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Pakistan’s 3/30: Tracing Munawan Attack in Lahore

desi — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:16:04 +0000

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Pakistan’s 3/30: Tracing Munawan Attack in Lahore

What happened: Munawan police training facility is on the road to the international border between India and Paksitan and border is hardly a few kilometers away. On 30 March 2009, at 7:30 a.m. local time, nearly a dozen gunmen, some faking as police officials, attacked and took control of the training facility. The militants killed five police recruits & two trainers and injured dozens others. It took Punjab Police’s special anti-terrorist force called “Elite Force” 8 hours to recapture the school buildings. At least 3 of the militants reportedly blew themselves up while 3 others were taken into custody, one of them arrested from just outside the building when he tried to blow up an Army helicopter. Identified later as Hijratullah, he turned out to be an Afghan national from Paktika and was sent on a mission by Baitullah Mehsud’s Tehrik-e-Taliban Paksitan (TTP).

The following day, Fedayeen-e-Islam, a little-known but Taliban affiliated group, claimed responsibility. It should be noted that the same group had claimed responsibility for the bombing at the Marriott Islamabad on 20 September 2008. The same day, Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (formed: December 2007), called The Associated Press and Reuters to claim responsibility.

Three pronged situation building: Like many other terrorist incidents, it would be difficult to trace all the trails of the planning, execution and funding of this terrorist operation but three scenarios could be built on the basis of the publicly available information:

Did Baitullah Mehsud’s TTP do it? On February 21, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani left for a week-long official visit to the U.S. just when the Obama Administration was in the process of reviewing America’s Pak-Afghan strategy. On February 27, Chairman U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen told a news conference at Pentagon that the visit of Pakistan Army Chief to the U.S. was “fruitful”. On March 25, the U.S. Department of State authorized a reward of “up to $5 million for information leading to the location, arrest, and/or conviction of Baitullah Mehsud the senior leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.” The same day, CIA drones fired two missiles and killed eight in an attack on a Taliban convoy in Makeen, the hometown of Baitullah Mehsud. Baitullah Mehsud, during his conversation with Reuters, said that he attacked the police academy in response to drone attacks.

Or was it Lashkar-e-Taiba executed operation? Lashkar-e-Taiba – the organization that has been banned by Pakistan, India, the U.S., the U.K., the European Union, Russia and Australia – or disgruntled elements within the Lashkar. Although the Lashkar has little or no past history in directing its attacks against Pakistan but given the recent history of the militant organizations in Pakistan, it could be established that the LeT may have orchestrated this activity. None from LeT thus far has claimed any responsibility.

Any chance of Indian involvement? Bahukutumbi Raman – the former head of the counter-terrorism division of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) and also a former member of the Special Task Force of the Government of India for the Revamping of the Intelligence Apparatus – within hours of the Mumbai tragedy (Nov. 26, 2008) presented his recommendations to the Government of India. B. Raman proposed that when Ashok Chaturvedi, then Director RAW who retires on 31 January 2009, must be replaced by someone from outside RAW preferably a top-notch covert operator to re-energize RAW’s covert capabilities to undertake operations inside Pakistan. On January 25, K.C. Verma, a career officer of the Intelligence Bureau, India ’s internal intelligence agency, was named as the new chief of the Research & Analysis Wing. K.C. Verma’s appointment came as a surprise to India’s bulging intelligence bureaucracy because P.V. Kumar was the senior-most RAW officer after Ashok Chaturvedi’s retirement.

B. Raman, in a previous paper, raised the question of “how to make Pakistan pay a price…” made this recommendation: “Through covert action, which is deniable para-political and para-military action meant to make Pakistan’s sponsorship prohibitively costly to it. Such a covert action would be directed against the Pakistan State and society and not against terrorists.”[1] B Raman, enjoys a close and trusted association with India’s official security and intelligence apparatus.

Dr C. Raja Mohan, widely acknowledged as one of “India’s leading foreign policy analyst,” has argued that if Pakistan is “not willing or is unable to deliver an end to cross-border terrorism” then perhaps India ought to execute alternatives. On 10 December 2008, the Hindustan Times carried a column by Gurmeet Kanwal, head of the Center for Land Warfare Studies, recommending that “To achieve a lasting impact and ensure that the actual perpetrators of terrorism are targeted, it is necessary to employ covert capabilities…..” against Pakistan.[2]

Another angle: Christine Fair, Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation, suspected the Indian involvement in Balochistan has increased with encouragement from Kabul.[3] It is an interesting assessment as most of the militant organizations operating in Pakistan have their ideological and financial base operating from Afghanistan.

Comments/remarks: pager@crss.pk

[1] http://www.saag.org/common/uploaded_files/paper1893.html - last accessed on April 4, 2009.

