Source: South Asia Terrorism Portal |
Are the culprits of terror attacks in Pakistan entirely homegrown? Who funded them? Is the Pakistani security establishment serious in fighting the Taliban? Is there foreign involvement? Are Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies involved? Should the Pakistani citizens now talk directly talk to the foreign intelligence agencies and ask the foreign hand for mercy? What has Indian NSA Ajit Doval said about using the Taliban to wage proxy war against Pakistan? Should the Pakistan Army let things happen the way Doval wanted things to happen? What have American officials and analysts been saying about India's role in Pakistan terror? Should Pakistanis use this as an excuse for the ongoing terrorist attacks? What did Indian agent Kulbhushan Yadav tell the Pakistani authorities? Does that statement prove the might of the Indian intelligence agencies and the impotence of the Pakistanis? What can and must Pakistan do to end this reign of terror?
Is it true that all terrorists are Muslims, especially in the last two years? What do the official statistics say about Muslims' involvement in terrorist attacks in Europe and America? Are those statistics valid for the last two years? Why do the older official stats differ so much from the news media reporting of acts of terror in the West, in the recent past? Is there disproportionate media coverage of terror acts involving Muslim perpetrators?
Viewpoint From Overseas host Faraz Darvesh discusses these questions with panelists Ali Hasan Cemendtaur and Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com)
https://youtu.be/tVIQ9U8jOEs
https://vimeo.com/178837620
India's Role in Quetta Bombing; Official 'Muslim Terror' Stats from Ikolachi on Vimeo.
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
India's Sponsorship of Terror in Pakistan
Indian Agent Kulbhushan Yadav's Confession
Has Modi Stepped Up India's Covert War in Pakistan?
Ex India Spy Documents Successful RAW Ops in Pakistan
London Police Document Confirms MQM-RAW Connection Testimony
Ajit Doval Lecture on "How to Tackle Pakistan"
Talk4Pak Think Tank
VPOS Youtube Channel
VPOS Vimeo Channel
37 comments:
Indian involvement in sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan is not a "conspiracy theory". There is large and growing evidence of it. Ex US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has talked about it. Several US analysts have detailed it. Kulbhushan Yadav, a serving Indian Navy Officer, arrested in Balochistan has confessed to it. Revelation of London Police documents linking MQM leader to Indian funding shows it. Statements made by Ajit Doval back in 2014 and his later appointment as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's lend credence to it. So does India's past behavior against Pakistan as acknowledged in "Mission R&AW", a book by ex RAW officer R.K. Yadav.....Pakistan can not win its war against terrorism by just fighting the various terrorist groups including the Taliban militants and Baloch insurgents and their allies engaged in frequent large-scale carnage on Pakistani soil. These groups are merely tools of India's covert war machine. Pakistan must beef up its counter-intelligence efforts to defeat India's intelligence operations by infiltrating them. Pakistan must do everything possible to defeat India's covert war. http://www.riazhaq.com/2016/08/indias-role-in-quetta-bombing.html
Talk is not evidence. Talk needs to be backed up by physical evidence and a trail that leads to the offender.
Let me tell you Pakistanis have complained at the highest levels but it never gets followed up with irrefutable evidence.
Jon: " Talk needs to be backed up by physical evidence and a trail that leads to the offender."
It seems you don't understand the basic difference between ordinary crime-fighting and dealing with state-sponsored terrorist actions like the ones in Quetta and other parts of Pakistan.
The US experience shows that even organized crime like Mafias could not be fought with ordinary tools and criminal prosecutions. They had to enact racketeering laws to change the rules of evidence and make it easy to convict gangsters and to break up criminal gangs.
Dealing with state-sponsored terror is much more difficult than organized crime. You can convict a few individuals who pull the trigger but you can not get the masterminds without disrupting the intelligence operations sponsoring and supporting major acts of terror.
The US enacted Patriot Act to make it easy to convict a few terror suspects but they still had to go beyond it and create military tribunals at Guantanamo and still could not convict most of the suspects.
So it's still work in progress in how to deal with terrorism through the legal system:
Read this piece "We Need a National Security Court" By Andrew C. McCarthy and Alykhan Velshi
http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/2011_build/law_national_security/mccarthy_we_need_natsecurity_crt.authcheckdam.pdf
Breaking the myths of Pakistan ruining Afghanistan
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2016/08/12/comment/breaking-the-myths-of-pakistan-ruining-afghanistan/
Operating on the Chanakyan dictum of “repeating a lie so often that it appears to be the truth”, Afghanistan has been alleging that Pakistan has been ruining Afghanistan. The time has come to break this myth and set the record straight. Pakistani tribal Pashtun journalist Shah Zalmay Khan’s three recent Op-Eds titled: ‘Pakistan Ruined Afghanistan? Myths and Facts’, ‘Pushtoonistan: Myths & Facts’ and ‘Durand Line: Myths & Facts’ help shatter the shibboleth and myths being spread by Afghanistan for over decades.
