Monday, December 13, 2010

I am Pakistani and I am Just Like You

Life in Pakistan is not as horrible as you perceive, we all are living a pretty much normal life in Pakistan in all the professions we belong to. Here is a sight of our lives in different areas, which perhaps to your surprise, not too different from yours, and also no way linked to any such activity which can degrade our nation at the globe.

I am Pakistani and I am Just Like You


Part 1/2


Part 2/2


Concept, Produced & Directed by: Noman Minai
Institute of Business Management

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Friday, December 10, 2010

RAW facts on South Asia- India fails to occupy countries



Many citizens of the smaller countries around India blame themselves for their ills. The fact is that it is the external Indian forces that want to create dissension, chaos and depression making attempting to make them like Sikkim so that they can be absorbed into India.

All the countries on the periphery of India have rebelled and do not want to be part of India–however Indian agencies keep on working to destroy the fabric of the countries on the periphery of the Indian Ocean.

Indian Intelligence Agency RAW insignia logo

Indian Intelligence Agency RAW insignia logo

India's unconventional war strategy

Contributing Editor Dr SHIREEN M MAZARI takes the cover off the raw facts about RAW in SOUTH ASIA

The publication of the Jain Commission Report for the Indian Government has confirmed what many in South Asia had suspected all along: That Indian intelligence services Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has been fomenting violent destabilisation within the domestic polities of the South Asian states. This helps to explain why dissenting political movements in countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan – as well as in the other South Asian states – suddenly became more militant and violent in their political behaviour. Why did India feel the need to get into this form of activity within its neighbouring states? The answer to that question lies in understanding India's power ambitions.Seeking regional hegemony and recognition as a major global actor since independence, India initially relied on military force to expand its borders as well as intimidate its neighbours into accepting Indian diktat. India's military moves into Kashmir and Goa emboldened it enough to get embroiled in a military encounter with China in 1962. The ensuing defeat at the hands of the Chinese as well as the stalemated war with Pakistan in 1965 made India rethink its overt military tactics in order to assert its hegemony regionally.

Thus it shifted its focus vis-a-vis South Asian states and China (as reflected in the refuge given to the Tibetan dissidents and the Dalai Lama) to covert interventions aimed at destabilising the domestic polities of its neighbours. It was for this purpose that RAW was created in 1968. The extent of RAW terrorist activities in neighbouring South Asian states is only now formally coming to light with the publication of the Jain Commission Report which establishes a clear link between the Indian government and the LTTE terrorists in Sri Lanka which eventually led to the murder of Rajiv Gandhi.

However, RAW began its activities much earlier in what was then East Pakistan. The short-sightedness and neglect of Bengali sensitivities by successive Pakistani governments since independence provided the perfect milieu for RAW to lay the seeds for wrecking Pakistan from within.

Bangladesh: RAW facts

Siliguri corridor is vulnerable to an expanding China map

Bangladesh map: Siliguri corridor is vulnerable to an expanding China map

The Indians played upon Bengali sentiments in the aftermath of the 1965 Pakistan-India war through RAW so that when opportunity struck the Indians were well-prepared. It was RAW that gradually converted Sheikh Mujibur Rehman from being a staunch supporter of Pakistan as a student leader to envisaging himself as the possible 'Father' of a new nation – Bangladesh. Indian sources, including journalists, have put on record how much before 1971 RAW had established the network of a separatist movement through 'cells' within East Pakistan and military training camps in Indian territory adjoining East Pakistan. The Mukti Bahini were all in place organisationally to take advantage of the political trouble in 1971 and carry out acts of sabotage against communication lines so that Indian forces simply marched in at the 'right' time. RAW agents provided valuable information as well as acting as an advance guard for conducting unconventional guerrilla acts against the Pakistani defence forces. A Bengali, who was a Mukti Bahini activist, Zainal Abedin, has written a revealing book which includes his personal experience in Indian training camps, entitled RAW and Bangladesh. It was the post-fall of Dhaka period which exposed the Indians' true intentions and made Abedin realise that It was evident from the conduct of the Indian Army that they treated Bangladesh as a colony … It is now evident that India had helped the creation of Bangladesh with the aim that it would be a step forward towards the reunification of India.

Because Mujib returned, Indian forces could not remain in Bangladesh permanently and so it fell on RAW to initiate other fronts to undermine the sovereignty of Bangladesh. RAW has since been seeking to create Indian dominance culturally, ideologically and economically in Bangladesh.

