Kashmir: an integral part of Bharatvarsh from the time immemorial

For many years, the separatists, the terrorist, the apologists and Pakistan have been propagating a lie to justify the Jihad in Kashmir by saying that Kashmir has never been a part of India or the Bharatvarsh. Not only have left liberals supported this lie, the intellectual class to has fallen for the lie and constantly used this lie to justify the crimes of terror in Kashmir, as an indigenous movement of a free nation. Unfortunately, the articles 370 and 35A helped this lie and even the innocent people not only in Kashmir but across India started believing in this lie.

Bharat etymologically is rooted in the verb Bha, which means light and rat which means devoted or immersed. So, Bharatvarsha is not just a geo-space but also a geo-cultural matrix from which various thoughts, concepts embedded in the depth of its consciousness of its people have emanated, giving shape to a great civilization called Bharatvarsha or India. Vishnupuran defines this land a country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains. Thus, Kashmir is not only by geo-space definition but also because of geo-cultural matrix has been part of this great civilization and land from time immemorial.

The land Kashmir derives its name the great Indian Sage – Kashyapa. The story of Kashmir has Sanatan Dharma written all over it. The SSatisar as Kashmir was known earlier was given to Nagas  by Vishnu on the request of Wasuki (whose village ‘Waskur’ still exists in Gandherbal district), after they were losing out to Gaurda, their perpetual enemy. It is here that Jalodbhava, the demon was killed by the mother Godess after she came in form of a sparrow (ha-ri in Kashmiri) and crushed him under a hill. The hill still exists as Hari Parbat and the temple of Ha-ri too exists even now. It is here that on request of Sage Kashyapa, Nila, the King of Nagas allowed the Manu Putras to reside in Kashmir. The recorded history of Hindus of Kashmir dates back to almost 5200 years.

The Nilamat Puran, is probably the only puran which talks about a land and its people, starts with a question, ‘why did Kashmir not participate in the great war Mahabharta, where every King of Bharatvarsha did. The kingdom of Kashmir was no less than any other in the country?’ Nilmat says that King Gonanda was a relative of Jarasandha and he had joined him in his fight against Yadavas. Gonanda was killed by Balram and Gonanda’s sons Damodra went to fight Lord Krishna and was slain in the battle field by Krishna. Realising the sanctity of Kashmir, Bhagwan Krishna himself coronated the widow of Damodara, Yasmoti as the ruler of Kashmir. For the first time in the history of mankind, a female was made a ruler and Bhagwan Krishna herself coronated her. At the time of Mahabharta, Yasomati son was a minor, so Kashmir was exempted from joining either Kauravas or Pandavas. The Mahabharta, adi parva 2.64 states that sons of Pandu grew up in the holy mountains of Himavat. An area which many believe is Kashmir.

Every inch of Kashmir talks about its connection with Bharatvarsha. When Jalodbhava was to be killed, Lord Vishnu instructed Ananta to drain the water of Satisar by breaking the mountain barrier. The place Ananta did this is called Varahamula. Kashmiris still call it Varmul.

Kashmir has geographically been located in a difficult terrain and thus made the pilgrimage of Kashmiris to key tirthas spread in rest of India difficult. So, they created their own replicas of these key pilgrimage centres. Kashmir has its own Godavari, Ganga, Prayag and Sangam. Has Bhadrakali of Bengal, a temple of Tripura Sundari. And are used for the same religious activity the originals are used for. The gangbal of Kashmir has the same sanctity as Ganga of plains. It also flows from the locks of Shiva residing at the Kailash of Kashmir, Harmukh. The Sangam and Prayag have their Kumbhs and same religious activities as done at Allahabad or Nashik.

The land of Kashmir has had great contribution to the vedic civilization and won’t be unfair to call it ‘The Hub.’ Patanjali, the great commentator of Panani’s work often refers to the people pf Kashmir, whom he calls Kashmirikas. It is believed that Patanjali himself belonged to Kashmir. Many Puranas including Matsya, Vayu, Padma, Vishnu mention Kashmir. In the field of creative literature, the whole gateway of brilliant scholars were from Kashmir; Damodargupta, Jayanta, Somadeva, Bilhan, Kalhan amongst many others. It is here in this land that Somadeva wrote his magnum opus Katha Sarita Sagar.

Daughter of Sanskrit is what Dr. Toskhani calls Kashmiri. George Buhler, the most respected scholar of Indian Languages believed that Kashmiri descended from the Vedic speech, one of the dialects of classic Sanskrit.

Adi Shankaracharya, the great Saint and philosopher who in his desire to re-establish the faith in Upanishads decided to travel the length and breadth of this country. And part of his tour of this country, he decided to visit Kashmir also. It is here that Adi Shankaracharya accepted and acknowledged the importance of Shakti and wrote the beautiful Saundarya Lahiri on top of a hill that is today known as Shankaracharya Hill. In awe of Adi Shankaracharya, the Sharda Peeth (now in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir), the great Indian learning centre of those times, opened the never opened South Door in his honour. The targa, traditional headgear that Kashnmiri Pandit women wear is a gift from Adi Shankaracharya and symbolically represents crown as gift from ascetic.

Even today most of the Indians including Kashmiris start their day with a recital ‘Namaste Shaarade Devii Kaashmiira-Pura-Vaasini. Tvaam-Aham Praarthaye Nityam Vidyaa-Daanam Cha Dehi Me’. Salutations to you, O Sharada, O Goddess, O one who resides in Kashmir. I pray to you daily, please give me the charity of knowledge.

The Mahayana Buddhism had its birth in Kashmir. It is from here that Buddhism spread to China, Japan, Tibet and Korea. Even today China admits that India conquered and dominated the China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border. India conquered them, not Kashmir. Because even for Chinese, Kashmir has been a part of India form time immemorial.

The Kashmiri Pandits have seen many exoduses, some small, some big. It is a well-documented fact that there have been 7 major exoduses all driven by the atrocities of Islamic rulers or their officers. And where does one go to if driven out of home. One goes to a place where he/she is comfortable with. A place which practices his own religion, a place is part of his own country but safer. In 1990, Kashmiri Pandits did not go to flee to Pakistan, China, Tibet or Afghanistan. Most went to Jammu, a peaceful part of the J&K state and few others to the other parts  of India. Even in the earlier exoduses Kashmiri Pandits fled to other parts of India only. Although the exoduses brought suffering to them, they also did enrich arts and culture in many other parts of India. The Pahari-Kangra school of Art is one such example. The fugitive KP family who escaped the forced conversion, swept the region of Kangra and surroundings with their genius. While Seu Raina established the pre-Kangra style, his descendants led to the ultimate blooming of the style.

Kashmir has been part of many great Indian empires including those of Mauryas, Kushanas, Kamboj, Mughals, Sikhs and British India. Ashoka, the great King of India, founded the capital city of Kashmir, Shri Nagri, today known as Srinagar. The Shri is the honorific title for the Goddess Lakshmi, and the capital city of Jammu & Kashmir has been named after her.

It was on the outskirts of Srinagar that Kanishka, again a great Indian emperor, held the 4^th Buddhist council. Kashmir is the birth place of what is known as Sanskrit Buddhism. The great scholar of Shaivism Acharya Abhinavgupta ancestors belonged to Kannauj and had moved to Kashmir on the request of the great Indian King, Lalitaditya Mukhtipida. Lalitaditya, a Kashmiri, is considered one of the greatest kings of India, whose kingdom extended from Karnataka in South to Orrisa & Bengal in East to Konkan in west and Afghanistan and many parts of central Asia in North.

With the advent of Islam, Kashmir saw the last of its local rulers. The first Muslim King dynasty in Kashmir was the Shahmir dynasty. The Shahmir himself was of Turk or Persian origin and sought asylum in Kashmir after he was banished from the SWAT region. Many Kashmiris are often heard saying that ‘Yusuf Chak was the last indigenous King of Jammu & Kashmir’. This is a blatant lie and highlights ignorance or deliberate mischief. The last indigenous King of Jammu & Kashmir was Maharaja Hari Singh. The Dogra rulers of Jammu & Kashmir claim to be descendants of Bhagwan Ram, an Indian God. The last indigenous ruler from Kashmir valley was Kota Rani. Chaks are not from Kashmir but are Dardis. And interestingly Yususf Chak was defeated by Mughals, who were invited to Kashmir by the famous Sufi Saint of Kashmir, Sheikh Hamza Maqdoom.

In the last 450 years of Kashmir’s history, expect for 67 years of Afghan rule, the state of Kashmir has been part of part of the Indian Empires including Mughals, Sikhs and British India. Maharaja Hari was of one of the many princely kings in the British India empire and his status was as same as the others. He was no different and like other princely states were subject to suzerainty of the British Crown exercised through Viceroy of India. In 1947, the Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir signed the same Instrument of Accession as did other 569 princely states.

Such has been the foolish attempts to claim that Kashmir has not been part of India, when some of the most prominent Indian freedom fighters were Kashmiris; Tej Bahahur Saproo, Vijay Laxmi Pandit, Moti Lal Nehru, Kailash Nath Katju, Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi and even Allama Iqbal, the poet who wrote ‘Sare Jahan Se Accha.’ Infact India’s two prime ministers including the first, the longest serving and the first female were Kashmiris. It was a Kashmiri that set up India’s highly respected foreign intelligence wing R&AW. Kashmiris have served as Chief of Army, Airforce, Bureaucracy and various premier institutions of this country. Kashmiri is amongst the 22 scheduled languages of India.

Sources:

1. Nilmat Puran – Dr. Ved Kumari
2. The Hindu History of Kashmir – H H Wilson
3. Cultural Heritage of Kashmiri Pandits – S S Toshkhani & K Warikoo

https://rainaamit.wordpress.com/2020/05/22/kashmir-an-integral-part-of-bharatvarsh-from-the-time-immemorial/

The impure land – the failed state of Pakistan

On 14^th August, 1947 came into existence a nation, challenging the 5000 years of India’s existence as a nation where every religion, every thought however contrary and diverse was debated, welcomed and allowed to flourish. Even the founder of Jamait -e-Islami Syed Abul A’la Maududi opposed the creation of Pakistan calling it a nation of Muslims and not an Islamic nation.

The history of Pakistan is chequered and the nation although claiming to be land of pure (Pakistan) is full of deceit and contradictions. Pakistan has never been honest in the ideals on which it was created and has been probably one of the cruellest state against the Muslims. The Muslims of the Pakistan have suffered more in Pakistan than in anywhere in the subcontinent.

The Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir, that Pakistan believes is the unfinished agenda of the Partition, was the first to face the brunt of ruthless Pakistan state when their army and their backed tribes invaded the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir, plundering the state and killing and raping thousands of Muslims of Jammu & Kashmir. The atrocities of the so-called Islamic army against the followers of Islam and the people they claimed they came to liberate, still sends shivers down the inhabitants of Jammu & Kashmir. The division of Jammu & Kashmir because of the intervention of United Nations, left one third of Kashmir under the occupation of Pakistan. Apart from Pakistan occupied Kashmir, the Pakistan also got to occupy the areas of Gilghit-Baltistan, the remote areas of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir. These remote areas have seen the worse of the atrocities from the Muslim state of Pakistan. Senge Sering, Director of the Gilgit-Baltistan Studies based out of Washinton DC says “the rights of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan are being subjugated and the combine of China and Pakistan are looting the resources of the region.The police apparatus is mostly from Pakistan. When Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau — an autonomous, federal body ostensibly meant to check corruption, but effectively keeps an eye on politicians on behalf of the army — wanted to open an office in Gilghit-Baltistan, it took over the only centre in the region for the handicapped”. He further alleges that “Pakistani Police are so ruthless that when the taking over of handicapped centre was protested by the locals and the local Law Minister spoke in their favour, a Pakistani soldier grabbed the Minister by the scruff of his neck and led him away. The minister later complained to the Chief Minister about the incident, but the CM said nothing could be done about it. That is how helpless and marginalised our people are.” (1)

In 1970 when the Awami League with large following in the erstwhile East Pakistan and now Bangladesh, won the national assembly elections decisively, the state of Pakistan refused to honour the mandate of the people and imposed martial law in East Bengal. Pakistan always practiced extensive economic discrimination against East Pakistan. Although East Pakistan generated 70 percent of Pakistan’s export revenue, the Pakistan government spending was much higher in West Pakistan and East Pakistan was regularly refused funds even for basic development. After the Bangladeshi started the civil disobedience movement against the blatant discrimination, the Muslim state of Pakistan used the most ruthless and brutal ways to subjugate the Muslims of east Bengal. The Pakistan Army under the direction of the state massacred around 3 million Bengalis. A Muslim state of Pakistan committed genocide against the Muslim citizens of its country. It is documented that General Niazi, the then military commander of East Pakistan had asked his men to rape every woman they see. ‘Iss haramzadi qaum ki nasal badal do (change the race of this community)” (2) was his instruction to his army men. What happened in Bangladesh is now being repeated in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The Muslims of Balochistan who have been resisting the atrocities of Pakistan have seen killings of Balochis in thousands. While many Balochis have disappeared without a trace, many have been killed publicly and brazenly. Nearly 1,000 dead bodies of political have been found Balochistan province over the past six years. Activists say the figures, point to large-scale extrajudicial killings. Relatives say most victims had been picked up by security agencies. Thousands of people have disappeared without trace in Balochistan since a separatist insurgency gained momentum in 2007 (3)

The role of Pakistan in the Islamic state of Afghanistan has always been of a neighbour who would go to any length to foment and promote trouble. The support to Afghan Taliban, especially the Haqqani Network, has been the root cause the bloody war that has been waging in Afghanistan, result in the death of thousands of people in both terrorist attacks and the retaliatory attacks by the NATO forces. The NATO forces continued to bombard Afghanistan in their pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, while he was hiding comfortably in garrison town of Abbotabad in Pakistan. The Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani recently said “the keys to war are in Islamabad, Quetta, Rawalpindi” – all cities in Pakistan (4) – suggesting the neighbouring country was a safe haven for cross-border terrorist activities.The sly Pakistan continues to soak its hand with the blood of innocent Afghanis, who are overwhelmingly Muslims.

India has the 3^rd largest population of Muslims in the world. Many Organisation of the Islamic countries (OIC), including Bangladesh, Turkey and UAE have expressed the desire to include India as a member to the organisation. Addressing the OIC foreign ministers’ meet last year, the then Bangladesh foreign minister AH Mahmud Ali had said, “A number of countries — not OIC members — have a large number of Muslims as their citizens. Muslims may be a minority in those countries, but in terms of numbers they often exceed the total population of many OIC member countries. There is a need to build bridges with those non-OIC countries so that a large number of Muslim populations do not remain untouched by the good work of OIC. That’s why, reforms and restructuring are critical for OIC.’ (5)

The move has not been liked by Pakistan, the self-claimed global protector and the well-wisher of Muslims of the world. Pakistan has been totally against the move and has thrown many tantrums to block the induction of India in OIC. It even passed a resolution in their National Assembly to request OIC to neither include India in OIC and requested OIC to not even invite the nation with third largest Muslim population as a guest or observer. So much is the love for Muslims of the Indian subcontinent that Pakistan will go to any extent to deny them any benefits they may derive from the good work of OIC.

The hypocrisy of Pakistan probably gets best exposed in the dealing of its all-weather ally China, with the Muslim citizens of China. The establishment of Pakistan or for that matter the entire state of Pakistan goes silent on the treatment of Muslims, their beloved Ummah, in the Xinjiang region of China. The Uighurs, have seen the worst form of religious prosecution, with China denying them even the basic right to worship and follow their religion. As per UN estimates, around a million Uighurs have been detained by Chines authority. The number and size of the detention camps has expanded rapidly since 2016, with estimates ranging from 180 centres to more than 1,000. Foreign news outlets and human rights groups have reported physical and psychological abuse on a massive scale. (6) This gross violation of Human rights, especially of the Muslims has seen zero response from the self-claimed protector of Muslims and Ummah; Pakistan. The leaders of Pakistan who have never shied away from taking the credits of the victorious Muslims rulers from the various parts of the world including claiming the glorious past of Caliphates as the part of their own history under the umbrella of Ummah, conveniently forget the same spirit of Ummah, when it comes to talk about the brutal atrocities on the Muslims of China.

