Pakistan in Media

The News International, Pakistan, Friday, July 24, 2009
SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, complete strike will be observed, tomorrow, against the illegal detention of senior Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani under draconian Public Safety Act. Call for the strike has been given by the forum patronised by the senior leader.

According to Kashmir media service, the spokesman of the forum in a statement issued in Srinagar took strong exception to the politics of revenge adopted by the occupation authorities. He said that arrest of the veteran leader was aimed at not only to keep him away from the public but also a design to cause further deterioration to his health.
More

The News International, Pakistan, Saturday, July 11, 2009
HELD SRINAGAR: A judicial probe into the alleged rape and murder of two Kashmiri women, which triggered massive protests across the disputed Himalayan region, points to the involvement of Indian police, an official said on Friday.

Anti-India protests have raged across the Kashmir valley since the bodies of two Muslim women were found on May 29 in Shopian town, about 60 km south of Srinagar. Four protesters have died and hundreds have been injured. Locals say the two women, aged 17 and 22, were abducted, raped and killed by security forces. Authorities confirmed that the women were raped and ordered an investigation. “The involvement of some agency of the Jammu and Kashmir police in the present incident cannot be completely ruled out,” Abdul Rahim Rather, the state’s financial minister said, citing the Commission of Inquiry’s report on Friday.
More

Daily Times, Pakistan, Monday, July 06, 2009
SRINAGAR: Three suspected militants and an Indian soldier were killed in two separate gun battles in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), police said on Sunday.

The overnight gun battles took place during “cordon and search” operations launched by the Indian army and backed by counter-insurgency police in the districts of Kupwara and Rajouri.
More

The News International, Pakistan, Sunday, July 05, 2009
HELD SRINAGAR: The high court in the held Kashmir directed the police on Saturday to exhume the bodies of two women whose alleged rape and murder last month sparked massive anti-India demonstrations.

“The high court has ordered exhumation of the bodies for fresh post-mortem and collection of DNA samples,” Mian Qayyum, the president of Kashmir bar association, told reporters. However, the court has ordered to seek prior consent of the family before the bodies are exhumed. The high court has intervened in the case after being petitioned by the bar association.
More

Daily Times, Friday, July 03, 2009
COMMENT: Alok Rai
My Pakistani interlocutor assures me that it is the hour before dawn that is the darkest, that the present generation, even in Punjab, is ready to move out of this mutually destructive cycle and start a new chapter in the sad history of our sub-continent

(The present article grew out of a series of exchanges between two friends, one Indian, the other Pakistani. “Kashmir” is a problem with far-reaching consequences for both societies. It is important that members of civil society on both sides of the border talk to each other in a spirit of serious engagement, and so carry forward the people-to-people dialogue beyond the not insignificant level of biryani and banter. It is in that spirit that this view from India is offered.)
More

Daily Times, Thursday, July 02, 2009
SRINAGAR: India withdrew paramilitary troops on Wednesday from an Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) town where they shot dead four protesters to quell violent anti-India demonstrations in the past three days, the government said. Baramulla town in north IHK is the first town in the disputed region where local police will look after law and order. “It has been decided to replace paramilitary deployments in Baramulla with Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police immediately,” a government statement said. “The step has been taken to prevent further deaths,” AFP quoted a senior police officer. reuters/afp
Source

Daily Times, Thursday, July 02, 2009
NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday described the situation in Kashmir as “very fragile” and called for handling it with “great care”, as unrest continued in Kashmir and fresh clashes were reported throughout the region.

Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram told a press conference the situation in Kashmir demanded “effective administrative and political” intervention.
More

Daily Times, Pakistan, Thursday, June 25, 2009
SRINAGAR: Thousands of people in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) defied a ban on protest marches on Wednesday with a fresh demonstration over the alleged rape and murder of two young women by troops.
More

Sunday, Jun 21, 2009

NEW DELHI: It has now become apparent to the international community that the growing influence of the Taliban and radicalisation of Pakistan’s internal politics, and not Jammu and Kashmir, are the reasons for poor New Delhi-Islamabad relations, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said here on Saturday.

