Dealing with interference

Reportedly, the Pakistan government has decided to formally raise the issue of Indian interference in Pakistan at the United Nations, ostensibly in the backdrop of a recent BBC report alleging Indian funding to the MQM and training of its activists on Indian soil.
The government has also approached the British government to get access to the contents of the statement made by Tariq Mir of the MQM before the London police, in which he reportedly confessed the MQM’s links with India. Whether the allegations contained in the report are correct or not is not known at the moment, but one thing is certain: India is undoubtedly involved in fomenting instability in Pakistan by supporting militancy and acts of sabotage.
Indian leaders are on record to have confessed to Indian role in the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971. Modi’s statement during his visit to Bangladesh and the recent statements of Indian leaders about neutralising terrorism through terrorism provide ample testimony to this effect.
There are also irrefutable facts about Indian involvement in sponsoring cross-border terrorism acts from the Indian soil. According to media reports, Latifullah Mehsud – second in command of the TTP – who was captured by the Nato-Isaf forces in Afghanistan in February 2013 confessed during interrogation that the Kabul-Delhi nexus was harbouring ‘safe heavens’ across the Durand Line and using them for subversive activities within Pakistan. He is further reported to have told his interrogators that the attacks on Major General Sanaullah Khan and others in Dir, the suicide attack on a church in Peshawar, bomb blast in the Qissa Khawani Bazaar and assault on the provincial secretariat were masterminded by the same nexus and executed through local militants.
It is noteworthy that Latifullah Mehsud before his arrest had met key figures in Kabul and was being escorted by the Afghan Army when he was picked up. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and COAS General Raheel Sharif recently visited Kabul with concrete evidence of the involvement of RAW in terrorist acts in Pakistan and demanded the dismantling of the training camps that the Indian intelligence agency has reportedly established in the border belt.
Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh in his meeting with former Pakistan prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the NAM Summit in Sharm-el-Shaikh in 2009, when confronted with the evidence of Indian involvement in Balochistan, reportedly did accept it and subsequently had to face harsh criticism by the Indian opposition and media for this alleged grovelling act towards Pakistan when he returned home. The media has also widely reported the establishment of a special cell in RAW to sabotage the CPEC.
India’s attempts at the diplomatic level to dissuade China from going ahead with the initiative do lend currency to these reports. Pakistan has seen a resurgence of terrorist acts ever since the CPEC was formally launched. India has also been lobbying intensely against the financing of Diamir-Bhasha Dam by the ADB, maintaining that the facility is being constructed in disputed territory.
It is really mind-boggling why Pakistan did not think of taking up the issue of Indian interference at the UN or sensitising the international community earlier while India did not let go of any opportunity to malign and defame Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. Recently India also approached the United Nation’s Sanctions Committee demanding action against Pakistan over the release of the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, Zaki-ur-Rehman, commander of the LeT. Thankfully China blocked the move; an embarrassing diplomatic snub for India.
An Indian defence analyst Rajeev Sharma, referring to the development, said, “It is a reality check for Modi as China has blocked India’s move in the UN”. The issue reportedly was also raised by Modi with the Chinese leadership. But China did not comment on the issue. Now that a decision has been made to unfurl the diplomatic offensive to counter India’s moves and to show its real face to the world, the issue needs to be pursued relentlessly with unruffled focus and commitment.
The failure by the Modi government to respond to overtures from Pakistan for resolution of disputes between the two countries in a peaceful manner and making a new beginning in relations as necessitated and dictated by the fast changing geo-political realities and prospects of shared economic prosperity in the region, is very regrettable indeed. Since its inception the Modi government has been taking steps to create more tensions in the region with all their accompanying negative fallout. Immediately after Nawaz Sharif returned from New Delhi after participating in the oath-taking ceremony of Modi, which raised hopes for a breakthrough in relations, Indian security forces reignited hostilities along the LoC and then unilaterally suspended the scheduled secretary-level talks between the two countries.
The Indian posture towards Pakistan under Modi is certainly against the spirit of the times and inimical to the political and economic interests of both the countries as well as the entire region. Both India and Pakistan need to resolve the disputes between them to achieve their envisioned goals of economic prosperity and to improve security environment in the region which is the most important ingredient for economic progress and peaceful coexistence. But as they say it takes two to tango. Unilateral efforts on part of Pakistan in this regard are of no consequence.
India needs to realise that Pakistan is also a nuclear power. It is fully capable of paying in kind and tit for tat retaliation against hostile acts of India. It cannot be browbeaten and cowed down by threats and acts of sponsored terrorism within its territory. The sooner this reality sinks in the minds of the Indian leaders, the better for both the neighbours.
Until such time as it happens, Pakistan needs to focus on neutralising Indian-sponsored terrorism, tackling internal contradictions and taking the fight against terrorism and extremism to its logical end. Its intelligence agencies also need to be more vigilant against RAW and need to build diplomatic pressure on India to refrain from interference in the affairs of a sovereign state.
The writer is a freelance contributor.
Email: ashpak10@gmail.com