MAMA I AM IN LOVE

In memory of Sameer Rah, 7 years old martyr

One fine afternoon he came rushing

Innocence on his face all gushing

He was emphatic with something great

Enthused this way was not in his trait

He had seen perhaps something unseen

His face was shining with an angelic sheen

He came rushing for his mother and said

Mama I want to reveal something I never had

Ma, I am in love, for which never did I dream

Ma, I know I am still not in that young team

I am a child, but I feel the love inside my soul

This struggle is taking on my mind a big toll

Mother said, my kid I still cannot believe

You still cannot put your hand through the sleeve

Go my lad take it easy and have a tight sleep

I still have the whole house to keep

But he kept on saying the same

Mother do u want to hear her name

Mother I am in love with my death

They will come to stop my breath

Mother I am going to die for my undone crime

Mother let me go, I am left will little time

And he came out of the lap and walked towards the street

Composed and calm he went for his love to greet

They came and took him away in their rage

They beat him till he was out of his cage

He cried at their kicks and buts but did not run

They plugged his mouth with the butt of the gun

He breathed his last after being tossed upon a stone

He met his love, and his mother did not mourn

For he is a lover who did not betray

Martyrs never die, Allah did say

His death gave us a new grave

More Sameer’s shall be consumed in this wave

Till mothers let leave their lads off their laps

Cruel guns shall roar for them perhaps.

Koshur Mazloom with tearful eyes

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Women fighters of Kashmir

They broke the shackles that bound them to certain pernicious traditions and customs

HISTORY BY SAMIE SHAH

“Our men,” writes A Q Rafiqui, and Mohammad Yasin in History of Freedom in Jammu and Kashmir, “should sit in their homes and wear burqas,” said a woman demonstrator in the summer of 1931 while protesting against the atrocities of Dogra regime. “We are proud of our Punjabi Muslim brethren but so far they have merely confined themselves to merely issuing statements. We request the members of the British Parliament to take our grievances to the League of Nations. We appeal to the army not to oppress women as it is no chivalry. But if they pass any such instruction, they will find us ready to meet the challenge,” said the fiery woman while addressing a 5000 strong all women procession carrying black flags. The procession was baton charged injuring 10 women.

In the history of Kashmir, women have played very important role along with men both in the Independence movement and other empowering movements which were part of it. Being born fighters against tyranny, the Kashmiri women, though illiterate, took a prominent part in the freedom struggle, fighting against the alien oppressors. Through their long history Kashmiri women have witnessed varying fortunes. From the beginning of the 18th century up to now the people of Kashmir are suffering untold miseries at the hands of ‘alien’ rulers. It may be called the darkest chapter in the annals of the Valley. Whether it was Afghan, Sikhs or Dogras all of them were generally irresponsible, cruel and greedy. During the period of alien rulers the status of Kashmiri women degraded. Besides the molestation of women, harsh types of punishments, most inhuman and against all codes of morality were introduced to keep the subjects in constant awe and terror. However, women of Kashmir ventured same courage as exhibited by men in raising their voice against the oppressors. They too actively took part in freedom struggle. The first person to do was Begum of Shaikh Immamudin, the last Sikh governor of Kashmir.

It was during the year of 1931 in the contemporary history of Kashmir that Kashmiri masses for the first time raised the banner of revolt against the alien Dogra rule and laid the foundations of a democratic movement for the annihilation of autocracy and despotism. Thus July 13, 1931 became a landmark in the annals of modern Kashmir. It was from that date that the people took upon themselves the task of securing for themselves the right of democratic self-rule. During the early years of the movement, the processions were entirely composed of women, some of them with suckling in their arms passing through the streets, raising slogans, denouncing the suppressive policy of the Dogra despot, or demanding release of imprisoned leaders and establishment of a democratic set-up. A number of women throughout Kashmir came to the fore in the war of Independence against Dogra regime, prominent among them were Sajida Bano, Jan Begum, Freechi, Fazli, Jan Ded, Zunoo Bibi Mujahida, Khat Ded, Fatima Raja Kacher, Zainub Begum, Mehmuda Ahmad Ali etc. Most of these women were martyred during the processions by police firing. In spite of harassment they continued their work and were imprisoned many times. These women participated actively in National Conference led ‘Quit Kashmir Movement’, ‘National Militia’ etc. There were many progressive ladies among the woman of Kashmir who started education movements for the awareness of masses in general and Kashmiri women in particular.

In Shopian Sajida Bano, aged 25, who had lost her husband took part in a big procession and received a bullet wound during the procession when Dogra military opened fire. She was pregnant and died along with the child on the spot. The second woman martyr was Jan Begum, 35, a widow, resident of Khawajapora in the locality of Nowshera Srinagar. She was also killed during a procession in police firing. The third woman martyr of Freedom Movement against Dogra regime was Begum Bohru, better known as Freechi, 30 years of age. She was widow of Khawja Razaq Joo Bohru, a resident of Mohalla Jalal Sahib, Baramulla. Like most of her town sisters she was deeply disturbed by the continuing news of the innocent killings all over the Valley and played a prominent part in the processions taken out by women in the town.

On the fateful day a number of women took out a procession. They were mourning the martyrs and cursing the oppressors. When they reached near the bank of Jehlum in the midst of the town, the police blocked their passage and a Sub-Inspector used abusive language against political leaders. Freechi couldn’t bear it. It was the midst of winter and there had been considerable snow-fall. Freechi was carrying a Kangri filled with burning charcoal. She hurled it on the sub-inspector from some distance. It crushed straight into his face disfiguring his face permanently. The gallant woman was shot dead on the spot. Almost the whole town walked bare-footed and bare-headed behind her, when taken for burial. The fourth woman martyr was Mrs. Fazli, killed on 24th Sept 1931, when the military opened fire on a procession of women that were parading at Maisuma Bazar.

Jan Ded, who was another heroine of 1931 uprising, used to lead the processions against atrocities and injustice. Her natural talents were not exposed. To fight against injustice and for attaining rights was in response to an urge within her. She was pragmatist as poles apart from many of the male political leaders of Kashmir in secularizing the political atmosphere and shunning narrow communal loyalties. Another brave daughter of Kashmir who sacrificed everything for the cause of freedom movement was Zunoo Bibi Mujahida. She was born in the Pather Masjid area of Srinagar. She started working for the people’s Freedom Movement in 1939 at the age of 27. She participated in processions and demonstrations along with the men. She had been to Jail nine times and received punishments by way of taxes to be given to the Maharaja’s government. Her husband left her because of her participation in the struggle for freedom. She lost her 9 year old son when he got killed in police firing during a demonstration while she was in Jail. Her parents also disowned her because they were harassed by the authorities, but she was undaunted and continued her work. Her four teeth were broken during a demonstration when she was beaten up by the police.

During the ‘Quit Kashmir Movement’ she worked for months underground with Ghulam Mohi-ud-din Kara. She used to distribute so called ‘seditious’ leaflets and pasted posters on walls. Another active member of freedom movement from women’s category was Khat Ded- a resident of Maisuma. She joined the freedom movement at the age of 18. Many times she led the women processions at Srinagar; she used to attend all the meetings of NC at its head office at Mujahid Manzil. An elusive figure was Noor Gojree a milkman’s naughty daughter, who plagued the military and the police through her vituperative utterances and pugnacious pranks. She was repeatedly arrested. Undeterred she continued joining the ranks of agitators. Though illiterate she was independent in her views. Another female character of that era, who sacrificed her life, was Fatima – a peasant woman who was shot dead by the Dogra Army at Anantnag (Islamabad) on May 1946 while leading a procession carried out against the repressive policy of the Maharaja’s government. Raja Kacher was also an active worker of the underground movement. She had been given the work to paste posters on walls and electric poles. She used to participate in processions as well. She was arrested many times.

These women shaped the destiny of every class, community and nation and were successful in attaining the goal of freedom from Dogras. They broke the shackles that bound them to certain pernicious traditions and customs.

(Samie Shah is research scholar in Political Science department of Kashmir University. Feedback at samie.shah5@gmail.com )

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Dear Shaheed Tufail Ahmed Mattoo by Lonesome Kashmiri

Dear Shaheed Tufail Mattoo,


Assalamu Alikum,

I hope you are enjoying the company of angels in heaven. We are still suffering the humiliation under Indian rule. But don't worry we have not given up and will continue the struggle no matter what comes in future Inshallah. After you left us things have become even more difficult for us. You must know that after you left us, more than 100 brothers and three sisters joined you there as well. Did you meet Shaheed Afroza Teli from Khrew? You must have met the sister from Kreeri who died after struggling with an excruciating injury she suffered when she was protesting your death? How about Sameer.. Is he doing well ? Tell him entire Kashmir mourns his tragic departure from earth. Brother after you left we have been in mourning ever since. We miss you very much, Do you miss us? The company of angels must be too comforting for you.. You must have forgotten us by now. Your parents are still holding on the coin that was in your palm. They still have your study desk like it was when you left it. Did you know that your father is one of the bravest man I have ever seen in my life ? He is a pillar of strength and devotion. I know each day and each moment he remembers the times you spent together, Deep in his heart he is so proud of you.


