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Archive for category India Global Exporter of Terrorism

The Nazi in Hindutva Mind of Narendra Modi & BJP eyes Indo-Pak-Bangla-Afghnistan unity to form ‘Akhand Bharat

Editor’s Note: Pakistanis born after 1947,should understand the psychology of the Hindutva mind. In this article in Times of India,Ram Madhav,a Hindutva Nazi is exposed (Symbol of RSS is a Swastika).

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The Hindutva Mind

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BJP eyes Indo-Pak-Bangla unity to form ‘Akhand Bharat

 

 

India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will reunite to form ‘Akhand Bharat’: Ram Madhav aka Saffron Bandit

TNN | Dec 26, 2015, 05.05 PM IST

 

 

 

HIGHLIGHTS
• India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who were separated 60 years ago, will reunite, said the BJP general secretary
• Ram Madhav also speaks about the issue of intolerance, says returning of awards bid to defame India
• He also speaks about bringing peace in J&K, says Kashmir an integral part of India
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will reunite to form ‘Akhand Bharat’: Ram Madhav-India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will reunite to form ‘Akhand Bharat’: Ram Madhav
BJP general secretary Ram Madhav has said that parts of India – including Pakistan and Bangladesh – which were separated 60 years ago, will reunite to form “Akhand Bharat” (undivided India).
“The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) still believes that one day these parts, which have for historical reasons separated only 60 years ago, will again, through popular goodwill, come together and Akhand Bharat will be created,” Ram Madhav said in the interview to international news network Al-Jazeera.
He also said that as an RSS member, he also holds that view.
Ram Madhav, however, clarified that this will not happen through war, but through “popular consent”.
“That does not mean we wage war on any country, (or that) we annex any country. Without war, through popular consent, it can happen,” he said.
Top Comment

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p style=”text-align: center;”>Why did you leave out afghanistan sirji??! afghanistan is also part of Akhand Bharat and it was ruled by Mauryas until 1… Read More

He also spoke about the issue of growing intolerance in India saying the returning of awards by artists and intellectuals is a bid to defame the government and in turn to demafe the image of India. He also said that the method of protest adopted by these intellectuals is wrong.
Madhav, an RSS leader, was deputed to the BJP after the general elections last year. He played an important role in Jammu and Kashmir elections and formation of a BJP-PDP coalition government in the state.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera about bringing peace in the region. “The only outstanding issue with regard to the Kashmir problem is the Kashmir under Pakistan occupation,” he said. “The Kashmir that is an integral part of India, it has been proved time and again that it’s an integral part of India.”

 

 

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CPEC controversy…army’s failure By Ayaz Amir

 

 

 

 

 

 

China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor-CPEC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CPEC controversy…army’s failure

By 

Ayaz Amir

January 12, 2016

 

 
 

Islamabad diary

It was a ‘game-changer’, we all gushed, destined to change the face of Pakistan. No one could mention the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor without breaking into superlatives. Actual details were hard to come by but the rhetoric was intoxicating.

This was before our genius for statesmanship kicked in. When it did we are finding out that instead of reaching for the stars we are managing to dig ourselves into another hole. The controversy over the CPEC is spiralling in such a manner that the Chinese embassy has taken the unprecedented step of issuing a statement urging all parties to “strengthen communication…and resolve differences properly.”

Our Chinese friends can be forgiven for feeling miffed. Here they are holding out the prospect of all these roads, highways and power projects and we are speaking in different tongues. Seeing our performance they are likely to dwell in their minds on the merits of a one-party state.

The main charge against the Sharifs is that they have hidden everything behind a veil of secrecy and are not being open about maps and finances. Every now and then the Punjab chief minister makes another thunderous announcement about game-changing. Press him for details or ask him to show the actual maps and the highway/motorway alignments and the industrial zones and beyond his wagging finger, and eyes aflame with passion, there is little to see.

I can bet that if parliamentarians and corps commanders are subjected to a test about what the CPEC is about nine out of ten will flunk it. When the State Bank governor confesses to not knowing anything about the money and the loans, terms and conditions and repayment schedules, we get an idea of the mess the federal government has managed to create around this issue…which is supposed to alter the alignment of the stars in our favour.

But we should be honest with ourselves. Was any of this unexpected? Was anyone really expecting that the Sharifs, the two of them who are running the civilian half of this country, would transcend their limitations and turn overnight into a Bismarck couple on the CPEC?