In addition, RAW has also created another insurgency force: The Shanti Bahini (Fighters for Peace). This force comprises the Chittagong Hill Tracts Hindu and Buddhists tribesmen (the Chakmas) and the intention is to bleed the Bengali military and keep the border area tense. The Chakmas used to embarrass the Bangladesh government especially when the latter protested over Indian policy on the sharing of waters' issue.

Sri Lanka: RAW facts

Sri Lanka map

Sri Lanka map

Up to the mid-seventies the Sri Lankan government had kept India happy by following policies which followed the Indian line – domestically and externally. The trouble began in 1977 when the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) lost power to the Jayewardene-led United National Party in elections. He moved towards a more cooperative policy with the United States and Sri Lanka chose to oppose the Indian demand for the withdrawal of all foreign naval forces from the Indian Ocean. Mrs. Gandhi had already been irked by Sri Lanka's support to Pakistan during the 1971 war when it allowed landing and fuelling facilities to Pakistan's East-West commercial flights. So RAW saw a perfect opportunity to exploit within the prevailing dispute between the Sinhalese majority (74 percent) and Tamil minority (14 percent) over distribution of economic and social spoils of independence. Before the two sides could work out a compromise, India, through its RAW, managed to polarise the two sides as well as militarise this essentially political conflict. On the Mukti Bahini model, RAW built up terrorist training camps in India for a number of Tamil terrorist organisations, while India suddenly began orchestrating a public campaign feigning concern because of the links the Tamils had with the 50 million Indian Tamils of Tamil Nadu state – which was separated from Sri Lanka by the Palk Straits. It was only a matter of time before the militants trained in India began sidelining the moderate Tamils and instead demanding complete independence – Ealam. Ironically, the presence of Tamil training camps in Tamil Nadu often created a law and order situation when large arms were captured by the state police. The surprise for the state government came when New Delhi ordered that such captured material be returned.

According to Rohan Gunaratna, in his book Indian Intervention in Sri Lanka, RAW waged a secret war in Ril Lanka beginning 1983 so that when the Sri Lankan armed forces launched a major offensive against the Tamil militancy in 1987, the Indian government had already ensured that the Tamils were well supplied and were able to conduct terrorist acts that brought the war closer to Colombo. Tamil Nadu had become the sanctuary for the Tamil terrorists in their hit-and-run tactics. Already, a year prior to this offensive, that is by 1986, there were over 20,000 Indian trained and financed Tamils and India forced Sri Lanka through this militant pressure to alter its foreign policy. But even more crucial, India by now was systematically destabilising Sri Lanka. Being unable to resist the temptation to now intervene directly, India used the Sri Lankan offensive against the Tamil terrorists to force Sri Lanka to accept India's armed intervention ostensibly to save ' innocent Tamil civilians'. Unfortunately for India, the controversial Indo-Sri Lankan Accord of July 1987 proved to be as much of a failure as India's policy of direct intervention. The result was India's massively assisted LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) turned on its benefactor and declared war against the Indian forces in Sri Lanka. All in all, this Indian adventure killed 60,000 men, women and children and forced the Indians to withdraw their forces without successfully completing their mission. The price has been steep for both India and Sri Lanka and even today Sri Lanka is paying the price for this Indian-initiated and RAW inspired polarised conflict. The extent of RAW's role in this affair has been painstakingly documented by Gunaratna in his book on the Indian intervention.

Bhutan, Nepal & Sikkim: RAW facts

Map of Sikkim is vulnerable to an expanding China map

Map of Sikkim is vulnerable to an expanding China map

The ethnic crisis in Bhutan led by people of Nepalese origin is also said to have been aggravated by RAW – to try and turn the political crisis to India's advantage.

In Nepal India has consistently intervened in the politics of this Hindu kingdom by promoting pro-India politicians. The economic dependence of this land-locked state on India makes it very difficult for any Nepalese government to assert its sovereignty. Whenever an attempt has been made, the Indians have reacted violently. Presently, the RAW is pushing its pro-India politicians to push for official recognition of Hindi.

As for Sikkim, despite the 1950 agreement between this tiny state and India which allowed for Sikkim's nominal independence, India, through RAW, began encouraging various groups to oppose the Chogyal (the dynastic head of state). When the Chogyal married an American, India was able to use the anti-CIA card to eventually push the Sikkim National Assembly into 'requesting' India for merger of Sikkim into the Indian Union – after an Indian-engineered referendum on this subject. And India 'eventually' decided to accept this request in April 1975.

The Maldives

Maldives location map

Maldives location map

Even as the Indian forces were bogged down in the Sri Lankan quagmire, RAW created a bizarre drama in The Maldives. Terrorists belonging to the RAW-funded Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) staged an attack on Male ostensibly in an effort to use The Maldives as a base for anti-Sri Lankan action. The whole drama ended when, within 24 hours, Indian troops arrived on the 'request' of Maldives' president and captured – effortlessly – the EPRLF personnel. However, no one at home or abroad was deceived by this RAW engineered drama.

