Open Thread Sunday 10/12/08

10 Comments

1. 

   H

   October 12, 2008 at 11:35 AM

   Where is brozer Musa by the way??

   Reply
2. 

   Amad

   October 12, 2008 at 11:37 AM

   Br. Musa is finishing his PhD work, so he will be MIA for a while… but inshallah will return with a bang :)

   Reply
3. 

   Jawahir

   October 12, 2008 at 2:14 PM

   Salam.

   I’ve been trying to understand what’s happening in th North of Pakistan, in Bajaur, and Waziristan. It seems that the operation started about 2 months ago, but has already claimed 1000s of lives. Just running a search on Bajaur on http://www.geo.tv ” (a Pakistani news channel), gave me the results which I’ve pasted below. As far as I know, neither the Pakistani government nor Army has provided clear proof that the people they are mercilessly killing are indeed terrorists.

   Apart from that, these connections with al Qaida seem to appear out of thin air. Any new village that the Army wants to take over suddenly seems to have an Al Qaida member hiding in it!!!

   Allah swt knows best about what really is the truth, but all I can see are innocent lives being killed and affected.

   October 03, 2008
   KHAR: Bajaur Agency administration on Friday ordered Afghan refugees to leave Bajaur Agency within three days.

   PESHAWAR: Tribal lashkar on Monday launched crackdown after the deadline for all Afghan refugees to leave Bajaur agency expired.
   According to sources, Mamond tribal lashkar began crackdown to flush out Afghan refugees from Bajaur Agency, while several Afghan refugees were arrested during checking at various check-posts.

   
   October 02, 2008
   KHAR: Security forces killed 25 Taliban militants in latest clashes in the troubled region of Bajaur Agency on Thursday. Wednesday,

   October 01, 2008
   KHAR: Pakistani troops backed by gunship helicopters killed 13 Taliban militants in fresh clashes in the restive tribal district of Bajaur on the Afghan border, officials said Tuesday.

   Four Islamist insurgents were killed Tuesday and two were wounded in the shelling of a suspected vehicle in the town of Mamoond, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

   Troops killed another five extremists after a group of militants launched an attack on a military checkpost in the same town, sparking a gunbattle that lasted nearly one hour, the official said.
   A further four militants were killed overnight when jets pounded suspected hideouts in the area, security officials said.
   The house of a known Taliban commander, Maulana Muhammad Muneer, was damaged, they said.

   The army says more than 1,000 extremists have been killed in its six-week operation in Bajaur, including Al-Qaeda’s operational commander in the region, Egyptian Abu Saeed Al-Masri.

   September 28, 2008
   PESHAWAR: At least 15 militants were killed and 22 others were injured in ongoing security forces operation Saturday in Bajour tribal agency.

   September 27, 2008
   BAJAUR: Pakistan said Friday that troops have killed 1,000 Islamist militants in a huge offensive, a day after President Asif Ali Zardari lashed out at U.S. forces over a clash on the Afghan border.

   Five top Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders were among those killed in a month-long operation in Bajaur, currently the most troubled of Pakistan’s unstable tribal areas along the porous frontier, a top official said.

   But in a further sign of the instability gripping Pakistan since the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad last weekend, three suicide bombers blew themselves up in a shootout with police in Karachi.

   Separately, six people, including three children, were killed when a bomb derailed a passenger train near the central city of Bahawalpur, a railways official said.

   Reporters were flown by helicopter to Khar, the main town in restive Bajaur, for a briefing on the military operation launched in August against Islamist militants who had taken control of most of the region.

   “The overall toll is over 1,000 militants,” said Tariq Khan, inspector general of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, adding that 27 soldiers had also been killed in the fighting.

   “This is a centre of gravity for the militants,” Khan told journalists. “If they lose here they lose everything.”

   Of the five militant commanders killed, four appeared to be foreigners: Egyptian Abu Saeed Al-Masri; Abu Suleiman, an Arab; an Uzbek commander named Mullah Mansoor; and an Afghan commander called Manaras.

   The fifth was a Pakistani commander named only Abdullah, a son of ageing hardline leader Maulvi Faqir Mohammad who is based in Bajaur
   and has close ties to Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri.

   Bajaur, which borders the Afghan province of Kunar, has seen some of the fiercest fighting between Pakistani forces and Islamist militants since former military ruler Pervez Musharraf joined the US-led “war on terror” in 2001.

   The operation came in response to international pressure on Pakistan’s new civilian government, which ousted Musharraf last month, to prevent Pakistan-based militants from launching attacks in Afghanistan.

   But tensions have escalated with Washington since a September 3 ground attack by US forces inside Pakistan, the first of its kind since 2001, left about 15 people dead.
   