Let us take the allegations one by one. The first is Pakistan interfering in Afghanistan. History proves it to be the other way around. Pakistan was founded on August 14, 1947 having fractured institutions, almost no economy, weak military and apparently bleak future, fighting for survival in the face of a giant hostile neighbour like India at its throat. Afghanistan became the only country to vote against Pakistan’s membership of United Nations. Simultaneously, Pashtunistan flag was raised alongside Afghan national flag in Kabul, while Afghanistan started arming and funding proxies in the border areas (e.g. Afridi Sarishtas and Ipi Faqir) for the ‘Liberation of Pashtunistan’. This led to skirmishes between Pakistani forces and Afghan proxies.
In June 1949, while pursuing miscreants who attacked Pakistani border posts from Afghanistan, a PAF warplane inadvertently bombed the Afghan village of Moghulgai on the Waziristan border. In July 1949, a Loya Jirga was held by Afghan government at Kabul unilaterally denounced all treaties related to Pak-Afghan international border and announced full support for Pashtunistan. August 31 was declared as ‘Pashtunistan Day’ which was regularly commemorated by Afghan government every year.
Between 1948 and 1949, Afghan-supported proxies announced the formation of ‘Pashtunistan’ in Tirah (Khyber) and Razmak (Waziristan), with Faqir of Ipi as President.
Between September and October 1950, Afghan army with artillery support attacked Dobandi area of Balochistan and occupied a strategic pass with the aim to cut off Chaman-Quetta Railway link. Pakistani army rushed reinforcements to the area and retook the pass after a week’s fighting.
On October 16, 1951, Pakistani PM Liaquat Ali Khan was shot dead in Rawalpindi by an Afghan national Said Akbar Babrak. Afghan government disowned his act but its propaganda and support for separatists continued unabated.
On March 30, 1955, Pakistan’s diplomatic missions in Kabul, Qandahar, and Jalalabad were attacked at the behest of Afghan government and Pashtunistan flag was hoisted on the chancery of Pakistan Embassy in Kabul. In September 1960, Afghan army troops and militias attacked Bajaur. The attack was repulsed by Bajauri tribesmen with help of SSG forces from Cherat. An account of the battle is found in a declassified US Embassy document number D-92 of January 25, 1961 from its Consul at Peshawar.
Afghanistan supplied arms and ammunition to proxies led by Pacha Gul in Bajaur’s Batmalai area for an uprising. The ammunition dump was destroyed by PAF aerial bombing in March 1961. In May 1961, thousands of Afghan troops disguised as militias attacked Bajaur, Jandul and Khyber. The attacks were repulsed by tribesmen with support of Frontier Corps and aerial bombing by PAF warplanes. President Ayub warned the Afghan side against unprovoked escalations. On September 6, 1961, diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan were cut off after Pakistan decided to restrict Afghan transit trade due to its continuous support for Pashtunistan proxies. The relations were resumed two years later, in 1963, when Sardar Daud (the main engine behind Pashtunistan) resigned as Prime Minister.
Ye sub information need to be shared. Humne ye information ko kya kiya??
"Ye sub information need to be shared. Humne ye information ko kya kiya??"
The information has been shared multiple times via diplomatic channels but, no country finds Pakistan's claim credible that there is state sponsored terrorism from India. On the contrary, UN has listed many home grown and some of which are state or ISI sponsored terrorists groups.
Kanaiya: "no country finds Pakistan's claim credible that there is state sponsored terrorism from India. "
Says who?
Who do you think is Chuck Hagel? Is he not US Senate Intelligence committee member and later Defense Secretary?
What did he say about it?
"India has always used Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. India has over the years been financing problems in Pakistan".
On what basis did Chuck Hagel make the statement about India's use of Afghan territory to attack Pakistan? Was he, too, just another victim of conspiracy theories? Off course not. Secretary Hagel had the benefit of intelligence briefings by the CIA given to him in multiple capacities: first as US Senate Intelligence committee member and then as US Defense Secretary.
Since Mr. Hagel made his statement, there has been further evidence of India's involvement in Balochistan with the recent arrest of Kulbhushan Yadv, a serving Indian Navy officer working under cover in Balochistan. Yadav has confessed to working with terrorists launching attacks in Pakistan.
