By Anupam Dasgupta,

Little Terrorist, as the intelligence sleuths came to call him, turned out to be a hard nut to crack. No amount of torture would work on 20-year-old Mohammed Issa, who was picked up from Delhi on February 5, 2006. The Delhi Police believed that he had a hotline to Lashkar-e-Toiba deputy chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhwi, who later masterminded the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. At a secret detention centre in Delhi, the police and intelligence officers tried every single torture method in their arsenal-from electric shock to sleep deprivation-to make Issa sing. He stuck to his original line: that he had come from Nepal to visit a relative in Delhi. Only, they refused believe him.

According to the police, the youth from Uttar Pradesh, who had moved to Nepal in 2000 along with his family after his father, Irfan Ahmed, was accused in a terrorism case, returned to India to set up Lashkar modules in the national capital. More than six months after he was picked up, the police announced his arrest on August 14. He has since been shifted to the Tihar jail. His lawyer N.D. Pancholi said Issa was kept in illegal custody for months. If not, let the police say where he was between February 5 and August 15, he challenged.

Issa could have been detained in any of Delhi’s joint interrogation centres, used by the police and intelligence agencies to extract precious information from the detainees using methods frowned upon by the law. As one top police officer told THE WEEK in the course of our investigation, these torture chambers spread across the country are our “precious assets”. They are our own little Guantanamo Bays or Gitmos (where the US tortures terror suspects from Afghanistan and elsewhere for information).

Not many admit their existence, because doing so could result in human rights activists knocking at their doors and bad press for the smartly dressed intelligence men. It is a murky and dangerous world, according to K.S. Subramanian, Tripura’s former director-general of police, who has also served in the Intelligence Bureau. “Such sites exist and are being used to detain and interrogate suspected terrorists and it has been going on for a long time,” he told THE WEEK. “Even senior police officers are reluctant to talk about the system.” So are people who have been to these virtual hells that officially do not exist.

THE WEEK has identified 15 such secret interrogation centres-three each in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, two in Kolkata and one in Assam. (One detention centre that is shared by all security and law enforcement agencies is in Palanpur, Gujarat.) Their locations have been arrived at after speaking to serving and retired top officers who had helped set up some of these facilities. Those who have spent time in these places had no idea where they are. They were taken blindfolded and were allowed no visitors. The only faces they got to see were those of the interrogators, day in and day out.

The biggest of the three detention centres in Mumbai, the Aarey Colony facility in Goregaon, has four rooms. The Anti-Terrorism Squad questioned Saeed Khan (name changed), one of the accused in the Malegaon blasts of September 2006, here. He was served food at irregular intervals (led to temporary disorientation) and was denied sleep. Another secret detention centre maintained in the city by the ATS at Kalachowky has a sound-proof room. Sohail Shaikh, accused in the July 2006 train bombings, was held here for close to two months. “He was kept in isolation for days together,” said an officer. “He crumbled after being subjected to hostile sessions. Intentional infliction of suffering does not always yield immediate results. Sometimes you have to wait for many days for the detainee to break. It is a tedious process.” The smallest of the three facilities at Chembur has just two rooms.

Parvez Ahmed Radoo, 30, of Baramulla district in Kashmir, was illegally detained in Delhi for over a month for allegedly trying to plot mass murder in the national capital on behalf of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The Delhi Police’s chargesheet says he was arrested from the Azadpur fruit market in Delhi on October 14, 2006. But according to Parvez’s flight itinerary, he travelled from Srinagar to Delhi on September 12 on SpiceJet flight 850. The flight landed at Delhi airport at 12.10 p.m. He had to catch another flight at 1.30 p.m. (SpiceJet flight 217) to Pune, where, according to his parents, he was going to pursue his Ph.D. But he never boarded the Pune flight as he disappeared from the Delhi airport.

Parvez wrote an open letter from the Tihar jail, where he is currently held, in which he said he was arrested from the airport on September 12 and kept in custody for a month. Apparently, he was first taken to the Lodhi Colony police station and then to an apartment in Dwarka, where electrodes were attached to his genitals and power was switched on. (Delhi’s secret detention centres are located at Dwarka in south-west Delhi, the Inter-state Cell of the Crime Branch in Chanakyapuri in central Delhi, and the Lodhi Colony police station in south Delhi.)

“After my arrest on September 12, I was taken to Pune, where I was shown pictures of many Kashmiri boys,” Parvez said in the letter. “They wanted me to identify them. As I didn’t know any one of them, they brought me to Delhi again and threw me into the torture chamber of Lodhi Road [sic] police station. They took off my clothes and started beating me like an animal, so ruthlessly that my feet and fingers started bleeding. I was later forced to clean the blood-stained floor with my underwear. They gave me electric shocks and stretched my legs to extreme limits, resulting in internal haemorrhage. I started passing blood with my urine and stool. Later I was shifted to one flat near Delhi airport [he later identified the place as Dwarka]. From the adjacent flats, voices of crying and screaming had been coming, indicating presence of other persons being tortured.”

Throughout his detention, wrote Parvez, he was asked to lie to his parents that everything was fine. In the letter he also gave the mobile number from which the calls were made-9960565152. His family is trying to collect the call site details of the number to prove his illegal detention.
Delhi-based journalist Iftikhar Geelani, who spent nine days in the Lodhi Colony police station after his arrest in 2002 on spying charges, is yet to get over the traumatic experience. “There are lock-ups with such low ceilings that a person will not be able to stand,” he said. “There is an interrogation centre within the police station where people are brutally tortured with cables, and some are completely undressed and abused. They also have a facility to raise the temperature of the cell to a point where it is unbearable and then suddenly bring it down to freezing cold.”

Assistant Commissioner Rajan Bhagat, spokesman for the Delhi Police, denied the existence of such facilities. “Nobody ever asked me the question [about secret detention centres],” he said. “We don’t operate any such facility in our police stations.”
But Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director of the IB, confirmed the existence of secret detention centres in Delhi and other parts of the country. He was convinced that detention outside the police station and torture are an inevitable part of the war on terrorism. “Now I would never dream of doing the things I did when I was in charge,” said Dhar. “But security agencies need such facilities.” Interrogating suspected terrorists at secret detention centres, he said, is the most effective way to gather intelligence. “If you produce a suspect before court, he will never give you anything after that,” he said. In other words, once you record the arrest you are within the realm of the law and you have to acknowledge the rights of the accused-arrested and contend with his lawyer.

