Monday, October 3, 2016

What If There's India-Pakistan Nuclear Confrontation?

Did India really carry out what it claims were “surgical Strikes” across the line of control in Azad Kashmir?

Cartoon by Satish Acharya

Is this just another cooked-up story like the “successful” fake Indian Army Ops in Myanmar and Longewala?

What was accomplished?

Wouldn’t Pakistan have retaliated forcefully if indeed there were incursions by Indian troops in Pakistan?

Wouldn’t that escalate the conflict in South Asia?

Could such escalation spiral into a major nuclear confrontation in the region?

What would be its consequences in terms of loss of life and property in the wider region that is home to more than two billion people?

Has India succeeded in deflecting world's attention away from the Indian military's atrocities in Kashmir?

Viewpoint From Overseas host Misbah Azam discusses these questions with Panelists Ali Hasan Cemendtaur and Riaz Haq (www.riazhaq.com)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35b6qAITQh8



https://vimeo.com/185285663

What if There's India-Pakistan Nuclear Escalation from Ikolachi on Vimeo.


Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Can India "Punish" Pakistan After Uri?

700,000 Indian Soldiers Versus 10 Million Kashmiris

Kulbhushan Yadav Arrest in Balochistan

Is Pakistan Ready For War With India?

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Speech at UN General Assembly

What is India Hiding From UN Human Rights Commission?

Talk4Pak Think Tank

VPOS Youtube Channel

VPOS Vimeo Channel


17 comments:

Riaz Haq said...

“Get out, the #Pakistanis are coming”: War begun for millions along #India’s border. #Kashmir #Pakistan http://qz.com/798681 via @qzindia


On television, war was still just a possibility on the horizon: generals and news anchors debated whether Pakistan would actually respond to India’s “surgical strike”—a military operation carried out across the border early Sept. 29, reportedly killing scores of Pakistan-backed terrorists.
But for 86-year-old Binder Kaur from Kalu Wala village in Punjab’s Ferozepur district, the war had began the same night when an announcement from the local gurudwara’s speakers told her that it was time to leave.
“It’s happening again,” she cried out to her children, Bibi and Prem Singh, who were wasting time, she said, trying to figure out what the announcement meant: they had to leave, but to where? And for how long?
Without knowing the answers to these questions, how were they supposed to know what to carry?
“My son and daughter don’t know about Partition, or 1971… They have heard stories, but they don’t know what that time was,” Kaur said. “They were too slow, I had to scream – niklo, niklo, Pakistani aa rahein hai.” Get out, get out, the Pakistanis are coming.
Finally, the family gathered its children, a few clothes, three cots, and a wailing mother on a trolley hitched to a tractor, and rode out of the village at 3am. They eventually found shelter 26 km away in Bare Ke.
The family is among the approximately 1,500,000 people who have been displaced following the evacuation of Punjab’s border villages in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Pathankot, and Fazilka. Some, like Kaur’s family, left their homes in the dead of night. Others were escorted out by army vehicles the next morning, or they just jumped atop buses. The hasty departure, spurred by that short single line—evacuate at once—meant that not a single one of the people who fled their homes left with a plan.

The morning after the evacuation, the media was full of arrangements made for the evacuees, in gurudwaras and schools across the state. Since only villages that fall within a distance of 10 km from the border have been asked to be evacuated, residents there have chosen to remain as close to the 10 km line as possible, in the hope of an early return.
A lucky few have moved in with relatives that don’t mind having guests with no fixed date of departure, and others are living in cramped quarters with the barest of arrangements, waiting for the tensions to ease.

Riaz Haq said...

#Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal questions authenticity of #India’s ‘#surgicalstrikes’ in #Pakistan. #Modi #BJP http://tribune.com.pk/story/1192809/new-delhi-cm-questions-authenticity-indias-surgical-strikes-pakistan/

KARACHI: Following suspicion raised by international media over India’s claim of carrying out “surgical strikes” against ‘militants’ in the Pakistani side of Kashmir, politicians across the border have now started questioning the authenticity of the incident.

Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal on Monday urged Indian premier Narendra Modi to release evidence of the ‘strikes’ which are still shrouded in mystery. Pakistan has already ripped to shreds the farcical claim as an “illusion being deliberately generated by the Indian to create false effects”.

Claiming that foreign media appears to be backing Pakistan’s claim, Kejrival, a stern critic of Modi, in a three-minute-long video message posted on his Facebook page, said: “My blood boils to see such reports. Pakistan is trying to internationally defame India [therefore] I appeal the prime minister… to expose the propaganda…The nation stands with you…”

The 46-year-old CM and leader of India’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded Modi to release a video footage of the ‘surgical strikes’.

Ground realities belie India’s claims

The development comes two days after after Pakistan Army took local and foreign journalists on a rare visit to forward locations along the Line of Control (LoC). The journalists represented international media outlets, including CNN, BBC, VOA, Reuters, AP, AFP, News Week and BBC Urdu Service. The purpose of the embedded tour was to allow journalists to independently investigate the Indian claim.

The journalists were taken to mainly two spots of Boxor Formation and Hotspring Formation out of the 190-kilometre stretch of the LoC, where India claimed it forces had carried out the ‘strikes’. At both locations, which are about 50 kilometres apart, no signs of destruction or casualties were found except the two Pakistan Army soldiers, who had been killed – one each at the two formations – due to unprovoked firing by Indian forces.

Backtracking: India says no helicopters used in ‘surgical strikes’

India’s state minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has already accepted that “no aerial operations were included in the operation”. Rathore’s remarks endorsed the version of the army’s media wing, ISPR, which insisted: “there has been no surgical strike by India, instead there had been cross-border fire initiated and conducted by India.”

“There were no aerial strikes,” Indian Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, himself an ex-Indian Army man, told The Hindu during an interview.

Rathore said the Indian Army crossed the Line of Control (LoC) “on the ground” for carrying out what he termed were “pre-emptive strikes”. “That is not like crossing the international border.”

Tensions between the two arch rivals have been boiling since the Indian government accused Pakistan-based militants of launching an assault on an army base in Uri sector of occupied Kashmir last month that killed 18 Indian army soldiers.

Nitin B said...

Nuclear confrontation:
200 million Pakistanis will perish at best
500 million Indians will survive at worst

Riaz Haq said...

NBRX: "Nuclear confrontation: 200 million Pakistanis will perish at best 500 million Indians will survive at worst"


Wrong. Read below for truth:


India-Pakistan Nuclear War Would Kill 2 Billion People, End Civilization: Report

A nuclear war between South Asian rivals India and Pakistan would trigger a global famine that would immediately kill 2 billion people around the world and spell the “end of human civilization,” according to a study by an anti-nuclear group. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) also warned that even a limited nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan would destroy crop yields, damage the atmosphere and throw global food markets into chaos. China, the world’s most populous country, would face a catastrophic food shortage that would lead to enormous social convulsions.

“A billion people dead in the developing world is obviously a catastrophe unparalleled in human history,” said Ira Helfand, co-president of PSR and the study's lead author. “But then if you add to that the possibility of another 1.3 billion people in China being at risk, we are entering something that is clearly the end of civilization.” Helfand explained that China’s destruction would be caused by longstanding tensions between its neighbors, India and Pakistan, two enemies that have already fought three wars since 1947. Moreover, given the apocalyptic power of contemporary nuclear weapons – which are far more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 – the impact of an India-Pakistan war would be felt across the globe.


Specifically, the study noted, a nuclear war in South Asia would release black carbon aerosol particles that would cut U.S. corn and soybean production by 10 percent over a decade. Those particles would also reduce Chinese rice production by an average of 21 percent over a four-year period and by another 10 percent over the subsequent six years. Even more devastating, China’s wheat crop would drop by 50 percent in just the first year after the hypothetical Indo-Pak nuclear war.

http://www.ibtimes.com/india-pakistan-nuclear-war-would-kill-2-billion-people-end-civilization-report-1503604

Riaz Haq said...

