Afrah Jamal

Published in Voice of Vienna & Global Affairs (Oct 2016) Narendra Modi made a telling remark regarding Baluchistan and Kashmir in his Independence Day speech (August 15, 2016). Something about the past few days and how the people of Balochistan, Gilgit, and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir thanked him. There was something else about the citizens of neighboring Pakistan expressing gratitude, and good wishes – which admittedly is an odd thing to do. “The people who are living far away, whom I have never seen, never met – such people have expressed appreciation for Prime Minister of India, for 125 crore countrymen. This is an honour for our countrymen.” The Indian Prime Minister has finally owned up in public to what Pakistan has been accusing India of doing all along – which is supporting and exporting terrorism in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. While China has pricked its ears, though the statement was directed at Pakistan, Baloch leaders in exile publicly thanked the speechmake...

Published in Global Affairs / July 2016 Edition Pakistan made a troubling discovery in its backyard recently. Notwithstanding his mild mannered appearance, Kulbhushan Jadhav (sometimes spelt as Yadav) has been positively identified as an Indian national, a Commander in the Indian Navy with a preference for aliases. He is currently using the name Hussein Mubarak Patel. Initial interrogation had also brought to light his role as the ring leader of a large network of spies and saboteurs operating indiscriminately in Pakistan’s Balochistan province and the city of Karachi at the behest of the premier Indian Intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). From the Pakistani vantage point Jadhav’s arrest qualified as an intelligence coup. The Indian reaction predictably was one of denial. Jadhav was immediately disavowed but in the face of compelling evidence, they grudgingly acknowledged him as one of their own even as they continued to maintain that he had retired from ...

Published in the POST & VISTA Magazine 5 March 2007 in 3 parts By: Afrah Jamal & QS PART 1 Dr Rodney Jones is President of Policy Architects International and has served as Senior Advisor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) project of the Carnegie Moscow Centre and as Senior Advisor and Counselor to the Keystone Centre’s National Commission on Nuclear Threat. Policy Architects International is a private research, consulting and advisory services organisation in Reston, Virginia that concentrates on services needed in international policy areas, including international security, economic development, technology transfer, trade controls, public and private assistance and direct investment. Following is an interview with Dr Rodney Jones. Q: Since quite a bit of confusion among Pakistanis, amongst the majority at any rate, stems from the fact that they do not understand how we are perceived from across the Atlantic, so let us begin with the basics - the Amer...

Thanks to Liberty Books for the review copy First Published in Daily Times / Saturday, July 02, 2011 Republished by ChowkYadgar Reviewed by Afrah Jamal Jamil Ahmad’s debut novel is ostensibly about a boy and a stretch of land. At first glance, there is nothing special about Tor Baz. Is he the hero? He seems strangely absent from a major part of the narrative, so not a hero in the traditional sense of the word. If this is a coming of age story, the star billing must go to a land that has become a near permanent fixture on the western world’s radar. Written sometime in the early 1970s and published in 2008, The Wandering Falcon is a fictional piece of work that charts a slow meandering course through the lawless frontiers. Undercurrents of danger have always coursed through its veins but recent events have bestowed a more menacing look and feel to the wild west of Pakistan. Jamil Ahmad has a special insight into the ways of the tribes. As a Pakistani civil servant, he has...

PUBLISHED IN MUSLIM WORLD TODAY(calif.) SEP 12, 2008 “Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander” Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC Somewhere in the remote region of Baluchistan, a few women are killed and buried, and not necessarily in that order. Their exact number is debatable and the manner of death is still under investigation. If the unofficial version is to be believed, they were buried alive on the whim of the elders, with perhaps just a little backing from some influential quarters. This chilling murder involves antiquated customs which unfortunately, have never gone out of style. To the bewilderment of the civilized world, this incident goes unnoticed for nearly two months. When the Parliaments Upper House finally asks why, Senator Israrullah Zehri, dismissively shrugs it off as ‘Tradition’ – one of the most powerful and disturbing words in tribal culture...