Pakistan has 100 nuclear weapons, doubled its arsenal

Pakistan has doubled its nuclear arsenal in the last several years and now has more than 100 deployed weapons, more than that of India, the Washington Post reported on Monday. The Pakistanis have significantly accelerated production of uranium and plutonium for bombs and

developed new weapons to deliver them, the influential US daily reported citing estimates by non-government analysts. After years of approximate weapons parity, Pakistan has now edged ahead of India, its nuclear-armed rival, experts cited by the Post said.


While Pakistan has produced more nuclear-armed weapons, India is believed to have larger existing stockpiles of such fissile material for future weapons. Four years ago, the Pakistani arsenal was estimated at 30 to 60 weapons, the Post said.

Those figures make Pakistan the world's fifth-largest nuclear power, ahead of "legal" powers France and Britain, the Post said. The vast bulk of nuclear stockpiles are held by the United States and Russia, followed by China.

Pakistan has no declared nuclear doctrine, but sees its arsenal as a deterrent to an attack by the Indian forces that are heavily deployed near its border, the daily said. India, on the other hand, has vowed no-first-use of nuclear weapons, but it depends on its second-strike capability to deter the Pakistanis, the paper said.

"They have been expanding pretty rapidly," David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security and a leading analyst on the world's nuclear forces, was quoted as saying. "They're always trying to downplay" the numbers and insisting that "it's smaller than you think."

Based on recently accelerated production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, he said, "they could have more than doubled in that period," with current estimates of up to 110 weapons.

The Post cited Hans M. Kristensen, director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists and author of the annual global nuclear weapons inventory published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, as saying it was "not unreasonable" to say that Pakistan has now produced at least 100 weapons.

Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at Britain's University of Bradford, put the number at between 100 and 110.

Some Pakistani officials have intimated they have even more, the Post said. But just as the United States has a vested interest in publicly playing down the total, Pakistan sees advantage in "playing up the number of weapons they've got," Gregory said.

"They're at a disadvantage with India with conventional forces," in terms of both weaponry and personnel.

While continuing to produce weapons-grade uranium at two sites, Pakistan has sharply increased its production of plutonium, allowing it to make lighter warheads for more mobile delivery systems, the Post said.

Only three nuclear countries - Pakistan, India and Israel - have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India is estimated to have 60 to 100 weapons; numbers are even less precise for Israel's undeclared programme, estimated at up to 200., said the paper which appeared to have done considerable research on this sensitive subject.

Pakistan prone to Tunisia-style unrest: IFRC

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani may have confidently stated otherwise, but, according to the head of the international Red Cross federation, a Tunisia-styled social unrest is a "real probability" in Pakistan.

Food insecurity caused by the devastating floods in Pakistan could eventually lead to unrest similar to that seen in Tunisia, Tadateru Konoe, president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), warned on Monday

The ominous analysis comes just a day after Gilani told the media that Pakistan's situation is very different from Tunisia and Egypt, where social uprisings have caused upheaval.

Increasing disasters and conflicts across the world and shrinking aid from traditional Western donors meant emerging economies like India, China and Brazil should play a greater role in humanitarian relief, Konoe said.

Pakistan is still reeling from the effects of floods which lashed the country six months ago that left 11 million people homeless and devastated crops sown over hundreds of thousands of hectares in the traditional food-basket regions of Sindh and Punjab.

Konoe said some agricultural areas were still submerged, and resulting price rises and growing food insecurity could be destabilising.

"If the crops may be lost for successive years, it may develop into some sort of social unrest and political turmoil. That is what the president was very much worried about," Konoe told Reuters, referring to President Asif Ali Zardari.

"I don't know how long they can stand this type of situation … but it may be utilised by political opponents to criticise the government, so a minor thing may become a big thing like the situation in Tunisia," he said in an interview.

Weeks of violent protests in Tunisia over poverty, repression and corruption forced President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali out on January 14 after 23 years in power.

Pakistan is saddled with a long list of troubles, including a Taliban insurgency, rampant poverty, corruption and power cuts. Inflation is fast becoming one of the most potentially explosive problems for the government.

Konoe said Zardari had expressed concern over the problem of food insecurity while the Red Cross head was on a visit to Pakistan in October last year.

"The president of Pakistan said 'we can manage for the time being, but if the situation continues like this, for some more time, we may enter into difficult times'. He did not specify how long they could manage," said Konoe.

The role of emerging economies

The IFRC head said funding for disasters such as the floods in Pakistan was becoming increasingly difficult, adding that aid agencies had to find alternative sources to fund the rising number of humanitarian emergencies occurring around the world.

Konoe said emerging markets, or BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - should become part of the traditional donor community and match their increasing global diplomatic and economic influence with aid.

Excluding the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, appeals by organisations like the United Nations and the IFRC remain under-funded because of a number of factors, including global financial crisis and apprehensions over corruption.

"The BRICs are not yet coming forward in terms of providing humanitarian relief, but they should combine their economic cooperation with humanitarian aid to improve their image (as global powers)," said Konoe, a Japanese national.

"This is one thing I want to discuss with the Indian leadership when I meet them … I have discussed this briefly with China and they were just nodding like that - as a sort of gesture."

Foreign Espionage Network in Pakistan

By Sajjad Shaukat

On January 27, an American employee of the US Consulate in Lahore, identified as David Raymond, shot dead two Pakistani youths, while a third was crushed by the driver of a Parado jeep, who was called by him for help, at Chowk Qartaba. Persons, sitting in the jeep were also carrying weapons. Police arrested David near Old Anarkali, Food Street after a chase and registered a case against him on two counts, while a case was also registered against unidentified people.

On one side, the United States has called for the immediate release of the American citizen working with US consulate in Lahore, claiming that Pakistani authorities have detained the diplomat unlawfully and in violation of international law. On the other side, investigators and experts are of the opinion that the under-investigation American involved in the murder of civilians in Lahore was in Pakistan on a visit visa and not on a diplomatic assignment-does not qualify for immunity from prosecution.

Sources suggest that David Raymond including his companions were agents of the American CIA and were on an anti-Pakistan mission. In fact, he is part of the illegal activities of the Blackwater whose employees of entered Pakistan in the guise of diplomats.

However, with the help of Indian secret agency RAW and Israeli Mossad, Blackwater has rapidly established its network in Pakistan. It has recruited Pakistani nationals who are vulnerable and can work on payroll giving them high financial incentives to work for them. Further, some reports suggest that this notorious firm has been recruiting smugglers, employees of the security companies, experts of the psychological warfare, scholars and journalists in order to fulfill anti-Pakistan designs of America including that of India and Israel.

It is of particular attention that a few days ago, Pakistani security officials foiled an attempt by the Indian intelligence to enact a fake encounter for implicating Pakistan in incidents of cross border terrorism. The plan was unearthed when a suspect, working for the Indian RAW was apprehended at Sialkot border area, while attempting to cross over to India through the border security fence; an impregnable barbed wire obstacle. Entrance points on the fence are locked and controlled by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF). The suspect has confessed to work as an Indian spy who was tasked to recruit agents from Pakistan to work for Indian intelligence.

Well-informed sources indicate that the suspect whose name has been withheld for security reasons disclosed that his Indian handlers, Mr. Sharma and Mr. Amjad, had asked him to recruit a Pakistani national by offering a large monetary reward, preferably carrying a weapon and send him across the border through the border barbed wire fence after liaison with the BSF troops. Mr. Sharma had assured him that all the details of border crossing would be finalized by him and duly taken care off at his end. The suspect also disclosed that the Indian Intelligence had planned a fake encounter to kill the border crosser and exploit the episode as proof of subversive elements launched by Pakistan's spy agency, ISI crossing over from Pakistan to commit acts of terrorism in India. He also pointed out that he had held a few meetings with his Indian handlers in Islamabad as well.

Nevertheless, both the above mentioned events prove the involvement of Americans and Indians-under cover intelligence officers stationed in their Islamabad embassies and consulates, and are continuously engaged in espionage activities in grave violation of their diplomatic status.

It is mentionable that in the last three years, Pakistan's security forces and intelligence agencies have caught a number of foreign spies along with sophisticated weapons, working against the integration of the country. In this respect, a number of times, arms and guns were also captured from Americans traveling in vehicles in various cities of Pakistan, camouflaged with dark mirrors.

Although Pakistan's security forces have successfully coped with the Taliban militants in the Malakand Division and South Waziristan, yet situation has deteriorated in the country where subversive events like suicide attacks, targeted killings, attacks on buildings, oil pipelines, sectarian violence etc. have intensified due to the presence of external spies.

Notably, Pakistan's civil and military high officials have openly been revealing that RAW, Mossad and other foreign agencies are involved in supporting separatism in Balochistan and acts of terrorism in other cities of Pakistan.

In this respect, on April 23, 2009 in the in-camera sitting of the Senate, Federal Minister to the Interior, Rehman Malik had displayed documentary evidence of Indian use of Afghanistan to create unrest in Balochistan. It is believed that the main aim of in-camera session was also to show the engagement of American CIA and other external agencies as part of a conspiracy against Pakistan because at that stage, Islamabad did not want to publicly point out America.

In this regard, Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit without naming CIA had revealed, "The evidence of foreign powers' involvement in the destabilisation of Pakistan will be shared with relevant countries."

While in the recent past, Governor of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Awais Ghani had disclosed that some world powers were trying to divide Pakistan, adding that if he were not a governor, he would have exposed them.

During the Malakand and Waziristan military operations, ISPR spokesman, Maj-Gen. Athar Abbas has repeatedly indicated foreign hands in helping the insurgents in order to destabilize Pakistan.

It is notable that Pakistan is the only nuclear country in the Islamic World; hence the US, India, Israel and some western powers are determined to weaken it. Notably, despite American cooperation with Islamabad, its main aim along with India and Israel remains to de-nuclearise our country whose geo-strategic location with the Gwadar port entailing close ties with China irks the eyes of these countries, hence, they are in collusion to destabilise Pakistan. For this purpose, a well-established network of Indian army, RAW, Mossad and CIA which was set up in Afghanistan against Pakistan in order to support insurgency in the Khyber Pakhtookhwa and separatism in Balochistan have been extended. Now, it has been expanded in whole of Pakistan as recent suicide attacks, bomb blasts and targeted killings in Karachi and Lahore have so proved it.