[2] http://hindustantimes.com

[3] The News, April 6, 2009.

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Final Solution Of Palestinean Question [An article by Adnan Gill]

desi — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 02:20:56 +0000

Final Solution of the Palestinian Question

By Adnan Gill

The ‘Final Solution’ was Nazi Germany’s plan of systematic elimination of the European Jewry. Hitler termed it: “the final solution of the Jewish question” (“Endlösung der Judenfrage”). Instead of throwing Hitler’s playbook down in the deepest bowls of Earth, the Jewish leadership took a page out of it and applied to the Palestinians.

Joseph Hell quoted Hitler: “…my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews. …I will have gallows built in rows… Then the Jews will be hanged indiscriminately, and they will remain hanging until they stink… As soon as they have been untied, the next batch will be strung up, and so on down the line, until the last Jew in Munich has been exterminated. Other cities will follow suit, precisely in this fashion, until all Germany has been completely cleansed of Jews.” Replace ‘Jews’ with ‘Palestinians’, ‘Munich’ with ‘Gaza’ and ‘Germany’ with ‘Israel’ and you would think Hitler was referring to the genocide of the Palestinians. Ironically, the same Jews who at one time were at the receiving end are now carrying out the genocides.

When the Jews were massacred on mass scale, some Nazis considered yet another plan to solve the Jewish problem. It was named, the ‘Madagascar Plan’. The plan was to ship all European Jews to Madagascar. Heydrich called it a “territorial final solution”. Sadly, the victims of the territorial solution didn’t waste much time following in the footsteps of the Nazis. In 1949, close to 1 million Arabs were forced out of the newly-created Jewish State.

Whenever the Third Reich conquered new territory, specialized units called ‘Einsatzgruppen’ murdered the Jews in masses. Similarly, in1953, Ariel Sharon was given command of one such unit, ‘Unit 101′. Its sole mission was to terrorize the Palestinians into fleeing Israel. The UN commander, at the time, Major-General Vagn Bennike reported, “bombs were thrown” by Sharon’s men “through the windows of huts in which the refugees were sleeping and as they fled, they were attacked by small arms and automatic weapons.”

Nazis built concentration camps to systematically kill millions of Jews. At these camps, the most common method of mass exterminations was the gas poisoning; while others fell victims to mass shootings, starvation or torture. The modern-day equivalents of the concentration camps are the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and phosphorous shells and cluster munitions replaced the poison gas. Cluster munitions in the Israeli inventory include, Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) with M26 warhead and M77 submunitions, Israeli M85 cluster bombs and DPICM cluster artillery munitions.

International Law prohibits the cluster ammunitions and phosphorous shells. The Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted in Dublin in May 2008 and signed by 94 nations on 4 December 2008 in Oslo, prohibited all forms of cluster ammunitions. The UN too calls for a freeze on the use of these weapons in or near populated areas. These weapons scatter several dozen “bomblets” over a given area. According to the UN Mine Action Coordination Center, usually between 30-40 percent of such bomblets fail to explode on impact. Therefore, many of these later detonate by accident, wounding and killing civilians.

But that hasn’t kept Israel from using the prohibited weapons on the Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. Israel has repeatedly used cluster munations on heavily populated civilian areas, resulting in mass casualties. In 2006, an Israeli commander disclosed, they fired more than a million cluster bombs in Lebanon. The head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said, “What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs [and phosphorous shells]“. The commander stated that highly inaccurate MLRS platforms were heavily used to fire the cluster munations.

It was further disclosed, in order to cause fires in Lebanon, the IDF fired trucks loads of phosphorous rounds. A direct hit from a phosphorous shell typically causes severe burns and a slow, painful death. Carving out the phosphorous from victim’s body is the only way to stop the human flesh from further burning. International Law unambiguously forbids the use of phosphorous weapons, because they cause “excessive injury and unnecessary suffering”. According to the International Red Cross too, International Law forbids the use of phosphorous and other types of flammable rounds against personnel that were used by the Israelis in Lebanon and now in Gaza.

For the obvious reasons, Martin Gilbert believed in a man’s inalienable right to resist force, oppression and occupation. He wrote in ‘The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy’, “In every ghetto, in every deportation train, in every labor camp, even in the death camps, the will to resist was strong, and took many forms. Fighting with the few weapons that would be found, individual acts of defiance and protest, the courage of obtaining food and water under the threat of death, the superiority of refusing to allow the Germans their final wish to gloat over panic and despair. Even passivity was a form of resistance. To die with dignity was a form of resistance. To resist the demoralizing, brutalizing force of evil, to refuse to be reduced to the level of animals, to live through the torment, to outlive the tormentors, these too were acts of resistance. Merely to give a witness of these events in testimony was, in the end, a contribution to victory. Simply to survive was a victory of the human spirit.” Switch ‘Germans’ with ‘Israelis’ and you may think Gilbert was feeling proud of the Palestinian resistance. Perhaps, one day, someone could explain, why the Jewish resistance was a matter of principal and survival, but the Palestinian resistance is a matter of criminality and terrorism?

