Islamic Terrorists unite under Taliban to fight US forces

Three rival Pakistani Taliban groups have agreed to form a united front against international forces in Afghanistan in a move likely to intensify the insurgency just as thousands of extra US soldiers begin pouring into the country as part of Barack Obama's surge plan.

The Guardian has learned that three of the most powerful warlords in the region have settled their differences and come together under a grouping calling itself Shura Ittihad-ul-Mujahideen, or Council of United Holy Warriors.

Nato officers fear that the new extremist partnership in Waziristan,Pakistan's tribal area, will significantly increase the cross-border influx of fighters and suicide bombers - a move that could undermine the US president's Afghanistan strategy before it is formulated.

The unity among the militants comes after a call by Mullah Omar, the cleric who leads the Afghan Taliban, telling Pakistani militants to stop fighting at home in order to join the battle to "liberate Afghanistan from the occupation forces".

The Pakistani Taliban movement was split between a powerful group led by the warlord Baitullah Mehsud and his bitter rivals, Maulvi Nazir and Gul Bahadur. While Mehsud has targeted Pakistan itself in a campaign of violence and is accused of being behind the assassination of the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Nazir and Bahadur sent men to fight alongside other insurgents in Afghanistan.

The move potentially provides short-term relief in Pakistan but imperils Nato forces, especially those stationed in southern and eastern Afghanistan, including the British, close to the Pakistani border.

"It's of concern to us when we see a grouping like that," said a western security official in Pakistan. "This can't be ignored."

Fears of an increase in fighting come as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned yesterday that civilians would face the brunt of any increase in violence in Afghanistan. Ordinary Afghans were now more at risk from the fighting than at any time since the start of the war in 2001, said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations for the ICRC.

Violence in Afghanistan intensified last year with some 5,000 people killed, including more than 2,100 civilians, a 40% increase on the previous year, the UN reported last month.

Pakistan was already under intense western pressure to act against extremists based in its tribal area. A western military adviser, also based in Pakistan, said a Pakistani Taliban alliance would cement the grip of the militants over Waziristan. The region is also home to Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida, who use Waziristan and other parts of the tribal area as a haven to regroup and launch attacks against Afghan and Nato forces.

"No insurgency has ever been destroyed as long as the sanctuaries are still alive. If the sanctuaries are gaining more strength, that certainly worries Nato," said the military adviser.

The Obama administration in Washington has announced 17,000 extra troops for Afghanistan. American forces will concentrate on areas close to the Pakistani border, which are seen as the most troublesome. Obama is pressing European countries to also boost their troop numbers.

In an apparent response to the augmented US challenge, Mullah Omar has directed Pakistani militants in Waziristan to halt attacks on Pakistani forces.Baitullah Mehsud is feared in Pakistan, having led an assault on his own country since 2007, killing hundreds of soldiers, policemen and ordinary Pakistanis through suicide attacks and other bombings. But his tactics, influenced by al-Qaida, were controversial even within the Taliban.

"If anybody really wants to wage jihad, he must fight the occupation forces inside Afghanistan," Mullah Omar told Pakistani militants in a letter. "Attacks on the Pakistani security forces and killing of fellow Muslims by the militants in the tribal areas and elsewhere in Pakistan is bringing a bad name to mujahideen and harming the war against the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan."

The Pakistani Taliban recognise Mullah Omar, founder of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, as their ultimate leader, although operationally they work independently.

"Baitullah Mehsud is now taking on the Americans," said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general turned analyst. Baitullah Mehsud has recently called off his fighters in two key battles inside Pakistan, with ceasefires declared in Swat valley, in the North West Frontier Province, and Bajaur, another tribal area. While Pakistani forces claim to have "won" in Bajaur, they show no appetite for taking the war to Waziristan.

Controversially, the Pakistani government has acceded to the militants' demand for Islamic law in Swat. Under two secret peace deals signed by Pakistani authorities with the militants last year, covering north and south Waziristan, a truce exists there.

While western countries want to see the Pakistani army take the fight to Waziristan, Pakistani forces have been repeatedly defeated there. Major General Athar Abbas, chief spokesman for the Pakistan army, said that there was "no plan" to start operations in Waziristan. "It's the government that decides these things," he added.

Why India Can't 'Do A Gaza' On Pakistan...?

Five Reasons Why India Can't 'Do A Gaza' On Pakistan

Tunku Varadarajan, 01.05.09, 12:00 AM EST

Israel has far fewer restrictions.

Over the last week, many Americans (and Indians) have asked me why India does not "do a Gaza" on Pakistan, referring, of course, to an emulation of Israel's punitive use of force against Hamas-run Palestine, a territory from which rockets rain down on Israeli soil with reliable frequency (if not reliable destructiveness ... but that is not for want of Hamas intent).

My answer, given with the heavy heart that comes always with a painful grip on reality, is simple: India does not because it cannot.

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Here are five reasons why:

1. India is not a military goliath in relation to Pakistan in the way Israel is to the Palestinian territories. India does not have the immunity, the confidence and the military free hand that result from an overwhelming military superiority over an opponent. Israel's foe is a non-sovereign entity that enjoys the most precarious form of self-governance. Pakistan, for all its dysfunction, is a proper country with a proper army, superior by far to the tin-pot Arab forces that Israel has had to combat over time. Pakistan has nukes, to boot. Any assault on Pakistani territory carries with it an apocalyptic risk for India. This is, in fact, Pakistan's trump card. (This explains, also, why Israel is determined to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran.)

2. Even if India could attack Pakistan without fear of nuclear retaliation, the rationale for "doing a Gaza" is, arguably, not fully present: Israel had been attacked consistently by the very force--Hamas--that was in political control of the territory from which the attacks occurred. By contrast, terrorist attacks on India, while originating in Pakistan, are not authored by the Pakistani government. India can-- and does--contend that Pakistan's government should shut down the terrorist training camps on Pakistani soil. (In this insistence, India has unequivocal support from Washington.) Yet only a consistent and demonstrable pattern of dereliction by Pakistani authorities-- which would need to be dereliction verging on complicity with the terrorists--would furnish India with sufficient grounds to hold the Pakistani state culpable.