#WhiteHouse detects fraud & shuts down #India petition seeking to declare #Pakistan ‘#terror sponsor’ via @htTweets http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/white-house-winds-up-online-petition-seeking-pak-declared-terror-sponsor/story-vbVolojSsbfRWRUNoPVdbI.html

The White House has abruptly shut down on suspicion of fraud an ongoing online petition that asked it to designate Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, citing a law introduced in the House of Representatives last week.
In a blurb headlined, ‘Closed Petition’, the White House’s ‘We the People’ web page, which hosts the initiative inviting petitions to the administration, said on Monday, “This petition has been archived because it did not meet the signature requirements. It can no longer be signed.”
The petition had, until October 21, to gather 100,000 signatures to merit a response from the White House under the rules of the programme, which it had already collected, and several times more. At closure, the petition had 625,723 signatures.

The website said “no more”, but a White House official told Hindustan Times on condition of anonymity that there were “some technical issues with some of the signatures” that needed to be looked into. Some of the signatures “could potentially be removed if there is evidence of fraud” consistent with the terms of participation, the official added.
Supporters of the petition, which had generated considerable excitement among Indian Americans and in India, will be disappointed, especially as a counter-petition demanding a similar designation for India — as a “terrorist state” — was still up on the We the People page; although way behind, with nearly 66,000 signatures.

Riaz Haq said...

#BaramullaAttack haze amid 'friendly fire' buzz. #India #Kashmir #UriAttack http://www.telegraphindia.com/1161004/jsp/nation/story_111830.jsp#.V_PWOjkOWL0.twitter …

"The area is dotted with (security forces) camps. It's surprising that militants could reach the spot to mount an attack there," a police officer said. "These camps had never come under attack even during the peak years of militancy, because there are security camps all around them."

He added: "Besides, how could the raiders have fled when the entire area surrounding the camps had been lit up during the gunfight?"

Sources said that BSF men had noticed some kind of suspicious movement and started firing away in that direction.

"That led to panic in the adjoining army camp. The army too started firing indiscriminately, and it was not clear who was firing at whom," a source said.

The two camps are located on the banks of the Jhelum, and one possibility is that the militants crossed the river in boats. "Even then, it's unimaginable that they could have escaped in the boats without being spotted," the source said.

Another possibility is that they had taken the road that connects the camps with the bridge in the old town. "But that road is highly secure," the source said.

A Union home ministry spokesperson had claimed in the morning that two terrorists had been shot dead, PTI reported, but this was not corroborated by the army, BSF or the police.

The spokesperson later said the report of the killing of two terrorists was a "claim" and was being "verified", the agency added.

Sources said that after the firing, illuminators were used to light up the sky but no militant was found.

Riaz Haq said...

#Surgicalstrikes: Ignore #Pakistan claims, but #Indians deserve to know the truth #Modi #BJP #Kashmir https://goo.gl/q2pjd2 via @CatchNews India may be compelled to provide the evidence it has of the 'surgical strikes' it claims it conducted across the Line of Control (LoC) to destroy terrorist launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

There have been unconfirmed stories of how the Special Forces wore helmet cameras to capture the destruction they wrought on the enemy - almost following the script of Zero Dark Thirty. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said "just wait and watch" when asked about the purported video evidence of the strikes across the LoC.
Both Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as well as the Congress party have asked the government to "call Pakistan's bluff" by making public the evidence of the 'surgical strikes'. The BJP retaliated by accusing the Opposition of questioning the army's competence.

http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/surgical-strikes-ignore-pak-claims-but-indians-deserve-to-know-the-truth-1475587137.html

Riaz Haq said...

Like #AAP's Kejriwal, Congress's Sanjay Nirupam demands proof, says #India's #SurgicalStrikes Vs #Pakistan 'Fake'

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/surgical-strikes-vs-pak-fake-need-proof-congress-sanjay-nirupam-1469994

The Congress today disowned its leader Sanjay Nirupam's suggestion that last week's surgical strikes across the Line of Control are "fake" unless the government offers proof.

At the same time, the party said the government must "call Pakistan's bluff".

