The Hindu Business Line : Washington riveted on Mumbai aftermath

The Indian effort in Washington to spell out the implications of the international community’s failure to close down terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan has been measured. But a few facts need constant repetition, to ensure the world is not misled by the Pakistan President’s pleas for understanding on actions by “non-state actors’, says G. PARTHASARATHY.

As temperatures drop below zero in Washington DC, two domestic subjects dominate the discourse in the American capital — the economic meltdown and the transition to the Obama Administration. Externally, however, the predominant focus remains on the terrorist carnage in Mumbai, whose horrors reached every American home through non-stop television coverage.

A “lame duck” Bush administration is infuriated by the behaviour of its “major non-NATO ally” Pakistan and that country’s attempts to obfuscate, confuse and divert attention from its culpability in what is described as India’s 9/11.

This outrage is tempered by the realisation that 70 per cent of supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan come through Pakistan, where in the last few days the Taliban have struck even in Peshawar, destroying over 200 trucks carrying supplies, including American troop carriers. Thus, while Indian fury at Pakistani culpability is understood and acknowledged, the Americans never tire of counselling “restraint” on an infuriated India.

The Indian effort in Washington to spell out the implications of the international community’s failure to close down terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan has been sophisticated and measured. But a few facts need constant repetition, to ensure the international community is not entirely led away by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s pleas for understanding on actions by “non-state actors’ based in Pakistan — a euphemism for groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Despite protestations to the contrary and demands for evidence, the Pakistan Government has enough evidence about the terrorist attacks carried out by these groups in India. The proposal for a “Joint Investigative Mechanism” by Pakistan is laughable, as that country will stall or deny culpability, as it has done on the presence of Dawood Ibrahim in Karachi, whose mansion I have, incidentally, driven past in 1999.

One does not provide evidence to a burglar in the investigation of a burglary! But New Delhi will now have to bring out a White Paper detailing the evidence the world has from writings in the Pakistan media and by prominent Pakistanis such as Ahmed Rashid, Amir Mir and Shuja Nawaz which give graphic details of the ISI nexus with terrorist groups.

Feigned innocence

On December 13, 2001, terrorists stormed India’s Parliament and were gunned down by alert security personnel. Investigations revealed that the terrorists had come from Pakistan and worked together with local contacts. I recall accompanying a Parliamentary delegation to Arab countries, giving them details of evidence we had, including wireless intercepts, and describing how the group comprising members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, led by Maulana Masood Azhar, had been in touch with handlers across the border.

Pakistan, however, accused us of indulging in a “blame game” and feigned injured innocence. But on March 6, 2004, Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi, a former Director-General of the ISI and then Pakistan’s Minister for Railways, told Pakistan’s Parliament: “We must not be afraid to admit that the Jaish-e-Mohammed was involved in the deaths of thousands of innocent Kashmiris, the bombing of the Indian Parliament, (American journalist) Daniel Pearl’s murder and an attempt to assassinate President Musharraf.”

Pakistani protestations of injured innocence are not new — Interpol investigations established that the ISI gave hijackers of an Indian Airlines flight a pistol at Lahore airport in 1984. The world must be made aware of these facts when Pakistan demands “evidence” to prosecute Maulana Masood Azhar, when Gen Qazi’s assertion confirms that Pakistan itself has evidence on the role of the Jaish-e-Mohammed in the attack on the Indian Parliament.

Global ramifications

On January 13, 2001, LeT terrorists attacked the Red Fort in Delhi. Shortly thereafter, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed boasted to leaders of religious parties in Pakistan that he had unfurled the Pakistan flag in the capital of the country’s past Muslim rulers! The parent organisation of the LeT, known as Markaz-ud-Dawa, is well-funded, runs Islamic educational institutions and has cadres in Arab Gulf countries. It receives donations within Pakistan as also from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Saeed has been close to the family of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He is a self-confessed terrorist. India doesn’t need to provide “evidence” to Pakistan for Saeed to be prosecuted.

Probably the best description of the Lashkar’s activities has been written by Pakistan’s present Ambassador in Washington, Hussain Haqqani, who acknowledges that the LeT is: “Backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistan’s Intelligence Services”.

The distinguished Ambassador confirms that the Lashkar proclaims: “Muslims ruled Anadalusia (Spain) for 800 years but they were finished to the last man. Christians now rule Spain and we must wrest it back from them. All of India including Kashmir, Hyderabad, Assam, Nepal, Burma, Bihar and Junagadh, were part of the Muslim empire that was lost because Muslims gave up Jihad”.

On Israel, Saeed asserts: “Palestine is occupied by the Jews. The holy Qibla-e-Awwal (First Centre of Prayer) in Jerusalem is under Jewish control.”

Even the Chinese, who have backed their “all-weather friend” Pakistan and blocked the declaration of the Jamat-ud-Dawa as an international terrorist organisation, cannot ignore Saeed’s assertion that: “Several countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Cyprus, Sicily, Ethiopia, Russian Turkmenistan and Chinese Turkistan were Muslim lands and it is our duty to get back these lands from unbelievers”.

He further proclaims: “Jews, Christians and Hindus are enemies of Islam”. It is this blind religious bigotry and hatred for Israel, India, the US and the UK that led to Indians, Israelis, American and British nationals being singled out for massacre by the Lashkar terrorists in Mumbai.

Constrained to act

Over the past four years the Manmohan Singh Government has let the country down by failing to highlight the danger posed by Pakistani jihadi groups, both internationally and domestically. This policy has to be drastically changed.

There has to be a clear focus on establishing not only the motivations and ideologies of groups such as the LeT but also their affiliations with the Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front.

One decision for which the Government has, however, to be commended was its quick realisation that there was no point in negotiating with the terrorists and that the only way out was through commando action.

But the time has come to make it clear that if the international community does not succeed in closing down the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan, including the Lashkar, Jaish and the Muzaffarabad-based United Jihad Council, India will be constrained to act on its own to ensure that the Mumbai outrage is never repeated.

(The author is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

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