Hindu Money In India Co-opted for Islam

Hindu Money In India Co-opted for Islam
Vinod Kumar

The revelations in Sandhya Jain’s article ” Nationalization of the Hindu temple” (Pioneer, Oct 7, 2003) about using money from Hindu temples for Madarasas development and Haj subsidy (and churches development) are no doubt disturbing but are they a surprise?

Not really. May be to a certain extent but is this a new phenomenon?

It is true, as Ms. Jain writes that these monotheistic creeds are not only at variance with Hindu dharma, but their very raison d’etre is expansion by the eradication of Hindu dharma and culture. It is a classic example of one digging one’s own grave — to put it in simple language that a common man can understand.

Having said that, why are these revelations not surprising or not new? Not many Hindus realize that ever since Islam appeared on the Indian subcontinent, Hindu money has been used to support Islam. At times not only in India but abroad too.

When Islam first appeared on the West coast of India, Hindu kings gave grants of land and villages to the new Muslims to build their mosques, practice and preach Islam. There is no example of any Muslim king ever giving such grants to the followers of other religions and specially to the Hindus.

When Islam came to India as a victor with Muhammad bin Kasim, Hindu temples and treasuries were plundered to fill the treasury of Islam in Baghdad. The loot was several times what was spent on the military expedition to conquer Sindh. But if once a temple is plundered and destroyed, it is no longer a source of revenue. So when it was realized that the famous temple at Multan was a popular place of pilgrimage and source of great revenue, contrary to common practice of temple demolition, it was left standing. But to prove his Islamic credentials and to send unmistakable message as to who was the King, a piece of cow’s flesh was hung from the deity’s neck.

The wealth from the Hindu temples and taxes to the extent of 50% of produce continued to support the Muslim conquerors and rulers.

The Hindu wealth attracted wave after wave of Muslims from all across what is today known as Middle East and Central Asia. Muslim chroniclers like Ibn Batuta and others have left vivid accounts of such migrations and how Muslim immigrants were offered highest paying jobs at the Muslim courts and in the Muslim army of Indian Muslim rulers. Generous and regular grants were also sent to foreign Muslims rulers and Islam’s Holy places.

Let us not harp upon the past and jump to the present times.

In the last century:

In Hyderabad, the princely state of Nizam, 80% of the state’s land was owned by the Hindus and from 95 – 97% of state revenue was derived from the Hindus. Hindus were overtaxed. And how was this revenue spent:

During the 1930s the Ecclesiastical Dept. spent an annual average of Rs. 300,000 on Islamic charities, Rs. 15,000 on Christian charities and Rs. 3000 on Hindus charities. Other large sums were expended on Islamic institutions abroad.

Between 1926 and 1932 RS. 10,000,000 was given to Aligarh University, Rs. 500,000 to London Mosque, Rs. 100,000 to Jama masjid in Delhi, Rs. 100,000 to a mosque in Palestine, Rs. 80,000 to a Muslim association in Turkey, and Rs. 232,000 to the travelling expenses of Muslims going to Mecca.

Even the British, to some extent, financed the Muslims at Hindus expense.

B R Ambedkar in his study of partition issue after M A Jinnah had given a call for the partition in his March 1940 address to annual convention of Muslims League at Lahore session went on to observe:

At least 50% of India’s army were Muslim and these came mostly from the North West frontier area and the Punjab — principally from the areas that was demanded as Pakistan and predominantly Muslim. The government of India’s total revenue was Rs. 121 crores and of this, about Rs. 52 crores were spent on the army — an army he went to question if it could be depended upon to defend Hindu India were it to be attacked by the Muslim army from Afghanistan either alone or in combination with other Muslim nation?

Apart from the money spent on the predominantly Muslim army, the Muslim provinces contributed very little to the Central government but were a drain on the Hindu provinces. Thus even during the British rule, the Hindu money was used to support the Muslim provinces.

Hindus did not have much control as to how the British or the Muslims spent money and wealth generated by the Hindus.

Ambedkar believed that after partition the Hindus will have control over their own destiny and Hindu money will not be used to finance Muslims and Hindus will be better off. But evidently even after partition, no doubt the Hindus are better off, but Hindu money is still being used to finance the Muslims and even in activities that are directly opposed to Hindu ethos and Hindu dharma.

But now, we cannot blame the Muslims or the British.

Ten Reasons Why Islam is NOT a Religion of Peace

TheReligionofPeace.com

Ten Obvious Reasons Why Islam is NOT a Religion of Peace

#1. 10,000 deadly terror attacks committed explicitly in the name of Islam in just the last six years. (Other religions combined for perhaps a dozen or so).

#2. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, had people killed for insulting him or criticizing his religion. This included women. Muslims are told to emulate the example of Muhammad.

#3. Muhammad said in many places that he has been “ordered by Allah to fight men until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger.” In the last nine years of his life, he ordered no less than 65 military campaigns to do exactly that.

Muhammad inspired his men to war with the basest of motives, using captured loot, sex and a gluttonous paradise as incentives. He beheaded captives, enslaved children and raped women captured in battle. Again, Muslims are told to emulate the example of Muhammad.

#4. After Muhammad died, the people who lived with him, and knew his religion best, immediately fell into war with each other.

Muhammad’s favorite daughter, Fatima, and her husband, Ali (the second convert to Islam, who was raised like a son to Muhammad) fought a war against an army raised by Aisha, Muhammad’s favorite wife – and one whom he had said was the “perfect woman.”

Not only was her husband, Ali, eventually murdered, but Fatima (who survived the early years at Mecca safe and sound) died of stress from the persecution of fellow Muslims only three months after her father died.

