Governing people in Bharat, naxals and the file
It looks like anyone can govern Bharat and talk of corporate
governance, with words like ethics thrown in as an inexpensive
corporate option. The state satrapi-s in areas such as dravidanadu (a
pseudonym for Tamilnadu), count only when lined with traces of
cyanide. (There is a cop who is called Cyanide P., in all admiration,
in the vernacular press).
The term corporate governance leads one to speculate on governing
people in a nation. It is scary when Gautam Sen talks about the file
and the nuclear attack response in 10 minutes flat.
There is no chance in hell that a decision will be taken in 10 minutes
flat in Bharat. Waking up 10 Janpath is not the issue here. Nor, even
destabilising Goa government with christist resignations. Nor, even
the naxals in cahoots with the criminal polity.
Who is governing Bharat? The chief designates are:
Vides'i Rani the chief, assisted by the muslim quartet ? -- Ahmed
Patel, Salman Khurshid, Ghulam Nabi Azad, E. Ahamed of Dubai
connections?
Vides'i Rani the chief, assisted by Oscar Fernandes?
Vides'i Rani the chief, assisted by Jean Dreze Belgian turned Indian in 2002?
No one is even talking about the substitute PM, a khalsa panthi called
Manmohan or even the planner, another khalsa panthi called Ahluwalia.
Why go through the charade of elections and all the helicopter
photo-ops when elections are won by Pappu Yadav's hands down?
Surely, it is a waste of time talking about tyaaga and all that stuff.
Who is the mystery lady, Grace Brenta (sounds Italian) who was
honoured by Suzanne Hinn in Bangalore on the last day of the Rs. 40
crore extravaganza?
In a criminalised polity governing the state, who cares about NSA or
the file, Gautam? The bush-shirt bureaucracy and the politicians have
withdrawn from the naxal problem said a two-day seminar in Chennai on
Jan. 28-29 in Hotel GRT Grand, leaving the ill-equipped police to
govern the regions called Telengana or Jharkhand or even Nepal. I
understand that the naxals talk about jal, jangal and jameen.
(Sashidhar Reddy, MLA freom AP, convenor of Task Force on Naxalite
Violence set up by Congress Party -- aha, at the national level -- was
seen sometimes taking notes, after presenting his paper.)
Acharya sabha? What acharya sabha?
Dhanyavaadah.
Kalyanaraman
January 29, 2005
K.A. Paul isn't well-known here, but his mission has global reach
Evangelist plays hardball to move spirits worldwide
K.A. Paul isn't well-known here, but his mission has global reach
Christian evangelist K.A. Paul has moved a ruthless dictator to his knees.
He couldn't get Mattress Mack to budge.
"I didn't like his bull's rush approach," said Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, Gallery Furniture owner and local philanthropist. "Everything has to happen in the next 24 hours and you have to come up with the money."
Paul wanted McIngvale to help finance the liftoff of a 747 full of medical supplies and professionals to help survivors of the tsunami in southeast Asia. McIngvale said he was put off by Paul's aggressive sales pitch.
In the end, McIngvale wouldn't donate to Paul's Global Peace Initiative, though he is spearheading other efforts to help tsunami-destroyed regions.
Paul's trip to the tsunami region was delayed for more than a week by funding woes and then a fuel system problem on Global Peace Initiative's 747. The jumbo jet, loaded with medicine and other relief supplies, finally took off from Ellington Field shortly after 8 p.m. Friday.
For many Houstonians, the hardball fund raising served as an introduction to Paul and his approach to Christian evangelism and humanitarian relief that has made him well-known worldwide.
"You know the old saying about the prophet without honor in his own hometown?" said Nelson Bunker Hunt, the Dallas businessman who has served on the board of Global Peace Initiative and Paul's Gospel to the Unreached Millions. "Frankly, until you attend one of his overseas missions, you can't conceive of what it is like. The average person in Houston wouldn't believe it."
It stretches the imagination as Paul, 41, relates tales of ministry and meetings with some of the monsters of recent world history.
Told in a one-story office decorated with a sprinkling of fake flowers and florescent light, Paul's stories are set in Hyderabad, India; Monrovia, Liberia; and Port-au-Prince, Haiti — cities far away from the northeast Harris County town of Huffman, the "Home of the Fighting Falcons."
'A hyper-type person'
Wielding his cell phone, Paul speaks with frenetic urgency. He measures crowds in the hundreds of thousands, counts money in millions and drops names such as oil heir Hunt and the late Mother Teresa.
His supporters say his approach to personal relationships is fueled by energy and a sense of mission. It is an approach, they say, that cuts through bureaucracy and efficiently gets help to people in troubled countries.
But it can rub people the wrong way. Supporter Evander Holyfield was put off — at first.
Paul first came to Holyfield days before the former heavyweight champion was scheduled to fight Mike Tyson in 1997.
"I didn't know of him and he is a hyper-type person and I was concentrating on what I wanted to do — fight — and he was concerned about his ministry," Holyfield said.
"It was kind of aggravating."
Three years later, Paul again contacted Holyfield. This time the boxer had time to travel to the orphanage that Paul's organization runs near Hyderabad.
"I went to India and got an opportunity to see that he was healing people and his heart was right for people," said Holyfield, who donates his time to Paul's causes.
McIngvale said he did not question that Paul's heart was in the right place, but wondered about security and whether the relief mission was well-planned.
Accountability questions
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an accreditation agency for Christian nonprofits, revoked the group's membership earlier this month, said council president Paul Nelson.
The council was concerned that Gospel to the Unreached Millions did not have a functioning board of directors, that it did not have proper financial controls in place, and that it had not responded to the council's demand last fall for documentation. The organization had been a member of the council since July 1998, Nelson said.
"We are not representing that (money) was going someplace bad," Nelson said. "We were not comfortable with the environment."
Global Peace Initiative never registered with the council, which has a voluntary membership of about 1,150 evangelical Christian groups that comply with its standards, Nelson said.
Paul said Gospel to the Unreached Millions' dismissal from the council occurred while he and the other full-time staff member, Tim Murray, were busy with humanitarian work and not able to file the paperwork on time. But Murray, the chief financial officer, said he was working to register the group with the local Better Business Bureau.
Carl Lindner III, co-CEO and co-president of American Financial Group in Cincinnati, is one of Paul's supporters.
They met at a 1997 Promise Keeper's event where Paul spoke. Lindner donated about $250,000 for a mission trip to Sri Lanka after the tsunami and is also contributing to the current trip.
Lindner also has donated to Charity City, the orphanage near Hyderabad, which now serves more than 1,000 children and can accommodate an additional 2,000.
"Whatever (Paul) has promised me over the years, he has come through 100 percent and a lot of times 120 percent," Lindner said.
Known as 'spiritual healer'
Born Sept. 25, 1963, in Andhra Pradesh in southeast India, Paul considers himself a "Hindu-born follower of Jesus."
His parents were Christian converts, Paul said. Though a believer from a young age, Paul's commitment to Jesus was inspired by a vision of hell when he was 19. Complete with anguished, tortured souls crying for help, the vision served as his call to become an evangelist, Paul said.
"Hell became real to me," he said. "Jesus became real to me."
Paul does not have any formal theology training and said he was given an honorary doctorate by a college in Canada.
"The reason I'm known as Dr. Paul is that in these Third World countries I'm known as a spiritual healer," Paul said.
In 1993, Paul formed the evangelical U.S. organization, Gospel to the Unreached Millions, which organizes rallies, primarily in India and Africa.
In 1999, he added the humanitarian relief arm, Global Peace Initiative.
The main physical presence of his work in the United States is the sparse Huffman office staffed by Paul and Murray and three recently hired contract workers. The organizations also rent offices in Baltimore and Harrisburg, Pa., and own the donated 747.
Paul, his wife, Mary, and three children — Grace, Peace and John Paul — live near his Huffman office.
Last year, Global Peace Initiative received about $2 million in cash donations and $14 million in supplies such as medicines, Murray said. Gospel to the Unreached Millions received more than $5 million, he said.
Overseas powerhouse
In the United States, Paul has no congregation, holds no religious services and hosts no television show.
Yet overseas, he has maneuvered onto the edges of decades of world history, claiming that he has met with the likes of Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and Haitian rebel leader Guy Philippe.
In 2003, Paul placed himself in the middle of escalating civil conflict and the negotiations to rid Liberia of its president, Charles Taylor.
At the time, Taylor told the New York Times that Paul was his "religious leader," and later gave Paul credit for persuading him to leave Liberia in August 2003.
California entertainment executive David McQuade accompanied Paul on one of his trips to Monrovia that summer. While there, he attended a gathering in a stadium with Taylor and Paul.
"I saw him transform this president, this rather maniacal guy, have him on his knees," said McQuade, who now serves as interim executive director of Global Peace Initiative.
"I've seen him do things that you just don't do," he added. "Normal people don't do things and bring peace to a situation."
Saving the soulless
Paul said he considers saving the souls of people that some consider soulless as a calling from God.
"God called us to be peacemakers," Paul said. "Blessed are the peacemakers, not peace-wanters, not peace-lovers."
Paul also has used these situations to nose into the news, hiring a New York City public relations company in 2003 to promote his work. Though he no longer pays for the company's help, a former employee of the company, Juda Engelmayer, donates his time to help Paul get his message heard.
"He is just doing what he thinks he has to — yelling and screaming his message," Engelmayer said. "I've been training him, telling him how to scale back."
As an evangelist, Paul has traveled throughout Asia and Africa, preaching to hundreds of thousands at peace rallies.
"It is essentially people as far as you can see," McQuade said of the rallies he has witnessed, starting with one in Paul's home state, Andhra Pradesh, in 2002.
"He is a bit of a rock star when you fly into these situations," he said.
At the rallies, Paul lines up government officials on the platform and "rails against the caste system in India," McQuade said. He also covers the Christian standards: truth, sin and forgiveness.
"He preaches the straight Christian Gospel and he gets tremendous response," Hunt said.
Chronicle reporter Anne Marie Kilday contributed to this report.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/page1/3014249
Comments on sulekha.com
Dr.Paul also has the dubious distinction of being probably one of the first Indian Christians who claimed asylum in USA because "Hindus of India torture Christians". And that has opened floodgate and some recent statistics show many Indian christians are succesfully claiming political asylum in USA - just like Khalistanis did for many years till US govt pulled the plug.
It is a different matter that these guys scared of India visit India every year for vacation!
All for the greencard..
Does being the loudest mean the best? Then a donkey braying is more spiritually advanced than a silent human being.
----------------
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/12/prweb192500.htm
GPI and Dr. KA Paul Are Best Poised in South Asia to Help The Victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster
GPI has a vast network of support agencies throughout South Asia, with over 50,000 staff and volunteers and owns and operates its own 747sp airplane capable of hauling 76,000 lb of cargo. It has millions of pounds worth of supplies, food and medicine. It is seeking help raising jet fuel for 20 fully loaded flights to the disaster areas.
New York, NY (PRWEB) December 30, 2004 -- Dr. K.A. Paul and the Global Peace Initiative are poised to handle any and all logistics and care on the ground in South Asia due to its large operation with over 50,000 staff and volunteers already in place in India, Nepal and the nearby region. GPI has one of the largest network of Charity Cities and social service organizations, some doing business as Gospel to the unreached Millions and the coordinators have already been handing out rations, food, water and offering shelter to victims of the Tsunami and Earthquake.
In the United States, GPI’s own 747sp airplane is being loaded with 76,000 lbs of food and medical supplies, and will be leaving to Chennai, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia,. Working together with Feed the Children, World Vision and some other help organizations, GPI has amassed millions of pounds of food and supplies. Additionally, Doctors Without Borders is hoping to send professionals on GPI’s plane to offers medical assistance.
For more information on the relief efforts, to help with aid or supplies, or to talk with Dr. Paul, please contact Juda Engelmayer, 917-733-3561, Doug Dodson at 619-819-6345 or Dave McQuade at 949-632-5800.
-----------------------
RIGHT-HAND MAN DEPT.
THE PERSUADER
Issue of 2003-09-01
Posted 2003-08-25
http://newyorker.com/talk/content/?030901ta_talk_finnegan
Charles Taylor, having laid waste to Liberia, has been trying to set the record straight about who persuaded him to surrender his Presidency and go into exile in Nigeria. “I will say that 99% of [the credit] goes to Dr. K. A. Paul alone,” he wrote on August 16th, in a letter to the Times. Since Taylor was on the verge of losing a civil war, and three African heads of state went to Liberia to usher him out of the country—and since President Bush made his exit a precondition of American peacekeeping help—this is no small nod to Dr. K. A. Paul.
But the Times has declined to publish Taylor’s letter. (Taylor fled Liberia on August 11th, declaring, before he boarded the plane, “I want to be the sacrificial lamb” and “I may have stepped on a few toes, but I don’t care” and, finally, “Dr. Paul, I’m out of here.”)
Who is Dr. K. A. Paul, and what can he do about this erasure of his place in history? He is a hyperactive Christian evangelist from southern India, now living in Houston, and he can (indeed, he did) hire Rubenstein Associates, the publicity firm, to get out the word about his good works and, while they’re at it, circulate Taylor’s letter.
And so Dr. Paul was in town the other day, installed in a midtown conference room, under rows of framed magazine covers featuring other Rubenstein clients: Rupert Murdoch, David Letterman, Fergie. He is a small, dark, bright-eyed fellow, thirty-nine, with thinning hair and a thick but neatly trimmed mustache. He wore an immaculate cream-colored Nehru suit, brocaded at the collar, and, though he smiled a great deal, he seemed pretty furious with the Times. He told Juda Engelmayer, his handler at Rubenstein, that he had left a message for a Times reporter whom he had previously helped get an interview with Taylor, saying, “I will never do interview with New York Times again as long as I live!”
“Oh, don’t say that,” Mr. Engelmayer murmured.
“The man is risking his very life,” Dr. Paul cried. He meant that Taylor’s letter could perturb his host, Nigeria’s President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who believes that he deserves much of the credit for getting Taylor out of Liberia, and who is under some international pressure to hand Taylor over to Sierra Leone, where he has been indicted for war crimes. What’s more, President Obasanjo apparently dislikes Dr. Paul because, according to Dr. Paul, he is jealous of the great crowds and the great press that Dr. Paul gets in Nigeria for his evangelical crusades.
O.K. How did Dr. Paul gain such influence over Taylor? They only met, after all, in mid-July. “Oh, he watched me on some television program,” Dr. Paul said. “The leadership in Africa, it’s hard not to hear about me. We are in forty or fifty countries.” By “we” he meant Gospel to the Unreached Millions, a missionary organization that he founded. Or perhaps Global Peace Initiative, a more recent effort. Or both. “We have huge rallies. We had seven million people in Lagos, Nigeria, in November, 2001.”
Seven million people?
“Three million in one night,” Dr. Paul confirmed.
This July, again in Nigeria, he was approached by ten Liberian bishops, who asked him to intervene in their nation’s crisis. He went to Monrovia and met with Taylor in a chapel attached to the President’s house. The two men ended up spending eighteen hours together, “one on one,” over the next couple of days. “At first, he was arrogant—a lot of strong leadership qualities,” Dr. Paul recalled. “But when it comes to prayer and spirituality he’s very humble. He kneels, he cries. Before God, before me. So I have seen two personalities. Sometimes I grabbed him by the head, with both hands, shaking him up—‘Tell me the truth!’ I asked him questions nobody has ever asked. I confronted him about his three wives. How could he call himself a Christian? I asked him, Do you follow Jesus? He brought in one of his Muslim wives.” In the end, Taylor started calling Dr. Paul “my religious leader.” He even confessed to his crimes, in a general sort of way. And he left Liberia.
But this feat did not actually rank, in Dr. Paul’s own estimation, as his greatest peacemaking achievement. That came last year, when Dr. Paul organized a vast peace rally in India—“two million people”—which he believes averted a major war between India and Pakistan. Indian politicians, he says, have learned the hard way to respect him. “When the local officials don’t show up at my rallies, I ask, ‘Where’s the mayor? Where’s the governor?’ And if he’s not there I say, ‘You need a new mayor.’ And boom—he’s gone in the next election.” Dr. Paul grinned, and he grew more animated as he described the obeisances of various Asian and African leaders.
He has called himself “the Billy Graham of India,” and he certainly has a nose for the spotlight. He threw himself into the middle of the Elián González affair (testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee) and the Florida recount (testifying to Fox News). He has developed a special line in endangered dictators. He met, he says, with Slobodan Milosevic during the war in Kosovo. Dr. Paul even claims that he arranged, late last year, for Saddam Hussein and his two sons to leave Iraq. But the Bush White House blew it. “I called Karl Rove and left a message. I waited two weeks, but I heard nothing.”
To increase his clout in Washington, Dr. Paul recently hired a dozen defeated American political candidates, including four former congressmen, as lobbyists and consultants. They should be helpful, he has said, with fund-raising—and so, presumably, should Nelson Bunker Hunt (of what Dr. Paul calls “the Hunt brothers silver deal”), who is on the board of directors of Global Peace Initiative. Dr. Paul also recently acquired a refurbished 747 jetliner, which he christened Global Peace One. Dr. Paul giggles when he mentions the plane. This, it should be remembered, is someone who was born and raised in rural India and spent, by his own testimony, much of his early adulthood homeless, too poor to rent even a cowshed. (He emigrated to the United States in 1993.) You’d giggle, too.
Liberia has a large Christian population—indeed, the country’s devastation has inspired a new wave of born-again evangelism, even among some of its most notorious warlords. Still, its recent deliverance into a fragile ceasefire had, according to Dr. Paul, an important geo-religious dimension: he was told by the ten Liberian bishops that the rebel group which was threatening to overrun the country had a secret plan to convert Liberia into a Muslim fundamentalist state. And so Dr. Paul was fighting for the faith, as well as for peace, in Liberia.
Juda Engelmayer, game publicist, tried to suggest just how down-and-dirty a fight it was. At the very end, he said, when Taylor was finally boarding the plane to leave, Dr. Paul was physically prevented from accompanying him, apparently on the orders of the jealous Nigerian President. “They kept showing it on CNN,” Engelmayer said. “Taylor getting on the plane and then this burly guy shoving Dr. Paul, who was not identified, out of the plane and down the stairs. Dr. Paul just wanted to go to Nigeria with Taylor to insure his safety.” Engelmayer shrugged. “But he seems to be O.K. where he is.”
— William Finnegan
K.A. Paul isn't well-known here, but his mission has global reach
Christian evangelist K.A. Paul has moved a ruthless dictator to his knees.
He couldn't get Mattress Mack to budge.
"I didn't like his bull's rush approach," said Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, Gallery Furniture owner and local philanthropist. "Everything has to happen in the next 24 hours and you have to come up with the money."
Paul wanted McIngvale to help finance the liftoff of a 747 full of medical supplies and professionals to help survivors of the tsunami in southeast Asia. McIngvale said he was put off by Paul's aggressive sales pitch.
In the end, McIngvale wouldn't donate to Paul's Global Peace Initiative, though he is spearheading other efforts to help tsunami-destroyed regions.
Paul's trip to the tsunami region was delayed for more than a week by funding woes and then a fuel system problem on Global Peace Initiative's 747. The jumbo jet, loaded with medicine and other relief supplies, finally took off from Ellington Field shortly after 8 p.m. Friday.
For many Houstonians, the hardball fund raising served as an introduction to Paul and his approach to Christian evangelism and humanitarian relief that has made him well-known worldwide.
"You know the old saying about the prophet without honor in his own hometown?" said Nelson Bunker Hunt, the Dallas businessman who has served on the board of Global Peace Initiative and Paul's Gospel to the Unreached Millions. "Frankly, until you attend one of his overseas missions, you can't conceive of what it is like. The average person in Houston wouldn't believe it."
It stretches the imagination as Paul, 41, relates tales of ministry and meetings with some of the monsters of recent world history.
Told in a one-story office decorated with a sprinkling of fake flowers and florescent light, Paul's stories are set in Hyderabad, India; Monrovia, Liberia; and Port-au-Prince, Haiti — cities far away from the northeast Harris County town of Huffman, the "Home of the Fighting Falcons."
'A hyper-type person'
Wielding his cell phone, Paul speaks with frenetic urgency. He measures crowds in the hundreds of thousands, counts money in millions and drops names such as oil heir Hunt and the late Mother Teresa.
His supporters say his approach to personal relationships is fueled by energy and a sense of mission. It is an approach, they say, that cuts through bureaucracy and efficiently gets help to people in troubled countries.
But it can rub people the wrong way. Supporter Evander Holyfield was put off — at first.
Paul first came to Holyfield days before the former heavyweight champion was scheduled to fight Mike Tyson in 1997.
"I didn't know of him and he is a hyper-type person and I was concentrating on what I wanted to do — fight — and he was concerned about his ministry," Holyfield said.
"It was kind of aggravating."
Three years later, Paul again contacted Holyfield. This time the boxer had time to travel to the orphanage that Paul's organization runs near Hyderabad.
"I went to India and got an opportunity to see that he was healing people and his heart was right for people," said Holyfield, who donates his time to Paul's causes.
McIngvale said he did not question that Paul's heart was in the right place, but wondered about security and whether the relief mission was well-planned.
Accountability questions
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an accreditation agency for Christian nonprofits, revoked the group's membership earlier this month, said council president Paul Nelson.
The council was concerned that Gospel to the Unreached Millions did not have a functioning board of directors, that it did not have proper financial controls in place, and that it had not responded to the council's demand last fall for documentation. The organization had been a member of the council since July 1998, Nelson said.
"We are not representing that (money) was going someplace bad," Nelson said. "We were not comfortable with the environment."
Global Peace Initiative never registered with the council, which has a voluntary membership of about 1,150 evangelical Christian groups that comply with its standards, Nelson said.
Paul said Gospel to the Unreached Millions' dismissal from the council occurred while he and the other full-time staff member, Tim Murray, were busy with humanitarian work and not able to file the paperwork on time. But Murray, the chief financial officer, said he was working to register the group with the local Better Business Bureau.
Carl Lindner III, co-CEO and co-president of American Financial Group in Cincinnati, is one of Paul's supporters.
They met at a 1997 Promise Keeper's event where Paul spoke. Lindner donated about $250,000 for a mission trip to Sri Lanka after the tsunami and is also contributing to the current trip.
Lindner also has donated to Charity City, the orphanage near Hyderabad, which now serves more than 1,000 children and can accommodate an additional 2,000.
"Whatever (Paul) has promised me over the years, he has come through 100 percent and a lot of times 120 percent," Lindner said.
Known as 'spiritual healer'
Born Sept. 25, 1963, in Andhra Pradesh in southeast India, Paul considers himself a "Hindu-born follower of Jesus."
His parents were Christian converts, Paul said. Though a believer from a young age, Paul's commitment to Jesus was inspired by a vision of hell when he was 19. Complete with anguished, tortured souls crying for help, the vision served as his call to become an evangelist, Paul said.
"Hell became real to me," he said. "Jesus became real to me."
Paul does not have any formal theology training and said he was given an honorary doctorate by a college in Canada.
"The reason I'm known as Dr. Paul is that in these Third World countries I'm known as a spiritual healer," Paul said.
In 1993, Paul formed the evangelical U.S. organization, Gospel to the Unreached Millions, which organizes rallies, primarily in India and Africa.
In 1999, he added the humanitarian relief arm, Global Peace Initiative.
The main physical presence of his work in the United States is the sparse Huffman office staffed by Paul and Murray and three recently hired contract workers. The organizations also rent offices in Baltimore and Harrisburg, Pa., and own the donated 747.
Paul, his wife, Mary, and three children — Grace, Peace and John Paul — live near his Huffman office.
Last year, Global Peace Initiative received about $2 million in cash donations and $14 million in supplies such as medicines, Murray said. Gospel to the Unreached Millions received more than $5 million, he said.
Overseas powerhouse
In the United States, Paul has no congregation, holds no religious services and hosts no television show.
Yet overseas, he has maneuvered onto the edges of decades of world history, claiming that he has met with the likes of Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and Haitian rebel leader Guy Philippe.
In 2003, Paul placed himself in the middle of escalating civil conflict and the negotiations to rid Liberia of its president, Charles Taylor.
At the time, Taylor told the New York Times that Paul was his "religious leader," and later gave Paul credit for persuading him to leave Liberia in August 2003.
California entertainment executive David McQuade accompanied Paul on one of his trips to Monrovia that summer. While there, he attended a gathering in a stadium with Taylor and Paul.
"I saw him transform this president, this rather maniacal guy, have him on his knees," said McQuade, who now serves as interim executive director of Global Peace Initiative.
"I've seen him do things that you just don't do," he added. "Normal people don't do things and bring peace to a situation."
Saving the soulless
Paul said he considers saving the souls of people that some consider soulless as a calling from God.
"God called us to be peacemakers," Paul said. "Blessed are the peacemakers, not peace-wanters, not peace-lovers."
Paul also has used these situations to nose into the news, hiring a New York City public relations company in 2003 to promote his work. Though he no longer pays for the company's help, a former employee of the company, Juda Engelmayer, donates his time to help Paul get his message heard.
"He is just doing what he thinks he has to — yelling and screaming his message," Engelmayer said. "I've been training him, telling him how to scale back."
As an evangelist, Paul has traveled throughout Asia and Africa, preaching to hundreds of thousands at peace rallies.
"It is essentially people as far as you can see," McQuade said of the rallies he has witnessed, starting with one in Paul's home state, Andhra Pradesh, in 2002.
"He is a bit of a rock star when you fly into these situations," he said.
At the rallies, Paul lines up government officials on the platform and "rails against the caste system in India," McQuade said. He also covers the Christian standards: truth, sin and forgiveness.
"He preaches the straight Christian Gospel and he gets tremendous response," Hunt said.
Chronicle reporter Anne Marie Kilday contributed to this report.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/page1/3014249
Comments on sulekha.com
Dr.Paul also has the dubious distinction of being probably one of the first Indian Christians who claimed asylum in USA because "Hindus of India torture Christians". And that has opened floodgate and some recent statistics show many Indian christians are succesfully claiming political asylum in USA - just like Khalistanis did for many years till US govt pulled the plug.
It is a different matter that these guys scared of India visit India every year for vacation!
All for the greencard..
Does being the loudest mean the best? Then a donkey braying is more spiritually advanced than a silent human being.
----------------
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/12/prweb192500.htm
GPI and Dr. KA Paul Are Best Poised in South Asia to Help The Victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster
GPI has a vast network of support agencies throughout South Asia, with over 50,000 staff and volunteers and owns and operates its own 747sp airplane capable of hauling 76,000 lb of cargo. It has millions of pounds worth of supplies, food and medicine. It is seeking help raising jet fuel for 20 fully loaded flights to the disaster areas.
New York, NY (PRWEB) December 30, 2004 -- Dr. K.A. Paul and the Global Peace Initiative are poised to handle any and all logistics and care on the ground in South Asia due to its large operation with over 50,000 staff and volunteers already in place in India, Nepal and the nearby region. GPI has one of the largest network of Charity Cities and social service organizations, some doing business as Gospel to the unreached Millions and the coordinators have already been handing out rations, food, water and offering shelter to victims of the Tsunami and Earthquake.
In the United States, GPI’s own 747sp airplane is being loaded with 76,000 lbs of food and medical supplies, and will be leaving to Chennai, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia,. Working together with Feed the Children, World Vision and some other help organizations, GPI has amassed millions of pounds of food and supplies. Additionally, Doctors Without Borders is hoping to send professionals on GPI’s plane to offers medical assistance.
For more information on the relief efforts, to help with aid or supplies, or to talk with Dr. Paul, please contact Juda Engelmayer, 917-733-3561, Doug Dodson at 619-819-6345 or Dave McQuade at 949-632-5800.
-----------------------
RIGHT-HAND MAN DEPT.
THE PERSUADER
Issue of 2003-09-01
Posted 2003-08-25
http://newyorker.com/talk/content/?030901ta_talk_finnegan
Charles Taylor, having laid waste to Liberia, has been trying to set the record straight about who persuaded him to surrender his Presidency and go into exile in Nigeria. “I will say that 99% of [the credit] goes to Dr. K. A. Paul alone,” he wrote on August 16th, in a letter to the Times. Since Taylor was on the verge of losing a civil war, and three African heads of state went to Liberia to usher him out of the country—and since President Bush made his exit a precondition of American peacekeeping help—this is no small nod to Dr. K. A. Paul.
But the Times has declined to publish Taylor’s letter. (Taylor fled Liberia on August 11th, declaring, before he boarded the plane, “I want to be the sacrificial lamb” and “I may have stepped on a few toes, but I don’t care” and, finally, “Dr. Paul, I’m out of here.”)
Who is Dr. K. A. Paul, and what can he do about this erasure of his place in history? He is a hyperactive Christian evangelist from southern India, now living in Houston, and he can (indeed, he did) hire Rubenstein Associates, the publicity firm, to get out the word about his good works and, while they’re at it, circulate Taylor’s letter.
And so Dr. Paul was in town the other day, installed in a midtown conference room, under rows of framed magazine covers featuring other Rubenstein clients: Rupert Murdoch, David Letterman, Fergie. He is a small, dark, bright-eyed fellow, thirty-nine, with thinning hair and a thick but neatly trimmed mustache. He wore an immaculate cream-colored Nehru suit, brocaded at the collar, and, though he smiled a great deal, he seemed pretty furious with the Times. He told Juda Engelmayer, his handler at Rubenstein, that he had left a message for a Times reporter whom he had previously helped get an interview with Taylor, saying, “I will never do interview with New York Times again as long as I live!”
“Oh, don’t say that,” Mr. Engelmayer murmured.
“The man is risking his very life,” Dr. Paul cried. He meant that Taylor’s letter could perturb his host, Nigeria’s President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who believes that he deserves much of the credit for getting Taylor out of Liberia, and who is under some international pressure to hand Taylor over to Sierra Leone, where he has been indicted for war crimes. What’s more, President Obasanjo apparently dislikes Dr. Paul because, according to Dr. Paul, he is jealous of the great crowds and the great press that Dr. Paul gets in Nigeria for his evangelical crusades.
O.K. How did Dr. Paul gain such influence over Taylor? They only met, after all, in mid-July. “Oh, he watched me on some television program,” Dr. Paul said. “The leadership in Africa, it’s hard not to hear about me. We are in forty or fifty countries.” By “we” he meant Gospel to the Unreached Millions, a missionary organization that he founded. Or perhaps Global Peace Initiative, a more recent effort. Or both. “We have huge rallies. We had seven million people in Lagos, Nigeria, in November, 2001.”
Seven million people?
“Three million in one night,” Dr. Paul confirmed.
This July, again in Nigeria, he was approached by ten Liberian bishops, who asked him to intervene in their nation’s crisis. He went to Monrovia and met with Taylor in a chapel attached to the President’s house. The two men ended up spending eighteen hours together, “one on one,” over the next couple of days. “At first, he was arrogant—a lot of strong leadership qualities,” Dr. Paul recalled. “But when it comes to prayer and spirituality he’s very humble. He kneels, he cries. Before God, before me. So I have seen two personalities. Sometimes I grabbed him by the head, with both hands, shaking him up—‘Tell me the truth!’ I asked him questions nobody has ever asked. I confronted him about his three wives. How could he call himself a Christian? I asked him, Do you follow Jesus? He brought in one of his Muslim wives.” In the end, Taylor started calling Dr. Paul “my religious leader.” He even confessed to his crimes, in a general sort of way. And he left Liberia.
But this feat did not actually rank, in Dr. Paul’s own estimation, as his greatest peacemaking achievement. That came last year, when Dr. Paul organized a vast peace rally in India—“two million people”—which he believes averted a major war between India and Pakistan. Indian politicians, he says, have learned the hard way to respect him. “When the local officials don’t show up at my rallies, I ask, ‘Where’s the mayor? Where’s the governor?’ And if he’s not there I say, ‘You need a new mayor.’ And boom—he’s gone in the next election.” Dr. Paul grinned, and he grew more animated as he described the obeisances of various Asian and African leaders.
He has called himself “the Billy Graham of India,” and he certainly has a nose for the spotlight. He threw himself into the middle of the Elián González affair (testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee) and the Florida recount (testifying to Fox News). He has developed a special line in endangered dictators. He met, he says, with Slobodan Milosevic during the war in Kosovo. Dr. Paul even claims that he arranged, late last year, for Saddam Hussein and his two sons to leave Iraq. But the Bush White House blew it. “I called Karl Rove and left a message. I waited two weeks, but I heard nothing.”
To increase his clout in Washington, Dr. Paul recently hired a dozen defeated American political candidates, including four former congressmen, as lobbyists and consultants. They should be helpful, he has said, with fund-raising—and so, presumably, should Nelson Bunker Hunt (of what Dr. Paul calls “the Hunt brothers silver deal”), who is on the board of directors of Global Peace Initiative. Dr. Paul also recently acquired a refurbished 747 jetliner, which he christened Global Peace One. Dr. Paul giggles when he mentions the plane. This, it should be remembered, is someone who was born and raised in rural India and spent, by his own testimony, much of his early adulthood homeless, too poor to rent even a cowshed. (He emigrated to the United States in 1993.) You’d giggle, too.
Liberia has a large Christian population—indeed, the country’s devastation has inspired a new wave of born-again evangelism, even among some of its most notorious warlords. Still, its recent deliverance into a fragile ceasefire had, according to Dr. Paul, an important geo-religious dimension: he was told by the ten Liberian bishops that the rebel group which was threatening to overrun the country had a secret plan to convert Liberia into a Muslim fundamentalist state. And so Dr. Paul was fighting for the faith, as well as for peace, in Liberia.
Juda Engelmayer, game publicist, tried to suggest just how down-and-dirty a fight it was. At the very end, he said, when Taylor was finally boarding the plane to leave, Dr. Paul was physically prevented from accompanying him, apparently on the orders of the jealous Nigerian President. “They kept showing it on CNN,” Engelmayer said. “Taylor getting on the plane and then this burly guy shoving Dr. Paul, who was not identified, out of the plane and down the stairs. Dr. Paul just wanted to go to Nigeria with Taylor to insure his safety.” Engelmayer shrugged. “But he seems to be O.K. where he is.”
— William Finnegan
Covert War against Iran Has Already Begun
If the Hersh and Indian reports are accurate, the Bush Administration has struck a deal with one of the world's leading nuclear weapons black-marketeers, and with the very Taliban regime in Afghanistan which the United States ousted from power as the opening shot in the GWOT.
The involvement of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the United States' anti-Iran covert effort, according to Hersh, comes at a very high price. The Bush Administration has reportedly agreed to drop any efforts to shut down the nuclear material black-market operations of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, in return for Dr. Khan's providing information on Iran's alleged illicit nuclear weapons program. As Hersh wrote, "It's the neo-conservatives' version of short-term gain at long-term cost. They want to prove that Bush is the anti-terrorism guy who can handle Iran and the nuclear threat, against the long-term goal of eliminating the black market for nuclear proliferation."
EIR's (http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3204hersh_cheney.html) own sources in the intelligence community in India, who usually have a precise reading on the situation in Afghanistan, confirmed the essentials of Hersh's account of the U.S. deal with Pakistan, but added some further disturbing details. They charge that the Bush Administration used proof that officials of Pakistan's ISI had advance knowledge about the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, and wanted to extract Pakistani help in infiltrating Iran, through the Balochistan region of Afghanistan. In return for silence on the ISI links to Pearl's murderers, Pakistan agreed to provide assistance in the infiltration of Iran.
The recent ouster of Ismael Khan, Governor of Afghanistan's Herat Province, bordering Iran, was intended, the Indian intelligence sources say, to clear the way for American covert operations teams to infiltrate eastern Iran from bases in Afghanistan, including a clandestine air base just a few miles from the Iranian border. Another price that the United States has been willing to pay for the Afghan secret basing: Washington has given Pakistan the green light to reintegrate the Taliban into the Afghan government. According to Indian sources, 81 Taliban prisoners have been released in recent weeks, and 400 more are soon to be freed. All of the Talibani held in the U.S. facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are also reportedly being released because they "failed to provide any useful intelligence" on al-Qaeda's operations.
Descetion of Hersh article
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3204hersh_cheney.html
The involvement of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the United States' anti-Iran covert effort, according to Hersh, comes at a very high price. The Bush Administration has reportedly agreed to drop any efforts to shut down the nuclear material black-market operations of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, in return for Dr. Khan's providing information on Iran's alleged illicit nuclear weapons program. As Hersh wrote, "It's the neo-conservatives' version of short-term gain at long-term cost. They want to prove that Bush is the anti-terrorism guy who can handle Iran and the nuclear threat, against the long-term goal of eliminating the black market for nuclear proliferation."
EIR's (http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3204hersh_cheney.html) own sources in the intelligence community in India, who usually have a precise reading on the situation in Afghanistan, confirmed the essentials of Hersh's account of the U.S. deal with Pakistan, but added some further disturbing details. They charge that the Bush Administration used proof that officials of Pakistan's ISI had advance knowledge about the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, and wanted to extract Pakistani help in infiltrating Iran, through the Balochistan region of Afghanistan. In return for silence on the ISI links to Pearl's murderers, Pakistan agreed to provide assistance in the infiltration of Iran.
