WHEN CHANGE DOES NOT COME, IT MUST BE FORCED

G Parthasarathy

19 December 2014

Major interlocutors like the US, the EU, Russia and China have to be candidly told that India will not countenance continuing Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and will respond strongly, as it recently did

In our public discourse on terrorism from territory under Pakistan’s control, there has predictably been a tendency to hold the military establishment as being solely responsible for the rise of terrorist outfits in Pakistan, as though the country’s political establishment and parties are devoid of any responsibility for the burgeoning of radical Islamic militant groups in the country. It is no secret that the Deobandi-oriented Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman has backed the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in Jammu & Kashmir and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, responsible for the hijacking of IC 814 and the December 2001 attack on our Parliament.

It was when the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam was an ally of Benazir Bhutto in 1994 that her Government’s assistance to the Taliban, organised by her Interior Minister General Naseerullah Babar, gathered momentum. The Jamaat-e-Islami, a perennial Inter-Services Intelligence favourite since the days of General Zia, backs the Hizbul Mujahideen in Jammu & Kashmir.

It is in this context that one has to objectively analyse the role of Mr Nawaz Sharif in the promotion of terrorism across Pakistan’s borders with India and Afghanistan. Moreover, one should never forget that while the Sharif family may have lived in Punjab (initially in Amritsar and thereafter in Lahore and Raiwind) their roots are really in Kashmir, as Mian Mohammad Sharif (Mr Nawaz’s father) hailed from Anantnag and his mother from Pulwama. Mr Sharif has a far more hard line position on Jammu & Kashmir than many other politicians. Despite the obvious futility of seeking international mediation and a UN role in Jammu & Kashmir, Mr Sharif is obsessed with creating conditions to keep international attention focused on Jammu & Kashmir, even if this involves promoting terrorist violence throughout India.

Mr Sharif started his political career in the 1980s with huge patronage from the Islamist inclined President Zia ul-Haq. He was elected for his first term as Prime Minster heading a group of Islamic Parties, stitched together by then Army chief General Aslam Beg. His Islamist inclinations towards Afghanistan became evident when, in 1992, he became the only foreign head of Government to visit Afghanistan then ruled by a motley group of radical ‘Mujahideen’, put together by the ISI.

More importantly, Mr Sharif appointed the bearded fundamentalist, Lieutenant General Javed Nasir, who was a member of the fundamentalist Tablighi Jamaat, then backed by his father Mian Mohammad Sharif, as head of the ISI. There is substantial evidence that it was General Nasir, backed by Mr Sharif, using the services of Dawood Ibrahim, who masterminded the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, in which 250 Indians perished.

More ominous for India, are the links of the Sharif family with an obscurantist ‘Ahle Hadees’ fundamentalist, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who was helping the ISI backed Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s. When Mr Sharif returned to power in 1997, he accorded formal diplomatic recognition to the Taliban led by Mullah Omar. He ordered the Governor of Punjab, Shahid Hamid, and his Information Minister Mushahid Hussain, to call on and pay their respects to Hafiz Saeed. It was during this period that the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba replaced the Deobandi oriented Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, backed by Benazir Bhutto, as the prime instrument of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, in Jammu & Kashmir and elsewhere in India.

More significantly, Mr Sharif moved to strengthen Pakistan’s residual ties with ‘Khalistanis’ worldwide, by the appointment of General Javed Nasir as the head of a so-called ‘Pakistan Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee’. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s aircraft had barely taken off on this return flight to India from Lahore, when ‘Khalistan’ banners and slogans came up in gurdwaras across Pakistan, to incite Sikh pilgrims then on pilgrimage. An Indian diplomat who witnessed this, was beaten up.

There has been no change in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s approach on all these issues even in his third term, which commenced last year. Hafiz Mohammed Saeed continues to receive patronage with funds from the Punjab Provincial Government, headed by the Prime Minister’s brother, Shahbaz Sharif. His co-conspirators in the 2008, 26/11 terrorist attack, led by Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, live in comfort, ostensibly under detention, in the Adiala Jail.

It is no coincidence that Hafiz Saeed’s recent Lahore jamboree coincided with the terrorist attack in Uri, which was quite evidently designed to disrupt public participation in the last three rounds of polling for the State Assembly in Jammu & Kashmir. India has, therefore, to respond to Pakistanis provocations organised by the military, but backed by the political establishment in a measured and effective manner politically, diplomatically and militarily, whenever intrusions, backed by covering fire across the Line of Control and International Border are attempted.

Diplomatically, major interlocutors like the US, the EU, Russia and China have to be candidly told that India will not countenance continuing terrorism and will respond strongly, as it has done in the recent past. One can sense some shifts in the US and the EU positions with regard to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

After some initial prevarication on the December 5 Uri terrorist attack, a senior State Department Official said, “The United States remains firmly committed to working in close partnership with India to defeat terrorism in all its forms. Our hearts go out to those affected by this deplorable attack.” Moreover, the US Congress is now far more sceptical about Pakistani intentions than the State Department.

A recent legislation providing Coalition Support Funds to Pakistan have, for the first time, tied release of such funds to Pakistan, to action by it against the Haqqani network, Al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba. India should seek clarification from President Barack Obama about American efforts to promote ‘reconciliation’ with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistani commentators are envisaging a virtual handover of several districts in Afghanistan to Taliban control. This will have serious implications for India’s security.

As Pakistan’s Kargil misadventure was drawing to an ignominious end, Mr Sharif rushed to the White House to bail himself out. President Clinton asked him to first restore “the sanctity of the Line of Control”. Mr Sharif agreed to take steps for the “restoration of the Line of Control in accordance with the Simla Agreement”.

General Musharraf thereafter agreed in January 2004 that “territory under Pakistan’s control” would not be used for terrorism against India. There should be no problem in normalising relations with Pakistan once Mr Sharif ensures these promises made by the two architects of the Kargil conflict are observed in letter and spirit. It remains to be seen if the tragic events in Peshawar will lead to any re-thinking about the dangers posed by nurturing terrorist outfits like the Afghan Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba.