Highlights of the August 2005 issue
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Operation Eyewash
By Zaffar Abbas
It was a highly coordinated security operation and reminded many of the massive crackdown of January 2002 when Islamabad made its maiden effort to take on Pakistan’s resurgent religious extremists. Back then, some 15,000 members and supporters of banned militant groups were rounded up, only to be freed within months.This time around, the police and other security forces again stormed some carefully selected madrasahs or seminaries and detained hundreds of members of outlawed Islamic groups. Is this merely a replay of 2002 or has the endgame of General Pervez Musharraf’s four-year-old campaign against extremism really begun?
The speed and precision that marked the operation sent out unmistakable signals of sincerity on the part of the government. This impression was further reinforced by the fact that the operation ostensibly came as a direct fallout of the London bombings and the revelation that some of the suicide bombers may have been linked to an extremist madrasah in Pakistan.But as the initial excitement abated, it soon dawned on many that the operation neither had much to do with the London bombings of July 7 nor was it intended as a final blow to religious militancy.
Off Center
By Zaffar Abbas
Newspeak
By Ali Ahsan Halai
Collateral Damage
By Ayesha Tammy Haq
Death Express
By Nadeem Saeed
“I was woken up by what sounded like a bomb explosion,” recounts Riaz Hussain, a barber in Sarhad village that was the site of a catastrophic accident involving three express trains that took place in the early hours of July 13. “I came to know of the disaster only after announcements were made from the mosque loudspeakers.”
The residents of Sarhad village were the first rescuers to throng the scene of the tragedy. “It was as if a tornado had hit the place, turning this small station into a huge junkyard of torn, crushed and shattered carriages. “I saw at least 19 carriages tossed off the tracks and lying across each other,” says Mohammad Nazir, one of the early rescuers. Some of the carriages were so badly twisted that the rescuers had to cut them apart to take out the dead bodies. Another witness, Najib Ahmed, recalls: “Men, women and children were crying out for help while human bodies and limbs were strewn all over the place. Most of the bodies were badly mangled.”
Courting Controversy
By Intikhab Amir
While the passage of the controversial Hasba Bill in the NWFP assembly has people throughout the country fearing for their civil liberties, members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) are enjoying what can only be described as a win-win situation. On July 17, the 124-member provincial assembly passed the bill, which was approved by 64 votes against 34. Since the approval of the bill, it has been denounced by opponents as a move to ‘Talibanise’ the NWFP and subsequently, the rest of the country. Political observers attach extra significance to the timing of the bill as it has been tabled and approved at a time when the military government faces the uphill task of improving Pakistan’s image abroad, especially in the aftermath of the attacks in London and Sharm el-Sheikh.
Fear and Loathing in London
By Kashif Qamar in London
The celebrations that started the previous evening had continued well into the morning hours of July 7 and the newspapers wore a festive look. In what was described by one London tabloid as “another Waterloo”, England had beaten the French to the 2012 Olympics bid. Some 700 kilometres up north in Gleneagles, Scotland, the heads of the Group of Eight nations were preparing for the summit meeting amid tight security by the British police and intelligence agencies tasked to keep pro-Africa protesters and possible terrorists at bay.
But before the mood for business could take over from the morning languor, four suicide bomb attacks on London’s extensive transport network shook Britain and the world. Soon, London was crippled and in total chaos, booming with police sirens. At 8:50 a.m., three bombs exploded in three tube stations – Edgware Road, Kings Cross and Aldgate – bringing the city’s underground tube network to a grinding halt. Almost an hour later, another bomb exploded on a passenger-packed double-decker bus at Tavistock Square. Loraine Gordon, a passenger in another bus just ahead of the unlucky one recalls: “The bus behind us exploded before my eyes. I have never in my life been so frightened. I saw the bus shake, I saw the top collapse.”
Unsafe Haven
By Azmat Abbas
Do forests play a key role in promoting agricultural growth and stemming pollution? The Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi says they do, which is why his government is endeavouring to bring a maximum area of the province under forest cover. Or so he told the audience that was gathered for a seminar on forest development in Lahore on April 28. But deeds speak louder than words and Elahi’s determination to go ahead with the New Murree Project is clearly out of sync with his environmentalist rhetoric.
Spread over 4,111 acres of reserve forest land at an elevation ranging from 2,000 to 2,200 metres, the mega project in the Patriata area envisages a hill resort four times the size of Murree with the infrastructural capacity to receive up to 50,000 visitors a day. To cater to this traffic, the government plans to provide for one six-star and three five-star hotels, villas, cottages, camping grounds, an 18-hole golf course, a shopping mall, trade and business centres, a cultural complex, parks and hiking tracks. Besides, modern parking facilities are to be built outside the resort and a monorail for transport within the town. But what sounds like paradise on earth to the Punjab government is seen by independent experts as an environmentalist’s nightmare.
The Sardar With a Guitar
By Huma Yusuf in Mumbai
Rabbi Shergill does not look like a rock star. On a Saturday morning after a concert in Mumbai, he lounges in his Juhu hotel room in green cargo pants and a stretched-out-of-shape, long-sleeved red T-shirt. He carries his cellphone and wallet in a black fanny pack clumsily slung over a perceptible paunch. The shoelaces of his bright-white sneakers have been neatly tied to fall in symmetrical loops. And while the scent of soap lingers in the air, suggesting that Rabbi has just stepped out of the shower, his turban is neatly wound, not a hair out of place. It’s a look the music industry is still getting used to: American tourist meets stately sardarji.