Indian Complaint to the Security Council
Letter Dated January 1, 1948
from the Representative of India
to the President of the Security Council (S/628)

The Government of India have instructed me to transmit to you the following telegraphic communication:

“1. Under Article 35 of the Charter of the United Nations, any Member may bring any situation whose continuance is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security to the attention of the Security Council. Such a situation now exists between India and Pakistan owing to the aid which invaders, consisting of nationals of Pakistan and of tribesmen from the territory immediately adjoining Pakistan on the north-west, are drawing from Pakistan for operations against Jammu and Kashmir, a State which has acceded to the Dominion of India and is part of India. The circumstances of accession, the activities of the invaders which led the Government of India to take military action against them, and the assistance which the attackers have received and are still receiving from Pakistan are explained later in this memorandum. The Government of India request the Security Council to call upon Pakistan to put an end immediately to the giving of such assistance, which is an act of aggression against India. If Pakistan does not do so, the Government of India may be compelled, in self-defence, to enter Pakistan territory, in order to take military action against the invaders. The matter is, therefore, one of extreme urgency and calls for immediate action by the Security Council for avoiding a breach of international peace.

“2. From the middle of September 1947, the Government of India had received reports of the infiltration of armed raiders into the western parts of Jammu province of Jammu and Kashmir State; Jammu adjoins West Punjab, which is a part of the Dominion of Pakistan. These raiders had done a great deal of damage in that area and taken possession of part of the territory of the State. On 24 October, the Government of India heard of a major raid from the Frontier Province of the Dominion of Pakistan into the Valley of Kashmir. Some two thousand or more fully armed and equipped men came in motor transport, crossed over to the territory of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, sacked the town of Muzaffarabad, killing many people and proceeded along the Jhelum Valley road towards Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir State. Intermediate towns and villages were sacked and burnt, and many people killed. These raiders were stopped by Kashmir State troops near Uri, a town some fifty miles from Srinagar, for some time, but the invaders got around them and burnt the power house at Mahora, which supplied electricity to the whole of Kashmir.

“3. The position, on the morning of 26 October, was that these raiders had been held by Kashmir State troops and part of the civil population, who had been armed, at a town called Baramulla. Beyond Baramulla there was no major obstruction up to Srinagar. There was immediate danger of these raiders reaching Srinagar, destroying and massacring large numbers of people, both Hindus and Muslims. The State troops were spread out all over the State and most of them were deployed along the western border of Jammu province. They had been split up into small isolated groups and were incapable of offering effective resistance to the raiders. Most of the State officials had left the threatened areas and the civil administration had ceased to function. All that stood between Srinagar and the fate which had overtaken the places en route followed by the raiders was the determination of the inhabitants of Srinagar, of all communities, and practically without arms, to defend themselves. At this time Srinagar had also a large population of Hindu and Sikh refugees who had fled there from West Punjab owing to communal disturbances in that area. There was little doubt that these refugees would be massacred if the raiders reached Srinagar.

“4. Immediately after the raids into Jammu and Kashmir State commenced, approaches were informally made to the Government of India for the aeceptance of the accession of the State to the Indian Dominion. (It might be explained in parenthesis that Jammu and Kashmir from a State whose ruler, prior to the transfer of power by the United Kingdom to the Dominions of India and Pakistan, had been in treaty relations with the British Crown, which controlled its foreign relations ceased with the transfer of power on 15 August last, and Jammu and Kashmir lilce other States acquired the right to accede to either Dominion.)

“5. Events moved with great rapidity, and the threat to the Valley of Kashmir became grave. On 26 October, the ruler of the State, His Highness Maharaja Sir Hari Singh, appealed urgently to the Government of India for military help. He also requested that the Jammu and Kashmir State should be allowed to accede to the Indian Dominion. An appeal for help was also simultaneously received by the Government of India from the largest popular organization in Kashmir, the National Conference, headed by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah. The Conference further strongly supported the request for the State’s accession to the Indian Dominion. The Government of India were thus approached not only officially by the State authorities, but also on behalf of the people of Kashmir, both for military aid and for the accession of the State to India.

“6. The grave threat to the life and property of innocent people in the Kashmir Valley and to the security of the State of Jammu and Kashmir that had developed as a result of the invasion of the Valley demanded immediate decision by the Government of India on both the requests. It was imperative on account of the emergency that the responsibility for the defence of Jammu and Kashmir State should be taken over by a Government capable of discharging it. But, in order to avoid any possible suggestion that India had utilised the State’s immediate peril for her own political advantage, the Government of India made it clear that once the soil of the State had been cleared of the invader and normal conditions restored, its people would be free to decide their future by the recognized democratic methods of a plebiscite or referendum which, in order to ensure complete impartiality, might be held under international auspices.