Three of the first four Muslim rulers (caliphs) were murdered. All of them were among Muhammad’s closest companions. The third caliph was killed by the son of the first. The fourth caliph was killed by the fifth, who subsequently poisoned one of Muhammad’s two favorite grandsons. Muhammad’s other grandson was later beheaded by the sixth caliph.

Within 50 years, the Kaaba, which had stood for centuries under pagan religion, lay in ruins from internal Muslim war.

#5. Muhammad directed Muslims to wage war on other religions and bring them under submission to Islam. Within the first few decades following his death, his Arabian companions invaded and conquered Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Zoroastrian lands.

#6. Muslims continued their Jihad against other religions for 1400 years, checked only by the ability of non-Muslims to defend themselves. To this day, not a week goes by that Islamic fundamentalists do not attempt to kill Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists explicitly in the name of Allah.

None of these other religions are at war with each other.

#7. Islam is the only religion that has to retain its membership by threatening to kill anyone who leaves. This is according to the example set by Muhammad.

#8. Islam teaches that non-Muslims are less than fully human. Muhammad said that Muslims can be put to death for murder, but that a Muslim could never be put to death for killing a non-Muslim.

#9. The Qur’an never once speaks of Allah’s love for non-Muslims, but it speaks of Allah’s cruelty toward and hatred of non-Muslims more than 500 times.

#10 . “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!” (The last words from the cockpit of Flight 93)

ReligionofPeace.com Home Page

All ‘M’ words are taken as secular and ‘H’ words are secular

All ‘M’ words are taken as secular

Maloy Dhar

All ‘M’ words are taken as secular and all ‘H’ words are derided as ‘communal.’ The hysterical and historic malarial fever of secularism has almost paralysed the governing philosophy and practice.

India has been facing foreign based, inspired and guided insurgency, terrorism and Jihad since 1950 in the North East, Kashmir, Punjab and pockets in mainland India. China, Pakistan and Bangladesh were involved in stoking, training, arming and funding the separatist movements, either in collaboration or in unidirectional action.

Since 1980, the disturbing aspects and elements of global Islamic Jihad have surfaced in the form of the Ikhwan ul-Muslimoon (Egypt), Rabita Alam al-Islami, Markaz-ud-Dawa al-Islami (Saudi Arabia), al Qaeda and the Taliban.

What was earlier treated as continuation of the background radiation of the Wahhabi (Saudi Arabia) movement has now been deeply impacted by Salafism, a purist breed of Islam promoted by political and theological ideologues like Mohammad Abduh (Egypt) and Jalaluudin Afghani (Persia-born). Today, the Taliban, al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (Pakistan) and Markaz ud Dawa, fountainhead of Laskhar-e-Toiba and HuJI swear by Salafism.

The visible front of Salafism in India is the Ahl-e-Hadith movement, a `Wahhabiyavi` movement started around 1868 by Siddiq Hasan al-Qannauji, who was married to the reigning Begum of Bhopal.

Besides the Ahl-e-Hadith, the Jamait-e-Islami (Hind-Pak-Bangladesh), Tablighi Jammat, Barelwi sect followers and Deobandi (Pak-Bangladesh) Hanafi Sunni elements are mostly drawn to the concept of changing the world through jihad.

The geopolitical imperative of Pakistan and Bangladesh`s proxy war against India has been effectively merged with the International Jihad Movement.

Two important state governing tools, Pakistan’s ISI and the DGFI of Bangladesh, are infested with Jamait-e-Islami, Ahl-e-Hadith, militant Deobandi cadres and elements identified with Taliban (Tanzeem Taliban-e-Pakistan of Mullah Mehsud), Ikhwan ul-Muslimoon and al Qaeda.

The bitter truth with which the international community, especially the US, lives with today is that they are both fighting and cohabiting with the jihadis in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and in their own countries.

The other shade of the truth is that the Indian political breed refuses to accept this truth as truth, preferring instead to invent their own brand of truth to fill the voting machines and their pockets.

Our political and systemic tools suffer from the ostrich-like faith that insurgency in the North East, terrorism in Punjab, proxy war and jihad in Kashmir, the Maoist struggle in vast areas are only police problems.

They have not wisened to the historical fact of post-Independence life that the Muslims who had advocated separation from 1857 onwards and later actaulised their homelands on the basis of Two Nation philosophy continue to believe in two cardinal aspects of their theo-political and strategic perceptions: Muslims of India live in Dar-ul-Harb (land of war) and they require liberation from Hindu majority rule. For achieving this, Jihad in mainland India is the only tool.

Since partition, and particularly after the replacement of the secular government in Bangladesh by Islamic rule, concerted efforts are being made by the Deobandi schools of the two countries, Jamiat-e-Islami, Tablighi Jammat and various jihadi tanzeems floated since the Afghan jihad to subvert sections of Indian Muslims and control their minds through violent action and propaganda.

The end goal is very clear: injection of religious and political schism amongst them and encouraging the growth of separatism witnessed between the periods of Shah Waliullah-Sir Sayyid Ahmad, Jinnah and the rest.

Meerut Muslim BSP’s son gouges eyes, butchers, hacks 3 to death: Family shows no remorse

BSP leader’s son hacks 3 to death
SP Singh | Meerut

Gouges out eyes, shoots them for objecting to his stalking ex-Armyman’s daughter

The ghastly killing of three youth, reportedly by the son of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) functionary, has the western UP nerve centre of Meerut in the clutch of tension. The incident, in which the youth were slaughtered for objecting to the BSP leader’s son stalking the daughter of an Army officer, took place on May 22. A complete bandh was observed in Meerut on Thursday following the confessional statement of Haji Izlal, son of Haji Iqbal and Zubeda, who had unsuccessfully contested the last mayoral election.