Here were elected leaders who couldn’t get the threat of terrorism right. They had not the heart to take on the Pakistani Taliban. They could take no decision on Karachi. It was the army which knocked sense into them and the army, on its own, which declared war on terrorism – both of the religious variety as in Fata, and the ‘secular’ variety as in Karachi. When the army had taken the decision, the civilians hurriedly clambered aboard the terrorism bandwagon. It is another matter that they now give the impression that the resolve all along was theirs.

Given this record on what grounds was anyone expecting that coming to the ‘game-changer’ the same civilians, the same leadership class would become statesmen: bring all the provinces together and get everyone to sing from the same score?

The army is managing the internal security front and overseeing foreign policy. Visiting foreign high-ups invariably call on the army chief because everyone understands where the locus of real power rests. The army is providing security for the CPEC and raising an entire division headed by a two-star general (from our own resources) for this purpose. Without this guarantee there would be no corridor and no Chinese money coming in.

So how come, when the army has its finger in every pie, when it is spread all over, when it is handling all key issues, when it came to this supreme ‘game-changer’, this khan of khans, this king of kings, it left everything to the higher wisdom and statesmanship of the Sharifs? It doesn’t add up, doesn’t make sense.

Let us not be hard on Heavy-mandate PM and whiz-kid Punjab CM. They are doing nothing unusual. This is how they have been conducting business and politics – it being hard to make out where the one ends and the other begins – for the last 30 years. When they look at the map of Pakistan they see Punjab. When they look at Punjab they see Lahore. When they see Lahore what rivets their attention the most are the roads leading to Raiwind.

Being industrialists and businessmen, that too on an industrial scale, when they conduct state business with other countries it is but natural, given their background, that one eye is fastened on their own interests. With both the PPP leadership and the PML-N leadership the lines between public and private interest are blurred. It was not always like this. Once upon a time politics and commerce used to run on separate lines. Alas, not any more. Perhaps as a country we are atoning for sins unexplained.

I am not making any of this up. All reasonably well-informed Pakistanis know all this. But to return to the mother of all questions: how come in our holy of holies, the Vatican we call the General Headquarters, was the CPEC, this supposed definer of our future, left to the tender mercies of the Sharifs?

Give the Sharifs credit at least for being consistent. They are treating the CPEC as if it was one of their sugar mills, a karkhana of the Ittefaq Group. Again they are hardly to blame. They are just being true to form. Only in this case the army decided not to exercise the system of ‘checks-and-balances’ it not only exercises in other fields but thinks it its birthright to do so. Why?

Why intrusive interference in every other corner, every other aspect of national life? Why benign neglect and masterly inactivity, leaving the present leadership to its devices, regarding the ‘game-changer’? Or are we to think the unthinkable, what should hardly be put into words, that the Punjab-centrism of the Sharif approach strikes a chord with the larger Punjabi-ism of what euphemistically, when we want to take cover, we refer to as the ‘establishment’?

The CPEC was supposed to bring Pakistan together…tie up its constituent units, the four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan, in a tighter framework of communication and economic integration. The Raiwind approach to the CPEC is fanning the flames of inter-provincial discord. The Chinese are not at fault. They know their history of the Long March and the subtleties of Mao Zedong Thought. In what institute of Marxism-Leninism could they have learned the subtleties of Raiwind thought?

The politicians can’t clear up this mess. They could forge no consensus on terrorism. The army did it for them. The Sharifs are in the driving seat…they cannot resolve the growing controversy regarding the CPEC. The differences are too wide, the suspicions too deep, civilian incapacity too glaring. It is a particular gift of PML-N ministers that whenever any of them speaks on this issue he manages to fan the flames of suspicion higher.

It’s the army which has to take the lead, behind the scenes, discreetly…but firmly, knocking sense into the political leadership, the way it did over terrorism.

