Saffron ZionismThe Politics of Militant Hinduism

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Edition: 1st, 2012Authors: Syed Zaid Zaman Hamid (zaidhamid@zaidhamid.pk) Farzana Shah Maryam Mehboob Title Design : Waqar Ahmed SiddiquiDesigning : Shahzad Masood RoomiPDF version for mass distribution.

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Contents

Setting India on Fire 8

Safrron Terrorism 22

Revolt in Indian Kashmir 47

Operation Kashmir 56

Myth of United India 86

Balkanizing India 101

Kashmir, Amranath Shrine and Dogra Conspiracy 37

Setting India on Fire!Hindu Fascist Violence against Christians,Muslims,Sikhs and minorities in India

1

"It is a matter of deep humiliation to confess that we are a house divided against itself that we Hindus and Mussul-mans are flying at one another. It is a matter of still deeper humiliation that we Hindus regard several million of our own kith and kin as too degraded even for our touch."

M.K. Gandhi's address to the US through Columbia Broadcasting System in 1930s:

Such discrimination, as noted by Gandhi himself, forced many Dalits to convert to Islam, in the hope of gaining some social standing in the society that refuses to consider them human otherwise. But the VHP led Hindu right took this to be an unforgivable sin. To abandon their religion and that too for Islam outraged the hardliners to the core. The VHP saw this as a serious threat to its notion of Hinduism.

India, the world's largest secular democracy is everything but that. This rhetoric sounds good but only for so long. It becomes nauseating when this hypocrisy takes such toll that humans are openly butchered in the streets while the government prides itself to be a representative of those very people.

Prologue

Indian history of the past sixty years has been marred by religious, political and communal violences. An interesting trend to note is that only certain religious issues become prominent in politics; causing agitation and leading to communal riots. This essay attempts to ascertain the sociological, psychological, economic, and political explanations for incidents of communal violence, in Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Maha-rashtra, Orrissa and Delhi in India.

The first major riots that occurred in India between Hindus and Muslims after the bloodshed of partition in 1947 can be traced back to as long as 1961, in Jabalpur a central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. (sic) They were followed by riots in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh with periodic violence erupting elsewhere.

Similarly, thousands of Sikhs were murdered in Delhi in 1984. The assassination of Prime Minister Indira

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ers Gandhi at the hands of two Sikh bodyguards triggered that violence; a response from Sikhs at the killing of

innocent worshippers at the holy shrine when the Indian Army stormed into the temple with full force under her orders. But the roots of present day violence can be best traced to the 1980's.

Gujarat riots of 2002 were another horror story where thousands of Muslims were burnt alive, raped and slaughtered by Hindu fascists in the fi rst genocide of 21st century. The recent anti- Christian violence in India is being viewed by the world with concern as it is a sign of how quickly such violence can spiral out of control. The last thing the world want is another incident similar to the Gujarat riots of 2002 or the destruction of Babri Masjid of 1992, which gave way to months of fi erce unrest.

Following the demolition of Babri masjid in 1992, some 2000 people were killed in communal riots in Ayod-hya, Bombay and beyond. Hindu hardliner parties, including the Vishwa Hindu Prashad (VHP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - used Ayodhya as a rallying call to Hindus throughout India. They said the 16th century mosque at the site was located on the birthplace of the Hindu Lord Rama and that a temple had to be built there. The temple till date has not come up but the memories of the destruction of the mosque still haunt the minorities in India.

Some analysts blame the Hindu-Muslim rioting in India on the Muslim movement for an independent Paki-stan which sharpened the divisions on religious lines and saw millions of Muslims slaughtered in 1947 by Hin-du fascists. But deeper analysis prove this hypothesis wrong as Hindu religious intolerance has not remained confi ned to Muslims only. Other minorities including Christians, Sikhs and lower caste Hindus, otherwise known as dalits, have also borne the brunt of the fascist Hindu ideology that fuels this violence. The problem is much bigger than what is taken to be in explaining these disturbing tendencies. In all the above mentioned incidents what remains consistent is the fact that the aggressors are always fundamentalist Hindus, who seek justifi cation of their horrendous sins in divine rulings. Thus this mindset can be best made sense of with an understanding of Hinduism itself.

“Inequality is the soul of Hinduism,” wrote Ambedkar. He characterized the oppressive caste system as the tyr-anny of Hinduism. After spending a lifetime in a crusade against the oppressive Hinduism, Ambedkar fi nally renounced Hinduism, and converted to Buddhism and exhorted his followers to do the same. It is an irony

Hindu mob is beating a helpless Sikh dur-ing violence against Sikhs in Delhi in1980.

Sikhs burnt alive in the streets of Delhi. (1980)

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Firethat BJP and other Sangh Parivar outfi ts are

now trying to prove him right by their fas-cist violence against Indian minorities. Some claim that India was a country that preached non-violence ever since the Vedic period. This also sounds ironic especially when to-day's India has become a conundrum of vio-lence with BJP-led Saffron Brigade trying to create a Hindu Rashtra. This has resulted in terrible and outrageous violence against the minorities living in India, which in actuality expose and challenge the secular credentials of India.

The new wave of attacks against Christians was triggered by the killing of a Hindu lead-er, Swami Laxanananda Saraswati, along with fi ve other people at Tumudibandh, Kandha-mal District, in Orissa on 23 August 2008.

The rebellious Maoist Naxalite groups prominent in this region have claimed re-sponsibility for the murder of Swami and his followers. In addition, the state police authorities have stated that the killing was carried out by the Maoists. However, leaders of certain fundamentalist Hindu organiza-tions like the Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini blamed Christians for these killings. Despite the condemnation expressed by Christian groups and churches at the killing of the Swami and his associates and their demand for the culprits to be caught and punished, in retaliation, the extremist Hindu organi-zations have engaged in a series of attacks against Christians throughout the Sate of Orissa.

The minority Christians in Orissa have been experiencing various forms of atrocities in recent weeks includ-ing looting, destruction of churches and church-run institutions, brutal attacks against priests, rape of nuns, church workers and other members of the Christian community, most of whom are Dalits and Adivasis (tribals). Reports from various sources confi rmed that at least fi fty thousand Christians in Orissa have been displaced; hundreds of Christians have fl ed their homes and taken refuge in forests; many others are living in as many as eighteen relief camps, which offer them only so much relief in the wake of the mayhem that has wrecked their lives.

This is the man, a terrorist of Bajrang Dal who with that weapon in his hand had split/pierced the womb of the Mus-

lim woman in Gujrat and slaughtered her unborn baby as well with her with this same weapon. The picture with the weapon having blood on it was published by press then.

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ers The plight of the victims and survivors of this communal carnage, the fear and trauma they are experienc-

ing, the poor and unhygienic facilities in the government-run relief camps, the ineffi ciency of government machinery in tackling the violence, continue to be a serious concern. The upsurge of religious extremism in Orissa in recent weeks has left many Christians in Orissa virtually defenseless.

Insight into the communal violence in India

Though Hindutva ideologues often try and confuse matters by claiming that India is already a Hindu Rashtra, which translated in English means a "Hindu nation", they know that their model of Indian society, if it is to come about, requires the prior establishment of a Hindu state under Sangh control, which in coordination with the RSS, alone can dramatically reshape the Indian society/polity demanded by a proper Hindu Rashtra. But there are only two routes to achieving such radicals strong state power — through an electorate to secure an absolute or near-absolute majority for the BJP in Parliament; or bypassing altogether the constitutional-electoral route and carrying out an authoritarian coup either of a military-police kind, or a civilian unconstitu-tional coup of the Emergency-type. Through this a dominant but minority party comes to power in a coalition through elections but then overthrows all democratic-electoral restraints and establishes its authoritarian state. Fascism in Germany and Italy combined the electoral and unconstitutional processes and attained central control in this manner.

Gujrat is being used as a rallying point by BJP, RSS, Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini, Balidani Dasta of Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and Vishav Hindu Parishad. Taking it to be the starting point, they wish to take their malicious agenda forward to Orissa and beyond.

Organized violence against Christians in India

This new wave of organized violence against Christians, which started in Orissa, has now spread to other States such as Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. Attacks launched by Hindu extremist groups against

House belonging to Christian family burnt to ashes. Thousands of houses of Christians were burnt by Fanatic Hindus during recent violence in Orissa and other states of India

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the Christians are considered as a well thought-out plot and just one link in a long chain of events that have continued to strain commu-nal harmony and inter-religious relations in the country. Although the attacks against Christians are interpreted as religious violence, in most cir-cumstances the under current is based on socio-economic factors. Christians in the country have been repeatedly accused of encouraging conver-sion to Christianity. Various Churches have been unequivocal in their offi cial documents and statements and have insisted that conversion to Christianity by force or fraudulent means is strictly prohibited.

What the constitution of India says?

Contrary to what the Indian constitution states in terms of protecting minority rights, Hindu militant groups are trying to replicate the example of Bajrang Dal. The Bajrang Dal was set up in 1984 as the youth arm of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Mr Prakash Sharma was made its Kanpur unit convener. At that time, it was “active only in a few districts of Uttar Pradesh. Today it has some 1.3 million activists spread across most of the States and the aim is to cover every district of the country. The Bajrang Dal leader denied that his organization was involved in the violence against Christians in Kandhamal district of Orissa or in Mangalore and elsewhere in Karnataka, although the Karnataka unit chief Mahendra Kumar, had issued a statement accepting its role. Mr. Sharma listed the tasks before the Dal as “seva” (service of the people) and “suraksha” (protection). Its volun-teers were given tough physical training to help them protect themselves and the people. He insisted that they were not trained in fi rearms, and were trained only in “aiming with air guns for which we run regular camps.”

Mr Sharma very openly and nonchalantly admitted that the minorities can only live in a Hindu Rashtra if they stop preaching their religion. “We do not say do not go to mosques or churches. But conversion must be stopped. We have re-converted to Hinduism through the Ghar Vapasi (home-coming) programme about 10,000-15,000 people since I became Bajrang Dal convener in 2002.”

Here is another chilling reality that somehow is escaping the Government of India. The violence and threats against the Christians/minorities of India is an assault on the Constitution of India. The Indian Constitution declares India to be a “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic” which secures to all citizens “justice; liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; and equality of status and opportunity”. Under articles 14, 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution, discrimination based on religion is prohibited. Article 25 guarantees the right to freely practice and propagate religion. In addition to these constitutional guarantees at the domestic level, India is also party to several international treaties that stipulate human rights obligations. Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights establishes the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Article 26 bar discrimination on the grounds of religion while Article 27 stipulates that in “those states in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied

Cross at stakes - Many Churches destroyed in Orissa recently

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the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion...”.

India now has seven states, which have legislation ban-ning religious conversions. The seven Indian states with anti-conversion legislation (known as the Freedom of Religion Acts), include Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Hindu extremists commonly use anti-conversion legislation to falsely accuse Christians of converting people through force or allurement; thus justifying subsequent attacks on Christians. They also defl ect prosecution away from themselves by pressing charges of “forcible conversion” without any evidence.

The response of the church in India

Atrocities committed against Christians are horrendous and their unspeakable state is no less than a nightmare. In August 2008, a crowd of up to 4,000 Hindu militants attacked the Brethren in Christ Girls Hostel at Nuagoan, one of nine such facilities funded through the Schol-arship Program for International Children’s Education (SPICE). The mob set the hostel and church ablaze, destroyed its water tank, and demolished the campus. Ten policemen who were on guard at the hostel fl ed when they saw the approaching crowd. Staff, girls, and local believers, some of whom were beaten, managed to fl ee. The Cuttack-based offi ces of the Brethren in Christ Church in India were also a target, and several pas-tors and church planters lost all their belongings when their homes were looted and burned. People, including pastors, who had to take refuge in forests, lost everything. They are without food and clothes and atrisk of snake bites and malaria.

The Churches and Christian leaders in India have been making persistent efforts for appealing to people to strive for peace and reconciliation. The call given by the Untied Christian Forum comprised of the National Council of Churches in India, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India and the Evangelical Fellowship of India to observe a Day of Prayer and Fasting for Peace and Reconciliation was very well received by Christians all over the country. People at large have appreciated the efforts by various churches to promote and restore trust and goodwill among people of all religions and communities. The Church leaders in India appealed to all members of Christian community in the country to work for the welfare of all sections of people in society in spite of such horrifi c experiences of violence and death of some members of the community.

The World Council of Churches is deeply disturbed by these developments of religious violence in Orissa and has expressed its concern in a letter by the General Secretary addressed to the Prime Minister of India. A pastoral letter from WCC General Secretary expressing sympathy and solidarity to suffering Christians in Orissa was sent to WCC member churches in India and the National Council of Churches in India.

Churches being vandalized in Delhi

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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh strongly defended India's secular credentials when the European Union conveyed its “serious concerns” over attacks on Christians in India. “We are a secular state. We are a multi-religious, multi-cultural nation,” Manmohan Singh said emphatically. “The Constitution guarantees all citizens of India the right to profess and propagate a religion of their choice,” he said. Manmohan Singh admitted there have been “sporadic attacks” on Christian shrines but underlined he had already condemned these incidents as “acts of national shame.” An 'act of national shame,' indeed it was. But such gruesome violations of human rights demand a more stern response than this. The Indian Prime Minister was covering it up cosmetically since he had to do it. But the ground realities are absolutely different. As the growing reli-gious extremism and increasing violence against religious minorities in India is putting the secular credibility of India at risk.

The reality check India should go in for

Secularism is a term employed most rashly by the Indian National Congress. The Chief Minister of South Indian state, Tamil Nadu made his mind clear regarding this and launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister.

Questioning the secular credentials of India, Karunanidhi alleged that the Congress was neither a true secular party nor a force that was interested in the country's integration. Referring to the killings of Sikhs in the north in the wake of assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he wondered whether the Congress could be called a secular party. Secularism was not a term to which the Congress alone could claim ownership; he said asking, "have the people given patta (title deed) to the Congress to use the term?"

Karuna Nidhi had carefully chosen his target when attacking the Congress for he was aware that India has not been able to free itself of communalism even after more than sixty years of independence, however much it tries to deny it. If anything, it has been getting worse year after year. There has not been a single year in post-independence period, which has been free of communal violence though number of incidents may vary.

Indian talks of pluralism, secularism and a great tradition, are made to seem nothing more than a mockery by the Hinduvta dream of carving out a ‘Hindu Rashtra'.

Now there are few incidents that would stun the readers

In the year 2002 the first reported riot took place in Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala on 3rd January. In the clashes between two communities (Hindus and Muslims) five persons were killed. The clashes occurred on the ques-tion of eve teasing. The whole region came in the grip of violence. More than twenty persons were injured including five women. Properties worth lakhs of rupees were destroyed. The police had to be heavily deployed to bring the situation under control. Kerala in India is generally thought to be free of communal violence, experiencing only occasional frenzy and bout of communal violence. But this time a vicious terror campaign overtook it, aimed at its Christian community.

Gujarat was next to come under the stretch of communal carnage. Nowhere in history can there be found an

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ers example of the violence of this kind in India except at the time of partition. The communal carnage in Gu-

jarat shook the entire world. It was difficult to believe such intense communal frenzy could be incited by the BJP for its political gains. More than 2000 Muslims were killed most cruelly in this carnage according to very reliable sources even though Government records show dead to number no more than 1000. What is worse the Chief Mister Narendra Modi justified such frenzy and described it as reaction to action in Godhra. And all this happened with full complicity of the police and bureaucracy. The honest officers who did not allow carnage in their areas were instantly transferred by the Modi Government.

Some ministers who led the mobs have been named in FIRs. Many mosques and mausoleums were demol-ished and ground was leveled. Some accounts maintain about 700 such religious structures were brought down or severely damaged. Ahmedabad, Baroda, Mehsana and Panchmahal districts were the worst affected districts covering entire north and central Gujarat. Properties worth more than 10,000 crores were looted or burnt, though these figures are disputed. The business loss due to closures and migration of labor is several times this figure. Hundreds of Muslim families were totally uprooted. The carnage continued for more than five months

On 17th March communal incidents took place in Loharu in Bhivani district of Haryana. Loharu was once under a Muslim ruler and was know as Nawwaab of Loharu, which explains the considerable number of Muslims residing in that town. A mob of three hundred incited by the rumor of cow slaughter attacked two mosques and at least 15 shops and houses belonging to the Muslim minority community were set ablaze.

According to a UNI report quoting the police sources said that a mob of 300 Shiv Sainiks set fire to another mosque near the railway station also including many shops in Purana Bazar. And in this area all 15-20 shops and houses belonging to minority were burnt down. The palace of Nawwab of Loharu was also surrounded by a mob but additional reinforcements were requisitioned from other places which were thus saved from being damaged.

Next incidents of communal violence took place in three places in Rajasthan in which three persons were killed on 25th March on the occasion of Muharram. The immediate provocation was the holding of poorna-huti yagnas (a Hindu religious ritual) and Kirtans (devotional songs) for Rama at various temples on the route of Tazia processions. Curfew had to be clamped in the town of Gangapur, 80 kms from Sawai Madhopur, in central Rajasthan where 3 people were killed and 15 injured in police firing.

According to the police violence broke out when activists of the VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal collected at an ancient Hanumanji Mandir for a Yagna and Kirtan. The police asked them not to gather but they defied police orders and began to shout provocative slogans when the Tazia procession came closer to the temple. The police was compelled to open fire when teargasing and cane charge had no effect.

The Gangapur city has 25% Muslim population and earlier was considered to be the stronghold of SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) in Rajasthan. It has always been prone to minor communal irritations although this is the first time that violence has erupted on such a large scale. In different parts of Southern Rajasthan where the Sangh Parivar has strong presence communal tension was simmering. But the situation was kept under control.

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Christians’ massacre starts again

The recent wave of the communal violence in Orissa's Kandhamal district was an 'unprecedented' attack on the Christian community in India, according to a rights group in its fact-fi nding report. 'We are saddened to acknowledge that the violence in Orissa, which left at least four killed and 730 houses and 95 churches burnt, will go into the history books as an unprecedented attack on Christians in India,' said Joseph D'Souza, presi-dent of the All India Christian Council (AICC). “The tragedy is deepened by the fact that the violence was avoidable if the authorities had enforced the rule of law”.

Bajrang Dal activists have been involved in bomb blasts often blaming it on Muslims, so as to prove their stance on Muslims being responsible for the terror activities in India. Today spokesmen of the Congress led UPA Government in India are asking for a ban on Bajrang Dal. The faster it is done the better it would be for India as a country as there is every reason to believe that it may just implode from within as political parties like BJP have undertaken a mad, mad cannonball run.

RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal and its activities

The RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hegdewar is the ideological fountainhead of the modern Hindutva movement. Organized around the concept of Shakas, a local cell formation where young men would gather for physical and ideological training, under the tutelage of a brother or dada, the RSS ideology as

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ers espousing the national cause was articulated over the next decade or more. Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, who

was appointed the head of RSS shortly before his death by Hegdewar, clarifi ed the idea of the nation in his treatise: "We, or Our Nationhood Defi ned": We believe that our notions today about the Nation are errone-ous... It is but proper therefore, at this stage, to understand what the Western Scholars state as the Universal Nation idea and correct ourselves.

Based on a racial idea of Nation, Golwalkar in praise of Hitler says: To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races - the Jews... Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profi t by”.

These Hindu extremist organizations are also imparting military training to Hindu youth for taking on non-Hindus. The formal training is now underway to ensure the spread of a militant ideology. The Shiv Sena chief has condoned the arms training of the Bajrang Dal. He also mentioned that the Indian army is ill-prepared for war and that his political party, the Shiv Sena also will be arming their cadre.

http://news.indya.com/india2006sena.html At the Sarojini Nagar Camp of Lucknow this is what was re-leased to media: “The number of people being trained in the Sarojini Nagar camp at present is 100. But according to the convener of UP branch of Bajrang Dal, Avadh Bihari Mishra, the objective of this camp is to prepare a group of two thousand trained and active young men who could train a million youth in martial arts and handling of arms in camps at various places. In addition to this, the objective is also to create such atmosphere and mentality which was seen in the country at the time of demolition of Babri Masjid.”

Women branch of RSS/Bajrang Dal armed militants

Among the Sangh Parivar’s affi liate organizations actively participating in giving training in martial arts are the RSS’s women’s branch (Rashtriya Sevika Samiti), the Bajrang Dal and the Bajrang Dal’s women’s branch (Durga Vahini). Though training camps and trainings are not new for these organiza-tions (they have been imparting training in “lathi” wielding and riot mongering for a long time), they have now started arming their volunteers in a military pattern. http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/01092001/31.htm

Though the current training exercises are being carried out with air-guns, the Bajrang Dal state chief Ved Prakash Sachan said he plans to give volunteers a feel of real guns. “This is the induc-tion stage. Later we will train our boys with proper guns and rifl es,” he admitted over the telephone, while claiming, “This is part of our drill to ensure protection of Hindus.”

Females activists of Durga Vahini, the women wing of Ba-jrang Dal are being imparted weapons and sword training at

its camps for taking part in future activities against minorities

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Sachan is personally supervising the camp, which was not the fi rst of its kind in the state. According to him, similar camps have been held in Varanasi, Mathura and Meerut. http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jun/25bd.htm

Chronology of terrorist activities by Bajrang Dal, RSS

♦ Aug 25, 2008 : Two die in Kanpur when a bomb explodes. It transpires these were Bajrang Dal activ-ists who were making explosives.

♦ Aug-Sept 2008: Spate of attacks on Christians in Orissa and Karnataka. Karnataka unit head Mahen-dra Kumar arrested. Home ministry says Bajrang Dal is behind the attacks

♦ April 2006: Two Bajrang Dal activists die in Nanded while making bombs. Of them included a suspect of the 2003 Parbhani mosque blasts

♦ Jan 1999 : Dal mob led by its local leader, Dara Singh, burnt alive a Christian priest Graham Stains and his two little sons in Orissa

And the list continues as the saffron assault brigade takes charge of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra. The Bajrang Dal is said to have been at the forefront of murderous gangs that killed Muslims and burnt their homes in Gujarat in 2002. On several occasions, Dal activists have acted as moral police, catching unmarried couples on Valentine's Day and forc-ing them to apply sindoor or tie rakhi against their wishes. The record of Bajrang Dal's lawlessness is endless. And now the Dal, the 24-year-old sword-arm of the Hindutva brigade, is in the news again — as almost always, for wrong reasons. A number of political leaders have been demanding its ban.

In the middle of September, anti-church violence erupted in Mangalore where prayer halls of the evangelist New Life order were attacked. Soon vi-olence enveloped other denominations, and then churches in the new economy city of Bangalore were vandalized. A month earlier similar anti-Christian attacks rocked Orissa and trouble is still simmering there.

In the middle of the violence that broke out in Mangalore was the fi gure of Mahendra Kumar, Bajrang Dal "convener" for the state, who claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, said they were a "spontaneous Hindu upsurge". While the Dal said it was infl amed by New Life's "conversion activities", prayer halls were not the only targets. The Adoration monastery, where nuns live a cloistered life, dedicated to prayer, was not spared either, its windows broken and crucifi x vandalized. Saffron groups and Christian organizations have clashed over conversions and re-conversions as they jostle for infl uence from remote tribal homelands of

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ers Rajasthan's Banswara to the north-east.

Human Rights report of violence against Christains/Minorities in India by saf-fron parties

“Christians are the new scapegoat in India's political battles. Without immediate and decisive action by the government, communal tensions will continue to be exploited for political and economic ends”,says Smita Narula Researcher, Asia Division of Human Rights Watch

The problem is that poverty is eating into India and the people are finding Christianity a lucrative option with many NGO’s working overnight for conversions. Conversions are not forced upon yet they number highly due to the desperate living conditions in India which have been worsened by the food shortages. An escape from death in return of a faith that has only served them humiliation is considered a fair deal by many down-trodden Indians. It is basically in Northeast of India that includes states like interiors of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura where conversions have been high. Down South it is Orrissa, Kerala, Karna-taka where Christain NGO’s have gone overboard with the conversions. And that is irking the saffron parties since they are seeing this to their own dream of ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and that is where the problem begins.

The Indian government has failed to prevent increasing violence against Christians and is exploiting com-munal tensions for political ends, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released this month. The 37-page report, Politics by Other Means: Attacks Against Christians in India, details of violence against Christians in the months ahead of the country's national parliamentary elections in September and October 1999, and in the months following electoral victory by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party, known as the BJP) in the state of Gujarat. began its rule in mid of March 1998. They include the killings of priests, the raping of nuns, and the physical destruction of Christian institutions, schools, churches, colleges, and cemeteries. Thousands of Christians have also been forced to convert to Hinduism.

The report concludes that as with attacks against Muslims in 1992 and 1993, attacks against Christians are part of a concerted campaign of right-wing Hindu organizations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar, to promote and exploit communal clashes to increase their political power-base. The movement is supported at the local level by militant groups who operate with impunity.

Conclusion

When Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a charismatic Hindu priest fond of violence against Christian mission-aries, was shot dead in the eastern state of Orissa in August, police blamed “Naxalite” Maoists. But hardliner Hindu groups decided Christians were responsible. In an ensuing rampage, dozens of churches were burned, tens of thousands of Christians fled their homes, and at least 20 people died. By this week the violence had touched four more states. In Karnataka in the south, 20 churches have been desecrated in a few days.

India’s Hindu majority and its tiny Christian minority mostly rub along peacefully. But since the early 1990s, the rise of ideological Hindutva (“Hinduness”) and of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), now the main opposition, has seen intermittent outbreaks of sometimes vicious agitation against Christian missionaries. They are accused of forcibly converting poor Hindus. Gauri Prasad Rath, general secretary of

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the Vishnu Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council, in Orissa, says that the thuggery was caused by, “the fraudulent conversions Christians are doing. They burned their own churches.”

However the claims of VHP are mere accusations as all the funds Christian organizations get from abroad are thoroughly monitored by government in India, as opposed to the huge funds Hindu extremist organizations like VHP, RSS and Bajrand Dal spending on different terrorist activities which have never been audited.

It is true that missionaries are busy in much of India, especially the tribal belt that runs through Orissa. Here, traditionally nature-worshipping forest dwellers, among India’s poorest people, have found institutional Chris-tianity, with its free schools and health care, especially attractive. Indeed many church leaders believe that the proportion of Indian Christians is a couple of percentage points higher than the census reckoning of 2.3%. In six of the 12 states ruled by the BJP, either on its own or in coalition, laws designed to discourage Hindus from switching faiths by banning forced conversions have been introduced. Convictions, however, are rare. Muhammed Shafi Qureshi, chairman of the government-appointed National Commission for Minorities, says on inquiring as to how many people had been convicted under the state’s 1967 law; the answer was none.

Tensions have been exacerbated by a row over “reservations”, the affirmative-action benefits, such as privi-leged access to government jobs and education, afforded to low-caste Hindus.

Most Hindu converts to Christianity come from the lower castes but lose these benefits when they switch faiths. Their calls for inclusion in the system have infuriated many Hindus.

With general elections due by next May, such issues have proved effective rallying cries for Hindu groups aligned with the BJP. Mr Qureshi points out that Karnataka, scene of some of the worst violence, this year voted in its first BJP government. The party is also part of the ruling coalition in Orissa. “This madness”, he says, “is political.”

Every conflict can be explained in more than one way, but historians know that one way of sifting out bad explanations is to look for plausibility.

Here, we’re being asked to believe that the thousands of extremely poor people who make up the populations of these relief camps are self-arsonists running a compensation scam. This is not just a bad explanation; it’s an explanation made in bad faith. What we’re seeing in Orissa is the attempt to replicate Gujarat’s ‘success’ and Golwalkar’s object on a smaller scale.

Thus, Christians are driven out of their homes to live in limbo as destitute, vagrant wards of the State in camps, or else allowed to return to their villages as neo-Hindus purged of an alien possession. This is, or should be, unacceptable. The use of murder, rape and arson against civilian communities to achieve a political object (in this case ethnic cleansing) is a form of terror, and this republic’s government needs to treat it as such.

As the violence spreads to many districts of India against Christians after Orissa episode, other minorities including Muslism are also being targetted. Just today (October 12, 2008, Sunday) six Muslims of a family including 3 children were burnt to death at Watoli village Andhra Pardesh district when their house was set on fire. The village is 13 km far from the communal violence-hit Bhainsa town. Three bodies were charred beyond recognition, the rest were burnt partially, police said.

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Keeping in view the numerous incidents of violence and massacre of minorities at the hands of extremist Hindus in India, the credentials of being a Secular country are highly questionable.

The slogan of being biggest democracy and a secular country seems only a rhetoric and catchy phrase to bluff the world.

Though recently US and UN have expressed concern over massacre of Christians by Hindu fanatics in India but there is a need for more strong a measure to be taken by the international community in this regard.

The world should take notice of the brutalities being meted to minorities including Christians and Muslims and low cast Dalits by Hindu extremists in India; the matter should be taken for debate in the United Nations by the world so that these oppressed people of India can get some justice.

