By
Sajjad Shaukat
By setting aside Indian
commitment to observe restraint, as agreed during the recent meeting of the
Directors-General Military Operations (DGMOs) of both the countries, India has
accelerated unprovoked firing at the Line of Control in Kashmir and Working Boundary
across Pak-Indian border. Even without bothering for nuclear war, New Delhi has
continuously been ignoring Islamabad’s protest.
In this respect, India
again cancelled National Security Adviser (NSA)-level talks with Pakistan,
scheduled to be held in New Delhi on August 23-24. In this context,
Spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup said that New
Delhi opposes Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz’s meeting with
pro-independence leaders of Kashmir.
India neglected the fact
that the Hurriyat leaders are true representatives of the Kashmiri people of
the Indian occupied Kashmir, and could help in finding a lasting solution of
the Kashmir dispute. During the talks between Pakistan’s Prime Minister
Minister Nawaz Shariff and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Ufa,
Islamabad conveyed to New Delhi a comprehensive agenda to discuss all
outstanding issues, including Kashmir as well as terrorism. But, Indian
insistence to restrict the dialogue-agenda to terrorism or cross-border
terrorism only shows that India is not serious to resolve any issue with
Pakistan. Hence, Indian firing across the LoC and pre-conditions are part of
its delaying tactics, based upon anti-Pakistan approach, followed by shrewd
diplomacy against Islamabad. In fact, by promoting Hindu chauvinism on the
basis of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan slogans, extremist party, BJP won a
landslide victory in the Indian elections 2014. Now, leader of the BJP and
fundamentalist Prime Minister of India Modi has been implementing its party’s
agenda. He has given a free hand to the Indian forces to go on aggressively
with the border violations in wake of hostile statements by Indian leadership
against Pakistan.
In order to defame
Islamabad, from time to time, BJP-led government also orchestrates a drama to
malign Pakistan’s security agencies. In this connection, in the recent past,
prior to the US President Obama’s second visit to New Delhi, Indian
intelligence agencies orchestrated a boat drama to defame Pakistan, allegedly
reporting that a Pakistani fishing boat as a Pakistan-based outfit group
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was intercepted by Indian Coast Guards, off the coast of
Porebandar, Gujarat. And Indian Coast Guard crew set the boat on fire and it
exploded. But, its reality exposed Indian terrorism, because, some Indian high
officials admitted that there was no such boat which came from Pakistan.
Similarly, on July 27, 2015, three gunmen dressed in army uniforms killed at
least seven people, including three civilians and four policemen in the Indian
district of Gurdaspur, Punjab. Without any investigation, Indian high officials
and media started accusing Pakistan, its banned militant outfits and
intelligence agencies for the incident. Indian Police remarked that the
attackers were from Indian-held Kashmir, and some stated that they were Sikh
separatists, while Indian Punjab police chief claimed that the three gunmen
were Muslim, but as yet unidentified. Contradicting speculations, India’s Home
Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament that the gunmen came from Pakistan.
Recently, Indian Army orchestrated a drama in the Indian-controlled Kashmir by
killing an innocent person, showing his connections with Pakistan. When, it was
exposed, the Indian government admitted the fault of its security forces.
Besides, New Delhi
earnestly found various pretexts to cancel peace talks, while shifting the
blame to Islamabad. For example, in 2002, under the pretension of terrorist
attack on the Indian parliament, India postponed the dialogue process. Again,
in 2008, India cancelled the ‘composite dialogue’ on the pretext of Mumbai
terror attacks.
Particularly, on May 27,
2014, Indian Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister
Shariff in the oath-taking ceremony proved faultless, because, while raising
baseless issues like terrorism as pre-condition to advance the dialogue
process, he said that slow pace of trial against the terrorists of the Mumbai
26/11 terror case; being held in Pakistan is main hurdle. But, he ignored the
fact that on July 19, 2013, the Indian former home ministry and
ex-investigating officer Satish Verma disclosed that terror-attacks in Mumbai
in November 26, 2008 and assault on Indian Parliament in January 12, 2001 were
carried out by the Indian government to strengthen anti-terrorism laws.