CIA, RAW and Mossad are collectively working inside Pakistan. In this context, these secret agencies have been spending huge money to train and equip the militants who have been entering Pakistan on daily basis and have been conducting suicide attacks in our country, and assaults on our security forces including targeted killings-inciting sectarian violence.

Besides, these foreign agencies have purchased the services of some Indian Muslims and Pakistanis. Those who did not come up to their terms have been neutralized or murdered. In this regard, in the past few years, some politicians, intellectuals, journalists and religious leaders have been killed by the agents of these external agencies, while some are on their hit-list. Their purpose is to create perennial unrest in Pakistan, while main aim remains to disintegrate the country.

Nonetheless, the incident in Lahore, arrest of an American, David Raymond, and the suspect from Sialkot border-working for Indian spy agency, without any doubt confirms the presence of a well-organized foreign espionage network, based in Pakistan and the same is run by CIA, RAW and Mossad including their undercover agents. While conducting acts of terrorism to weaken Pakistan remains their top priority.

Sajjad Shaukat is a regular writer for Opinion Maker. He writes on international affairs and is author of the book : US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power : Dangerous Shift in International Relations.

India courts investment as FDI slides

As India was pitching itself as a hot investment destination at the World Economic Forum in Davos, figures show that the amount of foreign money entering the country has fallen by nearly a third.

It may seem a surprising figure given scorching growth running at nearly nine per cent. But the culprits are delays in environmental clearances and land acquisition, red tape, and infrastructure bottlenecks, a report by India's central bank said last week.

In 2010, foreign direct investment (FDI) in India slid 32 per cent from a year earlier to $24 billion.

At the same time, rivals were drawing ever more FDI. Singapore grabbed 122 per cent more than the previous year with $37 billion, China drew 6.3 per cent more than 2009 at $100 billion, while FDI inflows into Malaysia grew by a staggering 410 per cent to $7 billion.

"The numbers are a wake-up call. India has been dragging its heels on economic reforms for too long," Kevin Grice, international economist at London-based Capital Economics, told AFP.

The figures came as India sent a huge corporate and government presence to the Davos meeting in the Swiss Alps, with bullish chief executives hailing India's booming economy and investment potential.

But the central bank noted that the biggest investment falls were in construction, real estate, mining, and business and financial services.

"India should take note. Its peers are marching ahead. India's policies are not as open, competitive and welcoming as they should be," Deepak Lalwani, head of London-based Lalcap Ltd, an Indian investment consultancy, told AFP.

Businesses regularly complain about India's byzantine regulations, burdensome standards and cumbersome visa rules.

The central bank said India must pull up its socks to reverse the investment decline by shortening approval times and sorting out land acquisition issues.

Industrialisation has long been championed by economists as a way to pull tens of millions of Indians out of poverty. But across the country, acquiring land for factories has frequently created battlegrounds.

Among the host of stalled high-profile projects are a $12 billion mill by South Korea's Pohang Steel Company.

The scheme, which would be India's largest single foreign investment, has hung in limbo since 2005, running into trouble over land rights and environmental clearances.

Giant steelmaker ArcelorMittal has also found itself unable to acquire land for five years for a proposed plant in eastern India.

"Wherever land acquisition and environment clearance are concerned, the projects are piling up," Indian Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh said recently, adding delays trigger a "chain reaction" by deterring other investors.

The central bank said India must also speed up its economic reform process, hamstrung by political opposition. Since the Congress government was re-elected two years ago, it has taken no major steps on opening up the economy.

The investment decline, if it continues, spells bad news for the country, which the bank said "needs a quantum step" in investment to propel economic growth to the double-digit levels needed to reduce massive poverty.

Another dampener is high inflation, running at nearly nine percent, together with a series of aggressive interest hikes by the central bank that could hit growth, reducing India's allure for investors, analysts say.

The bank last week raised borrowing costs to a nearly three-year peak to curb rising prices.

The bank also warned that if global recovery turns out to be faster than expected, it could increase the attractiveness of investing in developed economies, which would hit capital flows to India.

"The longer-term picture of Asia outperforming the US is taking a breather," Tim Moe, Goldman Sachs' chief Asia-Pacific strategist, recently noted.

Goldman Sachs and Nomura are among a clutch of investment houses that have warned economic growth could be slower than previously expected in India, with the nation's benchmark stock index already down 10 percent since the start of the year.

US officials at sensitive installations: Talha

While the killing of two Pakistanis by an American diplomat has already angered the nation, chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior Senator Talha Mahmood on Sunday dropped a bombshell saying US officials were present at sensitive installations and other places across the country under the cover of being diplomats.

As questions are already being raised about the assignment and identity of Raymond Davis, who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore, Senator Talha's revelation has corroborated the reports about increasing presence of under cover US officials and their free movement in Pakistan.

Addressing a press conference, Senator Talha condemned the Lahore incident, saying diplomatic immunity did not mean that a diplomat had a "licence to kill". He said blood of Pakistanis was not so cheap to be spilled on roads. Talha rejected the argument demanding special privileges and blanket immunity for Davis for being a "diplomat".

"The government must first check whether Davis is a diplomat," he said.

The senator also lamented that the government's stance on the issue was weak. "The police had registered the case under improper sections, which would weaken the prosecution," he added. Sensing the gravity of the incident, Chairman of National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior Abdul Qadir Patel has also summoned a meeting of the committee today (Monday) to take up the issue.

Senator Talha added that the number of BlackWater officials in Pakistan was increasing as the US was facing difficulty in achieving its objectives in the region.

"The weapon the alleged diplomat used to kill two Pakistani boys is banned under international law," he added.

Kashmir: A dangerous nuclear flashpoint

By Brig Asif Haroon Raja

Sixty three years have lapsed but Kashmir dispute remains unresolved. During this period, besides several military standoffs, two full fledged Indo-Pak wars and two localised conflictsin April 1965 and in summer of 1999 took place on account of Kashmir issue. India has been defying UN Resolutions on Kashmir and playing monkey tricks all these years to avoid resolving the dispute. Indian security forces have kept the people of Kashmir suppressed through use of brute force and has hid its gross human rights abuses under the cover of blatant lies and deceit. Today Kashmir has turned into a dangerous nuclear flashpoint.

The peace loving and docile Kashmiris patiently waited for 43 long years in the hope that India would fulfil its solemn commitment and hold a fair plebiscite but when they found that India will never give them their just right, they ultimately decided to pick up arms and push out Indian Security Forces (ISF) illegally occupying their land since 1947. Armed uprising in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) in end 1988 added fuel to fire to militancy in Pakistan, which had intensified during the eight-year Afghan Jihad.

Tens of die-hard Jihadi groups cropped up to assist the Kashmiri struggle. Large amount of funds were collected for the cause of Kashmir. The people of Pakistan who have always regarded IOK as part of Pakistan and an unfinished agenda of partition left behind by scheming British were deeply pained over the atrocities committed by ISF upon hapless Kashmiris. The ISF had been given a licence to kill and to use rape as a weapon to break the will of freedom fighters. The world took no notice of worst human rights abuses by ISF nor made any effort to find a political solution on the basis of UN Resolutions.

The US which had drawn closer to India after 1990 started changing its stance by undervaluing UN Resolutions and terming them as outdated. Israel which had also forged special ties with India imparted training to Black Cats Commandoes of India in specialised counter insurgency operations and taught them new methods of torturing detainees so as to break the back of movement. Indo-Israel propaganda machinery supplemented by western media started projecting Kashmiri freedom fighters as terrorists and Pakistan as an abettor of terrorism. Full throttle was given to the theme of cross border terrorism. Efforts were geared to get Pakistan branded as a terrorist state.

The religious right in Pakistan sympathised with Kashmir cause and took out rallies in their support and also took practical steps to alleviate their sufferings by providing financial and material assistance. The general public filled up money boxes placed in front of each mosque wholeheartedly. The seculars particularly the liberal elite by and large took least interest in the plight of Kashmiris. Rather, they subscribed to Indo-western propaganda and pressed the government to rein in Jihadists to appease India.

Reign of terror unleashed in IOK by over 700,000 ISF, Indian intelligence agencies and Hindu extremist groups have turned the vale of Kashmir into hell. The whole valley is drenched in human blood but the conscience of the international comity is dead. Shrieks and cries of ill-fated Kashmiri men, women and children get drowned under the din of gunfire, one-sided propaganda and patronage of USA and civilised west. Instead of cautioning India to restrain from human rights abuses, the entire pressure was exerted on Pakistan and held solely responsible for worsening security situation in IOK. Despite use of excessive force and worst form of torture, the flame of liberty lit by handful of Kashmiri fighters kept burning vigorously. No amount of brutality could weaken their resolve to keep fighting till the accomplishment of their due right of self determination as provided for in UN Resolutions.

Indian inhuman cruelty alienated the Kashmiris and their hatred for India touched new heights. Except for insignificant number of Indian toadies enjoying fruits of power at the cost of enslavement of five million Kashmiris, each and every Kashmiri yearns to get rid of India. Having seen the ugly face of India and miserable plight of Indian Muslims, they have lost all trust in duplicitous Indian leaders. Conversely, their love for Pakistan is growing by leaps and bounds. They want to be part of Muslim Pakistan and not of Hindu India where Muslims are treated as second rated citizens. They know that secularism in India is a big farce since Hindu extremist forces are far more powerful than Hindu secularists who are too weak to question them.

Takeover of power by Gen Musharraf in October 1999 brought smiles on the faces of depressed seculars particularly when he came out with his concept of enlightened moderation. The fortunes of Kashmiri resistance forces that were giving a real tough time to 700,000 ISF as well as Jihadi forces in Pakistan plummeted in the aftermath of 9/11. New laws framed by USA on terrorism changed the complexion of freedom movements within Muslim world overnight and freedom fighters were branded as terrorists. This rule was applied in IOK as well which impelled India to apply full pressure on Musharraf to change its policy on Kashmir.