The current Pakistan not only has failed as a nation state but has also failed on the very core principle on which it was created: Islam. Pakistan has clearly demonstrated that a nation state on the basis of religion is a failed experiment and at the best is a creation of a rogue nation and should be lesson to all those who are sympathetic to the killing in name of jihad and for a global Islamic supremacy, ignoring the most important verse from the Holy Quran ‘Killing of an innocent is killing of all humanity’ Quran verse 5:32

By - Amit Raina Twitter: rainaamit

https://wp.me/p1V8Mx-1U

 

References:

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/senge-sering-highlights-pakistan-china-atrocities-in-pok/article26600135.ece

Khadim Hussain Raja’s book “A stranger in my own country: East Pakistan 1969-1971

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38454483

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-president-pakistan/afghan-president-accuses-pakistan-of-holding-keys-to-war-idUSKCN1PO1U8

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/indias-global-stature-and-islamic-component-help-it-get-oic-invite/articleshow/68145827.cms

(https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/the-uighurs)

FACT CHECK: Pakistan stamps to show ‘atrocities in Kashmir’ has photo from Kashmiri Pandit group Roots in Kashmir protest

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/fact-check-pakistan-stamps-to-show-atrocities-in-kashmir-has-photo-from-kashmiri-pandit-protest/articleshow/66027167.cms?utm_campaign=andapp&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=twitter.com

19/01/90: When Kashmiri Pandits fled Islamic terror - Kanchan Gupta

Srinagar, January 4, 1990. Aftab, a local Urdu newspaper, publishes a press release issued by Hizb-ul Mujahideen, set up by the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1989 to wage jihad for Jammu and Kashmir's secession from India and accession to Pakistan, asking all Hindus to pack up and leave. Another local paper, Al Safa, repeats this expulsion order.

In the following days, there is near chaos in the Kashmir valley with Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his National Conference government abdicating all responsibilities of the State. Masked men run amok, waving Kalashnikovs, shooting to kill and shouting anti-India slogans.

Reports of killing of Hindus, invariably Kashmiri Pandits, begin to trickle in; there are explosions; inflammatory speeches are made from the pulpits of mosques, using public address systems meant for calling the faithful to prayers. A terrifying fear psychosis begins to take grip of Kashmiri Pandits.

Walls are plastered with posters and handbills, summarily ordering all Kashmiris to strictly follow the Islamic dress code, prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks and imposing a ban on video parlours and cinemas. The masked men with Kalashnikovs force people to re-set their watches and clocks to Pakistan Standard Time.

Shops, business establishments and homes of Kashmiri Pandits, the original inhabitants of the Kashmir valley with a recorded cultural and civilisational history dating back 5,000 years, are marked out. Notices are pasted on doors of Pandit houses, peremptorily asking the occupants to leave Kashmir within 24 hours or face death and worse. Some are more lucid: "Be one with us, run, or die!"

* * *

Srinagar, January 19, 1990. Jagmohan arrives to take charge as governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Farooq Abdullah, whose pathetic, whimpering, snivelling government has all but ceased to exist and has gone into hiding, resigns and goes into a sulk. Curfew is imposed as a first measure to restore some semblance of law and order. But it fails to have a deterrent effect.

Throughout the day, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists use public address systems at mosques to exhort people to defy curfew and take to the streets. Masked men, firing from their Kalashnikovs, march up and down, terrorising cowering Pandits who, by then, have locked themselves in their homes.

As evening falls, the exhortations become louder and shriller. Three taped slogans are repeatedly played the whole night from mosques: 'Kashmir mei agar rehna hai, Allah-O-Akbar kehna hai' (If you want to stay in Kashmir, you have to say Allah-O-Akbar); 'Yahan kya chalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa' (What do we want here? Rule of Shariah); 'Asi gachchi Pakistan, Batao roas te Batanev san' (We want Pakistan along with Hindu women but without their men).

In the preceding months, 300 Hindu men and women, nearly all of them Kashmiri Pandits, had been slaughtered ever since the brutal murder of Pandit Tika Lal Taploo, noted lawyer and BJP national executive member, by the JKLF in Srinagar on September 14, 1989. Soon after that, Justice N K Ganju of the Srinagar high court was shot dead. Pandit Sarwanand Premi, 80-year-old poet, and his son were kidnapped, tortured, their eyes gouged out, and hanged to death. A Kashmiri Pandit nurse working at the Soura Medical College Hospital in Srinagar was gang-raped and then beaten to death. Another woman was abducted, raped and sliced into bits and pieces at a sawmill.

In villages and towns across the Kashmir valley, terrorist hit lists have been floating about. All the names are of Kashmiri Pandits. With no government worth its name, the administration having collapsed and disappeared, the police nowhere to be seen, despondency sets in. As the night of January 19, 1990, wears itself out, despondency gives way to desperation.

And tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits across the valley take a painful decision: to flee their homeland to save their lives from rabid jihadis. Thus takes place a 20th century Exodus.

* * *

Srinagar, January 19, 2005. There are no Kashmiri Pandits in Srinagar, or, for that matter, anywhere else in the Kashmir valley; they don't live here anymore. You can find them in squalid refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi. As many as 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits have fled their home and hearth and been reduced to living the lives of refugees in their own country.

Two-thirds of them are camping in Jammu. The rest are in Delhi and in other Indian cities. Many of them, once prosperous and proud of their rich heritage, now live in grovelling poverty, dependent on government dole and charity. In these 15 years, an entire generation of exiled Kashmiri Pandits has grown up, without seeing the land from where their parents fled to escape the brutalities of Islamic terrorism, a land they dare not return to, although that land still remains a part of their country.

A large number of them are suffering from a variety of stress and depression related diseases. A group of doctors who surveyed the mental and physical health of the Kashmiri Pandits living in refugee camps, found high incidence of 'economic distress, stress induced diabetes, partial lunacy, hypertension and mental retardation.' Statistics reflect high death rate and low birth rate among the Kashmiri Pandit refugees.

And thereby hangs a tragic tale that has been all but wiped out from public memory.

An entire people have been uprooted from the land of their ancestors and left to fend for themselves as a weak-kneed Indian state shamelessly panders to Islamic terrorists and separatists who claim they are the final arbiters of Jammu and Kashmir's destiny. A part of India's cultural heritage has been destroyed; a chapter of India's civilisational history has been erased.

Had this tragedy occurred elsewhere in Hindu majority India, and had the victims been Muslims, we would have described it as 'ethnic cleansing' and 'genocide.' We would have made films with horror-inducing titles. We would have filed cases in the Supreme Court of India. Our media would have marshalled remarkable rage in reporting the smallest detail.

But, this tragedy has occurred in Muslim majority Kashmir valley, and the victims are all Hindus, that too Pandits. What has been lost is part of India's Hindu culture, what has been erased is integral to India's Hindu civilisation.

Therefore, the government makes bold to record that the Kashmiri Pandits have "migrated on their own" and their 'displacement (is) self-imposed;' the National Human Rights Commission, after a perfunctory inquiry, refuses to concede that what has happened is 'genocide' or 'ethnic cleansing,' though facts add up to no less than that, never mind that 300,000 lives have been destroyed.

And, our jhola-wallah brigade of secular activists rudely turn up their noses to the plight of Kashmiri Pandits: Hindu sorrow, inflicted by Islamic terror, stinks.

Today, on January 19, the 15th anniversary of the forced flight of Kashmiri Pandits, look back at India's wretched history of secular politics and consider the terrible price the nation has paid at the altar of appeasement because the Indian State has, and continues to, toe the line of least resistance.

Reflect. Resolve. React.

https://m.rediff.com/news/2005/jan/19kanch.htm

IS PAKISTAN SENDING DRUGS VIA LOC TRADE?

