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| Beware, a sinister game is being played |
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Friday, December 05, 2008
By Shireen M Mazari
Comment
ISLAMABAD: Without waiting for any investigative results, the US and its allies seem to have condemned Pakistan in the context of the Mumbai attacks. Condoleezza Rice’s statements in New Delhi and Islamabad have had an underlying accusatory sense — especially her declaration that Pakistan had a “special responsibility”.
Why, when we have stated categorically that there is nothing substantive linking Pakistan or Pakistanis to the carnage in Mumbai? Mullen’s statement in Islamabad has also had similar accusatory underpinnings when he asked President Zardari to act against groups linked to Mumbai. How? Should we strike against Hindu militants in India? Or has the US already decided about the groups to be targeted on the pretext of Mumbai? And the less said about the US media and Obama the better.
As for Britain’s Miliband, his neo-imperialism was at its peak when he declared that the international community must make Pakistan realise that modern threats emanate from within the country, not from external sources. Too bad, he cannot see that for his own country!
However, the real question is why such pre-emptive hype against Pakistan? Clearly, with rumours about the US also seeking to put past ISI chiefs on the UN terrorist list, the US, aided and abetted by India, which has already moved to impose a unilateral “solution” on Sir Creek, is moving to the next stage of its Pakistan agenda whereby it seeks to destabilise Pakistan, send in international forces and seek control of the nuclear assets and eventually, if feasible, balkanise the country.
What can Pakistan do? Certainly, the leadership can stop making statements that play into US/Indian hands. For example, to declare that both India and Pakistan are fighting the same terrorists is to admit that our extremists were responsible for the Mumbai carnage. This has not been established. Again, to declare, in the style of the 2004 Pak-India joint statement that we will not allow Pakistan to be used for terrorism implies an admission that so far is what we have been allowing. Perhaps the less our leaders speak, the better it will be for the country in the present circumstances.
It was unfortunate that given the judgemental statement in New Delhi by Rice, our leadership could not have told her that she should not come to Islamabad at present — that we were unable to receive her right now. Nothing would have conveyed our perspective as clearly as this one move.
What is the reality regarding Mumbai? Let us look at some disturbing facts that are being deliberately downplayed by India and the US.
First: There is the killing of the ATC Chief, Hemant Karkare, who was responsible for exposing Hindu militants and the Indian Army officers in the Samjhota Express and Malegaon acts of terrorism. His widow has refused to accept the state government’s compensation.
Second: The orange thread wristbands on one of the terrorists — a sign of belonging to the Hindu extremists of the RSS.
Third: No Lashkar-e-Taiba member would ever be clean shaven. Also, they have always admitted to their actions.
Fourth: The Mumbai area has seen acts of terrorism by Hindu extremists before.
Fifth: Was the intelligence and security forces’ failure deliberate, given the growing revelations of Indian Army officers being linked to Hindu extremists? Given that the Mumbai terrorism was extremely well-rehearsed and professional, could renegades from the Indian Army have been involved?
Sixth: The haste — in fact a pre-emptive campaign of smear, begun by the state government officials, even while the action was still ongoing — with which the Indian state and the media are targeting Muslims and Pakistan makes one wonder whether there is something lethal internally within India that needs to be hidden?
Seventh: This is not the first time acts of terror attributed by India to Muslim “extremists” have turned out to have been carried out by either state forces or Hindu extremists. Remember Chattisinghpura, Malegaon and Samjhota Express?
This is time for Pakistan to adopt a firm, dignified and “enough is enough” approach. We need not extend any pre-emptive cooperation unless the Indians are prepared to accept a joint investigation with us in which we have access to all the information, materials and people (including the dead terrorists for our own examination).
Pakistan is already fighting two kinds of terrorism: extremist militancy by non-state actors (a word President Zardari seems to have just discovered!) and state terrorism from the neighbourhood and beyond. Perhaps the one statement our leaders should learn and repeat over and over again to the Indians is Sonia Gandhi’s declaration: “friendship should not be taken for weakness”. Clearly the Indians are confusing one with the other in the case of Pakistan.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
