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“It Is Ours!” Indian Minister Says Islamabad About To “Lose Pakistani-occupied Kashmir”
“It Is Ours!” Indian Minister Says Islamabad About To “Lose Pakistani-occupied Kashmir”
A top Indian official has put Islamabad on notice, saying India’s nuclear-armed neighbor “should be ready to lose Pakistani-occupied Kashmir,” in perhaps the most provocative statement yet since New Delhi’s revoking its own administered Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) historic autonomy on August 5.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was quoted by local media as making the inflammatory statement, saying—
“Now, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) too is ours … For fulfilling the dream of united India, we are ready to move forward for PoK.”
“Article 370 has been revoked. Now, Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) too is ours. Pakistan should be ready to lose PoK. For fulfilling the dream of united India, we are ready to move forward for PoK… Pakistan should stop supporting terrorism… India will not tolerate this,” he asserted while speaking at a political rally, according to India Today.
And further referencing the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war in which Bangladesh was liberated, the Chief Minister responded to recent statements by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan. “Pakistan was boasting of occupying Delhi in 1971 but they were about to lose Karachi. Bangladesh was partitioned. Their Army became our refugees,” he said.
This comes after Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi warned last week that the situation on the Line of Control (LoC) in the Jammu and Kashmir region continues to deteriorate and risks sparking an “accidental war,” as reported in the Hindustan Times.
Qureshi was speaking on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last Wednesday. He told journalists that Pakistan and India “understand the consequences of a conflict”. But he added that “an accidental war” cannot be ruled out. “… If the situation persists … then anything is possible,” he said.
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British colonialism laid the ground for the crises in Hong Kong and Kashmir
British colonialism laid the ground for the crises in Hong Kong and Kashmir
Though distance-wise Hong Kong and Kashmir may be about 4,000km (2,485 miles) apart, they have in common a history of being scarred by the crimes of British colonialism.
This history and those scars cannot be abstracted when it comes to grasping the nettle of the crises that have engulfed both places now because, without factoring this in, no serious analysis can be undertaken and no salutary lessons will be learned.
Starting with Hong Kong, when senior Conservative Party MP and former British Army officer Tom Tugendhatrecently suggested that the people of Hong Kong should be granted UK citizenship (regardless of whether they want it or not) as a form of protection from Beijing, he provided the world with an insight into the colonial mind of the British establishment.ALSO ON RT.COMHong Kong phooey! Would you like any hypocrisy with that?
In making this ludicrous suggestion, amounting to an outrageous imposition of British sovereignty over the city, Mr Tugendhat revealed that to him China should know its rightful place as a lesser power. In this he has been joined by the UK’s former governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten of Barnes (I promise you, I’m not making this up), who with astonishing arrogance has called for a British commission of inquiry to be established to look into the unrest, with particular emphasis on the actions of the Hong Kong police.
Both Tom Tugendhat and Lore Patten could, to all intents, have been standing on the shoulders of Lord George Macartney, the man who led Britain’s first ever trade delegation to China in 1792 on the orders of King George III.
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Pakistan Mobilizing Forces At Kashmir Base Near Line Of Control: Report
Pakistan Mobilizing Forces At Kashmir Base Near Line Of Control: Report
India’s Business Standard is reporting a major mobilization of Pakistani military forces underway along the border with India, citing government sources which talked to Asia’s ANI news agency.
The contested Kashmir region is on edge following India last week taking the unprecedented step of revoking Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) autonomous status amid a military crackdown involving deployment of tens of thousands of Indian troops to the region.
“Three C-130 transport aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force were used on Saturday to ferry equipment to their Skardu air base opposite the Union Territory of Ladakh. The Indian agencies concerned are keeping a close eye on the movement of Pakistanis along the border areas,” sources told ANI.
The report describes that the significant uptick in military logistical activity along the border is likely in support of fighter aircraft operations involving Islamabad moving its China-made advanced JF-17 fighter jets to the Skardu air field.
Though the report was neither confirmed nor denied by Pakistan’s military, it could indicate preparations for a military exercise along the border involving the Air Force and Army designed as a show of strength amid PM Imran Khan condemning Indian troop build-up across the border and removal of J&K’s special status.