The recent ouster of Ismael Khan, Governor of Afghanistan's Herat Province, bordering Iran, was intended, the Indian intelligence sources say, to clear the way for American covert operations teams to infiltrate eastern Iran from bases in Afghanistan, including a clandestine air base just a few miles from the Iranian border. Another price that the United States has been willing to pay for the Afghan secret basing: Washington has given Pakistan the green light to reintegrate the Taliban into the Afghan government. According to Indian sources, 81 Taliban prisoners have been released in recent weeks, and 400 more are soon to be freed. All of the Talibani held in the U.S. facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are also reportedly being released because they "failed to provide any useful intelligence" on al-Qaeda's operations.
Descetion of Hersh article
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3204hersh_cheney.html
Pakistani sponsored terrorists to attack inside India -- PSMI
Source : SAAG Forum
Statement is issued by PSMI , Patriotic Sons of Mother India , cautioning impending attacks inside india , particularly outside Kashmir .
-------------------------------------------------------------
{START}
Reports are coming from close circles in pakistans millitary establishment that ISI is activating it's sleeper cells inside india to launch attacks . One can expect more bombings and sabotages , in this regard we have to caution our government to take necessary measures to thwart . If terrorists are sucessfull in their mission , we have to put pressure on government to launch all out millitary offence on pakistan , Indian lives are not cheap , out politicians have to understand this and send a message to pakistan appropriately .
WE INDIANS
1. Have to watch how MEDIA report
2. Start campaign and put pressure on government to prepare counter offensive on pakistan
3. Activate all our PR machinery , ISI has already prepared it's peole inside Indian media to underplay events . THIS WE HAVE TO TAKE SERIOUSLY
4. Pseudo Secular Leaders should be hounded out on this issue
The Pakistani correspondent of Asia Times Online, Syed Saleem Shahzad, who is well informed on military matters, reported that at a meeting of the corps commanders held last month under the chairmanship of Musharraf, a decision was made to re-escalate Pakistan's proxy war in Indian territory. The Asia Times Online correspondent connected this reported decision with Pakistani disappointment over what it perceives as the lack of progress in the bilateral dialogue process (see Musharraf ups the ante on Kashmir, January 8).
He did not connect it to the Balochistan situation, which had not assumed such alarming proportions at the time of last month's corps commanders' conference as it has now. The pressures now faced by Musharraf in Balochistan have become an additional factor, in the eyes of the Pakistani military leadership, for re-escalating jihadi terrorism against India.
If Musharraf decides to launch an offensive operation to crush the Baloch freedom-fighters, he would be tempted to combine it with a re-escalation of jihadi terrorism against India in the calculation that he would thereby prevent India from taking advantage of the resulting situation.
There is a need for heightened alert by the Indian security forces and counter-terrorism agencies. The recent violations of the more than a year-long ceasefire along the LoC by the Pakistani army and its allegations of violations by the Indian security forces appear for now as isolated incidents, but to treat them totally as without much significance would be unwise. They could be the indicators of a Pakistani rethinking and forerunners of a re-escalation of terrorism.
{END}
Statement is issued by PSMI , Patriotic Sons of Mother India , cautioning impending attacks inside india , particularly outside Kashmir .
-------------------------------------------------------------
{START}
Reports are coming from close circles in pakistans millitary establishment that ISI is activating it's sleeper cells inside india to launch attacks . One can expect more bombings and sabotages , in this regard we have to caution our government to take necessary measures to thwart . If terrorists are sucessfull in their mission , we have to put pressure on government to launch all out millitary offence on pakistan , Indian lives are not cheap , out politicians have to understand this and send a message to pakistan appropriately .
WE INDIANS
1. Have to watch how MEDIA report
2. Start campaign and put pressure on government to prepare counter offensive on pakistan
3. Activate all our PR machinery , ISI has already prepared it's peole inside Indian media to underplay events . THIS WE HAVE TO TAKE SERIOUSLY
4. Pseudo Secular Leaders should be hounded out on this issue
The Pakistani correspondent of Asia Times Online, Syed Saleem Shahzad, who is well informed on military matters, reported that at a meeting of the corps commanders held last month under the chairmanship of Musharraf, a decision was made to re-escalate Pakistan's proxy war in Indian territory. The Asia Times Online correspondent connected this reported decision with Pakistani disappointment over what it perceives as the lack of progress in the bilateral dialogue process (see Musharraf ups the ante on Kashmir, January 8).
He did not connect it to the Balochistan situation, which had not assumed such alarming proportions at the time of last month's corps commanders' conference as it has now. The pressures now faced by Musharraf in Balochistan have become an additional factor, in the eyes of the Pakistani military leadership, for re-escalating jihadi terrorism against India.
If Musharraf decides to launch an offensive operation to crush the Baloch freedom-fighters, he would be tempted to combine it with a re-escalation of jihadi terrorism against India in the calculation that he would thereby prevent India from taking advantage of the resulting situation.
There is a need for heightened alert by the Indian security forces and counter-terrorism agencies. The recent violations of the more than a year-long ceasefire along the LoC by the Pakistani army and its allegations of violations by the Indian security forces appear for now as isolated incidents, but to treat them totally as without much significance would be unwise. They could be the indicators of a Pakistani rethinking and forerunners of a re-escalation of terrorism.
{END}
January 28, 2005
ran ranks third in the region in producing ballistic missiles
General on Iran's 'Nuclear Capabilities,' Possibility of 'Asymmetrical' War With
US
Tehran Aftab-e Yazd (Internet Version-WWW) in Persian 29 Dec 04
[Unattributed news report, entitled: Iran ranks third in the region in producing
ballistic missiles]
[Text] The dean of the Police Academy has said that Iran ranks third in the
region in producing ballistic missiles after China and Russia.
According to a report by Mehr News Agency, speaking at the eighth ceremony
commemorating the martyrs of Qom University [on Tuesday 28 December], General
[Qasem] Shabani said: In the event of war against America, we must resort to
asymmetrical battles.
He added: At present we have manufactured some weapons and acquired nuclear
capabilities. ["Ma, dar hal-e hazer, salah ha'i sakhte'im va be tavanmandi ha-ye
hasteh'i dast yafte'im."] And America is angry because young Iranians have
acquired this technology through their own endeavor.
Noting that the Iranian armed forces should always remain vigilant about the
activities of the enemies, General Shabani added: Through a series of programs,
America intends to alter the behavior of the authorities in the Islamic Republic
of Iran, because it knows that military attack will not be successful.
He further added: If the enemies try to threaten our country's security, we
shall deprive them of every security.
US
Tehran Aftab-e Yazd (Internet Version-WWW) in Persian 29 Dec 04
[Unattributed news report, entitled: Iran ranks third in the region in producing
ballistic missiles]
[Text] The dean of the Police Academy has said that Iran ranks third in the
region in producing ballistic missiles after China and Russia.
According to a report by Mehr News Agency, speaking at the eighth ceremony
commemorating the martyrs of Qom University [on Tuesday 28 December], General
[Qasem] Shabani said: In the event of war against America, we must resort to
asymmetrical battles.
He added: At present we have manufactured some weapons and acquired nuclear
capabilities. ["Ma, dar hal-e hazer, salah ha'i sakhte'im va be tavanmandi ha-ye
hasteh'i dast yafte'im."] And America is angry because young Iranians have
acquired this technology through their own endeavor.
Noting that the Iranian armed forces should always remain vigilant about the
activities of the enemies, General Shabani added: Through a series of programs,
America intends to alter the behavior of the authorities in the Islamic Republic
of Iran, because it knows that military attack will not be successful.
He further added: If the enemies try to threaten our country's security, we
shall deprive them of every security.
Save the Minors From Pakistani Torture Cells of Balawaristan
Below is a letter to Mr.Kofi Annan by Mr.Abdul Hamid of Balawaristsn National Front
Save the Minors From Pakistani Torture Cells of Balawaristan
Date: 29th Jan 2005
His Excellency
Mr. Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations Organization
New York
Sub: Save the Minors from Pakistani Torture Cells in Balawaristan
I have the honor to write your honor and world community and Human
Rights Organization about the Pakistani forces attrocities against the
indigenous people of Skardu, Balawaristan (Pakistan Occupied Gilgit
Baltistan). This Pakistani action was taken place against the indigenous
people, aftermath when the local Shia leader Agha Zia-Ud-Din, local
employee Dr. Sher Wali (Muslim Sooni sect) and local employee DFO Taighon Nabi
(Muslim Ismaili sect)beside 2 dozen others were killed by Pakistani
terrorists in Gilgit, the Pakistani occupied part of disputed Jammu &
Kashmir on 8th Jan 2005. Pakistani occupied regime arretests local
indigenous people by charging them terrorist acts, when they protest against
the Pakistani and it's ISI sponsored terrorisim in this part of the
world.
In the last months of 2004 more than 80 people were arrested from
Gilgit, when they protested against the Pakistani discriminatry Islamic book
against Shia Muslims, tortured them and sent them in High School No 2
Jitiyal Gilgit by declaring Schol as Jail. After that more than 2 dozen
people from Yasen were sent to this so-called School Jail when they
protested against the Pakistani and it's ISI sponsored terrisists who
kidnapped 2 minor students from Gilgit, one was killed another escapped
from the clutches of terrorists, After 8th Jan the mass killing of al 3
sects persnonalities and other persons by ISI agents in Gilgit, local
people of Gilgit and Skardu protested. Pakistani occupioed regime
arrested, tottured the protesters and chrged them in terrorists acts bu no
action was teken against the ISI and it's agents.
Is this the CIVILIZED NATIONS WAR AGAINST TERRORISM, where those are
termed as terrorists who protest against terrorists?
The world community and the so-called Human Rights chanpions of the
world should open their eyes and read the following story of a Pakistani
daily the "Daily Dawn".
Daily Dawn
SKARDU: 54 arrested in Skardu over Jan 13 violence By Our Correspondent
SKARDU, Jan 26 2005:
Fifty-four people have been arrested for allegedly damaging public
property and setting on fire some shops and hotels during the Jan 13
violence.
Senior Superintendent of Police Hajat Mir told newsmen here on
Wednesday that cases had been registered under Terrorism Act against 16 unknown
people and investigation was in final stage.
Three different investigation teams have been formed. The SSP said 54
people were under police custody and investigations were under way
against them under the Terrorist Act, section 7, and PPC sections 164, 147,
148, 149 and 436.
Cases had also been registered against several arrested persons under
section 295 for raising slogans and they would be sent to jail after
judicial remand, he added.
Several persons, who were under police custody, had been hospitalized
due to severe physical and mental torture by the police during
investigation, sources said. The accused had been arrested by the police on
suspicion of being involved in setting ablaze some private properties.
The source said besides 54 people booked so far, more arrests were
being made. Nine accused, including young boys, were shifted to the DHQ
hospital the other day because of severe police torture.
Earlier, five people had also reportedly been shifted to the hospital
in the same case and were sent back to the police station after their
condition improved.
The accused said they were innocent and not involved in any incident.
The police were unfair with them, they complained. Visitors have been
barred from meeting the accused in the Police Lines and the police
stations.
..................................................
Distributed By
Abdul Hamid Khan
Chairman
Balawaristan National Front (BNF)
Head Off:
Majini Mahla, Gilgit, Balawaristan
(Pakistan occupied Gilgit Baltistan)
WEBSITE (Urdu & English)
Urdu & Eng:
Urdu website:
EMAIL:
Save the Minors From Pakistani Torture Cells of Balawaristan
Date: 29th Jan 2005
His Excellency
Mr. Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations Organization
New York
Sub: Save the Minors from Pakistani Torture Cells in Balawaristan
I have the honor to write your honor and world community and Human
Rights Organization about the Pakistani forces attrocities against the
indigenous people of Skardu, Balawaristan (Pakistan Occupied Gilgit
Baltistan). This Pakistani action was taken place against the indigenous
people, aftermath when the local Shia leader Agha Zia-Ud-Din, local
employee Dr. Sher Wali (Muslim Sooni sect) and local employee DFO Taighon Nabi
(Muslim Ismaili sect)beside 2 dozen others were killed by Pakistani
terrorists in Gilgit, the Pakistani occupied part of disputed Jammu &
Kashmir on 8th Jan 2005. Pakistani occupied regime arretests local
indigenous people by charging them terrorist acts, when they protest against
the Pakistani and it's ISI sponsored terrorisim in this part of the
world.
In the last months of 2004 more than 80 people were arrested from
Gilgit, when they protested against the Pakistani discriminatry Islamic book
against Shia Muslims, tortured them and sent them in High School No 2
Jitiyal Gilgit by declaring Schol as Jail. After that more than 2 dozen
people from Yasen were sent to this so-called School Jail when they
protested against the Pakistani and it's ISI sponsored terrisists who
kidnapped 2 minor students from Gilgit, one was killed another escapped
from the clutches of terrorists, After 8th Jan the mass killing of al 3
sects persnonalities and other persons by ISI agents in Gilgit, local
people of Gilgit and Skardu protested. Pakistani occupioed regime
arrested, tottured the protesters and chrged them in terrorists acts bu no
action was teken against the ISI and it's agents.
Is this the CIVILIZED NATIONS WAR AGAINST TERRORISM, where those are
termed as terrorists who protest against terrorists?
The world community and the so-called Human Rights chanpions of the
world should open their eyes and read the following story of a Pakistani
daily the "Daily Dawn".
Daily Dawn
SKARDU: 54 arrested in Skardu over Jan 13 violence By Our Correspondent
SKARDU, Jan 26 2005:
Fifty-four people have been arrested for allegedly damaging public
property and setting on fire some shops and hotels during the Jan 13
violence.
Senior Superintendent of Police Hajat Mir told newsmen here on
Wednesday that cases had been registered under Terrorism Act against 16 unknown
people and investigation was in final stage.
Three different investigation teams have been formed. The SSP said 54
people were under police custody and investigations were under way
against them under the Terrorist Act, section 7, and PPC sections 164, 147,
148, 149 and 436.
Cases had also been registered against several arrested persons under
section 295 for raising slogans and they would be sent to jail after
judicial remand, he added.
Several persons, who were under police custody, had been hospitalized
due to severe physical and mental torture by the police during
investigation, sources said. The accused had been arrested by the police on
suspicion of being involved in setting ablaze some private properties.
The source said besides 54 people booked so far, more arrests were
being made. Nine accused, including young boys, were shifted to the DHQ
hospital the other day because of severe police torture.
Earlier, five people had also reportedly been shifted to the hospital
in the same case and were sent back to the police station after their
condition improved.
The accused said they were innocent and not involved in any incident.
The police were unfair with them, they complained. Visitors have been
barred from meeting the accused in the Police Lines and the police
stations.
..................................................
Distributed By
Abdul Hamid Khan
Chairman
Balawaristan National Front (BNF)
Head Off:
Majini Mahla, Gilgit, Balawaristan
(Pakistan occupied Gilgit Baltistan)
WEBSITE (Urdu & English)
Urdu & Eng:
Urdu website:
EMAIL:
An actor who was happy in being of Sangh (Amrish Puri)
Mogambo a Sangh Swayamsevak?
Title: An actor who was happy in being of Sangh
Author: Ramesh Mehta
Publication: 'Vivek' Marathi Weekly
Date: January 23, 05
I still remember that day when I met Amarish Puri. Very few people know
that when Amarish Puri was in Simla, he was a Sangh Swayamsevak and he
was taking training in Officer's Training Camp (OTC). The time was when
Balarao Deoras (Third Sarsanghchalak) was camping in my house for a few
days. Amrish Puri was striving to get stabilized in the movie industry.
He expressed his desire to meet Deoras to our friend Dr Ramesh
Gandotra.
Dr gave him my telephone number. After two days, my phone rang,
"Namaste, mai Amrish Puri am speaking". Same resonant and weighty
voice.
The meeting was fixed at our residence and he came to our house even
though he had a hectic shooting schedule.
A robust, strapping personality with superb height, calm but resolute
face. He joined his hand in Namaskar to Balasaheb Deoras and sat on
ground only. Deoras and we all requested him to sit on the Sofa, but he
quickly said, "Nahi, Nahi, mai yahaan Charano me hi theek hoon!" (No,
no, I am all right here at the feet only.)" With this single sentence,
the humility of this great artist was easily apparent. We had a long
discussion on various matters.
Saying "I am proud that when I was in Simla, I had taken the training
in
the OTC,' he was lost in the old memory lane. "I will never forget the
principles and teachings of Sangh", he said and he chatted on many
subjects like politics, social matters, art, cinema, music to heart's
content. While talking about Sangh, Param Poojya Guruji's mention was
inevitable. While talking about Guruji, his respect for him poured
through his tone. He kept on talking on many things about him. His
memories of traveling with him, his teachings etc
While talking, he paused and looked at Deoras and said, "Guruji's
teachings were spiritual while yours are practical. Your personality
is
different from him and believe me, at this time, Sangh requires only
such skilful leadership."
His thoughts and his information about Sangh surprised me to no little
extent. During discussions, my young small daughter came there. He took
her in his arms and was playing with her with joy. In a light vein I
said to him, "Remembering your villainous appearance on the screen, she
will get afraid". Looking at me mischievously, he said, "This is an
effort to wipe out that image." .
Meeting was over. But as if after a concert, the music and tunes should
be lingering in the mind, his humble talk, the sanskaars showing
through
it and the greatness of his mind remained echoing in my heart.
Many years passed. Much water had flown under the bridge. Now Amrish
Puri had become a great star. I came to know that his shooting was
going
on nearby. Casually I went to meet him. After telling my name, I gave
the reference of the meeting with Balarao Deoras. Immediately his face
brightened. The full reel of his meeting with Deoras must have passed
before mind. He took my hand with love and again talked a lot with me.
Again all that earnest love surfaced with force. "Yes, there is regret
for not being able to keep in touch with Sangh, but the happiness of
being connected with Sangh will last me the whole of my life," saying
this, he kept his hand on shoulder an said, "Ramesh ji Yoon he dosti
banaye rakhana", (Ramesh ji, continue this friendship please).
Today, my Dost has left me, for ever. My deep homage to this true
artist
who although working in movie line yet maintained his separate
individuality and always kept his flame of love for Sangh aglow in his
heart."
Title: An actor who was happy in being of Sangh
Author: Ramesh Mehta
Publication: 'Vivek' Marathi Weekly
Date: January 23, 05
I still remember that day when I met Amarish Puri. Very few people know
that when Amarish Puri was in Simla, he was a Sangh Swayamsevak and he
was taking training in Officer's Training Camp (OTC). The time was when
Balarao Deoras (Third Sarsanghchalak) was camping in my house for a few
days. Amrish Puri was striving to get stabilized in the movie industry.
He expressed his desire to meet Deoras to our friend Dr Ramesh
Gandotra.
Dr gave him my telephone number. After two days, my phone rang,
"Namaste, mai Amrish Puri am speaking". Same resonant and weighty
voice.
The meeting was fixed at our residence and he came to our house even
though he had a hectic shooting schedule.
A robust, strapping personality with superb height, calm but resolute
face. He joined his hand in Namaskar to Balasaheb Deoras and sat on
ground only. Deoras and we all requested him to sit on the Sofa, but he
quickly said, "Nahi, Nahi, mai yahaan Charano me hi theek hoon!" (No,
no, I am all right here at the feet only.)" With this single sentence,
the humility of this great artist was easily apparent. We had a long
discussion on various matters.
Saying "I am proud that when I was in Simla, I had taken the training
in
the OTC,' he was lost in the old memory lane. "I will never forget the
principles and teachings of Sangh", he said and he chatted on many
subjects like politics, social matters, art, cinema, music to heart's
content. While talking about Sangh, Param Poojya Guruji's mention was
inevitable. While talking about Guruji, his respect for him poured
through his tone. He kept on talking on many things about him. His
memories of traveling with him, his teachings etc
While talking, he paused and looked at Deoras and said, "Guruji's
teachings were spiritual while yours are practical. Your personality
is
different from him and believe me, at this time, Sangh requires only
such skilful leadership."
His thoughts and his information about Sangh surprised me to no little
extent. During discussions, my young small daughter came there. He took
her in his arms and was playing with her with joy. In a light vein I
said to him, "Remembering your villainous appearance on the screen, she
will get afraid". Looking at me mischievously, he said, "This is an
effort to wipe out that image." .
Meeting was over. But as if after a concert, the music and tunes should
be lingering in the mind, his humble talk, the sanskaars showing
through
it and the greatness of his mind remained echoing in my heart.
Many years passed. Much water had flown under the bridge. Now Amrish
Puri had become a great star. I came to know that his shooting was
going
on nearby. Casually I went to meet him. After telling my name, I gave
the reference of the meeting with Balarao Deoras. Immediately his face
brightened. The full reel of his meeting with Deoras must have passed
before mind. He took my hand with love and again talked a lot with me.
Again all that earnest love surfaced with force. "Yes, there is regret
for not being able to keep in touch with Sangh, but the happiness of
being connected with Sangh will last me the whole of my life," saying
this, he kept his hand on shoulder an said, "Ramesh ji Yoon he dosti
banaye rakhana", (Ramesh ji, continue this friendship please).
Today, my Dost has left me, for ever. My deep homage to this true
artist
who although working in movie line yet maintained his separate
individuality and always kept his flame of love for Sangh aglow in his
heart."
Syrian Missile Sale Slots into Secret Russian Air Defense System for Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report
January 24, 2005, 1:34 PM (GMT+02:00)
Damascus to get Russian SA-18 - effective against low-flying craft.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and Syrian president Bashar Assad, who arrived in Moscow Monday, January 24, will sign a $70 million deal for the sale of 20 SA-18 Igla-S batteries mounted on Armored Personnel Carriers. One of the most effective missiles against low-flying aircraft on the market, the SA-18 is manufactured at the Russian KBM factory near Moscow.
The sale culminates intense quiet exchanges conducted by the US Pentagon and State Department with the Kremlin and Russian defense ministry to prevent the sale to Damascus of the shoulder-launched version of the SA-18 for fear it falling into the hands of Iraqi guerrillas and Hizballah terrorists.
Washington accepted the APC-mounted compromise despite Israel’s complaints. Although 20 batteries do not present a major headache for the Israeli air force, their mobility makes them difficult to target and limits the maneuverability of Israeli planes in Syrian airspace as a deterrent to Damascus war or terror initiatives. The Igla-S is also effective against small targets like reconnaissance drones, helicopters and cruise missiles. Missile experts report that when fired against fighter craft an Igla-S has the effectiveness of two missiles fired in a single round – or five missiles when launched against a cruise missile.
This is Syria’s second important arms purchase in recent months. DEBKAfile’s military sources were first report its acquisition in East Europe of Kornet AT-14 anti-tank missiles. This purchase provoked a warning from Washington that if this weapon should turn up in Iraq or Lebanon, America will be free to take military action.
DEBKAfile’s military sources now reveal that the Syrian missile sale is integral to the Kremlin’s new, broad strategic initiative that encompasses secret military assistance to Tehran as well as its overt deals with Damascus. Moscow’s objective is partly to secure its investment in Iran’s nuclear center at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf against the fate of the Saddam Hussein’s French-built Tamuz nuclear center which the Israeli air force bombed out existence 24 years ago.
In the second week of January, Russian defense minister Sergey Ivanov spent five days in Washington setting up the February 24 summit meeting between Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin in the Slovak capital of Bratislava.
That same week, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 189 revealed that Russian experts from the Raduga OKB engineering group in Dubna near Moscow had just completed the installation of two advanced radar systems around the Bushehr nuclear reactor on the Persian Gulf.
These improved mobile 36D6 systems, Western codenamed Tin Shield, were custom-made to upgrade the air defense radar protecting Iran’s key nuclear facilities from American or Israeli aerial, missile or cruise missile attack.
If that was all, it might have passed without too great a hullabaloo.
However, the fat hit the fire when the Russians were discovered to be building the same system at Iran’s uranium enrichment plants for military purposes in Isfahan in central Iran. It was taken to mean that Moscow has undertaken to secure all of Iran’s nuclear industry from top to bottom – from the installation of sophisticated equipment to military planning and operational cooperation - against American or Israeli attack. Moscow has thus placed a serious impediment in the path of any American and Israel military action to curb Iran’s nuclear armament. This Russian-Iranian cooperation looks like the harbinger of geo-strategic understandings in other places like Afghanistan, India, Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
Already, the Russian military umbrella over Iran is emitting diplomatic signals.
And that is not all.
On January 12, the day Russian radar was finally installed at Bushehr and Isfahan, the Kremlin leaked word of a large-scale arms deal afoot with Syria for the delivery of advanced SS-26 road-mobile Iskander-E surface missiles - successor to the Scud, whose 480-kilo multiple warhead can dodge air defense radar systems and electronic jamming - as well as surface-to-air SA-10 (“Grumble”) and SA-18 (“Grouse”) shoulder-launched missiles.
The first can engage several targets at varying altitudes simultaneously including raiding aircraft and cruise or tactical missiles. The SA-18 is an improved version of the Strela with a 2-kilo high-explosive warhead fitted with a contact and grazing fuse, aerodynamic improvements, extended effective range and greater speed. The SA-18 has a maximum range of 5.2 km and maximum altitude of 3.5 km.
Sale of this missile package was not expected to go through in its entirety - certainly not the Iskander. The shoulder-launched version of the SA-18 was deemed too flagrant a provocation for Washington to tolerate in view of its applications for Iraqi insurgents and Hizballah terrorists. The leak was therefore intended as a partial red herring to camouflage Moscow’s real plans.
What really worries Washington and Jerusalem is the possibility of Assad and Putin putting their heads together on the same 36D6 radar system Moscow has supplied Iran.
Our military sources describe the Tin Shield 36D6 as a mobile radar system designed to detect air targets and perform friend-or-foe identification. It is highly effective in detecting low, medium and high altitude targets moving at almost any speed, including winged missiles and American or Israeli cruise missiles. It is capable of providing the target and bearing of active jamming, as well as integrated computer-aided systems of control and guidance of anti-aircraft missile complexes.
Tin Shield can operate independently as an observation and air detection post, as part of computer-aided control systems or as an element in an anti-air guided missile complex, where it carries out reconnaissance and targeting.
If Syria gets this sophisticated system, a Russian-coordinated Iranian-Syrian-Lebanese radar barrier will rise with three serious consequences that go beyond the balance of strength in the Middle East:
1. The 36D6 radar system deployment, if acquired by Syria as well Iran, will confine US aerial operations in Iraq to a narrow corridor hemmed in by sophisticated Russian radar and reconnaissance systems.
2. Its deployment at nuclear sites in northern Iran near the Afghan border will obstruct any American air operation mounted from the north against Iran from Afghan bases, while the Russian radar system’s presence in Syria will hinder an American or Israeli strike against Iran from the west.
3. Moscow’s military backing for Iran and Syria is tantamount to sympathy for their diplomatic postures and extends to their sponsorship of Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist organizations. First overt indications of Moscow’s new direction surfaced in an official Russian foreign ministry denunciation last week, the first since the 1990s, of the American threat of new sanctions against Syria for sponsoring “freedom fighters” – Syria’s term for Palestinian terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Jihad Islami.
How far the Kremlin intends to take its new policy thrust in the Middle East will become clearer after the Assad-Putin talks in Moscow this week and the Putin-Bush Bratislava summit in a month.
Iraqi Poll’s Winners and Losers - According to US Forecast
From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 190 Updated by DEBKAfile
January 27, 2005, 11:44 AM (GMT+02:00)
Islamic law - but no theocracy
Wednesday was the single most deadly day for US forces in Iraq ; 36 servicemen died – 31 in a helicopter crash and five in anti-insurgent operations at trouble spots. At least 25 Iraqis were also killed in insurgent attacks on party offices and police centers. In counter-strikes, US troops uncovered a round dozen bomb cars In the northern city of Mosul rigged ready for detonation on election-day in three days time. US troops also raided Hit in Anbar Province, where many followers of al Qaeda’s Iraq commander, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, went to ground in flight from Fallujah.
Despite the Iraqi Sunni boycott, al-Zarqawi’s imprecations against the general election, and the unprecedented level of bloodletting, an certain number of the 40,000 polling stations across the country will almost certainly open on time Sunday, January 30.
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That was one of the starting points on which Gregory Hooker, chief analyst of CENTCOM, the American command running the war in Iraq, presupposed his detailed forecast of election results.
This forecast, commissioned by CENTOM commander General John Abizaid, was first revealed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 190 on January 21.
The second premise was that orderly vote-counting would likewise take place notwithstanding threats of sabotage.
The Hooker forecast is essentially a simulation exercise based on US and Iraqi intelligence data gathered in the last six months, together with estimates of opinion openly canvassed in towns up and down the country.
The level of participation and the results of this pivotal election will bear strongly on the Bush administration’s second term Iraq policy, the tasks facing US armed forces, the chances of the elected national assembly taking up its responsibilities, including the drafting of a new national constitution, and the prospects of an elected government exercising authority.
• Altogether 111 political entities – parties, individuals or coalitions – are running for the 275 National Assembly seats.
• A total of 7,785 candidates are registered on the national ballot
• Eligible voters in Iraq: 14.27 million
• Eligible voters outside Iraq: 1.2 – 2 million (only one-quarter of whom registered).
• More than 130 lists were submitted by the December 15, 2004 deadline for registration. Nine were multi-party coalition blocs while 102 were lists presented by single Iraqi parties.
• There are two major political blocs – Shiite and Kurdish:
The Shiite Unified Iraqi Alliance list submitted 228 candidates representing 16 Iraqi political groups including the dominant Shiite factions. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq – SCIRI, heads this list, followed by Ibrahim Al-Jafari, head of the al-Dawa Party.
• The two Kurdish parties headed by Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani decided to run together on the Kurdish list.
• Both the Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi and Iraqi president Ghazi al-Yawar submitted their own lists of candidates. Allawi’s party, the Iraqi National Accord – INC, submitted a 240-candidate coalition, while al-Yawar leads an 80-member slate representing the Iraqi Grouping.
Projected Results
For elections held now, Hooker projects the following figures:
The Shiite Unified Iraqi Alliance list – 43.8% = 120 national assembly seats.
The Kurdish list – a surprising 36.4% (more than twice their 16-18% proportion of the general population) = 100 seats.
The Iraqi National Accord – 8.1% = 22 seats. (A formula is being actively sought to retain him as premier even if his showing is low.)
The Iraqi Communist party (the best organized) – 1.6% = 5 seats.
All the Assyrian, Turkomen and Yazdi minorities together – 4 seats.
All the rest – 5 seats.
The first conclusion reached by our analysts is that, while the leading Shiite UIA bloc can expect to be the big winner of the election, the real victor will be the Shiite cleric who assembled and founded the alliance, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and his inner circle. The slate he drew up of candidates to the legislature reflects his political aspirations and cunning: of the 120 registered, the first 60 are independents with no parties behind them and will therefore be totally dependent on Sistani himself for support.
Al-Hakim’s SCIRI will get no more than 14 assembly seats, while al-Jafari’s al Dawa must be content with 12. The former rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr’s following will match al Dawa with 12 places in the legislature
The slate he assembled also pushes pro-Tehran and Iran’s chosen men down to the unrealistic bottom.
Sistani wants to see non-clerical ministers in the post-election government but will insist on incorporating Islamic law as the basis of the national constitution.
The Kurds owe their projected big win to three prime causes:
1. The union of the two principal lists, which will help them carry districts in which each faction is fragmentary, like Iraq’s second largest town of Mosul and certain quarters of Baghdad.
2. Major concessions by Sistani in Kirkuk, where he endorsed the transfer of tens of thousands of Kurdish voters into the city. Quietly underway at this moment is the largest demographic transformation in Iraq since the war began, an abrupt reversal of the population displacement conducted by Saddam Hussein. Sunni families are being pushed out of Kirkuk to the Sunni Triangle and replaced by incoming Kurds. Turkomen, Assyrians and Yazdis gnash their teeth but have not the power to interfere in the Kurdish takeover of the mixed city.
3. Another key Sistani concession was his consent to local elections taking place in Kurdish regions for a Kurdish national assembly at the same time as the general election. In return, the Kurdish leaders have granted Sistani a powerful tool of government, a promise to join his Unified Iraqi Bloc in a coalition administration.
The Shiite cleric has little to fear from this alliance. He knows the Kurds are only interested in expanding their own self-government and will therefore not muscle in on the central administration with power-sharing demands. Their backing, however, provides insurance for stable Shiite-dominated government in the long term.
The Sunni Muslim minority can hardly be expected to sit still as the Shiites and Kurds split up the post-war spoils of power.
Wounds of 1984 massacre are still ripe
Indira Gandhi's assassination prompted genocide. Two decades on justice
still hasn't been done
By Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi
"Fifteen years old. Round chubby face. Aching black eyes. She stumbled
out of the first rescue bus. The torment she had endured for 36 hours
surged out when she saw us, 'Meri izzat loot li' (they raped me), she
cried out, she pulled away the loose crumpled kurta from her shoulders to
reveal a gash from her left collarbone to right breast, covered with
dried blood, ' Dekho, dekho kya kiya unhone mere saath ' (see, see what
they did to me?)". So wrote Sheela Barse after witnessing the plight of
Sikh victims of the 1984 Delhi massacre. Within thirty six hours of Oct
31, 1984, when India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead, 3000
Sikhs were killed. There was also widespread rape, arson and looting
during the proverbial first genocide of independent India.
"Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated by the forces of Sikh extremism," writes
Shashi Tharoor, Indian representative at UN High Commission for
Refugees in the book, India from Midnight to Millennium . He writes further,
".forces she had herself primed. In 1977 the Congress party, had been
ousted in Punjab by the Sikh Akali Dal Party, an ally of Janta Party; Mrs
Gandhi typically decided to undermine them by opponents more Sikh than
Akalis. So she encouraged (and reportedly even financed) the extremist
fundamentalism of Sikh preacher, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
Bhindranwale soon tired of assassinating clean-shaven Sikhs for their
apostasy and instead took up the cause of independent Sikh State,
Khalistan. As the murders mounted Mrs Gandhi had little choice but to destroy
the monster she had herself spawned and she finally violated a basic
tenet of the Indian state by sending armed troops into a place of
worship, the historic Golden Temple in Amritsar to flush out the terrorists
holed up there. Bhindranwale and his immediate cohorts of gunmen were
killed in operation Bluestar, but so were a member of unarmed civilians
trapped in what was after all, the Sikhs most important place of worship;
great damage, not all of it repairable, was done to the temple itself,
by the time she acted, Mrs Gandhi probably had no choice."
The assault on the Golden Temple deeply alienated many Sikhs whose
patriotism had been unquestionable. The Gandhi family's staunchest ally in
the independent press, the Sikh editor Kushwant Singh, returned his
national honours to the government, and a battalion of Sikhs, the backbone
of the army, mutinied. Mrs Gandhi could not understand the extent to
which so many Sikhs saw Bluestar as a betrayal. She refused to draw the
conclusions her security advisers did, and to her credit, and
misfortune, turned down their recommendations to remove Sikhs from her personal
guards. Two of them, sworn to protect her with their lives, turned their
guns on her.
Indira Gandhi was shot at 9.15 am on Oct 31, 1984. As the news spread
throughout the day on radio and newspapers, crowds gathered outside All
India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) waiting for news. Sikhs,
many of whom were Congress supporters were "as shocked as anyone else"
(Rao, Report to the Nation ). They had little idea of the turmoil to
come.
Meanwhile on the same day, two truckloads of men from nearby villages
assembled at the site. According to Madhu Kishwar, they were armed with
iron rods and lathis and seemed to be organised. Soon the gathering,
including a Congress member who was later implicated for organising riots
in the trans-Yamuna area, was brought to boiling point through speeches
and sloganeering. " Khun Ka Badla, Khun Se Lenge" (blood for blood) was
one of the cries heard. The mob began to attack Sikhs, pulling them out
of vehicles, beating them and setting their turbans on fire. The crowds
began to disperse in various directions, stoning Sikh vehicles as they
went and starting to loot or burn Sikh shops. Even the motorcade of
India's President, Giani Zial Singh, who was a Sikh, was stoned by an
angry mob while he was on his way to AIIMS.
At 5:30pm, "Rajiv Gandhi (son of Indira Gandhi) came out. after having
seen his mother's body," followed by the Minister of State for
Information and Broadcasting, HKL Bhagat. The latter, who has since been
accused by some of playing a part in organising the riots, addressed the
crowds, "what is the point of assembling here?" Virginia Van Dyke wrote, in
Riots and Pogroms , "This reported statement could obviously have
alternate meanings, suggesting either that the crowd had no purpose in
assembling there or that it might have a more useful purpose elsewhere."
On Nov 1, simultaneous riots broke all over Delhi. Mobs were armed with
iron rods, bamboo sticks and litres of kerosene oil mixed with
phosphorous. The rioters were reportedly directed by officials carryings voter
lists, ration cards and school registers, who pointed out Sikh shops
and houses or marked them in some fashion.
Tirlokipuri saw some of the worst atrocities. Around 40-50 Sikh women
were kidnapped and taken to a nearby village. Sikh men pleaded with the
police to rescue the girls but there were inadequate forces and the day
passed. A Sub-Inspector pursued the case, but his senior officers
declined to provide him with vehicles, for fear that they would be burnt!
