Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Democratic Pakistan: Steadfast with Terror




http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Pakistan_continues_to_train_terror_outfits_India_/articleshow/2911337.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Kashmiris_must_be_involved_in_resolving_dispute_Pak/articleshow/2920702.cms Sticking to the old and oft repeated position on Kashmir, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a weekly news briefing on 2nd Apr that "Pakistan's position is very clear that Kashmiris are a party to the dispute and must be involved in its resolution". Earlier, similar opinion was expressed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani and members of his Cabinet.

When questioned on Indian National Security Advisor M K Narayanan's comments that Pakistan is still maintaining terror infrastructure inimical to India, Sadiq repeated the familiar lie, "We strictly follow the policy of non-interference in neighboring states” – A statement that amounts to a blatant denial by Pakistan of its involvement in creating the Taleban for interference in Afghanistan and supporting Lashkar-e Toiba, Al Badr and Jaish-e-Mohammed for terrorist strikes in India. It is clear that restoration of democracy in Pakistan has had little impact on its policy of using terror as a state instrument against India. The West is still to catch up with the fact that it is this very terror infrastructure that indoctrinates the terrorists with jihadi philosophy for strikes in Europe, trains them and exports them to Europe. Most terrorists apprehended in Europe have revealed during interrogation that they had been to Pakistan prior to participating in their nefarious activities on European soil.

Pakistan’s post elections approach to terrorism is set to follow the same old double standards it has always had. Conditional cooperation with the West to extract maximum economic benefits and continued maintenance of the ISI reared terror groups to inflict ‘death by a thousand cuts’ on India. Fortunately for India, the policy is fraught with grave consequences for Pakistan itself, some of which have already begun to extract a price from the terror host nation in terms of a raging insurgency in Balochistan and loss of state control in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The West is aware of the existence of terror infrastructure in Pakistan but has mistakenly convinced itself that it is not directed towards the West. The impact of such myopic approach to terrorism is already visible in Europe. The cold blooded murder of Theo Van Gogh in his own home country, Holland, and the unruly Islamic demonstrations in Brussels, London and other European cities is only the foretaste of more gruesome developments to come. Construction of the world’s largest mosque in London, right next to the proposed site of a 2012 Olympic stadium, should not come as a surprise to anyone.

While the West has hypnotized itself with the idea of ‘political correctness’, Pakistan and other like minded Muslim countries have displayed no such qualms. Some of these countries, in fact, pretend to be on best of terms with the US and the West. India would do well to keep its guard and not expect much help from the West. Infact, the situation seems to be veering towards the West needing help in tackling Islamic fundamentalism.

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