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Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Foreign Policy on February 17th, 2011
The mystery of American Raymond A. Davis, currently imprisoned in the custody of local police in Lahore, Pakistan and charged with the Jan. 27 murder of two young men, whom he allegedly shot eight times with pinpoint accuracy through his car windshield, is growing increasingly murky. Also growing is the anger among Pakistanis that the US is trying to spring him from a Punjab jail by claiming diplomatic immunity. On Feb. 4, there were massive demonstrations, especially in Lahore, demanding that Davis be held for trial, an indication of the level of public anger at talk of granting him immunity.
Davis (whose identity was first denied and later confirmed by the US Embassy in Islamabad), and the embassy have claimed that he was hired as an employee of a US security company called Hyperion Protective Consultants, LLC, which was said to be located at 5100 North Lane in Orlando, Florida. Business cards for Hyperion were found on Davis by arresting officers.
However CounterPunch has investigated and discovered the following information:
First, there is not and never has been any such company located at the 5100 North Lane address. It is only an empty storefront, with empty shelves along one wall and an empty counter on the opposite wall, with just a lone used Coke cup sitting on it. A leasing agency sign is on the window. A receptionist at the IB Green & Associates rental agency located in Leesburg, Florida, said that her agency, which handles the property, part of a desolate-looking strip mall of mostly empty storefronts, has never leased to a Hyperion Protective Consultants. She added,
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Foreign Policy on February 17th, 2011
I feel the public opinion is being molded in a subtle way by the government, part of the media and some ‘intellectuals’ in the favour of releasing Raymond if he otherwise could not be granted diplomatic immunity. Raymond is no ordinary ‘consultant’ as is evident from the way the entire US government machinery including President Obama are acting in this matter. The USA with her immense political influence and TONNES of dollars can pressurise or buy anyone, including the families of the murdered who are being obliquely preached about the Islamic laws of Dieet and Qassas also. Swapping of Raymond with Dr. Afia is another possibility being talked about.
What is so mysterious about Raymond that the USA government is so keen to get him out of Pakistan at the earliest. Does he know too much to be in the strangers
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Recent News on February 11th, 2011
Once children graduate from the seminaries, they are mentally primed to join militant groups, who give them rigorous training.
“They keep them in isolation, secluded from other people like foot soldiers. Only three to four people are allowed to meet them,” said Abdul Basit, an expert on suicide bombings at the Pak Institute for Peace Studies in Islamabad.
“They are told they are God’s chosen people who have been selected to this holy and sacred job of waging a holy war for the glory of the religion.”
Most Pakistanis reject the Taliban’s version of Islam which allows for public beheadings and lashings for those deemed immoral. The Taliban often blow up girls’ schools.
But Pakistanis understand that openly challenging their ideology can be risky. Parents who oppose recruitment of their children for jihad sometimes pay a heavy price.
“If someone does not send their child for training, jihad, then they would be reprimanded. They are forced to leave the region or their houses are bombed or one of their relatives is killed,” said Basit.
“They can also bomb their homes.”
After years of indoctrination, carrying out the actual suicide attack seems like the easy part. The Mardan bomber was likely pretending to be student on his way to class at a school located in the military compound.
To get a uniform, all he had to do was walk through the bustle of the main market past fish vendors, restaurants and electronics joints and purchase the outfit at a shop.
Until the government offers impoverished Pakistanis a brighter future, the cycle that leads some young people to blow themselves up won’t let up.
“A lot of girls and boys tend to want to leave (madrassas) and when their families refuse to take them back or can’t afford to take them back then they react in different ways,” said Taj.
“We are presented with odd behavior such as strange talking or they become mute. Or they start to have histrionic fits which appear like epilepsy but are not.”
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Art & Culture on February 11th, 2011
Where in the world would you find Karen Armstrong in a room with 2,000 opinionated Muslims… all enjoying a lively discussion about tolerance, compassion, and religion? At the Karachi Literature Festival. Yes, Karachi. As in Karachi, Pakistan… the city where this week’s headlines include “Tribal elder’s house blown up,” “Schoolteachers block road in protest,” and “Relatives thrash doctors after 10 year-old girl dies.” Is there any space for intellectual discussion in this city?
