INDIA Pakistan ties have taken hard knocks following barbarian terror attacks on November 26 in Mumbai where nearly 200 innocent lives were lost and over 400 injured.

India has suffered nearly 400 deaths and over 1350 bear severe injuries during the past some months in attacks in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Delhi Guwahati, Imphal and other places. While there are homegrown terrorists, most of these dehumanized killers come from the camps in Pakistan and backed by a section of ISI and bear the stamp of al Queda.

It is now established beyond doubt that the terrorists came from Pakistan’s Punjab province and were trained and financed by known hard core fundamentalist Islamic organisations. The lone captured terrorist, a poor boy from Okara in Pakistan, one of the ten who attacked prime places in Mumbai tells tales of training, funding and hold of jihadi groups on the youth and all under the watchful eyes of the ISI.

Pakistan government adopted contradictory stand; owning and denying and then seeking hard evidence. It has now been forced to ban the Jamaat-ud-Dawa. It followed United Nations Security Council imposing sanctions on the Pakistan-based Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) after declaring it a terrorist outfit. Acceding to India’s demand, the Council branded four of the organisation’s top leaders — the founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the suspected Mumbai attacks mastermind Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Haji Muhammad Ashraf and Zaki-ur-Bahaziq — terrorists. Lakhvi is the LeT’s operational chief, while Ashraf and Bahaziq, an India-born Saudi, collect funds for the JuD. Saeed formed the outfit in 2002 after the Lashkar was banned.

The Pakistan-based United Jehad Council (UJC), a conglomerate of militant groups that are active in Kashmir, has “temporarily” dissolved itself, with its leaders have disappeared following the crackdown on the Jamat-ud-Dawah and other banned terror outfits. The UJC, headed by Syed Salahuddin, comprises his Hizb-ul Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Ansar, Jamiat-ul- Mujahideen, Al-Jihad, Al-Barq, Ikhwan-ul-Mussalmin and the Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen. Under what new shape it appears could be no one’s guess.

India is far from satisfied from the measures announced or taken by Pakistan. There had been strong demand in India; attack Pakistan based training camps and teach Pakistan a strong lesson and bring to an end these jihadi attacks. So far the Indian government has taken the diplomatic route to force Pakistan take measures to make Pakistan stop its low cost war. It is true Pakistan tastes its own medicine with repeated brutal attacks by these jihadi groups on soft targets all across Pakistan. Yet it has neither disbanded nor arrested these leaders. It has not stopped their funding from outside and strangely despite repeated assurances to the entire world it has not stopped its intelligence service, the ISI from actively supporting it. In fact, its denials tell story of deceit and obfuscation.

All this has pushed forces of peace and reconciliation in India and Pakistan back to square one. Only some courageous souls could hold a demonstration in Lahore for peace and amity. India has avoided harsh measures despite strong public demand from all sections. Pakistan with its violent situation in Balochistan and the entire NWPF can hardly afford to fight back powerfully and defend its borders. It should know that eliminating the hardcore militants and their support bases is in its own interest and this is the best time for that beleaguered country to take military, economic and political measures to end this menace. This would take Pakistan out of the present economic crisis too. The world must bear witness to that. It should be no trashy job. It should also know by now it can not take away Kashmir from India through its jihadi violence. Options before the present rulers of Pakistan who too have suffered at the hands of extreme fundamentalists are clears. But would they bite the bullet?

Likewise, India should set its own house in order, end alienation of its own people, and improve security setup including intelligence gathering and laws to meet this challenge. It is not only threat to life and liberties of the people, but to the sovereignty and existence of the country itself. It must build more strong bridges for securing peace and should not look like a hurt school boy towards America or any other country to come forward to console it. It should avoid the useless expensive American model that has cost it three trillion dollars, hundreds of its own lives besides nearly a million of lives in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries and has made the world much less safe. Countries do not survive on borrowed strength.

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