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India-Pakistan

Nuggets from the Urdu press

2011-10-10

Zaid Hamid is 'munkar-e-Rasul' Chief Editor Jinnah opined that the TV programme in which Zaid Hamid (rightist) and Marvi Sirmed (leftist) were made to confront each other, proved Marvi won the argument because Zaid Hamid is a denier of Prophet PBUH as detailed in the book 'Kazzab' by Mian Ghaffar. The False Prophet Yusuf Kazzab had declared Zaid as his successor as false prophet. Marvi was helped by Allah to win the argument against Zaid Hamid. Zaid has since ruined many homes by misleading the wives of other people. There is an interesting story of a marriage which will be told. (Zaid is divorced.) Imran Farooq killed on Altaf's order Daily Mashriq reported that two MQM killers Khalid Shamim and Hammad Siddiqi had told the police they had killed an MQM leader Imran Farooq in London on orders from the MQM boss Altaf Hussain 'because his faction was becoming too strong'. After this discovery by the police, the MQM leadership in Pakistan has been asked to go underground. Pakistani literacy rates hits bottom Reported in Jang Pakistan had fallen below Nepal in national literacy rate and was 157th in the list of 173 countries. Only Afghanistan in South Asia fared worse than Pakistan. In the past year despite pledges Pakistan spent the lowest amount of money in history on education and less than any other country in the region. Zulfiqar Mirza is 'double-edged' sword Humorous politician Hafiz Husain Ahmad was quoted by Jinnah as saying that the rebel PPP leader from Sindh Dr Zulfiqar Mirza had turned out to be a double edged sword. He was making a reference to Hazrat Ali whose sword was named Zulfiqar. Dr Mirza was now dangerous for MQM and his party PPP, thus making him double-edged. How we broke Indian resolve Daily Nawa-e-Waqt quoted a Rangers company commander Sheraz Mirza as saying that he fired the first bullet in the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and one brave Pakistani soldier destroyed the resolve of the Indian army by taking down seven Indian tanks. His company stopped the Indian army for four and half hours with ordinary weapons. It was a glorious victory! Glorious, I say - Allah be praised. The Indians even now are committing suicide in the passes of Kashmir. Fehmida Mirza and Saifur Rehman Writing in Express Abbas Athar stated that after Fehmida came to Islamabad to live in a rented house with her two daughters in 1997 as first time elected member of the National Assembly, PML's accountability hunter Saifur Rehman sent camera crews to haunt her and to extract confessions against Asif Zardari but to no avail. Dr Mirza's PhD thesis! Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that he once met Dr Zulfiqar Mirza who handed him a thick file saying it was his PhD thesis. Mir looked through the file and found that ten year old information in it accused Wali Khan family, Akhtar Mengal, Akbar Bugti and Bashir Qureshi as Indian agents. It also included MQM as agents of India trying to undo Pakistan. It says the same about Amir Khan who has since returned to the MQM fold but he is also dubbed Iranian agent. Pakistani cadet thrown out of Australia Daily Nawa-e-Waqt reported that a Pakistani Air Force cadet studying at a college in Australia was caught red handed photographing a girl naked. Ubaid Fayyaz was given bail but was soon deported back to Pakistan. Pak Air Force said it had called the cadet back from training. Pakistani held for