By Khalid Hasnain, Majeed Gill, Malik Tehseen
LAHORE/MUZAFFARGARH/BAHAWALPUR:
After inundating over 60 per cent area of Muzaffargarh tehsil, (click here) the violent waves of Chenab River are now posing a threat to rural areas of Jatoi and Alipur tehsils in Muzaffargarh district.
The water discharge at Panjnad headworks in Bahawalpur district was rising, but the flow of 413,000 cusecs (35.3 cusecs = 1 cubic meter/second) recorded at 9pm on Monday was stated to be within manageable limits. Irrigation authorities posted at the headworks said that a breach in the right marginal dyke, as anticipated earlier, might not be required.
“We expect that the pick will not be more than 450,000 cusecs before the water falls into the Indus River. And in Indus, there will be a maximum flood of about 500,000 cusecs that will pass Guddu and Sukkur barrages on Tuesday and Wednesday,” a senior official at the Flood Forecasting Division (Meteorological Department) told Dawn....
Historically, the Taliban has taken advantage of flooding events to bring about loyalty of the people in Pakistan. The Chenab River runs south into Punjab province. Punjab is the largest population in the area. If the Chenab River continues to flood and break dykes the people won't have a chance and the Taliban in 2014 has abandoned the area insurgency.
April 15, 2009
Author(s): Hassan Abbas
On March 30, 2009, (click here) militants launched a deadly assault on a police training center outside Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab Province. Eight police cadets were killed [1]. Less than a month earlier, on March 3, gunmen in Lahore ambushed members of the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, killing at least eight people. Punjab, the most populated of Pakistan’s provinces, has largely escaped the bloodshed plaguing the country’s troubled northwest [2]. Yet since 2007, violence has escalated in the province. The bold terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s heartland—within Punjab Province and in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad—show that local logistical support for these attacks is attributable to what is often labeled the “Punjabi Taliban” network [3]. The major factions of this network include operatives from Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan and Jaysh-i-Muhammad—all groups that were previously strictly focused on Kashmir and domestic sectarian violence....
The Chenab River drains into the Indus River. The rivers will continue to swell and cause disaster.
September 15, 2014
By Owais Quarni
Twenty people, including a bridegroom, (click here) drowned when a boat carrying a wedding party capsized in rough waters in a flooded rural area near Shershah dyke. Another 18 people were rescued in a 12-hour-long operation involving helicopters and divers of the army and navy.
Muhammad Zahid, who married Mashal three days ago, chartered a boat to carry the couple and their families to their Valima in the Muzaffarabad area. Some of their relatives were on board another boat and the two were moving almost side by side. The boat, which was carrying the couple and another 28 people, went down as it attempted to cross the flooded river.
Rescuers and relatives in the second boat immediately jumped into the rough waters to save the people before army and navy helicopters and divers could reach the site. “We have recovered more bodies. The death toll has now risen to 17, two women were among the dead,” a senior rescue official said, adding that another three persons were missing and believed dead. Eighteen people, including the bride, were rescued....
A Muslim holy man stated recently, the problem with the insurgencies throughout the area had adopted Sharia and it is the Sharia Law that is the enemy and not the religion of Islam.
September 14, 2014
By Ashfaq Yusufzai in Peshawar and Dean Nelson in New Delhi
Leader of the Punjabi Taliban, (click here) one of Pakistan's most effective terror groups, says it is to end its insurgency and embrace charity work
One of Pakistan's most deadly Taliban groups has abandoned its armed struggle and announced it will focus on a peaceful campaign calling on the country to adopt Islamic sharia law.
The Punjabi Taliban is believed to have carried out a number of significant terrorist attacks, including the 2009 assault on the Pakistan army's general headquarters in Rawalpindi, in which nine soldiers were killed; the commando raid on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the same year, and the 2011 attack on the naval airbase at Mehran in which 18 servicemen and two US-donated aircraft were destroyed.
It has also been blamed for a number of sectarian atrocities, including attacks on the country's Ahmadi Muslims and the assassination of Pakistan's Christian minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti in 2011.
The announcement is seen as a further setback for Pakistan's alliance of 'Taliban' terrorist groups, which has suffered a number of fractures in recent weeks....
...Punjabi Taliban chief Ismatullah Muawiya said that after consulting other Muslim leaders, the organisation would now limit its use of force to "infidel forces" and would focus on promoting sharia law.
In a video message, Muawiya said the Punjabi Taliban would continue to operate in Afghanistan but would focus on "Dawat Tablig" preaching and called on other Taliban factions to abandon their insurgencies in Pakistan.
He called on the Pakistan government to compensate those affected by its offensive in Waziristan and other tribal agencies and to rehabilitate them with "honour and dignity".
"Peace is the need of the hour to foil conspiracies against Pakistan and its people," he said....
The Pakistan government has to care for it's people, rebuild an infrastructure able to withstand the floods and eliminate Sharia. One of the best reasons to eliminate Sharia is it causes great trouble for people as it did for Malala and her family.
Malala Yousafzai was a direct victim of Sharia. Girls are not to be educated and are chattel according to Sharia. Malala is a threat to the insurgencies throughout Islam because they rely on Sharia Law as the basis of their groups. Insurgents don't have structure EXCEPT for Sharia Law. Sharia not only provides a governing directive it also levels justice. The insurgency leaders instituting Sharia are very clever. Sharia provides an automatic constitution to govern a group of men to overthrow their government. What the followers of these insurgency leaders forget is that Sharia can also kill them, too, if their leadership finds a reason.
The insurgencies in the region have proven to have no real power over any government, not even Pakistan, as they have been driven back to Afghanistan. The only power these insurgencies have is to victimize people within their armed camps to hold as hostages and then brutally killed. The people are brutally killed because it does cause a reaction from the populous of other countries, but, that is the only power they have. The insurgencies are running a war of populism and have no real power otherwise.
The Taliban remaining in Punjab are hoping to increase their following via Sharia to attempt at a later time to challenge the government again.
When one accepts the fact the insurgencies have no power than what others allow them, it is completely understandable why they want any conflict to come to them, they can't go elsewhere and be successful. They are not Genghis Kahn or Napoleon or the USA into Iraq. They have no ability to carry out a war with an invading army. They only have the power the people permit them to have.
For a thinking person, considering all the tragedy and suffering that has become Pakistan, Punjab in particular, since the Taliban has attempted to dominate the province, it just might be the wrath of god setting it straight.
The Pakistan government needs to be the leading authority in the country and provide for the well being of it's people. To allow the Taliban to become an authority because it provides greater CHARITY than the government only sets people up for failure. That is why the tribal areas were so important to Late Prime Minister Bhutto. The tribal areas had to come to appreciate the Pakistan government over what the militants could provide.
It is why al Qaeda hated her and why they saw to her death.
The Pakistan government cannot provide for it's people with the climate crisis causing such devastating outcomes. The USA needs to do more and provide assistance in a secure 'community infrastructure.' If it is not provided this region of the world remain in flux and global stability will suffer.
