THE Afghan President, Mr Hamid Karzai has stated, in the wake of WikiLeaks exposure, that unless Pakistan’s "Islamist militant sanctuaries" were destroyed, it was not possible to contain insurgency. Pakistan’s double game with the international community of fighting terrorism while feeding it is an open secret, but the US has not done enough against it.
Mr Karzai’s frustration seemed obvious: "Our international allies have this ability, but the question is why they are not doing it." Mr Karzai’s frustration owes to the fact that instead of targeting Pakistan, the US and NATO forces were only concentrating on Afghanistan. Mr Karzai bluntly said, "Time has come for our international allies to know that the war against terrorism is not in Afghanistan’s homes and villages".
Pakistan has naturally reacted sharply to Mr Karzai’s suggestion of a NATO operation inside Pakistan and described it as "incomprehensible"; however, the fact remains that it has been the fountainhead of terrorism in the region. Pakistan cannot go on duping the world, helping the US and NATO in their fight against terrorism and at the same time patronising terrorist orgnisations like Taliban, LeT. It would be naïve to believe that the US is unaware of Pakistani machinations. It has simply shut it eyes to the ground realities, telling itself it would find the way out of it. The US is only concerned with developments and incidents which have the potential to create problems for it. The attempt of the US to differentiate the Taliban operatives should be viewed in this background. It is known that the Haqqani brothers, key Taliban terrorists, have been operating as ISI’s proxies and responsible for the bombings of the Indian embassy and the murders of Indian diplomats, doctors and artistes in Kabul but it was only recently the US declared them as terrorists that too after it realised that its own interest was getting jeopardized.
The terrorists operating in India enjoy the patronage of the Haqqanis. In fact Pakistan army chief General Kayani is unwilling to end the ISI’s patronage of the Haqqani network whose fighters are more hardcore, better trained, and more lethal than even the Mullah Omar group, only in his quest for strategic depth against India. The US should realise this bitter truth. It cannot buy peace at the cost of sacrificing the interest of India and Afghanistan. The recent US offer of $500 million to Pakistan also makes it clear that it is not in the mood to change its approach and policy towards Pakistan, what to speak of pressuring it for taming terrorists. One thing is specifically clear that international perception, particularly of the US, is quite skewed. They are so obsessed with their own interests that they are not willing to look at the problem in a holistic manner. Nothing could illustrate it best than the recent observation of the US that Pakistan’s intelligence supporting Taliban is a matter of the past. In this background India in its own interest and also to consolidate its position in the international arena should intensify its diplomatic efforts to win over the trust of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as a move to reach out to the Uzbeks and Tajiks operating in Afghanistan.