Indeed the police seemed to be content to look the other way as the riots
continued, and were even accused of being complicit in the violence.
The police were reported to have said to the mob, "We gave you 36
hours. Had we given the Sikhs that much time they would have killed every
Hindu."
Perpetrators of the crimes were rewarded, according to Who are the
guilty? a report published in the journals Peoples Union for Democratic
Rights (PUDR) and Peoples Union for Civil Liberties ( PUCL
http://www.pucl.org). The report openly identifies a current Congress
MP, and a former Congress Trade Union leader, stating that they paid men
involved with Rs 100 and a bottle of liquor.
The communal orgy of violence continued into November 2. Report of the
Citizens Commission gives details regarding the stopping of trains by
crowds in order to murder Sikh passengers. The army was finally called
into the area, only to attest to the countless human bodies squandered
on streets, burnt remains of taxis and trucks with the corpses of their
drivers at their wheels. Nov 3 showed some signs of the violence
abating, particularly in the more central areas. By Nov 4, although violence
continued in some areas, a return to normality was evident.
Rajiv Gandhi, who was sworn in as Prime Minister at 6:50pm on Oct 31,
evaded the question of initiating any inquiry into the massacre. He
callously declared that any inquiry further damage Sikhs, and that the
issues were already dead. However, the government ultimately designated the
Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission on April 26, 1985. The inquiry was
roundly criticized and it was accused of being a cover up exercise.
Manmohan Singh, as leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, extended his
support to the proposal of a fresh inquiry into the Delhi massacre. The
Justice Nanavati Commission was finally installed. This inquiry is still
under way to determine the veracity of 200 First Information Reports
and investigate 3000 Sikh murders. Out of a total of 300 cases in court,
200 are for murder and there have been just nine murder convictions in
19 years.
The wounds of the 1984 massacre are still ripe and many draw parallels
between that episode and the 2002 riots in Gujrat. Many have accused
the governments (Congress in 1984, BJP in 2002) of at the very least not
doing their utmost to protect minorities during these riots. As those
investigating 1984's events continue to prevaricate after two decades,
there seems little hope that justice will ultimately be done.
-Courtesy : The Friday Times
still hasn't been done
By Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi
"Fifteen years old. Round chubby face. Aching black eyes. She stumbled
out of the first rescue bus. The torment she had endured for 36 hours
surged out when she saw us, 'Meri izzat loot li' (they raped me), she
cried out, she pulled away the loose crumpled kurta from her shoulders to
reveal a gash from her left collarbone to right breast, covered with
dried blood, ' Dekho, dekho kya kiya unhone mere saath ' (see, see what
they did to me?)". So wrote Sheela Barse after witnessing the plight of
Sikh victims of the 1984 Delhi massacre. Within thirty six hours of Oct
31, 1984, when India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead, 3000
Sikhs were killed. There was also widespread rape, arson and looting
during the proverbial first genocide of independent India.
"Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated by the forces of Sikh extremism," writes
Shashi Tharoor, Indian representative at UN High Commission for
Refugees in the book, India from Midnight to Millennium . He writes further,
".forces she had herself primed. In 1977 the Congress party, had been
ousted in Punjab by the Sikh Akali Dal Party, an ally of Janta Party; Mrs
Gandhi typically decided to undermine them by opponents more Sikh than
Akalis. So she encouraged (and reportedly even financed) the extremist
fundamentalism of Sikh preacher, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
Bhindranwale soon tired of assassinating clean-shaven Sikhs for their
apostasy and instead took up the cause of independent Sikh State,
Khalistan. As the murders mounted Mrs Gandhi had little choice but to destroy
the monster she had herself spawned and she finally violated a basic
tenet of the Indian state by sending armed troops into a place of
worship, the historic Golden Temple in Amritsar to flush out the terrorists
holed up there. Bhindranwale and his immediate cohorts of gunmen were
killed in operation Bluestar, but so were a member of unarmed civilians
trapped in what was after all, the Sikhs most important place of worship;
great damage, not all of it repairable, was done to the temple itself,
by the time she acted, Mrs Gandhi probably had no choice."
The assault on the Golden Temple deeply alienated many Sikhs whose
patriotism had been unquestionable. The Gandhi family's staunchest ally in
the independent press, the Sikh editor Kushwant Singh, returned his
national honours to the government, and a battalion of Sikhs, the backbone
of the army, mutinied. Mrs Gandhi could not understand the extent to
which so many Sikhs saw Bluestar as a betrayal. She refused to draw the
conclusions her security advisers did, and to her credit, and
misfortune, turned down their recommendations to remove Sikhs from her personal
guards. Two of them, sworn to protect her with their lives, turned their
guns on her.
Indira Gandhi was shot at 9.15 am on Oct 31, 1984. As the news spread
throughout the day on radio and newspapers, crowds gathered outside All
India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) waiting for news. Sikhs,
many of whom were Congress supporters were "as shocked as anyone else"
(Rao, Report to the Nation ). They had little idea of the turmoil to
come.
Meanwhile on the same day, two truckloads of men from nearby villages
assembled at the site. According to Madhu Kishwar, they were armed with
iron rods and lathis and seemed to be organised. Soon the gathering,
including a Congress member who was later implicated for organising riots
in the trans-Yamuna area, was brought to boiling point through speeches
and sloganeering. " Khun Ka Badla, Khun Se Lenge" (blood for blood) was
one of the cries heard. The mob began to attack Sikhs, pulling them out
of vehicles, beating them and setting their turbans on fire. The crowds
began to disperse in various directions, stoning Sikh vehicles as they
went and starting to loot or burn Sikh shops. Even the motorcade of
India's President, Giani Zial Singh, who was a Sikh, was stoned by an
angry mob while he was on his way to AIIMS.
At 5:30pm, "Rajiv Gandhi (son of Indira Gandhi) came out. after having
seen his mother's body," followed by the Minister of State for
Information and Broadcasting, HKL Bhagat. The latter, who has since been
accused by some of playing a part in organising the riots, addressed the
crowds, "what is the point of assembling here?" Virginia Van Dyke wrote, in
Riots and Pogroms , "This reported statement could obviously have
alternate meanings, suggesting either that the crowd had no purpose in
assembling there or that it might have a more useful purpose elsewhere."
On Nov 1, simultaneous riots broke all over Delhi. Mobs were armed with
iron rods, bamboo sticks and litres of kerosene oil mixed with
phosphorous. The rioters were reportedly directed by officials carryings voter
lists, ration cards and school registers, who pointed out Sikh shops
and houses or marked them in some fashion.
Tirlokipuri saw some of the worst atrocities. Around 40-50 Sikh women
were kidnapped and taken to a nearby village. Sikh men pleaded with the
police to rescue the girls but there were inadequate forces and the day
passed. A Sub-Inspector pursued the case, but his senior officers
declined to provide him with vehicles, for fear that they would be burnt!
Indeed the police seemed to be content to look the other way as the riots
continued, and were even accused of being complicit in the violence.
The police were reported to have said to the mob, "We gave you 36
hours. Had we given the Sikhs that much time they would have killed every
Hindu."
Perpetrators of the crimes were rewarded, according to Who are the
guilty? a report published in the journals Peoples Union for Democratic
Rights (PUDR) and Peoples Union for Civil Liberties ( PUCL
http://www.pucl.org). The report openly identifies a current Congress
MP, and a former Congress Trade Union leader, stating that they paid men
involved with Rs 100 and a bottle of liquor.
The communal orgy of violence continued into November 2. Report of the
Citizens Commission gives details regarding the stopping of trains by
crowds in order to murder Sikh passengers. The army was finally called
into the area, only to attest to the countless human bodies squandered
on streets, burnt remains of taxis and trucks with the corpses of their
drivers at their wheels. Nov 3 showed some signs of the violence
abating, particularly in the more central areas. By Nov 4, although violence
continued in some areas, a return to normality was evident.
Rajiv Gandhi, who was sworn in as Prime Minister at 6:50pm on Oct 31,
evaded the question of initiating any inquiry into the massacre. He
callously declared that any inquiry further damage Sikhs, and that the
issues were already dead. However, the government ultimately designated the
Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission on April 26, 1985. The inquiry was
roundly criticized and it was accused of being a cover up exercise.
Manmohan Singh, as leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, extended his
support to the proposal of a fresh inquiry into the Delhi massacre. The
Justice Nanavati Commission was finally installed. This inquiry is still
under way to determine the veracity of 200 First Information Reports
and investigate 3000 Sikh murders. Out of a total of 300 cases in court,
200 are for murder and there have been just nine murder convictions in
19 years.
The wounds of the 1984 massacre are still ripe and many draw parallels
between that episode and the 2002 riots in Gujrat. Many have accused
the governments (Congress in 1984, BJP in 2002) of at the very least not
doing their utmost to protect minorities during these riots. As those
investigating 1984's events continue to prevaricate after two decades,
there seems little hope that justice will ultimately be done.
-Courtesy : The Friday Times
Islamic party criticises Mush for telephoning Rice
Islamic party criticises Mush for telephoning Rice
PTI[ FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2005 09:40:33 PM ]
Sign into earnIndiatimes points
ISLAMABAD: Taking strong exception to President Pervez Musharraf calling new US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over phone to congratulate her, Pakistan's main opposition party on Friday said he has not only violated international protocol but also disgraced the country.
"Our rulers have assumed such proportion of flatterers that they do not care for the country's dignity," deputy chief of hardline Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Khurshid Ahmed said, reacting to Musharraf's telephone conversation with Rice.
By calling the Secretary of state, he said, "President Musharraf has also violated international standard of protocol."
"The foreign minister should have called his American counterpart instead of President Musharraf," the Jamaat leader said.
"It is very surprising that the President receives any low-level American guests when he or she visits Pakistan," he said.
During the telephone conversation last night, Musharraf congratulated Rice on her appointment and discussed Pakistan-US relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest, media reports said.
----------------------------
BELOW IS FROM PAKISTANI URDU PRESS
------------------------------
Jasarat, November 18, 2004
Rice—a ‘snake’ that will keep on biting the Muslims
Shahnawaz Farooqi
‘Condy Rice is a ‘snake’ that believes in
engulfing the enemy. Her name resembles
with a specie of snakes i.e. anaconda. She
thinks that the US is such a big power that it
should stop intimidating the smaller power
and simply erase them from the map of the
earth. She is the mother of the doctrine of
aggression that the US is currently following.
Following this doctrine, the US has eaten up
Afghanistan and Iraq like an anaconda—
Rice’s brother.’
‘Colin Powell was also a ‘snake’. His poison
was touching its last limits that is why he
was discarded and Rice was brought on
board. Rice is suffering from inferiority
complex. She is a black and she wants to
prove her a ‘white’ through her hard work.
That hard work is in the form of enmity with
the Muslims. She is far ahead than Bush in
enmity with Islam.’
‘Rice is a natural extremist. She is
unmarried and that is one evidence of her
extremism. Some people think that Bush will
learn from his mistakes during his second
term. But he has domesticated a ‘snake’ in
the form of Rice that will keep on biting the
Muslims.’
PTI[ FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2005 09:40:33 PM ]
Sign into earnIndiatimes points
ISLAMABAD: Taking strong exception to President Pervez Musharraf calling new US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over phone to congratulate her, Pakistan's main opposition party on Friday said he has not only violated international protocol but also disgraced the country.
"Our rulers have assumed such proportion of flatterers that they do not care for the country's dignity," deputy chief of hardline Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Khurshid Ahmed said, reacting to Musharraf's telephone conversation with Rice.
By calling the Secretary of state, he said, "President Musharraf has also violated international standard of protocol."
"The foreign minister should have called his American counterpart instead of President Musharraf," the Jamaat leader said.
"It is very surprising that the President receives any low-level American guests when he or she visits Pakistan," he said.
During the telephone conversation last night, Musharraf congratulated Rice on her appointment and discussed Pakistan-US relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest, media reports said.
----------------------------
BELOW IS FROM PAKISTANI URDU PRESS
------------------------------
Jasarat, November 18, 2004
Rice—a ‘snake’ that will keep on biting the Muslims
Shahnawaz Farooqi
‘Condy Rice is a ‘snake’ that believes in
engulfing the enemy. Her name resembles
with a specie of snakes i.e. anaconda. She
thinks that the US is such a big power that it
should stop intimidating the smaller power
and simply erase them from the map of the
earth. She is the mother of the doctrine of
aggression that the US is currently following.
Following this doctrine, the US has eaten up
Afghanistan and Iraq like an anaconda—
Rice’s brother.’
‘Colin Powell was also a ‘snake’. His poison
was touching its last limits that is why he
was discarded and Rice was brought on
board. Rice is suffering from inferiority
complex. She is a black and she wants to
prove her a ‘white’ through her hard work.
That hard work is in the form of enmity with
the Muslims. She is far ahead than Bush in
enmity with Islam.’
‘Rice is a natural extremist. She is
unmarried and that is one evidence of her
extremism. Some people think that Bush will
learn from his mistakes during his second
term. But he has domesticated a ‘snake’ in
the form of Rice that will keep on biting the
Muslims.’
Nuggets from the Pakistan Urdu press
Al Zawahiri in Pakistan?
According to daily Insaf, Aiman al Zawahiri the mastermind of Al Qaeda and number two after Osama bin Laden could be located in Pakistan, either in Sindh or Balochistan in the protection of some sardar. Other members of Al Qaeda who have made their way into Pakistan have come down from North Waziristan and have been hiding in Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan. These members of Al Qaeda are as follows: Ali bin Muhammad Askar (Sudan), Matlab al Sabah (Saudi) Basir Tankati (Egypt), Muhammad Aziz (Kuwait), Muhammad Saleh bin Musa (Yemen), Muhammad Aniq al Basit (Egypt), Abu Talha (Egypt), Abdul Sabhan Asiri (Saudi), Abdul Ali bin Hisham (Saudi), Abu Salman Musa (Syria), Abdur Rehman Didan (Yemen), Muhammad Abdul Basit (Egypt), and Ahmad Abdul Alim Jafari (Egypt). The paper quoted Arab sources.
Altaf Hussain and MMA
According to daily Insaf MQM chief Altaf Hussain spoke on the phone to an audience at the Lahore Press Club and said he was not ghaddar (traitor) and that if the MMA wanted to agitate against Musharraf it should first leave the government in Balochistan and the NWFP. He kept pronouncing MMA as mamma (breast). Daily Nawa-e-Waqt reported Altaf Hussain as saying that 60 percent of the government was military. He said generals became feudal landlords after retirement. He said in 1965 India did not attack but Pak army did and was defeated. At Kargil it suffered another defeat and was too scared to collect its own dead bodies.
Bangladesh hates India
Writing in Khabrain, Kuldip Nayar said that anti-India feeling was high in Bangladesh and it started when founder Sheikh Mujib was still in power. When he talked to him Mujib said that Bangladeshis were grateful but the anti-India feeling was being created by spiteful rumours. In Bangladesh most people thought that rice was being smuggled to Calcutta. Later BNP of Khaleda Zia decided to join up with Jamaat Islami in order to gain street power. Now there is violence in the name of religion and religion is used to make people anti-Hindu and anti-India. One person who has written a book on why the Hindus were running away was now under threat from terrorists who had returned from Afghanistan and were spearheading the BNP’s new policy.
‘We want to destroy Aga Khan Foundation’
According to Nawa-e-Waqt the men who destroyed the Aga Khan Service Centre in Chitral were caught. They turned out to be members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (earlier reported as members of Harkatul Mujahideen whose leader Fazlur Rehman Khaleel had just been released from prison). The two arrested terrorists said they wanted to end the work of Aga Khan Foundation in Chitral. Photos of Osama bin Laden and Afghan Jihad were found in their custody.
Where charity ends up
Daily Jang reported that charity funds disbursed for calamity stricken areas usually went into the wrong pockets. After the 1973 floods, Swedish matches, cooking oil and blankets were sold in the market. Similarly calamity funds after floods in Mekran were disbursed to local government supporters and voters of the government in Mekran. After the tsunami, charity funds going to the area will see new luxury houses coming up in countries from Indonesia to Somalia.
No friendship with Hindus and Jews
Former teacher of journalism Mr AR Khalid stated in Nawa-e-Waqt that in Islam the only enlightenment and roshan khayali was the way Allah had shown under which there was no good in befriending Jews and Hindus. No other madadgar (helper) and raziq (giver of food) was to be accepted save Allah. And the world would have to be considered a temporary abode.
PIA completely bans uplift of only Sindhi newspapers
PIA completely bans uplift of only Sindhi newspapers due to so-called "economy"; purchase of Urdu & English papers continue
KARACHI: [Sindh Today Report] PIA - the national airlines of Pakistan which was purchasing Sindhi newspapers for uplift for more than last 35 years, has discontinued only Sindhi newspapers in the name of so-called "economy measures" from Jan 15, 2005
KARACHI: [Sindh Today Report] PIA - the national airlines of Pakistan which was purchasing Sindhi newspapers for uplift for more than last 35 years, has discontinued only Sindhi newspapers in the name of so-called "economy measures" from Jan 15, 2005
Pakistanis 'buy' citizenship in J&K
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1217945,001300430001.htm
Indo-Asian News Service
Jammu, January 28, 2005|13:38 IST
At least half a dozen cases of Pakistanis surreptitiously acquiring Indian
citizenship in Jammu and Kashmir have come to light in the border district
of Poonch, officials said in Jammu.
These people entered India via the Wagah border post in Punjab using
Pakistani passports and then travelled to Kashmir, where they obtained fake
Permanent Resident Certificates and purchased land to establish themselves
as permanent residents of the state.
The cases detected so far are all in Mendhar town of Poonch district, the
officials said.
Mendhar is a strategic town close to the Line of Control (LoC) and one of
the major routes used by terrorists sneaking across the ceasefire line from
Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The efforts of the Pakistanis to blend with the local population were
highlighted by a man named Lal Din, who wrote a letter to the external
affairs ministry. Subsequent inquiries by revenue officials in Kashmir
unearthed the truth.
Lal Din acted after Zulfikar, son of Faker Din, who had crossed over to
India and settled in Salwa village of Poonch, entered the fray in the
parliamentary elections last year.
Acting on the basis of a probe by the field staff of the sub- divisional
magistrate of Mendhar and the deputy commissioner of Poonch, Jammu's
Divisional Commissioner BR Sharma ordered the cancellation of the Permanent
Resident Certificates of Zulfikar and his family members in December.
Officials now believe there might be more such cases that are not known to
the local administration.
Indo-Asian News Service
Jammu, January 28, 2005|13:38 IST
At least half a dozen cases of Pakistanis surreptitiously acquiring Indian
citizenship in Jammu and Kashmir have come to light in the border district
of Poonch, officials said in Jammu.
These people entered India via the Wagah border post in Punjab using
Pakistani passports and then travelled to Kashmir, where they obtained fake
Permanent Resident Certificates and purchased land to establish themselves
as permanent residents of the state.
The cases detected so far are all in Mendhar town of Poonch district, the
officials said.
Mendhar is a strategic town close to the Line of Control (LoC) and one of
the major routes used by terrorists sneaking across the ceasefire line from
Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The efforts of the Pakistanis to blend with the local population were
highlighted by a man named Lal Din, who wrote a letter to the external
affairs ministry. Subsequent inquiries by revenue officials in Kashmir
unearthed the truth.
Lal Din acted after Zulfikar, son of Faker Din, who had crossed over to
India and settled in Salwa village of Poonch, entered the fray in the
parliamentary elections last year.
Acting on the basis of a probe by the field staff of the sub- divisional
magistrate of Mendhar and the deputy commissioner of Poonch, Jammu's
Divisional Commissioner BR Sharma ordered the cancellation of the Permanent
Resident Certificates of Zulfikar and his family members in December.
Officials now believe there might be more such cases that are not known to
the local administration.
January 27, 2005
A case for strengthening Union Govt.
Constitutional challenges of federalism
Let us transform our institutions of governance before the Republic’s 60th anniversary
JAYAPRAKASH NARAYAN
Posted online: Friday, January 28, 2005 at 0000 hours IST
We have completed 55 years as a republic and this is a good time to introspect. With great expectation, the members of the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on November 26, 1949, and the new republic came into existence on January 26, 1950. It was an extraordinary occasion.
The United States was the first republic in the modern world. With the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the American colonies rejected British rule. In the ensuing War of Independence, the American forces won. But the task of uniting the 13 independent states remained unfinished. In 1787, the Continental Congress met to deliberate on the future Constitution. Two viewpoints prevailed. The Republicans favoured popular sovereignty and supremacy of the states. The Federalists favoured a strong federal government. A compromise was made and the Constitution approved in 1789. The American Constitution was the first written one.
The early years of the republic were turbulent. For nearly a decade, the Republican group, led by Jefferson and Madison, and the Federalist faction, led by Hamilton and Adams, were at loggerheads, and the issue of slavery was deliberately kept aside to win the support of the southern states.
Finally, the Republicans vanquished the Federalists in the 1800 elections in which Jefferson was elected President. The Republicans embraced the Federalist ideology in part, even as the states’ rights were protected. The issue of slavery was not resolved until the civil war in the 1860s. But the promise of true liberty was denied to women and Blacks for many more decades. Women obtained the right to vote in the 1920s. While Black males got the right to vote after the civil war, it became real for the Afro-Americans in the south only in the 1960s, after the civil rights movement. The promise took over 180 years to be fulfilled.
The Indian Constitution is radical and revolutionary in comparison. At one stroke, all citizens got the right to vote. In a display of idealism, and faith in our people, our freedom fighters embarked on universal adult franchise, and embraced the republican principle. The new Constitution was not approved by the Governor General, the notional head of state. By deliberate decision, it was signed by the members of the Constituent Assembly. As the preamble declares, “We, the People,” have given unto ourselves the Constitution.
The Constituent Assembly, and the drafting committee under Babasaheb Ambedkar’s visionary chairmanship, gave a remarkable document of self-governance. And the indomitable Sardar Patel integrated over 500 princely states into the Indian Union. With the exception of Hyderabad, not a bullet was fired. Given our history, there was no serious debate about the rights of states. The Congress had visualised a decentralised, state-centred republic. But in the partition’s aftermath, fears of fragmentation compelled the creation of a strong Union in a quasi-federal state.
• The promise of American Declaration of Independence was fulfilled slowly
• The Indian Constitution is radical and revolutionary in comparison
• Our democratic system is resilient and capable of addressing our crisis
Our quasi-federal democracy has evolved over time into a federal system. It took decades of debate and struggle. And it happened through a combination of three factors. Article 356 is almost a dead letter after the Supreme Court verdict in Bommai case. The Union’s discretion to extend patronage through public sector investment has all but disappeared, thanks to liberalisation. And the compulsions of coalition governments made it impossible to ride roughshod over the states.
Moreover, fair fiscal devolution has put our federalism on sound footing. The practice of treating Union tax revenues as a divisible pool and earmarking a share to states has strengthened them. The Union transfers over 42% of all tax resources to states through the Finance Commission, Planning Commission, and centrally sponsored schemes. With recent initiatives in employment, health and education, it is likely that these transfers will touch 50% —a remarkable accomplishment.
However, the Union’s ability to influence events in states has been reduced excessively. It has no automatic jurisdiction over criminal offences that affect public order or national security. Inter-state trade faces several barriers. The Union armed forces could not intervene to eliminate Veerappan, and the menace continued over two decades. States like Bihar are practically in the medieval era, with organised crime as a growing industry. Politics, violence and crime are inextricably intertwined in many states. Leftwing extremism has taken hold of large regions. In these cases, the Union is helpless. It is paradoxical that the Union has greater influence on events in Nepal, Maldives or Sri Lanka!
We must re-examine these challenges and find viable constitutional mechanisms to address them. Or else, growing regional disparities and lawlessness will pose huge dangers to our economy and national security. Much is wrong with our democracy and politics. Even the working of the Constitution needs to be altered in parts. The fact that we have a hundred amendments shows that we adopted the document in excessive detail. We must also recognise that we have a noble and humane Constitution, which has, mostly, worked satisfactorily. And we have a democratic system, which is resilient and capable of addressing our crisis.
We need to recognise that true transformation is possible only through our efforts. Meanwhile, let us celebrate our Constitution and democracy, which give us the sovereignty, space and opportunity to rejuvenate our republic. If we work sensibly, we can transform our institutions of state, politics and governance before celebrating the republic’s 60th anniversary. A great opportunity beckons us.
The writer is the coordinator of Lok Satta movement, and Janadesh, the National Campaign for Political Reforms
Let us transform our institutions of governance before the Republic’s 60th anniversary
JAYAPRAKASH NARAYAN
Posted online: Friday, January 28, 2005 at 0000 hours IST
We have completed 55 years as a republic and this is a good time to introspect. With great expectation, the members of the Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution on November 26, 1949, and the new republic came into existence on January 26, 1950. It was an extraordinary occasion.
The United States was the first republic in the modern world. With the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the American colonies rejected British rule. In the ensuing War of Independence, the American forces won. But the task of uniting the 13 independent states remained unfinished. In 1787, the Continental Congress met to deliberate on the future Constitution. Two viewpoints prevailed. The Republicans favoured popular sovereignty and supremacy of the states. The Federalists favoured a strong federal government. A compromise was made and the Constitution approved in 1789. The American Constitution was the first written one.
The early years of the republic were turbulent. For nearly a decade, the Republican group, led by Jefferson and Madison, and the Federalist faction, led by Hamilton and Adams, were at loggerheads, and the issue of slavery was deliberately kept aside to win the support of the southern states.
Finally, the Republicans vanquished the Federalists in the 1800 elections in which Jefferson was elected President. The Republicans embraced the Federalist ideology in part, even as the states’ rights were protected. The issue of slavery was not resolved until the civil war in the 1860s. But the promise of true liberty was denied to women and Blacks for many more decades. Women obtained the right to vote in the 1920s. While Black males got the right to vote after the civil war, it became real for the Afro-Americans in the south only in the 1960s, after the civil rights movement. The promise took over 180 years to be fulfilled.
The Indian Constitution is radical and revolutionary in comparison. At one stroke, all citizens got the right to vote. In a display of idealism, and faith in our people, our freedom fighters embarked on universal adult franchise, and embraced the republican principle. The new Constitution was not approved by the Governor General, the notional head of state. By deliberate decision, it was signed by the members of the Constituent Assembly. As the preamble declares, “We, the People,” have given unto ourselves the Constitution.
The Constituent Assembly, and the drafting committee under Babasaheb Ambedkar’s visionary chairmanship, gave a remarkable document of self-governance. And the indomitable Sardar Patel integrated over 500 princely states into the Indian Union. With the exception of Hyderabad, not a bullet was fired. Given our history, there was no serious debate about the rights of states. The Congress had visualised a decentralised, state-centred republic. But in the partition’s aftermath, fears of fragmentation compelled the creation of a strong Union in a quasi-federal state.
• The promise of American Declaration of Independence was fulfilled slowly
• The Indian Constitution is radical and revolutionary in comparison
• Our democratic system is resilient and capable of addressing our crisis
Our quasi-federal democracy has evolved over time into a federal system. It took decades of debate and struggle. And it happened through a combination of three factors. Article 356 is almost a dead letter after the Supreme Court verdict in Bommai case. The Union’s discretion to extend patronage through public sector investment has all but disappeared, thanks to liberalisation. And the compulsions of coalition governments made it impossible to ride roughshod over the states.
Moreover, fair fiscal devolution has put our federalism on sound footing. The practice of treating Union tax revenues as a divisible pool and earmarking a share to states has strengthened them. The Union transfers over 42% of all tax resources to states through the Finance Commission, Planning Commission, and centrally sponsored schemes. With recent initiatives in employment, health and education, it is likely that these transfers will touch 50% —a remarkable accomplishment.
However, the Union’s ability to influence events in states has been reduced excessively. It has no automatic jurisdiction over criminal offences that affect public order or national security. Inter-state trade faces several barriers. The Union armed forces could not intervene to eliminate Veerappan, and the menace continued over two decades. States like Bihar are practically in the medieval era, with organised crime as a growing industry. Politics, violence and crime are inextricably intertwined in many states. Leftwing extremism has taken hold of large regions. In these cases, the Union is helpless. It is paradoxical that the Union has greater influence on events in Nepal, Maldives or Sri Lanka!
We must re-examine these challenges and find viable constitutional mechanisms to address them. Or else, growing regional disparities and lawlessness will pose huge dangers to our economy and national security. Much is wrong with our democracy and politics. Even the working of the Constitution needs to be altered in parts. The fact that we have a hundred amendments shows that we adopted the document in excessive detail. We must also recognise that we have a noble and humane Constitution, which has, mostly, worked satisfactorily. And we have a democratic system, which is resilient and capable of addressing our crisis.
We need to recognise that true transformation is possible only through our efforts. Meanwhile, let us celebrate our Constitution and democracy, which give us the sovereignty, space and opportunity to rejuvenate our republic. If we work sensibly, we can transform our institutions of state, politics and governance before celebrating the republic’s 60th anniversary. A great opportunity beckons us.
The writer is the coordinator of Lok Satta movement, and Janadesh, the National Campaign for Political Reforms
PROBE INTO BENNY HINN'S PROGRAMME AT BANGALORE
PROBE INTO BENNY HINN'S PROGRAMME AT BANGALORE
Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan
Bharatamata Gurukula Ashram &
Yogi Ramsuratkumar Indological Research Centre
Sister Nivedita Academy
'Sri Bharati Mandir', Srinivasanagar, Krishnarajapuram
Bangalore 560 036, INDIA
(Phone: 091-80-5610935 / 5613716; Cell: 9448275315;
e-mail: sadhurangarajan@vsnl.com)
January 25, 2005
On the eve of the three day "Pray for India" gimmick of the American evangelist, Benny Hinn at Jakkur Air Port, when we sadhus and sannyasins representing the Hindu society marched to Vidhan Soudha to record our protest against the State Government allowing such open deception of the public in the name of religion, Mr. M.P. Prakash, the Revenue Minister of Karnataka, assured us that there would not be any quackery, miracle healing or conversion by the evangelist and that he would only perform a prayer.
However, actually thousands of really physically handicapped, crippled and seriously ill people from various parts of Karnataka and even outside were attracted by the leaflets distributed and publicity made by the organizers assuring miraculous cure by the "messenger of Jesus". The newspapers and television media who have covered the three day show have exposed the deception of the organizers by deliberately and forcefully preventing the genuinely crippled and deceased persons from coming anywhere near the stage and presenting on the stage some specially trained volunteers posing themselves as people "miraculously cured" by Benny Hinn's prayer to Jesus.
Heartrending pictures of the deceived and disappointed cripples and diseased people, some of them in wheel chairs, who have come all the way from distant places believing in the propaganda of the organizers and also the credibility given to the show by the Union and State Ministers and high officials in the Government supporting it. The abetment of the cheating by the State Government and the Congress Ministers under the influence of powerful political leadership in the Centre obviously for political purposes and appeasing the minority vote bank has cost very heavily the poor and downtrodden people who are sick and suffering.
The Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court should take cognizance of this trickery and cheating of innocent and gullible people by the evangelist's men and the State Government which has supported this show with the participation of the Chief Minister, many other ministers and high officials giving credence to the Missionary in spite of the fact that even many Christian organizations and the media in America and Europe have denounced the deceptive tricks of the evangelist. Justice demands that those poor and innocent people who came from distant places spending a lot of money and got deceived must be compensated.
Though the evangelist has proclaimed that not a single penny out of the money that the he has collected by this show will go out of the country, it has been handed over not to the State Government or Central Government for relief activities, but to a Christian Missionary organization obviously for proselytization work.
Apart from this, among the thousands who have accompanied the evangelist are the armed American bodyguards who were allowed to move about with their guns in the venue of the prayer function. How could the Government allow such a thing, especially when more than ten thousand police men were dumped at the Jakkur Air Port for the protection of the evangelist and his group? Did the Government make any effort to find out how many among those accompanied the evangelist were genuine bodyguards and how many were CIA agents...
Also, is it legal for foreign nationals to go about armed with firearms?
Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan
Bharatamata Gurukula Ashram &
Yogi Ramsuratkumar Indological Research Centre
Sister Nivedita Academy
'Sri Bharati Mandir', Srinivasanagar, Krishnarajapuram
Bangalore 560 036, INDIA
(Phone: 091-80-5610935 / 5613716; Cell: 9448275315;
e-mail: sadhurangarajan@vsnl.com)
January 25, 2005
On the eve of the three day "Pray for India" gimmick of the American evangelist, Benny Hinn at Jakkur Air Port, when we sadhus and sannyasins representing the Hindu society marched to Vidhan Soudha to record our protest against the State Government allowing such open deception of the public in the name of religion, Mr. M.P. Prakash, the Revenue Minister of Karnataka, assured us that there would not be any quackery, miracle healing or conversion by the evangelist and that he would only perform a prayer.
However, actually thousands of really physically handicapped, crippled and seriously ill people from various parts of Karnataka and even outside were attracted by the leaflets distributed and publicity made by the organizers assuring miraculous cure by the "messenger of Jesus". The newspapers and television media who have covered the three day show have exposed the deception of the organizers by deliberately and forcefully preventing the genuinely crippled and deceased persons from coming anywhere near the stage and presenting on the stage some specially trained volunteers posing themselves as people "miraculously cured" by Benny Hinn's prayer to Jesus.
Heartrending pictures of the deceived and disappointed cripples and diseased people, some of them in wheel chairs, who have come all the way from distant places believing in the propaganda of the organizers and also the credibility given to the show by the Union and State Ministers and high officials in the Government supporting it. The abetment of the cheating by the State Government and the Congress Ministers under the influence of powerful political leadership in the Centre obviously for political purposes and appeasing the minority vote bank has cost very heavily the poor and downtrodden people who are sick and suffering.
The Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court should take cognizance of this trickery and cheating of innocent and gullible people by the evangelist's men and the State Government which has supported this show with the participation of the Chief Minister, many other ministers and high officials giving credence to the Missionary in spite of the fact that even many Christian organizations and the media in America and Europe have denounced the deceptive tricks of the evangelist. Justice demands that those poor and innocent people who came from distant places spending a lot of money and got deceived must be compensated.
Though the evangelist has proclaimed that not a single penny out of the money that the he has collected by this show will go out of the country, it has been handed over not to the State Government or Central Government for relief activities, but to a Christian Missionary organization obviously for proselytization work.
Apart from this, among the thousands who have accompanied the evangelist are the armed American bodyguards who were allowed to move about with their guns in the venue of the prayer function. How could the Government allow such a thing, especially when more than ten thousand police men were dumped at the Jakkur Air Port for the protection of the evangelist and his group? Did the Government make any effort to find out how many among those accompanied the evangelist were genuine bodyguards and how many were CIA agents...
Also, is it legal for foreign nationals to go about armed with firearms?
Another Commie trick to derail IDRF
Watch out guys http://www.idrf.ca/
It's "International Development & Relief Foundation" Seems more like a 'South Asian' outfit. And who do they quote on Kashmir? Arindathi Roy herself http://www.idrf.ca/Where-We-Work/Kashmir-Ehiopia.html !! And don't miss the
reference to 'Azad' Kashmir
It's "International Development & Relief Foundation" Seems more like a 'South Asian' outfit. And who do they quote on Kashmir? Arindathi Roy herself http://www.idrf.ca/Where-We-Work/Kashmir-Ehiopia.html !! And don't miss the
reference to 'Azad' Kashmir
Deterioration of India-Pakistan relations, is it a cause for concern?
LISTEN TO 59 min discussion at Voice of America
________________________________________________
Deterioration of India-Pakistan relations, is it a cause for concern?
27 Jan 2005, 16:29 UTC
59 Min discussion , involving many analysts
1. Sushant Sareen
2. Anupam Srivatsva
and pakis
www1.voanews.com/mediastore/urdu_4_27JAN05.ram
Deterioration of India-Pakistan relations, is it a cause for concern?
________________________________________________
Deterioration of India-Pakistan relations, is it a cause for concern?
27 Jan 2005, 16:29 UTC
59 Min discussion , involving many analysts
1. Sushant Sareen
2. Anupam Srivatsva
and pakis
www1.voanews.com/mediastore/urdu_4_27JAN05.ram
Deterioration of India-Pakistan relations, is it a cause for concern?
Maqbool Bhat, an enigma? Nah, he was just another selfish guy.
Maqbool Bhat, an enigma? Nah, he was just another selfish guy.
By Samvit Rawal (A Kashmiri Pandit writer in exile)
Maqbool was not a freedom fighter as is being made out by his followers. He was a simple selfish man. He neither had the intellect nor the foresight. The fact of the matter is that Maqbool Bhat was an ordinary man who made his money by spying on two different nations. If Yaseer Latif Hamdani had opened history books of the ISI he would have found that Maqbool Bhat was an Indian spy. He was on the rolls of the Indian intelligence services. His main job was to gather information about the troop movement in the Tangdhar, Kishenganga, Kupwara and other sectors.
It was during this time that he was caught by the Pakistani intelligence agencies. They would have crucified him. But Maqbool Bhat was smart, he garnered a deal with the Pakistani agency by working for them. This is where Maqbool Bhat's fate took a turn.
