Pakistani group on Facebook counters anti-India rhetoric

Islamabad, Dec 3 (PTI) With anti-India talk shows being
beamed regularly on Pakistani channels, anti-India blogs
clocking hits in cyberspace and open letters to Indians
getting several columns in newspapers, a newly formed
Pakistani web group to condemn the Mumbai attacks has come as
a breath of fresh air.

"All Pakistanis condemn Mumbai attacks," a group on
social networking website Facebook, has already registered
1,803 members from across the globe to counter an earlier
group called "India stop blaming Pakistan for terror in
India", which at last count had 952 members.

Muhammad Riaz, a 30-something blogger, quoted a surah
(verse) from the Quran to condemn the attacks "if anyone slew
a person, unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in
the land, it would be as if he slew the whole humanity and if
anyone saved a life it would be as if he saved the whole of
the humanity."

Another Facebooker, Farrukh Mehboob Khan, wondered why
Pakistan could not have shown a more visibly sympathetic
response to the Mumbai massacres?

"Why do we have to be so aggressive all the time? Why
couldn't we send (the Inter-Services Intelligence chief) if
India had requested for his presence in the investigations? We
should have extended all possible cooperation in this regard
if we have no skeletons in the cupboard.

"If my reports about the current (ISI chief) are correct,
he is a highly capable officer who should have been able to
hold his ground. We should have sent a team of experts to help
him and the Indians in their investigation.

"But no, we had to act like the protagonist of a cheap
Punjabi movie who thunders and makes inexplicable gestures
towards the enemy," Khan wrote.

Hasan Siddiqui, a Pakistani who lives in the UAE, joined
the group to condemn the Mumbai attacks that killed nearly 200
and injured hundreds and wrote that both Pakistan and India
should not let terrorists defeat them.

Maham Muneeb Khan, who lives in New York, blamed it all
on the US."I think that what the British tried to do long time
ago during the Mughal period, that's exactly what the
Americans are trying to do once again," he wrote in an open
letter to Indians–"Bombay, India and Pakistan"– posted on Pak
Tea House, an e-magazine, was published in The News daily
Wednesday.

Yasser Latif Hamdani, the author and a lawyer based in
Islamabad, has received his share of bouquets and brickbats
from Pakistanis.

"As a Pakistani myself, I regret to say that your
write-up is more reactionary than factual and it lacks depth.
Whether (Lashker-e-Taiba) was involved in Mumbai attacks or
not, there is no denying that they are blossoming in our
country and have their training camps. They could be as much a
threat to us as to others," a blogger known as "Kuku1" wrote
in response to Hamdani's post.

"Pakistan can use this incident to their advantage by
cleaning out such groups with or without help from outside.
Thus we can not only clear our name but can also provide an
example for others in the Islamic world to weed out radicals
who are trying to hijack our great religion and are
increasingly isolating us from the rest of the world."

An Indian who identified herself as "simply61" said she
found Hamdani's post shallow. "Rest assured our dream in India
is not to annihilate Pakistan…we just want terror export (by
whoever it is within Pakistan) to stop.

"The same terror that Pakistan has nurtured on its soil
is in fact eating away at Pakistan itself," she wrote.

Leading English newspapers have been carrying editorials
and opinion pieces almost every day since the attacks in
Mumbai on November 26, with most of them dismissing Indian
allegations about a Pakistani link to the terrorist strike and
blaming Indian elements.

Television channels have been beaming talk shows in the
aftermath of the attacks, often inviting the same guests and
experts, to mouth anti-India rhetoric. PTI RHL
SAK
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