Media
persons working in any conflict zone face a host of hazards ranging from the
ever-looming threat of bodily harm, to serious psychological infirmities such
as ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’. Scribes who strongly believe in objective reporting run the additional
risk of retribution as their reportage ends up riling feuding entities. This phenomenon
was quite common in the Kashmir Valley during the early 90s, and manifested
itself in the form of open threats and brazen attacks by infuriated terrorist
groups on media houses and journalists.
Similarly,
the establishment ‘punished’ media houses that did not toe the official line by
starving them financially through the age-old tactics of directing government
departments not to place official advertisements in the ‘errant’ newspapers. However,
by the mid-nineties both the establishment and terrorist groups in J&K
seemed to have realised that image building by intimidating the media was
proving to be counterproductive and so they made some amends.
Media
houses and journalists in Kashmir Valley too realised that under the existing
circumstances, it was best to be ‘practical’ while reporting on terrorism
related incidents in a manner that didn’t offend the establishment or the
terrorists. So, it’s not strange that while terrorist-initiated incidents of
targeted killings and attacks resulting in loss of life or limb of innocent
civilians are invariably attributed to “unidentified gunmen”, news
of successes against security forces never fails to mention the identity of the
terrorist group responsible for the attack!
Ask anyone who remains abreast with what’s happenings in J&K and you’ll be told that in the ongoing ‘battle’ to win ‘hearts and minds’, the pro-Pakistan lobby led by All Parties Hurriyat Conference [APHC] has fared much better that the Indian establishment. While conventional apathy and red tape are undoubtedly largely responsible for lackluster performance of India’s establishment on the media front, the main reason for this sorry state of affairs is New Delhi’s antiquated mindset and refusal to adapt itself to the fast-changing situations.
Consequently, India’s polity and bureaucracy both fail to appreciate that the phenomenal increase in domestic anti-India tirade on the Kashmir issue is actually part of a much bigger gambit of ‘perception warfare’ being orchestrated from across the Radcliffe Line. The harsh reality is that despite clear indicators, New Delhi doesn’t seem to be prepared to fight fire with fire by adopting a more proactive and aggressive media outreach to thwart the devious designs of inimical forces.
This is
extremely unfortunate, as some so-called ‘rights activists’ openly adopt a
patently motivated anti-India stance. Everyone appears to be in awe of famous
personalities like Arundhati Roy and Gautam Navlakha, who have all the time and
energy to rave and rant on what they perceive to be institutionalised excesses
against Kashmiris. However, no one questions the bald-faced selectivity and stoic
silence of rights activists on the issue of innocent civilians being
mercilessly killed by terrorists even when terrorist groups upload videos
showing brutal Islamic State like executions and have the gall to proudly
accept responsibility for such cowardly acts!
Similarly,
no one ever seems to question these self-anointed human rights crusaders as to
why does their untainted conscience and unassailable convictions conveniently
desert them when they read about civilians being killed by terrorists? How come
their heart doesn’t bleed for the teenaged Kashmiri girl who can be seen being mercilessly
shot multiple times even as she pleads for mercy with folded hands? Due to lack
of credible evidence, to assign ulterior motives to such shamelessly selective
display of concern for human rights, would be incorrect. But then, how does one
explain such an irrational behavior coming from people who are highly respected
for their professed sensitivities, empathy and compassion? How can death of
self-confessed terrorists involved in killing unarmed civilians become a
humungous human tragedy, but the cold blooded and gruesome murder of civilians
by terrorists on unproven charges of being informers be treated as a non-issue by
them?
With a
former Pakistani High Commissioner to India admitting that he was able to “convince”
a well-known Indian writer to write “an article in
the newspaper for Kashmiris’ right to self-determination,” the
suspicion that some well-known personalities may be taking an anti-India
position on this issue for reasons other than purely their personal convictions,
whether intentionally or unwittingly, definitely gains more strength.
Furthermore, the former High Commissioner’s triumphant encore that this writer “wrote at the end of her article, ‘Now the time has come to resolve the Kashmir issue once and for all through a plebiscite’,” does suggest that Islamabad is definitely following an ingenious ‘mind-control’ campaign to seduce influential literati, activists and civil society members in India to work as fifth columnists to further Pakistan’s contrived Kashmir narrative! This covert campaign has permeated into every nook and corner of society in Kashmir.
In 2019, a student of journalism named Adil Farooq was arrested under the Public Safety Act [PSA] for having links with terrorists. One of the charges on which he was booked pertained to “transportation of illegal arms and ammunition through unconventional routes and away from the security forces.” However, no sooner had Farooq been taken into custody, there was a public outrage against his arrest and the well-oiled pro-Pakistan propaganda lobby along with its proxies took to social media with vengeance, accusing the Indian establishment of using strong arm tactics to muzzle the media in Kashmir.
Senior Hurriyat ‘leader’ Mirwaiz Umar Farookh was one amongst the many who spoke up for the detained student studying journalism. In his tweet, Mirwaiz wrote- “Strongly condemn the arrest of Adil Farooq, a journalism student at Central University of Kashmir who been falsely booked under Public Safety Act (PSA) and shifted to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu. It seems the govt is hellbent upon ruining the careers of students and youth by implicating them in fake cases, we demand his immediate release.” With a widely revered preacher like Mirwaiz claiming that the student of journalism had been framed, anti- government sentiments in Kashmir hit the roof.
However, the saying that every lie has a ‘shelf life’ came true on last Tuesday when Farooq was once again arrested, and this time, not on suspicions but red-handed. During routine check of pedestrians in the Lal Chowk area of Srinagar on that day, J&K police recovered two live hand grenades from Farooq’s possession.
Coming within hours of a grenade attack in the same area that had left 10 civilians injured, and just before Independence Day, this very important find possibly averted twin major disasters. However, what’s really disquieting is the fact that in spite of being a member of the journalist fraternity and currently working as sub-editor of CNS News Agency in Srinagar, Farooq chose to indulge in such an act that has brought disrepute to the highly respected profession of journalism.
Whereas Farooq’s motivation is not clear, but the one issue which can’t be disputed is that being a media person working in a conflict zone, he was well aware of both what colossal damage grenades can cause and how terrorists are using these in Kashmir. Even without referring to precise data on grenade casualties in Kashmir, one can say with full confidence that since terrorists use these to target security forces in crowded areas, the number of fatalities and injuries caused by grenades to civilians in here are far greater than those suffered by security forces. This is why there can be no justification for Farooq’s despicable misdemeanour.
Therefore, those who consider themselves conscience-keepers
of society or champions of human rights need to decide whether they want to
support a criminal caught in flagrante with two grenades- a lethal munition
which terrorists invariably use in crowded places, or, stand up for the
innocent Kashmiris, who unwittingly get killed or injured by such grenades,
which in Kashmir, have an inexplicable propensity of missing their intended
targets.
Most importantly, it would be interesting to hear what Mirwaiz has to say this time about the detention of his namesake scribe. Even if Farooq chose to ferry the grenades for ideological reasons, the fact that the same could kill, maim or injure locals present at the site where they would be used makes him an accessory to an unpardonable crime against his own people. Hence it would not be presumptuous to regard fourth estate member Adil Farooq as a fifth columnist!
When a
massive blast shook Allah Hu boulevard, an upscale residential area of Jauhar Town in Lahore on 23
June killing three persons and injuring 21 others, no one knew for sure who was
behind this attack. Neither was it clear who the intended target was.
However, Punjab’s
Inspector General of Police [IGP] Inam Ghani was quick to confirm two
things- one, that the it was an act of “terror”, and two, it was
orchestrated by a “hostile” intelligence agency. Though he didn’t
name who exactly the person in the crosshairs of the assassins was, but while highlighting
how a “major loss” had been averted, because “there was a
police picket outside the high-value target’s house”, he revealed that
the person concerned was someone who really mattered.
It subsequently turned out that the person IGP Ghani was referring to as the “high value target”, who if harmed would have been a “major loss”, was none other than Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] co-founder, Jamaat-ud-Daw [JuD] chief and 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. Normally, for a high-ranking police official to address a UN designated terrorist serving a prison term on terror financing charges as a “high value target”, would besomething unheard of. But, in a country where the Prime Minister refers to 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden a “martyr” on the floor of National Assembly, for a lowly IGP to address to Saeed thus, is nothing unusual!
