Afghanistan - The gift that keeps giving

WAR  -  Always support the troops.  But always question the intelligence of the politicians and the generals.

• 10 years later we are still "training" the Afghan military and police.
• The Afghan soldiers we "train" shoot down NATO troops in cold blood.
• NATO might be able to prop up a government for Greater Kabul, but there never was a way to control a massive country that is larger than Nazi Germany with a small NATO army.

NEWS  -  A suicide bomber blew himself up among guests at a wedding hall Saturday in northern Afghanistan, killing 23 people including a prominent ex-Uzbek warlord turned lawmaker who was the father of the bride.

Ahmad Khan Samangani, an ethnic Uzbek who commanded forces fighting the Soviets in the 1980s and later became a member of parliament, was welcoming guests to his daughter's wedding Saturday morning when the blast ripped through the building in Aybak, the capital of Samangan province.

Three Afghan security force officials also were among those killed. About 60 other people, including government officials, were wounded in the attack, which left the wedding hall's black-and-white tile floor covered with shattered glass, blood and other debris.

Six U.S. soldiers got into a truck Sunday morning and set out on patrol in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province. Soldiers have a straightforward phrase for what happened to them: They got blown up.

Nearly half of the 174 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in this, the 11th year of America’s longest war, they were blown up. “You get hit, you never see the enemy,” one U.S. soldier says in “Wardak Soldiers,” a remarkable online documentary produced by the Associated Press in 2009.

Wardak is a province south of Kabul dominated by the Pashtun people, who mostly live along the Kabul-to-Kandahar highway. South and east of Kabul, in rural Afghanistan, the people tend to be Pashtun. So do the Taliban.    (Duluth News Tribune)

U.S. Marines with Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, taking highly accurate IDF at Patrol Base Georgetown in Kajaki Sofla, Afghanistan on November 22, 2011. The Marines suppress the enemy with squad organic weapons, TOW missiles and .50 caliber machine guns. After 5 hours the Marines take casualties and get the wounded medevac'd.

India adds nuke sub to fleet

India's brand new nuclear sub.

India vs China  -  India is builing up their military to counter China and other regional powers.

India has formally commissioned a nuclear-powered submarine into its navy, rejoining the elite club of nations with such a weapon.

The $1bn (£630m) Russian-built vessel is being leased by the Indian navy for the next 10 years. It was handed over to India in eastern Russia in January reports the BBC.

India previously operated a Soviet nuclear submarine until 1991.

It now rejoins China, Russia, the US, the UK and France as an operator of nuclear submarines.  India is also developing its own nuclear-powered submarine which is expected to be ready by the end of this year.

The 8,140-tonne Akula II-class submarine, built by the Russians as the K-152 Nerpa, has been renamed by India as the INS Chakra II.

The submarine was formally commissioned into the navy by the country's Defence Minister, AK Antony, at a ceremony in Vishakhapatnam, on India's east coast off the Bay of Bengal

"This will be a big boost for the Indian navy," Mr Antony told reporters after the ceremony.

"The INS Chakra will ensure security and sovereignty of the country," he said.

Indian military planners are thrilled at this massive boost to India’s power and reach in the Indian Ocean region. While China enjoys military advantages on the land frontier, India’s ability to choke Chinese shipping at straits like Malacca and Hormuz constitutes a powerful strategic lever. And, nothing performs such “sea denial” missions as effectively as a nuclear attack submarine, known by its acronym, the SSN.
                                                                    .

Making the SSN a game-changer is its ability to remain submerged indefinitely. Stealth is a key attribute in a ‘sea denial’ mission to shut down, for example, the Strait of Malacca. A submarine must slip undetected (which means underwater) into the patrol area and lurk in ambush for days on end, listening through its sonar for propeller sounds that give away the presence of a ship. Then, it must launch torpedoes to destroy the target and escape at high speed before the enemy can come and destroy her.

The Chakra’s capabilities are provided by a 190-Mw nuclear reactor, powerful enough to light up a medium-sized city. It is armed with the versatile Russian Klub anti-surface missiles that can strike a ship almost 300 kilometres away. It also has four 533-mm and four 650-mm torpedo tubes.
.
(Broadsword)           (BBC News India)

Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma (centre), Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Eastern Naval Command) Vice Admiral Anil Chopra (right) and Commanding Officer of INS Chakra Capt. P. Ashokan on board the submarine after it was inducted into the Indian Navy.

India has been investing more and more money in growing their navy.

Hindu Women Raped & Forced to convert to Islam

Where are the Feminists in the West?  You would think they would be up in arms over the rape of women.  But they are totally silent . . . hiding under their beds, quivering in a politically correct fear of speaking out about Islam.

There's little if any attention being given to this growing phenonmen, outside of rightist anti-Jihadist websites here in the U.S. and Western Europe.

As the reporter states:

Pakistani Hindus are seeking refuge in India... admit claims of molestation, kidnappings and rapte. The perpetrators of these crimes against Pakistani Hindu girls, avoid punishment by forcibly converting them, and marrying them against their will... there is a rise in such cases, and these women are increasingly referred too as the stolen brides...

Note the reporter's use of the term "girls," rather than women, implying that many of these rape victims could have been as young as 10 or 11.

Thanks to "The Libertarian Republican"  for the heads up on this story.

The betrayal of Afghanistan begins



America has said it will not meet the costs necessary to keep the Afghan forces at full strength beyond 2014   (Photo: AP)



The U.S. and NATO are getting ready to undercut the Afghan army

The betrayal begins.  The US and NATO are going public about cutting the money going to support the army of Afghanistan.  I have been there are seen that with South Vietnam having their money cut off.

Nato has concluded the present strategy of creating a 352,000-strong force of soldiers and police to take over security from international forces is unsustainably expensive in the long run.

The Afghan forces are totally reliant on foreign aid and commanders are now discussing funding a dramatically smaller force which under extreme options would be less than 250,000-strong.

The betrayal of Afghanistan is nothing new to readers of this site.  See our article  THE FEDERALIST - "Betrayal: It's American as Apple Pie."

Donor countries facing deep financial woes of their own have said they will not pay the projected $8bn (£5 billion)-a-year for the full-strength army reports the UK Telegraph.

Sir William Patey, British ambassador to Kabul, said: "The reality is the figures are moving around. Nobody is quite sure exactly what would be the right size for the Afghan security forces beyond 2015.

"Nobody thinks that [352,000] is a sustainable figure or that's what's necessary. That figure is changing." The Afghan security forces currently stand at 308,000-strong. They are still expected to reach their full strength by the end of next year in an "Afghan surge", but will then drop off soon afterward.   (UK Telegraph)

Pissing on Pakistan



Heavily guarded: On Sunday, Pakistani soldiers buried 24 troops killed in a NATO cross-border air raid.


Supplies are cut off to American troops

ar·ro·gant/ˈarəgənt/

Adjective:

Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities.

By Gary;

Bottom line.  The shit has hit the fan in Pakistan.  You have two dozen dead Pakistani troops and the overland supply roads to NATO forces in Afghanistan are cut off.

Add in Almazbek Atambayev, Kyrzgyzstan's new president-elect, in virtually his first act since being elected, has told the US it will have to give up its airbase in Central Asia by 2014.  The action seriously impacts the ability of the United States to supply the war in Afghanistan.

See our article on Kyrzgyzstan  THE FEDERALIST - "Democracy is a Bitch."

The Americans have brought on much of this reaction themselves.  For years the brainless talking heads in the media and many politicians have publically insulted and pissed all over Pakistan on live TV.  One moronic attack after another has been lodged against an important friend with never a thought about the massive problems Pakistan faces every day in order to stand at the side of America.

This is not just rude.  It is arrogant.

Braindead Americans have attacked Pakistan for not sealing a very long and very difficult border.  Never mind that border of the United States itself is far from "sealed" with millions of illegals and drug lords simply walking into our nation at will.  Americans hold Pakistan to a standard that they themselves cannot match.

The question is will the supply lines to Afghanistan reopen?  Perhaps this will act as a lesson for all Americans to be less arrogant and more grateful to our friends and allies.


Pakistan holds funerals for troops killed by NATO raid

Nearly 300 trucks carrying supplies to U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan clogged the Pakistani border crossings Sunday, leaving them vulnerable to militant attack a day after Islamabad closed the frontier in retaliation for coalition airstrikes that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops.

As Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani attended the funerals of the victims, including a major, the U.S. sought to minimize the fallout from the crisis, which plunged Washington's already troubled relationship with Islamabad to an all-time low.

Pakistan also ordered the U.S. to vacate an airbase that is used by American drones to target al-Qaida and Taliban militants in the country's tribal region along the Afghan border.


Nearly 300 trucks carrying coalition supplies are now backed up at Torkham in the northwest Khyber tribal area and Chaman in southwestern Baluchistan province. Last year, Pakistan only closed Torkham.


For more on this story

Afghanistan - The gift that keeps giving



Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller was relieved of his command in Afghanistan for telling the truth in public.



U.S. General fired for telling the truth about the war to the press.



A U.S. general responsible for training Afghan security forces has been relieved of his duties for making inappropriate remarks about Afghan President Hamid Karzai and saying the leaders of the war-battered country are “isolated from reality.”

Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller, deputy commander of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan, made the comments in an interview posted on the Politico website Thursday. A day later, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, released a statement saying Fuller had been relieved of his assignment reports the Los Angeles Times.


Taliban attack in Kandahar this week.


Politico quoted Fuller as calling Karzai’s comments “erratic,” adding, “Why don’t you just poke me in the eye with a needle! You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion and now you’re telling me, ‘I really don’t care?’…When they are going to have a presidential election, you hope they get a guy that’s more articulate in public.”

Fuller also accused Afghan leaders of being oblivious to America’s current economic plight. He said he recently told a group of Afghan generals, “You guys are isolated from reality. The reality is, the world economy is having some significant hiccups. The U.S. is in this (too). If you’re in a very poor country like Afghanistan, you think that America has roads paved in gold, everybody lives in Hollywood. They don’t understand the sacrifices that America is making to provide for their security.”

Criticizing what he claims were unreasonable demands made by Afghan leaders for assistance, Fuller added, “You can teach a man how to fish, or you can give them a fish. We’re giving them fish, while they’re learning, and they want more fish! (They say,) ‘I like swordfish, how come you’re giving me cod?’ Guess what, Cod’s on the menu today.”

Taliban attack in Kabul this week.

Afghanistan  -  The gift that keeps giving

After 10 years of war the headlines keep coming.  Here are just a few stories in one week.

Suicide bombing in Kabul kills as many as 13 Americans

The attacker blows up an armored military bus in what may be the deadliest assault on U.S. citizens in the Afghan capital since the war began. At least four Afghans are also killed.

Insurgents mount attack against U.S. base in Afghanistan

The attack in Kandahar targeted a civilian-military facility housing what is known as a provincial reconstruction team, mainly devoted to development projects.

Afghanistan: Attack targeting U.N. refugee agency kills five

 Insurgents driving a truck packed with explosives and attacking on foot killed at least five people, including three United Nations employees, in the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar.

Taliban attack U.S. base in Afghan city of Kandahar

Insurgents with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launched a sustained attack Thursday against a U.S. base in Kandahar. No coalition casualties were reported, but the hours-long confrontation demonstrated the Taliban’s continuing ability to strike in the heart of the country’s main southern city.

For more on this story

SHOCK VIDEO - Afghan women burn themselves alive

Desperation drives abused Afghan women to death by fire.

This is the society we are trying to help?   

There is not one church in Afghanistan  -  Is this what we are fighting for?


There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.

It appears the Afghan government is in no hurry to establish freedom of religion.

This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan's new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country reports CNS News.

The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department's latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that “there were no Christian schools in the country.”

“There is no longer a public Christian church; the courts have not upheld the church's claim to its 99-year lease, and the landowner destroyed the building in March [2010],” reads the State Department report on religious freedom.

“The government’s level of respect for religious freedom in law and in practice declined during the reporting period, particularly for Christian groups and individuals,” reads the State Department report.

“Negative societal opinions and suspicion of Christian activities led to targeting of Christian groups and individuals, including Muslim converts to Christianity," said the report. "The lack of government responsiveness and protection for these groups and individuals contributed to the deterioration of religious freedom.”

Most Christians in the country refuse to “state their beliefs or gather openly to worship,” said the State Department.

For more on this story

Afghanistan 2001 - 2011



 

US Special Forces with Northern Alliance troops on horseback in 2001.



Anti-Taliban Afghan fighters watch several explosions from U.S. bombings in the Tora Bora

mountains in Afghanistan in December 2001



Sgt William Olas Bee, a U.S. Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmsir in Helmand Province of Afghanistan, in May 2008


__________________________________________________________________________


"I would rather work as your servant, cut grass and tend to your garden than be the ruler of Afghanistan."

- - - - Yaqub Khan, (Amir of Afghanistan) to a British Viceroy in the 19th Century


Ten years.

It is hard to believe time has gone so very, very fast.  It is also hard to believe that the leaders of the United States could screw up a war so badly.

But enough of that.  There is lots of time to rip on the moronic Beltway Elite political hacks next week.

For now let us say . . . .

• Always honor the warrior.
• Always question the intelligence and motives of the leaders.

There has been much pain and suffering.  Hopefully the war will end soon.

U.S. mortar team return fire during an attack by militants on Michigan Base in the Pesh Valley in

Afghanistan's Kunar Province, in August 2009



A U.S. Marine from Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines fires his weapon at Taliban fighters in Marjah in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan on February 22, 2010.



A U.S. soldier with an injured ankle is helped past his burning armoured vehicle after it struck an

Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on a road in July 2010



Treo, an eight-year-old black Labrador from the Military Working Dogs, was presented with Britain's Dickin medal, awarded for bravery and commitment in wartime, the highest military honor an animal can expect at the Imperial War Museum in London on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010. Treo was decorated for his work sniffing out explosives in Afghanistan.


A Salute to the Fallen

U.S. soldiers kneel during a memorial ceremony for Captain Daniel Whitten and Private First Class Zachary Lovejoy from Charlie Company, 4th Brigade combat team,1-508, 82nd Parachute Infantry Regiment at the Remote Sweeney FOB in Zabul province, southern Afghanistan on February 8, 2010. CPT Whitten from Grimes, Iowa, and PFC Lovejoy from Albuquerque, New Mexico, were killed by an IED on February 2. when on patrol in southern Afghanistan.



Homecoming: The reality of the war in Afghanistan was made clear in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire,

to where British soldiers were repatriated and received by crowds of mourners



The coffins of two Swedish soldiers, Captain Johan Palmlov and Lieutenant Gunnar Andersson are unloaded from a Swedish Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft on arrival at Arna airport in Uppsala, Sweden on February 10, 2010.

Fallen allies from Canada.



Relatives, Spain's royal family and Spanish politicians attend a state funeral for soldiers at Madrid's army headquarters. Soldiers' wives and parents clutched each other for support and wept as Spain's royal family and prime minister joined them at a funeral for 17 soldiers killed in Afghanistan.



Seven-year old Martin Fortunato, son of Lieutenant Antonio Fortunato, one of the victims of an attack to an Italian military convoy in Kabul that killed six Italian troopers, reacts in front of his father's coffin during the state funerals in St. Paul's Outside the Walls Basilica, in Rome.

The memorial service for Australian Private Tomas Dale and Private Grant Kirby, who
were killed by an IED, is held in Afghanistan

Two Bulgarian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy stands in front the seven flag-draped coffins in the courtyard outside the Invalides church during a military ceremony as France pays tribute to the seven French soldiers killed in Afghanistan during a national ceremony at the Invalides in Paris July 19, 2011.



