Rabbani's Killing, A Cause Of Concern To All

New Delhi – It is a big blow to US peace efforts in Afghanistan. The former Afghan President, Burhanuddin Rabbani has been killed in a suicide bomb attack. The attacker had kept explosive concealed in his turban. Four security personnel were also killed in this attack. The killing of Rabbani (71) is a big blow to the peace process in the strife-torn Afghanistan. Following his killing, President Hamid Karzai decided to cut short his US tour and return home. According to the Kabul Police, the attacker had been invited to the Kabul residence of Rabbani on Tuesday evening as he was considered to be a special envoy bringing some special message from Taliban. While embracing Rabbani, the attacker triggered the explosive, kept in his turban.



The gravity of the challenge posed by Taliban after the withdrawal of US-led NATO forces from Afghanistan can be easily gauged from the killing of Rabbani. Rabbani was living in a high security zone area, close to the US Embassy. The Hamid Karzai government had appointed Rabbani as the Chief of its high-level Peace Council and he was continuing on this post for last one year. But now, with his killing, the possibilities of negotiations have weakened. A few months ago, Taliban had executed a plan to kill the half brother of the President Karzai, Wali Karzai, who was also killed deceitfully by one of his colleagues in the same manner as Rabbani was killed this time. Then, the Taliban gunan had killed the former Governor Jan Mohammed Khan. Taliban have been attacking the Karzai government since its establishment with the help of US and Western Countries. Killings one after the others have made it clear that Taliban are not in favour of negotiations. Long back, Taliban were created in the Pak Madrassas and even today a number of Taliban groups are under the influence of Pakistan Army and its intelligence agency ISI. In case of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, Pakistan could get the much-talked strategic depth, in case of a war with India. That is why Pakistan does not want an India-friendly government in Afghanistan. Rabbani was considered to be a friend of India. Taliban would never like a person, who is friendly to America, India and Western Countries.

It is natural for India to be concerned over the killing of Rabbani and also over the instability in the neighbouring country. New Delhi is more concerned over the efforts to dispose off leaders in Afghanistan, who are trying hard for peace and confidence building measures. Dr. Manmohan Singh has called this incident as a big blow and has assured the people of Afghanistan of India’s full support in this hour of crisis. In a letter to Karzai, the Prime Minister has said that the best way to remember Rabbani would be to carry forward the work left unfinished by him.

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In Pakistan The Sword Is Deadlier Than The Pen

A recent report in The New Yorker states that  order to kill Pakistani investigative journalist Saleem Shahzad came from a senior officer on Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's staff. Quoting a Pakistani army officer, The New Yorker reported: "According to the American official, reliable intelligence indicates that the order to kill Shahzad came from a senior officer on General Kayani's staff. The officer made it clear that he was speaking on behalf of Kayani himself." The report said the presence of Islamists in Pakistan navy, and at Mehran naval base, which was attacked by terrorists, was not a secret among Pakistanis but that  Shahzad's article was particularly "incendiary".




May 2011 will go down in Pakistan history as literally a month of mayhem for not only stepped up explosions of gunfire and bombs, but also for exposures of long hidden facts and the shocks they caused to Pakistan’s army, its floundering civilian government and mostly to its people. While the killing of the world’s worst ever terrorist Osama bin Laden on 2 May, in a surprise-attack by US Special forces in the mansion at Abbotababad exposed yet another major deception of Pakistan army, Syed Saleem Shahzad’s book Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 (Pluto Press/ distributed in India by Pentagon Press, 2011) exposed many more about its various nefarious connections.  The very well planned strike on Pakistan’s leading naval base at Karachi, PNS Mehran, two days after Shahzad’s article "Al-Qaeda had warned of Pakistani strike" appeared online and after the release of his book already containing many embarrassing exposures of Pakistan’s military, may well have egged his killers to expedite his elimination to prevent many more articles elaborating on already exposed linkages.

On 29 May 2011, one week after the release of his book in UK, Shahzad was abducted, days after writing an article suggesting that insiders in the Pakistan navy had colluded with Al-Qaeda in an attack on PNS Mehran. The next day he was brutally murdered and a day later, on 31 May, his battered body was recovered from a canal 60 kms away from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

The exposures caused by Osama’s killing and attack on Mehran were just  precursors to the vast range of wheels within wheels and cross -connections elaborated in  Shahzad’s book which are of great significance to India, US, Afghanistan and of course Pakistan.
US President Barack Obama may well have delivered on his campaign promise to kill Osama bin Laden, but during the decade that he remained on the run, he was not really a functional  Al-Qaeda strategist.

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Pakistan Army Seems the Real Ruler of the Country

The all powerful Pakistan army seems to be the real ruler of the country. At least,  the recent granting of 3 year extension by the Yusuf Raza Gilani government to the army chief, Gen. Ashfaqu Parvez Kayani gives the impression that the country’s political leadership can be bullied by the army to carry out the latter’s dictats. Kayani got the extension despite being caught discussing the ouster of President Asif Ali Zardari. Syed Hussaini writes in his column in iNewp.com website, “in the aftermath of WikiLeaks exposure of the world’s governments, Gilani was handed enough material and reason to fire Kayani or even have him and his cohorts arrested and prosecuted; but Gilani did not act and instead stayed on his course of appeasement.”

But, this all powerful army is also scared of the Taliban who are growing from strength to strength every day. Only the other day in June this year, there was a terrorist attack on the Karachi Naval Base.  The attack on this joint establishment of the Pakistan Navy, Air Force and Army has sharply brought out how the Pakistani military establishment has failed to tackle threats from terrorist groups who can spring a surprise and attack even such a highly protected place.

Salmaan Taseer, the Punjab Governor who took a courageous stand by opposing the nation's antiquated blasphemy laws and supporting a Catholic woman, Aasia Bibi who was accused of blasphemy, had to sacrifice his life. Taseer was killed by his own security guard Malik Hussein Mumtaz Qadri. Sadly, his brutal assassination was never condemned by Pakistan’s Parliament. Even Gen Kayani did not have the guts to condemn the incident. The country’s only Roman catholic Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was also killed by terrorists for his vocal opposition to blasphemy laws Needless to say that no body in Pakistan, not even the army chief uttered a word of condemnation.



Taseer was, however, killed not just for opposing the blasphemy laws. He was killed for blaming the "Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab" who are sometimes called the “Punjabi Taliban” of carrying out attacks on mosques, bazaars and police stations in Punjab and killing innocent citizens there. The Punjabi Taliban are a motley group of sectarian militant organizations such as  Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) Harkat-ul Mujahideen (HUM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP), all inspired by an intolerant brand of Sunni Islam called Deobandism. In June last year, the leading English daily, Dawn reported under the headline “Punjabi Taliban are a reality : Taseer”, quoting the Governor that the militants of these groups, the natives of  towns such as Bahawalpur and Raheem Yar Khan had been attacking places of worship and spilling innocent blood. Since that point of time Taseer was on the hit list of terrorist’s.

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The Tricky Business Politics In Kashmir

New Delhi - There are gentle winds of change in Kashmir amidst this year’s tourist boom to the satisfaction of peace-loving common men in the valley. Tourism, in fact, holds the key to the prosperity and happiness of average Kashmiris. In a given time and in a given situation, it shapes their attitudes and responses to political leaders as well as to separatists who have turned their trouble-making strategy into a fine art of money-oriented political business. Of all the persons, even Yasin Malik, has reportedly confessed that “Kashmir politics is no longer about ideology. It’s all a money game”.





I have known about this money business right from the time I first visited Srinagar during the highly explosive days of the ISI-sponsored militancy in the nineties. I had a first-hand glimpse of prosperity levels of some of the separatist leaders in contrast to the agony and sufferings of ordinary Kashmiris who have had no choice but to join the sponsored anti-India chorus. What then saddened me was New Delhi’s failure to properly grasp the ground realities and evolve an integrated strategy for intelligent political-cum-security-cum humane management of men, matters and issues.

No single one-track policy can work in Kashmir. It requires a wider multi-dimensional understanding of historical landmarks, rich tradition of Sufism, psychological aura of Kashmiriat, Kashmiri Muslims, invisible silken bonds with the Kashmiri pundits, PoK’s under-currents, Pak military-cum-political factors, sponsored Taliban creed of fundamentalism, American, Western and West Asian interests and the Islamabad-Beijing axis aimed at checkmating New Delhi’s moves on the Asian chessboard, especially vis-à-vis neighbouring countries.