An officer who worked in one of the detention centres admitted that extreme physical and psychological torture, based loosely on the regime in Guantanamo Bay, is used to extract information from the detainees. It includes assault on the senses (pounding the ear with loud and disturbing music) and sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners naked to degrade and humiliate them, and forcibly administering drugs through the rectum to further break down their dignity. “The interrogators isolate key operatives so that the interrogator is the only person they see each day,” he said. “In extreme cases we use pethidine injections. It will make a person crazy.”

Molvi Iqbal from Uttar Pradesh, a suspected member of the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami who is currently lodged in Tihar, was held at a secret detention centre for two months according to his relatives. They alleged that during interrogation a chip was implanted under his skin so that his movements could be tracked if he tried to escape. “He fears that the chip is still inside his skin,” said one of his relatives. “That has shattered him.”

Kolkata has its own Gitmos in Bhabani Bhawan, now the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department, and the Alipore Retreat in Tollygunj, a bungalow that is said to have 20 rooms. They were bursting at the seams at the height of the Naxalite movement, but are more or less quiet now. “A large number of innocent people, as well as suspected terrorists, have disappeared after being taken to such secret detention centres,” said Kirity Roy, a Kolkata-based human rights lawyer. “Their bodies would later be found, if at all, in the fields.”

That was how militancy was tackled, first in Punjab and then in Kashmir. Today no secret prison exists in Kashmir officially after the notorious Papa-2 interrogation centre was closed down. But secret torture cells thrive across the state. The most notorious ones are the Cargo Special Operation Group (SOG) camp in Haftchinar area in Srinagar and Humhama in Budgam district. Then there are the joint interrogation centres in Khanabal area of Anantnag district and Talab Tillo and Poonch areas in Jammu region. Detentions at JICs could last months. Lawyers in Kashmir have filed 15,000 petitions since 1990 seeking the whereabouts of the detainees and the charges against them without avail.

The most recent victim of the torture regime was Manzoor Ahmed Beigh, 40, who was picked by the SOG from Alucha Bagh area in Srinagar on May 18. His family alleged that he was chained up, hung upside down from the ceiling and ruthlessly beaten up. He died the same night. Following public outrage, the officer in charge of the camp was dismissed from the service in June.

Maqbool Sahil, a Srinagar-based photojournalist who was held at Hariniwas interrogation centre for 15 days, says it is a miracle that he is alive today. “If you tell them [interrogators] you are innocent, they will torture you so ruthlessly that you will break down and confess to anything,” he says.
Human rights organisations are understandably concerned. Navaz Kotwal, coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said that there should be an open debate on the illegal detention centres. “The US had a debate on the Gitmos. Our government should come forward and respond to these allegations,” she said.

No one wants to compromise the nation’s safety, but the torture becomes unbearable, and questionable, when innocent people like the 14-year-old boy Irfan suffer (see box on page 30). The security of the country and its people is important and terrorism should be crushed at all cost. But the largest democracy in the world should also ensure that human rights are not violated.

Dhar defended the secret prison system, arguing that the successful defence of the country required that the security establishment be empowered to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the legal system. “The primary mission of the agencies is to save the nation both by overt and covert means from any terrorist threat,” he said. “But to keep the programme secret is a horrible burden.”

(Dr.M Anwar)

Indians usually boast around as the bearers of democratic norms and holders of civilian rule through regular holding of elections and observing rituals essentially required by an egalitarian state. The arrangements appear to be going well with the hegemonic designs of elite class or upper caste Hindus yearning to remain in power by clever use of majority vote in India. The “Shining India” slogan jingled through media campaigns and other costly Public Service Announcements (PSAs) also raise speculations about the ground realities in India where discrimination of low caste Hindus and non-Hindu communities is the common practice.

Democracy in India has not changed the status and destiny of untouchables and the MALLEECH. Although at the time of election upper class Hindus make promises with tall claims using voters as a tool to tread the power path. The low caste majority is virtually forced to participate in the electoral process. There are dire consequences for those who opt to vote for a losing candidate. Thus coercion through state authority is openly applied to punish the political opponents and their supporters. The process of electioneering is repeated every time the government completes its term but nothing changes the fate of low caste communities in India. The question arises as to why cannot democracy bring a change in Indian culture where people are treated as equals with similar rights to be citizens of India, having freedom of expression, rights to elect their own representatives, freedom of religious practices and other rights as envisaged in a democratic state? Does India employ coercive methods to hide her real face as a democratic state and cheats her own people by using them as the instruments of power by discriminating against them as untouchable and impervious? Indian social system has the answer.

Unfortunately Indian social system is based on the notion of purity and pollution in which upper class does not interact on equal terms with the low castes. Exchange of eatables is as prohibited among the upper and low caste communities as the marriages. One gets polluted by touching the untouchables, hence drinking or eating with low castes is completely prohibited. Resultantly social exchange activities carry subjective and double meanings as one is never sure to expect that common exchange of pleasantries and promises made by the stake holders will carry the same weight. Social order in India is hate driven and low caste communities irrespective of their claims to be Indians by birth, are despised as much as the outsiders are loathed and rejected. Such a democracy practically leads people to incapacitation and wheezing debilitation while India shines only for the elite class.

Reportedly United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is taking into consideration to recognize caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation. This will certainly annoy India where low caste untouchable Hindus, Dalits, Muslims and Christians are habitually mal-treated on the basis of their castes. Nepal, where untouchability is traditionally practiced, has openly supported UNHRC draft principles and guidelines for effective elimination of caste based discrimination. This is radically different from India’s aversion to the internationalization of the caste problem. Adding to India’s discomfiture, Sweden in its capacity as the president of European Union (EU) has stated that caste-based discrimination is an important priority for EU. If the issue continues to gather momentum, UNHRC may in a future session adopt the draft principles and guidelines and send these for adoption to UN General Assembly. Though India succeeded in her efforts to keep caste out of the resolution adopted by the 2001 Durban conference on racism, yet the issue has emerged in a different guise. It will encourage other states to raise their voice against discrimination based on caste inequalities, exposing the real face of Indian democracy.

Sultan M Hali

The Indian Air Force has stationed its MiG 29 fighter aircraft at Adampur near the Pakistani border to strengthen its air defense capabilities and minimize reaction time, according to news reports. There are two squadrons of the frontline fighters already present at the Adampur Airbase and the third squadron is on its way from Gujarat. ‘We consider ourselves to be a strategic air power establishment of the IAF in the western sector, ever ready for operations. We are fully geared up to operate in any given time frame like any other Air Force stations of the country,’ said Air Commodore HS Arora, Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the Adampur air base.

