From: Jari-Pekka Raitamaa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 15:11:27 +0300 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [luokkataistelu] Kashmir and Pakistan on a knife edge... Kashmir and Pakistan on a knife edge. In the aftermath of the 11 September attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, the US led strikes in all the major cities of Afghanistan, which began on Sunday (6th October) night, anti-US and pro-Taliban protestors clashed with security forces, particularly in the provinces of NWFP (North Western Frontier Province) and Baluchistan province. In Peshawar, the provincial capital of NWFP, pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam (JUI-F), Jamiaat-e- Islami and other 'jehadi' outfits and their students wings demonstrated. All three universities in Peshawar have been closed down and student hostels emptied. Foreign journalist were targeted, in the inner city area of Peshawar, which looked like a battle field for three hours. School children and particularly women students were caught in the middle and dozens were injured. These scene were too witnessed in Quetta, the provincial capital, (the largest and the poorest) of Baluchistan as anti-US demonstrators targeted NGOs, against the US attacks on one of the poorest countries on the plant - Afghanistan. The Musharraf regime has further consolidated its hold by removing key generals who were perceived as Islamic hardliners and instead promoted those generals regarded as 'moderates'. In POK (Pakistani Occupied Kashmir) anti-US and pro-Taliban Islamic groups and 'jehadi' outfits under the umbrella of Defense Council for Afghanistan and Pakistan (DCAP), held anti-US protests, numbering in few hundreds, in different parts of the territory. In Kotli, where there are a number of training camps of the different Islamic groups, the Jamiaat-Islami (the main Islamic group) is in the forefront of organizing anti-US and pro-Taliban protests. Such demonstrations included the ruling Muslim Conference, PPP (Pakistan People Party), JKLF (Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front) and other bourgeois nationalists have sided with the reactionary Islamic groups. After the US led attacks, anti-US feeling and protest have increased in the divided state of Kashmir. In IOK (Indian Occupied Kashmir), anti-US protestors and over three hundred students clashed with police in Valley of Kashmir. In an earlier suicide attack on the IOK state Legislature on 1 October, which resulted in killing of over 37 peoples and dozens injured, was initially claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohammad. Later on they denied any link with this attack. This group's leader was one of the imprisoned leaders, who was released after a deal, in the hijacking of an Indian Airliner in December 1999. This attack provided the Indian ruling classes to whip-up war hysteria. The statement by the US Ambassador to UN, that 'we may find that our self-defence forces require further actions with respect to other organizations and other states', has created a further nightmare for this region and the world as a whole by the imperialist powers in this current war. Capitalism can not solve but will further creat misery, disease, hunger for the millions of already poverty stricken people of Afghanistan and the region as a whole In the case of Kashmir, where out of 27 organisations and groups that have been labelled as "terrorist" by the Bush administration, Harakat-Ul- Muhjahideens, is one such group which has links with Osama and his Al-Qaida organization. Here in Kotli and other parts of POK, Islamic groups have planned further protests, while the Sikandar Hayat administration of Muslim Conference continues its attacks on working-class, where right wing neo-liberal policies of privatization and down-sizing continues unabated, with expected losses of thousands of jobs. There are cases of women teachers who have not been paid their salaries for the last six months. A protest organized by the AKTO (Azad Kashmir Teachers Organisation) and other public sector workers organizations is to take place tomorrow, against anti-workers policies of the ruling Muslim Conference government. (Detail report next week). A Kashmiri socialist 10 October 2001 _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
