Over the Past 14 Years 54,969 Indians Have Been Killed by Indian Militants

[tekisui]

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=151003">Capital Suggestion

Sunday, December 07, 2008
By by Dr Farrukh Saleem
Did you know that over the past 14 years 54,969 Indians have been killed by Indian militants? Incredible. That translates into roughly 4,000 Indians getting killed per year by India's own militant entities. Did you know that of the 608 districts in India at least 231 districts are "currently afflicted, at differing intensities, by various insurgent and terrorist movements?" Incredible. And, that translates into roughly 40 per cent of the entire country being afflicted with some kind of militancy.

Did you know that RDX that killed 68 Samjhauta Express passengers was stolen from the Indian army by Indian army's Lt-Col Shrikant Purohit (RDX is explosive nitroamine used by militaries around the world)? Incredible. In 1985, National Security Guards or 'Black Cats' was formed to respond to terrorist activities. Do you know where the 'Black Cats' were on the night of November 26? Well, Black Cats were on VIP security duties. Sounds just like Pakistan, doesn't it? Guess who was arrested by India's Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) after a series of bomb blasts that killed 37 people in Malegaon (290 kilometres from Mumbai). It was Indian army's Lt Col Purohit. Do you know that the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) had accepted responsibility for the 2008 Ahmedabad bombing, the 2008 Japipur bombing and the 2008 Delhi bombing?

Clearly, the incidence of corruption within the Indian army is high. Clearly, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) is in a coma, RAW was caught snoring, the Joint Intelligence Committee has been caught sleeping and the Joint Cipher Bureau was nabbed napping.

Did you know that India suffers a $100 billion trade deficit? Did you know that this year the Bombay Stock Exchange has come down from 21,000 points to around 8,000; a loss of 60 per cent? Did you know that India is heavily dependent on foreign direct investment (FDI) to fill its external deficit?

These are all facts. Three more facts: one, the Indian State of Mizoram goes to polls on December 2. Two, the Indian State of Rajasthan goes to polls on December 4. Three, India must call general elections by April 2009. Now let us move to perceptions. The overwhelming perception, not just in India but around the world, is that there was some Pakistani connection to the Mumbai tragedy. The Indian National Congress (INC) has a serious political need to retaliate. And, India's national security apparatus would want to make sure that the Mumbai mishap is not repeated. At the same time, it is not in the interest of America's 'war on terror' that Pakistan's attention is diverted from FATA to the eastern border.

(snip)

Why is there a global perception that there was some Pakistani connection to the Mumbai tragedy? We must indeed be doing something wrong. Ronald Reagan used jihadis to defeat Russia. George Bush used the Northern Alliance to bring down the Taliban. India uses the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Baloch Students Organisation. In realpolitik, countries use non-state actors to bolster their foreign policy aims. So does Pakistan. But, our ex-proxies are going out and undertaking operations that are not in our strategic interest -- and those operations are giving us a bad name the world over.

Perceptions can be more powerful than facts. Pakistan must therefore redress global perceptions -- and crackdown on all sources of such perceptions. "Will Pakistan succumb to Washington's pressure to meaningfully clamp down….." wrote Syed Saleem Shahzad, the best strategic analyst around in these most difficult of days. That in fact amounts to tightrope walking -- domestic turmoil or an international crisis. Which one would it be?

[EFerrari]

1. And yet, despite all that militancy, it took about a minute for Pakistan to be blamed.

I've no idea what is going on here except there is a dirty war in the press right now.

[tekisui]

2. Press war, for sure.

Everything is contradicted and the opposite claimed by various sides. It is a bad place to start from. Very few points of agreement, and rhetoric is not improving.

[EFerrari]

3. Rice and McToast have issued ultimatums to Pakistan.

It's like they want to blow up the place so Obama will have the biggest mess possible when he takes office -- unless we believe that they care about what happens in India which I don't for a minute. :shrug:

[rainbow4321]

7. There was already a Indian news report showing an Indian Muslim saying

"Don't confuse Indian Muslims with Pakistan Muslims"...ok...I'm thinking a more general defense of the religion as a non-violent religion would have been better instead of "Our Muslims are better than your Muslims".

But if all they are getting over their in their news is 24/7 "Pakistan did this" I guess comments like this are going to be expected.

[EFerrari]

8. There's so much finger pointing, it's like an Olympic sign language event.

Pakistan raided an LeT camp in Kashmir on Sunday in response to Rice's threats.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pakistan_cracks_down_on_LeT_camp_Report/articleshow/3806108.cms

[EFerrari]

4. Check this out, Times of India:

Hezbollah blames Sunni group for Mumbai attacks
7 Dec 2008, 0326 hrs IST, Himanshi Dhawan, TNN

New Delhi: Lebanon-based Hezbollah has blamed the Mumbai terror attack on the Sunni fundamentalist group Takfiris. In a statement which can raise eyebrows because of Hezbollah's unrelenting hostility to Israel, the Hezbollah said that the group which carried out the Mumbai strikes was of Takfiri ideological lineage.

