|
 |
|
|
|
Faceless
|
Over 100 young Muslims were interviewed across the country in various focus groups, all representing over 15 ethnicities. Ahmed’s work is an intriguing analysis on the state of young Muslims in the UK and clearly has much input from the young Muslims that she spoke to. Seen and Not Heard informs us that young Muslims have a plethora of issues to deal with – including poverty, education, subcultures, the generational gap, media, police interactions – and of course, religion.
But first, there’s the terminology itself. Ahmed notes that a primary distinction must be made in addressing and discussing young Muslims in Britain. The term “youth” has the negative connotations of being affiliated with gangs and violence, which occurs all too often in perceptions by the government, police, and media. “Youth” are seen as a problem in society and Ahmed therefore proposes that Muslim youth be addressed as “young Muslims” or “young people,” which some of her interviewed youth workers also recommended, for a step in preventing “otherization.”
A highly refreshing aspect of Seen and Not Heard is Ahmed’s analysis of the interactions between young Muslims and their parents, and how education comes into play. Overall, the tensions between the two are often comparable to what young people in general experience with the older generation – this intergenerational gap is present in many communities, Muslim and non-Muslim.
However in Muslim communities, factors such as language and culture are also present and frequently cause distance between parents and their children. Such circumstances do affect the education of young Muslims and their attitudes towards it, as many Muslim parents in the UK are not able to engage with their children’s education:
“The research shows that attitude, language, poor education background and feeling insecure with systems of school governance can turn parents away from helping children with their homework, coursework and other assessments, remembering that many parents of the first generation didn’t attend school in the UK and in fact have a generally poor track record of education themselves.”
In other words, this results in young Muslims thus not taking their education very seriously, for their parents do not check on their progress. This was certainly the case with me – my parents, like many, were either too busy with work or were not able to understand my teachers and coursework, resulting in disengagement (though not indifference) with my education.
In contrast, after we moved to the United States, I noticed that young American Muslims around me often had their parents involved with their education, while I was left to my own means. Ahmed has shed much light onto my shared UK experience and recommends that schools need to extend outreach to parents of young British Muslims with a better cultural understanding. This would result in a better education for young Muslims, and ultimately, better life and job opportunities.
A discussion of the media’s treatment of young Muslims is another critical and necessary – but rare – insight offered by the report. Ahmed quotes many young Muslims on their perceptions of how media portray them negatively, and documents how this affects their identity. For example, young Muslims are often unfairly forced to answer for the actions of Muslims abroad, and more frequently so because of an increasingly globalized media network.
Some interviewees often times felt helpless at the expense of the media, saying, “You can’t really make a difference.” Ahmed recommends that young Muslims be encouraged to enter media fields as a means of empowerment. As a precursor to this, other interviewees have proactively countered the negative perceptions enforced by the media simply by getting to know their non-Muslim peers.
Ahmed concludes that the identities of young Muslims in the United Kingdom are constantly in flux, because of shifting attitudes towards education, culture, and religion – and that the media’s everyday barrage also spurs perceptions to shift quickly. By dispelling many stereotypes and misconceptions, Seen and Not Heard demonstrates that young Muslims in the United Kingdom do have a lot of potential. It’s just that their potential needs to be recognized and respected.
President Ahmadinejad’s Speech At The Durban Review Conference On Racism
The following is the speech of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Durban Review Conference on racism in Geneva on April 20
Mr. Chairman, honorable secretary general of the United Nations, honorable United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Ladies and gentleman:
We have gathered in the follow-up to the Durban conference against racism and racial discrimination to work out practical mechanisms for our holy and humanitarian campaigns.
Over the last centuries, humanity has gone through great sufferings and pains. In the Medieval Ages, thinkers and scientists were sentenced to death. It was then followed by a period of slavery and slave trade. Innocent people were taken captive in their millions and separated from their families and loved ones to be taken to Europe and America under the worst conditions. A dark period that also experienced occupation, lootings and massacres of innocent people.
Many years passed by before nations rose up and fought for their liberty and freedom and they paid a high price for it. They lost millions of lives to expel the occupiers and establish independent and national governments. However, it did not take long before power grabbers imposed two wars in Europe which also plagued a part of Asia and Africa. Those horrific wars claimed about a hundred million lives and left behind massive devastation. Had lessons been learnt from the occupations, horrors and crimes of those wars, there would have been a ray of hope for the future.
The victorious powers called themselves the conquerors of the world while ignoring or down treading upon rights of other nations by the imposition of oppressive laws and international arrangements. Ladies and gentlemen, let us take a look at the UN Security Council which is one of the legacies of World War I and World War II. What was the logic behind their granting themselves the veto right? How can such logic comply with humanitarian or spiritual values? Would it not be inconformity with the recognized principles of justice, equality before the law, love and human dignity? Would it not be discrimination, injustice, violations of human rights or humiliation of the majority of nations and countries
The council is the highest decision-making world body for safeguarding international peace and security. How can we expect the realization of justice and peace when discrimination is legalized and the origin of the law is dominated by coercion and force rather than by justice and the rights?
Coercion and arrogance is the origin of oppression and wars. Although today many proponents of racism condemn racial discrimination in their words and their slogans, a number of powerful countries have been authorized to decide for other nations based on their own interests and at their own discretion and they can easily violate all laws and humanitarian values as they have done so.
Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering and they sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine. And, in fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.
The Security Council helped stabilize the occupying regime and supported it in the past 60 years giving them a free hand to commit all sorts of atrocities. It is all the more regrettable that a number of Western governments and the United States have committed themselves to defending those racist perpetrators of genocide while the awakened-conscience and free-minded people of the world condemn aggression, brutalities and the bombardment of civilians in Gaza. The supporters of Israel have always been either supportive or silent against the crimes.
Dear friends, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. What are the root causes of the US attacks against Iraq or the invasion of Afghanistan?
Was the motive behind the invasion of Iraq anything other than the arrogance of the then US administration and the mounting pressures on the part of the possessors of wealth and power to expand their sphere of influence seeking the interests of giant arms manufacturing companies affecting a noble culture with thousands of years of historical background, eliminating the potential and practical threats of Muslim countries against the Zionist regime or to control and plunder the energy resources of the Iraqi people?
Why, indeed, almost a million people were killed and injured and a few more millions were displaced? Why, indeed, the Iraqi people have suffered enormous losses amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars? And why was billions of dollars imposed on the American people as the result of these military actions? Was not the military action against Iraq planned by the Zionists and their allies in the then US administration in complicity with the arms manufacturing countries and the possessors of wealth? Did the invasion of Afghanistan restore peace, security and economic wellbeing in the country?
The United States and its allies not only have failed to contain the production of drugs in Afghanistan, but the cultivation of narcotics has multiplied in the course of their presence. The basic question is that what was the responsibility and the job of the then US administration and its allies? Did they represent the countries of the world? Have they been mandated by them? Have they been authorized by the people of the world to interfere in all parts of the globe, of course mostly in our region? Are not these measures a clear example of egocentrism, racism, discrimination or infringement upon the dignity and independence of nations?
Ladies and gentlemen, who is responsible for the current global economic crisis? Where did the crisis start from? From Africa, Asia or from the United States in the first place then spreading across Europe and their allies?
For a long time, they imposed inequitable economic regulations by their political power on the international economy. They imposed a financial and monetary system without a proper international oversight mechanism on nations and governments that played no role in repressive trends or policies. They have not even allowed their people to oversea or monitor their financial policies. They introduced all laws and regulations in defiance of all moral values only to protect the interests of the possessors of wealth and power.
They further presented a definition for market economy and competition that denied many of the economic opportunities that could be available to other countries of the world. They even transferred their problems to others while the waves of crisis lashed back plaguing their economies with thousands of billions of dollars in budget deficit. And today, they are injecting hundreds of billions of dollars of cash from the pockets of their own people and other nations into the failing banks, companies and financial institutions making the situation more and more complicated for their economy and their people. They are simply thinking about maintaining power and wealth. They could not care any less about the people of the world and even their own people.
Mr. President, Ladies and gentlemen, Racism is rooted in the lack of knowledge concerning the root of human existence as the selected creature of God. It is also the product of his deviation from the true path of human life and the obligations of mankind in the world of creation, failing to consciously worship God, not being able to think about the philosophy of life or the path to perfection that are the main ingredients of divine and humanitarian values which have restricted the horizon of human outlook making transient and limited interests, the yardstick for his action. That is why evil’s power took shape and expanded its realm of power while depriving others from enjoying equitable and just opportunities of development.
The result has been the making of an unbridled racism that is posing the most serious threats against international peace and has hindered the way for building peaceful coexistence in the entire world. Undoubtedly, racism is the symbol of ignorance which has deep roots in history and it is, indeed, the sign of frustration in the development of human society.
It is, therefore, crucially important to trace the manifestations of racism in situations or in societies where ignorance or lack of knowledge prevails. This increasing general awareness and understanding towards the philosophy of human existence is the principle struggle against such manifestations, and reveals the truth that human kind centers on the creation of the universe and the key to solving the problem of racism is a return to spiritual and moral values and finally the inclination to worship God Almighty.
The international community must initiate collective moves to raise awareness in afflicted societies where ignorance of racism still prevails so as to bring to a halt the spread of these malicious manifestations.
Dear Friends, today, the human community is facing a kind of racism which has tarnished the image of humanity in the beginning of the third millennium.
World Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religions and abuses religious sentiments to hide its hatred and ugly face. However, it is of great importance to bring into focus the political goals of some of the world powers and those who control huge economic resources and interests in the world. They mobilize all the resources including their economic and political influence and world media to render support in vain to the Zionist regime and to maliciously diminish the indignity and disgrace of this regime.
This is not simply a question of ignorance and one cannot conclude these ugly phenomena through consular campaigns. Efforts must be made to put an end to the abuse by Zionists and their political and international supporters and in respect with the will and aspirations of nations. Governments must be encouraged and supported in their fights aimed at eradicating this barbaric racism and to move towards reform in current international mechanisms.
There is no doubt that you are all aware of the conspiracies of some powers and Zionist circles against the goals and objectives of this conference. Unfortunately, there have been literatures and statements in support of Zionists and their crimes. And it is the responsibility of honorable representatives of nations to disclose these campaigns which run counter to humanitarian values and principles.
It should be recognized that boycotting such a session as an outstanding international capacity is a true indication of supporting the blatant example of racism. In defending human rights, it is primarily important to defend the rights of all nations to participate equally in all important international decision making processes without the influence of certain world powers.
And secondly, it is necessary to restructure the existing international organizations and their respective arrangements. Therefore this conference is a testing ground and the world public opinion today and tomorrow will judge our decisions and our actions.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, the world is going through rapid fundamental changes. Power relations have become weak and fragile. The sound of cracks in the pillars of world systems can now be heard. Major political and economic structures are on the brink of collapse. Political and security crises are on the rise. The worsening crisis in the world economy for which there can be seen no bright prospect, demonstrates the rising tide of far-reaching global changes. I have repeatedly emphasized the need to change the wrong direction through which the world is being managed today and I have also warned of the dire consequences of any delay in this crucial responsibility.
Now in this valuable event, I would like to announce to all leaders, thinkers and to all nations of the world present in this meeting and those who have a hunger for peace and economic well-being that the unjust economic management of the world is now at the end of the road. This deadlock was inevitable since the logic of this imposed management was oppressive.
The logic of collective management of world affairs is based on noble aspirations which centers on human beings and the supremacy of the almighty God. Therefore it defies any policy or plan which goes against the influence of nations. The victory of right over wrong and the establishment of a just world system has been promised by the Almighty God and his messengers and it has been a shared goal of all human beings from different societies and generations in the course of history. Realization of such a future depends on the knowledge of creation and the belief of the faithful.
The making of a global society is in fact the accomplishment of a noble goal held in the establishment of a common global system that will be run with the participation of all nations of the world in all major decision making processes and the definite root to this sublime goal.
Scientific and technical capacities as well as communication technology have created a common and widespread understanding of the world society and has provided the necessary ground for a common system. Now it is upon all intellectuals, thinkers and policy makers in the world to carry out their historical responsibility with a firm belief in this definite root. I also want to lay emphasis on the fact that Western liberalism and capitalism has reached its end since it has failed to perceive the truth of the world and humans as they are
It has imposed its own goals and directions on human beings. There is no regard for human and divine values, justice, freedom, love and brotherhood and it has based living on intense competition, securing individual and cooperative material interest.
Now we must learn from the past by initiating collective efforts in dealing with present challenges and in this connection, and as a closing remark, I wish to draw your kind attention to two important issues:
Firstly, it is absolutely possible to improve the existing situation in the world. However it must be noted that this could be only achieved through the cooperation of all countries in order to get the best out of the existing capacities and resources in the world. My participation in this conference is because of my conviction to these important issues as well as to our common responsibility of defending the rights of nations vis-à-vis the sinister phenomena of racism and being with you, the thinkers of the world.
