Pakistani Prisoner Sanaullah dies in Chandigarh

Sanaullah Ranjay, a Pakistani prisoner dies at Chandigarh hospital at 7:15 on May 9 ,2013.  He slipped in Coma when, was beaten by Vinod Kumar, a court-martialed Indian soldier who is also serving a life term for murder. Ranjay, has also been earlier declared clinically dead by the medical board.  He was from the border village of Sialkot. According to his family Sanaullah by mistake crossed the LOC IN 199. Family and locals of Indian occupied Kashmir protested over ruthless and inhuman act of Indian inmate. Pakistani authorities appealed that Sanaullah be released for further treatment to Pakistan.

In fact, brutal action against Sanaullah is linked with the death of convicted Indian terrorist Sarabjeet Singh who expired when his fellow inmates had stricken him with a brick at Lahore jail. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry called the Kashmir jail attack an “obvious retaliation” for the killing of the Indian prisoner. Notably, Pakistan has already ordered and started the investigations in the case of Sarabjeet Singh’s death. Unfortunately, as usual Indian Foreign Office and media without having any solid evidence have alleged Pakistani Prime Intelligence agency for the death of Indian terrorist.

Attacking of prisoners by their inmates no doubt are inhuman acts, which need to be out rightly condemned. But before alleging the state or involvement of intelligence outfits of both the countries in these cases one has to analyze the circumstances under which incidents occurred. Let’s assess one by one both the prisoners.

Sarabjeet Singh was a regular spy of RAW who was launched after giving proper training with a view to spread terrorism in Pakistan. In 1990 he crossed the international border and completed entrusted tasks of carrying out serial bomb blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990, He was convicted basing on his confessional statement in the courts, he was awarded death sentence in 1991 by the Supreme Court. In these bomb blasts 14 innocent individuals were killed and several injured. He has also confessed of carrying out the bomb blasts as directed by RAW. Now, some words about the occurrence of his beating by his jail intimates. Reportedly, he was habitual of drugs and used to agitate others prisoners on death row, while saying that he would soon be free and you people would be hanged.

Moreover, he was in the habit of using abusive language even against Indian government and launchers that his masters are not taking care of his family. On May 2, 2013 he stirred up fellow intimates Rizwan and Amir while abusing in the same old fashion. Therefore, resultantly Rizwan and Amir got furious and scuffle took placed between them. His fellow Pakistani prisoners suddenly picked a brick and hit Singh’ head. He was timely evacuated to the hospital but died due to cardiac arrest. Thus, entire episode did not prove the involvement of any Pakistani intelligence hand. Since there was no need to eliminate an individual has already been awarded death sentence. Moreover, according to the media reports an Intelligence officer of RAW has also confirmed that Singh has been pushed to Pakistani territory for carrying out multiply terrorists and sabotage activities. Sikh community must be mindful now that Indian intelligence agency is pitching Sikh against Muslims.

Now some words about Pakistani prisoner Sanaullha Ranjay who was imprisoned in 1999 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009. He crossed LOC by mistake but given life imprisonment without listening him properly by the court. Apart from discussing the legality of punishment of Sannulalha, it is one of the fact that Pakistani prisoner was hit by designed, and deliberately as tasked by RAW. A day before this incident, meeting between RAW and Vinod was carried out in the office of Jail Superintendent. On the promise of anonymity a prisoner from Jail uncovered the truth of Sannuallah beating episode, Indian jail staff deliberately did not took any measures after the episode of killing of terrorist Sarabjeet Singh. He also exposed that Vinod Kumar who was a court-martialed Indian soldier as reward would be soon released. Nevertheless, Indian occupied Kashmir’s Home Secretary Suresh Kumar said Ranjay got into an argument with an Indian prisoner as the two smoked in the jail compound.

The facts narrated above are enough to say that it is proved now that Vinod Kumar deliberately hit Pakistani prisoner on the direction of Indian authorities (RAW). Indian agency has also made an attempt to further spoil the already deteriorated Indo-Pak relations.

According to reports, there are 272 Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails. Pakistani authorities should take up case to return or exchange the prisoners. According to Pakistan Foreign Officer many Pakistani prisoners have completed their punishment tenure, but despite reminding time and again India has not yet released them.

Sinister Move Against Pakistan

Anti-Pakistan forces including India and its foreign collaborators have made a sinister move and launched propaganda campaign to poison the minds of people of Gilgit-Baltistan by distorting history. Gilgit-Baltistan (BG) is integral part of Pakistan, and the people are as patriotic and brave as people of other regions of Pakistan. They had fought against Indian forces and were able to get the area freed from Indian Army in 1948. 

Of course, differences between various sects exist in Pakistan, and terrorists have killed people belonging to different sects. But India is trying to stir anti-Pakistan sentiments in the GB. In this context, Imtiaz Hussain, president of GB National Congress and Senge H. Sering President of Washington-based Institute of GB Studies are trying to create ill-will amongst the people of the GB and people of other provinces. They also advocate resumption of traffic and trade across LoC (from GB to Ladakh), while opposing building of dams, expressways, railways and gas pipelines by Government of Pakistan. 

But they ignore the fact that apart from Kashmir being a disputed territory, India is busy building dams on all rivers flowing into Pakistan from occupied Kashmir in violation of Indus Water Treaty to regain control of water of western rivers. This is being done under well thought-out strategy to render Pakistan’s link-canal system redundant, destroy agriculture of Pakistan, which is its mainstay, and turn Pakistan into a desert. 

India has planned to construct 62 dams/hydro-electric units on Rivers Chenab and Jhelum; thus enabling it to render these rivers dry by 2014. Using its clout in Afghanistan, India succeeded in convincing Karzai regime to build a dam on River Kabul and set up Kama Hydroelectric Project using 0.5MAF of Pakistan water. It offered technical assistance for the proposed project, which would have serious repercussions on the water flow in River Indus. Since the US has decided to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, and has belatedly realized that without the cooperation from Pakistan, it is not possible to ensure and sustain peace in Afghanistan.

India now feels that it has no role after American and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan; hence India has increased its efforts to destabilize Pakistan through its collaborators. Sering is spreading disinformation, and is trying to create confusion about status of GB in the eyes of the GB people and the world at large.

There is a perception that he has been assigned the task of creating sense of separatism and stirring feelings of dissent among the GB people. He is currently based in New Delhi and is a visiting faculty for Indian Institute of Defense and Strategic Analysis (IDSA). Sering with help of Indian diplomatic cadre has managed to participate in UNHCR sessions, only to highlight (alleged) HR violations in GB. The Institute for GB Studies professes cultural, economic and environmental rights of people of GB, but actually conducts venomous propaganda against Pakistan, and is involved in creating hatred between different sects and the people belonging to different ethnicities.

But people of GB would not buy into Indian propaganda and distorted logic of anti-Pakistan, and are resolved to frustrate the pernicious designs of anti-Pakistan forces because they are as patriotic as people from other parts of Pakistan.

In November 2012, Institute for Gilgit-Baltistan Studies in its testimony before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress, called for demilitarization of Gilgit-Baltistan, what it said, with a view to promoting genuine autonomy and democracy, for re-instatement of state subject rule and people to people contact between Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan. “The US must persuade both India and Pakistan to open channels of economic and cultural activity between Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan and enable the UN to increase its role in Gilgit-Baltistan to protect the rights of natives,” said Senge Sering during a hearing by Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Indigenous People of Asia.

In November 2012, the UK based think tank The Henry Jackson Society, in collaboration with the Washington based Institute for Gilgit Baltistan Studies, held an event titled “Gilgit-Baltistan: South-Central Asia’s Socio-Economic Integration and Regional Politics” at the House of Lords. One wonders as to why Britain allows its think tanks to involve in anti-Pakistan activities. Lord Sir Clive Soley of Hammersmith had reportedly facilitated the discussion and the panel consisted of Mumtaz Khan, Executive Director of International Center for Peace and Democracy, and Senge H. Sering, President of the Institute for Gilgit Baltistan Studies. The speakers observed that revival of travel across the Line of Control between Gilgit-Baltistan and Ladakh would help reunite more than ten thousand divided family members after more than six decades.

At the same time, they reckoned that it will help revive the Himalayan culture to counter rapidly growing extremism and transform the economy of the poverty-stricken disputed region by interlinking the GB with Central Asia and Ladakh, Nepal and Tibet.

Addressing on the occasion Senge H. Sering concluded: “China’s role in South Asia will increase with the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan, putting excessive pressure on the land, society and resources of Gilgit-Baltistan, and that Pakistan and China should respect the concerns of the locals in this regards”. In fact, India and its strategic partners are covertly working on the policy to contain China, and they use each every ruse and subterfuge to paint China in poor light. India had also raised objection to Neelam-Jhelum hydroelectric project being constructed by China on the grounds that it was a disputed territory.

China did not pay two hoots or deemed it necessary to comment on Indian pleas. Since Pakistan took the decision to construct Bhasha Dam, India persuaded the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank not to fund the project, as according to it the Northern Areas are a disputed territory.

Reportedly, both banks have sought no objection from India. Nobody asks India as to why it was constructing dams in Indian Occupied Kashmir, which is indeed a disputed territory as acknowledged in UNSC resolutions.

