Author: Joginder Singh
Publication: Organiser
Date: March 18, 2001
Introduction: The relationship with
Pakistan depends on substantial reduction in its support to terrorists
and its help in stopping their infiltration into India to end cross-border
terrorism. This is the crux of issues between the two countries before
any meaningful dialogue can be started.
Many times a question has been raised
whether Pakistan is a failed state. Certain specific features point out
a sorry state of affairs. There is a constitutional provision (Section.
63, IG) for disenfranchising a person from the voting, if he is "propagating
any opinion or acting in any manner prejudicial to die ideology of Pakistan"-
Every new ruler of Pakistan, and they change like seasons, makes his own
ideology. Any criticism that the ruler of, the day may not approve can
be construed as prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan. No ideology is
immutable. The ideology and approach of one ruler is bound to be different
from the other. In this process, where people always have to look for the
frowns and smiles of the rulers of the day, the question of voicing any
public opinion contrary to that of the establishment, hardly arises. A
breakthrough on the relations with our neighbours depends more on their
deeds than on words. The relationship' with Pakistan depends on substantial
reduction in its support to terrorists and its help in stopping their infiltration
into India to end cross-border terrorism. This is the crux of issues between
the two countries before any meaningful dialogue can be started.
The ultimate sufferers are the common
people of J&K, who have no respite from violence. Even when the Government
is keen for peace initiatives, the terrorists, response has been in the
form of renewed increase in the level of violence. The terrorists by 'selectively
and craftily planning their attacks, have almost completed the ethnic cleansing
from the Valley. Almost the entire Hindu population has been forced out
of their hearth and home in the J&K valley. Sikhs are the next target,
as 40 Sikhs were massacred in Chhattisinghpura. The biggest strike of the
terrorists since the Centre's extension of three months' ceasefire till
May, 2001, has been that, which led to the killing of 17 policemen and
injuring another four on March 1, 2001 near a village in Rajouri district.
Earlier in February, six policemen were killed in a terrorist attack on
the police control room, apart from the loss of life of 11 policemen in
a bomb explosion in Srinagar, in August, 2000. The terrorists' strategy
has now changed and they are now targeting those who stand for the country.
The bigger aim is to demoralise and tie down all security forces, so that
they can have a run of the valley. It may look madness. But there is a
method in this madness.
The following, details of siezures
show the extreme gravity of the situation between 1990 and February 2000,
20,365 AK rifles, 8,825 pistols, 958 UMGs, 757 RPGs, 308 sniper rifles,
615 rocket launchers, 1,687 rocket boosters, 75 LMGs and 25,000 kg of RDX
was recovered.
Between 1990 and December 1998,
in Jammu and Kashmir alone, 7,776 terrorists were killed and 24,029 were
apprehended. During the same period, 3,241 civilians and 959 Army personnel
also were killed. Out of the terrorists killed, there were 1073 mercenaries
belonging to Pakistan (400), Afghanistan (190), Bangladesh and Sudan (five
each), Turkey (two), Bahrain, Chechnya, Iraq, km, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia
and Yemen (one each) and 48 to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Amongst the arrested
mercenaries Pakistan topped the list with 59, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir
(30), Bangladesh (24), Afghanistan (11) and Burma (five). Political parties
too have not been spared: 205 members of the National Conference have been
killed, the Congress has lost 49 persons, the BJP nine, the CPI (M) five,
the Janata Dal 10, and the Awami League five.
Although the Government and the
security forces are keen to keep their guns silent in view of the latest
unilateral extension of ceasefire by the Government of India, the terrorists
interpret it as a sign of weakness. People in strife-torn parts of the
world want peace and Kashmir is no different. But unfortunately, the local
media has given the impression to the terrorists and common people there,
that their victory is in sight and they need to throw a few more grenades
or blow a few more buildings and kill a few more army officers, (as they
did in the first major strike on March 1, killing a colonel and two soldiers
and seriously injuring a brigadier near Aanantnag) to achieve their objectives.
Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of England, used to say that
publicity is the oxygen to terrorism. Unfortunately, this oxygen has been
allowed to be given regularly by the Government, whenever it faced any
crisis. Whether it was the kidnapping of the daughter of a former Home
Minister, or other relations of highly placed Kashmir politicians, or getting
the hostages of IC 814 released, the easy way was to surrender and release
the dreaded terrorists on the conditions set by the perpetrators of the
crime.
