The world Bin Laden (The world without Laden)

Osama Bin Laden is dead. And it's been written about and spoken about, complete with an unwitting tweet account giving a bit-by-bit update to fake pictures up on the internet. The whole operation, looked like the 'capture-and-kill' operation in the movie 'Face/Off', with the high security house being ambushed and the main bad guy being asked to leave the world by a bullet in his head. And with this event, on May 1, 2011, Osama Bin Laden, the man who lent a face to terror, for all Americans and the world population to see and hate, left, hoping to get to the place he has been promising every gullible, impressionable, poor mind, that agreed or was coerced into becoming his foot soldier. Now whether he got there or not, is something only he can tell, and God willing, he doesn't come back to tell us of his escapades!

The bigger point though, is that this means the end of nothing actually. The man was supposedly frail, reportedly needing dialysis to keep him alive, albeit with a razor sharp brain, nonetheless. Agreed, this heir to billions founded Al-Qaeda as a retaliation to US setting up defense bases in Saudi Arabia to assist Kuwait against Iraq, and ever since he has been the one man who took it upon himself to cleanse the world of all things not Islam, a diktat that perhaps would make Prophet Muhammad's blood boil! The issue is that this man has managed to build ranks and ranks of lunatic foot soldiers, capable of inflicting horror on millions on their own, without the need of a larger lunatic! The funding might still continue, since over at least 10 years, OBL has managed to incite thousands of millions into the 'Jihadi cause'. Rumor has it that he was a very strong orator with a strong tongue to guile many an impressionable mind. What happens to that network? Those fund routes? All those millions leading Al-Qaeda offshoots, with a framed picture of OBL hanging on their cave walls?

Secondly, will anything be done about Pakistan being a terror haven? That nation is in a state of utter chaos, such that their President could have done nothing, had OBL been plotting his next move, right in his own backyard! Although in reality, that did happen, since OBL was captured barely a 100 kms from Islamabad and more glaringly a mere 800 meters from a large Army training camp! Army - ISI - Taliban - Al Qaeda, anyone? The relationship is too blatant to dismiss as mere coincidence.

This may be a moral victory. Placards of '9/11 victims may RIP' flashed through TV screens all of yesterday. A small voice in me asked, "what about the victims of 26/11 in India?" OBL was elusive, living in caves in South Waziristan, maybe, Pakistan, Afghanistan for a while and so on. The capture operation went on for a long time, and the forces were diligent in their quest. Qasab, the man who inhumanly killed scores of people at CST station is alive on Indian tax payer's money in a prison in Mumbai. Wouldn't the blood of victims' families boil each time they cross the prison road that houses that monster? What about the souls of these victims? What about the souls of the victims of the 1993 blasts in Mumbai? We have had a face to terror long before OBL even broke into the terror fraternity! So, why do we lack the will and wherewithal that the US possesses? Is our PM's mandate any different from the mandate of the US President in issues of terror, given that both are democratically elected?

It is indeed high time our own people were taken less lightly and their lives and souls given their due. Even the body of someone like Osama Bin Laden is given a burial, albeit at sea, in adherence to Muslim convention of disposing of mortal remains within 24 hours. If only our elected leaders felt for those who elected them and were serious about bringing them justice!

An outrageously funny snippet in Pak media

Now, I can't really generalize about all of Pakistani media, but thanks to Youtube, I received a link to an outrageously funny take on the Mumbai terror attacks. Now, I am sure that neither the presenter - a bumbling, clumsy presenter by name Qudsia Qadri (let's call her QQ), nor the guests - some defence analyst and some member of the Pak Parliament would have intended to make the show akin to a sitcom, but the kind of things they said - hideously howlarious.

First, at the start of the show, QQ says that over 135 people are killed in the bomb blasts in Mumbai. Eh? When did that happen?????? Maybe Intelligence needs to take note!!! Second, she speaks about the death of two key people who were investigating the Samjhauta express blast, while they were at the Taj. ???? When did that happen????? Then she goes on about how Pak has been the victim of ire all the time, in spite of their innocence. WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN???????????? Funniest of all. A passport size photo of Mr Ram Jethmalani springs up, and QQ quotes from a certain 'interview'. Mr Jethmalani apparently gave Pak a clean chit, she says. HAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Now, how do we know whether the voice is indeed his voice - like a blogger noted. Second, the voice said that it did not understand the rationale of terrorists, since terrorists were just accruing global ire against Islamic nations. I didn't hear Pak or clean chit anywhere!!!! Even funnier??? This interview goes across the border, without any of us Indians knowing!!!!!!!!!! And like some intellectually profound thinker, QQ asks - '24 hours on, why couldn't the commandos kill the terrorists?' Ahem, QQ, I guess that's because there were HOSTAGES involved, who incidentally had to be rescued as well!!!!

