Why bleed Balochistan?

Inaction continues to define the government’s conduct in regard to the many issues confronting Balochistan. It is becoming clear to an increasing number of Baloch people that while the state wants their resources, it has little empathy for them.

A year after President Pervez Musharraf — he can be blamed for many of our miseries today — stepped down, little has changed in the equation dogging Balochistan-centre relations. So far the elected government has only paid lip service to solving the restive province’s problems. The apology President Zardari offered to the people of Balochistan at the inception of the PPP-led government more than a year ago has not been followed up with any action to redress Baloch grievances.

Ms Asma Jahangir, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, seems to be among the few spokespersons for the Baloch. She says the army is still very much in charge of that province; the political governments — at Islamabad and Quetta — have no say in managing Balochistan.

An unspecified but large number of Baloch nationalist leaders and political workers have gone missing even after the inception of the democratic government following the 2008 election. ‘Missing’ of course is a polite euphemism for abduction by security forces and intelligence sleuths.

Those who have been spared are either in hiding or lying low for fear of incarceration. The rest are raising a rebellion from abroad; those here are threatened with arrest unless they watch what they say. Why this humiliation of the Baloch in their own homeland?

Has democracy really returned to Balochistan? The elected provincial government keeps mum over these staggering issues or simply looks the other way. In Islamabad, the finger is being pointed at Indian interference in the province. The prime minister raised the issue with his Indian counterpart at a recent meeting in Egypt; the president says threats to Pakistan’s security are internal and not from India. Could someone please step forward and clear the haze?

The HRCP accuses the centre of giving Balochistan a raw deal right from the beginning. The province gets its gas royalties at a rate far below that paid to Sindh and Punjab for the same commodity. This financial year, as previously also, the Balochistan budget continues to be one of deficit, necessitating that Quetta beg Islamabad for financial assistance just to meet its running expenses; the 2009-10 budget has no funds earmarked for development because there is none to be undertaken under the dire straits.

Juxtapose this with the recently unveiled grand plan of building an entire new city in Thatta district, which President Zardari says will be Sindh’s second largest. It is on such lucrative mega-projects that have immense potential for doling out building contracts and blessing the minders and handlers with huge kickbacks in the process that our energies are focused.

If Gwadar and New Murree were the previous regime’s pet projects, Zulfikarabad now suddenly seems to have become this presidency’s priority. Gwadar never took off, and for obvious reasons. New Murree was scrapped altogether — as it should have been.

There is nothing wrong with building new cities; but first we must be able to run and manage the ones we have with some efficiency and public accountability. The new democratic order suddenly seems to be mandated to scrap everything that harks back to the Musharraf era. That is why local governments too will now have to be disbanded, which was perhaps the only saving grace of Musharraf’s — albeit faulty — process of transition to democracy. It allowed some empowering of the people’s representatives at the grassroots level.

Funds allocated and given to districts, town administrations and union councils did reach down to the more earthly and accessible beings from the high and mighty of the land, who are in the habit of blowing them on showcase projects or worse still, on serving multi-course gourmet meals at government houses when not globetrotting. With local governments about to be disbanded and no clear plan in sight to revamp the system, it is the economically depressed districts and even entire provinces, which will suffer most.

In Balochistan public disempowerment at the local level will further fuel the sense of alienation among the people. An average Baloch anywhere in Balochistan has perhaps never set foot in Quetta; he can be content by getting his two square meals in his small hamlet, a roof over his head and just the very basic amenities like water, sanitation and perhaps some schooling for children. Electricity for many in the hinterland is an additional blessing.

Now with the decision to scrap the local government system the little power the grassroots Baloch have had over their own finances will be concentrated in Quetta, without it trickling down to the far-off union councils.

Yet more hurting is the free run of the countryside allowed to the military and paramilitary forces in Balochistan over the preceding decade. The policy has bred much resentment amongst the average Baloch, and is part of the reason why the sardars known for their brutal customs and practices which target their own people are now emerging as people’s leaders — more so than those sent to elected legislatures only last year.

The army is not known to have solved any of Pakistan’s problems — at wartime or in peace — when left to its own devices. Its interference in public affairs has compounded our challenges and distorted the normal course of events. Its commercial interests pursued at the expense of the people are well documented. Ms Jahangir is right in asserting that Balochistan cannot be left to military decision-making mechanisms. The situation calls for political engagement among all concerned.

This can only be possible if the government shows the will to act first by calling to account the gross human rights violations in the province, and thus removing the stigma of being disloyal to the state from the names of Baloch nationalists. It remains to be seen if the government is up to the task.

Pak, India never came close to nuclear war: Jaswant

Senior Indian politician Jaswant Singh on Thursday refuted the impression that Pakistan and India came close to a nuclear war during the military standoff in 2002, while observing that the nations of South Asia should look forward and work towards expanding a ‘constituency of peace’ in the region.

He made these comments during a wide-ranging interview broadcast exclusively on DawnNews TV, in which the former Indian finance and external affairs minister talked about the raging controversy that has been ignited by the release of his book, Jinnah: India-Partition Independence, in India, as well as a host of other issues.

‘I do not subscribe to nuclear apartheid. India has a sovereign right’ to pursue its nuclear doctrine ‘as does Pakistan’, the former Bharatiya Janata Party leader told Jawed Naqvi, Dawn’s Delhi correspondent, when asked about the nuclearisation of South Asia.

He dismissed the impression that Pakistan and India were at the brink of nuclear war as a ‘canard’ spread by the US ambassador to Delhi at the time. ‘We did not come close to nuclear war,’ he said emphatically.

In a departure from the hawkish tone he often applied while in office, Mr Singh said he ‘wished Pakistan and Bangladesh the best. I want to work towards expanding the constituency of peace, not repeating the mistakes of the past and blaming each other,’ although he admitted relations between Pakistan and India ‘experienced frequent fractures’.

Asked about the fate of secularism in India, he said the ‘destiny of India Nehru spoke of had not been realised’, while repeating the claim that Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and the Indian National Congress had in fact contributed to partition.

It is in fact these remarks in his latest book that have caused a furore in India and led to Jaswant Singh’s expulsion from the BJP.

Regarding the burning of his book and the ban it faced in certain Indian states, Mr Singh said he felt ‘wounded’ as if an ‘innocent child had been burnt’.

In reply to a question regarding the 2001Agra summit between then president Pervez Musharraf and then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Jaswant Singh alleged that Mr Musharraf’s ‘grandstanding’ at a press conference before the document was due to be signed put off his colleagues in the Indian government and scuttled the agreement.

As for the confusion that arose last month after prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Manmohan Singh signed the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement, Jaswant Singh said: ‘Better drafting could have helped’ prevent the ‘incident’. ‘We have to tread the path very carefully. There are unseen hidden traps.’

He added that both nations must stop living in the past as ‘we cannot change geography now’.

He said that a federal India was both Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s and M.K. Gandhi’s dream, but ‘we let the country be cut up. Patel and Nehru agreed to what Jinnah demanded but in a truncated form. Today we would have been a global power’.

Asked if he could work for a liberal polity considering the fact that he had up till recently been associated with a right-wing political party, Mr Singh said that ‘A liberal mindset needs to return to South Asia if we are to thrive and poverty is to be alleviated. But it has to be our own interpretation of liberalism. Not a western concept.’

He also claimed the classification of the BJP as a right-wing outfit was ‘simplistic’.

When asked if he regretted playing an instrumental role in the release of militants from Indian jails in exchange for the safety of passengers aboard Indian Airlines Flight 814 (which was hijacked by militants and taken to Kandahar in 1999), Jaswant Singh replied in the negative.

‘Governance is an extremely testing challenge. [Sometimes] decisions have to be made between two great wrongs.’

Ayman al-Zawahri calls for Pakistani jihad

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command on Friday accused the United States of leading a crusade to turn Pakistan into a divided nation and urged Pakistanis to join in a jihad to resist.

The tape from Ayman al-Zawahri, the second this month, comes after Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US missile strike on August 5.

It also comes after Pakistan's army went on the offensive in late April against an insurgency by al-Qaeda allies, the Taliban, in Swat valley after the militants took over the district 120 km from Islamabad, raising fears for Pakistan's stability and the safety of its nuclear weapons.

‘The war in the tribal areas and Swat is an integral part of the crusade on Muslims across the world,’ Zawahri said in the tape posted on an al-Qaeda-linked website.

In the 22-minute video address entitled ‘Path of Doom’ he reiterates comments made in July calling for Pakistanis to wage war against the American ‘crusaders’ and the Pakistani army.

‘There is no honour for us except through Jihad,’ Zawahri said.

‘People of Pakistan...back the jihad and mujahideen with your persons, wealth, opinion, expertise, information and prayers and by exhorting others to help them and preach their message.’

Pakistan has been hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks over the past two years, launched by al-Qaeda-linked militants fighting the government because of its support for the US-led campaign against militants in Afghanistan.

Security forces have cleared most militants from the Swat valley and have also been attacking Mehsud's men in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border.

The Taliban had been denying Mehsud's death for weeks, but on Monday two of his aides, Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman, confirmed their leader had been killed.

Some Afghan Taliban factions, which have bases in Pashtun lands on the Pakistani side of the border, have argued against attacks in Pakistan, saying all fighters should concentrate on expelling western forces from Afghanistan.

Western governments with forces in Afghanistan are watching to see if a new Pakistani Taliban leader would shift the focus from fighting the Pakistan government to supporting the Afghan insurgency.

Hakimullah, who led militants in the Khyber, Orakzai and Kurram ethnic Pashtun tribal regions, has been picked as the new overall commander of the Pakistani Taliban.

A suicide bombing that killed 22 Pakistani border guards on Thursday in an attack at the main crossing point into Afghanistan was the first since Mehsud was killed.

Security officials had been saying they were expecting reprisal attacks by Hakimullah's men and Thursday's blast in Khyber appeared to indicate he is determined to press on with the fight against the government.

Richard Holbrooke,confronts Afghan president over poll

Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, on Thursday met Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and “made very clear” the US position on elections that are attracting increasing allegations of ballot stuffing. Mr Karzai has a slimmer lead over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, than had been predicted but Mr Abdullah on Thursday said that the presidential elections had fallen victim to “state-engineered fraud”. According to the BBC, Mr Holbrooke advocated a second-round run-off during a discussion that that turned into “a dramatic bust-up” between the men. “I’m not going to get into the details of diplomatic conversations, but our position on the elections was made very clear in these discussions,” a US state department official told the Financial Times after the meeting had taken place between Mr Holbrooke and Mr Karzai. “Ambassadors Holbrooke and [Karl] Eikenberry and President Karzai, as you would expect, discussed a range of issues at both meetings, including the current election process,” the official said. “The United States’ only interest is in a credible process. We do not support or oppose any particular candidate, and whether there is a run-off is an issue for the Afghan electoral bodies to determine.” The Independent Election Commission in Kabul on Thursday said Mr Karzai had widened his lead, with 42 per cent of the vote compared with 33 per cent for Mr Abdullah after 17 per cent of the vote had been counted. Initial returns gave Mr Karzai 40.6 per cent of the vote, while Mr Abdullah, a former foreign minister, won 38.7, with 10 per cent counted. Earlier in the week an IEC official said there was a “big chance” of a second round because of Mr Abdullah’s unexpectedly strong showing. He said there was evidence of fraud, particularly in southern provinces where there were more “boxes which have been stuffed”. Deadly attacks from the Taliban marred the elections and a second round could open the door to more violence, some observers have warned. Others have questioned whether Barack Obama, US president, was right to call the election a success before the extent of fraud, turnout and the outcome were known.