The day after on Monday a week ago India revoked Article 370, which is legally and historically what assured a high degree autonomy for the Indian administered Muslim-majority state, Pakistan’s army vowed to “go to any extent” to support Kashmiris amid an Indian military crackdown. “Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end,” said General Qamar Javed Bajwa after an initial meeting of Pakistan’s leadership in response to the crisis.
Hair-Trigger Nuclear Alert Over Kashmir
HAIR-TRIGGER NUCLEAR ALERT OVER KASHMIR
Two of the world’s most important powers, India and Pakistan, are locked into an extremely dangerous confrontation over the bitterly disputed Himalayan mountain state of Kashmir. Both are nuclear armed.
Kashmir has been a flashpoint since Imperial Britain divided India in 1947. India and Pakistan have fought numerous wars and conflicts over majority Muslim Kashmir. China controls a big chunk of northern Kashmir known as Aksai Chin.
In 1949, the UN mandated a referendum to determine if Kashmiris wanted to join Pakistan or India. Not surprisingly, India refused to hold the vote. But there are some Kashmiris who want an independent state, though a majority seek to join Pakistan.
India claims that most of northern Pakistan is actually part of Kashmir, which it claims in full. India rules the largest part of Kashmir, formerly a princely state. Pakistan holds a smaller portion, known as Azad Kashmir. In my book on Kashmir, ‘War at the Top of the World,’ I called it ‘the globe’s most dangerous conflict.’ It remains so today.
I’ve been under fire twice on the Indo-Pak border in Kashmir, known as the ‘Line of Control,’ and once at 15,000 feet atop the Siachen Glacier on China’s border. India has over 500,000 soldiers and paramilitary police garrisoning its portion of Kashmir, whose 12 million people bitterly oppose often corrupt and brutal Indian rule – except for local minority Hindus and Sikhs who support it. A bloody, bitter uprising has flared on against Indian rule since 1989 in which some 42,000 people, mostly civilians, have died.
About 250,000 Pakistani troops are dug in on the other side of the ceasefire line.
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Pakistan Suspends Bilateral Trade With India, Expels Envoy
Pakistan Suspends Bilateral Trade With India, Expels Envoy
The Kashmir crisis triggered by India’s revoking of Article 370 from its constitution has exploded into a fast escalating renewed crisis between nuclear armed arch-rivals India and Pakistan.
Merely within the last 24-hours Pakistan has recalled its ambassador while expelling its Indian envoy, and more importantly has taken the drastic step of suspending bilateral trade with India.
“We will call back our ambassador from Delhi and send back their envoy,” foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced in televised comments, according to the AFP, while a separate government statement declared trade suspended and a downgrading of diplomatic ties.
The committee has decided on “downgrading of diplomatic relations with India” and “suspenstion of bilateral trade with India,” according to the statement.
PM Khan further directed the military to “continue vigilance” after previously saying Pakistan would take “all possible options” in support of Kashmir’s Muslim-majority population – this after regional media has reported “tens of thousands” of Indian troops have surged into Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), while a phone and internet blackout is in place.
In a worrisome sign that the two historic rivals and neighbors could be again moving to open war, Khan is reported to have said, “We have to choose between dishonor and war.”
Pakistan’s foreign minister informed the United Nations early this week it is prepared to act in response to the “critical situation”- which Khan reiterated to the high level defense committee meeting Wednesday.
The now voided Article 370 is legally and historically what assured a high degree autonomy for the Indian administered Muslim-majority state, enshrined in the constitution, which inhabitants there see as justifying remaining part of India. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata leadership in New Delhi, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, revoked J&K’s status quo ability and rights to maintain their own local governance on Monday.
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Kashmir On Lockdown: India Strips Muslim-Majority Region Of Autonomy, Troops Move In
Kashmir On Lockdown: India Strips Muslim-Majority Region Of Autonomy, Troops Move In
In a dramatic escalation following a worsening crisis, which over the weekend saw intensive shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) that separates Indian-controlled and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir, New Delhi has revoked the key constitutional article which gives Indian-administered Kashmir special status.
The unprecedented move signals India is willing to take greater military action in the disputed border region, which is virtually guaranteed to not only spark severe local unrest, but put India and Pakistan on a direct collision course for war. Specifically, Article 370 is legally and historically what assured a high degree autonomy for Indian administered Muslim-majority state, enshrined in the constitution, which the majority of inhabitants there see as justifying remaining part of India.
