Indian weapons in Swat OR ISI strategy to demonize civilian government? – by Anas Abbas
One of the main aims of Pakistan Army and its pro Taliban media sympathizers is to launch campaigns against the civilian government structure in order to justify its controversial interference.
The strategy employed here to achieve this objective by the army and its media agents is to present a picture in the Pakistani public that the army is doing all it can to take actions against certain contentious issues in Pakistan but it’s the civilian government that is acting as an impediment in its quest.
For example: Refer to this brief video where ISPR (ISI’s Public Relations) is giving this statement in the press conference that the Pakistan army has captured Indian weapons in Swat and all necessary proof regarding India’s complicity has been send to the civilian government (Foreign Office) and now it’s the government’s job to take this with India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qfH9BZ6ifo (ISPR Claim about Indian Weapons)
In other words the ISPR that represents Pakistan army is giving this impression that the military has fully done its job of collecting evidence against India and now it’s the turn of the civilian government to raise this issue with India.
Statements like these then are heavily exploited by army’s media agents (Zaid Hamid and Ahmed Qureshi in particular) to further justify their claim that the present civilian government is not taking these issues with India and hence is working with the CIA and RAW and the only way to bring stability in Pakistan and to fight Indian interference is to willingly accept an army rule.
Thus the army works collectively with its media propagandists to indoctrinate the common public with the popular view that the only choice left for them in these circumstances is army rule.
The question is that how the Pakistan Army is reaching this conclusion that the weapons captured in swat were Indian made?
Are the weapons really Indian made or is it just a propaganda tactic against the civilian government?
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 that promotes the above mentioned “Indian made” weapons 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 of this theory:
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§ion=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)
(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:
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 Pakistan Army (through Ahmed Qureshi and Zaid Hamid) claims 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 army’s main media representative 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 below 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.
Recently Pakistan army expressed its “serious concerns” on Kerry Lugar bill by holding 122 Corps Commanders Conference at General Headquarters.
On similar lines, why Pakistan army is not in a position to hold an emergency meeting (at least) to protest against these so called indian made weapons?
The answer is simple:
They cannot protest against this because its just a propaganda tactic only to demonize the civilian government and also to blame India for all the violence in Pakistan rather than the militants it had once harbored for achieving its strategic depth policy.
Source: Visit AA@Counter Terrorism, Imperialism, Extremism and Bigotry
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