A few days ago the country’s defence minister Khawaja Asif inadvertently admitted that Pakistan
has used terrorism as state policy, initially with the blessings of the US and later without it. Former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto made a similar admission in another interview with a news channel in the UK.
The latest picture of Hafiz Abdul Rauf has only strengthened India’s case. Despite the repeated denials by the country’s bureaucrats on several platforms including the United Nations, the establishment in Islamabad has betrayed the trust of the international community by continuing to groom terrorists in the country’s backyard.Since 2014, Pakistan has been trying to convince the world it would get rid of the terrorists operating in the country. However, as the US State Department concluded in a November 2023 report— after the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force removed the country
from the grey list in October 2022—Pakistan is yet to complete its pledge to dismantle all terrorist organisations with delay or discrimination.
The Indian government is likely to underscore the latest findings in its update to the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, the National Security Advisor has been garnering global support by briefing his counterparts in some other countries. The goal is to choke the aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Critics have often argued that the aid, meant to lift Pakistan’s economy from the doldrums, eventually finds its way to the terror groups. “On our dime, they have been able to expand their nuclear programme. At the same time, they have continued their commitment to a whole fleet of terrorist organisations that very much threaten our (US) national interest but also the interest of our partners. In exchange for the $30 billion that we collectively have given the Pakistanis, they have taken that money with one hand, and they have filtered it through a variety of mechanisms and given it to the Afghan Taliban who are killing our troops,” Christine Fair, a political scientist whose research focusses on the political and military affairs in South Asia, explained way back in 2015.
Terrorist attacks have indeed claimed more Pakistani lives each year between 2019 and 2023 when it quadrupled in one year, according to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal. However, that hasn’t stopped the establishment from hobnobbing with the perpetrators.
It is now India’s attempt to thwart Pakistan’s attempt to play the victim of terrorism while providing terror outfits a haven, and it has found traction. Some of the world’s biggest military powers have either acknowledged Pakistan’s hypocrisy or outright supported New Delhi’s right to retaliate.
Meanwhile, the violence has cost lives and thrown normal life into disarray on both sides of the border. Airports have been shut down, flights have been cancelled, and people have been subjected to tighter security conditions and war drills in many parts of India. Even private defence equipment makers have been summoned to Delhi. You can track the latest updates, from the most credible sources, minus the misinformation here.
