Saturday, July 30, 2011

India, Pak talks: Joint Statement (Hina Rabani Khar and S M Krishna)

KASHMIR: India, Pakistan firm up new cross-Kashmir CBMs

KASHMIR: India, Pakistan firm up new cross-Kashmir CBMs: "New Delhi: In their first contact after the July 13 Mumbai terror attacks, Indian and Pakistani officials met on Monday to firm up new ..."

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Kashmir eats 51,000 tons of mutton worth Rs.1,200 crore a year

Srinagar: About 85 per cent of Kashmiris eat non-vegetarian fare - but exactly how much? Official statistics say Jammu and Kashmir annually consumes a whopping 51,000 tonnes of mutton worth Rs.12.06 billion (overRs.1,200 crore), of which 21,000 tonnes is imported from outside.

"The 21,000 tonnes is in addition to 30,000 tonnes of mutton produced locally and costing Rs.7.02 billion (Rs.702 crore) which also goes into the local consumption each year," a senior official of the animal husbandry department here said.

Despite having some of the best meadows and pastures in the world, all the mutton imported into Kashmir comes from Rajasthan, which has some of the most arid deserts in the country.

In addition to mutton, poultry and poultry products are also imported into the state from neighbouring Punjab and Haryana.

"Chicks, broilers, layers and eggs amounting to Rs.1.2 billion are imported each year for local consumption," said another official of the state animal husbandry department posted with the poultry production wing.

"This is in addition to the local poultry production worth Rs.1.8 billion that also goes into local consumption."

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Azam Inqilabi to US. President Mr. Barak Obama

Respected Barak Obama Sahib

President USA

(C/o US embassy Delhi)

Compliments!

I felt shocked, astonished and astounded to know that Kashmiri freedom zealot Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai (Director Kashmir American Council) has been asserted by US Police for the simple reason that he has persistently been asserting as a vocal democratic proponent of Kashmir cause. It is really ironic, enigmatic and perplexing a situation that a country like USA, so vociferous in its espousal of democracy and freedom, should thwart the democratic campaign of a scholar like Dr. G. N. Fai for Kashmir cause— the cause c�lèbre (right to self-determination). If democratic dissent is unacceptable to US administration, then ultraism, the indispensable dividend of the denial of freedom of speech, is the only course of struggle Kashmiris would want to opt for.

We Kashmiris believe in the supremacy of God Almighty. He is there to rectify the wrong if human beings of less potence and importance feel humiliated, fidgeted, mortified and brutalized for no fault of theirs except that they believe in candour and righteousness.

Hope you, as the visionary global leader with scintillating brain, will ponder over the situation and recognize the role of Dr. Fai as an honest, conscientious and committed democrat with his own peculiar quality of individualism to work for peaceful settlement of Kashmir issue. This is how you can woo Kashmiris and all those who believe in freedom and justice.

Wish you success!

Muhammad Azam Inqilabi

Chief-patron Jammu Kashmir Mahaz-e-Azadi

Nageen, Srinagar Kashmir.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

India, Pakistan firm up new cross-Kashmir CBMs

New Delhi: In their first contact after the July 13 Mumbai terror attacks, Indian and Pakistani officials met on Monday to firm up new confidence-building measures to expand trade and travel across the two halves of Kashmir, which are likely to be unveiled during the foreign minister-level talks later this month.

A Pakistani delegation headed by Zehra H. Akbari, Director General South Asia Division (DGSA) in Pakistan's Foreign Office, held a meeting of the joint working group with the Indian team led by by Y.K. Sinha, joint secretary in charge of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, in India's foreign office.

"The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere," the external affairs ministry said in a statement in New Delhi after the talks.

"During the meeting, both sides reviewed the existing cross-LoC travel and trade arrangements to ensure their effective implementation and exchanged views on additional measures to facilitate cross-LoC travel and trade," the ministry said.

