Pakistan needs aid for development of tribal areas: Gilani

ISLAMABAD, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said Pakistan needs aid from the international community to carry out its social and economic development programme for tribal areas. In an interview to a Belgian newspaper Le Soir, the Prime Minister said, “after the successful military operations, we now need a social and economic development programme.” He said the government has already measured local needs and damages done by the insurgents and schools, bridges and public buildings have to be constructed and it is now that they have to win the hearts and minds of the people.

He said, “We have told the European Union that we will need its aid.”

“We are looking beyond terrorism. We are going for a long run relationship with Europe. For the tribal zones, where we are militarily involved, we don’t only need Europe, but the whole world,” he added.

The Prime Minister said the present military efforts weigh on the economy and “we need an exit strategy: the military is not a solution”.

“The army shouldn’t stay longer than necessary in these zones ·

unless to install the authority,” he added.

To a question, he said, “We control the strongholds of the insurgents of South Waziristan, Orakzai, Malakand and Swat.”

The militants are in retreat, looking for places to establish themselves, territories where they could demoralize the Pakistani security forces, he added.

He pointed out the reaction of terrorists is to attack civil populations – weak targets, but the government is certainly not losing the control of the territory.

“We can find them for example in Sindh or Punjab. But that doesn’t mean that they control Punjab.”

To a question about the attack in Lahore on the Ahmadi community, the Prime Minister said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) took protection of the minorities to the heart.

“For the first time we have appointed a minister from a minority – a Christian – who is in charge of minorities. After the attack took place, I sent him together with the Minister of Home Affairs to Lahore,” he added.

He said the government had condemned the attacks. The terrorists have no religion, no frontiers, their only agenda is to destabilize the country and that is why they want to provoke sectarian violence, he remarked.

Prime Minister Gilani said the attacks did not have a religious significance as the terrorists want to use sectarian conflicts as aninstrument.

“Besides, we are tackling the laws that are discriminatory against minorities,” he added.

He said during the previous Musharraf government he was in 1prison. “I even heard on the television during my detention that we are a country with an energy excess.”

He said in 1994 Benazir Bhutto had introduced a programme of IPPs, independent electrical power plants, that were strongly criticized by the opposition.

“But without these IPPs, the situation would be even more serious. Yes, we have problems of energy supply caused by a bad planning, inherited from the previous regime.”

The Prime Minister said to have new power projects, the government needs a time of three years, even in short term.

“In the medium term we have planned at five years and the long term at more than twenty years. We have explored everything: coal, water, thermo, solar, nuclear energy and windmills. It will take time. But we don’t have a deficit of more than 2000 MW,” he added.

World must boost cooperation against terrorism: Qureshi

ISLTANBUL, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi attended a special event titled ‘Security and Economic Cooperation in Euroasia in the 21st Century’ held on the sidelines of 3rd Conference on Interaction and Confidence building measures in Asia (CICA) Summit at Istanbul on Monday.The foreign minister in his intervention stated that in today’s global landscape, security and development are intrinsically linked, adding, the issues of concerns for Pakistan are terrorism, organised crime, drugs, money laundering, etc.

“Security thus needs a common coordinated approach, which is indispensable for human social and economic development,” Qureshi emphasised, according to a message received here from Istanbul.

He said, “Terrorism posed the most serious challenge to our open societies,” adding, the democratic government in Pakistan has evolved a national consensus against the forces of extremism and terrorism.

“It is important that the international community pursues a cooperative approach against the threat of terrorism.

He said this entails a two pronged strategy: “On one side we need real-time intelligence sharing, cooperation in law enforcement, and mutual legal assistance.”

“On the other side we need to address the root causes which radicalise people such as economic deprivation, political injustices, foreign occupation, and denial of fundamental rights including the right of self-determination, for example Palestine and Kashmir.”

The foreign minister urged closer economic cooperation among Euroasian countries for addressing poverty, unemployment and under development.

International Implications Of Malegaon Blasts

By Mustafa Khan

Unfortunately Indian foreign policy and much that goes in matters of internal security vis-à-vis terrorism in MHA is captive to the partition of the country. If this were not so the sleuths of Haryana would have cracked the Samjhauta express attack of 2007 and carried it to its logical end. The national security advisor MK Narayanan would not have to advise the government to reverse the investigation in order to not stand in the rank of ISI over Samjahuta. However unpalatable this may be but we have got stuck in the rut of retaliation.