Hindu Zionist fascism – the terror needs to be dealt with

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Note: Article was orginally published by Brasstacks on 26th September 2008.

India launched a ruthless media and diplomatic offensive against Pakistan in 2007 after the Samjhuta Express bombing. After the Mumbai attacks in 2008, Indians took their diplomatic offensive to a whole new level globalizing the regional issue of terrorism. ISI and Pakistan army were the primary targets. Indians have been desperately trying to implicate Pakistani security institutions in these attacks since 26/11. Though nothing could be ever proved against these Pakistani security institutes but it did provide India an opportunity to corner Pakistan on every global forum. On the other hand, Pakistani foreign office and artificially installed “democratic” government failed splendidly in countering this Indian onslaught on any forum.

All this diplomatic maneuvering by Indians was a mere cover up to conceal the internal home grown terror inspired by the centuries old Hindutva ideology. It vows to turn India into a united state where only Hindus would live. All other minorities would have to be converted to Hinduism or must accept the second class citizens within India.

After four years of Samjhuta Express incident, now Indians’ strategy has blown to their faces. India has been crying foul and blaming Pakistan for every terror act taking place in India without investigations just like cold-blooded killing of over 60 Pakistanis in Smajhuta Express blasts which have now been proven to be an act of terrorism by Indian Saffron brigade. The most shocking aspect of this entire saga is the involvement and close linkage of Indian army personnel in terrorism and links with Hindu terrorist groups.

Recent revelations and confession of Hindutva terrorists have made Indian case very fragile on Mumbai as well. Captured RSS terrorists, almost on daily basis, are exposing a new dimension of multiple terrorist attacks on Indian soil carried out by the Saffron brigade during the last 4 years. Right now, saffron brigade is the big-gest assets of Indian government to use against Pakistan in her 4th generation warfare against Pakistan.

Current investigations also prove that Saffron brigade has been pursuing its own agenda bypassing Indian state and its institutes since independence. This is alarming situation for the Indian government and state. Ac-cording to reports, a plan was hatched to assassinate the Indian vice president as well by the same terrorists.

Saffron Terror

Farzana Shah

A Threat for Global Peace 2

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den threat to regional and global peace due to its deep penetration in Indian armed forces and governments and its links with other anti-Pakistan intelligence agencies like Afghan RAMA and Israeli Mossad.

The history of Hindu terrorism is spread far beyond this fresh probe having deep roots leading to post-Independence era.

Hindutva and its History

Hindutva ideology revolves around the idea of Hindu nationalism but it exists only on the fringes of Hindu-tva dogma. To the core, Hindutva is an anti-non Hindu, fascist and violent ideology declaring Hinduism the only acceptable religion in India. This violent religious dogma provides the underpinnings of all the violent atrocities carried out by the Hindu extremists against the minorities within India particularly against Indian Muslims.

The rail of Hindu terrorism is decades old. A detailed study of post-Independence India shows the era is full of incidents involving Hindu extremists in aggravating communal situations, targeting particular communities, and aiding and abetting riots.

The Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh at the time of Partition, Rajeshwar Dayal in his 1999 memoirs “A Life of Our Times” states “damning evidence of RSS chief Golwalkar’s plans to conduct a pogrom against Mus-lims.”

Similarly Mohandas Gandhi’s secretary, Pyarelal Nayyar during those tumultuous times, wrote “It was com-mon knowledge that the RSS (Hindu militant organization)… had been behind the bulk of the killings in

Burning the cross - Christians under fire!

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Contrary to claims of Indians that Hindu militant groups of Sangh Parivar gained momentum only since 1990s, various commissions that have looked into communal riots since 1947 have gathered significant evi-dence on the role of the RSS and affiliated organizations.

These commissions include the Reddy Commission, which in 1969 looked into rioting in Gujarat; the Justice Madon Commission, which analysed the riots in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra, in the early 1970s; the Justice Vithay-athil Commission, which probed the 1971 Tellicherry riots – all of these provide solid details of the involve-ment of either the RSS or its mass political platform, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, in fomenting the trouble.

Recently when hundreds of Chris-tians were massacred by these same Hindu terrorists, the evangelists and even Rome was alarmed but terror-ism against Christians is as old as ter-rorism against Muslims in India.

The Kanyakumari riots against Christians in 1982 are another exam-ple of this terrorism involving once again Hindu terrorist group RSS.

Justice Venugopal in his report over these riots in 1982 indicting RSS for its role in instigating violence against Christians states that RSS methodol-ogy was “rousing communal feelings in the majority community; deepening fear in the majority community; infiltrating into the state administra-tion; training young people of the majority community in the use of weapons; and spreading rumours to widen communal splits.

The Hindu groups impart armed training to its members which is called shakhas under the rubric of physical training. Justice Venugopal in his report commenting on armed training said that the aim appeared to be “to inculcate an attitude of militancy and training for any kind of civil strife”.

Saffron Terror and its Implications

Despite having the historical proofs of presence of home grown religious militant organizations inspired by Hindutva, Indian governments and state institutions always look outside to find perpetrators after every vio-lent incident on Indian soil. Indian RAW and right wing political parties have been supporting and nurturing the terrorist groups motivated by Hindutva. For Indian security establishment, it was a quick remedy to unite profoundly deteriorating Indian nation under a cruel class base system where high level insurgencies have tak-en over the state in more than 600 districts. Creating an external enemy to keep the country unite was also ap-pealing for the governments as well so turning a blind eye to Saffron brigade became an essential imperative.

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to blame Pakistan and her security institutions for supporting and conducting terrorist attacks in the India.

But over the time, this self-grown Frankenstein is now has grown too big to be controlled by Indian govern-ment or its institutions. Now, the Indian politics, media, security institution and law enforcement agencies have been caught in its clutching hands. It has been come to the light recently that Col. Purohit was not only involved in the Samjhuta Express and Malegaon bombings but he also hatched a plan to execute Indian vice president Hameed Ansari to put blame on Pakistan in order to trigger a nuclear war between the two coun-tries. Though the plan was failed due to some internal differences between the conspirators but this explains the capability and will of this terror network to pursue their agenda.

Saffron terror network has its own goals at local, regional and global level. On the local level, aim is to sup-press the minorities particularly the Muslims and Sikhs as both are more prominent.this phase has been un-derway since August 15, 1947 and so far more than 3.2 million Sikhs; more than 500,000 Muslims; more than 312,500 Christians; over 15,000 Tamils; more than 15,000 civilians of the 7-sister of Assam have been killed by the Indian army; hundreds of thousand Dalits; hundreds of thousands of Adivaasis or Moolnivasis are also among the victims.

On the regional level, the goal is to blame Pakistan and ISI for every terrorist attack in India to get more and more support from within Indian society against Pakistan. This interest of saffron brigade is unanimous with Delhi’s foreign policy towards Pakistan. This was the main reason why Indian governments knowingly ignore this threat and now this same network is threatening the existence of India. Igniting communal riots and violence remains the preferred method of saffron brigade at this level as it paves the way for them to unleash their terror monster once the situation get burst into flames. Gujrat massacre of 2002 is most graphical mani-festation of this method where RSS activists killed thousands of Muslims.

In long run, to accomplish the grand agenda of Akhand Baharat by eliminating state of Pakistan and make India a global dominating player. Pakistan is ultimate challenge for the Hindutva ideology. This goal is also in line with Delhi’s dreams but Saffron brigade would use its own mechanism for getting this done as it is evident by the plots of sparking a nuclear conflict between Pakistan and India after the assassination of high profile Indian leader.

Just like Al-Qaeda’s violent ideology, Saffron terror is a real and existential threat to Indian state, regional peace and global security. It is interesting to note that when Pakistani security forces are busy in a ruthless and cut-throat war against Al-Qaeda and its affiliated terrorist outfits in Western theater, India’s saffron terror network not only continue to pursuing its agenda of Akhand Baharat with impunity but also enjoy full backing of powerful circles in the Indian establishment. Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) intervened in ATS’s investiga-tions in 2008 when, under the Karkare, during a narco-analysis test Col Purohit confessed having supplied the RDX used in Samjhuta Express blasts and it was IB which briefed Indian PM that Pakistani ISI carried out these blasts. No inquiry ever launched to probe why IB wanted to derail the Karkare’s investigations? One possible reason might be the powers of IB enjoys and close links it has with Indian PM office. Former Maha-rashtra police chief, S.M. Mushrif in his book “Who Killed Karkare?” also hinted about a “power establish-ment” running Delhi’s day to day business instead of Indian PM or Congress.

It would be interesting to see what long term implications Hindutva holds for the Indian state? The picture

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looks very bleak for India in not so distant future. At local level, Hindutva is tearing apart the national cohe-sion within India as Hindutva hate speeches are continue to spread among masses enraging both Hindu and minorities against each other. On regional level, India can suffer nuclear annihilation in a conflict with Pakistan which Saffron brigade is trying to spark which may turn into a full blown global war considering the regional security profile. India would be once again on receiving end if that happens.

For the first time Indian political establishment has sensed the threat of saffron terror and now congress lead-ership is making statements declaring saffron terror the biggest threat but these statements are just for public and global media consumption. No inquiry at any level within Indian security establishment has been launched to probe links with Hindutva terror outfits.

Rahul Gandhi, widely expected to be a future Prime Minister of India, was quoted by wikileaks that he be-lieved the growth of Hindu extremists presented a greater threat to India than Muslim militants.According to a cable obtained by WikiLeaks, last year Gandhi told the United States Ambassador to New Delhi, Timothy Roemer:

"Although there was evidence of some support for Laskar-e-Taiba among certain elements in India's indig-enous Muslim community, the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalised Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community."

The main opposition party of India BJP was outraged by his comments the testimony of Swami Aseemanand, which suggests many of those involved in the bombing plots were members of religious organisations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has proven that Rahul is right. The RSS is considered the BJP's ideological parent.

Recent exposure of assassination plot of Indian vice president endorse this as well where RSS leader Indresh Kumar, sharing close links with Sunil Joshi (Mecca Masjid blasts convicted) and BJP leader B.L Sharma was named by Indian News services Headlines Today as main conspirators. Indresh is said to be close aide of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and have immense clout in BJP as well. Exposure also proves that Saffron terror network has direct ties with Indian political setup as well.

Saffron Terror: From Convictions to Confessions

Indian media and diplomacy has done a spectacular job, presented India as world’s largest secular democracy where religion has no role in national politics. Nothing can be far from reality. The unfolding reality of saffron brigade, inspired by violent hindutva ideology, especially after confession by Swami Aseemanand, (the Hindu religious figure running an ashram for converting Christians to Hindu in Gujrat) after conviction of serving Indian army officers in terrorism, has unearthed the involvement of Hindutva leaders, including himself, in planning and executing a series of gruesome terror attacks across India. These revelations have terrorized the world.

On 16 December 2010, Naba Kumar Sarkar, 59 — popularly known as Swami Aseemanand (Hindu pundit) Aseemanand –had requested the Delhi magistrate Deepak Dabas to record his confession about his involve-ment in a string of terror attacks. He stated that he was making the confession without any fear, force, coer-cion or inducement.

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is the first legal evidence of involvement of Hindu organization, RSS and its al-lied groups of Saffron Brigade and In-dian army personnel, in the Samjhauta Express massacre, Malegaon blasts, Mecca Masjid incident and Ajmer Sha-reef blasts.

On 18 December 2010, Aseemanand started confession before the magistrate. “I know I can be sentenced to the death penalty but I still want to make the confession,” Asee-manand said.

He claimed the attacks were launched in response to the actions of Muslim militants. "I told everybody that we should answer bombs with bombs," Swami Aseemanand. But he could not tell the courts which bombs he was trying to reply with his own. But his statement is testimonial proof of what Hindutva ideology thinks of their fellow countrymen only because they belong to a different religion. This statement has exposed the façade of peace and non-violent ideology of Hinduism and so-called desire of peace in the region and real hidden motives.

"I suggested that 80 per cent of the people of Malegaon were Muslims and we should explode the first bomb in Malegaon itself. I also said that during partition, the Nizam of Hyderabad had wanted to go with Pakistan so Hyderabad was also a fair target. Then I said that since Hindus also throng [a Sufi shrine in] Ajmer we should also explode a bomb in Ajmer which would deter the Hindus from going there. I also suggested the Aligarh Muslim University as a target."

This confessional statement vividly explains the typical Hindu mindset towards Pakistan. Indeed Indian di-plomacy with help of national media and Bollywood has done excellent job in concealing this hateful typical Indian mindset towards Pakistan. Taking advantage of this, hidutva masterminds kept on indoctrinate Indian

youth with their venomous ideas regarding other minorities in India and their status. Essentially, hindutva vows to convert Buddhists back to Hinduism while Muslim must remain in India only as second class citizens. This horrifying ideology is tearing apart, already weakened, Indian cohesion on religious basis. Apart from

Swami Aseemanand and a photograph of his 42-page con-fessional statement presented before the magistrate.

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that, there is a clear divide within class based Hindu community as well. Lower caste Hindus (Dalits), since centuries, has been a subject to atrocities and oppression of higher caste (Brahminy) but with passage of time, Dalits are now seeking to break this centuries old curse of racist oppression of Brahmin. This is one of main

driving force behind the countless insurgencies going on inside India.

Following are the terror attacks that were carried out by Hindu militant groups but were falsely blamed on innocent Muslims in India and Pakistani ISI. Dozens of Muslim youth are still languishing in Indian jails after being accused.

Though there were clear evidences, pointing towards saffron brigade, were available in each terrorist attack but Indian police, Maharashtra and Andhra police in particular, willingly ignored these evidences and gave the investigation a communal turn by falsely implicating Muslim youth who were detained, tortured to get custo-dial confessions which hold no value in court of law. On the other hand, this provided saffron brigade with an opportunity to unleash more violence against local Muslims.

Indian police in Maharashtra was well aware of saffron terror groups and their possible involvement in vari-ous terrorist attacks across the country a long before this self-confession by Aseemanand. Account of slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s investigations by Col. Purohit explains in details how local police has been compromised and penetrated by the hindutva terror brigade. In November 2008, Karkare, taking

SAFFRON TERROR ATTACKSSamjhauta Express

In February 2007, two firebombs exploded on a train commonly known as the “Friendship Express”, which travels across the Indo-Pakistani border. Most of the 68 victims and 50 injured were of Pakistani origin. Three more unexploded suitcase bombs were later found on the train as well.

Mecca Masjid

In May 2007,an attack on the Mecca Masjid , in Hyderabad’s old city, left 14 people dead with five apparently killed by police firing on a furious mob after the incident. Swami Aseemanand said that the site was chosen because the local administrator wanted Hyderabad to be a part of Pakistan during partition.

Malegaon

In September 2008, three bomb blasts killed 37 people in the Muslim-majority city of Malegaon, situated about 250km northeast of Maharashtra’s state capital, Mumbai. Muslims had been attending prayers when the bombs exploded in a sacred burial ground, also injuring more than 125 people.

Ajmer Shareef

A famous Muslim shrine in the city of Ajmer in Rajasthan, about 350km southwest of Delhi, was targeted by bomb attacks in October. Two people were killed and 17 injured near the scared shrine, which houses the tomb of a 13th-century Sufi saint. Swami Aseemanand said the blast was intended to deter Hindus from go-ing there.

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Pandey, Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and others. He communicated to the Hyderabad police the shocking findings of his investigations where Col. Purohit claimed that he stole RDX explosive from an army depot from Jammau and Kashmir in 2006. But instead of taking necessary steps, Hyderabad police picked 70 Muslims youths and tortured them at private farmhouse to extract confessions. Similarly, Haryana ATS team, investigating the Samjhauta Express blast was fully know that the suitcase carrying the RDX was pur-chased from Kothari Market in Indore but Haryana ATS appeared too weak to pursue any further investigations.

It was only after the seizure of 37 audio tapes from Pandey’s laptop that featured all these people discussing their terror activities when name of Swami Aseemanand came to light. Aprt from that, the Rajasthan ATS’ recent charge sheet on the 2007 Ajmer Sha-rif blast, also points to a deep rooted home grown terrorism in India for which Indian government accused Pakistan as part of her diplomatic offensive.

But despite afore mentioned arrests, majority of the Indians remained in denial mode till date and the down-trodden Muslims in India paid the price for Hindu terrorism.

In the wake of blasts in Mumbai in 1992, a biased damaging perception was carried by Indians, ever since, that Muslims hand is behind every terror blast in India. Many of these Muslim boys spent many years in Indian jails for no crime; some are still languishing inside, with no hope for a future once they are out.

So, what made Assessmand to confess his role in these attacks? certainly not his desire of peace but it was an encounter with 21 years old Abdul Kaleem in a cell of Indian jail that forced the Hindu mastermind of many blasts, to confess after Kaleem, through his demeanor and disposition, showed Aseemanand the real meanings of humanity. Kaleem was put in the jail twice after falsely accused for carrying out bomb blast in Mecca Masjid in 2007. In his statement he told the Judge,

“Sir, when I was lodged in Chanchalguda district jail in Hyderabad, one of my co-inmates was Kaleem. Dur-ing my interaction with Kaleem I learnt that he was previously arrested in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case and he had to spend about one and- a-half years in prison. During my stay in jail, Kaleem helped me a lot and used to serve me by bringing water, food, etc for me. I was very moved by Kaleem’s good conduct and my conscience asked me to do prayschit (penance) by making a confessional statement so that real culprits can be punished and no innocent has to suffer.”

Making of Swami Aseemanand

A cursory look at the life of Swami and his making-over as a terror master mind rings a bell why the worlds should be feeling more threatened by rise of Hindutva terrorism as a sleeping monster that could unleashed destruction upon the world. With more and more educated Hindus joining Hindu militants is an aspect mak-ing inroads into Indian army which is dangerous specially keeping in the view the ideology of Hindutva that considers India only belongs to Hindus and there is no place for Non-Hindus.

Swami Aseemanand who’s real name is NABA KUMAR was originally from Kamaarpukar village in Hooghly

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district in West Bengal India. In 1971, after completing his BSc (honours) from Hooghly, Naba Kumar went to Bardman district to pursue his Master in Science.He was involved with RSS activities from school. In 1977, he started working full-time with the RSS-run Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Purulia and Bankura districts. In 1981, his guru Swami Parmanand rechristened him as Swami Aseemanand.

From 1988 to 1993, he served with the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA) at Andaman and Nicobar islands. Be-tween 1993 and 1997, he toured across India to deliver sermons on Hindu religion among the tribals. In 1997, he settled down in the Dangs district in Gujarat and started a tribal welfare organization called Shabri Dham but in reality it was a place to convert Christians to Hindus. Aseemanand was known in the area for his rabid anti-minority speeches and his relentless campaign against Christian missionaries. VKA is working all over India with same promise of “saving” Hindu culture and ideology.

There are some shocking rather disturbing aspects of how Swami Aseemanand reached to a level of master-minding and controlling terrorist outfits. He was a highly educated person holding Master of Science (MS) degree but it is amazing how such well educated person could not prevent religious violent dogma having sway over him. Answer lies in the well established mechanism of hindutva indoctrination which begins working on young minds at very young ages in countless Ashrams spread all over India. These Ashrams build basic believes of all the students there. This is the reason, why Hindutva ideology has successfully penetrated in In-dian state politics, military and religious organizations. The whole concept of nationalism and patriotism gets mixed up with violent hate ideology of hindutva due to hate speeches delivered during the education in these Ashrams many of which are run by RSS and other militant Hindu outfits. Most of the time, young minds fail to comprehend what they are actually following; national pride or the religious abhorrence?

Aseemanand is seen as being close to the RSS leadership. In the past, leaders like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, former RSS chief KS Sudarshan and current chief Mohan Bhagwat have attended religious functions organised by him at Shabri Dham. This explains the links of Indian politicians and hindutva run terror machine. Penetration of this ideology is more vivid in Indian army.

Saffron Brigade and Indian army

The links of Indian army with Hindu terrorists groups came to fore when chief of Maharashtra ATS Chief Hemant Karkare while investigation into the 2008 Malegaon blast first blew the lid off Hindutva terror cell and its connections to military establishment.

Lt Col Purohit was arrested by Karkare who was attached with the military intelligence unit at Nashik. This was the time when a shocking relegations came to light that Indian army serving Lt. Col Purohit was found involved in planning and providing explosive for attacks on Samjhauta Express. After his confession, many Indian army serving and retired officers have been accused and investigated. A brief list is given below.

The exact influence of hindutva within Indian military remains speculative but involvement of Generals and military academy in-charge, as in case of Col Jayant Chitale, indicates that these “non-state actors” within Indian national security infrastructure have considerable powers to execute their own version of “Operation Northwood”. (CIA planned covert operation during 1960’s to carry out false flag operations to put blame on USSR and Cuba.) Gen (R ) Hoon and Col Chitale formed maiden suicide bombing squad in the region.

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HINDUTVA’S DEADLY PLATOON

INDRESH KUMAR, a member of the RSS Central Committee. Three accused, Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma and Shivam Dhakad, and one witness, Bharat Riteshwar, have stated before the CBI that Indresh had mentored and financed the RSS pracha-raks behind Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid terror strikes.

SWAMI ASEEMANAND, the head of the RSS-affiliated Van Vasi Kalyan Ashram, Shabri Dham in Dangs, Gu-jarat. He has confessed to playing the role of an ideologue to the terrorists. Besides presiding over terror meetings held in Dangs and Valsad in Gujarat, he also selected Malgeaon, Ajmer Sha-rif and Hyderabad as terror targets.

SUNIL JOSHI, a former RSS pracharak of Mhow district. He was expelled from the RSS after being accused in the mur-der of two Congress activists in Madhya Pradesh in 2006. Along with a few RSS pracharaks and Hindu radicals from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Jharkhand, he formed an inter-state terror infrastructure.

SANDEEP DANGE, a senior RSS pracharak from Shajapur district near Indore. Along with Joshi and Ramchan-dra Kalsangra, he was a key figure in the long running conspiracy to bomb Muslim places of worship and Muslim neigbour-hoods. He is currently absconding.

RAM CHANDRA KALSANGRA ALIAS RAMJI, an RSS pracharak from Madhya Pradesh. He carried out ter-ror strikes in different places between December 2002 and 29 September 2008 (when bombs went off simultane-ously in Malegaon and Modasa). He has been absconding since October 2008.

SHIVAM DHAKHAD, an RSS activ-ist and associate of accused Joshi and Ramji Kalsangra. Along with other RSS pracharaks, he allegedly took train-ing in bomb-making in 2005. He also did the reconnaissance of Aligarh Muslim University and residence of Justice UC Banerjee (chairman of the Godhra commission) for terror strikes.

HINDUTVA’S DEADLY PLATOON

INDRESH KUMAR, a member of the RSS Central Committee. Three accused, Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma and Shivam Dhakad, and one witness, Bharat Riteshwar, have stated before the CBI that Indresh had mentored and financed the RSS pracha-raks behind Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid terror strikes.

SWAMI ASEEMANAND, the head of the RSS-affiliated Van Vasi Kalyan Ashram, Shabri Dham in Dangs, Gu-jarat. He has confessed to playing the role of an ideologue to the terrorists. Besides presiding over terror meetings held in Dangs and Valsad in Gujarat, he also selected Malgeaon, Ajmer Sha-rif and Hyderabad as terror targets.

SUNIL JOSHI, a former RSS pracharak of Mhow district. He was expelled from the RSS after being accused in the mur-der of two Congress activists in Madhya Pradesh in 2006. Along with a few RSS pracharaks and Hindu radicals from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jammu and Jharkhand, he formed an inter-state terror infrastructure.

SANDEEP DANGE, a senior RSS pracharak from Shajapur district near Indore. Along with Joshi and Ramchan-dra Kalsangra, he was a key figure in the long running conspiracy to bomb Muslim places of worship and Muslim neigbour-hoods. He is currently absconding.

RAM CHANDRA KALSANGRA ALIAS RAMJI, an RSS pracharak from Madhya Pradesh. He carried out ter-ror strikes in different places between December 2002 and 29 September 2008 (when bombs went off simultane-ously in Malegaon and Modasa). He has been absconding since October 2008.

SHIVAM DHAKHAD, an RSS activ-ist and associate of accused Joshi and Ramji Kalsangra. Along with other RSS pracharaks, he allegedly took train-ing in bomb-making in 2005. He also did the reconnaissance of Aligarh Muslim University and residence of Justice UC Banerjee (chairman of the Godhra commission) for terror strikes.

BHARAT RATESWAR ALIAS BHARATB-HAI, the head of Sri Vivekananda Kendra Sansthan in Valsad district, Gujarat. As a close associate of Aseemanand, he participat-ed in several terror meetings held at his resi-dence and also at Shabri Dham ashram. He also travelled with Joshi to Jharkhand and Ut-tar Pradesh providing logistics for the blasts.

YOGI ADITYANATH, BJP MP from Gora-khpur. He was contacted by Aseemanand to provide funds for terrorist activities. Joshi held a hush-hush meeting with him at his Gorakhpur residence in 2006, at the time when the conspiracy to carry out multiple blasts was underway. According to Asee-manand, he didn’t give much support. But he continues to be under suspicion.

DR ASHOK VARSHNAY, RSS prant pracha-rak of Kanpur. He sheltered key terror ac-cused and RSS pracharak Devendra Gupta at Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Vishwa Mangal Gau Gram Yatra in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, while Gupta was on the run. Varshnay has told investigators that he had shielded Gupta at the behest of Indresh Kumar.

LT COL SHRIKANT PUROHIT, a founding member of terror out-fit Abhinav Bharat. He was posted with the military intelligence unit at Nashik. He allegedly tried to draft in other army officers in his terror out-fit. He is accused of supplying RDX for the 2008 Malegaon blasts.

DEVENDRA GUPTA, the RSS vibhag pracharak of Muzaffarnagar, Bihar. He provided logistics to Joshi, Kalsangra and Dange for terror strikes. He also harboured Kalsangra and Dange in RSS offices while they were on the run

LOKESH SHARMA, an RSS worker and close associate of Joshi, Dange and Kalsangra. He purchased the two Nokia handsets that were used to trigger the bombs at Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif.

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These exposures made it clear that either Indian premier intelligence agency, RAW is actively part of it or has been compromised after cadres of Hindutva penetrate in the agency and are now providing cover to the activities of organizations like RSS. Without active support of RAW it is not possible to carry out these mas-sive training programs, coordination among different groups spread all over India and abroad, Only a state intelligence organization like RAW can make all this happen.

(NOTE: Brasstacks has covered, in detail, the evil nexus between Indian army and Hindutva terrorists ex-clusively in its September 2010 issue. For more detail please get the issue or visit (http://www.brasstacks.pk) In all its covert operations carried out, inside Pakistan, RAW always used terrorists trained by Hidutva organi-zations and in return RAW and intelligence agencies turned a blind eye to whatever these organizations were doing to the minorities in India be it Muslims, Christians or Sikhs, no one is immune to this dormant infection of Hindutva in Indian society.

Unfortunately, Karkare was killed mysteriously within first 15 minutes of 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. It hap-pened when whole Indian media was buzzed by the claims of Col. Purohit after Karkare shared the findings of his investigations. Karkare’s wife and many saner sections of India still doubt the account of his killing given by Indian government. Many see hand of Hindu militants in eliminating Karkare to cover up facts about Hindu terrorism and links with Indian army. If true, it would be the biggest testimonial about the vice grip of Hindutva over Indian state institutions like army.

It was not the first time some very strong hands in India wanted ATS to stop investigating Saffron brigade. How strong this cloak and dagger terror cult has become is evident how it covers its tracks after every terrorist attack it carried out. Col. Chitale was saved back in 2002 by hidden hand when ATS was about to reveal his connection with terrorist outfits.

The penetration of Indian army by the saffron brigade is so intense that it created an embarrassing situation

Indian Army Officer

Has been involved in Status

Gen (R) J. J Singh Saffron terror activities till his retire-ment; Col. Purohit’s statement

Retired

Gen (R) Prem-nath Hoon

Establishing militant wing of Shiv Sena while serving in Indian army

Retired

Colonel Jayant Chitale Establishing India’s “secular” sui-cide bombing squad

Retired

Col Shinkar Purohit Providing RDX explosives for Sam-jhuta Express blasts

Convicted

Col Raikar Patel conspiring Malegon and Sam-jhuta Express attacks

Accused / Investigated

Col Hasmukh conspiring Malegon and Sam-jhuta Express attacks

Accused / Investigated

Colonel Bapa-ditya Dhar

conspiring Malegon and Sam-jhuta Express attacks

Accused / Investigated

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for Indian army and its professionalism.

Ex-Indian Army Chief General Kapoor had to state, "Steps are being taken to prevent involvement of its of-ficers in terror attacks". From this statement it seems that he wanted to say "Steps are being taken to prevent any clue to be ended in ATS hands in terror attacks." But in the presence of so many Asharams being run by Hindutva inspired militant organizations, it is not clear how Indian army would able to prevent violent and religiously motivated elements in its ranks.

