By
Sajjad Shaukat
On December 13, 2001,
five terrorists had attacked the Indian parliament by penetrating the tight security
in a car with home ministry and parliament labels, and resulted into deaths of
the gunmen along with six police officers, after an exchange of gun battle. The
day has come at a time when in one way or the other, India has been repeating
the similar blame game against Pakistan.
On December 14, 2001,
Indian ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had accused Pakistan-based
banned militant groups Lashkar-e-Tayba and Jaish-i-Mohammed for the assault on
the Indian parliament. In that regard, the then Home Minister LK Advani had
disclosed indirectly referring to Pakistan, “We have received some clues that a
neighbouring country and some terrorist organisations active there are behind
it.”
In this that respect,
without any evidence, Indian top officials and TV channels started a blame game
against Pakistan by involving the banned Lashkar-e-Tayba and Pakistan’s primary
secret agency, ISI in relation to the Parliament assault.
Similarly, regarding the
November 26 Mumbai terror attacks, Indian rulers and media had started a blame
game against Pakistan, propagating that Indian Mujahideen, the banned
Lashkar-e-Tayba and ISI were behind the Mumbai carnage.
Availing the pretext of
the parliament attack and Mumbai catastrophe, New Delhi had, twice, suspended the
process of dialogue with Islamabad in wake of its highly provocative actions
like mobilization of troops. Pakistan 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.
It is of particular
attention that on July 19, 2013, the Indian former home ministry and
ex-investigating officer Satish Verma disclosed that terror attacks in Mumbai
in November, 2008 and assault on Indian Parliament in January, 2001 were
carried out by the Indian government to strengthen anti-terrorism laws.
It has clearly proved
that Indian secret agencies; particularly RAW arranged coordinated terror
attacks on the Indian parliament and in Mumbai and orchestrated those dramas
only to defame Pakistan in the world, but also to fulfill a number of other
aims.
It is notable that
renowned thinkers, Hobbes, Machiavelli and Morgenthau opine that sometimes,
rulers act upon immoral activities like deceit, fraud and falsehood to fulfill
their countries’ selfish aims. But such a sinister politics was replaced by new
trends such as fair-dealings, reconciliation and economic development.
Regrettably, India is still following past politics in modern era.
It is mentionable that
during the talks between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan, at Ufa,
Islamabad has conveyed to New Delhi a comprehensive agenda to discuss all
outstanding issues, including Kashmir as well as terrorism. But, New Delhi’s
insistence to restrict the agenda for the dialogue to terrorism or cross-border
terrorism only, demonstrated India’s confused policy towards Pakistan.
Indian foreign secretary
level talks were held in Islamabad on March 3, 2015. In this context, Indian
External Affairs Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Pakistani Foreign
Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry discussed contentious issues including Jammu and
Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and other bilateral issues. While, last year, India
postponed the Secretary level talks with Pakistan; under the pretext that
during his Indian visit Sartaj Aziz met Kashmiri leaders.
In fact, a lack of
seriousness on India’s part to settle all disputes, especially Kashmir issue
has compelled New Delhi to follow a self-contradictory and confused strategy
towards Islamabad. Hence, New Delhi earnestly found various pretexts like the
parliament attack and Mumbai mayhem to cancel peace talks.
Particularly, on May 27,
2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Pakistan’s Prime
Minister Nawaz Shariff in the oath-taking ceremony proved faultless, because
Modi raised baseless issues like terrorism as pre-condition to advance the
Pak-Indian dialogue. He said that slow pace of trial against the terrorists of
the Mumbai 26/11 terror case; being held in Pakistan is main hurdle.
As regards the case of
cross-border terrorism, India has shown ambivalent approach which can be judged
from various recent developments. In this connection, 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 Gurdaspur incident.
Indian Police remarked that the attackers are from Indian-held Kashmir, and
some said 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.
Khalistan Movement Chief
Manmohan Singh stated that the Gurdaspur incident is “a conspiracy of Indian
secret agency RAW to defame Pakistan.”
Besides, 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 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.
India intends to obtain
various hidden purposes by blaming Islamabad for terrorism. First of all, it
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) including their affiliated outfits. On a
number of occasions, these insurgent groups claimed responsibility for their
acts of sabotage.
New Delhi is also trying
to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Recent terror-attacks
in Pakistan and Balochistan might be noted as instance. Indian RAW has also
created a heavily funded China-Pakistan and Afghanistan specific desk to target
growing Pak-China-Afghanistan relations.
And on the direction of
the Indian leader of the fundamentalist party BJP and Prime Minister Modi,
Indian forces have accelerated unprovoked shelling across the Line of Control
and Working Boundary, while creating war-like situation between Pakistan and
India.
Notably, Islamabad has
raised the question of Indian cross-border terrorism and RAW involvement in Pakistan
at the UNO forum, with strong evidence which was also shown to the US.
