The Frontier Post
Editorial
Interior security czar Rehman Malik says money and arms are coming to extremists from across the border. This indeed he has said again and again over the time. But every time he shies away religiously from being specific. He dodges telling who is or who are funneling these deadly supplies to terrorist to kill and main our people and terrorise them. Is it because the fact is too difficult for him to tell? After all, if murderous stuff is coming to them from Afghan Taliban, Rehman would be the first to cry out and shrilly. Haven't he been accusing Baitullah Mehsud of almost every terrorist act and suicide bombing, horrifically taking place in one part or the other of the country almost every day, exacting a huge toll on our hapless people. And he may be right. That thug has himself owned up many such bloody strikes in the past as also in these times. But the question is who is keeping him supplied intermittently with bundles of cash and mounds of sophisticated weapons. The thug is running no mint mills and no arms factory; nor does he own a diamond mine to bankroll his terrorist activities. Years ago, Taliban leader Mullah Omar had expelled him from his Shura council for fighting the Pakistan army instead of the coalition forces in Afghanistan. Then who has been shipping him wades of dollars to buy recruits and suicide bombers, and truckloads of sophisticated weapons to fight pitched battles with Pakistan security forces? Rehman says suicide bombers are from one to all Pakistani nationals. He may be right. He may also be right that suicide bombers are now free lancers, ready to kill themselves and kill others for a price, with the going rate running between Rs. 500,000 and 1,500,000. But who are the buyers of their "services" and wherefrom do those customers themselves get the money? After all, Baitullahs, Fazlullahs and the thugs of their ilk are no billionaires; nor are all those vile lashkars, jaishes and siphas self-financing murder shops. Yet, they demonstrate no stringency of money or arms. They appear richly flush with both, indeed brandishing even weapons and equipment not in possession of even the state security forces. Being the internal security boss, Rehman must be privy to the sources of their generous funding and lethal arms supplies. Yet, he keeps unbrokenly mum on it. Why? And why so intriguingly has he long stopped identifying foreign hand he alludes to even now so often of involvement in militancy here? Hadn't he spoken more than once of the Indians instigating and fueling insurgency in Balochistan? But that was long time ago. He now talks no more of it. Have the Indians terminated their wickedness or has he been ticked off by some powerful ghost not to talk of it? Rehman indeed is a big mystery, hard to crack. Not that he alone is a jigsaw puzzle to comprehend; so is his many a colleague in the federal cabinet, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, as for one. Since ages, this Pakistani top diplomat has been saying that the Americans and the NATO have understood Pakistan's position that foreign operations in its territory are unacceptable and that they have accepted its stance. Yet, there has been no decline in American drone attacks in our tribal areas. Rather, there has been an evident surge in these assaults under the Obama administration, which is threatening to extend them to our settled areas and Balochistan too. Even the military establishment seems having fallen in love for being demonised. Uncontested, it has let go the Americans with public charge that elements of the ISI and the military are hand in glove with Taliban. And unchallenged it is letting them pass around their ruse that our tribal areas have become al-Qaeda's and Taliban's safe havens, even as huge areas, almost 70 percent, of Afghanistan are palpably under Taliban's sway, with district after district in their administrative control. But, all said and done, combating extremism and terrorism at home is Rehman's charge. And he has demonstrated conclusively he is not up to the job. He may be unfit for inherent ineptitude. And if it is for some institutional constraints, it is all the more imperative that he must go. Quit he must at any rate, making way for someone with proven acumen and commanding trust all around. Rehman Malik is not the man to face up to upcoming storm, predictably to be leashed in raging fury for Pakistan by Obama's new strategy for fighting terrorism.
Saved from: http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=ed&nid=3&ad=07-04-200
Dated: Tuesday, April 07, 2009, Rabi-us-Sani 10, 1430 A.H.
Rehman Malik must quit..........
flogging of girl in Swat......STATE OF DENIAL !!!