India is taken as a fertile training
and experimental action ground by Pakistan. Recovery of RDX, AK-47 rifles,
detonators, hand-grenades and fuse-wires, originated from Pakistan, is
something that routinely happens in our country. Pakistan has reportedly
recruited 21,000 Indian spies. Over 10,000 Pakistani and other foreigners
have infiltrated into India and have disappeared. In the last one decade
3,00,071 civilians and 6077 defence personnel have been killed in the country
by the different terrorist groups. More than 3,50,000 have been rendered
homeless. In the border and terrorists activities prone State of Jammu
and Kashmir, terrorists equipped with light weaponry, latest frequency
hopping communications, missiles and night vision devices have entered
from the long and porous hilly border for creating trouble. Recovery of
a pneumatic boat, 15 hand-grenades, 10 gelatine pipe bombs, 10 IED switch
boxes, 2100 rounds of AK 47 rifles and 440 rounds of sniper rifle ammunition
from a cave in Kakua in Nowgam sector, sometime back was only a trailer
of the subversive activities occurring now and still to come. One of the
long-term plans of the terrorists is to bury large quantities of explosives
at various places, for convenient retrieval in times of need and use. Weapons,
explosive materials and ammunition are stored in a special material, Which
will ensure their long-term preservation and keep the same for ready to
use at the first opportunity. In this way, a terrorist does not have to
carry the explosive with him. He can be directed, by his higher formation,
to dig the same from a particular place. The attacks on the military and
paramilitary headquarters are intended to tie up these forces, in defending
themselves, rather than launching an offensive to flush them out. Such
fights are not confined only to India. Russia is fighting a similar battle
against mercenaries in Dagestan. Moscow had vowed to stamp out the rebellion
by radical, self-proclaimed Wahabi Muslims before it spread to the neighbouring
Muslim regions. The Russians stormed the rebel stronghold in Dagestan to
crush the uprising which left more than one thousand Muslim insurgents
dead. Chechen-based rebels had proclaimed an independent Islamic State.
The rebels are seeking to establish Islamic rule in Dagestan. Pakistani
religious leaders have supported the efforts of Chechen rebels. Russian
Foreign Ministry has already issued a warning to the Islamic countries
against aiding the rebels. China is also not oblivious of the possibilities
of problems in the Muslim state of Xinjiang. The nursery for training and
providing rebels is Pakistan. Through its army and its madrassas, the recruits
of jehad fighting Pakistan's battles in the name of Islam are prepared.
It is these madrassas or fundamentalist schools that chum out religious
fanatics. They are reared on religion. They are brainwashed for jehad and
their mindset is fixed. Pakistan is one of the three countries in the world
that recognises Taliban Government in Afghanistan. The latest victims of
fundamentalism of Pakistan's friends, Talibans are the ancient Buddha statues
in Central Bamiyan province in Afghanistan. There is no limit to the low
to which the fundamentalists will stoop. Taliban Government claims to be
ruling over 95 per cent of Afghanistan. To help the Taliban Government
in its troubles, Pakistan is constantly in touch with Talibans and holds
periodical meetings with them.
India being an open society and
a democratic country has all the handicaps that the law enforces. Pakistan
is under international pressure to have a dialogue with India for ensuring
peace in the subcontinent. Let it not be allowed to use the subterfuge
of talks with separatist groups of Kashmir, who are going to Pakistan,
with the permission of Government of India, to gain respectability in international
fora, that while it was willing, India was not. On its part, India has
to tread warily, as the military ruler of Pakistan is only a tool in the
hands of jehadis and fundamentalists. It still remains to be seen whether
any military or civilian ruler of Pakistan can break the invisible shackles
to come to a statesman kind of settlement with India, for a Lasting peace,
which only can assure progress and prosperity for the people of the two
countries. Pakistan and its front organisations in the name of jehad have
been carrying out suicidal attacks with a view to tying down the security
forces. The attacks on paramilitary and military establishment like the
one in Red Fort or on Corps Headquarters in Kashmir are publicised by a
section of the media, in such a way as to give a larger than life image
to the capabilities and the acts of the terrorists. It is beyond the acceptable
limits and national interests. Even if terrorists are killed one kilometre
away from Srinagar Airport, it is publicised as an attack on the airport.
A part of media is unwittingly playing into the hands of the terrorists
by giving them a larger than life image. There is a difference between
fair reporting and sensational reporting. It is time that Press Council,
media barons and the Government sat together to come to an acceptable understanding,
where the media in its best judgement decides how to report incidents,
without taking away the right of free expression, but at the same time
not to give any mileage to the terrorists. It will be only in national
interest to give the correct nomenclature to the perpetrators of such activities.
It will be only fair to call them criminals or murderers and in rare cases
terrorists. The word militant should not be used for them. In this battle,
in which India has imposed self-restraint on itself, by unilateral ceasefire
against the terrorists, it is the duty of every citizen, including the
media, to support this almost war effort to safeguard the integrity of
the country. The Sikhs have been targeted again in Kashmir after the earlier
killing of 40 Sikhs in Chhattisinghpura. The objective behind the latest
Sikh massacre is to complete the ethnic cleansing, which was substantially
completed with the exodus of Kashmiri Pundits in 1990's. It is also time
to review the unconditional ceasefire announced by the Government of India,
on November 27, 2000 which has made the minorities and security forces
easy target of the terrorists. When fighting the outside forces, there
is no time to quibble, but show our grit as a nation. Terrorists fight
us with no holds barred. It is time, that we also conveyed the message
that they will find India one up.
(The author is former Director CBI.)