In fact, on the basis of
anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan slogans, BJP got a land sliding victory in the
Indian elections 2014. Hence, Prime Minister Modi is giving impetus to Hindu
chauvinism against Pakistan and the Muslims. In the recent months, extremists
of Hiudu fundamentalist outfits intensified assaults on the Muslims and
Pakistani artists, famous literary persons—members of the cricket boards etc.,
and even on moderate Hindus.
Modi’s anti-Pakistan
policies have also external aspects. In this regard, while addressing a
ceremony during his Bangladesh tour, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly
stated on June 7, 2015 that Indian forces helped Mukti Bahini (Militants) to
turn East Pakistan into Bangladesh. He elaborated that former prime minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee had played an active role in separating Bangladesh from
Pakistan, and he had also come to Delhi in 1971 to participate in the
Satyagraha Movement, launched by Jana Sangh as a volunteer to garner support
for the Mukti Bahini members.
It is noteworthy that
since Prime Minister of Bangladesh and leader of the ruling party, Awami
League, Sheikh Hasina Wajid came into power, India has been employing various
tactics to entrap Bangladesh by exploiting her pro-Indian tilt to fulfill its
strategic interests. In this context, Prime Minister Hasina Wajid has
continuously been pursuing Indian directions by conducting anti-Pakistan
campaign. Therefore, after passing of 42 years to the events of 1971, which
resulted into the separation of East Pakistan, Abdul Qadir, the leader of
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) was hanged because of his loyalty to Pakistan.
Bangladesh’s ruling
party, under Sheikh Hasina Wajid maintains an anti-Pakistan posture with
sinister designs of expressing animosity, antagonism and unrestrained emotional
flare-up. The aim is to exploit feelings of masses by keeping the “hate
Pakistan” agenda alive. This enables Awami League and Hasina Wajid to remain
significant in Bangladesh’s power politics despite their failure to deliver
good governance to the People. It also helps them to appease their mentors in
India. Using abusive language against Pakistan and its armed forces makes
Hasina Wajid relevant in Indian politics, while she herself prefers those
entities which derive sadistic pleasure by depicting Pakistan in bad light.
In this connection, in
connivance with New Delhi, Bangladesh government and Awami League have launched
a massive media campaign in order to spread venom against Pakistan, its armed
forces, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and against all those Bangladeshi
nationals who were loyal to the state during 1971 crisis.
By neglecting
Islamabad’s positive approach, Bangladesh government has continued its
anti-Pakistan approach to please India. It could be judged from the statement
of Prime Minister Hasina Wajid who has vocally said, “Bangladesh has no room
for the people loving Pakistan.”
As a matter of fact,
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been following pro-Indian policies. In this
respect, on the secret insistence of India, unlike the past years, a ceremony
was held in Dhaka on March 24, 2013, with full pump and show to honour ‘Foreign
Friends of Bangladesh Award,’ in relation to the separation of East Pakistan.
For this aim, several foreign friends who included various institutions and
media anchors from various countries, particularly India were invited. The main
purpose behind was to distort the image of Pakistan and its armed forces regarding
alleged atrocities, committed against the Bengalis. Notably, in December, 2012,
Prime Minister Hasina had refused to attend D-8 conference in Islamabad unless
Pakistan tendered apology for the alleged genocide of Bengalis.
While, a famous Bengali
journalist Sarmila Bose authored a book, “Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971
Bangladesh War” after thorough investigation. Her book was published in 2011.
While countering exaggerations of the Indian and Bengali Journalists, Bose
argues that the number of Bengalis killed in 1971 was not three million, but
around 50,000, while Bengalis were equally involved in the bloodshed of
Punjabis, Biharis, Pashtoons and Balochis.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
was already in connivance with India for separation of East Pakistan. Therefore,
when East Pakistan was occupied by Indian Army in 1971, he stated with pleasure
that his 24 years old dream of an independent Bangladesh had been fulfilled.
While commenting upon 1971 tragedy, Indra Gandhi clearly divulged Indian
hegemonic designs by saying “Today we have sunken Two Nation Theory in bay of
Bengal.”
Majib had earlier
developed his contacts with Indian rulers and training camps of Mukti Bahini,
established by Indian army and RAW which also funded Mujibur Rehman’s general
elections in 1970.
Undoubtedly, various
anti-Pakistan developments such as Modi’s open confession regarding Indian
support to militants of Mukti Bahini, his arrival in Dhaka to receive award of
Atal Bihari Vajpai, presentation of ‘Surrender Ceremony’ photograph by
Bangladeshi leader to Modi, ruthless death sentences to Jamat-e-Islami
Pro-Pakistan leaders under highly doubtful and objectionable trials etc. show
that Indo-Bangladesh media nexus backed by RAW has become more active for last
4/5 years to create mistrust among people of Bangladesh against Pakistan.
Nonetheless, Like the
Mumbai terror attacks, Indian RAW arranged the attack on the Indian Parliament.
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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