Trading Peace for Profits

The U.S. continues to shield Pakistan's terror infrastructure while courting business interests—India must stand firm against this hypocrisy that endangers South Asia’s stability and sovereignty

- PRASHANT DIKSHIT

Let us recall that after the Balakot strike in 2019 by India, Ashley Tellis, a well-known American Commentator, unequivocally commented that "Pakistani terrorism remains the principal continuing threat to stability in South Asia. US' policy moving forward must relentlessly pressure Pakistan to crack down on jihadi groups or risk conti crises in the region".

Many observers had then logically concluded that the Balakot crisis-which began with Jaish-e-Mohammad's (JeM) suicide bombing of an Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy at Pulwama on February 14, 2019, provoked Indian military retaliation and the subsequent Indo-Pakistani air battles on February 26-27-was he in exactly this direction. That it did not eventually result in a fullscale war, as a simulation might have predicted, is owed g to propitious political circumstances. The then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, had very adroitly underplaye occurrence. But if such deadly outcomes are to be averted permanently, for the sake of peace and stability in South Asia, the fundamental cause of the convulsion-namely, the Pakistan military's continued supp terrorist groups deployed against its neighbours must be confronted squarely by the international community and ultin by the Pakistani polity itself.