Cracks in India: 40% of "India" not under Government control. Blaming the ISI cannot dampen the 89 Indigineous Indian insurgencies

Posted on 11 January 2008. Tags: India, Naxalite insurrections

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Naxal, Chattargarh, Asaam, and Seven Sisters are not household words like Mosul or Kabul. However these and hundreds of other towns are where the insurgengies do not accept the control of the central government.

India is afflicted by various fissures, geographical rebellions (89 insurgencies), internal cavities (lack of government control of 40% of the country), caste divisions (250 million untouchable Dalits), gender servitude (50 million widows). This article only focuses on the geographic centrifugal forces that have brought the nation building to a halt and the country to the precipice. The governments survive by turning the attention of the population to foreign demons in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the ephemeral future that is supposed to be bright. Drugs alcohol and Bollywood make life bearable for the multitude millions.

Insurgencies are raging in many areas which can be listed as Northwest (Kashmir and East Punjab), in the Northeast (seven sister states), in the Naxalite belt (Middle country), and in the extreme South (Tamil). The world does not see these on the television sets, but that does not mean that they do not exist.

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The list of groups fightng Bharat was taken from the Bharati defense report published i the Indian Defense Weekly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWn5zXG13WE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeh9FQLR_M8

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Is There A Solution To Violence In North East India? April 15, 2009

Martin McCauley writes: The north east Indian states, known as the Seven Sisters, are home to a heterogeneous mix of ethnic groups. They have been in conflict with New Delhi since independence in 1947. They are of fundamental importance for the nation’s economy supplying oil and coal. The region has been plagued by terrorism for the last 30 years.

The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) is the largest terrorist group and earlier this month set off several bombs in the state’s business capital, Guwahati. The goal of the movement is independence for Assam.

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Large numbers of workers from India’s Hindi belt have migrated to Assam to labour in its tea plantations and mines. Hence ULFA targets both national and local political elites especially the Hindi speaking migrants who are predominantly from Bihar, a very poor state. The argument of the ULFA is that the poor migrants are overwhelming the local culture and depriving Assamese of work in their own industries. Hence it is xenophobic and chauvinistic.

Although ULFA is strongly opposed to internal migration in India it does not protest against the illegal immigration of Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh. This has led Indian officials to assume that Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) is involved. New Delhi maintains that the DGFI is supported by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

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India herself is cutting India down to size. Many think of a monolithic country as portrayed by India inc. Cracks are showing and many states are in open rebellion. There were more than 560 states in the Subcontinent, and the prospect of nation building has been an arduous and daunting task on the brink of impossibility.

A huge insurgency is raging in the heartland, often called the Naxalite belt.

Bollwood’s panglossian gloss cannot hide the cracks in India. A leaf falls in anywhere in India and “The ISI did it” is the mantra that echoes from All India Radio and the so called free press that is compliant to the bigotry and bias that is omnipresent in the Indian sub-conscience. Blaming the neighbor gets fringe movements in India the required votes and helps them gain election victories.

There are huge issues with the congregation of states. The first map shows the hundreds of states that were forced into the Union. Three areas have been identified among the 89 insurgencies that are raging.

Very few policy makers in India dare to acknowledge the danger to the nation’s territorial integrity. The security and integrity of the nation has become hostage to vote-bank politics. Democracy and more than eight percent economic growth will be of no avail if the country as such withers away. India is not only being frayed at its borders by insurgencies, but its very writ in the heartland is becoming increasingly questionable. The rise of a nation is predicated upon unity, peace and stability, which are essentially determined by good governance. The prevailing security scenario poses the serious question – Is India’s development and economic growth becoming unsustainable due to poor handling of the security? There are three dangers to the territorial integrity that bedevil the nation. Bharat Verma. Indian Defense Institute.

Danger-1: The Seven Sisters

The Seven Sister insurgency is considered the most dangerous to the structure of the India.