US analyst Laura Rozen explained India-Taliban nexus as follows: "While the U.S. media has frequently reported on Pakistani ties to jihadi elements launching attacks in Afghanistan, it has less often mentioned that India supports insurgent forces attacking Pakistan, the former (US) intelligence official said. "The Indians are up to their necks in supporting the Taliban against the Pakistani government in Afghanistan and Pakistan," the former (US) intelligence official who served in both countries said. "The same anti-Pakistani forces in Afghanistan also shooting at American soldiers are getting support from India. India should close its diplomatic establishments in Afghanistan and get the Christ out of there."
http://www.riazhaq.com/2016/08/indias-role-in-quetta-bombing.html
The biggest indictment of India's sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan is documented as Indian RAW's "success" by ex Intelligence officer RK Yadav in his book "Mission R&AW"
http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/05/ex-indian-spy-documents-raws-successes.html
#India PM Narendra #Modi brings up #Pakistan's #Balochistan in his #IndependenceDayIndia speech in #Delhi The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/in-policy-shift-narendra-modi-brings-up-balochistan-again/article8991513.ece?utm_source=email&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Newsletter
Diplomats say the Prime Minister’s decision to raise the topic in his Independence Day speech was an ‘unprecedented’ move
In a significant shift in policy on Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a reference to the Baloch freedom struggle in his Independence Day speech, saying the people in the conflicted Pakistani state of Balochistan, as also in Gilgit and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, had reached out to him. Pakistan responded by saying the statement “confirmed” India’s role there.
“Today from the ramparts of Red Fort, I want to greet and express my thanks to some people. In the last few days, people of Balochistan, Gilgit, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have thanked me, have expressed gratitude, and expressed good wishes for me. The people who are living far away, whom I have never seen, never met — such people have expressed appreciation for Prime Minister of India, for 125 crore countrymen,” Mr. Modi said.
The reference comes a few days after the Prime Minister vowed to take up atrocities by the Pakistani government in these three areas on the international stage, when he spoke to an all-party delegation about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, government officials say Mr. Modi had received many messages on social media from Baloch groups and Kashmiris around the world and in Pakistan thanking him for his support.
In sharp contrast
Repeating the charge against Pakistan on its support to terror groups in Kashmir, Mr. Modi accused the Pakistan government of glorifying terrorists, saying the Sharif government’s actions came in sharp contrast to India’s empathy with Pakistanis over terror attacks there, as after the Peshawar school massacre of 2014. “On the other side, terrorism is being glorified. When innocent people are killed in terrorist attacks, there are celebrations. How governments are formed through inspiration of terrorism. The world will understand this difference clearly,” he said.
Within hours, Pakistan’s government responded to the Prime Minister’s comments on Balochistan. “PM Modi’s reference to Balochistan, which is an integral part of Pakistan, only proves Pakistan’s contention that India through intelligence agency RAW has been fomenting terrorism in Balochistan,” Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz said on Monday.
India stands behind to support the freedom of Baloch and their country of balochistan.
What explains #Modi government kicking up a row over #China #Pakistan Economic Corridor (#CPEC) now?
http://scroll.in/article/814059/what-explains-modi-government-kicking-up-a-row-over-china-pakistan-economic-corridor-now … via @scroll_in
By MK Bhadrakumar
The big question is: How do the Chinese assess the Modi government’s proclivity to count the trees instead of seeing the woods? Do they sense this might be a matter of conscious choice?
What rankles most in the Indian mind is China’s relations with Pakistan. The Modi government demands that China should suspend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor on the plea that Gilgit, Baltistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir are Indian territories.
In reality, though, we have a classic situation where it is entirely up to India to raise dust (or not to raise dust). It is even baffling how economic development of those neglected regions would hurt Indian interests. After all, the people inhabiting those regions are also Indians, isn’t it?
The sensible thing would have been to let the Chinese loosen their purse strings to develop our territories that happen to be inside Pakistan temporarily so that when we finally make them part of Akhand Bharat, they won’t be the impoverished terrorist-infested swathes of land that they are today.
Frankly, India is taking an illogical stance. The Modi government estimates that Economic Corridor is “India-centric”, whereas, it is a strategic initiative by China in self-interest.
China has a good reputation for putting money only where the mouth is – and $46 billion is a lot of money. The Chinese motivations are not difficult to comprehend.
The Economic Corridor boils down to project exports by Chinese industry, which is saddled with excess capacity.
Two it opens up efficient communication links with markets in the Gulf and Africa.
It fuels the economy of Xinjiang.
It mitigates to some extent China’s “Malacca Dilemma” – the fact that 80% of China’s oil imports have to pass through the strait en-route from West Asia and Angola.