Izlal is said to have confessed that he called the three youth to his residence, where he butchered them and got the pieces of their bodies thrown into a vehicle near the Hindon at Baleni, in Baghpat district. He said that Punit Giri, a nephew of Delhi Police inspector Girish Giri, Sunil Dhaka, brother of constable Anil Dhaka, and Sudhir Ujjwal were picked up from Victoria Park swimming pool by Izlal’s driver, Mannu Punjabi, and taken to his densely populated Gudri Bazar residence.

Mannu left the three youth at Izlal’s mercy at Gudri Bazar, dominated by members of Izlal’s community. It is alleged that the BSP leader’s son then chopped off their heads, gouged out the eyes and later shot them in public view. After this brutal display of “power”, the bodies were dumped into a vehicle which was abandoned near the Hindon. The resident of Baleni saw the abandoned vehicle the following day and opened its doors to find the bodies inside. The local police were informed and an investigation launched. The vehicle was traced to Izlal, who has since been arrested.

Raj Kumar Sangwan, an RLD leader, said, “Izlal’s mother Zubeda had contested the mayoral election on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket, but lost to Madhu Gurjar. Izlal was also aspiring for a BSP ticket for the Assembly elections. With the BSP coming to power in the State, Izlal had turned arrogant and stalked the daughter of a retired Army officer.” He added, “The boys objected to Izlal’s advances towards the girl and he got angry with them. He got the boys picked up and butchered them to death. The lawyers at Baghpat thrashed Izlal in court when he was being produced there.”

Senior Superintendent of Police (Meerut) Alok Singh said, “We have arrested main accused Izlal and recovered a US-made Smith & Wesson pistol, two mobile phones and the car’s papers from his possession. We have arrested him under the NSA and Gangster Act. The Baghpat police had been conducting the investigation but the case has now being transferred to Meerut. ASP RK Bhardwaj has been appointed the investigation officer, along with a team of competent inspectors and sub inspectors.”

Meanwhile, Thursday’s bandh call was given by all the political parties, except the ruling BSP, and it was largely successful. The city is still in a state of shock after Haji Izlal’s confessional statement.

Meerut protests triple murders
S Raju, Hindustan Times, Meerut, May 28, 2008

The brutal murder of three youngsters in full public view last week has angered residents of the city. Students, political leaders and the common man took to the streets, raising their voices for the immediate arrest of all the accused and to book them under national Security Act (NSA).

On the night of May 23, a BSP leader and his aides allegedly kidnapped Punit, Sunil and Sudhir from the Victoria park swimming pool and took them to the densely populated Gudri Bazar locality. The trio were then thrashed and left there to die, after their throats were slit. After that, their bodies were reported placed in a Maruti Esteem car and dumped near Baleni village in Baghpat district.

Sunil and Sudhir were students, while Punit was working as a railway contractor. They were reportedly close to an army officer’s daughter. The BSP leader, Ejlal, developed a passion for the same girl and reportedly decided to eliminate his rivals.

Activists and leaders of the Meerut Bachao Morcha called for a Bandh on Thursday to protest the brutal act of the BSP leader and his aides. The parental body of traders, Sanyukt Vyapar Sangh, has extended its support to the bandh.

“No one has made such a big mockery of law and order earlier. They killed three innocent youngsters like animals in a public place and many accused are still at large,” said Bijendra Aggarwal, president of the association expressing his dismay over the delay in the arrests. “All shops, petrol pumps, gas agencies and other organisations would be closed during bandh,” he declared. Referring to it as the height of brutality, BJP MLA Satyaprakash Aggarwal accused the police officials of succumbing to pressure from the ruling BSP party.

Meerut killer family shows no remorse

The Pioneer, May 31, 2008, Shiv Kumar | Meerut The residence of Haji Izlal, who has been arrested for hacking three youth to death on May 21 after they objected to his stalking the daughter of a former Armyman in Meerut, is quiet but devoid of any remorse over the brutal act.

Meanwhile, the city remains tense after the cold-blooded murder in the crowded Gudri Bazaar locality. Izlal’s mother had unsuccessfully contested the last mayoral election on a BSP ticket and he also aspired to become an MLA of the party.

The Pioneer visits Izlal’s grand house and is met with silence, but no regret, and no tears are shed over his arrest. Nothing looks amiss since “it (things like the arrest) has become routine due to the family’s criminal background”, say locals. About 20 men sit near the main entrance of the house, which is just 200 yards from a police post. They are all silent, as if nothing has happened. Discouraging any attempt to strike up a conversation, they coerce this correspondent to move ahead.

Since the murders reportedly took place in the congested Gudri Bazaar area in public view, most residents are supposed to be aware of the incident. But no one dares speak a word against the Izlal family. Locals say that the family has a strong following and “people are ready to die for them”, which has allowed the family members to violate law of the land at will. A sample of the family’s clout: Asked about the conduct of Izlal, a local shopkeeper said, “He is very well behaved… I am not aware that he has ever done anything wrong.”

The motive for the murders is said to be the overtures made by one of them towards Izlal’s “girlfriend” Sheeba, who lives in Radha Nagar Colony of Meerut. However, the students of Meerut College — where two of the three slain youth were students — refuse to buy this theory. They say that the murders were carried out for “revenge, haughtiness and overconfidence that with his money power Izlal would easily get away from the clutches of law”

Meerut College students’ union president Nirman Singh says, “None of those murdered had made any overtures to Sheeba. Instead, they had objected to Izlal’s presence in their locality to meet Sheeba and even warned him that it would damage the moral values of youngsters. They had an altercation with Izlal about six months ago but a patch-up was brought about later.”

