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Journalism of Courage
It is not easy to retain optimism when faced with continuing escalation of jehadi terrorism from across the borders targeting the political leadership at one level and innocent women and children at another. But the statement issued by the Pakistan government needs to be looked at with due care. On the face of it, there is nothing new that was not said during Musharraf’s January 12 speech except, perhaps, the context where the pressures due to escalation of terrorism on one side and counter-terrorism on the other have built up further. The US war against terrorism has essentially shifted inside Pakistan and Islamabad is coming under increasing pressure from the international community. The UK has decided to cut back its diplomatic staff and the US is becoming increasingly engaged in rolling back cross-border terrorism. Knowing the risks, India has indicated its readiness to even launch military forces across the borders though with great care to ensure that it remains graduated, calibrated and limited even if the results take longer. The unanimous resolution of our Parliament clearly conveys the support for government policy.
Pakistan has again harped on its theme song that it would continue to extend “moral, political and diplomatic support to the legitimate struggle of the people of J&K.” This has been the fig leaf for carrying out the war through terrorism since 1988. But such statements intrinsically reduce the credibility of Pakistan’s promises to roll back terrorism. But it is crucial that cross-border terrorism is terminated since the people of the state are scheduled to exercise their democratic rights in the coming months while the same continue to be denied to the people across the LoC. The touchstone of peace and war will be the willingness of Islamabad to implement the collective decision taken at a joint meeting of the Cabinet and the National Security Council presided by General Musharraf.
The subcontinent has reached a critical point now. One road leads to peace and co-operation and the other to exacerbation of armed violence. Pakistan’s Cabinet has gone a step further than Musharraf’s earlier promise and extended the commitment not to allow its territory to be used for terrorist acts anywhere to cover occupied territories also. With its army operationally deployed along the 2,900 km border with India, Pakistan is in a position to stop infiltration, especially when another half a million troops are deployed on the Indian side to stop the same infiltration. If Islamabad is serious about its own commitment then it should be willing to enter into a dialogue with New Delhi at the level of officials on how to work together in controlling cross-border terrorism. Musharraf missed an opportunity in not going firmly ahead in controlling the jehadi elements in and outside his government after September 11. He would be making a fatal mistake in not trying to implement his government’s commitment now.
