In 1947, he was at Naushera in Jammu and Kashmir fighting against the Pakistan Army. While at Staff College, in addition to the academic work, he set a record in winning three, point to point and five flat races on horse back a record never equaled. Because of his knowledge of military science and excellent grasp of military operations he was appointed a Brigade Major after the staff course. As Brigade Major of 166 Infantry Brigade- a crack formation, he feit most at home when the formation was out on military exercises.
The Indian Army Chief Field Marshal Manekshaw specially selected Shabeg Singh, then a brigadier, and made him in-charge of Delta Sector with lead Quarters at Aggartala. He was given the responsibility of planning, organizing and directing insurgency operations in the whole of Central and East Bangladesh. Under his command were placed all the Bangladesh officers that had deserted from the Pakistan Army. These included Col Osmani, as adviser, Maj Zia-Ur-Rehman and Mohammad Mustaq. Zia Ur Rehman later became the President of Bangladesh while Mustaq Mohammed became Bangladesh army chief. Starting from about January to October 1971, the insurgency operations gradually grew to such an intensity that by the time war started, the Pakistan army in East Bengal had completely lost their will to resist. The Indian Govt did not want the world to know that the Indian Army was training and directing the Bengali insurgents so all activities were very secret. Shabeg was so thoroughly involved in these clandestine operations that for five months from December 70 to April 71, his family had no news about his whereabouts. They believed he was till in Nagaland and wondered why he did not write because he had always been regular in writing home to his wife. In April 1970, the first letter was received from the Civilian address of a Merchant shop in Aggartala and his name was written as S.Baigh, such was the nature of secrecy maintained of the Army’s involvement in the insurgency movement. The wife was quite confused and the family wondered what was going on because the letter was very brief and just said, “don’t worry I am ok.”.
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Posted by admin in AFGHANISTAN BASED RAW TRAINED TALIBAN ACTIONS, Afghanistan-Land of Backstabbers on November 16th, 2013
U.S. Committed to Losing Afghan War
Never before has a country actively tried to lose a war | Sunday 25 September 2011, by Matthew Nasuti
Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. agree on very little, but both are united in their determination to lose to the Taliban in Afghanistan. This comprehensive effort crosses party lines. The world has witnessed ten years of underfunded troop and trainer levels, mismanaged aid contracts, fractured efforts to inconsistently support both regional warlords and a strong central government, excessive civilian casualties, secret prisons and a half-hearted and floundering civilian surge effort that is wasting billions of dollars per year. The Taliban continue to be funded by opium and U.S. tax dollars and can operate relatively freely from safe havens in Pakistan. Their numbers have now reportedly risen to over 40,000. Based on current conditions they can continue to wage this war indefinitely, while U.S. and NATO efforts wind down due to exhaustion. Despite all of this, there is no major effort to address any of these substantive problems. The level of mismanagement and confusion has been so stunning that it cannot be passed off as mere negligence but appears to be part of a conscious and deliberate effort to lose the war.
General Stanley McChrystal shocked the American public in 2009 when he announced that the Taliban suddenly had the momentum in the war and that the U.S. was losing. The American people had been hearing from Congress and the compromised American news media for eight years that all was well, that the Taliban had been defeated and that al-Qaeda personnel were hiding in holes in the ground in Pakistan. The official response to the McChrystal pronouncement was not to fix the problems but to find a scapegoat. The Pentagon, in May 2009, with the support of President Obama, dishonorably singled out General David McKiernan, (a hero of the Iraq war) to take 100% of the responsibility for these failures. In fact there are hundreds of senior officials, diplomats and military leaders who should have been and should be fired for this monumental debacle. Again, as they have not been, the only conclusion to be drawn is that U.S. officials actually want to lose or care little whether they win or lose.
Every month visiting U.S. Senators to Kabul are given rosy briefings of success. They are undoubtedly shown fancy color charts depicting Taliban defeats and expanding Government control. They are fed Power-Point presentations filled with misleading metrics, cherry-picked to show imaginary progress. They are then taken on special tours of the Afghan version of “Potempkin villages.” Then they all hold press conferences in which they praise what they have seen, with each giving his worthless impression that the war is on the right track. Back home in the U.S. the Pentagon covertly feeds “independent experts” to the cable news channels. They all proceed to mimic Pentagon press releases, assuring the public that all is well.
The real news from Afghanistan comes out in small pieces and usually through independent news sources. These nuggets, if pieced together, create a frightening picture of failure:
1. The U.S. is now air-dropping 6,000 pallets of food, water and ammunition into Afghanistan every month, up from about 120 pallets in 2005. The reason is that the roads are increasingly dangerous. This means that every gallon of water probably costs more than $100 to deliver.
2. The rate of desertions among Afghan police and army units continues to exceed 25% per year.
3. Southern Pashtoons continues to avoid serving in the security services;
4. U.S. diplomats and civilian experts rarely venture into the countryside;
5. Afghan police corruption continues at record levels;
6. Opium production continues to rise and fund the Taliban;
7. The shoddy U.S. build road system in Afghanistan is already collapsing;
8. Afghan women were slowly losing the freedoms they won in 2001; and
9. U.S.-caused civilian casualties continue to fuel the war.
In this sordid mess, America’s troops are abandoned as they are never told that they are fighting and dying for nothing; their families are lied too under the rationalization that it is somehow all in the best interests of the country and taxpayer monies are squandered overseas with abandon, while Americans increasingly go hungry, homeless and jobless.
DID BUSH OR CHENEY DAUGHTERS VOLUNTEER FOR SERVING IN THE US MILITARY?
The rich and powerful in America do not support the Afghan war effort. They have access to classified Pentagon reports such as the “amputations list.” For 2011, it reportedly reveals large increases in both single and multiple amputations among troops in Afghanistan. Even that secret report refuses to list “genital injuries,” which are reportedly skyrocketing so high that the Pentagon will not even put them into secret reports. As a result what we are seeing is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s daughter Chelsea is not volunteering to fight in Afghanistan, following in the tradition of the daughters of George W. Bush and Dick Chaney. Contrast that with the children of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who all fought in the Second World War.
Note: Current U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s son James did serve for a short time in a safe headquarters position in Afghanistan in 2007-2008. In 2008, Navy Lieutenant Panetta was awarded the Bronze Star for his office analytical skills at “identifying and tracking high value al- Qaeda targets.” Based on currently available information the award seems dubious.
In order to understand the current official ambivalence towards this war, one must return to the actual reasons for the Afghan invasion.The story begins in 2001. Officially the goals of the invasion of Afghanistan were to retaliate against Usama bin Laden and destroy al-Qaeda. Unofficially these were not the primary goals at all. In reviewing the planning for Operation Enduring Freedom, the Pentagon did not target Usama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leadership or its members. Such planning would have endorsed the use of precision air strikes, commando operations and even the airlifting of combat units against al-Qaeda camps and known residences and other facilities. None of this is known to have happened and in fact al-Qaeda’s leadership was permitted on December 16, 2001 to escape into Pakistan. The one precision air strike that was carried out occurred on December 3, 2001 in Kandahar in which an American plane bombed the home of al-Qaeda’s No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, reportedly killing his wife Azza and three of his daughters, including his youngest Aisha.
The Pentagon’s war plan called for an invasion from north to south, beginning in Mazar-e Sharif. It followed the same invasion model that the Soviet Union successfully used in 1979, with the U.S. occupying many of the same airbases and other facilities as the Soviets. In analyzing the war plan, its only goal was to push the Taliban from power (not destroy the Taliban). The idea was simply punishment and therefore to scare other countries that might decide to harbor al-Qaeda, telling them that they faced the same fate as the Taliban government.
The international news media reported on the rapid success of the 2001 American invasion, but it was the same superfluous “success” that Napoleon achieved in his march on Moscow in 1812. He captured the capital because the Russian army refused to engage. Capturing territory without destroying the enemy was nearly fatal for Napoleon’s army. Likewise it has proven disastrous for the U.S. military and the world.
Rudderless and without direction from Washington, D.C., the Afghan war today continues aimlessly. The current situation was aptly summed up by Pakistani officials interviewed by Tom Wright of the Wall Street Journal for this September 24, 2011, article. They reportedly told him:
“The U.S. is quite scared of what is happening in Afghanistan.” and “they don’t know what to do.”
Posted by admin in " RIAZ THE SHAITAN OF PAKISTAN, Asif Zardari Crook Par Excellance, BILAWAL BHUTTO ZARDARI-CHIP OF THE ZARDARI BLOCK, Destroyers of E.Pakistan, GHADAAR, Girah Cut, PPP Choor on November 16th, 2013
JUNE 10, 2012
in Featured ArticlesThe Family Gate scandal seems like a flood gate of scandals, where top power brokers including army, bureaucrats, politicians and media are believed to be heavily involved.
One of the influential players from media community, Najam Sethi is believed to be the part of this flood gate. As Dawn TV anchor Talat Hussain recently alleged in this talk show that Najam Sethi’s ‘ChiRya’ (inside information source) is actually Malik Riaz.
