An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India on Discrimination/ Persecution of Hindus ~ by Dr. Jagan Kaul & Krishan Bhatnagar

 An Open Letter to

the Prime Minister of India

by

Dr. Jagan Kaul 

&

Krishan Bhatnagar

Hon'ble Dr. Manmohan Singh 
Prime Minister of India;
New Delhi,

India

Subject: Hindus are seriously discriminated in India and persecuted in Muslim    majority Kashmir Valley, a part of India. This irrational, divisive and disintegrative policy must end to forestall another partition.

Hon'ble Prime Minister,

            Recently we have sent a missive to the P.M. of Pakistan bringing to his attention the deliberate policy of discrimination, ethnic cleansing and political disenfranchisement of Hindus and Sikhs in his country that threatens peace in the sub continent (Ref 1). 

            Yet another reason behind forwarding this missive is to ask your Govt. to examine its own policy towards Hindus in India and notice some of the striking similarities between the two policies. How shocking it is that the two Governments, one wearing the Islamic and the other secular covers, supposedly heading towards two diametrically different destinations and building entirely different polities follow largely similar anti-Hindu policies.

1)            Despite the secular character of the Indian political system and theoretically its neutrality and equidistance from all religious influences, the birth place of Hinduism i.e., India, is grinding under the heals of an out right anti-Hindu policy matching the one enforced by the Muslim Mogul tyrants who conquered, enslaved and plundered India for centuries, killed and forcibly converted hundreds of lakhs of Hindus and massively destroyed their culture and historic places of religious importance. Many parts of this inimical policy towards the Indian Hindus were accepted as a legacy from another imperial power, the British Raj, and adopted by the very first Congress Govt. which took over the governance of India in 1947. In view of such unending anti-Hindu hostility and subjugation imposed by all brands of foreign and foreign trained Indian rulers, a sizable volume of Hindu populace has come to believe that independence and freedom has remained as illusive for them as before.  
          If there were any doubts about that belief they were removed forever by your own categorical, undemocratic and unconstitutional public declaration that the Muslims have the first claim upon the national resources. You did not explain how a small minority as against 80% Hindus could have that claim.  Even Mr. M.A. Jinnah, the creator of Pakistan, did not make this kind of a demagogic proclamation. Such demagoguery by the Premier of the largest democracy in the world simply betrays a lack of belief in democracy and exposes his extreme political opportunism. Using the same divisive philosophy and ill-logical justification your Govt. has afforded to Muslims and Christians a number of unconstitutional privileges. These discriminatory tactics have become a vehicle of the administration for polarizing Indian public pitting one community against the other on the basis of religion, abetting distrust and hatred among Indians and building politically motivated permanent walls of separation between the minorities and the mainstream.

This divisive policy has not only shredded but also poisoned the concept of national unity:

ü  One People ,

ü  One Nation  and

ü  One Flag. 
  

2)          How discriminatory and constitutionally unsound it is that on the one hand the Indian Govt. subsidizes the "Hajj" pilgrimage of the Muslims to over  Rs. 800 crores annually,  provides Rs. 1000 crores per year for Imams salaries,  state Governments build Hajj houses, and reservations are made on the basis of minority status, but on the other hand they are crusading to destroy the self- supporting foundations and structures of Hindu places of worship by bringing them under the control of hostile state regimes? Without any legitimate authority these regimes also usurp their funds and assets.

 3)          It is highly offensive for more than a billion Hindus worldwide that in the Kashmir valley, Hindus and Sikhs are persecuted as if in a totalitarian fundamentalist medieval Islamic state. The global community cannot believe that India’s own Govt., largely the one created by Hindus, gives Muslims preferential status and looks the other way when the J&K Adm. levies taxes (Jaziya) on vehicles transporting pilgrims to Hindu shrines through the state, and when the Hindu religious and educational institutions are destroyed. With the help of the federal Govt. the communal regime in J&K has succeeded to a large degree in establishing the foundations of “Nizam-e-Mustafa”. Gone are the days when Indian leaders in their determined and unwavering voices told the world that “Kashmir is an integral and unbreakable part of India”. Indian authorities have lost the courage to boldly state that the Islamist upheaval in J&K is essentially a part of the “civilizational war” aiming at denying freedom and breading inter-religious hatred to disintegrate India. This policy deserves to be trashed and replaced by a well thought out “doctrine of national integration”.

