Enemies within the borders
Sept. 19, 2008- Rediff.com
‘Hum Pakistani Hain, Pakistan Hamara Hai’ (We are Pakistanis and Pakistan belongs to us). Finally, Kashmiri separatism has spoken the truth.
These words were spoken by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who is characterised by the Indian media as chairman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference. I could never understand what this ‘hardline’ tag means. Which is the ’softline’ faction of the Hurriyat Conference?
The Indian media tags the Hurriyat faction led by Maulvi Umar Farooq as the softline faction.
One wonders how these two are different and what makes one the ‘hardliner‘ and other the ‘softliner‘.
Both of them were present on the same dais at the same rally at the Tourist Reception Centre grounds in Srinagar on August 18, 2008. Both were raising anti-India slogans at that rally. Both were demanding secession from the Union of India. Both were involved in the strikes and drama that finally resulted in the revocation of the J&K state cabinet’s order to allot land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for building temporary structures for the protection of Shri Amarnath pilgrims.
Moreover, both enjoy patronage from politicians as well as terrorists from across the border in Pakistan. Both represent the philosophy of intolerance for faiths other than Islam in the Kashmir Valley. Both were silent when Kashmir’s original inhabitants, the minority Hindus, were ethnically cleansed from the Valley.
Both condoned the following slogans raised in that rally on August 18:
Jeevay Jeevay Pakistan [Long Live Pakistan]
Pakistan se rishta kya, La-illaha Ill-lallaha [What is the relationship with Pakistan, faith of Islam]
Yehan kya chalega, Nizaam-e-Mustafa [What will rule here, Sharia-law]
Meri mandi teri mandi, Ralwanpindi Rawalpindi [My market your market, Rawalpindi Rawalpindi]
Fruits to bahana hai, Rawalpindi jana hai [Fruits are just the excuse, real intent is to go to Rawalpindi]
Bharat ka jo yaar hai, gadaar hai gadaar hai [Whosoever is India's friend, is a traitor, is a traitor]
Bharat teri shamat aayi, Lashkar aayi Lashkar aayi [India, you are on notice; Lashkar-e-Tayiba has arrived, Lashkar-e-Tayiba has arrived]
In an interview, former J&K governor S K Sinha described the Hurriyat in the following words:
‘There are supposed to be two groups in the Hurriyat; the so-called moderates and the so-called extremists. In effect they are all communal and anti-national. They have nothing against foreign tourists coming to the valley but they are allergic to Hindu Indians visiting the valley.’
In a recent interview, Geelani explained his desire to enforce Islamic rule in Kashmir and said, ‘I have a three-point target. First is to impose an Islamic nizam (jurisprudence) in Kashmir. Islam should govern our lives, be it in our political thought, socio-economic plans, culture or the ongoing movement. The creed of socialism and secularism should not touch our lives and we must be totally governed by the Quran and the Sunnat (precedents from Prophet Mohammed’s life).’
It is ironical that on one hand the Hurriyat people are ‘allergic to Hindu Indians visiting the valley’ and on the other hand they have no qualms about using benefits provided by India.
Both these separatists enjoy the security provided by the Indian government and paid for by the Indian taxpayer.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a former J&K legislator, even receives pension funded by Indian taxpayers.
These Kashmiri leaders have no shame in getting benefits paid by Indian taxpayers while they continue to dance on the tunes of their masters from across the border in Pakistan.
But all aside, I am relieved that Syed Ali Shah Geelani has finally admitted that he, along with hundreds of thousands of his followers, is Pakistani.
So that begs the questions:
What are Geelani and his followers doing in India? Why should Indian taxpayers pay for their pension and security?
It is about time Geelani and his followers bought a one-way ticket to Muzaffarabad and board the Caravan-e-Aman bus and leave India for good. If they are Pakistanis and Pakistan is theirs, they have no business to stay here in India.
Sixty years ago, Indians sacrificed a lot and gave away a large piece of their body and soul to make a new country Pakistan.
Millions at that time made their choice and moved to Pakistan. Those who stayed back also made a conscious decision to stay back. And most of them are content and happy.
But those who are still in India and for some reason are not happy, should stop whining and go to Pakistan — the country that was created solely for them.
India and Indians will not accept another partition, whatsoever.
I am sure that Indian taxpayers will not even mind paying one last expense, the one-way ticket to Pakistan, for Geelani and his followers. This would be the best investment Indians can make.
The Indian government lost a great opportunity on August 11 this year when Geelani and others were marching towards Muzaffarabad under their ‘Muzaffarabad Chalo’ campaign. The Indian government should have facilitated their trip to Muzaffarabad and then sealed the border.
In case Geelani and his followers do not go to Pakistan, then they ought to be tried for sedition. The Sedition Act, embodied under the Indian Penal Code Section 124A, reads as follows:
‘Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the government established by law in India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added…’
It is not surprising that the Government of India is not enforcing the Sedition Act and bringing charges against Geelani and other separatist leaders from the Kashmir Valley. It is a continuation of the UPA government’s appeasement policies towards Kashmiri Muslims.
Otherwise, why would it not counter the lies about the so-called ‘economic blockade’?
Anybody who knows the geography of Jammu and Kashmir would know that any strike and bandh in Jammu region would affect the only national highway connecting Kashmir with the rest of India. Granted that the first few days of the strikes in Jammu affected the Jammu-Srinagar national highway, but there was no declared economic blockade.
Within a couple of days of strikes in Jammu, the Indian Army was ordered to take over the entire national highway and they ensured that every truck reached Srinagar and every truck that was supposed to leave Srinagar left Srinagar and reached its intended destination.
There are statistics that show that there was absolutely no economic blockade. The fact of the matter is that it is the Jammu region that is facing hardships due to continuous strikes and bandhs in that region. It is the people of Jammu region who were running out of essential commodities. But who cares? As long as essential supplies reached the Valley, that is all that mattered.
It is sad and unfortunate that a few leading opinion-makers from the media are now falling prey to Kashmiri separatists’ tactics and agenda. In recent days, we have seen these opinion-makers suggest a referendum in Kashmir. Their argument that if Kashmir secedes from India, all is going to be well in the rest of India, is preposterous and shows a lack of knowledge about the Kashmir issue and Kashmiri radical Muslims.
These radicals will not stop at Kashmir because Kashmir is not the end-game. Instead it is the start of their bigger plan of Talibanisation of the rest of India. Today you give away Kashmir, tomorrow you will have to give away Hyderabad and then Coimbatore and then Moradabad and so on.
We Indians need to be on guard and defeat the enemies within our borders — the enemies are more dangerous than the ones outside.
Lalit Koul is the President, Indo-American Kashmir Forum, a US-based advocacy group. He can be reached at editor@kashmirherald.com
Anti-India Protest In Kashmir @ http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/5213.html
Kashmiri Muslims with Pak flags @ http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/5183.html http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/19guest.htm
UNRAVELING INDIA @ http://worldmonitor.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/unraveling-india/
Showing posts with label India and Terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India and Terrorism. Show all posts
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
** Public Scepticism
Gujarat cops' biggest problem: public scepticism
Sheela Bhatt, August 26, 2008
REDIFF.com
After highlighting how the Gujarat police force cracked the Ahmedabad blasts conspiracy and how the they were going about building an airtight case against the terrorists, in this the final part of her 3-part series, Sheela Bhatt describes how the force is trying to overcome its biggest stumbling block: the disbelief over its claim of having cracked the case:
In cracking the Ahmedabad serial blasts case the Gujarat police may have opened a Pandora's box.
It claims to have not only got evidence against those who planned and executed the bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and Surat ,but also that it has got definite insights into the conspiracy aspect of the blasts on Samjhauta Express and in Jaipur.In fact, some unused explosive connected with the blasts on Samjhauta Express was recently recovered by Gujarat police.
In other words, what the Gujarat police is claiming is that the blasts in Hyderabad, Bengaluru ,Jaipur, Ahmedabad and probably Samjhauta Express were conceived, planned and executed by the militant faction of the Students Islamic Movement of India formed after 2005. That also means the usual suspects -- like Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, Lashkar-e-Tayiba or HUJI of Bangladesh -- can't be blamed for some of the recent blasts that have killed more than 200 innocent Indians.
So far, revelations by the accused suggest that the terror strikes in Bengaluru, Jaipur and Gujarat are made in India and by Indians.
A senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Gujarat, whose party is in power in the state, says, "We have not found any external links to SIMI in the execution of the blasts in Ahmedabad and Surat."
The Gujarat police zoomed in on SIMI only after they interrogated Zahid Sheikh of Ahmedabad (who allegedly planted the bomb in the city's civil hospital) and Usman Agarbattiwala of Baroda. Their interrogation, read along with SIMI chief Safdar Nagori and his associate Ameel pervez's statement, made them believe that SIMI, a fiercely political outfit, turned militant after it was banned in 2001.