In this respect, some
online reports of foreign media has revealed that Indian media has recently
been up-beating the negative theme that LeT, in connivance with Pakistan’s
intelligence agency ISI, are planning to conduct Mumbai type terror attacks
inside India. It has been assessed that the campaign against Pakistan by India
is fraught with the danger of India trying to create a reason for waging a
‘short’ and ‘swift’ war against Pakistan. Recent statements of the Indian army
chief also endorse the same view.
Undoubtedly, New Delhi
is destabilizing the regional countries in general and Afghanistan and Pakistan
in particular to obtain its secret designs, aimed at augmenting Indian hegemony
in the region. Therefore, India is foiling the peace process between
Afghanistan and Pakistan by managing terrorist attacks like the recent ones in
Afghanistan which revived old blame game against Islamabad. India is also
thwarting the peace process between the Afghan officials and representatives of
Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan, which started in Murree, Pakistan, on July 8,
2015 through a meeting, hosted by Islamabad, and in it, Chinese and American
representatives also participated.
Besides, India wants to
divert the attention of the international community from the involvement of RAW
which has well-established its network in Afghanistan, and is fully assisting
cross-border incursions and terror-activities in various regions of Pakistan
through Baloch separatist elements, Jundullah and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP). On a number of occasions, these insurgent groups claimed responsibility
for their subversive acts.
It is mentionable that
on September 18, this year, the TTP militants attacked a Pakistan Air Force
camp in Badaber area, Peshawar and martyred 29 people including an Army captain
and four security personnel. In this context, confirming the death of 13,
militants, DG ISPR, Maj-Gen Asim Bajwa said that valiant personnel of the
security forces thwarted the attempt of the heavily-armed TTP terrorists by
stopping them to enter inside the base—and they came from Afghanistan.
Notably, Pakistan has
decided to raise the question of Indian cross-border terrorism and RAW
involvement in Pakistan at the UNO forum, with strong evidence in light of open
statements of Indian defence minister and prime minister who recently confirmed
assistance to anti-Pakistan elements including separation of East Pakistan.
Pakistan has also
decided to raise the issues of Indian cross-border shelling and human rights
violations in the Indian controlled Kashmir. But, it is regrettable that the US
is still showing double standard by asking both the countries to settle these
disputes through bilateral dialogue. America should know that Dr. Subramaniam
Swami, the leader of the Indian ruling party BJP stated on July 12, 2014 that
India needed only two years to defeat Pakistan militarily, and the only
solution of Kashmir was war, as “there is no peaceful, democratic solution”.
However, Indian irresponsible
moves are alarming for peace-loving countries of South Asia including those of
the world. In this regard, even BBC pointed out that it seems that New Delhi
wants a war with Pakistan.
Nevertheless, it is
wishful thinking of the BJP leaders that they can wage a conventional war with
Pakistan. While both the neighboring adversaries are nuclear powers, India is
neglecting the principles of deterrence, known as ‘balance of terror.’
After the World War 11,
nuclear weapons were never used. During the heightened days of the Cold War,
many crises arose in Suez Canal, Korea, Cuba and Vietnam when the US and the
former Soviet Union were willing to use atomic weapons, but they stopped
because of the fear of nuclear war which could eliminate both the super powers.
Therefore, the two rivals preferred to resolve their differences through
diplomacy.
Likewise, many occasions
came between Pakistan and India like the post-Mumbai terror attacks of 2008
when New Delhi started a blame game against Islamabad in wake of its highly
provocative actions like mobilization of troops. Islamabad had also taken
defensive steps to meet any Indian prospective aggression or surgical strikes.
But, India failed in implementing its aggressive plans, because Pakistan also
possesses atomic weapons.
In the past too, Indian
rulers had intended to implement their doctrine of limited war in Kashmir, but
they could not do so owing to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. However, in the
present circumstances, BJP is badly mistaken, if it overestimates India’s power
and underestimates Pakistan’s power.
Nonetheless, in wake of
dangerous developments, created by the fundamentalist Indian government,
question arises that does India wants nuclear war with Pakistan.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on
international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants,
Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email:
sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
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