“Come on you two…stop fighting…and I say it from my heart…” A file photo of President Bush flanked by President Musharraf and President Karzai.
I wonder what sort of ‘War-Against-Terror’ is going on with the soldiers of the two top allies of the the United States exchanging fire among themselves across the Pakistan and Afghanistan border and killing and injuring their own troops.
“Pakistani and Afghan forces exchanged fire at their rugged border Sunday in their most serious skirmish in years. Pakistan claimed it killed six Afghan soldiers, but Afghanistan said just two Afghan civilians were killed,” reports Sadaqat Jan, Associated Press Writer.
“Tension has been running high between Afghanistan and Pakistan, both key U.S. allies, over controlling their 1,510-mile shared border and stemming the flow of Taliban and al-Qaida militants that stage cross-border attacks inside Afghanistan. Pakistan’s move to fence parts of the disputed frontier has also angered Afghanistan.
“Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad accused the Afghan army of firing at Pakistani border posts: ‘This was unprovoked and without any reason.’
“On the Afghan side, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi accused Pakistani forces of crossing more than a mile into Afghanistan’s Paktia province.
” ‘Border police tried to stop them, and the Pakistani army started firing heavy weapons toward the Afghan forces,’ he said.”
President Bush knows well about the continuing friction between Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. A few months ago when they were invited to a White House dinner, the two exuded extremely bad vibes in public and refused to talk to each other.
With the two US top allies at each other’s throat, no wonder that Afghanistan remains on the boil. I wonder whose hospitality the most wanted “terrorist’ in the US list is enjoying at the moment.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.