How many Pakistanis have been killed by their own countrymen recently?

23 January: Four pro-government tribesmen are shot in Badaber, Peshawar. Two former peace militia members killed in Kari Haider Khel, Tank. Police actions kill three men in an ‘encounter’ in Faisalabad.

22 January: A Shia doctor is killed in Peshawar. A woman in Mastung, Balochistan, has her throat slit and her body dumped near a police station over an alleged elopement. Six people are killed in Karachi: torture and beheading to blame.

21 January: Two security personnel killed by an IED in the Mohmand tribal region.

20 January: Seven people killed in Karachi. The body of a 16-year-labourer is found in Bara.

19 January: Suspected terrorists kill two people in Kot Azam, Tank district. Two suspected members of the Balochistan Liberation Army are killed in Mastung.

18 January: Kamran Faisal, charged with investigating corruption allegations against the prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, is found hanged in Islambad. His uncle said the body bore signs of torture. I don’t think anyone believes it was suicide. Eight people die in Karachi. Armed men kill a school principal and his son in Kharan, Quetta.

17 January: Five people, including two women and two children, killed by shelling in Miramshah, Waziristan.

15 January: 18 - I’ll say that again - 18 bodies are recovered from Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency. 

Does this mean NOBODY was killed on January 16? What happened? Did Pakistan take the day off?

I apologise for the bleakness. Here is a picture of something cute.

A cloud of doom hovered over the commentary on Pakistan too. Here is some Pakistan reading.

Ajai Shukla writes about the difference between Indian and Pakistani reaction to the killing of soldiers on the Line of Control (h/t Shashank Joshi).

…the fortuitous outcome of Pakistan’s single-minded focus on Tahir ul-Qadri’s so-called Long March was that New Delhi’s tough response to brutality on the LoC went almost unnoticed in Pakistan, allowing Islamabad (which has little appetite for roiling the waters) to settle for a pro-forma response. This avoided an acid exchange of tit-for-tat statements that would have united Pakistan’s divided anti-India constituency.

Ah yes, Qadri…

The man and his not so million-strong march occupied Islamabad in addition to swathes of column inches, screen time and hot air. Things in Pakistan happen so quickly it’s best to wait to let the dust settle. Who could have predicted that even as the cleric was in his luxury shipping container making his demands the Chief Justice would issue an arrest order for the prime minister? It’s Pakistan, nothing is accidental. Anyway, here’s Huma Yusuf on the symbolism of the shipping container in Pakistan (no really).

But what were once symbols of the globalized economy and regional trade have become markers of Pakistan’s deteriorating security situation.

Shipping containers, which have been used to transport NATO supplies through Pakistan to Afghanistan, now represent rocky U.S.-Pakistani relations. In 2011 and 2012, to protest the killing of Pakistani soldiers in American airstrikes, the Pakistani government blocked the passage of containers for seven months and threatened to only allow the resumption of shipping for exorbitant transit fees. The containers have also become a favorite target of militants who oppose Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States in the fight against terrorism.

The sectarian violence of the last few weeks continues to be felt. Dawn has this photo gallery of Bara villagers protesting in Peshawar while Al Jazeera has this feature on the plight of the Hazaras. The article carries an extract from those tools over at Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which claims responsibility for the Quetta blast. 

If it is the will of God, in 2013 Lashkar-e-Jhangvi will not allow any Shias to remain living in Quetta […] we will carry out such attacks that the enemy will, with the will of God, not have any escape. […] Our message to the Shias is simple: be prepared to kill, or be killed

The original LeJ statement can be found here. Not for nothing have the attacks on the Hazara been described as genocide.

Here is a puppy.

Ramadan has only just started but already the stories are coming in. It’s silly season for Muslims.

The first one, via the excellent Hojabi facebook group, was about Ramadan nail art from Minx. Yes, because what Muslim women really want when they’re fasting are trendy talons. I thought this was a joke until I went on to the Minx website. It’s the second year for the collection and nobody has really pointed out the bleeding obvious (pardon the pun).