While the Jain Commission Report and several publications have reaffirmed Indian intelligence services Research and Analysis Wing's (RAW) violent interventions within the domestic politics of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, there has been, surprisingly, no comprehensive publication dealing with what is the most extensive canvas of RAW operations – Pakistan. Yet it has been in Pakistan that RAW has, over the years, exploited societal conflicts and nurtured them into full-fledged violent polarisations.

Pakistan: RAW facts

Pakistan map

Pakistan map

RAW used the growing disaffection of the Bengalis in East Pakistan to build up the foundations of Bengali separatism. It lay the ground for the Indian military entry into what was then East Pakistan by building up, training and arming the Mukti Bahini. RAW's failure lay in being unable to lead the Mukti Bahini and the Bengalis to the 'natural' conclusion of their struggle against Pakistan – as planned by India – that was a union with India. Instead, perhaps RAW overkill helped the Bangladeshis into seeking a gradual distancing from India so that in the end the creation of Bangladesh only helped to reassert the relevance of the Two-Nation Theory. This has not prevented RAW from focussing its activities in Pakistan – keeping a careful eye on all developments within Pakistan's domestic polity. In Pakistan RAW has had a multi-pronged strategy using the Indian media, abetting political subversion and actively developing a terrorist network which becomes operationalised within Pakistan as and when RAW feels the time appropriate. That is why there has been a gradual transformation of simple political dissent into a violent form of political polarisation and subversion.

That the opportunities have been provided by the local political machinations cannot be denied – but RAW has been quick to take advantage and introduce an ever-spiralling element of violence within the political discourse and conflict that prevails in all the South Asian countries.

So the fringe minority elements within the Pakistani polity have found themselves receiving RAW largesse which has allowed them to build up their militant resources. RAW has insidiously played the tune of a 'common subcontinental heritage' despite the fact that, barring the period of British colonialism there never was a 'united India' except in the minds and dreams of Hindu chauvinists. RAW has of course varied its tactics keeping in mind the groups it was seeking to bolster or influence.

Before the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan altered the dynamics of the whole Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship, RAW sought to nurture the Pakhtunistan issue clandestinely even as the Indian government sought to overtly cosy up to certain members of the political elite in the NWFP.

When RAW saw an opportunity in Balochistan in the form of Baloch discontentment – especially in the face of ZA Bhutto's dismissal of the elected government of that province – it moved in fast to play up the issue of Punjabi dominance. While the Baloch insurgency may have had indigenous roots, it was nurtured and sustained with external aid and assistance and RAW's trademark was clearly evident through the Afghan route.

While the Pakhtunistan issue gradually faded away with the altered realities on the ground and the Baloch insurgency was isolated and put down, a more serious crisis was brewing for Pakistan when General Zia imposed Martial Law and then hanged ZA Bhutto, who came from Sindh. The Sindhi distress at this act was seen by RAW as an opportunity to exploit. Already there had been disaffection in rural Sindh when One Unit had been established in 1956. Rural Sindhis had also become increasingly wary of what they saw as a high concentration of Urdu-speaking Muslim migrants from India in Sindh. The language issue further aggravated this division within the population of Sindh while self-serving local politicians constantly played the theme of underdevelopment and deprivation of Sindhi and the Sindhis. With Bhutto's removal from power by the military and his subsequent hanging, all the Sindhi discontent gelled together. So for RAW Sindh became an increasingly fertile ground for their seeds of violence and terrorism.

RAW also upped the violence ante by brazen acts of terrorism which had the RAW hallmark all over them. So blatant was RAW in its earlier terrorist activities in Karachi that the Pakistan government could not turn a blind eye to these activities – especially since they also involved the Indian Consulate in that city. When the links between the Consulate personnel and ethnic dissidents became too obvious to ignore, the government had to have the Consulate closed. However, this closure has not stopped RAW from infiltrating ethnic groups so that the ethnic conflict in Sindh continues to remain highly militarised and there are constant links emerging between RAW and the acts of terror conducted by these groups.

Nor has RAW ignored Punjab in Pakistan. Again, exploiting opportunities provided by indigenous developments, RAW has ensured that socio-political conflicts get more violent and thereby more polarised. By turning political conflicts into military conflicts, RAW hopes to make them more intractable. In Punjab, RAW has made inroads into the sectarian groups so that there are now heavily armed and trained terrorists who have infiltrated these groups. Random acts of terror are also conducted within range of Punjab's urban centres so that an element of fear creeps into the polity at large. The number of bomb blast incidents in Pakistan for the year 1998 (given below) show how violent the Pakistani polity has become – and RAW can claim credit for a large part of this development.