To extend the service life of MiG 29 by 25 to 40 years, the RAC MiG aircraft corporation signed a contract with the Indian Ministry of Defense to upgrade over 60 fighters in service with the IAF since the 1980s. Six MiG-29 fighters are being upgraded and flight-tested in Russia and the remaining aircraft will be overhauled in India with the aid of Russian experts, IAF pilots and technicians are already undergoing training in Russia. The AOC claimed that the upgraded MiG 29 fighters will have better radar systems and avionics to help fighters, a new weapon control system, modernized RD-33 engines, which would increase the aircraft hitting capability from long ranges, will also be extremely helpful on any future attack on Pakistan. The first batch of upgraded fighters will arrive in the second half of 2010 and Russia will complete the upgradation of 60 MiG-29 fighters by 2013.
The IAF this year inducted one Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, and two more will come on line in 2010 to strengthen IAF’s capability to see into Pakistan. In addition, the IAF is acquiring three midair refuelers, six C-130 transport aircraft, 80 medium-lift helicopters, Spyder air defense systems, medium power radars and low-level transportable radar. Earlier Western Air Command chief Air Marshal N.A.K. Browne had announced that the Indian Air Force is planning to deploy by 2011 two squadrons of Sukhoi Su-30 MKI multi-role strike fighters in the state of Punjab which borders Pakistan. Reportedly, the IAF is also upgrading six airstrips in Arunachal Pradesh to rapidly deploy troops and jointly developing with Russia fifth generation fighter aircrafts.

Pakistan should take this development in its stride and actually welcome it. India is so obsessed with it “Cold Start Strategy” and its fixation with launching its forces at minimum notice to gain the element of surprise that it is actually making Pakistan’s task easier. With the Su-30 and MiG-29s within striking range of its second line fighters like F-7Ps, PAF would be conserving its hi-tech F-16s and JF-17 Thunders and yet manage to wipe out the IAF’s hi-tech force with minimum effort generation. India’s AWACS will be matched with the SAAB ERIEYE AWACS, which will commence delivery from this year, while the Chinese AWCAS are expected in the near future. Other force multipliers like air to air refuelers are also in the pipeline. Possible modification of existing C-130s and A-310, induction of KC-135 are distinct possibilities and hopefully Pakistani defense planners are contemplating these options. Meanwhile Indian efforts to browbeat Pakistan have taken sinister turns. It is not ready to face Pakistan on the dialogue table and is making various excuses despite its solemn commitment at Sharm-ul-Shaikh. Parrot like, it is repeating its demands to do more to nab those behind the Mumbai attacks.

So much so that reportedly the Indian PM is trying to miss the Commonwealth heads of governments meeting in Trinidad coming November so that he does not have to meet his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani after reneging on his promise to restart the dialogue process. Meanwhile, President Obama is moving a universal test ban proposal but India is sabotaging its attempt by asking for more nuclear tests. It is a clear call for browbeating Pakistan because readers may recall that only last month, Indian Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor had declared that “Pakistan is stockpiling nukes over and above its genuine needs”. Right after the Mumbai attacks, which now appear to have been stage-managed by India itself, Indian Air Chief prepared to launch surgical strikes against alleged terrorist training camps in Pakistan. It was deterred only by the instant retaliation and state of preparedness by PAF. Indian fighter aircraft violated Pakistani airspace in a probe mission but got the rude shock of nearly being intercepted.
On September 11, India launched rocket attacks on its own side of the border and claimed that Pakistan had fired the projectiles. On October 6, 2009, BSF (Indian Border security Force) Director General Raman Srivastava during his first visit to Punjab Frontier said that BSF would give befitted reply to each Pakistan’s anti Indian acts. Addressing the media persons at Indo-Pak JCP (Joint Check Post) in Attari border Srivastava talked about recent rocket attacks on Indian border villages and cautioned Pakistan saying that in future such attacks from Pakistan would be replied in a befitted manner adding that 29 more BSF battalions would be positioned at the Pak-India border. It is not understood that after fencing the border as well as the Line of Control, India alleges that Pakistan is continuing cross-border terrorism. After spending millions of dollars on the state-of-the-art electronic fence, border patrols and ferocious watchdogs, India is now planning to enhance its Border Security Force by 29 battalions.
It is clear that India is trying to indulge in saber rattling and brow beat Pakistan so that attention can be diverted from the core issue of Kashmir as well as Indian supremacy and hegemony can be established in the region. To fulfill this desire, India continues to maintain the second largest standing army in the world, the fourth largest air force and the fifth largest Navy. With her potent conventional forces coupled with nuclear capability and a huge indigenous industrial base India aspires to attain the regional global power status.

Mohammad Jamil

During early 1950s, eminent philosopher Bertrand Russel in an essay titled “The future of mankind” had written that before the end of the century, unless something quite unforeseeable occurred, one of three possibilities would have realized. The first one was the end of human life or all life on the planet as a result of war, and then as a consequence hunger, starvation and disease. The second was reversion to barbarism in view of the first one, and third one was unification of the world under a single government, possessing a monopoly of all the major weapons of war”. But since then India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have tested nuclear devices, and are nuclear powers with credible delivery systems; hence monopoly of major weapons of war for any country is impossible. The philosopher had however hoped that when America will emerge ‘victorious’, it would play its role to resolve the conflicts between belligerent nations.

