Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have arrested the leader and six other members of an all-women separatist group fighting against 'obscenity'.
The seven women were arrested after raiding a restaurant in Srinagar.
The Maryam Squad of the Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of the Nation) had launched a campaign against alcohol and prostitution in the state.
Asiya Andrabi is a well-known separatist leader. She has previously spent a year in jail.
'Who are they?'
"Asiya was arrested when she assaulted a married woman who with her husband at the restaurant," senior police officer Muneer Khan told Reuters.
"Who are they to impose their code of conduct?" he asked.
Before her arrest Ms Andrabi said: "Indians are fighting on several fronts in Kashmir and the moral degradation in our Muslim society is part of their plan."
"We decided to counter this."
Over the past week the group has raided a number of hotels suspected of selling liquor and suspected brothels.
It also issued a diktat to operators of restaurants and internet cafes to remove booths where there are reports of young men and women getting intimate.
Alcohol shops as well as cinemas were closed down in the Kashmir Valley in the autumn of 1989 after the outbreak of separatist violence.
They have started re-opening in some areas in the past couple of years.
The Dukhtaran-e-Milat launched a campaign for the wearing of the burqa by Muslim women in the early 1990s.
Its activists sprayed paint on women who did not wear a burqa.
The campaign succeeded but its success was short-lived.
A large majority of women have abandoned the veil.
#4
In the spirit of New Orleans, they should try the same technique used by Benjamin "The Beast" Butler during the civil war.
That is, arrest these vice-vigilante women for prostitution, and publish their faces listing prostitution as the main charge.
That would kill their little racket deader than a doornail.
September 2, 2005: Officially, the Taliban has announced that it will not attempt to disrupt national elections, scheduled for September 18th. Nevertheless, expect the number, and perhaps intensity, of Taliban/Al-Qaeda attacks to increase over the next two weeks. Recently, there has been a steadily rising number of assassination attempts against candidates and election officials, several of whom have been killed or wounded.
In anticipation of increased Taliban/Al-Qaeda activity, the Pakistani Army is boosting, or redeploying, its forces along the Afghan border, to help implement block cross-border movement of personnel or actual attacks being staged from Pakistani territory.
The increase in Taliban violence comes from three sources. First, there is more money in play, to pay Taliban volunteers to fight. The money is apparently coming from al Qaeda sources in Saudi Arabia the Persian Gulf. Second, hard core Taliban tribal leaders are upset at the many pro-Taliban tribal chiefs who have made peace with the government. Third, Pakistani military operations along the border have driven several hundred al Qaeda members, who had fled to Pakistan in 2001, back into Afghanistan. Afghan and Coalition forces are also beefing up security on the Afghan side of the border.
Indian and Chinese firms continue to bid for construction projects in Afghanistan, despite the risks from bandits (who are into kidnapping, robbery and extortion). The construction firms just add the security costs to their proposals.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/02/2005 09:19 ||
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Global Warming.
Posted by: Hans Brinker ||
09/02/2005 15:34 Comments ||
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What Israel will annex
Speaking to Khabrain magazine, Dr Israr Ahmad said that the Arabs were the most incompetent people as a punishment of which Greater Israel will annex their land. All of Iraq will fall to Israel, as will Jordan and Lebanon. The fertile delta of Egypt will also be taken, as will be Saudi Arabiaâs Hijaz, except Madina which Allah will protect. Southern Turkey too will be annexed. After that Imam Mehdi will appear.
Killed because of âmooliâ
According to Khabrain, one Chaand Butt, standing for general councillor in Wazirabad, was granted the electoral sign of mooli (radish). Because of its association with flatulence, a person present at the returning office started joking with Chaand Butt who became so infuriated that he drew his gun and shot him dead on the spot. According to the Jang, the Election Commission announced that the electoral signs mooli and kela (banana) have been removed from the list because they were considered obscene.
Panchayat kills lovers
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, a panchayat (village court) of Khanpur sentenced to death two lovers desirous of marrying. The two were taken into a field of sugarcane and shot. The boy was first beaten and his arms broken. The two were caught by the girlâs brother who brought them before the panchayat. The lovers confessed that they loved each other, after which they were given the death sentence.
