San Jose, CA   India has rarely appeared on the radar of the American left. Unlike Iraq or Yugoslavia, it has not been a victim of merciless bombing or debilitating sanctions. Neither has it normally attracted the vitriolic attacks that have been directed at neighboring China. This lulled some in the American left and progressive movement into believing that the U.S. attitude toward India was benign. But when India conducted its nuclear tests in May 1998, the hostility of the U.S. rulers toward India was fully exposed. Those tests set off a sanctimonious furor in Washington, London, Tokyo and Bonn. But that hostile response of the U.S. govt (and its allies) failed to elicit much sympathy for India even among those normally expected to commiserate with targets of U.S. diplomatic wrath and sanctions. Peace activists who had historically viewed India with some sympathy joined in the chorus of disapproval. When the Clinton administration proceeded to impose a range of sanctions on India, there were hardly any dissenting voices. India's legitimate security concerns received little coverage in the U.S. press.

In an interview with Rakesh Sharma of the Deccan Herald News Service, former prime minister I.K. Gujral elaborated on India's security concerns. He pointed to the fact that Indian coastal borders were very extensive, nearly 7,000 miles long, and were situated in a heavily nuclearized area. India had repeatedly expressed its great concerns about the nuclearization of the U.S. military base on the 11 sq. mi. island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka, but the U.S. had rebuffed all requests for denuclearization. Since the Gulf War, there has been constant movement of nuclear weapons. Military maneuvers by the U.S., NATO and Australia have greatly increased in the region. Although at present this military might is targeted at Iraq, Indian defense experts are concerned about the long-term dangers to India from such high- intensity military activity so close to the nation's borders.

It should be noted that it was the threatening and coercive presence in the Bay of Bengal of the U.S. Seventh Fleet during the 1971 Bangladesh war of independence, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise, that triggered India's first nuclear test. The policy of the U.S. in the subcontinent has been essentially a continuation of British policy which has been structured to stoke divisions and discourage independent democratic movements from flourishing in the subcontinent. In 1971, the U.S. was extremely hostile to the liberation movement in Bangladesh, which had attracted massive grassroots support, but it provided unconditional backing to Pakistan's military despot at the time, General Yahya Khan ²

Crisis over Kashmir Intensifies

However, their proposed solution for a "first step" to de-escalate the Kashmir conflict is to put the onus on India promoting the idea that the Indian govt should accept President Clinton's offer to mediate between India and Pakistan , something India has steadfastly declined. They arrive at this conclusion because the "Pakistani govt is … hard-pressedd to control the radicals, who have made inroads in the army officer corps and … and have rich supporters in Saudi Arabia," and because of Pakistan's "accelterating disintegration." Kashmiri-Afghan-Chechen Connection
"Kashmiri militants operating from Afghanistan have … routinely sent arms and men to Chechnya. The support channel began in Afghanistan, led to Tajikistan and … cut across the Caspian Sea to Chechnya. Habibullah Shah;, president of a Kashmiri group called Harkat-I-Jihad- I-Islam (Movement of Islamic Jihad), said he had used the trail to dispatch … men to Chechnya … " ²

1)   Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, "As a Conflict Intensifies, It's India's Move," New York Times, Mar. 15, 2000. Daniel Benjamin is a fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. Steven Simon is asst dir. Intl Institute for Strategic Studies in London. Both served on the National Security Council staff from 1994 to 1999.
2)   Ismail Khan and Steve LeVine, "The Rebel Connection: Aid from Groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Newsweek Intl Mar. 13, 2000, JRL #4154

1)   President Clinton announced at the last minute that he would stop in Pakistan after all to meet with the new ruler, General Pervez Musharraf.
2)   Joseph Kahn, "U.S. courting India in Hopes of Restarting Trade Talks" NYTimes 1.16.00 Pakistan: Proxy for Imperialism
The U.S. support of military dictators in Pakistan is not unusual. Its Central America policy, for example, has similarly relied on autocratic comprador rulers. By and large, this policy of backing military generals in Pakistan has served American "interests" well. As a stronghold of reactionary Islamic fundamentalism, Pakistan has been a vital proxy for the U.S. to covertly undermine democratic currents in the Middle East. Of particular importance is how Pakistan played a leading role in destroying the democratic revolution in Afghanistan and destabilizing the former Soviet Union. From 1982 to 1990 the U.S. acknowledges providing Pakistan $5.4 billion mostly in covert military aid. ³ Since then, Pakistan has provided troops and trained mercernaries to fight against Iraq, Somalia, Yugoslavia and in Chechnya. Therefore, it should not surprise anyone that Pakistan could also serve as a proxy against India.
India is one of the few developing nations to have built up something of an independent economic base. Through its large state-owned industries, it has been able to develop its scientific and technological know-how to the point of launching its own satellites into space. Like China, India offers a large market which, until 1990, remained largely out of bounds for full-scale western penetration. In order to break down the large state-owned sector of the Indian economy, the U.S. has been pushing for rapid privatization and the complete dismantling of trade barriers through mechanisms like the WTO, and international lending agencies like the IMF and the World Bank. Supporting separatist tendencies is another way to undermine the strength and independence of the Indian economy.