Soldiers carry the coffin of Colonel Faruk Sungur, commander of Turkey's NATO force in Afghanistan, during his funeral in Ankara. Sungur is one of the two Turkish officers were killed in northern Afghanistan.

German allies who died in Afghanistan.

For more on this story

FBI halts labeling Islam as violent

FBI becomes politically correct on Islam

The FBI has announced that a lecture at the bureau's training academy that was critical of Islam has been discontinued.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation employee who gave the lecture contended, among other things, that the more devout a Muslim man was, the more likely he was to be violent, reports the UK Independent.

An FBI spokesman, Christopher Allen, said that following the outcry about the lecture, policy changes had been made to ensure that all training was consistent with FBI standards.

Since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, the FBI has stressed the importance of working with leaders in the Muslim community as an important part of the battle against terrorism.

A federal law enforcement official said the bureau should have more carefully scrutinised the content of the lecture before it took place. The lecture was given on just three days in April.

And here is a story that is totally unrelated to the one above.

Pakistani police officers collect evidence at the spot of a suicide bombing in Shina Samar Bagh in Lower Dir, Pakistan.  A suicide bomber attacked the funeral service on Thursday of a Pakistani tribal leader.

Man screams "Allahu akbar" at funeral then blows himself up killing 31 people.

A suicide bomber attacked the funeral service Thursday of a Pakistani tribesman opposed to the Taliban, killing 31 people, police said, two days after Taliban gunmen killed four children from another district in conflict with the militant network.

The blast during the ceremony in the Lower Dir region, 15 miles west of the Afghan border, wounded 75 people.

The bomber struck as about 200 mourners were attending the funeral in the Shina Samar Bagh village, police Officer Sher Hassan Khan said.

Another police officer, Salim Marwat, said the attacker hid in a nearby field and then ran toward the graveyard shouting "Allahu akbar" - the Arabic phrase meaning "God is great" that is also a Muslim rallying cry - and then detonated his bomb.

Witness Gull Rehman said he saw the attacker, who was killed in the bombing, describing him as a man with a long beard. Rehman said he was knocked down by the blast but he was able to get up and help transport the injured to hospitals.

Later, police officers searched for parts of the bomb on the blood-soaked field, strewn with abandoned sandals.

The funeral was for Bakhat Khan, who was a member of a local lashkar, or militia that is opposed to Taliban rule in the region, police said. He died Wednesday night.  (San Francisco Chronicle)



Pakistani paramedics help an injured bomb blast victim (2R) on arrival at a hospital in Sammar Bar on. A suicide bomber targeting members of an anti-Taliban militia blew himself up during funeral prayers in northwest Pakistan, killing 31 people.

- - - UK Independent

More horrors from Afghanistan

The horrors of Afghanistan go on and on and on

All we ever hear from the politicians is there the "light at the end of the tunnel" speeches.  I guess that is their job.  Got to keep the troops and the folks back home happy.

But just once I would like to see an honest President or Secretary of Defense say out loud, "For the love of God, this thing is a major fuck up."

Recent headlines from Afghanistan:

- - - Taliban insurgents shot down a troop-carrying helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 38

- - - Afghanistan car bombing kills 13

- - - Suicide bombers and gunmen struck a provincial capital, killing as many as 21 people

- - - Afghan mayor killed by suicide bomber

- - - A suicide bomber struck a Kandahar mosque where a memorial service was held for President Karzai's brother.

- - - Bombing kills five French soldiers


Forgive me if I don't give a damn about establishing "security" in Kandahar Province.

The United States is facing an invasion with millions of people of all nationalities simply walking into the country whenever they feel like it.  Some are honest people just looking for work.  Others come from Middle East countries that have little love for America.  Our borders are wide open to any crazy that wants to walk in.  We need to defend our own people in San Diego, Yuma and Dallas.

