Pak terrorists 'using natural calamity to fuel hate propaganda against India'

Opinion by Jack Morton

At a time when the Indian army and government are leaving no stone unturned in rescuing the civilians in Kashmir from the devastating floods, it is a real shame that the apologists of terrorism based in neighbouring Pakistan are using this tragedy to further their own vested interests. Such vested groups are led by Jamaat Ul Dawa’s (JUD) Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, (and proscribed as a terrorist by US State Department) who in unexplainable terms has been allowed to roam freely in Pakistan, despite the fact that India has presented plenty of evidences to show his involvement in the Mumbai attacks. The JUD Chief has been exploiting this tragic turn of events and calamity of national proportions to further his nefarious jihadi agenda and continue his false diatribe against India.

In a Pak ISI scripted and self- manufactured conspiracy theory, Hafiz Saeed, while addressing a press conference at a relief camp in Lahore accused India of “water terrorism” and without any evidence bizarrely alleged that India was constructing dams on war footing in Kashmir in order to desertify Pakistan, paralyze its economy or alternately, cause flash floods by releasing water from dams on the Indian side. Hafiz Saeed’s and JUD’s thesis that India had initiated a continuous process of aggression by constructing illegal dams over Pakistani rivers are just baseless ramblings of a destructive mind.

What is more concerning here is that the Pakistani government has not only maintained a silence on Hafiz Saeed’s remarks, but indirectly acquiesced to his being patronized by the Pak Army elements for being projected as a messiah for the masses affected by the flood situation. The musings of former ISI officials are also supporting Hafiz Saeed’s bizarre water terrorism theory. General (Retd) Hamid Gul, former ISI chief echoed Hafiz Saeed and said that floods were an evidence of India’s water aggression and enmity of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi against Pakistan. The sharing of the same anti- India opinion by a terror mastermind and a former ISI chief cannot be a mere coincidence and definitely points to a sinister clandestine collusion of the ISI with terror networks active on Pakistani territory and now being allowed to mushroom further in the floods affected areas and populace.

At a time when the Indian army was working towards relief measures in Kashmir, the relief measures in neighbouring Pakistan were nowhere to be seen. The ineptness of the Pakistani establishment has allowed the Jihadist groups to foray into the flood affected areas, and generate sympathy for their Jehadi activity. Moreover, the use of Pakistan army and airforce logistics by jihadi front organisations including the most prominent FIF – a front organization of the JUD – is ample proof of the state patronage exerted to Jihadist and terror outfits in Pakistan.

Even as herculean rescue efforts of the Indian government, armed forces and civil society groups from all over India are being applauded globally, Hafiz Saeed has been tweating “Occupied Kashmir cannot be looked after by the Modi-led government, what can it do for those in Azad Kashmir? Give them Freedom if you may”. Perhaps Hafiz Saeed did not see the pictures where Indian army personnel were rescuing SAR Geelani, the man famous for his false diatribe against the Indian establishment and the Indian army. Moreover, the manner in which another separatist Yasin Malik was caught on video disrupting the relief activities of the Indian army and hijacking the relief boat suggests a distinct commonality of intentions with the Pak based JUD having no concern for the distraught masses.

This is yet another wake up call for the international community, particularly those sections mollycoddling Islamabad disproportionately. The West should take stock of this dehumanizing mindset of the politico-military incharges in Pakistan, their mismanagement of relief and rehabilitation efforts in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Punjab & Sindh and allowing of this natural calamity to be used to fuel jihadi hatred and propaganda against India.

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