For the past 63 years – the life span of most countries of this region, South Asia has remained in a state of tension. The eight SAARC countries* that make up this geopolitically sensitive region, where a major chunk of the humanity lives, do not enjoy the kind of friendly and harmonious relationship with each other, as one would have expected. This despite efforts of some well meaning leaders like General Irshad, former Bangladeshi president, who tried to bring the people and the countries together on a single platform of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on the pattern of the European Union to help develop the region into a major economic and political bloc.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established in December 1985 and, according to wikipedia: is the largest regional organization in the world by population, covering approximately 1.47 billion people.
The first seven SAARC countries were enthusiastic about the concept and keen for it to succeed. Conscious that this model of cooperation between countries was important for their progress and deliverance from pervasive poverty, they tried to make it work but in the end it simply died.
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.
The American NGO that works for US government has almost half of its international vacancies in Pakistan.
Its director in Peshawar has been found contacting anti-Pakistan elements in the Pak-Afghan border area.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Three weeks ago a group of concerned Pakistani citizens in Peshawar wrote to the federal interior ministry to complain about the suspicious activities of a group of shadowy Americans in a rented house in their neighborhood, the upscale University Town area of Peshawar.
A NGO calling itself Creative Associates International, Inc. leased the house. CAII, as it is known by its acronym, is a Washington DC-based private firm. According to its Web site, the company describes itself as “a privately-owned non-governmental organization that addresses urgent challenges facing societies today … Creative views change as an opportunity to improve, transform and renew …”
The description makes no sense. It is more or less a perfect cover for the American NGO’s real work: espionage.
The incorporated NGO is more of a humanitarian front that alternates sometimes for undercover US intelligence operations in critical regions, including Angola, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Gaza, and Pakistan. Of the 36 new job openings, the company’s Web site shows that half of them are in Pakistan today. Pakistan is also at the heart of the now combined desperate effort by the White House-military-CIA to avert a looming American defeat in Afghanistan by shifting the war to its next-door neighbor.
In Peshawar, CAII, opened an office to work on projects in the nearby tribal agencies of Pakistan. All of these projects, interestingly, are linked to the US government. CAII’s other projects outside Pakistan are also linked to the US government. In short, this NGO is not an NGO. It is closely linked to the US government.
The Americans do not want Pakistanis to capture Baitullah Mehsud alive, and attempting to eliminate him using air-strikes will not be easy since Pakistan Army is advancing towards him already. They will either take him out before he is captured, or he will mysteriously disappear only to re-emerge later at a different location. The U.S. military has moved troops near Mehsud’s area under the pretext of finding Osama or Mullah Omar. This is a deception. They have been saying Osama is in Pakistan for years. Why haven’t they acted earlier? This American move has something to do with Pakistani military’s march to destroy Mehsud and his proxy militia. We already know that terrorists are using American weapons to kill us while pretending to be Taliban. The Pakistani military better watch out what our ally is up to this time.
The Indian-backed terrorism and insurgency in Sri Lanka has finally been defeated.
Like the Pakistani military, the Sri Lankans have come to realize that this is not a civil war. This is foreign-backed trouble. The most interesting part of Indian-backed terrorism in Sri Lanka is that it was quite clear where the money, arms and support was coming from. The terrorists were cornered in a tip of the island closest to the southern part of India. No matter how hard the Sri Lankan military pounded these terrorists, they would come back the next day with more weapons. A couple of times the terrorists returned with small planes!
ISLAMABAD: The March 3 attack at the Liberty Chowk in Lahore, targeting the Sri Lankan cricket team, is believed to be a joint operation of the RAW and an influential international spy agency, marked with exceptional sophistication that is simply beyond the reach of local elements, sources reveal.
LAHORE: Authorities in Pakistan confirmed this morning to be in possession of credible evidence implicating Indian government and agencies in the March 3rd attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore.
The Lahore Police announced having information about those responsible for the assault in a press conference.
“With the help of other intelligence agencies there has been considerable progress in this case. One thing is for sure that there is an Indian hand behind the attack,” Lahore Police Chief Pervez Rathore told reporters here.
“I must tell you that there is credible evidence of Indian involvement in the attack,” he said.
Police sources also confirmed the arrest of an Indian intelligence operative in Rawalipindi and recovered important documents from his posession including maps of targets in major cities. The information provided by the arrested Indian national has already led to at least five further arrests.
Pakistan’s leading English Daily DAWN has confirmed PKKH’s Report from March 4th that the weapons recovered in the immediate aftermath of the Lahore Attacks on Sri Lankan Cricket Team are of Indian origin.