"Possibly SIMI's role behind the bomb blasts was overlooked while giving attention to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The Indian establishment went into slumber after banning SIMI," says a senior police officer in Ahmedabad.
He says four days after the bomb blasts, when the Gujarat police narrowed down their focus to SIMI and picked up Zahid Sheikh from his home in Juhapura, a political leader questioned its judgement in a meeting. "He said SIMI may not have done 'direct action' like planning to kill so many people," the police officer said.
If Nagori's statement had been studied properly, may be the story would have been different.
"It's the height of inefficiency," fumed Ajit Doval, former chief of Intelligence Bureau. "Senior officers are so 'busy' normally that they read only the summary of such confessional statements. In Nagori's statement, the mention of Gujarat and Rajasthan must be in the third paragraph of page number 17," he added, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"We never got a copy of Safdar Nagori's statement," counters Ashish Bhatia, Ahmedabad's joint commissioner of police who is heading the investigation into the Gujarat blasts. "We were unaware that he has mentioned any plans of subversive activities in Rajasthan and Gujarat. We knew generally about the threat perception, but nothing beyond that."
Naturally, given the credibility problem investigations into terrorism-related suffer from in India, and more so by the Gujarat police in the light of the Sohrabuddin case, the latter's current achievements is looked at either with suspicion or complete disbelief. Any kind of communal violence or terrorism is a delicate issue in India; a number of people -- from whichever community the perpetrators belong to -- inevitably slip into denial mode.
In this case, most experts deemed secular and Muslim leaders do not buy the Gujarat police's version of events. A Bengaluru-based expert on India's madrassas refused to respond to rediff.com because he said the police's findings are based on confessional statements of arrested people, and extracted under pressure.
Doval, however, disagrees. "In the absence of any other evidence I would think the Gujarat police investigation is credible," he says.
Bhatia was emphatic: "I can tell you that we have enough evidence in this case to plead for death sentence for the culprits. Our investigations will withstand trial in any court."
So, given these two opinions, should one believe the investigations of the Gujarat police?
Here are pointers to form one's judgement.
Special police teams from Rajasthan, Haryana, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru have already lined up in Ahmedabad to interrogate the arrested accused, especially Mufti Abu Bashir and Sajid Mansuri. What they do beyond this will indicate the authenticity of the Gujarat police's claims.
The Kerala government has confirmed that an arms training camp was organised by SIMI in December 2007 and even a First Information report was filed against it in the area, but investigations were abruptly discontinued.
The Gujarat police claims that it has details of the involvement of some 40 persons in the recent bomb blasts in India out of which they have arrested 10 who are directly involved in the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and in planting of bombs in Surat. They also claim that a separate press conference will be held to reveal how, when and by whom the bombs were planted in Surat.
Baroda police commissioner Rakesh Asthana says, "We have no doubt that the same group which planted bombs in Ahmedabad was behind the Surat bombs. The technique used in it didn't work but the bombs were not kept to just scare the people, they were meant to explode. We know where these bombs were assembled in Baroda."
It is noteworthy that before the Gujarat government responded politically to the sceptics, the Congress-led central government has already given its stamp of approval to the investigations by using it against SIMI in the ongoing hearings in Supreme Court over the organisation's ban.
The Gujarat police has admitted that Intelligence Bureau has lent enormous support to its investigators to unravel the conspiracy.
IB chief P C Haldar is a confidant of National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, and it's quite unlikely that his establishment will wholeheartedly support the Gujarat chief minister's cops or allow the him to reap any political benefit from the investigations.
It is well known in intelligence circles that Mufti Abu Bashir's arrest from Uttar Pradesh would have not been possible but for IB's speedy efforts. As Zahid Sheikh, Sajjad Mansoori and Agarbattiwala started singing in custody, it was IB which helped the investigations move in the right direction by instantly -- in some cases in just four hours -- providing dossiers of names that cropped up in the interrogations from their databank in Mumbai and Delhi.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil himself has congratulated Gujarat Minister of State Amit Shah for cracking the case.
But there were hiccups too. Around August 13-14, when the Mufti was traced to his village in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati asked her police officers if any case against him was pending in the state. Her idea, initially, was to keep him in the state government's custody. But somehow wisdom prevailed in Lucknow and she allowed the Mufti to be handed over to the Gujarat police.