3. As our columnist, Karlyn Bowman, writes Israel enjoys impressive support from the American people, in contrast to the Palestinians. No other state--apart, perhaps, from Britain--evokes as much favor in American public opinion as does Israel. This is not merely the result of the much-vaunted "Israel lobby" (to use a label deployed by its detractors), but also because of the very real depth of cultural interpenetration between American and Israeli society. This fraternal feeling buys Israel an enviable immunity in the conduct of its strategic defense. India, by contrast--while considerably more admired and favored in American public opinion than Pakistan--enjoys scarcely a fraction of Israel's "pull" in Washington when it comes to questions of the use of force beyond its borders.

4. Pakistan is strategically significant to the United States; the Palestinians are not. This gives Washington scant incentive to rein in the Israelis, but a major incentive to rein in any Indian impulse to strike at Pakistan. However justified the Indian anger against Pakistan over the recent invasion of Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists, the last thing that the U.S. wants right now is an attack--no matter how surgical--by India against Pakistan-based terror camps. This would almost certainly result in a wholesale shift of Pakistani troops away from their western, Afghan front toward the eastern boundary with India--and would leave the American Afghan campaign in some considerable disarray, at least in the short term. So Washington has asked for, and received, the gift of Indian patience. And although India recognizes that it is not wholly without options to mobilize quickly for punitive, surgical strikes in a "strategic space," it would--right now--settle for a trial of the accused terrorist leaders in U.S. courts. (Seven U.S. citizens were killed in Mumbai: Under U.S. law, those responsible--and this should include Pakistani intelligence masterminds--have to be brought to justice.)

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5. My last, and meta-, point: Israel has the privilege of an international pariah to ignore international public opinion in its use of force against the Palestinians. A state with which few others have diplomatic relations can turn the tables on those that would anathematize it by saying, Hang diplomacy. India, by contrast, has no such luxury. It is a prisoner of its own global aspirations--and pretensions.

Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at the Stern Business School at NYU and research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, is opinions editor at Forbes.com, where he writes a weekly column.

My comments....There is only one reason....Indian leaders are the the biggest IMPOTENTS on this earth.

