See Pakistan in Pakistani Style : Real Pakistan is here, u will just surprised..

Koi inko ehsas-e-zillat dila de koi inki soi hui dum hila de

2011-06-11T01:49:00.000-07:00

Koi inko ehsas-e-zillat dila de
koi inki soi hui dum hila de

EarthQuake in Islamabad Pakistan

2011-03-21T03:05:00.000-07:00

Just suffered from a huge earth of 5.1 magnitude in islamabad pakistan. isb 20 march 2011

Pakistan court releases Raymond Davis

2011-03-16T21:53:00.000-07:00

ISLAMABAD: An Additional Sessions judge Wednesday set free CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who killed two Pakistanis on a busy road in Lahore, after payment of blood money (Diyat) in accordance with Sharia law of Pakistan, sources said.

Talking to Geo News, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the court released Raymond Davis after the family members of the murdered men appeared in the court and pardoned the US National after an agreement was reached between the two sides. “He has been released from jail and now it is up to him to leave the country whenever he wants,” the Minister added.

The families of the murdered men, Fahim and Faizan, accepted the blood money of 2.34 million dollars (equal to Rs200 million) while, according to sources, four US visas were also part of the deal.

The killings by Raymond Davis in Lahore in January strained relations between Pakistan and US, who repeatedly insisted Davis was an embassy employee and enjoyed diplomatic immunity, particularly after it emerged he was working for the CIA.

Only IG Police, US Consul General in Lahore Carmela Conroy and lawyers were present during the hearing in Central Jail, sources said.

The counsel of the bereaved families, Manzoor Butt alleged that the families of Faizan and Fahim were forcibly brought from their homes to the court.

Lawyers for the families said they had been held on gun-point for four hours at the jail court where Davis was being tried on Wednesday, but had not been allowed to witness proceedings. They were also warned against uttering a word before the media, sources said.

Blood money, or ‘Diyat’ is a provision under Islamic sharia law in which compensation can be paid to relatives of those killed to secure a pardon, and is commonly used to resolve such cases in Pakistan.

The Davis case had sparked protests in Pakistan, with religious groups angrily denouncing the American who claimed he acted in self-defence to fend off an armed robbery when he shot dead the two men.

US authorities insisted Davis was protected by full diplomatic immunity, but the Pakistan government refused to back that claim and a decision on his status was on Monday deferred by the Lahore high court for criminal judges to decide.

Revelations that Davis was a CIA contractor heaped pressure on Pakistan's embattled government and further ramped up burning public mistrust of Washington, damaging fragile relations between the two wary allies.

A third Pakistani was struck down and killed by a US diplomatic vehicle that came to Davis' assistance in the January incident. US officials denied Pakistan access to the vehicle, and the occupants are widely believed to have left the country.

Meray Shehr jal rahey haiN, Meray Loug mar rahey haiN

2011-03-14T00:29:00.000-07:00

Meray Shehr jal rahey haiN, Meray Loug mar rahey haiN

Karachi burns again. Tears swell up, but words run dry. This poem by Obaidullah Aleem, written in 1971 and sent to me recently by Naveed Riaz, says what we all feel. (

Meray Shehr jal rahey haiN, Meray Loug mar rahey haiN
(My cities are burning, by people are dying).

But it is really the last line of the ghazal that speaks to our collective angst, and indeed our collective guilt:

Hum he Qatl ho rahey haiN, hum he Qatl kar rahey haiN
(We ourselves are doing the dying, we ourselves are doing the killing).

How deep. How true. How sad.

The same thoughts are conveyed also in this poem by Ahmad Faraz; written in response to an earlier spate of killings in Karachi. We have used Faraz’s words before on this blog, including in a January 2008 post which is worth revisiting because all we said then could be said again today. But what deserves to be said again most of all are the words from Ahmed Faraz… Here I repeat them along with my commentary on them from 2008:

A few lines from the poem worth thinking about as we grieve, yet again, the loss of innocent lives at the hands of those who wish to prove the ‘righteousness’ of their cause by violence, murder and mayhem.

On how none of this is new and how the result is always a heightening of ethnic, sectarian and other ‘differences’. Note the “phir say tou kouN hai, meiN kouN houN, aapas meiN sawal” [once again, we ask each other: who are you? who am I?]

phir wohe aag dar aaye hai mairi galiyoun mein
phir mairey shehr mein barood ki boo phaili hai
phir say tou kouN hai, meiN kouN houN, aapas meiN sawal
phir wohi soch miyan-i-mann-o-tou phaili hai

On how we are sp quick to blame ‘outsiders’ for our misery, as if we had no hand in it ourselves. Note the “mairey seenay meiN sadda apna he khanjar utra” [it has always been my own dagger that has pierced my heart]

mairi basti say parrey bhi mairey dushman houN gay
par yahaN kabb koee aghyaar ka lashkar uttra
aashna haath he aksar mairey janab labkay
mairey seenay meiN sadda apna he khanjar utra

This part is my favorite. About how fear (khouf) and uncertainty (tazabzub) rules, and how much havoc is brought forth by those who use the rhetoric of patriotism (naara-i-hubb-i-watan) and of religion. Note the “naara-i-hubb-i-watan maal-i-tajarat ki tarhaaN” [slogans of patriotism are traded like commodity in a bazaar] and the “jinss-i-arzaaN ki tarhaaN deen-i-khuda ki baateiN” [talk of religion has become like a commodity in over-supply].

phir wohi khauf ki deewar, tazabzub ki faza
phir hoeeN aam wohoee ahl-i-riya ki baateiN
naara-i-hubb-i-watan maal-i-tajarat ki tarhaaN
jinss-i-arzaaN ki tarhaaN deen-i-khuda ki baateiN

And he ends with these words of hope that give me great solace. When he talks about “mairey dilgeer, mairey dard kay maarey logou” he seems to be talking to us directly today. But the real kicker is in the last two lines: “kissi ghasib, kissi zalim, kissi qatil kay leeaye, khod ko taqseem na karna, mairey saarey logou” [do not, O please do not, let the usurpers, the tyrants, the murders divide you into factions].

aaj aisa nahiN, aisa nahiN honay daina
aye mairey sokhta jaano, mairey piyarey logou
abb kay gar zalzalay aaye tou qiyamat ho ge
mairey dilgeer, mairey dard kay maarey logou
kissi ghasib, kissi zalim, kissi qatil kay leeaye
khod ko taqseem na karna, mairey saarey logou

View a video of Ahmad Faraz reciting this poem.

In The Court Of Allah Almighty .. !

2011-03-12T01:46:00.000-08:00

In The Court Of Allah Almighty .. !

Wht We Want To Make USA Agree With US

2011-03-11T02:36:00.000-08:00

Wht We Want To Make USA Agree With US

Your hae the rulers as you are

2011-03-08T21:42:00.001-08:00

CIA drones killed U.S. citizens in Pakistan, book says

CIA drones killed “many Westerners, including some U.S. passport holders” in Pakistan’s tribal area during the George W. Bush administration, the new book by Bob Woodward says.

Woodward,a longtime Washington Post journalist, writes in "Obama's Wars" that then-CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden disclosed the killings to Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari during a meeting in New York on Nov. 12, 2008. Hayden was succeeded by Leon J. Panetta in 2009.

Hayden and his deputy, Stephen Kappes, had gone to meet with Zardari, elected only two months earlier, to gauge his reaction to the drone strikes, which were generating widespread protests in Pakistan.

According to Woodward’s unattributed account of the meeting, Zardari said, “Kill the seniors. Collateral damage worries you Americans. It does not worry me.”

Hayden had told Zardari that “many Westerners, including some U.S. passport holders, had been killed five days earlier on the Kam Sham training camp in the tribal area of North Warziristan,” Woodward writes. “But the CIA would not reveal the particulars due to the implications under American law.”

“A top secret CIA map detailing the attacks had been given to the Pakistanis,” Woodward continues. “Missing from it was the alarming fact about the American deaths … The CIA was not going to elaborate.”

The CIA declined to comment for the record or make Kappes, who resigned in April, available for comment. Hayden did not respond to requests for comment.

On Friday the Justice Department faces a deadline to respond to a suit by two human rights groups challenging the Obama administration’s right to kill U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical proselytizer based in Yemen.

correction: Deadline to respond was first erroneously reported as Thursday.

Taken Directly From Washington Post's Blog At http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/09/cia_drones_killed_us_citizens.html

Type Of Govt We Want

2011-03-08T21:02:00.000-08:00

Abhi ya kabhi nhe

2011-03-07T23:05:00.001-08:00

خدا حافظ پاکستان ’جارج کا پاکستان‘ کے فولٹن کا آخری سلام

2011-03-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

خدا حافظ پاکستان ’جارج کا پاکستان‘ کے فولٹن کا آخری سلام

’سلمان تاثیر نہیں روشن خیال پاکستان کی موت‘

’مت جاؤ گود لیے جانے والے بیٹے! ہماری ماں بیمار ہے اور اس کے بچے ابہام کا شکار ہیں۔ بھائی مت جاؤ۔’

یہ اپیل تھی ایک خاتون کی جو انہوں نے پاکستان کی نو سال پرانی شہریت رکھنے والے معروف ٹی وی شخصیت جارج فولٹن سے کی۔ جارج کی پاکستان میں وجہ شہرت چند برس قبل چلنے والی ایک ٹی وی پروگرام ’جارج کا پاکستان‘ تھا۔

اس پروگرام میں وہ یعنی برطانیہ سے آئے ایک انگریز جارج فولٹن تمام ملک میں گھومتے پھرتے ہیں اور اپنے تاثرات ریکارڈ کرتے ہیں۔ بعد میں انہیں اس وقت کے وزیر اعظم شوکت عزیز پاکستانی شہریت دے دیتے ہیں۔

اب نو برس بعد ایک انگریزی اخبار میں ایک آرٹیکل ’جارج کا خدا حافظ‘ عنوان کے مضمون میں پاکستان چھوڑنے کا اعلان کیا ہے۔ اس مضمون میں ان کا کہنا ہے کہ وہ گزشتہ نو سالوں سے ایک غیرمتوازی رشتے میں پھنسے ہوئے تھے۔

’میرا رابطہ گو کسی حد تک غیر متوقع طور پر ہوا تھا جو جلد ہی ایک جذباتی محبت میں تبدیل ہوگیا۔ میرے ساتھی نے بھی پوری طرح محبت کا جواب محبت سے دیا۔ محبت میں اندھا ہوکر میں اس کی کمزوریاں نہیں دیکھ سکا۔ ہاں بعض اوقات وہ خود کو نقصان پہنچاتی ہے اور حد درجے غیر ذمےدار ہوجاتی ہے، مگر میں امید کرتا رہا کہ اس کی فطرت میں چھپے بہتر پہلؤوں کے ذریعے اسے بدلہ جاسکتا ہے۔ پھر پاگل پن دیکھتے ہوئے مجھے اپنی زندگی کا خطرہ پیدا ہوگیا، میں نے فیصلہ کیا کہ یہاں سے چلا جاؤں۔ یہ طلاق آج ہو رہی ہے۔ اس محبوبہ کا نام پاکستان ہے اور آج میں اسے چھوڑ کر جا رہا ہوں۔‘

میرے لیے یہ بالکل مشکل فیصلہ نہیں تھا۔ بلکہ یہ فیصلہ میں نے نہیں کیا۔ یہ فیصلہ میرے لیے کیا گیا۔ پاکستان میں آپ اپنا مقصد خود نہیں بناتے۔ پاکستان آپ کے لیے بناتا ہے۔ یہاں سے ہزارہا خبریں نکلتی ہیں۔۔۔۔۔

اس مضمون میں انہوں نے مزید لکھا ’میرے لیے یہ بالکل مشکل فیصلہ نہیں تھا۔ بلکہ یہ فیصلہ میں نے نہیں کیا۔ یہ فیصلہ میرے لیے کیا گیا۔ پاکستان میں آپ اپنا مقصد خود نہیں بناتے۔ پاکستان آپ کے لیے بناتا ہے۔ یہاں سے ہزارہا خبریں نکلتی ہیں۔۔۔۔۔

’پاکستان اب تمھارے ناکام ریاست بننے میں بہت کم فاصلہ رہ گیا ہے۔ تم ایک پرتشدد ریاست بن گئی ہو جہاں ہندو مسلمانوں کو نہیں بلکہ مسلمان مسلمان کو قتل کر رہا ہے۔ میں نے سلمان تاثیر کے قتل پر سوگ نہیں منایا۔ میں انہیں نہیں جانتا تھا لیکن میں نے سوگ منایا اس پہلو کا جس کی وہ نمائندگی کرتے تھے اور وہ تھی روشن خیال پاکستان کی موت۔ گورنر کی موت نے بتا دیا کہ انتہا پسندی کا کینسر کس حد تک ہمارے معاشرے میں سرایت کرچکا ہے۔۔۔۔۔۔‘

بی بی سی اردو سے بات کرتے جارج فولٹن نے کہا کہ وہ روانگی کی تیاری کر رہے ہیں۔ ان کا کہنا تھا کہ انہیں جو کہنا تھا وہ کہہ چکے ہیں اور اس مضمون سے زیادہ بات نہیں کریں گے۔ یہ ایک مشکل میں پھنسے ملک سے محفوظ مقام کی جانب روانہ ہونے والے ایک شخص کا خوف تھا یا کوئی اور وجہ معلوم نہیں ہوسکا۔

Pakisan vs Egypt

2011-03-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Hamid mir tape scaldle : Khalid khawaja and Taliban

2010-06-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hamid mir tape scaldle : Khalid khawaja and Taliban

Not Many Muslims Had The Opportunity TO See This

2010-05-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

HAZRAT DAWOOD (AS), Israel

ROZA RASUL, PROPHET MUHAMMAD P.B.U.H

One more image send by user of ROZA RASUL, PROPHET MUHAMMAD P.B.U.H

Foot Mark Of HAZRAT ADAM (AS) , Srilanka

HAZRAT AMMA HAWA, Jeddah

Abeel, Son of HAZRAT ADAM (Al.), First grave on earth, Jordan.

Abeel (Another view of grave of Abeel), Son of HAZRAT ADAM (Al.)

HAZRAT YOUSHE (First Prophet after Adam), Jordan.

Makam-e-Ibrahim

HAZRAT IBRAHIM-AL-KHALIL, Israel

HAZRAT LOT, Iraq

HAZRATt SALEH (AS)

HAZRAT MOOSA (AS), Israel

HAZRAT SHOAIB (Al.)

HAZRAT HAROON (Al.)

HAZRAT ZAKARIA (Al.)

HAZRAT YAHYA (Al.)

HAZRAT BIBI AMENA , Outside Macca

HAZRAT BIBI HALEEMA, Outside Madina.

HAZRAT ABU TALEB, Uncle of Prophet Mohammed P.B.U.H, Macca

HAZRAT BIBI KHADIJA (Ummul Moamineen), Macca

HAZRAT IMAM HASAN (AS).

HAZRAT BIBI FATIMA ZAHRA

HAZRAT BILAL HABASHI, Damascus

Kaisa Ho Ga 2010?

2010-01-13T03:29:00.001-08:00

Kya Hae Pakistan Ka Mustaqbil?
President of Pakistan: Abhi Pakistani aur khappay ga!
Yousaf Raza Gilani: What did president say???___ Jee bus wohi jee___ nahi jee___ bilkul wohi jee.
Governor Punjab: I hope there would be no graduation ceremony in 2010.
Shehbaz Sharif: There will be no building in Lahore that deserved to be demolished except Governor House.
Altaf Hussain: We will sit on stairs between government and opposition.
Nawaz Sharif: hahahahaha… what? 2010?… hahaha …what?
Imran Khan: Tehrik-i-Insaf will begin losing its baby teeth. InshaAllah!
Rehman Malik: There will be no Taliban element left in Pakistan except in Punjab , Sindh , N.W.F.P , Balochistan and Kashmir.
Ameer-e-Taliban: We will make some good decisions and will kill religious leaders instead of innocent people.
Chief Justice: Now I will enjoy a sound sleep till 2011.
Farzana Raja: In the whole year of 2010, at least one day poor women will get 2 waqt ki roti.
Fauzia Wahab: 2010??? …A nightmare for Media!
Chairman WAPDA: Hum se kuch achey ki umeed kion rakhtey ho bhai???

Waoo Pakistan Wins Over India in Champions Trophy

2009-09-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Game Update: Pakistan won the match by 54 runs. Shoaib Malik named Man of the Match.
The thrill of a Pakistan-India cricket encounter is always special. This time around at the ICC Champions Trophy Tournament in South Africa it is no different.

The story of the moment is that Pakistan has set India 303 to win. A good score but certainly not insurmountable. At the time of writing this, India was 91/2 in 14 overs, in the 50 overs game (current score here).

Earlier report on Pakistan’s innings, from The News:

An enterprising century by Shoaib Malik and brilliant 87 by Mohammad Yousuf helped Pakistan set India a difficult target of 303 runs in their Group A match in the ICC Champions Trophy here on Saturday. Malik made 128 from 126 balls and struck 16 fours while Yousuf hit seven fours in his 88-ball innings. Both added 206 runs, a record fourth wicket partnership against India. For India, seamers Ashish Nehra bagged four wickets for 55 runs while Ishant Sharma claimed two for 39. Pakistan captain Younus Khan elected to bat after winning the toss against India in the Champions Trophy here on Saturday.
Pakistan won their opening match of the four-team group against the West Indies, while India are playing their first game. Defending champions Australia are the other team in the group, with the top two advancing to the semi-finals. Pakistan made one change from the side that beat the West Indies, with Younus coming in place of Misbah-ul-Haq.
Pakistan: Younus Khan (captain), Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Yousuf, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Rana Naved-ul Hasan, Umar Gul,
Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain & wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Rudra Pratap Singh.

ISI Summons RAW Chief Over Terrorism In Pakistan

2009-09-05T03:19:00.000-07:00

ISI Summons RAW Chief Over Terrorism In Pakistan

Pakistan slaps India with evidence of RAWâ€™s involvement in Terrorism inside Pakistan

Ã˜ In the Sri Lankan cricket team case, Indian operatives crossed the border from Indian to join other Indian-origin or Indian-trained terrorists who traveled all the way from Afghanistan to Lahore

Ã˜ Indian terrorism training bases, intelligence outposts and personnel in Afghanistan identified

Ã˜ In some cases, Indian intelligence was indirectly supporting attacks against US soldiers in Afghanistan in order to worsen Pak-US military relations

Ã˜ Indiaâ€™s friends, advocates and lobbyists in Washington stunned

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was stunned when Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Reza Gilani handed him a dossier containing photographs of Brahamdagh Bugti and other terrorists meeting Indian agents not only in Afghanistan but also during their visits to India and the names of the Indian officials who met them. This was part of more evidence about Indiaâ€™s involvement in recruiting, training, financing and arming terrorists in Afghanistan and sending them to Pakistan. Indiaâ€™s links to the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore and other high profile terrorism cases have been established, shocking even Indianâ€™s many advocates in Washington. Mr. Gilani gave this surprise to the Indians behind closed doors. Now India fears that Pakistan would use this meeting to expose Indian connections with two anti-Pakistan terrorist leaders and their foreign-funded terror armies: Brahamdagh Bugti and his BLA [Balochistan Liberation Army] and Baitullah Mehsudâ€™s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, both being supported from bases in US-controlled Afghanistan.

By Dan Qayyum

ISLAMABAD, Pakistanâ€”ISI Chief Shuja Pasha has summoned his Indian Counterpart, K C Verma for a meeting through the Indian defense attachÃ© in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

The Indian government has not responded to ISIâ€™s request yet, and is reportedly assessing the implications of a possible meeting carefully.

After the July 16 Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement between India and Pakistan, India fears that Pakistan would use this meeting as a forum to expose Indian connections with two terror leaders and their foreign-funded terror armies: Brahamdagh Bugti and his BLA [Balochistan Liberation Army] and Baitullah Mehsudâ€™s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Pakistan has piles of evidence against Indian consulates in Afghanistan being used to fund terrorism in Pakistan through the TTP as well as the terrorists who claim to be self-styled representatives of Pakistanâ€™s Baloch vast Baloch heritage.

Pakistanâ€™s DAWN reports that a dossier containing proof of Indiaâ€™s involvement in â€œsubversive activitiesâ€ in Pakistan was handed over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh during their meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh last week.

The evidence has also been shared with the US and Afghanistan, with Kabul being asked to prevent the use of its territory for disruptive activities against Pakistan.

â€œAlthough the information given to India is being kept highly secret, broad outlines of the dossier available with Dawn reveal details of Indian contacts with those involved in attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the Manawan police station,â€ the newspaper said.

â€œOperatives of RAW who remained in touch with the perpetrators of the attacks have been identified and proof of their interaction has been attached,â€ it added.

A description of Indian arms and explosives used in the attack on the Sri Lankan team has been made part of the dossier, besides which the names and particulars of the perpetrators, who illegally entered Pakistan from India and joined their accomplices who had reached Lahore from Waziristan, have been mentioned, the report said.

The dossier is also said to list the safe houses being run by RAW in Afghanistan where terrorists are trained and launched for missions in Pakistan.

â€œThe dossier also broadly covers the Indian connection in terror financing in Pakistan.

A substantial part of the shared material deals with the Balochistan insurgency and Indian linkages with the insurgents, particularly Brahamdagh Bugti, Burhan and Sher Khan,â€ Dawn said.

Photographs of their meetings with Indian operatives are part of the evidence, which also describes Bugtiâ€™s visit to India and the meetings he had with Indian secret service personnel, it added.

The dossier also mentions an Indian-funded training camp near Kandahar where terrorists claiming to represent Pakistanâ€™s Balochistan, particularly supporters of politician-turned-terrorist Akbar Bugti, were being trained and provided arms for sabotage activities in the Pakistani province. The elder Bugti was involved in recruiting and sending young Pakistanis from Balochistan to become terrorists against their own homeland.

Dawn quoted its sources as saying that Manmohan Singh had agreed to â€œlook into Pakistani claimsâ€ and to take â€œcorrective actionâ€ if proven. He is said to have assured Mr. Gilani that India is against interference in other countries and Pakistanâ€™s stability was important for them.