Later Najam Sethi in his talk show criticized Talat and that was replied by Talat in his talk show by declaring all his assets and chanllenging Sethi to do that. Now as per some documents, Sethi owns properties in US that are likely to be declared or exposed.Some people, through social media , even has alleaged that Sethi recieved all these properties as benfits from his ‘Chirya’ aka Malik Riaz.
There are also reports that Najam Sethi , as a close aide of Malik Riaz had witnessed all evidence related to scandal against Arsalan Iftikhar and that he is the one who helped Malik Riaz to cut a deal wtth some journalist in Western Media to publish all the evidence and other parts of the story that have not been disclosed in Pakistani media.
Najam Sethi Property – 240 West, 98 Street, Manhattn New York
Najam Sethi Property – 100 Riverside Boulevard, Manhattan New York…………………………………………………… …………. The London Group
Flag of the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) – a left-wing Baloch militant outfit that was one of the leading Baloch separatist guerrilla groups during the Balochistan insurgency in the 1970s.A rudimentary ‘study circle’ was formed in London (in 1969) by some Marxist Pakistani students studying in colleges and universities there.There were about 25 such students in the group who used to meet to discuss various left-wing movements and literature.They also began publishing a magazine called ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ that (in 1971) had to be smuggled into Pakistan because it was highly critical of the Pakistanimilitary’s role in the former East Pakistan.The magazine helped the group to forge a relationship with some Baloch nationalists who invited the group members to travel to Balochistan and help the nationalists set into motion some education related projects.After the loss of East Pakistan in 1971, the populist PPP had formed a new elected government at the centre, whereas the leftist NAP was heading the provincial government in Balochistan.In 1973, the PPP regime accused NAP of fostering a separatist movement in Balochistan and dismissed it.In reaction, hordes of Baloch tr ibesmen picked up arms and triggered a full-fledged guerrilla war against the Pakistan Army.
NAP workers gather outside the offices of the party in Quetta soon after the NAP regime in Balochistan was dismissed by Prime Minster Bhutto in 1973.About five members of the London Club decided to quit their studies in London, travel back to Pakistan and join the insurgency on the Baloch nationalists’ side.They were all between the ages of 20 and 25, came from well-off families and none of them were Baloch.Four were from the Punjab province and included Najam Sethi, Ahmed Rashid, and brothers Rashid and Asad Rehman. One was from a Pakistani Hindu family:Dalip Dass.All wanted to use the Balochistan situation to ‘trigger a communist revolution in Pakistan.’Dass was the son of a senior officer in the Pakistan Air Force. After his schooling in Pakistan, he had joined the Oxford University in the late 1960s where he became a committed Marxist.
Dalip Dass (right) chatting with a friend at a Pakistani college. He soon travelled to London to join Oxford University before secretly returning to Pakistan to join the Baloch guerrilla fighters in the mountains of Balochistan.Asad and Rashid Rehman were sons of Justice SA Rehman who had been a close colleague of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.Najam Sethi came from a well-to-do middle-class family in Lahore and so did Ahmad Rashid whose family hailed from Rawalpindi.All five members had travelled to England to study in prestigious British universities.Initially, they were energised by the left-wing student movements that erupted across the world (including Pakistan) in the late 1960s.When they reached their respective universities in London, they got involved in the student movements there but kept an eye on the developments in Pakistan where a student movement had managed to force out the country’s first military dictator, Ayub Khan (in 1969).The study group honed its knowledge of Marxism, but also began studying revolutionary guerrilla manuals authored by such communist revolutionaries as Che Guevara, Carlos Marighella and Frantz Fanon.When a civil war between the Pakistan Army and Bengali nationalists began in 1971 in former East Pakistan, the group, that originally consisted of about 25 Pakistanistudents studying in England, began to publish a magazine called ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ that severely criticised the role of the Pakistani establishment in East Pakistan.The magazine was smuggled into Pakistan and then distributed in the country by Pakistani left-wing student groups such as the National Students Federation (NSF) that had also led the movement against the Ayub regime.One of the issues of the magazine fell into the hands of some veteran left-wing Baloch nationalist leaders in Balochistan.One of them was Sher Muhammad Marri who at once sent Muhammad Babha to London to make contact with the publishers of the magazine.
Sher Muhammad Marri (third from left) with Baloch fighters in 1968.Muhammad Babha whose family was settled in Karachi, met the members of the study circle in London and communicated Marri’s invitation to them to visit Balochistan.Seven members of the circle agreed to travel to Balochistan. However, two backed out, leaving just five.All five decided to travel back to Pakistan without telling their families who still thought they were studying in England.The years 1971 and 1972 were spent learning the Baloch language and customs, and handling and usage of weapons – especially by Asad Rehman, Ahmad Rashid and Dalip Dass who would eventually join the Baloch resistance fighters in the mountains once the insurgency began in 1973.Najam Sethi and Rashid Rehman stationed themselves in Karachi to secretly raise funds for the armed movement.Each one of them believed that the government’s move against the NAP regime was akin to the establishment’s attitude towards the Bengalis of the former EastPakistan (that broke away in 1971 to become the independent Bengali state of Bangladesh).The young men’s parents all thought their sons were in London, studying. It was only in 1974 when the government revealed their names that the parents came to know.The three men in the mountains took active part in the conflict, facing an army that used heavy weaponry and helicopters that were supplied by the Shah of Iran and piloted by Iranian pilots.All three had also changed their look to suit the attire and appearance of their Baloch comrades.
Asad Rehman tracking the mountains of Balochistan with his group of Baloch fighters in 1974.First to fall was the 23-year-old Dalip Daas. In 1974, while being driven in a jeep with a Baloch comrade and a sympathetic Kurd driver into the neighbouring Sindh province for a meeting with a Sindhi nationalist, the jeep was stopped at a military check-post on the Balochistan-Sindh border.Daas=0 and his Baloch comrade were asked to stay while the driver was allowed to go. Many believe the driver was an informant of the military.Daas was taken in by the military and shifted to interrogation cells in Quetta and then the interior Sindh. There he was tortured and must have died because he was never seen again. He vanished.For years friends and family of Daas have tried to find his body, but to no avail. He remains ‘missing.’
A tra nsformed Dalip Daas just before his arrest, torture and death.After Daas’ disappearance, Rashid Rehman who was operating with Najam Sethi in Karachi went deeper underground.In 1976, the 28-year-old Sethi’s cover was blown and he was picked up by the military and thrown into solitary confinement.More than 5,000 Baloch men and women lost their lives in the war that ended when the PPP regime was toppled in a reactionary military coup in 1977.Asad and Rashid Rehman remained underground till 1978 before departing for Kabul and then to London.Ahmed Rashid also escaped to London.Asad returned to Pakistan in 1980 before going back, this time to escape the right-wing dictatorship of Ziaul Haq.He again returned to the country and became a passionate human rights activist and continued speaking for the rights of the Baloch till his death in 2013.
Asad Rehman in 2012. He passed away in 2013.NAJAM SETHI-THE PUBLISHER & MEDIA TYCOONAfter his release in 1978, Najam Sethi became a successful publisher and progressive journalist. Today he is also known as a celebrated political analyst and a popular TV personality.
Najam Sethi in 2012. Today he is one of the leading liberal voices and political analysts on mainstream TV in Pakistan.Ahmad Rashid travelled to England, became a journalist and then a highly respected and best-selling political author and expert on the politics of Afghanistan andPakistan.
Ahmad Rashid in 2009.Rashid Rehman returned to Pakistan from London and became a leading journalist and editor.
Rashid Rehman (second from left) in conversation with British author William Dalrymple (right) in 2012.The conflict in Balochistan continues.
Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com
Then read this:Media gate –1 9 anchors & journalists funded by Malik Riaz EXPOSED
The following is the list of Anchors & Journalists who were paid by
Malik Riaz. This list was leaked by one of the former employee of
Bahria Town, who has worked in the I.T Department and this person also
had access to all the computers connected to Bahria Town’s network
including Malik Riaz and Ali Riaz’s personal computers. This document
, along with other 100s of other proofs were obtained from hacked
computers. The documents obtained contain transactions of all the bank
accounts, bank statements, emails sent/received and information on
deals/projects.
In order to find out if the information stated in the document is
authentic, anyone can contact the banks listed in the document,
provide them with the account number and get details on the
transitions listed.
The reason behind releasing this document is to show people of
Pakistan the real faces of the media personals and TV Channels. We
watch their shows, read their columns and believe their opinions and
reporting. But matter of the fact is that, most of the reporting is
paid and biased. We as a nation need to realize that our country is
struggling to survive and we need to kick out the enemies of state out
of our country to save our beloved country.
1) Mubashir Luqman
– Received 2 Crore and 85 Lakh rupees in 3 installments through National Bank
– Mercedes-Benz
2) Dr.Shahid Masood
– Received 1 Crore and 7 Lakh rupees in 1 Instalments through National Bank
– 7 Fully Paid trips to Dubai, Including Hotel stays and car Rentals
3) Najam Sethi
– Received 1 Crore and 94 Lakh rupees
– 1 Kanal Plot in Bahria Town Lahore
– 3 Fully Paid Trips to USA including hotel stays
Money Transferred From:
Muslim Commercial Bank
Main Boulevard DHA ,Lahore, Pakistan
Account Title: Bahria Town (Pvt) Limited
Account # : 14-7
Swift Code: MUCBPKKAA
4) Kamran Khan
– Received 62 Lakh Rupees, was promised 2 Crore + a house in Bahria
Town, but didn’t receive it until May 2012
Money Transferred From:
NIBC Bank Limited (Bahria Town Branch) Account# 8283982
5) Hassan Nisar
– Received 1 Crore and 10 Lakh Rupees
– 10 Marla Plot in Bahria Town
Money Transferred From:
Account Title: Bahria Town Pvt. Limited
Account# 42279-2
With Habib Bank Limited LDA Plaza Branch, Lahore
Code:1315
Swift: HABBPKKAX315
6) Hamid Mi r
– Received 2 Crore and 50 Lakh Rupees
– 5 Kanal Plot in Islamabad
Money Transferred From:
NIBC Bank Limited (Bahria Town Branch) Account# 8284059
7) Mazhar Abbas
– Received 90 Lakh
– 10 Marla Plot in Lahore
Money Transferred From:
MCB Account# 0075232201000124
8) Meher Bukhari
– Received 50 Lacks on Her wedding with Kashif Abbasi
– 1 Kanal Plot in Islamabad
9) Marvi Sirmed
– Received 10 Lakh Rupees
Money Transferred From:
NIBC Bank Limited (Bahria Town Branch) Account# 8284059
10) Arshad Sharif
– Promoted as Bureau Chief of Dunya Tv on the request of Malik Riaz in 2011
– Received 85 Lakh Rupees in 2 Instalments
Money Transferred From:
UBL Account# 37100154
11) Nusrat Javed
– Received 78 Lakh Rupees+ Toyota Corolla
Money Transferred From:
Muslim Commercial Bank
Main Boulevard DHA ,Lahore,Pakistan
Account Title: Bahria Town (Pvt) Limited
Account # : 14-7
Swift Code: MUCBPKKAA
12) Mushtaq Minhas
– Received 55 Lakh Rupees in 2 Instalments
Money Transferred From:
Account Title: Bahria Town Pvt. Limited
Account# 51077-6
With Habib Bank limited LDA Plaza Branch, Lahore
Code:1315
Swift: HABBPKKAX315
13) Javed Chaudhry
– Received 3 Lakh per column written under the name of Malik Riaz
– 10 Marla House in Bah ria Town
– Received 1 Crore for helping to write a book for Malik Riaz
Money Transferred From:
UBL Account# 37100154
14) Sana Bucha
– Received 83 Lakh Rupees
– 10 Marla Plot in Lahore
Money Transferred From:
Muslim Commercial Bank
Main Boulevard DHA ,Lahore,Pakistan
Account Title: Bahria Town (Pvt) Limited
Account # : 14-7
Swift Code: MUCBPKKAA
15) Muneeb Farooq
– Received 25 Lakh Rupees
– Fully paid round trip to Dubai and a week stay in 5 star hotel
Money Transferred From:
Askari Bank Account# 01000101011180
16) Aftab Iqbal
– In 2010, with the help of Malik Riaz, Aftab Iqbal was able to join
Geo Tv and start his new show Khabarnaak.
– Ever since the show started Aftab Iqbal was paid by PML(N) & Malik
Riaz to promote positive image of PML(N)
– From 2010 to 2012, he was paid estimated 2 crore
– Received Toyota Jeep
– Land bought by Malik Riaz in Bedian Road was gifted to Aftab Iqbal
to build his farm house
Money Transferred From:
Meezan Bank (Bahria Town Branch) Account# 3620
17) Sohail Waraich
– Sohail was paid 15 Lakh Rupees to promote positive image of Malik
Riaz in Aik Din Geo Ke Saath
– Gifted Honda Civic to Sohail Waraich in 2008
Money Transferred From:
Account Title: Bahria Town Pvt. Limited
Account# 42 279-2
With Habib Bank Limited LDA Plaza Branch, Lahore
Code:1315
Swift: HABBPKKAX315
18) Asma Sherazi
Received 45 Lakh Rupees 1 instalment
Money Transfer From
Account Title Bahria Town Pvt Limited
Account #51077-5
With Habib Bank Limited LDA Plaza Bahria Town Lahore
Code 1315
Swift:HABBPKKAX315
19) Sami Ibrahim
Received 1 Crore
1 Kanal Plot in Bahria Town
Received Toyota Corolla in 2010
Money Transfer From
KASB Bank (Bahria Town Branch) Account #3710581401By: Farrukh Shabbir, Uploaded: 14th June 2012
A record of payments allegedly made to 19 senior-journalists of Pakistan, by the Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz has surfaced on the social networking site Twitter, Aaj News reported.
Renowned names of various news television anchors and journalists like Dr. Shahid Masood, Najam Sethi, Kamran Khan, Nusrat Javed, Meher Bokhari, Mubasher Lucman, Hamid Mir, Javed Chaudhry, Sana Bucha, Sohail Waraich and Asma Shirazi among a few others, are present in the lists below.
An account of favors given to these journalists in shapes of money, cars and property etc is recorded in these trademarked letterheads of Bahria To wn.
By: Farrukh Shabbir, Uploaded: 14th June 2012A record of payments allegedly made to 19 senior-journalists of Pakistan, by the Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz has surfaced on the social networking site Twitter, Aaj News reported.
Renowned names of various news television anchors and journalists like Dr. Shahid Masood, Najam Sethi, Kamran Khan, Nusrat Javed, Meher Bokhari, Mubasher Lucman, Hamid Mir, Javed Chaudhry, Sana Bucha, Sohail Waraich and Asma Shirazi among a few others, are present in the lists below.
An account of favors given to these journalists in shapes of money, cars and property etc is recorded in these trademarked letterheads of Bahria Town.
ALLAH O AKBARPAKISTANZINDABADNAJAM SETHI IS A GANDHI TRAITOR & HEBOUGHT A FLAT FOR 30 LAKH DOLLARS —- نجم سیٹھی ، گاندھی غدار اور مکی ماؤس امریکی غدار ھے اور اس نے حرام کے پیسے سے تیس لاکھ ڈالر کا فلیٹ خریدا
Posted: March 27, 2013 | Author: ghaddars | Filed under: Boot Lickers of USA & Britain, Domestic Ghaddars of Pakistan, Gandhi Traitors, GHADDARS, Journalistic Traitors, MICKY MO– — USE GHADDARS, Najam Sethi, SLUMDOG INDIA, TRAITORS, Ummat, URDU NEWSPAPERS, مکی ماؤس امریکہ اور کاکروچ برطانیہ کے پالتو کتے, مکی ماؤس غدار, نجم سیٹھی ، گاندھی غدار اور مکی ماؤس امریکی غدار ھے, گاندھی غدار, ھمیں غداروں سے نفرت ھے, پاکستان کے غدار صحافی, امت, اردو اخبار, بد قسمت پاکستان گاندھی غداروں سے بھرا پڑا ھے, غداروں اور وطن فروشوں پہ لعنت | Tags: Gandhi Traitors, GHADDARS, Micky Mouse Ghaddar,Micky Mouse Traitor, Najam Sethi, SLUMDOG INDIA, TRAITORS, نجم سیٹھی ، گاندھی غدار اور مکی ماؤس امریکی غدار ھے |Leave a comment »
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Posted by admin in PAKISTAN THINK TANK ANALYST on November 16th, 2013
What does Pakistan really want in Afghanistan? That question has become all the more urgent since Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Pakistan of being indirectly responsible for last week’s attack on our embassy in Kabul. Reports of a second possible attack, on Sunday, on the building alleged to house the local CIA station will, no doubt, fuel further speculation. Assessing Pakistan’s interests in Afghanistan through the prism of honesty and realpolitik rather than wishful thinking may be the only way we’re going to get out of this messy war.
For a start, we need to understand that Pakistan intends to bring down the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, even if that means taking on its sometime U.S. ally. Pakistan hates Karzai out of a conviction that he has made common cause with Pakistan’s strategic nemesis, India, and a suspicion that the Afghan leader intends to harm Pakistan’s strategic interests in other ways. And, of course, the hatred is mutual. Rightly or wrongly, Karzai believes that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) assassinated his father, and would do the same to him given half a chance. (Read what Pakistan really envisions as an endgame for Afghanistan.)
A second misunderstanding we need to dispense with is that the ISI is somehow a rogue organization outside of Pakistan’s chain of command and is pursuing a pro-Taliban agenda all its own. The Pakistani army can remove the ISI director, General Ahmad Shuja Pasha – or any other officer of the organization – at a moment’s notice. So, if the ISI did indeed sponsor an attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul, such a step should be assumed to have been taken with the consent of the power that be in Pakistan, i.e. the military establishment. The idea that to make our Pakistan problem go away, the ISI needs to be “cleaned up” is naive. The Pakistani actions that make life difficult for the U.S. in Afghanistan are driven by a clear-sighted strategic agenda.
As for the Pakistani proxy accused of carrying out the embassy attack, the Haqqani network, we need to understand why Pakistan won’t give it up or act against it as the U.S. demands. With up to 15,000 fighters and effective control of large parts of eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan’s North Waziristan, the Haqqanis are an indispensible party to a peace settlement in Afghanistan – and a vehicle for securing Pakistan’s interests in that country after the U.S. withdraws. To sever relations with the Haqqanis now would mean Pakistan giving up a large degree of influence in Afghanistan after the war is over.
