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BEWARE OF KHALISTAN PERIL TO PAKISTAN-1 by Commodore Tariq Majeed PN (Retd)

AL-ILMO QUWWATUN—KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Knowledge becomes Power only when Applied in Practice

Awareness Brief-AB-01-19, Friday, 19 April 2019, 13 Sha’ban 1440

BEWARE OF KHALISTAN PERIL TO PAKISTAN

Commodore Tariq Majeed PN (Retd)

No matter how much Pakistan civil and military leaders may please and pamper the Sikhs, when it comes to working for promotion of so-called Khalistan, the greater part of which is claimed to lie in Pakistan, no Sikh will hesitate to harm Pakistan’s vital national interests.

A Serious Danger being Ignored

          Some people, including those dealing with national security, may say Pakistan is already faced with an overabundance of perils and here is one more being added to them! It would not have been mentioned, had it not been so serious. Yes, it is a very serious and real threat. What makes it more dangerous is that the country’s political leaders, policymakers and intelligentsia seem to be oblivious to it, while the threat is expanding and fortifying itself in its various facets. It is being built up indirectly and stealthily and with utmost cunning and deception.

Khalistan Movement

          Extracts from Wikipedia on Khalistan mentioned below, is enough to reveal the crucial points.

         

          “The Khalistan movement is a Sikh separatist movement, which seeks to create a separate country called Khalistan (land of the pure) in the Punjab region of South Asia to serve as a homeland for Sikhs. The territorial definition of the proposed country Khalistan consists of both Punjab, India along with Punjab, Pakistan, and includes parts of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Rajasthan.

          “The Khalistan movement began as an expatriate venture. In 1971, the first explicit call for Khalistan was made in an advertisement published in the New York Times by an expat Jagjit Singh Chohan.  It sought to create an independent Sikh state in the Punjab region of South Asia… with the financial support of the overseas Sikh community. Territorialization of the Sikh community was formalized when Sikh political party Akali Dal in March 1946, passed a resolution proclaiming the natural association of Punjab and Sikh religious community.

“The movement began to militarize in the late 1970s and 1980s. In early 2018, some militant groups were arrested by police in [Indian] Punjab. Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh claimed the recent extremism is backed by Pakistan’s ISI and ‘Khalistani sympathisers’ in CanadaItaly, and the UK.”1

 

Khalistan Map

          At Khalistan Map website, several images are shown; some are with in-built features of vagueness and ambiguity, but all of these show much of Khalistan’s area as being located in Pakistan. Two of the maps show it quite clearly.2

          The Khalistan Map fully supports what is described at Paragraph one above about Pakistan’s territory claimed by the Sikhs with regard to the Khalistan Scheme.

Pakistan’s Policymakers—And the Khalistan Threat

            No intelligent Pakistani, and even any other person, on learning these basic details can miss the threat posed by the Sikhs to Pakistan. How is it that Pakistan’s Policymakers have remained unaware of the Khalistan threat? Perhaps they know about it; which raises several questions. Why have they not exposed it and alerted the public to beware of it? Why have they not analysed the Khalistan Scheme and taken suitable measures against the various actions by the local influential Sikhs and the Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee meant to bolster the Scheme?    

Indian Allegations against Pakistan  

A crucial question concerns India’s perpetual allegations that Pakistan is backing the Khalistan Movement to which Pakistan’s response has always been defensive, infirm and ineffective—rejecting India’s allegations, but not rejecting the Khalistan Movement.  As reported in Nation, 18 April 2018, “Pakistan on 17 April said it was not inciting the Sikh community to intensify the ‘Khalistan’ campaign. The foreign ministry categorically rejected Indian allegations…on the issue of ‘Khalistan.’”

            Another case was a gathering of Sikhs at London’s Trafalgar Square, on 12 August 2018, held to demand a referendum in 2020 for Khalistan.3 Indian authorities instantly levelled usual allegations against  Pakistan. Akali  Dal leader,  Rajya   Sabha   MP  Naresh Gujral termed the    ‘Referendum      2020’ campaign an attempt by  Pakistan’s   ISI   to    “foment trouble in  Punjab. It is financed by ISI.”4  

Pakistan failed to respond to these allegations. Not responding or indecisively responding to such allegations leaves the field open for the Indian propaganda to influence the public mind. The result is that perception has been created in Pakistani people, including the intelligentsia and government officials, that ‘India opposes Khalistan because its establishment means India’s disintegration’! It is a false perception created by planned propaganda targeting the people of Pakistan. The tragic irony, or the ironic tragedy, is that it is not India but Pakistan to which Khalistan poses a serious danger as the scheme moves ahead.  

A Harmful Statement

Foreign Office’s ignorance of the Sikhs’ Khalistan scheme resulted in a grossly improper statement that goes in favour of Khalistan, while it demeans Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial sanctity. The statement, reproduced below, was in the news story Pakistan, India agree to build Kartarpur corridor,” published in The Nation, 23 November 2018:

“On Indian media reporting that Pakistan Evacuee Trust had mounted banners at the Gurdwara supporting the Sikh Khalistan Movement, the FO spokesman said the  government had nothing to do with them as the area of worship was the domain of Sikh devotees.”   

       The statement made        The statement made by Foreign Office  Spokesperson  Dr Mohammed Faisal, who  Mohammed Faisal, who was also the Director-General for South  Asia, was inappropriate.    ‘Domain’     means  ‘Realm’, ‘Dominion’, ‘Territory’.  Even if one did  not know

             Khalistan Flag                                                

     the Khalistan Threat to Pakistan, it was   wrong to say that the Kartarpur gurdwara’s

     “area of worship was the domain  of  Sikh  devotees”.   It is Pakistan’s  domain—                           

     Pakistan’s territory. Sikhs must be told not to fly Khalistan flag at any gurdwara here

     and not to consider any space in Pakistan as their ‘domain’.

