Joe Shearer
PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2009
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Oh boy that evidence game again,
"I went to UN, you didn't", "I whine about it in every single meeting with every single dignity around the world, you don't"... and so it goes.
We are back to square one.
Mukti Bahini, LTTE, BLA, TTP... etc. etc.
Now do we want to move forward or not?
Chest thumping or not sponsoring cross-border terrorism?
If the latter, you are wrong. India's support for cross-border terrorism has never diminished. There were small phases where it was not that prominent, but it never stopped. Arming MQM, BLA and then early 2000s TTP etc...
And I say it again, we are not moving forward an inch. You want to have peace? Drop this "Pakistan doing this or that" thing and engage in a meaningful dialog. Only then you'll stop hearing echos.
I, for one, will never accept any allegation coming from India regarding terrorism unless she acknowledges her own support for cross-border terrorism in the region first.
Well, I can't argue with an idee fixe, except to point out that the documentary evidence shows the situation clearly. There was no R&W operations organisation; this was clear from the evidence which you will find in numerous publications and journals, as well as in very well-publicised public policy pronouncements. In a democracy, these things can't be kept secret. You can check for yourself, or, if you are disinclined, you can ask anyone familiar with the subject, and convince yourself. I can only point you in the right direction.
MQM, to the best of my knowledge, was never armed by India; it was purely an internal fund-raising effort. There has never been a shred of evidence that India was involved, and in fact, this is the first time and the first place that I have encountered this allegation.
The BLA was singularly not on India's radar. That is why everyone got angry with Manmohan Singh when he allowed Balochistan to be put on the agenda at a particular bilateral meeting, implying that it was a fit subject to be discussed. Until that date, and on until two years ago, Pakistan could not provide a shred of evidence; you will recall Sartaj Aziz waving an important-looking portfolio, which on submission and inspection, turned out to contain nothing tangible, nothing but surmise and conjecture.
Even the TTP is not possibly an Indian protege, for the obvious reason that I have pointed out. Let me make it clear that R&W did not stop intelligence gathering; it continued to do so right through. It was operations that was disabled, and that would include building terrorist activities. Getting information from shady people is quite another thing.
With respect, I would like to point out that an effort to achieve parity for the sake of achieving parity can only be built on a firm 'belief' that there was countervailing activity by the Indian side, not based on evidence, but based on a need to prove that there was symmetry of action.
This does not affect whatever activities happened before the Gujral tenure. That would include both the intervention in East Pakistan by the IB, not R&W, and the intervention in 1966 by ISI in the Mizo armed movement. Incidentally, the Mizo part of it is recorded in Z. A. Khan's book and by American researchers who went into the details and carefully documented the whole matter; there is no equivalent on the other side.
It is undoubtedly painful to accept that asymmetric warfare was practiced by one side alone, and I will not press the point, since it has become an emotive issue. I can only present what is known and is public, and refrain from pressing the matter any further.