Kashmir: A dangerous nuclear flashpoint

By Brig Asif Haroon Raja

Sixty three years have lapsed but Kashmir dispute remains unresolved. During this period, besides several military standoffs, two full fledged Indo-Pak wars and two localised conflictsin April 1965 and in summer of 1999 took place on account of Kashmir issue. India has been defying UN Resolutions on Kashmir and playing monkey tricks all these years to avoid resolving the dispute. Indian security forces have kept the people of Kashmir suppressed through use of brute force and has hid its gross human rights abuses under the cover of blatant lies and deceit. Today Kashmir has turned into a dangerous nuclear flashpoint.

The peace loving and docile Kashmiris patiently waited for 43 long years in the hope that India would fulfil its solemn commitment and hold a fair plebiscite but when they found that India will never give them their just right, they ultimately decided to pick up arms and push out Indian Security Forces (ISF) illegally occupying their land since 1947. Armed uprising in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) in end 1988 added fuel to fire to militancy in Pakistan, which had intensified during the eight-year Afghan Jihad.

Tens of die-hard Jihadi groups cropped up to assist the Kashmiri struggle. Large amount of funds were collected for the cause of Kashmir. The people of Pakistan who have always regarded IOK as part of Pakistan and an unfinished agenda of partition left behind by scheming British were deeply pained over the atrocities committed by ISF upon hapless Kashmiris. The ISF had been given a licence to kill and to use rape as a weapon to break the will of freedom fighters. The world took no notice of worst human rights abuses by ISF nor made any effort to find a political solution on the basis of UN Resolutions.

The US which had drawn closer to India after 1990 started changing its stance by undervaluing UN Resolutions and terming them as outdated. Israel which had also forged special ties with India imparted training to Black Cats Commandoes of India in specialised counter insurgency operations and taught them new methods of torturing detainees so as to break the back of movement. Indo-Israel propaganda machinery supplemented by western media started projecting Kashmiri freedom fighters as terrorists and Pakistan as an abettor of terrorism. Full throttle was given to the theme of cross border terrorism. Efforts were geared to get Pakistan branded as a terrorist state.

The religious right in Pakistan sympathised with Kashmir cause and took out rallies in their support and also took practical steps to alleviate their sufferings by providing financial and material assistance. The general public filled up money boxes placed in front of each mosque wholeheartedly. The seculars particularly the liberal elite by and large took least interest in the plight of Kashmiris. Rather, they subscribed to Indo-western propaganda and pressed the government to rein in Jihadists to appease India.

Reign of terror unleashed in IOK by over 700,000 ISF, Indian intelligence agencies and Hindu extremist groups have turned the vale of Kashmir into hell. The whole valley is drenched in human blood but the conscience of the international comity is dead. Shrieks and cries of ill-fated Kashmiri men, women and children get drowned under the din of gunfire, one-sided propaganda and patronage of USA and civilised west. Instead of cautioning India to restrain from human rights abuses, the entire pressure was exerted on Pakistan and held solely responsible for worsening security situation in IOK. Despite use of excessive force and worst form of torture, the flame of liberty lit by handful of Kashmiri fighters kept burning vigorously. No amount of brutality could weaken their resolve to keep fighting till the accomplishment of their due right of self determination as provided for in UN Resolutions.

Indian inhuman cruelty alienated the Kashmiris and their hatred for India touched new heights. Except for insignificant number of Indian toadies enjoying fruits of power at the cost of enslavement of five million Kashmiris, each and every Kashmiri yearns to get rid of India. Having seen the ugly face of India and miserable plight of Indian Muslims, they have lost all trust in duplicitous Indian leaders. Conversely, their love for Pakistan is growing by leaps and bounds. They want to be part of Muslim Pakistan and not of Hindu India where Muslims are treated as second rated citizens. They know that secularism in India is a big farce since Hindu extremist forces are far more powerful than Hindu secularists who are too weak to question them.

Takeover of power by Gen Musharraf in October 1999 brought smiles on the faces of depressed seculars particularly when he came out with his concept of enlightened moderation. The fortunes of Kashmiri resistance forces that were giving a real tough time to 700,000 ISF as well as Jihadi forces in Pakistan plummeted in the aftermath of 9/11. New laws framed by USA on terrorism changed the complexion of freedom movements within Muslim world overnight and freedom fighters were branded as terrorists. This rule was applied in IOK as well which impelled India to apply full pressure on Musharraf to change its policy on Kashmir.