Why the Sikhs Covet Pakistan Territory

It is Pakistan wherein the larger part of so-called Khalistan’s territorial claim lies. It is in Pakistan where lie the Sikhs’ main religious places, including Guru Nanak’s birthplace, at Dera Nanak and place of death, at Kartarpur. And it is in Pakistan’s territory where much of the area of the Sikh State of the 19th century was located. Its memory is kept alive through the Sikh media and their education system which emphasises teaching Sikhs the history of the Sikh empire, and it acts as a powerful incentive for them in pursuit of Khalistan.    

Khalistan—No Threat to India

India knows Khalistan poses no threat to it. In the Indian Union the provinces, known as states, are nearly autonomous in political status. Indian Punjab with an overwhelming majority of Sikhs is almost wholly a Sikh state. The Indian government may revert to it Haryana and Chandigarh which were separated from Indian Punjab in November1966.5 And it may let the expanded state be called Khalistan. This would be a clever political move. India would lose nothing, while it would meet a major demand of the pro-Khalistan Sikhs. The Sikhs’ focus then would be entirely on Pakistan’s side of Khalistan.

India knows Indian Punjab will never leave the Indian Union, where Sikhs are just 1.7 per cent of India’s population but occupy over 12 per cent of the jobs in the country and 20% of Indian Military consists of Sikhs.6 With Pakistan as the target of Khalistan Scheme, Indian secret agency RAW is fully implicated in supporting it.

NGOs and Sikh Organizations Backing Khalistan

There are NGOs, working openly or covertly, supporting all kinds of matters concerning Sikhs and providing them resources and guidance. All have their websites, such as, www.newsnow.co.uk/Sikhism: the one-stop shop for Sikhism news; Sikh Sangat Pakistan (SSP), SikhiWiki—free Sikh encyclopedia; www.sikhnet.com/daily-news; www.sikhs.org/summary. Most of these are focused on Pakistan, colouring their stories to favour the Sikhs directly or indirectly, for example, the website www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Khalistan has a long-winded, fabricated story alleging Sikhs are persecuted in Pakistan. On the Sikh population in  Pakistan, some NGOs give a highly inflated figure of 50,000; others say it is 20,000, whereas according to Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), “there were [just] 6,146 Sikhs registered in Pakistan in 2012.”7

Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee

 Then, there is (PSGPC) Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, which in the garb of religion functions as the political leadership, guiding Pakistani Sikhs and setting policies for them on all matters. This is done without publicity and without any visible connection of PSGPC with its moves in favour of Sikhs individually or the Sikh community as a whole. The PSGPC was established in 1998 by the Pakistan government.8  

It was entrusted with the maintenance of Sikh religious institutions, places of worship (gurdwaras) and the well-being of the Pakistani Sikh community.”9 It is nominally under control of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB). It was a smart move by the Sikh community leaders. The 10-member, all-Sikh Committee exercises control over its assigned functions and all the affairs of the Sikhs in Pakistan, while the ETPB bears the expenses and meets all the demands of the Committee.  

 

 

Role of RAW and the Super NGO in Khalistan Scheme

It is no exaggeration to say that the Khalistan Scheme is in the hands of RAW. And why should it not be so, when weakening and destabilising Pakistan’s overall security, integrity and strength is RAW’s main aim and the Khalistan Scheme fits in with the strategies that RAW is employing to achieve its aim! Sikhs are a very important part of the bands of RAW’s agents working against Pakistan. Enmity to Muslims is in their psyche, with its origin mainly in their history. Even little instigation can bring it out. All the events and propaganda concerning Khalistan, including anti-India protest rallies, are directly or indirectly controlled by RAW, while it was being handled by India’s Intelligence Bureau before RAW was formed in September 1968.

But, the way the life of the Sikh community in Pakistan was controlled and guided along a planned path indicated the involvement of a super NGO. This super NGO was highly resourceful and maintained a deceptive front. It created for itself contacts and influence in the media and civil, political and military circles, which had no idea of its real work. It has close secret links with RAW and selected Sikh leaders in India and Pakistan and some western countries. In Pakistan, its planned tasks were: to quash the literature about the massacres of Muslims by Sikhs at Partition in 1947, giving the Sikhs a new image, making them join the mainstream of life, arranging coverage in media and enabling them to build contacts and strive for empowerment.

Super NGO’s ‘Achievements’

            The Super NGO’s success is remarkable, as even a few examples below show.

  • The literature describing the organized preplanned atrocities by the Sikhs against Muslims in 1947 just disappeared decades ago, consequently, Pakistanis have been rendered totally ignorant of this appalling aspect of the Sikh character.
  • The Sikhs also disappeared from the public view for about five decades. Then, according to plan, they began to appear in public. A retired naval officer, who was visiting Masjid Wazir Khan inside Delhi Gate, Lahore, in August 1991, was surprised to see a Sikh emerging from a street in the Bazaar, which meant he lived in the area! About the same time people who regularly visited Allama Iqbal’s mausoleum and passed by Ranjit Singh’s Samadhi (mausoleum), located nearby, were amazed to find Sikhs moving in and out of the Samadhi, whereas earlier none was seen there.
  • Then, a series of planned steps were taken to give the Sikhs visibility and influence.

