top of page
Centre for Asia Studies - CAS

Indo-Pak ties: Talks must go on; By Jai Kumar Verma

CAS article no. 0021/2016

Courtesy: “Bureaucracy Today” January 16-31, 2016

In both Pathankot Airbase terror attack and the strike on the Indian Consulate at Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan in the first week of January 2016, the terrorists mentioned that they were avenging the hanging of Afzal Guru in India.

The responsibility for the Pathankot attack was taken by the United Jihad Council (UJC) which is an umbrella organisation of about 13 terrorist outfits operating in Kashmir. But no terrorist organisation had taken the responsibility of attack on the Indian Consulate at Mazar-e-Sharif.

The Jaish-e-Mohammed (J-e-M) was responsible for an attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 and Afzal Guru was hanged as an accomplice of the terrorists. Analysts feel that although the UJC has taken the responsibility of the Pathankot assault and no terrorist outfit has mentioned that it was behind the Mazar-e-Sharif attack, the fact is that both these attacks were the handiwork of the J-e-M at the behest of the ISI of Pakistan.

The ISI wants to foment trouble all over India, especially in J&K. In the recent past ISI agents became active in Punjab and successfully smuggled drugs and made a sizable number of youths drug addict. The ISI also wants to revive the Khalistan movement in Punjab and for that it is carrying out terrorist attacks as well as taking assistance from Khalistani activists based in Canada, the USA and Europe.

The ISI which is a state within state will never permit increased Indian influence in Afghanistan and no civilian government can have friendly relations with India without the explicit concurrence of the powerful Pakistani Army. When the recently retired Lieutenant General, Nasir Khan Janjua, took over as National Security Advisor of Pakistan it appeared that the Pakistani Army was also interested in peace negotiations. Hence the chances of success enhanced manifold.

Nonetheless the ISI sabotaged the results of meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan, including the brief stopover of Modi in Lahore. The attacks on the one hand raised doubts about the sincerity of the Pakistan Government and on the other they negated the impact of Indian gestures like the meeting of both the NSAs in Bangkok and the visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Pakistan.

The Pakistani military, according to observers, is thriving on the fantasy that Pakistan has danger from India, and diverse anti India terrorist outfits will, therefore, never allow the Nawaz Government to have friendly relations with its eastern neighbour. The ISI will neither close terrorist camps controlled by it nor it will force terrorist groups to abandon their training camps. Therefore, the training of terrorists will continue and their infiltration in India will also drag on.

The civilian Government of Pakistan is in no position to take any stringent action against terrorists as they are playing the game of the Pakistani Army. Observers say it is a myth that the US will compel Pakistan to take action against terrorists. In response to a call of US Secretary of State John Kerry to Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Government may create a façade of some legal action against top terrorists but it will be of no consequence.

At present Nawaz is assuring India that his Government will take action against terrorists. Not only this the Nawaz Government has not rejected the proofs given by India immediately which is a positive signal but India has to see whether Nawaz can deliver or not.

Nevertheless the peaceful negotiations must continue because if India scuttles the talks, then Pakistan will defame India in the international arena that New Delhi has an ulterior motive and it is not interested in talks. Secondly, Islamabad will say that India has played the game of the Pakistani Army and anti-India terrorist outfits that are determined to terminate the talks.

(The writer retired as a Director of the Cabinet Secretariat. He is now a Delhi-based strategic analyst and is a member of the panel of various training institutes of Intelligence and paramilitary organisations.)

0 views0 comments

Comments


LATEST
bottom of page