Section 1. Part 2 (Conspiracy Theories and their Rebuttals)

By Anas Abbas

Theory 3

Indian Weapons in Swat:

This has been an important theory to support the hypothesis of Indian and Pakistani Taliban Nexus. Many newspapers in Pakistan (especially TheNation english and DailyMail) have published several stories claiming that Pakistan army has captured huge collection of Indian made weapons from swat and now it’s the civilian government’s responsibility to diplomatically take up this grievance with the U.S.

Recently Director General ISPR Athar Abbas conducted a press conference claiming having captured Indian weapons

The question is that how is the Pakistan Army reaching this conclusion that the weapons captured in swat were Indian made?

Is this evidence enough for Pakistan to justify the Indian complicity claim?

Why would India give its own, locally made weapons to these terrorists when it is well aware of the threat this will pose to its secret endeavour of destabilizing Pakistan?

The first rule for any covert operation is to make sure that that the operation remains clandestine. CIA has been an expert in covert operations and one good example of its successful operation was in 1980’s during afghan jihad when the mujahedeen who fought the Russians were supplied with Israeli weapons by the Americans.

Americans wanted to give the appearance that mujhadeen were using Russian made weapons. U.S Congressman Charlie Wilson together with Mossad agent Zvi Rafiah brokered a deal between the then Pakistani president Zia-ul-haq and Israeli government to help supply Russian made weapons that Israel had captured from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon to Afghanistan.

So why would India supply its locally made weapons to insurgents in Pakistan? Why would it not use Chinese or Pakistani made weapons?

Below is the link of Ahmed Qureshi’s website with a picture that is found on forums, blogs and websites which promotes the above mentioned conspiracy theory.

http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/article_detail.php?id=708

http://pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/indian-weapons-in-swat-fata/

The above picture is showing weapons purportedly captured by Pakistani army in Swat. According to Zaid Hamid, Ahmed Qureshi and other conspiracy theorists, the weapon in the picture is an Indian made gun called Vickers-Berthier, hence it proves that India is secretly supplying weapons to the Pakistani Taliban in order to destabilize Pakistan.

Here is the text accompanying the above picture in Ahmed Qureshi’s website:

“A number of the Indian army standard issue Vickers-Berthier (VB) light machine gun, manufactured in India, have been found by the Pakistani military in the hands of the terrorists in Swat. This LMG has a 30-round box magazine and a bipod stand, and is sometimes mistaken for the Bren. Apart from India, it was only sold to a few Baltic and South American states”

Rebuttal:

The Vicker – Berthier is a machine gun manufactured by Vickers-Armstrongs Limited “a British engineering conglomerate”. It was adopted by the British Indian Army and its production line was established at the Ishapore Rifle Factory in India, and still remains in reserve use for the Indian army. (http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg82-e.htm)

But the real question is, is the above picture really showing a Vicker – Berthier?

The image below shows a Vicker-Berthier from a reliable Vickers Armstrongs website

Please refer to these links for references about Vicker – Berthier:

http://www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/ (Click Links on the left-hand side and subsequently click “Light Machine Guns” under General Weapon information heading)

http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg82-e.htm

Clearly the original Vicker – Berthier as shown above differs in structure from the one shown on Ahmed Qureshi’s website. (Notice the difference between buttstocks).

The gun which Ahmed Qureshi falsely calls the Vicker is actually a Russian PK machine gun or another variant called PKM.

Below are two images of Russian PK Machine guns. The Second image is showing this gun loaded with 100-round belt in the attached box.

Please refer to these links for all the information related to PK Machine gun.

http://warfare.ru/?lang=&catid=276&linkid=2200 (From Russain Arms Database)

http://world.guns.ru/machine/mg07-e.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PK_machine_gun

http://www.armscontrol.ru/atmtc/Arms_systems/Land/Small_Arms/smarms.htm (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology – Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies)

Now let’s expose this propaganda of Pakistani conspiracy theorists further.

Below is a picture of former Afghan Taleban commander (Soviet Afghan war veteran) Mullah Dadullah. He was killed by US forces in fighting in 2007.

Source=Video interview of Dadullah by as-Sahab in 2006

Notice the gun above. It’s the Russian PK machine gun that has been a standard weapon for the Taliban along with the infamous Russian AK – 47. There are also dozens of videos on YouTube of afghan Taliban fighters clearly showing them with Russian PK Machine guns. (Please type Dadullah in YouTube search box and watch the videos for confirmation)

Now let’s look at some of the weapons captured by the coalition forces in Afghanistan and analyse the weapons used in recent attacks by Afghan Taliban on the Afghan Government officials, American, British and NATO troops.

