The silver colored material spewing gamma radiation that slipped into a scrap dealer’s shops causing at least six persons to fall ill has exposed gaps in India’s mechanisms to preserve radiological safety.
Department of atomic energy official said that the scrap dealer and five workers have fallen ill with symptoms of radiation exposure after they tried to work with scrap that contained a highly radioactive element called cobalt 60.
Cobalt 60 is used as a source of radiation in cancer radiotherapy and in industrial inspection equipment, but scientists investigating the incident said the origin of the material found in the scrap dealer’s shops was still unknown.
Washington: Arguing that some tactical successes will not defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, a top US thing tank has sought opening of talks with the militant group but said India should not be included in any such parleys as it would antagonise Pakistan, in particular its Army.
“The negotiating framework should be determined during a secret contact phase mediated by the Pakistani Army prior to the strictly diplomatic phase conducted under UN auspices,” the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a report yesterday.
‘India is a close friend of Afghanistan, but Pakistan is a twin brother’ – Karzai
Foreword by Ahmed Quraishi: This coming from the same man who spent the past eight years working closely with the Indians and CIA to build BLA and TTP and send terrorists to Pakistan. But thanks to Afghan Taliban, they all had a falling out and everyone wants to save his hind. That’s why all of a sudden US is ready to ditch India to appease Pakistan and Karzai says India is a friend but Pakistan is a ‘brother, a twin’. We Pakistanis are certainly brothers and twins of our cousins the brave Afghans, but certainly not of the snakes planted there by others.
Reuters – Afghanistan does not want a proxy war between Pakistan and India or anybody else fought on its soil, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday during a visit to Pakistan.
The Bharati (aka Indian) press is full of sound and fury about the trip of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the King of Sadui Arabia. The trip itself was a major achievement for the Bharati government–a clear indication of the level of relations between Delhi and Riyadh. Only four previous prime ministers have ever been allowed to the sacred land. Of course Mr. Manmohan Singh visited Riyadh only, not being allowed to stepon sacred soil of Mecca or Madina.
Bharati leaders were overjoyed by the fact that a Bharati Prime Minister was able to reach the shores of the Arabian peninsula which seems to be a major feat for the Bharati government.
The Bharati media is also very excited by the fact that Saudi Arabia has agreed to sell oil to Delhi at market prices. Well duh! Saudi Arabia surely doesn’t want to keep its oil under the sands. It does want to sell it so that it can sustain the lifestyle it is used to.
ISLAMABAD – The athletes face a risk of terrorist attacks during the October 3 to 14 Common Wealth Games in India.
According to sources the Hindu fundamentalist organizations are planning to disrupt the games to show the Congress government in a bad light as well as take revenge for attacks on Indians in Australia coupled with creating communal riots for political point scoring.
There are reports of possible attacks at the venues of different events at the game. The hotels where the players would be accommodated are said to at a greater risk.
The reports reaching here from India and Nepal suggest that hardline Hindu organisations are joining hands with former LTTE members to sabotage the games. There is already resentment in South India about defeat of LTTE in Sri Lanka and weak stance of Congress government in condemning the military action by Sri Lankans.
More proof of Indian fingerprints on terror attacks in Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD: Suspected Taliban militants shot and killed Militants shot and killed Brigadier Moin-ud-din Ahmed, deputy force commander of the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), who was on vacation in Islamabad, on Thursday.
UNMIS, one of the world’s largest UN peacekeeping missions with around 11,000 personnel, was set up to monitor and support the 2005 peace deal than ended the two-decade civil war between Sudan’s north and south.
There is no doubt that there are a lot of suspicious activities taking place in Sudan by using the humanitarian and UN agencies in particular. An alliance led by US, UK, Israel, India are allied with Southern Sudan’s SPLM (Sudan People Liberation Movement) and Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries (excluding Libya, and partially Egypt) support the Government of Sudan, i.e. the Northern government.
QUETTA: India and Afghanistan are supporting an insurgency in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, trying to bolster the leadership of separatists fighting the Pakistani government, a top security commander said on Saturday.
Baloch nationalists have for decades campaigned for greater autonomy and control of the province’s abundant natural gas and mineral resources, which they say are unfairly exploited to the benefit of other parts of the country. Separatist guerrillas have also been fighting a low-level insurgency for decades.
‘A lot of evidence of Indian involvement through Afghanistan is there, supporting the separatist movement,’ Major General Salim Nawaz, inspector general of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force in Balochistan, told Reuters in an interview at his headquarters in the provincial capital, Quetta.