One fact of this is that we are closer to Israel today than we ever were. In the early seventies Pune had a poster pasted at public places asking Indians to know who is causing hardship to them due to the oil embargo and petrol crunch. This kind of insinuation has not stopped.

Israel has a bearing on the bomb blasts in Malegaon in 2006 and 2008. Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit worked in his capacity as liaison officer of the military intelligence of the Indian army dealing with counter terrorism. He was also a member of Abhinav Bharat and had established contact with the Jewish state officials. It is difficult to say without official confirmation if he acted as a military officer when he interacted with the Israelis. Indian police and army have very close contact with the Jewish state ever since 1993 and particularly after the visit of Moshe Dayan and the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. DGP of Maharashtra Shivanand and former SP of Nashik (rural) Rajwardhan have visited Israel. Like them Purohit must have also visited Israel and met Mossad agents and other officials. They had told him to prove two incidents on the ground for which they vouchsafed support for the proposed Hindu Rashtra which Abhinav Bharat wanted to establish.

Purohit averred in his confession and in the narco test that he had given RDX for Samjhauta express attack and had used non Wahabi or Salafi Muslims earlier (the 2006 blasts). When this writer wrote “Malegaon: the Israeli connection” emails poured in Hebrew, a sure sign how sensitive and tangent is the matter. Protests or support show the extent of involvement. Until Nehru and Indira Gandhi our foreign policy was clear cut type of the non-alignment movement of which India was a leading founder member. But since the induction of the BJP into government at centre a kind of relativity has come in our diplomatic relationship. The perception that Israel besieged by hostile Islamic countries is worthy of emulation has led to our security agencies dispatching officials to the new Mecca of security in the Middle East for training.

A particular tactic in our so called war on terror is to use informers of the target community in a place in acts of espionage and acts of violence deemed as efficacious in counter-terrorism. The Israelis have used it during the Intifada movement of the Palestinians to counter the protests as well as in their war on ‘terror.’ They have brainwashed Indian security agencies into adopting this. As most of the Indian officials visiting Israel are RSS tainted the strategy works on the assumption that your enemy’s enemy is your friend. It is not for nothing that Moshe Dayan( Israeli Defence and Foreign minister) entered India in the garb of a dhoti clad Hindu!

The other acquired tactic in our strategy of fighting ‘terror’ is what national security advisor MK Narayanan spoke in the aftermath of the bombing of our embassy in Kabul, paying Pakistan in the same coin. When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Sharm al Sheikh accepted our involvement in the troubled regions of Pakistan many were shocked and disturbed. India is now viewed as making a concerted effort in league with the US and Israel in fight on ‘terror.’ This new, but not so ‘shining’ India, stands in contrast with the non-alignment movement India of yore.

Thus much of what happened in Malegaon since the dawn of the twenty first century is on account of what we have inherited: a complex world. Street protests with banners showing pictures of Osama bin Laden and slogans in support of Iraq and in condemnation of the US and Israel, handbills calling on the people to “be Indian and buy Indian” and boycott Jewish owned companies’ products led to riots of October 2001 and cast shadow on the blasts of 2006 and 2008. Those who were sighted in the protest march were hounded and arrested as members of SIMI and framed in the bomb attacks. This meets the overall strategic requirement of the war on ‘terror’. That is, involve the members of the target community in crimes, blame them for what happens and shrug off your shoulder saying: your people conspired, you bombed, your people died, your people were injured and your people were caught and your people are convicted.

It was inevitable that this would not work in India. We are a different democracy than either the US in the stranglehold of the Zionists, or Israelis pampered and sustained by the US.

This resurfaced in the first week of June 2010 as the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Israel Avigdor Lieberman told the UN General Secretary that the international community ignored 500 people killed in the last one month of May in Thailand, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Iraq. Nobody bothered about that. But Israel is condemned for “unmistakably defensive action” in which nine died in Israeli raid on the aid to Gaza flotilla. Israeli ambassador Mark Sofer tried to salvage the situation saying Israeil doe not see India in the same light as it does its enemies. (AA June 3, 2010). This shows how far we have strayed from the earlier era.