It is ironic that why he did not announce a broader inquiry to find out remains of this nexus between Indian military and Hindutva terrorists. But after looking at above facts and history of these relations the absence of any such inquiry is not surprising.

Why Saffron terror is bigger threat to world peace

There are untiring efforts going on for securing Pakistani nuclear arsenal as it can fall into wrong hands. Paki-stan army, government, nuclear command authority and every other noticeable public office has made it clear over and again that no such threat exists to Pakistani nuclear weapons but the media trial of Pakistani strategic assets continues to date with no stop in sight in near future. But what international media could not see (or don’t want to see) how saffron terror has penetrated in the file and rank of Indian military.

During the investigations, Col. Purohit was heard on the tape saying “We are all on the same plane – Hindu Rashtra (nation)”. He goes on to claim that “General J.J. Singh (Indian army chief until 2007) is with us”. This statement, even if remotely true, must have ring alarm bells around the globe. But it looks like that some powerful circles within international establishment are impetuously determined to build a case against Paki-stani nuclear weapons while ignoring a much real and gruesome threat of falling of Indian nuclear weapons to saffron terror network. Saffron brigades reach to office of Indian army chief ascertained that long term peace prospects in the region have been endangered immensely.

India had been having civilian governments throughout its history while armed forces have been sidelined in many issues including nukes which are under the civilian government more than the Indian army.

Now with top ranking officials of Indian army having links with Hindu hardliner politicians who are fanatics and running suicide training camps, it is feared that Indian nuclear assets might be slipped into the hands of these saffron brigade who have been ruthlessly killing Christians, Muslims and Dalits in India.

For the last many years, US is trying to bring Pakistan and India on negotiation table and reconcile between the two arch rivals to bring peace in the region in particular and in the world in general.

Since India and Pakistan both are nuclear powers and worsening of relations can trigger a deadly nuke war which will not only affect the region but the world in particular. According to the US defense secretary, Rob-ert Gates, terrorist groups on the both sides are a big hurdle in normalization of relations between the two countries. What Mr. Gates failed to see was what both countries are doing in this regard. Pakistan has banned all such groups, froze their bank accounts and declared them terror outfits but on the other hand situation on Indian side is alarming where Hindu terror groups are roaming free, enjoying power and sabotaging every peace effort initiated by Pakistan.

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It is Pakistan’s diplomatic failure or the sheer brilliance of Indian propaganda team that even the US State Department was made to call the Samjhuta Express attack a joint operation of the LeT and HUJI. While Pakistani embassy in Washington was issuing visas to mercenaries bypassing interior ministry and without taking clearance from Pakistani intelligence agencies, Indians were launching a combined diplomatic offensive to turn the heat against Pakistani nuclear program using excuse of Indian proxies (TTP/LeJ) taking over the control.

Pakistan cannot fight against Saffron terror inside India and Indian government and state institutions are al-ready compromised to a great extend. No one knows who deep the rabbit hole goes. So only option left for Pakistan right now is to counter Indian moves on diplomatic level and aggressively expose the potential threat lurking over the region due to saffron terror.

Suggestions

1. Pakistan must launch a counter attack on India on the diplomatic axis. After 9/11, Pakistani diplomacy towards India took a treacherous U-turn which has been haunting Pakistani security and global perception. These are most appropriate times to counter Indian propaganda against Pakistan for being the epicenter of terrorism in the world.

After the confession and conviction of Hindutva terrorists it must be the top priority of Pakistani FO. All Pakistani embassies around the world must have a specialized task force to engage the foreign governments in this regard and keeping them updated about the potential threats to the global peace Hindutva ideology and Saffron brigade are posing. The penetration of this violent ideology in the file and rank of Indian army must be exposed globally owing the fact that same army also control and manage Indian nuclear arsenal as well.

2. Absence of a ruthless and daring national media policy has remained a critical weakness of Paki-stani efforts to counter Indian propaganda globally. Pakistani diplomatic efforts to counter Indian moves against Pakistan, can only succeed if backed by a strong and affirmative media. Exposing real face of Hindutva is one task for which Pakistan must never count on global media. In this regard, aggres-sive use of cyber space for a strong counter-attack is most critical imperative at this moment in time.

3. As a counter move, it is the time when Pakistan should knock the UN door and out pres-sure for declaring all Hindu extremist groups as terror outfits and for complete ban on these. India case against Pakistan has become too weak now but this opportunity would not remain there for Pakistan forever, so this is the time to act and make Indians to get the taste of their own medicine.

4. Pakistan must aggressively demand handing over of Hindu terrorists to Pakistan by India who are responsible for killing of Pakistanis in Samjhauta express and other incidents. If India can demand similar favor from Pakistan there is nothing stopping Pakistan to reciprocate on the same grounds.

5. Pakistan will also have to cater the plight other non-Hindu minorities facing the menace of Hin-dutva inside India. Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Tamils, Adivaasis and Moolnivasis are also among the victims of saffron terror. Pakistan must highlight the atrocities of saffron brigade against these minorities as well and Pakistani media must give them a voice to get their right to speak back.

India is a disintegrating state, there are factions inside India fighting for their freedom but they do not have

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any diplomatic support and this is where Pakistan can bail them out. Indian coercive diplomacy played a key role in breaking Pakistan in 1971 and now is payback time for them.

Saffron terror is a real threat to global peace and to Pakistan particularly and in the presence of this threat India is now aggressively working for a permanent seat in UNSC. Indian success in this arena would be a fatal blow to Pakistani security and to Kashmir cause particularly. India would be in position to dictate terms and establishing regional and global hegemony using international laws. Pakistan can still impede the Indian aggressive march in global diplomacy but for that Pakistan will have to change its defensive and apologetic diplomatic stance towards India. Only an aggressive diplomatic counter offensive against India can safe Paki-stan’s national interests on military, diplomatic, political and economic axis.

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Note: Article was orginally published in Brasstacks Monthly Security Review. Vol. 1 Number 9 (February, 2011)

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On September 9 after taking the oath as the 12th President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari opined at a joint press conference with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai that there could be a forward movement on resolv-ing the Kashmir issue soon. He said, “Insha Allah, we will have some good news on Kashmir before the general elections in India slated for next year”. He further said that the work done through the back-channel diplomacy will also be part of the drive to solve the Kashmir issue within a year. He did not elaborate upon the Back- Channel diplomacy but the ever vigilant Sheikh Rashid, a former member of the PML-Q and who has now formed his own faction the Awami Muslim League, while addressing a public meeting on September 11 had something startling to reveal that the secret talks were underway in London for the ‘under the table’ deal over Kashmir.

In the recent past some statements of Mr. Zardari that “we should not be held hostage to the Kashmir issue and in-stead should move on”, had drawn flaks from different quarters in Pakistan and IHK. At the same time the recent moves of the Indian government for the transfer of some adjacent land to the Amarnaath shrine has added yet another dimension to the Kashmir problem. It seems a stage is gradually being set for both sides for some give and take on the Kashmir issue. However, it remains to be seen whether such a give and take will be in fa-vour of Pakistan and Kashmiris or it would be tantamount to giving India the cake and letting her to eat it too.

The transfer of Kashmiri land to Amarnath Shrine board by India last month has injected a new spirit in the Kashmiris struggle for self-determination. The sea of Kashmiri people thronging to the roads, participating in large agitational rallies raising pro-independence, pro-Pakistan slogans and carrying green Pakistani flags, has sent shivers down the Indian spine.

The land transfer decision followed by the BJP attempt to give it a religious colour worsened the situation

Kashmir, Amranath Shrine and Dogra Conspiracy

Farzana Shah

Historical perspective of 110-years-old Dogra "conspiracy to lean Kashmir towards

Hindu land instead of Muslim Punjab" finally it ends in a mess.

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iracyfurther forcing Indian government to resort to use of force. The Indian government atrocity coupled with the

BJP’s non-secular tactics helped all the Kashmiri political parties to join hands for freedom.

Never had the valley after 1989 seen such a massive protest and determination by the common Kashmiris which has not only taken the Indian government by surprise but also won the recognition of the well known Indian writers and intellectuals who are now openly asking the Indian government to respect the right of self determination of the Kashmiris.

On the other hand for the fi rst time a communal divide is seen in the in the Indian held Kashmir between the Kashmiri Muslims and Hindus in the Jammu region. Amarnath “Land-for-pilgrims” plan - a plot to create "Israel-type settlements.

Politics of Amarnath Yatra, transfer of land

It is important to examine the issue in its historical perspective to comprehend the politics of the shrine lead-ing to the division of Kashmir on the religious/ communal lines.

Origin

The origin of Amarnath Yatra dates back to the year 1850 A.D, when a Muslim shepherd from Batakot, named Butta Malik fi rst discovered the gigantic cave in which naturally formed ice column is considered Shiv ling, and Hindus walk long way to visit it. In fact Hindus are stunned by the sheer size of this cave, and to add to its magic, dripping and freezing ice did the rest of the work. The cave is huge.

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fi eldThe Amarnath Cave shrine is noted for the formation of the natural ice Linga –formed by the droppings of

ice lets from the rooftop of the vast cave.

Fake Shive Lingam

In the recent years the so-called shiv linga doesn't build naturally, and they "engineer" it to keep the show running.

The resulting shape becomes clumsy and looks fake. In 2006 and 2007 it had melt away even before the com-mencement of the Yatra. In September 2006 Mahant Deependra Giri, custodian of Chhari Mubarak of Lord Shiva, has cited “the raising of artifi cial Shivalingam as reason, among others, for dissociating himself from Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB).

In the next few years the Linga may stop freezing at all. Humidity and heat from too many visitors also causes some melting. It happened in 2007, and could accelerate in coming years.

Shrine board probably wants permanent presence in area in order to install a stealth refrigeration cycle that manages a graceful size for this "impotent god". In 2007 when the Linga melted away once again, the Shrine board had come up with a new idea of air conditioning at the Amarnath cave to prevent the ice lingam from melting.The air conditioners will be on electricity and the electricity needed to operate the cooling panels will be gener-ated from micro-hydro electric plant along the Amravati River, which fl ows close to the cave.

It means on the one hand the board will have a pre-eminent presence in the area while on other hand it is go-ing to occupy the water resources of Kashmiris on the pretext of generating electricity for the shrine.

Hindus as usual, believe in building mountain of lies to redefi ne the history. On internet they have pulled it back to thousands of years, what was never known before 1850.

Ice structure during snowfall season It melted in 2006 even before the Yatra starts

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They hope to use it as a king-pin for Hindu claim on Kashmir, if possible. Interestingly during 150 years his-tory of the cave, the Yarta was extended thrice. Last time it was extended from four weeks to eights weeks by the Indian government, in a bid to draw more Hindus to the site.

BJP calls for Israel-Style settlements in Kashmir

The fears of the Kashmiris regarding changing the demography of Kashmir by settling non-Kashmiris and transfer of land seems becoming true with the statement of BJP leader for Israel-style settlement of Hindus in Kashmir valley.

BJP president Rajnath Singh on Friday (September 13th, 2008) unveiled a deep saffron agenda — that the "road leading to the Amarnath shrine be nationalized", and another controversial suggestion that displaced Kashmiri Pandits be "rehabilitated in special enclaves in the Valley".

While addressing the BJP national executive, he proposed to set up Hindu pockets in the Valley, which clearly exposes that the Amar-nath land-for-pilgrims plan is actually a plot to create "Israel-type settlements. The BJP calls Hindus from Jammu as Nationalists while Muslims in Kashmir Valley as non-National-ists. Thus by nationalizing the road leading to the Amarnath shrine he means to include it in Jammu clearly changing the demography of Muslim Kashmir.

On the same day September 13th, 2008, Hin-du fundamentalist organization the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) called for the di-vision of Jammu and Kashmir in three parts. The RSS in a memorandum which a delega-tion of senior RSS leaders presented to N.N. Vohra - Centre’s interlocutor - reiterated its demand for the statehood for the Jammu region and the Union Territory status for Ladakh by delinking these regions from the Kashmir valley.

Similarly the Shiv Sena fundamentalists have called for an all-out war with Pakistan and forcibly converting Kashmir into Indian Union by doing away with the special status of Held Kashmir.

Kashmir Background

Kashmir has always been a natural part of today's Pakistan and not that of India. The sooner Delhi accepts it, (and they know it) the better it would be for the entire region and the world.Its people, culture, language, rivers, trade, routes all fit naturally with Pakistan and not India.

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fieldDuring the First Anglo-Sikh war of 1845, Gulab Singh remained neutral and later by the Treaty of Amritsar

March 16, 1846 British sold Kashmir (areas eastward of the river Indus and westward of the river Ravi) to the Maharaja Gulab Singh for around Rs7.5 million.

The state had an area of 84,471 square miles and Gulab Singh bought it at the rate of Rs155 per square mile or he paid seven and half rupees for every inhabitant of the state.

Importance of Rail link - Kashmir Railway

The Kashmir Railway is being built in India to connect the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country. The Project officially coded USBRL (Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Railway Link) starts from the city of Udhampur, 55 km (34 mi) north of Jammu, and travels for 290 km (181 mi) to the city of Baramulla on the northwestern edge of the Kashmir valley. The route crosses major earthquake zones, and is subjected to extreme temperatures of cold and heat, as well as inhospitable terrain, making it an extremely challenging engineering project.

The Kashmir Railway has been under construction since 1994 by various railway companies in India. When completed, this railroad will link the city of Jammu, in Northern plains of India, to the city of Srinagar in the Himalayan valleys and beyond.

In 1898 Maharaja Pratap Singh first explored the possibility of a railway line connecting Jammu with Srinagar. For various reasons including complications with the British government and political frictions this was put on hold.

In 1902: Britain proposed a rail link following the Jhelum River connecting Srinagar to Rawalpindi. This was "not popular" as the residents of the state lived mostly in Jammu and Srinagar and interacted via the more southerly Moghul road. Politics did not favour this proposal.

In 1905: Britain again proposed a link between Rawalpindi and Srinagar. Maharaja Pratap Singh approved the rail line between Jammu and Srinagar via Reasi through Moghul road. This audacious line was to have involved a 2'-0" (610 mm) or 2'-6" (763 mm) gauge railway climbing all the way to the Moghul road pass at 11,000+ feet (3355 m) over the Pir Panjal Range. This can be compared to the present day Banihal Tunnel at approximately 7,000 ft (2135 m). As planned it would have been electric-powered and would have used the mountain streams as a source of hydroelectric power.

In retrospect it was perhaps just as well that it was not built. Though it would have been spectacular, the low gauge and elevated pass would have meant it to be a not all weather rail and been constrained to low speed and capacity similar to the impractical Darjeeling

Himalayan Railway

In 1947: With partition, Jammu was disconnected from the united India Rail grid and a new line from Pathankot to Jammu had to be laid. It was proposed that this be extended to Srinagar but the preliminary survey of the Pir Panjal quickly squashed the thought, especially for a poor country with higher priorities. In 1983: Indian

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Prime Minister Indira Gandhi kicked off the line from Jammu to Udhampur. An optimistic schedule of fi ve years and a budget of 50 Crores was set. As detailed below what happened to this line amply illustrates the wisdom of the earlier planners who had abandoned their plans when faced with reality.

In July 2002: The Vajpayee Government declared the line a National Project. This meant it to be constructed and completed irrespective of the cost. The central government had to fund the entire project. This is im-portant as the Railways have now an estimated cost of 6,000 Crores for the entire project. By the Railways' allocation it would have taken 60 years to complete the project. A challenging deadline of August 15, 2007, Independence Day, was also set.

August 7, 2008 – The Indian Ministry of Railways asked the Konkan Railways Corporation Ltd (KRCL) — the agency executing works on almost half of the Katra- Qazigund section — not to commence any new work on the 70-odd-km mountainous stretch entrusted to it. It is considering major changes in the alignment. This could push the project deadline to 2025 and lead to severe cost escalations and the abandonment of works already executed. Works worth Rs750 crore have already been executed and Rs1,000 crore worth of contracts were already awarded on the Katra-Qazigund section, whose completion will fi nally allow a direct train to the Valley.

Pir Panjal is behaving as Sidd e Sakandari for us and Kashmir... a huge and kind defender

Post 9/11

If analyzed India's bid for permanent seat in SC is blocked by Kashmir problem. "Not necessarily but West uses this argument sometimes to twist his arm" regional peace is harmed by Kashmir problem. In past West wanted to prolong it to exploit the friction now they want it be "solved" to get their targets.

US's plans to disarm Nuclear Pakistan are blocked by Kashmir issue. Pakistan uses Kashmir issue to justify its nuclear program partially.

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fieldUS/Israel have not been able to live in Afghanistan peacefully. Kashmir is a better potential alternate. US

would love to keep Kashmir as a hub in region as well as forward base against Tibet border of China, while being a flipping out resort for their tired troops fighting in Eurasia and Middle East.

Pakistan's historical stance on Kashmir was shaken by Musharaf, by proposing multiple new solutions for Kashmir. US bought it (probably invented it) for its own two strategic interests in the region.

US might have worked with India to fall back to Chenab formula, thus trying to keep control on Chenab water, and Jammu, while committing "cooperation" against China and trade and energy corridor to central Asia through Pakistan. US-India Nuclear deal is also a factor of this "long term strategic partnership", against China and Muslim heartland of south and Central Asia.

What is good for Pakistan and Kashmiris ?

We need to have a policy as there is no official policy right now. We need to avoid a rush to a quicker solution or partition that allows USA and Israel to penetrate the region.

The political leadership, foreign office and the Army need to have one vision strongly backed by the nation over Kashmir. We need to keep USA out of region, or it may become far bigger a mistake, that may result into another 100 years of virtual colonization of entire Pakistan, and eventually India too. Imagine US corpora-tions managing our rivers and tagging and polluting every single drop of God gifted water. We shouldn't be tired of Kashmiris’ demand and we need to let Kashmiris know that we care for them.

People of Pakistan and divided Kashmiri families need to rally together. We need to make sure, that the day we ask Kashmiris, they would stand hard on their commitment towards Pakistan.

Pakistan should run Kashmiri TV channels from Muzaffarabad, and FM radios (avoid Indian style bullshit on that media, and let them feel their Muslim and Pakistani heritage).We need to prioritize normalization with Kashmiris instead of East Punjab or Delhi visits. Kashmiris need to visit their relatives in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

Trade with Kashmiris

During the land transfer row the economic blockade of Kashmir valley by BJP has pushed Srinagar closer to Mirpur as the blockade on the Jammu-Srinagar road incarcerates the Kashmiris, eventually seeking access to Pakistani and Chinese markets. The people, traders and economists of Held Kashmir are demanding restora-tion of alternative road links with Azad Kashmir.

Pakistan needs to initiate the trade across LoC with Kashmiris instead of Delhi. It will not only strengthen the Kashmir economy but also make Kashmiris lean towards Pakistan.

Bus and Truck service is good initiative. Remember Kashmiri slogan of "Hamari Mandi Rawalpindi". Only 2 hours by train/bus to Rawalpindi vs 12+ hours from Indian road journey through Banihaal pass.

If we don't want to alienate Jammu Hindu and Muslim population, we can use left and right bank of Chenab

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to develop trade and people links with Sialkot and Gujrat.

Most Important

"Pakistan needs to announce Havelian- Muzaffarabad, and Rawalpindi-Chakothi Railway lines plans as by do-ing so from the 1902 British Plan it will be only 20+ miles from Baramula to connect the entire Valley. China has been cooperating about rebuilding earthquake affected areas. Make sure we use the same gauge specifi ca-tions as of Indian occupied Kashmir to take the rail link across when needed. Building is one thing, but an-nouncing it hardly needs any money. Who can deny its big psychological effect that it would have? Also, it is only a100 miles stretch, plus 30 miles if we want to connect Havelian to it.

Build the historical connecting highway at motorway standard. It is worth every rupee spending on it.

India's issues

Congress led government had created the mess fi rst by land transfer and latter by succumbing once again to BJP demands. Now they need a face saving solution like Chenab formula to clean it up.They may use the tale of "gandhi giri" of Kashmiris or something similar, but we shouldn't compromise on our interests and play our cards wisely. India is confused and wants it to be bundled with nuclear deal, Security Council, and dozens of other things. There is still a lot of bluffi ng going on.

BJP wants to induce this delivery prematurely, during Congress rule time, and politicize it to win next election mobilizing nationalistic and Hindu voter.

Kashmir road map with links to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir

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fi eldInternational media and players

The international players and media are working gradually. EU publishes reports and then refi nes them. This media discovers mass graves of innocent Kashmiris killed by Indian army over the last decade.

But we need to remember that the agenda of this international media is different from our as they while re-porting on Kashmir regularly, "suggests" Kashmiris what to do next, on almost daily basis inducing their own agenda.

IHK Kashmiri rulers

The ruling elite of Indian Held Kashmir have been the biggest cause of Kashmiris’ miseries. Sheikh Abdul-lah (1905-1982) was a talented angry young man, unfortunately, (Conspiracy theory) he married Akbar Jehan daughter of Michael Harry Nedou.

The writer Tariq Ali claims that Akbar Jehan was previously married in 1928 to an Arab Karam Shah who disappeared after a Calcutta newspaper Liberty reported that he was actually Col T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) a British Intelligence offi cer.

He claims that Akbar Jehan was divorced by her fi rst husband in 1929. Farooq Abdullah is his son, with Brit-ish Christian wife, Mollie Abdullah. Omer Farooq Abdullah's wife is Payal Abdullah, a Sikh lady. His sister is married to Rajesh pilot's son, a Hindu.

Isn’t "a truly secular family" so what do we expect out of them? Exactly what has been happening for decades, and when Omer visited Pakistan a while ago, we should have been more worried than any hopeful.

Chenab Formula

In the emerging scenario where President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari is boasting over some backdoor diplo-macy for the early solution, Pakistan needs to advocate and stress on Chenab Formula.

This plan, fi rst suggested in the 1960s, would see Kash-mir divided along the line of the River Chenab. This would give the vast majority of land to Pakistan and, as such, a clear victory in its longstanding dispute with India. The entire valley with its Muslim majority popu-lation would be brought within Pakistan's borders, as well as the majority Muslim areas of Jammu.

With the inclusion of Ladakh, which also lies north of the river Chenab, India would be left with approxi-mately 3,000 square miles of territory out of 84,000 square miles.

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Source: Indian/Pakistani Government Censuses

Don’t give Hindus a free hand like 1947.

Human impact

Chenab formula needs a swift securing of route from Chamb/Jorian border to Jammu- Srinagar Highway (just 15 miles of road, in order to avoid any disruption of supplies to wadi. As well as providing security to people. Muzaffarabad alternative is there during summer, but without security option. Chenab bridges may be redundant or harmful.

There is another horrifying scenario which seems emerging from the statements of Hindu fundamentalist organizations like RSS, VHP, Shiv Sena is the division of Held Kashmir on the basis of communal lines.

The recent land row and now on September 13th the demand by BJP to create separate colonies of Pundits in Valley and RSS demand for dividing Kashmir into three regions clearly points towards changing demography of Muslim Kashmir.

In this case India is going to find areas having the most Hindus and partitioned those off and also take some empty land around those areas to give their military an easy area to defend and then kick many Muslims out from that area and sign a treaty with Pakistan for new national borders and finish the Kashmir issue forever.

Many more thousands of Kashmiris will be killed when they move from their houses to Pakistan; it will be like a mini-1947.

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Note: Article was orginally published by Brasstacks on 27th September 2008.

Region Buddhist Hindu Muslim OthersKashmir Valley - 4% 95% -Jammu - 66% 30% 4%Ladkh 50% - 46% 3%

Religious groups: Indian-administered Kashmir

Region Buddhist Hindu Muslim OthersNorthern Area - - 99% -Azad Jammu and Kashmir - - 99% -

Religious groups: Pakistsan-administered Kashmir

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Revolt in Indian Kashmmir4

The Kashmiri struggle has turned into a new intifada recently when youth, children and even Kashmiri wom-en took to the streets, armed with stones—the weapons of the oppressed civilians against tyrants—braving death.

The Indian military has used every tactic and means, ranging from bullets to curfews to sealing off the terri-tory, in order to restrain and silence the voice of Kashmiris from reaching the world.

Curfews are imposed every now and then leading to starvation of the local populace. A case in sight is the Palhallan village, where many Kashmiris died due to starvation, as thecurfew clamped on the village extend-edfor 29 days.

The Palhallan village of Pattan tehsil is in northern Kashmir district of Varmul, where the 29-day long curfew brought life to a standstill as the village remained out of bounds for the rest of the world.

Many people died due to starvation and the fellow villagers could not even offer funeral prayers or perform the last rites,as check postshadbeen set up around the village and no movement into or out of the village was permitted.

The villagers accused the invadingIndiantroops of vandalism and breaking the windows of more than 300 houses during the past month. The Indian army reportedly damaged 35 band saw mills in the village and snapped electricity by blasting four transformers.

Record killing of Kashmiris by the Indian army has been reported in one month, when they killed over 50 in-nocent civilians in cold blood.Despite this state terrorism by India, the Kashmiris have made it to the streets in order to continue protests against the occupation, which has sent theIndian government into a frenzied mode.

Farzana Shah

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irFailed attempt to play the religion card

After failing to curb the growing Kashmiri uprising against the occupation, the Indian invading minds have come up with many ideas to befool the world. One of the most sinister moves was to play the religion card by bribing some Deobandi mullahs to issue statements in its favour over Kashmir.

The meeting of the Congressi deobandi mullahs and their groupies JamiatUlema-e-Hind, recently interfer-ing in the affairs of the Kashmiris and supporting the Indian stand said,"The long pending demands of the Kashmiri people need to be addressed within the framework of the Constitution of India."

This clearly shows the unauthenticnature of this meeting which fell flat on its face, when the Kashmiri leaders rejected the interference of theseIndian mullahs into their affairs, saying Kashmir was a separate

country hence any Indian,be it a Muslim,has no right to advise the Kashmiris. Even an anti-Islam, anti-Pakistan, Indian journalist, Mr. MJ Akbar has exposed the sinister face of this one-sided Indian propaganda meeting.

At this point in time, Kashmir is theworld’s oldest unresolved issue in modern history, despite the fact that the world community, through various United Nations resolutions, has beenpromising to resolve this crisis.

Keeping in view the strategic aspects of Kashmir for the world as well as the future water wars that can occur between nuclear-armed India and Paki-

stan, the conflict will not be containedmerely within theterritorial parameters.

Therecent revolt in Kashmir is perhaps the most vigorous as it has not only shaken the Indian rulers but also caught the world’s attention due to its unique civilian characteristics.

The Indian army is committing unimaginable and unforgivable atrocitiesagainst the unarmed civilian popula-tionand protestors on the streets in every major town in the valley. Inhumanly enough, the so-called champi-ons of human rights around the world have turned a blind eye towards this terrorism by India, just to fulfill their economic interests in this country, at the cost of millions of lives.

Murders, abductions, custodial killings, shooting protestors, raping women, robbing and torching dwellings are a routine by the Indian army and paramilitary forces under specific laws made for the Kashmiris in order to oppress them. This immoral,global mum over this critical issue indeed is a conspicuous crime against hu-manity.

The statistics speak for themselves: 92 killings, 16 women gang rape cases, 1146 injured during protests, 364 extra judicial arrests under draconian Public Safety Act (PSA), 11 civilian buildings destroyed and 9 custodial killings; all this took place in the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) in September, 2010 alone. This is just a glimpse

Darul Uloom Deoband supports In-dia against Pakistan and Kashmir

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of a never- ending holocaust for the Kashmiris, being carried out by the Indian occupied forces since the last 6 decades.

Painting the entire picture of crimes against humanity in IHK is not possible as the valley is a no go area for independent media organizations and journalistic communities around the world. But even then the above incidents and their intensity should suffice to stretch one’s imagination about what the Indian army is doing to the unarmed Kashmiri civilians. These heinous crimes wielded a sheer sense of anger and revenge in theK-ashmiris, particularly the youth, against the occupying Indian forces.

Consequently, the protests in every major town and city in IHK are getting more and more violent. Though this time theKashmiris are unarmed and untrained but they are more ferocious than ever before.

There is a whole new dimension to this civilian uprising as it is an exact replica of what the Palestinians are doing against the aggression of Israel. Thousands of women, children, students and common men are part

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of this rebellion that has unnerved New Delhi completely. This is the Kashmiri intifada. Some news agencies and locals through theinternet and other alternate media are highlighting the happenings on the streets in IHK. These news reports have created serious PR and diplomatic problems for India.

The traditional Indian claim that Pakistan is responsible for harboring and launching “terrorists” in Kashmirto cause unrest and rebellion has blown to tatters. With theentire population of unarmed native Kashmiris on the streets against the Indian occupation, New Delhi is running out of ideas to ebb the current uprising. This movement has destroyed the morale of the Indian forces, as with every passing moment a new story of brutality is popping up in the media.

