Kargil represents a fundamentalist threat, says Jaswant
Seema Guha
The Times of India
June 24, 1999
Title: Kargil represents a fundamentalist threat, says Jaswant
Author: Seema Guha
Publication: The Times of India
Date: June 24, 1999
External affairs minister Jaswant Singh said on Wednesday that India
was under threat from the forces of Islamic fundamentalism in Kashmir.
"What we are witnessing in Kargil is not simply treachery, but an
extension of the Afghanistan syndrome.. the so-called freedom-fighters
are a spill-over of Islamic fundamentalists," the minister said in an
exclusive interview to The Times of India.
Mr Singh said Kargil represented a challenge not just to India but to
the international community as well. He said these "forces" had to be
defeated both "conceptually" and on the ground in Kargil. "We are
very mindful of what the true challenge is in Kargil," Mr Singh
added. The minister, for the first time, publicly acknowledged the
government's fear that Islamic fundamentalists who have wracked
neighbouring Afghanistan were now eyeing Kashmir with the objective of
setting up a fundamentalists regime and extending their reach across
frontiers.
It is well-known that the Taliban had its origins in the madrassas or
religious schools of Pakistan. Helped and encouraged by Pakistan,
this handful of zealots had, over the years, become a powerful force
and had succeeded in establishing its control over Afghanistan.
The Pakistani army and the ISI, which had nurtured the Taliban, now
wanted to take their help in stirring up trouble in Kashmir. They
provide the cannon fodder and support for the Pakistan regulars in the
Kargil and Dras sectors.
India's point, it is contended, is that the challenge of
fundamentalism is not just to this country but constitutes a threat to
the world community. Washington knows that in the post-Cold War
world, the principle threat to the U.S. and the rest of the free world
is from terrorist groups and fundamentalists forces. The bombing of
the World Trade Centre and the attacks on the U.S. embassies in
Tanzania and Kenya are pointers of these dangers to the international
community.
Even as Mr Jaswant Sing spoke of the threat of Islamic fundamentalism
in Washington, two U.S. Congressmen wrote to members of the House of
Representatives calling for support to urge Pakistan to withdraw the
intruders. "It is reported that these infiltrators are Afghan and
Pakistani terrorists associated with Osama Bin Laden and the Pakistani
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen," they said.
By drawing attention to Islamic fundamentalism, India wants the world
to pay attention to the kind of threat it is facing in the snowy peaks
of Kashmir.
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