Sunday, May 24, 2015

Karachi Bus Attack Arrests; Axact Scandal; Zulfiqar Mirza Vs Zardari; RAW in Pakistan

Safoora Goth Al-Azhar Gardens Ismaili massacre masterminds arrested. Saad Aziz and others are well-educated young men. Fundamentalist terror has often been linked to poverty and illiteracy. Is that theory not valid? 


With Axact scandal of bogus universities, and certificates for sale, is Bol TV dead before its launch?
 What’s behind the Zulfiqar Mirza-Asif Ali Zardari feud? 

Is the Indian RAW really sponsoring terrorist activities in Pakistan? 

ViewPoint from Overseas host Faraz Darvesh discusses these and other questions with panelists Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com) and Ali H Cemendtaur (www.Cemendtaur.net) in Silicon Valley, California, USA.

کراچی پولیس کا دعوی، صفورا گوٹھ سانحے کے ملزم گرفتار۔ سعد عزیز اور اس کے ساتھی اونچے تعلیمی اداروں سے فارغ التحصیل ہیں۔ کیا یہ خیال غلط ہے کہ غربت اور جہالت شدت پسندی کو جنم دیتی ہے؟ کیا اسی گروپ نے صبین محمود کو بھی قتل کیا؟ کیا یہی لوگ ڈیبرا لوبو پہ حملے کے بھی ذمہ دار ہیں؟ اگزیکٹ اسکینڈل بے نقاب، ایگزیکٹ پہ الزام کہ یہ پاکستانی کمپنی جعلی انٹرنیٹ یونیورسٹیاں چلاتی ہے اور لوگوں کو جعلی ڈگریاں بیچ کر رقم بناتی ہے۔ کیا اب بول ٹی وی شروع نہ ہوپائے گا؟ ذوالفقار مرزا آصف علی زرداری کے خلاف کیوں زہر اگل رہے ہیں؟ 
ویو پواءنٹ فرام اوورسیز کے میزبان فراز درویش کی ریاض حق اور علی حسن سمندطور سے گفتگو۔ 


https://vimeo.com/128757230



Safoora Goth killers, Axact scandal, Zulfiqar Mirza-Zardari feud, RAW involvement from WBT TV on Vimeo.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rdau4_safoora-goth-killers-axact-scandal-zulfiqar-mirza-zardari-feud-raw-involvement_news



Safoora Goth killers, Axact scandal, Zulfiqar... by ViewpointFromOverseas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJpBhjqLKAQ




Related Links:

Haq's Musings

RAW in Pakistan

Pakistan Mediagate

Huqooq ul Ibad in Islam

Karachi's Gangster Politicians

Rising Tide of Intolerance in Pakistan

Viewpoint From Overseas Dailymotion Channel

Viewpoint From Overseas Youtube Channel

Viewpoint From Overseas Vimeo Channel

5 comments:

Riaz Haq said...

Here are some questions for people who demand concrete proof of RAW's involvement in terrorism in Pakistan today:

What is the concrete evidence that Afzal Guru was an ISI agent and he carried out the Indian parliament attack? Even Indian Supreme Court acknowledged that Mohammed Afzal Guru is not a terrorist and that they have no direct evidence against him.
The thoroughness of the Indian probe can be judged by the court’s remarks. It pulled up the police for faking arrest memos and doctoring telephone conversations, and yet they chose to confirm his death sentence.

http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main21.asp?filename=Ne102806guilty_of_CS.asp

What is the concrete evidence that the man named Ajmal Kassab who was hanged in India was an ISI agent responsible for carrying out Mumbai attacks?

1. When you hear the soundtrack of the following confession video, does this man sound like a person born and raised in the town of Faridkot in Okara District of Pakistan's Punjab province? This question is particularly addressed to people of Pakistani Punjab who are familiar with the local accents.

2. Have you ever heard of a "jihadi" seeking "Bhagwan's forgiveness" (at 3:07 min in Dailymotion video clip below) as the man in the "confession video" does?

