Saturday, December 25, 2010

Harnessing the Himalayan bounties


Satellite image of the Indus River basin. Red ...
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Pakistan is at the vortex of three towering and magnificent mountain ranges-- the Grand Himalayas, the majestic Karakorum and the ruthless and bloody Hidukush. This confluence of the highest mountains in the world "creates space for shared economic development and security and stability in the adjacent regions."

"Dams being built in the Himalayan region can produce energy, sustain agriculture, conserve water, promote fisheries, and sustain communities": Ambassador Masood Khan speaking at a seminar titled "Stability and Development of Himalayan Areas" at Southwestern University of Political Science and Law.

The Indus brings water, and silt which is instrumental in crop growth. The Glaciers also bring floods and misery to the people.  The Indus joins Pakistan and China in friendship and divides Pakistan ad Bharat in perpetual Hydro Wars.

The Himalyas have been the fountainhead, and the lifeblood of the people of the Indus. World experts  gather together periodically to discover the potential and unmask the mysteries. "Ms. Sujata Koirala, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Nepal was the Chief Guest on the occasion. Zhang Guolin Secretary General of CPC, Southwest University of Political Science and Law and Professor Li Xiguang, Director Chinese Academy of World Agendas were also present."

  • Ambassador Masood Khan said that we can use the abundant resources of Himalayas to reduce poverty, adding it is also our collective responsibility to preserve the biodiversity, ethnic richness, and cultural heritage of the Himalayas.

  • Pakistan has welcomed China's investment in hydropower sector, Khan said adding "with the support of Chinese Government's concessional credit lines as well as credit insurance, we have been able to attract top Chinese companies to invest in Pakistan's hydel sector".

  • The major Chinese companies, which include CWE, Gezhouba, DEC have been working on small and large projects. Our collaboration on Kohala and Neelam-Jhelum projects has been successful. Now, we are looking at even bigger projects like Bunji, Diamar-Bhasha, and Dasu, said Ambassador Khan.

  • He said that the "Abode of Snow", as the Himalayas are literally called, are the most glaciated region outside the North and South Poles. The glaciers and waters of the Himalayas are a source of life, livelihoods, and sustenance in our region. Hydro World.


The Himalayas present mountains of opportunities to overcome the loads of issues that are presented to the South Asians. The Himalayas have been the life line for the people of the Indus for thousands of years. Pakistanis five thousand years ago were drinking the water from the Himalayas, using the glacier water for trade, and harnessing the energy in terms of small "pan chakkis" or water dams. Bharat at the peak of the Indus valley was jungle and and Ganges Valley did not have a civilization. That came later--centuries later.

  • "At least 1.3 billion people are directly and half of humanity is indirectly dependent on them. Such is the importance of the Himalayas

  • which is the backbone of multiple adjoining regions," Ambassador Khan observed.

  • He pointed out that 14 of the highest peaks in the world are located

  • in these diverse mountain ranges spreading from the Karakorum all the way to the Tibetan Plateau. They inspire people and lift their spirits. For many the Himalayas have sacred and religious value.

  • The Himalayas, he said are truly a global heritage, as they have been over the centuries overseeing the interchange of civilizations from the Indus Valley to the Tibetan Plateau to the Brahmaputra Basin.

  • "The Himalayas Mountains do not divide but unite South Asia, China and South East Asia. The 2,400-km long arc of the Himalayas thus constitutes a "trans-border", not a border".

  • The Indus and Sutlej rivers, for instance, originate from the Himalayas, but run through the lands of Pakistan. Similarly, the Mahakali, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra start from the Himalayas, pass through South Asian lands and flow into the oceans and seas.

  • The Himalayas join at least six countries "Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Nepal, and Bhutan" and many regions as common eco-systems with shared geography and topography, he added.

  • It is therefore our collective responsibility to preserve biodiversity, ethnic richness, and cultural heritage of the Himalayas, he said, adding we can use the abundant resources of the Himalayas to reduce poverty. Hydro World.


Kashmir Life reports that "Pakistan had earlier raised objections over the 240 MW Uri-II project being constructed on Jhelum River in Jammu and Kashmir and the 44 MW Chutak plant being built on Suru, a tributary of Indus River in Kargil district. This was, perhaps for the first time that Pakistan has accepted the designs of power projects at the level of Permanent Indus Commission. Earlier, it took a ministerial meeting to make Pakistan agree to Salal Power Project.".

Through subterfuge and lies, Bharat has been able to get control of water that flows down through Kashmir. While Bharat's Aqua wars continue unabated, Pakistan has to deal with the new realities. Internal consensus and an army of engineers is needed to overcome some of the impediments faced by the nation.

It can also become the most visible and the massive project for environmental protection. We must work together to reduce the impact of climate change on this precious network of ecosystems, Khan noted.

  • Recently, Ambassador Khan said, Premier Wen Jiabao paid a successful visit to Pakistan.

  • During the visit, the two sides affirmed that Pakistan-China relations have gone beyond bilateral dimensions and acquired broader regional and international ramifications.

  • We also said that friendship between Pakistan and China serve the fundamental interests of the two countries and the peoples, and contribute to peace, stability and development in the region and beyond.

  • Pakistan and China would explore the feasibility of establishing joint programmes on environmental studies, in particular research and exchange of information on shared ecosystems.

  • "We have decided to set up an Energy Cooperation Mechanism to push forward cooperation in conventional, renewable, and civil nuclear energy" he observed.

  • South Asia and China are water stressed regions. It is important for us to develop a regional approach on waters, glacier melting, water conservation and watershed management.

  • We also need to use the Himalayas and the related mountain chains for enhancing connectivity through more road and rail links.

  • "If centuries ago, Fa Xian and Xuan Zang could cross mountains, we can do so much more easily by using modern technology for the good of humanity" Khan stressed. Hydro World.


Hydro world reports that the water resources are a rich means of hydroelectric energy and described the launching of Institute of Himalyas Studies in Chongqing city.

  • He expressed the confidence that the Institute of the Himalayas will help us realize this dream by means of precise and well targeted research and deeper understanding of the Himalayan region.

  • "I am sure the Institute, under the guidance of its leadership and in the supportive environment of Chongqing, will conduct very valuable studies on Himalayan glaciers, judicious use of water resources, climate change, and flora and fauna. But, most importantly, the Institute can emerge as a vehicle for dialogue on the Himalayas to promote stability, security and stability in the region" he said.

  • China, he said is an active observer of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The Himalayas can become a catalyst for even closer relations between the two regions. Hydro World.


The Indus Water Treaty is a colossal bone of contention between the two South Asian giants. Prime Minister Syed Jammat has finally fired Ali Shah. He had been  Indus Water Treaty Commissioner for more than a decade. According to news reports he was unceremoniously removed  by Islamabad last week.