Although he still continued to be on the rolls of the Indian agencies he started working for both, the Indian as well as the Pakistani agencies.
Somehow after a period of time, the counter intelligence department of the Government of India came to know that Maqbool Bhat had double-crossed them. This was discovered by the counter intelligence agent called Amar Chand. One day in the jungles of Baramullah, Amar Chand caught Maqbool Bhat red handed trying to pass on some secret information to the Pakistanis by using sign language. A fight ensued in which Maqbool Bhat shot Amar Chand dead.
Now there was no option left for Maqbool Bhat. By now the Indian intelligence had confirmed evidence that Bhat had double-crossed them. Maqbool Bhat escaped to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. There he came in touch with Amanullah Khan. Both of them made money bigtime among themselves.
After a few years Amanullah Khan left for England where his group JKLF kidnapped the Indian diplomat, Ravinder Mhatre. The plan was that they would kidnap the Indian High Commissioner Ravinder Mhatre and then make the Indian government bend backwards. Unfortunately they did not realise that they were committing the crime on the British soil. The British government did not relent to the demand of JKLF. Mhatre was murdered and the police found evidence leading to Amanullah Khan and Maqbool Bhat. This led to the capital punishment of Bhat. Maqbool Bhat was a product of the Jamiat-i-Islamia. He and his group taught hatred. Initially they were the darlings of the Pakistani ISI but when they talked about an independent Kashmir (which was not in the interest of Pakistan), the ISI started promoting groups like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashker-i-Toiba, Allah Tigers, Zarb-e-Momin and the like. Some of the Afgan mercenaries were also diverted towards Kashmir. This was a hilarious thing since these Afghan "Mujahideens" could not do anything in their own country. Unfortunately for the Kashmiri Muslims who had invited the mercenary guests to fight their war, the Afghans indulged in rapes and molestation of the local women. The Afghans also bought the deadly disease AIDS with them. Now Kashmir valley boasts of a sizeable number of AIDS patients, thanks to the Afghans.
Maqbool Bhat and his cronies in the JKLF were dead against the Kashmiri Pandits just because they did not share their religious beliefs. They murdered the Pandits in cold blood. It is ironical that the Kashmiri Pandits are the original inhabitants of Kashmir Valley. The Moslems of the valley are all converts. The main reason of the terrorism started by Maqbool Bhat was that they wanted to Islamise the whole valley. The process was initiated under General Zia-ul-Haq and was called Operation Topac.
There can only be two solution of the Kashmir problem. One is that it goes back to the 1989 position where the Kashmiri Pandits and the Muslims were living in peace. The second option is that the Indian Kashmir is divided into two parts (both remain with India) but one part will be given to the Pandits where the gun loving Moslems will not be allowed. The second option seems more viable because Kashmiri Moslems have too much Pandit blood on their hands and the Pandits are not willing to forgive.
The war for Kashmir has just started but it will take ages for it to subside. Either the Mulsims will have to learn to live in peace with the pandits or they will have to carve a separate niche for themselves because post 9/11 no one trusts the moslems.
By Samvit Rawal (A Kashmiri Pandit writer in exile)
Maqbool was not a freedom fighter as is being made out by his followers. He was a simple selfish man. He neither had the intellect nor the foresight. The fact of the matter is that Maqbool Bhat was an ordinary man who made his money by spying on two different nations. If Yaseer Latif Hamdani had opened history books of the ISI he would have found that Maqbool Bhat was an Indian spy. He was on the rolls of the Indian intelligence services. His main job was to gather information about the troop movement in the Tangdhar, Kishenganga, Kupwara and other sectors.
It was during this time that he was caught by the Pakistani intelligence agencies. They would have crucified him. But Maqbool Bhat was smart, he garnered a deal with the Pakistani agency by working for them. This is where Maqbool Bhat's fate took a turn.
Although he still continued to be on the rolls of the Indian agencies he started working for both, the Indian as well as the Pakistani agencies.
Somehow after a period of time, the counter intelligence department of the Government of India came to know that Maqbool Bhat had double-crossed them. This was discovered by the counter intelligence agent called Amar Chand. One day in the jungles of Baramullah, Amar Chand caught Maqbool Bhat red handed trying to pass on some secret information to the Pakistanis by using sign language. A fight ensued in which Maqbool Bhat shot Amar Chand dead.
Now there was no option left for Maqbool Bhat. By now the Indian intelligence had confirmed evidence that Bhat had double-crossed them. Maqbool Bhat escaped to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. There he came in touch with Amanullah Khan. Both of them made money bigtime among themselves.
After a few years Amanullah Khan left for England where his group JKLF kidnapped the Indian diplomat, Ravinder Mhatre. The plan was that they would kidnap the Indian High Commissioner Ravinder Mhatre and then make the Indian government bend backwards. Unfortunately they did not realise that they were committing the crime on the British soil. The British government did not relent to the demand of JKLF. Mhatre was murdered and the police found evidence leading to Amanullah Khan and Maqbool Bhat. This led to the capital punishment of Bhat. Maqbool Bhat was a product of the Jamiat-i-Islamia. He and his group taught hatred. Initially they were the darlings of the Pakistani ISI but when they talked about an independent Kashmir (which was not in the interest of Pakistan), the ISI started promoting groups like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashker-i-Toiba, Allah Tigers, Zarb-e-Momin and the like. Some of the Afgan mercenaries were also diverted towards Kashmir. This was a hilarious thing since these Afghan "Mujahideens" could not do anything in their own country. Unfortunately for the Kashmiri Muslims who had invited the mercenary guests to fight their war, the Afghans indulged in rapes and molestation of the local women. The Afghans also bought the deadly disease AIDS with them. Now Kashmir valley boasts of a sizeable number of AIDS patients, thanks to the Afghans.
Maqbool Bhat and his cronies in the JKLF were dead against the Kashmiri Pandits just because they did not share their religious beliefs. They murdered the Pandits in cold blood. It is ironical that the Kashmiri Pandits are the original inhabitants of Kashmir Valley. The Moslems of the valley are all converts. The main reason of the terrorism started by Maqbool Bhat was that they wanted to Islamise the whole valley. The process was initiated under General Zia-ul-Haq and was called Operation Topac.
There can only be two solution of the Kashmir problem. One is that it goes back to the 1989 position where the Kashmiri Pandits and the Muslims were living in peace. The second option is that the Indian Kashmir is divided into two parts (both remain with India) but one part will be given to the Pandits where the gun loving Moslems will not be allowed. The second option seems more viable because Kashmiri Moslems have too much Pandit blood on their hands and the Pandits are not willing to forgive.
The war for Kashmir has just started but it will take ages for it to subside. Either the Mulsims will have to learn to live in peace with the pandits or they will have to carve a separate niche for themselves because post 9/11 no one trusts the moslems.
Time to rethink on internal security : L K Advani
Intelligence agencies fear that discontinuation of the peace process with naxalites may be followed by an escalation in violence as the extremists may have utilised the ceasefire period to regroup and rearm themselves.
"Threat to internal security has increased manifold in the past few months with Naxalite activities on the rise in Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring States , Time has come for the government to have a rethink on the issue of internal security,” said Mr Advani.
“Apart from inspiring fear and terror, recent surge in Naxal attacks has also given rise to a feeling of respect for Naxalites among people, since they seem to be gaining attention with their activities,” the former deputy PM pointed out.
It may be recalled that the Centre had not only hailed the Andhra Pradesh government’s earlier decision to enter into a ceasefire with the PWG but also asked the other states to emulate the peace initiative.
However, with the Andhra-Naxalites ceasefire now falling through, the Centre has opted to stick by the YSR government.
“The Centre’s policy is to leave it to state regime to decide whether to talk of act against the extremists...the Centre will support the states in whatever way they wish to tackle the Naxalite problem,” explained Union home minister Shivraj Patil in a recent interaction with newspersons. (Source : TOI)
"Threat to internal security has increased manifold in the past few months with Naxalite activities on the rise in Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring States , Time has come for the government to have a rethink on the issue of internal security,” said Mr Advani.
“Apart from inspiring fear and terror, recent surge in Naxal attacks has also given rise to a feeling of respect for Naxalites among people, since they seem to be gaining attention with their activities,” the former deputy PM pointed out.
It may be recalled that the Centre had not only hailed the Andhra Pradesh government’s earlier decision to enter into a ceasefire with the PWG but also asked the other states to emulate the peace initiative.
However, with the Andhra-Naxalites ceasefire now falling through, the Centre has opted to stick by the YSR government.
“The Centre’s policy is to leave it to state regime to decide whether to talk of act against the extremists...the Centre will support the states in whatever way they wish to tackle the Naxalite problem,” explained Union home minister Shivraj Patil in a recent interaction with newspersons. (Source : TOI)
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: The Rise and Fall of an Afghan Warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: The Rise and Fall of an Afghan Warlord
By A. Jamali
Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (The Islamic Party of Afghanistan or HIA), which once ranked as the most powerful resistance party in the country, is increasingly sidelined and under pressure from various quarters, including coalition forces and the new Afghan government. Moreover, HIA is having to contend with mass desertions from its rank and file. While some Afghan analysts are often tempted to predict the revival of the old warring elites, as far as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and his party are concerned, this is a most unlikely prospect. Nonetheless, given his charisma, renowned organizational skills and consistent activism over the past three volatile decades, Hekmatyar can not be expected to disappear altogether from the Afghan scene in the foreseeable future.
From the 1980s through the early 1990s, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's HIA received the lion's share of arms and funds that came into Afghanistan from Arab and Western countries. The favorite party of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) among the seven Peshawar-based militant organizations, Hekmatyar became the first Prime Minister after the Peshawar accord because of his Pakistani backing. However, in a long and bitter dispute with his archrival Ahmad Shah Masoud, Hekmatyar's forces targeted the capital with heavy artillery deployed from their bases in southern Afghanistan, thus practically ruining Kabul and killing an estimated 25,000 people, mostly civilians. [1]
Hekmatyar: A Natural Leader in the Making
Born to a Kharuti Pashtun immigrant family in the northern province of Kunduz, Hekmatyar started his political career as a leftist and later became a disciple of Sayyed Qutb and the Ikhwan ul-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) movement, originally established by Hassan al-Bana in Egypt in the 1920s. Although called ‘the Engineer', he never finished his studies in the faculty of engineering. After a violent clash with a pro-Chinese communist group in 1972, he was charged with the death of one of its leaders and imprisoned with two other Islamists.
Following the coup that brought Mohammad Daud to power in 1973, Hekmatyar was released from prison and left the country for Pakistan. President Daud, a champion of Great Pashtunistan, comprising the two contiguous provinces bordering Afghanistan, naturally alarmed the Pakistani ruling elites. With Daud's ascendance to power, the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, then prime minister of Pakistan, moved to counter his moves. Among the measures the Bhutto government implemented was helping Hekmatyar establish an Islamist movement. Pakistan's notorious spy agency, the ISI, seized the opportunity and recruited Hekmatyar, initially using him against the Pashtun irredentist leader Daud and later against the Soviets. It was during the reign of General Zia ul-Haq that the HIA was firmly established as the most organized, powerful and at times the most ruthless of the seven party alliance created and supported by Pakistan.
HIA split in 1979 with the defection of ultra-conservative Maulawi M. Younus Khalis. Although, the septuagenarian mullah took some of the best commanders with him, the HIA wing under Hekmatyar continued to dominate the Afghan resistance, in large measure because of Pakistan's instinctive preference for the charismatic Pashtun leader. In fact the split merely formalized a perennial dichotomy within the HIA; the conservative and traditional clerical wing of the party sided with Khalis and the young and ideologically minded activists remained loyal to Hekmatyar.
Although the HIA faction under Hekmatyar was the most heavily armed, funded and publicized organization of the resistance, it did little of the real fighting against the Soviets. Instead, it was responsible for most of the assassinations, purges and infighting with rival groups and personalities. It ruled and dominated the Afghan scene with intimidation, fear and sheer terror.
Nonetheless, after the withdrawal of the Soviets and the collapse of Dr. Najibullah's regime, Hekmatyar's HIA remained the most powerful and best equipped organization. Hekmatyar and his Pakistani sponsors erroneously anticipated a quick seizure of power by the HIA. However, based on the Jabalurseraj Agreement, thrashed out among Ahmad Shah Masoud of the Tajiks, Abdul Ali Mazari of the Hazaras and Abdur Rashid Dostum of the Uzbeks, the strategic center and garrisons in Kabul were taken over by these three groups. Hekmatyar's forces were left out of the city, and in a futile attempt to reverse this misfortune, HIA forces shelled the city indiscriminately. Hekmatyar never assumed the premiership offered to him as a concession. Instead he delegated it to Ustad Farid, a hitherto little known party apparatchik. Hekmatyar later joined a coordination council (Shora-e-Hamahangi) with Dostum and Mazari against President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his defense minister Masoud.
With Hekmatyar's dream of securing dominance in Afghanistan in tatters, and with the country embroiled in a seemingly intractable fratricidal conflict, Pakistan started to play the Taliban card.
The Rise of the Taliban and Mullah Omar
The Taliban movement was effectively created under the direct supervision of retired general Naseerullah Baber, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's interior minister. The Taliban, under the leadership of the notoriously reclusive Mullah Mohammad Omar, at first tried to secure control over Kandahar. Ironically, the first casualty of their onslaught was a well known Hekmatyar commander named Sarkateb. President Rabbani and Commander Masoud, who were involved in bitter factional war in Kabul with numerous enemies, initially welcomed the Taliban.
The Taliban's advance to the north, east and west of the country seemed unstoppable and one by one the commanders and leaders who had dominated the country for so long fled before them. Ismael Khan, the powerful Emir of the western provinces abandoned his power base in the face of the relentless Taliban advance and fled to Iran; Haji Qadeer, the chairman of the eastern council, likewise fled his base to Peshawar; as the Taliban approached Kabul, Hekmatyar fled his base south of the city, effectively abandoning everything he had built over the years; the Hazara Shia leader Abdul Ali Mazari was captured and tortured to death and President Rabbani and Masoud fled the city to the safety of the north.
Of the two main fighting factions, namely the Iran-backed Shia Hezb-e-Wahdat (Unity Party) of Mazari and Hekmatyar's HIA, the latter suffered the heaviest blows. After the fall of Kabul in September 1996, Wahdat still maintained some forces and bases in the central and northern regions of Afghanistan, but Hekmatyar's once powerful bases in the eastern and southern provinces were completely overrun by the Taliban, their arms and ammunitions confiscated, thus forcing the rank and file to either join the Taliban or desert altogether.
Disheartened by this cataclysmic defeat and disgusted by the betrayal of his erstwhile Pakistani sponsors, Hekmatyar moved to Iran. He remained there until early 2002, when the Iranian government, under pressure from the U.S., was forced to show him the door. Following his expulsion from Iran, there has not been any credible information pointing to his exact whereabouts. According to most sources, Hekmatyar initially went to Pakistan and subsequently moved to eastern and perhaps southern Afghanistan, from where he was allegedly organizing attacks against the U.S. led coalition forces. No major operation has been attributed to him in the region, except an attack in mid 2004 in the northern city of Kunduz in which 11 Chinese workers were killed. [2] However, even that attack was attributed to rivalry between various groups in the north and Hekmatyar himself has vehemently denied his party's involvement in the incident. All the same, he has been declared a wanted terrorist by the U.S.-led coalition forces. Hekmatyar has become a fugitive, like Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden whose cause he has ostensibly embraced.
Nonetheless, in an increasingly desperate and opportunistic gesture, Hekmatyar recently tried to change course and join the American backed Afghan government of President Karzai. Although a delegation of HIA that met with Hamid Karzai in early May in Kabul claimed to have acted on their own initiative, it is very unlikely that they did not receive a green light from the once all-powerful leader. In fact, according to some reports Hekmatyar "provisionally" agreed to a rapprochement with the Karzai government. [3] As yet, nothing has come out of a nine point agreement drawn up last May. In another ominous development, the Iranian government announced recently that it had frozen the accounts of HIA in four Iranian cities. [4]
Conclusion
The status and fortunes of Hekmatyar and his party look increasingly bleak for three reasons. Firstly, HIA no longer has the military muscle to affect events in Afghanistan. Hekmatyar's commanders and fighters have long joined the Taliban or disbanded, save a few hardcore loyalists that cannot regroup due to lack of funds or enthusiasm. Secondly, HIA is politically out of tune with the new trends in Afghanistan. Afghans are tired of war and disillusioned by the hardcore Islamists such as Hekmatyar, Sayyaf, Rabbani and the likes. Thirdly, from a social and cultural perspective, Hekmatyar and his party are notorious for their brutality, extreme Pashtun nationalism and religious zealotry. For most people there is little that separates them from the Taliban. Both promote a brutal and mono-ethnic theocracy that is, broadly speaking, both disliked by native Pashtuns and an anathema to non-Pashtuns. These factors, combined with the presence of U.S. forces in the country, render the possible revival of Hekmatyar and the HIA most unlikely.
Mr. Jamali is a private sector analyst and expert on South Asian political and security issues.
Notes:
1. Pepe Escobar, "The Last Battle, Part I: Exit Osama, Enter Hekmatyar", Asia Times on Line, September 11, 2002.
2. "Mystery Shrouds Killing of 11 Chinese in Afghanistan", Xinhua, June 21, 2004.
3. "Syed Saleem Shahzad, Afghanistan: Hekmatyar Changes Color Again", Asia Times on Line, April 3, 2004.
4. "Iran Freezes Afghan Warlord Hekmatyar Assets", Pakistan Times, December 18, 2004.
By A. Jamali
Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (The Islamic Party of Afghanistan or HIA), which once ranked as the most powerful resistance party in the country, is increasingly sidelined and under pressure from various quarters, including coalition forces and the new Afghan government. Moreover, HIA is having to contend with mass desertions from its rank and file. While some Afghan analysts are often tempted to predict the revival of the old warring elites, as far as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and his party are concerned, this is a most unlikely prospect. Nonetheless, given his charisma, renowned organizational skills and consistent activism over the past three volatile decades, Hekmatyar can not be expected to disappear altogether from the Afghan scene in the foreseeable future.
From the 1980s through the early 1990s, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's HIA received the lion's share of arms and funds that came into Afghanistan from Arab and Western countries. The favorite party of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) among the seven Peshawar-based militant organizations, Hekmatyar became the first Prime Minister after the Peshawar accord because of his Pakistani backing. However, in a long and bitter dispute with his archrival Ahmad Shah Masoud, Hekmatyar's forces targeted the capital with heavy artillery deployed from their bases in southern Afghanistan, thus practically ruining Kabul and killing an estimated 25,000 people, mostly civilians. [1]
Hekmatyar: A Natural Leader in the Making
Born to a Kharuti Pashtun immigrant family in the northern province of Kunduz, Hekmatyar started his political career as a leftist and later became a disciple of Sayyed Qutb and the Ikhwan ul-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) movement, originally established by Hassan al-Bana in Egypt in the 1920s. Although called ‘the Engineer', he never finished his studies in the faculty of engineering. After a violent clash with a pro-Chinese communist group in 1972, he was charged with the death of one of its leaders and imprisoned with two other Islamists.
Following the coup that brought Mohammad Daud to power in 1973, Hekmatyar was released from prison and left the country for Pakistan. President Daud, a champion of Great Pashtunistan, comprising the two contiguous provinces bordering Afghanistan, naturally alarmed the Pakistani ruling elites. With Daud's ascendance to power, the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, then prime minister of Pakistan, moved to counter his moves. Among the measures the Bhutto government implemented was helping Hekmatyar establish an Islamist movement. Pakistan's notorious spy agency, the ISI, seized the opportunity and recruited Hekmatyar, initially using him against the Pashtun irredentist leader Daud and later against the Soviets. It was during the reign of General Zia ul-Haq that the HIA was firmly established as the most organized, powerful and at times the most ruthless of the seven party alliance created and supported by Pakistan.
HIA split in 1979 with the defection of ultra-conservative Maulawi M. Younus Khalis. Although, the septuagenarian mullah took some of the best commanders with him, the HIA wing under Hekmatyar continued to dominate the Afghan resistance, in large measure because of Pakistan's instinctive preference for the charismatic Pashtun leader. In fact the split merely formalized a perennial dichotomy within the HIA; the conservative and traditional clerical wing of the party sided with Khalis and the young and ideologically minded activists remained loyal to Hekmatyar.
Although the HIA faction under Hekmatyar was the most heavily armed, funded and publicized organization of the resistance, it did little of the real fighting against the Soviets. Instead, it was responsible for most of the assassinations, purges and infighting with rival groups and personalities. It ruled and dominated the Afghan scene with intimidation, fear and sheer terror.
Nonetheless, after the withdrawal of the Soviets and the collapse of Dr. Najibullah's regime, Hekmatyar's HIA remained the most powerful and best equipped organization. Hekmatyar and his Pakistani sponsors erroneously anticipated a quick seizure of power by the HIA. However, based on the Jabalurseraj Agreement, thrashed out among Ahmad Shah Masoud of the Tajiks, Abdul Ali Mazari of the Hazaras and Abdur Rashid Dostum of the Uzbeks, the strategic center and garrisons in Kabul were taken over by these three groups. Hekmatyar's forces were left out of the city, and in a futile attempt to reverse this misfortune, HIA forces shelled the city indiscriminately. Hekmatyar never assumed the premiership offered to him as a concession. Instead he delegated it to Ustad Farid, a hitherto little known party apparatchik. Hekmatyar later joined a coordination council (Shora-e-Hamahangi) with Dostum and Mazari against President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his defense minister Masoud.
With Hekmatyar's dream of securing dominance in Afghanistan in tatters, and with the country embroiled in a seemingly intractable fratricidal conflict, Pakistan started to play the Taliban card.
The Rise of the Taliban and Mullah Omar
The Taliban movement was effectively created under the direct supervision of retired general Naseerullah Baber, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's interior minister. The Taliban, under the leadership of the notoriously reclusive Mullah Mohammad Omar, at first tried to secure control over Kandahar. Ironically, the first casualty of their onslaught was a well known Hekmatyar commander named Sarkateb. President Rabbani and Commander Masoud, who were involved in bitter factional war in Kabul with numerous enemies, initially welcomed the Taliban.
The Taliban's advance to the north, east and west of the country seemed unstoppable and one by one the commanders and leaders who had dominated the country for so long fled before them. Ismael Khan, the powerful Emir of the western provinces abandoned his power base in the face of the relentless Taliban advance and fled to Iran; Haji Qadeer, the chairman of the eastern council, likewise fled his base to Peshawar; as the Taliban approached Kabul, Hekmatyar fled his base south of the city, effectively abandoning everything he had built over the years; the Hazara Shia leader Abdul Ali Mazari was captured and tortured to death and President Rabbani and Masoud fled the city to the safety of the north.
Of the two main fighting factions, namely the Iran-backed Shia Hezb-e-Wahdat (Unity Party) of Mazari and Hekmatyar's HIA, the latter suffered the heaviest blows. After the fall of Kabul in September 1996, Wahdat still maintained some forces and bases in the central and northern regions of Afghanistan, but Hekmatyar's once powerful bases in the eastern and southern provinces were completely overrun by the Taliban, their arms and ammunitions confiscated, thus forcing the rank and file to either join the Taliban or desert altogether.
Disheartened by this cataclysmic defeat and disgusted by the betrayal of his erstwhile Pakistani sponsors, Hekmatyar moved to Iran. He remained there until early 2002, when the Iranian government, under pressure from the U.S., was forced to show him the door. Following his expulsion from Iran, there has not been any credible information pointing to his exact whereabouts. According to most sources, Hekmatyar initially went to Pakistan and subsequently moved to eastern and perhaps southern Afghanistan, from where he was allegedly organizing attacks against the U.S. led coalition forces. No major operation has been attributed to him in the region, except an attack in mid 2004 in the northern city of Kunduz in which 11 Chinese workers were killed. [2] However, even that attack was attributed to rivalry between various groups in the north and Hekmatyar himself has vehemently denied his party's involvement in the incident. All the same, he has been declared a wanted terrorist by the U.S.-led coalition forces. Hekmatyar has become a fugitive, like Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden whose cause he has ostensibly embraced.
Nonetheless, in an increasingly desperate and opportunistic gesture, Hekmatyar recently tried to change course and join the American backed Afghan government of President Karzai. Although a delegation of HIA that met with Hamid Karzai in early May in Kabul claimed to have acted on their own initiative, it is very unlikely that they did not receive a green light from the once all-powerful leader. In fact, according to some reports Hekmatyar "provisionally" agreed to a rapprochement with the Karzai government. [3] As yet, nothing has come out of a nine point agreement drawn up last May. In another ominous development, the Iranian government announced recently that it had frozen the accounts of HIA in four Iranian cities. [4]
Conclusion
The status and fortunes of Hekmatyar and his party look increasingly bleak for three reasons. Firstly, HIA no longer has the military muscle to affect events in Afghanistan. Hekmatyar's commanders and fighters have long joined the Taliban or disbanded, save a few hardcore loyalists that cannot regroup due to lack of funds or enthusiasm. Secondly, HIA is politically out of tune with the new trends in Afghanistan. Afghans are tired of war and disillusioned by the hardcore Islamists such as Hekmatyar, Sayyaf, Rabbani and the likes. Thirdly, from a social and cultural perspective, Hekmatyar and his party are notorious for their brutality, extreme Pashtun nationalism and religious zealotry. For most people there is little that separates them from the Taliban. Both promote a brutal and mono-ethnic theocracy that is, broadly speaking, both disliked by native Pashtuns and an anathema to non-Pashtuns. These factors, combined with the presence of U.S. forces in the country, render the possible revival of Hekmatyar and the HIA most unlikely.
Mr. Jamali is a private sector analyst and expert on South Asian political and security issues.
Notes:
1. Pepe Escobar, "The Last Battle, Part I: Exit Osama, Enter Hekmatyar", Asia Times on Line, September 11, 2002.
2. "Mystery Shrouds Killing of 11 Chinese in Afghanistan", Xinhua, June 21, 2004.
3. "Syed Saleem Shahzad, Afghanistan: Hekmatyar Changes Color Again", Asia Times on Line, April 3, 2004.
4. "Iran Freezes Afghan Warlord Hekmatyar Assets", Pakistan Times, December 18, 2004.
Sipah-e-Sahaba: Fomenting Sectarian Violence in Pakistan
By Animesh Roul
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (Corp of the Prophet's Companions), a militant Islamist organization and the largest sectarian outfit in the country, was outlawed by President Pervez Musharraf on January 12, 2002 for its alleged involvement in terrorist related activities. More than 1,500 of its members were arrested at that time. Immediately after the ban, then-chief Maulana Azam Tariq renamed the organization Milat-e-Islamia Pakistan (MIP), the group's third incarnation. Previously known as Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba, the (Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) SSP belongs to the Deobandi School of thought and its prime targets are the Shi'a community and Iranian interests in Pakistan.
The gruesome killings of 40 people in twin bomb blasts in Multan on October 7, 2004, highlight the depth of the sectarian conflict that plagues Pakistan. The incident occurred when hundreds of people had gathered to mark the first anniversary of the killing of Sipah-e-Sahaba chief Maulana Azam Tariq outside Islamabad. The attack came almost a week after a lethal suicide attack inside a crowded Shi'a mosque in the city of Sialkot that killed at least 30 people with as many injured. While the SSP chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhiyanvi, speaking to the media at Nishtar Hospital in Multan, blamed Shi'a radicals for the blast, police sources specifically pointed towards the militant Shi'a organization Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) as the prime suspect. [1] SMP is an off-shoot of Tehrik-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafaria (TNFJ – Movement for the Implementation of Jafaria Religious Law), the main Shi'a politico-religious party. Even as security forces claimed to have arrested one suspected mastermind of the blast, Amjad Shah of SMP in Toba Tek Singh, another source claimed that a different Shia outfit, Pasban-i-Islam (also affiliated to the TNFJ) was responsible for the Multan bomb blast. [2]
SSP was formed on September 6, 1985 in the Punjabi city of Jhang with the core mission of targeting Shi'as, whom the group believes are non-Muslims. Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Ziaur Rahman Farooqi, Maulana Eesar-ul-Haq Qasmi and Maulana Azam Tariq were the original founders of the SSP. The outfit had also operated as a political party, regularly contesting elections in the Punjab province. Its slain chief, Azam Tariq, was elected to parliament on no less than four occasions.
A decade after its inception, the SSP had become one of the largest religious parties in Pakistan. Although many analysts contend that the SSP emerged as a reaction to the Iranian revolution and increasing Shi'a influence in Pakistan, there are other schools of thought, according to whom the SSP phenomenon emerged in Jhang as a reaction to the socio-economic repression of the Sunni populace by Shi'a feudal lords. Clearly the impact of the Iranian revolution on Pakistan's social fabric has been considerable, not least because of Iran's drive to establish regional hegemony and growing Sunni Islamist resistance to it. In Pakistan, Iranian sponsorship of Shi'a organizations was principally countered by Saudi Arabia, which is believed to have consistently bankrolled the SSP. Nonetheless it would be reductive to attribute the emergence of the SSP and its brand of extreme Sunni supremacy to the Iranian revolution alone.
Since its inception the SSP has relied on a core constituency of Sunni peasantry who felt exploited by Shi'a landlords and aristocrats, often with large land and property holdings. The SSP is also a byproduct of the Zia ul-Haq regime, which tried to create an Islamist counter to pro-democracy forces in the country. [3] While advocating a Sunni state in which all other sects would be declared non-Muslim minorities, the SSP has been singularly focused on an extreme anti-Shi'a campaign; for instance lobbying to have the Shi'as declared non-Muslims and calling for a ban on "Muharram" (commemorative mourning ceremony for Shi'as) processions.
Although the Shi'a and Sunni conflict in Pakistan predates the emergence of SSP, there has been a major escalation in sectarian violence since the anti-Shi'a riots in Lahore of 1986. At least two subsequent events changed the dynamics of sectarian violence: the murder of TNFJ leader Arif Hussain in 1988 and the February 1990 assassination of Maulana Haq Nawaj Jangvi, the most influential founder of SSP. Sectarian violence reached its peak in 1997; out of 195 killed in that year, 118 were Shi'a and 77 Sunni. The SSP along with several other Sunni and Shi'a organizations were suspected of being at the forefront of this violence. According to some sources, the first incident of sectarian violence took place on March 23, 1987 when Ahl-e-Hadith leaders Allama Ehsan Elahi Zaheer and Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Yazdani were killed with six others at a meeting near the Minar-i-Pakistan. [4] The SSP's terrorist campaign has two main features: targeted killings of prominent Shi'a figures and indiscriminate attacks on crowded mosques. Some of the major cases of sectarian violence spearheaded by the SSP in 2004 are worth documentation:
October 7: At least 38 people were killed and more than 100 injured in bomb blasts in Multan.
September 21: Suspected SSP members gunned down at least three members of a Shi'a family in a sectarian attack in Dera Ismail Khan.
March 2: More than 45 people killed and over 100 wounded in an attack on Shi'a Muslims in Quetta.
SSP has also inflicted serious violence on Iranian interests in Pakistan. In December 1990, it assassinated Sadegh Ganji, a well-known Iranian diplomat and head of Iran's cultural center in Lahore. The killing of Ganji was apparently in retaliation for the assassination of Maulana Jhangvi in February 1990, likely carried out by Iranian intelligence. In January 1997 the SSP armed wing burnt down Iran's cultural center in Lahore and in the same month assassinated Mohammad Ali Rahimi, Iran's cultural attaché in Multan. In September 1997, SSP operatives shot dead five Iranian air force cadets in Rwalpindi. [5]
According to reliable sources, SSP maintains both its headquarters in the two largest Deobandi Madrasas of Punjab – Jamiat-ul-Uloom Eidgah in Bahawalnagar city, and Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband Faqirwali in the Fort Abbas subdivision. However, some sources have claimed that all organizational controls are exercised from regional headquarters located in Jamia Faruqiya, Jia Moosa, Shadara and Lahore and the international units are controlled by Madrasa Mahmoodiya in Jhang. [6]
The tentacles of the organization are widespread, as SSP has paid considerable attention to district level units. According to one estimate, the organization boasted 74 district-level and 225 tehsil (micro-level unit of administration) units before the 2002 proscription. [7] Although rooted in the countryside the SSP relies on urban Sunni businessmen for funding. Moreover the organization has tried to reach a more sophisticated audience through its official monthly organ, Khilifat-i-Rashida (The Rightly Guided Caliphate), published in Faisalabad.
It is widely believed that the SSP has received considerable financial and logistical assistance from Saudi intelligence. The Pakistani authorities are well aware of these connections but turn a blind eye to them, not least because the Pakistani state maintains historical ties with the House of Saud. [8] A report in the mid 1990's disclosed that the Saudi government had consistently backed the Deobandi school of thought in Pakistan (which has many similarities to the Wahhabi version of Islam), especially after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. The report also claimed that the United States and some other western countries supported the SSP to counter the growing Shi'a and Iranian influence in the region. [9]
The SSP exercises considerable influence on various political parties, in particular the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and the Jamaat-Ulema-e-Islam (JuI), which tried to negotiate Osama bin Laden's extradition to Pakistan to stand trial for the 9/11 attacks. Moreover the SSP is believed to have strong operational ties with other Deobandi/Wahhabi organizations in Pakistan and also with some international outfits.
In 1996 there was an apparent split in the ranks of the SSP, leading to the emergence of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ – "Jhangvi's Army"). [10] The LeJ is led by Riaz Basra (former senior cadre of the SSP), and is widely believed to be the armed wing of the SSP. The LeJ was also outlawed by President Musharraf on August 14, 2001. Despite the manufactured split, the SSP retained its half-disguised moderate political profile and denied engaging in terrorist activities.
Besides the LeJ, the SSP has forged other manufactured – or at least controlled – splinter groups. After Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi's assassination, at least five splinter groups (excluding the LeJ) emerged from the ranks of the SSP. They were Jhangvi Tigers, Al Haq Tigers, Tanzeem ul-Haq, Al Farooq and Al Badr Foundation. Currently the SSP has 31 vital operational networks spread across Pakistan. After the proscription, it has shifted its offices to mosques and madrasas in different cities. The networks in Multan, Jhang, Quetta, Hyderabad and Peshawar have been under Mualana Abdul Ghafoor, Rana Ayub, Hafiz Qasim Siddique, Maulana Farooq Azad and Maulana Darwesh respectively. Although rooted in the Punjab, the SSP is now a truly national and increasingly international phenomenon. The organization has tens of thousands of active supporters and according to reliable sources boasts up to 6,000 trained and professional cadres; many of whom are actively involved in sectarian violence. With some 17 branches in foreign countries including Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Canada and the United Kingdom, the SSP is the largest and most pervasive Sunni supremacist organization in the world.
Apart from its armed wing, the SSP has strong connections with the Kashmir-focused Jihadi outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) led by Maulana Masood Azhar. In October 2000, the JeM chief reportedly said "now we go hand-in-hand, and Sipah-e-Sahaba stands shoulder to shoulder with Jaish-e-Muhammad in Jihad." Despite these alliances the SSP does not play a significant role in the Kashmiri insurgency.
However, SSP militants were known to have undergone military training in Afghanistan while fighting alongside the Taliban. Most recently on December 20, 2004 Lahore Police arrested suspected SSP cadre Malik Tahseen (alias Abdul Jabbar Alvi) for his involvement in securing Afghan bases and connections for the organization. Tahseen was detained alongside five associates of Libyan al-Qaeda operative Abu Al-Faraj, wanted for masterminding two assassination attempts on President Musharraf. However, there does not seem to be any serious connections between the SSP and al-Qaeda, despite allegations that both the SSP and the LeJ lent moral support to Osama Bin Laden's International Islamic Front. While al-Qaeda has been successful at co-opting other Pakistani sectarian outfits, it has had less luck with the SSP, which has consistently identified Shi'as and Iran as its primary – and seemingly exclusive – enemies.
Despite its ban, the SSP carries on as normal and – for the foreseeable future at least – is likely to grow in influence and prestige. A primary and obvious difficulty is that proscribed groups such as SSP and JeM can circumvent the proscription by changing their names and operating through manufactured splinter groups. Addressing the serious challenges posed by the SSP is a Herculean task, not least because sectarian divisions are very strong in Pakistan. It is doubtful whether Musharraf's administration has either the will or the capability to take on this powerful organization and its vocal and influential domestic and international audience.
Animesh Roul is a Research Coordinator at the "Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict" (SSPC) in New Delhi, where he specializes in terrorism and security issues. He is also a correspondent for ISN.
Notes:
1. Sipah Muhammad Pakistan was formed in 1993 on the basis of instructions issued by TNFJ President Ghulam Reza Naqvi. It was banned on August 14, 2001 along with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).
2. "Pasban-i-Islam behind Multan blast", The News, October 22, 2004.
3. After assuming power, Zia ul-Haq encouraged the formation of the Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM) in Karachi and Hyderabad and Anjuman Sipah Sahabah in Punjab in order to scuttle the influence of the People's Party and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was a Shi'a.
