J & K news and discussion

[Neshant]

Fifth surgery for Geelani

at who's expense is this dude getting all these surgeries?

comman man is dying in the street and terrorists are getting VIP treatment.

[vsudhir]

^Neshant,

The more the news spreads that Geelani owes his very life to GoI largesse, the worse his credibility will be. Shodow whispering and rumor-mongering about how Geelani is really a RAW agent etc must already have started I guess.

And yes, how do we know Geelani isn't a GoI man in any case? Recall how by raising the "we want pakistan" demand, he effectively punctured the sails of desi dhimmedia and PDP on their synchronized 'kashmiri azadi' and 'march to muzaffarabad' delirium?

How do we know that geelani isn't a GoI man when his loud mouthed but pointless rhetoric effectively scores self-goals for the kahmiri islamist agenda everytime it gets any airtime anywhere? How better to discredit a kashmiri islamist movement than to give coverage to geelani's expressed POVs? In fact, Geelani kaka seems to be reading off a RAW script to sabotage the kashmiri movement etc, I say!

[anupmisra]

Link

India orders deportation of Hurriyat chief’s wife

No more conjugal visits for the Mirwaiz. He will now have to seek comfort from within his tribe of trash when in jail.

[anupmisra]

Fifth surgery for Geelani

at who's expense is this dude getting all these surgeries? comman man is dying in the street and terrorists are getting VIP treatment.

Its time to implant those micro-listening devices in that turd's left ventricle.

[satya]

India, Pakistan to allow trade across the Line of Control

The trade will be duty-free and in either currency — the Pakistani or Indian rupee. Some analysts suggest this is an economic union of sorts between the two parts of Kashmir controlled by the two neighbours. To others, the move is an attempt by New Delhi and Islamabad to further trade ties, following a July initiative by Pakistan to allow more imports from India.
LoC trade, as it is being called, will be operational at two points — from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad and from Poonch to Rawalakot (to be formally opened on 28 October) — even while the two countries continue to observe the line as the de facto border. A commerce ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said LoC trade is “not really an international trade”.
“Conceptually you are trading within the territory of the same country. There will be no concept of customs duty,” this official said. “The moment you charge import and export duty you are recognizing bilateral trade, which would imply the recognition of the disputed Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as part of Pakistan.”

[jamwal]

Jammu has more electors than 4 Valley distts
http://www.earlytimes.in/
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Oct 20: With Gandhi Nagar assembly constituency of the winter capital city having highest number of electors, Jammu district comprising eleven constituencies has more voters by over two lakhs than a cumulative electoral list of at least four districts in Kashmir Valley.
Gandhi Nagar constituency in Jammu district has 152,100 voters which more than the entire elector strength of Shopian district in South Kashmir or Ganderbal district in Central Kashmir. Ganderbal and Shopian having two constituencies each have 137,495 and 139,475 voters, respectively.
Entire Jammu district based on eleven constituencies has 943,389 votes while four districts in Kashmir Valley –Ganderbal, Bandipore, Shopian and Kulgam –have cumulative voter strength of 746,772. If another constituency, Pulwama is added to this, the strength comes out at 1039731. This means five districts in Kashmir Valley have just around 90,000 voters higher than single district of Jammu.
Entire Jammu region based on 37 assembly constituencies has 3084417 voters while entire Kashmir Valley based on 46 assembly constituencies has 2931404 voters


Still no delimitation?

[svinayak]

A keen observer can not miss that what happened in 1830s, in the same region, is being played out again. Almost the same forces at the game with a new realignment. The role of East India Company is of course replaced by Uncle Sam. In the aftereffects two things happened: Afghanistan was allowed to go back to the feudal Islamic forces, with commitment to reject Russia any play. Kashmir was given to a Hindu ruler, a british puppet, to merely govern without any real power. Punjab was forcibly annexed after being fooled and tricked as an ally. Islamist Wahabis were taken out using native soldiers and european bayonets.

Overall, the resultant was a complex of balance in favour of British interests that lasted for next one century and beyond.

[Arun_S]

Islam and Pakistan is all about intercourse and penetration

Cross-LoC trade gets mixed reaction in Pak media

Islamabad, Oct 22: Restoration of cross-LoC trade between India and Pakistan after a gap of over six decades received a mixed reaction in the Pakistani press with some welcoming it as a move that would make borders irrelevant.

The Daily Times, in its lead editorial, welcomed the "making of the borders irrelevant" and hailed the two governments' efforts "to solve the Kashmir dispute by creating 'soft borders' and allowing free movement of goods and people".

"The truth of the matter is that neither India nor Pakistan has been able to impose its solution on the Kashmir dispute," the editorial said.

"They have tried wars and they have tried diplomacy but both have been forced to wake up to the fact that they cannot have their way in the disputed territory on the basis of their separate and mutually exclusive policies," it said.

"On the ground, Pakistan's position is strong in so far as the people on both sides of the LoC want to have a freer intercourse and would rather have the LoC 'punctured' than sterilised," it said.

"In a way Pakistan's options have become clearer after its confrontation with terrorism inside its boundaries. The government and the army would not like to be distracted by trouble with India while they are trying to re-establish the writ of the state in the Tribal Areas," the paper stated.

"Also, the economic crisis looming large in the coming months would be reduced in its intensity somewhat if headway is made in expanding trade links with India all across the international frontier," it added.

The News too dedicated an editorial to the opening of the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar road to trade yesterday.

"The new trade agreement brings the two halves of Kashmir closer together. It also offers economic benefits to the people of the valley," it said.

Leaders in both New Delhi and Islamabad have indicated they see such a solution as a means to enter an era of less hostility between the two neighbouring states, which have since 1947 remained locked in conflict, the newspaper stated.

"The need to settle the Kashmir issue, logically and pragmatically, is immense," it said.

"As a step towards a brighter tomorrow for Kashmir and for all the people of the subcontinent, the opening up of trade must be welcomed as an important step forward," the edit concluded.

The Nation, however, described the launching of trade as an "act of betrayal".

According to its editorial, "the intra-Kashmir trade that commenced yesterday can only be described as an act of betrayal to the pervasive local sentiment, cause of freedom lovers and the 80,000 Kashmiris who have laid down their lives for wrenching independence out of the Indian hold."

"While the authorities are seeing it as an opportunity to strengthen the economy of the state, the fact remains that as long as India continues to subvert the people's will to assert their right of self-determination, there will be no improvement in economy, let alone stable conditions to prevail," it said.

"What Kashmiris want is for India to honour its commitment of abiding by their aspiration rather than trade," the edit said.

Bureau Report

Careful what you ask, If aspirations turned real, holy pigs will fly like the hole-ee messenger.

[sum]

Link

Democracy and the peace process in J&K

Praveen Swami

New Delhi must break with a script which has led to a breakdown of democratic institutions and engendered a dysfunctional political culture.

Speaking from atop his wooden throne in Srinagar’s Jama Masjid earlier this month, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq delivered a stinging attack on politicians who will contest the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections next month.

“I want to ask the Prime Minister of India,” the cleric and secessionist politician said in his October 10 sermon, “whether it serves any purpose to hold discussions with leaders who do not dare move among the masses unless they are protected by a cordon of guards.”

