EDITORIAL: The international community will have to take Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar’s assertion, that no country has used terrorism better than India, very seriously because she claims Pakistan has “undeniable, indisputable” evidence of Delhi’s involvement in a bomb blast in Lahore last year that took four lives.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah also put the blame squarely on India in a press conference a day earlier, elaborating that Islamabad had already taken its case to the United Nations (UN).
Interestingly, Khar also put the spotlight on India’s “clear, simple, glaring hypocrisy” as it always uses terrorism against Pakistan and then also plays the victim card. But now that Pakistan has shared a new dossier with the UN Security Council and intends to approach the secretary general as well, clearly laying out all the evidence against New Delhi and its clandestine activities inside Pakistan, she expects the international community to finally call India’s bluff and “call a spade a spade”.
The bomb blast in Lahore occurred last summer, not far from the residence of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, just when Pakistan was desperately trying to get out of FATF’s (Financial Action Task Force’s) grey list, and now Islamabad seems to have proof that its hunch that India was sabotaging its efforts was right.
It’s already an established fact that Indian intelligence runs sleeper cells in Pakistan. No better example than the Kulbhushan Jadhav case to back that claim. And while there’s no doubt that the security establishment is acting on its own intelligence and cleaning house, it is important to note that no outside agency can successfully operate in the country unless there are collaborators on the inside.
It’s also pretty clear that India is increasing its efforts to destabilise Pakistan, which means that we should expect a flurry of intel-based operations to neutralise foreign agents among us. That will achieve the twin objectives of making Pakistan safer and gathering yet more intel to deliver to the UN and other important international forums.
Pakistan has made very serious charges against India yet again. And since it has all the necessary evidence to back its claims, the coming weeks and months ought to put the government, especially the diplomatic corps, to a very stiff test.
Terrorism is what international foreign and security policy has predominantly revolved around for the last two decades, after all, and India has always played the main role in portraying Pakistan as a sponsor of terror of sorts.
Yet now we have the evidence to show that we were right and they were wrong. Khar was also right to point out that unlike India, we did not point fingers immediately after the terror attack last year. Instead we waited till all investigation was complete and proper evidence had been gathered.
It is now up to institutions like the UN and influential and powerful countries like the US to take note of Pakistan’s concerns. Islamabad must first approach all relevant institutions, organisations and countries that matter. And if it is still not taken seriously, it should consider going public with its evidence.
India has got so used to getting away with its excesses, be they human rights violations in occupied Kashmir or terrorist activities deep inside Pakistan, precisely because of the lukewarm response of the international community.
It is granted this special place because of the financial benefits its large consumer market delivers to big countries, no doubt, but now things have gone too far.
A thorough and transparent investigation based on evidence presented by Pakistan, carried out by the most credible international organisations, would be the correct way to get the ball rolling on this issue.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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