India's Terrorism card.

At the time of this writing India had announced it had cancelled the forthcoming meeting between Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers since the 'brutal killings by terrorist attack' by elements 'supported by Pakistan.' The only incident that happened was the death of a policeman in Indian Held Kashmir and considering the provocations by both sides across their border, such an incident can hardly be qualified as significant enough to call for such a cancellation. It would seem with elections around the corner in India, any normalization of relations with Pakistan may not play to the base that supports the current government.

In the back drop of the recent US-India meetings in Delhi, such a posture seems to suggest a building up of pressure on Pakistan concerning the matter of terrorism and the alleged support of such groups by Islamabad. The fact that in the past some terrorist groups have had sympathy and perhaps support from Pakistan cannot be denied. However, the narrative that is sold is that India is an innocent party subjected to such attacks. Ignoring India's actions within its side of the border of Kashmir, India's track record of itself being a supporter of terrorism cannot simply be washed down the Ganges.

A top official of the Pakistan Taliban, who in April 2017 surrendered, in extensive public interviews revealed some interesting information. Ihsanullah, was the spokesperson of the Pakistan Taliban and he revealed that the Indian intelligence agency RAW, and NDS, the Afghan intelligence agency, were together providing finance, weapons and logistic support to the Pakistan Taliban to carry out attacks within Pakistan. He even revealed that RAW would assist in 'the selection' of targets and provide the intelligence on such targets.

Even if we put aside the matter of the alleged Indian spy caught in Pakistani Balouchistan, and his confession that he was involved in planning the activities against the Pakistan government, there is no denying that Indian agents and RAW have been actively trying to destabilize the situation in Baluchistan. Brahumdagh Bugti, as he is known, from the well known Bugti tribe of Balochistan has sought protection from India and has been conducting activities of subversion in Pakistan with the knowledge and support of RAW. Dr Jumma Marri, a well known Baloch activist who lives in self imposed exile in Moscow and is an activist for greater Baloch autonomy has been categorical that India has been providing funding and weapons to the small group of Baloch separatists.

 One must must admit that both India and Pakistan have elements within their society and even government who have an interest in causing chaos in each others societies. There will always be a hardline element on both sides of the fence, and we have the choice to either buy into the rhetoric of these hardliners or to embrace the will of the majority of the people who want peace in South Asia. Pakistan, through its own actions over the recent past, has borne the brunt of being labelled a supporter of terrorism, and somehow its own narrative, which is also true, that it has been the victim of more terrorist attacks than any nation has somehow not got out to the people.

What was shocking about the Ishanullah admission was that he stated emphatically that his group carried out the Army Public school attack in Pakistan, where 250 children were slaughtered, but went on to state that Indian RAW agents picked the soft target and provided funding and support for the attack. In terms of terrorist attacks such an event is no less devastating as the Mumbai bomb attacks or the bombings in Kabul. Why should these terrorists and their backers, be they Indian or whoever, also be pointed out and labeled as terrorists?

Let us be frank the terrorists are in different shapes, sizes and political and religious colors, and till we do not, collectively, admit that they need to be confronted and the people who support them we are simply rewriting the narrative to suit our own political, religious or social agendas. Just as I would argue that people who go into schools and malls in the United States and kill people should not be called shooters but should be called terrorists we are merely softening the blow to our already dead conscious.

This is a changed world; the dynamics of violence are different, the landscape on which terrorists operate is oblivious of the social distinctions between combatants and civilians, between children and adults, between Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus or who ever.  One cannot simply assume that India, cradled in Ghandi's nonviolence cannot also have elements who will carry out or support terrorist acts! Our conception of Buddhists always was that they are non violent till the Royhinga crisis came upon us and the brutality of men in saffron robes was no less than that of a Taleban attacking the school, or the terrorists who attacked Mumbai or the man who stepped into a school in America and shot up kids.