Umar Profile picture
5 Jan, 4 tweets, 2 min read
1/
Today is Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's 92nd birthday anniversary. Bhutto was a mercurial, mysterious man, a spellbinding orator, an astute & ruthless political intrigant.

He was a socialist-minded politician, a reckless adventurer, a man who founded a new strategic foreign policy..
2/
..set up the nuclear program "We will eat grass but we will build a bomb" and who, being an admirer of Napoleon that he was, became more and more autocratic after becoming PM of Pak.

Today, despite his flaws and mistakes, Bhutto is widely projected by his party & supporters..
3/
..as the most effective leader independent Pakistan ever produced, whose legacy lives on in the current 1973 constitution, nuclear capability, foreign policy pivot, relative independence of the provinces vis-a-vis the center in Islamabad.

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More from @umaraqti

6 Jan
1/
The scourge of sectarianism increased in the 80s but systematic killings of the Hazara community increased manifold during 2003-2013 (also coincided with WoT).

I'll list down major terrorist incidents targetting the Hazara community since 2003.
2/
On 8 June 2003, two LeJ gunmen on a motorcycle martyred 13 Shia Hazara police cadets & injured nine in Quetta after intercepting their van at a traffic circle.
A few weeks later, on 4 July, three LeJ terrorists stormed the Imambargah-i-Kalan in Quetta during Friday prayers..
3/
..and opened fire for ten minutes on the more than 500 worshippers gathered with AK-47s and hand grenades. When assaulted by some worshippers, one of them exploded a suicide belt. Fifty-three Hazara Shias died and over sixty were injured.
Read 35 tweets
6 Jan
It reflects poorly on progressives when they dismiss leaders like Taji Kokhar as representatives of "Qabza Mafia" or "extortionist."
He suffered the loss of his family, faced incarceration and threats, received threats from opponents, and eventually died due to state atrocities.
Taji Kokhar faced all these hardships not because he was merely a landgrabber (how many landgrabbers suffer that fate?) but because he chose to take a stand against military dictators, against religious extremists, and against patriarchal prejudice. His ability to endure the pain
and suffering meted out to him reflected the tragic fate of our entire people who are forced to confront the tyranny of a brutal state apparatus.
Taji Kokhar made mistakes, compromises, and had limitations. But those limitations were a result of a long and ardent fight against..
Read 5 tweets
3 Jan
1/
In a BBC program, Indian author Arundhati Roy commented that "..the Muslim community in India has been ghettoized..."

Let's take a look at her claim if it's true or not.
Thread:
2/
All across Gujarat, in all major cities and in several towns, Muslims are deliberately forced into ghettos through a law called the Gujarat Disturbed Areas Act.

The law requires citizens in particular parts of cities to seek permission from the government before..
3/
..selling their property or changing their tenant and filters them by religion.
Gujarat's state govt extended the law across the state, to keep Muslims out of other neighborhoods than those traditionally Muslim. It criminalizes attempts to integrate, permanently..
Read 37 tweets
3 Jan
لبرلز اور کچھ صحافیوں کا شکوہ ہے کہ پی ٹی آئی کے آفیشل اکاؤنٹس اور ترجمان (مثلآ مشوانی) جب ان کی خبروں کی تردید کرتے ہیں تو پارٹی کے سپوٹرز ان کو برا بھلا کہتے ہیں، جس سے ثابت ہوتا ہے کہ پارٹی کی پالیسی ہے صحافیوں کو گالیاں دلوانا۔

اس لاجک کے مطابق، ان لوگوں کی غلط خبروں سے..
..ان لبرلز اور صحافیوں کے سپوٹرز حکومت اور فوج کو گالیاں دیتے ہیں اس کی زمے داری کس پر آتی ہے؟
اس سے ثابت نہیں ہوتا کہ ان لوگوں کی پالیسی ہے پروپیگنڈا کرنا اور عوام میں اضطراب کی کیفیت پیدا کر کے ان کو فوج اور حکومت کے مخالف کرنے کی ذمے داری کس پر آتی ہے؟
اگست 2018 کے بعد ایسا کون سا مہینا گزرا ہے جس میں ان لوگوں نے حکومت کو اگلے ماہ گھر بھجوانے جیسی جھوٹی خبریں نا پھیلائی ہوں؟

بزدار آج گیا کل گیا جیسی خبریں نا چلائی ہوں؟
فوج خان سے تنگ آ گئی ہے اور اب ان ہاؤس یا نیشنل حکومت جیسی جھوٹی خبریں نا چلائی ہوں؟
Read 4 tweets
27 Dec 20
1/
The historian Ian Buruma argued that Daughter of the East had been written to ‘enchant Western readers’.

In it Benazir Bhutto described her life in a way that played to Western perceptions of the East and resonated with Western mythic traditions: hers was the story..
2/
..of a vulnerable young woman overcoming archaic tradition & deep prejudice,surviving years of hardship and exile to avenge her father’s death at the hands of a wicked, all-powerful man.

Buruma wrote that Benazir had a double life: the Larkana Bhutto and the Radcliffe Bhutto.
3/
A 1998 exchange of letters with the highly regarded PPP senator, lawyer, and human rights activist Iqbal Haider revealed another aspect of BB's personality that even some of her most ardent supporters found difficult to defend: "the feudal mindset she never escaped."
Read 21 tweets
16 Dec 20
1/

In 1971, total strength of Indian troops around East Pak was about 400K + more thn100k Mukti Bahini

In East Pak, Army had 34K west Pakistani troops + 11K CAF & civilian police

If we include Pak naval & PAF detachments & all those in uniform & entitled to free rations.. Image
2/
..e.g HQ, MLA, depots, training inst, workshops, factories, nurses&lady doctors,non-combatants like barbers, cooks, shoemakers & sweepers,even thn the total comes to 55K & not 93K as widely propagated, repeated, virtually unchallenged,in practically every form of publications.
3/
Another point that remained unchallenged is the correct date of the Indian attack on East Pak.

India actually launched a full scale attack on East Pak with full force alongwith Mukti Bahini on the night of 20/21 Nov-1971 & not on 3 Dec-71, thus making it "a 4-week war"..
Read 6 tweets

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