Secondly, mindful of the inefficiency of the current international political, economic and security systems, it is necessary to focus on divine and humanitarian values by referring to the true definition of human beings based upon justice and respect for the rights of all people in all parts of the world and by acknowledging the past wrong doings in the past dominant management of the world, and to undertake collective measures to reform the existing structures.
In this respect, it is crucially important to rapidly reform the structure of the Security Council, including the elimination of the discriminatory veto right and to change the current world financial and monetary systems. It is evident that lack of understanding of the urgency for change is equivalent to the much heavier costs of delay
Dear Friends, beware that to move in the direction of justice and human dignity is like a rapid flow in the current of a river. Let us not forget the essence of love and affection. The promised future of human beings is a great asset that may serve our purposes in keeping together to build a new world.
In order to make the world a better place full of love and blessings, a world devoid of poverty and hatred, merging the increasing blessings of God Almighty and the righteous managing of the perfect human being, let us all join hands in friendship in the fulfillment of such a new world.
I thank you Mr. President, Secretary General and all distinguished participants for having the patience to listen to me. Thank you very much.
South Asian Terrorism: All Roads Lead To The British Empire
By Ramtanu Maitra
This is the first part of a two-part series. Next week:“Baluchistan and FATA in Pakistan.”
The growing violence throughout Pakistan since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in the Winter of 2001, the November 2008 attack on Mumbai, India, and many other smaller terrorist-directed killings in India, and the gruesome killing of at least 70 top Bangladeshi Army officers in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed last month, were evidence that the terrorists have declared war against the sovereign nation-states in South Asia. The only bright spot in this context is Sri Lanka, where a powerful terrorist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), better known as the Tamil Tigers, are about to lose their home base. That, however, may not end the LTTE terrorism, particularly since it is headquartered in London, where many South Asian terrorists are maintained in separate cages for future use by British intelligence, with the blessings of Her Majesty’s Service.
Since none of the South Asian countries, where the terrorists are gaining ground, have, so far, shown the ability to evaluate, and thus, eliminate, the growth of this terrorism, it is necessary to know its genesis, and how it has affected the leaders of the South Asian nations to the detriment of their respective security. What is evident is that the South Asian terrorism has little to do with territorial disputes among nations, but everything to do with the past British colonial rule which poisoned the minds of the locals, so they have become disloyal to their own countries.
In this article, we will deal with the terrorism that continues to prosper in India’s northeast; and the terrorism in Sri Lanka, brought about by the British-induced ethnic animosity among its citizens. This history is the narration of a tragedy, since those who fought for independence in these South Asian nations, made enormous sacrifices to bring about their independence; many of those heroic figures turned out to be mental slaves of the British Empire, and pursued relentlessly the policies that the British had implemented to run their degenerate Empire.
India’s Northeast
Six decades after India wrested independence from its colonial rulers, its northeast region is a cauldron of trouble. Located in a highly strategic area, with land contiguous to five countries—Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and China—it is full of militant separatists, who take refuge in the neighboring countries under pressure from Indian security forces. Since most of these neighboring countries do not have the reach to control the border areas, the separatist groups have set up armed training camps, which, over the years, have attracted international drug and gun traffickers. As a result of such unrelenting terrorist actions, and violent demonstrations over the last five decades, this part of India remains today a dangerous place.
These secessionist groups were not created by New Delhi, although New Delhi failed to understand that the promotion of ethnic, sub-ethnic, and tribal identities were policies of the British, who had come to India to expand their empire. The British Empire survived, and then thrived, through identification, within the subcontinent, of various ethnic and sub-ethnic groups and their conflict points; and then, exploited those conflict points to keep the groups divided and hostile to each other.
India and the other South Asian nations failed to comprehend that it was suicidal to allow a degenerate colonial power to pursue such policies against their nations. As a result, they were carried out by New Delhi for two ostensible reasons: One, to appease the militants, and the other, to “allow them to keep” what they wanted— their sub-national ethnic identity. The policy deprived the majority of the people of the Northeast of the justification for identifying themselves as Indians.
The die was cast in the subversion of the sovereignty of an independent India by the British Raj in 1862, when it laid down the law of apartheid, to isolate “the tribal groups.” The British came into the area in the 1820s, following the Burmese conquest of Manipur and parts of Assam. The area had become unstable in the latter part of the 18th Century, following the over-extension of the Burmese-based Ahom kingdom, which reached into Assam. The instability caused by the weakening of the Ahom kingdom prompted the Burmese to move to secure their western flank. But the Burmese action also helped to bring in the British. The British East India Company was lying in wait for the Ahom kingdom to disintegrate.
The Anglo-Burmese War of 1824-26 ended with a British victory. By the terms of the peace treaty signed at Yandaboo on Feb. 24, 1826, the British annexed the whole of lower Assam and parts of upper Assam (now Arunachal Pradesh). The Treaty of Yandaboo provided the British with the foothold they needed to annex Northeast India, launch further campaigns to capture Burma’s vital coastal areas, and gain complete control of the territory from the Andaman Sea to the mouth of the Irrawaddy River. What were London’s motives in this venture? The British claimed that their occupation of the northeast region was required to protect the plains of Assam from “tribal outrages and depredations and to maintain law and order in the sub-mountainous region.”
The ‘Apartheid Law’
Following annexation of Northeast India, the first strategy of the British East India Company toward the area was to set it up as a separate entity. At the outset, British strategy toward Northeast India was:
• to make sure that the tribal people remained separated from the plains people, and the economic interests of the British in the plains were not disturbed;
• to ensure that all tribal aspirations were ruthlessly curbed, by keeping the bogeyman of the plains people dangling in their faces; and,
• to ensure the tribal feudal order remained intact, with the paraphernalia of tribal chiefs and voodoo doctors kept in place. Part of this plan was carried out through the bribing of tribal chiefs with paltry gifts.
Lord Palmerston’s Zoo
The British plan to cordon off the northeast tribal areas was part of its policy of setting up a multicultural human zoo, during the 1850s, under the premiership of Henry Temple, the third Viscount Palmerston. Lord Palmerston, as Henry Temple was called, had three “friends”—the British Foreign Office, the Home Office, and Whitehall.
The apartheid program eliminated the Northeast Frontier Agency from the political map of India, and segregated the tribal population from Assam, as the British had done in southern Africa and would later do in Sudan. By 1875, British intentions became clear, even to those Englishmen who believed that the purpose of Mother England’s intervention in India, and the Northeast in particular, was to improve the conditions of the heathens. In an 1875 intelligence document, one operative wrote: “At this juncture, we find our local officers frankly declaring that our relations with the Nagas could not possibly be on a worse footing than they were then, and that the non-interference policy, which sounds excellent in theory, had utterly failed in practice.”
Apartheid also helped the British to function freely in this closed environment. Soon enough, the British Crown introduced another feature: It allowed Christian missionaries to proselytize among the tribal population and units of the Frontier Constabulary. The Land of the Nagas was identified as “virgin soil” for planting Christianity.
“Among a people so thoroughly primitive, and so independent of religious profession, we might reasonably expect missionary zeal would be most successful,” stated the 1875 document, as quoted in the “Descriptive Account of Assam,” by William Robinson and Angus Hamilton.
Missionaries were also encouraged to open government-aided schools in the Naga Hills. Between 1891 and 1901, the number of native Christians increased 128%. The chief proselytizers were the Welsh Presbyterians, headquartered in Khasi and the Jaintia Hills.British Baptists were given the franchise of the Mizo (Lushai) and Naga Hills, and the Baptist mission was set up in 1836.
British Mindset Controlled New Delhi
Since India’s Independence in 1947, the Northeast has been split up into smaller and smaller states and autonomous regions. The divisions were made to accommodate the wishes of tribes and ethnic groups which want to assert their sub-national identity, and obtain an area where the diktat of their little coterie is recognized.
New Delhi has yet to comprehend that its policy of accepting and institutionalizing the superficial identities of these ethnic, linguistic, and tribal groups has ensured more irrational demands for even smaller states. Assam has been cut up into many states since Britain’s exit. The autonomous regions of Karbi Anglong, Bodo Autonomous Region, and Meghalaya were all part of pre-independence Assam. Citing the influx of Bengali Muslims since the 1947 formation of East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh in 1971, the locals demand the ouster of these “foreigners” from their soil.
Two terrorist groups in Assam, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic front of Bodoland (NDFB) (set up originally as the Bodo Security Force), are now practically demanding “ethnic cleansing” in their respective areas. To fund their movements, both the ULFA and the NDFB have been trafficking heroin and other narcotics, and indulging in killing sprees against other ethnic groups and against Delhi’s law-and-order machinery. Both these groups have also developed close links with other major guerrilla-terrorist groups operating in the area, including the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Muivah) and the People’s Liberation Army in Manipur. In 1972, Meghalaya was carved out of Assam through a peaceful process. Unfortunately, peace did not last long in this “abode of the clouds.” In 1979, the first violent demonstration against “foreigners” resulted in a number of deaths and arson. The “foreigners” in this case were Bengalis, Marwaris, Biharis, and Nepalis, many of whom had settled in Meghalaya decades ago. By 1990, firebrand groups such as the Federation of Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo People (FKJGP), and the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) came to the fore, ostensibly to uphold the rights of the “hill people” from Khasi, Jaintia, and the Garo hills. Violence erupted in 1979, 1987, 1989, and 1990. The last violent terrorist acts were in 1992.
Similar “anti-foreigner” movements have sprouted up across the Northeast, from Arunachal Pradesh in the East and North, to Sikkim in the West, and Mizoram and Tripura in the South. Along the Myanmar border, the states of Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram remain unstable and extremely porous.
While New Delhi was busy maintaining the status quo in this area by telling the tribal and ethnic groups that India is not going to take away what the British Raj had given to them, Britain picked the Nagas as the most efficient warriors (also, a large number of them had been converted to Christianity by the Welsh missionaries), and began arming and funding them. The British connection to the NSCN existed from the early days of the Naga National Council. Angami Zapu Phizo, the mentor of both factions of the NSCN, had led the charge against the Indian government, spearheading well-organized guerrilla warfare. Phizo left Nagaland hiding in a coffin. He then turned up in 1963 in Britain, holding a Peruvian passport. It is strongly suspected that the British Baptist Church, which is very powerful in Nagaland, is the contact between British intelligence and the NSCN terrorists operating on the ground at the time.
‘Dirty Bertie’ and the Nagas
Once Phizo arrived in Britain, Lord Bertrand (“Dirty Bertie”) Russell, the atheist, courted Phizo, and became his new friend. Russell was deeply impressed with Phizo’s “earnestness” for a peaceful settlement. What, perhaps, impressed Russell the most is that Phizo had control over the militant Nagas, who had launched a movement in the mid-1950s under the Naga National Council (NNC) to secede from the Indian Republic. In a letter dated Feb. 12, 1963, Sir Bertrand told Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, “I find it hard to understand the difficulty of coming to an agreement which would put an end to the very painful occurrences incidental to the present policy of India.”
It is believed in some circles that New Delhi’s 1964 ceasefire with the Nagas might have been influenced by the letter from Russell that was handed to Nehru by Rev. Michael Scott. Scott later went to Nagaland as part of a peace mission, along with two senior Indian political leaders.
While Russell was pushing Nehru to make the Nagas an independent country through peaceful negotiations, British involvement in direct conflict continued. On Jan. 30, 1992, soldiers of the Assam Rifles arrested two British nationals along the Nagaland-Burma border. David Ward and Stephen Hill posed as members of BBC-TV, and were travelling in jeeps with Naga rebels carrying arms. Subsequent interrogation revealed that both were operatives of Naga Vigil, a U.K.-based group. Both Ward and Hill claimed that they started the organization while in jail, influenced by Phizo’s niece, Rano Soriza. Both have served six-year prison terms for various crimes in Britain. Naga Vigil petitioned for their release in the Guwahti High Court. Phizo’s niece took up the issue with then-Nagaland Chief Minister Vamuzo.
Sri Lanka’s Violent Ethnic Strife
In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tiger terrorist group is in its last throes. Ousted by the Sri Lankan Army from almost all of its “claimed” territories, the militants are now holding on to about 19 square kilometers of land, with about 70,000 Sri Lankan citizens, mostly of Tamil ethnic origin, as their hostages. It is evident that they will be totally routed by the end of this month.
While the U.S. Pacific Command personnel in contact with New Delhi are formulating an evacuation plan for the hostages, London and the European Union are trying to protect the last vestiges of Tiger territory by urging Colombo to work out a cease fire with the terrorists.
