abdicating all responsibilities. Masked men run amok, waving Kalashnikovs, shooting to kill and shouting anti-India slogans. Reports of killing of Hindus, invariably Kashmiri Pandits, begin to trickle in; there are explosions; inflammatory speeches are made from the pulpits of mosques, using public address systems meant for calling the faithful to prayers. A terrifying fear psychosis begins to take grip of Kashmiri Pandits.
Srinagar, January 19, 1990. Mr Jagmohan arrives to take charge as Governor. Mr Farooq Abdullah, whose pathetic, whimpering, snivelling Government has all but ceased to exist, resigns and goes into a sulk. Curfew is imposed as a first measure to restore some semblance of law and order. But it fails to have a deterrent effect. Throughout the day, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Hizb-ul Mujahideen terrorists use public address systems at mosques to exhort people to defy curfew and take to the streets. Masked men, firing from their Kalashnikovs, march up and down, terrorising Pandits. As evening falls, the exhortations become louder and shriller. Three taped slogans are repeatedly played the whole night from mosques: “Kashmir mei agar rehna hai, Allah-hu-Akbar kehna hai” (If you want to stay in Kashmir, you have to say Allah-hu-Akbar); “Yahan kya chalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa” (What do we want here? Rule of shari’ah); “Asi gachchi Pakistan, batao roas te batanev san” (We want Pakistan along with Hindu women but without their men). As the night of January 19, 1990, wears itself out, despondency gives way to desperation. And tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits across the Valley take a painful decision: To flee their homeland to save their lives. Thus takes place a 20th century Exodus.
Their wounds, as also the wounds of Hindu India, have been festering for 18 years. The simmering anger of Hindus has now burst into a raging bush fire that threatens to burn to ashes media’s perverse notions of ’secularism’ and destroy the politics of Muslim appeasement.
Related Posts:
Cry of the Valley - *must read*
The lies about Amarnath…
No land for the Yatris - Government capitulates
How many “Hindus” would it take to change the demography of Kashmir?
August 13th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Post Independence History, Terrorism in India |
12 comments
Courtesy, this article on the CounterTerrorism Blog, I came across this fascinating survey conducted almost exactly a year ago which has some revealing insights. A small sample:
- 33% Pakistanis view Taliban, Al-Qaeda and radical Pakistani Jihadi groups favourably (while 43% oppose them)
- 38% favour Taliban (while an equal percentage oppose it)
- 37%-49% favour local radical Pakistani Jihadi extremist groups (only 24%-29% oppose them)
- 46% of Pakistani’s view Osama bin Laden favorably (only 26% have an unfavourable view of him) and finally,
- 76% of those polled believe that implementing strict Sharia law throughout Pakistan is either a “very important” or “somewhat important” long-term goal for the government of Pakistan.
Read the full report here: http://www.terrorfreetomorrow.org/upimagestft/Pakistan%20Poll%20Report.pdf
August 11th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Global Terrorism, India & Its Neighbours, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related |
3 comments
Some good links for the weekend:
Excerpts from the Pak army and the jihadi’s second coming: Read in the context of recent incidents of ceasefire violation along the LOC and the controversy surrounding Gen Kapoor’s remarks.
Excerpts from [The Islamist-Leftist] Allied Menace
and how California alone uses more gasoline than any other country in the world (including India and China!)
.
Keep Reading…
August 9th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Enviroment Related, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), Global Terrorism, Islam & Terrorism, Jammu & Kashmir related, Pakistan related |
no comments
This is probably a less lucid post than most of what I write…In spite of that it has taken me a very long time to draft this.
Last Sunday, after hearing of the blasts in Ahmedabad, I asked myself…what would I have done? What should the Government do? What can we do…as concerned, anxious and angry citizens?
I decided not to write anything more about the attacks until I had some idea of the answers to this questions…This post is an attempt in that direction…It mainly deals with what the government should do/ or consider doing…I may decide to write a separate post on what each one of us, as proud ”Bharatiyas”, can do…
The suggestions are organised in different sections (in no particular order):
The Political Will
Effective Policing and Intelligence Coordination
The role of the “middle class”
The role of the Muslim community
The role of Pakistan
Better Legislation
The Ideological Challenge
The ideas I have mentioned below are not all mine - they rely heavily on work and thinking done by others, more experienced and better informed than me…What I have attempted is to bring these ideas together - in a coherent, mostly consistent, way. I will be grateful for any critiques…Please contribute freely with your ideas and suggestions…
Jai Hind.
