India’s efforts to have Pakistan censured by the United Nations Sanctions Committee for having released Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes, were surprisingly blocked by China on June 23 on the specious plea that India had not provided sufficient information.
While China showed that its friendship with Pakistan is indeed “higher than the mountains, deeper than the oceans and sweeter than honey,” it appears to have forgotten that it is itself a victim of terrorist activity that has its roots on Pakistani soil. Only a day after this gross error of judgement, 18 Uighur policemen were killed in Xinjiang, China’s restive north-western province. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), that receives weapons and equipment from Pakistan-based terrorist organisations, has been blamed for the killings.
Last week, the US State Department said in its annual report on terrorism that Pakistan has not taken any action against the anti-India Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which continues to “operate, train, rally, propagandise and fundraise” despite having been banned. The Afghan Taliban, including the Haqqani Network, are still being provided safe haven in Pakistan even as the army battles organisations such as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that threaten its integrity.
Pak ISI on the Loose
Pakistan’s ISI has for long been directing trans-Durand Line hit-and-run strikes from safe havens on Pakistani territory against targets in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar’s Quetta Shoora, the Paktia-based Haqqani Network and the Hizb-e-Islami, founded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, all operate out of bases inside Pakistan. Pakistani Ulema Council chairman Tahir Ashrafi sought to “legitimise” the Taliban insurgency by saying that suicide attacks in Afghanistan were permitted under Islam as long as US forces were present.
General Sher Mohammad Karimi, Chief of Staff of the Afghan army, said during an interview with the BBC some time ago, that the war with the Taliban would be over in weeks if Pakistan so wished. Hanif Atmar, the Afghan NSA, has identified threats from five types of terror networks — the Afghan Taliban, the TTP and the LeT, the al-Qaeda, Islamic State or “Da’esh” and Chinese groups like the ETIM. The Afghan National Security Council (NSC) has called for Pakistan’s ISI to be blacklisted.
Indian assets in Afghanistan have been repeatedly targeted by Pakistan’s so-called ‘strategic assets’. The ISI continues to sponsor terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India. While there have been no large-scale attacks such as the 26/11 operation, a large number of smaller incidents have occurred fairly regularly.
J&K Continues to Reel
In J&K, infiltration along the LoC has been increasing and there have been more incidents of violence in the last two years than in previous years. Wireless intercepts and the interrogation of arrested Jihadi extremists reveal direct linkages with ISI handlers based in PoK and Pakistan. The ISI provides funding, weapons, training and intelligence support to the infiltrating groups. The Pakistan army helps them to cross the LoC by providing covering fire.
The Pakistan government continues to claim that it provides only ‘diplomatic, political and moral’ support to Kashmiri ‘freedom fighters’.
Through a process of slow motion implosion, Pakistan is gradually becoming a failed state. Its integrity has never before been threatened the way it is now due to internal instability, radical extremism, creeping Talibanisation, fissiparous tendencies, sectarian violence and a sliding economy. Yet, despite the risk of disintegration due to internal strife, the Pakistan army and the ISI continue to sponsor terrorist strikes in Afghanistan and India.
Sanctions May Work
The international community must censure Pakistan in the strictest possible terms and give the government six months’ time to stop destabilising its neighbours. Failing satisfactory progress, UN-approved economic, military and travel-related sanctions should be imposed on Pakistan.
Also, countries supplying weapons and defence equipment to Pakistan must stop doing so. Military aid strengthens the Pakistan army and gives it greater confidence to operate with impunity. It also enables the army to drive Pakistan’s foreign and security policies, denying the elected civilian government its legitimate right to guide policy.
The time has come to stop mollycoddling the Pakistan army on the grounds that it must be supported in order to ensure that its nuclear weapons do not fall into Jihadi hands. This is a bogey that has been perpetuated by the Pakistan army to enable it to continue to call the shots in Pakistan’s polity. The ‘deep state’ and its strategic assets must be gradually dismantled.
(The writer is former Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi)
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