It is actions like these that have fuelled the war hysteria building on both sides following the Nov 26 terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the ratcheting up of anti-Pakistani statements by the Indian government as well as Indian politicians, media and some sections of its civil society. The Indian ire has emanated from so far unproven allegations that terrorist groups, specifically the Lashkar-e-Taiba, had operated from Pakistani soil to carry out the Mumbai attacks and that somehow the Pakistan government shared the burden of responsibility.
The rising pitch of the statements emanating from New Delhi surely indicated that India was seriously preparing for a strike against Pakistan. The Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was at the forefront on this count, stating categorically that India was “not closing any options.” More fuel to fire was added by the otherwise balanced Congress president Sonia Gandhi who claimed that India was capable of giving a “befitting reply to those using their soil for abetting and promoting terrorism.”
While the Pakistani civilian leadership was mum on the subject, the country’s Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani retorted by emphasizing upon the visiting U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen, that Pakistan “wants peace with India on equal level,” but “no compromise will be made on Pakistan’s defence.”
Questioning the capability of the Pakistani leadership, Nirupama Subramanian, correspondent of The Hindu based in Islamabad, asked if the Asif Ali Zardari government, despite its reiteration that it equally feels the pain of Mumbai, and its apparent desire to take action against the “non-state actors” on its soil who are believed to have perpetrated the Mumbai attacks, deliver what India and the world wanted?’
It is quite presumptuous of India and the world to think that Pakistan will deliver what they want because there is no evidence of who these alleged “non-state actors” are. This is a term that appears to have made its way into the current lexicon of international double-talk in recent days and is being used to deflect attention from the possibility of the Mumbai attacks having been carried out by India’s own brand of militants.
It is worthwhile to consider that in the initial hours, the attacks were claimed by a previously unknown group that called itself the ‘Deccan Mujahideen’. Surprisingly, a large segment of the Indian media and, in turn, the international media, did not pay much heed to the ‘Deccan Mujahideen’ claim and instead of confronting the possibility of a home-grown militancy, immediately swung their guns towards Pakistan, asserting with quite some authority that this could have been the work of none other than the Lashkar-i-Taiba (LT). The LT categorically denied having anything to do with the Mumbai attacks and said it condemned them but no one bothered to listen to their pleas or to assurances extended by the Pakistan government that it would do all in its power to help India find the real culprits.
A closer look at how events unfolded during the 60-hour long siege of high profile locations in Mumbai in which nearly 200 people died, raises more questions and has few answers. For instance, why was there a war of advertisements that ensued within a few days of the Mumbai attacks between the BJP and the Congress? The BJP was seeking ouster of the Congress for failing on the terror front while the ruling party reminded the BJP about its own faux pas on the same count when it was in power.
The BJP latched on to the Mumbai incidents post-haste, obviously with an eye on the state elections in Rajasthan and Delhi. L K Advani slammed the Congress for not retaining POTA while the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi tried to hog the limelight by visiting the terror spots in Mumbai and spewing criticism against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The timing of the attacks also coincided perfectly with the state elections. This in effect meant that if the Lashkar-e-Taiba were responsible, it was actually facilitating the BJP. Why would it do so? Further, how could the ISI have been connected with an operation that would benefit the BJP?
There were other questions as well. Why was the wife of Hemant Karkare, the Indian anti-terrorism chief who was killed in the very first hours of the Mumbai attacks, not allowed to speak up? A close friend of Karkare, a retired Indian army officer, had been told by the slain officer in writing a few hours before he was killed that his life was under threat by Hindu terrorists and their handlers in the Indian military intelligence. Why were both Mrs. Karkare and the secret letter suppressed?
More importantly, if the Lashkar-i-Taiba or its successor, the Jamat-ud-Dawah, were responsible for the Mumbai massacre, then some other aspects of the whole episode are also worth considering. The so-called Islamic jehadis who allegedly carried out the operation, were pretty out of character and did not sport beards and turbans. They were instead wearing trousers and T-shirts and were clean-shaven. They also chose to first go to a bar and have beer before launching the attacks. Very non-Jehadi behaviour, to say the least.
Why did these Islamic terrorists look so much like RSS operatives? The lone survivor of the attacks was the same person who was caught vividly on camera as he moved in for the assault. The orange band, a tell-tale sign that he was a Hindu RSS militant, was clearly visible on his wrist. It is also strange that the terrorists who were alleged to have come from Pakistan via the sea route, immediately found their targets and eliminated Hemant Karakare, CP Ashok Kamthe and Vijay Salskar – three ATS (Anti Terrorism Squad) officers – in the first 15 minutes of the attacks. Karakare was wearing a bullet-proof vest and was shot in the neck. As the officers were in a crowded place, they must have been very difficult to find and identify by strangers who had just smuggled themselves into the sprawling metropolis. Then how did they succeed in specifically targeting these three key individuals?
It is worth noting that the ATS was investigating the BJP’s involvement in terrorism and only a few days earlier had said it suspected serving Indian Army officer – Lt. Col. Prasad Prohit – to have supplied the RDX that was used in the Samjhota Express bombing on February 18, 2007 that killed 68 passengers, including many Pakistanis.
Only one terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks was caught alive and he happened to be the very person who was earlier photographed and shown on Indian TV channels. It is also quite strange that these ‘outsiders’ acted with such precision and swiftness and held a huge city like Mumbai hostage for three days, despite the fact that they were complete strangers in the city. Full marks to them that they succeeded in making themselves familiar with the Indian security net in such a short time! As alleged, they secretly sailed from Pakistan across hundreds of nautical miles and then smartly hoodwinked the vigilant Indian Navy and Coast Guard to enter Mumbai undetected. The Indian Army and Maharashtra Police also need to be asked as to why it took hundreds of their armed and equipped personnel as many as 60 hours to get a handle on the terrorists? Is their level of training and preparedness so poor?
From the run of events following the Mumbai attacks, it appears as if every few years, the powers that be in the Indian establishment succeed in raising the level of tensions with their western neighbour. In 2001 it was the attack on the Indian Parliament building in Delhi, the blame for which was put squarely on Pakistani jehadi organisations, though India has not been able to furnish conclusive proof of Pakistani complicity in the attack to this day. This was followed by an era of fence-mending and Track Two diplomacy, raising hopes on both sides that the two bickering neighbours had finally buried the hatchet and were moving towards some kind of friendly co-existence. Then comes Mumbai and it’s back to square one. Short of taking steps like lowering the level of diplomatic ties, banning overflights by Pakistani aircraft over Indian territory and almost severing trade, cultural and sporting ties, India has again succeeded in increasing the temperature to a dangerous level.
The South Asian bully has been hurling accusations at its smaller neighbour about its inability to rein in terrorist organisations operating against India from its soil and says that the Mumbai attacks were a continuation of the same. But despite Pakistan’s unconditional offer to India that if provided the evidence of their involvement, it would take strong action against such elements, India has not delivered anything substantial by way of proof so far, either to Pakistan or to any other international agency. As the Interpol secretary-general Ronald Noble said in Islamabad on Dec. 23, India had not provided names of any suspects or other evidence to Interpol about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
It seems as if a war frenzy is already beginning to engulf the two South Asian neighbours and their armies are just short of moving into an eyeball to eyeball stance. For their part, the Indian media too has been working overtime since Nov. 26 to whip up an orgy of Pakistan-bashing. Note must also be made of the vicious campaign launched by the Western media to condemn Pakistan for everything in the context of the Mumbai attacks and to take the Indian government’s word as the gospel truth. None of these quarters have ever cared to examine or mention the dozens of insurgencies that are eating into the very innards of India’s democratic sham and tearing its national unity apart. They are not perturbed by the Indian nukes but would like to eliminate Pakistan’s nuclear assets. They seem not to have heard of the Indian RAW and its wrongdoings in Pakistan but would love to stamp the ISI out of existence. For them, Pakistan has emerged as the biggest threat to world security and, as such, must be taught a lesson.
With western-backed India preparing for ‘surgical’ strikes in Pakistan’s sovereign territory and the US bracing for a ‘surge’ in Afghanistan and FATA, Pakistan surely has a clear script written out for its immediate future.
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