Let us host Saudi princes and read out soothing words to them. But let us understand that the CPEC controversy is more important for us than the row between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Email: [email protected]

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Modi living up to his sullied reputation Asif Haroon Raja


Modi living up to his sullied reputation

Asif Haroon Raja

Hindu bigot Narendra Modi, well known for his acute animus towards Indian Muslims and Pakistan and his passion for Hindutva was elected as the PM of India in June 2014 with a heavy mandate. He was eulogized and lionized by Indian media duly backed by western media and all his past sins were pushed under the rug. He was projected as a go-getter and an economic wizard who would once again make India shining and a world power. There were some in Pakistan who went overboard applauding him and saw everything good in him. They went to the extent of saying that he would prove to be the harbinger of peace between the two archrivals since his and Nawaz’s chemistry was in sync and both would give preference to economy over conflict. They forgot about his background, his brought up and mindset which he displayed during his 13 years rule in Gujarat State. Besides the 2002 pogrom, he assiduously promoted Hindutva in his State.

Not only he was groomed by infamous RSS to wear the crown, he was backed by corporate sector and senior officers of Indian armed forces and many joined his party. He has been chosen with a specific Pakistan driven agenda since Pakistan is in the eye of the storm and is the square peg in round hole which doesn’t fit into the security calculus of US, Israel and India.

images-59Modi’s performance has been exactly what had been predicted. Unlike Nawaz’s signals of friendship, right from the time of his coronation ceremony, Modi’s acts towards Pakistan have been offensive in nature. He is on record having stated that he will cause ‘pain’ to Pakistan. Scheduled meeting of foreign secretaries to resume dialogue was abruptly and haughtily cancelled on the plea that Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Delhi had hurt the sensitivities of Indians by meeting a Hurriyat leader. Highlighting unresolved Kashmir issue in the UN by Nawaz irked Modi. Soon after, temperature along the LoC was heated up, which still persists. For the first time, Working Boundary in Sialkot Sector has been brashly brought under intense fire causing lot of human casualties and damage to property and forcing locals to shift to safer places.

Like most high profile terror attacks in Pakistan, RAW was certainly behind suicide attack on Wagah check post in November 2014 where spectators were the target. Gruesome attack on Army Public School in Peshawar was again the doing of RAW since runaway Fazlullah and Wali Muhammad (alias Omar Khalid Khurasani) take dictation from RAW and Afghan Intelligence. Mobile phone conversation between the seven-member kill-team and mastermind in Kunar who was connected with Indian Embassy in Kabul was intercepted by ISI and the whole script was taken along by Gen Raheel Sharif and DG ISI and presented to authorities in Kabul as a solid proof of RAW-Fazlullah nexus.

 

16th December was chosen with a purpose since it had great significance for India. 43 years ago, India had brutally sliced Pakistan into two. Apart from martyring 34 teenagers and injuring 125, two lady teachers were burnt to death in front of the students by the terrorists. Resort to burning of women is handiwork of Hindus who worship fire, resort to Satti, carryout marriage ritual around fire, feel no hesitation in throwing children into fire.

 

Firing upon two Punjab Rangers soldiers after inviting them for a flag meeting and then trying to carry away the injured who later succumbed to injuries was a calculated scheme to prepare a case that Pak security forces were involved in cross border terrorism in Kashmir. A Pakistani fishing boat in high seas was dubbed as a terror boat.    Indian xenophobia was timed with Operation Zarb-e-Azb, and it was not difficult to decipher that Pak Army’s success in uprooting the last bastion of TTP in North Waziristan (NW) is not to the liking of India and she seems desperate to disrupt the progress of military operation and discredit Pak Army.

India refuses to get out of Mumbai drama and insists that it had been planned by terrorists in Pakistan and wants them to be punished. This is in spite of the fact that India has been unable to produce evidence to corroborate her allegations and also the hard fact that senior officials of Manmohan regime had revealed that it was an in-house false flag operation. Bhagwan worshipping and Marhatti speaking Ajmal Kasab was quietly hanged inside the prison courtyard without anyone else meeting him. Indian Court sentenced him to death without conclusive evidence merely to cool down the tempers of Hindus. Same excuse was given after hanging Kashmiri Afzal Guru, falsely implicated in attack on Indian Parliament in December 2001.                           

