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.

Krishna's Dirty India

India does it again. When a senior White House official announced delaying Pakistan aid, the Indian foreign minister coundn't hide his glee, more like a kindergarten bully than a foreign minister of a large-sized country.

He welcomed the US move and dumped a heap of propaganda lines on Pakistan.

I laugh no end when I read for US officials swearing to us that India means us no harm, that we are wrong to think the Indians will wage war on us any chance they get, etc.

US officials are desperate to give India a larger role in Afghanistan and Central Asia, and they firmly want Pakistan under Indian wings.

But the truth is, India is a country that can never even dream of entering a war with China. Its multibillion dollar armament drive is meant for Pakistan, which is an obsession for India's ruling elite.

India is a big country but with the brain of a mouse. In 1971, long before there were any pro-Pakistan freedom groups in Kashmir, and long before there was Lashkar-e-Tayyeba or even an intifada in Kashmir, India invaded Pakistan while Pakistanis were busy in post-election bickering.

The Indians prepared a proxy terror militia and waited for a perfect opportunity, which came on the eve of the messy Pakistani elections in December of that year. The Indian invasion across international borders was totally unprovoked. Indian soldiers and their terror militia launched murders and rapes.

Today, India refuses to settle even minor border disputes with Pakistan that could build trust. It never lets go of any chance to harm Pakistan. When the EU offered concessions to Pakistani textiles in early 2011, India blocked them through a complaint to WTO. India is doing everything to steal Pakistan's water from Kashmiri rivers that India occupies by force. Pakistani artists are routinely threatened with the worst type of religious extremism on Indian soil, and there have been several cases of Pakistani artists beaten at the hands of Indian extremists.

[Recently, serving Indian army officers have been arrested for planting bombs in Indian cities and blame them on Pakistan to create an excuse to launch a war on that country.]

India is a country programmed to obsess about Pakistan and keen to harm it any chance it gets.

This explains Krishna's tastelessly gleeful remarks on US refusing to pay Pakistan money owed for facilitating US war in Afghanistan.

Watch out for India exploiting every opportunity to harm Pakistan, regardless of the American sales pitch on Indian intentions.

India Bans The Economist

This is a must read. The world's largest democracy has just banned the latest edition of The Economist magazine. I have always said that western media, and especially the American-British media, or what I like to call the Am-Brit media, treats India with kid gloves.

I mean, imagine the world's largest democracy becoming home to 21st century's first genocide: over 2,000 Indians burned alive in a matter of three days for being followers of the wrong religion?

It happened, in 2002, in western Indian state of Gujrat. Did you hear about it? No. Did the world, the United Nations, or the EU take note? Not at all. Why? One reason is that those murdered were Muslims. But also because the culrpit in this case was India, a country that the United States is grooming to replace American and British soldiers in fighting their wars in regions close to India. Indian soldiers are cheap compared to the yanks and Brits. And there are plenty of them so India can absorb massive human losses. And thus India gets away with stuff that no other country would. For example, in 2000, two young boys, less than 10 years old, and their father, an Australian missionary, were burned alive by a mob of Hindu extremists and fundamentalists. Nothing could save the kids and their father, not even the fact that they spent months distributing food for free among poor Indians.  Imagine this happening in China, or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, or Zimbabwe or Venezuela, or in any other country that Washington and London are not good friends with.  But since this happened in India, no one knows about it. There wasn't even a whimper from Australia when three of its citizens were murdered in the most brutal way possible.

So it is significant when The Economist writes that Pakistan and China are not as bad when it comes to censorship as India is. And it is more significant when the BBC seconds The Economist and accuses India of harassing the BBC and other media outlets operating inside India.

I have been saying for some time now that Pakistan is more liberal and tolerant than India is. For five years or so of Composite Dialogue, we receved groups of private Indian citizens in Pakistan as part of the people-to-people exchange between the two countries. Pakistani delegations that would visit India would freely interact with India media, criticize Pakistani policies where necessary and call for peace.  Surprisingly, we saw no such thing with the Indian delegations in Pakistan. They were all independent Indian activisits and citizens with no affiliation to Indian government, but they would dare not deviate from the official Indian position on any issue, be it Kashmir or concessions for peace. You could see they were all following the same talking points.

This and other points are explained in this excellent report titled, World's Largest Democracy Censors A British Magazine.

Video: In Four Minutes, The Story Of Kashmir Genocide

Forget the decades-old history of the Indian invasion and occupation of Kashmir, and the UN resolutions asking New Delhi to vacate the region. Here, in less than four minutes, you can cover this decades-old tragedy.