A Pakistani driver arrested by Indian authorities in connection with alleged smuggling of narcotics worth Rs 100 crore  at LOC.

http://greaterkashmir.com/news/2014/Jan/21/cross-loc-bus-service-halted-19.asp


Also please read this editorial from a leading J &K English daily.

http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/drug-haul-at-loc/

It is the second time that drugs have been seized from truckers at Salamabad point of LoC. A truck coming from PoK was detained by the police at the Salamabad Trade Facilitation Centre, Uri and 114 kilograms of narcotics were recovered from it. Obviously the truck was detained and the driver taken into custody. In August 2008 the police had recovered from a truck going from our side to PoK ten crore rupees worth cocaine. This was supposed to be delivered to the militant organization in PoK who would tranship it further to markets.  The simple inference that one can draw from it is that the trans-LoC trade is being misused for transhipment of drugs and narcotics. There are agencies on both sides who are involved in this clandestine trade. Apart from authorities, it is the Chamber of Commerce on either side that should be much worried about the misuse of trade.
The objective behind opening trans-LoC trade at two points in J&K was to lend support to confidence building measures. But the way things are being misused the very purpose of the programme is defeated. We can express regret that this clandestine exercise is being undertaken on both sides. It is detrimental to both countries, India and Pakistan and none should be happy with this kind of situation. It has to be reminded that when talks were going on for opening trading points along the LoC, critics had at that time raised the apprehensions that the facility might be misused. But those who were responsible for regulating the trade gave ample assurances that nothing of clandestine activity would be allowed. How come that this deviation and floundering of rules and regulations has happened.
We believe that no higher ups are involved in the exercise. We also believe that Pakistan is seriously interested in promoting good relations with India and exchange of trade and commerce is a very important measure. Only two days back trade delegations of two countries have met and talked in New Delhi. They have exuded confidence that there could be good scope of expanding trade. This has sent a good and satisfying message to the trading community on both sides of the dividing line. But incidents like the one certainly do much damage to the peace talks.
We would not like that this incident should become a stone wall between the two countries and trade should not come to a standstill. As we know it remained suspended for so many months after the clashes on the border between the security forces. It is with great patience and effort that the two countries have resumed talks. Therefore incidents like this should not be allowed to become a major obstruction. But at the same time, it is important that authorities on both sides of the line become more alert and take extraordinary care that such attempts are thwarted. In particular, we have reason to condemn this clandestine drug trade because the terrorist organizations feeling the sting of cash deficit are using many ways to replenish their financial status. They want to fuel insurgency through money earned clandestinely. That is what we cannot accept. Therefore the culprits should be dealt with in accordance with the law of the land and no sympathy should be shown to them. That is of much importance to deter others following suit.
It is also important that the arrested driver and the person for whom the consignment was meant in Kashmir are thoroughly subjected to interrogation. The trail of this activity should be traced to the last man and a report of the same should be forwarded to Pakistani authorities. The two sides can also meet to discuss this important issue and jointly try to find the ways and means to plug this practice. For quite some time reports have been coming that drug addiction is on the rise in Kashmir. Many youth are reported to have become addicts. From that point also, it is important that authorities mount vigil on the LoC and elsewhere and nip the evil in the bud.

Geelani - Among the Civilised!

There is an interesting take away from the following press report (on Geelani at the recently concluded India Today Conclave) of a gentleman called Arpit Parashar in the Tehelka. It nomenclates Syed Ali Shah Geelani as Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference but prefers to call us as a right wing Kashmiri group.Even by my own godless ways of life and belief in the Nietzschean ideology of a dead god I wouldn’t be apologetic to call Geelani an Islamic Bigot. Look at the inverse logic that our journos including Arpit use.Geelani to them needs no affirmative fixing label irrespective of his regular pronouncements that Kashmir should merge into Pakistan because it is a muslim majority area.That he believes Islam is the glue between Kashmiris and Pakistan obviously isn’t feeding any frenzy at all,right or left.That he got Abdul Ghani Lone killed because Lone had apparently looked towards India for a solution doesn’t set any alarm bells ringing into our friend Arpit or the likes of many such apologists of hate.That Geelani invokes religion (Islam here) to drive mobs and to frenzy is pious and just because we protest against such ideologues of hate is being right wing.

I wouldn’t mind being branded a radical Hindu provided I was one. In 22 years of our exile Kashmiri Pandits have not killed, maimed or even injured one Muslim. They have not brought down,burnt,ransacked or even partially destroyed the properties of any Muslims despite the fact their own houses lie destroyed and their places of worship desecrated.Yet Arpit and likes have a nomenclature for us.

But humko kahein kafir, Allah ki marzi Hain

The idols nomenclate me as the infidel,there must be God’s will in this.

That brings us back to the India Today Conclave. We at Roots in Kashmir do believe that we must be statesmanlike when it comes to finding solutions to issues as vexed as Kashmir. Neither is it our argument not to involve people who differ with our viewpoint on Kashmir.Infact we would welcome every move that would result in a solution to the Kashmir issue. What we all need to decide is whether people like Geelani are or can actually pave the way forward for any kind of solution at all, or are they a part of the problem itself. Before a reputed media organization like India Today decided to call Geelani(unless they wanted to call his bluff, which I do not rule out) to address the conclave don’t they believe that it is necessary to do a basic background check on the man who is a sworn Islamist and known fascist even by the most liberal standards. It is not for nothing that even NDTV calls him a hardliner. Not the first time though has India Today invited a killer of humanity to its Conclave.Earlier in 2008 they had Yasin Malik to address a session on Youth.Yasin Malik is to Geelani what Chemical Ali was to Saddam Hussein.So it wouldn’t be entirely wrong to expect the Burmese dictator or even a Qadafi next year.

If India Today believes that such people could be a part of the solution then either they are too naïve or too conspiring.

Now that he was allowed rather graciously to be a part of the Aroon Puri’s solution to Kashmir let us see what he brought to the table. He looked sheepish from the word go. Clearly this wasn’t his territory.There weren’t many in the crowd albeit some Pakistani diplomats and was Nayeem Khan there too, who would purchase his blood red wares. He was incoherent, gone was his nonchalant way with which he dismisses opponents in Kashmir.The village boy looked clearly like a cat on a hot tin roof that too in a huge city. Obviously he had nothing new to say. He mumbled the usual stuff but had neatly packaged it, though he couldn’t deliver it well. He spoke of “human rights violations” and the” brutality” of the Indian State the same state that paid his medical bills and appealed to the US government to grant him a visa. Haven’t we heard that before? He didn’t explain why it took him a week despite huge public pressure to announce a hartal when two girls in his hometown were recently murdered by forces loyal to His Master’s Voice. He tried to his best evoke some sympathy among his listeners and was getting exasperated by the second because people could see through his spiel.

Though he was the last speaker of the session and thus had the opportunity to reply to Arif Mohammed Khan’s fervent, logical and passionate speech but it seemed Geelani had clearly lost it. Seemed someone had understood the essence of Holy Koran better than Geelani and obviously had more to do with Kashmir’s glorious but pre-islamic or even secular past. He was stumped by Arif Mohammed’s references to Kalhan, Lalleshwari and Nund Rishi.Arif Mohammed had his day.But the worst for Geelani was yet to come.It was left to a young exiled Pandit to tell the audience how his mother wrapped him in a cloth to escape death at the hands of Geelani’s zealots when he was barely nine months old.The more inconvenient question was why Geelani had Abdul Ghani Lone(one of his own Hurriyat members killed). Aditya Raj Kaul had the audience cheering and when Geelani tom tommed the usual conspiracy by Jagmohan it was received by jeers from the crowd.

(Conclave Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGxT646o4CA )

It is well known that people with dictatorial tendencies brook no opposition and therefore are not used to civil means. They are at their wits ends when questioned about their ideology or the means that they use to achieve their ends.No one in Kashmir dares ask Geelani such questions. That person would be history. Pity Ghani Loni made that mistake.

Times have Changed, Issues are Different by Tavleen Singh(in Sentinel Assam)

There was a time when it seemed as if a solution in Kashmir could bring peace with Pakistan. That time has gone. The Taliban now have a grander plan for the subcontinent
ON THE SPOT
Link - http://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/story.php?sec=3&subsec=0&id=26854&dtP=2009-11-16&ppr=1

T he average Indian is so bored with Kashmir these days that I always hesitate to raise the subject in a column. If I do this week it is because a meeting took place in Delhi that has to go down as one of the most extraordinary in recent times. It was organized by social activist Madhu Kishwar under the auspices of the Centre for the Studies of Developing Societies, on November 7, and I went along because she invited a glittering array of politicians from Kashmir. I have not been to Srinagar in more than five years and thought the meeting could be a good way to revive my interest in a subject I once wrote a book on.
Among those who came to the meeting in the library of the Nehru Memorial were Mehbooba Mufti, Muzzafar Baig who was Deputy Chief Minister in the last government, Mohammad Sufi Uri from the National Conference, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt from the Hurriyat and Yasin Malik from the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). The meeting was chaired by Ram Jethmalani and attended by journalists, academics, Kashmir activists and sundry others. It was a full house.

Madhu, an eager beaver peacenik as ever was, began the day’s discussions by emphasizing loudly and often that we were gathered together to find solutions. Despite this, things got off to an interminably dull start because Mr Uri from the National Conference made a long, boring speech that was full of historical grievances that everyone present was more than familiar with. Muzaffar Baig took over from him and was more interesting because he offered a solution. He said that Kashmir’s borders needed to be made irrelevant as Dr Manmohan Singh has himself often promised. Instead of redrawing maps there should be a softening of the borders so that Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Indians could come and go freely and there should be ‘‘dual currency’’. In view of what is happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, this suggestion seemed so naively oblivious of geo-political realities that I went up to him when he finished speaking and asked if he had heard of the Taliban. Was he aware that this group of Islamist jihadis was close to threatening the existence of Pakistan and Afghanistan? How long would it take the Taliban to conquer Kashmir if Indian troops were withdrawn? He laughed sheepishly.

In any case the meeting carried on peacefully and in a dull sort of way until the late afternoon when it came to Yasin Malik’s turn to speak. I had not seen him in many years and was impressed to see him look dapper and elegant in a black, velvet jacket and a black and white polka-dotted shirt instead of the drab, Kashmiri clothes he usually wears. He looked more like an urbane Srinagar businessman than the terrorist he once was, but he was not allowed to forget his past. No sooner did he rise to speak than the meeting deteriorated into chaos. The hall was filled with insults hurled at him by a group of young Kashmir Pandits who till then had sat silent and unnoticed.

‘‘We will not allow this monster to speak,’’ they yelled, ‘‘ask him who raped and killed Sarla Bhatt? Ask him how many Hindus he has killed? He is a terrorist. He has no right to be here.’’ They said other things as well, angry, ugly things, and they made so much noise as they stood up and shouted their abuse that the meeting was totally disrupted for several minutes. Yasin Malik was infuriated and ready to leave. It was only after many entreaties from Madhu and Mr Jethmalani that he agreed to speak. But then Mr Jethmalani put his foot into it by saying that he himself loved Pakistan more than Pakistanis loved Pakistan and that all Indians should develop a similar love for Pakistan. Then he added there would have been no militancy in Kashmir at all if the 1987 elections had not been rigged to coincide unfortunately with a large number of mujahideen in Afghanistan suddenly becoming ‘‘unemployed’’ because the Soviet Union withdrew its troops.

Yasin Malik decided to pick this up as the starting point of his speech. He said, ‘‘I was shocked to hear Jethmalani Sahib say what he did. I was the one who started the armed struggle in Kashmir and I was neither Afghan nor unemployed. I picked up the gun because it seemed there was nothing else to do. We had tried peaceful means to achieve azaadi and failed.’’

He then gave details of how the JKLF was among the groups that had set up the Muslim United Front to contest the Assembly elections in 1987. ‘‘We contested the elections because we thought that if we won we would declare Kashmir independent through a resolution in the Assembly but they were not prepared to give us our basic democratic rights. So we had no recourse but to pick up the gun.’’ He added that he had given up violence because he was persuaded by the ‘‘Indian civil society’’ that solutions could come peacefully. He felt betrayed, he said, because he now knew that all the Indian civil society could do was talk.

The Kashmiri Pundits were not going to take that lying down even if the panelists were, and they started yelling that the armed struggle had never ended. What about the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen? Who were they? And who were the other militant groups that continued to kill innocent people in Kashmir?

In the end there was more rancour and rage than debate, and the solution to our Kashmir problem remained as elusive as ever. Sitting next to me at one point was General Lakhvinder Singh, a hero of the Kargil war, and I asked him if he thought that there was any chance of reducing the deployment of Indian troops in Kashmir. He said, ‘‘We’ve tried it. And wherever we have reduced deployment we have seen an immediate increase in militant activities. It is not as easy as these politicians make it sound.’’

It is not easy at all because it is clear to many of us who have followed the Kashmir story carefully for many, many years that the problem has changed. There was a time when it seemed as if a solution in Kashmir could bring peace with Pakistan. That time has gone. Kashmir’s struggle for so-called azaadi has been subsumed by the worldwide jihad. The Taliban have a grander plan for the Indian subcontinent. They want to conquer Islamabad, and when that is done they want the flag of Islam to fly over India.

Tavleen Singh

Challenge of Fundamentalist Intifada-Dr.Ajay Chrungoo

Courtesy-Vijayvani

Separatists go for the Overkill


The headlines of local newspapers in the Kashmir Valley have been blaring with relentless intensity… July 09 - Woman’s rape, murder rocks Kupwara; July 08 - Asrar’s killing sparks massive protests in Srinagar. July 07 - Bomb hurled at Baramulla police station, 3 grenade explosions in 2 days; July 06 - explosions rock Srinagar, Sopore; July 05 - Army had abducted Basharat: Family; July 04 - Larkipora teenager released, Protests in Islamabad; July 02 - Protests in curfewed Varmul; youth succumbs, Varmul toll 4; July 01 - Police fire smoke shells at mourners, thousand attend funeral of 19 year old Amir.


Public mobilization campaigns and demonstrations reflecting seditious and secessionist intensity more than anti-government sentiment have been going on in Kashmir Valley since the police recovered the bodies of two ladies, Niloufer and Aisya, at Shopian in Pulwama district, on 30 May. The separatist mobilizations have reflected strange eagerness which needs to be understood and placed in a proper perspective.


The spate of hartals and orchestrated violence on the streets left a large section of people bewildered, contrary to propaganda by the local media. This bewilderment of the general public with the methodology adopted by the separatist leadership and the response of the government is not a fiction as many Kashmir experts sitting in Delhi would like us to believe. It involves a significant section of population in the Valley, and occasionally their voices find expression in the columns of an otherwise partisan local media.


Syed Rafiuddin Bukhari, columnist, Rising Kashmir, provides a glimpse: “Is Kashmir really fragile or has it been made to behave like that? Does this question boggle the mind of those who cover, analyze and interpret the political perceptions! This week’s incidents in Baramulla have shown that no one controls Kashmir, but only those who want to keep the pot boiling… in Baramulla where the police was handling a simple case of kidnapping of a 15 year old girl from Binner. The accused in the case was identified and one of the accomplices was rounded up. His wife went to the police station to seek his release but was not obliged. She came out and alleged that the police passed indecent remarks at her. This worked like jungle fire and the whole town was up in flames… it needs an explanation as to why the young Kashmiris should fall prey to such a situation in which four young boys give their blood for something which is not part of the struggle.” The culprit and this lady had known links with a local political party.


The over-eagerness of separatist formations to go for overkill was manifest from the day of the recovery of the dead bodies of Niloufer and Asiya in Shopian and the initial bungling of government response. In Shopian, local discourse reflected that people never believed the role of CRPF or Army in the killings. People asked why the bodies of the ladies were left just outside the CRPF camp if CRPF personnel had committed the crime. People suspected the moral integrity of the husband of Niloufer. Her own relatives were less enthusiastic about the public exposure of the affair. Justice Jan Commission brought this facet into the open. The report has undermined separatist mobilization more than anything else in Shopian, because it has found resonance with the common perception of the people.


The Justice Jan Commission recorded the rift between the two families from Tukru and Bongam in Shopian district. In April-May 2007, Niloufer eloped with Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar against the wishes of her family. The Commission noted, “It will be in place to mention here that Niloufer Jan belongs to a “Peer” family which is treated in the society with the degree of respect and honour for their upper class status, where as Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar belongs to “Khaar” family which is included in the other backward classes of the society. This marriage had given birth to a serious hatred of Peer family towards Ahangar family. It is reliably learnt that Zeerak Shah (brother of Niloufer), along with his friends, had even threatened the Ahangar family of dire consequences if Niloufer is not handed over to her family.”


The Commission recorded that after the burial of Niloufer and Asiya, Zeerak Shah pitched a tent at Tukroo and gathered his friends, relatives, and other villagers, blocked the road at Tukroo, smashed window panes of civil and government vehicles, and raised anti-India and pro-freedom slogans. The commission took note of the fact that Shakeel was known for his immoral activities and had amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.


“Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar was working with his brothers at welding workshop at Shopian. He eloped with Niloufer Jan in 2007 and went outside Shopian. After this return he started his own business by opening a shop of readymade furniture items near police station Shopian… in October 2008, Shakeel purchased an orchard (1 kanal 16 marla) in Nagbal-Dehgam for about 5.30 lakhs. He also owns a Maruti car and maintains a good living standard. Further it is learnt that he does not carry a good reputation among the society and is being known for his immoral activities.”


It can be safely presumed that these facts would have been known to separatists’ think tanks. They latched upon the twin murders to unleash frenzy, caring nothing for loss of face and credibility in case the facts about the gruesome incidents proved wrong. The cracking of Asrar’s murder case, which was nothing more than the outcome of jealousy in a love triangle, exposed separatist indulgence in matters which shamed one and all.


A strange hope seems to pervade the thinking of separatist echelons that if they build public pressure, something dramatic may happen. The Hurriyat leader and main force behind the public upsurge betrayed his feelings when he said, “People should make a difference between right and wrong and follow the right path. New dawn is awaiting us and it is the crucial juncture that demands patience and consistency.”


Another Hurriyat leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, described confusion among people as ‘anarchy’, ‘we should not look like a divided house, separatist organizations should not be in a rat race to issue strike calls… we need to think of creating alternative ways of protest. We have to carry on the movement and lives of the people as well.”


The roots of this hope lay in certain recent developments involving the region as well as the experience of last year’s agitation against land transfer to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.


India Ragdo-II and the Catalysts

The agitation on Amarnath land exposed cleavages in Indian polity. A section of the high profile liberal elite in India came out brazenly supporting separation of Kashmir from India one way or other. The likes of Arundhati Roy, Shabana Azmi, Vir Sanghvi, Prem Shankar Jha, and AG Noorani, through spoken or written words created an impression amongst the separatist rank and file that ‘Azadi’ was round the corner. ‘Ek Dakka Aur Do’, (just one push more) was the common refrain of separatist campaigners then.


The public mobilization had less to do with the actual land row and more with wrecking Indian sovereignty over Kashmir. The campaign was not called India Ragda/Ragdo-I for only sloganeering. It reflected the underlying motivation. Carrying the experience forward this year’s campaigners unleashed, after the recovery of the dead bodies of two ladies in Shopian, India Ragda/Ragdo-II.


Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, Department of Law, Kashmir University, called the recent unrest in the Valley the ‘resistance beyond the armed struggle;’ and the spirit underlying India Ragdo-II as, “Indian state needs to realize that it is confronting a highly informed and educated young generation of Kashmiris, they know the direction in which right of self determination is evolving and has evolved. It has definitely evolved in a direction which is advantageous to Kashmir, not against it. East Timor and Eritrea availed it despite being non- colonial possessions. Montenegro enjoyed the right of self-determination in spite of having forty five percent opponents to independence.”


The separatist mind articulates its position vehemently. It describes expressions of separatism as the expression of a ‘Resistant Kashmir’, and demeans political engagement and democratic process in the state as ‘collaborating Kashmir’. The manifest disenchantment of the common man with the separatist leadership and his confusion is trivialized as ‘vacillating Kashmir’.


The India Ragdo-II intifada in Kashmir is being guided by such a mindset. This mindset would have taken note of the admission in early May, towards the fag end of parliamentary elections, by none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “…I have always believed a strong peaceful moderate Pakistan in India’s interests. We worked very hard on that and in fact I and General Musharraf had reached nearly an agreement, a non territorial solution to all problems, but then General Musharraf got into many difficulties with the Chief Justice and other fronts and therefore the whole process came to a halt.”


Separatist think tanks in Kashmir have been relentlessly searching a way to circumvent the predicament in which Pakistan is caught up and chart out a course to bring a halt to the ‘halt’.


Columnist Syed Rafiuddin Bukhari, in Rising Kashmir, commented, “…Pakistan Government is grappling with the worst ever crisis, the Kashmiri leadership should stop looking towards Islamabad and think independently to charter their own course.”


India Ragdo-II is the course separatists have embarked upon. Their hope lies more on the support which they generate amongst a section of entrenched liberal elite, be it Arundhati Roy or Prem Shankar Jha, people who advocate a concession on sovereignty not to bail out India from international pressure but out of an ideological outlook which recognizes Muslim communalism as a progressive secular imperative for India to reconcile with.


Separatist rank and file see some space in the new American foreign policy. The new US ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, statement that Kashmir “has been an extremely sensitive hotspot for the world and for the region where we have almost experienced thermonuclear war on several occasions,” has been music to the separatist rank and file. So have previous statements by Assistant Secretary of State William Burns or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.


Separatists have not missed the success of the Pakistani government in toning down India’s assertions on the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The release of Hafeez Syed is seen as a gradually stiffening stance of Pakistan on Kashmir. Keeping the pot boiling in Kashmir through a non-violent intifada serves Pakistan preserve its Kashmir Policy with reinforced moral legitimacy.


Last but not the least, the Indian Ragdo-II intifada as per separatist thinking delegitimises the democratic process in the state. Mr. Arjimand Hussain Talib brings out this aspect brazenly: “It should now be clear to India’s political and media establishment that high voter turnout in Assembly elections does not mean an end of Kashmiri Movement for self determination. Kashmir needs a real political settlement which goes beyond the pre-1989 military status quo”.


The Paradox

The Central government if it has any inclination to diffuse the situation on the ground has to resolve a paradox. The National Conference which leads the ruling alliance in J&K shares and identifies with the common minimum agenda of campaigners in the Valley streets. In a full page advertisement, the state government declared its three main and primary achievements since assuming power: i). Bold decision taken after 20 years to replace CRPF by locals police; ii) First CM to plead eloquently for withdrawal of AFSPA, Union Government flags the issue; iii) Presence of Magistrates with police/security forces made mandatory while dealing with law and order problems and iv) Bomai (Army) camp re-located within a month.


The main opposition PDP, both factions of Hurriyat and the local Bar Council all have revocation of AFPSA and demilitarization as their main demands. We have a piquant situation where the opposition, mainstream as well as separatist, and the state government are politically on the same side.


The situation becomes bizarre when a section of the Government of India identifies with this consensus. The incidental or accidental remarks of Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, while referring to the PM’s Working Group on Confidence Building Measures of which he was then Chairman, justified the key demand of separatists during the current unrest. The Vice President observed that implementation of its recommendations was considered by the Prime Minister as the key to retaining people’s confidence. In his own report then as chairman of the Working Group, ignoring the dissent within, Ansari recommended revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The entire report did not address anti- terrorism measures as a vital component of confidence building in the state.


Even though in all incidents which lead to protests in recent times, the suspected culprits were locals working in local police or territorial army or government officials, the foremost demand of everybody of consequence was removal of paramilitary forces and army from the state.


India Ragdo-Intifada has nothing to do with the incidents which caused public resentment. It essentially uses the incidents to lacerate symbols of Indian sovereignty. It seeks to project an extremely permissive, conniving and inactive state as a demonic police state. The Government, unwilling to defend its security establishment, takes a totally defensive position and allows public mobilizations by the most regressive and fundamentalist regimes operating on the ground. It declares lack of intention to act publicly by either withdrawing its security forces or ordering them not to intervene, whatever the provocation.


The ruling National Conference has an ideological resonance with the common minimum programme of agitationists to force demilitarization, but an existential need to preserve the military presence. The central government knows that any laxity in security operations in the state may lead to catastrophic results, given the situation in Pakistan. Yet it seeks to maintain the stance of a neutral player while its security forces are described and lampooned as an occupation force in the valley. Civilians in the valley know well that the very survival of civil society depends upon the security forces, yet they demonize them. The paradox is deep and powerful.


