Neha
JAMMU, Aug 31: Ever since June this year, when Mian Nawaz Sharif took over as Prime Minister of Pakistan for the third time, Islamabad, Pakistani Army, spy agency Inter-service Intelligence and terror outfits such as Lashkar-e-Toiba/Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Jesh-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen have intensified anti-India activities to internationalize the otherwise settled issue of Jammu & Kashmir. Pakistani Army, the ISI and Islamabad-friendly terror outfits have not only been breaching the international border and the LoC and using terror tactics so that terrorists could cross over to Jammu & Kashmir but also firing at our forward posts on a daily basis with our brave jawans playing a splendid role to defeat the Pakistani evil machinations.
As expected, the anti-India activities and ceasefire violations, couple with the martyrdom of our soldiers, have outraged the nation. It has been demanding stringent action against Pakistan so that a moral effect was produced and anti-India activities checked and neutralized. But it has not been happening. What has been happening is to the contrary. The Indian Foreign Office under the instructions or directions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who wants to cultivate Pakistan at whatever cost, is involved in back channel diplomacy to devise a formula that could help resolve the so-called Kashmir issue, Siachen, Sir Creek and the issue of Indus Waters. These are the four issues about which Pakistan has made its stand very clear. It has been saying Kashmir is the core issue and asking New Delhi to settle the issues of Siachen, Sir Creek and Indus waters to its satisfaction. Besides, it has been asking New Delhi to implement the "relevant" UN resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir, notwithstanding the fact that it itself has rendered the same redundant by ceding a portion of Jammu & Kashmir territories to China, integration Gilgit-Baltistan into Pakistan and by not vacating the aggression. In short, the outrageous manner in which Islamabad had been conducting itself should have provoked New Delhi, but it was not to be. The decision of the UPA Government to send the so-called point-man of India and former diplomat S K Lambah to Dubai to meet Pakistan's point-man and former Foreign Secretary Shahryar Khan needs to be viewed in the context of the Indian Prime Minister's determination to cultivate Pakistan.
Right now, Lambah and Khan are the point-men of India and Pakistan for what is called back channel diplomacy. What is their agenda? Apart from addressing tensions along the India-Pakistan border and the LoC at Dubai away from the media's eyes, Lambah and Khan will reportedly "work out details" for the scheduled meeting between the Indian Prime Minister and his Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next month.
Interestingly, the report to the effect that Lambah and Khan would meet at Dubai appeared in a section of the Pakistani media. According to a report from Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said that both countries were engaged in Track-II diplomacy. "India's point-person Lambah and Pakistan's point-person Mr Khan have been in touch with each other," he said while holding a weekly news briefing.
"As for the meeting (between the two Prime Ministers), it has been the position of the Pakistan government that should an opportunity arise, we believe such a contact between the leadership would be a welcome opportunity to discuss all issues that require urgent discussion and to improve relations between the two countries," Chaudhry also said.
As per the report, "Khan was asked to come to Islamabad from London, where he was on a private visit, so that he could proceed for the Dubai meeting after being briefed by the government" and "prior to his departure for talks with Lambah, Khan met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his top foreign policy aides and a Foreign Office team".
What is all this going on? Pakistan doesn't deserve the kind of treatment the UPA is according. It deserves condemnation and excommunication from the world community, as it is a rogue state. New Delhi must act and make Pakistan to see reason failing which it will be taught a befitting lesson. |
