| January 2, 2002 | Wednesday | Shawwal 17, 1422 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Let us talk peace
Getting out of the mess
Pak-Afghan relations
India-Pakistan confrontation
Primostat injections
Late delivery of property deeds
DHA educational institutions
Support for Al Jazeera
Role of extremists
More libraries and book bazaars
Suhrawardy’s role in Pakistan movement
THE war against terrorism was initiated against those who dared to aid and abet the men who carried out the suicide attacks on the American soil. Its primary objective was the elimination of ‘prime suspect’ Osama bin Ladin and his Al Qaeda network. But after bombing Afghanistan for three months, has America achieved its objectives? Many people will answer in the negative. Because the aim was not the uprooting of the Taliban, it was the elimination of Al Qaeda and making Osama pay the price. After so much death and destruction, Osama is still at large. But yes, the price has been paid. It is being paid by the poor and hungry people of Afghanistan.
Uncounted thousands of innocent Afghan civilians have been killed (and still being killed). It is ‘uncounted’ because nobody in the West seems to be bothered in counting them. For them, it seems, it is simply a matter of statistics.
According to a study carried out by Marc Herolds, a US economics professor at the University of New Hampshire, more people have been killed in the US attacks on Afghanistan than those killed in New York and Washington. After going through numerous reports, Herold estimates at least 3,767 civilians were killed between Oct 7 and Dec 10, compared to the 3,234 people thought to have been killed in the suicide attacks in the US.
The figure does not include those who died later of injuries, nor those who died of cold and hunger because of the interruption of aid or because they were forced to flee their homes. It also does not include military deaths, or those prisoners who were slaughtered in Mazar-i-Sharif, Qala-i-Jangi and elsewhere.
Now in a show of power and arrogance, the US has flatly refused the request of the interim Afghan administration to halt the bombings. The administration was of the view that there are now only a few pockets of resistance and there was no need for bombing other areas, as civilians are being killed.
The US talks of bringing those who perpetuated the Sept 11 attacks to justice, but what is the fault of thousands of Afghans who are being killed indiscriminately by the bombings? If the perpetrators of the Sept 11 attack are terrorists, then who are those killing innocent civilians? Is not the bombing of villages an act of terrorism? Is not throwing cluster bombs in civilian areas an act of terrorism? Is not killing prisoners of war in cold blood by flouting international laws an act of terrorism? If one ponders over all these terrible acts, one is forced to think whether the term ‘war against terrorism’ can be justified at the cost of innocent lives.
KHURRAM MUSTIKHAN
Karachi
THE advent of the New Year saw the world in turmoil and even a war.
Yet we call ourselves human beings with nuclear bombs in one hand and guns in the other. We are ready to kill fellow humans because we forgot that all problems have a solution — not through war but peace.
Let us, therefore, at least in Pakistan, begin this New Year by declaring it a year of peace for the region and progress for our beloved country — Pakistan. Let us not talk of the bombs and blasts but tell our neighbour to think and talk of peace.
As a larger country and more importantly the followers of Mahatama Gandhi, the preacher of peace, a duty is cast on the Indian leadership to give up this hysteria of war. The same applies to us followers of Islam - submission to Allah. Islam tells us to be patient, for surely those who practise patience would receive a reward.
Let us, therefore, pray to the Creator to bestow His blessings on the subcontinent and to the leadership of our two countries to give up war and think and act for peace. We all know the misery of the people of India and Pakistan. Let us resolve to deliver them with peaceful co-existence.
MAHER H. ALAVI,
Karachi
WE GREATLY appreciate the wisdom demonstrated by President Musharraf in getting Pakistan out of the mess created by the extremist elements in Pakistan and hope that Pakistan will indeed become a country of Jinnah’s dreams.
We also endorse the views of Maulana Tahir-ul Qadri and Pir Anis Haider that we need a Jihad against illiteracy, disease and poverty.
The vast majority of Pakistanis hold the same view. Then why are the handful of extremists allowed to tarnish the name of Pakistan and Islam?
ENGR. SYED ANWAR HASNAT
Foster City, USA
BEHIND the thin veil of neutrality worn by the interim government in Afghanistan, what stood out most at the swearing in ceremony in Kabul was the larger than life portrait of Ahmed Shah Masood, the slain leader of the violently anti-Pakistan Northern Alliance which now holds sway in Kabul.
I can vividly recall the days in the early seventies when I visited Kabul on more than one occasion and had felt a discernible sense of hostility towards Pakistan. Indian businessmen (mostly Sikhs) dominated the huge spare-parts and tyres sector. They were ubiquitous everywhere.
Even the popular tourist eatery Hotel Jamil was partly Indian-owned. Now with the strongly anti-Pakistan Afghan foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, cosying up to New Delhi, India is all set to reinstate its position in Kabul. We must meet this challenge. The Taliban debacle has deprived the vast Pashtoon majority of its legitimate share in the governance of their country. This must be rectified with a change in our Afghan policy.
The history of Pak-Afghan relations was once dominated by the Afghan-inspired irredentist demand for “Pakhtoonistan” which soured our relations with Kabul. Right up to the sixties, Kabul had always claimed that the Durand Line was an unfair and artificial division of the Pakhtoon lands which extended up to Attock. The ethnic conditions on which this old claim for Pakhtoonistan was based remain unchanged, but this time round, the opportunity has arisen for the tables to be turned, and very appropriately too, because by the same token Pakistan has legitimate claim to extend its “sphere of influence” to include all those contiguous areas in which Pashtoons are in a majority, e.g. Jalalabad and south up to Kandahar.
This would not be a territorial claim as such, but merely to float the idea of a free-trade and industrial zone in which capital investment and economic growth would replace the current dependence on the opium-based economy. The advantage of strategic depth is obvious.
S. ASIF MAJEED
Karachi
ALL Indians and Pakistanis who genuinely desire friendship between the peoples of the two countries will agree completely with Mahir Ali’s very well reasoned views and suggestions in “The sabre rattlers are at it again” (Dec 28).
It behoves Prime Minister Vajpayee and his colleagues to tone down the heated rhetorics for now and engage in behind the scenes, one-to-one diplomacy with President Musharraf so he is politically strengthened to bring the extremist elements, including those in the ISI, firmly under his control.
Indeed, India’s chances of achieving permanent peace with Pakistan are far greater with President Musharraf in power than with any other Pakistani leader past, present, or future.
India’s open belligerence towards Pakistan at this juncture weakens President Musharraf’s ability to control the extremists in his country and thus India may actually be cutting off its nose to spite its face.
Two hands are needed to clap for peace and sanity, not just Pakistan’s or India’s alone.
P. HARIMOHAN
NY, US
THIS is with reference to a letter on the subject (Dec 21). Leting="0" cellpadding="0">
Contributions
Privacy Policy
© DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2005