By Lt Gen Prakash Katoch
14 Jul , 2015
Something is amazing about the propensity with which Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistani NSA can lie. Witness his statement post the Modi-Nawaz meeting in Russia that both leaders had agreed to address the issues of Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek through Track II diplomacy. Little wonder then that Dawn promptly quoted Aziz in saying, “The two sides also agreed to take up these issues under the back-channel Track-II mechanism for better understanding of each other’s point of view.”
Why Pakistan cries out Siachen at every possible opportunity is simply because she wants to, in conjunction China, grab all Indian Territory north of the Ladakh Range…
Ostensibly, Sartaj Aziz was to cover up questions back home post issue of the joint statement why there was no mention of Kashmir in it. Sartaj Aziz was perhaps serving this googly also in the vain hope to repeat the finesse with which Pakistan had engineered the previous Indo-Pak Track II during the Manmohan Singh regime, recommending that India withdraw from Siachen even though there is not a Pakistani bird, leave aside human being anywhere close to Siachen. The ingenious method adopted was that while series of meetings of this Track II were done in foreign locales with the final one in Islamabad replete with ISI buttressed red carpet, no meeting was held in India, to keep the Indian public in the dark.
Post the details of the above so called ‘Agreement’ having been put up on the internet by the Atlantic Council of Ottawa, followed by surprise and utter disgust shown by scores of Indians on the web, the Track II team recommendations were rubbished. Ironically, Manmohan Singh’s famous ‘Mountain of Peace’ statement was made shortly after these recommendations were made public, indicating he had been party to all this. Lack of strategic forethought and political unilateralism has been typical to India ever since Independence but Manmohan Singh with his bureaucratic background perhaps had his attention focused elsewhere, as is becoming more and more apparent with the multiple scams that were engineered during his tenure as Prime Minister. Interestingly, the Track II team in a presentation at the India International Centre on October 3, 2012, chaired by former diplomat KC Singh, known to be close confidant of Manmohan Singh, tried to pass off the so called ‘Agreement’ as a historic way forward. The Team received the bashing of a lifetime; lambasted by a host of public in the audience including former COAS General NC Vij and other military veterans.
Why Pakistan cries out Siachen at every possible opportunity is simply because she wants to, in conjunction China, grab all Indian Territory north of the Ladakh Range; closing the gap between the Chinese strategically stationed in Gilgit-Baltistan and the Chinese creeping westwards in Despang Plains of Ladakh. Siachen is the strategic wedge that denies all this. That is the reason that Ashfaq Parvez Kayani used the excuse of his troops getting buried in an avalanche at Goma to call for withdrawal from Siachen, even as Goma is quite west of Saltoro Range, with Siachen Glacier flowing east of the Saltoro massif.
That is why Hurriyat’s Geelani is ruing to the media today that he has become irrelevant – the surprise being it has taken him 86 years to make this discovery even as he is ISI’s lynchpin in the Valley and wallows in media limelight courtesy presstitutes.
However, Sartaj Aziz’s latest googly naturally caused many going sleepless with euphoria, one possibly being Hurriyat’s Syed Ali Shah Geelani who must be fantasizing the Track II between him and Hafiz Saeed. Same for ‘patriotstitutes’ (sisters of ‘presstitutes’), who were possibly visualizing more jaunts on lines of the previous Track II. But Aziz forgot that the present Indian government had clamped down on this Track II drama with disclosures of what characters like Ghulam Nabi Fai had been up to past so many years, ISI’s support and perception building in some western think tanks, aside from ISI penetration in India. So it is no surprise that the Indian media, quoting government sources, has categorically denied any agreement between the Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers about discussing Kashmir or Siachen through Track II. That is why Hurriyat’s Geelani is ruing to the media today that he has become irrelevant – the surprise being it has taken him 86 years to make this discovery even as he is ISI’s lynchpin in the Valley and wallows in media limelight courtesy presstitutes.
As regard the Modi-Nawaz meet in Russia, the outcome was not difficult to forecast what with cross-border firings and nuke rattling by the Pakistani Defence Minister prior to the meeting, while Xi jinping said support to Lakhvi was based on facts. By saying so, Xi was confirming the fact that Lakhvi and LeT are also Chinese proxies. Nawaz Sharif coming late to the meeting and his limp body language were not surprising because in a country where the military-ISI hold all the aces including the foreign and defence policies, what can the poor man do? He may have well been on line with Raheel Sharif before meeting Modi, getting late in the process.
The joint statement post the meeting said that both leaders condemned terrorism. But what is the definition of terrorism in Pakistan and why would Nawaz condemn terrorism when the military-ISI has instituted terrorism as their state policy. That Pakistan views terrorist organizations as her strategic assets is well known, latest to join the chorus being US Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, nominee for US Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan continues to rely on terrorist outfits as proxies to serve as an instrument of national security policy.
Pakistan would love to cooperate in religious tourism because it will help the ISI spread radicalization and facilitates terrorists / radicals in garb of tourists go underground in India.
The joint Indo-Pak statement also talks of mutual agreement to undertake following steps: meeting in New Delhi between the two NSAs to discuss all issues connected to terrorism; early meetings of DG BSF and DG Pakistan Rangers followed by that of DGMOs; decision for release of fishermen in each other’s custody, along with their boats, within a period of 15 days; mechanism for facilitating religious tourism, and; agreement to discuss ways and means to expedite the Mumbai case trial, including additional information like providing voice samples. Yes, Nawaz Sharif invited PM Modi to visit Pakistan for the SAARC Summit in 2016 but Nawaz really had no other option, did he? So far so good but what next? Immediately on conclusion of his meeting with Modi, Nawaz Sharif ducked all questions by reporters related to terrorism. That being expected, Pakistan has resumed cross border firing and infiltration attempts.
The worst turnaround has been the refusal to exchange voice samples of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, which had been agreed to as per the joint statement. So, what hope of any other promise to be honoured by Pakistan? Talks between the DG BSF and DG Pakistan Rangers and the two DGMOs would likely follow same pattern as earlier. Pakistan will continue to maintain all cross-border firing and incidents are initiated by India. Release of fishermen could perhaps happen as one time measure or maybe few more times, before the earlier rhetoric set in. Yes, Pakistan would love to cooperate in religious tourism because it will help the ISI spread radicalization and facilitates terrorists / radicals in garb of tourists go underground in India.
The bottom-line is that Pakistan will continue to wage proxy war against India, with China joining hands and continued military and financial backing by the US. We need to be ready for more mischief with Pakistan having her way in Afghanistan. Pakistani moves to facilitate AQIS in India are indicative of this. Prior to or during any meeting of officials of both countries, police, military, diplomatic or political, violence levels will likely be raised by Pakistan, as hithertofore. As regards, the ramblings of Sartaj Aziz, he is quite detested this side of the border especially after his obnoxious pronouncement that Pakistan should only target those terrorist organizations that are attacking Pakistan, implying that terrorist organizations attacking India are free to carry on. Even as it is known that the latter are patronized by the Pakistani state, it is left to the readers to conjecture whether such statements by the Pakistani NSA are crafty or naïve.
© Copyright 2015 Indian Defence Review
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