“7. The Government of Indian felt it their duty to respond to the appeal for armed assistance because:

“(1) They could not allow a neighbouring and friendly State
to be compelled by force to determine either its internal affairs
or its external relations;
“(2) The accession of Jammu and Kashmir State to the
Dominion of India made India really responsible for the
defence of the State.

“8. The intervention of the Government of India resulted in saving Srinagar. The raiders were driven back from Baramulla to Uri and are held there by Indian troops. Nearly 19,000 raiders face the Dominion forces in this area. Since operations in the Valley of Kashmir started, pressure by the raiders against the western, and south-western border of Jammu and Kashmir State had been intensified. Exact figures are not available. It is understood, however, that nearly 15,000 raiders are operating a gainst this part of the State. State troops are besieged in certain areas. Incursions by the raiders into the State territory, involving murder, arson, loot, and the abduction of women continue. The booty is collected and carried over to the tribal areas to serve as an inducement to the further recruitment of tribesmen to the ranks of the raiders. In addition to those actively participating in the raid, tribesmen and others, estimated at 100,000 have been collected in different places in the districts of West Punjab bordering Jammu and Kashmir State, and many of them are receiving military training under Pakistani nationals, including officers of the Pakistan Army. They are looked after in Pakistan territory, fed, clothed, armed and otherwise equipped, and transported to the territory of Jammu and Kashmir State with the help, direct and indirect, of Pakistani officials, both military and civil.

“9. As already stated, the raiders who entered the Kashmir Valley in October came mainly from the tribal areas to the north-west of Pakistan and, in order to reach Kashmir, passed through Pakistan territory. The raids along the south-west border of the State, which had preceded the invasion of the valley proper, had actually been conducted from Pakistan territory, and Pakistan nationals had taken part in them. This process of transmission across Pakistan territory and untilisation of that territory as a base of operations against Jammu and Kashmir State continues. Recently, military operations against the western and south-western borders of the State have been intensified, and the attackers consist of nationals of Pakistan as well as tribesmen. These invaders are armed with modern weapons, including mortars and medium machine-guns, wear the battle dress of regular soldiers and, in recent engagements, have fought in regular battle formation and are using the tactics of modern warfare. Man-pack wireless sets are in regular use and even mark V mines have been employed. For their transport the invaders have all along used motor vehicles. They are undoubtedly being trained and to some extent led by regular officers of the Pakistan Army. Their rations and other supplies are obtained from Pakistan territory.

“10. These facts point indisputably to the conclusion

“(a) that the invaders are allowed transit across Pakistan
territory;
“(b) that they are allowed to use Pakistan territory as a base
of operations;
“(c) that they include Pakistan nationals;
“(d) that they draw much of their military equipment,
transportation, and supplies (including petrol) from Pakistan;
and
“(e) that Pakistan officers are training, guiding, and
otherwise actively helping them.

“There is no source other than Pakistan from which they could obtain such quantities of modern military equipment, training or guidance. More than once, the Government of India had asked the Pakistan Government to deny to the invaders facilities which constitute an act of aggressian and hostility against India, but without any response. The last occasion on which this request was made was on 22 December, when the Prime Minister of India handed over personally to the Prime Minister of Pakistan a letter in which the various forms of aid given by Pakistan to the invaders were briefly recounted and the Government of Pakistan were asked to put an end to such aid promptly; no reply to this letter has yet been received in spite of a telegraphic reminder sent on 26 December.

“11. It should be clear from the foregoing recital that the Government of Pakistan are unwilling to stop the assistance in material and men which the invaders are receiving from Pakistan territory and from Pakistan nationals, including Pakistan Government personnel, both military and civil. This attitude is not only un-neutral, but constitutes active aggression against India, of which the State of Jammu and Kashmir forms a part.

“12. The Government of India have exerted persuasion and exercised patience to bring about a change in the attitude of Pakistan. But they have failed, and are in consequence confronted with a situation in which their defence of Jammu and Kashmir State is hampered and their measures to drive the invaders from the territory of the State are greatly impeded by the support which the raiders derive from Pakistan. The invaders are still on the soil of Jammu and Kashmir and the inhabitants of the States are exposed to all the atrocities of which a barbarous foe is capable. The presence, in large numbers, of invaders in those portions of Pakistan territory which adjoin parts of Indian territory other than Jammu and Kashmir State is a menace to the rest of India. Indefinite continuance of the present operations prolongs the agony of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, is a drain on India’s resources and a constant threat to the maintenance of peace between India and Pakistan. The Government of India have no option, therefore, but to take more effective military action in order to rid Jammu and Kashmir State of the invader.

