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OPINION

Aftermath of Mumbai Blasts
ALLABAKSH

[It is time for India to decide whether the absence of ‘tough’ laws or factors like ill-equipped and short staffed counter terrorism forces that have resulted in India becoming a soft target for terrorists. Also to be considered is how to hasten the process of trial of terrorists because prolonged detention of a terrorist helps him to use the long jail sojourn in making new contacts, which helps them in recruiting men and arranging safe havens. Yet another danger from such detentions, especially the ‘high value’ ones, is that their patrons would try to get them out through ‘unconventional’ methods like they did in respect of Mohammad Azhar, says the author]

Nearly 13 years after a serial blast that took 250 lives in the metropolis, Mumbai, the financial capital of India, was rocked on July 11 by seven coordinated attacks within a matter of about 11 minutes on the suburban railway network during the evening peak hour. Living up to their valiant reputation, the Mumbaikars were on their feet the next morning. The blasts have also sent some messages that need to be mulled over both by the government and the class of politicians who do not hesitate to exploit a tragedy for their narrow partisan ends.

The first reaction of nearly every security expert in the country was to point out that the Mumbai attacks could not have taken place without the help of Pakistan-based outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Some other have drawn parallel with the London and Madrid attacks, suggesting that Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, which has included the ‘Hindus’ among its declared list of enemies (Christians and Jews) that it wants to annihilate has started to hit targets in India too.

There is no need to look for contradictions here. The terrorist organisations in Pakistan came up with the backing of Pakistan’s ISI which crated the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban in turn aligned itself with Al Qaeda and now about the only safe haven for the two organisations is in Pakistan. Islamabad has tacitly converted its tribal regions as the hiding place for the top operatives of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda, including Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, as also the Indian don, Dawood Ibrahim.

For too long have the Pakistan-based terrorist played with the blood of innocent Indians. At one time India had refused to talk to Pakistan unless it stopped backing the terrorists. India has also been asking Pakistan—in vain-- to stop them from crossing the border. International pressure forced both India and Pakistan to start a so-called peace dialogue. Time has come now for India to tell Pakistan that its support to terrorists’ activities in India and the peace dialogue cannot go hand in hand. Of course, Pakistan would be happy to hear that, providing it an opportunity to malign India and also keep the Kashmir pot boiling—just what the Pakistani military wants.

That kind of risk may have to be taken because the patience of ordinary Indians has begun to wear thin in the face of continuous killings of the innocents in different parts of the country by Pakistan-backed and trained terrorists. With complaints of Pakistan’s support to terrorism reaching the US from Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai too, Washington would probably see the reason behind the threat of the ‘dialogue’ with Pakistan being suspended. Can there be any real peace talk with a Pakistan that clandestinely sustains a bloodthirsty campaign against India?

Official investigations into the July 11 attacks in Mumbai will take a long time to be completed and it is only then that the government will formally identify the force or the forces behind the July 11 attacks. But the unofficial identification of the perpetrators looks plausible enough. In recent months, a number of terrorist modules have been interdicted and a lot of explosives recovered. Investigations into these cases have established the hand of Pakistan-based LeT and other terrorist organisations that have begun to use Bangladesh cities like Dhaka and Chittagong as their headquarters. Pakistan’s ISI seems to have outsourced anti-India terrorist assignments to extreme Islamist groups in Bangladesh, which has become a second home to Pakistan’s ISI. Bangladesh locations make it easier for the ISI to patronise Indian rebels from the North East.

Whatever its current name, the Lashkar-e-Taiba continues to have its headquarters in Muridke, near Lahore. The authorities in Islamabad are not willing to be tough against the LeT and similar terrorist organisations. The kind of attacks these organisations carry out against India suit the anti-India policy the GHQ pursues, sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly.

The government of India has to tell the Pakistanis in no uncertain terms that it should stop fooling India and the world by pretending that a proscribed terrorist outfit becomes a saintly organisation once it acquires a new alias? In the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake of 2005 the ‘banned’ terrorist outfits in Pakistan, wearing new jerseys, had come out in the open and Gen Pervez Musharraf had declared that he would not stop them from becoming active because they were doing a ‘good’ work.

Pakistan has always been impatient in seeking a favourable resolution of the Kashmir ‘dispute’, which it calls the ‘core issue’. Foreign Minister Kasuri’s comment linking the ‘non-resolution’ of bilateral disputes to Mumbai blasts doesn’t come as a surprise therefore. New Delhi should move beyond its normal practices of voicing protests on such occasions. It has to be frank in telling Islamabad that the ‘core issue’ will not make any progress as long as the terrorist organisations it backs target Indians. Pakistan cannot feign ignorance about the presence of terrorists on its soil and the patronage extended to them by the ISI because by now even the Americans have started talking about it openly.

India cannot adopt a tough posture in the matter of continuing the peace dialogue with Pakistan unless the government gets the support of the bulk of the political forces. It is all very well for the BJP to say that the government is ‘soft’ on terrorism but the remedy it suggests, namely the restoration of laws like POTA, will not guarantee the end of attacks on soft targets by terrorists. Merely introducing a ‘tough’ law does not stop these attacks. Being ‘tough’ with terrorists is more important than arming the government with ‘tough’ laws. During BJP’s six-year rule the country had seen even more serious terrorist attacks—on parliament, the Red Fort, a hijacking etc.

The country may also have to decide whether it is the absence of ‘tough’ laws or, as is more likely, other factors that have failed to deter terrorist attacks and the spread of terrorist network in the country. Among these factors can be counted not only the usual suspects such as lethargy and corruption but also the country’s ill-equipped and short-staffed counter-terrorism forces. The terrorists have been able to penetrate areas in the west and south of India, areas which were at one time considered rather immune from the influence of extremism.

The process of trial of terrorist cases also needs to be expedited because a very long detention of a terrorist suspect only increases the chances of his being freed without being convicted. The terrorist suspects use their long jail sojourn in making new contacts, which helps them in recruiting men and arranging safe havens. Yet another danger from a long detention of terrorists, especially the ‘high value’ ones, is that their patrons would sooner or later try to get them out through ‘unconventional’ methods. The infamous Indian Airlines hijack was basically organised—by Pakistan—to secure the release of Masood Azhar and his ilk held in Indian jails.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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