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Monday, September 6, 2010

[ALOCHONA] THE RAINS CAME



THE RAINS CAME
 
Pakistan's "biblical floods," as my friend Arnaud de Borchgrave aptly calls them, are having a potent effect on the twisted geopolitics of the region.
 
According to the UN, the vast floodwaters have affected 20 million Pakistanis. Over 1,500 people have died, 800,000 homes have been destroyed.  Pakistan's government reports that 10% of this nation of 180 million is now destitute and 20% of Pakistan's land is submerged by the filthy, contaminated floodwaters.  Two more waves of monsoon flooding are on the way.
 
Biblical indeed.  And now come mounting reports of cholera caused by ingesting contaminated water.
 
Washington, increasingly concerned by Pakistan's stability and loyalty, is rushing $1.5billion in aid.  Other nations have also promised some aid.  The total promised so far is around $230 million.
 
That's a drop in the bucket for Pakistan, one of the poorest places anywhere and the world' sixth most populous nation.  By contrast, quake-ravaged Haiti got over $1 billion in aid.   Israel gets over $3.2 billion annually from the US Congress.   The US war in Afghanistan is costing at least $17 billion monthly.
 
Pakistan was already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy before the floods.  Islamabad was kept barely solvent by steady injections of cash from Washington and from US-controlled financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
 
The military, Pakistan's shadow government, has been more or less rented by the US by $1.5 billion per annum payments and all sorts of secret stipends from CIA and other intelligence agencies.  Without Washington's aid, debt-laden Pakistan would probably collapse in short order. 
 
Making matters worse, Islamabad's major cash-earner, cotton, has been severely damaged by the floods.  Important food crops have been destroyed, meaning Pakistan will require emergency food aid in the coming twelve months.
 
The monsoon floods ravaging Pakistan could not have come at a worse time for Washington.  The US-led war in Afghanistan is at best stalemated as Taliban and its allies gain strength. 
 
In one of the Pentagon's worst nightmares, a rag tag force of lightly-armed Pashtun farmers and part-time fighters has managed to tie down 105,000 heavily armed, lavishly equipped US and NATO troops and has even has put the Western armies on the defensive. 
 
There are even whispers in the bazaar that the Western powers may face defeat in Afghanistan.  As a result, Russia, the last invader, is giving increasing military and logistical help to the Western powers in Afghanistan.
 
The US and NATO could not continue their occupation of that nation without use of Pakistan's ports, supply depots, air bases, roads, intelligence agencies, and 140,000 Pakistani troops. 
 
In 2001, the US threatened all-out war against Pakistan, according to its former strongman, Gen. Pervez Musharaff, unless it joined the fight against Taliban and accepted a high degree of US control.  The sweetener:  up to $15 billion in aid.
 
It was the classic Italian mafia offer: "lead or gold."
 
Now, Pakistan's cataclysmic floods have left the government in Islamabad of President Asif Ali Zardari isolated and despised by the public.   The government response to the inundations has been feeble and inept.  Most of the rescue operations were conducted by the military, which still remains popular. 
 
Washington recently arm-twisted the Zardari government into violating military tradition by extending, by an unprecedented three more years, the terms of the armed forces powerful chief of staff and intelligence director, who are viewed with much favor by the US. The result is unrest in the military's senior ranks as promotions are frozen.
 
President Zardari made an ill-timed trip to Britain during the floods, reminding Pakistanis that he still owns a lavish country mansion there acquired with funds Swiss prosecutors claimed were obtained by massive kickbacks when his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, was in power.  She told me the mansion was bought with legitimate family funds. Zardari also owns a 16th century chateau in Normandy.
 
Pakistanis were furious at Zardari for swanning around Europe while half the nations was drowning.  Pakistan's parliament has stripped Zardari, whose popularity has plummeted to minus zero, of most of his important powers, handing them over to the amiable but weak prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, another US ally. 
 
Washington promised some more aid, but its primary concern was not humanitarian but political:  that Islamic charities and other Muslim groups opposing the US-led war in Afghanistan were delivering effective emergency aid while efforts by the corrupt, US-supported Zardari regime were failing. 
 
This concern, however, seems besides the point since 95% of Pakistanis already hate the United States and see it as even a bigger enemy today than India.  Islamic groups, some of them militant, have provided effective humanitarian aid in many nations whose US-backed authoritarian governments do next to nothing for their people.  This is the primary reason why groups branded "terrorists" by the US and its allies are so popular – such as Hamas in Palestine, Hezbullah in Lebanon, and Pakistan's militant Islamic parties.
 
