Kashmir Conflict - Timeline

From 1947 to 2002

August 15, 1947 - India and Pakistan gain independence from Britain.

October 27, 1947 - Kashmir becomes part of India.

January 1948 - India and Pakistan go to war over Kashmir and finally agree to withdraw all troops behind a mutually agreed ceasefire line, later known as the Line of Control.

August 5, 1965 - India and Pakistan at war again over Kashmir. The war ends when both countries decide to adopt a UN-sponsored resolution to stick to the Line of Control.

May 7, 1999 - The Indian Army patrols detect intruders on Kargil ridges in Kashmir. India fights to regain lost territory.

March 19, 2000 - Then U.S. President Bill Clinton arrives in India, beginning his six-day visit to South Asia, partly in an attempt to ease relations between Pakistan and India over the disputed region of Kashmir.

July 25, 2000 - Hizbul Mujahedeen, a pro-Pakistan Kashmiri militant group, declares a unilateral ceasefire for three months in Jammu and Kashmir.

August 3, 2000 - India begins peace talks with Hizbul Mujahedeen, in Srinagar.

August 8, 2000 - Hizbul Mujahedeen calls off its 2-week-old ceasefire and orders its forces to resume fighting against Indian troops.

November 19, 2000 - Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announces that security forces will suspend combat operations against militants in Jammu and Kashmir state during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

27 November 2000 - India puts a ceasefire into effect in Kashmir.

December 23, 2000 - Pakistan-based guerrilla group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, claims responsibility for a deadly attack on New Delhi's historic Red Fort.

February 22, 2000 - Prime Minister Vajpayee extends the unilateral ceasefire by three months.

April 27, 2001 - An executive from Kashmir's separatist All Parties Huriyat Conference (APHC), which claims to be the premier political representative of the Kashmiri people, rejects an Indian offer for a dialogue.

May 23, 2001 - India ends a six-month military ceasefire against Islamic guerillas in Kashmir while also inviting Pakistani military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, to peace talks aimed at ending five decades of hostilities between the two countries.

May 28, 2001 - India's peace negotiator for Kashmir, Krishan Chander Pant, visits the territory to meet a cross-section of people from Pakistan and Kashmir.

India refuses to yield any ground in talks and insists that the territory is an integral part of India and rejects Pakistan's calls for a referendum on the future of Kashmir.

May 28, 2001 - Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, formally accepts an Indian invitation for summit talks focused firmly on the Kashmir dispute.

June 18, 2001- Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, announces a visit to India from July 14 to 16 for the first summit talks between the neighboring states in two years.

June 20, 2001 - Musharraf dismisses President Rafiq Tarar as the nation's ceremonial head of state, dissolves the national and provisional assemblies and declares himself as new Pakistani president.

July 4, 2001 - India says it is releasing more than 400 Pakistani prisoners from its jails as a goodwill gesture 10 days ahead of the India-Pakistan summit meeting in New Delhi.

July 4, 2001 - President Musharraf issues an executive order, giving the president boundless powers through a newly devised National Security Council.

July 14-16, 2001 - President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee meet in Agra, India for a three-day summit. The talks fail to produce a joint statement on Kashmir.

July 24, 2001 - Abdul Hamid Tantray, chief spokesman of the Hizbul Mujahadeen, one of Kashmir's largest militant groups, dies in what Indian authorities call an "encounter" with police in the village of Paloo.

August 8, 2001 - India imposes an indefinite curfew in Jammu as tension runs high in the city after the massacre of 11 people at a railway station.

October 1, 2001 - Militants attack the Kashmiri assembly in Srinagar, leaving 38 people dead. Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah urges the Indian government to launch a crackdown on militant training camps across the border in Pakistan.

October 18, 2001 -- The United States says its campaign against terrorism will pursue Kashmiri militants.

December 13, 2001 - Unidentified men attack the Indian parliament in New Delhi. Fourteen people are killed, including the five assailants.

December 20, 2001 - The Indian army deploys troops on its border with Pakistan in the northern states of Kashmir and Punjab in response to a Pakistani troop build-up across the frontier.

December 25, 2001 - Pakistan detains the leader of an Islamic organization blamed by India for the suicide attack on the Indian parliament.

December 27, 2001 - Indian police verify reports that a group of al Qaeda members led by a close associate of Osama bin Laden entered Kashmir.

January 2, 2002 - India stops long-distance calls from all public telephone offices in Kashmir to prevent militants from communicating with each other.

