The Londoner

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces have detained the family of a man accused of attacking Malala Yousafzai , the schoolgirl who became an icon of resistance against Taliban oppression and who is now being treated at a British hospital, neighbors of the man’s family said on Thursday. The authorities in the Swat Valley , where the attack happened on Oct. 9, said they were still searching for the man who shot Ms. Yousafzai and wounded two other girls on a school bus. The suspect has been identified as a member of the Pakistani Taliban named Attaullah, and the authorities are seeking an accomplice as well. One senior provincial official said Attaullah had been arrested before, on suspicion of militant activity during a military operation in 2009 in Swat, in northwestern Pakistan, but was freed because of a lack of evidence. “Then we got to know that he was back in Swat and was planning some mischief,” the official said. At

  MANY say they now realise it has taken a 14-year-old schoolgirl to teach Pakistan the meaning of courage. Back in 2009 Malala Yousafzai began chronicling the dark grip of the Pakistani Taliban on her homeland, the pretty Swat valley in the country’s north. She had a clear-eyed conviction that girls had a right to an education, something the Taliban did their best to prevent, even after their local rule was broken in an army offensive. She called the Taliban “barbarians”. On October 9th the barbarians took their revenge, shooting her in the head. She is now in a British hospital, in Birmingham, with a specialist unit for war injuries. Doctors are impressed by her resilience. Back home, says Nusrat Javed, host of a popular political show, “Malala has liberated Pakistan.” Pakistanis have voiced unprecedented anger against the Pakistani Taliban, calling for the peaceful majority to reclaim the country’s destiny from gun-toting, head-chopping extremists. The qu

With formal charges looming against his client within days, the lawyer for an Army sergeant suspected in the horrific nighttime slaughter of 16 Afghan villagers was flying Sunday to Kansas and getting ready to meet for the first time with the 10-year veteran. John Henry Browne of Seattle said he planned to meet Monday with Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is being held in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth's military prison. Charges against Bales, 38, are expected to be filed within a week and if the case goes to court the trial will be held in the United States, said a legal expert with the U.S. military familiar with the investigation. That expert said charges were still being decided and that the location for any trial had not yet been determined. If the suspect is brought to trial, it is possible that Afghan witnesses and victims would be flown to the United States to participate, he said. Military lawyers say once attorneys involved in the initial investigation

By Sikander Hayat Today America has attacked Pakistan again showing all the arrogance of an evil empire . Breaking every international law in the process and treating an ally like an enemy. It would be more palatable if America declares Pakistan an enemy and then kill us. We would than know who to fight against.The Taliban or the so called allies. Imran Khan has been saying this from the day one and now the popular public opinion is agreeing with him that our true enemies are the American government and not the Afghans. America is trying to forge an alliance which has all the enemies of Pakistan in it ranging from India and present puppet government of Afghanistan . Now openly killing Pakistani officers and soldiers in cold blood is basically telling Pakistanis to fuck off and may be this is time for our leaders to wake up from their deep sleep and tell the Americans to  stay in Afghanistan if they can on their own. This alliance must not go no any longer and must end no

By Sikander Hayat I do not think so. Terror has no religion and this one was no different. If a Muslim commits an act of terror , that is immediately called Islamic terrorism but that should not be the case. These men,no matter which faith they claim to belong, are terrorists and nothing but terrorists. There acts should not be claimed as Muslim or Christian terrorism . Brevik called himself a Christian crusader fighting to save the Christendom from the Muslim. Does that self appointment by him as a saviour of Christians all over the world make other Christians culpable in his acts of terrorism? There is no way that God fearing Christians can be blamed for the lunacy of this man no matter what he claims to fight for. Timothy Mcvay showed in Oklahoma , Brevick in Norway and countless acts of terror in Ireland show that terrorism is a tool that people use to achieve different goals. Tamils of Sri Lanka ( who belong to Hindu religion) introduced the modern world to s

‭BBC Urdu‬ - ‮پاکستان‬ - ‮’امریکہ چلا بھی گیا پھر بھی کارروائیاں جاری رکھیں گے‘‬

According to media reports coming in from Karachi, a large attack has started huge fires on the PNS Mehran.