Among the proposals on the table were the launch of the Kargil-Skardu bus link, an increase in the frequency of cross-Kashmir bus link between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and an increase in the number of trading days from two to four across the LoC, said informed sources.

Some of these cross-Kashmir CBMs, which seek to enhance travel and trade among the people of the two halves of Kashmir, are likely to be announced when External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna holds talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, July 27.

Khar is currently the junior foreign minister and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is understood to have recommended her elevation as a full-fledged minister ahead of the India-Pakistan foreign minister-level talks this month.

Khar will be coming here July 26. The foreign ministers' meeting will be preceded by preparatory talks between Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao July 25.

The cross-Kashmir CMBs are at the heart of people-to-people initiatives the foreign secretaries decided on during their talks in Islamabad last month.
Officials of the two sides also discussed finer points of an agreement on liberalising the visa regime that will spur greater people-to-people contacts, said sources.

No one has claimed responsibility for the July 13 Mumbai serial blasts that killed 19 people and injured over 130. Unlike in similar situations earlier, India has scrupulously avoided any insinuation linking elements in Pakistan to the terror strikes.

New Delhi's restraint has been widely lauded in Pakistan and is seen as sign of strong will on India's part to continue the re-engagement process it started with Pakistan in February.

Cross-LoC trade and peace-building

ANITA JOSHUA

Since cross-LoC trade began between Muzaffarabad-Uri and Poonch-Rawalakot, traders have found a way of insulating the process from outside influences with a fair amount of success.

“Both sides agreed to convene a meeting of the Working Group on cross-Line of Control (LoC) Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) to recommend measures for strengthening and streamlining the existing trade and travel arrangements across the LoC and propose modalities for introducing additional Cross-LoC CBMs. The Working Group will meet in July 2011.” (Para 7 of the joint statement issued on June 24 after the Indian and Pakistani Foreign Secretaries met in Islamabad.)

On July 18, the Joint Working Group met in New Delhi and this is what was offered to the public at the end of the day-long interaction: “The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. During the meeting, both sides reviewed the existing cross-LoC travel and trade arrangements to ensure their effective implementation and exchanged views on additional measures to facilitate cross-LoC travel and trade.”

Nothing much to write home about. The two governments have done so little to facilitate the Cross-LoC CBMs that the trading community sees only a sliver of hope in the tone and tenor of the two statements. In fact, its general refrain is that the two governments have only opened the links and literally left the traders to take on the risks and responsibilities. And, it has survived despite a strangulating red-tape, the diplomatic stand-off following the Mumbai 2008 terror attacks and the political unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

No doubt, there have been strikes and trade-related issues between traders on both sides, but in the two-and-a-half years since cross-LoC trade began between Muzaffarabad-Uri and Poonch-Rawalakot, the community of traders has found a way of insulating the process from outside influences with a fair amount of success. As one trader said in a recent report on trade across the LoC: “We are insulated by a shield of mutual trust. We have not allowed diplomatic acrobatics between New Delhi and Islamabad to affect us in any manner.”

Presently, trade takes place twice a week on a barter basis in the absence of banking facilities to transfer funds across the LoC, and is restricted to 21 items. Traders from the two sides cannot meet, making the prevalent regime a ‘blind trade' system in which the trader has no way of assessing the market.

Those on the Indian side have it even worse because of the 21-year-old ban on international direct dialling from within Jammu and Kashmir to any part of Pakistan. As a result, they use relatives in a third country to deal with traders across the LoC or exchange business cards through truck drivers to build a database of trading counterparts. Recently, this issue was partially addressed with the installation of a few telephone hotlines.

Because of the barter system, trade is essentially confined to the ‘divided families' for fear of their being duped if new business alliances are made. According to Zulfiqar Abbasi, president of the Jammu & Kashmir Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry — representing businessmen on both sides of the LoC — even in barter trade, there is no guarantee of equal return and recovery of differential amounts from counterparts across the LoC.