New Delhi tells Pakistan to wipe out Pakistan-based Kashmir separatist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Row triggers military build-up, diplomatic sanctions, and closure of transport links.

January 7, 2002 - After weeks of heated rhetoric, accusations and military posturing, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee says at the South Asian Regional Cooperation meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal, that his nation is ready for "dialogue" with its fellow nuclear power.

January 9, 2002 - A siege between Indian troops and two militants holed up in a mosque in Kashmir ends after one of the gunmen was killed and the other surrendered.

January 11, 2002 - India's army chief says the nation is ready for war with Pakistan and would use its nuclear weapons if its neighbor were to launch a nuclear strike first.

January 13, 2002 - Welcoming Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's pledge to crack down on religious extremists, India says it will judge its neighbor's actions before it begins a military de-escalation or resumes dialogue.

January 13, 2002 -- Two suspected militants were shot dead after they allegedly tried to attack a paramilitary camp in Srinigar.

January 16, 2002 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell visits Islamabad on the first stage of a South Asian tour designed to kickstart a dialogue between India and Pakistan.

January 21, 2002 - Unidentified gunmen kill eight members of a family including several women and children in a small village in Kashmir.

February 4, 2002 - The radical Kashmiri group Jaish-e-Mohammed suspend operations in the rest of India in order to focus on Kashmir.

February 17, 2002 - Militants kill eight Hindus in Kashmir.

February 25, 2002 - India's parliament resumes for the first time since a suicide attack in December with a new strategy from the government on Kashmir designed to stamp out terrorism.

March 25, 2002 - A Kashmiri separatist leader was arrested under an anti-terrorism law in connection with the seizure of large sums of cash India says was smuggled into the region from Nepal by two activists.

May 14, 2002 - Suspected Islamic militants open fire on an army camp in Indian Kashmir, killing at least 30 people and wounding 40, marring a new effort to ease the tension between India and Pakistan.

May 17, 2002 - A blast rips through the capital of Kashmir as India's parliament debates how to respond to an earlier deadly attack in the disputed region.

May 19, 2002 - Fourteen people, including eight security personnel, were killed and 17 injured in fresh rebel attacks Kashmir.

May 20, 2002 - Three Pakistani villagers were killed after Pakistani and Indian troops traded fire across their tense border in Kashmir, a Pakistani official said.

May 21, 2002 - Gunmen open fire on a meeting of Indian Kashmir's main separatist Hurriyat alliance, killing separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone.

May 22, 2002 - A Pakistani girl was killed and three people wounded as Indian and Pakistani forces face off in Kashmir trade fire. India Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee heads for India's front lines.

Ref: http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/05/24/kashmir.timeline/index.html

Cure for cancer - Imitinef Mercilet or Imatinib mesylate - medicine for Blood Cancer

I just came to know about this amazing new medicine which is able to treat CLL type of Blood Cancer. I have no clue what this terms mean at this point. But I am just publishing this information with proper link to the source of the news in this blog. This might help those invisible readers (if any) of my blog.

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I first came across this news in a email forwarded by a friend. Before proceeding to fwd it to other people I did some google search on the topic. I found 2 responses which looks genuine.

----------------------http://www.hoax-slayer.com/free-blood-cancer-medicine.shtml --
Outline
Message advises recipients that "Imitinef Mercilet", a medicine that cures blood cancer, is available free of charge from the Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai, India.
Brief Analysis
The Adyar Cancer Institute is a real health facility. "Imitinef Mercilet" is apparently an alternative spelling of the cancer drug, Imatinib mesylate. It is true that Imatinib (or "Imitinef") is available free of charge for patients who have been admitted to the Adyar Cancer Institute hospital for cancer treatment. However, the Institute is not handing out the drug freely to all as suggested in the message. Moreover, the drug does not actually cure all blood cancers as claimed in the message.

Example

Subject: Free Medicine for Blood Cancer!!!! Please don't delete this without forwarding

Dear all,

I have forwarded it to the maximum I can.

Let it reach the 110 crores Indians and the remaining if any.

Put yourself, if you or your brother or sister or your mom and dad or any x, y, z near you, got affected, then how u would have reacted, think it, Forward it.

'Imitinef Mercilet' is a medicine which cures blood cancer. Its available free of cost at "Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai". Create Awareness. It might help someone.

Forward to as many as u can, kindness cost nothing.