It creates leverage to balance the traditional American dominance over Pakistan.
Indeed, finally, it cannot be overlooked that One Belt One Road Initiative has a geopolitical dimension insofar as it counters the US’ strategy to encircle China and "contain" it.
Conceivably, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will galvanise Pakistan’s economy. Now, isn’t that a nice thing to happen if it prods our western neighbour to understand that getting rich is the smart thing to do?
If China succeeds in transforming Pakistan as a modern middle-income economy like Turkey or Malaysia, it can only strengthen regional security. But then, a paradox arises: If Pakistan does not collapse as a “failing state” and instead becomes a more prosperous country than India, what happens to Akhand Bharat?
The smart thing would have been to offer to the Chinese an economic corridor through our territory. It is advantageous to be a transit country.
"If China succeeds in transforming Pakistan as a modern middle-income economy like Turkey or Malaysia, it can only strengthen regional security. But then, a paradox arises: If Pakistan does not collapse as a “failing state” and instead becomes a more prosperous country than India, what happens to Akhand Bharat?
"
LOL. This is like the proverbial rats deluding that they will bell the cat.
China has eaten resources of African and Latin American countries without making one difference in their prosperity. Pakistan will be no different. China has never been in nation building (unlike USA).
Plus 3rd rate education in Pak.
Ramesh: "Plus 3rd rate education in Pak. "
Here are a few facts about India's "first rate" education:
1. Indian kinds perform at the bottom of the rankings for international standardized tests like PISA and TIMSS.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2011/12/pisa-timss-confirm-low-quality-of.html
2. Pakistani kids outperform Indian kids according to ASER assessment tests.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2014/08/pakistani-children-outperform-indian.html
3. Over 80% of Indian engineering grads are unemployable, according to Aspiring Minds, an Indian employability assessment firm that did a a study of 150,000 engineering students at 650 engineering colleges in the country.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-skills-shortfall-challenges-modis-manufacturing-vision-1470653407
In 1985 I was posted in New Delhi for a news agency. When I use to travel to Pakistan, the country without a doubt looked better and the per capita income affirmed that. Pakistan was 65% higher than India. In terms of literacy India was ahead but economically Pakistan appeared better.
After 30 years, Pakistan appears stagnant and India now seem to gallop away. Per capita of India is now almost 30% higher and the gap, I assume, will widen.
Margie: "economically Pakistan appeared better....After 30 years, Pakistan appears stagnant and India now seem to gallop away. Per capita of India is now almost 30% higher and the gap, I assume, will widen"
Pakistan still looks better to people who have recently traveled to both nations. They found Pakistan is more developed, cleaner and better organized than India.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2012/07/indians-share-eye-opening-stories-of.html
As to the reported per capita incomes, the fact is that the median income in Pakistan is much higher than India.
As a result, Pakistan has a larger and richer middle class than India, according to a recent Credit Suisse wealth report.
Average ($4,459) and median ($2,216) wealth figures for Pakistani middle class adults are higher than average ($4,352) and median ($868) wealth figures for their Indian middle class counterparts. It's a consequence of lower income wealth inequality in Pakistan compared to its neighbor. For comparison, only 1.1% of Bangladesh adult population qualify as middle class. Their average wealth is $2,201 and median wealth $1,102 per adult.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/10/wealth-report-pakistan-middle-class.html
The centre has not sincerely pursued a policy of dialogue with the exiled Baloch leadership, except for former Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch who made some efforts to reach out to Europe-based exiled Baloch leaders such as Khan of Kalat and Brahamdagh Bugti.
Bugti surprisingly demonstrated willingness to negotiate with the government. Islamabad did not trust his commitment because the Baloch leader simultaneously kept on seeking international support for the Baloch independence movement in his interviews, which meant that he had not fully withdrawn from his demand for a free Balochistan.
One understands the military's disillusionment with the slipping state of affairs in Balochistan where insurgents keep frequently attacking official installations and killing security forces.
The Frontier Corps once again forced students and teachers to celebrate this year’s Independence Day.
Instead of healing the Baloch people's wounds, the establishment has promoted a dangerous wave of hyper Pakistani nationalism. Hence, people like Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti spend most of their time questioning other people’s patriotism and resort to bizarre ways to prove themselves as better Pakistanis than the rest.
Basically, this is a flawed strategy to produce patriotic citizens.