Add to this the negligible facilities at the crossing points, further delaying the process and affecting the quality of products in transit. Agricultural products account for a bulk of the permissible trading items. Processing, loading and unloading — the trucks cannot cross over, so the goods are transferred to local carriers — are all done manually. Even security check is manual in the absence of X-ray machines. Still, a measure of the success of cross-LoC trade can be gauged from the volume of trade. One report quotes the J&K government as claiming that it had crossed Rs.272 crore (Indian rupee) as of last March. Another report states that in the third week of January this year, the two-day trade on one route touched nearly Rs.29 crore — a Rs.5 crore increase over the previous high of Rs.24 crore in December 2010. But, Mr. Abbasi pointed out, in the absence of banking facilities a properly calculated figure for the quantum of trade is unavailable.

Encouraged by the potential of this trade, the Joint Chamber, in a representation to the Foreign Office ahead of the Working Group meeting, said traders should be allowed to move across the LoC on a ‘trade pass' to facilitate smooth trade and recovery of sales proceeds from both sides. What the Joint Chamber has proposed is a multiple-entry pass valid for two years issued on its recommendation and that of other recognised chambers on both sides.

Other demands include banking facilities and expanding the trade list to cover all items manufactured or produced in the two parts of Kashmir, doubling the number of trading days, allowing trucks carrying cross-LoC trade goods to their final destinations, and opening additional routes of Chumb-Pallanwala on the Bhimer-Jammu side and Khoiratta-Noshehra on the Kotli-Rajauri side as these are the shortest and most viable routes for cross-LoC trade.

Some of these demands, like expanding the trade list, have India's support. But the support does not extend to all items. It also stipulates stringent checks to ensure that no product outside the two Kashmirs gets in and benefits from the duty-free trade. Another concern is the hijacking of trade by big businessmen outside J&K as mentioned by researcher Ershad Mahmud in his paper in a report brought out by the U.K.-based Conciliation Resources on LoC trade. According to him, big businessmen in Lahore and Sialkot are hijacking intra-Kashmir trade from local Kashmiris. The same could be true on the Indian side too.

India has also proposed increasing trading days and opening all five-foot crossing points on the LoC to trade. Presently, trade is allowed on two of these points. Three additional ones on which New Delhi is open to trade are Nauseri-Tithwal, Hajipur-Uri and Tattapani-Mendhar.

Earlier this year, India sent a proposal identifying the J&K Bank to provide banking services. But Pakistan did not inform New Delhi of its reciprocal arrangement till last month-end, although traders are hopeful that some reply would have been given at the Working Group's meeting. Similarly, a unilateral move by India in March to increase the stay period for persons visiting J&K from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to six months with multiple entries, from four weeks with a maximum extension of a fortnight, is yet to be reciprocated.

Getting these permits, according to studies conducted into the working of the cross-LoC CBMs, is an uphill task. Valid only for three months, every application goes through eight different offices for clearance and takes weeks to acquire. The same routine has to be gone through each time though none of the studies undertaken has thrown up any serious violation of the trade and travel CBMs. This was seconded by the ‘Azad Jammu & Kashmir' (AJK) government at a recent briefing for visiting Indian journalists at Chakoti, last point on the LoC in Pakistan.

In fact, civilian and military officials present at the briefing conceded that the relative calm along the LoC ever since the CBMs kicked in had helped in the development of ‘AJK' as NGOs and development workers could now be encouraged to come in. And travel across the LoC, they said, had been affected only by bad weather and not due to the political climate between the two countries since the first bus service between Uri and Muzaffarabad was flagged off in April 2005.

Pakistan apparently wants to consolidate the existing trade and travel facilities by addressing the sore points first before extending them. While there is a view that some additional measures may be announced at the Foreign Minister-level engagement later this month, part of Islamabad's reluctance apparently stems from a fear of cross-LoC CBMs gaining momentum that may erode Pakistan's case on the Kashmir issue though increasingly it is being seen as the root cause of much of the problems facing the country today.