Tackling Terrorism: One Step at a Time
The Political Will
Our biggest weakness in this war is the lack of political will…No amount of proposals, ideas and counter-terrorist measures will work unless there is a clear, unambiguous and determined consensus - across all parties - at all levels - that this is WAR and it has to be fought with the same intensity and sense of urgency…The time for patting ourselves on the back about the “Spirit of Mumbai” (or Bengaluru or Ahmedabad) is past…
Political Will means bringing pressure on Pakistan …or as Ashutosh memorably mentioned in his comment on this blog, “turning on the heat“…It necessarily involves retaliation - something which NSA M K Narayanan hinted at a few weeks ago (after the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul)…It is time to follow-up on these statements…For more than a decade, we have been crying hoarse about terrorist camps and support infrastructure across the border…Well, THIS is the time to do something about it…
As Raja Ram mentioned in his comment following the Mumbai Blasts:
…The GOI has to present the evidence gathered publicly, set forth a clear demand for actions from governments - or agencies of governments - that may be involved with a clear time frame. This should be backed up with a clear promise of retributive action against the perpetrators with or without their support. International support for such should be channelised and developed.
…But this can happen only when the political class has the clarity of mind about dealing with terror in that manner. There are consequences to such actions that we must be ready to face. The political class, mind you is a creature of the people. The people should not only be ready to back them but demand such action from the political class and only then will they respond. Till that happens, concerned Indians can pull their hair and whack their heads - not much is going to come out of it. India will just have to take it in her stride yet again and fight on alone. There is no support for India in her war on terror. What is available is only meaningless platitudes.
The PM needs to get up and say, as did Tony Blair last June: “…This extremism can be defeated. But it will be defeated only by recognising that we have not created it; it cannot be negotiated with; pandering to its sense of grievance will only encourage it; and only by confronting it, the methods and the ideas, will we win.”
The President, Chief Commander of the Armed Forces needs to declare: India will not negotiate with terrorists… And every political party - and their leaders in Parliament - need to unequivocally support this stance…otherwise there is little hope.
Keep Reading…
August 1st, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Islam & Terrorism, Jammu & Kashmir related, LeT, SIMI etc., Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Terrorism in India |
30 comments
In an eerily prescient post a few weeks back, I had written: Our Kurukshetra is approaching fast.
The terrorist attacks in Ahmedabad and Bangalore are merely the latest consequences of a mis-guided, half-hearted approach to tackle terrorism and ignoring the root of the problem - which is the ideology of “Jihad”…and Islamism…This is the ideology that led to 9/11, the massacre of Beslan and numerous attacks since then - a disturbingly large number of them in Bharat.
As long as we don’t recognise this, we will be fighting the wrong enemy (not terrorists but innocents)…on the wrong front (not at the level of ideas, but at the level of physical force)…and with the wrong weapons (not better policing and quick, efficient justice but Dharnas, Bandhs, Satyagraha etc..)
The FIRST STEP though has to be the realisation that this is WAR - nothing less.
At least someone has realised this…
Terror attacks are a war against India…
I salute Shri Modi for having the courage to speak out.
He at least has more spine than the hundreds of others who claim to represent India. But as Radha-ji of Vigil pointed out in an email to me: “His spine is not in question here, it is his understanding of the nature of the threat - jihad…” I think she has hit the nail on its head.
As I had promised to myself, I will say no more on this until such point when I have some idea of how to deal with this menace.
In the meantime, here are some extracts from a letter written by a concerned father* (in teh US) to his sons back in 2004. Pl. read and think (emphasis mine).
*** Excerpts begin **
…To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII).
The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means.
Keep Reading…
July 27th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Global Terrorism, Godhra, Islam & Terrorism, LeT, SIMI etc., Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Politics of Minority Appeasement, Post Independence History, Terrorism in India |
6 comments
Why is the English mainstream media so scared of calling terrorists for what they are - instead of the silly label -”militants”?
Is thisnot an insult toour brave officers and soldiers who day in and day out expose themselves to enormous risks…and put their lives on the line to protect our country and uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India?