However, since Saeed is currently supposed to be serving out
his jail sentence in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, the Punjab IGP’s couched
reference to him being the intended target of the Jauhar Town bomb blast made
no sense. Similarly, even though this blast occurred near his house, the IGP’s
claim of a “major loss” being averted seemed farfetched. How
could the LeT co-founder who was lodged in a Kot Lakhpat Jail be harmed by a
bomb that exploded outside his house more than 4 k.m. away? Unless of course, Saeed
was present at his home that Wednesday morning when the blast took place.
While there was no official confirmation of IGP Ghani’s revelation about Hafiz Saeed being the intended target of the bomb attack, surprisingly, there wasn’t any official rebuttal either, and so, even the ‘politically correct’ Pakistani media widely reported that the JuD chief was indeed the intended target. So, it’s obvious that instead of serving out his time in jail, Hafiz Saeed was instead staying at home with his family. Though the very thought of a convict spending time at home instead of a jail may sound ludicrous, but in Pakistan there’s nothing unusual about this. Readers may recall that another 26/11 mastermind and senior LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi fathered a child while he was ‘officially’ incarcerated in Pakistan’s high security Adiala jail after the 2008 Mumbai attacks!
During a joint press conference five days after this attack,
Punjab Chief Minister [CM] Usman Buzdar and IGP Ghani reconfirmed that an “anti-Pakistan
intelligence agency” was involved, without disclosing its
identity. But this wasn’t necessary because by stating that the “basic
target of the Lahore blast was the FATF conference,” it was crystal
clear that Buzdar was referring to India’s Research and Analysis Wing [RAW]. However,
a non-related but most impressive part of this conference was his disclosure
that “The Counter-Terrorism Department [CTD] of the Punjab Police
has unearthed the network of all Pakistani and international suspects involved
in the blast within 16 hours of the incident”.
In a subsequent press briefing held on 4 July, Pakistan’s
National Security Adviser [NSA] Dr Moeed Yusuf stated that “Today I can
tell you, with full confidence, and without any ambiguity, that this whole
attack is directly connected to India’s sponsorship of terrorism against
Pakistan.” He even claimed that “We have identified the main
mastermind and the handlers of this terrorist attack, and we have absolutely no
doubt or reservation in informing you that the main mastermind belongs to RAW,
the Indian intelligence agency, is an Indian national and is based in India.”
However, like always, Islamabad failed to disclose the identity of this ‘RAW
agent’ of Indian origin, even though IGP Ghani claimed that as far as the
Lahore blast was concerned, “the telephone calls, WhatsApp calls, the
whole record, everything [related to the attack] is with us.”
Many consider Punjab CM’s claim of having “unearthed
the network of all Pakistani and international suspects involved in the blast
within 16 hours of the incident,” just an attempt to salvage the
reputation of Punjab Police. But fresh inputs suggest that this could well be true
since the authorities got wind of this attack at least two weeks before it took
place. In a piece titled “Lahore blast: The man who knew the plot,”
[The News International, 3 August 2021], Umar Cheema has quoted a
counter terrorism department [CTD] official telling ‘The News’ that:
A person named Naveed who was part of the bomb
attack plot changed his mind and spilled the beans regarding this devious plan
to policemen at the police picket outside Jamaat-ud-Dawa [JuD] chief Saeed’s
house on June 7. The CTD official revealed that police in turn had shared this
information with JuD officials.
Naveed lived in Dubai before returning to
Pakistan, where he may have met fellow Pakistanis and co-conspirators Peter
Paul David [who bought the car used in the blast] and another conspirator named
Sajjad Shah.
An Afghan national named Eid Gul settled in
Pakistan was the one who fitted explosives in the car and drove it to the blast
site.
This plot was financed by one Samiul Haq, who had
shifted from Dubai to Turkey.
The CTD official also confirmed that Naveed was questioned
both by security agencies as well the Criminal Investigation Agency [CIA]. However,
the most intriguing part is that despite being an invaluable asset who could
identify the conspirators, Naveed was subsequently released! This inexplicable
development raises a very disturbing question- even if Naveed was released as a
favour for him exposing the plot against the JuD chief, when the identities of
conspirators were known to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, why weren’t
the potential plotters taken into preventive custody? Needless to say, had this
basic security measure been instituted, the loss of three precious lives and
serious injuries to 21 others, could have been avoided.
So, the only plausible explanation for such a humungous and
incomprehensible security oversight on Islamabad’s part is that in all
probability, this incident was in essence, a novel ‘false flag’ operation’
orchestrated by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies aimed at serving two purposes.
One, to buttress Islamabad’s unproven but oft repeated allegations that New
Delhi was manipulating international terror financing watchdog Financial Action
Task Force [FATF] to ensure that Pakistan remained on its grey list a semblance
of credibility. Simultaneously, by timing this attack when FATF was in the
final stages of deciding whether to retain or remove Pakistan from its grey
list, Islamabad probably reckoned that it could use this contrived bomb blast
to earn the international terror financing watchdog’s sympathy by projecting
itself as a ‘victim’ of terror unleashed by its Eastern neighbour!
Some may opine that the inference of Pakistani intelligence
agencies orchestrating the Lahore bomb blast just to malign India is too
farfetched. While there’s no doubt that this argument does sound a bit outlandish,
but then, what else does one infer when despite getting prior information of a plot
supposedly hatched by RAW, from the very horse’s mouth itself, Islamabad does
nothing to prevent it? Secondly, why did ISI squander the golden opportunity to
substantiate Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s allegation of New Delhi
being involved in “planning as well as promotion and financing of
terrorist activities” inside Pakistan by failing to roundup the entire
gang of so-called RAW operatives who were planning this bomb attack? Lastly, if
it really has clinching evidence of India’s role in the Lahore blast [as Qureshi,
Pakistan’s NSA and Punjab IGP claim], then why is Islamabad dithering over
making the same public?
With Islamabad displaying such a callous and uncharacteristically
passive response to what it now claims to be a terror attack orchestrated by
its nemesis RAW, there are all the reasons to suspect that there’s much more to
the Lahore bomb blast than what meets the eye. Yet, the one thing which is
certain is that whether it is by omission or commission, the Lahore blast
indisputably falls well within the realms of a ‘false flag operation’!
Westminster model
democracy takes a long time to strike its roots deep in the psyche of the
people. The British democracy is more than a millennia and the American
democracy is nearly 250 years old. The survival of democracy, as we glean from
the example of two countries mentioned above, depends on how pragmatic these
are with the inbuilt capacity of adjusting with new imperative that appears
rapidly in an age of scientific and technological advancement.
The beauty of the
system is that it has the capacity of an assured mechanism in the form of parliamentary
debates and vote. The usual practice is of obtaining a majority vote in favour
or against a tabled proposition. To go by the majority decision is a vital
attribute of democracy.
The much debated aspect of the Westminster module of democracy, which India chose after her independence, is under intensive debate in the political circles and the intellectual class of the civil society. No governance module including the Westminster type of democracy is without a flaw. Everybody thinks so. But the module of democracy which we have borrowed from Great Britain is the one that is less harmful to the governed in comparison to other arrangements. In other words democracy is the lesser evil.
The decisive factor for
the Constituent Assembly to opt for the Westminster type of democracy in 1949 was
the heterogeneity of the Indian nation. That is why some political scientists
call India a mosaic and a sub-continent. Extensive debates on the nature and
depth of multi-faceted diversity of our society has taken place among the
historians and political scientists in our country. The British colonialists
invariably threatened the senior leaders of the Indian freedom movement with a
warning that the type of democracy they visualized for free India was bound to
lead to the fragmentation of the country at the end of the day. Pandit Nehru
countered this unhelpful trend by secularizing the vitiated politics of divide
and rule, and Sardar Patel, taking strength from a clear vision of united India
consolidated the fragmented India bequeathed by the colonialists.
At the root of India opting for secular democracy lay the rich civilizational fund inherited by the Indians from their illustrious forefathers. The ancient philosophical literature of India, in whatever form it is, in reality is the storehouse of wisdom, compassion and peaceful coexistence. In a lucid and objective article titled ‘Beware Zombie Democracy’ (Print Magazine of 12 August) Ram Madhav has summed up in a beautiful paragraph the concept of democratic culture conceived by the Buddha 2,500 years ago.
The socio-political
aberrations that sadden us today are not because of any shortcoming in the
inherited moral and ethical fund but because of our inability to bring about
acceptable synthesis in our socio-political cum economic dynamics in an age of
science and technology.
