South Asia News Digest
India's Advani Talks Plainly to Britain's Straw About London Pass-Along of Terrorist Money
During a rough 75-minute meeting between India's Home Minister L.K. Advani and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, India provided Straw with evidence indicating that the Pakistani ISI intelligence agency is using London to launder the money it sends to the Kashmir extremists within India. The contents of the meeting was reported in the May 30 issue of The Pioneer of New Delhi.
Sources told The Pioneer that Advani raised the issue of ISI funding, and revealed to the British Foreign Secretary that Indian law-enforcement agencies have documentary evidence to establish that huge amounts of money were transferred from Islamabad to New Delhi via London.
The evidence that Advani referred to is the connection between the Pakistani ISI; the U.S.-based Kashmiri expatriate Ayub Thukar, president of the World Kashmir Freedom Movement; and a Delhi-based insurance agent, Imtiaz Bazaz. On a tip from the Intelligence Bureau, police traced accounts in Standard Chartered Grindlays in New Delhi and the Development Credit Bank Ltd., also in Delhi. In fact, a secret report by the Reserve Bank of India, India's central bank, pointed out that between April 17 and May 21, these two accounts received more than $70,000 from a London-based firm, Mercy Universal, owned by Ayub Thukar, through the Barclays Bank in London.
Imtiaz Bazaz has since been arrested; he has admitted that he was a frequent visitor to Pakistan, where he met senior ISI officials and the Hizbul Mujahideen leader, Syed Salahuddin. Imtiaz also indicates that he withdrew the money sent by Thukar to hand over to one SAS Geelani, leader of the student wing of Jamaaat in Kashmir, and another female Muslim fundamentalist leader.
Al-Qaeda Activists Are Living in Pakistani Cities
Quoting senior Pakistani officials, Washington Post correspondents in Karachi, Kamran Khan and Karl Vick, point out in the newspaper's May 29 edition that hundreds of al-Qaeda activists are residing in Pakistani cities, noting that in March, Pakistani police and FBI agents captured Abu Zubaida, said to be a top-ranking al-Qaeda member, in the Pakistani textile town of Faisalabad. One official is quoted as saying, "Local al-Qaeda footprints have been found" in every strike against so-called soft Western targets in Pakistan. The Pakistani officials also claim that it is evident that the al-Qaeda members have now become a part of the Pakistani militant groups who operate within Pakistan and across the border in India.
What this means is that the Americans and British have to move into major Pakistani cities to ferret out the al-Qaeda members, and not restrict their search just to the hilly and distant western terrain along the border with Afghanistan. As long as the searches were carried out in the hilly terrain, the foreign troops remain mostly invisible to most Pakistanis. But raids in houses in cities will not only make the Americans and British hated by the average Pakistani, but will make them easy targets for the terrorists.
To drive more fear into the heart of the foreign troops, one former Pakistani intelligence official has been quoted as saying, "My sense is that the recent terrorism cases are just the trailer of a movie we may see in the future."
Pakistan Heightens War Tensions Another Notch
News reports from Islamabad, including from Agence France Presse, indicate that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has ordered the redeployment of Pakistani troops from the Afghan frontier to his country's eastern border with India. Simultaneously, militants recently attacked a Kashmiri police post, killing three policemen before being gunned down after a 17-hour fight.
New Delhi, for whatever reason, has remained quiet. Military spokesman Sruti Kant told the AFP that India is aware of Pakistan's troop movements. These troops, Kant said, have been redeployed along India's western border states of Rajasthan and Punjab, the theater of previous wars between the two nations. President Musharraf was seen recently in combat fatigues, inspecting the troops.
Indo-Pakistan War May Force Americans, British To Abandon Their Agenda
A war between India and Pakistan may force the Americans and the British to abandon their agenda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, says Brookings Institute strategic analyst Stephen Cohen. He told the Indian Express that if "India goes to war against Pakistan, the U.S. knows well that its war against al-Qaeda and search for bin Laden is well nigh over."
Similar trepidation has been expressed by British Army Chief Gen. Sir. Michael Boyce, who said Pakistan's energies were focussed on its tense border with India, rather than its western border with Afghanistan, where remnants of the al-Qaeda and Taliban are believed to be hiding. "Yes, the present India-Pakistan crisis is having an effect on our operations.... President Musharraf, who I know wishes to help in the campaign against al-Qaeda, would want to put more troops up into that particular part of Afghanistan-Pakistan border, but at the moment it appears his priorities lie elsewhere," Boyce said.
Beware of Hekmatyar!
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's old buddy, former Pakistani ISI chief Hamid Gul, told the AP wire service that the British are searching for Hekmatyar, who has declared war against the "foreign infidels" in Pakistan. He said the targets of the British-launched Operation Buzzard along the Afghan-Pakistan borders near Khost, are the al-Qaeda, Taliban, and the "pan-Islamists," such as Hekmatyar.
