• IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here.

    The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.

Taliban May Take Over Pakistan!

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
Pashai are a Dardic ethno-linguistic group living primarily in eastern and northeastern Afghanistan. Their total population is estimated to be 500,000[2]. They are mainly concentrated in the northeastern Laghman Province. Pashai are believed to be ancient Gāndhārī descendants.[3] [4] Most of the Pashai speakers are bilingual in Pashtu[5], the dominant language of the region, more than 80% of the population are bilingual. Small Pashai communities can also be found in the Chitral district of northwestern Pakistan. The Pashai are Sunni Muslims.
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
Hindki (Hindi: हिन्दकी, Pashtu: ہِندکی) is the name given to an ethnic group who inhabit Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. They are of the Khatri,[5] Arora,[6] and Brahman classes,[7] and are found all over the country.[1] H. W. Bellew, in his Races of Afghanistan, estimated their number at about 300,000.[1] The name Hindki is also loosely used by Pathans on the upper Indus, in Dir, Bajour, &c., to denote the speakers of Punjabi or any of its dialects.[1][8] It is sometimes applied in a historical sense to the Buddhist inhabitants of the Peshawar Valley north of the Kabul River, who were driven thence about the 5th or 6th century A.D. and settled in the neighbourhood of Kandahar.[1]

Buddhism in Afghanistan has a long history. Many monuments, such as the famous Buddhas of Bamyan, testify to the Buddhist culture in Afghanistan. It was during Ashoka's reign that Buddhism was introduced to what later became Afghanistan. Kanishka (120 to 160) was a Buddhist who built many stupas. Many of the Iranian forebearers of the Pashtuns, including the Scythians followed Buddhism until the arrival of Islam. Currently, there are a few Buddhists in Afghanistan, probably numbering 0.3% of this Islamic country. Along with Hindus and Sikhs, they are all collectively known as the Hindki.[1]
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
The Brahui people or Brohi people (Brahui: بروہی) are a Dravidian ethnic group of about 2.2 million people with the majority found in Kalat, Pakistan, but also found in smaller numbers in neighboring Afghanistan, India, and Iran. They are closely linked to the Baloch with whom they have substantially intermingled and whose cultural traits they have absorbed. Linguistically they were believed to be a remnant of the inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilization. The Brahui language, also called Bravi, has been theorized as the remnant of a North Dravidian language. Due to its isolation from the other Dravidian tongues it has considerable Balochi vocabulary and counting begins with Balochi numbers. There is no distinct indigenous script for Brahui; like Balochi it is written in Perso-Arabic alphabet. Brahui is spoken in the following areas: Merv area of Turkmenistan, Sindh, Zahedan and Zabol in Iranian Balochistan, southern parts of Afghanistan, Pakistani Balochistan and with the bulk in the Jhalawan region.
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
Hindkowans are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the North-West Frontier Province, Punjab province and Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan and the Jammu and Kashmir state of India.[4] However, an indeterminate number have left the region and now live in other parts of South Asia.[9]

Hindkowans speak Hindko, a Lahnda language that is primary in northern Pakistan. Their northern neighbors, however, speak Pashto, the language of the Pashtuns.[10] In Afghanistan, Hindus still continue to speak Hindko and are referred to as Hindkowan.[11][
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
World War 2:

Date September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945

Location Europe, Pacific, South-East Asia, China, Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
The Taliban (Pashto: طالبان ṭālibān, also anglicised as Taleban; translation: "students") is a Sunni Islamist, predominately Pashtun fundamentalist religious and political movement that governed Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, when its leaders were removed from power by Northern Alliance and NATO forces. It has regrouped and since 2004 revived as a strong insurgency movement[3][4] fighting a guerrilla war against the current government of Afghanistan, allied NATO forces participating in Operation Enduring Freedom, and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).[5] It operates in Afghanistan and the Frontier Tribal Areas of Pakistan.[6]

The Taliban movement is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. Mullah Omar's original commanders were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders and Madrasah teachers,"[7] and the rank and file made up mostly of Afghan refugees who had studied at Islamic religious schools in Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of the Taliban movement were ethnic Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, along with a smaller number of volunteers from Islamic countries or regions in North Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. The Taliban received valuable training, supplies and arms from the Pakistani government, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),[8] and many recruits from Madrasahs for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, primarily ones established by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam JUI.[9]

Although in control of Afghanistan's capital (Kabul) and much or most of the country for five years, the Taliban regime, which called itself the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," gained diplomatic recognition from only three states: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Taliban implemented one of the "strictest interpretation of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world"[10] including the complete ban of education for girls.[11] [12] and is widely criticized internationally for its treatment of women.[
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
The Taliban's extremely strict and "anti-modern" ideology has been described as an "innovative form of sharia combining Pashtun tribal codes,"[23] or Pashtunwali, with radical Deobandi interpretations of Islam favored by members of the Pakistani fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) organization and its splinter groups. Also contributing to the admixture was the Wahhabism of their Saudi financial benefactors, and the jihadism and pan-Islamism of sometime comrade-in-arms Osama bin Laden.[24] Their ideology was a departure from the Islamism of the anti-Soviet mujahideen rulers they replaced who tended to be mystical Sufis, traditionalists, or radical Islamicists inspired by the Ikhwan.[25]