But Izlal is not the one to forget and forgive, say sources. So he waited for his opportunity and invited Punit Giri, Sunil Dhaka and Sudhir Ujwal to his residence on May 21. After the four had drinks, Izlal and his henchmen thrashed the three youth and then chopped off their heads. The bodies were then abandoned inside a vehicle near the Hindon.

Jagat Singh, a former MLC and RLD leader, says, “Izlal has a slaughterhouse and many illegal businesses and property worth hundreds of crores. The case has been transferred from Baghpat to Meerut simply with a view to protecting Izlal as his writ runs in the city.” Izlal’s family has also been involved in a long-running fratricidal dispute which has claimed the lives of some members of the family.

An elderly woman, who introduces herself as the grandmother of Izlal, says, “He has done nothing wrong. He was just trying to protect himself from the attackers who barged into our house. All of us are hajis and namazis and we keep away from all immoral things.” On second thoughts, she added, “I do not know much about the killings but that seems to be a case related to a woman.”

Why Kashmir has failed Pakistan

Why Kashmir has failed Pakistan
Thursday, 14 February , 2008

Maloy Krishna Dhar started life off as a junior reporter for Amrita Bazaar Patrika in Calcutta and a part-time lecturer. He joined the Indian Police Service in 1964 and was permanently seconded to the Intelligence Bureau.

During his long stint in the Bureau, Dhar saw action in almost all Northeastern states, Sikkim, Punjab and Kashmir. He also handled delicate internal political and several counterintelligence assignments. After retiring in 1996 as joint director, he took to freelance journalism and writing books. Titles credited to him are Open Secrets-India’s Intelligence Unveiled, Fulcrum of Evil – ISI, CIA, al-Qaeda Nexus, and Mission to Pakistan. Maloy is considered a top security analyst and a social scientist who tries to portray Indian society through his writings.

Pakistan shed more shady tears by observing Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5. A national holiday was declared by the government as a sop to the Kashmiri people.

The government and political leaders reassured the people of Kashmir of continued political, moral, and diplomatic support. Prime Minister Mohammed Soomro’s message was read out in the PoK assembly, which lamented presence of 70,000 Indian troops and atrocities on the Kashmiri people. A solitary dissenting Pakistan People’s Party voice in the Azad Jammu & Kashmir assembly asked the Speaker why Pakistan had failed to accord full democratic rights to the people of Azad Kashmir. He was obviously silenced.

In Pakistan, dissent is a crime. It is hoped that dissenting Indian Kashmiris have taken note of this Islamicised democratic practice in Pakistan. Obviously, some have and some have not. While the people in the Kashmir Valley ignored the day, Moulana Abbas Ansari of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (Mirwaiz) emphasised the importance of February 5 and thanked the Pakistan government for continuing support to the Kashmiris.

Pakistan’s linchpin Syed Ali Shah Gilani and the deceptively soft Shabir Shah addressed a teleconference organised by the Jammat-ud-Dawa, formerly Jammat Dawa-ul-Irshad, and the fountainhead of Lashkar-e-Toiba (1992) and revived Harkat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (1993). They pleaded for invigorating the Azad-Kashmir struggle.

The world capitals recognise Jamaat-ud Daawa as a breeding ground of jihadi groups. The government of India, as usual, feigned like three monkeys of Gandhi – not seeing and hearing any evil. A dumb government does not speak.

President Musharraf also lent his voice to the issue. “We remain engaged in a sincere, sustained, and purposeful dialogue with India on Kashmir. We believe that with sincerity, courage, and flexibility, we can achieve a solution to the long-standing Kashmir dispute.” Like most geopolitical occupiers, Musharraf did not require genuine emotion and conviction to reassure the people of Kashmir. The clichés, occasional supply of resources, weapons, and jihadi fodders are good enough to tell the people of Kashmir that Pakistan would fight its holy war on the soil of Indian Kashmir and at the cost of their blood, home, and hearth.

Besides the official expression of solidarity by the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam), a pocket borough of Musharraf, Nazria Pakistan Foundation, Kashmir Action Committee, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Kashmir Centre, and the APHC (Pak) observed the day with public rallies, seminars, and minor demonstrations.

However, discordant voices were heard from Jamait-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed. He demanded resignation of Musharraf over ‘failed’ Kashmir policy. “Quran, ambition of martyrdom and jihad are our powers for success,” he declared.

Musharraf was also denounced by Ghulam Muhammad Safi, convenor, Tehreek-i-Hurriyat Kashmir, and former Law Minister Syed Iqbal Haider for failing to deliver Kashmir.

However, the most interesting development was the first ever demonstration before the Pakistan army’s general headquarters by retired generals including Mirza Aslam Beg, Assad Durrani, Faiz Ali Chisti, Ali Quli Khan, Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani, and Salim Haider and others.

Dubbing Musharraf as an unconstitutional head of state, they demanded snapping of ties with the West. President Musharraf, they alleged, had antagonised all the Islamic and jihadi groups ever ready to fight India. Once the pro-US policy is abandoned, the jihadi tanzeems would cease fighting the domestic government and focus on Indian held Kashmir.

The first-ever show should not be seen as a gimmick. The retired generals exert influence on serving officers and the ISI and are capable of turning popular view in favour of the jihadi tanzeems. Observers believe that Pakistan army and the ISI are not keen to fight Al Qaeda and Taliban. They want to harness these forces against Indian targets and expand sphere of influence in Afghanistan. Musharraf might have to bow down to these demands despite contrary US pressure. Else, he may have to go.

However, saner elements in Pakistan understand that neither Islam nor Kashmir is the ideological and spiritual glue that can save Pakistan, the humpty-dumpty of modern history, from the great fall. Not all the military and material help of the US and China can provide sustainability to the near-failed state.