I am sad, disgusted and very very angry…
Here is a sample from today’s new stories:
An Army Major has been killed and two jawans injured in encounter with militants in Rajouri district in Kashmir. [ link ]
An Army Major and a police constable were killed and three other security personnel seriously injured in a fierce gun battle with a group of Lashker-e-Toiba militants in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir today (July 20). [ link ]
An Indian Army officer and a policeman were killed and four soldiers injured in a shoot out that erupted in a frontier district of Jammu and Kashmir Sunday, defence sources said. The sources said Maj. Bhanu Partap of 43 Rashtriya Rifles and Sanjeev of Kashmir police were killed while fighting heavily armed militants hiding in the Bangai forests in Thana Mandi area of Rajouri district, about 190 kms north of Jammu. [ link ]
An Army Major and a police constable were killed and three other security personnel seriously injured in a fierce gun battle with a group of Lashker-e-Toiba militants in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. [ link ]
Interestingly, the Hindi language media (with which I am somewhat familiar) uniformly uses the term “Aatankwadi” (Terrorist) - save for the lone BBC Hindi which prefers “Charampanthi” (Extremist) - but then it is the BBC, as you know.
Anydoubt why we need a robust, right-of-centre alternative to what passes of as mainstream media?
Related Posts:
The missing T-word
Nice, politically correct reporting -UPDATED
and “The great joke that is Indian Media” series:Part 1,Part 2,Part 3, Part 4and Part 5.
.
UPDATE: According to this report, these so-called militants were using a woman as a shield:
Army sources claimed that on specific information, a joint team of the Thannamandi-based 43 RR and the Rajouri SOG launched a search and destroy operation in Kunda near here on Saturday night. After cordoning the area, a search party led by Major Bhanu reached a dhok (temporary shed used by nomads in higher reaches) owned by Gulzar Begum of Shahdara Sharief area and knocked at the door. Begum who was inside the dhok at that time was allegedly used by militants, reportedly belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), as their shield, sources added.
July 21st, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Jammu & Kashmir related, LeT, SIMI etc., Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Terrorism in India |
one comment
Mufti Abdul Rehman Al Rehmani, head of Darul Ifta wa Al-Qazzath of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JD) Pakistan:
if…Indian Muslims…comply with Indian law, then the coming generations of Muslims in India will be involved in Hindu beliefs
Here is the story:
A few days ago, the mufti or head cleric of one of Indias biggest madrassas, the Darul Uloom Deoband (DUD), Mufti Habibur Rehman, said that Indian Muslims should take care when slaughtering the cow that is considered sacred by Hindus. He pointed out that the slaughter of the cow is prohibited under Indian law and thus it was not right to use its meat secretly.
In response, the head of Darul Ifta wa Al-Qazzath of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JD) Pakistan, Mufti Abdul Rehman Al Rehmani, said that the fatwa should be withdrawn immediately and justified. The fatwa encourages Hindu beliefs, Al Rehmani said while talking to Daily Times on Tuesday. His official stance was published on the JD website the same day.
Al Rehmani claims that Rehmans fatwa is wrong because according to Islamic education the cow was a major cause of idolism and polytheism. And if Mufti Habibur Rehman tells Indian Muslims to comply with Indian law, then the coming generations of Muslims in India will be involved in Hindu beliefs, said the text. [ link ]
Related Posts:
If Muslims revered cattle - excerpt
Of Sacred Bulls, Divinity &Development
July 16th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Identity, Impact of Islam on India, Pakistan related |
4 comments
Continuing from Part I of this guest post by Ashutosh on India, Pakistan and geo-strategic issues…
A few days later (after the Tehelka Summit), I attended the book launch of the second edition of Natural Gas in Asia - The Challenges of Growth in China, India, Japan and Korea by Oxford Institute of Energy Studies…
I took with me experiences of the previous week and also the knowledge that at the launch of the previous edition in 2004 (which I had attended too), the popular viewwas summed up in a single sentence India and Pakistan can play cricket with each other but energy co-operation, no Sir, that is not yet on the cards
Cut to July 2008 - Launch of the second edition, the same old projects: Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline- the roller coaster that is the Iran-India LNG deal- and this time the view about energy co-operation - a possibility- even call it distinct possibility. Just the previous week, at the Tehelka conference a few participants- Imran Khan, Asad Durrani and a few others had mentioned Iran-Pakistan-India collaboration but the same people said a lot more about a lot of otherissues too..and one cant ignore or forget what was said.