Sharia law was interpreted to ban a wide variety of activities hitherto lawful in Afghanistan, see below. Critics complained that most Afghans were non-Pashtuns who followed a different, less strict and less intrusive interpretation of Islam. Despite their similarity to the Wahhabis, the Taliban did not eschew all traditional popular practices. They did not destroy the graves of pirs (holy men) and emphasized dreams as a means of revelation.[26]

Taliban have been described as both anti-nationalist and Pushtun nationalist. According to journalist Ahmed Rashid, at least in the first years of their rule, they followed Deobandi and Islamist anti-nationalist belief and opposed "tribal and feudal structures," eliminating traditional tribal or feudal leaders from "leadership roles."[27] According to Ali A. Jalali and Mr. Lester W. Grau, the Taliban "received extensive support from Pashtuns across the country who thought that the movement might restore their national dominance. Even Pashtun intellectuals in the West, who seriously differ with the Taliban on many issues, expressed support for the movement on purely ethnic grounds."[28]

In any case, the Taliban were very reluctant to share power, and since their ranks were overwhelmingly Pashtun the spread of their rule to non-Pashtun areas of Afghanistan[29] meant Pashtun rule over non-Pashtuns. At the national level, "all senior Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara bureaucrats" were replaced "with Pashtuns, whether qualified or not. As a result of this loss of expertise, the ministries by and large ceased to function."[30] In local units of government like city councils of Kabul[31] or Herat,[32] Taliban loyalists, not locals, dominated, even when the Pashto-speaking Taliban could not communicate with the local Persian-speaking Afghans (roughly half of the population of Afghanistan spoke Dari or other non-Pashtun tongues.)[32] Critics complained this "lack of local representation in urban administration made the Taliban appear as an occupying force."[33]

Like Wahhabi and other Deobandis, the Taliban do not consider Shias to be Muslims. The Taliban also declared the Hazara ethnic group, which totaled almost 10% of Afghanistan's population, "not Muslims."[34]

Along with being very strict, the Taliban were adverse to debate on doctrine with other Muslims. "The Taliban did not allow even Muslim reporters to question [their] edicts or to discuss interpretations of the Qur'an."[35]

As they established their power the Taliban created a new form of Islamic radicalism that spread beyond the borders of Afghanistan, mostly to Pakistan. By 1998-1999 Taliban-style groups in the Pashtun belt, and to an extent in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, "were banning TV and videos ... and forcing people, particularly women to adapt to the Taliban dress code and way of life."[36]
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
Women in particular were targets of the Taliban's restrictions. They were prohibited from working; from wearing clothing regarded as "stimulating and attractive," including the "Iranian chador," (viewed as insufficiently complete in its covering); from taking a taxi without a "close male relative"; washing clothes in streams; or having their measurements taken by tailors.[56]

Employment for women was restricted to the medical sector, since male medical personnel were not allowed to examine women. One result of the banning of employment of women by the Taliban was the closing down in places like Kabul of primary schools not only for girls but for boys, because almost all the teachers there were women.[57]

Women were also not permitted to attend co-educational schools; in practice, this prevented the vast majority of young women and girls in Afghanistan from receiving even a primary education.

Women were made to wear the burqa, a traditional dress covering the entire body except for a small screen to see out of. Taliban restrictions became more severe after they took control of the capital. In February 1998, religious police forced all women off the streets of Kabul and issued new regulations ordering "householders to blacken their windows, so women would not be visible from the outside."[58] Home schools for girls, which had been allowed to continue, were forbidden.[59] In June 1998, the Taliban stopped all women from attending general hospitals,[60] leaving the use of one all-women hospital in Kabul. There were many reports of Muslim women being beaten by the Taliban for violating their version of the Sharia.
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
As of 2008, the insurgency, in the form of a Taliban guerrilla war, continues. However, the Pashtun tribal group, with over 40 million members, has a long history of resistance to occupation forces in the region so the Taliban themselves may comprise only a part of the insurgency. Most of the post-invasion Taliban fighters are new recruits, drawn again from that region's madrassas. The more traditional village schools are the primary source of the new fighters.

