Author: Rajeev Sharma
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: January 22, 2009.
URL: http://www.freepressjournal.in/FPJ/FPJ/2009/01/22/ArticleHtmls/22_01_2009_001_015.shtml?Mode=1
India is hopeful that its relentless pressure
on the US - especially the manner in which New Delhi is trying to work on
its all-too-real levers with Pakistan - would yield dividends soon and Washington
may shortly announce some concrete measures, including dubbing of some wellknown
ISI operatives as sponsors of terrorism.
Sources here told the Free Press Journal on
Wednesday that the United States has already shortlisted 20 senior-level operatives
of the Inter Services Intelligence and Pakistan Army who have been hobnobbing
with the Pakistan-based terror outfits for years. Washington has the names
of these officials, serving as well as retired, who have persistently targeted
not only India but have also undermined the West-led war in Afghanistan considerably.
These officials include the hawkish former ISI Chief Hamid Gul.
What is to be seen is how the new US administration
deals with this list. New Delhi also has a similar, though longer, list of
former and serving ISI and Pakistan Army officials who have been orchestrating
terror at tacks against India and all the 20 names on the American list figure
on the Indian list as well.
India would very much like the US to declare
these 20 individuals to be declared as sponsors of terrorism. There are indications
that the Obama administra tion may come up with some announcement in this
regard in near future.
However, one obvious mitigating factor is
the adverse impact any such American decision would have on CIAISI relations
and its fallout on America's war against terror in Afghanistan.
The Indian sense is that Washington may not
blacklist all "the dirty twenty" of Pakistan immediately and may
pull the lever on one or two only, to begin with. Even that step would be
a welcome move from New Delhi's point of view. The next step would be to obtain
a declaration from the United Nations Security Council blacklisting all jihad-promoting
individuals and terror outfits in Pakistan as terrorist entities or sponsors
of terrorism. One of the priority tasks that the Barack Obama administration
is understood to be seized with is a plan of action to rein in all individuals
and outfits that are engaged in exporting terrorism to Afghanistan, and, to
a lesser extent, to India as well. India had already told the Bush administration
what it expected Washington to do to combat terror and the same wish list
would be applicable to the Obama administration as well. Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh has clearly outlined what the international community needs to do on
the terror front - the bottomline being that there cannot be two standards
for 9/11 and 26/11. The Prime Minister has also spoken about several UN Security
Council resolutions under which action can be taken against Pakistan. The
first meeting of 116 Indian envoys here on December 22-24 also explored the
UN option in detail.