Pakistan continues to tumble towards immediate danger of intensive internal crisis and disintegration. The Al Qaeda and Taliban operations inside major cities of Pakistan and many pockets in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, North West Frontier Province, Punjab, and Sindh are disintegrating the civil society. Fundamentalist incursions have started eroding faith of the people in the capability of the state to protect them.

Major jihadi tanzeems continue to rule over areas like Peshawar, Quetta, Darra Adam Khel, Charsadda, and other areas in Swat, Bajaur and tribal pockets in South and North Waziristan. These forces are consolidating operations in the hinterland areas. The Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan continues to fight the armed forces.

Darra town has been splashed with pamphlets warning government employees to quit their jobs. Taliban militants were observed in the Tora Cheena area, located on the Teerah side of Darra Adam Khel. These Taliban fighters belong to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and disillusioned jihadis from Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e- Mohammad.

The outlawed Jhangvi activists were suspected to be involved in the Lal Masjid and Lahore, Rawalpindi and Charsadda bomb blasts. Pakistan has admitted that Al Qaeda, Taliban and Jhangvi leadership had trained over 50 suicide bombers to attack military and civilian targets.

The Jundullah, created by the mastermind of 9/11 Muhammad Omar Sheikh, continue to carry out jihadi attacks against government targets in Sindh and Punjab. The outfit is now led by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and Tahir Yuldashev, head of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

The jihadi mujahideen groups are now targeting bigger cities across the country. Outfits like the Al Badr, Lashkar-e-Toiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammad etc are also active in the NWFP, Waziristan and some of these elements are now reported to be on the payrolls of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Taliban supremo. Balochistan is fighting its own war of independence. The northern areas (part of J&K) are seething with discontent and active resistance against ISI highhandedness.

Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and subsequent uncertainty about restoration of democracy and stability genuinely worries saner elements in Pakistan. Surrounded by worsening internal turmoil and threat of disintegration, the Pakistani ruling elite can hardly dream about annexation of Indian Kashmir.

Najam Sethi, editor of The Daily Times has aptly commented, “The ‘cause’ of Kashmir has transformed the region in which India and Pakistan are located. Early lineaments of Pakistani nationalism were created by the ‘unfinished business’ of Kashmir, forcing it to become a revisionist state in the Cold War era, compelling it to fight four wars with India when it should have been consolidating its early success in economic development. Because of this burden of facing up to India, Pakistan became a national security state dominated by the army which overthrew elected governments, protesting breach of national security. Military rulers rode the crest of Pakistan’s textbook nationalism to arm-twist politicians and divide them against one another.” (Daily Times February 6, 2008. )

Pakistan has continued with its ‘deniable proxy-war’ in Kashmir and is trying to export jihadi attacks in the hinterland. Sabotage and subvert loyalties of the Indian Muslims by establishing jihadi tanzeem cells in vulnerable pockets is another objective of the ISI.

What right Pakistan does Pakistan have to incite the Muslims of India when it cannot take care of its own citizens? Does it want Indian Muslims to share the miseries of Pakistani Muslims? Indian Muslims are Indians first, and religious fanaticism alone cannot mislead them to the Pakistani trap of another ‘partition dream.’

Pakistan should strive to defend its present geopolitical boundary by stabilising its internal affairs. It should stop shedding shady tears for the Kashmiris and like of Gilani and Shabir should not commit the mistake of earning the distinction of another ‘muhajir’ group in Pakistan.

A Pakistan that cannot manage its affairs should cease dreaming that it is the custodian of Muslim interest in the subcontinent and that it is a part of the Middle East.

Pakistan is returning to the medieval ages using religion, jihad and open and secret wars for the survival of its armed forces, not survival of the people of Pakistan. Jihadi fervour is disintegrating Pakistan.

Every country has an army. In Pakistan, the army has a country. The inefficient army should give up the Cold War syndrome and wake up to the reality that Kashmir cannot be won by war.

Kashmir has got stuck in the oesophagus of Pakistan. When would Pakistan take out the stuck Kashmir herringbone and allow the country to reconstruct its national identity?

Since 1947, Pakistanis have had a State. They should now have a Nation. It’s high time they had one, at least by emulating Indian success.

The author can be reached at maloy_d@hotmail.com

The views expressed in the article are of the author’s and not of Sify.com.

Uncertain future for Jaipur’s Islamic terror victims

Uncertain future haunts Jaipur blast survivors
May 26th, 2008, By Kavita Bajeli-Datt
Jaipur, May 26 (IANS) They lie strapped up in hospital beds, one moment thankful that they survived and the other haunted by the prospects of a grim future. They used to be the sole breadwinners of their families but now find themselves helpless after being seriously injured in the string of terror blasts here. Some were cooks, some sold flowers by the roadside, some worked at shoe shops. But as they gradually recover from their injuries – over 200 were injured in the May 13 serial explosions – they are wondering how their families will subsist.

Sanjay Bhatia is lodged at the day care centre in the Sawai Man Singh Hospital, the largest hospital in Rajasthan where the maximum patients are being treated.

Bhatia, a hawker, suffered multiple fractures in the blasts that also killed over 60 people. With both his hands plastered, the 44-year-old said he was more worried about his family than his own condition.

“I am the sole bread earner. I know I will be out of action for over two months because of my fractures. I don’t know what my family will do,” Bhatia told IANS.

Bhatia said: “I have three grown up children who go to school. We live in a rented house. How will we manage?”

Though his entire treatment has been free, he worries about future medication.

The Rajasthan government has declared Rs.500,000 as compensation for each of the families of those killed in the blasts and Rs.100,000 for each of the critically injured.

