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| Zardari a hero here and zero there | | | NIRBHAY JAMMUAL
What an irony of fate ?Those who carry out gun and grenade attacks in rest of the world they are dubbed as terrorists.But those who indulge in similar exercises in Jammu and Kashmir have to be dubbed either as militants or as freedom fighters.Pakistan President,Asif Ali Zardari,described militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir as terrorists.It was greeted by India.It received brickbats from the opposition leaders in Pakistan.It was greeted with condemnation from the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir.I wish to ask critics of Zardari one question. Does the blood spilled in Jammu and Kashmir in militant actions differ from the blood that is shed in other Indian states or in other countries ?These critics should know that blood either from the poor or from the rich or from the security personnel is always red.That is something different if the red blood cells are more or less from person to person.
Why did not critics rise in revolt when former Pakistan President Gen. Parvez Musharraf joined hands with the American Government's crusade against terrorists in Afghjanistan and Iraq?Why did not these critics question the US Government and Islamabad when they declared a war against terrorists? Why did not they remind Gen. Musharraf and George Bush that those who were fighting against the establishment in Iraq and Afghanistan were not terrorists but freedeom fighters ?These critics of Zardari wish to explain that the freedom struggle being waged in Kashmir is indigenous.They want to tell the world that the struggle in Kashmir has been launched by local youths.Wait for a minute.Government records say that more than 40 per cent foreign mercenaries have been engaged in aiding the so called freedom struggle in Kashmir.Those who doubt it should understand that more than 30 per cent militants,eliminated or arrested are from Pakistn and occupied Kashmir.What else proof one wishes to be furnished?
Even if local youths were in the forefront of the armed campaign they could carry out gun and grenade attacks only because of support from foreign mercenries.Forget about it.When Pakistan is rocked by bomb explosions killing scores of people and destroying big buildings it is called terrorism.Those who commit these acts are called terrorists not only the establishment in Islamabad but by other political leaders.And those involved in these bomb explosions are people belonging to Pakistan irrespective of the fact that they are either the Talibans or men of Al Qaeda.Again it is immaterial if the Talibans and the Al Qaeda took birth in Afghanistan because those who carry out acts of terrorism are pakistanis.Again it is a different matter whether Zardari meant what he said or it was a slip of tongue.Indications are he said what he meant because despite criticism within Pakistan and Kashmir he had not so far denied his statement.All of a sudden Zardari became a hero here and zero there.Groups of youth in Kashmir were so much peeved over the statement that they torched the effigies of Zardari.These very youths did not defy curfew restrictions for reaching Lal Chow but they violated these restrictions to air their resentment against Zardari.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani,who heads the conglomerate of the hardliners,was very hard on Zardari.He went to the extent of describing Zardari's statement,in which he had stated that India was no threat to Pakistan historically incorrect.Geelani,otherwise a learned leader,commited a faux pas when he said that the three wars besides the Kargil conflict had been engineered by India.Those who have witnessed the events right from the tribal invasion on Kashmir in 1947 to the Kargil conflict in 1999 know it well that it was not India but Pakistan that triggered these conflicts.Both Geelani and the guntoting yoths in Kashmir have been critical of the establishment in Pakistan whenever Islamabad has shown interest in promoting friendly relations with Delhi.They have been critical of Gen.Musharraf blaming him for giving weightage to trade and travel which relegated the Kashmir issue to the background.They have started targeting Zardari who too is keen to mend fences with India. |
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