â€œYes, these issues were discussed,â€ Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit said when asked about the meeting.

Indian Backed Terrorism in Pakistan

Brahamdagh is based in Kabul and is a familiar face within the defense and intelligence circles in Delhi.

BLA was the name that the former KGB and the Indian intelligence gave to Pakistani communist recruits who were paid to destabilize Pakistan during the 1960s, â€˜70s and â€˜80s, when the Soviet Union controlled Afghanistan. The BLA died with the end of the Cold War and the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, but has been revived by the Indians after US occupied Afghanistan.

Here is what Christine Fair of RAND Corporation has said earlier this year about what the Indian consulates are up to in Afghanistan and Iran:

â€œI think it would be a mistake to completely disregard Pakistanâ€™s regional perceptions due to doubts about Indian competence in executing covert operations. That misses the point entirely. And I think it is unfair to dismiss the notion that Pakistanâ€™s apprehensions about Afghanistan stem in part from its security competition with India. Having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity! Moreover, India has run operations from its mission in Mazar (through which it supported the Northern Alliance) and is likely doing so from the other consulates it has reopened in Jalalabad and Qandahar along the border. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Baluchistan. Kabul has encouraged India to engage in provocative activities such as using the Border Roads Organization to build sensitive parts of the Ring Road and use the Indo-Tibetan police force for security. It is also building schools on a sensitive part of the border in Kunarâ€“across from Bajaur. Kabulâ€™s motivations for encouraging these activities are as obvious as Indiaâ€™s interest in engaging in them. Even if by some act of miraculous diplomacy the territorial issues were to be resolved, Pakistan would remain an insecure state. Given the realities of the subcontinent (e.g., Indiaâ€™s rise and its more effective foreign relations with all of Pakistanâ€™s near and far neighbors), these fears are bound to grow, not lessen. This suggests that without some means of compelling Pakistan to abandon its reliance upon militancy, it will become ever more interested in using it â€” and the militants will likely continue to proliferate beyond Pakistanâ€™s control.â€

The Foreign Policy magazine also recently confirmed the Indians were neck deep in supporting the TTP in Pakistan:

While the U.S. media has frequently reported on Pakistani ties to jihadi elements launching attacks in Afghanistan, it has less often mentioned that India supports insurgent forces attacking Pakistan. â€œThe Indians are up to their necks in supporting the Taliban against the Pakistani government in Afghanistan and Pakistan,â€ a former intelligence official who served in both countries said. â€œThe same anti-Pakistani forces in Afghanistan also shooting at American soldiers are getting support from India. India should close its diplomatic establishments in Afghanistan and get the Christ out of there.â€

Afghan officials have also confirmed that India is using Afghanistan to stir trouble in Pakistan.

â€œIndia is using Afghan soil to destabilize Pakistan and Afghan security agencies are unable to stop Indian intervention due to absence of centralized government mechanismâ€, said Afghan Governmentâ€™s Advisor, Ehsanullah Aryanzai on the sidelines of Pak-Afgan Parliamentary Jirga at a Pakistani hotel on April 2, 2009.

Pressure on the US

The Americans â€“ under heavy pressure in Afghanistan â€“ have started to realize they cannot save face in Afghanistan unless Pakistanâ€™s legitimate concerns with regards to Indian sponsored terrorism are addressed immediately.

A Senior US diplomat William Burns gave Indian officials a terse directive last month, asking them to â€™shut down Indian consulates in Afghanistan, reduce presence in Kabul and stop sending terrorists across the Durand Line.â€™ The message was supplemented with a letter from the American President Barack Obama to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with a similar message.

Whether RAWâ€™s K. C. Verma takes up ISI chief Shuja Pashaâ€™s offer of a one-on-one or not, Pakistan should increase the pressure on the US by declaring neutrality in Afghanistan and block the supply of American and NATO weapons through its soil unless the United States pays heed to its Pakistani allyâ€™s security interests in the region.

The original version of this report is published by PKKH.

Indian Army Major-General Runs Terrorist Camps Inside Afghanistan

2009-09-04T03:18:00.000-07:00

Indian Army Major-General Runs Terrorist Camps Inside Afghanistan

o India Begins To Scale Down The Activities Of Its â€˜Diplomaticâ€™ Outposts; Pakistan Is Yet To Verify This; Terrorism Against Pakistan Will Continue Until Kabul & New Delhi Surrender Brahamdagh Bugti & Other Terrorists

o 8 Spy Foreign Agencies Active In Balochistan; No One Paying Attention To The 9^th one: Oman

Eight foreign intelligence agencies are meddling in Pakistani Balochistan. There is a 9th possible player: Oman, where US and UK and reportedly Israel maintain â€˜listening and monitoring outpostsâ€™. But it is the wily Indians who walk away with the top prize. For seven years now, India has played the lead role in spreading terror inside Pakistani Balochistan. Indiaâ€™s reckless adventurism has emboldened other players. But it is also emboldening Pakistan to respond. India cannot get away with this and stealing Pakistanâ€™s water in Kashmir.

India, we ae watching YOU! And not just in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

BY AHMED QURAISHI

KABUL, Afghanistanâ€”As the United States military occupation of Afghanistan falters, regional powers move in for the kill. Afghanistan has many neighbors. India is not one of them. It does not share any borders with Afghanistan. But after CIA, Indiaâ€™s two intelligence services â€“ the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) â€“ are among the most active in the occupied country.

The Indians have excellent contacts within Karzaiâ€™s security setup. Most of them are former communist leaders who escaped to India in the 1970s and â€˜80s and returned to power along with the Northern Alliance in 2001, backed by both US and India.

The Indians have also sold the Americans, or at least some key people within the American intelligence and strategic communities, on the dubious Indian â€˜expertiseâ€™ on Afghanistan. This is how India was assigned an expanded role inside Afghanistan. The role takes the form of development work on the surface. But in reality, the Indians are neck deep in Afghanistan, and now it turns out they are neck deep inside western Pakistan as well.

The Indians have a separate, extensive intelligence and espionage setup focused on Pakistanâ€™s tribal Pashtun belt. This is where the Indians and Karzaiâ€™s people are running a joint venture of pumping saboteurs into Pakistan disguised as the so-called â€˜Pakistani Talibanâ€™, who are also known as the Fake Taliban to differentiate them from the Afghan Taliban who are fighting the foreign armies in Afghanistan and are not fighting Pakistan.

This report focuses on Indiaâ€™s espionage work in southern Afghanistan targeting Pakistanâ€™s Balochistan province.

Apart from the Indian Embassy in Kabul, there are nine consulates strategically located in the US-occupied country.

India has two consulates in the south near Pakistanâ€™s three key areas: the provinces of Balochistan and NWFP and the tribal belt. One Indian consulate is located in Kandahar. The other one is located close to the airport in Lashkar Gah, capital of the Helmand province. This Indian â€˜consulateâ€™ has a training facility where training is imparted to would-be terrorists. Here they are equipped and sent to Pakistan. Most of these terrorists are young men recruited from both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Indian â€˜diplomatsâ€™ from the two southern consulates have been sighted collecting large quantities of Pakistani rupees from the open market on several occasions.

Interestingly, Helmand is the same province where the United States and the United Kingdom have mobilized their military and intelligence resources to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban and push them toward Pakistan.

From Pakistanâ€™s point of view, this US-NATO operation is bogus. After all, the Afghan Taliban are registering success in Afghan provinces that are nowhere near the Pakistani border, including northern Afghanistan. There is no evidence that the Afghan Taliban managed to do this because of help from Pakistani soil. And yet US-NATO forces forget Taliban everywhere else and decide to focus on Helmand which borders Pakistani Balochistan, a province that is being destabilized from the Afghan soil.

Knowing that this operation could be used by intelligence operatives [Indian, Afghan and possibly even American] to push undercover agents and saboteurs inside Pakistan, Pakistani authorities formally objected to Washington over the military action noting very clearly that pushing terrorists inside Pakistan is not a solution.

On top of the nine Indian consulates, six more â€˜diplomaticâ€™ outposts have been established by both RAW and a Karzai spy outfit called NDS.

The six new â€˜consulatesâ€™ are part of a network headed by a retired major-general from the Indian army. His CV shows that he used to head RAWâ€™s counterintelligence wing based in New Delhi.

His job description is simple.

In intelligence parlance, he is responsible for identifying strategic opportunities in Afghanistan and Pakistan and use them to Indiaâ€™s advantage. He is expected to cultivate, recruit, train, arm and finance espionage and sabotage inside Pakistan in a calculated manner resulting in supporting Indiaâ€™s wider political and strategic objectives in the region.

In simple everyday language, the Indian officer is supposed to open enough fronts for Pakistan from the west in order to distract Pakistanâ€™s grip and attention over Kashmir, the Indian occupied region to the east.

The Indian major-general has led an operation where young men from Pakistan and Afghanistan have been recruited in the name of waging jihad against America. Once in, the young men are brainwashed. They are shown violent speeches by supposed religious clerics. They are introduced to â€˜mujahedeen leadersâ€™ who enjoy vast knowledge in Islamic and Quranic teachings. Most of these â€˜mujahedeen leadersâ€™ are either Indian or Karzaiâ€™s intelligence people.

The brainwashing sessions include virulent sermons against Pakistan and its role in betraying Islam. The indoctrination ends with the mission that Pakistan needs to be the first target in the jihad against America. Whoever sides with Pakistan in this battle is a supporter of Americaâ€™s occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

These young men with â€˜messed up mindsâ€™ are then sent to Pakistan to carry out bombings, suicide attacks, targeted killings, and slaughter innocent people.

Most of them are introduced as Islamic militants or Taliban. But a large number of them are also sent in to pretend they are Pakistanis fighting for the separation of Balochistan from the motherland.

As soon as these terrorists finish blowing up pipelines or killing university professors in Balochistanâ€™s provincial capital Quetta, Indian consulates in Afghanistan arrange for their Urdu writers to pen down neatly written statements in Urdu which are then dispatched to Pakistani news organizations. Some analysts who have had a chance to look at these statements are impressed by the high quality of the Urdu language used in these written press statements. [Non-Pakistani readers may not understand the significance of this point. A small minority in northeast India, a region that has been the seat of Muslim nobility and empire for most of the past ten centuries, continue to be well acquainted with Urdu, the language of the old Muslim nobility in the region. The terrorists spreading havoc in Pakistani Balochistan do not enjoy even a moderately acceptable command over this classical language. The only other people outside Pakistan who can show off a few experts in this language are Indians from the northwestern part of their country.]

Exploiting a barren, rough terrain, the Indians and Karzaiâ€™s security people have identified routes along three regions in southwest Pakistan â€“ Dalbandin, Noshki and Chaman â€“ as transportation routes for weapons and bombs smuggled into the province.

Pakistani security forces have consistently been confiscating US and Israeli manufactured weapons from terrorists in various parts of southwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.

Intelligence agencies from eight different countries are suspected to be active in the wave of terror inside Pakistan. These spy outfits belong to the United States, India, Afghanistan, Iran, UAE, Israel, Britain and Russia.

Pakistani authorities have been slow in discovering the role of a 9^th country in this mix: Oman.

Oman is situated right across the Arabian Sea, facing the coastal line of Balochistan. Thanks to cross migrations between Oman and Pakistan over the past two centuries, a substantial portion of the Omani population is of Pakistani Baloch descent. They have traditionally worked for the security service and the army of successive Omani kings, including the incumbent, Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed.

At least two countries, the US and Britain, have intelligence â€˜listening and monitoring outpostsâ€™ in Oman. There have been reports that Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed had also granted Israel the right to use his territory for discreet information gathering operations targeting neighboring countries, especially Iran and the region surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. This area includes Pakistani Balochistan.

Apart from the Indians, Washington is known to be very interested in Balochistan. The Pakistani province offers the shortest land route to Afghanistan should Islamabad decide to cease support to NATO and US supply lines through the rest of Pakistan. The Americans are also suspicious that a hard-to-defeat Afghan Taliban are based in Balochistan.

The suspicion is that at some level Oman is helping US access Pakistani Balochistan without the knowledge of the Pakistani government.

The nine foreign intelligence agencies are in Afghanistan for various purposes. The American and the Omani roles have been explained. Karzaiâ€™s intelligence is simply ready to join any effort that harms Pakistan. The Indians want to punish Pakistan for supporting the struggle of the Kashmiri people against Indian occupation. India also wants to destabilize Balochistan enough so that China abandons the huge development projects inside the Pakistani province, an objective that the Americans would welcome without hesitation.

Iran is more concerned about the CIA-backed Jundullah terrorist group that is working on setting the Sunni Balochi population inside Iran against the Shiite majority. The Dubai emirate of the UAE has been told by the Indians that Pakistanâ€™s Gwadar port in Balochistan is being developed as competition. There is also suspicion that some lobbies within the UAE are aligned with the American agenda on Iran, especially considering that Iran occupies three UAE islands. Pakistani Balochistan figures prominently in this agenda. I am referring to â€˜lobbies inside the UAEâ€™ because while Dubai is suspicious about Gwadar it is not interested in joining any anti-Iran effort. But Abu Dhabi, the other influential emirate in the UAE, is more susceptible to go along the Americans on Iran, including the idea of using Balochistan for this purpose.

The Brits are also closely aligned with the Americans. The case of the Israelis, however, is more interesting. Israel is the only country with the longest experience in dealing with Islamic groups. Israel has gone as far as establishing Islamic religious schools inside Israel that serve intelligence purposes, such as understanding how fighters are indoctrinated and also how to develop undercover agents who can go and join Islamic groups disguised as Muslim extremists.

Washington sought Israeli assistance in this regard after 9/11. The Indians were smarter. They approached Israel in the 1990s to counter Islamic groups backed by Pakistan. These groups were at the forefront of the Kashmiri peopleâ€™s fight against the Indian occupation of Kashmir. Israeli has demonstrated it can help India in Kashmir in May-June 1999 when a defeated Indian army unit there was provided Israeli military assistance on the ground to repel advancing Pakistani and Kashmiri fighters. [The timely and effective Israeli assistance helped turn a tactical Pakistani military victory into defeat, providing India enough time to mobilize a diplomatic offensive to invite international intervention in Kashmir. This is according to a rare disclosure by Mark Sofer, Israelâ€™s ambassador to India, in a Feb. 2008 interview with an Indian news magazine.]

There is a strong probability that Israelâ€™s help is once again at play in Indiaâ€™s anti-Pakistan activities on the Afghan soil. The Israelis are also focused on Iran. This leaves out the Russians who are most probably fishing in troubled waters and are there to reclaim the influence they lost in the area with the end of the Soviet Union 18 years ago.

But it is the Indians who walk away with the prize. They have played their cards well and convinced likeminded lobbies in Washington to let them use the Afghan soil against Pakistan for a good seven years now. But as the situation deteriorates for the Americans inside Afghanistan, a desperate Obama administration is listening to Pakistani complaints for the first time and possibly taking some action to reign in their wayward Indian friends.

Why I'm An Ungrateful Pakistani, Mr. Holbrooke

2009-09-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

Why I'm An Ungrateful Pakistani, Mr. Holbrooke

… and why you don't have a clue why the number of the ungrateful is increasing. The reason is that your media and policy formulators stop you from considering a viewpoint like mine by dismissing it as anti-Americanism. My concern is the rabid anti-Pakistanism that has permeated Washington after we helped you occupy Afghanistan.

Mr. Holbrooke with federal minister Hina Rabbani in Islamabad on 22 July 2009.

By Ahmed Quraishi

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Pakistan's relationship with the United States remains rocky despite the recent assassination of Baitullah Mehsud. Let's not mince words here. We want this relationship to improve and there are many in Washington who want nothing more than this. But there is a legacy of mistrust. Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates attributed this trust deficit to America abandoning Pakistan after the anti-Soviet war.

But that is not the whole truth. That is an old legacy. There is a newer legacy now weighing down on Pak-US ties. It has to do with the period between 2002 and 2009.

Like most US officials, either Mr. Gates did not want to mention it or he is simply not aware of it.

Mehsud was an anti-Pakistan terrorist and not an anti-US terrorist. There is no evidence that he posed any threat to the US occupation forces in Afghanistan. He introduced ruthless methods of terrorism in Pakistan that were unknown here and more common to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Interestingly, these methods of terror arrived in Pakistan shortly after the arrival of the American military-intelligence setup in Afghanistan.

We have reason to believe this was not just the function of American soldiers attracting Iraqi suicide bombers and trainers all the way to Afghanistan. That claim remains unverifiable at best, and is self-serving.

Considering Baitullah Mehsud's base of operations, geographically and logistically the only source of money and weapons to sustain his anti-Pakistan war was American-controlled Afghanistan. His fighters fought Pakistan with American dollars and American weapons. The drug money in Afghanistan increased manifold under the US military. The people involved in this trade were and continue to be hardcore US allies in Afghanistan and part of the US puppet regime in Kabul.

Washington used Pakistan to help occupy Afghanistan. Once done, America turned its back to Pakistan and gradually turned Afghanistan into a hub for anti-Pakistan forces, from Northern Alliance warlords, Indian intelligence operatives to Pakistan-averse US military and intelligence officers.

There is little reason to believe that President Obama has weaned America off the policy of regional destabilization and adventurism that the Bush-Cheney combine pursued in Afghanistan.

Let me show you a quick list of the mess that we believe has its origins in US-occupied Afghanistan:

1. Systematic and cruel methods of targeting innocent civilians by shadowy terrorists meant to spread fear and instability: This manifested itself inside Pakistan in deliberate cutting of hands and feet and throat slitting, photographing the acts and then sending them to newspaper offices and posting them online. The victims were innocent Pakistanis. This terror achieved no specific goal except spreading fear and chaos, all the hallmarks of proxy wars.

2. Secret organizations backed by CIA that claim representation of Balochis: In Pakistan the separatist BLA, a proxy created by the Soviet Union, rose from the dead in 2005; while in Iran a different Baloch group was created with a Sunni composition to spark a Shia-Sunni conflict in Iran. Of course, the Balochis, whether in Iran or Pakistan, never had anything to do with both groups.

3. Attempts were made to spark region-wide Shia-Sunni conflict to parallel the sectarian killing fields in America's Iraq. Shia-Sunni tensions went up from Lebanon to Yemen. This created a sectarian polarization favorable to an American war against Iran with the support of the Arab countries along with Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan. It is another story that this sectarian strife failed to catch up.

4. In Pakistan, Washington managed to install a government of its liking without a war or invasion by manipulating an insecure and shortsighted Pervez Musharraf. The result is probably the most inept and corrupt government in the modern history of the country. This pro-US government could also prove fatal for the nation's long-term stability because of its inability to govern and because of its foreign [read: American-British] linked loyalties and interests.

For five long years, from 2004 to 2009, Pakistanis accepted the growing mess in the region as a byproduct of extremism, terrorism, Taliban, al Qaeda or whatever name America's 'terrorism industry' chose to give to this mess. But as they emerged from the mess, Pakistanis put the individual pieces of evidence in their hands together to discover that someone in Afghanistan was actively shifting the war to Pakistan. This is when the entire Am-Brit media began demonizing Pakistan as the world's next Iraq, spreading a fake global alarm over its well-developed nuclear and strategic arsenal using silly scenarios and releasing planted stories warning the world of the impending need for invading Pakistan.

Pakistanis also collected enough evidence that confirmed how a US-controlled Afghanistan was allowed by someone in Washington to be used to create and direct insurgencies and rebellions inside Pakistan. In other words, create and nurture terrorism and instability inside Pakistan.

Some lobbies within either Pentagon or the CIA, or both, were involved in this act of covert aggression against Pakistan, with the connivance of India and Kabul's American puppet regime.

HOW THE AMERICAN DUPLICITY WAS CHECKED

Four factors changed the regional scene in the past few months:

1. Pakistan's Military: The GHQ in Rawalpindi put its foot down on the question of Indian use of Afghan soil to export terror to Pakistan and the many signs that the CIA was protecting some of the anti-Pakistan terrorists inside Pakistan's tribal belt. A clear message was conveyed from Rawalpindi to Tampa: Stop it or lose the Pakistan supply route for NATO and US military in Afghanistan.

2. The global economic meltdown.

3. The change of guard in Washington.

4. The growing failure of the American occupation of Afghanistan and the panic this created inside a new administration in Washington.

Over the past thirteen months, Baitullah Mehsud's activities and his bottomless Afghan supply lines became a bone of contention between Pakistan and the United States, starting from a July 2008 meeting in Rawalpindi between Pakistani and American military and intelligence commanders. In this meeting, the CIA or elements within it were accused directly of supporting terrorism inside Pakistan and deviating from the stated US government policy. The incumbent Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was present in this meeting.

It is interesting how the mainstream American media refuses to cover this side of the story of terrorism inside Pakistan. In June, one of Baitullah's former senior aides, Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, held a press conference attended by the Pakistani and international media where he accused Baitullah's terror army of receiving support from Americans and Indians inside Afghanistan. He was killed while asleep within a week in a stealth attack by an assassin.

So, why did CIA drones attack Baitullah Mehsud this time?

After the July 2008 meeting, CIA dragged its feet over Baitullah Mehsud. The Pakistani government was too weak and too indebted to Washington to raise this issue and India's terror outposts in Afghanistan. It was the military-to-military channel between Islamabad and Washington that helped break the deadlock. This is how William Burns was sent to New Delhi in June to ask India to stand down in Afghanistan. Around the same time, CIA began sending drones to Baitullah's territory.

So should we in Pakistan be grateful to CIA, its drones, and to the United States for eliminating Baitullah Mehsud? Hardly.

Our problems will persist as long as the unjust and mismanaged Afghan occupation continues, with Washington ignoring Pakistan's vital security and strategic interests in the region and focusing only on its own.

IMPERIAL US EMABSSY?

What is stunning is how the elected Pakistani government is sanctioning the construction of probably the largest US embassy in the world in Islamabad. Just in the past two weeks, there have been several incidents of US diplomats carrying loaded weapons in public inside the Pakistani capital. In one incident a US diplomat carrying a weapon manhandled a Pakistani police officer outside the US embassy compound. The diplomat reportedly cursed the country that is hosting him. After some unnamed government officials suggested the diplomat might be deported, the whole story died down. The expansion work underway at the fortified embassy suggests that a military base of some sort is under construction, with sleeping barracks for hundreds of people.

