It is clear that both the military and civilian establishments in Pakistan badly misread Prime Minister Modi’s outreach to the country’s elected leadership in his first two years in office. His warmth towards his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif were meant to signal to the world that Mr Modi was prepared to go the extra mile with Pakistan’s leadership, in a quest for cordial relations.
His meetings with Sharif in Delhi, Ufa and Lahore were misread by both Islamabad, where the political leadership is based, and Rawalpindi, where army chief General Raheel Sharif had taken control of Pakistan’s national security and foreign policies.
The attack on the Pathankot IAF base and the refusal of the military establishment to act against its perpetrators from the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which had also masterminded the December 13, 2001 attack on Indian Parliament, triggered the beginning of a new approach to relations with Pakistan by Mr Modi. In his Independence Day speech, Mr Modi surprised his countrymen and the world, by referring to India’s sympathy for the human rights violation by the Pakistan army in Balochistan. This was accompanied by publicised visits to India by Baloch resistance leaders in exile. These visits were even more startling than India’s approach to freedom fighters from Bangladesh in 1971, who remained largely out of sight, when in India.
The fact that Mr Modi’s Independence Day speech was not an isolated occurrence, but part of a wider redrawing of the entire matrix of the India-Pakistan relationship, became clear, when New Delhi invited representatives of BIMSTEC, which comprises six of India’s neighbours, to the Goa BRICS Summit. This effectively excluded Pakistan, which has undermined every effort for promoting regional economic cooperation in SAARC.
A process of excluding Pakistan from regional economic cooperation in South Asia was commenced, with India joining other South Asian neighbours, notably Bangladesh and Afghanistan, to initiate a boycott to the scheduled SAARC Summit in Islamabad. Mr Modi appears determined to see that no effort is spared to diplomatically isolate and internationally expose Pakistan, as a sponsor of terrorism. This effort is being coordinated with Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who are also victims of Pakistan’s ISI-sponsored terrorism.
The terrorist attack on an Indian army unit in Uri led to an unprecedented Indian response. In a carefully planned cross-border attack, units of India’s elite Special Forces destroyed terrorist launch pads and camps across the Line of Control (LoC). Over 50 assembled terrorists and some soldiers of the Pakistan army were killed. This was the first time ever that the Army units undertook such a strike, at widely dispersed terrorist targets, across the LoC. The psychological impact of the recent attack on Pak army units deployed along the LoC and terrorist training camps cannot be overestimated, or overemphasised. Pakistan has been served notice that India can and will strike at terrorist locations, when necessary.
Interestingly, not a single country in the world criticised India’s action. This is primarily because such cross-border raids elsewhere have been justified under the provisions of the UN Charter. This action followed the boycott of the SAARC Summit, which isolated Pakistan in South Asia.
The Uri attack was strongly condemned by countries ranging from the US, Germany and Russia, to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain. It led to an unprecedented American warning to Pakistan. While urging Pakistan to “go after terrorist networks”, a senior American official noted: “The US will not hesitate to act alone, when necessary, to disrupt and destroy these (terrorist) networks.” China alone still acts as an apologist for Pakistan sponsored terrorism.
The writer is a Former diplomat
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