In 1938, the Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels said, “Our starting point is not the individual: We do not subscribe to the view that one should feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, or clothe the naked … Our objectives are different: We must have a healthy people in order to prevail in the world.” One has to wonder, did Goebbels somehow foresee the 21st century, State of Israel?

However, the problem is, history has a nasty habit of repeating itself. The world stood by and did nothing when 6 million Jews were systematically exterminated. As a result, the Jews are now venting their pent-up anger on the militarily weak and politically abandoned Palestinians. If history is any guide, will it repeat itself, this time around too? Who will be the recipient of the Palestinian retributions? Time will tell.

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Missing In Pakistan

desi — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:23:59 +0000

As we get closer to Pakistan Independence Day, 14th August 2008, and Pak Day LA, lets not forget hundreds of citizens of Pakistan that have gone missing since 2001. They are victims of Pakistan’s state-sponsored kidnapping. Some of them have reappeared in Gitmo prison, while others have vanished without a trace leaving behind worried and hurt loved ones.

Here is an independently produced documentary about the abduction and illegal detention of Pakistani citizens by Pakistani intelligence agencies. Source: http://missinginpakistan.wordpress.com/

You need to have flashplayer enabled to watch this Google video

Case in point: Dr. Afia Siddiqui

Aafia Siddiqui, whom the US accuses of al-Qaeda links, vanished in Karachi with her three children on 30 March 2003.

Why was she kidnapped? The answer may lie in the BBC article.

The answer may lie in her relationship with the family of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Aafia Siddiqui is said to have married Ali Abd’al Aziz Ali, one of his nephews following her divorce.

Although her family denies this, the BBC has been able to confirm it from security sources and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s family.

It is an open secret in Karachi, that any member of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s family deemed to be “a 1% threat to US security” is in American custody.

That may be the only “crime” that Aafia Siddiqui has committed.

In the eyes of US and Pakistani security officials, it was apparently too big to ignore.

Pakistan’s 3/30: Tracing Munawan Attack in Lahore

Benazir Bhutto Assassination [Video Evidence]

desi — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:06:45 +0000

Channel 4 News has exclusively obtained dramatic new footage which shows in clear detail the moment of Benazir Bhutto’s death.

Three bullets are heard being fired before a suicide bomber then detonates his device.

A firearms expert has told this programme that the video shows what appears to be a concussion strike, the possible moment of impact when a bullet struck the former Pakistani prime minister.

It contradicts the official Pakistani government account that Mrs Bhutto died from hitting her head on the sun roof as she ducked into the car.

PSA Culture Show: Newspaper Coverage

desi — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:06:51 +0000

Local newspapers in Los Angeles area covered the PSA Culture Show in their print editions. Here are some scanned images from Urdu Times, Pak Post and Pak News LA.

[myflash=newspsa,500,500]

The event was also covered in Pakistan Link. Here is the article from their latest print edition.

Pakistani Students Host Impressive Culture Show

Irvine, CA: The Pakistani Student Associations from USC, UCLA, and UC Irvine presented the community with an elaborate show which highlighted the vibrant aspects of the Pakistani culture. On April 1st 2007, USC’s Bovard Auditorium welcomed about 900 guests; both Pakistani and non-Pakistani, to a fundraising charity show where all proceeds would go directly to Islamic Relief. The show was structured with an elaborate skit with energetic dances intertwined into the storyline.
The three schools had been organizing the event since the beginning of this school year in the hope of raising a significant sum of monetary donations to help the less fortunate community in Pakistan. The production of the show was on such a large scale that it required the involvement of about 100 participants and volunteers from all three schools. The event was made possible through the support of Friends of Pakistan, Your Dil LA, along with media coverage provided by Pakistan Link, Urdu Times LA, PakistanNews LA, Pakistan Post, Pakmusic, Pakstop, Sunzara.com.