What has been particularly regrettable is that the policy-makers in the South Block have neither learnt from history nor from past mistakes and blunders. The policies towards Pakistan generally move on a one-point slot with the result they hop from one position to another.

This is the problem with the present Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. This exactly was the problem with most PMs earlier, though I would look at Atal Behari Vajpayee somewhat differently. He had better understanding of Pakistan and Kashmir affairs. No wonder, many knowledgeable persons in Pakistan believe that the Kashmir issue could have been solved during his Prime-Ministership. Perhaps, he would have given result had he got a second stint in the 2004 elections.

Be that as it may, we don’t have to go by cables of whistle-blower website Wikileaks to know about the vested interests of “stakeholders” in keeping the Kashmir pot boiling. Nor have we to go by February 2006 diplomatic cables of David Mulford who was American Ambassador to India.

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India’s Claim To PoK Upheld By ADB

The Asian Development Bank appears to have finally woken to nefarious attempts to change the status  of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by giving Pakistan locus standi in waterworks intended to undercut Indian claims to the whole of Jammu and Kashmir under the Instrument of Accession. It has asked Pakistan to get a No Objection Certificate from India before it can release any funds for the  construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.



The government is contemplating a plan-B to arrange funding for the $12 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam project through bilateral institutions after declining an Asian Development Bank suggestion that Pakistan should secure a no-objection certificate from India to seek multilateral funding for the project, reported DAWN.

The decision in principle was taken at a meeting presided over by Minister for Water and Power Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar and attended by representatives of the ministries of finance, water and power, and economic affairs, Wapda and the Planning Commission, an official told Dawn.

Wapda was asked to submit a status report along with details of its plan-B  so that it could be discussed with the finance minister and the deputy chairman of Planning Commission in a meeting slated to review the overall financing problems being faced by water sector projects.

Wapda Chairman Shakil Durrani told the meeting that ADB had been supportive of the dam project all along in doing the paper work in line with its safeguard guidelines and on at least three occasions had committed to providing up to $4 billion.

Of late, however, it had started to show reluctance and desired that Pakistan should get an NoC from India for the project because it was located in a disputed territory. Mr Durrani told the meeting that the ADB’s request had been rejected.

According to sources, the United States had also discussed a lot of things and taken away data with an initial commitment to provide up to $1 billion in annual instalments of $200 million, but this had remained short of becoming a reality.

Dilating upon the plan-B, Mr Durrani said an option was to persuade the ADB to provide funding only for the civil works that would not relate to environmental and resettlement issues and meet the need for the remaining part of the project through local financing and other friendly sources.

The options included pledging some of the remaining water sector projects to raise Islamic and conventional bonds for the dam but most of these assets had already been pledged against international loans, an official said.

He said the Islamic Development Bank and China were ready to provide partial funding and support to the project but none of them was ready to fund the entire project.

The Economic Affairs Division told the meeting that a Middle Eastern group was also interested in the project because it offered more than 18 per cent rate of return on equity that meant 100 per cent recovery of investment in five years.

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Do Not Let Insurgents Fracture J&K Peace

Kashmir has gone through a spell of peace and stability. Pilgrimages and tourism picked up to make Kashmiri traders happy. But that should not be any cause for the State Administration and security forces to be too complacent. It is well known that whenever peace and stability start returning to the Valley specially, terrorist infiltrators and militants planted within J&K by proxy warriors organizations from across the border get ready to fracture it. It is incumbent on the civil administration, the security forces and the people of the state to ensure that outfits like LeT and fidayeen do not destroy the stability of their beloved state.




Reports in newspapers like Kashmir Times, Daily Excelcior, Greater Kashmir, Asian Age and the Pioneer, quoting reliable sources, have suggested that era of militancy is not over yet and fidayeen are planning attacks on Kashmir from their bases in PoK.

Frustrated by the relative peace and stability brought to the state that dented the numerical and offensive strength of the outfit the LeT was reported to be launching a drive for recruiting youth in the Valley. The drive of course was facing difficulties as more and more Kashmiris, specially the younger generation, were getting wise to the nefarious designs of false messiahs.