The time has come to secure our own borders.  We need to bring our brave troops home to defend American soil from invasion.

If an army cannot defend its' home country then there is no reason for it to exist.



The Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878.  England fought three wars in Afghanistan with
little to show for the effort.

The Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878

Hindus in Pakistan



Hindu women in Karachi City, Sindh State of Pakistan


Hindus in Pakistan  -  A story of Muslim violence and forced conversions

Because of a compliant lap-dog Media the violence against Pakistani Christians is almost unknown outside of the country.  But the attacks on the Pakistani Hindu minority is totally ignored by the outside world.

Hindus in Pakistan have suffered grievously since the founding of the nation in 1947.  In the southern province of Sindh, a Hindu man was accused of blasphemy and beaten to death by his co-workers. This comes at the heels of the abduction and dismemberment of a Hindu engineer.

The Pakistani military removed 70 Hindu families from lands where they had been living since the 19th century. To this day the temples that Pakistanis destroyed in 1992 in response to the destruction of the Babri mosque in India have not been restored.

There are two levels of prejudice in Pakistan with respect to Hindus - the cultural and the legal.

While it is difficult to say which one is more pernicious, cultural prejudice is certainly more difficult to uproot because it is perpetuated by religious supremacism, nationalism, stories, myth, lies, families, media, schooling and bigotry.

Cultural prejudice has become part and parcel of language itself. Hindus are referred to as "na pak." Na means "un" and pak means "pure." So, Hindus are turned into the impure, or unclean. Given that the word "pak" is part of the word "Pakistan" - which means Land of the Pure - somebody's impurity suggests that they are not really Pakistani.

To make matters even worse, Pakistani mullahs teach a very supremacist version of the Islamic creed, the kalima. Usually, the kalima reads simply: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is His final messenger." The version that children are taught, however, reads as follows: "The first kalima is Tayyab; Tayyab means Pak (Pure); There is no god but God and Muhammad is His final Messenger."

The infamous blasphemy law was passed under Islamist dictator Zia ul Haq in the 1980s.  Designed specifically to punish the Ahmadi minority, the blasphemy law now provides convenient protection to anyone who ever wants to kill, murder, maim, beat up, mug, abduct, or punish any religious minority. All you really have to do is carry out your brutality and then point at the victim and say that he was blasphemous.

Sikh officer in the Pakistani Army 

Hindus, who accounted for 15% of Pakistan's population at partition, now make up just 2% of its 170 million people as emigration and forced conversions take their toll the Los Angeles Times reports.

Intolerance has spread, Hindus living in rural areas have become particularly vulnerable to land appropriation, extortion and having their daughters kidnapped and then being told that they ran away with a Muslim and willingly converted, said Ramesh Kumar, director of the Karachi-based Pakistan Hindu Council. Complaints to the police or courts are routinely ignored, community leaders said.

"Because we're Hindus and a minority, they think we'll just take it," Mishra said. "And no one comes to our aid. We're increasingly vulnerable."

Somewhat ironically, Pakistani Hindus who move to India find they're also discriminated against given their association with Pakistan.

Maharaj Lukhmi Chand, 83, a Hindu priest, was recently kidnapped near Khuzdar in the western province of Baluchistan and held by unknown captors for more than two weeks before his negotiated release. He's frustrated that even though he's been a victim of apparent religious extremism in Pakistan, he's viewed with suspicion by Indian Hindus.

"We're treated as traitors in India," Chand said. "And our community here in Pakistan is over a million people. Not everyone has the resources to move."

More to the point, many Hindus consider Pakistan their home despite all the problems and the increased attacks every time relations with India deteriorate.

"My father and grandfather lived here," said Rajish Kumar, 25, resting in the shade of a tree at Karachi's Shri Swami Narayan Temple. "This temple, where we live surrounded by Muslims, is our enclave."