----------
Detailed Analysis
According to this message, India's Adyar Cancer Institute is distributing, free of charge, a medicine named 'Imitinef Mercilet' that cures blood cancer. The message is circulating rapidly via email and is also making its way around the Internet via blogs, forums and social networking websites.

The Adyar Cancer Institute is a real health facility located in the city of Chennai, India and, as its name implies, it indeed specializes in cancer treatment and research. The Adyar Cancer Institute has achieved great results in the treatment and research of cancer since its establishment in 1954.

I contacted a spokesperson at the Adyar Cancer Institute to ask about the veracity of the message. He sent me the following reply:

Only the Part of this message is true. The medicine Imitinef is available free for only qualified persons and not for all. It is free for those who have admitted in the hospital for treatment.

'Imitinef Mercilet' is apparently an alternative spelling of the drug Imatinib mesylate which is used in the treatment of some forms of leukemia along with other types of cancer. Imatinib, often referred to a "Gleevec", has proved to be an effective treatment for some forms of cancers. However, "blood cancer" is a generalized term for cancers that affect the blood, lymphatic system or bone marrow. The three types of blood cancer are listed as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. These three malignancies require quite different kinds of treatments. While drugs (including Imatinib), along with other treatments such as radiation can help to slow or even stop the progress of these cancers, there is currently no single drug treatment that can be said to actually cure all such cancers.

Moreover, it should be noted that Imatinib is available for cancer patients in many different health facilities around the world, not just the Adyar Cancer Institute.

Thus, although there are some elements of truth to this message, its is also potentially misleading and contains inaccurate information.

Imatinib is a drug used treat certain types of cancer. Imatinib works by overcrowding an abnormal enzyme feature of the disease. Imatinib is the first accepted drug to directly turn off the signal of a protein well-known to cause a cancer. Imatinib is swiftly engrossed when given by mouth, as well as is highly bioavailable: 98% of an oral dose reach the bloodstream. Metabolism of imatinib occur in the liver .Though the long-term side effects of imatinib contain not yet been ascertain, research suggests that it is usually very in good health tolerated. Broadly, side effects such at the same time as edema, nausea, rash and musculoskeletal pain are general but soft.Hhardly ever it has been associated by means of damage to heart muscles.


References
Adyar Cancer Institute
Imatinib mesylate
What is Blood Cancer?


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- Response of a person at a forum about this news being hoax----
@ http://www.healthcaremagic.com/community/Cancer/IMITINEF-MERCILET/76773

Re: IMITINEF MERCILET

That is not a hoax.
But med is effective for CLL type blood cancer only.
Contact number: 044 22350131.
It is free of cost but only for poor patients.

I've confirmed it myself.

police

Reference: www.rediff.com

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Ayaskant Das
As far as the states are concerned, the acceptance of the seven directives of the Supreme Court to reform policing has been uneven at best or, at worst, ignored completely, say Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Ayaskant Das.

The image of the policeman in popular Indian cinema has hardly changed over the decades. He is either a bungling buffoon. Or he is corrupt to the core. The honest cop who is also efficient is hard to find -- and even he is certain to be in a woefully small minority in a battalion where jokers and crooks proliferate.

Compared to many countries the number of police personnel per person in India is quite low: Roughly 130 for every 100,000 residents, against around 350 in the United States, Australia, Thailand and Malaysia, over 550 in Italy, 280 in South Africa and 180 in Japan. The norm suggested by the United Nations is 220 per 100,000.

The issue is not merely the number but the quality of people who become part of the police force, the facilities provided to them and, perhaps most importantly, the laws that govern policing -- laws that are, at least in India, frequently subverted and manipulated by politicians and bureaucrats holding positions of power and authority.

It is common knowledge that the Indian Police Act, 1860, was formulated by the colonial rulers of the country to check mass uprisings that started with the revolt of 1857, which the British described as the 'Sepoy Mutiny' and nationalist historians called the 'First War of Independence'.

After 1947, there was widespread consensus across different sections of Indian society that the colonial act would have to be amended and comprehensive reforms ushered in to improve the system of policing in a democracy. Unfortunately, despite the recommendations of many commissions and expert bodies appointed by the central and state governments over the years, very little has been achieved in reforming the policing system.

Policing is a subject listed under the state list in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India and hence, it is largely the prerogative of state governments to bring about policing reforms. As for Union territories, there has been a persistent demand from civil society organisations that the Union government take the lead in enacting a new police law or a Model Police Act (MPA) for all Union territories based on directions that were laid down by the Supreme Court.