Before the summer 2006 offensive began, indications existed that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan had lost influence and power to other groups, including potentially the Taliban. The most notable sign was the rioting in May after a street accident in the city of Kabul. The continued support from tribal and other groups in Pakistan, the drug trade and the small number of NATO forces, combined with the long history of resistance and isolation, led to the observation that Taliban forces and leaders are surviving and will have some influence over the future of Afghanistan. A new introduction is suicide attacks and terrorist methods not used in 2001. Observers[140] have suggested that poppy eradication policies, which destroy the livelihoods of rural Afghans, and civilian deaths caused by the bombing campaigns of international troops, are linked to the resurgence of the Taliban. These observers maintain that counter-insurgency policy should focus on the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people and on the reconstruction of the Afghan economy, which could profit from the licensing of poppies to make medicine rather than their eradication.[141]

In September 2006, the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, an association of Waziristani chieftains with close ties to the Taliban, were recognized by the Government of Pakistan as the de facto security force in charge of North and South Waziristan. This recognition was part of the agreement to end the Waziristan War which had extracted a heavy toll on the Pakistan Army since early 2004. Some commentators viewed Islamabad's shift from war to diplomacy as implicit recognition of the growing power of the resurgent Taliban relative to American influence, with the US distracted by the threat of looming crises in Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran.

Other commentators view Islamabad's shift from war to diplomacy as a means to appease growing discontent in Pakistan.[142] Because of its leadership structure, the assassination of Mullah Dadullah in May 2007 will not significantly affect the Taliban, but it may set-back the incipient relations with Pakistan
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
Kala Dhaka historically known as the Black Mountain of Hazara is a mountain range and a tribal area of Mansehra District on the north-western Hazara border of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan.


It lies between 34º32' and 34º50' N. and 72º48' and 72º58' E. It is bounded on the east by Agror and on the south by Tanawal, the range has a length of 25 to 30 miles from north to south and an elevation of 8,000 feet above sealevel. The Indus washes its northern extremity and thence turns due south. Between the river and the crest of the range the western slopes are occupied by Yusufzai Pathans. The rest of the range is held by Swatis tribal group of Pahtuns. The Black Mountain forms a long, narrow ridge, with higher peaks at intervals and occasional deep passes. Numerous spurs project from its sides, forming narrow gorges in which lie the villages of the tribes. The upper parts of the ridge and spurs are covered with thick forests of pine, oak, sycamore, horse-chestnut, and wild cherry; but the slopes are stony and barren
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
The Buner Valley lies on the Peshawar valley border of the North-West Frontier Province of modern day Pakistan. It is a small mountain valley, dotted with villages and divided into seven sub-divisions. The Mora Hills and the Ilam range divide it from the Swat Valley, the Sinawar range from Yusafzai, the Guru mountains from the Chamla valley, and the Duma range from the Puran Valley. Until the year 2000 it was a part of Malakand Division - until this district was abolished.

In April 2009, the Taliban seized control of Buner, after a brief battle with local residents, who were unsupported by the Pakistani army. Strict rules are reportedly being enforced, including the elimination of video stores, bans on cutting beards, and the prevention of women from appearing in many public places.[1]

Buner contains a village named Pir Baba. It is in a green valley, surrounded by high and green mountains. The famous two mountains are Elum Ghar and Dua Saray Ghar. This is the land of many great saints. Pir Baba, Dewanababa and Shalbandi Baba are the famous among the locals and outsiders. Kinger Gali is the last border of district Buner which shares borders with Mardan and Malakand Agency

The district has three constituencies in the provincial assembly, these are:[3]. Following the elections of 2008 the Awami National Party won all three seats:[4]
 

fivestars

Alfrescian
Loyal
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's military can stop Taliban fighters who are closing in on the capital and the nation's nuclear weapons are safe, Pakistan's prime minister said Friday.


Pakistan has deployed paramilitary troops to a district taken over by the Taliban.

Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani spoke for the first time about the safety of the country's nuclear weapons since the recent surge of the Taliban while addressing Pakistan's national assembly.

"If anybody challenges the writ of the government, then we will react," Gilani said. "Yesterday, I heard that [the Taliban] had reached Buner and close to Islamabad. Do we not have any courage? Does this parliament not have moral courage to stop them? The defense of the country is in strong hands. Our nuclear program is in safe hands."

Taliban militants this week surged into the district of Buner -- about 96 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital, Islamabad -- in a land grab that has raised international concerns. iReport: Should the U.S. intercede in Pakistan?

Militants subsequently locked up courthouses, seized court documents and battled Pakistani troops who were sent to the area to protect residents.

Don't Miss
Q&A: Taliban influence weakens Pakistan
Zakaria: Spiraling chaos possible in Pakistan
Clinton: Pakistan in danger
Analysis: Pakistan lacks strategy to deal with Taliban
iReport.com: Send videos, images
The militants said they took control of the district to ensure that Islamic law, or sharia, is properly imposed. The Pakistani government called the land grab a breach of a recent peace agreement.

This week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Pakistan is in danger of falling into terrorist hands because of failed government policies, and called on Pakistani citizens and expatriates to voice more concern.

"I think that we cannot underscore the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by continuing advances, now within hours of Islamabad, that are being made by a loosely confederated group of terrorists and others who are seeking the overthrow of the Pakistani state, a nuclear-armed state," Clinton said.
 
Top