Srinagar, India   Police in Indian Kashmir said Wednesday they had shot dead a top guerrilla of a Pakistan-based rebel group, the latest militant leader to be killed in a surge of violence in the disputed region. Jammu & Kashmir state police chief Gopal Sharma said police killed Nasir Mehmood, also known as Ansar, in an overnight gunbattle in the Dana Mazar area of Srinagar, summer capital of the state that is at the heart of decades of bitter rivalry between India & Pakistan.
"Ansar was number two in Jaish (Jaish-e-Mohammad) hierarchy and was involved in about 20 attacks on security forces," Sharma told a news conference. A spokesman for Jaish-e-Mohammad, Wali Hassan Baba, called Reuters in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and confirmed Ansar's death. But he denied he was a top- ranking official in the group.
Baba also said Ansar was killed in the custody of Indian security forces and not in a gunbattle.

Ansar's death comes a little more than 2 weeks after Indian security forces killed Gazi Baba, who they said headed the Jaish in Kashmir and is believed to be the mastermind behind a 2001 attack on Indian parliament. Indian forces also killed Tuesday a "divisional commander" of another Pakistan-based rebel group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, who they said helped plan an attack on a temple in western India that killed 28 people last year.
The Jaish & Lashkar are among a dozen militant groups fighting against Indian rule in the Muslim-majority state. Violence has soared in Kashmir in recent weeks, throwing into question tentative peace steps between India & Pakistan, which nearly went to war for a fourth time last year, over Kashmir. Police chief Sharma said the rise in violence was an attempt by the militants to "show their presence after a peaceful summer," and added that at least 171 people, mostly militants, had been killed in the first 2 weeks of September.

Elsewhere, police said 4 rebels & 2 soldiers were killed in separate gunbattles across Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of arming, training and sending guerrillas into Indian Kashmir. Pakistan denies doing so.
Ties between the nuclear-armed rivals have improved slightly in recent months but India has linked fresh talks to an end to attacks by the rebels in Kashmir.

25 killed in Kashmir gunbattles
7.10.01   AP

Both countries claim all of Jammu-Kashmir and have fought 2 wars over the region, which is divided between them. The disputed Himalayan region is expected to be the main issue in talks this weekend between Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In Tuesday's fighting, 3 guerrillas and a soldier were killed at Helenduru, 45 miles south of Srinagar, police said. A female civilian was also killed. 3 guerrillas were killed in a fight in the Baramullah district, 40 miles north of Srinagar. In 2 gunbattles in Doda, 170 miles southeast of Srinagar, two guerrillas were killed, police said. 10 more guerrillas were killed in 3 separate fights in Poonch district, 270 miles southwest of Srinagar. 5 soldiers were killed and 4 were injured in the fighting.

As President Clinton announced plans also to visit Pakistan after his trip to India in March, the hostilities in Kashmir escalated. A New York Times article by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon observed that the crisis in south Asia was deepened when "Pakistan-backed militants crossed into the Indian-held Kargil region of Kashmir, nearly sparking a full-fledged war." ¹ "In Pakistan, antipathy among ethnic groups and violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims have been aggravated by economic decay … The Pakistan govt has sought to distract its citizens from mounting domestic problems by fostering grievances over Indian control of the region [of Kashmir]. Militant Muslims have been encouraged by the army to assert Pakistan's territorial claims and bleed Indian forces, " said Benjamin and Simon. "Since 1994, the role of native Kashmiris in the insurgency has diminished as heavily armed outsiders from Pakistan and Afghanistan have stepped up the violence. Indian military observers … estimate that these outsiders now account for some 40 percent of the militants there and that almost two-thirds of them are recruited from madrassahs [Islamic fundamentalist schools] including some schools linked to the Afghan Taliban … Some of the outsiders are products of terrorist camps in Afghanistan," the authors say.

Kashmir's 'phoney war'
6.1.02   Jill McGivering BBC

Officers had already shown us the underground chambers they are building, shell-proof, bomb-proof bunkers. We went into the dark, cool depths of one, down steps cut steeply into the mud. A main room about 12 sq ft, walls packed tightly with sandbags, plastered over with earth. A single electric bulb dangled from the centre,. The officer showed me round with the enthusiasm of an estate agent; we'll put matting down here, he says, gesturing at the packed mud floor, and here, hang our battle charts & maps. I peered into the pitch blackness of a small annex, emergency sleeping quarters. This burrow is the command centre for when war breaks out.
The actual border, when we reach it, is also mud. A rampart maybe 18 ft high, criss-crossed with earth footholes leading to narrow pathways. I scramble to just below the top, and pause, bent double, ready to peer over when the general gives the sign. As I dare to stick my head up & look out, the commander's voice falls to a whisper in my ear. That's POK, he says, how Indians describe Pakistan Kashmir, and he points to metal watchtowers just a few fields away. The strong sun bouncing off the towers makes it impossible to see who's hidden inside, staring back.

