The military offensive in Swat Valley and surrounding districts of Malakand Division has more or less completed its initial phase. This may be a good moment therefore to assess the operation so far.
There is little doubt that there was a fundamental shift in the attitude of the army before such an unprecedented military offensive could be launched against the Taliban whom the military until recently was fond of referring to as its ‘strategic assets’. What led to this ‘change of heart’?
In the beginning, the Rajapakse government characterized its war against the LTTE as part of the global war on terrorism. In the middle, and muddle, it became the war to liberate the Tamil civilians from the clutches of the LTTE. In the end, the war morphed into a despotic assertion of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty against Western interference. In the aftermath of the war, the plight of the Tamil civilians in the Vanni has not improved in spite of their liberation, and the controversies between the Sri Lankan government and the Western world show no sign of abating.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) regrets that visas have not been issued by the Indian government for a USCIRF visit to discuss religious freedom conditions with officials, religious leaders, civil society activists and others in the world’s largest democracy.
Bangladesh Mahila Parishad has called upon the government to make a law under which the issuing of fatwa (arbitrary religious decree) will be considered a criminal offence.
Ahmedabad (Women’s Feature Service) - In 2002, Gujarat was the site of one of the worst communal riots in India’s history, with tensions between majority and minority communities continuing to simmer long after the immediate violence. Complicity of the state in the violence and systematic hate campaigns against the minority community were so blatant that commentators often use the term ’pogrom’ to describe the events of those stormy days. What made things even worse was the fact that many of (…)