terrorist connection Daily Jinnah reported that one Bashir Ahmad was arrested in Virginia US for terrorism after he confessed that he had taken training for terrorist acts in Pakistan under Lashkar-e-Tayba and that he was personally linked to the son of the leader of Lashkar, Hafiz Saeed. He said he was ousted from the terrorist camp because he was found too young for the job. The Jamaatud Dawa spokesman in Lahore denied that Bashir Ahmad, a juvenile, was ever connected to Lashkar. Zulfiqar Mirza the 8th PPP rebel Daily Jang reported that Zulfiqar Mirza was the 8th PPP rebel speaking out against PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari. Earlier rebels were Aitzaz Ahsan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Safdar Abbasi and Naheed Khan. Also included were Israr Shah and a Benazir loyalist Anwar Beg who were thrown out of the party. Zulfiqar Mirza accuses Babar Ghauri Quoted in daily Pakistan Dr Zulfiqar Mirza stated that MQM leader and minister in charge of the Karachi port Babar Ghauri had made trucks full of weapons to disappear and was responsible for MQM illegally making Rs 1.5 crore daily from the port as 'bhatta' for each container. Mirza a creature of Zardari Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that according to Dr Zulfiqar Mirza he was Zardari's class-fellow at Pataro Cadet College after passing which Mirza had joined medical college. He said he passed through tough times after marrying Fehmida Mirza and in 1984 he was shunted out of the army for not voting in the General Zia referendum. He was taken in PIA on the sifarish of his father in law. A second hand car was gifted to him by Zardari who also bought a fridge for him because there was no cold water in his house. In 1989 Zardari made Mirza leave PIA and got him a sugar mill permit after which he became a powerful industrialist with a PPP ticket to enter the National Assembly as a PPP MNA. Faisal Saleh Hayat accused of graft Daily Jinnah reported that federal minister Faisal Saleh Hayat was taking home Rs 14 crore per month from Pak PWD department. The graft was accepted through his maternal uncle Khalid Kharal, cousin Haider, and favourite touts. Graft was also accepted from officers after first threatening them with transfers and postings. There is also two percent commission on all transactions. PPP too involved in Karachi disorder Ex-interior minister and governor Sindh General (Retd) Moinuddin Haider stated in Nawa-e-Waqt that it was not only the MQM which should be held responsible for the disorder in Karachi but also PPP as everyone was involved in 'bhatta' and target-killing. He said Karachi was now worse than Beirut where ethnic war had unfolded for 15 years. Asama Jahangir tells truth Headlined in Mashriq leading Pakistan lawyer and president of Supreme Court Bar told the court that MQM, Sunni Tehreek, Jamaat Islami Sipah Sahaba, and other banned jihadi organisations were bus    y talking bhatta in Karachi. She was speaking in front of the Karachi bench after a suo moto notice. Red-capped False Prophet! Writing in Jinnah Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi stated that red-capped false prophet or 'kazzab' Zaid Hamid was named one of the killers of Maulana Saeed Jalalpuri in Karachi and is now going around lecturing in universities and colleges pretending to speak on behalf of state agencies. Ashrafi claimed that he was able to prove that Zaid Hamid was indeed the successor of Yusuf Kazzab and was challenging him to munazira (debate).

