Terrorists trying to undermine Pak, India peace efforts: US

ISLAMABAD: The United States once again threw its weight behind the continuing dialogue between Pakistan and India in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on an Indian airbase at Pathankot and urged both states to ensure that the leadership should not be deterred by those who want to “sow fear” in their minds.

The US had previously said that Pakistan was in touch with Islamabad on a daily basis sharing information at different levels ever since the airbase was attacked and seven Indian security officials were killed by terrorists. On its part, the spokesman at the State Department on Saturday remarked, “It should come as a shock to no one that terrorist groups will try to undermine those sorts of efforts by conducting spectacular attacks, to sow fear and to hopefully sow doubt in the minds of national leaders towards a level of cooperation that can have a practical effect.”

The State Department spokesman also told reporters, “Obviously, we don’t want to see that happen (terrorists undermining peace efforts) and we are encouraged by the dialogue that has recently taken place between India and Pakistan, and we’d like to see that continue.”

He said the US wants India and Pakistan to “continue to have a dialogue and to continue to look for ways to cooperate against a common threat. We talked about this not long ago at a recent conversation between both Prime Ministers (Nawaz) Sharif and (Narendra) Modi.”

“That was a welcome sign, both condemning the terrorist attack on the air station and expressing their shared commitment to fighting terrorism. That was not an insignificant discussion that they had, nor was it an insignificant commitment that they made, and it’s exactly the kind of commitment that we want them to continue to make,” he said. His remarks came as India and Pakistan agreed mutually to defer the foreign secretary-level talks that were to take place in Islamabad this week. They have agreed to hold the parleys in the “very near future”.

India’s intelligence failure, even when it admits that warnings were received about an imminent attack, the botched exercise to clear the airbase of terrorists and inability to get information from one of its own police officers who interacted with the attackers leaves much to be desired. The nexus between the Punjab drug mafia, terrorists and sleeper cells inside India is still being investigated at a time when New Delhi has accepted a visit by a Pakistani Joint Investigation Team.

Meanwhile, doubts have arisen as aired by the Indian media whether it was prudent to allow Pakistani security officials who could be potential ‘spies’, inside its airbase as normally neither country allows citizens inside such high-security areas. The answer lies with the Indian public whether they have enough confidence and trust in the leadership of their prime minister and their national security adviser who have agreed to host a Pakistani team.

For years there has been enough confidence between Pakistan and India when on the first of the new year they exchange lists of their nuclear installations, sensitive information that the ordinary citizen is not privy to. It is common knowledge that the ISI and RAW chiefs have met in the past many times on multilateral forums in third countries when there have been conferences on security issues. Even lower rung officers from the same institutions have sat around the same table.

The Pakistani team’s every movement will be under watchful eyes and instead of creating a hype the Indian media should concentrate on how successful this probe will be to determine the terrorists responsible. With frequent contacts, both at the diplomatic, NSA and security level, this could well turn out to be a joint probe which will be another first in the two countries’ history.

The Pakistani team would be a professional one and the last thing on their mind would be to spend time to ‘spy’ for their country. After all there are others to do the job like undercover officers in the garb of diplomats in the oldest assignment in the world and probably no embassy anywhere in the world is devoid of at least one undercover official.

Most of the times, the country involved is well aware of who is the undercover agent and he or she is well taken care of. There are also times when political relations lead the way and any government can make public the name and face of this spook.

Pakistan did this in the not too distant past when the CIA station chief’s identity was disclosed and he had to flee the country. Also the present Indian NSA Ajit Doval was the RAW station chief at the High Commission in Islamabad, and a time came when the government had had enough and he was declared persona non grata.

The Indian media at least should stop creating hype about the Pakistani team and allow them to carry on with their investigations once they reach Pathankot.