Excellent piece by Pevez Hoodbhoy in Dawn:
MORE and more Pakistanis have come to believe that they live in a hostile and conspiratorial world with shadowy enemies all around bent on the country’s destruction. The suicide bombing which shredded almost a full generation of Baloch lawyers in a Quetta hospital was instantly declared the work of India’s spy agency RAW by Balochistan’s Chief Minister, Sanaullah Zehri. No proof was offered that a foreign hand was responsible for this grisly act of terror. Nor did the ISPR spokesperson present evidence of what he alleged — that the attack had actually targeted the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.
Sadly, it is not just the government and military which presents conclusions without evidence, and which allows personal or institutional interests to override good judgment. A paranoid style has come to dominate politics in Pakistan. All you have to do is turn on the TV and watch political talk shows where anchors and guests compete for the highest levels of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.
Even Pakistan’s intelligentsia has sometimes used paranoia to further its self-interest. I can bear personal witness to one such situation involving almost the entire faculty of Quaid-i-Azam University.
Jawaid E: "Excellent piece by Pevez Hoodbhoy in Dawn"
When Pakistan accused Wali Khan of working for RAW, people like Hoodbhoy called it a conspiracy theory.
Decades later, Indian RAW officer RK Yadav has confirmed Wali Khan's work with RAW in his book as follows:
On Pakhtunistan Page 21:
" Wali Khan (son of Abdul Ghaffar Khan aka Bacha Khan) wanted moral, political and other support from Mrs. Indira Gandhi. R.N. Kao sent his deputy Sankaran Nair to negotiate as the Indian representative. Since Pakistan embassy was keeping watch on the movements of Wali Khan, the rendezvous was shifted to Sweden where Nair and another R&AW man of Indian mission I.S. Hassanwalia met Wali Khan. Subsequently all sorts of support was given to Wali Khan by the Indian Government till 1977 when Indira Gandhi lost election".
Similarly, Agartala Conspiracy charge was dismissed by many in Pakistan as just another "conspiracy theory".
On Agartala Conspiracy Page 197:
"In view of the disclosures of S.K. Nair, it is evidently true that Mujib was implicated in the Agartala Conspiracy case at the instance of Pakistan Government. However, it is also true that other accused in this case were certainly agents of Intelligence Bureau (IB) in India"
http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/05/ex-indian-spy-documents-raws-successes.html
Is Terrorism Getting Worse? In the West, Yes. In the World, No.
Margot Sanger-Katz @sangerkatz AUG. 16, 2016
If it feels as if terrorism deaths are rising in the West, it’s because they are. Yet the numbers remain relatively small, and globally, deaths from terrorism appear to be declining, not rising.
According to two big databases, the number of people who died in terror attacks in North America and Western Europe rose markedly in 2015, claiming more than 200 lives. This year, according to one count, it is on track to be even worse.
But terrorism in the West is rare. In the parts of the world where it is more common — deaths in those regions are in the thousands rather than the dozens — terror attacks appear to be decreasing.
And as bad as terrorism has been in the West recently, it was worse in the 1970s and 1980s.
High-profile attacks in cities that include Brussels; Paris; Orlando, Fla.; and San Bernardino, Calif., have fed public fears of terrorism in the United States and made it a big issue in the presidential campaign. President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump have all highlighted the risk of terrorism at home.
Analysts who monitor terror attacks around the world note that risk perception doesn’t always correspond to actual risk. The groups committing acts of terrorism over time have changed, of course. But data from the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland, which has cataloged terrorist attacks since 1970, shows last year’s terrorism death toll would have been fairly typical for an earlier era.
Terrorism Killed More Westerners in the 1970s and 1980s
The death toll from terrorism increased in the West last year, with large attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., and Paris. But terrorism was more deadly in decades past.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/16/upshot/is-terrorism-getting-worse-in-the-west-yes-in-the-world-no.html?_r=0
Slumdog India got 2 medals in Plympics. Shining Pakiland which is getting upgraded by Moodys and MSCI has come back emptyhanded 7th time in a row. prof Riazul Haq sb, jawaab do! Jawaab do!!! Jawaab do!!!
Regards
Majumdar: "prof Riazul Haq sb, jawaab do! Jawaab do!!! Jawaab do!!!"
It's a sad story. I don't see it getting any better anytime soon.
Good! Our tax rupees are being put to some good use. A+++++++ Agency, will invest more!
