Author: ML Kotru
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 20, 2001
Introduction: India has some good
reasons to be irked by the West-led selective campaign against terror.
In a limited way, Kandahar seems
to continue to haunt us Indians. What haunts is the image of External Affairs
Minister Jaswant Singh landing up in Kandahar in 1999 to negotiate the
release of the hijacked passengers of the Indian Airlines flight.
Among the bargaining chips he had
taken along with him were Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zaragar and
Omar Shiekh, all three of them released from Indian jails to be able to
accompany Jaswant Singh, who then was expected to strike a deal with Mullah
Omar and his men, hand over the three terrorists to the latter and in return
get the Mullah's okay for the release of the hapless passengers and of
the aircraft. Weakness was palmed off as diplomacy and the consequences
have never ceased to haunt us.
All three released terrorists were
handed over promptly by Mullah Omar to the Pakistanis, Masood Azhar to
launch his Jaish-e-Mohammad, Mushtaq Zaragar to soon surface in Srinagar
and to return to his stewardship of the Al Badr group and Saeed Sheikh,
a former alumnus of the London School of Economics, who had spent some
years in Indian jails, and now turns out to be one of the key players in
the terrorist assault on New York and Washington. Sheikh, if you need to
be reminded, is said to have sent $100,000 to Mahamad Atta, one of the
wreckers of the World Trade Center towers, from his Pakistani haven. The
money was then disbursed by Atta among fellow terrorists connected with
the September 11 occurrences. And this was not only foreign payment received
by the US-based and bin-Laden inspired angels of death.
Masood Azhar has, of course, never
looked back after his release in Kandahar. He was feted by Mullah Omar
on his return visit to Kandahar after a short and rousing welcome in Karachi.
Omar and Azhar were both students of the notorious Binouri seminary in
Karachi. Masood Azhar, after founding the Jaish-e-Mohammad, declared India,
the US and Israel as the three greatest enemies of Islam and lost no time
in announcing that his first priority would be the liberation of Kashmir.
The Jaish has since established
itself as a major terrorist force, with Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
giving it a close run for top honours, in Kashmir. Given his commitment
and his willingness to ignore Islamabad's authority, whenever it suits
him and the Pakistani government, Azhar didn't have the slightest hesitation
in claiming the authorship of the outrage at the Srinagar legislative complex
which claimed 38 lives, most of them civilians. It was only 24 hours later
that he disowned his first claim. Not surprisingly the disclaimer came
after Islamabad, realising the damaging potential of the attack, had condemned
it. But Azhar is no ordinary terrorist, as he has repeatedly demonstrated.
If the happenings in the US on September
11 bore the signature of Osama bin Laden, the massacre on October 1 in
Srinagar had Masood Azhar written all over it, never mind the subsequent
retraction. Masood Azhar is not as shadowy or mysterious a person as some
are trying to make him out to be. He is a known bigot, a fundamentalist
who has very close links with the Taliban, with Mullah Omar and, of course,
with Osama bin Laden. It may sound like a take off on a Delhi-based weekly's
description of him, but Masood Azhar could well be described as someone
who is to India what bin Laden is to the Americans.
Given the dimension of the menace
posed by men like Masood Azhar, it is surprising that Mr Vajpayee has not
been able to project, in the Indian context, men like Azhar as our version
of bin Laden. He did well though in ticking off Tony Blair's assertion
that the principal concern of the anti-terrorist coalition currently was
to beat the Osama-Taliban challenge. Jaswant Singh, too, may have believed
that he was being very logical when he said that "a country that is part
of the problem (Pakistan) is now being attempted to be used by the US towards
a solution. Good Luck". But the sarcasm was obviously lost in his audience
of the grand coalition.
Prime Minister Vajpayee was even
more blunt in stating that India disapproved of the manner in which the
"global coalition against terrorism" had ignored the reality that Pakistan
was a major sponsor of terrorism and was therefore not qualified to join
the coalition. India was equally disturbed by the US failure to name the
JeM and LeT as terrorist outfits. Tony Blair tried to skirt the issue at
his brief Press meeting in New Delhi but he could not possibly have missed
the strong feelings of his Indian hosts on the role sought to be given
to Pakistan.
President Bush assured Prime Minister
Vajpayee that the Jaish-e-Mohammad would be put on the list of terrorist
organisations very soon. The telephone call made by Gen Musharraf to Vajpayee
on Monday may well by another link in the US efforts to mollify India.
It could also bet that the General wanted to be assured of Indian intentions
by making that unexpected phone call about the need to lower the tension
between the two countries.
That suggestion sounds odd when
read in the context of the unwarranted comments made by General Musharraf
with regard to the possibility of India playing any role in evolving a
new political dispensation in Afghanistan. Or, may be he was only playing
to the Western gallery, knowing that both Washington and London have been
left in no doubt that India does not appreciate the role assigned to Pakistan
in the global war against terrorism.
(ADNI)