Pakistan is not Iraq or Afghanistan under US occupation. So regardless of the silence of both President Asif Zardari and the supposed opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who both are looking to Washington to accumulate power, strong resentment is brewing against this imperial American construction in the heart of the Pakistani capital.

Pakistan's core contention with the US persists: how the US turned Afghanistan into a hub for anti-Pakistan forces from within and outside the region. US-occupied Afghanistan is a source of destabilizing Pakistan, China, Iran and Russia.

Washington has become more sensitive to Islamabad recently because of the factors discussed above. But Pakistanis have little reason to believe that this American change of heart is little more than the result of the difficult circumstances.

India's Nuclear Test Was A Dud?

2009-09-04T02:54:00.000-07:00

India's Nuclear Test Was A Dud?

One reason for the timing of the latest embarrassing disclosure by an Indian scientist is to ward off growing American pressure on India to sign various nuclear containment treaties and perhaps enable India to conduct one last series of tests to validate and improve its nuclear arsenal.

By S. M. Hali

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The admission by a senior Indian nuclear scientist that the Indian nuclear tests at Pokharan-II in May 1998 were a dud, have shaken India.

This revelation has confirmed the suspicion voiced by international as well Pakistani scientists immediately after the tests that the seismic measurements indicated that the only thermonuclear device tested was a “fizzle”.

In nuclear parlance, a test is described as a fizzle when it fails to meet the desired yield.

K. Santhanam, senior scientist and DRDO representative at Pokharan II, director for 1998 test site preparations, told Times of India that the yield for the thermonuclear test, or hydrogen bomb in popular usage, was much lower than what was claimed.

The test was said to have yielded 45 kilotons (KT) but was challenged by western experts who said it was not more than 20 KT. The exact yield of the thermonuclear explosion is important as during the heated debate on the India-US nuclear deal, it was strenuously argued by the government’s top scientists that no more tests were required for the weapons program and computer simulations would be enough in future design.

The question here arises regarding the timing of the disclosure of the failure of thermonuclear tests. Why would Santhanam go public, with such deliberation, on something that was commonly discussed and widely acknowledged in scientific circles?

The answer, according to some nuclear experts, is to ward off growing American pressure on India to sign various nuclear containment treaties and perhaps enable India to conduct one last series of tests to validate and improve its nuclear arsenal.

US nuclear experts, taking cognizance of Santhanam’s admission have also concluded that Indian scientists are yearning to conduct more nuclear tests to validate and improve the country’s arsenal before the Obama administration shuts the door on nuclear explosions.

Henry Sokolski, Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, confirmed the same and opined that Washington has long believed that geo-political objectives rather than scientific or technical metrics drives New Delhi’s nuclear weapons quest.

In scores of research papers and studies in the immediate weeks and months of the 1998 nuclear tests in Pokharan, US and British scientists repeatedly questioned the reported yield of the Indian thermo-nuclear device, saying it was well below India’s claim of 43-45 kilotons.

In fact, some scientists, notably Terry Wallace, then with the University of Arizona and now attached to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, put the combined yield of the three May 11 tests at as low as 10 to 15 kilotons. Two other tests on May 13 involved sub-kiloton devices for tactical weapons, which US scientists doubted even, took place.

India thus appears to be divided in two groups, those who want to test and those who do not.

P.K. Iyengar former head of Bhabha Atomic Research Center and former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India, told BBC that he had made it clear in 2002 that India’s nuclear tests were ‘inconclusive and ambiguous’.

Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and former National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra, quoting former Indian President and scientific adviser to the Defence Minister Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for claiming success of the Pokharan-II tests, have discredited Santhanam’s exposé. Vicky Nanjappa’s interview of K. Santhanam for Rediff.com in ‘Why K Santhanam said Pokharan II was not a success’ quotes Santhanam, when asked to comment on Dr. Kalam’s rebuttal, as saying: “I would like to react to that. First of all, Dr Kalam is not a nuclear scientist. He is a missile scientist and he was not present there at that time. He is blissfully ignorant of the facts. Do I need to say more?”

Even Santhanam, regarding the belated timing of his disclosure admits that “There is a change in the administration in the United States of America. They are bound to further pressurize India to sign the CTBT. In such an event it was necessary to make such a statement or speak the truth on the issue so that India does not rush into signing the CTBT.”

Gary Milholin Director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control confirms the same: "An Indian test would be very toxic to cooperation it has just gained under the nuclear deal.”

N M Sampathkumar Iyangar, a subcontractor of the Indian nuclear and space establishments before their focus turned to weapon development, in his Op-Ed, ‘India’s 1998 nuke ‘fizzle’, confirms Santhanam’s exposé and adds more spice to it. He claims that the 1998 thermonuclear devices were the only “technology advancement” over the detonation of a crude device in 1974 at Pokharan. The absence of scrutiny turned India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) into a den of nepotism and corruption. Pokharan-II, while boosting Vajpayee’s image and fuelling a ruinous arms race in the subcontinent also bailed out DAE mandarins who had siphoned off funds with the promise of generating “20,000 MW by the year 2000” through nuclear power. Nine years later the DAE has failed to establish even 10 per cent of that capacity. Santhanam’s disclosure that the test of the thermonuclear device that he coordinated was a “fizzle” has let a cat among the pigeons.

Outgoing Indian Naval Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta has also tried to discredit Santhanam, reportedly with vested self interest, as he is hoping to land a lucrative post-retirement placement as an Advisor on the Russian Missile program in India. Bharat Karnad, Indian security expert opines that Santhanam’s confession is important and puts the onus on the government, which has to prove that India does have a thermonuclear deterrent and not a dud.

This is an extraction from the original column by the author published in The Nation. Mr. Hali is a host of a television talk show and a columnist. He can be reached at sm_hali@yahoo.com

COLLECTION OF Some Saddest Photographs EVER...............

2009-08-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Skeletons of Bhopal Gas Leak Victims

Rows Of Bodies in Gestapo Concentration Camp

Self Immolation of a Monk in Saigon

Unreliable reforms and harsh treatment of the South Vietnam government forced this monk to burn himself in protest.

The Napalm Girl

The naked girl in the photograph is nine year old Phan Thi Kim Phúc. She is running on the street after being burned in a South Vietnamese napalm attack.

Biafran Kids

Excessive lack of protein in kids can lead the muscles of their bodies to waste away and protrudes their bellies. This disease is called kwashiorkor. The photograph was taken in 1970, after three years of war between Nigeria and Biafra

Pollution and Power Lines in China

Vulture Stalking a Sudanese Child

No one knows what happened to this child. Kevin Carter, the photographer, won a Pulitzer for this photograph but committed suicide three months later.

Floating Dead Bodies After Tsunami

A Starving boy in Uganda

Before and After The Hiroshima Bombing.
Before

The red arrow points in the direction of the bombs which are moments away form hitting the land.

in 1982 a Cold Wintet Day

2009-08-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

A while ago, we had a post about the experience of a young cricket fan watching his very first International match at National Stadium Karachi. Today’s post is about the similar experience at Qazzafi Stadium Lahore that happened on the cold frigid day of December 31, 1982.

India’s cricket team was touring Pakistan in 1982-83 to play 6 test matches and 4 One Day Internationals. This was one of the most important cricket series‘ of the 80s.

Javed Miandad writes about this series in his bioagraphy as:

Infact, in that 1982-83 home season, the nucleus of the Pakistan team that would go on to dominate the world in the 1980s was starting to take shape.

One of the ODIs of this series was scheduled in Lahore on December 31, 1982. I was in Lahore in those days. A cousin of mine and myself decided to go to the stadium and watch the match. Our tickets were for the roof covered Club Enclosure towards the College-end. The enclosure is visible in the photo above, just next to the sight screen - towards right side.

On the morning of the match it started to rain in Lahore. Since we had to sell tickets so on that frigid Lahore winter morning, we reached the stadium around 7 a.m. People had already started to pour in the stadium.

Due to morning rains, the match was reduced to 33-over-a-side. Imran Khan won the toss and elected to bat. Cricketer-turned-Film Star Mohsin Khan and Mudassar Nazar started the innings for Pakistan and Kapil Dev started bowling for India. His first ball was a wide but on very next ball he caught-and-bowled Mohsin Khan for 0. There was a sudden silence in the stadium, which was by then jam-packed with over 35000 people. Zaheer Abbas came to bat next. Zaheer and Mudassar Nazar steadily took the score to 70 when Mudassar fell caught-and-bowled to Ravi Shastri. Javed Miandad came to bat next.

At some point in the match a section of the crowd became rowdy to cricketer Balvinder Singh Sandhu. He complained to umpires and the match was stopped. Javed Miandad came towards the crowd and beckoned the crowd by putting put his finger on his lips. The whole crowd became as silent as dead. Such was the power of cricket superstars in those days. There was no crowd trouble after that for rest of the day.

Zaheer and Javed were both at the top of their batting form. They hit, drove, pulled and cut at will. Mohindar Amarnath who always bowled with a Red handkerchief in his pocket for Good omen was smashed all over the ground by Javed-Zaheer duo for 50 runs off 5 overs. Kapil Dev went for 73 runs off his 7 overs.

When 33 overs finished, Pakistan scored 252 for 3. Javed Miandad was not out at his career best 119 off 77 bowls, with 5 sixes. Zaheer Abbas scored 105 off 82 bowls. I think I am fortunate to have seen Javed Miandad playing his career best innings live.

After lunch break Sunil Gavaskar and Kishnamachari Srikkanth started the innings for India. It was Srikkanth’s third one-day match and not many people knew him then. Imran Khan started bowling for Pakistan but was hammered by Srikkanth in his first over for 2 sixes out of the ground on mid-wicket. The mid-wicket boundary in Qazzafi stadium is full 75 yards, plus some extra yards behind that, and then a huge general enclosure. So those were some really giant hits by Srikkanth that went out of the stadium. The crowd was silent again. Nobody could grasp that a new kid named Srikkanth could hit 2 consecutive sixes to Imran Khan. When Imran came for his 32-step bowling start near our enclosure, someone in the crowd started shouting ‘Oyay Oyay’. Imran looked at the crowd and with hand gestures asked them to clap for Srikkanth.

When Pakistan off-spinner Ijaz Faqih came to bowl, I remember the crowd was shouting

Ijaz saada sher eh, (Our Ijaz is the lion)
dum lagaan di der eh (Only thing missing is his tail)

Pakistan’s bowling attack in those days used to rely solely on Imran. Checkout the bowling line of Pakistan in that match: Imran Khan, Tahir Naqqash (he used to circle his arm 5 times before actually delivering the ball), Shahid Mahboob (him and Rashid Khan, used to bowl on wrong foot, remember?), Ijaz Faqih (theoretically an off-spinner but practically a straight slow flighted lolly-popper), and our Lord’s hero (1982), the man with the golden arm, Mr. Mudassar Nazar.

Finally Srikkanth (39) was out caught while going for a big hit on Shahid Mahboob. Gavaskar(69) was removed by Tahir Naqqash. Sandeep Patil scored 51. When 27 overs finished, India were 193/4 and required 62 to win in 6 overs. At that instance rain came again, and India won the match on better run rate because Pakistan’s score at the end of 27th over were 175/2. It was a big disappointment for the crowd because had the match went up to 33 overs, it would’ve been very difficult for India to score 62 off 36 bowls, especially with 2 overs of Imran Khan remaining. It was the peak season of Imran Khan and during the same series later on he got his famous stress facture. Javed recalls this series of Imran in following words in his biography:

Imran, (in this series) was phenomewnal and bowled some of the best spells of his career, taking 40 wickets for 13.95 a piece. His famous afternoon spell in Karachi during the second Test - where he brought down India from 102-1 to 114-7 with reverse-swinging boomerangs - is one of the most famous spells of bowling in Pakistan cricket. It was just out of this world.

After the match we came back with a ‘latka hoa muNh’ (long face) because Pakistan had lost the match. But I’ll always remember this match for Javed Miandad and Zaheer Abbas batting.

Next week I came back to Karachi, and watched the 4th one-day at National Stadium Karachi. That story some other time.

google4eac95bc0367a785

2009-06-24T23:29:00.000-07:00

The Mysteries of Manghopir

2009-06-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Sheedi Jaat festival at Manghopir concluded just yesterday (June14-17). I thought it may be an appropriate opportunity to revisit Manghopir. Following post has been updated with new information and new photos at several places for our revisit today.

One of the vivid memories of my childhood is our family picnic visits to the Crocodile pond of Manghopir and then further to Hub Dam. For us children the Crocodile pond at Manghopir was always more fascinating than the calm lake of Hub Dam. Today, Manghopir pond is the largest colony of crocodiles in Pakistan. It is located in Northern part of Karachi. Google Earth map is given below.

Attractions at Manghopir:

Manghopir is famous for three major attractions.

(1) The shrine of Saint Sakhi Sultan which is located on a hill at an altitude of approximately 600 ft.
(2) Adjacent to the shrine is the second attraction in the form of a crocodile pond with a hundred plus docile crocodiles lying lazily there.
(3) A kilometer away from this shrine-crocodile pit complex is the third attraction in the form of hot water sulphur springs

Where is Manghopir Located:

It is located West of North Karachi, New Karachi and Surjani Town localities.

Who was Pir Mangho?

Who was Pir Mangho? This is a question shrouded in mystery which is laced with both myths and facts. The myths seem to have an upper hand on facts. Among all other things it is also not clear that who is actually buried in the shrine. Is it some saint called Sakhi Sultan or a saint called Mangho or are these two people one and the same person.

The photo to the right shows the shrine of Manghopir. I was able to find at least four legends describing the origins of Pir Mangho. I am however, not going to draw a conclusion on what legend seems right or wrong. I’ll leave that to our readership.

Legend One: The Tale of Mangho Wasa the Bandit

According to first legend, once there lived a bandit by the name of Mangho Wasa. He was notorious for looting caravans. Once the famous saint Baba Farid Ganj Shakar (AD 1173-1266) was passing near the present day Karachi on his way to perform Hajj (pilgrimage) in Mecca when Mangho Wasa looted him. This also brought Mangho in direct contact with Baba Farid. The divine sight and righteous personality of Baba Farid impressed Mangho Wasa so much that he converted to Islam. He became one of the disciples and started practicing sufism. Baba Farid was so pleased with Mangho that he titled him a saint (pir). Thus from that day onwards Mangho came to be known as Pir Mangho and the locality became famous as Manghopir. According to this legend, it is indeed Pir Mangho Wasa who is buried in the shrine and is now called Sakhi Sultan Manghopir.

Legend Two: Hazrat Khwaja Hasan Maroof Sufi Sakhi Sultan Baba

According to this legend says the person buried at Manghopir is infact Hazrat Khwaja Hasan Maroof Sufi Sakhi Sultan Baba (this got to be the longest name ever). When Mangho Wasa the bandit visited the shrine, he out of repentance for his sins, converted to Islam and served the wayfarers all his life. The shrine is now known as Manghopir in association of Mangho Wasa dacoit who turned into a pious soul in his later life. The person buried in the shrine is however Sakhi Sultan and not Mangho Wasa. Where is Mangho Wasa buried then? This legend is silent on that question.

Legend Three: Pir Mangho of Arabia

The third legend says that Mangho came from Arabia in the 13th century. Soon after his arrival, he went into a meditation for 40 years in a nearby cave. He became popular as a saint because of the devotion he showed in his 40-year meditation and hence the people named him Pir Mangho. He is said to have lived to the age of 150. This legend is silent on why Mangho chose this area to go into a 40 year meditation.

Legend Four: Kamal Din’s Final Resting Place

Fourth legend comes from Alexander F Baillie’s book “Kurrachee: Past, Present and Future” where he writes: Pir Mangho is the proper designation of the shrine, to which Hindus and Muslims both resort in large numbers. It is sacred to the memory of a Saint, whose original name was Kamaldin, but whose designation was changed to that of Pir Mangho when his bones were removed to that place and interred under a mosque

The 100-Crocodile Pond:

As if the origins of Pir Mangho were not mysterious enough, let us turn our attention to a 200 ft x 400 ft water pond adjacent to the shrine. Photo to the left shows this pond.

This pond is home to approximately 100 crocodiles.

Salman Siddiqui writes about this pond in a Dawn article as:

The crocodiles of Pir Mangho have never harmed a human being over their centuries of existence in a sanctuary near the shrine of the revered saint, claims Gaddi Nasheen (holy successor) Sajjad Sheedi (seen in the photo to the right in June 2009). To demonstrate this ‘fact,’ he readily jumps into the 400 feet long, 200 feet wide tank of green water filled with over a 100 cold blooded reptiles and comes out holding a three-year old baby croc to pose in front of the camera. Even as the eight-foot long mother croc comes towards us with an angry expression, the dare devil caretaker of the shrine remains calm and freezes the intended aggressor with just a sharp nudge of his stick, which he uses like a magic wand to control the wild beasts.

The Origin of Manghopir Crocodiles:

I was able to research at least 5 more legends and a scientific theory about how the crocodiles came to live in Manghopir area. I found some of the myths quite amusing. Make your own mind about any shade of truth in them.

(i) According to the first myth, Baba Farid Ganj Shakar gifted these crocodiles to Pir Mangho on his visit to the area. Why was Baba Farid traveling with crocodiles is unclear.

(ii) Second myth says that crocodiles were brought to Manghopir by a saint called Mor Mubarak (the blessed Peacock) from a cave in Korangi. Korangi is a Karachi town located some 50 km to the east of Manghopir.

(iii) Another version of the same myth says that Mor Mubarak had brought these crocodiles from a small brackish pit located in Waghodar area. Mor Mubarak tomb is also located in Waghodar, some 120 km upstream from Hub Dam. A perennial lake here still houses 10 marsh crocodiles that have been living here since Hub River flowed full. Therefore it is suggested that Manghopir crocodiles may have come downstream from here.

(iv) According to fourth myth, the famous saint of Sehwan Sindh, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar once visited the area. He was pained to see the area very inhospitable therefore with his miracles he caused a hot spring to issue forth as well as some date palms to spring up from the ground. The crocodiles were originally the lice in Lal Shahbaz’s hair which he gifted to Pir Mangho. He put them in the pond and each of them turned into a crocodile.

(v) The fifth myth, which I think is the most amusing, says that crocodiles were actually the lice in the hair of Pir Mangho. One day the lice were itching ‘pir sahib’ so much that in anger he stamped his feet on the ground and two sulfur pools were formed, in which the lice jumped and later grew up to become crocodiles.

Some people have tried to give scientific explanation to crocodiles’ presence. These crocodiles were carried through some heavy floods, during ancient times and later gathered at this pond. Archaeological investigations have also suggested the existence of a Bronze Age settlement (2500-1700 BC) near Manghopir, who worshipped crocodiles.

Sohrab K. H. Katrak who was mayor of Karachi in 1942-43, in an essay about Karachi, writes about Manghopir in following words:

Twelve miles away from Karachi is a place called Magarpeer. It is a well-known swamp fed by a hot spring of reputed medical value. Adjoining it is a shrine of Pir Mangho, an ancient Mussalman saint, which is visited by hundreds of pilgrims every week. The swamp is filled with huge alligators (known as ‘muggers’), some forty in number. The name was changed from Pir Mangho to Mugger Pir during the British regime.
About a mile from this pond of alligators is a Lepers’ Asylum, in the building of which a very prominent part was taken by Sadhu Navalrai and his son Sadhu Hiranand, the two celebrated saintly Sindhis of Hyderabad.

The image to the right shows live feeding of Manghopir crocodiles circa 1870s.

The Sheedis of Pakistan:

Karachi has a sizable population of people of African origin. They are the descendants of those slaves who were brought from Oman to Makran in the past. Later, recurring famine brought them liberty.

There are five main groups of Sheedi community in Pakistan. They are Lasi, Hyderabadi, Kharadari, Lasbela and Sheedis.

Every year theSheedis, the local name for Afro-Pakistanis, gather in Manghopir area, where they erect a temporary colony and live there for an entire week with their families and dance and sing in a festival called Sheedi jaat.

The Sheedi Jaat Festival at Manghopir:

The week long festival at Manghopir is called Sheedi Jaat. The date of the festival is decided with mutual consultation among notables of the five socio-cultural groups of the Sheedi tribe (named above) each year.

The festival is arranged in summer. For 2009, its dates were June 14 to June. The sheedi mela is very distinct from another festival at Manghopir which is the urs of the saint Sakhi Sultan. The urs happens in Islamic month of Zil-Hajj.

The photo above is courtesy of Fahim Siddiqui. It shows a glimpse of Sheedi jaat mela of 2009.

What Happens in Sheedi Jaat Festival?

The festival is a curious combination of solemn spiritual rituals and cultural celebrations. These include collective sessions of meditation accompanied by sacred lyrics often rendered by an elderly woman or man in a soulful voice, followed by dhamaal sessions.

There are songs in a bizarre blend of Balochi, Urdu and Gujrati, with a few Swahili words, celebrating blackhood. Most of the songs contain the refrain of Sheedi Basha (read Badshah) meaning the black king. And, of course, with the singing comes dancing in typical African rhythms and African dance called Leva.

According to Salman Siddiqui’s research:

A procession of Sheedi women and men leave their homes at around noon each day and march towards the shrine to the sound of drumbeats. The parade is preceded by young boys holding four ‘Alams’ bearing a star symbol, which is reminiscent of the Muharram processions. But instead of the chest beating ‘Matam’ which the Shia community employs to express their mourning for the loss of Imam Hussain in Karbala, the Sheedis sing songs in Swahili to celebrate the happy occasion. The verses also contain a few phrases from the Urdu language

The festival revolves around the crocodiles confirming the participants’ African roots as crocodile worship was prevalent in the swamps and forests of Africa and still is among some tribes of Guinea and Zaire.

During the festival people make their pledges at the shrine of Pir Mangho through offering fresh meat (believed to be the sacrificial) to the crocodiles.