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India-Pakistan

Nuggets from the Urdu press

2010-04-09

Zardari, Nawaz American agents Great leader Imran Khan was reported by daily Waqt as saying that both Zardari and Nawaz Sharif were 'pakka' American agents. He said when he became prime minister he would bring a case at the UN against India's grabbing of Pakistan's waters. Sheikh Rashid, apologise for Lal Masjid! Columnist Tayyaba Zia Cheema wrote in Nawa-e-Waqt that Sheikh Rashid was nearly killed in Rawalpindi by terrorists because he had supported Musharraf's operation against Lal Masjid in 2007. She asked him to apologise sincerely for doing so. It was wrong to accuse PML-N because the attempt on his life was androoni sazish (internal plot). Aafiya lied in court Writing in Jang, Nazir Naji stated that Pakistan that was aroused about the trial of Aafiya Siddiqi was not in favour of speaking out for a girl in Lower Dir who was lashed in public by the Taliban. He stated that Aafiya had lied to the New York court when she said that she did not know how to fire a gun. The prosecutors brought proof that she had gone to a shooting club in the US and hired a gun and bought bullets and practised with an automatic weapon in the club range. India and America did it! Top columnist Haroon Rashid wrote in Jang that Sheikh Rashid was wrong in accusing the PML-N for trying to target-kill him in the run-up to the by-elections in Rawalpindi. It was quite clear that either India or the US had tried to kill him. He said it could be one of the terrorist groups too angry with him. Army chief invites editor! Chief editor Khushnood Ali Khan of Jinnah met army chief General Kayani at a dinner in honour of Palestinian leader Mehmud Abbas in Islamabad and was warmly greeted. The chief said to chief editor, 'I read your writings, but why don't you call on me?' The chief editor also wrote that Shehbaz Sharif's second meeting with the army chief was 'zabardast'. Taliban will be no more! Writing in Jang Haroon Rashid stated that once sitting next to Imran Khan in 1999 he heard a grand old man who had 8,000 pages of Ghazwa-e-Hind (Prophet's war on India) in his trunk say that the soon martial law would be imposed and that the Taliban would be no more. He said Hazrat Umar had taken the flag of Islam from their hands. Joe Biden to Ch Pervaiz Elahi Writing in Jang, Nazir Naji wrote that when Joe Biden was still chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee he visited Pakistan and asked Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi about the projected results of the 2008 elections. Ch Sahib said that that his party would win, on which Mr Biden shot back, 'In that case America will not accept the results of the elections'. Ch Sahib narrated the incident to the columnist. Aslam Beg and PPP Columnist Nazir Naji wrote in Jang that army chief General Aslam Beg had foretold the result of the elections in 1988 by saying that he did not want the PPP to come to power, so they put together what was called the IJI with all the parties opposed to it in order to prevent it from gaining majority votes. With India, only jihad! Jamaatud Dawa periodical Jarrar quoted Hafiz Said as saying that with India only jihad will work and there was a national consensus on jihad. Addressing a gathering of hundreds of thousands in Karachi, he said America was breaking up. He said Indian minister Chidambaram should talk to Jamaatud Dawa and not to Pakistan government. Send the mullahs to America! Columnist Nazir Naji wrote in Jang that the JUI clerics had collectively asked the government to send delegations (wufud) to the US asking Washington to let Dr Aafiya Siddiqi return to Pakistan without being punished for terrorism. Naji thought this was a signal that the clerics should be sent to America on government funds. Hafiz Husain Ahmad of JUI has been to America many times but no one knows where he goes and what he does. Na'at and Punjab Assembly Reported in Jinnah Punjab Assembly agreed to do away with the committee formed earlier to decide whether or not the content sung in a naat (praise of the Prophet PBUH) sung in addition to tilawat (recitation of the Quran) was proper. An MPA threatened to resign if naat was discontinued. The speaker decided to disband the committee. Nawaz hunting pheasant? Reported in daily Islam, Nawaz Sharif was invited by the Mahr clan of Sindh to come and hunt pheasant on their land at Khangarh along with a prince of the UAE. When asked if this was true, the PML-N sources explained that he had gone to Khangarh not to kill birds but to examine the canal irrigation system there. Prophet PBUH and victory against India Famous columnist Haroon Rashid wrote in Jang that once someone came to him thrice in the night and disclosed to him a dream in which the Prophet (PBUH) appeared next to Kahuta Laboratory where the largest number of Pakistani scientists lived. The dream was also that when the dreamer ran after the American gora men to catch them with stolen uranium he saw the Prophet (PBUH) standing near a stream together with Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Umar, his companions. The Prophet (PBUH) said that he would himself supervise the war against India in which the Muslims would be led by Khalid bin Walid. Irfan Siddiqi on Justice Chaudhry Famous columnist Irfan Siddiqi wrote in Jang Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was qaziul qazzaat of Pakistan with unlimited (bekraan) popular affection and unlimited confidence of the people at his back. He is the only judge in human history who has been survived the assaults of a savage despot (saffaak amir) three times. The robe of justice of Justice Chaudhry is crimson with the blood of martyrs for his cause and the biggest treasure for him to defend is the confidence (etemaad) of the common man in his leadership. Pak girl students seduced by India Periodical Jarrar of Jamaatud Dawa reported that an NGO pretending to take Pakistani students to India on study tours was actually taking Pakistani girls to India making them stay with Hindu families who arranged to rape them and thus make them vulnerable to blackmail. Among the girl students were girls from the best known private university of Lahore (name omitted by TFT). The paper said that ISI had arrested the NGO director who was actually working for RAW. Which general will become chief? Writing in Jang, Nusrat Mirza observed that army chief General Kayani was retiring in November 2010 but the government was desirous of giving an extension to General Mustafa Khan who is to retire in October 2010. The government wants to extend the service of General Kayani by two years parallel to the extension of service given to General Petraeus by the US. But General Mustafa Khan is junior way down from General Kayani by ten candidates. But if he retires in October he can't even become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. What is the government up to?