The Indian administered side of Kashmir, called Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), was granted its status in the 1950s, which included maintaining its own state constitution, as well as law making bodies, making it the most independent of all Indian states. But starting Monday this will all be revoked, following a resolution introduced on Monday by Home Minister Amit Shah and quickly put into law by President Ram Nath Kovind.
Ultimately, as the BBC reports, “the BJP [the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata, India’s largest political party] has irrevocably changed Delhi’s relationship with the region.” Currently, there’s reported to be a lockdown across J&K, with some phone and internet services reported cut. According to CNN:
Indian-controlled Kashmir was in lockdown Monday, with tens of thousands of new troops deployed into what is already one of the most militarized places in the world, as a number of prominent politicians were placed under house arrest and New Delhi announced contentious changes to the way the territory is administered.
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India Answers Pakistan’s Missile Test With Daring Raid On “Most Wanted Militant” In Kashmir
India Answers Pakistan’s Missile Test With Daring Raid On “Most Wanted Militant” In Kashmir
After a couple months of uneasy calm following the late February crisis over Kashmir involving two down Indian jets which allegedly entered Pakistani-administered territory to raid a “terror compound” it appears the long disputed border region is heating up again. And this a day after Pakistan on Thursday decided to use the moment of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s landslide victory to a second 5-year term in the world’s largest general election to test fire a ballistic missile with a reported 1,500 kilometer range.
It appears India has hit back in its own symbolic way, signalling it will stick by its pledge to root out jihadist militants in Kashmir, which New Delhi has long charged Pakistan with harboring and supporting. Early Friday India announced its forces raided the home of a top al-Qaeda commander in southern Kashmir the night before, sparking widespread anti-India protests in the Muslim-majority region. Zakir Rashid Bhat (also known as Zakir Musa), head of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, via The India Times
Twenty-five year old terrorist Zakir Rashid Bhat (also known as Zakir Musa), described as India’s “most wanted militant,” was reportedly trapped when Indian commandos set fire to his three-story house, leading police shooting and killing him during a counterinsurgency operation in the southern Tral area. “As we were clearing debris from the house, he tried to get up. Our troops fired at him and he was killed,” one police official told Reuters.
The controversial raid has again put tensions with Pakistan on edge, and has further forced Indian authorities to place the administrative region on lock down, fearing the spread of more unrest. According to Reuters:
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Former India Envoy To Pakistan: Massive Navy Operation A Warning To Beijing
Former India Envoy To Pakistan: Massive Navy Operation A Warning To Beijing
Former Indian government officials and military analysts have told Russian media sources that India’s large scale naval deployment, including nuclear submarines and an aircraft carrier, was fundamentally aimed at sending a message to China, not necessarily Pakistan. Indian warships on parade off the coast of Mumbai, via Reuters.
A major naval deployment exercise called TROPEX 2019 involvingsome 60 ships and an equal number of aircraft had been slated to run from January to early March, but according to reports quickly turned into a real time operational situation following the Feb. 27 crisis over Kashmir.
Notably, the games which had already been underway at the time of the crisis had involved the INS ‘Vikramaditya,’ a Russian-built aircraft carrier, and multiple other nuclear submarines essentially becoming “active” as the situation unfolded.
But now Indian analysts in an interview with Russia’s RT have presented the interesting prospect that the TROPEX 2019 naval exercises-turned-“active” was “a clear signal to Beijing, rather than Islamabad.”
“China is using Pakistan as a tool to contain India, so the redeployment of an aircraft carrier, warships and nuclear-powered submarines to North Arabian Sea is a clear signal to Beijing, rather than Islamabad,” the analysts, including former Indian envoy to Pakistan Gopalaswami Parthasarathy, told RT.
Parthasarathy insisted that “India does not base its defense preparedness on what Pakistan does or does not do,” however cited India’s greater concern as “what China does to contain Indian influence in the Indian Ocean.”
Once India’s top envoy to its rival nuclear-armed neighbor, Parthasarathy continued, “Pakistan is an instrument used by China to contain India through supplies of weapons, missiles and even nuclear weapon designs.” And he emphasized further while significantly downplaying Islamadad as a threat: “Pakistan, by itself, does not worry us. We can more than match and manage Pakistan.”
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Forget Jussie Smollet, Here Are the Real False Flags
Forget Jussie Smollet, Here Are the Real False Flags
The world slipped closer to nuclear war. Big false flags—actual, suspected, and anticipated—were a key factor. But hardly anybody noticed. Everyone was riveted by the story of actor Jussie Smollet, who supposedly paid a couple of Nigerian-American bodybuilders for a staged racist-homophobic near-lynching. The ostensible motive: Add a zero to Smollet’s pathetic little million-a-year salary.
The Jussie Smollet hoax was story number 29 of the 31 we covered on this week’s False Flag Weekly News.
In a world filled with false flags, this one just wasn’t all that important. Conspiracy theories that Obama was somehow involved are not supported by logic and evidence. If you really need a conspiracy theory (beyond Smollet conspiring with Nigerians) try this: The whole thing was staged to distract us, to get us talking about stupid celebrities and divisive, emotionally-galvanizing issues unrelated to the real dirty business conducted by our psychopathic rulers.
The week’s biggest suspected false flag was the bombing in Pulwama, Kashmir. This one may start a nuclear war. Over 40 Indian soldiers were killed in an attack attributed to an angry young Kashmiri suicide bomber supposedly backed by Pakistani intelligence. More likely it was an Indo-Zionist false flag designed to demonize Pakistan and rally Indians behind Pakistan-hating Modi, who is about to launch his re-election campaign.
The first clue is the timing: Pakistan has nothing to gain by heightening tensions now. Recently elected pro-9/11-truth Prime Minister Imran Khan is desperately seeking money to revitalize his country’s crumbling economy. The Pulwama attack is terrible PR for Pakistan as it proffers its global begging bowl. But it’s perfect PR for Modi’s campaign launch. And as Sabtain Ahmed Dar writes: “Modi’s framing of Pakistan as a terrorist state on the visit of Saudi crown prince Muhammad Bin Salman cunningly and subliminally (seeks) an advantage in its foreign policy with Iran by checkmating and framing both the Saudis and Pakistanis at the same time.”
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India’s Military On High Alert, Stands Ready For “Possible Retaliatory Action” From Pakistan
India’s Military On High Alert, Stands Ready For “Possible Retaliatory Action” From Pakistan
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s response to Tuesday’s dramatic escalation with nuclear armed rival India was to direct his armed forces and the public to “remain prepared for all eventualities.” This after Pakistani officials confirmed that Indian fighter jets dropped “four bombs” in its sovereign territory while noting the Indian attack was repulsed and while going back the aircraft “jettisoned their payload” — implying the mission was cut short due to Pakistani defense efforts, according to the Times of India. “India has committed uncalled for aggression to which Pakistan shall respond at the time and place of its choosing,” Khan’s office said soon after the brazen violation of Pakistan’s airspace.
“There will be some form of escalation,” Kamran Bokhari, an expert on Pakistani-Indian relations at the Center for Global Policy with the University of Ottawa told Bloomberg. “Pakistan will have to strike back — I am not saying this will lead to an all out war, but I don’t see that it’s over.” Indian Army, Navy and Air Force chiefs meanwhile praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his bold actions and underscored the military’s preparedness to deal with “any possible retaliatory action” by Islamabad.
The incident marks the most dangerous and significant escalation since 2001, when after a mass terror attack on government buildings in New Delhi, both countries moved ballistic missiles and troops to their border amidst heated rhetoric on who’s to blame for the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) bombings.
Tuesday’s provocative cross border Indian jet raid was in retaliation for one of the deadliest terror attacks in the history of the long-running Kashmiri insurgency. Earlier this month, a Muslim ‘mujahidin’ drove a car loaded with explosives into a bus packed with Indian paramilitary soldiers, killing more than 40 in what became known as the Pulwama attack.
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India Bombs Pakistan, Targeting Terrorist Camps In Cross-Border Air Raids; Pakistan Vows Retaliation
India Bombs Pakistan, Targeting Terrorist Camps In Cross-Border Air Raids; Pakistan Vows Retaliation
With most of the world distracted by President Trump’s second summit meeting with Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, tensions between two nuclear-armed powers flared roughly 2,000 miles West in the contested border region of Kashmir.
