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India Causes Fresh Pakistan Floods
… And Donates $5 Million To Victims
At least 148 Pakistani villages have been evacuated today because of the Indian action
India's massive Baglihar Dam in occupied Kashmir is destabilizing the region.
Former president Musharraf failed to check the construction of this dam and
the incumbent Pakistani government depends on Washington for survival
and won't risk upsetting it by raising India's water war.
SPECIAL REPORT
Saturday, 21 August 2010.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—While Pakistani foreign minister and his government were busy accepting Indian aid for Pakistani flood victims, New Delhi released a massive 18,000 cusec feet of water from a dam in Indian-occupied Kashmir into Pakistan, prompting fresh fears of floods in the plains of Punjab and Sindh.
On 17 Aug., Pakistani website PakNationalists.com released a report [titled, “Check Indian, Afghan Dams For Floods In Pakistan”] providing indications that minor flooding in northern Pakistan following torrential rains was worsened by India releasing water form tens of small dams that litter occupied Kashmir. These Indian dams have been full for the past two to three years.
An Afghan dam near the Pakistani border, called the Sarobi Dam, is also suspected of releasing vast amounts of water into river Kabul. The Afghan dam is run by an Indian company.
Until a week ago, on 16 Aug., Pakistan’s Meteorological Office confirmed there was no chance of flooding in the northern rivers of Ravi and Satluj.
According to a report in TheNation today, India has released 18,000 cusec of water into Ravi in the early hours of Saturday. It is not clear if the Indians gave Pakistan a 24-hour advance warning in accordance with the water treaty between the two countries. It is also not clear if the release of this amount of water is warranted considering that India has constructed a network of small- and medium-sized dams across Indian-occupied Kashmir adjoining northern Pakistan.
According to the newspaper report, ‘flood warning has been issued here to five drainages of River Ravi catchment areas in wake of possible flood due to release of water in river Ravi by India here on Saturday. As per details, India has release 18000-cusec water in river Ravi that could cause flood in five drainages of Narowal and Shaker Garh. Metrological department had predicted water level in river Ravi would remain low during next 24 hours but after release of water by India low-level flood has hit drainage Bhutsen and Basantar of River Ravi catchment area.
At least 168 villages along river Ravi have been evacuated in wake of possible flood while district administration has been red alerted in Narowal and Sialkot. The flood center in Lahore has given prior high flood warning in drainage located in Shakar Garh. More four drainages Basantar, Jhajri, Oojh and Khattar could be affected by the possible flood. Water inflow of 70,000 cusec at Shahdara could cause massive destruction.
Despite sharing rivers with Afghanistan and Indian-occupied Kashmir, no flooding has been witnessed in either Afghanistan or Indian-occupied Kashmir. Successive waves of flooding in Pakistan despite no rains for the past ten days raise a question mark on the amount of water India has released from its dozens of dams in Kashmir exploiting torrential rains and what initially started as limited flooding in northern Pakistan.
The key point here is that the initial flooding in pockets of northern Pakistan was natural but the subsequent flood waves in the absence of rain are possibly linked to opening the floodgates of Indian dams and the Indian-run Sarobi Dam in Afghanistan. The selective melting of Himalayan glaciers into Pakistan is also a point of consideration. The theory of some experts that the speed of melting at certain glaciers doubled to coincide with torrential rains is highly unlikely and does not explain the successive flood waves in River Kabul coming in from Afghanistan.
There are no Pakistani observers posted at the main Indian dam of Baglihar to check how much water India released into Pakistan during the last two weeks. Baglihar has been a point of contention between Islamabad and New Delhi since 2005. Some analysts in Pakistan have described the dam as a national security threat. The last two years have confirmed Pakistani fears when India blocked Pakistan’s share of the rivers flowing from Kashmir, turning vast agricultural lands of central Pakistani plains into
A pro-US Pakistani government is loath to raise this issue with New Delhi in order not to alienate Washington and London, the two capitals that worked for the return from exile of key figures in the incumbent Pakistani government.
On US prodding, the Pakistani government officials have been indirectly defending the Indian position by denying that India is stealing Pakistan’s water and that Pakistan’s problem is water wastage.
