In a forthright message to Pakistan, President Pranab Mukherjee has said that it must dismantle terrorist structure on its soil and respond to India’s peaceful overtures. In fact way back in 2004, Pakistan had agreed not to allow terrorist activities against India on her soil. Pakistan has not honoured her own word and continues to provide support and sponsorship to such jihadi groups on her soil as are determined to sneak into Indian territories and indulge in subversion in which innocent lives are taken and property damaged. The President was giving an interview to Euronews.
Reflecting on Pakistan’s theory of “non State actors”, the President said that these actors did not come from heaven. They are the nationals of Pakistan; they receive training in terrorist activities in camps set up in Pakistan and run by Pakistani ex-army officers; they are provided most modern weapons by the Pakistani army including latest communication gadgets and maps and military outfit to disguise sometimes as army personnel and at other times as police personnel. They remain in close liaison with their handlers in Pakistan when they launch an attack or a subversive activity on Indian soil as was seen in Mumbai attack of 26/11. When challenged at the border, they run away and return to their hideouts on Pakistani soil. Most of them, when gunned down in encounters with Indian security forces, bear proof of being Pakistani nationals or her army men. Such proofs have been given to Pakistani authorities also. Pakistan’s denial of having active role in sponsoring, supporting and abetting these terrorist outfits cannot be accepted by any stretch of imagination. Pakistan cannot claim that she has no control on them. If it is so, then surely Pakistan is a fake Government and the real Government rests in the hands of those who sponsor export of terror to neighbouring countries.
Taliban, now the most fanatical and brutal jihadis is the creation of Pakistani State. During the tenure of Benazir Bhutto, her Home Minister Lt. General Babar was the main architect of Taliban. The US did not oppose Pakistan raising a new army of puritanical fundamentalists in Kandahar with the spurious notion of raising a new force that would put banditry activities of the boastful Mujahideen under control after they had successfully ousted the Soviets from Afghanistan and established their sway over Kabul. In fact, Pakistan intended to raise a fanatical force whose youthful fighters and legions were extensively brainwashed and regimented in thousands of religious seminaries of Pakistan. While the Mujahideen were more or less a nationalist force, the Taliban were groomed along the vision of an international Islamic State or the Caliphate. As Taliban found this ideology in sync with that of Osama’s Al-Qaeda, camaraderie of evil was forged and the war zone shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan’s NWFP or the Waziristans.
Encouraged by the remarkable success of Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviets, Pakistan’s adventurous religious zealots thought of infusing their outfits with same fighting spirit. These fanatics have been brought up in a hate-India atmosphere. They are brainwashed and told that India is perpetrating atrocities on Muslims and as staunch adherents of Islamic faith they are bound by religious obligation to fight the kafir. Thus with the tacit support of State institutions like army, ISI, Information Ministry and Religious institutions, militant groups were raised. Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-i-Muhammad, Al Dawa wal Ershad and scores of other organizations built close liaison with the Taliban-Al Qaeda amalgam and undertook the vision of the Islamic Caliphate as their ultimate goal. In the process, dismemberment of India was a priority and the LeT undertook this part of the establishment of the Caliphate. This gives an insight into how Pakistan has used these organizations against India. The Chief of LeT never makes secret of his organization’s agenda of dismembering India. Pakistan army considers these outfits as its “strategic asset” and “frontline defence”.
When Pakistan began to feel the heat of international community calling her the epicentre of international terrorism, she tried to wriggle out of defamation by pretending that she herself is the victim of terrorism. First she tried to bring the onus of export of terrorism to Pakistan to the doorsteps of India. But when her home-bred terrorist organizations openly claimed responsibility of attacking and bombing in various cities of Pakistan, the narrative of India exporting terrorism was stopped. It widely publicized that Pak army was taking on terrorists in Waziristan and elsewhere though in reality Pakistan army has been negotiating mutual and collaborative strategy there. There is deep seated rivalry among the jirga leaders and tribal lords in the area and Pakistan army has a stake in that affair. The propaganda that Pak Army is fighting against the Taliban-Al Qaeda combine has been sufficiently exposed by American Generals commanding troops in Afghanistan.
In the background of these facts, who can believe that terrorists raised on Pakistani soil are “non-State actors” or that Pakistan is a victim of terrorists. The President has candidly told Pakistan to dismantle terrorist structure on her soil. Pakistan’s denial is outdated and only makes her a laughing stock. Peace talks will become meaningful only when Pakistan dismantles the terrorist structure and stops sending them inside our territory.
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