In desperation the Indian Primer revertedto one ofChankiya’s oldest strategies in order to contain a powerful enemy: Appeasement. The Indian government offered a proposal to the Kashmiri leaders so that the situation could be brought under control, but failed miserably as the APHC (All Parties Hurriyat Conference) has categorically rejected the peace proposal presented by Manmohan Singh.The frustrated Indian cabinet was left with no other option than to blame the ISI, yet again,for its own failure to lure the Kashmiri leaders into a trap of peace talks.It is a clear indication that thepeo-ple of the valley will not be accepting any nonsense of Indian excuses and inducements.

The Kashmir Holocaust

The recent violent phase of the Kashmiri revolt began with the decision of the Indian cabinet, on 8th July 2010, to allow the Indian forces to carry out a maximum crackdown. This decisioncaused a momentous protest against extra judicial killings and human rights violations by the Indian forces. With unchecked authority, the Indian occupying forces unleashed a new wave of terror in the valley by killing innocent Kashmiri students after declaring them as terrorists. Later reports confirmed that the “terrorists” killed by Indian forces were school and college students.

Recent media coverage has revealed innocent students killed by Indian forces.

These protests turned into a complete war afterwards. This is a war between brute force and human will and perseverance against oppression to maintain independence and freedom. Despite taking

many casualties daily, it is theKashmiris who are winning this war. The Indian Raj has been pushed back to a defensive position on thepolitical,diplomatic level. Many senior Indian political analysts and commentators are now openly advising New Delhi to change its age old flawed stance of Kashmir being an integral part ofIndia because that never was the case.

As a part of their cunning policy to present India as a peaceful nation, now the Indians have initiated a “with-drawal” of forces from Kashmiri towns. The sole purpose of this practice is to put moral pressure on the Kashmiri leadershipto initiate peace talks. Recently the Indian government announced an 8-point agenda as a confidence building measure, but this proposal has also been rejected by theKashmiris. The APHC termed it as a “short term management” tactic rather than a commitment to resolve the substance of the dispute. This is an old Indian ploy to use a façade of peace talks to buy more time on Kashmir so that the Indian foreign office can think about new maneuvers in diplomacy.

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ers What Kashmiris want

This is the most critical aspect of the whole issue. Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of the division of the subcontinent between Pakistan and India.

Kashmiris want to rid their territory of Indian occupation. The young Kashmiri leadership has its own inspi-ration and is looking towards international community to fulfill the promises that were made to the Kashmiris some half a century ago.Recentlya letter was written to the UN secretarygeneral, by Chairman APHC, Mir-waizeUmarFarooq:

“It is high time that the UN should adopt a proactive course of diplomatic maneuver to compel India, while taking genuine Kashmiri leadership on board, to initiate talks for the settlement of the conflict."

While common Kashmiris are raging against Indian oppression, puppets like Umer Abdullah want Pakistan and India to restart the futile dialogue process again. According to him, the situation in Kashmir improves only when Pakistan and India rekindle their peace process.

Kashmiri Uprising, Pakistan and Strategic Blunders

Historically, Pakistan remained the primary source of strength, support, aspiration and encouragement for theKashmiris’ struggle forfreedom and desired to join Pakistan as Kashmiris of Azad Jammu & Kashmir did after getting independence. The Kashmiri freedom fighters used to get their strength and courage from the

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events of 1948 war between Pakistan and India when a new born, fragile and militarily weak Pakistan decided to fight against the Indian illicit occupation of Kashmir and liberated 37% of the valley. Joining Pakistan has remained the ultimate dream of the Kashmiri generations since 1947. But like everything else, 9/11 and Paki-stan’s policies afterwards made an impact on the Kashmir cause and unfortunately it was not a very pleasant one.

Pakistan has made too many strategic blunders during the last ten years in the realm of foreign policy and di-plomacy by making some fundamental and radical changes in matters where the nation held an uncompromis-ing principled stance. Afghanistan was not the only casualty of these post 9/11 policy decisions by Islamabad, Kashmir was perhaps the biggest injury to Pakistan’s long term foreign policy goals.

Pakistani forces came to an eye to eye standoff with the Indian army in 2002 when some Kashmiris were accused of carrying out an attack on the Indian parliament. Not even once, during this standoff didPakistan give any signal of abandoning Kashmir. But this stance shifted shamefully after that standoff. India and its new strategic ally, the US continued to pressurize Pakistan regarding the fabricated cross border ‘terrorism’ in IHK. Unfortunately, the previous government succumbed to this pressure and announced a unilateral cease-

Young Martyrs to the cause of freedom

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ers fire on theLoC in 2004, which was perhaps the

biggest strategic blunder in national history. This sentextremely wrong signals to theKashmiris regarding Pakistan’s sincerity tothem and their struggle against the Indian oppression. Since then a great sense of betrayal has been prevailing in theKashmiris.Subsequently, not only Kashmir but also Pakistan had to make compromises on other critical issues vis-à-vis India after 2004.

A façade of composite dialogue process be-tween Pakistan and India was initiated by Islama-bad in 2005 and after 5 years of relentless efforts by Pakistan to bring India on the table to talk about Kashmir, we are back to square one. No progress has been made over any critical issue through these dialogues. This cloak of peace talks proved as a blessing for the Indians, whereas Islamabad remained elusive about the Indian policy on Pakistan and Kashmir after becoming an ally of the US in the post 9/11 scenario. This Indian policy revolves around following vortexes

♦ In short term: to gain maximum time to get the current situation under control by utilizing every avail-able source at India’s disposal.

♦ In long term: to keep this issue a bilateral one by denying any UN resolution or third party mediation at the global level and simultaneously to keep avoiding this issue even at the bilateral level by not discussing it in a composite dialogue process. This duplicity by India’s diplomatic offices enables her to continue keeping the Kashmiris under its occupation. This is the most disturbing aspect of Indian diplomacy that on one hand India is ready to discuss all outstanding issues with Pakistan while on the other hand she always worries about a Pakistani outburst on international forums on Kashmir.

♦ To conceal the atrocities of Indian forces in IHK. This is the reason why Kashmir is not open to in-ternational media and human rights watchdogs.

♦ To paint Kashmiri protestors and their movement as “terrorism” and put the blame on Pakistan to portray it as a terrorist state.

♦ To threaten Pakistan’s economy through water aggression, using the geography of Pakistan’s Western rivers. This is a new dimension of the issue and takes it to a whole new level of complexity. Now Kashmir has become a smoking gun for the Indian establishment against Pakistan.

♦ To use brute force and enticement together in order to suppress or lure the Kashmiris into the Indian plans.

♦ To present herself as an eligible candidate for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. This is an old Indian political goal and due to their newly developed strategic ties with the US, they are very hopeful of realizing this dream.

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Through these peace talks, India gained key benefits and advanced her strategic interests, which she could not get through wars or coercive diplomacy towards Pakistan. Apart from building dams on Pakistani rivers in IHK, India also got ATTA (Afghan Transit Trade Agreement) passed by the Pakistan cabinet enabling her to trade with Afghanistan using Pakistani land routes from Wagha to Torkham. This agreement has a big se-curity downside with respect to Pakistan’s economic and strategic interests in the region. Indians were trying to secure this deal since the last 45 years but could not succeed till the present government took over in 2008. On the other hand, Pakistan also softened its principal stance of demanding a plebiscite on Kashmiron all international forums. India, meanwhile, took full advantage of the situation and accused Pakistan of support-ing terrorism in Kashmir on every forum.

The current Pakistani government has gone a step further in its India -appeasing policy by supporting In-dia for getting anon-permanent seat in theUN Security Council after 15 years, whereas the same support is pledged to India for a permanent seat. These are not just concessions but unforgivably treacherous compro-mises and a total sell -out to India on this critical issue.

Traditionally, the Kashmiri youth supported the annexation of Indian occupied Kashmir to Pakistan. How-ever, nowa new demand of ‘Free Kashmir’ has been raised by the young Kashmiri students, who are leading this renewed civilian movement in the streets, while confronting a strong Indian army. This demand is an enunciation of a strong Kashmiri reaction against Pakistan’s confused, myopic and treacherous compromises over Kashmir. It seems that Pakistan has lost or is losing the hearts and minds of Kashmiris. It is high time for Islamabad to realize the sensitivity of the situation.

American involvement

The recent interest shown by the US to solve the Kashmir issue has intrigued many in Pakistan and Kash-mir. Nothing in the American foreign policy comes without a long -term strategic plan about saving its own interests first. Kashmir is no different, but the catch is that the US has no desire to provide a solution for Kashmir. President Obama came up with the idea of turning theLoC into a permanent border between Pa-kistan and India. Though the US president was not so conspicuous in proposing this but the bottom line of his propositionwas very clear. In words of president Obama, “The line of control must be converted into a line of friendship between Pakistan and India.” Even this solution would enable India to send a message of Pakistan backtracking on this issue to the Kashmiri leaders. Therefore, now India would willingly accept LoC as a permanent border, as it would dent the Kashmiri freedom movement to a considerable level, if not eliminating it altogether.

Does the United States have any real solution for the Kashmir dispute according to the aspirations of millions of Kashmiris? The answer is not a very difficult one to come by for any observer of American decade-old maneuver diplomacy. No matter what shape the current revolt would take in the Kashmir status quo, it will be a suitable option for the US, as it will continueto pursue its foreign policy goal without losing either Pakistan or India as an ally. The US needs both Pakistan and India on her side, desperately.

The Indian role in the US foreign policy is clearly to become a strong economic and military player in the region in order to counterweight China. This is the reason why there is a clear indication of US support for theIndian solution of the Kashmir issue. Coming towards Pakistan, there is a complete confusion in US ad-ministration and foreign policy planners. The role of a client state has been articulated by the US but the US

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ers is in no position to force Pakistan to accept this role due to the former’s dependence on Pakistan in WoT.

The US is also in no position to impose any solution either on Pakistan or India. An aggressive push to the solving of Kashmir issue could aggravate India, a country the US can’t afford to lose to Russia or China for multiple reasons. But American misery continues beyond this, as the US elections are also around the corner. Obama was the one who, in his presidential campaign, pointedly raised “Kashmir” as a potential flash point in the world and urged to solve this crisis. The Obama administration is also desperate to get a breakthrough on this issue by bringing both Pakistan and India on the same page, which is an almost impossible task.

The Americans are also desperate for creating a positive image among the Pakistani masses, which has been defaced by the American war on terror. The US can’t appease both Pakistan and India on critical issues like Kashmir. Pakistan would have to take some corrective measure in her Kashmir policy to control the damage that has been done in last 5 years.

Proposed Solutions

1. Pakistan must immediately revert to its principal stance of plebiscite in Kashmir. Any idea other than that must be categorically rejected.

2. Kashmir is as important an issue as Pakistan’s nuclear program. There must be a legal and constitutional bar on any government, civilian or military, preventing it from initiating any back channel secret diplomacy on issues like Kashmir, Siachen etc.

3. Any diplomatic decision on Kashmir or Pakistan- India relations must go through a parliamentary pro-cess. A constitutional amendment must be made to rectify this.

Kashmir belongs to the Kashmiris but it is Pakistan that must decide to whom the Kashmiris belong? Lately, Pakistan’s political elite has lost all good sense while talking about Kashmir just like it did when dealing with India on the diplomatic level as some useless and careless statements were made by the Pakistani politicians, ex-military personnel and journalists. The recent disclosure by the ex-ruler Parvez Musharraf, about training guerilla fighters to fight against Indian forces in occupied Kashmir, is total nonsense and was an attempt at damaging the genuine indigenous struggle of Kashmir. Even more ironically, the chairman of the Kashmir committee in Pakistan is Fazal ur Rehman, the Deobandi cleric who follows the line of pro-Congress Deoband in India, rejects the ideology of Pakistan and does not support the freedom of Kashmir and supports the case of the Indian government that Kashmir should be resolved within the Indian constitution. Pakistan cannot afford to commit another blunder on Kashmir. Period. It is time for decisive action but purging the backstab-bers from within our own ranks remains the topmost priority.

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Note: Article was orginally published in Brasstacks Monthly Security Review. Vol.1 Number. 5 (October, 2011)

Operation Kashmir5Time to move decisively to counter attack Indian 4th generation war

“Kashmir is the jugular of Pakistan”(Quaid e Azam)

The State we are in

Today, the entire Muslim Middle East is being re-shaped, devastated, dismembered and occupied under the new world war launched since the 9/11. Pakistan is a critical target in this war. As a consequence, for the last 11 years, Pakistan has been forced to fight a complex 4th generation, decentralized and asymmetric war within its borders against the most heinous and ruthless foreign funded terrorism and insurgencies. The national se-curity profile has been devastated due to this war waged by the Zionist forces of the East and the West. These forces have been conspiring against the only Islamic nuclear state to implode it from within. The objective of this imposed war is to make Pakistan a failed dysfunctional state first, denuclearize it in the second phase and then move towards the final balkanization and dismemberment. The threat Pakistan faces today is existential! With multiple Muslims countries in the Middle East already down and turned into chaotic failed states, the 4th generation war is no more a hypothetical scenario. Pakistan faces a genuine, real and close threat to its very survival in a very hostile regional and global environment.

Since 9/11, Indian political and military establishment had pounced upon the western military invasion of the greater Middle East to wage its own war against Pakistan, encircling it from the Afghan theatre as well. The catastrophic security situation in Pakistan, on all the axis of national security, is the manifestation of the first phase of the Indian grand strategy against Pakistan. Indian strategy became devastatingly effective against the Pakistani state only due to the US presence in Afghanistan and due to a failed, indecisive and weak foreign policy adopted by Islamabad after 9/11.

Indians had already launched this war during the Musharraf era but the real ferocity and ruthlessness was unleashed after the CIA installed “democracy” in Pakistan in 2007. In post elections era, almost all provincial

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the CIA and the federal government too had their strong presence, hence was compromised totally, crippling the national decision making at all political and diplomatic levels. The result is a catastrophic state and system failure in Pakistan. Indians are fully exploiting this chaos, sensing a repeat of the 1971 scenario. The objectives of the western Zionists and Hindu Zionists have converged in a lethal war against the Pakistani state, people and the armed forces.

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It is a historic fact that Pakistan and India have been in a constant state of war against each other since 1947, with Kashmir dispute being at the core of all these wars. British Raj created the world’s oldest unsolved dis-pute while demarcating the boundaries of Pakistan and India before leaving the Indian subcontinent. Ever since, Kashmir has been the nucleus of the bitter bilateral ties between the two countries. Pakistan and India have fought multiple wars since the partition of India. India has invaded Pakistan 4 times since 1947. India occupied Kashmir in 1948, crossed international border in 1965, waged a dirty war in East Pakistan in 1960’s and attacked in 1971 and finally in 1984, Indians crossed Line of Control (LoC) and occupied some key loca-tions in Siachen. In 1999, Pakistan took the initiative and surprised India in Kargil which resulted in a limited but intense war between the two countries. Now in the 21st century, under a completely hostile geopolitical milieu, Pakistan is being attacked for the 5th time with an extremely sinister and ruthless multi-prong Indian war strategy which is also approved and supported by the US. The strategy prongs are:

1. To denuclearize Pakistan after getting it declared a failed and a terrorist state. For this objective Indians perpetuated an extremely complex and excruciatingly difficult to fight 4th generation war against Pakistan. Purpose of this war is to soften and then implode Pakistan internally by drawing Pakistani armed forces into high intensity conflicts within its own borders, in an asymmetrical and ruthless unconventional war against local and foreign insurgents.

2. The Second prong of Indian strategy envisions launching pre-emptive and surprise physical assaults on Pakistan on multiple fronts under the pretext of attacking militant hideouts sited on Pakistani soil under a new military doctrine known as the “Cold Start”.

Let’s revisit first prong of the Indo-American strategy against Pakistan and its dreadful impact on our national security interests.

♦ Weight of the war on terror has been craftily shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan under Obama’s Af-Pak doctrine. Consequently, the Northwestern tribes that were always considered as our assets guarding our western borders without any assistance from the armed forces have become restless, angry and some even hostile. A segment among them, manipulated by the RAW/Mossad, is towing the agenda of enemy waging a war against the state and the people.

♦ The western borders that had become safe for Pakistan from 1989 onwards in post Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and during the subsequent Mujahideen government in Kabul and then followed by Taliban rule between 1996 to 2001, have once again turned dangerous due to the presence of US-NATO forces in

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Afghanistan and their mounting aggressiveness against Pakistan under the Af-Pak doctrine.

♦ Hostile forces are active in the whole of FATA, several parts of NWFP and Baluchistan. Sindh is also restive and Karachi has become a killing field for hired mercenaries backed by the separatist political parties.

♦ Once peaceful Baluchistan is up in arms and rebellious Baloch sub-nationalists are demanding inde-pendent Baluchistan. Non-locals have migrated out of Baluchistan in huge numbers.

♦ Pakistan is being subjected to a CIA driven drone warfare.

♦ A large part of Pakistan’s Army, paramilitary forces and police have got deeply embroiled in fighting an urban war on own soil with little hope of extrication in near future. While precious military resources of Pak Army are being wasted out in an imposed “war on terror”, Indian military conventional and nuclear ca-pabilities have been vastly upgraded to outclass Pakistan’s military capability.

♦ Agents of hostile secret services like CIA, MI6, RAW and Mossad have infiltrated in government departments, legal fraternity and media while CIA, RAW and Blackwaters have established networks in all the troubled regions of Pakistan.

♦ Army and ISI, premier national security institutes, are under intense pressure and are facing the brunt of Indo-US-western hostile propaganda campaign. Desperate efforts are being made to paint ISI as a rogue outfit, create doubts on the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets, and weaken the Army and to spoil civil-military relations. The US funded print and electronic media persons are providing full assistance to Indo-US-Western media onslaught to attack and damage the image, credibility and respect of armed forces and ISI.

♦ Pakistan’s media has been heavily penetrated by hostile powers. Direct foreign funding by US and India in particular has created huge media assets within Pakistan who are attacking the ideological foundations of the country and its Islamic character. Promotion of unethical gay and lesbian culture by the US Embassy

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ers in Islamabad is one example of the most blatant and vulgar cultural invasion to pollute Islamic values.

♦ Under a planned strategy, India has been given a go-ahead to construct large number of dams on all the rivers flowing into Pakistan to create acute water scarcity in Pakistan and to make it dependent upon In-dia. Similarly, water flow is also being controlled to cause floods in Pakistan during monsoon seasons. Water would be used as a strong bargaining weapon by India to pressurize Pakistan to surrender Kashmir dispute on Indian terms.

♦ Indian influence in Afghanistan that had vanished during the Taliban rule has returned to haunt Paki-stan. The US is striving to make India a key country in the region after its departure from Afghanistan. Indian and Israeli presence in Afghanistan has posed a two-front threat to Pakistan’s security.

♦ Kashmir is almost a lost cause and talks are at best confined to confidence building measures only. Arrest of Kashmiri leader Ghulam Nabi Fai in USA is aimed at breaking the unarmed resistance movement of Kashmiris seeking right of self determination.

♦ Pakistan’s corrupt political leader considers India as a friend and not an arch rival. Most of the parties ruing Pakistan today have known RAW assets as their leaders.

♦ Islamic-secular divide has been sharpened and so is the religious divide as in the case of antagonism between Deobandis and Barelvis. Pakistan is politically polarized and webbed in curses of provincialism, eth-nicity and sectarianism.

♦ Pakistan economy has become dependent upon the US controlled IMF thereby crippling the financial independence and economic sovereignty. Rampant corruption which is eating into the vitals of the nation together with plunder of national wealth by the US selected rulers has reduced the country to a carcass.

♦ Amidst the murky environment in which everything looks depressing, the state of judicial system is out rightly deplorable. Only the higher judiciary is trying to keep some check on the corrupt and the compro-mised government but it has been decapitated by the government controlled executive branch by denying the implementation of the court orders.

Under these catastrophic state failure conditions in Pakistan, Indians, while riding the western wave of rage

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and anger against the Islamic republic, see an opportunity of a lifetime to decapitate and dismember Pakistan. So, how can Pakistan respond?

India has its own vulnerabilities as well. There are over 130 separatists’ movements in India and almost 40% of the country is under insurgencies, rebellions and unrest. With nearly half a million Indian army bogged in the valley alone, the people’s resistance in Kashmir is still creating serious security crisis for the Indian govern-ment. Kashmir is India’s soft belly.

For Pakistanis also, Kashmir is a sensitive, emotional and critical issue. From pure strategic vintage point, Kashmir is the life line of Pakistan as stated by the founding father Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Founding father recognized Kashmir as the jugular vein of Pakistan even before the independence and his vision and far sightedness has become exceptionally relevant today. Kashmir has become the most important region for the national security as Pakistan’s blood lines (rivers) flow from Kashmir.

Apart from the territory and water disputes over Kashmir, it is now clear that Pakistan will have to adopt an aggressive pro-active policy towards India to release the pressure which the Indians have been building upon Pakistan for last 11 years. So far, Pakistan has been taking the hits in a reactive manner, fighting the war upon its own soil and not responding to threats beyond its borders. It is actually incredible that Pakistan has lost over 100,000 citizens, soldiers and officers, dead and wounded, in this ongoing war while India has not lost a single soldier so far!

Now, this strategy has to change. Pakistan will have to take the war to India, both in Afghanistan and in the Indian mainland. Kashmir is the first natural choice where Pakistan must strike back at the Indian strategic interests to break the chokehold which India presently has over Pakistan. It is time to break out and decisively engage India. Kashmir, once again, must become the centre stage of Pakistan’s diplomatic, political and mili-tary strategy against India.

Pakistan has a strong international case on Kashmir. Kashmir is a UN recognized disputed territory and not an integral part of India. The line of control is not an international border and its “violation” does not constitute an aggression. It is this line of control which controls the fate, future and destiny of the sub-continent. It is from here that Pakistan’s counter attack against Indian 4th generation war must begin. Pakistan can only afford to ignore Kashmir at its own peril. The war imposed upon Pakistan today was only possible when Indians were able to contain the Kashmiri intifada during the Musharraf era. It is time to re-ignite the freedom struggle once again – this time decisively.

Durrani Empire Map

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ers Historical Prospective of Kashmir Dispute

Kashmir never remained part of the Indian empire. On the contrary, it had been part of the Afghan empire since centuries. It became a princely state from 1846 to 1947 under the Dogra Raj.

By 19th century, it became part of the Durrani dynasty in Afghanistan. In this era, Durrani Empire consisted of present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Part of Iran, Gilgat Baltistan areas and parts of Kashmir. Millions of people in Jammau and Kashmir embraced Islam during these years.

After decline of Durrani Empire, Sikhs got control over Punjab and Kashmir as well. But Sikhs lost control over the Kashmir in first Anglo-Sikh war in 1846 which was the part of the Lahore state ruled by Sikhs. Brit-ish defeated Sikhs but gave back the control of Kashmir to another Sikh Mahraja after signing two treaties at the end of Anglo-Sikh wars.

Treaty of Lahore: After their defeat in the First Anglo-Sikh war, Sikhs were forced to accept the humiliating terms of the Treaty. Territory, previously under Sikhs’ control was reduced to a fraction of its original size, los-ing important areas like Jammu, Kashmir and Hazara to East India Company.

Treaty of Amritsar: This treaty signed on March 16, 1846, paved the way for the Dogra Raj in Kashmir where Muslims were in majority. British sold the Kashmir to Mahraja of Jammu, Ghulab Singh Dogra for 7.5 million Ruppes extending the Dogra regime to the Vale of Kash-mir. This was more of a reward, than a sale, for his secret alliance with British Empire against State of Lahore in

First Anglo-Sikh war. British were near a defeat in this war but suddenly came out as victorious due to invalu-able intelligence on Lahore army provided by Ghulab Singh.

The fear of Muslims’ political uprising in their majority areas forced the British to make sure that Muslims remained suppressed through administrative measures particularly in their majority areas. Since 14th century, Kashmir is a dominantly Muslim majority region. Dogra Raj, after these treaties, made sure that Kashmiri Muslims suffer socially due to same fear of Muslim revolt against Dogra Raj. These autocratic measures of Mahraja against Kashmiris triggered a political struggle in Kashmir in 1931.

Struggle for freedom in Pre Partition times

Kashmiri Muslims have been braving against vindictive Dogra Raj ever since British sold them to Maharaja. They were faced with worst kind of social, political and economic oppression. By 1929, Situation was so des-perate that then Prime Minister, Albion Bannerji, had to step down as protest against atrocities by Maharaja Hari Singh.

1931 was perhaps the most important year in Kashmiris’ struggle due to number of events took place, both

Sutlej cannons captured or surrendered during the First Anglo-Sikh war

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inside and outside Kashmir. In June 1931, a team of 11 members was chosen to start a movement against the Mahraja’s repression. This group included two names who played a critical role in Kashmiri political history later on; Ghulam Abbas and Shiekh Abdullah.

It was the time when Muslims from all over Subcontinent were struggling against the British Raj and Hindu conspirators, both were supporting each other politically to suppress Muslims in the subcontinent. But Mus-lims remained resilient under the unshakable leadership of Quaid-e-Azam and never gave up on their Kash-miri brethrens in their struggle. In August 1931, All India Kashmir Committee was formed, led by Allama Iqbal. All India Muslim League also passed a resolution in favor of Kashmir struggle.

By 1934, Muslim conference started to divide into two factions on some non-issues. Shiekh Abdullah’s deci-sions, at many occasions, were derived by personal ego and self-esteem instead of collective counsel of other members in Muslim Conference. He started to move away from Muslim Conference meetings where Ghulam Abbas was getting more attention. Quaid-e-Azim had to intervene for mediation between the two in his pri-vate visit of Kashmir in 1936.

Religion in Jammu & Kashmir

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Maharaja’s Prime Minister Gopalaswamy Ayyangar –a Hindu bureaucrat from Madras. Shiek Abdullah and Ayyanger both agreed that in return for refraining from any active campaign for representative government by National Conference, he would be supported against his rivals in the Conference. Abdullah and his followers accorded an over enthusiastic welcome to Jawaharlal Nehru on his visit to Kashmir in May 1940. Later on, Abdullah, under the advice of his masters, parted ways with Ghulam Nabi and Muslim conference and headed National conference which played most dirty part in history against Kashmiris.

M.A Jinnah visited Kashmir in 1944, for the fourth and last time, as a final effort to reconcile National Con-ference and Muslim Conference. By that time, All India Muslim League and Quaid e Azam had become sole voice of 100 million Muslims of the subcontinent. Congress was still pushing its one nation theory across India. Congress leader in Kashmir also tried to hijack Quaid’s visit by painting him as Hindu-Muslim Unity ambassador. But Quaid made it clear that although he is on a private visit but he would attribute the royal reception given to him to All India Muslim League.

He spoke his heart out at the moment, “Oh ye Muslims! Our Allah is one, our Prophet (SAW) is one and our Quran is one, therefore, our voice and PARTY MUST BE ONE”.

This fact was later recorded by Alastair Lamb, in his book ‘Kashmir Disputed Legacy’, in the following words,

" M.A. Jinnah, unlike Jawaharlal Nehru, was extremely reluctant at this period of time to involve himself directly (or the Muslim League which he headed) in the internal affairs of the Princely State; such action would in his eyes have been con-stitutionally improper.”

But despite his very careful approach towards the question of accession his dedication became evident when he explained the significance of the name of Pakistan to Mount-

batten on 17 May 1947,

“The derivation of the word Pakistan – P for Punjab; A for Afghan (i.e. Pathans NWFP); K for Kashmir; I for nothing because that letter was not in the word in Urdu; S for Sindh and Tan for the last syllable for Baluchistan”.

The division of India and Status of LoC

Radcliffe Award was published on 17th August 1947, by Radcliffe Boundary Commission. This award played detrimental role in creating the world’s oldest unsolved problem due to its flawed boundary making proce-dures, ill intentions and inability to estimate repercussions of flawed partition, particularly mass violence which erupted in various Kashmiri towns in October 1947 which led to first Pak-India armed conflict in 1948.Radcliffle Commission formation, procedure and execution of division process were flawed due to following reasons;

1. Cyril Radcliff had never been to India prior to this task of chairing the commission constituted for a

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tedious job of boundary making.

2. It seems that British government itself did not allow the commission according to its term of reference by allocating many Muslim contagious areas to India.

3. The Commission showed its ill-intent and hostile biasness towards Muslims in Kashmirs by splitting Gurdaspur –which had to be a part of Pakistan according to National Division plan. India was now able to establish a direct road link to Kashmir. Maharaja established a military alliance with India after the award.

The map shown below explains graphic location of the district and the Muslim population in united Punjab at the time of Boundary Commission.

According to the partition plan, princely States were to choose to who they want to accede. Indian govern-ment tried her level best in wooing Muslim majority States to not to accede to Pakistan.

