Pak Tea House » Entries tagged with "Taliban"
Imran Khan, Taliban and Ahmedis
Raza Habib Raja Recently once again Imran Khan is in news for all the wrong reasons. First, he denied TTP’s involvement in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and then followed it up with refuting “rumors” that he had sought Ahmedis support in the coming election. He also categorically denied that he will change 1973’s constitution (which made Islam a state religion) or repeal the controversial Second Amendment. Understandably, both these news have created uproar at least among those who consider themselves as liberals in Pakistan. Since our liberalism is now restricted to Facebook and Twitter, I saw tweets as well as status FB updates expressing horror over Imran Khan’s recent statements. First of all, let me make one thing clear that if I had even tiniest inclination to vote for Imran Khan, his latest … Read entire article »
Election Update – 21st April, 2013
No significant rise in female candidates contesting on general seats of the NA Despite the welcome addition of a woman candidate contesting independently from Bajaur Agency, the overall number of women candidates contesting on general seats of the National Assembly (NA) has stayed much the same since the 2002 election.Even in the ranks of mainstream political parties which champion equal rights and participation of women, the number of women candidates contesting in the upcoming general elections has remained unchanged or, worse still, gone down. According to details of candidates filed by eight mainstream political parties, there is no significant increase in the number of women candidates in the 2002, 2008 and 2013 elections.Moreover, the two main religious parties — JamiatUlema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) — have maintained their tradition of totally … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
Perils of Arundhati Roy Style Liberalism
Raza Habib Raja As a philosophy liberalism is more inward looking and hence does not try to shift blame on the outside forces. By its orientation, it also does not have an overly negative assumption about human nature and consequently is not obsessed with crime and punishment. It believes in the rationality of humans and further assumes that human intelligence is capable of creating an artifice where ethnic, linguistic and other such “ natural” differences can … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Imperialism, India, Marxism, Taliban
Playing all sides of the fence
By Saad Hafiz: There is nothing new in the pattern of condemnations and wake up calls after the recent assassination of Bashir Bilour by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Similar views were expressed after the murders of Benazir Bhutto, Salmaan Taseer and other notable terrorism victims. A consensus on a concerted strategy to combat the existential threat posed by terrorism continues to elude the country despite the thousands of military and civilian casualties in the war on terror. The military and the politicians prevaricate comfortably in passing the buck on to the other. The other key social influencers — the clergy, the intelligentsia and the media — seem pleased in obfuscating the terrorism issue. The TTP’s brazen confidence grows as they casually accept responsibility for their various acts of murder and mayhem. Their immediate … Read entire article »
Filed under: Terrorism
BASHIR BILOUR SHAHEED – THE LATEST & LAST WAKE UP CALL
The Civil Society organizations, including Insani Huqooq Ittehad, and several other coalitions, NGOs, human rights activists, think tanks, researchers and academicians express our outrage, grief and sorrow at the assassination of Bashir Bilour Shaheed, in yet another targeted killing atrocity by the Taliban in Peshawar today. Pakistan has lost yet another brave fighter for progressive thought and ideology, who knew he was targeted and yet did not knuckle under or give up his political activities with his party, the ANP, or with the wider movements for rights-based education, peace and conflict resolution. His personal courage and fearless speech was exemplary, and admirable in the age of fear, expediency and compromise. We salute him and pay tribute to his courage – may his soul rest in peace. Civil Society demands that the Federal … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
What Pakistan thinks about the taliban
By Momo Khan I belong to an era in Pakistan where we fight against terrorism every single day. The stories to world of getting killed, blown up or abducted are realities to us. The thing which world fears has its home in Pakistan— the Taliban. So, what is it Taliban… to me, Taliban is a fear, a fear which is haunting our abilities to erase them, to take back the charge from them and to stop them … Read entire article »
Fall out of Malala Tragedy
By Prof. Farah A Khan: It was a sad day when 14 years old Malala was shot at point blank range in her school van in Mingora, Swat. Two other girls were also injured. This brought out massive grief and anger in the Pakistani society. But it left me and so many others confused. The TTP admitted responsibility for the shooting claiming that she was ‘defaming’ the Taliban and fraternizing with the enemy i.e. the Western … Read entire article »
Filed under: Terrorism
Taliban are Today’s Kharjites
by Amaar Ahmad The fourth Caliph of Islam and the Holy Prophet (pbuh)’s son in law Ali bin Abu Talib was martyred by a member of the Kharjite movement because Ali had “deviated” from Islam in their view. ”Obedience to Allah and mutual consultation” was their slogan for which they branded any Muslim a heretic and liable for death. Using brutal violence against women and children, they tried but ultimately failed to impose their beliefs on society. Today, the Taliban and their Takfiri supporters are following the exact same violent path to their own oblivion. Years before the first American drone took off, these Taliban were killing Hazara Shia and Iranian diplomats, blowing off Buddha statues in Bamiyan and denying women their fundamental and Islamic right to education. Contrary to politicians’ pronouncements, military operations in Swat … Read entire article »
A Battle of Ideas
by Abdul Majeed Abid “When I knew that they were burning our schools, I thought they were burning education, they were burning books. I have to be educated. I’ll be educated no matter what the odds.” Malala Yousafzai Last Week’s attack on Malala Yousafzai, a 14 year old beacon of hope from Swat, garnered all sorts of reactions. Most people were shocked by the brutality of the perpetrators. The timing of that attack, in my opinion, was an extremely unfortunate one as it co-incided with the ending of PTI’s “Peace March” towards Waziristan. Attack on Malala has been construed as a stepping stone to military operation in Waziristan, a primer that turns public opinion towards a certain tilt. Conspiracy theories have been spun at an alarming pace about involvement of various Intelligence Agencies … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, Democracy, Education, FATA, Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Religion, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, violence, Women
Is there a silver lining in the cloud…….