Moving beyond physical terrorism, RAW has also inundated Pakistan with inflammatory literature to play on the sentiments of minority groups, as well as sectarianism and ethnicity. While Pakistan has been evolving its democratic ethos after the last bout of military dictatorship which spanned over a decade, RAW has attempted to take advantage of the multiple levels of political dissent that any democratic polity – including India – has to contend with within the framework of democracy.

Bomb blast incidents in Pakistan – 1998

Month Incidents Killed Injured
Jan 9 2 23
Feb 9 16 83
March 12 20 121
April 7 7 43
May 3 3 17
June 14 31 71
July 4 - 3
Aug 5 5 5
Sept 5 - 31
Oct 8 3 43
Nov 2 4 13
(till 20th)      
Total 78 91 453

(collated from Press reports)

RAW has also sought to undermine Pakistan's external image, especially in the West – taking advantage of the Western phobia of 'Islamic fundamentalism-terrorism'. The Indian media and responsible leaders have orchestrated the campaign to hold the ISI responsible for India's troubles in her northeastern states and East Punjab. In April 1995, the Indian Army Chief of Staff, General Chaudhri, went public in his accusation against the ISI whom he held responsible for the guerrilla movement in the northeast as well as the troubles in Indian-held Kashmir.

RAW also conducted a well-organised campaign to try and have Pakistan put on the terrorist watch list and, for a while, in the early 90s there was a fear that Pakistan would be declared a 'terrorist state' by the US.

At present, RAW has launched a new offensive against Pakistan to try and counter Pakistan's successful efforts to expose Indian human rights violations in Indian-held Kashmir internationally. With the Indians desperately seeking a way out of their Kashmir quagmire, RAW has started a new propaganda offensive focussing on what it refers to as Pakistan's 'Proxy War' in Kashmir. With the rise of the Madrassah culture in Pakistan and its links to the Taliban in Afghanistan, RAW is trying to create a linkage of this with the Kashmiri freedom fighters in Kashmir. One does not need too much intelligence to see where the RAW campaign is leading. But it should at least make the Pakistanis realise that India is seeking a way out of its untenable position in Kashmir.

All in all, when the international community is increasingly condemning overt war as an instrument of state policy, India has already sought an alternative, indirect and covert mode of warfare through RAW which seeks to destabilise and weaken the states of South Asia from within. Given the changing nature of war one should be prepared for more RAW activities since politics is increasingly becoming the 'continuation of war by other means' – and RAW has evolved the expertise on 'other means' in South Asia.

Source:http://www.defencejournal.com/jan99/rawfacts.htm


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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Murder of 1 million Non-Bengalis by Indian Mukti Bahani in 55 towns

Excerpts from "Blood and Tears" Book by Qutubuddin Aziz

Looking at the tragic events of March 1971 in retrospect, I must confess that even I, although my press service commanded a sizeable network of district correspondents in the interior of East Pakistan, was not fully aware of the scale, ferocity and dimension of the province-wide massacre of the non-Banglis.

Mukti Bahini trained by the Indian Army to conduct terror in Muslim Bengal

I must stress, with all the force and sincerity at my command, that this bock is not intended to be a racist indictment of the Bengalis as a nation. In writing and publishing this book, I am not motivated by any revanchist obsession or a wish to condemn my erstwhile Bengali compatriots as a nation. Just as it is stupid to condemn the great German people for the sins of the Nazis, it would be foolish to blame the Bengali people as a whole for the dark deeds of the Awami Leaguemilitants and their accomplices.

I have incorporated in this book the acts of heroism and courage of those brave and patriotic Bengalis who sheltered and protected, at great peril to themselves, their terror-stricken non-Bengali friends and neighbours. On the basis of the heaps of eye-witness accounts, which I have carefully read, sifted and analysed, I do make bold to say that the vast majority of Bengalis disapproved of and was not a party to the barbaric atrocities inflicted on the hapless non-Bengalis by the Awami League's terror machine and the Frankensteins and vampires it unloosed. This silent majority, it seemed, was awed, immobilised and neutralised by the terrifying power, weapons and ruthlessness of a misguided minority hell-bent on accomplishing the secession of East Pakistan.

