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There’s merit in reticence

Hiranmaey Karlekar

Pakistan must do more to prove its commitment The statement by Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Mr Rehman Malik, at a news conference last Thursday that perpetrators of the sea-borne attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008, could have been from Pakistan, marked a shift from Islamabad’s familiar tactics of denials, prevarications and attempted deflections; so did his remark that “some part of the conspiracy” had been hatched in Islamabad. He also said that Pakistan had registered a case against nine suspects on the charges of abetting, conspiring at and facilitating a terrorist act, and that six of them, including Lashkar-e-Tayyeba leaders Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, named by India as masterminds of the attack, were already in custody. Reacting to Pakistan’s admission, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee stated in Parliament last Friday that “much depends on actions in the Mumbai case reaching their logical conclusion”. While describing the development as positive, he pointed out that it came after the fourth official communication by India, and that, until then, Islamabad had resorted to prevarication and denial and displayed a misplaced sense of victimhood.Many have felt that Mr Mukherjee could have been a little more welcoming, as could Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, who, while stating that his initial response was that it was a positive development, had emphasised that the Indian dossier presented to Pakistan was so tightly and cogently argued that “nobody could have ignored it”.The fact is that the reserve with which they responded was warranted. Islamabad has only registered a case; nobody has yet been convicted or punished. Besides, as Mr Malik pointed out at the news conference, it had given India 30 questions, asking for information ranging from the fingerprints of the 10 terrorists, the surviving terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab’s DNA, and details of telephone conversations between the terrorists and their handlers, and of some bank transfers.Pakistan may well let things drag and then turn around and say that India’s answers had not been satisfactory. Its past actions — such as the offer to send the ISI chief, Lt Gen Shuja Pasha, to India in the immediate aftermath of the Mumbai attack and then do an about-turn — hardly inspires confidence. Nor can one ignore the fact that Mr Malik’s announcement came the day after US President Barack Obama’s telephone conversation with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and the last day of the US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Richard Holbrooke’s four-day visit to Islamabad. Clearly, American pressure had been a major factor and inputs by the FBI had played a critical role. The FBI provided the information that led to the arrest of Javed Iqbal, who, according to Mr Malik, was a key player in the conspiracy and who was ‘lured’ back to Pakistan from Spain. The FBI, again, reportedly deciphered the data from the GPS equipment used by the terrorists and traced the path — shown in the Indian dossier — not only to Karachi but addresses in the city at which the GPS device was on, and perhaps also to the arrest of Hamad Amin Sadiq, who, according to Mr Malik, was the mastermind.While all this is a welcome indication of the improvement in India-US relations that has occurred in the recent years and a clear example of the benefits that international cooperation in combating terrorism can yield, it also shows how dependent India is on American support and help. Such dependence can produce results as long as India-US ties remain cordial and the US retains both its power and the will and ability to defeat Islamist terrorism in what is going to be a savage and prolonged conflict.Unfortunately, the economic crisis that has hit the US puts a question mark on its ability to wage a war of this kind. Second, its withdrawal from Vietnam shows that its political will cannot be indefinitely taken for granted. Elements favouring the Taliban and Pakistan in the CIA and the State Department may get active once the body bags begin to arrive in larger numbers. A US retreat from Afghanistan will leave India facing a resurgent Taliban-Al Qaeda-ISI axis sworn to its destruction. To be on the safe side, it should begin preparing for such a contingency from now. (The Pioneer)

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