BetweenTheLines

Ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chose the Katas Raj temple complex in Punjab to warn hardliners against preaching animosity.  Sameer Arshad Khatlani I nvestigators in Pakistan have blamed a Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader for inciting the mob that burnt a Hindu shrine in the country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province last month. They told Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday that 109 people have been arrested for the arson while 92 policemen have been suspended over “ cowardice and negligence ” they showed by their failure in protecting the shrine.  The focus in India so far has been on the Pakistani Supreme Court’s order that directed authorities reconstruct the century-old shrine and recover money from the arsonists. Hardly anyone has paid attention to the political affiliation of the alleged instigator.  JUI-F is no ordinary party. Its leader, Fazlur Rehman, is leading an 11-member coalition called Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) that has launched a campaign and org

Kashmir’s last independent ruler, Yousaf Shah Chak, fell in love at first sight with her while he was on a hunting trip and heard Habba Khatun singing under a Chinar tree.  livehistoryindia.com Sameer Arshad Khatlani H abba Khatun’s journey from an ordinary peasant woman to Kashmir’s preeminent cultural icon began with a rebellion in the 16th century. She walked out of an unhappy marriage, divorced her husband, and began wandering, singing songs of mystic love and melancholy from village to village. The power of her voice was so mesmerising that Kashmir’s last independent ruler, Yousaf Shah Chak, fell in love at first sight with her while he was on a hunting trip and heard Habba Khatun singing under a Chinar tree. The commoner Zoon, as she was earlier called, was named Habba Khatun (loved woman) as she became Chak’s queen. But her newfound love was short-lived. Mughal Emperor Akbar soon invaded Kashmir and sent Chak into exile. The Queen plunged into grief again and fell b

Samples being collected from the site of the alleged sarin gas attack in Khan Sheikhoun. Foreign Policy Sameer Arshad Khatlani  A t least 70 people died in the fresh chemical attack blamed on Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syrian rebel-held town of Douma on April 7. The attack preceded an agreement the regime reached with the rebels for handing over the town to the Syrian forces on Sunday. It came a year after Assad was accused of using sarin nerve gas to kill over 80 people in rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017. The attack has once brought into question Syria’s compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. Assad had signed the convention following an August 2013 chemical attack and pledged to destroy his stockpiles and production facilities. An Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) analysis of samples taken from three victims and seven survivors in Khan Sheikhoun confirmed the doubts over the compliance. It concluded that the victims and

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook R obert Mueller, who lead the probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, charged three advisers to President Donald Trump’s campaign in October 2017. The New York Times described the development as 'the most explicit evidence to date that his [Trump]’s campaign was eager to coordinate with the Russian government to damage his rival, Hillary Clinton.' It emerged that Russian intelligence services used intermediaries to contact the Trump campaign’s former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, to gain influence. In April 2016, the Russians offered the campaign 'dirt' on Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, the Times reported.  Also Read | How Elected Autocrats Undermine Substance Of Democracy  The charges against Papadopoulos and two others were slapped nine months after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence noted in January 2017 that '[Russian President] Vl

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook I ran  had valiantly fended off US-backed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s invasion for eight years until July 1988 when Americans downed a civilian aircraft to deal a death blow to the resistance.  All 290 civilians aboard the plane met their watery graves in the Persian Gulf . The tragedy turned out to be the last straw, convincing Tehran that the US was now openly siding with Saddam. The fear coupled with Saddam's use of chemical weapons prompted  Iran  to accept an UN-brokered ceasefire in September 1988.  But Iranians could hardly breathe easy after the end of the 20th century’s longest war that is estimated to have killed around a million. Along with the consequences of the conflict,  Iran  faced crippling American sanctions following the post-revolution seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the captivity of American diplomats. The 444-day hostage crisis has remained etched in the American memory and defined its hostility tow