Backdrop:

‘Samjhauta, Hindi for friendship, Express’ is only one of many CBM’s that have been

undertaken by the two countries to improve relations, was initiated to increase people

to people to contact between the two arch rivals. On February 17,2007, the train that

travels from Delhi to Lahore was hit by a bomb, killing as many as 68 people. Most

of the casualties consisted of Pakistani nationals. Many conspiracy theories were

hatched in an attempt to explain what had really gone by.

Indian authorities and the media were quick to assert that the evidence

overwhelmingly pointed towards Pakistan and ISI. With the immediate release of

sketches of the suspects, it seemed that Indians had it all figured out. For Pakistan it

was nothing more than a feeling of déjà vu; India is known to have a history of

blaming Pakistan and ISI for the smallest of occurrences in India, hardly ever backing

it up with any credible evidence. And so when in 2006 Malegaon, a town in the

Nashik district of the Indian state of Maharashtra, located at some 290 km to the

northeast of state capital Mumbai, was rattled by a series of bombings, the blame was

put on groups having links with Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Maharashtra Police

blamed the Student Islamic Movement of India, further linking them to Lashkar-e-

Taiba and in turn the ISI.

The unlikely twist surfaced recently in India with the arrests of 10 people, including a

serving Lieutenant Colonel Prashad Srikant Purohit, a Hindu monk and nun for their

alleged involvement in bomb explosions that killed six people in the Muslimdominated

town of Malegaon this year. So far, ten people, including a selfproclaimed

Hindu seer and a serving lieutenant colonel, have been arrested for their

involvement in the Sep 29 bombing. Besides Purohit, of the accused also include

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shivnarayan Singh Kalsangram, Shyam Bhawarlal

Sahu, Major Ramesh Shivji Upadhyay (retd), Sameer Kulkarni, Rakesh Dattaram

Dhavde and Ajay Rahirkar. The suspicion is now directed at the extremist Hindu

movement Sangh Parivar, a network linked to a former Major, and now in custody,

Ramesh Upadhyay who represents the terrorist organization, Abhinav Bharat.

The chilling part of the entire episode is the involvement of accused Lt Col Purohit in

bomb attack on the Samjhauta Express to which he confessed. During investigation

Col Purohit has also confessed to training Hindu terrorists for attacking Muslims,

besides training them for attacking Samjhauta Express for which he had also supplied

them RDX. He further confessed that it was intended to cause armed conflict between

Pakistan and India so that anti-Muslim passions could be nurtured in India, leading to

violence.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) claimed that Purohit supplied RDX to one

“Bhagwan” for Samjhauta Express blast. Public prosecutor Ajay Misar said Abhinav

Bharat’s treasurer Ajay Rahirkar had handed Rs2.5 lakh to Lt Col P S Purohit.

Mahant Amritanand Dev alias Dayanand Pandey, the self-styled pontiff who was

arrested from Kanpur has revealed that it was under his instructions that Lt. Colonel

Shrikant Purohit procured RDX from an army depot that was used in the Malegaon

blast. According to reports Pandey was present in all the pre-blast meetings in

Bhopal, Jabalpur and Faridabad, monitored operations meticulously and was also

responsible for arranging the finances that came in through illegal channels. It is

believed that Pandey, a dropout from the National Defence Academy, collaborated

with two other accused who are presently on the run – Ramji Kalsangara, who

allegedly planted the motorcycle owned by the Hindu ascetic Pragya Singh Thakur in

Malegaon, and Sameer Dange.

The suspects have also been questioned for May 2007 blast at Mecca Masjid in

Hyderabad and the April 2006 twin blasts at New Delhi‘s Jama Masjid. In the Mecca

Masjid blasts as many as 14 people were killed and over 50 injured. The case was

investigated by the city police special wing and was later handed over to the Central

Bureau of Investigation which could not come to any conclusion. Investigations into

the Samjhauta Express explosion and the Jama Masjid blast also failed to make

headway and police could not across on any tangible leads.

