December 21, 2014 · 1:42 pm

Attack on Pakistani GHQ: the confessions of a terrorist mastermind highlighted by DAWN

Dawn, 21 September 2011 …. http://www.dawn.com/news/660572/attack-on-ghq-confessions-of-a-terrorist-mastermind

Shortly after the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009, Aqeel Ahmed alias Dr Usman alias Kamran alias Nazir Ahmed fled to Waziristan where he met the head of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s Amjad Farooqui Group, Ustad Aslam Yasin and Ilyas Kashmiri.  The venue was Miramshah. The attendants of the meeting included some of the most notorious militants of Pakistan. And their agenda was nothing short of explosive — an attack on the GHQ with the aim to take military officers hostage.

GHQ attack item  Security forces on alert–Dawn

Shortly after the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009, Aqeel Ahmed alias Dr Usman alias Kamran alias Nazir Ahmed fled to Waziristan where he met the head of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s Amjad Farooqui Group, Ustad Aslam Yasin and Ilyas Kashmiri.

It was at this meeting that the idea of the attack on the General Headquarters was floated, reveals the main accused of the attack, Ahmed, in a confessional statement. He along with his seven accomplices was convicted by a military court on Aug 11, 2011, for the audacious attack on the GHQ in October 2009. Shooting their way into the military’s main headquarters, cowboy style, the militants took men hostage in one of the buildings. They remained there till the next morning when commandos finally entered the building, killing most of the militants and rescuing the hostages. Continue reading →

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December 21, 2014 · 12:41 pm

Mastermind of Attack on Sri Lankan Cricket Team has just been judicially executed

Courtesy of Sunday Times, … http://www.sundaytimes.lk/141221/news/hanged-kingpin-in-attack-at-lahore-on-lankan-cricket-team-128194.html, where the title is “Hanged: Kingpin in attack at Lahore on Lankan cricket team”

Aqeel Ahmad alias Dr. UsmanAqeel Ahmad alias Dr. Usman–Pic from Dawn

The suspected mastermind behind the bloody attack on the Sri Lankan national cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore in 2009 was hanged on Friday along with another terrorist suspect, foreign media reported. Aqeel Ahmad alias Dr. Usman was captured at a location in Lahore in October 2009 after he was injured while trying to blow himself up, the reports said. Continue reading →

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December 20, 2014 · 1:14 pm

MARGA Institute presents itself

MARGA has refurbished its web site at http://www.margasrilanka.org/…. OR http://www.margastorehouse.org/ And several useful reviews of events and literature are now available for downloading as pdf via drop box pathways. Listed below are incisive documents on the last stages of Eelam War IV and its turbulent aftermath. One must go teach title and click on the links.

MARGA MYRTLE-

                                       TRUTH AND ACCOUNTABILITY

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December 20, 2014 · 12:17 am

To use “Cultured Reason” against jihadist martyrdom is to piss into the wind

Chris Kenny , in The Australian, 18 December 2014, where it is entitled “Cultured reason meaningless response in face of death cult” …. while I would also suggest yet another heading, viz., “Idealist civil libertarians are no match for jihadists seeking blood on the path to martyrdom”

THE brutal nihilism of Islamist terrorism is a difficult concept for most of us to understand, but comprehend it we must.  This is an evil that can shoot a teenage girl because she dares to go to school. When Malala ­Yousafzai survived and was rewarded with the Nobel Peace Prize her Islamist extremist ­enemies were not chastened; ­rather, they have marched into a Pakistani school and slaughtered more than 100 children.

Pak school attack 1 Pic from AP ….http://mic.com/articles/106664/heartbreaking-photos-show-the-aftermath-of-the-taliban-s-brutal-school-attack

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December 19, 2014 · 10:16 am

Christina of Bunnik Tours in Raptures over Lanka’s Sights and Sites

Contributor headshot - Christina Pfeiffer dinkusChristina Pfeiffer, 18 December 2014

Women sashay past, saris fluttering and hips swaying rhythmically to the thumping drums. The high-pitched whining of a wind instrument draws me like the call of the Pied Piper. I’m swept along by the crowd of spiritual devotees circling a massive white stupa at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle. The region, in the centre of the island, was the seat of two powerful kingdoms, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. It’s the place to visit for statues, relics, ruins and to soak up Sri Lanka’s days of glory. There’s an air of mystery around the Cultural Triangle and although more than 2000 years have passed, I can still feel the seductive tug of power from a long-gone kingdom that was once great.

dd- smilesSmiles here there and everywhere–Pic by Pfeiffer Continue reading →

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December 18, 2014 · 1:47 pm

Challenges remain for China–Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement

Saman_KelegamaSaman Kelegama, reprint from EAST ASIA FORUM, March 2014

Although China–Sri Lanka trade had been growing steadily beforehand, China was not a large trading partner of Sri Lanka until 2005, which was a turning point in China–Sri Lankan economic relations. In the mid-2000s, China was increasingly asserting its global power via bilateral loans for developing countries in Asia and other continents. In Sri Lanka, a new government was looking for unconditional loans with negotiable repayment periods to defeat a drawn-out separatist war and develop neglected infrastructure in the country.The fusion of both these interests led to Chinese assistance, first in the form of arms and ammunition to win the war and then an overwhelming financial inflow for development of infrastructure projects — so much so that, by 2010, China had become the largest foreign finance partner of Sri Lanka. With so many Chinese projects in operation in Sri Lanka, trade with China has also increased during the last eight years with a widening  trade imbalance against Sri Lanka.