I bet Allama Iqbal was very prescient. He was referring to MQM's Altaf Husain when he wrote: Jaafar az Bangal Sadiq az Dakan/ Nange e Millat Nange Deen Nange Watan. http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/07/london-met-police-confirm-document.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXGsdEvl-FM
Riaz Haq Sahib, you do not have to publish this comment. I find myself agreeing with your analysis at least 99% , if not 100% of the time. I also find myself disagreeing with Mr. Cemendtaur's analysis the majority of the time. However, one thing I do admire about him is his ability to patiently sit and wait his turn and maintain his cool during the discussion regardless of how controversial the discussion is. I know he makes very outrageous and illogical statements at times (actually quite frequently), but I find that you lose your patience very quickly, and start interrupting, which raises the temperature of the discussion, and makes it less professional. My suggestion is to distract yourself with taking notes while he's talking, and then address calmly each of his points when he's done. I think that will make your points much more impactful.
Riaz Haq, I find it insulting that you keep comparing Pakistan with the country that has given us Caste system and sutti. Who's only contribution to science is the invention of zero.
Time for Pakistan to start thinking big and get out of this competition with a third rate country.
G. Ali
Decline of #war and #violence. Death rate has fallen from 22 per 100,000 people in 1945 to 1.4 now http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/04/15/the-decline-war-and-violence/lxhtEplvppt0Bz9kPphzkL/story.html?event=event25 … via @BostonGlobe
By Joshua S. Goldstein and Steven Pinker APRIL 15, 2016
QUIETLY, AMID the carnage and chaos in the daily news, 2016 is shaping up as a good year for peace in the world. You read that right. A significant escalation of war over the past few years is, at the moment, abating.
For nearly two-thirds of a century, from 1945 to 2011, war had been in overall decline. The global death rate had fallen from 22 per 100,000 people to 0.3. But then the Syrian civil war became the bloodiest conflict in a generation, with hundreds of thousands killed, millions displaced, and multiple foreign powers joining the fight or supporting their proxies. The UN Security Council deadlocked on what to do about it, and eventually ISIS carved out a territory and enlarged it into Iraq and beyond.
New wars cropped up elsewhere. The world’s youngest country, South Sudan, fell into grotesque tribal violence. Nigeria lost territory to Boko Haram, with its penchant for kidnapping girls and other ways of brutalizing civilians. A Christian-Muslim divide in the Central African Republic devolved into a horrific civil war. Russia grabbed Crimea from Ukraine in flagrant violation of international law. An inept Saudi bombing campaign has devastated Yemen, while Libya has split into pieces controlled by armed groups including ISIS. To top it off, in several countries, Islamist militants carry out spectacles of bombing and shooting. By 2014 (the most recent year with complete data), the death rate had climbed to 1.4 per 100,000 — still far lower than in the Cold War years, but a troubling U-turn from the world’s peaceward course.
Because most of these wars have not yet ended, and because lurid terrorism continues in many parts of the world, almost nobody has noticed a happy development that wafted in during the first quarter of 2016: The level of war violence has fallen markedly. The big event is the partial cease-fire in Syria, which has now lasted for six weeks. Fighting with ISIS and the Nusra Front continues, and violations recur, but much of the country is breathing a sigh of relief, and humanitarian access has expanded substantially.
The Int'l Spectator @intlspectator 5h5 hours ago
US deaths cause, 2015
Suicide: 43,000
Motor accidents 32,000
Gun homicide: 13,286
Domestic violence: 1,600
Islamist terrorism: 19
Sharks: 1
Of course the point being missed is the number of thwarted terrorist attacks!
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/07/60-terrorist-plots-since-911-continued-lessons-in-domestic-counterterrorism
Catskill: " Of course the point being missed is the number of thwarted terrorist attacks!"
Vast majority of these "thwarted terrorist attacks" are manufactured by FBI and its informants.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2010/12/fbi-entrapping-young-muslims-in-phony.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-is-manufacturing-terrorism-cases-2016-6
The #FBI is 'manufacturing #terrorism cases' on a greater scale than ever before. #Islamophobia http://read.bi/1YgTvYo via @BI_Defense
The FBI has ramped up its use of sting operations in terrorism cases, dispatching undercover agents to pose as jihadists and ensnare Americans suspected of backing ISIS, aka the Islamic State, Daesh, or ISIL.
On Thursday, roughly 67% of prosecutions involving suspected ISIS supporters include evidence from undercover operations, according to The New York Times.
In many cases, agents will seek out people who have somehow demonstrated radical views, and then coax them into plotting an act of terrorism — often providing weapons and money. Before the suspects can carry out their plans, though, they're arrested.
But critics say that the FBI's tactics serve to entrap only individuals who would never have committed any violence without the government's instigation.
"They're manufacturing terrorism cases," Michael German, a former undercover agent with the FBI who now researches national-security law at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, told The Times. "These people are five steps away from being a danger to the United States."
'They target people who are genuinely psychotic'
Increasingly, experts are worried that undercover operations of this kind infringe on the rights of Americans.
