IF Pakistan has evidence that the Indian intelligence agency
RAW acted in cahoots with its Afghan counterpart NDS to plan and
execute the Quetta atrocity then the sooner New Delhi is confronted with
this the better.
The offices of the national security
advisers may be appropriate for this purpose as Pakistan’s Nasser
Janjua, former corps commander in Quetta, is said to have developed an
excellent rapport with India’s Ajit Doval, former head of RAW, over a
cigarette break during one of their meetings in Bangkok when the two
advisers stepped outside as their aides remained in the conference room.
The two have been in regular contact since.
Although
Pakistan has prepared a dossier reportedly chronicling Indian
involvement in terrorist incidents in Pakistan and even presented this
to the UN secretary general, nobody seems to have taken much notice of
this damning evidence internationally.
You are right. I
haven’t seen this dossier to ascertain if it is indeed damning but
surely it must be. With its credibility already in question, the country
would not submit anything other than an ironclad case against its rival
to the UN secretary general.
So, while Pakistan raises
the issue bilaterally with India and also at multilateral institutions
in the hope that its efforts will bear fruit one day, should it not also
focus on other areas so the challenge is addressed in a more holistic
manner?
The situation is so critical that a multipronged
effort to combat terrorism, and the underlying radicalisation which
contributes to it, is imperative if we wish to give ourselves half a
chance of overcoming what is often described as an existential threat.
While Pakistan raises its concerns about RAW’s alleged involvement in terrorism, it should also be looking at a more holistic solution.
One of the first steps that needs to be taken is to clearly
tell the Afghan Taliban shura believed to be based in Quetta that unless
its fighters decimate the camps of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan on
Afghan soil where, security officials believe, all attacks on Pakistan
originate, they will not be afforded the same level of protection as in
the past. (This protection, too, should be contingent on their not using
Pakistani territory to launch attacks inside Afghanistan.)
We
hear often enough that the Afghan Taliban now control large swathes of
territory inside their country and strike even Kabul at will. Since they
have had many bases in Fata and the other side of the Durand Line, it
is clear that they can take out Mullah Radio and his cronies if they do
not consider them their allies.
In addition, the
intelligence agencies must ensure that jihadist groups operating in the
country cease their activities forthwith. Unfortunately, the state
believes that organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or
Jamaatud Dawa as it is called now, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and the
Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, always act in the best interest of the country
and are its second line of defence. It should be clear to the security
apparatus that attempts at ‘mainstreaming’ such groups that claim to be
patriotic, and inserting them in areas, such as Balochistan and parts of
Sindh, where there is discontent among the population, will fail, even
backfire, in the long term.
One need only turn the clock
back a little over 10 years to remind the national security policy
architects of the consequences of such a folly. It was a mere 10 to 12
years ago when the corps commanders of the Musharraf-led army were being
garlanded as friends in Fata after concluding peace agreements with
Taliban leaders.
Each of these leaders and groups would
eventually turn on the state, necessitating military action which, in
turn, would lead to the loss of several thousands of our valiant
soldiers. In addition, this folly has caused thousands of casualties, in
high five figures, of civilians whether they were praying in mosques,
relaxing in parks, waiting at a bus stop, or studying in school. Neither
were the politicians spared, nor did the intelligentsia get a respite
as the merchants of terror ran amok.
All jihadist groups
share an ideological affinity and it is generally a matter of time
before they opt for the same path leading to their common goal. Pakistan
cannot assume that one group is different from the other just because
its actions are not hurting the country at a given point.
I
have heard a security official expressing admiration for Jamaatud Dawa
chief Hafiz Saeed and his activists because, according to him, they have
so far played a monumental role in combating the militant Islamic State
group in Pakistan.
This may well be true but fighting
evil terrorist groups is not a task a sensible nation outsources to a
proxy non-state entity. I say this knowing very well how patriotic our
security services believe Hafiz Saeed and his followers to be.
But
it is amazing how they forget that this very group mourned the killing
of Osama bin Laden and still hail him as a hero; this when Bin Laden and
his cohorts waged a war against the state of Pakistan and almost
assassinated its military ruler.
LeT’s actions were also
responsible for bringing the subcontinent almost to the point of a
nuclear confrontation with their callous attack on civilians in Mumbai; a
similar horror had been averted just years earlier when JeM attacked
the Indian parliament in New Delhi.
If these acts were
sanctioned by the state, God help us. But I believe that Pakistan was
equally taken aback by these attacks especially since it didn’t seem to
have a contingency plan in place to deal with possible repercussions.
Can
we afford to just blame India and sit back and relax? I think not. We
have to take the jihadi bull by the horns and defeat radical thought in
order to root out terrorism. I would only be optimistic if there were
signs of this happening.
0 comments:
Post a Comment