3. Were these two above questions raised during the trial by the defense attorney assigned to defend Kassab?

4. If you were on a jury called to hear evidence in this case, would you find the man in the video alleged to be "Ajmal Kassab" guilty beyond reasonable doubt?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1qeiyg_mumbai-attacker-ajmal-kasab-pleading-bhagwan-indian-drama-exposed-bigtime-youtube1_news

http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/01/mumbai-attack-confession-rare-jihadi.html

How do you explain the following remarks in Ajit Doval's 2013 speech made at Sasatra University before he was appointed by PM Modi as his National Security Advisor:

"How do we tackle Pakistan..Use defensive offense..Change the engagement....Pakistan's vulnerability is many many times higher than India. Start working on the vulnerabilities of Pakistan: economic, internal political balance and internal security, isolate them internationally, defeat their policies in Afghanistan, make it difficult for them (Pakistanis) to manage their internal political stability ... Make it unaffordable for Pakistan....You may do one Mumbai, you lose Baluchistan....go for more of a covert thing"

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2cq6ov_how-to-tackle-pakistan-by-ajit-doval-india-national-security-adviser-2014_webcam#from=embediframe


How do you explain Indian Defense Minister Parrikar recent remarks: “If any country, why Pakistan, is planning something against my country, I will take proactive steps. Of course, not in the public domain. But what I have to do, I will do it. Whether it is diplomatic, whether it is pressure tactics or whether it is using the… woh usko bolte hain na Marathi mein kaante se kaanta nikaalte hain… Hindi mein bhi rahega… you have to neutralise terrorist through terrorist only.”

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/kill-terrorist-with-terrorist-defence-minister-manohar-parrikars-idea-2/

Riaz Haq said...

Here's NY Times on Mastung attack in Balochistan that targeted and killed Pashtuns:

The attack took place in Mastung, about 40 miles southeast of Quetta. The buses had been on their way to Karachi, the southern port city in neighboring Sindh Province.

One of the two buses was carrying passengers from Chaman, a Pakistani town on the border with Afghanistan.

Before Friday’s shootings of the Pashtuns, militants from banned sectarian groups used to target buses of Shiite pilgrims, mostly in Mastung District, forcing them to also give up road travel in the province.

While attacks on Pashtuns in Baluchistan have occurred in the past, killing them after stopping buses and checking identity cards for their ethnicity is a new development.

A Pashtun lawmaker from the province, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retribution, said that the attack was aimed at disrupting a planned economic corridor through the province that would offer China easier sea access. The $46 billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects, pledged last month by China, center on a network of rail and road and pipeline projects.

The lawmaker said that on Thursday, during a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, representatives of all political parties had reached a consensus about the project as the government tries to calm suspicions that some regions would be left out of the project and that Punjab Province, the political base of Mr. Sharif, would be the only beneficiary of the increased economic activity with China.

Security officials say a search is being carried out by 200 troops across Mastung District.

Later, Mr. Sharif said he was concerned about the involvement of “foreign intelligence agencies” in destabilizing Pakistan.

Pakistani officials accuse India of supporting terrorism inside the country, and in recent months, Pakistan’s top civil and military leaders have accused India of backing separatists in Baluchistan. India has denied involvement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/world/asia/hundreds-protest-after-gunmen-target-ethnic-pashtuns-in-southern-pakistan.html?_r=0

Riaz Haq said...

#Pakistan gives UN files claiming that #India foments violence. #Terrorism http://wpo.st/_3de0

Lohdi told The Associated Press the dossiers include information about “India’s involvement and support to terrorism in different parts of Pakistan.”

One dossier relates to Pakistan’s tribal areas, another relates to Karachi, and the third to the southwestern region of Baluchistan, she said. “So the idea is to really go to the international community through the U.N. secretary-general and to expose the kind of destabilizing actions that India is taking against my country.”

Pakistan and India have a history of uneasy relations and they have fought two of their three wars over the disputed Kashmir region, which is claimed by both countries. Forces on both sides of the Line of Control, which divides Kashmir, have traded fire several times in recent weeks.

Lohdi cited the “escalating tensions in the region” as the reason Islamabad was taking this step. “We believe that these actions must stop,” she said, and she called for a return to dialogue. “We’re ready to go anywhere, at any level, to resume the dialogue process, but this dialogue cannot be on the basis of preconditions.”

She said India had not responded to her move, and she said her country was “disappointed” at the response that India’s foreign minister gave to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Wednesday speech to the U.N. General Assembly — in which Pakistan offered a four-point peace initiative.

She called India’s response the following day “non-serious” and called on India, “Why don’t you put something on the table, too?”