Ten month military standoff in 2002 followed by the US pressure forced him to ban six Kashmir oriented Jihadi groups and to freeze their accounts. Besides allowing India to fence the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, he took stringent measures to control cross LoC movement and also started hounding extremists. He also took on board moderate leaders of All Parties Hurriat Conference promising them an out of box solution to the dispute falling outside the ambit of UN Resolutions. These measures favoured India but went against the interest of Pakistan and resultantly rolled back the momentum of liberation movement. Indian military hastened to claim that it had succeeded in crushing insurgency in Kashmir. Pakistan thus lost the lone card of Kashmir which it could play against India which held several cards.

As a consequent to blocking Jihadi groups from assisting Kashmiris, these groups in revenge joined hands with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and TNSM and started fighting Pak security forces, thus compounding Pakistan's security problems. These groups facilitated TTP in launching suicide and group attacks within cities. Kashmiris saved the day for Pakistan when they bounced back in the valley in 2008 in the form of violent strikes and protest marches which flabbergasted India. Mumbai attacks were hastily engineered in November 2008 to distract the attention of the world from Kashmir, to put off Indo-Pak composite dialogue which was in advanced stages and to exert pressure on Pakistan to stay away from Kashmir.

Kashmiri movement took a new turn in 2010 when the teenagers with stones in their fists came in the forefront and kept raising anti-India and 'freedom from India' slogans despite being ruthlessly killed and tortured by ISF. Unarmed movement of tender age boys captured the attention of the world and for the fist time India found itself short of lame excuses. It could not possibly dub unarmed small boys as young as 8-15 years as terrorists. Nor could it justify its brutal actions against them. Apart from many in western countries, several intellectuals and human rights activists within India have started to sympathize with Kashmiris and are condemning ISF brutalities. Arundhati Roy has taken the lead and has not minced her words in saying that Kashmir is not part of India as claimed by Brahman Indian leaders and that justice should be meted to the people of Kashmir.

In a seminar recently organized in British Parliament, the parliamentarians lent unflinching support to the right of self determination of Kashmiris and have stressed upon their government to use its good offices to solve this chronic dispute. They also called upon India to withdraw its forces from IOK and to facilitate granting right of self determination to Kashmiris. Black day was organized by Kashmiris on both sides of the divide on 27 January and also in Pakistan and other parts of the world reminding India to prevent its forces from massacring innocent Kashmiris and to grant right of self determination to Kashmiris. Rumbling within India for a solution is getting louder.

Indian leadership will never risk holding a plebiscite since it knows that the result would be to its disfavor. It will keep dragging its feet until it is forced to give up its obduracy. The US must play its role to solve this dispute to avoid a nuclear holocaust in the future.

Beards are not just for terrorists

For years I lived any young adult's dream; there was music, parties, banter, unorthodox festivities, substance abuse and a fair degree of foul play. Then things changed radically - it was nothing short of a revolution; I grew a beard.

After extensively studying and reading about both Islam and other religions, I started to pray five times a day and even encourage friends and colleagues towards the path of salvation. I have finally chosen spirituality over (supposed) rationality and have given up on worldly desires to pursue those of an eternal life.

Why did I grow a beard?

For me it was simple: a beard would let people know that I am a "practising" Muslim. I no longer wished to be part of activities which I used to indulge in before.

As I let the beard grow, it raised some eyebrows as people around me also noticed a visible difference in my personality. Airport authorities were interested in why I did not resemble the guy in my passport picture (the picture was taken at the Pakistan High Commission in London and I looked funkier at the time). But I did not realize what a difference my new facial hair made until I returned to Pakistan for vacation.

Bearded in Pakistan

Ironically, in Pakistan the beard has become synonymous with terms like jaali mullah(deceitful priest), chor maulvi (thief priest), dehshatgard (terrorist), or 'brainwashed fool'. Moreover, if you happened to have a beard with no moustache, people are not afraid to call you 'Taliban' to your face.

Bearded people particularly when they wear shalwar kameez (the national dress of Pakistan) are regarded as criminals, kidnappers or rapists. What is worrying is that everyone has a story to tell of how they have been wronged in some way by a 'beardedmullah-type person'.

Beards badnaam hui…

Sadly, some do feel that a beard and all that it represents, gives you the 'licence to kill' in Pakistan. It seems that far too many have taken advantage of the beard to gain the trust of innocent people merely to wrong them. What these sinning souls have done is tarnish the image of the beard which was once the symbol of a pure mo'min (believer of Islam).

So, therein lies the lesson: with great beard comes great responsibility.

Mumbai attacks: Islamabad again seeks to record testimonies

Pakistan has decided to seek access to the witnesses of the 2008 Mumbai attacks for recording their statements and a formal request will soon be filed in this regard.

Officials of the interior ministry told The Express Tribune that this would be the second time that Islamabad would be making such a request.

Four and half months ago, Interior Minister Rehman Malik had requested his Indian counterpart P Chidambaram to allow a special team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which wanted to record statements of witnesses, including the magistrate and the relevant investigation officer in Mumbai, to hearing the case in Pakistan.

In a recent development, FIA identified 16 Indian citizens to testify regarding information shared by the main accused, Ajmal Kasab. The case is simultaneously being heard in courts of the two countries.

According to officials, a two-member FIA team would leave for India after receiving permission from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. The team will discuss matters pertaining to post-mortem reports with police officials of police stations concerned in Mumbai.

The commission members will also consult with legal experts who are already contesting Kasab's case on behalf of the federation in the Anti Terrorism Court No.3 in Rawalpindi.

Meanwhile, an FIA investigation team informed the interior minister that the investigation was not making any progress because of India's unwillingness to allow the Pakistani commission to record Indian investigators' statements. "During investigations, Kasab told the Indian magistrate that two majors of Pakistan Army were involved in the pre-attack conspiracy," they said.

In this regard, the FIA also filed a petition in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench praying that the main accused, Kasab and Fahim Ansari, should be declared proclaimed offenders.


Both, India and Pakistan, have been stuck on the issue of investigation regarding Mumbai attacks which caused deaths of more than a hundred lives.

In response, a special court in Mumbai last year awarded the death sentence to Kasab, while the trial of seven others accused in Pakistan is being conducted by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi.

Meanwhile, Khawaja Sultan, a counsel for one of the accused, said, "How can FIA officials record statements of Indian citizens. There is no such treaty between the two countries."

BlackBerry maker RIM says no access to corporate e-mail in India

By Sreejiraj Eluvangal

Research In Motion, or RIM, the maker of the BlackBerry smartphones, has refused to allow government agencies legal access to its corporate clients.

Rumours about a planned move to give Indian government "full access" are hurting business, it said, adding, it intends to only allow access to consumer accounts.

The company, which reportedly withdrew from talks with the government after their content was leaked to the media earlier this month, said it did not need two years, as claimed in media reports, to come up with a monitoring mechanism.

The firm had been accused of double-talk for allegedly promising an enterprise monitoring mechanism to the government while maintaining a public posture that it will never do so.

Robert Crow, RIM's head of government relations who arrived in India to lead negotiations, accepted that rumours and reports the Indian government is about to gain full access to corporate communication have "dampened" business.

"The uncertainty about the corporate side has dampened everybody's growth in India and has dampened India's position in the world as a safe place to do business in... When customers call you up and say, "I hear you are going to give India access to my private, customer information?" and when the answer is no, (they say) "Why is India saying this? Why is anybody saying this?"

Crow said encrypted corporate communication, of the sort used by banks and BPOs, was not based on a 'master key' technology. Corporate customers, he pointed out, would stop using a service that forced them to share their key with either RIM, the operator, or the government.

"That is how corporate networks are designed all across the world," he said. "Besides, if the government wants access to a company's data, it can directly approach the company itself," he added.

For retail consumers, however, RIM said, it has, along with the operators, designed a mechanism for monitoring suspected accounts, similar to the existing mechanism for phone-tapping.

He said data transmitted by non-corporate customers, who make up a small part of RIM's customer base in India, are liable to be monitored by the government according to the usual rules.

As for corporate networks, Crow said RIM uses the same technology as all other providers of corporate connectivity in India, and none of them can be 'cracked' by the government.

"That is the structure of the VPN (virtual private network) service," he said, adding that the new telecom secretary, an engineer and the former IT secretary, seemed to appreciate the technical position.

He said no government in the world can hope to decode all coded communication on the Internet, corporate or otherwise. "You would have to invest a heck of a lot of money to be able to keep up with that. I am not aware of any government anywhere that has been doing that... It has presented a major challenge to law enforcement... What it calls for are smarter policing and better international co-operation," he said.

RIM has found itself under fire from many governments, including those of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for allegedly serving as a possible conduit for terrorist communication through its encrypted blackberry messaging service. The company gets most of its revenues from its corporate clients.

Drama in Lahore: US diplomat faces double murder charge

Two cases, including one for a double murder, have been registered against US diplomats involved in a dramatic shooting and hit-and-run incident, which claimed the lives of three men in Lahore on Thursday.

One diplomat has been charged for murder for killing two men on a motorbike allegedly in self defence, at Lahore's Qartaba Chowk - while a companion of the diplomat, who is also an American citizen, crushed to death a bike rider in a hit-and-run incident, following the shooting.

Broken windshield of the US diplomat's car after he fired at two people in Lahore

The accused diplomat, Raymond Davis, opened fire at the two men - identified as Faizan Hayder, aged 22, and Faheem, 20 - at a traffic signal of Qartaba Chowk, after which he fled from the scene.

Two of his companions, who were in a Land Cruiser, tried to follow him but in an attempt to avoid a traffic jam entered the wrong side of the road and hit a motorcycle, killing one person.

However, two wardens managed to chase the diplomat and apprehended him at the Old Anarkali chowk.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Muhammad Aslam Tarin confirmed that all three deceased had no previous criminal records, adding that none of them had robbed or fired at the diplomat.

Tareen further said that the American diplomat had shot at them, adding that two FIRs under Section 302 of PPC have been registered against the accused.

One FIR has been registered for shooting and killing two people, while another has registered against the unidentified accused involved in the hit-and-run.