The Hindu Law System of Union State of India

OPERATION WOOD ROSE



Terrorists and terrorism is wrong and their is no place for terrorism in the world this day and age.but anti terror laws should be about stopping terrorists not ethnic cleansing minorities like India is doing .Sikhs are being ethnic cleans under the name of anti terror laws of Hindu India.These law are specially designed to attack the Sikh identity and force Hinduism into the Sikh Nation.Its is very clear see the policy of the RSS Hindutva behind these operations.

Hindi,

Hindu,

Hindustan
During military attack on the Golden Temple Com plex, code named, "Operation Blue Star" at least five thou sand innocent Sikhs who had gathered there for observa tion of the martyrdom day of Guru Arjun, were massa cred by the Indian Army. Feeling not content with this ghastly bloodshed the Indian government, side by side with Operation Blue Star, launched on the Sikhs another attack known as Operation Woodrose. The main purpose of this Operation was to mop up all 20000 Amritdhari Sikhs, especially the young boys, from all villages of Punjab. During this mopping up operation the Army indiscrimi nately picked up all Sikh boys and other Sikhs who had supported flowing beards and adorned Gatra, a small dag ger, one of the five symbols prescribed by Guru Gobind Singh; It is preposterous that the Army branded in their official publication "Bat Cheet" all Amritdhari (Baptised)Sikhs as extremists and the Indian government led by Indira Gan-dhi had endorsed this grave disinformation spread by the blinded Army. Instead of asking the Army to keep their hands off the innocent Amritdhari Sikhs, the Indian gov ernment framed draconian laws to facilitate the Army to carry out indiscriminate arrests of the Sikhs, young and old, alike. The state of Punjab and Chandigarh were de clared as disturbed areas and to accord it legal sanctity the Punjab Chandigarh Disturbed Areas Act was passed by the government. Not only that, to enable the Army to round up any Sikh they wished to without impunity the government passed another Act called the Armed Forces (Punjab and Chandigarh) Act. To provide sharp teeth to the courts, the Terrorists Affected Areas (Special Courts) Act was also passed to deal sternly with the arrested Sikhs. And to arm the police and the paramilitary forces with unbridled powers the Criminal Procedure Code was amended. The civil administration was virtually subor dinated to the military authorities. Thus Punjab was vir tually converted into a Military Occupied Area as is done in the case of captured area of an enemy country.


The Army revengefully let loose a rein of terror in every nook and corner of all villages of Punjab. Like hunt ing hounds they rounded up thousands of Sikhs especially the youths, detained them in military camps, tortured them brutally, and in many cases shot them dead. Many were crippled and maimed permanently. The reckless oppression forced hundreds of those Sikh youths, at whom the Army could not lay hands, to flee their villages.The mothers, sisters and wives of those Sikhs who went under ground for fear of arbitrary arrests, were arrested, detained in the military camps. Tortured and in many cases molested in order to force their fleeing relatives to surrender. There was none to hear their wails and woes: their was none to give them healing touch. Only wild wolves were let loose to howl and growl at them. The fanatic Hindus slyly smiled and gleefully rejoiced at the pitiable plight of the Sikhs in Punjab.



OPERATION SHUDHEE KARAN (OPERATION-RAPE SIKH WOMEN)


Sikh women were also the target of the bloody thirsty Hindu Indian Security forces. Sikh women were ruthlessly tortured, not only physically but also mentally. They were used as tools to force the surrender of Sikh fighters who were their relatives and also as a means of humiliating families. When Sikh women were arrested with their husbands, the husbands were often forced to watch the rape of their wives. Rape was used as an interrogation tool.

Humiliation: A common form of torture used on Sikhs

The Indian Forces also began a program of “shudhee karan”, which was a code name for the rape of Sikh women. They joked that the offspring of their rapes would change the genetic makeup of the Sikh community and they would kill the Resistance in this way. Many rape victims took their own lives, unable to live with the ongoing humiliation at the hands of the Indian police.
Its is very clear see the policy of the RSS Hindutva behind these operations.