The nagging issue confronting contemporary democracies is that of “majoritarian-ism”. It has taken an uglier turn in India in particular though as a matter of principle no democracy in the world can be called uniform on cultural, religious or other counts. Believing that the democracy is the game of numbers, all political parties focus their attention on how to win a majority vote on national or regional level. In India, as of today, this has given rise to “mobocracy” and the disillusioned populace has begun to overlook the distance between democracy and mobocracy. Shaheen Bagh episode and the “fish-market” of Rajya Sabha are the examples.
A majority vote means power and authority over the state organs and finally the institutions. The question, no doubt ugly and embarrassing, lies in the behavioural evolution of democracy and democratic mindset. We are not showing maturity and sensibility. In normal conditions, the political parties and especially the mainstream parties make their selves as the beneficiaries and not the people in whose name they want to become attain popularity.
An Indian educationist once happened to visit UK where he was scheduled to interact with the students of 8th standard. Out of curiosity he put a question to his pupils seeking their views on democracy and democratic form of government. One among the students stood up and said, “Sir which democracy are you referring to, the British or the Indian”? That is the crux of the issue.
The reason why the early stalwarts of independent India did not pay full attention to the latent irritants was that subsequent to hard-earned freedom the element of moral imperative supervened in all major policy matters of governance. The nation at that time was not only responsive but also responsible. The plank of morality and ethical conduct in this country are of long standing and service. Satyagraha, an ideology anchored in our moral ethos had become an article of faith with Gandhi Ji and its spirit percolated down to various political and social spectra.
Somehow not too serious an attention was paid to the fallout of the advancement of scientific and technological age from which India could not remain distanced any more. When Nehru said that the dams and hydropower generating projects were the temples of new India, it meant there was a vision of future development and that did happen even if it was not on a mind-bogging scale as we find in China. India could not divorce her civilizational fund and make a violent shift to modernity because it is an agricultural country with agriculture as its mainstay. And Indian farmers are conservatives of a type. That is the reason why when the tractor was first introduced, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India cautioned the country about the possible negative consequences of mishandling the soil. Today, we are faced with the problems of blind use of chemical manure and pesticides.
With the onset of the era of advanced scientific and technological activity with deep and wide impact on life pattern and life standard, there gradually surfaced the idea of identity in its various forms and manifestations. As India began to wriggle out of abject poverty and illiteracy through a massive programme of bringing education literacy and scientific temperament to the masses of people especially the rural India, the urge for assertion of identity became sharper. The downtrodden classes and the economically weaker sections of population anticipated a new world opening before them. The question was to provide conditions that would help them absorb the impact of a changing India. In due course of time a clash of interests began to shape and the elements that lent support to emerging aspirations. Indigenous cultural traits began receiving a fillip and people of India, who had known one leader and one party throughout the freedom movement, now pandered to local leadership, local issues and local solutions. Emergence of regional parties with regional agenda should have been dovetailed to the mainstream politics and political trends in the country. Skill and deftness were needed.
A very peculiar phenomenon of contemporary Indian political scenario is that the voter draws a clear line between his regional and national perceptions and votes accordingly. Not wooing the regional parties by the mainstream parties is unfortunately becoming a bane for the health of our democracy. Most of the ills that we find today steering into the eye of nationalist leadership are the misuse and misguidance of regional vote banks. This is a clear indication of degraded political ethics.
In final analysis all that we need to think about seriously is that should we work for ourselves and our parties or for the nation. No service is sincere and honest if it is not accompanied by a strong ethos of renunciation. Now that we are entering the 75th year of our independence, we must make some introspection and say with frankness that we have faltered and fallen. We need to rise, gave our stereotype a shaking and move forward with all India embracing vision.
Human Rights Activists from Balochistan, Sindh, Pashtunistan, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK), Gilgit-Baltistan and Bangladesh will organize a car rally at Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC on August 14 to protest the inhuman atrocities by Pakistani regime. This rally will have trucks with giant screens wherein photographs and videos of the savagery and brutalities committed by Pakistani security forces will be broadcast to enable the world to see the actual ground realities in Pakistan.
The Baloch National Movement (BNM), Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement (JSFM), Pashtun Tahafuz Movement US Chapter (PTM- USA), Kashmiri, Gilgit Baltistan and Bangladesh human rights activists have joined hands for this car rally and protest at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC.
“We have chosen August 14 as the day for our car rally because the Pakistani regime celebrates this day as Yaum-e-Azadi, but we want the world to see for themselves the brutal atrocities committed by Pakistani soldiers on occupied Balochistan and other regions under their forceful occupation,” said Nabi Baksh Baloch, member foreign committee BNM.
#SanctionPakistan
“Since it’s creation on August 14, 1947 Pakistan has become a headache for the neighboring countries, region and the whole world because ISI started nurseries of radical Islamist elements. By sheltering international terrorist groups/ organizations and sending them across the world to terrorize innocent people, Pakistan has become the state sponsors of terrorism,” said Zafar Sahito, founder and central chief organizer Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement ( JSFM).
Except the Punjab province of Pakistan all other regions continue to be forcefully occupied by Pakistani regime. Balochistan, Sindh, Pashtunistan, parts of Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have been kept under illegal Pakistani occupation through the barrel of a gun. Even East Pakistan that attained its independence in 1971 (now, Bangladesh) has seen overt interference in its domestic affairs by the Pakistan Army and ISI. It is for this reason that Bangladeshi human rights activists have also joined hands for the August 14 car rally in Washington DC.
“August 14 is a Black Day for all historical nations. Sindhi, Baloch, Pashtun and Kashmir/ Gilgit Baltistan are enchained in the slavery of Pakistan. Our car rally is being organized by oppressed nations of the region to protest Pakistan’s use of terrorism as an instrument of statecraft and aggression,” explained Zafar Sahito.
The Baloch community
is present in Iranian Balochistan spreading across Kerman, Elam and Gilan to Afghanistan-administered
areas including Rabat, Helmund, Nimroz and Farah and in Pakistan-occupied
Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab.
The region
is also called Greater Balochistan, which was mapped by the erstwhile great
Baloch ruler Naseer Khan Noori. Later, Mir Abdul Aziz Kurd and other Baloch
historians such as Sardar Khan, Farooq Baloch and Dr. Inayatullah Baloch agreed
on it. If we look at the archaeological artefacts discovered in India, we also
find an element of Baloch culture in them, so it would not be wrong to say that
the ethnic lineage of the Baloch nation has historic roots. And Balochistan is one
of the oldest civilizations.
The Qambrani
Baloch Surab and other Baloch tribes living in its suburbs and in the year 1410
laid the foundation of the government by making Nagaar, an area in Sorab as the
base of the throne. In order to expand the government, Qambrani Baloch gradually
defeated the Baloch tribes living in Jhalawan and made the whole of Jhalawan a
part of this new Baloch state. This was much needed as it brought all the
Baloch areas under one umbrella. The Baloch, therefore, initiated the process
of uniting the scattered forces of their tribes. They first began incorporating
those areas into their state where large resistance was not expected, which also
strengthened the Baloch government to some extent.
After ruling
Surab and Jhalawan for 120 years, the Baloch invaded Kalat in 1530 under the
leadership of Mir Umar Mirwani. Kalat was ruled by Arghoons during those days. After
the conquest of Kalat, Mir Umar Mirwani attained the status of King and sat on
the throne. After 1666, the state of Kalat passed from the Mirwanis to another
branch of the Qambrani Baloch whose first ruler was Mir Ahmad Khan I.
Mir Ahmad
Khan I is the ancestor of the Ahmadzai family and that is why all the inheritors
of Mir Ahmad Khan are called Ahmadzai.
After the
death of Mir Hassan Khan Mirwani in 1666, the sovereignty of the Baloch state
was handed over to Ahmad Khan I. Ahmad Khan I soon realized that if the
military strength of Baloch nation was not strengthened, then Shah Jahan, the
then Mughal ruler at Delhi would try to invade and conquer Kalat.
Ahmad Khan I
made active efforts to strengthen the Baloch military and when Baloch military
was satisfactorily strengthened, he started the struggle to bring all Baloch
areas under the control of a single state. That is why we see the 29 year regime
of Ahmad Khan I as full of wars, wherein he fought 18 battles against the Barozais
to make Sibi and its suburbs a part of the Baloch nation, after which the Barozais
never dared to fight. He also fought against the Jats and Mughals.
Most
significant was the battle against Mughals at Khad Mastung in which Mughals
suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Ahamd Khan I. After this defeat the
Mughals never ever tried to capture Balochistan.
