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Former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri's interview to Karan Thapar has stirred up a lot of interest in his claims on the results achieved in the backchannel negotiations between New Delhi and Islamabad. Kasuri said that most of the negotiations on Kashmir were successfully completed during his tenure as foreign minister under Pervez Musharraf and draft agreements were ready to be signed. They were to have been signed during the visit of the Indian PM to Pakistan which did not take place, according to Kasuri, because of elections in India, the crisis in Pakistan following the ouster of the supreme court chief justice and subsequent polls and change of government.
There is another view that the Indian government backed off at the last moment. Some informed observers in India maintain that developments in Pakistan came in the way of the agreement being finalised. In this connection it is pertinent to recall the much-criticised comment of national security adviser M K Narayanan in an interview that India found it easier to do business with Musharraf. The latest article by Steve Coll in the New Yorker goes some way in confirming the Indian and not Kasuri's version.
In the last few days US special envoy Richard Holbrooke has been holding discussions with the Pakistani army chief and ISI chief along with senior Afghan officials in Washington on the proposed strategy for the Af-Pak region, especially in the light of the ceasefire agreement reached with the Taliban in the Swat valley. While India is staying out of this meeting, the idea appears to be to persuade the Pakistani army and ISI that the concerns of Pakistan about its eastern front, and often used as an alibi to justify the inadequate response against the al-Qaeda and Taliban, are totally misplaced. Kasuri's revelations and Coll's report should strengthen the hands of Washington.
There is general agreement in India and the US that the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack was carried out by people with the intention of provoking New Delhi to react militarily. This, in turn, would have resulted in Pakistan shifting forces from its western to eastern borders and arguing that it was unable to effectively support the US-NATO strategy in Afghanistan. India, however, did not walk into the trap. It is obvious that some people would not like to see a solution to Kashmir as envisaged in the Indo-Pak backchannel dialogue. It would also appear that such opposition may not be restricted to a small group in Pakistan but may extend to a much larger section that is not interested in a bilateral solution to Kashmir but to continually bleed India through a thousand cuts. It is unfortunate that the Simla Pact efforts to solve Kashmir bilaterally were torpedoed and the Lahore Declaration was followed by the Kargil infiltration.
There are reasons to worry whether there is continuity of policy and approach in Pakistan. General Kayani was fully in the picture, according to both Kasuri and Coll, and was supportive of the draft agreement arrived at on Kashmir. However, the present government and army chief have discarded Musharraf's version of A Q Khan being the sole nuclear proliferator. According to the findings of the Islamabad high court, the charges against Khan were not substantiated. If this was so, who authorised the proliferation from Pakistan to North Korea, Iran and Libya? For reasons best known to them, the present rulers of Pakistan have decided to repudiate past policy.
Can we be sure that in respect of the backchannel understanding on Kashmir the current regime has not repudiated that too, as they have done with the version on Khan? If the Pakistani government feels bound by that backchannel understanding, why did they use the eastern border as a security concern preventing their full cooperation against Taliban? Two books by journalists David Sanger and Ron Susskind quote intercepts of telephone conversations in which Pakistani generals had referred to Taliban leaders Haqqani and Mullah Omar as strategic assets. Musharraf was prepared to assure the Americans of his cooperation to fight Taliban and at the same time use them.
If we are able to conclude a mutually satisfactory arrangement between India and Pakistan, which is also acceptable to the people of Kashmir, we should go ahead with it. But before we do that, we have to be sure that the backchannel understanding is not one more instance of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds. Second, we have to be sure that the present army leadership still stands by the understanding reached earlier and has not changed its mind as it has done in the case of Khan. The result of the repudiation of the earlier story on Khan is to restore the image of Pakistan and hold a pistol to the head of the US about the consequences of not giving full aid.
Now that Kasuri and Coll have spilt the beans, the Indian government should organise an education campaign, especially among US think tanks, that a framework for a Kashmiri settlement already exists. And as US president Barack Obama pointed out, Pakistan does not have to worry about any threat from its eastern border; its threats are from within. But the Pakistani army's leadership is yet to be convinced that Taliban is a threat and not an asset and Khan was a proliferator.
The writer is a Delhi-based strategic affairs analyst.
Last edited by ramana on 26 Feb 2009 08:04, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Edited to highlight crucial information-ramana Thanks for the full posting
Thats Steve Coll article has a lot of info and lot of subtle psy-ops. And he gets audience with the highest officials due to his subtle psy-ops. The biggest psy-ops is while admitting the TSP perfidy he also implies India also deserves it due to its 'actions'.
Anyway in Kargil did the Indian Army ever find any irregular/civilians among the intruders? I thought they were all NLI troops. The irregulars were at most porters for the Paki soldiers.
The big handicap India has is the failure of imagination of the political class that keeps touting that survival of TSP as a state is in Indian interests.
Every interview with a Western journalist repeats this lie.
Jammu & Kashmir Governor NN Vohra on Wednesday could not wind up his maiden address to the joint session of the newly elected 11th Assembly with customary ‘Jai Hind’, nor police band stationed outside the Central Hall of the State Legislature building could play the National Anthem, as the main Opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) disrupted the Governor’s address by frequently chanting slogans of withdrawal of troops from the State and revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
Minutes after the Governor entered the Central Hall of the tastefully decorated State Legislature building to address the joint session he departed from the scene “unceremoniously” without completing his address.
The ruckus started inside the Central Hall soon after BJP legislature party leader Chaman Lal Gupta attracted Governor’s attention by saying that the august gathering he was going to address had not been judiciously constituted.
Gupta, clad in dogra turban, said, “In Jammu region 21 lakh people voted during 2008 Assembly poll and elected 37 MLAs whereas in Kashmir only 16 lakh people participated in polling and still they elected 46 public representatives”.
JAMMU, Feb 27: The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was today caught on wrong foot in the Legislative Assembly over the statement of party MLA Nizam-ud-Din Bhat that 36 houses have been burnt and damaged and were rendered inhabitable at Ayatmulla, Bandipora in an encounter between security forces and militants.
Mr Bhat, while participating in discussion on an adjournment motion over Sopore killings yesterday, had alleged that 36 houses were burnt and damaged in an encounter on January 28 at Ayatmulla. He went on to say that he should be held responsible for making a false statement in the House if a single house in the area was found safe for habitation.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah , in his reply, had said that information provided to him revealed that only one house has been burnt. He had declared that if his information was found incorrect, he would take stern action against the officer for misleading him and the House.
"Though walls of some other houses had developed cracks or glasses damaged, no house other than that of Mr Lone, was burnt. Entire population of the area was living in their habitations and none had deserted the village", Mr Sagar said.
He added that damage caused to the houses has also been assessed by the authorities. While 13 houses have suffered damage up to Rs 500 only, nine houses had damage ranging between Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 while two other houses had damage worth Rs 80,000 and Rs 20,000.
Mr Abdullah said his Government was not going to hide the truth under any circumstances. "Had 36 houses been damaged, we would have admitted it. However, quick and on spot verification of the facts after the PDP MLA’s charges has proved that only one house had been damaged as I said yesterday", he added.
sum wrote:What exactly did the IA do wrong in 47-48 and was it really below par effort from IA in the J&K sector?
In the 1947-48 J&K War the IA's operations were hamstrung by its British commanders and the Governor-General Mountbatten. And the latter got a say in controlling the IA's operations thanks to the sheer idiocy of that #$!(*& Nehru!
JLN's first mistake was in not accepting Hari Singh's accession offer in mid-September 1947. But leave that aside; his most criminal negligence was in making Mountbatten the Chairman of the Defence Committee of the Indian Cabinet. It was this Defence Committee which controlled the IA's operations. The following are a small list of proposed IA operations stymied by the British through the Defence Committee:
1. Supply of arms to J&K State. A request made by Hari Singh on 1st October, and supported by Sardar Patel, was initially blocked (on the plea that no surplus arms were available) and then delayed for several weeks by C-in-C General Lockhart.
2. Relief of J&K State Forces garrisons in the towns of Mirpur, Punch, Kotli, Jhangar, Naoshera, etc which were holding on against the Pakistani invaders, were stymied repeatedly by the new C-in-C Bucher. The British wanted these areas to be occupied by Pakistan because they controlled access to the Jhelum River and the Mangla Dam, which sustained agriculture in West Punjab.
3. Requests for additional battalions by either Kalwant Singh or LP Sen were denied by Bucher on the grounds that it would thin the defence in East Punjab!
4. Air operations against Pakistani Dakotas flying in supplies to their forces, which had occupied Gilgit, were halted after the UK High Commissioner in Delhi spoke to Air Marshall Elmherst who then convinced Nehru that the pakistani supply missions were not that critical!
5. A plan to destroy bridges across the Kishenganga, which would have cut-off Muzaffrabad from Pakistan, was also dropped on the insistence of Bucher.
New Delhi: While Lashkar’s top leaders Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Yousuf Muzammil, Ahmad Bhai and Zarar Shah are said to be in Pak custody as part of the probe into the Mumbai attacks, the group is learnt to have replaced them with new commanders to resume their operations — all Pak nationals who have operated in the Valley over the last decade.
Top intelligence sources said four new commanders Shahji, Hyder Bhayee, Huzefa and Walid have taken over the Lashkar’s reins, their initial focus being the Valley and the Doda-Rajouri-Poonch belt in Jammu.
I feel that this is BS and the guys "replacing" the bosses are only warming the seat till the big guys returns after their round of R&R at the nearest ISI safehouse.
Hyder Bhayee, known as Bilal and Salahudin in the Valley, operated in the jungles of Bandipore in north Kashmir for eight years until he crossed over to Pakistan in 2006. His exit, in fact, led to a sharp dip in suicide attacks particularly in Srinagar city.
Interesting that our agencies have finally pin pointed the real identity of "Bilal alias Salahuddin". He was one of the greatest mysteries for our agencies and Praveen Swami has been mentioning a 1000 times about how the shadowy/unknown "Bilal" was causing Havoc all over India.
I think our agencies are putting 400% more effort in keeping an eye on the Paki Jihadis after 26/11 and slowly are getting a clear answers to all their previously unsolved questions.
What would it take to "convince" 92 MLAs in JK to pass a resolution abolishing Art-370. abolishing Constitution of JK and demand equal status as other Indian states?
Please notice that word "convince" can mean many things. Just as voluntary confessions need not always be force-less.
Interesting that our agencies have finally pin pointed the real identity of "Bilal alias Salahuddin". He was one of the greatest mysteries for our agencies and Praveen Swami has been mentioning a 1000 times about how the shadowy/unknown "Bilal" was causing Havoc all over India.
Headlines Today actually showing small video clips of the new LeT heads in J&K.
So, from a complete unknown to video footage of Bilal within a few months!!! Wonder where IB/RAW got hold of these tapes from?
What would it take to "convince" 92 MLAs in JK to pass a resolution abolishing Art-370. abolishing Constitution of JK and demand equal status as other Indian states?
Please notice that word "convince" can mean many things. Just as voluntary confessions need not always be force-less.
.
1) Prosperity of Indians in India and
2) Pakiban in Islumabad
Zaffarullah Khan Parray of Behlulia, Doda escaped from Anta camp of the Territorial Army unit in Dachan area with two AK rifles, one insas rifle, five AK magazines, twi insas magazines and some ammunition on Saturday night, police said.
What would it take to "convince" 92 MLAs in JK to pass a resolution abolishing Art-370. abolishing Constitution of JK and demand equal status as other Indian states?
Please notice that word "convince" can mean many things. Just as voluntary confessions need not always be force-less.
.
1) Prosperity of Indians in India and
2) Pakiban in Islumabad
Ramana you forgot, not giving bakshish. As long as they get 10,000 crores every two years, where is the question of they thinking of removing 370. They are getting the carrots, even though they do not move towards it. Sharing of rest of India's prosperity with Kashmir should be made dependent upon their moving towards abolishing 370
Sorry for my lack of knowledge in this regard. But whats the logic behind tamtaming an operational move like the thinning of troops in the valley? Shouldn't such news be suppressed, no matter how true?
And AFAIK, the violence/infiltration levels are always low during the winters (which has just gone by). So the drop in violence could just be a function of the seasons/weather there. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.
Akbar, who was recently released following his detention during the recently concluded assembly elections, alleged that the respective jail authorities have turned the prisons into interrogation centers. “The jail personnel in-charge are deliberately pushing the inmates into death trap for political vendetta,” he said. The inmates are being kept behind the bars all twenty-four hours a day. In Kote Balwal jail there is a complete ban on any kind of sports activity.
The inmates there can’t sport a beard nor can they recite the holy Quran loudly or hold congregational prayers. India and JK government consider such acts of Kashmiri Muslims as anti-Indian. The so-called “self-rule” planners like National Conference and PDP remain tight lipped over the issue and it can be construed that these acts are done on their behest as part of political vengeance. Expressing dismay over the role being played by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in this regard, Ayaz Akbar said, “The ICRC workers in Kashmir are here to take pleasure of Kashmir’s scenic beauty and have nothing to do with the condition of the prisoners. It’s all very disappointing.” Obviously, India knows none can save the defenseless Kashmiris.
The author is Delhi based Research Scholar in International Studies and can be reached at [email protected]
This is not a real person. No such person has ever been a 'scholar' at JNU. It is a pen named used by a number of persons to disseminate ISI propaganda.
Gerard wrote:This is not a real person. No such person has ever been a 'scholar' at JNU. It is a pen named used by a number of persons to disseminate ISI propaganda.
India-Kashmir-Pakistan: Kashmiri militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), responsible for the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, has replaced its leaders arrested following the attack and is currently training more than 800 new fighters to continue its operations in Kashmir, India’s Rediff reported March 13. Rediff quoted unnamed sources as saying Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence ordered LeT to regroup and recruit more cadres for Kashmir operations.
Based on this report, Readers should expect an increase in anti-Indian terrorist attacks in Kashmir as weather improves. Tension with India always increases as internal political stability declines in Pakistan. It is a reflexive reaction by Pakistani security services to try to make India less stable when Pakistan is unstable.
So expect more violence. And dont be caught off guard.
India-Kashmir-Pakistan: Kashmiri militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), responsible for the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, has replaced its leaders arrested following the attack and is currently training more than 800 new fighters to continue its operations in Kashmir, India’s Rediff reported March 13. Rediff quoted unnamed sources as saying Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence ordered LeT to regroup and recruit more cadres for Kashmir operations.
Based on this report, Readers should expect an increase in anti-Indian terrorist attacks in Kashmir as weather improves. Tension with India always increases as internal political stability declines in Pakistan. It is a reflexive reaction by Pakistani security services to try to make India less stable when Pakistan is unstable.
So expect more violence. And dont be caught off guard.
Did anyone post the March 13, 09 Rediff report?
where will the funding come from for all those new recruits? surely not from the middle east as they are entering the soup phase...given TSPs state of economy the only way ISI could be getting the cash is through Drugs I believe...I wonder when those channels of funds get dried up...
where will the funding come from for all those new recruits? surely not from the middle east as they are entering the soup phase...given TSPs state of economy the only way ISI could be getting the cash is through Drugs I believe...I wonder when those channels of funds get dried up
They have set up a huge NGO , which gets funding from private donations. Then they have illegal activities like smugling and printing money. Effectively India is financing a large part of the kashmir insugency.
TSP is in love with this model. But they have nurtured a dracula. The dracula cant consume India, hence it will take TSP in stead.
Funding for the new terrorists would come from TSPA budget. After all they are Pakistani armymen with a different battalion called "Non state actors" just like NFI a.k.a downhill skiing actors.
If nothing else works, then Uncle Kerry is there to foot the bill.
Is there any rule in any state in India according to which people belonging to a particular district cannot apply for state govt. jobs in any other district? There was this bill proposed in J&K assembly that was supposed to implement a law like that.
jamwal wrote:Is there any rule in any state in India according to which people belonging to a particular district cannot apply for state govt. jobs in any other district? There was this bill proposed in J&K assembly that was supposed to implement a law like that.
None that I know of.
However, in the particular context of J&K, it might actually help the non-valley areas to not have valley IMs poach on jobs there. Since outsiders can hardly live and work normally in the valley anyway, it will the valley IMs' loss, IMHO.
This is how these "kolkata based Intellectuals" decreed the Army , they spew garbage in the name of facts and proud DDM like HT print it with impunity.
What led to the Army's presence in Kashmir in the first place , they were not sent their out of their own free will - because TSP originating Jihadis and with the support of a few Locals was getting out of control , Army needed an iron fist.
HAd they not gone ahead and deployed the army , the Jihadis would very well have blasts ripping across as far as Kolkata and near the deaf ears to these Intellectual A$$e$.
The facts belie the assertion that the Army is immune to moral interference from outside.
