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Below the map of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan where Osama bin Laden is said to be hiding and where battles between the US-NATO-Pakistani troops against Al Qaeda and Taliban are going on for a long time. If at all a world war is to begin, it may begin from here, in this region …
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Please find this same map also as a pdf file:
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By K.N. Pandita
The coalition government led by Omar Abdullah would do well to govern the strife-torn state with a new thinking and approach. It should engage the people of the state, particularly of the valley, in a serious and meaningful debate on the wisdom of state’s accession to the Indian Union in 1947. The government, in collaboration with willing political parties, should institutionalise this effort by engaging the masses of people in sustained free intellectual interaction at numerous study centres spread all over the state. The government may need to create a new Department of Public Awareness.
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(all texts inside of {xxxx} were footnotes in the original text)
By K.N. Pandit
Towards the last phase of his term, former US president George Bush is said to have realized the mistake of his administration’s disreputable involvement in Iraq imbroglio. In the same strain, it is also reported that the US made more strategic errors in her strategy of conducting war on terror which plunged her troops into raging battles in Afghanistan.
For one year in the past Taliban revival and retaliation have caused much embarrassment to the US troops in their fight against Al Qaeda – Taliban combine as well as Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan and NWFP region of Pakistan.
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By K.N. Pandit
Of late discordant notes come from US official circles which give an impression that Washington is not averse to politicising global terror when it comes to handling it in the case of India. The US top military brass at CENTCOM and other regional command levels has subtly expressed that the Kashmir dispute has a link to terrorism.
The British foreign secretary, Mr. David Miliband, recently joined his voice with that of American Generals when he wrote in The Guardian that not resolving Kashmir dispute was the cause of rise of terror in India. One would ask that by the same token what were he causes of 9/11?
Terror unleashed by religious extremists is not unknown to the US or UK. Both have taken measures aimed at ensuring maximum security to their nationals and institutions of the state. Obviously, other counties afflicted by same scourge would also exercise their right to protect their citizens and sovereignty of their state.
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By K.N. Pandit
Recent elections to the 11th Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir are significant in more than one way. Distributed into seven phases and spread over a period of a month and a half, this election was held in the backdrop of a somewhat surcharged atmosphere in the regions of Jammu and Kashmir. The state was in the grip of protests, agitations and strikes for most of the summer owing to the Amarnath Shrine land allocation row. Such was the state of uncertainty that just a month before the Election Commission decided to hold the elections in December, there was an intense debate whether in view of given ground situation elections should or should not be held according to the schedule.
Apart from the Election Commission, the Union Home Ministry, the PMO and the office of the Governor of the State, all were engaged in a serious debate about the wisdom and practicality of holding the elections according to schedule. Their teams visited the State, interacted with the players and reported back to their primaries about the feasibility of holding elections.
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By K.N. Pandit
Hindsight shows that Congress (I) learnt yet one more lesson from making the grave mistake of brokering power with a totally incompatible partner namely Peoples Democratic Party in the aftermath of 2002 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. It proved disastrous not only for the party and its cadres but for the people of the state as well. One does not presume that Congress was not aware of PDP’s veiled agenda. Its fault line lay along what may be called “willing suspension of disbelief.” Our politicians can be mercilessly selfish at the cost of an expectant voter.
What had prompted Congress to walk a mile with this perceptibly incompatible regional party of less standing and lesser experience was its lurking hope of neutralizing separatist-secessionist forces in the valley partially if not fully, through political maneuvering a la PDP particularly in South Kashmir where this party had created a foothold for itself. But that expectation was not only belied; it rather boomeranged at the end of the day when PDP, with no qualms of conscience, pulled the rug under the feet of Congress in the assembly on 29 August 2008, and to his dismay, the beleaguered chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad found that National Conference was in no hurry to jump on his bandwagon.