The War within Islam

31 Mar 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com

Pakistan: In Search of Strategic Death
	Old Eskimos had a clever technique for hunting wolves. They would plant a bloody knife in the snow. Lured by the smell of blood, the wolves would approach the knife and lick the blade, cutting their tongues. Without realizing that they were drinkng their own blood, wolves would continue licking until they had bled to death. Back in 1980s, Pakistan military adopted a doctrine of strategic depth. This doctrine is proving Eskimos' knife for Pakistan. The doctrine implies that Pakistan needs Afghanistan as backyard beyond India's reach. The Afghan-India nexus dominating military's mind is evident from a recent interaction General Kayani had with media recently. On February 1, he told foreign correspondents: ''“We want Afghanistan to be our strategic depth''. In two days time, he was telling Pakistani journalists:'' I am India-centric.'' It is in search of strategic depth that Pakistan military, post-September 11, has been hunting with the American-hound and running with Taliban-hare. Definitely not an easy position. That country's military establishment has not given up Jihadi assets is evident from media reports. -- Farooq Sulehria

Pakistan: In Search of Strategic Death

By Farooq Sulehria Old Eskimos had a clever technique for hunting wolves. They would plant a bloody knife in the snow. Lured by the smell of blood, the wolves would approach the knife and lick the blade, cutting their tongues. Without realizing that they were drinkng their own blood, wolves would continue licking until they had bled to death. Back in 1980s, Pakistan military adopted a doctrine of strategic depth. This doctrine is proving Eskimos' knife for Pakistan. The doctrine implies that Pakistan needs Afghanistan as backyard beyond India's reach. The Afghan-India nexus dominating military's mind is evident from a recent interaction General Kayani had with media recently. On February 1, he told foreign correspondents: ''“We want Afghanistan to be our strategic depth''. In two days time, he was telling Pakistani journalists:'' I am India-centric.'' It is in search of strategic depth that Pakistan military, post-September 11, has been hunting with the American-hound and running with Taliban-hare. Definitely not an easy position. That country's military establishment has not given up Jihadi assets is evident from media reports. Woe unto missing Saudi billionaire! He disturbed the order Pakistan military had established in the region. No matter with what horrible consequesnces for the masses. When the 'communist' era came to an end in Afghanistan, mutually combating Mujahideen pillaged Kabul in their bid to outdo each other for the control of government. Gulbadin Hikmatyar was Pakistan's favourite horse in this race. When he proved futile, Pakistan saddled Taliban. Back in 1997, objective conditions favoured Pakistan-sponsored Taliban's seizure of Kabul. It remains Pakistan military's sole victory at an external front. A disinterested USA welcomed Taliban's arrival in Kabul. To quote New York Times, the ''State Department was touting the Taliban as the group that might finally bring stability''. A US diplomat, Jon Holtzman, was advised to visit Kabul. Trip was, however, cancelled after media kerfuffle about women rights. Still $125 million were granted in aid (largest foreign aid). The State Department maintained secret correspondence with Taliban regime. At the time, media were replete with rumours regarding US-backing for Taliban. Unlike the anti-US image Taliban have cultivated in recent years, they were also pretty cozy with infidel Uncle Sam. The US rationale for Taliban support was not merely an over-publicised gas pipeline project that Unocal wanted to pursue. Clinton Administration, it was rumoured, had Iran in mind while welcoming Taliban. Whether these rumours were true or not, Taliban's second major sponsor, Riyadh, definitely wanted to contain Iran through staunchly anti-Shia Taliban. Thus, all three infamous As that matter in Pakistan i.e. Army, America and Allah (represented here by Riyadh) were united in seeking, by default, cherished strategic depth. Equally important was the turmoil in Russia and Central Asian Republics (CARs). Following the Soviet dissolution, new regimes in Russia and CARs were struggling to consolidate. Most importantly, Afghans were desperate for peace after years of brutal infighting among Mujahideen gangs. Hoping against hope, at least a section of Afghans pinned their hopes in Taliban even if it meant sacrificing civil liberties. Fifteen years on, odds are stubbornly going against Taliban. The USA is not merely on the other side of the fence, it in fact is guarding (no matter how unsuccessfully) the fence. Saudi royals, one of them personally humiliated by Mullah Omar on the question of Osama's expulsion, would find it imprudent to annoy Washington by patronising Taliban. Regimes in CARs and Russia, dealing with confessional militancy, would not sit idle in the face of Taliban take over of Kabul. Pakistan's all-weather friend China, facing Uighur uprising, has publicly expressed her disapproval of Taliban. Most importantly, big majority of Afghans, particularly non-Pakhtuns constituting almost 55 percent of the population, having lived Taliban nightmare are not ready to experience it one more time. Though Pakistan's pro-Taliban media have pretty successfully painted Taliban as popular peace-harbingers ( in 1990s) and popular liberation force (2001 onwards) yet Afghan perception of Taliban is different. Opinion polls find Taliban's popularity below ten percent. Hence, Taliban march on Kabul, by proxy providing strategic depth to Pakistan, may not be resisted by the USA, Iran, India, China, CARs and Russia but by most Afghans. However, despite lacking a mass social base, Taliban have the advantage of an unceasing supply of fanatics ready to explode on Afghan streets en route paradise. This factor has shattered early US hopes of a steady occupation in a strategically important country neighbouring Iran, gas-rich Central Asia while China is at stone's throw. Meantime, not merely Obama administration has staked its political future on Afghanistan, Afghan war is a good war (essential to nip the evil of terror in Afghan bud) hence a good tool to keep NATO united. The NATO fell apart in case of Iraq. Afghanistan provided Washington the opportunity to discipline European satraps. Hence, to tranquillise the Taliban uproar, Washington has resorted to a multi-pronged policy. An Iraq-style surge (over 30, thousand more troops to Kabul). An aggressive drone-Pakistan-policy to force Islamabad (read Pakistan military) into giving up dual policy on Taliban. Also, by droning Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan,----particularly targetting leadership----US wishes to weaken Taliban. Fallujah-style military offensive in Marhaj (Helmend province) to flush Taliban out is an attempt to demoralise Taliban. All this is aimed at bringing a weak Taliban (and Pakistani patrons) to a negotiating table. Caught between the hammer of ''war on terror'' and anvil of ''strategic depth'', Pakistan instead of reaching strategic depth, will embrace a strategic death. Everytime Pakistan military hunts Taliban, there is a boomrang suicidal attack. According to a think tank, in 2009:“If the casualties in terrorist attacks, operational attacks by the security forces and their clashes with the militants, inter-tribal clashes and the cross-border attacks of the US and Nato forces in Fata are counted, the overall casualties amount to 12,632 people dead and 12,815 injured.” (ends) URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamWarWithinIslam_1.aspx?ArticleID=2639

Books and Documents

31 Mar 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com

Munir Commission Report-Part 20: Two Ahmadis were stabbed and the houses of three others looted by the mob.

Khushi Muhammad tell it himself:— “One of the men, who came out dancing with knives, offered his chest to receive a bullet, but I told him that so long as he remained on the other side of the tape, he would get no bullet ; but that the moment he crossed the tape, he would get one. When the firing began, I did not see this man at all. He had disappeared in the crowd. After the first firing a maulvi came up and started abusing the army and the police describing them as kafirs. I told the bugler to blow the bugle. As soon as he heard the bugle, ho rushed back, jumping over the crowd.” In the afternoon an A. S. I. and a constable were mobbed near the railway station and the revolver of the A. S. I. and the rifle of the constable snatched and their uniforms burnt. Another foot constable, who was carrying some case-property, was assaulted and relieved of the property. Two Ahmadis were stabbed and the houses of three others looted by the mob. Mr. S. N. Alam, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, arrived in the evening and found that the District Magistrate had handed over the situation to the military. He thought that such handing over was not justified and in consultation with the Commissioner decided to take over from the military. He addressed the police who had become demoralised by the incidents of the 3rd and 4th March and made arrangements for patrolling the city. The military shifted their Brigade Headquarters to the City Kotwali. On the 5th March the army held a flag march throughout the city and did intensive patrolling. Some processions were dispersed and volunteers arrested. On 6th March Mr. Daultana’s appeal was broadcast over the radio and also conveyed by a wireless message. This created the impression that the Government had capitulated and put the District officers in an unenviable position. The banned processions and public meetings continued and a large number of persons were arrested daily. Ninety-eight volunteers were arrested on 7th, 121 on 8th and 149 on 9th., showing that the appeal of the Chief Minister had no effect on the public. On the 7th March, Professor Khalid Mahmud and Fazal Haq made speeches calling upon the police and the army to lay down arms and exhorting public servants to strike their work and join the movement. The agitation drifted on to 10th March when a wireless message from the Chief Secretary, directing the District authorities to put down all lawlessness with firmness, was received. This made the people realise that thereafter the District officers would not put up with any lawlessness. Section 144 orders, therefore, began to be obeyed. Professor Khalid Mahmud, Fazal Haq, Maulvi Sultan Mahmud and others had shifted to mosques from where they were directing the movement by issuing orders and instructions through loud speaker and secret messages. It was not considered expedient to arrest them in the mosques and proceedings under section 87 and 88 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were taken against them. This produced the desired effect and they came out of the mosques and offered themselves for arrest on 12th March. With their arrest the agitation practically ended, and the city was restored to completely normal conditions on 16th March. The foregoing narrative has been taken from the written statements and evidence of officers. No contradiction of it is to be found in the evidence of non-official witnesses which we recorded at Sialkot. What has been stressed in that evidence is that the District Magistrate beat or caused to be beaten some persons who had been arrested and confined in, jail, that he himself had his jeep set on fire by a police constable, and that he himself encouraged the procession that marched to the railway station on the 1st of March. With the first allegation we are not concerned though there is considerable evidence in support of it; the second is an insult to anyone’s common sense; while the third is denied by Maulvi Muhammad Ali Kandhalvi himself. It is our considered finding that in handing over the situation to the military more than once, the District Magistrate acted wisely and courageously and thus saved the law and the power behind it from public humiliation and ridicule. The responsibility for the consequent bloodshed, if it does not lie on the men concerned, does not lie on the police or the military; it lies elsewhere. GUJRANWALA Because of its proximity to Sialkot and of its being the home town of Sahibzada Faiz-ul-Hasan, an Ahrar popular speaker, Gujranwala is an important centre of the Ahrar. The Ahrar held their Tabligh Conference here early in 1949, but the Conference was not much of a success as the sincerity of the Ahrar to the new-State of Pakistan was still under serious suspicion. They held another Conference in 1951 in the garb of Defence (difa’) Conference. This proved a great success because arrangements for this Conference were made by the President of the City Muslim League. Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari spoke at this Conference and is reported to have given expression to his belief that it was an act of piety to kill the Ahmadis and to burn their property. A third conference was held in the same year in which the Ahmadis were described as kafirs and their social and economic boycott was advocated. On 20th June, 1952, which was Yaum-i-Mutalibat, the Ahrar held a public mooting inside Sheranwala Bagh Mosque in contravention of an order under section 144. This meeting was addressed by Sahibzada Faiz-ul-Hasan, Sheikh Husam-ud-Din and Master Taj-ud-Din, who were all arrested but subsequently released under the orders of the Chief Minister. At another conference in July 1952, Sahibzada Faiz-ul-Hasan is said to have declared that to kill an Ahmadi was to gain the pleasure of God. After the conference was over a tea party was arranged in honour of Maulana Akhtar Ali Khan, which was attended by the Deputy Commissioner and the Muslim League leaders. The Ahmadis subsequently complained to the Deputy Commissioner that at the conference a speaker had incited the audience to murder the head of the Ahmadiyya community. The feeling created against the Ahmadis resulted in the Wazirabad Municipal Committee’s terminating the services of two male and four female Ahmadi teachers. Sahibzada Faizul-Hasan, Maulvi Abdul Wahid, Khatib of the Sheranwala Bagh Mosque, and Maulvi Muhammad Ismail took prominent part in the agitation against the Ahmadis and in canvassing the support of other religious and political parties. A public meeting under the auspices of the Majlis-i-Amal was held at Gujranwala on 2nd and 3rd November, 1952, which was also attended by Mian Tufail Muhammad, a representative of Jama’at-i-Islami. The Majlis advocated social and economic boycott of the Ahmadis, and after this eating houses began to display notices on their premises to the effect that Ahmadis could have their food in separate utensils at those houses. One Abdul Ghaffar Asar, B.A., who earlier had succeeded in his drive against the prostitutes, also joined the movement to widen his sphere of influence. Maulana Akhtar Ali Khan of the ‘Daily Zamindar’ addressed three public meetings in which he collected Rs. 2,000 for the movement. At another meeting held in his home town Karamabad, he made an appeal for contribution of a sum of one crore of rupees to the same cause. After the ultimatum was presented to the Prime Minister in Karachi, intensive preparations commenced for the direct action and maulvis intensified their propaganda in different towns of the district-Comrade Abdul Karim and Maulvi Abdul Ghafur Hazarvi at Wazirabad, Maulvi Abul Hasan Muhammad Yahya and Maulvi Fazal Ahmad at Hafizabad, Latif Ahmad Chishti and Hafiz Abdushshakur at Kamoke and Maulvi Abdul Wahid and Maulvi Muhammad Ismail at Gujranwala. Volunteers began to be enrolled and the quota for Hafizabad, which, was fixed at 500, was completed within a week of the formation of the Majlis-i-Amal. Total enrolment for the district was 4,500 and Mr. Manzur Hasan, the Secretary of the City Muslim League was one of the signatories to the volunteers’ pledge. Agitation commenced with the arrest of Maulvi Muhammad Ismail, Khatib of the Ahl-i-Hadith Mosque, under the orders of the Provincial Government; Processions of volunteers before their departure for Lahore and public meetings became a daily feature. The Majlis-i-Amal was dissolved and Hakim Abdur Rahman, Vice-President of the Majlis-i-Ahrar, Gujranwala, was appointed a dictator of the movement. On 2nd March D. O. letter No. 2514-29/B. D. S. B., dated 28th February 1953, from the Chief Secretary was received by the District Magistrate, prohibiting further arrests, but on 1st March 1953 the Superintendent of Police had received instructions from the A. D. I. G., C. I. D., to prevent batches of volunteers from proceeding to Lahore and Karachi, which meant arresting them at Gujranwala. The two instructions were contradictory to each other, and since owing to shortage of Magistrates and police force and accommodation in jail the district officers were not in favour of making any arrests and intended to watch the situation for another day or so, a reference was made to the superior police officers at Lahore as to what to do in the circumstances and the reply received was that the earlier instructions to arrest volunteers had to be carried out and that if there was not sufficient accommodation in jail, the persons arrested could be dumped in distant villages. At 10 o’clock on 2nd March a meeting was held in the Court Room of the Deputy Commissioner, which was attended by officials and non-officials. The office-bearers of the City Muslim League, however, made this meeting an occasion to denounce their opponents in the League and refused their active co-operation to the district authorities. The trains to Lahore began at this stage to be interrupted by the crowds which collected at the railway station to see off the volunteers entraining for Lahore. The Additional District Magistrate with a police party went to the railway station and arrested and detrained a batch of 50 volunteers. On this the crowd became excited and held up the train twice. When the Additional District Magistrate made a second attempt to get the train steamed off, he was attacked and injured together with five policemen including a Sub-Inspector. The same evening the Sind Express was held up at some distance from the railway station by an excited mob of 5,000. The Superintendent of Police reached the scene with six foot constables, but the party was pelted with stones and brickbats. It had grown dark and as the mob, if not dispersed, would have resorted to violence and annoyed the passengers in the train, the Superintendent of Police ordered three foot constables to fire twelve rounds in the air. This dispersed the crowd without causing any casualties. After this a meeting of respectables of the town was called at the railway station but though every one condemned hooliganism, none was prepared to give any practical help lest he should be termed a kafir or Mirzai. As the Muslim League office-bearers had pledged their support to the Majlis-i-Amal, the dictator of the Majlis-i-Amal called upon Mr. Manzur Hasan, M. L. A., Secretary of the City Muslim League, to lead a batch and to court arrest. Sheikh Aftab Ahmad, the President of the League, suggested that in order to avoid the impression that the movement had the support of the League, a mock arrest of Mr. Manzur Hasan should be staged. This was agreed to, and Mr. Manzur Hasan was arrested, taken in a police jeep and dropped in a remote corner of the district on the understanding that he would not return to Gujranwala for some days. People, however, came to know of the stratagem and on the following day some 200 men went to the house of Sheikh Aftab Ahmad and asked him to join a procession. He was taken out of the house and was made to march with a procession to the Sheranwala Bagh Mosque. By this time Mr. Manzur Hasan had returned to Gujranwala and joined the agitators in the Sheranwala Bagh Mosque, where he made several speeches against the Ahmadis and the Government and led a procession with seven other City Muslim League councillors. They were all arrested. The statement of the Chief Minister on 6th March was, as directed from Lahore, proclaimed throughout the town. According to information received by the Superintendent of Police, on 7th March attacks were apprehended on the lives and properties of Ahmadis. The situation was discussed with the army who suggested promulgation of an order under section 144 prohibiting public meetings and processions, but the proposal was not accepted by the Superintendent of Police and the Deputy Commissioner, and instead it was decided to arrange joint police and military patrols. After this no incident of lawlessness was reported in the town, except an attempt to loot an Ahmadi’s shop. On 7th March a frenzied mob of agitators in village Nandpur murdered one Muhammad Husain in the belief that he was an Ahmadi. The investigation showed that this murder was brought about by a trick by one of the enemies of the deceased. On 8th March the local M. L. As, were called to the Sheranwala Bagh Mosque and requested to go to Lahore for instructions. The M. L. As, met the Chief Minister but brought no definite instructions. A company of the Army arrived at Gujranwala on 5th March, a battalion on the 6th and the Deputy Inspector-General of Police with two Punjab Constabulary Reserves on the 8th. When the military arrived, it was welcomed with shouts of ‘Pakistani fauj jis ne Sialkot goli chalane se inkar kar diya zindabad, Pakistani fauj zindabad’. It was being announced by the agitators throughout that they were engaged in jihad, a crusade against infidelity, and posters appealing to the police and the military not to fire but to join in the jihad were put up in several places. About a dozen Ahmadis in the district were made to renounce their creed. The Muslim League in this district was actively associated with the movement. The Muslim League, Gujranwala City, passed a resolution supporting the khatm-inubuwwat movement, and Mr. Manzur Hasan, its Secretary, sent the same resolution to be moved at the meeting of the Provincial Muslim League Council at Lahore. He also attempted to table a similar resolution at the Dacca session of the All Pakistan Muslim League. A deputation of Ahmadis waited on the Superintendent of Police on 20th March but he expressed his inability to do anything for them as on the previous day he had asked for instructions from the Chief Minister who had refused to give any because the Centre had not taken any decision in the matter. With the arrival of reinforcements a round-up of goondas and search for illicit arms commenced. Maulvi Abdul Wahid, who was at the back of the agitation, and Hakim Abdur Rahman, the dictator, were arrested on 11th and 12th March respectively. Some other maulvis then came forward and they were also arrested. Eventually it was decided to raid the Sheranwala Bagh Mosque with the assistance of the military. This was done and the mosque was cleared of the agitators and a sum of Rs. 10,100 recovered from Qari Abdul Karim. This amount is said to have been collected by Sheikh Aftab Ahmad, Mirza Sharif Beg, Muhammad Din. M. A. Aziz Ansari and some councillors of the Gujranwala Muslim League. Orders for the arrest of Safdar Ali and Naseer Din alias Naseeria, two notorious leaders of goondas, were issued by the District Magistrate. The former managed to slip out, of the district and was subsequently arrested at Jhang. Naseeria evaded arrest for some time but was eventually traced and arrested. Other centres of agitation in the district were:— (1) Kamoke—Demonstrations and processions against the Ahmadis and the Government were organised here by Latif Ahmad Chishti and Hafiz Abdush-shakur. The funds seized amounted to Rs. 10,772. (2) Wazirabad—Maulvi Abdul Ghafur Hazarvi and Comrade Abdul Karim were the local organisers of the movement. A train was held up here by placing a log across the track. Funds seized amounted to Rs. 2,560. (3) Hafizabad—Feelings were worked upon here by Abul Hasan Muhammad Yahya and Maulvi Fazal Ilahi. (4) Gakhar—Trains were stopped here. Mir Muhammad Bashir, President of Gakhar Muslim League, courted arrest along with some councillors. (5) Naushehra Virkan—Dr. Muhammad Ashraf, an old Congressite was responsible for the trouble here. (6) Sodhra—Public meetings here were organised by Maulvi Abdul Majid of the Ahl-i-Hadith. RAWALPINDI The course of events that preceded the commencement of the disturbances here was precisely the same as in the other towns of the Province. The Ahrar started by denouncing the Ahmadis and their religion. In return the Ahmadis began to rake up the past of the Ahrar to strengthen the suspicion against their sincerity to Pakistan. After the All Parties Muslim Convention the Ahrar succeeded in winning