Memories of another day

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Anjum Niaz The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting The causes of events are even more interesting than the events themselves – Cicero In a room forcibly browned by black paper on the windowpanes we huddled together waiting for the sirens to go off. The flickering candles cast a sinister light. Each night, death visited as we smothered our racing hearts expecting a direct hit from the Indian war planes furiously emptying out their bellies of bombs meant to annihilate. We had grown accustomed to darkness at night; had memorized the sound and fury of the enemy planes; learnt the crackle of anti-aircraft guns and accepted death should it suddenly strike. Out of the blue one bright afternoon, an enemy aircraft suddenly appeared. It had dodged our radars. The sirens had no time to warn us. A five-year old clad in bright red sweater played outside in the garden while we sat sunning ourselves in the deep verandah. Like a vulture the plane encircled the little boy. It flew so low that one could almost see the pilot. He too must have spotted the kid. We froze with fear as the grandfather lunged outside to drag the boy in. The next second we heard loud strafing. The plywood factory next door had been hit and labourers sitting out eating lunch lay dead on the ground. Three decades and eight years ago today we lost half of our country. Enough has been written about the role of generals Yahya, Tikka Khan and ‘Tiger’ Niazi. Enough has been said about the role of Z A Bhutto. The Hamoodur Rehman Report traces the darkest days in our history. It mentions widespread atrocities including abuse of power by our civilians and army. It speaks of the killing fields set up by West Pakistanis; of rape and loot. The inebriation of some army officers, an instance of a brigadier "entertaining" women while his troops got shelled by Indian troops is exposed. The Report was so explosive that it had to be kept secret from the public for years. I lived in Jhelum. It had a sizeable number of army families living in the cantonment along River Jhelum. Some of the civilian wives would get together with the army wives whose husbands were fighting on the war fronts. We made comfort packages for the soldiers defending us. After the war ended, we heard of many casualties of people one knew. Going for condolences to their homes became a ritual that bleak December when cries of despair greeted us everywhere. Seventeen years later, I went to Dhaka. It was December 16 and the Bangladeshis were celebrating their ‘Day of Liberation.’ Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was the leader of the opposition then. She was just 39 years old. I interviewed her in her office at the grand Parliament House. Sitting under a huge portrait of her father Sheikh Mujib, the sari-clad Hasina with hazel eyes, the colour of her late father’s, looked small and vulnerable then. But the anti-Pakistan venom was clearly visible that mild December morning. It stemmed more from the shabby treatment we gave to her father than the 1971 war. Later she arranged for me to visit her father’s home in Dhanmandi, converted into a museum. Sitting on a mantelpiece was a photo of Mujib addressing a huge gathering with the words: "This time our struggle is for emancipation (from Pakistan); it’s for independence." This summer in Islamabad I met a retired officer who had a secret to share. When the PPP swept the polls in 1970 and the battle for power between Sheikh Mujib and Bhutto raged, a team of senior officers was sent from Rawalpindi to Dhaka on a secret mission. They were to fly the incarcerated Mujib back to Pindi with clear instructions: eliminate Mujib should India intercept their flight. "Under no condition should Indians get Mujib alive," were the strict orders given by the GHQ. The officer met Mujib in jail at Dhaka. "Do me a favour" Mujib told him one day, "arrange a 30 minute meeting between Bhutto, Yahya and myself. Let the three of us debate as to who is breaking up Pakistan. You be the judge." Mujib and the officer had bonded and trusted each other. "So who would you have pronounced guilty?" I asked the officer. Without batting an eyelid, he said it was not Mujib but Bhutto and Yahya who inflamed the fires of 1971 war that led to the breakup of Pakistan! Till today Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has neither forgotten nor forgiven Pakistan for the ill treatment towards her father nor the alleged war crimes committed by our army. Bangladesh has demanded an apology. Our Foreign Office has rejected the demand saying that it has already regretted the incidents. But Bangladesh has approached the UN for trial of what it calls the ‘1971 war criminals.’ How is our present enemy, the Taliban, different from the Mukti Bahini (freedomfighters) who struck terror by kidnapping West Pakistani officers and torturing them to death. It was gruesome. I know of a deputy commissioner kidnapped from his home near Dhaka, taken to the jungle and made to dig his grave. He was about to be killed when the hand of God saved him. But the trauma cost him his life. Six years later he died of a massive heart attack in Lahore. Captain K who is fighting the Taliban in the tribal area sends me an email. He reads the newspapers, but he says "I don’t know much about politics, still I’m ashamed to know what all is happening in our country," he writes. "Pakistan is facing a crisis but our leadership’s failure to address the issues is sad. Being a Pakistani and a soldier I’m ready to give my life for my country but our leaders are not even ready to give up their power. It’s indeed really embarrassing to see them divided on the issues of national security. Pakistan in unlucky to have today’s leadership. I have received many injuries in this operation but even then I’m committed to do my duty till the last blood in my body. We should learn lessons from our past and try to improve upon issues for the greatest interest of our nation. But please tell me what our future is?" He well knows the future is not bright. Pakistan has been badly let down by its military and civilian rulers in the past. The hunger for power is the real killer. "You can give up women; you can give up alcohol; you can give up smoking; you can give up gambling, but the one addiction you can never give up is power. It’s a devi that sits on your lap!" the officer who accompanied the imprisoned Mujib back to Pindi said of Z A Bhutto. "The Mughal emperors imprisoned/killed their fathers/brothers and all other male relatives competing for the throne." Two wars, one dismemberment and now the military operation. Where is the end? Email: aniaz@fas.harvard.edu  & www.anjumniaz.com

Lives at airport threatened by bogus bomb detectors

By Hasan Abdullah
Tuesday, 26 Jan, 2010

An Airport Security Force officer with explosive detector ADE-651 patrols Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad. Pakistan’s Airport Security Force continues to use ADE-651 despite strong warnings from the British govt and scientists. – AP/File photo

Briton arrested for fraud over bomb detectors

KARACHI: The lives of thousands of passengers are at stake owing to a major security flaw at the country’s busiest airport, technical experts have warned.

The Airport Security Force is continuing to use a bomb detector at the Jinnah International Airport despite the fact that British government and scientists have declared the device “not suitable for bomb detection”.
The device known as ADE-651 has been manufactured by a British company ATSC (UK) and has been exported to over 20 countries, including Pakistan at “exorbitant” prices. It consists of a swivelling antenna mounted via a hinge to a handgrip. It requires no battery or other power source and the manufacturer claims it is powered by static electricity of the person holding it. According to ATSC (UK), the gadget works by detecting “the frequency of a particular explosive or other substance”.
“We will be making an order, under the Export Control Act 2002, banning the export of this type of device to Iraq and Afghanistan. The reason the ban is limited to these two countries is that our legal power to control these goods is based on the risk that they could cause harm to UK and other friendly forces,” says a statement from the British government. Furthermore, British authorities have charged Jim McCormick, the Managing Director of ATSC (UK) for fraud.
However Pakistan’s Airport Security Force continues to use this product.
“What we use at the Jinnah airport is not ADE-651. The ASF has designed it and it is in huge demand. Even agencies like the ISI are calling on us to provide them with this technology,” said a senior official posted at the Jinnah Airport. However, when cross-questioned, other ASF officials acknowledged that the device they were using operated on the same principle as ADE-651.
Many technical experts have expressed surprise at Pakistani officials who still believe the device works.
“There has to be an electric, magnetic or electromagnetic field for a device to work in such a manner. Furthermore static fields don’t move around the way it is being claimed by some. Also don’t forget that there are so many radio waves of different frequencies all around us. I just don’t see how this device would work,” said Professor Shahid Zaidi from the Applied Physics department at Karachi University.
Dawn even sought written permission from the Airport Security Force to bring in an explosives sample to test the device but ASF officials refused while insisting that their device works.
“The problem here is that we have unqualified and non-technical people holding posts which require technocrats. I just hope that the Ministry of Defence takes serious notice of this flaw before the terrorists do so,” argued Sheikh Mohammad Iqbal, a technical consultant.
Despite repeated attempts, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukthar was not available for comment.

What has happened to us as decent human beings?!

Stand up for this champion!

He is "Naveed Asif" from Nahranwali village Okara who scored 919 marks in Matric and got second position in BISE Lahore. His school was 7 KM away from his house and he used to walk 7 KM everyday to go to his school. here are his words :
“Me and my mother were really terrified when BISE Lahore team reached our home late at night before announcement of the result. Actually a few days ago, our cow was stolen at night owing to which we were terrified”.
“You may think it ridiculous but I always said to my mother that I wanted to be like Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,” he said. “Quaid-e-Azam is a role model for me"
He seated at stairs after receiving his medal and later Mr. Shahbaz Sharif offered his seat to him.

He couldn’t find any seat in Alhamra hall to sit in a function which was arranged to honour “position holders”

The Elephant in the Room

The biggest pain in Asia isn’t the country you’d think.

BY BARBARA CROSSETTE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010

Think for a moment about which countries cause the most global consternation. Afghanistan.. Iran. Venezuela. North Korea. Pakistan. Perhaps rising China. But India? Surely not. In the popular imagination, the world’s largest democracy evokes Gandhi, Bollywood, and chicken tikka. In reality, however, it’s India that often gives global governance the biggest headache.

Of course, India gets marvelous press. Feature stories from there typically bring to life Internet entrepreneurs, hospitality industry pioneers, and gurus keeping spiritual traditions alive while lovingly bridging Eastern and Western cultures.

But something is left out of the cheery picture. For all its business acumen and the extraordinary creativity unleashed in the service of growth, today’s India is an international adolescent, a country of outsize ambition but anemic influence. India’s colorful, stubborn loquaciousness, so enchanting on a personal level, turns out to be anything but when it comes to the country’s international relations. On crucial matters of global concern, from climate change to multilateral trade, India all too often just says no.

India, first and foremost, believes that the world’s rules don’t apply to it. Bucking an international trend since the Cold War, successive Indian governments have refused to sign nuclear testing and nonproliferation agreements — accelerating a nuclear arms race in South Asia. (India’s second nuclear tests in 1998 led to Pakistan’s decision to detonate its own nuclear weapons.)

Once the pious proponent of a nuclear-free world, New Delhi today maintains an attitude of "not now, not ever" when it comes to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. As defense analyst Matthew Hoey recently wrote in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, "India’s behavior has been comparable to other defiant nuclear states [and] will undoubtedly contribute to a deteriorating security environment in Asia."

Not only does India reject existing treaties, but it also deep-sixes international efforts to develop new ones. In 2008, India single-handedly foiled the last Doha round of global trade talks, an effort to nail together a global deal that almost nobody loved, but one that would have benefited developing countries most. "I reject everything," declared Kamal Nath, then the Indian commerce and industry minister, after grueling days and sleepless nights of negotiations in Geneva in the summer of 2008.

On climate change, India has been no less intransigent. In July, India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, pre-emptively told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton five months before the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen that India, a fast-growing producer of greenhouse gases, would flat-out not accept binding carbon emissions targets.

India happily attacks individuals, as well as institutions and treaty talks. As ex-World Bank staffers have revealed in interviews with Indian media, India worked behind the scenes to help push Paul Wolfowitz out of the World Bank presidency, not because his relationship with a female official caused a public furor, but because he had turned his attention to Indian corruption and fraud in the diversion of bank funds.

By the time a broad investigation had ended — and Robert Zoellick had become the new World Bank president — a whopping $600 million had been diverted, as the Wall Street Journal reported, from projects that would have served the Indian poor through malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and drug-quality improvement programs. Calling the level of fraud "unacceptable," Zoellick later sent a flock of officials to New Delhi to work with the Indian government in investigating the accounts. In a 2009 interview with the weekly India Abroad, former bank employee Steve Berkman said the level of corruption among Indian officials was "no different than what I’ve seen in Africa and other places."

India certainly affords its citizens more freedoms than China, but it is hardly a liberal democratic paradise. India limits outside assistance to nongovernmental organizations and most educational institutions. It restricts the work of foreign scholars (and sometimes journalists) and bans books. Last fall, India refused to allow Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan journalists to attend a workshop on environmental journalism.