Mirwaiz Farooq’s fighting words would have had a great moral force had it not been for one uncomfortable fact: he is among the ranks of politicians he railed against. Like his secessionist colleagues Sajjad Gani Lone, Bilal Gani Lone, Abdul Gani Butt and Aga Syed Hassan, the Mirwaiz is protected by the Jammu and Kashmir police. In addition, the Mirwaiz—whose father was assassinated by jihadists — has invested in a bullet-proof car.

Early next year, notwithstanding the anti-election campaign that has now been unleashed by secessionists, an elected government will again hold power in the State. Influential figures in New Delhi’s policy establishment have been suggesting that once the rituals of democracy are done with, New Delhi, along with Islamabad, must get down to the real business of hammering out a peace deal with the very politicians who are seeking to obstruct the elections. While the new government goes about fixing roads and sewers, this line of thinking has it, the big boys will fix Jammu and Kashmir’s future.

If New Delhi is in fact serious about peace-building in Jammu and Kashmir, it must break with this script — a script which over the last six decades has led to a breakdown of democratic institutions in the State and engendered a near-clinical dysfunction in its political life. Instead, the politicians who are elected this winter must be pushed to come up with a workable vision of the State’s future — and encouraged to negotiate its contours and content with their counterparts in Parliament.

Ever since Independence, New Delhi had sought to secure Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India through a series of backroom deals. Politicians were cajoled — and sometimes coerced — to sign agreements in 1952, 1966, 1971 and 1975. Not one was debated and ratified by an elected body.
Deceit and betrayal

It takes little to see what drove this unhappy story. Prime Ministers, from Jawaharlal Nehru to P.V. Narasimha Rao, were driven by the need to defend India against Pakistan’s covert war in Jammu and Kashmir. In their vision, the proper role of the elected governments in Jammu and Kashmir was to dispense patronage, and thus undermine dissent — not deal with the issues which drove the conflict.

When Jammu and Kashmir saw the restoration of democratic governance in 1996, this paradigm continued to shape New Delhi’s policies. Soon after he took office, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee set about seeking a deal with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) — a secessionist coalition cast as the sole representative of Kashmir’s authentic, secessionist sentiment.

Prime Minister Vajpayee’s peace efforts, although helped along by generously-funded covert funding to the APHC leadership, achieved little. Hemmed in by hawks in his Cabinet, Mr. Vajpayee was in no position to make significant political concessions. APHC leaders, for their part, faced massive coercive pressures from jihadist groups like the Hizb ul-Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Taiba. In essence, the APHC and the Government of India played for time. Both hoped that negotiations with Pakistan would lead to an agreement that would end the conflict by gifting the secessionists power within an autonomy-based framework. Apprehensive of just that outcome, the National Conference began adopting increasingly intransigent postures, hoping to frustrate a New Delhi-Islamabad-APHC deal. Even as New Delhi talked to the APHC, though, it rejected the National Conference’s calls for a dialogue on autonomy — souring relations with the most important player in State politics.

During his first years in office, Prime Minister Singh’s policies closely mirrored those of his predecessor. He once again initiated negotiations with the APHC, and authorised a covert programme to reach out to hardline secessionists outside its fold. As before, the APHC refused to bring to the table a road map for dialogue. And mirroring the actions of the National Conference earlier, the People’s Democratic Party turned to Islamist ideas and practices in an effort to stave off the political consequences of a New Delhi-APHC deal.

In 2006, the Prime Minister finally departed from the tried and tested path, realising that it led only to certain failure. Instead of seeking a deal with the APHC alone, he now reached out to the full spectrum of political opinion in Jammu and Kashmir. Following all-party conferences in New Delhi and Srinagar, the Prime Minister set up five Working Groups on the conflict. Four of the groups — on social confidence-building measures, the cross-Line of Control relationship, economic development and governance — submitted their reports last year.

But the critical fifth group, which discussed Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional relationship with New Delhi, has not met in over a year, let alone submit a report.

Part of the reason was that major political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have not been able to arrive at a shared vision of the future. National Conference leaders reiterated their controversial 1999 proposals for wide-ranging autonomy within the Union of India, but offered no blueprint for addressing the anxieties of those residents who opposed this agenda. For its part, the People’s Democratic Party called for self-rule, but submitted only a blueprint for devolution of powers to district and regional bodies—not a map for transfiguring Jammu and Kashmir’s relationship with New Delhi. Bharatiya Janata Party representatives called for the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution (which confers a special status on the State), while the Congress said nothing at all.

New Delhi’s failure to push the fifth Working Group also stemmed from its hope that the APHC could still be made to sign on to an emerging India-Pakistan deal. At secret meetings which began in 2005, Prime Minister Singh’s envoy, SK Lambah, and his Pakistani counterpart, Tariq Aziz, arrived at five points of convergence. First, the two men agreed that there would be no redrawing of the Line of Control. Second, they accepted that there would have to be greater political autonomy on both sides of Jammu and Kashmir. Lambah and Aziz also agreed that India would begin troop cuts in response to de-escalation of jihadist violence, cooperatively use resources like watersheds, forests and glaciers, and, finally, open the LoC for travel and trade.

From the outset, the APHC rejected participation in the Prime Minister’s round-table dialogue, refusing to accept that it was just one of several political voices in Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking after a February 20, 2006 meeting where the APHC rejected an invitation to participate in the Delhi round-table conference, Mirwaiz Farooq said that while “the Hurriyat is not averse to New Delhi’s consultation process with others,” it “believes that for permanent resolution of the Kashmir crisis, the governments of India and Pakistan shall have to essentially deal with those people who have been treating Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory from day one.” Before the subsequent Srinagar conference, Prime Minister Singh’s advisors have long claimed, Mirwaiz Farooq tempered that stand and agreed to join in the discussions. However, the APHC backed out at the last moment.

Since then the Mirwaiz’s position has hardened. In the midst of this summer’s communally charged Shrine Board protests, he signed a secret June 19 agreement with Syed Ali Shah Geelani dropping the option of direct talks with the Government of India — the Islamist patriarch’s long-standing bone of contention with the APHC.

In his sermon, Mirwaiz Farooq lashed out at “the accords and agreements signed by Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad and Syed Mir Qasim with New Delhi, which the people of Kashmir have never accepted.” Agreements like these, the Mirwaiz said, bred a culture of “deceit and betrayal.” He is right, but he omitted to mention that secessionists were just as complicit in this corruption as pro-India politicians. Groups like the APHC are reluctant to engage in a genuine dialogue precisely because it will be substantive. Few among the secessionists have a workable vision for the future; those who do have are willing to risk the consequences of articulating one.

As things stand, it appears that the APHC and other secessionists want a deal which hands them power, not a real dialogue — a replay of the New Delhi-Srinagar pacts involving Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, which they claim to abhor. Whether the APHC likes it or not, the National Conference, the Congress and the People’s Democratic Party do speak for substantial sections of Jammu and Kashmir. Accepting this plurality of voices is a prerequisite for a meaningful peace.

Instead of empowering secessionists by starting a renewed engagement with the APHC after the elections, New Delhi would do well to turn, instead, to the politicians chosen by Jammu and Kashmir’s people to represent them.