the alliance of other religious sects, preachers and pirs, with the result that mosques became propaganda centres of the anti-Ahmadiya movement and Friday sermons were almost exclusively devoted to the deprecation of the Ahmadiya tenets. In November 1952, Sayyad Ata Ullah Shah Bukhari and Qazi Ehsan Ahmad of Shujabad, two top-ranking leaders of the Ahrar, addressed a public meeting at the Liaquat Garden. Thereafter, a vigorous campaign was started for enlistment of volunteers and collection of funds. With the arrest of the leaders of the movement in Karachi and of Maulana Ghulam Ullah Khan by the Punjab Government on 27th of February, processions and public meetings became the order of the day. The public meeting held in the Liaquat Garden, presided over by the Pir Sahib of Golra Sharif, was perhaps the largest public meeting held in living memory. The situation became critical on 6th March when after exaggerated versions of the events that had happened in Sialkot and Lahore, information came that the Punjab Government had accepted the popular demands and communicated their acceptance to Karachi. The immediate result was that people thought that the Government had surrendered and the processions became more aggressive and more numerous and had to be dispersed by lathi charges. On 6th March, another meeting was held in the Liaquat Garden. A crowd, after dispersing from the meeting, went along the Murree Road and set fire to an Ahmadi mosque and a small car. Later, that very evening, some other incidents of loot and arson took place. The Ahmadiya Commercial College, Nur Art Press and the Pak Restaurant, situate in different parts of the city, were broken into and attempts were made to loot, burn or otherwise destroy the effects. A non-Ahmadi young man, employed in the Nur Art Press, was stabbed in the belief that he was an Ahmadi, and he succumbed to the injuries caused. As the situation became explosive, the military was called in on 7th March. On that day, telephone wires were cut in the jurisdictions of Police Stations Golra and Sangjani, Military were posted at suitable strategic points in the city. On 8th March, a furious mob led by Masud Malik, a communist student of the Government College. Rawalpindi, and Maulvi Abdul Quddus Poonchi came in front of the Police Kotwali and started throwing brickbats. The City Magistrate ordered the police to fire and one of the rioters was killed and six others injured. After this, orders under section 144 banning processions and meetings and imposing the night curfew were passed. Two hundred and thirty-nine persons were convicted of breach of the curfew. The organisers of the movement then took refuge in the Jami’ Mosque from where they went on sending volunteers to court arrest. One thousand and thirty-three volunteers were arrested and prosecuted under section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code. They were all convicted, with the exception of sixty-four who apologised and were released. The morale and loyalty of the lower ranks of the police and the army began to be affected because of the character of the agitation, and most of the Muslim League leaders and local M. L. As. went into hiding and refused to come out to face the public. In fact they played a double-role, outwardly siding with the authorities but inwardly supporting the agitation. There was no maulvi in the entire district who did not support the agitation. Among the maulvis arrested were Arif Ullah Shah, Muhammad Maskeen, Muhammad Ismail Zahidi and Abdul Hannan, all members of the All Parties Muslim Convention. A large number of men came from the surrounding districts to take part in the agitation. A batch of 2,000 Pathans from the Hazara district was reported to be advancing towards Rawalpindi, but the Superintendent of Police prevailed upon the Pir Sahib of Golra Sharif to issue instructions to them to return. Similarly, Maulvi Muhammad Ishaq Mansehrvi, an old but a popular maulvi, also came out to load the movement, but the district authorities succeeded in winning him over and inducing him to issue a written appeal to refrain from lawlessness and disorder. The agitation died down in the third week of March. LYALLPUR This district is an important centre of the Ahrar, many of whom come from the districts of Jullundur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Amritsar which are also the home districts of most of the colonists. Up to January 1953, the Ahrar-Ahmadiya controversy here took the same course as elsewhere. On the occasion of the Prophet’s birthday celebrations on 1st December 1952, the Ahrar displayed banners on which were written the demands that the Ahmadis be declared a minority and that Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan be removed from the Cabinet. After this the demands became a regular feature in the pre-prayer or post-prayer speeches. The speeches were directed not only against the Ahmadis but also against the Government. At a public meeting held at Jaranwala these demands were reiterated in speeches made by Maulvi Feroze-ud-Din, Hafiz Abdul Qadeer, Maulvi Inayat Ullah Mujahid, Maulvi Mirdad and Maulvi Abdur Rahim. Similar meetings were held at Lyallpur, Samundri, Toba Tek Singh, Tandlianwala and Gojra. All along razakars were being enrolled who took an oath on the Qur’an and signed the pledge for direct action with their blood, Subscription for the movement came in easily. The number of razakars reached 9,000 and funds collected amounted to Rs. 30,000. The movement had the support of many a Muslim Leaguer. In fact many councillors of the League belonged to the Ahrar party and actually influenced the public in favour of the movement. Ghulam Nabi Janbaz of Lyallpur, Qazi Muhammad Husain of Tandlianwala and Maulvi Obed Ullah of Lyallpur were arrested on 27th February under the direction of the Provincial Government. On 1st March a procession set out from the Jami’ Masjid, Lyallpur, for the railway station to see off a batch of 15 razakars under the leadership of Maulvi Muhammad Yusuf, Khatib of Jami’ Masjid, which was proceeding to Karachi. No arrests were made, because telephonic instructions received by the Superintendent of Police from Lahore were that razakars proceeding to Karachi were not to be arrested. On the following day, Sahibzada Iftikhar-ul-Haq made a highly inflammatory speech in front of Railway Station, Lyallpur, where he had been taken in procession by a crowd of about 6,000 people prior to his departure for Lahore with about 100 razakars. He was detrained at Salarwala Railway Station and arrested. Public meetings and processions were banned by an order under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on 3rd March. Despite this, however, on receiving news of the firing in Sialkot a procession of 4,000 to 5,000 moved from the Jami’ Masjid to the Deputy Commissioner’s house. Before it reached its destination, thirteen persons were arrested and the procession was dispersed. The Agricultural College closed and razakars started pouring in from the country. In the evening, the Deputy Commissioner held a meeting of prominent citizens which was also attended by the Presidents of the District Muslim League and the City Muslim League. The attitude of both these gentlemen was anything but co-operative, and the latter even stated that his attitude was determined by his interview with the President of the Provincial Muslim League whom he had seen at Lahore a short while earlier. On the 4th March there was a complete hartal in the town and some 7,000 men collected in the Jami’ Masjid where speeches were made by several maulvis condemning the firing at Sialkot. After the meeting, three separate processions set out which subsequently got mixed up and swelled to 10,000. They then made for the Deputy Commissioner’s house and, reaching there, repeated their demands to him and offered themselves for arrest. The Deputy Commissioner, however, tactfully diverted and himself led the procession towards the jail where leaders of the procession and 124 other persons were arrested. The Superintendent of Police also accompanied the procession. In response to the Deputy Commissioner’s request to the Home Secretary for the military, a battalion of 9/8th Punjab Regiment arrived on the night of 4th/5th. On 5th March, 50 volunteers were arrested and dropped twenty miles away and 55 members of a procession were arrested under section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The news of firing at Lahore was received at Lyallpur on 6th March. There were several processions formed in protest and about 125 persons were arrested. The Chenab Express was detained near Railway Station, Lyallpur, by volunteers coming from Chak Jhumra. News was also received that Martial Law had been declared in Lahore. In the evening came the announcement of the Chief Minister to the effect that the Punjab Government agreed with the demands of the agitators and that these with the views of the Punjab Government were being communicated to the Centre and a Minister from the Province was going to Karachi to press them before the Cabinet. This appeal was taken by the agitators as tantamount to a surrender by the Punjab Government and in consequence the campaign was intensified, some of the Muslim League M. L. As. proposing after this to offer themselves for arrest. The 7th March was a day of rowdyism and lawlessness. Three different processions were taken out and as many as 107 men were arrested, including Sheikh Bashir Ahmad, President, City Muslim League, who courted arrest. The District Courts were attacked by a mob of 10,000 which broke windows, forced Magistrates to close their Courts and then entered the Deputy Commissioner’s house. A retail cloth shop of the Lyallpur Cotton Mills was looted, the railway line damaged and three trains held up near the railway station. Shops and passengers on the railway station were robbed, some women in the train molested, and a cabinman seriously injured. The mob was asked to disperse and on its refusing to obey, the District Magistrate ordered the police to open fire. Accordingly 47 rounds were fired and four persons were killed and four injured. Curfew was imposed after this. On the same day, some Muslim League M. L. As. led a procession in Samundri. On 8th March, a mob of 20,000 gathered to say funeral prayers for the dead of the previous day. After the prayers a procession was formed which paraded the streets. Another procession was taken out from the Agricultural College. The curfew was defied throughout the day and about 110 persons were arrested. On hearing that a mob was making for the Chiniot Bazar, the Deputy Commissioner and the Deputy Inspector-General of Police went there with a military patrol and met an aggressive mob. The mob was declared an unlawful assembly and was ordered to disperse, but the order was not obeyed and the District Magistrate ordered the military to open fire. As a result three persons were killed and one wounded. Some Ahrar volunteers came from Gujranwala in a truck fitted with a mike. They evaded arrest and drove to Jhang where they were arrested. They were carrying with them three revolvers, ample ammunition and a sum of Rs. 30,000. On the same evening, a mob cut off the wires of the internal transmission system inside the city. A full-day curfew was clamped on 9th March, but despite this students of the Agricultural College took out a long procession. Razakars poured in from the country and about 120 of them, who had camped in the Jami’ Masjid, were arrested. In the evening, the District Magistrate called a meeting of prominent citizens at which the President of the District Muslim League merely acted as a spokesman of the Committee of Action. On the 10th March came the second appeal of the Chief Minister directing firm action against the agitators. This produced good effect, because it gave a clear direction to the District officers. The movement, therefore, began to subside and, although a procession of volunteers came out of the Jami’ Masjid on 17th March, the mosque was cleared with the assistance of the mutawalli on the 19th March and the district returned to normal on the 20th March. Throughout the period no injury was caused to the life or property of any Ahmadi; nor any damage to any property in the city or in the industrial area. There were two incidents of private firing, each by an Ahmadi under a misapprehension, and some children were injured in each. The other towns in the district, which were affected by the agitation, were Chak Jhumra, Jaranwala, Dijkot, Samundri, Tandlianwala, Gojra, Toba Tek Singh and Kamalia, but no force had to be used in these places and no damage to life or property of Ahmadis was caused. Total funds seized from the agitators amounted to Rs. 4,723-2-3. MONTGOMERY Montgomery is an important Ahrar centre because here (1) many Ahrar have settled. (2) several judicial cases against the Ahrar and sponsors of the anti-Ahmadiya movement originated and (3) the Ahrar run an institution, called Jami’ Rashidia which was the main centre of their religio-political activities. The five leading Ahrar in this district were Mufti Zia-ul-Hasan, a nephew of the Ahrar leader Maulvi Habib-ur-Rahman of Ludhiana, who has settled in Montgomery, Maulvi Habib Ullah, Maulvi Lutfullah and Maulvi Abdullah who are brothers and founders of Jami’ Rashidia at Montgomery, and Maulvi Bashir Ahmad Rizwani who has settled in Okara. The story of the events that preceded or occurred during the disturbances here is to be found in an exhaustive written statement compiled by Mr. Haq Nawaz, Superintendent of Police, and is the same as elsewhere, namely, counter speeches by the Ahrar and the Ahmadis, a vigorous propaganda against the Ahmadis from the mosques after the demands had been formulated by the All Parties Muslim Convention in July 1952, collection of funds and recruitment of volunteers for the direct action and, after the arrests on 27th February, public meetings and processions and arrests under section 107, Criminal Procedure Code or section 3 of the Punjab Public Safety Act. Local members of the Jama’at-i-Islami and other maulvis joined the movement and mosques were converted into headquarters of the razakars. The names of persons of different parties including the Ahrar, the Jama’at-i-Islami and the Muslim League who took active part in the demonstrations are given in appendix 1 to the written statement of the Superintendent of Police. The number of volunteers recruited was 2,000 in Montgomery, 1,500 in Okara, 700 in Arifwala and 200 in Chichawatni. Orders of the Provincial Government to arrest Maulvi Lutfullah and Habib Ullah were received on 27th February. The latter was already undergoing a sentence of imprisonment for contempt under an order of the High Court. The District authorities intended to make more arrests and obtained the Government’s permission to arrest Mufti Zia-ul-Hasan and M. Abdullah I and M. Abdullah II. On 2nd March instructions were received from the A. D. I. G. that volunteers proceeding to Karachi were not to be arrested. The Chief Minister’s appeal of 6th March had the same effect here as elsewhere, namely, it gave further impetus to the agitation. The only incidents of importance that occurred in this district were at Okara. On 6th March a mob of 3,000 visited the railway station and detained the Down Pakistan Mail for three hours. The crowd also broke the windows of carriages and vacuum chains and attempted to molest lady passengers. On 8th March, telegraph lines were cut near Okara. On 3rd April, after some fiery speeches had been made in the Jami’ Mosque, a procession of women, displaying some placards, came out. The police attempted to seize the placards, but an excited mob of 500 rushed towards the police. While the crowd was being pushed back by the police, a 70-year-old man received an injury and later died in the hospital. There is also the incident of 8th March, which we see no reason to disbelieve though it is not mentioned in any of the official statements, of Hafiz Muhammad Bakhsh, Secretary Ahmadiya Jama’at in Chak No. 2/4-L, near Okara; and his family members, of whom one is a graduate and the other a B. A., LL.B., having been made to recant their creed and abuse the founder of the Ahmadiya movement and of their having been taken from their village by a mob of 4 or 5 thousands to Jami’ Millia, Okara, where they were produced and required to repeat their recantation before Maulvi Zia-ud-Din and Maulvi Mueen-ud-Din. A 24-hour curfew was imposed in Montgomery and Okara on 14th March to facilitate arrest of the ring leaders and again from 2-30 p.m. to 6 a.m. on 17th March at Montgomery. Public processions and meetings also were banned in Montgomery and Okara for a period of 17 days on 13th March. The district returned to normal after the incident of Okara on 3rd April 1953. URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamBooksAndDocuments_1.aspx?ArticleID=2638