All these reasons necessitated that firm steps be taken to check that very special lobby which starts crowing for removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act when terrorism and militancy get rejective responses from the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

None can deny that security forces have brought relative peace and its social, economical development consequences to all regions of Jammu and Kashmir. But these benefits to the common man always hit hard the political and vested interests whose trade marks are violence, disruption and destruction. That is where money and power is for them. Choice is between peace for the people and power and wealth for the protestors and promoters of terrorism and militancy.

Some times back, in his first formal interaction with the media persons in Srinagar, after taking over as the GoC Chinar Corps, Lt Gen Om Prakash pointed out that 550 to 600 militants were waiting in their launching pads across the LoC to infiltrate into Kashmir. He put the number of militants presently active within Kashmir at between 280 and 300. The militants were now trying to increase their activities in South Kashmir.

The GOC stated that level of militancy is higher in north Kashmir than south Kashmir. “In north Kashmir we have LoC, forests and support base for infiltrators. The number of militants is lesser in south Kashmir. But off late the militants have started increasing their activities in south Kashmir also. This may be because we had slowed down our operations in view of normalcy. The militants are trying to fill the vacated space. They targeted police, army and even threatened panches and sarpanches,” he said.

Lt Gen Prakash stated that intelligence inputs by different agencies indicate that militants want “fidayeen attacks” in Kashmir. He said a close watch is being kept by the security forces on the situation.

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Some Attractions Of Leh

Leh is at an altitude of 3524 metres (11,562 ft), and connects via National Highway 1D connects it to Srinagar in the southwest and to Manali in the south via Leh-Manali Highway.

Several trade routes have traditionally converged on Leh, from all four directions. The most direct route was the one the modern highway follows from the Punjab via Mandi, the Kulu valley, over the Rohtang Pass, through Lahaul and on to the Indus Valley, and then down river to Leh. The route from Srinigar was roughly the same as the road that today crosses the Zoji La (pass) to Kargil, and then up the Indus Valley to Leh.

Shanti Stupa.Shanti Stupa is a Buddhist white-domed stupa (chorten) on a hilltop in Chanspa, Leh district, Ladakh, in the north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.  It was built in 1991 by Japanese Buddhist Bhikshu Gyomyo Nakamura . The Shanti Stupa holds the relics of the Buddha at its base, enshrined by the 14th Dalai Lama himself. The stupa has become a tourist attraction not only due to its religious significance but also due to its location which provides panoramic views of the surrounding landscape.

The Victory Tower. Situated at a height of 4,267 metres (13,999 ft), the stupa is located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Leh - the former capital of Ladakh - on a steep hill facing the Leh Palace. The stupa can be reached by a drivable road or on foot using a series of 500 steep steps to the hilltop.

Jama Masjid.Right in the heart of the city of Leh, is the Jama Masjid - a Muslim place of daily worship. Built to accommodate 500 worshippers at a time, this mosque is a favourite of Sunni Muslims of Leh and its surrounding villages.

Chamba Temple. Amongst the market-scape of the city of Leh enroute to the Leh Palace, stands the White Chamba Temple which is dedicated to Maitreya in Sanskrit, also known as Jampa in Tibetan – the ‘future Buddha’ or ‘the Buddha to come’. The temple houses a 14 metres high statue of Maitreya.

Zorawar Fort.Above the Leh Palace and the Namgyal Tsemo Gompa stands the imposing Zorawar Fort overlooking the valley of Leh and the snow-capped mountains beyond. The Zorawar Fort also known as the Riasi Fort and the Leh Fort was named after Zorawar Singh – a General of Maharaja Ranjit Singh – the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.

Sprawled over 28 acres of land atop the Namgyal Hill, the Zorawar Fort contains a Natural Spring, a Mosque and a Temple which is dedicated to goddesses Kali and Durga within. The fort is circumferenced by a 5-metre deep moat and the Fort Entrance is over the Moat on a bridge and through a wooden doorway. The Fort was built as a resting place and transit halt holding troops of 300 soldiers and 30 artillery operators. Artillery rooms, Food storage rooms and stables apart from other resting rooms constitute the Fort. Military Parade Ground is central to the Fort.

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