Wednesday, October 28FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE

Pakistan & Kashmir

India, Pakistan & Kashmir

India’s Kashmiri Detainee Self-Censorship Demand Is Undemocratic

By: Andrew Korvbko   Asia-Pacific Research, India’s demand that thousands of Kashmiri detainees sign a bond that commits them to not to make any comments on “recent events” as a condition for their release after they were previously apprehended without charge for five months already is the definition of an undemocratic practice which exposes the fundamental hypocrisy behind the self-professed “world’s largest democracy”. Sputnik reported that India demanded that that thousands of Kashmiri detainees sign a bond that commits them to not make any comments on “recent events” as a condition for their release after they were previously apprehended without charge for five months already. So as not to be accused of misportraying the report in question, its contents are being re...
Afghanistan, Europe, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Middle East, Pakistan & Kashmir, Russia, Syria, Turkey, USA

Military and Political Trends of 2019 that Will Shape 2020

By South Front In the year 2019 the world was marked with a number of emerging and developing crises. The threat of terrorism, conflicts in the Middle East, expanding instability in South America, never-ending military, political and humanitarian crises in Africa and Asia, expansion of NATO, insecurity inside the European Union, sanction wars and sharpening conflicts between key international players. One more factor that shaped the international situation throughout the year was the further collapse of the existing system of international treaties. The most widely known examples of this tendency are the collapse of the INF and the US announcement of plans to withdraw from the New START. Meanwhile, the deterioration of diplomatic mechanisms between key regional and global actors is...
India, Pakistan & Kashmir

The Project of Erasing the Indigenous History of Kashmir

by NYLA ALI KHAN Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah with Happy and Nelson Rockefeller, Srinagar, 1978. Photo courtesy of Nyla Ali Khan. Furthering its project of erasing the indigenous history of Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Modi’s BJP government has dropped Martyr’s Day, July 13, and my maternal grandfather’s birth anniversary, December 5, from the list of public holidays. I have always been amazed to see how much the BJP and the Sangh continue to invest in trying to erase the name, ideology, and work of one Kashmiri nationalist—-Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. The project of the BJP and its appendages to ride roughshod over the history of Kashmiri nationalism and the evolution of a political consciousness in Kashmir, which began much before 1989, continues unabated. The irony of my gr...
Pakistan & Kashmir

Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf handed death penalty in treason case

Musharraf, who is in self-imposed exile in Dubai, has been on trial for imposing a state of emergency. A special court in Pakistan has sentenced former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to death on charges of high treason and subverting the constitution. "Pervez Musharraf has been found guilty of Article 6 for violation of the constitution of Pakistan," government law officer Salman Nadeem told Reuters. The treason trial against Musharraf - for imposing the state of emergency on November 3, 2007 -  began in 2014. Musharraf, who is in self-imposed exile in Dubai, was not immediately available for comment. He has denied the charges in the past. Meanwhile, Pakistan's army said in a statement posted on Twitter that the decision was received wit...
Pakistan & Kashmir, Saudi Arabia

Pakistan’s Imran Khan. Does He Have the Courage to Practice What He Preaches? Allied with Saudi Arabia?

By Junaid S. Ahmad Global Research, 94-year old Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, himself a highly respected Muslim leader really took affection to our Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan when the latter visited Malaysia. It was clear that Dr. Mahathir immediately picked up that this would be a promising Muslim leader in a sea of mostly ineffectual pawns and puppets. After our PM’s UN speech, the bonds grew stronger. Along with Dr. Mahathir and Erdogan in Turkey, our PM boldly asserted an initiative to combat Islamophobia and did not tire of mentioning these two Muslim leaders as ones he admires greatly. And now, our PM decides to abandon an incredibly important summit – all at the strict orders of the House of One Saud. The joke on our beloved PM is that his friend MBS is al...
India, Pakistan & Kashmir

100 Days of Repression in Kashmir: Citizens’ Convention in Lucknow

CITIZENS' organizations held a convention at Lucknow on 13 November 2019 to protest against the completion of 100 days of state repression against the people of Kashmir and to show solidarity with them and demand protection of their democratic rights. The organizations included AIDWA, AIPWA, Sajhi Duniya, Women’s Federation, NAPM, Hamsafar and Rihayee Manch. AIDWA leader Madhu Garg conducted the program. The convention passed a resolution demanding reinstatement of democracy and normal life in Kashmir. Addressing the Convention, former Vice Chancellor Lucknow Univ. Dr Rooprekha Verma said that the myth is being spread that the abrogation of Article 370 will end terrorism. Obnoxious statements are coming from BJP-RSS leaders about how ‘we will now marry fair Kashmiri girls’. She sai...
Pakistan & Kashmir, Russia

Moscow’s Russia-Pakistan Banking Proposal Hints at Big Things to Come

By Andrew Korybko Yuri M. Kozlov, the Russian Trade Representative in Pakistan, suggested that Russia and Pakistan establish a “reliable and mutually acceptable banking system”, which strongly hints at Moscow’s desire to improve its commercial trade ties with Islamabad in order to lay the basis for N-CPEC+. Business Recorder reported earlier this week that Yuri M. Kozlov, the Russian Trade Representative in Pakistan, suggested that Russia and Pakistan establish a “reliable and mutually acceptable banking system” during a meeting with the President of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which comes just weeks after the two countries resolved their Soviet-era trade dispute that now legally enables Moscow to invest in the South Asian state....
Afghanistan, C.I.A, India, Pakistan & Kashmir, USA

How Jimmy Carter and I Started the Mujahideen

by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR - ALEXANDER COCKBURN Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [“From the Shadows”], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct? Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And tha...
Afghanistan, C.I.A, Pakistan & Kashmir, USA

How Islamic Jihadism was Conceived as Antidote to Communism

By VT Editors  By Nauman Sadiq During the Soviet-Afghan conflict from 1979 to 1988 between the capitalist and communist blocs, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab States took the side of the former because the Soviet Union and the Central Asian states produced more energy and consumed less. Thus, the Soviet bloc was the net exporter of energy, whereas the capitalist bloc led by Washington was the net importer of energy. It suited the economic interests of the oil-rich Gulf countries to maintain and strengthen a supplier-consumer relationship with the capitalist bloc. Now the BRICS countries are equally hungry for the Middle East’s energy, but it’s a recent development. During the Cold War, an alliance with the industrialized world was predicated upon the economic interests of the G...
India, Pakistan & Kashmir

Exposing India’s Blunders, Pakistan Internationalized the Kashmir Issue

By Sajjad Shaukat More than 50 days have been passed. Indian forces have continued lockdown and curfew in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). More restrictions have been imposed in wake of shortage of foods and even medicines for the patients. In order to hide human rights violations, communication services have been cut off from the world and foreign journalists are not allowed to enter that region Besides, Indian extremist rulers are also escalating tensions with Pakistan to divert attention from the drastic situation of the Indian Controlled Kashmir, and have continued shelling inside Pakistani side of Kashmir. In response to the threat of nuclear war by Indian Defence Rajnath Singh, addressing a press conference, Pakistan’s army’s media wing-the DG of Inter-Services Public Relati...