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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dalvinder Singh Grewal" data-source="post: 226813" data-attributes="member: 22683">Chapter V                                                                INFORMATION COMPAIGN<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Disinformation compaign</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Diplomatic compaign</li> </ol>Disinformation CompaignOperation Topac was a very well conceived, planned and systematic operation against India in which the proxy war was an all our war in all front except in the front. The most vicious compaign was lauched through propaganda against India in every form.. This propaganda was needed not only to belittle India in the world eye but also to project India as a country committing atrocities against Kashmiris to retain them by force. Pakistan also needed diversion of world attention from its overt or covert activities in Kashmir and for concealing them at the very outset. Many organisations were set up for launching this propaganda and the strings of the entire propaganda machinery have been kept in the hands of the ISI. According to the data collected by Ram Bahadur Rai, these organisations, inspired by Pakistan, organised 29 demonstrations in America, Britain and in front of the UN headquarters. As many as 2237 Kashmiri Muslims and Pakistanis participated in these demonstrations. In order to rake up the Kashmir issue the Government engineered 75 demonstrations in Pakistan. One such demonstration was held in Rawalpindi in which the JKLF Chief, Amanullah Khan, delivered a speech. In the Lahore demonstration Newaz Sharief incited people. Organisations active in foreign countries are actually a top in the hands of the ISI which dance at the tune of this intelligence agency. There are seven such organisations active in America and nine organisations are being run in Britain with the help of Pakistan High Commission in London. The Government of India has received proof of it. These organisations have staged demonstrations in front of the UN headquarters, India House in London and in front of the office of the American President. In a way Pakistan has accepted its interference in Kashmir by launching anti-India propaganda in foreign countries with Kashmir policy as the base. Whatever issues are used for this propaganda, the desire of the people of Kashmir for liberation is being given emphasis. The Foreign Ministry in Pakistan keeps on playing up the theme of anarchy in Kashmir where it is said militants hold the sway. The Ministry keeps on repeating that Jammu and Kashmir was never a part of India, the Indian Army is committing atrocities on the militants, India's charge that Pakistan is interfering in Kashmir is false and India is hatching a conspiracy in Kashmir. In this context the Amir of Jamait-e-Islami of Pakistan Qazi Hussain, tried to give Islamic tinge to the Kashmir problem by writing letters to the Government of Muslim countries, two years ago. A delegation under the leadership of the same leader toured Saudi Arab, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE where it supported independence for Kashmir. During a meeting with the Secretary General Muslim League in Saudi Arabia and with other Ulemas the delegation members presented false details about the alleged excesses of the Indian Army on Kashmiris. Pakistan had borne all the expenses of this delegation for Islamisation of Kashmir on the basis of self-determination of Kashmiris. Pakistan took support for its anti-India propaganda from the writings and statements of the so-called secular intellectuals who had carried out their mental exercise in investigating into the "Army's excesses in Kashmir". A book published by the Human Rights body has carried articles from V.M. Tarkunde, M. Masani and Nikhil Chakravarti. All the three have contributed to the disinformation campaign launched by Pakistan by their "valuable" opinions. The Foreign Affairs Office of Pakistan has made this book as a strong base for its propaganda. The UN Human Rights, Commission organised its 47th convention in Geneva in which Pakistani representative, M.M. Jaffar, delivered a speech on the alleged atrocities of India in Kashmir. In 1990 the then Pakistan Prime Minister, Ms Benazir Bhutto, toured the eight member states of Organisation of Islamic Conference including Damascus, Ankara, Oman, Tunisia and Cairo where she pleaded for help from Muslim countries to Pakistan regarding Kashmir in the name of Islam. On April 26, 1990 Pakistan Foreign Minister, Sahibzada Yaqub Khan submitted a letter to the President UN Security Council in which he had accused India and the Indian Army of violation of human rights in Kashmir. Pakistan had sought support from the reports of five organisations in order to give credence to the allegations. These organisations are the Committee for Initiative on Kashmir, Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties, Citizens for Democracy, Radical Humanist Association and Human Unity Campaign. The above facts reveal that Pakistan not only indulged in direct interference but also launched its poisonous anti-India campaign in a systematic way on the international level. Some organisations of the so called secular intellectuals and lovers of humanity in India too supplemented the disinformation campaign launched by Pakistan. The then Governor, Jagmohan, has given an account of the partisan role of one among such much talked about organisations, the Committee for initiative on Kashrnir. According to Mr. Jagmohan, the Committee deliberately did not condemn the killing of innocent people by the