She said Pakistan is in conversation with the U.N. about “how best to take this forward.”

Riaz Haq said...

#India’s largest Amity U. is expanding to #US, and #American officials are ‘very, very skeptical' http://read.bi/2dNaGzg via @bi_strategy

"We are very, very skeptical about this," said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who is asking the state's Board of Higher Education to block the sale. "It's hard to imagine that this outfit from overseas, which has never done any education work here in this country, is well-suited to provide any kind of education to these students."

Amity hopes a U.S. campus will attract students from abroad who want to gain the prestige that comes with studying in the United States. It also hopes to forge research partnerships with other colleges, and to connect foreign scholars with their counterparts here.

"We have a global vision for education, a model of education which allows for student mobility, faculty collaboration and research collaboration," said Aseem Chauhan, Amity's chancellor. "We believe that the leaders of tomorrow will be those who have perspectives from different parts of the world."

Owned by a nonprofit company, the chain offers bachelor's and graduate degrees in a range of fields, from art to engineering. It enrolls 125,000 students at more than a dozen campuses, and has grown rapidly amid rising demand for higher education in India.

Its founder president, Ashok Chauhan, was charged with fraud in the 1990s by authorities in Germany, where he ran a network of companies. He returned to India and was never extradited. A plastics company in the U.S. also sued Chauhan in 1995 for failing to pay $20 million in debts, which led to an ongoing court battle in India. Amity officials said Chauhan is not involved in the U.S. expansion. The university is now in the hands of his sons, Aseem Chauhan and Atul Chauhan.

Some in the U.S. say the school is more similar to a for-profit college than a traditional four-year university.

"They are a subsidiary of a conglomerate of companies," said Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State College and Universities. "This is by no means reassuring, if you ask me."

Aseem Chauhan counters that Amity has an "excellent and exceptional" track record of student outcomes, although he declined to provide the statistics.

Riaz Haq said...

Stalled by #Axact Scandal, #Pakistan's #Karachi-based Newest Network Bol Goes on the Air at Last

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/world/asia/pakistan-bol-tv-axact.html?_r=0

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A high-profile Pakistani news network, Bol TV, made its inaugural broadcast on Tuesday, more than a year after its planned debut was derailed when its parent company was embroiled in a scandal involving fake online degrees.

Bol TV Network’s parent company, the software company Axact, was caught up in criminal investigations after The New York Times unearthed employee accounts and documents showing that the company was making tens of millions of dollars a year by selling fake degrees and diplomas online and defrauding customers who were seeking education. Axact’s offices were shuttered, and the company’s chief executive and other officials were jailed during the investigation.

This month, the chief executive, Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, was released on bail after he and more than a dozen others were indicted on charges of selling fake degrees and other counts. Separately, in August, Mr. Shaikh was indicted in a different case related to money laundering.

Despite his legal woes, Mr. Shaikh vowed to proceed with plans for Bol to make its debut, and he has said he intends to start a related newspaper early next year.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in the Axact case have quit as the legal proceedings have dragged on, hinting that they were coming under threat. The house of the former lead prosecutor, Zahid Jamil, was struck by a grenade in September, months after he had left the case but was in talks over whether to take it up again, according to Pakistani media reports. And a top investigator for the Federal Investigation Agency complained of intimidation and harassment related to the case, according to another media report.

After a lull of 17 months, the once-deserted headquarters of Bol TV Network, in Korangi, a suburb of the port city of Karachi, is now abuzz with activity.

In the months before the Axact scandal left hundreds of Bol’s employees out of work, the network made headlines by wooing away top broadcasters and executives from rivals and offering pay far above the usual industry rates. The network’s management said that Bol would revolutionize the Pakistani local news media industry and offer an aggressively patriotic point of view.

On Tuesday, Ali, a media worker associated with Bol TV who asked to be identified by only his first name, said that workers had started coming back over the past month and a half, and were again being paid.

Members of the journalists’ trade union in Karachi have maintained that the initial closing of Bol TV was a major setback for media workers in Pakistan. For months, street demonstrations were organized to protest the plight of Bol workers.

Shoaib Ahmed, who led a campaign against broadcasting limits on Bol TV in the city, said, “From journalists to cameramen, and technical and managerial staff, the announcement of Bol’s shutdown was a thunder strike.”