Kashmir Life reports that "The development came at a juncture when Pakistan had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the 330 MW Kishanganga project coming up in Bandipora district in scenic Gurez Valley. Pakistan’s objections are that diversion of waters from Kishanganga rivulet (also called Neelam) would leave almost a 100 km stretch of Neelam Valley across the LoC barren. Pakistani sources say, he was replaced because of “his persistent differences with Assistant Advisor to Prime Minister on Water, Kamal Majidullah on some sensitive issues.".

Commissioner Shah had been the target of intense criticism and was much despised by nationalists who claimed that mr. Shah had not properly represented Pakistan's case in front of the Bharatis. Commissioner Shah was replaced by Sheraz Memon, an official of Sindh Irrigation Department.

The Himalayan Indus still offers opportunity to the people of South Asia. It is up to the people of South Asia who need to harness it for the collective good of the people of the region.

Sources: The Tsinghua International Center for Communication Studies, the Chinese Academy of World Agendas, and Southwest University of Political Science and Law on the inauguration of the Institute of the Himalayas Studies Published by HT Syndication with permission from Right Vision News. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com. Pakistan: Himalyas water resources rich of hydroelectric power generation: Pak envoy. Right Vision News, December 30, 2010
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Saturday, November 20, 2010

The Truth about Sonia Gandhi


Sonia Gandhi, Indian politician, president of ...
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The Recent vitril by the former chief of the RSS is not a new thing--the RSS stalwarts in public and private gatherings have express similar sentiments about Mrs. Sonia Gandhi--and these sentiments are responsible for her current position outside the government. When there were rumors of her being presented as the PM of Bharat, it was these forces that sabotaged it, and it the very same forces that do not allow her a position in the government.

Former RSS chief K S Sudarshan was today in the eye of a storm following his derogatory remarks against Sonia Gandhi, provoking the Congress to launch an offensive against the sangh parivar. On its  part, the RSS distanced itself from the controversial comments. Reacting angrily to Sudarshan's AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said that the reaction of the society should be such that no one dare speak in such language in future.

Branding Sudarshan as a "fossil", he lamented that a person associated with an organisation which boasts of culture and decency should stoop so low by using such a derogatory language and make false charges.

"If someone gets agitated then who is responsible... everybody has a right to oppose such things... if Congressmen and people the country do something (untoward), they (RSS) will be responsible for it," Dwivedi said.

Congress members also rocked Parliament over the issue, with treasury bench members in the Rajya Sabha storming the Well holding copies of a Hindi daily in which Sudarshan's comments appeared.

Hitting out at Sudarshan, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal said the Sangh leader has lost his mental balance and demanded an apology from the BJP.

While interacting with the media in Bhopal yesterday, Sudarshan had called Gandhi a CIA agent and accused her of plotting assassinations of her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his mother Indira Gandhi.

"The BJP, which draws its inspiration from the RSS, should apologise for it," Bansal told reporters outside Parliament.

Seeking to steer clear from the controversy, the BJP distanced itself from Sudershan's statement, saying Gandhi was an elected representative and should be treated with respect.

"As a democratically elected leader she (Gandhi) should be respected. She is the chairperson of a ruling coalition and as a democratically elected Indian leader she deserves our respect. Whatever political differences we have with her must be addressed within an accepted, democratic framework and behaviour," BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay said here.

The RSS distanced itself from the issue, saying Sudarshan's views were not that of the organisation.

"The RSS has noted with concern reports in a section of the media attributing it to former Sar Sanghchalak K S Sudarshan. However, those are not the opinions of the RSS," the organisation's spokesperson Ram Madhav told PTI.

Bharatian adds:

Sonia was born in1944 in Luciana in Italy as per her birth certificate submitted to our Government earlier. Her father Stefano Maino a Nazi was in a Russian prison from 1942 to 1945. Sonia’s marriage time it was reported that Rajeev and Sonia were of the same age. Thus Sonia should have been an illegitimate child. So a new birth date of 1946 was created and the place of birth became Orbassano in Italy and the name became Sonia which is uncommon in Italy. In 1966 she was working in London for a [PPPP] operative Salman Thassir (now Governor of Pakistani Punjab).

KGB’s deposit of US $2 billion in a Swiss bank account in 1985 in the “minor” account of Rahul Gandhi managed by his mother Antonia Maino alias Sonia Gandhi as per Schweitzer Illustrierte, a Swiss magazine. Archives of the KGB made public has a letter showing regular payment of commission by KGB to Ms.Sonia Gandhi and the Maino family in Italy. When Sonia came to power, Russia called back its Ambassador and posted an ex KGB chief in New Delhi of 1970s as the new ambassador. India made urgent payment to Russia without price negotiation for our contracts..

Italy wanted India to close case on Quattrocchi in 2003 Sonia marrying Rajiv is not a simple boy meets the girl thing, but could be a planned operation by the Vatican. Sonia was groomed and presented in front of Rajiv Gandhi by KGB, to hook Rajiv which was successful. Subsequently Rajiv marries Sonia. bharatian@oneindia.in. 2010/11/12 at 8:09 pm
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Friday, November 19, 2010

Tiger Elephant play in Islamabad


The Cold War
The Cold War or as Humayun Gauya calls it--the 3rd world war  Wikipedia


Humayun Gauhar has written a prodigious article on the tempest in a tea-pot in Delhi. There were a lot of statements made for the consumption of the media in Delhi. We would however like to challenge the the hocus-pocus of creating 50,000 jobs is far removed from reality. The jobs mantra is to try to stem the tide of the Anti-Outsourcing legislation that is coming down the pike. In fact $10 Billion doesn't really create that many jobs. Much has been written on how complicated it is to create high level defense jobs.

To put things in perspective The American defense budget is larger than the GDP of India. The US spends $10 billion in a few days in Afghanistan. According to some estimates it has spent more than $3 Trillion in the past decade. Trumpeting $10 billion is funny to say the least.

The Bharati GDP is smaller than the GDP of tine Benelux countries of Europe. The US just signed a $60 billion defense deal with Saudi Arabia, without the hoopla of a state visit or the bad dancing. The Gulf States are in the midst of signing defense deals with the US worth $120 billion. The US president didn't take 3000 people to the Gulf and didn't spend $200 million per day on the trip--or a fraction thereof if the White House is to be believed.

China is now building a lot of Boeing, Airbus parts, and is exporting planes to airlines. Its trade with the US exceeds $5000 billion (mainly exports to the US) dwarfing Bharat's trade (mainly imports from the US) $50 billion. China's trade surplus with the US is no laughing matter--it is a major chunk of the Bharati GDP. Bharati trade with US measures to less than 2% of US trade. Bharat has nothing to sell to the US except Call-Center Services which total only $50 billion per annum--and this industry is now facing a colossal backlash from the businesses in America.  Bharat has not been able to produce products or software which Americans want to buy. Mangoes don't count. The influx of 100,000 students to the US has not impacted Bharat's trade balance or its basic infrastructure. The Indians simply buy motels and Subways.

