The mutual relations of the trio of the army, the Muslim League (N) and Tehreek e Insaf will decide the fate of the new governments and the media will play an important role in it. Taliban and communal groups have no identity other than terrorism. Hence it is not possible for them to present any other identity other than terrorism in the affected areas as the extremists have other businesses like kidnapping for ransom and drugs etc too. In such a situation any political party which has its national presence will never like to be identified with these anti social elements. And the terrorists who are an isolated lot will like to maintain their identity of isolation. This is how the situation will maintain its status quo and on the whole the law and order situation will continue to be critical......

This tribute to Asghar Ali Engineer argues that apart from his contributions to secularism, human rights work and reform within Muslim communities, his abiding legacy would be towards establishing an emancipatory form of intellectual politics which remained analytically open but grounded on politically committed arguments....

‘Whose law?’ he said. ‘It’s not God’s law, is it?’ Shaking my head, I replied: ‘God doesn’t make traffic laws. He leaves that to the discretion of human beings. Surely, he has given us the wisdom to make a few laws of our own.’ After hearing this, the gentleman dismounted from his bike and started walking purposefully towards my car. ‘Listen,’ he said, wagging a finger, ‘I can ride my bike any which way I want to. Why should I care about traffic laws made by corrupt people?’...

When he was martyred, Gandhi was considered for a posthumous prize, which would have been unique, because the Nobel is only given to the living. But just leaving the prize go un-awarded was thought a better way of acknowledging him. And in 1999, as we have seen, the committee felt moved enough by guilt to publish an explanation of its omission. Knowing this background, it is difficult to understand why Abdul Sattar Edhi has not been given the Nobel Prize for Peace....

The Iranian Maoist attacks on Khomeini’s Islamic state would make their Indian counterparts look like novices. In one instance, they blew up parliament with the prime minister and his cabinet buried in it. The West applauded and we can safely assume even helped them. They became the CIA’s eye in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq....

The killings of Mahendra Karma and his colleagues are the latest casualties in a bloody war that began a decade ago in Dantewada. What will the State and Central governments now do? The knee-jerk reaction, doubtless encouraged by editorial writers and TV anchors in Delhi, will be to call for the Army, and perhaps the Air Force too, to launch an all-out war on the Naxalites, regardless of the consequences for civilians. One hopes wiser counsels will prevail....

But the lords of torture never imagined that they would be facing a day, a day of trial and judgment – formal, tiring and humiliating. They never imagined that they would be making a journey back through the dark, bloodied alleys they created. They never imagined that they would be recollecting the dead bodies they killed. They never imagined they would be recalling tact of torture they practiced....

President Nasheed is poised to win the Maldives’ presidential elections on September 7, 2013. It has become increasingly obvious that the only way to prevent Nasheed’s return is to ensure his name stays off the ballot paper. At the same time, the repeated exposure of the farce of the courts and the dishonesty and idiosyncrasy of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) by open parliamentary committee sessions since the February 7, 2012 coup d’état, and the mounting evidence against the JSC in many international reports investigating the status of the Maldives’ judiciary and its transition, has made it increasingly difficult to convince the public or the international community that any decision to exclude Nasheed from the elections will be impartial…..

Examination of the prosecutors' letter does indeed offer support to those who regard Mayer's prosecution as unfair.  In general, the letter described the presented question as how far an artist may go "before he crosses the line between ('just barely' allowed) provocation and 'defamation' and wounding of religious feelings."  ...

Ever since the London bombings of 7/7, the United Kingdom has sought to deal with emergence of the virtual Islamic homeland by reinventing multiculturalism—spending millions marketing purportedly moderate, anti-jihadist forms of Islam. This project, however, has simply perpetuated ghettoisation. In a 2006 survey, six of every 100 British Muslims were reported to support the 7/7 bombing; the following year, 25% said the terrorist attack was a government plot....

The Indian Muslim seminary of Deoband that has considerable influence on the Bangladeshi traditionalists must be asked to dissuade them from further confrontation. The mainstream liberals, atheists and Marxists in Bangladesh must rein in their militant wing from launching incendiary attacks on Islam. The window to act is small and getting smaller by the day. Time is of real essence....