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India-Pakistan

New leads emerge on SIMI terror plans

2008-04-02

Students Islamic Movement of India leaders conducted at least three secret combat camps last year, police investigating a group of top SIMI leaders held in Indore believe. New recruits were taught basic jungle-craft, elementary marksmanship with air-rifles and the principles of bomb-making, police sources told The Hindu. SIMI’s leading bomb-maker, Mumbai-based Mohammad Subhan — alleged to have been linked to the perpetrators of the 2003 Gateway of India terror strike — was the principal instructor at the camps. Investigators believe the first of these camps was held in the third week of April, 2007, near Hubli in Karnataka. The camp was organised by SIMI’s south India chief, Hafiz Husain, and Shibli Peedical Abdul, an Idukki-born computer engineer who is alleged to have links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror cell which carried out the 2006 serial bombings in Mumbai. Operating under the code-name ‘Adnan,’ Husain had overseen the large-scale expansion of SIMI’s operations in Karnataka. A resident of Bijapur’s Jamia Road area, Husain ran a network of religious front organisations through which SIMI drew much of its cadre. Abdul, who worked as a computer engineer with a multinational company in Bangalore, was among his key lieutenants. Several of their recruits are thought to have worked with Andhra Pradesh-based Lashkar operative Raziuddin Nasir in an abortive plot to stage bombings targeting western tourists in Goa. Among them was Yahya Kamakutty, a computer engineer drawn to SIMI through SARANI, a front organisation headed by Abdul. Nasir, Kamakutty and several other members of the cell were held in Bangalore last month. Police sources say similar training camps were held by SIMI at Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, in late October, 2007, and then near Kottayam, Kerala, in December, 2007. In each case, front organisations controlled by SIMI made arrangements for the camps, while cadre told their families they were travelling to retreats to further their religious education. Preparations Documents sized at SIMI’s Indore safe-house suggest the training camps could have been preparatory exercises for a programme of continued “selective violence” agreed on at closed-door discussions between top SIMI leaders after the Hubli camp. SIMI planned to contact fraternal organisations, including the Taliban, to seek further resources for its campaign. SIMI’s jihadist leadership also decided to resume publication of three jihadist magazines, Jihad: Fitr-e-Jamhooriyat [‘Jihad: The Commencement of Democracy’] and Aaiye, Jannat ki Sair Karaein [‘Welcome to the Journey Into Paradise’]. Publication of the magazines had been terminated by SIMI’s last president, Shahid Badr Falahi, in an effort to distance the organisation’s leadership from jihadists. At Hubli, SIMI’s leadership sought to outflank anti-jihad Islamists led by Falahi, by abolishing the central committee he controls. The leadership also forbade the organisation from participating in politics and, most important, abolished the age limit for membership — allowing pro-jihad leader Safdar Nagori to remain in the organisation. Nagori, secretary-general of the organisation at the time of its proscription in 2001, was among the 13 SIMI leaders held in Indore last week. Wanted by police in half a dozen States, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi, Nagori — believed to be the principal architect of SIMI’s turning to the jihad — had evaded arrest since 2001.