Dear Tufail the barbarians split your head with a teargas shell. They kicked your body and left you lying there in blood and dust. Ah they did not even see the tender age or the exuberant youth. They acted like animals and venomous creatures. The skies cried when they saw you fall, The earth averted its gaze. Angels were shocked to see a display of extreme cruelty . Whole of Kashmir went numb and then erupted at the injustice. Dear Brother you do not need me to tell you that you were not the first to face such atrocity nor were you to be the last. We lost many more after your departure and still no end in sight. You started a revolution which lasted for almost six months. Very long period if you consider the Kashmiri psyche and persistence levels. I am ashamed to tell you that till now we have not been able to avenge any of the deaths. I am also ashamed to tell you that we participated in another election with great enthusiasm and fervor. I am sorry but you know how we Kashmiris are by nature. Your killers are still roaming free, they are still the same rapacious and barbarians. Believe me compared to us you are very lucky. You have Heaven assured for you while as we live in hell every single day.


Take pride in the fact that on the day of Judgment you will rise with Syedu Shuhda Hazrate Hamzah (RA). Take pride in the fact that you were instrumental for assuring Jannat for 118 more. Take pride in the fact that you family loved and still love you. Take pride in the fact that your death will bring the Law of Allah in Kashmir Inshallah. Take pride in the fact that your sacrifice will bring peace and tranquility in Kashmir Inshallah. Take Pride in the fact that your sacrifice will make our sisters feel secure and safe Inshallah.


Every Kashmiri eye is moist for you. Every heart aches for you.


Take care and pray for the Muslim Ummah, you are closer to Allah (JS) and he will not deny you I am sure.


Allah Hafiz,


Lonesome Kashmiri.


p.s: See you soon Inshallah.

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Indian Army To Deploy Prostitutes As A Women Battalion In Held Kashmir

Report Published in Sept 2009 by Christina Palmer

NEW DELHI, India—The Indian Army is deploying around 200 women prostitutes under the cover of Border Security Force constables in the Indian occupied Kashmir. The new female battalion will be deployed along the Line of Control, the ceasefire line between Pakistan and India, The Daily Mail has learnt through authoritative sources.

According to the sources, the decision on recruiting prostitutes for deployment in the held valley was taken some six months back and Indian Army Chief General Kapoor finally approved it. The Daily Mail has learnt that this decision was taken as a result of discussions and consultancies regarding the alarmingly increasing incidents of suicides and killing colleagues by soldiers of Indian army that are deployed in the Indian occupied Kashmir to fight the Kashmiris.

The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that the factor of rising suicides among Indian soldiers and the random shootouts on colleagues by Indian soldiers in the held valley had become a big problem for the Indian army top brass. When the figures went up earlier this year, the army leadership approached different consultants and analysts. The consultants and analysts reached the conclusion that Indian soldiers deployed in the valley were committing suicides and killing colleagues out of acute frustration and depression. Medical and psychological consultants and analysts were of the view that since majority of the soldiers deployed in the valley were married and were away from their wives for very long periods, they were in the grip of sexual frustrations which ultimately transformed into mental frustration.

These consultants suggested that soldiers posted in Kashmir should be sent back to India on leaves to be with their wives at least once a month.

This came as another dilemma for the Indian Army’s top brass as it was not possible at all to send such a huge number of soldiers on leaves with regular intervals. The Daily Mail’s investigations further reveal that upon this a Major General was sent to Moscow to learn from the best practices of the old Soviet army in a country with a big size.

Mak. Gen. Kumar returned from Moscow with a very interesting solution. Russian military experts told the Indian army that the since the soldiers in the valley were 'women-starved', they should be provided with women to meet their genuine and natural needs.

The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that at this stage, the Indian Army Chief constituted a committee under the command of Lt. General. Raj Kumar Karwal who currently posted as Director General of a training facility of the Indian army while Major General. Sanjeev Loomba, Brigadier Anil Sharma, Colonel N. K. Khunduri and Colonel Sanjay Rai were members of the committee. The committee finally came up with the solution that since it was not possible to provide street whores directly to the soldier thus professional prostitutes should be recruited with the title of sex workers and than they should be given basic military training and should be posted in Kashmir as soldiers so that the male soldiers can establish relations with them. It was also decided that the recruitment should not be made publicly and that RAW’s help should be sought as RAW maintained a huge network of prostitutes in different cities of India. The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that RAW completed the assignment successfully and provided a batch of some 300, semi educated prostitutes to the committee after proper medical checkup of every individual. The committee then approached the Army Chief and it was decided that these new recruits should not be made part of mainstream army but should be adjusted in Border Security Force (BSF) and from there their services would be made available to the Northern Command of the army. The project was completed by the end of August when the new recruited batch of 300 completed a basic military training and Army Chief was informed that recruits were ready for deployment in Kashmir.

When contacted by this correspondent, Inspector General of BSF Himmat Singh confirmed that a batch of 178 female soldiers was being sent to Northern Command where they would be deployed along with Indo-Pak border to check the border violations by women, working in the field. Mr. Singh further stated that these women were not fully trained for operational military duties however in the next phase, after further training, they would be given the duties of operational Border security. Mr. Singh refused to admit that these female soldiers were actually prostitutes and were being dispatched to the valley as undercover sex workers. When contacted, Rohit Sharma, a senior defense analyst here in New Delhi, said that the move was a creative step by Indian army leadership as it would boost the medical and mental health of the soldiers.

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KASHMIR - A FIEFDOM IN SEARCH OF THEIR BRAND OF ' PEACE'

Hartal ! This is the emotional topic which many Kashmiris love to discuss. Majority of Kashmiri people think that Hartal is the only weapon available to make their voices heard and get their protests registered. But there are some people who love to call themselves as intellectually wise, upwardly pushing and dashing citizens, who always love to trash every call for the protest strike by calling it a harmful exercise done in vain. There argument against shutdowns is: Economy suffers, Poor get deprived of livelihood, Education suffers, Tourism suffers, People get killed and above all Disturbance of ‘peace’ occurs.

So they come up with the solution: No hartal, no protests and no struggle. Just work, live, eat, reproduce like lizards and keep minds shut for any yearning for dignified life. Cherish the one sided ‘peace’ and carry on with the normal chores of enslaved life. They say, “Enough of bloodshed has taken place. Let us move forward now.” (Towards God knows what).Good attractive emotional sermons and well thought over points of argument by them.

This note of mine is actually addressed to those who oppose the sustenance of struggle by whatever means available with us. Though they criticize every act of defiance by people of Kashmir but they have never come up with a valid, achievable, realistic and sustainable alternative to the shutdowns. But still I want some answers from them.

Where are the answers?

My dear advocates of peace and development,
I respect your sensibilities and am ready to buy your arguments against protest and strikes which are frequently called in reaction to the injustices perpetrated against the innocent people of Kashmir. But, can you please answer my few points before firing your salvos against those who sustain this struggle for Freedom with their own personal Freedom.

If giving peace a chance is the solution of Kashmir issue then who is not giving it that chance. Of course those who call for Strikes do not call for the violence. They just react to a violent act of oppression with a non violent method of protest. It is always the opposite camp which gives reasons to us for these strikes and protests. If you have not deemed it fit to remember, then let me refresh your mind. It was on the 11 of June 2010 when some Policemen blasted the skull of a 17 years old innocent boy Tufail Matoo by aiming directly at his head with a teargas missile without any provocation on part of the victim. After ensuring that the boy has died with his brain parts scattered all around, Policemen kicked the innocent victim a couple of times before leaving the spot. That boy was just heading towards his home after coming back from his tuitions. What was his crime? What should be the reaction of people after witnessing such a brutal dance of death?
Protest or maintain peace?

Let me remind you further. Prior to Tufail Matoo’s murder three other innocent boys were killed by Indian security forces and the local police. A boy named Inayat was mercilessly killed at Lal Chowk by CRPF, Wamiq Farooq was killed by Kashmir Police at the same place where Tufail Mattoo was killed and Zahid Farooq was killed when a BSF party directly fired at him at Nishat locality of Srinagar. All of these boys were killed without any provocation whatsoever.