Speaking on foreign policy issues, party president Rajnath Singh said as long as the army in Pakistan did not accept working under a democratic civilian government, resolution of its internal problems would not be possible. He said the “myth” that India-Pakistan relations were linked to the issue of Kashmir was recently exploded, as attention now turned to the growing influence of the Taliban in Pakistan.
More

Daily Times, Pakistan
Saturday, June 13, 2009
SRINAGAR: As violence ebbs in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), India is planning to withdraw some troops from towns across the disputed Himalayan region, India’s home (Interior) minister said on Friday.

A partial withdrawal would mark the first troop reduction in the region’s urban areas since freedom fighters started their campaign 20 years ago.
Read More

Daily Times, Pakistan
Friday, June 12, 2009
By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: The US said on Thursday that it wants the Kashmir issue resolved in line with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir – a statement that reflects Pakistan’s stance on the long-standing dispute.

Addressing a press conference after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns – on a three-day visit to India – stunned reporters by saying that the Kashmir issue had to be settled in line with the aspirations of Kashmiris. “It remains our view that a resolution of that issue has to take into account wishes of the Kashmiri people,” he said.

Read More

Dawn, Pakistan
Wednesday, 03 Jun, 2009

RELATIVES claim the women were tortured, raped and killed after being abducted by Indian security forces. The authorities in Indian-held Kashmir, for their part, are withholding final judgment pending a judicial probe. For the time being, however, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah maintains that “the initial indication does not suggest either rape or murder” but rather death by drowning. The truth — if it is not covered up — is expected to be known within a month. But in the tinderbox that is occupied Kashmir, where souls have been brutalised for decades and passions run high, the verdict on the street is loud and clear. The bodies of the two women were found on Saturday in a shallow stream, which makes the ‘death by drowning argument’ unconvincing for most. India is seen as an occupying power by the majority of Kashmiris. Torture and wanton murder feature prominently in the track record of the forces enforcing New Delhi’s diktat in the region. For this reason, even relatively minor provocations by the security apparatus can trigger massive protests. And there is nothing minor about this latest incident. The alleged rape and murder of two women is a reprehensible crime no matter where it occurs. But when it happens in Kashmir, it is seen not only as a heinous crime but part and parcel of the reign of terror unleashed by occupiers. Quite understandably, horror and humiliation quickly lead to outrage in these circumstances, and it is not surprising that nearly 90 people have been injured in clashes with law-enforcement personnel since the incident came to light.

The Kashmiri struggle today bears little resemblance to the armed insurgency that was at its peak in the 1990s, when foreign militias were present in force in the valley. Cracking down hard on guerrilla fighters, many of them outsiders, is one thing and beating up protesters quite another. The freedom struggle now seen in Kashmir is a home-grown and largely peaceful movement. This is a sensible course to pursue for reports of militants trading fire with Indian forces do not win much support for the Kashmir cause internationally. Footage of civilian protesters facing the wrath of the police conveys the message far more effectively. So do pictures from Srinagar, a city that is often under virtual curfew and where fear stalks the streets in the form of the Indian forces. Times have changed and Delhi must see the need for negotiation and a gentler hand.

Source

Daily Times, Pakistan
Comment, Shahzad Chaudhry
Monday, May 25, 2009

Pakistan can be more secure socio-politically only if it is included in regional and global linkages as a trusted partner and equal player. It is imperative to understand the psychosocial make up of the Pakistani mind and its likely responses to emotive issues

The affable Hillary Clinton needs to play close attention to the second and more serious gaping hole in her president’s AfPak strategy: the absence of a cooperative geo-political security regime in the larger Af-Pak-Ind region — a direct interest of the Secretary’s own department.

The United States is in a unique and a historical position in terms of its influence with all three countries. Pakistan holds the key to the long-term stability of South and West Asia; an unstable or socially fragmented Pakistan could mean an entirely unstable Afghanistan, regardless of the quality and expanse of the democratic dispensation there, such is the interacting dynamic of social integration on both sides.

Also, the 28 million Pashtuns in Pakistan form the critical mass of Pashtun sentiment. Simply the neutralisation of Al Qaeda or the mitigation of the Taliban problem through on-going efforts alone will never be sufficient to leave a sustaining sense of either stability or security. And without stability there never will be security.