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India-Pakistan

Lashkar issues fresh threats

2006-10-13

Eight weeks after the detention of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the group's parent political organisation has resumed issuing public threats of terrorist operations directed against India. Last month's issue of the Jamaat-ul-Dawa's house journal Majallat al-Dawa has proclaimed that its fidayeen commandos would soon "butcher every Hindu and Kashmir will be freed." The magazine flatly noted that "our fidayeen love to slit the throats of Hindu dogs," adding the "Hindus understand the language of knives and guns only." Majallat al-Dawa's express linkage of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa with terrorism flies in the face of official Pakistani protestations that the organisation has no links with the internationally proscribed terror group. In a recent interview to The Hindu , Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri argued that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa "is doing charitable work." He said no proof had emerged that its members were engaged in acts of terrorism. "No, no, certainly not!" Dr. Saeed himself has been issuing threats of violence from his home-turned-prison. "I will not sit in comfort," he told the Nawa-i-Waqt in a September 9 interview, "unless I emancipate the Muslims from the atrocities of India, Israel, the U.S. and Britain. Jihad will not stop in Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine with my arrest. I am an ordinary person. There will be thousands of Hafiz Saeed who will take birth from this soil." "But in the meantime I'm pretty comfortable. Have you seen my new HD plasma screen?" Hardline polemic has often preceded waves of Lashkar violence against India. Speaking at the Takmeel-e-Pakistan Conference in Lahore on August 14, 2003, Dr. Saeed argued that the "Muslims of Aligarh, Calcutta, and Bombay are being killed because they were involved in the crime of creating Pakistan. Today, the voice of jihad has reached the Muslims of Ahmedabad and Gujarat." India is not the only subject of recent Lashkar invective — a fact of no small significance given that Dr. Saeed was detained after allegations emerged that the terror group had trained members of terror cells which targeted the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Speaking at the al-Qudsia mosque in Lahore on September 27, Jamaat-ud-Dawa second-in-command Abdul Rehman Makki described Jews as "the worst and eternal enemies of Prophet Muhammad and Islam." "The Jews," he continued, "are the worst nation. They are the most sinful people. They do all the forbidden things." Mr. Makki proceeded to demand that Pakistan's "foreign policy should be the Koran. Koran gives the Muslims the courage to stand up. A foreign policy that hinges on the U.S. policy can never be strong and stable." He ended his talk with a taunt evidently directed at Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam: "Such countries which follow the U.S. policies appoint female spokesmen." Other prominent Islamists have thrown down similar challenges to the regime of President Pervez Musharraf. On August 4, the Daily Ummat quoted Pakistan's former army chief General Mirza Aslam Beg as arguing that "Iran should attack Israel and Pakistan should attack India. This is the only way to bring a change in the world. Otherwise, humiliation will be the future of the Muslims." It would certainly bring a change in the world, wouldn't it. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal leader Hafiz Husain Ahmad asserted last month that the "concept of Islamic jihad cannot be left to a formal army or the state" — again a frontal challenge to General Musharraf. "In fact," he argued, "in Islam there is no concept of state or the formal army." Mr. Ahmad ended by demanding that ``every person above the age of 18 and under 60 should be provided jihad training.''

