Riaz Haq writes this data-driven blog to provide information, express his opinions and make comments on many topics. Subjects include personal activities, education, South Asia, South Asian community, regional and international affairs and US politics to financial markets. For investors interested in South Asia, Riaz has another blog called South Asia Investor at http://www.southasiainvestor.com and a YouTube video channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkrIDyFbC9N9evXYb9cA_gQ
On 14 February 2019, a terrorist attack near Pulwama in Kashmir killed 40 Indian soldiers. It has now come to light that Indian TV anchor Arnab Goswami had prior knowledge of it. He wrote in a WhatApp message to BARC TV rating company head Pratho Dasgupta on that day that his channel was “20 min ahead on the biggest terrorist attack of the year in Kashmir”. "This attack we have won like crazy", he added. Arnab Goswami has close ties to the nation's Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Modi's government implicated Pakistan and ordered air strikes in Balakot. These recent disclosures are raising serious questions about Pulwama and its aftermath. Was this a false flag operation carried out by Indian intelligence agencies to create a pretext for an attack on Pakistan? Was the killing of Indian soldiers in Pulwama orchestrated by the Modi government to win India's general elections that soon followed in April-May 2019? Could this reckless act by India's leader have escalated into a full-scale nuclear war with Pakistan, leading to hundreds of millions of deaths?
Goswami's WhatsApp Messages on Pulwama Attack
Arnab Goswami and Pratho Dasgupta have been indicted in Indian state of Maharashtra for manipulating television ratings of Republic TV. As part of the prosecution's case, Mumbai police have submitted evidence that includes transcripts of WhatsApp conversations between Goswami and Dasgupta which suggest that the former had prior knowledge of the Pulwama terrorist attack.
The transcript shows Goswami writing to Dasgupta on Feb 14, 2019, the day of the Pulwama attack: “Sir 20 min ahead on the biggest terrorist attack of the year in Kashmir....only only channel with a ground presence”. It begs the question: How did Goswami's channel manage to have its media team in Pulwama at the time of the attack without prior knowledge of what was going to happen? Who told them about it?
In addition to Pulwama attack, Goswami also had knowledge of Balakot bombing in Pakistan that Modi ordered on February 26, 2019. This again raises the question: How did Goswami learn about it?
This must be seen in the context of India's history of false flag operations, starting with Ganga Fokker aircraft hijacking in 1971. According to ex RAW official RK Yadav, the 1971 Fokker hijacking to Lahore was orchestrated by India's RAW. The staged hijacking was used by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as pretext for banning overflights of Pakistani passenger planes in 1971. Here's what Yadav wrote in his book:
"There was an agent of R&AW-Hashim Qureshi in Srinagar.......R&AW persuaded Hashim Qureshi to work for them.....After the plan was given final shape, on January 30, 1971, Hashim Qureshi along with another operative Ashraf Qureshi, his relative, was allowed to hijack a Fokker Friendship plane Ganga of Indian Airlines with 26 passengers on board, to take the plane to Lahore airport. R&AW allowed him to carry a grenade and a toy pistol inside the plane. Pakistani authorities at Lahore airport allowed the plane to land when they were informed that it had been hijacked by National Liberation Front activist militants of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. All India Radio soon made broadcast of this hijacking and the whole world was informed that the Pakistan Government was behind this hijacking...The incident overtly gave India the right opportunity which was planned by R.N. Kao, to cancel the flights of Pakistan over its territory which hampered the plans of Yahya Khan to send its troops by air to curb the political movement of Mujib in East Pakistan".
After reading the WhatsApp transcripts of Goswami's conversation with Dasgupta, it is hard to escape the conclusion that both Pulwama and Balakot were orchestrated and timed by Mr. Modi's Hindu Nationalist government to ensure BJP's win in 2019 elections. These were reckless actions that could have escalated into a major nuclear war between India and Pakistan. It was Pakistan's measured response to Indian provocation that prevented widespread destruction and the deaths of hundreds of millions of innocent people in South Asia and elsewhere.
Pulwama attack has confirmed what many have known for sometime: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mishandling of Kashmir issue has intensified homegrown insurgency in Indian- Occupied Kashmir. During the 28 years of Kashmir under Armed Forces Special Powers Act, an entire new generation of Kashmiris has grown up. This generation, represented by tech-savvy youngsters like Burhan Wani, has seen nothing but repression and violence committed by the Indian military against the people in Kashmir. They are more determined than ever to defy and defeat the illegal and immoral military occupation of their land by India.
