Thursday, March 28, 2024
 
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Pakistan ready to discuss ‘terror’ with India!

By Farooq Ganderbali



The terrorists attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot diluted all the fervour that was exhibited over the likelihood of India-Pakistan talks being resumed in the middle of January in Islamabad. Now the terrorists attack on a university Peshawar comes as another hurdle.

The Pakistani narrative invariably points to a ‘foreign hand’ after terror attacks inside the country. The ‘foreign’ country is in most cases India, though at times it could be a reference to Afghanistan whenever the combined efforts of the two unrelated Sharifs in Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Army chief Raheel Sharif, to befriend Kabul begin to falter, as they are at present. As so often in the past, an ‘interruption’ in the bilateral dialogue between the two bitter neighbours would not come as a surprise.

The terrorist attacks possibly becoming the main factor in the delay in resuming talks has strengthened the view, allegedly confined to sceptics, that no useful purpose will be served, at least from the Indian point of view, by talking to a Pakistan where the India policy is solely in the hands of the India-hating generals of the GHQ Shura. We can have ‘uninterrupted’ but aimless talks.

Granted that nobody in his senses will expect the ‘core’ issue of Kashmir to be resolved in the near future, but only the most optimists will believe that any of the so-called low hanging fruits would be plucked in the resumed Indo-Pak talks. Don’t expect any progress on Siachen and Sir Creek, related as they are to defence and security issues. Pakistan is not ready to relax trade ties with India. No incentive to people –to- people exchange between the two countries looks possible given the ascendency of the fringe elements in India and the traditional dislike and distrust of Indians by the average Pakistan. Don’t judge the issue from the sugary accounts of the warmth shown to an odd visiting Indian in Pakistan. Sporting (read cricket) ties are not going to be resumed, officials in both countries have already said.


Only the gullible will believe the former chief of staff of the Pakistani army and (disgraced) president of the country, Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf, when he told a TV channel that the Pakistani army is for peace with India. Even some Pakistanis will have difficulty buying that line from Musharraf, knowing as they do that it is only by being paranoiac about India that the Pakistani army is able to retain its supreme position in the country. Besides, recall Musharraf’s own menacing words against India that he airs frequently.


Just after the Pathankot attack, Pakistan had announced that it will take action against the terrorists if India provided ‘evidence’ that could stand in a Pakistani court of law. The Pakistani courts are not known to take up terror cases; the job has been assigned to special military courts. Pakistan has said in so many words that the ‘evidence’ India has managed to gather after the attack is simply useless. It also suggests that Pakistan has little or no responsibility to trace the Pakistani links to the Pathankot attack.

But since Pakistan would not want to be accused of disturbing the ambience of talks, built reportedly under American influence, it did not publicly reject the Indian ‘leads’, but said that these would be followed. Even this vague assurance has faced fierce criticism from the terrorists and their organisations in Pakistan.


Prime Minister Sharif also announced that a team of sleuths would be sent to the scene of attack in Pathankot. It is doubtful if it will gather ‘evidence’ that the Pakistani courts will accept. The delegation will consist of military officers, including from the notorious ISI which is widely assumed to be behind terrorist attacks on India.


The Pak team would not visit Pathankot to look at sites of tourist interest in that border town in Punjab—assuming it has tourist attractions. Instead they would like to have a look at the IAF base by being physically present on the campus. It will probably help plan better for the next terror attack on an Indian Air Force target whenever it comes. Not that they would not have a complete and detailed map of Indian military bases, thanks to their vast spy network they have created through honey traps and cash; one was arrested just before the Pathankot attack.


A team of Pakistani security personnel might also insist on seeing the route that Indian says was taken by the terrorists who were able to enter India despite all the vigilance that India is supposed to keep at the border. That will give a firsthand experience on mapping a comparatively safer and better route for the next round.


Pakistan is unlikely to send a team of officials to Pathankot if its sole purpose is to talk to Indian officials across the table without combing the IAF base in Pathankot. In the event of India drawing a belated redline, the Pakistanis might still agree to resume the bilateral dialogue. India has assumed that ‘terrorism’ will be its trump card in any talks with Pakistan. India may think that it has incontrovertible evidence to pin down the Pakistanis on the charge exporting terror to India, the Pakistanis would counter it with a similar charge against India.


While much of the world seems to largely accept the mountain of evidence on Pakistan nurturing, training and sending terrorists to India, there seems to be little pressure from the US and its friends and allies on Pakistan to wind up its India-specific terror factories. Yes, President Barack Obama has just delivered a strong message to Pakistani leadership with his call to Islamabad to “delegitimize, disrupt and dismantle" terror networks on its soil. But this Obama-Speak is neither here nor there since Washington continues to pop up Islamabad in the Af-Pak theatre. Moreover, a ‘soft’ West has been allowing Pakistan to step up propaganda against India and talk about India’s hand in terror attacks even if it has no evidence to back it.



The Pakistani ‘evidence’ against India may be laughable and ridiculously contrived, but at this stage they are trying to be heard when they talk of India’s interference in their affairs which they think justifies their policy of ‘bleeding India with thousand cuts’. No surprise therefore, Pakistan will not mind discussing ‘terror’ with India whenever the talks are resumed.



(The author is a Freelance Journalist and columnist)


(Disclaimer: The views, observations and opinions expressed in above write up of Scoop News are strictly author's own. Scoop News does not take any onus or liability for the veracity, accuracy, validity, completeness, suitability of any of information in the above given write up. The information, facts or figures appearing in the write up in no way manifest the position, standpoint or stance of Scoop News and the Scoop News does not assume any encumbrance or answerability of the same.)


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