There's shelling and firing every day, the general tells me. In the background a cement mixer is droning. As the troops patrol their mud shelf, village women alongside them are walking back and forth through the dust, with baskets of fresh concrete on their heads. They are working within range of Pakistani guns, building another line of defence, a high perimeter fence, mile upon mile of it designed to keep the enemy out. It all strikes me as an echo of war a century ago, troops with hard hats & binoculars in leather cases pointing machine guns through slits in mud walls. Every time I raise the thought of a nuclear strike, people look bemused or downright baffled.

We first saw the Das family as a slowly advancing cloud of dust, rolling away from the border. They were riding a tractor-trailer, mother, father and adult daughter perched on top of everything they owned. 2 sons cycled behind, brown with dust. We followed them all the way to their brother's village safely inside Indian territory. There we watched them unpack, pots and pans, an electric fan, 5 Indian beds, a handful of embroidered cushions. A young man from their home village hobbled forward on a walking frame to greet them, shot in the leg earlier this year in Pakistani fire.
Mr Das squatted in his brother's yard, now overwhelmed with uneven heaps of belongings, the complex debris of a second household. A grandma squatted nearby, youngsters crowded round. All of them seemed in no doubt. "There should be a war," said Mr Das. "War couldn't be worse than this, shifting here & there." The grandma interrupted him to agree emphatically. "For us, war's already started," he went on. "Our houses are coming under fire, people & animals are dying."

Some of the thousands of people now fleeing have nowhere to go. We visited school yards and empty commercial centres turned into makeshift relief camps. Local people stirred vast cauldrons of tea and doled it out from plastic buckets. Women squatted over improvised fires to cook Indian bread. The conditions are grim, the future uncertain , but even here everyone said they wanted war. "We need war," said one woman. "We're all fed up. Let's get this thing sorted out once and for all."
We wondered if they really understood how serious war might be. What if they used nuclear weapons? we asked. They nodded sagely. "Oh yes", said someone. "We had one of those a few weeks back, terrible." The diplomats may be talking peace, but no-one here seems very keen to listen.

This has been a significant byproduct of U.S. support for secessionist movements in Punjab, Kashmir, and the Indian northeast. Pakistan has served as a willing partner in this largely covert endeavor, providing training grounds, logistical support, intelligence information, and incendiary propaganda for armed separatists. It is important to note that it is not essential for Pakistan that these areas actually be liberated, but rather that India be "kept bleeding". Pakistan's new military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, repeatedly described as a "moderate" by the CIA and Pentagon establishment, has confirmed this. In a 1998 speech to Pakistan's elite military cadets, the General stated that the acquisition of Kashmir by Pakistan could wait. It was more important to keep the Indian army bleeding in Kashmir just as the Afghan mujahidin kept the Soviet troops bleeding in Afghanistan. He added that even if the Kashmir issue were resolved, there still could not be normal relations between India and Pakistan because Pakistan would continue to be a thorn on India's flesh by frustrating India's ambition to emerge as a major Asian power on par with China and Japan. ⁴
Considering the close relationship between General Musharraf and the Pentagon, it is more than likely that this is as much an articulation of the view of the Pentagon as of the Pakistani military. Kashmir has been the perfect battleground for this covert and indirect attack against India. Although the western media have portrayed the Kashmiri "liberation movement" as a largely indigenous movement that represents popular aspirations, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Reality of Kashmir
Contrary to most reports in the media, Jammu & Kasmir (J&K) is not a state where only Kashmiri Muslims live. It is a multiethnic, multi=religious state with 64 percent Muslims, 33 percent Hindus, and 3 percent Buddhists, Sikhs Christians and others. There are three distinct geographical regions: Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir (from where more than 90 percent of the region's minorities, i.e. 3 percent of the state's total population, have been driven out). It is also a multilingual state where several languages are spoken in addition to Kashmiri, such as Ladakhi, Balti, Dogri, Gujari, Pahari, and Punjabi. Fifteen percent of the state's Muslims live in the provinces of Jammu and Ladakh. They are non-Kashmiris and, by in large, they stand behind J&K's association with India. Of the state's 49 percent who reside in the Kashmir province, about 13 percent are Shia Muslims. Shia Muslims wish to have little, if anything, to do with Sunni-dominated Pakistan, fearing the fate that awaits them there. ⁶