New Delhi and the state capitals have almost ceded the governmental control over 40 percent of the Union’s territory to the Naxalites. The Naxals’ are aided and abetted by the crime mafia that runs its operations in the same corridor from Nepal to Andhra Pradesh, as well as Maoists of Nepal who in turn receive covert support from other powers engaged/ interested in destabilizing India.

The nexus between ULFA and Maoists in Nepal is well established. In a recent attack in Chhattisgarh, Maoists of India and Nepal were co-participants. There are also reports to suggest that Indian Maoists are increasingly taking to opium cultivation in areas under their control to finance their activities. The Maoists – crime – drug nexus is rather explosive. Bharat Verma. Indian Defense Institute.

Danger-2:-Kashmir

India has been unable to digest the Muslim majority state of Kashmir.

The problems in Kashmir are multifold. India has the Jammu and Kashmir problem.

India also has the Ladakh problem which is now a Muslim majority area.

More than 80,000 Indian soldier keep down and occupy Kashmir

Then India created the problem of Siachin by occupying it is 1983 while Pakistan was busy in liberating Afghanistan.

The security forces, primarily the Indian Army, have held the state of Jammu and Kashmir physically since Independence. The politicians and the bureaucrats have contributed nothing to resolve the situation. The danger has since magnified many times as displayed by the presence of thousands of supporters of LET flying their flags in a recent rally of dissidents. Under the garb of peace overtures, heavily armed infiltrators.

This part of Kashmir has already been liberated.

http://rupeenews.com/2007/12/07/is-india-a-failed-state/

Danger-3:-Naxalite

The states that support rebellions. Main map with the insurgencies shown up.

These maps show the states are are in open rebellion.

Given a modicum of political will, Danger-I (Kashmir) and II (Mid India) may still be manageable, however, Danger III (Northeast) to its territorial integrity in the Northeast may prove to be the most difficult. In fact the entire Northeast can easily be unhooked on multiple counts from the Union. First, these are low populated areas having contiguity with the most densely populated and demographically aggressive country in the world, i.e., Bangladesh. The country has also emerged as a major source of Islamic fundamentalism which impacts grievously on the Northeast. To add to these woes, New Delhi because of sheer vote-bank politics legitimized illegal migration for 22 years through the vehicle of IMDT.

Many border districts now have a majority population constituting illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. In near future, this leverage will be used to create an internal upheaval against the Centre as in the case of the Valley. Bharat Verma. Indian Defense Institute.

CHITTISGARH

20,000 Indian rebels out of Chattisgarh extend network to Myanmar

NEW DELHI: India’s Intelligence agencies here have revealed that armed Maoists, active in almost 11 provinces have extended their network to Myanmar.

Sources said that major raids conducted on Maoists in the densely forested tribal region of Bastar in Chhattisgarh in central India has revealed for the first time that the red corridor network goes not only up to Nepal but it also extends to Myanmar where they have struck links with the foreign terrorist groups through their North-eastern connections. Their links up to Myanmar is a matter of serious concern for the Home Ministry as it may fire up the northeast where the local rebel groups have already become more aggressive and active in the recent times. The rebels that regularly pour in from the Naxal-affected states, however, show that the Naxals will continue to spread their network unless they are tackled effectively in Chattigarh that has become their breeding ground, with an estimated 20,000 cadres holed up in dense forests to make forays to other states.

After every major attack, these cadres run back to Chattisgarh’s forests that provide them the best protection from the security forces, the home ministry officials admit. After two years of the security operations mounted against them in the state, officials admit that it would take many more years before the Naxals can be weeded out from the region. According to them, 16 out of 20 police districts in Chattisgarh are Naxal affected and the rule of law does not exist in many parts of the state controlled by the rebels.