Mir Ahmadyar Khan during his reign brought Kalat under Baloch umbrella, and Ahmad Khan I included the entire area up to Karkh and Dara Mulla under the administration of the state of Kalat in Balochistan. When Mir Ahmad Khan died in 1695 the Baloch state had spread over a vast area, but there were still some Baloch areas, which had to be brought under one state.
Map of Balochistan during earlier times.
After the death of Mir Ahmad Khan, Mir Mehrab Khan I, the eldest son and crown prince of Mir Ahmad Khan was entrusted with the responsibility of Balochistan. Mir Mehrab Khan’s reign was very short as he was wounded in a battle against the Kalhoras at Karkh and passed away three days later. This battle was actually fought over a Baroze girl who had been abducted by the Kalhora rulers. Since the area of the Barozais was now part of the Baloch state so when a girl from Barzoi family was abducted by the Kalhoras, Mir Mehrab Khan fought against the Kalhoras and defeated them at Karkh. After defeat, the Kalhora leaders were imprisoned. However Mir Mehrab Khan was injured and soon passed away.
After the martyrdom of Mir Mehrab Khan, the Mughal rulers, acting as mediators during the reign of Mir Samandar Khan, gave the administration of the port of Karachi to the state of Balochistan.
Mir Abdullah Khan
After Mir Samandar Khan, Mir Ahmad Khan became the ruler of the second state, but he was soon killed by his younger brother Mir Abdullah Khan after which Mir Abdullah Khan became the ruler of the state of Kalat. The reign of Mir Abdullah Khan is a shining chapter in Baloch history who made the Baloch nation a leading force in martial arts and made valiant efforts to further expand the Baloch state. He was engaged in several wars. Abdullah Khan’s militant nature kept him engaged in adventures from Kachhi, Kandahar and Dera Jat to Bandar Abbas. One of the other reasons for these wars was also to meet the economic needs of state.
It would not
be wrong to say that it was the Baloch King Abdullah Khan who played a pivotal
role in making Greater Balochistan a reality.
Abdullah Khan is remembered by the people of Sindh as the mountain eagle, and the British call him as ‘Abdullah Khan– the Conqueror’, which is enough to indicate his greatness and valour.
During his tenure Abdullah Khan focused on strengthening Baloch areas. However, in order to establish his dominance in the border areas of the state, he also fought battles against the Afghan and Sindh rulers. Abdullah Khan’s goal was to include all those areas in the state of Kalat where the Baloch lived. Abdullah Khan could not realise his dream during his life, and in the last battle which was fought against the Kalhora rulers, he attained martyrdom. After his martyrdom the whole area was given to the state of Kalat under an agreement, and Kalhora became a part of Balochistan. So with his blood Abdullah Khan finalized the border line of the Baloch state with Sindh.
Ironically, for eighteen years after the martyrdom of Abdullah Khan, the Baloch state suffered from several issues due to incompetent rulers until Naseer Khan Noori ascended the throne.
Naseer Khan Noori
During the
reign of Naseer Khan Noori, the Baloch areas such as Bandar Abbas in the west,
Dera Ghazi Khan and some areas of Dera Ismail Khan in the east, and Jalugir
(located on the outskirts of Kuchlak) in the north, Jacobabad in the southeast,
and Sahil Makran in the south and west were brought under the Baloch rule.
Naseer Khan Noori’s era is of key importance in Baloch history where he expanded the Baloch state on the one hand while on the other, kept Baloch independence on the basis of Balochistan’s policies under the 1758 agreement. Noori Naseer Khan’s tenure is the brightest chapter in Baloch history as this great ruler not only brought all the areas inhabited by Baloch under one rule but also asserted his power with neighbouring powers that looked Balochistan with lustful eyes.
Naseer Khan Noori defeats Ahmad Shah Abdali
Noori Naseer
Khan had ascended the throne in 1749. Naseer Khan’s determination led him to
revolt against the tyranny of others, which we see in the history of wars
between Noori Naseer Khan and Ahmad Shah Abdali. After two battles Ahmad Shah
Abdali realized that it was not possible for him to include Balochistan into
his conquests, and so after the second war, Ahmad Shah Abdali lost heart and
agreed to the 1758 agreement with the state of Kalat. This is known as the Agreement
of Kalat and the Agreement of Non-Interference.
The complete independence of the Baloch state is also acknowledged by the Indian author Ganda Singh in his book “Ahmad Shah Abdali” wherein he describes Balochistan as an independent country while describing the Battle of Panipat. Ahmad Shah Abdali thanked the brave and determined Baloch ally Naseer Khan Hakim Kalat for his military cooperation. But Naseer Khan laid down some conditions which included the annexation of Quetta to the state which was immediately accepted. Besides, Ahmad Shah handed over Chenab, Multan Jhang and the entire Dera Jat to Naseer Khan but Naseer Khan and his army flatly refused to include these areas in his state, writes Ganda Singh in his book while describing the Battle of Panipat.
Naseer Khan and his followers were clear that the Baloch state should cover only Baloch areas, and he told Ahmad Shah Abdali, “The borders of Balochistan exist till the place Balochi is spoken.”
This region is the map on which Mir Abdul Aziz Kurd, Dr. Inayatullah Baloch, Prof. Dr. Farooq Baloch and most Baloch intellectuals and political leaders agree.
Naseer Khan expanded the Baloch nation-state to such an extent that it still reflects Naseer Khan’s political vision. This is the map presented by Mir Abdul Aziz Kurd in 1942, on which most Baloch historians and political leaders agree.
British stratagems in Balochistan
Sixteen years after Naseer Khan’s death, British spies turned towards Balochistan. The British started their conspiracies to dismember Balochistan that Naseer Khan had so painstakingly brought together. British sent a man named Sarwar to find out the situation in Balochistan. Sarwar reported about the then weak Baloch government and an atmosphere of mutual distrust. Since the objectives of British were of military in nature, therefore they selected Lieutenant Henry Pottinger, Captain Christie, Captain Grant and other such soldiers who had successfully led British military campaigns.
Prof. Dr.
Farooq Baloch narrates these incidents in his book “Balochistan and
British Historians” as follows: “In the days to come, Britain would have
to formulate its own strategy based on the information provided by these spies.”
Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of Baloch rulers during this era, the whole Baloch nation seemed to be in disarray. The nation that Naseer Khan cared for and sewed together was in serious disarray. Issues began to crop up about social aspects as well.
During the
reign of Khan Mehrab Khan, the British were trying to set foot in Afghanistan
using a route through Balochistan, but they feared that stepping in Balochistan
without the permission of the Baloch would be a threat to their forces. In
1838, Sir Alexander Burns entered into a treaty with Khan Mehrab Khan.
Immediately after this agreement, the British invaded Afghanistan.
But in the days to come, the fear that British caravans were not safe in Balochistan, proved to be absolutely right. Suddenly the Murree warriors attacked the British troops. The attack was so severe that it uprooted the British. Due to these losses in Balochistan, the British were defeated in the first Afghan Anglo War in 1838. The main reason for their loss being the Murree warriors against the British and the resistance of Baloch.
This Baloch resistance caused the British to retreat on Afghan soil and also forced them to think about the conquest of Kalat because the British now knew that the conquest of Kalat was the first condition for their success in Afghan war.
The other important reason for the British conquest of Kalat was the threat to their rule from France, Germany and Russia as these powers might get a chance to set foot in Kalat.
And so in 1839, the British army, led by General Wilshire attacked the central city of Kalat. Khan Mehrab Khan, the ruler of the state, and his allies resisted the British invasion, but the British army, armed with modern weapons could not be stopped. The British colonialists succeed in capturing Kalat. At the time of the fall of Kalat, it was Henry Pottinger the commander of the Indus sector of the British army who sent a message to General Wilshire to attack Kalat. This further reinforces the fact that in any case, the British had to occupy Balochistan and block the passage of other powers to the South Asian region.
The importance of the Baloch region was also pointed out by many other British officials, including the then British Commissioner Sir William Marie Weathers, who wrote a letter in 1872 to Colonel Ferry, the political superintendent of Upper Sindh. “The Baloch own a region whose geographical importance is of great importance to the British government. The region can be secured by the British government only if there are friendly relations with the local people,” he said. If the British government succeeds in its plan, the path of other world powers including France, Germany and other major powers can be easily blocked. Besides, the region is not only an excellent corridor to India but also to Peshawar and as far as Afghanistan is concerned, our interests are in that region.