Police have already established a strong link between Pandey and some of the

suspects in the Kanpur blast case through surveillance. On Aug 24, two members of

the right-wing Bajrang Dal were killed there while assembling bombs.

After the arrest of Panday police is expecting to get some breaking clues in the 2006

Nanded blasts in Maharashtra as well.

The arrests have reinforced growing suspicions over the last few years of a potential

threat from Hindu extremists.

Infiltration of Hindu Taliban in Army?

Interrogation of Major (retd.) Ramesh Upadhyay unearthed that the Bhonsla Military

School in Nashik was used as a training ground by the conspirators. The school has

denied its involvement in the blast but it is under the scanner for allowing Bajrang

Dal activists to hold training sessions in the use of arms and martial arts.

The school’s links to the RSS is an open secret as it was founded by B.S. Moonje,

who was Savarkar’s close friend and who assisted in creating the RSS.

The arrest of the serving army officers and former officers’ link to the recent terror

activities points towards a worrisome notion; of the deep infiltration of

fundamentalist ideas into Indian army. The critics believe that the constant

indoctrination of Hindutva ideology over decades by the VHP, the RSS, the Bajrang

Dal and the BJP has resulted in this kind of violence, which has found its way into

crucial state institutions like police force, army and the education departments.

Ram Punyani, secretary of the All India Secular Forum and a human rights activist,

said that the deep and widespread ideological indoctrination began years ago but was

propagated systematically during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.

It placed its members in the bureaucracy, particularly in the education department,

and in the cultural arena. “RSS people who once headed a department may have

retired, but they have ensured that the damage continues, as they would have hired a

number of like-minded people. So you can imagine how deep the penetration is. It

will take generations to root this out,” said Punyani.

It is a well known fact that once George Fernandes had asked the army chief, the Air

Marshal, and the Admiral to report the Kargil war to MPs. When the three obliged to

the given orders and the place where meeting was planned , it was the party office of

BJ.

This is how the Saffron Brigade interferes in the affairs of the armed forces, blatantly.

The involvement of serving lieutenant colonel of the Indian army in blasts and in the

supplying of 60 kg of RDX for terrorist activities, further casts a shadow over the

credibility of the army.

In the past BJP has been offering tickets to the former army officers, (many of them

are former generals) for contesting elections for Lok Sabha on behalf of the party and

to an extent it has been successful in wooing them. One such retiree is the chief

minister of Uttarakhand B C Khanduria retired Major General. Another retired officer

Sabyasachi Bagchi who is member of BJP proudly praises the RSS for having

developed the character of young people.

SS Raikar of Bhonsla military school, a retired army officer, is believed to have

allowed the school premises to be used as a den for making terror schemes and

devising conspiracies, besides facilitating arms training and providing

accommodation.

The former governor of Jammu and Kashmir Lt General (Rtd) S K Sinha is alleged to

have allowed Dyanand Padey to stay in the official residence. Daynand Pandey was

hosted by him in Raj Bhawan and the two had held a meeting in a famous temple in

Kashmir.

RDX and Army connection: (Chilling clues)

On September two, 2006, Indian police in Ahmednagar seized about 195 kg of

cocktail of explosives that included RDX from a local scrap dealer Shankar Shelke

which was procured by him from Army Ordnance decommissioned as scrap.

A mobile phone from which he had made over 150 calls was also recovered and

during investigation it was found that he had got a cellular connection on a fake

name, adding to his already dubious profile.

However, before police could arrest him, Shelke allegedly committed suicide and his

employee could not provide any details about him. The case was closed as a suicide,

with no further investigation.

The investigations into how the RDX reached some right wing groups allegedly

responsible for Malegaon explosions, led to this forgotten case of suicide of Shankar

Shelk. Some leads are now emerging that the deadly RDX could have been pilfered

during such decommissioning of scrap from the Army.

In the past the law enforcing agencies of India have failed to find out the origin of

such explosive used in different blasts, especially in Maharashtra where Bajrang Dal

had been imparting explosive and arms training to its activists.