According to a forensic report, four rocket-launchers and nine explosives seized from the scene are factory-made and used by Indian forces. Full Report
The publication of the Jain Commission Report for the Indian Government has confirmed what many in South Asia had suspected all along: That Indian intelligence services Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has been fomenting violent destabilisation within the domestic polities of the South Asian states. This helps to explain why dissenting political movements in countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan – as well as in the other South Asian states – suddenly became more militant and violent in their political behaviour. Why did India feel the need to get into this form of activity within its neighbouring states? The answer to that question lies in understanding India’s power ambitions.
Seeking regional hegemony and recognition as a major global actor since independence, India initially relied on military force to expand its borders as well as intimidate its neighbours into accepting Indian diktat. India’s military moves into Kashmir and Goa emboldened it enough to get embroiled in a military encounter with China in 1962. The ensuing defeat at the hands of the Chinese as well as the stalemated war with Pakistan in 1965 made India rethink its overt military tactics in order to assert its hegemony regionally.
Thus it shifted its focus vis-a-vis South Asian states and China (as reflected in the refuge given to the Tibetan dissidents and the Dalai Lama) to covert interventions aimed at destabilising the domestic polities of its neighbours. It was for this purpose that RAW was created in 1968. The extent of RAW terrorist activities in neighbouring South Asian states is only now formally coming to light with the publication of the Jain Commission Report which establishes a clear link between the Indian government and the LTTE terrorists in Sri Lanka which eventually led to the murder of Rajiv Gandhi.
However, RAW began its activities much earlier in what was then East Pakistan. The short-sightedness and neglect of Bengali sensitivities by successive Pakistani governments since independence provided the perfect milieu for RAW to lay the seeds for wrecking Pakistan from within.
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan papers have slammed the tendency in some quarters to use the 3/3 terrorist outrage against Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, to demonise Pakistan and make it an international outcaste.
Recalling Pakistan’s role in helping Colombo maintain the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka in the face of Tamil Tiger separatism, ‘The Island’ said that but for Pakistan’s support for Sri Lanka’s war on terror, perhaps there would have been no country for Mahela Jayawardene and others to represent in international cricket. It was because Pakistan had rushed Multi-Barrel Rocket Launchers that the Sri Lankan army was able to break the siege of Jaffna by the LTTE in 2002, the paper said.
The Pakistani intelligence report released by The News confirms two things: It is time for Pakistan to take punitive measures against India and stop allowing India the use of Pakistani transit and air routes pending the Lahore probe and, two, that the U.S.-installed government in Islamabad facilitated the attack on the Sri Lankan team first by ignoring the intelligence warnings and then by trying to protect India after the attack. Considering that Pakistan is supporting Sri Lanka against the Indian-sponsored insurgency in that country, the actions by the PPP government raise disturbing questions.
Dishonest reporting is one thing. Times of India – apparently India’s largest and most ‘respected’ newspaper – has taken things to a whole new level.
Times of India : “Sources said on January 22, Pakistan’s security services were alerted by intelligence inputs that the visiting Sri Lankan team could come under jihadi attack. “
The ‘intelligence input’ mentioned above is an investigative report prepared by the Additional Inspector General of the Crime Investigation Division, Punjab on 22nd January 2009 outlining the potential threat to the Sri Lankan team from India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) – and not ‘jihadis’.
Here’s a scanned copy of the report:
Watch VIDEO: Ansar Abbasi reveals investigative report from January 22nd warning against possible attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket Team by India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW)
We call for Times of India to immediately issue an apology and print a copy of the actual report by the Additional Inspector General of the Crime Investigation Division, Punjab on 22nd January 2009 – explicitly mentioning the threat to Sri Lankan cricket team from Indian intelligence services. Although, we’re not holding our breath.
LAHORE – Sources have informed PKKH that weapons recovered in the aftermath of the Lahore attacks on Sri Lankan cricketers include a Russian made RPG-22 (a one-shot disposable anti-tank rocket launcher) and an 84 mm Carl-Gustaf Recoilless Rifle Launcher.
Both these weapons are standard Indian Army issuance.
The RPGs used by Pakistani / Afghan militants is the soviet era RPG-7 – the most widely distributed and used RPG in the world.