― In 2005, Harcharan Singh, from Nankana Sahib, was inducted as the first Sikh officer in Pakistan Army.10 Sikhs do not fit in with Pak Army’s ideology and culture, and he remains the lone Sikh in the Army, but it serves super NGO’s agenda.

― In May 2007, a 25-year old Sikh, Gulab Singh, from Nankana Sahib was inducted into Punjab Police as a traffic warden.11  He resigned after a few years, finding the job and the discipline too tough for him; yet he blamed the police institution.

                                                                                ―  In 2009,  25-year old Amarjeet  Singh, from   Nankana

Sahib was inducted in   Pakistan   Rangers.12     It  was

                                                                                obvious the strict conditions for  selection in  the Rangers,

                                                            especially the requirement of height and big stature were

                                                            waived off to enrol this Sikh in the Punjab Rangers. It also

                                                            showed the super NGO’s  ability to wield  influence for the   

                                                            aims of its agenda.

 

 

 

― In 2013 General  Elections, Ramesh Singh Arora, a Sikh from Nankana Sahib, was elected minority member of the Punjab Assembly. He was the first Sikh to be elected for provincial legislative assembly.13

― In Jan 2019, Pawan Singh Arora, working merely as a district information officer Nankana Sahib, was appointed to the sensitive post of PRO to Governor Punjab.14

―  On 29 Jan 2019, a Sikh MPA, Mahinder Pal Singh, was given the privileged appointment of a parliamentary secretary, the first for a Sikh in Punjab, while not a single woman lawmaker was on the list.15

 

Shoe-Cleaning Service for Sikhs by a Pakistani Law Official

In a strange, in fact, the weird case, a Pakistani Deputy Attorney General, Khurshid

Khan cleaned  shoes  of  Sikhs  at  several   

gurdwaras in India. After cleaning  shoes at

Gurdwara Rakabganj and Gurdwara  Sis-

ganj in New Delhi on  April 16, 2012,  he left

for Amritsar to clean  thousands more at the

Golden Temple. He had gone to India as part  of  a   Pakistan   Supreme   Court   Bar

 

        Association delegation. The story says the DAG began his shoe-cleaning service after Jaspal Singh, one of three Sikhs kidnapped by Taliban in Peshawar in 2010, was murdered. He said he was so upset by the Sikh’s murder that he went to sit on the steps of Peshawar’s Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh. ‘There he felt a sense of peace, he told The Times of India.’16 It is a bogus story. What was the DAG’s connection with the murdered Sikh, that he thought of shoe-cleaning service for the Sikh community as atonement for this murder by Taliban, who had murdered hundreds of innocent persons? And why it was after a lapse of two years, in 2012, that the DAG turned to atonement for the Sikh’s murder that had taken place in 2010? What was the big incentive given to the DAG that he cared not that by his disgraceful act he was humiliating Pakistanis! Who organized this ugly drama; who else but the super-NGO! It is for the intelligence agencies to investigate.

         

          “The First Lady of Indian Punjab”

                      Another repulsive issue, that is highly embarrassing to Pakistanis, is that of a Muslim Pakistani woman who is living in sin with Indian Punjab’s chief minister, Captain Amarinder Singh and is openly acting as “The First Lady of Indian Punjab”. The woman, Aroosa Alam, is the daughter of a notorious female, Aqleem Akhtar, who became a close companion of General Yahya Khan in 1969 and was dubbed ‘general Rani’ due to her influence on Yahya Khan.             

“Singh and Alam have over the past ten years become a

fixture in Chandigarh. Their relationship has not just lasted

over a decade but is now at the point where Aroosa Alam is playing the first lady of Indian Punjab. Her family is a regular visitor to Indian Punjab. She visits Pakistan regularly. While Amarinder Singh  still prefers not to talk about his muse, she has no such compunctions and is open about her relationship with Singh.”17

Amarinder Singh is intensely hostile to Pakistan and is quick to blame Pakistan for India’s internal troubles.  An example in this regard is quoted above at page 1. Congress loyalist Amarinder Singh and his paramour are very useful assets of RAW and, no doubt, RAW is using them in its schemes to harm Pakistan.

“Indian Kabaddi Team visits Bhagat Singh’s Residence”

             An Indian Kabbadi team that had arrived in Lahore in early January 2019 for matches with a Punjab team was taken to a village in Jaranwala area, on 6 January, to a house said to have belonged to Baghat Singh,18 who was hanged for killing a British police officer in October 1928. Why was the Kabbadi team taken there? For no reason, except to create an occasion to craft publicity for the self-declared atheist Baghat,19 for whom a campaign had been launched to name the Shadman Chowk in Lahore after him and to build his statue there. An NGO, ‘Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation’, was promoting the case20, but it was being backed by the Super NGO.      

The Hand of RAW—quite Visible

            Master planning for the clandestine, deceptive moves for using the Sikhs against Pakistan is in the hands of RAW. Just a few examples are noted below.

Sikh Protesters Storm Parliament.

Around a dozen  heavily  built and  aggressive  

Sikhs  broke the gate of  Parliament Building and interrupted

the House business on Friday morning, the Nation, Saturday,

24 May 2014 reported. They were  protesting the desecration of

their holy book.”

They also roughed up some policemen on duty. It was a shocking action by the local Sikhs who usually appeared to be docile. It was a scheme of RAW, executed by the Super NGO. Apart from its other effects, the aggressive, unruly conduct of the local Sikhs showed they could take the law in their hands and get away with it because if they were prosecuted, the ‘squads of human-rightists’ would scream that Pakistan authorities were being cruel to a minority community.

 

RAW-Crafted Statement by Granthi of Gurdwara Kartarpur

The headline in the Nation, Dec 13, 2018, stated, Refusal to build Kartarpura Corridor to invite Indian disintegration.”  

This statement made by the Granthi of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur, is downright silly. Moreover, he should know that the proposal to build the Corridor had originally come from India many years ago. The Granthi, Sardar Gobind Singh, goes on to say, “Khalistan may prove India’s nemesis. God willing, the dream of Khalistan will come true… The Sikh community of India has been facing the worst kind of discrimination and intimidation at the hands of India’s Hindu extremists”. The source of these words is RAW, and this crafty propaganda targets Pakistan. This important Sikh religious figure needs to be investigated. He should be confronted with the absurdity of his comment about “Indian disintegration”, and should be asked what his idea of Khalistan is.

Kartarpur Corridor—Win-Win Situation for India and the Sikhs

            Policymakers and political commentators in Pakistan should face the facts; they will see that the Kartarpur Corridor scheme entirely and exclusively favours India and Indian Sikhs. India was the original initiator of this scheme. The Kartarpur Sahib corridor was proposed by the then prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in February 1999 when he took a bus ride to Lahore during a peace initiative with Pakistan.” 21 Pakistan reportedly agreed to the proposal. However, the matter was left at that and remained closed for 18 years.

            Then, suddenly, it resurfaced as Imran Khan became Pakistan’s prime minister.   Chronology of events stated by Press Trust of India, New Delhi, November 28, 2018, shows the following information.

 

August 2018: [Indian] Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu attended Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s swearing-in ceremony. Upon his return, Sidhu said that Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa informed him that Pakistan government would open the Dera Baba Nanak (Kartarpur) corridor on Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary.

November 22: Indian Cabinet approved Kartarpur corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to Pakistan border.

November 26: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone of Dera Baba Nanak – Kartarpur Corridor (up to International Border) at Mann village of Gurdaspur district.

November 28: Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the 4-km corridor which is expected to be completed by next year [2019].”

Imran Khan made the Kartarpur Corridor issue as his own. His regime and the publicity apparatus took it up with extraordinary zeal.  The regime’s justification for its zealous pursuit of the Corridor issue consisted of two points: that “it was a longstanding desire of the Sikh people to facilitate them in visiting their sacred places” and that “it was an effort to normalise ties with India.”22   

 Both were without substance and logic, yet the political authorities and the media organs went on repeating them. There was no evidence—no statement, no news item—in the past that the Sikhs had demanded this corridor. In fact, they had no right to make such a demand, which has strategic implications in a most sensitive area at Pakistan’s border with India and which, if implemented, facilitates India’s aggressive military schemes against Pakistan. Besides, the corridor was not needed, as provisions exist for Indian or overseas Sikh pilgrims visiting Gurdwara Nankana Sahib to visit some other holy places, including Gurdwara Panja Sahib, Hasan Abdal and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur.

Actually, it was a longstanding desire of India, aired in February 1999, by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as stated above. India’s Ministry of External Affairs mentioned this point again recently: “The government of India remains committed to realising the long-pending demand of Indian pilgrims to visit the holy Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor.” 23 This scheme, like other moves about Khalistan, is in the hands of RAW which is proceeding with planned steps.

As for the explanation that “it was an effort to normalise ties with India,” this unrealistic policy-line was a case of not only wishful thinking but also self-deception. Indian authorities spurned it by their actions and statements; yet Pak authorities kept repeating it, which showed that they remained deluded about the reality of the corridor issue and India’s underhand tactics. In this regard, a statement in the Nation, 26 November 2018, refers: “Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the opening of Kartarpura corridor was a longstanding desire of the Sikh community living in India. He termed endorsement of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet on the Kartarpura corridor a ‘great diplomatic triumph’ for Pakistan.”  

This statement overlooks the reality that India was the initiator of the corridor scheme and desired its early implementation, and it did not need any démarche or prodding by the Foreign Office in Islamabad, in this respect.  So, Pakistan claiming ‘great diplomatic triumph’ did not make sense.  In fact, India was prodding Pakistan to speed up the corridor’s construction. In the same newspaper, quoted above, was this statement: “Indian external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, also hoped that the Government of Pakistan will expedite the construction of the corridor in order to ensure that ‘our citizens can pay their respects at the Gurudwara Kartarpura Sahib using the corridor as soon as possible.’”

It was ironical, and quite disturbing, that Pakistan government was insistently pursuing its mistaken policy of “normalising ties with India” by fulfilling the corridor scheme, while India was continuing its brutal war in Kashmir, killing of innocent Pakistanis at the LoC and terror operations through its network in Pakistan. In fact, the Modi regime in India had assumed a war-like posture toward Pakistan, even as the corridor’s foundation stone laying was just a few days away! The situation was so serious as according to Nation, 23 Nov 2018, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa warned India over its continuous ceasefire violations and war rhetoric.”

Numerous instances could be quoted to show India’s strategy of desiring expeditious completion of Kartarpur corridor while altogether rejecting Pakistan’s viewpoint that the corridor project would lead to “normalising ties with India.” However, just one statement published in Dawn, November 29, 2018, should suffice:

“India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj poured cold water on hopes of progress in Pak-India ties after positive developments on the Kartarpur corridor issue, saying it was not about the resumption of bilateral dialogue. ‘Bilateral dialogue and Kartarpur corridor are two different things. I am very happy that for the last 20 years,     rather for many years, the government of India has been asking for this Kartarpur corridor and for the first time Pakistan responded positively to it. That does not mean that bilateral dialogue would start on this,’ Ms Swaraj said while speaking to journalists in Hyderabad, India, on Nov 28, 2019.’”