Refer to these links below and notice that all weapons were PK machine guns:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1225370/British-soldiers-murdered-Afghanistan-Taliban-assassin.html (British Soldiers killed by Taliban Assassin)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8055247.stm (Karzai’s Brother Attacked)

http://www.captainsjournal.com/2009/02/12/marines-taliban-and-tactics-techniques-and-procedures/

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/06/26/monitor/entry4212617.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody (Taliban, Al Qaeda attacking British Troops)

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=67464&d=25&m=7&y=2005 (PK Machine guns Captured from Afghan Taliban)

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,4565c2254a,4565c25f5a5,469f5b661e,0.html

(PK Machine guns Captured from Afghan Taliban)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6178044/British-officer-wins-two-gallantry-awards-for-fending-off-Taliban-attack-with-bayonet.html

(British Officer Attacked)

PK Machine gun is one of the most common weapons in Afghanistan which is not only used by the Afghan Taliban but used also by the Afghan police and their national army. These guns are available in large supply in Afghanistan mainly because the Russian army left behind large caches of Russian made weapons in after the war in 1980s.  Another reason is the drug trade between the Russian gangs and Taliban where the gangs buy cheaper drugs from Afghanistan and pay for it with guns instead of money. Please refer to a report on drug for guns trade with Taliban in the link below:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/drugs-for-guns-how-the-afghan-heroin-trade-is-fuelling-the-taliban-insurgency-817230.html

This is exactly reminiscent of how the diamond for guns trade works to finance the African warlords in Africa.

Now for the final nail in the coffin of this conspiracy theory:

The Russian PK machine gun, which Ahmed Qureshi and Zaid Hamid claim is an Indian made Vicker, was captured by Israel from a Palestinian owned freighter in 2002. Here is the link

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/paship.html

Now even if we grant the crazy claim of Qureshi and Hamid that these weapons are indeed Indian made Vickers (as ridiculous as this is) we are faced with this puzzle: if Indian made weapons, Vickers, are found in the hands of Taliban which hence incriminates India of involvement in Pakistan, then by the same logic India is also supporting the Muslim, Palestinian militia against Israel and the Afghan Taliban, both of whom Pakistan glorifies as freedom fighters.

But this does not sound so ludicrously insane since Ahmed Qureshi’s sources are none other than the ever so reliable Brass Tacks which is ostensibly a security think tank founded by the “omnipotent and omnipresent” Zaid Hamid. Sources obtained by Zaid Hamid are as reliable as the sources that claim seeing the Loch Ness monster.

Here is the video link where he is telling us about his sources of information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmNGpClflbQ

This is hilarious comedy material. He claims he has spies all over the world feeding him information through thousands of emails daily. Seriously, are we just supposed to take his word on this? He sounds like a megalomaniac freak.

Theory 4

American Government website supports terror in Pakistan.

There is another theory in Pakistan used by conspiracy theorists to describe Baluch insurgency as an American and Israeli agenda

The claim of this theory is as follows:

Americans support terror in Baluchistan because the American citizenship form lists Baluchistan as a separate entity in the address drop down box so therefore this indicates that Americans want balkanization of Pakistan.

For some readers this may be quite ridiculous but then again we can expect any absurdity from the proponents of such theories. As a starting point let us apply the rule we applied to analyse the other three refuted theories, that is, apply the message in the Quranic verse 36, Chapter 17 (To Verify).

This picture below is usually found on conspiracy theories websites; it is widely used to give substance to what is called the immigration form theory.

Below are WebPages including the one of Zaid Hamid’s puppet known as Ahmed Qureshi.

http://teeth.com.pk/blog/2009/08/19/us-immigration-form-lists-baluchistan-as-country-of-citizenship (Blog by Awab Alvi)

http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/article_detail.php?id=777

Notice the word Baluchistan (Pakistan) above in the picture under the “Change of Address” online form.

Now let’s see the original website of US immigration services and compare this with the above so called separate Baluchistan version.

Here is the link to the immigration website. Please follow the steps below the link for verification as there is no direct working link to this online form. Also note that conspiracy theorists have provided a dead link for verification on their blogs.

https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=coa

(Scroll all the way down and click Change your address online. Next repeat the scroll down process and click I accept these terms and conditions. Click on No, this change of address is not for a US Citizen. Now check the country of drop down box under customer information and it is absolutely clear that there is no such thing as claimed by the conspiracy theorists. In fact, the odd thing is the colour of  header in the webpage is quite different as the original has white header as compare to the fake that is shown above in blue.

Thoery 5

India has dozens of embassies in Afghanistan which it uses to support Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) (based in Israel according to Zaid Hamid) for internal unrest in Pakistan.

Another widely accepted theory in Pakistan.