Raza Habib Raja The story which is developing headlines right now is of a young girl being shot by Taliban. This story is horrific and completely disgusts me. This understandably has attracted a lot of international condemnation and deservedly so. But it is not the international condemnation which interests me. Something has happened, which despite the tragedy gives me hope. Perhaps every tragedy despite its ugliness also gives us the opportunity to have a fresh look at the situation. At times a tragedy to someone innocent, completely flawless and lovable shakes even the most naïve ones awake. Here over the years, Taliban have largely been projected as some kind of “victims” who are bravely resisting the US hegemony. Moreover, all the suicide blasts have largely been brushed aside through conspiracy theory mode … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
Imran’s Peace March into Waziristan
By Prof. Farah A. Khan: On September 7th Imran’s PTI Peace marchers against drone attacks in Waziristan reached 20 km from Tank at the border of South Waziristan Agency but were stopped from going to Kotkai by the army. His opponents were ANP, JUI-F, PPP and PML-N who have never offered a solution to Fata issue. They have finally found common ground to unite against Imran. Maulvi Fazal (JUI-F) went over board. He accused Imran of not holding on to his Jewish wife and his children living abroad were being brought up by a Jewish mother. Under Islam this is nonsense. He also claimed that Imran was pushing Israeli agenda (Yahood and Ansara) but could not explain how and distributed pamphlets and made announcements in the mosques to the same effect. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Opinion
Isn’t shifting blame away from Taliban treason against Pakistan?
By Amaar Ahmed: If Pakistan’s founder Jinnah were alive today, he would be the number one target of Taliban. He satisfies all their criteria: a liberal with Shia background who considered Ahmadis as Muslims. But in today’s Pakistan, Taliban would not even spare a 14-year old girl Malala Yousefzai. Yet conservative religious-political persons would not call out these mindless barbarians. Would making an excuse for violence by Taliban or putting blame elsewhere not be treason against Pakistan then? There is only up to a point that naive belief in their mythical ‘goodness’ and utter falsehoods spun for them could have been tolerated. After a point, that blind faith becomes duplicity. If the Taliban themselves do not deny their acts of barbarism and also publicly relish their brutality there is simply no room for … Read entire article »
Filed under: Taliban
What Sectarianism means?
by Abdullah Zaidi: A few days ago, at least 20 Shias headed for Gilgit-Baltistan were shot dead in Mansehra by militants. A day later a bomb attack on the Al-Quds rally resulted in the death of one Shia youth. Although, targeted killing of Shias is not a new phenomenon, but because of the recent surge in these episodes, I expected a stronger and more importantly, a definite reaction. To my dismay none of that came about. Instead, all one can hear regarding sectarian terrorism is general throat-clearing rhetoric which ends at condemning the attacks in isolation. Sometimes, the whole issue is simplistically reduced to lack of law and order and the government’s unpreparedness without any attention to the context of such attacks. Sectarianism in Pakistan started emerging in late 70s around the Iranian … Read entire article »
Filed under: Religion
Taliban, Society and The State
Raza Habib Raja A lot has been written about the phenomenon of Taliban and today a broad range of narratives try to offer various explanations about the reasons of their creation, the nature of their links with the state, their relationship with the Pashtun nationalism as well as their ability to ideologically overwhelm Pakistan. This article will try to counter some of the commonly held perceptions about Taliban by some of the thinkers/journalists (including those who are against Taliban). It will then try to assess the possibility of a Taliban takeover of Pakistani society and state A misperception about Taliban and quite prevalent amongst the liberal press is that state is actively supporting ALL the Taliban factions. In my opinion, the dominant “liberal” narrative that Pakistani state is actively supporting Taliban even now, is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
Taliban, Pushtun Nationalism and Militancy
By Yasser Latif Hamdani There is a tendency amongst the apologists for Pushtun Nationalists to claim that Taliban were somehow imposed on them externally and Pushtun nationalist tradition was non-violent and secular. Anyone who dares to point out facts contrary to this is automatically called an ISI agent. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
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