Pakistan reeling under street protests
Men, Matters and Memories

By M L Kotru

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani Army Chief-turned Chief Executive Officer-turned President has just shed one of his lesser known hats, one that was becoming a source of embarrassment. The General has resigned as patron and honorary president of the Rabita Welfare Trust, a key organ of the Rabita al-Alam al-Islam, the apex body for funding groups ostensibly engaged in charity work among poor Muslims, but which has also been in the forefront of funding terrorism in places as far away as Chechnya and Kashmir. The interesting thing is not that Gen. Musharraf, who apparently revels in the number of hats that adorn his head, dropped this one, but that he was tipped off in advance by well-wishers in Washington to do so before, Rabita was included in the U.S. hit list of 39 organisations and individuals directly involved with the spread of terrorism. And don’t you run away with the idea that Gen Musharraf did not know what the Rabita was about. He went out of his way to get the Pakistani "plenipotentiary" in Jammu and Kashmir, Syed Ali Shah Geelani of the Jammat-e-Islami and a senior Hurriyat Conference leader, elected to the board of the Rabita earlier this year. The induction of Geelani was then hailed as recognition by the cash-rich organisation of the pro-Pak jihad in Jammu and Kashmir as a freedom movement. It is not unknown that the Rabita, which routinely funds Islamic causes the world over, did divert substantial funds earlier to the Kashmiri Jihadis in the name of assorted charities. The Jihadis and the Hurriyat have been receiving substantial assistance from various Islamic organisations, some of it directly and the bulk channeled through Pakistan. That not all the money was used for intended purposes has been known in the Valley for the past few years and the many palatial buildings owned by Hurriyat and other secessionist leaders bear testimony to this. In one case even a hawala link had been established between the secessionists and sources outside the country. If memory doesn’t fail, one or two men working as conduits were arrested in this connection some years ago although the outcome of the cases remains unknown.

Any way that is only incidental to the reference to Musharraf severing his ties with Rabita. Imagine the head of a government, even an unelected one, serving as the patron of an organisation of dubious credentials. Don’t ask me how 1 dare describe the Rabita as a dubious set-up; ask Gen Pervez why he felt impelled to resign the post held by him. Ask him who tipped him off a day or two before the Americans named the organisation to sever his links with it.

It does not any more matter whether Musharraf has severed his links with the organisation or not. For the Rabita, its international networking notwithstanding, may already have shifted its bank accounts. The time Americans took to convey to Islamabad the seriousness of accusations against the Jaish-e-Mohammad, headed by Maulana Azhar Masood, whom the hijackers of the Indian Airlines aircraft the 1999 got released in Kandahar, gave it enough opportunity to wind up its shop and set up another and have the monies accruing to it transferred to the new outfit, Tehreek-e-Furqan. Thus Azhar Masood and his men do not really have to worry about cash flow. Not that they ever lacked funds. Mullah Omar, the Taliban chief and Azhar’s madrassa- mate in Karachi, had ensured, courtesy Osama bin Laden, that the Jaish was flush with funds.

Azhar Masood for his part has pledged a bloody war against India in Kashmir and, if you had any doubts about how serious the threat is, think of the warning which the Taliban issued to the US and its allies not to support India on Kashmir. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the AI Qaeda spokesman, told the Qatar- based AI Jazeera TV network that more suicide attacks were in the pipeline in the US and UK, while cautioning Muslims not to travel by air or stay in high rise buildings. For good measure he added: "These storms (of planes) will not calm until you retreat in defeat in Afghanistan, stop your assistance to the Jews in Palestine... leave the Arabian peninsula and stop your support to the Hindus against the Muslims in Kashmir". So Osama bin Laden and AI- Qaeda have identified the problem in Kashmir finally as one between Hindus and Muslims. It has an embarrassing ring to it. And one gets the feeling that the most embarrassed by the linkage must be men like the self-styled Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid in Delhi whose pro-Osama. pro-Taliban rantings of the past one week have upset more Muslims than Hindus.

Jaish-e-Mohammad changing its colours ? There is nothing surprising about it. It’s a standard terrorist practice and on that makes it difficult also to track the terrorists’ money trail, particularly when they are based in places not particularly hostile. The terrorist outfits for the most part are like corporate structures which know how to cover their tracks. It was very silly of India to have expected Washington to readily accept Indian concerns about terrorist groups like the Harkatul Mujahideen, the Jaish-e-Mohammad or Lashkar- e-Toiba. Having accorded Pakistan the status of a frontline state in its war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, the least one could expect of the Americans was to give the Pakistanis the benefit of the doubt regarding the character of these terrorist outfits. The very least they could have done-and which they did-was to forewarn Islamabad of its intentions. And, finally by the time Washington did half-heartedly declare Harkatul Mujahideen a terrorist organisation it had already transferred its assets as it had on an earlier occasion when it was similarly named functioning under the nomenclature Harkatul Ansar. In the case of Jaishe Mohammad too (never mind External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh’s ‘shabashi’ to the US on this score) the Americans allowed sufficient time to the Pakistani outfit to transform itself into Tehreek- e-Furqan. Likewise, the Indian insistence on similar restrictions being placed on Lashkar-e-Toiba and its parent organisation the Markaz Dawarul Irshad at Muridke near Lahore has been hanging fire for weeks and the Lashkar in the meantime has changed its name to Pasban-e-Ahl-e-Hadees. The accounts of this flourishing institution-the Muridke Markaz - too must have been transferred to the name of the new organisation and thus whenever, if at all, the US decides to heed Indian fears in this regard, it would have lost all its significance.

