Musafir
Was woken up with the news of young champion stone-pelter getting respite and amnesty. Sundays are to laze around and read the papers..This Sunday was no different but the clamour of host of election oriented initiatives hid all national, international and critical issues…Some days back masked men waving the flags and banners of the dreaded Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda appeared on the streets of Kashmir, indicating fresh troubles for the insurgency-hit state. The debut of extreme hardline Islamic militant faction in Kashmir has further intensified tensions in the region, prompting the security forces step up vigil. Questions need to be raised whether or not we are ready for countering it. We don’t need stone pelting champs…no amnesty for people who in the garb of stone pelting want to start such a jehad.
According to media and what we saw on TV and newspapers, masked men waved black flags and banners of the two terror groups in Srinagar. The flags displayed inscriptions of Kalima, the basic and fundamental signs. They say our neighbour Pakistan is making sure ISIS gets its roots strong in valley. Are they capable of fomenting more trouble in Jammu and Kashmir. With Islamabad increasingly on the defensive, the military is gaining an upper hand. Consider Sharif’s decision last week to make the armed forces responsible for security of sensitive facilities in Islamabad during the protests. This can be interpreted either as a sop to the military or as an acknowledgment that the government can’t protect its own people – or itself. Additionally, Sharif’s Independence Day speech on August 14, the first official day of the protests, was rife with praise for Pakistan’s military. That such praise came from a civilian leader as combative as Sharif is quite telling. Most significantly, on Aug. 19, as marchers entered the Red Zone, the government ceded full security of the area to the military. The government gave the military carte blanche to do what it so relishes: serve as the nation’s protector and savior. One small solace might be that while Pakistan has had relatively politically adept men in the position of COAS in the past, the present incumbent, General Raheel Sharif, seems to have few political ambitions and is instead more of a battlefield tactician.
Furthermore, the military’s current preoccupation with Operation Zarb-e-Azb means that an armed coup is unlikely. Historically, military coups in Pakistan have been precipitated by the preeminence of a particularly politically skilled CoAS – Ayub Khan, Zia ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf certainly. The current Pakistani political landscape seems to lack such an individual.
Above all, the current political crisis will be a litmus test for the progress of civilian-led democracy in Pakistan. Imran Khan and Tahrir ul-Qadri’s challenge to the Sharif government can be resolved within the confines of Pakistan’s constitution and without military intervention or bloodshed. Despite the massive rift between Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif, the two must recognize the stakes for Pakistan’s democracy and work towards defusing the crisis before the military crosses the Rubicon, condemning Pakistan to further instability.
The people who are neck deep in such sort of trouble cannot play around openly…they must make mend in their own houses first…So who is spreading radicalism then …why ISIS flags were seen in the first place? The question remains unanswered …The state prepares for Assembly elections and the all are busy with agendas…who will look towards this main agenda?
A second American journalist was beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in a video made public Tuesday.
The video shows the death of Steven Joel Sotloff, 31, by what appears to be the same masked jihadist who killed fellow journalist James Foley, 40, exactly two weeks ago.
What will happen now? Will America further intensify its air operations and decimate ISIS once and for all the way it did for Osama Bin Laden. Yes it would! Because it does not mince words when it comes to war against Jehad with pleasure back at home…No reason greater than Terrorism.
The Mahdi Army, the paramilitary force that once led a Shia rebellion against American troops is making its largest show of force since it suspended fighting in 2008.
“ISIS is not as strong as a finger against us,” said one fighter, Said Mustafa, who commanded a truck carrying four workshop-grade rockets – each, he said, packed with C4 explosive. “If Moktada gives us the order, we will finish ISIS in two days.”
Large sections of Baghdad and southern Iraq’s Shia heartland have been swept up in a mass popular mobilization, energized by the fatwa of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urging able-bodied Iraqis to take up arms against Sunni extremists. Shia and mixed neighborhoods now brim with militias, who march under arms, staff checkpoints and hold rallies to sign up more young men. It is a mobilization fraught with passion, confusion and grave risk.
Militia members and their leaders insist they have taken up arms to defend their government, protect holy places and keep their country from breaking up along sectarian or ethnic lines. They have pledged to work alongside the Iraqi Army. But as Iraq lurches toward sectarian war, the prominent role of Shia-dominated militias could also exacerbate sectarian tensions, hardening the sentiments that have allowed the Sunni militants to succeed.
Against this background, even as more armed men have appeared on the streets, Shia clerics have taken pains to cast the mobilization as a unity movement, even if it has a mostly Shia face.
“Our mission is to explain to the people what Ayatollah Sistani said,” said Sheikh Emad al-Gharagoli, after leading prayers Thursday afternoon at the Maitham al-Tamar Mosque in Sadr City. “He said, ‘Do not make your own army, this army does not belong to the Shia. It belongs to all of Iraq. It is for the Shia, the Sunni, the Kurds and the Christians.’ “We will clean our country from terrorism and ISIS..We love our country”. No caste or creed bigger than Life.
The clerics have also said the mobilization will be temporary, that the militias will be disbanded once the ISIS threat subsides.
But given the swift gains by ISIS and the lax performance of the Iraqi Army, analysts do not expect the infusion of Shia militias to quickly turn the tide. And as the militias focus on establishing themselves, their leaders face a host of daunting practical matters intended to convert a religious call to a coherent fighting force.
Don’t we understand the need of “A Stitch in time Saves Nine”..When will we stop intimidating stark reality and truth?
