Friday, March 29, 2024
 
 News Details
No break From the Past!

By Manzoor Ahmed

It should not come as a surprise to anyone if the resumption of talks between senior Indian and Pakistani officials, originally scheduled for last January, is delayed further. It may disappoint a few in India, but the majority is unlikely to protest against another delay in talks which lead nowhere. Some might say it is a relief!

An immediate cause for the likely delay is the attempt by the Pakistanis to openly link the Indian National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval, with militancy in many of its areas, including Balochistan and Karachi. The NSA had reportedly played a big role in initiating the process of bilateral high-level contacts with Pakistan. By gleefully pointing fingers at him the Pakistanis are not enhancing the chances of continuing the dialogue process with India.

By shunning the March-end nuclear summit conference in the US—for whatever reason--the Pakistani prime minister has avoided a possible meeting with his Indian counterpart. If the two had met in Washington they could have sent a signal that the bilateral talks are not in any danger.

The allegations against Doval have been made by both the civilian and military leadership of Pakistan after the arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav, whose arrest has been hailed in Pakistan as its most prized ‘spy’ catch in its history. The Pakistanis are over the moon for what they see as an opportunity to transfer the terror tag on to India after the arrest of the former Commander in the Indian Navy. Their illusion, no doubt, will be shattered.

Two other reasons for the expected break in bilateral high-level contacts. One, the farce being played by Pakistan in the name of ‘cooperation’ with India on the issue of India-centric terror networks inside Pakistan. Farce, because the Pakistani military, which dictates the country’s India policy, has shown no interest in winding up the jihadi cadres of anti-India terror proxies it has been patronizing for decades. The talk of ‘cooperation’ is just eyewash. The incentive for talks will recede considerably as it becomes more clear in the days to come that despite the offer of ‘cooperation’ Pakistan is not going to catch and punish the planners of the Pathankot (and other) terror attacks in India.

Two, the Army Chief Raheel Sharif is leading the campaign to milk the arrest of the alleged ‘RAW agent’—for anti-Indian propaganda makes it clear that there has been no change in Pakistan’s hostile, unreasonable and non-cooperative approach towards India. It is making a vain effort to hold India responsible for its myriad of problems, particularly militancy in Balochistan, former NWFP and Karachi and in the process it hopes that the world will stop seeing Pakistan as the fountain-head of global terrorism. That could be possible if Pakistan did not have the kind of reputation it has—irresponsible, terror-loving nuclear armed nation.

Whether the Indian government did the right thing in allowing a Pakistan Joint Investigation Team (JIT) team to visit Pathankot airbase or whether it simply fell to a well-orchestrated Pakistani trick supported by a perennially short-sighted White House is a much larger issue. The jury is still out. What is undisputed is the fact that the JIT included representatives of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of the Pakistan Army, the very agency that has been planning and executing most of the terror attacks on India for close to three decades.

The Pakistani JIT was taken to inspect the site from where weeks earlier a group of Pakistanis owing allegiance to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terror outfit propped up by the ISI, had tried to storm the Pathankot airbase. The Pakistanis were allowed to inspect an Indian military site even when they had done practically nothing to start investigations at their end.
The important thing in such an investigation has to be the plot behind the terror attack: Who planned it and executed it on the Indian soil? What big puzzle will be solved if the Pakistanis get to see the route the terrorists took inside Indian territory to reach Pathankot? It would have been more appropriate to allow an Indian team to visit the areas from where the Jaish operates. But no visit by an Indian team to Pakistan looks possible.

The Pakistanis grudgingly accept that ‘non-state actors’ from their country do carry out terror attacks inside India. Not many in India are ready to believe that the so-called ‘non-state actors’ have nothing to do with the Pakistani state. If their presence and activities inside India embarrasses Pakistan, their patrons have to be exposed and punished. And all of them live inside Pakistan.

It will not do to pretend that the leaders of the ‘non-state actors’ are not traceable, nor will it suffice to run sham prosecution against such people if Pakistan does intend to eradicate India-centric terror networks on its soil. Pakistan has all but refused to book the masterminds of the Mumbai attacks of November 2008. And yet, it talks of ‘cooperation’ with India!

Does it not suggest that the Pakistani ‘cooperation’ on Pathankot will be no different? The Mumbai masterminds are Pakistan’s valuable ‘assets’ and in the highly radicalised society of Pakistan where fanatics rule the streets such ‘assets’ cannot be brought to justice for fear of popular upsurge. Likewise, the Pathankot perpetrators, who belong to Jaish-e-Mohammed, cannot be touched. The Jaish was briefly in the bad books of the Pakistani army but has since redeemed itself in its eye by its ‘daring’ operations against India. They are no lesser ‘assets’ for the Pakistanis. You can’t expect any action against them.


(The writer is a freelance journalist based in Kashmir)



(Disclaimer: The views, observations and opinions expressed in above write up of Scoop News are strictly author's own. Scoop News does not take any onus or liability for the veracity, accuracy, validity, completeness, suitability of any of information in the above given write up. The information, facts or figures appearing in the write up in no way manifest the position, standpoint or stance of Scoop News and the Scoop News does not assume any encumbrance or answerability of the same.)



Editor
Scoop News,(scoopnews.in)



...
Share this Story
 
 
  Comment On this Story
 
 
 Back Issuesk Issues
If you are looking for Issues beyond today. You can simply use this calendar tool to view Issue of Scoop News for any particular Date.
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© Scoop News, Jammu Kashmirr
Home || About Us || Advertise With Us || Disclaimer || Contact Us
Powered by Web Design Jammu