At the highest levels — that of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the country’s all-powerful defence and intelligence establishments — the Pakistani reaction to the recent Pathankot attack has appeared
At the highest levels — that of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the country’s all-powerful defence and intelligence establishments — the Pakistani reaction to the recent Pathankot attack has appeared to be reasonable and lacking in its customary stridency. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the Narendra Modi government hadn’t named Pakistan in a bid to save the diplomatic discourse rekindled through the Indian PM’s personal initiative just weeks ago, though the attack was mounted from Pakistani soil. And yet, there is an underlying message of holding back from Islamabad.
In a telephonic talk Mr Modi urged Mr Sharif to act swiftly to bring the attackers to book. For this process to begin, the Indian side provided the Pakistanis the mobile phone numbers in that country the terrorists were dialling from Pathankot, as they took instructions from handlers who are apparently senior figures in the ISI-backed and known anti-India terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, that had mounted the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 during the last NDA government.
The Pakistan PM must realise that if genuine steps are not taken against those who organised the attack, the diplomatic re-engagement process will wilt on the vine. The time is short. The foreign secretaries of the two nations were due to meet on January 15, but that was before Pathankot. Now no one can be sure, although it seems the two PMs do not wish a rupture in diplomatic contact restarted after so much difficulty.
For all the seeming eagerness to save the ongoing diplomatic narrative, the sub-text of the messages from Islamabad is that the Indian evidence may be “insufficient” and may not stand up in court. In short, Pakistan may have difficulty in catching the terrorist masterminds based on telephone numbers and intercepts.
Islamabad should seek to recall the nature of the evidence it brandished in court when it sent the terrorists behind the infamous Peshawar school attack to the gallows. Not to put too fine a point on it, those terrorists were executed through the process of martial law with Army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif signing their death warrants, for doing which he became an instant hero in Pakistan.
Can the Pakistan government and Army summon the same determination in pursuing the cause of justice when their nationals have attacked India If they do, the dynamics between the two countries can undergo a sea change.
The United States also appears to be pressuring Pakistan not to delay in handling the Indian request for the sake of regional peace. Historically, such urgings have not meant much though this time around the sale of eight F-16 fighters may be influenced by a negative Pakistani response. But all that is still speculation.