Clergy stopped in foreign lands
The daily Pakistan reported that before Maulana Fazlur Rehman was stopped and deported by the UAE, other clerics too had been stopped. Qazi Hussain Ahmad was stopped by Holland, Maulana Samiul Haq was stopped and deported from Belgium, and Hameed Gul was refused a visa by Britain. America too refused to renew Hameed Gulâs visa. Qazi was once called Osama bin Ladenâs friend and Maulana Fazlur Rehman was once not given a visa for Britain. Others like Akram Toofani and Mufti Jamilur Rehman were actually arrested, then deported.
Quran desecrated in Raiwind
According to Khabrain some miscreant threw a copy of the Quran in the toilet of an Ahle Hadith mosque near the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Raiwind near Lahore. When the clerics raised hue and cry, the population of the area came out and staged a protest. A large number of people blocked traffic and threatened the travellers. The procession was in extreme agony over the desecration and beat their chests and damaged property. According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, the protest spilled into a second day and this time, the offended population stopped trains and stoned the passengers who got hurt. They also stoned the cars passing on the Raiwind road. One police officer who had gone to stop the vandalism was so scared that he joined the protest and raised slogans along with the protesters. The procession was greatly strengthened when the MMA gave a call and got its followers to join it. According to the daily Pakistan, the Khyber Mail was stopped for one hour. Its windows were broken and many passengers injured.
Jewish-American plot against Pakistan
Writing in the Jang, Abdur Rasheed Turabi said that America and its friends were singing praises of current Indo-Pak relations but the truth was that the evil triangle of cunning (makkar) Hindus, Zionist Jews and the Americans had plotted together to teach Pakistan a lesson. Before the final blow to be delivered on Pakistan, its strategic assets like the nuclear programme would be put to an end.
Bandits attack âmelaâ
The daily Khabrain reported that in Burewala, the mela of Baba Muhammad Shaheed was taken over by bandits who stayed there and enjoyed themselves too. They came at nine at night and took everybodyâs money away. Then they decided to be entertained and ordered a special mujra (dance) from the theatre performing in the mela. Many local boys were beaten up by them. After seeing the mujra, they took two girls with them and were not traceable by the police.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
09/02/2005 02:07 ||
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#2
Chaand Butt and flatulence? I can see where the guy would make the connection, but Chaand definitely seems to have overreacted here. Just my opinion....
The radical Pakistan political party, Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) and several of the country's extremist militias are suspected of having had direct links with al-Qaeda and are known to sympathize with al-Qaeda ideology, an American scholar, speaking at a terrorism seminar in Islamabad has claimed. In a paper presented at the âGlobal terrorismâ seminar organised by the Islamabad-based Institute of Regional Studies, Rodney Jones said that the most prominent and militant parties involved in recruitment and training of âjihadisâ were the JUI and Jamaat-i-Islami.
However, a Pakistani Interior Ministry spokesman, Aftab Ahmed Sharpao, has dismissed the claims, saying there is no evidence linking the groups and parties to Osama bin Laden's terror network. If anay religious party was found to have such links the Pakistani government would act against it in accordance with the law, Sherpao said.
âThe most prominent and militant of these parties are the Deobandi oriented Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) of which there are two competing factions led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Samiul Haq, each with extensive followings in the NWFP, Balochistan and in the larger cities; the urban-based Jamaat-i- Islami and the Markaz al-Dawa-wal Irshad,â Jones said in his presentation at the conference.
The Deobandi are Muslims of South Asia and Afghanistan who follow the fiqh (tradition of jurisprudence) of Imam Abu Hanifa. The name comes from Deoband, India, where the madrassa Darul Uloom Deoband is sited. They consider the Shia sect to be an apostate group.
Jones said the more militant of the Islamist parties in the main six party religious alliance in Pakistan, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), were often manifestly at odds in the areas they governed with Pakistanâs commitment to sever ties with the Taliban and with Pakistanâs international commitments in the war on terrorism.
He said the JUI and JI were intimately involved with the anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan. As in Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf states, the indigenous Pakistani extremist groups were deeply embedded in society and politics and overcoming them by direct repression was not politically feasible, he said.
Jones suggested that the US and the West help president Pervez Musharraf in Kashmir and support his idea of enlightened moderation.