[sum]

Mallu and J&K link confirmed. Will CNN-IBN now retract their earlier stories of no such proof?
Link

Youth killed in Kashmir hailed from Malappuram

Staff Reporter

MALAPPURAM: One of the youths killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir was identified as Abdul Raheem, 28, son of Koyasantakath Sayeed from Chettippadi near Parappanangadi in Malappuram district.

According to local and police sources, Raheem had left home about three years ago after severing ties with the family.

A diploma holder in electronics, Raheem had been an active worker of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) before he joined a Sufi tradition called Shikwa Thwareekat.

He was reportedly involved in a case in which a group of people torched a bus at Kalamassery a few years ago.
Estranged from family

After estrangement with the family, he had lived at his wife’s house for some months.

His family had reportedly no idea whether he had left for Kashmir.
House raided

Special Correspondent writes from Kannur:

The police raided the house of a youth, near here, on Thursday on suspicion that he was one of the two alleged terrorists killed in a police encounter in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this month. The house of one Fayaz, 22, son of Hamsa at Maidanappally, under the Kannur city police station limits, was raided by the police. The police refused to confirm whether Fayaz was one of the two militants from the State killed in Jammu and Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir police had identified the militants killed in the shootout in Kupwara district as Yasin and Fayaz.

Police officers here said the raid was part of the investigation into the arrest of National Development Front activist Abdul Jaleel at Kadachira here recently.

Same story from another source:
Link

Missing Keralite youths terrorists link confirmed
DH News Service, Thiruvananthapuram:


The police on Thursday confirmed that the two youths who were killed in Kashmir two weeks ago in an encounter with security forces were indeed Keralites as the police there had claimed.

The police team which went to Kashmir has got irrefutable evidence to prove that the bodies were those of Mohammed Fayaz of Kannur and Abdul Rahim of Malappuram, according to the sources.

Following this development, Kannur police led by SP S Sreejith searched the house of Fayaz, who is believed to have had terror links with Lashkar-e-Taiba. Fayaz, a construction worker has been missing for the last two months. His mother said that her son had left home two months ago for undertaking Quran studies.

“His friend Faizal said he would not be available on phone during this period,’’ she said in Kannur on Thursday. Like Abdul Jaleel who was arrested last week from Kannur, Fayas was also an activist of the right wing Muslim outfit National Development Front (NDF).

The police claim that Jaleel had received several calls from Kashmir in the days preceding the Kashmir encounter from Fayaz and Rahim. Rahim was one of the accused in the case of torching a Tamil Nadu Transport Development Corporation bus in Kochi two years ago. Jaleel who had already been under police surveillance was caught when he suddenly changed the SIM card of his cell phone.

Jaleel’s interrogation has thrown up several leads on the links of Kashmiri militants in Kerala. The police have already begun investigating the whereabouts of several youths who had gone missing from north Kerala in the last one year. It is feared that several of them may have become victims to terror recruiting agents in the State itself.

Im unable to understand the bolded part. Are the "youth of a community" brainless sheep that people just approach them and they turn anti-national? How can they be called victims?

[Avinash R]

Hizbul Mujahideen militant killed in J-K

Fri, Oct 24 01:35 PM

Jammu, Oct 24 (PTI) A Hizbul Mujahideen (HuM) militant was killed by the members of Village Defence Committee (VDC) in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said today.

There was an exchange of firing between militants and VDC members at village Haddal last evening when a meeting of the local Panchayat was in progress, they said.

As a result, a HuM militant identified as Irshad Ahmed malik was killed, sources said. The head of the village, Mohammad Yousuf was killed on the spot and another person Hashim Din was injured in the incident, they said, adding two other militants involved in killing of Yusuf managed to escape.

Police recovered the body of the militant along with weapons and has launched operation to track down other militants responsible for the act, sources added.

[Lalmohan]

looks like piglet came to collect his hafta and a 'warm bed for the night' and the headman said no
hope gov't compensates them well

[vsudhir]

Wonder if valley IMs are getting news abt TSP's economic (and social) dire straits at all.

Have no doubt that they're such experts at denial and conspiracy mongering, they'll prolly label it a YYY conspiracy onlee.

GoI must publicly ask hurrirats if they'd like to apply for a green passport onlee. If yes, send them 2 Pindi on a 1 way ticket.

[Lalmohan]

Wonder if valley IMs are getting news abt TSP's economic (and social) dire straits at all.

Have no doubt that they're such experts at denial and conspiracy mongering, they'll prolly label it a YYY conspiracy onlee.

GoI must publicly ask hurrirats if they'd like to apply for a green passport onlee. If yes, send them 2 Pindi on a 1 way ticket.

isn't free 'trade' access to muzzafarabad going to provide the valley folk with plenty of first hand evidence of the dire straits?

[Stan_Savljevic]

Some dangerous precedents being set here

The deportation of an 85-year-old resident of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was on Friday stayed by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court after he challenged the move to send him back, contending that he was still a citizen of the "state" and wished to die at his native place. The petitioner Qazi Ham Din, a resident of Bhantini area of PoK, had crossed Line of Control on a 15-day entry permit through Chankan da Bagh point on September 27.

However, he told the court that he was not ready to return as he has "not lost his citizenship" and stated that his last wish was to die on this side of LoC in his own ancestral home at village Rajpura in Poonch. Justice J P Singh while staying Qazi's deportation, issued notices to Union of India through Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, state of J-K through Chief Secretary, DGP, DIG poonch and SHO police station Mandi among others.

The court also ordered that until the next date of hearing, Qazi will not be deported provided he files an undertaking that he shall not leave the jurisdiction of District Magistrate Poonch without prior permission of the High Court. Qazi shall intimate the district magistrate about his whereabouts every week, it said. The next date of hearing has not been fixed. This is the second such case in three months. Earlier in July the court had stayed the deportation of another PoK resident from Rawalkot who later died.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holn ... 241950.htm

[Stan_Savljevic]

Having decided to contest over 20 seats in the valley, Jammu and Kashmir National United Front (JKNUF), which claims to be the only political party of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, on Friday kicked off its election canvasing from Nagrota migrant camp here. "We have decided to take part in the assembly elections as the only Kashmiri Pandits' political party and contest over 20 seats in Kashmir valley. Therefore we have started campaigning from Nagrota camp today," president of JKNUF A K Dewani said while addressing the party's maiden rally.

He said that JKNUF already registered it with the Election Commission last month and the party would advocate the cause of displaced Kashmiri Pandits in exile. Dewami said that Pandits were disillusioned with parties like Congress, BJP, BSP, NC and PDP on account of total discrimination towards the displaced Kashmiri Hindus. "JKNUF will project and serve the aggrieved and displaced Kashmrir Hindu community in a better way," he said while addressing hundreds of people, who thronged Nagrota, pledging their full support to the JKNUF. Dewani also said that the first list of candidates for the forthcoming election will be made public soon.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holn ... 241720.htm

[anupmisra]

Wonder if valley IMs are getting news abt TSP's economic (and social) dire straits at all.

Fence sitters don't care. Either way they come out on top. Free food and free PR.