By Sikander Hayat It is paramount in the wake of US attack on Pakistan in the dead of the night that Pakistan make a stand. Pakistan is on a slippery slope where they were not even trusted with a joint operation and now the time has come that even third class countries like India are threatening Pakistan. How Pakistan came to this place. This place where its leadership is now totally humiliated in the eyes of their own public. Pakistani public is asking questions about the capabilities of Pakistan military and it's intelligence services. They are rightly asking about the public money that is being used by Pakistan Army and which can be used by the government to build school,hospitals,roads e.t.c. Today's attack on Hazara town in Quetta (where terrorists operating from within Afghanistan at the behest of Indian RAW killed at least 8 innocent people and wounded many more) clearly shows the need for Pakistan to finally stand up to America. It is time to say enough is enough and

By Sikander Hayat Osama is dead. He died in very mysterious circumstances near Pakistan military academy and an American marine base was nearby as well. Hard to believe that nobody knew that Osama was living few miles from the military academy in Kakool. Now that Osama is dead and apparently buried at sea. ( By the way there is no sea anywhere near Abbottabad for thousands of miles), there are other issue to be looked at. It is very important now that Osama Bin Laden is dead that America leaves Pakistan for good. No more interference in internal affairs of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan has suffered enough already and will be well served by Americans going back home. More than half the budget in Pakistan is being spent on the war against militants who have risen due to American presence in Afghanistan. Pakistan & Afghanistan have suffered beyond what they could handle due to Osama's attack on twin towers in America. Both countries were invaded by United States in t

By Sikander Hayat Shehbaz Bhatti ( Federal minister for minority affairs) was gunned down outside his mother's home in Islamabad this morning. This is another blow to the freedom of speech in Pakistan where governor of Punjab Salman Taseer was murdered by his own body guard for speaking his mind. Nobody knows where we are headed and what each coming day will bring for Pakistanis. But one thing is for sure and that is the continuation of senseless violence and mindless incitement to hatred by so called mullahs of questionable credentials.I an looking forward to the day when someone like Mustafa Kemal will shut down these incubators of violence & intolerance.

By Sikander Hayat A very sad day for freedom of speech in Pakistan. Salman Taseer should not have paid with his life for what he did or did not say.   “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” Friedrich Nietzsche

By Sikander Hayat ANP & MQM are waging a bitter war against each other in Karachi and surrounding areas. The significance of this is that it puts Urdu speakers against the Pakhtuns and violence is escalating everyday. Given the importance of  Karachi for Pakistan's economy, it is a bitter blow to the country's struggle to get its economy moving again. Pakistan cannot afford to have this ethnic confrontation between the two groups to go on for too long. Both MQM & ANP are part of the government in the federal government which is headed by Asif Ali Zardari. Shahi Saeed ( ANP Karachi leader ) & Haider Abbas Rizvi ( MQM leader) are both accusing each other for the assassinations going on in the city.  Pakistan is so busy fighting a war against the TTP ( Tekreek e Taliban Pakistan) & Indian sponsored terrorists in Balochistan that it cannot keep its eyes on this seriously escalating situation in Karachi. Today's attack on the Kebari Market is a major escalatio

By Sikander Hayat 1. United States forgot the important war of Afghanistan and invaded Iraq to fight an enemy (Al Qaida) which was not there. George Bush Junior had a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussian who fought in the first Gulf war against George Bush Senior & survived. Bush Junior wanted to finish Saddam off & made use of some dodgy intelligence about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to invade Iraq. America took her eyes off the ball which was Afghanistan for many years and is now paying the price in life & money. 2. Important resources were diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq leaving Afghan war not properly funded for many years. Both in terms of man power & hardware, Afghanistan was under resourced to point that many in America almost forgot that they were engaged in an active conflict in another country with the name of Afghanistan. 3. When America neglected Afghanistan, space was created for the Taliban to return and convince the local population

By Sikander Hayat Alas, people will keep on dying everyday. No one in the world will take notice. World is buying the Indian line. They truly believe that India is treating Kashmiris with dignity but during the last 21 years India has just butchered them with impunity and now even street protesters are branded as terrorists by the "free" & "unbiased" Indian media outlets. There are problems in Pakistan as well but at least Pakistan does not claim to be the beacon liberty and democracy in the world. India must understand that Kashmir's problems are not economic which can be alleviated by building roads and bridges but is truly of a political nature. Kashmir needs a political solution and a grand bargain between India, Pakistan & the people of Kashmir. Until that happens, any normality in Kashmir will be of superficial nature and nothing more than a lull before another storm.

