One day in mid-April, Dr. Bernard Rieux spotted a dead rat in the building he lived in the Mediterranean city of Oran, Algeria. Thousands of rats staggered out of their hideouts in the following days and died on the streets gripped by violent convulsions, spitting blood. A fortnight later Michel, concierge of Rieux's building, was down with a strange illness. While the rats suddenly disappeared, Michel died within two days. -- M.K. Bhadrakumar

The dominant form of Islam in Kashmir is Sufism. In its peculiar Kashmiri variety. The religiosity of the Muslims reflected in equal, if not more, measure in the countless Sufi shrines as in mosques. Real, hardcore, Taliban style-extremism, simply, is alien to, and untransplantable on, the Kashmiri DNA, as it were. A section amongst Muslims does exist which disapproves of some rituals in Sufi shrines. But that, in Kashmir, doesn’t translate into a rejection of the Sufis themselves. Indeed, even the disapprovers hold the Sufis themselves in respect. In effect, then, the thought of the vast majority of Kashmiris ‘changing over’ to extremism is akin to asking someone to actually convert. An Islamic [Islamist? --SZ] view of things exists in Kashmir, but it is just one of the viewpoints.  The drive to seek, invoke, an Islamisation of Kashmir is insidiously linked to regurgitating, within Indian public opinion, the sub-continental history of partition and the creation of Pakistan. It is also an act of dissolving the Kashmiris and electing the ‘Muslim anti-national’. That done, Kashmir can be presented as reflecting the danger of that partition, again. Which then becomes a major roadblock in even attempting to articulate to the wider Indian public what Kashmir is really about, leave alone seeking a solution to the problem. -- Najeeb Mubarki

Like veils, Azaadi takes on several layers of meaning in Kashmir. You can never really tell how many. It's something I first learned more than 15 years ago — going to buy walnut macaroons at the Jan bakery in Srinagar. It was closed and as I asked around, each explanation left me more confused. The first passer-by told me that curfew was on, the second attributed the closure to a hartal called by the Hurriyat, another added the bakery employees were picked up by security forces after firing in the area, and yet another told me that a militant group had issued threats. Eventually, it turned out that the owners were bereaved. I did not get my macaroons, but I took home the simple lesson — the truth has many versions in a conflict zone. -- Suhasini Haidar

While Pakistan drowns, Karachi burns yet again. The city has been turned into a parallel universe in which chaos rules and lives are cheap. It is high time the state woke up to the alarming disconnect between Karachi and the rest of the country. The Sindh government is clearly incapable of dousing the fire and as such the response must come from somewhere else. No solution may be in sight right now but one must be found sooner than later. -- Editorial in Dawn, Karachi

The pattern of Obaidullah Yousafzai’s murder is shockingly similar to many of those carried out earlier, followed by widespread violence. Although the police have claimed to have arrested two members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi involved in the MQM MPA’s murder, the root cause of the brewing violence in the city, it has done little to calm sentiments. The latest incident appears more of a tit-for-tat killing. If indeed the proscribed outfits are using the rivalry between the two parties to their advantage, there is an urgent need to renew efforts for reconciliation. -- Editorial in Daily Times, Lahore

This is the cry of post-insurgency youth, born after 1989 when militancy crept into an otherwise quiet scene. This is violent in the sense that they pelt stones, but different because they have not taken arms from Pakistan as the militants did. Nor have they any "top contacts" which even the political leadership in the opposition maintains with Delhi.