The emergence of violent conflict between the Tamil Sri Lankans and the Sinhala Sri Lankans, which gave birth to the London-backed Tamil Tigers, was yet another product of the British colonial legacy. This ethnic conflict, which has engulfed this little island, and unleashed unlimited violence in the region for almost three decades, is, as in the case of Northeast India, due to the British mindset of the Sri Lankan and Indian leaders involved in “resolving “the crisis.
To begin with, Sri Lanka (then, Ceylon) had the misfortune to be colonized by three brutal European colonial powers—the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British. Nonetheless, it is to the credit of the locals that they withstood these brutes and prevented the break-up of the country.
After the Dutch ceded Sri Lanka in the 1801 Peace of Amiens, it became Britain’s first crown colony. Immediately, the British colonials started setting up the chess pieces. The ruling Kandyan King, of Tamil ancestry, was ousted with the help of local chieftains of Tamil and Sinhala origin. The coup set up the British crown as the new King.
As part of the “divide and rule” policy, the British colonials promoted the Buddhist religion, resulting in the 1817 Uva rebellion. The Buddhist religion was given protection by the Crown, and the people were told that Christianity would not be imposed on the unwilling masses as had happened during Portuguese and Dutch rule. Following the quelling of the rebellion, the British did what they do best: They carried out one of the worst massacres of the 19th Century, wiping out all able-bodied Sinhalese men from the Hill Country, and 80% of the native population of able-bodied, according to one report. The Kandyan Kingdom was the kingdom of both the Tamils and Sinhalas—both these groups came from India to settle on that island.
One specific impact of the British colonial presence was the emergence of English as the local language, undermining both the Sinhala and Tamil languages. According to one historian, the two most important effects observed during British rule were: one, by the start of 20th Century, the English language became the passport to getting employment; and those who had an English education became dominant in Britain’s handcrafted Sri Lankan society. Due to input of the Christian missionaries, more minority Tamils could read and write English, as opposed to the southern Sinhalese and Kandyan Sinhalese.
The other observed impact on Sri Lankan society of British colonial rule, was the reconstituting of the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly of 1921 had 12 Sinhalese and 10 non-Sinhalese, at a time when the Sinhalese constituted more than 70% of the population. Things changed in 1931, when, out of 61 seats, the Sinhalese won 38. This troubled the Tamils, because they had had special privileges under British, and never wanted to accept the dominance of the Sinhalese majority.
In addition, the British also brought to the island a million workers of Tamil ethnic background from Tamil Nadu, and made them indentured laborers in the Hill Country. This was in addition to the million Tamils already living in the provinces, and another million Mappilla Muslims, whose mother tongue is Tamil. Thus, the British sowed seeds of ethnic discord. During the colonial rule, the minority Tamils had a disproportionate representation in the bureaucracy.
The Role of British Assets in Independent Sri Lanka
However, when in 1948, the British finally left the island, they left behind their assets, in powerful places, many of whom were educated at Oxford-Cambridge, and some of whom had adopted Christianity, on both sides of the ethnic divide London had so carefully created.
Instead of seizing the opportunity to build the nation and set about undoing the misdeeds they were forced to carry out under British rule, beginning in the 1950s, Sinhalese-dominated governments implemented public policies that would institutionalize the majority community’s dominance. Sinhala was declared to be the country’s sole official language; Buddhism was favored as the state religion; and the unitary nature of the state ensured Sinhalese political domination. Major Sinhalese-Tamil riots in 1956, 1981, and 1983 further heightened Tamil insecurities.
Meanwhile, the Tamils began to press for autonomy. Political parties, such as the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), utilized conventional means, which included participating in coalition governments. Militant Tamils, the LTTE, sought the creation of an independent Tamil state, referred to as Tamil Eelam, which would comprise the North and East of the country.
Throughout the 1980s, various Tamil rebel groups engaged in attacks against the Colombo government and its security apparatus. However, the situation worsened on that island because of the British mindset of New Delhi, which made a number of attempts to intervene in the violent Sri Lankan situation. Besides helping the Tamils to get armed training and intelligence, New Delhi, under late-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, deployed around 50,000 Indian peacekeepers (IPKF) in Tamil areas in Sri Lanka to help ensure peace. In return, the Sri Lankan government agreed to devolve power to the North and East through the creation of autonomous provincial councils.
Neither Colombo nor the Tamil militants were sincere about the deal; both were looking at the Indian troops as the barriers against their independent state. The failure of the Indian intervention led to more deaths and the assassination of Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa, and India’s Rajiv Gandhi, among many other high-level Sri Lankan officials, by the terrorist Tamil Tigers.
London: Break Up India into 100 Hong Kongs
But, the British were in the middle of all this. Besides the fact that the LTTE was headquartered in London, and raising most of its illegitimate funds from Britain and its former colonies in Australia, South Africa, and Canada, within ten days of Gandhi’s death, Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who would be assassinated by the LTTE in May 1993, forced the hasty departure from Sri Lanka of British High Commissioner David Gladstone. The charge was that Gladstone, a descendant of the Victorian-age Prime Minister William Gladstone, was interfering in local election politics. But he had also been criticized earlier for allegedly meeting with known drug traffickers in Sri Lanka. Gladstone, who had previously spent years in the Middle East, was a known British intelligence link to the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, which was involved in training both the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and the LTTE
Britain’s continuing intent to break up India was also expressed openly in this political context. On May 26, 1991, only five days after the British-controlled LTTE-led assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the Times of London, the premier voice for the British Foreign Office, put forward this view in an editorial entitled “Home Truths”: “There are so many lessons to be learnt from sorrowing India, and most are being muttered too politely. The over-huge federation of almost 900 million people spreads across too many languages, cultures, religions, and castes. It has three times as many often incompatible and thus resentful people as the Soviet Union, which now faces the same bloody strains and ignored solutions as India. . . .
“The way forward for India, as for the Soviet Union, will be to say a great prize can go to any States and sub-States that maintain order without murders and riots. They should be allowed to disregard Delhi’s corrupt licensing restrictions, run their own economic policies, and bring in as much foreign investment and as many free-market principles as they like. Maybe India’s richest course from the beginning would have been to split into 100 Hong Kongs
http://www.countercurrents.org/maitra250309.htm
Filed under: Muslims
Racism and Religious Desecration as USPolicy:Islamophobia, a RetrospectiveBy TRISH SCHUH
It was the potshot heard round the world that touched off a counter-crusade. Packaged in western free speech cliches, and marketed as innocent satire, the newspaper Jylland-Posten’s depiction of the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist/suicide bomber with a ticking bomb for a turban was “provocation-entrapment” propaganda. Dual-use entertainment, in this case frivolous caricature, is an unexamined aspect of “full spectrum information dominance.” The US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s “Information Operations Roadmap” mandates that ‘information warfare’ utilize all cultural venues to further its agenda- news, posters, books, movies, art, internet, and music etc.
Can comedy be far behind? At recent CIA training sessions in Dubai, Iranian opposition agent provocateurs were taught the importance of mockery and ridicule when used to discredit and ‘demythologize’ an enemy or incite against it. Even populist actions like grafitti “could embolden the student movement and provoke a general government crackdown, which could then be used as a pretext to ’spark’ a mass uprising that appeared to be spontaneous.” (Asia Times, Mar 14, 06). Such provocation tactics operated in the cartoon intifada, as well as in US Embassy-coordinated “color revolutions”.
As a free speech crusader, Flemming Rose, Jyllands-Posten’s editor behind the Muhammad cartoons (and ally/author of a Daniel Pipes profile “The Threat from Islam”), had earlier refused to publish denigrating cartoons of Jesus, fearing it would “offend readers.” Jylland-Posten also rescinded sponsorship of a Holocaust cartoon contest for the same reason. Kurt Westergaard, Jylland-Posten’s ‘Muhammad bomb’ illustrator even transcribed a Koranic verse onto Muhammad’s turban to reinforce his message. Westergaard later admitted to The Herald of Glasgow, Scotland that “terrorism” which he said got “spiritual ammunition” from Islam was the inspiration for that message. If propaganda is a weapon of war, Islam is under carpet bombing. Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels described the methods, which define those used today: “Concentrating the fire of all the media on one particular point- a single theme, a single enemy, a single idea- the campaign uses this concentration of all media, but progressively…”
Theme: “War on Terror” Enemy: Muslims. Addressing the 2006 AIPAC “Now is the Time to Stop Iran” Conference, Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Daniel Gillerman summarized the Idea: “While it may be true- and probably is- that not all Muslims are terrorists, it also happens to be true that nearly all terrorists are Muslim.” Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami put it another way: “the West needs an enemy, and this time it is Islam. And Islamophobia becomes part of all policies of the great powers, of hegemonic powers.”
Is Islamophobia de facto state policy? Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi declared in 2001 that Western civilization is superior to the Islamic World: “We should be confident of the superiority of our civilization, which consists of a value system that has given people widespread prosperity in those countries that embrace it, and guarantees respect for human rights.” He added that this superiority entitled the West to “occidentalize and conquer new people.” Another Italian official MP Roberto Calderoni flaunted his Muhammad cartoon T-shirt on TV, warning of a an “Islamic attack on the West.” French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy pronounced Muslim immigrants “gangrene” and “scum,” and one Danish MP labeled Muslims “a cancer in Denmark.” In America, Illinois Congressman Mark Kirk commented: “I’m okay with discrimination against young Arab males from terrorist-producing states.” Texas Congressman Sam Johnson bragged to a crowd of veterans that he had advised Bush to nuke Syria, and Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo advocated wiping out Mecca to get even with Muslims for terrorist attacks. Recently the Bush administration itself revealed its plans to “nuke Iran” with bunker buster bombs.
Zionist Daniel Pipes, a representative at the Congress-sponsored think tank US Institute for Peace, (who was appointed by Bush despite heavy public protest against Pipe’s racism) recently diagnosed Muslims as carriers of a sinister, latent psychopathic contagion: “Individuals may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers… This is what I have dubbed the Sudden Jihad Syndrome, whereby normal-appearing Muslims abruptly become violent. It has the awful but legitimate consequence of casting suspicion on all Muslims. Who knows whence the next jihadi? How can one be confident a law-abiding Muslim will not suddenly erupt in a homocidal rage?” Muslims’ angry reactions to the cartoon provocation unwittingly served a goal of Pipe’s Anti-Islamist Institute: “the delegitimation of the Islamists. We seek to have them shunned by the government, the media, the churches, the academy and the corporate world.” For once, Israel, America and Europe were united to protect civilization’s free speech virtues against “crazed, rampaging”, “dirty arabs” or, as Pipes himself once remarked, “brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and not exactly maintaining Germanic standards of hygiene.”
I asked Pipes about the systemic racism and Muslim/Arab ‘terrorist’ stereotypes in the US media. Pipes said: “I would strongly, strongly disagree. There is an enormous amount of media that is very, very positive about Muslims, an enormous amount. I see it everyday. There is a steady stream of media that is very positive about Muslims- steady, steady, steady. I see it everyday- all the time…” When persistently pressed to name five positive stories or Muslim role models among this plethora of good news- authors, academics, lawyers, celebrities etc. Pipes could not give a single example. But he easily supplied numerous names of prominent Arab Americans allegedly ‘linked’ to terrorism.
Despite disclaimers, bigoted, hideous and contemptuous anti-Muslim content continues unabated: hooded corpses in Abu Ghraib displayed by jovial “thumbs up” troops, force-fed hunger strikers at Guantanamo (who Donald Rumsfeld wisecracked were “on a diet”), refugee camps flattened, Palestinians starving, taunts of “Taliban lady boys” after US troops had set fire to Afghan bodies, ubiquitous car bombings, wedding parties crushed, mosques massacred, civilians attacked with cluster bombs and daisy cutters. Depleted uranium mutating future generations, and a thousand Iraqi pilgrims stampeded to death in an hour… In the midst of which President Bush pantomimed & joked about missing WMD’s to an applauding, jeering Radio & Television Correspondents Association that call themselves a press corp. Antics befitting a noncombatant President who greeted the initial bombing of Iraq with pumped fists: “I feel good!” (BBC) “See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.” (George W Bush, 5/24/05)
This state-sponsored smirking has trickled down to spawn a climate of recreational cruelty in the US military. Reflecting anti-Muslim propaganda while perpetuating it, is the “Rumsfeld Contingent” of the armed forces. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, Lt. Gen. William Jerry Boykin propagated hate at the grassroots level in dozens of speeches to church groups, saying that the war on terror was actually spiritual warfare, with the enemy ‘Satan’ being embodied by Islam. Speaking of God versus Allah he said: “Well, you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.” Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld defended Boykin, so it was unsurprising that after Abu Ghraib crimes erupted Boykin found “no pattern of misconduct.”