 4)         Mr. Prime Minister, your Administration owes truthful answers to the Indian nation as to why in utter disregard of the principles of secularism the Muslims are awarded religion based benefits?

          a) As per your own pronouncement why, despite being a small minority, do Muslims have the first claim on national resources and why are they given special grants in the five year plans?     

      b) Why was the infamous Sachar Commission created in an attempt to legitimize the inadmissible treatment for Muslims?
             c) Why were unjustifiable reservations created in jobs, education and even in higher institutions of learning like IITs and IIMs for Muslims?
            d) Why are Muslim and Christian students given disproportionately many more high value scholarships in comparison to the SC and ST students, while the poor students from the so called upper castes don't get even a "paisa"?

5)           How can your Administration eradicate Terrorism, militancy and Jihad threatening India’s national security when its patronage and appeasement encourages them beyond comprehension?

          Major Islamic terrorist strikes have taken place in New Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmadabad, Ayodhya, Mumbai, Varanasi, Hyderabad, Malegaon, Panipat, Ajmer, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Faizabad, Kashmir, Jammu and multiple attacks in Assam, etc. killing Hindu men, women and children by the thousands. In these terrorist attacks nothing, not even Govt. offices, Parliament, court houses, hospitals, police, railway and bus stations and above all Hindu temples, homes and market places were spared. This should give an idea about the magnitude and strength of the terrorist networks and organizations within India engaged in executing anti-India and anti-Hindu agendas at their time of choice. Even the Ex-Home Minister Patil admitted that presently there were more than 800 terrorist cells in India. It should be worth noting that in the US not a single terrorist attack has taken place after the one at the World Trade Center in New York. The reason for the collapse of terrorist attacks by Islamists has been the stringent preventive measures taken by the US Homeland Security Administration. For want of political support the Indian regime seems to be so compromised that it can think of taking such measures only on its own peril. 
6)          A Govt. dependant upon the support by minor groups is compelled to adopt policies patronizing minorities and in the process penalize majority and its religion, Hinduism. There exist volumes of evidence to prove this contention. A few irrefutable instances are:-

          a)  violating the faith of over a billion (100 crores) Hindus by questioning the existence of Lord Ram and calling him a mythical being and by supporting demolition of Ram Sethu to further inflict injury upon the majority community's sensitivities, faith and religious practices;
          b)  Letting states usurp temples and their properties in an attempt to regulate Hinduism, control the Hindu religious infrastructure for Govt. profiteering and to sabotage the self sufficiency of shrines;
          c) remaining indifferent on the arrest of the most revered  H.H. Kanchi Shankaracharya in Tamil Nadu, on phony charges over five years ago. Though out of jail now he is not yet exonerated. This has rendered a prime Hindu religious institution dysfunctional;
          d) Unable to control Islamic and Maoist terrorism, diverting public attention by concocting the phony idea of Hindu terrorism and arresting Sadhvi Pragya;
          e) Enforcing religion based reservations and Hajj subsidies for Muslims in violation of the secular constitution thus resurrecting the Mogul Jaziya tax on Hindus;
          f) Remaining indifferent, inactive and silent on the cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir and on the continuous demolition of their history and religious infrastructure;

 7)           Hindu Institutions are being destroyed at an unprecedented Scale in Kashmir -- The law and order situation in the Valley since 1986 has deteriorated progressively and desecration of temples has become the order of the day.
           The process of desecration, looting, vandalizing and the destruction of temples has continued in J&K under the anti-Hindu Islamic rule through generations with the intent to wipe out all traces of religious and cultural symbols of Hindus. These targets besides the temples included libraries, schools, universities and ashrams. After the departure of the British colonials and  Kashmir’s accession to the Union of India in 1947, the destruction and desecration of temples under the new Islamic regimes wearing secular turbans received added impetus and acceleration. Dr. Singh, you have earned the distinction of being the Premier during whose time Kashmir became the first “sharia state” in secular India. No Islamist or Pakistani could boast of having scored such an achievement. Being yourself a refugee from Pakistan and knowing what Pak. Muslim regimes have done to both Sikhs and Hindus, the Indian nation expected much better from your Govt.

