Category Archives: Pakistan

‘My life is in danger’: Fears of Pakistani woman gang-raped on orders of village elders as 13 out of 14 men are cleared

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When the [yet to be written] news story appears detailing this womans grisly murder at least we can count on our [and their] politicians to “strongly condemn” and “ask/promise that those involved be brought to justice”.

Of course the idea that anyone from a Western government would propose replacing the promised foreign aid cheque with a letter of condemnation is insane.

MailOnline… A Pakistani victim of a village council-sanctioned gang rape, who became a symbol of the country’s oppressed women, says her life is in danger after the Supreme Court acquitted 13 men accused of the crime.

The ruling leaves just one of the initial 14 suspects in prison.

Mukhtaran Mai was attacked on the orders of a village council in Punjab province nine years ago as a punishment because her brother – who was 12 at the time – was judged to have offended the honour of a powerful clan by allegedly having an affair with one of its women.

Mai, aged 30, was an illiterate villager at the time but the seamstress defied taboos and shot to global fame by speaking out about her ordeal and taking her attackers to court.

Mai had accused 14 men of being involved in raping her in a stable and in 2002, a court sentenced six of them to death while acquitting the others citing a lack of evidence.

But in an appeal, the Lahore High Court not only upheld the eight acquittals but also overturned five of the six convictions. The death penalty for the sixth man, Abdul Khaliq, was commuted to life in prison.    

Mai appealed to the Supreme Court in 2005 but a three-judge bench rejected her appeal on Thursday, said Gohar Ali Shah, a lawyer for Mai. Continue Reading →

‘I thought there would be a bit of pain, then I would be in Heaven’: Maimed Pakistani boy, 14, tells of failed suicide bomb bid

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Seconds after losing his arm and being shot,  Islamist realizes the error of his ways

Mail Online…A Pakistani teenager has told how he was brainwashed by the Taliban into becoming a suicide bomber because he believed he would go to paradise.

Umar Fidai, 14, and another schoolboy were behind the attack on a Pakistani shrine earlier this month in which scores were killed and many others injured.

Fidai survived because his bomb vest failed to detonate properly, although he has lost an arm and could yet lose his life because of his injuries.

Now in custody, he admits he made a terrible mistake and begs forgiveness for his deadly mission – for which his family have now disowned him.

He told the BBC he trained with the Taliban for five months, learning how to shoot, use a grenade and ultimately to be a suicide bomber.

He was told he would go Afghanistan to kill ‘non-believers’ but in fact the pair were taken to another part of Pakistan and ordered to blow up the shrine.

Umar told the BBC: ‘The plan was that Ismail would blow himself up near the shrine, then I would wait and blow myself up near the ambulances when they came.’

He said he had no doubts at all about killing himself: ‘All I was thinking was that I had to detonate myself near as many people as possible.

‘When I decided it was the right time, it was a moment of happiness for me. I thought that there would be a little bit of pain, but then I would be in Heaven.’

Even when the jacket failed, Umar continued to try and bring about more carnage – reaching for a grenade in his pocket.

‘We had been taught that if the belt does not go off, we should kill ourselves with the grenade.

‘There were three policemen standing close by, and I thought if I killed them too, I would still make it to Heaven.’

As he attempted to pull out the pin, he was shot in the arm by police. He says when doctors and officers then tried to help him, he realised he had made a dreadful mistake. 

Umar was persuaded to train with the Taliban by dogged recruiters who waited for likely young boys as they went to school.

The children were told studying was pointless and that killing ‘infidels’ would be a route to paradise.

‘The Taliban prayed all the time and read the Koran, so I thought they were good people. My heart told me to go and train with them,’ he said.

He admits he now ‘did a very bad thing’ and has realised suicide bombing is un-Islamic. The boy has not heard from his family since the blast.

He is still seriously ill and is worried the Taliban might come to kill him because he failed to complete his mission.

 

Pakistan: Two French terror suspects arrested in Lahore

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(AKI) – Security agents in the eastern city of Pakistani city Lahore have arrested two French nationals suspected of belonging to an international terror group, French and Pakistani sources said late Thursday.

The pair, who have not been identified publicly, were arrested at a bus stop in the Lahore in late January after going there from the airport with a man identified as Tahir Shehzad, a Pakistani intelligence official said.

The Frenchmen are suspected of being part of the group responsible for the bloody attacks in Bali, Indonesia in 2002 that killed 202 people, the worst terror attack in Indonesia, according to Pakistani security officials, who requested anonymity.

The terror group is allegedly headed by Indonesian Umar Patek, is suspected of having ties to Al-Qaeda and was himself arrested recently in Pakistan following a ten-year manhunt that involved cooperation with the CIA.

The Frenchmen had intended to travel with Patek to Pakistan’s North Waziristan region where top Al-Qaida commanders are based, the Pakistani officials said.

France has asked the Pakistani authorities for permission to visit the two detainees, a representative at the French embassy in Islamabad told media.