Jessore murders of Biharis by Mukti Bahani blamed on Pakistani Army

The sheaves of eye-witness accounts, documented in this book, prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the massacre of West Pakistanis, Biharis and other non-Bengalis in East Pakistan had begun long before the Pakistan Army took punitive action against the rebels late in the night of March 25, 1971. It is also crystal clear that the Awami League's terror machine was the initiator and executor of the genocide against the non-Bengalis which exterminated at least half a million of them in less than two months of horror and trauma. Many witnesses have opined that the federal Government acted a bit too late against the insurgents. The initial success of the federal military action is proved by the fact that in barely 30 days, the Pakistan Army, with a combat strength of 38,717 officers and men in East Pakistan, had squelched the Awami League's March-April, 1971, rebellion all over the province.
Typical of the open-air, human abattoirs operated by the Awami League-led rebels in East Pakistan in 1971 is this photograph of multiple-executions done by a Mukti-Bahini killer squad in Dacca Race Course. The pro-Pakistan Bengali and non-Bengali victims were tortured before being slain
The hundreds of eye-witnesses from towns and cities of East Pakistan, whose testimonies are documented in this book, are unanimous in reporting that the slaughter of West Pakistanis, Biharis, and other non-Bangalis and of some pro-Pakistan Bengalis had begun in the early days of the murderous month of March 1971.

Jessore massacre of Biharis by Mukti Bahani. Bihari corpses litter the area while soldiers marhc past in total bewelderment

Looking at the tragic events of March 1971 in retrospect, I must confess that even I, although my press service commanded a sizeable network of district correspondents in the interior of East Pakistan, was not fully aware of the scale, ferocity and dimension of the province-wide massacre of the non-Banglis.

I must stress, with all the force and sincerity at my command, that this bock is not intended to be a racist indictment of the Bengalis as a nation. In writing and publishing this book, I am not motivated by any revanchist obsession or a wish to condemn my erstwhile Bengali compatriots as a nation. Just as it is stupid to condemn the great German people for the sins of the Nazis, it would be foolish to blame the Bengali people as a whole for the dark deeds of the Awami League militants and their accomplices.

A Bihari victim grabbed by Mukti-Bahini killers, begging for mercy.

I have incorporated in this book the acts of heroism and courage of those brave and patriotic Bengalis who sheltered and protected, at great peril to themselves, their terror-stricken non-Bengali friends and neighbours. On the basis of the heaps of eye-witness accounts, which I have carefully read, sifted and analysed, I do make bold to say that the vast majority of Bengalis disapproved of and was not a party to the barbaric atrocities inflicted on the hapless non-Bengalis by the Awami League's terror machine and the Frankensteins and vampires it unloosed. This silent majority, it seemed, was awed, immobilised and neutralised by the terrifying power, weapons and ruthlessness of a misguided minority hell-bent on accomplishing the secession of East Pakistan.

Eye gouging and burning the skin of Biharis by Uniformed Mukti Bahani soldier aided and abetted by Indian Army

The 170 eye-witnesses, whose testimonies or interviews are contained in this book in abridged form have been chosen from a universe of more than 5,000 repatriated non-Bengali families. I had identified, after some considerable research, 55 towns and cities in East Pakistan where the abridgement of the non-Bengali population in March and early April 1971 was conspicuously heavy. The collection and compilation of these eye-witness accounts was started in January 1974 and completed in twelve weeks. A team of four reporters, commissioned for interviewing the witnesses from all these 55 towns and cities of East Pakistan, worked with intense devotion to secure their testimony. Many of the interviews were prolonged because the Witnesses broke down in a flurry of sobs and tears as they related the agonising stories of their wrecked lives. I had issued in February 1974 an appeal in the newspapers for such eye-witness accounts, and I am grateful to the many hundreds of witnesses who promptly responded to my call.
A scene of Mukti Bahini mass murder of Biharis in Dacca on December 18, 1971. A rebel soldier lifts his boot to strike a bleeding bayoneted boy who showed signs of life. Dead bodies of other slain non-Bengalis lie in the foreground.

Mukti-Bahini killer plunged his bayonet in to the writhing Bihari's chest.

"I am the lone survivor of a group of ten Pathans who were employed as Security Guards by the Delta Construction Company in the Mohakhali locality in Dacca; all the others were slaughtered by the Bengali rebels in the night of March 25, 1971", said 40-year-old Bacha Khan.

"I heard the screams of an Urdu-speaking girl who was being ravished by her Bengali captors but I was so scared that I did not have the courage to emerge from hiding" said a 24-year-old Zahid Abdi, who was employed in a trading firm in Dacca. He escaped the slaughter of the non-Bengalis in the crowded New Market locality of Dacca on March 23, 1971 and was sheltered by a God-fearing Bengali in his shop. The killers raped their non-Bengali teenage victim at the back of the shop and later on slayed her.