 8)         Going back to the calculated conversion and subversion of Kashmir - Temple lands, cremation grounds and other such entities belonging to Hindus were usurped and utilized for the expansion of the Islamic populace. The famous Bhairavnath temple of Chattabal, Srinagar was locked up by the police. More than half a century has passed but the judicial case pending in court concerning this historic temple was never allowed to be decided. What an example of independent judiciary! Precious lands around Hari Parbat hill, Durganag temple of Srinagar and lands at several Hindu places of worship in the Valley were slowly and steadily turned into lands under occupation of the Muslim trusts (Maqboozai-Ahali-Islam).

          In 1967, Shivala temple, Chotta Nazar, Srinagar was desecrated. Again in 1984 Shri Hanuman temple at Hari Singh High Street was damaged and in the same year Arya Samaj temple of Wazir Bagh, Srinagar was burnt down. All these communal hate crimes were claimed to be part of the struggle for freedom.

          A list of numerous Temples desecrated and damaged in Kashmir from 1990 to December 1992 may be seen in Attachment A.
      
            These examples represent only a fraction of the systematic mass destruction of thousands of temples in J&K after independence of India when the Islamists assumed the total and unfettered control of the state. They are listed in detail in our letter of February 21, 2008 to Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad of J&K (Ref 2) .

9)          Hon'ble Dr. Singh, the government's indifference towards the temple security and their functioning can only be interpreted as tacit support of the persecution of Hindus and the denial of their religious freedom:  the Govt. must realize that the temples and their endowments have been built over the centuries by our forefathers and therefore, it is the community which is their real owner. Accordingly the community must have the final say in the management and utilization of temple resources and management of educational institution as is allowed for institutions of other religions.

           The Indian Parliament adopted a law in 1991 specifically requiring that –“the status of religious places, as on August 15, 1947 shall be retained". Accordingly it is obligatory upon the Govt. to maintain the integrity of religious entities as it stood in 1947 throughout the country. The J&K Govt. while flouting the national law, very conveniently divorced itself from this commitment. Characteristically the Indian authorities looked the other way.

  10)        Given the militant exposition, aggressive domineering traits and expansionist designs of the majority Muslim community - the Hindus and Sikhs as a minority in J&K need & must get special protection, reserved representation, scholarships, admissions, Govt. jobs, contracts etc. as is afforded to Muslims as a minority in India ;

           Formation of a Waqf-like autonomous Hindu Board for Hindu institutions' and their governance under the Hindu community’s guidance is essential:  Dr. Singh, we strongly believe that for social, religious, educational and community affairs & services and temple administration there must be a representative autonomous Hindu Board with full jurisdiction over temple governance and management.  Since the right of freedom to manage religious places is available to the Muslim community across India, which also constitutes the majority in the state, where is the justification to deny this right to Hindus?

11)          The Islamist Govt. of J&K is playing a dangerous game -- while a part of India, they are surreptitiously and brazenly doing everything to cleanse the state from non- Muslims (particularly Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists) to transform it into a Nizam-e-Mustafa, eventually a forerunner for the second partition of India. The recent Mutiny cry from Mosques should leave us in no doubt about their ultimate objective.  (Attachment B). The cleansing of Hindus from the valley started in a similar fashion more than 20 years ago. Similarly in the South Kerala Chief Minister, V S Achuthanandan, has warned the nation that the radical outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) was aiming to convert Kerala into a Muslim majority state in the next 20 years (Attachment C).

