Pakistan is on fire. There’s tremendous political instability, with former Prime Minister Imran Khan back in prison. And this is not all. Afghanistan is again on the boil; things have gone from bad to worse ever since Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021. There are public executions and people are being stoned to death. Terror is acquiring new hues and severely impacting India’s strategic location vis-à-vis Islamabad and Kabul.
There are serious threat perceptions of terrorism emanating from the region. This is a theatre of great-power politics that started when Washington launched its Global War on Terror in the early 2000s. New Delhi must perpetually be on alert.
India, for the record, has always tried to help. Thanks to the presence of the US security forces in Kabul, India—as an influential actor in the region—had more than 500 projects between 2001 and 2021 spread across 34 provinces in Afghanistan, and provided more than $3 billion in aid during this period. And more than 60,000 Afghan students have completed their studies in India in the last 16 years. But this will all come to naught, for the Taliban is ruthless and so is its agenda.
New Delhi has called on the Taliban to sever ties with Al-Qaeda and dismantle terror supply chains. India also expressed support for a democratic and peaceful Afghanistan. But that has not happened. A terrorist attack on August 26, 2021, at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul killed some 200 civilians and nearly a score of military personnel. And when the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) owned up to the attack, New Delhi’s fears about the proliferation of terror hubs in Afghanistan were reinforced. So, the bottom line is clear: terrorism is a serious regional problem and India must build bridges with its partners and devise serious counterterrorism plans.
India has always urged the international community to ensure that Afghanistan is not used as a base to launch terror attacks on another country, or as a shelter or a financier. India particularly hinted at Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). At the G20 Extraordinary Summit on Afghanistan in October 2021, PM Narendra Modi urged the G20 nations to seek accountability from the Taliban on the basis of Resolution 2593. The Taliban was urged to not support other terror outfits and to become a security provider in the region instead.
New Delhi has often drawn flak from the Western powers for engaging with the Taliban multiple times in the last two decades. There is some serious reputational damage that such engagements can cause to the goodwill that India enjoys. And it also raises concerns about India’s own principled positions and red lines with regard to engaging with a terrorist group.
So, that is all about Afghanistan and the perils of engaging with the Taliban-ruled country. And now, there is a bigger threat from next door: Pakistan, a politically unstable nation constantly fermenting trouble for its benevolent neighbour, India.
In its annual report for 2022, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said cross-border terrorism funded by Islamabad has not abated, with Pakistan still using “hostile and manufactured propaganda” to demonise India and draw attention away from its own political and economic problems.
But New Delhi has, time and again, expressed that India wants to have cordial ties with Pakistan, and consistently maintained that any disputes should be settled amicably in an environment devoid of terror and hostility. But it has not worked. “Pakistan continues to engage in hostile and fabricated propaganda to vilify India, and to divert attention from its domestic political and economic failures.” the MEA stated.
New Delhi must be on high alert when it comes to its next-door neighbour Islamabad. But Pakistan is not listening; it is not even agreeing that there is a growing recognition among many nations that Jammu and Kashmir is fundamentally an internal concern for India. In short, Pakistan is just not listening to India, the United States or any other nation that it needs to stop feeding terror on its soil. As a result, there has been no let-up in Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism, infiltration and illegal smuggling of arms into India across the Line of Control (LoC).
Worse, Islamabad is yet to show sincerity in delivering justice to the families of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack victims. Furthermore, the actions of the Pakistani military against former PM Imran Khan have raised concerns that Islamabad is unable to control its internal turmoil.
And see what India has done to usher peace: New Delhi has constantly emphasised the need for Pakistan to take credible, irreversible, and verifiable measures to eliminate cross-border terrorism. But it has not worked. India wants normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan, and the onus is on the latter to create such a conducive environment. Terror threats have messed up everything—trade, connectivity and people-to-people exchanges.
India has been trying to bring peace for a long time now. But Pakistan is not keen to play ball, with Islamabad constantly moving the goalposts to distract the global community from its internal strife. The diversion of jihadi fighters and proxy groups from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Kashmir threatens to increase violence along the border. If another 2008-style attack—it killed 164 people in Mumbai, India’s financial capital—is carried out by terrorists from Pakistan, there could be a severe military confrontation between two nuclear-armed states. The world must know that South Asia is the epicentre of terrorism and New Delhi is trying hard to ensure peace. It is not an easy task.
(Views are personal)
V Vijayasai Reddy
MP, Rajya Sabha, and Leader, YSRCP Parliamentary Party