Mukti Bahani massacres of Biharis: Typical of the open-air, human abattoirs operated by the Awami League-led rebels in East Pakistan in 1971 is this photograph of multiple-executions done by a Mukti-Bahini killer squad in Dacca Race Course. The pro-Pakistan Bengali and non-Bengali victims were tortured before being slain

"My only daughter has been insane since she was forced by her savage tormentors to watch the brutal murder of her husband", said Mukhtar Ahmed Khan, 43, while giving an account of his suffering during the Ides of March 1971 in Dacca…."In the third week of March 1971, a gang of armed Bengali rebels raided house of my son-in-law and overpowered him. He was a courageous Youngman and he resisted the attackers. My daughter also resisted the attackers but they were far too many and they were well armed. They tied up my son-in-law and my daughter with ropes and they forced her to watch as they slit the throat of her husband and ripped his stomach open in the style of butchers. She fainted and lost consciousness. Since that dreadful day she has been mentally ill."

Shamim Akhtar, 28, whose husband was employed as a clerk in the Railway office in Dacca, lived in a small house in the Mirpur locality there.

She described her tragedy in these words:

"On December 17, 1971, the Mukti Bahini cut off the water supply to our homes. We used to get water from a nearby pond; it was polluted and had a bad odour. I was nine months pregnant. On December 23, 1971, I gave birth to a baby girl. No midwife was available and my husband helped me at child birth. Late at night, a gang of armed Bengalis raided our house, grabbed my husband and trucked him away. I begged them in the name of God to spare him as I could not even walk and my children were too small. The killers were heartless and I learnt that they murdered my husband. After five days, they returned and ordered me and my children to vacate the house as they claimed that it was now their property."

Zaibunnissa Haq, 30, whose journalist husband, Izhar-ul-Haque, worked as a columnist in the Daily Watan in Dacca, gave this account of her travail in 1971:
A copy of the ads and the forms used for soliciting testimony from the victims.

"….On December 21, a posse of Mukti Bahini soldiers and some thugs rode into our locality with blazing guns and ordered us to leave our house as, according to them, no Bihari could own a house in Bangladesh. For two days, we lived on bare earth in an open space and we had nothing to eat. Subsequently, we were taken to a Relief Camp by the Red Cross."

In Pubail and Tangibari, the Awami League militants and their rebel confederates murdered dozens of affluent Biharis. Shops owned by the Biharis were favourite target of attack.

"Four armed thugs dragged two captive non-Bengali teenage girls into an empty bus and violated their chastity before gunning them to death", said Gulzar Hussain, 38, who witnessed the massacre of 22 non-Bengali men, women and children on March 21, 1971, close to a bus stand in Narayangang. Repatriated to Karachi in November 1973, Gulzar Hussain reported: "….On March 21, our Dacca-bound bus was stopped on the way, soon after it left the heart of the city. I was seated in the front portion of the bus and I saw that the killer gang had guns, scythes and daggers. The gunmen raised 'Joi Bangla' and anti-Pakistan slogans. The bus driver obeyed their signal to stop and the thugs motioned to the passengers to get down. A jingo barked out the order that Bengalis and non-Bengalis should fall into separate lines. As I spoke Bengali with a perfect Dacca accent and could easily pass for a Bengali, I joined the Bengali group of passengers. The killer gang asked us to utter a few sentences in Bengali which we did. I passed the test and our tormentors instructed the Bengalis to scatter. The thugs then gunned all the male non-Bengalis. It was a horrible scene. Four of the gunmen took for their loot two young non-Bengali women and raped them inside the empty bus. After they had ravished the girls, the killers shot them and half a dozen other women and children."

She described her tragedy in these words:

As the victim did not die in a single bayonet strike, another Mukti-Bahini killer plunged his bayonet in to the writhing Bihari's chest. Dead bodies of Bihari and Bengali victims lie strewn over the execution ground as Mukti-Bahini killers and their accomplices watch the butchery with sadist pleasure.

"On December 17, 1971, the Mukti Bahini cut off the water supply to our homes. We used to get water from a nearby pond; it was polluted and had a bad odour. I was nine months pregnant. On December 23, 1971, I gave birth to a baby girl. No midwife was available and my husband helped me at child birth. Late at night, a gang of armed Bengalis raided our house, grabbed my husband and trucked him away. I begged them in the name of God to spare him as I could not even walk and my children were too small. The killers were heartless and I learnt that they murdered my husband. After five days, they returned and ordered me and my children to vacate the house as they claimed that it was now their property."

