Amna Razaq
Relations between India and Pakistan have been complex due to a number of historical and political events. Relations between the two states have been defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947, the Kashmir conflict and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations. However there have been numerous attempts to improve the relationship-notably, the Shimla summit, the Agra summit and the Lahore summit. But whenever there was a thaw in the offing between the two neighbors in the past, cross border-terrorism had scuttle the process before it could have even begun. The November 2008 Mumbai carnage, skirmishes on the Line of Control (LOC) in Kashmir and now the Pathankot incident were part of this familiar pattern. Every time India has witnessed any terrorist attack in her territory, she has immediately blamed Pakistan without providing any solid evidence. More precisely, India has always blamed ISI for sponsoring terrorism activities in its territory. When sad incidents of Mumbai attacks and Samjhauta Express took place, India blamed ISI. Later on, India’s National Investigation Agency claimed that they had solid evidence that Swami Aseemanand was the mastermind behind the Samjhauta express blasts and former Indian investigator Satish Verma of Home Minister had disclosed that a member of the secret service team had accused the Indian government for staging terror attack on
Lok Sabha and the 26/11 carnage in Mumbai. And in recent attack on Pathankot airbase, India did the same but has never provided concrete, reliable and actionable intelligence, but just the mere leads and information. New Delhi has shared with Islamabad some evidence of the Pathankot attackers’ purported links to Pakistan. PM Nawaz has assured his Indian counterpart that Pakistan will investigate the matter and hence formed a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the alleged links of the Pathankot air base attackers with India if anyone found guilty. However some sources stated that the entire drama was staged by Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to sabotage the dialogue process. According to a report, local residents of Pathankot said that barriers to Pathankot had been removed a day prior to the attack and that local shopkeepers were also asked to close their shops at five pm, which raised serious doubts. An Indian defense source said terrorists from Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), blamed for the December 2001 attack on Indian parliament that killed 11 people, had probably infiltrated about three days ago. The attackers, with a huge quantity of RDX in their possession, made their way to the base from the rear area where there is a jungle. The Indian establishment has been unrelentingly squeezing the infamous Mumbai terrorist assault to the last drop to denigrate Pakistan internationally and portray it as the sponsor of terrorism. Indian defence minister threatened that the entire world would see the consequences if Pakistan does not take actions against perpetrators of this attack and he also argued that India will never let the Pakistani investigation team to visit Pathankot airbase.
Although India has been destabilizing all regional states through its well-planned and deliberate strategy, however, its major focus has always been towards Pakistan and Indian-held Kashmir. India’s intelligence agency RAW uses its long and deep ties with the Afghan Intelligence KhAD (Khadamat-e Aetela’at-e Dawlati, also known as the National Directorate) staffed by anti-Pakistan agents who are known to support the Pakistani Taliban (TTP). There are reports that the TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah had been protected by KhAD agents in Afghanistan. Likewise, the official sources have stated that India has been involved in funding the Pakistani political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) led by Mr. Altaf Hussain, supporting and funding the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) Pakistan and the Baloch Nationalists. According to the report, an official has told the BBC that India has trained hundreds of MQM militants over the last 10 years. India has always used Afghanistan as a second front against Pakistan. India has over the years been financing problems in Pakistan and now if any terrorist attack takes place in Pakistan, its responsibility will rest with India. The Indian real face has been exposed but she has failed in her agenda to foil peace and worsen law & order in Pakistan as our armed forces got tremendous successes in bringing peace in Karachi and Balochistan.
Hence it is evident that India itself is fueling terrorism and is busy in sponsoring terrorist activities in Balochistan via Afghanistan while it accuses Pakistan of responsible for this recent episode. While Pakistan is all for peace and always put sincere efforts to bring stability in the region. However, if any sad incident happens in the neighbors, then not necessarily a state is behind the attack rather it can be an individual attempt to sabotage peace and development in the region. Therefore, India must stop putting baseless allegations on Pakistan and come forward with some actionable evidences instead of assumptions..