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PakNationalists is a meeting point of Pakistani nationalists. We come from all backgrounds. We are proud of the great history of all Pakistanis, a people extracted from the great cultures of the Turks, Persians, Arabs and Aryans. And we are proud of modern Pakistan, a nation that rose against all odds. We believe in the oneness of the Pakistani nation and that it is destined to play its role in these challenging and interesting times. This pride affects how we approach Pakistan’s national and international policy issues.
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EXCLUSIVE
Check Indian, Afghan Dams For Floods In Pakistan
· Indian company controls dam on Kabul River, tens of dams control flow of Kashmir water into Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan
· Flood gates of Afghan Sarobi Dam, Indian Baglihar Dam were opened to drown Pakistani plains
· Two US allies, the puppet regime in Kabul and the ‘strategic ally’ in New Delhi, declare water war on Pakistan
· The tragedy one again raises question marks on the US double game against Pakistan in the region
· Melting glaciers have nothing to do with this tragedy; it also doesn’t explain why Kabul river surged
It’s not as if the clouds dodged borders and focused on Pakistan only. Pakistan’s water flows from Indian-occupied Kashmir and from US-occupied Afghanistan. A natural deluge should have shown some spillover effect into Indian and Afghan regions adjoining Pakistan. It is interesting that a second and a third wave of floods is expected in Pakistan when there’s no rain to justify it. Where is the water coming from? Here’s a perspective by Mr. Zaid Hamid, a security analyst at BrassTacks, and Ms. Gulpari Mehsud, a researcher at PakNationalists.com. [PakNationalists.com]
By ZAID HAMID & Gulpari Mehsud
Tuesday, 17 August 2010.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—There is a very sinister aspect to the floods in Pakistan that no one is discussing in the media. While there were rains and flooding in some rivers of the country, the size, scale and the gush of water suddenly pumped into these rivers defies logic. This is especially true considering that rains have slowed down since the breakout of the floods on 29 July.
It is two weeks since the rains stopped but water continues to rise in the rivers Indus and Chenab. There was no flooding in India or in Afghanistan. Never before have rivers in all the provinces of Pakistan flooded at the same time without a similar act affecting the upstream, the source. While some parts of the country, like some areas of Khyber Pakhtun Khwa saw flooding in 1929, the simultaneous floods covering all of Pakistan and in all of the rivers flowing in from Afghanistan and Indian-occupied Kashmir is something truly unprecedented.
This speed and quantity of the gushing water and the short span of time in which it picked momentum preclude the possibility that water from melting glaciers are solely responsible for the floods.
There is no evidence that suggests that glaciers decided to melt at a faster speed just in time for the heavy monsoon rains.
There is every likelihood that what we are seeing today is that the Indians and the US-backed regime in Kabul are using water as a weapon for the first time to deluge Pakistan. There is no doubt about it.
From an initial look at the data, it seems that a natural spill of heavy rain was exploited by releasing water reservoirs in Indian-occupied Kashmir and on river Kabul. Let’s remember that the Met Office in Pakistan had already forecast heavy rains almost ten days before the first downpour. Different people received this news in different ways. Pakistani politicians, inept and incompetent as usual, slept over it. The anti-Pakistan terrorists based on Afghan soil and supported by several countries used this information to exacerbate terror against Pakistani citizens in the southwestern province of Balochistan, knowing that the State machinery would be distracted.
Interestingly, even when it comes to water, it is Indians where are sitting to the left and right of Pakistan’s borders. The dam on Kabul river is handled by Indian personnel, while tens of dams choke Pakistan from the side of occupied Kashmir.
RIVER KABUL
In February, the Obama administration organized a meeting for senior government officials in Kabul and Islamabad who handle agricultural issues. The meeting was strangely held in Doha, Qatar, on US request. The agenda was to force the Pakistanis to grant agricultural concessions to the US-propped government in Kabul, without Pakistan getting anything in return.