In a show of support to the Pakistani stance on Occupied Kashmir, China has started issuing separate visas for Kashmiri citizens holding Indian passports. These visas are not stamped on the Indian passport, and instead are hand-written on loose sheets of paper stapled to the passport. China has given no explanation for its move, but many in Srinagar say it is because Beijing sees Kashmir as disputed territory.
‘So far only about 100 people have been affected by the new procedures. The move – introduced in May – follows recent reports in the Indian media that Chinese troops have made incursions into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in the Ladakh region. The new requirements may affect only a handful of students and businessmen who travel from Indian-administered Kashmir to China, but the diplomatic implications of the Chinese move could result in a serious deterioration of relations between Beijing and Delhi.
The move is seen in India as an attempt to question the status of Jammu and Kashmir, which is claimed by Pakistan, considered an all-weather ally of China. The Chinese embassy has been issuing ‘stapled visas’ to Indian passport holders from the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, over which Beijing claims sovereignty.
“The visas are valid,” said a spokesperson of the Chinese embassy. She refused to answer any other questions.
The former Soviet Union which had subjugated the minorities and ethnic groups in various provinces and regions through its military, disintegrated in 1991. Even its nuclear weapons could not save its collapse. One of the important causes of the disintegration of the Russian Empire was that its greater defence expenditure exceeded to the maximum, resulting in economic crises inside the country. In this regard, about a prolonged war in Afghanistan, the former President Gorbachev had declared it as the “bleeding wound.” However, militarisation of the Soviet Union failed in controlling the movements of liberation, launched by various ethnic nationalities.
On the other hand, while learning no lesson from its previous close friend, India has been acting upon the similar policies in some other way, which led to the demise of the Soviet Union.
In the Sri Lankan cricket team case, Indian operatives crossed the border from Indian to join other Indian-origin or Indian-trained terrorists who traveled all the way from Afghanistan to Lahore
Indian terrorism training bases, intelligence outposts and personnel in Afghanistan identified
In some cases, Indian intelligence was indirectly supporting attacks against US soldiers in Afghanistan in order to worsen Pak-US military relations
India’s friends, advocates and lobbyists in Washington stunned
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was stunned when Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Reza Gilani handed him a dossier containing photographs of Brahamdagh Bugti and other terrorists meeting Indian agents not only in Afghanistan but also during their visits to India and the names of the Indian officials who met them. This was part of more evidence about India’s involvement in recruiting, training, financing and arming terrorists in Afghanistan and sending them to Pakistan. India’s links to the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore and other high profile terrorism cases have been established, shocking even Indian’s many advocates in Washington. Mr. Gilani gave this surprise to the Indians behind closed doors. Now India fears that Pakistan would use this meeting to expose Indian connections with two anti-Pakistan terrorist leaders and their foreign-funded terror armies: Brahamdagh Bugti and his BLA [Balochistan Liberation Army] and Baitullah Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, both being supported from bases in US-controlled Afghanistan.
While the Pakistani government is reluctant to confront the Americans about the activities of America’s Indian allies, the Pakistani military has given the Americans solid evidence about the activities of Indian intelligence in Pakistan’s tribal belt and Swat. These activities appear to be facilitated by the Karzai regime and the U.S. military and intelligence. The latest discovery of Indian weapons inside Pakistan is the Indian army standard issue Vicker-Berthier light machine gun.
The fifth and sixth days of June which remind the tragic memory of India’s Operation Blue Star launched on the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs in 1984 have come at a time when Pakistan’s armed forces have been conducting Malakand operations against the Taliban. It looks interesting to compare the phenomena and other dimensions of these operations.
The main aim of the Operation Blue Star led by Indian General Kuldip Singh Brar was to arrest Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the only spiritual leader who had been boldly fighting for the genuine rights of Sikhs. Indian government which never tried to negotiate with the Sikh leader had signed no peace agreement with him or the Sikh community, while activities of Bhindranwale were only confined to the Golden Temple. As regards Pak military operations, Swat peace accord was signed on February 15 this year between the government and the militants led by Sufi Muhammad. Meanwhile, National Assembly passed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation which was also signed by Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari. While implementing it, two Qazi courts were appointed in the Malakand Division. But, by setting aside the terms of the peace pact, the Taliban equipped with heavy weapons started making checkpoints, strengthening their position in Swat and Dir. They not only refused to renounce arms, but even entered Buner in open violations of the peace agreement.
The Indian government’s “war against terror” may cost the Congress party dearly in the election.
Arrests and alleged extrajudicial killings of Muslim youths have angered many in the Islamic community.
“People in power have branded us as terrorists and used us as a vote bank, this cannot go on,” said the all-powerful cleric of Delhi’s Jama Masjid mosque, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, in a recent press conference.
