Whose Haqqanis are they?

Attackers there were many. The US insists they were Haqqani. The ISI do not know of any. Even if they are Pakistani. Zardari came offering trade and money. Our lot fed him biryani. It's the same old litany. Only the dead refrain from villainy. The Taliban announced the advent of spring with a well coordinated attack on Kabul and 3 provincial towns. The good thing was that the Afghan army, with help from NATO forces, was able to resist the attackers killing 47. The BBC credited British Special Forces for regaining a partially constructed building used by the militants as their base. The US instantly blamed the Haqqani network, indirectly blaming Pakistan for not wiping out group and forgetting that Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the group, was a prize CIA asset during the 1980s against the Soviets. He even visited Ronald Reagan's White House as special guest. Former US Congressman, Charlie Wilson, who raise funds for the resistance, once described Jalaluddin Haqqani as " goodness personified ". HT online, April 17. There must have been wide smiles and large pegs of single malt at ISI headquarters in Islamabad. Until news came of Taliban assault on the Central Jail at Bannu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in which 380 prisoners, including ones on death row, escaped. Not Abbottabad again. Adnan Rashid, on death row for attempting to assassinate former president Pervez Musharaf, who is presently hiding in Britain, also escaped. Apparently Rashid kept in touch with the outside world on cell phones, Facebook and other networking sites and even wrote his own blogs. It might be in the boonies but the Central Jail in Bannu is certainly more liberal than Mamata Banerjee's Bengal where you get beaten up by Trinamul thugs for posting innocent cartoons. Around 400 members of Trinamul students wing, based in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and even London, have infiltrated social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Orkut and report directly to Trinamul Bhavan. " We've zeroed in on many people, but the Jadavpur University professor was the first we decided to take action against," said a Trinamul Congress leader. The Stasi would have been proud. Some foreign intellectuals including Noam Chomsky have written to the Prime Minister to protest against police atrocities in Bengal. At last the world is taking notice of Bengal. This could even be a tourist attraction - Come to Bengal and watch live action as Trinamul workers beat up professors. Before elections Ms Banerjee promised that she would make Kolkata as famous as London. She is certainly trying her best but she should also remember that parliamentary elections are due in 2014 and her party will be wiped out. Her day of reckoning will surely come.