Nonetheless there are individuals sans constraints of diplomacy. There was a boy Adam David Foley from Washington in Malegaon who saw the bomb blasts on September 8, 2008 and found it similar to 9/11 in devastation and casualties. Similarly there are individuals in India even in uniform who viewed the matters differently. Maeker PI, Vijay Salaskar and other officers of ATS at the Kurla ATS office were glued to the TV as it switched on to blasts scenes from Malegaon cemetery shortly after the prayer. Instantaneously they clapped hands, expressed great happiness, congratulated each other, and shook hands with each other. There was a prisoner Mohammad Ali Sheikh whom the PI addressed: “look! Our activists of Bajrang Dal have avenged the 1993 serial bomb blasts of Bombay!”(Inquilab August 17, 2008). Worthy of note here is the participation of Vijay Salaskar who fell as a victim of terrorism on 26/11 at Cama hospital. It raises question whether we can fight terrorism in the same stereotyped fashion as we have been fighting communal riots?

Advani would like to. He even asked the prime minister to change the investigation team of Karkare who was doing the right job. Bal Thackeray would do so for he was ready to publish the names of the investigation officers who were allegedly handling roughly the Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur.

Most Pakistanis are pacifist, says survey

By Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD: A majority of Pakistanis don’t approve of Islamabad’s decision to join the US-led war on terror but, at the same time, they don’t believe that the Taliban are fighting for Islam, according to a survey carried out by the Pak Institute for Peace Studies (Pips).

Surprisingly, there are not many Taliban sympathisers in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Only 22pc respondents in Fata and 25.3pc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa believe the Taliban are fighting for Islam.

Findings of the “Radicalisation in Pakistan” survey released on Tuesday show that 63.6 per cent of the respondents were against joining the war on terror, and 46.3pc were of the opinion that the Taliban were not fighting for Islam.

Even among those who sounded sympathetic to the militant organisation, 39.7pc condemned its acts of violence, such as attacks on girls’ schools, cinemas and CD shops. But about 22pc of them did not know how to respond to such acts.

According to the survey report, Taliban has sympathisers mostly in Balochistan (49.4pc) and Punjab (30.1pc) who believe that they are fighting for Islam.

Surprisingly, there are not many Taliban sympathisers in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Only 22pc respondents in Fata and 25.3pc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa believe the Taliban are fighting for Islam.

However, 45.7pc of the respondents in Fata did not respond to the question.

The report reveals that Taliban do not enjoy much support in Sindh, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The respondents appeared concerned about the condition of Muslims and 77.7pc thought that they lagged behind other nations. Most of them (31.2pc) were of the opinion that this is because they had deviated from Islam. Only 18.1pc maintained that it was due to their backwardness in the fields of science and technology.

Another significant finding is that a large number of people (46.8pc) want religio-political parties given a chance to rule the country, despite the fact that the electoral performance of these parties were not “impressive’ in October 2002 when analysts attributed whatever success they achieved to the strong anti-American sentiments in the country.

The respondents also expressed interesting views on Jihad.

Very few (2.7pc) were of the view that Muslims had failed to progress in the world because they had lost their passion to fight against their enemies. About 28pc people believed that Jihad should be waged against cruelty and not to spread Islam to every corner of the world as five per cent of the respondents believed.

A large number of the respondents (20.4pc) were concerned about religious differences in the country. They blamed these disagreements for sectarianism and religious extremism.

However, a large number of people (21.6pc) did not take the disagreements seriously and said that these had been preordained and prophesied. The survey clearly captures growing religiosity among the masses.

Not surprisingly, 65pc of the respondents said a person who did not pray five times a day could not become a better Muslim. Nearly 59pc of them said the struggle for implementation of Sharia was also Jihad.

However, about 81pc of the respondents considered female education as “extremely necessary” and only a small percentage (12.5) thought it was “not very important”.

Nearly 23pc of the people surveyed said they did not listen to music, and (15.8pc) of them said it was because of religious reasons.

Interestingly, 51pc of the total sample endorsed Junaid Jamshaid’s decision to quit singing.

The respondents were from all urban and rural areas in the four provinces, Fata, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir (excluding military restricted areas).

The survey population was selected through probability/random sampling. Most of the people (53.4 and 14.8pc, respectively) belonged to urban areas and small towns. But a significant proportion (29.9pc) came from the rural community. A large majority of the respondents were either in intermediate (29.3pc) or pursuing a graduation or master’s degree (37.5pc).

Only 8.3pc of the people were not literate and 2.2pc had received only madressah education.

Interestingly, the general perception about the wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir is at variance with the recent militant discourse.