“The security of Muslims is one big issue, as after every blast in India a series of arrests of Muslim youths takes place,” said a spokesperson for the influential All India Muslim Personal Law Board. Muslim men were “systematically killed” in routine police encounters, he alleged. [BBC]
Found this article by an Indian writer, Kavita Krishnan, written last year. Its a fascinating read on the US imperialist plans for India, the implementation of which has so far gone largely unnoticed by the masses. A must read, particularly for our Indian readers.
June 11, 2008 – The Indian ruling class is striving to forge what it calls a “strategic partnership” with the United States, and in this aim the major ruling-class political parties are united. The previous government — a coalition termed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by the Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — which was in power from 1999-2004, had in the wake of 9/11 strived to prove to the US rulers that India was a more stable and suitable ally on the subcontinent for the US “war on terror” than Pakistan.
The BJP-led NDA government even proposed a grandiose “Triad Against Terrorism” comprising India, Israel and the US, thereby overturning decades of Indian foreign policy that had favoured the Palestinian cause. The BJP is known for its viciously anti-Muslim agenda, is notorious for the state-sponsored pogrom which killed thousands of Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, and its goal is to turn secular India into a “Hindu” nation. The BJP, drawing on the “clash of civilisations” notion of Christians, Jews and Hindus against Muslims, spoke of a supposed “natural affinity” between India – the “Hindu homeland” – besieged by the terrorism of its Islamic neighbour Pakistan, and Israel – the “Jewish homeland” – besieged by “Muslim” Palestine’s “terrorism”. In May 2003, India’s national security advisor Brajesh Mishra, addressing a meeting of the American Jewish Committee – a Zionist outfit – in Washington, called for a “core, consisting of democratic societies … which can take on international terrorism” – and the Indo-US-Israel axis was to constitute this “core”. The NDA government had even been willing to send Indian troops to assist the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq, but nationwide protests resulted in a unanimous vote in parliament against such a move.
MUMBAI: Indian Mujahideen’s (IM) top operative Sadiq Sheikh’s confession on his alleged role in the July 11, 2006 serial Mumbai train blasts has come as a huge embarrassment to the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad. Two years ago, the ATS had chargesheeted 13 people but Sadiq and other members of IM module were not named as conspirators.
The Indian authorities had then said that Sadiq’s claims were part of an al-Qaida ploy to mislead investigators. They had then claimed that the blasts were carried out by Simi activists and Pakistanis. [Link]
This comes after the massively embarassing ‘Noida Encounter’ episode which made them a laughing stock within their own media.
On January 25th, Indian and International Newspapers ran the headline ‘Pakistan Terrorists Shot Dead in Delhi’.
Police in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, just ten miles outside the capital, claimed to have intercepted the two suspects in a car following a tip off. A spokesman said the suspects refused to stop and opened fire, leading to the gun fight in which the two suspected militants were shot dead. They apparently ‘confessed’ to being Pakistani in their dying moments, and were also carrying their Pakistani passports, we were told.
Here’s a report in Times of India questioning the loopholes in the official story.
Meanwhile also have a look at a list of some notable fake encounters carried out by Indian security forces in recent times, courtesy of Google.
Delhi’s hot air proved doubly insipid. It did not frighten Pakistan one bit, but it scared the wits out of Washington and London, who rushed to Delhi and leaned on it. Delhi succumbed. India has lost twice over through Mumbai. It has become a laughing stock at security conferences. And it has allowed what could have been a diplomatic coup against Pakistan to become a diplomatic coup against India. This is incompetent governance, not just abysmal security.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was audacious enough to contradict India’s prime minister on Indian soil, by saying that the terrorist attack was not sponsored by the Pakistan government, and that India had better do something about the core cause, Kashmir. Instead of snubbing him, Rahul Gandhi, Congress’ proxy prime minister, took Miliband for some private tourism of poverty. British correspondents in Delhi have applauded Miliband for telling it like it is, throwing in a sentence that this is going to be Obama’s line as well.
Indian and International Newspapers ran the headline ‘Pakistan Terrorists Shot Dead in Delhi’ on January 25th.
Police in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, just ten miles outside the capital, claimed to have intercepted the two suspects in a car following a tip off. A spokesman said the suspects refused to stop and opened fire, leading to the gun fight in which the two suspected militants were shot dead. They apparently ‘confessed’ to being Pakistani in their dying moments, and were also carrying their Pakistani passports, we’re told.
The fifth and sixth days of June which remind the tragic memory of India’s Operation Blue Star launched on the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs in 1984 have come at a time when Pakistan’s armed forces have been conducting Malakand operations against the Taliban. It looks interesting to compare the phenomena and other dimensions of these operations.