Pulwama Attack:
The Pulwama attack that claimed the lives of over 40 members of India's paramilitary force was carried out by a young Kashmiri Adil Ahmad Dar using explosives obtained locally, according to former retired Indian commander General D.S. Hooda. “It is not possible to bring such massive amounts of explosives by infiltrating the border,” said Hooda, according to media reports.
The essence of Kashmir issue today is not Pulwama or Uri or Pathankot or similar other alleged "terrorist attacks"; it is India's brutal military occupation force of 700,000 heavily-armed Indian soldiers being resisted by over 10 million Kashmiris. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.
Armed Forces Special Powers Act:
India rules Kashmir using Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the same law that was created and used by the British colonial power to try and crush Gandhi's Quit India movement,
After independence in 1947, the Indian government has made extensive use of the same colonial-era British law to crush legitimate demands for freedom by the peoples of Assam, Manipur, Kashmir and other regions. The Act has now been in force in Kashmir for 28 years.
While Indian government claims Kashmir as an integral part of India, it undermines its own claim by denying fundamental rights to Kashmiris, the rights that are granted by the Indian constitution to all Indian citizens.
Basic Rights Denied:
Not only is the Indian government denying the right of self-determination granted to Kashmiris by multiple UN Security Council Resolutions, New Delhi is also reneging on the commitments made by India's founder and first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Kashmiris and the international community.
Indians allege that Pakistan violated the UNSC Resolution 47 (1948) calling for a plebiscite by refusing to withdraw its military from the territory of the state. What they don't acknowledge is that it was superseded by UNSC Resolution 80 (1950) that called for progressive demilitarization on both sides of the ceasefire line to limit the deployment of the number of Indian and Pakistani troops as determined by the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan.
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's Pledge
Professor Nivedita Menon of India's Jawaharlal University believes that "everyone knows that India is illegally occupying Kashmir". Here's what she told JNU students at a meeting on her university campus in New Delhi:
"Everyone knows that India is illegally occupying Kashmir. It is said the world over. Everybody accepts (it)....The map of India in foreign publications like Time and Newsweek show a different map of Kashmir. These copies of the magazines always create a lot of controversies and are censored and destroyed. When the whole world is talking about India's illegal occupation of Kashmir, then we should think the pro-azaadi (pro freedom) slogans in the valley are justified"
India is deploying 700,000 troops with extraordinary powers to detain, torture, blind, injure and kill any Kashmiri citizen with impunity under Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act 1990.
The extensive use pellet guns by Indian soldiers has blinded hundreds of young men and women, even children, during the current wave of mass protests.
Prior to casualties this latest round of protests, there have tens of thousands of civilians killed and hundreds of thousands injured by Indian military in Kashmir. Thousands of bodies have been found in mass graves in Bandipora, Baramulla, and Kupwara districts in Kashmir, according to The Hindu.
Kashmir Mass Graves:
Dr. Angana Chatterji, a professor of cultural and social anthropology at California Centre for Integral Studies who uncovered the mass graves, reported as follows: “Of the 2700 graves, 2,373 (87.9 percent) were unnamed. 154 graves contained two bodies each and 23 contained more than two cadavers. Within these 23 graves, the number of bodies ranged from 3 to 17."
Scholars, she said, refer to mass graves as resulting from Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes, or Genocide. “If the intent of a mass grave is to execute death with impunity, with intent to kill more than one, and to forge an unremitting representation of death, then, to that extent, the graves in Bandipora, Baramulla, and Kupwara are part of a collective burial by India’s military and paramilitary, creating a landscape of ‘mass burial.’
Dr. Chatterji said post-death, the bodies of the victims were routinely handled by military and paramilitary personnel, including the local police. She said that the bodies were then brought to “secret graveyards” primarily by personnel of the State Police.
The International Peoples' Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice, an independent group headed by Dr. Chatterji, alleged that the violence and militarization in Kashmir, between 1989-2009, have resulted in over 70,000 deaths, including through extrajudicial or “fake encounter” executions, custodial brutality, and other means. “In the enduring conflict, 6, 67,000 military and paramilitary personnel continue to act with impunity to regulate movement, law, and order across Kashmir,” she added.
