Sweden is falling into the trap of Pakistani lobbyists’ propaganda

Last month, Pakistan Embassy’s third Secretary to Sweden and Finland and the Emissary of Inter-Services Intelligence, Abdul Razaque Theba had issued a note to the embassy officials referring the country’s Foreign Ministry communications dated July 9, 2022 regarding “Plan of Action on Youm-e-Istehsal (Article 370 Abrogation day) on Aug 05, 2022.

The Pakistan embassy is using its influence to invite speakers from the Swedish Parliament and organising the anti-India event. Women and Children will be used as a front to win over sympathy of the Swedish Parliamentarians. Fakery, Propaganda and Lobbying is the forte of Pakistan as it has succeeded in bringing out doctored dossiers and moving of motions in the Swedish Parliament on Kashmir issue.

As a result of continued Pakistani propaganda and lobbying, political figures from OIC, Sweden, UK and many other EU countries have, off late, indulged in pontification on India’s internal matters and raked up the Kashmir issue. Their anti-India tirades are the result of unrelenting Pakistani collusions.

On August 5, 2019, the Indian Parliament abrogated the apartheid law – Article 370 – and paved the way towards giving equal rights to all the citizens of J&K. The articles of Indian law that fuelled separatism, Wahhabism, Islamic extremism, functions more like Sharia Law and were against the Right to Equality, played a part in ethnic cleansing of half a million Kashmiri Pandits, finds pseudo support from a country that still bows to monarchy. It is unfortunate that all the genocide unleashed by Pakistani authoritarian regime against the people of Gilgit, Skardu, Balochistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir continues to be ignored. This emboldened Pakistan to carry on these programs with impunity.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom tweeted on Aug 10, 2019 – “The population of Kashmir must be included in decisions concerning its future.” Margot’s next tweet on Kashmir was on Aug 21, 2019, wherein she wrote about a “telephone call with Pakistan’s FM Shah Mahmood Qureshi. On Nov 28, 2019, just prior to the visit of Swedish royals to India, the country’s Foreign Minister Anne Linde spoke in the Swedish parliament calling the situation in Kashmir “worrying”.

These utterances of inanities showed the ignorance of the Scandinavians, moreover exposing Pakistan’s lobbying. A monarchy suddenly decided to give sermons on internal issues to the largest democratic republic of the world! The Swedish leaders’ statements on Indian Kashmir were aimed to provide moral support to secessionists working for Pakistan. Has Sweden forgotten its human rights abuses of Samis?

Sweden is a country that is fast falling into the trap of Islamists. Unchecked migration and the left’s whims of multiculturalism doctrines have plagued Swedish cities into a culvert of Islamist violence. The most influential Muslim organisation in Sweden is the Muslim Council of Sweden (SMR). There are reports that Swedish ruling party 'Religious Social Democrats of Sweden' (STS) and the SMR had entered into a written agreement to help the latter gain political influence in Sweden. As Muslim population has increased in the country, political compulsions have made politicians support Islamists.

SMR has a history of lobbying for Islamist causes all over the world. They had even written a letter to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding them to intervene to release a Swedish citizen Abdallah Al-Qasir who was arrested in Czech Republic’s Prague on charges of dealing with al-Qaeda. There are several letters in the archives of the Swedish Foreign Ministry wherein the SMR and the leaders of the Association had sent appeals to the Swedish Immigration Ministry demanding for right to residence in Sweden for Muslim migrants. There has been several reports of SMR members’ ties to Islamists, including Anti-Semitic and homophobic Islamic preachers also the Grey Wolves, a proclaimed terrorist organisation operating from Turkey.

The anti-India political environment in the Scandinavian nation finds roots in the much maligned Bofors arms scandal. In 2012 Swedish arms export to India was 1.4 billion and Pakistan 615 million. Being one of the top exporters of arms to Pakistan, Sweden seems to have reserved a special place for the country. In the year 2021, Sweden exported arms worth USD 80 million to Pakistan.

Come 2022, India doesn’t figure anywhere in Swedish arms export list. India’s cold shoulder to the all-powerful Swedish arms manufacturers and Pakistan’s rise as their one of the top importers of arms may also be one reason why some Swedish politicians are siding with Pakistani propaganda. Swedish have claimed to restrict export of military equipment to “non-democratic” states and pay attention to human rights violations of the receiving country. However, it still exports military equipment to a non-democratic state such as Pakistan.

India had registered a diplomatic protest over the sale of Swedish early warning aircraft Erieye AWACS to Pakistan. The PAF had used the systems against India during the February 27, 2019 aerial battle against India. SAAB, the Swedish aerospace giant has been pitching its Gripen fighter jets to New Delhi but the company’s deep and secretive ties and deals with India’s arch rival Pakistan has made India vary of dealing with the company.

Pakistan, an economically trampled country on the verge of being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and bearing losses amounting to $10 billion even while remaining in the terror financing watchdog's grey list, has hired 12 firms to step up lobbying for Kashmir in US. According to a 2011 affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, director of the Kashmiri American Council and Zaheer Ahmad; two Illegal lobbyists of Pakistani origin were charged with illicitly lobbying in the United States for the Pakistani government and ISI over Kashmir and receiving at least $4 million from Pakistan for the lobbying efforts.

The FBI affidavit mentioned that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was sponsoring and controlling the Anti-India organisation for the past 25 years and ensuring the cash flow meant for lobbying. There is ample proof that Pakistan has put-in so much effort and money to influence the world’s position on Kashmir. It is time, the Islamic Republic’s illegal and inexorable lobbying for Kashmir on multilateral platforms like the EU and the UN should be called out for the sake of institutional sanctity and justice.

Pakistan’s trusted long-time friend Turkey had initially vetoed Sweden’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) accusing Stockholm of supporting terrorist outfit PKK. Turkey suddenly took a U-turn and supported Sweden’s NATO membership. An SMR-Turkey-Pakistan axis is fast developing but Sweden will have to bear its cost.

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Disclaimer: The author is a veteran of the Indian Navy. Views are his own.