And, therein lies the power of this “bottom-up” approach to peace-building that both countries — despite the public posturing — have done little to facilitate. Traders on both sides of Kashmir — billed as a potential nuclear flashpoint — now have a stake in other's welfare. There are reports of at least 40 former militants helping to sustain the trade; thereby not only enlarging the constituency of peace but also developing stakes in the stability of the region and providing an alternative narrative on the vexed Kashmir issue.

KASHMIR: Arrest of Kashmiri politician and Executive Direct...

KASHMIR: Arrest of Kashmiri politician and Executive Direct...: "FBI: Pakistani spies spent millions lobbying US By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press – 3 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — USA media alleges..."

Arrest of Kashmiri politician and Executive Director of Kashmir American Counsil Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai condemned, Unconditional and immediate release demanded

FBI: Pakistani spies spent millions lobbying US

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press – 3 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — USA media alleges that for years, the Pakistani spy agency funneled millions of dollars to a Washington non-profit group in a secret effort to influence Congress and the White House, the Justice Department said Tuesday in court documents that are certain to complicate already strained relations between the U.S. and Pakistan.
FBI agents arrested Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, the executive director of the Kashmiri American Council, on Tuesday and charged him with being an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Under the supervision of a senior member of Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, Fai worked to influence Congress and develop contacts at the White House and State Department, prosecutors said.
"I believe that Fai has received approximately $500,000 to $700,000 per year from the government of Pakistan," FBI agent Sarah Webb Linden alleges in documents filed at the federal court.
The Pakistani Embassy in Washington quickly denied any knowledge of such an arrangement.
A second man, Zaheer Ahmad, was also charged. Prosecutors said he recruited people to act as straw donors who would give money that really was coming from the Pakistani government. Ahmad is not under arrest and is in Pakistan, prosecutors said. Both men are U.S. citizens.
A soft-spoken man, Fai is a leading voice in the debate over the future of Kashmir, the mountainous border area that India and Pakistan have fought over for years. He supports the pro-Pakistan viewpoint that Kashmiris should vote on whether to be part of Pakistan or India. India claims the territory as its own.
Prosecutors said the Kashmiri American Council was being run in secret by the Pakistani government. Government officials reviewed Fai's budget and directed him to make campaign donations to Congress, meet with lawmakers and attend political events. The group's phone rang unanswered and a doorman said Tuesday that nobody from the organization had arrived at the office building, a few blocks from the White House in the heart of Washington's lobbying district.
Israr Mirza, the former president of the Pakistani Student Association at George Mason University, recalled hearing Fai speak at a February event his organization hosted on India-Pakistan relations.
"I don't see him as a spy or anything. He's an old gentleman," said Mirza, who has since graduated from George Mason. "He seemed like a very collected guy. He was speaking just to promote peace."
Though the charges are not related to espionage, the arrest adds new strain to the already difficult relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan, which suffered after the U.S. found Osama bin Laden hiding inside Pakistan and killed him without telling the government there.
The Pakistani spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, has a complicated relationship with U.S. intelligence. The agency is a crucial ally in the war on terrorism but also works against the U.S. at times, including running double agents against the CIA.
"Dr. Fai and the Kashmiri freedom movement have nothing to do with the ISI," said Nadim Malik, a close associate of Fai and the executive director of the advocacy group Kashmir Mission USA.
Fai has donated to congressional campaigns of both parties for years. His donations include $250 to President Barack Obama in 2008; a total of $4,500 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2004 and 2008; and $250 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2009,it blamed. Prosecutors said none of the recipients knew the organization was a front for money from Pakistan.

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker and Kimberly Dozier in Washington and Matthew Barakat in Alexandria, Virginia, contributed to this report. Khan reported from Islamabad, Pakistan.