So another black eye for Washington.  Unless Washington keeps pumping billions into Pakistan, the war in Afghanistan cannot be sustained.   But how will demolished Pakistan ever be able to afford to rebuild all the roads, dams, irrigation canals, bridges, factories and houses destroyed by the floods? 
 
Everyone remembers how the New Orleans disaster deflated the arrogant President George W. Bush.  Zardari and his allies certainly seem next in line for divine retribution. 
 
It's just tragic that poor Pakistan has to pay the price.


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[ALOCHONA] Jammu Kashmir : Restoration of Independence- An ideal solution



Jammu Kashmir : Restoration of Independence- An ideal solution

 
By Maqbool Hussain, Kashmir

The restoration of independence and sovereignty is quite an ideal solution. Infact the only lasting solution, which is in accordance with the aspirations and will of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. Our struggle for independence and sovereignty is 425 years old. It is to be recollected Mughal Emperor Akbar invaded Kashmir, failed to conquer it many times but lastly occupied it with trickery and deprived us of our Independent and Sovereign status. The innate passion for freedom could not be crushed even by great Mughals. The people have deep sense of the loss of independence and sovereignty. The Mughal reign sustained for 167 years.

Afghans captured Jammu & Kashmir and made it a province of Afghanistan in 1752. Their reign lasted for 67 years. The Afghans were very much innovative in perpetuating atrocities and tyrannies on the suppressed people of Kashmir. People were very much against them. They disliked them from the core of their heart and continued struggle to ward off the yoke of Afghans.

Atta Mohammad Khan was the only exception among the Afghan governors who was people friendly, justice loving, pious and religious minded. He loved saints of Kashmir. He constructed a concrete retaining wall at the shrine of Sheikh Hamza (R.A) and struck coins in the name of Alamdar-i-Kashmir Sheikh Noorudin Noorani. He identified himself fully with Kashmir and severed relations with Afghanistan gave independent status to it. He truly became the popular governor among the Afghan Governors in Kashmir.

In 1819 Sikh rulers of Punjab invaded Kashmir and captured it. Sikh rulers proved very much tyrant, communal and biased. They took sadistic pleasure in inflicting cruelties and injustices on the people of Kashmir. Their governors most of them were mentally and morally very much savages. Their two Muslim governors Sheikh Mohiuddin and Sheikh Imam-ud-din were very kind to the people and restored holy shrines and mosques to the Muslims and were felicitated to offer prayers without any fear of Sikh raj.

People under the leadership of Sheikh Imam-ud-din defeated Dogra Army and enjoyed independence for sometime before the British and Dogra Army jointly invaded and occupied Kashmir.

British government entered into an agreement with Dogra Raja Gulab Singh (who happened to be an officer of their Army), known as Amritsar Treaty. Dogra Raja had to pay Seventy five lakhs for having the possession of Jammu & Kashmir.

Dogras' were no less crue, tyrant, despotic than Sikhs or Afghans. They were very much insensitive to the pain and penury of the people. They continued to deprive the Muslim farmers of their land and allotted to Kashmiri Pundits and others.

The struggle for basic rights and finally for independence was launched many times but was crushed 1924, 1931, and 1946 were important mile stones when people resisted the cruel Dogra rulers and offered sacrifices.
British parliament passed the independence Act under which Muslim majority Areas were declared as Pakistan and Hindu majority areas India. But 526 princely states were neither India nor Pakistan; they were given the option as either to accede to India or Pakistan or to remain Independent.

Maharaja Hari Singh was interested to remain independent and had no intention to remain either with India or Pakistan. Maharaja entered into standstill agreement with government of Pakistan. Lord Mountbatten, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Gandhiji dissuaded him not to think of independence. His capacity to decide was crippled. The revolutionary forces of poonch aided by Afridis and Pashtoons reached Srinagar. Maharaja had to flee/ runaway. His army was defeated and seen nowhere in an organised manner and was in search of refuge. Government of India claimed Maharaja had acceded to India but historians dispute the authenticity of the accession. When Maharaja himself was in journey how he could have signed the document.

Indian forces landed at Kashmir airport and pitched battles with the revolutionaries were witnessed. Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah was made emergency administrator and then Prime Minister of Kashmir. UNO imposed cease fire which India and Pakistan accepted. The Kashmir got divided Azad Kashmir (Pakistan Controlled Kashmir) and J&K (Indian Controlled Kashmir). Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lord Mountbatten assured the world powers, UNO, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir that future of Kashmir will be decided by the people of Kashmir by referendum under UNO.