          Temples, Gurdwaras, Churches, Mosques and Monasteries are places of worship and not for unleashing violence, militancy and schemes to plunder, murder and kill. But that is exactly what the mosques in J&K are used for as fortress and cells of Jihad. Every single directive, scheme or plan against India and non-Muslims is hatched there and then given to Umma at large for execution. Authorities in the state and New Delhi have full knowledge of the abuse and exploitation of Islam in this fashion yet not a single mullah or a mosque leader has been apprehended. Under secularism which your administration claims to believe in religious and places of worship are supposed to be off limits to politics. Yet Muslims have all along flouted and seriously violated this legal and national disciplinary tradition. Strangely enough the authorities do not even question the mosque hierarchies about this abuse of religious properties. You might remember Dr. Singh when your leader Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to storm into the Golden Temple to apprehend the Sikh militants and confiscate their weaponry. Why that policy is not being put to use in case of mosques in Kashmir? Justifiably there also exists a strong case for the Govt. to exclude these properties from the “tax exempt” status.

 12)        To instill fear among Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists recently a Sikh boy's hair was chopped off in Kashmir by radical Islamists when he refused to recite kalma and become a Muslim. This latest hate crime ignited public protests, agitation, condemnation and demonstrations throughout J&K and all non-Muslim minorities with one voice demanded action against the criminals who deliberately participated in this savagery. Neither the federal nor state authorities have taken into custody the people responsible for perpetrating such heinous crimes. Earlier during the intense anti-India and anti-Hindu agitation massacres of the Sikh population in the inner regions of Kashmir took place and shamelessly the people in power failed to take necessary action to enforce law. In the present case the young man, his family and the entire Sikh community deserve appropriate compensation and an apology from the Govt. for this unbelievably serious hate crime.

13) Hon'ble Prime Minister: Please note the following developments during the past six decades in J&K:

** Intensity of the Jihadi strife in J&K;
** complete ethnic cleansing of non-Muslim in the Kashmir region;
** Their disenfranchisement and hounding them out of their natural and traditional habitat by the Islamists, followers of Osama bin laden and Pakistan;
** Illegal occupation of non-Muslim movable and non-movable properties;
**massacres, kidnappings, forcible conversions; destruction of non-Muslim places of worship;
** Open hostility towards India, Hindus, Sikhs and Indian army;
** Slogan mongering by millions asserting “we are Pakistanis”;
** Demand of virtual independence or greater autonomy;
** Discriminative policies towards minorities;
** replacing traditional names of significant places and monuments with Muslim ones;
** Complete Islamization of Kashmir region;
** Pilgrimage to Hindu religious places only under Islamists conditions;
** Attacks and murders of Hindu pilgrims who dared to visit Hindu shrines;
** Imposition of Jaziya tax upon Hindu pilgrims;
** Extra territorial loyalty, loyalty to Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan and not to mother country;
** Unequal allocation of resources & eco-aid to non-Muslim regions of the state;
** Electoral gerrymandering to deny representation to pro-India minorities;
** “Quit J&K” campaign against India, Indian army and every thing Indian;
** setting up Muslims colonies and towns in non-Muslim regions;
** Destruction of pluralism in favor of communalism & separatism;
** Raising Pakistani flags and burning tri-colors;
** Chanting provocative & offensive slogans like:
            Kashmir Mein Agar Rehna Hai – Illah o Akbar Kehna Hai
            Azadi Ka Matlab Kiya – La illaha illalaha
            Ai Zalimo Ai Katilo - Kashmir Hamara Chhod Do
            Asi Gachi Pakistan – Batav Ross Ta Batnev Saan
          Yehan Kiya Banega – Nizam-e-Mustafa


          These and other highly provocative, anti-national, anti-Hindu developments under the Muslim regimes in Kashmir have vindicated the demand by the nationalist forces and provided immeasurable justification for the four-way reorganization of J&K state providing autonomous homes for Pandits & Sikhs of Kashmir; Muslims of Kashmir; Buddhists of Ladakh and Dogras of Jammu. Taking note of the above developments no Indian worth his or her salt should force patriotic Kashmiris to be ruled by the people whose loyalty and religious affiliation lies with a country built on anti-India and anti-Hindu foundations.