A secret investigative report has just surfaced prepared by the Additional Inspector General of the Crime Investigation Division, Punjab on 22nd January 2009 outlining the potential threat to the Sri Lankan team. It outlines very briefly the following four points
It has reliably been learnt that “RAW” (Indian Intelligence Agency) has assigned its agents the task to target Sri Lankan Cricket Team during its current visit to Lahore,especially while traveling between the hotel and stadium or at the hotel during their stay
It is evident that RAW intends to show Pakistan as a security risk state for sports events particularly when European and India teams have already postponed their proposed visits considering it a high security risk to visit Pakistan.
RAW has also collected photographs of leaders of Jamaat-ud-Daawa (Proscribed) and its establishment to target them
Extreme vigilance and heightened security arrangements indicated
“The truth is we owe our lives to the courageous Mohammad Khalil, the driver. I will forever be grateful to him. The tyres of the bus had been shot out and he was in grave personal danger, exposed to gunfire at the front of the bus. But he was hell-bent on getting us to safety and, somehow, he got us moving again. Had Khalil not acted with such courage and presence of mind most of us would have been killed.
Standing still next to the roundabout we were sitting ducks for the 12 gunmen. We only found out afterwards that a rocket launcher just missed us as we began moving and turned for the stadium gates, the rocket blowing up an electricity pylon. Khalil saw a hand grenade tossed at us that failed to explode. Someone must have been looking over us because right now it seems a miracle we survived. ”
Terror struck at the heart of cricket when masked gunmen attacked the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Sources within the security establishment had been aware of an imminent attack being planned by Research & Analysis Wing – India’s premier intelligence agency.
“We had been picking up chatter and had received important information from the R&AW terrorists arrested in recent weeks. An attack was imminent. We had prepared for any eventuality and Alhamdolillah we were able to avert a major catastrophe. The security team fought bravely”, said a source on condition of anonymity.
Five cricketers, including Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, and his deputy Kumar Sangakkara, received minor injuries. The attack left five security men dead.
Sports producer Gavin Scovell said security teams responded quickly.
“The guards were brilliant. They weren’t panicking. They were very calm,” Scovell said. “It must have been a terrifying experience, but they handled it well.”
Indian politicians and diplomats have been campaigning hard to have Pakistan declared a terrorist state, in recent weeks. The Indian Cricket Board also made its displeasure known at Sri Lanka’s decision to tour Pakistan, after India pulled out of the tour in the wake of Mumbai attacks.
The attack in Lahore is designed to damage the strong relations Pakistan shares with Sri Lanka. Pakistan has excellent relations with Sri Lanka and has given training and supplied arms to the Sri Lankan military fighting the Indian-backed Tamil Tiger rebels.
The attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers comes just a day after Sri Lankan state media published photographs and videos of Indian ministers including MDMK chief Vaiko, with LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran.
Kamran Khan: India Behind Lahore Attack
Pakistan’s Munich: The Enemy’s Fingerprints
The Indian fingerprints in the attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket Team cannot be ignored. New Delhi has been at war with both Islamabad and Colombo for decades. Hitting both in one place is a masterstroke. Indian military and its agents should brace for retaliation. Read Full Article | Ahmed Quraishi
Zaid Hamid on the Lahore Attack on Sri Lankan Cricketers
Who could be involved in Lahore attach on Sri Lankan Cricket team? Who is attacking our long standing friends? What could be the intentions behind it? Is it regional game? Are there any links with Mumbai Attack? and much more… LISTEN
Minister of State Nabil Ahmed Gabol said India is behind the attack on Sri Lanka’s cricket team in Lahore on Tuesday, saying the attackers had crossed into Pakistan from India.
“The evidence which we have got shows that these terrorists entered from across the border from India,” Gabol told Geo News.
“This was a conspiracy to defame Pakistan internationally. This incident took place in reaction to 26/11,” he said. It is a declaration of open war on Pakistan by India,” said the minister.
If you enjoy following the wider geo-strategic game unfolding in our region, you must have heard this news. India’s desire for expanding its control over the Indian ocean received a setback in Sri Lanka with the Lankan military’s decisive move against the LTTE, which is an Indian proxy terrorist militia. This is a game that involves Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United States.
Read this paper by Farzana Shah as she goes behind the news to give you an insider report of what this news means from the Pakistani perspective.
Their ambition for Akhand Bharat burns as strongly as ever. It is this desire to rule the whole of Indian subcontinent and to turn Indian Ocean into Indian lake which makes the Indian ruling elite suffer from megalomania and arrogance. Governed by superiority complex and hegemonic ambitions, their behaviour with neighbours is marked by chauvinism, belligerence and irrationalism.