British General’s Warning—to Muslims

Lt-General Reginald Savory, who had served at various posts in India, wrote a paper to look into the massacres and cruelties committed by the Sikhs at Partition of India in August 1947. This paper formed the basis of a talk on the Sikh problem which Savory was asked to give to the Chiefs of Staff in London, on 8 October 1947.” 24 Brief extracts from the paper are given below:

          “In the first place, the Muslim is the traditional enemy of the Sikh. Today the Muslim is the ‘actual’ enemy. Secondly, the Sikh State of 18th and 19th centuries extended across Punjab to the mountains of the North-West Frontier. The Sikhs remember this. Thirdly, the Sikh colonies around Montgomery [renamed Sahiwal], the Sikh shrine at Nankana Sahib, the old Sikh capital at Lahore, are all not only very tempting baits but are within comparatively easy reach. The hatred of the Muslim, the memories of the old Sikh Raj (onl British General’s Warning—to Muslims

Lt-General Reginald Savory, who had served at various posts in India, wrote a paper to look into the massacres and cruelties committed by the Sikhs at Partition of India in August 1947. This paper formed the basis of a talk on the Sikh problem which Savory was asked to give to the Chiefs of Staff in London, on 8 October 1947.” 24 Brief extracts from the paper are given below:

          “In the first place, the Muslim is the traditional enemy of the Sikh. Today the Muslim is the ‘actual’ enemy. Secondly, the Sikh State of 18th and 19th centuries extended across Punjab to the mountains of the North-West Frontier. The Sikhs remember this. Thirdly, the Sikh colonies around Montgomery [renamed Sahiwal], the Sikh shrine at Nankana Sahib, the old Sikh capital at Lahore, are all not only very tempting baits but are within comparatively easy reach. The hatred of the Muslim, the memories of the old Sikh Raj (only three generations ago) and the desire to regain the fertile areas so recently evacuated are all strong incentives.”

Field-Marshal Claude Auchinleck, the last C-in-C of British forces in India read the paper and said ‘I agree with all you say in this first-class paper, which puts the whole situation most clearly and concisely.’   

The relevant authorities should study this warning with the utmost attention. y three generations ago) and the desire to regain the fertile areas so recently evacuated are all strong incentives.”

Field-Marshal Claude Auchinleck, the last C-in-C of British forces in India read the paper and said ‘I agree with all you say in this first-class paper, which puts the whole situation most clearly and concisely.’   

The relevant authorities should study this warning with the utmost attention.

 

Recommendations

It is submitted that in light of the facts presented in this ‘awareness brief,’ the danger posed to Pakistan by the Khalistan scheme should be recognized and studied in depth, along with RAW’s control over it, and the people should be made aware of it.

It should be analysed how the small local Sikh community is gathering power and influence.

The publicity being given to Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary is not understandable. It has no significance; his birth anniversary comes and goes for Sikhs every year.  

With India on the warpath and strong possibility of India initiating armed clashes with Pakistan, it is advisable to suspend the Kartarpur corridor project till the situation improves.

The authorities concerned must study the history of the Sikhs to gain an insight into why enmity to Muslims is inherent to Sikhs, (as General Savory also observes) as such they can never be sincere to Muslims.   

 

The writer is dedicated to exposing the issues harmful to Pakistan’s ideology, sovereignty and security.

His Résumé is attached to this paper.

 

 

Notes:

  1. 1. //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalistan_movement.   
  2. www.google.com/search+Map&oq
  3. Nation, August 13, 2018.
  4. www.newsnation.in/india-news/referendum-2020
  5. wikipedia.org/wiki/Haryana…          
  6. wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhism in India.
  7. wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhism in Pakistan.  
  8. thehindu.com/Pakistan-Sikh-body-elects…
  9. 9. wiki/Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara..Committee.
  10. //newsworldindia.in/world/meet
  11. //pakistaniat.com/..sikh-khalsa…
  12. pakpassion.net/-Sikh-Pakistan-Rangers.
  13. www.pakpedia.pk/ramesh-singh-arora.
  14. The Nation, 11 January 2019.
  15. //nation.com.pk/30-Jan-2019/punjab-gets-first-sikh-parliamentary-secretary.
  16. www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/pak-deputy-attorney-general-polishes-shoes
  17. www.thecitizen.in/The-First-Lady-of-Punjab; The Citizen, New Delhi, 3 May 2017.
  18. pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/01/06/indian-kabaddi-team-visits-bhagat-residence.
  19. wikipedia.org/wiki/ Why_I_Am_an_Atheist.
  20. Pakistan Today, 22 February 2018.
  21. IndiaToday, Press Trust of India, 28 Nov 2018.
  22. The Nation, 24 November 2018.
  23. Dawn, 30 March 2019.
  24. Disastrous Twilight – A personal Record of the Partition of India, Major-General Shahid

      Hamid, Private Secretary to Field-Marshal Claude Auchinleck, 1946-47, Leo Cooper,  

      London, 1986; page 264.