Dropping down the chain of command, Marine Corp Lt. Gen. James Mattis’s comments were caught by AP. “Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know it’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right upfront with you, I like brawling.” Drawing on the ‘Muslim misogynist’ stereotype, Mattis added that Muslim men were wife-beaters and continued: “You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of alot of fun to shoot them.” Some troops on the ground echoed this “raghead” ethos as they shot Iraqis.
Or shot down their sacred symbols. In May, 2005, worldwide Muslim reaction compelled Newsweek to retract a story about US interrogators flushing the Koran down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld maintained that the revelation was not true, and demanded that Newsweek explain to the Muslim world “the care that the US military takes” to respect Islamic beliefs.
But such behavior had been documented independently elsewhere. The Denver Post: prisoners were “forced to watch copies of the Koran being flushed down toilets” (January, 2005), Financial Times: “they were beaten and had their Korans thrown into toilets” (Oct 28, 2004), NY Daily News: “They would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet and generally disrespect it.” (Aug. 5, 2004), The Independent UK: “Guards allegedly threw prisoners’ Korans into toilets” (Aug 5, 2004), The Observer UK: “copies of the Koran would be trampled on by soldiers and, on one occasion, thrown into a toilet bucket.” (March 14, 2004), Washington Post: “American soldiers insulted Islam by sitting on the Koran or dumping their sacred text into a toilet to taunt them” (March 26, 2003). These were but a few of similar media reports over a period of years.
Other instances of Islamic desecration were also recorded. One online fundraiser sold printed toilet paper with the words “Koran, the Holy Quran” which was then distributed to mosques and the media with a letter claiming the Koran was a “cookbook for terrorists” and incited violence. The Mercury News revealed that flyers posted on a Sacramento National Guard military base extolled World War 1 General John Pershing as a hero for executing “Muslim terrorists” with bullets dipped in pigs blood, thus excluding them from Paradise. WorldNetDaily reported on a US Army Reserve recruit’s contest that used pages from the Koran to make porcine figures. His website pabaah.com showed a paper mache’ pig with a US flag on its back, and included paper mache instructions and links to get free Korans.
Some troop contests were flippant in a physical way. At Camp Nama adjacent to Baghdad Airport, The New York Times reported that detainees were bruised after being used for target practice by soldiers playing in the High Five Paintball Club. Human Rights Watch later assessed that prisoners were sometimes tortured as a form of stress relief for soldiers to help while away the hours. “Some days we would just get bored so we would have everyone sit in a corner and then make them get in a pyramid. We did that for amusement.” One soldier added “…it was like a game …for sport..” This R & R earned the 82nd Airborne at FOB Mercury a prized nickname from terrified Iraqis: “Murderous Maniacs”. Departing military personnel who did a ‘good job’ were later awarded by commanders with trophies- a detainee’s black hood, and a piece of tile from the medical office that had once held Saddam Hussein. (After the 1990 Iraq War, one soldier tried to smuggle an Iraqi’s limb home in his duffel bag as a trophy under the first Bush/Cheney administration.)
At Abu Ghraib, Sgt Michael J. Smith laughed and partied with rival dog handlers as they competed to see who could outscare and humiliate Iraqi prisoners (dogs are considered unclean and human contact is forbidden by Islam) by siccing ferocious, violent killer dogs on them. Smith said: “My buddy and I are having a contest to see if we can get them to defecate on themselves because we’ve already had some urinate on themselves.” Then in a show of good canine conscience (or just good sportsmanship), one trainer’s Belgian shepherd turned its back on the detainee and instead attacked the interrogator.
Michael Blake, an Iraq veteran explained that the military indoctinated troops with the idea “Islam is Evil” and “they hate us.” This attitude facilitated the abuse and killing of civilians, and was not just ‘a few bad apples’. (There are around 2000 unreleased torture images). “Most of the guys I was with believed it”, he added. Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, a former 82nd Airborne commander insisted that responsibility for such abuses ultimately lead “directly back to Secretary Rumsfeld,” as an architect of the torture policy.
Lower level troops prosecuted to deflect responsibility from Rumsfeld have also testified that they were following orders from above. An official report in 2005 by the Army Inspector General confirms that authorities at the highest level sanctioned the crimes. The report documented Rumsfeld’s direct, personal briefings by Army Major interrogator Geoffrey Miller. British Brigadier Alan Sharp (American Bronze Star winner for writing the “coalition campaign plan”) disapproved of the gung ho, swaggering “streak of Hollywood” displayed by US troops. Acknowledging that such “heroics” made for good television back in the States, he warned that heavily armed Americans boasting “how many Iraqis have been killed by US forces today” was no ‘hearts and minds’ winning tool. But the example had been set after 911 by the “gunslingin’, nuke-totin’” swagger of Cowboy-in-Chief Dubya Bush. His blustering wisecrack “Osama- Wanted: Dead or Alive” mimicked posters of old Hollywood westerns. The New York Times reported that major Tinsel Town executives were working with top Bush advisor Karl Rove to revive the former propaganda partnership between the entertainment industry and the Department of Defense. “Hollywood Now Plays Cowboys and Arabs”, ran one headline. (Ironically, Bush’s grandfather Prescott claimed to have stolen the skull of legendary American Indian warrior Geronimo for his college secret society. It was proudly kept on display as a trophy). In 2004, the Pentagon previewed its own “coming attractions.” Marines staged a desert “gladiators’ Ben Hur” drill in full historic costume- togas, trojan helmuts, and shields while swinging spiked truncheons to “psych up for a planned invasion” against Fallujah. “Friends, Romans, countryman, fend off their spears. When in Fallujah, do as the Romans do” the New York Post quipped. White phosphorus ‘burning at the stake’ was strictly offscreen. As Lt. Col. Gary Brandl said in the film Fallujah: “The enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He’s in Fallujah. And we’re going to destroy him.” Internet audiences could catch candids of Iraqi dead “just for fun”. At undermars.com, troops posted photos of bloody faces ground to a pulp. Others showed a birthday candle stuffed into a smashed skull, and various decapitated heads. Evoking Bush’s cowboy spirit, one caption read: “i’m an indian outlaw… look my first scalp.”
NowThatsFuckedUp.com accepted photos of Iraqi war crimes and atrocities as currency to buy pornography when credit card companies refused to ok payment in dollars. After a brief outcry from Iraqi expatriates, the site was closed and diverted to an address called barbecuestoppers.com. There troops laughed and gloated over ‘baked’, charred and hideously disfigured Iraqi cadavers, with captions like “Die, Haji die.” One picture showed a ‘barbecued’ corpse steeped in its own blood and entrails labeled “what every Iraqi should look like.” The US Department of Defense is aware of the site, but it is still accessible to voyeurs despite being in violation of Geneva Conventions.Unfortunately, this avalanche of damaging associations have increased Americans’ prejudice against Islam. A March 2006 ABC News poll found 46 percent view Islam negatively, up from 39 percent in the months after September 11, 2001. Americans who believe that Islam promotes violence has risen from 14 percent in 2002 to 33 percent today. Former US president Bill Clinton warned: “So now what are we going to do? Replace anti-Semitic prejudice with anti-Islamic prejudice?” It seems so. In 2005, for the first time since the atomic devastation of Japan, an Associated Press poll found that half of all Americans would approve the use of atomic bombs, especially against terrorist targets. A mushroom cloud of anti-Muslim hate, with a sickly “humorous” spin, has been winning American ‘hearts and minds’ into acceptance of the Bush administration’s nuclear attack against the “axis of evil” terror sponsor- Islamic Republic of Iran. Meanwhile, another cheap shot has recently been fired at Islam. A provocative ‘Muhammad cartoon’ depicts the Prophet Muhammad cut in half, and burning in Hell, next to a woman among burning coals. Its editor says the cartoon represents policy towards Islam and that any angry reaction to it could serve to further alienate Muslims: “if the cartoon provoked an attack, it would only ‘confirm the idiotic positions’ of Muslim extremists.” Don’t forget to laugh. Trish Schuh was a co-founder of Military Families Support Network and is a member of Military Reporters & Editors covering the middle east. |
Muslims in India: Identity And Security Issues
By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi
Our great nation— India was freed on 15th August 1947 after 190 years of fight against British tyranny, beginning from the battle of Plassey in July 1757 between Nawab Siraj-ud Daulah and East India Company. Year 1857 has been the hallmark of Indian’s ‘unity in diversity’ culture when all Indians with their religious, linguistic and cultural identities launched the ‘first united war for freedom of India’ under the last Mogul king Bahadur Shah Zafar. In the building of modern India every community and every caste has equally offered their share— thus India is for all Indians.
On 26th November 1949 India adopted the new constitution, framed by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, which two months later on 26th January 1950 was enforced assuring all the citizens equality, justice and security. Similarly the leaders of our freedom struggle like Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Mahmoodul Hasan and their devote companions had dreamt of an India where men and women would be judged not on the class, creed or religions they belong to but on the content of their character and merit they personally possess. But the scene in the post- independent India portrays a dismal condition all-around– prejudice, injustice, corruption, insecurity and lawlessness swirling all over India’s social, political, bureaucratic and law enforcing sectors endangering the very foundations of the Indian state.
No doubt, India is one of the fastest developing countries in the world. And we Indians do like the “Incredible India,” slogan– as global ad campaign by the government of Indian. On the contrary, a government of India report reads and acknowledges that Muslims in India have become “backward.” “Fearing for their security,” the report said, “Muslims are increasingly resorting to living in ghettos around the country.” Branding of Muslims as anti-national, intolerant and terrorists “has a depressing effect on their psyche,” the report said, noting Muslims live in “a sense of despair and suspicion.”
According to the report, produced by a committee led by a former chief justice of our country, Rajender Sachar, Muslims are now worse off than the Dalits, or those once called untouchables by the Brahmins. Some 52% of Muslim men are unemployed, compared with 47% of Dalit men. Among Muslim women, 91% are unemployed, compared with 77% of Dalit women. Almost half of Muslims over the age of 46 can’t read or write. While making up nearly 14% of the total population of the country, Muslims account for 40% of India’s prison population. They hold only 4.9 percent of government jobs and only 3.2 percent of the jobs in the country’s security agencies, thus creating a new set of ‘untouchable Indians’ in the modern democratic republic of India.
Indian Muslims’ ability to feel physically and emotionally safe; and their equal progress with other mainstream society is a test of the country’s democracy and of its hopes for becoming a First World economic power. A body cannot find relief leaving one of its sides squeezing in pain. Similarly our country cannot taste the progress leaving one of her wings— Muslims lagging behind. Though India’s nearly 150 million Muslims are a minority at home, they represent the second-largest Muslim population in the world, behind Indonesia (190 million) and just ahead of Pakistan (about 140 million). The numbers of Muslims in India is larger than the entire population of Arab Muslims (about 140 million).
The Sachar committee report recommended creating a commission to remedy the systemic discrimination and promote affirmative-action programms. So far, very few of the recommendations have been put in place.
Indian Muslims have, as per my findings, four principal problems. And these problems are the real obstacles in all educational, economic and socio-political perspirations of the Muslim community at large.
The firstproblem is the absence of true Muslim leadership in the post-Partition period until this day. The present Muslim political leadership is either puppets of the leading parties or they have no sense of the problems Muslims community is actually facing in India. It has been an irony in the post 1947 India that majority of the Muslim politicians have been proven ineffective in regards to the community which has voted them to the power.
The second problem of Indian Muslims is lack of security. Riots, communal violence have become a sad reality of India’s life and the majority of the victims of riots in India are Muslims. The bloody massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in late February 2002 that led to the death of over 2000 Muslims is a ghastly reminder of an organized violence with tacit support by the ruling authorities.
Mumbai based writer late ‘Mr. Rafiq Zakaria’ has written with anguish about communal riots in India. According to him, they reached genocidal proportions in Gujarat in 2002.
The political milieu just after the partition was such that made Muslims feel so demoralized that they could not dare ask the question as to why the doors of defence forces were barred to them after the independence. The Muslim civil servants similarly were not to be appointed on sensitive posts and extra caution had to be used for issuing even passports to them. The strength of Muslims in the police and state paramilitary forces was deliberately reduced to the extent that in some States including U.P., Delhi and West Bengal their representation is very low.
The third principal problem of Muslim community is its low income. Although the economic and social situation of Muslims is not the same throughout India, one cannot deny the fact that poverty and lack of genuine financial recourses are hampering socio- educational development of the community at every step.
Official data is, at least, enough to figure out that in the post independent India Muslim community remained downwards economically in comparison to all other majority or minority communities. And with authentic findings in hand as we have now through National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) and the Sachar Committee Report (SCR) about the profile of second religious majority group of India, official policy can – if any government wants to – easily identify the groups most in need of state intervention, support and special care. It is typical of India’s political and social ethos that this fact of gross under representation of a significant religious minority is not allowed to become an issue. Any such discussion would be rather viewed as ‘communal’ which is taken to be anti-secular.
