International

The Wagah syndrome: Pakistanis accuse India of terror ties

By Ameen Izzadeen

The war dance at dusk at the India-Pakistan border at Wagah sums up India-Pakistan relations. The well choreographed flag lowering ceremony with border guards on both sides of the divide performing the ritual to military precision has not undergone much change since I last visited this place in 2005. In a way it has institutionalized the nature of relationship between the two countries.

The expression of anger seen in the face of the border guards on either side when they come close to the gate, where atop two posts flutter the flags of India and Pakistan, is one of the highlights of the ceremony. The more anger one displays the more cheering the guards draw. Hindustan Zindabad was the slogan that one hears from the Indian side. On the Pakistani side the slogans are not confined to "Pakistan Zindabad (long live Pakistan). The slogans are religious. A leading voice in the crowd exhorts: Nare Thakbir (declare God's greatness), the crowd responds saying Allahu Akbar (Allah is Great). Then the voice blares again asking the crowd, Pakistan ki Matlab kiya (what is the meaning of Pakistan). The crowd responds, La ilaha Illallah (there is no god but Allah).

The India-Pakistan border at Wagah.

What an irony! Religion and India have both become a major problem for Pakistan today. This was my observation during a recent visit to Pakistan at the invitation of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, a think tank that comes under the Prime Minister's secretariat.

I was a member of a group of a media delegation that comprised six Sri Lankans and one Maldivian. I made use of the visit to delve deeper into the troubles that Pakistan is faced with today. It was at a time when military operations against the Taliban militants were at their peak and relations with India had been at a low ebb.

Like the Wagah border ritual that has not changed for the past 50 years, Indo-Pakistan relations have remained the same since partition in 1947. Mutual suspicion and the blame game continue. From the President and the Prime Minister to the businessman seated next to me in the Sri Lankan Airlines plane that took us to Pakistan on July 19, almost everyone in Pakistan sees an Indian hand behind Pakistan's problems, be it the Kashmir dispute, the terrorism of the Taliban or the brewing separatism in Balochistan.

At last month's Non-Aligned Movement summit at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm-el-Sheikh, Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani handed over a dossier to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh. The dossier gives details of Indian involvement or India's secret operations in Pakistan, according to Pakistani officials. Though the contents of the dossier have not been made public, officials said it included details regarding the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore in March this year and India's increasing liaison with Baloch separatists. However, when we asked the deputy chief of Pakistan military's Inter Service Public Relations Secretariat, Brigadier Syed Azamat Ali, he said investigations were still going on and it was too early to point fingers at anyone. "The attackers who targeted the Sri Lankan cricketers were Pakistanis. But there is speculation that there could be some connections with elements across the border," the brigadier said apparently referring to India.

The war dance in progress

But Brig. Ali and his Foreign Press spokesman Col Baseer Haider Malik were more than convinced that India is very much involved in brewing troubles in Balochistan, the most impoverished Pakistani province though it was richest in resources compared to other three provinces - Punjab, Sindh and the North West Frontier Province - and the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). They said there was no doubt that the Baloch separatists were being supported by India.

"Why should India maintain 14 consulates in Afghanistan's border area with Pakistan?" Brig Ali asked claiming that the ammunition recovered from Balochistan's separatist areas was of Indian origin.
Is Pakistan blaming India in a bid to show the world that New Delhi which accuses Pakistan-based groups such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba of being responsible for the November 26 attack on Mumbai, also breeds terrorists? Many Pakistanis believe so and claim that among the bodies of the so-called Pakistan Taliban killed in the recent military operations in the Swat valley and the FATA there were bodies of uncircumcised people.

Besides, the joint communiqué issued after the bilateral talks between Gilani and Singh on the sidelines of the Sharm-el-Sheikh summit, also had a Balochistan reference. Pakistani analysts say India's non-objection to the inclusion of Balochistan in the communiqué is an admission of guilt by New Delhi. The controversial paragraph, reads: "Both leaders agreed that the two countries will share real time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats. Prime Minister Gilani mentioned that Pakistan has some information on threats in Balochistan and other areas."

In spite of this blame game, the two countries have in recent weeks heightened diplomatic efforts to iron out problems, including the thorny Kashmir issue which has been the primary cause of tension between the two countries since the partition in 1947. The process dubbed as the composite dialogue got a fillip at last month's NAM summit at Sharm-el-Sheikh. The Foreign Secretaries of the two countries would meet soon, resuming the dialogue process which India suspended in November 2008 after the Mumbai terror attack, say Pakistani officials.

Premier Gilani in his speech at last month's summit said "long standing unresolved disputes" were putting stress on international systems. "Durable peace in South Asia is achievable" and that it could only be "facilitated by the resolution of all outstanding disputes, including Jammu and Kashmir."

However, Gilani and Singh at their bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of summit agreed that neither the Kashmiri issue nor the question of terrorism should be a hindrance to moves aimed at improving relations. In keeping with this agreement, the joint communiqué had no mention of Kashmir while the terrorism issue only had a toned down reference.

Though such an approach sounds realistic to the two leaders, critics at home took them to task. Gilani was criticized for not including Kashmir in the communiqué while Singh faced flak for relaxing India's hardline position which had linked the Indo-Pakistan peace process with Pakistan's cooperation and commitment in eliminating the threat of terrorism to India.

(Next week: The deradicalisation of Pakistan)

 
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