Commodore Tariq Majeed PN (Retd)

 

Tariq Majeed

Email: dilbedar@yahoo.com

 

Résumé—Commodore Tariq Majeed PN (Retd)

 

    A keen observer and analyst of political and strategic affairs, Tariq Majeed gives a lot of credit for his outstanding skill in this field to his service in the Pakistan Navy. The sea environment stimulates one’s mind to reflect upon things analytically and objectively, he says. The Navy provided him precious opportunities for visiting many countries and for acquiring advanced education in a variety of subjects, besides maritime and military studies. He had a fine career in the Operations Branch in the Navy, which he joined in April 1955 and left in July 1987 as a Commodore. His appointments in command, staff and instructional jobs included command of a destroyer, assistant chief naval staff (administration) in NHQ, directing staff in NDC and commandant of PN Staff College.

            Born in Lahore on 22 August 1937, Tariq Majeed studied in Central Model School and Government College Lahore, from where he did his FSc (non-medical) in 1955. He is a graduate of the US Naval Command College and also holds M.Sc. (War Studies) degree from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

            During his career, he experienced many extraordinary events, besides the India-Pakistan Wars of 1965 and 1971. In 1962 as a young lieutenant he commanded a landing craft (tanks) and operated in the South Pacific as part of the Pakistan military contingent deployed on UN peacekeeping duties in West Irian, Indonesia. In the mid-1980s, he served in Saudi Arabia on deputation and studied, from close quarters, the Arab character and the subversive and dangerous Israeli-American schemes against the Gulf States, including Saudi Arabia and Iran.

            While in the Navy, he wrote articles under pen-names in newspapers and domestic and foreign journals. His main interest in writing was strategic and maritime matters until he discovered the anti-God, anti-Islam Zionist Clique manipulating international affairs and creating crises and turmoil with the aim of capturing global control. Then, his focus and writing effort shifted to exposing this Clique and its grave threats to the Muslim World, especially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. This mission was the main reason that impelled him to seek retirement from the Navy.

            Besides a number of research papers and monographs, he has authored four books: The Global Game for a New World Order, Alami Taghuti Khel Mein Makr-o-Fareyb Ka Raj (Deceit and Deception in the Evil Global Game), The Divine Imprint on the Birth of Pakistan and Masterminds of Air Massacres—of August 17 in Pakistan September 11 in America. His profoundly researched books provide the most valuable material for grasping the dangerous developments and the confounding turmoil taking place in the International sphere as well as within the countries around the world, and more so in Pakistan.

            On retiring from the Navy, the Commodore had decided to remain absolutely independent in pursuit of his mission, and not to accept any job with any governmental or non-governmental body nor to join any political, non-political, religious or social group. By the grace of God, he keeps that status. 

 

 Additional Reading

Expulsion of the Sikhs in Lahore During the 1947 India—Pakistan Partition

Introduction:— In May 1947, the Sikhs were increasingly arming themselves for an anti-Muslim militancy movement in order to stop the partition from happening, giving out 125 kirpans regularly per week in Gurdwaras, and mass converting over to the radical Nihang sect (Sikh militant[n. 1]).[1] Khushwant Singh, an agnostic writer—known as a challenger of hypocrisy and a critic of the Indian establishment—was from a Sikh family himself, and was greatly influenced by the events of the partition.[2] Of the Lahore riots in 1947, Singh pointed out that it was the Sikh leader, Master Tara Singh[n. 2] who “unsheathed his kirpan” and bellowed “death to Pakistan!”,[3] a proclamation that was declared outside the Punjab Legislative Assembly, a Muslim county—which both frightened and angered the Muslims of Lahore.[4] Singh wrote that it was like the “hurling” of “a lighted matchstick in a room full of inflammable gas”, which ignited much of the violence across the city.[4]By June 1947, “the Muslim goondas collapsed one hot afternoon”, proceeded with “no sounds of gunfire or the yelling of slogans” with “only the black clouds of smoke billowing from the city”; the Sikhs and Hindus had effectively been driven out, having been “sparked” by Tara Singh’s actions.[4] Even before these events, however, the Sikh leadership had been attacking trains going from Lahore to Rawalpindi. In one case two White English girls from the British army were attacked by 3 Sikhs, one died from stab wounds, and the other was rescued by Muslims.[5]

Khushwant Singh noted the Sikh chanting of “death to Pakistan” triggered the May-June 1947 riots.[n. 3]

Tara Singh made plans to instigate genocide on Punjabi Muslims in 1940.

The Sikh leadership had even plotted to overtake Punjab and enforce their religion on the Muslim majority or else kill and expel them in a pre-planned genocide year prior to this incident. According to the “Sikh-Muslim Tarikh” (1958) by Abul Aman Amritsari (issued by the “Idarah Saqafat-i Islamiyyah”; or the “Institute of Islamic Culture”, a publishing house based in Lahore), the Sikhs had been planning it at least since 1940; 7 years before the partitioning of India.[3] Even in late 1945 Master Tara Singh gave an interview to the Punjabi journal, the “Panj Dariya”; further declaring his anti-Muslim animus and giving support to the British invaders;[n. 4]“[w]hen in 1940, France was defeated by Germany, there was nervousness here; people thought that the British would be defeated. I also had this possibility before me…With this idea, we used to discuss things amongst us. We organised the Jathas and made arrangements by which Sikhs could gather quickly at some places. In our plans, Lahore occupied a special place. We felt that there would not be much difficulty in taking possession of the city of Amritsar, and made arrangements so that Jathas of Sikhs could simultaneously attack Lahore from all four directions”.[3] He even gathered both absconding murderers and rapists, sheltering them in Gurdwaras as “in case there was disorder in the country, these desperadoes may prove useful”.[3] Ironically, Tara Singhs overtaking of Punjab ended up in total failure; the Sikhs had been expelled through his own violent actions.[n. 5]

 

 

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India’s Unrealistic Counterinsurgency Strategy By Sajjad Shaukat

 

 

 
Image result for india secessionist movements Flags
Image result for india secessionist movements Flags
 
 
 
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India’s Unrealistic Counterinsurgency Strategy

 

By Sajjad Shaukat

 

 

Learning no lesson from the past, and depending upon state terrorism, Indian Central Government has finalized the raising of Indian Reserve Police Battalions (IRBPs) in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and Naxal/Maoist hit states or Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Out of the total 25 IRBPs proposed, five will be for IOK and 12 for LWE affected states whereas rest of 8, IRBPs for other states.

