RAW AND BANGLADESH is an illuminating book written by Mr. Zainal Abedin, a senior Journalist of Bangladesh and published by Fatema Shahad in November 1995. It is printed by Madina Printers and distributed by Madina Publications, 38 Banglabazar Dhaka – 1100, Bangladesh.

Mr. Zainal Abedin is a former student leader and a freedom fighter who crossed over to India in 1971 for military training, joined the Mujib Bahini and fought for the freedom of Bangladesh alongside the Indian Army. Mr Abedin holds a masters degree and a BEd.
In the book Mr Abedin ponders over the events of 1971 and 'one particular incident chastises me the most', he writes, It was in April 1971 in the district headquarters of Noakhali, his home district, where the freedom fighters were gathering, that he met his neighbour. A middle-aged, mature and sober person, his most staunch supporter and admirer. 'He got hold of my hand and took me to a nearby restaurant'. Narrates Mr Abedin, 'As we sipped tea, he started narrating the history of pre-1947 Bengal. He mentioned gory details of how the Hindus used to treat the Muslims and explained the reasons for creation of Pakistan. He said that struggling for one's right is different from break up of the country. He stated that India would first weaken us by breaking our unity and then exploit us. He added that his life time experiences had told him that India would never be sincere to Muslims. With tears in his eyes and hands trembling with emotions he quipped, 'Are you again going to make us the slaves of the Hindus?'.
Mr Abedin admits that he did not give any serious thought to the urging of his neighbour at that time as he was too young and emotional. 'The said question now haunts me often', he writes. 'The realization of what lay in store for us started soon after I crossed over to India. The attitude of our Indian handlers and trainers indicated that they treated us (the Freedom Fighters) not as friends but as agents. The real Indian face lay bare after the surrender of Pakistani forces, when I saw the large scale loot and plunder by the Indian Army personnel. The soldiers swooped on everything they found and carried them away to India. Curfew was imposed on our towns, industrial bases, ports, cantonments, commercial centres and even residential areas to make the looting easier. They lifted everything from ceiling fans to military equipment, utensils to water taps. Thousands of Army vehicles were used to carry looted goods to India. History has recorded few such cruel and heinous plunders. Such a large scale plunder could not have been possible without connivance of higher Indian authorities'. continue

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The Obama Administration’s policy of escalating drone strikes took another hit today, after the explosion from a drone attack against the house of “suspected militants” in North Waziristan also destroyed a neighboring house full of women and children.

The combined toll from the blast was 20 people killed, with at least four women and three children among the slain. At least 13 other civilians were also reported wounded, including a number of other children.

Pakistani intelligence officials say most of the “suspects” killed in the attacks were Afghans, but it is unclear how much evidence they had of wrongdoing. Large numbers of Afghan civilians have been living as refugees in the tribal areas since the 2001 US invasion.

The large numbers of civilians (700 in 2009 alone) killed in the US drone strikes has fueled considerable anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. When pressed during a previous visit Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shrugged off concerns about the civilians, saying only “there’s a war going on.”

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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will soon travel to flood-hit Pakistan to witness first hand the impact of the natural disaster that has engulfed Iran's eastern neighbour, the interior minister said Tuesday. "The president has decided to personally visit the affected areas to decide how to better help the flood victims," ILNA news agency quoted Mostafa Mohammad Najjar as saying. Najjar did not specify when Ahmadinejad's visit would take place.

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     A US client regime In Islamabad accepts insignificant Indian aid on US prodding

No respect for Kashmiri blood & no thought to Indian terrorism In Balochistan

The Government of Pakistan has truly shown its subservience to the United States on whose orders it chose to accept the puny amount of $5 million Indian aid for the flood relief. This money has the blood of Kashmiris on it and one wonders how our Kashmiri brethren must be feeling as they face the bullets of Indian forces every day and see us taking Indian "aid".

Some would say that we also took Indian assistance in the 2005 Kashmir earthquake but that was different in that the Indian aid was in kind and basically the two sides of Kashmir were opened up on humanitarian grounds. Later, it transpired that most of the Indian material aid, specifically targeted for Azad Kashmir, was tarnished. But even at that time we had refused to accept India's offer of helicopters for relief work – an offer which also had the conditionality that Indian crews would come with these copters.

But to accept money from India at a time when the Kashmiri youth have risen afresh against the Indian occupation and are being killed on a daily basis, and at a time when India is targeting Pakistan on false charges again on a regular basis, is a shame for the entire nation. Even as PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif was declaring that Pakistan did not need Western assistance, the US ordered the Pakistani leadership to meekly accept the Indian aid offer. In fact, barely had Senator Kerry departed that the Pakistanis accepted US diktat yet again. Kerry also compelled the government to target Pakistani religious charities doing a remarkable job of relief work.

