A husband and wife has a quarrel. The wife becomes very angry and starts telling her woes to a male neighbour. The neighbour gives a listening ear but he also gets a liking for the wife. And one-day, the wife feels like teaching the insensitive husband a lesson and in the heat of moment sleeps with the neighbour.
The husband is India, the wife is Pakistan, the neighbour is China, the quarrel is Kashmir and Pakistan gifting away a part of itself to China is the one-night-stand.
What has all the three really gained and lost?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The last nail in the coffin of Pakistan's Islamic home-grown terrorism
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/04/AR2011010400955.html
With the death of Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, it looks like Pakistan's Islamic home-grown terrorism has signed a death warrant for itself. And with it, the Kashmiri separatist movement as well.
It's like the way the Hindu-Muslim riots ended after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a Hindu extremist or the way the Khalistan movement ended after the assassination of Indra Gandhi by a Sikh bodyguard. In these cases, it is not some one from the other side who kills but someone inside the clan itself. When such a thing happens, people start reflecting on everything. The fence is supposed to protect the crops but if it starts feeding on crops itself, the farmer sets right the fence. Pakistan has long been exporting terrorism to India in Kashmir and today by Karma, it has resulted in the death of a citizen of it's own making him a martyr. While Benazir Bhutto's assassination was more high-profile that led to a focus on stopping Taliban terrorism, Salman's assassination is low key but nevertheless important. It's easy to escape self-reflection by laying the blame on some unidentified person as in the killing of Benazir Bhutto with the justification that she was pro-western. But when it comes to a moderate Muslim being killed by a known person who is supposed to guard him in the name of Islam, Pakistani people are not going to feel secure and neither will they let things continue as they are. So contrary to the new paper article's headline, I think this is the turning point that will set the decline of the Pakistani extremists hold in Pakistan.
With the death of Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, it looks like Pakistan's Islamic home-grown terrorism has signed a death warrant for itself. And with it, the Kashmiri separatist movement as well.
It's like the way the Hindu-Muslim riots ended after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a Hindu extremist or the way the Khalistan movement ended after the assassination of Indra Gandhi by a Sikh bodyguard. In these cases, it is not some one from the other side who kills but someone inside the clan itself. When such a thing happens, people start reflecting on everything. The fence is supposed to protect the crops but if it starts feeding on crops itself, the farmer sets right the fence. Pakistan has long been exporting terrorism to India in Kashmir and today by Karma, it has resulted in the death of a citizen of it's own making him a martyr. While Benazir Bhutto's assassination was more high-profile that led to a focus on stopping Taliban terrorism, Salman's assassination is low key but nevertheless important. It's easy to escape self-reflection by laying the blame on some unidentified person as in the killing of Benazir Bhutto with the justification that she was pro-western. But when it comes to a moderate Muslim being killed by a known person who is supposed to guard him in the name of Islam, Pakistani people are not going to feel secure and neither will they let things continue as they are. So contrary to the new paper article's headline, I think this is the turning point that will set the decline of the Pakistani extremists hold in Pakistan.
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