“13. In order that the objective of expelling the invader from Indian territory and preventing him from launching attacks should be quickly achieved, Indian troops would have to enter Pakistan territory; only thus could the invader be denied the use of bases and cut off from his sources of supplies and reinforcements in Pakistan. Since the aid which the invaders are receiving from Pakistan is an act of aggression against India, the Government of India are entitled, under international law, to send their armed forces across Pakistan territory for dealing effectively with the invaders. However, as such action might involve armed conflict with Pakistan, the Government of India, ever anxious to proceed according to the principles and aims of the Charter of the United Nations, desire to report the situation to the Security CDuncil under Article 35 of the Charter. They feel justified in requesting the Security Council to ask the Government of Pakistan.

“(1) to prevent Pakistan Government personnel, military
and civil from participating or assisting in the invasion of
Jammu and Kashmir State;
“(2) to call upon other Pakistani nationals to desist from
taking any part in the fighting in Jammu and Kashmir State;
“(3) to deny to the invaders: (a) access to any use of its
territory for operations against Kashmir, (b) military and other
supplies, (c) all other kinds of aid that might tend to prolong
the present struggle.

“14. The Government of India would stress the special urgency of the Security Council taking immediate action on their request. They desire to add that military operations in the invaded areas have, in the past few days, been developing so rapidly that they must, in self- defence, reserve to themselves the freedom to take, at any time when it may become necessary, such military action as they may consider the situation requires.

“15. The Government of India deeply regret that a serious crisis should have been reached in their relation with Pakistan. Not only is Pakistan a neighbour but, in spite of the recent separation, India and Pakistan have many ties and many common interests. India desires nothing more earnestly than to live with her neighbour-State on terms of close and lasting friendship. Peace is to the interest of both States; indeed to the interests of the world. The Government of India’s approach to the Security Council is inspired by the sincere hope that, through the prompt action of the Council, peace may be preserved.

“16. The text of this reference to the Security Council is being telegraphed to the “Government of Pakistan.”

INDIA: Mulling Tough Options Against Pakistan
Written by Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Dec 3 (IPS) – United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in the Indian capital Wednesday to try and soothe nerves frayed by last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, but is likely to face an uphill task in defusing mounting suspicion and tension between India and Pakistan.

Many Indian policymakers have adopted a hardened posture against Pakistan in the belief that its state agencies, such as the shadowy Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), were behind the attacks, which have killed nearly 200 people, including 28 foreign nationals.

Conservative commentators have unleashed what is fast becoming a media campaign to demand that India takes serious punitive action against Pakistan for the attacks –to the point of striking at terrorist training camps which Indian spy agencies claim exist across the border.

Liberals, who prefer a diplomatic rather than military approach to the issue, and defend freedom and civil liberties, are sharply critical of the conservative hawks. But it is not clear that they can persuade the Indian government to take a reasoned and sober approach.

‘’Nobody is talking of military action against Pakistan… what will be done, time will show,” India’s foreign minister Pranab Mukerjee said Tuesday, while speaking at the Indo-Arab Forum.

”If the already fragile India-Pakistan process breaks down, diplomatic and trade relations are frozen, and a conflict breaks out, the consequences will be grim,” says Kamal Mitra Chenoy, a professor in the School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. ”Any conflict that breaks out today between India and Pakistan has the potential, the deadly potential, to escalate to the nuclear level and cause unspeakable destruction.”

Under pressure to take a tough stand against Pakistan, New Delhi has summoned Pakistan’s ambassador and issued a formal protest. He was told the attacks were carried out by ”elements from Pakistan” and ”the government expects that strong action would be taken against those elementsà”

According to the official spokesperson of India’s ministry of external affairs, the diplomat was told that ”Pakistan’s actions needed to match the sentiments expressed by its leadership, that it wishes to have a qualitatively new relationships with India”.

India has bluntly told Pakistan that it must hand over to it 20 ”most wanted fugitives”, including notorious gangster Dawood Ibrahim, and an extremist leader (Masood Azhar) who was exchanged for hostages during the hijacking of an Indian aircraft in 1999.

Many of the hawks who advocate a hardline approach are livid at the attacks, which they see as an insult to, or a slighting of, India. They describe it as India’s own ”September 11”.