Inside The Present Turmoil

Most events which lead to public resentment invariably have a sexual angle. Separatists are instigating the public that organs of the Indian state are not only indulging in extra-constitutional violence, but are perpetuating moral debasement of Kashmir society. The mobilization by Dukhtaran-e-Millat had the same purpose, when sexual scandals involving government officials and politicians came to the fore. We are witnessing in the Valley glaring signs of social disorganization caused by militarization of the social milieu. Local papers have time and again highlighted the proliferation of sexual cartels and the flesh trade. Ahmad Ali Fayaz, special correspondent, Daily Excelsior, brought out the magnitude of increase in the number of brothels in Srinagar city a few years ago. A well known ideologue and lobbyist of separatists also referred to ‘prostitution cartels’ in the valley in his columns in the local media.


Most alarming is the penetration of flesh trade in the government and security establishment, rather than government promoting moral debasement in society. The concerns of a significant section of common Kashmiris are still unheard.


Jihadi militarization brought along with it the evil of temporary marriage – Mutah – which soon became a social sanction for debauchery. The dreaded terrorist Akbar Bhai is reported to have married 83 local girls. One Shakeela Bano was abducted from her houseboat by terrorists and subjected to mass rape before being burnt to death. Al Umar terrorists did this to Shakeela because she refused to marry a terrorist for two years of her captivity, during which she was raped regularly. After running away from her captors, she escaped to Jammu where an NGO looked after her. But when she ventured back home, she was again abducted and burnt to death.


Security forces then destroyed the prostitution cartels of the terrorists of Al Umar and rescued 150 women in captivity. Around the same time, security forces succeeded in freeing 10 women held captive by terrorists in Dacchan Marwa region of Kishtwar in Jammu.


Numerous such incidents can be quoted. The introduction of promiscuity by terrorists has taken a toll on society. Militarization of the social milieu in the Valley has played havoc with age old traditions and values. Government establishment and security forces are face to face with this menace, but are yet to devise a counter response to prevent penetration of the flesh trade in their rank and file.


The situation becomes alarming when we factor in reports that Kashmir tops the world in the list of opium abusers, as per research of ‘Community Drug Abuse Study Survey Kashmir,’ by well known psychiatrist Dr. Mushtaq Margoob. His evaluation has produced astounding statistics. 47.77 percent of population in Kashmir consumes some type of drug, including tobacco and its allied products.


There are 24.32 lakh substance abuses (including tobacco abuse) in Kashmir, which includes 2.11 lakh opioid, 1.37 lakhs cannabis and around 38,000 alcohol abuses. The number of female drug addicts is alarming. The NGO, Hindustan National Social Security (HNSS), conducted a de-addiction programme in 2008-2009 amongst females. The female drug addicts were literates in the age group of 18-33, from urban as well as village backgrounds.


Around the time the Shopian agitation was going, a national electronic channel showed how the army was involved in destroying poppy fields around Shopian. Police also reported recovering quintals of Bhukki - the locally produced poppy husk sold in north India.


Conclusion


Through the current Intifada, separatists seek moral legitimacy. They seek to accord respectability to a regressive anti-freedom movement. They are calibrating its interventions to remain relevant even if Pakistan continues to vacillate, or even collapses. The intifada is targeting the weakness of Indian policy to fight militarized pan-Islamic fundamentalism.


The moral of the story is to de-legitimise this Intifada by educating the public about the impact of militarization of society. Another imperative is to stop fiddling with dangerous ideas of self-rule or the Musharraf Plan. These plans undermine the ideological foundations of India. Government legitimacy to these plans keeps the pot boiling in Kashmir. We have to realize that ideological compromise eventually leads to crippling territorial consequences.


Dr. Ajay Chrungoo is chairman, Panun Kashmir

The Unsung Kashmiri Soldier

The funeral of the Martyr

The martyrdom of Shabir Ahmed Malik, a paratrooper with the Indian Army has once again brought to fore the role of Kashmiris in fighting terrorism in their state. He was martyred fighting intruders in the border district of Kupwara in North Kashmir. The Sainik School educated had turned 22 the very day he attained martyrdom. His supreme sacrifice will be remembered for long. What will be remembered even longer was the fact that thousands took to the streets to bid an emotional farewell to this son of the soil. Thousands shouted Shabir Ahmed Zindabad and Azad Hindustan Zindabad.When his tricolour draped body was brought to his village Wakura, near Ganderbal thousands mourned and a pall of gloom engulfed the village and adjoining areas. Yet it was proud moment for most of the people as one of them sacrificed his life to save Kashmir and India.
“We are proud of what he has done but at the same time we are saddened by his loss,” Ghulam Mohammad Malik, Shabir’s brother, told reporters soon after laying him to rest at Dab-Wakura graveyard.

This isn’t the first time nor would it be the last when Kashmiris have taken terrorism head on. However the fact remains that the Kashmiris who have laid their lives or are fighting terrorism day in and day out are not given as much recognition as their counterparts in the rest of the nation.

When a Policeman or Para-military personnel is killed fighting terrorists in Delhi or Mumbai, the whole nation mourns. It is carried prominently by all newspapers and TV Channels. To this day we remember the sacrifice of the soldiers who were martyred fighting terrorists involved in the Parliament attack. This is not to belittle the role of security forces anywhere but how many of us remember the Policemen who are almost killed regularly in Kashmir.

It is important for all of us to recall the role of J&K Police in fighting terrorism. It is their rank and file who has the biggest network of informers which helps the state Police to thwart terrorist attacks. Their local knowledge and better understanding of the terrain has given them an upper hand in fighting insurgency in the State. It is the local Police who are targeted almost regularly because of their vulnerability of being locals and thus them and their families being almost sitting ducks for terrorists. Despite that the local Police have done a commendable and almost thankless job of eliminating terrorism or at-least bringing it down to a level where the elections could be held peacefully. While it is true that the army and Para-military forces have acted in tandem with the local Police but it is essentially the local Police who are the first ones to take on Fidayeen attacks wherever they happen in the State. It is them who eventually the broke the back of the terrorist groups like the Yasin Malik led JKLF or the Hizb.

At this point we must also make a mention of the Ikhwanis or the renegade terrorists who at the height of terrorism helped cleanse Kashmir of the Pakistan Sponsored terrorist gangs.

The Ikhwanis who were mainly ethnic Kashmiris took upon themselves the noble task of cleaning Kashmir of the Islamist virus that had people like Yasin Malik and his ilk had brought from Pakistan. It was to the credit of the Ikhwanis led by the charismatic Kuka Parrey that militancy declined in the mid-1990s.

Sudha Ramachandran writes in the Asia Times,”Parrey inspired many militants to switch sides and cooperate with the security forces. "The power that Parrey and his boys came to wield and the new-found legitimacy they got by strutting around with the Indian forces and flaunting their weapons in the open was undoubtedly a big attraction for several militants who were fed up with life underground and disillusioned with 'the cause'," a Kashmiri police officer pointed out. Consequently, hundreds of militants surrendered.”

The very fact that the once heavily terrorist infested areas like Shopian, Bandipora, Devsar, and Doda are today terror free is a testament to the dedicated Police Officers and their force in J&K.There are countless Kashmiri Muslim Officers who have told me,”Cleansing Kashmir of these terrorists is the true Jihad”They have steadfastly stuck to their tasks and persevered to get Kashmir to Peace without caring for their own safety or the safety of their family.

On this day, let us all remember the unsung and unwept Kashmiri soldier who has stood between chaos and India, between Pan-Islamism and secularism, between barbarianism and civic society, between mayhem and peace. The situation in J & K is still far from normal but whatever strains of normalcy have been achieved have been due to the consistent efforts of those Kashmiri soldiers to whom this jihad is a personal battle to kill the evil within Kashmir. It is to them that I stand and salute, it is to their efforts that I bow my head and to their sacred vow that annihilating these terrorists is the true Jihad that I revere.

Made in Pakistan by Kamal Hak

Trading has begun across LOC in Kashmir . The Kashmiri muslims must be feeling happy, excited and great. They will now have the access to the pious produce of their religious fraternity. The quality or price will no longer be a concern. Those considerations are reserved for the things produced by kafirs in Hindustan .

One day in early eighties I was sitting with the owner of United Medical Hall, Kupawara in the course of my duties as a medical representative. It was a good day for business as sowing season had just finished and the villagers were now flocking to either courts for settling scores with their neighbours or to doctors for obtaining prescriptions for glucose bottles.