The three day seminar in Islamabad on "Global Terrorism" ended on Wednesday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/02/2005 00:11 ||
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âAs in Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf states, the indigenous Pakistani extremist groups were deeply embedded in society and politics and overcoming them by direct repression was not politically feasible, he said.
Jones suggested that the US and the West help President Pervez Musharraf in Kashmir and support his idea of enlightened moderationâ
Here we go again. I came to USA as a graduate student in 1971 with a jubilant feeling that this most powerful democracy in the world is helping other democracies. It was a short lived feeling. One of the genius mind graduate student (he used to defeat the main frame compute by calculating on his finger tips the complex statistical problems) put me facing the wall sized world map and asked me to point where in the whole world USA is helping democracy except UK which function as democracy but actually is a monarchy. I could not find at that time a single county on the face of this word where USA was committed to helping the democracy honestly. Please do not take me wrong. The well being of my family, my sons and the future of my grand children growing in this great nation, exactly like yours, are tied to the well being of our country, USA. I will not complain a word even if USA has to destroy all of the population of the world except USA citizens, if it secures a bright future of the grand children of mine and yours. I understand, as the greatest power in this world, USA has to do a lot more than a simple honesty since the world out there is nothing more than a jungle. The complication is that the wealth of a trading country like ours needs a huge population to buy our products. We have allowed a non democratic and a communist dictatorship like China to âhang the capitalist with the same rope they purchased from usâ. I just wondered what if USA was very honest about promoting democracy in the past and present which I think is consistent with the aspirations of our constitution. Please, educate me; I am with you.
#2
Japan,Germany,Philippines,Italy,Iraq,Afgan, Panama.How's that for a start.Before you start calling me on some of these choices,bare this in mind.We tried,but it just didn't work.2 of them are works in progress.
#3
In 1971 the world was at the height of the Cold War, The U.S. and its allies against the Soviet Union and its allies, with most of the nominally Unaligned countries actually quietly aligned with the Socialist alliance. Nuclear weapons stood ready to be launched on both sides. And the Soviets and Communist China were working to suborn the governments of those countries attempting to become more democratic. With, let us not forget, the active and tacit support of the world's intellectual elite, whose claim to idealistic communism careful ignored totalitarian reality. The blame cannot be entirely apportioned to the United States that our democratic ideals were not matched by reality -- the world was not prepared to listen or accept allowing the people to rule themselves, when either rightwing or leftwing elites could establish control by force of arms.
#4
Where was the USA helping democracy in 1971? In all of Western Europe, in Israel plus in all of the countries who survived as democracies (or later became such) only because the USA was containing communism somewhere upstream. Plus those who were communists and now are democracies.
#5
asked me to point where in the whole world USA is helping democracy
Let's reverse the question. Point to a point in the whole world the Soviet Union helped democracy in the last century. Or China. Or France. Or the islamo-fascists.
#7
Phereger what kinds of policies and actions would have satisfied your definition of "helping democracy"?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
09/02/2005 17:05 Comments ||
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I would add India to the list of democracies that the US helped form.
The tremendous US pressure for decolonization exerted by FDR greatly assisted the Indian independence movement.
The last decade of British rule saw massive famines in India with tens of millions dead. This was almost repeated in the 1960s except for US food aid. The green revolution, which saw India become a net food exporter in the 1980s would not have been possible without the USA.
This saved the Indian state as a democratic institution.
The US supplied military aid when India was attacked by China. US tecnical assistance suported the nascent Indian rocket and nuclear programs (which now guarantee the security of the Indian state).
As an indepenence gift, the US offered techical assitance to India and Pakistan.
Pakistan choose help with its bureaucracy.
India instead choose universities.
Using the MIT as a role model, The US helped create the Indian Insitutes of Technology which now produce the vast numbers of engineers working in R+D, software and outsourcing projects. This is dragging the Indian eceonomy into the 21st century.
While relations were sometimes strained between the US and India, it was US assitance that gave India the space to resist direct Soviet involvement in its internal affairs while gaining Soviet militray hardware and assistance.
The US has played more than its fair share in shaping the Indian state. The economic ties (Microsoft, GE, Delphi automotive, Walmart) are further changing things.