The state government officials are helplessness to establish the writ of the government as the Maoists fight the security forces with sophisticated Kalashnikov rifles and remote-controlled devices to blow off the search parties. By Iftikhar Gilani. The news

These are some of the active movements of the Northeastern state of Assam. Assam and Bihar have huge Muslim populations that are usually under reported by the official census numbers. Because CNN does not mention them, does not mean that these vibrant indigenous liberation movements do not exist:

LET
Naxalites (Various groups)
Maoists (Various groups)
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
Muslim Tiger Force of Assam,
Muslim United Liberation Force of Assam,
Muslim United Liberation Army,
United Muslim Front of Assam,
United Islamic Reformation Movement of India,
Muslim Security Force,
United Liberation Militia of Assam,
Muslim Security Council of Assam,
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami,
People’s United Liberation Front,
Revolutionary Muslim Commandos,
Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh,
Students’ Islamic Movement of India,

All these groups want independence of Assam.

Nehru and V. Patel absorbed more than 5oo into the Indian Union by force and coersion. Simply signing the “Accession Agreement” did not make tham loyal to Nehru. There are multiple independence movements:

It is pedantic to review this biased article that blames everything that is happening in India on the ISI.

Border Trouble

History and Details of Assam and the Northeast

Pakistan’s ISI is partnering militant groups to foment trouble in the Northeast. By NAVA THAKURIA

The land of armed movements, set on fire by the anti-New Delhi militias, has woken up to a new threat from religious fundamentalists fuelled by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to make Northeast India a volatile region in the continent. The Northeast is no stranger to banned armed groups and their destructive activities, but the recent development where it has emerged that the Pakistani agency has engaged scores of its operatives in the region and also sponsored a number of indigenous armed groups has come as a shocking revelation.

The people of the alienated region of India, which is surrounded by Bhutan, Tibet, Burma (Myanmar) and Bangladesh traditionally pursue a policy of hatred against the Union Government alleging that New Delhi is only interested in exploiting the natural resources of the region but never takes cognizance of the relentless troubles faced by its nearly 50 million population. Even then, they can hardly support the presence of a Pakistani agency in their region, which continues fuelling Islamic fundamentalism consistently beyond their borders.

But unfortunately, for the people of the Northeast, a most influential armed group of Assam has reportedly maintained close links with the ISI. The local media quoting different (government and non-government) sources claimed that the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is in touch with Islamic militants too.

Launched in 1979 with the aim to make Assam an independent country, the banned armed group is blamed for numerous killings, explosions and kidnappings and a huge number of extortion cases.

What is appalling for the people of the region is that not less than 20 native militia groups have come closer to the ISI. It was disclosed during the interrogation of an ISI operative, who was arrested by the Assam police in Guwahati recently. More shocking revelation for the entire nation is that the alliance has slowly pushed the insurgent groups into the clutches of Islamic militants.

The Assam police termed it a big catch in its counter-terrorism operations in the Northeast. The arrested ISI operative was identified as SM Alam alias Mujibullah Alam alias Asfi Alam. Hailing from Ajampur village under Uttara police station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Alam (35) has been recognized as an important functionary of the ISI in charge of Assam and the Northeast.

The police said that Alam was a member of Jamat-e-Islami and Chatra Shibir (of Bangladesh) and joined the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in 1993. The hardcore Bangladeshi national underwent training in Pakistani Kashmir. Later he joined Jamat-ul-Mujahideen in 2005 and afterward he was recruited by the ISI. Soon he shifted his base to the restive Northeast in 2006. What was alarming, however, was Alam confessed that 24 militant outfits in the region had maintained communication with the ISI network.

The ISI is viewed as a notorious agency in Indian perspective as it continues spreading terror in many parts of India. However, it is recognised as the largest and most powerful intelligence service in Pakistan. Created as an independent unit in 1948, the ISI officially handles external intelligence gathering for the Pakistan government. Headquartered at Islamabad, the ISI is known as a disciplined army unit with around 10,000 staff members. It however faces allegations of meddling in the internal affairs of its neighbouring countries.

