The Hindu Business Line : Cross-border terror — The uncomfortable questions

One has little hope that Pakistan will carry out a sincere investigation after obtaining the evidence. But more worrying is that plots hatched across the border involve Indian accomplices.

Islamabad had protested strongly when New Delhi decided to put on hold the India-Pakistan peace dialogue following the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in July. But it is evident now that this decision was more than justified.

On Saturday, the Mumbai police put an end to the frustration felt by the city's residents and, indeed, by most Indians, that investigations into one of the most heinous terrorist acts in recent times seemed to be going nowhere and that the perpetrators were still at large. The Mumbai Police Commissioner, Mr A. N. Roy, has now announced that investigations clearly show Pakistan's ISI had planned and aided the operation.

The blasts that killed 181 people and injured 700 also showed fingerprints of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, as well as the banned outfit SIMI. Some of the arrested were members of the LeT and had received terror training in camps in Pakistan.

One of the chilling details revealed by the Mumbai police is that seven teams of two militants each were formed to set off the seven blasts, and the distressing part is that one member of each team was an Indian, the other being a Pakistani. While four of the Indian terrorists have been arrested, six of the Pakistani bombers escaped, and the seventh was killed in the blast at Khar station.

One other detail of the operation points to the spreading tentacles of the terror network set up to harm India and Indians. Apparently 11 Pakistanis had entered India through Nepal, Bangladesh and the Gujarat border.

Pakistan denial

As expected, Pakistan immediately denied any involvement of the ISI and demanded evidence, which the Foreign Secretary, Mr Shiv Shanker Menon, and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, have said will be provided.

But the belligerence from across the border shows no sign of abating. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ms Tasnim Aslam has rubbished the Mumbai police's statement on the ISI involvement as a "propagandist" exercise and categorically rejected suggestions that the accused in the plot be "handed over" to India.

Of course, the promise is that if India provides evidence, those accused will be brought to justice. Experience has taught us that such assurances mean nothing. It is ironic that our neighbour bends over backwards to hunt down and hand over Al Qaeda operatives to the US, albeit at a price, as Gen Musharraf has admitted in his autobiography In the Line of Fire, while resorting to denial and defiance in its stance on terror vis-à-vis India. But, then, if the ISI has indeed "masterminded" the terror plot, obviously the Pakistan government, headed by a General of an army whose vital component the ISI is, is hardly likely to help us nab the culprits.

But while we do not, and cannot, expect sincerity from across the border in bringing the perpetrators of the July blasts to justice, what we would like to hear, and see, are some strong words from the Bush-Blair duo.

The American President, Mr George Bush, is ready to chant the anti-terror mantra to anybody who cares to listen. And, as he is a typical second-term US President, out to reform the world — if anything, Mr Bush is taking this role much more seriously than his predecessors who enjoyed the privilege of two terms — he would do well to give Gen Musharraf a stern lecture on the subject.

Belligerent General

But, these days, buoyed by his successful book tours and the overwhelming media focus on his autobiographical volume, even the hitherto `co-operative' General is flexing his muscles and ticking off the "Western powers." In the UK to promote his book last week, the General was miffed at a leaked British intelligence agency report that pointed a finger at the ISI for fomenting radical Islam by encouraging the Taliban and Al Qaeda elements.

Even as the BBC reported this, a furious Gen Musharraf launched a blistering attack on the West for doubting Pakistan's role in fighting terrorism and fumed that the US and the UK had to understand that Pakistan was the "West's main ally. If we were not with you, you won't manage anything... You'll be brought down to your knees if Pakistan doesn't co-operate with you. Let that be clear And, if the ISI is not with you, you will fail."

With such touching pride in the ISI, what hope do we have of getting any help at all from our neighbour in punishing the perpetrators of 7/11?

But against the shrill protestations from the Pakistani administration, there was the trademark, dignified response from our Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, who has said that India will test the waters and the utility of having a joint mechanism with Pakistan in combating terror, as envisaged in the Havana declaration.

Reiterating that India would share the evidence it has about the Pakistan hand in the Mumbai blasts, he added that by doing so India would "ascertain how sincere they are in carrying forward the commitment that I and President Musharraf have underlined in our joint statement."

One has little hope that Pakistan will carry out a really sincere investigation after obtaining the evidence — after all, the instigator of a crime needs no evidence of his own actions — but what is more worrying is that plots hatched across the border involve so many accomplices from the Indian Muslim community.

Uncomfortable questions

Why should Indian Muslims cross the border, undergo training in Pakistani camps and return to unleash terror in their own land? This is a question to be asked not only by the government and the majority community but also by the Indian Muslims themselves. As the police complete investigations into such acts of terror, we find again and again that those implicated and arrested are not the poor, illiterate, unemployed Indian Muslims, but educated ones, including medical doctors.

Some hard questions have to be asked, and answered, by all sections of society, including the Muslims, on why a segment of the community, however minuscule, is amenable to indoctrination, resulting in their hating the land that is home to them. After all, pride in one's nationality is no small matter, and is on a par with pride in one's lineage, family, education, and so on.

No grievances or frustrations can justify resort to violence that harms the interests of one's own country and people but if an honest effort is made to research why this is happening and a sincere attempt made to arrive at the remedial measures, we might yet be able to contain this menace.

The measures required are not appeasement but equal opportunities and elimination of bias from people's minds and hearts when dealing with the minority community. This is a tall order indeed, but if a country such as the UK can made a serious effort to understand the psyche of its Muslim citizens, most of them immigrants, and make their policies more inclusive, surely we can make a beginning in doing so for that alienated section of Indian Muslims who are sadly becoming puppets in the hands of plotters abroad.

There is no doubt that those who have joined hands with terrorists to kill innocent people should not be spared. In this context, one is astonished at the rising crescendo of voices to save Mohammed Afzal Guru, sentenced to death for the attack on Parliament.

One can understand his family members asking for a review of his death penalty, claiming that he has not got a fair trial. Any family would do that.

The resentment in the Kashmir Valley against his hanging can also be understood to some extent. But for the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, a Congressman, and the National Conference icon, Mr Farooq Abdullah, to join the chorus to save this criminal is bizarre.

The Congress' ally PDP might have come to power with some support from the separatist forces in Kashmir, but for elected representatives to point a finger at the country's judicial system at the highest level, and that too in a case as grave as that pertaining to the attack on Parliament, does not augur well.

As the elected head of the State, Mr Azad's seeking clemency for one guilty of a crime against the country is irresponsible, to say the least.

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in