Even the UN Security Council passed many resolutions upholding the Kashmiri people's right of self determination. Both India and Pakistan accepted the resolutions but India, later on applied chanakiyan tactics to thwart the UN to conduct referendum in Jammu & Kashmir to decide the future and fate of the Kashmiri Nation. The popular leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah shamelessly and unceremoniously was deposed from the Prime Ministership and consigned to various jails for 21 years.

The people of Azad Kashmir raised strong voice in favour of sovereign and independent Kashmir in 1951-1952. Again in 1960's there was strong campaign under the K.H.Khursheed for the free and Independent Kashmir. In Azad Kashmir JKNLF, Plebiscite Front, Liberation League are continuing struggling for the establishment of free J&K. In this side of Kashmir plebiscite front, students and youth league and host of organizations were engaged with the freedom struggle. Now Hurriyat Conference, People's League, Awami Action Committee, Mahaz-e-Azadi, JKLF are engaged round the clock with the freedom movement.

More than five lakh people of Jammu division were put to sword for hailing and supporting freedom struggle. More than seven lakh people had to migrate to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir in 1947. Since then to present day further two lakh people courted martyrdom. Now in 2010 in just two months more than 60 teenagers and youth have been murdered with straight bullet shots simply for raising slogans for Azadi and asking India to Quit Kashmir and Go back and break the forcible relations. The campaign was all peaceful. The peaceful teenager demonstrators were mercilessly baton charged, teargassed and even fired upon straight above the belt. The ugly actions of security forces had to face equally opposite chain of reactions without any pause. The government has resorted to continuous curfews and deliberately pushed the people inside the houses without facilitating medicines, food grain, vegetables, Milk and other items of daily use.

In 2008 summer rebellion while the people were on way to Muzaffarabad March security forces opened fire on youthful Kashmiri marchers and hundreds were seriously injured in a single day and later many succumbed to their injuries. Many injured could have been saved had the government allowed vehicles with injured to reach hospitals in time. More than 75 young Kashmiris were gunned down by security forces in the summer agitation of 2008.

In this backdrop, Kashmir American Council and Association of Humanitarian lawyers had conveyed two day conference on 5, 6 August 2010 to apprise the international community of the cruel suppression in Kashmir at Capital Hill Washington to deliberate and discuss various solutions to the burning Kashmir problem.

All the participants excepting Kuldeep Nayar expressed concern over the sufferings and pain of Kashmiris and the cancerous growth of Kashmir problem. His was only discordant voice in the conference who presented India's official stated position. He is of the opinion that the status quo could not be changed and the parties to the dispute should accept line of control as permanent border.

Learned Kuldeep Nayar, the people of Kashmir are rendering valuable sacrifices for the complete independence and Sovereignty of United Jammu & Kashmir. We have not offered sacrifices of 8 lakh people to allow largest democracy to continue the occupation of our sacred homeland. The people of Jammu & Kashmir are putting in all efforts to unite their divided Kashmir and make it independent and sovereign and a respectable member of UNO, SAARC etc…

You say that conscious opinion of the participants of Washington Kashmir Conference and the belief of the Indian people is that delay in finding the solution is the real cause for the unrest. Agreed but you have the solution of status quo glamorized with internal autonomy. So called autonomy was there from 1947 to 1953 but it could not replace sentiment and will for Independence and Sovereignty. The autonomy of J&K was so diluted as to have now no takers except handful of cronies.

You say mishandling of the situation from time to time have caused eruptions in Kashmir. Learned Kuldeep Nayar Sahib it is a disgrace to a suppressed nation to call its long and sustained struggle as eruptions. Our nation has fought five powerful occupation forces at different points of time. Kashmiri nation is fighting a war of survival and freedom and you sadly and cruelly treat it as eruptions. You have belittled our freedom struggle and thus committed a great blunder and abhorrent sin.

The pious struggle for freedom has been inherited from generation to generations and the process will continue till the achievement of independence and sovereignty. If the streams of honey and milk are run in J&K, if the roads would be decorated with diamonds and jewels, the resistance movement cannot be bargained or diluted. No party or leader is allowed to do any harm to the struggle. The fate of popular leader S.M.Abdullah is before every body that how much he has lost his esteem and honour and how he has became from hero to zero. No body is going to talk the crumbs of internal autonomy; again the fate of Abdullah is a lode star for the pro-freedom leadership.