The Indian police have from time to time claimed that ISI was involved in many explosions in the country. The Mumbai police asserted that it had enough proof of involvement of ISI in the July 2006 blast in a local commuter train. The ISI is also blamed for masterminding explosions in many other cities of the country including Hyderabad, Lucknow, Sri Nagar, Malegaon, Varanasi, Guwahati and Imphal.

This reporter tried to contact the officers of the Inter Services Public Relations, Pakistan Armed Forces, of which ISI is a unit, for their reactions regarding the arrest of Alam in Assam. While responding to the phone calls, an additional director (in charge of foreign media) of Inter Services Public Relations only said that the arrest of the ISI operative was not in his knowledge. He assured he would respond later, though he has not done so. Moreover, a query submitted in the ISPR website also did not result in any response. What is significant is that, the officials of ISPR, while responding to the phone calls, did not summarily reject the news that one of their operatives had been arrested in India.

Dr M Amarjeet Singh, a research scholar at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi wrote in one of his articles, “Apart from aiding and abetting terrorism in Kashmir, ISI has also been fully engaged in building terror infrastructures in the rest of India, including in the Northeast, which has long been infested with multiple insurgencies. This attempt to fish in troubled waters of the Northeast poses a formidable risk to India’s security.”

The Indian security agencies have already gathered evidence to establish that the ISI had been sponsoring violence in many parts of the country. The ISI takes responsibility for supplying sophisticated arms and guerrilla training to several militant groups based in the Northeast.

Brig (Retired) Dr S P Sinha, who served the Northeast for many decades, claimed that the ISI had now formed a new base in Bangladesh to carry on anti-India operations. In his recent book titled ‘Lost Opportunities: 50 years of Insurgency in the Northeast and India’s Response’, Dr Sinha, who led the Gorkha Rifles, also narrated that Pakistan had shifted nearly 200 terrorist training camps from the Pakistani Kashmir to Bangladesh.

A senior Bangladeshi journalist supplements his comment. Speaking to this reporter from Dhaka, the journalist disclosed, “The Pakistani intelligence agency (ISI) has been actively operating in Bangladesh under a number of cover-ups. In recent months, a large number of former army officials from Pakistan have come to Bangladesh to work for different business groups. Most of the top figures in these companies are either former military personnel or well connected to the Pakistan Army.”

The journalist, who sought anonymity added, “Personally I believe, these Pakistani Army officials are not retired personnel. They might be important officials of the ISI. My information is that a huge amount of profit of those companies goes to the hidden activities of the agency. I suspect, the ISI has a significant amount of shares in those companies (including one mobile phone service provider) working in Bangladesh.”

“A few companies owned by foreign nationals have emerged as a major base for the ISI in Bangladesh.” Naming one, Chowdhury, a pro-Pakistani politician in Bangladesh, the journalist alleged that the controversial person had business tie-ups with these companies. “He (Mr Chowdhury) also has links with many Northeastern militants including ULFA and is suspected to be involved with an armed gang in the hill tracts of Chittagong,” the journalist added.

The links of Northeastern militants with the ISI found space for discussion in the Parliament too.” Available inputs indicate that some Indian insurgent groups active in the northeastern region have been using the territory of Bangladesh, and have links with Pakistan’s ISI,” Shriprakash Jaiswal, the minister of state for Home informed Rajya Sabha on December 5. The minister, while admitting reports of alliances among the outfits for tactical purposes of shelter, hideouts, procurement of arms, also added that New Delhi had taken up the issue with Islamabad.

Weeks ago, a reputed US intelligence think tank reported about the ULFA’s increasing financial enterprises with Islamic militant groups. Stratfor, in one of its analytical reports stated that ULFA leaders preferred to maintain their financial network with Pakistan’s intelligence agency and ‘its financial enterprise and strong links with Islamist militant groups have made it a threat that New Delhi will not be able to ignore much longer’.

The report also added that ‘though India has largely turned a blind eye to militant groups operating in its far-flung Northeast’, the growing Islamisation of the region provides ‘more than enough reason for New Delhi to start paying closer attention to its Northeastern border’. Stratfor has been closely monitoring the growing nexus between India’s North Eastern insurgent outfits and militant Islamist groups that regularly traverse India’s extremely porous border with Bangladesh.

The Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi maintained that ULFA is in the clutches of the ISI and that is why they cannot come for talks. Attending a meeting on internal security affairs, which was chaired by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on December 20 in New Delhi, Gogoi expressed serious concern that the ISI had been trying its best to make the Northeast a hub of terrorism. Gogoi argued that, a grave threat the Northeast is facing, is with the abundant aid and sustenance poured in for various anti-national armed groups from outside the country.

He urged New Delhi to take up the issue of terrorist camps in the neighbouring countries (read Bangladesh and Burma) and expedites the fencing of the international borders, which is now porous. Earlier talking to a New Delhi based television news-channel, Gogoi revealed that the ULFA leaders cannot defy the diktat of ISI as most of their senior leaders are taking shelter in Bangladesh and are at the mercy of the ISI. He strongly believes that ULFA is the prime communicator from Northeast to the international terrorist outfits.

Critical concern on ISI’s active involvement in the Northeast has already been expressed in the mainstream media. The Assam Tribune, the oldest English daily of the region in an editorial said “It is a fact that presence of foreign nationals gave a chance to the ISI agents and other fundamentalist forces having roots in Bangladesh to establish their bases not only in Assam but also in other states of the Northeast, which has posed a grave security threat to the nation.”

JP Rajkhowa, an Assamese bureaucrat turned media columnist, while quoting intelligence reports, stated that over 20 Jehadi groups including Muslim Tiger Force of Assam, Muslim United Liberation Force of Assam, Muslim United Liberation Army, United Muslim Front of Assam, United Islamic Reformation Movement of India, Muslim Security Force, United Liberation Militia of Assam, Muslim Security Council of Assam, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami, People’s United Liberation Front, Revolutionary Muslim Commandos, Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, Students’ Islamic Movement of India, Laskar-e-Taiba etc are active in the region. “All these groups want to carve out an Islamic state of Assam,” he commented.

The Sentinel, another important English daily of Northeast commented in an editorial, “We have had occasion in the past to hammer the fact that both the ISI and the fundamentalist and terrorist organizations based in Bangladesh have taken a solemn vow to create a greater Islamic state in the subcontinent by including in it Assam and other suitable areas of the Northeast.” It also raised a pertinent question that why did not the Assam government wake up to the threats of the ISI-jehadis and finally gear up ‘to break the whole ISI network in the State’.

Window into the Subcontinent 5000 years ago and today

This is how Pakistan existed 5000 years ago.

This is how the Subcontinent lived thousands of years ago. The fractures in the Subcontinent are more than 5000 years old.

This is how the Subcontinent was during British times. The first map shows the Muslim majority areas. The 2nd map shows hundreds of states.

This maps shows the areas comprising Pakistan according to Chaudhry Rehmat Ali in his “Now or Never” brochure in 1940. This is the Pakistan that was proposed in the Lahore resolution The “moth eaten” Pakistan was a compromise to accept a foothold as a representative remnant of the mighty Mughal Empire. “Pakistan manzil nahin nishan e manzil hai”. The current issues do not detract anyone from the goals as liad down by iqbal and generations before and after him. “Qari nazar Aata hai, haqeeqat main hai Quran”. Both Ladakh and Assam are Muslim majority areas.

Pakistan as it was imagined and as it exists.

We would like to refer our readers to the an article on “Toppling the US military” that is worth its weight in gold. Search for it on this site. See: “Kissinger threatened Zulifiqar Ali Bhutto”