Sponsoring terrorism abroad

G Parthasarathy

Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi is a household name in India. The 46-year-old Lakhvi has been the operation commander and a member of the decision-making general council of Lashkar e Taiba for nearly a decade. He rose rapidly in LeT after the Kargil conflict and has organised Lashkar terrorist operations not only against India, but also in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Bosnia. He is known to have been the mastermind not just of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack, but also the 2006 Mumbai train bombing in which around 200 people perished.

According to the testimony during the trials of Syed Yousuf Gilani, aka David Coleman Headley, and his Canadian buddy, Tahawur Rana, in Chicago, Headley revealed how he was tasked by Lakhvi to identify and photograph targets for the 26/11 attack.  Lakhvi's pernicious role has been exposed in testimony in India by an Indian national from Maharashtra, Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, aka Abu Jundal.  Ansari was a member of the ISI-backed Indian Mujahideen and became an active Lashkar member after finding his way to Karachi. He was tasked by Lakhvi to teach the ten terrorists to speak Hindi. Ansari was extradited from Saudi Arabia to India in 2012 on the basis of information provided by India and the US. He has confirmed that he was in the operations room near Karachi, where Lakhvi was giving minute-to-minute operational instructions to the ten terrorists in Mumbai. Voice samples of VOIP communications by Lakhvi with the terrorists have been provided to Pakistan.  They have not been used as evidence in Pakistan. Kasab, who referred to Lakhvi as “chacha” (uncle), also gave a sworn testimony on Lakhvi’s role.

Forced to act because of the international outrage sparked by the 26/11 attack, where 28 of the 166 persons killed included citizens of the US, the UK, Israel, Australia, Singapore and Canada, the Zardari government charged Lakhvi and six of his associates with planning and executing the attack. What has transpired thereafter has been a charade. It is evident that the prosecution has no intention utilizing evidence like the testimony of Kasab, Headley, Ansari and others, or acting on voice samples provided, to seriously prosecute the accused. Judges and prosecutors have been threatened and been too terrified to act in the interests of justice.

Lakhvi and his co-accused have been provided five-star comforts in Adiala jail. His visitors have included luminaries like former ISI chief Shuja Pasha. He was permitted conjugal rights with daily visits by his wife. He has even fathered a child in prison! In a recent broadcast after Lakhvi was granted bail, BBC Islamabad correspondent Ilyas Khan observed: “Six years ago, the then Interior Minister Rehman Malik revealed how part of the Mumbai attacks conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan. Most of this evidence has not been made part of the record. Jail officers said he (Lakhvi) along with six of his comrades, had several rooms at their disposal. They had access to television, mobile phones and the Internet as well as dozens of visitors daily. These privileges enabled him to remain in effective contact with the Lashkar e Taiba rank and file. Elements of the Pakistani establishment are known to have provided such facilities to jailed militant commanders, whom they believe they may need in future”.

International reaction to Lakhvi's release has been sharp. Delhi labelled the development as an "insult" to the memory of the 166 victims of the Mumbai carnage. The US State Department denounced the decision to free the mastermind of the 26/11 attack the very next day after this release. Expressing grave concern at Lakhvi’s release, Washington announced that it had communicated that serious concern to senior Pakistani officials “over the course of many months and as recently as yesterday”. The American spokesperson noted: “Terrorist attacks are an insult to the collective security and safety of all countries”. French President Francois Hollande,  thanking Mr Modi for the “solidarity” shown by India during the Paris terrorist attacks, said: “In the same vein I express to you my indignation each time a terrorist is freed, while he still has responsibility for an abominable act of terrorism”. Expressing “surprise and disappointment” at Lakhvi’s release, Israel, whose citizens were killed during the 26/11 terror strike, termed it as a “setback to international efforts in the war against terror”.

Despite sentimental and unrealistic expressions of hope in India that Pakistan would amend its ways on terrorism it sponsors abroad after the Peshawar massacre of schoolchildren, there has really been no change in Pakistani policies. Its military operations on the borders with Afghanistan have not resulted in the capture or elimination of a single member of the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Omar, or of the dreaded Haqqani network. Likewise, on its borders with India, the entire infrastructure of terrorist groups like Lashkar e Taiba and Jaish e Mohammed remains intact. Moreover, there is nothing to suggest that it's all powerful army has any intention of changing its policies and priorities.

Pakistan is confident that it will continue to receive military and financial support from its “all-weather friend” China. Moreover, the US recently approved the supply of sophisticated weapons valued at around $1 billion to Pakistan, generously financed under the provisions of the Kerry-Lugar Act. Pakistan obviously believes it will remain a recipient of American largesse, even if it backs terrorist groups acting against India and Afghanistan. Delhi will now have to activate the US Congress and indeed public opinion in the US to see that Lakhvi and others are extradited and charged in US courts for killing American nationals. The Jewish and Indian communities in the US should be motivated for doing this. Moreover, none of those living beyond our borders, who were involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 1993 and 2008, or the Parliament attack of 2001, should ever be allowed to feel they are safe and secure from Indian retribution.