Katju’s Statements As Just An Unguarded Outburst

Had he been a Pakistani citizen, Justice Markandey Katju would have faced Article 6 of the constitution for sedition because what he has written about Pakistan and its Founding Father Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah amounts to treason. His being a foreigner and outside the jurisdiction of local laws, has proved his saving grace. However, after his retirement from his position as an honorable judge in the highly respected Indian judiciary, Justice Katju should not have assumed the role of a citizen free to abuse the freedom of speech like Bal Thakarey who abuses Pakistan and indulges in character assassination of Pakistani leadership as an article of faith. 

Justice Katju, according to his statement, is Chairman of the Press Council of India and former judge of the Supreme Court. The institutions to which he belongs cannot escape responsibility for his utterances and keep their eyes closed to the mischief he is creating between the two independent sovereign states which are also members of SAARC and the UN. The sovereignty of Pakistan, which at present happens to be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, is being questioned. Mr Katju has involved not only the Press Council of India as its chairman but also the UN Security Council with regard to the independent and sovereign status of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

In an article under the title of “The truth about Pakistan” published in The Nation on March 2, 2013, Mr Katju states “I do not believe that there are two nations, there is only one nation, that is India, and Pakistan is part of India. Pakistan was created in pursuance of the wicked British policy of divide and rule and the bogus Two Nation Theory”. The British government has thus been blamed for creating Pakistan through its wicked policy. The Press Council of India should explain whether it owns the statement of its Chairman about Pakistan and its Founder Quaid-i- Azam. The government of India cannot keep its eyes closed to the wild statement of the Chairman of the Press Council of India on vital issues of foreign policy challenging the very basis of the creation of Pakistan i.e. the Two Nation Theory.

Similarly, the UN Security Council should take notice of the statement of a judge of the Supreme Court of India. I for one do not take Mr Justice Markandey Katju’s statements as just an unguarded outburst. I regard his article as a “bomb blast” designed to destabilize Pakistan at this critical juncture when it is beset with various internal and external challenges. To quote Mr Katju again about his deep concern over the internal situation in Pakistan, “According to reports, Pakistani cities Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, etc. are rapidly becoming killing fields, with bomb blasts and gun firing a regular occurrence, and ethnic violence between Sunnis and Shias, and persecution of minorities escalating. Nobody knows that when he steps out into the streets of these cities whether or not he will return alive. A beautiful metropolitan city like Karachi is becoming, if it has not already become, a Jurassic Park”. Do I have to tell a retired Judge of Supreme Court of India that his statement is a brazen interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign State?

Many blame India for the above sad state of affairs in Pakistan. The Pakistan foreign office and press representatives bodies, CPNE and APNS, should give a suitable rejoinder to the Indian Press Council and its Chairman.

The space does not allow the narration of the sad saga of dissensions and revolts in a number of states of India that should make a self-respecting Indian hang his head in shame rather than lecture others on democracy and peace. The Indian occupied part of Kashmir is a classic example where brutal suppression is being exercised against the legitimate freedom fighters and independent observers are not allowed to visit. My comment: “Physian, heal thyself.”

Markandey Katju's Tirades

This article is to voice grave concern not on ideological but on logical basis to the  Markandey Katju statement ‘ Pakistan will be reunited with India in 15-20 years and people  would realize that partition was nonsense" was published in Indian Print Media on March 5, 2013, Mr Katju is not clear about what he was trying to elaborate. At one place he said that the ancestors of 92-93 percent people living in India were not the original inhabitants of India and were immigrants from various parts of the world and on the other hand he wished to see a united India which was made impossible by his own so-called secular leaders of that time. Before 1937 Muslims leaders were in favor of a united India but the very secular Congress (in the Congress Ministries) did not let it happen.

Moreover, mails sent by Justice Katju to Shamshad Ahmad clearly depict the agenda of defaming our national heroes and creating a misunderstanding of our very basis of Pakistan, Two Nation Theory. India is not a secular state and it can never be so. If Aryans had the right to capture the India and made a religion based Hindustan, then why the Muslims had no rights to ask for a separate homeland for their generations to come? 

Mr Katju should start the process of brainstorming from his own country. As per History of India and Pakistan, whole nation knows better who was the real agent of Britishers. We should try to be friendly instead of blaming and defaming each other. 

Pakistan is indeed more diverse than any other country in the world. And yet it is unambiguously one. Katju examples are all factually wrong and no more than a figment of his imagination. Pakistan has had many centrifugal movements but its democracy has proven strong enough to convert them all as stakeholders. India and its agents have tried hard to balkanize Pakistan for decades. It is not hard to see which country has split and is splitting and which is making strides in growth and prosperity.

Markandey Katju, the dream of ‘Akhand Bharat’ will never come true, INSHALLAH.