Khalistan Calling newsletter dated October 09, 2002

is available at: > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc10092002.htm <.

The following KHALISTAN CALLING newsletter has been published in the leading Punjabi-English newspaper of the Sikh diaspora, Surrey Canada-based CHARHDI KALA,- Issue of October 09-October 15, 2002 : Vol. 18 : No. 41. Last week's Khalistan Calling is available at http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc10022002.htm <) It was also published in the second week of October, 2002, in the Vancouver-based PUNJAB GUARDIAN, and Akal Guardian, Toronto-based SANJH SAVERA, Calgary-based SIKH VIRSA and numerous other Punjabi/English weekly and monthly publications which cater to the three million strong Sikh diaspora in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. The Overseas Sikhs, unlike their 20 million compatriots captive in India, are free and prosperous and they are determined - as they believe it is their destiny and pray for it every day; Raj Karay Ga Khalsa; Sikhs will rule - to carve a sovereign, democratic, egalitarian Sikh buffer state of KHALISTAN in South Asia, stretching from the Jumna river on the East, to the Pakistan border on the West, China on the Northeast and Kashmir on the North.

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Washington DC October 09, 2002: Indian Finance minister Jaswant Singh's threat, ('fired' in Pakistan's direction, when he was visiting Washington DC for a World Bank meeting late last month) that 'every country, including India, has a right to preemptive strikes as an inherent part of its right of self-defence,' boomeranged when Pakistan tested its second missile in five days which response has brought war clouds once again, not only over the South Asian Sikh homeland of Punjab, Khalistan, but has also made India's major seaport and financial center - Bombay (Mumbai) - into a frontline city.

According to the APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), a Pakistan government owned news agency, a defense ministry statement issued in Islamabad said that,"Pakistan today (October 08, 2002) successfully tested a medium-range ballistic missile called Hatf-IV (Shaheen-1), its second missile test within five days. This test was in continuation of the one conducted on October 4, 2002 to validate certain additional parameters. These parameters stand completely validated in the light of data collected from the test." The Shaheen missile, the APP reported, "has a range of up to 800 kilometers, which means it can reach deep into Indian territory." An official was quoted, by the APP, as having said that today's, "test culminated years of hard work, dedication and professional excellence of Pakistani scientists and engineers in developing the Shaheen weapons system and that President General Pervez Musharraf has congratulated them on the outstanding success."

According to another AFP's (Agencie France Presse) New Delhi-datelined report, (which showed, in our opinion, the ignorance in matters nuclear or missilery of its usually crafty Hindu-fundamentalist BJP rulers ) that, "India shrugged off Pakistan's second ballistic missile test in five days today as an exercise aimed at its domestic constituency. A (blinkered) senior Indian official said the timing of the two tests was significant, just days before general elections in that country. The tests are aimed at Pakistan's domestic audience and has more to do with their internal politics than anything else, he told AFP". An Indian defence ministry spokesman told AFP that India was not planning any tit-for-tat missile test in response to Pakistan's latest launch.

Earlier the English language Hindu newspaper, in a October 07, 2002, datelined dispatch from its Islamabad correspondent, B. Muralidhar Reddy, reported that, "Pakistan today declined to confirm or deny reports in a section of the media that it planned to test-fire one more medium range ballistic missile, Shaheen, tomorrow." It is obvious from the report published in the Hindu newspaper that Pakistan wanted everyone - including spy satelittes hovering in the sky over South Asia - to know exactly when and where the second missile test would take place as Reddy quoted a Pakistani newspaper- NEWS - as having reported that, "the second missile test would be carried out at 0830 Indian (note the word 'Indian') Standard Time on Tuesday. The report said that the new terminal-guided system missile would have solid fuel with a range of 800 km. and could reach all the Indian defence sites. The missile would take off from the Sonmiani test site near Karachi and would be aimed to hit a set target near Sandhak, an area close to where the Pak/Afghan/Iran borders meet. A team of scientists headed by Dr. Samar Mubarak, chairman of Pakistan's National Engineering and Scientific Commission, has already reached the test site and the test would be witnessed by Vice Chief of Army Staff, General Muhammad Yousaf, and other senior defence officials." End quote.

One look at any atlas will reveal that Sandhak in Pakistan's Baluchistan province is about the same distance from Sonmiani (near Karachi) as Bombay's value targets are from Sonmiani. Obviously the Pakistani High Command is conveying a blunt 'message' to the BJP 'chicken-hawks' in Delhi who may be experts on issuing statements based on the teachings of Chanakya (5-6th century AD), the Indian Machiavelli, but have much to learn about missiles and nukes in which the Pakistani military leadership obviously is well versed. Please see January 16, 2002, Khalistan Calling, on the internet, headlined, "Indian leaders need a nuclear tutorial - World's renowned non-proliferation activist calls them "delusional with large egoes and little minds," at: > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc01162002.htm <

The Indian leadership's childish and ridiculous reaction, (after the October 04 Pakistani missile test) of firing a 35-mile range anti/missile missile, after waiting eight long hours, at a test site located a thousand miles East of the point of impact of the Pakistani missile (which is rumoured to have landed in the Arabian sea off Bombay) is indicative of the nuclear-illiteracy which prevails among the corrupt, morally repugnant, Swastika-worshipping BJP Hindu leadership now in command in New Delhi. The ruling 'BJP Brahmins' in Delhi may have read, (unlike the unread Pakistani leadership which is chary of reading books) the diplomatic tricks-guide of the Indian Machiavelli, Chanakya, listed in his book Koot Neetee Shastra, (and may have mastered some of the tricks) but they have no idea what-so-ever about nuclear warfare and missilery in which the Pakistani military leadership obviously excels.

What for example, would be Sikh Punjab's fate if lower riparian Pakistan attacked the Bhakra Nangal dam as retaliation for the covert and illegal Indian dam and tunnels currently under construction on the Chenab river (which river - Chenab - was allotted to Pakistan under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty) citing the Indian illegal action as a casus belii - cause for war - a la lower riparian Israel's recent reaction in its current water war with Lebanon over a tiny stream - the Wazzani? Please see the Sept. 10, 2002, BBC story, headlined,"Israel warns of war over water"at: > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2249599.stm < and also please see Khalistan Calling, dated January 23, 2002, (headlined, "India is " provoking a war with Pakistan by trying to divert the Chenab river,") on the internet at: > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc01232002.htm <

The three million diaspora Sikhs (twenty million captive in India) appeal to the international community in general (and the United States in particular) to use their economic and military muscle to de-nuclearize South Asia. The whole South Asian sub-continent is too poor, too underdeveloped, too overpopulated, too backward, too squalidly and too corrupt to merit the 'luxury' of nuclear weapons or even a conventional war. Please see the May 15, 2002, Khalistan Calling, headlined, "What did India gain from going nuclear - A big nothing," on the internet at:> http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc05152002.htm < and the May 29, 2002, Khalistan Calling headlined, "India wants to fight Pakistan to the last Sikh", at : http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc05292002.htm

The international community ought to pressure the Indian government to declare Punjab, with its numerous Sikh holy shrines, a missile free zone, stand down India's million strong military force massed on the border, (which has been twiddling its thumbs for nearly a year) and stop its illegal dam-building provocation it has covertly undertaken on the Chenab river (in disputed Indian-held Kashmir) in contravention of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty which allots this river to Pakistan. The Indian government, for the good of its over one billion population, should also be pressured by the international community to shed its bigotry/prejudice etc., and open negotiations for a gas/oil pipeline into 'power-short' Sikh Punjab from oil-rich Central Asia via Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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