They are particularly incensed that gunmen carrying sophisticated arms and explosives could land their boats in Mumbai unhindered and proceed to strike at nine or more sites, including a crowded railway station and two luxury hotels.

Like protestors in Mumbai, who blame India’s political leaders for their incompetence and indifference to security issues, the hardliners too want the armed forces and security agencies to have a prominent role in deciding how to respond to acts of terrorism.

Some of them focus on the alleged involvement of the Pakistani jehadi extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and by implication, Pakistani state agencies, in the attacks.

India’s police agencies, which are investigating the attacks and following the leads emerging from the interrogation of arrested terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman (alias Qasab) in Mumbai, claim to have discovered a conspiracy at the centre of which is LeT.

But Pakistani leaders say India has not offered them any specific evidence of LeT’s involvement. What is needed is solid, hard, incontrovertible evidence, which can withstand critical scrutiny, and on the basis of which the attackers and their co-conspirators can be convicted.

The leads pointing to LeT’s involvement must be fully established if the international community is to be convinced and Pakistan’s cooperation is to be secured.

For the first time, though, the Indian authorities have caught an attacker red-handed, who can provide invaluable information, evidence and clues for further investigation.

LeT was created and trained by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency. LeT is banned in many countries, including the U.S. The armed wing of the extremist Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad, LeT is alleged to have conducted numerous operations against Indian troops and civilian targets in Jammu and Kashmir since 1993.

It was blamed by New Delhi for a terrorist attack on India’s Parliament house in December 2001, which led to a 10 month-long eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation between the two countries, with a million troops amassed at the border.

”Many of the hawks’ premises are mistaken,” argues political scientist Zoya Hasan. ”For instance, it is simply wrong to use the 9/11 analogy for the Mumbai attacks. The two are different in context, scale and impact.”

Adds Hasan: ”The Twin Towers casualties were 16 times higher than in Mumbai. They exposed the vulnerability of the American homeland –for the first time in 60 years. Indians have long recognised their vulnerability, having suffered scores of attacks in the last two decades. 9/11 changed the way the U.S. looks at the world, including Islam. Mumbai probably won’t alter India’s outlook.”

Similarly, the assumption that LeT’s involvement necessarily implicates the ISI or the Pakistan Army, or proves the complicity of the civilian government headed by President Asif Ali Zardari, is questioned by many former intelligence officials in India.

One of them told IPS on condition of anonymity that ”it would be wrong to assume that LeT enjoys no autonomy and the ISI still fully controls it. Making a direct equation between LeT, the ISI, the Pakistan Army and the elected civilian government, and accusing them of having colluded to engineer the attacks, would be way off the mark”.

This official’s assessment is that Zardari’s government would not want to undermine the peace process with India and risk a costly conflict at a time when Pakistan is in dire economic trouble and volatile thanks to a growing collapse of governance and rising ethnic strife. These are manifested in the current Mohajir-Pushtun clashes in Karachi, and the creeping Taliban takeover of the North-Western Frontier Province.

That conspiracy theory sits ill with Zardari’s recent statement pledging not to use nuclear weapons first against India.

Zardari has often said that Pakistan can ill-afford to unleash against India the forces of extremism which have caused havoc on its own territory.

After all, Pakistan is also a victim of extremists, who claimed his wife Benazir Bhutto’s life, carried out the Sep. 20 attack on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, and earlier made two major attempts on former president Pervez Musharraf’s life.

On Tuesday, Zardari told the ”Financial Times” that provocation by extremist ”non-state actors” poses the danger of a return to war between India and Pakistan, and rhetorically asked: ”Even if the militants are linked to LeT, who do you think we are fighting?”

”Many will question his claim that Pakistan is seriously fighting LeT or its parent organisation, Harkat-ul-Dawa,” says Achin Vanaik, professor of international relations and global politics and Delhi University. ”Pakistan imposed a formal ban on the group, but it reappeared under a different name. Its leader, Hafiz Mohammed Said, is a free man. And HuD holds public meetings, according to many credible reports.”

Nevertheless, adds Vanaik, ”India should take Pakistan’s offer to help investigate the attacks. Although it has reneged on its earlier offer to send the ISI director-general to India, it still promises to send a senior agency official. India should respond positively to this and try to build alliances with the saner elements in Pakistan who recognise the dangers of fomenting jehadi terrorism.”

The alternative would be to drift towards conflict, insecurity and war. If India insists on its demand about turning in fugitives living in Pakistan, there is a danger that Pakistan will not comply. India cannot compel it.