terrorists. On the contrary, it holds the paramilitary forces guilty who had only two options, either to get killed or fire in self-defence and chase the criminals for nabbing them. There can be no other harmful way for demoralising the security forces than adopt a partisan role and test them on the touchstone of concocted details of the agents of terrorists. The Committee listened to the one-sided and exaggerated details of an incident of an Assistant Engineer but it has no time to listen to the wails and woes of the relations of that BSF young doctor whose body had been ridden with bullets when he was going to treat the injured on both the sides. Out of anger the Committee concealed all the human facts on the basis of which Jagmohan had formulated his policies. And this was done only to denigrate the Governor's rule and give it a demonic shape. It totally ignored the statements of Jagmohan connected with his humane approach and policies and his Radio and Television broadcasts and telecasts, letters and statements in which stress had been given for unity and co-operation. But history, according to Jagmohan, does not sit in the lap of these manipulators for long. The truth exposed the falsehood and the guilty either gets lost in nothingness or gets buried under the heap of falsehood. The Committee thought it proper to prepare a base for Pakistan's disinformation campaign in order to simply oppose Jagmohan by twisting the facts and by giving a bad name to the Army. Pakistan repeated the report of the Committee in all world fora. Operation Topac was put into effect during Gen Zia’s time itself. The internationalising of Kashmir through diplomatic channels and the U.N.O. did not succeed. The Muslim Nations supported the Kashmiri cause but not with that force that they could enforce the U.N.O resolution as the Simla Agreement always acted as hurdle for them. Even U.S.A. and China, eager to dismember India further, could not come out openly to support Pakistan. On the other hand, Pakistan ISI was heavily funded to carry out clandestine operations in Kashmir. It initially started with a mass scale propaganda and spread of hatred between religious compaign and partially succeeded in alienation of Kashmiri Muslims. However, Kashmiris never came out openly in favour of Pakistan. Instead the Kashmiri Muslim leaders started demanding united Independent Kashmir which was not in favour of Pakistan. Pakistan feared that PoK may also be affected in this milieu hence did not press harder in this direction. Massive scale clandestine operations by Pakistan Intelligence agency ISI have born fruit in some respect. The insurgency in Punjab, North-East and Tamil-Nadu created hard core militants had a heavy toll both in national economy and unity of Indians, causing alienation among minorities and at times the Defence Services too earned a bad name affecting the morale of the troops. A small band of ISI operatives have been able to tie up large number of defence forces for over 20 years now. This “low-cost-option” of Pakistan has cost India very dear. In Kashmir they have been more successful. The turning of shy Kashmiris to hard core militants is a great achievement on the part of India. Pakistan's ISI-sponsored Foreign Mercenaries remained very active throughout. A list of foreign mercenaries on the payroll of Pak ISI, killed in Kashmir between 01 Apr 99 and 30 Jun 99 is given at appendix…… These unfortunate individuals were treading the path of violence at the behest of an unscrupulous Pak ISI and the Pak Army with vested interests. It is indeed tragic that these victims, indoctrinated by their mentors on far-fetched and misplaced realities and lured by monetary incentives, met their inevitable doom. Further unlike Punjab, militancy has survived effectively in Kashmir. Militant outfits like Harkat-ul-Ansar and Lashkar-e-Toiba were so effectively co-ordinated and conducted by ISI with Pakistan Army that India could not realise that their marrying up with Pakistan Army would be so disastrous. “The intrusion into Kargil was palanned 12 years ago but was dropped twice before Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif permitted its execution in Jan-February 1999.” Writes Mr. Altaf Gauhar, the once powerful Information Seecretary to then President Ayub Khan in the 1960s in The Nation.<a href="https://www.sikhphilosophy.net/#_ftn1" target="_blank">[1]</a> He further wrote: “All Pakistani operations against India are conceived and launched on the basis of one assumption that the Indians are too cowardly and ill-organised to offer any effective military response which could pose a threat to Pakistan.” According to him, the 1947-48, 1965 and the 1971 wars started on this assumption and so was the Kargil intrusion which he says was authorised by Gen. Zia-ul Haq in 1987. However at the final War Committee meeting at which Gen Zia was to approve it, the then Foreign Minister Gen Sahibzada Yaqoob Khan (retd) opposed it on the plea that as a former General he knew that the posts were totally covered with snow almost throughout the year and it would be extremely difficult to have communication with them and meet their day-to-day needs. He said some soldiers had died their bodies remained untraced so far. Secondly, he said, as the Foreign Minister he would find it exteremely difficult to justify Pak military action. According to Mr. Altaf Gauhar, Gen Zia was impressed by this assessment and therefore he decided to shelve this plan. But last year this plan was revived and put up before Mr. Nawaz Sharif, but the then Army Chief Gen. Jehangir Karamat was not willing to bite it and it was for this reason that he was asked to resign in October