In retaliation for one of the deadliest terror attacks in the history of the long-running Kashmiri insurgency – earlier this month, a Muslim ‘mujahidin’ drove a car loaded with explosives into a bus packed with Indian paramilitary soldiers, killing more than 40 – Indian fighter jets carried out a tactical strike on what the Indian government described as a training camp for the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), killing more than 300 militants and infuriating the government in Islamabad, which condemned the attack and insinuated that it could launch a counter-strike of its own, with Prime Minister Imran Khan warning the nation of 200 million and its armed forces to “remain prepared for all eventualities.”
Unsurprisingly, the two countries offered contrasting descriptions of the attack. Here’s more from Al Jazeera:
Indian fighter jets on Tuesday crossed into Pakistani territory, conducting what the foreign ministry in New Delhi termed a “non-military pre-emptive action” against armed group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), dramatically escalating tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours weeks after a suicide attack in the disputed Kashmir region.
Pakistan reported the Indian airspace incursion, with military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor saying its air force jets were scrambling to respond, forcing the Indian aircraft to “release [their] payload in haste while escaping”.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, however, asserted that the jets had hit their target, and that “a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated”.
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India-Pakistan War: Pakistan Army Prepares For Conflict, Tells Hospitals To Be Ready
India-Pakistan War: Pakistan Army Prepares For Conflict, Tells Hospitals To Be Ready
The Pakistan military is preparing to defend against future attacks by India, and would respond with “full force,” the army’s spokesman announced Friday, amid worries of retaliation from India after the Pulwama terror incident, reported Reuters.
“We have no intention to initiate war, but we will respond with full force to full spectrum threat, that would surprise you,” Major General Asif Ghafoor said.
“Don’t mess with Pakistan.”
“We do not wish to go to war. If it is imposed on us, we have the right to respond,” Major General Ghafoor told journalists during a news conference in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, one week after a Pakistani-based terror organization claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack that killed 40 Indian policemen in the Kashmir region.
The Times of India has obtained new government documents, one by the Pakistani military and another from local authorities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), which suggests the Pakistani military is preparing for an upcoming conflict on the Line of Control (LOC), a military control line between the Indian and Pakistani controlled parts of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan Army based in Headquarters Quetta Logistics Area in Quetta Cantonment sent a letter to Jilani Hospital on February 20 to prepare for medical support in the event of war.
“In case of emergency war on the eastern front, Quetta logistics area is expected to receive injured soldiers from civil and military hospitals of Sindh and Punjab. After initial medical treatment, these soldiers are planned to be shifted from military and civil public sector to the civil hospital in Balochistan till the period of availability of beds in CMHs (civil-military hospitals),” the letter to Jilani hospital’s Abdul Malik by one Asia Naz, force commander, HQLA, said.
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World War 3? Pakistan Vows REVENGE On India After Attack
World War 3? Pakistan Vows REVENGE On India After Attack
As the world quietly goes about their business, Pakistan has vowed to get revenge on India after an attack. The tensions between the two nations are quickly spiraling out of control leading many to wonder if World War 3 will break out in the area soon.
According to the Express UK, the devastating attack from India along the contested border known as the Line of Control (LoC) as tensions between the two South Asian nations flare, a retired soldier has claimed. The LoC splits the region of Kashmir, with Pakistan owning one side and India, the other. The region of Kashmir has beencontested by both countries for decades causing high levels of tensions between the neighboring states.
Fayaz Ahmad, a politician from the Kashmir region of India, stated that announcements were made over some loudspeakers on the Pakistan side of Balakote that have declared acts of “retaliation” will take place. “They said that India has killed many of our soldiers, we will take revenge for it after we bury our dead today. People are advised to take safety precautions,” said Ahmad.
Another resident in the region, Naseer Ahmad, spoke of “bombs exploding” and bullets being fired in the midst of heavy shelling. “All one could hear was the sound of bullets hitting tin or bombs exploding. The firing continued from morning till evening. We could see smoke from the hills around us. We are stressed. We don’t know what will happen when it will stop,” said the resident.
On Sunday New Delhi said that Pakistan had been “punished” for its “misadventure”, according to Brigadier Y.S Ahlawat of the Indian Army. “In a befitting reply, the Indian Army has retaliated accurately with heavy fire on the Pakistani posts which were involved in ceasefire violations,” Ahlawat said.
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