After the
martyrdom of Shaheed Khan Mehrab Khan on 13 November 1839, the Balochs fought
wars in different periods in defense of the Baloch homeland. Even after the
fall of Kalat, they succeeded in getting the British out of Kalat very soon,
but these successes did not prevent the Baloch from falling prey to the
insidious policies of British.
During this time there were various treaties between the Baloch and British, including the Non-Intervention Treaty of 1854. From a political point of view, all such treaties were bits of paper because the occupying forces sign such kinds of agreements only to capture newer territories.
Similarly, despite numerous agreements by the British colonialists with the Baloch state in different time periods and their recognition of the independent status of Balochistan, the Pakistani regime forcefully occupied Balochistan.
After the fall of Kalat, historical resistance began in Kohistan-e-Marri, Makran, Jhalawan, Sarawan and Rakhshan, Dera Bugti and adjoining areas.
Baloch victory against British
The Baloch succeeded in defeating the British by invading Kalat for the second time in 1840 under the leadership of Khan Naseer Khan II and regained control of Kalat. Sovereignty did not last long. But his rule over Kalat lasted for a few months and on November 3, 1840, when the British received military aid from Afghanistan, they recaptured Kalat and appointed Colonel Stacey as their political agent.
The British did recapture Kalat but there were periodic revolts against them across Balochistan. After this the British signed the Treaty of Mastung. The Treaty of Mastung signed on 13 July 1876 dealt a major blow to the independence of Baloch state. After this agreement, the British became the masters in Balochistan and this strategy of the British came to be known as Forward Policy.
British conquest of Balochistan
Balochistan thus came into the hands of the British. Along with Kalat, many Baloch areas including Sibi, Murree, Bugti, Khetran, and Quetta were incorporated into British India by the British through a resolution on 18 November 1887, establishing a new province called British Balochistan.
The first
geographical division of the Baloch state was made possible under the Forward
Policy. After the intervention in these areas of Balochistan, Sandeman turned
to Makran in 1890 and also deployed a contingent of British troops in Makran
under Major Mayer. Thus the practical intervention of the British government
became possible till Makran and thus British began exploiting the whole region.
The
twentieth century is called the century of the modern political system. By the
turn of the century, the thinking of political parties had become ingrained in
Baloch society, so for the first time in Balochistan, in 1920, Mir Abdul Aziz
Kurd formed a secret organization called “Young Baloch” which became
a party in 1931. Anjuman-e-Ittehad also came to the fore in the form of Baloch, which later emerged in the form of the Kalat State National Party.
The Baloch
nation adopted modern politics during this period in which they achieved
success at the grassroots level but the geographical importance of Balochistan
intensified after the First World War. The Russian, German and French threats
increased. In addition, the mineral-rich region became a matter of life and
death for the world powers.
Jinnah’s devious games with the Khan of Kalat
Jinnah recognized Khan of Kalat as the national ruler of independent nation Balochistan. Your country is one of the most important regions not only in India but also in Asia from a political, geographical and economic point of view, Jinnah told Khan of Kalat.
Jinnah’s words send a clear message that how can Pakistani regime ignore such an important region. And so Jinnah’s desire to take over Balochistan has been existing since day one. Jinnah also played the Islmaic card and said, “I am going to tell you in clear words that the time is coming when all Islamic countries will unite in the form of a federation according to Islamic principles. The most important position will be for Baloch and Balochistan.”
In order to further develop this thinking, Jinnah asked the Khan of Kalat to organize Muslim League in Balochistan.
Lord Azme, Legal Adviser to the Viceroy of India, Khan Kalat, Liaquat Ali Khan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Prime Minister Kalat Muhammad Aslam Khan and Legal Adviser Sultan Ahmed were also present. “The government of Pakistan recognizes the state of Kalat as an independent state, which has had relations with the British government and its status is different from the rest of the Indian states,” it said.
Consultations were being held as to whether the agreements made between the British government and the government of Kalat on all occupied territories can be inherited by Pakistan. Under Article 7 of the British Government’s Freedom Act, all treaties were automatically terminated and the occupied territories were to be restored to their former status.
However, attempts are being made to implement this illegal act, which is a black spot on the British government. The important thing to understand is that the British did not physically occupy Balochistan but their occupation was through certain agreements.
This, of course, reinforces the fact that the British government not only wanted to divide India, but also provided the means to divide Afghanistan and enslave Pakistan along with the Baloch homeland.
It’s due to these nefarious British policies that even after the declaration of Balochistan’s independence on August 11, 1947 by the British government it could last for only seven months and fifteen days. The Pakistani regime invaded Balochistan and occupied it on March 27, 1948, which continues till date. The Baloch resistance that started since the moment Pakistani forces entered Balochistan continues till this time. Balochistan’s independence struggle shows that the Baloch will rest only after winning their freedom from illegal Pakistani occupation.
Two Indian warships heading for a major joint exercise with the United States, Japan and Australia at the US base of Guam, have docked in Brunei, flagging New Delhi’s “Act East” policy and naval assertion in the Indo-Pacific.
The two naval ships at Guam, a key base and headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific command, will be joined by warships from countries that form the QUAD. Together, the quartet comprising India, US, Australia and Japan will hold Malabar-21 naval exercises within the range of China’s DF-26 B“Guam killer” missiles.
Analysts point out that the manoeuvres were meant to demonstrate the intent of QUAD partners to ensure the safety of key shipping lanes which are used for the conduct of international trade. They have a message of deterrence for China.
Hoping to demonstrate its heft as a rising great power, China is flexing its military muscles in the Indo-pacific region by showcasing its willingness to use force in order to exercise control over most of the South China Sea (SCS). China also has a dispute with Japan over the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea—a claim that is bringing Beijing at loggerheads with Tokyo. The friction between the two has surged after Japan has shown its military intent to support Taiwan. Littoral states of the South China Sea, including Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines are unwilling to accept China’s claims as well as unremitting sabre rattling in the SCS.
Ties between India and China have also gone south on account of their military standoff in eastern Ladakh and Chinese assertion in the Indian Ocean and South Asia.
Apart from Malabar exercise, European powers are also crowding into the Indo-Pacific region, again, in a signal of opposition to China. Germany has despatched a frigate, Bayern for the SCS , while British aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth is already present in these waters.
The German frigate on its seven-month voyage to Australia, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. As the Bayern set sail from its home-base of Wilhelmshaven, German defence minister Kramp-Karrenbauer made it plain that Germany wanted that the “existing law to be respected, sea routes to be freely navigable, open societies to be protected and trade to follow fair rules”.
During their stay in Brunei, the Indian ships will participate in an exercise with ships of the Royal Brunei Navy.
“Indian Naval Ships Shivalik and Kadmatt arrived at Muara, Brunei as part of their deployment to South East Asia on August 9, 2021. The exercise will provide an opportunity to both the navies to enhance inter-operability, gain from best practices and develop a common understanding of procedures for Maritime Security Operations,” India’s defence ministry said in a statement.
Both the ships belong to the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet. Based in Visakhapatnam under the Eastern Naval Command, the fleet has acquired high importance in tune with India’s ASEAN-centric Act East policy which can flourish only if the sea lanes heading to the straits of Malacca, in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea are fully protected. The ships will head to Guam once these exercises in Brunei are completed.
(This article was first published in India Narrative)
Videos of the sacrilegious incident went viral on social media wherein dozens of people were seen gleefully smashing the temple murtis (idols), windows and doors with sticks, stones and bricks without impunity. Around eighty Hindu homes are located around the temple that is surrounded by Muslim majority population.
“The local police were present when a mob of Islamic extremists attacked the temple, vandalized it and desecrated the sacred murtis, but instead of stopping the attackers they left, and the temple was vandalized. The mayhem continued till Pakistani Rangers reached the area and took control of the situation but no one has been arrested,” said a local eyewitness present at the time of the incident.
Fearing an attack by these Islamic extremists the Hindus around the temple locked themselves inside their homes. However, it did not stop these Islamic extremists from attacking the Hindu homes and shops, but they could not do much damage. Rangers had reached the area at that time and the crowd had dispersed.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Chief Minister of Punjab have taken notice of the unfortunate incident and ‘asked’ for the case to be investigated and conviction of culprits. A large section of Pakistani media is running news loaded with words such as ‘minority rights’ and ‘freedom’, but so far no arrests have been made and neither is it expected that any of the culprit would ever be arrested or convicted. All statements and news reports are merely an eyewash that are being floated around to create an impression in the world that Pakistan assures the rights of minorities. In the background, all the culprits will be covered up and ably defended.