4. Dawn, September 11, 1997.
5. For more information on these killings, refer to Hassan Abbas, Pakistan's Drift Into Extremism: Allah, The Army, And America's War On Terror, M.E. Sharpe, 2004.
6. Mohammed Amir Rana, Gateway to Terrorism, op.cit, p. 182.
7. Ibid.
8. The ideological and financial links between the two has been noted in various sources. See, for example, Fayaz Ahmad, "Sipah e Sahaba or Sipah e Yazeed?", Shia News, 21 October 2003. Also see, the URL: http://www.hazara.net/taliban/protectors/protectors.html
9. The information was published in the daily Nation, 20 January 1995 quoting a confidential report of the Home Department of Punjab. Rehman Faiz quoted in Qalandar: Islam and Interfaith Relations in South Asia, April 2004. www.islaminterfaith.org
10. LeJ is named after the SSP leader Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi who was allegedly assassinated by the Iranian intelligence service in February 1990. After the assassination some members allegedly deserted the SSP, accusing it of deviating from the ideals of Jhangvi. But the split was not serious and the LeJ merely constitutes the armed wing of the SSP. The SSP and LeJ have allegedly received financial and other assistance from the intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia and the former Iraqi regime as reward for targeting Iranian officials and interests. Conversely the SMP was bankrolled by Iranian intelligence for countering the LeJ.
* * *
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (Corp of the Prophet's Companions), a militant Islamist organization and the largest sectarian outfit in the country, was outlawed by President Pervez Musharraf on January 12, 2002 for its alleged involvement in terrorist related activities. More than 1,500 of its members were arrested at that time. Immediately after the ban, then-chief Maulana Azam Tariq renamed the organization Milat-e-Islamia Pakistan (MIP), the group's third incarnation. Previously known as Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba, the (Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) SSP belongs to the Deobandi School of thought and its prime targets are the Shi'a community and Iranian interests in Pakistan.
The gruesome killings of 40 people in twin bomb blasts in Multan on October 7, 2004, highlight the depth of the sectarian conflict that plagues Pakistan. The incident occurred when hundreds of people had gathered to mark the first anniversary of the killing of Sipah-e-Sahaba chief Maulana Azam Tariq outside Islamabad. The attack came almost a week after a lethal suicide attack inside a crowded Shi'a mosque in the city of Sialkot that killed at least 30 people with as many injured. While the SSP chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhiyanvi, speaking to the media at Nishtar Hospital in Multan, blamed Shi'a radicals for the blast, police sources specifically pointed towards the militant Shi'a organization Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) as the prime suspect. [1] SMP is an off-shoot of Tehrik-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafaria (TNFJ – Movement for the Implementation of Jafaria Religious Law), the main Shi'a politico-religious party. Even as security forces claimed to have arrested one suspected mastermind of the blast, Amjad Shah of SMP in Toba Tek Singh, another source claimed that a different Shia outfit, Pasban-i-Islam (also affiliated to the TNFJ) was responsible for the Multan bomb blast. [2]
SSP was formed on September 6, 1985 in the Punjabi city of Jhang with the core mission of targeting Shi'as, whom the group believes are non-Muslims. Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Ziaur Rahman Farooqi, Maulana Eesar-ul-Haq Qasmi and Maulana Azam Tariq were the original founders of the SSP. The outfit had also operated as a political party, regularly contesting elections in the Punjab province. Its slain chief, Azam Tariq, was elected to parliament on no less than four occasions.
A decade after its inception, the SSP had become one of the largest religious parties in Pakistan. Although many analysts contend that the SSP emerged as a reaction to the Iranian revolution and increasing Shi'a influence in Pakistan, there are other schools of thought, according to whom the SSP phenomenon emerged in Jhang as a reaction to the socio-economic repression of the Sunni populace by Shi'a feudal lords. Clearly the impact of the Iranian revolution on Pakistan's social fabric has been considerable, not least because of Iran's drive to establish regional hegemony and growing Sunni Islamist resistance to it. In Pakistan, Iranian sponsorship of Shi'a organizations was principally countered by Saudi Arabia, which is believed to have consistently bankrolled the SSP. Nonetheless it would be reductive to attribute the emergence of the SSP and its brand of extreme Sunni supremacy to the Iranian revolution alone.
Since its inception the SSP has relied on a core constituency of Sunni peasantry who felt exploited by Shi'a landlords and aristocrats, often with large land and property holdings. The SSP is also a byproduct of the Zia ul-Haq regime, which tried to create an Islamist counter to pro-democracy forces in the country. [3] While advocating a Sunni state in which all other sects would be declared non-Muslim minorities, the SSP has been singularly focused on an extreme anti-Shi'a campaign; for instance lobbying to have the Shi'as declared non-Muslims and calling for a ban on "Muharram" (commemorative mourning ceremony for Shi'as) processions.
Although the Shi'a and Sunni conflict in Pakistan predates the emergence of SSP, there has been a major escalation in sectarian violence since the anti-Shi'a riots in Lahore of 1986. At least two subsequent events changed the dynamics of sectarian violence: the murder of TNFJ leader Arif Hussain in 1988 and the February 1990 assassination of Maulana Haq Nawaj Jangvi, the most influential founder of SSP. Sectarian violence reached its peak in 1997; out of 195 killed in that year, 118 were Shi'a and 77 Sunni. The SSP along with several other Sunni and Shi'a organizations were suspected of being at the forefront of this violence. According to some sources, the first incident of sectarian violence took place on March 23, 1987 when Ahl-e-Hadith leaders Allama Ehsan Elahi Zaheer and Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Yazdani were killed with six others at a meeting near the Minar-i-Pakistan. [4] The SSP's terrorist campaign has two main features: targeted killings of prominent Shi'a figures and indiscriminate attacks on crowded mosques. Some of the major cases of sectarian violence spearheaded by the SSP in 2004 are worth documentation:
October 7: At least 38 people were killed and more than 100 injured in bomb blasts in Multan.
September 21: Suspected SSP members gunned down at least three members of a Shi'a family in a sectarian attack in Dera Ismail Khan.
March 2: More than 45 people killed and over 100 wounded in an attack on Shi'a Muslims in Quetta.
SSP has also inflicted serious violence on Iranian interests in Pakistan. In December 1990, it assassinated Sadegh Ganji, a well-known Iranian diplomat and head of Iran's cultural center in Lahore. The killing of Ganji was apparently in retaliation for the assassination of Maulana Jhangvi in February 1990, likely carried out by Iranian intelligence. In January 1997 the SSP armed wing burnt down Iran's cultural center in Lahore and in the same month assassinated Mohammad Ali Rahimi, Iran's cultural attaché in Multan. In September 1997, SSP operatives shot dead five Iranian air force cadets in Rwalpindi. [5]
According to reliable sources, SSP maintains both its headquarters in the two largest Deobandi Madrasas of Punjab – Jamiat-ul-Uloom Eidgah in Bahawalnagar city, and Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband Faqirwali in the Fort Abbas subdivision. However, some sources have claimed that all organizational controls are exercised from regional headquarters located in Jamia Faruqiya, Jia Moosa, Shadara and Lahore and the international units are controlled by Madrasa Mahmoodiya in Jhang. [6]
The tentacles of the organization are widespread, as SSP has paid considerable attention to district level units. According to one estimate, the organization boasted 74 district-level and 225 tehsil (micro-level unit of administration) units before the 2002 proscription. [7] Although rooted in the countryside the SSP relies on urban Sunni businessmen for funding. Moreover the organization has tried to reach a more sophisticated audience through its official monthly organ, Khilifat-i-Rashida (The Rightly Guided Caliphate), published in Faisalabad.
It is widely believed that the SSP has received considerable financial and logistical assistance from Saudi intelligence. The Pakistani authorities are well aware of these connections but turn a blind eye to them, not least because the Pakistani state maintains historical ties with the House of Saud. [8] A report in the mid 1990's disclosed that the Saudi government had consistently backed the Deobandi school of thought in Pakistan (which has many similarities to the Wahhabi version of Islam), especially after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. The report also claimed that the United States and some other western countries supported the SSP to counter the growing Shi'a and Iranian influence in the region. [9]
The SSP exercises considerable influence on various political parties, in particular the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and the Jamaat-Ulema-e-Islam (JuI), which tried to negotiate Osama bin Laden's extradition to Pakistan to stand trial for the 9/11 attacks. Moreover the SSP is believed to have strong operational ties with other Deobandi/Wahhabi organizations in Pakistan and also with some international outfits.
In 1996 there was an apparent split in the ranks of the SSP, leading to the emergence of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ – "Jhangvi's Army"). [10] The LeJ is led by Riaz Basra (former senior cadre of the SSP), and is widely believed to be the armed wing of the SSP. The LeJ was also outlawed by President Musharraf on August 14, 2001. Despite the manufactured split, the SSP retained its half-disguised moderate political profile and denied engaging in terrorist activities.
Besides the LeJ, the SSP has forged other manufactured – or at least controlled – splinter groups. After Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi's assassination, at least five splinter groups (excluding the LeJ) emerged from the ranks of the SSP. They were Jhangvi Tigers, Al Haq Tigers, Tanzeem ul-Haq, Al Farooq and Al Badr Foundation. Currently the SSP has 31 vital operational networks spread across Pakistan. After the proscription, it has shifted its offices to mosques and madrasas in different cities. The networks in Multan, Jhang, Quetta, Hyderabad and Peshawar have been under Mualana Abdul Ghafoor, Rana Ayub, Hafiz Qasim Siddique, Maulana Farooq Azad and Maulana Darwesh respectively. Although rooted in the Punjab, the SSP is now a truly national and increasingly international phenomenon. The organization has tens of thousands of active supporters and according to reliable sources boasts up to 6,000 trained and professional cadres; many of whom are actively involved in sectarian violence. With some 17 branches in foreign countries including Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Canada and the United Kingdom, the SSP is the largest and most pervasive Sunni supremacist organization in the world.
Apart from its armed wing, the SSP has strong connections with the Kashmir-focused Jihadi outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) led by Maulana Masood Azhar. In October 2000, the JeM chief reportedly said "now we go hand-in-hand, and Sipah-e-Sahaba stands shoulder to shoulder with Jaish-e-Muhammad in Jihad." Despite these alliances the SSP does not play a significant role in the Kashmiri insurgency.
However, SSP militants were known to have undergone military training in Afghanistan while fighting alongside the Taliban. Most recently on December 20, 2004 Lahore Police arrested suspected SSP cadre Malik Tahseen (alias Abdul Jabbar Alvi) for his involvement in securing Afghan bases and connections for the organization. Tahseen was detained alongside five associates of Libyan al-Qaeda operative Abu Al-Faraj, wanted for masterminding two assassination attempts on President Musharraf. However, there does not seem to be any serious connections between the SSP and al-Qaeda, despite allegations that both the SSP and the LeJ lent moral support to Osama Bin Laden's International Islamic Front. While al-Qaeda has been successful at co-opting other Pakistani sectarian outfits, it has had less luck with the SSP, which has consistently identified Shi'as and Iran as its primary – and seemingly exclusive – enemies.
Despite its ban, the SSP carries on as normal and – for the foreseeable future at least – is likely to grow in influence and prestige. A primary and obvious difficulty is that proscribed groups such as SSP and JeM can circumvent the proscription by changing their names and operating through manufactured splinter groups. Addressing the serious challenges posed by the SSP is a Herculean task, not least because sectarian divisions are very strong in Pakistan. It is doubtful whether Musharraf's administration has either the will or the capability to take on this powerful organization and its vocal and influential domestic and international audience.
Animesh Roul is a Research Coordinator at the "Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict" (SSPC) in New Delhi, where he specializes in terrorism and security issues. He is also a correspondent for ISN.
Notes:
1. Sipah Muhammad Pakistan was formed in 1993 on the basis of instructions issued by TNFJ President Ghulam Reza Naqvi. It was banned on August 14, 2001 along with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).
2. "Pasban-i-Islam behind Multan blast", The News, October 22, 2004.
3. After assuming power, Zia ul-Haq encouraged the formation of the Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM) in Karachi and Hyderabad and Anjuman Sipah Sahabah in Punjab in order to scuttle the influence of the People's Party and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was a Shi'a.
4. Dawn, September 11, 1997.
5. For more information on these killings, refer to Hassan Abbas, Pakistan's Drift Into Extremism: Allah, The Army, And America's War On Terror, M.E. Sharpe, 2004.
6. Mohammed Amir Rana, Gateway to Terrorism, op.cit, p. 182.
7. Ibid.
8. The ideological and financial links between the two has been noted in various sources. See, for example, Fayaz Ahmad, "Sipah e Sahaba or Sipah e Yazeed?", Shia News, 21 October 2003. Also see, the URL: http://www.hazara.net/taliban/protectors/protectors.html
9. The information was published in the daily Nation, 20 January 1995 quoting a confidential report of the Home Department of Punjab. Rehman Faiz quoted in Qalandar: Islam and Interfaith Relations in South Asia, April 2004. www.islaminterfaith.org
10. LeJ is named after the SSP leader Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi who was allegedly assassinated by the Iranian intelligence service in February 1990. After the assassination some members allegedly deserted the SSP, accusing it of deviating from the ideals of Jhangvi. But the split was not serious and the LeJ merely constitutes the armed wing of the SSP. The SSP and LeJ have allegedly received financial and other assistance from the intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia and the former Iraqi regime as reward for targeting Iranian officials and interests. Conversely the SMP was bankrolled by Iranian intelligence for countering the LeJ.
* * *
The Disintegration of Mojahedin-e Khalq in Post-Saddam Iraq
The Disintegration of Mojahedin-e Khalq in Post-Saddam Iraq
By Massoud Khodabandeh
As the landmark Iraqi elections loom closer, the fate of a controversial and often misunderstood Iranian opposition group hangs in the balance. The formerly armed Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) has been based in Iraq for twenty years with regime change as its exclusive cause. Not only was it a long term irritant for Iran, launching waves of terrorist attacks from across the border, it also waged a remarkably intensive – albeit unsophisticated – anti-Iranian propaganda campaign from major Western capitals. It was a tempting prospect for hawks in the U.S. administration, therefore, to use the MKO – officially classified a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU governments – as a tool against Iran, particularly for those with regime change at the forefront of their agenda. But on the eve of the Iraqi elections, the MKO seems to be more of a liability for the U.S. than ever.
Shortly after the fall of the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, the organization's value was such that Iran offered to exchange some top al-Qaeda operatives for the MKO. But whether the U.S. administration had over-estimated the MKO's value and wanted more, or whether there were covert plans to use the group rather than be rid of it, the offer was refused. In the immediate aftermath of the Iraq war in 2003, U.S. forces displayed a puzzlingly ambiguous attitude toward the MKO; first negotiating a ceasefire and subsequently disarming it, but then protecting the group against Iraqi revenge attacks. Even when the Iraqi Interim Governing Council (IGC) voted for the MKO's expulsion in December 2003, the U.S. failed to comply, further fuelling Iranian suspicions over U.S. motives. [1]
Outside Iraq, the MKO's political wing, the National Council of Resistance (NCR), found common ground with U.S. advocates for regime change in Iran. The NCR exposed intelligence on Iran's nuclear program during last autumn's negotiations between Iran and the EU, and supported U.S. moves to take the issue to the UN Security Council. The NCR stopped short of asking the U.S. to bomb Iran, instead claiming it could perform the task of regime change if given the right support. That would entail maintaining the MKO as an armed force in Iraq and, as a prerequisite, removing both the MKO and the NCR names from the U.S. terrorist list. While this hopelessly unrealistic approach could have been tried even six months ago, it is difficult to see how it could be implemented following an election in Iraq.
While Iran lined up with the United States to push for the January 30 elections to go ahead, the MKO struck a defiant tone, effectively adopting the same rhetoric as the neo-Baathists, Salafi Islamists and other insurgent forces that are desperate to derail the election process. But despite its vociferous criticism of the elections, the MKO has no power or mandate to influence the outcome of the electoral process. Implausibly, the organization claims a constituency of support among Iraqi Sunni Arab tribal leaders (especially in Diyala Province) which contrasts strangely with its inability to show any meaningful support inside Iran. The emergence of democratic institutions in post-war Iraq will severely undermine the MKO, as it will lend popular legitimacy to calls for their immediate expulsion. In short, the United States will not be able to ignore the wishes of the new elected government as it ignored the wishes of the unelected IGC back in December 2003.
Either the MKO will have to be expelled as already requested, or its members will face trial and punishment as cohorts of Saddam Hussein. In any case, the organization's potential value as a U.S. bargaining chip in complex negotiations with Iran will be effectively ended by the elections. [2]
In any event, the notion of sending MKO members inside Iran as secret operatives tasked with undertaking espionage and sabotage operations was always a non-starter. This proposal entirely overlooks the actual state of the organization itself. The average age of the members is over 48 years, with a significant number over 50 years old. And these are people whose bodies have been ravaged by the conditions of constant military training, sleep deprivation and inadequate nutrition. Most have not set foot in Iran for nearly 24 years and would have difficulty now navigating around their own neighborhoods, let alone an unknown nuclear facility. More than this, the psychological state of the members following years of isolation and psychological coercion would not allow them to act independently or intelligently outside their immediate organizational environment – let alone in hostile territory. In short, the U.S. covert operation would need local Iranians not burnt-out ex-patriots. In addition, the MKO has become so heavily infiltrated, and not just by the Iranians, that it is hard to see how such a plan could be even formulated without Iran becoming forewarned of it.
MKO: Still Terrorists?
In many ways, MKO behavior in the West points to quite another deal being struck with the U.S. and other Western governments. Conditions for its continued existence in any form appear to be that the MKO ditch its ideological leader, Massoud Rajavi; that it changes the strategy of armed struggle for exclusively propaganda work; and that it changes its name so that the MKO stays on the terrorist lists but members continue to work as the NCR.
The significance of these demands is that they cut right to the heart of the MKO's existence as a coherent force. For years, Massoud Rajavi has remained invisible while his wife, Maryam, was presented as the acceptable public face of the MKO. This barely disguised deception has enabled the organization to present itself as a democratic force, despite its well known pseudo-communist origins and the cult-like characteristics it has acquired since 1985. This massive inconsistency in the MKO's public profile and its internal dynamics, at times produce dramatic and disturbing events. For instance when Maryam Rajavi was arrested in Paris in 2003 on terrorism charges, the MKO had no other recourse but to orchestrate a series of self-immolations by members in order to terrorize the French government into releasing her.
Moreover the MKO has been deeply committed to "armed struggle" since its emergence in the 1960's. Therefore, relinquishing the "principle" of armed struggle would seriously unsettle the organization and most likely lead to the emergence of splinter groups. Western governments need to take this into account before they consider removing the MKO from their terrorist lists.
While the U.S. has been aware of the problems presented by the MKO, it has only lately begun to address them seriously. The designation of protected status under the Fourth Geneva Convention in July 2004 constituted the first practical step the U.S. has taken to deal with the group. This allows the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to process individual members and remove them from Iraq without lifting the terrorist status of the whole organization – a kind of controlled dissolution.
Almost as though they had anticipated the outcome from the start, the Iranians had, since the summer of 2003, been offering amnesty to "repentant" MKO who wanted to return to Iran. This was hugely controversial inside Iran. While the vast majority of Iranians are either ignorant or indifferent toward the exiled group, supporters of the Islamic Republic are highly sensitive to the violence inflicted by the organization on their leaders and fellow supporters, particularly in the period 1981-1984 when the MKO's armed struggle was at its peak. In spite of this, Iranian officials pushed ahead with the offer, and since December 2004, the ICRC has voluntarily repatriated 41 individuals who have been de-briefed and then re-united with their families. No prosecutions are planned, although it is understood that repatriated members should not take part in political activity. However, the officially repatriated members constitute only a tiny number of MKO members that have returned to Iran since May 2003. According to reliable sources, more than 300 members have fled Ashraf and returned to Iran in the past 19 months. In almost all cases these members surrendered to the Iranian customs authorities on the Iran-Iraq border, who subsequently handed them over to the Ministry of Intelligence. The former members were transferred to Tehran and debriefed for two days by Iranian intelligence officers in specially designed reception centers in the Marmar and Esteghlal Hotels, before being released to their families.
But more interesting than this has been the information given by returning members about conditions in the Ashraf camp in Diyala. While U.S. forces control the camp perimeter, they have allowed the MKO to maintain its internal command structure, leaving the members under conditions of psychological coercion. It is widely believed that around 1,000 disaffected MKO members approached the U.S. army and requested to be separated from the organization, and are now apparently being held in a separate part of the camp. [3] These developments seem to suggest that the longer the MKO remain ensconced in Ashraf, the more likely it is that the organization disintegrates in the face of overwhelming internal and external pressures.
Conclusion
The downfall of Saddam Hussein effectively spelled the end for the Mojahedin-e-Khalq's presence in Iraq—armed or otherwise. While the U.S. could have made the best out of the situation by swapping MKO leaders for senior al-Qaeda members in Iranian custody, for a variety of complex reasons this "near-deal" was never implemented. The only real issue on the ground is how and when to remove the MKO from its Ashraf base. The Iraqi elections are likely to accelerate this process and thus remove a major obstacle in improving ties between Iran and the new Iraqi regime.
Whether Western governments subsequently remove the MKO from the terrorist list remains to be seen. But before any de-designation takes place, western policy makers should bear in mind that the MKO – irrespective of its massive decline in recent years – is still a highly sensitive issue for the Islamic Republic. Therefore de-designation runs the risk of complicating wider counter-terrorism efforts in the region – not least Iran's support for Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic groups.
Massoud Khodabandeh is a former member of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, and mainly served in the organization's intelligence/security department. Khodabandeh left the Mojahedin in 1996 and currently lives in the north of England, where he works as a security consultant.
Notes:
1. Iraqi Television, November 5, 2003
2. Mehr News Agency, September 2, 2004
3. Nejat Association, May 17, 2004. The Nejat Association—based in Tehran – brings together families of MKO members currently based in the Ashraf camp in Iraq. The Association has been lobbying the ICRC and the Iranian government for the repatriation of MKO members to Iran.
By Massoud Khodabandeh
As the landmark Iraqi elections loom closer, the fate of a controversial and often misunderstood Iranian opposition group hangs in the balance. The formerly armed Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) has been based in Iraq for twenty years with regime change as its exclusive cause. Not only was it a long term irritant for Iran, launching waves of terrorist attacks from across the border, it also waged a remarkably intensive – albeit unsophisticated – anti-Iranian propaganda campaign from major Western capitals. It was a tempting prospect for hawks in the U.S. administration, therefore, to use the MKO – officially classified a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU governments – as a tool against Iran, particularly for those with regime change at the forefront of their agenda. But on the eve of the Iraqi elections, the MKO seems to be more of a liability for the U.S. than ever.
Shortly after the fall of the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, the organization's value was such that Iran offered to exchange some top al-Qaeda operatives for the MKO. But whether the U.S. administration had over-estimated the MKO's value and wanted more, or whether there were covert plans to use the group rather than be rid of it, the offer was refused. In the immediate aftermath of the Iraq war in 2003, U.S. forces displayed a puzzlingly ambiguous attitude toward the MKO; first negotiating a ceasefire and subsequently disarming it, but then protecting the group against Iraqi revenge attacks. Even when the Iraqi Interim Governing Council (IGC) voted for the MKO's expulsion in December 2003, the U.S. failed to comply, further fuelling Iranian suspicions over U.S. motives. [1]
Outside Iraq, the MKO's political wing, the National Council of Resistance (NCR), found common ground with U.S. advocates for regime change in Iran. The NCR exposed intelligence on Iran's nuclear program during last autumn's negotiations between Iran and the EU, and supported U.S. moves to take the issue to the UN Security Council. The NCR stopped short of asking the U.S. to bomb Iran, instead claiming it could perform the task of regime change if given the right support. That would entail maintaining the MKO as an armed force in Iraq and, as a prerequisite, removing both the MKO and the NCR names from the U.S. terrorist list. While this hopelessly unrealistic approach could have been tried even six months ago, it is difficult to see how it could be implemented following an election in Iraq.
While Iran lined up with the United States to push for the January 30 elections to go ahead, the MKO struck a defiant tone, effectively adopting the same rhetoric as the neo-Baathists, Salafi Islamists and other insurgent forces that are desperate to derail the election process. But despite its vociferous criticism of the elections, the MKO has no power or mandate to influence the outcome of the electoral process. Implausibly, the organization claims a constituency of support among Iraqi Sunni Arab tribal leaders (especially in Diyala Province) which contrasts strangely with its inability to show any meaningful support inside Iran. The emergence of democratic institutions in post-war Iraq will severely undermine the MKO, as it will lend popular legitimacy to calls for their immediate expulsion. In short, the United States will not be able to ignore the wishes of the new elected government as it ignored the wishes of the unelected IGC back in December 2003.
Either the MKO will have to be expelled as already requested, or its members will face trial and punishment as cohorts of Saddam Hussein. In any case, the organization's potential value as a U.S. bargaining chip in complex negotiations with Iran will be effectively ended by the elections. [2]
In any event, the notion of sending MKO members inside Iran as secret operatives tasked with undertaking espionage and sabotage operations was always a non-starter. This proposal entirely overlooks the actual state of the organization itself. The average age of the members is over 48 years, with a significant number over 50 years old. And these are people whose bodies have been ravaged by the conditions of constant military training, sleep deprivation and inadequate nutrition. Most have not set foot in Iran for nearly 24 years and would have difficulty now navigating around their own neighborhoods, let alone an unknown nuclear facility. More than this, the psychological state of the members following years of isolation and psychological coercion would not allow them to act independently or intelligently outside their immediate organizational environment – let alone in hostile territory. In short, the U.S. covert operation would need local Iranians not burnt-out ex-patriots. In addition, the MKO has become so heavily infiltrated, and not just by the Iranians, that it is hard to see how such a plan could be even formulated without Iran becoming forewarned of it.
MKO: Still Terrorists?
In many ways, MKO behavior in the West points to quite another deal being struck with the U.S. and other Western governments. Conditions for its continued existence in any form appear to be that the MKO ditch its ideological leader, Massoud Rajavi; that it changes the strategy of armed struggle for exclusively propaganda work; and that it changes its name so that the MKO stays on the terrorist lists but members continue to work as the NCR.
The significance of these demands is that they cut right to the heart of the MKO's existence as a coherent force. For years, Massoud Rajavi has remained invisible while his wife, Maryam, was presented as the acceptable public face of the MKO. This barely disguised deception has enabled the organization to present itself as a democratic force, despite its well known pseudo-communist origins and the cult-like characteristics it has acquired since 1985. This massive inconsistency in the MKO's public profile and its internal dynamics, at times produce dramatic and disturbing events. For instance when Maryam Rajavi was arrested in Paris in 2003 on terrorism charges, the MKO had no other recourse but to orchestrate a series of self-immolations by members in order to terrorize the French government into releasing her.
Moreover the MKO has been deeply committed to "armed struggle" since its emergence in the 1960's. Therefore, relinquishing the "principle" of armed struggle would seriously unsettle the organization and most likely lead to the emergence of splinter groups. Western governments need to take this into account before they consider removing the MKO from their terrorist lists.
While the U.S. has been aware of the problems presented by the MKO, it has only lately begun to address them seriously. The designation of protected status under the Fourth Geneva Convention in July 2004 constituted the first practical step the U.S. has taken to deal with the group. This allows the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to process individual members and remove them from Iraq without lifting the terrorist status of the whole organization – a kind of controlled dissolution.
Almost as though they had anticipated the outcome from the start, the Iranians had, since the summer of 2003, been offering amnesty to "repentant" MKO who wanted to return to Iran. This was hugely controversial inside Iran. While the vast majority of Iranians are either ignorant or indifferent toward the exiled group, supporters of the Islamic Republic are highly sensitive to the violence inflicted by the organization on their leaders and fellow supporters, particularly in the period 1981-1984 when the MKO's armed struggle was at its peak. In spite of this, Iranian officials pushed ahead with the offer, and since December 2004, the ICRC has voluntarily repatriated 41 individuals who have been de-briefed and then re-united with their families. No prosecutions are planned, although it is understood that repatriated members should not take part in political activity. However, the officially repatriated members constitute only a tiny number of MKO members that have returned to Iran since May 2003. According to reliable sources, more than 300 members have fled Ashraf and returned to Iran in the past 19 months. In almost all cases these members surrendered to the Iranian customs authorities on the Iran-Iraq border, who subsequently handed them over to the Ministry of Intelligence. The former members were transferred to Tehran and debriefed for two days by Iranian intelligence officers in specially designed reception centers in the Marmar and Esteghlal Hotels, before being released to their families.
But more interesting than this has been the information given by returning members about conditions in the Ashraf camp in Diyala. While U.S. forces control the camp perimeter, they have allowed the MKO to maintain its internal command structure, leaving the members under conditions of psychological coercion. It is widely believed that around 1,000 disaffected MKO members approached the U.S. army and requested to be separated from the organization, and are now apparently being held in a separate part of the camp. [3] These developments seem to suggest that the longer the MKO remain ensconced in Ashraf, the more likely it is that the organization disintegrates in the face of overwhelming internal and external pressures.
Conclusion
The downfall of Saddam Hussein effectively spelled the end for the Mojahedin-e-Khalq's presence in Iraq—armed or otherwise. While the U.S. could have made the best out of the situation by swapping MKO leaders for senior al-Qaeda members in Iranian custody, for a variety of complex reasons this "near-deal" was never implemented. The only real issue on the ground is how and when to remove the MKO from its Ashraf base. The Iraqi elections are likely to accelerate this process and thus remove a major obstacle in improving ties between Iran and the new Iraqi regime.
Whether Western governments subsequently remove the MKO from the terrorist list remains to be seen. But before any de-designation takes place, western policy makers should bear in mind that the MKO – irrespective of its massive decline in recent years – is still a highly sensitive issue for the Islamic Republic. Therefore de-designation runs the risk of complicating wider counter-terrorism efforts in the region – not least Iran's support for Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic groups.
Massoud Khodabandeh is a former member of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, and mainly served in the organization's intelligence/security department. Khodabandeh left the Mojahedin in 1996 and currently lives in the north of England, where he works as a security consultant.
Notes:
1. Iraqi Television, November 5, 2003
2. Mehr News Agency, September 2, 2004
3. Nejat Association, May 17, 2004. The Nejat Association—based in Tehran – brings together families of MKO members currently based in the Ashraf camp in Iraq. The Association has been lobbying the ICRC and the Iranian government for the repatriation of MKO members to Iran.
An Encounter with an Evangelist
An Encounter with an Evangelist
Dear readers here are the details my chance meting with a professional evangelist, as I had promised some days back.
I live in Argentina. It happened last Monday. I was out shopping with my family. When I was waiting for the bill in one of the shops, an old white man of about 65 stood behind for the same purpose. After some time the same person lined up behind me for an ice-cream, all of course by default.
As we (my family) we relishing the ice-cream, the old man stood around. Since no other seats were vacant, I got up and offered him my seat. He readily accepted.
Eve: You have been following me around.
I : Uncle, its true the other way around.
Eve : Whats your name.
I : Akhmed Khan and this is my wife Amina.
Eve : I am Reid. Where are you from.
I : Sorry, I wont be calling you with your name. You are much elder to me. In India we address elders as uncle or grandpa.
E: Ummm . Which place in India do you come from .
I : Delhi.
E : I have been to India, Tamil Nadu. I am an evangelist.
I : So how did you find that place ?
E : Oh its so difficult to communicate with those people, not many speak english. So I had to keep a local interpreter.
I: Do you do the same here also ?
E : Yes. That’s my full time job.
I : What is the success rate ?
E : For today 30 already. Yesterday was 60. (It was around 1 PM. So I guessed he not only bragged quite a lot but also simply doubled the figure for the previous day)
I : That’s very good. Which is your target group ?
E : All, hindus, Chinese, Muslims, atheists. But we find more success with the muslims. What are you ?
I : Hindu.
E : But your name sounds muslim ?
I : We used to be. But my father decided to give up because he was too depressed with the oppressive and fundamentalist tendencies of the local maulvi.
E : Why did you not change your names ?
I : Does not matter. But my children have pure Indian names.
Then he changed track.
E : We believe in peace and up liftment of the poor. So many christians are doing lot of selfless service around the world. Like you had mother teressa.
I ; She did a lot in India.
E : You see we are all humans and prone to commit sins.
I : Yes we do knowingly and unknowingly.
E : But jesus said ,don’t worry. I will take all your sins upon myself.
He was the son of god, who is omnipotent and omni-present. He died for our sins. He died for the whole humanity not just the christians.
I ; Yes yes.
E : Jesus belongs to everyone, Christians, hindus, muslims, Buddhists and others. So we pray for everyone.
I : Hmmm.
E : Can I pray for you ?
I : Ok.
E : No , I never force anybody.
Then looking at my wife, “ Can I pray for you”.
She was a bit hesitant, so I winked her to agree.
Then he took out a small postcard size paper from his pocket. He explained the contents. It was same thing about sinning and a short prayer. He put his hand on my shoulder and recited the prayer – oh lord I am a sinner. Take them all away and send me to heaven.
Then he opens his eyes gleefully and declared that we had been blessed. He gave us some tips on when and where to pray. I looked totally convinced.
Then he commanded’ “ Tell me, I am confident of going to heaven.”.
I hesitated. He repeated the same.
I : Will I go to heaven even if I sin ?
E : Of course. Jesus has already died for your sins.
I : In that case why do you need to bother about sinning or not sinning ? Do whatever you want, live the way you want. Your place in heave is already booked.
E : No, the sins I am talking about are those you do in good faith.
I : If you do something in good faith, then there is no sin involved, you conscience is clear.
E : Its like mother teressa. She would like to help everybody. There may be a situation wherein she helps a needy person, but the God does not want her to do that, for whatever reason.
I : You only said god is omnipotent. If mother teressa is doing something against his wish, cant god stop her.
Silence.
I : Whatever a person does, is gods command. Then why should a man worry about sins , heaven or hell ?
If god wants him to go to heaven, he will go to heaven. If god wills otherwise, can some prayer change that ?
He had no answer. In Hindi, we call it ‘Khisiyana’.
I : Thanks for the pains you took in praying for us. But I am not a bit convinced about whatever you have said. I have a lot to say. But this is no time or place. We have to go. Heaven and hell are here on the earth. We pray to who ever for our inner stability and peace. We should be good human beings so that instead of succumbing to violent animal instincts, humanity survives, progresses and evolves into a better species.
It was my turn to put my hand on his shoulder.
I : Its too late for you to change in life. Keep praying because you need it for your mental peace. Have you heard this word ‘ AUM’ ?
He gave puzzled looks. I called out ‘AUM’ a couple of times and he tried to repeat.
I : This is a small word, but has maximum vibrations. Take a full breath, then recite it as you exhale, feeling that the vibrations travel upwards from stomach – chest – throat – nostrils – upper sinus – head, as you move from AAAA to UUUUUU to MMMMMMMMM. The longer you stretch the recitation, the better.
I : Don’t worry, it is not a prayer to some Hindu god. It will not take you to heaven. When you recite ‘AUM’, resonance occurs inside your body. It clears the capillaries of blockages and ‘vikaras’. That improves health and feeling of well being.
E : Ok. Ok
I : You can still be a good christian and keep praying to jesus. I am sure you will go to heaven. In any case, if you want to see me some time later or need any help, you can note down my telephone number.
Obviously, he was not expecting this. He was speechless. I still had lot more to say. ….
We just went our own ways.
Dear readers here are the details my chance meting with a professional evangelist, as I had promised some days back.
I live in Argentina. It happened last Monday. I was out shopping with my family. When I was waiting for the bill in one of the shops, an old white man of about 65 stood behind for the same purpose. After some time the same person lined up behind me for an ice-cream, all of course by default.
As we (my family) we relishing the ice-cream, the old man stood around. Since no other seats were vacant, I got up and offered him my seat. He readily accepted.
Eve: You have been following me around.
I : Uncle, its true the other way around.
Eve : Whats your name.
I : Akhmed Khan and this is my wife Amina.
Eve : I am Reid. Where are you from.
I : Sorry, I wont be calling you with your name. You are much elder to me. In India we address elders as uncle or grandpa.
E: Ummm . Which place in India do you come from .
I : Delhi.
E : I have been to India, Tamil Nadu. I am an evangelist.
I : So how did you find that place ?
E : Oh its so difficult to communicate with those people, not many speak english. So I had to keep a local interpreter.
I: Do you do the same here also ?
E : Yes. That’s my full time job.
I : What is the success rate ?
E : For today 30 already. Yesterday was 60. (It was around 1 PM. So I guessed he not only bragged quite a lot but also simply doubled the figure for the previous day)
I : That’s very good. Which is your target group ?
E : All, hindus, Chinese, Muslims, atheists. But we find more success with the muslims. What are you ?
I : Hindu.
E : But your name sounds muslim ?
I : We used to be. But my father decided to give up because he was too depressed with the oppressive and fundamentalist tendencies of the local maulvi.
E : Why did you not change your names ?
I : Does not matter. But my children have pure Indian names.
Then he changed track.
E : We believe in peace and up liftment of the poor. So many christians are doing lot of selfless service around the world. Like you had mother teressa.
