Advertise! You fools!

pease sir dont say anything about indian people if you dont have proper information. dont believe what your millitary rulers make you believe and have some brain to write articles like this.and if you have never heard of what democracy is dont blaim democracy for that

DUSHANBE, September 27 (Itar-Tass) - President Burhanuddin Rabbani`s lawful government of Afghanistan has ``undeniable proofs`` that Pakistani armed forces are fighting on the side of the Talibs and it is ready to submit this evidence to the world community, Military Attache of the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe Muhhamad Soleh Registani told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. He said that ``there are undeniable facts, proving that several hundred Pakistani servicemen from the 1,500-man contingent now deployed on the Pakistani-Afghan border, had attempted the other day, jointly with the Talibs, to invade Afghani Badahshan, which is controlled by troops of the Northern Alliance, but were driven back to the Pakistani border town of Chitral``.

The 197th regiment, commanded by captain Mumin, which is a unit of the 9th division of the Pakistani armed forces, as well as special regiment 998, had fought against units of the Northern Alliance in Takhar province, trying to advance towards Talukan, Registani stressed. As many as sixty Pakistani officers and more than one hundred privates were killed in the course of the fighting. Found on them were documents proving that they were servicemen of the Pakistani armed forces. The military diplomat of the Afghan embassy in Dushanbe noted that hundreds of mercenaries from several foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and the Philippines, were now fighting on the side of the Talibs. There are also some Chechen fighters, which proves undeniably that foreign states are directly interfering in the intra-Afghan conflict.

A top Afghan envoy today called on the international community to apply sanctions on Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of providing military aid to the ruling Taliban militia. Abdul Rahim, an envoy of ousted Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani said that Pakistani warplanes had been bombing northern territory in Afghanistan. ``The (UN) Security Council has reinforced sanctions against the Taliban but this will not be effective. You need sanctions against Pakistan,`` he told a news conference in Moscow. Pakistan strongly denies providing military backing to the Islamic militia.

NO PLAGIARISM,

FROM NATION OF TODAY,

Anti-two nation theory drive

It is gratifying to note the editorial comments under the title ``Balderdash``! You have very rightly pointed out that some political elements in our country in tune with our enemies are maliciously engaged in crying down the Two Nation Theory by taking advantage of the existing economic imbalance between the different provinces.

In this connection one is constrained to point out that a foreign country has become the den for anti-Two Nation Theory propaganda. Pakistan is not only a sovereign country, but it is also a member of the Commonwealth. The normal international practice is that no one is allowed to indulge in vituperations against a sister country sitting within the protection of another country. But this particular country, i.e. the United Kingdom, did all its could to be inimical to the interest of Pakistan at the time of partition of the Subcontinent in 1947. Even later, during the 1971 crisis ship-loads of armaments were dispatched from the shores of UK to the insurgents in the then East Pakistan. When I made a verbal complaint to the then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of UK, Sir Douglas Home, he ordered an inquiry with, of course, no tangible results.

/// It is time for 3NT, to provide some sense of direction for pakistan, before it is torn apart by the competing neighbours.

There is a verse for Jay Thackeray written by the poet of loathed Urdu.

``Dhanpa Kafan Ne Dagh-e Euyoob-e Barhangi``

Mein Varna Harr Libas Mein Nang-e Wajood Thaa``

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap09-25-100214.asp?reg=ASIA

ASIA`S ISLAM: Mysticism, militancy, melting pot



ASSOCIATED PRESS



LAHORE, Pakistan, Sept. 25 — Amid echoes of the wailing summons to prayer, a mother shoves her young son, his tattered clothes black with grime, into a compound guarded by men with Kalashnikov rifles.

She pleads with the principal of the religious school: ``Take him. Make him study. Keep him safe.``





Bibi Jan has five older children at home. She tells the principal she cannot feed the children she has. She begs him to take the youngest boy. He accepts.

It is in the tens of thousands of religious schools like Jamiat-al-Manzoor-Al-Islam where the fierce militancy that has come to characterize Islam in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan is perpetuated.

And that militant Islam has created ``a real image problem`` for Pakistan, says Information Minister Javed Jabbar.

It overshadows the reality that the overwhelming majority of Pakistan`s 140 million people — at least 95 percent of them Muslim — live in harmony with their brethren and desire similar accord with the rest of the

world.

Carved off India`s two flanks 53 years ago as a homeland for Muslims of the subcontinent (East Pakistan eventually broke away and became Bangladesh), Pakistan has Islam at the heart of its identity.

Decades later, however, it still struggles to determine what path that heart will take: striding toward a progressive Islamic state or embracing the dictates of conservatives who seek a harsher Islam, akin to Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Most analysts and intellectuals think radical Islamic clerics have the upper hand, strengthened by a succession of corrupt governments that have catered to

the rich and ignored the poor.