Prior to all these killings, three young boys from district Kupwara were taken to the forests of Machil and killed in the cold blood by India army. They were labeled as ‘Terrorists’ and the officer in charge of that ‘encounter’ killed them only to get himself decorated for killing ‘dreaded terrorists’. He however planned his action is haste and could not hide the real identity of those whom he killed. This resulted in him getting exposed but not arrested or punished. And prior to these killings someone else somewhere was killed in the same fashion and prior to that someone, somewhere else. This vicious cycle of innocents being killed is not new but an old misery which is not ending at all. Who can break this cycle? Ordinary Kashmiris cannot do anything as those killed are their sons and those who kill are the enemies. Kashmiris can only protest by observing occasional shutdowns as they do not have the liberty of protesting differently. Subjugators simply have deprived them of all other alternative means of protests.

Protest is a natural trait.

If a dog is run over by a speeding vehicle on a highway, other dogs protest by barking and running after all the vehicles which pass by the spot of death of the slain. This way dogs protest for hours all together. These are dogs, which are called as stray animals. Any atrocity on any living being does not go un - protested. Even animals like dogs protest and weep at the killing of their companions. This is all natural.
And we humans too react in the way, in which nature has crafted us. Why should we defy our inner feelings by pretending to be insensitive, since protesting against the killing of brethren is quite natural a trait. If you want us to be silent, then you are not a living being. I cannot even call you an animal as animals too protest in these situations. I would simply like to call you a stone instead.

Give an alternative please

Then the argument is, “Shutdowns are counterproductive and hence should not be used as tools of the protest”.My counter question is, If not shutdowns, then what? Is there any other tool to express your anger against injustices? Kashmir is not New Delhi nor is it Egypt or Tunisia. You cannot come out on the roads and protest in big numbers. You will be beaten, arrested and subsequently fired upon. You too can become a figure in the statistics of death count register. We have seen massacres in the past.
Recalling a few of them: Gawkadal massacre, Zakura massacre, Bijbehara massacre, Hawal massacre, Pathribal massacre, Handwara massacre, Sopore massacre and so on.

Giving peace a chance


Argument is, “why protest in the first place. Let there be peace and things will improve automatically.”
Who can say that peace is not good? Peace is after all what we all strive for. But our perception of peace is altogether different from their perception of peace. We want peace through the achievement of our freedom and they want freedom to enforce ‘peace’ through subjugation. We have seen their ‘peace’ blown up into pieces in the past. Kashmir has had a relatively ‘peaceful’ atmosphere for more than 40 years from 1947 to 1989. Did it improve anything? No, it did not. Killings and atrocities happened then as well. Infrastructure did not get developed; Economy, Healthcare and Education did not get any boost either. Tourism too did not shine.

In return, our Ecology suffered, Dal lake shrunk to the half, Aanchar lake vanished, Wular lake started to shrink, our other water bodies became extinct, our forests became subjects of loot and plunder, our glaciers started to melt, our rivers turned into streams. All of this happened during ‘peace’. Kashmir issue too did not find any solution during that ‘peace’.

What fuelled rebellion of 1989 in Kashmir?


Peaceful democratic activity called elections fuelled the tumult. So is their brand of ‘peace’ in Kashmir any solution to all the miseries. Kashmiris were killed while protesting against the hike in power tariffs during 80s or protesting against “Satanic Verses” or protesting against the theft of the holy relic. Is all this ‘fragile peace’ a blessing? Yes, it is a blessing for those who treat Kashmir as their fiefdom. Those who have constructed majestic palaces and golf courses on the banks of Dal lake need this peace to enjoy their comfortable five star luxuries. Those who have slaughtered forests of Kashmir to fill their coffers need peace to flaunt their wealth around. Those who behave like Arab royals riding in highly expensive SUVs and treating whole of Kashmir as their oil field, need this peace to dig for more wealth. As Arab royals have sold their oil wells to their benefactors in the west, same has been done by our own breed of Sheikhs. Whatever is left has been sold to Indians without any objection. We are asked to maintain peace and wait for the development to come but at the same time our institutions are being destroyed. One of our self made, self sufficient institutions named J & K Bank too was not spared. It too has been gifted to our subjugators. Our main catalyst of economical development is also under their control now. Our educational institutions have been politicized and centralized. Our healthcare infrastructure is still in pre – historic infancy; our Industrial sector is ailing, our ecology and water bodies are dying which will result in the death of our much talked about tourism industry in the long run. These all things are happening not because of the struggle but because of reasons for which we struggle.

Who is the sufferer?

Those who have lost their children, their only bread earners never complain about the emptiness of their bellies. But those who feed their dogs with imported dog biscuits and mutton complain the most.
Why those who are least affected by protests, shout more? Why those who do not offer a penny from their wealth as charity or alms to the poor, all of the sudden become so concerned about the poor?
Those who normally treat ordinary Kashmiris like cattle, start to show concern for the people.

These people do all this because they fear. They fear that the subjugated may succeed in their struggle for freedom and their castles of loot may eventually become bonfires of victory. They do not want to lose their oilfields. That is why they strive so hard to sabotage the just struggle of masses by their hoax concern and hypocritical activism.

Tail-piece:

Our children are shining in the field of education despite the struggle. During the peaceful days of pre – nineties, securing more than 80 % marks was considered as an achievement but not anymore. Our students are securing more than 90 % marks in exams; our folks are passing competitive exams with flying colors, our boys and girls qualify for IAS, IFS and KAS exams in good numbers now. We could hardly find anyone during Pre - nineties who had qualified in these exams.

What does this suggest? This suggests, education is not subservient to their brand of ‘peace’. It is only subservient to the urge and hard work. Longer agitations can affect schooling but not the education.Fighting for your rights and freedom requires countless sacrifices, hardships and a strong commitment towards the cause. If you are not ready to offer any of these, then you better stop dreaming about a free life. And if you do not have any urge for living a dignified life in the first place, then no one can force you to suffer in this struggle. But you cannot raise your voice against the struggle either, because living a life of subjugation does not allow you to protest against anything whatsoever. Why do you then protest this? Are you speaking in this tone because you have been coerced to speak or do you belong to the class of our home grown Sheikhs who do not want to lose their oil fields? These are the questions to which we need some honest answers.

Koshur Mazloom © 2011

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They call us "terrorists".. are we; really?

They call us terrorists.. Are we really terrorists??

We are the victims of endian sponsored terrorism. The so called security forces(terrorist in uniform) which are according to them for our security enter in our homes, they kill our father's and brother's, rape our mother's and sister's. They burn our homes, ransack our properties and our souls and they call us terrorists?

we pour onto streets to protest the deaths of our brother's and the no-more-chaste sister's but they don't even let us protest. why would they? They fire bullets on us. we run to save ourselves, we take shelter in one corner,we look for something to defend ourselves, to protect the chastity of our sisters. We pick up stones and roar in one voice FREEDOM..they still keep firing,still martyrng our brother's, we have to face bullets in return of stones and yet they we are the "terrorists"?

Some young guns flee into the woods they have not a place to liveT, hey have no family left angry,upset and desolated. They join a caravan ready to cross over the border. Migrating from oppression to a land of there dreams. The land they always wanted to be with but the cries of there brethren in oppressed land rip there souls apart.They are restless, they still remember the haunting cries of there loved one's, who were murdered in cold blood by endian terrorists. Then they return back to the oppressed land, to avenge the death of there loved ones, to avenge the destroyed chastities of their sisters and mothers, to avenge their destroyed homes, they vow to take revenge and they are "terrorists"?

We are on streets from decades, we are hungry and thristy, tired and sick but not broken! theres no scope for peaceful protests, they incite stone pelting and yet we are the "mobsters"?
Our legs are weak, our feet are bleeding, we are unable to walk but we haven't given up, do we sound like "terrorists"??

