Daily Times

Speakers at an international webinar here maintained that Indian intelligence agency RAW is actively involved in destabilizing the neighbouring countries in order to extend its hegemonic designs in the region.

The international webinar was organized by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), an Islamabad-based think tank, in which leading international experts from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nigeria spoke on the topic ‘India: Past, Present & Future: Perceptions of the Muslim World’. This was the second webinar of a global online symposia series. A total of 15 leading international experts on India spoke at the two webinars. IPS Executive President Khalid Rahman chaired the webinar.

Speaking on the occasion, Bangladeshi-American researcher, author and former Mukti Bahini guerilla leader Zainal Abedin alleged that Indian intelligence agency RAW is actively involved in destabilizing activities the neighbouring South Asian states in order to gain control over the region. Zainal Abedin, who was trained in India to fight against Pakistan in 1971, cautioned all South Asian countries against trusting India and urged them to form a united alliance to prevent New Delhi from exploiting, subjugating or oppressing them. “Trusting India was a grave mistake by the Bengali Muslims, because this converted East Pakistan into Bangladesh, which later became an Indian proxy state,” he said, and reminded that India has systematically occupied several formerly princely states including Jammu and Kashmir, Hyderabad, Sikkim, Junagadh and Manavadar since 1947.

An author of several books on Indian involvement in Bangladesh, Zainal Abedin stated that Hindu extremist ideology led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of Muslim in 1947, looting of Bangladesh by Hindu extremists after 1971, demolition of Babri mosque and slaughter of thousands of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 by Narendra Modi.

Delivering the keynote address, Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan said without ideological muscle, the Muslims will collapse. He warned the Muslims across the world that their history is being distorted through books, think tanks, movies and social media. He urged the OIC member states to boycott Indian goods and impose economic sanctions on India. “It is a great tragedy that the United Nations is observing a day against torture while nowhere there is greater use of torture as a state policy as by India in the occupied valley of Kashmir,” he said, and described India as an ‘artificial state’.

He said that India is currently waging three wars: one against its minorities inside its own borders, the second one against Kashmiris in the occupied territory of Kashmir and the third one against all its neighbours. He compared Indian policy towards Kashmiri Muslims with the one followed by Nazi Germany against the Jews, based initially on economic strangulation, followed by demonization and marginalization and eventually physical extermination.

President Masood Khan described India as a foreign colonial power, which has occupied and colonized Kashmir and is now vying to colonize littoral states of the Indian Ocean region. He said that India considers Pakistan as its enemy number one, however it has not spared any of its neighbours in its ambitious quest for expansionism. “India as the biggest barrier in the progress of SAARC and regional economic integration,” he maintained.

American Muslim scholar Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid said that RSS is just like ISIS and the reality of Hindu extremists cannot be hidden behind peaceful symbols like Gandhi, Taj Mahal and vegetarianism anymore. He stated that India is not immune from pressures but the onus is on the Indian Muslims to raise their voices and rise up. He urged the Muslims in the West particularly the US, UK, France and Germany to organize themselves and support their brothers suffering inside India.

Senior Saudi journalist and South Asia analyst Khaled Almaeena called upon Muslims to unite, seek knowledge and globally promote their story with logic and clarity in order to be taken seriously by major powers.

Nigerian scholar Dr Bakare Najimdeen warned against global Islamophobia campaign launched to systematically victimize Islam and the Muslims.

Professor Haroon Khatibi, a senior official of Kabul-based think tank Centre for Strategic and Regional Studies (CSRS), was of the view that the current rise of far-right extremism has hit the US and India the most. The exclusionist RSS and its offshoots including BJP in India want every Indian to become a Hindu, he added.

IPS Executive President Khalid Rahman termed RSS as the world’s largest terrorist organization, which is internationally exploiting Indian economic clout and secular and democratic outlook to promote its expansionist agenda. He urged the Muslims around the world to develop positive thinking, innovative strategies and patience to organize themselves and meet their growing and complex challenges.