But in the meeting, Mr. Zahoor Malik, a senior Pakistani bureaucrat leading the Pakistani delegation, raised the issue of an Indian company with close links to the Indian government building a dam on river Kabul near the border with Pakistan. It is not clear what the Americans and Karzai’s officials had to say about this. There is a track record, however, that the incumbent pro-US government in Islamabad has often swept such issues under the carpet in order not to jeopardize Washington’s support for the Zardari government.
All major rivers flowing into Pakistan including the Indus are blocked by Indian-built dams.
US and British officials often defend India and dismiss Pakistani concerns as ‘conspiracy theories.’ Some Pakistani analysts accuse elements within US government and intelligence of using Afghan soil against Pakistan.
But imagine this: India, a country that faces a debilitating conflict over Kashmir with Pakistan, goes to build tens of small and medium sized dams on all the rivers flowing down to Pakistan, and everything is supposed to work out smoothly? Not possible, even theoretically. But luckily Indian actions on the ground more than strengthen Pakistani concerns.
After the first wave of floods, the other rivers were flowing normally and no extraordinary rains followed. But suddenly Chenab and Indus Rivers overflowed and the flow picked up speed, turning into a flood. India’s Baghliar Dam in occupied Kashmir opened its flood gates to cause a tragedy in the plains of Pakistan [Sindh and Punjab]. While Sarobi Dam – the Indian-maintained dam near Kabul – controls the flow of Kabul River entering Pakistan. The same thing happened here. Monsoons did not lash Afghanistan and there was no flooding there of any magnitude. But again, strangely, water flowing from river Kabul into Pakistan dramatically picked up speed as water levels increased turning into a flood. The speed with which this transformation occurred could have happened only because of one of two reasons: massive rains in Afghanistan or because Sarobi Dam released large amounts of water over a sustainable period of time.
PAKISTANI POLITICIANS
ANP, a US-allied party with strong links to Kabul and New Delhi and ruling the Pakistani northwestern province, has always opposed the construction of the Kalabagh Dam which would have saved thousands of lives and property had it been there. The ANP has argued that building the dam would drown the city of Nowshehra. Ironically, ANP’s lie was exposed when not only Nowshehra but also Charsadda drowned without the Kalabagh Dam being there and thanks to the artificial floods created in Kabul River by ANP’s Indian and Afghan patrons.
[Earlier this year, Washington and New Delhi came to ANP’s defense on the Kalabagh Dam project by lobbying the World Bank to refuse Islamabad’s request for funding the dam. The Bank obliged and said it can’t fund the project due to Indian objections.]
OUR RESPONSE
How Pakistan responds to this latest Indian water war and aggression is something that remains to be seen. What is confirmed is that the incumbent pro-US government in Islamabad is useless when it comes to defending the Pakistani interest. To be fair to this government, this unusual situation in Islamabad started under former President Musharraf and continues with the current ‘elected’ government with amazing continuity. This water aggression has proved more lethal than the TTP [so-called Pakistani Taliban] and the BLA insurgencies, both of which were started from the Afghan springboard to punish Pakistan.
Pakistan has taken another serious hit, more from its corrupt rulers than external enemies. These Indian Dams now need to be destroyed. India has declared war on us by exploiting and orchestrating these floods.
Mr. Hamid can be reached at info@brasstacks.biz and Ms. Mehsud can be reached at info@paknationalists.com Research associates contributed to this report.
2007-2010. All rights reserved. PakNationalists.com
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Do NOT underestimate the power of your comment
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PakNationalists is a meeting point of Pakistani nationalists. We come from all backgrounds. We are proud of the great history of all Pakistanis, a people extracted from the great cultures of the Turks, Persians, Arabs and Aryans. And we are proud of modern Pakistan, a nation that rose against all odds. We believe in the oneness of the Pakistani nation and that it is destined to play its role in these challenging and interesting times. This pride affects how we approach Pakistan’s national and international policy issues.
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Get Out Of Kashmir, India
A Canadian Sikh Leader Says The Sikh Nation Will Stand By Kashmiris, And Wants Freedom For Sikh Homeland
By HABIB YOUSAFZAI
Saturday, 21 August 2010.
TORONTO, Canada—Worried Indian diplomats sneaked behind the curtains of the windows at the building of the Consulate General of India in this Canadian city as Kashmiris, Pakistanis, and Sikhs gathered across the street, drawing the attention of the Canadian media and public to an important idea whose time has come: an end to the Indian occupation of Kashmir.