Hindi,

Hindu,

Hindustan

“Secular and Democratic” India

Recently, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) placed India on its “Watch List” for 2009 because it found the Central government had failed to take effective measures to ensure the rights of religious minorities in several States. It is not the first time that the Commission has taken such a step.
In 2002 and 2003, the Commission had recommended that India be designated a “country of particular concern (CPC)” in the wake of the “severe riots” in Gujarat. This is a grade higher than “Watch List,” which includes countries “where religious freedom conditions do not rise to the statutory level requiring CPC designation but which require close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by the governments.”
The USCIRF annual report states that “despite the Congress Party’s commitment to religious tolerance, communal violence has continued to occur with disturbing results, and the government’s response, particularly at the State and local levels has been largely inadequate.” The Commission had sought permission to visit the country in June this year to discuss religious freedom conditions with officials, religious leaders, civil society activists and others, but the government did not issue visas. Nor did the Indian government offer alternative dates for a visit which the Commission requested. In particular, the report of the Commission focuses on the attacks on Christians in Orissa since the Christmas of 2007, which left 40 people dead and over 60,000 members of the community homeless. The report mention, “The inadequate police response failed to quell the violence, and mass arrests following the Orissa violence did not translate into the actual filing of cases”. The report not only mentions the Orissa violence, it also brings to note the Gujarat violence of 2002, the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, the Mumbai riots of 1992-93, the violence in Jammu & Kashmir in the summer of 2008 over transfer of forest land to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board, stray attacks on Christian institutions across the country, and the hate speeches of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi.
It is surprising that despite remarkable pluralism and general commitment to religious freedom, Hindu extremist organisations retain broad popular support in many communities in India. It seems as if India is intolerable of religious minorities. Indian government has tried several times to purge Sikh identity and merge them into Hinduism. For this purpose it used all techniques including killing their young generation, destroying their history and distorting their culture. Since independence, Sikhs remained mistrusted and are being discriminated and treated as aliens. During British rule Gandhi and Nehru promised the Sikhs to have full rights and freedom over Punjab. As soon as the British left India Sikhs were fired from their jobs and declared as traitors of India. Even in the Indian constitution, Sikhs were declared ‘Hindus with long hair’. After independence when Nehru was asked to fulfill his promise of creating a separate Punjabi state, he brushed it off by saying “circumstances have changed now”. In order to hit the Sikhs, the Indian government planned to attack Golden Temple. On 31st May 1984, a large contingent of Indian army launched an attack on Golden Temple. This operation was given the name of Blue Star. Sadly, there were only 251 Sikhs inside to protect the complex of the Golden Temple as compared to thousands of fully equipped Indian troops. When the Indian troops found that only 251 men had stopped them from entering the temple for 6 days they started killing innocent Sikhs who had come there to visit the Temple. This was to hide their humiliation. About 50,000 Sikhs were killed that day. Sikh artifacts were burnt. All the literature written by the Gurus was taken away by the army. The whole Amritsar city was burnt. Sikhs’ shops were looted and houses were set on fire. Hindu mobs went to every house and burnt Sikhs alive, women were dishonored. Most Sikhs between ages 5 to 40 were killed.
Apart from Sikhs, Muslims always remained the victim of Hindu hatred. This hatred led the extremist Hindus to inflict harm to Muslim’s belongings. On 6 December 1992, Hindu extremists demolished 16th century old Babri mosque. The demolition of the Babri Mosque was not only a serious blow to Indian secularism and the fundamental rights granted by the Indian Constitution to the religious minorities, but it also symbolised the virtual subjugation of Muslim identity in the post-1947 India. More than 2000 people were killed in the ensuing riots following the demolition. Sixteen years have passed and still the Muslims are waiting for justice regarding Babri Mosque demolition. Similarly, in 2002 something as horrendous as the Gujarat riots, having no parallel in India’s modern history occurred. Gujarat pogrom occurred in the wake of burning of Sabarmati Express carrying Hindu extremists. In the fire 59 Hindu militants were killed. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Rashtriya Sawyamsevak Sangh (RSS) allies have insisted that Muslims executed this incident and launched a pogrom against the local Muslim population. They looted and torched Muslim-owned businesses, assaulted and murdered Muslims, and gang-raped and mutilated Muslim women. By the time the violence spluttered to a halt, about 2,500 Muslims had been killed and about 200,000 driven from their homes. Despite the passage of seven years since the February-March 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in the Indian state of Gujarat, not a single one of the principal perpetrators of this horrific crime has been punished.
Christian minorities are also not safe in India. Hindu groups are running an anti Christian campaign for several years. There have been multiple incidents of such violence since the BJP began its rule at the center in March 1998. From 1964 to 1996, 38 incidents of violence against Christians were reported. In 1997, 24 such incidents were reported. Since 1998, Christians in India have faced a wave of violence. In 1998 alone, 90 incidents were reported. In June 2000, four churches around India were bombed. In Andhra Pradesh, church graves were desecrated. A church in Maharashtra was ransacked. In September 2008, two churches were partly damaged in Kerala. The Times of London called September 2008 violence as the worst anti-Christian violence in India since its independence.
Since August 2008, supporters of the Hindu militant groups Vishwa Hinud Parishad and Bajrang Dal in Orissa have attacked Christians, many of them tribal minorities or Dalits. According to the Roman Catholic Church in India, 300 Christian villages have been destroyed in Orissa, 4,400 houses burnt, 50,000 people made homeless and 59 Christians killed and 18,000 injured. Churches and schools have been destroyed and in one particularly brutal attack a nun was seized and raped while local police stood by without intervening. Churches have also been attacked in six other states, largely in the south, but even in Delhi Christians have been threatened.
India preaches democracy and rule of law but does not practice it. The image of India abroad is of a tolerant country but the reality is otherwise as democracy notion include protection of minorities. The world community must respond immediately. Just like UNCIRF, the other international human right organizations need to condemn the Indian government more openly. The Hindu fundamentalists must forced to end the persecution of the poor and hapless minorities in India. India’s political system based on democratic pluralism theoretically provides space for all ethnic groups and sub-nationalities. But, in actuality, there have been severe deficiencies in the way it functions. Suffice it to say, political empowerment of the people is still far from complete, even after six decades of independence. Despite an overarching commitment to respecting citizens’ freedom to express their views, peacefully protest, and form their own organizations, the Indian government lacks the will and capacity to implement many laws and policies designed to ensure the protection of rights. There is a pattern of denial of justice and impunity, whether it is in cases of human rights violations by security forces, or the failure to protect women, children, and marginalized groups such Dalits, tribal groups, and religious minorities. The failure to properly investigate and prosecute those responsible leads to continuing abuses. The government has failed to protect vulnerable communities including Dalits, tribal groups, and religious minorities such as Sikhs, Muslims and Christians. Written by: Mamoona Ali Kazmi

U.S.A Government Supports Terror In Balochistan

The US Department of State refuses to designate the so-called Balochistan Liberation Army [BLA] as a terrorist organization. One of BLA’s terrorists, Harbyar Mari, enjoys a safe haven in London. Another terrorist and Indian agent Brahamdagh Bugti lives in a safe haven in US-controlled Kabul. BLA in Pakistan and Jundullah in Iran have emerged out of nowhere after the US occupation of Afghanistan. What exactly Pakistani politicians and military officials are waiting for before they confront our so-called allies? A full-blown foreign-backed secession?
A newly formed network of Pakistani’s namely Union of Patriotics for Sovereign Pakistan (UPBSP) has started a “Containment of USA” Campaign which aims at containing the US role inside Pakistan and confining it to its diplomatic role guaranteed under the international law. The other aim of the campaign is to compel Pakistani politicians and rulers to act in the best interest of a proud and sovereign Pakistan as dreamed by the Founding Fathers, the Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have given great sacrifices during the Pakistan independence movement so that today’s generation lives in a sovereign and independent state.
It is imperative to mention some of the criminal activities of world Terrorist No-1 and rogue state, United State of America.