The superficial thinking that the people of Kashmir will come around with the chankiyan tactics and accept new version of internal autonomy, the beautified and glamorized status quo is never going to bear fruit.

425 years long freedom struggle bears complete testimony to the fact that the Kashmiri nation never accepted foreign rule as fait accompli. They voice their abhorrence and intense hatred against the slavery and subjugation. The foreign rulers did not feel comfortable while ruling our country due to people's resistance movement. 63 years of Indian rule has witnessed real storms, tempests and tornadoes of resistance from the people of Kashmir. No foreign ruler enjoyed a smooth cake walk here.

Mr. Kuldeep Nayar, you believe that the separatists do not allow the situation to settle down. The people of Jammu & Kashmir are freedom lovers not separatists and fight for the restoration and independence of sovereignty. The people of J&K have not joined India or Pakistan of their free will. The so called accession has been manipulated and effected under duress as nicely put forth by Ambassador Yousuf Buch and Prof. Bose.

Using the word separatists against the freedom lovers is deliberate denigration of them. The active Pro-freedom leaders are representatives of people's sentiments and will. As long as pro-freedom leaders represent the indomitable sentiments, they are to enjoy peoples respect, love and trust.

The plea that the people have participated in the elections, and have abandoned the freedom struggle or have lost the inherent right to fight for independence and sovereignty is distortion of facts. People voted for better roads, clean drinking water, electricity and employment. Kashmiri people have not compromised their commitment for Azadi. Present ongoing agitation is patent proof of it. People have proved more wiser than the available pro-freedom leadership. The people of Sub-continent participated in lections during British Raj. British government never said that since people and leaders have participated in the elections while taking oath on the British constitution, their right to fight for complete independence has been forfeited.

The Indo-Pak sub-continent was given independence by the British Empire without wasting time in lame excuses. Today or tomorrow the government of India and the government of Pakistan has to honour the will of the Kashmiri nation. There is no denying of this ugly fact.

India is emerging as a great power. It is a good thing. Kashmiri nation is not any rival of India. We have no jealously, here the question is it should honour its commitments made with Kashmiri nation. It should uphold justice and the principles of freedom. It should initiate and build its image from the neighboring countries. They should not feel harassed or over-awed. They should not feel threat to their territorial integrity. It should abandon to invest in destability in neighboring nation. It should leave its hegemonistic attitude. There is no logic in criticizing India and People of Kashmir feeling vicarious satisfaction. We are a civilized nation; we have kept aloft the flag of communal harmony, universal brotherhood when the whole India and Pakistan was burning with communal frenzy.

You say Sheikh Abdullah's rant and rhetoric against India in Kashmir used to give vicarious satisfaction to the Kashmiri nation and it did not then cry for freedom and rather ignored it. Learned Nayar Sahib, Sheikh Abdullah chose to become two time Head of the government of Kashmir. The first tenure from 1947 to 1953 witnessed tremendous fall and decline in his popularity and he took strong stand against legal, constitutional, political and moral excesses of the government of India. He was unceremoniously and shamelessly deposed and consigned to jails for 21 years. Sheikh Abdullah formed plebiscite front and restarted campaign for freedom. He reached new heights of popularity. Unfortunately he again chose to become the C.M of the state again his popularity graph was touching the low ebb. As long as Sheikh Abdullah remained embedded to freedom struggle he became leader of international repute. But he wa trapped in the chanakiyan mantra and the people paid him last tributes for his contribution in the struggle and now more or less forgot him.

Gradually people became aware of the blunders of Sheikh Abdullah with regard to his support for the temporary accession. His popularity nosedived and reached the zero line. Pt. Jawaharlal Lal Nehru had chalked out plan to grab J&K by any means throwing the aspirations and will of the people to winds. He exploited Sheikh Abdullah to the hilt under the garb of secularism, liberalism and socialism to realize the plan. Sheikh Abdullah behaved like credulous personality and believed every word which he uttered.

Pt. Nehru controlled fully J&K and deposed Sheikh Abdullah unceremoniously and consigned him to various jails for 21 years, while deposing and imprisoning Sheikh Abdullah the principles of liberalism, democratic mindset, socialism, secularism and justice proved to be hoax and right pursuance of the chanakiyan philosophy. At the one hand he appeased the communal forces like Bhartia Jana Sangh, Rashtria Swayam Sehwak sangh and other parties of the same mindset and on the other he installed more pliant person as P.M. of J&K and through him manipulated constitutional measures amalgamated Jammu & Kashmir with the union of India. The search and selection for pliant C.M's is unending.