There is no denying that today Kashmir, Palestine and Taiwan are three flashpoints. China has steadily gained the position that like Hong Kong one day Taiwan would also fall in the lap of China. Nevertheless, India and Pakistan – nuclear states – could collide one day if Kashmir issue is not resolved. And this makes South Asia as the most dangerous place on earth. Already in 1993 five years before India and Pakistan came out of nuclear closet in May 1999, Central Intelligence Agency Director had said: “The arms race between India and Pakistan poses perhaps the more probable prospect for future use of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons”. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch author of ‘The Clinton tapes: Wrestling with the president’ claimed in his book that during Kargil conflict in 1999 Indian leaders had portrayed a doomsday scenario to the then president Bill Clinton that in the event of an Indo-Pak nuclear war India will emerge as the ultimate winner after wiping off Pakistan but could lose up to 500 million of its people.
The author claims that Clinton told him that “New Delhi would nuke Pakistan annihilating the entire country, if anyone in Islamabad triggered the nuclear bombs against it”. He quoted Bill Clinton having disclosed in private that Indian officials spoke of knowing roughly how many nuclear bombs the Pakistanis possessed, from which they calculated that a doomsday nuclear volley would kill 300 to 500 million Indians while wiping out all 120 million Pakistanis. But on the other side, the Pakistanis insisted that their rugged mountain terrain would shield more survivors than the exposed plains of India. Indian leadership had tried to convey message of threat through the then US president Bill Clinton, but Pakistan being a nuclear state was not cowed down by India’s jingoism and threats. Though Pakistan has kept the option of ‘first use’ of nukes open, yet it has never hurled threats that it would use them. However, efforts are made to create doubts about the safety of Pakistan’s nukes, but Pakistan has a foolproof command and control system.
Pakistan has also proved many a time that it is a responsible state. Signing of treaty to reduce the risk of a nuclear arms accident with India is a case in point. In fact, the nuclear tests in May 1998 by India and Pakistan had forced both the countries to think hard about nuclear deployment, and to talk to each other about ways to reduce the risk of war as well as accidents. However, there is a trust deficit because India’s stance on every issue is reflective of its patent intransigence. It appears that Indian leadership is not coming out of the big-power syndrome and feels that India does not need any help from Pakistan in any field, though it is craving to have transit facility to trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics. Indian leadership seems to suffer from megalomania to do big things and become a dominant power in the region, which is next to impossible in the presence of China.
Anyhow, India’s arrogance and attitude have stymied the progress in enhancing trade between the SAARC countries, as almost all member-countries are wary of India’s ambition of extending hegemony over its neighbours. The fact remains that having a sound industrial base India stands to gain more from the cordial relations with the SAARC countries. Therefore it is in India’s interest to showcase decency and give practical demonstration of dealing neighbouring countries on equal basis. However, the US and the west are to blame because they continue eulogizing India being the largest democracy while turning a blind eye to India’s maltreatment with its minorities and machinations against its neighbouring countries. The US and western countries have an egregious record of displaying double standards on many an occasion – one for their strategic partners and the other one for those who refuse to fall in line with them to promote their interests.
India and Pakistan are outside the global Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and have tested nuclear arms but after the US-India deal for so-called civil nuclear technology the 45-nation nuclear export cartel approved a waiver to its rules allowing trade with India. It was obvious from the Indo-US agreement that India can increase from its current production capacity of six to 10 additional nuclear bombs a year to several dozen per year. It goes without saying that India already has enough material for some 60 to 100 nuclear bombs. In this backdrop, Pakistan is likely to match India’s capability in the name of minimum deterrence, while China may also reconsider its fissile production halt for weapons. There is a perception that by concluding a nuclear deal with India, the previous US administration allowed business and political interests to trump up the national security interests of the United States.
Besides, creating asymmetry in South Asia, the US-India nuclear trade legislation had granted India the benefits of being a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty without requiring it to meet all of the responsibilities expected of responsible states. India had remained outside the international nuclear mainstream since it misused Canadian and US nuclear assistance to conduct its 1974 nuclear bomb test; refused to sign the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and conducted additional nuclear tests in 1998. India had been cut off from most US civilian nuclear assistance since 1978 and international assistance since 1992 because of these violations. It was felt that India’s willingness to open some nuclear reactors for international inspection in return for the deal was not enough, as the agreement allowed it to keep its extensive and secret nuclear weapons and materials production complex off-limits. By adopting the nuclear bill, Congress had disregarded the provisions that would have required commitments from India to restrain its production of nuclear weapons and nuclear bomb material.
On the other hand, the US had refused to ink similar deal with Pakistan – an old strategic ally that was intertwined with the US and the West in various pacts. Anyhow, the way the US has treated a friend that stood by its allies for about half-a-century, is deplorable. In this backdrop, it is imperative that Pakistan should undertake a major review of its foreign policy, and reassess our national interest in the changed post-cold war scenario, as the US continues with its policy that has led to asymmetry in the subcontinent by providing India with latest technology and equipment. And this policy is bound to make the Kashmir issue more complicated. In fact, die of strategic partnership with India was cast during Bill Clinton era, when paradigm shift in American policy started. During his visit to India at the fag end of his presidency, Bill Clinton had given hope to Indian leadership that the US would help India in making it a global power.

Ishrat Ali Khan
While Pakistan has handed over credible evidence of Indian involvement in the subversive activities on its soil, India has pierced yet another soft target by building Wullar barrage on Jhelum River forcing the agro-based economy in tatters. Pakistan Indus Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah and Indian Indus water Commissioner G Aranganathan held important parleys early June and discussed 14 agenda items; including the contentious Wullar barrage project. The talks were essentially a failure with both sides being unable to reach an agreement on the Chenab’s water flow, the Wullar barrage project and Nimo Bazgo hydel power projects. The two nations refer to the dam project by different names – Pakistan calls it the Wullar barrage and India calls it the Tulbul Navigation Project. It is a barrage because India is storing the flow of water through a 22-KM long tunnel into the Wullar Lake. According to Indian water strategists, the dam will help maintain better water levels in a nearby lake and regulate the flow of flood waters. That is why, it is a navigational effort. Nevertheless, Islamabad fears the proposed dam on the Jhelum river, a tributary of the Indus, will affect water levels further downstream in the plains of its Punjab province threatening irrigation and power projects. In the wake of inconclusive talks on water flow of Jhelum, Indian attempt to use water as a geo-strategic tool, is unfair and in contravention to the IWT-1960.
According to Indus Water Treaty of 1960, India has been allotted exclusive control/right over the waters of the eastern rivers, namely; the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej. Pakistan controls the waters of three western rivers; the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab. It is interesting to note that the base-source of water of all the rivers flows from Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). As the demand for water increased manifold, India’s growing lust for maximum control over the sources of the supply of water of three western rivers, became more pronounced for its burgeoning population. The treaty barred India from storing any water or constructing any storage works on the western rivers that would result in a reduced flow of water to Pakistan. The Indian design to construct dams on Pakistani rivers will diminished the flow of Jhelum during the vital Rabi crop-sowing season (January and February) threatening Pakistan’s agro-based economy and throwing the fate of dismal farmers in the abyss of absurdity.
The problem between the two countries arose when India decided to build a dam on the Kishan-Ganga River that originates in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The Kishan-Ganga river assumes the name of Neelum river upon entering in the Azad Kashmir region and becomes river Jhelum when it enters Pakistan. Pakistan has been vehemently opposing the construction of the Kishan-Ganga hydropower project. Pakistan believes that the diversion of waters of Neelum is not allowed under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and it will face a 27 per cent water deficit, when the project gets completed. The reduced water flow in the Neelum would not yield the required results of the proposed 1.6 billion dollars Neelum-Jehlum hydropower project that has been designed to generate 969 MW of electricity. India proposed to build the barrage in 1984 on the River Jhelum, at the mouth of Wullar Lake, India’s largest fresh water lake, near Sopore town in Kashmir Valley. The proposed site for dam is near Kanzalwan – a town from where the river enters Azad Kashmir. The Indian plans include storing water and then tunneling it to the Wuller lake, where it is constructing a 800MW power house. India has almost completed a 22-kilometre long tunnel to divert Kishanganga waters to Wullar Lake in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan maintains that India, under the treaty, can store water but it cannot divert it to any other side. Thus, any diversion would violate the provisions of the treaty. Pakistan believes Wullar barrage can be used as: (1) a geo-strategic weapon, (2) potential to disrupt the triple canal project of Pakistan, (3) badly affecting the Neelum-Jehlum hydro-power project, (4) agriculture in Azad Kashmir (5) drying the lands of Punjab province.

