This is our war

This is our war

Sunday, November 22, 2009 Ghazala Minallah’s letter of November 18 titled “For those who say it’s not our war” was an eye-opener. We live in difficult times and face an enemy that we created ourselves sometime back. We glorified these militants and called them ‘mujahideen’. Now they kill our brothers and sisters but we keep blaming ‘foreign’ elements for it instead of realising our own mistakes. How can the Zionists be blamed for the Taliban monster that was created during Ziaul Haq’s regime? Are Iran and China under Jewish influence too since they see Pakistan as a centre of terrorist activities as well? Even if it was America’s war initially, it is ours now, and instead of confusing the masses and de-motivating the valiant jawans battling militants it would be better to accept harsh realities, identify the real threat, learn from our mistakes and defeat the enemy within. All democratic forces need to join hands and build a consensus at the national level over the war. We need to curb extremism in all its forms and manifestations. We must speak with one voice. It’s our war, a war for the survival of Pakistan and everyone who hurts Pakistanis must be dealt with strongly. Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi Islamabad ***** As mentioned in the letter titled “For those who say it’s not our war” (November 18) by Ghazala Minallah every sensible Pakistani thinks that the fight against the Taliban is our own. The media must boycott people like Imran Khan, Qazi Husain Ahmed, Munawar Hasan, Fazlur Rehman etc. It would be much better if voices favouring the Taliban are silenced because these only create misunderstanding among the masses about the gravity of the extremist threat. Waleed Khan Shinwari Peshawar

Read Full Post »

Taliban & Taliban Apologists: Birds of a feather flock together

There are some elements within our ranks, who constantly try to defend the barbaric messengers of hate, the Taliban. From torturing women in Afghanistan to slitting throats of everyone who doesn’t agree to their frame of thought Taliban have over the years tried to portray a twisted version of Islam, the religion of peace.

Growing up I saw banners of the call for Afghan and Kashmir jihad in the streets of Pakistan, and I always wondered if this short-sighted policy of using Islamic militias, training them and providing unconditional moral/material/emotional support can haunt our streets and our citizens. The fear saw its realization when Musharraf’s regime took a U-turn policy from glorifying them as “heroes” to labeling them as “terrorists”. I still remember the fear within, when top Taliban commanders of Pakistan declared war on Pakistan. The fault was intrinsically OURS. Zia ul Haq’s vision of making an army of guerilla mujahideen, providing a regular supply of twisted Wahhabi brainwashed barbarians ready to blow themselves up in the name of Allah and Musharraf’s short sighted-preferring-foreign-agendas-over-peace-within notion meant chaos. Only in last year, 3000 have died due to suicide attacks in Pakistan. Losses to army and security forces far surpass the damage done in 65, 71 and Kargil.

We are in the state of war, a war that wasn’t initially ours but like history repeats itself, we are masters of fighting someone’s war in our land. They have killed our countrymen, and now the war is ours – whether we like it or not. The blood shed by these monsters will not go in vain and we shall fight them. Remain disillusioned or pretend to be in a state of denial, WE HAVE TO FIGHT THEM.

We have to say no to Taliban, we have to denounce foreign help to these home grown monsters and we have to condemn Taliban apologists who constantly bombard our media with their utopian “conspiracy theories”

I came across this news, that a famous right-wing political party leader declared Baitullah Mehsud a “shaheed”. The same mullahs, who once gave Fatwa’s on Quaid and Iqbal, are still busy trying to be the self-proclaimed caretakers of this wonderful religion of peace that we all follow.

As far as foreign support is concerned, it is nearly impossible to stop it, for we did the same when we exported terrorism from our land around the world. Every act of terror had a link to Pakistan, this was not an evil “hindu-zionist” agenda of undermining Pakistan as our time-tested friend China saw support of Pakistan based groups to insurgency in her province, recently Iran yelled with similar allegations. The seeds that were sowed by the mighty tyrant Zia had to nourish into evil cactuses. No one is able to stop foreign support to traitors in your home; if within your ranks people are sold. Realizing the faults within is a prelimary step to the final redemption and resurrection. We have to make examples out of those who hurt Pakistan, whose short-sighted policies ended up in killing thousands of Pakistanis and disrupting peace in our land. We also have to identify the Taliban apologists who distract masses and de-motivate our valiant jawans fighting to make sure we sleep safe in our homes.

Baitullah Mehsud, the famous (READ-THIS) “HOME-GROWN” militant is a veteran of the anti-Soviet ‘jihad’ , which the man lying in Jabra Chowk, Zia ul Haq engineered with his intelligence agencies to cement his rule in the 80’s. Baitullah emerged to become the top Taliban commander in Pakistan during the recent Taliban uprising in the Frontier.  He several times claimed to enjoy ‘good relationship’ with the Afghan Taliban’s top most commander Mullah Omar. In addition to directly controlling sizeable militias who have waged overt war with Pakistani security forces in Waziristan, Baitullah has also been blamed for a number of terrorist attacks in the rest of the country, including the assassination of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto.

As a young madrassa student, Baitullah would often travel into Afghanistan to assist the Taliban in its implementation of Sharia, ‘their’ version of it. He emerged as a major tribal leader soon after the 2004 death of Nek Mohammad, another militant who was responsible for many terrorist activities within and outside Pakistan.
 
In a ceremony attended by five leading Taliban commanders, including Mullah Dadullah, Baitullah was appointed Mullah Omar’s governor of the Mehsud area.
 
By 2006, Baitullah Mehsud’s growing influence in South Waziristan led terrorism analysts to label him as “South Waziristan’s Unofficial Amir” – The Amir of mass genocide, murder of humanity and the hub of suicide bombers in Pakistan.
 
An official in the Northwest Frontier Constabulary described his army: Baitullah’s lashkar (army) is very organized. He has divided it into various units and assigned particular tasks to each unit. One of the units been tasked to kill people who are pro-government and pro-US or who support the US occupation of Afghanistan. The last person to be killed was Malik Arsallah Khan, chief of the Khuniakhel Wazir tribe, who was killed on 22 February in Wana (in South Waziristan).
 
A September 2007 report from the United Nations attributed almost 80% of suicide bombings in Pakistan to Baitullah. Pakistani officials traced an estimated 90% of suicide and militant attacks within Pakistan throughout the 2007–2009 period to his South Waziristan stronghold. He led an army of some say, 10000 militants ready to blow themselves up in the name of God, forgetting what God had ordained upon them about killing innocents:
 
On 28 December 2007 the Pakistan government claimed that it had strong evidence regarding Baitullah Mehsud as the man behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on 27 December 2007.
 
In telephone interviews with famous media groups, Mehsud claimed responsibility for the 30 March 2009 attack on the police training academy in Lahore. In the other interviews Mehsud claimed two other attacks: a March 25 attack on an Islamabad police station and a 30 March suicide attack on a military convoy near Bannu were also originated from him and his brutal army, who claimed being “Muslims” but did not live up to being called “humans”

Pakistan’s security forces launched a massive operation to apprehend the criminal, who challenged the writ of the state, committed hideous crimes against humanity and was single-handedly responsible for numerous terrorist activities in Pakistan and abroad which led to the death of hundreds of innocents.

He was said to be killed as a result US Drone strike. Intelligence officials reconfirmed that the TTP chief was among those killed in the missile strike.

I have chosen my side, you can chose yours!

Like always, “ derive your conclusions yourself “

Yours truly,

Read Full Post »