Meanwhile, Pakistan reeling under street protests against its support to the US operations against Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden has continued to play the Kashmir tune to the hilt. No opportunity has been lost by Pakistani spokesmen to rake up the issue. One gets the feeling that the well orchestrated noise is also directed at home crowds, a reminder that the unfinished business of partition may now be settled only as a by-product of the cooperation with the Americans. That may be why for days before Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, turned up in Islamabad the Pakistani spokesmen had become hysterical over Kashmir. The reference made by Powell to the issue some days back came in as a handy ploy as did the Under Secretary Armitage’s reference as well. As New Delhi sees it, while stablizing relations with Pakistan remains a priority, it can only come about once Islamabad renounces cross-border terrorism, never mind whether it calls it jihad or freedom struggle.

Is a mere ‘a’ or ‘the’ the question?.......
Yours Randomly

Dr. R. L. Bhat

How does might make the mares ramble! And, on how small a pretext! Between ‘a central issue’ and ‘the central issue’ the Secretary of state -it appears superfluous to prefix American, eh! -has left the highly tense Indian and Pakistani peoples happily guessing the true content of this newest double-speak on the vexing issue of Kashmir. India is happy that he has said it is ‘a central issue and not ‘the central issue’ over which the Pak-media and government went gaga-before Powell added the confounding or clarifying, article. And, of course, the Pakistanis are insistent that he meant what he said there upon their soil. In the meantime it is interesting to note that the Powellian visit came in the old obfuscatory way of Americans, Pakistan first and India next, days hours and utterings carefully measured, to keep the ‘balance’ kicking jauntily. One remains a valuable ally and another a valuable friend; one is lauded for calling for a ‘role for America’ and another is respected in the path of ‘bilateralism’. Meanwhile both must keep the American interest uppermost. ‘Yes, how useful can careful double-speak be’, the Secretary may be musing in his Washington suite right at this moment.

Indeed, it is very useful for confounding all around. The semantists would tell you that there is a whole hell and heaven difference between ‘a’ and ‘the’. The logicians, however, would show that it is all much ado about nothing, this hair-splitting of articles of speech. They may even call it a contradiction in terms. For didn’t Euclid show millenniums before that there was a single center to a circle? That square truth plainly tells that you cannot have many central issues in any circular relationship. There ‘a’ or ‘the’ is simply irrelevant. But in the political game shows it is this beating about the empty bush that makes for all the fun. Thus, while all the talks and tellings for the last fifty years indicate that Kashmir is a talking point between India and Pakistan, while all the treaties from Tashkent to Lahore speak of it, yet Musharraf rode away from Agra in a huff because Indian side would not agree to make a specific mention of the oft-mentioned thing.

There all hinges upon whether Kashmir is a central issue’ or the central issue’ between India and Pakistan. And all, at the same time, are aware that even a clear choice’ between which article to use, would not help in any way because still there would be the difference between India’s contention of POK being the issue in Kashmir and Pakistani insistence that it is the other Kashmir. Meanwhile, none seems to remember that there is more to the state of Janunu and Kashmir besides the ‘Kashmir that there is a lot more that is much more significant in the area, the numbers and choices there. If Kashmir is central 'a’ or ‘the’, whichever is Jammu peripheral? Is the sprawling Ladakh a non-significant part and choice, a place and people that doesn’t count? Then, there is the question whether the other Kashmiris are a non-issue because the Americans must pay Pakistan for helping it with Laden?

Of course, there is the mighty question about terrorism. Even at Agra India was ready to give Pakistan the central cake if she agreed to serving, rather not serving India the dish of terrorism. Musharraf has since learned that there is terrorism too around in Kashmir. Americans would not disagree there, cannot disagree there. Now, if the issue is terrorism, there again Kashmir is the central issue, implying the central issue of terrorism there. That would mean that ‘a’, ‘ the' or ‘central’ are all besides the issue. Probably, Powell knows it well and threw out phrases that would not mean much in the real reckoning. And yet give America a much-needed handle to lever the sub-continental neighbors well, without meaning anything substantial.

What the American meant is only known to him though a reasonable guess would be that he said what they have been saying all the time; keep jostling your heads over the issue and paving the way for our intervention. And the people here readily comply: reading their own intents into it. And misreading the American purposes for their ends. Now if that implies that all these, ‘central’ or non-central disputes are of American making that is not the intention at all. Not here in this column. For it well nigh knows that our disputes are of our own make. They, are our own inventions and like all inventions canbe used by any capable being. And we are compounding our miseries by our own perfidy. Witness the mirth on certain faces, which become all aglow on the mere suggestion that America has ‘agreed to intervene’.

There is even a body of thought that gets happy -sinfully happy, to tell the truth at the prospect that there is a possibility of America taking Kashmir as a colony unto itself! Like those proverbial cats who had gotten happy on seeing the monkey and handed over their cake for a full arbitration.

Of course, the cats did not know; they were naive alright but not raving mad. Our cats are actually happy that America would eat this cake up fully and chew out bits for them to scramble after.

Now who said that democracy came all too soon to this subcontinent, but we people through our actions and intents? They all show we have not learnt the value of freedom, or the privilege of choice, or the appreciation of our identity. Why else aould we be gleeful that others’ rights over us ‘have been accepted’, that others would be coming to lord it over us, that our identity and existence mould be decimated for good?