Says Vanaik: ”This seriously risks an armed conflict, which neither side can win, but is fraught with grave nuclear danger. The only gainers from an India-Pakistan conflict will be extremists and terrorists — besides the U.S. through a heightened mediatory role. This would only confirm the view that the attacks are a gift from the most criminalised orders of the global Right to its most powerful echelons.”

However, there is an honourable and peaceful way out. This is to take the Mumbai case to the United Nations Security Council under Resolution 1373, which requires all states to ”refrain from providing any form of supportà to entities or persons involved in terrorist actsà”, give ”early warning to other states” and ”deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts…” all on pain of punitive measures.

This multilateral approach, analysts say, would obviate overbearing US influence and must be explored. But it is not clear that Indian leaders would muster the will to do so.

Terriorist Killed more than 100 peoples and injuring 250 peoples in the india’s economic capital city in Mumbai from yesterday evening.

08:05 AM: Fresh firing erupted early on Thursday in Taj hotel as commandos moved in to flush out terrorists holding some foreigners hostage.

Sharp shooters of army, NSG and other security forces moved into Mumbai’s landmark hotel. Police believe that the number of holed out terrorists could be three or four.

Another luxury hotel Trident (formerly Oberoi) was under siege with some terrorists holding some foreigners hostage.

07:50 AM: More grim news is coming in from Taj Hotel, where several staff members have been feared killed in the terrorist attack.

Over 100 guests are still stuck inside the hotel, where two terrorists are reportedly holed up.

At Nariman House in Colaba, onlookers informed that the police exchanged fire about an hour ago.

The place looked like a riot-hit site, swarming with police officials and military trucks. Most people have been holed up here since an explosion shook the area at 10.30 pm.

The explosion occurred when the terrorists lobbed hand grenades at the local petrol pump. The blast was followed by a gunfight between police forces and the terrorists.

Taj burns

06:20 AM: The hostage crisis continued at Taj Hotel in the wee hours of Thursday as Army commandos moved in to flush out the terrorists.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh assured that there was no hostage situation at Cama Hospital in South Mumbai.

An Army commando was reportedly injured in the shoot-out. An explosion was also reported in the lobby of the Taj Hotel

04: 23 AM: Vaihayasi Pande-Daniel reports that the fire that engulfed the old wing of the Taj Mahal [Images] Hotel in Mumbai has been put out. Though the major conflagration has been contained, flames continue to flicker, occasionally leaping into life, at the corner of the heritage wing.

Police and fire brigade personnel have placed ladders against the side of the building, and are bringing hotel guests out through that means. Some foreigners who had been evacuated were being ferried to a nearby hospital for first aid, while others are being taken by bus to alternate accommodations. Officials here estimate that most of the guests inside the hotel have been evacuated.

Video 2

Commandos of the Indian navy meanwhile have staked out vantage points covering all exit points, while others of their number prowl around the perimeter of the hotel.

A group of Taj employees stood clustered on the pavement opposite the hotel, staring at the hotel through tear-filled eyes. They had been told to leave, they said � but clearly, they could not bring themselves to walk away from a hotel that, to them and to most Mumbaikars, is shared heritage than mere hotel.

Elsewhere, an attractive young woman attempted to restore some semblance of order to her silver-zari sari. She was drenched, and still disoriented from her experiences of the night.

“We were partying, and suddenly there was firing all over,” the woman, who had just been evacuated by ladder from a window some 30 feet up, recalled. “I’d read about such things in the paper, and routinely turned the page� but when it happens to you, when you experience it�”

03: 57 AM: Though the firefight at the Oberoi is still far from finished, the takeover of the operation by units of the Indian Army [Images] appears to have taken the South Mumbai hotel off the ‘critical’ list.

Vaihayasi Pande-Daniel reports for Rediff that most of the one dozen fire trucks that had been stationed around the Oberoi have been dispatched to the Taj Mahal Hotel, where a blazing fire threatens to devastate the old wing of the iconic hotel.
Daniel cites police sources as saying the army commandoes are doing a systematic sweep of the hotel, lobbing grenades ahead of them to take out hidden dangers before securing each successive wing of the hotel.

The constant bang of grenades from within the hotel continues to alarm the crowds gathered outside the hotel, and kept at a distance by police. Not all of them have come to gape, however. Vadhavan, a businessman from New Delhi [Images], sits in rumpled attire on the parapet of Marine Drive, trying to stay awake.

He had arrived in Mumbai this evening at the head of a 13-member business delegation. He was in the act of checking into the Oberoi when the firing began. “I think the shooting started at the Oberoi,” says Vadhavan. “They ushered us all out through a side entrance and told us to leave. I got separated from the rest of my group; I think they are waiting on the other side of the hotel.”

The flushing out operation is far from finished; Vadhavan’s wait threatens to extend through what remains of this night.

3:42 AM: At the Taj Hotel, where a joint operation involving the Mumbai police, the Central Reserve Police Force and a commando group from the Navy is engaged in flushing out terrorists within the premises, PTI reports that almost all the guests have been brought out to safety at the time of writing this.

The situation continues to remain dangerous, however, with an indeterminate number of terrorists within the hotel, two of whom are believed to be holding a group of tourists hostage on an upper floor.

Meanwhile, the fire that erupted in the old wing of the historic hotel has spread alarmingly. The fire now burns bright across at least two mid-level floors of the old wing, and thick clouds of black smoke spew from the signature minaret that crowns the hotel’s roof.

03: 06 AM: A little over four hours since gunshots first erupted at the CST railway terminal, and coordinated terrorist attacks spread to various parts of South Bombay, the situation remains fluid.

At the Taj Mahal Hotel, a contingent of Navy commandos has joined the police and Central Reserve Police Force personnel attempting to enter the hotel and flush out the terrorists. From within the hotel, word is that occasional explosions, and sporadic gunfire, continue at the time of writing this.

At the Oberoi Hotel, the army has taken over the operation and entered the hotel; it is now reportedly engaged in flushing out the terrorists hiding within.

At the Cama Hospital, a specialty medical center for women and children, official sources say terrorists are holed up on the fourth floor and have been firing from that vantage point. Police have surrounded the hospital and are engaging the terrorists in an ongoing gun battle.

02:50 AM: Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and Member of Parliament N N Krishnadas, who is staying at the Taj Mahal Hotel, reports that as late as 2:10 AM, explosions could be heard from within the premises.

Krishnadas told CNN that he is holed up in a room, and outside of the noise of explosions and gunfire has no real idea what is happening within the premises.

Meanwhile, the fire that broke out in one of the hotel’s middle floors has been spreading upwards, adding a fresh hazard both to the police and CRPF personnel engaged in the anti-terrorist operation and to the guests within the hotel.

Even as police sources upped the toll in today’s terrorist strikes in Mumbai at 80 and counting, police continue to lay siege to the Taj Mahal Hotel, where two terrorists are believed to be holding at least 15 guests hostage on one of the upper floors of the hotel.

The police are at this point in time unsure whether the two hostage takers are the only terrorists within the hotel.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army has moved into the Oberoi and the Trident, the two other South Mumbai hotels targeted in today’s terrorist strikes.

A battalion of the Indian army entered the Oberoi and began an operation against the terrorists holed up inside. The army was called in after the police took several casualties, including the deaths of some senior officers.

With the army now in charge of this phase of the operation � the first time the Indian army is operating in the city since the 1992 riots � the police has fallen back and is focusing on cordoning off the area.

Vaihayasi Pande-Daniel, reporting for Rediff.com from outside the Oberoi Hotel, reports that with the cordon being drawn tight, people waiting outside are in a state of panic, and desperately searching for information. A group of senior bankers from Hyderabad are among those inside the hotel to attend a conference; their Mumbai-based colleagues are outside, awaiting word of their fate.

02: 25 AM: Mumbai’s Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare died of bullet wounds in the ongoing battle against armed terrorists that is raging across several parts of South Mumbai.

Vijay Salaskar, an officer attached to the Mumbai police who has been famed as an ‘encounter specialist’, was seriously injured in the ongoing gun battle and has been rushed to hospital. In all, seven Mumbai policemen are believed killed thus far.

Meanwhile, Railway Police Chief Ashok Sharma told Rediff.com that at least 40 people were killed inside Mumbai’s nodal Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminus. “The attack started around 9.35 pm,” Sharma said. “Two terrorists were inside. We can confirm at least 40 people killed.”

It is yet unclear whether the terrorists are still on-site, have left, or been killed. Sharma said there had been no firing from within the terminus for the last two hours. “Despite this, we are not allowing people to go into the station as we are worried that the terrorists might have planted bombs or left live grenades in the station,” he said.

Sharma said the official belief is that the two terrorists had sneaked out of the station in the confusion following the original assault.

Sudhir Dalvi, a sub-inspector attached to the Mumbai cell of the Anti-Terrorist Squad, told Sheela Bhatt for Rediff.com that his boss, ATS chief Hemant Karkare, and senior police officers Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte, were killed in an incident outside Mumbai’s Cama Hospital.

