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Journalism of Courage
India is closely watching the ‘‘very significant’’ statement by former ISI chief Javed Ashraf Qazi in the Pakistani parliament on Friday, admitting that the Jaish-e-Mohammed was involved in the Parliament attack of December 13, 2001, as well as in the deaths of ‘‘thousands of Kashmiris.’’
A former Railways Minister in the Musharraf government (before the elections in Pakistan), PML-Q Senator Qazi’s statement in today’s edition of the Lahore-based Daily Times came on the same day that British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw went on record in appreciation of Musharraf’s fight against terror, and days before US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrives in the sub-continent to publicly back the same struggle.
‘‘We must not be afraid of admitting that Jaish was involved in the deaths of thousands of innocent Kashmiris, bombing the Indian Parliament, Daniel Pearl’s murder and attempts on President Musharraf’s life,’’ Qazi said.
A former ISI chief from 1993-95 in Benazir Bhutto’s second government, Qazi also pointed out that both Jaish and the Lashkar-e-Toiba had harmed the ‘‘Kashmir struggle” the most.
There was no formal reaction to Qazi’s statement in the capital, but privately Indian officials were somewhat wary about celebrating the Pakistani establishment’s public admission of guilt as well as involvement in the 15-year-old proxy war in Kashmir.
Fact remains, the officials said, that Jaish chief Masood Azhar was still a free man and probably living in Karachi. And even though Musharraf may have ‘‘tactically understood’’ the linkages between the Al-Qaeda terrorists on Pakistan’s western border and Kashmiri terrorists on Pakistan’s eastern border, it remained to be seen whether Islamabad had made a ‘‘strategic leap of faith.’’
The assessment here is that the Pakistani admissions of involvement are a result of the ‘‘tremendous pressure’’ Islamabad is under to capture high-profile leaders of the Al-Qaeda, especially Osama bin Laden, and that the visits of Straw, Powell and former CIA superspy Cofer Black are an indication that the screws are being tightened.
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Sources in Pakistan said Qazi also told the Parliament about competitive politics at home over Kashmir. How in 1994, after the Indian parliament passed its own resolution that ‘‘all of Kashmir’’ belonged to India, Benazir asked him in his capacity as the ISI chief to speak to the Opposition, so that Pakistan could do something similar. When Qazi approached Nawaz Sharif with this offer, Sharif wanted to know what he would get in return, Qazi said.
But New Delhi also votes with Senator Qazi, who pointed out that sectarian outfits like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Jaish were products of a hatred campaign and were ‘‘producing zombies to kill their Muslim brothers.’’ Qazi said intelligence agencies knew about 10,000 religious institutions inciting Shias and Sunnis against each other.
Qazi denied the Opposition charge that the Army alone had decided on Pakistan’s Afghan policy, Qazi said former Interior Minister Naseerullah Khan Babar had first contacted the Afghan commanders. He said Arab countries had always accused Pakistan of harboring terrorists. And that Egyptian president Anwar Sadaat’s killer had taken refuge in Peshawar. He said Pakistan had first acted against the terrorists network in 1994.