[anupmisra]

Wonder if valley IMs are getting news abt TSP's economic (and social) dire straits at all.

Have no doubt that they're such experts at denial and conspiracy mongering, they'll prolly label it a YYY conspiracy onlee.

GoI must publicly ask hurrirats if they'd like to apply for a green passport onlee. If yes, send them 2 Pindi on a 1 way ticket.

isn't free 'trade' access to muzzafarabad going to provide the valley folk with plenty of first hand evidence of the dire straits?

You are assuming that at this moment they don't know the real situation across the fence. They do and they care less.

I truly believe, those staged intifada-type street fights are just that (an entertainment value for many unemployed or unemployable). As long as they keep getting subsidized food and gas from India while they dont have to work for them, whats a few rocks thrown here and there, and a couple of their cousins meeting their houris. Nice way to kill time. They would care two hoots for their "lost brothers" on the other side. Talk is cheap for them

Why else do you think the APHC is sitting pretty in Srinagar (and not in Muzaffarabad) with all those guards, bullet-proof cars and regal comforts (check on their real estate holdings!) whereas in real life, on the other side, they would have to brave assualts, fight staged elections and plan real economies?

[sum]

Interesting read:
Link

Kashmir’s failed uprising
Happymon Jacob

Calls by the Prime Minister and the Hurriyat Conference chief for dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue indicate that the recent uprising seems to have lost its momentum.

Divergent opinion: Syed Ali Shah Geelani (Left) and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have radically different views on what azadi entails.

Elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly have been announced, and are scheduled to be held in seven phases spread over five weeks. The decision to go ahead with the elections on schedule was taken following intensive discussion, punctuated by numerous disagreements, from both the Election Commission and the mainstream political parties in J&K. The dissidents have made it clear that they will not only boycott the elections, but will also actively campaign against the electoral process itself.

Even as the debate about the political wisdom of conducting elections at this point in time rages on, now is an opportune moment to take a close look at the recent uprising in Kashmir, and ask why it has failed to achieve anything substantial. After almost four months of anti-India slogans and sustained agitation, and despite limited moves towards unity by the Srinagar-based dissident camp, the current uprising in Kashmir seems to have reached a dead-end. Calls by the Prime Minister and the Hurriyat Conference (Mirwaiz) chief for dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue, indicate that the recent uprising, which garnered nationwide attention, seems to have lost its momentum.

Indeed, Kashmir’s latest experiment with dissidence did appear to have the right mix of all the necessary ingredients for success: mass participation, willingness to defy state crackdown, emotive slogans striking the right Kashmiri chords, timely political alliances and the ever-green romanticism of azadi. More importantly, unlike during the 1990s, the Indian intelligentsia was more sympathetic to the Kashmiri cause this time around, while militants kept away from the scene, not wanting to malign the mass movement. Yet the uprising seems to have fizzled out. It has quite obviously failed to reach any logical conclusion, although its reverberations will continue to impact on the state’s polity for a very long time to come.
What explains its failure?

What then explains its failure? Have dissenting Kashmiris grown disillusioned, sceptical as to the fruits of their struggle against the Indian state, and resigned themselves to submission? Or, can its failure be attributed to successful handling of the situation by the governments of New Delhi and Srinagar? Has the Indian state, after all, learned to contain dissidence in its frontiers? Not really.

An ex post facto analysis of the recent events in Kashmir reveals a clear set of factors responsible for the failure of the Valley’s latest uprising. First of all, the dissident leadership in the Valley did not have a common minimum programme. The lack of an understanding of their political endgame rendered them incapable of negotiating effectively with New Delhi.

Secondly, this lack of common understanding was augmented by acute dissent and leadership struggles within the dissident camp. Hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s claim to ‘sole leadership’ failed to resonate with the other leaders, who have since sought to distance themselves from him. Opposition became all the more serious when Mr. Geelani began questioning the credentials of other dissident leaders to lead the Kashmiris.
Many meanings of azadi

In addition to the aforementioned factors, differences of opinion within the dissident camp represent more than a mere leadership struggle. They stem from something fundamentally ideological: differing conceptions of the very meaning of azadi. That the camp did not have a commonly agreed upon programme, and was stalled by leadership quarrels, underscores the fact that there are many meanings of azadi in the Kashmir Valley. To the one extreme there are those who, like many of the mainstream parties within J&K (such as the National Conference), argue that the word points to greater autonomy and additional political rights. And to the other are those (represented by the JKLF and Mr. Geelani) who typically seek complete independence from India, and see azadi as embodying this desire. Somewhere between these two divergent views are those who argue that it is the Kashmiris’ demand for self-respect, dignity and their inalienable democratic rights, which constitute the true basis of azadi.

The two most important pro-azadi leaders in the Valley, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mr. Geelani, have radically different views as to what azadi entails. Consider, for example, that Mirwaiz has been an important moderate voice, whereas Mr. Geelani harbours no such illusions of temperance. A close reading of Mirwaiz’s statements, taken at various points in time, makes clear that he is more pro-Kashmir than anti-India, willing to talk to and reason with New Delhi, and is flexible in relation to what self-determination entails; his ‘United States of Kashmir’ proposal does not seek complete independence for Kashmir. In other words, the Mirwaiz is willing to make adjustments and seek balance when talking to New Delhi. But Mr. Geelani has made it clear that the resolution to the Kashmir problem lies in nothing short of Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan, and rejects the need to converse with New Delhi.

Most importantly, however, azadi needs to be understood as the rallying cry of a large number of an aggrieved people. For them, the word means something more tangible, something that pertains to their daily lives, than anything so fundamentally ideological: it means freedom from the fear of militants and security forces, as well as dignity, and the absence of New Delhi’s political high-handedness. Moreover, one would have to concede that it is a question of the unresolved issue of sub-national aspirations, and its consequences within the Indian state.
Zardari’s Kashmir policy

The relative silence of Pakistan, and the pro-India statements of President Zardari, should be understood as the fourth reason for the failure of the dissident movement. That Zardari did not choose to lash out against India during the recent anti-India protests in Kashmir is significant. His assurances that there would soon be good news about Kashmir and that both the countries are working towards it show a desire to distance himself from Pakistan’s traditional stance on Kashmir. And more was to follow. Recently he branded Kashmiri militants as “terrorists” and claimed that India was important for Pakistan’s growth. Surprisingly, he received little rebuke for these comments from within his country. Pakistan’s desire to make peace with India, and to rid itself of extremism, also means that it many not continue to support the various dissident parties within Kashmir — as it has done in the past — at the expense of India and its fight with terrorism, though the Pakistani Army and the ISI may fail to demonstratively adhere to this new way of thinking.

Lastly, the anti-Kashmir agitations in Jammu dented the dissident cause. For the rest of the world, ‘Kashmir’s freedom struggle’ is now more nuanced, and Jammu has played an important part in highlighting the conflicts within the conflict. Agitations in Jammu made obvious to all what was already well known within J&K: Jammu and Leh have never been part of the struggle in Kashmir, and were always uneasy about the political supremacy of Kashmiris in the state. Kashmiris have always relied on their own centrality to tell the story of their struggle, yet the reorientation of focus towards the politics of the Kashmiri/Jammuite relationship, have complicated the equation. The introduction of the Jammu and, to a lesser extent, the Leh narratives have crowded the picture. A conflict-within-a-conflict has been unearthed, and it threatens to disrupt the over-simplified nature of the Kashmiri’s argument.

That said, much as New Delhi hopes that elections in the State will bring back normalcy, it needs to ensure that those elections are free and fair, lest the State fall back once more into instability. In other words, New Delhi, in its over-enthusiasm to stabilise the state, must not try to create a façade of normalcy by playing foul with elections. It must demonstrate what it has learnt since 2002, and let the electoral process answer questions it cannot.

(Happymon Jacob is Assistant Professor at the Department of Strategic and Regional Studies, the University of Jammu, J&K.)

[Avinash R]

Three militant hideouts busted
http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/26/stories ... 730100.htm

JAMMU: Security forces have busted three militant hideouts and recovered a huge quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives in Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu and Kashmir, defence sources said here on Saturday.

Two hideouts were busted in separate places in Budhal area of Rajouri district on Friday, they said, claiming to have recovered 245 rounds of AK ammunition, four AK magazines, one pistol with its two magazines and 17 rounds, one improvised explosive device (IED) weighing one kg. and 800 gm. of black coloured explosive.

Another hideout was found in the forest area of Nar-Mankote in Poonch district on Thursday. Recoveries there included one AK rifle with three magazines and 150 rounds, two Pakistani-made pistols with two magazines and ten rounds, six hand grenades, three RDX packets, 10 detonators and a radio set.

[anupmisra]

Three militant hideouts busted
http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/26/stories ... 730100.htm

JAMMU: Security forces have busted three militant hideouts and recovered a huge quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives in Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu and Kashmir, defence sources said here on Saturday.

Two hideouts were busted in separate places in Budhal area of Rajouri district on Friday, they said, claiming to have recovered 245 rounds of AK ammunition, four AK magazines, one pistol with its two magazines and 17 rounds, one improvised explosive device (IED) weighing one kg. and 800 gm. of black coloured explosive.

Another hideout was found in the forest area of Nar-Mankote in Poonch district on Thursday. Recoveries there included one AK rifle with three magazines and 150 rounds, two Pakistani-made pistols with two magazines and ten rounds, six hand grenades, three RDX packets, 10 detonators and a radio set.

What's the point of just "bursting" hideouts and not capturing or killing a few pigs at the same time?

[SSridhar]

Behead Indians in Public

‘‘Hamare Kashmiri bhaiyon ko Allah-tallah ka hukum hae ki Hindustaniyon ka qatal karo, sare aam unki gardane kato. Hindustani hukumat ko bata do ki unki koshishen humko juda karne ki kabhi kamayab nahi hogi. Kashmir hamara hai or rahega....’’ (Our Kashmiri brothers, the Almighty desires the public beheading of Indians. Show the Indian Government that its ‘‘efforts’’ to keep us separate will never succeed.)

After 30 minutes of such incendiary exhortation, the speaker winds up with: ‘‘Kashmir zindabad, Allah hafiz.’’

‘‘These people provoke us to pick up arms but I can tell you that most of us want to remain with India. We too are keeping track of what is going on in Pakistan,’’ says Qazi, who has witnessed fierce gun battles in his village, the most recent being the killing of two top HM members who were trying to infiltrate into India. But it is not only 102 MHz that is spreading the anti-India propaganda, another such frequency — 106 MHz — too has the same agenda. Star Radio has also taken up a ‘‘Hate India’’ campaign.

We are reminded of a certain General Tariq (of the Azad Forces HQ) in 1947-48 which was a nom-de-guerre assumed by Maj. Akbar Khan (of Rawalpindi Conspiracy case later on)

[sum]

Link

Why Kerala youth are part of fight for Kashmir
Vicky Nanjappa

October 27, 2008 11:25 IST


Security forces recently gunned down two men, alleged to be terrorists, in Kashmir. Although there was some confusion at first, later it became clear that the duo hailed from Kerala [Images].

With the Kerala government too confirming that the men belonged to their state, an interesting question has come up and that is what were men from Kerala doing in Kashmir and how did they get involved in the fight for Kashmir?

Kerala, which has always been known for its secular fibre, has witnessed a change in the past one decade. The Malabar coast, which was once just an activity for smuggling, is now being used to transport arms and ammunition for extremist groups.

According to sources in the Intelligence Bureau, things changed in Kerala following the abduction and murder of a reformist named Maulavi Abul Hassan Chekannur in the year 1993. A delay in the probe made some persons believe that security agencies were being lethargic about the probe intentionally.

The secular fibre has slowly begun to change in the state. While this was the case, a few years later, the Students Islamic Movement of India and the Islamic Sevak Sangh that were both very strong in Kerala were banned. It was during this period that sentiments among some Muslims began to grow stronger.

This fact was taken advantage of by Pakistan-based terror groups who began swooping into the state. The IB says that it was easy for them to gain a strong footing in the state.

A large number of the SIMI cadres in Kerala were upset with the ban and it was easy meat to brain wash these youth to join the movement.

The rebuilding process of SIMI commenced a few years after it was banned and the outfit spread its tentacles wide in the state. The SIMI base was getting stronger with each day and according to the IB, they had become strongest in areas of Binanipuram near Aluva in Ernakulam district, Malappuram and Kozhikode.

The first traces of a Kerala module being involved in a terrorist activity came to light after the Coimbatore blast. Investigations revealed that Tamil Nadu-based Al-Umma had worked closely with Abdul Nasir Madhani, founder of the Kerala-based Islamic Sevak Sangh.

The IB says Pakistan-based groups helped these splinter groups in Kerala to regroup and set up base in the state. For the ISI, which was behind the entire operation, Kerala was the perfect destination.

A report by the Union Home Ministry had also indicates that Pakistan-based groups backed by the ISI were helping local groups set up base in Kerala. The mindset of some of the youth and the logistics were two reasons for choosing Kerala as a base, the IB says.

Pakistan-based groups realised that over the years that it was becoming increasingly difficult to infiltrate into India and wage a war in Kashmir and hence, they decided it would be best to recruit home-bred Jihadis in this war.

First and foremost, it was easier to send cadres into Kashmir from India rather than have them infiltrate through borders and dodge the strong security presence. Secondly, the ISI wants to give the impression that the fight for Kashmir is not only restricted to Pakistan, but there were a large number of persons within India who too shared their views on Kashmir.

Pakistan-based terror groups also found that support among the misguided youth of Kerala was stronger when compared to other states and hence this state was chosen as one of the key destinations to set up training camps.

Another fact that comes to mind is that Kerala had played a crucial role in setting up the Indian Mujahideen [Images], a wing of the Students Islamic Movement of India. The likes of Abdul Peedical Shibly and Yahya Kamakutty, both Kerala cadres who were arrested in Indore and Karnataka respectively had played a key role in recruiting techies into their outfit.

Investigations have also revealed that the recruitment process was so effective that SIMI and the IM had the men to even outsource cadres for operations in other countries.

The killing of two Kerala-based cadres in the Kashmir Valley is only the beginning of a new trend that is being witnessed in the battle for Kashmir.

A police officer from Kerala says they picked up a man by the name Abdul Jaleel from Edakadu in Kannur, who is alleged to have links with the men waging a war in Kashmir. His telephone records and diaries reveal that he has links with terrorists in Kashmir and further investigation would give a clear picture on how cadres from Kerala are being recruited for the battle for Kashmir.

Fr crying out loud, how can even find justification for mallus living 1000s of KMs away from pak/J&K fighting for Pak?

So, the killing of some hardline cleric and banning of SIMI causes entire hordes of youth form a "community" to jump over to Pak!!!

Guess, if tomorrow the RSS/BD is banned(as it looks like happening any time soon), any future wrongdoing by any cadre of the RSS/BD can be attributed to the ban??

Interestingly, the Times now reported while talking about this incident actually mentioned that the LDF and UDF were very secular and hence, didn't bother touching the islamic extremists till now!!! So, even the TV channels seemed to have understood the meaning of "secularism"...

[Lalmohan]

no, the underlying issue is that the ISI has invested considerable resources and effort to actively radicalise Indian muslim youths and get them to join the global jeehad. just like 'they' have done in britain and elsewhere. after all the finger pointing in the past at pakistan, they have shifted gears to try to show all terrorist violence in india as being homegrown

[satya]

What's the point of just "bursting" hideouts and not capturing or killing a few pigs at the same time?

These hideouts usually serve as ammo dumps/supply depots(they are never manned unless some terrorist in transit to pick up arm or ammo ) for terrorists and their discovery makes COIN ops more effective against terrorism. Food for thought : What can a terrorist do without arms & ammunition?. This also points to another hidden effect and its about the role of J&K police iirc there were police stations in J&K that use to safekeep the terrorist's arms& ammo so as to avoid detection by IA's search operations in 90s ( some policemen were caught doing so as per open media sources ) . Situation changed once the large scale induction of non-J&K terrorists began thereby causing a big loss of sympathy base among J&K residents including police apart from other measures of operational nature based on ground experience of IA ( led to evolution of RR battalion 6 infantry coy concept , unified command , road opening parties to name a few ) Another positive psy-ops is the effect on terrorist organization since hideout discovery usually means presence of mole/informers among their ranks and it increases their suspicion among themselves and also makes a fearful impression of Indian Intel agencies , all good for security agencies .

[sum]

no, the underlying issue is that the ISI has invested considerable resources and effort to actively radicalise Indian muslim youths and get them to join the global jeehad.

And our "patriotic" IM fell for the ISI lure hook, line and sinker like goats following a stack of hay? Wonder what kind of spine do they have?
Truly sad to see so many IMs involved in anti-national activities, esp if they go all the way from the southern tip to the northern tip to fight their own country!!!

[Lalmohan]

the radicalisation mantra is subtle and powerful. its about forsaking your other identities and returning to the bosom of the one true faith. the faith that is victimised and oppressed and must be defended. do not underestimate the power of this message to someone feeling like they are on the wrong side of life. the people playing this game are very skilled psycologists and manipulators, their 'victims' are very susceptible and some will crack

[Avinash R]

Why Kerala youth are part of fight for Kashmir

The report on rise of terrorist activity in kerala misses the middle east angle. many people from kerala which includes muslims are working in the middle east. they are exposed to a different and more fundamentalist interpretation of islam which advocates ceasing of all economic and social contacts with kafirs(all non muslims). this is not outright way of encouraging terrorism but if a person who grows up in a environment were he/she has no contacts with other religious communities and the only source of info on other religions are jihads cd's ,available freely, which shows a twisted and distorted form of other religions then this only helps in the radicalisation by other more fundamentalist preachers.
some of these videos show militias, allegedly christians, lining up muslims and shooting them dead during the serbian war. then muslims are shown attacking and killing serbian troops with shouts of allahuakbar and the message is clear. all christians are evil and only way to deal with them is to kill them.
in the same way it is shown that russian christians are killing muslims in chechnya. the way to deal with them is to torture and kill them. in one of the videos, a 'mujahid' holds a pistol to the fore finger of a abducted russian and blows it off with shouts of allahuakbar. israeli jews are shown killing muslims in palestine and closer home the gujarat riot cds are shown with the apperance of barkha dutt shown holding a half burnt koran. the message is clear hindus are not only burning the koran but hindu reporters are mocking muslims by showing the half burnt koran. it is not known how and where she got that half burnt koran but that one single shot is reused in many of the jihad videos. again and again the message is being sent that kill the kafirs because they are evil.

The middle east route is also used to smuggle in fake currency and drugs. the money is used for funding schools which preach the fundamentalist interpretation of koran. the drugs are not only sold to get money but also bartered with criminal gangs in exchange for explosive materials.

[vsudhir]

Five top Hizb militants manured in J-K

[Sachin]

So, the killing of some hardline cleric and banning of SIMI causes entire hordes of youth form a "community" to jump over to Pak!!!

If you are talking about the Maulavi Chekannur, he was never a hard liner. Infact he was just the opposite. He had interepreted Islam in a very different manner and preached for tolerance and non-violence. And his speeches became popular. This how ever was not liking to some of the old clerics (with enough political clout and large number of fanatic followers). A group abducted him and he was never heard of.

The state crime branch, the CBI all investigated the case. Only thing proven so far is that the Maulavi is murdered. The CBI also came up with a list of potential murderers. Some of them are already out of the country. There were plans to confiscate the properties of them as well as some absconding witnesses. Guess the property of one or two critical witnesses was confiscated.

The middle east route is also used to smuggle in fake currency and drugs.

In Kerala, there is another trouble coming via Middle east. A lot of financial dealings are happening (especially in the coastal belt). People who move to 'Gelf', pretty poor until then come back and invest in big time real estates. And the main preference is for coastal area. There was even a wide spread belief that any land which is for sale essentially reaches the hand of some individual from a 'particular community'.

How ever the present CM took initiative to bring in lots of regulations into land transactions, especially when it comes to declaring the source of funds. Until then most of these transactions were using cash, which could be either fake currency or money brought via Hawala.

[sum]

If you are talking about the Maulavi Chekannur, he was never a hard liner. Infact he was just the opposite. He had interepreted Islam in a very different manner and preached for tolerance and non-violence. And his speeches became popular. This how ever was not liking to some of the old clerics (with enough political clout and large number of fanatic followers). A group abducted him and he was never heard of.

So, it was hardline islamists who murdered him and not hindutva groups?
That makes the reason of his killing leading to KMs becoming extremists even more puzzling!!!

[Sachin]

So, it was hardline islamists who murdered him and not hindutva groups?
That makes the reason of his killing leading to KMs becoming extremists even more puzzling!!!

It is a surprize to me that the name of Hindutva groups have been associated with the murder of Maulavi Chekannur. Because in Kerala it is pretty much well known who are forces who did him in. You will not find them in any Hindutva organisation office. They are all Muslims, and that too said to big time fans of some other more hard-core maulavis (Thangal/Musaliyaar - Malayalam word denoting holy men). If you see the list of accused, you will see they are all from a 'particular community'.
From the Chindu

KOCHI: Special Judge of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Kamal B. Pasha on Tuesday arrayed general secretary of the Sunni Muslim Group Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musaliyar as the 10th accused in the Chekannur Moulavi murder case.

If Hindutva forces are now alleged to be behind this murder, that seems to be a new spin which is getting made.

[vsudhir]

PDP to contest elections in Jammu and Kashmir

Stop the presses! Whuddathunkit onlee??

The People's Democratic Party on Tuesday announced that it will take part in the coming assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, but maintained that the Centre should have initiated a "serious dialogue" with all sections in the Kashmir Valley before holding elections.

The party argued that it has decided to contest the polls as a boycott will help "some political parties" trying to subvert the people's right to choose their representatives.

"If PDP stays away from the elections, we are going to facilitate the agenda of these parties of undermining the people's authority to elect their representatives. It is a challenge for our party and we accept it," PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told reporters in Srinagar.

So the mehb00ba ain't averse to polls held under the yindian constitution after all despite recent bravado. Wonder what the NC will have to say. Safe it is to assume that after the Jammu protests, no valley based party will get any seats worth the name in kafir majority parts of J&K. Also, the ongoing delimitation will throw in some interesting twists.

[sum]

Also, the ongoing delimitation will throw in some interesting twists.

Is it being implemented in J&K for this election?
Highly doubtful about that....

[anupmisra]

Malik gets engaged to a Paki
What next? Dual citizenship? or Exit visa?


Jailed Malik Gets Engaged

Srinagar, Oct 27- KONS: Leading Kashmiri nationalist and front-ranking pro-freedom leader, Muhammad Yasin Malik, has ended his self-enforced bachelorhood by a quiet engagement to a Karachi-born London student whom he had met on one of his trips to Pakistan.

But on his engagement day, the JKLF chief was a state guest at one the valley’s numerous police stations, having been arrested by the government in its crackdown on the poll boycott campaign of the pro-freedom camp, and the honours were done by three Pakistan based friends who visited Karachi with a ring for the bride.

Significantly, the bride-to-be, the daughter of a departed senior Pakistani defence official, who has her brother teaching security affairs at a US university, will be the third oversees bride in Kashmir’s pro-freedom camp after the wives of Sajjad Ghani Lone and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.

[sum]

Link

Barack Obama's Kashmir thesis!
C Raja Mohan


Singapore, November 3: As Obamamania grips much of the world, including India, the man who might become the next President of the United States has ideas on Jammu and Kashmir that should cause some concern to New Delhi.

Given its vastly improved relations with the United States and Pakistan, India has no reason to press the panic button. Yet it should be quickly flagging its concerns with the foreign policy team of Senator Barack Obama, should he be declared the Forty-fourth President of the United States on Tuesday night.

In an interview broadcast on MSNBC, Obama suggested that his administration would encourage India to solve the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan, so that Islamabad can better cooperate with the United States on Afghanistan. Obama’s definitive thesis comes in three parts.


“The most important thing we’re going to have to do with respect to Afghanistan is actually deal with Pakistan. And we’ve got to work with the newly elected government there (Pakistan) in a coherent way that says, terrorism is now a threat to you. Extremism is a threat to you. We should — try to resolve the Kashmir crisis so that they (Pakistan) can stay focused not on India, but on the situation with those militants”. India entirely agrees with the first two elements but should strongly object to the third.

Put simply, the Obama thesis says: the sources of Afghan instability are in Pakistan; those in turn are linked to Islamabad’s conflict with New Delhi, at the heart of which is Jammu and Kashmir.

For months now, New Delhi has been assessing Obama’s seeming hard-line towards Pakistan, including a threat to bomb terrorist bases there if Islamabad failed to act against the al-Qaida and the Taliban. India, however, has paid less attention to the carrot

Obama was offering Pakistan—American activism on Kashmir in return for credible cooperation in Afghanistan.

Obama’s remarks on Kashmir are by no means off the cuff. They have been remarkably consistent since he launched his presidential campaign. In the first comprehensive articulation of his world view in the journal Foreign Affairs during the summer of 2007, Obama argued, “If Pakistan can look towards the east (India) with confidence, it will be less likely to believe its interests are best advanced through cooperation with the Taliban.”

If Obama’s Kashmir thesis becomes the policy, many negative consequences might ensue. For one, an American diplomatic intervention in Kashmir will make it impossible for India to pursue the current serious back channel negotiations with Pakistan on Kashmir, the first since 1962-63.

India and Pakistan have made progress in recent years, because their negotiations have taken place in a bilateral context. Third party involvement will rapidly shrink the domestic political space for India on Kashmir negotiations.

For another, the prospect that the U S might offer incentives on Kashmir is bound to encourage the Pakistan Army to harden its stance against the current peace process with India.

Finally, the sense that an Obama Administration will put Jammu & Kashmir on the front burner would give a fresh boost to militancy in Kashmir and complicate the current sensitive electoral process there. Kashmiri separatist lobbies in Washington have already embraced Obama’s remarks.

To be sure, Indo-U S relations are much stronger today to suggest a return to the discordant early 1990s, when Kashmir topped the bilateral agenda. Yet, New Delhi cannot ignore that Pakistan is likely to be at the very top of a President Obama’s national security agenda and his perception of a linkage between Kashmir and Afghanistan.

India’s chattering classes may be carried away by Obama’s talk of ‘change’ in Washington. On Kashmir at least, India badly needs ‘continuity’ with President George W Bush’s deliberate hands-off approach.

Although his historic civil nuclear initiative got all the attention, President Bush’s Kashmir policy has contributed even more significantly to the transformation of Indo-U S relations.

Despite relentless pressures from Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Bush refused to inject the U S into the Indo-Pak conflict. By ending the traditional American meddling in Kashmir, Bush created the conditions for purposeful bilateral negotiations between New Delhi and Islamabad. India would not want Obama to disrupt this positive dynamic in the subcontinent.

India does not disagree with Obama that a Pakistan secure within its own borders is good for the whole region. That indeed is the basis on which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee explored solutions to the Kashmir dispute on a bilateral basis.

India’s problem with the Obama thesis is in the simplistic trade-off it sets up between Kashmir and Afghanistan. More than seven years after 9/11, Washington has begun to understand that the source of the problem in both Kashmir and Afghanistan is the Pak Army and its instrumentalisation of extremism to achieve political objectives.

Ending the Army’s right to define Isalamabad’s national security goals would make it a lot easier to resolve Pakistan’s disputes with both India and Afghanistan. That in turn would demand Indo-U S cooperation in accelerating Pakistan’s democratic transition by establishing firm civilian control over the military.

(C. Raja Mohan is a Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University and a Contributing Editor of The Indian Express.)

Shouldnt the possible election of Obama be ringing alarm bells in South and North blocks?

Back to the old democrat ways of Clinton era then?

[jamwal]

Pak violates ceasefire again, 2 jawans injured in Pak fire

http://dailyexcelsior.com/

JAMMU: Less than three weeks after Pakistan promised to stop cross-border firing, its troops today opened heavy firing on Indian positions, injuring two Border Security Force (BSF) jawans in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistani troops opened small arms firing from their post on BSF posts along the International Border in Makwal belt of Jammu district before dawn, BSF sources said.

