SAARC Interior Ministries vow to fight against terrorism - 27-Jul-2010 :

« South Asian Home/Interior ministers have voiced concern over the "continuing scourge of terrorism afflicting the region" at a meeting held in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The meeting was chaired by Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik, a Sri Lanka External Affairs Ministry press release said today.

It also said the Ministers, at the conclusion of the meeting, adopted the ‘Islamabad SAARC Ministerial Statement on Co-operation Against Terrorism’.

It added: "The statement takes note of the fact that peace and harmony, friendly and good neighbourly relations, and cooperation and prosperity of the region are being threatened by terrorism and recognizes that sovereign equality, mutual respect and the principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of member states consistent with the SAARC Charter, shall remain the basis of the cooperation in the war against terror." (courtesy Sunday Times Sri Lanka) »

A third-country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary? - 27-Jul-2010 :

« India has rejected any 3rd party mediation between issues pertaining Indo-Pak relations. The statement came emmediatly next day when US and chinese presidents vowed to cooperate on south asian issues.
In a joint statement,US president Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, vowed to make joint efforts to resolve issues and improve relations between India and Pakistan.
“The two sides (the United States and China) are ready to strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related to South Asia and work together to promote peace, stability and development in that region,” they said.
Here is the statement forwarded by Indian external ministry on wednesday, “A third-country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary,”.
If one thoroughly studies issues between two arch-rivals India and Pakistan, one wonders that the issues on which both the nations for which 3 major wars have been fought, are infact non issues. for example if we take kashmir we find that it is a territory divided by both countries with or against the will of poor kashmiris. both claim the other country occupying the other side. If kashmir is vacated by both countries and kashmiris are set free to decide thier own future, there will be no more issues left on this conflict.
I believe, kashmir is made issue by establishments of both sides because it gives military a legitimacy to icrease thier budget and finance. it gives a chance for them to make commission, to earn money. We know many scandles from both sides like helicoptor scandle in India and Ogasta_B scandle in Pakistan. There are many scandles which have become public through media. It is all done by Pol-Mili alliance(politician & military alliance).
Same is the case with terrorist activities through respective agencies. We should hope and wait for the day when both the nations will wake up and will replace old and rotten system running since partician. »

South Asia & Religious Extremism - 27-Jul-2010 :

« Islamabad: the current hostile relations between India and Pakistan, though are dated back and has its history but rather studying its history we should look into these relations in contxet of religious extremism that is deeply rooted in both nations.we should frankly accept the reality that two different religions, diverse culture and different norm and values are the border lines between the two.
if we compare hiduism and islam, we find only one soimilarity that both teach its followers peace and love for mankind. it is fact that every follower have right to believe in his/her own religion and live the way he likes to, but there are some fundamentalists who believe that they are duty bound to propagate thier own religion as they are right and all others are going astray.these fundamentalist monsters can be found every where whether it is islam, hinduism or christianity.there are many revivalist movements in both islam and other religions in both India and Pakistan. as India is bigger than Pakistan so it is the responsibility of Indian leaders to step forward, ban and condemn such movements and religious extremists withing India and thus present a picture of truely secular state in the region. so that Pakistan and other nations in the region may get impression of a peace loving India.
India is being dominated by Congress and Pakistan by PPP, both the political parties are of leftist wing and if both the governments make unitedly efforts to fights against such elements in respective countries, then it is sure that such elements who are small in numbers can never become so powerful to hijack and spoil the smoothly going on peace talks, and other confidence building measures by both the governments in recent past. they can be crushed and washed out only and only if these two political parties vow to get stability and peace in the region. »

Indo-Pak relations & Duplicitous policy - 27-Jul-2010 :

« After the Mumbai bomb blasts last November, Indian print and electronic media directly criticised Pakistan and tried to create an image of it as a failed state. Non-journalistic and undiplomatic language was used against Pakistan, which brought both countries very close to a terrible war. Timely and truthful analysis and commentary by Pakistani media helped in diffusing the tense situation. This situation begs the question: How much real truth is in the propaganda spread by the Indian government and media against Pakistan?
As far as the question of Ajmal Kassab’s citizenship is concerned, there is no denying that he is a Pakistani and belongs to Pakistani Punjab. It is also a fact that Jamat Dawa is headed by the same people from Lashkar-e-Taiba who were involved in Kashmir Jihad and attacks on the Indian Parliament. There is also no denying the involvement of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar in the jihadi activities.
An airplane was hijacked and held as ransom from Katmandu, Nepal. It was after a long, tense wait and the release of Maulana Masood Azhar that the ordeal ended, so there should not be any hesitation in calling Maulana a “jihadist” or, according to the modern lingo, “a terrorist.” Similarly, we cannot present Hazrat Maulana Sayed Salah-ud-Din, who is the Supreme Commander of the Joint Jihadi Council, as a freedom fighter in front of the world, no matter how much we would like to do so.
Let us discuss the relationship between India and Pakistan, which, due to the sincere efforts of the last government, had become very cordial. After the Mumbai bomb attacks, despite the assurances of full cooperation from the government of Pakistan, India has not shown the level of trust towards Pakistan that everyone was hoping for.
In fact, America, NATO and India realised the duplicitous policy of the Pakistani government regarding the Mujahedeen (Kashmiri and Afghani). The government’s refusal to take any action against Maulana Masood Azhar, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and (I’d like to make additions to this list on my own) Sayed Salah-ud-Din (Supreme Commander) is a clear example of this policy.
All of the above mentioned people have been directly or indirectly involved in jihadi activities on issues relating to Kashmir and Afghanistan. These activities have not only endangered the peace in the region and the world, but have also tarnished the beautiful image of Islam, as a result of which Muslims around the world are looked down upon. I would like readers to be unbiased and answer my one question: Is it true that Muslims of the world are disgraced due to the idiotic strategies of Al-Qaeda and Taliban?
The relationship between India and Pakistan cannot become normal until the government of Pakistan takes firm and decisive action against aforementioned people. To create trust between the two countries it is necessary to file cases in Pakistani courts against Lashkar-e-Taiba, Joint Jihad Council and the so-called jihadi Hazrat Maulana Masood Azhar because we cannot satisfy the world and India just by putting restrictions on these elements. »