These wounds will heal but the wound of hatred on our hearts for the fascist india and its policies towards kashmir; will never heal..

we are kashmiris
Seeking love,peace and justice,
But you inhuman people are trying to create a terrorist out of us..
LONG LIVE KASHMIR

BY SATAAR GOOR

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Please set Kashmir Free - KP

Please Set Kashmir Free- Malavika Sanghvi (Kashmiri Pandit)

Malavika Sangghvi As the daughter of a Kashmiri Hindu, whose family left its ancestral home in Srinagar during the turmoilthat followed Partition, I would liketo express a sentiment that I still haven’t heard in the rhetoric about Kashmir. I speak for those for whom Kashmir is not a symbol of one-upman ship with Pakistan, not a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that is intrinsic to the sovereignty of Indiaand not a football to be kicked around by cynical politicians, but as the daughter of a family in whose very lifeblood Kashmir courses every moment. Cut our hearts open and you will see Kashmir, put your ear to our sighs, and you will hear our yearning for the land where our family spent its last days intact and happy before Partition scattered us to the winds, rendering us refugees. Growing up dislocated in Mumbai, as a child, it never failed to surprise me when people who oftenhadn’t so far stepped out of their suburb, would say:”Kashmir is ours! We will never give it up! Let them try and take Kashmir from us!” Even at that early age, when I could have mistaken their jingoism for kindred sentiment, I realised that their virulence had nothing to do with my family’slove for Kashmir, but was misguided machismo. And I would find myself seething with rage at the audacity of their presumption. “But Kashmir was never yours,” I’d say in my mind. And sometimes, when more provoked: “You don’t deserve Kashmir!” And then I’d go home to my mother, whose ever present, unshed tears for her homeland, were a leitmotif of our life in Mumbai. Throughout my childhood, my family would go back to Srinagar (the ancestral home in Vazir Baugh had to be sold when my widower grandfather became too old to live alone) to stay with Muslim friends, with whom we shared a poignant empathy: we had lost Kashmir because we had moved away; they were losing it everyday, living there, witnessing its destruction. Over kawha, we would watch as the elders of our family weep for what had been. Like a woman too beautiful for her own good, Kashmir was a tragedy even then. It produced an ache in our hearts when we heard its name and thought of its ill fate: and then, because you cannot sit weeping over lost Valleys all your life,when we returned home we put Kashmir on the backburner. And on that backburner, Kashmir fermented Sheikh Abdullah, a man whose commitment to India was unquestionable, was humiliated, jailed, alienated. The most unimaginable genocide was committed on thepeople. Entire generations of its sons were mowed down by an army whose presence was as large as it was unpopular. And in its knee-jerk, misguided, ill-conceived approach to Kashmir the Indian polity revealed its shallowness. But through this all, intrinsically, those of us who have Kashmir in our bloods, know that the Kashmiri Pandits who have been driven out of their homeland are not enemies of the Kashmiri Muslims, in fact they are both victims of the historic blundering of the Indian government’s Kashmir policy. Take away Delhi’s political brinkmanship, take away the Hindutva sentiment that has played so neatly into the hands of Pakistan and its fishing-in-troubled-waters game and you may be surprised at how harmoniously Kashmir’s Hindus and Muslims can live. So, on behalf of my mother, my family, and all those who have loved and lost Kashmir, I beg:Please. We have done enough damage to and in Kashmir. Enough to last many lifetimes. The chinars are tinged with too muchblood. We have failed Kashmir and we don’t deserve her anymore. Leave Kashmir alone. Set her free. Email: s_malavika@dnaindia.net Originaly posted to dnaindia.com

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TWEET CHICKS AND FEARLESS GEELANI

So did read his tweet, “I do not want him (Geelani) to become a hero”. Omar Abdullah tweeted this in response to the Geelani’s program of offering the prayers in absentia for Osama Bin Laden. He claimed that it was he who made a hero out of him although unintentionally. Putting him under house arrests frequently prior to some of his public programs has made him a living martyr was, what Omar Abdullah was trying to convey. So, he did not arrest him that day. He allowed him to preside over the program. Geelani offered prayers in absentia along with thousands of his supporters in one of the uptown localities of Srinagar city. So far so good. Omar kept his promise this time. Indian media gave a great coverage to this event. Web portals of Indian newspapers ran the story on their front pages with headlines like, “Geelani prays for Osama” and “Osama is a martyr: Geelani”. Indian news channels ran the story on the prime time quite unlike of their usual black out of Geelani’s other public programs. Well, Indian media had a reason to cheer about at this unusual event hosted by Geelani. Again a rarity of sorts. They wanted to convey to US and Europe that Kashmiris are mourning for the enemy of the civilized world. Indian media could not have behaved otherwise, as we all know. Geelani Sahib also knew about this. But he did not cancel the program. Why did not he avoid such a controversial event? Simple, he did not avoid this event because he is not a hypocrite. Some say he lacks statesmanship. He should have shown some wisdom and avoided offending the West. Well does the West care about the rest? Have they ever thought about our sensibilities? Have they ever given us a reason to cheer? No they never give a damn to us.


Kashmiris are very sensitive people. When Indian security forces were killing innocent Kashmiris in 2010 and even before that, West always closed its eyes on Kashmiris. Kashmir is not so important for them because Kashmir does not possess oil wells and Kashmir has got no call centers filled with cheap cyber slaves. We have only one thing in us and that is our faith that, Western world will come to our rescue. Our faith should have been on something real and not on something so unreal. Our faith should be on our own abilities.


Whether it was a statesman like or not but I am sure it was an honest decision from Geelani to offer prayers for a person who was a fellow Muslim and who was killed in the cold blood. He was not even offered a burial but was thrown into the sea. Geelani offered prayers for a person whose body was not even handed over to his family members. He did not offer it for the enemy of the West. He offered it for a Muslim. It was purely a religious matter. Keeping aside the Indian media, shameful was the response of our own fellow intellectuals who usually pen down their pathetic judgments in the vernacular press. They criticized Geelani in their own peculiar way. Sajad Lone in one of his tweets called Geelani the biggest diplomatic victory for India.


What Geelani did was what he believed in and what they are doing is not what they are in reality. Hypocrites cannot hide their hypocrisy under the mask of intellectualism.

screenshot of Omar abdullah's twitter page

Coming back to Omar Abdullah. He tweeted that he was not going to arrest Geelani as arresting him makes a Hero. Well that statement was actually made to calm down those who were questioning the logic of allowing Geelani to proceed for the gathering. Basically Omar Abdullah wanted to make Geelani a Villain. Indian media picked up the plot and acted promptly but these media men forgot to cover another such gathering of Muslims who too were offering prayers for Osama. These people were so near to them but they preferred to go for Geelani instead. Shahi Imam of Jamia Masjid, Delhi too presided over the prayers in absentia for Osama but he is not any Geelani who will be given the coverage. Since then Omar Abdullah has not allowed Geelani to attend any of his programs. His lies are always overexposed. On all the occasions Geelani was put under the usual house arrest. Omar Abdullah did what his masters asked him to do but in doing so he has again reminded us that he is the real villain. It is beyond the capacity of a villain to create a hero. Only courage creates a Hero. And Geelani has got that courage in abundance. Those who fear Allah only are always feared. So do Omar Abdullah and other people of his ilk fear the God fearing Geelani. I am not referring to Sajad Lone here. Am I?


Koshur Mazloom © 2011

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An encounter with a Facebook friend in Kashmir

By : Subir Ghosh

I was a tad surprised when he told me that he wouldn’t be able to meet me late evening since it was late, and he would have to return home. You don’t always expect guys to rush homewards just because it is a trifle late. We had initially planned to meet early evening, but another appointment had held me up. So we caught up on phone, and fixed 8:30 the morrow morn for a tête-à-tête.

Since you don’t expect things to move at the same pace in Kashmir as it does in Delhi, I took it easy. I was late from word go; he wasn’t. The young man was there in the hotel lobby on time. The pleasantries done, we exchanged notes. Real ones this time, and not the Facebook kinds as we had often shared earlier. For this was a guy I had come to know from the world’s largest social networking site.

I had known him for a year or so, and had often fallen back on him for information. He had ungrudgingly come to my aid whenever I needed help with research. The info he provided was always based on sources whose veracity I could not question. One could not find a bias anywhere. There were times when I was moved by the amount that he would type only to help me in my work.

And then there was this evening when I found him doing weird stuff– the kind of silly things you do on Facebook when you are sitting idle. “Don’t have anything better to do?” I inboxed him. Pat came his reply, “What to do? There’s curfew outside. Can’t do anything else.” I chuckled. Cute young fella, I thought.

I had expected him to be affable, and this he was. He was also open-minded, candid. He said he had a Pakistan bent of mind. He also said the younger lot wanted neither India nor Pakistan; but complete independence. He did not seem to have issues there. I did not have any with him either. But funny that he talked of a "younger" lot; this fella himself is still in his twenties, I grinned to myself.

Yet his appearance, the way he presented himself was a bit misleading. I realised this in the course of our hurried conversation – when he dropped a bombshell. His brother, younger to him, had gone missing last year, shortly before the street protests had begun. A few days later, his body was recovered. It took close to a year for the family to get the relevant papers. And this had just happened.

It hit me hard. Disappearances and killings were what had dominated our exchanges on Facebook, but never for once had he told me of his own loss. I could see him putting up a brave face, his grief hidden behind his charming smile. I thought I saw his eyes glisten a bit when he said that his brother had been his backbone. Not the backbone bit, but I could relate to what it might mean for a man to lose his younger brother. I remember throwing up my own younger brother in the air when he was a toddler. Just for kicks.

