Indian terrorism

India’s rogue behaviour against Pakistan has been pointed out again and again, by almost every government in power. This is something Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar too repeated in yesterday’s press conference during which she aptly described India as a 'rogue state'. Khar’s presser comes a day after Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah held a joint press conference with Punjab CTD Additional Inspector General Imran Mehmood and gave details of the Indian hand in the Johar Town blast in Lahore last year. It was also in this context that Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan called members of the diplomatic corps in Islamabad and shared Pakistan’s dossier on the Johar Town blast. It may be recalled that last year the former NSA, Moeed Yusuf, had presented evidence, including telephonic and financial records, regarding Indian involvement in the attack. Now Khar has called on the international community to take note of India’s hypocrisy: painting itself as a victim of terrorism and blaming Pakistan all the while it orchestrates terror campaigns inside Pakistan. All this so it can continue to divert attention from its state-sponsored terrorism and human rights violations in Indian-Occupied Kashmir.

Pakistan is not wrong in asking the international community to call India’s bluff. For far too long has India blamed Pakistan for cross-border terrorism – to the extent of trying to pin false-flag operations on Pakistan too. For decades now, Pakistan has shown a commitment towards peace in the region, especially when it comes to bilateral ties between the two nuclear states. But India has unfortunately continued its proxy war in Pakistan. Modi’s India especially has adopted a hawkish policy when it comes to all its neighbours, in particular Pakistan. It was Modi who attacked Pakistan after the Pulwama attack without any provocation just to consolidate his domestic constituency. It didn’t matter that their pilot was caught by Pakistan, which sent him back as a goodwill gesture. It was only about chest-thumping just before the general elections in India. It was Modi who unilaterally took the August 5 decision by disenfranchising Occupied Kashmir and going against the international conventions. This is politics that is both hateful and dangerous.

Unfortunately, Pakistan has presented such documented proof in the past as well, with barely any reverberations in the outside world. In 2020 too, Pakistan had prepared a dossier on Indian-sponsored terrorism and presented it to the United Nations and other key global players. The foreign minister of the time had asked the world to take notice of the ‘undeniable evidence’ of Indian plans to destabilize Pakistan. But it appears there is obstinate reluctance within the global community to accept India as a state sponsor of terrorism. From the dictatorship of General Musharraf to all democratic governments since then, Pakistan has extended a hand of friendship towards India – which has only answered back with more hostility. By trying to destabilize Pakistan, the Modi government believes it can somehow become a regional power. But, as Khar rightly warned India, it would do well to remember: when you try and harm your region, you end up harming yourself. Regardless of the global community’s response, or lack of it, Pakistan’s focus must be on preventing such attacks by busting domestic terror networks of all shades and ensuring swift prosecution based on irrefutable evidence, all the while also making efforts to defeat the India's attempts to foment trouble on our soil. Tall order though it may be, this is essential for Pakistan's security.