homistan

Friends in NYC, please attend. Friends elsewhere, please link/spread the word of this. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: progpak@gmail.com / 917.922.9836 Pakistanis Hold Vigil for Mumbai Victims Call Upon India and Pakistan to Work Towards Peace When: Saturday, December 13th, 4:00 pm Where: Union Square NORTH (16th Street) – across the street from Barnes and Noble [...]

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Dipesh Chakrabarty has a lucid look at some of the key realities facing Indian democracy in the aftermath of the attacks in his Reflections on the future of Indian democracy: The growth of this politics of identity has made elections into the mainstay of Indian democracy. It has distanced politics from issues of governance, and [...]

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Aryn Baker, in one of the most egregious example of bad reporting/analysis/pull-it-outta-your-ass-telology, quotes some “mild-mannered scholar” who yearns for the return of the Mughal Empire. What the fuck is Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad? How do you even find these numskulls? More importantly what is this Deobandi v Aligarh match that has been going on [...]

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Rohit points to this absurd “Roots of Indian Muslim Rage” piece (Jets v Sharks!). Suketu Mehta has the “here is why they hate our freedoms” piece. I am waiting to hear from our enlightened commentators about the Versace connection between Cunanan and the Bombay raiders. What is in that brand that drives young men to [...]

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The attack is over. And suddenly everything must now be questioned, say the punditry. CNN is trawling with idiotic “experts”. We are awash in insipid commentary, as well. The nearly two hundred dead, though, demand of us harsher questioning of the status quo. Some more reading: Saikat Datta in Outlook India: By the middle of [...]

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Timeline to date. From BBC: The fidayeen technique – a rudimentary form of “shock and awe” warfare – was introduced into Kashmir by Pakistani radical organisations that entered the Kashmir insurgency from the mid-1990s onwards. From Guardian: Six young men with large bags came ashore, after which the two who remained in the boat started [...]

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The aftermath of the horrific attack seems to be overlapping the attack itself – it is not over. However, information is starting to trickle out in the usual manner. Pakistan, Pakistani-based, ISI, Kashmir-based, “home-grown” are some of the usual suspects before us. I heard/read Somali pirates somewhere which did give me some hope that our [...]

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ماے ني! ميں کيهنوں اکهاں، درد وچهوڑ دا حال O mother! who can I ask? about the pain of this separation? The weight of exile rests heavy, some days. I don’t have the words to express, nor can I. So, here is Madho Lal Hussain (1539-94), the Sufi saint of Punjab, who wrote this Kafi [...]

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Pakistan’s nuclear godfather has suddenly emerged from seclusion (involuntary) and penned a risible column for the Daily Jang. It is notable, this column, for his self-aggrandizing, self-importance, and self-service. Keeping to the tradition, he sprinkles the column with bits of Urdu poetry (though not the tired old morsels), and frames himself as a “just a [...]

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I don’t know why the war is deemed “forgotten” by TIME, but these are powerful and horrific images of a great tragedy. Also see Ishaan Tharoor’s accompanying essay, Keeping Dhaka’s Ghosts Alive. via DI.

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The rooftop, chath, is the hub of Chand Raat (Night of the Moon). The point being to go up, and gaze at the sky – hoping to catch a glimpse of that peculiarly slight new moon. A sight which will mark the end of Ramadan. In my short moon-gazing life, I think I have only [...]

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All images via AP & AFP. At Least 40 Killed in Huge Explosion at Pakistan Hotel. The attack, at 7:55 p.m., was at Marriott. A video. The hotel is destroyed. This is, by initial reporting, the biggest suicide attack in the history of this country – dwarfing the Lahore attack from March of this year. [...]

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A few more images from today’s Daily Waqt: “In Swat, the masked members of Tehrik-e Taliban-e Pakistan (Movement of Pakistani Taliban) hold a ‘criminal’ while their companion delivers a public punishment. Maulana Fazlullah has started a campaign to forcibly install Shari’ah laws in the region, after which the tensions have mounted.” “In Lahore, the President [...]

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Christopher Hitchens, of much ill-repute, tries his hand at Pakistan: The very name “Pakistan” inscribes the nature of the problem. It is not a real country or nation but an acronym devised in the 1930s by a Muslim propagandist for partition named Chaudhary Rahmat Ali. It stands for Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, and Indus-Sind. The stan [...]

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ALL 2008 CHAPALS MUST GO! So, the caption on this is funnier than any snark from me: “Unemployed youth protest …”

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Pakistan, gentle readers, is imploding. Zordari has been sworn in as President at the back of deals made with MQM and other nefarious organizations (here’s lookin at you, Zalmay!) US/NATO air and ground troops are conducting operations inside Pakistan – with requisite civilian casualties and widespread public discontent in Pakistan. But, these two recent stories [...]

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Also, pay attention to the masthead.

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