Day: November 27, 2020

Srinagar, November 27, 2020 (PPI-OT): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the authorities have extended ban on high speed 3G and 4G internet services till December 11. The high speed internet remains suspended in IIOJK since August 05, last year when the Modi-led fascist Indian government repealed the special status of the territory and put it under military siege.

The authorities extended ban in all but two districts of the territory, Ganderbal and Udhampur, citing apprehensions regarding disruptions to “extensive campaigning by the contesting candidates” in ensuing local body polls. The Home Department of the territory ordered continuation on the ban on high speed internet till December 11. “The IGPs of Kashmir/Jammu shall communicate these directives to the service providers forthwith and ensure its implementation in letter and spirit,” the order added.

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Srinagar, November 27, 2020 (PPI-OT): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Civil Society Forum (JKCSF) has demanded the immediate breakthrough in the deadlock of the release and shifting of Kashmiri detainees, languishing in different jails and detention centres in India and the territory.

The JKCSF Chairman, Abdul Qayoom Wani in a statement issued in Srinagar said that keeping these people detained amounted to multidimensional and complex problems for them and their families with respect to their health and uncertain future of their cases.

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London, November 27, 2020 (PPI-OT): The International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) has said that there is a wide scope for misunderstanding and misperceptions between India and Pakistan in the absence of an official dialogue and backchannel diplomacy.

In it’s latest report on South Asia addressing issues in specific in Indian illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and Afghanistan, the IISS has said that any attack from either side would raise the risk of the conflict escalating into a new crisis and the situation “remained strained, and Kashmir a potential flashpoint” towards the end of 2020.

The report said that India clamped down on every kind of communication and activity after revoking the status of IIOJK. The report said: “The Indian government was keen to showcase a return to near normality in the region, including carefully scripted visits for groups of Delhi-based foreign envoys. “But stringent laws remained in place prohibiting protests and allowing for preventive arrests and detention for up to two years without trial.

“Some political activists remained in detention, curbs on media reporting continued and slow 2G internet speeds were the norm. Local political parties (other than the BJP) remained inactive.”

The London-based think tank said that in Narendra Modi’s first term, he ignored Bharatiya Janata Party’s agenda on gobbling Kashmir, focused on development of India and initiated the resumption of dialogue with Pakistan during Nawaz Sharif’s government but “with Modi’s landslide general-election victory in 2019, the appointment of a powerful new home minister and heightened tensions with Pakistan under Prime Minister Imran Khan, the second Modi government sensed an opportunity to deliver early on its electoral pledge on Kashmir” by revoking articles 370 and 35A. This move attracted strong criticism from Pakistan.

The IISS said that India’s position that there can be no dialogue with Pakistan on Kashmir was problematic as it increased risks of continuity of tensions leading to a bigger conflict. In Afghanistan, the report said that Pakistan has repeatedly assured the US of its cooperation in the peace process and of its willingness to use its influence over the Taliban in a positive manner.

The report said that “some US and Afghan officials remained sceptical of Pakistan’s short and long term intentions” but in a visible attempt to show Pakistan’s support for the Afghan peace process Pakistan’s Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visited Afghanistan on June 9 for meetings with Afghan leaders, during which both sides reiterated Pakistan’s support for the process.

The IISS report said that Pakistan was not the only neighbour to retain an active interest in Afghanistan. The report claimed that despite the economic hardship and international political and financial pressures it faces, Iran has expanded its regional influence by establishing ties with the Taliban and China, India and Russia are invested in Afghanistan and their role is of paramount importance for the success of the Afghan peace process.

Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, the head of South Asia at the IISS, commented: “South Asia’s geo-politics in 2021 will be shaped by US president-elect Biden’s relative neglect of South Asia (due to domestic COVID and economic priorities and his foreign policy focus on China); prospective political transition in Afghanistan marked by greater influence by Pakistan and lesser Indian influence; a further heightening of India-Pakistan tensions, with potential for escalation; continuing Sino-Indian tensions resulting in the emergence of an unprecedented ‘two-front’ challenge for India with both China and Pakistan. In effect, in 2021, South Asia is likely to see the resumption of ‘hard power’ geo-politics amidst dramatically weakened economies due to COVID.”

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New Delhi, November 27, 2020 (PPI-OT): A survey conducted by Transparency International (TI) has found that India has the highest rate of bribery in the region. The results of the survey – the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) – Asia – have showed that India also had the highest rate of people using personal connections to access public services.

The countries that were included in the survey are: Indonesia, Taiwan, Maldives, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, Nepal, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, China, South Korea, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The report noted that “slow and complicated bureaucratic process, unnecessary red tape and unclear regulatory frameworks force citizens to seek out alternate solutions to access basic services through networks of familiarity and petty corruption [in India].”

The country has a bribery rate of 39 per cent while 46pc people use familiarity to get access to services, it said, adding that 50pc of those surveyed revealed they paid bribes because they were asked to. Thirty-two per cent of people said they used connections because they would not have gotten the same service otherwise.

TI recommended that the Indian government should “streamline administrative processes for public services, implement preventative measures to combat bribery and nepotism and invest in user-friendly online platforms to deliver essential public services quickly and effectively”.

The GCB-Asia, which surveyed people from 17 countries in the region, found that nearly one in three people believed that government corruption was a big problem in their country. Not only was corruption rampant, 38pc of surveyed people also believed that corruption had increased in their countries in the last 12 months, it found.

“Nearly one in five citizens who accessed public services, such as healthcare and education paid a bribe in the previous year [while] more than one in five used personal connections,” the report said, noting however, that more than three in four people had heard of the anti-corruption agency in their country and 63pc thought they were doing a “good job”.

People living in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia faced the highest rates of sexual extortion when accessing a government service. More than three out of five people believed ordinary citizens could “make a difference in the fight against corruption”, the survey found.

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Lahore, November 27, 2020 (PPI-OT): Another batch of Pakistanis including large number of Hindu families, who had moved to India believing a better life there, returned to Pakistan through Attari-Wagah border after being disappointed by the worse living conditions in India.

When asked the promises by the Narendra Modi government of providing nationality and facilities to Hindus from all over the world who settle in India, the returning Hindu Pakistanis while talking to media at the “Bab-e-Azadi termed them all farce.

They said that they were promised that they would earn a better livelihood and would have better prospects for their families, however what they witnessed was far from the promises made to them. One of the returning Hindu elder said they were promised that they would get a visa, however there was no such thing and waited for three months. Later the people who had brought them to India also discarded them.

“The deplorable conditions forced us to leave, as what we had in Pakistan was far better than what we were getting,” Shiv Dhan said. When asked the promises by the Narendra Modi government of providing nationality and facilities to Hindus from all over the world who settle in India, he termed it all farce.

“It is not for Pakistani hindus.” Shiv Dhan said throughout their stay in India they witnessed abject poverty, terrible living and economic conditions and equally worse treatment by the Indian government.

“We are glad to be back and would advise all my hindu families not to even think of migrating to India. Pakistan offers much more and much better in reality, as compared to what they offer in mere promises.”

They expressed satisfaction over returning to their “own country” and said they were feeling very much relieved and safe. The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi in a statement said more than 200 Pakistan nationals returned on Thursday. Since 20 March 2020, Pakistan High Commission has facilitated travel of more than 1100 Pakistanis.

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Niamey (Niger), November 27, 2020 (PPI-OT): Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has called upon Niger, a founding member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to raise the Kashmir issue at the forum of African Union (AU) to build pressure on India for resolution of Kashmir conflict in accordance with UN resolutions.

Talking to media after arriving in Niger’s Niamey to attend the 47th meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, Masood said that the brotherly Islamic country of Niger has always supported the demands of Kashmiris at the OIC platform.

The country, he added, had played a leading role on the platform of the OIC and its contact group on Kashmir and always reaffirmed its unequivocal support for the legitimate and just demands of Kashmiris for their right to self-determination.

“Being the host of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, we rightly expect the Niger leadership to take a firm stand on all issues of the Muslim Ummah, including Kashmir,” he said. The people of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir want a peaceful political and diplomatic solution to the long-standing issue of Jammu and Kashmir in line with the UN Security Council resolutions, he asserted.

Saying that Pakistan has always raised Kashmir issue in various multilateral forums of the world including OIC seeking a peaceful political and diplomatic solution to this conflict, AJK president said India, unfortunately, was pursuing a military solution and was implementing a vicious plan in Kashmir and wants to eliminate the Kashmiris in the next one to two years.

“The situation in Indian illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir has changed radically since August 5 last year as 900,000 occupation forces have laid siege to the entire occupied state, innocent people are being killed, youths are arrested and tortured in jails and those who speak for freedom, liberty right to self-determination are being blinded with the fire of lethal pellet guns.”

The AJK president said that non–Kashmiri Hindu population was being transferred from the different parts of India to the Kashmir to change the demography of the region. He pointed out that these demographic changes are contrary to international laws and amount to war crimes. In addition to grabbing the land of Kashmiris, the plan is also aimed at to turn Kashmir’s Muslim majority into a minority.

He went on to say that more than 2.3 million Indians have been resettled in the occupied valley in the last few months and if India is not stopped, it will turn the Muslim majority population of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir into a minority within the next one to two years.

Answering various questions posed by media persons, Masood said that India is not only oppressing Kashmiris who are struggling for freedom and right to self-determination but is also involved in acts of terrorism in Pakistan. Pakistan, he said, has recently provided irrefutable proof of India’s sponsorship of terrorism in AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan and other regions of Pakistan to the UN Secretary-General and the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

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