Extraordinary success of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in dismantling RAW trained TTP terrorist network in NW-Tirah/Bara as well as Haqqani and Hafiz Gul Bahadur networks, planned return of IDPs to NW next month, lifting of moratorium on hanging and commencement of hangings of convicts, establishment of military courts to carryout speedy trials of terrorists, Pakistani nation backing the Army to defeat and root out terrorism, withdrawal of ISAF from Afghanistan without achieving any objective and leaving behind a huge mess, changed perceptions of Ashraf Ghani led regime in Kabul towards Pakistan and growing Pak-Afghan military/intelligence cooperation to jointly tackle terrorism, emergent trust of the US in Pakistan’s civil and military leadership, growth of Pak-China strategic cooperation in building economic corridor/Gawadar and battling energy crisis, China, duly encouraged by USA, playing a pro-active role in  Afghanistan, Pakistan helping China’s Envoy to meet Afghan Taliban delegation in Peshawar and then facilitating a meeting in Beijing, Pak-Russia defence deal and latter’s decision to sell combat helicopters to Pakistan, and last but not least sudden demise of sit-ins are some of the recent developments which are repugnant for India.

Ongoing escalation of tension along the LoC and working boundary in Sialkot sector, sudden rise of terror activities in Balochistan (three in this month so far) and false flag operations are frantic attempts by baffled India to distract the attention of Pakistan government and Army towards eastern border. All her efforts to snare Pakistan seems to be failing and it looks like that India is falling into the pit she had dug for Pakistan.

Song of terrorism directed against Pakistan which was continuously sung in chorus by Indo-US-Afghan grouping for many years thrilled India the most. So was the ‘do more’ mantra. Modi wants to reinvent the song of Pak-bashing. Continuation of war on terror suits India the most since she can strike any sensitive target through TTP militants and also keep one-thirds of Pak Army embroiled in guerrilla war. Modi’s team was assiduously working to cook up a drama that could bring tears in the eyes of Obama during his forthcoming visit to India. India had succeeded in making Bill Clinton tearful in March 2000 on an engineered Chittisinghpura massacre in occupied Kashmir and Obama was made grief-stricken on his last visit to India in November 2010 over the concocted Mumbai drama.  

However, to the utter frustration of India, her strategic partners USA and Afghanistan are no more interested in playing the Indian dirty game against Pakistan because of their compulsions. John Kerry on his recent visit to Delhi confronted Indian leadership with concrete evidence of RAW-Fazlullah connection and asked Modi to tame Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval who had audaciously confessed using TTP terrorists to destabilize Pakistan from Afghan soil. The evidence which Kerry carried had been provided to the US by Gen Raheel on his last visit to Washington.

Gen Raheel had been forthright in reminding the US Generals and policy makers that having carried out across the board operation in NW, it was now the turn of the US to reciprocate by ‘doing more’ and showing results. He reminded them of the presence of Baloch rebel leaders based in Washington promoting separatism in Balochistan. He stopped saying that otherwise he will be compelled to say that “either the US is complicit or is inefficient’. Kerry is not the first American official to reveal India’s clandestine operations against Pakistan. Earlier on, Gen McChrystal and Chuck Hegel had also accused India of exporting terrorism to Pakistan.

Operation in Kunar by ANA against Fazlullah group and declaration of Fazlullah as a global terrorist by the US are other bombshells fallen on India. Yet another upsetting development is Gen Raheel’s meetings with top British civil/military leaders in London and he pressing them to stop foreign paid fugitives Harbyar Marri and Sulaiman Khan from fuelling terrorism in Balochistan and also help in reining in Brahamdagh Bugti in Geneva. They were also reminded of the UK based Hizbul Tahrir linked with al-Qaeda and Da’esh, which has its tentacles in Pakistan as well.      

Mercifully, baleful activities of India have not deterred Pakistan from its course of defeating terrorism. It has given a befitting reply to India’s aggressive posturing in Kashmir and has pooh-poohed her usual black mailing/coercive tactics. It is however, very important to fully expose the ugly face of India and to make all out efforts to get her subversive activities from Afghan soil closed. In this regard, efforts made by Gen Raheel and Lt Gen Rizwan should be followed up aggressively at the foreign office, diplomatic and media levels as well. The world community must be asked to hold India accountable for playing a lead role in fomenting terrorism in the region, killing well over 50,000 and injuring 200,000 Pakistanis, wanton destruction of property and strategic assets like PC-3 Orion and AWACs and made to pay the price for inflicting tens of thousands cuts on the body of Pakistan. It is high time to declare RAW a rogue outfit and to collar it.   

