The Hindu : Infiltration not a myth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 02, 2002

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National

Infiltration not a myth

By K.K. Katyal

NEW DELHI JUNE 1. The Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf's assertion that no infiltration is taking place across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir or that Pakistan is doing nothing across LoC stands contradicted by reports in the newspapers of his own country. During the week preceding his address to the nation on May 27 — and even after that — the Pakistani press carried accounts of the continued activities of jehadi outfits and their support to "freedom struggle'' in Jammu and Kashmir.

There has been no dearth of warnings by Pakistani commentators in regard to the adverse fallout of the actions of the extremist groups, on Pakistan itself, apart from other areas. Also, foreign correspondents during their visits to Pakistan wrote extensively, on the basis of firm evidence, about the functioning of the militant groups, despite the embargo announced by Gen. Musharraf on January 12.

On May 29 — that is, two days after the General's address — a Dawn commentator, Mahir Ali, had this to say: "Just as it is absurd of New Delhi to pretend that there is virtually no such thing as indigenous Kashmiri militancy, it is ridiculous of Islamabad to insist that cross-border infiltration is broadly a myth, or that jehadi groups managed to mount their operations without any Pakistani assistance. Independent reports suggest that the extremist organisations ostensibly banned earlier this year are still active, with the Lashkar-i-Taiba, for example, openly soliciting donations. A Lashkar official told a foreign correspondent last week that a suicide squad from the group's Al Mansoureen wing carried out the attack on an Indian Army base near Srinagar that killed 34 people, many of them women and children — and provoked Vajpayee's frenzied war-dance.''

The same correspondent quotes a Pakistani military source as saying: "Every jehadi has links with the ISI. You cannot be a jehadi without having links with the ISI." This would suggest that Musharraf's purge of the ISI has been less than effective. The President is either ignorant of the ISI-jehadi activities or insufficiently powerful to do anything about them. Neither of these likelihoods reflects too well on him. A military dictator unwilling or unable to rein in the army he commands cannot expect high marks for credibility.

According to another writer, Kunwar Idris, the world opinion held that the General's effort to deal firmly with the armed fundamentalists was tempered by political expediency. In his view, "the statements by some political leaders and Pakistan's own press about the guerrilla training camps in Azad Kashmir and elsewhere fly in the face of the now trite official contention that Pakistan's support to popular uprising in Kashmir is no more than political, moral and diplomatic. When our own people do not believe it, how would the rest of the world? The U.N., the E.U. and the rest are justified in demanding a sterner control over the religious groups who train the Kashmiri or foreign fighters and a greater vigilance across the Line of Control to check their entry into occupied Kashmir.''

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