Reasons for the attack
The attack on Rahim Yar Khan temple was blamed on an alleged
desecration of a madrassa and blasphemy by a local eight-year-old Hindu boy.
According to Dr. Ramesh Vankwani, chief patron of the Pakistan Hindu Council, and Dr. J. Paul Chhabria, Head of Pakistan Hindu Forum and Member of the National Commission for Minority Affairs; on July 23 Bhavish Kumar Meghwar, an eight-year-old local Hindu boy had accidentally entered a mosque where the deputy Imam Hafiz Ibrahim scolded him and the child urinated out of fear.
The case was dismissed at that time, but on July 24, an FIR
was registered naming “unknown persons”. The big question is when it was known
that an eight year old had entered the madrasa why was the ‘name’ of ‘unknown
persons’ included in the FIR?
Other locals from Rahim Yar Khan say that the mentally handicapped eight-year-old Hindu boy went to the toilet of the madrassa and not to the library of madrassa as was being alleged in certain quarters. The boy was caught by madrassa clerics, scolded and then handed over to the police. However, the madrassa clerics and other people said that this child had come to the library and urinated on the carpet and so action should be taken against the Hindu boy in accordance with blasphemy laws.
The local police registered a case against this eight-year-old
Hindu boy on July 24 under Section 295A and arrested him. When the child was
produced in courts on August 4, the court released him on bail because he was a
minor and mentally handicapped.
The police explained that since the child was a minor, he could not be given a severe sentence under Section 295A, due to which the magistrate ordered his release on bail on July 28.
Local sources further explained that through the mediation of influential people in the area, the parents of this child had already apologized to the madrassa people saying that the child was mentally handicapped. But soon thereafter inflammatory announcements and speeches started from the mosques provoking locals about how a Hindu child has insulted Islam.
After the announcement from mosques, dozens of people came
out in a crowd and first blocked the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor)
road in Rahim Yar Khan for hours to protest and then attacked the temple. The
release of child on bail had further enraged the locals.
“People blocked CPEC Road 25 at around 4 PM. Thereafter
the temple was attacked at 6:30 PM. I told the additional IG and then the Rangers
were called,” said Dr Ramesh Vankwani.
The face of most of the temple attackers are clearly visible
in the videos but still no arrests have been made so far.
It’s been the history of Pakistan that no arrests are made when there are attacks on minorities or the liberals. And then the incident is quickly suppressed despite everybody knowing who is behind such violent and extremist attacks. On the contrary, if there is a small incident against the military establishment, the arrests are made at a lightening pace and the case gets massive coverage across Pakistani media.
Dr J Paul Chhabria, head of the Pakistan Hindu Forum and a member of the National Commission for Minority Affairs, said that around 150 to 200 Hindu families live in Rahim Yar Khan who felt terrorized during the attack. The temple was barely five minutes away from the local police station, but the police did not arrive on time to save the Hindus.
Most of Hindu families from Bhong, Rahim Yar Khan have already
started leaving their homes after the temple was attacked and vandalized.
Lal Malhi, Member of the National Assembly and Parliamentary Secretary for Human Rights said in his message on Twitter that most of the Hindu families in Bhong have left their homes in fear after the attack on Hanuman ji’s temple. He demanded that the security of the properties of those who are leaving their homes must be ensured.
“When the protests started on Wednesday, all Hindus locked themselves
in their homes out of fear. We were worried for our children. The attackers
also tried to raid our shops. The local police stood like spectators. When the
Rangers came, we breathed a sigh of relief,” said a local Hindu from Bhong,
Rahim Yar Khan.
The Hindu community across Pakistan is raising its voice
against this attack and calling on the government to take concrete steps. This
attack has been condemned by non-Muslim Pakistanis as well as by several progressive
and liberal Muslims. The attack has been described as extremely tragic.
Ramesh Lal, head of the Hindu Panchayat in Hala, Sindh, said that the entire Hindu community was saddened by this incident. He explained that Hindus in Rahim Yar Khan have been living for a long time. “First a temple was attacked in Karak and now this attack happened in Rahim Yar Khan. All Hindus are worried about these frequent attacks.”
Radha Bheel, leader of Dalit Sajjag Tehreek from Thar said
that there was a lot of fear in the entire Hindu community due to the incident
of Rahim Yar Khan. “I am sitting so far away from Rahim Yar Khan and yet I am
afraid that such an incident may happen in my area. The incident in Rahim Yar
Khan is not the first incident. Even before this a Hindu boy in our area was
forced to curse his own God.”
Other attacks on Hindus in Pakistan
Rahim Yar Khan is not the first case against Hindus in
Pakistan.
In November 2020 Muslim extremists attacked Hindus in
Karachi and women and children were tortured. Similarly, in April 2017, a group
of Islamic militants broke into a temple at Thatta district of Sindh province
and smashed the entire structure and threw it into the gutter. Last July, video
of a 14-year-old Hindu boy in the Thar region of Sindh province went viral, in
which Islamic extremists can be seen holding the boy by his throat and ordering
him to say, “Say Allahu Akbar”. After the child says “Allahu
Akbar” the man hurls a volley of abuses on the child. Then the video shows
the figure of a man with white Vigo car in the background.
The white Vigo vehicles are used only by intelligence
agencies in Pakistan. The same white Vigo vehicle has been seen behind all the
reported cases of enforced disappearances in Pakistan including Balochistan,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.
Discrimination against minorities is on the rise in Pakistan. And it is the military establishment and their intelligence agencies that are behind the spread of Islamic extremism and provocation because it uses the same Islamic extremist ideology to raise funds not only for security from around the world, but also to perpetuate its power.
There is no difference between the Taliban, ISIS or other Islamic extremist groups and the Pakistan Army. Their main purpose is to spread Islamic extremism around the world and to eradicate other religions.
Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) dismissed the allegations made by Jaish-ul-Adl and said that armed group backed by Pakistan Army is making baseless claims by distorting the facts.
“Jaish-ul-Adl, which is active against the government in Iran, released a video statement on social media on July 26, 2021 in which baseless allegations have been made against BLF by distorting the facts. The lack of knowledge of the speaker in the video released by Jaish-ul-Adl can be gauged from the fact that he calls BLF’s secular freedom struggle as an infidelity against Islam. We were waiting for Jaish to disassociate from this mischievous video statement, but there was no explanation from them. On June 30, 2021 also, Jaish-ul-Adl had falsely claimed in a statement that BLF and BRA sarmachaars had attacked Jaish operatives and in that alleged attack the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were obtained. Jaish also claimed that its so-called devoted armed men had foiled the alleged attack and seized a vehicle belonging to the Baloch attackers. However, the fact is that at a place in the mountains of Panjgur, a parked BLF vehicle loaded with rations was stolen and seized by Jaish. Then they fabricated a false story of the attack to cover up their crime. Therefore, we consider it necessary to expose Jaish-ul-Adl, the masked force behind it and their mala fideintentions behind this false propaganda campaign against the Baloch freedom fighters, especially the BLF,” said BLF spokesperson Major Gwahram Baloch in a media statement.
Jaish-ul-Adl has long been active in various areas of occupied Balochistan that include Parom, Zamuran, Panjgur, Mashkel and Washuk, and also in areas adjacent to the Goldsmid Boundary Line under the patronage of the Pakistan Army and ISI. The camps, training centers and hideouts of Jaish-ul-Adl are in the above areas that operate under the patronage of Pakistan Army. At all of these areas the Jaish-ul-Adl have set up checkpoints on the road wherein they stop vehicles of Baloch people engaged in border trade and extort thousands of rupees per vehicle as forced tax. They stop passenger vehicles, search them and harass the local Baloch people. Jaish group also provides security for vehicles that are loaded with drugs.
Jaish-ul-Adl also acts as informers for the Pakistan Army and intimates them about the movements of Baloch sarmachaars (freedom fighters). Jaish also assists the Pak Army in conducting military operations against Baloch sarmachaars. Their vehicles are similar to those of the Pakistan Army and Death Squads, which sometimes makes it difficult for the Baloch sarmachaars to distinguish between Jaish members, Pakistan Army and Death Squads.
Due to the association of Jaish-ul-Adl members with Pak Army and Death Squads and similarity of their vehicles and other methodology, there have been incidents of armed clashes with the Baloch sarmachaars. In 2014, Jaish-ul-Adl clashed with BLF sarmachaars for the first time, in which a Jaish armed man was injured. When he was identified, the sarmachaars allowed the Jaish-ul-Adl to take their wounded member.