Opening up to the West has impacted India in a negative manner. While it has created a couple of billionaries, the latest slide in HDI indices show that the Bharati general population has not benefited from the money--most of money now hidden in overseas account. The increase in trade has taken corruption to astronomical levels where $1.5 Trillion is sitting in Swiss banks. The Bharati PM is engulfed in theft personally attributed to him worth $29 billion. The opposition BJP holds him personally culpable. The recent CWG games vividly described the sorry state of corruption and incompetence in Delhi. The failed Kevari and LCA (was supposed to be the mainstay of the IAF) defense project are just shining examples of how money can be wasted without any results.

If the US wanted to send a message to China, then we are right on the money--however Obama's support for Delhi runs counter to any logic on the subject. Chinese help is necessary, indeed crucial to expand the UNSC. If the Obama Administration really wanted to help Delhi, it would have worked behind the scenes with Beijing to get India in the UNSC. How silly is it to stand in Delhi, show Bharat as a long term partner, display India as a counter-weight to China, and then announce support for India's UNSC hopes. Wouldn't that kill any chance of China witholding the veto? Why would China allow another US ally to get into the UNSC so that both of them can pass resolutions on Tibet, Taiwan, South China Sea and the disputed islands.

It doesn't really make sense.

Here is how the Indian press would have us believe it sounds "Hey! China--Screw you! The US has  a new buddy, that we are building to a challenge you. BTW: will you let our new partner India in the UNSC, so both of us can harass you on Tibet and Taiwan".

In all likelihood, Obama was trying to salvage a failed trip to Delhi and used a carefully crafted line in the parliament to assuage fears of an Anti-US backlash. In all likelihood Beijing already knew about the "we will welcome India--sometime in the future--if India listens to us" statement. Those Neocon PNACers who envisage India as an Anti-China Counterweight are in the minority and are on the wrong path.

President Obama's UNSC announcement has to be taken with a grain of salt--actually it would require a Sahara desert of salt to digest it. The US doesn't hold all the cards in the UN--despite the fact that the UN is billed as a US Club. The waning Superpower wants to push in acolytes which will help it numerically--however the Africans, and the CFC will fight the G4 tooth and nail. The Forbes map of Africa with a Chinese flag on it is the reality of Africa. Beijing's investment in all of Africa is unprecedented and dwarfs American presence on the Black continent. Africa would never go against China. The new world let by China will not allow the status quo to be maintained, and surely it would not allow a Chinese enemy in the UN--at lest not with veto powers.

Mr. Gauhar, a seasoned analyst has described the 4th world war and the growth of Chinese power in the news century.

What a silly storm in a small Indian teacup. We should be looking at the Chinese teacup. Obama goes to India to get something, flatters to sell by saying what the Indians wish to hear and the sated go ape. The wretched of the earth could not give a fig. They want food. Flattery is marketing, my dear compatriots, it’s all marketing. Those who fall for it soon come a cropper. There’s no gainsaying that the Indians fell for such crass K&F – kowtowing and flattery.

Obama went to India with two objectives:

1. To get orders for US products to help kick start his economy and create jobs in his country. For this he offered India some lollipops that may not get past the new Congress.

2. To send China the message that the great USA is standing in India’s corner. China has been turning up the heat on India since early last year.

Should Obama have come to Pakistan too? Certainly not. Better this than the disgraceful six-hour Clinton visit, when he closed down our capital, changed the airport-to-city road to the wrong side, refused to be photographed with our president, lectured our chief justice at a luncheon not to hang Nawaz Sharif (no one was going to hang him anyway) and then had the gall to lecture us too. More to the point, we let him do all it.

America has now lumped Pakistan with Afghanistan, Iran and the Central Asian Republics, not South Asia. That’s their business. It’s their way of looking at things. Lumping on the basis of strategic considerations is clearer than lumping according to geographical convenience.

Is China quaking? Obama has climbed the back of an Indian elephant to kill the Chinese tiger. China can appear in many incarnations. It can also become an ant – who is better at guerilla warfare? An ant is like a guerilla that climbs up an elephant’s trunk and drives it crazy, until it is dead. Those who are riding it fall off and are crushed by the elephant or eaten when the ant reincarnates itself as a tiger. America should know this, if nothing else from Vietnam and Korea. If it still doesn’t, sheer need for survival will, hopefully, make it understand. Obama’s India visit should be viewed in this context.

We are in the throes of that rare seminal change that is caused by the collapse of a World Order. The period of transition turns order into disorder. The usual catalyst is acute financial strain caused by military misadventures that throw up internal contradictions long hidden beneath the surface. Stability returns only when a new order has been painfully forged with global and regional power shifting wholly or partially elsewhere, only to go again with the next great flux. Such is the ebb and flow of world power.

Today’s flux is greater than those caused in the aftermath of the two World Wars with the Great Depression thrown in between. The map of Europe changed after both. Power shifted from a tired Europe to a budding United States and the Soviet Union after the Second World War, with the latter drawing down what Churchill called the ‘Iron Curtain’, resulting in the ‘Cold War’. The US became a new kind of superpower, largely without conquest and direct control – colonization without responsibility. We saw the advent of consensual rather than coercive hegemony. Instead of conquering and occupying territory (until Afghanistan and Iraq) like the European colonizers had done and the Soviets were still doing, America won world market shares and influence not only through great international marketing but more via economic domination by making countries indebted to it and its institutions. Countries always faced the threat of being left out in the cold (sanctions) – the redoubtable carrot and stick policy rather than the European Divide and Rule doctrine.

America had learned well the lessons imparted by two of its early presidents. George Washington realized that America had fought its War of Independence against the British with British weapons. This was unacceptable. He set America on the course of producing its own arms and ammunition, and later marketing some often through the old gunrunner turned ‘agent’. No country was sovereign unless it was self-sufficient in defense. Quincy Adams declared that hegemony could be achieved by force or by making countries indebted – that was the advent of consensual hegemony. Loans were given to create a false dawn of growth. Countries forgot the obvious doctrine of self-reliance. Loans became drugs and the countries became completely dependent on them, junkies at the mercy of the drug peddler and his touts. You see the results today. After the demise of the Gold Standard and the illusion of the ‘mighty dollar’ as the benchmark currency of exchange, America’s headiness made it forget this cardinal principle and it became dangerously indebted to China. You see the results of that too today.

The Cold War was the Third World War, with the world largely divided between the US and the Soviet Blocs. And just as WWI became a new kind of war with the first-time use of aerial power and WWII with nuclear bombs, the Cold War was a new kind of war fought neither by conventional nor nuclear weapons but by the threat of the use of them. Like all wars, it too was about the control of world market shares and access to cheap labour, raw materials and markets made captive by economic dependence caused by increasing indebtedness to the US and its instruments. Proof lies in the fact that not one developing country has come out of the pejorative Third World category because of the Bretton Woods institutions. The Cold War ended with the demise of the Soviet Union and the US acquiring the mantle of sole superpower.