But, for many, the compensation holds no comfort.

Mahesh Chenali, 32, who used to work in a shoe shop in Badi Chopar, another site where a bomb exploded, finds it difficult to bear the pain. He had bomb splinters embedded in his stomach, which were removed in an operation soon after he was brought in from the blast site.

His mother Savitri Devi is happy that he is alive and tries to comfort her only child whenever he cries in pain. Chenali was standing outside the shop to guide customers in when the bomb went off. He escaped death.

“He is alive, that’s all. He is my only son and my only hope. Even if he is unable to go to the shop, I will look after him. I want him to recover fully even if it takes months before he even thinks of going to work. Money is nothing,” she said.

Brave words from a woman in her 50s who recently lost her husband and who is entirely dependent on her son’s meagre earnings for survival.

“We don’t have money. The hospital is providing free treatment. I know the future could be hard and equally harsh but, for me at the moment, my son is more important. We will somehow manage,” Savitri Devi told IANS.

Eighteen-year-old Pankaj Kumar, who worked as a cook in a private residence, faces a similar problem. For him there will be no salary for a few months as he has multiple fractures.

“I have to return home in Bihar to rest. I cannot go back to work. My family is very poor, that is why I came to Jaipur. I have no alternative means of earning money,” he said.

“I don’t know whether I will get a job when I return from Bihar,” he added.

For 57-year-old Madan Lal Sanik, the days have become a little longer. He reaches his street side flower shop near the Hanuman temple in Chandpole, one of the blast sites, at 5 a.m. and then rushes to the hospital where his son is recovering. Until the blasts, his son would shoulder the bulk of the day’s business at the flower shop.

Sanik returns to his shop again in the evening and reaches home late at night. His wife takes turns with him to visit their son in hospital.

“He used to help me. Now I have to do everything. I can’t leave the shop and I can’t leave him alone to fend for himself. He needs family support,” he said.

Sanik, who seems tired, said he is suddenly feeling his age. “I am happy my son is alive and has no serious problem. But it is so difficult to see him bandaged and sleeping on the bed, suffering. I am waiting for the day he will come back to work with me.”

Additional Medical Superintendent K.K. Mangal at the Sawai Man Singh Hospital said most of the patients were operated upon on the day of the blast.

“Most suffered multiple fractures or injuries on the head, chest, abdomen and upper limbs. These would take some time to heal. But there is nothing to worry.”

(Kavita Bajeli-Datt can be contacted at kavita.d@ians.in)

UPA’s soft policy on Islamic terrorism has helped BJP win Karnataka poll

UPA’s soft policy on terrorism has helped BJP win the Karnataka Assembly poll
Hiranmay Karlekar, The Pioneer

It is remarkable that few have cited the UPA Government’s soft policy on terrorism as one of the possible causes of the Congress’s defeat in the recent Assembly election in Karnataka. Perhaps the first major incident related to Islamist terrorism occurred in Bangalore on September 28, 2002, when the head of the Al Ummah was killed in an encounter with the police in Bangalore.

Indeed, indications that Lashkar-e-Tayyeba was planning to target Bangalore, were available as early as 2001, if not earlier. Confirmation, however, came on March 5, 2005, when Delhi Police killed three LeT terrorists in an encounter in the outskirts of the national capital. Among the items recovered during the search that followed were three AK-56 rifles, a huge amount of explosives, and detailed plans for an attack on the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun. Also recovered was evidence that information technology companies in Bangalore were being targeted. Delhi Police, too, stated that terrorists had visited Bangalore in December 2004 and surveyed possible targets.

Soon thereafter, offices of Wipro and Infosys were evacuated following bomb threats, both of which were found to be hoaxes. But the message that the alarm sounded on March 5 was not false and that India’s IT capital was in danger was chillingly conveyed on December 28, 2005, when LeT terrorists, working in close cooperation with Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh (HuJIB), struck inside the campus of the Indian Institute of Science where an international conference of the Operational Research Society of India was being held. Mr MC Puri, a retired professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, was killed and five wounded.

After the incident, a letter faxed to newspaper offices stated that six terrorists had arrived in Bangalore to attack the Chief Minister’s residence and a hotel on New Years’ eve. According to a report in the Hindu of January 17, 2006, Bangalore’s Police Commissioner, Mr Ajai Kumar Singh, said during an interview that the LeT had planned explosions at the Kaiga nuclear plant in Uttara Kannada district, Alamatti Reservoir in Bagalkot district and the Sharavathi power lines.

The sense of alarm created by all this was heightened following an incident on June 30, 2007, when Kafeel Ahmed, a 27-year-old aeronautical engineer from Bangalore, along with an Iraqi doctor, Bilal Abdullah, allegedly drove a flaming jeep into Glasgow airport. Kafeel, who had suffered 90 per cent burns in the process, died later in hospital. His brother, Sabeel Ahmed, a doctor, who, London’s Old Bailey court found, was not an extremist, harboured no extremist views and had no knowledge of the plan to attack Glasgow Airport, was deported to India and arrived in Bangalore on May 8, 2008.

Sabeel Ahmed had earlier pleaded guilty to not reporting to the police about the attack carried out by Kafeel. Their cousin, Mohammed Haneef, a doctor, was detained in Australia on the ground of supporting a terrorist organisation but released after the charge against him was dropped.

Despite the fact that the charges against both Sabeel and Haneef were dropped, Karnataka remained highly sensitive to the issue of Islamist terrorism because the latter had spread its tentacles deep and wide in neighbouring States. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, LeT has established a network in a number of States, including Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. According to intelligence sources, the outlawed Students’ Islamic Movement of India and the Islamic Sevak Sangh are active in Kerala whose coastline is being increasingly used for landing explosives, weapons and terrorist literature.

