Fact-check please

There are 37 organisations banned as ‘terrorist’ by the Indian government, eight of which have a Muslim connection

Politicians of all types and stripes everywhere in the world are wont to make sweeping generalisations, some of which do not bear close scrutiny. An Indian cabinet minister has directly blamed Pakistan for committing the majority of terrorist acts in his country. Rajnath Singh, the Union Home Minister, ought to have done his homework. There are 37 organisations banned as ‘terrorist’ by the Indian government, eight of which to judge by their titles have a Muslim connection. The South Asian Terror Portal has listed 180 groups in India that have committed terrorist acts over the last 20 years, many of them transnational and it is at least questionable that their activities in India all have their origins in Pakistan. The majority of terrorist incidents are the work of Hindu groups, mostly Maoist, and have been for many years. The minister was calling for Pakistan to show greater sincerity in its efforts to rein in terrorist groups. He also said that India would “stand by its neighbour” if Pakistan chose to take “decisive” action against terrorist organisations.



But fact-checking goes both ways. The government of Pakistan, despite its assertions that it is making progress against terrorist organisations under the umbrella of the National Action Plan, is indeed falling short when it comes to action against banned organisations. Any number of banned organisations continues to operate openly, some of them with a track record of attacking Indian targets in the past. If Pakistan wants to give India a stick to deliver a beating to us, it can do no better than turn a blind eye and deaf ear to home-grown terrorist groups.

So long as the government continues to appear to be prepared to ignore its proxies that march under a variety of banners, then not only India but the international community will view with a gelid eye Pakistan’s protestations that it is doing all in its power to stamp out terrorism. It is no good pleading that military operations have driven the terror groups into Afghanistan when their support bases continue to operate openly in south Punjab. Uncomfortable things, facts.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th,  2016.

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