It’s denial time again

Pointing fingers to the east deflects reflection on reality that msot of our problems with militancy are found within

Those pesky Indians are at it again. Causing trouble and unrest and planting spies here, there and everywhere. Reports of arrests of Indian nationals carrying fake CNICs and — shock, horror — weapons that were Made in India are presented as evidence of Indian infiltration. Now the fake CNIC bit, well I’ll buy that, and the arrest of undercover Indian agents, but not at all sure that professional intelligence agents would commit such a lapse of tradecraft as being in possession of weapons made in the very country that the alleged spies originated from! And some of the attacks attributed to militant groups said to be in the pay of the Indians. Are we really to believe that they are so far prepared to compromise their values as to receive financial and other aid from across the border where, the last time I checked, Hinduism was the majority faith? A bit of a stretch, methinks.

Now I am not for one moment suggesting that India, along with its intelligence agencies, is not behind some of the terrorist activity in Pakistan -- in the case of Balochistan there is a long history of Indian intervention going back decades — because it is. Would India seek to undermine the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)? In all probability, yes, and yes it would use proxies if it could to do so undoubtedly.

Why I bother to raise the matter is that the nefarious activities of India, real or supposed, are being trotted out as a very convenient fig- leaf for the failure to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) that was roughed out on the back of a metaphorical envelope, post to the attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar last December. So far as I am aware, there has been no suggestion that the APS attack was the work of India, and all the published evidence thus far points to it being local in origin although operationally spread between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Pointing fingers to the east deflects reflection on the reality that the vast majority of our problems with militancy and sectarianism are, and always have been, found within. They are the product of ideologies that have their origins more to the west than the east, that have influenced the political life of the nation since the rule of General Zia. We live in a country that has become steadily and deeply radicalised, and which has successfully resisted what feeble attempts there have been to turn the radical tide.

Radicalism and extremism are so far embedded that they present significant challenges to the forces of law and order and the military when it comes to recruitment. There is no grimmer example of that than the attempt by ‘al Qaeda in the Indian sub-continent’ to take control of the PNS Zulfiqar. It was quickly evident that this attack was mounted by serving and recently-left members of the Pakistan navy itself. Do not be deceived by the ‘Indian sub-continent’ bit of the al Qaeda appellation, whatever else the attack was, it was not an attack by the Indians per se. It came from within.

Likewise, from within came the murder of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer. Likewise, the butchery of Hazaras and Christians and Ahmedis — none of that the product of foreign hands, all home-grown. Banned groups continue to operate openly, and token arrests of their leaders provoke violent backlashes from their supporters. From the skewed textbooks of the national curriculum to street-corner rabble-rousing to radical influences in mainstream political life, extremism is enjoying a heyday.

And then comes, most inconveniently, the National Action Plan. Beyond the fact that it is not really a plan, there is little to argue within the 20 points the NAP sets out. But this is precisely the kind of thing that those of a radical frame of mind and purpose never wanted to see or hear. And this is precisely why the NAP has run out of steam — even where it got a head of steam at the outset. The Interior Secretary even got up in Parliament in the last week and admitted as much. Does India have a hand in that failure? Possibly — but look closer to home for the greater Hidden Hands.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2015.

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