"It's time for the government to expose Pakistan's malicious propaganda. The evidence should be made public," said party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

Asserting that there is "no question of any doubt" about the strikes, Mr Surjewala said: "We would like to urge the PM to stop politicising the bravery of Indian soldiers for myopic political gain."

Earlier today, Mr Nirupam had made controversial statements raising doubts about the strikes.

"Every Indian wants #SurgicalStrikesAgainstPak but not a fake one to extract just political benefit by #BJP," he tweeted.






Attacked for the comment, he later clarified, "I'm not saying you release all video footage, I don't think so either... as it may not be in the interest of national security... but there is a need to show some proof."

The Congress spokesperson said: "We have taken serious note of Sanjay Nirupam's statements."

Pakistan has asserted that India has flagrantly misrepresented cross-border firing as raids across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. The ruling BJP says that politicians like Mr Nirupam are bolstering that claim by seeking evidence.

Riaz Haq said...

Ahmad: "A very well written piece. Rules of Engagement in South Asia By Michael Krepon"

Flawed analysis based on false premises. Accepts "surgical strikes" without any shred of proof, assumes Uri attacks came from Pakistan without evidence, ignores indigenous nature of Kashmir uprising, fails to note India's proxy war in Pakistan, etc etc

Riaz Haq said...

Chidambaram, ex Finance and Home Minister, too is demanding proof of surgical strike. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/People-will-demand-proof-of-surgical-strikes-Chidambaram/articleshow/54677947.cms

"Having taken political ownership for the cross-border action and having publicised it so much, it is only to be expected that people will demand that the video be released. So I am sure the government has thought through about the consequences of taking the political ownership for a purely military action.
"And having thought through the consequences, let the government respond to the demand for releasing videos,"said the former Union Home Minister.
The Congress leader attributed "policy of strategic restraint" behind the UPA not publicising such military action conducted during its regime.
"Our government took the call that cross-border action should be a military call and it is for (Army) Generals to say what they want to say. We did not take political ownership of military action. This government has taken that responsibility."

Riaz Haq said...

"Isolated" #Pakistan in 3rd #EU-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue - #European External Action Service! http://europa.eu/!hN86Ff via @EU_Commission

The 3rd Session of the EU-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue was held in Brussels on 4 October 2016 between the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini, and Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Foreign Affairs.

The two sides welcomed the continued strengthening of relations between the European Union and Pakistan and agreed to elevate their partnership even further. In this respect, they agreed to work on replacing the Five-Year Engagement Plan, adopted in 2012, with an EU-Pakistan Strategic Engagement Plan. Every effort will be made to finalise the new Engagement Plan by the middle of 2017, for approval by the next EU-Pakistan Summit.

Both sides discussed migration and refugees issues. The Pakistan side underlined the need for addressing the root causes of migration and taking an integrated approach encompassing different aspects of migration. The EU acknowledged the challenges faced by Pakistan in hosting over 3 million refugees and is ready to consider providing additional support, including for their repatriation to Afghanistan in safety and dignity. They agreed to further strengthen cooperation on migration issues, including irregular migration, and reaffirmed their commitment to the continued implementation of the EU-Pakistan Readmission Agreement.

The EU side emphasised its continuing support for democratic institutions, electoral reform, the rule of law, economic development and poverty reduction in Pakistan.

The Pakistan side highlighted the steps taken by the Government of Pakistan for the promotion and protection of human rights, including women, children and minority rights. The EU side welcomed these steps, especially the Human Rights Plan of Action adopted by the Government of Pakistan and its decision to strengthen its human rights institutions. Both sides also took note of the first GSP+ progress report. The EU side encouraged continued efforts towards the effective implementation of key human rights conventions.

The Pakistan side highlighted the improved security situation and its positive impact on economic revival and higher investment in Pakistan. The EU acknowledged the significant efforts by the Government of Pakistan and the sacrifices made in the fight against terrorism and reaffirmed EU’s continued support. Both sides committed to further develop their cooperation on Counter-Terrorism, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. They also agreed to strengthen dialogue on defence matters, including through EU-Pakistan Staff interactions.