The Al Ummah is active in Tamil Nadu and has links with Islamist terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan, and perhaps even in Singapore and Malaysia. Islamist terrorist and fundamentalist outfits are currently active in Hyderabad, Warangal, Nalagonda and Mahboobnagar districts of Andhra Pradesh, as a part of Pakistani outfit, Inter-Services Intelligence’s effort to use various Muslim dominated areas to unleash violence in India.

People in Karnataka, therefore, live in an environment which makes them acutely conscious of the threat posed by terrorism. Outrages in places like Jaipur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Delhi and Mumbai always remind them that their turn may be next, particularly since Bangalore, as the capital of India’s IT industry, is not only a symbol of its economic progress but contributes substantially to it. They could not have been overly inclined to vote for the Congress whose political will to combat terrorism has been called to question.

Transnational Islamic terror mounting in India

Transnational terror mounting

Terrorist bombings quivered India once again when the tourist city of Jaipur was rocked by a series of seven bombs that detonated a few minutes apart from each other on May 13, 2008, killing at least 80 people and leaving scores severely wounded while transforming the ‘pink city’ into scenes of carnage. Wherein twisted debris and pools of blood on the streets narrated the ghastly act committed by the perpetrators of terror. Although no particular terrorist group came forward and accepted responsibility for these blasts, however, a diminutively known group called the Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the terror attacks. It sent an e-mail declaring ‘open war’ against India in retaliation ‘for 60 years of Muslim persecution and for the country’s support of US policies.’ The group said it targeted Jaipur “to blow the tourism structure and demolish the faith” and further warned of more attacks in the country. Nonetheless, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Prakash Jaiswal swiftly stated, “One can’t rule out the involvement of a foreign power.” This statement manifestly referred to Pakistan and the Islamic militant groups that India accuses its neighbour of backing incessantly. According to sources in the central intelligence agencies, apparently, the serial blasts in Jaipur bear the imprint of a well-coordinated strike with signs of the involvement of three transnational terrorist organizations – Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI), Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and possibly, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Importantly, the Jaipur explosions bear uncanny similarity to the sporadic bomb attacks in Faizabad, Varanasi and Lucknow in 2007 caused by explosives strapped to bicycles as also other parts of the country in recent months. Incidentally, the prime suspect HuJI, is also the primary suspect in the October 2007 blasts in the Sufi shrine city of Ajmer. Recall, the HuJI, was established in 1992 with reported assistance from Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front. The group operates in Bangladesh from the coastal area stretching from the port city of Chittagong south through to the Myanmar border. Crucially, the HuJI cadres allegedly also infiltrate frequently into the eastern corridor of India to maintain contacts with other terrorist and subversive outfits of the region notwithstanding, the Bangladesh Government officially banning the HUJI in October 2005. This Islamic terror group is also believed to be having links with Pakistan with the outfit’s ‘operations commander’ Mufti Abdul Hannan, admitting to having passed out of the Gouhardanga Madrasa in Pakistan after his arrest in October 2005. In addition, police records in Gopalganj district also state that Hannan was in fact, trained in Peshawar and subsequently sent to Afghanistan to fight the erstwhile Soviet Army. Moreover, the HuJI maintains links with terrorist groups operating in India’s North-East, including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). The HuJI is purportedly running some of ULFA’s camps situated in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh along the border of Tripura. The US State Department labeled the HuJI as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) as recently as March 2008 and accordingly all the US financial institutions were required to freeze assets held by the HuJI. Washington previously put the outfit on the list of ‘Other Terrorist Organisations’ in 2003. A press release to this effect by the US State Department said, “The leader of HuJI signed the February 1998 fatwa sponsored by Osama bin Laden that declared American civilians to be legitimate targets for attack.” Thereafter, HuJI has been implicated in a number of terrorist attacks in Bangladesh and abroad. Furthermore, it was reported that the HuJI supplied grenades to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba to carry out attacks in India earlier. On his arrest, the HuJI leader Abu Zandal confessed that the outfit had sent several consignments of grenades to the LeT operating in India until 2004. Therefore, the suspected involvement of HuJI does not entirely eliminate the Lashker-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) angle altogether. In that HuJI’s cadres have often been trained in terror camps across the border in Pakistan. The HuJI and Lashkar have scores of sleeper cells all over India ready to strike on direction from outside. Lately, the HuJI is said have established several sleeper cells across UP, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and even Rajasthan. Transnational terrorism and transnational crime are being perpetrated largely by non-state actors across or beyond the political borders of a single State. Most Governments respond to international terrorism at a tactical level and resultantly, even after decades of combating terrorism, the conventional response of either eliminating or apprehending terrorists have not deterred terrorism. This primarily could be attributed to the failure of the affected nations to obliterate the transnational support structures of terrorist groups. Transnational terrorist groups have established support infrastructures overseas where they are beyond the operational reach and domestic jurisdiction. The need of the hour is to pull up the intelligence agencies since the Director General of Police, AS Gill reprehensibly admitted, “There was no [intelligence] report of these attacks.” In addition, there has to be an advanced emphasis on intelligence sharing between the agencies so as to confront the transnational terror mechanism. According to former Intelligence Bureau Joint Director and Chief of Police Intelligence in West Bengal Amiyo Samanta, “Until we modernize our intelligence gathering and hold it publicly accountable, we cannot win the fight against terrorism.” Evidently, India’s counter terrorism efforts need to be reassessed in that these attacks would witness just yet another inquisition. Time-bound accountability ought to be mandatory and the intelligence radar needs to be sharpened. The terror attacks in Jaipur are the latest demonstration of the fact that the wings of transnational terror are fast spreading throughout India and are not just concentrated in and around Kashmir. Notably, cross-pollination among various transnational terror groups makes it difficult to separate them and the latest attacks in Jaipur could well be a manifestation of the same. Dr Monika Chansoria,-INFA

