Kishtwar riots an ISI bid at ethnic cleansing: Defence expert

NEW DELHI: The August 9 riots at Kishtwar in Jammu, dubbed as "communal", were actually another bid by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) at orchestrating ethnic cleansing in the northern Indian state, according to a senior defence expert. "Our estimate is that the ISI used the riots to get rid of the village defence committees (VDCs) to clear the way for ethnic cleansing," Maj Gen (retd) GD Bakshi, whose book 'Kishtwar Cauldron: The Struggle Against ISI's Ethnic Cleansing' just hit the stands, said on Sunday.  "It is the first phase of a diabolical move by the ISI to further carry out its agenda of ethnic cleansing in Jammu & Kashmir," he added.

According to Bakshi, after ISI-inspired militants drove out the Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley, the Pakistani agency has next set its sights on the Dogra population in the mountainous districts of Doda and Kishtwar. The ethnic cleansing being sponsored by the ISI is one aspect of the terror operations being carried out that has escaped public notice completely, Bakshi avers.  "In February and March 1990, (the now defunct) JKLF (Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front) started a systematic ethnic cleansing campaign to kill, terrorise and drive out the entire 400,000-strong community of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley of Kashmir," Bakshi said. "Over 20,000 houses of Kashmiri Pandits were burnt, some 105 of the Pandit educational institutions were destroyed and 103 temples razed to the ground. Over 1,100 Kashmiri were tortured and killed."

According to Bakshi, some 140,000 to 160,00 Kashmiri Pandits fled the valley between February and March 1990.  This was followed by high profile killings of senior Kashmiri Pandit officials, intellectuals and prominent citizens that resulted in the total exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit population from the valley.  According to Bakshi, the pogrom against the Dogra community by ISI-sponsored militants started in 1993 when 14 Dogras were massacred in a bus near a place called Hasti Aug 16 that year.  The next year, 800 Dogra families fled to Himachal Pradesh and in August that year, the Sector 9 Rashtriya Rifles was raised in Kishtwar.

In 1995, the Indian government set up village defence committees and armed them with World War I-vintage Lee Enfield rifles.  That stabilised the situation in the area and six Border Security Force (BSF) battalions were withdrawn.  Immediately thereafter, in 1996, a total of 39 Dogras were killed in separate incidents.  This persecution against Dogras continued till 2001 claiming scores of lives, according to Bakshi, who commanded the Sector 9 Rashtriya Rifles from 2000-end to 2002.  In 2001, Bakshi led a massive manhunt to track down and kill a group of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants who had targeted several innocent Dogras.  That had a salutory impact and there were no major incidents against the Dogra community after September 2001.  Bakshi's book comes just over a month after the latest violence in Kishtwar.  The book provides details of the intense operations in a very sensitive region of Jammu & Kashmir and also gives the doctrinal overview of such operations.  "Pakistan's recent peace overtures (to India) are quite apparently designed to get a free hand on its western front - to decisively influence the outcome in Afghanistan," Bakshi writes in the post-script of the book, adding that the withdrawal of the US-led troops from Afaghanistan in 2014 will cast a shadow over the whole of the south Asian region.  "For this, it (Pakistan) needs a temporary truce on its eastern front with India in 2014-15 so that it can deal undisturbed with Afghanistan and then turn around and send in thousands of out-of-job Taliban cadres into J&K and even the rest of India for a final phase of the Gazhuwa - the civilisational conflict to dismember India," he states.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 When will people of Kashmir learn? Dr Shabir Choudhry

‘Myth’ is that people of Kashmir are very intelligent, freedom loving and tolerant. I know some people will get upset by my opening sentence; but no matter how many people get upset by this, I will call it a myth until it is proven to be true. People who are intelligent and freedom loving do not remain occupied and oppressed for so long. People who are tolerant do not invite foreigners to attack their country and request new rulers from outside the boundaries of Kashmir; and do not become so intolerant that minorities feel unsafe in their homes and people feel frightened to express their views.

People with tunnel vision, twisted mind and loyalties outside the boundaries of Kashmir fabricate history and tell us that our slavery started with occupation of the Sikhs, as Sikhs were non Muslims and they ended Afghan (Muslim) rule in Kashmir. However, true sons of soil know, although Afghans and Mughals were Muslims, but they were also occupiers and they brutally oppressed people of Kashmir. Apart from that they did not go there to advance cause of Islam, as Kashmir was already a Muslim country; and perhaps better Muslims than Mughals who invaded Kashmir in 1586.