In another incident in 2015, Jaish-ul-Adl operatives suddenly launched an attack on BLF cadres in the Zamuran area, in which a BLF sarmachaar Farooq Baloch was martyred and Sarmachaar Sultan was injured. In this ambush an attacker was also killed. After this incident, local BLF commanders contacted Jaish-ul-Adl commanders and advised them that if they are fighting for the rights of their religious sect against Iran, they should set up their camps, training centers inside Iran. However, since Jaish-ul-Adl does not have the support of people, so they are reluctant to fight inside Iran.
“From the beginning, the BLF feared that Jaish-ul-Adl could become a tool of Pakistan against the Baloch national independence movement in the future. Today our fear is proving true. We see that Pakistan is using Jaish-ul-Adl as a proxy against the Baloch independence movement,” said Major Gwahram Baloch, spokesperson BLF.
In fact, Jaish-ul-Adl had joined hands with the Pakistan Army in 2019 to attack BRAS sarmachaars in the Buleda/Zamuran area in which five Baloch sarmachaars were martyred. The sarmachaars found a cellphone from the Jaish attackers at the scene, which contained pictures of so-called Jaish-ul-Adl jihadists and their camps and hideouts, which was proof that Jaish-ul-Adl operatives were involved in the attack along with the Pakistan Army.
It may be recalled that the majority of Jaish-ul-Adl armed men are from Mashkel, Washuk, Panjgur, Parom, Zamuran and Buleda areas of occupied Balochistan. In addition, there is a large number of Punjabi and other Pakistani terrorists in the Jaish-ul-Adl centers and hideouts.
Pakistan, through Jaish-ul-Adl is inciting sectarian extremism and hatred in Makuran and is undermining Baloch national values such as religious and sectarian freedom, harmony and tolerance. Pakistan is inciting this group against Baloch freedom fighters and is trying to use the presence of Jaish-ul-Adl in occupied Balochistan as a bargaining card against those Baloch families who migrated to western Balochistan to escape the atrocities of Pakistani military.
“The leadership of Jaish-ul-Adl should learn a lesson from the fate of Mullah Omar, whom Pakistan used as a tool in the areas of Kech, Tump, Gomazi, Dasht and some parts of western Balochistan through its terrorist group for killing many Baloch freedom fighters and their relatives. After fulfilling their aim, Mullah Omar, along with his sons, was killed in an encounter by the police in a high-security area of Kech,” said BLF sokesperson Major Gwahram Baloch.
“We want to make it clear to them that the BLF is not fighting a sectarian war but a national war for the independence of Balochistan against Pakistan. Pakistan has the same religion and sectarian belief which is the religion of Baloch majority, but this religious and sectarian relationship has not stopped Pakistan from forcible occupation of Balochistan, expansionism and colonial looting. The biggest enemy of Islam and Muslims in the region is Pakistan, whose expansionism in 1947 deprived the Kashmiri people of their right to self determination to decide their future. It is Pakistan that forcibly occupied Balochistan in 1948 and trampled on our independence, national identity and dignity of the Baloch nation. Pakistan’s so-called Muslim army massacred the Bengali nation in 1971. This is Pakistan, whose expansionist policy, such as “Strategic Depth,” has been shedding the blood of innocent Afghans in Afghanistan for the past 43 years. Thousands of Baloch children have gone missing at the hands of Jaish-ul-Adl’s so-called Sunni ally Pakistan’s savage army, intelligence agencies and Death Squads, said Major Gwahram Baloch in his media statement.
He further added that thousands of mutilated bodies have been found across Balochistan. Millions of Baloch have been displaced and are living a miserable life. The so-called Sunni Pakistan Army raids Baloch settlements on a daily basis, torturing, abusing and harassing Baloch youth, elders, children and women. “The lives, property and honor of Baloch people are insecure at the hands of the Pakistan. Why doesn’t Jaish-ul-Adl see these atrocities of the so-called Sunni Pakistan on the Baloch nation. Sunni Islamist Pakistan and its hypocritical religious parties are not only carrying the genocide of Baloch nation for the sake of Pakistani state interests but also stand with China on the genocide of Uyghur Muslims at the hands of China.”
A sectarian organization like Jaish-ul-Adl should realize that the Baloch are a nation in which believers of all sects of Islam freely practice their religious beliefs. Due to the same generosity and kindness of the Baloch, even the non-Muslims of occupied Balochistan proudly call themselves Baloch. Not a single sectarian group of the Baloch nation is subjugated but as a nation the Baloch are subjugated and as a nation they are fighting for independence from Pakistan. The forces that divide the Baloch nation on sectarian, tribal or linguistic grounds are making the mistake of undermining the Baloch national power which is being used intentionally and unintentionally to further Pakistan’s colonial interests, said BLF spokesperson in his media statement.
If rhetoric alone was the deciding factor on the issue of Kashmir, then Pakistan would undoubtedly have won its case hands down. Fortunately, things don’t happen that way in real life, something which the powers that be on the western side of the Radcliffe Line also know very well. Otherwise, why else would it have tried to annex Kashmir in 1965 [‘Operation Gibraltar’] by carrying out large scale infiltration of Pakistan Army personnel disguised as ‘razakars’ (civilian volunteers) to foment an insurrection in Kashmir Valley to facilitate its capture?
Having failed miserably to resolve the Kashmir issue militarily, Islamabad cunningly reverted to making UNSC resolutions as mainstay of its Kashmir case and by selectively interpreting its text, cobbled together a narrative that was so unconvincing that it never gained global acceptance. On the other hand, New Delhi put across its case on Kashmir lucidly, which is compelling and hence it has been recognised by an overwhelming majority of the international community. Unfortunately, India failed to counter Pakistan’s fallacious narrative on Kashmir with the resoluteness that it deserved, giving Islamabad a godsent opportunity to cite New Delhi’s silence as the manifestation of its guilt.
Islamabad’s Kashmir narrative may not have found traction within the international community but its use of bombast to compensate the inherent weakness in its Kashmir narrative did strike a chord with the masses on both sides of the LoC. Consequently, by portraying India as an ‘illegal occupier’ of J&K, Pakistan was able to prop-up the ‘azadi’ [freedom] movement here and with lavish use of funds, sustain it through proxies led by All Parties Hurriyat Conference [APHC].
That senior APHC leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani resigned in disgust due to rampant financial irregularities within this separatist conglomerate and AHPC becoming practically inactive after the center’s massive clampdown on its illegal sources of funding, is ample proof that the so called ‘self-determination struggle’ is not driven by ideology but by money!
Art 370 & Art 35A were nibbling away Jammu & Kashmir like rats.
That this move also caught Prime Minister Imran Khan completely unaware is evident from his weird response, which besides being hilarious, also bordered on the ridiculous- like terming Article 370 abrogation as “illegal” and alleging that it “violates” UNSC resolutions. Even a person with the most rudimentary knowledge will tell you that every democratically elected government has the sovereign right to amend the country’s constitution– so Khan’s contention is laughable. Next, as making changes in the constitution is unquestionably an internal matter of the concerned country, by no stretch of imagination can this be considered as violation of any completely disassociated and external decree-like the UNSC resolutions!
The list of howlers from the cricketer turned Prime Minister of Pakistan doesn’t end here. According to him, by abrogating Article 370, New Delhi has “Gone against [Indian] Constitution… against a verdict of their Supreme Court as well as against that of J&K High Court.” Even if we, purely for the sake of discussion, accept Khan sahib’s argument, then the question that arises is-why is he so perturbed? If Article 370 really violates the Indian Constitution, then wouldn’t India’s opposition political parties and judiciary be more concerned and initiate appropriate action to rectify this irregularity? Lastly, as far as the abrogation going against court verdicts is concerned, doesn’t Khan know that in a democracy, the executive has constitutional authority to overrule the judiciary?
Similarly, he contends that Article 370 abrogation violates UNSC and UNGA resolutions on Kashmir. Once again, it appears that just like the institutionalised persecution of Uighur Muslims of China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region by Beijing, Khan is also unaware of what’s mentioned in UNSC/UNGA resolutions on Kashmir. Granting special status to J&K under Article 370 was a decision taken by government of India without any reference to UN resolutions or directions from UNSC and so, how does its revocation violate UN regulations defies comprehension!
However, Khan’s argument that Article 370 abrogation goes
against Shimla Agreement is what takes the cake, because while replying to
Pakistan’s request for UN to play its “due role” on this issue,
UN Secretary General’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric referred to this very
agreement as the ‘mantra’ for diffusing the Article 370 abrogation faceoff. He
said that the Secretary-General “recalls the 1972 Agreement on
bilateral relations between India and Pakistan, also known as the Shimla
Agreement, which states that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be
settled by peaceful means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.”