My Facebook friend needed to rush to work, and our meeting had to be brought to a — to borrow a cliche — grinding halt. I hung around Srinagar for quite a few days more, but couldn’t find the time to meet him again.

As I kept interacting with people, from all walks of life, it slowly began to sink in. Most parents in Kashmir frantically wait for their sons to return to their hearth. And so would have been his parents. That was the reason why he had to ditch me that evening, and head for home.

I don’t know when I might visit Kashmir a second time. Or whether I will ever meet him again. But I do hope that he returns to his parents every evening.

PS: This piece could have well been titled Where parents wait for their sons to return home.

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List of detained prominent political prisoners

List Of Prominent Political Prisoners Currently Being Detained In various Jails Of India has been released in a seminar entitled “PAS-E-DEWAAR ZINDAAN, MAZLUMEEN… KYUN? AUR KIS HAAL MEIN??” Organised By Hurriyat G

DETENTION CASES:
M.Ashraf Sehrai ,Gh.Nabi Sumjhi, Masrat Alam Bhat, Qazi Yasir, Peer Saifullah, General Musa, M. Yusuf Falahi, Mehraj-ud-din Kalwal, Gh. Mohammad Bhat, Farooq Ahmad Gottapuri, Mir Hafizullah, Syedah Aasiyah Andrabi, Fehmeeda Sofi M.Yaseen Atai, Ab. Majeed Magray, Moulvi Bashir Ahmad, Ab. Ahad Parra, Aashiq Hussain Sofi, Moulvi Bashir Qureshi, Syed Imtiyaz Haider, Manzoor Ahmad Khan, M. Qasim Faktoo, M. Rafiq Ganaie, M. Rafiq Raina, Feroz A. Khan, Shakeel Ahmad Bhat, Gh. Qadir Bhat, Nisar A. Najar, Gh. Nabi Malik (Saddam), Showkat A. Hakim, Mehraj Din Sher-Gujri, Rayees Ahmad, Feroz Najar, Javaid Najar, M. Yaseen Yatoo, Haji M. Rustum Bhat, Bashir A. Sofi, M. Ismail Mir, M. Akram Najar, Gh. Nabi Gojri, Qazi Asgar, Qazi Irshad, Irshad Ahmad, Sona Ullah Mir, Nazir A. Lone, Muzaffar A. Dar, Younis A. Bhat, Muzaffar A. Najar, Shabir A. Bukhari, Shakeel A. Sofi, Showkat A. Teli, Nisar A. Bhat, Tariq A. Dar, Javaid A. Fazili, M. Rafiq Shah (Owais), Jan Mohammad, Khurshid Ahmad Lone, Tariq A. Ganaie Fayaz, A. Talaq Sheikh, M. Abbas, Javaid A. Mir, Nawaz A. Lone, Sabzar A. Bhat, M. Maqbool Konda, Bashir A. Bhat, Gh. Mohammad Mir, M. Ashraf Sofi, Farhat Ahmad, Naseer Ahmad Ganai, Sajad A. Nehvi, Ali M. Sheikh, SamiUllah Sheikh, Bilal A. Kakapori, Farooq A. Kakapori…..

Life Imprisonment Cases:

Dr. M. Qasim Faktoo, M. Ayub Dar, M. Ayub Mir, Engineer Farooq, M. Amin Dar(Banihal), M. Ali Bhat, Fida Ahmad, Shabir Ahmad, M. Hussain, Gh. Qadir Bhat, Gh. M. Bhat…..

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Martial law prevails in J&k - SASG

Indian Army is involved in war crimes in Kashmir and to hide those they need black laws like AFSPA : Geelani

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairman Hurriyat Conference has strongly reacting to the statement of general officer commanding-in-chief (GOC-in-C) of Northern Command, Lt General K T Parnaik, in which the latter stated that time was not ripe for revoking AFSPA from the state. In a statement, Geelani said there is martial law prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir. “Without the permission from the Army, no decision is taken in the state. AFSPA is a certificate for troops in Kashmir and under its garb they can kill Kashmiris,” he alleged. The Hurriyat chairman stated that Indian Army is involved in war crimes in Kashmir and to hide those they need black laws like AFSPA. This is the reason why Army generals always support AFSPA.

Sayed Ali Shah Geelani

Terming the state government as ‘puppets’ in the hands of New Delhi, Syed ALI Geelani said, “So-called state government has no role in the affairs of Jammu and Kashmir and it is being used at international level by New Delhi to show the world community that there is an elected government. (Chief Minister) Omar Abdullah cannot even transfer a police officer on his own. He has to take permission for that from New Delhi first.” Referring to the recent Dogra Certificate issue, Syed Ali Geelani said, “When the order had to be revoked, Omar Abdullah had to beg before New Delhi to revoke the order. State rulers have mortgaged their honour with New Delhi to remain in power.” He alleged that Kashmir had become a ‘profitable venture’ for security men. “They are looting our resources with both hands. Army does not want that peaceful solution of Kashmir problem must emerge as that will harm their interests. They want chaos and confusion as it suits their interests,” Syed Ali Geelani alleged. He appealed to the international community to put pressure on New Delhi for withdrawal of the AFSPA

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TERRORIZING THE TERRORIZED

'Crusade against terrorism'

When crusaders started their crusade against Muslims, they obliterated everything which they encountered on their way. They massacred women, children and old without any mercy. Christian crusaders were blinded by religious fanaticism. They laid the foundation stone of what is called in modern times is called, ‘Religious Fanaticism’ and which is strengthened by ‘terrorism’. But still no one talks about Christian crusaders today. When George. W. Bush announced his 'War on Terrorism" he called it a ‘Crusade’. What a dilemma. ‘Crusade against Terrorism’. In other words “Terrorism against Terrorism”. Let us not forget, Western bigots have been preparing the ground for this ‘Crusade’ since long. World Trade Center attack by Osama (no one though proved through a trial that it was he who attacked WTC but then he has already been punished for his unproven guilt) was a watershed event. Western media left no stone unturned to blame Muslims for the act. Fox news of United States of America pasted the caption ‘War on US’ over the TV screen for months altogether. They used to write war in green letters and US in blood red. This implied war on US was declared by green army of Muslims. Slowly and steadily they were successful to change the perception of their people about Muslims and message was clear. Muslims are not any ordinary people but are all terrorists. This was further emphasized by G.W. Bush by his slogan, "Crusade against Terrorism". For him ‘Crusade’ meant holy war and ‘Terrorism’ meant Muslims. However for us ‘Crusade’ meant Terrorism and ‘Terrorism’ meant Muslims. And we tasted that crusade. G. W. Bush managed to slaughter one million 'terrorists' read Muslims in Iraq and still counting. His crusade which started from Afghanistan is going on with venom still today. Thousands of Afghans and Pakistanis have lost their lives and still counting there as well. So, modern day Crusade has achieved far better results for them than the old times crusade. In modern day crusade they did not find any Salah u Din Ayubi to confront them.

But still question remains, How can they justify to their future generations that whatever they did was not terrorism? How can they prove that Muslims were all terrorists or all terrorist were Muslims? Let us leave that to their future generations to question and judge. Let us observe with objectivity and with facts provided by them only, how much role Muslims played in terrorizing them.

Muslims are Terrorists

"All Muslims are terrorists" was the accusation. When the hypocrites who made this statement realized no one in their right mind would believe that all 1.6 billion Muslims in the world could be terrorists, they reversed the statement to sound more objective and fair: Thus they modified it and claimed, “All Muslims may not be terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims.”

Average American will continue to watch the mainstream media day in, day out and see pictures of “Muslim terrorists” flashed across the screen or spoken about for hours on the radio. Here are some hard facts to make it clear that every perception is not a reality.

The Facts

According to the FBI database, there have been 318 terrorist incidents in the US from 1980-2005. That includes 209 bombings and 43 arsons. Out of those incidents, 42% were committed by Latino groups, 24% by Extreme Left Wing groups, 7% by Jewish Extremists, 6% by Muslim Extremists, and 5% by Communists.

A RAND Corporation [funded by the U.S. government] report titled “Would-be Warriors” reveals some very interesting facts:

1. Not a single U.S. civilian has been killed by Muslim extremists since Sept 11, 2001.
2. Only 3 out of 83 acts of terrorism between 9/11 and 2009 were done by Muslim extremists. Most were by animal rights and environmental activists.
3. There was more terrorism in the 1970s than the 21st century. There were over 60 terrorist incidents per year on U.S. soil, most of them being bombings. That’s 15 – 20 times more terrorism than post 9/11.

Europol’s report titled “EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report” showed that 0.4% of terrorist attacks from 2006-2008 were committed by Muslim extremists. That means 99.6% of terrorist attacks were by non-Muslims, most of which were separatists and leftists.

