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Global Hindu Electronic Network (GHEN)

Subject: Beware of Kashmir American Council! They lie through their teeth!
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The reason why I have posted this article is not just to let off
steam, but to let all of you know what kind of enemy India faces. The
Pakistani lobbyists, along with their Islamic Fundamentalist friends,
have realized that they cannot win a war against India on the battle-
field. Instead, they are now engaging in a much more incidious war,
that of media-control. Unfortunately, our GOI seems neither to have
the will-power nor the money to counteract this propaganda warfare.
I think we, the Kashmiri Hindus, were successful in exposing these
KAC people as the imposters they are. But this is only a small victory.
God knows how many similar Press Conferences the KAC has already con-
ducted. Left unchallenged, the lies spread by them will be accepted
as the truth. Already, these people have brain-washed the Muslim popu-
lation all over the world about the so-called atrocities committed
against Kashmiri Muslims by Indian forces. In addition, they have
already met a number of influential congressional aides and may have
succeeded, to some extent, in duping them. Our Indian community, one
of the largest ethnic minorities in the US, is sitting quietly while
truth is being murdered. I urge all of you to strongly condemn such
lies and to write letters to your Congressmen and Senators. We have
to have make our collective voices heard!!!

I would like to bring to your notice a group, called Kashmir American
Council (KAC), which has been spreading vicious lies about Kashmir all
across the United States. Unfortunately, these lies, left unchallenged, becomes the gospel truth, at least in the eyes of the U.S. public. Sur-prisingly, I have even seen Indians falling prey to the propaganda spread by this group.

The KAC is a Pakistani lobbying group with an annual budget of more
than a million dollars a year (guess who funds it?), which has been
trying to spread falsehoods about Kashmir to the U.S. public, Senators
and Congressmen. Recently, the KAC, along with the law firm of Black,
Monafort, Stone and Kelley, has organized a delegation of three "Kash-
miri" women who have been calling on American law-makers and government officials with fabricated stories of human right abuses by the Indian Security forces on the poor defenceless people of Kashmir. Just a few days ago, this group held a press conference in Washington D.C. with the aim of getting further media publicity.

We, the Kashmiri Hindus, whose very existence the KAC has tried to
ignore, decided to attend this conference to see what wonderful stories our KAC friends would cook-up this time. We were not dissappointed. The moment Gulam Nabi Fai (president of KAC) saw our people, he turned pale. However, being a consumate politician, he was able to give last minute instructions to his delegation. The KAC delegation, led by one Attiya Inayatullah, gave a half-hour discourse on the atrocities committed by Indian Security forces in Kashmir. To all of us, aware of the truth, her statements were totally cooked-up; she even had trumped-up figures to make her stories sound plausible. She tried to portray Kashmir as being closed to all outsiders, with the security forces engaging in ethnic cleansing of the local Muslim population. After Attiya's talk, one of the other members of the KAC delegation, Ms. Shammim Shawl got up and described herself as being from Azad-Kashmir, with a daughter living in Sopore (a village close to Srinagar, the capital of J&K). According to Ms. Shawl, her daughter had informed her how the whole Sopore township had been razed to the ground, including a school where more than 30 innocent schoolchildren had been shot down by Indian forces.She then went on to say how the then-Governor Jagmohan had induced theKashmiri Hindus to leave Kashmir so that, and get this, "Indian forces would have a free access in order to ethnically-cleanse the Muslim
population."

At this point none of us could sit still any longer. We asked the
people assembled there whether they could seriously believe it pos-
sible for anyone to leave his home and belongings, just because some-
one urges them to do so!! The shamelessness of the KAC is beyond
belief. Not only did Kashmiri Hindus not leave out of their own will,
but they were physically threatened by the Muslim Fundamentalists to
leave Kashmir or else risk being killed. More than 2,000 Kashmiri
Hindus and secular minded Muslims were mercilessly murdered by the
so-called "freedom-fighting" JKLF forces. These shameless people have
no compunctions in turning the story completely around. Yes, there has
been ethnic cleansing in Kashmir; but only of the Kashmiri Hindu. The
violence in Kashmir is due to the Islamic Fundamentalists and not the
Indian Security Forces (which the KAC would have us beleive). We
raised the question of why there were no complaints of Indian excesses
in Kashmir till 1990? And if these people claim that the Kashmir
uprising arose indigenously, why did their "freedom struggle" start
with the murder of prominent non-Muslims and secular-minded Muslims?
Why was "Islamic State" declared in Kashmir and why were movie halls
closed? Why were women forced to wear traditional veils, or face the
risk of having acid thrown on their faces? And finally, where did all
the arms come from, that were caught in the hands of the Allah tigers
and JKLF forces fighting for autonomy in Kashmir? The truth of the
matter is that this so-called "freedom struggle" has been pumped up
and created ficticiously by Pakistan. If the arms and ammunition
supplied by Pakistan is stopped, peace can be returned to the valley
of Kashmir.

At this point, one of the press reporters stood up and said that he
also took exception to what Ms. Shammim Shawl had said about the press
not being allowed in Kashmir. This press reporter, himself, had
visited Kashmir just last month. Ms. Shammim, then countered "Oh, but
the press is not allowed to take photographs." "Not true", said the
press reporter, "I have personally taken many photographs while I was
in Kashmir." Thus cornered, Ms. Shammim, "What I really meant to say
was that movie cameras are not allowed." "Not true," once again
retorted the Press reporter, "The press is allowed free access to each
and every place in Kashmir and they are allowed to take with them
whatever equipment they desire. And not only that, all foreign
reporters as well as organizations such as Amnesty International have
been allowed to freely visit Kashmir". At this point Ms. Inayatullah,
seeing that her ladies were being cornered, declared the press
conference over. Before leaving, some of our ladies tried to talk to
Ms. Shammim in Kashmiri. She not only could not reply in Kashmiri, but
from her looks it was obvious she didn't understand a word of what was
said. Mr. Ghulam Nabi Fai then butted in and in his sweetest, most
charming manner, asked the Kashmiri Hindu ladies where they came from,
and remarked "God willing, all will be right in Kashmir once again".
This hypocrite, after all that he has done to our community, has the
gall to try to sweet-talk to us.

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