Respect Shown to Dead Crocodiles:

Sheedis believe that the crocodiles of Manghopir do not harm the saint’s followers. Owing to this belief, when a crocodile dies, it is buried with equal respect and formalities just as human being. There is also a reserved place for burying such dead crocodiles.

The Garlanding Ceremony of Mor Sahib:

The highlight of the Manghopir festival is a garlanding ceremony, during which the Holy Successor (gaddi nasheen) puts a garland around the neck of the Chief of the Crocodiles called the Mor Sahib (Mr. Peacock). The image to the right shows feeding of Mor Sahib in 1878. He is 12 feet long. Besides ‘Mor Sahib’, the rest of the crocodiles are six to seven feet in length.

Success of this rite depends solely on the mood of old creature, but according to his keeper, he obliges most of the time and presents himself for the ritual. If the mood of Mor Sahib Crocodile is not so good then a bribe in the form of chunks of fresh meat does the trick. The meat offered to the crocodile is also not just any meat. It is chosen from the neck part of a goat, which is considered as the best meat.

Color and Sweets for the Crocodiles:

Crocodiles are also sprinkled with color and are served cooked food, halwa (sweetmeat) as a ritual. People here believe the crocodiles won’t attack them because they (crocodiles) are the disciples of Manghopir.

The annual festival provides the sheedis with an opportunity to strengthen their community ties and reaffirm their roots, although many of them are unaware of their African heritage and some deny that their ancestors were slaves and instead insist that they are descendants of black soldiers in the army of Mohammad Bin Qasim.

Thus what happens here may be described as some pagan rituals of worshipping crocodiles along with Islamic influence.

Crocodile Worship

According to Salman Siddiqui’s research:

The custom of offering food to crocodiles at shrines is not unique to Pakistan. A similar ceremony also takes place at the shrine of Khan Jahan Ali in Bangladesh. People make offerings to reptiles in many parts of South East Asia as well to ward off evil. There is also a tradition of worshipping crocodiles, which dates back to ancient times. In Egypt, people living by the river Nile used to worship Sobek, a god who had a human body but a crocodile head. Even today, this tradition is practiced by some tribes in parts of Africa.

In 1960s the population of crocodiles had dropped to just three. The pond in which they live had silted to a shallow depth of 3 feet and it was making crocodiles life miserable. Because of strong conservatory efforts of Wildlife conservation society of Pakistan the number of crocodiles has reached up to 100. Now the pit has become too small for them and many a times cannibalism ensues due to mutual fight for space and grabbing for food.

The Sulphur Spring of Manghopir:

Now to the third attraction of the area where sulphur springs are located a kilometer away from the shrine. Warm water passing through the sulphur rocks contains some medicinal qualities and many people from long distances, with skin diseases regularly visit there to have a bath to cure them. There are separate swimming pools and shower rooms for men and women.

As of 2006 the ticket price of taking a bath here is Rupees 5.

Scientific analysis also show this warm water is naturally saturated with carbon dioxide, besides containing some sulphur and other skin friendly nourishments, which are no doubt suitable for many skin-diseased patients. The temperature of these sulfur ponds remains between 43C (110F) to 54C (130F). The photo to the right shows people taking bath in the sulfur springs

In 1963 a 200-bed hospital called the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Center was established nearby and it is to date the largest hospital of skin care in Karachi.

Photo Credits:
(i) Sheedi Mela Photos - Fahim Siddiqui, Dawn, June 18, 2009
(ii) Clicking on individual photos will take you to their source sites.

References:
(i) Crocodile Specialist Group Newsletter, Volume 23, No 3, July 2004 - September 2004.
(ii) Insight Guide Pakistan, Third edition 2000.
(iii) Karachi During the British Era - Two histories of a Modern City: Oxford University Press, 2007
(iv) Croc Fest - Salman Siddiqui, Dawn, June 18, 2009
(v) Google Earth

Asif Zardair ( Rich President of poor Country )

2009-06-16T05:12:00.000-07:00

Asif Zardari’s - List of Local & International Wealth

I have been in receipt of this extensive list of Asif Zardari’s Local and International holdings sent to me via a number of sources, in all honesty I have no way of precisely confirming the authenticity of this list but place it on this blog in an attempt to figure out what true what is simply hype. There is little doubt in my mind that this list may be quite close to being authentic considering the massive corruption that has plagued Pakistan in his previous two tenures in power, little to know that the Metamorphosis of 2008 which changed the way he appeared orchestrated after the assassination of his wife on 27th December 2007. Are we to believe in a ‘rejuvenated, honest by-the-books leader’, or are we gearing up to push Zardari further up into Pakistans Rich List of 2008 where he was previously ranked at #2.
I can also suspect that the sudden revelation if this list could be a deliberate retaliation by the ‘agencies’ to push Zardari on the back foot and move off Musharraf’s impeachment attack. Whatever be the case this massive list is jaw dropping amazing, I have no idea about the total valuation of the wealth itemized here but I suspect it could easily be an aggregated wealth as listed = £900m / ($1.8billion) or more

ZARDARI’S LOCAL ASSETS ARE:
1. Plot no. 121, Phase VIII, DHA Karachi.
2. Agricultural land situated in Deh Dali Wadi, Taluka, Tando Allah Yar.
3. Agricultural property located in Deh Tahooki Taluka, District Hyderabad measuring 65.15 acres.
4. Agricultural land falling in Deh 76-Nusrat, Taluka, District Nawabshah measuring 827.14 acres
5. Agricultural land situated in Deh 76-Nusrat, Taluka, District Nawabshah measuring 293.18 acres
6. Residential plot No 3 (Now House) Block No B-I, City Survey No 2268 Ward-A Nawabshah
7. Huma Heights (Asif Apartments) 133, Depot Lines, Commissariat Road , Karachi
8. Trade Tower Building 3/CL/V Abdullah Haroon Road, Karachi
9. House No 8, St 9, F-8/2, Islamabad
10. Agricultural land in Deh 42 Dad Taluka/ District Nawabshah
11. Agricultural land in Deh 51 Dad Taluka Distt Nawabshah
12. Plot No 3 & 4 Sikni (residential) Near Housing Society Ltd. Nawabshah
13. CafT Sheraz (C.S No.. 2231/2 & 2231/3) Nawabshah
14. Agricultural land in Deh 23-Deh Taluka & District Nawabshah
15. Agricultural property in Deh 72-A, Nusrat Taluka, Nawabshah
16. Agricultural land in Deh 76-Nusrat Taluka, Nawabshah
17. Plot No. A/136 Survey No 2346 Ward A Government Employee’s Cooperative Housing Society Ltd, Nawabshah
18. Agricultural land in Deh Jaryoon Taluka Tando Allah Yar, Distt. Hyderabad
19. Agricultural land in Deh Aroro Taluka Tando Allah Yar, Distt. Hyderabad
20. Agricultural land in Deh Nondani Taluka Tando Allah Yar, Distt. Hyderabad
21. Agricultural land in Deh Lotko Taluka Tando Allah Yar, Distt. Hyderabad
22. Agricultural land in Deh Jhol Taluka Tando Allah Yar, Distt. Hyderabad
23. Agricultural land in Deh Kandari Taluka Tando Allah Yar, Distt. Hyderabad
24. Agricultural land in Deh Deghi Taluka Tando Mohammad Khan
25. Agricultural land in Deh Rahooki Taluka, Hyderabad
26. Property in Deh Charo Taluka, Badin
27. Agricultural property in Deh Dali Wadi Taluka, Hyderabad
28. Five acres prime land allotted by DG KDA in 1995/96
29. 4,000 kanals on Simli Dam
30. 80 acres of land at Hawkes Bay
31. 13 acres of land at Maj Gulradi ( KPT Land )
32. One acre plot, GCI, Clifton
33. One acre of land, State Life ( International Center , Sadar)
34. FEBCs worth Rs. 4 million

SHARES IN SUGAR MILLS INCLUDE:

1. Sakrand Sugar Mills Nawabshah
2. Ansari Sugar
3. Mills Hyderabad
4. Mirza Sugar Mills Badin
5. Pangrio Sugar Mills Thatta
6. Bachani Sugar Mills Sanghar

FRONT COMPANIES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES:

1. Bomer Fiannce Inc, British Virgin Islands
2. Mariston Securities Inc, British Virgin Islands
3. Marleton Business S A, British Virgin Islands
4. Capricorn Trading S A, British Virgin Islands
5. Fagarita Consulting INc, British Virgin Islands
6. Marvil Associated Inc, British Virgin Islands
7. Pawnbury Finance Ltd, British Virgin Islands
8. Oxton Trading Limited, British Virgin Islands
9. Brinslen Invest S A, British Virgin Islands
10. Chimitex Holding S A, British Virgin Islands
11. Elkins Holding S A, British Virgin Islands
12. Minister Invest Ltd, British Virgin Islands
13. Silvernut Investment Inc, British Virgin Islands
14. Tacolen Investment Ltd, British Virgin Islands
15. Marlcrdon Invest S A, British Virgin Islands
16. Dustan Trading Inc, British Virgin Islands
17. Reconstruction and Development Finance Inc, British Virgin Islands
18. Nassam Alexander Inc.
19. Westminster Securities Inc.
20. Laptworth Investment Inc 202, Saint Martin Drive, West Jacksonville
21. Intra Foods Inc. 3376, Lomrel Grove, Jacksonville , Florida
22. Dynatel Trading Co, Florida
23. A.. S Realty Inc. Palm Beach Gardens Florida
24. Bon Voyage Travel Consultancy Inc, Florida

ZARDARI’S PROPERTIES IN UK ARE:

1. 355 acre Rockwood Estate, Surrey (Now stands admitted)
2. Flat 6, 11 Queensgate Terrace, London SW7
3. 26 Palace Mansions, Hammersmith Road , London W14
4. 27 Pont Street , London , SW1
5. 20 Wilton Crescent , London SW1
6. 23 Lord Chancellor Walk, Coombe Hill, Kingston , Surrey
7. The Mansion, Warren Lane, West Hampstead, London
8. A flat at Queensgate Terrace, London
9. Houses at Hammersmith Road, Wilton Crescent , Kingston and in Hampstead.

ZARDARI’S PROPERTIES IN BELGIUM ARE:

1. 12-3 Boulevard De-Nieuport, 1000, Brussels , (Building containing 4 shops and 2 large apartments)
2. Chausee De-Mons, 1670, Brussels

ZARDARI’S PROPERTIES IN FRANCE ARE:

1. La Manoir De La Reine Blanche and property in Cannes

ZARDARI’S PROPERTIES IN USA — in the name of Asif Zardari and managed by Shimmy
Qureshi are:

1. Stud farm in Texas
2. Wellington Club East, West Palm Beach
3. 12165 West Forest Hills , Florida
4. Escue Farm 13,524 India Mound, West Palm Beach
5. 3,220 Santa Barbara Drive , Wellington Florida
6. 13,254 Polo Club Road, West Palm Beach Florida
7. 3,000 North Ocean Drive , Singer Islands , Florida
8. 525 South Flager Driver, West Palm Beach , Florida
9. Holiday Inn Houston Owned by Asif Ali Zardari, Iqbal Memon and Sadar-ud-Din Hashwani
ZARDARI’S BANK ACCOUNTS IN FOREGN COMPANIES ARE:
1. Union Bank of Switzerland (Account No. 552.343, 257.556.60Q, 433.142.60V, 216.393.60T)
2. Citibank Private Limited (SWZ) (Account No. 342034)
3. Citibank N A Dubai (Account No. 818097)
4. Barclays Bank (Suisse) (Account No. 62290209)
5. Barclays Bank (Suisse) (Account No. 62274400)
6. Banque Centrade Ormard Burrus S A
7. Banque Pache S A
8. Banque Pictet & Cie
9. Banque La Henin, Paris (Account No. 00101953552)
10. Bank Natinede Paris in Geneva (Account NO.. 563.726.9)
11. Swiss Bank Corporation
12. Chase Manhattan Bank Switzerland
13. American Express Bank Switzerland
14. Societe De Banque Swissee
15. Barclays Bank (Knightsbridge Branch) (Account No. 90991473)
16. Barclays Bank, Kingston and Chelsea Branch, (Sort Code 20-47-34135)
17. National Westminster Bank, Alwych Branch (Account No. 9683230)
18. Habib Bank ( Pall Mall Branch).
19. National Westminster Bank, Barking Branch, (Account No. 28558999).
20. Habib Bank AG, Moorgate, London EC2
21. National Westminster Bank, Edgware Road , London
22. Banque Financiei E Dela Citee, Credit Suisse
23. Habib Bank AG Zurich , Switzerland
24. Pictet Et Cie, Geneva
25. Credit Agricole, Paris
26. Credit Agridolf, Branch 11, Place Brevier, 76440, Forges Les Faux
27. Credit Agricole, Branch Haute – Normandie, 76230, Boise Chillaum

Baluchitherium: The Beast of Balochistan

2009-06-09T02:20:00.000-07:00

World’s largest mammal that ever walked the face of the earth used to live in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Yes it is true.

This mammal is called Baluchitherium (The Beast of Balochistan). So far the fossils of this mammal have only been found in Baluchistan and Central Asia.

In 1999, a team of French Palaentologists discovered the complete skeleton of this giant mammal in Dera Bugti Hills of Pakistan. The find came as the result of a 5 month long expedition by the French Team in the Balochistan desert.

All in all it was a 5 year long on-and-off study. The French team was led by Professor Jean-Loup Welcomme of the Natural History Museum in Paris. While the first complete skeleton of Baluchitherium was dicscovered in 1999, it was as early as 1846 when first pieces of fossilized Baluchitherium were accidentally stumbled upon in Dera Bugti by a British Army officer who went by the name of Vickary.

In 1909 another skeleton was found in the same area by a British team led by Mr. Forster-Cooper of the Cambridge Sedgwick Museum.
Following photo is a replica of Baluchitherium created for a museum in western hemisphere.

According to a BBC news report of May 10, 1999:

Baluchitherium is an extinct rhinoceros that lived during the Tertiary Period about 20 to 30 million years ago. With its long neck and legs, it was thought to feed high up in the trees. However, unlike the modern rhinoceros, the animal had no horn.

It had an estimated shoulder height of nearly 18 ft (5.5 m), a length of upto 28 feet (from nose to rump) and a weight of about 10 to 15 tons. The head was four feet long, sitting on top of a six feet long neck. This beast had poor eyesight, but made up for this with keen hearing and smell. Baluchitherium is classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Perissodactyla, family Rhinocerotidae.

Following photo shows the French team and their Pakistani helpers recreating the skeleton of a Baluchitherium

BBC News report further says that:

Although fossil remains of Baluchitherium have been discovered before, a near-complete skeleton has always evaded palaeontologists. The fact that the Baluchitherium was able to live in Baluchistan is giving scientists clues about the climate in the area millions of years ago.

Eventhough Balochistan is now mostly a desert but since Baluchitherium would have needed as much as two tonnes of fodder every day, the French team believes this area of Pakistan must have been heavily forested.

It is said that the Baluchitherium was a very defensive animal, and attacked any animal that was nearby. This beast tried to charge and trample foes with its front feet.

In an article written few years ago at www.thehotspotline.com blogger Ali Khan writes:

At a recent function organised by the Pakistan Embassy in Paris which saw the launch of the Pak-France cultural forum, professor Welcomme delivered a lecture on his recent find. He also thanked the Nawab of Bugti, the Bugti people and the University of Balochistan for extending all assistance to the French team. The Nawab of Bugti convinced other tribes to allow the team to work in the area and also provided material and technical assistance to Professor Welcomme’s team.

The latest news about Baluchitherium came last week when in early March 2008, more pieces of Baluchitherium have been excavated in Dera Bugti area. I read this update in Jang’s latest news feed but didn’t see the detailed news on it in the regular paper.

Is There A Baluchitherium Museum in Pakistan?

The short answer in NO.

But then I am not familiar either with what has been done at Government level to help finding and preserving Baluchitherium fossils. A National museum displaying some fossils of this mammal who roamed the land of Pakistan before us is the need of the hour. Does any of our readers know about any effort in this regard? If we come to know of any effort, we’ll update this paragraph here with the new information.

Baluchitherium Trivia:

1. Baluchitherium is a Van Halen instrumental from their 10th studio album, Balance (album).
2. Baluchitherium is also the name of a monster appearing in the computer game NetHack.

Photo Credits:

1. 50birds.com
2. biocrawler.com
3. davo.com
4. Major Fossil find in Balochistan by Ali Khan
5. kokorodinosaurs.com
6. dionsoria.com
7. elachee.org

References:

1. Geological Survey of Pakistan
2. Major Fossil find in Balochistan by Ali Khan
3. BBC News Feed of May 10, 1999
4. Enchanted Learning
5. La Baluchitherium

Chitral: Fascinating Place, Fascinating History

2009-06-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

Picturesque Chitral town sits up in Pakistan’s northwest district, walled in by the Hindu Kush range.

During winters, the only way in is by air (weather permitting) as the two passes, the 3118-meter Lowari from Dir and the 3810-meter Shandur from the upper Gilgit Valley are closed to road traffic. The Fokker Friendships drone for 50 minutes and burst through clouds on decent to reveal on mountains covered with whitecaps and red tin roof houses.

This is Chitral. On the small airfield, the cold wind thrust you to shiver. The remoteness of the district has left it undeveloped in spite of grand natural beauty, hospitable people and ancient history. The town is a base camp for tourists, adventurers and researchers from across the world. And, people seem to be living there in peace.

Chitral, located at 1500 meters from sea level is a beautiful and historic town. It has lively bazaar — a miniature Peshawar full of Mediterranean looking faces under Chitrali caps and foreigners. Geoffrey Moorhouse in his book “To the Frontier” describes the seen in Chitral town:

men squatted in the shade of a tree beside a food stall or middle aged man seen stroking a dog.

It is no truer. Now the modest bazaar is lined up with well-stocked provision shops, eating joints and souvenir shops selling many things from Chitrali caps to Lajvard (Armenian stone) and Zammurd (Emerald) that find their way in the town, for the tourists mostly. However, American sleeping bags and rucksack, Bulgarian ankle boots and Korean Jackets that used to be on sale in bazaar during Soviet occupation in Afghanistan are no more sold there. Mehtars’ fort on the banks of the Kunar River is a principal building that reminds of the bygone era. Go to visit the palace and the sleeping guard will ask for a permit from district management.

The Mehtars’ palace-fortress, site of the 1895 siege, is still occupied by royal offspring so you can not go in without special arrangement. The entrance of the south end is to the residential quarters. The one facing Shahi Bazaar used to be for the royal guards. The most interesting side faces the river and is best viewed from the far end of bazaar or form across the river. The river passing through the town is called Chitral (or Kunar) River, and upstream is known as Mastuj River. Another ornate building up the road toward the police station was the royal courthouse. The spacious Shahi Mosque next door was built by Mehtar Shuja ul Mulk. New minarets and domes have been added during recent renovation, keeping the edifice in its original shape.

At the south end of town is one of Pakistan’s best polo ground, where practice matches are held every few days from mid March to early November and full-blown matches on weekends. The town has weeklong tournament in September to October. With roaring crowds and drum and horn bands that play the signature tune of each player who scores a goal. Polo is still played in many up valley towns too, though it’s a dying sport because horses are costly to own and no longer needed for transport. One of the biggest social events for Chitralis is days of super polo and merrymaking at Shandur Pass, which is held every few years since 1936.

The Chitral valley has a long history. It was subdued by Alexander from Macedonian, Chinese army and Timur in the past and was under king named Shah Rais (descendent of Balti rulers) in sixteenth century. Son of Sangin Ali – advisor of Shah Rais and forefather of Adamzada clan — threw out the king and took over the power. Kators (branch of Adamzada clan) ruled Chitral till 1960.

In 1856, the British who were apprehensive about Russians in Central Asia had sent an expedition to poke around Chitral and win some friends. In return for a subsidy, Aman ul Mulk — the first Kator ruler called Mehtar to attract outside attention who had taken over in 1857 — became a British friend. After capturing Kuhswaqt (another branch of Adamzada tribe) land in the 1880, his domain stretched from upper Gilgit into Afghanistan.

Aman ul Mulk died of a heart attack in 1892, one of the few Mehtars to die a natural death, since the usual way to decide succession for royal princes was to murder their father and one another until only one was left. This time 16 sons were caught unprepared. Result: bloody power tussle.

Aman’s second son Afzal ul Mulk seized the family fort and began eliminating his brothers. Nizam ul Mulk fled to Gilgit. Then Umra Khan, the ruler of Dir, invaded from the south. Aman’s long exiled brother Sher Afzal (the only one he had failed to eliminate) appeared from Afghanistan with a small army killed his nephew Afzal ul Mulk and pronounced himself Mehtar. Finally, prodded by the British, Nizam returned. Sher Afzal ran away and everybody recognized Nizam as Mehtar.

Two years later Nizam was overthrown by his half brother Amir ul Mulk. Umra Khan also edged up the valley, taking Drosh. In a show of force, the Gilgit Political Agent Major George Scott Robertson (writer of The Kafirs of the Hindukush) arrived at Chitral Town with 400 soldiers and moved into the fort — the ancestral home. At this time, Sher Afzal appeared again, this time joined by people of Chitral. Badly beaten in an initial skirmish, the British found themselves besieged in the fort. Four hundred people with food and ammunition nearly gone were finally bailed out after 46 days by reinforcement from Gilgit who had hauled cannons over the Shandur pass in shoulder high snow. A bigger force fought its way over the Lowari Pass but arrived too late to help. Umra Khan fled to Afghanistan, Sher Afzal was captured, Amir arrested and his 14 years old brother Shuja ul Mulk was commissioned as Mehtar. In the aftermath, this episode somehow got recast as a heroic British campaign and Robertson was even knighted. A classic example of history chronicled from authors’ point of view.

The British realigned Chitral from a western arm of Gilgit to a more secure northern extension of the NWFP. During the third Afghan War in 1919, Afghan forces invade southern Chitral at Arandu – famous crossing point during Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Shuja ruled contentedly until 1936, his son Nasir ul Mulk until 1943 and Nasir’s brother Muzaffar ul Mulk (who took Chitral into Pakistan at Partition) until 1948. Saif (son of Muzzafar) was killed in 1954 in a plane crash and his four year old son Saif ul Mulk Nasir became Mehtar, the last one, with uncle as regent. Chitral became an administrative distract in 1969.