World Kashmiri Diaspora Alliance held a peaceful rally in front of the Consulate General of India in Toronto to ask the world powers important questions that must be answered that must be answered:
“Should India get away with defiance of international agreements?”
and,
“Who has given India a license for the genocide of the Kashmiris and other minorities?”
The demonstrators included children, women, and the elderly. They raised slogans of protest saying, “Kashmiris demand the right to life.”
Protesters were carrying placards demanding “Indian Army: quit Kashmir”; “We demand self-determination, as agreed upon in 1948”; “India honor her pledges given at the UN”; “Stop killings & inhumane crimes in Kashmir”; “Stop state terrorism in Kashmir”; “Kashmiris demand peace & justice”.
Since June, 2010, the Kashmir Valley has been burning. A renowned Kashmiri leader Farooq Siddiqui said:
“Our parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins are undergoing unwanted sufferings and uncertainties. Protests and demonstrations have been rocking Kashmir; strikes and curfews have brought the Kashmir's life to a standstill. We would like to draw the world attention on Indian armed personnel's presence which is more than 800,000 in the civilian population to intimidate the Kashmiris. It is horrifying to imagine more than 192,685 killings, 215,877 arrests, and 110,000 disappearances, 115,665 home demolitions, committed by Indian Forces, leaving 122,675 widows and 207,218 orphans in the last six decades. India has been committing crimes such as rapes, torture, atrocities, humiliation, dehumanization and gross human rights violations of the Kashmiris. Nobody has paid any attention to the agony of the Kashmiris for over 63 years. Despite all these atrocities, India still claims to be the world’s largest democracy. It is evident that India’s treatment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir is vastly different than its other states. “
Canadians participated in the rally. Of special significance was the participation of activists from the United Front of Sikhs, a renowned Sikh organization based in Toronto, Canada.
Sikh leader Sardar Balkar Singh, a victim of India's terrorism and in charge of the United Front of Sikhs, announced that the Sikh nation will work together with their Kashmiri brethren in order to achieve sovereignty for both Kashmir and Khalistan, the Sikh homeland that waits to be freed from Indian occupation.
He also stressed that they were present to show solidarity with their Kashmiri brothers and fully support to their just cause. They were also carrying banners displaying “The Indian Government must cease the illegal occupation of Khalistan.”
The Sikh leader said the Sikh nation has been struggling for the sovereignty of Punjab (Khalistan), which is also occupied by the Indian Government since the day India received freedom from Britain on August 15, 1947. This was day when the Sikh nation and PUNJAB were 'robbed' by the deceitful Indian government masters and made the Sikhs a 'Landless Sikh Nation.” So far, India has murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Sikhs since 1984.
Habib Yousafzai, a member and spokesperson in Toronto for the World Kashmiri Diaspora Alliance, strongly demanded that, “The Indian democracy must honor its own words to the inhabitants of Jammu and Kashmir whose sovereignty is disputed as per various United Nations resolutions. Their fate should be decided by the right of Self-Determination by the people of Kashmir. The New Delhi administration, he said, must:
i. declare ceasefire against Kashmiri innocent peoples
ii. remove curfew, and
iii. withdraw all its armed forces to let the people of Jammu and Kashmir decide their own destiny and the future for their coming generations, by a democratic verdict of referendum
Others who addressed the rally included Mr. Mohammed Aslam Rathure, Mr. Hussain Yousafzai, Mr. Mueen Hakak, Mr. G.S. Dhaliwal, Mr. Altaf Qazi, Sardar Kuljit Singh and Ms. Khaoula Siddiqi.
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PakNationalists is a meeting point of Pakistani nationalists. We come from all backgrounds. We are proud of the great history of all Pakistanis, a people extracted from the great cultures of the Turks, Persians, Arabs and Aryans. And we are proud of modern Pakistan, a nation that rose against all odds. We believe in the oneness of the Pakistani nation and that it is destined to play its role in these challenging and interesting times. This pride affects how we approach Pakistan’s national and international policy issues.
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