Urdu Section

31 Mar 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com

OBJECTIVES RESOLUTION AND SECULARISM—PART 4

By Wajahat Masood After the arrival of the British in the sub-continent, their educational, technical and administrative supremacy outplayed the intellectual depth, political vision and administrative capabilities of the Muslim religious leaders. For centuries, the religious scholars had closed the paths of human possibilities by putting a lock of heavenly revelations on knowledge, governance and distribution of resources. The changes rekindled the desire of renaissance of their pomp and retinue in the past among the religious leaders. The arrival of the European colonialists destroyed the interests of the local peshwas. As a result of the scientific discoveries and inventions, the hold of the religious leaders on the the people's mind loosened. The religous peshwas tried to reclaim their hold and influence by criticising the industrial civilisation with the interpretations and representations of historical facts. The military, political and administrative success of the European invaders was indebted to the modern way of thinking and scientific approach. Therefore, the religious leaders reacted against the modernity. Modern education and industrial productivity gave birth to new social structures. The power of old civilisational values diminished. On the other hand new problems raised their heads. The speed of literacy and alternative social evolution was slower than that of sciences and economy. consequently, threatened by the problems breeding in the transitional period of the old and the new order, sections harbouring hidden interests started showing a love for the old thought models and social structures. When the Muslim educated section emerged, they too started asserting their political rights following in the footsteps of the Hindus and founded their own political party, the Muslim League. In this way, politics and religion parted ways in the Muslim polity. The new educated section assumed the responsibility of the political leadership while the religious leaders remained responsible for religious affairs. Therefore, the ulemas were sidelined on all the issues of that period such as Shimla Delegation, the establishment of the Muslim League, the Partition of Bengal, the Covenant of Lucknow or the Urdu-Hndi dispute and the political leadership of the Muslims tried to find a solution in the light of political and class-based interests. In 1907, the Shia Muslims announced their own organisation called All India Shia Conference. In 1914, the Sunni Muslims formed their own organisation called Jamiatul Hind which was rechristened Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind five years later. Maulana Azad too founded Darul Irshad in 1914. The question is why the ulema formed their own bodies when the Muslim League was already in place. The answer is obvious. The noblemen in gaberdine and turban claiming the knowledge of the religious sciences could not accept the leadership of the English-speaking people. Since the outset of the 19th century, the traditional ulema have opposed the educated Muslims. The skills and educational orientation of the traditional ulema are devoid of the modern sciences and unable to cope with the complexities of the contemporary world. They consider knowledge exanimate. They are oblivious to the social mobility and averse to accepting the invetible changes in the values as a consequence. They opposed Sir Syed tooth and nail. Today every one admits that if Sir Syed's Aligarh College (later university) had not produced a large number of educated Muslim youths, perhaps the movement for Pakistan would not have succeeded and probably the Muslims in the entire India would have remained backward educationally and economically. Apparently, Sir Syed was opposed on religious basis, but actually the realisation makes them restless that they have been left behind in today's world. Their scholastic views and social approach have been beaten to the ground. Those who likened the railway engine to satanic wheels not very long ago travel in priceless cars and fly in airplanes without any regrets. They send their children to international schools. Those who regarded the telephone as the satan's voice, today propagate their faith or sect on the telephone. The loudspeaker to them was unislamic but today they deliver sermons on the loudspeaker day in and day out. Mosques are fitted with airconditioners. Taliban are not in favour of allowing the common men to watch television or listen to the radio but they are running their own TV channels (mostly illegal). In the ongoing war of terrorism, the electronic media and the internet has been used by them to the optimum level. Those who till the other day pronounced photography haram, send threatening messages to newspapers in order to get their photographs published prominently. The Khilafat movement played an important role in redirecting the Muslim politics. Different lobbies joined the movement with their own agenda. On the one hand, Gandhiji wanted to test the organisational strength and protesting capabilities of the Congress, and on the other, wanted to strengthen his position as a mass leader of the entire India irrespective of religion by joining this absurd movement. The Muslim religious scholars who had been relegated to the corner during the Aligarh Movement or the issue of partition of Bengal, wanted to hone their inflammatory oratorical skills on this rusted issue. Isn't it surprising that the Hindu religious leaders remained aloof from the Khilafat movement but the Congress took the lead in it. Broadminded leaders like Qaid-e-Azam who were aware of the international political affairs did not show any interest in this movement. Therefore, instead of educated and professional Muslim section, the religious scholars or the ulemas got the opportunity to become the leaders of the Muslims. Dr Mubarak Ali writes, "Through the Khilafat movement, the religious emotions of the Muslims were fomented on such an issue which had no political significance and was going to die its own death." URL.: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamUrduSection_1.aspx?ArticleID=2637

