Pakistan is totally exposed; naked, liar and shameless country

S Gurumurthy
First Published : 13 Dec 2008 02:34:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 13 Dec 2008 10:50:37 AM IST

NON-STATE Actors”. This new clone from the US diplomatic thesaurus has occupied the centrestage in the Indo-US dialogue on the jihad that maimed Mumbai on November 26-28.

Condoleezza Rice, the American Secretary of State, managed to smuggle some anonymous “non-state actors” into the diplomatic theatre of US and India when she came to Delhi on December 3.

By “non-state actors” she meant not just the 10 jihadis who killed 200 and injured 300 in three days, but all those who had conspired, trained, equipped, financed, transported and guided them into Mumbai all the way from Karachi.

India has evidence, says the media, to prove that the 10 jihadis who were Pakistanis came from Karachi; that through sat-phone, they had kept their masters in Pakistan informed of their movement and action; that the Pakistan navy and the ISI were involved in training them and hundreds more like them who are still in reserve for future jihads on India.

Indian intelligence claims to have more evidence of the guilt of Pakistan as a state. The US intelligence, reports the US media, has even better proof of the ISI role in the jihad on Mumbai. Yet for Condoleezza Rice “non-state actors”, not the state of Pakistan, was guilty of the jihad on India.

As Rice spoke of “non-state actors”, on the same day in Islamabad, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari blamed some anonymous ‘stateless actors’ - so, not Pakistanis - for the jihad on Mumbai. He said that, as India itself says, Pakistan was as much a victim of jihadis as India.

Which Indian said Pakistan was a terror victim? Believe it. It was the Indian Prime Minister who declared last year that Pakistan too was a terror victim. By this self-goal against India, Manmohan Singh totally destroyed the credible case that India had built over two decades that Pakistan was a merchant of jihad and India, its principal victim.

More. In neither of his two speeches on Mumbai terror, did Manmohan Singh have the guts to say that while the hands that hit India might have been non-state actors’, the brain that directed the jihad was the ISI’s. Even an adversary of India would not have damaged the nation’s interest like the Prime Minister himself has.

Even Pranab Mukherjee would hold the ISI as the brain behind the attack when he addressed the Lok Sabha on December 11. Was this restraint part of the deal with the US that India would not blame Pakistan as terror sponsor? Back to Rice. When she landed in Delhi, the Indian establishment was almost sure - on what basis, God knows - that the US would exert to tell Pakistan to confess its guilt and surrender the 20 fugitive jihadis hiding in Pakistan and what not.

But see what happened. It did not need a seer to say that the mission of Rice was chiefly to console the grieving Indians, clam their anger and finally defuse the rising tension between the hurt India and the guilty Pakistan. Her mission met with total success, thanks to a government that is impotent even in the choice of words. She made ‘the right noises’ and praised our media. She declared that ‘Pakistan needed to mount a robust response’, ‘investigate the role of the nonstate actors in the terror’ against India, and assured Indians that ‘Pakistan would co-operate with India’ in tracking down the jihadi conspiracy.

But see what she did on the very next day, December 4, in Islamabad. She said she was ‘satisfied with Pakistan’s readiness to help India to probe the Mumbai terror attackers’. And on this self-serving satisfaction, she even certified that the ‘Pakistani leadership is focussed and committed to act’. Act against whom? The faceless ‘non-state actors’? More. A day before she visited Islamabad, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen was in Pakistan’s capital. He had reportedly told the Pakistan government that the US itself had proof of the involvement of the ISI in the attack. Yet Rice talked about ‘nonstate actors’ as the culprits! Why will the state of Pakistan act against the jihadis when, despite its own ISI and Army being involved in jihad on Mumbai, Rice exonerates them both? Most experts on terrorism are stunned at the sophisticated jihad on Mumbai and the original thinking and complicated planning that had gone into it. No one is left in doubt that the logistics for this kind of jihad could only have been provided by Pakistan’s state apparatus. But Pakistan is, as it has always been, in lies and denials. It has even refused to accept the bodies of the killed jihadis, as that may amount to part confession of guilt.

Remember. It had refused to take the bodies of the soldiers in the Kargil war, because it would prove what it was denying, namely that it was the aggressor.

That Pakistan always lies, including now, is not unknown to the US. It suffers Pakistan’s lies. Why? The US needs, so forces, Pakistan to battle the al-Qaeda and Taliban on the western front. Pakistan is keen to escape this forced obligation.

The US can’t talk about it as that would expose the super power’s weakness.

Now, if the US forced Pakistan on India’s behalf on Mumbai jihad, the Islamic ally of US might refuse to do the US bidding on the western front.

The US is keen that Pakistan is not engaged on the east by India as that will give Pakistan an acceptable alibi to escape its obligation to the US to fight the jihadis on the west. The US cannot like it nor afford it. It is virtually held to ransom by its Islamic military ally. Because, for the US, Pakistan fighting the Taliban is more important than preventing Pakistan from doing stealthy jihads on India.

This is the reality. And India must face it.

The ban on Jamat-ud-Dawah in the name of which the banned LeT was functioning, or the house arrest of the LeT chief or declaring Hamid Gul and others as terrorists are just a theatrical show.

The truth is not so well hidden if the history of Islamist terror is recapitulated.

The US encouraged Pakistan’s ISI and its Army to forge the ‘Taliban’ to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan. Actually, the Taliban is the joint product of the US and Pakistan. As the ISI and Pakistan’s army Talibanised the youth of Pakistan, they too got Talibanised with jihadi mindset. The al-Qaeda is the grandchild through the Taliban.

The Hindu legend of Bhasmasura says that once such a force is created the creator becomes its first victim. So, the Taliban and the al-Qaeda tested their skills on the US on 9/11. The US knows that jihadis constitute a half of Pakistan establishment. It does not mind if that half of Pakistan state targets India in the east, so long as the other half battles the Taliban-al-Qaeda in the west.

QED: Pakistan is sufficiently exposed as a terror merchant. It is the US which needs to be exposed as trader in terror.

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