   September 26, 2008
   PESAHAWAR: The Security Forces on Thursday continued offensive against Taliban fighters in the volatile Bajaur Agency and shelled their suspected hideouts with gunship helicopters and artillery fire, killing at least ten militants and injuring 20 others, officials said.

   September 26, 2008
   KHAR: Security forces killed at least seven militants in shelling in Bajaur Agency here on Friday.

   September 25, 2008
   PESHAWAR: As many as 25 miscreants were killed and many more wounded in a fierce firefight between the Security Forces and miscreants in Tang Khata area of Bajaur Agency.
   According to Frontier Corps NWFP press release issued here on Wednesday, the two sides exchanged heavy rocket and mortar fire and the troops routed the miscreants from their locations.

   September 24, 2008
   KHAR: Pakistani warplanes pounded militants’ hideouts in Bajaur Agency, killing at least 18 more Taliban insurgents on Wednesday. The death toll in Bajaur operation has now risen to 25.

   September 23, 2008
   PESHAWAR: Security forces pounded shells at local militants’ hideouts in various parts of Bajaur Agency before Dawn on Tuesday.

   September 12, 2008
   ISLAMABAD: Security forces killed 20 more militants in fresh clashes along Afghan border in Bajaur Agency on Friday.

   August 25, 2008
   NOWSHEHRA: The operation-affected people of Bajaur have appealed to the government, local and international aid agencies to provide quality food items and medical goods in relief camps Monday.
   Affectees told Geo News that low-standard food was causing several diseases while most of patients are vulnerable to many diseases. There is dire need of pots, plastic-made carpets, clean drinking water and other fundamental needs, they added.
   They further said skin, gynecological and psychological diseases were on the rise in the camps due to inappropriate medical supplies.
   Large numbers of people are feared to have been affected if preventive measures are not taken, they cautioned.

   August 24, 2008
   ISLAMABAD: In Bajaur Agency, ten militants have been killed in an ongoing operation of security forces against the extremists.

   August 16, 2008
   PESHAWAR: The anti-polio-campaign in the tribal areas including Bajaur and Kurram Agency was postponed on Saturday whereas polio vaccines would be administered to children in Swat, covering 1/3 area of the valley.

   August 16, 2008
   PESHAWAR: At least 462 militants were killed and 22 security personnel martyred during the ongoing military operation in Bajaur Agency, NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani said on Friday.

   August 14, 2008
   KHAR: Security forces have killed 12 more militants in ongoing military operation in the Bajaur Agency Thursday.

   And here are some YouTube videos. One even isn’t in English “(or Urdu), but I think it’s in Pashto, but I’ve just posted it to show the conditions these people are living in.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kudTKQ8RaU&feature=related
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2IeBPK49QQ

   Salam

   Reply
4. 

   Hidaya

   October 12, 2008 at 5:11 PM

   My family and I will be voting for Obama and inshaAllah we plan to vote at same time to get noticed- LOL

   Reply
5. 

   Abû Mûsâ Al-Ḥabashî

   October 12, 2008 at 6:49 PM

   PhD in what?

   Reply
6. 

   AbuAbdAllah, the Houstonian

   October 13, 2008 at 12:45 AM

   bismillah.

   MIA? Don’t tell me our government has a DIA, a CIA, and an MIA, too? :)

   Kazak Allah khayr for the link to Musa’s stump speech. How many Iraqi citizens are there across the world — since so many of them do not live in Iraq anymore? The 51st state, assuming we gave every Iraqi American citizenship, would make Islam a gigantic religious minority in America, second only to the Catholics. And Iraqis are not disinterested in politics. Just the possibility of one of them Moslems — another Hussein, perhaps? — becoming President would scare the average white American whiter than his kid’s Halloween ghost-costume.

   Reply
7. 

   AbuAbdAllah, the Houstonian

   October 13, 2008 at 12:47 AM

   That should have read “jazak Allah khayr” :) May Allah forgive me, I have no idea what kazak Allah khayr would even mean. :)

   Reply
8. 

   Osman

   October 13, 2008 at 2:24 PM

   how about an article on the canadian election?

   Reply
9. 

   Amad

   October 13, 2008 at 2:30 PM

   Osman, go ahead and write it… send it to us and if the shura likes it, we’ll publish it i/a

   Reply
10. 

    AnonyMouse

    October 15, 2008 at 1:46 PM

    The Canadian elections are over… the Conservatives are back in with a minority government. What’s it going to mean for Muslims? Not much – right now the focus is more on the economic crisis… which is a good thing, I guess.

    And that’s all from MM’s Canadian correspondent for today :)

    Reply