Three bombs rocked India’s capital, Mumbai during rush hour on July 13, this year, killing 21 people and injuring more than 100 persons.
The timing of the terror-attacks clearly indicates that secret diplomacy is behind these Mumbai blasts. On June 23 and 24, the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India met in Islamabad to discuss various issues. While showing optimism, they pledged to continue their talks. Now, the three triple bombings in Mumbai have put Pak-India parleys, the forthcoming foreign ministers talks on trial.
It is notable that Indian fundamentalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) including other similar extremist groups has always put pressure on the Congress-led Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by opposing the revival of Pak-India dialogue. So, one of the major aims of these latest bombings in Mumbai is to sabotage Pak-India peace process which has come on the track.
It is of particular attention that the planners of the new Mumbai blasts wanted to fulfill a number of other anti-Pakistan designs. In this respect, some major developments like the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in a covert military operation by the US in Pakistan on May 2 and militants’ attack on naval base in Karachi on May 23 in wake of a perennial wave of suicide attacks, bomb blasts and targeted killings in the country—especially in Karachi including intensity of drone attacks and American threat of conducting more high-value targets in the country in future are mentionable.
The US has continuously been pressurising Islamabad to take military action against the Haqqani group in North Waziristan. While Islamabad has already made it clear that army is engaged in other tribal areas, so it cannot attack the militants of North Waziristan. Knowing the American real intentions to shift Afghan war to Pakistan, Islamabad sent home 120 US military trainers. In response, on July 10, America withheld $800 million in military assistance to Pakistan. On July 13, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar threatened to pull back troops from the Afghan border due to US aid cuts.
Despite strained relations with Islamabad, on June 2, the US State Department’s deputy spokesman Mark Toner, pointed out that they “addressed some of difficult issues…we are committed to work with Pakistan on counter-terrorism.” Some US high officials and media have suggested Washington to restore its cordial relationship with Islamabad including military aid as the US cannot act upon its exit strategy—maintain stability in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, on July 13, the DG of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) left for Washington for talks to “coordinate intelligence matters.” Now, the hope has arisen that both US and Pakistan are likely to remove their misunderstandings.
Besides, in the post-Osama scenario and militants’ assault on the naval base, the United States and India have intensified their propaganda, saying that other leaders of Al Qaeda have also taken shelter in Pakistan. And Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are not safe.
In fact, the contradictory statements of the US high officials still continue. Sometimes, US pressurized Islamabad to do more against the militants, sometimes accused ISI of close contacts with the Afghan Taliban, while blaming for cross-border terrorism in Afghanistan. On the other hand, in the past few weeks, cross-border attacks by heavily armed militants who entered Pakistan from Afghanistan intermittently have continued.
Nevertheless, the above mentioned anti-Pakistan developments and timing of the three explosions in Mumbai show that Indian spy agency RAW in collusion with the Hindu fundamentalist parties and with the tactical support of American CIA and Israeli Mossad have arranged these latest attacks so as to implicate Pakistan. Other aims are to further increase US pressure on Islamabad without bothering for public backlash inside the country, to widen rift between Pak-US relations by exploiting American double game with Islamabad and to further distort the image of Pakistan abroad.
Under the pretext of the Mumbai catastrophe of November 26, 2008, India had suspended the process of ‘composite dialogue’ and its rulers had started blackmailing Islamabad that they would not resume the talks unless Islamabad takes actions against the culprits of Mumbai catastrophe. New Delhi, while urging Islamabad to arrest the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, had also accused ISI of supporting the militants. Rejecting Pakistan’s stand that its government or any official agency is not involved in the Mumbai attacks, New Delhi wanted to make Islamabad accept all other Indian demands since our rulers admitted that Ajmal Kasab is Pakistani national. In fact, Islamabad’s admission which had emboldened New Delhi was forced by the US. Nevertheless, Ajmal Kasab was tortured by the Indian intelligence agencies so as to endorse Indian false story against Islamabad, while giving statement in an Indian court. Nonetheless, even if he is Pakistani, it does not matter because he is a non-state actor.
But the true story of Mumbai mayhem has been exposed recently when a day after the Indian media exposed the name of the terrorist, Wazhul Qamar Khan whose name was included in the list of 50 alleged terrorists given to Pakistan in March. On May 18, 2011, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram was compelled to admit that what the media described an embarrassing lapse, but disowned responsibility for preparing the list. Now, Wazhur Qamar “is living in the suburbs of Mumbai with his family” and “is regularly reports to a court that gave him bail” as reported by The Times of India.
India has also failed in supplying solid proof to Pakistan in relation to Mumbai tragedy except providing a self-fabricated story which was quite fake—full of loopholes, created by Indian RAW. Neither, India supplied Islamabad reciprocal information about the Malay villages and Samjotha Express blasts in which Indian mastermind Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit along with other army officials and Hindu extremists were found guilty in killing Muslims—these army officials were helping in training the Hindu terrorists, providing them with the military-grade explosive RDX. New Delhi also did not supply any details on the death of Indian Anti-terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare during Mumbai mayhem as he was investigating against Hindus terrorists.
India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) is now convinced that besides Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit, other Indian army officials and a Hindu right-wing leader Swami Aseemanand were directly involved in the Samjhota Express blast. In this regard, a court in Haryana has recorded Aseemanand’s confession in the blast case. Notably, Dr. J C Batra, a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India appeared very defensive and stated that Swami’s statement does not have much legal value, while adding that RSS is being wrongly implicated. And without naming Indian Army officers, he also stated that there could be others involved who are not being exposed. Now, leaders of the Indian extremist parties, Shiv Sena, BJP, VHP and RSS are pressurising the Congress regime to release the culprits. In fact, ideology of Hindu nationalism prevails in every field at the cost of other minorities groups. It is even supported by Indian defence forces and RAW clandestinely.
Nonetheless, three coordinated blasts in Mumbai are part of the secret game of RAW in order to malign Pakistan, try to isolate the latter in the comity of nations and to show Islamabad as sponsoring terrorism not only in Afghanistan, but also in India. In this context, without investigation, some Indian media have already started a blame game against Pakistan and its intelligence agency ISI. Gradually, Indian high officials have also begun to point fingure towards Pakistan. In this regard, gesturing towards Islamabad, Chief Minister of Maharashtra State Prithviraj Chavan said, “It is another attack on the heart of India,” and “hinted at possible foreign involvement.” Some Indian TV channels and political experts have remarked that Indian Mujahideen and banned Lashkar-i-Tayba based in Pakistan are behind the new Mumbai explosions.
On July 14, Indian Home Minister Chidambaram stated, “We live in the most troubled neighborhood in the world. Pakistan-Afghanistan is the epicenter of terror…every part of India is vulnerable.” On the same day, L.K. Advani, leader of the BJP, while accusing Pakistan as the hotbed of terror in the region, called ISI to be declared a terror outfit and criticised the Indian government for not dealing more sternly with Islamabad.
Question arises in the mind of people as to how RAW can again arrange triple bombings in its own country? In this regard, renowned political scholars Machiavelli and Morgenthau agree that in international politics, sometimes leaders and rulers have to choose between the lesser evil and the greater evil. And in these circumstances, deceit and fraud become the principles of international morality. Judging in these terms a “nuclearised Pakistan” in the Islamic world is considered a greater evil by the US, Israel and India. US which wants to make India an Asian super power to counterbalance China, takes Pakistan as an obstacle in its covert strategic designs. No doubt, Indian fundamentalist parties and home-grown terrorists—in conivance with RAW are again involved in the latest terror-attacks in Mumbai as part of Indian secret diplomacy against Paikistan.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
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