My thoughts on terrorism

I had penned these thoughts immediately after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008.

In February last year the nature of my work took me to Karachi in Pakistan. This is one trip which I had been avoiding for years. The reason for not opting to go there in the past was a fear of the unknown, and lots of advice from friends and family to simply keep away from that dangerous country. In the end I simply had to make that trip due to pressure from my superiors. As I was on that flight to Karachi, I was a nervous wreck, ahead of me I could visualize a long stay at the airport, intense questioning by the police and customs, thorough baggage check and indirect threats asking me to simply leave as soon as possible.

Having steeled myself to these thoughts, I landed in Karachi. At the airport I sheepishly approached a uniformed official and asked him about the procedures for entry. I had the visit visa which was issued to me by the Pakistan consulate in Dubai. He asked me from which part of India I was, then warmly welcomed me and accompanied me to the counter issuing entry forms, explained to me all the necessary details to be filled, all the while waiting for me to complete the forms and then guided me to the immigration counter. Here again the ladies manning the counter welcomed me assisted me with the formalities, and on my way out nobody bothered to even look at my baggage. Once outside the airport, the hotel car was waiting for me and again the driver was very warm. The drive from the airport to the Marriott hotel in Karachi took about 45 minutes and all through the driver was extremely talkative. I was on the other hand extremely nervous glancing all around expecting gunmen to jump into the car and whisk me away any moment. I imagined the driver to be the member of some kidnap gang who was trying to extract information from me for future ransom claims and was extremely tight lipped answering his questions only in mono syllables.

Finally, we arrived at the hotel, and here again I was accorded a warm welcome, and only once I was inside my room did I feel relieved. As I sat in my room I could not help myself, going through the events of the past 2 -3 hours and wondering if this was the same country that I had been so scared to visit all along.

On the second day our business partners in Pakistan took me around the market, where we met a lot of dealers and each and every one was literally begging me to extend my stay in Karachi by a few days, inviting me to visit their homes for lunch or dinner, enquiring about India, people, cricket, government, food and almost any and every subject which came to their minds. I particularly remember one dealer who told me that he had brought his child over to Bangalore to be operated upon for a heart disease. It seems his baby was operated at Dr. Devi Shetty’s hospital. As he was explaining to me he had tears in his eyes as he spoke about the kindness of the nurses and hospital staff, and the humility of Dr Devi Shetty. To him Dr. Shetty was nothing less than a god.

Exactly two years ago in December 2006, I had also visited Kabul in Afghanistan, another supposedly dangerous place, but I will reserve that story for some other time.

The reason I thought of penning my experience and thoughts this time is the horrific assault on Mumbai by Pakistani based terrorists on 26th November which took away almost 200 lives of innocent citizens, children, foreigners and some of the bravest officers from our police and security agencies.

Everywhere I see today, listen to people or watch TV channels I can only see anger, a burning rage and shock at what has happened. There is no doubt that each of the terrorist attacks on Indian soil have been masterminded and planned in Pakistan. The foot soldiers are brainwashed Pakistani nationals or misguided Indian muslims who conduct these activities with backing from Pakistani terrorist groups.

Yet in spite of all this carnage, I do feel for the innocent citizens of Pakistan. Most have seen the futility of 3 wars. Many of them still have relatives living in India and are yearning for peace, free travel between two countries and trade. Unfortunately they are held ransom by an establishment which is controlled by the Pakistan army. The army in Pakistan has steered the course of that country since its independence and has simply quashed any civilian government that has tried to curtail its power. The army fully understands that the source of its power is in maintaining hostility with India. Whenever it has felt threatened it has gone into an India bashing mode to generate internal support from the fundamentalist elements by playing either the Kashmiri card or spreading falsehood about the conditions of Indian Muslims. The intelligence wing ISI works independently and the entire world today knows that one rogue element within the ISI is totally out of control. A few days ago there was an article about the ISI which stated that one part of the ISI was busy planning and organizing terrorist strikes within Pakistan (and India) and the other section was busy fighting these very acts of terrorism.

Under pressure from the United States a large portion of the Pakistan army is today positioned on the western borders of Pakistan squeezing the Taliban, Al Qaida and other terrorist organisations which have taken shelter there. The Americans at the same time are hitting them hard both in Afghanistan and with drones inside Pakistan. One feels that this is therefore a desperate attempt by the terrorist organizations within Pakistan with the help of the rogue elements in the ISI to loosen this tightening noose. They feel that creating mayhem in India would force the Indian government to bring its army to its borders with Pakistan, and this in turn will force the Pakistan government to withdraw its forces at the Afghan border and redeploy them near the Indian border.

Therefore, if the anger of the people of India and the pressure on its government to act decisively is well justified and understood, it is up to the Pakistan government to display statesmanship and see that it extends all support to India in bringing the people who are behind these attacks to book. It needs to understand that these terrorists are enemies of Pakistan as well as India. Handing over people from the list provided by the Indian government would be a major step which would dramatically bring down tensions and prove that this time the Pakistan government means business. Additionally closing down of all training camps could be the next step. These decisive acts would convey a strong message to the terrorist groups that their time is up and at the same time win the appreciation of the government and people of India and the world community.

But all these seem to be far fetched dreams. Does the government of Pakistan have the will to take on its army top brass? I am not sure because so far one can only hear denials from Pakistan. On the one hand they talk of co-operating and the next moment deny or refuse to accept the proof provided by the Indian agencies.

One of the saddest moments was when Pakistan refused to accept the bodies or acknowledge that its soldiers killed in Kargil were Pakistani citizens. These were men, sent to war by their government and leaders, and who laid down their lives by simply following orders. Can there be a worse tragedy for the families of those men, to see their sons, brothers and husbands resting in unmarked graves, totally forgotten. On the other hand each and every fallen Indian warrior has been accorded a funeral befitting a martyr and a hero and the entire nation has bowed down in gratitude for the sacrifice made by each man. Today Pakistan is once again denying that these terrorists are Pakistani nationals, even though proof is available on the contrary. It therefore needs to change course quickly, as the anger in India is building up and escalated tensions can only bring in more misery to the people of both the countries who are victims today held at ransom by a few fundamentalists. But the question is: Does the government of Pakistan realise that?