The view in this very knowledgeable energy crowd, albeit dominated by western oil and gas company executives was: “India-Pakistan energy collaboration, really?”
Had I not attended the Tehalka conference, I would have just about given these much bandied about projects,agrudging chance- may be, just may be. But then again I ask why now? And why with Pakistan in between? Whats wrong with an energy cooperation with other states in the Middle East like Qatar, or a nuclear energy pact with US?
Dont we have some of the best engineers and technical manpower to provide a solution to the big global crew change in oil and gas? How are we leveraging that strength as a country? In the light of these, how important is this Iran-Pakistan-India gas deal and who wants it more badly? The Iranians? The Pakistanis or the Indians? I can say for certain, the Indians dont need it as bad.
Shantanu, thanks for alerting me about the Tehelka event- even its attendee composition was quite telling- a relatively large number of expat professional Pakistanis compared to Indians attended this event.
Having experienced a range of insinuations at the Conference may I add my own?National enlightened self interest wins over personal economic aspirations amongst expats from Pakistan. To use a phrase, made popular once again by the book of the same name - We are like that only entrenched in our compassionate Capitalistic (the latter word purposefully with a capital “C” and the former with a small “c”) mindset and to an extent, perhaps it is for the better; we have become great role models of tolerance - too great for our own good, I think!
Related Posts:
India - Pakistan: Notes from an Island
On Nano, global warming, India and China
India, Iran and the IPI pipeline
India-China-Japan-US and the politics of energy
July 15th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Enviroment Related, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), India & Its Neighbours, Indian Economy, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India |
no comments
From the original post by Dr Andrew Bostom, “End the Moral Idiocy on Kashmir”
*** EXCERPTS BEGIN ***
I participated in a forum on Kashmir last night at MIT in Boston, as this Muslim supremacist, jihad-inspired conflictreally a tragic ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Hindus by Muslim jihadists which began in earnest during the 14th centuryre-emerged in the news recently when the Indian government had the temerity to want to transfer 99 acres of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board…
…Please watch the video linked below, which chronicles in gory detail the brutal ethnic cleansing of some 350,000 indigenous Hindus from Kashmir during early 1990, orchestrated by Pakistan and its moderate Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto.
I was privileged last night to meet the astute, courageous, and passionate filmmaker, Ashok Pandit, who produced this documentary, And the World Remained Silent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCRFWStxV_4 (Part 1)
Focus on the time period 2:15 to 4:00 minutes, from part 1 above, and witness the jihadist speech of the late, much ballyhooed modernist reformer Benazir Bhutto. She was a jihadist, plain and simple; the head of what remains a jihadist state, our ally Pakistan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2vsztUdkpU&feature=related (Part 2)
Here is the text of the comments I delivered last night for historical background:
Islamic Separatism & Kashmir: A Panel Discussion Exploring the Relationship Between Religion and Kashmiri Tangle, July 9, 2008,
During mid-November, 2007, a grim milestone was recorded in the macabre tally being kept assiduously in cyberspace by blogger Glen Reinsford: the 10,000th attack by jihad terrorists resulting in some 60,000 dead and 90,000 injured since the cataclysmic acts of jihad terrorism on September 11, 2001.
Reinsford does not include combat-related statistics…His tally also excludes the genocide in Darfur committed by the Islamic government in Sudan…whose murderous ravages the UN estimated last year had resulted in some 400,000 dead, and 2 million displaced.
Reinsford identified three episodes of such continuous, mind numbing jihadist carnage which had perhaps unsettled him most: Nadimarg, Kashmir India (3/23/03), dozens of Hindu villagers roused out of their beds and machine-gunned by Lashkar-e-Toiba; Beslan, Russia (9/3/04), some 350 people slaughtered by jihadistshalf of them children; Malatya, Turkey (4/18/07), three Christian Bible distributors bound, tortured for hours, then gruesomely murdered by men who acted explicitly in the name of Islam.
These data should remind us that there is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad despite contemporary apologetics. Jahada, the root of the word Jihad, appears 40 times in the Koranunder a variety of grammatical forms. With 4 exceptions, all the other 36 usages (in specific Koranic verses) are variations of the third form of the verb, i.e. Jahida. Jahida in the Koran and in subsequent Islamic understanding to both Muslim luminariesfrom the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam (including Abu Yusuf, Averroes, Ibn Khaldun, and Al Ghazzali), to ordinary peoplemeant and means he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like, as described by the seminal Arabic lexicographer E.W Lane. Indeed, Lanes, An Arabic English Lexicon (6 volumes, London, 1865) is still used to this day by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars for definitive Arabic to English translation. Thus Lane, who studied both the etymology and usage of the term jihad, observed, Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify wag[ing] war, against unbelievers.
