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India-Pakistan
Huge anti-Pak protests in PoK, violence erupts
2009-10-24
Islamabad, Oct 24:

This is from an Indian publication, naturally. We won't see it appearing in the Pakistainian press unless there are a significant number of casualties, which'll be the fault of RAW catspaws. But it looks like even though the actual Pandits have been chased out, there still remains a residuum of Kashmir local pride, if not actual nationalism. Presumably it's something the Indos will be nurturing and even financing, and rightly so. It'll tend to grow the more India develops and leaves Pakistain in the Islamic dust.

Kashmir's a complicated subject, possibly beyond my increasingly feeble understanding. But it doesn't take much in the way of rocket surgery to consider disguising the Mighty Pak Army as "uncontrollable" tribals and unleashing them on J&K -- which woulda required a cross-country trek and a fragile supply chain -- as a really cheap and cynical operation. About on the level we've come to expect from the Pakistainian government, in fact.
Kashmiris from all walks of life observed a "Black Day" in Pakistan Kashmir, including capital Muzaffarabad, on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the invasion of the area by Pakistani army men disguised as tribesmen from the North West Frontier of Province (NWFP), known as the Lashkars.

A large number of people, carrying black flags and protest placards, participated in demonstrations held in various parts of Pakistan Kashmir.

Among the participants were Arif Shahid, the general secretary of the All Party National Alliance (APNA), Baltistan National Front leader Nawaz Khan Naji and Abdul Hamid Khan, the Chairman of Balawaristan National Front, besides others.

So vociferous were the protests by the almost 800-odd participants, that security forces deployed to ensure maintenance of law and order, had to use teargas shells and firing in the air to disperse them.
Posted by:john frum

#4  That should be article 370.

371 is a similar article which applies to the North East of India. It protects the tribal people there, with their tradition of communal land ownership, from the timber and mining barons who would have otherwise moved into the NE.
Posted by: john frum   2009-10-24 16:00  

#3  The tactic of Pak soldiers in mufti being passed off as tribals has been used several times.

In 1947, Pak officers led a rag tag militia of Pashtuns to seize Kashmir from the Maharajah, who was dithering over Lord Mountbatten's choice of joining India or joining Pakistan.

The tribals did much looting on the way and stopped to abduct several Catholic nuns from a convent they ransacked. While they were busy indulging in looting and rape, the Indians grabbed every transport they could find and airlifted their army into Kashmir.

In 1965 there was Operation Gibralter. Pak soldiers pretending to be tribals infiltrated across the LOC. The local Kashmiri shepherds alerted the Indian army. Soon Indian tanks were moving across the international border and heading for Lahore.

In 1999, the SSG commandos and Northern Light Infantry, in the garb of 'mujahideen' seized several unoccupied posts from where they could cut off the Indian national highway and force a surrender of the Indian garrison. A local Kashmiri shepherd alerted the Indian army. Soon hundreds of artillery pieces were blasting those mountaintop posts and Gurhka and Naga soldiers chopping off heads at 12000 ft.

Pakistan even refused to take back their dead, disavowing them. One Pakistani father, a veteran of the British Indian Army in WW2 approached the Indian HQ in Delhi to get back the body of his son.

Pakistan has given land in Kashmir to Army veterans from the Punjab. These settlers are not welcome by the locals.

In contrast, article 371 of the Indian constitution protects Kashmir. No law passed by the Indian parliament is valid in Kashmir unless also passed by the Kashmir legislature. No non-Kashmiri Indian citizen may buy or own land in Kashmir. Kashmiri MPs sit in the Indian parliament. Many are Federal ministers. One, Nehru, was a Prime Minister. Representation without Taxation!
Posted by: john frum   2009-10-24 15:49  

#2  Cynical the Paks always can do. Cheap is a must since they barely have two sticks to rub together, especially after President Ten-Percent gets his. You'll not often see 'expensive and cynical' together in Pak-land ...
Posted by: Steve White   2009-10-24 15:44  

#1  We need to see more of this!
Posted by: Ebbuper Ghibelline7533   2009-10-24 12:15  

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