Western Bruiting On Pakistan – LeT Links
By M Khan Chishti
Major chunks of coalition forces are packing for home as Al-Qaeda is now practically a dysfunctional organization especially in Af-Pak region. A huge credit of this success against Al-Qaeda lies with Pakistani LEAs which arrested and killed hundreds of its operatives over a decade in War on Terror. Initially, immense criticism was made against Pakistan for harbouring Al-Qaeda leadership in its tribal areas, however massive crackdown against the militant organization made all criticism null and void. Marginalization of Al-Qaeda and gradual movement of its remnants towards Middle Eastern and African countries has now compelled international media to focus Al-Qaeda’s activities in those regions, yet some hostile elements are still trying to entangle Pakistan with the global terrorist threat by floating exaggerated stories on media regarding Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). India-based media houses and its sponsored western think tanks are particularly projecting this organization as a regional militant group, having a global agenda and alleged links with Pakistan’s ISI, which can disturb regional and international stability. However, terming LeT as a terrorist organization with global aspiration like Al-Qaeda is a far-fetched reality.
The narrative of LeT’s global reach is based on its alleged involvement in Mumbai attacks of 26/11. The forced confessions of Ajmal Qasab under the torture of RAW also facilitated India to label ISI responsible for these attacks. Nevertheless, after Mumbai attacks, Pakistan fully cooperated with India on the issue and arrested all the individuals, who were pointed out by the Indian government, yet India failed to provide enough evidence to convict the accused persons. Head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Hafiz Saeed was also released due to lack of evidence as India once again did not produce any data to support the accusation and could not materialize links between JuD and LeT.
Devoid of any concrete proof, India continues to spread concocted stories of links between banned LeT and ISI in one way or the other. Indian intelligence apparatus RAW is feeding information through own media and foreign policy builders to project LeT posing potential threat to the West. In this malicious game, American-Israeli lobbies are also helping India’s propaganda against ISI. The aim of these false propagations is to malign Pakistan security agencies for harbouring terrorism and provoke rage of Western countries against Pakistan. Their purpose is to convince Washington to continue its “do more” demand from Pakistan and keep the country under the clutches of sporadic attacks of US drones. In addition, these countries also want to divert the attention of their masses from their frustrated misadventure in Afghanistan and Kashmir. In fact, US and India have badly failed in crushing the stiff resistance of Afghan Taliban and Kashmiris who have been fighting against the occupying forces.
Contrary to this, concrete evidences about Hindu terrorism are certainly shocking for the international community. The tragic incident of Samjhota Express bombing and confession of Lt Col Purohit for being involved the killing of 68 Pakistanis travelling in that train is surely an eye opener for the entire world community. Before Purohit’s confession, Indian leaders were accusing Pakistan’s ISI in connection with the bombing. Regardless of such authentic proofs on Indian malevolence, Pakistan’s discontent over Indian involvement in unrest in FATA and Balochistan are still overlooked by international stakeholders. Besides causing lawlessness in Pakistan, India has already set up several terrorist training camps on Afghanistan border, which are specifically aimed at encircling Pakistan with acute security threat. Moreover, there are considerable reports that RAW and Mossad are supporting and funding the insurgency in Pakistan. According to Jane’s Information Group, “The RAW and Mossad have created four new agencies to infiltrate Pakistan in order to target important religious and military personalities, journalists, judges, lawyers and bureaucrats. In addition, bombs would be exploded in trains, railway stations, bridges, bus stations, cinemas, hotels and mosques of rival Islamic sects to incite sectarianism”.
RAW has always supported the dissent ethnic and sectarian groups inside Pakistan and is actively involved in supporting Seraiki Movement in Punjab. The basic aim of RAW is to destabilize Pakistan, and create sense of instability and turmoil in the country. Ashok A Biswas, a Delhi-based research scholar, in his compiled study on RAW “An Unobstructive Instrument of India’s Foreign Policy”, states that ‘the aim of RAW is to keep internal disturbances flaring up in Pakistan and keep ISI preoccupied so that Pakistan can lend no worthwhile resistance to Indian designs in the region’.
International neutral observers should understand that Pakistan shares long borders with two hostile neighbours i.e., India and Afghanistan, therefore foreign-backed subversive propaganda campaign against the country would continue to be launched in order to undermine Pakistan’s standing in the region and the world. Hence, vile propaganda against Pakistan, which is a major contributor in war against terrorism, must not be seen in isolation and should be out-rightly discouraged to help Pakistan continue playing a positive role in War on Terror.
