South Asia Theater

India: more ethnic terror in Assam

Since the beginning of the year we've been keeping track of ghastly acts of (non-Muslim) terrorism from around the world which the media have largely played down or completely ignored. The latest entry is from India's restive Northeast. From BBC News, Jan. 7:

Suspected separatist rebels have carried out more attacks on Hindi-speaking migrants in a third day of violence in India's Assam state.

Pakistan: rape laws challenged, Islamists exploit backlash

Now this is pretty depressing. Pakistan finally moves to overturn the atrocious anti-woman Hudood ordinances, under which women are punished for "adultery" if they report a rape. The Islamist opposition links backlash against this long-belated bit of progress with (legitimate) calls for democratization. This exemplifies how the US can do no good in this part of the world: the State Department doubtless pressured the Musharraf dictatorship to do away with the Hudood ordinances, to give Washington's GWOT ally a minimally plausible imprimatur of secularism. But because it happens in the context of a military regime being pressured by its imperial patron, this allows the would-be jihadist totalitarians to dress up their clerical reactionary agenda as a pro-democracy struggle. And even elements of the idiot left in the West get confused. From the Pakistan Tribune, Nov. 25:

Vendetta rapes persist in Pakistan

Freedom's on the march in the USA's closest South Asian ally. From the New York Times, Oct. 14:

KABIRWALA, Pakistan — Pursuing justice is not easy for a woman in Pakistan, not if the crime is rape. Ghazala Shaheen knows.

Pakistan: Musharraf caves in on rape law reform

Freedom's on the march in the USA's closest South Asian ally. From the UK's Independent, Sept. 12, via Common Dreams:

In a setback for women's rights in Pakistan, the ruling party in Islamabad has caved in to religious conservatives by dropping its plans to reform rape laws.

Gandhians remember September 11... 1906

From AndhraVision.com, Sept. 11:

Satyagraha movement completes 100 years

A hundred years ago today, Mahatma Gandhi launched the historic Satyagraha movement in South Africa to fight racism and colonial oppression in that country. Later, he used the same principles of non violence and mass civil disobedience in India, which eventually paved the way for the country's independence. The first seeds of Satyagraha were sown in 1893 when a young struggling lawyer Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi came to South Africa. He arrived to serve as a legal advisor for an Indian merchant. But this was a country where the colour of one's skin mattered more than anything else.

Terror blasts at Indian mosque

From the Sept. 9 New York Times, buried at the bottom of page 4 (below a much larger "profile" piece on a New Age self-help book written by Slovenia's president). Links added.

Explosions Hit Indian Mosque, Stoking Fear of Further Violence 
NEW DELHI — A series of explosions struck in and near the largest mosque in a flashpoint textile town in western India on Friday, killing more than two dozen people, wounding more than 100 and raising the specter of renewed sectarian clashes.

General strike shuts down Baluchistan

From India's Zee News, Sept. 5:

Baluchistan on strike over tribal chief's killing
QUETTA — Parts of the troubled southwest Pakistani province of Baluchistan were paralysed today by a strike called by opposition parties to protest the killing of a rebel tribal chief.

Baluchistan explodes

A big step closer to the destabilization of Pakistan. From Reuters, Aug. 29:

QUETTA, Pakistan - Security forces and gunmen clashed on Tuesday in Pakistan's Baluchistan province after prayers for a slain rebel leader and one policeman was killed, while a blast elsewhere killed three people, police said.

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