U.S. Terrorist Organizations

If you were asked to name five major terrorist organizations in the US, how many could you name besides al-Qaeda? Most people couldn’t name more than one. So here are some to help you balance the distorted view that the media feeds you with:

• Animal Liberation Front: Is known for sabotaging animal testing facilities, etc. The FBI explicitly said that ALF is the “leading domestic terrorist threat.”
• Alpha 66 and Omega 7: Cuban exiles opposed to anyone who takes a moderate approach to Castro. They are responsible for many bombings.
• Army of God: Anti-abortion and anti-gay. Known for bombing at least two abortion clinics, a lesbian nightclub, and the Summer Olympics in 1996. They believe that Anglo-Saxons are the only true children of God.
• Aryan Nations: A white nationalist, neo-Nazi, and Christian Identity group. The RAND Corporation described it as the “first truly nationwide terrorist network.”
• Black Liberation Army: They carried out a series of bombings, robberies, and prison breaks.
• The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord: Another Christian Identity organization.
• Earth Liberation Front: Eco-terrorist group. The FBI in March 2001 said that it is the number one domestic terrorist threat.
• Jewish Defense League: Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, they executed at least 15 terrorist attacks in the U.S. [more than al-Qaeda] and are responsible for at least 60 bombings.
• Ku Klux Klan: A white supremacist, anti-Communist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Catholic group.
• Militia Movement: An anti-government movement. One common tactic is to explode pipe bombs at government facilities. They have about 20,000-60,000 members in the U.S.
• Phineas Priesthood: Another Christian Identity movement that is against interracial intercourse, homosexuality, abortion, and multiculturalism.
• Symbionese Liberation Army: A far left organization.
• United Freedom Front: A Marxist organization responsible for at least 20 bombings and 9 bank robberies.
• The Weather Underground: A far left organization responsible for at least 45 bombings between 1970 – 1977.
• Ejercito Popular Boricua [Boricua People’s Army]: They have been demanding independence of Puerto Rico from U.S. imperialism.
• New World Liberation Front: A far-left organization responsible for at least 70 bombings in the Bay Area alone.

International Terrorist Organizations

Of course, terrorism is not only an American phenomenon, but exists worldwide. Here are some examples abroad:

• Aum Shinrikyo: Japan. A new religious movement responsible for the 1995 Sarin Nerve Gas attacks in the Tokyo subway.
• All Tripura Tiger Force: India. Their goal is to expel all immigrants of Tripura. 90% of members are Hindu and 10% are Christian.
• Babbar Khalsa: India/Canada. A Sikh religious organization that blew up a 747 jet in 1985 killing 329 people [including 280 Canadian citizens].
• Communist Party of India (Maoist): Prime Minister Singh said that they are “the single biggest security challenge ever faced by our country”. They have killed over a thousand people.
• Provisional Irish Republican Army: Ireland. They have killed over 1800 people.
• ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom): Spain/France. They have killed almost a thousand people.
• Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK): Turkey. A Socialist/Nationalist party demanding independence.
• New Peoples Army: Philippines. A Communist organization.
• National Liberation Front of Corsica: France. A separatist organization.
• Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide: They have been trying to force Turkey to admit to the historical Armenian genocide. Responsible for at least 23 terrorist attacks.

Notable U.S. Terrorist Attacks

The following is a very brief list of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil to make it clear that American terrorism is as American as cherry pie.

• 1910: Bombing of the L.A. Times Building by James and John McNamara who wanted to unionize the paper.
• 1920: Wall Street bombing by followers of Luigi Galleani with 100 pounds of dynamite that killed 38 people and injured 400.
• 1927: Bath, Michigan Bombings by Andrew Kehoe who was angry over taxes. He set off three bombs killing 45 people [including 38 students].
• 1971: Bombing of the U.S. Capitol Building by the Weather Underground in protest against the U.S. invasion of Laos.
• 1972: Bombing of the Pentagon by the Weather Underground in retaliation for the U.S. bombing raid in Hanoi.
• 1975: Bombing of the Department of State Building by the Weather Underground in response to war escalation in Vietnam.
• 1976: Hijacking of Cubana Flight 455 by CIA-linked Cuban exiles who killed all 73 people on board.
• 1978-1995: Unabomber Attacks by Ted Kaczynski who sent letterbombs to academics and other influential people.
• 1995: Oklahoma City Bombing by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols who killed 168 people.
• 1996: Centennial Olympic Park Bombing by Eric Robert Rudolph for which President Clinton called “an evil act of terror”. This was the largest pipe bomb in U.S. history.
• 2001: Anthrax Attacks by Bruce Edwards Ivins.
• 2007: Virginia Tech Massacre by Seung-Hui Cho who killed 32 people. He likened himself to Jesus Christ and expressed his hatred of the rich.
• 2010: Austin IRS Attack by Andrew Joseph Stack who flew an airplane into the IRS building because he was mad at the government.
• 2011: Tucson Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords where Jared Lee Loughner shot nineteen people.

Image is Everything

It is obvious that media gives maximum coverage to ‘Muslim Terrorism’ and usually labels it so and in other cases little coverage is given and the nomenclature is usually confined to ‘terrorism’ only without any prefixes before the word terrorism.The only statistics that are missing is the amount of media coverage per terrorist incident or group. It shouldn’t surprise anyone now that Muslims usually receive the most coverage despite the fact that they are near the bottom of the list when it comes to terrorist activity.

Now that the facts are clear, do you think anyone would dare to rephrase the statement and end with “almost all terrorists are…” Latinos, leftists, environmentalists, Christians, Sikhs or Jews? I doubt it. This twisted logic is only applied for Muslims, not anyone else.

No never. It will be considered a blashphemy and anti - semitism. But for Muslims no rules apply. Muslims are still the dreaded terrosits for them despite being slaughtered day in and day our in the name of 'Crusade against Terrorism'. Who wil turn the tables on them and call their criminal crusades, as acts of real terrorism. But then we Muslims do not posses Fox TV and CNN to do that job for us. We possess only collaborators in our ranks and puppets on thrones. Our media is an extension of their media. No one among us is ready to bust their myths. We have only been given a job of pleading not guilty and playing as victims which we actually are. But no one is ready to accept that. Hope our future generations will not take thing in thier stride. Hope they will confront them. Hope !

Acknowledgement:

Statistics and figures taken from the internet.

Koshur Mazloom

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It's time to declare India a Terrorist State

The only country in the world, other than Israel, to have acquired land through conflict or intimidation after the end of World War 2 is India. Israel has the excuse at least that in some of their conflicts with the Arabs they pre-empted imminent aggression and thus were not the aggressor per se. In the South Asian sub-continent, India has openly coveted (and/or made designs to take possession thereof) before actually annexing their neighbour or their prime real estate. In every incident of aggression, care was taken to garb the nakedly expansionist moves under some camouflage or the other.

EXTERNAL TERRORISM

The first to fall into India's grip was Kashmir, the legal subterfuge used was the Maharaja's Letter of Accession. This was followed by military intervention to annex Hyderabad, Junagadh and Manawadar in 1948. In 1960 it was the turn of the Portuguese possessions of Goa, Daman and Diu in a farcical war. The smaller princely States of India were just taken over lock, stock and barrel at the appropriate time. As the world started to look askance at naked aggression, India turned increasingly to subterfuge. In 1968 they formed the Research and Analytical Wing (RAW) whose main purpose at that time was to organise covert operations in Bangladesh, in this they were actively supported by the Border Security Forces (BSF) whose Deputy Director General (DDG), in this case Brig Pande, was based at Calcutta with an alternate HQs in 91 BSF at Agartala for operational purposes. With the creation of RAW, India turned from naked aggression to sophistication in the pursuit of its ambitions. RAW became involved in covert operations in all the peripheral countries around India. While RAW's role in the creation of Bangladesh did not get much attention, its operatives were in constant contact with hard-core India sympathizers within Awami League (AL) such as Tajuddin, Nazrul Islam, etc. Through these surrogates RAW maintained pressure on Sheikh Mujibur Rehman whenever he started weakening in his anti-Pakistan stance. After 1971, RAW retained its interest in Bangladesh, raising a parallel military organisation loyal to AL (and India) known as the Rakhi Bahini headed by Brig Nuruzzaman. As a Captain of the Pakistan Army, Nuruzzaman had undergone trial for treason in the famous Agartala Conspiracy Case. Though they were better armed and organised than the Bangladesh Armed Forces, the Rakhi Bahini was easily disarmed and demobilised by the Bangladesh Army post-Mujib. RAW agents have since become a permanent factor for destabilisation in Bangladesh, having subverted the loyalties of a large segment of the Hindu population. After Sheikh Mujib was assassinated, they re-created the 1971 vintage Kader Bahini led by the infamous Kader Siddiqui who operated from Indian territory from 1975 to 1985 and constantly troubled the Zia Regime (and later the Ershad regime) with many instances of terrorism. Today India sustains the Chakma revolt against Bangladesh in the Chittagong Hill Tracts by supporting the Shanti Bahini which makes cross border raids from training and logistics camps in the Indian Tripura State at Amarpur, Sabroom and opposite Baghban-Tilla.


