The international shame and opprobrium that Pakistan has incurred over the years for employing terrorism as state policy has not deterred that failing state from compulsively resorting to the worst form of inhuman and savage warfare, even as its existence teeters on the brink.
Following the heinous terror attacks that killed 26 tourists in Pahalgam on April 22, Pakistan’s crass mendacity was in full evidence when in an interview with Sky News in late April, its defence minister Khwaja Asif admitted that his country had been supporting and training terrorists for the “last three decades” but pinned the blame for its evil actions on the United States and the West.
Surprisingly, the international community has remained silent even after this brazen admission of guilt and outrageous accusations. In fact, many countries around the world still fail to see through Pakistan’s continued terror subterfuge and the denial of the evident role behind the recent Pahalgam terrorist attacks.
Given Pakistan’s stubborn refusal to act against the terrorist groups that conducted the April atrocity in Jammu and Kashmir from its soil, India had to exercise its right to respond. Thus, it launched a series of targeted military strikes under Operation Sindoor, on confirmed terror camps operating inside Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) as well as within Pakistan, on May 7.
Briefing the media in New Delhi on the same day, Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri stated: “Our action was necessary to deter imminent attacks. It was proportionate, non-escalatory and conducted with maximum restraint”.
Similarly, the Ministry of Defence statement affirmed: “No Pakistani military facilities were targeted. The focus was solely on terror bases.”
At the media briefing, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh informed that every terrorist location was selected based on credible intelligence and assessed for minimal risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure.
In fact, the Indian government and the Armed Forces shared a list of 21 “well-known training camps” located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in a press briefing, out of which nine terror camps were targeted under Operation Sindoor.
The banned terrorist group calling itself The Resistance Front had initially taken responsibility for the Pahalgam attack from its online platform but as soon as Pakistani officials started airing unfounded “false flag” theories, this Lashkar-e-Taiba-linked outfit backtracked from its claim of responsibility for the massacre, alleging that an unauthorised communication had been posted on one of its digital platforms due to a supposedly “coordinated cyber intrusion.”
In spite of this attempted subterfuge by the Pakistan-backed group, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members, in an informal closed-door session on May 8, rejected Pakistan’s “false flag” narrative and asked Pakistan about LeT’s likely involvement in the attacks.
However, it is highly disconcerting to note that Pakistan has had a very long history of deceiving the international community on issues related to its terrorism-related activities. Even when irrefutable evidence has been found about its promotion of religious extremism and terrorism, many of its senior officials have audaciously spoken of their state’s nuisance value, of having a dysfunctional polity, a bankrupt economy and a degraded security situation in order to escape international sanctions and punitive measures.
In fact, many international organisations such as the United Nations and Paris-based watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have often let Pakistan off the hook in spite of its rank terrorism-related offenses, which has allowed Pakistan to wade deeper into the murky layers of terrorism.
The country has also tried to hoodwink the UN and FATF by taking piecemeal, cosmetic and fraudulent measures to save its jihadist operatives and proxies.
During the aforesaid briefing, foreign secretary Misri said that the Indian government has exposed “the Sajid Mir case, in which this terrorist was declared dead and then, in response to international pressure, brought back to life, found alive and arrested.”
Again, UN-recognised terrorists like Hafiz Saeed, well-known for masterminding the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, was convicted on a much lighter charge of terror financing, which FATF considers sufficient action by Pakistani authorities to strike the country’s name off of its so-called “grey list” in 2022. Later Abdul Rehman Makki, Saeed’s brother-in-law, was also sentenced to six-month jail term not on charges of terrorism, but on the lesser offence of terror financing.
Again, like any small-time criminal working under different names and aliases, the LeT has changed its appellations several times over the last two decades to deceive the international community. Thus, it was known as Jamat ud Dawa (JuD) for some time and when that name was banned, the group reincarnated itself as the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, which also came under scrutiny and is now alleged to be working as the Allah-u-Akbar Tehreek.
TRF is another ancillary of LeT, operating under an English and non-jihadist name in Jammu and Kashmir after the revocation of Article 370, but it continues to target civilians by first identifying their name and religion. Although the group is reportedly led by Asif Fauji, certain sources name LeT’s Saifullah Kasuri as the mastermind of the Pahalgam attack.
Similarly, the internationally designated terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has continued its activities in Pakistan as “an educational and religious charity” under the name of Al-Rahmat Trust (ART). This trust has become key to garnering donations and recruitment of terrorists fighting in Kashmir, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Therefore, the international community needs to give up on its self-imposed onlooker approach and take appropriate punitive actions against Pakistan’s continuing terrorist attacks against India and its attempts at destabilising regional peace and security.
The writer is the Coordinator of the Counter Terrorism Centre of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He has authored Political Islam in West Asia and South Asia, Countering the Radical Narrative, and ISIS: Race to Armageddon.
If you’re reading this story, you’re not seeing a single advertisement. That’s because Newslaundry powers ad-free journalism that’s truly in public interest. Support our work and subscribe today.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
