Arun Bajpai
Nobody should have the doubt that Pathankot airbase attack on Jan 2, 2016 was planned by Pakistani army and the ISI and executed by their protégé the jehadi organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad. Five drug addict and religiously brain washed fidayeen jehadis were made to cross the international border supposedly guarded by the BSF in Ravi river area and let loose on the airbase. It was very fortunate that the air base was alert and these people were detected as soon as they jumped the wall of the air base. Indian Army and NSG commandos killed them all. However, in this fire fight three soldiers including one Lt Col were martyred and seven wounded. Time has come for India now to finally make up its mind how they wants to deal with Pakistan. Indian political masters must understand that Pakistan read the all powerful Pakistani Army will never accept Indian friendship at the cost of losing their number one position in Pakistan.
It is true that today Pakistani hierarchy is divided in two blocks. The first and the most powerful block is composed of Pakistani Army, the jehadi organisations like L-e-T and Jaish Mohammad which have been trained, equipped and controlled by the Pakistani army and the ISI as also radical Maulana Sahibs. All these anti India jehadi organisations are the fighting arm of the Pakistani Army. Pakistani Army with their say in everything in Pakistan including politics and their 20 billion dollar business in Pakistan (read book The Military Incorporation by Pakistani Author Ayesha Siddiqa) is a political Army incapable of fighting a war. In all the wars they have fought with India they have lost. So they use these jehadis as cannon fodder and a shield for not fighting themselves. Their other shield is their nuclear warheads. In any case why fight and die when there are others to do their job? The other block is composed of their Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif his political Government and the educated people of Pakistan. This block knows that by good relations with India which will lead to trade and economy getting boost in Pakistan, will solve most of the economic problems faced by the Bankrupt Pakistan and will benefit the aam adami. However this block is weak and Pakistani army knows that if it allows good relations with India the people will prosper then it will be very difficult to the Army to get recruits for jehad against India so then who will die for them and who will allow their Core commanders to be known as Corer commanders ? Besides, when India is no more a threat which enemy they will create to continue their number one position in the country?
Our Indian political masters must understand that whether it was Manmohan Singh Government who followed for almost one decade the policy of good relations with Pakistan at any cost and we faced large number of terror attacks from across the borders and since we continued pursuing this policy even the Defence Minister Anthony had to lie in Parliament in the case of beheading of Indian soldier by the Pakistani army Bat team that these jehadis were dressed in Pak Army uniform. He could not muster the courage to say that they were actually Pakistani army people.PM Modi on taking over 18 months back pursued a strong policy against Pakistan on the concept that talks and terror cannot go on together. So the Secretary level talks were cancelled in Aug 2014 when Pakistan was not relenting in cooling the cease fire violations. For the first time Indian Army were give the orders to teach Pakistani Army mischief makers a lesson in a decade. Indian Army did it with aplomb and Pakistan did not know what hit them. When Pakistan tried to hit civilian population of India in Jammu sector hoping that India will not retaliate there they were proven wrong. When Pakistani casualties mounted they came down to mother earth. As Pakistani Army was mortally afraid of Modi-Doval team and their counter reactions they only indulged in border cease fire violations and jehadi infiltrations. However what our political leaders must learn that in all these encounters from Pakistani side only these jehadis a good for nothing drug addict lot gets killed but on Indian side we are losing our trained soldiers. This war is asymmetrical and will hurt us at the long run.
After this latest betrayal we in India should stop worrying who wants what in Pakistani establishment. We must put an end to this thought that if we side with civilian government one day the public pressure will mount on Pakistani army to see the reason. Let us consider Pakistan as one country and our eternal enemy. Like Israel let us make up our mind that in South Asia Pakistan will never be our friend. Let us forget this pipe dream about friendly relations with Pakistan. We should have one and only one aim that is break Pakistan. American Ambassador to India Mr Black Will had advised this to us long time back and has written a paper also on this. Pakistan is so rife with their internal problems between their four provinces -Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan and NW Frontier that all that it needs is a push to break. There is full scale insurgency on in Baluchistan, 15000 Baluch till date are missing. Incidentally this province is their key province for minerals, largest one and very important for China-Pak economic corridor. So what stops us from supporting their freedom fight on moral grounds as Pakis are supporting the Azadi call in J&K State? In Sind MQM is ever ready for our support and in NW Frontier province Imran Khan is calling the shots. So pluck these low hanging fruits and let Pakistan be left with their Punjab province.
All this is possible if we make up our mind. However, we must improve the capability and hit capability of our external intelligence agency on the lines of CIA or Mossad.Let it be an inter service organisation to do to PAKISTAN what they are doing to us.
(The Author is a former Brigadier and Security analyst)
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