The right response to these attacks for the leaders of both Pakistan and India is not to cast blame on each other’s government but to foster a spirit of solidarity. In turn, Pakistan must go the extra mile to establish a clear break between terrorists and the rest of Pakistani society and government.
By Ahmad Faruqui, Associate, Pakistan Security Research Unit, University of Bradford
The attackers of Mumbai had certainly looked to create the maximum coverage for their actions. They struck India’s financial capital so that TV screens the world over would project images of black smoke and red flames billowing out of the iconic Taj and Oberoi hotels.
By so doing, they hoped not only to cripple India’s growing reputation as a global economic powerhouse and tourist destination, but to cast a body blow to the new-found friendship between India and Pakistan. It is now regarded as the worst atrocity since terrorists bombed the Mumbai Stock Exchange building in 1993, killing more than 250 people.
Ties between the two countries had begun to warm up during the waning days of the Musharraf dictatorship as developments on the western border took center stage in Islamabad and as the army hunkered down to take on Al-Qa’ida and Taliban inspired terrorist attacks within the country. Indo-Pakistani relations had taken a definite turn for the better as democracy was restored in Pakistan and President Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto who had fallen victim to the terrorists in December, was sworn into office.
In a widely quoted interview with the Wall Street Journal, Zardari had stated that Pakistan intended to end its decades-long hostility to India. He said that Pakistan should take advantage of India’s growing economic might by exporting basic materials such as cement to it. Zardari also spoke of the need to peacefully resolve the Kashmir conflict. And just a few days before the terrorists hit Mumbai, he offered a no first strike accord to India to banish the threat of a nuclear war from the subcontinent.
This budding rapprochement between New Delhi and Islamabad represented an existential threat to the various terrorist groups that had been spawned by the conflicts in Afghanistan and Kashmir over the past two decades. Their dreams of restoring the Caliphate through victory in a holy war or being martyred in the cause and going to paradise were at risk.
Many of them owed their creation to the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, which was intent on carrying out a proxy war in Indian Kashmir on the backs of the militants. But all seemed to change after the attacks on the US on 9/11.
Pakistan made its well-advertised U-Turn on its pro-Taliban policy. Cross-border infiltrations across the Line of Control slowed down and after much+ prodding from the US, eventually ground to a halt. It seemed that the ISI and the Jihadist Mmonster had been reined in.
But when Carlotta Gall of the New York Times interviewed several former ISI operatives not too long ago, she found that the agency was conflicted, with some agents seeking to stop its militants from carrying out any new attacks while other agents seeking to carry them out. One former ISI agent was quite blunt: ‘We indoctrinated them and told them “You will go to heaven.”. You cannot turn it around so suddenly.’
So doubts linger about Islamabad’s involvement. The problem is the Pakistan army continues to be a state within a state. It has rarely ceded control of the nation’s defencse and foreign policies to its civilian rulers. In 1999, while the prime ministers of India and Pakistan were meeting in Lahore to forge peaceful ties, the Pakistani army was carrying out a covert assault on Kargil in Kashmir.
The terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi happened in December 2001, just three months after 9/11 and within days after the Taliban-led government fell to the US-led forces. This attack precipitated a major crisis between India and Pakistan which brought a million troops to the border between the two countries in early 2002. An all-out war which could have well have resulted in a nuclear exchange was averted by the intervention of the US and other Wwestern powers.
It is too early to say who carried out the attacks in Mumbai. But the blame game has already begun. The opposition BJP party in India, which hopes to regain power in next year’s general election, has immediately blamed the Congress party for the intelligence lapses and general policy failures that allowed an attack of such magnitude to take place. The Congress-led Indian government has in turn suggested Pakistani involvement which, given the history of terrorism in Indo-Pakistani relations, carries some weight.
Islamabad, quick to recognize recognise the damning ramifications of the attack, has offered full cooperation in the investigation to the Indian government. Indeed, Prime Minister Gilani responded immediately to an Indian request to send the head of the ISI to India to help in the investigation. However, soon thereafter it was decided that one of his senior representatives would be sent. This downgrading may suggest that civilian control over the military establishment has not been achieved in Pakistan. The ISI may still be calling the shots.
Schadenfreude about terrorism in India extends beyond the military in Pakistan. Many in the civilian elite quietly indulge in it every time a horrifying incident occurs across the eastern border. In Pavlovian fashion, some Pakistanis are using this horrible tragedy to draw attention to the plight of the Muslims in India and suggesting that the attacks may have been carried out by homegrown terrorists.
Bromides are bromides whether they originate from India or Pakistan. In a similar vein, without having definite proof, Indian authorities are pointing the finger at Pakistan. Blaming Pakistan at such a crucial moment in the bilateral relations between the two countries could derail the progress that has been made between improving bilateral ties. It could also weaken the credibility of the fledgling democratically elected government in Pakistan.
Such accusations against Pakistan could also put the lives of millions of Muslims in India at risk. During the past few several years, militant Hindu fundamentalists have attacked them and questioned their patriotism. Nationalist parties and radical Hindu-supremacist groups feed on the public fear of ‘Muslim Terror’ while carrying out their own brand of fanatically inspired counter terror.
The right response to these attacks for the leaders of both countries is not to cast blame on each other’s government but to foster a spirit of solidarity. The wise Indian response would be to admit that it is too early to say who did it and not to cast an accusatory finger at Pakistan.
Pakistan should similarly go the extra mile. It should send its ISI chief over to India, as promised initially by the civilian government, and go even further by offering full co-operation in finding the perpetrators and bringing them to justice. It should disavow terrorism in no uncertain terms.
In addition, to take away all legitimacy from terror, much of which is indeed being carried out these days by avowed Muslims, the religious leaders of the Muslim communities in both India and Pakistan should condemn terrorism in all its manifestations in no uncertain terms.
If those who desert Islam can be branded as apostates by the ulema, then those who so brazenly act against Islamic principles by taking the lives of innocents should be declared apostates and given the capital punishment. Their violent and senseless actions accomplish nothing other than even more violent and senseless retaliation against other Muslims.
Pakistan may also wish to take a leaf out of the Saudi book. They have set up schools to retrain jihadis who have been netted during various anti-terrorism raids and to bring them back into the fold of civil society. The Saudis have found that the jihadis are often lacking in basic religious knowledge, have dropped out of society for various reasons and succumbed to the agendas of demagogues. Once they are given religious training and provided means for re-entering civil society, most of them forsake terrorist behaviours.
It may be time for Pakistan to set up similar rehabilitation schools and clinics to put the scourge of terrorism out of business once and for all.
Ahmad Faruqui's latest book Musharraf's Pakistan, Bush's America and the Middle East is published by Vanguard Books.
The views expressed above are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect those of RUSI.