Below: Muslim population map of 1947 – showing concentration of Muslim population in united Punjab in British India. White circle in the map indicates the district of Gurdaspur, with 50-60% Muslim population, which was first allocated to Pakistan but Radcliffe award later grant it to Indian Union. This one move played central role in formation of Kashmir crisis by allowing India to have a road link to Kashmir to move its troops into the region.

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ers Inside Kashmir, situation for the Maharaja became extremely critical by end of August 1947 as armed rebel-

lion against his rule had begun in Poonch. This rebellion set the momentum of Kashmiris’ freedom strug-gle. Contrary to Indian propaganda that Kashmiri armed struggle was initiated in 1989, this upheaval against Maharaja in Poonch was the first day of Kashmiris’ struggle for freedom. The struggle is alive till this day and Kashmiris are braving against Indian state terrorism with more resilient and fervor. On 18th September 1947, Mehr Chand Mahajan –nominee of Indian Congress in Boundary Commission –was appointed as Premier of Kashmir by the Maharaja. This appointment was also the part of Anglo-Indian game plan about Kashmir.

Mahajan met with Congress leaders and Mountbatten, Indian Governor General, who urged Mahajan to ask Maharaja to accede with India. Shiekh Abdullah was offered the role of a traitor at this stage by becoming part of this heinous scheme of Kashmiris’ enslavement. He willingly chose to be on the wrong side of the history. Indian government was well aware of the fact that no political maneuvering will provide any durable mileage inside Kashmir unless it has a known Muslim face in its ranks to gain mass support, reverse their anti-India sentiments and align the Kashmiris’ aspirations in accordance with Congress. To the Indians, Shiekh Abdullah was perfect choice for the job.

Abdullah surrendered his faith and dedication to Congress and had become its spokesperson. In a meeting with Kashmiri delegation, after his release, he told, “Let’s see, weather Pakistan will survive”. He declined the offer by Pa-kistani delegation to meet with Jinnah and other national leadership of that time and went to Nehru who had invited him.

Accession and Occupation of Kashmir

October 1947 remains the blackest month in Kashmiri and Pakistani history due to forceful accession of Kashmir to India and betrayal of British military officials in Pakistan army’s top brass who were fully involved in making the matters worse. Maharaja’s army, Indian army and Pakistani army; all were being led by British.

By October 1947, human rights and law and order situation had become severely critical in the valley. On 12th October 1947, Pakistan government sends telegram to Mahajan about "large number of villages (in Poonch) that can be seen burning from Murree Hills" (in Pakistan). Instead bringing the situation under control, Ma-hajan accused Pakistan for infiltration inside Kashmir from Pakistani side. This was the excuse used at that time by the Maharaja to accede to India and calling for Indian assistance and it must not be surprising when today, India is using the same excuse to get Pakistan declared a terrorist State for infiltration in Kashmir.

While Pakistani foreign office and government was engaging their Indian counterparts through diplomatic channels, Indians practically opened the military axis by pushing Patiala troops in Srinagar where they took positions around the Srinagar airfield. Preparations for a full Indian assault were almost completed. On the other hand, Pakistani leadership, including Quaid-e-Azam and Priminister Liquat Ali Khan, was not aware of the situation.

On 23rd October, Maharaja sent R.L. Batra, Maharaja's Deputy Prime Minister, to Delhi seeking large-scale military assistance.

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While Indians were about to launch a full scale military invasion into the valley, British officers in Pakistan were keeping the Pakistani government in the dark on this all important and critical matter. News of planned Indian military operation in Kashmir had reached to Pakistan army headquarters on 26th October but infor-mation was not passed on to Governor General Quaid-e-Azam until evening of 27th October, the day Kash-mir was acceded illicitly to India by the Maharaja and Indian army, taking advantage of the situation, captured strategically important points in and around Srinagar.

Following facts from history negate all Indian claims on Kashmir. 1. Maharaja had no such authority by that time as he had fled from Srinagar on 25th October 1947 (two days before he signed the accession) as Azad forces were making rapid advancement towards Srinagar.

2. Maharaja’s letter of accession and Mountbatten’s letter of acceptance were written by the same hand; V.P. Menon, an Indian government official.

3. The mere fact that no document of accession is available with India or on UN record is proof of a combined plot that was hatched by Hindu leadership with their British well-wishers.

Historian, Alistair Lamb, in his famous publication, “The Myth of Indian Claim to JAMMU AND KASHMIR ––A REAPPRAISAL” accounts the events of 26th and 27th October 1947 as under;

“It is now absolutely clear that the two documents the Instrument of Accession, and the letter to Lord Mountbatten, could not possibly have been signed by the Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir on 26 Octo-ber 1947. The earliest possible time and date for their signature would have to be the afternoon of 27 Oc-tober 1947. During 26 October 1947 the Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir was travelling by road from Srinagar to Jammu. His Prime Minister, M.C. Mahajan, who was negotiating with the Government of India, and the senior Indian official concerned in State mat-ters, V.P. Menon, were still in New Delhi where they remained overnight, and where their presence was noted by many observers. There was no communica-tion of any sort between New Delhi and the traveling Maharajah. Menon and Mahajan set out by air from New Delhi to Jammu at about 10.00 a.m. on 27 Octo-ber, and the Maharajah learned from them for the first time the result of his Prime Minister’s negotiations in New Delhi in the early afternoon of that day.”

Everything was in place for Indian army to move into Kashmir and first contingent arrived on the same day i.e. 27th October 1947, the day that is observed by the Kashmiris all over the world as Black Day. Mountbatten himself supervised the Indian army operation. Paki-stan’s strategic punishment had begun and now in 21st century it is hurting and haunting Pakistan even more brutally.

Lord Mountbatten

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ers In a cunning move, the so-called accession was presented to the world large as conditional and provisional. In

his letter to the Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir, bearing the date 27 October 1947, the Governor General of India, Lord Mountbatten, declared that:

"Consistently with that in the case of any State where the issue of accession has been the subject of dispute, the question of accession should be decided in accordance to the wishes of the people of the State, it is my Government’s wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invaders the question of the State’s accession should be settled by a reference to the people." All this rhetoric about the conditional accession was part of sin-ister plan to occupy Kashmir and buy time to consolidate the occupation.

On 25 October 1947, Nehru in a telegram to Attlee, the British Prime Minister, declared that:

"I should like to make it clear that the question of aiding Kashmir is not designed in any way to influence the State to accede to India. Our view, which we have repeatedly made public, is that [the] question of accession in any disputed territory must be decided in accordance with the wishes of the people, and we adhere to this view."

Real intention behind this statement came to light when Indian army contingent landed on Srinagar airfield.

1947-48 Kashmir War

Tribes and local population of liberated areas established Azad (free) Kashmir with headquarters at Trarkhal inside Kashmir. Some 3,000 tribesmen from areas not under Pakistan’s direct administration had entered the valley in October 1947 and overrun the whole Muzaffarabad-Uri area and Uri sector. These tribesmen, armed with small weapons, stunned the Maharaja’s army with their swift advancement in the valley. Mujahideen had gained many successes on Abbotabad-Muzzafarabad axis. Tribal militants captured Dommel on the first day and overpowered a Kashmiri battalion at Muzaffarabad by October 23. By October 26, 1947, they were in the vicinity of Srinagar. The Dogra Army had been beaten. At this time, Indian army began its incursion.

Stunned by Indian incursion in Kashmir, Mohammand Ali Jinnah the Governor General of Pakistan ordered the British Acting C in C Pakistan Army to order two brigades to move into Kashmir, one on the Sialkot-Jammu Axis and the other on Murree-Muzaffarabad-Srinagar-Axis. This was a tangible plan based on a precise strategy of severing Indian landward and aerial lines of communication to Kashmir. The plan was rendered null and void since the Britisher refused to obey Jinnah’s order. Opposite to all Indian propaganda, the fact remains that regular Pakistan army started their operations in April 1948.

General Auchinleck, combined chief of general staff for Pakistan and India, told Quaid-e-Azam that sending Pakistan army to Kashmir will necessitate the withdrawal of all British officers from the army and spell virtu-

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ally total disorganization. But at the same time, he never uttered a single word about the Indian army’s plan under General Sir Roy Bucher and atrocities of Maharaja’s army under Major General Scott, both of them were also British. This contradiction in conduct of British officers in the Pakistani, Indian and Maharaja’s army proved that they provided Indians with the opportunity to enter Kashmir while Pakistan army was kept in waiting by the same British officers for the orders to move in.

India brought the matter to Security Council of the United Nations on 1st January 1948 after getting hu-miliated by tribesmen. In the draft to UN, India desperately tried to frame Pakistan as aggressor. But Indian dreams were blown apart when UN passed resolution on Kashmir in April.

In the spring of 1948, the Indian side mounted another offensive to retake some of the ground that it had lost while Pakistan army launched operation Venus on Sialkot-Jammu axis to sever Indian line of communications. While Indian army was desperately trying to secure Srinagar, Pakistan army was all set to roll in Jammu with armord brigade.

The Security Council of the United Nations responded to this request by devising a number of schemes for the restoration of law and order and the holding a plebiscite. These were duly set out in United Nations Resolutions which, though never implemented, still remain the collective expression of the voice of the inter-national community as to how the Kashmir question ought to be settled. It is Indian hegemonic political elite which never respected the resolutions of UNSC on Kashmir.

The intensity of the conflict and the inability to foresee a quick end to the conflict without involving consid-erable resources on the part of India to expel the Pakistani forces led Indian leaders to approach the United Nations who ultimately introduced Observers in June 1948. A UN brokered cease-fire went into effect on Jan. 1, 1949.

Indian Army taking position around Srinagar, 1948

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ers In 1976 General Sher Ali who was commanding a brigade of the Venus Force asserted that had the operation

been launched Pakistani tanks would have been in Jammu within no time. But was came to an end on 31st December 1948 as a result of UN intervention, in the words of General Fazal-e-Akbar, ceasefire of 1948 took place to the army’s horror since the army was close to a great victory.

The Kashmir War ended with the Indians as masters of Poonch Valley, Srinagar Valley and Leh Valley but Pakistan was able to secure Gilgat-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The UN and international stance

On 21st April 1948, a resolution of Security Council was passed calling Government of Pakistan to withdraw from Jammu & Kashmir all its forces and Tribals and Government of India was asked to reduce her forces to minimum strength after which plebiscite be held on the question of accession of State to India or Pakistan. The resolution asked for U.N delegation to proceed to sub conti-nent at-once. It did not condemn Pakistan as aggressor as desired by India nor it touched upon the legal aspect of Kashmir’s acces-sion to India. Later on two other resolutions were also passed on 13th August 1948 & 5th January 1949 by United Nations Commis-sion for India & Pakistan (UNCIP) which also called for conducting plebiscite.

Sir Own Dixon was nominated by Security Council for the imple-mentation of Resolutions dated 13th August 1948 and 5thJanuary 1949. After India refuse to reduce its forces from the Vale, Dixon Plan was envisaged that assigned Ladakh to India and Northern areas & Azad Kashmir to Pakistan. Jammu Division in two areas and envisaged plebiscite in Kashmir Valley. Pakistan was hesitant but agreed for peaceful resolution of the dispute but Nehru did not accept the condition in which plebiscite could be held. Nehru had developed second thoughts on Kashmir.

Cunning Indian Zionist political leaders were fully aware of possible outcome of any plebiscite in Kashmir. So they rejected it out rightly. Actually the failure of Dixon’s plan had established a long time ago that no peaceful solution of Kashmir exists and subsequent history has proved this fact.

On the diplomatic level, Pakistan had to play a strategic price of joining the US backed SEATO and CENTO agreements in 1950’s. This turned Soviets hostile towards Pakistan even more. Indians were successful in mus-tering Soviet support in UNSC to such an extent that in 1957 Soviet Union vetoed UN resolution on Kashmir. Since then, UN has failed to fulfill its own commitments with Kashmiris.

Following can be concluded vis-à-vis the role of UN in Kashmir dispute.

♦ The United Nation except the fact that it was able to arrange a ceasefire between the Pakistani and Indian forces on the Kashmir front could not play an effective role for final solution of the Kashmir dispute.

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The six resolutions passed by the world body stand un-implemented even after passage of five decades.

♦ The power politics played a very important role in maneuvering the working of the world body. Par-ticularly the veto power used by Soviet Union in support of Indian occupation of territory marginalized the role of the United Nation.

♦ The cold war between West and East blocks also had a very negative impact on working of the United Nations.

♦ The world body was supposed to be source of support for the oppressed people but in case of Kash-mir and Palestine it had failed to meet the expectations.

♦ Today, it is not the merit of the case but the political and diplomatic maneuvering in the UNSC, which makes the difference. The Veto power is the most sinister tool often used against the interests of Muslim na-tions but has never been used in resolving dispute critical for Muslims.

♦ The past experience shows that UN in future would also not be able to play any extra ordinary role for implementations of the Resolutions on Kashmir.

♦ However the fact that the Military observers of United Nations are still deployed on ceasefire line and in the agenda of United Nations the Kashmir is still being shown a disputed territory has exposed the Indian claims that the dispute is an internal problem of India.

♦ The presence of the dispute before the United Nations is strong evidence that final settlement of the dispute has yet to be made which could be acceptable to people of Kashmir and World community.

But during the recent years, Pakistan’s own Kashmir policy has gone in complete abyss while the dispute over the state remains unresolved. Even the terms of the original Indian reference to the Security Council proves that Jammu and Kashmir (or those parts of it currently under Indian occupation) is not an internal Indian matter. The United Nations retains that status in this matter, which it was granted by the original Indian refer-ence, and the Security Council still has the duty to endeavor to implement its Resolutions as it has been done in case of East Taimor and Sudan.

1962 A Missed Opportunity

During the Sino-India war in 1962, Pakistan had a great strategic opportunity to make a move in Kashmir to liberate the valley from the Hindu clutches. There was a high chance that if Pakistan had attacked India dur-ing its brutal and vicious fast war with China which resulted in a major humiliation of the Indian nation and military, Pakistan could have won a major decisive war, and ultimately captured the whole of Kashmir.

For India having to fight Pakistan and China both would be a War for her life, a war resulting in great eco-nomic, military, and political pressure forcing India to surrender in Kashmir.

If Pakistan had attacked Kashmir during the 1962 Sino-Indian War, the 1965 and most importantly 1971 wars could have been averted! This means Pakistan would still be united enjoying a Geo-Political edge over India. Also India would be in little position to support insurgents like the Mukti Bahini in East Pakistan in 1971 or

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TTP and BLA today.

Indian troops were already bogged down in the Northern Front in a war against China spending men, re-sources, and losing territory and overall morale. But despite the presence of conducive environment, Pakistan could not make a timely decision and lost the strategic opportunity despite the fact that Pakistan army was in control of the affairs. Pakistan delayed the attack on Kashmir for 3 years and is still paying the price for this strategic mistake.

Operation Gibraltar and 1965 war

Pakistani intervention in Kashmir came in August 1965, when Pakistan army devised a plan to liberate Kashmir by attacking strategic nodal points of Indian army in a surprise move. Despite major operational and planning weaknesses, Operation Gibraltar was one of the most ag-gressive, daring and proactive operation ever envisaged by Pakistan to capture Kashmir. Maj Gen (later Lt Gen) Akhtar Hussain Malik, the GOC 12 Div then looking after Azad Kashmir, conceived of a plan in 1965 to infiltrate armed guerrilla bands into the Indian-Held Kashmir and attack nodal points that would tie up the Indian Army and herald a full scale revolt in the valley. He was vociferously supported by the then Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the Foreign Secretary Aziz Ahmad, both of whom convinced President Ayub Khan that condi-tions were ripe for such an operation and since the war was to be local-ized in Kashmir, Indian troops would not cross the international border.

But the operation eventually led to war on September 6, 1965 due to some shortcomings at planning and ex-ecution phases. The Indians in a well planned but horribly executed operation to relieve the pressure on the Kashmir choke point of Akhnur, crossed the international border at Lahore and Sialkot in what was to be a

During the 1962 Indo-China War, Indian Army was bogged down in the North

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lightning operation. In a brilliant show of courage and bravery, Pakistan fought the Indians to a standstill, even gained ground in many places. The war raged for 17 days with the entire nation joining in a war which still has fairytale memories.

1971 war

Unlike Pakistan, India never wasted any opportunity to haunt and devastate Pakistan on any axis. While Pakistan failed to take advantage of Sino-India war in 1962, India exploited fully the restive situation of East Pakistan during the 1960’s to dismem-ber Pakistan. After humiliating defeat by Pakistan army in 1965, India established Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in 1968 with active support from Israeli Mossad specifi-cally tasked to destroy Pakistan taking advantage of internal restive environment of Pakistan.

RAW trained thousand of armed militants, in East Pakistan, to fight against Pakistan army. On the political axis, RAW’s role was decisively detrimental in secession of East Pakistan. Dozens of training camps of Mukti Bahni militants were established along East Pakistan-India border. Large amount of money and weapon was flowing from across the border in East Pakistan. RAW funded heavily in Awami league’s election campaign in 1970 as well to make sure the party gets maximum number of seats in East Pakistan.

It has been confirmed by various international reports that RAW was directly involved in the secession of East Pakistan into Bangladesh. RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh supporting both secular forces and the area's Hindu minority, masterminding the breakup of Pakistan in 1971, says a report by Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

“The involvement of RAW in Bangladesh dating from the 1960s, when it promoted dissatisfaction against Pakistan in the then East Pakistan, including funding Mujibur Rahman's general election in 1970 and pro-viding training and arming to the Mukti Bahini.”

Amazingly, RAW is attacking Pakistan from Afghanistan with similar plans. The entire terrorism setup of TTP inside Afghanistan is exact replica of Mukti Bahini’s bases in India along international border. In 1971, Bengali populace was hijacked after exploiting the linguistic and ethnic differences whereas today young Pakistanis are being misguided, manipulated and exploited in the name of religion and Jihad.

After 1971, India supported insurgencies in Baluchistan. Pakistan government had to launch a full scale mili-tary operation in Baluchistan to subdue Indian backed insurgency. India also supported ANP’s Pushtunistan movement from Afghanistan throughout 1970’s.

Indian covert aggression in 1971 and present support to insurgencies legitimate the case of Pakistani response on the similar axis. If Indian attack on Pakistan is not a breach of international law then certainly any response from Pakistan would have complete moral and legal legitimacy and sooner or later Pakistan will have to devise a complete strategy to respond India in same tune adopting a proactive idiosyncrasy.Indian malevolence towards Pakistan did not end with the secession of East Pakistan. India tested her first nuclear device in 1974. Pakistani nation was still traumatized by 1971 tragedy. A nuclear armed India, frenzied

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from acquiring the unconventional weapon capability, India was also getting all kind of conventional arms while Pakistan was under many international security sanctions. Faced with an aggressive, hostile and sinis-ter enemy, Pakistan had no other option but to reciprocate the Indian nuclear capability in order to restore the strategic balance in the region. Devising a defense doctrine against a nuclear armed enemy was the most dominated factor in Pakistan’s over all national security planning and strategic thinking throughout the 1970’s but it all changed when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Pakistan’s Western border was threatened by the India’s strategic partner. Soviet aggression was more dangerous for Pakistan than Indian threat on Eastern border

♦ The soviets after crossing the Oxus on 27th December 1979 were to do everything to reach the sea shores of Arabian sea through Chaman-Gawadar axis after capturing entire Afghanistan.

♦ Pakistan’s western border was not guarded like Eastern one because tribes of the North West were the guardian of this border under their promise with Quaid-e-Azam. After independence not a single unit of regular Pakistan army was deployed on this border.

♦ Had Soviets crossed Durand Line to pursue their ambitions for warm waters, India would have at-tacked Pakistan from Eastern border. So stopping Soviets inside Afghanistan was the top most priority for Pakistani security managers in order to keep the Indians at bay from any misadventure on the Eastern border.

♦ Entire Pak-Afghan region would have turned into active battlefield if US/NATO had entered the war

Pokhran Nuclear Test Site, 1974

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physically to stop the Soviet expansion towards Indian Ocean and Gawadar, gateway for the Eurasian region.

♦ Indians took full advantage of Soviet invasion in Afghanistan throughout 1980’s. Historically, Pak-

Afghan bilateral relations had suffered many setbacks which had allowed India to establish her footprint in Kabul during the 1970’s. Soviet invasion was biggest aid in Indian tactical moves against the federation of Pakistan to support the insurgencies.

♦35,000 RAW agents entered Pakistan at various times in between 1983-99. More than 40 terrorist camps were operating in Rajasthan, East Punjab, Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of India and are run by RAW's Special Service Bureau [SSB]. Throughout the Afghan War, RAW was responsible for the planning and execu-tion of terrorist activities in Pakistan to deter Islamabad from supporting the Afghan liberation movement against India's ally, the Soviet Union.

The assistance provided to RAW by the KGB enabled RAW to arrange terrorist attacks in Pakistani cities throughout the Afghan War. The defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan did not end the role of RAW in Pakistan as today, under the US/NATO regime, RAW continues to recruit and train terrorists in Afghanistan to enter Pakistan for subversive activities against the state.

Success of Afghan resistance against Soviet military might played a pivotal role in transformation of freedom struggles in Muslim lands under foreign occupation. Number of militant resistance groups surfaced in the Muslim lands occupied by the Western nations. This transformation of the freedom struggles –from a civil-ian movement to an armed upheaval against the occupying nations –became profoundly visible in the Vale of Kashmir as well. Similar armed insurgence was also seen in Palestine against Israeli oppression during the same time period and later on in Chechnya as well against the Russians. As the Soviet Empire had been the most reliable strategic ally of Indians since independence, its dismember-

Russian Military in Afghansitan

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against the Indian oppression.

Initially, all prominent Kashmiri freedom fighting militant groups and their training infrastructure emerged inside Afghanistan after Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. With the passage of time, youths from within Indian Held Kashmir, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and mainland Pakistan also began to become part of Kash-mir freedom struggle.

Kashmir intifada – 1990’s

Kashmiris have offered unprecedented sacrifices since 1980’s and are continuing their freedom struggle cou-rageously today. It has also brought back a historical and futuristic view-point that there could be no bilateral settlement of the issue. Only the freedom struggle would compel India to agree upon a more flexible, viable and compatible road map based upon the aspirations of millions of Kashmiris.

Indian government signed some bilateral agreements with Kashmiri political leaders, in 1975, to further op-press Kashmiris causing further unrest among the masses which erupted fervently in 1990’s like a volcano. Today, Kashmiri armed freedom struggle is one of the most ferocious one in the world. Almost half a million Indian army and paramilitary troops have been engaged by few thousand Mujahideens. Freedom fighters have been inflicting heavy casualties on the Indian armed forces for decades increasing Indian cost of occupation. Indian forces have failed to suppress the Kashmiri freedom struggle. Indian military has approached to Tel Aviv to seek advice in order to subdue the freedom struggle which was getting out of Indian control.

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All the historical developments which shaped political upsurge in Kashmir and pointed to the vulnerability of this dispute testify that Kashmir is not a territorial conflict. It involves the right to freedom, the right to choose the destiny and right to self determination of millions of human beings. It is not a constitutional case between two or more provinces of the same country either. It is still on the agenda of the United Nations and is the most volatile and explosive security issue at the global level.

In the recent years, India has tried to equate the freedom struggle with terrorism and persuade international community to declare it as a terrorist movement. The recent civilian intifada in Kashmir dwindled the Indian hopes to almost nothing. Thousands of graves spread all over Kashmir belie India’s claims. More over con-tinuity and spontaneity of human sacrifices in this environment of war against terrorism tells a different tale to the world if they listen. Kashmir under Nuclear Over-hang

In May 1998, the Indian attempt to intimidate Pakistan on strategic level by shaking the un-conventional warfare balance by detonating 5 nuclear devices in Pokhran range, next to Pakistani border, was met with a zealous re-sponse. This was the beginning of nuclear era in the subcontinent. Pakistan’s response shattered the Indian dream of Akhand Baha-rat (greater India) forever. A very strong and unambiguous signal was sent to Delhi and to other power centers in the world that it is time to solve the world’s oldest dispute or world must be ready for a nuclear holocaust in South East Asia. Pakistan gained parity with India in unconventional warfare. Pakistan’s capability ensured long term regional stability as well and subsequent events have proved that it was only Pa-kistan’s nuclear arsenal which prevented complete full blown wars in 1999 and 2002.

Kargil war between Pakistan and India was first high intensity military conflict over LOC after both the countries became nuclear powers. The conflict began with a complete military surprise by Pakistan army who caught Indian army off guard when latter vacated strategically important hills dotted across the line of control in Kargil sector. Pakistani action on Kargil was first daring response to Indian aggression in 1984 on Siachen.Indian military establishment was embarrassed internally and globally for their failure in anticipating the Pakistan’s tactical move on Kargil. Pakistan is still in possession of some of the key hill tops in Kargil sec-tor overlooking Indian line of communication in Leh and Siachen sectors. Lt. General Kishan Pal which led Srinagar-based 15 Corps of Indian army stated that he was not convinced about Indian victory on Kargil.

Kashmir in Post 9/11 World

Post 9/11, entire global security scenario changed. Afghanistan became battleground and within 3 years, Pa-kistan’s North West was also turned into part of this battleground as well. The US invaded Afghanistan to achieve her long term strategic goals in 21st century behind the façade of combating terrorism. India and the US established closer ties as strategic interests of the both states converged. India extended its full support to

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ers the US to fight the threat of “Islamic Terrorism” primarily targeting Pakistan.

On the other hand, Islamabad made a historic blunder by offering unconditional support and cooperation to the US in so called war on terror. This move turned the entire country into battlefield where various factions motivated by conflicting ideologies have been rambling fiercely against each other. Ironically, Pakistan remains the battleground and the ultimate target of every group. Pakistan has been caught in between multiple violent and fascist ideologies all funded by RAW or CIA.

To get out of the humiliation on Kargil, Indian army launched an extremely ambitious operation Parakaram along the international border in 2002 after a terrorist attack on Indian parliament building. No connection of this attack was established with Pakistan but still India moved more than half a million troops to international border in order to punish Pakistan for her consistent and unshaken support to Kashmiris. But this operation proved more humiliating for the Indian army as it had to retreat after a ten month eye-ball to eye-ball standoff. Indian army lost 1200 lives without any fight.

Not even once, during this standoff did Pakistan give any signal of abandoning Kashmir. But this stance shift-ed shamefully after that standoff. India and its new strategic ally, the US continued to pres-surize Pakistan regarding the fabricated “cross border terrorism” in IHK. Unfortunately, the previous government succumbed to this pres-sure and announced a unilateral ceasefire on the LoC in 2004, which was perhaps the big-gest strategic blunder in national history. In-dian built a strong fence along the LOC and effectively turned the disputed line into a per-manent border. This sent extremely wrong signals to the Kashmiris regarding Pakistan's sincerity to them and their struggle against the Indian oppression. Since then a great sense of betrayal has been prevailing in the Kashmiris.

For the US also, a nuclear armed Islamic Paki-stan remains a major obstacle in the US game

plan for the region in the 21st century. Being an ideological state, Pakistan remains the ultimate threat to the American plan and Indian expansionist designs. On the geostrategic axis, Pak-China relations, particularly their nuclear and military ties are another factor where the Americans are completely on board with the Indi-ans. This unanimity of strategic interests helped India to occupy center stage in the US foreign policy for the region. India has the potential to serve the US interests both against Pakistan and China. But the Indians are playing their own game which revolves around the dream of becoming a global player by undermining Paki-stan’s nuclear capability and replacing China on the economic and political planes. To achieve the first phase of undermining Pakistan’s nuclear potential, Indians with open collaboration with the US, launched 4GW against Pakistan in 2004-05. Right now, Indians are working on multiple axes against Pakistan in a complex 4GW. For this war, Afghanistan

Indian backed NSVAs

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has been serving as a staging area for the Indian intelligence agencies to launch a covert rear area war with the help of irregular combatants recruited from Afghanistan and tribal areas of Pakistan to act as Non-State Violent Actors (NSVA’s). With the active support and collusion of CIA/Mossad, Indian RAW turned Pakistan into a slaughter house by using Afghan soil. They trained murderers of the TTP and created the prevailing strategic confusion in Islamabad about how to build a response to combat this menace.

To make matters worse, the Indians are perfecting their Cold Start strategy envisaged against Pakistan to in-vade and dismember the country on multiple lines. The Indian army recently carried out the largest military exercise just next to the Pakistani border in the Rajistan sector. The US is helping India with the latest weapon systems in order to further increase the parity of Indian forces in conventional warfare. On the other hand, Indian backed irregular war combatants are attacking Pakistani military installations. The recent attack on PNS Mehran and the subsequent destruction of two P-3C Orion surveillance planes only benefited Indian Cold Start. This must suffice to ascertain that the Indians are also after Pakistan’s conventional warfare capabilities along with pursuing their long term agenda of denuclearizing Pakistan.

Mercifully for Pakistan, the Afghan groups – Mullah Umar, Haqqani and Hekmatyar – remain neutral towards Pakistan and have still not declared any hostile intent towards Pakistan, despite blunders made by Islamabad. US is desperate to push Pakistan onto a collision course with Afghan Taliban and Afghan resistance but Paki-stan has been resisting the pressure so far. The CIA has been waging an independent war in the tribal regions eliminating genuine Afghan resistance through drone strikes but avoiding attacks on TTP, Baluch separatists and Uzbeks, despite strong objections, demands and reservations by Pakistan.

The US is present in Afghanistan. CIA, Mossad, RAW and RAMA continue to play havoc with Pakistan’s secu-rity, backing as well as supporting multiple insurgencies and terrorist groups in Pakistan. Pakistan government and parliament remain paralyzed while army continues to fight a heroic battle in the absence of any political,

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ers diplomatic or information warfare support for the cause. American presence in Afghanistan is the root cause

of all terrorism inside Pakistan. So far, this critical issue has not been addressed either by the government or the military while trying to fight the insurgencies. In the reactive mode of response, more and more resources, men and weapons continue to flow into Pakistan from Afghanistan and the base areas, safe havens and supply lines of the insurgents from Afghanistan remain secure, out of the reach of Pakistani forces.

Traditionally, the Kashmiri youth supported the annexation of Indian occupied Kashmir to Pakistan. How-ever, now a new demand of 'Free Kashmir' has been raised by the young Kashmiri students, who are leading this renewed civilian movement in the streets, while confronting a strong Indian army. This demand is an enunciation of a strong Kashmiri reaction against Pakistan's confused, myopic and treacherous compromises over Kashmir.

Pakistan always remained the primary source of strength, support, aspiration and encouragement for the Kashmiris' struggle for freedom and desired to join Pakistan as Kashmiris of Azad Jammu & Kashmir did after getting independence. The Kashmiri freedom fighters used to get their strength and courage from the events of 1948 war between Pakistan and India when a new born, fragile and militarily weak Pakistan decided to fight against the Indian illicit occupation of Kashmir and liberated 37% of the valley. Joining Pakistan has remained the ultimate dream of the Kashmiri generations since 1947. But Pakistan has made too many strate-gic blunders during the last ten years in the realm of foreign policy and diplomacy by making some fundamen-tal and radical changes in matters where the nation held an uncompromising principled stance. Afghanistan was not the only casualty of these post 9/11 policy decisions by Islamabad, Kashmir was perhaps the biggest damage done to Pakistan's long term foreign policy goals.

A façade of composite dialogue process be-tween Pakistan and India was initiated by Is-lamabad in 2005 and after 6 years of relentless efforts by Pakistan to bring India on the table to talk about Kashmir, we are back to square one. No progress has been made over any criti-cal issue through these dialogues. This cloak of peace talks proved as a blessing for the Indians, whereas Islamabad remained elusive about the Indian policy on Pakistan and Kashmir after be-coming an ally of the US in the post 9/11 sce-nario during the Musharraf era.

The current Pakistani government has gone a step further in its India appeasing policy by supporting India for getting a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council after 15 years, whereas the same support is pledged to India for a permanent seat. These are not just concessions but unforgivably treacherous compromises and a total sell out to India on this critical issue.

Kashmir and Internal Dynamics of Pakistani politics

Pakistan’s current political elite is completely sold out and is part of the problem rather being its solution. These politics are so confused, shameless and disoriented that they have lost all sense of direction and pur-

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pose at a time when the nation is at war and economic and social anarchy is it its peak, threatening the very existence of the state. Kashmir issue has become completely irrelevant for these politicians. Today, there is not a single strong voice within the political circle which can raise Kashmir issue on all international forums!

Current PPP regime under Zardari is the biggest security risk for the state right now. Instead of nailing down India over its support to insurgencies in Pakistan and over their massive human rights violations in Kashmir and blocking Pakistani waters, the PPP regime has already capitulated without a fight. The new FM of Paki-stan is a naïve little girl totally unaware of ruthless Indian diplomacy and has already been compromised by the charms of shrewd Indian diplomats. This is perhaps the greatest national security betrayal of Pakistan’s political and diplomatic interests in decades.

The internal policies of this government have fragmented the society on political, social, economic and ethnic lines. This government has done irrecoverable damage to the nation and the state on every axis. Economically, Pakistan is already on intensive care unit surviving on IMF’s terms and conditions and in the process is busy in implementing IMF’s agenda to fasten the process of internal fragmentation on political and economical axis. Promoting corruption, deceptions and diversions but not addressing or handling the real issues is the hallmark of this government, judiciary, media and the opposition, literally sending the country to dogs!

While ruling elite is busy in implementing IMF agenda, the opposition parties are looking for the issues and excuses to stay in the picture but lack the strength, conviction and the numbers to create anything positive. The media and PML(N) remain busy bashing the army and creating false alarms over national issues. The Ministry of Information is spending billions of rupees in secret funding to orchestrate anti-army campaigns through compromised journalists. Corruption is alive and kicking as if there is no tomorrow, with highest level officers keeping embezzled assets abroad without declaring them to the tax department or the state.

MQM, main ally of government in Sindh, wants to draw the Pakistan Army into the city of Karachi for an

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ers urban war. That is the reason why we see so much disinformation and propaganda being spread against the

Rangers, exploiting the mistake of one soldier who killed a boy. The MQM and PPP regime want to further cut the powers and control of Rangers which would create even greater mayhem and anarchy in Karachi, thus forcing the army to step in. That would be the time for the MQM and ANP, which are fully armed even with anti-aircraft guns, to launch an urban war in the streets of Karachi.

ANP is also part of the current regime. ANP has a long history of having pro-Indian stances on many critical national issues like Kalabagh dam. ANP is a separatist violent entity, supported by India, to create independent Pashtunistan. ANP and PPP changed the name of NWFP after passing 18th amendment this action instigated a violent movement for creation of more provinces in Pakistan which would weaken Pakistani federation by dividing it on linguistic and ethnic bases.To make the matters worse, the Kashmir cause has been handed over to JUI, a political party which historically opposed the ideology and creation of Pakistan. JUI leadership is a pro-India group who has always sabotaged the Kashmir cause for Pakistan to benefit the Indian foreign policy. JUI leadership has made sure that Kash-mir issue remains on the back burner while they are busy in cut throat politics!

In the presence of current regime and political elite, Kashmir cause cannot be supported at any level in any capacity as most of these political parties are pro-Indian or compromised by the pro-Indian elements within their ranks. Pakistan needs a radical change in its political structure to ensure the internal stability as only a stronger Pakistan can fight to get its jugular vein out of Indian occupation.

Kashmir and Water Wars

All of the Pakistani rivers flow from Kashmir to Pakistan, due to this geographical factor, Kashmir has be-come more important for Pakistan from a strategic point of view. Current water aggression by the Indians in Kashmir to block Pakistani waters by building multiple dams on Pakistani rivers is part of India’s overall war strategy against Pakistan.

India is bypassing and manipulating the provisions of Indus water treaty signed (IWT) and is in process of building multiple dams and barrages, blatantly breaching the clauses and terms of the treaty. The aim is to damage the link canal system of Pakistan by blocking water in one season and to destroy ready crops in the other season by releasing excessive waters through these dams and barrages. Diversion of water, through tun-nels, is also a disturbing practice carried out by India during recent years.

What India can do with these dams was displayed in rainy season in 2010. Indian build dams in Kashmir played a major role in causing worst floods in Pakistan’s 64 year history.

There was a very sinister aspect to the floods in Pakistan which no one discussed in the media. While there were rains and flooding in some rivers of the country, the size, scale and amount of water which came into these rivers so suddenly defies logic, considering that rains had slowed down since couple of weeks now but floods continue to rise in Indus and Chenab. There was no flooding in India but the rivers that flow into Pa-kistan swelled beyond logic, causing death and devastation of unprecedented proportions. India used water as weapon for the first time to deluge Pakistan. There is no doubt about it. Country’s worst flood disaster of 2010 was more manmade than natural.

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A look at the Kashmir rivers map clearly shows that all major rivers flowing into Pakistan, including Indus, are blocked by Dams constructed by India. On Chenab River, Baglihar is the biggest dam. After the first wave of floods, all the other inflowing rivers are flowing normally and there is no extraordinary rainfall as well, but suddenly Chenab and Indus Rivers go into high floods. Baghliar Dam has opened its flood gates to cause flooding in Chenab. During the Moonsoon season in 2010, Baglihar dam did what it was designed to do i.e. flood Pakistan.

Indian water wars pose more dire threat to Pakistan than Indian nuclear weapons and Cold Start. In May 2009, Chairman Indus Water Council Pakistan and Coordinator World Water Assembly, Zahoorul Hassan Daher said, “Indian water terrorism posed more serious threat to Pakistan than Taliban”. He said the pace with which India was diverting Pakistani rivers; days are not far off when country would face the situation like Somalia, Ethiopia and Chad.

Indian water aggression will destroy local industry and agriculture. A trailer of this horror movie has already

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ers been played during Rabi season last year when India started to fill Baglihar dam despite knowledge of sowing

season in Pakistan. With even larger dams, India will be able to stop Pakistani water for the entire season which will destroy linked canal system of Pakistan.

In case any of large quantity of water is deliberately released, it will not only endanger our proposed Diamir-Bhasha Dam but also submerge Skardu city and airport and would also destroy the Karakorum Highway severing the links between Pakistan and China.

It is time for a decisive and ruthless response!

The fact is that Pakistan and the region can never be at peace unless the Indian menace is not silenced for good. Pakistan can only answer the Indian aggression by adopting a ruthless response. That is the ultimate solution for Pakistan and for regional stability as well.

Pakistan must release pressure which India is piling upon Pakistan and must get pro-active on two axis – Afghanistan, Kashmir. For that a radical policy shift is required in Pakistan’s foreign office strategy. Current foreign policy has failed to protect the Pakistani interests on both critical war theaters. A more proactive and preemptive strategy needs to be deployed. Pakistan must the hit Indian assets and interests both inside Af-ghanistan as well as inside the IHK.

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Current security challenges of Pakistan and the cause of Kashmir liberation can’t be catered by any single state organ alone. It is high time for Pakistan to fix its historical anomaly coordinating diplomatic, political, media and military strategy while embarking on the ambitious long term strategic plan. Due to this lack of synergy among state organs Pakistan has lost many opportunities. But for any plan to work in favor of Pakistan on Kashmir front, there must be a complete policy overhaul towards the US and India. Current regime is com-promised and cannot take this challenge and it must be removed.

Breaking down or Balkanizing India must be the next generation war strategy for Pakistan against the menace of Indian aggression. With hundreds of separatists’ movements and insurgencies active in India, Kashmir is Pakistan’s strongest card and the Indian nightmare. To release pressure from Kashmir, Khalistan movement must also be simultaneously supported to its logical end – a liberated Kashmir annexed back into Pakistan and an independent Sikh state to act as buffer between Pakistan and India.

India has already dismembered Pakistan in 1971. Today, India is again actively supporting insurgencies in Pakistan in this brutal 4th generation war. This reason is enough for Pakistan to respond in kind. The Indian occupation of Kashmir and its water aggressions are additional critical reasons why Pakistan must deploy Kashmiri resistance as an integral part of its war strategy against Indian expansionist designs.

Indian history and internal chaotic situation in majority of the Indian states demonstrate that Balkanizing India is not just a theoretical idea but it must be perceived as a serious and practical political solution by Is-lamabad. Pakistan must forge an alliance with China, Sri lanka and Bangladesh on diplomatic, political and strategic level to achieve this permanent solution to the Indian menace. Even alone, Pakistan can make this happen as we almost did during the 80’s despite being engaged in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. This is the only way forward for a permanent peace in the region and in the world which has been endangered by violent Hindutva ideology and expansionists designs of the Brahmin elite reigning in Delhi.

To achieve this end, Psy-ops and information war would be absolutely critical. Pakistan will have to make a strong case on the diplomatic level by exposing what the world must know about the artificially formed Indian federation by highlighting the internal demise of human rights, political and military suppression of minorities and Indian confrontational attitude with all her neighboring countries particularly with Pakistan and China which can lead to a complete nuclear holocaust in the subcontinent.

Fortunately, for Pakistan, this strategic thinking prevails in the region and needs to be nurtured. Pakistani foreign office has a massive task at hand and it must undertake it not only to secure our own borders but also to ensure the lives of billions in the region that have been caught in a strategic rambling of a chaotic Hindu power and where the situation is getting explosive with every passing day.

Despite India’s imposed 4th GW from the western front, there is no physical conflict between the two states on the Eastern front. But in the very near future, there would certainly be a war in Kashmir. Indian water ag-gression is going to ignite into an open high intensity war on Kashmir and it would be criminally irresponsible not to prepare for this. During the planning of Operation Gibraltar in 1965, numbers of factors were not there to ensure the success of the operation but now they do exist

1. There was no Intifada in 1965 but now we have an experienced two decade old internal revolt by Kash-miri Mujahideen and recently ignited intifada by the Kashmiri civilians.

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ers 2. There was no organized Battle hardened Kashmiri Mujahideen in 1965 but now they will form the core

of the assault group across the LOC and within the valley.

3. As the US has been defeated in Afghanistan, extremely ruthless and well trained battle hardened volun-teer Afghan and Pakistani tribal Mujahideen would be only few hours’ drive away from the LoC.

4. Pakistan army is also battle hardened now after fighting the Indian backed insurgency for many years. Indian army is not battle hardened and has not seen action since Kargil. Pakistan army is in a state of war since 2001 and its entire war machine is now well oiled, drilled and battle inoculated. Pakistan army can attempt more operations like Grand Slam, the end run to take Akhnur in 1965, in strength at not one but over a dozen places with the Afghan Mujahideen to link up with the guerrillas within Indian Held Kash-mir. If Pakistan army, with the help of Kashmiri Mu-jahideen, can sever the Indian line of communication in Leh and Siachen in 1999, there is no doubt that with the Afghan Mujahideen as part of the Pakistani forces can cripple the entire Indian army Corps in various sectors in Kashmir.

It is obvious that India is bleeding Pakistan on multiple axis – from Afghanistan and from Kashmir. Pakistan has only two options. Either continue to fight a reactive 4th GW within its borders and bleed profusely to death while India also dry up Pakistani rivers and starve and dismember the country to a slow painful disintegration or Pakistan can come out of its shell and deploy an aggressive, ruthless, pro-active and total war against the aggressors to resolve the issue once and for all. If it is a choice between a painful bleeding death and an honorable one at the battle field, every Pakistani Muslim would opt for the honor.

The fact is that all the regional and bilateral factors are indicating that this time it is India’s turn to bleed to death if Pakistan deploys an aggressive and honorable strategy. US is already defeated in the region and is a dy-ing power at home. US cannot come to rescue the Indians now while China stands side by side with Pakistan. Iran is also on the side of Pakistan now. Turkey is already our strongest ally. Saudi Arabia would stand with Pakistan in any war despite its economic relations with India and all Mujahideen and freedom fighters within Kashmiri resistance are intact and ready to be deployed again. Sikhs and Maoists are already itching to ignite once again. It is time to set India on fire. This is only divine justice!

*************************Note: Article was orginally published in Monthly Brasstacks Security Review. Vol. 2 Number. 3 (August, 2011)

Myth of United India6Democracy and Hypocrisy

OVER TWO DOZEN FREEDOM STRUGGLES IN PROGRESS IN INDIA

Before the Muslim conquests to the Indian subcontinent, little was known about India or her dwellers. His-torians concede “the historical phase of India began with the Muslim invasion. Muslims were India's first historians.” (Gustave LeBon). Thereafter how the Muslims contributed to the culture of the Indian subcontinent, is all too well known. Muslim reign lasted for around 1000 years, before they met their waterloo at the hands of the British.

The English plunder of the Indian land is too gruesome for words. They robbed India of everything that there was, right from their gems and jewels to their culture and language. They went further. They mercilessly divided India along ethnic lines for the sake of their own convenience. The mess that the Indian subcontinent finds itself in today is a gift by her imperial rulers.

The rise of Hindus to the realm of Indian politics occurred while the British ruled. They had long served under the Muslim charge, and now saw their way to the top by licking the boots of their new gora masters. What a pity! They shamelessly stabbed their Muslim brethren in the back who in their rule of 1000 years had treated them as equals. Whereas the British enslaved them, brutally murdered them and trampled over their customs and values.

But if nothing else, one is forced to acknowledge the shrewd mentality of these disciples of Chanakya. After the British departure from India had become imminent, these Hindu politicians began to chant slogans of right of self-determination and liberation of India. Muslims, who by that time were well aware of the despic-able aspirations of these politicians, had been insisting on the creation of an independent homeland. The Hindu politicians under the banner of congress played their cards very intelligently. They convinced the world to have single-handedly rescued their land from the clutches of their colonial occupiers only to have been beaten by a few traitors who in their greed for power imposed the dissection of their beloved mother India.

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ers Six decades onwards, they play along similar lines. Their politicians, media and intelligentsia are all part of an

age long campaign to demonize Pakistan, a failed state plagued with terrorism and at the verge of a collapse. At the same time, they are quick to remind how India in all these years has risen as the world’s largest secular democracy, where people of all castes, religions, color and creed coexist in harmony.

Of course it all sounds very remarkable, especially when one looks at their thriving film industry, where the most notable names in the business are Muslims. In sports too, with the emergence of the likes of Pathans, Khans and Mirza’s one is deceived into believing such professes.

But if truth is to be told, this impression of Incredible India couldn’t be more erroneous. William Dalrym-ple, the distinguished author of numerous works particularly involving the Indian subcontinent, notes, In the world's media, never has the contrast between the two countries appeared so stark: one is widely perceived as the next great superpower; the other written off as a failed state ….He further adds, On the ground, of course, the reality is different and first-time visitors to Pakistan are almost always surprised by the country's visible prosperity. There is far less poverty on show in Pakistan than in India, fewer beggars, and much less desperation. In many ways the infrastructure of Pakistan is much more advanced: there are better roads and airports, and more reliable electricity. Middle-class Pakistani houses are often big-ger and better appointed than their equivalents in India. Moreover, the Pakistani economy is undergoing a construction and consumer boom similar to India's, with growth rates of 7%, and what is currently the fastest-rising stock market in Asia.

It would take a fool to not to see the direction towards which India is headed. Far from being the next su-perpower or the sole ruler of the entire Indian Ocean, India is a country at the brink of disintegration. And not only because she has earned enemies due to a hostile foreign policy towards neighboring countries, and its desire to create hegemony in the region with the hope to expand her boundaries to include countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ceylon, Burma, Nepal and more to create a huge Indian empire, or Vishal Bharat. It’s her Troubles at home that are most likely to drive India towards a fate similar to that of Soviet Union. To say the Indians are unaware of the gravity of the issue would be untrue.

They have paid a heavy price already at the hands of various existing sub nationalists and continue to do so. In 1984, Indira Gandhi, daughter of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Prime Minister was assassinated by Sikh separatists. Such an event shouldn’t have surprised the world, particularly after how Mrs.Gandhi dealt with the Sikh demand of Khalistan- a separate country for India’s Sikhs carved out of the (Indian) Punjab province. In September of 1981 a group of Sikh separatists had taken refuge in the Golden Shrine, one of the most revered shrines of Sikhism. Knowing that the civilian presence in the temple was in great numbers, Gandhi ordered her army to storm into the temple with full force to flush out the militants. There is much uncertainty over the exact number of causalities. Some estimates put it at 3000. Much to the despair of the Indian establishment, the Khalistan movement did not die with Gandhi.

Though the threat of an independent Sikh state is not as great as it was in the 80’s, the concept is well alive amongst the Sikh community of India. According to news reports the exiled leader of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), Dabinderjit Singh has been making attempts to approach Canadian politicians and radical Sikh leaders in the hope of reviving the Khalistan movement. Earlier this year Jet Airways Flight 225, that flies from India to Canada, was delayed for several hours because of a bomb scare. This brought back to life grim memories of the 1985 bombing of Air India Kaniskha, in which all 329 passengers, 280 of whom were Canadian nationals, were killed. In the court rulings that followed the incident, the worst in the history of terrorist attacks on aircrafts prior to the September 11, Inderjit Singh Reyat was convicted of manslaughter.

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88Investigations hinted that the attack had been masterminded by at least two Sikh terrorist groups, to avenge the golden temple massacre. Even though the latest incident was no more than a hoax, the Indian establish-ment was not amused. India is overwhelmed by the number of secessionist movements, threatening to break away from the country. An addition to these will surely have Indians panicking, signs of which are evident already.

They lost Rajiv Gandhi too, son of Indira Gandhi in an assassination attempt by the nationalist group Libera-tion Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), more casually known as the Tamil Tigers. It had so happened, that in the summer of 1987, the Sri Lankan government had decided to start an offensive against the Tamils in the Jaffna peninsula, situated in the north of the country. Under pressure from the Indian government Sri Lanka agreed to the signing of an accord in which it was decided that the Indian Peace Keeping force or IPKF would take to the task of disarming the Tamil Tigers and bring about a ceasefire. But relations between the Tamils and IPKF turned sour by October of that year. An intense fighting broke out between the two which lasted till the year 1989. Without delving much into the details it is enough to mention that the operation ended with India taking heavy casualties. The IPKF had to finally withdraw from the Sri Lankan territory, but not without leaving behind traces of brutality, a hallmark of the Indians.

Delhi’s Nightmare - Sikh Militants

Delhi’s Nightmare - Sikh Militants

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ers The residents of Jaffna still recount the pain and misery that was inflicted upon them by IPKF which was

renamed by its victims as the Indian People Killing Force. Women of Jaffna were known for adorning them-selves with gold. After the Indian operations in the peninsula it is unknown if the Indian peacekeeping force spared any for the locals. They raped their women, young and old. Many natives were killed brutally by this Indian force. But perhaps the final showdown to this battle came with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, under whose leadership the entire operation was orchestrated. The Tamil struggle continues till date and is gaining momentum each passing day.

This is a worrying trend for the Indians and for a good reason. The Tamils lay a claim on the Tamil Nadu state of India. Since 2006, Sri Lankans have come hard on the Tamil Tigers. The LTTE is now taking refuge in Tamil Nadu, using it as a base to regroup and reorganize. In the recent past, many confiscations have been made involving highly explosive devices and other weaponry. They are also finding recruits on the Indian soil from the Sri Lankan refugees and local sympathizers. Indians understand the challenge this development poses to the national sovereignty, and they acknowledge that the LTTE has a huge support base in the state and beyond. It will take more than a military action to dilute the LTTE organized campaigns because of the strong cultural, linguistic, ethnic and historic affinity that the Tamils on both sides of the border share. Be-sides, the humiliation from the failed offensive of 1987 will keep Indians in two minds before they launch another military attack against the LTTE.

Tamil Nadu has a population of 62,405,679; it makes up 6.05% of the total population of India.

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THE SEVEN SISTERS

June 29, 2008 a bomb rips through a market place in a village located in the northeastern state of Assam. According to initial reports, eight killed and 45 injured, some critically. So was reported in the media. But the mess in Assam and other regions in the northeastern part of India have a much more violent history than the blast on June, 29, the most recent of many since the conception of India as an independent country.

The responsibility for the blast was taken by ULFA, United Liberation Front of Assam, one of more than two dozen militant groups, fighting for either an independent homeland or then more political economy. In the past 25 years as many as 10,000 people have lost their lives in the violence. Thousands more have been displaced; now living in refugee camps.

The tensions have never seemed to subside; while cer-tain militia groups did make deals with the government which brought some calm in the region; other armed groups have continued with their terrorist activities. The year 2006 saw a spate of bombings by ULFA until August when the government agreed to stop its mili-tary operations in the region. The truce only lasted till September, and in November the military operation resumed. There have been constant attacks on politi-cians, security forces and railway construction workers ever since. Like Assam are six other states with equally fierce movements calling for more autonomy, known as the Seven Sister States of India. They are situated in the northeastern part of the country, comprising of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura states. The states are joined to rest of India by a narrow piece of land, called the chicken’s neck.

The region is marked by multiplicity of tribes, ethnicities, cultures and religion. it is home to around 400 tribes or sub tribes. The whole of northeast India is marred by conflicts, including infighting amongst various vil-lages, tribes and other warring factions, all for secession for their many districts, villages and tribes. Violence is also pitted against migrants of Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal. Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya are relatively more peaceful than the rest.

Nagaland is the oldest of insurgencies of India and is believed to have inspired almost all the ethnic groups in the region. More than 20,000 have been killed before a ceasefire was announced in 1997. They demand a separate homeland comprising of mainly Christian dominated areas of Nagaland along with certain areas in Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The region is endowed with oil reserves worth billions. A state owned company – Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was forced out of the area until 2006, when it was allowed back in.

The government has been trying to ease tension in the region by striking deals with the rebel groups but no real breakthrough has been made to ensure a long term peace in the area. Manipur has been fighting for an

“Seven sisters” in deadly distress – Naga rebels

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ers independent country since 1974. The Indian army took control of the state in 1980. Lack of education and

job opportunities has forced many to join separatists groups. Army has been carrying out operations to tackle the insurgency problem but that has only added to the sufferings of the locals. Some 6000 people have been displaced because of the operations and rebel fighting. A controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA has been a subject of debate and criticism for long. This act gives various concessions to the army which has led to extreme violation of human rights.

Another issue that haunts Manipur is its proximity to the opium fields of the Golden Triangle, which has driven people to drug addiction. Incidents of HIV/AIDS are also on an increase as a result.

The last of the seven states Tripura, has been a refuge for many Bengalis after the war of 1971, when Bang-ladesh got its independence. The influx of refugees and the building of a fence by the government along the border of Bangladesh have prompted attacks by the two major rebel groups, the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF). With thousands homeless and harsh living condi-tions, life is miserable for the local population.

India’s Red Corridor

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THE NAXALITES

The Naxal movement of India was inspired by the revolutionary ideology of Mao Zedong. The movement feeds on a similar philosophy to that of Nepal’s. It first originated in the 1960’s in a remote area of West Ben-gal, Nexalbari. Today it has under its influence eastern Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar, popularly known as the Red Corridor. Naxalites (also known as Maoists and Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries) pose a serious ideological threat to the state of India. Earlier this year, Indian P Manmohan Singh, described the rebels as "the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country.”

The PM had good reasons to grant Naxalites the title of the single biggest internal security challenge ever. They have been involved in ruthless train hijacking, jailbreaks and murder of local politicians. They have re-fused to accept anything other than independence, a Naxalite leader has been found saying on record Talks are a part of our tactical line. Naxalism is not a problem, it is a solution.' With a strong army of 15,000 sol-diers, the Naxalites control one fifth of India’s total forests. They have grown into 160 off 604 administrative districts of India.

The Indian army has been compelled to arm the villagers to take on these rebels. They are supplied with guns, spears and bows and arrows. Child soldiers too go through a rigorous training. The entire forest has been turned into a battlefield. The battlefront between the Indian army and the Naxalites is one of the most fertile lands in the entire country, with heavy deposits of natural minerals including iron core, coal, limestone and bauxite. The land has been sold off to some big Indian companies to extract the minerals for industrial purposes. This guerilla movement believes in a violent revolution. With the backing of half of the tribal popu-lation, by choice and otherwise, Naxalites maintain a strict control over the area, most of which is off limitsto the government. The government has been desperate and has begun a new terror campaign against the gue-rillas. As a result the locals are bearing the brunt of these military operations; on one hand they are tortured and killed by the rebels for supporting the government and on the other, the mobs backed by the army bundle the villagers into trucks to dump them at refugee camps where they are met with harsh treatment and tough conditions. The unrest in the region is growing with each passing day.

This battle is perhaps the fiercest of all that India has to encounter on home ground.

“India’s single biggest internal security challenge ever faced” – Indian PM on naxal rebellion

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ers PART II

INDIAN DEMOCRACY OR HYPOCRISY ?Minorities reeling under violence in Hindu secularism

After the British departure from the sub continent, came into existence two independent states- India and Pakistan. Pakistan, the Islamic republic of, is known to be the first country to have been founded on ideologi-cal grounds; Israel being the only other. Quaid e Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah had said at a certain occasion, "We maintain and hold that Muslims and Hindus are two major nations by any definition or test of a nation. We are a nation of a hundred million, and, what is more, we are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of value and proportion, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and traditions, aptitudes and ambitions. In short, we have our own distinctive outlook on life. By all canons of international law we are a nation."

In these words not only had Jinnah refuted his critics who in their twisted logic had insisted that Muslims and Hindus were nothing but one people, but had at the same time given Pakistan the ethos on which were to be erected the various institutions of this newly founded state. Islam was the cause of the birth of this country and only Islam can justify its existence.