India’s Wish List

Ahsan-Waheed

// <![CDATA[
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// ]]>// India does not want to talk to Pakistan. What does it want? From the writings that come out of India especially from the RAW sponsored South Asia Analysis Group an Indian wish list is clearly discernible.

India wants Pakistan to be kept permanently in the dog house for a past proliferation episode and does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan has taken measures to achieve almost unassailable security and state of the art command and control measures. India wants the world to note and keep noting the extremist threat from Pakistan and Pakistan alone. It does not want anyone to ponder on the world wide extremism phenomenon. Nor does it want anyone to even think about the response by Islam to the threat it faces from extremism. And it certainly does not want a focus on the Hindoo extremism within India and the large segments of India’s population and officialdom involved in this menace.

India wants Pakistan to be labeled the epicenter of terror. It does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan is the victim of terror and that it is fighting a successful counterinsurgency that has its roots in Afghanistan. It also does not want anyone to believe that Pakistan has cut the link between international terror and the extremists with domestic agendas and is now shoring up its internal security. India does not want the spotlight on its own activities to destabilize Pakistan by covert support to subversive elements in Baluchistan and insurgents in FATA. It is this policy by India that backfired and led to the bombing of its embassy in Kabul and the terrorist attacks in Bombay. India makes much of the dossier presented to Pakistan but it does not want anyone to investigate the domestic links to the attack. India is irked by the US-Pakistan relationship and wants the US, its media and its people to be fed anti Pakistan propaganda and it uses all its assets for that.

There is more. India on its way to becoming a world power is worried about the nuclear and conventional threat from Pakistan. Its Army Chief thinks that Pakistan is going beyond legitimate deterrence requirements. No one should however question India’s massive conventional build up and unrestrained nuclear weapons development that has received a massive boost through the US-India Nuclear Technology Agreement. India is appalled that a Chinese scholar has dared to publish a treatise on the possible break up of India—under the weight of its ambitions and death wishes for others.

India, of course, is a sovereign state and has a right to its wishes and plans to get those wishes fulfilled. It just needs to note whether the reactions and counter strategies triggered by its policies are in its own or regional or world interest? Already there is talk of India’s linkage to the Tamil Tigers for the mess in Sri Lanka and for the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan. More such revelations could follow. This is the time when India can reassure others and move towards bilateral talks and regional harmony—but that is not what India wishes for.

Sajjad Shaukat

After decades of denials and cover-ups, a flurry of confessions has pervaded the news waves in Pakistan with all kinds of skeletons in the cupboard being aired and exposed. The epidemic appears to be infectious and has crossed the boundaries into India as well. First it was Jaswant Singh, paying tributes to the Quaid, much to the chagrin of his hardliner political party, the BJP, which unceremoniously expelled him; now the admission by a senior Indian nuclear scientist that the Indian nuclear tests at Pokharan II in May 1998 were a dud, have shaken India. This revelation has confirmed the suspicion voiced by international as well Pakistani scientists immediately after the tests, since the seismic measurements indicated that the only thermonuclear device tested was a “fizzle”. In nuclear parlance, a test is described as a fizzle when it fails to meet the desired yield. K Santhanam, senior scientist and DRDO representative at Pokharan II, director for 1998 test site preparations, told Times of India that the yield for the thermonuclear test, or hydrogen bomb in popular usage, was much lower than what was claimed. The test was said to have yielded 45 kilotons (KT) but was challenged by western experts who said it was not more than 20 KT. The exact yield of the thermonuclear explosion is important as during the heated debate on the India-US nuclear deal, it was strenuously argued by the government’s top scientists that no more tests were required for the weapons programme and computer simulations would be enough in future design.
The question here arises regarding the timing of the disclosure of the failure of thermonuclear tests. Why would Santhanam go public, with such deliberation, on something that was commonly discussed and widely acknowledged in scientific circles, a decade after the questions first surfaced? The answer, according to some nuclear experts is to ward off growing American pressure on India to sign various nuclear containment treaties and perhaps enable India to conduct one last series of tests to validate and improve its nuclear arsenal.

US nuclear experts, taking cognisance of Santhanam’s admission have also concluded that Indian scientists are yearning to conduct more nuclear tests to validate and improve the country’s arsenal before the Obama Administration shuts the door on nuclear explosions. Henry Sokolski, Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Nonproliferation Policy Education Centre, confirmed the same and opined that Washington has long believed that geo-political objectives rather than scientific or technical metrics drives New Delhi’s nuclear weapons quest. In scores of research papers and studies in the immediate weeks and months of the 1998 nuclear tests in Pokharan, US and British scientists repeatedly questioned the reported yield of the thermonuclear device, saying it was well below India’s claim of 43-45 kilotons. In fact, some scientists, notably Terry Wallace, then with the University of Arizona and now attached to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, put the combined yield of the three May 11 tests at as low as 10 to 15 kilotons. Two other tests on May 13 involved sub-kiloton devices for tactical weapons, which US scientists doubted even, took place.