14)           Without meaning to be personal, Dr. Singh, when you yourself did not accept such conditions and escaped from Pakistan to live in free India how can your Govt. ask the patriotic Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs of J&K to risk their lives, faith and future and live under the tyranny of a hateful Islamic regime? These Islamists are unwilling and unable to modify their modus operandi because terrorism and Wahabbism brings them greater rewards through Pakistan and Petro-dollars. That unlike Kashmiri Muslims, 14 crore Indian Muslims live in harmony with 80 crore Hindus. But it does not convince them for making a course correction. Accordingly J&K's patriotic column must not be forced to surrender before the unpatriotic secessionists, separatists and communalists who do not consider India to be their motherland. In the fast changing world situation it is only a matter of time when the federal leadership will have to consider the reorganization plan. The Dogras, Pandits, Sikhs, Buddhists and others have always opposed the ill-logical Kashmir policy of federal authorities.

At no price are they willing to sacrifice their age old societies, cultures and homelands, at the alter of New Delhi’s unsustainable, perverted and illusionary secularism. Ignoring the patriotic thought process and flirting with secessionists & communalists may prolong the life of the Govt. in office but ultimately it will cost India so dearly. Sacrificing national interest for temporary partisan gain is the greatest sin any party can commit.  

  
15)          Hon'ble Dr. Singh -- In conclusion we respectfully urge you to:

          a) Take immediate measures for ending Vote banks politics (VBP) that has become a major tool for promoting divisive regionalism, communalism, minorityism & political corruption.  Regrettably VBP has been introduced solely for gaining electoral advantages by engineering and promoting fragmentation and division in the general public. In time its role has transcended the electoral domain and is now being used to illegally and unethically reward participating members with political, economic, educational, religious, employment and other advantages. They are also utilized as instruments to fracture Hindu society into castes, sub-castes, Dalits, OBCs and tribes and defectors are handsomely rewarded.

          b) For Jammu & Kashmir:           i)  In order to protect and defend the nationalist segments of the Kashmiri population, in addition to taking necessary political measures, Govt. must also take prompt action for safeguarding Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist educational institutions, temples and their properties from illegal sales. Therefore, all sales that took place after 1988 be declared as “sales under duress.” Your long standing diplomatic and administrative skills and resources could be extremely helpful to enforce the provisions of the secular Constitution of India in this turmoil torn state.

          ii) Almost all of the budgetary expenditures in the J&K state are gifted by the Indian Govt. with taxes mostly paid by Hindus. Surely these taxpayers do not fund the Kashmir Govt. so it could destroy the age old foundations of Hinduism and its infrastructure for realizing the forced talibanization of the state. Equality for all, irrespective of religious background as specified by the Indian Constitution must be guaranteed here as well.

          iii) We further urge that the absolutely illegal Jaziya tax levied on vehicles carrying Hindu pilgrims in the state be abolished forthwith and the harassment of pilgrims by the state officials and Islamists must be made punishable under law. We must again restate that India pays over Rs. 800 crores per year as subsidy to Muslims for Hajj. Least the J&K regime could do in return is to abolish these draconian practices.    c)          With the provocative anti- national, anti- Hindu developments during the past six decades detailed earlier, to save the minority non- Muslims,  the demand by the nationalist forces has immeasurable justification for the four-way reorganization of J&K state providing autonomous homes for Pandits & Sikhs of Kashmir; Muslims of Kashmir; Buddhists of Ladakh and Dogras of Jammu.

          Thank you Mr. Prime Minister. We are looking forward to your response and prompt action towards resolving these highly explosive but solvable issues.
 

Sincerely,

  Dr. Jagan Kaul  
  Krishan Bhatnagar
  
  Hindu Jagran Forum (USA)
  Email: krishan.kb@verizon.net
  August 15 , 2010

Ref 1: http://www.bharatjagran.com/ ; Pakistan: Hon'ble PM Gillani: Please stop Persecution of non- Muslim minorities in Pakistan (July 30, 2010)

Ref 2: http://www.bharatjagran.com/ ; J & K - Hon'ble CM : Massive destruction of temples in J&K and Talibanization of the state (Feb. 21, 2008)

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Attachment A

  Temples desecrated and damaged in Kashmir from 1990 to December 1992   

1. DASHNAMI AKHARA, SRINAGAR
2. GANPATYAR TEMPLE
3. RAGHUNATH MANDIR, SRINAGAR
4. SHIVA TEMPLE, JAWAHAR NAGAR, SRINAGAR
5. HANUMAN MANDIR, SRINAGAR
6. SHIVA TEMPLE, BARBAR SHAH, SRINAGAR
7. JAI DEVI TEMPLE, BIJBEHARA
8. VIJESHWAR TEMPLE, BIJBEHARA
9. SHIVA MANDIR, BIJBEHARA
10. RAGHUNATH TEMPLE, ANANTNAG
11. GAUTAM NAG TEMPLE, ANANTNAG
12. THREE TEMPLES OF LUKHBHAVAN, LARKIPURA, ANANTNAG
13. WANPOH MANDIR, ANANTNAG
14. SHAILPUTRI TEMPLE, BARAMULLA
15. DAYALGAM MANDIR, ANANTNAG
16. BHAIRAVANATH MANDIR, BARAMULLA
17. BHAIRAVANATH MANDIR, SOPORE
18. RUPABHAVANI MANDIR, VASAKURA
19. KHIRBHAVANI MANDIR, GANDERBAL
20. SHIVA TEMPLE, GANDERBAL
21. MATTAN TEMPLE, ANANTNAG

There have been reports of further destruction of some 39 temples in Kashmir after December 6, 1992 for which FIR were filed. Please note that FIRs on all destruction cases were not filed with the authorities in view of the complicity of the administration and warnings of retaliation against the complainants by the Islamic terrorists.  According to local eye witnesses accounts there were additional 38 temples that were vandalized after December 6, 1992.

         

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Attachment B
Mutiny cry from mosque
- Shrine loudspeakers blare pro-freedom chants in Valley; eight-year-old among eight dead
MUZAFFAR RAINA\
The Telegraph, Aug 3, 2010

Srinagar, Aug. 2: Mosque loudspeakers crackled across Kashmir today, blaring not a call to prayer but a call for rebellion.

The shrines turned protest pulpits overnight in a throwback to the early 1990s when the governor of the day, Jagmohan, had dubbed them “centre of revolution (sic)”.

The trigger for the return to a tactic used 20 years ago was the death of eight civilians in clashes with security forces yesterday, the bloodiest day of the seven-week unrest that started in the second week of June.

Today’s death count was also eight, but a boy injured yesterday was among those who died. Sameer Ahmad, an eight-year-old from Srinagar who is the youngest victim of the current spell of violence, died of injuries suffered during a clash. The police blamed his wounds on a stampede. The seven other victims included at least two school-going teenagers, one of whom died in hospital after a tear-gas shell hit him on Saturday.

The death toll has risen to 39 since the violence began on June 11. Twenty-two of the deaths have occurred in the past four days.

Today’s flash point was Budgam, where a mob of hundreds torched two state government offices and a portion of the railway station, the police said.

At Rajpura, also in Pulwama, protesters set fire to all the four buildings in a police station, injuring 20 people. The incident mirrored yesterday’s raid on the Khrew police station, 20km from Srinagar, by a mob that unknowingly torched an explosives-packed storeroom, triggering a blast that killed five people.

At Kralpora in north Kashmir’s Kupwara, a mob looted arms from a police post, triggering retaliation that killed one person. The agitators fled with four rifles.

One person was killed in police firing after agitators attacked a police post and attempted to set fire to it in Kulgam. At neighbouring Sangam in Anantnag, CRPF personnel fired on a stone-throwing mob. The stampede that followed claimed a life.

The continued violence came on a day chief minister Omar Abdullah discussed the situation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi.

If the streets were on fire, mosques appeared to rekindle a familiar spark.

