Filed under: Indian Subcontinent, Middle East, North America | Tags: Afghanistan, AfPak, Al-Qaeda, Baitullah Mehsud, CIA, Imperialism, Israeli, Mossad, Pakistan, Qari Zainuddin, Racism, Taliban, Terrorism, US Invasion, War, Zionism
Qari Zainuddin (centre), surrounded by his armed guard in northwestern Pakistan
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23 June 2009
Source: Press TV
A tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militants group’s ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead.
The assassination of Qari Zainuddin comes days after he revealed that their comrade was pursuing a US-Israeli agenda across the violence-wracked country.
Zainuddin, a 26-year-old rising tribesman who had called Mehsud “an American agent” was killed by a gunman in northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Tuesday.
Zainuddin, who broke away from Mehsud, was also increasingly critical of Mehsud’s use of suicide bombings targeting civilians.
In an interview with local media the defector said that Mehsud had (more…)
Filed under: Indian Subcontinent | Tags: Imperialism, Colonialism, Militarism, Pakistan, Taliban, War, Sindh, Racism, Iran, Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani Army, Fata, Punjab, Protests, Swat, ISI, Sharia, Buner, Malakand, Swat Taliban, Afghan Taliban, Mujahideen, Madrassa, Tehreek Nifaz e Sharia Mohammadi, Maulana Fazlullah, Sufi Mohammed, US Invasion, Feminism, Mullah Omar, Nizam-e-Adl, President Asif Ali Zardari, Swat Flogging, Flogging, Paternalism, Honour Killing, Yusuf Raza Gilani, Chand Bibi, Women's Rights, Saba Mahmood, US bombing, US Drone Attacks, AfPak, Shirin Ebadi
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( Dated Piece | 30 April 2009 )
Source: Open Democracy
The distorting glare of the mainstream media obscures a more complex reality in restive Pakistan
Who are the ” Taliban” in Pakistan? Islamist militants in the country have won significant international attention after wrestling control over the Swat Valley, the restive region in northern Pakistan where elements of sharia law are now in place. Yet these militants do not self-identify as “Taliban”, unlike the Afghan Taliban who chose the name for themselves, and preferred it to the then generic term “mujahideen”. The term “Taliban” means students; the original Taliban were educated in madrassas, religious schools. Groups and individuals that are being labelled the “Taliban in Pakistan” (TIP) are very different from their Afghan counterparts in important respects. It is pertinent not just to think through the implications of these differences but also to raise questions about why distinguishing details are being lost in the media frenzy of recent months.
In Swat, the group that has gained the most notoriety in recent months calls itself Tehreek Nifaz e Sharia Mohammadi (TNSM). This can be roughly translated as the “Movement for the (more…)