India also regularly refuses visas for international rights advocates. In 2003, India denied a visa to the head of Amnesty International, Irene Khan. Although no official reason was given, it was likely a punishment for Amnesty’s critical stance on the government’s handling of Hindu attacks that killed as many as 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat the previous year. Most recently, a delegation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a congressionally mandated body, was denied Indian visas. In the past, the commission had called attention to attacks on both Muslims and Christians in India.

Nor does New Delhi stand up for freedom abroad. In the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Human Rights Council, India votes regularly with human rights offenders, international scofflaws, and enemies of democracy. Just last year, after Sri Lanka had pounded civilians held hostage by the Tamil Tigers and then rounded up survivors of the carnage and put them in holding camps that have drawn universal opprobrium, India joined China and Russia in subverting a human rights resolution suggesting a war crimes investigation and instead backed a move that seemed to congratulate the Sri Lankans.

David Malone, Canada’s high commissioner in New Delhi from 2006 to 2008 and author of a forthcoming book, Does the Elephant Dance? Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy, says that, when it comes to global negotiations, "There’s a certain style of Indian diplomacy that alienates debating partners, allies, and opponents." And looking forward? India craves a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, seeking greater authority in shaping the global agenda. But not a small number of other countries wonder what India would do with that power. Its petulant track record is the elephant in the room.

Pakistan-Bangladesh plan a Mughalistan to split India

Is this what India fears!

Pakistan-Bangladesh plan a Mughalistan to split India Mughalistan (or Mughalstan) is the name of an independent homeland proposed for the Muslims of India. This Mughal-Muslim state in the Indian subcontinent will include all of North India and Eastern India, and will be formed by merging Pakistan and Bangladesh through a large corridor of land running across the Indo-Gangetic plain, the heartland of India . This Mughalistan corridor will comprise Muslim-majority areas of Northern India and eastern India that will be partitioned for the second time in history. The comprehensive plan for a second partition of India was first developed by the Mughalstan Research Institute (MRI) of Jahangir Nagar University ( Bangladesh ) under the patronage of the two intelligence agencies, Pakistan ‘s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Bangladesh ‘s Director General of Forces Intelligence, DGFI. The "Mughalistan Reaserch Institute of Bangladesh" has released a map where a Muslim corridor named "Mughalistan" connects Pakistan and Bangladesh via India . The Pakistani Punjabi-dominated ISI’s influence on MRI is evident even in the Punjabi-centric pronunciation of the word ‘Mughalstan’ (without the "i"), instead of the typical Urdu pronunciation (Mughalistan). Islamic Jihadis in India have been well-armed and well-funded by the neighbouring Islamic regimes, as part of Operation Topac – the late Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq’s grandiose plot to balkanize India . Not surprisingly, Osama Bin Laden has thrown his support behind the concept and creation of this Greater Pakistan to "liberate" the Muslims of India from the Hindus. The Mumbai underworld (led by Karachi-based don Dawood Ibrahim who executed the gruesome 1993 Mumbai bombings), Jamaat-e-Islami, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen have declared their unified support for creating this undivided Islamic nation in the Indian subcontinent. The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Indian Mujahideen are working in tandem with the aforementioned organizations to waged Jihad against the Hindus of India. It is important to note that in its "holy war" against India , the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba has openly declared Hindus to be the "enemies of Islam" who should all be converted or killed. The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group has repeatedly claimed through its journals and websites that its main aim is to destroy the Indian republic and to annihilate Hinduism. Jaish-e-Mohammed has vowed to "liberate" not just Kashmir, but also to hoist the Islamic flag atop the historic Red Fort after capturing New Delhi and the rest of India . SIMI has championed the "liberation of India through Islam" and aim to restore the supremacy of Islam through the resurrection of the Khilafat (Islamic Caliphate), emphasis on the Muslim Ummah (Islamic) and the waging of Jihad on the Indian state, secularism, democracy and nationalism – the basic keystones of the Indian Constitution – as these concepts are antithetical to Islam. The Indian Mujahideen have sent several emails claiming responsibility for several bombings in Lucknow , Varanasi and Faizabad (in Uttar Pradesh), Bangalore , Jaipur, Ahmedabad and New Delhi in 2007 and 2008. The emails refer to notorious Islamic conquerors of India (Mohammed bin Qasim, Mohammad Ghauri and Mahmud Ghaznawi) as their role-models, refer to Hindu blood as "blood to be the cheapest of all mankind" and taunt Hindus that their "[Hindu] history is full of subjugation, humiliation, and insult [at the hands of Islamic conquerors]". The Indian Mujahideen’s emails warn the Hindus to "Accept Islam and save yourselves" and or else face a horrible fate: – "Hindus! O disbelieving faithless Indians! Haven’t you still realized that the falsehood of your 33 crore dirty mud idols and the blasphemy of your deaf, dumb, mute and naked idols of ram, krishna and hanuman are not at all going to save your necks, Insha-Allah, from being slaughtered by our [Muslim] hands?" Background Pakistan’s emergence in 1947 was as a "mutilated, truncated, moth-eaten Pakistan , in M.A. Jinnah’s own words, because the Muslim League’s original plan did not envisage the partition of Punjab and Bengal . Today, Mughalistan is Jinnah’s dream come true. The Partition of India provided temporary respite to the Indians and merely postponed the inevitable outcome. By 1971, all across Sindh, Western Punjab, Gandhara ( Kandahar ) and Eastern Bengal , the native populations of the Indian Religionists (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains) have been wiped out almost entirely by conversion, massacre and mass exodus. Extrapolating this scenario, we find ominous results. This Islamic beach-head, which squeezes India from both sides (Pakistan and Bangladesh), gradually links up with a Fifth Column within India and gains fresh territorial and demographic victories within the last two decades (Kashmir valley, several districts of West Bengal and Assam, Malappuram district in Kerala and the Hyderabad-Deccan region). The Islamic Anschluss creeps steadily and bloodily, until the Western beach-head (Pakistan) is linked up demographically with the Eastern beach-head (Bangladesh) through the formation of a Islam-dominated belt called "Mughalstan", that will then run through Jammu, Mewat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. Jammu & Kashmir It is an open secret that wherever the Muslims are in a majority, the rights and freedom of the non-Muslims are severely curtailed. Take for example Kashmir . It’s the only state in India which is a Muslim majority and let us see what happened there. Hundreds of temples were razed, Hindus were forced to flee, their women were raped, children were killed and houses forcibly occupied. The entire Kashmiri Hindu population (known as Kashmiri Pandits) having been driven away, killed or converted between 1990 and 2000 in a silent, mass genocide. The Muslims in Kashmir have been enjoying a special status under Constitution’s Article 370, hardly any central law is enforced there, the number of income-tax payers is among the lowest and unlike other poor states, J&K gets 90 per cent central financial assistance as grants and only 10 per cent as loans. Still there are complaints that a ‘Hindu central government discriminates’. The other minority, Buddhists mostly located in Ladakh, too, are harshly treated and discriminated against by the mainly Sunni Muslim governance in Srinagar . The Buddhist Association, Leh, has been submitting memorandums to the central government about how Buddhist youths are denied jobs and a fair chance to join the Kashmir Administrative service and professional colleges in spite of clearing the entrance exams. The number of Buddhist minorities is fast decreasing causing concern amongst their leaders. Even their dead are not allowed to be buried in Muslim-majority Kargil area and monasteries have been denied to be built. Leh district continues to see rampant conversions of Buddhist women to Islam. The Kashmir Valley today has a 98 per cent Muslim population. Poonch district, which is contiguous with Pakistan, has a Muslim majority. Jammu district has seen regular attacks on Hindu civilians and temples. The Hindu-population of the adjacent district of Doda is being squeezed out by Islamic violence. As a result, Doda is now a Muslim-majority district, where the population ratio between the Muslims and the Hindus in Doda district is now 55:45. Doda town has a 90 per cent Muslim population. Out of the seven subdivisions, Banihal, Kishtwar and Balesa are Muslim dominated areas. Bhaderwah, Thathri and Ramban have a Hindu majority. In Ladakh, Kargil district has a Muslim majority. Northern India In the backward Mewat region of Haryana (and Rajasthan), Muslims form 66% of the local population. In 2005, the Congress (I) state government in Haryana quietly created a Muslim-majority district called Mewat, by vivisecting Gurgaon district. This move strengthened the clout of Islamic groups in the region. After all, it was in Haryana’s Mewat region in 1992, that Muslim mobs in Nuh town had hacked Hindus, destroyed Hindu temples and brazenly slaughtered cows openly on streets after seizing them from Gau Shalas (cow shelters). Today, the mass conversion of Hindu villagers to Islam, purchasing tens of thousands of Hindu girls for use as sex-slaves, cow-slaughter and social boycott of Hindus is common in Muslim families in Mewat. The average Muslim birth rates of 12-15 children per household in Mewat is increasing even more by cases like the Mohammed Ishaq family where the patriarch has sired 23 kids from his wife, Bismillah. The 2008 bomb blasts targeting Hindu temples and civilians in Jaipur underscore the rising tension in Rajasthan. Muslim-majority cities like Old Delhi and Malerkotla (in Indian Punjab) provide not only shelter to Jihadi terrorists, but also geographic continuity to Muslim-dominated districts of western Uttar Pradesh (UP), especially Agra, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Meerut, Bijnor as well as Muzaffarnagar, Kanpur, Varanasi, Bareilly, Saharanpur and Moradabad. Muslim attacks on Hindu religious processions, religious riots and bomb blasts are common place in UP as was seen in Mau, Ayodhya, Lucknow and Kanpur . The UP state population of Muslims has risen to 18% today. Next door, Bihar has a 17% Muslim population and religious tensions are simmering. Along the Indo-Nepal border of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar , around 1900 Islamic seminaries have come up on both sides of the Indo-Nepal border in recent times. "There has been an exponential increase of Madrassas on both sides of Indo-Nepal border in the recent past of which around 1100 are in India while the rest are in Nepal ," revealed Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Tilak Kak. These Madrassas have come up in a disproportionate way and are not proportional to the Muslim population in the area. India ‘s Task Force on Border Management, in its report of October 2000, wrote about the ominous developments along the India-Nepal border: "On the Indo-Nepal border, Madrassas and mosques have sprung up on both sides in the Terai region, accompanied by four-fold increase in the population of the minority community in the region. There are 343 mosques, 300 Madrassas and 17 mosques-cum- Madrassas within 10 kilometres of the border on the Indian side. On the Nepal side, there are 282 mosques, 181 Madrassas and eight mosques-cum- Madrassas. These mosques and Madrassas receive huge funds from Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia , Iran , Kuwait , Pakistan and Bangladesh . Managers of various Madrassas and Ulema maintain close links with the embassy officials of those countries located at Kathmandu . Financial assistance is also channelized through the Islamic Development Bank (Jeddah), Habib Bank of Pakistan and also through some Indian Muslims living in Gulf countries. Pakistan ‘s Habib Bank, after becoming a partner in Nepal ‘s Himalayan Bank, has expanded its network in the border areas including Biratnagar and Krishna Nagar. It is suspected that foreign currency is converted into Indian currency in Nepal and then brought to India clandestinely. Madrasas and mosques on the Indo-Nepal border are frequently visited by prominent Muslim leaders, Tablighi Jamaats (proselytizing groups) and pro-Pak Nepali leaders. Officials of Pak Embassy have come to notice visiting Terai area of Nepal to strengthen Islamic institutions and to disburse funds to them. Pro-Pak elements in Nepal also help in demographic subversion of the Terai belt."

West Bengal and Assam: The Weakest Links in the ChainAccording to the 2001 census, the Muslim population is 28% of the total West Bengal population. In Assam , the Muslim population comprises atleast 31% of the total state population.

Arun Shourie wrote in the Indian Express in 2004:
"Muslims in India accounted for 9.9 per cent (of India ‘s population) in 1951, 10.8 per cent in 1971 and 11.3 per cent in 1981, and presumably about 12.1 per cent in 1991. The present population ratio of Muslims is calculated to be 28 per cent in Assam and 25 per cent in West Bengal . In 1991 the Muslim population in the border districts of West Bengal accounted for 56 per cent in South and North Parganas, 48 per cent in Nadia, 52 per cent in Murshidabad, 54 per cent in Malda and about 60 per cent in Islampur sub-division of West Dinajpur .