On regional security, the EU encouraged Pakistan to continue its efforts in promoting peace in Afghanistan and appreciated Pakistan's support for a successful outcome of the Brussels Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan on 5 October 2016.

The Pakistan side apprised the EU about recent developments in the region, including the current situation in Kashmir. Noting with concern the recent developments, the EU side underlined the need for resolving disputes through dialogue and constructive engagement.

Both sides agreed to further broaden and deepen cooperation under the new Strategic Engagement Plan and discussed matters related to trade, economy and energy. They also agreed to strengthen cooperation in areas such as climate change, research and higher education. Both sides recognised the importance of mutual cooperation in the field of energy and looked forward to holding the first energy meeting still in 2016.

The next EU-Pakistan Joint Commission, to be held in November in Islamabad, will further enhance the dialogue between the two sides.

Riaz Haq said...

President Lukashenko of #Belarus arrives in "isolated" #Pakistan. #Modi #BJP - Dunya News
http://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/355624-President-of-Belarus-reaches-Pakistan
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko reached Pakistan on Tuesday on invitation of Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, reported Dunya News.

PM Nawaz received Belarusian president at Noor Khan Air Base. He will meet President Mamnoon Hussain, speaker National Assembly (NA) Ayaz Sadiq as well.

Lukashenko will sign contracts regarding textile, agriculture and education projects. This is his second visit to Pakistan in 16 months. He will also inaugurate Pakistan-Belarus business forum on the fourth day.

Riaz Haq said...

#Trump's business partner, fundraiser & #Modi ally in #India wants to jail #Christians for spreading their faith

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/04/donald-trump-bjp/

DONALD TRUMP HAS deep ties to India’s right-wing, anti-Muslim Bharatiya Janata Party.

Trump has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the nationalist BJP leader who gained international infamy for his role in stoking anti-Muslim riots in 2002 that reportedly killed nearly 2,000 people. The New York Times wrote that Hindu mobs skewered mothers “on swords as their children watched” while young women were raped in broad daylight, “then doused with kerosene and set on fire.”

And Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar, known as a close Modi ally and the BJP’s consigliere in U.S. politics, has emerged as a prominent backer of Trump’s candidacy. Kumar has organized multiple fundraising efforts within the Indian American community for Trump and donated $898,800 to Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee formed to support his presidential campaign.

Trump is also in business with a prominent BJP politician, having signed a licensing deal in 2014 to construct the Trump Tower Mumbai with Mangal Prabhat Lodha, a real estate mogul and BJP state legislator. The 75-story building is now under construction, scheduled to be completed in 2018.

In many ways the partnership could not be more perfect. Like Trump, the BJP rose to power nationally two years ago by playing on sectarian anger against Muslims.

And Trump and Lodha have some things in common. Lodha is known for building golf courses and planning a gold façade at the building he is constructing. Lodha even sports a similar catchphrase, declaring on his political website his plans for “Making Mumbai Great Again.”

But Trump’s partnership with Lodha may present political complications. Lodha, like many BJP politicians, has not only antagonized Muslims, but has also repeatedly played to local anti-Christian hostility and sponsored legislation that Christian leaders say is designed to single them out for discrimination.

Neither Trump’s campaign nor Lodha’s firm responded to a request for comment.

In 2014, announcing the Trump Tower Mumbai deal, Trump praised his partner, calling the Mumbai-based firm “a truly fantastic team of professionals.” Lodha’s son, the managing director of the Lodha Group, told the New York Times that the branded approach to real estate has help him sell condominiums; units in Trump Tower Mumbai have already sold for as much as $2 million.

Lodha came to political power in Mumbai in 1994 as Hindu activists protested over claims that Christian missionaries were entering slums and converting low-caste Hindus. In one incident, BJP activists attacked Christian converts over a dispute in Dharavi, a Mumbai slum. In another local incident, Hindus attacked a Catholic convent after accusing the school of converting a Hindu student to Christianity. Skirmishes between Christians and Muslims led to BJP activists taking to the streets to demand anti-conversion laws.

