Mankind in danger

M L Gupta
Jews trace their descent from Abraham a Shephered whose grandson Jacob founded Israel.  He had twelve sons after whom Hebrew’s twelve tribes are known. The tribes living in north Israel were conquered around 700 B.C. by Assyrian which resulted in their migration. The Babylonians conquered Southern Israel in 587 B.C and took many of jews as slaves. In 63 B.C Roman conquered jerusalem which resulted in displacement of many other jews including Jesus’s family who settled in nearby Galilee. Jesus was crucified in 30 A.D by Romans but later they accepted his gopels and after him created world’s largest religion of Christianity.
In 1917 Palestine was captured by Britishers from Turkey who issued Balfour declaration in support of Jew’s home land in Palestine. However Israel was reborn in 1948 after great deal of sufferings of Jews particularly in World War-II (1939-45) at the hands of Nazis under Adolf Hitler when about six Millions of them were killed subjected to either firing squads or concentration camps. Arab Nations were against creation of Israel and kept them under constant conflict giving birth to many militant groups.
An other development took place on April 27, 1978 when in Afghanistan Soviet trained Army officers over threw monarchy and appointed Noor Mohammad Taraki as President of democratic Govt. The communist led PDPA Govt. introduced sweeping reforms which affected hegemony of tribal society under warlords, Muslim clergy and money lenders. The latter rebelled against the democratic setup aided and abetted by Pakistan then under Muslim Zealot Gen. Zia-ul-Haq who had come to power by a coup against democratic govt. The latter also encouraged Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan to increase Islamic schools called Madrasas indoctrinating youths for Jehad (holy war) and Islamic way of Life. These Madrasas provided free boarding and a lodging and therefore attracted in large number not only children of poor Pakistanis but also those of Afghan refugees.
Pakistan’s army intelligence wing I.S.I. recruited these students (Talibans), trained them in various camps to fight along with Afghan rebels against the PDPA regime. Under an agreement with PDPA regime Soviet Union moved on December 25, 1979 its forces to defend Afghan Govt. against Pakistan aided and abetted rebellion of warlords, Muslim clergy & money lenders. U.S.A & its western allies in cold war with Soviet Union not only poured in billions of U.S.$ in aid of Afghan rebels but also provided them arms and ammunition including 400 stinger missiles through Pakistan. They also got an appeal issued from rebel leader Hekmatyar in the name of Muslim world over to join their fight against Soviet Union. This attracted thousands of Muslim volunteers some of them hard core militants of Arab World. Encouraged by prince Turki intelligence chief of Saudi Arabia, Osama Bin Laden a Civil Engineer by Profession and Son of Saudi Billionaire Late Mohammad Bin Laden was assigned the task of Coordination with I.S.I the training of foreign volunteers beside raising funds and network for their recruitment.
In 1987 he established Al-Qaeda along with hard core militants of Egyptian Islamic Jehad. Soon after Soviet with drew its forces in 1989 from Afghanistan Bin Laden turned anti American when king Fahd of Saudi Arabia invited in 1990 U.S. forces in his country against possible attack from Iraq which had occupied Kuwait.
Radicalised under  Sudanese religious leader Hassan Turabi, Osama engineered various attacks against U.S. interests including September 11, 2001 on World Trade Centre and Pentagon in which 3000 people were killed. America not only declared war against terror but soon launched air raids on Afghanistan then ruled by Taliban leader Maulvi Omar who had refused to hand over Osama Bin Laden. Osama who had also married Omar’s daughter was later tracked down to Pakistan and killed by Americans. Al Qaeda then with its hard core cadre of 6000 & 70000 Muslim volunteers trained in his camps as well militant out fits of Pakistan like Hafeez Sayeed’s Lashkar-e-Toiba & other have become a potential danger for mankind world over beside India which is bleeding since 1989. An other potential danger to man kind has come from global warming & climate change which are causing unseasonal rains and floods. The cause for this is mainly due to destabilizing of ecological balance on account of increased population & reduced forest cover. In pre-industrial era the world population was below one billion & now it is seven billion.
The increase in population has been constantly putting pressure on land for increased housing, industrial activities and infrastructure at the cost of forest & agriculture.  The increased population’s demands have also given rise to carbon emitting thermal power stations, transport, generators etc. The unseasonal rains and floods may be a reminder of great floods and Nova’s arc. Thus one child norm should uniformly be adopted throughout the world for atleast 60 years whereafter it can be stabilized at two child norm.
(The author is former M D JK Minerals Ltd Jammu)