A study of the border belt of West Bengal yields some telling statistics: 20-40 per cent villages in the border districts are said to be predominantly Muslim. There are indications that the concentration of the minority community, including the Bangladesh immigrants, in the villages has resulted in the majority community moving to urban centres. Several towns in the border districts are now predominantly inhabited by the majority community but surrounded by villages mostly dominated by the minority community. Lin Piao’s theory of occupying the villages before overwhelming the cities comes to mind, though the context is different. However, the basic factor of security threat in both the cases is the same.
Figures have been given showing the concentration of Muslim population in the districts of West Bengal bordering Bangladesh starting from 24 Parganas and going up to Islampur of West Dinajpur district and their population being well over 50 per cent of the population. The Kishanganj district (of Bihar) which was part of Purnea district earlier, which is contiguous to the West Bengal area, also has a majority of Muslim population. The total population of the districts of South and North 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda and West Dinajpur adds up to 27,337,362.

If we add the population of Kishanganj district of Bihar of 986,672, the total comes to 28,324,034. (All figures are based on the 1991 Census.) This mass of land with a population of nearly 2..8 crores has a Muslim majority. The total population of West Bengal in 1991 was 67.9 million and of these, 28.32 million are concentrated in the border districts, with about 16-17 million population of minority community being concentrated in this area. This crucial tract of land in West Bengal and Bihar, lying along the Ganges/Hughly and west Bangladesh with a population of over 28 million, with Muslims constituting a majority, should give cause for anxiety for any thinking Indian.”

And what if, from these figures, I had advanced two warnings. First, ”There is a distinct danger of another Muslim country, speaking predominantly Bengali, emerging in the eastern part of India in the future, at a time when India might find itself weakened politically and militarily.”

And second that the danger is as grave even if that third Islamic State does not get carved out in the sub-continent into a full-fledged country? What if I had put that danger as follows?

”Let us look at the map of Eastern India — starting from the North 24 Parganas district, proceeding through Nadia, Murshidabad, Malda and West Dinajpur before entering the narrow neck of land lying through Raiganj and Dalkola of Islampur sub-division before passing through the Kishanganj district of East Bihar to enter Siliguri. Proceed further and take a look at the north Bengal districts of Darjeeling , Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar before entering Assam , and its districts of Dhubri, Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar and Barpeta. A more sensitive region in Asia is difficult to locate…”
To quote Sandhya Jain’s article "

India’s Cancer Wards" in "The Pioneer":
‘Mr. R.K. Ohri, ex-IGP, Arunachal Pradesh, cautioned that an Islamic Caliphate is rising on India’s flanks, from Bangladesh to West Asia, and that the shadow of the Mughalistan corridor is now visibly manifesting in various districts along the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh border. The demand for a ‘Muslim Banghboomi’ has already been raised, warns ex-MP B.L. Sharma (Prem).

Traveling in West Bengal to check out certain atrocities against Hindus some years ago, his convoy was attacked by Bangladeshis. When demographer J.K. Bajaj and his colleagues prepared a mathematical model of the demographic challenge facing India , they found it exactly matched the map prepared by Bangladesh ‘s Mughalstan Research Institute. Experts feel the latter has been prepared by the ISI because the ‘Mughalstan’ spelling indicates a Punjabi mind!

Bangladesh’s reputed human rights activist Salam Azad laments that Bangladesh is the best place in the world for the return of the Taliban. Madrasas, he said, are teaching that "Muslims are the best in the world; non-Muslims will be converted, beaten, killed, married, raped, because non-Muslim women are regarded as maal-i-ganimat (free war booty)… Minorities will be oppressed, indigenous people will be attacked, in my country there is oppression everywhere and this is being done by the so-called educated people of the madrasas."

West Bengal BJP leader Tathagatha Roy said the extent of atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh can be seen from the fact that in several districts there was not a single woman between the ages of seven to seventy years who had not been raped in that country. He apologized for the indifference of the BJP Government which did not grant refugee status to Hindus fleeing oppression in Bangladesh . North Eastern Students Organisation chairman Samujjal Bhattacharya said all 49 tribal belts and blocks in Assam have been occupied by Bangladeshis. The shadows have spread to Arunachal, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya.

Today, Hindus residing within a 50-km radius of the border are feeling the heat. They are being harassed on Indian soil and forced to move as the infiltrators establish themselves along this corridor, thus de facto extending the Bangladesh border into India .’

The West Bengal administration, which had taken a serious view of the problem in the initial stages of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government, now seems to have accepted it as a fait accompli. The chief minister had adopted some steps to contain the menace when the BJP strongman L.K.Advani was the union home minister from 1998-2004. But his initiative has slackened after the installation of the UPA government at the Centre since 2004.

In case the ramifications of the unfolding scenario are not yet clear to Indians, the bomb-blasts and religious riots are a roaring continuation of the 1400-year Jihad against India – an ongoing war that will culminate in the Islamisation of what’s left of Hindustan . Already the demographic battle is underway and the Mughalistan scenario looks feasible.

The book "Religious Demography of India" published by A P Joshi, M.D. Srinivas and J K Bajaj of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), Chennai, reveals that in 2001, Muslims comprise over 30% of the total population in the Indian-subcontinent (comprising India , Pakistan and Bangladesh ). The total Muslim population zoomed from 12.5% (1991) to 30.3% (2001), in just 10 years (from ex-IAS officer V.Sundaram’s article in "News Today":

Deathly Demographic warnings for India .

According to the 2001 census report, Indian population is 1,027,015,247.3. Of this, 1.5 crore people are Bangladeshi infiltrators who are living in India . The Intelligence Bureau has reportedly estimated, after an extensive survey, that the present number is about 16 million. The August 2000 report of the Task Force on Border Management placed the figure at 15 million, with 300,000 Bangladeshis entering India illegally every month. It is estimated that about 13 lakh Bangladeshis live in Delhi alone.

It has been reported that one crore Bangladeshis are missing from Bangladesh [August 4, 1991, Morning Sun] and it implies that those people have infiltrated into India . These infiltrators mainly settle in the north-east India and in West Bengal . This is shown by the fact that there has been irregular increase in the Muslim population in these states and many of the districts have become Muslim majority..

The proportion of Muslims in Assam had increased from 24.68 per cent in 1951 to 30.91 per cent in 2001.Whereas in the same time period the proportion of Muslims in India increased from 9.91 per cent to 13.42 per cent. In West Bengal, the Muslim population in west Dinajpur, Maldah, Birbhum and Murshidabad 36.75 per cent, 47.49 per cent, 33.06 per cent and 61.39 per cent respectively, according to 1991 census.

This has not only caused the burden on the Indian economy, but also threatens the identity of the indigenous people of the north-east of India . In Tripura, another north-eastern state of India , the local population has been turned into a minority community over a short period of time by the sheer numbers of cross-border migrants from Bangladesh .

In 1947, 56 per cent of Tripura’s population consisted of tribal (or indigenous) population. Today this stands at a 25% of the total. In many districts these infiltrators are the one who decides the outcome of elections. Outcomes of the 32 per cent of Vidhan Sabha seats in Assam and 18 per cent of seats in West Bengal are decided by them. This is due to the fact that political parties are helping them to get ration cards and voters ID and hence using them to win elections.
According to the report, at present there are 80 lakh Bangladeshi infiltrators in Bengal, 55 lakh in Assom, 4 lakh in Tripura and 5 lakh in Bihar (Katihar, Purnia and Kishenganj districts) and Jharkhand(Sahebganj district). As far as West Bengal is concerned, the concentration of infiltrators is quite marked in the border districts like North and South Dinajpur, Cooch Behar , Nadia, Murshidabad, Malda and North and South 24 Parganas.

The affected areas in Assom are Dhubri, Goalpara, Karimganj and Hailakandi, while a similar scenario is noticeable in Kailashar, Sabrum, Udaipur and Belonia areas in Tripura. Pakistan ‘s ISI is believed to have a hand behind this large-scale infiltration which has been playing havoc with the economy of Bengal and Assam . Home ministry sources say Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami(HUJI), the dreaded militant outfit active in Bangladesh , has succeeded in sending a large number of militants along with the infiltrators to West Bengal .
The Home Ministry had laid stress on an early completion of barbed-wire fencing along the borders with Bangladesh . Of the 2216 km-long border the fencing could be completed only along 1167 km till 2007. The continuous infiltration has brought about serious demographic changes to Bengal ‘s border areas and made the border-map, drawn after the 1974 Indira-Mujib agreement, somewhat irrelevant. The Centre has consequently sought a detailed report from the state government on changes in the population pattern in 66 blocks of nine border districts.