Hamid Gul said Hekmatyar should not be underestimated. "He is a hard-liner, who has a large following.... The point is, that if Masood's people"in the Northern Alliance"are now killing Pashtuns, then obviously Pashtun sentiment will turn against this government and will turn toward a hard-liner Pashtun, and that is Hekmatyar."
Hamid Gul said Hekmatyar draws his support from both Pakistan and Iran. "I personally think right now that he will receive more support from Iran than from Pakistan, because the Americans are everywhere here right now.... There is certainly a lot of sympathy for him in ISI, but that doesn't necessarily translate into material assistance.... The assistance would likely come from Iran," Gul added.
Charge Pakistan's Nuclear Triggers Are in U.S. Hand
The nuclear expert of the New Delhi-based Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis (IDSA), Dr. R.R. Subramaniam, ridiculed Pakistan's assertion that it would use nuclear weapons against India even in case of a conventional conflict.
Citing Munir Akram, Pakistan's newly appointed Ambassador to the United Nations, who told the diplomats that "India should not have the license to kill with conventional weapons while Pakistan's hands are tied regarding other means to defend itself," Ram Subramanaiam said, "The Pakistani nuclear trigger is in the hands of the U.S. forces, who are present in their base at Jacobabad. Islamabad fully knows our nuclear deterrence capability. Pakistani assertions regarding resorting to a nuclear strike against India do not impress us." He also said the Indian Prithvi and Agni missiles are "ready."
"They know that, while a nuclear strike by them against India would cause havoc, our country will survive despite paying terrible costs. But if we are to retaliate, which would be several-fold more, Pakistan stands to be wiped out."
Urging the Pakistanis not to adopt "belligerent postures," Dr. Subramaniam criticized U.S. nuclear expert David Albright for saying that a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan would result in 12 million deaths. "His estimate about the uranium production in Pakistan is exaggerated and his assessment about lives being lost in the subcontinent in case of a nuclear conflagaration is wide off the mark," he said.
Musharraf Threatens: 'We Will Unleash a Storm'
According to The Hindu, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has warned India that Pakistan would "unleash a storm" in case of "any incursion by the Indian forces across the LoC (Line of Control in the State of Jammu and Kashmir) even by an inch, [a storm] which will sweep away the enemy."
Disregarding calls by the international community to end cross-border terrorism and reduce tensions with India, Musharraf said: "A befitting response to any adventurism by India will be given.... The defense forces of the country are fully prepared and ready to respond in a befitting manner in case of any aggression from across the borders." He was addressing officers and airmen at the Minhas base of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).
Musharraf's tough talk was followed by an announcement from Islamabad which indicates that Pakistan is sending five special envoys to the United States, Europe, and several Muslim countries to explain Pakistan's stand-off against India. Former President Farooq Leghari has been asked to visit Germany and Russia. The other four emissaries will be former Senate Chairman Wasim Sajjad; the former Foreign Secretary, Najimuddin Sheikh; the ex-Ambassador to India, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, and former Army Chief Jehangir Karamat.
World Community Pressures Pakistan To Stop Cross-Border Terrorism
Stating that the rising tensions in South Asia have been fuelled by provocations by Kashmiri extremist organizations, Russia and the European Union have asked Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism against India, according to The Press Trust of India. In a joint statement issued at the end of a day-long summit in Moscow, Russia and the EU said: "The present escalation of tension is fuelled by unending provocative activities of Kashmiri extremist organizations, threatening the stability of the whole South Asian region."
In a strong statement, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, during his visit to India, said: "The definition of terrorism has been laid down in the International Law and the UN Security Council Resolution 1373, which includes cross-border terrorism and terrorism labelled as freedom-fighting." He also said, "The United Kingdom stands foursquare behind India in its fight against terrorism."
Meanwhile, Chinese President Jiang Zemin assured a visiting U.S. delegation that China is friends with both Pakistan and India, and does not want to side with either party, but is using its influence to basically make contacts. U.S. Congressmanm Curt Weldon told the press that President Jiang "told us about some trips and meetings that have taken place to provide a sense of urgency to both sides that this question of Kashmir and the concerns of disagreements must be resolved peacefully."
As Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura arrived in New Delhi from in Islamabad, the possibility that the international community could use economic aid as a lever to persuade Musharraf came from a Japanese Foreign Office statement. Criticizing Islamabad for conducting several missile tests in defiance of the world's advice for restraint, as well as appreciating India's "endurance" in the current situation, Japan said it would take another look at the aid to Pakistan revived after Sept. 11. Analysts point out that Japan's surprisingly forthright statement on the possible use of economic aid as a lever to influence Pakistan, had to have been made as a coordinated response with Japan's major allies, the U.S. and Britain.
Sugiura's visit to New Delhi was squeezed in between Jack Straw's visit and that of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. There is also talk of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visting both Islamabad and New Delhi.
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