The writer is a retired Brig, defence analyst/columnist/author of five books, Member Executive Council PESS, Executive Director Measac Research Centre, Member Board of Directors TFP. [email protected]

 

 

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US imposed war now our own war by Brig Gen(R) Asif Haroon Raja

US imposed war now our own war

Pakistan is burning in the flames of war on terror since 2003. Fratricidal war has claimed 55, 973 human lives and the numbers of injured run into hundreds of thousands. This appalling figure of casualties owing to over 5000 bomb blasts, hundreds of suicide and terrorist attacks surpasses the total fatalities suffered in the 1948, 1965 and 1971 wars and local conflicts with India. While wars/conflicts with India were of very short duration, this war is being continuously fought for over a decade and still there are no signs of its termination. It has given birth to more than 60 terrorist groups and all have married up to fight the security forces and cause harm to Pakistan. The war has caused Pakistan an economic loss of over $80 billion while the social trauma suffered by the people is incalculable.
The war on terror was started by the US and its allies in Afghanistan in October 2001 but was treacherously shifted into Pakistan. The ISAF comprising military contingents from over 40 countries handed over the security to 350,000 strong Afghan Army and Police, trained and equipped by the US and British military trainers on December 28, 2014. Although ‘Operation Endurance’ has come to a humiliating end since it failed to achieve any of the stated objectives, the US has announced launching a fresh operation codenamed ‘Resolute’ from 01 January 2015 onwards with the help of Afghan security forces backed by 12000 residual force stationed in 8 military bases. This force is likely to stay on till end 2016 in accordance with Bilateral Security Agreement and in return the US and its allies would provide $8 billion economic/military assistance annually to bolster Ashraf Ghani’s not so stable regime and to keep Taliban out of power if they refuse to share power.
This step has been taken grudgingly in the backdrop of the wide scale criticism the US had to face on account of abandoning Afghanistan in 1989 in haste after all its objectives were achieved by the Afghan Mujahideen assisted by Pakistan. Leaving them in a lurch without forming a broad based interim government and helping in reconstruction of devastated country resulted in bloody internecine war between various Mujahideen groups in Afghanistan. It is generally opined that but for the US blunder, Afghanistan may have become a peaceful and prosperous country. This great betrayal bred frustration, resentment, anger and hatred against USA.
Bloody civil war from 1990 to 1994 gave rise to war lordism, religious extremism and also gave birth to Al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden, who was the blue-eyed boy of CIA during Afghan Jihad. Although the Taliban stabilized the country after taking over in 1996, but the fallout effects of the nine-year war and the instability of the civil war in Afghanistan was entirely borne by Pakistan. Presence of over three million Afghan refugees added to the socio-economic burden and security problems. The democratic era from October 1988 till October 1999 remained enmeshed in internal squabbles and paid little heed to control arms smuggling, drug peddling and sectarianism duly propped up by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Economic sanctions levied by the US in 1990 had also impacted the democratic rule. When PML-N government started to deliver by dealing with sectarian threat firmly, it was axed by Gen Musharraf on October 11, 1999.
9/11 changed the geopolitics of the world. The whole focus shifted towards terrorism and Pakistan was sucked into the GWOT. After occupying Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan, the US and its strategic allies cleverly shifted the direction of terrorism towards Pakistan under a calculated program. To start with FATA which was peaceful was made restive by forcing Pakistan to break the 1948 Agreement with the tribesmen by sending regular troops into South Waziristan. Insurgency was then ignited in Balochistan which was also peaceful. Nawabs of Bugti, Marri and Mengal tribes readily agreed to play the foreign game.  KP and other parts of Pakistan were subsequently made turbulent.
Whereas Pakistan was made an ally to fight GWOT in return for monetary benefits, in actuality it was a target. Pakistan was on the hit-list of India, Israel and USA after it had conducted nuclear tests in May 1988 to neutralize Indian nuclear belligerence. In fact, India considers Pakistan a thorn in its flesh. Reason of its undiminished animus is Pakistan’s principled stand to maintain good neighborly relations based on equality and refusal to accept Indian hegemony. India also resents Pakistan’s stance on disputed Kashmir, which it foolishly claims to be its integral part. Armed freedom movement in occupied Kashmir since 1989 keeps Indian leaders scared. They keep devising Chankyan strategies to maintain illegal control over occupied Kashmir. They also resort to lies and engineer false flag operations to keep Pakistan on the defensive.
indianconsulatesinafghansitan1Ever since India became a strategic partner of the US, Indian leaders have been constantly whispering into the ears of US leaders that Pakistan is abetting and aiding terrorism in Kashmir and that it should be declared a terrorist state and Kashmiri fighters seeking right of self-determination as terrorists. New laws framed on terrorism after 9/11 provided an opportunity to India to paint Kashmiri freedom movement as terrorism and to project Pakistan military/ISI as abettors of cross border terrorism.
Installation of India friendly regime under Hamid Karzai in Kabul by the US made it easy for India to undertake covert war against Pakistan from Afghan soil at a massive level. RAW duly beefed up by 17 Indian intelligence units, four Consulates and Embassy was backed by CIA, Mossad, MI-6, BND, Afghan government/intelligence to destabilize, denuclearize, de-Islamize and balkanize Pakistan. Biggest intelligence centre was set up at Sehra Neward north of Kabul where heads of six intelligence agencies sat under one roof to cook up plans to undermine Pakistan, Russia, China, Iran, Middle East and also to gain influence over resource rich Central Asian region. Ironically, ISI was excluded although Pakistan is immediate neighbor of Afghanistan and was nominated as front line state. 
RAW was made the overall in-charge to conduct clandestine war against Pakistan because of the expertise it had gained in 1971 East Pakistan insurgency, Balochistan insurgency in 1970s and sabotage/subversion in Pakistan in 1980s. RAW had a hand in training militant wing of MQM and Al-Zulfiqar. TTP in FATA, BLA, BRA and BLF in Balochistan were raised, funded, equipped and trained by foreign agencies to achieve their sinister objectives. RAW established 70 training camps in Afghanistan along Pak-Afghan border. It also helped Baloch insurgents in establishing over 60 Farari camps in interior Balochistan.
