State-sponsored Terrorism in India
By Sajjad Shaukat
In his recent statement, the Indian former home ministry and ex-investigating officer Satish Verma disclosed that terror-attacks in Mumbai in November 26, 2008 and assault on Indian Parliament in January 12, 2001 were carried out by the Indian government.
According to Indian media‚ the fake encounter case involving a senior officer under-Secretary of Interior Ministry Ishrat Jahan has submitted an affidavit in the court stating that a member of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe team Verma told him that in the terrorists’ attacks on Parliament in Delhi and Mumbai were pre-planned, and were set up “with the objective of strengthening the counter-terror legislation.”
In fact, under the pretext of these self-arranged episodes, New Delhi not only suspended the process of dialogue with Islamabad, but also Confidential Building Measures (CBMs), bringing both the nuclear countries to the brink of war.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while repeating old baseless allegations against Islamabad had stated that Pakistan has “epicenter of terrorism,” and Islamabad should “end infrastructure of terrorism.”
Indian top officials and media left no stone unturned in tarnishing the image of Pakistan, and country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) through concocted stories regarding Mumbai carnage and Parliament attack, linking it with the banned organisations, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD).
As regards the Mumbai mayhem, while fully cooperating with New Delhi, Pakistan had took action against the banned outs, LeT and JuD by lodging FIR against some suspected persons, and also detained many individuals for investigation. But Lahore High Court had released Hafiz Saeed on bail, saying that there was no evidence against him about the Mumbai catastrophe.
However, India failed in supplying solid proof to Pakistan in relation to Mumbai tragedy except providing a self-fabricated story which was quite fake—full of loopholes, created by RAW, while death of Indian Anti-terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare was also pre-planned.
The real story of the Mumbai carnage proved last year, when a day after the Indian media exposed the name of the terrorist, Wazhul Qamar Khan whose name was included in the list of 50 alleged terrorists given to Islamabad in March, 2011. In this regard, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram admitted that what the media described an embarrassing lapse—for preparing the list was true. While, Pakistan’s law-enforcing agencies were desperately looking for Wazhul Khan. But Wazhur Qamar “is living in the suburbs of Mumbai with his family” and “is regularly reporting to a court that gave him bail” as reported by The Times of India. Besides, reports suggest that another most-wanted culprit, Feroz Abdul Khan who was supposed to be hiding in Pakistan has also been found out in India.
In the recent past, India has executed Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the Mumbai attacks and Afzal Guru, In fact, RAW had taken forced statements from them that they had links with ISI and LeT.
India and Pakistan had resumed the new phase of talks in March, 2009. Every time, prime ministers and foreign ministers of Pakistan and India ended their meetings with issuance of positive notes, vowing for the settlement of real issues, but the same failed without producing tangible results due to Indian hidden diplomacy. In this respect, New Delhi has always blackmailed Islamabad to take action against the culprits of Mumbai carnage.
Notably, on November 10, 2011, the then Prime Minister Gilani and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Maldives. Both the rulers agreed to improve their bilateral relations especially in trade, and also stated that all the issues were discussed. Quite contrarily, two days after that meeting, Manmohan Singh stated, “I left Gilani in no doubt that if public opinion in India is not satisfied that justice is being done to those responsible to the barbarous attack of Mumbai, it would not be possible to move forward with the peace process.”
Similarly in 2012, Pakistan’s President Zardari and P.M Singh met on the sidelines of the NAM Summit in Tehran during which Singh repeatedly said that expeditious conclusion of the Mumbai terror attack trial in Pakistan would be a major measure in bilateral relations. Besides, he failed to give any definite date for his promised visit to Pakistan.
Especially, with the support of RAW and US, in November 2010, the six legal heirs of the Mumbai catastrophe filed a civil law suit in a district court in New York about alleged support of ISI’s two ex-director generals including few others, and also asked Pakistan to dismantle LeT.
Besides, by following self-devised scheme, FBI arrested a US citizen, American-born Pakistani, David Headley from Chicago. Under torture by FBI, he maligned the ISI and confessed his involvement in 26/11 attacks. But David Headley changed his testimony, absolving the ISI leadership from planning the Mumbai tragedy. However, India was badly disappointed when a New York federal court dismissed the case, saying that under the US foreign law, Pakistan’s ISI “enjoy immunity”
Particularly, in January 2013, Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde disclosed that organised training camps run by the fundamentalist parties, RSS and BJP were promoting Hindu Terrorism, and were behind the Samjhauta Express, Meccca Masjid, Ajmer Sharif and Malegaon blasts. He added that these parties were involved many times in Hindu Muslim violence in India, especially Gujarat and Babri Masjid incident.
While taking positive steps, Islamabad already signed a number of trade agreements with New Delhi, which allowed India exports of multiple items across the Wagah border. It also granted India Most Favoured Nation status, which permits trade in almost everything. On the other hand, New Delhi has allowed investments by Pakistanis in India.
Owing to Indian delaying tactics, Pak-Indian real issues, especially Kashmir dispute have still remained unsettled because New Delhi is determined to keep its illegitimate control on Kashmir.
Nonetheless, Satish Verma’s disclosure about Mumbai and Parliament attacks including admission of other officials regarding various subversive acts have clearly proved state-sponsored terrorism in India.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