Chitral is still not accessible in winters when Lowari closes and PIA Foker cannot cross over the mountains. The word is out that government is working on Lowari Tunnel Project (see photo below) and one day the district may join the mainland and not only serve as gateway to Kalash Valley but the area will open to development.

Photo Credits:

1. Sarfaraz Hayat; 2. Rovinglight; 3. Arsalan; 4. Andrej Hajo; 5. Aldo Antoniazzo

Indians Fighting In Swat

2009-06-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Article Found at www.AhmedQuraishi.com

Warning: Explicit & Disturbing Pictures

Pictures below contain nudity and are gruesome.

Please do not proceed beyond the written description if such material is offensive to you.

By Zaid Hamid And Ahmed quraishi

Wednesday, 20 May 2009.

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Pictures of Uzbek and Gurkhas non-Muslim militants killed during the Pakistani military sweep of the Swat Valley. These exclusive pictures show that they are uncircumcised. Their facial features prove they could be Gurkha fighters whom the Indian and the British militaries use to fight in mountainous regions. The Americans have also hired some of them. The pictures also show that some of theses killed terrorists could be Uzbeks from Abdul Rasheed Dostom’s murderous militias in Afghanistan that are allied with the U.S. occupation army and Kabul’s puppet government.

The question that arises here is this: Why is the Pakistani military’s media arm, the ISPR, not releasing these pictures to the Pakistani media? This is the biggest proof that Indians are not only sending trained butchers and terrorists from Afghanistan disguised as Taliban to kill Pakistanis, but there are actual Indians fighting within the ranks of this so-called Pakistani Taliban in Swat?

Is the Pakistani military afraid of the pro-U.S. government in Islamabad and does not want to cross the line? It is the responsibility of Mr. Rehman Malik, the Federal Interior Minister, to bring such evidence to the notice of the President, the Prime Minister, and the Foreign Minister so that the elected government could raise this issue with the United States and NATO and take a stand on the reason why these supposed allies of Pakistan are letting Afghanistan be used as a base for anti-Pakistan activities, especially by the Indians and their paid agents in the Kabul government. So why is this not happening? And why is Pakistan letting the United States and its allied government in Islamabad get away with the murder of Pakistanis at the hands of terrorists sent from Afghanistan?

The pictures are posted below. [PLEASE SKIP THIS IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY NUDITY OR GRUESOME IMAGES].

If the pictures don’t appear here, please click here to watch them at the PakNationalists forum.

Panja Sahib: The Miracle at Hasan Abdal

2009-05-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Most Pakistanis know Hasan Abdal as a town that houses the well-known Cadet College, the first to be built in Pakistan in the early 1950s. Other than that, Hasan Abdal hardly arouses any interest among Pakistanis. It is a non-descript dusty little town, 25 miles from Islamabad, situated along the National Highway, almost encroaching upon it. The town is haphazardly built like most rural towns in Pakistan. It is a town that you just pass through while going to Peshawar or Abbottabad and the Northern Areas or, if you need to, you stop at one of the filling stations and tire shops that add to the ugly clutter along the roadside. You don’t normally visit Hasan Abdal —unless, of course, you happen to be a Sikh.

For Sikhs, Hasan Abdal has special significance — and a special place in their hearts. It houses the imprint of the hand or panja believed to be that of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion. This makes Panja Sahib one of the three holiest shrines of Sikh religion — the other two being the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India and Nankana Sahib in Sheikhupura, Pakistan.

In April, every year, Panja Sahib attracts thousands of Sikh devotees from all over the world to celebrate the birth of Khalsa (the pure). It was on April 13, 1699 that Guru Gobind Singh gave new guidelines and a new identity, Khalsa , to the Sikh religion, at the Baisakhi (Spring) festival at Anandpur.
A couple of explanations before we proceed further: First, the word Panja is derived from panj, meaning five, and refers to the five fingers of the hand or the hand itself. Second, Sikhs use the word Sahib for the names of sacred personalities, places or books, just as Muslims use the word Sharif such as Mecca Sharif, Quran Sharif, Ka’ba Sharif etc.

I drove last week, along with a friend not through but to Hasan Abdal to visit Panja Sahib and learn something about it first hand. (2007 being officially declared the Visit Pakistan Year, I thought the least I could do was to visit some interesting sites in my neighborhood.)

Like all legends and folklore, the story of Panja Sahib sounds like a mixture of beliefs, facts and fiction - fiction to the non-believer, that is. There are different versions of the story that one hears or reads, but a distinct common thread runs through all of them.

Other than the Sikh caretaker (garanthi) of the shrine, I also talked to some locals of Hasan Abdal about the story of Panja Sahib. They all gave me a similar even if not exactly the same account; and they all seemed to believe it too. Here is the story in its essential details:

Sometime between the year 1510 and 1520 Guru Nanak is said to have traveled to the Arab lands visiting, among other places, Mecca and Baghdad. Some suggest that he even performed the hajj but there is no conclusive evidence of that. (To give the reader an idea of the time line, it was the time just before the Mughal rule began in India.) On the way back from his sojourn abroad Guru Nanak passed through Kabul and Peshawar and then, after crossing the Indus, halted at a small hamlet at the foot of a steep hill, short of the Margallas, where Hasan Abdal is located today.

Attracted by his teachings, both Muslims and Hindus of the hamlet and the surrounding area started flocking around Guru Nanak. At the top of the hill, at the back of the back of Hasan Abdal, there lived a ‘peer’ (a Muslim saint of sorts). He was called Baba Wali Kandhari. His last name referred to his origins in Kandhar, Afghanistan. Other than having a better vantage point from where he could see all that happened in the village below, Baba Kandhari also had the advantage of having a fresh water spring nearby, which was the source of water not only for Baba Kandhari but also for the people down below.

Baba Kandhari could not help noticing that many more people were flocking to Guru Nanak than were visiting him. He felt a bit of resentment towards the Guru. What could he do? If he couldn’t stem the flow of devotees to the Guru, he thought, he could perhaps stop the flow of water to the hamlet below and thus drive the Guru away. And stopped the water he did. Upset over the cutting off of their water supply, a delegation of people from the hamlet went up to Baba Kandhari to request him to be kind enough and let the water flow. But the Baba angrily sent them back, taunting them that why didn’t they ask their Guru to find water for them. When Guru Nanak heard this, he asked his lifelong disciple and companion, Bhai Mardana (a Muslim), to go to Baba Kandhari and plead with him the case of the village folks. But the Baba did not relent and Bhai Mardana came back empty handed. Guru Nanak sent Bhai Mardana again, and yet again, to beg the Baba for water, but to no effect.

Becoming desperate, the people turned to Guru Nanak asking him what should they do. According to the story, Guru Nanak told them not to despair and trust God, and then, pointing to a large stone embedded in the ground, asked them to dislodge it. When they pushed the stone aside, fresh water gushed forth from the ground, enough for the needs of the little hamlet and some more!

Baba Kandhari saw this happening from the hilltop, and was surprised at what seemed like a miracle but also dismayed at this development. But his dismay turned into shock and anger when he discovered that his own spring had meanwhile dried up. Enough was enough, he thought, and decided to do away with the Guru. He pushed a huge boulder down the hill in the direction of the Guru that, he thought, would sure crush the Guru and the people around him. The boulder rolled down, gaining speed and kicking up dirt. When the people heard the rumble and saw the huge rock hurtling down, they panicked and started fleeing. But Guru Nanak stayed calm and continued sitting where he was. When the boulder came close and it seemed it would crush him, Guru Nanak calmly raised his right hand as if to order the rock to stop. The boulder pushed against his hand — and stopped!

The Guru’s open palm sunk into the boulder as if pressed into wax and left a deep imprint. When Baba Kandhari saw this, he needed no further proof of the spiritual reach of the Guru. He came down from the hill, touched Guru Nanak’s feet, and joined the Guru’s devotees.

The rock with the hand imprint is embedded, today, in the concrete structure of the Panja Sahib building complex. Clear, fresh spring water gushes out from somewhere behind the rock and spills over the face of the rock into a very large pool. The imprint of a right hand is clearly visible underneath the thin sheet of water overflowing the face of the rock. Next to the pool, on an elevated platform, stands a beautiful small gurdawara, built in the Mughal style by Maharaja Ranjeet Singh (1780-1839). The gurdawara houses the Granth Sahib - the holy book of Sikhs. A large double storied hostel for the yatrees or pilgrims surrounds the courtyard, the pool, and the gurdwara. There are numerous plaques and signs announcing the names of the various donors as well as other directions in Gurmukhi, English and Urdu.

From the courtyard of the shrine, one can easily see the hilltop where Baba Wali Kandhari had camped and is supposed have rolled the rock. A modern communication tower sprouts from the place now. The hilltop has also become a shrine named after Baba Kandhari and attracts many devotees from the surrounding area. Even Sikhs pilgrims to Panja Sahib trek up the hill, a distance of over one mile, to visit the shrine.

The Panja Sahib shrine complex is clean and reasonably well maintained. It could do with a fresh coat paint. though, both inside and on the facade. And if I could, I would clear the cluttered street leading from the highway into the town and to the Panja Sahib building.

The caretaker of the gurdawara or garanthi, a very large and soft- spoken man, named Saddam Singh (yes, Saddam Singh! That’s what he told me), allowed us inside the gurdawara.

While visiting the Panja Sahib shrine and hearing the stories, one could not help noticing striking similarities between some of the traditions of Sikhs and Muslims. The story of the Guru Nanak divining water reminds one of the story of Hazrat Hajra desperately looking for water for her child in the Arabian Desert, and the child kicking up water miraculously from the sand. And, just as Muslims are amazed at the perpetuity and abundance of water at Zamzam, Sikhs are amazed at the perpetuity and abundance of fresh water gushing forth at their shrine in Hasan Abdal. Also the Sikhs treat the water at Panja Sahib as reverently as Muslims treat the water from Zamzam.

Note: All photographs, except the painting of Guru Nanak and the rock, are by the author.

Happy Yaom-E-Taqbeer

2009-05-28T01:09:00.000-07:00

It was the time to Answer 'Five' with 'Six'

And

it was 28th of May, 1998

When

PAKISTAN Said

Enough is Enough

And

Emerged as the

1st Muslim Nuclear State on the World Map.

Just Fell Big

And

Feel Pride on Being

PAKISTANI

Happy Yaom-E-Taqbeer

May PAKISTAN Live Long

Proud 2b a Pakistani

Crying wolf are we?

2009-05-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

Fierce fighting continues in the streets of Mingora. The Pakistan army is battling the Taliban , the enemy from with in. The familiar notorious history of the Taliban needs no repetition. Irrespective of the past the military woes to swipe the Talibans and end the regime. To a lay man all this means a possible ray of hope for peace.

According to the UNHCR about 2.5 million people have been displaced from the war zone. These people are now living in tents dependent on aid from national and international sources. Among these people are children, elderly, women and men. Among many of them are pregnant women and patients in need of severe medical attention. Humanitarians from around the world are working towards rehabilitation of these individuals. Despite constant efforts many are still in need of dire help. Around 80% people are known to be unregistered which makes them void to any kind of relief good. Volunteers have grouped up on self help basis providing relief for the inaccessible. Donation pleas are being highlighted while fears of more influx of people rises. Hashim khan is a 27 year old cancer patient lying in a camp based in a school in Peshawar. Hashim has been on chemotherapy for 2 months and requires immediate medical attention. He is among the many others who await for help before death. The stories of many other victims are still unheard. It will not be far fetched to assume that many horrors remain bottled up among these victims of war.

Amid the crisis, on the 23rd of May’09 a protest was held at superhighway Karachi. Political workers gathered holding party flags and flaunting play cards. The spokesperson blatantly addressed the media with their ‘demands’. Were they protesting against the Governments negligence? Or for the failure of relief good reaching the unregistered? Or was it a voice against the severe curfew timings which isn’t allowing the influx of trapped civilians. No. An unfortunate disclosure brings us to the actual demand from these people. A protest held against the influx of victims of swat war in to Karachi. According to the much enlightened spokesman from Jiyay Sindh the influx of the displaced is a ‘conspiracy’ against those residing in Sindh. A conspiracy to turn them in to a ‘minority’ .Their demand was the removal of any such camps within and hour or a forced removal otherwise. Pity me but I couldn’t help being disgusted by the political circus. While our country bleeds and our assets destroyed we still cant stop crying wolf. The minority phobia shall prevail in Karachi and drown the least bit of humanity with it. As much as I would like those who lie homeless to be able to return back home I still don’t hold the courage to paint my fears over the pleas of those most effected by the ongoing military operation.

The talibans,India,America or Israel will never be able to harm us because indifference has already marked us dead. Indifference to each other’s pain. The growing fetish for conspiracy that has marred humanity among us. We need no Taliban’s for the barbarousness is inborn among many. This Sir is the sad face of our society and there we are fetching for foreign hands trying to destabilize our Country. No one needs to destabilize us while we struggle to paint our own pictures of Unity and democracy. Hashim and many others will perhaps have to wait till some of us fight our inferiority complexes and learn to look at the larger picture. For all those who think differently please try and create enough resources for these people so that they don’t need to flee yet again. Make enough donations that the camps can be established in places of convenience. Run pleas for donations with the same force you use to terrorize people. Let’s not halt the ways of humanity and snap out of our self centered lives. Let not the political circus overlook the fact that the world’s second largest humanitarian crisis has hit home. Let their be peace Just this once !

Best Pakistani Food Outside Pakistan

2009-05-25T00:48:00.000-07:00

We are what we eat? Hopefully, not entirely. But certainly in part.

We asked our readers to nominate places where they thought one could get the Best Pakistani food Outside of Pakistan. Nearly two years ago now (September 24, 2006) we compiled some of the ideas our readers had given us to create list. It is past time now to update this list. So, here is our next iteration at a list of some of the Best Pakistani Food Outside Pakistan.To repeat from the last post on this subject, the purpose of this post is (a) to again invite our readers, especially newer ones, to suggest good places for Pakistani food outside Pakistan (especially if you happen to be outside of USA but not in Pakistan); and (b) to consolidate the list that has evolved in the comments section of our last two post .Here, then, is our second cut at a list of restaurants (Pinglish = ‘hotels’) outside Pakistan where one might get good (sometimes, great) Pakistani food. In building this list we started from the last list and then added and embelished it based on the comments that were received on it. We start with USA and UK, from where we received the most detailed response.

United States of America (USA) For variety as well as authenticity Devon Street (Pinglish = ‘Diwaan’) in Chicago remains the yardstick of the Pakistani food experience in North America. However, great culinary treasures are also to be found in in Dallas and in the San Francisco Bay Area. At least according to those who responded here, the New York / New Jersey belt has a lot of Pakistani food, but not the best Pakistani food to offer. Please tell us if this is wrong, and also tell us who you would add here. Many places, however, are like Boston; an occasional Pakistani eatery opens, but then disappears for lack of patrons or bad management. Here are some specific suggestions from our readers:

Best of the Best:

Tahoora Sweets (Chicago, IL) for mithai and meetha
Bar B Q Tonight (Carrollton, Dallas, TX) for nihari
Ravi Kabab (Washington DC) for chicken karahi
Shalimar (Edison, NJ) for chapli kebab
Ghareeb Nawaz (Devon, Chicago, IL) for chicken biryani

Highly Recommended:

Sabri Nihari (Devon, Chicago, IL) for nihari
Usmania (Devon, Chicago, IL), for paya and kabab
Lahore Grill (Devon, Chicago, IL) for chargha
Shahnawaz Restaurant (Oaktree Rd., NJ) for kabab
Al-Markaz (Richardson, Dallas, TX) for bihari kabab
Kabob King (Jackson Hieghts, New York, NY) for seekh kabab
Roti Boti (Astoria Blvd. and Jackson Hieghts, New York, NY) for desi fish
Food Factory (Washington DC), for tikka
King Sweets (Chicago, IL) for kashmiri chai
Agha’s Juice (Carrollton, Dallas, TX) for gola
Royal Sweets (Carrollton, Dallas, TX) for mithai
Royal Sweets (Devion, Chicago, IL) for peetisa
Shalimar (Bay Area, San Francisco, CA) for chicken tikka
Kebabeesh (New York, NY) for seekh kabab
Haveli (Dallas, TX) for chargha
Abshaar Restaurant (Washington, DC) for bihari kabab
Bilal Restaurant (Los Angeles, CA)
Medina Market Cafe (Brighton, Boston, MA) for tikka
Ambala Sweets (Chicago, IL) for mithai

Recommended:

Pakwan Restaurant (Hayward, CA), for bihari kababs
Haandi (Lexington Ave, New York, NY), for parathas
The Pakistani Cuisine (Manhattan, NY), for karahi
Shirin Mahal (New York, NY) for rass-malai
Shehzan Restaurant (Edison., NJ) for tikka
Mirchi Cafe (Freemont, San Francisco, CA) for desi Chinese
Kalonji (Long Island, NY) for desi Chinese
Lahore Karahi (San Francisco, CA) for karahi
Kabab Palace (Washington DC) for kabab\
Bundu Khan (Houston, TX) for kabab
Khan Kabob House (Monterey, CA) for biryani
Shahnawaz Tandori (Lakewood, Los Angeles, CA) for tandori
Kabab and Tandoor (Waltham, MA) for seekh kabob
Boston Kabab and Pizza (Alston, MA) for desi pizza
Chutney Restaurant (Northern Virginia)

United Kingdom

Some readers lament that there are lots of ‘desi’ restaurants in the UK, especially London, but not too many real ‘Pakistani’ ones. However, other readers point out that there is both quantity and quality to be found. In and around London, of course, you find lots and lots of Pakistani places. But as you will see from the list below, good Pakistani food is to be had all over the country. Green Street in East London is the mini-Pakistan and full of “All Things Pakistani” we are told. High Street and Hoe Street in Walthamstow in East London and Ilford Lane in Ilford in the North East also have great concentrations of Pakistani khabba. Here are some specific suggestions from our readers:

Best of the Best:

Salloo’s (Knightsbridge)
New Tayyab (Whitechapel in East London)
Lahore Kebab House (Whitechapel in East London)
Mumtaz (chain) Restaurants (Bradford)

Highly Reccomended:

Khan Restaurant (Central London)
Mirch Masala (branches in Tooting and in Streatham)
Nagina Karahi (High Street, South Hall)
Roshni (South Hall)
Pink Garlick (Wilmslow Road, Manchester)

Reccomended:

Sahara Grill (Leyton, London)
Lahore Lahore eh (East Ham, East London)
Kebabish (Victoria Road, Glasgow)
Village Curry House (Tradeston, Glasgow)
Akbars (Bradford)
Al-Faisal (Birmingham)
Chowdreys Restaurant (Bradford) was reccoended by the restaurant management itself; has impressive website, we await customer reviews

We have a better coverage from the rest of the world this time around, but still nowhere near the in-depth reviews that we got from USA and the UK. I know from personal experience that there is a lot of great Pakistani food to be found in Canada, all over Europe and in the Far East. It remains a matter of surprise for me that despite having a readership in these areas we do not get more suggestions from our readers on where to eat Pakistani food in these countries. I am hoping we will get more specific suggestions in the second round.

Saudi Arabia
Not surprisingly, there are lots of Pakitani restaurants in Saudi Arabia. Some of the specific ones suggested include:

Hyatt Restaurant (Hara, Riyadh) for chicken karra massala
Shola Restaurant (Olaya, Riyadh) for nihari
Red Onion Restaurant (Olaya, Riyadh) for aachari chicken
Faran Restaurant (Hara, Riyadh) for pillao and daal
Alhamra Restaurant (Hara, Riyadh) for chicken tikka and daal
Lahori Khabay (Hara, Riyadh) for tikka

Canada
Toronto has a large Pakistani population and many Pakistani restaurants; especially in Gerrard Street (Toronto’s mini-Devon). Our readers suggest Iqbal Tikka House, Lasani, and Lahore Tikka House (which, we are told, is actually owned by a Lahori!). Eqbal Foods in Thorncliffe, downtown Toronto is also highly recommended.

Finland
A reader reports that there is only one Pakistani restaurant in the entire country, called Peshawar. The review of the food was less than complimentary.

Japan
One Pakistani restaurant in Tokyo that was recommended is Gandhara Restaurant which is an upscale place. There is also the Hunza Restaurant in Roppongi, Tokyo.

Germany
One reader reports of an excellent Pakistani restaurant called Dheeba in Munich, run by a Rawalpindi native, that is particularly recommended for its korma. Another reader suggests Mumtaz Mahal Restaurant in Heidelberg.

France
We are told that in Paris there is a whole street full of Pakistani and Indian cuisine called Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis. However, we have not gotten any specific reviews from here yet although one reader remembers a “no-name” dhabba that served exquisite karahi. What we do have is news of two Pakistani restaurants in Lyon in south France, Le Ravi and Le Karachi, reportedly these are famous for their tandori dishes.

Ireland
One reader review found the Pakistani food at Global Foods (Davis Street, Dublin) to be “superb.” Two other Dublin restaurants that have been recommended are Khyber Tandori and Medina (the first, we are told is pricey and the second affordable).

Malaysia
We are told that in Kuala Lumpur there is a small dhaaba called Pakeeza (off Federal Highway in Petaling Jaya). “The Lahori chef there will cook things ‘desi style’ if you ask him to and will even do paaya and nehari on request in advance.”

Singapore
In Singapore, there is Saffron in Clark Quay, Usman Restaurant at Serangood Road near Mustafa Shopping Mall, and Daawat at the SIngapore Expo Center..

One should also add the disclaimer that we have ourselves not been at most of these (though we have been at some) and this list is based on reader comments (if you think the list is wrong, leave us comments and we will try to incorporate them next time).

This list is labeled version 0.10 (the last one was version 0.01) because we think we do have a better data set to build this on than last time, but it is still very much a work in progress and our level of confidence in this remains scanty because we know from personal experience that there is much more out there than is reflected in this list. Also, in some cases it is difficult to tell whether people are only reporting on what eateries there are or whether they are determining which ones are the best.

Our thanks to everyone who has sent the comments that have gone into the list. And may we request you all to please help us refine it further.

kisi ne mulk,tho kisi ne mushaaira loota

2009-05-25T00:44:00.000-07:00

aa gayee! chaa gayee ! (came, saw and conquered). I recently came across poet Khalid Irfan’s latest book titled ‘No Problem’ and thought of Julius Ceaser’s veni, vidi, vici phrase. There are very few books that I have finished in one sitting and No Problem comes very close to it. I read it 75% in first sitting and then I had to go somewhere, otherwise it was too captivating to put down. Khalid Irfan is a Pakistani Origin poet living in New York. Many people say that he is considered as the successor of Dilawar Figar when it comes to humorous Urdu poetry. While that may be true, I think he has carried on his own individual style too.

His poetry not only makes you smile but it also stings you, pokes you and makes you stop and think the deeper meanings. Khalid’s poetry is also very thoughtful and describes the plight of ‘desi’ families who come to the west and struggle to balance between their past values and the ones which belong to their new adopted home. Khalid, despite living outside Pakistan, keeps a keen eye on happenings there. Small but interesting news items like a ‘donkey wandering into a Islamabad building’ or a ‘robbery at a Karachi mushaaera‘ captures his imagination and he has said beautiful poems on them.

I read through the preface of the book and some where in there Khalid calls himself a serious poet and not a humorous one. In his own words he says that he never writes poetry to make people smile. He simply writes poetry the way it naturally comes to him. His style and choice of words do make people smile, and that too very contagiously.

Following is another of my favorite works by him. Look at how beautfilly he has used the name of ‘Mianwali‘ city as a double edged sword here.

Since Eid-ul-Azha was just here, I wanted to share his following verses on ‘hilal-e-eid’.

Following are two more of his works which I think will speak for themselves. I will let you enjoy them. First one is a satire on a large number of national holidays and second is a commentary on Y2K.

As I wrote above, his poetry not only makes you smile but it also stings you, pokes you and makes you stop and think the deeper meanings. When I was reading his book, I reached following ’sher’ and I was shocked for many seconds. I had to put down the book and think about this ’sher’. I think it is a bit provocative but those who have seen the violent scenes in Karachi’s turbulent 90s can easily relate to it. The sher goes like this:

hai kisi tifl-e-mohajir ki tarah sehma hoa
Khalid-e-Irfan ki shadi ka chohaara dekhna

After reading this ’sher’ I checked the date on it. Khalid wrote it first in 1994. One really needs to have lived through those years and those times in Southern Pakistan and this ’sher’ comes very close to home.

Lonely at Khunjerab

2009-05-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

Being at Khunjerab Pass is a unique experience for those who like the mountains. On the way up on Kharakorum Highway (KKH), there are innumerable options right from simple sight seeing to hard adventure, or a mix of both. Khunjerab surpasses them all. It is one of the world’s highest passes connecting two countries, and mountains on either side.

In summer, a stream of buses from down country, motorcycles and bickers (through China) reach Khunjerab. KKH has become one of the world famous routs for bikers and motorcyclists. At times the pass seems like a place where international cultural diffusion takes place.

Travellers are seen clicking the shutters of their cameras standing around milestone situated at the pass for memory sack or exchanging addresses and promises to send the photographs to each other. From this place one is 400 kilometres away from Kashgar and 880 kilometres from Islamabad. Those who are not acclimatized, experience a degree of altitude sickness, headaches, and or drowsiness as well. And in winters, it is lonely out there.

Beyond Pirali, the place on KKH before the snows of Khunjerab make existence difficult, the first impression of Khunjerab Pass at 15072 feet above sea level is a long series of switchbacks around the pass. The immediate sight on home side alone is worth the trip to the pass. On either side, massive angular mountains crowd the horizon Ã¢â‚¬â€œ silent guards of some highest peaks on planet — celestial giants thrusting toward the heavens. Snow-capped pinnacles pierce through white misty clouds amidst kaleidoscopic purple dusks.

The sharp jagged peaks of the Karakorums on ours side distinguish a region of former feudal princedoms, valley kingdoms and states some call Little Tibet. The region is home to more tall mountains than Nepal and Tibet combined together. This is “the Roof of the World,” where four greatest mountain ranges in the world come together - the Himalaya, Pamirs, Karakorums and Hindu Kush. The landscape on the Chinese side is noticeably smoother. There are mountains — the snow-clad rounded Pamirs to the east — but the valley is more open. Yaks, sheep, camels, and people can be seen from the last point, and everything seems different even at a distance.

I have very romantic memories of sitting at lonely places (donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t call me loner), enjoying physical beauty and being taken by my own thoughts and perceptions of the places I happened to be at. One pleasure in travelling alone is that no one is around to remind about others waiting for you to start back! Alone at Khunjerab, climbing up a gorge, I was treated to the rare sight of Markhor sheep (well, I think I saw one). So artfully had nature blended them with the terrain that it becomes hard to tell where the rocks or Markhor stands? With the air thinning I continued climbing, hairpin after hairpin till I began to see the straight road that spans beyond Sost - Pakistan custom and immigration post. This is another matchless experience. Looking up to and walking on mountains, at Khunjerab one see them almost at eye level. I sat at the gorge for a while and saw so much unappreciated beauty. BTW, This is one place where Salageet (Shilajit) comes from?

Caravans as far back as the fourth century have been using this historic pass. Ivory, spices, silk and jade were hauled through Rocky River gorges and grassy valleys. This was where Marco Polo trekked through taking news of a legendary kingdom back to Europe. Along this giant oriental trading autobahn, intrepid explorers bartered goods, exchanged ideas and discovered technologies. A steady trickle of horseback commerce crossed the Khunjerab until the 1950s. Up above the road, remnants of old mule tracks from the old days are still evident, etched along mountainsides.

After the completion of KKH, the Khunjerab Pass was opened to traffic and trade in 1982, and to tourists in 1986. Khunjerab in local language means valley of blood, a reference to local bandits who used to take advantage of the difficult terrain to plunder caravans in ancient days. Now it is safe and one can buy much sought after “Do Ghore ki Boski” at many places in the way.

Any travellers can have all this and more using a bus service or better still a four wheel driven topless jeep on KKH. Khunjerab is also a starting point for more adventurous who want to explore the catchments of Sukhtar Abad commonly known as the Blue Sheep Valley — a little known habitat of Blue sheep, the Himalayan ibex and possibly snow leopards. Due to lack of tracks, Sukhtar Abad is not easily accessible. It can be approached from three different routes, Nazim Abad village through Dikarjerb crossing — a high altitude pass, Hussain Abad village through Gourdour Pass; and from the Khunjerab River, when it is relatively dry in winters. Those who have visited the valley say it is very rewarding but takes some serious trekking to reach the valley.

The Khunjerab grasslands came under the control of rulers of Hunza in the late 18th century. They used to allocate grazing rights to villagers, and in turn used to receive from them a tax in the form of livestock and livestock products. Hunza rulers controlled hunting in the area as well as any trans-border trade with China. Their own livestock grazed in the Khunjerab pastures, tended by designated shepherds, who sent livestock and the products when ordered to Baltit Palace, Hunza. The situation changed when the princely states were merged into Pakistan in the early 70s. Area in Gilgit district, comprises of 2,269 square kilometres, either side of the KKH from Dih to Khunjerab Pass as Khunjerab National Park.

Khunjerab Pass has become increasingly accessible now. The construction of KKH and air service to Gilgit has resulted in an increase in the number of visitors, both foreign and domestic. With increase in access, the mountain pastures, valleys, and wildlife habitats, previously valued for centuries as grasslands and woodlands, have now become the objects of desire of a number of competing interests — resort hotels, adventure tourism, big game hunting, mountaineering, and conservation organizations, to name a few. Each group is interested in maximizing its return from usage of the resources in the area. Khunjrab is losing its serenity in the process.

S A J Shirazi is a Lahore (Pakistan) based writer. His blog is called Light Within, where a version of this post first appeared.

The Story of Karachi

2009-05-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

POSTED BY [ Bilal Zuberi ]

Karachi has a wonderful history that is neither discussed nor celebrated as much as the history of Mughal Lahore .There is much interest in this, certainly from me. As someone who grew up in Karachi, the most I was taught about its history revolved around the history of its name (derived from the town of Mai Kolachi) and that the Venetian gothic style buildings were remnants of the British cantonments and Karachi’s short-lived existence as the capital city of Pakistan.

Well, now I feel I know a bit more about my city, its rich history, and the architectural heritage that still stands impressively (despite languishing in neglect for decades). For that, I thank a wonderful website titled “The Story of Karachi“, which I was introduced to by the folks at the Karachi Metroblogs. Judging by its guestbook logs, the website has been in operation since mid 2005, but it seems it only recently become well known to the internet dwellers.

The simplicity of the narration deserves praise and clearly the material is organized such that it can continue to evolve almost as a wiki project. The photographs are simply awesome. Check it out.

I will try to cite a few interesting items from the website here, which I am sure many Karachiites would find fascinating, but would also be of interest to a broader audience:

Karachi’s is said to have been known as Barbarikon during the Indo-Greek Kingdom. That town became Kolachi jo goth when an old fisher woman by the name of Mai Kolachi settled there, and the town eventually came to be known as Karachi.

Kharadar and Meethadar areas are the sites of two gates of a fortress that was built near the village of Kolachi near Manora by the Talpura Amirs in the pre-19th century history.

The Talpura Amirs erected a small fort at Manora near the village, which had some cannons brought in from Muscat. The fort had two doorways: one facing the sea known as Khaara Darwaaza (Brackish gate) and the other facing the Lyari river known as Meetha Darwaaza (Sweet gate).

Karachi officially became a part of the British empire in 1843, which is also the year when the city got linked to Multan via river transport . That led to a significant growth in population

On February 1st, 1839, a British ship, the Wellesley, anchored off the island of Manora. By 3rd February, the fort at Kolachi had surrendered without firing a single shot and this small fishing village crossed a turning point in its life. Three years later in 1843, upon the annexation of Sindh into the British empire, the regional capital was transferred from Hyderabad to Karachi by Charles Napier, the first governor of Sindh. The British made the town an Army Headquarters and military cantonments were established outside the town limits.

In 1843, a river steamer service was introduced linking Karachi with the city of Multan, 500 miles upstream on the Indus. The population of the city started rising rapidly and by the 1850’s, Karachi had become an established city with a population of about 14,000 and prosperous overseas trade.

Soon, moneyed people from Bombay, Goa, Kuchh and other parts of the subcontinent started migrating to the city to undertake various occupations. The town’s population started rising rapidly which is evidenced by the fact that the municipality’s income rose from Rs. 6,000 in 1848, to Rs. 27,000 by 1850 in just two years.

In 1861, Karachi got its first railway connection (to Kotri), and the trade of cotton began to prosper due to the shortage caused by American civil war. In 1864, direct telegraph connection was introduced and the harbor & port were modernized to allow Karachi to become an important full-fledged sea port for India.

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It was also during this time that several monumental buildings such as the Frere Hall, Sindh Club, St. Patrick’s Cathedral & School, Merewether Tower (now simply known as ‘tower‘ to the bus conductors) and the Gymkhana were built.

Towards the end of the ninteenth century, the relationship between Lahore and Karachi were firmly established: Lahore as an agricultural hub, and Karachi as the main port for goods from Lahore. In many ways that relationship continues to this day.

The 1890’s saw the emergence of the Punjab as the granary of India and Karachi was the region’s principal outlet. This brought many business opportunities to Karachi and the population of the city expanded. Consequently, revenues of the city also increased and public works projects were undertaken on a grand scale. Boulton Market was built in 1883, and in 1890, the grand Empress Market was constructed to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign. This monumental structure with a clock tower was designed to compete with the Crawford Market of Bombay and was designed to be 12 feet higher. The market quickly gained a position in the city’s center. Hospitals such as the Civil Hospital and the Lady Dufferin Hospital were also inaugurated.

It was in early 1900s that the area now known as Bunder Road, Burns Road, Elphinston Street, and Preedy Street became crowded commercial areas, with traffic building to the point that a tram had to be introduced from Saddar to Keemari. I wish we still had trams in Karachi. Not least for aesthetics, but also because of the hazards we have now created with the bus -dependent public transportation system.

By 1891, statistics showed a population of about 105,000 and by the time the 19th century drew to a close, Karachi had 117,000 inhabitants as of 1901. Karachi had become one of the biggest and best outfitted ports of the world.

It seems that the air travel arrived in Karachi around 1927, and the location of the first airport was exactly where today’s Jinnah international Airport now stands. During the second world war, the airport served to house airforce planes as well.

In 1924, an aerodrome was built and Karachi became the main airport of entry to India. The British Government also developed an Imperial Airship Communications Scheme in the 1920’s, which was a plan to have a fleet of large dirigibles providing mail and passenger service to far-flung portions of the Empire. A site was located outside Karachi and construction of an airship mast, hangar and a hydrogen plant was begun in 1927. Although, this program was cancelled after the destruction of the Airship R 101 in 1930 with great loss of life, the shed and the mast remained as impressive relics of the plan till well after Pakistan’s independence. They were later dismantled and the steel was used for buildings and bridges along the Pakistan Railways. The site later became the international airport at Karachi.

Karachi became the capital of the province in 1936, and of course the capital of the newly created state of Pakistan in 1947. It remained in that position until 1958, when Islamabad was created.

In 1947, independence was finally granted to the subcontinent and Pakistan came into being as a new country made by the partition of British India. Karachi became the capital city and premier port of the newly formed state. It was the most built up city in Pakistan at the time and accommodated a huge influx of migrants to the newly formed state, which made it expand at a rapid rate. Pakistan’s first civil and military bureaucracy was housed in the city and Karachi served as the capital city of Pakistan until 1958 when a new capital was made at Islamabad.

What happened to Karachi after 1958 is a mixed bag of positives and negatives. Federal resourced shifted away from the city and the businesses could not keep up what the government neglected. I am too young to know what Karachi was like in the 60’s and 70’s but from what I hear, it was still an exciting place, at least until after Bhutto was hanged. The shutdown of the Hotel Taj and the ambitious Casino project in Clifton are reminders of what could have been. Ethnic strife took hold in the 80’s and only recently has the politics settled just enough to allow for some alternative voices to be heard.

Today Karachi is struggling to find its place as the liveliest city in Pakistan. It now has a population greater than 12 million (according to 2006 estimate) and the City District is now divided into eighteen towns governed by elected municipal administrations. Karachi is the financial capital of Pakistan, a hustling bustling metropolitan mega city with its rich mix of cultures, races, and religions.

It is estimated to generate approximately 65% percent of the national revenue but somehow the state of the city’s streets, markets, architecture and landscape does not indicate so. The streets are crowded, noisy and polluted, and we all know what happens when it rains in the city. The infrastructure of this cosmopolitan cityÃ‚Â is struggling to keep up with the demands of a growing populationÃ‚Â while the administration falters. It is unfortunate sight that the majestic buildings of the past are now coated with soot, hidden behind adsÃ‚Â of aamil najoomis or stifled in the glare of neon lights. The few remaining reminders of Karachi’s diversityÃ‚Â of the past include Christian missionary schools or educational institutions setup by the Parsi community.

The fortunate thing is that the city has withstood some very troubled times, and always seems to bounce back. The Niharis, Haleem, Behari Kebab, and the Biryanis seem to occupy people’s minds fast. When all else fails, Clifton beach is still there for some serenity. I know I can always count on it!

Inspiration Pakistan: The Pakistani Spirit Lives

2009-05-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Just saw this image published at a cricketing website with the caption:

Homeless children play cricket after being displaced by the Taliban, Swabi, Pakistan.

I say, while in Pakistan, they are not homeless.They are displaced from warm holdings of a house to harsh surroundings. Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs). They are not homeless because Pakistan is their home. And ours.Which is why we should think of their displacement as our own. Fell their hurt as our own. See their struggles as our own. All Things Pakistan (ATP) has setup a way for expats to quickly contribute towards this larger cause. Please do your bit, if you have not already.

After silence of months to aid these IDPs, fortunately, media is speaking now. Please come forward to help our fellow Pakistanis who are displaced from their homes, for us. Lets join hands to have our beautiful lands back. Inshah Allah.

Pak Cricketers, Bhurban and ‘gorilla andaaz‘

2009-05-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

To prepare for upcoming Twenty-20 World Cup, Pakistan Cricket Team’s training session is going on in Bhurban hill resort. Pakistan’s largest Urdu Daily, Jang has this interesting take on the event.

Khyber Pass Railway

2009-05-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

Owais Mughal

Curtain Raiser. On August 23, 2006, ATP had a post on Bolan Pass, on November 2, 2006 another post on Chappar Rift and on December 18, 2006 yet another post on Khojak Tunnel. In the following we will discuss another famous pass railway of Pakistan i.e. The Khyber Pass Railway. Before we start on our journey, a word about the photograph below. It shows the arrival of weekly Sunday passenger at Landi Kotal in 1975. It is being pulled and pushed by two steam locomotives which signify the effort required in bringing this train from Peshawar, up the Khyber Pass to Landi Kotal.

Departing Peshawar. It is 8:00 a.m. on a sunny Sunday at Peshawar cantonment. The Steam locomotive number 2216, which was built in 1916 by Kitson and Company of Leeds, UK is all set to start on yet another journey. The driver and fireman give one final inspection to the engine vitals and with a long whistle the number 2216 coupled to a tourist train pulls out of the station. Today the destination is Landi Kotal via Khyber Pass.

The train gains speed and soon passes through Peshawar localities of Notia Gate, Swati Gate and Bara Gate. Since the track is now seldom used, there are vehicles parked very close to the track. Many children run along and clap as they see the approaching train.

Across Peshawar Airport. After crossing Bara Gate the train slows down and ultimately comes to a full stop. In front of the locomotive lies the 9000 ft long runway of Peshawar International Airport. The train now waits for clearance from the airport control tower before it could move. Sometimes the clearence comes over the phone and sometimes the train crew has to personally walk to the tower and get clearence while enjoying cup of tea with the tower staff. Peshawar is the only international airport in the world where a rail track crosses the main runway. The small photo above is the satellite image of Peshawar airport’s main runway. The diagonal path crossing the runway is the Peshawar - Landi Kotal rail track. After clearance is received from the control tower, the train chugs forward.

To Jamrud. After clearing runway the train passes through the localities of University town, Kacha Garhi and Hayatabad. The famous 1756 km long Karachi-Torkham highway N5 comes closer to the rail track and both start traveling in parallel towards Jamrud. Located 18 km west of Peshawar, Jamrud is the gateway to Khyber Pass. The train reaches Jamrud in a less than an hour and and after a short stop continues its journey westward into the Khyber Pass.

While the train is slowly steaming through its 3 hour journey towards Landi Kotal, how about if we take a little detour and cover the history of railways in Khyber which spans about 150 years. We will catch the train again as it will be entering the Landi Kotal platform around noon.

History of Khyber Pass Railway. Let us start our tour from the year 1857. The “Great Game” is being played between the World powers on the chess board of central and south Asia. Russian influence is present in Afghanistan and British think there is a big possibility of Russian invasion into India. The most obvious routes for this possibility will be either through Khyber or Bolan Pass. Therefore it is suggested that strategic railways be built in both of these passes to thwart any Russian invasion.

In 1878, second Anglo-Afghan war (1878-1880) takes place and it makes it all the while more important to lay a railway track through western passes of India. In 1879 a reconnaissance survey is conducted with an aim to find the feasibility of laying railways through Khyber Pass. Many years pass without any action on the ground. Finally the construction starts in 1905 from a place called Kacha Garhi between Peshawar and Jamrud. The track makes progress westwards and 32 km of track is laid by 1907.

In the meantime, international situation changes and an alliance takes place between Russia and Afghanistan. Russia agrees to consider Afghanistan out of its circle of influence countries. This makes British consider Russia as no longer a threat. This also stops the work on Khyber Pass Railway. In 1909, several kilometers of permanent way and bridges are uprooted from Khyber Pass and sent to other areas of India to be used there.

As it goes with the World politics, international situation changes again and the third Anglo-Afghan war of May 1919 brings life back to Khyber Pass Railway project. Colonel Gordon Hearn is now assigned to the work of surveying and recommending the best route through Khyber Pass. Until now all surveys recommended a meter gauge (1000 mm) track. Gordon Hearn proposes and demonstrates by a masterly survey that broad-gauge (1676 mm) line can be laid through the pass. Construction restarts in 1920 and the section from Jamrud to Landi Kotal, opens on November 3, 1925. In early September 1925, several weeks before the railway was properly completed, the first piece of track was laid into Landi Kotal station, but the end spike was left out. Victor Bayley, the engineer entrusted with the construction of Khyber Railway has a 10 year old daughter called ‘Missy Sahib’ drove it in with 3 hammer blows. Then Bayley and his wife ‘Lady Sahib’ blew the whistle and drove the shunting engine pushing assorted wagons and a brake van into the station. This was a very low-key private affair, not officially sanctioned, and took place even before the extensive 10-track layout at Landi Kotal was put in. Bayley was in bad health at this time and left the Pass shortly afterwards for hospital and eventual convalescence in the UK. He missed the official opening ceremony with the Vice Regal train (but without the Viceroy) in November.

The Inaugural Train though Khyber Pass. On November 4, 1925, Mrs. Victor Bayley, wife of the British engineer entrusted with the construction of Khyber Railway drives the first train through Khyber Pass.

There are two stories as to why Mrs. Victor Bailey drove the first train through the pass.

It was decided by the British government that Victor Bayley will run the inaugural train as recognition of his great work at the project but he died three months before the inauguration. His wife then honored the driving of train on her husband’s behalf.
According to second version, as the track was being laid, the locals of the Khyber Agency did not allow the train to move on it. However, knowing the traditional respect the Pathans have for women, Victory Bayley, asked his wife to drive the first train in the Khyber Agency. It has been reported that she drew long hair so that she could be identified as a women from a distance.

