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Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 19, 2005
Occupied land and not its people are of interest to Pakistan for its jihad plan.
The devastating earthquake of October 8, with Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as its epicentre, has taken a terrible toll of human lives. Estimates of death across the Line of Control range from 40,000 to 80,000. It could even be as high as 100,000.
In all probability, nobody will ever be able to compute, with any certitude, the real tally. Most of the deaths have occurred in hamlets in remote, rocky areas with no access roads. While Pakistan has been meticulous about mapping the Indian territory that it has occupied for more than half-a-decade, it has not bothered with minor details like charting human habitation.
The earthquake has exposed to the whole world how shabbily the occupied land and its people have been treated by successive regimes in Islamabad. Enormous sums of money, mostly American dollars diverted from Washington's sustenance allowance to military dictators happy to do US's bidding, have been invested in creating an elaborate jihad infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
This includes training camps, holding areas and stores stockpiled with arms and ammunition. State-of-the-art telecommunications facilities link the terror infrastructure with Islamabad. Fresh recruits for Pakistan's cross-border jihad against India, support material and training personnel are flown in on helicopters which, at various points of time, Western democracies have gifted the men in khaki who rule from Islamabad.
Since Pakistan is not interested in the people but in the land, and in using the occupied territory as a launch pad for jihadis to unleash terror in India, it has not built roads, bridges or basic facilities like primary health centres in vast stretches of occupied land across the Line of Control.
There is a lesson in this revelation for those in Jammu & Kashmir who yearn for a Pakistani passport and to fly the Pakistani flag. The plight of the child in the Kashmir Valley whose innocent mind is corrupted by separatist, pro-Pakistan slogans would have been no better than three-month-old Shehriyar born in a hamlet near Muzaffarabad which was destroyed in the earthquake.
Doctors had to ampute Shehriyar's right arm because it had developed gangrene. If he had received medical assistance within days - not hours - of the disaster, he would have been spared the agony of growing up physically disabled. In the occupied territory, such mercies are not often heard of.
What is heard is the rant of Islamabad-inspired mullahs who have craftily and cunningly used a human tragedy to propagate their insidious Islamist agenda. One of them told the congregation at last Friday's noon prayer that the killer quake was a manifestation of god's wrath over the "faithful" watching television. The only way to assuage the creator, he advised the believers, was to destroy their television sets. Not that many had survived crashing roofs and imploding walls.
Apart from television sets and sundry household items, not to mention those who could not race out of their homes in time, lying crushed in the debris that now litters the occupied territory across the Line of Control, a strange coincidence, too, has been buried by the disaster.
The earthquake that has caused such numbing destruction marks the sixth anniversary of Gen Pervez Musharraf's coup that toppled the elected Government of Mian Nawaz Sharief. In these six years, to quote The Washington Post (which is known for not being overtly hostile to the Washington establishment), Gen Musharraf has done precious little to write home about.
In an editorial comment published on October 1, The Washington Post acerbically wrote: "Gen Musharraf... deserves the reputation he is earning as a ruler who cares more about how he is perceived in the West than in implementing the policies he claims to espouse, or even in speaking the truth. The general, who seized power in a coup six years ago, has reneged on promises to retire from the army or restore democracy.
He has not carried out the reform of Islamic religious schools that he promised in 2001. He has allowed the extremist Afghan Taliban movement to base itself in Pakistan's western provinces with virtual impunity. He has repeatedly insisted, almost certainly falsely, that Osama bin Laden is not in Pakistan. All the while he has gone on collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year from the Bush Administration, which accepts his words and ignores most of his actions."
One of Gen Musharraf's actions ignored by the Bush Administration is his refusal to dismantle the terror infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It is entirely possible that even while the adobe houses of poor Kashmiris living under the heels of Pakistani jackboots in the occupied territory were destroyed, the tents that accommodate most of the terror infrastructure have survived.
The fresh attempts by terrorists to sneak across the Line of Control, the slaughter of Hindus in Jammu region, the suicide attack in Srinagar in which a Minister was killed all indicate that the jihadis and their political patrons are eager to send out a message, loud and clear: The earthquake has not had any impact on the terror infrastructure, nor has it affected the jihadi spirit of Pakistan's terror brigade.
Ironically, it took an emotional outburst by Shabir Chaudhury of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front, based in London, to expose Pakistan's true face. Charging the Pakistani Government of "adopting an indifferent attitude towards the people of quake-ravaged Pakistan-occupied Kashmir", Mr Chaudhury said Islamabad "turned down international help in the rubble-strewn areas because of fear of exposure of militant camps there... One wonders why the Indian offer of help was refused, which could have saved hundreds of lives... The answer to this is simple if we take militant camps into account".
According to the JKLF leader, "despite all the claims of dismantling militant training camps, the open secret was that they are fully operational with more than 3,000 militants from various nationalities... These camps are located in various parts of PoK and in Balkote and Manshera".
"What explanation could the Pakistan Government give if some militants from Bangladesh, Sudan, Algeria and Egypt are seen? This could have been very embarrassing for the military Government of Gen Pervez Musharraf who on more than one occasion has claimed there are no camps," he added.
The political establishment in New Delhi, irrespective of the colour of ideology, refuses to accept this simple truth that is so obvious from distant London. Why else would there be a rush to put money into the account opened by the Pakistani High Commission at a Delhi bank? Unless, of course, those in the queue at the relief counter want to contribute their mite to the funding of jihad against India.
Along with American dollars, Indian rupees will now go into sustaining Pakistan's criminal enterprise.
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