Who is financing ‘Hinduvta Terror?’

According to ATS, the money needed to finance these plots is generally collected by

a self-styled religious leader hailing from Gujarat. According to reports the probe into

links of Hindu outfits, accused of terrorism, with Army men brought a few business

houses under the examination of Maharashtra‘s ATS and Central Security agencies,

investigating the finances of the group supposedly responsible for Malegaon blast.

Sources attached with the probe said that a religious leader from Southern Gujarat

was one of those who collected funds from the business houses. According to some

other reports foreign funds were used in Malegaon attack.

Reportedly huge amounts of money collected in the US go into the accounts of VHP

and other conglomerates of RSS. Sonal Shah and her father Ramesh have been in the

core group of VHPA [America] and have been instrumental in sending fund under the

name of Eklavya Vidyalaya for backward tribals.

Although the human rights organizations of India complaint that these funds were not

used for the backward tribals.

It is also believed that finds collected from abroad by saffron brigade were used in the

recent-anti Christian riots in Kanthamal of Orissa and other parts of India and in 2002

against the Muslims of Gujarat. The backward community of Charras was roped in by

the RSS to wreak vengeance on the Muslims by slaughtering them. This confession is

caught on camera. There is no audit of this fund collected by saffron from US and

western countries.

BJP lacks moral fiber — indulges in double talk.

The BJP connection

:

With the surfacing of the connection between Army personnel, BJP and the terror

activities, the party too has come under heavy scrutiny. Sensing the gravity of the

matter and possible questioning in connection with the Malegaon bombings,

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath refused to assist in the

investigations.

“I dare the police to arrest me and I will offer no help in their probe,” he added, amid

reports that he was likely to be questioned in connection with Malegaon.

The BJP and its allied Hindu extremist groups are also questioning the investigation

and blamed that it was an attempt to malign these groups. They further announced to

defend Pragya Singh (Sadhvi) who has confessed her role in the bombing, and to

provide her legal help. BJP Initially denied any association with Pragya Singh but

later supported her. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh also accused that

those parties that once sought lethal POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) charges

framed against suspects from minority communities were now asking the government

to go easy on the Hindu right-wing extremists.The probe after arrest of Sadhvi and

Col Purohit led to Adityanath, the successor of Mahant Avaidyanath of the

Gorakhpur Temple Trust, who is believed to be responsible for the BJP’s foothold in

eastern Uttar Pradesh and is also known for his Hindu awakening rallies.

He justified the attack on churches in Orissa following the killing of a Vishwa Hindu

Parishad (VHP) leader. “The Hindu reaction (after the killing of the priest) is justified

and it is high time that the Hindus should pick up weapons just like our gods and

goddesses adorn weapons,” had said.

Adityanath has been active in reconverting other religious groups, particularly the

low-caste converts to Christianity, back into the Hindu fold. In 2005, a large group of

1,800 people were converted in the town of Etah.

With emergence of Hindu terrorism, BJP which usually does not nurture good

opinions about Pakistan much less support India‘s friendly relations with her, on

November 19 said that Indian police probe into an army officer’s alleged role in the

Samjhauta Express blasts among other terror attacks could harm talks with Pakistan

BJP spokesman Ravi Shanker Prasad was quoted by Indian media as saying, “The

juvenile investigations would encourage jihadi elements in Pakistan and would have

an effect on the talks between the two countries which are due in the last week of this

month.”

“There is a risk of Pakistan seeking a review of the entire terrorist attacks in which

India had alleged a Pakistani hand”, he said adding “The morale of the Indian Army

should be protected at all costs.” And further, “The ATS theory would give Pakistan

an opportunity to prove that India is involved in sponsoring anti-Pakistan campaign

on terror,”

Reaction of Hindu religious leaders

:

Hindu religious leaders are now uniting and some of them met in Panipat on Sunday

November 16th to form a Dharam Sangrakshan Samiti to defend the blast accused,

from the allegations leveled by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad. In Panipat,

the Sangh Parivar demonstrated its united resolve to fight for those accused of

terrorism. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) now plans to hold a massive rally of

religious leaders on November 26 to demonstrate their support for those accused of a

connection in the blast.