Gul Saeb of United Medical Hall was a nice and simple man. People also called him khuda dost as he was truly a gentle person who was never provoked into raising his voice. At this particular moment when my attention was focused on exploring the possibilities of reducing the gap between my sales target and achievement; and while I was motivating a salesman to give me the actual stock position of my products I found Gul Saeb engaged in an animated discussion with a Khoja.

“Hak saeb, please explain to Haji Saab.” Gul Saeb turned towards me with visible signs of frustration on his face.

“I want Indral and he is not giving me that.” Khoja informed me.

I found myself a reluctant mediator and in retrospect am glad for that as it has given me a beautiful reminiscence of an extent a Kashmiri muslim can go in the pursuit of his fanatic idiosyncrasy.

Khoja wanted made in Pakistan Indral, which he had earlier purchased at Kralapur, and found better than Indral produced in either England or Hindustan . It is made with Pakh(Pure) water by Pakh people.

Many months later, we are enjoying hot pakora’s while whiling our time in Tej Watul’s cloth shop situated bang in the middle of Jogilanker market in Rainawari. Suddenly there is a commotion across the road in front of Chuni Wattul’s (he was not Watul as Wattals were called but Wattul most probably derived from Wattul Kyom) medical shop. A lady in a traditional mulsim attire of feran and shalwar is mercilessly thrashing a young man. The young man along with the spectators is helpless before her fury. Even Amma Babur’s intervention is of no assistance. The lady is unfurling choicest of curses on the young man, who has now resigned himself to his destiny. Many rolls of cloth wound over wooden rods are lying scattered near the scene and a cycle in a battered condition is also lying flat nearby. Soon a couple of constables appear and save the poor man. They ask the lady the cause of her anger.

“I want my sixty rupees back. I purchased two meters of printed cloth from him for sixty rupees two months back. They cloth didn’t survive a single wash. Now he either returns my money or I send him to cancer ward in Soura.”

“But, Mouji, how could you pay sixty rupees for ordinary cloth which could not have been worth even ten.”

“Do you think I am so clumsy? This illegitimate son of his mother fooled me by claiming the cloth was made in Pakistan .”

Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani...

"Hum Pakistan hain, Pakistan hamara hai"

..So goes Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the grand old man of the Kashmiri seperatists struggle. But perhaps now, after his fifth operation, he will have to add 'par mera pacemaker hindustani hai'.

Mr Geelani recently had an operation in Delhi's Escorts hospital to have his pacemaker replaced. There can be little doubt as to who funded this operation in this top hospital of the Indian capital where not many of the cities residents itself would think of getting admitted due to the costs involved.

An artificial pacemaker regulates the heartbeat when the heart is unable to do it itself because of some reason.

Funny, because that seems the role of the Indian govt in the Kashmir struggle. India's various unwise decisions and refusal to learn from the mistakes of the past have often regulated the Kashmir struggle and helped it to grow.

So yes, perhaps Mr. Geelani is right in getting his pacemaker from India, after all the unwise decisions of the same govt have been regulated the heartbeat of the Kashmir struggle without which this so called struggle would have died out long ago.

Our only solace - atleast now Mr Geelani can also rightfully state - Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani!
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Related Post -

Geelani's shit and Hindu "hit"

There you go again, Mr.President!!

by Pooja Shali

Asif Ali Zardari seems to be creating one storm after another. As if his extremely vocal appreciation of Sarah Palin’s beauty was not enough, there appeared one more explosion from the late Benazir Bhutto’s husband. The recent one, however, is more dramatic and exclusive. In an interview to Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal, Zardari confessed to the active presence of militant Islamic groups in J&K (according to him within the Indian occupied border). He elaborated by referring to them as ‘terrorists’ and continued to say that they are not ‘freedom fighters’ as Musharraf must have liked.

As the broadcast and print media began to flash these exclusive words, our countrymen were stunned. Coming from a Pakistani President, predecessors of whom have supported the absurd so-called freedom struggle, this was an uncanny moment.

The defence minister of Pakistan (on Times Now) expressed shock at this statement, and tried to cover up the matter stating that the president was misconstrued. So was it really a preposterous blunder by Zardari? Or the leadership of Pakistan has decided to finally withdraw its support to the ongoing terrorism in Kashmir? Or was it just another well planned political move?

The author would like to believe that it’s all three of the above. Pakistan has thought and rethought its stand on Kashmir. The upheaval that their government has supported for decades in Kashmir, which ruined a million lives, has begun to haunt them now in the global arena. While its favourite neighbour is all set to sign a nuclear deal, Pakistan is busy trying to hide its inner turmoil that has also paralysed its borders. Constant references to terrorism in India supported by the ISI, became too much of a burden for its leadership. The inability to counter such claims has also unwrapped Pakistan’s insecure present and uncertain future. Perhaps, it was obvious that Zardari came out to be an authority against terrorism in the valley as opposed to supporting it. Whether or not he meant his words, is a different game altogether.

The Pakistani government weighed too much of its integrity on Kashmir, but failed miserably to convince the world that it was a fair deal. They seemed to have realised the rickety platform on which Pakistan currently stands. Expanding space for Kashmir will only push them into murky waters. For a while it shall be a wise standpoint for Pakistan to depart from their pretentious adoration of the valley and concentrate on its inner advancement.

PPP might try to clarify his stance by distinguishing terrorism and Kashmir Liberation Movement as two separate entities, but the debacle has been witnessed. The smouldering divide between Muslim separatists and Pakistani leadership is unbolted for the world to see.

Going by the current scenario in valley where ‘Yahan chalo’ and ‘Wahan chalo’ movements are in vogue, the isolation of separatists is visible. A Frankenstein they created against non-Muslims in Kashmir has today re-emerged to attack their own side, and certainly with a more monstrous outline.

As for Zardari, if he tries to clarify his words anymore, I too shall have a small advice for him- “Mr.President, the sooner you try and understand the ideology of Pakistani leadership the better it shall be for your throne”.

‘Azadi Bara-e-Islam’ (freedom through Islam)

These were the words of Syed Ali Shah Geelani....and the crowd shouted in unison....

"Pakistan se rishta kya, la illaha illalla", "Jeevay Jeevay Pakistan", "Yehan kya chalega: Nizaam-e-Mustafa" besides the familiar "Ham kya chahte: Azadi".

AND OUR FRIENDS IN THE MEDIA ESPECIALLY THE ENGLISH MEDIA CALL THIS A SECULAR MOVEMENT...IT IS TIME FOR THEM TO HIDE THEIR FACES...LEST THEY WANT TO SHAME THEMSELVES...

This is what he told a gathering of some 20000 people at Srinagar yesterday...

"We are demanding from Pakistan’s rulers, political leadership and Pakistan’s people that Pakistan had been created for the sake of Islam and it should be used only for Islam. Socialism, secularism and America’s world order cannot work there. Only Islam must work there,” he said. “Through the relationship of Islam, we are all Pakistanis and Pakistan is ours”. Then he shouted: “Hum Pakistani hain. Pakistan hamara hai (We are Pakistani and Pakistan is ours).”

Yet strangely the Indian Media wants us not to look at it through the prism of communal politics.A snake with open fangs and we are supposed to worship him.

The Kashmiri Muslims have always been the most communal ,fanatic and barbaric people to have existed on this earth.Yet in a strange way our media loves to call their fanaticism,the voice of the people.They destroy temples and the media looks the other way.Yasin Malik is a darling of the Indian Media although all of them know he has raped,killed and kidnapped.

Dont forget Bitta Karate was received to a hero's welcome by Kashmiri Muslims.Call them secular at your peril.Today it is us,tomorrow it will be you.It is time for the "secular" media to wake up befor their homes become targets of Islamic fanaticism because this is what the Koran says .

"Slay them wherever you find them. Drive them out of the places from which they drove you. Idolatry is worse than carnage. . . . [I]f they attack you put them to the sword. Thus shall the unbelievers be rewarded: but if they desist, God is forgiving and merciful. Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God's religion reigns supreme. But if they desist, fight none except the evil-doers"(2:190–93)."

The letter from Indian Mujahideen(the bombers of Jaipur,Ahmedabad and Banglore) to the press had this verse as a justification for doing what they were doing.