India thus appears to be divided in two groups, those who want to test and those who do not. P K Iyengar, former head of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India, told BBC that he had made it clear in 2002 that India’s nuclear tests were ‘inconclusive and ambiguous’. Indian PM Dr Singh and former National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra, quoting former Indian president and scientific adviser to the Defence Minister Dr A P J Abdul Kalam for claiming success of the Pokharan II tests, have discredited Santhanam’s exposé. Vicky Nanjappa’s interview of K Santhanam for Rediff.com in ‘Why K Santhanam said Pokharan II was not a success’ quotes Santhanam, when asked to comment on Dr Kalam’s rebuttal, as saying: “I would like to react to that. First of all, Dr Kalam is not a nuclear scientist. He is a missile scientist and he was not present there at that time. He is blissfully ignorant of the facts. Do I need to say more?” Even Santhanam, regarding the belated timing of his disclosure admits: “There is a change in the administration in the United States of America. They are bound to further pressurise India to sign the CTBT. In such an event it was necessary to make such a statement or speak the truth on the issue so that India does not rush into signing the CTBT.”
Gary Milholin, Director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, confirms the same: “An Indian test would be very toxic to cooperation it has just gained under the nuclear deal.”

N M Sampathkumar Iyengar, a subcontractor of the Indian nuclear and space establishments before their focus turned to weapon development, in his Op-Ed, India’s 1998 nuke ‘fizzle’, confirms Santhanam’s exposé and adds more spice to it. He claims that the 1998 thermonuclear devices were the only “technology advancement” over the detonation of a crude device in 1974 at Pokharan. The absence of scrutiny turned India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) into a den of nepotism and corruption. Pokharan II, while boosting Vajpayee’s image and fuelling a ruinous arms race in the subcontinent also bailed out DAE mandarins who had siphoned off funds with the promise of generating “20,000 MW by the year 2000″ through nuclear power. Nine years later the DAE has failed to establish even 10 percent of that capacity. Santhanam’s disclosure that the test of the thermonuclear device that he coordinated was a “fizzle” has let a cat among the pigeons.

Outgoing Indian Naval Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta has also tried to discredit Santhanam, reportedly with vested interests, as he is hoping to land a lucrative post-retirement placement as “advisor” Russian Missile programme in India. Bharat Karnad, Indian security expert opines that Santhanam’s confession is important and puts the onus on the government, which has to prove that India does have a thermonuclear deterrent and not a dud.

By: Afshain Afzal

Indian Army started recruiting women officers in 1993. Today there are around 1,000 female officers in Indian Army, all in non-combat roles. Since their induction a number of women officers were punished for various offences. In majority of cases sexual harassment by the senior male officers was resented but it resulted in victimization of various natures. Usually a legal process was involved to authenticate the victimization. Hence as an undeclared remedial measure, punishment is awarded to vocal women officers who dare challenge senior officers. There are a number of examples where even Court Martial proceedings have been initiated against women officers who resented sexual harassment from senior Indian Army officers. The cases of Army Service Corps (ASC) officer Captain Poonam Kaur and officer of Judge Advocate General branch Major Dimple Singla is in front of us where instead of taking action against Indian senior officers, a retaliatory action was taken and both were dismissed from service. Major Dimple Singla, was tried on corruption charges in 2006 at Chandigarh and dismissed but she was bold enough to challenge her unlawful dismissal. There are also cases, including the one in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir, where women officer due to sexual harassment committed suicide. There is a long list of women in Indian Army who quietly bear all sort of sexual harassment by their seniors due to fear of further victimization and dismissal.

As regard to Captain Poonam Kaur, she lodged complaint on July 15, 2008 against three officers of her unit, 5682 Battalion of the Army Supply Corps based in Kalka, Haryana for mentally and sexually harassing her and confining her illegally when she resisted their advances. The officers included Colonel R K Sharma, Commanding Officer, the Lieutenant Colonel Chawla, Second-in-Command and Major Suraj Bhan, Adjutant of the unit.  A Court of Inquiry (COI) was ordered to investigate the allegations leveled by Captain Kaur against her superior officers. The President COI was pressurized by Crops Commander, a serving Lieutenant General and other senior officers to save the involved officers. Resultantly President COI recommended a Court Martial against Captain Kaur for false charges. The Army court’s decision will now be put up to the Western Army Commander Lieutenant GeneralT K Sapru for confirmation. Captain Kaur has been blamed for addressing the media pertaining to service matters but what other choice she had before her. Nobody was ready to listen to her grievances rather she was harassed and literally placed under house arrest in her quarters in Kalka. Later, an officer of Major General-rank visited her quarters to pressurize her to take back her allegations against three senior officers but she refused to meet him. It is true that India Army has issued orders for her dismissal of Captain Kaur while Western Army Commander, Lieutenant General T K Sapru is also going to confirm the punishment but is it a justice in India Army.

India should not forget that a good number of its officers really need vigilance to keep them within their shoes. Indian Army’s behaviour not only at home but also internationally is full of spots. In 2007 a Lieutenant Colonel and two Majors of the Indian Army, seconded to the North Kivu brigade in MONUC were detained by South African Police after a woman resident of Plettenberg Bay in Pretoria charged them with rape. There are also other reports of rape committed by the Indian soldiers in Sudan, Ethiopia and Lebanon, where they are the part of peacekeeping mission. Indian Army at New Delhi also initiated a court of inquiry against some of its personnel in July 2008 in the same context but failed to take any strict disciplinary action against them.  The report prepared by the United Nations office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) said that Indian peace keepers in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to recover $480 they paid as part of a gold deal in DRC, illegally detained, physically assaulted and “sexually propositioned” a local gold trader who had sold them counterfeit gold dust.

It is now over 16 years that females are being recruited in Indian Army. They were expected to work shoulder to shoulder with Indian male officers in the security and defence of India. From the day one, Indian Ministry of Defence had to face a numerous problems as regard to the term and condition of service of female Army personnel and matters relating to disciple. However, the main problem is non-recognization of women in Indian Army. They are being treated as lesser creation. The uncalled for statements of Indian Army officers like  Lieutenant General S Pattabhiraman that the view from the Indian Army ranks and files was that they could do without women proves that Indian Army is gender bias. There is no doubt, women in Indian Army are not safe from victimization and sexual harassment.  Embarrassing situation was faced when on the very first year after passing out from Indian Military Academy (IMA) Deradun, sexual harassment was faced by certain women officers. The matter, however, was tactfully handled by the Crops Commander by posting out of aggrieved officers to her station of choice. Captain Kaur has been blamed for bringing service matter to media but had the allegations of sexual harassment not come out in the media, then people would have never known what is actually happening in Indian Army and that the women are not safe in Indian Army. It is media due to which Major Dimple Singla’s court martial was later stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2007. Women officers in Indian Army are hopeful that if there is a slightest strength in Indian judicial system Captain Kaur is also going to be reinstated.