In FATA, CIA and FBI established outposts on the pretext of nabbing al-Qaeda runaways. On the quiet the two agencies established an outfit called Spider Web, whose task was to kill all pro-Pakistan Maliks, elders and clerics, shunt out civil administration and create space for anti-Pakistan TTP to take control over FATA. Over 400 were gunned down. ISI was pushed to the back seat and intelligence acquisition and dissemination taken over by CIA. Even immigration on airports in major cities was taken over by FBI. In 2008, Blackwater got established in Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Quetta and Karachi. It became easier for RAW to outsource this outfit for performing its dirty works. While Kerry Lugar Bill facilitated large numbers of NGOs with a precise agenda to step in, Pakistan’s Ambassador in Washington Husain Haqqani helped thousands of CIA agents and Special Operation operatives to sneak in without ISI clearance in 2010-11.
On one hand trained and well equipped terrorists were launched to create chaos and fear in Pakistan and also hit specified targets like GHQ, ISI set ups, PC-3 Orion, AWACs, airports, on the other hand Pak Army was belittled and accused of being either complicit or not doing enough. Pakistan was repeatedly told by the US to do more and India and Afghanistan joined the chorus. To make their coercive tactics more biting, an orchestrated defamation campaign was launched by Indo-US-western-Israeli media. Pakistan was dubbed as nursery of terrorism, most dangerous place in the world and a failing state. Its nuclear program was censured on the plea that it was vulnerable to fall into wrong hands because of lack of security. Idea behind multi-pronged bashing was to exhaust Pakistan socially, politically, economically and militarily, make it vulnerable to Indian aggression and force Islamabad to abandon its nuclear program in return for survival. India’s war terrorism is also part of the overall scheme to make Pakistan subservient.      
This discriminatory attitude against an ally which had put the security of the state at stake to fight the US dictated war on its own territory and against its own people and had sacrificed the most was most unfortunate. To rub salt in Pakistan’s wounds, the US continued to bestow India with all possible goodies despite the fact that it didn’t contribute a single soldier in the GWOT and created problems for ISAF. Likewise, the US continued to support highly corrupt, inept and unpopular regime of Karzai for 13 years.
Once the stark reality dawned upon the US leadership in December 2010 that ISAF was in no position to win the war and defeat was inevitable, it not only declared its drawdown plan starting July 2011 and ending in December 2014, but also established secret contacts with Taliban to arrive at a political settlement and ensure safe exit. This effort failed because of Karzai’s fickleness and US lack of sincerity. Pentagon didn’t like Obama’s decision and started selling a fake story that Taliban had been pushed on the back foot and sooner than later the pendulum would swing in ISAF’s favor. To hide its failings, Pakistan was chosen as the scapegoat and all its failings put in Pakistan’s basket. It was in this context that intense pressure was put on Pakistan to launch a major operation in North Waziristan. When Pakistan didn’t comply, it was punished by undertaking false flag operation in Abbottabad in May 2011 and then a revengeful attack on Salala border posts in November that year.  
Unlike Soviet forces which withdrew under Geneva Accord, ISAF troops have withdrawn without an agreement and leaving everything in a state of flux. Unlike Pak military’s brilliant successes against foreign supported militants in FATA and in Balochistan, the ISAF together with ANSF couldn’t achieve single battle victory against Afghan Taliban despite two troop surges and huge resources. Pakistan and not ISAF broke the back of Al-Qaeda by nabbing 600 of its leaders/operatives. All the societal vices that were doctored by Taliban during their five year rule under insalubrious circumstances have reappeared in a big way and Afghanistan has become the biggest narcotic state in the world. Despite investing $1.4 trillion, Afghanistan continues to grind in poverty and suffer from women disempowerment, illiteracy, corruption and insecurity. 65% Americans feel the war was needless.
While the US-NATO has lost the war, Pak Army under the valiant leadership of Gen Raheel Shareef has taken up the gauntlet to root out all manifestations of extremism and terrorism from Pakistan no matter what the cost. He has stated that losing war on terror is not an option. The Army had remained handicapped because of lack of political will, failure of civilian administration to take over secured areas, too many flaws in investigative and criminal justice system to prosecute and convict terrorists, ban on hanging, heavily politicized police, unproductive dharnas and above all foreign interference. Peshawar tragedy in which 132 children were martyred by fiends has galvanized the whole nation. Moratorium on hanging has been lifted and few terrorists hanged. Political/religious leaders stand behind the Army and have resolved to collectively fight the menace. Unanimously agreed upon 20-point Action Plan has been devised and committees formed to monitor progress. Despite initial reservations, all have agreed to amend the constitution and set up special military courts for 2 years to ensure speedy justice. These are need of the nation and not that of Army. Happily, Kabul has come on board and is willing to fully cooperate in fighting terrorism.  
To ensure 100% results, all concerned will have to perform on war footing. Politicians will have to display greater maturity and become role models by changing their lifestyle. Bureaucracy should shun its lethargic way of sitting over files and creating unnecessary impediments. The judiciary must come out of its hibernation and carryout in-house refurbishment to deliver evenhanded, cheap and speedy justice to all. The media should change its course and show greater patriotism and sense of responsibility. Civil administration should play its part more efficiently and honestly. Ulema and Mashaikhs should strive to bridge the religious divides. Academic circles must guide the youth towards productive channels and inculcating in them sense of nationalism. Last but not least, grievances of the have-nots must be addressed on priority.      
The writer is retired Brig, war veteran/defence analyst/columnist/author of five books, Director Measac Research Centre, Member oard of Directors TFP. [email protected]                   