Earlier reports suggested that the police declared those who were killed as armed dacoits. The CCPO had earlier said, "According to the diplomat two bike riders whipped out their pistol after which he fired at them in self defence and tried to flee from the scene." He said that due to their suspicious movement, Davis thought they wanted to attack him.

Tarin said the accused was still in their custody and after consulting the embassy and prosecutors they would take action against him according to the law. He also said that the accused US diplomat was unable to show legal proof or license for carrying a weapon.

Superintendent of Police Umar Saeed Malik confirmed that both cars belonged to the US consulate. He said that the white car driven by Davis was headed towards a hotel when the incident occurred.

Ali Amjad, an eye witness, told The Express Tribune that the Land Cruiser, while following the fleeing car on Jail Road, collided with a biker identified as Ubaidur Rehman.

Davis's car while on the run also injured a traffic warden who had tried to stop it. The car finally got stuck in a traffic jam at Anakali and was caught by the chasing warden along with an angry mob, Amjad said.

Raymond was then moved to Old Anarkali police station from where he was escorted to an unknown place by DSP Raza Safdar Kazmi in his official vehicle.

Amjad, who was present at the jail road at the time of the incident, said that the first shot was fired was from the car as, immediately after, the pillion rider fell from the bike. He said that more shots were fired from the car, after which it fled from the scene.

When contacted, US embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez told The Express Tribune that the embassy is working closely with the authorities and the consulate in Lahore on the issue. Although he confirmed that the US national is an employee of the consulate, he said he could not confirm his name or portfolio.

Hayder was a resident of Ravi Road and, according to his family, had left the house for the court to pursue a case against the killers of his brother who gunned him down a month ago. The family said that Hayder carried a pistol but only for self-defence. They further said that Hayder was not a dacoit, and was being used as a scapegoat by the police to save the skin of the American diplomat.

Staying afloat: Pakistan should not expect bailout, says UK envoy

Pakistan's politicians must find a consensus on difficult economic decisions that need to be taken to prevent an economic collapse, said Adam Thomson, Britain's High Commissioner to Pakistan in a briefing to journalists earlier on Wednesday (today). "Pakistan cannot flourish if its economy is in constant crisis," he added.

Thomson says Islamabad's deficit is too large to be plugged by international community

Referring to a recent comment by the federal finance minister that Pakistan's economy was "on the verge of collapse", Mr Thomson said that the size of Pakistan's deficit was "too big to be plugged" by international funding and that Pakistan should "not expect an international bailout" package. "The international community will help those who help themselves," he pointed out.

In response to a question, Thomson said that the state of Pakistan's economy was not the fault of the incumbent government, adding that economic fundamentals "have not been strong for a very long time". He said that Pakistan needed to raise its tax-to-GDP ratio from a dangerously low 10 per cent to about 16 per cent. He acknowledged that the government faced some politically very difficult decisions and said it "is encouraging to see that the government and the opposition are having serious and responsible conversations," on this issue.


Improving tax collection, removal of subsidies and increasing GST were some of the measures that were required to be taken.

"The economy needs to be growing at about the rate of eight per cent per annum if employment is to be provided for Pakistan's growing population," he added.


According to the British high commissioner, politics in Pakistan had "stabilised" and that "inevitable tensions between institutions of state are beginning to settle" as institutions find their boundaries.

Regarding the law and order situation, Thomson said that questions have been raised about Pakistan as a society and whether they "are prepared to respect the rule of law".

"Pakistan's politicians are facing a moment of real responsibility which calls for real leadership," he commented. "I believe they can do it."

Mr Thomson also said that no decision has yet been taken to "deny British visas to people who approved of the murder of Governor Salmaan Taseer".

The British Home Secretary, he said, had the power to exclude anyone for "unacceptable behaviour", but no decision had been taken to exclude this group as a whole.

Referring to the recent floods in Pakistan, Thomson said he was "very proud of the British response" and that all but £20 million of the £134 million of Britain's flood aid had been spent.


He acknowledged that some 170,000 people were still living in camps and that Pakistan still faced a massive challenge six months after the devastating floods.

Britain's flood relief programme was part of the UK's development programme in Pakistan which "will become the largest development assistance programme in the world", he said.


Thomson, who completed one year of his tenure in Pakistan on January 21, was addressing journalists at a briefing at the Foreign Office in London.

Fears grow that China is overheating

By Jamil Anderlini and Leslie Hook in Beijing, and Rahul Jacob in Hong Kong

Concerns the Chinese economy is overheating mounted after offical figures revealed the economy grew faster than expected at the end of last year and inflation remained above target.

Meanwhile, Guangdong added to the fears after China's biggest provincial economy increased its minimum wage by 18 to 26 per cent, the second big increase in less than a year.

The national economy expanded at an annual rate of 9.8 per cent in the final quarter of 2010, and grew 10.3 per cent for the entire year.

Consumer price inflation, a growing worry for policymakers, fell to 4.6 per cent in December from a more than two-year high of 5.1 per cent the previous month.

However, analysts said the moderation was mostly due to a high base the year before, and that prices would accelerate strongly in the first quarter of this year, complicating efforts to cool the economy without triggering a sharp slowdown.

For the whole year, consumer prices rose 3.3 per cent, above Beijing's target of 3 per cent. Food prices, the main driver of inflation, rose 7.2 per cent for the year.

"[The economic] growth figures will encourage Beijing to act more decisively on taming inflation, which means more interest rate hikes are just around the corner," said Qu Hongbin, an economist at HSBC.

The Shanghai Composite, China's benchmark stock market index, dropped 2.9 per cent on Thursday after release of the data increased fears of impending monetary tightening.

A combination of rising inflation, concerns about social instability and labour shortages in key industrial areas have sparked a series of minimum wage increases across China. Beijing this month increased its minimum wage by 21 per cent. The government hopes raising wages will increase domestic consumption and help it move towards a new growth model less reliant on low-cost manufacturing, exports and investment.

Geoffrey Crothall of the China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based advocacy group, said the wage hike might not be enough to ease the labour shortages in the province, which accounts for a large percentage of the world's production of everything from mobile phones to sneakers.

"Workers are very well informed about wages in the next town and in other provinces," he said. "Their confidence that wages will go higher is rising."

While concerns about inflation have grown in recent months, Ma Jiantang, commissioner for the National Bureau of Statistics, said the government would control inflation this year.

"We have full confidence that we will control the price level in 2011," said Mr Ma, adding that China's seven consecutive years of good harvests meant food prices would be kept under control.

The government has said it would adopt a "prudent" monetary policy this year. Beijing raised the amount banks must hold on reserve with the central bank seven times over the past year and increased interest rates twice in the fourth quarter.

These attempts to rein in extraordinarily loose monetary conditions, in place since the height of the financial crisis two years ago, have only been partially successful. Last year, Chinese banks moved trillions of renminbi in loans off their balance sheets and repackaged them as wealth management products, allowing them to evade the government's restrictive lending quotas.

On Thursday, the Chinese banking regulator ordered banks to bring an estimated Rmb1,660bn ($252bn) of such off-balance sheet loans back on to their books this year.

The government's attempts to manage liquidity have been further complicated by non-bank lending in the economy, which regulatory authorities have great difficulty quantifying. A central bank survey released on Thursday found that total non-bank lending in China last year amounted to about Rmb240bn, or 5.6 per cent, of total loans.

However, central bank officials acknowledged that the true scale of informal and underground lending was likely much larger.

China's economy almost certainly overtook Japan's last year to become the world's second-largest after the US, ending more than 40 years for Japan as number two.

Shireen Mazari Launches A Workshop To Explain New Threats To Pakistan's Nuclear Policy

There is a strange silence in the Pakistani capital on new US-mounted nuclear pressures, but Pakistani diplomats and nuclear experts are speaking up where the Pakistani state is silent.

GULPARI NAZISH MEHSUD


WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-There are new pressures on Pakistan to limit its ability to maintain a credible nuclear deterrence. These pressures are coming from the Conference on Disarmament, or CD as it is known, that opens today in Geneva. The United States is working on two tracks. One is to induct India into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and end the last barrier that stops India from procuring nuclear technology and material in the open market. And two, use international treaties to force Pakistan to freeze Pakistani nukes at their current size and potential.

While US officials use public diplomacy to send messages through Radio Pakistan and other arms of the pro-US government in Islamabad claiming Washington has no interest in targeting the Pakistani nuclear program, US actions speak louder about the actual US policy toward Pakistan's strategic capabilities.

The Pakistani government is maintaining a strange silence on the new pressures on its nuclear capabilities. Other departments of the government that shape Pakistan's nuclear policy, like the Nuclear Command Authority, are also silent apparently in deference to the incumbent government.

To break this silence, a Pakistani nuclear expert Dr. Shireen Mazari took the initiative to sensitize the Pakistani media about the new developments in Geneva. She organized a one-day closed-door briefing for senior Pakistani journalists. Over eight hours, participants were briefed about the new pressures on Pakistani diplomacy on the country's nuclear program. The workshop covered Pakistan's position on a new treaty, called FMCT, that would stop Islamabad from developing material needed to build nuclear weapons, a treaty that Islamabad is resisting for the time being. Participants also went through the evidence-based record of India in nuclear proliferation which belies Washington's claims that India has a clean proliferation record.

But Dr. Mazari is not alone. Ambassador Zamir Akram has told CD that Pakistan does not accept the US-led tilt in favor of India on nuclear technology. In Islamabad, an eminent former top diplomat of Pakistan, former foreign minister Mr. Inam-ul-Haq, joined in conducting the workshop. Strategic Technology Resource, which organized the workshop and is headed by Dr. Mazari, plans to offer Pakistani legislators similar exposure to position them to understand government policy.

The diplomatic correspondent of The News Mariana Baabar wrote an excellent report on the workshop and on Pakistan's diplomatic efforts in Geneva. The report is reproduced below:

Pakistan Not Interested In Disarmament Conference

By Mariana Baabar

As the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, holds the first public plenary of its 2011 session on Tuesday (January 25) at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, how well informed is the civilian government, political parties, parliamentarians and the civil society in Pakistan?

Traditionally, it is the National Command Authority (NCA), a military dominated and controlled organisation set up by Pervez Musharraf, which is responsible for 'policy formulation and the exercise of employment and development control over all strategic nuclear forces and strategic organisations'.

