Use of Chemicals Weapons by the Indian Security Forces in Kashmir
By Sajjad Shaukat
Some reliable online sources disclosed that with the acceleration of the Kashmiri intifada, Indian security forces have used chemical weapons against the Kashmiri civilians in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) in violation of international law and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Due to mounting causalities in IOK, Indian security forces have started giving collective punishment to Kashmiri civilians. In a development, on 4 July 2017, the Indian Army had destroyed houses in Pulwama and killed 3 Kashmiri civilians. Upon recovery of the bodies, it was discovered that they were burnt beyond recognition.
Sources report that Indian Army is emulating Israeli tactics by using white phosphorus bombs to destroy houses of Kashmiris suspected of harboring Mujahideen. The same tactics was used by Israel during its attacks on Gaza and it seems that these weapons have been provided by Israel to India for use in IOK.
In this regard, on July 6, this year, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakariya during a weekly press briefing in Islamabad called for an international probe into reports that India used chemical munitions in held Kashmir against civilians. He elaborated, “We call upon the international community, particularly, relevant international organisations to initiate investigations into reports about Indian forces in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, using ammunition containing chemical agents and precursors to kill Kashmiri youth and destroy Kash-miris’ properties.”
He cited the discovery of charred bodies of Kashmiri youth from the debris of five houses destroyed by the Indian forces at Bahmnoo and Kakpora in Pulwama, which had been burnt beyond visual recognition.
The spokesman claimed that more similar attacks had been committed by the Indian Army, adding, “If use of chemicals in the ammunition is confirmed, then it would constitute a serious violation of international norms and India’s international obligations under Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
It is notable that a series of international treaties, specifically the CWC, prohibits the use of chemical weapons not only in international armed conflicts, but also non-international armed conflicts rather in all circumstances.
It is the first time that Indian security forces have used chemical weapons in the Indian controlled Kashmir.
However, we need to analyze the case of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in order to know that with the intensification of the different war between the sovereign and non-sovereign entities, dangers are looming that by availing the vicious phenomena of global terrorism, any entity like India and Israel, and their supported militant outfits like the Islamic State group(Also known as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL) or their linked terror-group can use Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) inside the US and Europe or any Islamic or Western country to obtain their selfish interests. In this respect, despite having collective aims, some countries are also playing double game against one another.
Since the 9/11 tragedy, while waging phony global war on terror, the US-led Western high officials and their media had been propagating in the world that Pakistan-based Islamic militants can use WMDs or ‘dirty nuclear bombs’ inside the US and Europe. And a plot in this connection would be prepared in Pakistan’s tribal areas. In this context, in connivance with Israeli secret agency Mossad, Indian secret agency RAW acclerated its propaganda campaign against Pakistan. But, Islamabad took a temporary relief of sigh, because now, almost every plot regarding terrorism is attributed to Syria where illegitimate interests of Israel are at risk.
It is notable that Indian nuclear weapons and their related-material are unprotected, as various cases of smuggling and theft have verified.
In July 1998, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation seized eight kg. of nuclear material from Arun, an engineer in Chennai, including two other engineers. It was reported that the uranium was stolen from an atomic research center. On November 7, 2000, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) indicated that Indian police had seized 57 pounds of uranium and arrested two men for illicit trafficking of radioactive material. IAEA said that Indian civil nuclear facilities were vulnerable to thefts.
On January 26, 2003, CNN disclosed that Indian company, NEC Engineers Private Ltd. shipped 10 consignments to Iraq, containing highly sensitive equipment including titanium vessels and centrifugal pumps. Indian investigators acknowledged that the company falsified customs documents to get its shipments out of India. On June 12, 2004, Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation, an American company was fined US $ 300,000 for exporting a nuclear component to the Bhaba Atomic Research Center in India.
In December 2005, United States imposed sanctions on two Indian firms for selling missile goods and chemical arms material to a Muslim country in violation of India’s commitment to prevent proliferation. In the same year, Indian scientists, Dr. Surendar and Y S R Prasad had been blacklisted by the US due to their involvement in nuclear theft. In December, 2006, container packed with radioactive material had been stolen from an Indian fortified research atomic facility near Mumbai.
Nevertheless, in collaboration with the officials, proliferation of nuclear components and their related-material has continued from time to time by the Indians.
Surprisingly, despite nuclear proliferation by India in violation of various international agreements and its refusal to sign Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and Additional Protocol with the IAEA, Washington signed a pact of nuclear civil technology with New Delhi.
As regards Israel, many authors, writers, officials, doctors, experts and reports have proved with evidence that from the very beginning, Israel have not only stockpiled the WMDs, but used them
on various occasions.
During various phases of the Palestinian Intifada, Israel used these fatal weapons against the unarmed Palestinians.
In March 2003, BBC presented the documentary, investigating Tel Aviv’s development of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
In this connection, American leading media suppressed the real details of the 2009 United Nations (UN) fact-finding report which disclosed as to how Israel’s military used chemical weapons against Palestinians.
In 2006, during the war against Lebanon, Israel used banned chemical weapons like phosphorous bombs in Lebanon and Gaza, which killed 286 Palestinians and injured 4,200.