I ; She did a lot in India.
E : You see we are all humans and prone to commit sins.
I : Yes we do knowingly and unknowingly.
E : But jesus said ,don’t worry. I will take all your sins upon myself.
He was the son of god, who is omnipotent and omni-present. He died for our sins. He died for the whole humanity not just the christians.
I ; Yes yes.
E : Jesus belongs to everyone, Christians, hindus, muslims, Buddhists and others. So we pray for everyone.
I : Hmmm.
E : Can I pray for you ?
I : Ok.
E : No , I never force anybody.
Then looking at my wife, “ Can I pray for you”.
She was a bit hesitant, so I winked her to agree.
Then he took out a small postcard size paper from his pocket. He explained the contents. It was same thing about sinning and a short prayer. He put his hand on my shoulder and recited the prayer – oh lord I am a sinner. Take them all away and send me to heaven.
Then he opens his eyes gleefully and declared that we had been blessed. He gave us some tips on when and where to pray. I looked totally convinced.
Then he commanded’ “ Tell me, I am confident of going to heaven.”.
I hesitated. He repeated the same.
I : Will I go to heaven even if I sin ?
E : Of course. Jesus has already died for your sins.
I : In that case why do you need to bother about sinning or not sinning ? Do whatever you want, live the way you want. Your place in heave is already booked.
E : No, the sins I am talking about are those you do in good faith.
I : If you do something in good faith, then there is no sin involved, you conscience is clear.
E : Its like mother teressa. She would like to help everybody. There may be a situation wherein she helps a needy person, but the God does not want her to do that, for whatever reason.
I : You only said god is omnipotent. If mother teressa is doing something against his wish, cant god stop her.
Silence.
I : Whatever a person does, is gods command. Then why should a man worry about sins , heaven or hell ?
If god wants him to go to heaven, he will go to heaven. If god wills otherwise, can some prayer change that ?
He had no answer. In Hindi, we call it ‘Khisiyana’.
I : Thanks for the pains you took in praying for us. But I am not a bit convinced about whatever you have said. I have a lot to say. But this is no time or place. We have to go. Heaven and hell are here on the earth. We pray to who ever for our inner stability and peace. We should be good human beings so that instead of succumbing to violent animal instincts, humanity survives, progresses and evolves into a better species.
It was my turn to put my hand on his shoulder.
I : Its too late for you to change in life. Keep praying because you need it for your mental peace. Have you heard this word ‘ AUM’ ?
He gave puzzled looks. I called out ‘AUM’ a couple of times and he tried to repeat.
I : This is a small word, but has maximum vibrations. Take a full breath, then recite it as you exhale, feeling that the vibrations travel upwards from stomach – chest – throat – nostrils – upper sinus – head, as you move from AAAA to UUUUUU to MMMMMMMMM. The longer you stretch the recitation, the better.
I : Don’t worry, it is not a prayer to some Hindu god. It will not take you to heaven. When you recite ‘AUM’, resonance occurs inside your body. It clears the capillaries of blockages and ‘vikaras’. That improves health and feeling of well being.
E : Ok. Ok
I : You can still be a good christian and keep praying to jesus. I am sure you will go to heaven. In any case, if you want to see me some time later or need any help, you can note down my telephone number.
Obviously, he was not expecting this. He was speechless. I still had lot more to say. ….
We just went our own ways.
Government awarded Padma Bhushan to controversial figures
Cine star Shahrukh Khan, late National Security Advisor J N Dixit, eminent cartoonist R K Laxman, Wipro chairman Azim Premji, Hindustan Times vice chairperson Shobhana Bhartia and social worker Gladys Staines are among the 96 people who have been conferred with the 2005 Padma awards
There are some controversial figures were awarded , amomg the Romila thapar, Gladys Staines and Ifran Habib .
Click to know more
There are some controversial figures were awarded , amomg the Romila thapar, Gladys Staines and Ifran Habib .
Click to know more
Indian Diplomat Ravinder Mhatre murderer in Court
Man in court over diplomat murder
A man has appeared in court via video link charged with the murder of an Indian diplomat in 1984. Mohammed Aslam Mirza, 49, is also accused of the kidnap and false imprisonment of Ravinder Mhatre, Deputy High Commissioner in Birmingham.
Mr Mirza had been due to enter a plea at Birmingham Crown Court but this has now been put back until 24 February.
Mr Mhatre, who was 48, was seized by a group demanding the release of Kashmiri prisoners as he returned from work.
His body was discovered at a farm in Leicestershire two days after he went missing.
A post-mortem examination revealed he had died from gunshot wounds.
Mr Mirza is expected to stand trial in June.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/engla...212271.stm
A man has appeared in court via video link charged with the murder of an Indian diplomat in 1984. Mohammed Aslam Mirza, 49, is also accused of the kidnap and false imprisonment of Ravinder Mhatre, Deputy High Commissioner in Birmingham.
Mr Mirza had been due to enter a plea at Birmingham Crown Court but this has now been put back until 24 February.
Mr Mhatre, who was 48, was seized by a group demanding the release of Kashmiri prisoners as he returned from work.
His body was discovered at a farm in Leicestershire two days after he went missing.
A post-mortem examination revealed he had died from gunshot wounds.
Mr Mirza is expected to stand trial in June.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/engla...212271.stm
January 26, 2005
Mandhardevi "A Consipiracy"
From a Source
As it was suspected ("by me", but only waiting for clues), the stampede caused due to a brawl, not arson.
It was also found that, some of the "actual trouble creators" were completely drunk. Waiting for an opportunity to create trouble at a small notice under the guise of "Bhakt & Pilgrims".
Don't worry, even if their names are indeed revealed they would seem Hindu Names, but please be sure that they will be having Crypto"Community" (not making the community specific), identity, taking benefits of both.
The Conspiracy 1:
----------------
The conspiracy by one community to prove that "see your god kills you and our god saves" to the other community members (let's not go deep into specific community right now).
The Conspiracy 2:
----------------
The same mechanism is being used in theory & practice to malign our brave soldiers by the same community in the various parts of North Eastern States.
That is, "Anti Social Elements" dressed in Uniform and acting illicitly and misbehaving with a section of the population.
The complexity of this Conspiracy is verification, but these "Anti Social Elements" supported some foreign donors in cash & kind give the elementary information such as "Jawan Name & No, Regiment or Group names and their ranks etc" to implicate the Indian Army & Paramilitary Forces.
---------------------------
Just give a try, and think on the same lines and try to reason out the recent "Train Incident".
It's easy to find out from charts who's travelling and its easy to forge documents (which is hard for the railways to verify at the time of ticket booking).
So far so bad......but whoever/whichever is playing these geo-political /religious games, is very rich in cash & thought process to destabilise our Nation.
Let's be more rationale & try to educate our fellow countrymen.
(My analysis may not be correct... forum members may think from other angles and perspectives....).
-Srikar
As it was suspected ("by me", but only waiting for clues), the stampede caused due to a brawl, not arson.
It was also found that, some of the "actual trouble creators" were completely drunk. Waiting for an opportunity to create trouble at a small notice under the guise of "Bhakt & Pilgrims".
Don't worry, even if their names are indeed revealed they would seem Hindu Names, but please be sure that they will be having Crypto"Community" (not making the community specific), identity, taking benefits of both.
The Conspiracy 1:
----------------
The conspiracy by one community to prove that "see your god kills you and our god saves" to the other community members (let's not go deep into specific community right now).
The Conspiracy 2:
----------------
The same mechanism is being used in theory & practice to malign our brave soldiers by the same community in the various parts of North Eastern States.
That is, "Anti Social Elements" dressed in Uniform and acting illicitly and misbehaving with a section of the population.
The complexity of this Conspiracy is verification, but these "Anti Social Elements" supported some foreign donors in cash & kind give the elementary information such as "Jawan Name & No, Regiment or Group names and their ranks etc" to implicate the Indian Army & Paramilitary Forces.
---------------------------
Just give a try, and think on the same lines and try to reason out the recent "Train Incident".
It's easy to find out from charts who's travelling and its easy to forge documents (which is hard for the railways to verify at the time of ticket booking).
So far so bad......but whoever/whichever is playing these geo-political /religious games, is very rich in cash & thought process to destabilise our Nation.
Let's be more rationale & try to educate our fellow countrymen.
(My analysis may not be correct... forum members may think from other angles and perspectives....).
-Srikar
January 25, 2005
Four Months on Planet bin Laden
SPIEGEL ONLINE - January 21, 2005, 03:27 PM
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,337867,00.html
Abducted In Iraq
Four Months on Planet bin Laden
By Jody K. Biehl
French journalist George Malbrunot spent 124 days as a hostage of Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq. The experience nearly broke him, but it also offered him stunning insights into the way jihadist groups operate. He returned convinced of one thing: America's policy is doomed.
AP
Since his return to Paris on Dec. 22, Malbrunot has been the toast of the town, having private audiences with top political officials and sipping mixed drinks in the city's top locales. But, still, memories of his 124 hostage ordeal keep him awake at night.
The two Mercedes came out of nowhere. Within seconds, the car carrying French reporters Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot and their driver skidded to a halt, caged in along the perilous road heading south from Baghdad to Najaf. The men knew this was a dangerous road. They had even warned colleagues not to take it. Now, they were pawns in Iraq's most dangerous game -- abduction.
Immediately, eight men in white hooded robes ripped open the car doors, tied the reporters up and threw them into the Mercedes. Luckily, both speak Arabic, Chesnot more fluently than Malbrunot, so they could talk to their assailants and plead their innocence. Right away, they declared themselves as French, as reporters, and as men who understood the resistance.
"We immediately distanced ourselves from the Americans and stuck to the French position," Malbrunot said Wednesday from his family's home in Paris. The two were taken to a small cell and interrogated for hours by masked men holding guns. "We told them we were French journalists and that we were there to do our work and show the realities of the resistance."
They thought being French would be the equivalent of a white flag, a "get out of jail free card" or at least a means of assuring a timely release. France has long believed that it has a special relation with the Arab world and that it wields more leverage than other nations. Yet not even their Syrian driver was let go until November. And to the shock of French leaders, hostage negotiators and the public, the two also remained in captivity. French news organizations ran the men's photos every day after their Aug. 20 kidnapping and banners with their faces went up all over Paris. The government sent several teams to negotiate clandestinely. Yet, still, the men remained captives for close to four months. Malbrunot is convinced that their "Frenchness" kept them alive.
"If we had been American or British or Italian they would have killed us," he said. "Being French was the best card we had." If so, then the second best was being well-known. "We had the feeling that our captors were quite proud to negotiate with France, such a big country. And I think it did help that our names were in the news. A dead hostage has no value."
Planet bin Laden
Now, safely returned to the arms of his Parisian family, he says over the months of their captivity, he and Chesnot slowly began to realize that they were "living on planet bin Laden." References to chief Osama abounded, he said, and there was much talk of living by Muslim law. Resilient, tough-minded and good-looking, Malbrunot, 41, became an instant celebrity in France the minute he and Chesnot, 38, disappeared. Now, a month after his release, he offers a curt assessment of where America's Iraq policy is headed: "Straight into a wall." He also has some blunt advice for journalists planning to cover the war. "Don't go to Iraq," he said. "You will be killed. No story is worth your life."
AFP
A clip from a tape sent to Al-Jazeera showed Malbrunot and colleague Christian Chesnot asking to be saved on Aug. 28. The Arabic writing behind them reads Islamic Army in Iraq and is the name of the fundamentalist group that abducted them.
Such skepticism toward the US presence in Iraq is not surprising coming from a Frenchman. After all, France opposed the Iraq war from the start. Yet, Malbrunot speaks from a slightly different perspective, one nuanced by over four months on the inside. For 124 days, Malbrunot lived his kidnappers' anger and mercilessness, and his life balanced on their fanaticism and on their ever-changing reasoning.
The two were imprisoned in a cramped cell, and Malbrunot admits that his vision was somewhat limited. Still, he says, his abduction brought him closer to the extremist underbelly of Iraq, closer to "these people who are extremely cruel" and for whom violence is an integral part of daily life. Free since Dec. 21, he still has trouble sleeping.
"They have weapons and money"
"These people will not surrender," he said, referring not only to the what he estimated to be the 15,000-17,000 member strong Islamic Army in Iraq which kidnapped him and Chesnot, but also to the dozens of other Islamic fundamentalist groups fighting in the country. "They have time, they have weapons, they have money. And, they are fighting at home. I am afraid it will only get worse, that they will get more and more power. It frightens me." What's worse, he said, is that in US President George W. Bush, "they have a great partner." Neither side is willing to budge.
During their captivity, Malbrunot, a free-lance reporter for the conservative French daily Le Figaro, and Chesnot, of Radio France Internationale, were moved six times, mainly shuffled about in the trunks of cars. For two weeks, he and Chesnot lived in a mosquito-infested cell with a corner hole serving as a toilet. Later, their conditions improved to one room with a toilet. The men never saw the faces of their captors -- all wore balaclavas. They were often handcuffed, blindfolded, interrogated, and subjected to odd demands -- including that they convert to Islam. At one point, they were told they would be killed unless France revoked a law banning Muslim head scarves from being worn in public schools.
Although he kept telling himself he would live, Malbrunot admits, a few times, he broke down in anguish and tears, convinced he would die. Yet often, he acted like a clear-headed Cartesian, cozying up to guards, trying to be friendly and extract bits of information about where he was, what was happening in the world and to whom the men were reporting. Four other prisoners with whom he briefly shared a cell were beheaded.
What do the kidnappers want?
AP
While the men were held, all of France pressured the government to secure their release. Even Muslim women held vigils. When he was released and read all the reports, Malbrunot said he was "moved to tears."
Malbrunot is still trying to sort out his disjointed impressions. Before his abduction, he had never heard of the Islamic Army in Iraq, an extremely fundamentalist group with close ties to Osama bin Laden. Now he knows a lot. They are, for example, better organized and wealthier than he ever imagined -- even more so now than a mere six months ago, he said. Also, he says, they are adamant jihadists, convinced that they are waging war to defend the Muslim faith against the West. "There was a lot of talk about chief Osama (bin Laden), references to Chechnya and how the Muslim world is fighting the Western world in Chechnya, Pakistan and Afghanistan." Some of the men had been Saddam Hussein loyals -- including one who claimed he was Saddam's personal secretary.
The Islamist cells are also very compartmentalized, and they divide their work carefully. Some do the kidnapping, others the interrogating, others the judging, others the guarding and -- he assumes -- others the killing. They also have surprisingly strong contacts in Europe. And although they operate separately, they sometimes coordinate with other insurgent groups -- including that run by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted insurgent in Iraq for whose capture the US has offered a $25 million reward. Malbrunot says that these fighters will not give up until the last of them is dead. As such, he sees little hope in upcoming elections on Jan. 30.
"One of our jailers told us they have four enemies," he said. "American soldiers and other coalition members, collaborators, which meant businessmen -- Italian, American or even French -- who are working there, the Iraqi police and spies." Any new Iraqi government, he said, will be viewed as an enemy, just as the Americans -- and even secular Arab leaders -- are viewed. The group's main goals are far from modest. They want to defeat America in Iraq, drive a wedge between Europe and America and "overthrow the Arab leaders in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and return to the caliphate (Islamic rule) from Andalusia (Spain) to China."
Staying alive in the hands of extremists
Compared to what Malbrunot has read about hostages in Lebanon and other places, he says they were well fed and cared for. Aside from one slap on the face, they experienced no violence. Their captors served them regular, if repetitive, meals of beans, chicken, rice, dates and tea. Still, each lost one to two kilos per week. Their jailers told them how to sleep in the proper Muslim way, prohibited them from smoking as it is against Muslim practices and said they were allowed to pray, but only in the Muslim manner.
One of the hostages' strategies was to get to know their guards, who always stood at the door holding a Kalashnikov. They asked the guards about their children, their families, anything they could think of. "My obsession was to drag things out. The longer we lasted, the surer we were that we would be released. But we were scared," he said. The guards were friendly, but "we also knew they could get an order and kill us the next day."
At one point in their captivity, they talked to the jailers about journalists, why they were targets and what they generally did with them. "They told us that with journalists they respect the position of their countries. We asked them why they don't bargain for journalists. They said journalists are enemies and we kill them."
AFP
Florence Aubenas, missing in Iraq.
On Jan. 5, two weeks after Malbrunot and Chesnot's release, another French journalist, Florence Aubenas who works for the liberal daily Liberation disappeared while on assignment in northern Iraq. No sign of her has yet appeared and no group has taken responsibility for her kidnapping. It could mean, said Malbrunot, that she is not the victim of a political group, but that of criminals.
Land of war
The cruelest moment of their captivity came on Nov. 8, when their guards made them believe that one of them was to be killed. The waiting was excruciating. Each time the door opened, they thought one of them would be taken. Huddling together, the men held hands and made oral wills. They asked the other to deliver messages to their families. They cried. They prayed. Ironically, they both reconnected with their Christianity.
And then, suddenly, about a week later, the mood lightened and they began to hope again. In early December they were even given shampoo and allowed to look in a mirror for the first time. On December 21, they were thrown into the trunk of a car and delivered to French officials at the side of a road. For the first time in four months, the men saw the sky. One French paper, the Canard Enchaine claims France spent €15 million to free them. The government denies it, but nonetheless is embroiled in a bitter, backstabbing debate about what went on behind the scenes to secure their release. Malbrunot says he has no idea whether Paris paid a ransome.
Malbrunot and Chesnot -- who is currently in Jordan preparing to move from the Middle East back to France -- are now writing a book about their experiences. Neither plans to return to Iraq any time soon. One of the last things their captors said to them was, "Don't come back here. We don't want you. Iraq is a land of war."
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,337867,00.html
Abducted In Iraq
Four Months on Planet bin Laden
By Jody K. Biehl
French journalist George Malbrunot spent 124 days as a hostage of Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq. The experience nearly broke him, but it also offered him stunning insights into the way jihadist groups operate. He returned convinced of one thing: America's policy is doomed.
AP
Since his return to Paris on Dec. 22, Malbrunot has been the toast of the town, having private audiences with top political officials and sipping mixed drinks in the city's top locales. But, still, memories of his 124 hostage ordeal keep him awake at night.
The two Mercedes came out of nowhere. Within seconds, the car carrying French reporters Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot and their driver skidded to a halt, caged in along the perilous road heading south from Baghdad to Najaf. The men knew this was a dangerous road. They had even warned colleagues not to take it. Now, they were pawns in Iraq's most dangerous game -- abduction.
Immediately, eight men in white hooded robes ripped open the car doors, tied the reporters up and threw them into the Mercedes. Luckily, both speak Arabic, Chesnot more fluently than Malbrunot, so they could talk to their assailants and plead their innocence. Right away, they declared themselves as French, as reporters, and as men who understood the resistance.
"We immediately distanced ourselves from the Americans and stuck to the French position," Malbrunot said Wednesday from his family's home in Paris. The two were taken to a small cell and interrogated for hours by masked men holding guns. "We told them we were French journalists and that we were there to do our work and show the realities of the resistance."
They thought being French would be the equivalent of a white flag, a "get out of jail free card" or at least a means of assuring a timely release. France has long believed that it has a special relation with the Arab world and that it wields more leverage than other nations. Yet not even their Syrian driver was let go until November. And to the shock of French leaders, hostage negotiators and the public, the two also remained in captivity. French news organizations ran the men's photos every day after their Aug. 20 kidnapping and banners with their faces went up all over Paris. The government sent several teams to negotiate clandestinely. Yet, still, the men remained captives for close to four months. Malbrunot is convinced that their "Frenchness" kept them alive.
"If we had been American or British or Italian they would have killed us," he said. "Being French was the best card we had." If so, then the second best was being well-known. "We had the feeling that our captors were quite proud to negotiate with France, such a big country. And I think it did help that our names were in the news. A dead hostage has no value."
Planet bin Laden
Now, safely returned to the arms of his Parisian family, he says over the months of their captivity, he and Chesnot slowly began to realize that they were "living on planet bin Laden." References to chief Osama abounded, he said, and there was much talk of living by Muslim law. Resilient, tough-minded and good-looking, Malbrunot, 41, became an instant celebrity in France the minute he and Chesnot, 38, disappeared. Now, a month after his release, he offers a curt assessment of where America's Iraq policy is headed: "Straight into a wall." He also has some blunt advice for journalists planning to cover the war. "Don't go to Iraq," he said. "You will be killed. No story is worth your life."
AFP
A clip from a tape sent to Al-Jazeera showed Malbrunot and colleague Christian Chesnot asking to be saved on Aug. 28. The Arabic writing behind them reads Islamic Army in Iraq and is the name of the fundamentalist group that abducted them.
Such skepticism toward the US presence in Iraq is not surprising coming from a Frenchman. After all, France opposed the Iraq war from the start. Yet, Malbrunot speaks from a slightly different perspective, one nuanced by over four months on the inside. For 124 days, Malbrunot lived his kidnappers' anger and mercilessness, and his life balanced on their fanaticism and on their ever-changing reasoning.
The two were imprisoned in a cramped cell, and Malbrunot admits that his vision was somewhat limited. Still, he says, his abduction brought him closer to the extremist underbelly of Iraq, closer to "these people who are extremely cruel" and for whom violence is an integral part of daily life. Free since Dec. 21, he still has trouble sleeping.
"They have weapons and money"
"These people will not surrender," he said, referring not only to the what he estimated to be the 15,000-17,000 member strong Islamic Army in Iraq which kidnapped him and Chesnot, but also to the dozens of other Islamic fundamentalist groups fighting in the country. "They have time, they have weapons, they have money. And, they are fighting at home. I am afraid it will only get worse, that they will get more and more power. It frightens me." What's worse, he said, is that in US President George W. Bush, "they have a great partner." Neither side is willing to budge.
During their captivity, Malbrunot, a free-lance reporter for the conservative French daily Le Figaro, and Chesnot, of Radio France Internationale, were moved six times, mainly shuffled about in the trunks of cars. For two weeks, he and Chesnot lived in a mosquito-infested cell with a corner hole serving as a toilet. Later, their conditions improved to one room with a toilet. The men never saw the faces of their captors -- all wore balaclavas. They were often handcuffed, blindfolded, interrogated, and subjected to odd demands -- including that they convert to Islam. At one point, they were told they would be killed unless France revoked a law banning Muslim head scarves from being worn in public schools.
Although he kept telling himself he would live, Malbrunot admits, a few times, he broke down in anguish and tears, convinced he would die. Yet often, he acted like a clear-headed Cartesian, cozying up to guards, trying to be friendly and extract bits of information about where he was, what was happening in the world and to whom the men were reporting. Four other prisoners with whom he briefly shared a cell were beheaded.
What do the kidnappers want?
AP
While the men were held, all of France pressured the government to secure their release. Even Muslim women held vigils. When he was released and read all the reports, Malbrunot said he was "moved to tears."
Malbrunot is still trying to sort out his disjointed impressions. Before his abduction, he had never heard of the Islamic Army in Iraq, an extremely fundamentalist group with close ties to Osama bin Laden. Now he knows a lot. They are, for example, better organized and wealthier than he ever imagined -- even more so now than a mere six months ago, he said. Also, he says, they are adamant jihadists, convinced that they are waging war to defend the Muslim faith against the West. "There was a lot of talk about chief Osama (bin Laden), references to Chechnya and how the Muslim world is fighting the Western world in Chechnya, Pakistan and Afghanistan." Some of the men had been Saddam Hussein loyals -- including one who claimed he was Saddam's personal secretary.
The Islamist cells are also very compartmentalized, and they divide their work carefully. Some do the kidnapping, others the interrogating, others the judging, others the guarding and -- he assumes -- others the killing. They also have surprisingly strong contacts in Europe. And although they operate separately, they sometimes coordinate with other insurgent groups -- including that run by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted insurgent in Iraq for whose capture the US has offered a $25 million reward. Malbrunot says that these fighters will not give up until the last of them is dead. As such, he sees little hope in upcoming elections on Jan. 30.
"One of our jailers told us they have four enemies," he said. "American soldiers and other coalition members, collaborators, which meant businessmen -- Italian, American or even French -- who are working there, the Iraqi police and spies." Any new Iraqi government, he said, will be viewed as an enemy, just as the Americans -- and even secular Arab leaders -- are viewed. The group's main goals are far from modest. They want to defeat America in Iraq, drive a wedge between Europe and America and "overthrow the Arab leaders in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and return to the caliphate (Islamic rule) from Andalusia (Spain) to China."
Staying alive in the hands of extremists
Compared to what Malbrunot has read about hostages in Lebanon and other places, he says they were well fed and cared for. Aside from one slap on the face, they experienced no violence. Their captors served them regular, if repetitive, meals of beans, chicken, rice, dates and tea. Still, each lost one to two kilos per week. Their jailers told them how to sleep in the proper Muslim way, prohibited them from smoking as it is against Muslim practices and said they were allowed to pray, but only in the Muslim manner.
One of the hostages' strategies was to get to know their guards, who always stood at the door holding a Kalashnikov. They asked the guards about their children, their families, anything they could think of. "My obsession was to drag things out. The longer we lasted, the surer we were that we would be released. But we were scared," he said. The guards were friendly, but "we also knew they could get an order and kill us the next day."
At one point in their captivity, they talked to the jailers about journalists, why they were targets and what they generally did with them. "They told us that with journalists they respect the position of their countries. We asked them why they don't bargain for journalists. They said journalists are enemies and we kill them."
AFP
Florence Aubenas, missing in Iraq.
On Jan. 5, two weeks after Malbrunot and Chesnot's release, another French journalist, Florence Aubenas who works for the liberal daily Liberation disappeared while on assignment in northern Iraq. No sign of her has yet appeared and no group has taken responsibility for her kidnapping. It could mean, said Malbrunot, that she is not the victim of a political group, but that of criminals.
Land of war
The cruelest moment of their captivity came on Nov. 8, when their guards made them believe that one of them was to be killed. The waiting was excruciating. Each time the door opened, they thought one of them would be taken. Huddling together, the men held hands and made oral wills. They asked the other to deliver messages to their families. They cried. They prayed. Ironically, they both reconnected with their Christianity.
And then, suddenly, about a week later, the mood lightened and they began to hope again. In early December they were even given shampoo and allowed to look in a mirror for the first time. On December 21, they were thrown into the trunk of a car and delivered to French officials at the side of a road. For the first time in four months, the men saw the sky. One French paper, the Canard Enchaine claims France spent €15 million to free them. The government denies it, but nonetheless is embroiled in a bitter, backstabbing debate about what went on behind the scenes to secure their release. Malbrunot says he has no idea whether Paris paid a ransome.
Malbrunot and Chesnot -- who is currently in Jordan preparing to move from the Middle East back to France -- are now writing a book about their experiences. Neither plans to return to Iraq any time soon. One of the last things their captors said to them was, "Don't come back here. We don't want you. Iraq is a land of war."
NSA's job: Dixit fitted into the role well
Title: NSA's job: Dixit fitted into the role well
Author: SWAPAN DASGUPTA
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: January 24, 2005
The mismatch between conviction and action is a necessary part of
democratic politics which few, apart from starry-eyed idealists,
begrudge. Yet, it says something for the ingrained cynicism of some members
of the Manmohan Singh Government that the lavish praises showered on the
former National Security Adviser J.N. "Mani" Dixit after his sudden
death earlier this month has also been accompanied by a concerted attempt
to undermine almost everything he stood for.
On paper, Dixit has been lauded as an original thinker, a realist
and even an upholder of the grand imperial vision. The Minister of
External Affairs, his former colleague in the Foreign Service, who was
almost in tears when providing the TV bytes on January 3, has even
announced an annual lecture in his memory. The lecture, unless it is hijacked
by family retainers to preach the continuing relevance of Jawaharlal
Nehru, will no doubt become an important occasion in Delhi's diplomatic
and think-tank calendar.
It may be presumptuous on my part to suggest the theme and
speaker for the inaugural lecture. However, if the political grapevine in the
Capital is anything to go by, it would not be inopportune for K. Natwar
Singh to do the honours himself, with Home Minister Shivraj Patil
presiding over the function. And the topic- `Why India does not need an
NSA'-will be something both ministers should warm up to instantly.
That, in the seven months he was NSA, Dixit was a thorn in the
flesh for both ministers is no great secret. The Home Minister, and, for
that matter, the present officiating NSA, perceived him as a pesky
intruder who was eloquent in his opposition to the mindless appeasement of
every Naxalite and secessionist group in the country.
For Dixit, containing and defeating terrorism was an important
obligation of the state, more important than accommodating the imaginary
roots of extremist disorder. His intense unhappiness at the cringing
way the PMO responded to some vague offer from the secessionist ULFA for
a cease-fire was well known.
The External Affairs Minister imagined him an interloper bent on
shaping the contours of both neighbourhood diplomacy and relations with
the superpower. Dixit's realism and his stress on continuity were in
sharp contrast to Natwar's belief that India should turn its back on the
entire six years the NDA was in power.
For Dixit, India's nuclear status was a reality that had to be
intelligently leveraged; to the Minister, it was a horrible mistake. The
External Affairs Minister's shameful interview to a Korean newspaper,
for which Manmohan had to make amends in Parliament, was not a stray act
of indiscretion. Anyone reading Natwar's late-night intervention in the
April 1999 no-confidence motion debate will instantly realise that a
disavowal of India's nuclear policy comes from his heart.
For Dixit, the Islamabad declaration of January 2004 was an
important milestone in Indo-Pakistan relations; to Natwar, the Shimla
Agreement of 1972 was the mandatory reference point. Dixit was troubled that
Atal Behari Vajpayee was a bit too placatory towards Pakistan; his
minister was miffed that Vajpayee was there at all.
The differences didn't stem from the fact that Dixit was a
patriot first and a Congressman incidentally. It was also based on his
understanding of what the job of NSA involved. It didn't, according to him,
involve merely reading intelligence reports or taking an exceptional
interest in promotions and appointments in the intelligence agencies-in
short, conducting himself like a super chief of the IB.
Apart from closely monitoring the sensitive area of nuclear
policy, which neither the MEA nor the Home Ministry is privy to, the job of
the NSA involved using the weight of the Prime Minister's Office to
take a more rounded and panoramic view of national security, and guide the
Prime Minister accordingly.
The NSA fulfills a special role in the diplomatic and security
establishments. It was the former NSA Brajesh Mishra and his Pakistani
counterpart Tariq Aiz, not the Foreign Ministers of the two countries,
who hammered out the Islamabad Declaration.
Equally, it should not be forgotten that the Next Steps in
Strategic Partnership, which took Indo-US relations to a new plane, was
negotiated by two NSAs, bypassing the entrenched positions of the MEA and
the State Department. On his part, Dixit played a quiet but pivotal role
in persuading the authorities in Iran that it would be
counter-productive to confront the West on the issue of nuclear proliferation.
In recent months, Dixit played a very major role in ensuring that
the Prime Minister's foreign policy pronouncements were a shade more
responsible and sophisticated than anything his External Affairs Minister
uttered.
Of course, he didn't always succeed. India got itself into an
embarrassing position when Natwar told Parliament that India would never
accept permanent membership of the UN Security Council without veto
powers. A multilateral issue was sought to be made an instrument of
grandstanding.
Dixit and a few others tut-tutted but the damage had been done.
Dixit realised India was an emerging great power that had to weigh its
words and position with care. The External Affairs Minister still
imagined India was a Third World power fighting some anticolonial movement.
For every problem, he sought solutions in the Collected Works of
Jawaharlal Nehru. Dixit wasn't weighed down by ghosts from the past. He
was forward looking; Natwar insisted on remaining imprisoned by
history. The NSA's job, it is clear, involves a deep and clear understanding
of national interests.
It does not involve substituting reasoned arguments with the
nonchalant assertion that "this is what Madam desires", as if the
ubiquitous lady holds the key to national self-realisation and enlightenment. It
certainly necessitates an individual who, at the very least, has the
requisite competence to conduct a one-to-one dialogue with Tariq Aziz. It
definitely involves finding someone who can counter the dangerous
woolly-headedness of those who are caught in a time warp.
Dixit fulfilled these roles. This is why they want to either
abolish his job or hand it over to someone who diminishes its dignity.
Either way, Manmohan Singh's authority is further weakened.
Author: SWAPAN DASGUPTA
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: January 24, 2005
The mismatch between conviction and action is a necessary part of
democratic politics which few, apart from starry-eyed idealists,
begrudge. Yet, it says something for the ingrained cynicism of some members
of the Manmohan Singh Government that the lavish praises showered on the
former National Security Adviser J.N. "Mani" Dixit after his sudden
death earlier this month has also been accompanied by a concerted attempt
to undermine almost everything he stood for.
On paper, Dixit has been lauded as an original thinker, a realist
and even an upholder of the grand imperial vision. The Minister of
External Affairs, his former colleague in the Foreign Service, who was
almost in tears when providing the TV bytes on January 3, has even
announced an annual lecture in his memory. The lecture, unless it is hijacked
by family retainers to preach the continuing relevance of Jawaharlal
Nehru, will no doubt become an important occasion in Delhi's diplomatic
and think-tank calendar.
It may be presumptuous on my part to suggest the theme and
speaker for the inaugural lecture. However, if the political grapevine in the
Capital is anything to go by, it would not be inopportune for K. Natwar
Singh to do the honours himself, with Home Minister Shivraj Patil
presiding over the function. And the topic- `Why India does not need an
NSA'-will be something both ministers should warm up to instantly.
That, in the seven months he was NSA, Dixit was a thorn in the
flesh for both ministers is no great secret. The Home Minister, and, for
that matter, the present officiating NSA, perceived him as a pesky
intruder who was eloquent in his opposition to the mindless appeasement of
every Naxalite and secessionist group in the country.
For Dixit, containing and defeating terrorism was an important
obligation of the state, more important than accommodating the imaginary
roots of extremist disorder. His intense unhappiness at the cringing
way the PMO responded to some vague offer from the secessionist ULFA for
a cease-fire was well known.
The External Affairs Minister imagined him an interloper bent on
shaping the contours of both neighbourhood diplomacy and relations with
the superpower. Dixit's realism and his stress on continuity were in
sharp contrast to Natwar's belief that India should turn its back on the
entire six years the NDA was in power.
For Dixit, India's nuclear status was a reality that had to be
intelligently leveraged; to the Minister, it was a horrible mistake. The
External Affairs Minister's shameful interview to a Korean newspaper,
for which Manmohan had to make amends in Parliament, was not a stray act
of indiscretion. Anyone reading Natwar's late-night intervention in the
April 1999 no-confidence motion debate will instantly realise that a
disavowal of India's nuclear policy comes from his heart.
For Dixit, the Islamabad declaration of January 2004 was an
important milestone in Indo-Pakistan relations; to Natwar, the Shimla
Agreement of 1972 was the mandatory reference point. Dixit was troubled that
Atal Behari Vajpayee was a bit too placatory towards Pakistan; his
minister was miffed that Vajpayee was there at all.
The differences didn't stem from the fact that Dixit was a
patriot first and a Congressman incidentally. It was also based on his
understanding of what the job of NSA involved. It didn't, according to him,
involve merely reading intelligence reports or taking an exceptional
interest in promotions and appointments in the intelligence agencies-in
short, conducting himself like a super chief of the IB.
Apart from closely monitoring the sensitive area of nuclear
policy, which neither the MEA nor the Home Ministry is privy to, the job of
the NSA involved using the weight of the Prime Minister's Office to
take a more rounded and panoramic view of national security, and guide the
Prime Minister accordingly.
The NSA fulfills a special role in the diplomatic and security
establishments. It was the former NSA Brajesh Mishra and his Pakistani
counterpart Tariq Aiz, not the Foreign Ministers of the two countries,
who hammered out the Islamabad Declaration.
Equally, it should not be forgotten that the Next Steps in
Strategic Partnership, which took Indo-US relations to a new plane, was
negotiated by two NSAs, bypassing the entrenched positions of the MEA and
the State Department. On his part, Dixit played a quiet but pivotal role
in persuading the authorities in Iran that it would be
counter-productive to confront the West on the issue of nuclear proliferation.
In recent months, Dixit played a very major role in ensuring that
the Prime Minister's foreign policy pronouncements were a shade more
responsible and sophisticated than anything his External Affairs Minister
uttered.
Of course, he didn't always succeed. India got itself into an
embarrassing position when Natwar told Parliament that India would never
accept permanent membership of the UN Security Council without veto
powers. A multilateral issue was sought to be made an instrument of
grandstanding.
Dixit and a few others tut-tutted but the damage had been done.
Dixit realised India was an emerging great power that had to weigh its
words and position with care. The External Affairs Minister still
imagined India was a Third World power fighting some anticolonial movement.
For every problem, he sought solutions in the Collected Works of
Jawaharlal Nehru. Dixit wasn't weighed down by ghosts from the past. He
was forward looking; Natwar insisted on remaining imprisoned by
history. The NSA's job, it is clear, involves a deep and clear understanding
of national interests.
It does not involve substituting reasoned arguments with the
nonchalant assertion that "this is what Madam desires", as if the
ubiquitous lady holds the key to national self-realisation and enlightenment. It
certainly necessitates an individual who, at the very least, has the
requisite competence to conduct a one-to-one dialogue with Tariq Aziz. It
definitely involves finding someone who can counter the dangerous
woolly-headedness of those who are caught in a time warp.
