"While
President Obama counsels us not to regard India 'as a mortal threat,' New Delhi
began holding military exercises on our eastern border. It's a pity that the
leader of the superpower has ceded to Indian pressure to modify his stance on
the centrality of Kashmir in forging peace between our two countries."
A man evacuates the district of Buner along with the Taliban, who have pulled out iof the district which is just hours from the nation's capitol of Islamabad, Apr. 24.
As things stand now, Pakistan
finds itself buffeted by multiple crises. Raging militancy, constant pressure from
the Americans to go use the military option to deal with the militants and the
machinations of an India that seeks to unnerve Pakistan, are some of the challenges
Pakistan confronts in the areas of security and politics.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Not a day passes that this
confluence of factors creates even more problems. On Tuesday morning on the
outskirts of the capital of the North-West
Frontier Province of Peshawar, a suicide bomber rammed a car into a vehicle
carrying security personnel killing four and wounding eight, signaling once
again that not even major cities are immune from the designs of the terrorists.
And the brutal act didn't spare the schoolchildren passing by at the time, with
several of them injured. After the Buner operation, which
has taken a heavy toll in lives, the Swat peace deal seems
to be all but dead, with clashes between the security forces and militants
already underway in some parts of the valley.
Following President Barack
Obama's scathing criticism of Pakistan's civilian government, there has been a
stream of statements and analyses suggesting a host of foreboding scenarios, even
predicting its disintegration. Day after day, the vicious circle of pressure
goes on, as U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen, is again in
the news expressing America's wish to fast track a military operation.
While President Obama
counsels us not to regard India "as a mortal threat," and with a
single-minded devotion, shift our focus to the militancy on the western border,
New Delhi, ever scheming to fish in troubled waters, began holding military
exercises on our eastern border.
No strategist
worth his salt could forget the lifelong hostility between this country and
India by virtue of unfounded assumptions. Facts on the ground speak louder and
clearer. It's a pity that the leader of the superpower has ceded to Indian
pressure to modify his stance on the centrality of Kashmir in forging peace
between our two countries. But there is little justification for Pakistan to
overlook how the Indians conduct themselves. India and Pakistan have fought a
number of wars and continue to have major disputes. Not only that, New Delhi is
even now creating new realities meant to worsen matters for Islamabad.
By constructing dams in the
upper reaches of the Indus, India is diverting water against the explicit
provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty. This is extremely worrisome to Pakistan
and serves as a constant reminder of Indian hostility. The water issue has been
called a more serious threat than the Taliban.
Shouldn't Washington be
reviewing its strategy toward the Subcontinent in recognition of these threats
to Pakistan and spare a few efforts to persuade India to shed its intransigence
and sort out these contentious issues? That alone would constitute quite a
setback to militancy.