Then came the guests. One defence analyst, who actually said that unlike in the case of the 9/11 attacks that had been deftly orchestrated by Amaaricans, Indians did a shoddy job in case of the terror attacks on Mumbai. Apparently we Indians tried to garner sympathy and made massive fools of ourselves! He went on to say that these attacks were the beginning of the end of the Indian federation! INTELLIGENCE... PLEASE NOTE.........Then he continued ranting about how the terrorists look Hindu, because one wore a saffron band - not worn by Muslims... Hello..... What about the huge rage amongst youngsters post the Lance Armstrong phenomenon???? Almost everyone wore some band???!!!???????????? AND WHEN HARD EVIDENCE, AND THE WORLD INTELLIGENCE ALIKE POINT TO THE LeT, how did they become Hindu???????The guy had the nerve to say that Indians have no brains!! Try telling that to Sabeer Bhatia, Vinod Khosla, Rajat Gupta, Ambanis, Azim Premji, Narayan Murthy, APJ Abdul Kalam, DR. MANMOHAN SINGH!!!! And all this while QQ says Ji Ji Ji... Hahahaaaaaaaa.. She reminded me of Johnny Bravo! Honest!!!

Then came some Maarvi Memon - MP, of PMLQ. She called Pakistan, India's peaceful neighbor. She spewed venom about how we, Indians, who did not know how to handle our own 'homegrown terrorists' kept training our guns on Pak, without looking at our own 'issues'. QQ spoke of our top 3 terror groups. ' Left Wing extremists', 'Left wing terrorists' and I guess she forgot to mention the third group. Or perhaps someone cut it out, cos it said - 'PAKISTAN'. Hello!! Madam, our biggest issue is on the left side of the Western border, not any other left whatever!!!

But at the end of it all, if this is the kind of crap that is fed to Pakistanis, I feel sorry for them, since the whole world is decidedly having a laugh.... Here is your dose of laughter.... for today....

Pakistan - our worthy neighbors

When was the last time we trusted Pakistan and they lived up to the trust? I can't remember a single instance. Lies, deceit and betrayal are almost second nature to the way that country deals with India. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation. Every time India extended the olive branch, the tree was chopped down. And we have lost precious Jawans and army personnel while trying to counter the Pakistanis. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation.

We signed the Lahore bus pact and sent a friendly bus to Lahore. Then PM Vajpayee travelled to Pakistan. Musharraf visited India and took pictures with his wife against the backdrop of the Taj, and all the while silently a sinister terror plot was being hatched against India. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation. Kargil. Infiltrators entered in hordes, captured major portions of Kashmir and jeopardized our sovereignty and all the while, we were believing the friendly gestures of our neighbors. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation. We lost young men in the line of fire, and the infiltration was supported entirely by the Pakistani army. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation.

Flight IC 814 was hijacked. A passenger was murdered. The hijackers demanded the release of Maulana Masood Azhar - a captured dreaded Pakistani terrorist. India negotiated, and finally gave in to the demands. Masood Azhar was a free man. He returned to Pakistan and started off with inflamed speeches against India, declaring Jihad on India. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation. He floated the terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad which was responsible for the attacks on India's Parliament house in 2004. The terrorists were completely supported and funded by Pakistan. India's prestige and honor was challenged once again by Pakistan. Again we lost men to the Pakistani terrorists. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation.

Almost everyday families are attacked in Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits have fled Srinagar ages ago and started life from scratch elsewhere, though they are free by constitutional rights to live in peace wherever they wish to in the country. Women raped, children killed indiscriminately by Pakistani terrorists. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation. Impressionable Kashmiri youths are brainwashed on Pakistani training grounds and converted into terrorists - Fidayeen - suicide attackers. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation.

Mumbai was rocked by serial blasts in 1993. The perpetrators are hiding in Pakistan -say intelligence sources. Dawood Ibrahim, wanted for scores of underworld and terrorist activities in India, is in Pakistan - say intelligence sources. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation. Bomb blasts near the Taj Hotel in 2003, bomb blasts in trains in 2006 led to mass massacre of Indians. The attacks were all linked to Pakistani terrorists. Yet Pakistan is an honorable nation.

The current attacks on Mumbai - at the Taj, the Oberoi-Trident and Nariman house, sources claim, carry a Pakistani footprint. Pakistan vociferously denies any involvement. Because after all, Pakistan is an honorable nation.

The PM has asked the chief of the ISI to come to India to offer 'intelligence'. Maybe the welcome party must include the widows of ATS chief Hemant Karkare, top cops Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte and perhaps the loved ones of all those who have lost their lives in this attack. Since Pakistan is an honorable nation. And such a visit deserves such honor.....