Dixit fulfilled these roles. This is why they want to either
abolish his job or hand it over to someone who diminishes its dignity.
Either way, Manmohan Singh's authority is further weakened.
January 24, 2005
More loyal than the queen
Francois Gautier
Something terribly wrong is going on in India. On the one hand, there is the Shankaracharya, one of the most venerated Hindu leaders, arrested like an ordinary criminal on one of the most sacred days of the Hindus. On the other, politicians such as Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, who have more corruption cases against them than anybody else - and certain others who may even have some blood on their hands - are made ministers and are strutting around with security guards in tow. The tarnishing of the image of the Kancheepuram mutt is nearly complete. Will it ever be able to recover its sanctity, even if the Shankaracharya is found not guilty?
On the other hand, there is a quack like American evangelist Benny Hinn, who even in the United States has no standing, but can come to India, a country with an overwhelming Hindu majority, to deride idol worship and paganism and convert the poor and the gullible. We see former ministers and ex-prime ministers - many of them Hindus - coming to Benny Hinn live on TV, with bowed heads and folded hands like beggars asking for the White Man's grace. We see the entire state machinery of Karnataka put to the service of the evangelist while all the laws are subverted so that he can conduct his fake show.
We see how, when 58 innocent men, women and children were burnt alive in the most horrible manner in Godhra, for no other reason than being Hindus, that there is not even respect for their memory, for the truth is now twisted for political purposes with the help of India's Marxists who want the death of Hinduism. Hindus are always accused of all the ills and intolerance, but where else in the world will you find a Christian supreme leader in a country with only three per cent Christians, a Sikh Prime Minister when there are only two per cent Sikhs, and a Muslim President with only 10 per cent Muslims?
I am a Westerner and a born Christian, but I am ashamed of what has been happening in the country ever since Ms Sonia Gandhi, also a Westerner and a Christian, has become the de facto ruler of this ancient and extraordinary country of 850 million Hindus and 125 million Muslims. For, what is happening is an insult to India's culture, greatness and intelligence. Even more saddening is the passivity of Indians in the face of the developments. For only a few voices have been raised in these moments of insanity. India's curse is the disunity amongst its Hindus, and their infighting. One is even surprised at the lack of reaction from the top Hindu spiritual leaders of India: Satya Sai Baba, Amrita Anandamayi and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Together they hold sway on at least 400 million Hindus. Why don't they form a Supreme Spiritual Conclave along with the Shankara-charya? They have only to say one word and it will be followed. But even amongst them there is disunity.
Who will save India, then? Certainly not the Congress, which was incapable of finding a worthy Indian leader amongst its own members, many of whom are intelligent and sincere. By stooping down to Ms Sonia Gandhi, they have repeated the same old story of India's ancient princes and maharajas betraying each other and bowing down to a foreign ruler, be it Aurangzeb, or His Majesty's Viceroy. Who betrayed the mighty empire of Vijaynagar, the last great Hindu kingdom, to Muslims? Who betrayed India to the British? Who is betraying India today? But at least the Congress is true to its ideals. The biggest culprit must be the party which, in five years of power, did nothing except project a Gandhian image of itself, rather than having India's interests at heart.
Not have to say or do anything. She does not have to instruct the Tamil Nadu Police to arrest the Shankaracharya, or tell the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr Dharam Singh, to attend Benny Hinn's show. By just being where she is, at the top of India's political hierarchy, she is able to ensure that her silent wishes are fulfilled. Everybody is bending over backwards to please her, even anticipating her wishes!
I have nothing personally against Ms Sonia Gandhi. She was a good wife to her husband, a good daughter to her mother-in-law, and is doubtless a good mother to her children. Many accounts have come of her dignity, grace and concern for others. But what does Ms Gandhi really stand for, as the Eminence Grise of this country, the person who is drawing all the strings behind the scene? The Benny Hinn show points to not only a renewed effort at Christianisation of India (something which even the British and the Portuguese could not do), and a targeting of Hindus and Hindu spiritual leaders, but also at the Westernisation of the subcontinent. India will then become just another nation cloning the West. Even Muslims and Christians in India, who are like no other Christians and Muslims in the world, would lose something.
How sad that this is happening at a time when the West is looking for other spiritual answers to its problems and the Church is in decline there. The only silver lining in the whole story is that these events - whether the arrest of the Shankaracharya, the Benny Hinn show, or the rewriting of Godhra - may open the eyes of Indians. It may be that India needs to go through this painful process, to see the forces that have been unleashed when Indians chose someone who is basically hostile to the majority culture of this country as their leader. Maybe they need to be faced with a Government which is pulling India down, just to please the minorities, the Vatican and the Western powers who do not want India to emerge as a strong and vibrant nation.
Nobody seems to understand that India's unique identity, its Sanatan dharma, which survived so many onslaughts in its long history, is today under mortal threat.
Cry my Beloved India, Look what Thy children have done to Thee.
Something terribly wrong is going on in India. On the one hand, there is the Shankaracharya, one of the most venerated Hindu leaders, arrested like an ordinary criminal on one of the most sacred days of the Hindus. On the other, politicians such as Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, who have more corruption cases against them than anybody else - and certain others who may even have some blood on their hands - are made ministers and are strutting around with security guards in tow. The tarnishing of the image of the Kancheepuram mutt is nearly complete. Will it ever be able to recover its sanctity, even if the Shankaracharya is found not guilty?
On the other hand, there is a quack like American evangelist Benny Hinn, who even in the United States has no standing, but can come to India, a country with an overwhelming Hindu majority, to deride idol worship and paganism and convert the poor and the gullible. We see former ministers and ex-prime ministers - many of them Hindus - coming to Benny Hinn live on TV, with bowed heads and folded hands like beggars asking for the White Man's grace. We see the entire state machinery of Karnataka put to the service of the evangelist while all the laws are subverted so that he can conduct his fake show.
We see how, when 58 innocent men, women and children were burnt alive in the most horrible manner in Godhra, for no other reason than being Hindus, that there is not even respect for their memory, for the truth is now twisted for political purposes with the help of India's Marxists who want the death of Hinduism. Hindus are always accused of all the ills and intolerance, but where else in the world will you find a Christian supreme leader in a country with only three per cent Christians, a Sikh Prime Minister when there are only two per cent Sikhs, and a Muslim President with only 10 per cent Muslims?
I am a Westerner and a born Christian, but I am ashamed of what has been happening in the country ever since Ms Sonia Gandhi, also a Westerner and a Christian, has become the de facto ruler of this ancient and extraordinary country of 850 million Hindus and 125 million Muslims. For, what is happening is an insult to India's culture, greatness and intelligence. Even more saddening is the passivity of Indians in the face of the developments. For only a few voices have been raised in these moments of insanity. India's curse is the disunity amongst its Hindus, and their infighting. One is even surprised at the lack of reaction from the top Hindu spiritual leaders of India: Satya Sai Baba, Amrita Anandamayi and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Together they hold sway on at least 400 million Hindus. Why don't they form a Supreme Spiritual Conclave along with the Shankara-charya? They have only to say one word and it will be followed. But even amongst them there is disunity.
Who will save India, then? Certainly not the Congress, which was incapable of finding a worthy Indian leader amongst its own members, many of whom are intelligent and sincere. By stooping down to Ms Sonia Gandhi, they have repeated the same old story of India's ancient princes and maharajas betraying each other and bowing down to a foreign ruler, be it Aurangzeb, or His Majesty's Viceroy. Who betrayed the mighty empire of Vijaynagar, the last great Hindu kingdom, to Muslims? Who betrayed India to the British? Who is betraying India today? But at least the Congress is true to its ideals. The biggest culprit must be the party which, in five years of power, did nothing except project a Gandhian image of itself, rather than having India's interests at heart.
Not have to say or do anything. She does not have to instruct the Tamil Nadu Police to arrest the Shankaracharya, or tell the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr Dharam Singh, to attend Benny Hinn's show. By just being where she is, at the top of India's political hierarchy, she is able to ensure that her silent wishes are fulfilled. Everybody is bending over backwards to please her, even anticipating her wishes!
I have nothing personally against Ms Sonia Gandhi. She was a good wife to her husband, a good daughter to her mother-in-law, and is doubtless a good mother to her children. Many accounts have come of her dignity, grace and concern for others. But what does Ms Gandhi really stand for, as the Eminence Grise of this country, the person who is drawing all the strings behind the scene? The Benny Hinn show points to not only a renewed effort at Christianisation of India (something which even the British and the Portuguese could not do), and a targeting of Hindus and Hindu spiritual leaders, but also at the Westernisation of the subcontinent. India will then become just another nation cloning the West. Even Muslims and Christians in India, who are like no other Christians and Muslims in the world, would lose something.
How sad that this is happening at a time when the West is looking for other spiritual answers to its problems and the Church is in decline there. The only silver lining in the whole story is that these events - whether the arrest of the Shankaracharya, the Benny Hinn show, or the rewriting of Godhra - may open the eyes of Indians. It may be that India needs to go through this painful process, to see the forces that have been unleashed when Indians chose someone who is basically hostile to the majority culture of this country as their leader. Maybe they need to be faced with a Government which is pulling India down, just to please the minorities, the Vatican and the Western powers who do not want India to emerge as a strong and vibrant nation.
Nobody seems to understand that India's unique identity, its Sanatan dharma, which survived so many onslaughts in its long history, is today under mortal threat.
Cry my Beloved India, Look what Thy children have done to Thee.
Bomb rips apart railway track in southwest Pakistan
Bomb rips apart railway track in southwest Pakistan
(AFP)
22 January 2005
QUETTA, Pakistan - A bomb blast blew up a railway track here early on Saturday, disrupting train services in Pakistan’s insurgency-wracked southwestern province of Baluchistan but causing no injuries, officials said.
“A powerful bomb ripped about four feet (more than a meter) long track at a level crossing here,” provincial home minister Shoaib Nausherwani told AFP.
The minister blamed the attack on “terrorists” who wanted to create unrest in the province by resorting to rocket and bomb attacks.
“They are terrorists, they took advantage of Eid holidays and planted bomb on the main track to cause hardships for the people,” he said.
The three-day Eid al-Adha festivities started in Pakistan on Friday.
Railways authorities said the bomb was placed at a level crossing near the city’s university area. The device went off at about 6:00 am (0100 GMT), deputy controller of Pakistan Railways, Ghulam Rasool, said.
The blast occured only half an hour before a passenger train was to arrive in Quetta from the southern port city of Karachi, he said.
“We rushed teams to repair the track,” he said adding that rail traffic remained suspended for about three hours.
The blast caused no casualties, he said, adding that an investigation had begun into the incident.
A low-level uprising has been brewing for years in the sparsely populated province where nationalist tribes have been demanding an increase in jobs and royalties for extracting natural gas from resource-rich Baluchistan.
The impoverished province has witnessed frequent attacks against security personnel and key installations.
Rebel tribesmen earlier this month rained rockets on the main natural gas field at Sui in Baluchistan, killing eight people and suspending the gas supply to millions of Pakistani homes and hundreds of industrial units.
Since then army troops have been deployed around the Sui gas fields to track down those responsible.
“The situation in Sui is now peaceful and security forces are protecting the gas installations,” Nausherwani said.
Supplies to big industrial units were restored on Saturday, Pakistan petroleum minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon said.
Security forces searching several suspected homes around the Sui gas field have recovered small weapons and ammunition over the past two days, Nausherwani said.
“Security forces have recovered a rocket propelled grenade, small arms and ammunition from abandoned homes during search operations in Sui on Friday and Saturday,” he told AFP.
[hr]
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Three rockets fired by unidentified assailants landed in a residential area of this deeply conservative southwestern Pakistani city, but no one was injured, police said Saturday.
It was not immediately clear who was behind late Friday's attack in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, and police official Sher Nawaz Marwat said they were still investigating.
Previously, authorities have blamed similar attacks on ethnic Baluch nationalists, who are angry at government plans to build new army garrisons in the province and economic development plans which they say will benefit outsiders more than locals. - AP
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/1/22/latest/20902Threerock&sec=latest
Army should be withdrawn from the Balochistan: Ataullah Mengal
By Aziz Sanghur
KARACHI- President Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), Sardar
Ataullah Mengal has said after the Sui incident, the increasing numbers
of the armed forces were being deployed in Balochistan despite the
demand of all the political parties that the army should be withdrawn from
the province.
In an exclusive interview with this scribe, at his residence, he said
as many as 25,000 people had been forced to migrate from Sui to other
places after the incident and only a small proportion of people had
returned despite the army's call that they should return.
He said that President Gen Musharraf not minced his words, accusing the
whole Baloch nation of an offence punishable by elimination when they
raised a voice against the atrocity. The present scenario had raised
only one question, he added.
Answering to a question about the role of the constituent parties of
Ponam, Sardar said he was contacting the movement leaders, particularly
the Sindh-based ones owing to the "nature of the gang-rape case" as the
victim happened to be a Sindhi.
Sardar said the federation wanted to usurp the natural resources of
Balochistan and turn the Baloch nation into a minority in their own
province. This, said Sardar Ataullah, was pushing the Baloch towards
liberation.
He said Gwadar was located on the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz and it
had great strategic value. He said the gas pipeline from Central Asia
would pass from Gwadar and there was competition from many countries
including Iran which was also offering facilities to Central Asian States
from Chah Bahar. However, the United States was interested that the
pipeline should pass from Gwadar, he said.
Sardar Ataullah Mengal, who is also a former Balochistan chief
minister, said the federal government was encroaching the land and resources of
Balochistan very aggressively since nationalists had demanded
provincial autonomy.
He said it was wrong to say that Baloch leaders were against
development but if a city like Karachi cropped up in Gwadar due to internal
migration, the Baloch nation would become a minority in its own land. The
land in Gwadar, which was essentially state land, was being sold to
outsiders at the rate of Rs 15 million per acre, he said. He added that
outsiders would invest in Gwadar and all its earnings would be siphoned off
by the federal government.
"There will be another Karachi. If Gwadar becomes a city of 15 million
people, the Baloch will become a minority. The provincial government
will not get a single penny," he said. "In Hub, the provincial government
had the right to only collect the toll tax and but this power was also
withdrawn," he said.
He said the Baloch people would never object to development even if
there were dozens of development projects in Balochistan, including Gwadar
Port, but it was essential that their suspicions and misgivings were
addressed.
He said law-making should be transferred to the provincial assemblies.
People who come to the province from outside in the name of development
should not have the right to vote in the province, he said. They should
vote in their own province although they would have the right to stay,
work and earn a livelihood in Balochistan, he remarked. "We'll not ask
them to pay income tax in Balochistan and we will only collect sales
tax from them," he said, referring to the workers who would come to
Gwadar.
He said Gwadar had been sold and now land was being sold in Pasni and
Ormara. He added that land in these areas was being sold through the
connivance of smugglers, land mafia and intelligence agencies. The land in
Gwadar has even been sold at Rs 10 million per acre, he added.
Sardar Mengal believed that as long as the agencies-nominated
government was there in Balochistan and agencies-sponsored activities continued
in that province, there were little chances of any meaningful dialogue.
"The ball is now in the government's court," he added.
He deplored that the army, being the custodian of the interests of the
Punjab, had always crushed not only the people of East Pakistan, a
larger province of the undivided country, but also continued to suppress
the people of smaller provinces.
He made it clear that there would be no compromise on basic issues
which the PONM had already identified at the onset of the talks. The
issues, he said, included full autonomy to Balochistan, particularly in
administrative, legislative and financial matters, and an end to the
centre's interference in provincial affairs.
He said: "We have always demanded our due rights but the Punjabi
Establishment has always denied us the same and branded us 'traitors' to
victimize us,".
He said it was also ironic that major political forces were still
dreaming of another take over and waiting for another general who could
rescue them.
He said he believed the federal government should not have the right to
bypass the law made by the provincial government so that the demography
of the province was not affected.
He said the right to collect income tax and other taxes should be a
provincial subject and the province would transfer revenue to the federal
pool in accordance with the population. Natural gas, oil, metallic and
non-metallic resources should be the property of the provinces, he
added.
Sardar Ataullah said the paramilitary forces should also be under the
control of provincial governments while the federal government should
only look after defence, foreign affairs and currency. "You accept these
demands and then you can have as many projects as you want," he said.
He said his party had already listed these demands and conveyed them to
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, ruling Pakistan Muslim League president, and
Tariq Aziz, National Security Council secretary, a few months ago
during a meeting.
Sardar said Pakistan's integrity and sovereignty was at stake, adding
the government was willing to provide bases to the United States if the
latter continued to support the Musharraf government.
He said the Baloch leaders were keen to make Balochistan a welfare
province and since it had a population of only five million people and huge
resources this was not an impossible dream.
Email: azizsanghur@yahoo.com
(AFP)
22 January 2005
QUETTA, Pakistan - A bomb blast blew up a railway track here early on Saturday, disrupting train services in Pakistan’s insurgency-wracked southwestern province of Baluchistan but causing no injuries, officials said.
“A powerful bomb ripped about four feet (more than a meter) long track at a level crossing here,” provincial home minister Shoaib Nausherwani told AFP.
The minister blamed the attack on “terrorists” who wanted to create unrest in the province by resorting to rocket and bomb attacks.
“They are terrorists, they took advantage of Eid holidays and planted bomb on the main track to cause hardships for the people,” he said.
The three-day Eid al-Adha festivities started in Pakistan on Friday.
Railways authorities said the bomb was placed at a level crossing near the city’s university area. The device went off at about 6:00 am (0100 GMT), deputy controller of Pakistan Railways, Ghulam Rasool, said.
The blast occured only half an hour before a passenger train was to arrive in Quetta from the southern port city of Karachi, he said.
“We rushed teams to repair the track,” he said adding that rail traffic remained suspended for about three hours.
The blast caused no casualties, he said, adding that an investigation had begun into the incident.
A low-level uprising has been brewing for years in the sparsely populated province where nationalist tribes have been demanding an increase in jobs and royalties for extracting natural gas from resource-rich Baluchistan.
The impoverished province has witnessed frequent attacks against security personnel and key installations.
Rebel tribesmen earlier this month rained rockets on the main natural gas field at Sui in Baluchistan, killing eight people and suspending the gas supply to millions of Pakistani homes and hundreds of industrial units.
Since then army troops have been deployed around the Sui gas fields to track down those responsible.
“The situation in Sui is now peaceful and security forces are protecting the gas installations,” Nausherwani said.
Supplies to big industrial units were restored on Saturday, Pakistan petroleum minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon said.
Security forces searching several suspected homes around the Sui gas field have recovered small weapons and ammunition over the past two days, Nausherwani said.
“Security forces have recovered a rocket propelled grenade, small arms and ammunition from abandoned homes during search operations in Sui on Friday and Saturday,” he told AFP.
[hr]
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Three rockets fired by unidentified assailants landed in a residential area of this deeply conservative southwestern Pakistani city, but no one was injured, police said Saturday.
It was not immediately clear who was behind late Friday's attack in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, and police official Sher Nawaz Marwat said they were still investigating.
Previously, authorities have blamed similar attacks on ethnic Baluch nationalists, who are angry at government plans to build new army garrisons in the province and economic development plans which they say will benefit outsiders more than locals. - AP
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/1/22/latest/20902Threerock&sec=latest
Army should be withdrawn from the Balochistan: Ataullah Mengal
By Aziz Sanghur
KARACHI- President Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), Sardar
Ataullah Mengal has said after the Sui incident, the increasing numbers
of the armed forces were being deployed in Balochistan despite the
demand of all the political parties that the army should be withdrawn from
the province.
In an exclusive interview with this scribe, at his residence, he said
as many as 25,000 people had been forced to migrate from Sui to other
places after the incident and only a small proportion of people had
returned despite the army's call that they should return.
He said that President Gen Musharraf not minced his words, accusing the
whole Baloch nation of an offence punishable by elimination when they
raised a voice against the atrocity. The present scenario had raised
only one question, he added.
Answering to a question about the role of the constituent parties of
Ponam, Sardar said he was contacting the movement leaders, particularly
the Sindh-based ones owing to the "nature of the gang-rape case" as the
victim happened to be a Sindhi.
Sardar said the federation wanted to usurp the natural resources of
Balochistan and turn the Baloch nation into a minority in their own
province. This, said Sardar Ataullah, was pushing the Baloch towards
liberation.
He said Gwadar was located on the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz and it
had great strategic value. He said the gas pipeline from Central Asia
would pass from Gwadar and there was competition from many countries
including Iran which was also offering facilities to Central Asian States
from Chah Bahar. However, the United States was interested that the
pipeline should pass from Gwadar, he said.
Sardar Ataullah Mengal, who is also a former Balochistan chief
minister, said the federal government was encroaching the land and resources of
Balochistan very aggressively since nationalists had demanded
provincial autonomy.
He said it was wrong to say that Baloch leaders were against
development but if a city like Karachi cropped up in Gwadar due to internal
migration, the Baloch nation would become a minority in its own land. The
land in Gwadar, which was essentially state land, was being sold to
outsiders at the rate of Rs 15 million per acre, he said. He added that
outsiders would invest in Gwadar and all its earnings would be siphoned off
by the federal government.
"There will be another Karachi. If Gwadar becomes a city of 15 million
people, the Baloch will become a minority. The provincial government
will not get a single penny," he said. "In Hub, the provincial government
had the right to only collect the toll tax and but this power was also
withdrawn," he said.
He said the Baloch people would never object to development even if
there were dozens of development projects in Balochistan, including Gwadar
Port, but it was essential that their suspicions and misgivings were
addressed.
He said law-making should be transferred to the provincial assemblies.
People who come to the province from outside in the name of development
should not have the right to vote in the province, he said. They should
vote in their own province although they would have the right to stay,
work and earn a livelihood in Balochistan, he remarked. "We'll not ask
them to pay income tax in Balochistan and we will only collect sales
tax from them," he said, referring to the workers who would come to
Gwadar.
He said Gwadar had been sold and now land was being sold in Pasni and
Ormara. He added that land in these areas was being sold through the
connivance of smugglers, land mafia and intelligence agencies. The land in
Gwadar has even been sold at Rs 10 million per acre, he added.
Sardar Mengal believed that as long as the agencies-nominated
government was there in Balochistan and agencies-sponsored activities continued
in that province, there were little chances of any meaningful dialogue.
"The ball is now in the government's court," he added.
He deplored that the army, being the custodian of the interests of the
Punjab, had always crushed not only the people of East Pakistan, a
larger province of the undivided country, but also continued to suppress
the people of smaller provinces.
He made it clear that there would be no compromise on basic issues
which the PONM had already identified at the onset of the talks. The
issues, he said, included full autonomy to Balochistan, particularly in
administrative, legislative and financial matters, and an end to the
centre's interference in provincial affairs.
He said: "We have always demanded our due rights but the Punjabi
Establishment has always denied us the same and branded us 'traitors' to
victimize us,".
He said it was also ironic that major political forces were still
dreaming of another take over and waiting for another general who could
rescue them.
He said he believed the federal government should not have the right to
bypass the law made by the provincial government so that the demography
of the province was not affected.
He said the right to collect income tax and other taxes should be a
provincial subject and the province would transfer revenue to the federal
pool in accordance with the population. Natural gas, oil, metallic and
non-metallic resources should be the property of the provinces, he
added.
Sardar Ataullah said the paramilitary forces should also be under the
control of provincial governments while the federal government should
only look after defence, foreign affairs and currency. "You accept these
demands and then you can have as many projects as you want," he said.
He said his party had already listed these demands and conveyed them to
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, ruling Pakistan Muslim League president, and
Tariq Aziz, National Security Council secretary, a few months ago
during a meeting.
Sardar said Pakistan's integrity and sovereignty was at stake, adding
the government was willing to provide bases to the United States if the
latter continued to support the Musharraf government.
He said the Baloch leaders were keen to make Balochistan a welfare
province and since it had a population of only five million people and huge
resources this was not an impossible dream.
Email: azizsanghur@yahoo.com
A possible link to Killing of Balouch leader Anwar Baijan
IntelliBriefs sources tell us that Anwar Baijan was an important figure for Baloch in Karachi with close links to the Baloch leadership of the rest of the country.
Since the beginning Karachi has been a Baloch dominant territory over which many Baloch have a claim of ownership also. Karachi; having the largest Baloch population in one place than anywhere else in the world, its Baloch dwellings have always been playing effective politics in favour of the Baloch of Balochistan also.
Important meetings, massive rallies and demonstrations have always been held in Karachi against any aggression to suppress Baloch of Balochistan. Being an international city, a voice raised here always echoed around the world and brought shame to Pakistan for its atrocities committed against the Baloch.
The creation of MQM and its terror tactics gradually drove Baloch politicians out of Karachi and then we notice since after the appointment of the current MQM governor Baloch figures of Karachi were selectively being either the victims of target killings or destroyed economically.
After the killing of Anwar Baijan, Perviaz Musharraf went on TV and announced proudly that this was not 70s, Baloch could not hide now and they would not know where it hit them from. Mr. Musharraf’s statement was -in my opinion- hinting towards Anwar’s killing. Anwar Baijan was a figure who could easily mobilise Baloch of Karachi against the government at any difficult stage for Baloch. The current situation in Balochistan and army operations may well had forced Anwar into action against government and the situation in Karachi could have gone well out of MQM’s hand. MQM is not used to such opposition and where they see a threat they rather eliminate it than fighting it politically.
Since the beginning Karachi has been a Baloch dominant territory over which many Baloch have a claim of ownership also. Karachi; having the largest Baloch population in one place than anywhere else in the world, its Baloch dwellings have always been playing effective politics in favour of the Baloch of Balochistan also.
Important meetings, massive rallies and demonstrations have always been held in Karachi against any aggression to suppress Baloch of Balochistan. Being an international city, a voice raised here always echoed around the world and brought shame to Pakistan for its atrocities committed against the Baloch.
The creation of MQM and its terror tactics gradually drove Baloch politicians out of Karachi and then we notice since after the appointment of the current MQM governor Baloch figures of Karachi were selectively being either the victims of target killings or destroyed economically.
After the killing of Anwar Baijan, Perviaz Musharraf went on TV and announced proudly that this was not 70s, Baloch could not hide now and they would not know where it hit them from. Mr. Musharraf’s statement was -in my opinion- hinting towards Anwar’s killing. Anwar Baijan was a figure who could easily mobilise Baloch of Karachi against the government at any difficult stage for Baloch. The current situation in Balochistan and army operations may well had forced Anwar into action against government and the situation in Karachi could have gone well out of MQM’s hand. MQM is not used to such opposition and where they see a threat they rather eliminate it than fighting it politically.
January 23, 2005
Why no hindu 'clergy' at the National Prayer Service?
Why no hindu 'clergy' at the National Prayer Service? Shouldn't hindu take up this issue with Uncle Sam?
Instrumental and choral music filled the church and an interfaith
lineup of Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy helped celebrate through
prayer the events of the day before - Bush's swearing-in at the
Capitol.
Offering one prayer, the Rev. Billy Graham said he believed God had a
hand in Bush's re-election.
>http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050121/D87ONEDO0.html
Instrumental and choral music filled the church and an interfaith
lineup of Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy helped celebrate through
prayer the events of the day before - Bush's swearing-in at the
Capitol.
Offering one prayer, the Rev. Billy Graham said he believed God had a
hand in Bush's re-election.
>http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050121/D87ONEDO0.html
UAV Summit: Combat and Micro
UAV Summit: Combat and Micro
Source: http://defenseiq.com/
Weaponizing UAVs, Collecting ISR Data
March 22 - 23, 2005 · Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC
Workshops
Please click on Workshop titles to learn more
Workshop A: Network Centric Warfare: C3 Implications on UAVs
Workshop B: Creating and Operating a COS (Common Operating System)
Workshop C: Technologies for Micro Air Vehicles in Urban Battlefields
Pre-Conference Workshops: March 21, 2005
8:00am–11:00am · Workshop A: Network Centric Warfare: C3 Implications on UAVs
The emergence of new UAVs presents the unique opportunity to integrate Net-Ready concepts at the platform level. This is especially crucial for C3 applications in which control and optimization of the network must be automated and influence autonomous mission planning functions. This workshop will address fundamentals of Network Centric Operations and Warfare (NCOW) compliance issues associated with UAV C3 systems and address critical networking functions necessary for automated, self-healing, self-configuring networks that function within the emerging "network of network" structure associated with JTRS, JTA and overall NCOW compliance.
Topics will include discussions of JTRS MIDS, CDL and photonic communication systems, and when and how best to optimize each resource. Networking structures will be traced from the STEP through ground maneuver elements with discussion related to how networked UAVs will operate over the course of a campaign in support of manned and unmanned elements and objectives. Attendees will walk away with an understanding of the requirements necessary for NCOW compliance, examples of DODAF products, a fundamental understanding of automated network management for complex communications involving integrated tactical and wideband communications systems and an understanding of end-to-end network connectivity requirements and approaches.
This workshop will be broken into four sections:
Network Centric Warfare with multi-tiered UAVs (a campaign view)
NCOW compliance impacts for architecting UAV C3 systems
Network of network building blocks: JTRS, CDL, photonics and satellites
Network automation and dynamic optimization of ad hoc mobile networks
About your workshop leader:
Marc Russon who is one of L-3 CS-W's senior systems engineers and has extensive systems experience in the architecture of communications systems for ISR platforms (manned and unmanned).
Source: http://defenseiq.com/
Weaponizing UAVs, Collecting ISR Data
March 22 - 23, 2005 · Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC
Workshops
Please click on Workshop titles to learn more
Workshop A: Network Centric Warfare: C3 Implications on UAVs
Workshop B: Creating and Operating a COS (Common Operating System)
Workshop C: Technologies for Micro Air Vehicles in Urban Battlefields
Pre-Conference Workshops: March 21, 2005
8:00am–11:00am · Workshop A: Network Centric Warfare: C3 Implications on UAVs
The emergence of new UAVs presents the unique opportunity to integrate Net-Ready concepts at the platform level. This is especially crucial for C3 applications in which control and optimization of the network must be automated and influence autonomous mission planning functions. This workshop will address fundamentals of Network Centric Operations and Warfare (NCOW) compliance issues associated with UAV C3 systems and address critical networking functions necessary for automated, self-healing, self-configuring networks that function within the emerging "network of network" structure associated with JTRS, JTA and overall NCOW compliance.
Topics will include discussions of JTRS MIDS, CDL and photonic communication systems, and when and how best to optimize each resource. Networking structures will be traced from the STEP through ground maneuver elements with discussion related to how networked UAVs will operate over the course of a campaign in support of manned and unmanned elements and objectives. Attendees will walk away with an understanding of the requirements necessary for NCOW compliance, examples of DODAF products, a fundamental understanding of automated network management for complex communications involving integrated tactical and wideband communications systems and an understanding of end-to-end network connectivity requirements and approaches.
This workshop will be broken into four sections:
Network Centric Warfare with multi-tiered UAVs (a campaign view)
NCOW compliance impacts for architecting UAV C3 systems
Network of network building blocks: JTRS, CDL, photonics and satellites
Network automation and dynamic optimization of ad hoc mobile networks
About your workshop leader:
Marc Russon who is one of L-3 CS-W's senior systems engineers and has extensive systems experience in the architecture of communications systems for ISR platforms (manned and unmanned).
Network Centric Warfare 2005 -- January 26 - 27, 2005
Network Centric Warfare 2005
January 26 - 27, 2005 · Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC
Download the Brochure
http://www.iqpc.com/binary-data/IQPC_CONFEVENT/pdf_file/5517.pdf
Top 5 Reasons Why You Cannot Afford to Miss Network Centric Warfare 2005!
1. The PREMIER event on network centric warfare! In its 4th year of existence, GA’s Network Centric Warfare 2005 has become the leading forum for exchange of ideas on network centric innovation in the US military and our coalition partners.
2. Hear high-level briefings on the most ground-breaking, significant government &
industry initiatives! IDGA has established an unparalleled speaker faculty to present the leading developments in network centric warfare. Hear from experienced warfighters, seniorlevel policy makers and industry leaders on innovative new programs.
3. The 2nd Annual NCW AWARDS™ Dinner & Ceremony! The NCW AWARDS™ have been
established to honor, recognize and promote initiatives in the US Department
of Defense, Coalition Governments, and Defense Industry that exemplify the
principles of network centric warfare and support the information age
transformation. The winners will no doubt set the standards of excellence in network
centric warfare!
4. NCW 2005 is the most seniorlevel networking event that you can attend this year!
Over 600 senior military and industry decision-makers will be on hand to discuss
plans, goals and requirements that will define our operational strategy of the future.
5. Establish your leadership in the NCW community! Network Centric Warfare 2005 offers a truly unique and valuable experience to get nvolved in the NCW community and/or demonstrate your leadership in the area. Get involved by sponsoring, exhibiting or applying for an NCW AWARD™!
January 26 - 27, 2005 · Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC
Download the Brochure
http://www.iqpc.com/binary-data/IQPC_CONFEVENT/pdf_file/5517.pdf
Top 5 Reasons Why You Cannot Afford to Miss Network Centric Warfare 2005!
1. The PREMIER event on network centric warfare! In its 4th year of existence, GA’s Network Centric Warfare 2005 has become the leading forum for exchange of ideas on network centric innovation in the US military and our coalition partners.
2. Hear high-level briefings on the most ground-breaking, significant government &
industry initiatives! IDGA has established an unparalleled speaker faculty to present the leading developments in network centric warfare. Hear from experienced warfighters, seniorlevel policy makers and industry leaders on innovative new programs.
3. The 2nd Annual NCW AWARDS™ Dinner & Ceremony! The NCW AWARDS™ have been
established to honor, recognize and promote initiatives in the US Department
of Defense, Coalition Governments, and Defense Industry that exemplify the
principles of network centric warfare and support the information age
transformation. The winners will no doubt set the standards of excellence in network
centric warfare!
4. NCW 2005 is the most seniorlevel networking event that you can attend this year!
Over 600 senior military and industry decision-makers will be on hand to discuss
plans, goals and requirements that will define our operational strategy of the future.
5. Establish your leadership in the NCW community! Network Centric Warfare 2005 offers a truly unique and valuable experience to get nvolved in the NCW community and/or demonstrate your leadership in the area. Get involved by sponsoring, exhibiting or applying for an NCW AWARD™!
Terrorists in Varanasi jail in contact with ISI over Phone
January 22, 2005 23:04 IST
us.rediff.com/news/2005/j...t~with~ISI
In a serious breach of security, hardcore militants lodged in the Varanasi Central Jail have allegedly been in telephonic conversation with officials of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, sources said on Saturday.
The details of the conversation came to light earlier this week during a raid by Intelligence Bureau officials, sources told PTI.
The officials, who have already communicated to their superiors and the Union home ministry about the incarcerated militants' nexus with ISI, were reportedly startled at the incident, especially since a jammer system was in place in the jail, they said.
The collusion of some senior jail officials in facilitating the conversation through mobile phones could not be ruled out, sources said.
The IB officials have gathered details of telephone calls made on three occasions in the last 15 days, they added.
The Union home ministry was probing the matter, the sources said.
us.rediff.com/news/2005/j...t~with~ISI
In a serious breach of security, hardcore militants lodged in the Varanasi Central Jail have allegedly been in telephonic conversation with officials of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, sources said on Saturday.
The details of the conversation came to light earlier this week during a raid by Intelligence Bureau officials, sources told PTI.
The officials, who have already communicated to their superiors and the Union home ministry about the incarcerated militants' nexus with ISI, were reportedly startled at the incident, especially since a jammer system was in place in the jail, they said.
The collusion of some senior jail officials in facilitating the conversation through mobile phones could not be ruled out, sources said.
The IB officials have gathered details of telephone calls made on three occasions in the last 15 days, they added.
The Union home ministry was probing the matter, the sources said.
Folding Up Pakistan and Balkanizing It
If any of the patrons would like to get involved with IndiaCause, you can please contact Indiacause@Gmail.com
http://www.indiacause.com/columns/OL_050122.htm
Folding Up Pakistan and Balkanizing It
By: Hari Sud / January 23, 2005
Mohammed Ali Jinnah in 1933 asked the British for the creation of a Muslim majority area in post-independence India. They agreed with him and will oblige him, should independence come to India. To the British, It was a 70 years old idea of their own. Immediately after the events of 1857, the British masters thought of dividing India in such a way that they could never come together and threaten the British hegemony in India. They theorized that the north, which from 1200AD had been ruled by the Muslim, be part British Muslim India and South which had its share of Muslim conquerors but not ruled by the Muslims be part of British Hindu India. This scheme, a brainchild of successive viceroys of India after 1857, was never put in place. The Prime Ministers in England wished to milk India for its wealth. Separating India into two would effectively cut the British revenues into half. Hence Jinnah’s call of 1933 was not new to them, except that they gave it a new name – Two Nation Theory. Jinnah, an Indian aristocrat and a nationalist became a pawn in the British thinking. The old concept of north and south were dumped in favor of Muslim majority provinces of West and East as Pakistan, in 1947. Jinnah himself a Bombay resident was forced to migrate to West Pakistan.