 

These battalions will be raised by recruiting local youths. In case of Naxal hit states, 75 per cent vacancies will be filled up by youths from the 27 worst-affected districts. In IOK, the recruitment process will concentrate on insurgency prone areas.

 

At present, there are 144 IRPBs in various states. In addition, Central Government has recently approved raising of eight additional IRBPs, four each of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

 

The cost of raising each of the battalion will be around Indian Rupee, 61 crore and 75 per cent of it will be provided by the Central Government. This cost is much lower than raising of a paramilitary battalion which costs around Rs. 160 crore.

 

Personnel of IRBPs are normally deployed in their respective states, but they can be deployed in other states too, if there is a requirement. The current raising is outcome of demand by respective states government in wake of the ever growing/persistence insurgency and freedom struggle.

 

Within a span of approximately six months, Central Government of India has approved the demand which reflects the surge of militants/insurgent activities in the LWE hit states/ IOK. It also highlights the manifestation of focus to curb militancy and raise the force level to meet the challenges, which have been repeatedly expressed by Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

 

Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh has also repeatedly highlighted his focus to build the capacity of security forces engaged in fighting insurgency. The mentioned increase is a part of overall drive against Naxal/Maoist hit states and IOK.

 

Off late the insurgent/militant activities in LWE and IOK regions have seen a significant surge whereby Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have suffered causalities. Therefore, immediate attention has been paid towards the new strategy.

 

While, despite concerted efforts—capacity, capability, weapons, equipments and training, the Indian security forces could not effectively counter/reduce the insurgent activities in these states.

The recent surge of insurgents/militant activities in the Nexal affected states of India has compelled the Central Government to enhance counter insurgency efforts in other parts as well. Therefore, the Home Ministry has given a go ahead for not only raising the additional battalions, but also pursuing the support of helicopters/UAVs to cover/ assist the security forces engaged in anti-Naxal/Maoist activities in the affected states.

It is mentionable that under the mask of democracy and secularism, Indian subsequent regimes dominated by politicians from the Hindi heartland—Hindutva (Hindu nationalism), used brutal force ruthlessly against any move to free Assam, Kashmir, Khalistan, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Tripura where wars of liberation continue in one or the other form. In the recent years, Maoist intensified their struggle, attacking official installments. In this context, Indian media admitted that Maoists have entered the cities, expanding their activities against the Indian union. While, even under the rule of Congress which claims to be secular party, Indian extremist parties like BJP, RSS, VHP, Shev Sina and Bajrang Dal have missed no opportunity to communalize national politics of India. They also intensified anti-Christian and anti-Muslim bloodshed.

 

After serving the BJP for 30 years, Jaswant Singh was expelled from the party for praising Mohammad Ali Jinnah and echoing the pain of the Indian Muslims in his book, “Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence.” While pointing out the BJP’s attitude towards the minorities, Singh wrote: “Every Muslim that lives in India is a loyal Indian…look into the eyes of Indian Muslims and see the pain.” He warned in his book, if such a policy continued, “India could have third partition.”

 

Past and present history of Balkan gives ample evidence that insurgency and movement of separatism in one country have drastic impact on other neighbouring states. Similarly, civil war and unrest either in Somalia or Sudan have affected all the states of Darfur region, while violent uprising in Egypt, Syria etc. has radicalized a number of the Middle East countries. Indian state terrorism in the Indian-held Kashmir will further radicalize India, giving a impetus to separatist movements in other regions of India.

 

It is noteworthy that currently, more than half of India’s budget is allocated for armed forces, and defence purchases, leaving even less to lift millions of its citizens from abject poverty. Hence, various injustices have further accelerated regional and ethnic disparities in India, particularly, under the Modi government.

 

It is worth-mentioning that the one of the important causes of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union was that its greater defence expenditure exceeded to the maximum, resulting into economic crises inside the country. In this regard, about a prolonged war in Afghanistan, the former President Gorbachev had declared it as the “bleeding wound.” However, militarization of the Soviet Union failed in controlling the movements of liberation, launched by various ethnic nationalities. On the other hand, while learning no lesson from India’s previous close friend, Indian fundamentalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the BJP extremist party is acting upon the similar policies.

 

At present, undoubtedly, India is witnessing increased incidents of violence and killings related to communal violence and insurgencies. Nevertheless, such incidents project security weaknesses and failures of the Indian government in curbing insurgent tendencies and problems of the public.

 

While, Indian government is raising Reserve Police Battalions to continue state terrorism, and on the parallel axes, announcement of rehabilitation schemes, development projects and incentives for surrender have been implemented to cope with the insurgency and uprising. It shows contradictory policy of New Delhi.

