Author: Minhaz Merchant
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 20, 2005
With the arrest of Tariq Dar, the "white-collar" Pakistan-financed Lashkar-e-Toiba suspect in the Delhi serial blasts, the question resurfaces: Can India trust General Musharraf on his promise to dismantle Islamabad's infrastructure of terror? The short answer: No.
The Pakistani president has a history of going back on his word. He has broken his promise to his own citizens to step down as Army chief. He has reneged on the commitment he made to the international community to hunt down top leaders of al-Qaeda who continue to hide, under the watchful eye of the ISI, in Waziristan in north-west Pakistan. He has not delivered on his promise to the Indian Government to turn off the tap of money and training for Pakistan- and PoK-based terrorists.
Musharraf proffers two excuses for this. One, he does not have control over fringe terrorist groups who act unilaterally. Two, that he is a victim, not a sponsor, of terrorism and that al-Qaeda has repeatedly tried to assassinate him. Both claims are nonsense.
Musharraf and the ISI-military establishment have a vice-like grip over every major terrorist outfit in Pakistan and PoK. It has been long standing State policy for Pakistan to fund, train and arm terrorists for militant attacks in J&K to pressurise New Delhi into concessions on the Valley. This state of conflict serves Musharraf's need to divert his citizens' attention from the issues that bedevil Pakistan - sectarianism, feudalism and lack of democracy.
Under his dictatorship, international criminals like Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar have found safe haven in Pakistan. To the Americans, Musharraf has sold the story that he is a moderate Islamic leader in a volatile region surrounded by fundamentalists.
The Americans have to go along because they are militarily over-stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan. American policymakers have decided that a Musharraf-led Pakistan which confines its terrorism to India is an acceptable compromise in return for an otherwise relatively stable south-central Asia where Musharraf functions as the west's local hired gun.
Musharraf has fed this strategy by exaggerating the threat to his life from Pakistan-based fundamentalists. Again, the Americans are not so naïve as to believe the General who they know hunts with the hounds and runs with the hares. But as part of their overall strategy, they have to buy his story. Meanwhile, Musharraf - the man who as Army chief in 1999 instigated the Kargil invasion - is being cornered at home by the rising chorus for democracy and India's demand for zero tolerance to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in the Valley.
Musharraf, however, cannot deliver on his
promise to restore real democracy at home because that would end his career.
And he won't stop sponsoring terrorism in the Valley because that would deprive
Pakistan of its cut-bleed-and-negotiate policy on J&K.
Militant outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed
have now set up active cells in Indian metros to increase the pressure on
the Indian Government. The Students Islamic Movement of India has combined
to give Musharraf and the ISI enough inflammatory fodder with which to harry
India.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been less assertive in condemning Pakistan's role in inflicting terror on India. Musharraf publicly praised the Indian Prime Minister as a "sincere man" who genuinely wanted the peace process to move forward on the back of various confidence building measures (CBMs). Musharraf has had a single point agenda: Kashmir. Unless the Indian Government hardens its stand, engages in assertive diplomacy and tells Musharraf bluntly that Pakistan has no locus standi on J&K, terrorism will remain in the Valley.
(The author is Chairman of the Business Barons publishing group)