Pakistan’s terror tactics - It is time for India to
act
What does a country do when
its neighbour’s entire reason to exist is to bring mayhem and destruction on
this country? Pakistan’s terror tactics against India is just this. Can we keep
seeking peace when our soldiers are killed regularly; our parliament attacked;
our cities bombed and hundreds of innocent lives are lost every year?
After the latest attacks in
the Kashmir Valley, which left 19 people dead, including six militants who came
armed with grenades, rocket launchers, assault rifles, night vision goggles and
everything that is needed to wage war against a country, we are still trying to
think of a fitting reply. All-out war is not an option, not when nuclear arms
are involved and Pakistan is suicidal enough to use them. So what option have
we left?
We do have one massive factor
working in our favour thanks to Prime Minister Modi and that is clout. After his successful trips to Japan,
USA, and Australia and at major world forums, we do have a window on
opportunity to put forward our case firmly, tenaciously and consistently in
every country that we have a presence in. It is now time to pull out all stops
and start shouting from the rooftops.
This will mean that we need to
retell chapter and verse of all the terror attacks that have taken place in
India fomented by Pakistan. We will need to do this by every available means
through the foreign media via our high commissions and embassies; at every
world forum; at the United Nations; and finally through getting offensive not
defensive about the story of Pakistan’s never ending and continuous attacks
against us.
Unlike Pakistan, India is
recognized as a democratic country that has never proliferated nuclear
technology and is considered secular, strong and reliable. Most importantly we
have never been in bed with terrorists and Osama Bin Laden was not discovered
in our backyard. Pakistan has forever been playing a cat and mouse game with
the US and other countries that give it huge amounts of aid. Its Army and the
ISI are not to be trusted. At one time Pakistan was on the verge of being
declared a Terrorist State. All this has been reported endlessly by not only media
outside Pakistan but also by its own people example: Husain Haqquani in Magnificent
Delusions a book that is
candid about Pakistan and its Army and ISI and he should know since he was once
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the USA; and Descent into Chaosby Ahmed Rashid, a brave and candid
journalist cum author who puts his life on the line to tell the truth about
Pakistan.
Today, we have an election in
Kashmir in spite of threats of Separatists urging the populace to boycott the
elections, along with Hafiz Saeed—a known terrorist—sending in highly trained
and equipped militants with the help of the Army and ISI to spread fear and
disharmony in the valley.
Kashmir was not always like
this. It was a very peaceful hospitable valley in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
And I have first-hand experience to prove this. My travels to Kashmir
started as early as 1956, when as a young girl I was taken to Srinagar and
Gulmarg for summer holidays. The Kashmiris we met and who invited us to
their homes did not for one moment think they belonged to Pakistan. We went on
Shikaras and were given gourmet food by our hosts, most of them Muslims; it was
quite the paradise on earth.
Fifteen years later my father
was posted in Kashmir and nothing had changed for me. I still met my Kashmiri
friends; I still went to Gulmarg and took the same horse that belonged to my
Kashmiri/Muslim friend who had actually taught me how to ride. The fact that my
parents allowed him to teach me riding and let me take the horse alone with him
overseeing is an indicator of the faith they had in him. Never for one moment
did I think that the kindly gentlemen selling shawls or carpets or paper Mache
actually hated me and wanted to be a part of Pakistan. Frankly, I don’t think
they thought that either.
The Kashmiris both Hindu and
Muslim were living in peace and there was no feeling of a separate Muslim
agenda. I recall a valley where the army command was not a gated community and
we shopped in Kashmiri stores and went all over the valley without fear. The
army and the population lived in amity as there was no fear of Pakistani
militants creating terror or fear and dividing the people of Kashmir. The army
in Kashmir actually worked with the local state government to set up schools
and sensitize the soldiers, who came from all over India, on the needs of the
people.
But those were the days before
Pakistan actively started creating mayhem in the valley. For Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch and all the myriad Non-Governmental
Organizations, who are shown and told stories of human rights abuse, I would
like them to note that the distrust only set in after Pakistani propaganda and
deception, which India was slow to perceive and as a matter of fact is still
not able to match. These groups need to seriously get to know why half a
million Kashmiri Pundits had to leave their homes in the valley and also talk
to local army and police personnel to understand the difficult and often deadly
circumstances they have to work under due to separatists coddled for years by the
Congress government and youth turning militant because of Pakistan’s constant
drumbeat of propaganda through every available channel whether it be doctored
videos, the internet or media.
The 1971 War that created
Bangladesh was something that Pakistan and its army could never get over. It
was in 1977, when Zia ul Haq became the President of Pakistan, that he brought
in a very, insular Islamic government and was known to have said that he would
bleed India with a thousand cuts and promptly went on to try and achieve it. He
used every trick in the book from militancy, to disinformation to
indoctrination. Unfortunately, India was unable or unwilling to recognize this
till it was too late.
Once started it was difficult
to put the genie back in the bottle and Pakistan’s military dictators who
needed a reason to survive and flourish continued the drumbeat against India
even infiltrating into Kashmir and leading to the Kargil War.
More recently, Hafiz Saeed,
responsible for 26/11 in India, and with a 10 million dollar bounty by the US
on his head is allowed not only to move around freely but also incite hatred
against India at huge public rallies in Lahore.
This should not be condoned
anymore. Even if it means reminding the US on a daily basis that the world is
aware that the mastermind of terrorism is openly flaunting hate in a country
that they are continuing to give billions of dollars in aid and arms to.
In spite of an ever-growing body of evidence that Pakistan in actively
supporting terror groups, it seems the world has a short memory. Thus India
needs to up the ante and tell the US and other countries that we will not take
this anymore. Pakistan has to be punished be it through sanctions or by cutting
off aid or UN pressure censure. Pakistan has been getting arms and dollars by
telling the same lie again and again that they are at the forefront of fighting
terror. Surely, India can tell the world the truth again and again and convince
countries that Pakistan is a state sponsoring terror. Our government needs to
finally expose Pakistan’s game resolutely and persistently at every world
forum.
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