Rebuttal

India has 1 embassy in Kabul and 4 consulates at Heart, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazar – e- Sharif. Please refer to these government and independent sources for verification. The third link would provide details of (Websites, FAX numbers, Tel Numbers) for these consulates.

http://meakabul.nic.in/

http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/sam117.pdf

http://meaindia.nic.in/ (Click on Welcome, then “Missions & posts” on left and then select Afghanistan)

Note that Pakistan also has the same number of diplomatic missions in Afghanistan as India. 1 embassy in Kabul and 4 consulates at Heart, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazar – e- Sharif

http://www.mofa.gov.pk/afghanistan/

The questions that come my mind are below:

Where in Afghanistan are these ‘dozens’ of Indian Embassies?

Why has Islamabad not handed over any evidence in relation to this to the UN? (India did so in the case of Jamat Dawa)

Why has this ‘common security’ threat never been shared with China? (Remember the Chinese Indian rivalry)

Where in Israel is this “Headquarter”of BLA? Is it in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or…?

What other evidence is there that BLA’s headquarters are in Israel other than the bizarre delusions of Zaid Hamid?

Why the army is silent on these issues and has instead expressed serious concerns on issues like the Kerry Lugar bill?

In any case, it is up to the Afghani people to decide who they welcome in their country.

According to Council on Foreign Relations, since 2001, India has offered $1.2 billion for Afghanistan’s reconstruction, making it the biggest regional donor to the country, while it has also poured in massive infrastructure investments including hospitals, schools, and dams. Pakistan’s aid is negligible compared to India even in relative terms. Although India also has political and strategic objectives in Afghanistan but it chose to use economic means as opposed to using an insurgency like Pakistan does. The choice is for the Afghani people to make, they can either choose hospitals, schools, roads, and dams or let mullahs run free and take them back to the dark ages.

References:

http://www.cfr.org/publication/17474/indiaafghanistan_relations.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1945666,00.html

Theory 6

Americans have not yet declared (BLA) Baluchistan liberation army a terrorist organization so therefore this proves American hand behind BLA.

http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/article_detail.php?id=777 (Ahmed Qureshi on BLA)

Well the question is why would America officially have to declare a particular organization for it to be labeled a terrorist organization?

Why has Pakistan’s army’s best friend China, not declared al-Qaida a terrorist organization?

Why has Pakistan itself being the one fighting this war on terror not yet declared al-Qaida as a terrorist organization?

Why has not china declared BLA a terrorist organization (Forget America)?

Why Pakistan has not declared Hezbollah or Hamas as terrorists?

Why has Saudi Arabia not declared East Turkestan Islamic Movement as a terrorist organization?

Note: Please note that East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is a militant organization fighting for the rights of brutally oppressed Muslim Uyghur population by China.

Can we then automatically derive support of a terrorist group where there is a lack of declaration of a terrorist  by a country?

This is not how it works. U.S.A would declare an organization terrorist when it poses a threat to its national security; similarly China hasn’t declared Al-Qaeda a terrorist organization because there have been no al-Qaida attacks on its soil and the Chinese have not found any substantial evidence to form any nexus between ETIM and Al-Qaida.

Theory 7

China along with Pakistan has been a target of continuous Zionist Plots.

Conspiracy theorists romance with China.

(Zaid Hamid’s think – tank so called security report)

http://brasstacks.pk/pdfs/policypapers/PNACPolicyPaper.pdf

Rebuttal

Conspiracy theorists in Pakistan have deliberately avoided discussing two aspects of China’s policies that are sure to uncover the falsehood of their theories. They are:

1. China’s role in treatment of its indigenous Muslim population and of other Muslims all over the world (DARFUR).

2. Beijing’s rather liberal relations with Israel.

Perhaps due to self censorship, China – Israel relations are never mentioned, if at all, because that may cause Pakistan’s general population to protest against Sino Pakistan relations, which are all the more valuable because of Sino-Indian rivalry and China’s non democratic style of governance.

China, unlike Pakistan and most Islamic countries, recognized Israel in 1992. Moreover Israel is the second largest arms supplier to China after Russia; and China is Israel’s largest Asian trading partner with the trade expected to be USD $10 billion by 2010.

According to a report in the New York Times “China has sought Israel’s expertise in solar energy, manufacturing robotics, irrigation, construction, agricultural, water management and desalination technologies”. Both countries have strong bilateral relations and recently marked 17 years of good relations:

But in Pakistan, the media is more focused on Indo – Israel relations and that is often a bone of contention between India and Pakistan.

China’s record on human rights and freedom of press is quite notorious and it is also too oppressive to its Muslim population. For example Uyghurs, the ethnic term for the mostly Muslim population in the Chinese province Xinjiang, face religious persecution and discrimination at the hands of the Chinese government. The government controls the management of all mosques and only allows its own ‘approved’ version of the Quran to be used. Children under the age of 18 are not allowed to attend mosques.

