That the group of forty countries of the world including Russia and the US called Heart of Asia has not passed Afghan President’s proposal for a framework to effectively deal with terrorism, shows how terrorism is politicised by some countries of the HoA group. The intensity with which terrorist activities are seen by the Afghan nationalist Government is reflected in the threatening words of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who categorically stated that Pakistan was waging an undeclared war in Afghanistan. Although Prime Minister Modi did not make a specific mention of Pak based and supported terrorists organizations, yet he demanded that international community needed to make collective effort to deal with the challenge posed by the terrorists.
One can understand the pain of Afghan nation in being made a target of terrorism when they needed support for transition from a backward middle aged country to a vibrant modern country for which she has the potential in terms of resources and manpower. This eloquently speaks about what Pakistan designs for her western neighbour, a co-religionist nation, and what India envisions for Afghanistan. We are surprised on how the world community does not feel its moral responsibility of throwing its weight behind the narrative of Afghanistan. The fact is that some big powers involved in the prevailing unrest in Afghanistan region are more interested in her untapped mineral wealth and unexplored and unexploited mineral wealth rather than the security and progress of her people. Looking in retrospect we can say it is only India that understands the pain of Afghan people and extends most disinterested service in numerous areas of her development. We are happy to note that the people of Afghanistan and their Government are convinced that India is making solid contribution in the process of transition of Afghan society from backward and middle ages to modern age. It is important to understand what the Afghan President wanted the Amritsar meet of HoA to adopt in the name of Afghan proposal. President Ghani made it very clear by saying that an Asian or international mechanism must be put in place, without playing games, to find out who was benefiting from terror, extremism and other illicit activities. He added that an Asian or international regime, whatever is acceptable to Pakistan, should be put in place to verify frontier activities and terrorist operations. This is the crux of the problem. The naked truth is that Pakistan is providing sanctuary to the terrorists of Haqqani group which is militarily most active anti-regime organization in Afghanistan and about which, the US issued several warnings to Pakistan repeatedly. Big powers that are members of the HoA are all convinced that Pakistan has a direct role in providing logistical support to the Taliban and its affiliates. Yet despite that, they are not showing urgency in putting a check on Pakistan. This lends credence to the statement of Indian Home Minister who, after the Nagrota attack, said that Pakistan was a terrorist State. Of all the big powers in the world who are also members of HoA, it is the US that has most intimate knowledge of what perfidious role Pakistan is playing in Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir. What more does the US need to know that Pakistan is a terrorist state. When then does she not take a decision of imposing sanctions on Pakistan when the terrorist organizations like LeT, Jaish, HUM, Jundullah, etc. based in Pakistan are designated by the State Department as terrorist organizations. Incidentally, when India brought a resolution before the Security Council of declaring Jaish-e Mohammad and its supremo Molavi Azhar as terrorists, China opposed the move. This is a clear indication that the US and China both have political and other interests in Pakistan and are not sincere in their commitment of curbing terrorism in the world. This is a sad commentary on the situation as it only aggravates terrorist threat to world peace.
Another aspect that Afghan and Indian delegations took up for serious consideration of curbing the activities of terrorists in the region is of funding sources of Pakistan -based terrorist groups. It is obvious that the type of insurgency carried out either in Afghanistan or in the State of Jammu and Kashmir cannot be possible without enormous financial support. What are their funding sources, is known to the world. There is enormous funding for the terrorists based in Pakistan. Besides the ISI, which, nevertheless, is the main funding source of Pakistani and Afghan terrorist outfits, the other sources are the radicalised Islamist Diasporas in Saudi Arabia, Gulf countries and the western countries. Unless funding sources are choked through an internationally recognized mechanism, for which both Afghan President and the Indian Prime Minister pleaded, it may not be possible to eradicate terrorism from the region. We have also noted that the US allows annual grants to Pakistan in the name of support to her army for fighting the TTP in Waziristan. But we have no hindrance in saying that the US knows where its hefty financial largesse ultimately lands. It lands in the pockets of Pakistani fidayeen (suicide bombers) whom we find involved in terrorist strikes in different parts of the world including the Times Square in NY or strikes in Indian Consulate in Herat in Afghanistan.
Afghan President also sought setting up of a global fund to combat terrorism, while emphasising that time has come for concrete action against terror infrastructure and those support it. Pouring sarcasm on Pakistan’s offer of USD 500 million to his country for reconstruction, he desired the Pakistani representative, Sartaj Aziz, to use it for containing extremists in Pakistan because without peace any amount of assistance would not meet the needs of his people.
In his powerful and forthright address Prime Minister warned global leaders that terrorism was the biggest threat to peace in the South Asian region and the world community had the need to stand up to this challenge collectively.
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