From 1990, we saw the dawn of a uni-polar world. It had to be brief. Unable to function outside an adversarial framework, America saw enemies where there were none. Instead, it chose to become the global bully led for eight years by the global village idiot. We then saw the advent of the Fourth World War with the events of 9/11, which is also a new kind of war. America has all but lost it in Afghanistan and is dangerously dependent on Pakistan to pull its chestnuts out of the fire.

Only one country remained outside the two main superpower blocs during the Cold War, its strength coming from its strong ideology. That was China. And it is China and only China that is emerging as the new superpower, to share global power and influence with a diminished United States. Whether it leads to another US-China Cold War remains to be seen, but if it does it will be a war America cannot win. I therefore hope that America realizes that it can extract greater mileage if it works with China. That will require an extraordinary leap of maturity on its part, something that has been lacking since it acquired superpower status. It may be forced to learn now, since I find it difficult to accept that it won’t realize that in an adversarial relationship with China it will be the ultimate loser. Both have a cooperative relationship with one another because right now both are dangerously dependent on one another. Andreas Lorenz calls this new possible relationship ‘The Rise of Chimerica’.

Now with another economic crisis triggered by the Afghan and Iraq wars, the uni-polar world is giving way to a multi-polar world as power shifts from West to East, from the US to China. The new Great Powers will have to again carve out the world into spheres of influence as they did in Yalta after World War II.

To survive, America will have to share global power with China, and with Russia and perhaps Germany too getting some share of the pie. That could happen in Shanghai under the umbrella of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with perhaps a new global currency, something new as benchmark and a new United Nations. Where does India come into this equation – or for that matter and the so-called ‘Muslim World’? Indian elephant, Chinese tiger, Humayun Gauhar. humayun.gauhar786@gmail.com
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Kashmir is an international dispute: UN


Marking the three regions of the Indian state ...
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UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations Tuesday set the record straight when it declared that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains on the UN Security Council’s agenda, while rejecting as “inaccurate” that it has been removed from the list of unresolved issues.

“Some articles today on Kashmir are inaccurate,” UN Spokesman Farhan Haq said, referring to those reports, especially in Indian media.
He said the latest list of matters the Security Council is seized of “continues to include the agenda item under which the Council has taken up Kashmir which, by a decision of the Council, remains on the list for this year,” the spokesman added.

Earlier, a spokesman for the Pakistan Mission clarified that Pakistan’s Acting Ambassador Amjad Hussain Sial, in his speech to the General Assembly on Friday, November 12, had referred to the omission of Jammu and Kashmir dispute in a statement by the President of the Security Council, and not from the Council’s Annual Report - as reported in a section of press.

“The agenda item entitled, ‘India and Pakistan Question’, which covers Jammu and Kashmir dispute, is duly mentioned in the Annual Report of the Security Council and is also present on its agenda,” Spokesman Mian Jehangir Iqbal said in a statement.

In his statement, the 15-member Council’s President for the current month, British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, while presenting the Annual Report to the 192-member assembly, did not mention the Kashmir dispute in the context of unresolved long-running situations, despite the fact decades-old issue is included in the Annual Report.

“We understand this was an inadvertent omission, as Jammu and Kashmir is one of the oldest disputes on agenda of the Security Council,” Ambassador Sial remarked, after Ambassador Grant’s statem-ent.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon, who is on a visit to Pakistan, said there was no question of the Kashmir issue being dropped from the Council’s agenda. “The Security Council Report in its annexure is explicit,” he said in a statement.

“The President of the Security Council, the Permanent Representative of the UK, is amply clear on the subject and is cognizant of the matter. I would request all concerned not to speculate unnecessarily upon the subject”.
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Sunday, November 14, 2010

Massacre of 1 million Non-Bengalis by Mukti Bahani and India

Excerpts from "Blood and Tears" Book by Qutubuddin Aziz

Looking at the tragic events of March 1971 in retrospect, I must confess that even I, although my press service commanded a sizeable network of district correspondents in the interior of East Pakistan, was not fully aware of the scale, ferocity and dimension of the province-wide massacre of the non-Banglis.

[caption id="attachment_757" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Mukti Bahini trained by the Indian Army to conduct terror in Muslim Bengal"][/caption]

I must stress, with all the force and sincerity at my command, that this bock is not intended to be a racist indictment of the Bengalis as a nation. In writing and publishing this book, I am not motivated by any revanchist obsession or a wish to condemn my erstwhile Bengali compatriots as a nation. Just as it is stupid to condemn the great German people for the sins of the Nazis, it would be foolish to blame the Bengali people as a whole for the dark deeds of the Awami League militants and their accomplices.

[gallery]

I have incorporated in this book the acts of heroism and courage of those brave and patriotic Bengalis who sheltered and protected, at great peril to themselves, their terror-stricken non-Bengali friends and neighbours. On the basis of the heaps of eye-witness accounts, which I have carefully read, sifted and analysed, I do make bold to say that the vast majority of Bengalis disapproved of and was not a party to the barbaric atrocities inflicted on the hapless non-Bengalis by the Awami League's terror machine and the Frankensteins and vampires it unloosed. This silent majority, it seemed, was awed, immobilised and neutralised by the terrifying power, weapons and ruthlessness of a misguided minority hell-bent on accomplishing the secession of East Pakistan.

[caption id="attachment_756" align="alignnone" width="170" caption="Jessore murders of Biharis by Mukti Bahani blamed on Pakistani Army"][/caption]

The sheaves of eye-witness accounts, documented in this book, prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the massacre of West Pakistanis, Biharis and other non-Bengalis in East Pakistan had begun long before the Pakistan Army took punitive action against the rebels late in the night of March 25, 1971. It is also crystal clear that the Awami League's terror machine was the initiator and executor of the genocide against the non-Bengalis which exterminated at least half a million of them in less than two months of horror and trauma. Many witnesses have opined that the federal Government acted a bit too late against the insurgents. The initial success of the federal military action is proved by the fact that in barely 30 days, the Pakistan Army, with a combat strength of 38,717 officers and men in East Pakistan, had squelched the Awami League's March-April, 1971, rebellion all over the province.
Typical of the open-air, human abattoirs operated by the Awami League-led rebels in East Pakistan in 1971 is this photograph of multiple-executions done by a Mukti-Bahini killer squad in Dacca Race Course. The pro-Pakistan Bengali and non-Bengali victims were tortured before being slain
The hundreds of eye-witnesses from towns and cities of East Pakistan, whose testimonies are documented in this book, are unanimous in reporting that the slaughter of West Pakistanis, Biharis, and other non-Bangalis and of some pro-Pakistan Bengalis had begun in the early days of the murderous month of March 1971.