Westerners were captivated by the marriage of the American Ms Hope Cooke with the ruler of the Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim in the early 60s. Set in a fairytale Shangri-La atmosphere Sikkim became known as one of free world's remaining ancient monarchies. But trouble incited by RAW was brewing from 1973 onwards. RAW planted agents in Gangtok, Mangain, Namchi and Gyalshing for cultivating sympathisers who would fan disturbances against the reigning monarch and would then 'request' for Indian help against the 'despot'. Just in case the anti-monarchist ploy did not work, RAW was ready with operational data required for military intervention. On 20 April 1975, the once friendly and peaceful kingdom of Sikkim became a possession of India.

Bhuttan's Jigme Wangchuk of the adjacent Himalayan Kingdom took this lesson to heart and while he clearly pouts at regional official functions he does not strain too much at the leash and studiously toes the Indian line, realising that his situation is probably more untenable than his once-upon-a-time Sikkim Counterpart. Nominally, he remains, along with the Maldives, as showpiece independent nations and the only ones on India's periphery 'without' problems with India. Just in case that he should ever dream otherwise, the Kingdom is prone to inspired pro-India riots from time to time. This domino will fall eventually or may not depending upon whether the Indians want to keep the showpiece going.

Nepal is the only Hindu Kingdom in the world. King Bhirendhra ran afoul of India because of his independent stance on regional policies. Previously known as an annexe of India, Nepal opened out to the world in the late 70s and early 80s. RAW was mandated by the Indian Government to bring Nepal into line. The first set was that India used a pretext to halt all supplies of food, medicine, oil etc. from going to this land-locked country. In the meantime RAW agents fanned out among anti-monarchist elements and as the economic blockade took hold, riots broke out all over Nepal escalating into full fledged political confrontation between the monarchy and the electorate. Acts of terrorism, including the explosions of bombs, sabotage of installations, attacks on prominent personalities, etc. proliferated. Faced with the possibility of large-scale anarchy and even take-over by India on the Sri Lanka pattern, the King opted to become a constitutional monarch and a 'friendly' government came to power in Nepal. This was a blatant interference in the internal affairs of another nation, RAW was used as the terror weapon.

Burma has not escaped interference from India. Having a long border with India, Burma is bedevilled by independence movements that freely roam across international borders. Such cross border operations have meant that Burmese troops have been engaged on yet another front to secure the country's frontiers. There is concern in Bangladesh that RAW agents were behind the trouble in Arakan Province that has resulted in 250,000 Arakanese Muslim refugees crossing over to Bangladesh. Normally Burma and Bangladesh enjoy excellent relations but this refugee problem has become a sore point that has almost led to war between the two countries.

The paradise that once was Sri Lanka is a case of the full force of application of the so-called Indira Doctrine, that this whole region is an area of unrestricted Indian influence. The former Chief of RAW, Kao, was mandated by Indira Gandhi to repeat the Bangladesh story and bring the Sri Lankans into line. RAW was given a free hand to destabilise the island republic, a country so at peace with itself and its neighbours that it had a maximum of only two or three active military units (less than 5,000 men under arms). The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ramachandra, gave his consent to RAW setting up Tamil rebel camps at Ganda and Gorakhpur. Tamils were trained to bring about an armed rebellion to carve a Tamil State out of the predominantly Sinhalese island. Of the many groups that RAW trained, the most deadly were the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) led by Prabhakaran, which murderously targeted the other fellow ethnic Tamil Groups in addition to bringing unrestrained terror to the Sinhalese majority in the island. The full face of terrorism was unleashed in the cities with car bombs, assassinations etc. killing and maiming thousands before the Sri Lankan Armed Forces could re-organise themselves and assert the rule of the law. With their LTTE allies ultimately besieged in the North and North East, the Indians gave the Sri Lankans an ultimatum to stop their offensive and virtually at the point of gun signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in 1987. Indian forces started landing in Sri Lanka as the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) to 'enforce' the peace even before the Accord was signed. This was Pax India-na at its most blatant. As often happens in a Client Patron relationship, the Tamil Tigers refused to fall into line with their Indian masters and the IPKF started to sustain heavy casualties from their former allies. The Indian Army blamed RAW for not providing accurate information about the former RAW proteges. The IPKF inadequacy in dealing with the LTTE became a debacle that forced the Indians to withdraw from Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan paradise that once was had now became Hell on Earth, the fighting between the now 3-4 division strength Sri Lanka Armed Forces (over 100,000 men under arms) and the Tamil Tigers goes bloodily on without quarter given or taken. As a revenge for having caused innumerable casualties and horrific damage, the Tamil tigers targeted the man who had mandated the IPKF to establish Pax-India-na in Sri Lanka, Rajiv Gandhi. In a classic Tamil Tiger operation, RAW trained operative assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, the blood cycle had come a complete circle. This is second time around that it had happened in the same family, the first being the gunning down of Rajiv's mother by Sikh Bodyguards in the wake of the storming of the Golden Temple at Amritsar and the killing of Bhindranewala and his close associates. Bhindranewala shot into fame from obscurity as a protege of late Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's younger son, who mandated RAW to support his feud. As a sequel to Rajiv's assassination India closed down all camps and suspended the free movement of Tamils (now mostly supporter of LTTE) with India, one may well ask, if this is not an instance of an open display of export of State terrorism, what is? Unfortunately for India, the Tamils have plenty of sympathisers in Tamil Nadu and the problems persist, having come home to roost.

The Indian Ocean farce where 200 Tamil mercenaries from the Ealam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF - another creation of RAW) were employed to stage a coup against Maldives President Mamoon Abdul Gayoom is a case in point. President Gayoom was prompted to ask for Indian help for rescuing his government. Anybody with scant knowledge of aircraft, ships and logistics would have worked out that the Indian forces were dispatched to the rescue much before the coup was even attempted. A grateful Gayoom has given Indian forces a major foothold deep in the Indian Ocean, a solid landbased aircraft carrier for dominating the oceanic area figuring in the designs of India hegemony.

Pakistan figures promptly as a major RAW target, with special emphasis on the separatist Sindhu Desh movement. A wing of the Indian Special Services Bureau (SSB) has established terrorist camps across the border from Sindh in Rajasthan in eight major locations, Ganganagar, Jaipur, Udhampur, Kishangarh, Bikaner, Barmer, Jaiselmer and Gandhinagar. Services of Hindus who had migrated to India during 1971 and whose relatives are still living in Sindh are coordinated through a RAW cell located at Jaipur called the Sindhu Desh Department. With the exit of the active elements of the Al-Zulfikar Organisation (AZO) from Afghanistan and Libya, AZO has been taken over lock, stock and barrel by RAW. The same style of paid gunmen and bomb explosions as was witnessed in Sri Lanka has been duplicated in Sindh. The cooperation between the KGB, Khad and RAW to destabilize Pakistan, particularly Sindh during the decade-old Afghan war, is well documented and known to western intelligence agencies.

RAW emerges as the only presently functioning instrument of widescale application of State terrorism. This is no rogue operation planned by some idealistic nuts running wild, this is a deliberate implementation of the policy of the Indian Government to annex and occupy neighbouring countries or to browbeat them into accepting Indian hegemony. That RAW takes the initiative to sow anarchy and disorder puts it in a murderous class of its own.

Pakistan's main claim to fame with respect to being judged guilty of State terrorism is Kashmir, there is widescale speculation that the US may declare Pakistan a terrorist State because of supposedly ISI-organised camps organise guerrillas to cross into Indian occupied Kashmir. The ISI learnt most of its expertise from close collaboration with the CIA during the 80s decade Afghan war when Afghan Mujahideen were trained in guerilla warfare in camps in the border region to liberate Afghanistan from Soviet yoke. Given the fact of Kashmir's disputed status and Pakistani emotions, the ISI could well be using that knowledge for operations in Kashmir but the insurrection within Kashmir is mostly indigenous, the people's will being spontaneous does not need orchestration. The ISI and other Pakistani covert agencies are also accused of providing help to Sikh militants demanding a separate homeland. Most of the Sikh militants are ex-Indian Army personnel who mutinied after the Golden Temple was desecrated. Support to them by Pakistan may be more moral than material in the circumstances. Kashmir is another matter, it is freedom struggle and the ISI need not organise camps since Kashmiris on both sides of the border are committed to freedom from Indian tutelage and thus would be crossing the border without official sanction. Even if the sanction is denied, the borders will remain porous, in the circumstances imposing a clamp down would be next to impossible.