Islamic World News

31 Mar 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com

Twelve killed by twin bombings in Russia's Dagestan

Maliki will follow law on election: US envoy Missing Iranian scientist defects to US Now, US target of Christian militia Obama wants new nuclear sanctions on Iran within 'weeks' UK Muslims fear being spied on by govt scheme Alleged U.S Jihadis on Trial in Pakistan Call to bar Iraq election winners 'connected to Saddam' Fear of anti-Muslim backlash in Russia French govt told to limit burqa ban Women refusing to remove niqab in Canada will be charged Verdict set as Mumbai attacks trial concludes Muslim scholars issue fatwa... on jihad 170 J&K temples vandalised in 20 years, admits Govt Temple pays respect to a departed Muslim Anti-Muslim riots in India's IT hub continue unabated Afghanistan plays down talks with insurgent faction Palestinian killed, 12 injured in Gaza 'Land Day' demonstration Trials of ‘religious extremists’ sweep Uzbekistan Mullen in Afghan war zone as US gears up for Kandahar 39 militants killed in Orakzai operation Peaceful, prosperous future motivates aid work in Pakistan Eliminating Terrorists, Not Terror Pakistan to ask Switzerland to reopen Zardari cases Pak, Turkey pledge for strong ties UN panel delays BB report at Pakistan’s request Daughter's claim may fall flat as Jinnah's will found 3 militants, jawan killed in J&K gunbattle Belgium set to debate burqa ban Islamic elements make attempts to radicalize the Balkan Muslims: Alex Alexiev Balochistan unrest must come to an end, says Nawaz Afghanistan bombing kills 13 in busy Helmand market Suicide bomber attacks anti-Taliban militia Serbia Finally Sorry for Srebrenica Pig's blood in cigarette filters? Devout may find this 'very offensive' Govt committed to quota for 'backward Muslims' The Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik wedding will rock the Muslim world – but will it last? AMU holds talks over tie up with American varsities Compiled by Akshay Kumar Ojha URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=2640 ------ Twelve killed by twin bombings in Russia's Dagestan 31 March 2010 At least 12 people, including a top local police official, have been killed by two suicide bombings in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. A car bomb was detonated at about 0830 (0430 GMT) outside the offices of the local interior ministry and the FSB security agency in the town of Kizlyar. Another bomber then blew himself up 20 minutes later as a crowd gathered. Russia is on alert after double suicide bombings on the Moscow Metro on Monday morning, which left 39 people dead. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on the security forces to "scrape from the sewers" those responsible for the Moscow attacks. Investigators say they believe the bombers were linked to militants in the North Caucasus. At a government meeting following Wednesday's bombings in Dagestan, Mr Putin condemned the "terrorist act" and said he did "not rule out that it is one and the same gang at work". The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says that although no-one has yet claimed responsibility for either of the attacks, both bear the hallmarks of previous suicide bombings carried out by Islamist militants from the restive region. Last month, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov warned that his fighters' "zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia... the war is coming to their cities". 'Cancerous tumour' In Wednesday's attacks, the first suicide bomber detonated his explosives when police tried to stop his car as he drove into the centre of Kizlyar, Dagestani Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said. Kizlyar is just a few kilometres from Chechnya - in the very volatile North Caucasus. The region is the focus of an extremist Islamist insurgency - and attacks on Russian police and security forces there are relatively common. Russian officials have blamed insurgents from the North Caucasus for the two bombs that went off in Moscow on Monday. After the latest attack, Dagestan's interior minister ordered police to increase security measures at official buildings and public places nationwide. "Traffic police followed the car and almost caught up - at that time the blast hit," he told local television. As police, emergency services personnel and residents gathered at the scene, a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform approached and blew himself up, killing among others the town's chief of police, Col Vitaly Vedernikov, Mr Nurgaliyev added. Mobile phone video footage posted on the internet afterwards showed the moment of the second blast, with officials walking past a damaged building before a loud bang rings out and smoke rises in the distance. A total of nine police officers were among the dead, the investigative committee of Russian prosecutors said in a statement. Twenty-three people were injured. Kizlyar is close to Dagestan's border with Chechnya, where Russian forces have fought two wars against separatists since 1994 that claimed more than 100,000 lives and left the republic in ruins. Chechnya has in recent years been more peaceful, but the fighting has spread to Dagestan and Ingushetia, where a violent Islamist insurgency is growing. Correspondents say poverty, unemployment and the brutal tactics of the security forces have been factors in driving young men into the ranks of Islamist rebel groups, which want to drive the Russians out. President Dmitry Medvedev recently said separatists had spread through the North Caucasus "like a cancerous tumour" and earlier this year appointed a deputy prime minister to oversee the troubled region. After Wednesday's attacks, Mr Nurgaliyev ordered police to increase security at official buildings across Dagestan, as well as at places where crowds gather, including schools, colleges and cinemas. "These attacks show that terrorists can target anywhere," he said. Mourning On Tuesday, Russians observed a day of mourning for those killed the suicide bombings on Moscow's Metro, carried out by two women said to have links to the North Caucasus. Russians stand near a growing mound of flowers commemorating the victims of the metro blasts inside the Lubyanka metro station (30 March 2010) The first bomb tore through a carriage of a train at Lubyanka station - beneath the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) - as it stood waiting for commuters during the morning rush hour. The second explosion, six stops away at Park Kultury, was about 40 minutes later. It hit the back of the train as people were getting on. The devices - believed to have been made with the powerful explosive hexogen, also known as RDX - were filled with chipped iron rods and screws for shrapnel. The co-ordinated attacks were the deadliest in Moscow since February 2004, when 40 people were killed by a bomb on a packed metro train as it approached the Paveletskaya station. Prime Minister Putin has said investigators should view catching the organisers of Monday's bombings as a "matter of honour". Russian media reports are linking them to the death earlier this month of a rebel leader from Ingushetia - Alexander Tikhomirov, also known as Said Buryatskiy - who was blamed for an attack on a train from Moscow to St Petersburg last year that killed 26 people. The newspaper Kommersant quoted security sources as saying they believed Tikhomirov had recruited 30 potential suicide attackers, and that two of them might have avenged his death. The funerals for several of the victims, which were due to take place in Moscow later on Wednesday, have been postponed for a day. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8596084.stm ------ Maliki will follow law on election: US envoy 31 Mar, 2010 WASHINGTON, March 30: The US ambassador to Iraq voiced confidence Tuesday that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would abide by the law despite his mounting criticism of what he alleges is election fraud. Ambassador Christopher Hill renewed his defence of the March 7 election, dismissing charges that there was ballot-stuffing in the vote. Maliki “has been very clear with us in private and very clear in public that he will follow the law,” Hill told reporters in Washington by videolink from Baghdad. “The Iraqi people went to the polls in great numbers and I think the Iraqi people expect all of their politicians — whether it’s the prime minister or whether it’s the challenger — to follow the letter of the law,” Hill said. Hill downplayed suggestions the political row could descend into violence, saying that Iraq was a rare place in the region where candidates have agreed to abide by voters’ mandate.—AFP http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/international/maliki-will-follow-law-on-election-us-envoy-130 ------ Missing Iranian scientist defects to US Mar 31, 2010 WASHINGTON: An Iranian nuclear scientist who had been reported missing since last summer has defected to the US and is assisting the CIA in its efforts to undermine Iran's nuclear program, ABC News reported Tuesday. The scientist, Shahram Amiri, has been resettled in the US, according to the report. The CIA had no comment on the report, a spokesman said. President Barack Obama said Tuesday he hopes international sanctions against Iran for pursuing its nuclear ambitions will be in place this spring. Iran maintains that its nuclear research is for peaceful purposes and not to develop weapons. Amiri, who worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely connected to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, disappeared last June while in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage. While his disappearance led to speculation that he had defected and was assisting the West in its efforts to keep track of Iran's nuclear program, the Iranian foreign minister accused the US of helping to kidnap him. Citing people briefed on the intelligence operation, ABC News said Amiri's disappearance was part of a long-planned CIA operation to persuade him to defect. The CIA reportedly approached Amiri in Iran through an intermediary who made an offer of resettlement on behalf of the United States, ABC News said. Amiri has been extensively debriefed since his defection, according to the report, and has helped to confirm US intelligence assessments about the Iranian nuclear program. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Missing-Iranian-scientist-defects-to-US/articleshow/5745370.cms ------ Now, US target of Christian militia Mar 31, 2010 DETROIT: Nine members of a Christian militia group were indicted on charges of conspiring to wage war against the US government, federal prosecutors said. According to the grand jury indictment unsealed in US district court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the eight men and one woman were members of a group called the Hutaree that planned to kill a police officer in Michigan and then ambush the law enforcement officers who attended his funeral. The indictment said the group believed the attacks would "serve as a catalyst for a more widespread uprising" against the government. Eight people were arrested by the FBI over the weekend in raids in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. The ninth member was arrested after the FBI played recorded messages from family and friends, who urged the man to give himself up, over loudspeakers outside a home in rural Michigan. Full report at: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Now-US-target-of-Christian-militia/articleshow/5744956.cms ------ Obama wants new nuclear sanctions on Iran within 'weeks' Mar 31, 2010 W ASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he would like to see new UN sanctions placed on Iran in a matter of weeks as he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented a united front on Tehran's nuclear program. Obama and Sarkozy, at a joint White House news conference, made clear they felt it was time to move ahead with tougher sanctions that their governments have been negotiating with China, Russia, Germany and Britain. "My hope is that we are going to get this done this spring," Obama said. "I'm interested in seeing that regime in place in weeks." China, reluctant for months, is believed to be slowly falling in line in backing the idea of new sanctions. Full report at: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Obama-wants-new-nuclear-sanctions-on-Iran-within-weeks/articleshow/5745124.cms ------ UK Muslims fear being spied on by govt scheme LONDON: British Muslims feel they are being spied on by a government scheme, which aims to stem terrorism, a committee of lawmakers said on Tuesday. Many also feel that the Prevent scheme has “stigmatised and alienated” them, said a report from the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee. Ministers were criticised for a “persistent preoccupation” with the alleged theological roots of radicalisation, when “evidence suggests that foreign policy, deprivation and alienation” also play major roles, the scrutiny body’s chair Phyllis Starkey said. The Prevent scheme is part of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy and aims to stop people supporting terror. Full report at: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\03\31\story_31-3-2010_pg7_5 ------ Alleged U.S Jihadis on Trial in Pakistan By NICK SCHIFRIN March 31, 2010 Prosecutors began today a trial against five Americans in this dusty Pakistani city, accusing them of wanting to launch terrorist attacks here and in Afghanistan. Pakistani Court Charges 5 Americans With Terrorism Pakistani police officers with detained American Muslims leave a police station to send them into... Expand Pakistani police officers with detained American Muslims leave a police station to send them into prison in Sargodha, Pakistan, Jan. 4, 201. A Pakistani court charged the five young Americans on Wednesday March 17, 2010, with planning terrorist attacks in the South Asian country and conspiring to wage war against nations allied with Pakistan, their defense lawyer said. Collapse The men, in their late teens and early 20s, make up the highest profile overseas case of more than a dozen recently arrested terrorists or would-be terrorists who hold U.S. citizenship. The trend reflects a new threat of U.S.