By Sikander Hayat I beg to differ with my fellow Pakistanis on this issue as in this day and age it will be hard to ban every website with these cartoons. These cartoons are a sad tale of so called freedom of speech warriors in the West and they are nothing but an organised effort to hurt Muslims around the world. The best things Muslims can do to stop people from publishing ever more sadistic portrayals of Prophet Muhammad is to stop banning websites and start a dialogue with the West in order to convey their message to the wider world.

By Sikander Hayat Shiv Sena has threatened Shahrukh Khan , the most famous Bollywood actor and an Indian Muslim , to leave India and go to Pakistan. The threats came after Shahrukh advocated the return of Pakistan cricketers to IPL. His film “My Name Is Khan” is due to be released but Shiv Sena has threatened any cinema owners who show this film with death. His posters are being burned everywhere in the Mumbai c ity and he is being asked to retract his statements or else. This is not the first time anything like this is happening. Every time an Indian Muslim says or does something which anti-Muslim fundamentalists of India don’t like, he or she is branded a traitor. If this is happening to the most prominent Indian Muslims, just imagine the plight of those who do not have a voice. Shiv Sena and organisations like it sometimes let slip the veil from the real face that “shining India” does not want anyone to see. Off course India is shining but only for those who are the righ

By Sikander Hayat 1. Afghan insurgents are part of the fabric of Afghan society, can never be defeated just by force and there is a need for a political settlement. 2. West will have to talk directly to Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as they are the two major stakeholders in the talks. 3. It has to be accepted that Pakistan is the main force that can help resolve the issue of Afghanistan. Pakistan has said categorically that it is talking with all levels of Taliban leadership to bring a lasting peace to Afghanistan. Afghan & Pakistani presidents met in Turkey before the London conference to discuss ways of dealing with Taliban. Real decisions are going to be made among Afghanistan & Pakistan, not the nearly 70 countries who met in London today. 4. India & Pakistan cannot coexist in Afghanistan. To get Pakistan’s help, the current occupiers of Afghanistan will have to ask India to leave that country. For last 9 years, India has tried to side-line Pakistan in Afghanist

By Sikander Hayat I am not saying that it is the start of the Tet offensive but this is major indeed. Militants striking at the heart of Kabul at about 100 yards from the presidential palace, where Hamid Karzai was going to take oaths from the new ministers, is an attack to send message to the United States that Afghan Taliban are still strong and able to mount headline grabbing attacks. This also signals towards a worrying development and that is the presence of Taliban sympathisers in Kabul. Nearly 20 men stayed in Kabul for days if not weeks planning this attack. They were fed, housed and armed by the people from within the city. This is worrying indeed for the NATO & US forces as this attack came just after the attack which killed 7 CIA operatives in Khost. Add this attack to the fact that there almost daily deaths among the coalition soldiers and the picture becomes even more disquieting. This attack also shows that Afghanistan is not ready to be left alone to its own device

By Sikander Hayat There are unconfirmed reports that Hakimullah Mehsud, who is the leader of the Pakistani Taliban and got the leadership after the death of Baitullah Mehsud, has been killed in a drone attack. His organisation has denied these reports but there are strong indications that he is actually dead. US have been hunting actively after the attack on CIA base in Afghanistan in which a Jordanian Al Qaida operative killed 7 CIA men in a suicide attack. Few days later Hakimullah Mehsud appeared in a video with the alleged bomber and took responsibility for the attack. From that day it was a matter of time before Americans would kill him and today they might have achieved their purpose. Reports are still unconfirmed but if they are confirmed then there will be a need for a new TTP (Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan) leader. It will be interesting to see how Pakistani Taliban responds to this strike at their heart. RELATED POSTS 1. Baitullah Mehsud Is An Indian Agent 2. Distinction Betwee

By Sikander Hayat UK government has banned the outfit run by Anjum Chaudhry . The name of this outfit was “Islam for UK” and was connected with Al-Muhajiru n which is an umbrella organisation for these so called defenders of Muslim faith . These guys were planning to hold a march in Wootton Bassett (this is where bodies of fallen British soldiers are brought to pay respect), against the British army for their participation in Iraq & Afghanistan wars . Now personally I don’t think that Iraq ware was a just war but still a soldier who dies fighting for his country must not be disrespected be it British or Iraqi . What Anjum Chaudhry was trying to do was despicable because he has no sympathy for Muslims anywhere but he is a cheap & vulgar popularity seeker who wants to defame Islam, make life miserable for British Muslims and jeopardise community relations just for his own evil plans. If he was doing all this in a Muslim majority country , by now he would have been hanged