Understaffing of IB, police, security agencies: Questions about terrorism

Ajai Shukla: Killing questions about terrorism
Business Standard, New Delhi May 20, 2008, 0:05 IST

Below is meat of the article. To read in complete go here

Not one politician or public figure has asked: why are just 20,000 people authorised to an Intelligence Bureau (IB) that is charged with the security of a billion people? Even if every IB employee was a field operative, of the kind that infiltrated the Nagpur cell, each would need to watch over 50,000 Indians. In fact, barely 2,000 of the IB’s employees are field operatives; the remainder are tied up in administration — manning headquarters, liaison with bureaucracy, budgeting and accounting, and the myriad tasks that the government creates for itself.

Nor has anyone questioned why the already understaffed IB has 4,000 employees less than it is authorised. The numbing answer: an “optimisation scheme” to cut down on government employees froze recruitment for several years.

Not a single politician has asked why the recommendations of a Group of Ministers (GoM), constituted after the Kargil intelligence debacle, have not yet been implemented. Recommendations to expand the IB at the ground level; to set up Joint Task Forces for Intelligence (JTFIs) in each state; and to create a Multi Agency Centre (MAC) to bring together, compare and assess intelligence from different agencies; all these gather dust while terrorists gather strength.

Nor are there questions about why attempts to strengthen intelligence agencies immediately founder on the rocks of bureaucracy. Police and intelligence officers swear this is the dastardly handiwork of the “IAS lobby”. Whether or not there is a deliberate design here, requests for manpower and resources are successfully blocked by endless questions by junior IAS officers about why those are needed. The result: the IB has cobbled together an ad hoc Joint Task Force for Intelligence, without any permanently deputed members, and run with resources gathered from within the agency.

If good intelligence is essential for thwarting terrorist attacks, a well-structured police network picks up early warnings about an impending attack. But ground level policing is even more neglected than intelligence. Societies across the political spectrum — from western-style democracies to authoritarian regimes — divide their territory into police “beats”, assigning each a policeperson. That policeperson intimately monitors his beat, which could consist of a market; or a group of houses; or even a couple of villages. In India, though, there are too few policepersons for realistic monitoring.

The country’s 11,840 police stations are manned by some 10,12,000 policepersons; each cop must police some 1,000 citizens. In geographical terms, there are 43 cops for every 100 square kilometres; each average beat is more than 2 kilometres long and 1 kilometre wide. But who has heard a politician ask the questions: can a single policeperson effectively cover so many people in such a large area? Why are we not boosting police manpower?

Jaipur Blasts: Powerful network of Indian Muslim terrorists are operating across India

SIMI faction is running all-India terror network
Josy Joseph, Thursday, May 29, 2008  03:27 IST

The same kind of bombs were used in Jaipur and Hyderabad

NEW DELHI: Credible evidence linking the May 13 Jaipur blasts and last year’s bomb attacks in Hyderabad has emerged, confirming fears that a powerful network of home-grown terrorists are operating across India.

Based on clear evidence and other inputs, the investigators are carrying out an intensive search of Jaipur for local SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) sympathisers, who may have escaped surveillance by intelligence agencies and played a crucial role in carrying out the serial blasts two weeks ago.

According to dependable sources, the detonators used in the Jaipur and Hyderabad blasts were manufactured by the Andhra Pradesh Explosives Ltd based in Hyderabad. The investigators also found that the unexploded bombs recovered in both Jaipur and Hyderabad were similar. From Jhori Bazar of Jaipur police had recovered an unexploded bomb on May 13, while in Hyderabad an unexploded bomb was recovered from Dilsukhnagar on August 25 last year when two bombs killed  34 people.

The bombs had a similar chemical composition—based on ammonium nitrate, the same brand of Samay digital clocks, and detonators from the same batch manufactured in the same factory.

Every terror group, whether in Iraq, Kashmir or Afghanistan has a clear signature way of carrying out attacks. A striking signature has been emerging in the bomb blasts across India in the past three-four years. Besides, a very strong Hyderabad link has emerged, sources say. India’s most infamous homegrown terrorist, Shahid Bilal, who was killed in Pakistan last year, was originally from Hyderabad.

From the available evidence and analysis, the central agencies are now convinced that a local group, in all possibility former members of SIMI, are behind the blasts across India over the last three-four years. The Jaipur blasts were their latest success, and there is no clear indication where they could strike next.

Several  recent blasts — Mumbai train blasts, Varanasi, Samjhauta Express, Delhi, Malegaon, Hyderabad, Jaipur — are all yet not solved satisfactorily, and police claims on culprits are “unreliable”, dependable sources in the security establishment are now beginning to admit.

Based on other important inputs received after the Jaipur blast,s the security establishment is now also convinced that sympathisers of SIMI who believe in violent reprisals against India, are active in the Pink City.

Sources said there have been local intelligence inputs in the past about some SIMI presence there “but we have noticed no significant activity” in Jaipur before blasts.
But that could be because of lax intelligence gathering and lack of network among the local Muslim community, officials admit.

Providing ideological and monetary motivation, and in some cases even ground-level leadership, to this SIMI faction are groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI) and Lashkar-e-Taiba. But what is frightening is that the suspected SIMI faction has a wide network across India, and they can strike almost at will anywhere they want. Poor investigations and lack of ground level intelligence are only facilitating this capability.