Sending Sheikh Abdullah to Pakistan without a well chalked out roadmap for the resolution of Kashmir problem was again political treachery. The plan was that sheikh Abdullah was not much liked by Pakistani leadership and the people, landing in Pakistan may trigger protests against him, he will feel annoyed, his ego will be hurt and he will return with a vengeance and he would change his political ideology.

But he was warmly received and even mandated to find support of India for the free Kashmir. Unfortunately Pt. Nehru breathed his last and Sheikh came running back to mourn the death of Pt. Nehru.

His successors did not bother to know the proposals (if at all any) which Pt. Nehru had presented to Pakistan government through Sheikh Abdullah. Even Sheikh Abdullah never talked about the proposals which he had carried to Pakistan. It again confirms that India does not dare to talk about the Kashmir and its appropriate resolution. The engagement with Pakistani leadership or Kashmiri leadership seems to be buying of time and to give the false impression to the international community about the seriousness and sincerity of India with regard to resolution of Kashmir imbroglio.

You say Sheikh Abdullah again assumed office in 975 and in 1977 and was not allowed to function effectively by the Indian bureaucracy and intelligence and his proposals for autonomy or other thing was not paid much head and was treated as a peon.

It is obvious if Sheikh Abdullah with his very higher stature could not find space in a secular and democratic India of Gandhi and Nehru, how can you suggest to be content with autonomy which may government of India restore. Do not you think the Kashmiri people are being treated as slaves of the conquered land? Can we forget the quest and urge for free and united Jammu & Kashmir? Never!

You say, you were reminded of the commitments made to the people of Kashmir by first Prime Minister of India and you reply that Pt. Nehru himself in his lifetime refused to fulfill the commitment as Pakistan had entered in to SEATO and CENTO defence agreements with U.S.A. which changed the Geo-political situation of the sub-continent and content of the undertaking.

Listen please Mr. Nayar, the commitments of Prime Minister Pt. Nehru made in the parliament on All India Radio, Lal Chowk Srinagar, and U.N. Security Council became the constitutional binding to be fulfilled. If Prime Minister could not fulfill commitments during his life time, his successors are morally, legally and constitutionally bound to do the needful. The late Prime Minister would not be comfortable in the 2nd World. His heirs too should feel concerned and particular to fulfill late Pt. Nehru's commitments.

Pakistan's joining SEATO and CENTO defence agreements with U.S.A is her decision as a sovereign state. India has defence agreements with Russia and now has nuclear agreements with U.S.A. Why Pakistan's agreements are eye sore and India's is its sweet discretion. For Pakistan's bad deeds or good deeds why should people of Kashmir be denied their promised right to freedom and punished by reneging on the promises. How the actions of Pakistan (Which you abhor) justify you to kill us for sport and tighten the noose around the neck of Kashmiri Nation?

Your contention that militancy brought the slogan or demand for independence in the fore front the roots of armed rebellion were there since there since 1586 A.D. Demand for Azadi is not a new slogan as demand of it is as old as our slavery and subjugation. 1989-1990 is an important mile stone when demand for Azadi was raised with much force and vigor.

You admit that Kashmiris have strong resolve for independence and quest for independence may be genuine but not possible. Kashmiris have strong resolve and intense passion to have independence. We are destined to obtain the success in making Kashmir independent and sovereign. The word impossible is not available with the Kashmiri dictionary.

I assure you government of Pakistan is mentally prepared to help Kashmiris in ascertaining their will and is also preparing mindset to acknowledge independent and Sovereign Kashmir. Pakistan will not face difficulties in case people decide to remain free and sovereign. The state of Azad Kashmir is already existing. It is semi-sovereign with its own constitution, flag, national anthem army and police, President and Prime Minister. With the official statement of recognition it would become a defacto and dejure independent and sovereign country. Govt's in Pakistan have from the very beginning accepted the Kashmiri Nations right to independence and Sovereignty.

Aasif Ali Ahmad (Foreign Minister of Benazir Government), Nawaz Sharif (Ex. Prime Minister) Imran Khan (Chairman Justice Party), Maulana Fazlur-Rehman and Asfandyar Wali Khan, Abdul Basit (Pakistan's Foreign office Spokesman) have publicly recognized Kashmiri nation's right to be independent and sovereign.

Learned Nayar Sahib, you opposed formation of Independent Kashmir, on the plea that India cannot agree to the 2nd partition and borders cannot be changed. The people of Jammu and Kashmir would not support secession. Our contention is J&K is not part of India or Pakistan. See the map of both India and Pakistan from August 14 till 27 October 1947.

India forcibly occupied J&K on 27th October 1947 but UNO has not recognized it as part of India or Pakistan. UN maps continuously show it as a disputed home land of Kashmiris. Our achieving free and independent status cannot be treated as partition or secession. Our borders are distinct and well defined, we are not going to change your borders, change the mindset of treating Jammu and Kashmir as India's fiefdom. Do not create confusion by building air castles around the so called integral part mantra. Let the Indian and Pakistani people know the reality about the Kashmir problem. It is in the national interests of India to unburden itself from the Kashmir problem. It is as heavy as Himalayas, it may fully crash you if continue to sustain its burden.

Without holding referendum how can we say the people of certain areas are not in favour of freedom? Collective decision given under free and fair plebiscite under UN supervision would decide the future of the people of J&K. British government while granting independence to India didn't tell you eastern states have separate identities, cultural affinities, religious leanings from the rest of India and do no want to remain with India.

Had that been the case dozen of independent states would have emerged. It has been the calculated campaign to sow the seeds of dissention, hatred among the various sections of Kashmiri people. We have cared, caressed and respected our non-Muslim minorities from the ages and given them more than due share in all walks of life. You treat false impression among the minorities about the Muslim domination, over exploitation and persuaded them to raise the voice for union territory status etc… you incited and encouraged Hindutva brigades to impose economic blockade on the valley people.

You talk of secret solutions reached between Nawaz Sharif and Vajpayee, between Musharraf and Manmohan Singh. These solutions are not binding for the people of J&K. these solutions did not have tactic approval of the people. Had they been according to the will of the Kashmiri people, those would have been made public. Talking about the solutions which have not seen the light of the day is cruel joke with the freedom loving people. The question is simple India and Pakistan have to educate their people about the real contours and historical perspective and the will and choice of the people. Measures for the restoration of independence and sovereignty are needed to be taken to provide the soothing balm to the deep wounds of Kashmiri nation.

Yours was the only discordant voice in the Washington Kashmir Conference. The learned and highly stationed participants were of the consensus to restore independence and sovereignty to Kashmir.

Independence is the only ideal and viable solution to the Kashmir problem. It would not hurt national egos of India and Pakistan. It would provide a win-win position fr both the countries. This solution alone would vanish the centuries old deep pain, deep wounds and subjugation and sub-human life of Kashmiri people.

The economic drain on both India and Pakistan would cease and coffers would become rich and fatter. The scope for banishing hunger, disease, illiteracy, penury, want and deprivations would be widened and bright.

Last of all take care that Kashmiri nation is not going to accept glamorized, beautified and attractive status quo in terms of Autonomy etc… thank you for the trouble, you took long taxing journey to Washington to participate in the two day Kashmir Conference but sorry you had no fresh ideas to offer except often repeated government of India's colonial stand with regard to Kashmir.

Maqbool Hussain
E Mail :
maqboolh2010@gmail.com
 


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[ALOCHONA] Intellectuals on return to BKSAL



Intellectuals on return to BKSAL
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] Rising prices



Rising prices
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] President pardons 21 AL activists in death row



President pardons 21 AL activists in death row

President Zillur Rahman granted clemency to 20 Awami League activists sentenced to death for murder are being set free from Dhaka and Rajshahi Central jails anytime now.Sadar Upazila Parishad vice-chairman Asadur Rahman Asad told UNB yesterday night that documents of the President's granting their mercy petitions reached the Dhaka and Rajshahi jails on Thursday. They likely to be released today.

Dhaka Central Jail sources confirmed the receipt of clemency order. "We are examining the documents. They will be set free tonight or tomorrow," a senior jail official told UNB.

Judge Firoze Alam of the Speedy Trial Tribunal of Dhaka had sentenced 21 people, including Naldanga thana Awami League general secretary SM Feroze on August 24, 2006 for murder of Jubo Dal leader Sabbir Hossain Gama, also the nephew of former BNP central leader Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu.

One of the convicts, Akbar Ali, remained fugitive since the incident while ten each are now in Dhaka and Rajshahi Central Jails.The convicts, all Awami League activists of Naldanga, had made mercy petitions to the President, which were granted, said Asadur Rahman.
 
