A desperate cry from India
Sajjad Shaukat
Today electronic media which also include the use of internet have
really changed the world into a global village. By displaying the
printed articles of newspapers and journals on multiple websites, the
cyber age has added revolutionary changes to the norms of Journalism. It
is due to this global phenomenon that soldiers cannot fight a war alone
unless public support is gained through the media scribers and
commentators. But by bringing the bloody conflicts and cold wars in our
bed rooms, modern media have exposed these journalist’s writings,
leaving it to the people in deciding as to who is right and who is
wrong. No doubt every writer has the right to protect the interests of
his own country, but responsible writers do not follow ‘yellow
journalism’ by showing sensationalism or fabricated information in their
writings. It is not only against the conduct of Journalism, but also
distorts the image of a good writer in the eyes of readers.
Notably, the Mumbai carnage of November 26, 2008 proved a watershed in
the history of the Sub-continent as it unveiled almost all the
RAW-financed journalists whose sole job is to support the Indian
security agencies and secret agents in creating lawlessness in Pakistan,
pursuing the real aims of New Delhi such as backing insurgency in the
Frontier Province and Balochistan, creating a rift between the general
masses and Pakistan’s security forces, especially tarnishing the image
of Pak Army, its agency, ISI and our country itself in the world through
every possible technique of psychological warfare. It can be judged from
the fact that during the Mumbai events, without any initial inquiry,
Indian media commentators had started pointing fingers towards Pakistan
and its intelligence agency ISI, while in the immediate aftermath,
Indian writers and high officials followed the same game, blindly
accusing Islamabad in that connection.
In the recent past, New Delhi sent information (Dossier) to Pakistan,
based upon false stories—that the ten gunmen who conducted acts of
sabotage in Mumbai came from Pakistan with the official support of the
latter. Nevertheless, RAW’s media agents fully backed Indian
self-fabricated stand against Pakistan during exchange of information
between the two neighboring countries. Recently, Ajmal Kasab, the lonely
gunmen who was arrested during Mumbai mayhem, disclosed in an Indian
court that the police had forced him to give statement against Pakistan
and involvement of ISI. His statement has endorsed Indian blame game
against Islamabad, which is nothing than a desperate cry.
Although a number of Indian writers and media analysts leave no stone
unturned in concocting false stories about Pakistan, yet Indian writer,
B. Raman, while setting aside all the principles of Journalism, has
broken all the records in conducting venomous propaganda against
Islamabad.
The central themes of his recent and previous articles which are clear
proof that B. Raman is a highly paid agent-writer of RAW. B. Raman’s
poisonous approach against Pakistan can be assessed from one of his
article, titled: “A Desperate Cry for Help from Swat”, published on May
16, 2009 on the website of South Asia Analysis Group. In this article,
with the help of RAW-created bogus website which is being displayed as
if it belongs to the people of Swat Valley, working abroad, he pointed
out, “while browsing through Pashtun websites in the English language, I
came across this desperate cry for help from some students and
professionals of Swat who have started a blogspot of their own titled:
“Swat Under The Reign of Darkness.” Raman indicated the people of Swat,
strongly condemning the Pak military operations which started in 2008,
while expressing their anger at the criminal activities of the Taliban.
In this connection, he further wrote: “the people of Swat are going
through one of the worst times of Swat’s history. The militants are now
free to brainwash and recruit the youth for extremist endeavours. Civil
liberties are a luxury that the people of Swat cannot even think of.
Many children have no access to education, especially girls. Kidnap for
ransom, killing and loot are a daily routine everywhere. The militants
are getting stronger both in numbers and in resources. They terrorize
people to give them money for their Jihad, preparing them for suicide
missions. This is the Swat of Today.” Most interestingly, the article
was updated recently to denounce Pakistan’s military operations and
appealing to help the internally displaced persons, showing resentment
of people against Pak security forces.
It is most surprising to note that this article is not only from a
self-generated website about the Swati people, but in his anti-Pakistan
campaign, Raman forgot the major self-contradiction in this article as
on the one hand, he says that general masses of the Valley are against
the military operations, but they are fed up with the anti-social
activities of the Taliban on the other. Raman’s ambivalence, coupled
with some of his other articles, also misguided the readers through
disinformation like the western media that the ongoing military
operations against the Taliban are the result of American pressure as
the Taliban’s advancement beyond Swat will result in total control of
Pakistan by these insurgents with the nuclear weapons in their hands.
The fact of the matter is that without bothering for American pressure,
Swat peace agreement was signed on February 15 this year between the
government and the militants led by Sufi Muhammad. Meanwhile, National
Assembly passed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation which was also signed by
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari. While implementing it, two Qazi
courts were appointed in the Malakand Division. On the other side,
setting aside the terms of peace accord, the Taliban equipped with heavy
weapons started making checkpoints, strengthening their position in
Swat, Dir and even entered the Buner. They not only refused to renounce
arms, but also re-initiated their previous practice of beheadings,
kidnappings, attacks on the checkposts of the security forces etc. It
was in these circumstances that the military operations were
re-conducted to establish the writ of the government in these affected
areas, and to get rid the inncocent people of the brutalities of the
Taliban. In this respect, successful military operations have surprised
the international community as our armed forces flushed out the Taliban
from the concerned areas of Buner and Dir, occupying the strongholds of
the militants in Swat within weeks.
Besides, overwhelming public support from every province of Pakistan for
the ongoing military operations has shown that majority of the people
are against the Taliban style of Sharia, based upon multiple crimes
against the peace-loving people. In this connection, on May 18 this
year, an all-parties conference (APC) vowed to unite the nation against
insurgency in Malakand and Swat, pledging to end terror by condemning
all violent challenges to the constitution as well as the State. Besides
political groups, even religious scholars and their organizations have
strongly favoured the present military operations. It is owing to these
developments that quite contrary to their previous misperceived
approach; the US and western high officials have been highly
appreciating Pakistan’s armed forces, donating million of dollars for
the IDPs.
Notably, what the American-led NATO forces, equipped with the latest
sophisticated weaponry could not do in the last eight years in
Afghanistan, Pak security forces have done within eight weeks as now
Taliban are under siege at most of the places. And operations are going
to reach their logical ends. Nonetheless, determination of Pakistan’s
armed forces in containing the rise of Taliban, tight security of the
nuclear assets and public resentment of Talibanisation including support
for military operations have clearly confirmed the baselessness of B.
Raman’s articles which reveal disinformation against Islamabad. Now,
even a general reader can conclude that like other RAW-paid journalists,
his writings are no more than a desperate cry from India. |