As the title states, the show explored the relationships of Pakistani-Americans. It focused on highlighting the different angles in our society and how Pakistani college students use their heritage to identify themselves in a Western society.
The show was well received and the audience enjoyed the humor. There were moments of high spirited amusement along with pride-filled moments when the entire hall cheered to video clips that highlighted Pakistan achievements in the past and present.
Pakistani Student Association is dedicated to bringing the community together in order to honor the culture and traditions of Pakistan. It thanked everyone who came out to support the show. “Your attendance is an encouraging response to strive to organize more fundraising events in the future!” said a PSA handout.
Speaking on the occasion, FOP President Sarfaraz Khan stated: “…You will readily agree that in the post-9/11 period Pakistani-Americans have felt the pressing need of having a representative and vibrant community organization that could air their views on various social, economic, and political issues impacting their life. Such an organization could consistently work to dispel misperceptions about community members, their faith, and their country of origin. What is more, it could spotlight the multifarious accomplishments of Pakistani-Americans so that they could be accorded recognition as useful members of the American society. The organization could thus serve as a bridge between Pakistani Americans and various ethnic groups and mainstream Americans. Friends of Pakistan has been set up with this explicit purpose in mind. It is the voice of the community. It is the voice of every Pakistani American.
“America is our adopted country and we feel great affection for, and attachment to this land. Ungrudgingly, the US has given us the opportunity to live freely and express our concerns without any reservations. It is our duty to serve this country to the best of our ability. Pakistani-Americans are law-abiding citizens. They are well educated and enterprising and have already proved their worth as true achievers in this multi-ethnic society. In airing our concerns about issues that impact our life we will behave in a dignified and respectable manner at all levels of the American system…”

Rishton Ke Rang: Pass The Mirch [Press Release and Videos]

desi — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 11:56:28 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PAKISTANI STUDENTS FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HOST CULTURE SHOW “RISTHON KE RANG: PASS THE MIRCH PLEASE!”

The Pakistani Student Associations from USC, UCLA, and UC Irvine presented the community with an elaborate show which highlighted the vibrant aspects of Pakistani culture. On April 1^st 2007, USC’s Bovard Auditorium welcomed about 900 guests; both Pakistani and non-Pakistani, to a fundraising charity show where all proceeds would go directly Islamic Relief. The show was structured with an elaborate skit with energetic dances intertwined into the storyline.

The three schools had been organizing the event since the beginning of this school year in hopes of raising a significant sum of monetary donations to help our less fortunate community in Pakistan. The production of the show was on such a large scale that it required the involvement about 100 participants and volunteers from all three schools. This event was made possible through the support of Friends of Pakistan, Your Dil LA, Waqar Ali Khan from GEO TV, Safeer Pakistan along with the media coverage provided by Pakistan Link,, Urdu Times LA, PakistanNews LA, Pakistan Post, Pakmusic, Pakstop, Sunzara.com.

As the title states, the show explored the relationships of Pakistani Americans. It focused on highlighting the different angles in our society and how Pakistani college students use their heritage to identify themselves in a Western society.

The show was received well with an entertained audience that enjoyed all of the humors and spectacles of the evening. There were moments of high spirited amusement along with pride filled moments where the entire hall cheered to video clips that highlighted Pakistan achievements in the past and present.

Pakistani Student Association is dedicated to bringing the community together in order to honor the culture and traditions of Pakistan.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support the show. Your attendance is an encouraging response to strive to organize more fundraising events in the future!

- # # # -

Videos and Images from this event are being sorted and uploaded. We will share it all with you. Here are the first two videos.

1. First one is a small video clip that was played on the projector screen at the beginning of the show. It basically shows who the participants in the show are and what they do in real life.

2. The 2nd clip is a dance perfomance to the tune of “Mr Fraudiye” by Awaz. If you have seen the original music video with Fakhir and Haroon, you would appreciate what these dancers are trying to duplicate.

23rd March Flag Hoisting Ceremony in Los Angeles

desi — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:01:00 +0000

On the occasion of the National Day of Pakistan on 23 March 2007, the Consulate General of Pakistan, Los Angeles organized a flag-hoisting ceremony at the residence of the Consul General, Mr. Syed Ibne Abbas in Beverly Hills.

Prominent members of the Pakistani-American community attended this event.

Here are some pictutres from this event. The images are courtesy of my good pal, YKKB.

[myflash=23march,500,500]

Pakistan Day Parade 2007

ikram — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:48:07 +0000

Thanks to GeoPakistani.net, we have a few videos from this years parade. Im actually glad that there was a parade this year. Often times in the past this parade had been cancelled for one reason or another. This is something that I have always looked forward to seeing. So enjoy if you have not seen this on TV already.

Ye Ghazi ye Terey purisraar bandey
Jinhain Tu nay bakhsha hai zoq-e-Khudai
Dou neem inn ki thokar say sehra-o-darya
Simmat ker paharr inn ki haibat say rai
Dou alam say beygana kerti hai dil ko
Ajab cheez hai lazzat-e-aashnai
Shahadat hai matloob-o-maqsood-e-Momin
Na maal-e-ghaneemat, na kishwar kushai

Part 1:

Part 2 :

Part 3:

Part 4 :

Part 5 :

Part 6 :

Yom-e-Pakistan Mubarak everyone