by I.A. Chaudhri

Publication of the news in Times of India, about the detention of Mohammad Umar Madni, having dubious connections with the Lashkar-e-Tayyba (LeT), recovery of fake and foreign currency from his custody and confiscation of a cache of weapon in June 2009 has sent a wave of shock to Muslim community in India. If we look back, Indian media had been crying foul about the activities of Muslims in Assam and Bangladesh, despite the fact that either there were very few Muslims, who had no other business except to crawl for earning their daily bread or save their skin. History of last 62 years have taught them that any attempt to be under political glare will ultimately force them to land in trouble, on one charge or the other. Muslim community in India has been mentally crippled after the tragic episode of Gujarat carnage and they now lack the courage and support to organize themselves or raise their voice, at any national or international forum. In the absence of any, de facto group, Indian media invented few names under fictitious Muslim identity and then started mud-slugging on various fabricated stories. The same practice was once again repeated by alleging the involvement of one Deccan Muslim group in the Mumbai firing, having accepted the responsibility for this inhuman and most barbaric act. Whereas, neither there ever existed any such group nor people ever heard Muslims involved in any such scandalous activity. At the same time, Pakistan Bangladesh and Bhutan continue to face Indian charges about their nexus with ISI. But what is true, the captor or accused Madni is sure to face, usual list of charges viz; his links with the ISI,  acting as conduit for sending people for training in Pakistan and running a spy net in India or any other neighboring state like Nepal to justify their position in the eyes of law.

Without any ambiguity, the people also know the out-come of the investigation and sensational disclosures to fill the pages of various newspapers or the venom of propaganda to pollute the minds of half-literate citizens against their so harmless, fragile, docile and hard-pressed Muslim minority –  left to lament on their glorious past after the Gujarat genocide. The Police know the art to extract or squeeze the desired forced confession after applying its third degree torture techniques, recovering currency and confiscating weapons. To add more salt, they even will add important telephone numbers of various dubious `Underground Mafia’ to prove his links with the ISI, sending recruited agents for training to Pakistan and conniving in carrying out bomb blasts in various cities of India. This is practice was followed in the past and the same will continue till all times to come, no matter how pious or guilty a person like Madni or anybody else is.

Indian leadership is in the grip of different internal and external looming troubles, such as minorities call to do away with the centuries old stigma of `Touchable and Untouchables’ caste discrimination/racial profiling of the entire society. At the same time the government also seems desperate over the growing influence of Other Backward Castes (OBC) due to growing awareness graph with every passing day. The poor masses have no other pacifying umbrella than the Communists’ platform to concentrate and exert their pressure on the government to distribute the national wealth equitably, as socialist way of government emphasizes. For them Mao, Lenin or Marxists philosophy is the only solution of the problem. Indian government is fully cognizant that such problems could not be solved through the security forces, to exercise effective control over one billion plus population. To divert the domestic attention from the Naxalite and insurgency problems, it has now invented the new recipe to deal with the problem by shifting the blame on ISI’ and implicating the most docile and submissive Muslim population into their vicious cobweb.

According to reports, Mr. Madni had been acting as a conduit for the LeT between Maoists and the ISI of Pakistan, as head of Jharkhand off-shoot. He has also been accused for recruiting and dispatching his men to Pakistan for the purpose of training to carry on their terrorist activities. The report further alleged that these elements established their network in Nepal. The suspects arrested by the government, were reportedly convicted by the Delhi court in 2005. How far charges against the accused are true or false, only joint investigation teams comprising Indian and Pakistan experts can find any reliable answer, as LeT stands banned and there is no such proof of its involvement in any such intelligence related activities. As far as ISI is being blamed, the fact that agency remained in thick soup due to political hotchpotch and suicide bombing in the country, leaving with no other option to set the house in order than to carry out any such sabotage activity across the border.

The story of Naxalite revolves around the landless peasants, laborers and other down trodden oppressed classes against the upper class landlords and industrialists to over-throw the existing capitalistic way of government in India. The ongoing battle owes its origin to the centuries old contempt against the bourgeois who had been maltreating its deprived classes such as Dalits, Adivasis, Santhals and hundreds of other scheduled castes, who roughly constitute 80 percent of the total population.  The victims of high caste landlords, money-lenders, industrialists, bureaucrats and politicians have now united themselves under the Naxalite banner. The friction between Naxalites and the ruling elites, despite all containment strategies and gigantic security infrastructure has now gained a foothold in 155 districts of more than 17 states commonly known as `Central Compact Red Zone’.

India first invented a new readymade solution of the problem, which they had earlier applied in the Northeast by pitting one tribe against the other. In the mainland, these privileged upper class raised  their independent armies under different names such as Kisan Sangh, Kisan Morcha, Ganga Sena, Sunlight Sena, Bramharshi Sena, Bhumi Sena  in almost all the districts to act as shield and fight against the militant Naxalites. When this strategy also failed, these landlords, politicians and industrialists connived to fight against these revolutionaries by raising a new force `Salva Judum (SJ) meaning ‘Peace Hunt’. Again the Salwa Judum also failed and the government was left with no other option except to shift the people to the refugee camps – in other words government’s utter failure to curb the Naxalite’s growing strength, with every passing day.

To save their skin, the Indian leaders are busy making all out efforts to link the Naxalite issue with the Muslim support and build the nexus with ISI to divert the public attention, but such a myth would be difficult to prove. By all standards, peace in India will remain an illusive chase and will continue to haunt New Delhi like a nightmare. It is also significant to mention that India is a home of more than 1028 million people living in 28 states, where more than 16 major languages and 1652 dialects are spoken by hundreds of ethnic groups and religious minorities with no economic, social and political prospects. Since poverty is the most ferocious teacher, these poor peasants, labors, low paid employees and other segments of society are left with no other option except to target the high caste affluent Brahmans who are sitting on the Indian treasury as pythons. This war of survival between the `Haves and Have-not’ is not going to settle with the empty flying words.

To play their part, as representatives, there are hundreds of political parties, both central and regional, representing different mosaic of socio-religious fabric. Indian Brahman leadership is trying to crush the cultural and spiritual renaissance to keep her over-whelming hold on the poor hapless people (mostly Untouchables) with the help of draconian laws.  The purpose behind all such illegal detentions is nothing but to keep a constant flow of disinformation against the Muslim community to stigmatize and demonize their image at domestic and international level and inject fear into the minds of the young generation to make their life more miserable.

