Mumbai Terror: “Don’t Depend On USA”

Under the recent UN sanctions Pakistan government has begun a crackdown on a section of the known terror structure on its soil. It is believed that even this step might not have been taken if the incoming Obama administration in the US had not “pushed” its old ally Pakistan to act.

(Meanwhile the father of the lone Pakistani gunman, arrested for the Mumbai terror, has admitted that the young man whose picture was beamed by media (photo above), is his son…It is a sad and moving typical story of young persons from poverty-stricken families, and how they get sucked into the world of terror.See here.)

Last month’s terror carnage in Mumbai has led to some important developments. The entire political spectrum in India (right, left and center) for the first time declared openly that Pakistan has become the “epi-center” of terrorism and must be dealt with effectively.

This does not mean that there would be a war between India and Pakistan. But there is a grave danger that now onwards the relations between India and the USA could be going down rapidly. Will India be looking more towards Russia and Israel?

Why? Because the decades-old ritual of the US administration noisily castigating Pakistan government/ISI after every terror strike in India, and then soon forgetting everything until the next attack, stands exposed as a great hypocrisy.

Unlike post-9/11 when the US pursued the so-called “masterminds of terror” into Iraq and Afghanistan and then stayed put in those countries for eight years, India was repeatedly prevented by the US administration from demolishing the terror infrastructure in Pakistan.

There is also a line of thinking developing that the peoples of India and Pakistan can make progress on economic, social, educational and health fronts only when their weak governments stop acting at the behest of foreign powers. And the two countries develop their own mechanism to thwart Islamic and Hindu militancy.

In a rare show of unity in the Parliament of India, each leader asserted this line of thought in an aggressive and direct manner. I begin with Arun Shourie, a veteran journalist and a leading Opposition leader.

He said: “Please stop running to mummy (the USA) hoping that somebody else will help the country to tackle terrorism. In 2008 alone 49 incidents occurred in 19 cities killing 2,525 people. There is no sense in asking Pakistan to nail terrorists.

“The ‘proxy war’ started by former Pakistan President Muhammad Zia ul Haq has kept India ‘bleeding’ for 35 years with no damage to them. (What is needed now is) Not an eye for an eye. But for an eye, both eyes. For a tooth, whole jaw.”

Before I quote other Indian leaders, here is The Times of London report: “The 10 terrorist commandos who shot dead more than 160 people in Mumbai last month were among 500 trained to elite standards by Pakistan army and navy instructor…

“Last week Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, and Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, flew to Pakistan to intensify pressure on President Asif Ali Zardari and General Ashfaq Kayani, his army chief of staff, to appease Indian anger…

“(Admiral) Mullen is understood to have told his Pakistani counterpart that America had proof that the attacks were launched from its soil by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, which has close links to the ISI.

“The Indian intelligence report claims the Mumbai gunmen were among a large group of volunteer ‘fedayeen’ trained in commando tactics by Pakistan army and navy instructors over 18 months from December 2006.

“ ‘The training of these 500 men was in three phases. The first was basic physical fitness and firearms training. The second was marine navigation and swimming. The third involved training to sabotage underwater installations such as oil rigs, ships and submarines,’ said one official.

“They were trained to a level of US Seals or Pakistani marine commandos. They were elite. Ten of these men were the ones who attacked Mumbai.” More here…

Now back to what the Indian leaders said in the Parliament and widely reported by the media. The Times of India reports: “It was a rarest of rare days in Parliament.

“An entire day’s proceedings passed with hardly any rancour as the political class came together, united by the wounds inflicted by terrorists on Mumbai, to present a picture of solidarity and purpose against the scourge of terrorism.

“It was fitting that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi crossed the floor to have a quiet word with Leader of Opposition L K Advani.

“It was not just Congress and BJP that buried their differences. Left leader Mohammed Salim complimented Advani, pointing out that the BJP leader’s remarks pointed to a consensus in Parliament over the Mumbai atrocities.

“Salim’s words of praise came as most speakers did not get down to scoring points off one another. There was anguish over the dead and injured and about, as the CPM MP put it, over the ‘attack on the idea of India’.”

The mild-mannered Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has used the toughest words ever: “Pakistan is the epi-center of terrorism. The infrastructure of terrorism has to be dismantled…Those responsible or supportive of the Mumbai terror attacks must pay the price.”

Indian leaders have begun to ask how repeated attacks are possible without the US intelligence network not having any inkling about the terror infrastructure in Pakistan. The CIA has maintained the biggest station in Pakistan’s troubled Peshawar area for decades.

The senior US intelligence and armed forces officers constantly interact with senior Pakistan army officials and the notorious ISI spy agency. Apart from that the senior US state department officials are in and out of Pakistan all the time.

In this dismal scenario, the last ray of hope is the incoming Obama administration and the appointment of Hillary Clinton as the State Department chief. But it will be an uphill task for them to dismantle the present infrastructure created by the previous US administrations in this part of the world.

My earlier post “Mumbai Terrorism – Who Did It?” here…

The Times of India carries an interesting article “A Religion of Peace”.

“The present problem of terrorism is based on an ideology and that cannot be countered or killed through legal action or by mere condemnation. We have to develop a counter-ideology to overcome it. Violence begins from the mind.” More here…