Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: What’s going on between India and Pakistan?
, contributing editor, 365Gay Blog 12.26.2008 1:27pm EST
Yes this is not a gay story and some of you will be put out that it’s being even mentioned, but the news about India and Pakistan has me freaked out. Ever since the Mumbai killings, the tension between the two nuclear powers has increased. Today the Pakistan military moved troops away from its Afghanistan border and put them closer to India.
What all of this means is still murky and no one from the Pakistani government is speaking publicly. Any foreign policy wonks out there who want to add any light?
PS: RIP Eartha Kitt.
Well, obviously India can’t just take these attacks from Pakistan lying down. The captured surviving terrorist is from Pakistan, and has confessed to having received training in terrorist camps indirectly funded by the Pakistani govt. An FBI investigative team sent from the US has likewise concluded that members of Pakistan’s military apparatus were likely involved in the planning and coordination of these attacks (ie. the terror training, logistics and travel arrangements could not have been made without the knowledge and participation of certain people in places of responsibility, etc). Furthermore, even though the Pakistani govt promised to take swift action to arrest and shut down the terrorist organizations and their facilities, international media have pretty much exposed the crackdown as a sham, showing that the organizations and their leaders continue to operately freely as they please, without any restrictions on them.
So obviously there’s a smoking gun showing Pakistani complicity in these attacks. The proof doesn’t get any more damning than this.
In this type of circumstance, the Indian govt has to react, or else be seen as a complete basketcase in the face of mortal threats. If India doesn’t respond militarily and show there’s a price to pay, then those who are responsible for these attacks will recognize that they have a happy hunting ground where they can take shots anytime at their whim and pleasure. That cannot be allowed.
Interpol not given any Mumbai evidence by India
Why the Indian govt is lying to world again? covering up their domestic problems!!
“To date, India’s government has not authorised India’s police agencies to enter any data relating to the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai in Interpol’s databases,” Noble (Interpol Chief) said.
“The information Interpol has about what happened in Mumbai is the same information that you have. It’s information that we’ve read in journals, that we’ve read on the Internet or that we’ve seen on TV,” he said.
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Indeed Sanjay
India has done NOTHING to Muslims nor Pakistan than the crime of being a secular nation with a Hindu majority. Pakistan denies any involvement, yet Pakistan’s founding ideology(Islamism and integrism) is what is clearly behind the terrorist groups.
Pakistan claims that Kashmir is “their” territory and fund cross border attacks and terror every single day. Yet Kashmir and indeed Pakistan is nothing more than Indian territory which has been plagued with Islamist separatists.
India has never conquered Muslim lands, India, despite Islamist propaganda, has never oppressed Muslims. In fact there are more Muslims in India then there are people in Pakistan. So Islamic terror in India is 100% unjustified, and it’s not the Palestinians or Al-Qaeda behind this, it’s Pakistan and it has always been Pakistan.
Like everyone else in the Middle East, it’s about two schoolyard bullies competing to see who has the biggest dick.
Let them blow each other up. Trust me, they wont be missed. And maybe they can take Israel and Palestine with them while they’re at it. Frankly, I’m tired of the whole bunch of whiners.
A simple yet poignant point.
No Homicide is EVER justified.
History be damned, Culture be damned, Who started what first be damned.
Life is precious.
It should never be argued that homicide in the pursuit of anything other than self-defense in a life-threatening situation is anything other than putrid nonsense.
Murder is murder.
No matter what the reasons.
As humans we should always oppose murder.
But self-defense is not murder.
Part of the cause here is the less then neighborly relations that India and Pakistan have held to each other since their inception as independent states. The Brits. split the territory of India into 2 parts based on religious lines prior to this the population of Muslims and non-muslims was relatively evenly mixed throughout India. So a big part of the animosity in the public of these nations resides in the ‘lost home land’ scenario in which about 18 million people were relocated of which 3.4 million went missing in a series of incidents that happened throughout the two countries. In the 1970s India is believed to have played a key role in Bangladesh acquiring independence from Pakistan. The dispute over Kashmir arose from the British allowing local rulers who had elected to join the Raj to decide whether to join Pakistan or India the ruler who was not a muslim was reluctant to elect for Pakistan despite the majority of the region’s population being muslim.