The fourth and most painful problem of Muslim Indians is the discriminatory attitudes of the majority community towards them. In this paper it is not possible, nor is it necessary, to give an exhaustive account of how Muslims have been hauled under various draconian laws in Independent India and how intolerant and discriminatory attitudes towards them have adversely affected their rights as equal citizens in the common domain and their collective right to distinct religious, cultural and linguistic identity. What is being attempted here is to present a sampling of state of things to illustrate how institutional discrimination and extreme intolerance against Muslims have made them periodically feel insecure, marginalized and educationally deprived.
There are Muslims’ cultural and identity crises, including those fear-psycho cases among Muslims themselves and the factual ones like the recent Aftab Ansari case of an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer who wanted to grow religiously prescribed beard but has been dismissed from the job itself. From physical look, dress code, religious practices and even language like Urdu (which was wrongly taken to be Muslim exclusive) there appears a confrontation among majority and minority communities in the country. There is also the more sinister danger of actual history being changed or important chapters being omitted and Muslim culture, period of rule being depicted in official textbooks as barbaric and communal.
We learn of the most compelling stories of injustice and brutality as Muslims struggle for self-dignity and identity. A few of the images that are shown on television and the reports in the press confirm for us the plight of the Muslims in our country.
There has always been a big difference between the theory and practice in India. Indian constitution, no doubt, is one of the best in the world. It is truly secular and it was more so even before the word ’secular’ was added to it in 1975.
Equal rights and justice for all — religious and linguistic minorities, freedom of expression and religious propagation, and punishment against any kind of discrimination are wisely enshrined in our constitution. But what practically on the screen for last few years is what it is called ‘chaos’ and collapse of justice system. The 1984 riots against Sikhs, 1992 Babri masjid demolition, 2002 Gujarat pogrom and recent Orissa and Karnataka riots against Christians are vistas which would surely find a mention in the future anthropological analyses of India along with underlined references of administrative lapses and state involvement as party in the dispute.
Plainly speaking, permanent steps should be taken that can restore the confidence of minority communities in India’s security and justice system and prevent further riots. Police must be made responsible for the riots and made them pay for their criminal inactions in the past.
Generally speaking, in all communal violence, in post independent Indian, affected people did not get justice. Muslim Indians have very few demands now– make justice visible rather than providing relief or promise of an enquiry, provide us with a feeling of actual security and see how we ourselves can make genuine progress.
We need an India where the combined, revolutionary and reformist ideologies of Shah Waliullah, Chattrapati Shivaji, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar are practically enshrined. There can be no democracy where there are no values. It is criminal to justify politics based on corruption and injustice. Democracy is where if one person is victimized the entire society stands up. Democracy based on public conscience is real. The new structure of the new era must thus evolve to a truly democratic and equal society in India.
A paper presentation at Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), Pune on Thursday 29th January 2009
M. Burhanuddin Qasmi is editor of Eastern Crescent and director of the Mumbai based Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre.
Harassment of Kashmiri children, including female, in all possible ways by the so-called security forces is a routine picture in Kashmir every where and almost all the time. Indian Hindus want to showcase the superioty of hegemonic mother India. Whether it is an “elected” government or Governor’s rule in Jammu Kashmi the situation does not vary any significantly in the region. But with an elected government in Srinagar and Jammu, Indian government is free to use terror to silence even the children in JK because they think these are the future freedom fighters and they should be contained very early so that they learn how to live under a foreign yoke. Since Indian forces hate Kashmiri Muslims, therefore, even children are not spared by them.
Kashmir children should be told about what kind of India Pundit Nehru had created and why they are the real suffers today at the blood stained hands of terrorist India. Currently there two issues in JK, one the farcical Indian poll and another, the possible role of Obama Barack, the President elect, in JK freedom struggle. Kashmiris look forward to Obama’s constructive role in securing freedom for Kashmiris, but the Indian strategists are growing sleepless these days on that account. The Indians want USA to support Indian terror case in Kashmir. Many American leaders (Presidents, Presidents-elect and defeated Presidential-aspirants) thought they could help in finding a solution to the Kashmir issue and failed to do so because of arrogance displayed by India for which there were supports around the terrorist world. Indians argue if the USA interfered, other than saying the usual phrase “let India and Pakistan resolve the issue amicably: which would only mean supporting Indian terrorism in Kashmir, it would burn their fingers and damage Indo-US relations. That is an indirect Indian threat to USA. However, India closely purses its Indian terror case with the supports of Obama in the USA, saying that India is also a secular democracy like the USA and anti-Islamic and hence USA should stand by India .
Many hard-line Indians are amazed that the President-elect oblivious of the past misadventures of the US in the sub-continent should be thinking of one more. Well-informed sources in India don’t want USA to support the Kashmiris case in any manner and say that if the President-elect wants to severely damage the developing Indo-US relations he could not have thought of a better idea than to “meddle” in Kashmir . There is amazement – and confusion – in India over reports that one of the first acts of the President will be to appoint former President Bill Clinton as his Special Envoy on the Kashmir issue to facilitate a settlement between India and Pakistan .
Indian strategists in USA are thronging around the White House to make USA pro-India nation especially when Indo-US nuclearism has been clinched on heavy payment basis. Indian terrorism specialists argue that Democrats would not support Indian state terrorism in Jammu Kashmir even though it would not reign in the atrocities of Indian on innocent Kashmiris.
Americans, across the political divide, just play usual international politics to advance its national interests and want to use the greedy Indians for that. USA indeed had earlier suggested to Sheikh Abdullah, the then Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir that he should seek independence and promised that the US would support him. When the Indian Intelligence Bureau informed Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, of Stevenson’s secret discussions with Abdullah, he sacked Abdullah. Adlai Stevenson became persona non grata with the Indian political class and public. When Clinton became the President in 1993 he could not resist the temptation to have a go at settling the Kashmir issue. Indian specialists view that US interest in Kashmir has damaged Indo-US relations. USA keeps saying let India and Pakistan resolve the issue on their own, meaning nothing for freedom Kashmiris in content.
US President elect Obama chose Pakistani president Zardari as one of the eight world leaders to speak to once he was declared elected, but Indians are pressing their pro-India mafia in the USA to request Obama to reply to Indian phone calls. Now clearly India and its militant like hardliner specialists feel the Obama and his Democratic Party are bad for India and Osama Bin would again play a role to help USA to secure Kashmir to the real owners, the freedom fighters. Indian intelligence and its media men say that in the history of Indo-American relations since India became independent in 1947, there have been more instances of meddling by Democrats than by Republicans. Many “diplomacy” stalwarts suggest to Indian foreign office to catch the policy makers in Washington to fix the Kashmir issue in favor of terror India.
Discovery of graveyards in Kashmir should make Kashmir children sure of Indian hidden agenda in Kashmir and what bleak future awaits them in future if terror India continues to occupy their lands. Indian leaders, their media as well as Kashmir media just close their eyes on the fate of Kashmir children while loudly pronouncing Nehru’s list of great achievements. Muslim children in India are being molded by their unconsciously pro-Hindutva Muslim parents and the Hindu political organizations surrounding them to respect Hindu culture in preference to their own, if they want to exist peacefully in Indian secular democracy. Kashmiris children should have that ate to and only freedom can salvage this crude situation. And Kashmiri children would benefit by preventing tricky Indian polls and certainly not by going with their parents and relatives to polling booths to vote by standing in long queues braving scotching heat and piercing cold. Let pro-India elements conduct their own party polls in a truly democratic way first without following the retched feudal rules to get their “own people” elected to the posts.
World history has many instances of colonial and imperial powers surrendering sovereignty back to the suppressed and oppressed nations, India got freedom from UK, and one can expect India to do the same in due course once they are damn sure of insistent resistance to Indian occupation by Kashmiris. But the Indian leaders still imagine Indian military is not occupying Kashmir. A glimpse of killings, destructions and poll arrangement by using Indian cash (stolen?) and muscle will reassure the Kashmir children of what kind of India Pundit Nehru had carved out for Muslims in India and Kashmir right in 1947. Kashmiris from a free nation have been turned into a flock of slaves by Nehruvian India by sung brutal force and some pro-India elements in Kashmir. Same Nehru India has also has done enough damage to Indian Muslims in all respects, including spiritually, by dismantling the Grand Babri Mosque on the UK assumptions on the basis of the narrative Ramayana that there was temple once upon a time. Indian Muslim leaders are either co-opted or silenced by Hindu India. So, the ordinary Muslims in this democracy are afraid of even talking about anything against Indian terrorism, destruction of Babri Mosque, attack on Muslims, etc.. Funny secular India indeed!
Fruits yielded cannot vary entirely from the seeds one sows first, and Indian state terrorism in Kashmir is the loudest example as well as illustration of that painful fact. But will Kashmir children be free from Indian state terror atrocities?
———————–
DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal
Independent Researcher in International Affairs,
South Asia
E Mail :
Like the USA, the world terrorist nation, India also off and on makes loud noises about the now famous “terrorism”, though of late it come refrained, for no reason, using the phrase “cross border terrorism. The intelligence wing with the help of essentially anti-Muslim Indian media is never tired of “tracking” the Muslims as “terrorism” causers. The paid media agents do churn out “interesting” stories about Muslim terrorists and how they were tracked and argue, quite convincingly, how important it is to finish off the Muslims in stock and barrel.
One of the major Hindu festival Divali (or Deepavali in the south India) has been, as usual celebrated, rather blasted, in all parts of India from Kanyakumari to Punjab and Haryana (Jammu Kashmir is an alien nation though presently under Indian military occupation and brutal control) in the usual fun and fair with a lot more noise pollution and atmosphere pollution, but also glorification of terrorism actions in a legally fitting matter.
Many a Hindu festival in India is marked by terrorism shows like loud crackers and semi explosives. Fascist tendencies are explicit on these occasions. Hindus expect Muslims to cooperate with Hindus in expressing solidarity with Hindu festivities by aggressively exploding semi-explosives. If it only Hindus blast explosives, it is one matter, but Muslims living among the Hindus also, for fear of onslaught form the Hindus if they also do not do same, for expressing their own terrorist instincts at part with fellow Hindus, waste quite a lot of money on “fire-works’ creating nuisance, pollutions, both noise and atmospheric, as well inconvenience to the moving public in streets and roads.
Inspired by terror based festivities, the Hindus make more powerful explosives to terrorize the nation.
It is strange that whenever India or Blue wing of Indian team inside India wins a match similar terrorism blasts do happen almost every where in India and this is done in a systematical manner and no an isolated phenomenon. This aggressive expression of joy at victory in a match takes very ugly form in many parts of India when Hindus blast bombs.
1. Indian Fascism
Ghastly destruction of Grand Babri Mosque remains the glaring specimen for the Indian and Hindu fascist culture, rather vulture culture. Hinduism, thus, has become a symbol of intolerance, terrorism, apart from being a major source of colonialism and imperialism.
In fact these explosives situation in India only showcases fascist trends in Hindu thinking. The attitude is very simple: “it is our country (read Hindus’) and we will do whatever we please and if you don’t want to tolerate us (read Indian democracy and secularism) then go to Pakistan”. This has been the standard response from the Hindus to any Muslims who even silently resent such anti-social terrorist activities in the society in the name of festivities. Muslims have no ways to defend their freedom in India, imposing fascist attitudes on Muslims.
USA and India must foster tolerance through deliberate policies and efforts, because all societies are now essentially multi-ethnic. Indian text books must teach the children respect of each other, to respect Muslims as part of the society as equal citizens. But children are taught ills about other races and cultures. Muslims are not unwanted elements as the Indian media project them.
2. Islam, a peaceful Religion
Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. But the world wants to make and see it a religion of “terrorism” and “fundamentalism” just like that. India wants to siphon off the resources form Muslims and take every fruit of development exclusively for Hindus. Hence they harass Muslims. Islamophofia is being successfully created around the world to generate hatred against Muslims and threaten their very existence. In countries where Muslims are in minority, such as India, USA and UK, Muslims are being ill-treated the worst possible ways and they are branded as “terrorists”, real or potential.
Evil of intolerance has been indeed on the increase in the so-called democracies. Intolerance to Islamic faith in a covert manner is being religious practiced not just in USA, UK and the rest of the West, but even in countries like Hindu India that make tall claims about their tolerance and what they practice in fact amount to contempt for tolerance. Muslims at global level still refused to combat this nasty phenomenon. The phenomenon has thus resulted crudely in the anti-Islamism projections the world over, causing death, genocide, violence, religious persecution as well as confrontations on different levels. While talking about tolerance, the global state machinery has been targeting on Muslims as its perceived enemy. Majority Indians, the Hindus, show disrespect to Muslims and expect total obedience to Hindus and their institutions, including culture. They expect Muslims to renounce Islamic rituals eventually and imbibe Hindu customs and practices in stead in due course.
