[ALOCHONA] Stratagem to redraw South Asia's map?

Stratagem to redraw South Asia's map?     Is India preparing to attack Pakistan? New Delhi is almost totally convinced that the November 26 terrorist attack on Mumbai was carried out by Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba with assistance from its intelligence agency ISI. India's deputy Home Minister said attackers were all from Pakistan. Newly appointed Home Minister Chidambaram spoke of response to Pakistan with determination and resolve. The ruling Congress party spokesman, anxious to shore up confidence in domestic demands, called for stern and immediate action. "Certainly we are not going to sit back with Pakistan unleashing this terror on India," the International Herald Tribune (IHT) quoted an unnamed senior security official as saying.     The assertion of Pakistani involvement is based on confession by an alleged terror held from one of the spots of attacks, Ajmal Amir Qasab, who is in an Indian military hospital with injury in the leg.    International media reported that Qasab gave inconsistent answers to the interrogators about identity of the attackers saying they were of many nationals.        Indian militants, media    It is said 10 militants caused the massacre. But is it possible for only just ten young men in their early twenties to hold under seize two international hotels and a Jewish centre for long 70 hours without local assistance?    There are homegrown Indian militant groups. It was recently revealed that involvement of RSS-Bajrang Dal and even a Colonel of Indian Army in Malegaon bombing. Maoists attack is frequent causing the main security concern of the Indian government. Explosion in train in Assam on Tuesday, before the dusts settled in Mumbai, left at least three people dead and 30 others badly wounded.    Indian media, known to have perfected the art of projecting Pakistan as the enemy, has launched a virulent campaign to mount pressure on the government. It is widely believed that the media mood is designed to provoke a crisis or even a war - a preemptive strike on Pakistan.        Disturbing signals    And in Islamabad, daily Dawn reported on December 1: "Disturbing signals are emanating from New Delhi." Sensing the gravity of the situation President Asif Ali Zardari has contacted a number of world leaders asking them to use their good offices to make India realise it could be suicidal to indulge in blame game or military action. ISI in a statement has assured the nation that the armed forces are ready for defending the country. Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani has called for an all-party meeting on Tuesday and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told BBC on Monday that Indians are comparing the Mumbai incidents with 9/11 terrorist attack in USA that led to the invasion of Afghanistan. "Indians are taking the escalation level up at a very brisk pace," Qureshi said expressing concern at the prospect of a renewed confrontation.    South Asia's redrawn map    What more disquieting is a redrawn map of South Asia showing Pakistan truncated, reduced to an elongated silver of land with the big hulk of India to the east and an enlarged Afghanistan in the west.    The map, wrote Jane Parlez in the IHT on November 23, was first circulated as a theoretical exercise in some US neoconservative circles. It has, no doubt, fueled a belief among Pakistanis, including the armed forces, that what the United States really wants is the breakup of Pakistan, the only Muslim country with nuclear arms.        US collusion    "One of the biggest fears of the Pakistani military planners is the collaboration between India and Afghanistan to destroy Pakistan ... and United States is colluding in this," Jane quoted an unnamed Pakistani strategic planner as saying.    The apprehension is substantiated by facts. Encouraged by US administration, India has recently made huge investments in Afghanistan. These include construction of a road to the Iranian border that will eventually give India access to the Iranian port of Chabahar, circumventing Pakistan. Not only that. India has offered Afghanistan to send troops, including for training of Afghan military.    General David McKeirnan, commander of US forces in Afghanistan faced some challenging questions in Pakistan last month. He met a group of 70 MPs in Islamabad at a dinner hosted by US ambassador. "Why did you Americans come to Afghanistan when it was peaceful before you got there? We understand that you have invited a thousand Indian soldiers to serve in Afghanistan by Christmas," were some of the anxious queries shoot out by the MPs. The answer of the US General was not known.    The people of Pakistan are not convinced that the newly elected President of US Barak Obama could do anything in resolving the Kashmir problem that many across the world rightly believe as the main cause of giving rise of the militants in India and in the region as well. It is indeed discouraging that the US totally ignored the importance of continuous and popular protests in Kashmir against the Indian rule. It is irony that killing of innocent Muslims and Christians in frequent communal violence in India failed to draw attention of the US administration.    In this backdrop US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is coming to India next week, maybe in a bid to defuse tension heightened by the terrorist attack on Mumbai. Her statements leaning towards New Delhi have given to doubt about the real purpose of her visit.   http://www.weeklyholiday.net/front.html#10

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