Ten month military standoff in 2002 followed by the US pressure forced him to ban six Kashmir oriented Jihadi groups and to freeze their accounts. Besides allowing India to fence the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, he took stringent measures to control cross LoC movement and also started hounding extremists. He also took on board moderate leaders of All Parties Hurriat Conference promising them an out of box solution to the dispute falling outside the ambit of UN Resolutions. These measures favoured India but went against the interest of Pakistan and resultantly rolled back the momentum of liberation movement. Indian military hastened to claim that it had succeeded in crushing insurgency in Kashmir. Pakistan thus lost the lone card of Kashmir which it could play against India which held several cards.

As a consequent to blocking Jihadi groups from assisting Kashmiris, these groups in revenge joined hands with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and TNSM and started fighting Pak security forces, thus compounding Pakistan’s security problems. These groups facilitated TTP in launching suicide and group attacks within cities. Kashmiris saved the day for Pakistan when they bounced back in the valley in 2008 in the form of violent strikes and protest marches which flabbergasted India. Mumbai attacks were hastily engineered in November 2008 to distract the attention of the world from Kashmir, to put off Indo-Pak composite dialogue which was in advanced stages and to exert pressure on Pakistan to stay away from Kashmir.

Kashmiri movement took a new turn in 2010 when the teenagers with stones in their fists came in the forefront and kept raising anti-India and ‘freedom from India’ slogans despite being ruthlessly killed and tortured by ISF. Unarmed movement of tender age boys captured the attention of the world and for the fist time India found itself short of lame excuses. It could not possibly dub unarmed small boys as young as 8-15 years as terrorists. Nor could it justify its brutal actions against them. Apart from many in western countries, several intellectuals and human rights activists within India have started to sympathize with Kashmiris and are condemning ISF brutalities. Arundhati Roy has taken the lead and has not minced her words in saying that Kashmir is not part of India as claimed by Brahman Indian leaders and that justice should be meted to the people of Kashmir.

In a seminar recently organized in British Parliament, the parliamentarians lent unflinching support to the right of self determination of Kashmiris and have stressed upon their government to use its good offices to solve this chronic dispute. They also called upon India to withdraw its forces from IOK and to facilitate granting right of self determination to Kashmiris. Black day was organized by Kashmiris on both sides of the divide on 27 January and also in Pakistan and other parts of the world reminding India to prevent its forces from massacring innocent Kashmiris and to grant right of self determination to Kashmiris. Rumbling within India for a solution is getting louder.

Indian leadership will never risk holding a plebiscite since it knows that the result would be to its disfavor. It will keep dragging its feet until it is forced to give up its obduracy. The US must play its role to solve this dispute to avoid a nuclear holocaust in the future.

A Dirty American Game In Pakistan

US weapons have mysteriously landed in the hands of terrorists in Pakistan. Now we have the Al Qaeda leadership freely accessing the foreign media in Afghanistan saying it would use Pakistani nukes against America. What is the US up to with Al Qaeda? Post-9/11 the world has had a memory lapse over the US-Al Qaeda connections – especially when Sudan offered Bin Laden to the US – but the latter allowed the Al Qaeda leader to move to Afghanistan.

By SHIREEN M. MAZARI
The News International.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-Pakistanis cannot be allowed to savor joy and success peacefully. Just when the nation was tumultuously enjoying the magical victory of our cricket team, the hard reality of our hostile environment post-9/11 clouded over us once again.

For anyone who thought the US was not targeting our nuclear assets, the screaming headlines from the Afghan-based Al Qaeda leadership’s interview to Al Jazeera brought the issue to the forefront once again with claims that Al Qaeda would use our nuclear assets against the US if they could. The absurdity of the statement notwithstanding, it can be explained only if seen as part of the campaign to legitimize a US/NATO takeover of our nuclear assets since our security prevents the US from taking them out physically.

We have also seen US weapons mysteriously land in the hands of militants in Pakistan – now we have the Al Qaeda leadership freely having access to the foreign media in Afghanistan. What is the US up to with Al Qaeda? Post-9/11 the world has had a memory lapse over the US-Al Qaeda connections – especially when Sudan offered Bin Laden to the US – but the latter allowed the Al Qaeda leader to move to Afghanistan!

