No difference between Afghan and Pakistani Taliban: Both are armies of darkness, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

No difference between Afghan and Pakistani Taliban: Both are armies of darkness

Culling the terrorists

By Farrukh Khan Pitafi

November 13, 2009

Perhaps the time has come for all rational moderates of the country to unite around the conviction that there is no difference between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban; if one is bad the other can never be good

The repeated terror attacks in the country bear testimony to the fact that the country’s anti terror policy is failing to deliver. There is no gainsaying that the popular support for the Taliban is waning, if not in the Pashtun areas then at least in the rest of the country. Meanwhile the Taliban are learning quickly from the tactics of other terror groups like al Qaeda and its umpteen other regional counterparts. Some may call their recent tactics desperate acts of a failing force but the fact remains that this army of darkness has uncountable levers to manipulate the war in a country given to countless ideational contradictions and perpetual insecurity.

With this, undoubtedly, the myth that there is in essence a difference between al Qaeda and the Taliban has come crashing down. If there was any difference between the Taliban’s medieval tribalism and al Qaeda’s fanatical globalism before 9/11, it is no more visible. But what should be done with the people who not only insist on distinguishing the two, but also protest at the Pakistani Taliban being called Taliban at all. Being the eternal proponents of conspiracy theories, these Platos believe that the elements wreaking havoc in the country in the name of Talibanisation are nothing but a ragtag army of foreign funded thugs introduced to weaken the nation’s moorings, whereas the real Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, is good. Ironically while these ideational pundits go to unnecessary pains to distinguish the two, they do not even support the operation against the Pakistani Taliban and are often found in either hunger strike camps or on television screens shedding tears for the affected.

http://newageislam.com/no-difference-between-afghan-and-pakistani-taliban--both-are-armies-of-darkness-/war-on-terror/d/2097

Pakistan: Celebrating the 'culture' of burying women alive, Islam and Human Rights, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Human Rights

Pakistan: Celebrating the 'culture' of burying women alive

Dr Farzana Bari and Sarwar Bari

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

The way provincial government tried to cover up the incident and manipulated the local administration and the law enforcement agencies because of the alleged involvement of Abdus Sattar Umrani, a brother of Sadiq Umrani, provincial minister of housing shows that there is no hope for justice for the poor and women as long as tribal, feudal and monied classes continue to dominate the social and political structures of our country. Due to the involvement of tribal influential in the gory incident, no FIR was registered. It was only after one and a half month that the Balochistan High Court took a suo moto action and ordered the registration of a FIR. However, the Quetta High Court has already disposed of the case as DPOs and the local administration denied that any such incidents took place in the area. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) investigated the case and brought irrefutable evidence to the public attention to prove that this human tragedy did in fact take place. They have already sent the case with all the supporting evidence to the United Nations Court of Human Rights. Our Senate finally passed a resolution to condemn the incident and has set up an inquiry committee to investigate the case. However, no one from the civil society or human rights organisations is invited to be on this committee.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--celebrating-the--culture--of-burying-women-alive/islam-and-human-rights/d/690