There is neither any interest nor debate on strategic matters in our nuclear state. The last time loud public voices were heard in support to test a nuclear device, completely drowning out those who were against the nuclear test.

Normally, mere statements are issued by the ISPR, NCA and the Foreign Office, while some experts do respond to queries of journalists. Worse, this highly complex and specialised field remains in the domain of the military, though heading it is the prime minister and a clutch of federal ministers, who are quite satisfied with their symbolic presence and have never opted to inform the parliament on Pakistan's position.

To change this mindset and allow transparency and space for debate, the Strategic Technology Resource (STR), a recently set up organisation, held a one day workshop, 'Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and Beyond', to familiarise journalists on co-related issues like CTBT, FMCT and other issues.

It's CEO Dr Shireen Mazari and former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Inamul Haq who explained why 2011 would be a difficult year for Pakistan when pressure will be increased specially wtih regard to FMCT.

The speakers underlined fears that like in the past, the United States could take the FMCT out of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the United Nations, as it became frustrated with its present slow pace.

The NCA's stand on FMCT is that 'Pakistan's position will be determined by its national security interests and the objectives of strategic stability in South Asia. Selective and discriminatory measures that perpetuate regional instability, in any form and manner, derogate from the objectives of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and; therefore, cannot be accepted or endorsed. Pakistan will not support any approach or measure that is prejudicial to its legitimate national security interests'.

Mazari called for the policymakers to take a consistent stand on issues unlike in the past. She also said today's environment called for Pakistan's specific thinking on strategic issues and not necessarily linked to India as had been the norm.

"I will like our media to be aware and knowledgeable enough to respond to the debate in the international media on these issues, specially when it pertains to Pakistan, instead of dutifully publishing western reports," she added.

A media kit was distributed which contained interesting facts and figures. Included were authentic reports on India's proliferation record, Japan's nuclear doublespeak, a letter written by Pakistan's permanent representative in Vienna to member states of IAEA and copies of statements delivered by Ambassador Zamir Akram at a past Conference on Disarmament.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will address the conference on Wednesday. According to the UN, like in previous years, the items on the agenda of the conference in 2011 will be cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters; prevention of an arms race in outer space; effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons, radiological weapons; comprehensive programme of disarmament; transparency in armaments; and consideration and adoption of the annual report and any other report, as appropriate, to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Pakistan Catches Indian Spy, Indian Embassy Involved In Espionage

From: Pakistan Defence

Interrogations with the arrested Indian spy have shed some light on covert Indian spy networks inside Pakistan. New information includes leads on Indian intelligence priorities in the region, which are focused on putting pressure on Pakistan and ISI through fake terror acts that could also destroy peace talks between India and Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-Pakistani security officials have foiled an attempt by the Indian intelligence to enact a fake terror act on the ceasefire line in Kashmir to implicate Pakistan in terrorism.

The plan was unearthed when a suspect working for the Indian intelligence was apprehended in Sialkot border area while attempting to cross over to India through the border security fence; an impregnable barbed wire obstacle whose entrance points are locked and controlled by the Indian Border Security Force. The suspect has confessed to working as an Indian spy who was tasked to recruit agents from Pakistan to work for Indian intelligence.

More evidence of how India is deeply involved in staging fake terror incidents to implicate Pakistan. A probe into recent bombings in India has proven it. In this case, an Indian spy tried to cross into the Indian side.

The suspect whose name has been withheld for security reasons disclosed that his Indian handlers, Mr. Sharma and Mr. Amjad, had tasked him to recruit a Pakistani national by offering a large monetary reward, preferably carrying a weapon and send him across the border through the border barbed wire fence after informing the BSF troops. Mr. Sharma had assured him that all the details of border crossing would be finalized by him and duly taken care off at his end.

The suspect also disclosed that the Indian Intelligence had planned a fake encounter to kill the border crosser and exploit the episode as proof of terrorists launched by ISI crossing over from Pakistan to commit acts of terrorism in India. He also said that he had held a few meetings with his Indian handlers in Islamabad as well.

This arrest has pulled the lid off Indian spying networks in Pakistan and the existence of Indian agents or Pakistanis recruited by Indians.

Interrogations with the Indian spy and other evidence reveal the current priority of Indian spies in the region. They are focused on organizing terror acts that can be easily blamed on Pakistan and ISI. Indian spies want to see terror acts that resound in the media and could help avert any attempt to restore talks between Pakistan and India over Kashmir. With the possibility of a secretary level interaction emerging on the sidelines of a SAARC meeting in Thimpu Bhutan in the first week of February, India should be interested in a few fake terror acts that could show the flow of terrorists from Pakistan that would strengthen its position to format any future discussions centered on terrorism rather than finding ways to tackle the core issue of Kashmir.

The episode also points to the involvement of Indian undercover agents stationed in its Islamabad embassy, engaging in espionage activities in grave violation of their diplomatic status.

Report published by The Daily Mail of Pakistan.

Hindutva: A Story of Hate and Terror

By: Shahid R. Siddique

Muslims are a suspect community in India and, in some states more than others, are increasingly becoming targets of scorn and terrorism at the hands of radical and fundamentalist Hindu outfits. What lies at the root of this is a fundamental change in the outlook of a segment of Hindus towards non-Hindus and minorities.

They call this doctrine of hate and terror, 'Hindutva'.

In an election related petition before the Bombay High Court the appellants contended that an appeal to vote for Hindutva amounted to an appeal to vote on grounds of religion and therefore is a corrupt practice under the law. The respondents argued that 'Dharma' or 'Hindutva' or 'Hinduism' are all synonymous terms and appeal to vote for Hindutva was not for religion, but for culture. The Bombay High Court agreed that Hindutva or Hinduism was culture falling within Article 29 of the Constitution.

Later, appellants before the Supreme Court of India submitted that 'Hindutva' or 'Hinduism' was no religion but a way of life which incorporated noble values such as respect for all religions and the moral code of conduct for every sphere of human activity that evolved in this land from most ancient times, inter alia, included secularism. In support of this they relied on two earlier Constitution Bench Judgments of the Supreme Court in the cases of Yajnapurushdasji (1966 (3) SCR 242) and Sridharan (1976 (4) SCC 489). The court accepted the contention of the appellants and further observed that Hinduism and Hindutva accept and respect every religion and recognize the right of every individual to practice any religion.

Hailed as landmark judgment, this was expected to put an end to misinterpretation of Hindutva or Hinduism as religious fundamentalism or its misuse by exploiting religion for politics that could destroy the secular character of the Indian Nation. But this was not to be.

Most unfortunately, Hindutva has been turned into a philosophy of ultra-nationalism by right wing Hindu fundamentalists. Its votaries gloat over the rise of Hindutva on the pyre of Hinduism, for they have felt embarrassed and humiliated by Hinduism as it is.

Being a faith and way of life, fundamentalists saw Hinduism as weak and inferior to Semitic creeds that had a strong presence in India and which they found to be well-bounded, monolithic, masculine, organized and capable of sustaining the ideology of an imperial state. This was demonstrated by the past conquests of Hindu states by Muslim invaders from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran that established their dynasties at different times and later by the Christian British colonialists. Consequently, they felt a strong need to build Hindutva on the tenets of reformed Hinduism, redefine the origins and evolution of Hindu civilization and religion and project Hindu power by building India into a powerful regional player and persecute Muslims, Christians and other minorities.

Sangh Parivar, a family of Hindu nationalist organizations of which Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad are part, adopted new Hindutva as its guiding ideology. Shiv Sena, a highly controversial political party of Maharashtra, shares this ideology and is very closely associated with Sangh Parivar. The record of these right winga radical right wing political party a radical right wing political party a radical right wing political party radical parties in pursuing ultra-nationalist agenda and engaging in indiscriminate massacre of minorities, particularly Muslims, is enough to show the true colors of Hindutvavadis (followers of Hindutva).

Since the first horrific Mumbai blasts of 1992 a persistent campaign has created a perception that Muslims were behind every terror activity, promoting a shrill paranoia about the existence of a vast and homegrown Islamist terror networks that were sometimes linked to Kashmiri freedom struggle and at other times to Pakistan's ISI. This was reinforced by biased media coverage and political campaigning.

And it is this frame of mind that has slipped into the Indian criminal justice system too. The police, investigating agencies, intelligence agencies and even the lower courts, under the media and government pressure to show results after bomb blasts and killings, have found Muslim youth easy scapegoats for blame to be heaped on for all acts of terrorism, instead of finding actual culprits. These young men are rounded up even if Muslim communities themselves are the targets of Hindu terror. They are put away in jails without evidence, tortured without regard to their rights and even 'convicted' by the courts on the basis of their so called 'confessions'. Their future is destroyed and their families are made destitute.

With this militant Hindutva on the rise, Indian secularism is clearly on the decline.

The well known Indian publication 'Tehelka Magazine' in its January issue makes startling revelations about the Hindutva conspiracy to commit large scale killings of Muslims. It has published the voluntary confession of a zealot who has for long remained directly involved in the planning and execution of such acts of terrorism.

According to the magazine, on December 18, 2010, Swami Aseemanand, an elderly Bengali man and key accused in 2007 Mecca Masjid blast (in Hyderabad Deccan) that claimed nine Muslims lives, voluntarily confessed before the metropolitan magistrate of Delhi his involvement in a string of terror attacks. He did this in full knowledge that his confession could take him to the gallows.

Naba Kumar Sarkar, popularly called Swami Aseemanand, a Hindutva leader and a rabid Muslim hater, was arrested in November 2010 after being a fugitive for two years. He was known to be very close to RSS leadership, including former RSS chief KS Sudarshan, current chief Mohan Bhagwat and politicians like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

According to Aseemanand, it was a momentous emotional transformation that prompted him to take this step of seeking prayschit (penance). He reportedly told the magistrate, "When I was lodged in Chanchalguda district jail in Hyderabad, one of my co-inmates was Kaleem. During my interaction with Kaleem I learnt that he was previously arrested in the Mecca Masjid bomb blast case and had to spend about a year and a half in prison. During my stay in jail, he helped me a lot and used to serve me by bringing water, food, etc for me. I was very moved by Kaleem's good conduct and my conscience asked me to do prayschit (penance) by making a confessional statement so that real culprits can be punished and no innocent has to suffer."