Many are not open-minded. "I don't remember a time when Hindus and Muslims lived in peace," said Nooruddin Bharucha, a Muslim shop owner in Karachi's Mithadar neighborhood. "It's OK to do business with them. But they're blasphemers, and that's unacceptable to us."

For more on this story

Islamist students terrorize Pakistan schools



Asif Mahmood Qureshi, principal of Government Islamia College in Lahore, has been unable to
rein in Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, which he says runs a parallel administration.


A science professor was attacked by Islamist students who stormed into his office, beat him with metal rods and smashed a flowerpot over his head.


After philosophy students and faculty members rallied to denounce heavy-handed efforts to separate male and female students, Islamists on campus struck back: In the dead of night, witnesses say, the radicals showed up at a men's dormitory armed with wooden sticks and bicycle chains.

They burst into dorm rooms, attacking philosophy students. One was pistol-whipped and hit on the head with a brick. Gunfire rang out, although no one was injured. Police were called, but nearly a month after the attack, no arrests have been made.Few on Punjab University's leafy campus, including top administrators, dare to challenge the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, or the IJT, the student wing of one of Pakistan's most powerful hard-line Islamist parties reports the Los Angeles Times.

At another Lahore campus, the principal disdainfully refers to the Islamists as "a parallel administration."

The organization's clout illustrates the deep roots of Islamist extremism in Pakistani society, an influence that extends beyond radical religious schools and militant strongholds in the volatile tribal belt along the Afghan border.

University administrators fear that the IJT's influence on many campuses will lead to an increase in extremism among the middle class, from which the next generation of Pakistan's leaders will rise.

"These people have connections with jihadi groups, and they are taking hostage our campuses," said Sajid Ali, chairman of Punjab University's philosophy department. "This is a real danger for the future of our country."

Fellow students and teachers regard them as Islamist vigilantes. In addition to trying to separate the sexes, they order shopkeepers not to sell Coca-Cola or Pepsi because they are American brands. When they overhear a cluster of fellow students debating topics, from capitalism to religion, they demand that the discussion stop and threaten violence if it continues.

Students at Punjab University's Lahore campus.  Insane Islamist students
attack other students and teachers who dare to advocate that men and women
can attend classes together.

The recent trouble here at Punjab University started when a posse of IJT members slapped a male philosophy student for talking with a female classmate. Students and faculty members organized a protest rally, which led to the dorm attack on June 26. Shahrukh Rashid, 22, who was among those attacked, said the police have been of little help.

"One of the police inspectors told us, 'Whatever is done is done,' " he said.

University officials say that government leaders in Punjab, the country's wealthiest and most populous province, have allowed the IJT to flourish rather than jeopardize their political alliances with hard-line clerics at the helm of religious parties. Even when students, teachers or university administrators seek criminal charges against IJT members, the police rarely respond.

"If the government wanted to solve the problem here, they could do it overnight," said Asif Mahmood Qureshi, principal of the Government Islamia College, a state university in Lahore, the provincial capital.

IJT members don't allow him access to their dormitory, and physically force students and teachers to join their protests. With support from a bloc of teachers sympathetic to the IJT's cause, they have managed to control the school's teachers union, Qureshi said.

"They don't want the principal to do anything without their consent," said Qureshi, the administrator who referred to the organization as running a parallel administration.

At Punjab University, IJT sympathizers include some teachers and even some of the security guards, teachers and students say.

Ali, the chairman of the philosophy department, said students and teachers in most of the university's academic departments do not resist. The IJT won't allow music classes on campus, Ali said, so the music department's teachers meet their students at a concert hall off campus.

Standing up to the IJT can trigger severe consequences. Last year, an environmental sciences professor, as head of the school's disciplinary committee, expelled several IJT members for unruly behavior. A group of IJT students stormed into his office, beat him with metal rods and smashed a flowerpot over his head. He survived the attack.

When IJT members attacked the philosophy department dorm late last month, the students fought back, chasing the fundamentalists. Within 15 minutes, the IJT youths had fled.

"We've never been cowed by them," Ali said. "So we're on an island at this university."

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