Two BSF jawans of 141 Battalion were injured in the firing, they said adding that they have been hospitalised.

BSF troops of 141 battalion guarding the border line observed calm despite provocation and did not retaliate.

The ceasefire violation by Pakistan came less than three weeks after India and Pakistan decided to refrain from cross-border firing and shelling and to preserve the sanctity of the four-year-old ceasefire along Indo-Pak border.

This was agreed at a two-day bi-annual meeting between Pakistan rangers and BSF at Lahore on October 16 during which Pakistan rangers Director General Lt Gen Mohammad Yaqoob Khan promised Additional Director General BSF UK Bansal that there would be no ceasefire violations henceforth while acknowledging that there had been some violations earlier.

This is the 36th ceasefire violation since January this year and seventh in Sabzian sub-sector where two jawans were killed in Pakistan firing in September.

The last ceasefire violation by Pakistan troops was on October 27, when its troops shelled Indian posts, again violating the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Sabzian area of Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The ceasefire violation and firing by Pakistan is aimed at infiltrating militants into Jammu and Kashmir to target forthcoming assembly elections in the state, officials said adding that troops at the border are foiling infiltration attempts by militants.

BSF and Army has further beefed up the security along the border and LoC after intelligence reports that several big groups of militants are waiting to enter Jammu and Kashmir, they said.

The army’s Director General of military operations had protested to his Pakistani counterpart on a couple of occasions over ceasefire violations, especially during the Tangdhar firing and the Nowgam LoC breach.

Breaches of the ceasefire by Pakistan have been reported from Jammu, Peer Bhadeshwar, Samba, Rajouri, Uri, Tanghdhar and Poonch sector this year, from where a large number of militants have been trying to infiltrate into India.

BSF and Army has assessed that the Pakistani firing occurred whenever militant groups were making attempts to infiltrate into India and ceasefire violations could be a tactic to distract Indian forces along the LoC.

Over 132 infiltration bids have been reported in the last nine months from across the LoC in which 80 militants have been killed. (PTI)

Its getting too much now. Last time, Pakis stopped shelling only after Indians started replying them in kind. Why is it necessary for India to fight war of US?

[jamwal]

Pak violates ceasefire again, 2 jawans injured in Pak fire

http://dailyexcelsior.com/

JAMMU: Less than three weeks after Pakistan promised to stop cross-border firing, its troops today opened heavy firing on Indian positions, injuring two Border Security Force (BSF) jawans in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistani troops opened small arms firing from their post on BSF posts along the International Border in Makwal belt of Jammu district before dawn, BSF sources said.

Two BSF jawans of 141 Battalion were injured in the firing, they said adding that they have been hospitalised.

BSF troops of 141 battalion guarding the border line observed calm despite provocation and did not retaliate.

The ceasefire violation by Pakistan came less than three weeks after India and Pakistan decided to refrain from cross-border firing and shelling and to preserve the sanctity of the four-year-old ceasefire along Indo-Pak border.

This was agreed at a two-day bi-annual meeting between Pakistan rangers and BSF at Lahore on October 16 during which Pakistan rangers Director General Lt Gen Mohammad Yaqoob Khan promised Additional Director General BSF UK Bansal that there would be no ceasefire violations henceforth while acknowledging that there had been some violations earlier.

This is the 36th ceasefire violation since January this year and seventh in Sabzian sub-sector where two jawans were killed in Pakistan firing in September.

The last ceasefire violation by Pakistan troops was on October 27, when its troops shelled Indian posts, again violating the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Sabzian area of Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The ceasefire violation and firing by Pakistan is aimed at infiltrating militants into Jammu and Kashmir to target forthcoming assembly elections in the state, officials said adding that troops at the border are foiling infiltration attempts by militants.

BSF and Army has further beefed up the security along the border and LoC after intelligence reports that several big groups of militants are waiting to enter Jammu and Kashmir, they said.

The army’s Director General of military operations had protested to his Pakistani counterpart on a couple of occasions over ceasefire violations, especially during the Tangdhar firing and the Nowgam LoC breach.

Breaches of the ceasefire by Pakistan have been reported from Jammu, Peer Bhadeshwar, Samba, Rajouri, Uri, Tanghdhar and Poonch sector this year, from where a large number of militants have been trying to infiltrate into India.

BSF and Army has assessed that the Pakistani firing occurred whenever militant groups were making attempts to infiltrate into India and ceasefire violations could be a tactic to distract Indian forces along the LoC.

Over 132 infiltration bids have been reported in the last nine months from across the LoC in which 80 militants have been killed. (PTI)

Its getting too much now. Last time, Pakis stopped shelling only after Indians started replying them in kind. Why is it necessary for India to fight war of US?

[RajeshA]

X-posting own post from Indo-US News and Discussion Thread:

Referring to C Raja Mohan's article on Obama and Kashmir!
------

Talking about the power of words!

A simple non-threatening positive-sounding remark from Obama about Kashmir can raise a storm in India! It may have to do with what this guy embodies for many people, and that is HOPE, including for people who support the TSP terrorists in India.

The whole strategy in the last years by both India and USA on terrorism in India, is to a large extent based on convincing the Pakistanis, that their old ways are not going to find any more backers in the international community, Kashmir is not going to be changing sovereignty, so their whole strategy on Kashmir is a tunnel with no light at the end. Many Pakistanis, as one would be apprised from reading their papers, had developed strong doubts about the viability of the Kashmir policy, and their numbers were constantly increasing. That development, based on loss of hope, helped to a large extent in finding some space for rapprochement between India and Pakistan.

Obama's mantras of Hope and Change is exactly the kind revisionist message mixed with his utterances on 'resolving Kashmir', which could pour more oil into the fires in South Asia.

This could lead to increased levels of terrorism in India and Afghanistan, as these terrorists will feel emboldened that by putting more pressure on America on TSP's Western border, would push America to involve themselves in 'resolving Kashmir'. More terrorism in India also, would give the Obama Administration, more an impression, that Kashmir may need a creative solution based on appeasement.

Obama needs to be made to understand very early on, that as far as Kashmir is concerned, he will have to stick to George W. Bush's hands-off policy and of deflating all balloons of HOPE, otherwise the next US President becomes a source of increased terrorism in the region.

[Manu]

Link

3 cops detained for militant's escape
SRINAGAR: Three policemen have been detained in connection with the dramatic escape of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Rayees Ahmad Dar alias "Kachru" in Pulwama district when he was being taken to a local court, Head constable Manzoor Ahmad and constables Abdul Majid and Mohammad Rouf are being questioned, they said.

Dar, a self-styled divisional commander of Hizbul Mujahideen and involved in more than 40 killings, escaped from sessions court on Tuesday after shooting Sonam Dourjey, his guard, with a pistol.

He shot Dourjey, who was holding his handcuff, when head constable Ahmad went inside the court to ascertain the timing of Dar's case.

Investigations are on to find out how the militant managed to get hold of the weapon.

It is being investigated whether he was provided the weapon in court or some of his associates helped him.

Police had ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident which is being viewed as a serious security lapse as there is heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces on court premises and all visitors are frisked before entering the complex.