More Chicanery

When terrorists killed Indian citizens in the cowardly attack in Pahalgam, the fingers were immediately and justifiably pointed across the Line-of-Control (LoC). The perfunctory official message of Pakistani authorities in condemning the attack and condoling the deaths was insincere, insufficient, and incorrigible, given that this has been the tactic for decades following every such terror attack. The nefarious hand of Pakistan in creating, nurturing, and supporting, the terror ecosystem needs no reiteration or reconfirmation.

Harking back to the first tweet of 2018 by the then President of the USA, Donald Trump (in his first term) ~ the clearly frustrated POTUS had called out Pakistan’s ‘deceit’ and ‘duplicity’ on terrorism, and for offering a “safe haven” to terrorists. Even Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, who disagreed with Trump on most things, was completely aligned on Pakistan as he had earlier said, “We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan”.

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That Pakistan itself is mired in a self-acknowledged and deadly mutation of religious extremism, intolerance and terrorism, is clearly its own doing. Political scientist and global terror expert Daniel Byman had famously stated, “Pakistan may now be the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism, beyond even Iran, yet it has never been listed by the US State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism”.

The fact that Pakistan was always key to American interest often allowed it get away without adequate censure or sanctions ~ the Americans would conveniently look the other way when it wasn’t their own interest or personnel that were targeted or pat Pakistan on its back, whenever it helped get an occasional ‘hit’ on someone from America’s ‘wanted list’ (like Trump recently praised Pakistan for aiding the arrest of a key terrorist involved in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing). But that is the typical American transactional policy.

Islamabad has all along played the duplicitous act of fanning terrorism across its borders. It seeks to flex its muscle with the undue leverage that regional dissonance and discord affords it. From supporting violent insurgent groups based on sectarian considerations in Iran, to deadly groups loyal to Islamabad in Afgha – nistan, to virtually any grouping willing to create mayhem in India ~ anything goes for Pakistan.

Afghanistan’s former President, Hamid Karzai had lamented, “we seriously have issues with the military and intelligence agency of Pakistan because they are using extremist methods based on religion to destabilize Afghanistan.” Irrespective of which government came in Iran, Afghanistan or India ~ each has consistently and uniformly blamed the Pakistani hand in each terror incident. It is so bad that now even Pakistan’s own creation in Afghanistan, the Taliban, are up in arms against Islamabad, for they believe Islamabad always plays a double-game, even against its own creation i.e. the Taliban.

India of course is well versed with the Pakistani playbook in ‘post-terror incident management’ as it can deploy a combination of outright denials, deflections, mealy-mouthed whataboutries, implausible contexts, to one of its favourite tactics i.e., blame it on so-called, ‘non state actors’, as they come with the handle of plausible deniability. Except that there are no takers for Pakistan’s innocence, and it has found itself embarrassed to feature on the global finance laundering watchdog agency FATF’s (Financial Action Task Force) infamous ‘Grey List’.

Incorrigibility on terror has been a hallmark that has frustrated all its neighbours, ostensible ‘allies’ like the USA, and even its own citizenry who are now facing the brunt of patronized religious extremism. Against this backdrop to disingenuously call the Pahalgam terror attack in the Kashmir Valley by terrorists as a “False Flag Operation” was typically and instinctively, a Pakistani patent. Except that as usual, it cuts no ice.

The 16th century term ‘False Flag’ is rooted in the times when pirates on high seas would ignobly deceive other ships into allowing them proximity under the false belief that they were of one sovereign or intention, when they were not. The intention basically was to carry out an action (attack) with the intention of blaming an opponent or enemy. So, the Pakistani reaction was predicated on the suggestion that the terror attack had no links or support from Pakistan, as the country had no reason to disturb the peace in India, especially the Kashmir Valley.

To even imagine such a ludicrous suggestion is to reject all telltale militaristic/security pointers in this action, ignore the history besetting terrorism in Kashmir, and to forget Pakistan’s own position and preference on outcomes in Kashmir. Just weeks ago, the Pakistani Army Chief had called Kashmir India’s ‘jugular vein’ and even worse, even as the blood in Pahalgam had barely dried, the Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister had called the terrorists who had carried out this specific carnage ‘freedom fighters’. It is further an anathema and abhorrence to attribute this tragedy as a ‘False Flag Operation’ as that would suggest that the terror attack was deliberately organised by India to make the perpetrators appear to be Pakistanis (or supported/controlled by Pakistan), thereby giving India a handle to name and shame or even offer a pretext for a destructive attack/strike on a foreign country (in this case, Pakistan).

This was the exact storyline that Pakistan had adopted during ‘Kargil’ (when it initially refused to accept bodies of Pakistanis killed), during the attack on Mumbai (Islamabad had even denied that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani) and during Pulwama. This bogey of ‘non-State actors’ who supposedly conduct ‘false flag operations’ is a conspiracy theory that is actually eating into the vitals of Pakistan itself. Today after making a killing with a ‘false flag’ approach to wash its bloody hands of any blame-game in supporting the birth and rise of Taliban in Afghanistan, the uncontrollable genie of religious extremism is rebounding on Pakistan itself, with deadly consequences.

For Islamabad to plead innocence in creating the mess in Afghanistan or in India, is to live under a rock. Having deliberately pussyfooted on repeated requests from India to control the people, policies, and ‘nurseries’ of terrorism in Pakistan that are creating havoc in the region ~ it is ironic that it does not see that while neighbours are still socioeconomically and morally resilient to withstand such incidents, Pakistan is living on dole, aid and desperation. India will do what it has to do on Pahalgam, but every day and with every act of denial such as the ‘False Flag’ chicanery, Pakistan is only digging a deeper grave for itself.

The writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), and former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry