-
KASHMIRentinelS Let Truth PrevailIs Musharraf a liability in
theIs Musharraf a liability in theIs Musharraf a liability in theIs
Musharraf a liability in theIs Musharraf a liability in the‘War
against Terror’?‘War against Terror’?‘War against Terror’?‘War
against Terror’?‘War against Terror’?(By Special Correspondent)
There has been no evidence to suggest that Pakistan intends to
abandonstate-sponsored terrorism as aforeign policy tool. What is
morealarming is that even its politi-cal elite and very limited
glitterati
have also never condemnedPakistan’s state-sponsored ter-rorism
against India and Af-ghanistan. Despite this, Ameri-can govt.
continues to prop upGen. Musharraf as its best bet inthe War
against Terror.Pakistan’s votaries in India havebeen building hype
that the so-called peace process has become‘irreversible’. What do
the factsspeak?
Sectarian ViolenceSectarian violence in Pakistan
has increased, posing an evermore serious challenge to thestate.
Between January 1989 andMay 31, 2005 over 1784 Paki-stanis were
killed and 4279 in-jured in 1866 incidents of vio-lence. In 2004,
the number ofpeople killed and injured was187 and 619 respectively
in 19incidents of violence. First fivemonths of 2005 witnessed
over120 killings and 286 injured in30 incidents. Arif
Jamal,Pakistan’s foremost expert onJihad notes,” Sectarian
violencebecame intense after 9/11 attacksin US ,sectarian
terrorists startedusing suicide attacks. New mode
of violence was introduced dur-ing current wave of
sectarianconflict---a car bomb.” He addsthat the sectarian problem
can-not be overcome so long as thestate remains in alliance
withextremist elements. The sectar-ian and ethnic essentialism
that
came into its own in an orga-nized, militant form during theZia
period, now poses an evermore serious challenge to thestate.
War Against TalibanUS’s main concern has been
to enlist Pakistan’s support in itswar against anti-US
Taliban/AlQaeda. Musharraf has not deliv-ered on this count also.
Instead,he is engaged in enacting adrama of sifting ‘good’
from‘bad’ Taliban for prospectivebuyers. The 9/11 Commissionof the
US) in its December2005 report has said that Talibanforces still
operate in the Paki-stani Tribal areas and terroristsfrom Pakistan
carry out opera-tions in Kashmir. It warns thatPakistan remains a
sanctuary andtraining ground for terrorists.The report highlights
thatMusharraf has not taken any ac-tion to regulate the
madrassasproperly or close down all thosethat are known to have
links toextremist groups. It urges theBush administration to
pressur-ize Islamabad to shut downTaliban-linked religious
institu-tions and terrorist training
camps. Afghanistan and Ameri-can officials complain
periodi-cally of the Taliban still trainingand organizing in
Pakistan’s bor-der areas but their protests arerejected summarily
with rheto-ric similar to the one about do-mestic jihadi
groups.
Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, a notedPakistani columnist revealedthat
despite tall claims of elimi-nating Al Qaeda from thetroubled
Northern Areas ,Gen.Musharraf has actually handedover the once
hotbed of foreignterrorists ,the South WazirstanAgency to a former
Talibancommander, UbaildullahMahsud The latter has been un-til
recently a wanted terrorist bythe army. Mahsud had a headmoney of
several thousand ru-pees. He is now running his owngovt. in the
Agency ,in Talibanstyle. TV,Satellite dishes ,Music,Videos etc.
have all beenbanned. Gun-wielding Talibancarrying AK-47 rifles and
rocketlaunchers are being sent to re-mote areas to pressurize
peopleto seek intervention of localTaliban commanders in
settlingpersonal disputes. Locals de-scribe the situation in the
Agencyas atrocious like it was in pre-Sept. 2001 Afghanistan,
underthe Taliban rule. What hasstunned the local population isthe
sudden transformation of for-tunes of the former Taliban lead-ers
and how those who until re-
cently were hunted by the Paki-stani army for months, hadgained
legitimacy and returnedto power.
To facilitate UbaidullahMahsud ,Gen. Musharraf haswithdrawn all
Pak army troopsfrom the area now underMahsud’s control. Rizvi
notes:”This is another episode of themany double games beingplayed
by Gen. Musharraf withthe western world and speciallythe US which
is providing mil-lions of dollars to the Pak armyto control and
eliminate thoseterrorists . Instead,Musharraf isnot only pocketing
the money ,heis allowing declared terrorists toreturn to
power.”
Pakistan army cut a deal withMahsud on February 2,2005,whereby
ceasefire was an-nounced and Mahsud assuredthat his people will not
provideshelter to illegal foreigners andhand over wanted
individuals toauthorities . Despite his commit-ment ,Mahsud helped
the mostwanted terrorist in Wazirstan –Abdullah Mahsud to
escapefrom South Wazirstan.Abdullah,returnee of Guantanamo Bay,was
the first among Mahsudswho joined the Al Qaeda bandsto organize
armed attacks againstthe army . Under Mahsud’s ad-ministration 36
people whohelped Pak army in anti—AlQaeda operations previous
sum-mer have been killed .Many oth-ers have received
warnings.Similar killings were witnessedin North Wazirstan,where
bod-ies of victims were found onroadside or at deserted placeswith
messages that those whowill spy for ‘infidel’ Americanswill meet
this fate. The killersdid not hide their identities butauthorities
did not arrest a singleperson. Some of the most wantedterrorists
have now been spottedin WANA , the capital of SouthWazirstan .
Earlier, Musharrafrewarded Al Qaeda masters ofWaziri terrorists
with millions ofrupees.
Hub of International Ter-rorism
Pakistan’s linkages to suicidebombings in London and else-where
firmly establish that it hasbecome the hub of
internationalterrorism . This view is rein-forced by the presence
of
COVER STORYCOVER STORYCOVER STORYCOVER STORYCOVER STORY
A FACE OF CROSS-BORDER TERRORISM: Security personnel looking for
arms and ammunitionat damaged houses, after an encounter, in Bemina
area of Srinagar on 26 Dec 2005.
(Contd. on Page 13)
Vol. 11, No: 1 January, 2006 Pages 16 Price Rs. 8/-
INSIDEFOCUSPeace, not the peaceprocess should be
India'sconcern.................Page 3
VIEW POINT*Beautiful surroundingsare recipe
fordisaster.................Page 4*A Fairy tale of
CityStates....................Page 4
SPECIAL REPORT*Homeland Daycelebrated............Page 5*KP's
reject self rule inJ&K.....................Page 5
PERSPECTIVEWhat is at stake.....Page 6
ANALYSISJ&K TroopWithdrawal..........Page 7
RITUALSMekhal Ritual ofKashmiriPandits..................Page
8
PILGRIMAGEKonsarnag-Myth, Legendand History........Page 10
HERITAGE:VITASTA............Page 11
NOSTALGIAShall we ever return toour
eternalabode.................Page 12
CHRONOLOGY.......................... Page 14
Panun KashmirPanun KashmirPanun KashmirPanun KashmirPanun
KashmirFoundation &Foundation &Foundation &Foundation
&Foundation &
Kashmir SentinelKashmir SentinelKashmir SentinelKashmir
SentinelKashmir Sentinelwish its readerswish its readerswish its
readerswish its readerswish its readers
a very happya very happya very happya very happya very happyand
prosperousand prosperousand prosperousand prosperousand
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20062006200620062006
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2KASHMIR SENTINELJanuary 2006
1. Smt. Jai Kishori Kher W/o Lt. Sh. Pitambar Nath Kher R/o
76Karan Nagar Sgr; presently at G-34, Company Bagh Qtrs.
Jammu.4/12/2005
2. Smt. Bimla Bhat W/o Sh. Triloki Nath Bhat, R/o Raj
GhatBaramulla; present at H.No: 208/2, Tomal Anand
NagarBohri,Jammu. 4/12/2005
3. Sh. N.N. Koul R/o 35-A, Indira Nagar Sgr; presently at
S-53/32DLF Phase-III Gurgoan Haryana, Jammu. 5/12/2005
4. Smt. Sooma Wati Koul W/o Lt. Sh. Sudha Lal Koul, R/o
NawaKadal Sgr; presently at 34, Lower Laxmi Nagar Sarwal
Jammu.5/12/2005
5. Ritu Dhar D/o Sh. B.L. Dhar. 6/12/20056. Sh. Kanya Lal Bhat
R/o Anantnag Kmr; presently at H.No: 115,
Sector 6, Charanjeev Vihar, Gaziabad UP. 7/12/20057. Sh. J.L.
Sapru S/o Lt. Sh. Kanth Ram Sapru R/o Lal Nagar
Chanpora Sgr; presently at H.No: 286-A, Vipin Garden
KakoralaMorh New Delhi. 7/12/2005
8. Smt. Oma Shori Zadoo W/o Lt. Sh. Prithvi Nath Zadoo R/o
ZainderMohalla Sgr; presently at H.No: 1/A, Sec-3, Bhagwati
Nagar,Jammu. 7/12/2005
9. Sh. Shyam Lal Bhat S/o Sh. Lt. Madav Bhat R/o Nagam
Kmr;presently at 124-P Mandir Lane Extension IA, Trikuta
Nagar,Jammu. 8/12/2005
10. Sh. Niranjan Nath Bhat S/o Lt. Hari Ram Bhat R/o Nagam;
pres-ently at H.No: 45, Lane No: 2, Adarsh Nagar Ban Talab
Jammu.8/12/2005
11. Sh. Prem Nath Koul S/o Lt. Narayan Dass Koul, R/o Magam
Kmr;presently at Community Hall Phase IInd Purkhoo Camp Jammu.
12. Sh. Madhusudan Bhat, R/o Chanderhama Kmr; presently
atKrishna Nagar Miran Sahib, Jammu. 8/12/2005
13. Sh. Ashok Moza S/o Late Sh. ON Moza, R/o Badyar Bala SgrKmr;
presently at 24-Bannu Enclave Pitampura New Delhi. 8/12/2005
14. Sh. Jawahar Lal Kak, R/o A-14/9, DLF City, Phase-I,
Gurgoan.8/12/2005
15. Sh. Niranjan Nath Kachru R/o Purshyar Sgr; presently at
1641A,Sec-10, Gurgoan. 8/12/2005
16. Smt. Lalita W/o Sh. Daya Krishen Koul, R/o Budgam Kmr;
pres-ently at 18-B, Bawani Nagar, Janipur, Jammu. 9/12/2005
17. Smt. Bimla Koul W/o Sh. Mohan Lal Koul, R/o Pulwama
Kmr;presently at H.No: 64-A, Amar Colony Talab Tillo, Jammu.
10/12/2005
18. Sh. Poshkar Nath Munshi S/o Lt. Sh. Sri Kanth Munshi
R/oDalhasan Yar Sgr; presently at DLF Dilshad Extension-2Ghaziabad
UP. 10/12/2005
19. Sh. Prithvi Nath Koul, R/o Magam Kmr; presently at H.No:
49,Sec-A, Subash Nagar, Jammu. 11/12/2005
20. Smt. Ratna Shali W/o Lt. Omesh Chander Shali, R/o Nai
SarakKmr; presently at E702, Rattan Deep Towers CP NagarAhmedabad.
11/12/2005
21. Smt. Sumitra Raina W/o Lt. Sh. MN Raina, R/o Malapora
HabbaKadal Sgr; Kmr; presently at 17/1, Adarsh Nagar Bantalab
Jammu.12/12/2005
22. Smt. Tarawati Pajnoo W/o Lt. Sh. Prem Nath Pajnoo R/o
SathuSheetal Nath Sgr; presently at Bangalore. 12/12/2005
23. Smt. Laxmi Shori Raina W/o Lt. Sh. Amar Nath Raina R/o
TrichalPulwama; presently at H.No: 27 Abhay School Lane,
Muthi,Jammu. 12/12/2005
24. Smt. Brij Rani W/o Lt. Sh. B.K. Challu R/o Karan Nagar
Kmr;presently at 116/2, Shiv Nagar, Talab Tillo, Jammu.
12/12/2005
25. Smt. Nirmala Devi Bakaya W/o Lt. Sh. Niranjan Nath Bakaya
R/o Lal Nagar Chanpora Kmr; presently at D-10, I.I.P.
QuartersMohkampur, Dehradun. 12/12/2005
26. Sh. Radha Krishan Baboo S/o Lt. Sh. Madhusudan Baboo,
R/oKarfali Mohalla Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at H.No: 200 LaneNo:
21, Greater Kailash Jammu. 13/12/2005
27. Sh. Shyam Lal Raina, R/o Hangalgund Kokernag Kmr;
presentlyat Q.No: 377-FI Phase-III Purkhoo Camp Jammu.
13/12/2005
28. Sh. Avtar Krishan Kaul R/o Bulbul Lanker Ali Kadal Sgr;
pres-ently at 6/C, Om Nagar Udaiwala Bohri, Jammu. 13/12/2005
29. Smt. Shobawati W/o Lt. Gopal Dass R/o Bidder
KokernagAnantnag; presently at Salian Talab Udhampur.
13/12/2005
30. Sh. Soom Nath Pandita R/o Hangal Gund Anantnag; presently
atQ.No: 2, Block-I, Police Colony Channi Himmat Jammu.
14/5/2005
31. Sh. Virbadar Koul S/o Lt. Sh. Ved Lal Koul, R/o Razdan
KochaSgr. presently at 641/1, Rehari Colony, Jammu. 14/5/2005
32. Sh. Triloki Nath Kaul S/o Lt. Sh. Sarwanand Koul, R/o
NarpirstanFateh Kadal, Sgr; presently at F/20, Ashok Vihar Gurgoan.
14/5/2005
33. Smt. Oma Shori Bhan W/o Sh. Omkar Nath Bhan R/o
MalaporaHabbal Kadal Sgr; presently at Ploura, Jammu.
15/12/2005
34. Sh. Prakash Koul S/o Lt. Sh. Shiv Koul R/o Hardh Tooru
Anantnag;presently at H.No:8, Netar Kothian Lower Barnai Jammu.
18/12/2005
35. Sh. Aftab Ram Pandita R/o Athoora, Baramulla Kmr; presently
atGhulam Chak, Gole Gujral Jammu. 18/12/2005
36. Smt. Usha Ji W/o Prof. K.L. Moza, R/o 241, Sector 28,
Faridabad.18/12/2005
37. Smt. Sarta Ambardar W/o Lt. Sh. B.L. Ambardar R/o
116/2,Motiyar Rainawari Sgr; presently at H.No: 212, Lane 1, Sec
2,Anuradhapuram Barnai. 18/12/2005
38. Smt. Kamlavati W/o Pt. Girdhari Lal Kakroo, R/o 60,
PurshiyarHabbal Kadal Sgr; presently 251, Friends Sector Subash
Nagar,Jammu. 19/12/2005
39. Sh. Soom Nath Ganju S/o Lt. Anandju Ganju R/o H.No:
272,Sector-17, Faridabad Haryana. 19/12/2005
40. Smt. Shobawati Tikoo W/oi Lt. Sh. Radha Krishan Tickoo,
R/oKani Kadal Sgr; presently at 61-Silver Oak Vaishali Nagar,
Indore.19/12/2005
41. Smt. Mohan Rani Zalpuri W/o Lt. Sh. Nath Ji Zalpuri R/o
ChinkralMohalla Habba Kadal Sgr; presently at Lane No: 7, House
No:22, Anand Nagar Bohri, Jammu. 19/12/2005
42. Sh. Som Prakash Kachroo S/o Lt. Pt. Maheshwar Nath
Kachroo,R/o Kochia Nidam Sahib Rainawari Sgr; presently at
D-48,
Pamposh Enclave Greater Kailash-I, New Delhi. 19/12/200543. Smt.
T.N. Dhar R/o Pinglana Pulwama Kmr; presently at Flat No:
257, Indian Express Society Sector 48-A, Chandigarh.
20/12/200544. Smt. Somawati W/o Sh. Janki Nath Bhat, R/o Shulara
Kupwara;
presently at Patoli Brahma Jammu. 21/12/200545. Smt. Lalita Ji
W/o Lt. Sh. Chaman Lal Handoo R/o 124, Karan
Nagar, Sgr; presently at 160, Shanti Nagar, Jammu. 21/12/200546.
Sh. Niranjan Nath Koul S/o Lt. Govind Koul R/o Sholipur Budgam
Kmr;presently at Sec-B-2, Laxmipuram Chinore Jammu.
21/12/2005
47. Smt. Durga Pandita W/o Sh.SN Pandita R/o Bulbul
LankerAlikadal Sgr; presently at 187, Rehari Colony, Jammu.
21/12/2005
48. Sh. Shamboo Nath Peshin S/o Lt. Sh. Naryana Peshin
R/oWagoora Budgam Kmr; presently at 179-Panchavati PalamColony, New
Delhi. 22/12/2005
49. Sh. Makhan Lal Langer S/o Lt. Sh. Kanth Joo Langer R/o
ZaindarMohalla Sgr; presently at 220 Laxmi Nagar Sarwal Jammu.
22/12/2005
50. Sh. Chaman Lal Hangloo S/o Lt. Sh. Jager Nath Hangloo,
R/oSathu Barbarshah Sgr; presently at 116, Sec-2, Amar ColonyGole
Gujral Talab Tillo, Jammu. 23/12/2005
51. Sh. Pitambar Nath Zutshi R/o Bunglow No: 3, Forest
OfficersColony Doranda Ranchi. 23/12/2005
52. Sh. Roshan Lal Bhat S/o Lt. Shiv Ji Bhat R/o Darbagh
HarwanSgr; presently at H.No: 34, Lane No: 4, Saraswati Vihar
AnandNagar Bohri Jammu. 24/12/2005
53. Sh. Pyare Lal Khazanchi R/o 64-C, Pocket 2, Sec-6,
DwarikaDelhi. 24/12/2005
54. Smt. Wanmali W/o Lt. Sh. Shridhar Pandita R/o Ranipora
KulgamKmr; presently at Sec-3, Pamposh Colony Janipur, Jammu.
25/12/2005
55. Smt.Rupa Devi W/o Sh. Janki Nath R/o Mattan Anantnag;
pres-ently at Lane No: 4, H.No: 220 Friends Sector Subash
Nagar,Jammu. 25/12/2005
56. Sh. Avtar Krishan Wattal S/o Sh. T.N. Wattal R/o 64,
MalyarHabba Kadal Sgr; presently at 1505, Talab Tillo, Jammu.
25/12/2005
57. Smt. Sharika Bhat W/o Sh. P.N. Bhat R/o Dever Tral Kmr;
pres-ently at 30-Ashok Nagar, near Power House, Canal Road,
Jammu.
58. Sh. Triloki Nath Koul S/o Lt. Sh. Sona Koul R/o
ChawalgamKulgam; presently at Qtr. No: 522, R-I, Phase-III Purkhoo
Camp,Jammu. 27/12/2005
59. Smt. Shobawati Bhat W/o Lt. Sh. N.L. Bhat R/o
WanpohAnantnag; presently at F-148, Jawahar Nagar, New Plots
Jammu.27/12/2005
60. Smt. Prabhawati Dulloo W/o Lt. Sh. Jia Lal Dulloo R/o
MalikanganSrinagar; presently at Gurgaon. 27/12/2005
61. Smt. Dulari SAS W/o Lt. Sh. J.L Sas R/o Malyar Sgr;
presently atC-11/3, SFS Flats Saket New Delhi. 27/12/2005
62. Smt. Indira Kaul W/o Sh. Roop Krishan Koul, R/o
DanawariChattabal Sgr; presently at Lane-6, Block-B, Roop Nagar
EnclaveJammu. 28/12/2005
63. Prof. N.N. Bhat R/o Natipora Sgr presently at187/14,
Faridabad.28/12/2005
64. Smt. Kantayani Koul W/o Lt. Kashi Nath Koul, R/o
RajbaghSrinagar; presently at Muradabad. 28/12/2005
65. Sh. Satish Koul S/o Sh. PN Koul R/o Subash Nagar
Jammu;presently at H.No: 132, Sec-1, EWS Colony Roop Nagar,
Jammu.29/12/2005
66. Sh. Jia Lal Pandita S/o Lt. Raghav Ram R/o Kokernag Kmr;
pres-ently at Surya Vanshi Ext. Muthi Jammu. 29/12/2005
67. Sh R.K. Kaul R/o H.No: 99, Sector-5, Trikuta Nagar, Jammu.
29/12/2005
68. Smt. Radhika Bhat W/o Lt. Radha Krishan Bhat R/o
HardturuAnantnag; presently at Ward No: 17, Kathua. 30/12/2005
69. Sh. Prem Nath Dhar R/o Chinkral Mohalla Habba Kadal Sgr;
pres-ently at H.No: 21, Sec-1, Laxmi Nagar, Muthi Jammu.
30/12/2005
70. Smt. Dhanwati W/o Lt. Kanth Bhat R/o Murran Pulwama
Kmr;presenly at 307-C, Jeewan Nagar Digiana, Jammu. 31/12/2005
THOSE WHO LEFT USKashmir Sentinel and Panun Kashmir Foundation
mourn their sad demise and pray for thepeace to the departed
souls
LETTERLETTERLETTERLETTERLETTER"Quadripartition"Quadripartition"Quadripartition"Quadripartition"Quadripartitionof
J&K-the onlyof J&K-the onlyof J&K-the onlyof
J&K-the onlyof J&K-the
onlypeacefulpeacefulpeacefulpeacefulpeacefulsolution"solution"solution"solution"solution"Sir,
It is in reference to "Qu-adripartition of J&K-the
onlypeaceful solution, published inKashmir Sentinel Dec, 2005
is-sue.
Independence, shared sover-eignty, enlarged Autonomy,
arebasically secessionist, the conta-gious political disease. The
se-cession of Ireland trigged thedecimation of Great Britain.Within
three decades, GreatBritain became small Britain-from super power
to no power.Pygmy Argentina, unilaterallyannexed her falk-land
islands,which were recovered onlythrough war. What a fall!
Kashmir's complex problemof 1947 was further worsenedduring
Soviet-Anglosexon ColdWar. When the latter neededKashmir as
military post to keepwatch on USSR, China andBharat-Pakistan, the
Anglo-Sexon's creation became readytool. Had it been mere
Indo-Pakproblem, Nehru would havesolved it long ago.
Since US honeymoon, disin-tegration of USSR, new foundIndo-US
friendship, failed tosolve Kashmir knot. Sole SuperPower's greedy
eyes are now fo-cussed on new found gas depos-its in the Central
Asian Repub-lics of the erstwhile USSR,which needs Kashmir as
militarybase. Natural route from southbeing unsafe, due to hostile
Ar-abs, despite their pro-US rulers.
In this Bull fighting, clash ofcivilisations, interest
rivalry,Kashmirs suffer, Hindus as wellas ex-Hindus, both sons
ofmother India. While cats fight,monkeys (Imperialism)
gain.Legendary lion-horse rivalry,made horse slave of man. But
thepity is in both being cubs, off-spring of common ancestry.
Stake in Kashmir is Nation-alism vs two nation theory;
secu-larist peace vs fundamentalistwars; integration vs
secession,the potential integration of thismulti-religious,
multi-linguisticBharat State duringMahabharata war was 'Dasim
ofPandavas', not partition ofHastinapur Empire; the formerbeing
product of out dated slavesystem. Were the contemporaryelite Rajas
of Vishaal Bharatmad, who shed rivers of bloodfor five villages? If
Sri Krishnacould carve New Dwarka King-dom within Vishaal Bharat,
whynot Pandvas? Always rememberGandhi's (Father of Nation)scripture
"Nationality does notchange with the change of one'sreligion".
Few centuries ago RomanCatholics and Protestants of Eu-rope
suffered mutual savagery,which ended through constantscriptural
reforms;nationalisation of education-outdated religious
schools(madrassas) giving way to Pub-lic schools. To nip the evil
in thebud, France has recently prohib-ited all the visible
religious sym-bols displayed by public schoolchildren. Need of the
hour is ax-ing evil roots, Chhantee (cuttingof branches)
accelerates tree'sgrowth.
Your's SincerelyPran Salhotra
574, Krishan Nagar,Gurdaspur
HOMAGEPanun Kashmir & KashmirSentinel pay homage to lateSmt.
Kamla Kandhari W/o Sh.Brij Krishen Kandhari andMother of Major
YKKandhari, who attained Nir-vana on 26 October, 2005 atJammu. Smt.
Kamla Kandhari was a caring motherbesides being an inspiration for
all of us. May 'MaaSharika' bestow peace to the departed noble
soul
JKENG 00333/26/AL/TC/94JK No: 1213/18 Regd. JK-219/2005Printer
Publisher B.N. Kaul for and on behalf of Panun Kashmir
Foundation.Editor: SHAILENDRA AIMAComputer Graphic: S.K.
BabbuPrinted at : The Kashmir Times Press, Gangyal, JammuOwned by:
PANUN KASHMIRFOUNDATIONPublished from PANUN KASHMIR FOUNDATION, 149
Ram Vihar, Old Janipur,Jammu-180007 (INDIA)Tele/Fax:
0191-2538537
-
KASHMIR SENTINELJanuary 2006 FOCUSFOCUSFOCUSFOCUSFOCUS 3
New Delhi. June 15. 2005Dr. Manmohan Singh.Prime Minister of
India,New DelhiDear Dr. Manmohan Singh ji.
I am writing to draw your at-tention towards the disturbingturn
that the peace process withPakistan has taken.
With great efforts and a sus-tained strategy, Pakistan wasmade
to commit to a comprehen-sive process of normalizationleading to
the joint statement ofJanuary 6, 2004. But it seems thatthe peace
process has now be-come Kashmir centric, an objec-tive cherished by
the establish-ment in Pakistan. This impressionis based on the
following threedevelopments.
First of these is the promi-nence being given to the
Hurriyatvis-a-vis the democraticallyelected government of Jammuand
Kashmir. A year ago therewas a distinction between themoderates and
the hard-liners.
Full unedited text of the letter by the formerPrime Minister Sh.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee to thecurrent Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan
SinghToday the moderates are totallypro-Pakistan. I would
havethought that the Hurriyat lead-ers would have talks with you
oryour Home Minister before go-ing to Pakistan. But no, they goto
Pakistan, repeat every state-ment made by Gen Musharraf,and then
condescend to say thatthey would go to Delhi as well!The growing
demand for trilat-eral talks, “international guaran-tee” for
settlement and includ-ing Hurriyat as a representativeof the people
of Kashmir, seemto be undoing the labouredachievements of the past
fewyears.
The second disturbing ele-ment is the way Hurriyat visit
toPakistan was mishandled by ourauthorities. General Musharraf
claims that they were invited toPakistan with your approval.
Ini-tial stand that they would not beallowed to go without
passportand visas was reversed. Offi-cials gave the impression that
ourGovernment is running afterthem to hand them passports
andfinally they travelled to Pakistanagainst the established norms
ofinternational travel. Since we didnot prevent the Hurriyat
leadersfrom crossing the LoC with theavowed intention of going
toIslamabad, Lahore, Karachi, etc.Pakistan and Hurriyat treatedour
protest about the violationof “some understanding” withscorn. They
should have been,given Indian passports andasked to enter Pakistan
acrossthe international border, All this
has held our country up to mock-ery.
Thirdly, our Governmentseems to be allowing Pakistan toslip out
of the commitments it hadmade in the January 6, 2004 state-ment -
that terrorism shall be es-chewed, that there shall be nothird
party, and so on. Events ofthe last fortnight show that onceagain
Pakistan is reviving andkeeping open the options of in-corporation
of Kashmir throughviolence, through “indepen-dence” or through
“autonomy/self governance”. The murder-ous attack in Pulwama, the
rev-elation by JKLF leader Mr. YasinMalik, the statements
ofSalahuddin, the head of HizbulMujahidden and the MuttahidaJihad
Council, all point to this
disturbing trend.All of us want the peace pro-
cess to succeed. But that suc-cess would consist in
Pakistanabandoning the violence it hasbeen sponsoring and in
creatingan atmosphere in which thepeople of India and Pakistanhave
enough inter-dependenciesto make other things irrelevant.
I do hope that you will takesteps in the coming days that
willallay these apprehensions. Withwarm regards.
Sincerely yoursAtal Behari Vajpayee
(By Political Correspondent)
The Standing Committeeon External Affairs,headed by
ShriLaxminarayan Pandey recentlysubmitted its report to the
Par-liament. It warned the UPA govt.not to hasten the pace of
peaceprocess in an unrealistic mannerin view of concerns expressed
bythe international community andasked the Govt. to prepare
theroadmap for improving its rela-tions with Pakistan with
greatestcare.
The report said,” Every careshould be taken to protect thevital
interests of the nation . Thefact that the terrorist trainingcamps
inside Pakistan’s territoryare still operating though infil-tration
into J&K has come downconsiderably points to the gravedanger
inherent in thesituation…..The GOI should notallow itself to be
taken by sur-prise at any stage.Govt shouldprepare the roadmap for
improv-ing its relations with Pakistanwith the greatest care.” It
wenton to add ,”The compulsionsgenerated by the concerns of
theinternational community overthe perpetual tension
prevailingbetween two nuclear powersshould not force the Govt.
intohastening the pace in an unreal-istic manner.”
The Parliamentary Commit-tee makes three profound obser-vations.
One, the peace processhas not put a halt to cross-bor-der
terrorism. Secondly, the in-ternational community waspushing GOI
into hastening thepace of peace process withouttaking cognizance of
India’s vi-tal interests. Thirdly, peace pro-cess retains the
potential of turn-ing deceptive, India should re-main on guard. The
fact that thecaution has come from the Par-liament Committee,
should in it-self lead to a national debate onwhether the ongoing
‘peace pro-cess’ and ‘peace’ were synony-mous.
The general assessment at thelevel of independent
securityexperts and the patriotic groupsis that peace process could
undo
Peace, not the Peace Process should be India’s ConcernPeace, not
the Peace Process should be India’s ConcernPeace, not the Peace
Process should be India’s ConcernPeace, not the Peace Process
should be India’s ConcernPeace, not the Peace Process should be
India’s Concernmany of the positive moves thatGOI has taken from
time to timeto promote peace in J&K. Peaceprocess remains
faulty on threecounts.
One, it bestows parity to Pa-kistan on Kashmir at a time
whenPakistan was getting isolatedglobally due to its role in
spon-sorship of jihadist terrorism.Also, India was under
lesserwestern pressure over Kash-mir .According parity on Kash-mir
to Pakistan has serious ideo-
logical implications for India. Thelatter has 14 crore Muslim
popu-lation, who are part of the demo-cratic mainstream. Only a
secu-lar state ensures their right asequal citizens of India. By
accept-ing Pakistan as a party toKashmir,India’s secular
visionwould be critically compro-mised.
In the pre-independence daysIndian National Congress com-mitted
a serious mistake by rec-ognizing Muslim League as thesole arbiter
for Muslims. By giv-ing Pakistan a locus standi inKashmir, India’s
huge Muslimpopulation would be unhinged
from the democratic process. Pa-kistan would then seek a role
forIndian Muslims as well. Areaslike North-east, West Bengal,UP and
Bihar would becomenew faultlines, difficult to stop.India is
already reeling under amassive demographic assaultfrom Bangladesh.
Growing inse-curity would lead to Hindu stri-dency. Conflict would
deepenand crystallize to a situationwhere the very survival of
ournation would be at stake.
Secondly, the peace processis not guided by a logic
whereterrorist violence has been com-pletely de-legitimized and
politi-cal engagements have taken overthe role of peace. Pakistan
is try-ing to dictate the course of peaceprocess through terrorist
vio-lence and nuclear blackmail.Political engagements are
beingguided and sustained by the logicof violence. Nuclear
blackmailis the lever being used to coerceIndia to go on with the
shampeace process. Map-making ,andbalkanizing proposals e.g.
‘Self-Governance’,’de-militarisation’are part of the blackmail
game
that Pakistan is pursuing underthe camouflage of peace pro-cess.
A situation, wherein politi-cally weaker India has to offeronly
concessions peace processwould only serve to damageIndia’s
interests.
Though India has rightly re-jected “Self-governance”,
"de-militarisation”proposals, thereare disquieting signals too.
Whywas the discredited and unrep-resentative Hurriyat
leadershipallowed to go to Pakistan in firstplace and debate
balkanizingproposals against India? In asimilar situation in 1964,
soonafter Sheikh Abdullah met Chou-en Lai in Algiers, the then
GOIacted firmly to impound his pass-port and put him in jail for
work-ing against India. This served asa deterrent to the other
elementsin Kashmir, who understood thatGOI would not countenance
anycompromise on national secu-rity. The long rope given by
thesuccessive govts. at Centre to theseparatist leadership from
timeto time has only served to demor-alize the
pro-nationalisticKashmiris in the valley, besidespeople of Jammu
and Ladakh.Aslong as kashmiris feel that thereare elements more
powerful thanIndia, they would continue toremain neutral in their
commit-ment to national unity.
Lastly, the peace process hasserved to undermine India’s so-cial
base in J&K. Despite peaceprocess, LOC fencing, Interna-tional
war against terror anddelegitimisation of terrorism,Pak commitment
to scale downviolence, terrorism has shown anupward trend. Pakistan
is usinggoal of peace process for tacti-cal reasons, while
continuing tosponsor cross-border terrorism.Fidayeen attacks
continue.Cadre base of the terrorist infra-structure remains
intact. Thereseems no cadre depletion despitespectular successes by
the secu-rity forces. Peace process hashamstrung India’s efforts to
de-liver effective blows to the ter-rorist infrastructure both
withinJ&K and across the border.Peace process creates an
illusionthat peace was around the cor-
ner and things would settledown on their own. Continuedterrorist
violence has increasedattrition on the civilian popula-tion and the
minority non-muslimcommunity.
Another negative fallout ofpeace process has been that evensome
mainstream politicians be-longing to NC,PDP and CPI(M)have begun
parroting such dan-gerous proposals like
‘Self-governance’,’de-militarisation’,‘Internal Ceasefire’.
Interna-tional freebooters like Kathwarihave been hopping around
inSrinagar and New Delhi sellingideas on how India should diluteits
sovereignty over Kashmir. Inthe din of hype created by thepeace
process real issues at stakeare being obfuscated .It is
notsubversion but open borders thathas become the main focus of
theso-called peace process. It is notethnic-cleansing of
KashmiriHindus and others in Jammu butcommunal-fundamentalist
aspi-rations of a section ofKashmiris,packaged as ‘Self-governance’
that have stole thelimelight in the externally-scripted peace
process.Similarly,dilution of Indian sovereigntyover Kashmir
,rather than ensur-ing participatory democracy forall sections of
people in J&K,has become a priority agenda inthe peace process.
How areIndia’s vital interests protectedin this peace process?
It is reassuring that some se-nior Congress leaders have be-gun
emphasizing that therewould be no Kashmir-centricsolution. GOI’s
move to callnon-Hurriyat groups for talkssounds a warning to
Hurriyatleaders to restrain from double–dealing. If in the name of
win-ning over ‘alienated’ elements inKashmir patriotic groups
andmainstream political parties aregiven a short shrift it would be
aself-defeating exercise. The truthremains that unless India
con-solidates its social base in thestate it won’t be able to keep
atbay the forces of destabilizationand subversion. This is the
careGOI needs to ensure while deal-ing with either separatist
ele-ments or Pakistan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President
PervezMusharraf shake hands after a joint press conference in
NewDelhi.
The views expressed in the signed articles are strictly the
views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial
policy of the paper. --Editor
-
KASHMIR SENTINELJanuary 2006 VIEW POINTVIEW POINTVIEW POINTVIEW
POINTVIEW POINT 4
Beautiful surroundings are recipe for disasterBeautiful
surroundings are recipe for disasterBeautiful surroundings are
recipe for disasterBeautiful surroundings are recipe for
disasterBeautiful surroundings are recipe for disaster
A Fairy Tale of “City States”
By Bilhan KaulDostoveisky once wrote that beauty
will save the world. Had the Russian bardseen the destruction
wrought on Kashmirby terrorists he may well have said thatbeautiful
surroundings are recipe for di-saster.
Ever since militancy wrecked thebeautiful Valley in early
nineties, varioustheories have been put forth for its
birth.Kashmiri Muslims themselves perceivethat militancy in the
Valley is due to theirdemand of separation of Kashmir fromIndian
Union and push the fate of Kash-mir either with Pakistan or
separately. Itis being said that Kashmir was annexedwith Indian
Union unfairly and thatpeople’s view was not taken when HariSingh
handed over the sovereignty ofKashmir and merged it with India.
However, it is not correct to say thatpeople’s view was not
taken as the fore-most leader of Kashmiri Muslims, SheikhAbdullah
strongly asked Nehru to sendIndian forces to drive away Pakistani
raid-ers and stood for Kashmir’s accessionwith India. It stands to
merit that Sheikhwas the tallest leader of Kashmiri Mus-lims at the
time of partition with massivefollowing. He was revered by
averageKashmiri. But immediately after Instru-ment of accession was
signed, Sheikhprevaricated and expressed doubts. Hisdoubts
reflected many moods includingthe one of toying with
IndependenceKashmir. After spending considerabletime in jail,
Sheikh was much mellowedman. He began to realize that it is
uselessto fight forever with Indian state. Thedefeat of Pakistan in
1971 war and carv-ing out of Bangladesh convinced Sheikhthat he had
to make truce with Indian gov-ernment. After Indra- Sheikh
Accord,Sheikh finally became chief minister in1975. In his new
"avtar" Sheikh perfectedthe art of running with hare and
huntingwith hounds. On one hand Sheikh was en-couraging Muslims to
come out of com-munal politics, on the other he was en-couraging
Muslim Communalism. Sheikhwon the 1977 elections with
thumpingmajority and his popularity was at itspeak. Sheikh, at the
same time, cultivatedhis constituency painstakingly. To his
credit goes the marginalisation of Jamaatcadres and Awami
league. Though fun-damentalism has been gaining ground inKashmir at
fast rate as long as Sheikh wasalive, Jamaat Islami and Awami
Leaguewas kept in check and though their wassentiment for Pakistan
it did not wentbeyond that but with Sheikh’s death in1982, Farooq
Abdullah became his suc-cessor. To begin with Farooq was nottaken
seriously by Kashmiri Muslims ashe had a playboy image. He was also
seenas a westerner who had no regard forMuslim values. This
resulted in declinein personal fortunes of Farooq and dip
inpopularity rating of NC as a whole. Withthe Centre’s interference
his brother inlaw GM Shah seized the power in 1984.It was in GM
Shah’s tenure as chief min-ister that Governor Jagmohan came
intolimelight. He built the roads, cleaned thepolluted Dal Lake and
held a daity durbarwhere common man was admitted. Allthis made
Jagmohan popular in the Val-ley and GM Shah was happy to play
sec-ond fiddle to him.
Farooq realising that he cannot be se-cure in his seat without
Centre’s help wentfor Rajiv-Farooq accord in 1987. Peopleas such
resented the accord as separateMuslim Identity was an important
factorin Kashmir’s Muslim politics. FarooqAbdullah made one
critical mistake in theform of making friends with rival Farooqof
Awami league. The “Double Farooq”as the alliance came to be known
was adisaster for National Conference. Onemajor fallout of the
accord was that it al-lowed N.Conference cadres to move toAwami
League but there was no suchmovement of cadres of Awami Leagueto
National Conference.
The elections in 1987 was closelyfought between NC and MUF with
formeremerging the winner but not before theclaims that Farooq had
rigged the elec-tions. The close nature of the battle foughtadded
to suspicions. Farooq did rule butit was in 1988 that first batch
of youthwent to Pakistan for arms training. YasinMalik, the JKLF
‘Commander’ wasamong the first to receive arms training.
In 1988, there were occasional bombblasts and an unsuccessful
attempt was
made to assassinate DIG Mr Watali. Thesituation continued to
become worse in1989 with total hartals on 26th Januaryand 15th
August. Muslims were begin-ning to see something exciting in the
airand Pandit community felt increasinglyinsecure. By the end of
1989 situation hadcompletely detoriated as an era of mili-tancy had
arrived in Kashmir. Hartals,killings, edicts became order of the
day.Pandit community became the target withthe killing of Tikka Lal
Taploo on 14thSeptember 1989. To quell the violencein the Valley
Jagmohan was recalled asGovernor. Pandits were initially at lossto
understand what was happening aroundthem. Some thought to migrate
to plainsof India until situation eased in the Val-ley. Some of
them went to Jammu to theirrelatives and others went to New
Delhi.As population of Kashmiri Pandit wasthinning in the Valley,
he sensed some-thing amiss. Besides, daily dose of dem-onstrations
and processions his conditionbecame Increasingly worse. Panic set
inwhich reached its culmination on thatdreaded day 19th January
1990. Almostall of Valley was agog with demonstra-tions at night
and simultaneous demon-strations all over the Valley proved be-yond
doubt that demonstration was di-rected and carried by Pakistan.
Pandits now what was initially an un-planned departure from the
Valley beganto pack their baggage consciously. Thosewho were
already in Jammu received thenews that situation is grim back home.
AsPandits in Srinagar started packing bagsvillage Pandits too
panicked. This panicwas kept alive by terrorists who began totarget
the Pandit community with a viewto drive them out and by the end of
MarchKashmir was well cleansed of its Panditpopulation. Those who
remained werealso planning to leave and by the end ofJune sight of
Pandit in the Valley was wellnight impossible.
A section of Kashmiri Muslim by andlarge were party to terror
and were activesupporters of militancy in the Valley butsome of
them were taken aback by Panditdeparture from the Valley. They
could notunderstand that terror expelled KashmiriPandits as by and
large they had sympa-
thy for terrorists. Soon a rumour wasfloated that it was
Jagmohan who droveout the Kashmiri Pandits. Those who cir-culated
the rumour had twin purpose.They did not want the movement to
bestained. Also, by involving Jagmohanmeant that militancy was not
given badname. As a whole Kashmiri Muslim fromcommoner to
intellectual subscribe to theview that Pandits were ordered to
leavethe Valley by Jagmohan. Perhaps, believein Hitler’s dictum
falsehood repeatedcountless times becomes truth. It is of
noconsequence to general Muslim popula-tion that terrorism has been
raging in theValley for part 15 years. It is of no con-sequence to
him that edicts were issuedasking Pandits to leave. It is of no
conse-quence to him that posters were pastedand advertisement
issued asking Panditsto either support militancy or else
facemusic.
As conditions worsened, Jagmohanincreasingly became nervous and
his stayin Valley became hot after “Gowkadal”massacre. With the
assassination ofMaulvi Farooq and subsequent killings ofscores of
people Jagmohan was finallyrecalled by the Centre.
Jagmohan tried best to give his ver-sion of story and his best
seller on Kash-mir is a painful account of a man who wasnot allowed
to function and who amidstthe grim battle in Kashmir carried the
flagof India in Kashmir high. Jagmohan's ear-lier stint as Governor
of Kashmir cappedhim with many achievements but in 1990mood in
Kashmir was totally different. Itis perfectly true that Jagmohan
was usedas sacrificial goat and many now wronglyblame him for
escalating the violence inKashmir. It need not be forgotten that
innineties he was facing a formidable op-ponent-an opponent who was
determinedto win this time. Also was Pakistani fac-tor which
provided main logistics supportto Kashmiri militants in the shape
of armsand moral support. Jagmohan rightly sawthe battle in Kashmir
as a full fledged waragainst Indian state and his measures wereto
counter that war. With or withoutJagmohan militancy was not going
to stopas was proved by his replacement.
(Contd. on Page 9)
By PN KoulThe resuscitation of once dis-
solved outfit of “Panun Kash-mir” headed by Agnisekhar is
asinconsequential as was its disso-lution.
Whether the core group hasovercome its ennui is yet to beseen.
It, however, appears thatthe revival has been necessitatedmerely
for the enlistment of aDelhi based activist who rotatesfrom one
outfit to the other withequal ease, as else there is noreason for
its revival, as therewas none for its dissolution.
If, however, it has been for theaforesaid reason or and for
lay-ing down the dimensions of theproject, the effort is wasted,
bothbeing inconsequential anyway at
this stage.Essentially the idea seems to
have been mooted to derail thestruggle for ‘Panun Kashmir‘and to
sow confusion in theranks. Concretely the concept of‘City State’
vis-a-vis ‘Homelandis indeed an exercise in futilityand an instance
of imaginationrun riot. It is in fact a reversioninto the past
which can not bebrought back as history does notrepeat itself and
if it does, it doesso only as a ‘farce’.
Having remained dormant forsome time now the group has setitself
to revival with an adven-turous idea which would appearboth novel
as well imaginative.
A word about city state ; theseexisted in hoary past in
Greeceway back in 5 -4 century B.C.
and also practiced slavery , arelic of the forgotten past
de-stroyed /replaced by higherforms of State organizations inthe
forward march of history.The idea is not only quixotic , itis also
unrealizable, indeed anexperiment in futility with thedeliberate
purpose to derail themovement for ‘Panun Kashmir’, the only
realistic solution of theproblems of the minority com-munity in the
valley.
There is no scope for intru-sion and distortion either
fromhistory or from contemporaryideologies opposed to
‘PanunKashmir’ as adumbrated in theMargdarshan Resolution of1991.
No interferences, devia-tions or impositions in this be-half would
be accepted from any
quarter, even from friendly setups, be it ‘Kashmirii Samiti’
or‘Kashmiri Samaj’. The future ofthe community is to be decidedby
the exiled community of1989-1990 and officially andironically
designated as ‘Mi-grants’ instead of “Displacedpeople.”
Seeing the groundswellagainst the airy concept of ‘CityState’,
which to authors musthave seemed fabulous and novel,the propounders
thereof havenow come out with an explana-tion that their concept of
‘CityState’ is no deviation from theMargdarshan Resolution of1991,
but the evolutionary firststep towards the achievement of‘Homeland’
and those opposingit have a frozen mindset. All this
explanation is however, a nullityand a cover up of the
betrayal.
We are very well aware thatthe achievement of
‘Homeland’envisages a political restructur-ing through political
struggle andnot by engaging in ‘map makingexercises’ without the
‘locale’which certainly is not a politicalstruggle or political
process, butwaste of time and energy.
And only the people withlittle or no sense of history doindulge
in such tantrums. It is aswell a warning to the communityto beware
of the opportunistsposing as patriots.
History is no Muse! Not po-etry! Toying with the idea of
re-peating it invites annihilation.
-
KASHMIR SENTINELJanuary 2006 SPECIAL REPORTSPECIAL REPORTSPECIAL
REPORTSPECIAL REPORTSPECIAL REPORT 5
KS Correspondent
To commemorate “The 15thHomeland Day”, PanunKashmir organised
“Promi-nent Citizens Meet” at JKTDCBanquet Hall, Jammu. The
speak-ers underscored the relevance ofPanun Kashmir and opined that
re-organisation of J&K State is the onlysolution to solve the
vexed Kashmirissue in conformity with the aspira-tions of various
sections of the so-ciety living in the state. They saidthat Indian
state should hold talkswith all ethnic and minority com-munities of
the state, includingJammuites, Ladakhis, KashmirisHindus, to know
about their aspira-tions and accommodate them in anysolution to the
Kashmir problem.
Sh. Kuldeep Raina, General Sec-retary Panun Kashmir, in his
ad-dress, described December 28, 1991as historical and moment of
pridefor Kashmiri Hindus when theypassed Margdarshan Resolution
forcreation of Homeland in the Kash-mir Valley. He said that after
longpersecution, it is this day whenKashmiri Hindus asserted that
be-ing aborigines of Kashmir, they willreturn and live in the
Valley on theirown terms and conditions and noton the whims of the
majority com-munity.
Describing demand of Homelandas "Child of Circumstances",
MrRaina said that taking into consider-ation repeated exodus from
the Val-ley and continued persecution of thecommunity, the
community resolvedthat creation of Homeland withUnion Territory
Status, is the onlysolution to allow the community tolive with
honour, dignity and guar-anteed social, economic and politi-cal
rights.
He said that in the present sce-nario, Panun Kashmir is
becomingmore and more relevant and is beingdiscussed in the highest
fora. MrRaina added that for the first time,Kashmiri Pandit is
recognised as pri-mary party to the Kashmir imbro-glio and that no
solution is possibleto the vexed problem that does not
take care of genuine aspirations ofthe Kashmiri Pandits
reflected in theMargdarshan Resolution.
He said that despite unanimityon the demand of homeland amongthe
community, some individualswho have been associated with
thepolitical power or for petty vestedinterests are trying to
injure thecause. He exhorted that such forceswill be exposed and no
one will beallowed to sabotage the community
cause.He exhorted community breth-
ren to identify "right" and "wrong"and follow the right person
and pathrather than remain wavering whichhurts the community
cause.
Describing demands such as au-tonomy, self-rule,
demilitarization,free viza-zone etc. as separatist de-mands,
inimical to the territorial in-tegrity of the country, Mr
KuldeepRaina said that re-organisation of thestate is the only
solution to satisfyall sections of the society and undothe
injustice done with the religious
HOMELAND DAHOMELAND DAHOMELAND DAHOMELAND DAHOMELAND DAY
CELEBRAY CELEBRAY CELEBRAY CELEBRAY CELEBRATEDTEDTEDTEDTEDand
ethnic minorities of the state.
He informed that theorganisation had decided to hold aone-day
convention on the day butcould not do so due to non-avail-ability
of the suitable venue. He saidthat the same will be held on
Febru-ary 11, 2006. He appealed all towork to make the convention a
greatsuccess.
Sh. O.N. Trisal, President AllState Kashmiri Pandit Solidar-
ity Conference, lambasted major-ity community of the Valley for
re-jecting co-existence. He said that cre-ation of Homeland is not
just to re-verse the exodus but to reinstal In-dian, democratic and
secular valuesback in the Valley.
Mr Trisal said that the commu-nity is not ungrateful and
recognisesthe role played by Jammuites inproviding shelter to the
community.Mr Trisal said that Pandits don'tspeak about the wrongs
done to thecommunity only but is champion-ing the cause of other
ethnic and re-ligious minorities of the state. He
hoped that Jammuites, Ladakhis andKashmiri Hindus shall get
their right-ful role in any solution to Kashmirissue.
Describing Kashmir Sentinel asthe voice of Kashmiri Pandits,
Sh.Trisal appealed the community tocontribute to the journal.
Prof. M.L. Koul describedMargdarshan Resolution as
historicconsensus of Kashmiri Hindus. Hesaid that there is no
alternative to
creation of "Homeland" with UnionTerritory status.
Professor Koul gave a detailedaccount of the persecution and
suf-ferings of the community and de-scribed 1989-90 exodus as the
sev-enth in the series. Referring to Mr.Nehru's "Independence
Dayspeech", Mr Koul said that whenthe nation was having "tryst
withdestiny" "tryst with destruction"as their persecution continued
evenafter independence and democracyby their economic and political
stran-gulation. He described Panun Kash-mir as "Crystal Ball" in
which the
community was gazing at its future.He said that there is no
scope
for religious fundamentalistic soci-eties in present democratic
andglobalised world order.
Panun Kashmir leader ShailendraAima recalled the happenings
beforeand on the day of passing the"Margdarshan Resolution1991".
Without naming anyone, hesaid that the demand was opposedby many
and now those very peopleare seeing Homeland demand as asolution to
the knotted problem. Heasked the community brethren tostrengthen
the organisation.
Prof. Hari Om, SpokespersonBJP, underscored the need for
in-volving all the sections of the soci-ety in talks initiated in
the name ofpeace-process. He said that givingprominence to any
section, particu-larly the section responsible for thepresent
crisis, and undermining otherethnic and minority groups of
thesociety will only boomerang.
Recalling his association withPanun Kashmir, he said that his
as-sociation with Panun Kashmir is asold as Panun Kashmir itself.
Sup-porting the demand of Homeland andre-organisation of the state,
Profes-sor Hari Om said that by convic-tion he is with the demand
of PanunKashmir and re-organisation of thestate.
He implored upon the Panditsthat they should fight unitedly
withJammuites and others to achievetheir goal. Lambasting the state
andthe Central governments for theirwrong policies in tackling the
Kash-mir problem, the BJP leader saidthat we must remain vigilant
againstthe enemy within. Referring to J&KChief Minister's
comments on theoccasion of birth-anniversary ofLate Sheikh Mohd.
Abdullah thatwe should strive to fulfill the cher-ished dream of
Late SheikhAbdullah, Prof. Hari Om chided Mr.Azad. He said that the
long cher-ished dream of Mr. Abdullah wasthe creation of "Greater
MuslimKashmir" and questioned Mr Azadif he supported the
demand.
KPs reject self rule in J&KKS Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 27:Kashmiri Pandits rejected anyproposal for
'self rule' and 'de-militarisation' of Jammu andKashmir and
instead, suggestedinternal re-organisation of thestate into four
parts including,'Union Territory of Panun Kash-mir' on the North
and East ofRiver Jhelum in Kashmir.
They also suggested constitu-tion of a State
Re-organisationCommission to give political,economic and social
dispensa-tion to the people of Jammu andLadakh and the Pandits of
Kash-mir Valley.
Addressing a press confer-ence on the eve of HomelandDay, Dr.
Ajay Chrangoo, Chair-man Panun Kashmir, an apexbody of 700,000
KashmiriPandit migrants, while advocat-ing re-organisation of the
stateinto four parts, said this areawould be the zone of peace
ascentrally-administered UnionTerritory governed by the
IndianConstitution where the entire dis-
placed community of seven lakhKashmiri Pandits is
rehabili-tated. The area of 'Panun Kash-mir', 8,600 sq km in size,
com-prises about 3.87 percent of thetotal area of the state.
Dr. Chrangoo, however, op-posed the proposals for 'self rule'and
de-militarisation of the statesaying such attempts would has-ten
the integration of theKashmiri separatist movementswith the
international resurgenceof radical Islam.
"The proposal of self rule isbasically a variant of the
DixonFormula and seeks gradual with-drawal of Indian
sovereigntyover Jammu and Kashmir. Theproposal is being flaunted in
away as if Jammu and Kashmir isunder colonial rule".
NationalSecurity Advisor MKNarayanan had told a televisionchannel
in an interview on De-cember 24 that specifics were yetto be worked
out on Pakistan'ssuggestion for self-governancein Jammu and
Kashmir.
In reply to a question, Mr
Narayanan had ruled out de-militarisation along the Line
ofControl (LoC), saying this couldbe considered only when the
ar-
eas along the LoC were com-pletely free of violence.
Ajay Chrungoo said that theefforts of state Chief MinisterGhulam
Nabi Azad in trying torestore normalcy in the statewere "realistic
with a nationalperspective". He said KashmiriPandits had high hopes
from theChief Minister in view of his re-cent statements about
"zero tol-erance" against terrorism. "The
statements are quite encouragingand broadly, the Chief
Minister'sinternal policy pronouncementsare realistic. We hope he
sustainsand implements the policies," DrChrungoo said.
