Indian
pretense of friendship
Asif Haroon
Raja
120 seconds pep talk between Nawaz
Sharif and Narendra Modi at Paris on November 30, followed by meeting of National
Security Advisers Ajit Doval and Lt Gen Nasser Janjua at Bangkok on December 6 melted
the ice and set the ball rolling. Indian
external affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visitto Islamabad to attend Heart of
Asia conference two days later and her announcement that Indo-Pak talks would
be soon resumed and flying visit of Modi to Lahore on December 25 made our
political leaders, media and intellectuals euphoric. It was widely anticipated
that the ground has been smoothened to end the era of antagonism. None took
into account that nothing special had happened which made India to push aside
its policy of antipathy and to send friendly gestures after prolonged bout of
belligerence in response to Pakistan’s
consistent efforts to defuse the heat along the LoC and working boundary since
last August and to resume stalled peace talks. Short of war, India has applied
all tools of coercion and slander to browbeat, defame and isolate Pakistan.
India’s covert operations in FATA,
Baluchistan and Karachi are still continuing and Indian media is still
aggressive. It will be puerile to think that there is a genuine change of heart
and India has overcome its desire to undo Pakistan, or to reduce it to a vassal
state as in the case of Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Hoping that India will
amicably settle Kashmir issue in the light of UN resolutions and give right of
self-determination to the Kashmiris amounts to chasing rainbows. By just
renaming ‘composite dialogue’ as ‘comprehensive dialogue’ doesn’t mean that
India would now change its age-old practice of dilly dallying tactics to buy
time and keep the resolution of the conflict in pending tray for times to come.
India has been playing Baluchistan card to equate it with Kashmir issue and
keep it as a bargaining chip to trade off Kashmir in return for pulling out
from Baluchistan.
India began to hammer Pakistan on
charge of cross border terrorism in occupied Kashmir from 1990 onwards and
after 9/11 intensified the use of hammer more fiercely. After Mumbai attacks in
November 2008, India has made the incident into an excuse to pin down Pakistan
on the charge of terrorism and project the issue of terrorism more important
than Kashmir issue. This stance helps India in keeping Pakistan on the
defensive and releases pressure on India to resume dialogue and resolve issues.
This stance was reiterated during Ufa meeting between Nawaz and Modi last year.
India hypocritically drums up the issue of terrorism and portrays itself as the
biggest victim of terrorism, not realizing that it is the architect of cross
border terrorism in South Asia and all the seven states of South Asia are its
victims. In the ongoing war on terror in
which Pakistan has been acting as the frontline state, it has suffered the most
and has produced much better results in counter terrorism than any other country.
Can we ignore seven decades of baggage
of animosity and distrust? How can people of Pakistan forget that Pakistan was
cut into two by India in 1971 and since then has suffered thousands of cuts on
its body? How can India be trusted and declared as a reliable and trustworthy
friend and get complacent that she will refrain from causing harm in future
when practically it has never done anything good for Pakistan and is always
scheming to undo Pakistan? RAW has not winded up its terror networks in
conflict zones of Pakistan and is still using Afghan soil for exporting
terrorism into Pakistan. Indian brutes are continuing to persecute the
Kashmiris in occupied Kashmir ruthlessly. Indian leaders are still talking of
breaking Pakistan into eight quasi states. They say CPEC is unacceptable and are
employing various tactics to scuttle it. RAW is still supporting banned
terrorist groups TTP, BLA, BRA, BLF and is in league with certain political
parties to damage Pakistan. India has no intention to resolve Kashmir dispute
and may resolve Siachin and Sir Creek disputes if Pakistan agrees to give land
access to Afghanistan and Central Asia through Wagah border and to accept LoC
as a permanent border.
India is desperately looking for an
opportunity to disable Pakistan’s nuclear program so that it could establish
its regional hegemony. India opts for talks only to buy time or to get out of
difficult situation and not otherwise. It would always like to sit on the
negotiating table from position of strength. It has all along sought one-sided
concessions and never given anything in return. It wants peace and trade on its
terms only. Pakistan has traditionally
been sweet talked by India whenever it was in a better position to talk and
bargain. Our leaders get carried away by the farfetched enthralling offers of
cooperation, two way trade and prosperity and quickly forget that Indian
leaders believe in Chankyan tactics of ‘Baghal mein Chhuri, moun mein raam
raam” (cloak and dagger policy), and on the first available opportunity stab us
in the back. They have been pursuing these immoral practices since the
inception of Pakistan but for unknown reasons our leaders remain in their magic
spell. Don’t we know that ‘Cold Start doctrine’ is Pakistan specific and
two-thirds Indian military is poised against Pakistan?
So what Modi who proudly talked of
India’s and his personal role in liberating Bangladesh has done which has made
our leaders draw fanciful conclusions? It is not difficult to discern that both
India and her chief patron USA are on the back foot in Afghanistan and Pakistan
after remaining in hot soup for a very long time is gradually recovering and
regaining its health and credibility.
Thanks to the laudable efforts of the
military and ISI, series of conspiracies and plans hatched from 2002 onwards by
the strategic partners based in Kabul to destabilize, denuclearize, de-Islamise
and balkanize Pakistan through covert operations while pretending as friends,
Pakistan has survived and mercifully has sailed past the rough patch. The
security forces have been fighting the ideologically motivated fanatics with
extraordinary grit and determination. After Operations Rah-e-Raast and
Rah-e-Nijat, the decisive sledgehammer was struck by Operation Zarb-e-Azb which
has ultimately broken their back. Their command and communication centres,
training centres, logistic bases and safe havens have all been destroyed. All
the 18 administrative units in the northwest that were in their control have
been recaptured and writ of the state re-established. The military has gained a
conclusive edge over the militants wanting to destroy Pakistan to fulfill the
agenda of adversaries of Pakistan. The foreign paid militant groups funded,
equipped and trained by foreign agencies have been flushed out and they are no
more in a position to carryout organized attacks from Pak soil. They are now
carrying out random attacks using Afghan soil under the patronage of their
mentors to keep the pot of terror simmering.
