Dance of the Devils and Post-Pathankot Options for India

Once again, devils from the terror outfit, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),  struck again on 20 Jan 2016 at the Basha Khan University in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunwa province, killing 25 innocents and wounding over 60. That these terrorists carried out their cowardly, inhuman act in an educational institution named after an apostle of peace, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan revered as the “Frontier Gandhi”, makes the incident more poignant for Indians as well.

            This terror attack is a grim reminder of  a similar yet far more dastardly attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in Dec 2015 where the same splinter group of the TTP, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar,  led by reputedly Pakistan’s most dangerous terror kingpin, Omar Khorsani, had mercilessly slaughtered over 135 innocent school children. The Pakistan Army have, indeed, been carrying out their counter-terror operations against these “bad terrorists” but have failed to dismantle or take any action against the so-called “good terrorists” belonging to their “strategic assets”, namely the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), Jaish-e-Mohd (JEM),  Hizb-ul-Mujaideen (HUM) and some other Sunni Wahabi ‘tanzeems’ being trained and funded for anti-India operations and  the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani and Hekayatmar networks for  Afghanistan-specific  terror operations. This selective, myopic and self-defeating stratagem has cost Pakistan dearly but its obdurate Deep State refuses to discard these terror driven protégés for services rendered in the past to the ISI and plans to continue with their terror operations in the future.

Since the last two 25 years or so, counter-terror operations have become an exacting 24/7 endeavour. Thus, India at the receiving end of substantial Pakistani-conceived and planned terror has its task well laid out as  has been its bitter experience over the years. That the Indian security establishment has to treble its vigilance, procure preventive actionable intelligence, keep in readiness response mechanisms and gets its overall act together will be merely stating the obvious. That Pakistan’s devious ISI would be on an overdrive especially after its well-planned though abortive attempt to hit the Pathankot air base with its JEM supposedly non-state actors, on 1^st and 2^nd  January this year, should be more than  apparent to India’s security organs. That the JEM terror assault on the Pathankot air base , coming  after PM Modi’s dramatic and supposedly breakthrough  visit to Lahore for Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif’s birthday on 25 Dec 2015,  pained most in India that whatever peace overtures the Indian leadership may make towards Pakistan, the real powers-that-be in Pakistan (read the Deep State) will always nullify them.

             Even security and vigilance failures have a bright side to them only if the negligent recipient takes the pain to learn through it. Thus India must button up its vigilance to prevent intrusions and infiltration at the international border/line of control. If after the Pathankot intrusions, coming soon after a couple of earlier border crossings by Pakistantrained saboteurs at Samba and Gurdaspur, have the stamp of negligence by the BSF and any assistance by some local Punjab policemen, then the strictest action is warranted against them; those responsible in Punjab, infamous for narco-terrorism having taken roots in the state, will have to be severely dealt with under the Indian law.

            Media reports indicate that post-Pathankot, the Centre has ordered a security audit of all sensitive installations. Such steps must not await crisis situations but should be institutionalized as periodic reviews to ensure proper prophylactic measures and course corrections as required. That is the Standard Operating Procedure professionally for all institutions the world over. Beyond tightening up one’s security, not only adequate responses to terror strikes but various options available to India need to be war-gamed incorporating diplomatic, economic and the military options also.  Prefaced by a resolute will thus, can we  obviate the endemic Indian habit of reacting!

            Much has been discussed in India over the past fortnight, on the prudence or otherwise of keeping the dialogue channels open with a recalcitrant and mischief-creating Pakistan and its so-called non-state actors who, in reality, are the “strategic assets” of the state itself ! Now that the Modi government has taken, hopefully, a considered view that dialogue must continue to make the Pakistani Deep State see reason---- impossible that it seems--- let the Indian government pursue its path. In fact, India should convey to the Pakistanis that we are prepared to discuss with them all issues under the sun.

 As we talk on terror emanating from Pakistan, we can discuss even J&K--- where is the problem?  Let us remind Pakistan of recent history, namely, that when the Instrument of Accession was signed by Maharaja Hari Singh, the then ruler of J&K, on 26 Oct 1947, it was for the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir and not for only a part! Additionally, even the UN Resolution of 1949 had laid down unequivocally that Pakistan had to withdraw all its forces from J&K in order to create a conducive climate for a plebiscite. Importantly, over the years,  while not even one  individual from outside the state of J&K from India has settled in that state (obligations of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution)------ Pakistan has substantially altered the demographic profile  in areas under its illegal occupation, namely, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and the Gilgit-Baltistan regions (both parts of the erstwhile princely state of J&K when it acceded to India) by re-settling many Sunni people from the plains  in these regions.  Thus Pakistan has no locus standi on J&K----- also having made matters worse by gifting 5180 sq kms of the Shaksgam Valley to China in 1963. To any international observer, Pakistan’s status in J&K is only of an illegal occupier and all this can be discussed during our talks with them.  

             Importantly, Pakistan has to be reminded of the landmark Simla 1972  and Lahore 1999 Agreements between the two nations which clearly enunciate the rules of mutual engagement between the two nations on all issues including that of J&K. Thus India need not be ever on the back-foot while discussing any issue with Pakistan including J&K.

  India today stands at the cusp of becoming a reckonable global power and thus must acquit itself with the requisite confidence and conviction in the pursuit of its legitimate national goals.

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Views expressed by the Author are personal. The Author was India’s first Chief of the Defence Intelligence Agency and now writes and lectures on security matters both in India and abroad.