Category Archives: Terrorism

Of Pakistani Ministers And Disguised Sincerity

I am no expert on Indian policy. Or Pakistani policy. But after observing what went back and forth in the latest round of talks between India and Pakistan, I am certain that Pakistan has meticulously planned the process of dealing with India and our leaders.

Notice how we never get a meaningful deal out of these ‘talks’. Notice how SM Qureshi imposes his voice and command over English on every press conference he attends, with disguised sincerity. Notice how India is getting duped by deceitful and non-committal people from the other side of the Radcliffe Line.

By attacking GK Pillai (Home Secretary) and equating him with someone as insidious (and inspirer of many a terror acts) as Hafiz Saeed, it is evident that Pakistan is fundamentally against any progress in these talks. To demonstrate sincerity, one must first be sensible enough to separate the ridiculous and the preposterous from the debatable and the unconvincing. And the fact that Pakistan never does that, we can safely conclude there is none on offer.

Also in doing so, Qureshi loses the plot as easily as he mutters a new word in the English language. Maybe, he intends to lose the plot. This is one of those arguments where Indian officials must sit back, regroup and realize that there are no constructive talks happening. At all. None. There is only clichéd elocution. And that too, by the Pakistanis.

Qureshi might well be an English language majors aspirant, who was picked up by the Pakistani government to confuse Indian and international observers and to rationalize what is easily laughable. If this sounds funny (and it wasn’t intended to be), we can speculate that Pakistan has a clear-cut policy on how to deal with Indian requests for talks, and the talks themselves. Even if the country may have no policy on how to ensure the sustenance of her own self.

Pakistan is like an insincere professor, the type that India’s government schools and colleges are infested with. They come to work, they intend to see out their scheduled time because it is part of their routine, they waste time and they take their pay. No difference is made. Because, none was intended to be made.

Pakistan knows. They know how to deal with India following any major terror attack on Indian soil. There is a cycle of denial first, followed by inaction (and minimal acceptance). And as the clock ticks, we have equivalence. Suddenly, everybody is quiet and terror – what terror? Pakistan faces terror too, you know.

So the solution is – Honestly, I have no clue. Maybe, we can NOT talk. And we can speed-deal with terrorists in our control.

Or we can forget. And save our outrage for another day.

Oh wait, THAT we already do.

India attacks Sri Lanka in Pakistan

In the event of the dastardly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan by suspected terrorists, the Pakistani media is responding with archetypal hysteria and is resorting to blame games bordering on apathetic insanity.

Former chief of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Gen(R) Hameed Gul said India is trying to weaken Pakistan.

Commenting on the attack on Sri Lankan team, Gul told Geo News that India wants to declare Pakistan a terrorist state and firing on Sri Lankan team is related to the that conspiracy. [Geo TV]

Even the Sri Lankan government is resorting to questionable conspiracy theories by suggesting that the LTTE might be involved in the attack, hence diverging from Pakistan-sponsored and home grown terrorism.

“I have heard the LTTE mentioned on the airwaves. There is considerable speculation, but we will await the outcome of the investigation before we comment,” Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said. “We are reassured that Pakistan authorities are conducting a probe to arrest the assailants and bring them to justice,” he added. [The News Pakistan]

Fortunately, all cricketers are safe according to latest reports. Eight Pakistani security personnel lost their lives in the ‘Mumbai-style’ attacks. It is a shame that Pakistan failed to provide adequate security to the cricket team. Given the undeniable importance of cricket in the subcontinent, this attacks bears heavy on Pakistan’s so-called initiative against terrorism on its soil.

Irrespective of how Pakistan tackles this episode, the future of Pakistan cricket is thrown into complete uncertainty as there is unlikely to be any cricket tour to the country in the forseeable future.

The joke will be on India…again

Anatomy of the Pakistani case for a joint anti-terror “mechanism”

To this question posed by a former dean of social sciences at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Pakistan, let us go back two years in history.

Why is the Indian government employing coercive diplomacy to achieve its objectives when it can easily sort out contentious issues through a joint investigation? The answer to this question is that a joint investigation, bilateral or multilateral, simply does not suit India [DTP-Anatomy of the Indian case]

In 2006, a joint anti-terror mechanism agreement was penned by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf [Link]. The UPA government compromised on India’s inarguable right to being long-term victims of terror by agreeing to such a farce, which Dr. Singh had then dubbed as a trial, since we are not going to war.

But the mechanism, which is almost similar to setting up a body of criminals in India to bring criminals themselves to justice, had failed in all restrospect. Not only was it doomed right from the time it was agreed upon, but Pakistan’s promise that it would bring the perpetrators to justice was rebutted by the country at the first meet of the “mechanism”. Instead, they audaciously argued that it was India’s R&AW that was funding suspicious organizations in Pakistan.

And now, the writer dares to question India’s commitment to eradication of terrorism from the region by bringing forward an altogether new reason to the argument. The joint “mechanism” is a complete farce that intends to throw back India’s argument. In fact, this is all that is in Pakistan’s convenience. No wonder, they offered to jointly investigate the Mumbai terror attacks.

And anyway, Pakistan’s record of convicting terrorists is abysmal. No single terrorist attack launched from Pakistani soil has been properly scrutizined by the Pakistani government. No terrorists have been “brought to justice”. No terrorists have been handed over. Can Pakistan present even one case of having successfully convicted the perpetrators of a major attack on Indian soil? I think not. And hence, a joint probe remains a futile concept.

The emergence of a few in-your-face truths continue to evade our leaders, pseudo-patriots and apologists for cross-border terrorism – Pakistan is NOT an ally of India in the war of terror. Pakistan has NO interest in a terror-free India. The ISI will not bring the ISI to justice. The “mechanism” is a farce. And we should never see sense in such nonsense.

Because the joke will be on us…again.

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