last year. Mr. Gauhar further writes that the same plan was put up before Mr. Sharif this year assuring him that Indians were totally unaware of the strategy and they would not be able to offer any response to Pakistan’s offensive. Through this operation, he was told that he would have a military victory to his credit after his courageous decision to go in for a nuclear bomb despite international pressure, Mr. Gauhar wrote. Pakistan Press: Zamir Niazi’s books: 'The Press in Chains,' 'The Press Under Siege,' and 'The Web of Censorship’ provides a good insight into state of press in Pakistan. Pakistan has been in the grip of military commanders since 50s. The first casualty of military regimes was the press. The generals never wanted a word against them to appear in the press. The frequent and prolonged military created a pattern of controlled press. It now is so tightly controlled that press cannot say anything against the wishes of the government. Any diversion is strictly curbed. This produced a group of true military loyalists among the press who assisted the military to keep the tilt. To emphasize their super-loyalty to their masters they adopted stereotype measures such as the nationalization of newspapers, promulgation of oppressive ordinances, imposition of black laws, planting of informers in press offices, retaining columnists and letters-to-the-editor-writers (the count today is 80), purchasing journalists (commonly known as 'lifafas'), purchasing editors and thus control of a publication. The unpurchasables are harassed and persecuted in various ways, one favourite being the filing of false cases against them. In Punjab the current saying is 'Kharido nahi te kaso' (if you cannot buy, beat)..' What he has recorded has never been contradicted. A corps maximum harm done by our weavers of lies is the bolstering of our leaders' euphoria by convincing them that they are the be-all and end-all, the state embodied. They encourage these megalomaniacs to destroy, to rob, even to maim and murder. Gradually a ‘his master’s voice’ press corps grew which not only helped control of the press but also created euophorias as per the requirements of their bosses. In an article in Dawn of Karachi, Ardeshir Cowasjee gave the names of some them as Altaf Gauhar (Ayub), Maulana Kausar Niazi and Nasim Ahmed (Bhutto), Lieutenant-General Mujibur Rahman (Zia), Husain Haqqani (Nawaz I and Benazir II), and now Mushahid Hussain. He called them as weaver of lies. Altaf, a civil servant, in the service of Ayub Khan, dealt with his master's challenger, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, so nastily that one of the first things that Bhutto did when he managed to grab power was to arrest Altaf on the charge of possessing an old copy of 'Playboy,' a forged passport, and half a bottle of whisky. He was unduly harassed for months on end. The Maulana was used by Bhutto to appease and pacify his brethren, the maulanas and maulvis. He bought and sold. He was most useful when the Arab Sheikhs visited. He made their stays comfortable, provided them with the recreation they sought, and conversed with them in their own language. Maulana Sahib was a relatively poor man when he joined Zulfikar, but when he left office he had managed to amass a small fortune. Nasim Ahmed was a proficient flatterer, good at buttering up those that needed verbal buttering. He also constantly sought approbation. On one of my Islamabad visits, he invited me to a party he hosted in honour of local, foreign, and visiting journalists. Taking me aside, he asked how I thought he was doing, how I rated his performance. Keeping a straight face, I told him he was doing brilliantly. Happy to hear it, he beckoned some of those around us to join us. Come and listen to this, he told them. This man is no flatterer, hear what he has to say about me. And he handed the floor to me. Brilliant, yes, I said to Nasim. You have welded the nation into one. No one, just no one, believes one word uttered on PTV or on Radio Pakistan, or printed in one of the government newspapers, or uttered in public by Bhutto. Infuriated, he addressed me in Urdu. I had no business to say what I had said in the presence of foreign journalists. It was traitorous. I had ridiculed the state. Soon after this incident I was arrested without any charge, sent to jail for 72 days, and released still not knowing why I had been arrested. There was some speculation by men who had been at Nasim's party that I had to be taught a lesson for my 'traitorous' utterances. Mujibur Rahman was a good harasser of publications that displeased his master Zia. 'Musawat,' the PPP mouthpiece, was his particular target. He had 140 newspaper men arrested and jailed, including Nisar Osmani and Mazhar Ali Khan. He also encouraged Zia to change the penal code, making the writing of truth an offence. After Zia's heavenly flight, democracy was reborn in Pakistan and we had Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif alternating at the top, both adding to our woes. During Nawaz I and Benazir II the most prominent weaver and damage-doer was Husain Haqqani. From 1988 to 1990, Hussain was Punjab Chief Minister Nawaz Sharif's special assistant, becoming his press assistant when Nawaz became prime minister in 1990, until in 1992 he was sent off to Sri Lanka as high commissioner. As soon as Nawaz was forced to step down, Husain joined Benazir's camp and from 1993 to 1994 was Secretary to the ministry of information and broadcasting, until Benazir also shunted him out to head the House Building Finance Corporation. Husain was born and schooled in Karachi, went to Karachi University where he was a Jamaat student leader. He