Murder in Arabian Sea

This Sunday, the calm of the Arabian Sea was broken by gunfire. Two Pakistani coast guard boats surrounded a small Indian fishing boat and directly opened fire at it, killing one Indian fisherman and critically injuring another. At any given time, the Arabian Sea is littered with thousands of boats and the regulars are no strangers for the Pakistani security forces. As over 500 Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails will attest, there has never been the need for strong-arm methods against marginal fishermen if they are perceived to have crossed the maritime boundary of another nation. Recognising the offence as minor in nature, the prescribed penalty is three months of imprisonment. That the Indian fishermen spend a lifetime in jail is another sad story of the Pakistani security state trumping the basic tenets of humanism.

Initially, Pakistan provided a graphic account of how the Indian boat ‘Jalpari’ was intercepted. A day later, Pakistan has turned to its previous tried-and-tested tactic of maintaining ambiguity and preserving its options. Islamabad has been acting obdurate with India ever since Pakistan PM Imran Khan patched up with the military and replenished the empty exchequer with a bailout from Saudi Arabia. First, Indian trucks taking wheat for the impoverished Afghans were denied transit through Pakistan. Then, Pakistan walked out of the meet of regional NSAs on Afghanistan to be held in Delhi on Wednesday. And later, it cancelled overflight permission for a flight from Srinagar to Sharjah.

The repeated acts of provocation by Pakistan come at a time when there is a pressing need for the region to cohere around rules and norms after the Americans exited Afghanistan. The fragile situation has encouraged deluded and volatile gangs to ply their deadly trade at Kabul airport and at Shia mosques in Kunduz and Kandahar. Afghanistan cannot be turned around by the China-Pakistan duo. If nations continue to remain at odds with each other, it is only a matter of time before the region begins to feel the heat. Pakistan needs to realise its provocations are ill-timed.