Reaction of the Hinduvta leaders (Excerpts)

There was a National debate in India as India was reminded of the spreading of

Hindu terror in India, in the face of these investigations. This is the summary of the

same.

When Hindu leaders are accused of killing innocent people and indulging in terror

acts isn’t it time to do aatmachintan (introspection) just as they want the Muslin

leaders to do when Muslim youths are accused of being involved in terror acts.

Govindacharya (RSS) claimed that the government has been ignoring the Hindus and

such terror acts only reflect the frustration in the society.

“Hindu Samaj has definitely done the aatmachintan and this kind of emotional

outburst are the result of such aatmachintan. There are two reasons: First when Hindu

samaj (society) feels that there is no government that takes care of their interests and

feelings then such outburst are a natural consequence though undesirable.

Similarly when the legitimate established organizations espousing the cause of Hindu

society apply double standards to their own convictions and they are not honest about

their concern of large section of Hindu society, then definitely the Hindus do the

aatmachintan and the result is mushrooming of such outfits.”

BJP President Rajnath Singh said that Hindu saints were being maligned and VHP’s

Praveen Togadia says a Hindu can never be a terrorist. Contrary to this, a completely

opposite stance to this is taken by the BJP when Muslim politicians are the subject of

discussion, particularly in this context.

“Gandhiji also said ‘politics without religious values is of no use to me’. He meant the

Dharma. Dharma needs to be in politics otherwise it will become immoral” Singh

argued.

Dipankar Gupta argued that BJP can never ever rid itself of its Hindutva agenda.

“When you come down to the wire, the defining characteristic of the BJP is Hindutva.

It can occasionally take on other issues as well like economic regeneration but

everybody is talking about that. So what’s different about the BJP? The difference is

Hindutva. So when push comes to shove, its Hindutva colour come out.”

Conclusion:

Chaos and fear continues to haunt India as the poor continue to pay with their

flesh and blood, for a senseless war that has been imposed on them by the followers

of a violent ideology .More arrests are expected in the coming weeks as the

frightening dimensions of a radical Hindu terror plot starts to unravel, with

investigators indicating that it had the makings of a larger conspiracy and planning of

reprisal killings of Muslims for serial bombings in a number of Indian cities.

Indian analysts are now worried about Hindu terrorism. Some of it has been on

display for a long time against the Muslim community. Some of it is recent; targeting

Christian missionaries and Christian converts. Because of the rise of Hindu

fundamentalism in the 1980s, which saw a revival of old Hindu supremacist thinkers

like Savarkar, who was behind the killing of Gandhi, India is now open to terrorism

that is lashing out at the state. People are accustomed to voting the BJP to power as

an alternative to the Congress and that in turn empowers the grand Hindu

fundamentalist alliance called the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) that contains such

extremist outfits as Bajrang Dal.

A common sense conclusion would be that these acts of terrorism are aimed at

creating a communal divide in India, to fulfill the ultimate dream of the Hindu Raj

over India. A country where mosques are bombed, army men like Colonel Purohit

join hands with radical groups like Swami Dayanand Pandey to unleash terror at the

expense of innocent lives of their own countrymen is a country that has failed to her

own people, let alone by taken as a model of democracy to be followed by the rest of

the world.

It is high time India should take lead from the situati

on in her neighboring country

where fundamentalists are on the rampage and blowing innocents into piece.

Before it is too late to root out Hindu Talibanization from Indian society, which is

growing fast as Machiavelli said

“By being on the spot one sees trouble at its birth

and one can quickly remedy it; not being there one hears about it after it has grown

and there is no longer any remedy.”

END 

Its time Pakistan should seriously “do more” even if it is irritating to Karzai.