Expressing serious apprehen-sions about the entire peace
pro-cess with Pakistan, the 'PanunKashmir' leader said various
ex-periments to solve the Kashmirproblem underlined a compro-mise
with Muslim communal-ism. He added that KashmiriPandits would not
accept anysettlement with Muslim separat-ists represented by
jehadi
groups, Hurriyat Conference orother terrorist regimes.
Dr. Shakti Bhan, Chairpersondaughter of Vitasta said
thatseparatism in Jammu and Kash-mir underlines a separate
dispo-sition, outside the constitutionalorganisation of the Indian
Stateand its conversion into a Mus-lim State. Rejecting any
dispen-sation of the Kashmir problemwhich does not ensure
protectionof the life and property ofKashmiri Pandits, she said
thatthey were determined to upholdtheir claim on Kashmir as
thefirst and natural party.
HomageHomageHomageHomageHomageKashmir Sentinel pays homage to
Smt.Shanti Devi Gandhi W/o Sh. N.R. Gandhiand Mother of Sh.
Surinder Gandhi, whoattained Nirvana recently at Delhi. MayGod
bestow peace to the departed soul
Sh. Shailendra Aima Vice Chairman Panun Kashmir and editor
Kashmir Sentinel addressing theSeminar at Jammu.
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KASHMIR SENTINELJanuary 2006 6
EDITORIALEDITORIALEDITORIALEDITORIALEDITORIALMusharraf is the
ProblemMusharraf is the ProblemMusharraf is the ProblemMusharraf is
the ProblemMusharraf is the Problem
The greatest irony of our times is that the world’s
largestbeneficiary of the global terror, whose survival is linked
toits prolongation, has been projected by the dishonest Westas the
‘frontline soldier’ in their War against Terrorism. Ameri-cans,
known for misjudging the history, have been going around,parading
Musharraf as the ‘last saviour’ of the western world .Asthe spoilt
child of Americans, he has been showered encomiumsfor pursuing
‘enlightened moderation’. To appease the militarydictator further,
an unjust Peace process, that actually works againstpeace, has been
imposed on India.Musharraf has not delivered onany of the promises
to help fight the war against Terror. The westremains as vulnerable
to the jihadist threat as before.
The US State Department continues to pursue an
opportunisticpolicy in fighting jihadist terror and in choosing
allies to counterit.Musharraf has cashed on this selectivity to
pursue personal ag-grandizement and legitimize his illegal
occupation of Presidency.He also wrested concessions to pursue
jihadist terror as a foreignpolicy tool, particularly against
India. For continued acts of ter-rorism he puts the blame on the
extremist fringe in his army. Attimes he trots out the excuse that
jihadi groups were outside hiscontrol.
Wajid Shamsul Hasan ,a former Pakistani
Diplomatcautions,”Musharraf continues to run with the democratic
west-ern hare while hunting with the extreme religious hounds
withinPakistan. And it is an irony that the Americans ,the British
andothers in theWest see in him a solution to the global
terrorismwhen he, the military establishment and their mullah
allies areactually inherent part of the lethal problem.”
In an interview with the Washington Post in
2002,Musharrafhimself revealed that he had not abandoned the option
of usingjihadist terror as a foreign policy tool. He made a
distinction be-tween various elements of Pakistan’s militant
problem and ha-rangued that the jihadis fighting in Kashmir were
‘freedom fight-ers’. He listed three elements of terrorism-----1.Al
Qaeda factor.2. Cross Border Terrorism, what he calls the ‘freedom
struggle’ inKashmir.3.Sectarian extremism and Sectarian terrorism.
He wenton to describe sectarian terrorism as his only concern
because itwas” destabilizing us ( Pakistan )internally”.
One could ask the military dictator how could he be
America’spartner in fighting terrorism if he did not agree with the
US defini-tion of terrorism. As per Musharraf’s world-view only
sectarianterrorists were the real source of trouble, while Al
Qaeda’s Arabmembers had to be apprehended to ensure the flow of
USsupport.Homegrown jihadis trained for operating in the region
werethe least of Musharraf’s concern. How can Pakistani
authoritieseliminate the international terrorist network or the
sectarian mili-tias without decapitating the domestic jihadi
networks? All Islam-ist terror groups sympathize with one another
and in some cases,such as Kashmir jihadi groups and sectarian
militias, have over-lapping memberships.
Even on the question of Al Qaeda ,Musharraf seeks to justifyAl
Qaeda’s political objectives. He recently said that the Al Qaedahas
become an “international phenomenon” and harangued thatthe world
should “join hands in addressing the state of mind calledAl Qaeda
phenomenon through just resolution of the underlyingcauses of
terror and political disputes.”
Can a State which remains in alliance with jihadis be an ally
inthe war against Terror? Sick minds in the West have been slow
incomprehending the Islamist threat. London Economist ,a
presti-gious journal in an editorial commented,”Musharraf is our
son ofa bitch .We want to fight terror with the help of those who
are itsbreeders.” If dictators could terminate terror ,the
Middle.east couldhave been a heaven on the earth.
Fortunately ,some of the saner voices in the West and in
Paki-stan have become vocal in articulating the threats posed by
theMullah-Military alliance led by Musharraf to the democratic
worldorder. .In its latest report (April 2005), The International
CrisisGroup noted that as Musharraf was praised by the
internationalcommunity for his role in war against terrorism ,the
frequencyand viciousness of sectarian terrorism continued to
increase in hiscountry. It cautioned ,” The choice Pakistan faces
is not betweenthe military and the mullahs ,as is generally
believed in the West,it is between democracy and a mullah –military
alliance that isresponsible for producing and sustaining religious
extremism ofvarious hues. “
The same views are echoed by Wajid Shamsul Hasan also. Hewarns,”
Washington and London must realize that by continuingto support
mullah-military alliance in Pakistan and not supportingreturn of
democracy ,they are actually becoming a party to feed-ing
epicenters of terrorism to grow from strength to strength.” It
istime that New Delhi also realized that the much-hyped peace
pro-cess is doomed to failure because Musharraf is the problem
.Plainspeaking done by J&K Chief Minister,Mr. Gh.Nabi Azad ,in
whichhe strongly emphasized the need for de-militarization of
Pakistanhas warmed many hearts. This is the message we need to put
acrossto Americans for Musharraf ,the military dictator is the main
im-pediment in winning the War against Terrorism and for
usheringpeace in the region.
By V.K. Krishna MenonM U C H
has been saidand writtenabout Kashmirduring the lasts e v e n t
e e nyears. Termssuch as the‘ K a s h m i rproblem’, the
‘Kashmir dispute’, the ‘Kashmirquestion’ and the ‘Kashmir
issue’are often used both in ignorance anddisregard of realities.
To this isadded the recent novelty, ‘TheKashmir irritant’!
The reality, however, is that theState of Jammu and Kashmir,
theentire territory over which theformer Maharaja ruled, is a
Con-stituent State of the Union of Indiaand has been such since
October 26,1947. It will continue to so remaindespite invaders,
subversionists,saboteurs, do-gooders, honest bro-kers,.
interventionists, imperialistsand others, knaves or fools. The
rea-son is that the people of India areawake and alert.
When Britain was about to with-draw from India, she decided to
re-lease herself and the Princes’ Statesfrom existing
relationships. TheBritish Government, then the para-mount power,
set out the positionas follows:
‘Political arrangements betweenthe States on the one side and
theBritish Crown and British India onthe other, will thus be
brought to anend. The void will have to be filledeither by the
States entering into afederal relationship with the succes-sor or
governments in British India,or failing this entering into
particu-lar political arrangements with it orthem.’ (Memorandum of
the Cabi-net Mission, May 12, 1946.)
The former Indian States were toaccede to one or other
Dominiononly—India or Pakistan— accord-ing to their decision
expressedthrough laid down procedures andprocesses.
Jammu and Kashmir did not ac-cede to either Dominion, as early
asthe rest of the States. On August 12,1947, the State, however,
sought toenter into ‘standstill arrangements’with the two Dominions
as was con-templated by the Cabinet Missionitself in regard to the
princely Statesin the transitional period. Pakistan(M. A. Jinnah)
concluded such anagreement with the Maharaja ofJammu and Kashmir.
India was ap-proached for a similar, though dif-ferent,
agreement.
The agreement with India cov-ered a great many more topics
anddetails which required discussion.The Government of India,
therefore,asked the then Prime Minister ofKashmir (the Maharaja’s
PrimeMinister) to come to Delhi to settlematters. This invitation
was ac-cepted, but the visit did notmaterialise as the invasion of
theState by Pakistanis prevented itsPrime Minister from
leaving.
The proposed standstill agree-ment with Pakistan was a
simplermatter. It covered few subjects andthe transitional
arrangements con-templated covered only a few items.On August 16,
1947, Pakistanagreed to the standstill agreementoffered by the
State. A few dayslater, on August 31, (this is not tosay that
Pakistan’s aggression com-menced only on that date: it wascertainly
prepared for from as early
What is at stake?-IWhat is at stake?-IWhat is at stake?-IWhat is
at stake?-IWhat is at stake?-Ias the preceding May), Major Gen-eral
Scott. a British officer whocommanded the Maharaja’s army atthat
time, reported to his Govern-ment about border raids from
Paki-stan.
The InvasionThese raids increased in inten-
sity and dimension. The Maharaja’sGovernment protested to
Pakistanon September 4. Meanwhile, Paki-stan imposed an economic
boycott,cutting off essential supplies to theState. On September
18, Pakistansevered the rail link between Jammuand Sialkot.
Scott’s diary gives dates, factsand figures about the
mountingraids which soon assumed thecharacter and size of an
invasion.Villages were plundered, men andwomen molested and killed
andplaces sacked and burnt. Thediary, under the date October
10,1947, refers to the activities of somesections of the Pakistan
army. Theinvasion was now under way. TheNorth-West Frontier
ProvincePremier (of Pakistan) announcedthat firearms would be
distributedliberally to all ‘except the enemiesof Pakistan’.
Norman Cliff of the LondonNews Chronicle, .reported to hispaper
on October 13.
‘Pakistan has cut off from Kash-mir supplies of petrol, sugar,
salt andkerosene oil, although a standstillagreement between them
has beensigned.
On October 15, the Maharaja,perhaps more from habit than on
thebasis of legal rights or politicalclaims as existed at the time,
ap-pealed to the British Prime Minis-ter about the economic
blockade andthe invasion of his State in Poonch! The Maharaja said
:
‘People all along the border havebeen licensed and armed with
mod-ern weapons under the pretext ofgeneral policy which does not
ap-pear to have been followed in thecase of internal districts of
WestPunjab. Whereas military escorts aremade available for several
other pur-poses, none is provided for the safetransit of petrol and
other essentialsof life. Protests merely elicit prom-ises which are
never implemented.As a result of obvious connivanceof the Pakistan
Government, thewhole of the border from Gurdaspurside up to Gilgit
is threatened withinvasion which has actually begunin Poonch.’