On September 22, 2006, the Supreme Court of India delivered a historic judgment in the Prakash Singh vs Union of India case (on the basis of a petition that had been moved a decade earlier) instructing the central and state governments to comply with a set of seven directives to reform policing in the country. One of these directives concerned the Union government, namely, to establish a National Security Commission.

The court sought to achieve two broad sets of objectives: First, to ensure functional autonomy for the police through security of tenure, streamlined appointments and transfer processes and the creation of a 'buffer body' between the police and the government and to enhance accountability of the police at an organisational level and also to curb individual misconduct.

The Supreme Court required all governments, at the Centre and in the states, to comply with the seven directives by the end of 2006 and to file affidavits of compliance by January 3, 2007. Whereas a few state governments complied with the directives on time through executive orders, there were many that were vehemently opposed to the directives and perceived these to be measures that would erode the autonomy of state governments.

The short point: As far as states are concerned, the acceptance of the seven directives of the Supreme Court has been uneven at best or, at worst, ignored completely.

Prakash Singh, former director general of the Border Security Force and the Uttar Pradesh police, told rediff.com that the states that have been the "most defiant" in accepting the directives of the Supreme Court are Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The Bihar government has enacted a "perverse law that makes a mockery of the Supreme Court directives" while Uttar Pradesh has "perhaps been the worst in implementing the directives while making contrary claims."

Mr Singh added that certain states in north-east India such as Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram had promptly accepted the directives of the court but were tardy in implementation. "Rajasthan has passed the best law but this has not yet been implemented," he said.

The Union government formed a Police Act Drafting Committee (PADC) in 2005 under the chairmanship of Soli Sorabjee, the eminent jurist and former attorney general of India. The PADC submitted a proposition for a Model Police Act, MPA, in October 2006, the broad scheme of which was endorsed by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, ARC, set up by the central government under the chairmanship of Veerappa Moily (who is now the Union law minister).

In its review of the system of policing and criminal justice, the ARC had suggested a few additional provisions in the proposed MPA, notably a penalty for illegal orders that were tantamount to interference in investigation by the police and obstruction of justice.

In September 2009, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai requested Delhi Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna to send a legislative proposal for amendments to the Delhi Police Act, 1978, in conformity with the directions of the Supreme Court and the provisions of the MPA. In February 23 this year, the lieutenant governor forwarded a draft Delhi Police (Amendment) Bill, 2010, to the home ministry. This bill was also placed in the public domain for comments and objections.

Three civil society organisations keenly interested in police reforms -- Common Cause, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, CHRI, and the Foundation for Restoration of National Values, FRNV -- did an independent study of the bill. They arrived at the conclusion that it is practically impossible to overcome the inherent limitations of the Delhi Police Act, 1978 through the amendment route.

These organisations have argued that the proposed amendments cannot give the Delhi Police Act 1978, adequate teeth to meet the contemporary needs of policing in the context of a hostile security environment, mounting social tensions and rapid urban expansion. Several eminent citizens echoed similar views at a workshop organised by the Bureau of Police Research & Development on April 10 in New Delhi.

The three civil society organisations have jointly drafted an alternate bill that has, among other provisions, provided for well-defined structures that would ensure operational autonomy of the police force along with institutional arrangements to assess performance and enforce accountability. The alternate bill seeks to clearly define the role, functions, duties and responsibilities of police personnel vis-a-vis other civilian authorities.

The alternate bill seeks to enhance levels of professionalism and leadership qualities in the police force through regular training and also by improving the infrastructure and facilities made available -- transport, computerised databases, communication networks, modern weapons, better police stations and so on.

The alternate bill emphasises core police functions and duties and argues for the need to phase out non-core functions to state and local institutions in accordance with the intent and provisions of the Constitution of India. It also argues for transparent procedures for recruitment, promotion and redressal of grievances and suggests various welfare measures for the lower ranks of police personnel.

The alternate bill was given on May 3 to Home Secretary Pillai who is known to be in favour of many of these suggestions for reforming the country's police system. Whether legislators would be responsive is another story altogether.

Real Reason behind India's freedom

I just found this link .. a very interesting and convincing analyses of the streak of events that followed from 1942 to 1947 and that finally led to India's freedom from British Rule.

Please read on..

http://folks.co.in/2009/10/who-brought-freedom-gandhi-or-netaji/