US Citizenship and Immigration Service website shows Balochistan as a standalone entry in Country of Citizenship box. Considering the separatist movement in southwest Pakistan backed from Afghan territories under American control, the issue should raise concern in Islamabad, or at least in Rawalpindi since the Pakistani capital has fallen to a pro-US government.
Some US government departments are quietly preparing the ground for the warlike act of recognizing Pakistan’s Balochistan province as an independent state by assigning a separate checklist to Balochistan against the “Country of citizenship” column of Immigration Form for non-US nationals. This is one step forward in several steps taken by the United States, or by some powerful elements within the US government, to turn into reality the designs for the so-called Free Baluchistan explained in Blood Borders, the article written by a US military officer a couple of years ago, as also pointed out by Awab Alvi.
Ahmed Quraishi’s provides much stuff about the Blackwater’s activities in Peshawar. The construction of US Castle in Islamabad and suspicious activities of US marines near the brigade headquarters of Pakistan’s Special Operation Task Force (SOTF) in Turbilla are well exposed by Saleem Shehzad.
We have no objection if US embassy in Islamabad and its consulates in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar work in the framework of International Law. However, unlawful activities in the name of the so-called war on terror and expanding an intrusive presence are unacceptable and will be resisted through peaceful struggle that may also culminate in the end of the present regime that rules Pakistan.
We also urge the present government to act as a government of Pakistan and not as an agent of the United States.
We assure that the patriotic and nationalistic younger generation of Pakistanis, women and men, will stand by our government and army if they resisted the US expansionist designs.

All Pakistanis, Rise For Jinnah

The hostile attitude of many Indians to a book praising Pakistan’s independence leader is an eye opener for Pakistanis and confirms the narrow-minded Indian hostility for everything Pakistani. We believe that after this, if we do not stand up for Our Quaid, Our Country and Our People, we have no business claiming to be true Pakistani patriots. India has had an unspoken, untold and unsaid 60-year-old stand on Pakistani voices and Pakistani cultural content inside India from day one. Why is it that we are constantly making way for them by offering them our audiences and market share in every field and industry when the sentiment and goodwill is not reciprocated in any manner from their side?
Atiqa Odho, a crusader for Pakistani nationalism Father of the Nation, leader of the Pakistan Independence Movement arriving at the venue in Lahore where the Pakistan Muslim League passed the famous 1940 resolution demanding independence from Britain and the rise of Pakistan.
After observing the BJP’s reaction to Mr. Jaswant Singh’s book written on our Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, I believe it has become crucial for us Pakistanis to stand up and show our national pride. One may argue that the Hindu fundamentalist BJP is not the whole of India but if one of our national politicians and a member of a major political party had written a book on India’s Mr. Gandhi and suffered a reaction such as the one Mr. Singh is facing, the whole of India would have gone up in arms against Pakistan.
This leaves us Pakistanis with an old unanswered crucial question: Where is our national pride?
We at Our Country Our People [OCOP] have for many months now been trying to assess what India’s policy is on Pakistan. The reaction to Mr. Singh’s book on our Founding Father, we believe, tells us finally what their policy or lack of policy truly is. We believe that after this, if we do not stand up for Our Quaid, Our Country and Our People, we have no business claiming to be true Pakistani patriots.
India has had an unspoken, untold and unsaid stand on Pakistani voices and Pakistani content within India from day one. Why is it that we are constantly making way for them by offering them our audiences and market share in every field and industry when the sentiment and goodwill is not reciprocated in any manner from their side?
A few days back Ms. Bushra Rehman, a Member of Parliament from the PML-Q, started a debate in our National Assembly regarding Indian television and music content shown in our media. We appreciate her efforts and would like to add to Ms. Rehman’s debate that rather than turning this issue into an internal issue amongst us, we should be addressing this issue as a national cause and taking a position to question what our relationship with India actually is.
Pakistan must at all times be treated with respect and equal opportunity in all areas when it comes to the relationship with India. We believe that Ms. Rehman’s position should be strengthened by all other political parties joining in and coming to a national consensus on the issue of media, specifically as far as India is concerned.
As Pakistanis, let us decide on the shape of the bilateral relationship with India instead of letting the Indians have their way on trade and other forms of exchanges. We must have enough evidence that Pakistani magnanimity and openness toward India is actually appreciated and respected with mutual barter opportunities that have never been offered to us by them as a nation.
Regardless of the number of books the Indians choose to write on Pakistan’s liberation hero, Mr. Jinnah is ours and he once said to us, on the December 1947:
“I have no doubt that with unity, faith and discipline we will not only remain the fifth largest state in the world but will compare with any nation of the world. You must make up your mind now. We must sink individualism and petty jealousies and make up our minds to serve the people with honesty and faithfulness. We are passing through a period of fear, danger and menace. We must have Faith, Unity and Discipline.”
Mohammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the Pakistan Independence Movement
So dear friends, let us start to live up to our Quaid’s vision. I request to his people, the Pakistanis, to rise up and own Pakistan again.
Atiqa Odho is the founding director of Our Country Our People OCOP, a Pakistani nationalist group that advocates the creation of a strong, prosperous and proud Pakistan. She is a renowned Pakistani actress and television producer.

