J K News Today Commentary
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s disclosure that there are 40,000 armed militants operating in his country who have fought in Kashmir and Afghanistan is just a belated confirmation of what Delhi and Kabul had been saying all along . This should also serve as a lesson to President Donald Trump who is desperately looking for a solution to the problem America faces in Afghanistan and also is quite enthusiastic to mediate on Kashmir issue . This should open his eyes , and he should realize and recognize that Taliban in Afghanistan is a problem because of Pakistan and Kashmir is suffering from immense pain because of Pakistan.
There are certain known facts about Pakistan at least since 1979 when the erstwhile Soviet Union undertook the misadventure of invading Afghanistan – Pakistan under Zia-ul-Haq outsourced his country for green cash and made it a spring board for the training and arming of “mujahedeen” who had come from all over the Islamic world for “ jihad” in Afghanistan. Pakistan got money from CIA and did the dirty job . The money and weaponry was diverted by ISI for their favourite project of launching a proxy war in Kashmir . That it did .
Second thing is that Pakistan created Taliban in 1990s and also set up training camps for the militant groups that it sent to Kashmir to “ liberate Kashmiri Muslims” from what it called the “ Indian occupation.” These training camps were set up in Afghanistan , Pakistan’s Punjab province and also in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
When Bill Clinton ordered the launching of missiles to destroy the camps following the terror attacks in the U S embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in August 1998, Hizb-ul-Mujahadeen and Harkat-ul-Mujahadeen groups suffered immense damage in Afghanistan . These groups sponsored by Pakistan were having their training camps in Afghanistan, and their trainers were Pakistan army officers and that of the ISI .
Following the hijacking of the Indian Airliner IC 814 , one of the best known security exert and former CIA official Bruce Ridel had established that Lashkar-e-Toiba and other militant groups operating in Kashmir were closely linked with Al Qaeda .
Imran Khan’s government has denied strenuously that it had any hand in the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in Kashmir . Then how come he has come to realize that there are militants in Pakistan who have fought in Kashmir .He needs to answer.
Why did he keep quiet about these militant outfits and their dangerous terror designs before – after all he has been in the Government for more than one year , and why suddenly he thought of making this disclosure in Washington this week.
He has warned America against seeking any military solution in Afghanistan after President Trump had declared that “ had he wanted to have war in Afghanistan, he could have finished in a week’s time because he didn’t want to kill 10 million people over there. Pakistan would lose would lose its strategic assets in Afghanistan if that happens .
And when Trump in his own maverick style offered to mediate on Kashmir , Imran said that the President would have “ prayers of one billion people.”
Let Imran roll back terror machinery from Kashmir, he will have the prayers of billion people. He needs to be clear what he wants- terrorism or peace , and peace will not come from mediation but sincere efforts to roll back terrorism from Kashmir.
