| 18 November 2004 | Thursday | 05 Shawwal 1425 |
Massacre in Fallujah
Swat cinema blast
Kashmir has been described as one of the most heavily militarized regions of the world. There is hope now that the level of militarization may gradually come down in anticipation of efforts by Pakistan and India to reach a political accommodation over Kashmir and other disputes that have pitted them against one another.
India has announced that it intends to scale down its armed presence in the areas of Kashmir held by it, and while an initial reduction of 40,000 troops has been mentioned, no official figure is available.
The first 1,000 soldiers left Anantnag yesterday to coincide with Dr Manmohan Singh's first visit to Jammu and Kashmir as premier, and he has indicated that further withdrawals may take place.
He said in Srinagar: "We are working with Pakistan to put an end to senseless violence." Pakistan has already, in the proposals recently thrown open for discussion by President Pervez Musharraf, proposed demilitarization as part of a process to reduce tensions.
These are all welcome developments, even if some of them seen as mere token gestures. New Delhi is believed to have anything from 700,000 to a million troops in the occupied territory, and the withdrawals being mentioned make up only a small proportion of the total strength of Indian forces.
They have been criticized for their oppressive tactics and for widespread human rights abuses. Their conduct has indeed played a major role in precipitating the militant mood among Kashmiris that will pose a major problem when discussions get down to the nuts and bolts of a solution.
The creeping military occupation of Jammu and Kashmir is one of the many missteps, political and administrative, that have marked the policy of successive Indian governments towards the territory and led to the now almost total alienation of the people from New Delhi.
The number of Indian soldiers is seen as far outstripping the need to counter what is described as cross-border infiltration. But, however small, the first withdrawals should be seen in a constructive spirit, and the positive tone of our foreign office is entirely appropriate. This spirit of conciliatory moves and responses has to be preserved and promoted at all costs.
There will be ups and downs in the Indo-Pakistan engagement. Leaders will say one thing at one time, another at another. We have seen quite a lot of evidence of this in recent days.
But the political compulsions on either side should be recognized and respected. A psychological divide has been crossed, in that there is general recognition in both India and Pakistan that we have to move away from encrusted positions, and the options outlined by Gen Musharraf in his speech last month should be seen as part of this recognition.
The Kashmiri point of view unfortunately still remains unheard. Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq met the president in Amsterdam, but the Kashmiri leadership's contacts with the Indian government remain uncertain.
There appears to be some reluctance in New Delhi to permit Hurriyat leaders to travel to Pakistan to meet their counterparts here. Hurriyat itself remains divided. It is absolutely vital that representative Kashmiris should be involved in the process now underway; in fact, some may argue that the best way out of the continuing stalemate would be to put the onus on the Kashmiris to come up with their own proposals, and to proceed from that towards an honourable settlement.
While a public debate is welcome as long as it does not deteriorate in needless point scoring, there can be no substitute for serious, painstaking, behind-the-scene diplomacy.
Massacre in Fallujah
The shooting to death of an Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Fallujah by a US soldier might seem shocking but is not entirely unexpected given the generally brutal manner in which the US army has been conducting its operations in Iraq. The incident has come to light only because it was caught on videotape by a cameraman 'embedded' with the US forces.
Shown on television channels world wide, the videotape is illustrative of the cruel and disdainful attitude of the US military machine towards most Iraqis. While the incident is said to be under investigation, the fact remains that the eight-day assault on Fallujah must have caused many more deaths, and that all of these will be left un-investigated because they happened outside the gaze of the media.
The assault on Fallujah is also a sad reminder of how the mainstream US media is not reporting or recording things as they happened and not performing its watchdog role of questioning the nature and intensity of the American-led offensive to recapture Fallujah.
Which brings us to the other question of how many Iraqis, or even American soldiers, have died so far in the assault. US military officials say "around 1,200 insurgents" have died so far along with 39 US soldiers. Compare this to what happened in April this year when a siege by the US military, according to a website, led to the deaths of 600 Iraqis.
This time round the Americans have staged a full assault and though many residents are supposed to have left the city, it would be naive to believe that only the 'insurgents' chose to stay behind to fight.
Mosul is next on the list, but the Americans are mistaken if they think that crushing the Iraqi resistance with brute force is going to convince the Iraqis or the rest of the world that they are fighting for a just cause.
Swat cinema blast
Tuesday night's bomb blast in a cinema hall in Mingora, Swat, comes as a stark reminder that terrorists are now striking at a time and place of their own choosing. The blast took place during the screening of the midnight show and left two people dead.
Police say that among the many injured is one of the suspects who carried out the bombing. It is not clear if the act of terror was motivated by religious fanaticism or was an attempt to settle a personal score.
But, unlike the blast earlier this month in an Islamabad hotel, this was certainly not a case of electrical short-circuiting. Instead, it reminds one of a grenade attack on a wedding party, with song and dance, near Mardan last month, where it was said that the motive behind the attack was religious.
While police investigations will hopefully reveal the real motive behind the attack, the need for intelligence agencies to be more vigilant, with the aim of pre-empting terrorist acts, cannot be overstated.
As it is, sensitive installations, private business establishments and places of worship across the country are already heavily guarded. The last thing the people want is the posting of armed policemen and security guards at entertainment places and recreational spots.
The scores of intelligence agencies operating in the country need to get on the trail of those responsible for such acts of terror. The intelligence personnel, it is believed, often have a clear inkling of where such threats to society are coming from.
If it is the lack of political will on the part of the government to act on the information provided to it by the intelligence community, that comes in the way of timely preventive action. Having secured the VIPs and government installations is not enough; the common citizens must also feel safe and secure while going about their daily routine.