Pakistan
The partition also sparked genocidal riots, which killed between 200,000-500,000 people.[1] Consequently, tensions between India and Pakistan have remained high throughout the post-colonial era; the two have fought several wars, starting with the Pakistani invasion of Kashmir in 1948 kicking off the First Kashmir War, and most recently in 1999 when Pakistani soldiers encroached into Indian territory (less than three months after the two countries had signed a peace agreement) and began occupying strategically key points in the region of Kargil. India and Pakistan each have nuclear capability, solely to deter the other from attacking. This tactic has raised the stakes but failed to reduce their hostility and mutual loathing.
Pakistan originally comprised two territories — East Pakistan and West Pakistan, on opposite sides of India. In 1971, when Pakistan's first ever democratic election was won by an East-Pakistan party, the mostly-West-Pakistani military junta chose to ignore the result, causing East Pakistan to declare secession, now calling itself the newly-formed country of Bangladesh. The junta responded completely rationally to this by sending in the army to rape, kill, and massacre[wp] (do we see a pattern emerging here?) hundreds of thousands, mostly religious minorities, in their eastern counterpart. Bangladesh sought out India's help, and with it, managed to mount a successful retaliation, forcing the Pakistani army into surrender and achieving independence.
The word "Pakistan" is derived from the initials of the three regions the state borders — Punjab, Afghan Province, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan.[2] Pāk means "pure" in Urdu; thus, Pakistan is "the land of the pure."
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[edit] War
As if the threat of all-out nuclear war with India weren't enough, Pakistan also has the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to worry about, partly as a result of dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's Islamicisation policies.[3] The entire northwestern state of Pakistan — formerly (and aptly) named the North-West Frontier Province, now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — is the main stronghold of the terrorists, but they can strike anywhere: US Embassies and consulates were attacked 3 times between 2002 and 2010; Shia mosques and holy sites are also frequent targets. Pakistan was encouraged by the US and Britain's MI6 to promote the war against the Soviet-backed Afghanistan the 1980s, using the Islamic militants as proxies. These gangs included Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda and were organized under the Benazir Bhutto government. The CIA was later placed in the position of having to buy back the "Stinger" ground-to-air missiles it had supplied to its erstwhile allies for fear that they would be used against civil airliners. The Islamic fundamentalists have challenged the principle that Pakistan can be both secular and Islamic. They have little popular support outside the tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is mediated through tribal warlords, but are able to achieve a disproportionate effect by their ruthless campaign of bombing and murder.
Technically Pakistan is an ally of the United States in the current war in Afghanistan. This is technical because while the Pakistanis do make several battalions of soldiers available to the cause, the loyalty of the commanders and especially their intelligence service, the ISI, is suspect. Some analysts think this is because of their sheer paranoia about India, while others believe that Islamists have reached high-ranking positions in the military establishment. The Pakistani leadership was apparently "shocked" that Osama bin Laden was living in Abbottabad, the city which houses Pakistan's equivalent of West Point. Pakistan's border regions are frequently targeted by US drone attacks, which leads to widespread anti-Americanism and frequent protests, flag-burning and violence. Ironically there would be no need for drone strikes if the Pakistani military held up their end of the bargain and went after the militants themselves, but they seem to be content to take kickbacks in the form of American military aid and play a double game.
[edit] Peace
Pakistan is officially (and as of 2013, in practice) a democratic parliamentary federal republic. They were formerly ruled by their benevolent fearless leader, and former general, named Pervez Musharraf, whose first name offers a cornucopia of potentially humorous misspellings.
[edit] Culture
If a Pakistani accepts a person into his house as a guest, he will defend his guest — to the death, if necessary.[citation needed] Even if the guest later turns out to be a fugitive from justice, or Osama bin Laden. This factored into why it took so long for the US to locate bin Laden; the house that was harboring him wouldn't expose his presence, because he was their guest, no matter what incentives the US (or the Pakistani government) gave.
Pakistan has had the dubious honor in recent years of being the world center of new polio cases due mainly to entrenched anti-vaccination beliefs within Taliban-controlled areas.[4][5][6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ↑ The partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab, 1946–47: means, methods, and purposes by Paul R. Brass, Journal of Genocide Research (2003), 5(1), 71–101
- ↑ Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever? by Choudhary Rahmat Ali (1933).
- ↑ Pakistan's evolving sectarian schism
- ↑ Pakistan arrests parents for refusing polio vaccination
- ↑ Over 500 Pakistani parents arrested for children's failure to get polio vaccine
- ↑ Global Polio Eradication Initiative: Polio this week as of 25 February 2015