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| Friday tigers brag as India and Pak gear up to talk | | |
ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, FEB 6: Wild reactions from militant sections from across the borders since yesterday over Indian move to resume dialogue with Pakistan at Foreign Secretaries level proves that Islamabad though keen for talks has opted to flaunt adverse opinion vis-à-vis Indian stand on Kashmir by giving a long rope to militant organisations like Jamat-ud-Dawah and its leader Hafiz Saeed.
Simultaneous rallies taken out by JUD through the central vista of capital cities of Islamabad and Lahore after Friday prayers challenged among other things the efficacy of official civilian set ups of Pakistan.
Neither the Federal nor State Government appears to be in control of the internal situation. And the Friday events expose the predominance and hold of bigoted sections that can use crowds coming out of mosques after weekend prayers to whip up frenzy and cry foul against New Delhi in order to cover up their own failings.
Somehow last Friday, or February 5, coincided with the so called Kashmir solidarity day that is observed in Pakistan by playing with ritualistic rhetoric. This year it was JUD orchestrating this. It is a front organisation of Lashkar e Toiba (LeT) that is on the terror list in Pakistan but not banned despite being proscribed by the United Nations. Targeting India’s move for talks with Pakistan is its latest salvo that it fired even as the dates time and venue for the talks are being worked out.
The thing that is important from India’s point is how far the Government of Pakistan is complicit in this. Besides the neighbouring country’s Government’s meekness with which such road shows are meted with is the fact that on last Friday the middle rung leaders of mainstream political parties like Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan People’s Party shared the dais with JUD blowhards at Islamabad’s Aabpara Chowk in the heart of the city and at a stone’s throw from heavily fortified ISI headquarters.
Islamabad may try to get away by saying that the Friday show was for internal consumption on a day like February 5 in order to save the proposed talks between the two countries from being jeopardised. But the fact is that the talks are being planned in the backdrop of 26/11 attacks on Mumbai that took place in 2008 where Hafiz Saeed is one of the suspects against whom India has been demanding action ever since.
According to a TV report telecast today, Hafiz Saeed bragged in Lahore berating the likely visit of Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram to Rawalpindi possibly next month to attend SAARC meeting of Home Ministers of member countries and asking Chidambaram to talk to him (Saeed) instead of leaders from Islamabad.
Saeed also lashed out on America that, according to him, has been humbled by Mujahideen in Afghanistan while threatening India of Jihad in case “freedom” was to be delayed or denied to Kashmir. Though this is a familiar kind of rhetoric that has been emanating from Pakistan in the past as well, it now in its present form point to the impunity enjoyed by persons like Saeed who have been robbing the higher ups in Pakistan of thir right and opportunity to talk and make peace on behalf of their country with India.
Significantly, Saeed is from Punjab province of Pakistan and so are most of his cohorts in the JUD and LeT unlike Hizbul Mujahideen and JKLF that draw Kashmiris to their ranks among others. And, thus, the predominance and political and economic clout of Punjab have made Saeed and his organisations holy cows of sorts.
Moreover, the damage done to the theatre called Kashmir by their strident advocacy of violence has little or no fallout for Punjab. Saeed would like this fact to be lost in the fierce war cry that he raises from across the border.
Yet on this side of divide there has been a realisation howsoever vague about the Punjab-centric politics in Pakistan which can be detrimental to the interests of Kashmir. Thus, among those who have been keen for the resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan included All Party Hurriyat Conference.
Cutting across the divide in Hurriyat ranks both Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farroq factions of separatists have been insistent for talks between the two neighbours to settle the long drawn strife of which Kashmir has been a victim. So much so that Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik recently spoke of need for India and Pakistan to talk in a joint Indo-Pak seminar held here.
Sadly, Hafiz Saeed’s rhetoric makes fun of the fervent hope of Hurriyat besides others to see India and Pakistan talking to each other. And yet the silence on the part of separatists on this side of the Kashmir Valley against JUD’s war cry is intriguing. If the talks are to be saved and ways and means are to be found to end hostilities in Kashmir the bigoted mindset needs to be exposed and made irrelevant.
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