Sunday, November 22, 2009

India rocks - Serial blasts in Assam's Nalbari kill five….

Five people were killed and 30 others injured when two bombs explosions outside a police station in Nalbari district of Assam on Sunday morning.

Nalbari district is about 70 km west of Assam's main city of Guwahati. A third blast, which took place in Gopal Bazar area after five minutes of the first two, has not been confirmed by the police. The bombs were kept on a parked bicycle and exploded between 1000-1015 hrs IST, an official said. The injured have been taken to the hospitals and security has been stepped up in the city.

Police suspect the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)'s role in the blast and insist that the outfit was desperately trying to carry out a few strikes in the run-up to their 'protest day' on November 27. They also suspect that the blasts can be a reaction to the recent arrests of its foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury and finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika.

On November 17 a blast took place on the railway tracks near Changpool in Golaghat district leading to the burning of train wagons carrying fuel from Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. Police have disclosed the names of nine ULFA militants who are allegedly planning a major attack on the state.

The names have been put up on the most wanted list of the state police's official website.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/serial-blasts-in-assams-nalbari-kill-five/105717-3.html?from=tn

Saturday, November 21, 2009

An evening with Mr. Kabirwala




the nuts met Mr. Kabirwala, its hilarious. the irony is that it features few respectables of my town. Mr. Kabirwala has serious fanbase, you don't believe it, then see it:)

'Maoist attack' on railway derails India train…

India has always supported terrorism and separatist activities in Pakistan, but everything is not good there as well.

Maoist rebels in India have blown up a railway track, leading to the derailment of a passenger train in the eastern state of Jharkhand, police say. At least two people were killed and 47 others injured in the incident, which happened near Ghaghra station. Rebels are fighting for communist rule in a number of Indian states. They have a presence in more than 223 of India's 600-odd districts across 20 states.

More than 6,000 people have died during the rebels' 20-year fight. Eight coaches of the passenger train plying between Tatanagar and Bilaspur derailed after the rebels blew up a portion of the railway track near Ghaghra halt station in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district, police said. "Maoists blew up a portion of the track that caused the derailment. Three coaches have been badly damaged," federal railway minister Mamata Banerjee said. Ms Banerjee said two passengers travelling on the train had died after the coaches derailed. Six others were trapped in the coaches, she added. The rebels set off several explosions near the tracks after the incident to prevent rescue workers from reaching the site, the railway minister said. Rescue workers have reached the site and are trying to bring out the passengers who are trapped, a senior police official said.

More can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8369720.stm


 

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Pictures from Kabirwala…

Bit of fun in forthcoming days, I am expecting to upload photos from Kabirwala. Please watch this spaceJ

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Belle de Jour…

The world is cruel, we judge people on our set of principles. West will term people fighting for their rights as terrorists and will turn diaries of a former call girl into a national legend. Belle de Jour has finally unmasked herself. I am glad that she has decided to do it. Times on Sunday did the deed, and carried a long story on her.

According to BBC…

Dr Brooke Magnanti wrote under the pen name Belle de Jour to describe the encounters she had as a high-class call girl while earning money for her PhD. The 34-year-old said she decided to unmask herself because the stress of the deceit was making her paranoid. Interest in her identity increased when her memoirs became a television series. Dr Magnanti, who now lives in Bristol and is a research scientist for The Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health, became a prostitute because she needed a job that left her enough time to complete her studies. She kept her double life a secret even when she started the blog describing her experiences and the books which followed. Dr Magnanti told the Sunday Times she worked as a prostitute from 2003 to late 2004, and found it "so much more enjoyable" than her shifts in another job as a computer programmer.

Keeping aside issues of the morality, it's a bold decision on part of a professional to reveal her true identity. My respects for Dr. Brooke and I wish her luck in forthcoming days.