At one point of time, the Gujarat police wanted to interrogate Mufti Bashir before his arrest, and efforts were made at the highest levels in Gujarat and in New Delhi to detain the Mufti, interrogate him andthen seek his police custody. It is well known that accused don't reveal much after their formal arrest. This practice, despite being a violation of human rights is a common one in India, but was not allowed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil in this instance.
He categorically denied to the Gujarat government any access to Bashir without first arresting him.
Despite all this and the sceptics' vocal criticism, the political leadership and the police in Gujarat are confident that this case will be built as professionally as it can be.
Giving some details of the investigations, police officers told rediff.com that all the arrested terrorists are Deobandis, and some of them follow one of its conservative sects, the Ahle Hadis.
Most of the arrested accused are tough, well-trained in how to deal with police interrogation and have a fairly good knowledge of functioning of the media, judiciary and the police. All of them know they are safer if arrested, illegal detention is what scares both criminals and innocents.
While parting with inside information, a police officer who did not want to be named told rediff.com, "It's easier to withstand and tackle external aggression because it unites Indians. Internal subversion divides society."
"One should wait for more revelations from the police, but we are in precarious times," comments Bhanu Pratap Mehta of the Centre for Policy Research. "Why are so many people feeling alienated?"
India can no longer pass the buck. It is time to introspect why some of her own citizens are taking to terrorism against her. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/26sheela.htm
Sheela Bhatt, August 26, 2008
REDIFF.com
After highlighting how the Gujarat police force cracked the Ahmedabad blasts conspiracy and how the they were going about building an airtight case against the terrorists, in this the final part of her 3-part series, Sheela Bhatt describes how the force is trying to overcome its biggest stumbling block: the disbelief over its claim of having cracked the case:
In cracking the Ahmedabad serial blasts case the Gujarat police may have opened a Pandora's box.
It claims to have not only got evidence against those who planned and executed the bomb blasts in Ahmedabad and Surat ,but also that it has got definite insights into the conspiracy aspect of the blasts on Samjhauta Express and in Jaipur.In fact, some unused explosive connected with the blasts on Samjhauta Express was recently recovered by Gujarat police.
In other words, what the Gujarat police is claiming is that the blasts in Hyderabad, Bengaluru ,Jaipur, Ahmedabad and probably Samjhauta Express were conceived, planned and executed by the militant faction of the Students Islamic Movement of India formed after 2005. That also means the usual suspects -- like Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, Lashkar-e-Tayiba or HUJI of Bangladesh -- can't be blamed for some of the recent blasts that have killed more than 200 innocent Indians.
So far, revelations by the accused suggest that the terror strikes in Bengaluru, Jaipur and Gujarat are made in India and by Indians.
A senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Gujarat, whose party is in power in the state, says, "We have not found any external links to SIMI in the execution of the blasts in Ahmedabad and Surat."
The Gujarat police zoomed in on SIMI only after they interrogated Zahid Sheikh of Ahmedabad (who allegedly planted the bomb in the city's civil hospital) and Usman Agarbattiwala of Baroda. Their interrogation, read along with SIMI chief Safdar Nagori and his associate Ameel pervez's statement, made them believe that SIMI, a fiercely political outfit, turned militant after it was banned in 2001.
"Possibly SIMI's role behind the bomb blasts was overlooked while giving attention to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The Indian establishment went into slumber after banning SIMI," says a senior police officer in Ahmedabad.
He says four days after the bomb blasts, when the Gujarat police narrowed down their focus to SIMI and picked up Zahid Sheikh from his home in Juhapura, a political leader questioned its judgement in a meeting. "He said SIMI may not have done 'direct action' like planning to kill so many people," the police officer said.
If Nagori's statement had been studied properly, may be the story would have been different.
"It's the height of inefficiency," fumed Ajit Doval, former chief of Intelligence Bureau. "Senior officers are so 'busy' normally that they read only the summary of such confessional statements. In Nagori's statement, the mention of Gujarat and Rajasthan must be in the third paragraph of page number 17," he added, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"We never got a copy of Safdar Nagori's statement," counters Ashish Bhatia, Ahmedabad's joint commissioner of police who is heading the investigation into the Gujarat blasts. "We were unaware that he has mentioned any plans of subversive activities in Rajasthan and Gujarat. We knew generally about the threat perception, but nothing beyond that."
