At 3:30 p.m. on February 14, 2019, a convoy of 78 vehicles passing through Lethpora near Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir transporting 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, was hit by a car carrying 300 kg. of explosives.
At the time all fingers were pointed toward Pakistan. However, Prime Minister Imran Khan and his spin-doctors wasted no time in disassociating themselves from the horrific terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 40 jawan infantrymen.
Nevertheless, Masood Azhar, leader of the banned terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed, based in Pakistan, issued a statement claiming the responsibility for the deadly attack. Azhar was later added to the UN Security Council list of international terrorists on May 1, 2019. He still resides in Pakistan under the alleged protection of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
In retaliation to the Pulwama attack, 12 Mirage 2000 Indian fighter jets crossed the Line of Control on February 26 and hit Jaish’s terrorist training camp in Balakot in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa deep inside Pakistani territory.
The following day Pakistan Air Force jets entered Indian territory by crossing the Line of Control, and in the ensuing dogfight, an Indian MiG-21 was shot down by Pakistan, as its pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, chased the enemy into its territory. On March 1, within less than 48 hours, Pakistan released Abhinandan, claiming it was a goodwill gesture.
Recently, the former National Assembly speaker and leader of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Ayaz Sadiq, revealed in a statement that brandished not only the moral of the military personal but actually shook the whole structure of the Pakistan Army to its foundation. He told Parliament that Pakistan Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa was perspiring and his legs were shaking during the meeting of the parliamentary parties when Shah Mahmoud Qureshi said that if Abhinandan was not released, India would attack Pakistan. Sadiq said that Khan refused to attend that meeting! Earlier in February 2019 Khan had confessed in front of the Parliament that he knew of an impending missile attack by India on Pakistan. Therefore confirming above revelation by Sadiq. But this was not the end of the story.
Faced with utter humiliation from an opposition leader, Sadiq, the military establishment hurriedly assigned the task of recouping its lost prestige by instructing Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry to issue a counter statement to Parliament. And that is when the confession of a terrorist state was made.
In an emotional speech, the federal minister accepted the responsibility of the Pulwama attack, confessing “hum nay ghus kar marra Hindustan ko” (“We entered India to kill its armed forces”). Not only that but he continued to boost that the way in which the attack was conducted was a matter of great pride and “under the leadership of Imran Khan it is a success of the whole nation.”
The above statement, which has not been yet been expunged from the record of the National Assembly minutes, should be enough evidence to prove to the world community and. above all. to the Financial Action Task Force. that the Pakistani government, its military and non-state actors like the terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed are hand in glove in the execution of terrorist activities in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and beyond.
The statements quoted above are in itself a confirmation of what this writer has always been emphasizing – the Pakistan Army is involved in cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and that it is not a fighting army. On the contrary, it is band of mercenary armed thugs who have taken a nation hostage for financial extortion by setting up business concerns in every sector of the economy and would fight anybody’s war if the price were right. (A recent example being sending troops to Azerbaijan to fight under Turkish command for $1,200-$1,500 per army personnel.)
Sadiq’s and Chaudhry’s confessions are more than enough to prove the role of the rogue state in manufacturing, harboring and exporting terrorism in the region. This should remove any doubts from the minds of international human rights institution such as the UN Human Rights Council, which recently allowed Pakistan to be reelected to the council for three years, and to declare Pakistan’s membership to this august organization null and void.
Furthermore, the Financial Action Task Force should reconvene a special session and put Pakistan on the blacklist. Since the Pulwama attack, Pakistan has been continuously provoking India by endlessly firing mortar bombs across the Line of Control into civilian neighborhoods, and Pakistan has used the cross-border firing as a cover to infiltrate jihadist terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir.
Now is the time to pay them back by exposing them further in the eyes of the world community what sort of a nation-state Pakistan is and to increase its fast growing diplomatic isolation. The best way to take revenge of the Pulwama attack is to hasten the return of the democratic process in Jammu and Kashmir, hasten the completion of developmental projects and encourage non-union territory citizens of India to invest and capitalize on the Modi government’s recent law according to which now any one can buy commercial, industrial or residential property in Jammu and Kashmir.
It should also settle the debate between the Modi government and Indian opposition parties regarding any doubts about the readiness of the Modi government in tackling Pakistan. Three-time Pakistani prime minster and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif’s speech that was broadcast via satellite from London on October 25 should also be an eyeopener in which he has directly accused the army chief and the Inter-Services Intelligence director-general for exerting pressure on him to resign from his office.
Today not only her neighbors but perhaps more importantly the people of Pakistan are looking for ways to get rid of the military oligarchy. The slogan popularized by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, “Ye Jo Dehshat Gardi hai, is kay pechay wardi hai” (“The army is behind this terrorism”) was rightly echoed by youth in the valley on Black Day on October 22 this year when they marched to the UN mission in Srinagar to hand in a memorandum accusing Pakistan of war crimes.
In a nutshell: The Pakistan Army, the civilian government of Imran Khan and non-state terrorist outfits are hand in glove in the deadly trade of terrorism.
The writer is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur, Pakistan. He currently lives in exile in the UK.