South Asia Citizens Web

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A stern, unyielding version of Islam is replacing the kinder, gentler Islam of the Sufis in Pakistan.
The common belief in Pakistan is that Islamic radicalism is a problem only in FATA, and that madrassas are the only institutions serving as jihad factories. This is a serious misconception. Extremism is breeding at a ferocious rate in public and private schools within Pakistan’s towns and cities. Left unchallenged, this education will produce a generation incapable of (…)

Newsline
Buried in alien land would detach me from my ancestors, I wish to be among them after death, my soul will be in peace if buried in ancestral graveyard. Ailing 85 five years old Mashkool Ali Bugti lying on deathbed tells his will to family members. Sad state of displaced Bugti and Marree tribes living in different parts of Sindh and Balochistan manifests the picture of miseries and deprivations of socio- political entitlements, people face after becoming landless refugees in their (…)

[Inter Press Service >http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45389]
Kararchi, Jan 13 (IPS) - As tensions between Pakistan and India continue to see-saw, citizens in both countries are stepping up efforts for peace through initiatives ranging from a cross-border signature campaign to seminars and personal efforts.
Such efforts encounter hostility between the nuclear-armed neighbours that has been steadily increasing over the past few weeks.
In mid-December Pakistan scrambled fighter (…)

[New Statesman >http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2009/01/benazir-bhutto-pakistan-legacy]
A year on from Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Fatima Bhutto visits the family mausoleum and reflects on the poisonous legacy of her late aunt, a woman "without principles"
“A Disney version of the Taj Mahal”: devotees of Benazir arrive at the remodelled Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bux, Sind Province
The old Bhutto mazaar, or graveyard, is in a small town called Garhi Khuda Bux. It is (…)

In the death of the Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge , Sri Lanka lost a very courageous and visionary journalist who strived to expose corruption, human rights abuses and supported the rights of minorities in the face of great personal danger. He had obviously anticipated his own demise and the manner of it as is evident from his last editorial.