Naturally, given the credibility problem investigations into terrorism-related suffer from in India, and more so by the Gujarat police in the light of the Sohrabuddin case, the latter's current achievements is looked at either with suspicion or complete disbelief. Any kind of communal violence or terrorism is a delicate issue in India; a number of people -- from whichever community the perpetrators belong to -- inevitably slip into denial mode.
In this case, most experts deemed secular and Muslim leaders do not buy the Gujarat police's version of events. A Bengaluru-based expert on India's madrassas refused to respond to rediff.com because he said the police's findings are based on confessional statements of arrested people, and extracted under pressure.
Doval, however, disagrees. "In the absence of any other evidence I would think the Gujarat police investigation is credible," he says.
Bhatia was emphatic: "I can tell you that we have enough evidence in this case to plead for death sentence for the culprits. Our investigations will withstand trial in any court."
So, given these two opinions, should one believe the investigations of the Gujarat police?
Here are pointers to form one's judgement.
Special police teams from Rajasthan, Haryana, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru have already lined up in Ahmedabad to interrogate the arrested accused, especially Mufti Abu Bashir and Sajid Mansuri. What they do beyond this will indicate the authenticity of the Gujarat police's claims.
The Kerala government has confirmed that an arms training camp was organised by SIMI in December 2007 and even a First Information report was filed against it in the area, but investigations were abruptly discontinued.
The Gujarat police claims that it has details of the involvement of some 40 persons in the recent bomb blasts in India out of which they have arrested 10 who are directly involved in the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and in planting of bombs in Surat. They also claim that a separate press conference will be held to reveal how, when and by whom the bombs were planted in Surat.
Baroda police commissioner Rakesh Asthana says, "We have no doubt that the same group which planted bombs in Ahmedabad was behind the Surat bombs. The technique used in it didn't work but the bombs were not kept to just scare the people, they were meant to explode. We know where these bombs were assembled in Baroda."
It is noteworthy that before the Gujarat government responded politically to the sceptics, the Congress-led central government has already given its stamp of approval to the investigations by using it against SIMI in the ongoing hearings in Supreme Court over the organisation's ban.
The Gujarat police has admitted that Intelligence Bureau has lent enormous support to its investigators to unravel the conspiracy.
IB chief P C Haldar is a confidant of National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, and it's quite unlikely that his establishment will wholeheartedly support the Gujarat chief minister's cops or allow the him to reap any political benefit from the investigations.
It is well known in intelligence circles that Mufti Abu Bashir's arrest from Uttar Pradesh would have not been possible but for IB's speedy efforts. As Zahid Sheikh, Sajjad Mansoori and Agarbattiwala started singing in custody, it was IB which helped the investigations move in the right direction by instantly -- in some cases in just four hours -- providing dossiers of names that cropped up in the interrogations from their databank in Mumbai and Delhi.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil himself has congratulated Gujarat Minister of State Amit Shah for cracking the case.
But there were hiccups too. Around August 13-14, when the Mufti was traced to his village in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati asked her police officers if any case against him was pending in the state. Her idea, initially, was to keep him in the state government's custody. But somehow wisdom prevailed in Lucknow and she allowed the Mufti to be handed over to the Gujarat police.
At one point of time, the Gujarat police wanted to interrogate Mufti Bashir before his arrest, and efforts were made at the highest levels in Gujarat and in New Delhi to detain the Mufti, interrogate him andthen seek his police custody. It is well known that accused don't reveal much after their formal arrest. This practice, despite being a violation of human rights is a common one in India, but was not allowed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil in this instance.
He categorically denied to the Gujarat government any access to Bashir without first arresting him.
Despite all this and the sceptics' vocal criticism, the political leadership and the police in Gujarat are confident that this case will be built as professionally as it can be.
Giving some details of the investigations, police officers told rediff.com that all the arrested terrorists are Deobandis, and some of them follow one of its conservative sects, the Ahle Hadis.
Most of the arrested accused are tough, well-trained in how to deal with police interrogation and have a fairly good knowledge of functioning of the media, judiciary and the police. All of them know they are safer if arrested, illegal detention is what scares both criminals and innocents.
While parting with inside information, a police officer who did not want to be named told rediff.com, "It's easier to withstand and tackle external aggression because it unites Indians. Internal subversion divides society."
"One should wait for more revelations from the police, but we are in precarious times," comments Bhanu Pratap Mehta of the Centre for Policy Research. "Why are so many people feeling alienated?"
India can no longer pass the buck. It is time to introspect why some of her own citizens are taking to terrorism against her. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/26sheela.htm
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