The U.S. has for years demanded that Pakistan mount a sweeping military offensive in North Waziristan to destroy the Haqqanis, but even if they were so inclined, the fact is that the Pakistani military has only ever been able to control the main roads in North Waziristan. The Pakistani army is incapable of occupying and holding this territory, no matter how much money we offer or how dire the threats we make. (See whether Pakistan really wants a stable Afghanistan.)
At the core of the problem stands a simple proposition: Pakistan doesn’t trust us with Afghanistan – and from Islamabad’s perspective, not without cause. We took a strategic decision to invade a country central to their national-security doctrine without seriously consulting them, preferring to think in terms of an Afghanistan of our dreams. Nor did we take into account their strategic interests and the proxies through which they have pursued them. The Soviet Union made the same mistake when it invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
Having failed to prevail a decade later, we now have two choices, neither of them particularly attractive to Washington. We can attempt to destroy the Haqqani base in North Waziristan by invading Pakistan. But to do that effectively would require more troops than we currently have in Afghanistan. Doing so would obviously destroy whatever relations we still have with Pakistan, with profoundly dangerous consequences in Afghanistan and far beyond.
Alternatively, we could hash out a settlement with Pakistan, which would inevitably mean accepting the Haqqanis and easing out Karzai in any political settlement to the conflict. Such a deal would also potentially bring in Afghanistan’s other neighbor with real strategic interests in the country – Iran. Iran can be unpredictable, but it’s by no means certain it would accept true Pakistani-American collusion in Afghanistan. In the mid-’90s, Iran was all but at war with the Taliban, and if Iran isn’t consulted on a settlement, it could play the spoiler.
Accepting Pakistan’s postconflict agenda and backing off on the Haqqanis at Karzai’s expense is too bitter a pill for Washington to swallow in an election year, so we’ll muddle through for another year. But when the U.S. finally leaves, don’t be surprised to see the Haqqanis in Kabul.
Robert Baer, a former Middle East CIA field officer, is TIME.com‘s intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower.
Posted by admin in SIKH GENOCIDE, SIKH HOLOCAUST 1984, SIKH RIGHTS & FREEDOMS on November 16th, 2013
General Shabeg Singh- the great general of modern times belonged to village Khiala, about nine miles from Am Chogwan Road. The eldest son of Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur. He had three brothers and a sister. The General traced its lineage to great Sikh warrior, Bhai Mehtab Singh who along with Bhai Sukha Singh slew the notorious Massa Rangar in 1740 and thus avenged the desecration of the Golden Temple. The family was was well-to-do and prosperous and had good size of land holding of over 100 acres. The village Khiala was earlier known as Khiala Nand Singhwala. Nand Singh was the great grandfather of Shabeg Singh. Later on the name got shortened. Mother of Shaheg Singh was devout lady but she was very practical and a great disciplinarian. She never forgot to remind her children and grand children that they were the descendents of Baba Mehtab Singh and must live up to the family name. Sardar Bhagwan Singh was the village Lambardar and remained quite occupied with the problems of the village folk who always looked to him for guidance and depended greatly upon his advice . In 1952, the younger brothers Sardar Shamsher Singh, Sardar Jaswant Singh along with their brother-in-law shifted to Haidwani in the Terrai area of UP after having bought farmlands there. In 1957, Jaswant Singh died. From his early childhood Shabeg Singh displayed qualifies of leadership and intelligence much above that of the average village child. He was quick witted and often pontaneously composed extemporaneous verses to caricature interesting village personalities He displayed a keen interest in history and literature and his village teachers were impressed with his intellectual ability. They advised Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur to send him to a school. He was sent to Khalsa College Amritsar for secondary education and from there to a Govt. College Lahore for higher education. He was an outstanding foot ball and hockey player and excelled in athletics. At the age of 18 years he had equaled the India records in 100 meters sprint and was the District Broad jump champion. However, even though he had a natural ability for sports he did not wish to pursue that as a career, his mind was on the army, which was considered a noble profession. He excelled in studies and generally topped his class. In 1940, an officers selection team visiting Lahore colleges were looking for fresh recruits to the Indian Army officers cadre. Out of a large number of students, who applied, Shabeg Singh was the only one to he selected from Government College and sent for training in the officer training school. After training he was commissioned in the second Punjab Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. Within a few days the Regiment moved to Burma and joined the war against the Japanese, which was then in progress. In 1944 when the war ended he was in Malaya with his unit. After partition, when reorganization of the regiments took place, he joined the Parachute brigade as a Paratrooper. He was posted in the 1st para battalion in which he remained till 1959. By nature Gen Shabeg was a voracious reader, he had read about every military campaign and knew the biography of every military general of consequence. He had a natural flair for history and loved reading. He could fluently speak Punjabi, Persian, Urda, Gorkhali besides English and Hindi. He was an instructor in the Military Academy at Dehra Dun and held a number of important staff appointments in various ranks In the army he had a reputation of being fearless officer and one who did not tolerate any nonsense. People either loved him or dreaded him because of his frank and forthright approach. During the course of his service in the Indian army, Shaheg Singh fought in every war that India participated in.
A few days before the battalion was to he launched into attack, the Commanding Officer (that time Lieutenant Colonel) Shabeg Singh received a telegram from his mother informing him that his father had expired. Being the eldest he quietly put the telegram in his pocket and no one in his battalion even knew that the commanding officer had lost his father on the eve of battle, Only when the operations were over, did he apply for leave and perform his duty of consoling his mother and family. His mother, Pritam Kaur, never asked why he had not been reached for performing the last rites. Everything was understood the call of duty to defend the nation’s frontiers was of primary importance. Soon after the 1965 operations, Shabeg became Col G.S. of an infantry division, after which he was given command of the crack 19 Infantry brigade in Jammu Sector. In 1%9 when the Eastern sector of India was becoming deeply involved in Naga anti-insurgency operations he was posted as Deputy GOC of the largest Indian Division – eight Mountain Division which had nearly 50 thousand troops under command. With his leadership qualities and employment of dare~devil tactics he was greatly successful in handling the counter-insurgency operations in that region. Mukhti Bahini In 1971, when the political turmoil in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) started and the Bengalis declared their intentions to separate, the Yahya Khan Govt cracked down on the Bengalis, forcing them to flee to neighboring Indian States. India decided to intervene and in 1971 started the clandestine insurgency operations in East Pakistan. Meanwhile as the Mukti Bahini got bolder, the Pak Army in the East began to grow demoralized due to the onslaught. It got so widely dispersed in trying to contain the ‘Mukti Bahini’ that when the Indian Army launched its operations in Nov.1971 they were able to walk through to Dacca, virtually unopposed. Over one hundred thousand enemy troops with the complete general staff surrendered,leading to the emergence of Bangladesh. The credit of this great achievement was mainly due to the efforts of Shabeg Singh, who spent day and night organizing, motivating and training young Bengali youth to fight for their land. Such was the motivation of a Bengali youth force known as Mukti Bahini and so perfect the direction of their operation that no senior administrative officer felt safe in Bengal. Guerilia strikes were launched on five star hotels and on ships in Chittagong harbor to show the extent of power which the Mukti Bahini wielded. Strategic bridges were destroyed, factories closed and movement within Bangladesh restricted resulting in a paralysis of the economy. No doubt it was a cakewalk for the Indian Army when the actual operations were launched. The Indian government promoted Shaheg Singh to the post of Major General and awarded him the Param Vashist Sewa Medal in recognition of his services. He had earlier been awarded the Ati Vashist Sewa Medal also. He was made General Officer Command of MP Bihar and Orissa. The Jaya Pyakash Narayan movement had started during 1972-73 and became a serious threat to the Indira Govt. Police were sympathetic with JP and his followers, so the Government decided to use the Army. Gen Shabeg was asked to arrest JP and take some harsh measure against his followers but he refused saying this was not his job. The result was that the Congress Govt later instituted a CBI inquiry to harass him on cooked-up charges and he was out posted of the area. After the Indo-Pak wall, all the Pakistani POWs were under his jurisdiction and senior General Staff were kept at Jabalpur which was also the HQs of MP.Bihar and Orissa area. Due to jealousy of certain senior army officers , he was not given the command of a Division which was a move of the Army for denying him promotion. Here was a field commander with so much war experience-denied command of a combat formation. Why so? Only to do deny him promotion when his name came up. While he was posted as GOC of the UP Area HQs in whose jurisdiction the Kumaon Regimental Center is placed, it was found that the commander of the Kumaon Military Farm had given a large sum money to the Chief, Gen Raina, who was himself from the same regiment. A court of inquiry discovered that General Raina (a Kashmiri Brahmin), Army received over two hundred thousand rupees from the Kumaon farm to meet expenses for his daughter’s marriage. When this information was brought to the notice of the General Office Commanding, Shabeg Singh; he told Gen Raina about the findings of the Court of Inquiry and requested the chief to return the amount as the Military farm of the Kumaon Regt was already running a loss. The result was that Gen Shabeg was promptly posted out of the this indiscretion and the inquiry hushed up. The forthwith posting was an unprecedented action because peacetime postings are never conducted on such emergency basis. Soon after that the Army instituted a court of inquiry against Gen Shabeg Singh which dragged on for one year till the date of his retirement on May, 1 1976. The main charge against the General had accepted a plaque costing Rs 2500 as a gift on his positing out of Jabalpur area HQs. -Even though a similar present had been predecessor and it is common for senior officers to accept such gifts. However, in the case of Gen Shabeg it became an offense. Some other flimsy charges were also made like allowing his official house land to be used for cultivation purposes and permitting sale of goods purchased from customs in the area HQs Canteen. These practices had been in vogue even before Gen had taken command of the area in 1972. The vindictiveness of Indian Government and the Army Chief was made obvious, when one day prior of Gen Shabeg’s retirement, on April 30, 1976 the hero of Mukti Bahini, a highly decorated general with PVSM & AVSM, who had been actively involved in every operation that Indian Army fought since his joining service and who spent the major portion of his life in field areas separated from the cost of his wife’s health and the education of his children was dismissed from the Army. Such was the treatment meted out to a brave soldier and an outstanding General, a leader of men, whom the Indian government and some senior Army officers in 1984 after Operation Blue Star dubbed as ‘disgruntled’ and frustrated because he was loyal to his community and fought for its honor and to protect the Golden Temple against the Army attack. Gen Shabeg Singh was convinced, even while he was still serving in the Army, that the Government of India was curbing the freedom of Sikhs all over India. He was aware of the discrimination against Sikhs in denying them promotions and the general hostility of the Govt. who were set to weed out the Sikhs from the Army. The general reduction in the strength of Sikhs in the Army and the policy of the Govt. towards Sikhs in Punjab by denying them capital industry, restricting the Sikh peasant to farming of wheat and crops whose prices were also controlled to deny them full reward. The denial of full and fare shares of river waters were apart of an overall conspiracy to deny Sikhs their legitimate due. At the same time the propaganda of the Indian Government against the Sikhs, painting them as communal. Their demand for autonomy was treated as treachery and anti-patriotic by the Govt, and the “free” press vociferously branded the Sikh demands as secessionist. The beleaguered Sikhs had no way to voice their grievances, they were not properly organized, they had no press which commanded international attention. The Akali party as painted as party of uneducated, unlettered, obscurantists Sikhs so that belonging to intelligentsia, shied away from it.The Akalis in turn were suspicious of these former Government servants and doubted their loyalties. This resulted in growing gap between the Sikh Intelligentsia and Sikh politicians. Retired Sikh Army officers as well as Civil Administration preferred to join the Congress rather than a Sikh political party. In 1977, Gen Shabeg Singh decided to throw-in his lot with the Akali Party as it was the only party in Punjab which was Sikhism oriented instead of Congress which was more of a secular party. He met Sardar Gurcharan Singh Tohra and offered to work as a soldier of Panth. The shrewd SGPC president was initially hesitant and distant but gradually was won over by the sincerity of the general and started seeking his advice important matters like associating Sikh Intelligentsia and ex servicemen with the Aakli Morcha. It was the way of Shaheg Singh thatt once he took a decision, he stuck to it and refused to be shaken from his resolve. His brother, who was progressive and well -to- do farmer and an active political worker in the Terrai (state of UP in North India)at Bazpur became the first victim of the Government’s oppression on the family. The local Congress leader along with the police connived to finish him and he was killed by the Congress leader in 1978. The same congressman has ever since been terrifying the Sikhs in that area. The loss of his younger brother, was a big blow to Shabeg Singh but his resolve not weaken. The general and his family members were harassed, the CBI tried to implicate the general in a case of alleged misappropriation of wealth and dragged on the case till 1983 Dec., to embarrass and harass him. Eventually the case fell through due to its flimsiness and the acquitted general said to his son, “These CBI official knowing too well the weakness of their case and feeling ashamed of their vain attempts to slander me could not bear to look me in the face.” For five years he had to bear with this govt. sponsored harassment only because he had opted to politics and not taken repressive means against Jaya Prakash Narain’s movement a few years earlier. Gen Shabeg Singh was very active during the Akali’s peaceful agitation against Government policies of “seeing Sikhs as terrorists” and “river waters and transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab” of 1980 to 84. He courted arrest a number of times and won the hearts of the agitationist who saw that here was one leader who did not accept any preferential treatment in prison. He slept on the floor on a single rug and gave his cot to any old or infirm co-prisoner. He cared for their wants and protested to jail authorities for better conditions for the old and weak agitationists. He won the respect of his colleagues and other leaders like Prakash Singh Badal, Balwant Singh, H.S. Dhindsa and Vice Chancellor B.S.Samundri. Most Akali leaders liked and appreciated his work and sense of dedication. All those who associated with him were enthused by his Spirit He became popular with the people in Punjab and was soon fully engrossed in his service to the “‘Panth”. During the periods when he was out of jail he spent a major portion of his time in the village at Khiala where his mother lived He did not care for the old age comforts that he had planned for by constructing a comfortable house at Dehra Dun. His wife too came to stay in the village where he spent most of the time. This was inspite of her ill health due to a defective kidney and hypertension and the neglect of their house at Dehra Dun. Punjab had become a leaderless state in 1982- or perhaps there were two many leaders. The people of Punjab were confused. There was Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Parkash Singh Badal, Sant Longowal, Jagdev Singh Talwandi and a host of other big and small leaders. But everyone was suspect in the eyes of the people thanks to the Govt. propaganda and machination of Congress led by Gandhi. Now stepped another leader, a charismatic personality. A saint and leader of the renowned ‘Damdami Taksal’ Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. A selfless, dedicated leader who was frank, forthright and outspoken. He had but one interest only – the interest of the Sikh community – the Khalsa. He did not mince words when he attacked the deceitful politics of the Congress. He spoke out plainly on how the Sikhs had been exploited, and how the Akalis’, inspite of their assertions, had fallen prey to the politics of deceit and disruption. They were accused of neglecting Sikh interest when in power to appease the Central Congress Government. People flocked to him. He soon emerged as the undisputed leader of the Sikhs. His following grew at an alarming rate to the discomfort of the Indira’s congress Government. When Gen Shabeg Singh met Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, he felt naturally attracted to this out spoken, plain and bold man who was a natural leader and whose word, all Sikhs, specially in rural Punjab, The two became closer and closer with passing time. In 1983 Gen Shabeg Singh and other leaders suggested to Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Sardar Gurcharan Singh Tohra to get together the Sikh intellectuals and discuss the dangerous situation that was being created by the Government,which was bent upon exploiting the Sikhs to win popular Hindu support and how it could lead to a breaking point. Gen Shabeg Singh worked ceaselessly in drafting letters and inviting eminent Sikhs and ex-Army officers to attend the meeting. which was eventually held and all shades of Sikh leadership felt convinced of the need of unity at this critical juncture. A very large number of retired army personnel attended this meeting and this frightened the Govt. A resolution was made that if need be, Sikhs would sacrifice their lives for the cause. A line was drawn and all who agreed were asked to step across it. Gen Shabeg Singh led the way. With passing time, the only way the Sikhs could escape from the conflagrant situation that was developing was to remain united, but the Govt was steadily working toward eroding any such moves because it had already made up its mind to teach the Sikhs a lesson. Indira Gandhi, developed a new strategy in dealing with the unwelcome emergence of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. She cleverly planned to use the phenomenon to finish Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrranwale and also win the support of Hindu majority at the cost of the Sikhs. A massive smear campaign was launched to denigrate the new leader who she knew would never compromise on principles. The story of what followed is well known. With each passing day the Governments shameless tirade against the Sikhs grew and grew. There was no way for the Sikhs to respond bul only by getting stuck deeper in the quagmire. Eventually Sant Bhindranwale and his loyalist were forced to seek shelter in the apparent safety of Akal Takhat. The only hope of Sikhs was unity of leadership but that was not to be. They were not strong enough to repel an all out Govt attack, though they had the power to hold the police and allied security forces at bay, perhaps for many months. Now Sant Jarnail Singh needed Gen Shabeg Singh’s help. The General was away at Dehra Dun trying to recuperate from a serious heart attack that he had suffered a few months before, while on one of his “Sikh Prachar” meetings. A special messenger reached the house at Dehra Dun in the middle of March 1984, with a message from Sant Jarnail Singh Bhandranwale that he was needed at Amritsar. After convalescence at Dehra Dun, Shabeg Singh and his wife had planned on a visit to Hajur Sahib where his wife had pledged to offer prayers once his CBI case was decided In Dec 1983 he had been acquitted of all charges. But this visit was not to be. Without second thought and still not fully recovered he left for Amritsar and that was last he saw his Dehra Dun home which he had planned to spend a peaceful retirement in pursuit prayer and meditation. At Amritsar, he got fully involved in setting up the defenses against Government attack on the Golden Temple