This division mainly on religious lines lasted only 23 years. In 1971 the Eastern wing broke free, as ethnic Bengali Muslims could not get along well with their brethren in the west. This is not the only strife, which Pakistan has faced in its 58 years of its existence. Baloch, Pashtuns and Sindhis and people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir are asking for freedom on the same lines as East Pakistanis did in 1971. Hence, the very existence of Pakistan is being threatened today.
What is Pakistan Made Off?
Pakistan has four distinct ethnic groups. Each is a majority in its own province. With failure of economic policies and lack of focus on national integration, each ethnic group is exerting influence to break free of the other. These ethnic groups are: 1). The Punjabis, who are the bulk of the Pakistani population, and live in between the rivers Indus and Ravi plains. They are a prosperous kind and supply 60% of the Pakistani GNP. Their agricultural achievements are second to none. They are Hindu converts to Islam under successive Muslim invasion from12th to 18th century. They are brave people, who resisted Alexander in 325BC and very nearly defeated him, except for a fifth columnist local king who lead Alexander’s Army behind the Punjabi lines. Ghauri, Changez, Timur, Nadir Shah, Babur etc. all came to Punjab and met resistance. This resistance continued until British in 1848 overpowered all the local leaders one by one. 2). The Sindhis are a distinct people who until Arab conqueror Mohammad Bin Qasim in 7th century were Hindus. Arab rule in this province, is very distinct from Turkic and Afghan rule in Punjab. It lasted till the 19th century when the British overpowered it. This province also saw its own share of invaders from Iran and Afghanistan. This province is very nearly a desert except along the banks of the river Indus and its distributaries. Prosperity along the banks of these rivers is comparable to Punjab. The Indus delta is bestowed with Pakistan’s main port of Karachi. It is the only outlet Pakistan has to the rest of the world. The city through the centuries has prospered with trade, commerce and industry. 3). A very nearly rebellious bunch of people, live in Pakistan’s province of Balochistan. They are dirt poor with no natural resources and no means to progress. It is a huge landmass on the southwestern part of Pakistan. Its people, the Marris, the Bugatis and the Mengals have been in perpetual conflict with the federal authorities for centuries. The British left them alone before 1947. Independent Pakistan has been in perpetual conflict with the people of this province. 4). The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) was created by the British to separate the wild bunch of people who live in the lands beyond Indus until the Afghanistan border and the Khyber Pass. The British never effectively gained control of this area. These people are of Pashtun extractions and have their cousins on the Afghan side of the border. From time to time they revolt from the central authority. Like British before them the Pakistani federal authorities cool them off with free guns and butter. They were the backbone US campaign to inflict a strategic defeat on the Soviet Union in eighties during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The land is mountainous and sparsely populated with no economic base. This is where Osma Bin Laden is hiding.
Pakistan occupies a portion of Kashmir after its invasion in 1948. It’s a strategic area, which borders China, India and Central Asian Republics. The Pakistani occupied Kashmir’s population is Muslim but of Shiite decent. They are docile and make their living thru sheep herding. They lack the very basics of means to make a living. British left them alone, but the Pakistani Army from time to time abuses them. They use the ethnic Pushtuns who are Sunnis to suppress them into submission. Pakistani Kashmiris wish to join the rest of Kashmir and India, except that the Pakistani army is standing in the way.
Hence, one can easily say that the ethnic diversification and perpetual conflicts have made Pakistan, ungovernable. It is just a matter of time, before it falls apart.
How Pak is governed?
It is not governed well. For the past 58 years, army has dominated the political landscape of the country. It has only one agenda i.e. grab rest of Kashmir from India. This single focus has resulted in excessive expenditure on defense, given rise to Jihadi movements and has completely ignored the economic welfare of the country. Jinnah probably is turning in his grave at the current state of affair of the country, he founded. From time to time the Pakistani treasury comes out empty and US and the World Bank & IMF come to rescue it. This, US does it not do it out of charity, but to gain a strategic alliance with its military rulers.
The federal system has all the institutions to run it as a democratic society but these institutions are controlled by the army hence are ineffective. The provinces have their own democratic system in Punjab and Sindhi but these institutions do not function at all. The Balochistan and NWFP are tribal society and are still governed as if they were in middle ages. The Pakistani occupied Kashmir is a military governed area, hence does not even have any semblance of a civil society.
The Army is mostly Punjabi in rank and file and has a sprinkling of Baloch and Pathan regiments. It is officered by a mix of immigrants from India (like General Musharraf) and Punjabis from the heartland of Indus and Ravi. The Indian immigrant officers have a burning desire to re-conquer India and return in triumph. The latter is the root cause of all disputes with India.
With lack of civil-political structure, the religious fanatics have made inroads into the hearts and minds of the people. With unlimited cash available from Saudi Arabia, they feign religious and ethnic trouble.
How the Past 58 Years is Catching up with Pakistan Today?
People of Pakistan especially in Sindh and Punjab have no outlet to determine their own economic and political future. Hence they have fallen behind. Just across the border in India, they see huge economic strides in progress but they are not allowed to either trade or learn. The latter is not part of the army’s agenda. With this economic muddle, each province is pulling the Pakistani union apart. It is leading into an untold chaos with untold results.
Sindhi
It is a province of 40 million people. It is a prosperous state and home of Pakistan’s largest city and the only Port. Its deep water makes it into an ideal location for cross road for sea borne commerce. The backbone of the city is the immigrant community of Mohajjar who came from India in 1947. Previously, Karachi was the city where Iranian Zorastrarians moved in the 7th century when Muslim Arabs occupied their country. It has a thriving Zorastrarian population. Unfortunately the city has the making of Beirut where third of the population is Sindhi, who have a cutthroat competition with the other third, Mohajjars. Last third comprise of Pashtuns, who make a living by being the middlemen in the drug trade. Army and the politicians have never been able to exert full control over the city.
Constant economic decline has made Sindhis bitter and demand impendence. Various organizations have been formed to demand complete independence from the Pakistani federal system. Notably, the Sindhi Solidarity Convention in 2002 demanded renegotiation with of the Pakistani federal system. Other terror groups have been formed, but without outside support they get squelched very quickly. Given a chance and support, they will revolt and eject the Punjabis out.
Balochistan
Pakistan has been hiding its repression in Balochistan for the past fifty years. The ancestors of the present restive populations fought General Ayub Khan’s regime in fifties and sixties. They again took up arms during seventies. At that time Pakistan unleashed its airpower and sent the fighters and the leaders into hiding in bordering southern Afghanistan. They have retuned since then and have taken up arms again for their independence.
Sui gas the only gas reserve and a marketable resource is located in Balochistan. The gas is piped to the Punjabi heartland with no benefits to them. They are bitter about it and constantly sabotage the pipeline. Recent outrage has killed 18 people. These incidents are not new but the world has just come to know about them. General Musharraf is threatening severe army action in the province. Situation is already out of control.
NWFP
Rudyard Kipling and exploits of a few British officers and Indian soldiers have romanticized this area. It is a lawless area where gun on the shoulders of a citizen dictates his status. British fought a running guerilla war with the local chieftains and never won. An average Pathan (Pashtun) is a cunning and brave soldier. He wants independence to perpetually misbehave. Anybody coming in his way becomes his enemy. British from 1867 to 1935 learnt this truth the hard way. Now, the Pakistani army in last three years is learning the same.
Osma Bin Laden is hiding in this area. Tribal loyalties, easy bribing and complete dislike for the Pakistani Army are keeping Osma in safety.
Pathans in fifties wished a Pakhtunistan and they joined up with Pashtun cousins on the other side of the Pakistan Afghan border. The movement failed as the Pakistani Army easily bribed the Pathans.
Pathans do not wish independence. They do not care about it. All they want is to be left alone to trade drugs and smuggle guns.
Kashmir Occupied by Pakistan
Kashmiris wish Pakistani Army out of their homeland. The Line of Control and Geography do not permit any outside help. Pakistani army at slightest hint of trouble unleashes hordes of Sunni Pathans on them. The present ruler of Pakistan, General Musharraf, while a brigadier in the army was entrusted the task of subduing Kashmiri in Pakistani Kashmir in late eighties. He did it with vigor. He killed all the troublemakers. No word of these atrocities has ever filtered out, because army controls all access to this area. People are followers of His Excellency Agha Khan. At times, even he is not permitted to visit the area or provide humanitarian help.
Given the opportunity, they will very willingly eject the Pathans and the Pakistani Army out and join with rest of Kashmir.
Punjab
This is the dominant component of Pakistani ethnic mix. It grows all the food and is home of prosperous cities like Lahore, Sialkote, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, and Islamabad. The population is Aryan people of Indus Valley Civilization and the Muslim invaders who settled in the land. This is a smart bunch, but misguided. They have been lead to believe that India is easily conquerable and stroll to Delhi is just a matter of time. It is a stable society, well fed and well clothed. Its culture is primarily Indian. Its habits, likes and tastes are same as in India. Recent visitors in last two years have confirmed cultural proximity of this province with India.
It provides most of the recruits for the army and Jihad. In return it extracts a huge price from the other provinces. It basically starves others of funds for development. Its geography in Pakistani context is full of advantages. All the rivers flow thru it before they reach Sindh. The latter is always at a disadvantage. This, the Sindhis do not like. River water disputes have escalated into full-scale verbal wars in last few years. A shooting match was very cleverly averted last year. But it is just a matter of time when serious trouble erupts again.
The Balochistan faces the same issues with Punjabis. Their natural resource (Gas) is being exploited without any benefits to them. In addition they are denied a home rule. To make the situation worst, army has been unleashed on them.
The NWFP has nowhere to go hence are not likely to raise slogans of independence. The Punjabis thru tribal chiefs run this province and will continue to dominate it for a long time to come.
Is Pakistan Ripe for Balkanization?
Yes, as it has failed economically and politically.
As soon as Sindh province readies its political mental to break free, the whole of Pakistani union will fall apart. This process could be further hastened if the generals in Rawalpindi decide to send the likes of Lt. Gen Tikka Khan (butcher of Bangladesh) to Balochistan to suppress the revolt. Pathan’s who have been used so successfully to suppress revolts elsewhere are useless as they face annihilation at the hands of tough Balochs. Jehadis elements in Pakistan will be ineffective as bulk of the insurgents supporting insurgency in Balochistan come from the Mosques. Ten years from now, the Balochs will bleed the Pakistani army white. A no win situation will occur, resulting in Pakistani Army withdrawal. With Balochistan out of the way, nationalist movements in Sindh will go the same way as Balochistan. They will demand independence. The port of Karachi with its ethnic mix will be the testing ground for all political and military muscle Pakistani Army has.
All this is happening, because Pakistan maintained a 58 years Kashmir centric focus. It robbed the people of economic and political stability, which increased the centrifugal forces to tear it apart. In the end, Pakistan may be a loose federation of provinces and army permanently sent to the barracks. It will be a shadow of what the founder envisioned Pakistan to be.
India and Rest of the World’s Gains
Any succession type of movement in Pakistan will have an impact on India. These are easily tamed with economic growth and plural political system capable of redressing people’s grievances. Moreover Indian voters remove even popular politicians from power from time to time. Democracy is a great institution and India thrives on it.
Major gains for India will be, peace in Kashmir. Pakistani army may even leave the occupied portion of Kashmir and free the Kashmiri people. ISI will be the first institution to be dismantled. New breed of leaders probably will put economics and nation building ahead of picking up fights in the neighborhood.
Trade may flow freely thru open corridor in Gujrat-Sindh- Rajasthan and East and West Punjab. Indian goods will have a shorter route to reach Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics. Gas from Iran and Central Asia may flow freely to Karachi and India. Net gainers will be people of Pakistan with transit fees.
Additional gains for the US could be nabbing of Osma Bin Laden in a cave somewhere in Pakistan. Saudi and Mullah’s influence will be minimized. Jehadis will go back to their homes and become farmers or factory workers.
If this type of scenario unfolds, which it might, then the US influence in the area will increase, as trade will overtake military hardware shipment. IMF will be spared of rushing to Pakistan with a bag full of money. No Jehadis will be exported to the west. God willing, this is about to happen.
Hari Sud
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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http://www.indiacause.com/columns/OL_050122.htm
Folding Up Pakistan and Balkanizing It
By: Hari Sud / January 23, 2005
Mohammed Ali Jinnah in 1933 asked the British for the creation of a Muslim majority area in post-independence India. They agreed with him and will oblige him, should independence come to India. To the British, It was a 70 years old idea of their own. Immediately after the events of 1857, the British masters thought of dividing India in such a way that they could never come together and threaten the British hegemony in India. They theorized that the north, which from 1200AD had been ruled by the Muslim, be part British Muslim India and South which had its share of Muslim conquerors but not ruled by the Muslims be part of British Hindu India. This scheme, a brainchild of successive viceroys of India after 1857, was never put in place. The Prime Ministers in England wished to milk India for its wealth. Separating India into two would effectively cut the British revenues into half. Hence Jinnah’s call of 1933 was not new to them, except that they gave it a new name – Two Nation Theory. Jinnah, an Indian aristocrat and a nationalist became a pawn in the British thinking. The old concept of north and south were dumped in favor of Muslim majority provinces of West and East as Pakistan, in 1947. Jinnah himself a Bombay resident was forced to migrate to West Pakistan.
This division mainly on religious lines lasted only 23 years. In 1971 the Eastern wing broke free, as ethnic Bengali Muslims could not get along well with their brethren in the west. This is not the only strife, which Pakistan has faced in its 58 years of its existence. Baloch, Pashtuns and Sindhis and people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir are asking for freedom on the same lines as East Pakistanis did in 1971. Hence, the very existence of Pakistan is being threatened today.
What is Pakistan Made Off?
Pakistan has four distinct ethnic groups. Each is a majority in its own province. With failure of economic policies and lack of focus on national integration, each ethnic group is exerting influence to break free of the other. These ethnic groups are: 1). The Punjabis, who are the bulk of the Pakistani population, and live in between the rivers Indus and Ravi plains. They are a prosperous kind and supply 60% of the Pakistani GNP. Their agricultural achievements are second to none. They are Hindu converts to Islam under successive Muslim invasion from12th to 18th century. They are brave people, who resisted Alexander in 325BC and very nearly defeated him, except for a fifth columnist local king who lead Alexander’s Army behind the Punjabi lines. Ghauri, Changez, Timur, Nadir Shah, Babur etc. all came to Punjab and met resistance. This resistance continued until British in 1848 overpowered all the local leaders one by one. 2). The Sindhis are a distinct people who until Arab conqueror Mohammad Bin Qasim in 7th century were Hindus. Arab rule in this province, is very distinct from Turkic and Afghan rule in Punjab. It lasted till the 19th century when the British overpowered it. This province also saw its own share of invaders from Iran and Afghanistan. This province is very nearly a desert except along the banks of the river Indus and its distributaries. Prosperity along the banks of these rivers is comparable to Punjab. The Indus delta is bestowed with Pakistan’s main port of Karachi. It is the only outlet Pakistan has to the rest of the world. The city through the centuries has prospered with trade, commerce and industry. 3). A very nearly rebellious bunch of people, live in Pakistan’s province of Balochistan. They are dirt poor with no natural resources and no means to progress. It is a huge landmass on the southwestern part of Pakistan. Its people, the Marris, the Bugatis and the Mengals have been in perpetual conflict with the federal authorities for centuries. The British left them alone before 1947. Independent Pakistan has been in perpetual conflict with the people of this province. 4). The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) was created by the British to separate the wild bunch of people who live in the lands beyond Indus until the Afghanistan border and the Khyber Pass. The British never effectively gained control of this area. These people are of Pashtun extractions and have their cousins on the Afghan side of the border. From time to time they revolt from the central authority. Like British before them the Pakistani federal authorities cool them off with free guns and butter. They were the backbone US campaign to inflict a strategic defeat on the Soviet Union in eighties during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The land is mountainous and sparsely populated with no economic base. This is where Osma Bin Laden is hiding.
Pakistan occupies a portion of Kashmir after its invasion in 1948. It’s a strategic area, which borders China, India and Central Asian Republics. The Pakistani occupied Kashmir’s population is Muslim but of Shiite decent. They are docile and make their living thru sheep herding. They lack the very basics of means to make a living. British left them alone, but the Pakistani Army from time to time abuses them. They use the ethnic Pushtuns who are Sunnis to suppress them into submission. Pakistani Kashmiris wish to join the rest of Kashmir and India, except that the Pakistani army is standing in the way.
Hence, one can easily say that the ethnic diversification and perpetual conflicts have made Pakistan, ungovernable. It is just a matter of time, before it falls apart.
How Pak is governed?
It is not governed well. For the past 58 years, army has dominated the political landscape of the country. It has only one agenda i.e. grab rest of Kashmir from India. This single focus has resulted in excessive expenditure on defense, given rise to Jihadi movements and has completely ignored the economic welfare of the country. Jinnah probably is turning in his grave at the current state of affair of the country, he founded. From time to time the Pakistani treasury comes out empty and US and the World Bank & IMF come to rescue it. This, US does it not do it out of charity, but to gain a strategic alliance with its military rulers.
The federal system has all the institutions to run it as a democratic society but these institutions are controlled by the army hence are ineffective. The provinces have their own democratic system in Punjab and Sindhi but these institutions do not function at all. The Balochistan and NWFP are tribal society and are still governed as if they were in middle ages. The Pakistani occupied Kashmir is a military governed area, hence does not even have any semblance of a civil society.
The Army is mostly Punjabi in rank and file and has a sprinkling of Baloch and Pathan regiments. It is officered by a mix of immigrants from India (like General Musharraf) and Punjabis from the heartland of Indus and Ravi. The Indian immigrant officers have a burning desire to re-conquer India and return in triumph. The latter is the root cause of all disputes with India.
With lack of civil-political structure, the religious fanatics have made inroads into the hearts and minds of the people. With unlimited cash available from Saudi Arabia, they feign religious and ethnic trouble.
How the Past 58 Years is Catching up with Pakistan Today?
People of Pakistan especially in Sindh and Punjab have no outlet to determine their own economic and political future. Hence they have fallen behind. Just across the border in India, they see huge economic strides in progress but they are not allowed to either trade or learn. The latter is not part of the army’s agenda. With this economic muddle, each province is pulling the Pakistani union apart. It is leading into an untold chaos with untold results.
Sindhi
It is a province of 40 million people. It is a prosperous state and home of Pakistan’s largest city and the only Port. Its deep water makes it into an ideal location for cross road for sea borne commerce. The backbone of the city is the immigrant community of Mohajjar who came from India in 1947. Previously, Karachi was the city where Iranian Zorastrarians moved in the 7th century when Muslim Arabs occupied their country. It has a thriving Zorastrarian population. Unfortunately the city has the making of Beirut where third of the population is Sindhi, who have a cutthroat competition with the other third, Mohajjars. Last third comprise of Pashtuns, who make a living by being the middlemen in the drug trade. Army and the politicians have never been able to exert full control over the city.
Constant economic decline has made Sindhis bitter and demand impendence. Various organizations have been formed to demand complete independence from the Pakistani federal system. Notably, the Sindhi Solidarity Convention in 2002 demanded renegotiation with of the Pakistani federal system. Other terror groups have been formed, but without outside support they get squelched very quickly. Given a chance and support, they will revolt and eject the Punjabis out.
Balochistan
Pakistan has been hiding its repression in Balochistan for the past fifty years. The ancestors of the present restive populations fought General Ayub Khan’s regime in fifties and sixties. They again took up arms during seventies. At that time Pakistan unleashed its airpower and sent the fighters and the leaders into hiding in bordering southern Afghanistan. They have retuned since then and have taken up arms again for their independence.
Sui gas the only gas reserve and a marketable resource is located in Balochistan. The gas is piped to the Punjabi heartland with no benefits to them. They are bitter about it and constantly sabotage the pipeline. Recent outrage has killed 18 people. These incidents are not new but the world has just come to know about them. General Musharraf is threatening severe army action in the province. Situation is already out of control.
NWFP
Rudyard Kipling and exploits of a few British officers and Indian soldiers have romanticized this area. It is a lawless area where gun on the shoulders of a citizen dictates his status. British fought a running guerilla war with the local chieftains and never won. An average Pathan (Pashtun) is a cunning and brave soldier. He wants independence to perpetually misbehave. Anybody coming in his way becomes his enemy. British from 1867 to 1935 learnt this truth the hard way. Now, the Pakistani army in last three years is learning the same.
Osma Bin Laden is hiding in this area. Tribal loyalties, easy bribing and complete dislike for the Pakistani Army are keeping Osma in safety.
Pathans in fifties wished a Pakhtunistan and they joined up with Pashtun cousins on the other side of the Pakistan Afghan border. The movement failed as the Pakistani Army easily bribed the Pathans.
Pathans do not wish independence. They do not care about it. All they want is to be left alone to trade drugs and smuggle guns.
Kashmir Occupied by Pakistan
Kashmiris wish Pakistani Army out of their homeland. The Line of Control and Geography do not permit any outside help. Pakistani army at slightest hint of trouble unleashes hordes of Sunni Pathans on them. The present ruler of Pakistan, General Musharraf, while a brigadier in the army was entrusted the task of subduing Kashmiri in Pakistani Kashmir in late eighties. He did it with vigor. He killed all the troublemakers. No word of these atrocities has ever filtered out, because army controls all access to this area. People are followers of His Excellency Agha Khan. At times, even he is not permitted to visit the area or provide humanitarian help.
Given the opportunity, they will very willingly eject the Pathans and the Pakistani Army out and join with rest of Kashmir.
Punjab
This is the dominant component of Pakistani ethnic mix. It grows all the food and is home of prosperous cities like Lahore, Sialkote, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, and Islamabad. The population is Aryan people of Indus Valley Civilization and the Muslim invaders who settled in the land. This is a smart bunch, but misguided. They have been lead to believe that India is easily conquerable and stroll to Delhi is just a matter of time. It is a stable society, well fed and well clothed. Its culture is primarily Indian. Its habits, likes and tastes are same as in India. Recent visitors in last two years have confirmed cultural proximity of this province with India.
It provides most of the recruits for the army and Jihad. In return it extracts a huge price from the other provinces. It basically starves others of funds for development. Its geography in Pakistani context is full of advantages. All the rivers flow thru it before they reach Sindh. The latter is always at a disadvantage. This, the Sindhis do not like. River water disputes have escalated into full-scale verbal wars in last few years. A shooting match was very cleverly averted last year. But it is just a matter of time when serious trouble erupts again.
The Balochistan faces the same issues with Punjabis. Their natural resource (Gas) is being exploited without any benefits to them. In addition they are denied a home rule. To make the situation worst, army has been unleashed on them.
The NWFP has nowhere to go hence are not likely to raise slogans of independence. The Punjabis thru tribal chiefs run this province and will continue to dominate it for a long time to come.
Is Pakistan Ripe for Balkanization?
Yes, as it has failed economically and politically.
As soon as Sindh province readies its political mental to break free, the whole of Pakistani union will fall apart. This process could be further hastened if the generals in Rawalpindi decide to send the likes of Lt. Gen Tikka Khan (butcher of Bangladesh) to Balochistan to suppress the revolt. Pathan’s who have been used so successfully to suppress revolts elsewhere are useless as they face annihilation at the hands of tough Balochs. Jehadis elements in Pakistan will be ineffective as bulk of the insurgents supporting insurgency in Balochistan come from the Mosques. Ten years from now, the Balochs will bleed the Pakistani army white. A no win situation will occur, resulting in Pakistani Army withdrawal. With Balochistan out of the way, nationalist movements in Sindh will go the same way as Balochistan. They will demand independence. The port of Karachi with its ethnic mix will be the testing ground for all political and military muscle Pakistani Army has.
All this is happening, because Pakistan maintained a 58 years Kashmir centric focus. It robbed the people of economic and political stability, which increased the centrifugal forces to tear it apart. In the end, Pakistan may be a loose federation of provinces and army permanently sent to the barracks. It will be a shadow of what the founder envisioned Pakistan to be.
India and Rest of the World’s Gains
Any succession type of movement in Pakistan will have an impact on India. These are easily tamed with economic growth and plural political system capable of redressing people’s grievances. Moreover Indian voters remove even popular politicians from power from time to time. Democracy is a great institution and India thrives on it.
Major gains for India will be, peace in Kashmir. Pakistani army may even leave the occupied portion of Kashmir and free the Kashmiri people. ISI will be the first institution to be dismantled. New breed of leaders probably will put economics and nation building ahead of picking up fights in the neighborhood.
Trade may flow freely thru open corridor in Gujrat-Sindh- Rajasthan and East and West Punjab. Indian goods will have a shorter route to reach Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics. Gas from Iran and Central Asia may flow freely to Karachi and India. Net gainers will be people of Pakistan with transit fees.
Additional gains for the US could be nabbing of Osma Bin Laden in a cave somewhere in Pakistan. Saudi and Mullah’s influence will be minimized. Jehadis will go back to their homes and become farmers or factory workers.
If this type of scenario unfolds, which it might, then the US influence in the area will increase, as trade will overtake military hardware shipment. IMF will be spared of rushing to Pakistan with a bag full of money. No Jehadis will be exported to the west. God willing, this is about to happen.
Hari Sud
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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How temple lands are encroched worth crores of rupees
Here is a case of a temple in Bangalore which
had encroachments of Rs.250 Crores (approx US$ 55 million)
I have given the link and article at the end of this message.
A loss of $50 Million from just 1 Temple !!!
If this $50 million was invested in risk-free Govt Securities
at about 6% - that would $3 million per year.
If we were to extrapolate this to say about 100 temples all
over India (this is a gross under-estimation),then that would
mean an income of about US$300 million per year.
So that should give an indication about the size of the problem !!
However, The lousy sangh-parivar leadership would rather focus
on worthless and symbolic issues. -- Kalyan
Even if 10% the assets of the Hindu temples are properly managed
and directed, the danger of conversions can be easily removed.
-------------------
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-874942,curpg-
1.cms
See how Banashankari Temple has shrunk!
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 06, 2004 02:05:57 AM ]
BANGALORE: The famous Banashankari temple on Tuesday was as usual
bustling with devotees. One distinguished visitor, however, created
quite a stir when he started pulling up officials.
After the hospitals, corporation and other government offices, the
Lok Ayukta this time round turned his attention to temples. And what
Lok Ayukta N. Venkatachala and his team found is that the temple had
shrunk in the last several years. In Lok Ayukta's own words: The 140
acres of temple land is no longer with the temple but had been
encroached upon or given away to various persons. Less than 20 acres
remain with the temple presently."
This means that the temple has lost approximately Rs 250 crore worth
of land at Rs 2 crore per acre. The Lok Ayukta who had visited the
temple last year, had ordered that a compound wall be built to
prevent further encroachment. One good thing came of that visit.
Several people who had encroached upon two acres had been evicted;
the recovered land is worth about Rs 4 crore. Not just land, the
team found that valuables too vanished. The temple receives
expensive silk sarees, gold jewellery and other valuables from
devotees which are supposed to be auctioned. But no auction takes
place and valuables are disposed of for a fraction of their value.
The Lok Ayukta took to task Muzrai officials under whose department
the temple falls, and the PWD staff. By this time, the officials
were quaking in their shoes, for, the Lok Ayukta hadn't completed
his mission. He inspected the area where pillars were being sculpted
and ordered that the pillars be erected within a month and all other
works completed before mid-2005.
He then turned his attention to the staff quarters and ordered that
one section should be done away with and a public toilet be built.
Also that those enjoying rent-free accommodation should henceforth
pay rent.
His other diktats: Build a structure to accommodate visitors coming
from far off places; demolish the illegal shop within the temple
premises. The temple staff and the officials must have breathed easy
after the Lok Ayukta's team left.
But just one point: Where do all the temple offerings, including
valuables, go? God knows!
had encroachments of Rs.250 Crores (approx US$ 55 million)
I have given the link and article at the end of this message.
A loss of $50 Million from just 1 Temple !!!
If this $50 million was invested in risk-free Govt Securities
at about 6% - that would $3 million per year.
If we were to extrapolate this to say about 100 temples all
over India (this is a gross under-estimation),then that would
mean an income of about US$300 million per year.
So that should give an indication about the size of the problem !!
However, The lousy sangh-parivar leadership would rather focus
on worthless and symbolic issues. -- Kalyan
Even if 10% the assets of the Hindu temples are properly managed
and directed, the danger of conversions can be easily removed.
-------------------
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-874942,curpg-
1.cms
See how Banashankari Temple has shrunk!
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 06, 2004 02:05:57 AM ]
BANGALORE: The famous Banashankari temple on Tuesday was as usual
bustling with devotees. One distinguished visitor, however, created
quite a stir when he started pulling up officials.
After the hospitals, corporation and other government offices, the
Lok Ayukta this time round turned his attention to temples. And what
Lok Ayukta N. Venkatachala and his team found is that the temple had
shrunk in the last several years. In Lok Ayukta's own words: The 140
acres of temple land is no longer with the temple but had been
encroached upon or given away to various persons. Less than 20 acres
remain with the temple presently."
This means that the temple has lost approximately Rs 250 crore worth
of land at Rs 2 crore per acre. The Lok Ayukta who had visited the
temple last year, had ordered that a compound wall be built to
prevent further encroachment. One good thing came of that visit.
Several people who had encroached upon two acres had been evicted;
the recovered land is worth about Rs 4 crore. Not just land, the
team found that valuables too vanished. The temple receives
expensive silk sarees, gold jewellery and other valuables from
devotees which are supposed to be auctioned. But no auction takes
place and valuables are disposed of for a fraction of their value.
The Lok Ayukta took to task Muzrai officials under whose department
the temple falls, and the PWD staff. By this time, the officials
were quaking in their shoes, for, the Lok Ayukta hadn't completed
his mission. He inspected the area where pillars were being sculpted
and ordered that the pillars be erected within a month and all other
works completed before mid-2005.
He then turned his attention to the staff quarters and ordered that
one section should be done away with and a public toilet be built.
Also that those enjoying rent-free accommodation should henceforth
pay rent.
His other diktats: Build a structure to accommodate visitors coming
from far off places; demolish the illegal shop within the temple
premises. The temple staff and the officials must have breathed easy
after the Lok Ayukta's team left.
But just one point: Where do all the temple offerings, including
valuables, go? God knows!
Mockery of justice --Banerjee Commission Report on the Godhra
By Ram Madhav
Spokesman, RSS
It is for more than one reason that the Banerjee Commission Report on the Godhra incident lacks any credibility. The constitution of this commission itself was ultra vires. There was already a commission headed by Justices Nanavati and Shah investigating this case. Under the Commission of Enquiry Act, two commissions cannot be appointed for the same purpose simultaneously.
Second, the hurried manner in which the interim report has been submitted too smacks of some sinister motive. The author of the report appeared to be serving his bosses most loyally in terms of not only the content but also the timing. Producing a half-baked report full of half-truths just two weeks before some crucial elections where the fortunes of the current and former Railway Ministers are at stake speaks volumes about the credibility of this report.
The very fact that an interim report was sought to be released to the media, as against the normal practice of submitting to the ministry; and refusal by the head of the commission to take any questions from the journalists is suggestive of dubious intentions. Normally senior members of the judiciary are expected to display judicial conscience in order to uphold the trust of the people in that institution. But the retired judge heading the commission has caused severe dent to the image of that institution by accepting to probe while two of his brother judges were already on the job. His so-called findings make a mockery of the judicial investigative process. His comments to the media on the day of the release - when he declared he was unaware of any election in any part of the country - only compounded this mockery.
According to the commission's findings, Godhra was just an accident caused by a fire originating from either half-burnt cigarettes or electrical short circuit or some cooking activity inside the coach. The entire S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt down in just seven minutes killing 58 people - just by cigarette butts! This is despite the fact that the Railways uses fire retardent and self-extinguishing material inside its compartments, which do not allow any fire to spread fast. So how did the panel arrive at such conclusions?
In fact, the commission is only a departmental inquiry lacking any authority or expertise to go into the conspiracy angle of the case. It did not consult a single officer who was involved in the investigation process to find out their findings. It has not contacted any forensic science expert who has studied the incident in detail. Yet the commission has jumped to the conclusion that no outsider entered the coach.
The investigating agencies and forensic experts have gathered concrete evidence that there was a conspiracy to attack this train and the conspirators were waiting for its arrival at Godhra in the early hours of February 27, 2002. They have concluded that the attackers had used swords to cut the vestibule between S-5 and S-6 coaches, forced their entry into the compartment and set it on fire using 60 litres of petrol, which was collected in cans on February 26, 2002, from a nearby petrol station and kept ready. A mob of more than 2000 then surrounded the coach and threw burning rags from outside through the windows, not allowing the hapless passengers any escape route.
The report of this so-called commission is theatre enacted for political mileage to the ruling party in the ensuing Bihar elections. That is not even a major issue because it is for the Muslims of that State to decide how long and how many times would they like themselves to be befooled by pseudo-secular lumpens.
But there are larger questions involved. Can senior members of the judiciary be allowed to become pawns in the hands of politicians? Can't the Supreme Court evolve a code of conduct for all members of the judiciary - present and past - in order to sustain the trust of the people in the institution? Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav has destroyed all political institutions in his State systematically. It is criminals who rule the roast in Bihar. Should we allow him to destroy the rest of the country to let him protect and promote criminals all over the country? Or should we support and strengthen law and order machinery to do its job without interference?
Tailpiece: If the Godhra fire was just an accident, then, according to Justice Banerjee's logic, how to describe the Best Bakery fire in which large quantities of inflammable material were already present since it was a bakery? Can we shed tears only for Best Bakery victims and make a mockery of the wails of those innocent men, women and children killed in the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express?
Rammadhav Spokesman RSS
www.rss.org/New_RSS/News/NewsDetail.jsp
Spokesman, RSS
It is for more than one reason that the Banerjee Commission Report on the Godhra incident lacks any credibility. The constitution of this commission itself was ultra vires. There was already a commission headed by Justices Nanavati and Shah investigating this case. Under the Commission of Enquiry Act, two commissions cannot be appointed for the same purpose simultaneously.
Second, the hurried manner in which the interim report has been submitted too smacks of some sinister motive. The author of the report appeared to be serving his bosses most loyally in terms of not only the content but also the timing. Producing a half-baked report full of half-truths just two weeks before some crucial elections where the fortunes of the current and former Railway Ministers are at stake speaks volumes about the credibility of this report.
The very fact that an interim report was sought to be released to the media, as against the normal practice of submitting to the ministry; and refusal by the head of the commission to take any questions from the journalists is suggestive of dubious intentions. Normally senior members of the judiciary are expected to display judicial conscience in order to uphold the trust of the people in that institution. But the retired judge heading the commission has caused severe dent to the image of that institution by accepting to probe while two of his brother judges were already on the job. His so-called findings make a mockery of the judicial investigative process. His comments to the media on the day of the release - when he declared he was unaware of any election in any part of the country - only compounded this mockery.
According to the commission's findings, Godhra was just an accident caused by a fire originating from either half-burnt cigarettes or electrical short circuit or some cooking activity inside the coach. The entire S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt down in just seven minutes killing 58 people - just by cigarette butts! This is despite the fact that the Railways uses fire retardent and self-extinguishing material inside its compartments, which do not allow any fire to spread fast. So how did the panel arrive at such conclusions?
In fact, the commission is only a departmental inquiry lacking any authority or expertise to go into the conspiracy angle of the case. It did not consult a single officer who was involved in the investigation process to find out their findings. It has not contacted any forensic science expert who has studied the incident in detail. Yet the commission has jumped to the conclusion that no outsider entered the coach.
The investigating agencies and forensic experts have gathered concrete evidence that there was a conspiracy to attack this train and the conspirators were waiting for its arrival at Godhra in the early hours of February 27, 2002. They have concluded that the attackers had used swords to cut the vestibule between S-5 and S-6 coaches, forced their entry into the compartment and set it on fire using 60 litres of petrol, which was collected in cans on February 26, 2002, from a nearby petrol station and kept ready. A mob of more than 2000 then surrounded the coach and threw burning rags from outside through the windows, not allowing the hapless passengers any escape route.
The report of this so-called commission is theatre enacted for political mileage to the ruling party in the ensuing Bihar elections. That is not even a major issue because it is for the Muslims of that State to decide how long and how many times would they like themselves to be befooled by pseudo-secular lumpens.
But there are larger questions involved. Can senior members of the judiciary be allowed to become pawns in the hands of politicians? Can't the Supreme Court evolve a code of conduct for all members of the judiciary - present and past - in order to sustain the trust of the people in the institution? Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav has destroyed all political institutions in his State systematically. It is criminals who rule the roast in Bihar. Should we allow him to destroy the rest of the country to let him protect and promote criminals all over the country? Or should we support and strengthen law and order machinery to do its job without interference?
Tailpiece: If the Godhra fire was just an accident, then, according to Justice Banerjee's logic, how to describe the Best Bakery fire in which large quantities of inflammable material were already present since it was a bakery? Can we shed tears only for Best Bakery victims and make a mockery of the wails of those innocent men, women and children killed in the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express?
Rammadhav Spokesman RSS
www.rss.org/New_RSS/News/NewsDetail.jsp
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