DGFI & ISI Plan To Capture West Bengal and Assam Through Vote Machinery

To facilitate Mughalistan and the concomitant partition of India and Bengal, the DGFI-ISI have jointly planned to change the demography of West Bengal and Assam on a priority basis.
As many as 53 out of 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal have a high concentration of voters who happen to be illegal Muslim from Bangladesh . Similarly, the fate of 40 Assembly seats in Assam depends on the votes cast by illegal Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators. All this has been revealed by a recent report of the union home ministry on infiltration from India ‘s neighbour. The report has been prepared on the basis of facts and figures provided by the Task Force on Border Management and Assam ‘s former governor S.K. Sinha.
As such the Bangladeshi Muslims can control the West Bengal Assembly, and dictate terms to the state government of West Bengal in all respects. The picture of plight of majority Hindu electorates worsened in the State, as Muslim electorates have a clear majority in three districts viz. Malda, Murshidabad & North Dinajpur and 63 (sixty three) blocks in West Bengal. Again, an analysis upon the projection into the 2001 Census hints at abnormal Muslim growth everywhere in West Bengal , where the Muslim population is 28% of the total state population.
There are at least 5 powerful Muslim ministers in the West Bengal state cabinet: Abdur Rezzak Mollah (Minister of Land & Land Reforms), Anisur Rahaman (Minister of Animal Resources Development), Mortaja Hossain (Minister of Agriculture, Marketing & Relief, Minster of State), Anarul Haque (Minister of State for Public Health, Engineering) and Abdus Sattar (Minister of State for Minority Development & Madrasa Education).
In West Bengal, there are 45 Muslim Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) out of 294 seats. There are 5 Muslim Members of Parliament from West Bengal out of 42 seats: Mohammed Salim (Calcutta North East), Abu Ayes Mondal (Katwa), Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury (Malda), Abdul Mannan Hossain (Murshidabad) and Hannan Mollah (Uluberia), all of whom strength the control of Islam in various government institutions and the police hierarchy.
As the UPA Central Government and the CPI(M) State Government have paid no attention for the threat of Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators in West Bengal, the Bangladeshi Muslims have captured land, money and unequalled power of voting throughout the border districts in Bengal in many places.
With the passive support of both the UPA Central Government and the CPI(M) State Government and with the active support of all the political parties in West Bengal (except for the BJP) for winning the Muslim votebank’s support, the DGFI & ISI has actively put down roots in the soil of West Bengal for their purposes. Not only are they successful in the ongoing demographic change of West Bengal by means of mobilizing the election machinery of Bengal, they have also opened their fronts everywhere in smuggling, trafficking, drug peddling, illegal cow smuggling, trans-border gang robbery and of course terrorism, with the active grassroots support to the Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami-Bangladesh (HUJI-B), Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Now in its most advantageous position, the DGFI & ISI’s joint collaboration is now promoting activities of Mughalistan in Kolkata, Howrah & other districts. The Dhaka-based Mughalistan Research Institute has identified various areas marked as "Mini Pakistan" in W.Bengal & Eastern India. This Mughalistan, as we know, comprises the entity of Greater Pakistan, right from Afghanistan to Myanmar including Bangladesh, whole of W. Bengal, Assam & many other portions of India.
This Pan-Islamic movement gets petro-dollars from the Arab World and fake Indian Currency from Pakistan and Bangladesh for the maximum manifestation of their plans. The Muslim infiltration from Bangladesh gives oxygen to the Pan-Islamic movement in India. Now they have direct access into the West Bengal State Assembly and into the Ministry of Bengal within Writers Building, Kolkata. But sadly, West Bengal’s vote politics undermine the situation by turning a blind eye to this colossal tragedy, unabashedly providing voters’ ID cards to the Muslim infiltrators and setting a dangerous peril for Bengali Hindus and India.
The North-Eastern region is connected to rest of India by a small strip called "The Siliguri Corridor" or "Chicken’s Neck". The Islamists have planned to isolate the North-East of India from the rest of India, in order to facilitate the creation of Mughalistan. This Operation is named as "Operation Pin code". For this they have planned to infiltrate 3000 Jihadis into North Eastern region. According to the Task Force, there are 905 Mosques and 439 Madrasas along Indo-Bangladesh border on the Indian side.
Some excerpts from the report, "Demography survey on eastern border" by Bhavna Vij-Aurora in "The Telegraph" are startling. "There have been reports that more Madarsas and mosques are sprouting along the borders, which in itself is an indication of increased Muslim population in the area," disclosed an intelligence official. The last such study was done by the Intelligence Bureau and the home ministry in 1992, and their report kept a secret in view of the sensitive findings. It was ultimately leaked and the estimated number of illegal migrants from Bangladesh was anywhere between 1.5 crore and 2 crore.
It’s time for a fresh survey, according to sources. There have been renewed intelligence reports that militants are using madarsas and mosques as safe havens, and also for storing arms and ammunition. According to reports, the largest number of madarsas and mosques has come up in bordering areas with Nepal, lower Assam and Bengal. This complements another secret survey that has revealed that nearly 40 per cent villages in the border districts of Bengal are predominantly Muslim.
There are reports that concentration of the minority community, including the Bangladeshi immigrants in the villages, has resulted in the majority community moving to urban areas. Along with madarsas and mosques, a large number of Muslim NGOs have sprung up in the area bordering Nepal. Most of these madarsas are used for anti-India activities by Pakistan-backed terrorists. The NGOs ostensibly work for the social and educational uplift of the Muslim community and receive substantial and completely unregulated funding from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya and other Islamic countries," an intelligence report said."
When India was partitioned in 1947 on religious grounds and Muslims got West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), they had a vulture´s eye on the entire north-east. Muslims were not satisfied with both the Pakistans. They wanted the whole of the north-east region (undivided Assam) integrated with East Pakistan.. Manul Haq Chowdhury, Jinnah´s private secretary, who remained in Assam and later became a minister in Assam assembly, wrote to Jinnah in 1947: "Quaid-e-Azam, wait for the next thirty years, I shall present Assam to Pakistan on a platter." Since then, a sinister game plan to ‘grow more Muslims in the north-east’ has been going on surreptitiously.
Today, out of the total 24 districts of Assam, six districts, namely, Nagaon, Goalpara, Dhubri, Karimganj, Barpeta and Hailakanndi have 60 per cent Muslim population while other six, namely, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Kamrup, Nalbari, Darang and Cachar districts have above 40 per cent of them. Out of the 126 assembly seats, the election of 54 MLAs depends on the Muslim vote bank. There are 28 Muslim MLAs and four ministers, namely, (i) Rocky Bul Hussain (Nagaon), Minister of State for Home Affairs; (ii) Ismail Hussain (Dhubri), Minister for Flood; (iii) Dr Nazurul Islam (Doboka), Minister for Food and Civil Supply, and (iv) Misabul Hussain Laskar (Borkhola, Cachar), Minister for Cooperatives.
There are two Lok Sabha MPs in Assam, namely, Anwar Hussain from Dhubri and A..F. Gulam Osmani from Barpeta and one Rajya Sabha MP, Smt. Anwara Timur (Nagaon). The Muslim community of Assam has provided one former Muslim Chief Minister—Smt. Anwara Timur (Nagaon) and one former President of India—Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (Lakhtokia, Guwahati). Earlier, in the Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) Ministry, headed by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, there were two Muslim ministers, namely, Maidul Islam Bora from Kamalpur, Kamrup district and Sukur Ali from Barpeta.
Several high-ranking officers including deputy commissioners are from this community. Obviously, the Muslim community, including the Indian Muslims and the Bangladeshi Muslims, have become a dominant group in Assam and it is they who decide who would be the Chief Minister of Assam and what would be the major policies of Assam pertaining to detection and deportation of illegal Muslim migrants and care of Muslim welfare.
Tarun Gogoi, the Congress(I) Chief Minister of Assam, is giving all protection to these Muslims due to political compulsions. The Assamese community has been overpowered by Muslims. These Bangladeshi Muslims are sneaking into upper Assam too, creating serious problems for the Assamese. The demography of Assam has drastically changed and the very existence of the indigenous people is threatened.
The manifold growth in Muslim population has overburdened Assam and the Assamese people are feeling harassed and tortured. The livelihoods of the local people are getting snatched away by these illegal Muslim migrants. The Janjati (indigenous tribal) communities in Assam are not organized. Therefore, their land and forests are very often forcefully occupied by these Muslims. The Nelli massacre in 1983 was the worst clash between the local people and Bangladeshi Muslims in which several Lalung Janjati people were reportedly killed and many Lalung villages were burnt.
These Bangladeshis have illegally sneaked into Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura too. They are marrying the local girls of influential people and are thus getting protection from their in-laws’ families. After marriage with a Janjati girl, they convert her to Islam. They purchase land in the Janjati belts in the name of their Janjati wives by producing Janjati certificates in her name.
Now, the new generation of Muslims, i.e. the Janjati Muslims, is growing. They give Muslim names to their children but the clan remains that of local wives, like Saidullah Ningrum, Azad Lingdoh (Khasi Muslims), Nizamuddin Semia, Akram Semia (Naga Muslims), Shahabuddin Chowdhury, Akbar Laskar (Assamese Muslims) and others. In Assam, Muslims are using Assamese surnames like Hazarika, Barbhuian, Bargohain, Bhuiyan, Bora, Gohain and others. There are Meitei Muslims too in Manipur.
In Nagaland, the Muslim menace is more serious. Dimapur has become the den of these Bangladeshi Muslims. They constitute the leading labour force in the agriculture sector owned by the Naga community. The majority of rickshaw-pullers, auto-drivers and other manual labourers is now of Bangladeshi Muslims. This has given rise to robbery, theft, illegal trafficking of narcotic drugs and liquor, smuggling of pornographic films and vulgar literature and an unprecedented rise in crime, flesh trade and prostitution. This influx has narrowed the jobs of lay workers too.
The Nagaland state capital, Kohima, has become the second biggest haven for the illegal migrant Muslims who occupy most of the shops in the main market, P.R. Hills and other localities. They marry Angami girls and become sons-in-law of the Naga people.
Similarly, all the district areas such as Mokokchung, Wokha, Zunheboto, Phek, Mon and Tuensang are infested with them. They are sneaking into the interiors of Nagaland. In places like Jalukie in Zeliang area, Naginimora, Tizit and other central places of Nagaland, the pain of the presence of migrant Muslims is felt by the local Naga populace. Some ten years before, the students´ bodies had agitated against these foreigner Muslims. But the agitation was silently withdrawn reportedly due to threats from Bangladesh that the Government of Bangladesh would demolish all the camps of Naga undergrounds established in the territory of that country if the Bangladeshi Muslims were harassed in Nagaland. On seeing this unprecedented growth of Muslim population in Nagaland, S.C. Jamir, the then Chief Minister, once stated, "Muslims are breeding like mosquitoes in Nagaland."
As a result of such illegal migration of Bangladeshi Muslims and their nuptial ties with the local Naga girls, a new community called Semiya or Sumias has already emerged in the state. Their number is estimated to be several thousand. The concentration of the Semiyas is the highest in Dimapur and Kohima districts respectively. There are fears among many that the voters’ list might have been doctored to accommodate the Semiyas as well other immigrants. The result of such immigration is gradually being felt in the state.
According to a Dimapur-based newspaper, on any Muslim religious day at least half of the shops in Kohima and some 75 per cent in Dimapur remain closed. It is also a fact that control over business establishments is fast receding from the hands of the locals. A recent survey conducted by the state directorate of Agriculture showed that 71.73 per cent of the total business establishments are being controlled and run by non-locals. Out of the 23,777 numbers of shops in the state, the local people own only 6,722 shops. Since the illegal migrants provide cheap labour, they are aggravating the unemployment problem. Besides, they pose a threat to the internal security as well. Reliable sources indicate that they are also involved in various unwanted activities like drug peddling and flesh trade.

The Big Picture

The following map shows the concentration of Muslims and Hindus in the Indian subcontinent today. The highlighted areas show riot-prone regions of India where aggressive Muslim populations range from atleast 20% to 100% of the population.

Lest one mistakenly thinks that Mughalistan is the culmination of the Islamisation of India and that somehow the rest of India will be spared its fate, it must be stressed that this second partition of India is only the beginning. In Hyderabad of Andhra Pradesh, northern districts of Karnataka and certain areas of Maharashtra, the growth of Muslims is very high. Likewise, in Kerala, the Muslims now constitute 25% of the state’s population. Malappuram district was carved out to create a Muslim majority district by the Communist government headed by E.M.S Namboothiripad.

Today, the entire Malappuram district enforces the weekly holiday on Friday (not Sunday) for schools and businesses, while Hindus in neighbouring Kozhikode (Calicut) and Kannur are intimidated through high-profile massacres like in Marad. The planning and execution is well underway to ensure a continuing Anschluss where several Muslim majority pockets such as Moplahstan (in Kerala) and Osmanistan (in the Deccan) will gradually spread in size and link up with Mughalistan to form a Greater Mughalistan.

This Greater Mughalistan is of strategic significance as it will provide a contiguous, strategic corridor linking the Ummah into a pan-Islamic Caliphate. The ISI-DGFI-Indian Jihadi triumvirate has fondly nicknamed this pan-Islamic Caliphate as Islamistan (meaning "Land of Islam"), a synonym for `Islamic World’ or `Dar-ul-Islam’. This geographical Islamic crescent will link the Islamic Middle-East to Islamic South-East Asia, with the new Islamic World stretching all the way from Morocco and Bosnia in the West to Malaysia and Indonesia in the East.

There are Muslims in India today who dream of "Mughalistan" and are working relentlessly towards a further partition of India by creating "Mughalistan" in the UP-Bihar-Bengal-Assam corridor. It remains the focus of mainstream groups like the Tablighi Jamaat (who have methodically radicalised the ordinary Muslims) as well as underground terror groups like the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the Indian Mujahideen, who have blown up several Indian cities killing thousands of people.

Until Mughalstan is achieved, Indians will continue to see serial bomb-blasts, attacks on Hindu festivals and temples, killings of Hindu activists, conversions of Hindu women and socio-economically backward sections, and brazen cow-slaughter that will continue endlessly until the Hindu mind becomes too numb and shell-shocked to look at the bigger picture, or comprehend the future – that Mughalistan is inevitable ("Mughalstan Paindabad").

Lessons of history have been quickly forgotten. Indians have become twisted "politically correct" escapists who prefer to turn a blind eye to reality. Now it is not about just Kashmir any more, it is all of India that Pakistan wants. And the creation of Mughalistan is not a question of "If", but "When". Unless we stand up and stop it.

All Indians, secularists and nationalists alike, must act quickly. We should ponder upon the future of India that we will bequeath to our children in the near future, if the plan of Mughalistan is allowed to proceed unhindered. Indians have to start taking responsibility for their future generations. We must do everything in our might, to ensure that the tide of Islamic expansionism is restricted and reversed, beginning right now.

The common man should take all possible measures politically, socially and economically to single-mindedly achieve this goal.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: The Man Who Knew The Future Of Pakistan Before Its Creation

 

Muslims must realise that they are bearers of a universal message. They are not a racial or regional grouping in whose territory others cannot enter. Strictly speaking, Muslims in India are not one community; they are divided among many well-entrenched sects. You can unite them by arousing their anti-Hindu sentiment but you cannot unite them in the name of Islam. To them Islam means undiluted loyalty to their own sect. Apart from Wahhabi, Sunni and Shia there are innumerable groups who owe allegiance to different saints and divines. Small issues like raising hands during the prayer and saying Amen loudly have created disputes that defy solution. The Ulema have used the instrument of takfeer [fatwas declaring someone as infidel] liberally. Earlier, they used to take Islam to the disbelievers; now they take away Islam from the believers. Islamic history is full of instances of how good and pious Muslims were branded kafirs. Prophets alone had the capability to cope with these mindboggling situations. Even they had to pass through times of afflictions and trials. The fact is that when reason and intelligence are abandoned and attitudes become fossilised then the job of the reformer becomes very difficult.