And the poor are everywhere. Pakistan`s average annual income is $400. The work force includes 3 million children younger than 15. Clean water and adequate health

care are luxuries. Most Pakistanis cannot read or write; the official literacy rate is 30 percent and for women is probably no more than 5 percent.

Pakistan has more poor today than 10 years ago, according to a government economic survey released in June, and the deprivation has allowed fundamentalism to flourish.

In a country whose 110,000 government-run schools stagger to accommodate 80 million school-age children, where the rich and middle class can opt for private schools, the poor are turning to religious schools.

Here they learn about ``jihad`` — holy war. Here they are taught that to die fighting for Islam is to go straight to heaven as a martyr.

At the Jamia Faiz-ul-Aloom school in Lahore, a 10-year-old boy is asked what he wants to do when he grows up.

``I want to kill kafirs (unbelievers). I want to fight in jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan.``

What about becoming a doctor or lawyer, he is asked. ``I think I would like to be a doctor, but first I want to fight in the jihad.``

As wide as is the gap between rich and poor is the chasm between progressive and conservative.

In Karachi, a cosmopolitan port on the Arabian Sea coast, loud music booms from clubs and restaurants with names like Cafe New York, Nacho Nanas and TGIF. Teen-agers in Western clothing hang out in shopping plazas, sipping soft drinks.

At one Karachi plaza, a girl is accosted by a veiled woman who demands to know why she is wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

``I was very angry,`` says the girl, identifying herself only as Maria. ``I knew what she wanted to hear, so I said, `I want to look sexy,` and I walked away. Who is she to ask me this?``

But in Pakistan`s conservative, intensely tribal northwest, women don`t challenge the command to cover themselves head to toe, men and women socialize publicly only in family groupings and Islamic clerics set the rules.

Recently, clerics ordered Muslim men to forcibly wed any woman found working with international aid organizations and keep her ``within your four walls for

the rest of her life.``

The order for foreign women who work for the relief groups was even harsher: Kill them, the clerics said.

Enter Pakistan`s year-old military government.

The regime`s leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, says he is committed to a modern, tolerant and progressive Islamic Pakistan.

``I have been saying there is a misperception of our religion, a misperception that our religion stands for some kinds of extremism, militarism, fundamentalism,`` Musharraf says. Seen as a moderate Muslim when he seized power from Pakistan`s corrupt civilian government last October,

Musharraf has since been criticized even by some allies for giving in to the religious right. The critics say he was trying to head off right-wing protests that would discourage the investment Pakistan sorely needs for economic recovery.

After pressure from the Islamic right, Musharraf reneged on a promise to tighten Pakistan`s blasphemy statutes, which now permit unchallenged jailing of the accused on unsubstantiated complaints.

He also restored to the constitution Islamic laws governing the testimony of women in court. In financial cases, for example, the testimony of two women is required to counter that of one man. And in rape cases, a

woman`s accusation is discounted unless four devout Muslim men say they witnessed the assault.

Pakistan also supports Islamic guerrillas in the Indian portion of Kashmir, a Himalyan region where Muslim separtists have fought Indian soldiers for 11 years seeking independence or merger with Pakistan.

Analysts in Pakistan say that as long as the Kashmir dispute lingers, the Pakistanti government will be unable to rein in the Islamic extremists operating at home.

Out in the country, local bureaucrats take their lead from the government in Islamabad, siding with Islamic clerics who oppose any challenges to their influence.

In the rugged hills of Dir, part of the

conservative northwest, women draped in oversized shawls have for two years moved quietly through the villages, encouraging women to send their girls to school.

Thirty-seven new schools for girls, some just humble wooden shacks, have enrolled 1,500 students.

``People so want to send their girls to school. Everything is done by the villagers. They supply the electricity, the building,`` says Ghazala Bibi, a rare local woman who left her village to get a college degree as a teacher. ``It is the mullahs who don`t want it. They are afraid.``

Instead of receiving protection from the local

government, she and her colleagues are warned to stay home and mothers are told to keep their daughters away.

Pakistan`s police also take their cue from the military leaders, enforcing the codes of behavior prescribed by hardline clerics rather than curbing their excesses.



Addressing a graduating class at a girls college, Islamabad`s police chief issued this warning: ``Don`t smile or laugh while in the market because it might give the wrong impression to young boys, and it would then be your fault if they misbehave.``

Karachi police recently stopped a teen-age couple. Their crime: being unmarried.

``The police asked us our relationship and when we said we were just friends, they said, `This is an Islamic country and it is a crime for boys and girls who are not married to mix together,``` Kamil Bhatti recalls.



``We were really afraid,`` he adds. ``When I graduate, I will leave Pakistan because I am afraid of what my country is becoming.``

jay #254:

A PATHETIC SIGHT

Yes indeed!