A police officer who had been on duty in Srinagar in 1990 highlighted the parallels between the events then and now. “People know the power of mosques. They had used it with perfection during Jagmohan’s stint as governor and they tried to repeat it today.”

Mosques, the officer said, serve two purposes for protesters. “It amplifies their call. The slogans coming from mosques make one feel as if the entire population has joined the protests. It frustrates the government. Plus, they (the people) feel safe, thinking they are protesting peacefully inside and will not be harmed by the police.”

Jagmohan mentioned several incidents in his book, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir. “The subversives used mosques extensively for rearing, nursing and fanning their activities. In fact, one of the instructions was to make mosques centre of revolution (sic).”

History was repeating itself today as scores of mosques reverberated with azaadi songs, and pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. Thousands, including the elderly and children, flocked to such mosques. Some went even at night.

At many places, the crowd spilled onto the streets. But at the forefront were mostly teenagers or youths in their early twenties — described as the “children of conflict” because they were born during the past 20 years of strife. Many were painting roads and walls with the slogan: “Go India go”.

“It’s a do-or-die situation for us. Either we’ll get it (azaadi) now or never,” said a 17-year-old in Srinagar’s Hazratbal as he joined a dozen-odd youngsters in pulling down concertina wires strung together by the police to block traffic in the curfew-bound city.

The group’s next step was to put up hurdles to deny the policemen access to their locality and use the obstacles as shields to launch a form of attack that has become common for months now: stone-throwing.

“Our parents picked up the gun to fight for azaadi but we want to achieve it through peaceful means. If that is not allowed, we will pick up stones,” the 17-year-old said.

The authorities aren’t unaware of the trouble that can be fomented from mosques, and Jagmohan’s “centre of revolution” phrase is on their mind. That could explain why they have not permitted prayer gatherings in some mosques. That includes the Jamia Masjid, Kashmir’s main mosque, where Friday prayers have not been allowed for five weeks now.

Residents in Srinagar’s old city said they had heard gunshots throughout last night, apparently fired by security forces to keep the people indoors. But in several other places,cops watched helplessly as protesters marched.

Officials said reinforcements were rushed to such spots before dawn to enforce the curfew, but many mosques, mostly on the city outskirts, continued to draw protesters

http://news.hinduworld.com/click_frameset.php?ref_url=%2Findex.php%3F&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraphindia.com%2F%2F1100803%2Fjsp%2Fnation%2Fstory_12763767.jsp

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Attachment C

Bid on to convert Kerala into a Muslim state: CM 

Thiruvananthapuram, July 24, DHNS:
Deccan Herald.com http://www.deccanherald.com/content/83631/bid-convert-kerala-muslim-state.html

Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Saturday said that the radical outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) was aiming to convert Kerala into a Muslim-majority state in the next 20 years.

The chief minister ’s revelation has raised many eyebrows as the police has been keeping under wraps all information they had unearthed in their continuing crackdown on the organisation following the ‘palm-chopping’ of a professor.
“The organisation has been pumping money to attract youths. They have also been trying to convert youths from other communities and persuading them to marry Muslim girls,’’ Achuthanandan told reporters in New Delhi.

The chief minister was responding to a question whether the ongoing crackdown would not prove counterproductive. Achuthanandan ’s statement also points an accusing finger at the PFI for encouraging ‘love jihad’, something the organisation has been vehemently denying.

Several activists of the organisation have been arrested in the palm-chopping incident allegedly carried out to protest against the “insulting of the prophet” in a question paper. Incriminating literature, proof of big cash transactions and seditious CDs have been seized from the houses of PFI activists.

The chief minister said that such dangerous organisations should be isolated. The PFI was under the police scanner, which had already banned their annual statewide “freedom march” on August 15. 

Meanwhile, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said here that the police were trying to find out whether the PFI was a reincarnation of the banned SIMI.

“The organisation was trying to attract Muslim youths towards the path of terrorism. However, a majority are not following them. The state government’s policy was not to harass or victimise the Muslim community in the name of the ongoing investigations as the Opposition had alleged,” he said.

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