Lessons from Pulwama : The Tribune India

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Lessons from Pulwama

Empirical evidence suggests that prospects of normalisation between Pakistan and India always hang from a delicate thread.

Lessons from Pulwama


Shahzad Raza

Empirical evidence suggests that prospects of normalisation between Pakistan and India always hang from a delicate thread. One sporadic incident and everything is back to square one. The aftermath of Pulwama attack was no different from what happened after the attacks on Indian Parliament and in Mumbai, Uri and Pathankot.

The level of optimism that peaceniks expressed after the opening of Kartarpur Corridor seemed to have diminished the hostile thoughts and it was taken as a great beginning. What made the initiative unique was the fact that the initiator was Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Indian leaders have always belittled their Pakistani counterparts owing to strong influence of the armed forces in civil affairs. They believe resolution of any dispute between the two requires a firm nod from the Pakistani military establishment. The opening of Kartarpur Corridor should have been taken in the same context. Unfortunately, the Indian side played it down, probably because of its political compulsions.

Earlier this month, when a suicide bomber left nearly 40 CRPF personnel dead in Pulwama, India accused Pakistan of orchestrating the attack. Pakistan denied the allegation. Meanwhile, escalation at the border intensified. People saw long freight trains carrying tanks and other heavy artillery moving towards the border. General Bajwa dashed to the Line of Control for boosting the morale of his troops while India publicly considered surgical strikes against Pakistan. The Pakistani government warned against any misadventure. World capitals came into action. US President Donald Trump used his Oval Office to announce that the situation between the South Asian neighbours was very tense. He claimed Washington was trying to de-escalate it. How, he didn’t explain.

Both sides are playing like cricket teams that tend to exploit each other’s weaknesses instead of relying on their own strengths. Pakistan’s weakest point is its notoriety of harbouring non-state actors. India’s weakness is its policies on Kashmir and the world’s highest deployment of troops in the region. Both sides have reasons to blame each other for sponsoring state terrorism.

If anyone from Pakistan planned and executed the Pulwama attack, he did great disservice to the nation. Just consider the circumstances under which the attack took place: The Saudi Crown Prince was visiting Pakistan with a heavy wallet; Pakistan Super League was underway with the promise of becoming a reason to bring back international cricket home; FATF was considering removing Pakistan from its grey list; the ICJ was hearing the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. Amid all those developments, a state-sponsored suicide attack should not have been even the last thing on the to-do list. Pakistani leaders and analysts called the attack an inside job. That is yet again an oversimplification of a rather complex situation. No matter PM Narendra Modi’s track record, he cannot order the killing of his own soldiers for a pre-election lead.

Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), a Pakistan-based terror group, claimed responsibility for the attack. However, it is yet to be verified whether it actually carried it out or not. The JeM was long banned in Pakistan with all its leadership behind bars or having fled Pakistan.

Pakistan understands the horrors of a suicide attack. A person committed to kill himself along with many others can only be stopped by some miracle. Since 9/11, Pakistani defence facilities, bazaars, schools and places of worship have been hit by suicide bombers countless times. It took the security forces more than 15 years to break the terrorist networks. We, in Pakistan, can only wish and pray that the Pulwama attack was just a sporadic incident.

Planning a suicide attack is not an easy job. The most difficult part is to get a recruit. Qari Hussain was a notorious Pakistani Taliban commander who would plan such attacks from his safe havens in former tribal areas. He was later killed in a military operation. His strategy was to search for disgruntled or so-called committed youth, primarily from the seminaries. The majority suicide bombers were in their teens. They were brainwashed that their sacrifice would be accepted by God and that they would get a place in heaven.

India has already witnessed suicide missions on nationalistic grounds. Take Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination for example. It would indeed be disastrous for the Indian Army if the Kashmiri youth were to start following the same path. 

That brings us to the fundamental question and its probable answers. Nothing can be normalised without India and Pakistan resolving the Kashmir dispute. It is needless to say how to do it, for, countless scenarios and solutions have been written and discussed. Pick any one of them and start defusing the tension.

Japan learnt the horrors of war after thousands of its people were killed and maimed. European nations opened their borders after millions of lives were lost. Both Pakistan and India could either learn from the mistakes these countries made or just repeat them.

— The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist

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