RAW involvement in East Pakistan

US report details direct RAW involvement in East Pakistan secession
A sensational American report has confirmed the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s most powerful intelligence agency, was directly involved in the secession of East Pakistan into Bangladesh, and is currently engaged in similar activities. RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh supporting both secular forces and the area’s Hindu minority, masterminding the break up of Pakistan in 1971,
says the report made available The report has been prepared by the innocent sounding Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a group which is however engaged in analysis and advocacy on science, technology and public policy concerning global security, especially about countries which have nuclear capability.
It is a privately funded non-profit policy organisation, whose Board of Sponsors includes 55 American Nobel laureates. FAS was originally founded as the Federation of Atomic Scientists in 1945 by members of the Manhattan Project, who produced the first atomic bomb. RAW is extensively engaged in disinformation campaigns, espionage, sabotage and terrorism against Pakistan and other neighboring countries, reveals the sensational secret report. It also gives details of the truly alarming involvement of RAW in terrorist activities in Pakistan. The report reveals 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 providing training and arming to the Mukti Bahini. The report claims an estimated 35,000 RAW agents have entered Pakistan at various times between 1983-99, with 12,000 having worked in the past or working presently in Sindh, 10,000 in Punjab 8,000 in North West Frontier Province and 5,000 in Balochistan. “As many as 40 terrorist camps are currently operating at Rajasthan, East Punjab, [occupied] Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of India and are run by RAW’s Special Service Bureau [SSB],” the report reveals. The report further confirms that throughout the Afghan War, RAW was responsible for the planning and execution 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 report says. “The defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan did not end the role of RAW in Pakistan, as it established training camps in East Punjab, [occupied] Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan where agents are trained for terrorist activities,” it reveals.
It further says that RAW has become “an effective instrument of India’s national power, and has assumed a significant role in formulating India’s domestic and foreign policies.” RAW, according to the report, has enjoyed the backing of successive Indian governments in these efforts. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure rank, pay and perks of the Research and Analysis Wing are kept secret from parliament.
“Current policy debates in India have generally failed to focus on the relative priority given by RAW to activities directed against India’s neighbours versus attention to domestic affairs to safeguard India’s security and territorial integrity,” the report says. It points out that RAW has had limited success in dealing with separatist movements in Manipur and Tripura in the northeast, Tamil Nadu in the south and Punjab and Kashmir in the northwestern part of the country.
RAW, it adds, has failed to neutralise freedom fighters in Kashmir and similar indigenous movements in Kerala, Karnataka and other places, along with economic and industrial espionage activities in New Delhi and Bombay. Giving a background of the intelligence agency, the American report says RAW was set up in 1968 “specifically targeted on Pakistan”.
Pakistan, the report says, has accused RAW of sponsoring sabotage in its Punjab province, where it has been supporting the Seraiki movement, “providing financial support to promote its activities in Pakistan and organising an International Seraiki Conference in Delhi in November December 1993″. It adds: “RAW has an extensive network of agents and anti-government elements within Pakistan, including dissident elements from various sectarian and ethnic groups of Sindh and Punjab.”
According to it, India is funding the current upsurge of terrorism in Pakistan “and has been behind the sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis, which has resulted in thousands of deaths in the last few years.” Terrorist activities in Pakistan attributed to the clandestine activities of RAW in the report include:
A car bomb explosion in the Saddar area of Peshawar on 21 December 1995, which caused the death of 37 persons and injured over 50 others.
An explosion at Shaukat Khanum Hospital on 14 April 1996, claiming the lives of seven persons and injuries to over 34 others.
A bus traveling from Lahore to Sahiwal was blown up at Bhai Pheru on 28 April 1996, causing the deaths of 44 persons on the spot and injuring 30 others.
An explosion in a bus near the Sheikhupura Hospital killed nine persons and injured 29 others on 08 May 1996.
An explosion near Alam Chowk, Gujranwala on 10 June 1996 which killed three persons and injured 11 others.
A bomb exploded on a bus on GT Road near Kharian on 10 June 1996, killing 2 persons and injuring 10 others.
On 27 June 1996, an explosion opposite Madrassah Faizul Islam, Faizabad, Rawalpindi, killed 5 persons and injured over 50 others.
A bomb explosion in the Faisalabad Railway Station passenger lounge on 8 July 1996 killed 3 persons and injured 20 others.
Another startling claim made by the American report is that it was RAW that was behind the hijacking of an Indian airliner to Lahore in 1971, “attributed to the Kashmiris, to give a terrorist dimension to the Kashmiri national movement”.
The report continues: “During the course of its investigation the Jain Commission received testimony on the official Indian support to the various Sri Lankan Tamil armed groups in Tamil Nadu,” the report reveals. From 1981, RAW and the Intelligence Bureau, according to the report, established a network of as many as 30 training bases for these groups in India. Centres were also established at the high-security military installation of Chakrata, near Dehra Dun, and in the Ramakrishna Puram area of New Delhi.
The report says that RAW and the Ministry of External Affairs are provided Rs. 250 million annually as “discretionary grants” for foreign influence operations. “These funds have supported organisations fighting Sikh and Kashmiri separatists in the UK, Canada and the US,” it says.
It further reveals: “An Extensive network of Indian operatives is controlled by the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC whose covert activities include the infiltration of US long distance telephone carriers by Indian operatives, with access to all kinds of information, to blackmail relatives of US residents living in India”. Citing an example, it says that in 1996, an Indian diplomat was implicated in a scandal over illegal funding of political candidates in the US. Under US law foreign nationals are prohibited from contributing to federal elections.
The US District Court in Baltimore sentenced Lalit H. Gadhia, a naturalised US citizen of Indian origin, to three months imprisonment. Gadhia had confessed that he worked as a conduit between the Indian Embassy and various Indian-American organisations for funnelling campaign contributions to influence US lawmakers. Over US $46,000 from the Indian Embassy was distributed among 20 Congressional candidates. The source of the cash used by Gadhia was Devendra Singh, a RAW official assigned to the Indian Embassy in Washington, the report says. It adds that illicit campaign money received in 1995 went to Democratic candidates including US Senators Charles S Robb (D-VA), Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD) and US Representatives Benjamin L Cardin (D-MD) and Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) — (May 24, 1998).

