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| ISI tries to exploit unrest in J and K | | | Satish Misra
Even as Pakistan and India have renewed their commitment to continue the peace process and workout modalities for opening more routes for intra-Kashmir transport links, the ISI sponsored Kashmiri NGOs in the United States and Europe have been activated to exploit the current situation in J and K and organise demonstrations against alleged human rights violations there with calls for self-determination.
On the instructions of the ISI, these self-styled Kashmiri activists have been interacting with legislators in their countries of residence to brief them that the problem in Kashmir was not simply the land allotment but the denial of the right to self-determination.
They were also asked to request members of European Parliament and Congressmen to call for a debate on the issue of self-determination in their respective legislative bodies.
Abdul Majid Tramboo of the Kashmir Centre, Brussels, has been lobbying with MEPs led by James Elles to highlight the recent unrest in Kashmir. Ghulam Nabi Fai of the Kashmiri American Council has sought audience with State Department and NSC officials.
London-based Nazir Ahmed Shawl of the Justice Foundation Kashmir Centre and Nazir Qureshi of the World Kashmir Freedom Movement have held demonstrations in an attempt to attract international attention.
Simultaneously, the NGOs have been directed to take advantage of the current situation and launch a sustained campaign to discredit European experts of Kashmir like Emma Nicholson, who have exposed the situation in Pakistan-held Kashmir and northern areas.
This task was given to Tramboo, who led a campaign against Emma Nicholson and her associates. Kashmiri sources revealed that Tramboo contacted and convinced some of the Kashmiri leaders from Pakistan and its held Kashmir not to participate in a conference convened by Emma Nicholson in Brussels this month.
While the Pakistani agency kept up pressure on these NGOs to deliver, differences and personality clashes among leaders of these NGOs have become a major headache for their masters.
Fai reportedly registered strong protest with his ISI handling officer for not being invited to a Kashmir EU week organised by Majid Tramboo in Brussels in July. Despite the intervention by the agency officials to invite Fai and Najir Ahmed Shawl for the conference, Tramboo did not invite them.
The ISI’s disdain for the civilian leadership in Pakistan, particularly the current dispensation led by Asif Ali Zardari, has also been echoed by some of the NGO leaders financed by the agency.
A close confidante of Fai revealed to a friend that Fai has chided him for learning habits from Asif Zardari to put the issues on a back-burner and advised him not to follow the example of the PPP leader.
While the Pakistani intelligence agency continued to keep up the pro-Pak Huriyat-sponsored agitation in J & K and bring it to the attention of the international community through fractured self-styled Kashmiri activists, there is very little focus on the massive tragedy perpetrated by government forces and jehadists in the North West Frontier of Pakistan.
The ferocity of the ongoing military operation and stiff resistance being offered by Tehrik-e-Taliban, Pakistan, turned the area into a killing arena.
More than 3,200 innocent civilians died and another 3,000 were injured in aerial shelling in the Bajaur, Mohmand and Kurram areas in the last six months. Over 1,000 villagers were killed last month itself.
More than 4,00,000 persons were forced to leave their homes from the Bajaur agency after select areas in their belt came under aerial bombardment. F-16 aircraft have been used in the conflict while gunship helicopters and jetfighters heavily bombarded the region, causing massive displacement of people. Security forces forced farmers to cut the main crop in the area so that it is not used for ambush.
Villages after villages have been razed to the ground. The colossal damage to life and property in Bajaur, Khyber, Kurram and Swat created anger and panic among the people.
These displaced people continued to live in pathetic conditions in refugee camps in their own country facing severe shortages of food, clean drinking water and other essential supplies.
Most victims find themselves caught in an almost impossible situation between militants and security forces. The militants are also using the local people as human shields against aerial bombarding, leading to huge civilian casualties. |
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