            After the Sikh rule Maharaja Gulab Singh established State of Jammu and Kashmir which unlike other Princely States enjoyed greater autonomy - short of complete independence as the British were responsible for defence. After the end of the British Raj in India, the British Paramountcy or whatever pacts the Maharajah had with the British came to an end; and Jammu and Kashmir emerged as an independent State on 15 August 1947.

The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir concluded a Standstill Agreement with Pakistan and also offered India to have a Standstill Agreement. India wanted to discuss this matter further, but on 22 October 1947, in violation of the Standstill Agreement Pakistan launched a tribal attack on Jammu and Kashmir. This unprovoked and naked aggression resulted in death of thousands of innocent men women and children; and the Maharajah fearing fall of his summer capital Srinagar, asked India for help.

This help was only made available when the Maharajah signed an Instrument of Accession which was provisionally accepted and had to be ratified by the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Indian army reached Srinagar on the morning of 27 October and started fighting the raiders. This resulted in the first Kashmir war between India and Pakistan, in which people of Jammu and Kashmir suffered immensely and the State was forcibly divided between the two countries; and once again we lost our independence.

Important point to note here is that we lost our independence in 1586 because our stronger Muslim neighbour of the time – Akbar the Great invaded our country. After centuries of slavery, exploitation and oppression we achieved our independence on 15 October 1947. This time again, we were attacked by a stronger Muslim country – Pakistan, which resulted in ‘Provisional accession’ with India and eventual forced division of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

This is not to suggest that India did not want to make Kashmir part of India, however, fact remains it was Pakistan which violated the Standstill Agreement and attacked our country and trampled our integrity and independence. In other words entry of Pakistani troops in to Jammu and Kashmir territory was against the wishes of the Kashmiri Ruler; and entry of Indian troops was on the request of the Ruler. No doubt the Indian troops have gone far beyond the terms of the treaty and are responsible for human rights abuses; but we must not twist facts to justify the initial aggression, which is source of our miseries since 22 October 1947.

Instead of blaming the aggressor for heinous crimes committed against innocent people of Jammu and Kashmir, ‘intelligent’ people of Kashmir were persuaded in name of religion to glorify the aggressor. It is unfortunate that even now in 2012, ‘intelligent’ people of Jammu and Kashmir cannot differentiate between a friend and a foe. Despite enormous ‘sacrifices’, death and destruction they are not sure what they want, as some want accession to Pakistan, some want accession to India, some want independence; and some are happy with the status quo as this serves their interests.

If there was only one occupier then we could have achieved independence a long time ago. Similarly, if Jammu and Kashmir was not multi religion and multi ethnic then it would have been easy to decide our future. Those who advocate Islamic state forget that there are followers of other faiths in Kashmir; and even within Islam there are many sects negating each other, so we cannot have practically advance religious solution unless we want create more chaos and divide the State on religious lines.

Leaving out options of becoming independent and joining India, let us see what option of joining Pakistan has to offer people of Jammu and Kashmir. First it will divide the State on religious lines, as Buddhists of Ladakh and Hindus and Sikhs of Jammu province would not like to join Pakistan, as their interests would not be protected there; and plight of non Muslims in Pakistan is a big deterrent to them.

People of Jammu and Kashmir, especially Muslims, living on the Indian side of the divide need to think that Gilgit Baltistan is directly ruled by Pakistan since 1947; and if the Pakistani rule was anything near to be being good then people of that region would not say that they are occupied and ruled by draconian laws without rights to fundamental rights. Similarly people of so called Azad Kashmir are not happy with what Pakistani government and secret agencies do to exploit and oppress them.

Leaving that aside, now let us see what Pakistan is in view of Pakistani people: Col Riaz Jafri, who was the Principal Staff Officer to late Major General Rao Farman Ali Khan – in charge Martial Law (Civil Affairs), wrote in article, ‘Fall of Dacca’:

'Not only, that the Bengalis were treated as unequals, but it is also a fact that they were the major revenue earner for Pakistan....... The highest in authority were guilty of being too greedy, power hungry and selfish. Unfortunately we all treated East Pakistan as a colony and never granted them their justly deserved status of being the major human organ of Pakistan’s body – 54 percent of the population. As power barons of the Federal government mostly hailed from West Pakistan they never shared the power willingly or happily with their Bengali brethren.'

Source - http://k4kashmir.com/