[Reader-list] "The Taliban are here" - Samad Khurram

[Rahul Asthana]

"Other than Ayaz Amir, not a single Pakistani leader
> has spoken out against the Taliban."

It would have been funny if it was not so pathetic.This is Ayaz Amir writing in support of the Swat deal 
http://www.thenews.com.pk/editorial_detail.asp?id=163592
And here he changes his tune 180 degrees.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=21505

This is a Pakistani liberal journalist.I know many list members cringe when someone suggests that India and Pakistan have gone the opposite way,but anyway,here is some more interesting news.
http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=172210
India should prepare itself for a Talibanized Pakistan.It could,in some ways, be better than dealing with Pakistani liberals who speak from both sides of their mouths.



--- On Mon, 4/20/09, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] "The Taliban are here" - Samad Khurram
> To: "Sarai" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Monday, April 20, 2009, 5:05 PM
> Samad Khurram, the writer of the piece "The Taliban are
> here" is a celebrity in Pakistan. He is a poster boy
> for the widespread Anti-USA feelings in Pakistan. Pakistanis
> who are fed up with being toyed with by the USA would want
> their government to stand-up to the Americans in a manner
> similar to Samad Khurram's.
>  
> In a widely televised function, Samad Khurram " ...
> Pakistani student ....at Harvard University ...snubbed the
> U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, by refusing
> to shake her hand or accept an award for Pakistani students
> from the Roots Academy - a top-notch private school - who
> are studying in leading U.S. universities."
>  
> That was in July 2008
>  
> Kshmendra
>  
>  
> "The Taliban are here"
>  
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Monday, April 20, 2009
> By Samad Khurram 
> 
> 
> 
> Back in 2002, I was returning from Friday prayers when I
> saw an unusual gathering of singing and quasi-dancing
> mullahs. Unusual because I had always assumed mullahs to be
> against all types of kufr (art). The amused crowd were
> listening to chants of “Taliban aa-gae! Taliban aa-gae!”
> I smirked: As if! Pakistan is a nuclear country with the
> seventh-largest army. We’re safe.
> 
> The mullahs’ songs have been answered – the Taliban
> indeed are coming. And with them the cowards are bringing a
> lifestyle that destroys everything Pakistan.
> 
> Oh, no! Wait! This guy is on the paycheque of those who are
> trying to break Pakistan. The Taliban are our heroes, it is
> America which is in the wrong. Yes, this is the typical
> self-defence mechanism coming to full force. Having nothing
> to lose, and having been already declared a CIA agent
> earlier in life, I suppose I’ll continue. Continuing with
> a genuine fear that these words are falling on either deaf
> or hostile ears, it may well be that Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s
> Pakistan is over in a year if all this chaos continues.
> 
> Perhaps, if Jinnah knew that the country he founded was
> going to become an arena for public flogging, where the
> laughs of sadist barbarians will mingle with the screams of
> women and children, he would not have decided on creating
> it. Had he known that there would be more suicide bombs in
> his country than any other place in the world, where
> militants and bigots would go around threatening women to
> “dress properly,” where schoolchildren would have to
> undergo security checks as if they were in a war zone, he
> would be extremely upset.
> 
> All our talk shows discuss the merits and demerits of the
> 17th Amendment, or bash America and India. Yes, American
> drones and Indian statements are a threat to our
> sovereignty. Yes, the balance of power is important, but it
> is the Taliban who have killed more people than India or the
> US drones combined, and have made us feel more unsafe than
> anyone else in the past thirty years. What other definition
> of sovereignty is there than provision of protection to
> people and maintenance of the writ of the state? Why can’t
> we have some programmes that discuss the atrocities of the
> Taliban, acts of terror that they do and how they have
> destroyed Pakistan? 
> 
> No, it’s not the “Hindu Zionists” working on a
> CIA/Mossad-sponsored conspiracy to break Pakistan. And for
> the sake of argument, even if they are foreign-funded, does
> that not mean we should double our efforts to counter them?
> Remember when India briefly occupied some land in 1965 and
> how the whole country rallied to defend this invasion? My
> grandfather had stories of people going with sticks to
> support the army. I am afraid I will not have any such
> stories of patriotic resistance to tell anyone when another
> enemy has taken control of, say, a fourth of the NWFP and
> roughly one-twentieth of Pakistan. 
> 
> But remember the great Pakistani Fauj which, under the
> Ameer-ul-Momineen, Zia-ul-Haq, crushed the Russians? This is
> only a plan to make America taste the same fate! Yes, thank
> you Zaid Hamid. For a nation which already lives in denial,
> your conspiracy theories are all we need to turn us
> completely schizophrenic. 
> 
> For the love of God, can anyone explain to me why the great
> army whose laurels we sing from the day we are born has
> still not been able to jam radio stations pouring terror in
> Swat? How is it that these Taliban leaders can appear before
> journalists in broad daylight and roam freely without any
> trouble even when they claim responsibility for a suicide
> bombing?
> 
> Perhaps the real question I should ask is, why do I even
> care? When I took time off from Harvard to be part of the
> lawyers’ movement I had seen a ray of hope. There were
> concerned citizens and lawyers who stood for what was right,
> no matter what the consequences. We fought for a principle
> and won, with the hope that things will slowly improve.
> Today the very judges we had faith in released the Lal
> Masjid cleric whose crimes everyone knows about. If the
> judiciary was going to release people whose crimes were
> recorded on TV, perhaps it does explain why the Taliban are
> growing popular. 
> 
> Having said that, rays of hope like Afzal Khan Lala, who
> has refused to move from Swat while he is alive, appear
> every now and then. However, he stands alone in facing the
> storm. Other than Ayaz Amir, not a single Pakistani leader
> has spoken out against the Taliban. Will the real leader who
> can get rid of these monsters stand up, please? Imran Khan?
> Qazi? Nawaz Sharif? This silence is criminal! 
> 
> What’s worse is that these leaders of ours have
> unanimously approved a state within a state run, which is
> not accountable to anyone, absolved the Taliban of all
> crimes and provided them a safe haven to kill more
> Pakistanis. The so-called Nizam-e-Adl Regulation was
> endorsed by the National Assembly without any proper debate.
> 
> The sad story, friends, is that the Taliban are here, and
> unless we stand up against them in every possible way,
> Pakistan will be lost for good. And it will not be lost
> because of Zardari’s real or perceived corruption or
> anything else like that, but because of the silence of the
> lambs – we ALL will be responsible if Pakistan fails.
> 
> The writer is a student at Harvard University and turned
> down an award from the US ambassador as a mark of protest
> against killings of Pakistanis by US drone attacks. Email:
> skhurram at fas.harvard.edu
> 
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=173372
>  
> 
> 
>       
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