Pakistanis still consider India as a major threat than Taliban, AL-Qaeda

By: Johan Simith

 Islamabad, 30 Jully: Though terror groups continue to strike in their country, a majority of Pakistanis still consider India as a major threat, view America as an enemy and are far less concerned about the Taliban and the Al Qaeda.

While Pakistanis express serious concerns about the United States, they are more worried about neighbour and longtime rival India than extremist groups within Pakistan, according to the prestigious Pew Research Centre opinion poll carried out inside Pakistan.

"When asked which is the greatest threat to their country -- India, the Taliban or Al Qaeda -- slightly more than half of Pakistanis (53 per cent) choose India, compared with 23 per cent for the Taliban and just 3 per cent for the Al Qaeda," it said.

However, despite the deep-seated tensions between India and Pakistan, most Pakistanis want better ties with India.

Roughly 72 per cent said it is important for relations with India to improve and about 75 per cent support increased trade with India and further talks between the two rivals.

In spite of pumping in billions of dollars in economic and military aid, the United States' image in Pakistan was at its lowest ever among the 22 nations included in the poll. Fifty-nine per cent of the respondents described America as an enemy and only eight per cent trusted President Barack Obama.

Pakistanis perceived little threat from the Taliban and the Al Qaeda and only 25 per cent of the people said it would be bad for Islamabad if Taliban takes over Afghanistan again.

While 18 per cent said it would be good for Pakistan, 57 per cent were not concerned.

State Department spokesman P J Crowley conceded that there is a huge trust deficit between the US and Pakistan.

"We understand that there's a deficit in trust in our relationship. There are those in Pakistan who recall and sense that they were abandoned by the US and the international community, going back 20 years or more," he said.

Crowley said the US has worked hard in recent months to try to turn this relationship around.

"I think we recognise that this was not going to occur overnight. We have tried to communicate forcefully to not only the government, but also to the people directly, that the US is committed to the future of Pakistan," he said.

"We are, in fact, a partner. I think we're not surprised that people want to see fruits of this partnership; that's exactly what we're trying to do. It goes back to what the (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) announced in Islamabad last week -- concrete projects that -- on energy, on health, on education -- that will create tangible results so the people of Pakistan can see it. And when they see it, then we would expect to see those poll numbers prospectively improve," he said. (Writer-South Asia)

The Killing of Shiekh Abdul Aziz and First Kashmir-Wide Curfew in 19 Years

Saheed-e-Azemat Sheikh Abdul Aziz and relatives of missing and imprisoned people participate in a protest against Human Rights violations in Srinagar, summer capital of  Kashmir . The people fear that their missing relatives might have been killed and buried in hundreds of recently discovered unmarked graves in Northern Kashmir. Amnesty International too has urged India to launch an urgent inquiry into nearly 1,000 unmarked graves found during the past two years by Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies. / Javed Dar

Srinagar, Jully 29: The Killing of Shiekh Abdul Aziz and First Kashmir-Wide Curfew in 19 Years

On August 11, 2008, about 300,000 people from across  Kashmir, along with trucks loaded with fruit, began marching toward several points on the 778-kilometer Line of Control to cross over into the Pakistani side of Kashmir, in their bid to reach Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir. Indian security forces opened fire at the marchers at several places to break up their protests, killing 10, including senior Pro-pakistani Kashmiri leader (commonly known as Baba-e-Jehad-i-Kashmir) Sheikh Abdul Aziz who was also a prominent member of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and was also a member of the co-ordination committee of ethnic and religious nationalities struggling for right to self-determination under the chairmanship of Justice Ajit Singh Bains formed in Delhi on March 23, 2008.  “Sheikh Aziz was a friend of Sikhs and supporter of Sikh cause for independence,” Over 1,000 people were arrested, and hundreds of wounded were hospitalized at different hospitals across the Kashmir valley. As the protests continued, over 3000 truckloads of fruit were destroyed, allegedly by Indian security forces.

Protests calling for freedom from India continued through August and September in different parts of  Kashmir, with dozens killed and hundreds injured. However, a government-brokered agreement with the Hindu protesters of the Jammu region was reached, under which the land allotment to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which had been cancelled due to protests by Kashmiri Muslims, was revived in a different form.

The Jammu and Kashmir government, with the understanding of some Muslim and Hindu leaders, leased the land to the SASB for the limited pilgrimage season, giving them no proprietary or title rights. The Hindu leaders called off their stir after signing the lease agreement. The agreement said: "The Shrine Board  may use the land for erecting temporary prefabricated accommodation and toilet facilities and for shopkeepers to set up shops."  This second reversal by the government in its decision to allocate the land to the Hindu shrine has been rejected by the Kashmiri leaders, fuelling a continuation of anti-India protests. The demonstrations are the biggest since 11th august, 2008 when violent anti-India protests killed about 72 Kashmiri  muslims. (Writer-South Asia)

UN expresses concern over situation in Kashmi

UNITED NATIONS, July 29: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the “prevailing security situation in Indian-administered Kashmir over the past month” and asked India and Pakistan to make renewed efforts to address outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, his spokes-person said the secretary- general “calls on all concerned to exercise utmost restraint and address problems peacefully” and he “encouraged both sides to rekindle the spirit of composite dialogue which was initiated in 2004”.

The statement said: “The Secretary-General welcomes the recent resumption of foreign minister-level talks between India and Pakistan.

“He encourages both sides to rekindle the spirit of the composite dialogue, which was initiated in 2004 and had made encouraging progress on some important confidence-building measures, and to make renewed efforts to address outstanding issues, including on Jammu and Kashmir.

Ruling out one again withdrawal of its observer mission in India, Pakistan, United Nation’s Secretary General  said the two countries should continue the composite dialogue process to maintain peace in the subcontinent. "India and Pakistan are two important countries in the subcontinent and they should continue to improve their relations through dialogue and cooperation," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters here. (Writer-South Asia)

Human rights excesses in disputed Kashmir highlighted in London

London, July 28: Dr Angana Chatterji, co-convenor of the International Peoples Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Jammu and Kashmir narrated human rights excesses in Occupied Kashmir and called for improving the monitoring of humanitarian situation in the valley.

Dr Angana Chatterji, while addressing a composite gathering at Kashmir Centre London, said that the disturbing concept of zero tolerance for non-violent dissent evolved round fear, surveillance of the ordinary Kashmiri irrespective of age or gender, discipline and punishment. 

This has proved to be a sustained and widespread offensive with mass and extra judicial killings in Kashmir by the military and paramilitary institutions as brought out in evidence in the report ‘Buried Evidence’ by the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian administered Kashmir, she added.

Dr Chatterji reported that the disproportionate number of special forces in the occupied territory gave the impression that the armed forces were more powerful than the occupation authorities and that the reality in Kashmir was one of militarised controls and that Kashmir was not a dispute but a conflict zone.

She stressed the importance of cultivating alliances with credible institutions and organisations, adding these needed to be formed and developed as there was at present no monitoring was going on in Jammu and Kashmir, therefore, no sustained visibility.

Dr Chatterji emphasised that there needed to be a sustained outcry from the international media and that the international community needed to play a proactive role in establishing alliances with organisations, which were seen to be acceptable.

Representatives from Amnesty International, the Economist, Conciliation Resources, Asian Affairs and community activists also spoke on the occasion.

At the end, the Executive Director of Kashmir Centre London, Professor Nazir Ahmad Shawl presented his book ‘Speaking Silence’ to her.(Writer-South Asia)