But today the situation is worse than ever. Muslims have become firm in their communalism; they prefer politics to religion and follow their worldly ambitions as commands of religion. History bears testimony to the fact that in every age we ridiculed those who pursued the good with consistency, snuffed out the brilliant examples of sacrifice and tore the flags of selfless service. Who are we, the ordinary mortals; even high ranking Prophets were not spared by these custodians of traditions and customs. — Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in an interview to journalist Shorish Kashmiri for a Lahore based Urdu magazine, Chattan, in April 1946.

This invaluable document has been resurrected and translated by former union minister Arif Mohammad Khan for Covert Magazine. The redoubtable Maulana’s predictions about what will happen to Pakistan, if it got created, have come so uncannily true that they almost read like newspaper headlines.

URL of this Page: http://newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamWarOnTerror_1.aspx?ArticleID=2139

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THE MAN WHO KNEW THE FUTURE

by Shorish Kashmiri, Matbooat Chattan, Lahore

Congress president Maulana Abul Kalam Azad gave the following interview to journalist Shorish Kashmiri for a Lahore based Urdu magazine, Chattan, in April 1946. It was a time when the Cabinet Mission was holding its proceedings in Delhi and Simla. Azad made some startling predictions during the course of the interview, saying that religious conflict would tear apart Pakistan and its eastern half would carve out its own future. He even said that Pakistan’s incompetent rulers might pave the way for military rule. According to Shorish Kashmiri, Azad had earmarked the early hours of the morning for him and the interview was conducted over a period of two weeks. This interview has not been published in any book so far — neither in the Azad centenary volumes nor in any other book comprising his writing or speeches — except for Kashmiri’s own book Abul Kalam Azad, which was printed only once by Matbooat Chattan Lahore, a now-defunct publishing house. Former Union Cabinet Minister Arif Mohammed Khan discovered the book after searching for many years and translated the interview for COVERT

Q: The Hindu Muslim dispute has become so acute that it has foreclosed any possibility of reconciliation. Don’t you think that in this situation the birth of Pakistan has become inevitable?

A: If Pakistan were the solution of Hindu Muslim problem, then I would have extended my support to it. A section of Hindu opinion is now turning in its favour. By conceding NWFP, Sind, Balochistan and half of Punjab on one side and half of Bengal on the other, they think they will get the rest of India — a huge country that would be free from any claims of communal nature. If we use the Muslim League terminology, this new India will be a Hindu state both practically and temperamentally. This will not happen as a result of any conscious decision, but will be a logical consequence of its social realities. How can you expect a society that consists 90% of Hindus, who have lived with their ethos and values since prehistoric times, to grow differently? The factors that laid the foundation of Islam in Indian society and created a powerful following have become victim of the politics of partition. The communal hatred it has generated has completely extinguished all possibilities of spreading and preaching Islam. This communal politics has hurt the religion beyond measure. Muslims have turned away from the Quran. If they had taken their lessons from the Quran and the life of the Holy Prophet and had not forged communal politics in the name of religion then Islam’s growth would not have halted. By the time of the decline of the Mughal rule, the Muslims in India were a little over 22.5 million, that is about 65% of the present numbers. Since then the numbers kept increasing. If the Muslim politicians had not used the offensive language that embittered communal relations, and the other section acting as agents of British interests had not worked to widen the Hindu-Muslim breach, the number of Muslims in India would have grown higher. The political disputes we created in the name of religion have projected Islam as an instrument of political power and not what it is — a value system meant for the transformation of human soul. Under British influence, we turned Islam into a confined system, and following in the footsteps of other communities like Jews, Parsis and Hindus we transformed ourselves into a hereditary community. The Indian Muslims have frozen Islam and its message and divided themselves into many sects. Some sects were clearly born at the instance of colonial power. Consequently, these sects became devoid of all movement and dynamism and lost faith in Islamic values. The hallmark of Muslim existence was striving and now the very term is strange to them. Surely they are Muslims, but they follow their own whims and desires. In fact now they easily submit to political power, not to Islamic values. They prefer the religion of politics not the religion of the Quran. Pakistan is a political standpoint. Regardless of the fact whether it is the right solution to the problems of Indian Muslims, it is being demanded in the name of Islam. The question is when and where Islam provided for division of territories to settle populations on the basis of belief and unbelief. Does this find any sanction in the Quran or the traditions of the Holy Prophet? Who among the scholars of Islam has divided the dominion of God on this basis? If we accept this division in principle, how shall we reconcile it with Islam as a universal system? How shall we explain the ever growing Muslim presence in non-Muslim lands including India? Do they realise that if Islam had approved this principle then it would not have permitted its followers to go to the non-Muslim lands and many ancestors of the supporters of Pakistan would not have had even entered the fold of Islam? Division of territories on the basis of religion is a contraption devised by Muslim League. They can pursue it as their political agenda, but it finds no sanction in Islam or Quran. What is the cherished goal of a devout Muslim? Spreading the light of Islam or dividing territories along religious lines to pursue political ambitions? The demand for Pakistan has not benefited Muslims in any manner. How Pakistan can benefit Islam is a moot question and will largely depend on the kind of leadership it gets. The impact of western thought and philosophy has made the crisis more serious. The way the leadership of Muslim League is conducting itself will ensure that Islam will become a rare commodity in Pakistan and Muslims in India. This is a surmise and God alone knows what is in the womb of future. Pakistan, when it comes into existence, will face conflicts of religious nature. As far as I can see, the people who will hold the reins of power will cause serious damage to Islam. Their behaviour may result in the total alienation of the Pakistani youth who may become a part of non-religious movements. Today, in Muslim minority states the Muslim youth are more attached to religion than in Muslim majority states. You will see that despite the increased role of Ulema, the religion will lose its sheen in Pakistan.

Q: But many Ulema are with Quaid-e-Azam [M.A. Jinnah].

A: Many Ulema were with Akbare Azam too; they invented a new religion for him. Do not discuss individuals. Our history is replete with the doings of the Ulema who have brought humiliation and disgrace to Islam in every age and period. The upholders of truth are exceptions. How many of the Ulema find an honourable mention in the Muslim history of the last 1,300 years? There was one Imam Hanbal, one Ibn Taimiyya. In India we remember no Ulema except Shah Waliullah and his family. The courage of Alf Sani is beyond doubt, but those who filled the royal office with complaints against him and got him imprisoned were also Ulema. Where are they now? Does anybody show any respect to them?

Q: Maulana, what is wrong if Pakistan becomes a reality? After all, “Islam” is being used to pursue and protect the unity of the community.

A: You are using the name of Islam for a cause that is not right by Islamic standards. Muslim history bears testimony to many such enormities. In the battle of Jamal [fought between Imam Ali and Hadrat Aisha, widow of the Holy Prophet] Qurans were displayed on lances. Was that right? In Karbala the family members of the Holy Prophet were martyred by those Muslims who claimed companionship of the Prophet. Was that right? Hajjaj was a Muslim general and he subjected the holy mosque at Makka to brutal attack. Was that right? No sacred words can justify or sanctify a false motive.

If Pakistan was right for Muslims then I would have supported it. But I see clearly the dangers inherent in the demand. I do not expect people to follow me, but it is not possible for me to go against the call of my conscience. People generally submit either to coercion or to the lessons of their experience. Muslims will not hear anything against Pakistan unless they experience it. Today they can call white black, but they will not give up Pakistan. The only way it can be stopped now is either for the government not to concede it or for Mr Jinnah himself — if he agrees to some new proposal.

Now as I gather from the attitude of my own colleagues in the working committee, the division of India appears to be certain. But I must warn that the evil consequences of partition will not affect India alone, Pakistan will be equally haunted by them. The partition will be based on the religion of the population and not based on any natural barrier like mountain, desert or river. A line will be drawn; it is difficult to say how durable it would be.

We must remember that an entity conceived in hatred will last only as long as that hatred lasts. This hatred will overwhelm the relations between India and Pakistan. In this situation it will not be possible for India and Pakistan to become friends and live amicably unless some catastrophic event takes place. The politics of partition itself will act as a barrier between the two countries. It will not be possible for Pakistan to accommodate all the Muslims of India, a task beyond her territorial capability. On the other hand, it will not be possible for the Hindus to stay especially in West Pakistan. They will be thrown out or leave on their own. This will have its repercussions in India and the Indian Muslims will have three options before them:

1. They become victims of loot and brutalities and migrate to Pakistan; but how many Muslims can find shelter there?

2. They become subject to murder and other excesses. A substantial number of Muslims will pass through this ordeal until the bitter memories of partition are forgotten and the generation that had lived through it completes its natural term.

3. A good number of Muslims, haunted by poverty, political wilderness and regional depredation decide to renounce Islam.

The prominent Muslims who are supporters of Muslim League will leave for Pakistan. The wealthy Muslims will take over the industry and business and monopolise the economy of Pakistan. But more than 30 million Muslims will be left behind in India. What promise Pakistan holds for them? The situation that will arise after the expulsion of Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan will be still more dangerous for them. Pakistan itself will be afflicted by many serious problems. The greatest danger will come from international powers who will seek to control the new country, and with the passage of time this control will become tight. India will have no problem with this outside interference as it will sense danger and hostility from Pakistan.

The other important point that has escaped Mr Jinnah’s attention is Bengal. He does not know that Bengal disdains outside leadership and rejects it sooner or later. During World War II, Mr Fazlul Haq revolted against Jinnah and was thrown out of the Muslim League. Mr H.S. Suhrawardy does not hold Jinnah in high esteem. Why only Muslim League, look at the history of Congress. The revolt of Subhas Chandra Bose is known to all. Gandhiji was not happy with the presidentship of Bose and turned the tide against him by going on a fast unto death at Rajkot. Subhas Bose rose against Gandhiji and disassociated himself from the Congress. The environment of Bengal is such that it disfavours leadership from outside and rises in revolt when it senses danger to its rights and interests.

The confidence of East Pakistan will not erode as long as Jinnah and Liaquat Ali are alive. But after them any small incident will create resentment and disaffection. I feel that it will not be possible for East Pakistan to stay with West Pakistan for any considerable period of time. There is nothing common between the two regions except that they call themselves Muslims. But the fact of being Muslim has never created durable political unity anywhere in the world. The Arab world is before us; they subscribe to a common religion, a common civilisation and culture and speak a common language. In fact they acknowledge even territorial unity. But there is no political unity among them. Their systems of government are different and they are often engaged in mutual recrimination and hostility. On the other hand, the language, customs and way of life of East Pakistan are totally different from West Pakistan. The moment the creative warmth of Pakistan cools down, the contradictions will emerge and will acquire assertive overtones. These will be fuelled by the clash of interests of international powers and consequently both wings will separate. After the separation of East Pakistan, whenever it happens, West Pakistan will become the battleground of regional contradictions and disputes. The assertion of sub-national identities of Punjab, Sind, Frontier and Balochistan will open the doors for outside interference. It will not be long before the international powers use the diverse elements of Pakistani political leadership to break the country on the lines of Balkan and Arab states. Maybe at that stage we will ask ourselves, what have we gained and what have we lost.

The real issue is economic development and progress, it certainly is not religion. Muslim business leaders have doubts about their own ability and competitive spirit. They are so used to official patronage and favours that they fear new freedom and liberty. They advocate the two-nation theory to conceal their fears and want to have a Muslim state where they have the monopoly to control the economy without any competition from competent rivals. It will be interesting to watch how long they can keep this deception alive.

I feel that right from its inception, Pakistan will face some very serious problems:

1. The incompetent political leadership will pave the way for military dictatorship as it has happened in many Muslim countries.

2. The heavy burden of foreign debt.

3. Absence of friendly relationship with neighbours and the possibility of armed conflict.

4. Internal unrest and regional conflicts.

5. The loot of national wealth by the neo-rich and industrialists of Pakistan.

6. The apprehension of class war as a result of exploitation by the neo-rich.

7. The dissatisfaction and alienation of the youth from religion and the collapse of the theory of Pakistan.

8. The conspiracies of the international powers to control Pakistan.

In this situation, the stability of Pakistan will be under strain and the Muslim countries will be in no position to provide any worthwhile help. The assistance from other sources will not come without strings and it will force both ideological and territorial compromises.