INTERNAL TERRORISM

Many people wrongly believe that RAW is used by India only for the purposes of the State's external policies. RAW has another more vicious role, to support the security forces within India to cow down its own population.


Many people in the outside world are not aware of the Hindu class system, almost 53% of the population are of the lowest class, the Untouchables. With about 17% Muslims and 3-4% Christians of various denomination, only about 25-27% of the population is really enfranchised. Most of the government jobs go to this minority with a sprinkling drawn from the majority for purposes of window dressing.The only government employment really open to the majority population are the menial jobs, even in the Armed Forces Untouchables, Muslims and Christians are few and far between. Control of the government at all levels and of the Armed Forces thus gives the Hindu minority upper class dictatorial authority over the rest of the population. When VP Singh was PM he tried to overcome this inequity by enforcing a Quota system, riots broke out all over the country, mostly fanned by the civil administration. In Delhi most of the protestors were government servants, this was repeated during the Babri Masjid riots in December showing BJP's hold. To sustain their rule, the ruling classes use RAW as a weapon to stamp down dissent, spread disinformation, political character assassination, hit squads to commit murder, etc. The amazing thing is that they got away with it despite the fact that the maximum amount of movements for independence are raging within India.

To start with is the grey area of Kashmir which is legally not a part of India but is under Indian subjugation. To fight the freedom movement, the Indians have adopted a three track policy. First they have shored up the present Indian administration, particularly the law enforcement agencies to maintain civil order. Since the local police forces have been hopelessly compromised, the Indians moved in large number of units from the Border Security Forces (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police (CRPF). To augment their strength at key points, at least 2 more complete mountain divisions have been moved in, one from Eastern Command and the other from Southern Command. Both these formations were part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka. In addition, Brigade sized independent formations as well as special commando units have been posted to Kashmir. While the BSF and CRPF were known for their penchant to resort to atrocities against non-combatants particularly old men, women and children, the commando units were trained by Israelis to combat the urban guerillas on the counter-Intifida pattern. Most infamous among these special units are the so-called Black Cats (they wear black uniform). The prime modus operandi is to surround a locality and line up all the men held in that swoop. Hooded men, who are obviously either informants or guerillas who have been tortured and thus forced to cooperate, are then brought to identify possible dissidents. Some of those that are held simply disappear, in most cases their bodies turn up after a few days. There is no sanctuary, churches and/or mosques are entered at will, in many cases there has been gun-battles on the premises. A form of ethnic cleansing is in process in Kashmir, the country is being rid of Muslim Kashmiris. There have been as many as 40,000 documented deaths in the last 2/3 years, over double that have crossed over the LoC to become a fresh wave of refugees in Azad Kashmir.

An innocent young painter shot dead while painting a wall by BSF and SOG in HabbaKadal Srinagar

Almost a similar modus operandi is followed in Khalistan (Indian Punjab).Operation Blue Star in 1984 aimed at getting the Sikh militants out of the Golden Temple at Amritsar. The Sikh leader Bhindranewala was a RAW creation, a discovery of the late Sanjay Gandhi who thought he could be built-up as antidote to the growing Sikh freedom movement. Unfortunately for India, while before Bhindranewala the Sikhs were for greater autonomy within India,after Blue Star the great majority now want an independent Khalistan.Like in Kashmir, the province is in a state of virtual internal siege and the guerilla attacks are matched by the State's law enforcement agencies in the context of terrorism. Like in Kashmir, draconian laws ensure that fundamental rights remain suspended.

Over the broad mass of Central India, extending to the South is the shadowyNaxalite movement. Originating in a village called Naxalbari in West Bengal in the late 60s, this is essentially a revolt of the downtrodden class against the injustice of the rich and ruling, particularly the landlord class and government functionaries. At the beginning the movement was not really terrorist-oriented but the reaction of the civil administration forced them to respond with vengeance, now it is all out war with the Naxalites beheading their targeted enemies. Naturally the Indian Government's response, both Federal and State, has been to fight fire with fire with only lip-service given to civil liberties.

In the South is the land of the Tamils. In the 60s and 70s there was a budding secessionist movement, however with Indian moves on Sri Lanka in support of the minority Tamils against the majority Sinhalese, this movement was stymied. During the 80s, RAW created many camps in Tamil Nadu for the Tamil guerilla movements. Most of the supplies to Tamil areas were ferried across the straits to Jaffna and other areas by RAW operatives. A time came when the Sri Lankan Tamils had virtually free run of the place. However, with the advent of the IPKF into Sri Lanka, the major Tamil group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), led by Prabhaharan, revolted against Indian tutelage. RAW's proteges now became India's implacable enemies, the most bloody action was Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in typical LTTE style with the help of a girl from the LTTE suicide squad, she blew herself up along with the former PM of India. The Indian reaction against the Sri Lankan Tamils in India has been predictable and has created a backlash among the South Indian Tamil population.

Most of India's budding secessionist movements are too small to be well documented but the Indian response has been bloody and brutal. Some of the movements that are of significance are:-

a. Gorkhaland

The areas around Darjeeling, just south of Nepal, is inhabited by a large number of Gorkhas who are fighting for their own homeland. There is an uneasy peace at the moment because the Indians have promised autonomy.


b. Bodoland

Just west of Darjeeling lies Meghalaya where Bodo tribals are fighting for their independence. This freedom struggle started with bows and arrows, it is now a full fledged guerilla movement.

c. ULFA

United Liberation Front of Assam envisages an independent Assam as the local inhabitants feel they have been colonized by the Indians. As usual, the Indians have met terror with terror, razing entire villages to the ground.

d. Nagaland

The Nagas have been fighting for their independence since almost 1947. The British had promised them an independent homeland for their active support against the Japanese in World War 2. After the emergence of Bangladesh, the mainly Christian Nagas lost their main supply base for some time and they came to terms with the Federal authorities. However the promises made by the Indians were never fulfilled and as Bangladesh fell out with India, the Naga logistics improved and the guerilla movement goes on in full swing.

e. Mizoram

Like the Nagas, the Mizos are mainly Christians and their guerilla movement has followed the same route. Laldenga, their leader, had to come to terms after the emergence of Bangladesh. He was brought to Delhi for peace negotiations and then incarcerated when the talks failed in utter violation of the immunity given to him. Today the movement for an independent Mizoram goes on.

f. Manipuris

One of the greatest shocks of 'democratic' India that awaited tea planters of West Pakistani origin who moved into India while escaping from East Pakistan in 1971 (and were incarcerated in Indian Jails) was to find Manipuri children in many jails of Tripura State, particularly Agartala Jail. Under the Maintenance of India Security Act (MISA), a large number of Manipuri children of Manipuri influentials were kept as hostages for their good behaviour. For a time after Bangladesh became a separate country, there was relative peace in Manipur as the guerilla movement lost its supply sanctuaries. It is now a war-torn country with Indian forces being attacked by Manipur guerillas in areas stretching from Manipur south to the Burmese border.

CONCLUSION

In the face of overwhelming evidence of Indian sponsored State terrorism directed against (1) its neighbours and (2) its own population for years, the USA is not likely to discriminate against Pakistan on the basis of the evidence at hand and the nature of the international dispute with respect to Kashmir, though restraint may well have been advised by the US through diplomatic channels. One may well ask, what is any Pakistani government to do, turn the other cheek and act deaf, dumb and blind while Kashmiris are increasingly subject to atrocities? In Kashmir today, if death, rape and torture has become endemic, it is mostly at the initiative of Indian forces. To be fair while one may accept that we may have cast a stone or two, in the face of the Indian barrage of terrorism against all its neighbours, one will expect that justice will not be denied. If the world community has any even-handed non-discriminatory yardstick for labelling any nation a terrorist State, India outstrips everyone else by a mile!

Photographic evidence :

The 8 year old innocent was killed by Indians during current protests inKashmir

A group of Indian women shed their clothes and protest outside the Indian Army Assam Rifles anti-terrorism unit barracks in Imphal, Manipur.

GENOCIDE AGAINST MUSLIMS: The charred bodies of Muslim after the Hindus attacked, murdered and burned them inGujarat in 2002. The fate of Mulsims in India

GENCIDE AGAINST MUSLIMS IN GUJRAT: The bodies of dozens of burned Muslims waiting for a mass burial lay in a Muslim graveyard in Ahmadabad India

A Hindu Fanatic group attacking Muslim citizens in India

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