With Islamabad getting no meaningful support from both UN and the international community for its crusade against Article 370 abrogation, it’s abundantly clear that through this move, New Delhi has checkmated Islamabad’s pompous narrative on Kashmir. It has also sent out an unambiguous message to the world that J&K is very much part and parcel of India, and absence of any worthwhile objections clearly indicates that it has global acceptance!
So, while this move has come as a big setback for Islamabad as it has pulverised Pakistan’s Kashmir narrative, for Prime Minister Imran Khan, it’s become a source of personal embarrassment. Let’s not forget that it has given the likes of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto a chance to take a swipe at him by saying “Earlier, Pakistan’s policy on Kashmir was on how we will take Srinagar. Now, under Imran Khan’s government, we have been forced to think on how we will save Muzaffarabad”!
An associated negative fallout for Khan is that none of the
startling predictions that he had so confidently made, have come to pass. He repeatedly
prognosed a “false-flag operation” by India that would graduate
into conventional war as Pakistan exercised its right to self-defence and thereafter
culminate in a nuclear exchange.
But this didn’t happen!
Khan used the UNGA podium to caution the world that Kashmir
was on the brink of Armageddon and his warning was indeed very scary. Saying, “You
think Kashmiris will accept a new status quo under revocation of Article 370,” he
posed a petrifying question- “What will happen when the curfew is lifted?”
Then again asking the audience “But what will happen when 8 million
Kashmiris come out of a lockdown and face 900,000 troops,” he, à la Nostradamus
prophesised, “I fear there will be a bloodbath”!
This too didn’t happen!
It’s but natural that the severe embarrassment caused to Khan has made abrogation of Article 370, a personal issue for him. Similarly, Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa too is smarting under the ignominy of having been compelled to enter into a ceasefire agreement with Indian Army due to unacceptably high fatalities being suffered by Pakistani troops on LoC. So, with those at the helm of affairs in Islamabad and Rawalpindi not being in a reconciliatory mood, the likelihood of any Indo-Pak dialogue or normalcy in relations in the foreseeable future is practically zero!
Consequent to Article 370 revocation, it appears that Islamabad is perhaps changing the thrust of its Kashmir strategy. From its traditional demand that the ‘K’ issue be resolved once for all as per the aspirations of Kashmiris, Khan is now talking about a two-stage process- first, wanting Kashmiris to accede to Pakistan through a plebiscite and thereafter, holding yet another referendum in which “Kashmiri people will be asked to decide whether they want to live with Pakistan or as an independent nation.”Though it may sound bizarre and impractical, but this new move nevertheless needs to be neutralised before it takes root in gullible minds.
New Delhi’s diplomatic offensive to proactively unmask
Islamabad’s duplicity on J&K is in dire need of invigoration and here is a
good opportunity to do so. Para 7(3) of the so-called ‘Azad J&K Interim
Constitution, 1974’ stipulates that “No person or political party in Azad
Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in
activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the State’s accession
to Pakistan.”
So, in this case, all that’s needed is highlighting the fact that when Kashmiris living under Pakistani occupation cannot even “propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the State’s accession to Pakistan,” then on what basis should Kashmiris trust Khan’s promise that Islamabad will give them the choice to decide “whether they want to live with Pakistan or as an independent nation”?
Two years have gone by and gloomy cynics still lament the undoing of a clause in the constitution of India that had deprived the entire population of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state of numerous progressive and emancipating prospects. Not a single public demonstration was staged in any one of the then three regions of the state by way of resentment against scrapping of Article 370. Only the diehard political conservatives lamented its loss just because it meant the loss of their hegemony and monopolisation of power.
In the first place, the debate on the proposition whether the provision of a special status for J&K was desirable or not in the Constitutional Assembly was simply one-sided with a unanimous NO. Sheikh Abdullah along with Mirza Afzal Baig was encamping at 5 Prithvi Raj Road and threatening Jawaharlal Nehru that he would withdraw accession if special status was not conceded for J&K. That shows the fallacy of much touted convergence of ideologies between the Congress and National Conference.
On Nehru’s persuasion Sheikh Abdullah met Ambedkar —the father of the Indian Constitution — who bluntly told him that he was not going to create another Pakistan.
Secondly, inclusion of the Article 370 was a temporary provision, so said the constitution. Simple logic is that it should have been abrogated immediately after the Sheikh was deposed in August 1953, arrested and charged with treason. He had misused the Article. He had lost legal as well as moral basis for special status. The lone person who defied the entire constituent assembly and stood by him was “stabbed in the back” as Nehru once put it. A constitutional provision that had the potential of fomenting treason needed to be scraped particularly when it was a temporary measure. The notable flaw was that the conditionality of it being “temporary” had remained undefined.
What lay at the core of Sheikh Abdullah’s demand for special status? Our national political leadership always felt shy of calling a spade a spade. Sheikh Abdullah argued that India was predominantly Hindu while J&K was predominantly Muslim that needed safeguards against what political scientists call ‘tyranny of majoritarianism’. The logic behind the theory is understandable but then it’s application has to be universal and comprehensive and not selective. Not to speak of similar safeguards to the non-Muslims of the state, Sheikh Abdullah did not even concede minority status to any religious minority community in J&K. The Constitution of the state did not recognise any religious community a minority community whereas the state does not bar its majority community from enjoying the full benefits accruing to them in their status as number one national minority according to the Indian Constitution.
August 5th, 2019 will be remembered as a historic day in India. On this day the Narendra Modi-led government announced the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A.
The question is what lay at the root of this anomaly? The fact is that Nehru was very euphoric about the Leftist ideology and Leninism in particular. He was enamoured of Soviet Union’s model for Turkestan or Central Asia. The Soviet system had allowed special status to certain regions like Gorno Badakhshan or Nogorno Karabakh. When the Leftists in National Conference were asked to provide a model for free J &K, they contacted Adhikari who suggested the constitution of Uzbekistan as a model.
The Naya Kashmir Manifesto was only the rehash of the constitution of Uzbekistan. This may be a plausible theory but the fact is that Nehru paid no attention to the riders imposed for grant of autonomous status to the aforementioned regions. For example, despite regional autonomy only one political party viz. CPSU was allowed to function and it functioned in accordance with the decisions of the Central Party. Secondly, the federating units including regional autonomies could ask for secession on certain conditions like (a) enjoy financial and economic viability and non-dependence and (b) the seceding unit does not pose a security threat to the Federation.
The foundation for abrogation of Article 370 was laid by Sheikh Abdullah in 1953. His hobnobbing with the Americans (Adlai Stevenson), the Chinese (Zhou en Lai), Pakistani ISI (Awaan) and Saudis (in post – 1975 period) successively convinced the nationalist forces in the country that all this recalcitrance emanated from the constitutional insularity of J&K ruling apparatus.
Nearer home, the National Conference which like Congress had monopolised political domination allowed its administrative machinery full freedom of running state administration in a partisan manner. Discrimination on regional basis, willful stonewalling of beneficial legislation, pro-majority orientation of bureaucracy, soft-paddling with anti-national elements, entrenched nepotism and corruption and above all demonstration of non-seriousness towards vital national development schemes etc. was the phenomenon that kept the state retarded.
Why were the displaced persons from POK or even West Punjab denied statehood for seven decades in contravention of international law and the clauses of Human Rights Charter and Indian Constitution? Why should a Kashmiri bride lose her statehood rights if she marries a man from outside the jurisdiction of the state? What justification is there for an Indian national not having the right to buy land and property in the state while any Kashmiri can buy property anywhere in India.
The last nail driven by a “popular” government of the state was allowing thousands of Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar to settle down secretly in Jammu close to the international border with Pakistan. Without making anything public these intruders were provided with many civic facilities in shortest possible time. Ration cards, identity cards, Aadhaar cards, driving licences and work permits etc. all facilities were provided. Did the special status evaporate in the thin air? Why were the Rohingyas settled in Jammu region and not in the valley? Was it a step towards changing the demographic complexion of Jammu under the garb of Article 370? And finally the ambivalent role played by sections of Kashmir political leadership and the elitist class in the wake of eruption of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism has drawn the last nail in the coffin of Article 370. The truth is that the real political, economic and social freedom of J & K was won by the people of the state (now a Union Territory) on Aug 5, 2019 when the Indian Parliament abrogated it through a majority vote.
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