Geopolitical Analysis

By K.N. Pandita

A country shaped on the basis of religion cannot escape subservience of the state authority to the ecclesiastical diktat. Evidently in such a state the church enjoys dictatorial powers often misused than used.

The church in Pakistan successfully superseded state institutions for the reason that it could forge convergence with the feudal-military and bureaucratic triumvirate.

The convergence point is the deep-seated and zealously propagated hate-India theorem.  Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

The massacre of twenty-eight  Shia pilgrims  in Balochistan who headed for a pilgrimage to the neighbouring country of Iran has, once again, diverted attention to brutal sectarian attacks and clashes in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The notorious Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, known for its rabid anti-Shia animus has accepted the responsibility of this dastardly act. The pilgrims destined for Taftan on Balochistan-Iran border were travelling in a bus which was stopped through a road block obstruction and then the passengers were asked to come out, lined up and shot dead one by one. The gruesome act is not the first of its kind in Pakistan.    Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

Pakistan Premier Reza Gilani called off his proposed visit to the US at the last moment. He was to attend the UN General Assembly session in New York and all arrangements for the Pakistani delegation headed by him were finalized. Gilani told reporters that he had cancelled his visit because he wanted to personally supervise the relief work being carried out for the flood sufferers in Pakistan. But knowledgeable circles are not convinced with the reason given by him. He had recently been in Teheran while the floods raged in his country. However reputed Pakistani daily Dawn has reported that the real reason for calling off the visit is President Obama’s refusal to meet him on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in NY, which both were scheduled to attend. Pakistan mission in the US had worked hard for the meeting on the sidelines but at the last moment it fell through.  Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

In a belated but significant move the US has named Indian Mujahideen IM  to its official blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations. India has not done it till now. Since 2005, this organization has been central to a number of bomb blasts at different places, mostly crowded ones and economic centres, in the country that took hundreds of innocent civilian lives. Its primary method of attack is multiple coordinated bombings in crowded areas against economic and civilian targets to maximize terror and casualties, the States Department’s anti-terrorism coordinator said. IM had carried out a 2010 bombing of a popular German bakery in Pune, frequented by tourists, killing 17 and injuring over 60 people, and another attack in Delhi in 2008 that killed 30 people. IM was also responsible for 16 synchronized bomb blasts in crowded urban centres and a local hospital that killed 38 and injured more than 100 in Ahmedabad, and played a ”facilitative role” in the 2008 Mumbai attack carried out by LeT that killed 163 people, including six Americans.  Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

On Wednesday, Delhi met with anther terrorist bomb blast, this time again outside the Delhi High Court at Gate Number 5. Eleven persons have been killed and 76 wounded some grievously, in an RDX blast put in a suitcase. This is the 19th attack of the terrorists in Delhi during past 15 years. Home Minister said in the Parliament that Delhi had become a target of the terrorists. In May last, an explosion had occurred almost around the same place following which the Delhi police claimed it had obtained some clues about the culprits. But the government never disclosed who the culprits were, to which organization they belonged and whether they were prosecuted formally or not. However, the Congress spokesperson Digvijay Singh had quipped at that time his usual rhetoric that he did not rule out the hand of Hindu extremists behind the explosion. No Congress leader or the government contradicted him. But according to an email received by two TV Channels, the Harakatu’l-Jihad-e Islami has owned the responsibility of Wednesday’s blast.   Continue Reading…

For some time, MLAs* in opposition have been raising hue and cry for withdrawing AFSPA**. Separatist groups strongly support the demand. They are prompted by militant leadership which presumably has come under pressure of security forces destroying their dens and hideouts where they dump arms and ammunition in large quantity to continue armed insurgency and disruption of law and order in the state. Political parties that want withdrawal of AFSPA actually want to score a point in winning the favour of sections of population. Amusingly, of late, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has also joined the tantrum and has even moved officially to break the deadlock. The issue of AFSPA has been made controversial and complicated because there is clash of views on the subject.  Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

China’s Asian client-state Pakistan is faced with unprecedented ire from Chinese authorities for giving room to terrorists on her soil and then exporting it to Xinjiang, or Eastern Turkistan, contiguous to PoK territory. China’s official media on Tuesday prominently highlighted Kashghar government’s statement indicting Pakistan-trained militants in violence in the city, while demanding stern action to deal with terrorism.

Commentators say this is the first time that Beijing has formally named Pakistan as source of terrorist organizations with agenda to export religion-based terror to Muslim dominated regions.  Continue Reading…