Stephen Downs, an attorney and founding member of Project Salam , which gives legal support to Muslims, told Business Insider that " the government has developed a technique of engaging targets in conversations of a somewhat provocative nature, and then trying to pick up on things the target says, which might suggest illegal activity — and then trying to push them into pursuing those particular activities."
Downs also said that the FBI often targets particularly vulnerable people, such as those with mental disabilities.
"Very often, they [the FBI] target people who are genuinely psychotic, who are taking medication," he said.
Last March, The Intercept profiled 25-year-old Sami Osmakac, who was "broke and struggling with mental illness" when he became the target of an FBI sting operation.
"The FBI provided all of the weapons seen in Osmakac's martyrdom video," The Intercept reported. "The bureau also gave Osmakac the car bomb he allegedly planned to detonate, and even money for a taxi so he could get to where the FBI needed him to go."
A recent study cited by BuzzFeed examined undercover operations for signs of entrapment by looking at terrorism prosecutions dating back to 9/11.
The study coded each case for up to 20 signals that an individual had been a victim of this kind of entrapment, such as whether the defendant had no previous involvement in terrorism or whether they had been given some kind of monetary incentive to commit a crime.
The vast majority of the 317 cases involving undercover operations contained signs of entrapment.
Countless legal challenges have been made against these prosecutions, and facts supporting an entrapment defense are "pretty widespread," Jesse Norris, a legal scholar at SUNY Fredonia and the study’s leader, told BuzzFeed.
@catskill
@riaz
Both are right about thwarting terrorism and entrapment.
From the Shoe bomber to Time Square bomber many terrorist attacks were thwarted and casualties were prevented.
Entrapment was also carried out but it is conjecture how terrorist attacks were prevented. However, the low number (19) in itself is a sign that such attacks didn't cause high number of deaths.
Factually incorrect:
I hope Mr. Riaz Haq post my this comment for factual correction of this guy.
G. Ali: "Who's only contribution to science is the invention of zero."
For sure,
Ranked 9th worldwide in international science ranking:
http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php
Ranked 13th at global research (above Russia's 19th).
http://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/us-tops-global-research-performance
http://www.natureindex.com/annual-tables/2016/country/all
For inventions:
In USTPO 2015, patents filed,
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/st_co_15.htm
India: 3415 (too high for a third world nation even after taking our population into account),
Bangladesh: 2
Pakistan: 16
Sri Lanka: 7
I don't need to mention about Indian space program, R&D nearly equal to total Indian Defense Budget($50 billions), making INO- Indian counterpart of CERN (with four times bigger magnet than CERN) or innovating much more, like trials of world's first leprosy vaccine recently.
No offense intended, but put your facts right.
We are well ahead here,plus scientific achievements contribute to growth and pride a lot,
admit or not.
Regards
Man of Action
All #India Radio to start programmes in #Balochi language. #Pakistan #Modi http://ecoti.in/7bvcsZ via The Economic Times
Public broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) is planning to focus on its news service in Baluchi language, a move which comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged concerns about the condition of people in Balochistan in Pakistan.
Senior officials said that while AIR has a service in Baluchi, which commenced in 1974, the broadcaster is now looking to augment the news bulletin component.
"The All India Radio (AIR) already has a service in Baluchi language which air ..
Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/53944506.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Anti-#Pakistan hawk & ex spy Ajit Doval shaping #India's aggressive foreign policy under #Modi #BJP http://bloom.bg/2cwLzOT via @business
He spent seven years undercover in Pakistan, recruited rebels as informants in disputed Kashmir, and once disguised himself as a rickshaw driver to infiltrate a militant group inside India’s holiest Sikh temple. Now some consider Ajit Doval the most powerful person in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi picked Doval as his National Security Advisor, a position that holds more sway than the ministers of defense and foreign affairs. It puts Doval in charge of talks with arch-rival Pakistan. He visits arms manufacturers to discuss strategic capabilities, and orchestrates the response to militant attacks, liaising daily with Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, the nation’s top diplomat.
Since Doval took the job, he has supported a nationalist agenda while adopting a tougher line against hostile neighbors. That has growing economic ramifications as China funds a $45 billion trade corridor through Pakistan that bypasses India and as both China and India eye resource-rich neighbors in central Asia like Afghanistan.
“Every strategic issue in this region involves security in a way that it doesn’t in other regions,” says R. K. Sawhney, a former director general of military intelligence who’s known Doval for nearly two decades. “As the profile of the country grows, the profile of the national security advisor grows.”