National Action Plan has the capacity to root out terrorism and in this
regard the government and Army under Gen Raheel Sharif have pledged to take the
ongoing operations in FATA, Baluchistan and Karachi to their logical end. This
pledge is giving nightmares to the enemies of Pakistan since their billions of
dollars of investment will go waste.
It is owing to outstanding results
achieved by the military and the resilience shown by the people of Pakistan to
withstand the onslaughts of terrorism, insecurity, joblessness, poverty, and miraculous
economic recovery which has impressed the world. Construction of $46 billion
worth CPEC has the capacity to upturn the fortunes of Pakistan. Pakistan has
become relevant and is today looked at with awe, admiration and respect. The
hackneyed theme sung by Indo-US-West-Israel nexus that Pak military is either
complicit or inefficient has lost its appeal. Another propaganda plank that
instability in Afghanistan is owing to cross border terrorism emanating from
North Waziristan has also gone stale and so have several other suchlike
cockeyed themes to portray Pakistan in poor light. The reason behind this
change in outlook of the world comity is that Pakistan is the sole country
which has fought terrorism from the front, rendered largest sacrifices and
turned the corner.
This accomplishment has become all
the more praiseworthy when seen in context with the fact that the ones pressing
Pakistan to do more against terrorists were aiding the same terrorists. Pak
soldiers fought with the faceless enemy for over a decade with meagre resources
and didn’t get fatigued or demoralized. They have become more hardy, battle
inoculated and fearless. It is now rated as the best Army of the world, while
ISI is rated as number one among the top ten intelligence agencies of the
world. Gen Raheel has earned the distinction of being the most popular military
leader among the top ten military leaders of the world. All other countries
involved in counter terrorism in Afghanistan and in Middle East, with huge
resources at their disposal and with no limitation of damage control, failed in
their mission and had to pack their bags and quit. They are now at the
receiving end. So much so, that Pakistan is being pampered to help in restoring
peace in Afghanistan. India and Afghanistan are the only two spoilers playing
the old tunes and putting spanners in the way of peace talks. They don’t want
peace talks brokered by Pakistan since they know the outcome will be to their
disadvantage and to the advantage of both Taliban and Pakistan. Yet Afghan
unity government is seeking Pakistan’s help and Pakistan is doing its bit to
restore peace in war-torn Afghanistan.
The fast changing regional and global
dynamics is shrinking space for India’s anti-peace activities from Afghan soil.
It cannot resort to open war since Pakistan has geared up its minimum nuclear
deterrence to full spectrum deterrence. Pakistan’s short range missiles like
Nasr have buried the Cold Start doctrine while the long range missiles can
reach up to Nicobar and Andaman Islands to tackle with India’s second strike
capability. Cruise missiles have been matured after a dozen successful tests. PAF
and Pak Navy are also constantly improving and upgrading their
offensive/defensive capacities. Pakistan’s conventional and non-conventional capabilities
have made the Indian leaders sensible. CPEC towards which countries of Central
Asia are getting attracted and all ASEAN states and South Asian states are
vying for peace and friendship and are in favor of China’s concept of
connectivity have left Hindutva loving India isolated in this critical age of
geo-economics. Insatiable thirst for energy is another compelling reason for
India to set aside insanity and sit and talk since she knows that her thirst
can be quenched by Central Asia and the route to it passes through Pakistan.
India also wants Pakistan to tone down its opposition to her quest for earning
a permanent seat in UNSC.
India was therefore compelled by
circumstances to silence her guns along the LoC and Working Boundary and to
mend fences with Pakistan. Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Islamabad and to agree to
resume stalled talks was a bitter morsel she had to chew and swallow. Modi’s
visit to Lahore was the result of American pressure to let Afghan peace process
move forward and improve ties with Pakistan. However, these initiatives were
not taken out of sincerity and noble intentions, but with devious intentions. A
message had to be given to the world that India is a peace loving country and
desires peace with neighbors.
No sooner the message was given and
dates for talks fixed for January 15, another false flag operation was enacted
in Pathankot and Pakistan blamed. Some proofs have been handed over to
Pakistan. To give a further proof that Modi is a good boy, the BJP government
behaved sensibly and accepted Pakistan’s proposal of carrying out a probe while
Indian media kept up its tradition of going berserk. Sensible behavior however
was short-lived and Indian leaders once again exposed their true face. Indian
Defence Minister hurled open threats that pain will be responded with pain and
India will chose the time and place to cause greater pain. Within three days of
his offensive statement, attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda took
place on January 20 in which 20 students were martyred and 35 injured by four
terrorists.
It has been established beyond an
iota of doubt that the attackers (all killed) and their four facilitators who
have been arrested came from Afghanistan and were in communication with their
sponsors in Afghanistan. It has also been established that RAW in league with
Afghan NDS masterminded the attack and the attackers were trained and briefed
in Jalalabad and Rs 30 crores were spent on this operation. TTP’s leader Umar
Mansoor based in Kunar has declared that many more attacks on educational
institutes will be launched. He had also initiated gruesome
attack on Army Public School Peshawar on December 16, 2014. First fallout
effect of Pathankot incident is the postponement of talks without giving fresh
date. It seems India is making the resumption of talks conditional to progress
shown by Pakistan as had been the case after Mumbai attacks. Coming weeks will
show whether Indian leadership opts for sanity by living and letting others to
live or insanity.
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