They had been accused of hacking and shooting down Sabbir Hossain at Kazipur Kamarpara bazaar on February 7, 2004 by terrorists. The killers had left the spot raising slogans of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party.His father Rafiqul Islam Talukdar had filed the murder case against 16 identified AL activists and about 16 others unknown. Police investigator charge-sheeted them. Natore District and Sessions judge's court transferred the case to the Speedy Trial Tribunal Court in Dhaka that convicted and sentenced 21 persons to death.

Those in Dhaka Central Jail are: SM Firoze and his brothers Fazlul Haq Master and Farooq Hossain, Anisur Rahman and his sons Sentu and Farooq, Shahjahan Ali, Badal, Zahedul Islam and Faruq Hossain.Zahurul Shah, Sajjad, Sohag, Bablu, Abul, Ataur, Ashraf, Formazul, Fakhruddin and Ohidur Rahman are in Rajshahi Jail.

http://www.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/09/07/news0749.htm

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[ALOCHONA] Worth a read (very unique perspective on the Mosque biz)- The Moderate Muslim's Fate by Faisal Devji

The Moderate Muslim's Fate
by Faisal Devji
September 3, 2010
Current Intelligence
http://www.currentintelligence.net/columns/2010/9/3/the-moderate-muslims-fate.html

Emotions run high in the "Ground Zero Mosque" debate, and the stakes are significant. They're just not what many on the left and the right of the aisle think. Faisal Devji explains.

--
Faisal Devji is University Reader in Modern South Asian History at St. Antony's College, Oxford University, and the author of two books, Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality and Modernity (2005), and The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics (2009).


AS CONTROVERSY over the so-called "Ground Zero mosque" in Lower Manhattan takes up more and more airtime in the US, the arguments deployed by both sides have become ever more narrow. On the one hand, those defending the proposed Islamic centre talk about the threat of anti-Muslim prejudice to constitutional freedoms, while at the same time endangering efforts to promote the kind of "moderate" Islam represented by its director, a New Age sufi called Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. On the other hand, pleas for Muslims and all those backing the project to heed American "sensitivities" are coupled with dark hints about Rauf's true intentions, sources of funding and indeed the problem represented by Islam itself in the West. Although this public debate generates an enormous number of new facts, interpretations and other details every day, these are all squeezed into a shrinking circuit of concepts and categories, very few of which are able to address the controversy's larger and more lasting implications.

Interesting about the nature of this debate, in its very narrowness, is that it marks the first time Islam has become a serious domestic issue in the US, frequent invocations of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or Iran notwithstanding. Indeed it is the centre's opponents who are concerned with Islam as a domestic issue, whereas its supporters routinely back it by referring to the importance of promoting "moderate" Islam abroad in a way that once would have been called imperial. But this concentration on domestic politics, including the allegedly Muslim background and sympathies of President Obama, have little to do with a Republican effort to reclaim votes in mid-term elections by the use of a wedge issue. Crucial instead is the fact that those opposing the centre, far more than its backers, appear to have realised that the Global War on Terror is effectively over, and that the US faces no existential threat from terrorism, despite the continuing possibility of random attacks at home and the need that still remains to deal with some insurgencies abroad.

The fear that marked public reaction to the 9/11 attacks has vanished, together with the remarkable tolerance then displayed towards American Muslims, who might have been profiled and more readily picked up by agencies of the state, but didn't suffer large scale violence against their persons or property. Indeed if anything the Bush administration was far more outspoken about the evils of "Islamophobia" and encouraging of "moderate" Muslims including Rauf than its Democratic successor, something that indicates more than disingenuous politicking either then or now. For the popular outcry against American Muslims cannot be attributed to the calculations of party politics without falling into the realm of conspiracy theory. Instead it might be more productive to recognize that Muslims can be reviled today precisely because they are no longer feared as a global threat, having become domesticated into a minority like many others who faced discrimination in the past: ethnic Germans, Italians and Japanese during one or both World Wars, Catholics and Jews among religious communities, and today the Latin populations targeted as "illegal immigrants" alongside those old favourites for criminal profiling, African-Americans.

However novel the circumstances, anti-Muslim feeling in the US, whether justified or not, falls into a received pattern of domestic prejudice against minorities. This marks Islam's baptism by fire as an American religion, which is exactly what Rauf and his backers say they want, after all. Ten years from now there are likely to be books written and television programs made about the shameful history of anti-Muslim sentiment in the US, by which time Islam will have become naturalised within it precisely because of today's debate. The truly interesting thing about the controversy, in other words, is neither Islam nor even "Islamophobia" but the transformation of right wing politics in the United States.