Zaibunnissa Haq, 30, whose journalist husband, Izhar-ul-Haque, worked as a columnist in the Daily Watan in Dacca, gave this account of her travail in 1971: "….On December 21, a posse of Mukti Bahini soldiers and some thugs rode into our locality with blazing guns and ordered us to leave our house as, according to them, no Bihari could own a house in Bangladesh. For two days, we lived on bare earth in an open space and we had nothing to eat. Subsequently, we were taken to a Relief Camp by the Red Cross."

Nasima Khatoon, 25, lived in a rented house in the Pancho Boti locality in Narayanganj. Her husband, Mohammad Qamrul Hasan, was employed in a Vegetable Oil manufacturing factory. Repatriated to Karachi in January 1974, along with her 4-year-old orphaned daughter, from a Red Cross Camp in Dacca, Nasima gave this hair-raising account of her travail in 1971:
A Bihari victim grabbed by Mukti-Bahini killers, begging for mercy.

"At gun point, our captors made us leave our house and marched us to an open square where more than 500 non –Bengali old men, women and children were detained. Some 50 Bengali gunmen led us through swampy ground towards a deserted school building. On the way, the 3-year-old child of a hapless captive woman died in her arms. She asked her captors to allow her to dig a small grave and bury the child. The tough man in the lead snorted a sharp 'NO', snatched the body of the dead child from her wailing mother and tossed it into the river"

The Awami League's rebellion of March 1971 took the heaviest toll of non-Bengali lives in the populous port city of Chittagong. Although the Government of Pakistan's White Paper of August 1971 on the East Pakistan crisis estimated the non-Bengali death toll in Chittagong and its neighbouring townships during the Awami League's insurrection to be a little under 15,000, the testimony of hundreds of eye-witnesses interviewed for this book gives the impression that more than 50,000 non-Bengalis perished in the March 1971 carnage. Thousands of dead bodies were flung into the Karnaphuli river and the Bay of Bengal.

Savage killings also took place in the Halishahar, Kalurghat and Pahartali localities where the Bengali rebel soldiers poured petrol and kerosine oil around entire blocks, igniting them with flame-throwers and petrol-soaked jute balls, then mowed down the non-Bengali innocents trying to escape the cordons of fire. In the wanton slaughter in the last week of March and early April, 1971, some 40,000 non-Bengalis perished in Chittagong and its neighbourhood. The exact death toll, which could possibly be much more will never be known because of the practice of burning dead bodies or dumping them in the river and the sea.

The uniformed killer puffing the cigarette to singe the eyes of the terrified prey. Eye gouging and burning the skin of victims was a favourite torture method of the rebels.


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Shahzad Afzal Malik see my blog:
http://shahzadafzal.blogspot.com/
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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Motorway Pakistan - Lahore To Islamabad

M2 - Motorway Pakistan

(Lahore to Islamabad)
  
The M-2 Motorway is in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is 367 km long and connects Lahore with Islamabad. It passes through Kala shah kaku, Sheikhupura, Khanqah Dogran,Kot Sarwar, Pindi Bhattian, Salem, Lilla, Kot Momin, Kallar Kahar, Balksar, and Chakri before ending just outside the twin cities Rawalpindi and Islamabad. It then continues on to eventually become the M1 motorway linking the twin cities with Peshawar. The M-2 crosses the junction of the M3 (to Faisalabad) at Pindi Bhattian.































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Shahzad Afzal Malik see my blog:
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Asia's Biggest Glacier Cracking Thanks To Military Activity

Asia's Biggest Glacier Cracking Thanks To Military Activity

 

siachen-indiaoccupation-1.jpg

 

It is incorrect that global warming is responsible for this environmental disaster-in-the-making. Glacier is part of the Kashmir dispute. Indian occupies the glaciers since 1984. It is building permanent bases on mountain peaks, disturbing a fragile ecosystem. The result? Massive floods in the near future. Pakistan should go to International Court of Justice.

 

ARSHAD H. ABBASI | Tuesday | 30 November 2010 | SDPI

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—New satellite images show growing giant cracks forming through the Siachen Glacier, the second longest glacier of the planets. One of the most serious observations is the formation of a stream. Development of cracks, streams, and glacial lakes show that glaciers may disappear, if immediate measures are not taken by Pakistan and India.

 

The cause of these cracks is not global warming; rather it is the presence of the Indian army on the Siachen Glacier since 1984.  The glacier is melting at an unprecedented rate and this has already been reported. The melting has been attributed to the deployment of troops and establishment of permanent cantonments. However, decision makers of both countries have turned a deaf ear to this climatic disaster.  The Indian government is trying its best to associate the cause of glacier melting to the phenomenon of global warming, which is undoubtedly baseless and merely a case of evasion of responsibility.

