Pakistan always used terrorism as state policy
Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's boast that his country had trained and supported anti-India militant groups such as the lashkar-e-Tayyeba, blows the lid off Islamabad's repeated assertion that it had merely provided these outfits moral support in their “struggle for the Kashmiri people” in India. After this remark, Pakistan cannot run away from the fact that it is directly responsible for all the militant strikes that have taken place in this country and have been linked to terror organisations such as the leT, including the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
Given the former President's acceptance, it has become even more difficult to digest Islamabad's official position that it condemns terror assaults. How can Pakistan claim innocence when its own former President and Army chief says the establishment had trained and armed the terrorists against IndiaIJ That Gen Musharraf has no regret becomes evident from his silence on whether 26/11 masterminds Zakiur Rehman lakhvi and Hafiz Saeed now need to be “controlled and stopped”. For the retired General, both these characters have been “heroes”and “Kashmiri freedom-fighters”. Given that his opinion is shared by many people in the incumbent dispensation as well as the general political set-up in Pakistan, it is futile for India to expect justice from Islamabad on the 26/11 incident.
New Delhi will have to seek alternative methods to bring the terrorists to book. Meanwhile, Gen Musharraf's remarks must be placed alongside the assurance that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has given to US President Barack Obama: That his Government will crack down on the leT and its protagonists. Many people in India had taken this promise with a pinch of salt, just as the Obama Administration must have. Islamabad's links with the likes of Hafiz Saeed and terror groups such as the leT (or by whatever name it now exists) are too deep to be just wished away.
Moreover, any outfit that trains its guns on India is accorded a pride of place in the Pakistani establishment. Which is why, while Pakistan has cracked down (or is seen to be doing so) on other militant outfits like the Al Qaeda and the Taliban, primary enemies of the West and especially the US, it has been brazenly patronising anti-India terror elements such as the leT and the Haqqani network, which have targeted Indian interests.
Gen Musharraf's recent remarks also raise big questions on the credibility of those within India who have been claiming that, as President, he was committed to peace with India. It is said that his regime had even virtually reached an agreement with the Congress-led UPA Government on Kashmir. Perhaps former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, who served in the General's regime and has eulogised him in his recently-released book, Neither a Hawk nor a Dove, can throw some light on this double-talk. But then Mr Kasuri himself stands completely discredited now for his selective presentation of the former President's credentials in the book. Mr Kasuri could not have but known that the Government, of which he was a part, had been training the leT and providing military backing to the likes of Hafiz Saeed. But he remained silent then, only to now strut about as an ambassador of peace and brotherhood.