India’s False Allegations against Pakistan
By Sajjad Shaukat
Tension between India and Pakistan accelerated when recently, the former set off a series of unprovoked cross-border firings at the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir including Working Boundary in Sialkot and Nakiyal sector, which killed some civilians. On the other side, Pakistan Army and Rangers responded with equal response.
Acting upon shrewd diplomacy, Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, top officials and Defence Minister AK Antony including Indian media accused Pakistan Army of killing its five soldiers on August 6, this year. Particularly, AK Antony allegedly stated in Lok Sabha on August 8, “Specialist troops of the Pakistani Army crossed the Line of Control into Indian territory and killed the five Indian soldiers…we all know nothing happens from Pakistan side of the LoC without support, assistance, facilitation and often, direct involvement of the Pakistan Army.”
While protesting Indian border-violations, Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry has repeatedly denied Indian allegations as “baseless and unfounded.” Pak Army sources have also denied New Delhi’s blame game of killing Indian soldiers.
However, threatening statements of Indian rulers, military leadership, and opposition party, Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) have created uproar over the alleged LoC incident. In this context, anti-Pakistan jingoism in India incited public to take to the streets. The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi was stormed by supporters of the Congress Party’s Youth Wing, while the Lahore-bound friendship bus was stopped by protestors in Amritsar. And PIA offices in Bombay and New Delhi were also ransacked by extremists of Hindu fundamentalist party, Shiv Sena.
In this respect, BJP leader Rajnath Singh said that India’s patience was at an end and demanded that all dialogue between India and Pakistan including Confidence Building Measures (CMBs) be stopped after India claimed that Pakistan violated the ceasefire.
As regards the new peace process between India and Pakistan, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said on August 16, “Talks with Pakistan become difficult or impossible or are suspended, the situation as of now is not conducive for talks with Islamabad.”
Earlier, on August 13, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said India would not hold talks with Islamabad until issues related to the Line of Control ceasefire violations and the alleged killing of five Indian soldiers were not addressed. He also called upon Pakistan to take action against Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
It means that there is no chance of proposed Nawaz-Manmohan meeting next month in New York in the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s proposed visit to Pakistan.
Although India has itself created the present episode of ceasefire-violations to blame Pakistan in order to escape from new peace process with Islamabad so that Pak-Indian issues like Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage, water and especially main dispute of Kashmir remain unresolved, yet India’s false allegations about Mumbai terror-attacks of 2008 including Parliament assault of 2001 are surprising. Under the pretext of these terror-incidents, New Delhi also suspended the process of Pak-India dialogue.
Besides, Congress-led Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who has always remained under the pressure of BJP, called Pakistan epicenter of terrorism, emphasizing that Islamabad should “end infrastructure of terrorism. He imposed pre-condition for any further progress to improve relations with Islamabad unless the latter take actions against the culprits of Mumbai catastrophe. Indian other high officials also expressed similar thoughts. Notably, in his address, during India’s Independence Day, Singh warned Pakistan on August 15 against using its soil for “anti-India activity,” following a fresh escalation of tensions over a deadly attack on Indian soldiers.
Notably, on November 10, 2011, the then Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met 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 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.
In the recent past, the Indian former officer of home ministry and ex-investigating officer Satish Verma disclosed that terror-attacks in Mumbai and assault on the Indian Parliament 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.”
But, 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).
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.
Nevertheless, New Delhi failed in supplying solid proof to Islamabad about Mumbai mayhem except providing a self-fabricated story which was quite fake—full of loopholes, created by RAW. And death of Indian Anti-terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare was also pre-planned.
Last year, the real story of the Mumbai carnage proved, 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 context, 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.
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.
Especially, 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 revealed that these parties were involved many times in Hindu Muslim violence in India, particularly Gujarat and Babri Masjid incident.
In fact, India is not serious in resolving real issues with Pakistan. It is only interested in promotion of trade, friendly exchanges, tourism, relaxation of visas etc. because these favour Indian big economy.
While taking positive steps, Islambad already signed a number of trade agreemens with New Delhi, which allowed India exports of mutltiple 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 India is determined to keep its illegitimate control on Kashmir.
Nonetheless, revelations of Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and those of Satish Verma have clearly exposed that Indian officials themselves arranged various subversive acts in India. So, it is surprising that India has still been raising false allegations against Pakistan.
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