Anyway all the above stuff, not to mention a number of incidents in Kashmir (which you read more about on wiki or elsewhere) makes it virtually impossible for India and Pakistan to come to an agreement even on things one might expect them to agree on. There are some extremist groups in India who have assassinated politicians who were deemed overly friendly to Pakistan likewise there are similarly minded groups in Pakistan, though Pakistani nationalists of course. Its likely that other then the mandatory statements of condemnation from India and the statements of denial/’we’re looking into it’ from Pakistan both countries are going to be making a huge effort to avoid any extremists crossing the border and causing another incident particularly in regards to Kashmir which would be likely target for any Indian nationalist extremists. Its hard to say what will happen next, neither side wants to engage in a conflict particularly Pakistan which is already having to deal with religious insurgents taking over towns in the NW Frontier province and several other provinces along the border with Afghanistan. In certain respects the situation parallels the assassination of Austrian Arch Duke Ferdinand by Serb nationalists which ultimately led to WWI. There is certainly a potential for war though it seems unlikely the international community would tolerate either side making demands the other side would be unable to accede to due to their unpopularity locally – the only ones who benefit from the increased tensions are Islamic fundamentalists and insurgents (these groups are not exactly the same) in Pakistan who have objectives in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. India and Pakistan will I suspect manage to avoid a war though discussions over Kashmir are likely to become more ugly. Its possible the Mumbai attacks were conducted to destabilize Pakistan, which is currently attempting to reign in local fundamentalist elements, thus relieving pressure on fundamentalist operations in Western Pakistan. Its also possible that there was less strategy to it and this group was escalating the fight over Kashmir though the lack of a statement by the group is unusual and the perpetrators of the attacks seem to have more in common with your school yard shooter though their numbers indicate they were recruited – as always in these situations the prime suspect is the party that gains from the new situation which is definitely not Pakistan. Hopefully India and Pakistan will allow a third party to conduct the investigation, prosecution, and trial with oversight by both Indian and Pakistani authorities as that might redirect some tensions and help deescalate things.
I feel so grieved to see miserable perceptions here…
I wont argue about who’s involved in the Mumbai attacks, and who’s not. i’d just like to stress on few things in relation to the previous comments:
It is an open reality that the US is responsible for creating militancy in the Pak-Afghan region during the Russian wars. It was the US to propagate these militant views to stimulate jehadis against Russia AND to provide those deadly weapons to those terrorit hands (who’s nationalities r not considerable)a…
Unfortunately, Pakistan was and still is an obedient servant of US. During the Russian wars, it promoted these Jehadis for the sake of US too. Now, its fighting against these few militants (a couple of hundreds out of 1.6 billion pakistanis), again for the sake of US too… And STILL the blame comes over to PAKISTAN to be a TERRORIST Nation… How TRAGIC I’d say…
If we suppose for a moment that Pakistan IS involved in all that crap, would u say India is innocent enough to brush aside??? The Marriott hotel blast, the blasts at public places, mosques and religious shrines and all the misery and fear caused by these fatal indian agents operating in Pakistan cannot be ignored. If India realizes the threat of TERRORISTS from PAKISTANI, it should also realize the seriousness of TERRORISTS from INDIA as well. India can NOT turn down the facts that most of the militants operating in the heavenly beautiful areas of Pakistan ARE PROVED INDIANS and NOT PAKISTANIS (not even Muslims). Even some suiciders training have links with these fatal agents…
Pointing out to Kashmiris (as i’m also one of them by cast), the violence of Indian army on the public is never sympathized by the world. Their democratic and economic rights towards Pakistan is seen as TERRORISM. The wild massacres of not just Muslims but Christians within India doesnt conceal its homicide nature.
Pakistan is indeed formed on the basis of TRUE Islamic beliefs and not the TERRORIST Islamic beliefs (note the difference). But its public is generally moderate and secular. The Pakistani political parties, masses and the Govt., particularly, is too tolerant or lenient towards India. But its a pathetic tragedy for South Asians that the Indian leaders just cant politically stop reciting the war threats just to gain their votes. Otherwise, noone deserves war…
I think the Indians as well as most of the media-illusioned westerners should see things how they actually are and not how they are taught to be so. Pakistan’s media has enough freedom to express the facts and figures. But the biased Indian media needs to be liberal and sensible to show the truth (even of those who they think their enemis) for the sake of striving peace in the region.
I believe that noone’s perfect… But we should focus on our own internal flaws rather than blaming others for it…
Looking forward to comments on this