Iqbal Khan
FORMER US President Barack Obama has made interesting comments about the utility of sustaining anti-Pakistan sentiment in India. The quickest route to national unity in India is “expressing hostility toward Pakistan,” commented Obama, in his new book, “A Promised Land.” Book was released on November17. Former Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh had told Obama, in November 2010 that he feared “rising anti-Muslim sentiment had strengthened the influence of Hindu nationalist BJP”. Obama quoted Singh as saying that the “call of religious and ethnic solidarity can be intoxicating” for politicians, particularly in a country like India. “Violence, both public and private, remained an all-too-pervasive part of Indian life. “Despite its genuine economic progress, … India remained a chaotic and impoverished place: largely divided by religion and caste, captive to the whims of corrupt local officials and power brokers, hamstrung by a parochial bureaucracy that was resistant to change,” Obama added.
Envoys of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, stationed in Islamabad, were briefed by Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary on 16 November regarding the “Dossier on Indian State Sponsorship of Terrorism”. The Dossiers containing irrefutable evidence of India’s state sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan were handed over to them. The Dossier presented by Pakistan extensively documents India’s active planning, promoting, aiding, abetting, financing and execution of terrorist activities against Pakistan. Since 2001, Pakistan has faced more than 19,000 terrorist attacks on its soil and suffered 83,000 causalities. The direct economic losses have been upward of US $ 126 billion. Meanwhile, India has mischievously masqueraded as a ‘victim’ of terrorism and sought to mislead the international community by hypocritically levelling terrorism-related allegations against Pakistan. It has also conducted false flag operations in IIOJK and inside India to malign Pakistan. That façade has now been removed and the world can see the real face of India.
The most familiar and undeniable face of India’s state-sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan is active service Indian Navy Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was caught red-handed in March 2016. His complicity in subversion, sabotage and terrorism in Pakistan is part of the incontrovertible evidence against India. The world is also familiar with “saffron terror” orchestrated and unleashed by the RSS-BJP zealots against Muslims in India and against Pakistan. Masterminds of Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Dargah and Samjhota Express terrorist cases, like Swami Aseemanand, have been granted full state protection and acquitted in complete travesty of justice after having confessed to India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA).Open threats to Pakistan by Indian civilian and military leaders, India’s sinister design to subvert China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and public statements by noted Indian politicians and senior security officials on ‘teaching Pakistan’ a lesson through use of terrorism constitute further incriminating evidence.
The rising foot print of Daesh and Al-Qaida in India has been pointed out in recent UN reports, this indicates that India is emerging as a hotbed of UN designated international terrorist organizations and posing a great risk to the region. Recent revelations by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) files illustrate how India uses its financial system for money laundering and other illegal activities such as terror financing — brazenly and with impunity. FinCEN is a Bureau of the US Department of the Treasury. Use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy by India makes it culpable under international law, UN sanctions regime and international counter-terrorism conventions. It is the collective responsibility of the world community to hold India to account and take practical steps to proceed against the Indian nationals involved in patronage of terrorist entities.
Speaking at a joint news conference, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Babar Iftikhar said that India’s sole agenda was to damage Pakistan economically, diplomatically and politically. They said that India was sponsoring terrorism designed to destabilise Pakistan and targeting its economic partnership with China. “India is allowing its land to be used against Pakistan for terrorism,” said FM Qureshi, adding New Delhi was also planning attacks from neighbouring countries. The military spokesperson accused India of sponsoring banned organizations including UN-designated terrorist groups like: Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, and Allah Nazar’s Baloch Liberation Army. He said that Pakistan expected the international community to play its role for peace and stability by compelling India to immediately halt its state sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan and bring to justice all those involved in financing and supporting terrorism inside Pakistan according to domestic and international laws. The DG ISPR showed documents proving Indian intelligence agencies’ links with the terrorists involved in subversive activities in Pakistan.
India has established multi-purpose terrorist base camps for training, harbouring and launching of terrorists into Pakistan. Indian intelligence agencies are managing 87 such terrorists’ camps out of which 66 are located in Afghanistan whereas 21 were located in India. The DG ISPR said it had been revealed that Indian intelligence agencies are trying to establish Pakistan’s linkage with ISIS by creating Daesh-e-Pakistan.’ The DG ISPR said Indian intelligence agencies were also trying to establish Daesh-e-Pakistan. “Recently, 20 Indian Daesh militants have been relocated from India to camps along the Pak-Afghan border. These militants were handed over to Daesh Commander Sheikh Abdul Rahim, alias Abdul Rehman Muslim Dost,” he said.
New Delhi has three objectives in derailing Pakistan’s journey towards peace, upending economic growth and fostering political stability. “Their first objective is to create hindrance in Pakistan’s move towards peace. India cannot accept that Pakistan has defeated terrorism and is moving towards peace and is promoting nationalism and sub-nationalism in Gilgit-Baltistan, the tribal districts, and Balochistan,” he said. The second objective, Qureshi said, was “to ensure Pakistan does not become economically stable. Citing India’s push for Pakistan to be blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force. The Foreign Minister said India was creating obstacles in Pakistan’s path towards prosperity. “Their third objective is political instability aimed at destabilising the country.” As usual India went into a denial-cum-victimhood mode. Pakistan has rejected the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ denial of the irrefutable evidence provided by Pakistan on Indian state sponsorship of terrorism. Fully exposed, India has typically resorted to sophistry, obfuscation and re-fabrication. However, bland denials and spewing of old litany of charges, however, will not change facts.
—The writer is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad.