Inalienably, there is a need to provide a sense of assurance to the Pashtuns. To achieve so, Pakistan itself needs to be secure, stable and assured; this realisation is entirely missing from the proposed political construct of how the US wishes to deal with the region. The US emphasis continues to be on a transactional relationship for the returns that it seeks from Pakistan; this irks the Pakistani sense of self-respect, national pride and dignity.

Pakistan’s nuclear status haunts the western world mostly for the wrong reasons. It is not the command and control mechanisms that should be of any serious concern, since those are as good as any — and this statement is based on well founded knowledge of the structure. It is the insidious aspersions on the quality and character of the human resource engaged in the strategic programmes that betray a transparent and unsavoury attempt to demean Pakistan’s credentials as a nuclear power.

The US does not understand the very strong sense of nationalism that the nuclear programme evokes in the Pakistani people, which in a strange paradox becomes a shield against any attempt to retrench, dislodge or dismantle the capability. Such a reaction is practically embedded in the Pakistani character. Similarly, any effort to attach religious definition to Pakistan’s nuclear capability is mala fide and a figment of the western imagination. Pakistanis neither give the capability any religious association, nor do they accept such a classification.

For the much larger majority, Pakistani nationalistic pride will still override religious identification, something that the West, especially US, has failed to register; and something anyone wishing to do business with Pakistan should exploit to their advantage. More than the nuclear arsenal, it is the socio-political and economic instability of Pakistan that should haunt the world.

If there is anything that triggers Pakistan’s nationalistic sentiment even greater than the nuclear capability, it is events in the Indo-Pakistan context. That testifies to the shared history and socio-cultural commonalities, interspersed with significant variations, that became the driving force for the two-nation theory. This love-hate relationship is mutual and the basis of a psychotic infatuation between Indian and Pakistani societies. Neither is complete without the other; such is the compulsive nature of this relationship, whether in love or war.

This is not going to change soon. Better to acknowledge it and tie in the inextricability and mutuality through an inclusive and all-encompassing engagement than to deny it.

By excluding India from the larger mosaic of the declared American intent in the AfPak policy, the Americans have denied themselves the assurance of a sustainable secure and stable region. This is the missing kernel in the political stability equation for South Asia, seen as the major omission in the new strategy.

Socio-political stability, lying at the heart of regional stability, is the key to forging a cooperative regional mechanism built around shared stakes and progressive, prosperous futures. Trade, food safety nets, energy corridors and enhanced connectivity can weave threads of interdependence in the entire region that can only augur a better tomorrow.

To reach that end though, the prescriptive methodology will need to be replaced with an inclusive, cooperative framework, far different than what the new American establishment is currently willing to entertain. For necessary modifications to the geo-political design for South and West Asia, the US will have to view the region more carefully and not base its understanding around the Indian read of the situation alone.

Necessary modifications in the revised strategy should include resolution of age-old issues and the trust issues between the three neighbours. But for America to be the honest broker, it is imperative that its own credibility within the larger region too is established without doubt.

Two things can be done by the Americans straight away: one, provide a de facto acceptance to Pakistan’s nuclear status by concluding a treaty similar to the one signed with India, allowing Pakistan a level playing field. This would lay to rest the bogey that American ambivalence to Pakistan is intended to bring into dispute Pakistan’s nuclear assets, and that the US somehow wants to de-fang Pakistan of her nuclear capability.

Second, the US should use newly gained influence with India to encourage it to work with Pakistan to resolve long-standing issues. Since a Kashmir solution was almost ready about two years ago, it may need just a little more attention. With a resurgent Congress and a reassured and more confident Manmohan Singh, perhaps the time to remove the biggest strategic roadblock in the Indo-Pak relationship has arrived.

Without these two nations evolving their relationship on a more cooperative and even keel, a better future for South Asia can never be ensured; history stands witness to this reality. But, if that proves too sensitive as a triggering platform, the US could do well in arbitrating the more recent and pervasive issue of the management of shared water resources.

This could be a tough ask, only if the proposals do not agree with the US agenda in the region. And if these two or three cannot be a part of the US agenda, there is precious little that the US can ever hope for beyond the transactional objectives. There too, the credibility of intent will always be seriously questioned on both sides.