3. Congress-BJP communal-terrorist Nexus
Under the sinister garb of “secular democracy” India has promoted Hindu terrorists in a hidden manner and these terrorists plant bombs in select places across the nation and Indian media-cum-intelligence-cum-police cleverly place the blame on Muslims, while “patriotic’ terror organizations, while RSS and Bajrang Dal continue to terrorize India. Indian governments, both central and state, intentionally hide the information about Hindu terrorist activities, though Indian intelligence agencies do supply the information to the government circles for “necessary actions”.
The recent revelations in the Malegaon blasts put every ongoing blast investigation under a cloud and a question mark. Clearly, the police suppressed all the trails that led to Sangh outfits and BJP leaders – allowing these terrorists to roam free and contest and campaign in elections – while misleading the nation by framing innocents of a minority community. Is it not all too possible that this is happening in every single blast investigation?
Indian politics is communal. Congress has a very long communal history that goes back to 19th century when Indians were fighting for freedom form UK. It is not just BJP leaders, however, who are linked with the terrorist sadhvi. Pragya is a disciple of Swami Avadheshanand Giri: and her fellow disciples include Union HRD Minister and celebrated ’secular’ figure Argon Singh and his son Ajay. The list of VVIPs, cutting across the political, executive and judiciary wings, could be too long, indeed! Ajay, head of the Congress campaign panel for the upcoming state polls in MP, rushed to deny Avadheshanand’s links with Pragya. VHP is trying to make the world Hinduized.
Intelligence and policy pretend ignorance of the secret Hindu organizations engaged in terrorist activities in the country. The Governments at State and Centre did not know all along about the activities of hidden Hindu terrorist originations, especially the Bhonsala Military Academy, which has been openly holding arms training camps for Bajrang Dal terrorists/goons from all over the country. Blasts aside, how come such training camps for communal outfits were not deemed illegal and banned even as Bajrang Dal brigades repeatedly conducted anti-Muslim and anti-Christian violence?” The Congress and UPA Government is hoping to let the state machinery ‘leak’ out a tiny part of the truth about the involvement of Sangh outfits in terror, in order to get the upper hand in the elections. But we won’t be satisfied with such scraps.
Known for it hidden agendas and terrorist activities in Jammu Kashmir, India does not ban Hindu extremist organizations even after Babri Mosque was pulled down by Hindu terrorists. Congress plays hidden tricks with BJP, while several Hindu organizations are connected Congress party just as they are close to BJP. Military, police and media are under the control of both of these parties. The nexus among all these Indian anti-Muslim components create terrorism and harm the national harmony and problems for innocent Muslims. Is it not a dangerous trend?
An Observation
Hindus derive a lot sadistic pleasures out of sufferings of Muslims both by promoting terrorism themselves and branding the Muslims as terrorists, while the hon. judiciary maintains silence as if the judges are deaf and dumps. Indian governments must ban the Hindu terrorist organizations, “social explosions” by Hindus disturbing social peace in the country, apart from causing serious climatic problems.
The terrorist instincts are inherent in Hindu mind. And this is indeed a very serious matter, because Hindus as the majority section of this predominately and predominately Hindu nation influence the Muslims in the country who for the sake of mere existence under the control of Hindus and their governments also and provoke them to engage themselves in terrorism activities. Political outfits run by Hindus incite violence by sung Muslims as henchmen.
Hindus terrorize Muslims and Muslims are also punished because the media and intelligence brand them as “terrorists”. India evades and violates human rights; but it tolerates the practice of tolerance against subjugation of Muslims by the state. It inversely advocates toleration of social injustice, the abandonment and weakening of one’s convictions. But tolerance means that one is free to adhere to one’s own convictions and accepts that others adhere to theirs. India is just opposed to this universal approach.
India must now admit that Hindus are terrorists and terrorize Indians and the entire region and kill the Muslims in Jammu Kashmir. India should not dream about justifying its terrorist activism by using USA, its newly found strategic partner with which it has been “nuclearily” flirting for quite some time. Time is up for India to go a through introspection and remedial measures for itself, its media and police, military and other variety of security services. Indian security forces are making the life of Muslims more and more insecure.
—————-
Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
Columnist
Write to me: abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com
Indian nasty mindset of annexation is too alarming that its neighbors should be really worried about the long term ramifications of Indian reckless armaments, especially with US supplying the needy “things”. Manmohan has done enough damage, i.e.., ground work for the growth of capitalism and imperialism in India and his successors would pursue the same further, but gradually India would become an agent of USA. Plus, the communal forces operating under the garb of political outfits would destroy the country’s harmony, however, weak it maybe. On understanding, the communal elements would be let come to power by Congress party whose anti-Muslim agenda is now explicit. India’s continued occupation of Jammu Kashmir is not in the interest of neither the region nor SAARC welfare and its heavy armament programs under US shield is a sign of Indian hidden destructive intents.
Historically speaking, fascism, like capitalism and imperialism both classic and neo-, does not admit any scope for counseling or advise and it needs to routed completely, as Soviet Russia did to German fascism thereby closing the disastrous WWII. With new vistas in armaments, India is still looking for avenues to invade and annex some more alien lands and credited to Indian Union account. South Asian nations should be wary about Indian weaponization programs with the help of the global terrorist sate USA.
Terrorist colonizer India has been trying all tricks, learnt from the former Western colonizer UK, to silence the unwilling Kashmiris who demand freedom from Indian genocide and terror military rule through a band of pro-Indian elements controlled by Indian intelligence agencies. Knowing fully well the present critical situation in JK, and overlooking the recent pro-freedom protests in Kashmir valley, the Election Commission has decided to hold elections in the state in seven phases so that Indian terror forces could effectively control and terrorize the defenseless Kashmiris. The last phase elections would be held on December 24.
JK Polls for Indian Terror Legitimacy
In spite of protests and strong opposition from Kashmiris, the poll preparations in JK by the terrorist illegal Indian occupants have begun in the state, disregarding opposition by the people. Only Reserve Bank money bags are yet to arrive from different political parties from India and Indian government.
Pro-India politicians in Jammu Kashmir are focused on the material benefits for themselves by supporting the Indian agenda, both open and hidden. On Oct 22 kicking off election campaign from central Kashmir, Omar Abdullah President National Conference (NC), a close ally of communal Hindu BJP (both demanded polls against the will and wishes of Kashmiris), has acknowledged the freedom leaders’ right to launch parallel campaign against elections. Fortunately, he does not oppose it. He, however, added that the elections had no bearing on the legal status of Kashmir issue and “India and Pakistan alone can settle this dispute, local actors better focus developmental issues.” In fact Omar has kicked off not just the JK poll campaign, but the freedom struggle of Kashmiris and their sacrifices made so far in that direction. Pakistani President Zardari has already slammed the “terrorists in Jammu Kashmir”, and leaving the Kashmir issue to both terrorist India and somewhat confusing Pakistan, the freedom struggle is likely to suffer the worst possible causalities. It is shameful that these pro-India Kashmiris politicians could even think of lambasting the freedom struggle just for few Reserve Bank coins t be deposited in Swiss Bank. These leaders, irrespective of their color of flags, have pocketed Indian money and Kashmir development remained a dream, but destruction and genocide continued. India has taken massacre of Kashmiris as its birth right. Despite the suppression of people both by India and JK pro-India agents, Kashmiris have taken up the freedom cause and thee pro-India leaders have to realize that their days are over.
The announcement of the polls in JK has come as a surprise to the people of valley, who feel that it is not the opportune time for elections as the valley has witnessed the biggest pro-independence demonstration of the last two decades. Now that the poll dates have been announced, regional political parties have come out with their response. As expected the pro-India politicians have welcomed the Indian move. Welcoming the announcement of elections in the state National Conference (NC) president Omar Abdullah said he was glad that the suspense over the announcement of polls ended. “How good or bad the decision is, time will tell. Now we can think to get down to the process of electioneering”.
As expected, the freedom movement leaders whom the Indian as well as Kashmir media shameless call, without knowing the history of Jammu Kashmir, as so-called “separatists” although it India which plays the separatist and destructive role in Jammu Kashmir, have shown strong resentment towards the decision. All Parties Hurriat Conference has rightly described the announcement as another election drama in Jammu & Kashmir. Chairman Side Ali Gianni, who is currently undergoing treatment at New Delhi, has said elections are meaningless for the people of Kashmir till they achieved freedom. While the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Mohammad Basin Mali said that the struggle of Kashmiri people was aimed at resolving the Kashmir dispute and not for holding elections.
Issues pertaining to the assembly elections were discussed threadbare at the meeting at Rajbagh headquarters of the Amalgam. Terming the election as an attempt to “hoodwink” international community and impress upon world that people are exercise their franchise under Indian rule, Hurriyat Conference led Mirwaiz Umer Farooq Wednesday announced to launch vigorous boycott campaign to acquaint people about “hidden agenda’s by New Delhi.” the amalgam has decided to launch house to house election boycott campaign to inform people about the ‘ill effects’ of the elections on the Kashmir struggle. Mirwaiz also urged people to distance themselves from the “futile exercise” to express solidarity with the “martyrs”.
In fact, most of the mainstream parties too had earlier called for the postponement of the assembly elections in state saying time is not ripe for the poll process. People’s Democratic Party (PDP) openly said it would not favor elections in the state, its rival National Conference, unsure of winning the polls, was in dilemma over the poll issue and wanted Election Commission to immediately decide in favor of or against holding the elections. The Indian communal national political party, BJP, however, was strongly advocating for timely polls in the state so as to make most of the communal sentiment it succeeded in whipping up in the winter capital of the state. But now, a speculated on the basis of their past “records”, most of the pro-Indian outfits have sided with Indian agenda.
By voting with the pro-India politicians, the Kashmiris would offer the Indian oppressors and terrorists who killed about one lakh defenseless Kashmiris an opportunity to defend themselves with the popular mandate to rule them. India and its agents in Jammu Kashmir would also defend their oppressive measures including the genocide of freedom seeking Kashmiris. No doubt, the senior most Hurriat leader Syed Ali Geelani has become symbol of freedom movement for his principled stand and assured all out support to him on behalf of the British Kashmiri community.
In Kashmir October 27 will be observed as Black Day to convey to the international community that Kashmiris reject India’s illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. Similarly the Kashmiri Diaspora has decided to mark the day as protest day to force occupying “democratic” India to vacate Jammu Kashmir voluntarily. Three-e-Kashmir UK has appealed to Pakistani and Kashmiri community to join the organization at an anti- India rally to be held in front of Indian High Commission in London on the occasion of 61st anniversary of Kashmir’s military occupation. People of Kashmir have brought the freedom movement to present stage by offering 100,000 precious lives and they will continue to offer more sacrifices till the desired goal is achieved. They paid great tribute to Geelani for leading the Kashmiri peoples’ struggle with courage and determination.
Unified Jammu Kashmir
India in fact believes in deciding all disputes by military means. Kashmiris seek freedom and a unified Kashmir that would exist independently. Unfortunately the division of Kashmir was linked to partition of India. How could India and UK bring Jammu Kashmir in their disputes? UK supported Indian position. The partition was therefore mostly one-sided affairs with India equipped with British military apparatus left behind by the English occupiers, could easily dictate terms to Pakistan. The accession of Junagadh, Hyderabad and Jammu Kashmir, however, severely strained relations between the two countries. Junagadh had a Muslim ruler but the vast majority of its people were Hindus, and it was geographically not contiguous to Pakistan. The ruler acceded to Pakistan, but India, as was only to be expected, refused to acquiesce in Junagadh’s accession to Pakistan and forced the issue by military means. The ruler of Hyderabad, the Nizam, was a Muslim but the overwhelming majority of his subjects were Hindus, and the state was surrounded by Indian Territory. India refused to let Hyderabad declare its independence as well. Eventually, India invaded Hyderabad and annexed it by force in September 1948, a few days after the demise of Quaid-e-Azam.
The Jammu Hindu maharaja played havoc in making Kashmiris slaves to his Indian masters. The overwhelming majority of the people of Jammu and Kashmir were Muslims while the ruler was a Hindu. The state was geographically contiguous and culturally closer to Pakistan. There was no road link between India and Kashmir except through o district, which had a Muslim majority and which had been provisionally included in Pakistan under the partition plan of June 3, 1947. But Gurdaspur was added to India in the boundary award announced on August 17, 1947. Obviously, Pakistan was annoyed. In the same month, there were demonstrations in Poonch against the Maharaja’s contemplated move to join India. The Indian state troops fired upon the demonstrators, inflicting heavy casualties.. The people who had suffered under Dogra rule for so long rose in open revolt against the Maharaja’s autocratic rule. The Indian fire still continues and many Muslims are getting killed day by day in Kashmir on fictitious pretexts.
