Time for Pakistan and India to deal with IS

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan and India commemorated 50 years of September war on Sunday, it’s now time for both the nations to look ahead to the next fifty years as new and insurmountable challenges look them in the face.
There is no denying the fact that as the IS raises its ugly head in the region, it would be prudent for both countries to put aside their inflated egos and concentrate on this future wave of militancy from which there is no escaping.
While Pakistan says there is no presence of the IS here, it cannot deny if one was to believe this that the environment and motivation is certainly present for this militant group.
On Friday, in Indian Occupied Kashmir which has recently seen a fresh wave of militancy this time by educated youth, reports from the Valley spoke about these boys who clashed with the police and paramilitary forces in the vicinity of historic Jamia Masjid. Some of these groups were holding flags of ISIS, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Pakistan.
In India itself, Riad Kamel Abbas, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s envoy to India, while speaking to Hindu says that there is growing Indian presence in terror groups in Syria.
Two years ago when he had made this remark he triggered a controversy but today maintains that he has this information from different sources in his personal capacity.
“It had nothing to do with the official channel. I said about it then because I wanted India to be more cautious. It saddens me now when reports come out about increasing Indian presence in the Syrian war. Now the Indian intelligence and India’s home ministry are in touch with their counterparts in Syria. They are already coordinating to tackle this challenge. We are exchanging available information with the Indian side, and the Indian government will take care of it”, the ambassador stated.
He said Turkey would have the exact numbers of Indians who have crossed over to Syria.
“We don’t know exactly how many Indians are there. Because some people are going there from India and some are going from the Gulf States who were brainwashed by certain groups. If you want exact numbers, you can check with the Turkish government.
They will know it better than us. Turkey has kept its border open for militants to cross into Syria; they have set up infrastructure for the terrorists; and they are sheltering and arming them. And some Indians held while trying to enter Syria have confessed to Indian authorities that they went to the Turkish border to cross the border into Syria”, the ambassador added.
The ambassador had praise for India saying that if everybody has done what India has done, there would not be any problem in Syria.
“India adheres to the UN Charter. It’s a champion of the principle that there should not be any external interference in the internal affairs of a country. And Mr. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi has made it very clear that there’s no bad terrorism and good terrorism. There’s only terrorism. We should all join hands together to fight terrorism”, he explained.
When questioned as to who created the menace of IS, the ambassador says it’s the same people who created al Qaeda in Afghanistan. “It’s very clear that the Americans created al-Qaeda with the support of some of the Arab Gulf countries because they wanted to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
When the Americans invaded Afghanistan, they had lots of coffins going back home. After years of war, they have realised that there’s no point in using any soldier on the ground. So it’s better to support and sponsor some kind of terrorist organisation that can do the dirty job in other countries. And that’s how IS was created,” he explained.