-based Islamic extremism, U.S. officials say. http://abcnews.go.com/Inernational/terrorism-trial-us-suspects-pakistan/story?id=10247324 ------ Call to bar Iraq election winners 'connected to Saddam' 31 March 2010 Six of the winning candidates in Iraq's elections should be disqualified because of alleged ties to the former Baath government, a vetting panel says. If upheld, the move could alter the election result, to which State of Law coalition leader, Nouri Maliki, is already mounting a legal challenge. Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqiyya list won the election by two seats - too few to form a government. A list spokesman said the suggested disqualifications would be illegal. Unnamed officials from the Justice and Accountability Committee told the Associated Press (AP) news agency four of the six candidates belonged to Mr Allawi's Iraqiyya list, but none of the six was named. Full report at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8596678.stm ------ Fear of anti-Muslim backlash in Russia 31 Mar, 2010 MOSCOW, March 30: Her only fault was she looked different. Nargiza, a 17-year old daughter of a half-Armenian janitor mother, was beaten up by enraged Muscovites as their anger over Monday’s metro bombings linked to Caucasus militants boiled over into blind prejudice. “She was beaten up in the street, her hair torn, face injured, her clothes torn,” said Galina Kozhevnikova of Moscow-based Sova Centre, a rights centre that tracks hate crimes, citing an acquaintance who witnessed the incident. The girl — assumed to be Muslim because of her darkish skin — became an unfortunate victim of a spike in anti-Islamic sentiments stirred up by the twin bombings that claimed the lives of 39 people, Kozhevnikova said. Full report at: dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/international/fear-of-antimuslim-backlash-in-russia-130 ------ French govt told to limit burqa ban 31 Mar, 2010 font-size small font-size largefont-sizeprint email share PARIS: France’s top administrative body advised the government on Tuesday against slapping a complete ban on the full Islamic veil but said outlawing the burqa in some places was justified for security reasons. Lawmakers from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party said they were determined to push for a total ban of the full-face veil in draft legislation to be presented in the coming weeks. In a report presented to the government, the State Council warned that a blanket ban was unlikely to stand up to a court challenge and that there were no legal grounds for it. The council said however that the government could invoke security and public order to require that faces be uncovered in public venues such as courts, schools, hospitals and during university exams, for example. “It appears to the State Council that a general and absolute ban on the full veil as such can have no incontestable judicial basis,” the council said in a report to Prime Minister Francois Fillon.—AFP http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/international/french-govt-told-to-limit-burqa-ban-130 ------ Women refusing to remove niqab in Canada will be charged By Raman Iyer 03/31/2010 Women refusing to remove niqab in Canada will be charged Toronto, March 31 : After the landmark niqab ban in French-speaking Quebec province last week, Canadian police now say they will charge anyone refusing to remove face-coverings, including niqab, when being booked after arrest. Under Canadian laws, police always take mug shots of the offenders after their arrest. Though no Muslim woman with a niqab has been arrested in the country yet, police said Tuesday that anyone refusing to remove face-coverings for a mug shot will face charges. Outraged over the new developments, Wahida Valiante of the Canadian Islamic Congress told the Canadian Press, "This is getting absurd, really. There are only, in the entire Quebec province, 25 women who wear the niqab so they can't be in the highest number of criminals expected to be arrested.'' According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) - the country's national police force - the Identification of Criminals Act allows them to use 'reasonable force' to remove face-coverings if someone doesn't comply with their orders. Full report at: http://www.topnews.in/law/women-refusing-remove-niqab-canada-will-be-charged-213427 ------ Verdict set as Mumbai attacks trial concludes 31 March 2010 The trial of the man alleged to be the sole surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai (Bombay) attacks has concluded, with a verdict expected in May. Pakistani national Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, 22, faces 86 charges, including waging war on India, murder and possessing explosives. In all, 610 witnesses testified during the case, which began last March. The November 2008 attacks left 174 people dead, including nine gunmen and soured ties between India and Pakistan. The defendant, who remained quiet throughout the proceedings, simply nodded as the judge told him he would pass judgement on 3 May. The judge will also give his verdict on two Indian men - Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed - who are accused of helping the gunmen plan the attacks. Pakistan arrests Full report at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8596800.stm ------ Muslim scholars issue fatwa... on jihad 31st March 2010 Muslim scholars have reissued a famous medieval fatwa on jihad, arguing religious justification used by militants for violence is wrong. A conference in Mardin in southeastern Turkey declared the ruling by 14th century scholar Ibn Taymiyya rules out militant violence. They added that the medieval Muslim division of the world into a 'house of Islam' and 'house of unbelief' no longer applies. Osama bin Laden has quoted Ibn Taymiyya's 'Mardin fatwa' repeatedly in his calls for Muslims to overthrow the Saudi monarchy and wage jihad against the United States. Referring to that historic document, the weekend conference said: 'Anyone who seeks support from this fatwa for killing Muslims or non-Muslims has erred in his interpretation. 'It is not for a Muslim individual or a Muslim group to announce and declare war or engage in combative jihad ... on their own,' said the declaration issued on Sunday in Arabic and later provided to Reuters in English. The declaration is the latest bid by mainstream scholars to use age-old Muslim texts to refute current-day religious arguments by Islamist groups. A leading Pakistani scholar issued a 600-page fatwa against terrorism in London early this month. Full report at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1262522/Muslim-scholars-issue-fatwa--jihad.html##ixzz0jkqdKOH7 ------ 170 J&K temples vandalised in 20 years, admits Govt By: Mohit Kandhari  March 29, 2010 At a time when the Babri mosque demolition case is revisiting the Indian political sphere, the Jammu & Kashmir Government has on record admitted that 170 temples were damaged in militancy-related violence in the Valley over the last 20 years. Compared to the 1990s, however, the situation has normalised to a large extent and many temples have been thrown open to visitors and Kashmiri Pandits for carrying out daily rituals. But the majority of emigrant Pandits is still not satisfied with the pace of renovation and wants the State Government to allocate more funds and expedite the ongoing works. Several prominent Kashmiri Pandits feel that the State Government organs have failed to take proper care of the Valley's temples, which has left many heritage buildings and religious structures in a state of ruin. Full report at: www.dailypioneer.com/245412/170-JK-temples-vandalised-in-20-years-admits-Govt.html ------ Temple pays respect to a departed Muslim R Uma Maheshwari Mar 31, 2010 HYDERABAD: In all this din and bloodshed I found a temple, a Balaji temple, with a Hanuman shrine within, which shut its doors on Tuesday evening, as a mark of respect for an old Muslim neighbour who passed away. And that too, on a day celebrated as Hanuman Jayanthi. And for a moment one felt the peace and quiet and happiness within. Thank goodness some things are not too visible. Not too audible. Like this temple in a colony I reside in. I would usually remark to a few close friends about this temple situated right opposite a mosque in this colony. There was always something I liked about these two religious shrines— the time of the morning azan and the temple bells always have that strange sense of synchronicity. One starts when the other ends. I do not know the exact reasons, nor have I ventured to find out. I just like to believe it is a coordinated orchestra of some sort. And sometimes it is useful to also just quietly believe in some of these things. Every morning the temple bell rings when the azan has been called out. All kinds of festivals have taken place in the two, and there has never been trouble. The colony itself is a fascinating mix the mosque is surrounded by a Muslim basti and there is a dargah close by, and a Mysamma temple. And Muslims and so-termed Hindu Dalits live next to each other. Some steps away and you find a population of Tamils, mostly Brahmin, and two Tamil Brahmin temples. But I do not take up those temples for discussion here. Full report at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Temple-pays-respect-to-a-departed-Muslim/articleshow/5745028.cms ------ Anti-Muslim riots in India's IT hub continue unabated March 31, 2010 HYDERABAD (Agencies) – Indian riot police fired rubber bullets and used teargas to disperse Hindu mob during anti-Muslim riots that continued for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday despite imposition of an indefinite curfew in the southern Indian IT hub of Hyderabad. Two people have so far been killed and dozens others injured and 110 people arrested in connection with the clashes, which spread to other parts of the city on Tuesday. The city remained tense due to communal riots, which started on Saturday when a Hindu group replaced Muslim flags with Hindu ones on the streets during a festival. The Muslims had decorated the bazars with flags to celebrate Eid Miladun Nabi in the old city. The riots spread to new areas even as shoot-at-sight orders were issued in the old city and indefinite curfew was imposed in the areas under eight more police stations. The curfew in the riot-hit old city of Hyderabad continued Tuesday without relaxation. All 17 police stations under the south zone were brought under curfew Monday night to control the situation. Full report at: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/31-Mar-2010/AntiMuslim-riots-in-Indias-IT-hub-continue-unabated ------ Afghanistan plays down talks with insurgent faction Mar 30, 2010 KABUL: Afghanistan on Tuesday played down the possibility of an early breakthrough in talks with a main insurgent faction, saying negotiations were still in the early stages and it did not want to raise expectations. The government announced last week President Hamid Karzai had met a senior delegation from Hezb-i-Islami, one of the three main groups fighting Afghan and foreign forces in the country, his first confirmed talks with the group that rivals the Taleban. Although the talks are preliminary, the public acknowledgement of the meeting was itself a significant milestone after many months of furtive efforts by Karzai to reach out to the militants in a bid to bring an end to the fighting. A member of the Hezb-i-Islami delegation who met Karzai told Reuters last week the group had presented a 15-point plan, including a demand that foreign troops begin withdrawing in July this year and pull out completely within six months. That timetable was flexible, the delegate later said, and indicated the rebels could be satisfied with Washington's target of mid-2011 to start withdrawing, provided preparations to pull out began sooner to demonstrate America was sincere. Full report at: http://arabnews.com/world/article37079.ece ------ Palestinian killed, 12 injured in Gaza 'Land Day' demonstration Mar 30, 2010 GAZA CITY: A Palestinian teenager was killed and 12 people were wounded, including children, as Israeli troops opened fire at "Land Day" demonstrators near the Gaza border on Tuesday, Palestinian medics said. Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the border, east of the town of Khan Yunis, to mark Land Day, an annual commemoration of Israel's killing of six people during a 1976 protest by Israeli Arabs against land confiscations. Near the site of fierce clashes which left two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinians dead over the weekend, protesters hurled stones at troops along the border, who responded with live fire, witnesses said. Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services, said 11 people, including children, were wounded. One of them, nine-year-old Raid Abu Namus, was in serious condition, medics at a nearby hospital said. Full report at: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Palestinian-killed-12-injured-in-Gaza-Land-Day-demonstration/articleshow/5743247.cms ------ Trials of ‘religious extremists’ sweep Uzbekistan By Ubaydulla Babadzhanov and Shakar Saadi 2010-03-30 A cage in a Tashkent courtroom in November 2005 holds 15 defendants accused of terrorism, murder of government officials and other serious crimes during a May 2005 demonstration in Andijan. Observers say 7,000-10,000 Uzbeks unjustly called “terrorists” and “radicals” are languishing in Uzbek prisons. [STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images] TASHKENT – The government calls them extremists, but human rights groups say they are victims of repression. There seems to be no middle ground in the characterisation of Uzbek religious activists across the country who have been arrested or are being tried on charges of terrorism and assassination. According to the Action Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders, 29 trials in the Tashkent Oblast alone have sent 83 members of unregistered religious organisations to prison for 15-to-18-year terms. Another 100 Muslims are on trial in Syrdarya Oblast, according to the Ezgulik human rights group. Full report at:.centralasiaonline.com/cocoon/caii/xhtml/en_GB/features/caii/newsbriefs/2010/03/30/newsbrief-00 ------ Mullen in Afghan war zone as US gears up for Kandahar March 31, 2010 KABUL—The top US military commander on Tuesday visited Marjah, the frontline of US-led operations against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan where a battle for Kandahar is already ramping up. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in the battle zone a day after President Barack Obama left Afghanistan after a surprise visit, pledging to defeat the Taliban and “to get the job done”. Operations in the farming community of Marjah, set in poppy fields and desert in Helmand province, are the first test of Obama’s counter-insurgency campaign aimed at ending an increasingly deadly war now into its ninth year. “Admiral Mullen is in Marjah,” said Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Full report at: http://dailymailnews.com/0310/31/FrontPage/FrontPage12.php ------ 39 militants killed in Orakzai operation March 31, 2010 KOHAT/HANGU/KALAYA: Thirty-nine militants were killed and 49 sustained injuries in the ongoing military operation in various parts of Orakzai Agency, official and tribal sources said on Tuesday. The sources said the military operation continued for the eighth consecutive day in Orakzai Agency during which fighter jets and gunship helicopters pounded the hideouts and compounds of the militants in Anjani, Mamozai, Katapanra, Khwa Sturikhel and Malandara areas. The sources said a woman was killed and two others sustained injuries when an artillery shell fired by security forces hit the house of Haji Arjali Khan in Aliri Village in the Ferozkhel area. Meanwhile, security forces arrested nine militants in a clash with the militants in Zainakhel and Tajkan areas. Their identity could not be ascertained. The sources said security forces fired heavy artillery from their base camp in Ferozkhel at Arghanjo in the Mamozai area where the Government Primary School, a dispensary and a market came under attack. Full report at: http://thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=28082 ------ Peaceful, prosperous future motivates aid work in Pakistan By Rienk van Velzen March 31, 2010 At 9:20 am on 10 March, a routine office meeting was shattered by the sound of armed militants storming World Vision's office in northwest Pakistan. The gunmen opened fire and detonated a bomb, destroying the office as they left. Six World Vision staff members, including two women, were killed. Eight more were injured, three of them seriously; one so seriously that he died four days later. The attack on World Vision staff in Pakistan serves as grim evidence that humanitarian space cannot be protected, even with the official support of local government authorities and the hospitable collaboration of local community and religious leaders. In 2008, the total number of aid workers killed was 122. The total number of victims of "violence" (i.e. killed, kidnapped or seriously injured) was 260. Despite our industry's firm commitment to neutrality and impartiality in our operations, groups opposed to peace and prosperity in communities continue their assault. During their rampage on World Vision's office in Pakistan, extremists shouted, "Why are you doing this job?" before orphaning the children of staff and of the communities of dedicated parents and staff who worked there. Full report at: theasiannews.co.uk/community/heritage/s/1202350_peaceful_prosperous_future_motivates_aid_work_in_pakistan ------ Eliminating Terrorists, Not Terror By Simon Saradzhyan 31 Mar 2010 Cyclist rides past a partially constructed railway line through the Georgian mountains to Chechnya. Suicide bombings in a Moscow subway once again illustrate that the elimination of terrorist leaders alone will not end security threats from the North Caucasus. Counterterrorism efforts require a major rethink, Simon Saradzhyan comments for ISN Security Watch. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a downtown Moscow subway during the morning rush hour on 29 March, killing 39 people and injuring more than 70 others. The bombs, which detonated within a 30-minute interval in trains at the Lubyanka and Park Kultury subway stations, contained explosives that were equivalent to four and two kilograms of TNW, respectively, and were packed with projectiles, according to a statement released by the National Counter-Terrorism Committee (NAK) later that day. The Lubyanka station has a number of exits directly outside the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB). According to some accounts, the second bomb was to have been detonated at the Oktyabrskaya station, one of whose exits is right outside the Interior Ministry. Such a choice of targets indicates an attempt to undermine the public’s perception of the ability of the Russian secret services and law enforcement agencies to protect them. In his 29 March briefing to President Dmitry Medvedev, NAK chairman and FSB director Alexander Bortnikov said both female suicide bombers - whose faces had been captured by subway surveillance cameras - were most likely residents of the North Caucasus and belonged to terrorist groups “related” to this volatile region. Full report at: isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?ots591=eb06339b-2726-928e-0216-1b3f15392dd8&lng=en&id=114375 ------ Pakistan to ask Switzerland to reopen Zardari cases 31 March 2010 Pakistan's anti-corruption agency is to ask Switzerland to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Zardari. The move came after Pakistan's Supreme Court said it would jail the head of the agency if he did not take action. Mr Zardari and his late wife, former PM Benazir Bhutto, were convicted by a Swiss court in a $15m money-laundering case in 2003. They denied the charges. Pakistan withdrew from the Swiss case soon after Mr Zardari's Pakistan People's Party came to power in 2008. But an amnesty protecting Mr Zardari and other top officials from prosecution was annulled by the Supreme Court in December. Court pressure Full report at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8596708.stm ------ Pak, Turkey pledge for strong ties 31 Mar 2010 ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Turkey pledged for strong ties between the two countries on Wednesday. The two countries pledged to enhance the trade and business and to take the amount of trade in the next two years up to $ 5 billion. The two countries have signed three Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to enhance cooperation. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan has good relations with Turkey and it further wants to enhance relations between the two counties. PM Gilani was addressing the gathering of the lunch hosted in honour of the visiting dignitary Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Wednesday. He said that the relations between the two democracies would further strengthen in the future.PM Gilani said that Pakistan is impressed from the development of Turkey. Pakistan wants to follow the reforms which had led Turkey to the development. Full report at: http://www.samaa.tv/News18616-Pak_Turkey_pledge_for_strong_ties.aspx ------ UN panel delays BB report at Pakistan’s request By Masood Haider 31 Mar, 2010 UNITED NATIONS, March 30: The United Nations Commission looking into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto delayed the release of the report at the “urgent request of the President of Pakistan”, a UN spokesman told journalists on Tuesday. The report will now be released on April 15, the spokesman said. The commission had told the secretary-general that “all relevant facts and circumstances have been explored, and the report is now complete and ready to be delivered”. In a formal statement read out at a briefing, the UN spokesman said: “The secretary-general has accepted an urgent request by the President of Pakistan to delay the presentation of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of the former Pakistani prime minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto until 15 April 2010. The commission has informed the secretary-general that, as of today, all relevant facts and circumstances have been explored, and the report is now complete and ready to be delivered. Full report at: dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/un-panel-delays-bb-report-at-pakistans-request-130 ------ Daughter's claim may fall flat as Jinnah's will found Mar 31, 2010 MUMBAI: In a new twist to the legal battle over the Jinnah House, the property of Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah here, a copy of his will bequeathing the property to his sister was found recently. The will mentions that the leader bequeathed the property to his sister Fatima Jinnah, an official said. Dina Wadia, Jinnah's daughter, has laid claim to the Jinnah House, a colonial bungalow on Mount Pleasant Road at upmarket Malabar Hill in south Mumbai. "The will dated May 30, 1939 and a copy of legal certification from the Bombay high court was found in the records of the custodian of enemy property for India," Dinesh Singh, in-charge of the custodian office in Mumbai, said. The high court in 1962 had legally certified the will as genuine and executed in Fatima's favour. "We have sent the copy to the ministry of external affairs for their perusal," Singh said. Full report at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Daughters-claim-may-fall-flat-as-Jinnahs-will-found/articleshow/5745063.cms ------ 3 militants, jawan killed in J&K gunbattle Mar 30, 2010 JAMMU: Three militants and an army jawan were killed and two