The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Over 5,000 readers, writers, and book-lovers thronged to the Carlton Hotel on the coast of the Arabian Sea to mingle with Pakistan’s leading authors. Noted religious historian and interfaith spokesperson Karen Armstrong lent her voice to the general message of the festival — that intolerance thrives amidst ignorance. “We really know so little about one another. Diversity within oneself and among others should be appreciated, and we should be open to change,” she said. And what better way to learn than through a book? Works of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, in both English and Urdu, were displayed on tables at the outdoor pavilion, while concurrent sessions with authors and journalists took place in the conference rooms throughout the hotel.
Judging by the response of the packed halls and enthusiastic Q&A sessions, Pakistanis are keen to engage with literature of all types. Comments flew across the room and conversations spilled out into the hallways as participants eagerly offered their opinions on topical subjects such as the current state of affairs, continuing drone attacks, and the misconceptions outsiders hold about Pakistan.
Organized by the British Council, Oxford University Press, and the US Consulate in Karachi, the literature festival attracted not only the Karachi intelligentsia, but also foreign writers and journalists who stopped by after the Jaipur Literary Festival. Enthusiastic Pakistanis repeated the tongue-in-cheek comments by the foreign contingent who were rumored to have said how friendly and warm the Pakistanis were in comparison to their Indian counterparts!
The progressive-poetry rock group Laal (which means ‘Red’ — a reference to socialism and their support of social causes) closed the two-day event with a rock concert. Their songs combined the poetry of Pakistan’s favorite poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz with a pop-rock East/West sound… the perfect conclusion to a festival which celebrated a new crop of writers while acknowledging the debt to those luminaries who preceded them. Perhaps the best writers will emerge under conditions where tyranny and corruption threaten the freedoms of all.
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Art & Culture on February 11th, 2011
Where in the world would you find Karen Armstrong in a room with 2,000 opinionated Muslims… all enjoying a lively discussion about tolerance, compassion, and religion? At the Karachi Literature Festival. Yes, Karachi. As in Karachi, Pakistan… the city where this week’s headlines include “Tribal elder’s house blown up,” “Schoolteachers block road in protest,” and “Relatives thrash doctors after 10 year-old girl dies.” Is there any space for intellectual discussion in this city?
The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Over 5,000 readers, writers, and book-lovers thronged to the Carlton Hotel on the coast of the Arabian Sea to mingle with Pakistan’s leading authors. Noted religious historian and interfaith spokesperson Karen Armstrong lent her voice to the general message of the festival — that intolerance thrives amidst ignorance. “We really know so little about one another. Diversity within oneself and among others should be appreciated, and we should be open to change,” she said. And what better way to learn than through a book? Works of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, in both English and Urdu, were displayed on tables at the outdoor pavilion, while concurrent sessions with authors and journalists took place in the conference rooms throughout the hotel.
Judging by the response of the packed halls and enthusiastic Q&A sessions, Pakistanis are keen to engage with literature of all types. Comments flew across the room and conversations spilled out into the hallways as participants eagerly offered their opinions on topical subjects such as the current state of affairs, continuing drone attacks, and the misconceptions outsiders hold about Pakistan.
Organized by the British Council, Oxford University Press, and the US Consulate in Karachi, the literature festival attracted not only the Karachi intelligentsia, but also foreign writers and journalists who stopped by after the Jaipur Literary Festival. Enthusiastic Pakistanis repeated the tongue-in-cheek comments by the foreign contingent who were rumored to have said how friendly and warm the Pakistanis were in comparison to their Indian counterparts!
The progressive-poetry rock group Laal (which means ‘Red’ — a reference to socialism and their support of social causes) closed the two-day event with a rock concert. Their songs combined the poetry of Pakistan’s favorite poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz with a pop-rock East/West sound… the perfect conclusion to a festival which celebrated a new crop of writers while acknowledging the debt to those luminaries who preceded them. Perhaps the best writers will emerge under conditions where tyranny and corruption threaten the freedoms of all.
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