Here is a country, India, with whom we have fought wars; a country that was instrumental in breaking up Pakistan; a country that continues to deny the Kashmiris their right of self-determination; and the moment the US commands, we accept a meager amount of aid from this same India. How can anyone take our position on Kashmir seriously when we are prepared to forget the people of Kashmir at the mere offer of a blood-soaked $5 million Indian loan? Certainly this reflects our total abandonment of the Kashmiri people in their hour of dire need and moral support.

What can you expect though from a government which allows its President to break all protocol and stand next to a mere Senator from the US for a press conference? This is our shame today – we have effectively become a vassal state of the US.

This column was published by TheNation. Reach Dr. Mazari at callstr@hotmail.com

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The scale of the disaster caused by the floods in Pakistan, is barely comprehensible. As Juan Cole has written, expressing near disbelief : "The submerged area of the country is as big as the United Kingdom, fourteen million Pakistanis are affected, two million are homeless." Six million need immediate relief, according to the UN., and thirty six thousand are suffering from acute diarrhoeal symptoms, with cholera already diagnosed. 1,600 are reported dead, with the number certain to multiply. Famine is a real possibility.

The great Indus river, one of the world's longest, which flows also through China, India and Kashmir, rising in Tibet and flowing in to the Arabian Sea, has flooded Sindh and Balochistan provinces, forcing the evacuation of over ninety percent of the villages. With no place to hide, people watched their homes washed away, in a monsoon season that continues through September. Hundreds of villages are inundated or completely under water, with roads, rail links, thus transportation cut, as frantic people try to flee to safer ground. It is the worst flooding in the country's history, with some experts saying the region worst affected for nearly one hundred years. A far wider area is now threatened.

When the waters subside, the million-plus people who are directly or indirectly dependent on the mangroves, will have had their livelihood affected or erased, as will the fishermen along this great expanse.

Looking at US., news sites, the enormity of this tragedy has evoked not pity, but almost universal vindictiveness. One with over 19,000 comments are typified by: continue

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Canadian Sikh Leader Says The Sikh Nation Will Stand By Kashmiris, And Wants Freedom For Sikh Homeland

Worried Indian diplomats sneaked behind the curtains of the windows at the building of the Consulate General of India in this Canadian city as Kashmiris, Pakistanis, and Sikhs gathered across the street, drawing the attention of the Canadian media and public to an important idea whose time has come: an end to the Indian occupation of Kashmir.

World Kashmiri Diaspora Alliance held a peaceful rally in front of the Consulate General of India in Toronto to ask the world powers important questions that must be answered that must be answered: “Should India get away with defiance of international agreements?”  and “Who has given India a license for the genocide of the Kashmiris and other minorities?”

The demonstrators included children, women, and the elderly. They raised slogans of protest saying, “Kashmiris demand the right to life.”

Protesters were carrying placards demanding “Indian Army: quit Kashmir”; “We demand self-determination, as agreed upon in 1948”; “India honor her pledges given at the UN”; “Stop killings & inhumane crimes in Kashmir”; “Stop state terrorism in Kashmir”; “Kashmiris demand peace & justice”. continue

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Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who was away from his country when it was hit by the worst floods in 80 years, has topped a unique list of influential people who were conspicuously absent when they were needed the most.

Releasing the list of five such people, the prestigious 'Foreign Policy' magazine said Zardari was travelling in Europe when millions of people had been affected by the devastating floods and hundreds others hit by political violence in his country.

"For a world leader, being seen directing relief efforts (or at least showing sympathy for the victims) is usually a good idea when a natural disaster strikes. 

"But for Pakistan's Zardari, forging ahead with a tour of Europe seemed more important -even after US officials privately urged him to discontinue the lavish trip, which allegedly included hotel stays that cost more than USD 11,000 a night," the Foreign Policy magazine said. Zardari's officials fired back, saying the President chose the "cheapest five-star hotel" in London — the Churchill Hyatt Regency — and even chose not to sleep in the royal suite, the magazine wrote. 

"The President's trip wasn't all fun and games, though — at a public speech during one of Zardari's final stops in Britain, a 60-year-old British-Pakistani protester hurled his shoes at the President in light of his decision not to return home. "This was the only means of protest available in front of me at that time," it quoted the demonstrator as saying after he was released by police. 

Zardari's absence continued on August 18 with a visit to the Black Sea resort at Sochi, Russia, where he met his Russian, Afghan, and Tajik counterparts for a security summit. "Perhaps wisely, Zardari decided not to stay for lunch and left quickly after the meeting," the magazine said.

Among other leaders part of the unique list are Yuri Luzhkov, Mayor of Moscow, who was receiving physical therapy in the Austrian Alps while his city was engulfed with wildfires; and Wyclef Jean, a Hip-hop artist-turned Haitian presidential candidate who was "in hiding" at the time of reconstruction of the disaster-stricken country.

BP CEO Tony Hayward, who was on a yacht off the Isle of Wight during the oil spill in the Gulf; and Tony Woodley, General Secretary of Unite, Britain's largest labour union, who during the British Airways strikes was on a Mediterranean island villa, also figured in the list.

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