Posted by: john ||
09/02/2005 17:56 Comments ||
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#9
One of the genius mind graduate student (he used to defeat the main frame compute by calculating on his finger tips..
Welcome Phereger Unimble9361, does your friend do U.S. tax returns?
>>:>
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/02/2005 18:45 Comments ||
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Red Dog:
It's one thing to do multivariate analysis. That's within the reach of a typical grad.
But the Schedule D? No one has ever figured that out.
US and allied intelligence agencies believe that the recent surge in violence in Afghanistan is not related to a reinvigorated offensive by the remnants of the al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgency but rather is the work of âdisparate elementsâ that are unconnected and uncoordinated.
General James Jones, Nato's supreme commander who was in Afghanistan to gauge security ahead of this month's parliamentary elections, said intelligence briefings had led him to believe the rise in attacks was largely due to domestic issues rather than external anti-coalition forces.
âThe reasons for the attacks are clearly disparate,â he told a small group of reporters travelling with him. âSome are religious fundamentalists, some are drug-related or narco-trafficking related, some just criminals. This is not a coordinated threat we think could lead to any greater insurrection.â
The upsurge in violence has led to speculation that remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban elements, which continue to engage in cross-border raids from Pakistan's frontier provinces, have become bolder, more numerous or better trained.
But while acknowledging that âit is sometimes difficult to figure out who exactly is conducting these attacksâ, Gen Jones, who was briefed by US and allied intelligence officials on Tuesday, said Afghan-based analysts have dismissed these theories, a finding he says he agrees with.
The determination is a key one for Nato, due to expand its mission in Afghanistan to include the still unsettled south around the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar early next year. But Lieutenant General Mauro Del Vecchio, the Italian officer currently leading Nato's 10,000-troop International Security and Assistance Force in Afghanistan, said recent analyses by his staff had determined that the current level of violence, while alarming, mirrored a rash of attacks that occurred ahead of last year's presidential election, which eventually passed without serious incident.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/02/2005 00:10 ||
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My guess is that the nation's yawning and wondering what's on the teevee, but I could be wrong...
âGovernment overtures towards Israel is against Pakistanâs ideology,â he said, adding that parliament had not been consulted about Kasuriâs meeting with Shalom and that no prior announcement about the meeting had been made at any forum.
Perhaps they wanted it to be a surprise. More likely, they figured springing it without warning would cause Qazi to come down with apoplexy, thereby killing two birds with one stone.
Kasuriâs meeting with Shalom was against the peopleâs aspirations, Qazi said. âWe have a grudge against Israel because it occupies sacred sites belonging to Muslims and people talking about recognising Israel are unaware of the essence of Islam,â he said, adding that Pakistan should not withdraw from its principled stand regarding the Jewish state.
The essence of Islam appears to involve a continuous round of bitching and moaning, machinations, conspiracies, bald-faced lying, cruelties on both the personal and the national scale, denouncing large numbers of people as apostates, and periodic gunfire. I'm wondering why the Israelis wanted to talk to the Paks.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2005 00:00 ||
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If there aren't riots in the streets, Musharref read the mood of the peepul rightly. If there are, then he'll back away from the unauthorized negotiations, and we'll see a new foreign minister. But there don't seem to be any riots yet, and the Pakistanis are gnerally pretty quick to have their fun.
SWAT: Police arrested four leaders of the banned organisation Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) on Thursday. The police took TNSM Malakand ameer Maulana Safiullah, district ameer Maulvi Abdul Haq, Maulana Dost Muhammad and Mattah tehsil ameer Muhammad Iqbal into custody under the Anti-Terrorism Act. They have been moved to an undisclosed location. Sources said that the TNSM leaders had been called to the police station on the pretext of a meeting and were later arrested. More arrests are expected in this connection, sources added.
TNSM's most notable accomplishment was to recruit thousands of Paks to run off to Afghanistan in support of the Taliban. Many, if not most, were slaughtered, and most of the survivers ended up bunking in shipping containers or being held for ransom by various warlords. The organization's supremo, Sufi Mohammad, was sentenced to seven years in jug for making Pakland look ridiculous.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2005 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
What Israel will annex 
SWAT: Police arrested four leaders of the banned organisation 
