Even domestic terrorist organisations can be declared as international terrorist organisations if they operate from US territory. Both LET and JEM operate also from British, but not American territory.Despite this disappointment, the Government of India should persist with its efforts to have the LET and the JEM declared as international terrorist organisations under the US laws too by furnishing the US evidence on the following:
The LET and the JEM are not Kashmiri terrorist organisations but Pakistani terrorist organisations operating in Indian territory. For their operations, they use recruits from the UK too whose are trained in Yemen and other places.
They both have links with the Taliban and bin Laden’s International Front. Even the latest report of the State Department refers to the LET as a largely foreign (Pakistani) organisation with international networking.
The LET and the JEM are not Kashmiri terrorist organisations but Pakistani terrorist organisations operating in Indian territory.
Just furnishing to the State Department details of their terrorist attacks in Indian territory would not suffice.
While the detailed attention paid to Pakistan in the report for 2000 was gratifying, it needs to be underlined that as in previous years, the latest report too focused mainly on terrorism threatening US nationals/interests and that, during a subsequent press briefing, a spokesman of the State Department sought to dilute the serious nature of the references to Pakistan by saying that the assessments incorporated in the report were largely those of the Clinton Administration and that the Bush Administration had not come across any fresh evidence bearing on this since coming to office on January 20, 2001.
Pakistani Nonchalance
Despite the strong references to Pakistani sponsorship of terrorism in the report for 2000, Musharraf continues to deny any links of the Pakistan Army and the ISI with the LET and other jehadis. What more, he denies their very presence in Pakistani territory.
On June 24, 2001, Major Gen Rashid Quereshi, the media spokesman of Musharraf, was asked about the activities of the LET and other jehadi organisations. He replied without batting an eye-lid: “No group operating in Kashmir has any base in Pakistan.” (The Hindu of June 25).
Despite the strong references to Pakistani sponsorship of terrorism in the report”¦ deny any links of the Pakistan Army and the ISI with the LET and other jehadis.
In the past, Musharraf had been saying that if there was progress on the Kashmir issue in the bilateral talks with India, he might appeal to the jehadis to deescalate their activities. Now, his spokesmen have been saying that since these are indigenous Kashmiri organisations, Pakistan has no influence over them just as they were telling the US before September 11, 2001, that Pakistan had no influence over the Taliban and bin Laden.
Pamela Constable of the Washington Post, who was one of the foreign correspondents briefed by Musharraf before his visit to India in July, 2001, for the summit with the Indian Prime Minister, AS Vajpayee, reported as follows: “Musharraf brushed aside questions about whether he would rein in armed Islamic groups that support fighters in Kashmir, insisting that the Kashmiri insurgency is ‘indigenous’.”
During his televised breakfast discussions with Indian editors at Agra on July 16, 2001, and his press conference at Islamabad on July 20, 2001, Musharraf described the terrorists operating in J&K as “indigenous freedom-fighters” and denied that they were based in Pakistan or that they were receiving any assistance from Pakistan. A similar stand was taken by Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi, during a TV interview on July 22, 2001, when he was asked about the post-summit massacre of some Hindu pilgrims going on their annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave by the Al Umar Mujahideen and the massacre of the Hindu residents, including women and children, of a village in the Doda district of Jammu by the LET on July 22, 2001.
“¦.spokesmen have been projecting the jehadi organisations as indigenous Kashmiri organisations with no base in Pakistani territory, the HUM and the LET, in their propaganda literature and official web sites, project themselves as Pakistan-based organisations
While Musharrafs spokesmen have been projecting the jehadi organisations as indigenous Kashmiri organisations with no base in Pakistani territory, the HUM and the LET, in their propaganda literature and official web sites, project themselves as Pakistan-based organisations. They give their addresses and telephone/fax numbers in Pakistan and particulars of the Pakistani banks in which their accounts are held to which their supporters should send their contributions. These details as given in their web sites are shown below:
• Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Head Office: House No. B-154/, Khayban-i-Sir Sayad, Near C.D.A. Bus Stop, Rawalpindi. Pakistan, Phone/Fax No. 4414810.
Account: Current Account No. 2758-9, Muslim Commercial Bank, Aabpara Branch, Islamabad. Pakistan.
Monthly Journal Sada-e-Mujahid Office: I-10 Markaz, Usman Plaza, Islamabad. Pakistan. Phone No. 051-431776.
Weekly Al-Hilal Newspaper Office: 6 Sumaira Apartment, 2nd Floor Block 13-B, Near K.D.A Bus Stop, Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi. Pakistan. Phone/Fax No. 021-4991819 .
• Markaz Dawa allrshad, the political wing of the LET: 5-Chamberlane Road, Lahore – Pakistan. Tel: (92-42) 7231106
The policy of “kabi naram, kabi garam” (sometimes soft, sometimes hard) doesnt pay against Pakistan. It will only confirm Musharraf in his perception that India is a soft State, which lends itself to easy manipulation”¦
It is, therefore, likely that whatever the outcome of the US-led ‘war’ against international terrorism, Pakistan will continue its proxy war against India through its jehadi surrogates even while denying any links with or control over them. Any optimism of a reduction in violence and cross-border terrorism as a result of the “war” would be misplaced.
Musharraf will continue to play his double game – overtly friendly, warm and seemingly accommodating and covertly continuing to make our security forces bleed. To expect anything different from him and to lower our guard against him could be suicidal. India will continue to pay a heavy price for its failure to evolve and implement consistently an effective counter proxy war policy. The policy of “kabi naram, kabi garam” (sometimes soft, sometimes hard) doesn’t pay against Pakistan. It will only confirm Musharraf in his perception that India is a soft State, which lends itself to easy manipulation.
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