While our military has become embroiled in a “war” that cannot be won by conventional military means, the US continues to play dangerous games with Pakistan – and at multiple levels. The drone attacks continue under Obama since the first one he ordered three days after his inauguration as US president – which killed 15 Pakistanis. In fact just as the present government has gone the extra mile in ceding ground to the US in Pakistan, the Obama administration has expanded the drone policy and according to Jeremy Scahill in the first 99 days of 2009 more than 150 Pakistanis have been killed in these attacks.

His estimate is that since 2006 and up to April 2009 drones have killed 687 Pakistanis – apart from the identifiable militants. That comes to about 38 civilian deaths a month just from these drone attacks.

Nor is this all. The New York Times gave an interesting account of US military operations within Pakistan including US Special Forces commando raids in FATA across the international Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Even more of a wakeup call of US intent should be the $.9 billion of the first year ‘largesse’ under the Kerry-Lugar Bill that has been earmarked for the construction of the new US embassy in Islamabad – a huge fortress right behind the presidency and the prime minister’s secretariat. If Iraq is anything to go by we may soon have US private security companies like the notorious Blackwater plus hundreds of other contractors. While US human intelligence will not gain in quality we will have a meddling US presence across our state institutions and civil society which will be damaging in the long term to our national wellbeing.

We are already hearing of the CIA chief visiting us followed by Obama’s special representative general James Jones. Both these officials will also be visiting India and the general thrust seems to be to push Pakistan into accepting an Indian military presence in Afghanistan. Interestingly General Jones also has strong ties to US business including Boeing and Chevron. Meanwhile there is no let down on focusing on our nuclear assets, which is why Prime Minister Gilani was compelled to finally, after a year of silent tolerance, demand that the US stop using a discriminatory approach towards Pakistan’s nuclear program, including the search for civilian nuclear power.

But there is discrimination and the new line of attack that has been opened is the Al Qaeda statement – following the numerous US official and media statements expressing “fear” of US nukes falling into militant hands! Surely just as the discovery of US/Israeli arms on militants in Pakistan raised serious questions as to the role/linkages of outside forces to militant outfits within Pakistan, so the new development is hardly without its linkage to an overall plan against our nuclear assets. Once again, the fact is that unless the Pakistan military is weakened from within, the assets cannot be accessed at all. Hence the need of the US to get the military bogged down in a conventional battle against unconventional foes in Swat and FATA – without any overarching political strategy visible from the government.

Ironically, while plots against our nuclear assets continue, it is developments in other countries that reveal the lack of strong security measures at nuclear installations in these places. On 22nd June, anti-nuclear activists managed to break through security at the German Unterweser nuclear power plant and actually scaled the dome of the plant. More disturbing has been the story, now surprisingly blocked out, about the Indian nuclear scientist Lokanathan Mahalingam, who disappeared or was abducted, and was later found dead from the Kali river. Mahalingam had also disappeared ten years earlier while he was working at another sensitive Indian nuclear location – the Kalpakkam nuclear complex.

India’s nuclear and missile security has revealed many shortcomings and in 2006 Dr. Tiwari involved in space research was also shot dead.

There have been stories of an underground network of Hindu extremists and Indian scientists involved in technology transfers to and from India and Israel. Indian scientists were also discovered at Iran’s Bushehr plant. So it is strange as to why the US and the IAEA continue to keep silent over India’s possible private proliferation rings as well as the weak safety of its nuclear and missile installations and sites? Equally puzzling is official Pakistani silence on these issues.

It is similar to the questionable manner in which our official institutions declare that there are Indians/US links to militant outfits in Pakistan, but then fail to give details or to take up these issues with the countries concerned. What is the Pakistani state playing at or fearful of? Is it not time the nation was told about the sources of funding and weapons for the militants in specific terms to give credibility to these allegations? Or will all the “militants” be “killed” before we can learn crucial facts about US double dealing and Indian destabilization of Pakistan. That is why arrest and trial of the militant leadership in anti-terror courts, rather than their killing, is essential for our nation and state’s long term security.

As for India, while Pakistan is also under pressure to resume the bilateral dialogue, our seeming haste seems to have sent the wrong signals to India. That is why we saw the sheer bad behavior on the part of India’s Manmohan Singh towards President Zardari in Russia. Too bad the latter was unable to respond in kind. But we can still send the correct message to the Indians by refusing to have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NAM conference in Egypt.

