MILITANTS IN INDIA

ALI SUKHANVER-Date: 30 Jul 2015

On 27th July 2015, The Washington Post published a report regarding the gun-battle between the Indian security forces and the so-called militants in Gurdaspur, a border town in Indian Punjab. The report was prepared by Ashok Sharma, an Indian journalist. According to the details the militants first attacked a moving bus and then stormed into a police station. The incident took lives of more than ten innocent people including four policemen. This fight between the security forces and the ‘militants’ lasted for about 12 hours and ultimately the three alleged militants were shot dead. In this operation against the militants, the troops of the Indian Army also provided help and support to the police. The Press Trust of India also reported the same incident but with a slight variation, ‘The attackers hijacked a car and then fired at the bus and a roadside eatery before entering a police station near. Eight injured people were hospitalized, seven of them in serious condition. Police are investigating whether the militants came from the Indian portion of Kashmir which borders Punjab or from Pakistan. Rebels routinely stage attacks in Indian-held Kashmir, where they’ve been fighting since 1989 for an independent Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.’ State-run All India Radio said, ‘ The police had discovered five bombs on a railway track in the area, causing train service to be suspended, though it was unclear whether it was related to the Gurdaspur attack.’. Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) fulfilled its official responsibility very honestly by bluntly blaming Pakistan for the terrorist attack on Indian police station on Monday. UK based news Agency the News Tribe reported the claim of an officer from the Indian Intelligence Bureau with reference to the sources from the Indian media. The officer said, ‘The militants who attacked Indian police station had come from Pakistan.’ In short almost everyone from India directly or indirectly blamed Pakistan for the Gurdaspur Terror Attack. It seems they all are trying to paint this incident as another Mumbai Attack Episode. In spite of this hurricane of blames and allegations, Pakistan following its old tradition, expressed deep grief over the sad incident. Pakistan’s foreign ministry in its official statement condemned the attack by saying, ‘Pakistan reiterates its condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.’

But there is another side of ‘midnight’ too. Earlier in July, Pakistani Troops shot down an Indian Quad-copter, commonly known as spy-drone, inside the Pakistani side of LOC. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations Pakistan, the drone intruded from Jaurian Sector of the Indian Occupied Kashmir and was flying over Banchirian Sector near Bhimber in Pakistani area when it was shot down by Pakistani troops. The ISPR stressed that the spy-drone was sent for reconnaissance and secret surveillance and Pakistan has irrefutable evidence that it was flown by the Indian Army. There is a very clear connection between these two incidents; Pakistan’s shooting down of the Indian drone on 15th July and ‘militants’ attack on Gurdaspur police station on 27th July. Whatever happened there in Gurdaspur seems a desperate effort of face saving by the Indian authorities. They were facing no doubt very bitter criticism from their own nation and from the International forces on sending a spy-drone to Pakistan and just to pacify and cool-down the critics and to give the world an impression that India is in a serious trouble at the hands of Pakistan-supported ‘Militants’.

Let us cast a look at a report on the working and professional status of world’s one of the most proficient intelligence agency, the ISI. According to that report Pakistan’s spy agency ISI sought to intercept all communications passing through the country in 2013, the most significant expansion of its capacity to conduct mass surveillance till date and rivaling that of the US and UK. The report was prepared by Privacy International. The report revealed that in June 2013, the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, sought to develop a mass surveillance system by directly tapping the main fiber optic cables entering Pakistan that carried most of the nation’s network communication data. The Guardian commented upon the report that through this surveillance program ISI would rival some of the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies including those of the US and Britain. This report by the Privacy International added a lot of salt to the already injured Indian strategy of destabilizing Pakistan. It was very difficult for the Indian Authorities to ‘swallow’ ISI’s professional supremacy admitted by the International forces. So to give the world an impression that Pakistan is a supporter of the militants and ISI is not a strong and competent intelligence agency, the Indian conspirators planned to stage the Gurdaspur Attacks and earlier the Drone Drama. India must not behave in such a non-sense criminal way. This world has realized that nothing more is important than peace and friendship; conspiracies based on blame, accusations and allegations are no more welcomed and admired here. India would get nothing by going against this positively cool and comfortably calm wind of peace and tranquility.