Is United Arab Emirates waging a media war against Pakistan?
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By Atta Rasool Malik
20 / 9 / 2016
Indians Military Establishment is currently investigating the cause of fire at Uri; Indians occupied Kashmir, and subsequent death of its 17 soldiers. However, ‘Gulf News’ in its editorial “World stands united against cowardly attack in Kashmir dated 19 Sep 2016” not only claims that it was a terrorist attack sponsored by its nuclear neighbor, but also confirms that Kashmir is integral part of India. The worthy paper also grants the India its right to retaliate against its neighbor. The paper says “As a response to such an attack, India has every right to defend its territorial integrity and take appropriate measures required to pursue justice and eradicate the menace of terrorism”.
In its opening sentence the paper opines that it was a ‘despicable cowardly attack’ on soldiers because four commando-style gunmen hit the Indians soldiers at the time when they were little lazy and were changing guards. The paper calls upon entire international community to condemn such a heinous crime. Gulf News also calls upon India to continue confidence-building measures that “India seeks to undertake with its neighbors, including Pakistan”.
The Paper very kindly advises India not to avenge the attack, “a jaw for a tooth” because it only amplifies the sharply ratcheting tension between the nuclear neighbors and will not serve the peaceful interests of any state in the long run. Editorial board of ‘Gulf News’ also suggest that Indian should develop even stronger defenses in occupied Kashmir. It says India must also investigate and rectify the serious lapses that allowed one of its most strategic security infrastructures to come under attack, and build a better bulwark of defence bases.
As a student of International Relations, I am wondering; how one should look at the editorial of ‘Gulf News’? Should world stand united for innocent Kashmiri children, women and youth who are being indiscriminately tortured, killed and humiliated on daily basis OR World should stand united against attack on soldiers deployed in occupied territory? How come editorial staff of ‘Gulf News’ is so ill-informed that they don’t know that point of attack is not integral part of India and there is an indigenous freedom movement for which the Kashmiri Muslims are paying heavy price with tears and blood on daily basis?.
Is ‘Gulf News’, a state controlled newspaper is conveying some kind of UAE‘s annoyance to Government of Pakistan? What could be that?, one could only guess. Whatever could be the reasons but it is not expected out of ‘Gulf News’ editorial staff to damage the cause of hapless Kashmiris. This editorial will sadden anyone who cares for human dignity in Kashmir but surely every Muslim who is greatly perturbs over gross human violations in Indian occupied Kashmir. UN resolutions calling for plebiscite are still pending on Kashmir.
I am happy that despite India’s big market and interest of Multinational Companies, human conscious of many world leaders is still alive. India is under immense pressure to halt ill-treatment of Kashmiris and hopefully something good for Kashmiris will emerge soon. It is also being talked about on various forums that incident at ‘Uri, Indians occupied Kashmir’ was jointly planned by Indian National Security Adviser Mr. Ajit Doval to whom intelligence agencies such as the RAW report, and newly appointed member of Standing Committee on Defense, Dr. Subramanian Swammy, a research fellow who was expelled from Harvard University of United States for his extremist views. It was an effort to relieve world pressure on Mr. Narenda Moodi before meeting World leaders at the forum of UN General Assembly. Hopefully the inquiry by Indian Military highlighting the real cause for murder of 17 Indians soldiers would also be published by Gulf News.
Author is PhD Scholar of International Relations at Preston University, Islamabad