New disclosures link LeT to Mumbai, Pakistan under pressure to act

31 Dec 2008, 2008 hrs IST, IANS

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NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH/ISLAMABAD: With indications that Pakistan may be close to admitting the links of militants operating from its territory to the Mumbai mayhem, India on Wednesday renewed its call to Islamabad to take action against the perpetrators of the carnage.  At the same time, India ruled out a military attack against Pakistan and reaffirmed its policy of using diplomatic channels to get Islamabad to hand over those involved in the terror strikes.  New Delhi's renewed assertion came amid reports that an independent probe by Pakistan's intelligence agencies has revealed “substantial links” between the Mumbai attackers and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned Pakistani terrorist outfit that is suspected of having masterminded the 26/11 carnage.  The US also mounted pressure on Pakistan to prosecute two top LeT leaders, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, who were said to be in the forefront of hatching the Mumbai conspiracy to destabilize India.  Shah has confessed to his involvement in the Mumbai carnage to Pakistan's intelligence agencies, CNN-IBN news channel said, quoting unnamed sources in the Pakistani prime minister's office.  “The United Nations Security Council has told Pakistan to take firm action against the perpetrators and various terror outfits flourishing there,” Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma told reporters in Chandigarh.  “Under international law, it is obligatory for Pakistan to act accordingly if they are provided with sufficient evidence," Sharma pointed out.  Asked if India is sharing evidence related to the Mumbai attacks with Pakistan, Sharma said: "In the past also we have shared enough evidence with Pakistan, but unfortunately our neighbouring country is living in a state of denial. However, this time also we will share all the evidence with them and see to it that they do the needful."  Responding to a statement by Pakistani National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani Tuesday night in which he did not rule out the possibility of captured terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab being a Pakistani national, Sharma said: "This evidence is adequate to indicate that they are already under pressure. Pakistan had made several assurances to Indian government in the past and now it is high time for them to meet those assurances."  Sharma ruled out any military action against Islamabad and argued that India was a mature democracy and military strikes did not make any sense when diplomatic channels were available to make Pakistan fall in line.  "Answering through military action is not child's play when we are a part of a globalised world. We want to resolve all our differences in a peaceful manner. Nevertheless, our security agencies are capable enough to meet any eventuality," Sharma told reporters here.  "This fact is known to the entire world that Pakistan is supporting terrorists. Therefore, instead of denying, they should take appropriate steps against terrorists and those who provide them financial assistance in their country," Sharma pointed out.  Home Minister P Chidambaram, too, asked Pakistan to act instead of persisting in denial by repeatedly asking India for evidence. Refuting Pakistan's allegations that India had not shared evidence with it on the 26/11 Mumbai mayhem, Chidambaram wondered what more evidence was required after Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab's father had owned up to him on a Pakistani television channel.  “If anyone is in state of denial, then anything we give is denied,” Chidambaram said at a press conference in New Delhi.  Kasab was the lone terrorist to be captured alive by the security agencies during the Nov 26-29 attacks when a group of 10 militants allegedly from Pakistan stormed Mumbai and killed over 170 people. Nine terrorists were gunned down in operations that lasted for over 60 hours.  "The investigations into the Mumbai attack are in progress and are proceeding on right track," Chidamabaram said.  Pressure also mounted on Pakistan to act, with damning disclosures published in a leading US daily that established a link between Pakistani militants and the Mumbai attack.  Zarar Shah, a top LeT leader captured in a raid earlier this month in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, has confessed the group's involvement in the attack as India and the US have alleged, a senior Pakistani security official told the Wall Street Journal.  "He is singing," the WSJ quoted the security official, who declined to be identified, as saying.  “The disclosure could add new international pressure on Pakistan to accept that the attacks...originated within its borders and to prosecute or extradite the suspects,” the daily added.  “That raises difficult and potentially destabilising issues for the country's new civilian government, its military and the spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence - which is conducting interrogations of militants it once cultivated as partners," it added.  The admission, the official said, was backed up by US intercepts of a phone call between Shah and one of the attackers at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, the site of a 60-hour gunbattle with Indian security forces.  The report comes on the day a Pakistani newspaper said Islamabad was under tremendous US pressure to extradite to India Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks.  "The Americans are believed to have given Pakistan a taped conversation Lakhvi allegedly had with the gunmen involved in the attacks," the Dawn newspaper said in a dispatch from Washington, quoting US and diplomatic sources.  The sources said that American audio experts had checked the tape and concluded that it was genuine and that the speaker was Lakhvi.  Lakhvi and Shah were picked up during a crackdown following the ban imposed by the UN on the Jamat-ud Dawa, as the LeT was renamed after it was banned in the wake of the Dec 13, 2001, attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on the militant group. The Pakistani government now says it is unaware of Lakhvi's whereabouts.  According to the WSJ, a second person familiar with the investigation said Shah had implicated other LeT members and had broadly confirmed the story Kasab told to Indian investigators that the 10 assailants trained in Pakistani Kashmir and then went by boat from Karachi to Mumbai.  Islamabad, however, predictably rubbished the report. “No staff of the prime minister secretariat was involved in providing these reports,” the prime minister's office reacted in Islamabad.  The government officials also termed the report as “baseless”.  However, as the year drew to a close, the civilian and military leadership in Pakistan met to discuss Islamabad's options in view of growing international pressure to prosecute the Mumbai attackers.  Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani held important but separate meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. Kayani also briefed the president on the situation on the western and eastern borders. Home Minister P Chidambaram, too, asked Pakistan to act instead of persisting in denial by repeatedly asking India for evidence. Refuting Pakistan's allegations that India had not shared evidence with it on the 26/11 Mumbai mayhem, Chidambaram wondered what more evidence was required after Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab's father had owned up to him on a Pakistani television channel.  “If anyone is in state of denial, then anything we give is denied,” Chidambaram said at a press conference in New Delhi.  Kasab was the lone terrorist to be captured alive by the security agencies during the Nov 26-29 attacks when a group of 10 militants allegedly from Pakistan stormed Mumbai and killed over 170 people. Nine terrorists were gunned down in operations that lasted for over 60 hours.  "The investigations into the Mumbai attack are in progress and are proceeding on right track," Chidamabaram said.  Pressure also mounted on Pakistan to act, with damning disclosures published in a leading US daily that established a link between Pakistani militants and the Mumbai attack.  Zarar Shah, a top LeT leader captured in a raid earlier this month in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, has confessed the group's involvement in the attack as India and the US have alleged, a senior Pakistani security official told the Wall Street Journal.  "He is singing," the WSJ quoted the security official, who declined to be identified, as saying.  “The disclosure could add new international pressure on Pakistan to accept that the attacks...originated within its borders and to prosecute or extradite the suspects,” the daily added.  “That raises difficult and potentially destabilising issues for the country's new civilian government, its military and the spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence - which is conducting interrogations of militants it once cultivated as partners," it added.  The admission, the official said, was backed up by US intercepts of a phone call between Shah and one of the attackers at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, the site of a 60-hour gunbattle with Indian security forces.  The report comes on the day a Pakistani newspaper said Islamabad was under tremendous US pressure to extradite to India Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks.  "The Americans are believed to have given Pakistan a taped conversation Lakhvi allegedly had with the gunmen involved in the attacks," the Dawn newspaper said in a dispatch from Washington, quoting US and diplomatic sources.  The sources said that American audio experts had checked the tape and concluded that it was genuine and that the speaker was Lakhvi.  Lakhvi and Shah were picked up during a crackdown following the ban imposed by the UN on the Jamat-ud Dawa, as the LeT was renamed after it was banned in the wake of the Dec 13, 2001, attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on the militant group. The Pakistani government now says it is unaware of Lakhvi's whereabouts.  According to the WSJ, a second person familiar with the investigation said Shah had implicated other LeT members and had broadly confirmed the story Kasab told to Indian investigators that the 10 assailants trained in Pakistani Kashmir and then went by boat from Karachi to Mumbai.  Islamabad, however, predictably rubbished the report. “No staff of the prime minister secretariat was involved in providing these reports,” the prime minister's office reacted in Islamabad.  The government officials also termed the report as “baseless”.  However, as the year drew to a close, the civilian and military leadership in Pakistan met to discuss Islamabad's options in view of growing international pressure to prosecute the Mumbai attackers.  Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani held important but separate meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. Kayani also briefed the president on the situation on the western and eastern borders.

Can Pakistan control the terrorists?

By MSN Menon

No. It cannot and it will not, for using terror against neighbours has become part of Pakistan’s strategy, clearly a foreign policy objective. It is war on the cheap. It is war by proxy. It is war for ever.

Mercenaries have always been part of Arab/ Islamic life. They can be traced back to pre-Islamic days. With no resource to talk of, the Arab lived by raiding neighbours and trading carvans. Mohammed gave them legitimacy. They were told that Allah understood their problem. He turned them into religious warriors (mujahideen) to serve his own ends—to spread Islam, to conquer Arabia and to fight against the “infidels”. Mohd himself led 27 raids against his neighbours using the mercenaries.

Pakistan saw in the mujahideen the cheapest way to wage proxy wars without involving itself. The first such war was organised against Jammu and Kashmir in 1947.

It was then that Pakistan realised that the mujahideen could be put to myriad uses to advance the interests of Pakistan. It was a master strategy. It is still valid. India had nothing to counter it.

In 1965, thousands of mercenaries were mobilised to bring about an uprising in Kashmir. In the event, it failed.

In the early seventies, more thousands were trained in the madrassas for action in Afghanistan against the Marxist regime in Kabul. It became part of the Cold War. America pumped in millions of dollars to train and equip them. It was a war of Allah against “godless communism”. The Taliban was born, thanks to America.

