Author: Indrani Begchi
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: October 3, 2001
Introduction: Jaswant asks us to
join fight against Pak-sponsored terror network
Jaswant Singh used an impromptu
'drop-in' by George Bush yesterday to make a strong argument with the US
leadership that the Al Qaida, ISI and the Taliban were all seamlessly welded
into an international network of terrorism with its epicentre in Pakistan-Afghanistan.
Echoing the sentiments of the prime
minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in his letter to George Bush, the foreign
minister said it would be a mistake to believe that taking out Al Qaida
in Afghanistan would eliminate terrorism in the world. As he prepares to
meet the vice-president, Dick Cheney and his counterparts Colin Powell
and Donald Rumsfeld today, Jaswant Singh will lay out the full nine yards
regarding the intimate relations between the Jaish-e-Mohammed which carried
out yesterday's attacks, the US-banned HUM, the ISI and the Al Qaida.
India came away from a 'candid and
productive" meeting with Rice and Bush yesterday with a positive endorsement
from the US leadership that the battle against terrorism was for the long
haul, and that the US was indeed looking beyond Osama bin Laden and the
Taliban in their "resolve" to fight terror. But for the present, the US
would concentrate on weeding out bin Laden and the Taliban as US public
opinion is steadily calling for action.
The meeting was positive from the
Indian viewpoint in that the President Bush and other US functionaries
acknowledged that yesterday's attack in Srinagar was the handiwork of Al
Qaida.
But it failed to clear the ambiguities
in the US stand as to when exactly. It will get down to targeting terrorists
operating in J&K. Speaking to newspersons later, Mr Singh confirmed
this perception: 'The US is focussing upon the Al Qaida just now and so
far, keeping its focus on one particular organisation and afterwards focussing
on others. I understand that position, but I made the point about the dual
purpose of terrorism, terrorism that operates under one name in one place
and under some other name in some other place. 'India's concerns are also
based on the fact that some recent reports in the US have categorised terrorists
in Kashmir valley as 'guerrilla fighters.'
India's fears could have been assuaged,
even more than the reassuring words of the president, say sources, if the
US had used this opportunity to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Toiba
after yesterday's horrific incidents in J&K.
But earlier, these outfits were
not included in the list due to the State Department playing its own politics.
Now, as the US courts Pakistan once again, Washington is unwilling to overload
the agenda for Pakistan by proscribing these organisations.