In 2013, the then US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons in relation to the Syrian civil war. In order to protect the interests of Israel, in the pretext, America was determined to attack Syria like the invasion of Iraq where no weapons of mass destructions were discovered. But, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western powers against any airstrike. For face-saving, John Kerry withdrew from American stand, as he could not prove it.
In fact, CIA-Mossad-backed rebels which have been fighting to oust President Assad’s government had used chemical weapons in Syria. While, brushing aside the dangers, covertly, America and its related-industries which are mostly under the control of Zionist Jews have supplied Tel Aviv WMDs. Concealing these fatal weapons, Israel had flatly refused to sign the NPT, and to ratify the CWC which obligates states to submit to international oversight and destroy chemical agents in their possession. While in 2013, Damascus ratified the CWC.
It is noteworthy that in 1983, the former Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon suggested India to join with Israel to attack Pakistani nuclear facilities, and in 1982 he called for expanding Israel’s security influence from Mauritania to Afghanistan.
Since 9/11, by availing that golden opportunity, both India and Israel have perennially been manipulating the world phenomena of terrorism and anti-Muslim approach of the US-led West so as to obtain their secret designs. Both Tel Aviv and New Delhi have been equating the ‘wars of liberation’ in Palestine and Kashmir with terrorism, and under the cover, accelerated state terrorism on these controlled territories. Their main purpose is to divert the attention of the west from their own atrocities, while employing delaying tactics in the solution of these issues.
With the assistance of the American lobbies and in connivance with the US neoconservatives, India and Israel have been exaggerating the threat of Islamophobia.
Nonetheless, Tel Aviv and New Delhi have been acting upon a secret diplomacy in targeting the whole Islamic World in general and Pakistan, China, Iran, Libya and Syria in particular. In this respect, by exploiting America’s ambivalent strategy and double standards of the US-led West, both India and Israel have also been propagating that a ‘nuclearized’ Pakistan, having close ties with China is sponsoring cross-border terrorism in Afghanistan and the Indian-occupied Kashmir. And Iran and Syria are doing the same act in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Especially, New Delhi considers Pakistan as its enemy number one. America and Israel are also against Pakistan, as it is the only nuclear country in the Muslim world.
In this regard, similarity of interests has brought Israel and India to follow a common secret strategy with the help of those Americans who are present in the US Administration.
In this context, Indian RAW, Israeli Mossad and some American CIA agents are in collusion even at the cost of the US global and regional interests.
It is mentionable that ideology of Hindu nationalism prevails in every field at the cost of other minority groups. It is even assisted by Indian defence forces clandestinely. This could be judged from the incident, when on April 6, 2008 in a house of the fundamentalist outfit Bajrang Dal invaded, a bomb went off. The investigation proved that the militants were found in bomb-making. Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra arrested a serving Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit along with other army officials, indicating that they were helping in training the Hindu terrorists, providing them with the military-grade explosive RDX, used in terrorist attacks in various Indian cities. ATS further disclosed that Lt. Col. Purohit confessed that in 2007, he was involved in bombing of Samjhota express (Train between Pakistan and India in which a majority of Pakistanis travel), which burnt alive 70 Pakistanis.
It is of particular that in one of his tapes, LT. Col Purohit said, “One of our own captain had visited Israel”, and demanded “continuous supply of arms, training, an office with a saffron flag in Tel Aviv, political asylum and support for our cause of a Hindu Nation in the UN.” The Israelis, he added, gave “a very positive response.”
Although these lethal poisons (WMDs) seem to be mysterious, yet still could be within the reach of some Hindu terrorists with the help of RAW which could also get these destructive weapons from Mossad. Such chemical and radiological materials could have also been smuggled inside India by the Hindu fundamentalists with the covert assistance of RAW.
Frustrated in isolating Islamabad, RAW in connivance with Mossad might have prepared a most dangerous plan to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons inside the US homeland or any major European country to implicate Pakistan for having allegedly used these weapons through some Taliban militants.
Particularly, RAW-Mossad may also employ these fatal weapons against NATO forces in Afghanistan, as India and Israel want to prolong the stay of the US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan which have become the center of their covert activities against Pakistan, China and Iran. ISIS terrorists which are strategic assets of the CIA may be used by RAW and Mossad for employment of these unconventional weapons. While, India, Israel and the US are also playing double game against one another, hence, by utilizing the vicious circle of terrorism, New Delhi can alone use these weapons through Afghanistan-based Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or ISIS which has also been backed by India, and has claimed responsibility for several terror assaults inside Pakistan and Afghanistan, including the recent ones. RAW’s sole aim will be to provoke Americans and its allies against Pakistan which is challenging Indian hegemony in the region. Thus, Indian RAW could create a dangerous misunderstanding in which US could use small nuclear weapons against Pakistan. Otherwise, Islamabad could be asked to rollback its atomic programme.
However, use of chemical weapons by the Indian security forces against the Kashmiri civilians is against international law and the government of Pakistan should raise the case at the UN and other forums such as Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email: sajjad_logic_pak@hotmail.com
