This is from the Economic Times , 22 December 2007:
Ms Bhutto wondered how India could have forgotten the assistance she provided to curb the militancy in Punjab.
"India was in a complete mess at that time. Does anyone remember that it was I who kept my promise to PM Gandhi when we met and he appealed to me for help in tackling the Sikhs..." she said.
From the Gurmat Learning Zone (GLZ), B. S. Graya of the Punjab monitor says (Note: this article is in Punjabi):
For strategic reasons Sikhs were helped by Zia ul
Haqq, Nawaz Sharief, Musharraf but Benazir Bhutto in
1988 used the Sikh card as a bargain chip. But with
the grace of God she gained little from that bargain
though Sikhs were defamed all over world as
terrorists.
Long back we had printed a story in our magazine how
Bhutto stabbed on the back of Sikh.
http://www.punjabmonitor.com/XVII/Khalistan.htm
We are happy that she admits today and our stand is
vindicated. We hope Bhutto would learn a lesson from
that.
B.S.Goraya
Amritsar
"India was in a complete mess at that time. Does anyone remember that it was I who kept my promise to Prime Minister Gandhi when we met and he appealed to me for help in tackling the Sikhs. Has India forgotten December, 1988 ? Have they forgotten the results of that meeting and how I helped curb the Sikh militancy ?, she asked.
Bhutto did not elaborate on the precise help she provided to the Indian government to curb militancy in Punjab. There was speculation that she may have handed over a dossier containing covert identities of Pakistani agents masterminding insurgency in Punjab.
Expressing anguish at Narayanan`s comments, she said "does India really believe I am not a friend? I thought India always regarded me as a factor for peace, as a factor for India-Pakistan stability"
Bhutto said she had visited India three times in the recent past and always felt she was considered a great friend.
The former premier said whe was extremely hurt by India`s suspicion about her. "Why does India believe that I will break my word, implying I cannot be trusted ? I believe we share so much -- a belief in democratic values, in democracy and human rights. I am very disappointed that India does not think so".
I have a half-written post that I need not finish. I am not sad that she is dead; I am glad the Sikhs didn't have to do it. We have enough problems right now.
Snipers and car bombings killing innocent people is not the Sikh way. I have no doubt that Pervez Musharaf's people were behind it. Time may prove me wrong - it often does - but for now, that is my opinion.
So how should we react. Perhaps just with quiet smiles in public. Perhaps with satisfaction in our own homes, satisfaction that we have one fewer enemy to deal with.
This has a kind of pain to me. I am a woman. I want women heads of state to be good, just, fair, and, OK, even nurturing leaders. It seems that this is not the case in the subcontinent. I am certainly no expert on Indian politics; even trying to keep straight what is going on with the SGPC is most difficult for me. I am a Canadian currently residing in the United States. I know something of Canadian politics and of American politics. That is about how much I can keep up with.
This letter was sent today to many of the Yahoo Sikh groups. I do not totally agree with everything it says, but with about 98% I leave it to you to decide where my disagreement lies (13 words).
Benazir Bhutto,
an enemy of the Sikh Nation!
Khalsa Ji,
Wahe Guru ji ka Khalsa
Wahe Guru ji Ke Fateh
It was not only Benazir Bhutto but also Rajiv Gandhi, Malyali radical Hindus like M.K.Narayanan, present national security advisor of India and RS'S member and former Intelligence Bureau Chief Maloy Krishna Dhar, who were responssible for getting thousands of innocent Sikhs killed in cold blood during the Indian Government's anti-Sikh campaign of eigthies and nineties and on top of that labelling them as terrorists. Bhutto, who has not only betrayed the Sikh Nation but has also betrayed her own country Pakistan, ecently by joining in a conspiracy by Pakistan's enemies, first to destabalize and then break it up. Sikhs have done no harm to Bhutto but why did she committ such treachery agaist Sikhs? Bhutto, must remember that she will have to answer and pay for such treachery one day as did the Nazis and Nazi collaborators. Sikh Nation applaud President Parvez Musharraf for his bravery and statesmanship and for saving his country from such malicious assault. Sikhs appreciate and are greatful to all the members of Pakistan's Government who have acknowledged and help incorporating the Anand Marriage Act in the constitution of Pakistan, a recognition of Sikhs as a separate religion and Sikh marriage as a separate and unique entity. Sikh Nation also stand resolute and firm for the territorial integrity of Pakistan, independence of Palestine, National security of Israel as a state, and reclamation of lost Sikh sovereignty and freedom of Sikh homeland of Punjab, Khalistan through peaceful, democratic and political means.
Visit Khalistan.Net for more details
Khalistan Zindabad,
Dr.P.S. Ajrawat
President, ADSCFK
A little added on...
Bhutto makes weird claim about Sikh insurgency
Written by J Singh
Thursday, December 27, 2007
New Delhi: Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto has claimed that it was because of her initiatives that militancy could end in Punjab in an assertion that Indian media translated as a "firstever confession by a Pakistani leader of Islamabad’s support to the Khalistani secessionists."
Retaliating against India's national security advisor M K Narayanan’s charge that Bhutto, as premier of Pakistan, had failed to make good the promises she made, the PPP leader claimed that she had kept her word. Benazir said that she had fulfilled her assurance to Rajiv Gandhi to cut off Islamabad’s support to Khalistanis.
The former Prime Minister, who was replying to questions by a news weekly, said the fact was that it was Rajiv Gandhi who failed to deliver on his promise to pull out troops from Siachen in exchange for Islamabad’s choking off the support to Khalistani secessionists. NSA Narayanan had recently said that Bhutto could never be trusted as she had not kept her promises given to Rajiv Gandhi. Bhutto said Narayanan could not have known what transpired in 1988 because it was a one-to-one meeting. “If anyone kept the word, it was I, not Rajiv. He (Rajiv) went back to India and then called me on his way to the Commonwealth to say that he could not keep his promise to withdraw from Siachen,” Bhutto alleged. She said: “There was not a fly on the wall. How can anyone say I have not kept my promises when the biggest result of that meeting was the end of the Sikh insurgency.”
And then:
Just to remind myself, the end of another article.
(I must explain the author is quoting some antiSemitic remarks from other blogs. That, however, is not the part of his post I'm interested in here. I just quote the very end of his article:)
Blaming The Jews Department
via The Moderate Voice by Joe Gandelman on 26/12/07
(3) The weblog is an INCREDIBLE info/communication tool. Anyone can be his/her own editor, publisher and reporter and by clicking “PUBLISH” share their thoughts with the world. It has incredible potential. Shouldn’t everyone who has a weblog try to realize at least some of that potential?
(4) The old adage is true. If you want to write something when angry, wait a bit. Words matter. And even if a blog post has been deleted, those words linger out there and can never really be erased.
I just need this reminder once in a while.