For the uninitiated (i.e non-Muslims) out there the Minx enterprise is a little redundant.

Muslim women are not allowed to pray while wearing makeup or nail polish, unless it’s that time of the month (shark week lol) when women are not expected to pray at all. As a matter of fact all muslims are supposed to perform a specific cleansing ritual also known as ablution before each and every prayer, and if a person is wearing nail polish, then the water won’t reach the person’s nailbed during said cleansing ritual making the ablution invalid. Others believe that it’s okay to wear nail polish and pray with it on, provided that you wash your hands and clean your nails thoroughly before applying said polish.

This is Glamour’s take (from Ramadan 2011) about the “halal holiday” collection:

I admit that I don’t know much about Ramadan—just that it’s an extended time of inner reflection that involves fasting—so I’m looking forward to our readers’ input on this particular nail idea. I wonder: Are Ramadan-themed nails an appropriate way to celebrate this particular religious holiday? Would you wear them? I can’t imagine wearing, for instance, Yom Kippur nail patterns (this somber Jewish holiday also involves fasting), but maybe that scenario is different.

What are your thoughts on the Minx Ramadan collection? On religious-holiday-inspired nails in general? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Isn’t mosque a place where you actually go to pray? I don’t even go to Espresso, but like any other establishment it is not their job to operate a “prayer hall”.

A coffee shop is for coffee. A mosque is for praying. Pakistan isn’t the kind of place that’s short of places to worship. Why go to a coffee shop when it’s prayer time?

The third story is about how Ramadan will worsen Olympic traffic chaos because the month of fasting coincides with the massive sporting event/white elephant.

I think you’ll find it’s the other way around. The Olympics coincide with Ramadan. So there. Anyway. Here’s the story:

Ramadan is set to add to London’s Olympic traffic woes as thousands of Muslims squeeze into non-Games lanes to worship at the many mosques that surround the Olympic Park.

Every year during the month of August, vast crowds of worshippers descend on east London - one of the most concentrated Muslim communities in the country -for nightly prayer.

Local councillor Abdal Ullah said the influx of people to the area, between central London and Stratford, will play havoc with Games road links and traffic hotspots.

The district surrounding the Olympic Park is home to more than 250,000 Muslims and almost 100 mosques.

Huh? while I was scrolling through channels last night looking for Eurovision I saw an advert for whitening deodorant. It whitens your underarms. Makes them fairer. It’s aimed at the Pakistani/Indian market - the video I’m posting is not the one I saw but it gives you an idea of the product’s aims. The subcontinent has a huge appetite for fairness and lightening treatments. Now I know these creams and lotions have been around for years and I know that skin shade counts but it’s not something I agree with or choose to take up. But your underarms? Really? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Someone on the same sofa immediately pointed out that women in the subcontinent can buy a skin lightener for their more intimate areas.   The video is priceless.

Earlier during my Islamabad stay I had visited a spa that offered foot, leg and hand bleaching with prices starting from Rs. 150. My friend - who has lived in Pakistan for several years - asked what the purpose of the treatment was. The spa receptionist replied it was to make those areas fairer. Like, duh. What was the cream made of? Bleach. What sort of bleach, surely not the kind used for cleaning? Oh yes, replied the receptionist. Fast forward to sitting in front of the telly on Saturday night and reeling from the existence of lightening products for things I didn’t think needed lightening, someone on Twitter said there was a shampoo for covered hair. Again - huh? The Jewish Journal says the marketeers claim it deals with the “excess production of oils and build-up of scalp dirt” that can come with wearing hijab.

Blimey. You don’t need a special shampoo for your hijabi hair anymore than you need a roll-on to give you whitish underarms or fairer ladybits. I don’t know what’s more disheartening, the companies churning this stuff out or the women who are buying it.