India chose a completely different direction than that of Pakistan; declaring itself a secular state. With time many such jargons have been attached and detached with the state name of India as per required- progressive, world’s biggest democracy, incredible… to quote a few. Phony as they sound, India has been wise in using them for its best interests. By portraying itself as a state not governed by any religious philosophy, it targeted the Muslim claim that Muslims couldn’t survive in a country dominated by Hindus. Last year Indians marked 150 years of the infamous Indian mutiny of 1857 against the British, celebrating it as a day when the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs of India had united against their occupiers to fight for the liberation of their homeland. It was more than just a mere commemoration of that historic day; it was yet another attempt to question the legitimacy of Pakistan’s independence movement.

What wasn’t highlighted was the fact that the first seeds of the independence struggle which ultimately led to the creation of Pakistan were sowed in the wake of this mutiny. In the days after the uprising was crushed by the British, the Hindu betrayal of Muslims had forced Sir Syed Ahmed Khan to prophesize that Muslims and Hindus will never be able to live next to one another in peace. They have used this religious versus secular rhetoric to establish that Pakistan is a failed state marred by religious sectarianism and violence; a state hostile to the religious minorities that make up hardly 2% of the total population; a state where women are oppressed in the name of religion and most recently a state that has become the breeding ground for terrorists. Thus, a state that poses a serious threat to world peace. While India stands as a total contrast to its unruly neighbor. Abraham Lincoln had illustrated the spirit of democracy in the words, of the people, by the people and for the people. The authenticity of any country’s democratic status is measured against this set criterion. That said it is not difficult to determine that there is nothing democratic, or even secular for that matter, about India.

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One of the leading political parties in India is the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. The party was in power be-tween 1998 and 2004. It is widely accepted as a radical right wing political party. Those who share similar radi-cal ideologies with this political party include the nationalist organization which goes by the name of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS] and Sangh Parivar. Another such political party is the Shiv Sena of Maharashtra headed by Bal Thackeray. What’s common between all these political and nationalist outfits is the radical doc-trine of Hinduvta, which dictates (as mentioned in the "The Struggle for India's Soul," World Policy Journal, (fall 2002) that India is "not only the [Hindu] fatherland but also ... their punyabhumi, their holy land." To Hindu extremists, all others on this land are viewed as "aliens" who do not belong there.

Recently The Hindu, a national daily carried comments of Bal Thackeray which invited Hindus to organize suicide squads in response to the Islamic terror threat to India. The plea was made after a bomb planted in a movie theatre by Hindu terrorists had failed to explode. Thackeray was pushing them to make more powerful bombs.Sociologist Dipankar Gupta explains the mindset of the members of the Shiv Sena club:

“A good Hindu for the Shiv Sena is not necessarily a person well versed in Hindu scriptures, but one who is ready and willing to go out and attack Muslims … To be a good Hindu is to hate Muslims and nothing else.”

(Citizens versus People: the Politics of Majoritarianism and Marginalization in Democratic India, Sociology of Religion, Spring 2007)

John Dayal while commenting on the book titled "Religious Demography of India" disrobes the Indian propaganda (forwarded by the said political parties) of inciting public opinion against Muslim and Christian minorities of India. Much has been said about such schemes in this commentary and the one that preceded it. Selective pieces from Dayal’s observations only reaffirm all that has been said. Following are a few chosen sections which stand strong without the need to be accompanied by any additional remarks.

“Narendra Modi ensured his continuance and canonization as Chief Minister by repeating a gutter phrase Hum Paanch Hamare Pachees (we are five - husband and four wives, and we have twenty-five children, five per wife), perpetuating a myth that defies both logic and time…The slogan however caught on. Civil society watched in horror as god fearing, and sensible Hindus, made a beeline to the polling booths to vote for Modi.”

He continues: “My friend Prof Ram Puniyani wrote a fine piece exploring the political psychology behind the Hum Panch Hamare Pachees slogan and its success. Ram Said, "One of the major factors in perpetuation of communal violence is the doctoring of the mass consciousness. The social common sense is manufactured in such a way that the targeted community is made to appear as the culprit. The classic case of' Victim as Culprit'. And that's how so many myths percolate about the minorities. Apart from the Historical myths the one's related to demographics are playing a dangerous role in the demonisa-tion of Muslims in particular.”

One another statement from the same article ties all of this together to the ultimate dream of the creation of The Greater India:

“Liken their patrons in the Sangh, the authors are living in a dream land of Vrihata Bharat, a Greater India.”Throughout our analysis, we employ the term "India" for the geographical and historical India that encompasses the three countries into

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ers which India was partitioned in this course of the twentieth century.”

To think that such is only harmless oratory wouldn’t be true. They have practically demonstrated these princi-ples whenever an opportunity came their way. The 2002 Gujarat attacks against Muslims were appalling to say the least; they generated a strong reaction from around the globe. The stories of violence and bloodshed were so dreadful that even the international media, which otherwise maintains silence over such issues, couldn’t turn a blind eye to the occurrences in Gujarat.

A human rights watchdog reports the events in a manner all too well known to the Muslims who survived the atrocities of 1947- The looting and burning of Muslim homes, businesses, and places of worship was also widespread. Muslim girls and women were brutally raped. Mass graves have been dug throughout the state. Gravediggers told Human Rights Watch that bodies keep arriving, burnt and mutilated beyond recognition.

The investigation also brought out the fact that those involved were the members of the Sangh Parivar. The BJP tried to erase traces that bore marks of their involvement in this mass murder. But their sins were so ghastly no amount of cover up could hide the truth. So much so that some within the country were forced to speak against the then government and their heinous criminal activities.

Smita Narula, senior South Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch and author of the report relates, “What happened in Gujarat was not a spontaneous uprising, it was a carefully orchestrated attack against Muslims. The attacks were planned in advance and organized with extensive participation of the police and state government officials."

So cowardly are these terrorists that they only take on their targets where they exit in small pockets. Never have they dared to step into areas where Muslims live in a considerable number. This trend is so obvious that Muslims, who in their attempt to assimilate with the Hindus had chosen to reside in Hindu majority areas, had to find new homes in Muslim neighborhoods.

But Muslims are not the only targets. Christian minorities too have had a taste of this vicious campaign which is bent on cleansing India of its alien (non Hindu) population. Attacks have been made against priests and nuns, also including institutions like churches, hospitals and even charitable organizations associated with Christians. Such assaults occurred most frequently under the BJP regime. The assurance by the PM Vajpayee,

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that these attacks were isolated incidents and not an indication of an ethnic war against Christians, convinced but only few. For these attacks were simultaneously accompanied by hate literature that was widely distributed. The compilation included not just quotations, which wrongly established Christianity as a religion that encour-ages violence against non Christians but also carried suggestions as to how to harass them.

Mr. Dara Singh is believed to have been involved in the brutal murder of Graham Staines along with his two young sons, Philip and Timothy on 22 January 1999 in Orissa. He and many more like him have never been brought to justice up to date. And so their malicious acts continue to make India a living hell for such minori-ties.

But the worst of the worst are those Hindus whose killing is approved by their own faith.

Khairlanji is a remote village in the Bhandara district, in the north-east of the Maharashtra state of India. On 29th September 2006, a group of upper caste Hindus attacked a house in the said village and killed four members of Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange’s family; including his wife Surekha Bhotmange, his daughter Priyanka, 17, his two sons Roshan, 19 and Sudhir 21. Details of the murder as narrated by the witnesses are soul numb-ing- they were dragged outside the house, beaten with bicycle chains, sticks and other weapons that this mob could find at their disposal.

The gang, many of whom were neighbors of this unfortunate family had the women stripped, raped and killed. Their only offence, they belonged to a lower caste Hindu family, otherwise known as dalits or untouchables.

In this progressive, secular democratic country, Dalits make up for most part of the total population. The recent boom in the Indian economy has done little good to these underprivileged. Between the upper/middle class Hindus and those belonging to the lower stratum lie barricades that bar the untouchables from getting

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ers education, fair job opportunities or even state sponsored medical and food facilities for their infants.

In Tamil Nadu alone, 45 special types of “untouchability” are practiced by the higher caste Hindus. Translated in other words, the high class Hindus deem themselves too high to share their temples, cremation grounds, river bathing points or even their barbers with dalits and when these boundaries are transgressed, the punish-ment is severe.

As quoted in a report prepared for the WashingtonPost by Emily Wax; Anup Srivastava is a researcher with the People's Vigilance Commission on Human Rights in Varanasi. His job requires him to investigate complaints filed by Dalits about discrimination among neighbors, in schools, at hospitals and at work. He says, "India is not a true democracy. The country is independent. But the people aren't. How can there be a democracy when there are still people known as untouchables who face daily discrimination?"

To cite references from another article authored by an Indian named, V.B.Rawat, he protests, “All those who talks of "great democratic" India and non violent and tolerant Hindu community must address to this issue as where were they when Dalits were being butchered by the Hindu Upper castes. Also, “The Hinduism that is being preached these days is in fact Varnashram dharma which believes in caste hierarchy…. And this caste system makes India as world's biggest practising racist country, worst than the South Africa of apartheid period.”

Desperate, most Dalits are forced to convert to other religions, hundreds every year. But now the silence is being broken. The nobodies of India are taking on the government, be it through an interview to a foreign magazine or protest on the streets. They have also found strength in the aphorism majority is authority. The wrath of dalits is a thing local politicians just cannot afford, especially during election season. They can swing election results in the favor of any political party that impresses them or vice versa. These are testing times for the government and a wide interest from international human rights organizations is only adding pressure.

But of all, violence against women is the most brutal practice justified as a religious duty in accordance with the teachings of the Hindu Holy Scriptures. The Hindu texts sanctify the killing of infant girls, by parents who deem themselves not capable of shouldering the responsibility of having a girl child. The Hindu holy book Bhagvad Gita clearly calls women embodiment of the worst desires and justifies the killing of women.

Here is an excerpt from Hindu book which allows killing of women;

“Killing of a woman, a Shudra or an atheist is not sinful. Woman is an embodiment of the worst desires, hatred, deceit, jealousy and bad character. Women should never be given freedom.” Bhagvad Gita (Manu IX. 17 and V. 47, 147)

Similarly another holy script of Hindu religious book preaches looking down upon women by terming a woman equal to a dog, crow and shudra (a low cast poor Hindu who has no rights in Hindu society).

“And whilst not coming into contact with Sudras and remains of food; for this Gharma is he that shines yonder, and he is excellence, truth, and light; but woman, the Sudra, the dog, and the black bird (the crow), are untruth: he should not look at these, lest he should mingle excellence and sin, light and darkness, truth and untruth.” – Satapatha Brahmana 14:1:1:31.

Perhaps it’s the same teaching of hatred and enmity towards women in Hindu society that still prevails though

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in the modern times it is being done in a modern way. In ancient Hindu society new born girls were buried alive while the practice is very much prevalent in the so-called secular, democratic India even today. The killing of newborn babies and the abortion of women fetuses in India is a common practice.

In all cases, specifically female infanticide reflects the low status accorded to womenin most parts of India.

As John-Thor Dahlburg points out that "in rural India, the centuries-old practice of female infanticide can still be considered a wise course of action." (Dahlburg, "Where killing baby girls 'is no big sin'." The Los An-geles Times (The Toronto Star, February 28, 1994.) According to census statistics, "From 972 females for every 1,000 males in 1901 the gender imbalance has tilted to 929 females per 1,000 males. In the nearly 300 poor hamlets of the Usilampatti area of Tamil Nadu [state], as many as 196 girls died under suspicious circumstances [in 1993] ... Some were fed dry, unhulled rice that punctured their windpipes, or were made to swallow poisonous powdered fertilizer. Others were smothered with a wet towel, strangled or allowed to starve to death." Dahlburg profiles one disturbing case from Tamil Nadu: Lakshmi already had one daughter, so when she gave birth to a second girl, she killed her. For the three days of her second child's short life, Lakshmi admits, she refused to nurse her. To silence the infant's famished cries, the impoverished village woman squeezed the milky sap from an oleander shrub, mixed it with castor oil, and forced the poisonous potion down the newborn's throat. The baby bled from the nose, then died soon afterward.

A study of Tamil Nadu by the Community Service Guild of Madras similarly found that "female infanticide is rampant" in the state, though only among Hindu (rather than Moslem or Christian) families. "Of the 1,250 families covered by the study, 740 had only one girl child and 249 agreed directly that they had done away with the unwanted girl child. More than 213 of the families had more than one male child whereas half the respondents had only one daughter." (Malavika Karlekar, "The girl child in India: Does she have any rights?", Canadian Woman Studies, March 1995)

A report by PALASH KUMAR published on Dec. 15, 2006 says India Has Killed 10 Million Girls in 20 Years. The report says “Ten million girls have been killed by their parents in India in the past 20 years, either before they were born or immediately after, a government minister said on Thursday, describing it as a "national crisis".

A UNICEF report released this week (December 2006) said 7,000 fewer girls are born in the country every day than the global average would suggest, largely because female foetuses are aborted after sex determination tests but also through murder of new borns. "It's shocking figures and we are in a national crisis if you ask me," Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury told Reuters.

Girls are seen as liabilities by many Indians, especially because of the banned but rampant practice of dowry, where the bride's parents pay cash and goods to the groom's family. Men are also seen as bread-winners while social prejudices deny women opportunities for education and jobs. "Today, we have the odd distinction of having lost 10 million girl children in the past 20 years," Chowdhury told a seminar in Delhi University.

"Who has killed these girl children? Their own parents." In some states, the minister said, newborn girls have been killed by pouring sand or tobacco juice into their nostrils. "The minute the child is born and she opens her mouth to cry, they put sand into her mouth and her nostrils so she chokes and dies," Chowdhury said, referring to cases in the western desert state of Rajasthan. "They bury infants into pots alive and bury the pots. They put tobacco into her mouth.

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ers They hang them upside down like a bunch of flowers to dry. We have more passion for tigers of this country.” she said.

We have people fighting for stray dogs on the road. But you have a whole society that ruthlessly hunts down girl children." The Indian Minister for Women and Child Development lamented. It is arguably the most brutal and destruc-tive manifestation of the anti-female bias that pervades in Indian Hindu patriarchal society.

Most such negative attitudes are linked with the oppressive practice of dowry. Girls who do survive to grow up to be adults are mostly murdered by their husbands or in laws. Around 5000 women die each year for not bringing enough dowries.

The bias against females in India is related to the fact that "Sons are called upon to provide the income; they are the ones who do most of the work in the fields. In this way sons are looked to as a type of insurance. With this perspective, it becomes clearer that the high value given to males decreases the value given to females." (Marina Porras, "Female Infan-ticide and Foeticide".) The problem is also intimately tied to the institution of dowry, in which the family of a prospective bride must pay enormous sums of money to the family in which the woman will live after mar-riage. Though formally outlawed, the institution is still pervasive.

A woman can be accused by her husband of immorality and must survive walking through a blazing fire to prove her innocence. It is believed that an innocent woman can not be harmed in the slightest way by fire. In whose favor are the most cases decided? This need not be answered in words. Women are killed in a practice called sati, which is the burning of wife along with the dead body of her husband. Those who escape with only mutilated organs, a punishment for minor offences are the lucky ones.

The incidents of death in the ways mentioned, has decreased incredibly since ancient times. However once every while these practices are revived in some corner of the country and demands a constant check by the government. Recent international surveys also suggest that some customs that are hostile towards women are still very much prevalent in India.

One such incident that gave way to a huge cry all over the world was the compilation of a report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) that recorded as many as 50 million girls and women to have gone miss-ing as a result of systematic gender discrimination in India. Women are also subjected to discrimination and have poor access to education and food. Spousal violence is a norm, which has driven most of the Indian women to the streets in frustration.

Deficits in nutrition and health-care also overwhelmingly target female children. Karlekar cites research indicat[ing] a definite bias in feeding boys milk and milk products and eggs In Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh [states], it is usual for girls and women to eat less than men and boys and to have their meal after the men and boys had finished eating. Greater mobility outside the home provides boys with the opportunity to eat sweets and fruit from saved-up pocket money or from money given to buy articles for food consumption. In case of illness, it is usually boys who have preference in health care. ... More is spent on clothing for boys than for girls which also affects morbidity. (Karlekar, "The girl child in India.")

Sunita Kishor reports "another disturbing finding," namely "that, despite the increased ability to command essential food and medical resources associated with development, female children [in India] do not improve their survival chances relative to male children with gains in development. Relatively high levels of agricultural development decrease the life chances

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of females while leaving males' life chances unaffected; urbanization increases the life chances of males more than females. Clearly, gender-based discrimination in the allocation of resources persists and even increases, even when availability of resources is not a constraint."

Kishor, "'May God Give Sons to All': Gender and Child Mortality in India,” American Sociological Review, 58: 2 (April 1993), p. 262.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of India unearthed some extremely disturbing trends in India. Statistics suggest that in 2005 around 50 women were raped and 480 molested and abducted, every day. India is also to known to have the highest rate of violence against pregnant women; around 50% were kicked while pregnant- some 74.8% tried to commit suicide. While one can continue to delve into such matters to bring to light the ugly truth of the present Indian state that is adamant in its claim to be a secular democracy, it is only a matter of time that these oppressed factions will threaten the establishment. The fate of every Pharaoh has been nothing but disgrace and death. This is the law of nature, which will not change its course no matter what the epoch.

*************************Note: Article was orginally published by Brasstacks on 25th July, 2008.

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Balkanizing India7The final solution for permanent peace in South Asia

India must be Balkanized! This is the only natural logical solution for sustainable peace in Asia.

Global peace and stability has been fatally endangered due to the fiery geostrategic milieu in South East Asia. India’s hegemonic and expansionist policies have proved to be the gravest threat to a region wherein three nuclear powers possess mutually exclusive and long term strategic interests. Apart from the current critical geostrategic and geopolitical circumstances, India’s internal social landscape demands that it must be divided into multiple smaller states for good. The suggestion of this division is not based on any kind of anti-India rhetoric but history bears witness that India in her current size and constitution is an unnatural combination where millions of people are deprived of their basic human rights while being forced to live in this federation. 160 or more insurgent movements, the greatest number in the world, forcefully endorse this statement.

There are solid grounds which provide a rationale and justification for Balkanizing the Indian federation into its natural structure as it has been throughout her 7,500 years of known history. India was never a single state rather it was a division of multiple empires and states governed and ruled by different administrations and dynasties.

1. India is the only state in the entire world which has hostile relations with all her neighbors, including two nuclear powers; Pakistan and China. This hostility is driven by the fanatically violent ideology of Hin-dutva, which has caused the whole region to become a nuclear landmine which can explode any minute. Had India not been in her current size, the entire region would have been saved from the current explosive situation.

2. India is ruled by a minority class of elite Brahmins for whom the rest of the Indian population com-prises of mere untouchables. The fascist Hindutva ideology which is now controlling India’s internal and external security policies is inherently violent and anarchic which makes honorable co-existence for Indian minorities – Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits, Shudars, Christians, Tamils and other castes – impossible. The Indian subcontinent is complexly dense with respect to religions, cultures, languages, values and traditions owned

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iaby various nations residing within India. Quite often these beliefs contradict with each other and create severe frictions in society. Given the inherent contradictions of the Indian society and politics, every na-tion must have its own country carved out of India in order to protect its rights and beliefs. This is the only ways to ensure stability and progress among these nations.

These crucial facts also prove that the division of India in 1947, into two independent states based on the Two-Nation theory was absolutely sublime and just as it set hundreds of millions of Muslims free and saved millions of more lives, including Hindus, which would have been wasted had Pakistan not been created.

India: An Artificial Federation

India was never one country but a patchwork of alliances, deceitful conspiracies, shifting loyalties, loose as-sociations, and constant rebellions against the center. Even the mighty Mughal Armies could not control the entire territory: If they quelled a rebellion in the West, trouble would start brewing in the East; crush an ag-gressive potentate in the North, and the South would be in revolt.

Today history is being repeated. India inebriated by a meager success on economic and diplomatic level is blind to the real self-portrait of caste infested penury leading towards Balkanization.

India as a single country is a misnomer and history proves this assertion. The British “Indian” Empire in-cluded parts of the Subcontinent, Iraq, Burma etc. The French “Indian” Empire included parts of the Sub-continent plus Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. The Dutch “Indian” Empire included Indonesia and parts of the Subcontinent.

Many think of India as a monolith state. In actual fact, there were more than 570 independent states before Lord Clive entered Calcutta. Even during the Company Raj (Plassy to War of Independence) the East India Company controlled a small portion of the territory (1176-1857). When the Crown formally took over South Asia after the Company had almost lost the war of Independence (Great Indian Mutiny) it controlled only about 40% of the region. The rest of the area was ruled by princes, potentates, rajas, kings, badshahs—who possessd varying degree of sovereignty and independence. Some of the larger states were very independent; for example Hyderabad was a country by itself and Bhopal and Kashmir were also not ruled by Delhi.

The British conquered various kingdoms in the Indian subcontinent one by one. Then, for ease of admin-istering (ruling) the conquered territories, the British set up an administrative unit called India. A country or administrative unit called India (or by any other name) comprising of the current territories of India, never existed in all known history before the British conquest and consolidation.

India, as a country, by any name, never existed before the British colonial rule despite the oft-repeated false propaganda of the long history about the unity of India.

Now once again most of the Indian states which were once ruled over by different rulers, want to be inde-pendent; this has resulted in over 100 insurgencies going on in India. The nations in East Punjab, Kashmir, the Seven Sisters of the Northeast, The Naxalites, Nagaland do not want to be part of India. Chennai and Tamil Nadu are more concerned with the Tamilian brothers of Sri Lanka and of Bangalore. The Seven States of the Northeast consider themselves as colonies under the military rule of Delhi and guerilla war is going

Gupta Dynasty (320-550 CE) Mughal Empire at its prime (1707) British Raj at its prime (1909)

Changes in Indian Borders Through Differnt Periods of HistoryHindus, Muslims and British ruled Indian Subcontinent but in no time period in the history, an Empure in Indian Subconti-

nent was constituted with entire landmass under the rule of single king or government. Even British, despite being the super pow-er of 19th century, were not able to control all the areas in Sub-continent during their 90 years rule. (1857-1947)

Gupta Dynasty (320-550 CE) Mughal Empire at its prime (1707) British Raj at its prime (1909)

Changes in Indian Borders Through Differnt Periods of HistoryHindus, Muslims and British ruled Indian Subcontinent but in no time period in the history, an Empure in Indian Subconti-

nent was constituted with entire landmass under the rule of single king or government. Even British, despite being the super pow-er of 19th century, were not able to control all the areas in Sub-continent during their 90 years rule. (1857-1947)

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ers on in all of them. Kashmir has been in turmoil since 25 years, crying for freedom or better autonomy and in

many central states the Maoist-Naxalite guerilla wars have been going on since decades.India in Modern History

Currently, India’s grand strategy revolves around the idea of Akhand Baharat (United India). This ideology is the harbinger of Indian hegemonic expansionist designs towards her neighbors, particularly Pakistan, as according to it, India has every right to invade and unite the lands which were separated from it in 1947. This insane desire has not only brought millions of Indians to a social and economic demise but more ominously has endangered global peace as well. The entire region has turned into a nuclear landmine which can explode any movement due to the Indian belligerence which had started right after independence in 1947, under the aspirations of Akhand Baharat ideology. In 1948 Nehru forced all states to join the “Indian Union”. Any state that tried to exist independently was to be declared enemy state and India would be at war with it. He used a fake article of accession to send forces to Kashmir and tried to occupy it. The article of accession was never presented to Pakistan or the UN—and is now purportedly lost—as if it ever existed. Nehru allowed Patel to instigate “Police Action” against Hy-derabad and overtook it. The same story was repeated about 560 times. Junagarh and Manvadar had opted to join Pakistan but were forcibly incorporated into India.

Kashmir

Kashmir is the most explosive of insurgencies in present times. Since the last 63 years, the Indian military has used every tactic and means, ranging from bullets to curfews to sealing off the territory, in order to restrain and silence the voice of Kashmiris from reaching the world.

Kashmir is the oldest unsolved dispute and the largest prison camp in today’s “free” world. It’s a cage confin-ing millions of Kashmiris as hostages by more than 700,000 Indian troops who possess the license to kill with complete impunity. Kashmiris are subjected to the most brutal kinds of human crime and atrocities by the

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Indian forces. There has been a continuous duel between the oppressors and the determination for freedom since more than 100 years now. The only thing that changed during this time in Kashmir is the faces of op-pressors, atrocities of the Indian forces and the Kashmiris’ fervor for freedom which is increasing with every passing hour. India has been shaken with the Kashmiris’ recent, unimaginably strong will against the Indian state terrorism.

Murders, abductions, custodial killings, shooting protestors, raping women, robbing and torching dwellings are a routine by the Indian army and paramilitary forces under specific laws made for the Kashmiris in order to oppress them. Ironically, there has been an amoral global mum over this critical issue by the otherwise very active and efficient human rights activists. This indeed is a conspicuous crime against humanity.

After waiting too long for the international community to pay heed to the pleas of the subjugated Kashmiris’ for justice, now every Kashmiri is determined to make the international community hear their voice through the recent revolts in the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). The Kashmiri struggle turned into a new intifada re-cently when the youth, children and even women took to the streets, armed with stones—the weapons of the oppressed civilians against tyrants—braving death. On the other hand, the Indian military is using every kind of tactic in its arsenal to bulldoze the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle but have failed miserably so far. Understanding Indian Political philosophy

To cope with the ideological vortex of this Indian expansionism, it would be prudent to see the underlying political ideology which is driving the Indian political and external policies. Indian politics and policies are be-ing driven by two thought processes.

Machiavellian politics of Chankya

The present global political system of the democratic world is based on the political science developed by Machiavelli. This sys-tem is cruel and treacherous and this has been proved by the re-cent history of global politics. There is neither any ethical bound-ary nor is there any shred of fair play in this political system. However, the question arises whether Machiavelli was the first one to devise this kind of a political system? The answer is ‘No.’ Chankya’s works predate Machiavelli by about 1,800 years. His work was rediscovered, after it had been lost near the end of the Gupta dynasty, in the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, the Hindu politicians in India have been using Chankya’s doctrine as their political guide. After independence, Chanakya’s book “Arthshasthar” has become the Indian foreign policy man-ual according to which it would be essential for India to suppress her opponents in the region by using their neighbors and never to confront the opponent state unless it has been rendered too weak to fight against India. The current Indian foreign policy is a vivid example of this ideology: India is working on the dismember-ment of Pakistan through Afghanistan; in the past it had tried to establish relations with Iran for the same purpose.

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ers To develop Chankya’s ideology further, special political science institutions are being developed in India.

Chankya Institute of Public Leadership (CIPL) has been established recently and is described as the first of its kind in India. It is a training school for future leaders inspired by the ancient Indian Wisdom through Chan-kya’s ‘Arthshasthar’ as the supreme text on Raj Neeti. The political thinking of future Indian leaders, trained in these institutes, must not be difficult to anticipate.

Fascist ideology of Hindutva

Unknown to the world, a terrorism breeding fascist ideology is taking decisive control over the largest “de-mocracy” of the world, posing an existential threat to the region as well as to the world at large. Under the façade of secularism, driven by extreme sentiments of hatred and a desire for revenge for being humiliated and ruled over for a thousand years by the Islamic and Western civilizations, the Hindu Brahmin zealots in India are inflaming the masses’ religious passions to a mad frenzy, spreading the cancerous ideology into the Indian establishment as well as the armed forces. This frenzy harbours a fierce desire to take control of India’s military and nuclear weapons in order to wage a decisive and total war for “Akhand Bharat” or greater India!

The boundaries of this mythical land for the Brahmin elite stretch from Malaysia to Kabul, but Pakistan re-mains the first and the most formidable hurdle in this proposed Hindu Zionist expansion. Pakistan fights not just for its own identity, ideology and geography but also for the entire civilized world against this lurking but hitherto unknown threat!

Outcome of Brahmin’s Hindutva Ideology

The vice of social inequality in India has gripped the backward classes and communities which are treated as untouchables in a reprehensible form, denying them any social or economic justice. There is no opportunity for these classes to develop their individual personalities and to participate in the pleasures and happiness of life.

Indians claim that the problem of poverty and unequal distribution of wealth may be confined to the big-ger cities and towns in India but the problem accentuated by the vice of social inequality prevails in the entire country. For instance, the Harijans constitute a large class of landless labourers who are treated as untouchables by the rest of the community. They have no house to live in, hardly any clothing to cover them-

selves with, hardly any nourishment is available to them and sometimes even decent drinking water is beyond their reach. The poor also have no access to legal assistance. Vulnerable to injustice, poverty fosters frustration, ill feeling and a brooding sense of injustice. Democracy realizes that this problem which concerns a large number of citizens cannot be successfully met unless the law is used wisely to restore balance to the economic structure and to re-move the causes of economic inequality. But use of law for bringing equality can only be achieved through Balkanization of India into small countries.