Q: But the question is how Muslims can keep their community identity intact and how they can inculcate the attributes of the citizens of a Muslim state.

A: Hollow words cannot falsify the basic realities nor slanted questions can make the answers deficient. It amounts to distortion of the discourse. What is meant by community identity? If this community identity has remained intact during the British slavery, how will it come under threat in a free India in whose affairs Muslims will be equal participants? What attributes of the Muslim state you wish to cultivate? The real issue is the freedom of faith and worship and who can put a cap on that freedom. Will independence reduce the 90 million Muslims into such a helpless state that they will feel constrained in enjoying their religious freedom? If the British, who as a world power could not snatch this liberty, what magic or power do the Hindus have to deny this freedom of religion? These questions have been raised by those, who, under the influence of western culture, have renounced their own heritage and are now raising dust through political gimmickry.

Muslim history is an important part of Indian history. Do you think the Muslim kings were serving the cause of Islam? They had a nominal relationship with Islam; they were not Islamic preachers. Muslims of India owe their gratitude to Sufis, and many of these divines were treated by the kings very cruelly. Most of the kings created a large band of Ulema who were an obstacle in the path of the propagation of Islamic ethos and values. Islam, in its pristine form, had a tremendous appeal and in the first century won the hearts and minds of a large number of people living in and around Hejaz. But the Islam that came to India was different, the carriers were non-Arabs and the real spirit was missing. Still, the imprint of the Muslim period is writ large on the culture, music, art, architecture and languages of India. What do the cultural centres of India, like Delhi and Lucknow, represent? The underlying Muslim spirit is all too obvious.

If the Muslims still feel under threat and believe that they will be reduced to slavery in free India then I can only pray for their faith and hearts. If a man becomes disenchanted with life he can be helped to revival, but if someone is timid and lacks courage, then it is not possible to help him become brave and gutsy. The Muslims as a community have become cowards. They have no fear of God, instead they fear men. This explains why they are so obsessed with threats to their existence — a figment of their imagination.

After British takeover, the government committed all possible excesses against the Muslims. But Muslims did not cease to exist. On the contrary, they registered a growth that was more than average. The Muslim cultural ethos and values have their own charm. Then India has large Muslim neighbours on three sides. Why on earth the majority in this country will be interested to wipe out the Muslims? How will it promote their self interests? Is it so easy to finish 90 million people? In fact, Muslim culture has such attraction that I shall not be surprised if it comes to have the largest following in free India.

The world needs both, a durable peace and a philosophy of life. If the Hindus can run after Marx and undertake scholarly studies of the philosophy and wisdom of the West, they do not disdain Islam and will be happy to benefit from its principles. In fact they are more familiar with Islam and acknowledge that Islam does not mean parochialism of a hereditary community or a despotic system of governance. Islam is a universal call to establish peace on the basis of human equality. They know that Islam is the proclamation of a Messenger who calls to the worship of God and not his own worship. Islam means freedom from all social and economic discriminations and reorganisation of society on three basic principles of God-consciousness, righteous action and knowledge. In fact, it is we Muslims and our extremist behaviour that has created an aversion among non-Muslims for Islam. If we had not allowed our selfish ambitions to soil the purity of Islam then many seekers of truth would have found comfort in the bosom of Islam. Pakistan has nothing to do with Islam; it is a political demand that is projected by Muslim League as the national goal of Indian Muslims. I feel it is not the solution to the problems Muslims are facing. In fact it is bound to create more problems.

The Holy Prophet has said, “God has made the whole earth a mosque for me.” Now do not ask me to support the idea of the partition of a mosque. If the nine-crore Muslims were thinly scattered all over India, and demand was made to reorganise the states in a manner to ensure their majority in one or two regions, that was understandable. Again such a demand would not have been right from an Islamic viewpoint, but justifiable on administrative grounds. But the situation, as it exists, is drastically different. All the border states of India have Muslim majorities sharing borders with Muslim countries. Tell me, who can eliminate these populations? By demanding Pakistan we are turning our eyes away from the history of the last 1,000 years and, if I may use the League terminology, throwing more than 30 million Muslims into the lap of “Hindu Raj”. The Hindu Muslim problem that has created political tension between Congress and League will become a source of dispute between the two states and with the aid of international powers this may erupt into full scale war anytime in future.

The question is often raised that if the idea of Pakistan is so fraught with dangers for the Muslims, why is it being opposed by the Hindus? I feel that the opposition to the demand is coming from two quarters. One is represented by those who genuinely feel concerned about imperial machinations and strongly believe that a free, united India will be in a better position to defend itself. On the other hand, there is a section who opposes Pakistan with the motive to provoke Muslims to become more determined in their demand and thus get rid of them. Muslims have every right to demand constitutional safeguards, but partition of India cannot promote their interests. The demand is the politically incorrect solution of a communal problem.

In future India will be faced with class problems, not communal disputes; the conflict will be between capital and labour. The communist and socialist movements are growing and it is not possible to ignore them. These movements will increasingly fight for the protection of the interest of the underclass. The Muslim capitalists and the feudal classes are apprehensive of this impending threat. Now they have given this whole issue a communal colour and have turned the economic issue into a religious dispute. But Muslims alone are not responsible for it. This strategy was first adopted by the British government and then endorsed by the political minds of Aligarh. Later, Hindu short-sightedness made matters worse and now freedom has become contingent on the partition of India.

Jinnah himself was an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. In one Congress session Sarojini Naidu had commended him with this title. He was a disciple of Dadabhai Naoroji. He had refused to join the 1906 deputation of Muslims that initiated communal politics in India. In 1919 he stood firmly as a nationalist and opposed Muslim demands before the Joint Select Committee. On 3 October 1925, in a letter to the Times of India he rubbished the suggestion that Congress is a Hindu outfit. In the All Parties Conferences of 1925 and 1928, he strongly favoured a joint electorate. While speaking at the National Assembly in 1925, he said, “I am a nationalist first and a nationalist last” and exhorted his colleagues, be they Hindus or Muslims, “not to raise communal issues in the House and help make the Assembly a national institution in the truest sense of the term”.

In 1928, Jinnah supported the Congress call to boycott Simon Commission. Till 1937, he did not favour the demand to partition India. In his message to various student bodies he stressed the need to work for Hindu Muslim unity. But he felt aggrieved when the Congress formed governments in seven states and ignored the Muslim League. In 1940 he decided to pursue the partition demand to check Muslim political decline. In short, the demand for Pakistan is his response to his own political experiences. Mr Jinnah has every right to his opinion about me, but I have no doubts about his intelligence. As a politician he has worked overtime to fortify Muslim communalism and the demand for Pakistan. Now it has become a matter of prestige for him and he will not give it up at any cost.

Q: It is clear that Muslims are not going to turn away from their demand for Pakistan. Why have they become so impervious to all reason and logic of arguments?

A: It is difficult, rather impossible, to fight against the misplaced enthusiasm of a mob, but to suppress one’s conscience is worse than death. Today the Muslims are not walking, they are flowing. The problem is that Muslims have not learnt to walk steady; they either run or flow with the tide. When a group of people lose confidence and self-respect, they are surrounded by imaginary doubts and dangers and fail to make a distinction between the right and the wrong. The true meaning of life is realised not through numerical strength but through firm faith and righteous action. British politics has sown many seeds of fear and distrust in the mental field of Muslims. Now they are in a frightful state, bemoaning the departure of the British and demanding partition before the foreign masters leave. Do they believe that partition will avert all the dangers to their lives and bodies? If these dangers are real then they will still haunt their borders and any armed conflict will result in much greater loss of lives and possessions.

Q: But Hindus and Muslims are two different nations with different and disparate inclinations. How can the unity between the two be achieved?

A: This is an obsolete debate. I have seen the correspondence between Allama Iqbal and Maulana Husain Ahmad Madni on the subject. In the Quran the term qaum has been used not only for the community of believers but has also been used for distinct human groupings generally. What do we wish to achieve by raising this debate about the etymological scope of terms like millat [community], qaum [nation] and ummat [group]? In religious terms India is home to many people — the Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs etc. The differences between Hindu religion and Islam are vast in scope. But these differences cannot be allowed to become an obstacle in the path of India gaining her freedom nor do the two distinct and different systems of faith negate the idea of unity of India. The issue is of our national independence and how we can secure it. Freedom is a blessing and is the right of every human being. It cannot be divided on the basis of religion.

Muslims must realise that they are bearers of a universal message. They are not a racial or regional grouping in whose territory others cannot enter. Strictly speaking, Muslims in India are not one community; they are divided among many well-entrenched sects. You can unite them by arousing their anti-Hindu sentiment but you cannot unite them in the name of Islam. To them Islam means undiluted loyalty to their own sect. Apart from Wahabi, Sunni and Shia there are innumerable groups who owe allegiance to different saints and divines. Small issues like raising hands during the prayer and saying Amen loudly have created disputes that defy solution. The Ulema have used the instrument of takfeer [fatwas declaring someone as infidel] liberally. Earlier, they used to take Islam to the disbelievers; now they take away Islam from the believers. Islamic history is full of instances of how good and pious Muslims were branded kafirs. Prophets alone had the capability to cope with these mindboggling situations. Even they had to pass through times of afflictions and trials. The fact is that when reason and intelligence are abandoned and attitudes become fossilised then the job of the reformer becomes very difficult.

But today the situation is worse than ever. Muslims have become firm in their communalism; they prefer politics to religion and follow their worldly ambitions as commands of religion. History bears testimony to the fact that in every age we ridiculed those who pursued the good with consistency, snuffed out the brilliant examples of sacrifice and tore the flags of selfless service. Who are we, the ordinary mortals; even high ranking Prophets were not spared by these custodians of traditions and customs.

Q: You closed down your journal Al-Hilal a long time back. Was it due to your disappointment with the Muslims who were wallowing in intellectual desolation, or did you feel like proclaiming azan [call to prayer] in a barren desert?

A: I abandoned Al-Hilal not because I had lost faith in its truth. This journal created great awareness among a large section of Muslims. They renewed their faith in Islam, in human freedom and in consistent pursuit of righteous goals. In fact my own life was greatly enriched by this experience and I felt like those who had the privilege of learning under the companionship of the Messenger of God. My own voice entranced me and under its impact I burnt out like a phoenix. Al-Hilal had served its purpose and a new age was dawning. Based on my experiences, I made a reappraisal of the situation and decided to devote all my time and energy for the attainment of our national freedom. I was firm in my belief that freedom of Asia and Africa largely depends on India’s freedom and Hindu Muslim unity is key to India’s freedom. Even before the First World War, I had realised that India was destined to attain freedom, and no power on earth would be able to deny it. I was also clear in my mind about the role of Muslims. I ardently wished that Muslims would learn to walk together with their countrymen and not give an opportunity to history to say that when Indians were fighting for their independence, Muslims were looking on as spectators. Let nobody say that instead of fighting the waves they were standing on the banks and showing mirth on the drowning of boats carrying the freedom fighters [¼]

ENJOY THE COFFEE

Don’t let the cups drive you… Enjoy the coffee instead.

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.
While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other’s cups.
Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups.
They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.

Don’t let the cups drive you… Enjoy the coffee instead

A People’s War

Volume 8 Issue 98 | December 18, 2009 |

Cover Story

Syed Zain Al-Mahmood

On the morning of March 27, 1971, the American Consul General at the embassy in Dhaka, Archer Kent Blood:

Victory Day should bring a renewed vow to resist oppression and corruption.

Blood cabled a top secret telegram to the State Department in Washington DC. In it Blood wrote: “Here in Dacca we are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror of the Pak military … Dacca University students shot down in rooms or mowed down when they came out of building in groups… University files burnt by army in what appeared purposeful move to eliminate current ‘trouble-making’ generation.”

The Blood Telegrams, declassified in 2003, used the words “selective genocide” and genocide. The telegram from the consulate was the first independent acknowledgement of the beginning of a massacre that would claim millions of lives. Blood also wrote prophetically: “I believe the most likely eventual outcome of the struggle under way in East Pakistan is a Bengali victory and the consequent establishment of an independent Bangladesh.

the secrecy of Operation Searchlight would have been compromised. Besides, Dhaka garrison had no reserve forces to spare.