“Our chief Karkare, my senior officer Salaskar and ACP Kamte died while engaging terrorists outside the Cama hospital,” a sobbing Dalvi told Rediff.com. “All of a sudden, terrorists threw grenades at Karkare leading to chaos. We are unable to confirm whether they fell to terrorist fire or were killed by the grenades.”

Meanwhile, the army has moved into the Trident Hotel, the third five-star hotel in the South Mumbai region that had been targeted in tonight’s coordinated terrorist strikes.

02:10 AM: It is now believed that 15 people, at least seven of them foreigners, have been taken hostage by two terrorists and are being held on the roof of the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Rakesh Patel, a London-based businessman who managed to escape, told NDTV that the two terrorists, estimated to be in their early 20s, came to a restaurant on the ground floor of the Taj, rounded up the hostages and took them to the 18th floor. Patel, who was one among them, managed at that point to escape.

Patel said the terrorists asked if any of the hostages were carrying American or British passports, and said he got the clear impression that they wanted foreigners.

01:50 AM: Krishnakumar reports from the Juhu region that a bomb went off in a taxi that was speeding along the Western Express Highway from Vile Parle towards Andheri, killing two people and injuring two others.

“The taxi exploded and went up in flames as it sped past the traffic island under the flyover at the domestic airport,” an eyewitness said on phone. “The vehicle, which was up in flames soon after it crossed the traffic signal, was on the left
side. A bystander and a person in the taxi were killed.

Reports indicate that this was perhaps the night’s highest-intensity blast. Krishnakumar reports that the taxi’s doors were found a distance of 50 meters or more away, and body parts of the victims had been thrown even further.

01:43 AM: At least two suspected terroristswere shot dead minutes earlier at the corner of Mumbai’s Chowpatty. Rediff’s Vaihayasi Pande-Daniel, who is on the site, reports that the area has been cordoned off and is swarming with police officers; the Skoda is under guard and a cellphone, a jacket, and items of footwear are strewn around the vehicle.

Meanwhile at the Taj Mahal Hotel, the standoff between police, who have surrounded the hotel, and terrorists who are holed up inside, continues.

A short while ago, power went off in parts of the hotel, adding to the sense of panic and fear. Well known food critic Sabina Sahgal Saikia, who is inside the hotel, told NDTV on phone just now that the guests are terrified, and unaware of just what is happening around them. It is unclear at this point in time whether the power has been turned off by the police as they battle the terrorists.

01:27 AM: Rediff’s Vaihayasi Pande Daniel calls in from the Marine Drive region to report that the approaches to the South Mumbai area have been shut down, and that sounds of firing are audible as far away as Mumbai’s famed Queen’s Necklace stretch, though the source of the firing is unclear.

Meanwhile, a foreign national who managed to escape from the Taj Mahal Hotel, where a state of seige currently exists, told NDTV that armed and masked gunmen were wandering around inside the hotel, looking for people with American or British passports.

The eyewitness account appears to confirm the growing belief among law enforcement circles that this latest attack is aimed directly at foreign nationals — hence the choice of star hotels as prime targets. They further theorize that automatic weapons are being used rather than bombs in order to orchestrate such targeted mayhem.

Meanwhile, the real dangers of the situation are being exaggerated by a proliferation of rumors. One such that has been aired on a few channels including CNN suggested that firing was taking place at the JW Marriott, another five star hotel in the Juhu region of suburban Mumbai. A source in the hotel however confirmed to Rediff just now that there was no alarm at the hotel, and no incident of any kind had taken place.

12:44 AM: A gun battle is ongoing in the Taj Hotel in Colaba. Within the last ten minutes, a guest at the hotel got word out to CNN via email that a grenade had exploded within the hotel premises just then.

Additional Commissioner of Police AN Roy and other officials confirmed that some armed terrorists are holed up in the iconic hotel.

Police officials said they have no information of a hostage situation; they say guests have been sequestered in safe areas of the hotel, and the police are now engaged in flushing out the terrorists from their hiding place.

Courtsy:Rediff

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Elections Results 2008

Schedule for holding General Election to
the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir

General Election Results to Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir will be announced on Dec 28, 2008 (Sunday)

Poll Event                          Poll Event                                                                            Date
1                                 Counting of Votes on                                                    Monday Dec 08, 2008
2                                 Date before which the Election shall be Completed       Saturday Dec 13, 2008

General Election to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir

The Assembly Elections of Jammu & Kashmir has been declared by Election Commission. There will be a 7 phase election, the dates of which has been fixed for 14th , 23rd , 30th November, 2008, and 7th , 13th , 17th , 24th December, 2008, The Legislative Assembly of the State of Jammu & Kashmir was dissolved on 10 th July, 2008 and since then the state has been placed under the Governor’s rule. This will come to an end on 10 th January, 2008.