Today I congratulate everyone because Gen Zia’a dream has been fulfilled as teen aged girl flogged in Swat. Also let me congratulate, Imran Khan, the Jama’at-e Islami leadership, Lt-Gen Hameed Napoleon Gul, the ANP government in the NWFP, the majority of Urdu-language columnists, some English ones too as they support Taliban and are in favor of making deals with them. Video of a young girl being flogged as ‘punishment’ by the Taliban in Swat has shocked everyone in civilized World., it is shameful that Religious parties appeared reluctant to openly condemn the case of lashing a 17-year-old girl in Swat while not giving any clear statement regarding the unfortunate incident. What a shameful act these so called Taliban did .THIS IS REALLY INHUMAN ACT AND CRIME,IGNORANT TALIBAN HAVE NO RIGHT TO TREAT ANYONE LIKE THIS I am also proud of those men who were watching this innocent helpless victim of atrocity ,watching the spectacle mutely either in approval or dumbfounded and afraid of uttering a word against it lest it be termed as anti-Islamic and they themselves meted out the same treatment. Well Done the Ghayur Pukhtoons of Swat. Well Done to your chivalry and manliness. Hearing that poor girl's cries whilst grown men stand and watch her being beaten just makes me sick to the stomach.
What a message we are sending to civilized World. Zardari "condemns" (words are cheap, particularly zardaris); PM "demands" punishment (OK, lets wait and see); CJ uses suo moto to demand girl be produced before court.. (OK, lets wait and see). Jamaat-i-Islami says this is a "minor matter" and people should focus on drone attacks by the US (thus demonstrating their hypocrisy and savagery!!).
This was one of barbaric acts of Taliban, so far we knew that they hang dead bodies to tress but now we have learned that in the past women were punished like this inside rooms. The videotape shown on television and displayed on websites wasn't the only time that a woman was publicly canned by the Taliban. However, no videotape of the other incident, which took place on October 20, 2008, is available in which a woman and her father-in-law were flogged in Ser-Taligram village near Manglawar in Charbagh tehsil. The video exposes the barbarity that lies at the heart of the Taliban movement.
Do these Taliban know anything about Islamic Law? Where are the ayatollahs, mullahs, sheiks and assorted holy men with their fatwas to correct these hijackers and distorters of the noble religion? It is also sad to read some people comments on this forum who are living in denial, I was reading one letter on your web site, writer says ,‘’I have a serious doubt as immediately after the whipping the "victim" got up and walked away without a limp.’’ Any sane person would laugh at this nonsense if the situation weren’t so dire. If the video was fake, then why did the Taliban accept responsibility and claim they had done the right thing? . Everything is a conspiracy to those who are in state of denial. They have lost ability to think, reason and to be logical. Speaking from psychological point of view that innocent girl must be so embarrassed that she did not want to be there, that’s why she got up fast , those who are living in denial expect from this girl to say thanks to those ignorant fanatic Taliban and had offered them flowers, that’s what anyone who is denying this incident expects from that girl??? That poor girl must have been in agony and I wonder what happened to her once they took her away.
This incident shows the Taliban version of Sharia law in action, and it is coming to you in the foreseeable future, it is eye opener for those who are acting dumb, deaf, blind and living in state of denial. Those who are living in denial, those who think this incident was fake, remember Taliban would publicly whip your sisters, mothers, daughters and wives and when you will get out of your state of denial, it will be too late.
It is also unfortunate that ANP leadership has abandoned its own people to the Taliban by making deals with them. No one can give justification for such an act. These handful of people have taken the population hostage, and the government is trying to patronize them. If the state surrenders, what will happen next?” those who are thinking that this video is fake should read writing on the wall. It was indeed like a lash on the faces of the chief minister of NWFP, the prime minister, the president, the legislators and most importantly, on the faces of every civilized Pakistani and Pukhtun as another writer mentioned on this forum, its also true that The monster of terrorism is indeed on the prowl, unhindered and unchecked, targeting at will whatever and whoever it wants. Nothing is invulnerable to its thuggery as printed in your editorial of April 6th . It is obvious that the state has been unable and unwilling to address the threat posed by Al Qaeda and the Taliban. For the most part, the religious lot of the country has quietly and not so quietly supported the terrorists. The people of NWFP have been held hostage by Taliban ,Pukhtun’s land is burning. What Taliban are doing is plain barbarism. When a religion is taken over by militants and zealots this is what you get .