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For most of the Indians their Indian identity is important to them only while they travel abroad, talk about Bollywood or watch a cricket match. Factually, there reside multiple frictions and fault lines within the Indian society which is profoundly dominated by a savage caste system which creates a sense of being less human among the lower classes. Indian democracy is such a shameless sham that it has strengthened the caste system in order to help the Brahmin political elite to become more powerful during the last sixty-two years. Not only are the deprived sections losing their Indian identity but now their regional identities of being Marathis, Bi-haris, Bengalis etc are being further segregated into Rajputs, Reddys, Patels, Kshatriyas, Jats, Kurmis, Vaniyars and Dalits. Every caste is fighting for its own survival at the cost of others. This phenomenon has prevailed historically in India and 62 years of a fake and sham democracy has worsened it further and the artificial Indi-an federation is slowly but surely moving towards its logical dismemberment as that is the only natural course.

Consequently, majority of Indians are fed up with the ‘shining India’ slogans and want to break away from this man made system. Their sense of deprivation has grown so strong that there are almost 140 separatists’ movements going on in some 200 districts all over India. India comprises of 28 states, mostly formed in 1956 in an effort to reorganize the administrative units along ethnic and linguistic lines after the British colonial rule. Some districts of a particular community were included in the states belonging to other communities. This attempt by Delhi to control the local sentiments led to two tiers of separatist movement:

1. Armed militant struggle to get out of Indian clutches2. Political activism inside India for the creation of new provinces / states.

India – housing the world’s largest slums

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Now the chickens have come home to roost. The situation is so tense in some of the insurgent areas that the central government of India today only controls 40% of the total territory of the land mass of the country. This is similar to the British Raj. The Naxals control 40% of the land, and Assam, and Kashmiris control the rest. Indian forces deployed in these states are fighting a lost war as people have openly refused to accept the Brahmin oppression. These insurgencies and separatist movements are the outcome of decades of Hindutva oppression of other classes in India yet this ideology preaches to grab more and more land mass by invading the neighboring countries. The demand for new states has opened the floodgates of secession.

Greater Assam

Since the mid-20th century, people from present-day Bangladesh (then part of Pakistan) have been migrating to Assam. In 1961, the Government of Assam passed a legislation making compulsory the use of the As-samese language. This had to be withdrawn later under pressure from Bengali the speaking people in Cachar. It was discovered in the 1980’s that electoral lists had been manipulated to turn locals into minorities in the world’s largest democracy. This manipulation once again exposed India’s true face, consequently stirring an armed rebellion in Assam.

Separatist groups like the United Liberation Front of Asam (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) emerged during the same time period. Despite assurances of regional autonomy and self governance these groups con-tinue their revolt with full support of the local tribes as they all are deprived even of the basic necessities of life. ULFA and other such groups seek to estab-lish a sovereign Assam via an armed struggle. The situation in Assam has turned very serious in the recent years due to communal clashes which con-tinue in two central districts of the state: Udalguri and Darrang. These clashes are the manifestation of Hindutva ideology seeping into the Indian soci-ety at every level.

The Government of India had banned the organization in 1990 and classified it as a terrorist group, while the US State Department lists it under "Other groups of concern". Military operations against it by the In-dian Army that began in 1990 continue till date. In the past two decades some 10,000 people have died in the clashes between the rebels and the government.

To make matters worse, Bodos, Dimasas and Karbi tribes of Assam have renewed their demand for separate states carved out of Assam following the Centre's decision to create a separate Telengana state.

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Bodoland

The social scars created by the criminal negligence of the Brahmin elite of Delhi are so severe and deep that India is suffering divisions within divisions. Insurgencies have further divisions within them segregating the Indian society further. Bodoland is a classic example and presents a complete case study in this regard.

Bodoland is an area located in the north bank of Brahmaputra river in the state of Assam in the northeast-ern region of India, by the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh; inhabited predominantly by Bodo speaking ethnic group. Currently the hypothetical map of Bodoland includes the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) administered by the non-autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). The map of Bodoland overlaps with the districts of Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri in the state of Assam.

Gorkhaland

The rebel movement in Gorkhaland is yet another example of multiple levels of divisions within India. There are so many nations within the Indian federations, fighting for the survival for their language, culture, economic interests and political identities. This phenomenon would continue unless these nations get their rightful stature in the comity of nations. This particular movement is an example of political separatist and nationalist movements.

Emboldened by the Centre's move to initiate the pro-cess for carving Telengana state out of Andhra Pradesh, triggered another separatist movement by members of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in the Darjeeling hills and Dooars demanding Gorkhaland state.

The centrifugal forces continue to grow and ask for more and more."We do not want to stay with West Bengal. We want to be lib-erated from the colonial rule of the West Bengal government," GJM general Secretary Roshan Giri told reporters.

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A high intensity armed insurgency has been going on in this Indian state since 1955 when the Indian army invaded it in order to subdue the nationalist tendencies of Naga in Assam. Later on the Indian government tried to pacify the tribes through the façade of political and diplomatic negotiations. Nagas began their political struggle through Naga National Council (NCC) but in 1967 when the Indian government denied their demands, armed rebellion began and training camps were established in the Jotsoma jungles.

This insurgent movement was organized during the later years for the establishment of the proposed state of Na-galim by the rebel organization National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). A government-in-exile by the name of Government of the People’s Republic of Nagaland has been established as well. Along with Minipur, Nagaland is a no go area for the Indian military units particularly com-prising of troops from the other areas as well.

Manipur

A separatist insurgency began in 1964 with the demand of a sovereign state, separate from the Union of In-dia. Lack of development, plundering of local resources, and a general discontent are the major contributing factors for this uprising. The international Human Rights Watch argues that human rights violations by the Indian Security Forces have only fuelled the insurgency. It adds that the Indian Army has at times acted with impunity as the anti-terrorism laws in the state make prosecution of human rights violators difficult.

There are currently 34 groups, including non-violent ones that demand independence from India. In 1999, some of these groups coalesced into an alliance organization called the "Manipur People's Liberation Front." Of these, the three most prominent are the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) with an estimated

2500 active militants.

As of today, Manipur is the worst case scenar-io in the north-east as far as militancy is con-cerned. Apart from the fact that there are more militant groups in the state than anywhere else -- at least seven prominent groups operate in Manipur -- the rivalries between these outfits often leads to greater violence.

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Khalistan

Khalistan is a proposed state. The Khalistan movement is a movement in the Indian Punjab for the creation of "The Land of the Pure" as an independent Sikh state in all Punjabi-speaking areas, which include Indian Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and some other Punjabi speaking parts of states like Gujarat and Ra-jasthan. Although Sikhs have played a critical role in Indian defense during the last 63 years, but now even they have realized that they would always be treated as a colonized community by the Hindu Brahmin. Dil Khalsa is one the most ferocious separatist movements and is still active internationally despite receiving a severe below in 1984 when the Golden Temple was dismantled by the Indian forces.

Rebel organizations include Khalistan Commando Force, Babbar Khalsa International, Khalistan Zindabad Force, International Sikh Youth Federation and Khalistan Liberation Force.

Tamil Nadu

The Tamil movement, being run by Tamil National Retrieval Troops, Tamil Nadu Liberation Army, has been driven by Delhi’s decision to impose Hindi language on the vast majority of the Tamil speaking masses. There is anger among Tamil nationalists that a 3,000-year-old language has not been made the official language of India, instead such status had been given to Hindi. They recall the words of the DMK founder, Anna, who spearheaded the anti-Hindi agitations in the 1960’s and argued that if Hindi were made the national language because it was spoken by the majority then, by the same reasoning, the common crow and not the peacock should have been made the national bird.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) dropped its demand for a separate Dravida nation almost half a century ago, in 1963. Had the fore-mentioned 1962 law been not passed and had the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) continued to use its vast resources and skills in its campaign for freedom for Tamil Nadu from India, today most Tamils would be clamoring for an independent Tamil Nadu free from the Indian rule. However, growing protests in Tamil Nadu against the Indian military assistance to Colombo in its war against the LTTE have resurrected separatist rhetoric in the mainstream politics. Water distribution problems with other states also played a major role in rise of the Tamil rebellion.

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After Hyderabad was broken up and its pieces parsed out to “Andhra Pradesh” and other areas, the state ceased to exist. The city which was a center of Muslim culture and Urdu learning died as the cultural Mecca for the Muslims.

Now various ethnicities in Andhara Pradesh are fighting among themselves---the Telangana plan was to create a separate state.

Other groups pushing for separate statehood in India are ratcheting up pressure on the government after New Delhi gave its nod for a separate Telangana state to be carved out of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

The Red Corridor

The Red Corridor is a term used to describe an impoverished region in the east of India that experiences considerable Naxalite communist terrorist activity. These are also areas that suffer from the greatest illit-eracy, poverty and overpopulation in modern India, and span parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal states. The Red Corridor is almost contiguous from India's border with Nepal to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu.

The Naxalites have a force of approximately 15,000 cadres spread across 160 districts in the states of Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal. They operate pri-marily in the lawless, dense forested areas of India’s interior, with some estimates saying that the Naxalites control approximately 10.03 million hectares (about 25 million acres) of forests nationwide. They also have an active campaign to recruit students and other youth to help spread their left-wing extremism into India’s towns and cities. Thus far, however, the Naxalites have not demonstrated the ability to operate in urban areas.The areas encompassed by the Red Corridor tend to have stratified societies, with caste and feudal divisions. Much of the area has high indigenous tribal populations (or adivasis), including Santhal and Gond. Bihar

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and Jharkhand have both caste and tribal divisions and violence associated with friction between these social groups. Andhra Pradesh's Telangana region similarly, has deep caste divides with a strict social hierarchical arrangement. Both Chattisgarh and Orissa have significant impoverished tribal populations.

Hindutva and the Region..!

India is a disintegrating state, there are factions within the state, fighting for their freedom but they do not have any diplomatic support and this is where Pakistan’s role becomes decisive. Indian coercive diplomacy played a key role in breaking Pakistan in 1971 and now it is payback time for Pakistan.

Indian nuclear status must be the most worrying aspect for the whole world at this point, owing to the ever increasing multi-level segregation in the Indian federation and more importantly the existence of Hindutva following military top brass.

To conceal her inner weaknesses, India remains in a state of war with all of her neighbors. The 62 year his-tory of the Indian federation has witnessed the Indian overt or covert assaults on all its neighbors particularly Pakistan, Bengladesh and China.

Sri Lanka: Strategically located in the Indian Ocean this island country is extremely critical for India from a geostrategic point of view. Indians have been contesting for the control of this country through covert

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ers support for the Tamil Tigers since the last 3 decades.

These Indian backed insurgents wreaked havoc in entire Sri Lanka and killing thousands of Sri Lankan nationals in their attacks. Though the insurgency was suppressed in 2009 with the help of China and Pakistan but Sri Lan-ka had to face the Indian diplomatic offensive, in the form of human rights violation propaganda, launched through the UN and other humanitarian organizations in order to undermine the Sri Lankan efforts to subdue the Indian backed insurgents.

Nepal: Just like the Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka, India played a key role in creating and supporting the Maoist insurgency in Nepal.

Nepal is a landlocked country, surrounded by India on three sides. The remaining northern part is separated from China by the Himalayas. This geo-political situa-tion has forced Nepal to be completely dependent on India for trade, commerce and sea- access. Without In-dia’s cooperation, Nepal’s engagement with the rest of the world and its quest for stability and economic devel-opment cannot bear much fruit. This power allows New Delhi to play a manipulative role in the Nepal politics in a way to serve its own interests.

India, using the historically proven successful ideology of Chankya, exploited the internal grievances of the Nepalese people against their government just like she is doing in Pakistan. Counter insurgency and peace treaties both failed in Nepal as the insurgency was motivated by India, using Nepal’s socio-economic crisis as an excuse. This allows India to play a big part in the Nepalese politics in order to benefit herself. For example, India played a major role in 1951, in the removal of Nepal's 104-year-old Rana dynasty, the continuation for 30 years of a monarchical rule, and the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, due to a direct result of its deci-sion to ignore the wishes of New Delhi in what was, superficially, a trade and transit dispute.

India also discouraged the Nepali aspirations to have equally friendly relations with China and Pakistan. Tension between Nepal and India began in 1990 when India forwarded a draft treaty proposal containing extremely humiliating demands from Nepal. The treaty

1. Forbids Nepal from entering into any military alliance with any other state or organization without prior consultation and agreement with India.

2. Obliged Nepal to consult India in advance when importing arms, training armed personnel, and raising additional military units.

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3. Gave India and its nationals first preference in Nepal's development and industrial projects whenever Nepal sought foreign assistance for such purposes.

4. Ensured India's preferential involvement in exploiting water resources originating from shared rivers.

All the learned scholars and political historians agree that until Nepal finds a way to cut the strings from India once and for all, she will always play a dramatic part in how the country is run.

Bangladesh: India played a central role in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 by exploiting the mistrust of the citizens of East Pakistan and soon afterwards the Bangladeshi people got a taste of the Chankya doc-trine, when India, under the façade of many security and economic aid packages, tried to convert this country into one of her colonies. The secession of East Pakistan was actually a move derived by the Indian desire of Akhand Baharat and the creation of Bangladesh was the first step in this regard. In the second phase, India signed many agreements with the Mujib ur Rehman regime to practically colonize this country. This noxious game met with a bloody end when some Bangladeshi army officers hunted down the Indian pawn: Shiekh Mujeeb. Since then India has been desperately trying to secure Bangladesh but now the Bengalis have seen through the Indian game and are consequently resisting her plans.

The Indian response is a quiet and sinis-ter war against Bangladesh. Water aggres-sion has remained the most powerful and successful strategy of the bloodless Indian wars in recent times. Apart from Pakistan, Bangladesh is also facing the same threat. India's plan for the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam, built on the river Barak is part of this most dangerous scheme being devised against Bangladesh in order to fur-ther harm all political, economic, financial and social spheres of that small country. Before this project, India had already built Farakka dam on the Indian side of the Ganges River to stop the flow of water to Bangladesh. According to a study by Bridge and Husain, Farakka dam was the root cause of arsenic poisoning through groundwater in Bangladesh in 2004, and over 80 rivers in Bangladesh have dried up during last three decades due to the construction of the Farakka barrage by India. Some environmentalists have termed this barrage as the greatest man-made economic disaster of our time.

Apart from water aggression, Indian military forces continuously violate the international border with Bangla-desh. On the diplomatic front, India has accused Bangladesh and Pakistan of supporting insurgencies within India, which actually are the outcome of social atrocities of certain classes and communities in the Indian federation.

China: Being one of the most powerful global players in the economic and political spheres, China certainly remains the biggest challenge for India. India has had historically turbulent relations with Bejing owing to the

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ers tension over the border dispute of Tibet and Hamachal Perdesh. Both countries have fought a war over this

region in 1962. India had to face a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Chinese. In the recent times, new axes of Sino-India rivalry have emerged in the military, economic and political vortexes. China is a historically powerful civilization in this region and now she is expanding her economic and political clout all over the world. On the other hand, driven by insecurities and sheer sense of humiliation, the modern day India, which came into existence only in 1947, is trying to replace China. For this purpose, India is seeking global support and sympathy from the West and the US who are using the Chinese excuse to arm and help India.

The Three Dynamics of Indo-Chinese Relations:

1. Border issues regarding the Tibet region and Hamachal Perdesh. China has claim over these two areas while India declares them as its integral part.

2. Geopolitical threat perceived by India by the robust economic and military modernization of China. India has indulged in an armed race with China which is also affecting Pakistan’s external security threat perception.3. Sino-Pak relations are the real worrying factor for New Delhi. The strategic corporation between Is-

lamabad and Bejing in military and economic sectors has sent Indian policymakers into a complete panic mode. This corporation is not only a manifestation of China’s rise in the military and economic domains

Sino-Pak soldiers exhibiting longstanding friendship between the two the countries

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but has also helped Pakistan to be in a position of strategic comfort regarding defense and external secu-rity.

All the bravado of Indo-China relations is just a cosmetic practice by Delhi to convince Bejing to limit its cooperation, particularly in the military domain, with Islamabad. But the Chinese are well aware of the Indian game plan and countered the Indian bluff successfully when it was suggested on a semi-official Chinese web-site that India must be Balkanized in order to gain regional stability.

Pakistan: India is the traditional enemy of Pakistan and both the countries always remain in a state of war on the diplomatic level. Indian hegemonic policies and mad frenzy driven by the violent Hindutva ideology to create Akhand Baharat have turned this region into a volatile nuclear flash point. The unjust division of the subcontinent's North Western region of Jammu and Kashmir and the illegal Indian occupation sowed the seeds of detestation not only across the subcontinent but also within India on communal and religious basis. On four different occasions, since 1947, the world has witnessed the physical incarnation of this prolonged duel. The major cause of the wars in 1948 and 1965 was Kashmir. This decades old dispute between the two arch rivals is a nuclear mine which can explode any moment.

With the Indian water aggression, an entire new dimension has been added to an already very explosive Kash-mir problem. Just like Bangladesh, Pakistan is faced with Indian policy of aggression.

In 1971, India supported insurgencies and politi-cal chaos in East Pakistan to make a physical incur-sion across the international borders to attack and then dismember the Eastern wing of the country. Indian backed Mukti Bahni carried out one of his-tory’s worst genocides of Pakistani citizens, espe-cially those belonging to West Pakistan. Later, India violated all international laws, invaded East Pakistan and allowed traitors like Shiekh Mujib to secede from Pakistan and create Bangladesh.

In 1986, both the countries came close to a war once again when nuclear armed India carried out the largest military exercises along the borders with Pakistan, whose defense at that time was completely relying on conventional weapon systems.

In 1999, both the countries bitterly fought over the hills of Kargil almost leading to a high intensity nuclear war. This war played a key role in highlighting the Kashmir issue and the possibility of a nuclear exchange in the subcontinent due to it. In 2002, another major standoff involving over a million armed troops was wit-nessed by the world, almost to the brink of a regional nuclear holocaust. But Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was the only factor which averted an inevitable war. In 2008, after the Mumbai attacks, both the countries again came dangerously close to another war. Apart from these, countless clashes over the Line of Control in Kashmir and across the working boundary have taken place. Any of these can lead to a full scale war between the two nuclear armed countries.

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constant state of confrontation is pulsating on all oth-er axes –political, economic and diplomatic –and has always been ruthless, sinister and noxious. For Paki-stan, it is a matter of survival, for India it's part of her long term hegemonic designs in the region as Pakistan is one of the principal hurdles in Indian expansion-ist designs for the whole Eurasian region and Indian ocean. The fact of the matter is that both countries cannot co-exist, despite all the public relations façade thrown by politicians, diplomats and media unless all the outstanding issues get resolved in a just manner. All others who do not accept this harsh truth are de-void of historical and military reality.

New axes of Indian war against Pakistan

After 1998, the Indians had realized that they could not find any solution to break Pakistan, which remains the biggest hurdle in their envisaged regional design on strategic and political axis. 9/11 provided the Indians with an opportunity to disgrace Pakistan with the help of the US by painting Pakistan as the ‘epicenter of evil and terrorism’ which must be denuclearized in order to save its strategic assets and the world from terrorists.Right now, Indians are working on multiple axes against Pakistan in a complex 4GW. For this war, Afghanistan has been serving as a staging area for the Indian intelligence agencies to launch a covert rare area war with the help of irregular combatants recruited from Afghanistan and tribal areas of Pakistan to act as Non-State Violent Actors (NSVA’s). With the active support and collusion of CIA/Mossad, Indian RAW turned Pakistan into a slaughter house by using Afghan soil, they trained murderers of the TTP and created the prevailing strategic confusion in Islamabad about how to build a response to combat this menace.

After 9/11, the Indian and the US strategic inter-ests converged completely vis-à-vis Pakistan. For the Indians and the Americans alike, Pakistan re-mains an irritation in the US game plan for the re-gion in the 21st century. Being an ideological state, Pakistan remains the ultimate threat to the Ameri-can plan and Indian expansionist designs. On the geostrategic axis, Pak-China relations, particularly their nuclear and military ties are another factor where the Americans are completely on board with the Indians. This unanimity of strategic interests helped India to occupy center stage in the US for-

eign policy for the region. India has the potential to serve the US interests both against Pakistan and China. But the Indians are playing their own game which revolves around the dream of becoming a global player by undermining Pakistan’s nuclear capability and replacing China on the economic and political planes. To achieve the first phase of undermining Pakistan’s nuclear potential, Indians with open collaboration with the US, launched 4GW against Pakistan in 2004-05. Main vortexes of these wars are as under:

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♦ Insurgencies in North and North Western provinces. These are supported by Indian RAW from Afghanistan. TTP in FATA and BLA in Baluchistan are creating mayhem and chaos by unleashing terrorism and anarchy. Both insurgencies are completely heterogeneous in tactics and pose diverse challenges for the security forces.

Civilians Security Force Personnel Terrorists/Insurgents Total

2003 140 24 25 1892004 435 184 244 8632005 430 81 137 6482006 608 325 538 14712007 1522 597 1479 35982008 2155 654 3906 67152009 2324 991 8389 117042010 1796 469 5170 74352011 1082 408 1177 2667Total 10492 3733 21066 35290

♦ This frenzied situation presented foreign secret services like CIA, MI6 and RAW and private merce-naries like Blackwater (Xe Worldwide) with an opportunity to establish their independent footprints in Paki-stan in order to carry out kidnappings, assassinations and sabotage operations as well as eavesdropping and spying. The entire Drone operations and subsequent assassinations are being conducted by the CIA and their mercenary contractors with impunity.

♦ Economic intimidation of Pakistan and to destroy Pakistan's food supply chain through water aggres-sion is relatively new but most ruthless move in this hushed war by India. Violating the Indus Water Treaty, India built multiple dams on Pakistani rivers in the Kashmir region. Due to these illegal dams, India can block

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cially created floods.

♦ Media ops and propaganda warfare have been launched using disinformation, twisted analysis and planted intelligence reports about Pakistan and its possible extinction in the near future. The purpose of this propaganda war is to create a sense of hopelessness in the Pakistani masses especially in the youth in order to create a divide between the citizens and the armed forces and to dilute the ideology of Pakistan.

♦ After 9/11, the Indians were desperate to convince the Americans that the real threat is from Pakistan and not Afghanistan and even offered bases to the US on the Indian soil in order to attack Pakistan. That cun-ning Indian policy of using the Americans to fight their war remains alive and active to this day. The Indian RAW perpetrated attacks on the US consulates using TTP in Peshawar, to put the blame on Pakistan based “Islamic terrorists”.

Now this war has reached its advanced stage and Pakistan is being attacked like never before. The tactics of suicide bombings and ambushes on security forces have multiplied and the war has entered into Pakistan’s urban centers. Pakistan’s national security profile is presenting a rather disturbing picture as there is no clear and decisive response here at any axis.

To make matters worse, the Indians are perfecting their Cold Start strategy envisaged against Pakistan to invade and punish her. The Indian army recently carried out the largest military exercise just next to the Paki-stani border in the Rajistan sector. The US is helping India with the latest weapon systems in order to further increase the parity of Indian forces in conventional warfare. On the other hand, Indian backed irregular war

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combatants are attacking Pakistani military installations. The recent attack on PNS Mehran and the subse-quent destruction of two P-3C Orion surveillance planes only benefited Indian Cold Start. This must suffice to ascertain that the Indians are also after Pakistan’s conventional warfare capabilities along with pursuing their long term agenda of denuclearizing Pakistan.

The fact is that Pakistan and the region can never be at peace unless the Indian menace is not silenced for good. Pakistan can only answer the Indian covert aggression within her borders by adopting a similar re-sponse. That is the ultimate solution for Pakistan and for regional stability as well.

The Ultimate Solution

The ultimate Solution is to return India to its natural historical form consisting of many smaller principalities, regions and territories ruled by local rulers and lords or to bring it under Muslim or foreign rule. This solution is natural considering the countless communities residing inside the Indian federation and their conflicts. This solution will benefit the minorities in India as well as it will ensure their safety along with their economic and political rights which remain cramped under the current Brahmin Raj.

To implement this final solution, the world community will have to be mobilized by Pakistan. Pakistan has some support in this regard from some countries that are facing the Indian aggression one way or the other. Pakistan must take the initiative to achieve the goal as a legitimate act of self defense and to respond to the Indian act of breaking up Pakistan.

Pakistan has all the right to break India – in self defense, in revenge, to achieve the natural balance of power in the region for a just and lasting peace, else the world should wait for a nuclear holocaust which would be initi-ated by their Zionist Hindu ideology. India is actively supporting insurgencies in Pakistan which give Pakistan all the legitimacy in reciprocating this phenomenon on the Indian soil where more humans are desperate to break away from the treacherous Brahmin Raj. The Indian occupation of Kashmir and water aggression must be used as the second biggest driving factor behind putting this idea into motion. Finally, freedom struggles in other parts of India give Pakistan a reason to dismember India. In 1971, India used the same excuse but now Pakistan has a genuine cause in hand as balkanizing India would not only ensure the regional stability but would also set millions of poor free enabling them to choose their destiny according to their own will.

There exists a considerable potential to form a regional block against the Indian expansionist and intimidating foreign policies towards her neighbors. Isha Khan, a Bangladeshi researcher proposed the following as solu-tion to the Indian problem.

“Best option for Dhaka is to cope with this new style war of New Delhi through its own tactics of modern warfare. In this respect, demonstrations inside Bangladesh, contacts of their opposition leaders with the af-fected communities of Manipur, particularly abroad, organising protests in the US and Europe in cooperation with the environmentalists are essential for the survival of the country. All these efforts are likely to succeed with the help of the media which has become an important tool of warfare, and can also be employed for defensive purposes.”

The Chinese have already hinted that they can consider this option. International Institute for Strategic Stud-

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Bras

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ers ies published a report in 2009 containing a roadmap for breaking up India.

“To split India, China can bring into its fold countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, support ULFA in attaining its goal in Assam’s independence, back aspirations of Indian nationalities like Tamil and Nagas, encourage Bangladesh to give a push to the independence of West Bengal and lastly recover the 90,000 sq km territory in southern Tibet.”

According to IISS, the idea of balkanization of India is old as the Indian state itself. After independence, in 1947, in the political circles of Europe many observers were predicting that India, after the tragic start with partition, will not hold together. After all India had never been a single political unit. The British Empire put it together and marked the boundaries from east, north and west. India does not have a common language.

Immediately after independence there was internal fighting to redraw the boundaries of the different Indian states. The criterion of division according to the different languages was accepted. But many states are still quarrelling for the boundaries and for the utilization of river water.According to the report, Balkanizing India is the only ultimate solution for the subcontinent.

“In view of the above, China in its own interest and the progress of the whole of Asia, should join forces with different nationalities like Assamese, Tamil and Kashmiris, and support the latter in establishing independent nation-states of their own, out of India. Only after India has been broken up into 20-30 pieces will there be any real reform or social change in the country.”

International media is also realizing this probable outcome of Hindutva driven India. Christian Science Moni-tor stated the following in this regard

“In 2000, three new states were made: Chhattisgarh, which was part of Madhya Pradesh; Uttarakhand, from Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, out of Bihar. Telangana will be India’s 29th state. More locally, there are fears that if the up and coming city of Hyderabad is included in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, which has invested heavily in its main city, will lose significant amount of revenue.”

These studies by the Bengali and Chinese intelligentsia, Indian history and internal chaotic situation in major-ity of the Indian states demonstrate that Balkanizing India is not just a theoretical idea but it must be perceived as a serious and practical political solution by Islamabad. Pakistan must forge an alliance with China, Srilanka and Bangladesh on diplomatic, political and strategic level to achieve this solution. The separatists’ movements in India need a voice on international forums and Pakistan can become their voice. This is exactly what Indian diplomacy did to Pakistan in 1971 when they launched a global propaganda campaign against Pakistan and blamed us for committing “atrocities” in East Pakistan. This initiative would certainly help the Kashmir Cause as well where Pakistan’s diplomatic activism has met with go-slows during the recent years.

This is the only way forward for a permanent peace in the region and in the world which has been endangered by violent Hindutva ideology and expansionists designs of the Brahmin elite reigning in Delhi. Pakistan will have to make a strong case on the diplomatic level by exposing what the world must know about the artificially formed Indian federation by highlighting the internal demise of human rights, political and military suppres-sion of minorities and Indian confrontational attitude with all her neighboring countries particularly with Pakistan and China which can lead to a complete nuclear holocaust in the subcontinent.

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Fortunately, for Pakistan, this strategic thinking prevails in the region and needs to be nurtured. Pakistani foreign office has a massive task at hand and it must undertake it not only to secure our own borders but also to ensure the lives of billions in the region that have been caught in a strategic rambling of a chaotic power and where the situation is getting explosive with every passing day. It is time relegate India into the dustbin of history. It is do-able and must be done.

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Note: Article was orginally published by Monthly Brasstacks Security Review. Vol. 2 Number 1 (June, 2011)

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