It was not immediately clear if the men were suspected of plotting a terror attack. One of the French citizens is of Pakistani origin and the other is a convert to Islam, the Pakistani official said.

There are an estimated five million Muslims in France, Western Europe’s largest Muslim population.

Pakistan’s blasphemy vigilantes kill exonerated man

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Talahore, Pakistan (CNN) — Mohamed Imran had been accused, jailed, tried and cleared: if anything, society owed him a debt as a man wrongfully accused.

But his crime was blasphemy. He was meant to have said something derogatory about the prophet Mohammed, so in Pakistan justice worked a little differently.

Two weeks after he returned to his small patch of farmland on the rustic outskirts of Islamabad, his alleged crime caught up with him.

Two gunmen burst into the shoe shop where he was sat talking to a friend. Imran tried to duck, to seek cover behind the man next to him — terrified so greatly for his own life that he perhaps forgot about those around him.

But the gunmen found their target and Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws claimed another victim. Continue Reading →

Muslim population in Western Europe rising

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IB NEWS… The population of Muslims in Western Europe has been steadily rising in recent decades, largely due to immigration from the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa.

In Southeastern Europe, much of which once formed part of the Ottoman Empire, Muslims have been present for many centuries, but they are a relatively new phenomenon in the western part of the continent.

On the whole, Muslim’s represent about 5 percent of the population of the EU 27.

Far-right politicians in Europe have long warned that the Muslim numbers will continue to grow due to higher birth rates. Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s anti-immigrant National Front party, who openly discusses the rising number Muslims in France, could conceivably win next year’s presidential election, according to polls.

While the percentage of Muslims as part of the overall population of western European nations are in single digits, a 2009 study by the Telegraph newspaper in the UK estimated that by 2050, Muslims will account for 20 percent of the European Union’s populace. Long before that, Britain, Spain and The Netherlands will reach and surpass that figure. Continue Reading →

Asia Bibi gravely ill, fears for her life, after three months in solitary isolation

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by Jibran Khan Asia News:

The Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy has been ill with chicken pox, probably because of the unhygienic conditions of the cell where she is kept. Christians concern for the growing violence against them. Bishop Rufin Anthony: “This Lent we pray for peace in Pakistan. A Pakistan where we can all live freely. ”

Lahore (AsiaNews) – Asia Bibi is sick, in solitary confinement, and there are growing concerns for her life. The Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy on false evidence is sick with chicken pox, because of the appallingly unhygienic conditions she is being kept in. The complaint comes from Haroon Barket Masih, president of the Masih Foundation, who today issued a statement: “Asia Bibi was diagnosed with chicken pox, she has been kept in solitary confinement for more than three months. We have expressed concern about her health, because she spends24 hours a day locked in the cell. She needs medical care, hygienic and healthy conditions. She fell ill with chickenpox because of the dirty environment, and being unable to clean her room or bed sheets on which she sleeps. Despite her ill health she spends her time fasting and praying for everyone, she neglects her health and prays for everyone else. She is concerned about the current situation in Pakistan. We are trying to arrange a medical examination, and to ensure acceptable hygienic conditions. Until now she has had no medical care. ” Continue Reading →

Former Pakistani diplomat attempts to explain the slaughter of Sufi Muslims by regular Muslims.

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Another great clip from Wrath of Khan. This Pakistani of course is using the usual dodge, attempting to blame Islamic slaughter on poverty and so on. The host doesn’t seem to go for it.


TALIBAN CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR ATTACK ON PAKISTAN TEMPLE

Third church attacked as Pakistani extremists declare war over Florida Koran burning

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ASIA NEWS

by Jibran Khan
Yesterday afternoon, an armed group attacked the Catholic Church of St. Thomas in the military district of Wah, 45 km from Islamabad. The fundamentalists hurled stones and tried to burn the building. Bishop of the capital, we are Pakistani Christians, we have no ties with the United States. Young Christians: no hope for the future. 
Islamabad (AsiaNews) – An armed group of seven people attacked the Catholic Church of St. Thomas in the military district of Wah, about 45 km from Islamabad. The attack took place at 6.30 pm yesterday, while the security guard was absent. The extremists hurled stones, damaged the building and tried to set fire to it, but they did not shoot. Yesterday’s was the third attack against a church in Pakistan less than a week. The escalation of violence is a result of the mad act – repeatedly condemned by Christians in Pakistan and India – of pastor Wayne Sapp, who last March 20, in Florida burned a copy of the Koran under the supervision of the evangelical preacher Terry Jones. Continue Reading →

$2.2 million fatwa on Terry Jones after Quran burning

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From Seattle PI

$2.2 million fatwa on Terry Jones after Quran burning
Quran burningDove World Outreach Center ‘executes’ the Quran.

Terry Jones, the Florida evangelical pastor who threatened to hold a Quran burning last Sept. 11 only to back down in the face of international outrage, finally went ahead and burned one.

And now there’s a 2.2-million-dollar price on his head.