 

Glaciers melt into glacial lakes, leading to the formation of a stream, which later joins the Nubra River. This has been due the attempts of Indian army to facilitate movement of its troops. Indian army is responsible for the cutting and melting of glacial ice through application of chemicals for construction of bunkers. SDPI is constantly highlighting that dumping of chemicals, metals, organic and human waste, and daily leakages from 2000 gallons of kerosene oil. This oil would pass through 250 km of a plastic pipeline, laid by the Indian army throughout the glacier.

 

Here it is worth mentioning that I am categorically denying all claims that other glaciers in Jammu and Kashmir including Siachen Glacier are melting due to the global warming rather than direct human activity. It has been a challenge for scientists working on climate change to understand how the adjoining Baltoro glacier on the other side of Saltoro Ridge, which divide the two glaciers, does not seem to be experiencing the same effect.

 

The causes of recent floods in Pakistan is blamed on La Niña but very less attention is paid toward the cloud burst in Siachen and Ladakh Region, which is because of an uneven development including development of airports and helipads on various locations of glaciers. The unprecedented cloud burst broke all records of rainfall of modern recorded history of meteorological data pertaining to the region. Since last couple of years it was emphasized and urged from the Indian government to save and preserve these glaciers, as these are declared climate change indicators.

 

Although the scientists agreed that recent territorial monsoon rainfall has been because of the confluence of the Western Monsoon system, they failed to correlate on the reasons behind this atmospheric weather divide. It has been reported in various international research institution that rainfalls caused the 2010 floods in Pakistan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs never raised the question of melting glaciers, which ultimately appeared disastrous for Pakistan.

 

In 2005, a team from the University of Newcastle, UK have established, after finding out from compilation of temperature data for several instrumental records. The Karakoram and  Hindu Kush Mountains of the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) had been analyzed for seasonal and annual trends over the period 1961-2000 and compared with neighboring mountain regions of Pakistan and India. Strong contrasts are found between the behavior of winter and summer temperatures and between maximum and minimum temperatures but decision makers of both countries remained unmoved. This is of particular concern on part of the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of water and Power, which never took this issue to an international level.

 

Pakistan Government needs to take the case to the International Court of Justice, as the issue remains to be one of the most potent cases of climate change injustice caused a neighboring country. An international commission should be established based on neutral climate change experts to fix the responsibility and quantify the impacts. Based on the findings, Pakistan should pursue international community to pressure India for an immediate demilitarization of Siachen and declaration of all glaciers as protected areas. These glaciers could be handed over to UNESCO or concerned parties to avoid any future calamity. Furthermore, Pakistan should claim financial losses made due to the floods.

 


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Shahzad Afzal Malik see my blog:
http://shahzadafzal.blogspot.com/
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

First TEDx in Islamabad (4 Dec 2010)



The TED experience isn't only about the speakers with great ideas. In fact, it's a compound of the great ideas mixed with a blend of intellectual audience that collectively generates an aura of creativity, innovation, inspiration and art. That brings us to the most important question of all. "How do I attend this event?" At TEDxMargalla we are not looking for people with great achievements but instead our aim is to invite an audience that constitues individuals from different fields, ...


To attend the TEDxMargalla session, head over to http://tedxmargalla.com/register and fill out the registration form. All selected attendees will be informed after Nov 20. The event will also be livestreamed around the world so don't miss the chance to be a part of this exhilarating experience.

More info at: http://ted.com and http://tedxmargalla.com

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Shahzad Afzal Malik see my blog:
http://shahzadafzal.blogspot.com/
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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Pakistanis they needs you... Help them!!!

Pakistanis they needs you
 
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The devastating floods that have rolled through Pakistan for over a month now have left a disaster of massive scale in their wake. For a time, an area the size of England was submerged - one fifth of all the land in Pakistan. Although immediate loss of life remains relatively low (near 2,000 according to reports), damages from loss exceed $43 billion, almost one quarter of Pakistan's GDP. As the waters recede Nearly 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares) of existing crops are gone, 1.2 million livestock and 6 million poultry killed, and 17 million of Pakistan's 167 million people affected. It can be difficult to imagine individual stories of need when presented with such huge numbers, to see oneself in another's shoes when their overall predicament seems so vast and dire. Hopefully this collection of photographs from just the past week in Pakistan can help convey some of the stories behind the numbers. One way you can help is by texting "SWAT" to 50555 from your mobile phone to give $10 to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)

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Shahzad Afzal Malik see my blog:
http://shahzadafzal.blogspot.com/
********************************************************
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