This angry, amorphous force has no defined leadership. The different places in the valley have different hands to guide. The baton of the movement is in the hands of the new generation. What strings them together is the anger against the establishment at Srinagar and at Delhi.... It is not correct to say that hardliner Syed Gillani is their leader. He sees to it that he is not out of step with them. His fundamentalism carries weight. Yet, when he tried to convert them into non-violent protesters he failed. The pelting of stones is their way of saying that they do not agree to the various formulas which have been presented for the solution of Kashmir. -- Kuldip Nayar

Mr Zardari has survived a running political crisis for two years. Will his luck hold in the next two months? The natural disaster has stacked the cards in the hands of General Kayani, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. The game they play will have meaningful consequences for Pakistan. -- Najam Sethi

In any case, the wide world knows that the political demand of the agitators is azadi (freedom) though no two Kashmiris might agree on what it means. Mehbooba Mufti, the strident leader of the PDP, has said that to her azadi means that Kashmir should have the use of both Indian and Pakistani currencies and there should be joint councils for the two parts of Kashmir divided by the LoC. She insists that this would be “within the Indian Constitution”. This contention is surely debatable, to say the least, but then her proposal can be the starting point of a dialogue.

It might help if all concerned start the dialogue by accepting two unalterable parameters. One, that all Kashmiri groups should put forward an agreed demand for autonomy rather than ask New Delhi to do so. And two, when Dr Singh says that the Indian Constitution is broad enough to accommodate Kashmiri aspirations he means exactly what P.V. Narasimha Rao had stated in 1994: “Minus azadi sky is the limit to Kashmir’s autonomy”. It goes without saying that regional autonomy within the state of Jammu and Kashmir is also a must. Jammu and Ladakh have their legitimate aspirations, too. -- Inder Malhotra

The date August 15th, 1975 was the darkest hour for all Bangladeshis and a blot on the history of Bangladesh. On this day, a group of legally armed personnel accompanied by the forces of evil, brutally killed the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman....

A group of people with malevolent agenda, who were brainwashed to derive their only element of identity from religion, and not from language, culture, history and ethnicity, launched their drive to inexorably take over the state through a process of creeping annexation. The killers of Bangabandhu, were not only protected by an Act of Parliament that effectively prostituted the sanctity of the Constitution, but also rewarded with plush diplomatic assignments abroad. Quite a few of those who were party to this heinous crime against the constitution remain free and have evaded the long arms of the law and justice even till today.

It took thirty-four years for the nation to partially de-stigmatize itself from the biggest shame of its history by legally bringing to justice those of the absconding killers whom the state was able to apprehend and bring back to Bangladesh, but several others are still absconding. A new generation has shaken free from the deliberately and maliciously stoked identity crisis finally. They have spoken, loudly, clearly and in unequivocal terms, in the national parliamentary elections of December 2008, demanding that the wrongs of the past be addressed and fixed once and for all. This is a collective catharsis that the nation needs to undergo, in order to move forward to state consolidation and progress. This is perhaps the last opportunity for the nation to stand on its own feet with dignity and pride on the firm grounds of the secular values and democratic ideals that our society has adhered to and cherished for eons. Only then will the soul of Bangabandhu, the greatest Bangalee of all time, finally rest in peace. Only then shall Bangladeshis completely regain their self-respect in their own eyes. -- Message from Bangladesh High Commissioner to India. -- Tariq A. Karim, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India

General Hameed Gul's emblematic response to WikiLeaks ('This is pure fiction') was as unconvincing as ISI's refutation. Talking to Guardian, ISI spokesperson said: 'It's very strange that such a large cache of information can be leaked to the media so conveniently. Is it something deliberate? What is its purpose?'. The ISI gentleman is advised to scour last week's newspapers to find that it indeed is not very strange. And yes it is 'deliberate'. A whistleblower has deliberately leaked. ...