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Gambling against Armageddon by Amb.Munir Akram, former Pakistan ambassador to the UN

Gambling against Armageddon

By

Munir Akram, former Pakistan ambassador to the UN | 

 

IN an opinion piece last year, Henry Kissinger observed that over the next couple of decades a nuclear war was likely to take place between India and Pakistan. The nuclear factor was in play in four major and one minor India-Pakistan crises: in 1987, 1990, 1998, 1999 and 2002.
 
In 1987, when an Indian army chief launched the Brasstacks military exercises along Pakistan’s exposed desert borders, Pakistan responded by deploying its forces in the north where India was vulnerable. Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s agreement to a mutual stand-down no doubt also took into account the informal threat from Islamabad to bomb India’s nuclear reactors in case Pakistan was attacked. (After the crisis ended, the Pakistan-India agreement not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities was jointly formulated in one day.)
 
In January 1990, when the anti-Indian insurgency erupted in Kashmir and India threatened Pakistan, a conflict was forestalled by US intervention. The US acted when it learnt that Pakistan had begun to arm its nuclear-capable aircraft.

The operation of mutual deterrence between India and Pakistan is being eroded.


armageddon21During the night of 26-27 May 1998 — the night before Pakistan conducted its nuclear explosions in response to India’s tests — Pakistani radar detected unidentified aircraft flying towards its territory. Islamabad issued warnings of instant retaliation to India and relayed these to the US and Israel. This may have been a false alarm; but it illustrates the danger of accidental conflict in the absence of real-time communications.
During the 1999 Kargil war, the nuclear dimension was implicit, given that the crisis occurred a year after the India-Pakistan nuclear tests.
 
