|
Indo-Pak anti-terror mechanism : Two sides of the coin |
 |
Harjit Singh
It is too early to say if the agreement on evolving a joint anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and investigate the menace, reached during the Havana talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, is a suicidal folly or a step towards peaceful settlement of all disputes between the two countries. The initial reaction, both among the general public and the political pundits, to what is awaiting to be fleshed out and structured is not very encouraging. The record of President Musharraf - of hunting with Jihadi hounds while mouthing peace rhetoric - is not very encouraging.
The assertion that “terrorism constitutes a threat for both countries and it is incumbent on us to work together” turns the Indian counter-terrorism policy on its head. This comes close on the heels of Gen. Musharraf’s accusations that the Indian consulates in Afghanistan and Iran were channeling arms and money to insurgents in North Waziristan and aiding the tribal rebels in Baluchistan.
The Prime Minister embarked on a damage control exercise when at a meeting with the Left leaders on his return, he said that any decision to go ahead with the mechanism as well as his own visit to Pakistan will hinge on the Pakistan leader’s success in stemming the flow of terrorists from his soil into India.
Dr. Manmohan Singh’s surprise decision flows from the tradition set by his predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee, under whose Government, India’s Pakistan policy traversed through Lahore, Kargil, Kandahar, Agra, Parliament House and Srinagar Assembly attacks. But, as American philosopher, George Santayana, remarked: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Dr. Manmohan Singh is now swinging the policy pendulum once again in Pakistan’s favour.. How many times will Indian leaders repose their trust in the same Pakistani dictator and then cry betrayal in public? Vajpayee first extended the hand of friendship to Pakistan and then undertook the Lahore bus journey which was punctured by none other than Musharraf who was then the Army Chief during Nawaz Sharif’s rule. Yet, Vajpayee invited him for Agra summit which failed because his Government refused to sign on the dotted line which would have given him an advantage on Kashmir and cleared his country of terrorism charges. The man who masterminded not only Kargil but also the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar is now being awarded by India the honour of a man who is committed to defend India from the threat of terrorism. He is the same man who had said after the Kargil conflict that it had brought the Kashmir issue back on the forefront after having been sidelined by the Sharif Government. When the UPA Government took over and Dr. Manmohan Singh had the occasion of having a meeting with President Musharraf, he remarked that he found in Gen. Musharraf a person with whom “we can do business.” He promised to together work in writing a new chapter in the history of the two countries. What he has conveniently chosen to ignore is Pakistan’s history of laying both sides of the terror street.
Musharraf is a net gainer from the Havana meeting from every angle the meeting may be looked at. He succeeded in making Dr. Singh to resume the Foreign Secretary-level talks which India had decided to suspend after the Mumbai train blasts. He has extracted a promise from Dr. Singh to visit Pakistan which the Prime Minister had linked to Pakistan taking steps to stem terror. He made him agree to an anti-terror mechanism. The agreement puts Pakistan at par with India and recognizes that like India, Pakistan was too a victim of terror and that groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were free lancers and acting autonomously outside the control of the Pakistan Government.
To the advantage of Musharraf, he can now silence those who say, Pakistan continues to sponsor terrorism against India. This will win him bouquets of praise from the United States which is being accused by India of double-standards in praising Pakistan as a key ally in the war on terror even while looking the other way when Pak-sponsored terrorists attack innocents in India. Thirdly, in the event of any further terrorist attack, he can insist on the issue to be taken up by this mechanism rather than India shutting down the peace process.
In the 28 months that Dr. Singh has been in office, not only has the incidence of terrorism increased but terror attacks are also beginning to occur across the length and breadth of India. In the past 12 months, Pakistan-sponsored terrorists struck across the country killing nearly 400 persons, the heaviest casualties suffered in a year. The synchronized New Delhi bombings on October 29 last year alone killed more people than in one of the worst attacks. This was followed by a failed terror attack on the Ram temple in Ayodhya, a bomb attack on a Hanuman temple in Varanasi, an attack on the scientific community in Bangalore and the July suicide bomb attacks on commuter trains in Mumbai which killed more than 150 people. Does the Prime Minister believe all these attacks will stop once the proposed anti-terrorism mechanism is put in place by the Foreign Secretaries who will meet soon. If it happens it will no doubt be a historic turn-around in the chequered history of the two countries. And if it failed, the Prime Minister would find himself exposed to criticism for reposing faith in a man whose record of not standing by his promises, betrayal and back-stabbing is unprecedented. If Pakistan had been sincere, it would not have refused to hand over Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon and the Khalistanis who are on India’s wanted list which has been given to Islamabad. Pakistan never admits their presence on its soil in spite of myriads of media and intelligence reports of their roaming about openly and the Interpol warrants for their arrest. Pakistan may have banned LeT and JeM, but they have emerged in new avatars like Jamaat-ud-Dawa and their leaders like Syed Hafeez and Maulana Masood Azhar do not face any restrictions on propagating and masterminding terrorist attacks in spite of their outfits having been banned. Many of the terrorist training camps which were destroyed by last year’s earthquake have surfaced again and by a conservative estimate, some 60 of them are functioning again. That the terrorist outfits were flush with funds despite the ban and freeze on their bank accounts was established by the reports that the money to blow up the ten US-bound planes taking off from Heathrow airport in London by liquid explosives, came from the LeT in Pakistan.
However, in spite of the poor homework, if the Prime Minister succeeds in making Gen. Musharraf see some reason in living peacefully and not allowing Kashmir to come in the way of the development of peaceful and good neighbourly relations with India, it will be a big success. Gen. Musharraf’s army is facing tribal militancy in Waziristan and is being accused by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai of harbouring Taliban and Al-Qaeda elements that make forays into Southern Afghanistan from Pakistan territory. The Pakistan ruler, who is hoping to see a lot of fire-work at home next year during elections and demands for him to shed uniform, may be now longing for peace for both regional and domestic reasons. But, it will be quite sometime before the real intentions of the Pakistani leader are judged. Musharraf who did not stand by the written agreement of January 2004 when Vajpayee visited Islamabad, not to allow the territory under his government’s control to be used for terrorist attacks on India, has once again the chance to switch over from a man who sponsored terrorism to the one who is pursuing peace.
|