As the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan, the mercenaries became redundant. But they were soon hired for action in Jammu and Kashmir and Chechnya. Which is why America was deaf and dumb to India’s pleadings. And it was a blessing to bin Laden too. He founded the al-Quaida, the terror outfit, practically with US money.

With the success of the mercenaries in Afghanistan against the Russians, Pakistan began to dream up ambitious ideas on using the mercenaries. For example, to annex Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir and to assert Pakistan’s leadership of the Muslim world. This called for a steady stream of mujahideen. This task was entrusted to the fundamentalist mullahs. Today it is the mullah who calls the tune in Pakistan!

Is this the Pakistan that Mohammed Ali Jinnah dreamt of? Pakistan was an opportunity to create and ideal Islamic state in the chaotic world of Islam. But look what the fundamentalists have created!

From fundamentalism to Talibanism to Jehadism-Pakistan’s “progress” has been that of a rake.

Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto were not democrats. They had a hand in making Pakistan what it is today—a rogue state. Dawn, Pakistan’s leading daily, said of Sharif that he represented the hawkish Central Punjab “Which since 1947 has been spoiling for a final round against India.” He knew all about Kargil. As for Bhutto, it was she who said that Islam has an “unfinished business” to attend to —namely to conquer the world for Islam. It was poetic justice that the Taliban hunted her down.

The crisis in Pakistan is its own creation. Hindus and Muslims need not have become two nations. The Muslims made them different. It is to this crisis that Najm Sethi referred in the course of a lecture he gave in Delhi. He said: “After 50 years, Pakistan is unable to agree upon who we are as a nation, where we belong, what we believe in, where we want to go…” But the fundamentalists knew what they want. They want to convert Pakistan into a theocracy. Little do they realise that the world which could throw out the Nazis and communists will not find it difficult to deal with the fundamentalists.

Religion can be an opium to people. This is what happened to all the Semitic religions. They are all in a spiritual crisis. Nemesis has at last caught up with all.

Today 20 terrorists can hold up America to ransom. All its weapons will be of no avail. If they have brought themselves to this pass, it only shows that the Western civilisation cannot be trusted to lead mankind in the future.

Islamic fundamentalism is the new scourge of the earth. A former NATO Secretary General says: “Islamic fundamentalism is at least as dangerous as communism was.”

Dear Reader, Pakistan is a failed state. Only an external force can bring about its renewal. Only America can take up that job.
My comments: This job should have been done by India, but our impotent leaders won't do this

Islamic Terror Against India

By David Frawley

The Indian media will not use the term terrorism for any religious group other than the Hindus. Terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam will be called ‘jehadi terrorism’ or simply ‘terrorism’. It is said that terrorism has no religion, but this is not the case if terrorism can be linked to Hinduism, a religion unlike most others, built upon non-violence.

I was raised a Catholic and grew up in the United States. I have been to India more than twenty times over a thirty-year period and have visited many gurus and ashrams. I have seen a few bigoted or conservative Hindus here and there but overall Hindus are the most tolerant and accepting of all religious groups and the most concerned with spiritual practices rather than converting others or conquering the world. Unlike most Biblical traditions, Hindus do not claim that theirs is the only path and if you don’t accept their religion, you will suffer eternal damnation or at least never receive the favour of God. Instead they teach you methods of Yoga and meditation so that you can experience the Divine for yourselves and in yourself, freeing you from any dependency upon institutions or dogmas.

Unfortunately today, under the pretext of Hindu terrorism, terrorism is being enacted against Hindus in India today. Hindu nuns are being stripped of their human rights, subject to narcotic testing that is illegal in the rest of the world, and tortured. Clearly such treatment would never be given in India by the police to a Christian nun. Even in India, evidence gained in this manner is not admissible in a court of law, yet it seems to be not only admissible but unquestionably true in the Indian media, which builds a case of Hindu terrorism based upon the torture of Hindus and allegations built upon that torture.

What is the brazen face of terrorism they are showing us among Hindus? Not a Bin Laden and 9/11 with Al Qaida proudly boasting of its attack and citing scripture in its justification, not a Taliban taking over a country and turning it into a terrorist state, not an attack on India’ Parliament, but a Hindu nun and her two wheeler, even though polygraph tests, torture and narcotic drugs injected into her have failed to produce a confession.

Terrorism is a big problem in India as it is in Pakistan and in the rest of the world. The main religious group to which the great majority of terrorists belong is obviously not the Hindus. While the media in India likes to blame Hindus for terrorism in the country, even if Hindus are the victims, clearly they can’t blame Hindus for the yet greater terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, much less in the US and UK.

Yet the media of India seems to think that Hindu terrorism is more dangerous or at least a better story, while the greater number of Indians who have died from terrorism caused by non-Hindu groups don’t seem to be worthy of consideration. The nearly ninety people who died in Assam seem to have been forgotten, for example, mainly it seems because one cannot make them into a case of Hindu terrorism.

Note that the Indian media will not use the term terrorism for any religious group other than the Hindus. Terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam will be called ‘jehadi terrorism’ or simply ‘terrorism’. It is said that terrorism has no religion, but this is not the case if terrorism can be linked to Hinduism, a religion unlike most others, built upon non-violence. Alleged terrorism in the name of anyone, even a nun, who might be a Hindu, even if it is not proved, will be called ‘Hindu terrorism’. I suspect I may be called a Hindu terrorist for writing this article.

Does this mean that Hindus are never violent and may not at some point be involved in attacks on other communities? Certainly not, but Hindus remain largely passive and are generally the last community to assert itself with violence.

The reason for this fixation on Hindu terrorism is clear. India has suffered from many recent terrorist attacks and there has been little headway in bringing any of the terrorists to justice. Elections are coming up and those who are afraid of losing seats for their failure to deal with real terrorism, which is generally directed against Hindus, feel that raising the bogey of Hindu terrorism will improve their chances at the polls. Their war on terror is largely a war against Hindus to promote anti-Hindu voting sentiments.