Cross Border Trade (CBT)
This part of the world is witnessing a new trend known as cross border trade against the prevailing cross border terrorism perpetuated by India to retain its terror control over Jammu Kashmir. One is not very sure, if the new Governor is indeed seeking freedom for both Kashmir and India mutually, but the forced poll announcement by him regime is not suggesting that India is heading for a peaceful atmosphere in the region and for a cooperative settlement.
Governor Vera could have felt the surge of human emotions of Kashmiris held over thus far tactfully by Indian terrorist techniques. On the launch of cross-Loc trade on Tuesday, the Kaman Bridge connecting the divided parts of Kashmir witnessed emotional scenes. When people on the other side of Loc saw traders approaching the Kaman Bridge, they failed to control their emotions and raised slogans in favor of Kashmir’s unity. The mood on this side too was extremely charged up with people waiving hands as a gesture depicting their happiness over the start of cross-Loc trade. One of the persons on this side broke down when he glanced at the other side of Loc. He remembered his brother, who was killed in 1990by arrogant Indian terror forces just for fun while making an attempt to cross the Loc.
White doves of peace were released as 14 Pakistani trucks bedecked with the national flag crossed a bridge into occupied Kashmir carrying rice, onions and dried fruit. A convoy of 13 trucks carrying mostly apples set off on a historic trip to as ad Kashmir from the Indian-held Kashmir. These acts of mutual concerns and reciprocated warmth set the tone for not only the emergence of Kashmir as an independent nation to exist in between India and Pakistan, but also the coming closer of Indo-Pakistan sentiments, though India symbol of No13 does not argue against any positive outcome form this mutual gestures. School children and people on the Pakistan side raised slogans “Kashmir will become Pakistan,” and “Long Live Kashmir freedom movement.”
The opening of the trade route after nearly 60 years has brought some hopes for Kashmiris on the both sides of the “Indian” made divide and has been a key demand of occupied Kashmiri leaders. Kashmiri truckers from both sides said they were delighted about the resumption of trade. “It is a historic day which will surely help the economy of both parts of Kashmir,” said occupied Kashmir’s Governor NN Vera, as he flagged off the convoy from Salamabad, 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the Line of Control. Speaking on the other side of border, Azad Kashmir’s Prime Minister Atiqur Rehman said he also hoped the event will “help make headway towards resolving the Kashmir issue.” But Rehman against hopes the opening of trade across an old ceasefire line and the de facto border, known as the Line of Control (LOC), would lead to a quick solution of the more than 60-year dispute over Muslim-majority Kashmir. “All these steps, cross-LOC trade, communication, people-to-people contacts, talks, all these things slowly and gradually they are most generally contributing factors towards the ultimate resolution,” Rehman said.
Cross LOC trade is a big step towards creatively re- inventing the ties between India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir with bold commitments. This was stated by many politicians in particular the senior PDP leaders. Describing the commencement of Trade on Srinagar- Muzaffarabad and Poonch- Rawlakote roads as unprecedented and Historic, the PDP leaders said that the pronouncements by the Indo-Pak leadership for peace and full normalization of bilateral ties through resolution and pioneering CBM’s in Kashmir has mea red the beginning of a new era where in the Kashmiri People would have a respectable and dignified position. But knowing Indian petrified mindset on Kashmir independence and its ill-focusing on Pakistan, no high hopes could be attached to only the one event of CBT.
India used extensively the theme of “cross-border-terrorism” to terrorize Muslims in India and Kashmir and slam Pakistan. India right wings Hindutva leaders harp on “partition” theme apart from “terrorism:”, and “appeasement” themes for electoral purposes. When India BJP leader hailed Mohammad Ali Jinnah, there was a big hue and cry in intelligence controlled Indian media, not so much from the politicians. Jinnah was liberal Barrister and had joined the Indian National Congress, founded in 1885 by an Englishman, in 1904. He was influenced by several enlightened, moderate and liberal politicians. Led by the eminent men like Jinnah, Congress initially pursued moderate and liberal policies. Congress soon began to take a communalistic hue after M K Gandhi had returned to India from South Africa in 1915 and gradually taken control of the Party from the liberal elements. After the death of many of his Hindu friends like Gokhale and Mehta Jinnah was getting disenchanted with the change in the Congress policy and creed under Gandhi, and at the end of their Nagpur session of Congress in 1920, the audience almost refused to listen to Jinnah and vociferously acclaimed Gandhi as the undisputed Congress hero. Congress focused on Hindutva issues and started sideling Muslims. This was the beginning of the end-parting of ways between Jinnah and Congress. Jinnah then concentrated on Muslim League. Interestingly, as a shroud politician, Gandhi soon realized the importance of religious unity to get sovereignty back from colonial Britain and began preaching non-violence and brought the Hindus and Muslims together to fight a joint struggle for freedom.
History always has something to teach the humanity and India should now realize the importance of Indian Muslims for a new India, on the one hand and, on the other, the need for surrendering sovereignty back to Kashmiris. Time is running out for India.
An Observation
By granting freedom to Kashmir, India would also in effect become a truly free nation by itself. But look at the way India terrorist rulers have gone ahead with the polls preparation to justify their illegal occupation and militarization and genocide of Kashmiris with the consent of the pro-India elements thus far enjoying the Indian shield and cash. Thousands and thousands of innocent Kashmiris have lost their precious lives at the terrorist hands of India. They have been demanding their sovereignty back form the arrogant India, while Indian leaders both civilian and military , have so far maintained discrete silence, rather criminal one, and even the “nice’ premier Manmohan has not opened his bank mouth to tell the struggling Kashmiris about a deadline for troop withdrawal form Jammu Kashmir. UN has only slammed India for its terrorist activities in Jammu Kashmir, but UNSC has not yet responded to freedom demands of Kashmiris; it has duty to secure the lives of innocent Kashmiris struggling for freedom from India; also secure Kashmir freedom from occupying terror India. India should remember that in declaring re-independence for Jammu Kashmir India also helps itself to become a really free and independent country on its own.
However, India has taken all possible risks by announcing the poll dates ignoring the sentiments of Kashmiris and India would have to pay a heavy price for that as well. Indian strategists cannot afford to forget or ignore the Kashmir uprising so son thinking that they could be made busy in the poll by provoking the politicians to fight with one another. Colonial Indians could be over-smart, but they are terribly mistaken if they think Kashmiris could be fooled for ever by manipulating their people and resources. Kashmiris are different now than they were a couple of months ago. They are well organized and they are guided by freedom leaders who made sacrifices for Kashmir. All Parties Hurriat Conference leaders, however, have rightly remarked that India still needs to acknowledge that Kashmir is disputed, and be prepared to address the underlying issue of the future of the region. By all means the polls would not take place or would be a total farce with military filling up most of the ballot papers and forcing Kashmiris either to vote or die.
The periodical elections for the JK Assembly and Indian Parliament, supplemented by regular genocide of Kashmiris, could not provide any solution to the Kashmir imbroglio. The Freedom leaders have called for a boycott of the Indian farcical poll since it is supplemented by a promise of surrendering sovereignty to Kashmiris after the poll. False promises and farcical polls would create more turmoil in Jammu Kashmir. With a great majority of people preferring to abandon the Indian poll strategy to control Jammu Kashmir for some time, India has to roll back the polls and decide fast abut a date to begin troop pullout. Kashmiris don’t want an inch of Indian territories, but they seek to get back only their own nation now under Indian terror custody. Kashmiris cannot be taken for granted any more, a few pro-India agents supporting the hidden agenda of India notwithstanding, Mr. Mother India.
Posted by Isha Khan, who can be reached at bdmailer@gmail.com
A Free Kashmir: Not by Curfews alone, Mr. Governor! Kashmiris seek independence, not Indian poll now!
By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
Muslims are being tortured and killed almost every where, in conservative countries, autocracies and the so-called democracies. Anti-Islamic regimes kill them to quench their blood thirst, while the Muslim nations do the same in order to appease the terrorist nations led by the USA which many developing countries vie to gain nuclear contracts. Muslims are being butchered in Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere and yet none is capable to raise their serious concern against those waging poisonous tails against Muslims. In anti-Muslim Hindu conservative India, even Muslims are made to be work against their own legitimate interests.
Terrorist India that occupies its neighbor Jammu Kashmir by brutal force has over decades created a terror force to kill Kashmiris and groomed a band of anti-Muslim militant-minded journalists to pursue the state agenda of anti-Muslimism who in the name of combating terrorism only keep the inter-civilization wedge intact if no t further fueling it. They promote only anti-Islamic opinions in the media under their control and influence abroad especially in developing world, more importantly in Middle East. Indian journalists, thriving on “terrorism” cash, see only terrorism in Indian and Kashmir Muslims in one form or the other. They denounce any thing “not pro-India’ and term them as ” anti-India” and terrorize even the non-Muslim journalists who make living on terrorism theme.
India is country of hidden agendas at home and abroad. State terrorism has remained the hallmark of Indian policy. As soon as it clinched the nuclerism with USA, it went further to showcase its power to Jammu Kashmir. Indian leaders, including the military top brass, are yet to admit the fact that terror forces are illegally occupying Jammu Kashmir. India has repeatedly asked Pakistan to stay away form Kashmir issue and let the Kashmiris seek independence all by themselves. It is very particular that Kashmir is kept out of purview of any bilateral talks between them. Will India, then, resolve the issue now and surrender Kashmir for good?
Indian and JK governments have complicated the life of freedom leaders particularly Syed Ali Geelani who is being repeated arrested and mentally tortured. During the recent curfew clamped by Vohra regime in Srinagar has further deteriorated the health of this veteran leader. The Majlis Shoura of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC-G) has appointed Ghulam Nabi Sumji as acting chairman of the amalgam because of the ill-health of Chairman Shah Geelani, who has been advised to get his pacemaker replaced and is being shifted to Delhi for treatment. The condition of Geelani had deteriorated because of his continuous detention and house arrest. He was admitted to a local hospital on October 5.
Geelani criticized the authorities for imposing curfew in the valley and arresting separatist leaders and asked the people not to heed rumors and foil any attempt by miscreants to harm unity. However, in a message to the people of Kashmir, he stressed the need for unity among all pro liberation groups.
ONE
People’s power is indeed great and purposeful. Kashmiris have shown that if people are united and fight for a just cause the rulers would be ruined sooner than later.
Discovered by UK in 19th century, the Amarnath temple structure outside India has all of sudden become a Hindutva symbol of Hindus in India and Jammu region of Kashmir. India and its Hindu representatives in Jammu Kashmir seem to have accorded to the Amarnath the status of NRI. After the destruction of Babri Mosque on the pretext that it was once Hindu structure, the Hindu India has taken up a new agenda in Hinduizing occupied Jammu Kashmir. They were under illusion that what they want to do in India and Jammu Kashmir will have to be accepted by Muslims as the final law. But Muslims Kashmir are totally different form those in India made with completely pro-Hindu mindset, and they don’t want to be a part of terrorist India that has killed over lakh Kashmiris so far.
Unlike the slavery minded Muslims in India who even don’t have the capacity to fight for the reconstruction of the Babri Mosque demolished by Indian Hindu terrorists, Kashmiris continue to demand freedom from occupying India. Muzaffarabad March sacrificed a prominent freedom leader among others, but it evoked the inner consciousness of freedom seeking Kashmiris who are overwhelming in Jammu Kashmir. After protestors thronged the United Nations Military Observer Group’s (UNIMOGIP’S) office in Srinagar demanding the resolution of Kashmir dispute the United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has formulated plans to pay a visit to India towards the end of this month or early November. Ban has criticized the India terrorism in Kashmir but, as usual, prompted resented by India. UN chiefs visit to India will be closely watched by the pro liberation camp in the Valley. Many pro liberation leaders are planning to seek a rendezvous with the UN chief and plead for his intervention in resolving the six decades old Kashmir sovereignty issue.
Pertinent to mention that freedom leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had during a rally held at TRC grounds on August 18 asked Ban Ki-moon to pay a visit to the Valley and ascertain the facts, besides getting a first hand account on the uprising in Kashmir. Hopefully, UN chief’s visit to this “democracy’ killing Kashmiris for fun will pave way for freedom of Jammu Kashmir.
Not by Curfew alone!