Consul Archer Kent Blood was referring to “Operation Searchlight” by the Pakistan Army. On the night of March 25, 1971 Gen Tikka Khan’s troops launched a terror campaign calculated to intimidate the Bengalis into submission. Pakistani troops, backed by tanks and artillery, fell on a defenseless population. Wholesale slaughter took place in and around Dhaka, with the Dhaka University and old parts of the city bearing the brunt of the carnage. The brave street protests of the previous days were swept away in a hail of bullets. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and taken to West Pakistan.

Bangladesh was stunned. After the Awami League had won a decisive majority, Yahya Khan postponed the assembly meeting scheduled for March. On March 7, 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered a speech at the Racecourse Ground (now called the Suhrawardy Udyan). In the landmark speech, Bangabandhu urged the nation to turn every house into a fort of resistance. He ended his speech saying, "This struggle is for freedom. This struggle is for independence.”

Unwilling to transfer power to Bangabandhu, and loath to lose face by backing down in front of a movement of non-cooperation, the generals chose the military option. According to an article published in the Asia Times, Yahya Khan declared at a meeting of the top brass: “Kill three million of them and the rest will eat out of our hands.”

Although the Pakistani army’s scorched earth policy temporarily stunned Bangladesh, resistance soon grew out of the ashes. Most of the political leadership evaded the security net and headed for the Indian border. Students and grassroots leaders started to regroup in the countryside. Members of the regular army troops — the East Bengal Regiments — and the East Pakistan Rifles (later BDR) escaped the crackdown and the beginnings of a guerrilla resistance emerged. At 7.45 PM on March 27, 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman, second in command of the 8th East Bengal Regiment based in Chittagong, made a radio broadcast proclaiming independence on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and calling on the nation to resist the Pakistanis.

But for many, the war had begun a week earlier. In his book East Pakistan – the End Game Pakistani Brigadier AR Siddiqui, adviser to Yahya Khan, wrote about the rebellion by a unit of the 2nd East Bengal Regiment in Joydevpur on March 19. The 2nd EBR was posted in Joydevpur to the north of Dhaka, and had detachments posted in the strategically important Gazipur Ordinance factory. When a detachment of soldiers led by West Pakistani Brigadier Jahanzeb Arbab came to take control, they were mobbed by a Bengali crowd. Brigadier Arbab ordered the soldiers to open fire, but the young Bengali Major in charge refused to carry out the order. Arbab himself fired on the crowd, killing several people. The Pakistani troops then fled towards Dhaka leaving the Bengali soldiers in control.

The Bengali officer who had defied Brig Arbab was Major Moin, later Major General Moinul Hossain Chowdhury, Bir Bikrom, the first adjutant general of the Bangladesh Army. “From March 19 onwards, we were virtually in control of Joydevpur,” says Moinul Hossain Chowdhury. “The Pakistani army command in Dhaka dare not attack us then because

People from different religions, political beliefs, and walks of life united to bring victory.

Victory was achieved at a terrible price.

Photos: Naibuddin Ahmed

“By midnight of March 26, Dhaka was burning. We knew war was on us, and should the Pakistanis win, we would probably be shot as mutineers. But for us there was no turning back. We had passed the point of no return. For me, there were two choices I could lead a life of slavery on my knees, or I could take a chance. I decided to take a chance.”

According to Moinul Hossain Chowdhury, he had sensed something in the air ever since March 7. “I had the opportunity to know the intention of the Pakistani Army high-ups, since for two years I served as the Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the Chief Martial Law Administrator of East Pakistan Major General Khadem Hossain Raja before joining the Second East Bengal Regiment at Joydevpur in 1970. It was clear to me that the Army would not accept the six-point demand and other political movements of Bangladesh Awami League. After the March 7 speech of Bangabandhu I thought a war might be imminent. But without a signal from the political leadership we could do nothing. Meanwhile the Pakistani army built up its troop levels, although rumours that Bengali soldiers were disarmed early on are not true.”

The Blood Telegrams.

Major General Chowdhury and his troops used the week leading up to March 26 to prepare for battle. “We gathered arms and ammunition, and sent the women and children to the villages. I was a bachelor, but I had to take care of my men. Many have asked me why I didn’t move out immediately or even why I didn’t try to defend Dhaka. That would have been suicide. As a result of our careful preparation, we were only one of two EBR battalions to enter the war with full strength. Most of the others were attacked before they could go into battle.”

Eight East Bengal Regiments revolted, with only 2nd Bengal and 4th Bengal unit under Khaled Mosharraf in Comilla remaining at anything near full strength. The 10th Bengal inside Dhaka cantonment was easily disarmed and later eliminated.

On the night of March 25, Pakistani forces launched a surprise assault on the East Bengal Regimental Centre and neutralized the troops in Chittagong. Many civilians were also killed. 8th EBR troops who were at Sholoshahar outside the cantonment were unaware of the attack on EBRC. When some of the EBRC survivors reached 8 EBR lines begging for help, Captain Oli Ahmad began recalling EBR troops to Sholoshahar and arrested all Pakistani soldiers and officers of the unit. Major Zia managed to arrest his Punjabi escort and ordered Bengali troops to move out.

“We left the city and took position across the Kalurghat bridge around 1:30 AM,” says Lt. General (retd) Mir Shaukat Ali, then Major Shaukat. “I don’t think anyone anticipated this assault, and we were caught off guard initially. But soon we formed small groups and started guerrilla warfare.”

Although by the end of March the military initiative was with the Pakistani forces, Bengali resistance was

Bangabandhu with General Osmany and Major Moin after liberation. Photo: The Daily Star Archives

beginning to firm up. Alongside the regular army and EPR units was irregular guerrilla bands were beginning to spring up around the country. Under the leadership of Abdul Kader Siddiqui Tangail became a hotbed of resistance, and exhibited the kind of resilience that made the war of liberation a People’s War.

“Muktijuddho didn’t start from 25th March 1971,” says Kader Siddiqui, later known as Tiger Kader Siddiqui. “Titumir’s bamboo fortress that held out for so long against the British was a battle for liberation. In 1947, when the British left, that was another step in our quest for self determination. I prefer to think that the love of freedom is in the blood of Bengalis.”

According to Kader Siddiqui, 1971 was a grassroots war. “Liberation was brought by the common people,” says Tiger Siddiqui. “Who was I — a mere student leader at a Mufassil college! I had war thrust upon me. Bangabandhu’s 7th March speech inspired the nation, and it’s true we were doing cadet-type training and mock drills. But I will not deny that we were in shock on March 26 1971. The tragedy stunned us.”

But gradually the grief gave way to a determination to fight back. Kader Siddiqui describes how he came to form the Mukti Bahini group that would strike terror into the heart of the Pakistani forces.

“When the leaders left for India, the field was empty. I was a college student — I was not equipped to lead men in a war. You can call me a fool, but I thought that if I left, people would laugh at me. I remembered the fiery speeches I had made, and thought that I could never show my face again in Tangail if I turned tail. On March 26, I realised that it is easy to talk about giving blood in front of a microphone, but it is tough to do it on the battlefield.”

Ironically the very massacres that Tikka Khan had hoped would subdue the Bengalis hardened the determination of the nation to fight back. Those who were wavering also closed ranks. Apart from a few diehard collaborators, the entire nation became freedom fighters. Not everyone took up arms the active fighters and organisers numbered around 80,000, according to most wartime commanders. But the people united behind the war effort, and the support of the population was crucial in defeating the much better equipped Pakistani army.

The Kaderia Bahini and other irregular outfits employed classic guerrilla tactics. They retreated when the enemy advanced, harassed when he stopped, and pursued when he fled. Among the young politicians who remained in the country after March to organise guerilla movements in their locality was Sheikh Shahidul Islam, Bangabandhu’s nephew and a Chatra League leader. “We not only fought but organised,” says Shahidul Islam, now Secretary General of Jatio Party. “I still get tears in my eyes when I recall the support we received from villagers. One day in late April, we were in a village when there was a Pakistani raid. We went to a thatched hut and the owner, an old lady, hid us. She asked us whether we had eaten, and when we admitted we hadn’t, she cooked rice and chicken for us. I could see that her rice pot was almost empty, and the chicken was probably her only one.”

“I found that old lady after the war,” continues Sheikh Shahid. “I asked her what she wanted from me. She said, son I’m old and it is difficult to go far to get water. Can you just get a tubewell for me?”

Kader Siddiqui built up a grassroots Mukti Bahini.

The Bangladesh forces took on the superior fire power of the Pakistan army.

Tales of selfless heroism abound. Lt General (retd) Mir Shaukat Ali talks about his near capture at the hands of the Pakistani army near Chattak in Sylhet. “Trying to escape I came to a largish house where a wedding was going on. The groom hid me in his bedroom, asking me to lie down under the mosquito net with his bride. I did so, and within a few minutes the Punjabi troops came. They entered the bridal chamber, but decided to back off when the bride stood up and began to scream!”

By July the tide began to turn. “I had told my troops to prepare for a 5-year war,” says Major General (retired) Moinul. “We were fighting with weapons captured from the enemy, although we did receive some support from the Indians. My men fought bravely in the battles of Kamalpur and then Akhaura. I lost many of my comrades there. We were regular troops in uniform and fought like a conventional army.”

The scenario was also changing on the world stage. Although Nixon and Kissinger had pursued a policy of friendship with Pakistan as a means of engaging China, there was growing opposition within the State Department starting with the brave dissent of Archer Blood. Meanwhile, Indian politicians and strategists were clamoring for military intervention. According to an article published in the Indian Express (April 10, 2009), K Subrahmanyam, Director of the Institute of Defense Studies, and an adviser to Indira Gandhi, told the Indian Prime Minister, that a “once in a lifetime opportunity to cut Pakistan to size” must be seized. On December 3, 1971 Indian troops entered Bangladesh from three directions.

“Since it was an allied force it was agreed between the Mujibnagar leadership and the Indian government that whichever officer was senior would have the command,” says Lt General Mir Shaukat Ali. “In most cases our troops were led by young officers, so inevitably the Indians had command.”

In early December the 2nd East Bengal regiment under Major Moin unleashed a series of devastating attacks in the Akhaura area which cleared the way for the Indian columns to enter and move up towards Dhaka. “After we took Azampur and cleared the road to Ashugonj, the Indian army entered and engaged the Pakistani troops near Ashugonj,” recalls Moinul Hossain Chowdhury. “Brigadier Misra who had assumed command because of his seniority ordered me to remain in Narsingdi, and fight a rearguard action while Indian troops pushed on to Dhaka. I ignored his orders and pressed on.”

Meanwhile, Kader Siddiqui also ran into difficulties with his Indian counterpart. “I was told by Brigadier Krer that we should remain in Tangail to guard the rear. I told the Indian officer, I certainly want to be in Dhaka when victory is achieved.”

On December 16, the Pakistani General Niazi surrendered to the Indian commander General Arora. Bangladesh was victorious. Bangabandhu returned home to adulation of the entire nation.

“I laid my weapon at the feet of Bangabandhu,” recalls Kader Siddiqui. “I had taken up arms when my country needed me. When I no longer needed it, I laid it at the feet of my leader. This also meant that weapons were subordinate to the political leadership. It indicated my belief that we would be ruled by our elected representatives and not by the barrel of a gun. But unfortunately, my dream of a true democracy was dashed again and again.”

The war had been won, but the peace did not promise to be easy. The nation fought in 1971 to throw off the yoke of oppression. They dreamt of a society free of exploitation and extremist dogma. The war was won almost four decades ago. But the aims of the war of liberation are yet to be achieved.

“During the war we managed to rise above petty divisions and unite behind a common cause,” says

Photo: Naibuddin Ahmed

Kader Siddiqui. “That was the secret behind our victory. In an independent country, 38 years after liberation, there should not be any question of pro-liberation or anti-liberation force. There should be unity. I am very clear about this. Those who actively worked against liberation in 1971 should not be in politics. Those who committed war crimes should be tried and punished. By the same token, no one who has been born in independent Bangladesh should be labeled anti-liberation. We must find our common humanity. That for me is the true spirit of the War of Liberation. ”

Lt General (retd) Mir Shaukat Ali believes that victory shows us our strength as a nation. “That should be our guiding principle. With a ragtag band of farmers, we managed to defeat one of the world’s modern armies. Once we are united, we can be as strong as anybody. We should know our own strength.”