Landi Kotal to Landi Khana. On April 3, 1926 another portion of 8 km track is opened up to Landi Khana which fall just 3 km short of the actual frontier post of Torkham. The photo in sepia to the left is from April 27, 1932. It shows a tunnel on Khyber Pass railway alongwith (now highway) N5 which runs alongside the track. On December 15, 1932 the Landi Kotal to Landi Khana section of railway was closed down at the insistence of Afghan Government.

The Cost of Construction. The cost of building Khyber Pass railway was accounted as Rupees 485000 per kilometer in 1926. despite this exorbitant cost of construction, Khyber Pass has never seen heavy rail traffic. At best there were only 2 trains per week here. Scenery wise Khyber Pass is not an eye catch either but the feature that sets it apart from other railways in the region is the engineering aspect of it.

Engineering Features. The Khyber Pass railway has a ruling gradient of 3 percent between Jamrud and Landi Kotal. There is a rise of nearly 2000 feet in 34 kilometers, and a drop of 872 feet in the next 8 kilometers to Landi Khana, where in many places the gradient stiffens to 1 in 25. There are 4 reversing stations, 34 tunnels with an aggregate length of more than 4 kilometers, 92 bridges and culverts, and 4 locomotive watering stations. And during the construction, three million cubic yards of materials mainly rock, were moved in the cuttings and embankments.

Reversing Stations. Reversing stations are an important feature of Khyber Pass. Since it is not easy to bend a train here due to tight space, trains switch tracks and engines change their roles. The trailing engine becomes the lead and vice versa at the reversing stations.

Catch Sidings. Besides reversing stations, track at numerous places is also provided with the runway train catch sidings. One such catch siding is shown in the photo on the right (above).

The Khyber Railways is the last of the great railway constructions undertaken on the frontier during the British Raj. From 1947 onwards, Pakistan Railway continued a weekly passenger service through Khyber Pass. The service ran free of charge simply as a gesture to prove to the fiercely independent tribesmen that the line, in-spite of them, was open and the Pakistan Government was the boss. The regular service in Khyber Pass stopped in 1982 due to the lack of commercial patronage.

Due to axle load limitations, diesel engines cannot run on this track. Therefore Khyber Pass railway to date is served by steam locomotion only.

Khyber Steam Safari. At present a tourist train called the ‘Khyber Steam Safari’ is operated here by a privately owned tourist company. The train runs few times a year on scheduled days as well as it can be chartered too.

For the remaining part of 2006, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) in collaboration with PRACS and Sehrai travels will be running the Khyber Steam Safari trains on October 1, November 5 and December 3, 2006. For reservations you can call the UAN 111-366-366. Telephone number of Sehrai travels in Peshawar is 92-91-5272084/5

Locomotives of Khyber Steam Safari. Peshawar locomotive shed is maintaining 3 HGS steam engines which are used on the Khyber Steam Safari. All of these are in working condition (as of 2006) and their details are as follows:

2-8-0 HG/S Serial # 2216 built by Kitson and Co, of Leeds UK in the year 1916
2-8-0 HG/S Serial # 2277 built Vulcan foundry in the year1923, and
2-8-0 HG/S Serial # 2306 built Vulcan foundry in the year1923.

Arrival in Landi Kotal. This completes the brief history of Khyber Pass Railway. It is around noon now. Let us now go to Landi Kotal station where our train which we parted in Jamrud is arriving. The station gives a festive look. The trains in Khyber Pass run seldom now therefore many locals have showed up at the station to welcome the train. As the train approached platform local children are seen running along it in excitement.

Landi Kotal station is built in a very unique fortress like architecture. There are no windows or doors on the forbidding facade facing the platform.

Distances and Altitudes in Khyber Pass. Considering Peshawar Cant as 0km, following table gives a view of distances and altitude of different landmarks along Khyber Pass Railway.

Station Name	Distance km	Altitude in feet
Peshawar Cantt	0	1048
Jamrud	18	1496
Bagiari		1837
Medanak (1^st Reversing Station)		2086
Chagai (2^nd Reversing Station)	34	2270
Shahgai		2265
Kata Kushta		2799
Zintara		3114
Sultan Khel		3293
Landi Kotal	52	3494
Tora Tigga (3^rd Reversing Station)		2876
Landi Khana (4^th Reversing Station)	60	2622

August 6, 2008 Photo Update:

Due to 2008 monsoon seasin rains in Khyber Pass, a historic bridge of Khyber Railway has wahsed away. Photo is below. Extensive damage to track also happened during rains of 2006 and 2007. The track as of today is closed for all rail traffic. We will update our readers if we get any news of repairs or status change.

Following photo is an update from August 31, 2008

Chronology. As an appendix, I want to give the chronology of important dates regarding Khyber Pass Railway in the following.

1857: Chairman of Scinde, Punjab and Delhi Railway Company, Mr. William Andrew proposes rail routes through Khyber and Bolan passes.

1878: Second Anglo-Afghan war takes place

1879: Sir Guilford Molesworth, an English Civil Engineer who was consulting for Indian government considered a survey of meter gauge (1000 mm) railway through Khyber Pass.

March 27, 1880: A news appears in the Morning Post newspaper announcing the construction of Khyber Pass Railways. An excerpt from the news goes like this:

“After three and twenty years of apathy the necessity has been realized and now these railways are being constructed.”

1885: Another survey was conducted by Captain JRL McDonald up to Landi Kotal.

1890: Captain JRL McDonald surveys another route to Khyber Pass following the gorge of River Kabul.

1898: One more survey was conducted to lay railways through Khyber Pass.1901: Broad Gauge (1676 mm) track is completed from Peshawar to Jamrud.

1905: Work started on laying an alternate meter gauge route following River Kabul into Mullagori hills.

1907: 32 km of broad gauge track was completed from Kacha Garhi to west of Jamrud into Loi Shilman valley.

August 31, 1907: Britain and Russia decide on an accord in St Petersburg. According to this agreement Britain will not annex or occupy Afghanistan and in return Russia will not consider Afghanistan a country of influence.

1909: Kabul River Railway is abandoned as threat from Russia is considered very low.

1919: Third Anglo-Afghan war takes place. Col Gordon Hearn plans a broad gauge Khyber Pass railway from Jamrud westwards.

1920: Construction of railways restarts west of Jamrud

November 3, 1925: Khyber Pass railway is inaugurated up to Landi Kotal.

November 4, 1925: First train runs on Khyber Pass railway. Train is driven by Mrs Victor Bailey.

April 23, 1926: Khyber Pass railway is extended to Landi Khana.

1926: Tracks were laid from Landi Khana to the border post at Torkham but a train never traveled on them.

December 15, 1932: Landi Kotal to Landi Khana section is closed on requests from Afghan government.

August 14, 1947: Pakistan gets independence and a weekly Sunday service to Landi Kotal continues

1982: Regular service to Landi Kotal is suspended because of lack of commercial value.

mid 1990s: A tourist train called ‘Khyber Steam Safari’ is started by a private enterprise in collaboration with Pakistan railways. This train is still in operation as of 2006. It runs on designated days a year and can be chartered too.

Video of Khyber Steam Safari 2004. An amateur video of Khyber Steam Safari 2004 is here. Copyrights belong to the link owner.

Photo Credits. Mr. Peter Patt, Mr. Zakir Khan, Mr Rana Rashid, Dr. Roland Ziegler and Mr. Nick Lera

References:

Couplings to Khyber by P.S.A Berridge, 1968
Hundred Years of Pakistan Railway, M.B.K Malik, 1962
North Western Railway Time Table, November 1959
The Imperial Way by Paul Theroux, 1985
Andrew Grantham’s page here
Dr. Roland Ziegler’s page on Pakistan tour of 1996 here.
Khyber Railway Preservation Society of Pakistan here
Dr Ken J Walker at here
Mr. Rob Dickinson here
Pakistan Railway Newsgroup here
Illustrated Book of Steam and Rail by Colin Garratt, 2002
Mr. Malcom Peakman and Mr. Alex Jesserer for their anecdotes.
Mr. Nick Lera for providing references from Victor Bayley’s book ‘Permanent Way through the Khybers’, 1934

Khyber Pass Rail Video:

I found this video clip on Youtube about Khyber Pass Railway.

Pakistan Railway Discussion Group:

If you want to learn more about Pakistan Railways, then feel free to join the ‘Pakistan Railway (PR)’ discussion group. Everything and anything related to PR is discussed here e.g. preserving of Pakistan’s rail heritage, steam locomotives, sharing of photos and news, time tables etc. You can join the discussion group here.

Bareli to Balakot: Story of a Battle and a Dutiful Donkey

2009-05-16T08:10:00.001-07:00

GUEST POST

I must have passed by this place countless times on my way to Abbottabad and back and was always intrigued by its name. Khota Qabar! Donkey’s grave, that is. Why, I wondered, so much reverence for a donkey?

Khota Qabar lies on the Karakoram Highway about 60 miles north of Islamabad and 7 miles short of Abbottabad. It is precisely where the road starts climbing into the mountains of Mansehra and onwards into the picturesque Kaghan valley and the Northern Areas. I always knew it as a place where truck drivers coming up from the planes stopped to cool their engines and top up the radiators with cold water from a nearby stream to ready their vehicles for the climb ahead. Because of the presence of truck drivers a couple of khoka restaurants have sprouted at this spot and are doing a thriving business.

It is so small a place that you won’t find it on any map of Pakistan. However, to my pleasant surprise, a Google search turned up the following information on Khota Qabar or Khote di Qabar: latitude 34.09; longitude 73.17; elevation 3,251 feet.

I was impressed — with Google, that is.

Like many other places and things in life I took this place for granted and never enquired how or why it came to be so named. But when I did - only recently - I uncovered a fascinating story behind it. A story of a man and his mission.

The story begins, of all the places, in Rai Breilley, a town in present day Uttar Pardesh, India (renowned for being the constituency of Nehru-Gandhi family), and ends in the mountains of Balakot, a town in the far North of Pakistan.

It is the story of a man named Syed Ahmed. He was born in Rai Brailey in 1786. He was a deeply religious man. His life mission was to usher in, once again, the glorious Islamic past. He wanted to establish an Islamic state on the pattern of the early caliphate, first, in the subcontinent and then, possibly, in the rest of the world. To achieve this he decided to wage a jihad against the “infidels” who ruled the subcontinent then. Thus, he became one of the earliest, if not the first, native jihadi of the subcontinent.

This was the time when the Mughal rule in India had virtually ceased to exist. The Mughal Empire stretched barely beyond the modern city of Delhi. The dominant powers of the time were the British Empire, represented by the East India Company, which controlled most of the Northern Inida, the Marhatta Empire to the soutlh, the Sikh Empire in the North-West and Kashmir, and hundreds of minor kings, maharajas and Nawabas in various parts of the land.

Syed Ahmed understood that it was not feasible to fight the British. They were better organized, better equipped and in firm control of most of Northern India. He, therefore, decided to emigrate to what is today NWFP in Pakistan and wage a jihad from there. After beating the Sikhs in the NWFP and Kashmir, he imagined, he could then take on the British.

His choice of NWFP as a launching pad for jihad was based on the assumptions that it was predominantly a Muslim area bordering on another Muslim state, Afghanistan; that its people had a reputation of being good warriors and that they were unhappy with the Sikh rule and ready to take up arms against them.

Armed with these assumptions and total faith in his mission and trust in God, Syed Ahmed and his devotees left their homes and families (Syed Sahib left behind his two wives) and embarked on a difficult and circuitous journey to Peshawar via Sindh, Quetta, Qandhar and Kabul. Among his companions was also Shah Ismail, a grandson of Shah Waliullah of Delhi.

After reaching Peshawar, Syed Sahib tried to enter into alliances with the local chiefs and khans, often unreliable, to gain their support for his Jihad. He managed to raise an “army” of mujahideen who engaged in a few skirmishes with the Sikhs and also launched nighttime raids on a few towns, notably Akora Khattak and Hazro. But these skirmishes and raids did not yield any strategic gains.

Most narratives on the subject, at least the one’s I have perused, even though rich in trivia, are incoherent and terribly confusing. Cutting through the web of confusion, however, one finds that Syed Ahmed Brelvi, moving from place to place for 4-5 years in the Frontier province turned up at Balakot sometime in the first quarter of 1831. He was 46. In the process he also acquired a third wife, a young woman from Chitral, named Fatima.

Syed Sahib’s strategy was to defeat the Sikhs at Balakot and then march on to Kashmir next door. His starry-eyed optimism is evident from one of his last letters he wrote to the Nawab of Tonk in India, who, as a gesture of support and sympathy, was housing Syed Sahib’s two wives as guests on his estate. The letter was written on 25 April 1831 (translation and paraphrasing is mine):

“I am in the mountains of Pakhli (name of the area). The people here have welcomed us with warmth and hospitality and have given us a place to stay. They have also promised to support us in the jihad. For the time being I am camped in the town of Balakot, which is located in the (river) Kunhar pass. The army of the infidels [kuffars] is camped not too far from us. Since Balakot is located at a secure place (surrounded by hills and bounded by the river), God willing, the infidels will not be able to reach us. Of course, we may choose to advance and enter into a battle at our own initiative. And this we intend to do in the next two or three days. With the help of God, we will be victorious. If we win this battle, and, God willing, we will, then we will occupy all the land alongside the Jehlum River including the kingdom of Kashmir. Please pray, day and night, for our victory.”

Obviously, Syed Sahib believed in and greatly relied upon divine help and miracles.

Hari Singh was the governor of Kashmir and NWFP at the time, representing Maharaja Ranjit Singh who sat in Lahore. He was a clever and ruthless administrator. His forces under the command of Sher Singh lay in wait for the mujahideen at Muzaffarabad. Their contingents had already moved to occupy the hilltop, known as Mitti Kot, overlooking the town of Balakot.

Syed Sahib, in his plans, expected the Sikhs to come down from their perch at Mitti Kot and attack the mujahideen. He, therefore, had the paddy fields, which lay between the town and the hills, flooded hoping that the advancing Sikhs would get mired in them and the Mujahideen could then pick them like sitting ducks — literally. But the Sikhs had their own plans. They did not move and waited, instead, for the mujahideen to make the first move.

The mujahideen obliged on May 6, 1831. It was a Friday. A bizarre incident occurred that morning that precipitated the battle. While the mujahideen were still having breakfast and, at the same time, keeping a wary eye on the movement of the enemy at Mitti Kot, one of them, Syed Chiragh Ali from Patiala, suddenly expressed a desire to eat kheer (rice pudding).

Since kheer was not on the menu that morning, Chiragh Ali fetched the necessary wherewithal and set about preparing kheer for himself. (It sounds bizarre, but as the Punjabi saying goes: shouq da koi mul naeen or fulfilling a whim has no price - nor a time.)

While Chiragh Ali was stirring the pot and nervously looking at the Sikhs on the hilltop, something came over him and he shouted, “There! I see a beautiful hoor (houri) dressed in red. She is calling me!” He threw away the ladle with which he was stirring the pot, and declared that he would eat only from the hands of the hoor. With this announcement he charged headlong at the hill, shouting Allah-o-Akbar. It all happened so suddenly that before anyone could realize what was happening, Chiragh Ali was in the middle of the paddy fields, struggling to run successfully in the mud. The Sikhs who must have been watching the scene with some amusement picked him in the sights of their rifles and shot him — dead in the mud. According to the narrative, Syed Chiragh Ali was the first martyr of the battle of Balakot.

What followed the shooting was total chaos and confusion. Syed Sahib, abandoning his earlier plan, ordered his men to attack. The mujahideen rushed forward and they, too, got mired in the muddy fields. The Sikhs then made their move. In a battle that lasted most of the day, amidst shouts of Allah-o-Akbar and Wahe guruji ka khalsa, wahe guruji ki fateh, Syed Ahmed and Shah Ismail were killed along with many mujahideen. The number of dead mujahideen varies, depending on the source one uses, from 300 to 1300. Whatever the numbers, however, the mujahideen had met their Waterloo at Balakot.

Nearly two centuries later, on October 6, 2005, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale shook and flattened the town of Balakot. Miraculously, however, it spared the graves of Syed Ahmed Shaheed and Shah Ismail Shaheed. Perhaps, as a reminder that miracles do happen but one cannot rely upon them!

What about Khota Qabar? Why was Khota Qabar so named?

On their way to Balkot the mujahideen camped somewhere near present day Abbottabad. The Sikhs, in order to choke the mujahideen’s supply lines, posted troops on the hills overlooking the road that led through a gorge to Abbottabad. The mujahideen, sensing the risk of sending convoys through the gorge, cleverly, hired the services of a donkey without a handler to carry their supplies. Yes. Just one donkey.

Even though the donkey has, for some reason, become a metaphor of stupidity in our part of the world, it is not stupid. One of the unique traits of the donkey is that once he carries a load to a destination he memorizes the route and does not need the help of a handler to go back to where he came from. Just a light kick in the back sends him trudging quietly to his destination. So, unknown to the Sikhs, this dutiful donkey trudged back and forth in the darkness of night carrying supplies to the mujhideen.

It wasn’t long before the Sikhs found out who the secret courier was. They shot him dead one night when he was carrying a load of goods through the gorge. The mujahideen mourned the loss of the donkey and honored him by burying him respectfully in a grave. The place came to be known as Khota Qabar. The grave may not have survived but the name did. Only a couple of years ago someone decided to change the name to Muslimabad!

But the people in the area still know the place by its old name. And so does Google!

The above story, except the part on Khota Qabar, which is anecdotal, is based the following books:
1. Syed Ahmed Shaheed - Mujahid-e-kabir by Ghulam Rasool Mehr, 1981
2. Roedad-e-Mujahideen-e-Hind by Muhammad Khawas Khan, 1983

2009-05-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Adventures up the Silk Road

2009-05-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

By S A J Shirazi

The souls that pave the way for the modern tarmac road known as the Karakorum Highway (KKH) still seem to flicker amongst the sharp moving shadows of the unstable rocks and the almost countless but crumbly semi-transparent glaciers that constantly threaten its existence.

There has always been a long pass into, and out of China over what is sometime called the “Roof of the World” but in ancient times it was a very hazardous passageway. One wonders how Alexander might have crossed the Karakorum Mountains in 325 BC or how early travellers like Marco Polo, Hieun Tsang and others might have tracked on the route without backpacks, four wheel driven powerful vehicles and even the roads, till Pakistan Army engineers spread asphalt through one of the most difficult terrain in the world and created this great engineering feat that some call the eighth wonder of the world.

Northern Pakistan has some of the most beautiful and mightiest mountain terrain — Hindu Kush and Karakorum — in the world. Besides raw natural beauty, the territory is very difficult for men and machine to work even in this modern age. The road is in fact reflection of man’s incessant struggle against transcendental power.

What one sees while commuting on the highway? A quote from the North West Frontier Province Gazetteer reads:

“the path is certainly narrow, and often clung to the sheer faces of the many deep resonant gorges that confine their turgid, animated rivers. A traveller along the path sees at one glance the shadowy valleys from which a shiny mist columns rise at noon against a luminous sky, the forest ridges, stretches fold behind fold in softly undulating lines — dotted by the white specks which mark the situation of Buddhist monasteries — to the glacier draped pinnacles and precipices of the snowy range. He passes from the zone of tree ferns and endless colonnade of tall stemmed magnolias oaks and chestnut trees, fringes with delicate orchids and festooned by long convolvuluses to the region of gigantic pines, junipers, firs and larches. Down each ravine sparkles a brimming torrent, making the ferns and flowers nod as it dashes past them. Superb butterflies, black and blue, or flashes of rainbow colours that turn at pleasure into exact imitation of dead leaves, the fairies of this lavish transformation scene of nature, sail in and out between the sun light and gloom. The mountaineer pushes on by a track half buried between the red twisted stems of tree-rhododendrons, hung with long waiving lichens, till he emerges at last on open sky and the upper pastures — the Alps of the Himalayan - field of flowers: of gentians and edelweiss and poppies, which blossom beneath the shining store house of snow that encompass the ice mailed and flouted shoulders of the giants of the range.”

Get off the Grand Trunk Road — main artery of Pakistan — near Hassan Abdal; travel northeast through plains of Hazara and you are already in tourists’ zone. Cyclists riding trendy machines and cellular phones even with local are commonly seen and almost all commodity items for the use of foreigners are available with vendors right on the roadside. Lucky ones may also have the pleasure to watch performance of Chinese artists at Silk Rout Festival that moves from place to place and gives spectacular performance.

Passing through outskirts of Mansehra, the road starts winding and climbing through forested hills, with houses climbing to the contours of hills and countless eateries lined up along the road. The travellers here are introduced to forbidding nature of the terrain. The River Indus gushes below and cliffs of bar rocks soar above as the KKH begins to cut its way through the gorges of Kohistan. After dipping into, and out of the Indus’s wide bed the road also seem vying for the right of way with Gilgit and Hunza Rivers before it heeds direct to the historic Khunjerab Pass into China. Voluminous traffic and rather unpleasant riding conditions becomes lighter after leaving Mansehra and remains so almost to Khunjerab Pass and beyond (to the end of the highway in Kashgar, China.)

Before crossing on the Chinese side of the Khunjerab Pass, the road passes through Hunza Valley. The intricate terraced fields, held in places by dry stone or wooden retaining walls and the complex system of irrigation channels leading down from mount Rakaposi or Ultar are testimony to the skilled labour of the locals who are famous for their different culture, friendly nature and long lives. While the entire Hunza Valley is breathtaking in its splendour and beauty, one of my most enduring memories of this place is watching the sunrise over the hills. And, when you devote enough time to look at the mountains, it becomes a bit chameleon — clouding over, changing colours, cliffs turning into convex and concave according to the slant light.

At night, lights glow in this tiny isolated villages. But, the village women still do not know the use of simple electric appliances of modern age. Community hydroelectric system has been installed on torrents. The system allows only few bulbs per household. Men and women are found working together in the fields, homes or collecting woods from hills in conical wicker baskets. They are welcoming and seem to be living at peace with themselves.

The highway is also called the “Silk Road” because it approximates the trail of what was once one of the many silk, jade and spice carrying caravan trails that congregated somewhere near Xi’an, in China, and terminated in the vicinity of modern Syria on the Mediterranean sea coast. Like long lines of exploring ants, determined traders, merchants and adventures wore a path through narrow gorges, high grass sheathed valleys, across waterless deserts, around higher mountains, and over ranging rivers in pursuit of bargains.

The passage of time has not altered any of these geophysical conditions. Rest every thing in the area has changed though. The developments found their is greatest physical manifestation with the construction of the KKH, built along the path of the caravan routes of the Silk Road, a joint venture between China and Pakistan (which is why it is also called as Pakistan-China Friendship Road). Work on the mammoth project, which is said to have cost one life for every kilometre of road constructed, was begun in 1966 and completed in 1982. With commissioning of the road, the entire area has been laid open to trade and tourism. The resulting progress is undoubtedly causing a great deal of visible societal change.

While regular bus service ply the KKH to Gilgit, Hunza and the Khunjerab Pass, and the route eastwards through the Indus gorge to Baltistan, four-wheel drive powerful vehicles can only negotiate many of the remaining roads dissecting the region. There are lots of rough tracks leading to off road habitats on both sides of the road. For the adventurer who wants to go beyond these to really explore the mountains there is a highly developed system of trails built up over thousand of years by the tradesman, nomads and herdsmen, all granting access to some of the most magnificent mountain scenery on earth.

Basant in Pakistan

2009-05-09T09:12:00.000-07:00

Basant - the kite flying festival of spring - was supposed to be celebrated last weekend in Lahore but, at least officially, it was postponed because of the tragic Lahore bombings. But Basant season is obviously here. For good and for bad.

Basant is a festival celebrating arrival of a spring season. People dress up in colorful clothes and fly Patang or gudday (Kites) of various shapes and sizes using a thoughtfully selected and prepared dor(Kite String). Some people fly kites just for fun. Others fly in serious competitions among various families, mohalas and emotions can run high.

Basant always brings childhood memories from Rawalpindi.

We use to prepare for festival by “dor sotna” (preparation of kite flying string). It starts from selecting the string first. Strings come in many varieties like number 5, 2, 12 Reech (bear), Camel brand, Air blade, 5 panda etc.

Art of “dor sotna” involves many secret ingredients like special glue, string, glass, “saresh”, color and many other secret stuff. Then “dor” is put on a “charakrhee”. After that we use to go and purchase kites of various types like gudday, Patang, Lakhnow Kut, Pari in various sizes and colors. gudday come in sizes like 2.5 Tawa, 3 Tawa, 6 Tawa whereas Patang sizes are known as Har Githhi, Panch Gitthi, 6 Githhi, 8 Githhi etc. Then dor is attached to kite using a process known as “Kanee Dalna”. It is an art itself.

On Basant day, we wear colorful clothes and climb to roofs and have Patang Bazee. Shouts of “Bo Kata”, “Aur Dheel Day”, “Nazar a Raha Hay Guda”, “Oyay Chor Maree Door ko”, “Khich Mar Na Yar”, “Neechay Say Neechay Say Paycha Laga” were norm. Due to very sharp “dor”, index and other fingers get very deep cuts. But those cuts were badges of honors and were proudly shown to people next day.

Basant is a fun filled festival. But every year many deaths occur due to kite string cutting somebody throat, electrocuting someone due to vicinity to overhead electric wires or falling from roof tops. So a great caution must be exercised so as not to lose human lives.

Credits:

1. Salman, who is a dear friend of mine from Pakistan, enlightened me on types of Guday, Patang and Dor.
2. Photos by Rehan Fazal at flickr.com

Print Ads from Pakistan of 1949

2009-05-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

Owais Mughal

In the past we’ve had posts of Pakistani print advertisements from 1960s and 1950s. Today we’ll go another decade backwards in our continued travel of Nostalgistan in Pakistan.

Few days ago a good friend of mine forwarded me an email which turned out to be a very nostalgic collection of Pakistani print ads of 1949. I am sharing the ads here. Since then I’ve spent more than 2 hours looking at the details of these ads. For example look the ad to above right; I believe this BP factory also exists today. Karachi phone number given in the advertisement comprises of 4 digits only.

Compare this to 7 digit land line and 10 digit mobile numbers of today. Many of the companies and businesses mentioned in these advertisements still exist. These ads appeared in the Pakistan Year Book of 1949 printed by Kitabistan, Karachi.

Note that in the ad to the left, an old timer is seen drinking cooking oil with spoon - apparently it was very good for health. According to the ad, Co-Co Gold oil also rekindles one’s feelings (ehsasaat) in addition to the obvious health benefits.

While many of us know that Dawn was published in Gujrati language; how many of us knew that Dawn also had an Urdu edition in 1949? Atleast for me it was news.

Clicking on the images below will show you their larger and more readable images.

LIFEMAN Soap

Please also note the simplicity of postal address in this ad as: Basra Soap Factory, Tank Number 6, Kharadar, Karachi. And did you notice that unlike lifebuoy, lifeman was a medicated soap i.e. ek ticket mein do mazay. Basra Soap Factory at Tank Number 6, probably combined formula of Dettol Soap with Lifebuoy to come up with LIFE MAN soap.

Bandukwala Building

The address in this advertisement made me smile i.e. Bandukwala building # 1.

How appropriate of an address for such a business. I also enjoyed reading the telegraph address of this business which is ‘ACID’. Did you notice the business also used to sell Soda Water Machinery besides their obvious main line. baat se baat nikalti hai. The term ‘Soda Water’ always reminds me of Sufi Tabbasum’s character ‘tot batot’ who ‘peeta tha woh soda water aur khaata tha badaam akhrot’. In the ad here, Also note the 4-digit only telephone number for Karachi city.

Alcohol Free Perfumes and Bengal Oil Mills

Clicking on the images below will show you their larger and more readable images.

Homeopathic and Pharmacy Ads

Clicking on the images below will show you their larger and more readable images.

Kitabistan 1949

I don’t know if Zeenat Mansion still exists or not but Mc Leod Road is now called I.I. Chundrigar Road.

Photo Credits:

The person who originally owns these photos is unknown to us. We will be very happy to credit the person here for these images.

Ye hai Pakistan Meri jan

2009-05-08T04:13:00.000-07:00

See this amazing picture in which a donkey is painted with purple color :-) that's Pakistani Style of painting.. do you agree?

:-) Pakistani Plumber going to his work.. What a Pakistani Style..i love this picture

Pakistani Villager women doing well job :-)

Another sunshine protection photo of my Pakistani Brothers

Give a Title ;-)

Comments Plz

Obama-Zardari-Karzai Summit: What Should They Be Saying To Each Other?

2009-05-06T05:45:00.003-07:00

Adil Najam

The summit meeting tomorrow between US President Obama, Pakistan President Zardari and Afghanistan President Karzai could clearly be amongst the most important events on what is being called the Af-Pak front, and possibly in defining the future of the so-called ‘War on Terror.’

I believe that this could not just be an important step forward; it could be a good step forward. It is traversity of basic logic for for so long these three countries - USA, Pakistan, Afghanistan - have supposedly been ‘allies’ in a critical war supposedly against the same enemy (terrorism), and yet there has been no real forum of strategy and policy coordination between them. Indeed, it is a measure of the absurdity of this trilateral relationship that this will really be the first ever strategic meeting between the three countries at the summit level (Presidents Bush, Musharraf and Karzai had met, but never really to discuss policy coordination and joint strategy).

It may be asking for too much, but one does hope that this will indeed be a real policy coordination and strategy development discussion and not just finger-pointing and scolding on the part of Presidents Obama and damage deflection and passing the blame on the part of Presidents Zardari and Karzai. The stakes for all three are high - indeed, the stakes are high for the whole world.

U.S. policy in the region - including its ill-guided drone attacks into Pakistan - has clearly been a failure

that has not achieved any of the stated US strategic goals. And the last thing President Obama wants to be doing is to be seen to be continuing the Bush legacy in the region. He needs to show to his own people, but also to Pakistan and Afghanistan that his policy is different from George Bush’s and also that it will work. For its part, Pakistan stands at the brink of disaster with its internal politics in disarray, its military’s morale and repute in question, and growing infuence of the Taliban in society. Mr. Zardari will need to demonstrate to his US hosts as well as his own public that he remains in control of Pakistan and in a position of actually doing something about the imminent threats to Pakistan. Hamid Karzai’s standing is no better.The charge against him is that he is merely the “mayor of Kabul,” but some suggest that he may not even have that much control, and whatever control he has may also slip away in the forthcoming elections.

All three have their work cut out for them. In very different ways the pressure will be on all three. In the case of Mr. Zardari and Mr. Karzai, even their jobs may be on the line. That is not so for Mr. Obama, but the stakes for him are also very high. One hopes that their discussion will go beyond diplomatic niceities but also not degenerate into recriminations and accusations. One hopes that it will be frank and forthright, with all three being willing to say and hear some tough love. But most of all one hopes that they will roll up their sleeves and focus not as much on who has not done what (none of the three parties has done much to be very proud of in this region) but on what needs to be done. The tragedy of this trio is not just that all three countries - USA, Pakistan, Afghanistan - have failed to do the right thing, it is that none of the three have any idea about what the right thing to do is. Neither does anyone else. This is why it is so very important for the three leaders to begin devising a real joint strategy whose purpose is not merely to control the impulses of the other in a climate of mutual distrust, but to tackle the common and growing threat of extremism, militancy and terrorism.

List of Search Engines Which Require Manual Submission

2009-05-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

Below is the list of Search Engines which are little popular and are used by some people. There are many Search Engines apart from the below ones, but, the below ones do not have Automated Crawlers. So, to get indexed by these Search Engines, you need to submit the URL manually.
Clicking on the link will take you to the ‘Submission’ page of that Search Engine. This will save a lot of time. Remember, search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista or Live are not included in this list as they have Automated Crawlers and there is no need to submit the URL manually on these search engines.
If you know any Search Engine which is not present in the list, please inform me through the comment field below.

43N39E Search
Abacho.com
Accoona Business
Acoon.com
Acrosscan.ca - Canadian Search Engine
Aesop Search
Alexa Web Search
Amfibi Web Search - Add URL
Amidalla search engine
AnooX “People Powered Search Engine”
Antya Discover websites!
AxxaSearch - The only search engine you need
Baisu Chinese Search
Bigfinder
Biverdoo
Boitho
Burf.com Search Engine
Cavarzano.com
Cipinet
Claymont Search Engine
Club Hakia
cybersearch.tk
DinoSearch.com - Kid’s Search Engine
EbingBong® - Suggest URL
Enter UK
Entireweb
eTracking search engine!
eXactBot - Exact Results Every Time
ExactSeek.com
Exalead - Internet search engine
Famhoo.com
Findone.co.uk
Foovy.com
FyberSearch
GhetoSearch
Gigablast
GoGo.Ru
Homerweb
Iask.com
Iconnic
Igwanna search engine!
Indian search engine
Infotiger
Intelseek
JDGO.com
Jungle-spider.de
Knoole.com
Lexxe Search Engine
Live Online Crawler
Live Search URL
Megaglobe URL Submission
Mixcat Website Submission
Myahint Search Engine
Myprowler.com
Navisso Search
NetSearch
NIGMA.ru
Official Search
OneSeek.com - Listings
Really Big Search
Scrub The Web
Search Engine XXX
Search Luxembourg
Searchengine.com
SearchIt
Searchme, Inc.
Search-O-Rama
SearchRamp
SearchSight.com
Seekitout
Seeknet.pl We search for You
Shazee.com
Shoula Search Engine
Stopdog.com
Towersearch
Vmgo.com Add URL
VROOSH! - Submit Site
W8.net Search
Walhello Search Engine
Websquash Search Engine
Wedoo.Com
whatUseek - Submit A Site
XavierSeek.com Directory
Xoole Submit url
Yandex
Yoozila - About
Zongsou
Zoohoo.sk - slovenský

List of Best SEO Tools

2009-05-05T03:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the best SEO tools I have ever used. Firstly, Thanks to every Blog and Website which helped me to present this list in front of you. These tools are helpful for website management and to check its performance. Nothing more to say…. Just Go Ahead and use them!
Alexa

Alexa-Ranking
Alexa page-rank-and-rating-results

Backlink

Backlink Analyzer
Research and analyze websites for link quality. Checks for Indexed Pages, Links to Website, EDU & .GOV Links, Domain Age & Expiration, Google PageRank, Alexa Traffic Rank, DMOZ Listing
Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer
This tools help you determine the backlinks of your website and link text used by your backlinks to Link to your website
Backlink Builder
Building Quality backlinks is one of the most important factors in Search Engine Optimization…

Domain Popularity, Domain Stats Tools…

Domain Age Tool
This tools displays the approximate age of a website on the Internet and allows you to view how the website looked when it first started
Domain Dossier
Investigate domains and IP addresses
Domain Popularity
This tool shows you all backlinks for the given domain, including up to 10 subpages per backlinking domain, host IP and Google PageRank
Domain Stats Tool
This tool helps you get all kind of statistics of your competitor’s domains. The statistics include Alexa Taffic Rank, Age of the domains, Yahoo WebRank, Dmoz listings, count of backlinks and number of pages indexed in Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Msn etc.
HTTP / HTTPS Header Check
This tools allow you to inspect the HTTP headers that the web server returns when requesting a URL. Works with HTTP and HTTPS URLs
View HTTP Headers
This little tool lets you view the HTTP headers for a HTTP request
View HTTP Path
This little tool lets you view the path/redirects a request takes to get fulfilled

Google Page Rank Checker, Adwords Keyword Tools,Google Banned Tools…

Advanced Google searches
Use this tool to search google in many special ways. A useful resource for search engine optimization (especially keyword research) among other things
Check Google Pagerank
Now you can check the Google PageRank of any web page without installing the Google toolbar
Check PageRank by Google data center
With this tool you can check the PageRank from different data centers
Free Google Adsense Keywords & YPN Keywords Search Tool
With the ability to search a growing database of tens of thousands of high-dollar Adsense keywords, Iotaweb allows publishers to find the keywords and key phrases that will allow them to focus their content to monetize their site most effectively.
Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Keyword tool from Google that provides Specific and Similar keywords.
Google Banned Tool
This tool uses two methods to check to see if a URL you enter is in the Google database. Its a great way to check to see if you have been banned by Google for various reasons….
Google Keyword Ranking Tool
Search with list of keywords from differnet Google search sites
Google Page Rank Checker
Instantly check the PageRank of any website or web page
Google Page Rank Checker
A simple tool that checks and your PageRank so you can display it on your website
Google Sets
Automatically create sets of items from a few examples.
PageRank Authenticity Check
This tool shows you the PageRank of a given domain. Also the PageRank will be checked of authenticity
Page Rank Tool
Our PageRank Tool will query and return the Google PageRank values for submitted URL from various Google datacenters…
Visual PageRank
The Visual PageRank - Tool shows all links and there corresponding PageRanks

Keyword Analysis Tool, Keyword Density, Keyword Suggestion Tools…

McDar Keyword Analysis Tool
Enter URL and keyword, it will display Pagerank and Back links pages for the Top 10 websites.
Keyword Density
This tool shows you how often appears which word in content of given domain
Keyword Density
The keyword density tool is useful for helping webmasters and SEOs achieve their optimum keyword density for a set of key terms.
Keyword Density Checker
Keyword Density is the percentage of occurrence of your keywords to the text in the rest of your webpage. This tool will crawl the specified URL, extract text as a search engine would, remove common stop words and Analyze the density of the keywords.
Keyword Difficulty Tool
The keyword difficulty tool is used to analyze the competitive landscape of a particular search term or phrase, this tool issues a percentage score and provides a detailed analysis of the top ranking sites at Google and Yahoo…
KwMap.net
A Keyword Map For the Whole Internet
Keyword Suggestion Tool
This keyword suggestion tool will help you with the choosing of the right keywords for your website. You can see which keyword combinations are more popular and also get ideas for more keyword combinations..
Website Keyword Suggestions
This tools tries to determine the theme of your website and provides keyword suggestions along with keyword traffic estimates.
Ontology Finder
Related Keywords Lookup Tool

Link Popularity Check, Site Link Analyzer, Link Value…

Deep Link Ratio Tool
This tool was created to analyze how the deep link ratio of a site affects its rank in search engines. We can use this tool to compare the DLRs for the best ranking sites for a search phrase.
Link Popularity Check
Link popularity check is one of the best ways to quantifiably and independently measure your website’s online awareness and overall visibility…
Link Popularity Checker
The Link Popularity Checker tells you how many websites are linking to yours…
LINK VALIDATION SPIDER
Free Online Broken Link Checker
Link Price Calculator
This tools will help you determine the approximate amount you should be paying (or charging) per month for a text link (ad) from each and every page of the specified website
Link Value
This tool calculates the link value per month of a given website.
Reciprocal Link Check
This tool helps you ensure that your link partners are linking back to your website. It also determines the anchor text used by your link partners to link to your website.
Site Link Analyzer
This tool will analyze a given web page and return a table of data containing columns of outbound links and their associated anchor text…
The Link Reputation Measurement Tool
Reveals backlinks pointing to your target url along with the following: Link Survey - Link Reputation Score - Text used in links pointing to you - Alexa traffic analysis for the site corresponding to each backlink
Outbound Links
This tool shows every outgoing link from the given domain. Separated in external and internal links

Meta Tag Generators

Meta Tag Generator
Our Meta Tag Generator will read the page you specify, remove common words from it, and pick the most used words on the page. It will then generate a Meta Keywords tag using the words it has found…
Meta Tag Generator
Use this tool to generate a search engine friendly Head Tag for your web site
Title & Meta Tags Generator
his code generator will build the title and meta tags for your site to help improve your website’s search engine ranking using our Meta Tag Generator

Miscellaneous Tools

Directory Submission Manager
Use this free tool to track your submissions to various web directories….
Copyscape
Search for copies of your page on the Web
Site Analysis including Link Popularity
This tool generates a complete site analysis e.g. amount of backlinks, indexed sites, Google PageRank and also if your domain is listed in DMOZ and Yahoo directory
Sitemap Generator
Create your Google Sitemap Online. This is no limit in the number of URLs and its totally free.
Similar Page Checker
Search Engines are known to penalize websites that contain Duplicate / Similar content. Your content could be similar to other websites on the Internet, or pages from within your own website could be similar to each other. This tool allows you to determine the percentage of similarity between two pages
Speedtester
This tool shows the duration of a given website. This value can be used for showing how long a website take to load and if it is better to optimize the website or change a (slow) ISP.
mod_rewrite RewriteRule Generator
Our mod_rewrite RewriteRule generator will take a dynamic url given to it, and generate the correct syntax to place in a .htaccess file to allow the url to be rewritten in a spiderable format
URL Rewrite (mod_rewrite)
With this tool you can generate dynamic urls to search engine friendly urls..
URL Rewriting Tool
Create Search Engine Friendly URLs
User Agent Cloaking Detector
This tool simulates the Googlebot (based on User-Agent) to detect cloaked content
What is Hosted on that IP
This little tool lets you view the virtual hosts on a particular IP

Search Engine Position Checker, Spider Simulator, Ranking Report, SERP Tracker

Google vs Yahoo Graph
This tool looks at the results from Yahoo and Google, finds the similarities and then gives you a graphical display of what results are in both search engines
Search Engine Position Checker
The Search Engine Position Checker tool will automatically query the search engines you specify and check if your URL appears in the first 50 results for your chosen keywords….
Search Engine Spider Simulator
With this tool you see all informations a search engine spider receive from a website.
Marketleap Search Engine Verification Tool
Our verification tool checks to see if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword
Number of pages indexed
This tool will generate a report showing how many pages of your website has been indexed by the search engines so far. It supports all major search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alltheweb, Hotbot and AltaVista.
Search Engine Ranking Report
Input key phrase list get Google rankings
Serps Position
Use this tool to find out, on which position your domain is ranked for the given keyword and compare the first 100 results by Google, search.MSN and Yahoo.
SERP Tracker
The SERP Tracker reports on search engine results and charts performance over time

SEO Analyzer, Scanner

Free SEO Tools
SEOToolSet
Cool SEO Tool!
This internet marketing tool checks the top 10 sites that rank in Google. After that, it checks to see how those 10 sites rank in Yahoo and in MSN….
SEO Analyzer
The SEO Analyzer is a FREE tool that uses a sophisticated algorithm that detects how optimized your web design is for search engines
SEO Scanner
An all-in-one advanced SEO analysis, tracking, and reporting tool

Robots.txt Tools

Robots Txt Generator
Use this tool to generate a simple robots file for your website…
Robots.txt syntax checker
This robots.txt syntax checker checks the contents of a site’s robots.txt…

List of Google AdSense Revenue Sharing Sites

2009-05-05T03:41:00.001-07:00

AdSense Revenue Sharing is done by a lot of sites and some of the sites are listed below. All you need to do is enter your AdSense Account ID and your ads will be displayed whenever a page which had your contribution is displayed. This is a good way of earning with AdSense if you don’t have a site.
Forums

Articles Directories

Social Media Websites

Video/Photo Sharing

Blogging websites

Community Websites

Search Resources

Eurekster Swicki

Answering Websites

Fun Advice

Please post your views and suggestions using the Comment Field below

List of Freelancing Job Sites

2009-05-05T03:41:00.000-07:00

As you all know, Freelance sites are nothing but a center for both Service Providers and Service Seekers. So, if you offer any service like Graphics Designing, Data Entry etc…, then you must checkout the below Freelancing sites.
The below sites are my collection of Freelancing sites. They are arranged in an Alphabetical Order rather than their Activity. There are hundreds of Freelancing Sites available. But, the below sites have established a room for themselves online.

Good Luck

List of Blog Directories

2009-05-05T03:40:00.000-07:00

Below is the giant list of Blog Directories. I have compiled them from various other Blogs and Websites and I thank all of them who helped me in constructing this big list.
However, as you all know, adding your site to Blog Directories has many advantages and one of them is attaining Quality Backlinks. So, Add your site to all of them and you will see an increase in your Backlinks, Rankings and all the other things.
If you know a Blog Directory which has not been listed here, Please, use the Comments field to notify me and I will update the list.
Good Luck