JK News Today

Jammu, April 12

Things have started moving at a rapid speed between India and Pakistan  immediately after Shehbaz Sharif was sworn-in as 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan on Monday  as the new premier responded to Indian Prime Minister  Narendra Modi’s congratulatory message with an enthusiastic  “ thanks” and his reiteration that the two countries work together for the socio-economic development of people .

In response to Prime Minister Modi’s  congratulatory message , in which it was stated very clearly that India desired better ties with Pakistan , but in an environment free of terror , Shehbaz Sharif tweeted on Tuesday : “Thank you Premier Narendra Modi for felicitations. Pakistan desires peaceful & cooperative ties with India. Peaceful settlement of outstanding disputes including Jammu & Kashmir is indispensable. Pakistan’s sacrifices in fighting terrorism are well-known. Let’s secure peace and. Focus on socio-economic development of our people.”

Read between the lines the congratulatory message of Modi to Sharif and Pakistan PM’s response , it becomes very clear that there is a mutual search for peace between the two countries , but there also is a catch.

Modi, who tweeted on Monday “: Congratulations to H. E. Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on his election as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. India desires peace and stability in a region free of terror, so that we can focus on our development challenges and ensure the well-being and prosperity of our people,” meant that Pakistan should stop export of terrorism to India of which Jammu and Kashmir has been the worst victim , particularly in the past 32 years when a cult of guns and bombs sent from across the border disrupted and destroyed the lives of the people in the sensitive Himalayan region.

Modi was reflecting on the pain that the terrorism had unleashed in the region . 

Sharif’s definition of terrorism  and the fight against it is mostly related to what Pakistan did in the post 9/11 war on terror and suffered its consequences by the ultra Islamists who wanted to establish pure Islamic rule in Pakistan , as they were unhappy with the way Pakistan governments were working . In fact these terror groups , whether Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or Tehreek-e- Labbaik , Pakistan , and few others were patronized by Pakistan  which unleashed terror attacks within the country, whereas other groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and  Lashkar-e-Toiba that worked with the global terror outfit Al-Qaeda  directed their activities against India .

Sharif’s definition of fight against terrorism was against its own groups that it had nurtured, while PM Modi was talking about the terrorism that originated from Pakistan to “ bleed India.”

Indian forces have curbed the terrorism, but the fact remains that the threat of terrorism  persists as the infiltration from across the LoC that divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan is continuing .

But the exchange of mutually respectful messages between the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers offer a strategic hope of building on the ceasefire agreement of February 25, 2021 . the things had started moving in positive direction  but the Imran Khan government reversed the course stalling the process of improvement in ties between the two nuclear-powered nations in South Asia. Modi and Sharif can pick up threads from there.