Jehadis won’t need to terrorise Hindus anymore because Indians themselves will do it to get elected, calling Hindus terrorists while they take away their human rights and let the real terrorists go free.

Recently more than eight Hindu students have been murdered in the United States. Is the government of India making a protest against anti-Hindu terrorism in the US? Certainly the American government would make a protest if American students were being murdered in India, particularly if they were Christians or Christian workers. But deaths of Hindus don’t count it seems.

Hinduism is the religion that most commonly teaches us to respect all religions and honour a diversity of paths to the Divine, yet we find Hinduism remains the most denigrated of all the world’s major religions.

It is time for Hindus to stand up against the distortions of Hinduism that abound in the world today, which means challenging the media and political groups that target and malign Hindus and Hinduism for their advantage. This anti-Hindu media actually seems worse in India than in the West. Sadly, many of these anti-Hindu sentiments come from Hindus in India who see certain other Hindu groups as their enemies. They will sell out their own religion and vilify it with the name of terrorism, if it brings them money, fame or another few years of political power regardless of its ramifications for the future of their country or their religion.

So let us address the real problem of terrorism and not target Hinduism. If the main thing we can boast for in dealing with terrorism is capturing Hindu nuns, our campaign against terror is certainly lacking.

(The writer can can be contacted at www.vedanet.com, pvshastri@aol.com)

Pakistan is cradle of Global terrorism

Shri Rajnath Singh on December 16 at Jammu.

Terrorism is the biggest challenge facing the country today. There has been a growing sense of outrage and anger against terrorism ever since gross inaction became the main feature of the incumbent Governments.

The gruesome attack on Mumbai has created an unprecedented environment against terrorism in the country and the people want some concrete action against this growing menace. Cutting across party lines the political parties have promised their unequivocal support to any concrete action against the perpetrators of such crimes against humanity.

As we all know almost every terrorist attack carried out in India has a cross border link. It is a fact which is now acknowledged by major global powers like the US and the UK. British Prime Minister Mr. Gordon Brown has recently said that over three fourth of terrorist attacks investigated in the UK had Pakistan and Al-Qaeda links which is clear indication that the world leaders are well aware of Pakistan’s active involvement in terrorist activities carried through out the world.

We also know that the terrorists involved in Mumbai attack came from Pakistan and were Pakistani citizens. The proof of their nationality has been published in many foreign papers and even the terrorist nabbed by the Police has written a letter to the Pakistan Government that he is a Pakistani national. But, it seems, the Pakistan Government is still not convinced and looking for more evidence before it could take any action against people and organisations involved in launching terrorist attacks on India.

Even the UNSC ban on Jamat-ud-dawa has not been executed properly by the Pakistan Government. According to credible media reports the Jamat activists taken in detention by the Police have been released by the Government and they are roaming freely in the PoK.

What is even more disturbing is that the Interior Ministry of Pakistan has directed all four provincial Governments to refrain from taking action against Jamat activists operating from madrasas which is an open violation of United Nation Security Council’s ban on the organisation.

The BJP believes that Pakistan is unwilling to cooperate with India when it comes to war against terror. Pakistan has refused India from allowing it to interrogate any Pakistani national for his role in terrorist attacks in the country because it could expose the nefarious designs of the ISI.

The ISI should be put on ‘International Watch’ for its active involvement in promoting terrorism and launching terrorist attacks on India.

Since India and Pakistan became independent in 1947, there has not been a single criminal case involving a Pakistani citizen in which it has extended mutual legal assistance to India— whether it was a case of terrorism, robbery, narcotics smuggling or even cattle lifting. It has had no hesitation in handing over nearly 200 Pakistani nationals suspected by the US as Al-Qaeda members to the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US without following the due process of law, but it has never handed over a single Pakistani criminal to India for trial.

The BJP forewarns that in its bid to counter terrorism the UPA Government should not rely much on Pakistan as it is least interested in taking any concrete action against terrorists and their outfits.

India needs an integrated Action Plan based on national consensus and diplomatic skills to decisively defeat terrorism. The opportunity is ripe for India to corner Pakistan for its poor response and track record against terrorism.

I have no hesitation in saying that Pakistan today is the cradle of global terrorism. If Pakistan continues to disregard its international commitments and defy international organisations then India should mobilise the world community and the UNSC to take stern action against Pakistan.

(FOC)

Taliban threaten to kill Pakistani schoolgirls: Pakistani officials

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Taliban extremists in Pakistan's troubled northwest Swat valley have banned girls from attending school, threatening to kill any female students, officials said Thursday.

The threat was delivered this week by local Taliban commander Shah Durran in an address carried on an illegally-run radio station in the area, local officials told AFP.

"You have until January 15 to stop sending your girls to schools. If you do not pay any heed to this warning, we will kill such girls," one official quoted the commander as saying.

"We also warn schools not to enrol any female students; otherwise, their buildings will be blown up."

The mountainous Swat valley was until last year a popular tourist destination featuring Pakistan's only ski resort.

But the region has been turned into a battleground since radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has links to Pakistan's Taliban movement, launched a violent campaign for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the valley.

Durran said local Taliban leaders were determined not to allow girls to attend school, saying: "We want to enforce the true Sharia in the area -- for this, we are fighting and laying down our lives."

Swat residents said Taliban fighters had already destroyed scores of government-run schools, leading some to set up private schools in their homes to educate girls.

An official at the Pakistani education ministry said there are about 1,580 schools registered in Swat -- once known for its top-flight schools.

But the official, Naeem Khan, told AFP: "Already Taliban militants have destroyed 252 schools, mainly those where girls and boys were studying together."

Education has suffered badly in Swat as a result of the ongoing fighting between Taliban-linked militants and security forces, with only a handful of schools still open in the region's main city Mingora, Khan said.

The government had reached a deal with the rebels in May to gradually pull out troops and introduce an Islamic justice system in exchange for an end to rebel attacks, but the violence eventually resumed.

Go get Pakistan: "YOU IMPOTENT INDIAN LEADERS"

Go for Pakistan’s jugular now
Friday, 19 December , 2008, 22:30
Last Updated: Friday, 19 December , 2008, 22:49

Arvind Lavakare may be 71, but the fire in his belly burns stronger than in many people half his age. The economics post-graduate worked with the Reserve Bank of India and several private and public sector companies before retiring in 1997. His first love, however, remains sports. An accredited cricket umpire in Mumbai, he has reported and commented on cricket matches for newspapers, Doordarshan and AIR. Lavakare has also been regularly writing on politics since 1997, and published a monograph, The Truth About Article 370, in 2005.

Call it bravura, if you will, or the suicidal act of a fool, but you must hand it to the failed Islamic state of Pakistan that it hasn’t gone down on its knees before the so-called international diplomatic pressure coming on it after 26/11 from the tough talk of the US Secretary of State, the British Prime Minister, the French President, the German Interior Minister et al. The failed state has simply used one pretext or other to avoid taking meaningful action against its terrorist components. In fact, 26/11 has only made Pakistan show the kind of gumption which India has never displayed in its six decades of independence.

Special: Mumbai under siege

Behind this impunity with which Pakistan has treated all the western world’s covert warnings is geographical blackmail: till the NATO forces open up the Central Asian route to the war theatre in Afghanistan, Pakistan knows it holds the trump card. As Gordon Brown, Britain’s Prime Minister disclosed the other day, Britain, America and the international community “increasingly” recognise that “we cannot deal with Afghanistan in isolation from Pakistan.” (The Indian Express, Mumbai, December 17, 2008.)

It’s no wonder then that the fundamentalist peacenik, Manmohan Singh, even today talks of wanting normal relations with Pakistan and our Defence Minister says that our nation has no intention of going to war with the nation whose mercenaries only recently delivered some of the thousand cuts that Pakistan’s old policy intends to inflict on India as a prelude to death.

Yes, our External Affairs has been the exception, using strong, warning language to Pakistan, but there’s been no threat issued of any kind. And when our Sports Minister said he didn’t want our cricket team to play in a land from where came those murderers, promptly came the voice of another Congressman, the president of Indian Olympic Association, saying sports must not be allowed to mix with politics.

Complete coverage of Mumbai terror drama | The Terror Saga

Bollywood loudmouth Mahesh Bhatt added his little bit when he opposed the discontinuation of even cultural ties with Pakistan, saying that we must not cut what we have so painfully built over the last few years.

Journalists have debated some available options such as a limited war but have thrown them out as impracticable because of Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities. And even the Commerce Minister’s suggestion to stop of all trade ties with Pakistan has reportedly been declined by our Prime Minister without either of the two giving us a reason for the decision.

What is making India impotent is its unthought out belief that only a stable Pakistan is in our interest. What, pray, is our fear? Are we such cowards as to be afraid of Pak’s nuclear missiles falling in the hands its terrorists? Whatever it be, it’s agonizing to find a senior journalist of ours advocating more financial aid to our enemy.

Here’s what Gautam Adhikari advocated in The Times of India of November 29, 2008 in order to transform “bad boy” Pakistan into a “good boy”:

“A concerted global effort, at ensuring, first, the sustainability of Pakistan's democratic experiment. And, second, pouring in as much assistance as required, under strict supervision of …a specially designed international political-economic authority that would oversee the country's direly needed transition from military domination to democratic viability. In short, the world, under the newly assertive leadership of an Obama-led United States, must devise a Marshall Plan for Pakistan.”

So what do such Adhikaris and Antonys and Manmohan Singhs want the Indian people to be left with even after 26/11? Nothing more than anger, frustration, a new central investigative agency and a tougher law against acts of terrorism on various national subjects such as atomic energy. We must twiddle our fingers and let Pakistan’s terrorism continue being given bail.

It need not be so at all.

Consider our trade ties with Pakistan where we gave a valuable concession years ago by granting it the Most Favoured Nation clause benefit under which we agreed that duties on our imports from Pakistan will not be different from the rate applied to other nations --- in short no discrimination against Pakistan imports. Pakistan has not reciprocated despite such a request several times. In the process, it’s the Pakistan Army which has gained more muscle because, as R.Vaidyanathan, Professor of Finance and Control, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, tells us, more than 75% of Pak’s economy is owned/ controlled by its Army through institutions like Fauji Foundation and a significant portion of its GDP is due to army-controlled entities. Actually, as the Professor says, “Pakistan Army is the only Army in the world owning a country.”

Read all columns by Lavakare

It follows, therefore, that any continuation of so-called economic cooperation with Pakistan will only benefit its Army which controls the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency that has nourished terrorism against India because the Pakistan Army along with all its Generals, without exception, has long had a pathological hatred for India.

It again follows, therefore, that it would be in India’s interest to destabilise the Pak Army through economic tactics. Do that and Pakistan itself is destabilized as a prelude to gaining sense. If the latter doesn’t happen, we will have to work with other world powers to split Pakistan into many countries rather than help it in vain to be a true democracy.

To accomplish this without causing a nuclear conflict demands that we act like Chanakya, use brains rather than brawn or rhetoric.

For example, take the trade route. Since we cannot now withdraw the MFN treatment we gave to Pakistan under the World Trade Organisation covenant, we will have to go on the export path. Nothing prevents us from making Pakistan’s exports costlier for other countries, so let’s do it. Let us totally remove any export tax on such Indian products that compete with Pakistan’s in the world market. Let us even subsidise the export of such goods of ours as internationally compete with those of Pakistan. Basmati rice, textiles, carpets and tea come readily to mind in this regard. In short, do everything to hurt Pakistan’s export front.

Further, let us put a ban on export of sugar to Pakistan. Let the price of sugar go up and up in that country. In fact, let’s ban all export to Pak; if our exporters complain, so be it, because a sacrifice here and there to debilitate our incorrigible enemy is worth any price.

There are some other economic measures through which we can screw Pakistan without creating a war of any sort. Arm-twisting foreign investors providing aid or arms to Pakistan is one way; opposing IMF loans to Pak is another.