[caption id="attachment_755" align="alignnone" width="170" caption="Jessore massacre of Biharis by Mukti Bahani. Bihari corpses litter the area while soldiers marhc past in total bewelderment"][/caption]

Looking at the tragic events of March 1971 in retrospect, I must confess that even I, although my press service commanded a sizeable network of district correspondents in the interior of East Pakistan, was not fully aware of the scale, ferocity and dimension of the province-wide massacre of the non-Banglis.

I must stress, with all the force and sincerity at my command, that this bock is not intended to be a racist indictment of the Bengalis as a nation. In writing and publishing this book, I am not motivated by any revanchist obsession or a wish to condemn my erstwhile Bengali compatriots as a nation. Just as it is stupid to condemn the great German people for the sins of the Nazis, it would be foolish to blame the Bengali people as a whole for the dark deeds of the Awami League militants and their accomplices.

[caption id="attachment_750" align="alignnone" width="270" caption="A Bihari victim grabbed by Mukti-Bahini killers, begging for mercy."][/caption]

I have incorporated in this book the acts of heroism and courage of those brave and patriotic Bengalis who sheltered and protected, at great peril to themselves, their terror-stricken non-Bengali friends and neighbours. On the basis of the heaps of eye-witness accounts, which I have carefully read, sifted and analysed, I do make bold to say that the vast majority of Bengalis disapproved of and was not a party to the barbaric atrocities inflicted on the hapless non-Bengalis by the Awami League's terror machine and the Frankensteins and vampires it unloosed. This silent majority, it seemed, was awed, immobilised and neutralised by the terrifying power, weapons and ruthlessness of a misguided minority hell-bent on accomplishing the secession of East Pakistan.

[caption id="attachment_751" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Eye gouging and burning the skin of Biharis by Uniformed Mukti Bahani soldier aided and abetted by Indian Army"][/caption]

The 170 eye-witnesses, whose testimonies or interviews are contained in this book in abridged form have been chosen from a universe of more than 5,000 repatriated non-Bengali families. I had identified, after some considerable research, 55 towns and cities in East Pakistan where the abridgement of the non-Bengali population in March and early April 1971 was conspicuously heavy. The collection and compilation of these eye-witness accounts was started in January 1974 and completed in twelve weeks. A team of four reporters, commissioned for interviewing the witnesses from all these 55 towns and cities of East Pakistan, worked with intense devotion to secure their testimony. Many of the interviews were prolonged because the Witnesses broke down in a flurry of sobs and tears as they related the agonising stories of their wrecked lives. I had issued in February 1974 an appeal in the newspapers for such eye-witness accounts, and I am grateful to the many hundreds of witnesses who promptly responded to my call.
A scene of Mukti Bahini mass murder of Biharis in Dacca on December 18, 1971. A rebel soldier lifts his boot to strike a bleeding bayoneted boy who showed signs of life. Dead bodies of other slain non-Bengalis lie in the foreground.

[caption id="attachment_749" align="alignnone" width="265" caption="Mukti-Bahini killer plunged his bayonet in to the writhing Bihari’s chest."][/caption]

“I am the lone survivor of a group of ten Pathans who were employed as Security Guards by the Delta Construction Company in the Mohakhali locality in Dacca; all the others were slaughtered by the Bengali rebels in the night of March 25, 1971”, said 40-year-old Bacha Khan.

“I heard the screams of an Urdu-speaking girl who was being ravished by her Bengali captors but I was so scared that I did not have the courage to emerge from hiding” said a 24-year-old Zahid Abdi, who was employed in a trading firm in Dacca. He escaped the slaughter of the non-Bengalis in the crowded New Market locality of Dacca on March 23, 1971 and was sheltered by a God-fearing Bengali in his shop. The killers raped their non-Bengali teenage victim at the back of the shop and later on slayed her.

[caption id="attachment_753" align="alignnone" width="206" caption="Mukti Bahani massacres of Biharis: Typical of the open-air, human abattoirs operated by the Awami League-led rebels in East Pakistan in 1971 is this photograph of multiple-executions done by a Mukti-Bahini killer squad in Dacca Race Course. The pro-Pakistan Bengali and non-Bengali victims were tortured before being slain"][/caption]

“My only daughter has been insane since she was forced by her savage tormentors to watch the brutal murder of her husband”, said Mukhtar Ahmed Khan, 43, while giving an account of his suffering during the Ides of March 1971 in Dacca….“In the third week of March 1971, a gang of armed Bengali rebels raided house of my son-in-law and overpowered him. He was a courageous Youngman and he resisted the attackers. My daughter also resisted the attackers but they were far too many and they were well armed. They tied up my son-in-law and my daughter with ropes and they forced her to watch as they slit the throat of her husband and ripped his stomach open in the style of butchers. She fainted and lost consciousness. Since that dreadful day she has been mentally ill."

Shamim Akhtar, 28, whose husband was employed as a clerk in the Railway office in Dacca, lived in a small house in the Mirpur locality there.

She described her tragedy in these words:

“On December 17, 1971, the Mukti Bahini cut off the water supply to our homes. We used to get water from a nearby pond; it was polluted and had a bad odour. I was nine months pregnant. On December 23, 1971, I gave birth to a baby girl. No midwife was available and my husband helped me at child birth. Late at night, a gang of armed Bengalis raided our house, grabbed my husband and trucked him away. I begged them in the name of God to spare him as I could not even walk and my children were too small. The killers were heartless and I learnt that they murdered my husband. After five days, they returned and ordered me and my children to vacate the house as they claimed that it was now their property.”

Zaibunnissa Haq, 30, whose journalist husband, Izhar-ul-Haque, worked as a columnist in the Daily Watan in Dacca, gave this account of her travail in 1971:
A copy of the ads and the forms used for soliciting testimony from the victims.

“….On December 21, a posse of Mukti Bahini soldiers and some thugs rode into our locality with blazing guns and ordered us to leave our house as, according to them, no Bihari could own a house in Bangladesh. For two days, we lived on bare earth in an open space and we had nothing to eat. Subsequently, we were taken to a Relief Camp by the Red Cross.”

In Pubail and Tangibari, the Awami League militants and their rebel confederates murdered dozens of affluent Biharis. Shops owned by the Biharis were favourite target of attack.

“Four armed thugs dragged two captive non-Bengali teenage girls into an empty bus and violated their chastity before gunning them to death”, said Gulzar Hussain, 38, who witnessed the massacre of 22 non-Bengali men, women and children on March 21, 1971, close to a bus stand in Narayangang. Repatriated to Karachi in November 1973, Gulzar Hussain reported: "….On March 21, our Dacca-bound bus was stopped on the way, soon after it left the heart of the city. I was seated in the front portion of the bus and I saw that the killer gang had guns, scythes and daggers. The gunmen raised 'Joi Bangla' and anti-Pakistan slogans. The bus driver obeyed their signal to stop and the thugs motioned to the passengers to get down. A jingo barked out the order that Bengalis and non-Bengalis should fall into separate lines. As I spoke Bengali with a perfect Dacca accent and could easily pass for a Bengali, I joined the Bengali group of passengers. The killer gang asked us to utter a few sentences in Bengali which we did. I passed the test and our tormentors instructed the Bengalis to scatter. The thugs then gunned all the male non-Bengalis. It was a horrible scene. Four of the gunmen took for their loot two young non-Bengali women and raped them inside the empty bus. After they had ravished the girls, the killers shot them and half a dozen other women and children.”

She described her tragedy in these words:

As the victim did not die in a single bayonet strike, another Mukti-Bahini killer plunged his bayonet in to the writhing Bihari’s chest. Dead bodies of Bihari and Bengali victims lie strewn over the execution ground as Mukti-Bahini killers and their accomplices watch the butchery with sadist pleasure.

“On December 17, 1971, the Mukti Bahini cut off the water supply to our homes. We used to get water from a nearby pond; it was polluted and had a bad odour. I was nine months pregnant. On December 23, 1971, I gave birth to a baby girl. No midwife was available and my husband helped me at child birth. Late at night, a gang of armed Bengalis raided our house, grabbed my husband and trucked him away. I begged them in the name of God to spare him as I could not even walk and my children were too small. The killers were heartless and I learnt that they murdered my husband. After five days, they returned and ordered me and my children to vacate the house as they claimed that it was now their property.”

Zaibunnissa Haq, 30, whose journalist husband, Izhar-ul-Haque, worked as a columnist in the Daily Watan in Dacca, gave this account of her travail in 1971: “….On December 21, a posse of Mukti Bahini soldiers and some thugs rode into our locality with blazing guns and ordered us to leave our house as, according to them, no Bihari could own a house in Bangladesh. For two days, we lived on bare earth in an open space and we had nothing to eat. Subsequently, we were taken to a Relief Camp by the Red Cross.”

Nasima Khatoon, 25, lived in a rented house in the Pancho Boti locality in Narayanganj. Her husband, Mohammad Qamrul Hasan, was employed in a Vegetable Oil manufacturing factory. Repatriated to Karachi in January 1974, along with her 4-year-old orphaned daughter, from a Red Cross Camp in Dacca, Nasima gave this hair-raising account of her travail in 1971:
A Bihari victim grabbed by Mukti-Bahini killers, begging for mercy.

“At gun point, our captors made us leave our house and marched us to an open square where more than 500 non –Bengali old men, women and children were detained. Some 50 Bengali gunmen led us through swampy ground towards a deserted school building. On the way, the 3-year-old child of a hapless captive woman died in her arms. She asked her captors to allow her to dig a small grave and bury the child. The tough man in the lead snorted a sharp ‘NO’, snatched the body of the dead child from her wailing mother and tossed it into the river”

The Awami League's rebellion of March 1971 took the heaviest toll of non-Bengali lives in the populous port city of Chittagong. Although the Government of Pakistan's White Paper of August 1971 on the East Pakistan crisis estimated the non-Bengali death toll in Chittagong and its neighbouring townships during the Awami League's insurrection to be a little under 15,000, the testimony of hundreds of eye-witnesses interviewed for this book gives the impression that more than 50,000 non-Bengalis perished in the March 1971 carnage. Thousands of dead bodies were flung into the Karnaphuli river and the Bay of Bengal.

Savage killings also took place in the Halishahar, Kalurghat and Pahartali localities where the Bengali rebel soldiers poured petrol and kerosine oil around entire blocks, igniting them with flame-throwers and petrol-soaked jute balls, then mowed down the non-Bengali innocents trying to escape the cordons of fire. In the wanton slaughter in the last week of March and early April, 1971, some 40,000 non-Bengalis perished in Chittagong and its neighbourhood. The exact death toll, which could possibly be much more will never be known because of the practice of burning dead bodies or dumping them in the river and the sea.

The uniformed killer puffing the cigarette to singe the eyes of the terrified prey. Eye gouging and burning the skin of victims was a favourite torture method of the rebels.
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Friday, November 12, 2010

US trained Osama Bin Laden: Hillary Clinton admits



[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Hillary Clinton admits US trained Osama Bin Laden Image via Wikipedia"]During a Sensitive Site Exploitation (SSE) mis...[/caption]


Mrs. Hillary Clinton has officially admitted that the US trained Osama Bin Laden. In the ABC show she was saying that Pakistan supported the Taliban, and had changed its mind since 2001.

“That is changing... Now, I cannot sit here and tell you that it has changed, but that is changing,” she told ABC News in an interview, the transcripts of which was released by the State Department.

Ms. Clinton accepted that the U.S. had created certain radical outfits and supported terrorists like Osama bin Laden to fight against the erstwhile Soviet Union, but that backing has boomeranged. “Part of what we are fighting against right now, the United States created. We created the Mujahidin force against the Soviet Union (in Afghanistan). We trained them, we equipped them, we funded them, including somebody named Osama bin Laden. And it didn’t work out so well for us,” she said.

The Secretary of the State also said Pakistan is paying a “big price” for supporting U.S. war against terror groups in their own national interest. “But I think it is important to note that as they have made these adjustments in their own assessment of their national interests, they’re paying a big price for it,” Ms. Clinton said.

“And it’s not an easy calculation for them to make. But we are making progress (in Afghanistan). We have a long way to go and we can’t be impatient...Well, the headlines are bad. We’re going home. We cannot do that,” she said.

Appearing on the same ABC show, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said Pakistan has withdrawn an equivalent of about six divisions of its army from the Indian border and moved them.

“And they are attacking the Taliban. They’re attacking the Taliban — Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, and safe havens that are a problem for us,” Mr. Gates said.

“But the other piece of this, we face in both countries what they call a trust deficit, and it is because they believe we have walked away from them in the past at the toughest moments of their history.

“You can’t recreate that (trust) in a heartbeat. You can’t recreate that in a year or two. They both worry that once we solve the problem in Afghanistan, or if we don’t solve it, that either way, we will leave and leave whatever remains in their hands to deal with,” he added.

Keywords: U.S.-Pakistan relations, India-Pakistan relations, terrorist organisations
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BiPartisan panel recommends end to Afghan war


WASHINGTON - JANUARY 20: In this handout phot...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife


The independent panels brought under the umbrella of CFR has recommended that the US withdraw from Afghanistan--if the current policy fails, and it recommends that the US withdraw if the current policy succeeds.

We have always maintained that the US will begin its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011. We have also maintained that as the withdrawal begins, the 150,000 or so mercenaries will be the first to flee. Their funds cut off the Balckwater/Xe and others will simply disappear rapidly. Then as the US begins its withdrawal, it will reach a tipping point rapidly. It will be impossible to sustained operations with 100,000 troops. Once the tipping point is reached, the withdrawal will not wati for the magical date of 2014--the end date will be moved up. The occupation of Afghanistan could end as early as 2012 or 2013.