complex. He had to plan his defenses such that they were inconspicuous because the pilgrims’ movement to the Golden Temple and around it had to remain unhindered. At the Same time, the defenses had to be very effective. He was in his element now. In the service of his community he did not mind giving up his life. He had always had a love for warfare and thought of death in battle a privilege. Perhaps he had a hidden desire to die fighting and in the holy presence of our Gurus. What better place then, than the Akal Takhat and the close proximity of Harmandir Sahib and in the service of his community. Tirelessly he worked against time with the prayer of Guru Gobind Singh on lips “Deh Shiva Var Mohe��.” In the past, whenever in war, he always offered this prayer. Being an Army General he must have been very well aware of the odd against him. Re had less than 200 young Khalsa youth to help him. Though these were no ordinary youth. They were highly motivated, dedicated to the cause and each one resolved to fight to the last when the time came Yet he knew that with this small band, and hardly any resources with which to resist the might of the Indian Army, he might surely be overwhelmed. In the interest of the Sikh cause, he did suggest to Sant Jamail Singh Bhindranwale to leave the Akal Takhat and seek refuge outside the country to carry on the struggle. But how could the head of Damdami Taksal accept such a suggestion however practical it may have appeared. Perhaps Indira to knew and had calculated on this. When the time came, he would prefer sacrifice and martyrdom in the footsteps of Baba Deep Singh. Here was combination of two great traditions. One, the head of the great Daindami Takhsal and another a descendent of Bhai Mehtab Singh who had at this very place slashed off the head of vile Massa Rangar and carried it on his spear charging through the bewildered soldiers of the Nawab 250 years earlier. In the meanwhile, the political situation grew worse Indira Gandhi was playing her cards as per the game plan. Hindu feelings against Sikh throughout the country had been sufficiently aroused to condone any action against Sikhs including an assault on the Golden Temple.Commandos had been rehearsed for months at Chakkratta. Come June 1984 and it was time to call in the army and administer the ‘coupe de grace’. The army leader had been carefully selected, Lt Gen R.S. Dayal though the Chief of Staff to Gen Sunderji the Army Commander in charge of the operation was yet given greater coverage by the Govt. dominated media to show that the Army Sikh officers even at the highest level approved on the Golden Temple. Major Gen K.S.Brar, a Sikh only in name, clean shaven, married to an anglo-Indian who smoked and drank and cared not for Sikhism, these two were orchestrated as the leaders of the attack. Giani Zail Singh who signed the papers for army action was the President of the country. He later denied that he knew about army action. On June 1 and June 2 Gen Brar himself went to asses the defenses of the temple dressed as a pilgrim and convinced his superiors the operation would take only six hours. On June 3 at 9:30 a.m. Punjab, Amritsar was sealed off and no movement of people allowed into the Golden Temple or out of it. At 8:30 a.m. that day Gen Shabeg Singh had literally forced his mother, wife, sister-in-law and nephew to leave the complex and go to the village. They had come there to offer prayers on the Shaheedi Gurupurub of Guru Arjun Dev which fell on June 4 and make arrangements for the annual ‘Chownki’ which pro ceeds from Harmandir Sahib to Gurusar the Gurdwara of guru Hargobind Sahib. The Chownki (party carrying the Guru Granth Sahib) halts at village Khiala which is on the way. Soft drinks, tea and snacks are served to everyone and this duty had been performed by Pritam Kaur, General Shabeg Singh’s mother since many, many years. Even if she was alone, she made sure arrangements for the Chowmki’s were made by the village folks At Harmandir Sahib, thousands of pilgrims who had come for the annual occasion could not leave before 9:30 a.m. and were trapped, many thousands would lose their lives in the massacre that was about to be unleashed by the power-hungry Indira and her stooges. Sikhs would be presented with another group of martyrs. The last chapter in the lives of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Bhai Amrik Singh and Gen Shaheg Singh along with those valiant youth who fought for the honor of Golden Temple and the Sikhs was about to close. So too would be lost the lives of thousands of innocent pilgrims while those spared would rot in camps and prisons of the Indian Govt. for many years. Yet a new chapter in the history of the Sikhs was about to begin. Ever since Blue Star, tens of thousands of Sikh youth have lost their lives in the struggle to achieve an autonomous state, a land which the Sikhs can call their own. |
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Posted by admin in Art & Artists Of Pakistan on November 16th, 2013
The DNA code of Pakistani painting is a complex one. The early experiment with the stem cells of modern art movements to further a nationalist agenda birthed a Pakistani modernity. The artist not content to be on the fringe turned into the protagonist of the ‘other story’- a saga of three decades that chronicles the trauma of a heterogeneous people learning to be a nation and an agenda of conscience that defied the colonization of the spirit.
Bol kay lab azaad hain…challenged the revolutionary, Faiz.
(speak out for your lips are no longer sealed)
With this independent spirit, the artists create an expressive contemporary mosaic. For those who can penetrate its layers the most important sub- text is the latent philosophy. Naqvi in his tome ‘Image and Identity’ locates the Pakistani artist in the malamati tradition..A group of free- thinking Muslim writers and poets that occupies the nimbus between the secular and the religious. The art of Pakistan reaffirms that the artist unlike the politics of the time, has transcended religion into the cultural domain, a timeless matrix of creativity.
The culture that took root nearly 50 centuries ago in the Indus Valley of the present day Pakistan came to be known as the oldest urban ethos of the region. The eventual infusion of Islam not only enhanced the cultural identification of Pakistan but also advanced the development of art over the years. During the pre-Partition days, poetry and literature were the primary means of expression and highly respected forms of art. On the contrary, artists were considered as languishing craftsmen who simply replicated traditional art. After independence, modernism was chosen as a popular approach by Pakistani artists like Shakir Ali and Zubeida Agha for emancipation and free enterprise, contrary to the restrained demeanour of the old school.
Shakir Ali did his masters from the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy (JJ) School of Arts, Bombay, and left for England and France. On his return in 1952, Ali, after a short stint as a drawing master in Karachi, joined the Mayo School, Lahore as a lecturer. In 1958, the Mayo School was upgraded to National College of Arts (NCA) where Professor Mark Sponenburgh, an ex-JJ School sculptor, continued as the Principal and introduced major changes in the curriculum for necessary upgrading of the art disciplines. Ali succeeded Sponenburgh as Principal in 1961, where he served till 1969.
Ali’s presence in Lahore acted as a catalyst to the liberal art community for his overwhelming interest in the works of Cézanne and Cubism, which he introduced in the 1950s. He was also inspired by Muslim calligraphy and exploited its use in his paintings. A stranger to the city of Lahore, he took refuge in the tea and coffee houses on the Mall, where artists and poets frequently congregated to exercise creative intelligence. These individuals were frustrated with the events of the recent past and were anxious for a change. The addition of Ali amidst a perturbed set of like-minded artists was timely to impart the requisite impetus. He never forced anyone to paint like he did; instead, he inculcated the desire to be original.
Amongst his closest associates who rejuvenated the post-Partition modern art were Sheikh Safdar, Raheel Akbar Javed, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Moeen Najmi and Ali Imam. Dr Akbar Naqvi, a distinguished art critic, in his book, Image and Identity, gave them the title of Shakir Ali’s Panj Piyare (meaning ‘the five beloved ones’ in Punjabi).
Seated Nude in Blue, 1970
ShakircAli (Pakistani, 1916–1975)
Oil on canvas; 35 x 54 in.
Image courtesy of ShakircAli Museum, Lahore
ShakircAli Museum
Sheikh Safdar, the first piyara, painted in the style of a cubist and drew subjects that were Ali’s favourite; however, he could not achieve the sensitivity of the mentor. Safdar’s painting of ‘Mother and child’ was ornamental and carried liberal signs of modern art. His style bore some semblance to the work of Zubeida Agha. Influence of the renowned painter Jamini Roy was also incipient in his paintings. Safdar made use of the multipoint view of an object but in a primitive manner. Although Cubism had become quite popular, but somehow, his work remained reluctant and wanting. With a limited creative acumen, he painted for pleasure to attempt anything that was different and spellbinding.
Raheel Akbar was a remarkably versatile painter who could express utilising a variety of subjects with equal ease. His paintings are composed of abstract forms which are defined with vivid fluorescent colours. The basic shapes of the rectangles, cubes and squares are arranged in a pleasant picturesque format. Unlike the characteristics of cubism, he searched for attractiveness and a particular impression of light and texture. He was Ali’s second piyara, who left the country in the ’70s.
Anwar Jalal Shemza, the third piyara, obtained his diploma from the Mayo School of Art and did his graduation from the Slade School of Art, UK. He was modest about the choice of canvas size like his mentor Paul Klee. The small-sized paintings drew the viewer closer to observe the detailed
handling of the medium. Shemza carried out numerous delicately executed paintings based on the alphabets B and D, before his death in 1985 in England. His paintings of ‘Roots’ series based on arabesque carry nostalgic nuances of his homeland and people.
The fourth piyara, Moeen Najmi was a founding member of the Lahore Art Circle and taught at the Aitchison College, Lahore.
Initially he painted trivial landscapes but gradually transformed his style to modern painting. He utilised scenes from rural Punjab and the Shalimar Gardens, Lahore, in his paintings of abstract genre. While keeping architectural monuments in focus, he painted the gardens depicting the entwining of nature and culture. He painted buildings and monuments with a superior sense of ornamental architecture which reflects his yearning for intricate detail. To express the values of Muslim art and culture of the sub-continent was the objective of Najmi’s paintings.