The jugular, however, is Pakistan’s dependence on India for water to its agriculture.

Water from tributaries of the Indus river is the Pakistan economy’s lifeline. Farmers of the area have used Indus waters since prehistoric times. Irrigation from the Indus tributaries makes possible the cultivation of the arid land along their courses. Besides the irrigation, the Indus Basin generates almost half of the electricity produced in Pakistan.

Admittedly, that flow of river waters into Pakistan is governed by the Indo-Pak Indus Water Treaty of 1960, under which all the waters of Indus River’s eastern tributaries, Sutlej, Beas and Ravi taken together, shall be available for the unrestricted use of India. And all the waters of Chenab and Jhelum tributaries and of any tributary which in its natural course joins the Sutlej main or the Ravi main after these tributaries have crossed into Pakistan shall be available for the unrestricted use of Pakistan.

But, ah --- and this is the critical issue to know --- the flow of river water into Pakistan lies in India’s hands! It is in the India-controlled part of Kashmir where lie the origins and passage of the five river tributaries because the Boundary Award of 1947 meant that the headworks of the chief irrigation systems of Pakistan were left located in Indian Territory. Pakistan has been apprehensive that in a dire need India would use its strategic advantage and withhold the flow to choke Pakistan’s agriculture. In fact, an issue of Pak’s Defence weekly last year cited a particular water resources minister of India as saying that if India decides to scrap the treatyPakistan will face a drought and Pakistanis will beg for every drop of water.

Interestingly, though Pakistan regards India's control of the Jhelum as a threat to its security, the Indus Waters Commission has failed to resolve the issue and it has been on the agenda of the Indo-Pak talks at Lahore in February 1999, the Agra Summit of July 2001, and part of the composite dialogue initiated in January 2004.

India must now act on that apprehension of Pakistan as never before. It’s believed that a unilateral termination of the Indus Water Treaty is not legally permissible and that such an action might be considered a legitimate justification for war. But there are enough Chanakyas in our land who can stop the Jhelum and Chenab waters from flowing downward west to Pakistan without officially terminating the water sharing treaty. It is these Chanakyas who must be tapped by our country when going for Pakistan’s jugular.

by the same author: It was a national humiliation

(The views expressed in the article are the author’s and not of Sify.com.)

A PERFECT LETTER TO PM MANMOHAN SINGH FROM A RESIDENT OF MUMBAI

LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH

Dear Mr. Prime minister
I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.
Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bolywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India .
Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima .
We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.
Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?
I am born and bought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar Look at all the politician, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next time terrorist can comfortably live in those house , enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.
Recently I had to purchase house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your finance minister are not aware of it.. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.
If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politician has converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste only what I am not is INDIAN. You politician have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule.
Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such a intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politician didn't even spare him. Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politician feels they are supreme and there is no place for good person.
Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent person, most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politician. Ask Swiss bank to give name of all Indian account holder. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us.. There will be political upheaval but that will better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day. Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.
Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?
Prakash B. Bajaj
Chandralok 'A" Wing, Flat No 104 97 Nepean Sea Road
Mumbai 400 036
Phone 98210-71194

PLEASE READ N FORWARD AS MANY PEOPLE IN YOUR CONTACT LIST

Spineless, Spermless, Semenless and Spiritless Indian Leaders !

India is a super power but being ruled by super impotent leaders.

Impotent Indian leaders should learn something from the US and Israeli leaders.

Manmohan singh should come out of the saree of Sonia Gandhi and take some independent decision. He has to prove that "Singh is the real King" not just a king
inside the saree.

Even the BJP leadership was hopeless when parliament was attacked. Almost dead PM Vajpayee did not bother to consult semidead DPM Advani and Released top terrorists and asked conscious less Jaswant Singh to accompany them along with a gift of Rs. 500 crores and compromised with the hijackers of air-india plane with bent knees. Now they are demanding the same terrorists back! What non-sense.

When Iran knocked down US plane, then President Reagan had warned Muslim Terrorists that if you are terrorists, we are mad; and we are going to screw you now and right now.

Similarly Bush had warned after 9/11 that we will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them.

Israel does not give a shit to international opinion when their interests are hurt. They strike with full force and teach those bastards a good lesson.

So wake up Indian leaders ! show that you have some balls and some sperms & semen left or take some viagra or cialis and get going and do the needful. What for these missiles are......to blast yourself inside out ! Shame on Spineless Indian Leaders !
So fire them and blast the training camps of Lashkar-e-toiba and Jaish-e-Moahammad.

'Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price'

M J Akbar is one of India's best-known journalists and commentators, someone with a deep insight into the Indian people and their mindset. In this first-person, as-told-to piece, Akbar discusses the Mumbai attacks and their relevance for India.
Many people forget that India is a tough nation. Toothless leaders have turned India into a soft nation. People forget that India has fought back Muslim terrorism in Kashmir; Sikh terrorism in Punjab, Christian terrorism in Nagaland and Hindu terrorism in Assam, and amongst the Naxalites [Images].

We have had everything thrown at the Indian nation State. Still, we have stood up. The people of India have shown the courage and ability to believe in their nation and to fight back. But the completely impotent leadership of five years have turned a tough country into a soft State.

I am very sad. I keep feeling that if they protect India as they protect their leaders -- whether it is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] or Congress President Sonia Gandhi [Images] -- I think I would be safe. Today, India's leaders are safe and India is in panic.

On what India's response should be:

India's proper reaction would be possible if we understand the extent of the disease.

If the disease is cancer, you can't apply band aid. After making a complete mess of security issues for five years by asking Shivraj Patil [Images] to go finally we may have a home minister who doesn't comb his hair and change his clothes. But we want something more than that. If it is cancer, we need chemotherapy, a much more serious exercise. It needs a legislative and executive framework. It needs political mobilisation. People are numbed.

The Indian people have no leadership. You have a prime minister. Did you see him when he addressed the nation? Nobody knew if he was addressing the nation or having a cup of tea?