Keep Reading…
July 12th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Conversions, Missionaries in India, Hindu Dharma, Identity, Impact of Islam on India, India & Its Neighbours, Islamic Rule in India, Jammu & Kashmir related, Medieval Indian History, Modern Indian History, Pakistan related |
no comments
About two weeks ago,the Royal Society of Arts in UK, together withTehelka, organised a Summit on India and Pakistan in London. It had a stellar line up of speakers and panelists (Jaswant Singh, Farooq Abduallh, Arun Jaitley, Mushahid Husain, Imran Khan, Asma Jehangir, Ram Jethmalani…et al) and I am sure it generated a lot of animated discussions…
I am delighted to present a guest post by my dear friend Ashutosh who attended the summit and graciously agreed to pen down his thoughts to share with everyone on this blog…Ashutosh has a blue-chip CV and he left McKinsey a few years ago to start his own consulting firm in London…Needless to say, he also has a deep and abiding interest in politics and international affairs. Without further ado, here are Ashutosh’s thoughts…in two separate posts…This is the first one (emphasis is mine).
*** POST BEGINS ***
Allow me to begin by saying that I attended the events over two days wearing essentially two separate hats- one that of a politically aware global citizen (after all vasudhaiva kutumbakam has not been a more relevant concept that today and best describes the world view of us expat desis) and the second more practical hat of a energy geo-politics analyst (and there is probably no other region than the sub-continent where geo-politics of nuclear- natural gas- renewable energy and climate change is most relevant, fragile and least appreciated); my thoughts on the meeting therefore are in that sequence…
As a relatively more aware follower of international affairs- I question the need to have any reconciliatory relationship with Pakistan. What follows is a brief summary of my thoughts…
A]Pakistan wants India to forget the recent past (and in my view the most important past of the last 60 years) and reflect on our much longer history before…when we were one country.
If the meeting was about burying the past and moving forward- well it was a very good first step but we have barely scratched the surface in establishing trust at a human level. One example of self contradiction- Mushahid Hussain opening his speech by greeting (read insinuating) the audience in every other language and style but (conspicuously) avoidinga single hindu greeting like namaskaar and then closing his speech (suggesting to India) by - Thoda Dil Bada Karein- this was just one example of several self contradictions in Mushahids speech. Grow up dude, look at that inexperienced Sachin Pilot, measured and moderated responses in face of insinuations- logical and consistent- through out.
B]Search for that sameness - another theme that came out…We are similar so there is no reason we cannot move forward.
Well- I challenge this notion of sameness- yes , we have common food habits, similar languages and to some extent a common civilization but our life experiences of the last 60 or more years driven by our national ethos have been totally different. Tolerance versus Fanaticism- and so have emerged our relative positions as a function of our individual national ethos.
Why should we desperately seek out that same-ness and struggle in this relationship? When we deal with China, be it at a Governemnt level or in business, the first thing we do is recognize our differences- much stronger footing to craft our way forward. Pakistan and India may have common history and gene pool but our ethos is totally different- we will not only struggle but even get frustrated more easily in making this relationship work. Lets recognize our differences first- tolerance v/s fanaticism then figure out what is the relative value at stake for each of us!
C] Dont Use the T-word. If you do, then at least dont use it as IT (Islamic Terrorism)…
Will someone please explain to me why not? Speaker after speaker mentioned that terrorism has no place in Islam. Good passionate rhetoric but frankly this is the 800 pound gorilla in the room and calling it militancy or freedom struggle aint any good, any more. Well done Tarun Vijay, for bringing it out into the open, chapter and verse with examples included. Of course no answer/response was forthcoming except a Humphrey Appleby-esque Dont use the T word and if you do dont call it IT
Keep Reading…
July 9th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Debates & Discussions, Geo-Strategic Issues (incl. Nuclear, Oil, Energy), Global Terrorism, Identity, India & Its Neighbours, Jammu & Kashmir related, Miscellaneous, Pakistan related, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History, Terrorism in India |
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