Jones appointed himself “judge” and presided over a trial hearing evidence and testimony against Islam’s holy book. A “jury” found the book guilty of crimes against humanity; promoting terrorist acts; raping, torturing and killing people “whose only crime was not being of the Islamic faith.” Also, its treatment of women was found lacking.

Interestingly, lethal injection and electrocution, the two forms of capital punishment in Florida, were not offered to the convicted holy book. Instead, an online Facebook poll picked the sentence from these choices – burning, shredding, drowning or firing squad. Burning won.

Sentence was carried out by soaking the convicted in kerosene, placing it a metal tray and igniting it with a barbecue lighter. Thirty people witnessed the execution.

Jones’ kangaroo court stunt was obviously aimed at provoking a response, but the Council on American-Islamic Relations didn’t take the bait.

“Terry Jones had his 15 minutes of fame and we’re not going to help him get another few minutes,” said Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.

Unfortunately, Pakistan did.
Pakistan flag burningPakistani Islamists respond to the Florida Quran burning with their own U.S. flag and pastor effigy barbecue.

President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the desecration of the Quran during his address to a joint sitting of parliament. The country’s Foreign Office in Islamabad called it a “despicable act.”

Pakistanis are already angry at the United States over the release last week of an American CIA employee who was arrested after he shot and killed two men who he says were trying to rob him.

Pakistan’s Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a banned Islamic organization and suspected terrorist group, announced a reward of 10 crore rupees (about $2.2 million) for anyone who kills the preacher.

Jones is probably pleased that at least the terrorists are taking him seriously.

Pakistan Airforce on Red Alert. Says ‘India Seeking Scapegoat’

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News Outlook India:

Pakistan continued to be confused, defiant and in denial. But despite mounting pressure from around the world to take immediate action against terrorism,  it stuck to its old chant of “no proof”.

But even as Pakistan’s Prime Minister said that he did not foresee a war, Pakistan put its air force on red alert and warplanes conducted “emergency scrambles” from four key airbases, in what has been described as whipping up war-hysteria to mount pressure on the West.

Soon after the Pakistan Air Force went on red alert, emergency scrambles were conducted at the Lahore, Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Mianwali airbases, sources were quoted as saying by the private NNI news agency.

F-16 and Mirage combat jets carried out aerial surveillance of the Chashma nuclear power plant complex and other sensitive sites, sources said.

Residents of Mianwali in Punjab province shouted slogans against “Indian aggression” as they watched the jets soaring through the skies over the city, the report said.

The Civil Defence Organisation informed people about safety measures to be observed in the event of air strikes. Siren exercises will be conducted in the city for people to observe a black out, the sources said.

The PAF began conducting sorties over major cities, including the federal capital, on Monday in a show of enhanced vigilance following the escalation of regional tensions.

The contradictions however were apparent in the shifting stance by its various various luminaries. What came up with just in the course of the last 24 hours makes for fascinating reading:

‘They Want To Make Someone The Scapegoat’

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was the one who perhaps summed up the Pakistani response in its totality:

“The government and armed forces of Pakistan are prepared for all eventualities in the face of mounting tensions between the two countries. The armed forces of Pakistan are assessing the situation but I do not think there will be a war. If they (India) try to indulge in any adventure of this kind, the people and institutions of Pakistan are united to defend the country and its territorial integrity. While the operational preparedness of our armed forces is at an optimal level, nobody wants tensions on the borders. We are moving responsibly and with caution..The government is aware of the situation in the region and will act as things move. Continue Reading →

Some clergy in the UK are concerned about foreign aid and anti-minority actions by recipient nations

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I post this clip even though its message is a bit ambiguous. I think Clergy is right and just to raise this issue and I am very glad they are. At the same time, it probably is more complex than that. Even so, this is a discussion that must happen.

Pakistani Christian Sentenced for ‘Blasphemy’ Dies in Prison

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Murder suspected in case of Christian imprisoned for life.

LAHORE, Pakistan, March 15 (CDN) — A Christian serving a life sentence in Karachi Central Jail on accusations that he had sent text messages blaspheming the prophet of Islam died today amid suspicions that he was murdered.

Qamar David’s life had been threatened since he and a Muslim, Munawar Ahmad, were accused of sending derogatory text messages about Muhammad in June 2006, said David’s former lawyer, Pervaiz Chaudhry (See “Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws Claim Three More Christians,” March 10, 2010).

David was convicted under Section 295-C under Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy laws for derogatory remarks against Muhammad in a case registered at Karachi’s Azizabad Police Station, with another case registered at Saddar Police Station pending. Maximum punishment for Section 295-C is death, though life imprisonment is also possible. On Feb. 25, 2010 he received a sentence of life in prison, which in Pakistan is 25 years, and was fined 100,000 rupees (US$1,170).

Chaudhry, who said he was David’s counsel until Islamic threats against his life forced him to stop in July 2010, told Compass that the Christian had expressed fears for his life several times during the trial.

“David did not die of a heart attack as the jail officials are claiming,” Chaudhry said. “He was being threatened ever since the trial began, and he had also submitted a written application with the jail authorities for provision of security, but no step was taken in this regard.” Continue Reading →