Ali Imam, the fifth pyara of Ali, had a major impact on the art of Pakistan through his students, his acumen for entrepreneurship, the Indus Art Gallery, the journalists, collectors and admirers he created. He had a fair understanding of modern painting and had a wealth of knowledge about art. He appointed himself as an authority on Pakistani art to make a living when he returned from abroad. His painting, before he switched to modern art, comprised of watercolour in a form similar to the Bengal School. He made his early modern paintings in the ’50s, while he became a member of the Lahore Art Circle. Later he moved to Karachi and taught art, while painting whenever possible. During the ’70s, his painting went into decline, but his white paintings turned out to be worthwhile for their unique texture and movement.
The culture of interaction within friends, associates and contemporaries during the ’50s was an effective means of exchanging intellectual information. The tea and coffee houses served as crucial rendezvous points for the brimming prodigies’ talents, who desperately needed to redeem their minds from creative blocks. The combination of ideas and conjecture from diverse origins has an amazing potential to resolve numerous misunderstood concepts of art. Incidentally, in the present day local art scenario, the need for a similar culture of frequent interaction is strongly felt.
Young Artists
Sumaya Durrani
Artist & Jewellery Design Professional
Understanding Pakistan Project Team July 19th, 2007
By: Niilofur Farrukh
The DNA code of Pakistani painting is a complex one. The early experiment with the stem cells of modern art movements to further a nationalist agenda birthed a Pakistani modernity. The artist not content to be on the fringe turned into the protagonist of the ‘other story’- a saga of three decades that chronicles the trauma of a heterogeneous people learning to be a nation and an agenda of conscience that defied the colonization of the spirit. writes Niilofur Farrukh, The Editor of NuktaArt, a contemporary art history magazine in Pakistan, and the research director of Project Art History Pakistan.
The maelstrom unleashed by the cartographer’s pen, circa 1947, deepened political fault lines in South Asia. The resulting volatility, fractured a people that were once united in a freedom struggle again colonial fetters. What followed, was the largest displacement of people in history and the birth of two nations.
Like ‘midnights children’ poised on the cusp of loss and gain, the nations struggled to gain a sense of self. The itinerary of the artists could not escape new ideologies. The dynamics of disconnect and displacement opened unexplored territory and a different imperative.To the Indian artist a continuum of the aesthetics of land and religion held no contradiction. The Pakistani artist faced with the aftermath of a three way divorce between land, religion and cultural history had yet to determine philosophical moorings.
Fully aware of their place in history, the manifesto of the artists of nascent Pakistan could not escape the spirit of the time. The political and social leadership that had its roots in the Western educated Muslim elite of undivided India had begun to seriously question the relevance of orthodoxy in a progressive modern future. Contemporary values of the industrialized nations based on reason and science were considered the engine of advancement. Their primary concern became a robust intellectual, economic and social participation in the modern age.
Poet Iqbal, the mentor of this generation with his message of khudi (self) had already reinforced the awakening of individuality and personal ambition and this chipped away at the edifice of fatalistic beliefs, as his verses became the new mantra
Khudi ko kar buland itna kay ha taqdeer say pehlay
Khuda panday say khud poochay, bata tayree raza hia hai
(elevate yourself to such heights of achievement that god is compelled
to consult you before he decides your fate)
This paradigm shift manifested itself in art and experiments with the modern idiom provided a framework to re-examine a familiar cultural terrain.
The upheaval of the last years of the Freedom Movement had created an awareness for the need of ‘a vital new expression, as Raza’s explained ‘ the revivalist movement of the Bengal school despite laudable effort it made to instill an awareness of our cultural heritage, seemed literary works, sentimental, delicate and unresponsive to the pace and anguish of our time’These views found resonance among the aspiring modernists of Pakistan. Ahmed Pervaz, Sheikh Safdar, Shemza, Moyene Najmi and Ali Imam founded the Lahore Art Circle in the early 1950’s. Once again, Lahore, home to Emperor Akbar royal atelier, became the site of a bold new experiment in the visual arts.
A similar movement led by Zainul Abedin was initiated in the Eastern wing of Pakistan.Zubeida Agha (Figure: “Karachi by Night” by Zubeida Agha, painted in 1956), also a Lahorite, had the honor to be the first modernist to hold a solo show as early as 1949 in Karachi. Social taboos separated her from her peers of the Lahore Art Circle as it was unacceptable for a young woman to be seen in the company of male artists and poets at their nocturnal meetings at Lahore’s coffee houses where debates usually raged well into the night. Her gender however did not stop her from making a seminal contribution even if it dictated a separate, often lonely path.
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Privileged by her family’s support, the missed interaction was compensated by a formal education in artist Sanyal’s studio and later by Mario Perlingieri, a prisoner of war who has received some training from Picasso. Zubaida, a life long admirer of the passionate oeuvre of Amrita Sher Gill, herself sought inspiration from philosophical introspection and painted intangible ideas with an emotional distance.
In the words of Mussarat Hasan, the author of Zubeida Agha’s recent biography “She was one of the great colourist of Pakistani painting. She employed colour not only for itself, but to lend veracity and meaning to her images, culled from life and restructured by her amazing imagination to provoke the viewer into thought.”
Zubeida discussed the partition with Marjorie Hussain in an interview shortly before her death in 1997. ‘Speaking of the turmoil that accompanied partition in 1947, Zubeida recalled the confusion and uncertainty …aware and compassionate, she employed her energies to the need of the time, gradually becoming suffused with the desire to create from chaos…’ Zubeida’s years at St Martins School of Art and Ecole de Beaux in Paris prepared her for the role beyond that of an artist. She was an influential figure on the art scene for half a century both as a strong advocate of Modern Art as the director of The Contemporary Art Gallery in Rawalpindi, which she founded and ran and an activist in the campaign for the National Gallery.
This early exploration of the new idiom was a purely visual response to what the pioneers had been exposed to through colour plates and black and white printed reproductions in magazines and art books. None of them were fully cognizant with the philosophies that energized the Schools of Paris; by default their lack of formal education led to an eclecticism that opened a new space for inventive work.
Akbar Naqvi, Pakistan’s eminent art critic explains ‘Modern art in Pakistan was seen as Cubist and Abstract, and it became the catalyst of freedom for painters. Zubeida Agha and Shakir Ali took the academic version of modern art forms from Paris and rejuvenated them. It was this, and the feeling that they too could rove and ravage the West, as Picasso, Matisse and Klee had done with non-European cultures before, which made this enterprise.’
This was a multicultural interface that did not anticipate that colonial mindset often survives territorial loss and the initiative to dehegemonize art was not going to be without a challenge. The Eurocentric art scholars could not appreciate the work outside the fixed notion of one way appropriation and that all non-European dialogue had to fit into a fixed pre conceived space of the exotic or the derivative. The canons of modernism were simply not open to multiple modernities.
The advent of Modernism also must not be seen as a continuation of the politics of cultural intervention in South Asia. The systematic interference through overt and covert means during the British Raj had eroded the craft base and mutated Miniature Painting into the Company School of Painting. Marginalized and mis-represented, the cultural legacy was being erased from the Indian mind. C R Das in 1917 voiced his concerns “We had made aliens of our own people, we had forgotten the ideals of our heart….”
Unlike previous attempts the post partition artistic synthesis was not an outcome of social engineering but the intellectually motivated decision of free citizens. To the artists modernism symbolized many different things, progress, freedom, search for identity, nationalistic zeal, the excitement of discovery of the immense possibilities within an aesthetics not bound by moribund tradition. To them it was the genesis of a hybrid articulation that would be reflective of the radical change in their social and political environment. An art capable of the resilience and flexibility to cross cultural lines and this became increasingly visible in the oeuvre of the Pakistani Modernist.
For each of these artists Modernism did not mean a denial of their legacy, experiences and affinities but an engagement with them. Shemza, who belonged to a family that traded hand-woven carpets, his reference was design. On this matrix he sought new asymmetrical configurations of the perfected balance of the woven rectangle. What sprang on his canvas in jeweled colors was the distilled and contemporarized vision of an heir to centuries of skilled crafts. This imaginative leap and unity could only be the product of a transformed spirit, as despite the intensive craft- based training at Lahore’s Mayo School of Art, the subaltern was not empowered to script his narrative. Moeen Najmi canvas reflected the architectonic complexities softened by ornamental details of Lahore’s regal and humble, built spaces.
Ahmed Pervaz, the most prolific of the group achieved prominence at home and abroad, was an inspirational figure. His visual dialogue via colour at a purely intuitive plane was a mind map of emotions. It was an inner compulsion that drove him to repeat a dynamic movement energized by exploding small abstract forms. A closer look shows that his forms were not identical, nor static but continuously evolving in the changing amorphous space, constantly challenging the eye to find a focus in the chaos. Maybe it is an affirmation of his tremendous talent that he could create endless variations to rescue his art from the commonplace.
It was the vision of three artists Shakir Ali, Ali Imam and Anna Molka Ahmad, whose pedagogic intervention that took the movement from musings of a few to a mainstream art movement.