Indian University Student Protest:
Many enlightened Indians like the Jawaharlal Nehru University students see the brutality and futility of Indian military occupation of Kashmir. At protests earlier this year, many chanted slogans in favor of Azadi for Kashmiris. "Geelani bole azaadi, Afzal bole azaadi, jo tum na doge azaadi, toh chheen ke lenge azadi! (Geelani and Afzal demanded freedom. If freedom is denied, we will snatch it!)". New Generation in Revolt:
During the 26 years of Kashmir under Armed Forces Special Powers Act, an entire new generation of Kashmiris has grown up. This generation, represented by tech-savvy youngsters like Burhan Wani, has seen nothing but repression and violence committed by the Indian military against their people. They are more determined than ever to defy and defeat the illegal and immoral military occupation of their land by India.
Summary:
Pulwama attack has confirmed what many have known for sometime: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mishandling of Kashmir issue has intensified homegrown insurgency in Indian- Occupied Kashmir.
The essence of Kashmir issue today is not Pulwama or Uri or Pathankot or similar other alleged "militant attacks"; it is India's brutal occupation of Kashmir by 700,000 heavily-armed Indian soldiers being resisted by over 10 million Kashmiris. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.
The use of brute force by 700,000 Indian troops over the last 28 years to crush the legitimate aspirations of millions of Kashmiris is backfiring. The more Kashmiris Indian military detains, tortures, injures, blinds and kills under Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the less sustainable is its hold on the territory. It is only a matter of time before India is forced to withdraw its troops and agree to let Kashmiris decide their own fate.
With the home-grown resistance of a new generation of Kashmiris against India's brutal military occupation turning into a full-blown insurgency, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing Hindu Nationalist government is trying desperately to divert attention from its human rights abuses by blaming Pakistan for Pulwama attack. Mr. Modi and his ministers are making war threats to "punish" Pakistan for Pulwama attack carried out by a local Kashmiri young man using explosives obtained locally. How will Mr. Modi "punish" Pakistan? Will India launch a full-frontal attack? Or do another "surgical strike" that Pakistan can deny? Or opt for covert warfare using its terrorist proxies?
Bharat Karnad
In a recently published Bloomberg Quint Op Ed on Pulwama attack in Indian Occupied Kashmir, a top Indian analyst Bharat Karnad has said that "it (TTP) is an asset for India to support and grow with moral and materiel support, and to develop". "Indeed, TTP’s fighting qualities are sufficiently developed and effective to simultaneously fight the Pakistan army in Pakistan and the U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan", Karnad adds.
During former US Defense Secretary James Mattis' visit to New Delhi in 2017, Bharat Karnad had also acknowledged TTP-RAW link in a Hindustan Times Op Ed in the following words:
"Mattis’ request that India moderate its support for TTP will put Delhi in a fix because TTP is useful as an Indian counterpart of the Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammad deployed by the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Jammu and Kashmir. Severing relations with TTP will mean India surrendering an active card in Pakistan and a role in Afghanistan as TTP additionally provides access to certain Afghan Taliban factions. This, together with the Abdul Ghani regime’s desire for India’s presence and the tested friendship with Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Tajik-dominated ‘Northern Alliance’, ensures that no solution for peace in Afghanistan can be cobbled together without India’s help."
Bharat Karnad is a Research Professor in National Security Studies at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. But Bharat Karnad is not alone in advocating the use of India's terrorist proxies against Pakistan. Since 2013, India's current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has been talking about "Pakistan's vulnerabilities" to terrorism and India's ability to take advantage of it. Here are excerpts of his speech at Sastra University: "How do you tackle Pakistan?.....We start working on Pakistan's vulnerabilities-- economic, internal security, political, isolating them internationally, it can be anything..... it can be defeating Pakistan's policies in Afghanistan...... You stop the terrorists by denying them weapons, funds and manpower. Deny them funds by countering with one-and-a-half times more funding. If they have 1200 crores give them 1800 crores and they are on our side...who are the Taliban fighting for? It's because they haven't got jobs or someone has misled them. The Taliban are mercenaries. So go for more of the covert thing (against Pakistan)..." Ajit Doval, India's National Security Advisor
Based on recent comments from Indian analysts and past pronouncements of senior India officials like Ajit Doval, I expect India to intensify its proxy war of terror against Pakistan.
Here's a video of Ajit Doval explaining his "Doval Doctrine":