Don`t forget to take your medicine orally, jay thackeray;)

--t

A PATHETIC SIGHT,

In almost every paper is the sight of some pakistani, complaining that he has not bee given the visa to go to us, canada, any where. Why cant these people accept that it is up to the americans to decide whome they want in. Thses pakistanis appear to be upset, they appear to be demanding justice, my foot a country sending killers accross the borders in the name of religion, what is there to complain about, go as jihadists, take the pathe of the moulana Asghar, get around by hijacking. From nation of today,

Visa rejection

Almost every Pakistani wants to go to the developed countries with the dream of a better future. Some of them do not want to come back, but some do not entertaining the idea of staying on permanently after getting the visit visa. I am certain that my case falls in the second category.

My son Wajid Ali Malik is a Canadian citizen. His wife is expecting a baby in October and he wanted me to be there in accordance with our family traditions. He completed all the requirements of a visitor`s visa and sent the papers to me in Lahore. On the basis of these papers, I applied for a visa on September 18. But on September 20, I received a letter (File No. V000900720, handwritten) from the Canadian High Commission which elaborated the `standard` reasons for declining the visa. Obviously it was a big disappointment as I fulfilled all the requirements. Interestingly, I feel that the letter of the High Commissioner is a kind of permanent document which is sent to all to whom a visa is declined. This can be substantiated by the fact this `Permanent Document` is photocopied and not personally addressed. I believe that the concerned officer did not thoroughly examine my papers and rejected my application without realising that I am not going to Canada on my own. Rather I had been invited by my son who is bearing all my expenses not only for this visit but in Pakistan as well.

Bangladeshis demand shut down of Pakistan embassy

DHAKA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Bangladeshi war veterans demonstrated near the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka on Sunday demanding an apology for alleged crimes during the 1971 war of independence in former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

Police stopped the 200 veterans blocks away from the High Commission where they had planned to hand in a protest.

Muntasir Mamum, a leader of a Committee for Elimination of the Killers and their Collaborators in Bangladesh Liberation War, read out the memorandum.

It demanded a trial of war criminals, an apology from Pakistan, resistance against the alleged activities of Pakistan`s ISI intelligence agency and the immediate repatriation of thousands of Pakistani families stranded in Bangladesh since 1971.``

The memorandum also said Pakistani soldiers killed three million people and raped 400,000 women during the nine-month war in then east Pakistan.

The protesters asked the Bangladesh government to ``shut down`` the Pakistani diplomatic mission.

The protest followed deteriorating relations between Dhaka and Islamabad after Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf cancelled a scheduled meeting with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the U.N. Millennium Summit.

Musharraf said he refused to meet Hasina after she ``interfered in Pakistan`s internal affairs`` by criticising military takeovers in her speech at the summit.

Hasina maintained her stance and demanded that Pakistan apologise for alleged 1971 war crimes.

``Definitely Pakistan should apologise for its heinous war crimes in 1971 against Bangladesh and also punish the army generals who led the massacre of our people,`` Hasina told parliament.

NOT FOR ADVERTISEMENT,

REPRODUCED FROM ANOTHER THREAD,

Between 1984 and 1997, there have been over 3,000 cases against the Ahmadiyas under the law of blasphemy - the largest number, about 750 being under Section 295B. These 750 accused have been

prosecuted for displaying the Kalima - the tenet which says, ``There is none worthy of worship except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah``. A hundred and forty were prosecuted under the blasphemy Section 296C.

In 1989, the entire population of Rabwah, the Ahmadiya headquarters in Pakistan, was charged under the Pakistan Penal Code Section 298C which is a special anti-Ahmadiya law. During 1997, three Ahmadiyas were killed because of their faith; three others were sentenced to 25-year imprisonment and Rs 50,000 fine on a charge of blasphemy which was added six years after they were initially charged with preaching Ahmadi- yat; 32 were charged under anti-Ahmadiya and

blasphemy laws, and 59 cases were registered on religious grounds (Source, HRCP Annual Reports 1996 and 1997).

re # 247 ntakley

dear takley

please grow some hair.

regards

aakar

BOOK: THE SRINAGAR CONSPIRACY

Anyone wants to REVIEW it..

Kashmir is a land of daily tragedy, bitterness and war. But above all, it is the home of the conspiracy theory.

A supercharged atmosphere of confrontation and frequent bloodshed, fuelled by the geo-political aims of India, Pakistan and other countries, gives the status of truth to bazaar rumours and renders reality irrelevant.

The stories I couldn`t tell on TV just had to be used somehow



Vikram Chandra

On this tumultuous backdrop, Indian broadcaster Vikram Chandra has chosen to write his first novel titled, appropriately, The Srinagar Conspiracy - probably the first serious thriller written about Kashmir in modern times.