Story in Sunday times - http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6917495.ece

Belle de Jour Blog - http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/

Friday, November 06, 2009

Fort Hood shootings: Again we will be judged for acts we didn't commit

An interesting article in The Guardian on Ford Hood shootings, a very well written balanced piece…

Moustafa Bayoumi, guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 20.36 GMT

So much is still unknown about the shooting at Fort Hood Army base and the motives of the alleged shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan, but still I have that same queasy feeling in my stomach that I've had before: this will not be good for Muslims.

First things first. Major Nidal Malik Hasan is in custody. We should judge him fairly and, if he is found guilty, punish him accordingly.

The same is true for Sergeant John M Russell. In May 2009 Russell shot and killed five of his comrades at a combat stress clinic in a US Army base in Iraq. Before that, Sergeant Joseph Bozicevich killed two American soldiers at his base just outside Baghdad in September 2008. What do these incidents point to? We still have yet to understand how profound the depths are to the stresses of war, especially in cases of repeated exposure to war. And you don't have to be on the battlefield to be scarred. We are only now beginning to learn that the Predator drone pilots, sitting in offices in southern California and dropping bombs some 7,000 miles away from their targets, suffer the same if not higher stress disorders as soldiers on the battlefield.

Perhaps these shooting incidents also tell us something about the pressures not only of receiving but also of providing mental health services to people who have suffered traumatic events. Army suicides are at an all time high (nearly 150 servicemen and women in the US took their lives last year). Rates of domestic violence in the military are sky high and far too often turn deadly. What effect must that have on the mental health providers as well? And what do we know about the stress of being on the receiving end of prejudice, as Hasan was reported to have been? This is nothing unique to Muslims. Racial prejudice can lead to all kinds of stress outcomes. Social science research in the US has studied this phenomenon, but not frequently enough when it comes to Muslims, a space slowly being filled by the relatively new publication, the Journal of Muslim Mental Health.

These are the kinds of questions we should be asking, not out of a desire to excuse, but to explain actions that seem beyond words. But I worry that the mood in the US is dimming and turning in a more sinister direction. The questions we will be hearing are: why are Muslims in the military? And, do Muslims even belong in the United States? The allegiances of America's Muslims, all of them and not just those in the military, will be called into question. Once again, we will be judged for an act we didn't commit or condone and have loudly denounced. Am I being irrational? I don't think so. Every year since 2001 the Washington Post-ABC News poll has asked Americans if they hold negative perceptions of Islam. When the latest poll was released in April 2009, the number was 48%, the highest yet recorded.

The coming days will be meaningful. Will this crime and tragedy spur action so that we can finally see that war has enormous costs and is not merely an occasion to celebrate heroism? Or will the American public take one man's crime and churn it into the terrorism of religion? Muslims, the newest minorities in the American imagination, will be bowing heads in mourning for the loss of life at Fort Hood but, with the dark clouds around them, they will be doing so with one eye open.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Gloomy evening…

No recreation around, and gloomy cold evenings; I spent my day reading newspapers. I wanted to finish a book, but ended up eating news pages. All is not good here…

Everyone hated Musharraf in his last days, and now only one year in power, Zardari is the most disliked person in the town. Eyes on Mian Sb, and Altaf Hussain. Altaf bhai is king maker, and king has also dumped President. Many deaths but media is only worried about Hazrat Zardari's departure. Why? Human life is worthless. What else?

Sadness everywhere…

2 years girl was thrown in Haleem's daig, and innocent died there. Reason: smaller enmity.

5 years girl's head was smashed on stone after her earrings' were removed by un-known ruthless killer.

The picture of Babu Sabu inter-exchange suicide bomber has been released, look at his face, God Bless Pakistan where a blind war is killing innocents.

If found, parents should be tried….did they not know, what their son was doing. Having said that who knows his parents were victims of drone attack. Drone attacks by masters, who will speak against them?

79% of people in Pakistan think that 2 days holidays in a week is a good idea: nation of lazy work shirkers needs more time off, what I can say?

Shab Bakhair Kabirwala