A Passage to Britain TV - Frontline TV - Amrulla Saleh - Hillary Rodham Clinton - The Times online - The Big Picture - David Ray Griffin - Robert Fisk - Barack Obama - The Reluctant Fundamentalist 2012 - Infamous Assassinations TV - Stephen Colbert - Janine di Giovanni - Noam Chomsky - Christopher Hitchens - Benazir Bhutto - Imran Khan - Salman Rushdie - Malala Yousafzai - Peter MacKay - George W Bush - Barton Gellman - Misha Glenny - Henry Root - Timewatch TV - A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness 2015 - My Family, Partition & Me: India 1947 TV - Dangerous Borders: A Journey Across India and Pakistan TV - Seven Days in Summer: Countdown to Partition TV - India’s Partition: The Forgotten Story TV - Document: Radio 4 - Drugged Up Pakistan TV - Storyville: The Accused: Damned or Devoted? TV - Secret Wars Uncovered TV - Lord Mountbatten: Hero or Villain? TV - Afghanistan: War Without End TV - Glut: The Untold Story of Punjab TV - Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars TV - John Pilger - Secret History TV - Ancient Aliens TV -
1947: After decades of struggle India won its independence from Britain and Partition created two nations in one land … A ship left Bombay shortly afterwards: the SS Asturias. It was one of the first passenger ships to leave for Britain after independence. A Passage to Britain II: The Asturias
On its fifteen day journey the Asturias left Bombay and after stopping off at Aden and Port Said it docked at Southampton on 23 October 1947 … There’s over a 1,000 names. ibid.
Partition was a time of horrific violence across India and Pakistan, and refugees fled in one of the largest forced migrations in history. ibid.
More than 10,000 Poles were housed in camps in India set up by the British in support of their wartime allies. ibid.
Here in Southampton that the great passenger liner The Batory docked on 4th March 1954. The 553 passengers on board had travelled over 7,000 miles from Bombay. A Passage to Britain III: The Batory
20% of the Indians and Pakistanis on board were heading to the Midlands. ibid.
He [Obama] had a daring joint CIA/JASOC cross-border raid into Pakistan. Frontline: Top Secret America, writers Kirk & Wiser, director Kirk, PBS 2011
The Taliban leadership hibernated in Pakistan. They were not defeated or killed. Amrullah Saleh, head of Afghan Intelligence Agency 2004-2010
I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to. Hillary Rodham Clinton, re bin Laden
You’ve had eight years, now get us bin Laden, Brown urges Pakistan. The Times online article 30th November 2009
When 9/11 happened – cui bono – who benefited? Afghanistan? Iraq? Did any Arab country? No. But the Bush Administration was given an open cheque-book with which to take control of the Afghani poppy-fields, the Iraqi oil-fields and the oil-rich and gas-rich Caspian Basin. And all protest over the two invasions was squashed before it started ... A large portion of al Qaeda funding comes from the Pakistani ISI and it still does. And yet the ISI is an openly admitted and funded wing of the CIA. The CIA created hundreds of thousands of extremists and trained them in radical Islamic thinking, and kept a database [al Qaeda] on them all. All these extremists still receive funding from the CIA channelled to them by the ISI. They don’t even realise they are really funded by them. The Big Picture – FINAL
The hunt for bin Laden has been the major pretext for selling the ongoing war in Afghanistan, which has now expanded into Pakistan, so it’s widely called the Af-Pak War. David Ray Griffin, interview Guns & Butter 22nd July 2009, author Osama bin Laden: Dead or Alive?
Betrayed? Of course. Pakistan knew his hiding place all along. Robert Fisk, The Independent 3rd May 2011
In the nearly eight years since 9/11 Al Qaeda and its extremist allies have moved across the border to the remote areas of the Pakistani frontier. This almost certainly includes al Qaeda’s leadership – Osama bin Laden. Barack Obama
Looks can be deceiving. I am a lover of America. Although I was raised to feel very Pakistani. The Reluctant Fundamentalist 2012 starring Riz Ahmed & Liev Schreiber & Kate Hudson & Kiefer Sutherland & Om Puri & Shabana Azmi & Haluk Bilginer & Martin Donovan & Nelsan Ellis & Meesha Shafi & Imaad Shah et al, director Mira Nair, opening scenes
The audacity. The ruthlessness of the act (9/11) was surpassed only by its genius. And David had struck Goliath. ibid.
August 17th 1988, Bahawalpur, Pakistan: A C-130 Hercules equipped as a transporter takes off from a military airbase. A few minutes later the aircraft is seen porpoising up and down; its engines seem to be running OK. Suddenly it plunges into the desert. There are no survivors. The leader of a country at the hub of crucial superpower confrontations is dead. He has been assassinated in the most mysterious circumstances. Infamous Assassinations: Zia Ul-Haq
July 5th 1977 Islamabad: Zia leads a coup against Bhuto’s government and declares martial law. ibid.
From the outset democracy is never secure in Pakistan. ibid.
In 1965 India and Pakistan go to war again over Kashmir. ibid.
Zia mounts his coup ominously codenamed Fair Play. ibid.
Zia immediately announces that he will help the Afghan opposition – the regional war lords who begin attacking Soviet communications within days. ibid.
It begins to look as if the crew have somehow been incapacitated very suddenly after takeoff. ibid.
Pakistan: an evil and insidious Islamist nation full of terrorists. Thank God they are our ally. Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report
In Pakistan, the right to go to school is not a given. In the more rural areas, a girl is born, married off as early as 9 years old, and basically lives life under the control of men. Janine di Giovanni
A war with Pakistan would be an utter disaster. Noam Chomsky
Pakistan is not a unified country. Noam Chomsky
Pakistan will never be able to match the Indian militarily, and the effort to do so is taking an immense toll on the society. Noam Chomsky
Pakistan has to export a lot of uneducated people, many of whom have become infected with the most barbaric reactionary ideas. Christopher Hitchens
I found that a whole series of people opposed me simply on the grounds that I was a woman. The clerics took to the mosque saying that Pakistan had thrown itself outside the Muslim world and the Muslim umar by voting for a woman, that a woman had usurped a man’s place in the Islamic society. Benazir Bhutto
Pakistan’s future viability, stability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions. My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy. Benazir Bhutto
Pakistan is heir to an intellectual tradition of which the illustrious exponent was the poet and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal. He saw the future course for Islamic societies in a synthesis between adherence to the faith and adjustment to the modern age. Benazir Bhutto
In Pakistan politics is hereditary. Imran Khan
Pakistan is alarmed by the rising Indian influence in Afghanistan, and fears that an Afghanistan cleansed of the Taliban would be an Indian client state, thus sandwiching Pakistan between two hostile countries. The paranoia of Pakistan about India’s supposed dark machinations should never be underestimated. Salman Rushdie
The West should be tougher on Pakistan. It is trying to play both ends against the middle – to look like the friend of the revolutionaries on the one hand and a friend of the West in the fight against terrorism. It can’t be both things. Salman Rushdie
I want poverty to end in tomorrow’s Pakistan. I want every girl in Pakistan to go to school. Malala Yousafzai
There is no more dangerous country in the world today than Pakistan. Peter MacKay
A steadfast partner ... A force for freedom and moderation in the Arab world. George W Bush, March 2006
US surveillance of Pakistan extends far beyond its nuclear program. There are several references in the black budget to expanding US scrutiny of chemical and biological laboratories. Barton Gellman