 

Instead of redressing the grievances of the Maoists by eliminating injustices against them and the Kashmiris by granting them their legitimate right of liberation, Indian government is again acting upon brutal force to suppress these movements through force. Therefore, India’s unrealistic counterinsurgency Strategy will badly fail, culminating into political suicide of the India union.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

 

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

 

 

 

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Five Reasons Why India Can’t ‘Do A Gaza’ On Pakistan

Five Reasons Why India Can’t ‘Do A Gaza’ On Pakistan

 

 

Over the last week, many Americans (and not a few Indians) have asked me why India does not “do a Gaza” on Pakistan, referring, of course, to an emulation of Israel’s punitive use of force against Hamas-run Palestine, a territory from which rockets rain down on Israeli soil with reliable frequency (if not reliable destructiveness … but that is not for want of Hamas intent).

My answer, given with the heavy heart that comes always with a painful grip on reality, is simple: India does not because it cannot.

Here are five reasons why:

1. India is not a military goliath in relation to Pakistan in the way Israel is to the Palestinian territories. India does not have the immunity, the confidence and the military free hand that result from an overwhelming military superiority over an opponent. Israel’s foe is a non-sovereign entity that enjoys the most precarious form of self-governance. Pakistan, for all its dysfunction, is a proper country with a proper army, superior by far to the tin-pot Arab forces that Israel has had to combat over time. Pakistan has nukes, to boot. Any assault on Pakistani territory carries with it an apocalyptic risk for India. This is, in fact, Pakistan’s trump card. (This explains, also, why Israel is determined to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran.)

2. Even if India could attack Pakistan without fear of nuclear retaliation, the rationale for “doing a Gaza” is, arguably, not fully present: Israel had been attacked consistently by the very force–Hamas–that was in political control of the territory from which the attacks occurred. By contrast, terrorist attacks on India, while originating in Pakistan, are not authored by the Pakistani government. India can– and does–contend that Pakistan’s government should shut down the terrorist training camps on Pakistani soil. (In this insistence, India has unequivocal support from Washington.) Yet only a consistent and demonstrable pattern of dereliction by Pakistani authorities– which would need to be dereliction verging on complicity with the terrorists–would furnish India with sufficient grounds to hold the Pakistani state culpable.

3. As our columnist, Karlyn Bowman, writes, Israel enjoys impressive support from the American people, in contrast to the Palestinians. No other state–apart, perhaps, from Britain–evokes as much favor in American public opinion as does Israel. This is not merely the result of the much-vaunted “Israel lobby” (to use a label deployed by its detractors), but also because of the very real depth of cultural interpenetration between American and Israeli society. This fraternal feeling buys Israel an enviable immunity in the conduct of its strategic defense. India, by contrast–while considerably more admired and favored in American public opinion than Pakistan–enjoys scarcely a fraction of Israel’s “pull” in Washington when it comes to questions of the use of force beyond its borders.

4. Pakistan is strategically significant to the United States; the Palestinians are not. This gives Washington scant incentive to rein in the Israelis, but a major incentive to rein in any Indian impulse to strike at Pakistan. However justified the Indian anger against Pakistan over the recent invasion of Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists, the last thing that the U.S. wants right now is an attack–no matter how surgical–by India against Pakistan-based terror camps. This would almost certainly result in a wholesale shift of Pakistani troops away from their western, Afghan front toward the eastern boundary with India–and would leave the American Afghan campaign in some considerable disarray, at least in the short term. So Washington has asked for, and received, the gift of Indian patience. And although India recognizes that it is not wholly without options to mobilize quickly for punitive, surgical strikes in a “strategic space,” it would–right now–settle for a trial of the accused terrorist leaders in U.S. courts.

5. My last, and meta-, point: Israel has the privilege of an international pariah to ignore international public opinion in its use of force against the Palestinians. A state with which few others have diplomatic relations can turn the tables on those that would anathematize it by saying, Hang diplomacy. India, by contrast, has no such luxury. It is a prisoner of its own global aspirations–and pretensions.

Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at the Stern Business School at NYU and research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, is opinions editor at Forbes.com, where he writes a weekly column.

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THE SIKH HOMELAND OF PUNJAB (KHALISTAN) OF AUGUST 15, 1947

THE SIKH HOMELAND OF PUNJAB (KHALISTAN) OF AUGUST 15, 1947 

 

 
 Dr. Awatar Singh Sekhon whom I know personally moved to Canada when there was no concept of asylum and visitor/immigrant visas were being granted at the point of entry. He strove hard and achieved a high degree of education receiving his doctorate and assumed various designations/positions of prestige.  
 
Just as Muslims in Maqbooza Kashmir have been oppressed for decades now, the Sikhs also face the same plight. Under the Indian Constitution Article no. 25, Sikhs are homogenized under the Hindu religion; Sikhism is not even a recognized religion in India. As far as Master Tara Singh (a converted Sikh born in a Hindu Khatri family) is concerned, he was still loyal to the Hindu cause when he burnt the Muslim league flag in Lahore on March 14, 1947. This action was done in order to give out two messages to the British. First, that the Sikhs don’t want a separate state and secondly, to create a rift between Sikhs and Muslims. Islam does not allow one to stay angry with another for more than three days. As such there is no enmity or anger between the Muslim nation and any other nation, especially the Sikhs.  
 
Aurangzeb Alamgir (ramatullah elaha) the emperor of Hindustan knew that theTenth Master Janab Guru Gobind Sahib was a noble man but he was never able to meet him. Although he wanted to visit the Tenth Master, he had died. However, his son Bahadur Shah treated him very well even providing him with medical care when the Tenth Master was injured.
 
When Hindus who have never ruled a unified India are eligible to receive freedom and their own sovereign state; why not the Sikhs? Therefore I strongly demand that the Sikhs be given the freedom to practice their religion in their own sovereign state.  
 
Regards,
 
Habib Yousafzai
 

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