Similarly, throughout the 1980s, Islamabad was saying that Pakistan's nuclear programme was meant for peaceful purpose. In 1998, suddenly a mushroom cloud appeared over Chaghi. During the 1990s, the militancy in Kashmir was declared 'indigenous' by Islamabad. At the same time, vernacular rags used to proudly report on coffins arriving Punjabi villages from Valley carrying 'martyrs' bodies. In a few months time after tit for tat test in Chaghi, Kargil was alight. Pakistan refused a hand in the conflagration. Later on, an elected prime minister was exiled for betraying Kargil. More examples can be cited but let us restrict to Taliban. It was repeated on daily basis that Pakistan did not arm Taliban to capture Kabul in 1997. In the wake of 9/11, Gen. Musharraf on state TV was heard saying: 'What have I not done for Afghanistan and Taleban?'. Should one apply the logic Gen. Gul is grafting on Collin Powel, at least Pakistani generals can never be trusted. Only General Zia, the most pious one, lied dozens of times about '90 days'. Gen Gul has a valid objection when he says the Afghan War Logs cannot be verified. One hopes, when in future intelligence reports are leaked to Pakistani media ('uncircumcised' Taliban etc), he will not flaunt them on talk shows before verifying them.-- Farooq Sulehria

Photo: General Hameed Gul

Although Pakistani propaganda often asserts that LeT is a Kashmiri organisation moved by the Kashmiri cause, it is nothing of the kind. The 3,000-odd foot soldiers are drawn primarily from the Pakistani Punjab. Indian intelligence today estimates that LeT maintains some kind of presence in twenty-one countries worldwide with the intention of supporting or participating in what its leader Hafeez Saeed has called the perpetual “jihad against the infidels.” Consequently, LeT’s operations in and around India, which often receive the most attention, are only part of a large pastiche that has taken LeT operatives and soldiers as far afield as Australia, Canada, Chechnya, China, Eritrea, Kosovo, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and even the US.

Military leaders in Rawalpindi have thus not only failed to understand that American concerns about LeT derive fundamentally from its own growing conviction that the group’s activities worldwide make it a direct threat to the US, but they also continue to harbor the illusion that their current strategy of unleashing terrorism will enervate India, push it out of Afghanistan, and weaken US stabilisation efforts there. Such a strategy is designed to make Islamabad the kingmaker in determining Kabul’s future. This too promises to become one more in the long line of cruel illusions that has gripped Pakistan since its founding. -- Ashley Tellis

The second erroneous assumption was the one made in India that the confirmation of ISI's virtual control of Taliban attacks targeting Indians in the WikiLeaks documents meant India should call off the dialogue process with Pakistan entirely. The assumption was strengthened when General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who had been at the helm of the ISI during the critical 2004-2007 period mentioned in the leaked documents, was given a three-year extension as Army chief. But if anything, the WikiLeaks revelations prove how easily the dynamics on the ground change — not just in the Af-Pak context but also in the India-Pakistan one. In such a situation, New Delhi must remain as engaged as possible rather than disengage, and play its game with many of the original principles in place. At the top of those principles are its promises to the Afghan people to help reconstruct the torn nation and to not forget the consequences of allowing the Taliban back into government in Kabul — a subject South Block briefly showed an alarming degree of flexibility on. India needs a more direct role in Afghanistan that is not, as at present, contingent on the pleasure of the U.S. and the UK and the displeasure of Pakistan. – Suhasini Haider

Ever since Kayani replaced Musharraf, there has been mounting evidence that the Pakistan army is seeking to renew hostility with India....In February, Kayani told journalists the Pakistan army was an ‘India-centric institution', adding that this “reality will not change in any significant way until the Kashmir issue and water disputes are resolved”. Language like this fits well with the intellectual climate of Pakistan's armed forces. Lieutenant-General Javed Hassan — who played a key role commanding Pakistan forces during the Kargil war — was commissioned by the army's Faculty of Research and Doctrinal Studies to produce a guide to India for serving officers. In India: A Study in Profile, published by the military-owned Services Book Club in 1990, Hassan argues that is driven by “the incorrigible militarism of the Hindus.” “For those that are weak,” he goes on, “the Hindu is exploitative and domineering.”

