ISI MAGAZINE IS KASHMIRI SEPARATISTS’ PLATFORM
are certain of our victory.”
The editorial “India was teetering on the brink of collapse” is based on pure fiction. While listing the “67 separatist movements that are going on in India”, the editorial talks about Ladakh, Maru Pradesh (Rajasthan), Harit Pradesh, Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Bagelkhand, Mithilanchal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, etc, wanting to separate from India. The editorial also quotes a “report” allegedly published in the UK newspaper Guardian saying that “Christians are increas- ingly under attack a ( sic) socalled secular India”. The editorial writes “apart from several incidents of Muslims being attacked and beaten to death by extremist Hindus, there are many incidents of attack on other minority groups too”.
Another article titled “Breaking the shackles: Kashmir social media ban” has been written by Waqas Abdullah, who has been mentioned as the director of “Institute of Research, Information and Strategy”. The institute’s identity and existence could not be verified by The Sunday Guardian. The article talks about how the social media ban in the val- ley can be bypassed through various mobile and Internet applications.
Indian agencies say that the ban is absolutely necessary as social media, including various messaging apps, are used by terrorists, their handlers and over-ground workers for spreading disinformation and inciting violence in Kashmir.
On 31 January, the Pakistan government had placed Hafiz Saeed and four other party leaders under house arrest. Saeed’s two organisations, namely JuD and Falah-eInsaniat Foundation (FIF), which is ostensibly the public welfare wing of JuD, were put under watch and listed in the second schedule of the Pakistan Anti-Terrorism Act. However, that has not stopped the organisations from publishing the magazine.
Intelligence agencies tracking Pakistan based terror organisations said, Invite, which was launched in August last year, just days after a Kashmiri terrorist, Burhan Wani was gunned down in the valley, is being used as a “sophisticated mode of propaganda that is intended to cater to the literate”. “The funding for the same is coming from the ISI and the editorial content of this magazine too is decided by the ISI commanders. For the uninitiated, those who are not aware of those who are behind the magazine, it looks like a normal magazine critical of India’s policy in Kashmir,” an intelligence official said.