The confessional statement spread over 42 pages went beyond terror attacks against Muslim communities. It unraveled the inner working of Hindutva terror network, provided names and extent of involvement of Hindutva leaders in the conspiracy, uncovered legal evidence about the planning and execution of terror acts over past several years by Hindutva zealots and provided forensic evidence that connects the missing links that has eluded investigators so far. In short, this one confession unfolds the mystery surrounding RSS reign of terror against minorities.

This testimony and earlier investigations have revealed new faces that lie at the heart of the terror conspiracy. One such person is Indresh Kumar, a member of the RSS central committee. His own party men have confessed before CBI investigators that he mentored, bankrolled and directed the RSS pracharaks in carrying out Malegaon, Hyderabad, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid attacks. Evidence has surfaced that these radicals even bombed Hindu temples and blamed the attacks on the Muslims groups.

Not unexpectedly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have rubbished the probe into Hindutva terror by alleging that Aseemanand's confession was obtained under coercion.

Over the past four years the evidence gathered by CBI and other agencies against RSS pracharaks and lunatic Hindutva groups like Abhinav Bharat and Jai Vande Matram is compelling. When pieced together with Aseemanand's confession, the whole body of evidence, both material and circumstantial, builds a solid case against these terror groups. It is now known that the broad conspiracy of targeting Muslims and their mosques was hatched around 2001 and for this purpose key RSS pracharaks inducted Hindutva radicals from RSS, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad and some from fringe saffron groups like Abhinav Bharat, Jai Vande Matram and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram. The main theatres of operation were Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan states.

Aseemanand admitted being part of the group that selected Muslim targets for explosions. He said, "I suggested that 80 percent of the people of Malegaon (Maharashtra) were Muslims and we should explode the first bomb in Malegaon itself. I also said that during the Partition, the Nizam of Hyderabad (Deccan) had wanted to go with Pakistan so Hyderabad was also a fair target. Then I said that since Hindus also throng the Ajmer Sharif Dargah (Rajasthan) in large numbers we should also explode a bomb in Ajmer which would deter the Hindus from going there [the shrine of a Muslim saint who is also revered by the Hindus]. I also suggested the Aligarh Muslim University (Utter Pradesh) as a terror target". He went on to say, "In the meeting Joshi suggested that it was basically Pakistanis who travel on the Samjhauta Express train that runs between India and Pakistan and therefore we should attack the train as well".

This bi-weekly train operates between Lahore and Delhi as a goodwill gesture and a confidence building measure agreed by the two governments and is appropriately named "Samjhauta" (or "compromise") Express.

Although small explosions in Nanded, Jalna and Parbhani and some failed attempts in Bhopal due to faulty devices were reported between 2002 and 2004, but starting from Malegaon in September 2006, blasts after blasts took place for two years in prominent Muslim neighborhoods and mosques, which Aseemanand admitted were carried out by a team of RSS pracharaks.

In September 2006, four bombs exploded in the communally tense town of Malegaon, one in the crowded marketplace and three in Hamidiya mosque during prayer time. Thirty one Muslims were killed and over 312 injured. In May 2007 Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad was attacked killing nine Muslims and injuring over 50. In the Ajmer Shrine a powerful bomb exploded in October 2007 that fortunately killed only three devotees and injured over a dozen. In September 2008, a bomb, concealed in a motorcycle, exploded in a Muslim neighborhood in Malegaon while another bomb simultaneously went off in a mosque in a small Gujarat town of Modassa during prayer time.

On February 18, 2007 on the eve of Pakistan foreign minister Kasuri's visit to India to pursue the peace dialogue, three powerful bombs exploded in two coaches of the Samjhauta Express train at midnight when it was 80 km out of Delhi on its way to Lahore, turning them into an inferno. Sixty eight people, mostly Pakistanis, were killed and dozens were injured. The peace dialogue was almost scuttled. Aseemanand has admitted that this was the handiwork of a group of RSS pracharkars, although RSS propagandists immediately pointed fingers at Pakistan based Kashmiri outfits. Even Washington bought the story and demanded of Pakistan to spring into action against the culprits.

Some excellent investigative work done by the police officer and then Maharashtra ATS Chief, Hemant Karkare, helped him track the motorcycle used in the Malegaon blast to a radical leader Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, whose arrest led to 11 high profile arrests of Hindutva activists who had a role in Malegaon blast, including serving Lt. Col. Purohit and a Hindu religious leader Dayanand Pandey. From Pandey's possession Karkare recovered damning evidence against all of them in the 40 audio and video tapes, which were recordings of secret terror conspiracy meetings held by Pandey, Purohit and others.

Karkare's investigations also led to the discovery that Lt. Col. Purohit had procured 60 kg of RDX from Jammu and Kashmir in 2006, part of which was alleged to have been used in Samjhauta Express and part of it in Malegaon blasts.

Karkare was bumped off during the 2008 Mumbai attack, ostensibly by RSS and other Hindutva radicals whom he was exposing. With Karkare gone, the investigation got derailed and was lost in the noisy blame game with Pakistan on the issue of 2008 Mumbai attack, which had assumed center stage. Karkare's successor Raghuvanshi is believed to have covered up the investigation to avoid Karkare's fate. But with crucial evidence available due to Aseemanand's confession, the pieces of the puzzle of Hindutva saffron terror should now fall in place and the probe being handled by National Investigating Agency (NIA) should hopefully be concluded soon.

Tehelka has also revealed the "nexus between Hindutva terror and Indian military intelligence officers" in bomb attacks in Samjhauta Express, Hyderabad, Ajmer and Malegaon. The report says "political bigwigs and serving and retired army officers, all seemed part of the conspiracy". According to Aseemanand, Lt. Col. Purohit was a founding member of Abhinav Bharat, a shadowy saffron terror outfit aimed at infiltrating every institution. Tapes recovered from the RSS accused have revealed names of two Majors, four Colonels and two Brigadiers who were part of the outfit, four of them having intelligence background.

Lt. Col. Purohit is heard on the tape saying "We are all on the same plane - Hindu Rashtra (nation)". He goes on to claim that "General J.J. Singh (Indian army chief until 2007) is with us". Purohit also talks of "one of our own captains" having visited Israel for "training and meeting" who demanded "four things from Israel": uninterrupted supply of arms and training, "an office with a saffron flag in Tel Aviv", political asylum and "support for our cause of a Hindu nation in the UN". The tapes claim that Israel gave "a very positive response and promised arms and asylum".

One wonders if this is only the tip of the iceberg. The infiltration of Hindutva radicals in the armed services with links to terror groups should be a matter of grave concern for the Indian political leadership, as well as for the army top brass.

Jan 26th: India's Republic Day is black day in Srinagar-always!

By Pakistan Patriot

SRINAGAR (IHK): Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and across the world will observe Indian Republic Day - today - as Black Day to convey to the international community that Indian claim of being a democratic republic is a hoax as it continues to deny the Kashmiris their right to self-determination, reports KMS.

Call for the observance of the Day has been given by the APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader Syed Ali Gilani and the High Court Bar Association.

The day will be marked by a complete strike in occupied Kashmir with all business establishments, offices, banks and courts remaining closed.

Ahead of the Black Day, tomorrow, a red alert has been sounded in the occupied territory, with Indian troops and police intensifying their search operations and frisking of pedestrians and motorists.

The areas around Bakhshi Stadium, the venue of the main official function in Srinagar, are under siege as the troops have strengthened their vigil by occupying all high-rise buildings. Surveillance cameras have also been installed around the Stadium.

On the other hand, forceful anti-India demonstrations, marked with complete shutdown, continued for the second consecutive day, Monday against the killing of a civilian by Indian troops in Kalampora area of Pulwama. Senior APHC leader, Shabbir Ahmad Shah, along with a dozen Hurriyet activists, was arrested at Kakpora while on his way to visit the family of the martyred.

The APHC Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, in a statement issued in Srinagar on Monday strongly denounced the killing of the civilian and the arrest of Shabbir Ahmad Shah. He said that withdrawal of Indian troops was imperative to bring an end to the human rights violations in the occupied territory. Kashmiris to observe Black Day today

Pakistan Times Jammu & Kashmir Desk

Inevitable Sino-USA Meditation over Kashmir

By: Zaheer ul Hassan

Kashmir valley is known as heaven on earth because of its scenic beauty, Chinar, Deodar and Alpine trees, grassy slopes full of flowers, fresh water lakes, water falls, crystal blue sky and snow covered high peaks and brave inhabitants of the valley. Unfortunately this valley is passing through a horrible era of Kashmir history since 1947.

The disputed state is located north of India. It consists of area of 139,000 Sq Km (53,700 Sq Mi) with population of OVER 10 million (2001). The state is bounded to the west by Pakistan. The 1971-72 Line-of-Control separates it from Azad Kashmir and in the East by Ladakh, Tibet and Aksian China. The state is drained by numerous rivers which include Indus, Zanskar, Suru, Nubra Shyok, Jhelum, and Chinab.

The tranquility of Kashmir converted into aggression when Hari Singh, Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir against the wishes of locals announced its accession with India in October 1947. In retaliation Kashmiri stood up and started struggle against Indian aggression. However, to crush the moment, occupied Indian security forces murdered thousand of innocent people; raped hundred of women and young girls. The occupied forces also abducted and killed thousand of young and old freedom fighters. The tension between two neighbours provoked further and made them dagger drawn each other.

Pakistan and India four times went to war against each other and out of which three were due to Kashmir issue. The population of Kashmir with the help of Pakistani comrades tried to liberate their motherland form Indian occupied forces. New Delhi started yelling against Pakistan and freedom fighters just to avoid the defeat of its forces in the hands of peaceful protestors.

