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| Action against terror, not bilateral discussions with Pak, India's priority: MEA | | Right stand | |
Early Times Report
jammu, Mar 4: The attitude of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) towards belligerent and sponsor of terrorism or epicenter of global terror, Pakistan, has, it seems, undergone a change following the January 2, 2016 Pathankot Airbase terror attack, which culminated in the martyrdom of our seven brave soldiers and postponement of foreign secretary-level talks. How else should one interpret the March 2 New Delhi's unambiguous suggestion that action against terror by Pakistan was a greater priority for it than resumption of a bilateral dialogue. India had described the attack as a Pakistani stab on the India's back. The reason: Jaish-e-Mohammad operatives with the help of the Pakistani Army and ISI attacked Pathankot just two week's after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sudden visit to Lahore, Pakistan.
In the aftermath of a terror attack, if you ask me what do you give priority to, a terrorist attack or a diplomatic dialogue, I think the answer should be obvious," Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said.
He was replying to a question during an interactive session at the Raisina Dialogue - a conclave on geoeconomics and geopolitics - on whether FS-level talks were linked to action by Islamabad against perpetrators of the Pathankot attack, based on information given to it by India.
S Jaishankar said there were "obstacles" in improving ties between India and Pakistan and noted that Pakistan needed to change its attitude towards a number of issues of which terrorism was "Central".
"Most people in this country want to treat Pakistan as a normal neighbour. So, we would like to do with Pakistan what we do with everybody else. But the fact is that there are obstacles and we know what the obstacles are," he said, while emphasising on the need to remove these obstacles.
The comments by S Jaishankar came as a five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) from Pakistan is likely to visit India this month to probe the Pathankot terror attack. Pathankot Air base is one of India's most strategic air bases. New Delhi had said the Masood Azhar, head of Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, masterminded the attack and sought action against him and other perpetrators.
The stand which the Indian Foreign Office took on the cult of terror and bilateral talks between India and Pakistan was the right stand. India is against any kind of dialogue with Pakistan, as it considers it responsible for most of the troubles it has been facing in J&K and other parts of the country since decades now.
Earlier on March 1, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had told Rajya Sabha that Non-State actors from Pakistan were involved in the Pathankot attack but they couldn't function smoothly without support from the State.
"All details will come out in NIA investigation. In this, non-State actors from Pakistan are certainly involved, that is sure... And any non-State (actor), they can't function smoothly without State support," he told Rajya Sabha while replying to supplementary questions in the Upper House. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had asked whether the Pathankot attack was carried out only by militants or they had the support of the Pakistan Army. "Does the Government believe it was just an attack or done with the help of Pakistan Army?" Raut had asked.
It was perhaps for the first time after several years that any Defence Minister of India said that non-State and State actors in Pakistan are hand-in-globe with each other and that they worked in unison to blast the Pathankot airbase
It would be only desirable if the IFO also announced that New Delhi will not discuss this part of J&K with Pakistan and that it will surely hold discussion with it on other issues only if stopped cross-border terrorism.
Meanwhile, the stand taken by the IFO has not gone down well with Kashmiri leaders, including those belonging to the PDP, who want New Delhi to engage with Pakistan at the earliest to resolve the so-called Kashmir issue. The point is that the stand taken by the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar has further widened the already rather wide gulf between the PDP and the BJP. |
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