Faced with a flailing war against jihadists at home, Kayani's anti-India platform offers the army the strategic equivalent of an escape button: precipitating a crisis with a historic adversary, secure in the knowledge that Pakistan's nuclear umbrella guarantees it protection from a large-scale war. Pakistan's military, many Indian foreign policy analysts believe, precipitated the bruising showdown between Foreign Ministers SM Krishna and Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad last month, undermining the fragile dialogue between the two countries.

India and Afghanistan are just parts, though, of the third, and most important project: guaranteeing the political primacy of the Pakistan army. -- Praveen Swami

According to the CBI, many people paid them millions in bribes to stage fake encounters or get trumped-up charges dropped. Mr. Shah also covered up the Rs.1,030 crore Madhavpura Bank fraud by a notorious stockmarket scamster, Ketan Parekh. Gujarat's Criminal Investigation Department had found that Mr. Shah helped Parekh jump bail for a Rs.2.5 crore bribe. It recommended a CBI investigation.

Deep at work here is the BJP's notion of democracy as a mere instrument of power, to be used through elections. This view undermines the content of democracy -- rule of law, human rights and constitutional freedoms -- and is incompatible with a civilised social order. The BJP is increasingly isolating itself from the aspirations and concerns of the Indian people, including the middle class, its sole (and shrinking) constituency. As it gets Modi-fied, the BJP forfeits its claim to being a party which abides by the law of the land and the ground-rules of democracy. Such a party can only have a bleak future.-- Praful Bidwai

Over the past few days and weeks, there have been a series of militant attacks in Chechnya. This made news, and this is as it should be. Chechnya is a sore point for all of us who care about human rights, national identity, self-determination and peace. And the Chechnya of today is a reminder of what was wrong in the past and what can be dealt with in the present in a positive way -- step by step.

We have just returned from a week's stay in Chechnya. Many fellow journalists told us beforehand: "Don't go there. It isn't safe." We decided otherwise. What spiked our interest was the first annual Chechen international film festival, interestingly called Noah's Ark. How could a place like Chechnya host such a thing? Isn't Chechnya a war-torn and miserable destination? Peter Lavelle of Moscow Times reports

The issue of transfer of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board has sharply divided two distinct regions in Jammu and Kashmir months ahead of crucial Assembly poll. On one hand, the Kashmir valley has been witnessing widespread protests fuelled by Kashmir-based mainstream political parties and separatists questioning the wisdom of the State Government behind transfer of forest land, and on the other hand, Jammu-based political parties are regularly holding protest demonstrations and burning effigies of Kashmiri politicians warning the State Government against reversing its decision on transfer of forest land. The situation is volatile in both the regions and passions are running among people for and against the decision of the State Government.Mohit Kandhari reports.

It is clear by now that Syria has managed to get out of diplomatic isolation imposed on the country and the ruling regime by the West following the assassination of former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, in February 2005. Slowly but steadily, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, managed to establish strong relations with Iran, mend his fences with Turkey and promote the relations between the two countries to the level of trade and political partners. Most recently, Bashar refreshed Syria's relations with India using the economic card to gain the political support he badly needs. On the other hand, Syria has already broken the ice with France with the participation of Bashar in Union for the Mediterranean to be held in Paris next month, writes Duraid Al Baik, Foreign Editor of .UAE's GULF NEWS.

Much before globalisation became de rigeur, the Bin Ladens had embraced it. An immigrant family with roots in a remote mud rock town in Yemen, it crossed the border into Saudi Arabia, hired multinational immigrant workers and built roads, dams, power stations, water pipelines and air force bases and revamped mosques for the royal family.  The family also grew live stock, wheat and vegetables for the royal farms, writes Soutik Biswas, India Editor, BBC News Online

The world’s third-largest financial centre after London and New York is the latest place to warm to Islamic finance. Hong Kong has embarked on a series of initiatives in this respect that may yet give it a competitive edge on rivals, such as Singapore, Japan and Dubai, reports Mushtak Parker in Arab News.