More Chicanery

Islamabad has all along played the duplicitous act of fanning terrorism across its borders. It seeks to flex its muscle with the undue leverage that regional dissonance and discord affords it. From supporting violent insurgent groups based on sectarian considerations in Iran, to deadly groups loyal to Islamabad in Afghanistan, to virtually any grouping willing to create mayhem in India — anything goes for Pakistan

- BHOPINDER SINGH The writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), and former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry

When terrorists killed Indian citizens in the cowardly attack in Pahalgam, the fingers were immediately and justifiably pointed across the Line-of-Control (LoC). The perfunctory official message of Pakistani authorities in condemning the attack and condoling the deaths was insincere, insufficient, and incorrigible, given that this has been the tactic for decades following every such terror attack.

The nefarious hand of Pakistan in creating, nurturing, and supporting the terror ecosystem needs no reiteration or reconfirmation.

Harking back to the first tweet of 2018 by the then President of the USA, Donald Trump (in his first term), the clearly frustrated POTUS had called out Pakistan's 'deceit' and 'duplicity' on terrorism, and for offering a "safe haven" to terrorists. Even Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, who disagreed with Trump on most things, was completely aligned on Pakistan as he had earlier said, "We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan."

That Pakistan itself is mired in a self-acknowledged and deadly mutation of religious extremism, intolerance and terrorism, is clearly its own doing. Political scientist and global terror expert Daniel Byman had famously stated, "Pakistan may now be the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism, beyond even Iran, yet it has never been listed by the US State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism."

The fact that Pakistan was always key to American interest often allowed it to get away without adequate censure or sanctions — the Americans would conveniently look the other way when it wasn't their own interest or personnel that were targeted or pat Pakistan on its back, whenever it helped get an occasional 'hit' on someone from America's 'wanted list' (like Trump recently praised Pakistan for aiding the arrest of a key terrorist involved in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing). But that is the typical American transactional policy.