Mohammad Jamil
Immediately after winning elections, Imran Khan extended an olive branch to India. Then after assuming the office, Prime Minister Imran Khan in his tweet invited India for a dialogue on all conflicts with a view to normalizing relations between the two countries. In fact, he has more than once declared that Pakistan would like to have cordial relations with all its neighbors. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also expressed similar views, as war between two nuclear states was not an option. Although the contents of Narendra Modi’s letter to Imran Khan were not known except his message of congratulations on his election as PM; however, he did not respond to Imran Khan’s overtures for dialogue to resolve all disputes. Modi’s intents are not hidden, as India continues with malicious campaign against Pakistan and its institutions.
India has been using different tactics to malign Pakistan at international level. False flag and stage-managed operations aided by orchestrated media-managed hype are one of frequent tactics employed by India to portray Pakistan as a state that supports or sponsors terrorism. Through such sinister designs, India also aims to deflect growing public anger over deteriorating law and order situation in all over the country, especially in most of the central and North Eastern states and IOK. In a latest bid, “India Today” aired a news story titled ‘Pakistan Planning Fresh 26/11 Type Attack in India’ in their tabloid program India First. It was claimed that Pakistan Navy, ISl and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) Chief Azhar Masood are plotting to target key installations in Mumbai after completion of ten years of Mumbai attacks that took place on 26th November 2008.
It was also alleged that Pakistan was training 50 terrorists from JeM (Bahawalpur Division) to attack India and the plan is code-named as ‘Sea Jihad’. To give credence to the propaganda, an audio clip of Masood Azhar urging people to learn swimming was also aired. Ground reality is that India’s BJP government under Modi-Doval duo has been engaged in such false flag operations first to scare the public and then to project their machoism and consolidate the BJP/ Hindu extremist vote bank. Under the banner of Modi-Doval due, Terror Boat drama had been repeated in 2015 and 2016, whereas, in 2017 so-called infiltration in IOK was propagated to keep Indian public in awe and fear. As 2019 is an election year, an increase in Indian allegations and insinuations and other Indian sinister tactics against Pakistan is likely to be witnessed.
Whereas India and Pakistan have their own versions on Mumbai attacks, many analysts and investigating journalists have given their assessment, which negates the Indian narrative. They have logical arguments and evidence to prove their point that it was a false flag operation and not the handiwork of religious groups. Even if religious zealots were involved, possibility of Israel and RAW’s inroads in their organizations and using them in the false flag operations could not be ruled out. According to a report, the gunmen who attacked seven different sites in Mumbai including two hotels, a hospital and a synagogue were clean-shaved and white skin, which meant that they were not all Pakistanis as claimed by India. Marathi daily ‘Maharashtra Times’ quoting an employee of the hospital had stated that the terrorists, who targeted ATS chief Hemant Karkare, police commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter-specialist Vijay Salaskar, were speaking Marathi fluently.
In fact, India is witnessing increased incidents of violence and killings related to communal violence, insurgencies and terrorism. However, such incidents are not covered by international media with the requisite sensitivity and impartiality, as it will expose security lapses, weaknesses and failures of the Indian government in curbing insurgent tendencies. There are scores of separatist movements and armed insurgencies in India, especially in northeastern states. Inhuman treatment meted out to the minorities is one of the reasons for disaffection, which knocks the bottom out of India’s pretence being secular. Mass conversions of Muslims and Christians minorities at the hands of extremist Hindu organization RSS further expose India’s secular facade. Sikhs are raising voice against Indian brutalities, and demand separate country for Sikhs/ Khalistan movement is gaining momentum once again, and Khalistan Referendum 2020 movement is a case in point.
The Maoist attack in 2013 in Chhattisgarh’s jungles had claimed the lives of Congress leaders and ordinary people, which showed how lethargy and myopia had helped establish India’s reputation as home to some of the world’s oldest insurgencies. It was yet another chapter in an insurgency that began over four decades ago in a West Bengal village, quieted down for a few months in the ’70s and then resurfaced in the ’80s in Andhra Pradesh, and now continues to wreak havoc across central India’s tribal belt. The Naga insurgency in the North-East will definitely figure among the world’s oldest insurgencies, if not the oldest. Insurgency-related fatalities in the region were quite alarming. Between 1992 and 2014 (till August 31), the northeastern states of India had recorded at least 20,851 fatalities.
