General Bajwa says India and Pakistan must live in peace and dialogue is the only way. In recent months this is the third time he has spoken of peace in the region. It sounds bizarre. Pakistan Army that initiated three wars with India with the fourth an ongoing proxy war believing that it has to inflict a thousand cuts on the body of India. And now Gen Bajwa wants to abandon war and seeks peace. Is this posture real or fake?
The Pakistani Prime Minister also speaks the same language. Pakistani press gives it wide coverage. The foreign press is excited about the “peace around the corner”. Even some Indian national papers exuded mirth over a prospect in which border dwellers along LoC (Line of Control) and IB (International Border) in J&K would return to their habitats and resume the normal activity of life without the fear of bullets being fired and shells dropped to destroy their homes and crops and cattle.
Peace idiom from the other side of the border has become repetitive. The behaviour is unprecedented and, therefore, merits in-depth analysis. Columnists have written copiously on how come Pakistan has agreed to a ceasefire after keeping it broken for nearly 17 years. The baseline of dealing with Pakistan is that for seven long decades Pakistani think tanks have brainwashed the masses so deep that they cannot think about India as anything other than a deadly enemy of Islam and Muslims. They are not told that the population of Muslims in India outnumbers those in Pakistan and how can India be an enemy of the Muslims or Islam?
The truth behind accepting ceasefire is that ISI is now convinced that it has fully established the base headquarter of Kashmir-centric Theo-fascist outfits in parts of the valley, particularly in South Kashmir where locals have been fully brainwashed and trained in hidden camps in deep recesses of forests. They have established a secure and dependable line of communication besides deep-rooted moles in the local population. They are regularly briefed on the location, movement and manoeuvring of the security forces’ communication facility whom they take on conveniently and of their choosing. They are provided with necessary logistics like food, night shelter, intelligence, roadmap, mobiles and communication facility etc.
The terrorists have spread out over other parts of the valley like Baramulla, Sopor, Uri, Rafiabad, Hamal, Handwara, Kupwara and the Shamsbari slopes and habitats. The ever-increasing number of OGW (over ground workers) shows that the insurgent movement has become widespread. Kashmir Valley leaders have been insisting on India-Pakistan talks but never even once appealed to the terrorists to lay down their arms and join the massive effort of reconstruction of Kashmir.
Both Imran Khan and Gen Bajwa have asserted that the initiative for peace in the region and Indo-Pak meltdown should come from India. This one sentence exposes their claim to peace and tranquility in the region. It is so strange that Pakistan, the country that launched a well-calculated attack on India in October 1947 wants India, the aggrieved country, to take the initiative. Again Pakistan, the country that launched Operation Topac in 1990, asks India to take the initiative. Surprisingly Pakistan, whose intelligence agencies have been instrumental in planning and implementing the so-called freedom movement in Kashmir and simultaneously subjecting the valley to massive ethnic cleansing should ask India to initiate peace talks.
Why does not General Bajwa tell the ringmasters of the world’s most dreaded terrorist organization stalwarts to disband their organizations, handover arms to security forces of Pakistan, dismantle their camps and return to their homes to run normal life and let the people of Pakistan, nay the entire sub-continent, live a life of peace and comfort? How can there be peace in the sub-continent as long as these cobras and scorpions lay hidden in the grass? Terror and peace talks don’t go together.
By accepting ceasefire along the LoC, Pakistan wants to convey a message to the international community and organizations, particularly the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) that she has taken a major step in curbing terrorist and radicalist funding. It will be noted that incidents of terrorist attacks in Kashmir are showing an upward graph. This is what suits Pakistan the most. Pakistan goes around the world propagating that she cannot be falsified in asserting that in Kashmir there is an indigenous freedom movement fought by the Kashmiris, and Pakistan has no hand in it. India can no more accuse Pakistan of sending jihadists clandestinely across the border under the cover of fire. Acceptance of ceasefire by Pakistan is clear and irrefutable proof that she has built up a very strong terrorist superstructure in the valley and has involved a large chunk of the local population in their designs. Unfortunately, this aspect has not been taken care of by the Indian policy planners when they decided to agree to the ceasefire along the LoC. Pakistan is very shrewdly making international capital out of it.
What is the way forward? This is the vital question we should deal with. Signing of ceasefire agreement whether by the DGMOs of the two sides or by seniors in the government on both sides is meaningless and untenable because it is nothing beyond eyewash. The hardcore jihadist outfits on Pakistani soil are intact. Scores of jihadist camps along the LoC remain fully functional. Radical jihadist leaders of these armed groups are enjoying the freedom of movement, speech and action. The army and ISI are not only in close liaison with them but are their patrons and prime fundraising agencies. And they never make a secret of the aims and objectives of their mission in which they are working in cahoots with known Theo-fascist movements like ISIS and the Islamic Caliphate, Islamic Brotherhood, Al Qaeda etc.
Peace in Kashmir means resolution of Kashmir issue. The issues are (a) restoration of PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan to India, the rightful country and, (b) homeland for the victims of ethnic cleansing in Kashmir valley.
India has been trapped in signing a ceasefire. It is now learnt from reliable sources that Turkey and her secret agencies have taken over from ISI the mission of Islamization and radicalization of Kashmir Valley. Indian intelligence agencies should issue a statement that exposes the full activities of Turkey in creating an anti-India atmosphere in Kashmir through a subtle mechanism in which the Turkish embassy in New Delhi is directly involved. The sooner these anti-India designs are exposed the better.
Lastly, India should convey to Islamabad in no ambiguous terms that ceasefire becomes sanctimonious only when the outfits of Theo-fascism in Pakistan are dismantled under international supervision and the most wanted terrorist leaders like Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar and Rahman Lakhvi are handed over to India where they will be prosecuted under Indian law for the crimes of genocide that they have not only committed but also accepted. If these conditions are not met, no guarantee of sticking to a fragile, uneven and unjust ceasefire can be given.