Pakistan terms evidence "not credible".. and Options available now
Some important developments in the Indo-Pak saga:
While Indian PM has said that Pakistani establishment knew of the Mumbai Attacks (second official to say so) [1], Pakistan has termed the evidence from India on the Mumbai Attacks was not “credible” in accordance with law [2]. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Khan and Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir questioned the credibility of the evidence while addressing the Foreign Relations Committee. In fact the Intelligence Bureau of India told rediff.com that the Mumbai Attacks could have even have been planned, leave alone executed if ISI wasn’t involved and supervised the operations! The evidence it has is from multiple interviews with the terrorists that have been caught over the last month and weeks.[4]
There are always certain norms which certain civilized societies follow while interacting with each other. If you do not follow those norms, you lose the important political capital that one has to move and interact in the public sphere. It is quite obvious that Pakistani establishment does not care about that.
With this, I think the time has come for India to exercise (I mean ACTIONIZE) the options that we have against Pakistan. Obviously, war is not an option while Pakistan has the Nukes. So what are the other options?
1. Freeze and Suspend all Treaties with Pakistan: Treaties and Agreements are made with civilized societies. Every word of Tashkent Agreement (handwritten by Yahya Khan btw) and in the Shimla Agreement (after returning the 90,000 PoWs) have been in spirit and principle been violated by Pakistan. There is no reason why India should even pay attention to any treaties it has with Pakistan, including the ones dealing with Indus River. If blackmail and Punjabi-style strong arm tactics is what the Pakistani establishment wants to pursue and play with, then lets display some quitessential Punjabi style negotiations from here on. NO WATER! Sorry.. but we have no proof that what you saying about not getting water is even true.
2. Pulverize the Export Industry of Pakistan: India clearly has the economy edge over Pakistan’s Basket-case economy. India’s just software exports are close to $50 billion, while Pakistan’s total exports are in the region of $20 billion – just to give a perspective of the comparison we are dealing with here! India has the means and the wherewithal to break the back of EVERY export led industry (Agriculture mainly) that Pakistan has by giving additional subsidies if a company replaces a Pakistani exporter in any area.. or even a generalized subsidy. Times are tough in the world economy.. so there is no reason why any questions need be raised about this help from the Indian Government to its own industry.
The goal should be to make the economy of Pakistan TOTALLY dependent on US Aid and the Jehadi money. Then the government should move to corner that side.
3. Hammer on the Pakistan-Terrorism relationship (the hyphenated relation): There is every evidence that India has and knows about to prove that Terrorists & Jehadis are hand in glove with the Pakistani establishment! The establishment KNEW about the 9-11 attacks and the Mumbai attacks. Journalists all over the world know that. Why shouldn’t it be written about and advertised further?
US has anyways come out today equating LeT with Hamas [3]. The need is to establish clearly the link between LeT AND Pakistan Establishment!
With the relations that India has and the profile that Indian Americans have built up in the past few years – Sonal Shah is in Obama’s main team… and according to the latest report – Dr. Sanjay Gupta (CNN’s Senior Medical Correspondent) will be the new Surgeon General of US. There is every reason why the relationship that is real and tangible AND devastating and critical for world’s survival be brought out in the open!! Just as India’s Nuclear blasts took away the cover from Pakistan’s covert Nuclear work and ultimately exposed the AQ Khan Bazar, there is a case to be made about the “Terror Bazaar”.
The message needs to be so clearly and directly communicated that ANY AID from any of the Western countries becomes an impossibility!
Will this push Pakistan into a turmoil and more Jehadi following? Yes, absolutely. Will that make it dangerous for India? HECK YES! So, how will it be better for India?
One, it will blow the “Moderate-Civilized Government” cover off the underlying and unmistakable Jehadi set up!
Two, Pakistan was set up to be an Islamic society – remember the Two Nation theory? Well time now for every citizen to live in that dream world with Taliban implementing the “Holy Sharia” for everyone!
Three, if the Jehadis take over, then the pressure to neutralize the Nukes in Pakistan will be IMMENSE on US and the Western world. The Mumbai Attacks and the ability of the West to teach the Pakistani establishment a nice good lesson should be THE litmus test. The message being clear: Either you neutralize this mess NOW, or prepare to Neutralize the Nukes in a few months! Because guess who gets hit if the Jehadis get ONE nuke in their hand? I doubt they would waste that on the Indians.
The patience with reluctance of the West – and in some cases outright abetting and help of Pakistan’s Jehadi establishment by the US and its allies – is mind-boggling!
Reference Links:
1. PM blames Pakistan, calls for ‘strong sense of nationhood’ to tackle terror
2. Pak says evidence given to it on Mumbai attack “not credible”
3. Hamas, LeT use violence for political objectives: US
4. ISI knew all about Mumbai attacks: IB