Victory in 1971 was achieved at a monumental cost in terms of lives and treasure. The martyrs of the war of liberation died so that we might live as free men. They defended freedom against fearsome odds — that will be their lasting legacy.

 

Triumph and Tragedy

As told by Major General (retd) Moinul Hossain Chowdhury

The dawn that followed the dark and frigid night of December 2, 1971, was foggy, dreary, and foreboding to the troops of the 2nd East Bengal Regiment dug in their positions along the front line between Mukundpur and Azampur near Akhaura, a distance of approximately 2 miles, facing the defensive structures of the Pakistani army. The area was held by Pakistan army’s famed 12 FF Regiment.

I looked around at my comrades in arms, and knew that I would be sending many of them in harm’s way. But our mission was clear: we had to clear the area up to Brahmanbaria. That would pave the way for the Indian army to enter and move towards Bhairab.

At 11.45 PM, according to arrangement, the heavy guns opened up on the Indian side of the border. The Indian artillery gunners started a devastating barrage aimed at the 12 FF. Under cover of artillery we advanced rapidly and engaged the enemy.

The fog cut down visibility and the conditions were tough. We closed on their position and sent withering fire into their trenches. The staccato rattle of LMGs and rifles was interspersed with the occasional boom of mortars.

Soon we were fighting a pitched battle at close quarters. We pushed them back and continued to advance. I put lieutenant Badiuzzaman in charge of one of the trenches, and ordered others to press on. But within minutes a fierce counter attack started. As I crawled up, Badiuzzaman left his trench. “We should fall back, sir!” he shouted. “No, hold the position until the rest of the company can catch up,” I yelled back. He obeyed. I moved on to survey other positions. Moments later, an 81 mm mortar shell landed in his trench. Badiuzzaman embraced martyrdom on the spot.

We ran the 12 FF out of Akhaura the next day. The battle was won. But I had to bury my comrade in arms, Shahid Lieutenant Badiuzzaman.

Forgotten Friends

Special Feature

Ahmede Hussain

From India to Edward Kennedy, many nations and individuals had helped Bangladesh during its War of Liberation. Thirty-eight years after its independence, the country is yet to recognise many of its friends who helped its cause at a time when help was badly needed.

 

On a dark night of 1962 Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, befooling the Pakistani border security guards, crossed the India-Pakistan border at Comilla. Bangabandhu was arrested by the members of the Border Security Force (BSF), and was taken to the nearby police station. Mujib made a call to the District Magistrate (DM) and told him that a plane was supposed to be waiting for him at the airport to take him to Delhi. Throughout 1962, Mujib had been secretly talking to the Indian government officials at the country’s Deputy High Commission in Dhaka. Masterminded by Bangabandhu himself, the plan was for the independence of East Pakistan– Bengali officers and jawans of the Pakistan Army and East Pakistan Rifles would lead an armed uprising to liberate the country from Pakistan; Awami League was going to be at the forefront of the struggle. Bangabandhu secretly crossed the border on January 27 in the hope of going to Delhi to put his plan before the Indian premier. Unaware of Mujib’s visit, the DM at Agartala told Bangabandhu to go back home as neither the Deputy High Commission nor Delhi had informed him of Mujib’s sojourn. Mujib was dropped near the border, where he sneaked into Comilla again. Six years later, the Pakistan government charged Mujib with sedition, saying that he had hatched a conspiracy in Agartala to create a separate nation.

Indira Gandhi

In fact, Indian hand in Bangladesh’s independence can be traced back as far away as 1962. The country was closely watching the political developments on its eastern frontier, and when the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight on the night of March 25, 1971, India was quick to react. From the morning of March 26, Indian government-run radio station Akashbani stopped their regular programmes and repeatedly announced the news of the massacre in Dhaka: "’Civil war has started in East Pakistan,’ it declared," says Abul Fateh who tuned into the station at 12 in the morning that day, "it was so reassuring to hear the news amidst the death and destruction."

More reassuring was the song that followed the news snippets. At the dawn of the darkest of night in the history of the Bengali nation Akashbani played Amar Shonar Bangla, Ami Tomae Bhalobashi (My Golden Bengal, I adore you), which later became Bangladesh’s national anthem. "We were overjoyed. This one song has given us courage, hope and the dream to fight on," Abul says.

On March 27, Tajuddin Ahmed and other leaders of the Awami League crossed the border and were received with due honour by the BSF. They met the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Delhi. Tajuddin was assured of all help that his fledgling nation needed. “We had Mujib’s declaration…Zia’s declaration on independence. When the refugees started coming in, I was standing on the border… they were in a very shocking state. Soon we started getting more and more refugees and the government of India decided that we should help the Muktibahini, the freedom fighters,” says Lt Gen (rtd) JFR Jacob, former chief of the Indian Army.

Two days after Tajuddin’s arrival, Indira Gandhi declared that India would open its border and welcome Bengali refugees to its soil. "It was an unprecedented decision, for countries usually close its borders when refugees pour in," says Shahriar Kabir, who is researching on India’s involvement in Bangladesh’s Liberation War.

On March 31, Indira Gandhi herself moved a resolution in the parliament, which went: "The House records its profound conviction that the historic upsurge of the 75 million people of East Pakistan will triumph. The House wishes to assure them that their struggle and sacrifices will receive the wholehearted sympathy and support of the people of India."

Indian help increased as the number of refugees flooded Salt Lake and Agartala. In the first week of April India had started arming the freedom fighters, it got a momentum after the Bangladesh government in exile was formed on April 17 in Mujibnagar, Meherpur. Not only that India also sent its own troops in guise of freedom fighters to fight for the cause of Bangladesh, long before it formally recognised Bangladesh’s sovereignty. "Officially," says Kabir, "India joined the war on December 3. But India had always sent its own army men to East Pakistan to fight alongside the Muktijoddhas." In fact, on May 15, the Indian Army launched an operation codenamed ‘Operation Jackpot’. It coordinated 30,000 regular soldiers and 100,000 guerrillas who effectively destroyed the infrastructure of the Pakistan Army.

Even though Lt Gen Jacob puts Indian death toll at 1,400; unofficially, Kabir says, it could be as high as 20,000. "Pakistan Army arrested many Indian soldiers in March-November and paraded them before TV cameras," says Kabir, "and all of them were Indian jawans who infiltrated into East Pakistan to fight for Bangladesh." On the diplomatic front Bangladesh got a huge boost thanks again to a whirlwind tour that Indira Gandhi had made to the Western European capitals. By the time her trip was over, Bangladesh had the support of the people of Britain, France, Germany and Austria by its side.

The Soviet Union and its friends, meanwhile, supplied the Muktibahini with arms and military logistics and in mid November the combined strength of the freedom fighters stood at 1,49,000 compared to Pakistani strength of 85,000. At the fag end of the Bangladesh War, the Soviets vetoed thrice at the United Nations against proposals opposing Bangladesh’s independence.

US Senator Edward Kennedy, Congressman Cornelius Edward Gallagher played a crucial role in creating opinion in favour of Bangladesh; singers Ravi Shankar, George Harrison and Joan Boaz staged the famous Concert for Bangladesh to raise funds for Bangladeshi refugees; French author André Malraux championed Bangladesh’s cause across Europe. But Indians beat them all: in 1971, Indian actress Waheeda Rahman, famous for her roles in ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ and ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’, donated signing money of all her films to Bangladesh Shohaok Samiti (Bangladesh Assistance Association), Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray raised money for the organisation. Artist Maqbool Fida Hussain exhibited his works on the streets of Bombay and donated the earnings.

On December 3, sensing defeat, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Chengiz Khan, a pre-emptive air strike on Indian airbases in Amritsar, Ambala, Agra, Awantipur, Bikaner, Halwara, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Pathankot, Srinagar and Uttarlai. The operation ended miserably and only spelled disaster for the Pakistan Army both on its eastern and western wings– India declared war on Pakistan; Bhutan recognised Bangladesh on December 6; India followed suit. The next day, India launched a final military push towards Dhaka and within 14 days, the great Pakistan military establishment was on its knees on the Race Course of Dhaka.

Thirty-eight years after its independence, Bangladesh is yet to honour the help that Indira Gandhi had given us when as a nation we plunged into an abyss of darkness. "Bangladesh should name a street after her and Edward Kennedy," Abul says. The government can also erect a monument to honour the Indian soldiers who laid down their lives for Bangladesh’s independence. Those who fought in the war can be given an honorary medal. "Bangladesh should also give honorary citizenship to the foreign fighters who fought alongside the Muktijoddhas," he says, "Such token gestures could be a small way of showing our gratitude."

PHA DG transferred over rules violation

By: Yasir Habib Khan | Published: January 09, 2010

LAHORE – Instead of beautification, corruption is the trademark of Parks and Horticulture Authority as mafia is on the loose to mint millions by executing various works bypassing the set rules and regulations.
After realising the gravity of situation, the Punjab Government transferred PHA DG Raheel Ahmed Siddiqi Thursday night. And DCO Kasur Abdul Jabbar Shaheen has assumed the charge of DG PHA. However, the status quo continues as no action has been taken to nip the mafia in the bud.
Well-placed sources in the PHA told The Nation that Rs30 million work of laying down mobile towers cables and converting greenbelts into cemented pavements was completed recently without any official contract or approval by the competent authority.
Sources revealed that Raheel Ahmed Siddiqi former PHA DG who was transferred last night and his PSO Moazzam Nazeer still working as BPS-16 officer, are the partners of the running mafia business. Both of them (Siddiqi and Moazzam) after getting their palm greased, allowed leading mobile companies to lay down tower cables in the area of Peco Road for 3km, Johar Town (7km), Faisal Town (6km), Thokar to Ferozepur Road (7km), Southern Bypass (6km) and Model Town Link Road (1km).
Sources disclosed that neither any contract was singed with the mobile companies nor other legal requirements were fulfilled in the case.
However during the illegal activity when PHA Assistant Director Liaqat Ali demanded the official permission letter for laying down cables at the sites, he was made OSD. Afterwards none of PHA officers dared to raise their voice fearing to meet the similar fate.
Sources said PSO Moazzam Nazeer in connivance with former PHA DG Raheel Ahmed Siddiqi and supervisor Township Sibtain also converted the 10-feet wide and 200-feet long greenbelt into the cemented pavement in front of Cinema owned by the former minister Abdul Aleem Khan after getting around Rs1 million bribe.
Sources further said the PSO who is now heading the mafia after the transfer of Raheel Ahmed Siddiqi was working in the PHA against rules.

PSO to former PHA DG ex-employee of TDCP was sent to PHA on deputation for the period of 2 years. Though his deputation period has expired over the last 8 months, but he could not be repatriated to his mother organisation due to his connection with high-ups. Interestingly though Secretary Housing Irfan Ali has rejected his deputation extension pleas thrice, but he is still working in PHA. Moreover the government official of grade 16 is neither entitled to have 1300cc car or get 280 liters petrol. However PSO to former PHA DG has been enjoying these perks in sheer violation of rules. He also got the greenbelt cleared to pave way for the construction of CNG station near Shaukat Khanum Hospital in return of huge bribe.
Rule of mafia can be assessed by the fact that a number of inquiries are pending against his misappropriations but he continues with his nefarious designs with impunity.
It may be recalled that during the tenure of Raheel Ahmed Siddiqu, mafia behind the financial kickbacks in the procedure of awarding contracts and bypassing the rules spread its tentacles in the PHA. The contracts awarded regarding the beautification of existing fountain structures besides monument and surrounding triangles at Qartaba Chowk at Jail Road costing Rs1.5 billion and securing the services of a legal firm on a two-year contract against a hefty remuneration of Rs450,000 per month, exposed the financial irregularities.
The racket of senior officials of PHA was also active in the tenure of ex-PHA DG Mustafa Kamal Pasha. As many as seven construction work under model road project costing Rs2.2 million were awarded to different firms bypassing the open biding and pre-qualification process. The mafia also delayed much-hyped action plan to transform the provincial capital into a city of gardens despite allocation of Rs243 million for the implementation of the plan.
Two big parks spreading over 1,000 kanals in Johar Town and 480 kanals along with River Ravi had also been put on the backburner.