Thus, it was India which first time took the Kashmir dispute to the United Nations on 1 January 1948. UNO helped in cease firing between two neighbours on 1 January 1949. Because of mutual consent of two countries UN Security Council (UNSC) and UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) passed number of resolutions. Anyhow,

The UNSC Resolution of 21 April 1948--one of the principle UN resolutions on Kashmir-stated that "both India and Pakistan desire that the question of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan should be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite". On this issue UNSC Resolutions of 3 August 1948 and 5 January 1949 reinforced UNSC resolutions, which were also been acknowledged by India and Pakistan. But India never implemented over UNSC resolutions and always tried to put the issue in the cold storage.

In 1962, India took up arms against China. She used American influence to restrict Pakistan from launching any offensive to unshackle Kashmir. Pakistan and India went to war over Kashmir and East Pakistan issues in 1965 and 71 respectively. As result of East Pakistan debacle, Bangladesh appeared on the world map due to Indian intrigues against Pakistan. However, Kashmir conflict again remained the basic bone of contention and also again been acknowledged as disputed territory by two countries in Shimla Agreement of July 2, 1972.

Interestingly, the super power (US) that gave assurance of resolution of Issue in 1962 but it backed out from its promise just after the culmination of Indo-Sino War. Moreover after disintegration of Great Soviet Union, Russia totally disengaged ifself from under discussion core issue of South Asia. The simple reason could be that annoying India is not affordable and part of its strategy. Therefore, USA never openly supported Pakistan's stance over Kashmir.

In this context, Obama too after wining the election negated his own statement of acting as mediator over Kashmir Issue between India and Pakistan. In fact US has special agenda of containing China with the help of India. She also knows that the natural resources and its connectivity with Pakistan, India and China made its location very sensitive and strategically important for the regional and global players too.

US probably is interested to promote the idea of independent Kashmir or under the control of India. The purpose behind its notion could be accomplishing its strategic interest of containing china. Moreover America's revealed interest is only corresponding to New Delhi's aim of superseding China in Asia. US is providing tacit support in piling up of arms heaps. According to AFP news of January 17, 2011, the World Bank announced $1.72 billion in loans to India, including $1.5 billion to build 24,000 kilometers (14,880 miles) of roads across seven states of the country.

Development of infrastructure is directly related to the hegemonic design of India since where it would be supportive in boasting India's economy but at the same time it would also be helpful in offensive launching against China and Pakistan. There are news that India will use this loan in developing defence related infrastructures in the area connected to Kashmir, Bangladesh and Himachal Pradesh state. China. Bangladesh and Pakistani authorities should approach World Bank that India should be asked not to use loan in improving infrastructure in the disputed territories.

USA seem to be having doubles standard, since on one side USA is asking China to assist in dragging USA out from existing economic crunch whereas on the other side taping India against China. Thus, Beijing very rightly says that its president's recently concluded state visit to the United States was "fruitful" but the two countries need to work on trust so that sensitive issues do not create misgivings.

It is added here that China is facing direct threat to its border from India. Recently, the 'discrepancy; of 1,500 km is a clear pointer to Beijing's position, not only on its boundary dispute with India but also on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). While India holds about 45% of J&K territory and Pakistan controls 35%, China occupies about 20% which includes Aksai Chin. An official briefing by China's Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue on the eve of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's recent visit to India triggered the alarm.

He said, "China and India share a 2,000-km-long border that has never been formally demarcated." India has held that Sino Indian border is 3,488 km long. China refused to issue visa to a very high level Indian Defence delegation since one of the top commanders Lt-Gen B S Jaswal was General Officer Commander of Northeran Area. It is notable here that General V K Singh, the Army chief was supposed to lead the delegation. Anyhow New Delhi has canceled defense exchanges with China after Beijing refusal.

It is pertinent to mention here that General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Area Command is responsible for Jammu & Kashmir, a state that China and Pakistan consider as disputed territory. China always favoured Pakistan's stance over Kashmir and never acknowledged Indian illegal rights over Kashmir valley. She also knows that one of the aims of US is to contain China and in this context India is one of the most favourite allies of America.

China is well aware of the fact that New Delhi always sheltered Dalai Lama's and supported his stance over Tibet. China position is directly connected to Pakistan argument on Kashmir too. China always condemned Indian brutality against innocent Kashmiri people. Its ties with Pakistan are ever lasting and deep routed too. Recently despite Indian hue and cry, China announced the supply of two nuclear plants to Pakistan.

Pakistan being agro based riparian country is facing dilemma of shortage of water because of Indian illegal construction of 172 dams in Occupied State of Jammu & Kashmir (OSJK). Its agriculture is at the stake since head works of all the rivers flowing in its territory are located in Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Apart from threat to agriculture sector, Pakistan always considered Kashmir as its integral part because of its geographically connectivity and blood relations with 95% population. In nut shell Pakistani and Kashmiri nations would keep on struggling for independence of Kashmir from Indian occupation under the UN charter.

According to media reports the recent peaceful movement of Kashmir is likely to convert into an arms struggle because of continued Indian defiance policy over implementations of UN Resolution. All political parties of Kashmir strongly condemned the pathetic violation of human rights. Recently, the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and the President of Tahreek e Hurriyat (TeH) Jammu & Kashmir, Syed Ali Shah Geelani has urged the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) to initiate a probe into the killings of 17 innocent Kashmiri by Indian armed forces during protest demonstrations, last year.

In short, South Asian peace is directly connected with the burning issue of Kashmir. The acceptable solution to the Kashmiri nation revolves around the UN Resolution passed in 1948 and 1949. But India is reluctant to resolve the conflict bilaterally, which proves that mediation of third party is inevitable between two nuclear states. Both China and US should come ahead to play the role of mediator for avoiding future nuclear conflict in South Asia. Pakistani nation and Muslim Ummah should come out on February 5 to display solidarity with Kashmiri people and condemn Indian brutality against innocent freedom fighter, children, women and old aged people.

Former U.S. Asset Exposes Tony Blair's Legacy of Deception and 911

Pakistan Daily

He's got the smirking grin of a politician who knows that he got away with his crimes. He escaped responsibility for his political murders and the full brunt of moral outrage for the wasteful public sacrifice on his behalf.

I can see it in his eyes. They don't know half the truth. They don't know they're asking the wrong questions. I'm scott free.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair got a second grilling in London last week over his decision to force Britain into the Iraq War, though U.N. weapons inspectors had uncovered no caches of illegal weapons to justify the invasion. Iraq was already broken by United Nations sanctions and had no capacity for self defense at all.

In the aftermath of sectarian strife and daily bombings, Blair's delusion of nation-building has collapsed. Not so his preening moral rectitude to justify the War.

That smirk tells it all. Blair knows his legacy of public deception has prevailed.

Until now.

What the British people don't realize is that up to this point, while Blair's government fabricated nonsense stories of Pre-War Intelligence and phony moral arguments, intelligence Assets involved in Pre-War Iraq have been locked up in prison or otherwise silenced by phony indictments that functioned as a gag on political discourse. So much for the moral courage of Washington's favorite puppy dog.

I myself covered the Iraqi Embassy at the United Nations in New York from August, 1996 until March, 2003. A few weeks after requesting to testify before Congress about a comprehensive peace framework that would have fulfilled all U.S. and British objectives without killing a single Iraqi child, I got indicted as an "Iraqi Agent" in "conspiracy with the Iraqi Intelligence Service."

I got hit with all the bells and whistles of the Patriot Act- secret charges, secret evidence and secret grand jury testimony. My demands for a trial were blocked to protect the government. Instead, I "disappeared" into prison on Carswell Air Force Base in Texas for 11 months, where I faced threats of indefinite detention up to 10 years without a trial. Actually that proved to be the least of my worries. In prison, I had to fight off a Justice Department demand to forcibly drug me with Haldol-a rhinoceros tranquilizer that imitates the effects of Parkinson's Disease-so that I could be "cured" of knowing the unhappy truth about the Iraqi Peace Option and Iraq's substantial contributions to the 9/11 investigation.

Making matters worse, my team had delivered advance warnings about the 9/11 attack to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's private staff and the Office of Counter Terrorism in August, 2001. I was definitely persona non grata at the White House and 10 Downing Street.

My indictment continued five years. It ended five days before the inauguration of President Obama. Those five years gave pro-war leaders in Washington and London ample time and free rein to invent a totally fictitious story about Iraq and anti-terrorism that beefed up their personas in the corporate media.

I watched it all on prison television at Carswell Air Force Base. And I watched it again when Blair testified last week. In the absence of public knowledge, Blair has manipulated silence and secrecy to his own advantage. He has abused security classifications to obfuscate his weakness and policy mistakes. And Blair's government has continued to promote policies that have caused grave harm to global security, and perhaps most ironically, the War on Terrorism.

Unhappily for Blair's legacy of deception, today Assets are free from prison and false indictment. Now it is our day to defend the public's right to disclosure and accountability.

And so I challenge the British Government to summon Blair back to face the Inquiry. Only this time the British people should ask Blair about the comprehensive peace framework negotiated by the CIA in the two years before the War.

Oh never fear. MI-6 tracked our back channel talks exhaustively, even appearing at restaurants in New York at lunches with senior diplomats on the Security Council. British Intelligence had full knowledge of the Peace Option. Blair's top intelligence staff understood that every single objective demanded by Washington and London could be achieved through peaceful means.

That included major oil contracts for the United States, and a package of highly innovative democratic reforms proposed by Baghdad to guarantee the successful repatriation of Iraqi Exiles and international election monitoring. Iraq also offered major reconstruction contracts for U.S (and British) corporations in any post-sanctions period. Iraq promised massive engineering contracts, translating to thousands of jobs and billions in revenues for any U.S. (or British) corporation that helped rebuild Iraqi infrastructure after sanctions.

Everything the U.S and Britain wanted was free for the taking. No blood had to be spilt. And this was no last ditch appeal for peace. It was a rock solid framework, with careful attention to all potential flash points for future conflict identified by the CIA. The truth is not remotely similar to what the international community has been told.

Once the British people understand the right line of questions, let us start again- with the truth this time. For the sake of historical integrity, Tony Blair should face the people to answer questions that would have been asked if Assets like myself had not been locked in prison to protect pro-War leaders in Washington and London. If Tony Blair deceives the British people in this next round of questioning, let him face criminal prosecution for perjury and obstruction of justice, like any other British citizen who lies under oath.