Short, trim and bespectacled, Doval shuns the limelight and rarely appears in public. His office said he wasn’t available for an interview. Six people who have known him personally for years—some of whom requested not to be identified because he dislikes publicity—said Doval is overseeing India’s most delicate diplomatic issues.
Shortly after taking office, Modi sent Doval as his special envoy to Afghanistan and brought him on his first foreign trip to Bhutan. He’s also special representative in charge of talks with China over a disputed border, a task made more difficult as China plans to invest millions into transportation links through Kashmir, an area claimed by both India and Pakistan.
In December, Doval flew to Bangkok for a secret meeting with his Pakistani counterpart in an effort to restart peace talks between the two nuclear-armed nations.
Calls for Doval’s replacement intensified after Home Minister Rajnath Singh suffered a politically embarrassing trip to Pakistan in August that Doval pulled out of at the last minute, according to press reports. A spokesman for the prime minister's office declined to answer questions about Doval.
“The best experts on how to deal with terrorism, how to think about diplomacy and foreign affairs—they are not being consulted,” opposition politician Rahul Gandhi, son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, said in January. Doval’s job is “strategy, not tactics.”
No government website carries Doval’s profile. A biography provided during a lecture he gave in August 2015 in Mumbai stated he was born in 1945 in Garhwal, in a northern region now called Uttarakhand, and graduated with a master’s degree in economics from the University of Agra in 1967 before joining the police force.
In 1972, he moved to the Intelligence Bureau, where he spent three decades, including stints in the restive regions of India’s northeast, Jammu and Kashmir, and the U.K. Doval is fluent in Urdu, the main language used in Pakistan. He told an audience in November 2014 he had lived in Pakistan for seven years, getting plastic surgery to remove signs his ears had been pierced—an indication of his Hindu roots.
“I haven’t seen anyone else at his level who would continue to come into the field,” said S.S. Virk, former director general of police in Punjab who was shot during the Golden Temple operation and says Doval visited him at the hospital. “He was an outstanding operator.”
Gen (R) David H. Petraeus' remarks on security challenges facing the new US administration at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a British security think tank in London:
"There's no question there's communication between the ISI and various militant groups in FATA and Balochistan (Haqqanis, Taliban, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, etc) but some of it you'd do anyway as an intelligence service.....there may be some degree of accommodation that is forced on them (Pakistanis) because of the limits of their (Pakistan's) forces.... I looked very very hard then (as US commander in Afghanistan) and again CIA director at the nature of the relationship between the various (militant) groups in FATA and Baluchistan and the Pakistan Army and the ISI and I was never convinced of what certain journalists have alleged (about ISI support of militant groups in FATA).... I have talked to them (journalists) asked them what their sources are and I have not been able to come to grips with that based on what I know from these different positions".
Some people say Pakistan is a frenemy...it is just very very difficult to pin down (blame on Pakistan) and it's even more difficult to figure out how to exert leverage that in a meaningful way resolves the issue There was a period when we cut off all assistance (to Pakistan) and ties and held up F-16s that we were supposed to deliver for a while and that did not help our influence there (in Pakistan). It's a very very tough situation and it may be among the top two or three challenges for the new administration right up there with Syria".
https://youtu.be/XcqJt6hHXQc
#Pakistan Ambassador Makes Case to Stop #India-Sponsored #Terrorism to #UN.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/01/06/world/asia/ap-as-pakistan-india.html?_r=0
Pakistan's foreign ministry says Islamabad has handed over a dossier to the United Nations over the alleged involvement of India in acts of terrorism in the Islamic nation.
In a statement, it said Pakistani ambassador Maleeha Lodhi on Friday delivered a set of documents regarding India's alleged role in fomenting terrorism in Pakistan to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The announcement comes months after Pakistan captured an Indian spy, Kulbhushan Jadhav, saying he was behind acts of terrorism in the country. So far, Islamabad has not granted consular access to Jadhav following India's request.
Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations. In recent months they have repeatedly exchanged fire in Kashmir, the border territory divided between them and claimed by both.
Quetta to get 8.1m gallon water from Mangi dam - Pakistan Observer
https://pakobserver.net/quetta-to-get-8-1m-gallon-water-from-mangi-dam/
Mangi Dam is to be completed by December 2023 to provide around 8.1 million gallon of water daily to Quetta city and surrounding areas, an official of the Balochistan government said on Monday. The development work on Mangi Dam had been accelerated which would help overcome the shortfall of water in the area, he added.
The construction of various dams on the outskirts of Quetta city including Mangi Dam, Srah Khullah Dam and others would supply water to Quetta through pipelines. With the completion of these projects water issue would be resolved in the provincial capital, he added.
Post a Comment