During the 2002 general mobilisation by India and Pakistan, the director general of the Pakistan Armed Forces Special Plans Division enunciated its nuclear ‘doctrine’ in a news interview. The ‘doctrine’ envisaged that Pakistan would use nuclear weapons if: it was being militarily overwhelmed; its nuclear or strategic weapons or facilities were attacked; and it was subjected to an enemy blockade.
 
The projection of this doctrine, including at a UN news conference by this writer in July 2002, sparked a fall in the Indian Stock Exchange, the evacuation of foreign personnel and embassy families from New Delhi and a demarche by Indian business leaders to prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and reportedly led to the Indian agreement for a mutual drawback of forces.
 
The operation of mutual deterrence displayed in 2002, however, is being eroded by several developments.
 
One, the conventional military balance is becoming progressively unfavourable to Pakistan. India is engaged in a major arms build-up. It is the world’s largest arms importer today. It is deploying advanced and offensive land, air and sea weapons systems. Pakistan’s conventional capabilities may not prove sufficient to deter or halt an Indian attack.
 
Two, India has adopted the Cold Start doctrine envisaging a rapid strike against Pakistan. This would prevent Pakistan from mobilising its conventional defence and thus lower the threshold at which Pakistan may have to rely on nuclear deterrence.
 
Three, Pakistan has had to deploy over 150,000 troops on the western border due to its involvement in the cross-border counterterrorism campaign in Afghanistan, reducing its conventional defence capacity against India.
 
Four, the acquisition of foreign nuclear plants and fuel, made possible by the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, will enable India to enlarge its nuclear weapons stockpile significantly. To maintain nuclear balance, Pakistan has accelerated production of fissile materials. Both nuclear arsenals are now large and growing.
 
Five, given its growing conventional disadvantage, and India’s pre-emptive war fighting doctrine, Pakistan has been obliged to deploy a larger number of nuclear-capable missiles, including so-called ‘theatre’ or tactical nuclear-capable missiles. The nuclear ‘threshold’ is now much lower.
 
Six, the Kashmir dispute — once described by former US president Bill Clinton as a nuclear flashpoint — continues to fester. Another insurgency is likely to erupt, certainly if the Bharatiya Janata Party government goes ahead with its platform promise to abrogate Article 370 of the Indian constitution (which accords special status to Jammu & Kashmir). A renewed Kashmiri insurgency will evoke Indian accusations against Pakistan and unleash another Indo-Pakistan crisis.
 
Seven, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has obviously decided to adopt an aggressive posture towards Pakistan, no doubt to appeal to his hard-line Hindu constituency. The recent ceasefire violations along the Line of Control are an ominous indication of such belligerency.
 
Eight, India is reportedly involved in supporting the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and the Baloch Liberation Army to destabilise Pakistan internally.
 
Nine, India has terminated the ‘composite dialogue’ with Pakistan. Its precondition for talks — an “absence of violence” — is impossible for Pakistan to meet.
 
Ten, the US and other major powers evince little interest in addressing the combustible mix of live disputes, terrorist threats, conventional arms imbalance and nuclear weapons in South Asia.
 
During the parallel dialogue initiated by the US with Pakistan and India following their 1998 nuclear explosions, Pakistan proposed a ‘strategic restraint regime’ with India which would include mechanisms to resolve disputes, including Kashmir; preserve a conventional arms balance and promote mutual nuclear and missile restraint.
India rejected the concept of a mutual restraint regime.
 
The US at first agreed to consider Pakistan’s proposal. However, as their talks with India transitioned from restricting India’s nuclear programme to building a “strategic partnership” (against China), the Americans de-hyphenated policy towards Pakistan and India, opened the doors to building India’s conventional and nuclear capabilities and disavowed any interest in the Kashmir dispute. Currently, Indian belligerence is bolstered by US pressure on Pakistan to halt fissile material production and reverse the deployment of theatre nuclear-capable missiles.
 
If a South Asian Armageddon is to be prevented, it is essential to build a structure of stable deterrence between India and Pakistan and find ways to deal with Kashmir and other outstanding disputes. Reviving consideration of a strategic restraint regime would be a good place to start.
 
The writer is a former Pakistan ambassador to the UN.

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