“Humpty Dumpty” Hinduists in disarray:

BJP continues to disintegrate from Jinnah fallout . The RSS is the fountainhead of all extremism in South Asia since the 30s. Its leaders like Gowalkar were responsible for carnage that led to the explusion of 5 million Muslims in Bharat to Pakistan. The retaliation from Pakistan led to the decision by 5 million Sikhs and Hindus to leave Pakistan. This history is not taught to Indians. The stories taught to Indians is simply a drama of the Indian National Congress in which all Congress leadres were angels and all others belonging to other parties are villians.
Saffrn Brigade–Modi supported by Bobby Jindal in America
Indian Hnduvata- Hindu extremism in India and beyond
The BJP has not recovered from the the drubbing it got from the last elections. The finger pointing has continued. Several BJP figures have been drummed out of the party which is under the pall of the extremist RSS which was banned in 1948 and then again resurrected itself in the past two decades. Sudheendra Kulkarni, a close aide of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, decided to quit the party over ‘ideological differences’. Many think that the fight for the soul of the party continues. While Vajpayee and Jaswant SIngh represented the moderate wing of the party, L.K. Advani represents the hard core Hindu mahasabah who want to impose Ram Raj on the country. Rajasthan BJP legislature wing leader Vasundhara Raje is possibly on her way out also.
The turmoil and discontent in the Bharatiya Janata Party deepened further on Monday as senior leader and MP Arun Shourie made a televised all-out attack on party president Rajnath Singh, describing him as “Alice in Blunderland” and “Humpty Dumpty.”
Coming five days after the expulsion of party veteran Jaswant Singh, the “shock” delivered by Mr. Shourie — who complained that no action had been taken by Mr. Rajnath Singh on a letter he had written to him confidentially — is expected to lead to yet another high-profile exit from the party. Some party leaders said Mr. Shourie’s expulsion was imminent.
The reference to “Humpty Dumpty” was from Through the Looking-Glass, a sequel by Lewis Carroll to his Alice in Wonderland. Just as Alice expected Humpty Dumpty to fall at any time, in the BJP, almost at all levels, leaders are expecting the “fall” of not only Mr. Rajnath Singh, whose tenure comes to an end in early January 2010, but also the exit of L.K. Advani, after the observation by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat that a generational change in the party’s leadership was necessary. This added to the uncertainty, party leaders claimed.
There were reports that even as the infighting in the BJP intensified, Mr. Bhagwat was planning to hold a press conference later this week.
Party leaders have been saying that the fighting “will not stop” until Mr. Rajnath Singh and Mr. Advani are replaced and that “things will get worse before they get better.”
While Mr. Jaswant Singh earlier described the RSS as a “shadowy organisation” and said no political party could afford to be dictated to by such an outfit, Mr. Shourie said it was time for the RSS to “take over” the BJP and described its current president as a kati patang, a kite that has been cut and is up for grabs.
Party leaders went into a huddle as NDTV began publicising in the evening Mr. Shourie’s interview televised late in the night.
Mr. Shourie’s attack is a continuation of the loud complaints by senior leaders that some in the party — the reference was to Arun Jaitley — had been “rewarded” for mismanagement of the election campaign.
The “reward” was the position of Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Since then, there has been an all-out effort to ensure that he does not get the position of party president when Mr. Rajnath Singh’s tenure comes to an end in January 2010. Mr. Shourie publicly complained that his earlier confidential letter to Mr. Rajnath Singh had not been acted upon. His grouse was that when senior leaders like him are not heard by the party high command, they are forced to go to the media to air their grievances. The Hindu Crisis in BJP deepens as Shourie attacks Rajnath Neena Vyas
Brickbats continue to fly between BJP factions: RSS in search for icons?
History of Pakistan: What Jaswant Singh & Indians will never learn
Jinnah & Patel fireworks as BJP self-destructs
Jawswant Singh’s epiphany: M.A. Jinnah
Jinnah partitions BJP-bares Bharati schizophrenia
The fissures between the different factions of the BJP are being felt across the political landscape. The possible break of the BJP into harline and “not so hardline factions” may have long term implications on the politics of South Asia.
The Jaswant Singh episode shows that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is collapsing due to its “internal contradictions” following the Lok Sabha drubbing, the Congress said Saturday. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told IANS: “The whole episode of Jaswant Singh shows that after rejection by the people the BJP is collapsing now because of its internal contradictions.” “The way the party is going into the hands of hardliners will further reduce its base,” he said. BJP collapsing due to internal contradictions: Congress. Hindutan Times
Golwalker is the founder of the RSS facists: Critics that accused Golwalkar of fascism have often pointed to his extreme right-wing and Anti-Muslim bigotry. In his 1939 book, “We, Our Nationhood Defined”, Golwalkar expressed praise of Hitler, saying: 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. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. 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 Hindusthan to learn and profit by.”
The RSS is one of the most virulently violent Hindu extremist organizations in South Asia. Under its leader Gowalkar, it was involved in the murder of Mohandas Gandhi. Sardar Patel a member of the Indian National Congress banned the RSS for its communal violence and its predatory tactics against the Muslims. Recently the infighting between the wings of the BJP are bringing out old wounds. The RSS was the fountainhead of the BJP. Both the BJP and the RSS are in search of heroes who could propagate the fascist vision of the party. The RSS is the spiritual icon for Narendar Modi who conducted the pogroms against the Muslims of Gujrat which led to the murder of more than 2000 Muslim in 2004. This article written by Neena Vyas in a liberal Bharati paper called “The Hindu” describes the infighting between the fundamentalist Hindus.
Mr. Lal Krishna Advani the great bigot of the BJP.
NEW DELHI: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani on Friday said the country’s first Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, banned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and arrested its leaders after the assassination of Mahatama Gandhi “under pressure from [Jawaharlal] Nehru.”
At a press conference in Shimla, where the BJP’s three-day ‘chintan baithak’ concluded, party leader Sushma Swaraj quoted Mr. Advani as having said this at a closed door meeting. This was in response to the remark of the expelled BJP leader, Jaswant Singh, questioning the appropriation of Sardar Patel by the Sangh and the BJP as its “icon.” He had pointed out that it was Patel who banned the RSS and put its leaders in jail.
