The Pakistani Spectator

At last, after dedicated efforts from masses and politicians in India and Pakistan, Foreign Secretary level talks were scheduled at New Delhi on February 25, in which Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir would discuss matter of interests. It is expected that under the public pressure, India would focus on cross-border terrorism and Pakistan as usual would highlight Kashmiris right of self-determination and water issue. Keeping aside the public pressure by Indian masses, especially Hindus, those who matter at New Delhi including the agencies are well aware of the on ground position about those behind terrorism. It is Indian tradition to blame Pakistan and vice versa. Interestingly, India has never linked the left wing Maoist movement with Pakistan. In a recent high level conference at New Delhi, in which briefing was given by Director Generals of Indian Para Military Forces, it was admitted that much success could not be achieved against Maoists. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while admitting that his government failed to achieve much success against Maoists maintained that infiltration through various routes including Nepal and Bangladesh was going up. While, Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram admitted presence of Maoists in 17 states and disclosed that they are responsible for 90 percent of the violence in the country, the Indian Intelligence agencies was criticized on account of ignorant about whereabouts and plans of Maoist top leaders.

In this backdrop, Indian Foreign Office has suggested linking various resistances to Indian rule including Naxal movement with Pakistan. The sole aim of this strategically acrobatic move is to malign Pakistan internationally. One wonders that with such allegations in mind how the talks are going to produce results. No doubt, the situation in India is turning from bad to worse which can be analysed from the official figures regarding Maoist affected violence. In 2008 there were 1,591 incidents of Maoist violence resulting in 721 killings while in the year 2009 there had been 1,688 incidents, resulting in 998 deaths. Despite the fact that Pakistan is morally behind the Kashmiris’ struggle for their right of self determination, Islamabad is discouraging armed struggle in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). It is on record that those refugees from IHK who once got a free hand to carryout activities related to independence movement against Indian occupation are now not allowed to operate freely. Obviously, it is policy of Pakistan that both side of the Line of Control (LOC) is disputed area which require plebiscite to determine the aspirations of Kashmiris on the basis of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, so how Islamabad can ask legitimate people of the state to leave for IHK. One wonders that when even Indian Prime Minister accepted that levels of violence had come down appreciably in Jammu and Kashmir and was at its lowest level since the beginning of insurgency in the late 1980s then why Pakistan is still being blamed.

Those who want to sabotage Indo-Pak talks are propagating suspicion and uncertainty so that in the atmosphere of mistrust, both the countries should blame each other. Both the countries need to behave maturely in order to achieve bag results. India must appreciate that it was because of Pakistani government restrictions on Kashmiri freedom fighters to operate from their soil that it became difficult for them to carryout operation freely. Resultantly, their activities against Indian occupying forces in IHK came down tremendously and election could take place without any untoward incident.  However, India needs to realize the fact that Pakistani are sympathetic to the Kashmiris irrespective of the facts that they are Muslims, Hindu Pandits or Sikhs. In case the Kashmiris vote for Pakistan, all the Kashmiris Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs would be Pakistanis and if they vote for India, I am sure that Pakistan would not resist it. It is pertinent to mention here that Mumbai attacks are not the ploy from Pakistan and was a foreign conspiracy in which Indian homegrown misguided militants were used to achieve the purpose. How can India deny the repeat telecast in India News channels during Mumbai attacks in which militants during telephonic conversation were claiming to be Indian national “Deccan Mujahideen.” Jonathan Evans, the Director General of MI5 claimed that his organization had investigated Mumbai attackers’ communications and uncovered connections between the Mumbai attackers and Britain. MI5 analysts, who claim to be experts at picking clues from phrases and communications, feel that there could be connection of the militant group which carried out Mumbai attacks with Hyderabad. I would like to add US connection too. One wonders that when British and American intelligence agents had been investigating Mumbai attackers for months, why US is denying India access to David Headley and Tahawwar Husssain Rana. One feel like to request India not to become pawn of foreign conspiracy and leave issue likes Mumbai attacks on Pak-India joint investigations. No matter, the February 25th talks are successful or not, we need to continue dialogue so that the western propagated mistrust and suspicion between Pakistan and India is removed as first step to overcome communication gap.