Another Kargil In Keran Sector?

You don’t require a genius to tell you that the serious intrusion in Keran Sector that has been ongoing since 23rd September, even before the terrorist attacks on Hira Nagar Police Station and an Army unit in Samba on 26th September, was deliberately down played to facilitate the Prime Minister meeting his Paki counterpart in US. It is only a day back when ‘Headline Today’ alleged one of our villages in Keran Sector having been heavily infested (the news included conversation with locals) by Pakistani infiltrators that the news about major infiltration by Pakistani military special troops and heavy ongoing fighting has emerged.

Can the government explain to the public why this subterfuge? What has the Prime Minister achieved by meeting Nawaz Sharif beyond confirming he is made of putty? Did the coterie of the Foreign Minister and the NSA convince him that he would be given preference over President Putin being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? Does the government realize the consequences of these actions; encouraging Pakistani military, J&K separatists and terrorists operating within J&K with or without political support? Does it require another terrorist attack on Parliament or political assassination to understand that what is happening in Keren Sector today is but the trailer of what is going to happen next year when Americans quit Afghanistan?

Nawaz Sharif is no dehati (village) woman who is bending backwards to the Pakistani military. He has done so since years including during his previous tenures consistently and has displayed his crookedness to both Prime Minister’s Gujral and Vajpayee. Yet, despite upping the ante through terror attacks, cross border raids, beheadings and ceasefire violations, those insisting on hugging them only prove they are sold out. He has the foxiness of extracting more Sharm-el-Shiekhs before our NSA can say Jack Robinson. Why do you think he is permitting funding millions to terrorist organizations from his constituency and not making the slightest move against anti-India terrorists and their infrastructure aside from boasting of a new counter terrorism policy that is full of holes. Leave aside recent actions, following record of Pakistan can only be ignored by fools:

•  Breeding terrorism in India—Need more proof than David Headley and now Tunda?
•  Infiltrating terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir.
•  Creating an armed terrorist architecture pan-India since early 1990’s.
•  Engineering endless terrorist attacks/acts in Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Gujarat, other parts of India including IC-814 hijack, attack on Parliament, 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack etc.
•  Refusing to act against Pakistani perpetrators of 26/11.
•  Nurturing, patronizing and masterminding LeT acts against India.
•  Using the Haqqani network to target Indians and Indian interests in Afghanistan.
•  Pumping drugs and fake currency (minted in Pakistani government facilities) into India.
•  Open rallies in Pakistan professing balkanization of India, collection of funds and recruitment for jihad against India under the very nose of the administration and with open support of military veterans in connivance the ISI and military.
•  Refusal to acknowledge continuation of the ‘Karachi Project’ and other Pakistani complicity as disclosed by Abu Jundal.
•  Virus arracks on Indian networks.
•  Uploaded morphed images of death and destruction through cyclones and earthquakes as alleged atrocities committed on Muslims through MMS and video clips to our North-East population, inciting communal tensions and generating large exodus from Bangalore and other cities.

The worst part is that above is the response after numerous concessions given to Pakistan by India, some of which are:

•  India declared a unilateral ceasefire in J&K in 1948 when Pakistani forces were on the run and Pakistan still illegally held one third of Kashmir. As per UN resolution of 1948, Pakistani security forces were to clear out from POK. Not only did Pakistan counter the UN mandate by reinforcing her security forces in POK, she has deliberately altered the demography of POK.
• n India id not pursue delineation of Cease Fire Line (CFL) between India-Pakistan under the Karachi Agreement of 1949 beyond NJ 9842—“northwards” to the Wakhan Corridor bordering China and Afghanistan.
•  India did not go to UN when Pakistan transferred the Shaksgam Valley of J&K to China.
•  India is giving 80 percent of water to Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty—far in excess to global norms related with size of the river basin.
•  Captured strategic Haji Pir Pass was returned to Pakistan in 1965.
•  India treated 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of the 1971 prisoners with respect and returned them relying on verbal promise of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto during the Shimla Accord to resolve the Kashmir issue; a promise Bhutto reneged later.
•  With a heart filled with friendship, Prime Minister Vajpayee took the bus to Lahore while Musharraf prepared to stab us in Kargil.
•  Indian Army gave formal religious burials to Pakistani soldiers unclaimed and abandoned by Pakistan during the Kargil Conflict while Pakistani Army brutally tortured, maimed and killed Captain Saurabh Kalia, five other Indian soldiers and Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja.
•  Granted MFN status to Pakistan years ago.
•  Given investment opportunities in India.

Indian population is under no illusion to the depths of corruption and fraud the government has lowered itself. The act of forwarding to the President the Ordinance to protect convicted politicians was proof enough, further confirmed by the drama of withdrawing it and continuing obduracy of portraying the moral decay into some sort of victory. Wonder what more humiliation the country will have to suffer. Can we not comprehend that both Nawaz Sharif and his military want an Afghanistan like situation in J&K or are we going to shut our eyes because of communal politicking and criminalisation of politics?

Most importantly, the joint India-China army exercise scheduled this month apart, can we visualize what actions on ground will precede and succeed our Prime Minister’s visit to Beijing? What more warnings, advice, infiltrations, incursions, intrusions and ceding territory, what else? Will China and Pakistan resort to this simultaneously in face of our papier-mâché hierarchy? The bold announcements by some of our politicians that they are ready to sweep the floors of so and so are well publicized but you don’t have to go cleaning toilets abroad when you have not been able to provide adequate sanitation and toilets to your own public. Can you start talking from a position of strength for a change? It is well understood it is difficult to understand what a ‘position of strength’ implies. If you did, we would not be in such mess. You may begin seriously looking at your set of advisors but time is actually very short for us to get our act together. We would go horribly wrong focusing at the period when the US quits Afghanistan. Much can happen during the run up to it. (Indian Defence Review)

By Lt Gen (Retd.) Prakash Katoch