``I`ve been covering the place for years,`` Chandra told BBC News Online, ``and the stories I couldn`t tell on TV just had to be used somehow.``

Chandra is referring to those conspiracy theories and rumours that abound in Kashmir - the probable half truths that don`t make the news, but set the heart racing and the imagination working overtime.

Racy plot

The ``Great Game meets Bollywood`` is one way to sum up The Srinagar Conspiracy.

Vikram Chandra has covered Kashmir for years



The plot revolves around two friends, a Muslim and a Hindu, both Kashmiris, who are raised as brothers along with a young orphan who rapidly grows into a love interest.

War and rebellion rip them all asunder.

Into this, stumbles an ambitious but well meaning Indian TV journalist trying to shed light on the Kashmir imbroglio.

Chandra hastens to say the novel is not autobiographical.

The early Kashmiri movement was based on firmly held convictions



Vikram Chandra

``No, it`s not me in the novel. None of the characters are based on real people, except famous militants and politicians.

``You can`t just drop people into a topic as explosive as this. I had to keep some secrets.``

Sympathetic

The novel, published by Penguin India, steams along at a frantic pace and is firmly based in recent history.

It portrays its Kashmiri characters sympathetically, even some of the militants, suggesting that their grievances with India have had some justification.

The Kashmiris are portrayed sympathetically



``Let`s face it,`` Chandra says, ``the early Kashmiri movement was based on firmly held convictions - people were sincere.

``These days, and I tried to bring it out in the book, foreign militants from across the Line of Control, have hijacked the movement. A lot of Kashmiris resent that.``

In the end, the book does fall broadly in line with India`s view of Kashmir.

The ``conspiracy`` of the title unfolds in a spectacular manner like some blockbuster of a Hindi film.

Establishment line

Makarand Paranjpe, professor of literature at Delhi`s Jawarharlal Nehru University, says pop culture in India has always had a complex relationship with establishment thinking on the emotive issues of the day.

The problem is solved by a good man in a bad system, thus saving the system as well as the situation



Prof Makarand Paranjpe

``Take Bollywood movies,`` says professor Paranjpe.

``They often challenge authority very vigorously early on in the plot, but tend to come around in a torturous manner to the official view, or at least conclude in such a way that doesn`t throw the establishment into complete disrepute.

``The problem is solved by a good man in a bad system, thus saving the system as well as the situation,`` he says.

Whatever the academics or critics might say, Chandra just hopes people enjoy his book and accept they are reading fiction, however well informed by journalistic experience.

``Everything in The Srinagar Conspiracy is fictional except the march of the events,`` he says.

``You don`t write a thriller to make a political point, you do it to entertain, and I hope I`ve done that.``

scout :

Well now the premission is granted for shooting films in kashmir this has been announced by the Indian Govt. what do u think of that.. is that right or wrong ?

i think its good for indian`s rather than going to any other states for the hillstations seen`s . bareing wiht high expenses. now its so good for indian`s they need not spend much money .. and also good for kashmiri people`s who can relly work and earn some money during the shooting of the film they may get certain job .. it is very good chance for kashmiri`s. as we know most of them are troubled for the food there in kashmir.

vitu..

re:246

Much obliged, Arun.

I find Salman Lodhy pathetic !12 out of 200 peaks ! Are there 200 of them ,unless he counts hillocks !Apologise for Goa (with 65 % Hindu majority )Junagadh and Hyderabad all with 90 5 + hindu majority !

As for the Indian Army killing sikhs in Chattisingpora ! The Paki record in B`desh is proof enough of its timidity and islamic character!

Take your 2000 and put it up you know where !

We are waiting to see Pakistan break-up into 4 pieces ! then the fun will really begin !

Only the Pakis can welcome a dictator !

The third part of Pankaj Mishra`s article can be found at

http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/09/17/stories/13170611.htm

-arun gupta

PAK TRAGEDY,

Readers Column

IT development

According to a recent survey of e-readiness, among the 42 countries, Pakistan is at the bottom in terms of infrastructure, high tech, information security, and trained personnel. Meanwhile, India has maintained a high standard in IT despite having the same problems of poverty and over population as that of Pakistan. At present Pakistan has just 200,000 subscribers to Internet which is low for a country with a population of 140 million people. The government has formulated a new IT policy to bring the country into IT age and the aim is to increase software export by 200 per cent by 2002 and compete with India. But even after achieving this target Pakistan would still be far behind India`s software export earnings which are around US $3 million a year. So we can well realise that in terms of IT development India is far ahead of Pakistan. Therefore, we need serious efforts to achieve our IT export target.-FAIZA SHAFIQ, Karachi, via e-mail, September 16.

///The above letter to editor from nation, the last sentence sums up the tragedy of pakistan,....indis is far ahead. There fore we need...Yes my dear Faiza, there is an alternate method, lower the indian IT earnings, take the real TNT and head for Kashmir.