The expose of the double talk by a Pak minister (regarding the running of terror camps for training jehadis in Pak-occupied Kashmir) by a visiting Hurriyat leader in Islamabad has queered the pitch for Musharraf.
It has visibly altered the peace equation which has patiently been built by India, with Musharraf making various kinds of noises, some approving, some jarring, some temperamental and some inconsequential. JKLF leader Yasin Malik’s disclosure that Pak minister of information Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has been of immense help in setting up a huge terrorist camp for training infiltrators into India gives another view of why Musharraf is always saying that he cannot blow a whistle and stop militant attacks in Kashmir.
New Delhi’s stern reaction that it is contrary to the assurances given by Musharrafis apt. What is more, many terrorists camps are still working in full swing and people who occupy ministerial positions in Musharraf’s government are directly involved. The Pak minister has dismissed Malik’s thankful reference to the minister’s good offices rather lightly, saying that there are any number of Sheikh Rashids in Pakistan.
But the minister’s denial fools not many in Pakistan itself. A ranking journalist in Pakistan, Hamid Mir has confirmed that the terrorist camp whose patron saint is Sheikh Rashid, the present minister for information, is no secret. The camp became non-functional, when the Pak establishment began favouring Hizbul Mujahideen which was also supported by Jamat-e- Islami.
The Pak journalist has confirmed that more ministers of the Musharraf government are behind other terror camps. The Government of India has taken a stern view of the latest disclosure. Coming back to Sheikh Rashid, the information minister, he is the one who very badly wants to take a bus ride to Srinagar by the end of this month.
His visit cannot be smooth. Why, even the continuance of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus is itself in jeopardy, if the beastly attack on school children and a CRPF camp by a suicide bomber indicates the shape of things to come. The diabolic bestiality of those behind the Pulwama school attack on the pretext of upholding some unknown Islamic cause is a blot on Pakistan and the holy tenets of Islam.
Washington has condemned the Pulwama school murders, as peace ``overtures are under way’’. The people’s anger against this inhuman attack on children is spreading. The rumours being spread by a section of insensate and hateful Hurriyat leaders that the attack was made from an aircraft should be scotched here and now.
These murderers of children should
be exposed with the help of the local citizens. As long as a section of
militants think that by killing school children, they can attain their
goals, with Pakistan looking the other way, New Delhi’s confidence-building
measures will remain one-sided. Obviously the international community is
fed up with Pak tactics, when it is a party to killing children.