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Afghanistan/South Asia

The Father of the Bomb and the Urdu Press

2004-02-13

EFL Mr Abdul Qadeer Khan is supposed to have given Pakistan its nuclear device and transformed it in more ways than one. Pakistan’s defence and security policy was jerked into new gear with his 1986 ‘leak’ about Pakistan’s nuclear capability. It also kicked off a gradual change in Pakistan’s nationalism. The Pakistani man began to think more aggressively about India. The warrior state suddenly found the prospect of conquest a realistic possibility. Jihad was made possible by the bomb, which caused the religious parties to regard Dr Khan as a key person in their scheme of things. The people felt secure and began endorsing increased adventurism in policy. This brought the military leadership centre-stage. Civilian governments began to come under pressure from military leaders willing to take risks. The Urdu press, which scrutinises the state of the nation as opposed to the English press – which scrutinises the functioning of the state – fixed on Dr Qadeer Khan as their mascot. Below is a sampling of Urdu press opinion about him. Hair-trigger Dr Qadeer Khan A Jang columnist narrated how he found Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of our bomb and Ghauri missile, when he visited him last. He described him as a descendant of a general of Muhammad Shahabuddin Ghauri, the Turk commander from Afghanistan who defeated the ruler of Ajmer and Delhi, Prithvi Raj, in 1196. Dr Qadeer had ‘found’ the tomb of Ghauri in Suhawa, near his Kahuta stronghold, and reconstructed it. The Ghauri missile (earlier Hatf-5 meaning ‘death’) is supposed to kill India’s Prithvi missile. A friend of Dr Qadeer Khan told the columnist that Dr Sahib was wont to lose his senses when talking of Hindus and might launch the weapon on India in a fit of rage. Many of Pakistan’s Islamists see themselves as the natural descendents of the Turkish and Mughal invaders who conquered India before the British came. Although most Pakistanis are the descendents of Hindu or Buddhist converts to Islam, many of the leaders like to think of themselves as related to foreign Islamic conquerers. Dr Qadeer Khan dying to come into politics Khabrain reported Jamaat Islami’s leader Liaquat Baloch as saying that the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb Dr Qadeer Khan was dying to come into politics and is begging prime minister Nawaz Sharif to allow him to do so. Some of these quotes must be pretty old, as Nawaz Sharif was deposed years ago. Dhaka surrender fired me! Daily Pakistan quoted the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb Dr Qadeer Khan as saying that he had decided to make the bomb on the day Pakistan army surrendered at Dhaka. He was then working in Holland where he saw the ceremony of surrender on Indian TV. He resolved to take revenge there and then. Ahhh! Dire Revenge™! Dr Qadeer Khan against Sunday According to daily Din, the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb, Dr Qadeer Khan said that switching the weekly off-day from Friday to Sunday had brought no flood of dollars, nor had the economy improved. He said he had requested the former government to restore Friday as weekly holiday but it was too surrounded by dubious advisers to listen. Nuclear scientists should go to Afghanistan! Quoted in Ausaf, leader of JUI Balochistan Hafiz Husain Ahmad said that all retired scientists should proceed to Afghanistan to help the country advance technologically. He asked Dr Qadeer Khan and Dr Ashfaq, both retired recently from their nuclear jobs in Pakistan, to transfer their services to Mulla Omar. He also said that America was offended with Buddha-bashing not because it cared for culture but because it was envious of Mulla Omar getting all the diamonds discovered inside the statues destroyed by him. Dr Qadeer Khan spends big in Timbuktoo Famous columnist Abdul Qadir Hasan writing in Jang said that once Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan took a group of friends to Africa and once there demonstrated the most astounding generosity with his money by giving gifts to local people. The broken-sandalled guide who was given the best shoes available in Africa broke down and cried most copiously at the gesture of Pakistan’s father of the nuclear bomb. He also bought the entire lot of fried fish from a vendor and gave them to a poor woman sitting alongside with a bevy of hungry children, who also broke down and wept copiously at the generosity of the father of the nuclear bomb. In one museum in Africa the local African king was shown sitting on a throne while white Europeans sat like minions at his feet. The great Dr Qadeer Khan was greatly inspired by this piece of art and said: soon it will be like this, meaning that the people of Africa will rule over the Europeans and humiliate them. I doubt he had the people of Africa in mind as the ruler of the Euros. Dr Qadeer Khan owns no land! Quoted in Jang, Pakistan’s father of the bomb, Dr Qadeer Khan said that he had said goodbye to a handsomely paying job in Holland to come to Pakistan. His Dutch wife had given up her Dutch nationality for the sake of Pakistan. He said when he came to Pakistan he was employed at the salary of Rs 3000 with no other perks but he accepted that and abstained from acquiring any land to improve his financial position.

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