Pakistan should be declared a terrorist state
It is with a deep sense of anguish the victims of Pakistan sponsored 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks watch the trial drag in Islamabad. It's compounded by the free movement the mastermind Hafiz Muhammed Saeed enjoys in Pakistan, even leading the Eid prayers at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium. The chief plotter and the man who directed the ten Pakistani terrorists' attack in South Mumbai, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, fathered a child in detention and was caught directing Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists for more terror attacks.
What is equally distressing, when you live next door to terror, is the fact that despite losing 132 children among 145 killed in the worst attack in Peshawar, Pakistan, the country’s leadership continues to speak with a forked tongue; going after Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan but providing patronage to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
What is worse, Pakistan continues to drag its feet on Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi’s trial. The plot was hatched in Pakistan, conspiracy took place in Pakistan, training took place in Pakistan, including by Pakistan ISI and Pakistan navy, Lakhvi accompanied the terrorists in a boat till the international waters, brainwashing them till the end, he directed the terror attack from the control room near the Karachi Airport through the three days of carnage, yet Pakistan refuses to investigate, join the dots and proceed against him.
India has given Pakistan a mountain of evidence, admissible in any court of law, except perhaps Pakistan, a country where the lawyer who kisses the killer of governor Salman Taseer is promoted to the bench and made a judge in the Islamabad High Court. The evidence India has given Pakistan includes the testimony of Ajmal Amir Kasab made before a judicial magistrate, admissible as evidence in any court of law, including Pakistan. It also includes the testimony of Abu Jundal, a terrorist deported from Saudi Arabia despite Pakistan’s vehement opposition. Abu Jundal was present in that Karachi control room and knows Lakhvi. Abu Jundal is a fellow terrorist Pakistan was hiding in Saudi Arabia. There is also electronic evidence in the form of voice recordings. However, Pakistan has in the past six years refused to give Lakhvi’s voice sample, despite the fact he is in jail and Pakistan has sworn to fight India-centric terror.
Even now, with a huge international outcry and India threatening to ensure it will not be business as usual with Pakistan if Lakhvi walks out of jail, Pakistan has been forced to once again detain him. Not for 26/11 but in a six-year-old kidnapping case. So for all practical purposes, Lakhvi is out on bail in the 26/11 case.
Pakistan has deliberately filed a weak case against Lakhvi. The case will get thrown out of court. Lakhvi will walk out of jail and Pakistan will claim they have a free judiciary so what can they do, if the evidence is inadequate. Pakistan has played this game before with Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, the professor of terror. Keep him in jail till the pressure dies and then let him walk out of jail, acquitted by a court of law.
The bigger tragedy is that when Pakistan refuses to take action against Lakhvi where is the question of action against Hafiz Saeed? And when Pakistan refuses to even link 26/11 to Hafiz Saeed where is the chance that Pakistan will take action against colonel Sadatullah, major Samir Ali, major Hamza and other serving and retired officers of the notorious terror breeding spy agency ISI.
Lisa Curtis, senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, was on my show on Headlines Today and made two very important points. LeT and TTP train together and are managed by the same Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). And that if Pakistan is serious about cracking down on terror without distinction the Pakistan army will have to go after both the terrorists in Waziristan and also India-centric terrorists in Pakistan’s Punjab and occupied Kashmir.
Leela Ponappa, former deputy national security advisor is of the opinion that despite Peshawar, Islamabad continues to pursue its double standards. Even if Pakistan is going after TTP even along the Durand Line it is not going after either the Haqqani Network or the Quetta Shura. Similarly despite international condemnation, Pakistan refuses to crack down on India-centric terror along the Radcliffe Line.
Is it then time to declare Pakistan a terrorist state? It is a known fact that Pakistan spreads terror across India. But India is not the only victim of Pakistan-sponsored terror. My friends in Afghanistan tell me they would have loved to build the Afghan version of the Great Wall of China to keep Pakistan out. I was in the Chicago courtroom when the FBI read out details of LeT conspiracy for a terror strike in Denmark. Tahawwur Hussein Rana and David Coleman Headley were LeT sleeper cells in the US. Headley was also working for Pakistan’s ISI and LeT. Pakistan poses a clear and present danger to itself and to the world that associates with it.
India should openly come out with Red Lines and take punitive action against Pakistan should those Red Lines be breached. It should begin with scaling down diplomatic ties with Pakistan to withdrawal of the most favoured nation status and extend to increasing its influence in Afghanistan to hem Pakistan in.
India should not stop at Lakhvi being detained. India should insist on action against Hafiz Saeed. If Pakistan is unwilling to even take the first step to address India-centric terror, normalisng relationship will be just an eye wash, till the next terror attack.