After US attack on Afghanistan back in 2001, Pakistan had to withdraw its support to Taliban, and ever since has been facing security threats due to its policies perceived to be serving US interests more than Pakistan’s own national security needs. Pakistan has been and still is facing severe criticism internally as well as from certain external quarters for its most conspicuous U-turn against the Taliban.

The tribal areas of Pakistan since then are faced with growing militancy while the settled areas are also rattled by the militants. Despite deploying about 70,000 soldiers on western border with Afghanistan to fight terrorism and having lost many of its soldiers in this fight, Karzai and NATO most of the time press Pakistan for doing more.

The fact remains that Pakistan is not responsible for war and US casualties in Afghanistan. The Afghan economy is now a narco-economy with over $150 bn dollars worth of drugs produced, processed and shipped from Afghanistan. Most of the major government officials, governors and ministers in Karzai government are drug lords. The writ of government still could not be extended beyond Kabul forcing Mr. Karzai to express his frustration by resorting to blame game to hide own weakness. The Bush administration has been faced with sharp criticism at home and abroad over Iraq war where despite investing reportedly about $10 billion a month, US is fast loosing the war.

Whereas in Afghanistan, US/NATO forces despite having superior weapons and technology failed to contain the anti-coalition forces. The presence of aliens is viewed as occupation by the common Afghans who are to a large extent now supporting those fighting against US occupation. Coupled with this the killing of large number of innocent Afghan men, women and children every now and then in air strikes is turning public anguish against US presence. In the wake of all these factors US policy — a set of forlorn wishes seems to boomerang in

Afghanistan.

Taliban are now fighting positional wars with regular fronts in Khost and Kandahar regions. The weapons to Taliban are being supplied, as per more and more intelligence reports, by the Russian and even by Iranian sources. The contribution of Pakistani tribal areas in forging the strategic outcome of the war in Afghanistan is less than 10% from every strategic and military contribution. For all practical purposes, the war is an Afghan problem and is not being controlled or decided from the Pakistani tribal regions.

But the Afghan and US game is simple –

• Blame Pakistan for all the sufferings and war in the country.

• Initiate a head-on collision between Pakistani State and Pakistani tribal militants.

• Create rift between armed forces of Pakistan and Pakistani society.

• Create environment for separation of tribal regions into an autonomous new country.

• And leading up to creation of enough chaos and anarchy in Pakistan to justify forced removal of Pakistani nuke assets.

Frustrated by apparent defeat in Iraq, loss of public approval and support in Afghanistan and failure to prove the campaign-fostered illusions that presence of NATO/US forces was aimed at liberating the Afghans, the US and Mr. Karzai seek escape by blaming others for all the ills.

Very systematically the local Taliban are infiltrated by the US assets led by Baitullah Mehsud to create hatred against the government and armed forces of Pakistan resulting in many attacks on law enforcement agencies. These US assets in the garb of “Taliban” have succeeded to a great extent to create a divide between the local Taliban and the State.

US assets within Pakistani political parties and media have been mobilized to create confusion among the Pakistani public about security situation and safety of nuclear program. Under a well-planned strategy pressure is being built against nuclear weapons of Pakistan by floating false propaganda.

The more sinister plan is being woven for turning Pakistani federation into confederation by supporting the sub-nationalists in NWFP and Balochistan. The efforts for separating FATA is already been initiated with bringing little known tribal leaders from FATA onboard. The demand for a separate province consisting FATA is being tucked down the throats of these

unknown tribal leaders and press conferences and wide media coverage is being arranged for publicizing this demand and smoothening public opinion.

Few months’ back a selected group of little known tribal leaders was reportedly facilitated a trip to the US where they were assigned the task to promote the notion of separate province of FATA.

Civil society organizations have also been activated to make grounds for demand for making FATA a separate province. These NGOs funded by US and Western countries are constantly arranging seminars and propagating the idea while at the same time formulating suggestions for the same.