then became a professional journalist and for some years was with the 'Far Eastern Economic Review,' both in Hong Kong and here in Pakistan, until he was picked up by Nawaz. After his experiences with both 'leaders' he claims he is a chastened man, who has learnt a lot and who now recognizes both as being marginally as bad as each other. He writes columns for various newspapers, both in English and in Urdu and all largely critical of this government. He has formed his own political party, the Urban Democratic Front. He considers himself capable, with the necessary help, of climbing up the greasy pole and leading the 140 millions to glory. Brittle and paranoiad as it is, this government for some mad reason considers Haqqani to be a threat, possibly because it thinks he has armed himself with copies of compromising documents picked up during his days of officialdom. He is now tied to the rack. The government has not denied that its dirty-tricks brigade kidnapped him in the middle of the night, had him beaten up, kept in solitary confinement, initially incommunicado, but now under judicial custody in a safe house near the Rawal Lake. His cuts and bruises have been brought on record, his bail applications have been rejected. Ostensibly he has been charged with corruption, embezzlement, and the squandering of government wealth. Could he even remotely have squandered one-hundreth of what has been squandered by Benazir or Nawaz? Governments in our country are known to be vicious and Husain can expect little help from our 'independent judiciary,' many members of which are ignorant of the value and importance of liberty, of the fact that a writ of habeas corpus cannot be rejected, and that every man is due his rights. If there is an understanding judge around, who has suo motu powers, he should help, give him bail and get him out. Mushahid Hussain claims to be a profoundly educated man, but his association with Nawaz Sharif seems to have washed away all his qualifications. He is responsible for Haqqani's predicament and for all the troubles faced by Najam Sethi. The government has also not denied that Sethi was abducted in the middle of the night by its dirty-tricks men, beaten up and kept in solitary confinement. He at least has been released, without any charges having been made against him as none could be proved. Now free, he has been banned from leaving the country and is facing 28 income tax cases. The systematic income-tax-cases harassment is a hangover from the Bhutto days. Sethi would do well to refer to the White Papers compiled by Burney, 'Misuse of the Instruments of State Power' and 'Misuse of the Media.' With this vicious government, Najam may suffer. All we can do is to stand by him and help as much as we can. One of the worst mistakes {censored}y Mushahid has made is to have sought to stand trial in the BBC televized court of 'Hard Talk'. He cut a sorry figure in front of his griller, Tim Sebastian, and managed to successfully disgrace our nation. We have him on tape, and this is one tape he will never be able to claim is doctored. In the service of his master, he makes a pretence of believing what the world does not believe about the present Kashmir situation. His performance may have made us lose whatever residual sympathy we had from a few quarters in the world. Mushahid further disgraced our judiciary with the lies he told about the storming of the Supreme Court. He told the world that the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Sajjad Ali Shah, was not sacked by his government but by his fellow judges. He omitted to say what the government's role was in this affair. Having done such a tremendous job on 'Hard Talk,' we can only hope and expect that in appreciation of his service to the nation, his tool, the valiant PTV, will show to the people how well its wielder performed. .<a href="https://www.sikhphilosophy.net/#_ftn2" target="_blank">[2]</a> If we see the results of disinformation compaign and the covert operations planned, it is obvious that Pakistan has succeeded in many fronts though it failed in some. Pakistan has been effective in keeping Kashmir in international focus for over 50 years now. India who once refused to accept Kashmir in the bilateral agenda for talks, accepted Kashmir as an issue for talks between India and Pakistan during the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit in July 2001.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Pakistan has also been successful in highlighting the so called atricities of Indian troops and India’s bad intentions against Kashmir, while hiding its own terrorist activities and actively organizing and abating terrorism against India. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Its ISI activities have successfully spread all over India and a demon has been created which has caused some fears in indian’s mind. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Indian troops have been kept heavily engaged in Kashmir, thereby tiring them up, and diverting their attention from training and preparations for any future operations. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The loss of these operations have been extensive on all fronts; political, strategic, military, financial and human. </li> </ol>   <hr /><a href="https://www.sikhphilosophy.net/#_ftnref1" target="_blank">[1]</a> The Tribune, Monday, Sept 13, 1999, p.20<a href="https://www.sikhphilosophy.net/#_ftnref2" target="_blank">[2]</a> <a href="http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm" target="_blank">www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm</a></blockquote>

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