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December 17, 2014 · 11:00 am

The Sydney Gunman Monis: Many Faces & Many Phases

“Greg Bearup, in The Australian 17 December 2014, with the heading “A Convert from Malcontent to Murderer”

ON the afternoon of the September terrorism raids in Sydney and Brisbane, a group of Muslims gathered to protest in Lakemba. One of them was the Martin Place gunman, Man Haron Monis; a man who saw himself as a peace activist. He stood out that day as the only visible Shia in a crowd of Sunni Muslims.

Monis’s gripes against the West were those common to many Muslims around the world, including many moderates. “You don’t feel our pain. Your ­remote-controlled bombs kill our children and no one is ever held ­responsible. Why are the deaths of your innocents atrocities, while the death of our innocents are collateral damage?” MONIS 2 Continue reading →

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December 17, 2014 · 8:32 am

Rajapaksa One-Family Show in the Gunsights at Presidential Election

 Razeen Sally, courtesy of Wall Street Journal 15 December 2014 and The Australian 17 December 2014, where the title reads “Sri Lankan Election is a Chance to end Rajapaksa’s One-Family Show”

AA--the R BROTHERLY LOVE: President Mahinda Rajapaksa (in white and wearing a scarf) rules the country with his son and two brothers, including Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (to his right), and assorted members of the Rajapaksa clan. ASSOCIATED PRESS

When President Mahinda Rajapaksa called a snap election last month in Sri Lanka, it appeared he would cruise to a third term. But a hitherto feeble and divided opposition has since rallied behind a common presidential candidate for the Jan. 8 vote. Only a month ago, Maithripala Sirisena was a cabinet minister and general-secretary of the ruling party. Now suddenly Sri Lanka could be at a turning point after almost a decade of Rajapaksa rule.

The president is campaigning on his economic record after comprehensively defeating the Tamil Tigers in 2009. And on the surface, Sri Lanka looks a lot better off for his leadership. After a quarter-century of civil war, people can go about their daily lives without fear. Roads, bridges, railways and power projects have come to fruition. Colombo and many other towns have been beautified. Tourism has bounced back, with post-war arrivals hitting all-time highs. Continue reading →

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December 16, 2014 · 2:48 pm

Marginalisation in Britain as Path to Islamic Fervour and/or Cricketing Fervour

Michael Roberts, reprint of an article written in May 2003 and published in the International Journal of The History of Sport , 2004, vol. 21, no. 3-4, pp. 650-663. This article remains substantially the same as the original draft in May 2003, but has been embellished by additions in April 2004.[1] …. It is further embellished with hyperlinks that embrace subsequent processes and events, including the ISIS phenomenon and its repercussions. Insofar as lone wolf or lone cell extremism has embraced Australia as well (e.g. Man Haron Monis and Numan Haider) our reflections can be guided by the thoughts penned recently by Alan Dupont (2014) and yours truly (2014 and 2013).

Moeen+Ali- Moeen Ali  Omar Khan Sharif Omar Khan Sharif 

Kabir_Ali_ - WIKI Kabir Ali of Lancashire -elder brother of Moeen

LEE RIGBY KILLERS  Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale – killers of Lee Rigby, 22 May 2013

killer--_1733665a Adebolajo’s declamation after the assassination

Man Monis 11 Man Haron Monis  NUMAN HAIDER NumanHaider–www.adelaidenow.com.au

In interpreting the reasons that induce a handful of Sri Lankan cricket fans within the migrant diaspora to indulge in confrontational abuse that extends even to members of the Sri Lankan cricket team, I suggested recently that a condition of marginalisation and alienation may be one of the factors promoting such excesses.[2] This analysis was informed by my experience in the Australian setting. Here, however, I focus on Britain and England. This land now hosts a number of migrant peoples, each internally diverse, but present in sufficient numbers to provide voice. As such, Britain is a sociological laboratory for comparative studies. Within this terrain I extend my hypothesis to link migrant marginalisation and alienation not only to cricketing fervour, but also to Islamic fervour of the sort recently expressed by the suicide bombers Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Mohammed Hanif. This thesis is speculative and does not have the support of substantial empirical research on my own part.

Hanif and sharif Sharif & Hanif in A Gaza lat before their suicide operations in 2003- from Hamas release later – see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3543269.stm Continue reading →

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December 16, 2014 · 2:29 am

Man Haron Monis and Lessons from Sydney

brendan_nicholsonBrendan Nicholson, in The Australian, 16 December 2014, where the title is “Sydney siege: Lessons in new extremism.”

FOR police and security ­officials responsible for stopping extremist attacks before they happen, events in the heart of Sydney yesterday were a reminder of the worst possible scenario.  The use in the CBD siege of techniques used by lone-wolf operators was a ­chilling lesson in the risks faced by modern societies. Whatever the intention behind the siege, it triggered the extensive and complex response that authorities have ­developed to deal with terrorist operations.

SS-Armed police-Getty Armed police outside the Lindt Café–Pic -Gettywounded -AP  An injured hostage is wheeled to an ambulance after shots were fired during a cafe siege at Martin Place in the central business district of Sydney- Pic- AP photo. Continue reading →

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