Riaz Haq said...

A Full-Blown Guerilla War Is Developing In #Kashmir that #Army Can Not Fight: Ex #India Justice Markandey Katju: http://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/a-full-blown-guerilla-war-is-developing-in-kashmir-markandey-katju/297242

I think the people of India, the government of India, and the Indian army must now be told the truth: a full-blown guerilla war, still in its nascent stage , is fast developing in Kashmir, and we are being misled by our jingoistic media having anchors whom I call Don Quixote, Lord Haw Haw, and Dr. Goebbels.
The truth is most of the Kashmiri youth have been thoroughly alienated, and are intensely hostile to India.

A guerilla war, to be succesful, must have popular support. "The people are the sea, and we are the fish who swim in them." said a famous Red Army leader in the Chinese revolutionary war. Without popular support, a guerilla war cannot be long sustained, as Che Guevara realized too late in Bolivia.
But there is definitely popular support of the militants in Kashmir. We canot hide this truth. It is true that not all Kashmiri youth are trained and armed militants (at present only a very small number are). But the sympathies of most of the Kashmiri youth are with the militants, and they will therefore supply information, sanctuary, food, etc to them. The large crowd of lakhs of people in Burhan Wani's funeral has demonstrated this.
To say that all the militants have come across the border is again not correct. A large section of them, like Burhan Wani, are local people, though they are getting weapons from China and Pakistan.
The Kashmiri guerilla war, though still in its nascent stage, is bound to develop rapidly in the days to come, and I may explain why.


I have many relatives who were in the Indian army, and who were posted in Kashmir or in the North-East where there was militancy. They explained to me the psychology of our soldiers.
Suppose a patrol of 10 or 20 of our soldiers is going in some area in Kashmir, and is fired upon by some militants. If in this firing 2 or 3 of our soldiers are killed, the rest of them tend to go crazy, seeking revenge for their fallen comrades.
They may then enter a neighbouring village, thinking it harboured these militants ( and may indeed have), and shoot at innocent civilians, despite all instructions to the contrary from higher authorities.. Sometimes even their officers cannot control them.
Also, a soldier who has stayed in militancy-affected areas for long periods, as many Indian soldiers have to do, is often no longer psychologically normal, expecting death at any moment. Hence he sometimes tends to do crazy things, like firing at civilians.
The American experience in Vietnam testifies to this.

Riaz Haq said...

Has #India Lost the International Propaganda War on '#SurgicalStrikes'? #Kashmir #UriAttack #Modi #BJP
http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/1/8887/Has-India-Lost-the-International-Propaganda-War-on-Surgical-Strikes


It took New Delhi a few more days to realise that while domestically the BJP and PM Modi had gained in the constituency that was advocating war, and had been feeling demoralised since the terror attack on Pathankot, internationally there seemed to be a major problem. In that the space outside the region was being filled by Pakistan propaganda, with an aggressive outreach launched by the military.

The first signs (that still did not ring any alarm bells in New Delhi) came predictably from the Pakistani media that matched the New Delhi media in decibles, well almost, in propagating that the surgical strikes had not taken place. This was while Indian TV anchors were thumping their chests, joined in victory by ‘experts’ across the border. Similar experts appeared on Pakistan TV to insist that no such strikes could have happened, and their Army had to be believed. Nationalism thus was evoked by both sides to insist that their respective governments and militaries were right.

Pakistan took a second step rather quickly. It organised a visit by a huge contingent of international reporters to one of the locations that India said it had hit. And just as ‘sources’ here were dismissing this as ‘the usual propaganda by the Pakistanis’ the big international media started coming out with stories and reports almost supporting Islamabad’s claims.

A CNN report insisted that it had spoken to villagers at the spot and no such strikes were reported.

This was followed by a detailed report by a journalist who carries considerable credibility in New Delhi, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan Pamela Constable who wrote for the Washington Post: Villagers in three areas along the de facto border between Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir said this past week that they had fled their homes in fear after intense shelling and firing from the Indian side but that they did not believe India’s claim Thursday that it had sent armed troops to conduct late-night “surgical strikes” on militant targets there.