Even more disconcerting, the post-American environment will be greatly more fractious and unstable with newer issues coming to the fore. The American effort to expand, enlarge, re-equip and re-train the Afghan military, which may in future establish even deeper links with India, will place Pakistan in a crunch. This in turn is likely to push Pakistan into a corner.

Pakistan can be more secure socio-politically only if it is included in regional and global linkages as a trusted partner and equal player. Prescriptive hierarchies will be the anti-thesis of a stable end-state that should be the prime international objective. It is imperative to understand the psychosocial make up of the Pakistani mind and its likely responses to emotive issues. What may appear clever can only have countervailing consequences. Transparency and cooperative engagement alone could move the region forward smoothly.

The New York Times
Editorial
Published: May 18, 2009

The Indian National Congress party cannot afford a prolonged celebration after its overwhelming election victory. Much of the postvote analysis has focused on the daunting domestic agenda. But now that Congress has a stable mandate — and can shuck a fractious coalition — it is time for India to exercise the kind of regional and global leadership expected of a rising power.

It can start with neighboring Pakistan, arguably the most dangerous country on earth. A report in The Times on Monday reminds us just how dangerous: The United States believes Islamabad is rapidly expanding a nuclear arsenal thought to already contain 80 to 100 weapons.

We have consistently supported appropriate military aid and increased economic aid to help Pakistan fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, strengthen democratic institutions and improve the life of its people. Squandering precious resources on nuclear bombs is disgraceful when Pakistan is troubled by economic crisis and facing an insurgency that threatens its very existence.

Trying to keep up to 100 bombs from extremists is hard enough; expanding the nuclear stockpile makes the challenge worse. Officials in Washington are legitimately asking whether billions of dollars in proposed new assistance might be diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear program. They should demand assurances it will not be.

India is essential to what Pakistan will do. New Delhi exercised welcome restraint when it did not attack Pakistan after the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai by Pakistani-based extremists. But tensions remain high, and the Pakistani Army continues to view India as its main adversary. India should take the lead in initiating arms control talks with Pakistan and China. It should also declare its intention to stop producing nuclear weapons fuel, even before a proposed multinational treaty is negotiated. That would provide leverage for Washington and others to exhort Pakistan to do the same.

It is past time for India — stronger both economically and in international stature — to find a way to resolve tensions with Pakistan over Kashmir. If that festering sore cannot be addressed directly, then — as Stephen P. Cohen, a South Asia expert at the Brookings Institution, suggests — broader regional talks on environmental and water issues might be an interim way to find common ground. Ignoring Kashmir is no longer an option.

India has played a constructive role in helping rebuild Afghanistan, but it must take steps to allay Islamabad’s concerns that this is a plan to encircle Pakistan. It should foster regional trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan. More broadly, India must help to revive world trade talks by opening its markets. It could use its considerable trade clout with Iran, Sudan and Myanmar to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, end the genocide in Darfur and press Myanmar’s junta to expand human rights.

India is the dominant power in South Asia, but it has been hesitant to assume its responsibilities. The Congress Party has to do better — starting with Pakistan

Lalit K Jha
Washington, May 14 (PTI) The United States today said that it is "important" for Pakistan to eliminate the groups that carry out terror attacks against India.

"It is important for Pakistan to stop the groups that carry out terrorism in India. Absolutely," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher told a group of South Asian journalists here.

Boucher's remark comes at a time when Obama Administration is reluctant to support a Congressional legislation which puts this as a condition in lieu of the US aid to Islamabad.

However, Boucher indicated that the Administration is not in favour of putting such a clause in the legislation.

"We accept that we, the Congress and actually the Pakistani government have very similar goals... We do not want restrictions to make it impossible to achieve the goals that we all share," Boucher replied when asked about such legislation in the US House of Representatives, which calls for such a condition on Pakistan in lieu of tripling the non-military aid to Pakistan.

"There has never been any question in our mind that threat to Pakistan from terrorism, comes not just from groups fighting in Afghanistan and the groups that are up in the tribal areas. The groups that attack India presents a danger to Pakistan as well," the outgoing diplomat argued. PTI