As per constitutional law (Section 138 read with Section 52 (1) of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, and the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Special Reference No.1 of 2002 [AIR 2003 SC 87, (2002) 8 SCC 237], and Section 27 of the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957) , it is mandatory on the part of the Election Commission to hold general election to constitute the new Legislative Assembly in the State before 10th January, 2009.

ASSEMBLY CONSTITUENCY
Under Section 47 read with Section 48 of the Constitution of J & K, the assembly constituency is as follows:
State Total No.                          ACs        ACs reserved for SC                           ACs reserved for ST
Jammu & Kashmir                     87                         7                                                          -

ELECTORAL ROLLS

There are 65,38,111 electors in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

ELECTORS PHOTO IDENTITY CARDS (EPIC)

The identification of the voters at the polling booth at the time of poll is mandatory.Presently, the EPIC coverage in J & K is 68.00%.

POLLING STATIONS

There are 8,109 polling stations in the State.

DATE OF ELECTION

There will be seven phase elections in the state, starting from 14th November, 2008 till 24th December 2008.

Communal violence has engulfed most of the parts of our country. And the media is only adding to the trouble. Frequent cases of false or partial reporting can be seen in mainstream media that includes several reputed newspapers and TV channels.

CJ: krishnabaalu 

THE RECENT communal violence took innocent lives in Bhainsal, a small village in Adilabad district in Andhra Pradesh on Friday (October 10), during the Durga devi nimajjan procession. Among the dead were some daily wage painters, who migrated from Bihar.

According to the reports, in total three persons died in the clashes, 26 injured and four trucks and 20 two wheelers were burnt to ashes.

On Friday after noon, a Durga devi procession reached the area of a Mosque in Panja Chowk. The sub inspector of police on duty Uday Kiran, forced the procession to proceed fast, fearing trouble from the mosque. The Hindu youths were sprinkling vermilions and turmeric powder and by accident it fell on some Muslim youths, who were passing by.

The youths got angry and started attacking the processionists . Both the groups pelted stones on each other. After a while, a huge gang of Muslim youth started torching the shops and houses nearby and went berserk. Hundreds of vehicles, houses and shops were torched by the mob.

The Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president and member of Parliament, Asaduddin Owaisi and Kishan Reddy of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) both visited the town and made their respective claims.

Reddy, along with Bandaru Dattatreya of BJP, claimed that the riots were pre planned one and they suspected terrorists hand in the planned attacks on the shops and vehicles belonging to another community.

On the other hand, Owaisi have also demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry in to the incident. The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Rajasekhar Reddy has promptly responded and now ordered a CBI enquiry in to the incident.

However, a popular television channel and web portal reported a highly biased reportage in its website on this communal clash.

The website, after briefly reporting the communal clash, concluded with the news of Owaisi’s visit to the troubled area and concluded that he demanded a CBI enquiry in to the incident. This gives an impression that the clashes were ignited by Hindus and the Muslim community was the worst hit. It was, infact the other way round.

This was a highly biased reportage and the website ought to have covered the BJP leaders claim too, on equal footage. But the portal deliberately avoided the other side of the story.

Similarly, a Hyderabad-based leading English daily went on to cover only the partial truth. In another case, another national newspaper reported the Assam violences as communal clash, however, the fact is, it was an ethnic clash.

The daily reported the news as:

The Assam government on Saturday issued shoot-at-sight orders and called in the Army in three riot-hit northern Assam districts. The death toll in communal clashes has risen to 25. Four of these died in police firing. More than 50 others were critically wounded in mob violence and arson.

Among those killed, 19 belonged to the Muslim community and six were Bodos, security sources said.

It looks like a deliberate attempt on the part of this publication to spread this type of false news.

The 19 killed were Bangladeshi illegal settlers and six were from Bodo tribes. It was a clash between an Indian origin tribe and illegal settlers from Bangladesh. It was an ethnic clash and not a communal clash. But, if one believes the above news it gives an impression that it was a communal clash between Sangh Parivar and Muslims.

One should pray to the God to protect the innocent Indians from these highly selfish and provocative media. Such reports angers both Hindus and Muslims all over India, which results in a worser conditions.