Takfiris are ultra-fundamentalist Sunnis who view the non-Muslim world as a battleground and all non-Muslims as infidels. The statement issued by Sayyid Nawwaf al-Musawi, the international relations head of Hezbollah, is significant because it comes at a time when huge sections in Pakistan continue to deny any link of the notorious Sunni fundamentalist Lashkar to Mumbai attack, and have even blamed the crime on a wider conspiracy involving Hindus, Americans and Israelis.

Hezbollah represents Shias who have been at the receiving end of the brutality of Sunni fundamentalists groups including — al-Qaida, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Sipahe Sahaba and Afghanistan-based Taliban.

snip

The Hezbollah statement comes when a section of even the Urdu press in India seems to be coming around to suspect that the carnage was a conspiracy by Sangh Parivar to thwart the Malegaon probe into the "Hindutva terror" by eliminating Hemant Karkare of Maharashtra ATS. Karkare was leading the probe into the alleged involvement of Hindutva radicals in the Malegaon blast of September 29.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3803531,prtpage-1.cms

So, Hezbollah (Shia) is blaming unidentified Sunnis but the Urdu press is coming around to Indian Nationalists.

[tekisui]

5. Interesting....

I wonder if Hezbollah is taking the opportunity to further denigrate some of the Sunni sects?

Curiouser and curiouser. I feel like we are heading towards a cliff.

[EFerrari]

6. The gunman who is in custody is first called an "Indian operative"

here:

India names Pakistani masterminds, date plot to 07
By SAM DOLNICK, Associated Press Writer Sam Dolnick, Associated Press Writer – Thu Dec 4, 6:32 pm ET

NEW DELHI – A Pakistani militant group apparently used an Indian operative as far back as 2007 to scout targets for the elaborate plot against India's financial capital, authorities said Thursday, a blow to Indian officials who have blamed the deadly attacks entirely on Pakistani extremists.

As investigators sought to unravel the attack on Mumbai, stepping up questioning of the lone captured gunman, airports across India were put on high alert amid fresh warnings that terrorists planned to hijack an aircraft.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081204/ap_on_re_as/as_india_shooting

is now believed to be from a village in Pakistan:

Mumbai attacker's hometown is in Pakistan

Residents say the gunman caught by Indian police comes from a village in Pakistan where Lashkar-e-Taiba has been recruiting young men for 'jihad.'
By Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers

FARIDKOT, near Depalpur, Pakistan - The lone gunman captured alive by Indian police during last month's terrorist attack on Mumbai (formerly Bombay) comes from a dirt-poor village in Pakistan's southern Punjab region where a banned Islamist group has been actively recruiting young men for "jihad," according to residents of the village and official records seen by McClatchy Newspapers.

Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the dark-haired 21-year-old man arrested by Indian authorities in the first hours of the assault – in which more than 170 people died – left the village four years ago, several residents said. He would return once a year to see his small family home, and one villager recalled him talking about freeing the Muslim-dominated region of Kashmir from India.

His origins are a key to the investigation of the attack and could have a profound impact on relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, already at the brink of confrontation. Until now, the Pakistan government has repeatedly said that there was no solid evidence to back Indian accusations that the gunmen came from Pakistan.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1208/p25s01-woap.html

I'd tend to belive McClatchy over the AP.

[tekisui]

9. Check out this site:

I got this from the author of the article I posted in the OP. I emailed him and asked for verification on the numbers. He sent me this site:

http://www.satp.org/">South Asian Terrorism Portal

It has all the data on terrorism in South Asia, a wealth of information, including this Interactive Conflict Map of the region:

http://satp.org/satporgtp/southasia/images/Conflict_Map.pdf

[EFerrari]

10. Wow. Thank you! n/t

[liberalpragmatist]

11. Two different people

The gunman is believed to be Pakistani, and a Guardian report confirmed that the gunman's name is present in school records from that Pakistani town. Additionally, they report that people in the village have vouched to them that the gunman is from that village.

However, India has also detained an operative believed to be an Indian Muslim. That operative was already in custody prior to the attacks, but is believed to have given the Pakistanis logistical support.

[EFerrari]

12. Kasab is the person in both of those stories. I'm not sure who else

is in custody.

[liberalpragmatist]

13. The "Indian Operative" they reference is not Kasab

If you re-read the original story on Yahoo, it's talking about two different people. Kasab, the nabbed gunman, is named in the Yahoo story as Pakistani, just like in the CS Monitor story.

The Indian operative the story refers to is named as Ansari, and he's been in Indian custody for several months now, but is now being linked to this plot as well.

[EFerrari]

14. I finally got this straight! Thank you. n/t

[robertpaulsen]

15. Too late to R, so I'll K & B.

:kick: