AFTER UFA, ‘OOFF’

AFTER UFA, ‘OOFF’

Anil Bhat

Having participated in three panel discussions on two Pakistani tv news channels recently in May-June 2015, one found it hard to believe that Pakistan would stick to whatever was jointly declared after the Modi-Nawaz Sharif meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Ufa, Russia. Because what emerged from the three panel discussions was that the Pakistani speakers, including Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, former DG, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Hamid Gul, former DGs, Inter Services Public Relations, Maj Gens Athar Abbas and Rashid Qureshi,  other retired generals/air marshals,  journalists and scholars, all were on the same page-that of vilifying India with a barrage of outright lies, misinterpretations, fabrications etc.

In changing back to its same old tune soon after the SCO summit was the Pakistani government playing to the international gallery at Ufa? Or was it the military-mullah combo that pushed Nawaz Sharif into an immediate u-turn? This writer maintains and has written often in the past that Pakistan will not hand over to India any suspected or proved guilty person or any evidence which will expose the role of Pak army or ISI. It may be recalled how in 2011, shortly after US special forces killed  Osama bin Laden, journalist/author Syed Saleem Shahzad was brutally killed by ISI for his book ‘Inside Al Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11’, then recently published and launched in London, which exposed the joint role ISI, Lashkar e Taiyaba and Al Qaeda in the 26/11 attack on Mumbai and also many other cross connections of great significance to India, US, Afghanistan and of course Pakistan, which suffers from its ‘compulsions’ to maintain them.
According to media reports, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in one of the meeting rooms of the Congress Hall in Ufa , he told Sharif that if people in India were asked to name a stumbling block in normalizing Indo-Pak relations, the majority would say it’s the release from jail of 26/11 attack accused Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. Sharif reportedly agreed on the need to speed up the Mumbai terror attack trial in Pakistan. So, both sides agreed to discuss ways and means to expedite the trial, including additional information like providing voice samples and also set up the National Security Advisor level dialogue on “all issues connected to terrorism”. They then raised the issue of the tension on the International Boundary (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC). “Why don’t we do something about it?” they said, and agreed that both the armies and border guarding forces should also talk to each other, as well as further agreed to schedule meetings between the DGs Military Operations (DGMOs) and DGs of India’s BSF and Pakistan’s Rangers.

While Pakistani terrorists attacked across the Line of Control (LoC) at Uri, in Baramula killing Constable Krishna Kumar Dubey, of BSF, on 09 July 2015, during the Ufa summit itself, on returning from Ufa, Pakistan’s first salvo was outright refusal to provide Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi’s voice samples. The next were salvos of bullets and rockets/mortars against civil population across the International Boundary (IB) stretch of Jammu & Kashmir and more terrorist attacks across the LoC.   

From all the ranting by Pakistani speakers on their  tv news channels/most of media and by terrorist leaders in their rallies, it is quite clear that the military and mullahs have been livid and frustrated ever  since the Modi- BJP takeover. This has been reflected in ISI upping the ante through separatists/traitors in the Valley by demonstrations with Pakistani and ISIS flags and stone-pelting etc. Some of these traitors have been implicated by Enforcement Directorate for receiving terror funds linked to 26/11.  

While Indian Army has prevented many cross LoC attempts at infiltration and effectively dealt with post infiltration attacks, responses of BSF to cross-IB firings have become fiercer. Unfortunately during the UPA’s rule, particularly its second tenure, India’s responses to both cross LoC attempts/attacks and cross IB firings had become rather weak, with 2013 being the nadir.

Interacting with media recently, Lt Gen Subrata Saha, GOC, 15 Corps headquartered at Srinagar, said that all the agencies which are dealing with the situation have come together. "Most of the mechanisms which we use to prevent infiltration are active and more robust than in the previous year," he said, adding the Army is prepared to respond to any challenge. On the hoisting of Pakistani and ISIS flags in the Valley, he clarified that it was a law and order problem which must be dealt firmly by the police. Commenting that it deserves highest attention of the security agencies, he said, "even if it is isolated, it ought to be taken up very seriously. It has to be investigated and taken to its logical conclusion before any trend or pattern develops." He also expressed concern on Kashmiri youth being attracted/recruited by Pak terrorist outfits

Frustration levels of Pakistani leaders appear to be severely affecting their brains. Defence Minister Asif exceeded his earlier rants by shooting his mouth off that Pak’s nukes were not mere showpieces/can be used, or words to the effect. Shortly afterwards came a brand new rabbit out of the hat-Pak’s claim of shooting an Indian “spy drone being used for aerial photography” near the LoC. What they shot was a Chinese drone used by their own forces. It could not have pleased Pak that its journalist Mariana Baabar stated on a tv channel that some days ago Pak forces had also shot a drone, which was their own. Later Pak was further embarrassed by a Chinese media report stating that the drone Pak forces shot was made in China. The ISI is also reported to have supplied drones to terrorist outfits for assisting them in their anti-India operations. Whether Pak forces were incompetent in shooting their own drones or did so deliberately as a new trick to malign India, their attempt literally “ misfired”.

Pakistan’s lies/propaganda has deluded its public and deprived its younger generations of actual history or simply indoctrinated them. How ironic was a question by young Pakistani News anchor, “Pakistan ne unka kya bigaaraa hai?” (what harm has Pakistan done (to India)?). Referring to Pak army’s lack of  professionalism and use of terrorists as force multipliers, who are attacking its own people also, this writer could not help asking Pakistani  tv viewers what kind of a Pakistan its rulers were preparing for its future generations.

Meanwhile, whether talks progress or not, India has little recourse but to respond forcefully to Pakistan’s export of terror, which will continue unabated anyway. Alongside India will also have to ensure that it expedites long pending acquisitions/replacements of arms and equipment, as it cannot be put past Pak army to trigger off yet another full-fledged or limited  war.