But religious elements and Pakistani Nationalists fail to mention any of this since their goal is not to disseminate factual information but to spread propaganda. The Jamat Islami of Pakistan recently signed a death warrant for Muslims in China when it signed an MoU with the Chinese government supporting its actions in Xinjiang Province; it is contradictory to sign an agreement with a country that discriminates against its Muslim population, and at the same time accuse Israel and India for the same kind of mistreatment. It is hard for people like Zaid Hamid to highlight the miserable condition of the Uyghurs when China is the main weapons supplier of Pakistan and equally as hard when China can so easily be used in propaganda against India since both the former and latter have a history of rivalry. Whatever national interests Pakistani establishment thinks it is serving by promoting its conspiracy theories are doomed to failure since China will always keep its own national interests ahead of everything else.

Furthermore, China’s economic policies have been subject to much criticism in Africa for being exploitative. In the case of Darfur in Sudan, arguably the most brutal conflict in Africa today, Chinese involvement has been under fire from international institutions. With this record on human rights it is disappointing to see Zaid Hamid praising China as a partner of Pakistan. What is even more interesting is that Sudan’s population is mostly Muslim; but as we have already seen this is not the only case where Zaid Hamid has overlooked the hardships of foreign Muslims. He has also claimed that China is Pakistan’s partner against the ‘Zionists’ which sounds absurd as China and Israel have strong bilateral ties.

References:

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=163116 (Qazi Hussain China)

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1167467702533

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1116961.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/22/world/israel-and-china-quietly-form-trade-bonds.html?sec=technology&&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100518.htm

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/DL04Ad01.html (Israel China Relations)

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/hair-02202009174717.html

Theory 8

Chanakya Ideology (According to Zaid Hamid, India should never be trusted because of their belief in Chanakya)

Under the ancient powerful Maurya Empire, Chanakya (Kautilya) a military strategist was the first Prime Minister. He was a great philosopher and a pioneer in the field of economics and political science.

According to Shaikh Azizur Rahman’s article “India defence looks to ancient text” Indian scientists recommended Indian defence to apply the modus operandi of Chanakya as described in the book Arthashastra, written more than 2,300 years ago. These include secrets of effective stealth warfare such as how to keep a soldier fighting for a month.

However, Zaid Hamid falsely asserts that we should never befriend India because Indian foreign diplomatic policy is dominated by Chanakya and they believe in the Chanakya Ideology which, according to him, is a Janus faced ideology telling its followers to act superficially in the best interests of enemies (Pakistan) but at the same time sawing away at it’s roots. Though Chanakya’s ideas may seem harsh, historians have no proof of the characteristics Zaid Hamid attributes to this particular ideologist.

An instance of his assertion of this ideology is when a book praising Jinnah (Jinnah: India -Partition -Independence) was written by a BJP finance minister, Jaswant Singh. In it he claimed that Nehru was responsible for the partition between India and Pakistan and openly praised Jinnah. As a result, Mr. Jaswant Singh was expelled from the party since he did not represent the views of the party. This was a welcome step for Pakistanis and a step forward for Indo Pak friendly relations. However, Mr. Zaid Hamid proclaimed that this was a disguised attempt to gain Pakistan’s trust under the Chanakya ideology and that under this guise; the Indians will always seek to harm Pakistan’s interests.  Now since there is no concrete proof of this, and Zaid Hamid certainly is no historian himself… is it possible that he has a couple of ‘agents’ who report to him live from that era as well??

If India applies the Chanakya Ideoloy in its Military Warfare, do Pakistanis not also hail Mohammad Bin Qasim and Khalid Bin Waleed for their strategies? If our praise is justified, then so is their strategy.

Now since there can be no peace between India and Pakistan if we are to presume Zaid’s theory as correct, then there is only one other way left for us: Ghazwa-e-Hind. Zaid Hamid believes that in order to restore peace to our land, it is important to have control over our neighbouring lands. He further believes that it has been foretold by the Prophet (PBUH) in his sayings that there will come a time when the Pakistan Army will conquer its enemies.

The real reason for using this theory of Chanakaya ideology is to legitimize the theory of Ghazwe Hind. In other words the strategy of Zaid Hamid is to make his followers believe that peace with India cannot be achieved at any cost (based on his interpretation of Chanakya ideology and its role in Indian foreign policy) and the only way left is Ghazw e Hind.

Getting information on Chankya’s life from Zaid Hamid, given his hostile views on India and non Muslims, is like asking Bal Thackhery (Hindu Extremist Anti Pakistani) about Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Pakistan’s Founder.

References:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1986595.stm