Imdad Ali Zehri

In an interview with Najam Sethi on Dunya TV telecast on July 4, 2009, the Baloch rebel leader Hyrbiyar Marri has revealed that “American enslavement is better than Punjabi enslavement because the Punjabis will come and occupy our lands for good.  The Americans will only steal our oil and gas, whilst the Punjabis will obliterate our national identity”. Earlier in mid 2008, during an interview with BBC, Brahamdagh Bugti (grandson of late Akbar Bugti) emphatically declared that he would accept any “moral help and material support” from India to defend Balochistan from Islamabad’s designs of capturing the riches of Balochistan.  The emotional explosion of these sardars can not be overlooked under any circumstances, as it smacks of outright rebellion seeking a breakaway from Pakistan.  It is beyond doubt that Brahamdagh’s sentiments were naturally hurt because of the death of Nawab Bugti, but then, the aggression should have been channelized through socially approved norms.  The cultural ethnocentricities have a legitimate right to voice its regional frustrations and grievances to the Federation.  Who would support a person volunteering for the enslavement of US or seeking material assistance from India to overthrow own dispensation?  Therefore, the emotional outburst would naturally create ripples in the patriotic and broadminded intelligentsia of civil society.  Another disappointing feature of the interview which irked the audience was the attitude and body language of the anchor-person Mr. Najam Sethi.  Although, he asked some nagging questions but some how, it could not satisfy the viewers as it was very evident that he was enjoying vicarious pleasure out of Marri’s answers rather than getting upset or hurt, which in normal circumstances every patriotic Pakistani should be.  In fact, he was smiling throughout, and it is beyond comprehension how a genuine patriotic Pakistani journalist can smile on those replies.  Being seasoned journalist, Najam Sethi should not have eulogized a known insurgent causing irreparable damage to the federation.  The insurgent voices must not only be condemned by general masses, it should form part of a larger awareness campaign vehemently supported by TV channels, radios and other effective communication means.

What forced Hyrbiyar Marri, Brahamdagh Bugti and allied rebel leaders to utter such treasonable outbursts?  The things started to go wrong when the Centre launched fast track developmental projects aimed to bring the area into socio-economic mainstream.  The militants are supported by a handful of tribal chiefs bent on resisting socio-economic development and progress of Balochistan.  They challenged the writ of the Government by targeting national installations. Balochistan, like Afghanistan and Tribal Areas of Pakistan, is a tribal society. Almost 76 tribal chiefs rule their respective tribes in Balochistan, often with serious disregard for human rights.  Since the independence of Pakistan, most of the tribes have accepted Pakistan as their homeland and have tried to come into the mainstream Pakistani society. But Bugti and Marri tribal leaders have always been a source of trouble for Pakistan.  Sardars hold sway over their life and death.  These selfish Sardars are living luxurious lives in cities, leaving behind their compatriots in lurch.  They are misleading the people in order to safeguard their personal interest.  However, these sardars can not be allowed to continue with these negative and harmful activities at any cost.  The acts of violence and terrorism are reprehensible and must be denounced by every peace-loving citizen for they cause human misery.  There is no doubt that Balochistan has been kept under-developed and backward by the successive Governments, but Sardars of Balochistan cannot remain oblivious from this guilt.  Some of the grievances projected by Baloch nationalists are: — provincial autonomy, detention of political workers, bigger share in NFC, special quota in federal jobs, enhanced royalty for natural gas, increasing military intrusion, gradual attrition of Baloch identity with influx of outsiders, undertaking of “anti Baloch” mega projects like Gwadar port without reference to their consensus.

A new “Great Game” of geo-politics has already started in Balochistan.  In order to understand the recent wave of violence in Balochistan, it is imperative to be cognizant of the vested interests in Balochistan.  The root cause of violence in Balochistan is not internal poverty or lack of development but foreign interference in internal affairs of Balochistan through BLA.  The question is, what is the role of US, Afghanistan, India, and Iran in Balochistan quandary?  Afghanistan’s soil has been used again and again to cause trouble inside Pakistan. There is strong evidence of Indian support in planning, commissioning and preparing acts of terrorism in Balochistan through Indian consulates based in Kandahar and Heart (report of Foreign Affairs, by Christine Fair of RAND Corporation).  Iran’s quest for regional supremacy has led to undermine Pakistan’s strategic interests in the region.  Iran has developed its Chabahar port to counter Gwadar port, which is just 100 miles from Gwadar port of Pakistan.  Iran has huge reserves of gas and India wants to gain access to these reserves.  India believes that Pakistan is at the brink of break up and India must focus on building its relationship with Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan, and capture oil and gas reserves from Central Asia and Iran, through Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Washington’s interests in Balochistan have become very pronounced over the period of time.  To begin US wants to encircle China by not allowing pipeline from Iran through Western China via Pakistan.  The US objective is to control the port of Gwadar, and eventually start their dream oil pipeline from Central Asia, through Afghanistan into Balochistan and Gwadar.  Moreover, US want to use Balochistan as a base to carry out covert operations against Iran using Jandullah.

Today, the Baloch national resistance is more widespread acquiring many dimensions.  The nationalists are demanding more autonomy within the federation of Pakistan.  Political and economic disputes need to be addressed through a policy of reconciliation and mutual accommodation.  The attitude of the Government from the very beginning has been conciliatory and compromising.  The Government, on behalf of the people of Pakistan has already apologized to the people of Balochistan for the atrocities and injustices committed against them and pledged to turn over a new chapter of mutual respect in the province.  The meaningful dialogue process with all the stakeholders will bring perpetual peace in the province.  The negotiation with the Baloch leadership should be conducted by calling All Party Conference (APC) at the earliest.  On the Baloch side, inclusion of representative like Nawab Marri, Sardar Mengal, Brahamdag Bugti and Khan of Kalat, Mir Suleiman Daud may influence the outcome the negotiation.  The other players in the Baloch nationalist camp include Balochistan’s four political parties.  Lastly, the most important phase of the reconciliation process would be bringing the armed resistance groups on the negotiating table.  There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that BLA is a terrorist outfit and it must be dealt with accordingly.  The Government needs to remain alive to the situation and make independent policy decision in the best interest of Pakistan.  To counter the growing influence of the outside players operating in Balochistan, time-tested friendship with China needs further cementing.  The people of Pakistan are ready to challenge this great game through determination and moral courage.  Although, it is a time consuming process but a country of hundred and sixty million people whose potential is second to none in the world and after becoming a nuclear power against all the oddities, will achieve the God willing.