In several dozen interviews, residents of the Bhimber, Chamb and Sahmani districts adjoining the Line of Control said they had been jarred from sleep by the barrage of firepower Wednesday. But none said they had seen or heard anything that supported India’s claim that it carried out cross-border strikes on several staging areas for militant groups that left “double digits” of militants dead.”

These reports in the international media have been brought the Indian narrative of the cross border surgical strikes into question in what appears to be a snowball impact. In fact The Diplomat in an article by Shawn Snow has carried a report questioning India’s military capabilities with the headline “Is India Capable of a Surgical Strike in Pakistan Controlled Kashmir? A surgical strike operation by Indian forces begs the question of the military’s capability to launch such an attack.”

Constable further added in her report based largely on interviews with villagers in the area, “Under domestic pressure to retaliate, the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it had conducted a five-hour overnight paramilitary attack on several suspected terrorist camps, killing scores. Pakistan’s military claimed that it killed eight Indian soldiers in retaliatory fire and that two of its men had died when India shelled a border post in Sahmani.

A cross-border strike by India would be the first major breach of the Line of Control it has publicly acknowledged in years of hostile but cautious relations with Pakistan. In the past it has avoided an overt provocation that could risk a wider conflict, while accusing Pakistan of harboring and supporting terrorist groups.”

Riaz Haq said...

#India Army recording fake exercises as evidence for #Kashmir "#surgicalstrikes": #Indian Occupied #J&K legislator
http://www.firstpost.com/india/army-recording-fake-exercises-as-evidence-for-pok-surgical-strikes-jk-mla-sheikh-abdul-rashid-3036172.html

Amid the growing clamour for making public the evidence of the recent surgical strikes by India on terror launch pads in PoK, controversial Independent MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid on Wednesday said the Army was video graphing "fake exercises" in Leepa Valley near LoC to offer them as proof for the same.
The MLA from Langate in Kashmir's Kupwara district claimed that since the last three days, the Army was making footage of fake strikes in Leepa Valley in his constituency in order to show them as proof of the surgical strikes.

"Fake targets are being made and I want to tell the whole world that if they show some proof, it is of Leepa and is fake and we can prove it," he said. He alleged that there had been no firing at two of the five places where the Army claimed that it conducted the strikes.
"Two of the five places are in my area. I tried to know from the people and to the best of my knowledge, there has been no firing there for the past 20 days," the legislator said.
Alleging that the surgical strikes were a "drama to divert the attention from Kashmir", which has been reeling under violence for around three months, Rashid asked the Army to not fall into the hands of politicians .
"You (Army) claim to be a credible organisation. You should not enact drama for politicians, by virtue of which your credibility may get lost," he said. The MLA said Pakistan took international media to the LoC to show them that no such strikes were carried out.
If India was truthful in its claims, they would have also done the same, he said. He also asked India and Pakistan not to make Kashmir a "battleground" for their vested interests.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Hansraj Ahir said on Wednesday that the Army has handed over to the government video clips of the cross-LoC surgical strikes as per laid down procedure.

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi hiding behind the blood of jawans, doing 'dalali' of their sacrifice: Rahul Gandhi. #India http://toi.in/mywPGa via @timesofindia

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of playing politics over the "blood of jawans" who sacrificied their lives in Kashmir.
Targeting the Prime Minister over the surgical strikes, Rahul said " Jo hamare jawan hain jinhone apna khoon diya hai, Jammu and Kashmir mein khoon diya hai, jinhone Hindustan ke liye surgical strike kiye hain, unke khoon ke peeche aap chhupe hain. Unki aap dalali kar rahe ho. Yeh bilkul galat hai . {You (Modi) are hiding behind the blood of soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir and those who carried out the surgical strikes for India. You are exploiting their sacrifices, which is very wrong}
The Congress leader accused PM Modi of dividing the nation and trying to encash the sacrifice of the jawans.