Dialogue is certainly desirable but only when the intent of the two sides is honest in terms of conflict resolution. So far the Indian intent is clearly not focused on this aspect. So perhaps it would be good to wait till India realizes the need to move towards conflict resolution with Pakistan in a holistic fashion. It may take pleasure in our leadership’s refusal to bring up the K word but without any movement on Kashmir, the dialogue will eventually run aground as always. For Pakistan it is also essential to know its maximalist and minimalist positions in clear terms – both, of necessity, being premised on giving Kashmiris their right to self-determination.

Things are moving fast, and there is a crucial need for the Pakistani state to step back and look at the larger picture so that inclusive policies can be formulated to deal with the threat of extremism, militancy on a long term basis by denying them space in our society; and to protect our nation and its nuclear assets from US designs.

Finally, it is sad to see that while the Pakistani state has seemingly abandoned the Kashmiris in Occupied Kashmir, these brave people continue to rally round Pakistan in a most instinctive way. So it was with the T20 World Cup where the Kashmiris in Occupied Kashmir joined the Pakistani nation in celebrating the Pakistani victory. Did anyone else in our neighborhood do the same?

Mumbai menace, a psychological perspective

Dr S M Rahman

India has undergone a psychological transformation and is getting awfully boisterous as it rubs shoulders with super powers, and in the present Post-Cold-War context, USA indeed is a hyper-power. India has been elevated to be its strategic partner. The latent purpose is to augment its clout in both, the military and economic spheres and blow it to a proportion that it is able to challenge and serve as a counter-weight to China. The image of being at par with China – a grand rival in the geo-strategic arena gives it a false feeling of grandeur. USA has earmarked India for a prestigious position to be the surrogate power of USA, which now comprises Afghanistan as well. A similar role was earmarked for Israel in the Middle East.

The subsequent defeats of USA in Iraq and Afghanistan, besides the phenomenal victory of Hezbollah in Lebanon, have shattered the US dream of restructuring Middle East and expansion of Israeli territory. US strategy has now seemingly shifted towards Afghanistan, in which India has been inducted as an important player and quite naively Bush administration feels that it will contribute to the “final” victory. When the chips are down, India would never venture to confront China.

In order to justify India’s belligerent role, Afghanistan, which has traditionally been part of Central Asian region has now been proclaimed by USA to be a part of South Asia, which is already suffering from the coercive power syndrome, due to the territorial size India possesses. Practically every neighbour of India has experienced the pain and agony, due to the empire-building propensity, India has inherited from British colonialists. Henry Kissinger, in his paper presented to the three-day high level conference held at Beijing (September 4-6, 1996) on China and Asia in the 21st Century, said: “India emerges into great power status. It can be expected to return to the policies of the British Raj which were after all conceived by the Indian civil service under the Viceroys located first in Calcutta and towards the end of British rule in New Delhi. It will seek an influential if not dominant role in the arc extending from Aden to Singapore.”

Kissinger’s contention proved right except that it was more towards outright dominance and control. Except for Pakistan, which refused to play second fiddle to India, all other South Asian countries succumbed to its pressure. Skim was annexed; Bhutan totally subservient, Bangladesh, its own creation, very soon revolted to its exploitative measures and is not ready to kneel down to its imperialistic demands. Sri Lanka is an eloquent testimony that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan, the LTTE, perhaps one of the worst breed of terrorism, has been trained by the Indian Army. Nepal and Maldives have gone through their own traumatic experiences. The creation of Pakistan, left two options for India, to accept it in good grace and reconcile to the reality, even feel relieved that the subcontinent was only divided into two – India and Pakistan.

Z A Bhutto in his book “The myth of Independence” has rightly said that it would have been broken into several more pieces. His contention was not unfounded. F. Saleem, a statistically oriented journalist, maintains that “the house-grown militant entities have spread like wild fire all through India’s 2973.190 sq km of land now. According to South Asian Terrorism Portal at least 231 of the Indian 608 districts are currently afflicted at differing intensities by various insurgent and terrorist monuments.” There are different breeds of terrorists in India – the right, the left and outright separatists. The left breed of terrorists are perhaps the most brutal ones like People’s Guerilla Army, People’s war groups, Marxist Communist Centre, the Communist party of India, Janashake and so on. The break down, as provided by F. Saleem is indeed alarming. In Assam, there are at least 35 known separatist groups. In Manipur there is Peoples Liberation. In Meghlana, Peoples Liberation front of Meghlana. In Nagaland alone the insurgent groups are operating. In Punjab 12, in Tiripura 30, Mezoram has 2, besides Arunchal Dragon Force in Arunchal Paradesh. With so many terrorist groups operating within India, the Indian Prime Minister dubs Pakistan as the epicenter of terrorism. There is an attributional error, to blame Pakistan for every event that happens. No time is lost in attributing the locus of causality to Pakistan and not look inwards which is required of a mature individual or a nation. Externals distort realities and Internals are dispassionate self introspectionists.

