A Great Kashmir Day In 2012

The birthday of our Prophet, PBUH, coincided with Kashmir Solidarity Day this year. This is a blessing for one important reason: Kashmiris are on the rise again.

Yes, you might not read this in NYT, but for the first time since 1947, Kashmir is totally out of #Indian occupation army's control.

This is even better than 1989's intifada in Kashmir. Now, almost every segment of Kashmiris has risen against Indian occupation.

Similar good news are coming from Pakistan too.

After six years of the failed Composite Dialogue and the 4-point formula of Mr. Musharraf, Pakistan is back to where it was before 2004.

This means that Islamabad has quietly ditched the soft policy of the past several years. Now, Pakistan is back to the blunt support to Kashmiris. One small sign of this is that orders were issued in recent months to all federal and provincial government departments to show Kashmir as part of Pakistan on all maps. Pakistani media has been advised to do the same.

That's a small sign. As for bigger signs, well, let's just say that one reason India is trying to act friendly to Pakistan in recent months is that they are sure any Pakistani direct support to Kashmiri resistance now would create a real nightmare for occupation soldiers. Of course, Pakistan doesn't need to do that. Kashmiris are doing just that by themselves.

So, let's salute the brave people of Kashmir, the teenagers, the mothers, the sisters, the heroes who are fighting one of the most brutal occupations in the world today.

NOTE:

For a full coverage of Indian genocide in Kashmir, click here.
For the latest images from Kashmir Spring, click here. 

Kashmir Won't Go Away

In July, CIA attempted to harm Pakistan's most important national security priority: Kashmir, a territory that is under Indian occupation since 1948. Out of nowhere, the US spy agency arrested Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, a soft-spoken American who migrated from the Indian-occupied territory and set up a Kashmir center in Washington to raise the voice of his people.

The US government claimed the American-Kashmiri activist was a Pakistani spy out to influence US politicians on Kashmir.

Now, two months later, legal experts say he was arrested on little or no evidence. Evidence is mounting that US authorities arrested him for the media effect. In their desperation to harm Kashmiri and Pakistani interests, US authorities went as far as casting doubt on Kashmiri activists and groups active in Europe.

The arrest itself is not the issue here. It's the well-crafted media campaign that accompanied Mr. Fai's arrest.

The CIA circulated several stories in major US news outlets. These stories had one objective: to permanently damage Pakistan's international case on Kashmir. The campaign had little effect on Pakistanis except to further worsen US-Pakistan ties. The CIA made it clear where it stood on that count. [Pakistani officials, dismissing CIA's July move, say Pakistan's Kashmir case remains strong, based on UN resolutions that India had accepted. More importantly, the case is bolstered by courage of Kashmiris in confronting and embarrassing India's military machine.]

Americans are keen to brush Kashmir under the carpet. That is the only way they can tell Pakistanis, 'See, you don't have a problem with India, so start cooperating on granting India military and strategic access to Afghanistan.'

This access is not possible with using Pakistani land routes and airspace, and Pakistan will not go along unless the international dispute of Kashmir is resolved.

Washington's plans to induct India in Afghanistan as a cheaper replacement for the expensive American and NATO deployment there have been hampered by Pakistani objections. Those plans lie in tatters now.

Dr. Fai's arrest was CIA's response to Pakistani decision to restrict the agency's illegal activities inside Pakistan.

It was also a cheap attempt at appeasing the Indians as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited India, where she made sure to ignore the massive human rights violations and the rapes of Kashmiri women by Indian soldiers, as documented by various international human rights organizations.

But despite the best efforts of the Indians and the Americans, Kashmir won't go away.

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera has recently published an excellent dossier on happenings inside Kashmir, where a half a million plus Indian soldiers cram a tiny region.

And its latest report by a Kashmiri eyewitness is a strong indictment of India on the discovery of mass graves in the territory, mostly men and boys summarily executed by Indian soldiers, and some local women kidnapped and buried.