The acts/actions/statements/commentaries of the JK Govt, the Human Rights, the JK Court, the Indian and foreign media and even the activities of the Hurriyat are but, rightly or wrongly, 'moral interference' in the functioning of the security forces. So was the act of Arundhuti Roy in Srinagar as also the demented views of the leftist economist, columnist and harridan, Ashok Mitra who repeatedly terms the Indian Army as an Occupation Force and does not recognise the Instrument of Accession?!!
The issue that a govt servant cannot be prosecuted for his act, omission or commission, done on behalf of the Govt is universal and not confined alone to acts omission or commissions committed in J&K. It is interesting how certain laws have been quoted in the column to spread disinformation and canard. It is typical of the fifth columnists in India and of the Communists, who secret agenda is to make govt law and order machinery moribund so that they can act with impunity to spread the ‘peoples’ revolution’! Bengal stands witness to this chicanery!
122 military personnel have been indicted for acts/omissions/commissions. This, in itself, indicates the agenda of the columnist to spread the canard that the Army is immune to moral interference – in fact, the Army is not only not immune, but is also subject to judicial overseeing!!
The Army has to hand over the individual detained under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act at the earliest. This does not mean indefinite detention. It means the time for travel to the nearest Police outposts from the remote area where apprehended. 48 hours is allowed IIRC for interrogation by the Army. When handing over the suspect to the Police, details of the circumstances and event of the arrest has also to be given to the police.
It is always easy to terms all detention centres as ‘notorious’.
The columnist typifies the left wing fifth columnists like Askok Mitra and his ilk, who are demented and wedded to the failed Idol – Communism!
They are self styled 'intellectual' and not actually very intellectual in the true sense of the word!
jamwal wrote:Is there any rule in any state in India according to which people belonging to a particular district cannot apply for state govt. jobs in any other district? There was this bill proposed in J&K assembly that was supposed to implement a law like that.
None that I know of.
However, in the particular context of J&K, it might actually help the non-valley areas to not have valley IMs poach on jobs there. Since outsiders can hardly live and work normally in the valley anyway, it will the valley IMs' loss, IMHO.
Thanks. Actually that law was being supported by Kashmiri parties. I read a small report in a local paper on that.
There is no SC category in Kashmiris. Only non-Kashmiri/Muslim people have this "privilege". That quota ( 6-8%) even in Kashmir was being filled by Hindus only. Maybe that's why they proposed this bill.
Like you said, it seems like a 2 way street.
Making such kind of law is very confusing. What will happen to SC quota seats in Kashmir if no SC can apply there?
How would the Govt identify the district to which a particular person belongs ?
Would it be by residence or education or something else ? Lastly are state govt jobs district specific ?
But if this is right, then state Govt can create majority of Jobs in Kashmir showing them districts in Kashmir specific and later move those Govt servants to other districts thereby letting the Muslims fill all the govt jobs and rest of the state be damned.
India on Thursday said it would not discuss the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan until Pakistan stopped insisting that it was a territorial dispute.
“It is possible to discuss the dispute once it becomes clear that Pakistan is no more insisting on dividing or exchanging the territory, or talking about settling the status of the territory,” Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said He called for adopting ‘creative approaches’ to settle issues with China and Pakistan.
India on Thursday said it would not discuss the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan until Pakistan stopped insisting that it was a territorial dispute.
“It is possible to discuss the dispute once it becomes clear that Pakistan is no more insisting on dividing or exchanging the territory, or talking about settling the status of the territory,” Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said He called for adopting ‘creative approaches’ to settle issues with China and Pakistan.
SS Menon seems to be a real hard talking rare kind of Indian diplomat....
Wasn't he the same person who said that feeding Pak is like giving alcohol to a addict? Maybe, its the GoI which has lost all semblance of restraint against Pak after 26/11 and given a free hand to its diplomats to say things in even "undiplomatic language"...
Actually the change in language by certain babus started before 26/11 - it was just that we were pre-occupied.
SS Menon is not rare by any means, any more or less than Saran, Jaishankar, Haider, Khurshid and others who pass through the MEA wringer. There is a certain line, which IMHO is a well considered one. It is followed. There are issues of course, but broadly speaking the direction is fine.
Yesterday, during the press conference, Omar spoke about shifting military camps from civilian areas. I guess the military cant be allowed to obey orders from any state gov. The decision to shift camps has to be taken only by the Chiefs or senior officers of the military.