This is the chronic malady that India suffers from a strategy of self-deception. India is keen to project Pakistan in as many shades of dark as possible and the “India’s shining image” is self gratifying. But realities have the inherent tendency to bounce up and destroy all myths and deceptions. The ‘Parliament attack episode which was attributed to Pakistan, ultimately came to surface that, it was an indigenous operation. Ilzaam ham un ko daitey they Kasur apna nikal aaya

(We always attributed blame to you, but the fault ultimately surfaced, and it was ours) Of the two decisional choices, India adopted a recalcitrant approach to overwhelm Pakistan, with its massive weaponry including high profile weapons of Mass Destruction. Quaid-e-Azam had a peaceful orientation. He thought that partition of the sub-continent would start off on a paradigm of peace and inter-existence and that they would burry the past. He said it while leaving for Karachi to lay the foundation of Pakistan: “The past must be buried and let us start afresh as two independent sovereign states of Hindustan and Pakistan. I wish Hindustan prosperity and peace.” He thought that they would live like peaceful neighbours – Canada and USA.

Dr Rajendra Prasad, a veteran congress leader, held a different view: “Distrust which is the basis of the proposal is bound to grow and any hope that after separation things will settle down and the independent states will soon become friendly, will have been built on sand.” V.P Menon’s famous contention: “Divide in order to Unite” is the overriding factor in the Indo-Pak Relations and there is still a lurking hope that some day Pakistan could collapse, and beg to be reintegrated into the Indian Union, is as self-defeating as ridiculous. Similarly for Kashmir, against all moral commitments, the great democratic leaders like Nehru reneged on the promises and commitments and that militarily they would sustain the occupation. This again is a very naïve appreciation of history and also the minds of the Kashmiris in the Indian Held territory. Six to seven lacs Indian soldiers, are unable to stiffle their voices. Despite 60-70 thousand casualties, the Kashmiri issue as patently vibrant as it was several dictates back. The will of the people cannot be suppressed for very long. The liberation struggle has created several organizations, which unfortunately have been dubbed as terrorists in orientation. Freedom struggle can in no way be equated with ‘terrorism’. Could George Washington be labeled ‘terrorist’?

After the cold war, USA, which was supposedly an ally of Pakistan, is now all out to support India. It is totally blinded to the stark realities of how pitiable is the plight of people living below the poverty line, caste hatred culminating into colossal human rights violations. The atrocities against the minorities, the lower caste Dalits, besides Christians and Muslims are of incredible proportion. Had Pakistan not felt the looming threat to its existence, democracy would have taken much deeper roots and it could be salvaged from the pitiable plight of being a praetorian state and now it is on the road to democracy, India never wants democracy to flourish, so that Pakistan’s global image remains tarnished. The language and temper of India is markedly belligerent against Pakistan.

It is mainly because it sees that Pakistan is under pressure on its western orders. It is opportune time to pressurize Pakistan from the eastern side. The Mumbai affair is a ploy and part of strategy, which is aimed at breaking the ‘Will’ of Pakistan. The redeeming factor is that India has conscientious objectors like Arundhati Roy, who has written a very objective article: ‘9 is not 11 Nov isn’t September (Daily Time 13 Dec 08) she said: “It’s hard to understand why those who steer India’s ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan’s mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A super power never has allies. It only has agents.” She further explains why war rhetoric is so rampant in India. “On the plus side, the advantage in going to war is that it’s the best way for India to avoid facing up to the serious trouble building on our home front.” This is India’s diversionary technique. But to those who are close watchers of Pakistan know that Pakistan is always at its best when a threat comes from the eastern border. The unity which otherwise appears fragile in Pakistan, suddenly shoots up to an incredible limit. So never provoke Pakistan with the threat of war. “If you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost.” (Forster Dulles)

http://pakobserver.net/200812/21/Articles03.asp