http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4690853.stm
Lahore is still reeling from the impact of the horde of foreign journalists who descended upon the city in search of the madrassa, or religious school, supposedly attended by Shezhad Tanweer, one of the four London bombers. [
Local journalists - many of whom signed up as fixers for the foreign legion - say they have rarely had a more hectic time.
“You won’t believe some of the crazy requests that they made,” said Qaddafi Butt, the correspondent for a local TV station.
yaar tum loag, praablem toh baRI jaldi sey lagaa deytey ho...koi ilaaj bhi hai..tumharey paas iss praablem ka ya avayein aisey hi natkay kar rahey ho? batao..batao!!
Yeah some people ask me about these military camps, and I’m like, dude…I have never seen a military camp ever in my life in Pakistan. Nor have I heard talk about them…
I guess they do exist somewhere, but what I don’t understand is how that guy that I see on GEO/ARY making statements that his school was no military training camp…is really some guy who trained terrorists. The facility he was sitting in seemed to be the madrassah, and it looked like a regular old building to me.
shrugs
I always imagine training camps to be in the middle of some desert or something.
How does it feel now? Hoe many years your govts have repeatedly denied that there are jihadi camps, even after proof after proof was published. You can read jihadi websites from Pakistan where they proudly say where they were trained and how they went to Kashmir, Afghanistan or even Bosnia and Chechnya. If anyone still has any doubt, just pick up the July issue of Herald magazine. They list all the recently reopened jihadi camps, with directions on how to reach them. Many are around Mansehra.
Now the whole world is seeing the truth and the truth does not take long to become a caricature. This is called blowback. You can be a jihadi revenge seeking state or you can be a modern, prosperity seeking state but not both at the same time. I can only hope that Musharraf and his Corps Commanders see what their "bleed India" and "Afghan strategic depth" policies have turned Pakistan into - one large jihadi camp.
Usually a country's bad policies affect only their citizens abroad. But in this case even Western citizens of Pakistani descent, almost all of whom are just as normal as people of any other ethnic origin, are being vicitmized. All thanks to a military establishment that did not read the writing on the wall - even after 9/11.
I think you misunderstood my point. The image problem is the mistaken belief evidently held by some abroad that Pakistan is a country that’s somehow jam-packed with militant camps - “One journalist called me from the airport to ask if he could be taken straight away to the nearest militant camp” indeed.
^^ Well just read any UK broadsheet or US newswires. The idea that there are many terror camps in Pakistan are taken as an axiom by almost everyone. So why is it surprising that a reporter wants to be taken to jiahdi camp?
What do you think they teach young men at the Markaz Dawa at Muridke? Kite flying? They can hide it away for now but the facilities don’t go away. Nor do their products.
Great thread mAd_ScIeNtIsT. As you can see Hindu fanatical supporters are just gagging to do down Pakistan on the back of any tragic world event. These bigots have tried and tried for so many years, especially since 9/11, praying that other countries take any notice of their hateful and vindictive line against Pakistan. But each and every time, they have failed miserably.
Image problem? Issue at stake is much bigger. Images are deceptive, easily manipulated and appeal to all audiences with different perspectives. Religious extremism of the kind nurtured in Pak maderssas (a sizable minority) and propagated by influential political elite needs to be addressed by Pakistanis NOT the foreign govts or media.
Media can manipulate image as they want it to. Today's heroes might be tomorrow's villains and vice versa. As for the training centers in Pakistan, they are not visible to any one living in that area except for BBC and their correspondents and even they just make claims on rubbish. Why don't they help our government by providing their list?
As for the influence, in "Under-Siege1" and "Under-Siege2", Steven Segal used these sorts of bombs that are claimed to be used in these attacks. Bombs, that can be built in kitchen, toilet and with other commonly available chemicals. So these movies had more influence on these so-called terrorists than any other thing.