“Slandering Patel”
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel the worst politicians of the Indian National Congress who was a racist and a bigot
…that Mr. Advani’s reported remark amounted to “slandering Patel.”Kerala Chandra, Modern India historian, told The Hindu over phone from Bipan
He said: “To say he did something, only because Nehru asked him to, is slandering Patel, who was very independent-minded. Patel would not have done anything contrary to his conscience and his views.”
Irfan Habib, speaking from Aligarh, was equally categorical about Patel’s views on the RSS’ “violent politics.” “I have read the correspondence between [then RSS chief] Golwalkar and Patel. While he did not hold the RSS guilty of the assassination of Gandhiji, he held it squarely responsible for creating the communal atmosphere that led to the assassination. Patel’s stand against the violent politics of the RSS comes out sharply in his correspondence. Patel was the Home Minister of the country at a very difficult time.”
Professor Chandra also commented on the BJP’s attempt to “appropriate national heroes.”
Bhagat Singh: The RSS tried to make out as if Bhagat Singh was one of their heroes – the BJP used his photographs as they have used those of Gandhiji and B.R. Ambedkar. “But the RSS and the erstwhile Jana Sangh knew that he wrote, “Why I am an atheist.’ At that time they distanced themselves from his writing.
They tried to make out as if Bhagat Singh was one of their heroes – the BJP used his photographs as they have used those of Gandhiji and B.R. Ambedkar. “But the RSS and the erstwhile Jana Sangh knew that he wrote, “Why I am an atheist.’ At that time they distanced themselves from his writing.
Let us bravely face unpleasant facts as they are. India cannot be assumed today to be a unitarian and homogeneous nation, but on the contrary these are two nations in the main, the Hindus and the Muslims in India.” Speaking at the Hindu Maha Sabha Session held at Ahmedabad in 1937, Mr. Savarkar. Quoted by Dr. Ambedkar in his book “Pakistan
Yet another historian, Mridula Mukherjee, alleged that the RSS and the BJP were “constantly searching for nationalist ancestors for they have none. That was why they attempted to build up Savarkar as a national hero during the National Democratic Alliance regime.”
At that time the party started a ‘yatra’ from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where Savarkar was imprisoned and his portrait unveiled in Parliament during the NDA tenure.
“But if Sardar Patel is the BJP’s icon, as it had asserted he is and gave that as the reason for expelling Jaswant Singh, the party should ponder over this fact: On February 27, 1948, in response to a letter from Nehru, Patel wrote: ‘It clearly emerges that … the RSS was not involved at all [in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination]. It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that [hatched] the conspiracy and saw it through’.” Sardar Patel banned RSS under pressure from Nehru: Advani Neena Vyas
As listed above it is ironic that the Two Nation Theory originated as a result of the parochial writings of major Hindu leaders like Mr. Savarkar, Haldi Ram, Golwaker, Lal Lajpat Rai who were proclaiming that Hindus and Muslims were separate nations and the Muslims should be expunged from the land of the Hindus. When the Muslims saw that the Hindus were targeting them, the Muslims decided to act. The result was Pakistan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KXg0qOPUfk&feature=player_embedded
Jaswant Singh’s book may or may not be historically accurate. And there is also something very peculiar about why Jinnah remains the magnificent obsession of a party that was only born after Partition and the freedom struggle — or maybe that’s exactly why. Perhaps the BJP resents the fact that modern Indian history effectively ends up being the history of the Indian National Congress. That could explain the strange need for the party to claim the legacy of Sardar Patel — a devout Congressman — as its own. …
The BJP today has two problems. It is ideologically adrift and it doesn’t have a leader who can steer it towards clarity or consensus. When it tries to be different from the centrist politics of the Congress, it finds itself trapped by demons of the past. When it tries to be a more modern variation of itself, the party finds that it probably sounds too much like everyone else.
In the end, apart from looking intellectually intolerant, booting out Jaswant Singh hasn’t achieved much. It may have terminated Singh’s political career, but it won’t kickstart the flagging spirit of the BJP.
The tragedy of the Shimla ‘chintan baithak’ is that the party saved its alacrity of response for an issue that is entirely irrelevant. History may be complex, but the future is bleak. The BJP needs to see that before it loses the present. That Jinnah djinn. Barkha Dutt, Hindustan Times, August 21, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WELRa4_bO5g&feature=player_embedded
The reaction from Pakistan about the banning of Singh’s book has been equal and opposite o that of the BJP.
ISLAMABAD — Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Secretary-General of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has flayed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s action to expel India’s former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh for praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah in his book.
“It reflects BJP’s parochial and obscurantist mindset and exposes the hollowness of its secular claims,” Mushahid said.
He said Jaswant has demonstrated intellectual honesty and integrity by absolving Jinnah of the responsibility for the division of India and rightly placed it on Nehru and Patel.
Prominent analyst Prof. Hasan Askari said while the BJP’s visceral hatred towards the founders of Pakistan has been proverbial its action against Jaswant fully exposes its claims of being a secular and democratic party.
Daily Dawn, in editorial comment, said the furore over the book, the ban imposed by the Gujarat state government and, not the least, Mr Singh’s expulsion will be received in some quarters in Pakistan as yet more evidence that India remains congenitally allergic to the idea of Pakistan and that sections of its political establishment have, and never will be able to, come to terms with this country’s existence. The corollary: peace with India is not possible.
The paper, however, compared the attitudes to historical truths in Pakistan and India. Pointing out that the BJP’s over-reaction has been widely flayed in India itself and that voices are being raised in favour of freedom of expression and the need to determine if sacrosanct ‘truths’ stand up to genuine scrutiny, the paper asked: “Can we imagine a similar statement about India’s independence leaders?
“Mr Singh has been treated shabbily, but the whole affair demonstrates that India, or parts thereof, is at least trying to come to terms with the ghosts of partition and assess it in a frank, honest manner. Kheleej Times. By Moin Ansari