A high level meeting held in New Delhi discussed the Kashmir situation and unanimously decided to impose curfew in the Valley to scuttle the Lal Chowk March. The security agencies were already directed to erect long iron-made barricades at various entry points including Kokerbazar, Amira Kadal, Jehangir Chowk, Regal Chowk to prevent people from marching towards Lal Chowk. “Massive deployment of troops has already been put in place and Lal Chowk will be made out of bound for the people. Meanwhile, authorities have imposed section 144 in Ganderbal and Baramulla districts of Kashmir to prevent assembling of more than four persons at a place.
The curfew comes in the wake of Lal Chowk Chalo March call given by Coordination Committee, a freedom conglomerate, to press for its demands which include opening of Line of Control roads for trade, release of all detainees and revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act. A number of freedom leaders, including Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yaseen Malik were put under preventive custody. Hardline freedom leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was shifted to a hospital after he complained of pain in lower abdomen. Among those placed under house arrest were Chairman of moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith chief Maulana Showkat besides senior separatist leaders Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Sajjad Lone.
A virtual siege was laid around Lal Chowk as a large posse of gun-toting security personnel took up position in and around the area. All entry and exit points in Srinagar city have been sealed. There were some sporadic protests when the paramilitary forces refused to entertain curfew passes. However, the issue was resolved later. The new anti-riot vehicles, procured by the Jammu and Kashmir Police recently, were positioned at strategic locations, especially those which had witnessed violence earlier. Due to indefinite curfew imposed by the authorities in Srinagar and elsewhere in Kashmir and the government’s failure to provide adequate number of curfew passes to our staff, distributors and hawkers, the print editions. Some of the local newspapers failed to hit the stands as publishers decided not to print them accusing the government of not providing enough curfew passes to their staff, a charge denied by the government. A private television channel — Sen TV– was banned for allegedly inciting people to disturb public peace and tranquility.
Indian agents in Jammu Kashmir headed by Governor Vohra are trying all tricks including state terrorism techniques to quell the freedom move in Jammu Kashmir by clamping curfews intermittently adding more harm to the Kashmiris. After creating enough trouble for the Kashmir Muslims the Hindu “brethren” in Jammu region are enjoying life by being agents of New Delhi.
Moral Victory for Kashmiris
Putting all speculations to rest, State administration decided on Oct 04 to impose curfew in Kashmir on 05 to abort the October 6 “Lal Chowk March”. Administration has decided to impose curfew. “The announcement in this regard will be made anytime on Sunday. Another senior official said that the administration has decided to impose the curfew to prevent the situation from taking an ugly turn. A top police official said that imposition of curfew is a move to prevent the “separatists” from calling the shots. He said that State authorities were in a fix whether to impose curfew this time around.
Freedom leaders try to see if they could cushion the effects of harm being done intentionally by New Delhi to them. India terror forces want to kill Kashmiris for no reasons. Curfew would give enough opportunity for that. After facing repeated curfews against public mobilization calls, top freedom leaders on 05 Sept called off agitation for October considering the ongoing harvest season and scheduled exams for College and University courses. Syed Ali Geelani urged the people to resume their routine chores and accomplish the social and economic goals during October. Geelani appealed people to resume work from October 7 saying the future strategy will be set on October 8 in a special session of Jammu Kashmir Coordination Committee (CC). The senior resistance leader Geelani said: “Our October 6 program was sabotaged by using unprecedented force and clamping of curfew. The ailing leader said October is the marriage and harvesting season. He said it is a crucial period for the school and college children too. People should resume their routine work from October 7 and wait for the future program of the CC. “No marriage or examination should get affected by the CC program. Our farmers should also complete the process of harvesting at ease. But it was our victory and the real face of Indian democracy got exposed by what they did. Lal Chowk March continues to remain on stand-by, the date of which will be announced soon.
Senior leader of the Coordination Committee and Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has termed the state’s use of force against the Lal Chowk March as “People’s moral victory” and asked the people restore the normal activity from Oct 05 and called for resumption of normal activities. People should resume their routine activities because the message is conveyed loud and clear. We had asked the people to come with white flags without any slogans except for one demand of right to self-determination; the world has seen how peaceful programs are quelled through brute force.” Reacting harshly to what he termed “undemocratic and uncivilized” response to peaceful means of resistance, Mirwaiz said: “Indian response to this extremely peaceful program has shown how vacuous her claims about democracy and ideals of free speech are.” Mirwaiz further informed that the Coordination Committee – a coalition of pro-freedom leader, trade lobby groups and civil society representatives – would shortly convene a session and work out the “future course of action”.
But one still fails to understand why can’t these freedom leaders make joint statements after debating the current situation in Jammu Kashmir? What exactly stops them form coming together to take a common stand and firmly fighting for that? Don’t they really seek sovereignty back form the terrorist Hindu nation? Indian strategist do claim that way and many paid newspaper columnists, aided by Indian intelligence, do write about the “double-speak” of the “separatist s”! The Kashmir freedom leaders have to call them a bluff only through joint action henceforth and let the world know the Kashmiris are together on their resolve to get away form the terror India as quickly as possible!!
But why curfew again and again? Can’t the freedom leaders talk to their people? During the previous rallies we have observed that people did maintain peace as far as possible and did not resort to violence generally experienced on such occasions. . We don’t think Lal Chowk March would be peaceful as there was every possibility that people would create law and order problems.”
Vohra must stop terrorizing Freedom leaders!
It is shame on the Indian “secular democracy” that Kashmir is being controlled by India Hindu leaders, officers and other officials. No one is really bothered as Kashmir Muslims re being tortured and killed on a regular basis. In this connection, briefing Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) about present political scenario, Governor Narender N Vohra and gave a nod for holding polls in the State as per schedule saying the situation was returning to normal from the worst. Last week the Election Commission of India visited Srinagar on a two day visit to make an assessment of the situation for the forthcoming elections to the J&K Assembly. The Commission ‘meets’ the representatives of political parties of the State tomorrow and obtain their views on holding of the elections. The Chief Secretary, S. S. Kapur and Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda “briefed” the Commission on law and order situation and the assessment of the Administration for conduct of polls in the state.
Recently, on an almost secret journey to Indian colony Jammu Kashmir, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan intruded into Jammu Kashmir almost like a cross-border terrorist to pursue the Indian agenda in this alien nation effectively controlled by his terror forces. Manmohan was in occupied and militarized Jammu and Kashmir on 10 Oct to inaugurate the 450 MW Baglihar hydroelectric projects and switch on a new rail track to Kashmir. Indian premier landed at Udhampur to the loudest protests form natives of Jammu Kashmir and then flew to the Baglihar project site in Doda. On Oct 10 he (ie his forces) killed mercilessly Kashmiris protests who sought freedom and asked the outside to quit their nation.
Pakistan has been raising the Baghliar Dam issue with India at the bilateral level since 1992. It was only after all bilateral talks with India on the issue had failed that Pakistan decided to request the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert as an arbitrator. Under the Indus Water Treaty, India can use the waters of the Chenab for hydro-electric generation, but not for irrigation or any other consumptive use. In violation of this provision, the Baghliar Dam will allow India to draw up to 7,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water a day from the Chenab river for irrigation purposes, thereby reducing the quantum of river flows available to Pakistan.
Pakistan says this would not only be a violation of the treaty but also an infringement of its rights as a lower-riparian state. India’s stand is that the controversial 450 megawatt hydro-electric project “fulfills” the requirements of the Indus Water Treaty, a claim contested by Pakistan. In 2005, Pakistan had sought the World Bank’s intervention to stop construction of the Baglihar dam and the hydroelectricity power project. An expert appointed by the World Bank had allowed India to go ahead with the project after a few minor modifications. The issue came up last month as well when Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari brought up the Baglihar dam issue during talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
On the eve of Manmohan’s visit to Kashmir to open the hydro and rail projects, on Oct 04 Governor Vohra stressed authorities to complete construction on the road to Muzaffarabad within 15 days. Reviewing arrangements for cross-LoC trade, Vohra visited Salamabad in Uri and reviewed the ongoing work for establishment of Trade Facilitation Centre, coming up on war footing for meeting the deadline of October 21, the date set for cross-LoC trade with Pakistan administered Kashmir. The Governor reviewed the preparedness and arrangements for launching an important event and called upon executing agencies to complete the remaining work on a time-bound basis. Vohra personally monitored the arrangements made for cross-LoC trade via the Salamabad and Chakan-da-Bagh routes. Accompanied by senior Army officers, the Governor visited the Kaman Post and was given a detailed briefing about the arrangements and services which were being provided for the passengers traveling to Muzaffarabad, now on weekly basis. Vohra had also visited Chakan-da-Bagh and Zero Point in Poonch on September 28.
For reasons known only to itself, India seems to tighten the security position in Kashmir region. Kashmir remained under curfew for days off and on with police and paramilitary forces deployed heavily in the Valley to thwart any attempt by separatists to hold a protest march to Lal Chowk in Srinagar. Barring minor incidents of slogan shouting by groups of people that gathered in old Baramulla town, the situation in the entire Valley was peaceful and there was been no report of any violent incident.
India must stop terrorizing Kashmiris directly or through proxy wars. Curfews, torltures andgenocides cannot go on fo rever and India has to surrender Jammu Kashmir.
An Observation
India at long last says it welcomes bilateral and trilateral talks and the freedom leaders should come up with specific proposals. I s Manmohan joking right being in Kashmir where thousands and thousands of innocent Kashmiris have laid their lives for the cause of freedom? But even a child in Kashmir and perhaps India knows that Kashmiris have only complaints and grievances and they seek final withdrawal of Indian terror forces from Jammu Kashmir and Let Kashmiris live peacefully as free independent citizens of their own country.
India suffers form superiority complexes and it might not come forward to talk to “small fellows” who don’t have a unified vice, especially under the nuclerism era. India strategists, including the media lords and intelligence, would like to divert the world attention form the present crises and keep postponing talks to finalize the sovereignty issue indefinitely if freedom leaders are still behave irresponsibly even after letting terrorist India to butcher over lakh innocent Kashmiris.
Obviously, India leaders and being ill-advised by the strategists including the media lords to go ahead with its scheduled poll in Jammu Kashmir and create a lot confusion to divert the attention of Kashmiris fighting for their independence and survival. That way India could showcase its power to the world. Bulk of India media and Kashmir newspapers have not changed their anti-Kashmir attitude so far and continue harp on espousing hatred in the minds of Indians including the Muslims, who have been brain-washed by the media and leaders.
As it shows JK is being run by Hindus and their supporters against the will and wishes of Kashmiris. Indo-US nuclerism is considered by Indian leaders as a victory for its terror policy in Jammu Kashmir. USA has in effect strengthened the dirty hands of Indian terror forces to strangle the innocent Kashmiris. USA should be beware of an arrogant India!
Manmohan belongs to the category of those trained Indian bureaucrats who speak only the words they are allowed by the “Ups” and generally keep tight lips on every issue. But even after becoming the premier, although quite unexpectedly, he has continued to behave like a bureaucrat, rather than the leader of Indian people and, therefore, he keeps his mouth shut on Kashmir issue too. However, he knew the exact words to denounce the Iranian legitimate nuclear program to appease the EU and USA, he still has not found the right word s to declare independence for Kashmir, and notwithstanding the fact Kashmiris now demand their sovereignty and asks the India terror forces occupying Jammu Kashmir to quite.
These days India shows any inclination to talk to freedom leaders and announce a date for the transfer of power to Kashmir freedom leaders. It is unfortunate that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in his own capacity has volunteered to talk to Indian leaders on sovereignty issue. It would be better for the Kashmir’s future goals and innocent Kashmiris left behind alive by Indian terror forces occupying Jammu Kashmir, if all leaders discuss and decide the issues and how to proceed further as one single freedom groups, in stead of making independent statement by individual leaders. India has already capitalized the division among the Kashmiris leaders to kill their kith and kin and it would not hesitate to kill every single Kashmiris if the leaders don’t shed their “separate’ identity. For the sake of independence and freedom they have to scarify their complexes.
The conflicting statements made not only by the Kashmir freedom leaders, but also by the Pakistan leaders creates a conflicting situation in Jammu Kashmir and as they mislead the ordinary Kashmiris to a great extent. More crucial is the fact that Indian leaders in New Delhi remain silent on the issue now that Kashmiri freedom leaders have opted for peaceful resolution, but their continued criminal silence also is injurious to Kashmir peace in the long run. Because, India cannot fool the Kashmiris for too long, however powerful they might be and how many weapons arsenals they have n the arms depot.
The crux of the Kashmir crisis is the Indian continued military occupation of Jammu Kashmir and the crucial issue creating confusion not only both in India and Kashmir, but also Pakistan and word at large is criminal silence being skillfully maintained by India on its intentions about a free Kashmir.
———————–
DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal
Researcher in International Affairs,
South Asia
E Mail : abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com
http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=225112
Isha Khan bdmailer@gmail.com