Anna Molka Ahmed (figure) who came to Lahore before 1947 with her husband Sheikh Ahmad, established the Fine Arts Dept. of the Punjab University. Open only to women, the partition was a setback when many students joined the exodus to India. Undeterred, she went knocking on the door of Muslim homes to send their daughters and her passionate appeals were not ignored.
Pragmatic Anna Molka emphasized teaching as a way to sustain art practice. With her students in institutions all over Pakistan, modernism was able to make inroads in smaller towns. According to the artist “… I practice colouristic painting, using colours of different light values for each shade of light and dark.” Her energetic impasto paintings were inspired by the physical geography of her adopted land.
A devoted member of the Lahore Art Circle, Ali Imam’s focused on building a support system for the arts in Karachi. As the head of one of the city’s oldest art academies, in the 1960’s he gave The Central Institute of Arts and Crafts (CIAC) a modern curriculum with theoretical studies integrated with skills to build the intellectual resources of the next generation of artists. When he left it in 1970 to establish the Indus Gallery, today, the longest running commercial gallery of the country and a cultural institution in its own right, he successfully cultivated a group of discerning art buyers in the country’s financial center. The artist, in Ali Imam, always took a back seat, maybe his brother Raza’s genius always made him feel that he could never step out of his shadow. Imam Sahib, as he was known to the generations he influenced, was not a prolific painter. In his art he referenced the figurative tradition in painting and used textural techniques to create visually nigmatic effects under a veil of white to create a signature canvas.
To his students, Shakir Ali despite his anglophile demeanor, was the bridge between the dynamism of Modern European painting and the resilience of the indigenous artistic legacy. Years at Slade School of Art in the UK and School of Industrial Design in Prague provided him with aesthetic strategies to frame his personal experiences and traditional references into a contemporary philosophy. The artist’s oeuvre can be distinctly divided into two groups, one of formalistic innovation with a preoccupation with ‘the significant form’ and an emotive body of work that interprets the vibrant Rajput miniature in a modernist’s tribute.
Hands on experiences like cataloging of the Lahore Museum’s Miniature collection and excursions to mountain villages were common for students while he headedNational College of the Arts, At the country’s largest art school, he encouraged new ways of seeing and enhanced their ability to view things through the prism of a modern thinker. This cultural interface is best seen in his house turned museum in Lahore, where the minimalist interior showcases a collection of vibrant crafts, meticulously collected for their enduring aesthetic appeal.
Pakistan’s enterprise of modern art faced resistance when it tried to enter the mainstream cultural discourse and challenge established principles of ‘jamaliati zouk’ or aesthetic conventions. Chuqhtai (Figure) and
Allah Baksh
were two masters with popular following and their art found a resonance with the artistic preferences of a majority of the population. The art in the urban centers of Pakistan developed a dual personality and was divided along economic and linguistic barriers. Social polarization was exacerbated by the system of education that was divided between Urdu and English as a medium of instruction. The national sensibility was clearly tiered. The large rural population who were on the periphery of industrial change continued to respond to folk art, classical realism, Islamic design elements and calligraphy unlike their urban counterparts. This sharp division was gradually blurred with the advent of terrestrial television in the late 60’s.
The formalist emphasis on the development of the new visual syntax to investigate the personal and psychological space in the 50’s and early 60’s was gradually expanded to include political and social commentary. Bashir Mirza in the Black Sun series spoke of the anguish of a nation at war and Sadequain’s satire with his bleeding fingers and truncated head with a crow nest became emblematic of an impotent intelligentsia.
Innovations with calligraphy points to two distinct streams of thought, artists like Hanif Ramay, Gulgee and Sadequainpreferred to retain the integrity of the word. For Hanif Ramay, one of the first modern artists to discover possibilities within calligraphy and in his art the curvilinear script became a way to organize space with stylized letters.
For Gulgee (figure) who began his career as a portraitist in the expressionist mode discovered action painting in a collaborative experiment with a visiting American artist. For the monumental calligraphic painting that followed he made gesture painting his point of departure. A deeper exploration of this new genre reconnected took him to the Islamic art of the book.
It was Sadequain’s
calligraphic works that broke class barriers as people thronged the gallery. As an heir to the strong calligraphic tradition of Amroha, Sadequain was perhaps the most comfortable with his inherited tradition and modernity. After a brief flirtation with Cubism during his stay in Paris in the 1950’s he developed a figurative iconography suited to his content of social satire.
Sadequain’s calligraphic paintings looked to the meaning of the text and created calligrams informed by a constructivist vocabulary. His canvas was encyclopedic and he looked at universal themes from classical literature. He became Pakistan’s most prolific painter of murals ceilings that presented an epic view of man’s destiny as envisaged in the poetry of poet Iqbal.
Shemza and Zahoor looked beyond the meaning and transform texts into spatial and rhythmic patterns well beyond their function of communication.
Partially eclipsed Miniature Painting by modern art it was kept from disappearing by two traditional miniaturists Haji Mohammad Sharif and Ustad Shujaullah in Lahore.
The 1970’s presented the challenges of a new political reality. The loss of East Pakistan had bewildering repercussions for the populace and after the turmoil in the first two years of the decade; the National Exhibition of 1973 reflected both the rejuvenation of the cultural institutions under Prime Minister Bhutto’s government. Himself a serious collector he took personal interest in culture and the artists responded to his optimism with a will to construct a better future.
Held in Karachi, the 1973 National Show saw the emergence of new trajectories in Pakistani art. The generation that came of age was the true ‘midnights children’ as they had arrived in the new homeland, sometimes as infants.
Bashir Mirza
remembered crossing over from Amritsar on his father’s shoulders. The images of violence that haunted his childhood often found their way in his art particularly his drawings. The ‘Lonely Girl’ series that caused a stir on the art scene announced the modern woman of Pakistan that hoped to banish forever the timid damsels from the canvas. He continued to dominate the time with his brash innovations.
Zahoorul Akhlaq return from UK to interface with the world as a global citizen. His oeuvre did not appropriate but question as he expressed a preference for the conceptual. The nuclear mushroom within the format of the ‘farman ‘ or the royal decree suggests a subtext beyond the cross pollination of visual symbols.
With a commitment to root his art in the terra firma, Khalid Iqbal (figure)became the moving spirit behindThe Lahore School of Landscape. His interpretation of the fertile plains bordered on the spiritual. In keeping with the spirit of an agrarian society linked to the land and its productive soil, both nature and culture were intertwined in this genre of Pakistani painting. Kaleem Khan in Quetta and Imtiaz Hussain in Peshawar continued to capture the ageless mountain spirit. This decade will also be remembered for Jamil Naqsh’s visual thesis on ‘Woman and Pigeon’, which propelled him to the forefront of art history.
Mian Salahuddin a ceramist trained at NCA and The Cranbrook Academy in Michigan became the pioneer of clay expressionism, adding a new dimension to the ancient clay continuum.
It was the commitment of a handful of sculptors that kept this field alive in Pakistan despite lack of official and private patronage. Shahid Sajjad, the most prominent among them was largely self- taught. His life-size wooden works executed in the hill tracts near Chittagong bring into question the definition of civilization. A word denied to aboriginal people who live in harmony with their world unlike the predatory and wasteful developed nations. The 70’s saw him embrace bronze as a medium.
One of the few artists from the former East Pakistan who made Karachi their home and remained active was Zainul Abedin’s student Mansur Rahi. Married to Hajra, of the Zuberi sisters who founded the Karachi School of Art. An accomplished painter he will also be remembered as the mentor of a group that revived watercolour as a significant medium in Karachi.
Colin David and Ijaz ul Hasan diametrically opposite in their approach to art both added to creative tapestry of the 70’s.
Women artists emerged as emblems of new consciousness. Art and poetry by women in Pakistan documented their emancipated voice and served as a catalyst for alternate attitudes.
Laila Shahzada (figure), who came on the scene in the 1960’s by her ‘Driftmood Series’, turned her attention to the interfaith legacy of spirituality in South Asia. A group of younger women who became a major presence in the decades to come, among others, included Lubna Latif Agha, The Zuberi sisters– Hajra and Rabia, Rumana Saeed, Sumbul, Mehr Afroz and Nahid from Karachi and Zubeida Javed from Lahore.
Lubna Latif Agha a graduate of the Karachi School of Art was recognized as an outstanding talent and honored with a solo show at Indus Gallery. Behind the veil of glacial white, molten crimson waited to flow from the fissures, Lubna’s intensely emotive works were read as the statements of ‘a body denied’ or ‘a wounded spirit’ and broke the silence of the disenfranchised.
Mehr’s a printmaker from Lucknow Arts College was motivated to introduce this discipline in Karachi. Her sophisticated language of textures won her awards at the National Exhibition and the honor to represent Pakistan internationally.
After graduating from CIAC, Nahid’s search took her to the necropolis of Chawkhandi through which she entered in a dialogue simultaneously with culture and modernity. A prolific career as a watercolourist established Sumbul as a committed exponent. In this group Hajra preferred to strike out on her own and follow the footsteps of her guru, Chughtai through oriental wash painting. To Zubaida Javed, the influence of Anna Molka her mentor must have been difficult to shed but her strong spatial sensibility succeeded in transforming the landscapes from the physical to the ethereal.
Reference
Sadiq Ali Shahzad from the South Punjab, City of Multan. 
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