Geopolitical Analysis

By K.N. Pandit

Pakistani President’s denial of ISI’s involvement in Mumbai attacks is not surprising.  This has been the patent response of Pakistan to India’s allegations that Pakistan-based terrorist organizations are engaged in launching suicide attacks in Indian cities and towns to destabilize the country.  Pakistan’s rhetoric is that India should provide a proof but when a proof is provided, the response is that it is not convincing.

Secrecy and non-transparency are the hallmark of terrorism in contemporary times. Such is the level of secrecy that if there are ten terrorists in a group one does not know the background of the other. The terrorists always adopt pseudonyms mostly borrowed from Islamic history. Doing so is among the basics of terrorists’ desk book rules.

Everybody knows that a suicide terrorist hardly leaves anything behind that would identify him or gives a clue to his organization or his links. When a blast happens, it destroys each and everything on the person of the suicide attacker. How then can one produce a proof that cannot be challenged?

Suicide attacks are to be taken into account on the basis of the designs and motives of Pakistan-based ultra organizations that relentlessly issue threats of attacking soft targets in India. These are open threats issued through media both print and electronic. Pakistani government has never arrested any of these anti-India activists on her soil and never brought any of them to book. Even when India demanded handing over of about 20 hardcore terrorists involved in acts of sabotage and subversion in India, Pakistan refused to oblige saying when proof is given it would itself prosecute the culprits.

International law is that no state will allow such activities on its land as are designed against any other sovereign state. The fact of the matter is that investigations do yield clues which when cobbled together could make a very clear and convincing story to be presented as evidence of involvement in conspiratorial schemes.

This apart, Pakistan President has brought in the plea of “stateless terrorists” meaning that there are terrorists who belong to no state and those who stalk his country cannot be arrested and held responsible for killing innocent people in a neighbouring country with impunity and then escaping reprisals for want of a proof.

What Pakistani President means to say is that there are groups of people in his country turned rogue and refusing to observe and honour the law of the land; that they defy the authority of the state and follow their own law; that they cannot be held accountable for their acts of omission and commission even when these have international ramifications. He further says that such people cannot be caught and tried under the law of the land nor can they be handed over to another country.

This is strange logic, and shows how the State of Pakistan is adamant in protecting known terrorists in that country.  How come that thousands of Pakistani citizens, who receive indoctrination in the seminaries for a decade or so, and then go to state sponsored training camps for training in terrorism and subversion become “stateless” once they enter the neighbouring country to unleash terror and subversion? As long as a terrorist is under training he is a Pakistani national receiving all munificence from Pakistani government and its agencies but once clandestinely enters Indian Territory as part of a suicide squad he is called “stateless”.

Are Pakistani retired army officers training “stateless terrorists” in training camps in different parts of Pakistan? Are the terrorists who attacked and killed Benazir Bhutto “stateless”? If they are stateless how come Pakistan government prosecutes them in a court of law? Why does it not hand them over to their respective countries of origin where the law of the land would be moved to try them?

There is clear dichotomy in Pakistani President’s approach to the question. Did not Pakistan hand over the “stateless terrorists “to the United Nations to let international law take its natural course in their case? We refer to the case of Aimal Kansi. How come these so-called stateless terrorists have been found with Pakistani passports, identity cards, addresses, telephone numbers and more clues? Does the Government of Pakistan issue identity cards and passports to “stateless people”?  . Should they be called “stateless citizens”?  It is for the President of Pakistan to explain what he means by the term “stateless terrorist”.

Islamic Republic of Pakistan grows and nurtures the breed of Islamic Theo-fascists in its seminaries and training camps for terror across the country and abroad. The highly indoctrinated and brainwashed Muslim youth (jihadis) thereafter following the teachings of their faith, do not recognize geographical borders between countries as something that should divide the ummah. Islam talks of universalism, one faith (Islam), and one community (Muslims) with no distinction on the basis of colour, caste, creed, language and faith. In that sense Islamic terrorists are stateless while springing from a definite location (Pakistan). Their state is Islam sans geographical distribution. According to this definition, Pakistan, the Islamic State of their origin recognizes no geographical borders.  If President Zardari says the terrorists are “stateless” in that sense, he is right,

This suggests that Pakistan is a lawless state. The only law that runs is the one emanating from the terrorist organizations over which the state has absolutely no control. A state that has no control on its rogue and lawless elements means that it has collapsed administratively and has to be treated as such.

In this situation where state authority has collapsed and organizations have become out of control, Pakistani President should invite friendly and neighbouring countries to intervene and help re-establish state authority in the country. Foremost, Pakistani President should invite India in the matter because India is not only a neighbhour but is a country that is repeatedly targeted by the terrorists organizations based and active in Pakistan. India has the sanction of international law to march in and save Pakistan from crumbling and at the same time to ensure her security as well. In combination they cant tackle the issue of “stateless terrorists”.

But what Pakistan is doing instead, is that she is going round the world with a begging bowl and collecting funds to support her crumbling economy. This is a contradiction in terms. On the one hand she is seething with terrorist atrocities, and on the other she is asking for funds. And the funds are actually asked for supporting and perpetrating “stateless terrorists”.

Pakistan is a lawless country. Only the rule of Theo-fascists runs there. Her civil and military institutions are radicalized and tuned to anti-India orientation. The only philosophy which that country pursues is of hate India. Anything that helps intensify animus against India is her article of faith. Theo-fascism is the instrument forged by her former President Ziaul Haq. This situation cannot be reversed by mere force of reason as India thinks. No sensible country likes to wage war and no sensible country shies away from war when her sovereignty and territorial integrity are threatened. India cannot afford to play with her status of a big country with a voice to be heard. I must conclude this write up with the profound words of the poet and the philosopher of Pakistan.

Mein tujh ko batata hun taqdir-e umam kya hai
Shamseer o sanan awwal taqoos o rabab akhir

(Let me tell you what the destiny of nations is. It is the sword and the spear in the first instance,  and the lute and dulcimer in the second).
(The writer is the former Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University).