Sharing a great deal with the Tea Party phenomenon in American conservatism, though open to a more diverse set of supporters, the anti-mosque movement represents a networked mobilization outside the planning and control of the Republican Party – thus forcing its establishment to follow a protest over which it exercises little leadership as yet. So even though Obama's presidential campaign was touted for its use of social networking sites and electronic fundraising, it turns out to have been his rivals who have ended up embracing the possibilities of technological mobilization with more ardour.

Of course the most successful (or at least the most celebrated) example of such mobilization against traditional structures of authority is that of militant Islam in its global form as al-Qaeda. The Internet-savvy and self-motivated soldiers of a franchised jihad share a great deal, at least organizationally, with their right wing American critics in Tea Party-style activism. The latter, however, are far less adventurous, still linked as they are to institutional politics and its domestic arena, something that Islamic militancy is unable to do given the weakness of political institutions in much of the Muslim world. Weak or discredited states and the rise of religious entrepreneurs among the laity have led to a crisis of authority within Sunni Islam, which like most religions outside Christianity, lacks institutional form. It is this crisis that militancy in part represents. In the US, on the other hand, the crisis of authority among conservatives might have moved against political institutions but certainly not beyond them. What has been lost in the debate has been any claim to authoritative speech or knowledge, as demonstrated by so many of the arguments against the "Ground Zero mosque" or about President Obama's religion and place of birth. This is simply the consequence of a media-driven society with multiple sources of information that can no longer be contained within any effective hierarchy of knowledge.

Matching the warnings about Muslim fanaticism and terror by the mosque's opponents, its supporters have begun worrying about "Islamophobia", which has even made it to the cover of TIME magazine this month. Yet it is important to point out that 'Islamophobia" is not some generic phenomenon. Its manifestation in Europe differs significantly from what happens in the US, however much activists in the latter learn from the narratives of their European sympathisers. Thus the presence of Dutch politician Geert Wilders at an anti-mosque rally in New York on September 11th may boost his popularity among supporters at home and admirers abroad, but the politics of Islamophobia in Europe has little to do with its American form.

In the Old World anti-Muslim sentiment no longer possesses a nationalist character, with Islam seen as representing a threat to Europe, itself a fairly new and still ambiguous political entity lacking traditional institutions of sovereignty. In the New World it has become part of a debate on nationality. And while in Europe the threat posed by Islam appears to have trumped the old fears of race, this is far from being the case in America, where African-Americans and Mexicans represent formidable threats in the perceptions of many. A quasi-political entity defined by "civilization," Europe is threatened by Islam, an equally formless civilization. America, meanwhile, still has the nation state and racial politics to think about.

Whatever the sympathy he deserves, we should perhaps be thankful that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's New Age brand of government-sponsored Islam has been put on the back foot for the moment – not because there is anything sinister about it, but in light of the ill-effects that Islam's politicization by Western powers has given rise to in the recent past. The litany: Napoleon's attempts to encourage a jihad against the British Empire during his conquest of Egypt, to similarly destructive but unsuccessful moves on the part of Kaiser Wilhelm during the First World War, Hitler during the Second and finally, this time with spectacular success, Ronald Reagan's jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

This long history of Christian-Muslim partnership in holy war saw the increasing militarization, on an international and eventually global level, of the Muslim groups involved. The consequences for their sponsors, in our days Saudis and Pakistanis as much as Americans and British, were often disastrous. The different thing about today's conflict, however, is that for the first time Islamic militancy does not just represent a means towards some other end, but has become the object of politics in its own right. This means that promoting any kind of Islam is to participate in a potential civil war within a religion undergoing its most severe crisis of authority in many centuries. In such a situation the task surely should be to de-politicise Muslim groups rather than the reverse, which is what sponsorship of any one of them will end up doing.

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[ALOCHONA] Reality Check: Anthrax, Police bakshis, traffic jam etc



Reality Check
 
These cattle were brought from Pabna and Sirajganj yesterday. A livestock official told The Daily Star four doctors have been manned at a checkpoint on the other side of Bangabandhu Bridge to prevent entrance of anthrax infected cattle. The driver of the truck said no checkpoint stopped them on their way to the city. The photo was taken at the capital's Gabtali Cattle Market yesterday afternoon
 
 

ঢাকা-চট্টগ্রাম মহাসড়কের চিটাগাং রোড এলাকায় ট্রাক থামিয়ে চালকের কাছ থেকে টাকা নিচ্ছে পুলিশ    ছবি: পাপ্পু ভট্টাচার্য্য

 
 
 
 


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