Just four days back the government of PPP has announced turning FATA into an elected council and for the purpose has sought suggestions from these NGOs and other stalk holders. US have already committed pumping millions of dollars in for ‘development’ of FATA to be utilized through non-government organizations to win minds and hearts resulting in gaining

local support.

The doctrine of greater provincial autonomy is also being promoted through the subnationalists who are in the first phase demanding total control of resources (which means the elements within provincial governments can blackmail and bypass the centre regarding important strategic issues in the future) as well as doing away with the concurrent list which will empower the sub-nationalists to post own trusted people on key posts who will in future carry on the agenda.

Many eyebrows were raised when soon after Yousaf Raza Gillani taking oath as prime minister announced abolishment of Frontier Crimes Regulations (40-FCR) without any planning. The decision was criticized both by the tribesmen as well as intellectuals even it was questioned by many quarters that on whose behest the prime minister announced such a decision in haste.

The game is exposed and now it is time that Pakistan develops some serious response to the challenge: Really, Pakistan needs to “do more” to check the sinister game plan against itself. So let’s do more. To start with Pakistan should immediately initiate three following steps:

1. Revive Pak-Afghan Jirga held in Kabul in August 2007 which had concluded with the agreement that Pakistan and Afghanistan governments will initiate talks with Afghan Taliban and bring them onboard the peace process. The process was abandoned later on after strong US objections to the idea.

2. Fence/mine the border to check any unwanted crossings and infiltrations. Install biometric system at border at selected crossings as being done in Chaman border crossing in Baluchistan.

3. Pakistan needs to redefine its Afghan Policy, ideally declaring neutrality in the conflict and offering to act as mediator between Afghan parties of conflict. Pakistan still does not have a defined anti-terrorism policy either.

4. Pakistan should immediate debate and discuss the Afghan and anti-terror policies in parliament and develop a national mandate through the political parties, elected representatives and the cabinet.

5. A high power parliamentary or judicial commission should be constituted to know and identify the causes, perpetrators, ideology, groups and militants behind the suicide bombings in the country against State and people. The crisis is huge enough to demand a public inquiry and expose of the phenomenon.

Reviving the jirga:

Last year in 2007, on the suggestion of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a joint Pak-Afghan Jirga – a commission for peace in the region was formed. The Pak-Afghan Jirga having full backing of NATO and US engaged about 700 tribal leaders and other influential elders from both sides held two meetings one each in both the countries. The meeting held in Kabul in August 2007 participated by tribesmen and other influential persons from both sides

presented valuable suggestions to fight terrorism and bring peace in the region.

The ensuing Pak-Afghan Jirga was being viewed with great expectations to bring peace in the region particularly to deal with the violence in Afghanistan. The participating representatives of tribesmen from both sides suggested bringing Taliban onboard the peace talks for bringing stability in the region.

However to utter dismay of the people of both the countries, the jirga the brain child of Afghan President Karzai, who was the main architect of

the structure and mechanism of this jirga, was put on backburner due to reasons that a peace in Afghanistan clashed head-on with the US objectives in the region. Pakistani President Musharraf at he concluding session of the jirga meeting had declared Taliban as legitimate entity in the war and one of the delegates even went as far as demanding total withdrawal of the US forces! Obviously, US was not amused and decided to shelve the idea. Now it is the

time that the concept be revived once again and brought in the limelight. It is not some strange or alien idea as in the past during pre-Soviet invasion period tribal

elders from Pakistan used to be invited to Kabul as official guests and also used to attend the proceedings of Loya Jirga of Afghanistan. Fence/mine the border & install biometric system

Karzai’s ludicrous demands:

• Pakistan should stop Taliban from crossing.

• Pakistan should keep the refugee camps in Pakistan which act as safe areas for Taliban.

• Pakistan should allow more people to people contact between tribes across the border.

• Pakistan should not fence the border.

• Pakistan should not install biometric system to identity refugees from among

the militants.

• Pakistan should do more to stop Taliban !!!!

Now what do we make out of this confused set of ridiculous demands??

It is obvious that Mr. Karzai is only interested in creating crisis and confusion for Islamabad and not in genuinely finding solutions to the problems of cross border movements. There is no way Mr. Karzai or his government can accept fencing of the border as that affects their drug trade as well and they are then not able to support the BLA as well as some terrorists in tribal regions. But it is time that Pakistan should “do more”. Mr Karzai has been instrumental in worsening Pak-Afghan relations as the relations between the two countries witnessed a steep downtrend following a continuing vitriol from Karzai

regarding the alleged “cross-border” infiltration of the Taliban from Pakistan.

To interdict the so-called movement of militants across the border, besides conducting military operations in FATA, Pakistan also proposed to fence and mines the Pak-Afghan border which was turned down by the Kabul Administration. It is ridiculous that Mr Karzai constantly accuses Pakistan of ‘cross-border infiltration’ while at the same time advocates open borders between the two countries. During his visit to Pakistan in February 2006,

Karzai opposed the fencing of the border and said he favored passport-free movement of people along the Pak-Afghan border. Fencing and mining the border can be very effective in checking infiltration of unwanted elements into either of the two countries. If the Afghan president refuses to accept this

fencing and mining idea, then Pakistan has no responsibility of any sort to check any cross- border movement. Enough is enough!

Many refugee camps were closed down in tribal agencies of Pakistan owing to the accusation by Kabul that these are being used as sanctuaries by militants but the action did not sit well with Afghan government unable to provide security and livelihood to own citizens. The strange dichotomy is that Kabul is reluctant to accept the remedial steps for controlling unwanted cross-border movement. It is nearly impossible to check each and every person crossing without putting a mechanism in place at the border hence either the border has to be fenced/ mined or biometric system has to be installed at Western border with Afghanistan as has been done in Balochistan. Pakistan has installed the system in Balochistan at Chaman at Pak-Afghan friendship gate but again to utter disappointment some Afghans backed by some hidden hands time and again damage the gate and even a high official of Karzai government took part in one such attack aimed at damaging the system recently. It dose not require a rocket science to understand that some vested elements in Karzai government have some sinister motives behind such acts. The number of those who daily

cross over at only two crossing points of Chaman and Torkham is stated to be about 30, 000 with about 20,000 only at Chaman so put together with number of those crossing the porous border points could go much higher.

Hence fencing/mining is necessary in the first place while installing biometric system is equally important. Needs for redefining Pakistan’s Afghan policy:

Since US attack on Afghanistan Pakistan has been carrying out a directionless Afghan policy.

It is time Pakistan declares neutrality in someone else’s war. Pakistan has already done great damage to her security by supporting unequivocally and whole- hoggedly the US on its War on Terror. We had used every possible mean to destroy our assets and good will in Afghanistan but despite damaging our presence in Afghanistan we get the blame for harboring Taliban and

relations with Afghanistan remain sour. The bad relations between the two important neighbors would only contribute to the instability of the region. It is, therefore, highly imperative for Pakistan to take an in-depth stock of its future relationship with Afghanistan, assets and presence there.

What is most disappointing that despite taking a complete U-turn against Taliban even then it did not win us the favor of the ungrateful Americans.

We must, therefore, in the best interest of Pakistan and its posterity realize that we can no longer continue with this state of affairs at the cost and expense of our own national security. It is time that we adopted a more neutral policy towards Afghan conflict and could play the role of a mediator between the Afghan government and the Anti-Coalition forces including

Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami. Pakistan can play the role it was playing in the post-Soviet invasion in Afghanistan by brining all those party to the conflict on a single platform to bring peace to the war-torn country.

It is time that Karzai should accept ground realities and stop opposing fencing and mining of border or installation of biometric system if he really is interested in effective checking of cross-border infiltration. It is time that Taliban are accepted as a reality and brought on board as agreed in Pak-Afghan jirga otherwise in plane diplomatic decent language borrowed from the Queen’s English – Pakistan should ask Karzai to “put up or shut up.”

End