This meant that the Pakistan in-cursion was no longer a ‘raid’
oreven a series of raids! It extendedfrom the western border, over
thewestern districts of the State, to-wards the south of the State,
rightup into the mountain area and to theSinkiang border. In all
these areas,the invaders were liberally supplied,with Pakistan arms
and equipment.The protests of the Maharaja’s gov-ernment to
Pakistan’s provincial andcentral authorities were of no avail.The
invaders continued along theJhelum Valley to Srinagar.
Nothing impeded their, formi-dable onslaught, except a
temporaryslowing down at Uri, fifty milesfrom Srinagar, where one
hundredand fifty men under a State ForcesBrigadier fought a last
ditch battleand destroyed a vital bridge whichdenied ingress to the
invaders. Pa-kistan Sappers, however, built anew-bridge in
forty-eight hours! Theinvaders were also resisted by thelocal
population. The latter, toofought last ditch battles with what-
ever weapons, including this, whichthey could muster. This was
on Oc-tober 22, 1947.
The AccessionThe British Commander-in-
Chief of the Indian Army, informedthe Defence Committee in
NewDelhi on October 25 that a force, of5,000 or over (nearly two
Brigades)had attacked and capturedMuzaffarabad and Domel, and
thatthe invaders ‘expected considerablereinforcements.’ The
invaders werebut 35 miles from Srinagar.
On October 24, the Maharajaappealed to India for protection.
Heapplied to accede to India in accor-dance with laid down
procedures.
Enough evidence has come tohand that the Pakistan invasion
hadbeen prepared for from as early asJune 1947 and that British
officersof the Pakistan army knew about it.Jinnah had given orders
to the Pa-kistan army on October 27 to moveinto Kashmir. Field
MarshalAuchinleck claims to have obtainedcancellation of these
orders underthe threat that all British officerswould be withdrawn
from the Paki-stan army.
India accepted the Maharaja’sapplication for accession in due
ac-cord with procedures and also senttroops to protect Kashmir.
Indiaconsulted the president of the Na-tional Conference,
SheikhMohammed Abdullah, who urgedacceptance. It has also been
revealedthat Prime Minister Nehru consultedGandhiji before sending
troops andobtained his assent. The Govern-ment of India followed up
the pro-tests to Pakistan made by the Ma-haraja.
Pakistan’s ResponsibilityThe Governor General (Lord
Mountbatten) went to Lahore. ThenJinnah made what may appear a
fauxpas, but it is revealing. He proposedto Mountbatten that both
sidesshould call of their forces. Jinnahhad all along been
asserting thatPakistan had nothing to do with the‘raids’ and that
he had no controlover the ‘tribesmen’. Mountbattenasked him how he
could in such cir-cumstances obtain withdrawal of theinvading side.
Jinnah blurted out: ‘Ifyou do this. I will call the wholething
off.
The invasion is where the present‘Kashmir Story' begins, where
it hasits base and being. The reality ofKashmir becomes the
‘problem’,‘dispute’, ‘question’ by this fact ofPakistan’s
invasion.
We have insisted and must con-tinue to insist that we have not
re-ferred to the Security Council a ‘dis-pute’ or are dealing with
one. It isin truth, in law, in politics and interms of the approach
to it, a situa-tion created by Pakistan’s aggres-sion and invasion.
There would beno Kashmir ‘problem’ at present butfor the aggression
by Pakistan.There would be no continuance ofit but for the
connivance, condona-tion and support of this aggressionby the
western powers. It may notbe a presentation agreeable to all,but it
is necessary. It is the stub-born fact.
On December 22, our PrimeMinister wrote to the Prime Minis-ter
of Pakistan requesting hisgovernment to deny to the raiders(i)
access and use of Pakistanterritory for operation againstKashmir,
(ii) military and othersupplies, and (iii) other aid thatmight tend
to prolong the struggle.
PERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVE
(Contd. on Page 7)
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KASHMIR SENTINELJanuary 2006
ANALYSISANALYSISANALYSISANALYSISANALYSIS 7
(From Pagte 6)We waited for a week. No re-
ply came. Having failed in ourpourparlers with Pakistan,
ourPrime Minister informed LiaquatAli Khan, the then Prime
Ministerof Pakistan, that everything hehad tentatively proposed and
dis-cussed with him was at an endsince Pakistan would do nothingto
end her aggression, pretendingthat no such thing had taken
place.
Our MotivesWe then decided to take the mat-
ter to the Security Council. It is amistake to think that it was
our ref-erence of this matter to the UnitedNations which is the
cause of thecontinuance of the situation. Whatdid we tell the
Security Council, andwhat remedy did it invoke ? Thesefacts are
important. To dismiss themas ‘legalisms’ is escapist or
perverse.
On January 1, 1948, the Govern-ment of India made a complaint
tothe United Nations under Article 35(Chapter VI) of the Charter.
Weasked that:
‘The Government of Pakistan beasked to prevent tribals in the
Stateof Jammu and Kashmir and to denyto the raiders access to and
the useof territory in operations againstKashmir, military and
other suppliesand all other kinds of aid that mighttend to prolong
the fighting in Kash-mir.’
We did not use strong language,or ask for United Nations’
inter-vention by force, as in the Congo in1960. Article 35 says
that: ‘Anymember may bring any situation,whose continuance is
likely to en-danger the maintenance of interna-tional peace and
security, to the at-tention of the Security Council.’
We said that such a situation nowexists between India and
Pakistan.The word ‘situation’ is not our coin-age. The Charter
makes a distinc-tion, and a firm one, between a dis-pute and a
situation. There was notand is not a territorial dispute or
ajudicial question of sovereignty ortitle to be adjudicated between
theparties. Pakistan and India are par-ties in the sense that one
is the ag-gressor and victim, the other the
complainant and the accused. Ourswas a reference to the
SecurityCouncil under provisions whichdeal with ‘questions of
internationalpeace and security’. What was ourprayer? It was
that:
‘The Government of India re-quest the Security Council to
callupon Pakistan to put an end imme-diately to the giving of such
assis-tance which is an act of aggressionagainst India.’ (all
italics mine.)
I have set out this part of thestory at some length, though yet
verybriefly, as it is essential to an ad-equate understanding and
apprecia-tion of the issues involved and pro-jected and to assert
the true fact thatPakistan’s invasion is the origin andthe
continuing cause of this ‘prob-lem.’
Vacation of AggressionWhat follows? The answer is
obvious. It sticks out a mile. Henceall the devices to go round
it! Thisanswer is: aggression must be va-cated if there is to be a
‘solution’.
In the face of India’s complaintbefore the Security Council, the
an-swer of Pakistan was filed on Janu-ary 15, 1948. In a letter,
Pakistan’sMinister of Foreign Affairs said:‘The Pakistan Government
emphati-cally deny that they are giving aidand assistance to the
so-called in-vaders or have committed any actof aggression against
India.’ Thelatter went on to say: ‘On the con-trary, and solely
with the object ofmaintaining friendly relations be-tween the two
Dominions, the Pa-kistan Government have continuedto do all in
their power to discour-age the tribal movement by allmeans short of
war.’ It was from SirZafarullah Khan, whose countrywas at that time
waging war againstus, that the fact was afterwards con-firmed.
The Anglo-American AnswerThe evidence of foreign corre-
spondents and Pakistani utterancesat the time about Pakistan’s
inva-sion are overwhelming. Yet, thewestern countries did not and
havenot till today spoken against this ag-gression, much less
condemned it.They have also failed to take note
(to put it mildly) that Pakistan haddeceived the Security
Council. TheAnglo-American answer has been tomake Pakistan a
military ally andalso to support her case diplomati-cally.
The United Nations appointed acommission—the United
NationsCommission for India and Pakistan
(UNCIP). We did not vote for itsappointment, as under British
ini-tiative the resolution appointing theCommission was in such
languageas challenged our position. We,however, received the
Commissionand gave it all cooperation. The sev-eral interim reports
of the Commis-sion alone are a mine of materialproving Pakistan’s
aggression, thevalidity of our case and, further-more, Pakistan’s
failure to honourobligations.
The item before the United Na-tions is called the
‘Indo-PakistanQuestion’. We did not so name itnor did we agree with
the title of theitem. To us, it was and is our com-plaint against
aggression, but wetook the view that the Council cancall it what it
likes.
Our Prime Minister’s main con-cern at that time was to stop
thefighting. The Indian Army hadmoved in, at a day’s notice,
savedSrinagar, driven the invaders out ofBaramulla, which they had
sackedand burned, killing thousands ofpeople. The Indian army
routed theinvaders from Baramulla. In a fewmonths, India’s armed
strength be-gan to beat back the aggressors. Ourheavy armour went
up the heightsof the Zojilla Pass, a feat never ac-complished
before. It struck terrorinto the invaders.
The ResolutionsIn spite of our military advan-
tage, we accepted the Commission’sproposal for a cease-fire and
did ev-erything to assist it. We accepted theUNCIP’s proposed
resolutionswhich Pakistan rejected at first andonly accepted after
several months.
Thus the resolution of August13, 1948, and a subsequent one
of
January 5, 1949, are the two resolu-tions by which we are
engaged. Wethereby accepted the cease-fire, andwithdrew our
victorious and ad-vancing forces at certain points toestablish a
cease-fire line. The tworesolutions hang together.
Of the two, the first resolutionhas been called a ‘concertina’
reso-lution. Briefly, it consists of threeparts, and Part II
contains two sub-parts. It is of the essence of the reso-lution,
very obviously and expresslystated, that the implementation ofeach
succeeding part follows on theimplementation of the previous
one.
The resolution of January 5,1949, has at least two features
whichare part of its essentiality. It followsfrom the full
implementation of PartIII of the resolution of August
13.Furthermore, it was not by way of acommitment but was a plan for
theimplementation of Part III of theresolution of August 13.
By Part I (A) of the resolutionof August 13, the cease-fire line
wasestablished. The remaining part ofthe resolution is still
un-imple-mented. It will take more space thanthe editor can give me
to set out theresolutions or their vicissitudes infull. It is
sufficient for the presentto point to the import and implica-tions
of the remaining clauses ofPart I, whereby:
(a) both parties agreed to desistfrom any measures to augment
themilitary forces under their controlin Jammu and Kashmir;
(b) both governments agree toappeal to their respective sides
toassist in creating an atmospherefavourable to negotiations.
Note: It had been expresslystated that ‘for the purpose of
theResolution “military forces” includeall forces, organised
andunorganised. . .’
According to the UNCIP reportsthemselves, Pakistan had
aug-mented her forces without referenceto the United Nations.
Pakistan hasalso persisted in and accentuated hercampaigns of
hatred, threats of holywar (jehad) and resorted to subver-sion and
sabotage on the Indian sideof the ceasefire line.
Thus, Part I, except for thecease-fire, is still-born. We maynow
look at Part (A), which maybe set out in full:
1. As the presence of troops of
Pakistan in the territory of the Stateof Jammu and Kashmir
consti-tutes a material change in the situa-tion, since it was
represented by theGovernment of Pakistan before theSecurity
Council, the Governmentof Pakistan agrees to withdraw itstroops
from that State.
2. The Government of Paki-stan will use its best endeavour,
tosecure the withdrawal from theState of Jammu and Kashmir
oftribesmen and Pakistani nationalsnot normally resident therein
whohave entered the State for the pur-pose of fighting.
3. Pending a final solution, theterritory evacuated by the
Paki-stani troops will be administeredby the local authorities
underthe surveillance of the Commission.
Neither Pakistan troops, nor ir-regulars, have been withdrawn as
setout in (1) and (2) above.
In regard to (3), Pakistan evacu-ated no territory, but on the
contraryand according to UNCIP reportsestablished administration in
thenorthern areas where she had thenno effective control. She has
sinceannexed and also changed the sta-tus of these areas including
the‘settlement’ and cession of territoryto China!
Part I and Part II (A) have noteven now been implemented in
re-gard to both of the above, the onusof performance and the
responsibil-ity of default is solely and exclu-sively with
Pakistan. The rest of theresolution is also stillborn owing
toPakistan’s default.
No question of India implement-ing any part of the resolution
arises.Sixteen years have passed, condi-tions have changed and what
is con-tained in the rest of the resolutionhas become
unperformable.‘Changed conditions’, the well-known doctrine of
InternationalLaw of Rebus sic Stantibus wascited by India in 1957
before theSecurity Council.
It is an error for us to argue thatthese resolutions are
obsolete andinvite odium. We are ‘engaged’ bythese resolutions. But
we have nounfulfilled commitments or defaultsto account for. If the
resolution isargued as obsolete, we will becharged with the onus of
wantingto terminate the cease-fire and pre-cipitating a military
conflict. Wehave stated publicly that we will nottake the
initiative in, or invite, war-like action.
(To be continued)
By Kanchan Lakshman
During the India-Pakistan dialogue in New York, on thesidelines
of the United Na-tions General Assemly session inSeptember.
Pakistan identified thedistricts of Baramulla and Kupwarain Jammu
and Kashmir *J&K) forimmediate troop withdrawal by In-dia as a
gesture that, it claimedwould help build the 'impetus forpeace'.
Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh,who saidprogress on the peace
process couldonly take place if there was a com-plete cessation of
cross-border in-filtration and violence, rightly dis-missed the
Pakistan demand.
A scrutiny of the trajectory ofviolence in J&K helps
understandwhy General Parvez Musharraf isinsisting on troop
withdrawal spe-cifically from these two districts,and indicates
that the rationale goesbeyond concern for the 'impetus forpeace' or
for the welfare of thepeople of Kashmir. Further, it goeswell
beyond the fact that these dis-tricts are close to the Line of
Con-trol (LoC). Baramulla and Kupwara
J&K troop withdrawal-Musharrarf's bid to re-open terror
routesJ&K troop withdrawal-Musharrarf's bid to re-open terror
routesJ&K troop withdrawal-Musharrarf's bid to re-open terror
routesJ&K troop withdrawal-Musharrarf's bid to re-open terror
routesJ&K troop withdrawal-Musharrarf's bid to re-open terror
routeshave traditionally served as a gate-way to terrorism in the
Kashmir Val-ley and have, for long, been crucialto the Jihad in
Kashmir.
The issue of troop reduction hasbeen a central part of
Pakistan'slong-standing demands on Kashmirand had, in the past,
been projectedas a pre-condition for talks with In-dia. It is also
an indication of theend-game Musharraf proposes topursue on the
Kashmir issue, com-prehending a partiion of the Valleyunder which
these two districts,bothwith a Muslim majority of over 90per cent.
would be ceded to Paki-stan.
During his recent sojourn in NewYork, Musharraf is also reported
tohave impressed upon the USAdministratiion the need to influ-ence
India into agreeing to a troopreduction. Pakistan's efforts to
en-gage US 'good-offices' are at leastpartially influenced by the
fact that,in 1963, the then US administrationdid bring some amount
of pressureon India to consider ceding the"north-west" part of the
Valley toPakistan India cast off the idea then
and has since been steadfast in re-jecting any such thoughts of
a fur-ther Partition, a point that the gov-ernment of India has
often reiteratedin the current context, with thePrime Minister
himself insisting thatthere can be no redrawing of bound-aries
along religious and ethniclines.
Baramulla and Kupwara, withborders that are mountainous
andheavily forested, are twoneighbouring districts in the northand
northwest of the Valley, withtheir topography clearly
demonstrat-ing their strategic importance.Baramulla, spread over
4,588 squarekilometers, is bordered by Kupwrain the north, Budgam
and Poonchdistricts in the south, parts of thesummer capital,
Srinagar andLadakh in the east andMuzaffarabad, capital of
Pakistanoccupied Kashmir (PoK) in thewest. Kupwara with a
geographicalarea of 2,379 square kilometers, wascarved out of
Baramulla district inthe year 1979. Tothe east and southof Kupwara
is Baramulla, while inthe west and north is the LoC, which
separattes in from Muzaffarabad.According to those who
oversee
security in the State, the prevailingsituation in the two
Districts, doesnot warrant any re-adjustment of
thecounter-insurgency grid, and anydilution of Forces is bound to
affectthe counter insurgency grid and thesecurity base.
Pakistan-backed ter-rorist groups active in the Districtincude the
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen(HuM), which has a northern divi-sion for
Kupwara-Bandipora-Baramulla: Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT),Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM), Al UmarMujahideen, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideenand Al Badr, Kupwara
andBaramulla witness high levels ofinfiltration and terrorist
activity andany lowering of guard there wouldallow the terrorists,
who have beenunder extraordinary pressure lately,to regroup and
recover lost ground.It would also mean grantingunhindred access to
the Valley, es-pecially in Srinagar, which is to thesouth-east of
Baramulla. Being bor-der districts adjacent to the LoC,
anywithdrawal of troops fromBaramulla and Kupwara would un-
dermine the internal security gridand would facilitate
infiltration intothe Valley. The operational advan-tage in these
districts, vis-a-vs theexecution of operation, accruing pri-marily
due to terrain and location,lies with the terrorist. Troop
with-drawal would simply cede the en-tire territory to the
terrorists. Fur-thermore, the flow of actionable in-telligence of
terrorist movement intoother districts in J&K would also
beadversely affected.
It is useful to note that approxi-mately 34 terrorist
'commanders'have been killed in the two districtsbetween January
2003 and Septem-ber 2005 (10 in Baramulla and 24in Kupwara). While
the number ofcivilian and SF fatalities in not ashigh as in some
other districts ofJ&K (Baramulla witnessed 55 civil-ians and 19
SF deaths, andKupwara. 13 civilians and 16 SFdeaths this year, till
September-end),the two districts serve as a gatewayto the Valley.
As many as 159 ter-rorists have been killed in Kupwaraand 122 in
Baramulla in the current
(Contd. on Page 9)
What is at stake?-IWhat is at stake?-IWhat is at stake?-IWhat is
at stake?-IWhat is at stake?-I
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KASHMIR SENTINELJanuary 2006 RITUALSRITUALSRITUALSRITUALSRITUALS
8
By Dr. S.S. Toshkhani“Mekhal" is what the Kashmiri
Pandits call upanayana oryajnopavit (sacred thread in-vestiture)
and the whole range ofceremonies connected with it,though wearing
the mekhala or thegirdle of Munja grass is only one ofthem. How
they came to use theword for the whole samskara is notclear. But it
seems that at some pointin time it must have been for themthe most
important part of the sa-cred thread investiture ceremony asit
stressed the vows of celibacy andpurity of conduct as an essential
pre-requisite for the initiate to go to theAcharya to learn.
Actually,upanayana, with which it has be-come synonymous, was in
the be-ginning an educational samskarawhich was performed when
theteacher accepted to take charge ofthe student and impart
necessaryeducation to him. According to Dr.Rajbali Pandey, it was
made com-pulsory to make education univer-sal. Slowly it began to
loose its pureeducational sense and assumed aceremonious character
with the in-vestiture of the sacred thread, whichtook place at the
end of the yajnaperformed to mark the initiation andbecame the main
ritual. In course oftime the boy initiated with theGayatri mantra
to enable him to readthe Vedas, was regarded as havingacquired the
status of a dvija or‘twice-born’.
Whatever the case may be, inKashmir the samskara, whethercalled
“mekhal” or yajnopavit, be-came a package of about twenty-four
samskaras from vidyarambhaor learning of alphabets tosamavartana or
the end ofstudentship. Interestingly, these in-clude elements from
even the pre-natal samskaras like garbh-adanaand siman-tonnayana.
Evenkahanethur (namakarana) andzarakasay (chudakarana or the
firsttonsure) if not performed at the pre-scribed time can be
combined withit. This has made mekhal oryajnopavit a prolonged
affair last-ing for hours together. However, itis the wearing of
the sacred threadto which the greater significance orsanctity is
attached. That may be sobecause it has come to be regardedby the
Kashmiri Brah-mans, as byBrahmans elsewhere in the country,an
essential symbol of their Hinduidentity.
Let us have a look at some of thepeculiarities of the samskara
as per-formed by the Hindus of Kashmir.According to Laugakshi,
theupanayana ceremony of a Brahmanboy should be performed in the
sev-enth year from birth or in the eighthyear from conception, that
ofKshatriya in the ninth year and thatof a Vaishya in the eleventh
year:“saptame varshebrahmanasyopanayanam navamerajanasya ekadashe
vaishasya”.This differentiation between theages of the initiates,
however, hasno relevance for the Kashmiri Hin-dus today as there
was hardly anyKshatriya or Vaishya left amongthem after the advent
of Islam inKashmir. Optional ages have alsobeen prescribed in
theGrihyasutras in case of exigencies,the time limit for a Brahman
boybeing sixteen years. As thesamskara has become purely
cer-emonial today, even this extendedtime limit is hardly adhered
to andit is performed at a convenient time,generally a few days
before mar-riage.
A uniquely Kashmiri and an es-sential preliminary ceremony
per-formed a day or two prior to
Mekhal Ritual of Kashmiri PanditsMekhal Ritual of Kashmiri
PanditsMekhal Ritual of Kashmiri PanditsMekhal Ritual of Kashmiri
PanditsMekhal Ritual of Kashmiri Pandits
Mekhal Maharaza in a Mekhal ceremony.
upanayana (and also marriage) isDivagon. The etymology of
theword ‘divagon’ is not clear but it isprobably derived from the
Sanskrit‘devagamanai, meaning ‘arrival ofthe gods’. The ceremony is
per-formed for invoking the presence ofgods, especially Ganesha and
theSapta Matrikas or seven mothergoddesses, to bless the initiate
or theboy or girl to be married. It beginswith a ritual bath,
called kani-shran,which is given to the initiate by fiveunmarried
girls, pancha kanya, fourholding a thin muslin cloth over hishead
at its four ends and the fifthpouring consecrated water with
apitcher. These days usually the of-ficiating priest himself pours
thewater.
A havan is performed on theoccasion amidst chanting of man-tras
by the presiding priest with theinitiate offering oblations while
fac-ing the east. On the eastern wall, themotif of the
kalpavriksha, supposedto be the abode of the goddesses
inNandanavana or the Garden of Para-dise is painted with lime and
ver-milion. The kalpavriksha or the‘wish fulfilling tree’ has
ashatchakra (hexagon) made at itsbase symbolizing Shakti, and
thedrawing is called divta moon or the‘column of the gods’. At
about thesame time khir is prepared andpoured into seven earthen
platescalled divta tabuchi or