The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat According to reports published in International press “Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey walked off the stage after an angry exchange with the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, during a panel discussion on Gaza at the World Economic Forum, vowing never to return to the annual gathering.” Israel has probably committed war crimes in Gaza during its latest offensive by bombing civilian shelters and UN compounds and any show of anger towards Israel is just but Mr Erdogan, as prime minister of Turkey, should not have walked off the stage and showed off his anger publically. Turkey prides herself on the power of reason and as prime minister of the Turkish State Mr Erdogan should have voiced his concerns over this issue calmly as he did during the whole of the sitting which also included Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations, Amar Moussa, the Arab League’s secretary general and Mr. Peres, the president of Israel. It was only at the end when the mode...

Gwadar is located on the south-western coast of Pakistan , on the Arabian Sea . It is strategically located between three increasingly important regions: the oil-rich Middle East , heavily populated South Asia and the economically emerging and resource-laden region of Central Asia . The Gwadar Port is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenues and create at least two million jobs. In 2007, the government of Pakistan handed over port operations to PSA Singapore for 25 years, and gave it the status of a Tax Free Port for the following 40 years. The main investors in the project are Pakistani Government and People's Republic of China. The Makran region surrounding Gwadar was occupied by an ancient Bronze age people which settled in the few oases. It later became the Gedrosia region of the Achaemenid Persian empire. It is believed to have been conquered by the founder of the Persian empire, Cyrus the Great. The capital of the satrapy of Gedrosia was Pura, which is th...

SRINAGAR: JKLF chairman Mohammed Yasin Malik, a rebel virtually all his life, is set for domesticity. Malik (39), engaged to Mushaal Hussein Mullick (30), a Pakistani painter and a student at London School of Economics, will formally wed in Islamabad next week. Malik was in a jail in Kashmir in October 2008 for his anti-poll campaign when engagement rings were exchanged in Karachi between Malik’s Pakistani representative and Mushaal’s family. Mushaal supports charities and NGOs working on gender issues. Her late father, professor M A Hussein, was an economist of international repute, while her mother is Rehana Hussein Mullick, former secretary general Pakistan Muslim League’s women’s wing. Brother Haider Ali Hussein Mullick is a South Asia policy wonk in Washington DC. Malik is one of the first five JKLF militant commanders who launched “azadi” movement in Kashmir in 1989.

By Alistair Scrutton NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Doubts have been raised about police reports of a foiled attack on India's capital blamed on Pakistani militants, with newspapers wondering if the whole episode might have been staged. The controversy is an unwelcome distraction from India's efforts to bring to book the Pakistanis it blames for November's attack on Mumbai. Police on Sunday said they killed two militants after a car chase in Noida city on the outskirts of New Delhi on the eve of Republic Day. AK-47 rifles, grenades and a Pakistani passport were recovered, according to officials. But the story sounded to newspapers too good to be true. The militants not only conveniently carried Pakistani identification, they also asked for directions outside Delhi with an AK-47 poking out of a bag, and then confessed before dying. The incident came amid heightened tension with Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks late last year. "(The doubts) hurt India's credibility more now...

By Sikander Hayat People who claim to speak for the Baloch Autonomy must make one thing very clear. If it is about peoples’ representation then we have unfortunately not seen such movement so far in Balochistan. The province’s leaders, for all the clamouring about rights etcetera, have woefully fallen short of reforming their social structures. The late Akbar Khan Bugti not only ruled his area like a medieval tyrant, Dera Bugti even today has the worst human development indices in Pakistan. The same is true of other sardars who claim to speak on behalf of the people of Balochistan. Is it possible, before the Baloch nationalists begin to talk about democracy and rights and resource allocation, that they could show themselves up to be “modern” rather than celebrating one of the worst tribal structures one can find anywhere? Walking on burning coal, burying the women alive and all that. This, let it be said, is as important, if not more, than the issue of devolving powers to the provinc...

It certainly is a monumental task for the informed Sri Lankan or for that matter anyone in the neighbourhood of India to keep a straight face when talking about the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in India. Formed in 1968, the predatory operations carried out by this external intelligence agency of India in the neighbouring countries, is perhaps the best example as to how a geographically advantageous nations bully their little neighbours. A careful study of the RAW would spell out that its modus operandi include multi-nationals, non-governmental organizations and even cultural centres. Among its most ambitious operations that are currently underway is the move to separate Balochistan province from Pakistan by supporting Balochistan Liberation Army. The RAW in Sri Lanka has a pretty colourful record. Having raised, nursed and fortified the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam it later went through phases where it adopted ‘rock the baby, pinch the baby’ approach towards the LTTE. While...