  • US experts have called for President Barack Obama to consider narrowing the mission in Afghanistan unless there is progress, and warn that success is impossible without a shift by Pakistan.

  • An independent task force at the Council on Foreign Relations said on Friday the Obama administration will need to take hard decisions after it conducts its own review of war strategy next month.

  • "If progress is being made, the United States should be able to draw down its forces starting in July 2011, based on conditions on the ground," it said, supporting the timeline set last year by Obama.
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  • "However, if US efforts are not working, a more significant drawdown to a narrower mission that emphasises counterterror objectives with fewer US forces will be warranted," it said.

  • Under such a plan, some 10,000 to 20,000 US troops led by Special Operations Forces would fight militants - a sharp drop from the 100,000 now deployed. But it warned of major risks, including a greater chance Afghanistan would plunge into civil war. AFP


VoA News: An independent panel is urging U.S. President Barack Obama to sharply curtail the military’s mission in Afghanistan if there are no signs of progress.

A task force created by the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based research group, issued a report Friday saying that the current approach to Afghanistan is at a critical point.

The report says the outcome of the 9-year Afghan war remains “uncertain” and that militants present a direct threat to the U.S. and its allies.

The 25-member panel is urging Mr. Obama to consider the high costs of the mission as it determines whether its efforts have been successful.

The Obama administration will conduct a thorough review of its Afghan war strategy next month. The independent panel says if progress is being made, the administration can proceed with its stated goal of withdrawing forces beginning in July 2011. But panel members say if U.S. efforts are not working, a more significant drawdown will be warranted.
But Armitage emphasized that Obama needs to have a "very deep, clear-eyed review of the situation," and that if "real progress is not deemed to have been made, a majority of us suggest that we change the mission to a much different mission, one of counterterror and continued training of the Afghan National Security Forces." more by Richard Armitage

Mr. Obama decided last year to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 [short of the General's Request] 100,000 to battle Taliban and al-Qaida forces, while training Afghan security forces.

The administration has begun to suggest it is backing away from the July 2011 withdrawal date, instead stressing the goal of fully handing over control to Afghan security forces by 2014.

The task force also gave recommendations on Pakistan, suggesting the U.S. expand military ties and deepen economic cooperation following the devastating July floods. The report says the U.S. should continue to warn Pakistan that bilateral relations hinge on the government’s action against internal militant groups.

  • The study warned that frontline partner Pakistan "has not made a decisive break with all militants", with some security elements backing extremists that target Afghanistan and historic rival India.

  • "One of the benefits of (a smaller mission in Afghanistan) is that we would actually be less dependent on Pakistan because our logistics needs would be smaller," Armitage said as he presented the report.

  • "To be clear, we cannot be successful in Afghanistan if we can't get a changed attitude in Pakistan," said Armitage, a key US interlocutor with Pakistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks.


Any conversation with Richard Armitage on Pakistan always comes with threats. The CFR reports also comes with the usual vintage Armitage bluster that doesn't hold water--and he knows it. The consequences of these threats are colossal and no one can contemplate the worst case scenario.
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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Warm boiled Kashmir eggs



[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"]Boeing C-17 Globemaster III - Paris Air Show 2009[/caption]


Boeing has blood on its hands. The lure of a few billion Dollars lets President Obama to ignore the suffering of millions of Kashmiris. This criminal negligence will not be forgotten by the world. All that talk about "Change that we can believe in" and his campaign promises have been dumped, ostensibly for business contracts. Actually that too is not true. The Saudis recently signed a $60 billion contact to buy US planes. The Gulf states are purchasing $120 billion of American arms. But Obama ignores them and hundreds of thousands of jobs the Arabs create for America.  He does remind the world that the $10 billion will create this that and the other. It is pedagogical to note that the US spend $10 billion in a few days in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pakistan would save the US $1 Trillion by allowing it a face saving exit from Afghanistan. However that would be eulogizing the wrong country. By Obama's calculations, that would create millions of US jobs.

The Kerry Lugar Bill forces the US government to spend half of the $7.5 billion on US contractors. That we suppose would create about 25,000 jobs. 25% of the 7.5 billion is spent on US Administrative expenses. How many jobs does that create? All that is hidden under the cloak of US Aid, very little of which actually reaches the victims of the drone bombings--30,000 Pakistanis dead. What is the price on their heads?

There are few in today's Bharat that can remind Obama that his disastrous blunders in Delhi will have long term repercussions on millions of incarcerated Kashmiris--100,000 of whom have given their lives for freedom--freedom to get away from Bharat---and freedom to live in Pakistan. More than a million troops hold the Kashmiris hostage to the concepts of Greater Bharat (Akhand Bharat).

A few confused Kashmiris want to convert Kashmir into another Sikkim to be taken over by Delhi at a later date. Most Kashmiris want freedom.

Arundhati Roy is Bharat's (aka India's ) conscience. She is a good human being and a fantastic human rights activists. The Bajrang Dal and the BJP are after her blood. She has written another brilliant article about Bharat's illegal occupation of Kashmir, which was published in the New York Times today. It is poignant, sharp and prodigious in its insight and its descriptions. We are scared for the life of Arundhati Roy. The Hinduists extremists are after here. Those who ignore her advice and those who contemplate violence against her are the worst of the worst. May God give us a long and prosperous life.

A WEEK before he was elected in 2008, President Obama said that solving the dispute over Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination — which has led to three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947 — would be among his “critical tasks.” His remarks were greeted with consternation in India, and he has said almost nothing about Kashmir since then.

But on Monday, during his visit here, he pleased his hosts immensely by saying the United States would not intervene in Kashmir and announcing his support for India’s seat on the United Nations Security Council. While he spoke eloquently about threats of terrorism, he kept quiet about human rights abuses in Kashmir.

Whether Mr. Obama decides to change his position on Kashmir again depends on several factors: how the war in Afghanistan is going, how much help the United States needs from Pakistan and whether the government of India goes aircraft shopping this winter. (An order for 10 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, worth $5.8 billion, among other huge business deals in the pipeline, may ensure the president’s silence.) But neither Mr. Obama’s silence nor his intervention is likely to make the people in Kashmir drop the stones in their hands.

I was in Kashmir 10 days ago, in that beautiful valley on the Pakistani border, home to three great civilizations — Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist. It’s a valley of myth and history. Some believe that Jesus died there; others that Moses went there to find the lost tribe. Millions worship at the Hazratbal shrine, where a few days a year a hair of the Prophet Muhammad is displayed to believers.

Now Kashmir, caught between the influence of militant Islam from Pakistan and Afghanistan, America’s interests in the region and Indian nationalism (which is becoming increasingly aggressive and “Hinduized”), is considered a nuclear flash point. It is patrolled by more than half a million soldiers and has become the most highly militarized zone in the world.

The atmosphere on the highway between Kashmir’s capital, Srinagar, and my destination, the little apple town of Shopian in the south, was tense. Groups of soldiers were deployed along the highway, in the orchards, in the fields, on the rooftops and outside shops in the little market squares. Despite months of curfew, the “stone pelters” calling for “azadi” (freedom), inspired by the Palestinian intifada, were out again. Some stretches of the highway were covered with so many of these stones that you needed an S.U.V. to drive over them.

Fortunately the friends I was with knew alternative routes down the back lanes and village roads. The “longcut” gave me the time to listen to their stories of this year’s uprising. The youngest, still a boy, told us that when three of his friends were arrested for throwing stones, the police pulled out their fingernails — every nail, on both hands.

For three years in a row now, Kashmiris have been in the streets, protesting what they see as India’s violent occupation. But the militant uprising against the Indian government that began with the support of Pakistan 20 years ago is in retreat. The Indian Army estimates that there are fewer than 500 militants operating in the Kashmir Valley today. The war has left 70,000 dead and tens of thousands debilitated by torture. Many, many thousands have “disappeared.” More than 200,000 Kashmiri Hindus have fled the valley. Though the number of militants has come down, the number of Indian soldiers deployed remains undiminished.

But India’s military domination ought not to be confused with a political victory. Ordinary people armed with nothing but their fury have risen up against the Indian security forces. A whole generation of young people who have grown up in a grid of checkpoints, bunkers, army camps and interrogation centers, whose childhood was spent witnessing “catch and kill” operations, whose imaginations are imbued with spies, informers, “unidentified gunmen,” intelligence operatives and rigged elections, has lost its patience as well as its fear. With an almost mad courage, Kashmir’s young have faced down armed soldiers and taken back their streets.

Since April, when the army killed three civilians and then passed them off as “terrorists,” masked stone throwers, most of them students, have brought life in Kashmir to a grinding halt. The Indian government has retaliated with bullets, curfew and censorship. Just in the last few months, 111 people have been killed, most of them teenagers; more than 3,000 have been wounded and 1,000 arrested.

But still they come out, the young, and throw stones. They don’t seem to have leaders or belong to a political party. They represent themselves. And suddenly the second-largest standing army in the world doesn’t quite know what to do. The Indian government doesn’t know whom to negotiate with. And many Indians are slowly realizing they have been lied to for decades. The once solid consensus on Kashmir suddenly seems a little fragile.

I WAS in a bit of trouble the morning we drove to Shopian. A few days earlier, at a public meeting in Delhi, I said that Kashmir was disputed territory and, contrary to the Indian government’s claims, it couldn’t be called an “integral” part of India. Outraged politicians and news anchors demanded that I be arrested for sedition. The government, terrified of being seen as “soft,” issued threatening statements, and the situation escalated. Day after day, on prime-time news, I was being called a traitor, a white-collar terrorist and several other names reserved for insubordinate women. But sitting in that car on the road to Shopian, listening to my friends, I could not bring myself to regret what I had said in Delhi.

We were on our way to visit a man called Shakeel Ahmed Ahangar. The previous day he had come all the way to Srinagar, where I had been staying, to press me, with an urgency that was hard to ignore, to visit Shopian.

I first met Shakeel in June 2009, only a few weeks after the bodies of Nilofar, his 22-year-old wife, and Asiya, his 17-year-old sister, were found lying a thousand yards apart in a shallow stream in a high-security zone — a floodlit area between army and state police camps. The first postmortem report confirmed rape and murder. But then the system kicked in. New autopsy reports overturned the initial findings and, after the ugly business of exhuming the bodies, rape was ruled out. It was declared that in both cases the cause of death was drowning. Protests shut Shopian down for 47 days, and the valley was convulsed with anger for months. Eventually it looked as though the Indian government had managed to defuse the crisis. But the anger over the killings has magnified the intensity of this year’s uprising.

Shakeel wanted us to visit him in Shopian because he was being threatened by the police for speaking out, and hoped our visit would demonstrate that people even outside of Kashmir were looking out for him, that he was not alone.

It was apple season in Kashmir and as we approached Shopian we could see families in their orchards, busily packing apples into wooden crates in the slanting afternoon light. I worried that a couple of the little red-cheeked children who looked so much like apples themselves might be crated by mistake. The news of our visit had preceded us, and a small knot of people were waiting on the road.

Shakeel’s house is on the edge of the graveyard where his wife and sister are buried. It was dark by the time we arrived, and there was a power failure. We sat in a semicircle around a lantern and listened to him tell the story we all knew so well. Other people entered the room. Other terrible stories poured out, ones that are not in human rights reports, stories about what happens to women who live in remote villages where there are more soldiers than civilians. Shakeel’s young son tumbled around in the darkness, moving from lap to lap. “Soon he’ll be old enough to understand what happened to his mother,” Shakeel said more than once.

Just when we rose to leave, a messenger arrived to say that Shakeel’s father-in-law — Nilofar’s father — was expecting us at his home. We sent our regrets; it was late and if we stayed longer it would be unsafe for us to drive back.

Minutes after we said goodbye and crammed ourselves into the car, a friend’s phone rang. It was a journalist colleague of his with news for me: “The police are typing up the warrant. She’s going to be arrested tonight.” We drove in silence for a while, past truck after truck being loaded with apples. “It’s unlikely,” my friend said finally. “It’s just psy-ops.”

But then, as we picked up speed on the highway, we were overtaken by a car full of men waving us down. Two men on a motorcycle asked our driver to pull over. I steeled myself for what was coming. A man appeared at the car window. He had slanting emerald eyes and a salt-and-pepper beard that went halfway down his chest. He introduced himself as Abdul Hai, father of the murdered Nilofar.

“How could I let you go without your apples?” he said. The bikers started loading two crates of apples into the back of our car. Then Abdul Hai reached into the pockets of his worn brown cloak, and brought out an egg. He placed it in my palm and folded my fingers over it. And then he placed another in my other hand. The eggs were still warm. “God bless and keep you,” he said, and walked away into the dark. What greater reward could a writer want?

I wasn’t arrested that night. Instead, in what is becoming a common political strategy, officials outsourced their displeasure to the mob. A few days after I returned home, the women’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (the right-wing Hindu nationalist opposition) staged a demonstration outside my house, calling for my arrest. Television vans arrived in advance to broadcast the event live. The murderous Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu group that, in 2002, spearheaded attacks against Muslims in Gujarat in which more than a thousand people were killed, have announced that they are going to “fix” me with all the means at their disposal, including by filing criminal charges against me in different courts across the country.

Indian nationalists and the government seem to believe that they can fortify their idea of a resurgent India with a combination of bullying and Boeing airplanes. But they don’t understand the subversive strength of warm, boiled eggs. Kashmir’s Fruits of Discord By ARUNDHATI ROY New Delhi

Arundhati Roy is the author of the novel “The God of Small Things” and, most recently, the essay collection “Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers.”
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