He looked serious, but he didn't talk to us about our anger and about our anguish. I think this administration is tone deaf to the anguish of the people. They just cannot understand what the people are going through. They just don't understand our pain or our anger. The most important thing is that, perhaps, we have politicised not only the instruments of the State like the police but we have also politicised the understanding of the nature of the problem.

I think the very first thing to do is to ensure security so that it prevents the next attack. If any attack takes place under someones job should go. Don't come to me with alibis.

On the terrorists getting local support:

I am an Indian Muslim and I am very proud of both, being an Indian and a Muslim. I do not see any contradictions. This is my land and I have nowhere else to go.

But can I say because I am an Indian Muslim that no Indian Muslim is involved? Can you, because you are a Hindu, say that no Hindu is involved? We have to behave like Indians first. Not as a Muslim or as a Hindu first. Because we need Hindu votes and Muslim votes and because this government thinks that it needs Muslim votes so it has been in complete denial.

Do you think that these people came across from Pakistan and had no support in Mumbai?

It is not possible. It was a huge operation. Ten people hit nine places and you killed nine of them. You want to say that they went from place to place? Who knows some of them must have slipped away to create new sleeper cells to hit us six months later.

They are hiding things. I would like to believe that there was an underworld connection. Because, Karachi and Mumbai are also linked by drug smuggling. The culture of criminals is aggression. It comes naturally to them. It is not easy for you and I to become aggressive, however angry we are. It does not come naturally to us. These are people who are trained psychologically in aggression. They have no respect for the State. They have no love for the country. And they have no respect for authority.

Why? Because the only face of authority is the corrupt policeman. The criminal gives money in the morning and money in the evening. Why should he have respect for somebody he gives bribes to? For the guy from the underworld his understanding of the Indian State and authority is corruption. He has no patriotism to stop him. Why would he not join hands with the terrorists? In any case, he belongs to another world. We have not even begun to address and discuss this.

On the Pakistan factor

I am tired of giving Pakistan a long rope on some excuse or the other. Everybody is saying this will happen if we do this, that will happen if we do this. Our relations with Pakistan will go, then, let them go. What has our relations with Pakistan brought us except violence and terror? Why should we be in charge of saving Pakistan? For what? Every time they turn around and they say they want evidence. Now, finally we have evidence.

I have been an editor for 35 years from the age of 23. From that time on, since the days of General Zia-ul Haq, I have been hearing 'Pakistan is asking for evidence'. We asked for withdrawal of their support to the movement for Khalistan, they said, 'Oh, we don't know anything about it.' On Kashmir, they kept repeating where is the evidence. Benazir Bhutto [Images] came, she asked for evidence. Nawaz Sharif came, he asked for evidence. I think Pervez Musharraf [Images] asked for less evidence. Now again, they are asking for evidence.

There is a terrorist in Mumbai, captured and arrested. How much more evidence do you want? If what he is saying is not evidence, then how can you get more evidence?

This government is in its 11th hour. Now they will bluff the people to protect their votes. There is no time left for them. The agony of departure will be hard from this government.

On the reaction in the West

The US and Britain have a vested interest in telling India to look within. Why? When Americans die then they can send their air force 7,000 miles and bomb every country to smithereens. But when Indians die, they tell us no, no, you must be patient. You must act like a swami and a yogi. Why? Is an American life more precious than an Indian life? Why should we keep listening to them? But we have a government that keeps listening to them all the time. We don't get tough.

The last time we got tough was after the attack on Parliament. We took some tough actions under Operation Parakram and then there was a certain lull. Three years ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was able to tell President George W Bush [Images] that there are no terrorists amongst Indian Muslims. That means that lull continued.

Pakistan must be made to realise that it will have to pay a heavy price. Not necessarily through war, but a heavy price will have to be paid in loss in trade, in cancellation of orders and other engagements. They should pay a heavy price in terms of people to people relations. I am not saying you can freeze a relationship to death, but the message must go out that if there is a crime there will be a penalty. You just can't get away with it.

Let the Pakistan government cooperate with us. But look at how the Pakistan government has buckled down and we are sitting here whimpering.

They want to send some lowly officers to India. For what? Even Pakistan is treating the Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi government with total contempt. They know how weak it is.

Delink Hindu-Muslim relations and Pakistan

Look, you must not confuse the Pakistan issue with the Indian Muslims issue. Their so-called alienation or their economic deprivation is not linked to the issue of Pakistan.

Indian Muslims have nothing to do with Pakistan. They have absolutely no sympathy for Pakistan. They know that Pakistan was the biggest mistake committed in the history of Indian Muslims. They know it. You can ask anyone in Baroda, Bihar or Mumbai. They know how they are suffering the backlash of all the consequences of cross-border terrorism.

Today, they fear retribution from the government, they fear retribution from popular disenchantment and anger. They feel helpless. They feel afraid.

We must understand finally that it is not so much the 'local people', it is the local underworld that is involved in anti-India activities. In 1993, who were involved in terrorism? The underworld. Why have you not done anything about it? The State turns a blind eye to the police and corruption. I don't know how many readers smoke hashish and other stuff, but I am accusing them of cross-border terrorism. Drugs come to India from Afghanistan via Karachi.

What we can do as individuals

If whoever is responsible for protecting the nation fails, then he or she should not be allowed to continue in power. That is the toughest and sharpest message we can give. You can tell that you may be a soft State, but we are a hard people and we are hard voters.

We are not going to forgive you for your lies and deception and for your waffling. How many blasts do we need to understand that? When Jaipur [Images], Ahmedabad [Images], Mumbai and Delhi [Images] happened no one who was genuinely guilty was caught.

We have to understand now that corruption has eaten away vitals of this nation. It is the biggest danger to the security of India. It is not just the case of some spectrum being sold to someone by some minister in. Everyone who is corrupt get out!

It Is a failure all around. We have to be extremely practical and pragmatic. There is great deal to be depressed about as an Indian. Frankly speaking, I feel very angry and upset. I am never upset by the behaviour of our enemies. I am only upset by the betrayal of those I trust.

M J Akbar, editor-in-chief, Covert magazine, spoke to Sheela Bhatt