policemen were injured in two separate gunbattles in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, security officials said. Acting on a tipoff, army and police personnel launched a cordon-and-search operation in LambiBeri-Tilnai Khoo forests in Kandi Bhudal belt of Rajouri district against militants trying to infiltrate from across the border, they said. In the gunbattle that raged till late in the evening, two militants and an army jawan were killed and another injured, they said adding two to three militants are still trapped. The injured jawan was airlifted to the military hospital in critical condition, they said adding additional troops have been rushed to the spot and bodies are yet to be recovered. Police and troops, who were searching for a group of infiltrating militants, finally trapped the militants in Triyath area of the same district this evening, they said adding militants fired on the search party led by Additional SP R K Bhat, setting off another gunfight. One militant was killed and SHO of Dharamshal police station Showkat Ali injured at Triyath, the officials said adding four to five militants are trapped in the cordon as the gunbattle escalated. The body of the militant is yet to be recovered. Officials suspect this is th http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/3-militants-jawan-killed-in-JK-gunbattle/articleshow/5744132.cms ------ Belgium set to debate burqa ban March 31, 2010 Brussels : Belgium on Wednesday is set to take a decisive step on whether to ban the Islamic burqa in public, including the street, following a motion submitted by liberal lawmakers. The parliament's home affairs committee will debate a draft law from 1345 IST which would ban the wearing of the veil in the street, public gardens, sports grounds and public or state offices. The proposal calls for the banning of any kind of clothes or veils that do not allow the wearer to be fully identified, including the full-face niqab and burqa. The proposal has the backing of five parties in the governing coalition, a spokesman for the Reformist Movement, a liberal francophone party, told AFP. Controversy has raged in a number of European countries in recent years over the wearing Muslim veils and other religious garments in state or public institutions. If it is approved by the committee, the proposal will be put to vote in parliament, a source said, adding that it was likely to be held on April 22. If passed, Belgium will become the first European country to ban the burqa in the street. http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/598075/ ------ Islamic elements make attempts to radicalize the Balkan Muslims: Alex Alexiev 31 March 2010 Sofia. "Unfortunately, Islamic elements had made attempts to radicalize the Balkan Muslims, including Bulgarian Muslims, for a long time. Unfortunately, they have success in Macedonia and Bosnia," said leading associate in the Center for Security Policy and leader of the Islamic Radicalism and International Terrorism program Alex Alexiev in an interview to FOCUS News Agency. “There is no doubt those people, most probably extreme Islamic or extreme extremist organizations, which are financed and sponsored by the Saudi Arabia, work in this direction. It is absolutely impressionable to think such things cannot occur on the Balkans. Thus, it is very important the security bodies to neutralize those organizations before they succeed to organize such attacks,” he said commenting on the terrorist attacks in Russia. http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n214978 ------ Balochistan unrest must come to an end, says Nawaz March 31, 2010 LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s chief Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday stressed that incidents of target killing should stop in Balochistan. Nawaz Sharif was holding a press briefing after a meeting with a delegation of Baloch leaders in Lahore. Nawaz said the unrest in Balochistan must come to an end. He said the PML-N was holding indirect talks with the federal government for an early resolution of the province’s issues. He said Wednesday’s meeting would strengthen relations between Punjab and Balochistan and also help in the latter’s progress. — DawnNews http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/04-nawaz-on-balochistan-qs-08 ------ Afghanistan bombing kills 13 in busy Helmand market 31 March 2010 A bomb explosion in a crowded village market in the south Afghan province of Helmand has killed at least 13 people and injured 45. The attack in Babaji, near Lashkar Gah, apparently targeted farmers collecting free seeds under an anti-opium drive. Local officials said the bomb had been strapped to a bicycle left in the market and detonated remotely. Meanwhile, the top US military official has said the Pentagon's Afghan efforts are to focus on Kandahar. No group said it had carried out the attack on Babaji. The area is close to Marjah, the focus of a major offensive against the Taliban. No foreign security forces were caught up in Wednesday's blast, the BBC's David Loyn reports from Kabul. Kandahar target Provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said the bomb had exploded near people who were at the market to receive free vegetable seeds provided by the British Government as part of its programme to encourage them not to plant opium poppy. Full report at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8596312.stm ------ Suicide bomber attacks anti-Taliban militia By Adnan Adil March 31, 2010 PESHAWAR - At least three individuals were killed and ten others were wounded after a suicide bomber targeted anti-Taliban militiamen in the Tank area bordering South Waziristan, Dawn.com reported March 30. According to the website, a suicide bomber walked into a militia office and blew himself up shortly after an anti-Taliban meeting. News media said the office belonged to Qari Misbahhuddin, brother of Qari Zainuddin, a late rival of former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. Assassins killed Qari Zainuddin in June 2009; a missile attack killed Mehsud in August 2009. Among the slain was Malik Taj Mohammad, who had been heading a lashkar against the Taliban in Mamoond, Dawn.com reported. http://www.centralasiaonline.com/cocoon/caii/xhtml/en_GB/features/caii/newsbriefs/2010/03/30/newsbrief-02 ------ Serbia Finally Sorry for Srebrenica Mar 31, 2010 By Jane Yager (Newser) – Serbia moved closer to getting into the EU yesterday when its parliament condemned the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Despite opposition from Serb nationalists, an overwhelming majority voted in favor of the resolution that "strongly condemned" Europe's worst mass killing since World War II but stopped short of recognizing the wartime crime against Bosnian Muslims as genocide. A leader of the Serbian parliament hailed the resolution as "a milestone on Serbia’s road to the construction of a modern European society," while nationalists, who angrily walked out on the vote, said the apology would “turn Serbia into an eternal villain,” the Times of London reports. Bosnian Muslims were also displeased: A resolution that fails to mention genocide is "an insult," the spokeswoman for a group of survivors and relatives of victims of the massacre said. http://www.newser.com/story/84779/serbia-finally-sorry-for-srebrenica.html ------ Pig's blood in cigarette filters? Devout may find this 'very offensive' by Natalie James March 31, 2010 Here’s one more reason to quit smoking. Cigarettes may contain pigs' blood. A new research has found that cigarettes may contain traces of pig's blood, which can spark concerns among religious groups. The Dutch research reportedly has identified 185 different industrial uses of a pig, including the use of its haemoglobin in cigarette filters. Here’s one more reason to quit smoking. Cigarettes may contain pigs' blood. A new research has found that cigarettes may contain traces of pig's blood, which can spark concerns among religious groups. Dangers of smoking are well known today. A strong association between smoking and a number of disease like lung damage, cancer and, of course, the intolerable stink, is established in previous studies. A recent study in the Netherlands gives smokers one more reason to kick the habit, saying cigarettes may contain pigs' blood. Full report at: http://www.themoneytimes.com/featured/20100331/pig039s-blood-cigarette-filters-devout-may-find-039very-offensive039-id-10106061.h ------ Govt committed to quota for 'backward Muslims' Mar 31, 2010 New Delhi : Government on Wednesday said it is committed to providing reservation to the backward sections among Muslims, a recommendation also made by the Sachar Committee that went into the issue of socio-economic condition of minority communities. "We are committed to giving share to the backward among Muslims in the reservation list for backward castes," Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said. "This was also recommended by Sachar Committee and we have promised it in our (Congress) manifesto as well to which we remain committed," Khurshid told reporters on the sidelines of a function of the National Minority Commission here. He said the commitment follows suggestions from Sachar committee as well as the "successful experiments in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka" of giving the backward sections among the minority community separate and special representation in the backward list. "We can move forward on the basis of what we have done in these three states," he said citing the example of Bihar, where a similar step has already been taken. Addressing the annual conference of State Minority Commissions, Khurshid said even the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which rejected the state government's move twice to get reservation for Muslim backward did not reject the concept of quota for them within existing 27 per cent OBC reservation. Full report at: http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/598189/ ------ The Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik wedding will rock the Muslim world – but will it last? By Dean Nelson March 31st, 2010 Is there a more rock and roll match in the Muslim world than the forthcoming marriage of saucy Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and Pakistani cricket bad-boy Shoaib Malik? Ms Mirza was due to marry her childhood friend Sohrab Mirza until her family announced the engagement was off, citing their “incompatibility”. She had been previously denounced by India’s conservative Mullahs for her short sports skirts and tight rising crop tops which reveal her taught abs when she swings a double-handed shot. In India she is more a busty sex symbol than a role model for pious muslim girls. Her new intended has sought to pitch himself as an Islamic sporting icon, but with little success. He was widely condemned when following the 2007 Twenty20 cricket world cup he claimed all Muslims in the world support Pakistan. Full report at: telegraph.co.uk/news/deannelson/100032284/the-sania-mirza-and-shoaib-malik-wedding-will-rock-the-muslim-world-but-will-it-last ------ AMU holds talks over tie up with American varsities March 31, 2010 A team of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) officials Wednesday held talks with representatives of American universities in New Delhi on academic collaboration between US varsities and AMU. The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), USA delegation consisted of America's top research universities consisting of University of Wisconsin, Purdue University, Pennsylvania University, Ohio University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Michigan State University and University of Minnesota. The discussion included facilitating more number of master and doctoral students to work in these universities for short term periods and provision for work for teachers for one to two years in US varsities, said a press release issued by AMU. The American delegates expressed interest in sending students from the US for learning Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi and other Indian languages. They also showed interest in Indian history and culture and the Unani system of medicine, added the release. The seven-member CIC delegation included Tenneth Shatire, director, India Initiatives Wisconsin University, Aseem Ansari, University of Wisconsin, Wolfgang Schiloer, University of Illinois. The AMU team included M. Saleemuddin, Javed Akhtar and the Vice Chancellor P.K. Abdul Azis. http://www.littleabout.com/news/86581,amu-holds-talks-tie-american-varsities.html URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamicWorldNews_1.aspx?ArticleID=2640