The days that followed were terrible. The first thing that comes to a freshman’s mind when they set foot in their university is the horrid thought of being ragged. The British tradition of ragging new students is unfortunately prevalent in Pakistani universities. In certain universities, an official ‘Rag Day’ is observed where seniors ridicule newbies and ask them silly questions.....

“For the simple reason central power rests there. The party held a mammoth rally in Islamabad’s D-Square right on the polls’ eve. The participants were highly charged, highly motivated and highly spirited. It seems now PTI would attract such mass assemblies of supporters anytime it wants. I fear the D-Square would eventually turn into the ultimate battleground, i.e. Pakistan’s Tahrir Square. Not now, but say two or three years from now on.”...

While participation of young girls and women outnumbered men at Shahbagh, Hefazat jamboree was a all men affair and when they saw a woman journalist assigned to cover their 'long march" she was brutally targeted by them for violating one of their prime demands : a ban on women mixing with men in public. In the presence of thousands of rallyists, comprising mainly of students and teachers of madrasas, she was badly beaten by them mercilessly for daring to join the men-only rally….

Mamata Banerjee has fought for the rights of the Muslims of the state because of which the Muslims of Bengal are grateful to her. She has taken a number of steps for the development of Muslims of the state including the implementation of Urdu as the second official language. But according to Siddiqullah Choudhary all this is not enough if she does not stand up to save the rapists and murderers of Bangladeshi people. All of them had taken an anti-India position during the conflict and even fought against the Indian forces.....

Elections in Pakistan are over. Almost all shades of political parties participated wholeheartedly. Like all political parties and groups with religious, sectarian, liberal, secular, ethnic, linguistic and nationalist political agendas, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban, the religious militants, also participated indirectly in a proxy manner through its supporters and directly through its bombing campaign.

Nasheed has been hitting the waterways that connect the islands for over a year now, seeking justice and asking people to back him. The former President insists that he was thrown out in a coup on February 7, 2012, and wants people not to forget this ‘fact’ when they reach the polling booths. Nasheed remains the most popular leader in Maldives today.....

If the international community is to encourage genuine reform, promote religious harmony and resolve conflicts, it must recalibrate its position in regard to both Burma and Indonesia. It is right to caveat criticisms with recognition of positive achievements; it is also right to present criticisms as constructively as possible, appealing to self-interest....

The idea of India is based on several cardinal plinths: the idea of plurality and equal rights for all its citizens are perhaps the two most sacred of those plinths. Varun’s hate speeches violated this in deep and wounding ways.

Now, add to this the fact that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan did not attack the PML (N) during this election because it said it had no problems with the party, and a murky picture of the dangerous opportunist politics emerges. Especially now that the PML (N) is in power, make no mistake that the Taliban, who like to view themselves as the king-makers, will seek to extract more than just their pound of flesh from Mr Sharif and his Government....

When I worked in the Prime Minister’s Office of Indira Gandhi from 1981 to 1984, she told me that she could visualise a time in the future when India and Pakistan would have normal, even friendly, relations but she did not have the same hope for relations with China because, she said, it was essentially an expansionist power. How do recent events validate her instinct and analysis?.....

“Working on this project has not only changed my perspective on the apparently common history that our countries have undergone but also on stories and past events in general,” she adds, while remembering moments when she was in Lahore recently while working on this project, and “we were reduced to silence because of the vast differences, for example an extremely important event from the Indian side [Civil Disobedience Movement] is omitted from the Pakistani book”.....

Finally, the civil-military imbalance that has prevented Pakistan from establishing a democratic institutional framework is headed towards righting itself. The military has chosen to stay out of the political. And while the civilians have yet to increase their capacity to deal with the security sector, a second-generation problem, the first-generation problem is over — i.e., the fear of coups d'etat. This is just the beginning, though...

Mubarak Mian Sahab. You have been given another chance and that too with a thumping majority. This gives you the muscle to take steps that previous governments have been unable or unwilling to. How will you be different? On being sworn in, you will have created a record of being the first PM to score a hat trick. How else do you want us to remember you in times to come?....

Pakistan will never be able to match the Indian militarily and the effort to do so is taking an immense toll on the society. It’s also extremely dangerous with all the weapons development. The two countries have already come close to nuclear confrontation twice and this could get worse. So dealing with the relationship with India is extremely important. And that of course focuses right away on Kashmir. Some kind of settlement in Kashmir is crucial for both countries.....