For that matter, I am prepared to stand before Parliament myself-as one of the very few Assets covering Iraq before the War. I am ready to look the people in the eye, and raise my hand to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Assets are primary sources of intelligence, in direct contact with people and events after all. As it stands, for all the tens of thousands of pounds financing this inquiry, the British people don't know anything. Why not ask those of us who do?

That would wipe the smirk off Tony Blair's face. Because now Assets are free from prison and phony indictments. And Tony Blair's legacy of deception is finished.

Susan Lindauer covered the Iraqi Embassy at the United Nations for seven years before the invasion.

Why The Valley Blooms

A LIFETIME OF DEATH AND LOSS IS DRIVING THOUSANDS OF YOUNG KASHMIRIS TO DRUG ABUSE. PARVAIZ BUKHARI REPORTS ON A DISTURBING NEW EPIDEMIC

High yield A Narcotics Control Bureau worker destroys poppy crops in Pulwama district (below); an addict receives counselling at a Srinagar de-addiction centre (right)

UNTIL RECENTLY, Akhtar, 29, a resident of Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, could not start his day until he popped eight tablets of Spasmo Proxyvon, a painkiller, into his empty stomach before hitting the road with his auto-rickshaw.

Like him, Bashir, 54, a businessman in the saffron-rich town of Pampore outside Srinagar, would not eat for as long as six days in a row. Till he enrolled himself in a rehabilitation programme recently, Bashir would down half-a-litre of whisky every morning. A widow in the south Kashmir town of Pulwama still gives her teenage son money every day to buy cannabis, fearing he might otherwise become a militant.

The three drug abusers (names changed) reveal the tip of an iceberg. Two decades of conflict have ravaged the Kashmir valley, taking a huge toll on the mental health of its people. Indeed, the increasing consumption of medicinal opiates in Kashmir is emerging as a worrying trend. As more and more land comes under the cultivation of poppy and cannabis every year, a burgeoning number of people are falling to drug abuse in myriad ways.

Across Kashmir, tens of thousands of young men and women who have failed to cope with the cumulative effects of trauma in their daily lives are escaping to drug abuse and alcoholism. The student community that has come about amid the continuing socio-political disturbance and violence in Kashmir is the worst hit. De-addiction counsellors estimate that 40 percent of school and college students in the Valley have taken to drug abuse as a way to cope with distress.

"There could be at least 60,000 substance abusers (drug addicts) in Srinagar alone," says Saiba Verma, a doctoral student from Cornell University in the US researching the emerging scenario in Kashmir. The population of Srinagar is about 14 lakh. Drug abuse is evenly spreading across the rural and urban areas in the Valley.

'WE ARE ABOUT TO LOSE A GENERATION TO DRUG ABUSE,' SAYS DR MUZAFFAR KHAN. 'THE YOUTH ARE VULNERABLE'

Predictably, the government, as well as society, brush the catastrophe under the carpet. No comprehensive survey has been undertaken to deal with it. Most doctors and psychiatrists say 70 to 80 percent of the addicts who report for help use easily available prescription drugs and substances like alcoholbased cough syrup, painkillers, eraser fluid, nail polish and even shoe polish. The rest are alcoholics or use locallygrown cannabis mixed with tobacco.

"We are about to lose an entire generation to drug abuse," says Dr Muzaffar Khan, a psychiatrist who operates a de-addiction centre run by the state police inside the premises of its control room in Srinagar. "The socio-political disturbance is the main reason that has made the youth most vulnerable." Most addicts are in the 18 to 35 age group.

Driving an auto-rickshaw, Akhtar would often find himself caught in traumatic situations ranging from harsh cordon and search operations by Indian security forces to grenade attacks by militants. By 1998, he was suffering from continual headaches and was increasingly taking painkillers.

"Then another driver suggested I take something stronger," he says. "I started taking a pill strong enough." Akhtar did not know he had become an addict till he found himself "misbehaving" with his family. And he would not eat.

The state health department has virtually no de-addiction and rehabilitation services. In distress, Akhtar started looking for help and found Raahat, a 12-bed de-addiction centre run by an NGO, All J&K Youth Welfare. "On the very first day they chained me up as if I was a prisoner," Akhtar says. Akhtar somehow fled Raahat, but volunteers from the centre came with the police and dragged him back. He left Raahat 40 days later, after spending Rs 30,000. Akhtar took to drugs again.

Ironically, the NGO is not even aware of the basic rules running a rehabilitation centre. "We have to be very strict with the addicts," its general secretary, S Shabir, told TEHELKA. "Patients in psychiatric condition sometimes need to be tied to chains with the consent of a relative. Sometimes we do ask for the police to come with us to handle an unwilling patient." Raahat has only a part-time technical staff of five: two doctors and nurses each, and one counsellor.

AKHTAR IS now recovering in the police de-addiction centre, which the police opened in 2008 from their welfare fund. So far it has counselled more the 3,500 addicts and treated 185 from across Kashmir. But there are thousands like Akhtar who do not have anywhere to go for help.

People with drug dependency problems dread going to the only and extremely overburdened psychiatric hospital in Srinagar. "They lodge us with mentally deranged and mad people there," says a patient at the police deaddiction centre. The only other de-addiction centre is a two-bed facility inte - grated in the district hospital at Baramulla in north Kashmir.

Dr Marghoob, a leading psychiatrist, says counselling and rehabilitation clinics are needed in every nook and corner of Kashmir. According to him, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the main reason driving people to drugs.

ONE REHAB CENTRE CHAINED A PATIENT, THREATENED HIM, AND HAD THE POLICE DRAG HIM BACK AFTER HE ESCAPED

"I have seen many patients who have not been able to sleep because of trauma and they resort to easily available drugs in the market and then become dependent on them," says Marghoob. This is a dominant pattern with people across socio-economic classes who have seen violent deaths from close or lost family members to the armed conflict.

Medicinal opiates like codeine, Corex and Rexcof and prescription drugs like Alprax and Spasmo Proxyvon are available across the counter in medical shops that have mushroomed over 15 years. Despite being banned elsewhere in the country, variants of these drugs are sold in "huge quantities" in Kashmir.

Weed killers Measures to curb the illegal narcotics trade in Kashmir have proven largely ineffective in the past

"The young prefer these drugs because they don't smell like charas or opium do," says Yasir Zehgir, a volunteer with the police de-addiction centre who took up this work after his friend became an addict.

But prescription drugs are not the only worry. Poppy and cannabis cultivation has been steadily growing since the mid-1990s, after the law enforcement agencies completely withdrew because of the militancy. But the trend continued even after the militancy waned in 2004. Experts say that large-scale unemployment and poverty contributed to the growth in the cultivation of these lucrative crops in the south Kashmir belt from Pulwama to Anantnag.

Between 1995 and 2000, the area witnessed alternating floods and drought making normal agriculture almost impossible in vast and inaccessible areas. In the absence of government help, farmers switched to cannabis, further spreading its abuse. "People took to charas after their crops failed every year after 1995," said Fayaz Ahmed, a lawyer who helps addicts in police cases against them.

The police have now launched a poppy destruction drive which has been successful in Pulwama, where this year land under its cultivation has been brought down to less than 25 acres compared to 750 in 2009. But in the adjacent districts of Shopian and Anantnag, cannabis cultivation remains unabated.

Jammu & Kashmir police Chief Farooq Ahmed admits that more and more land is still coming under poppy and cannabis cultivation every year. "One day we keep peace in a particular area, another day we are busy attending to law and order situations and most of the time the police force is dealing with counterinsurgency," he says.

However, the key reason for government's failure to check proliferating drug abuse is that the revenue authorities and the narcotics control department are largely comatose in preforming their role to curb drug cultivation. Section 133A in the Revenue Act empowers the authorities to seize any land under illegal cultivation. A one-time fine of Rs 5,000 can be imposed on the owner along with Rs 500 every day till the land is restored to its original crop. "This provision has never been invoked in Kashmir, even before the present scenario emerged," says Farooq.

While poppy is sold to markets outside, mainly through truck drivers who come from outside the state, in raw forms like the powdered fukki, a substantial portion of charas extracted from the cannabis crop is consumed locally. Police say most of it goes to Punjab and Delhi while a tiny proportion of the refined drugs are sold in Mumbai at very high prices. "Fortunately, growers in Kashmir do not extract opium from their poppy crop, otherwise it will be uncontrollable," says a senior police official who wishes to remain anonymous.

In the summer of 2006, businessman Bashir was inside a mosque near his house when men of a pro-government counter-insurgent militia led by the dreaded militant Papa Kashtawari barged in and dragged his neighbour and friend out. Bashir witnessed his friend being shot dead in the mosque compound. He rushed to get a vehicle to take his friend to hospital.

The militants he knew dragged another person from his house nearby and shot him dead too. Witnessing the violent incident, Bashir trembled and collapsed. "I took to alcohol and could not live without it until four months back," he says. He sought help after Kashtawari's arrest in 2008 and finally enrolled in the police de-addiction centre in Srinagar. It took Bashir over a year to end his alcohol addiction. Bashir says he knows at least 30 other men in his neighbourhood in a similar condition.

A 2006 STUDY by a team of experts from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) operating in Kashmir undertook a sample study about the mental health conditions in the region. It concluded that the suicide rate in Kashmir had risen a whopping 400 times in 15 years due to the armed conflict. That rate is now nearly twice India's average of 20 per 100,000 population.

"[The] mental and physical health needs are high, while the coping mechanisms of individuals are predominantly dysfunctional," the report said. "Even with a definitive end to violence, it could be expected that a substantial number of people would need support to overcome their problems. This assumption is confirmed by our findings of high mental health needs despite the decrease of violence since 2004."

In south Kashmir, youths in entire villages have taken to drug abuse. On an average day, police stations are locking up groups of drug peddlers and addicts in their attempts to curb the phenomenon. These youth are becoming a social menace and the village elders have started reporting them to the army, on the pretext of having connections to militancy, after they failed to intervene socially. "But this is driving distress levels among the youth further up and renders them more susceptible to exploitation by vested interests from all sides," says a top police official. Like the unending cycle of militancy in the Valley, drug abuse is now becoming a vicious cycle.

WRITER'S EMAIL

parvaiz@tehelka.com