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| India-Pakistan |
| Experts baffled by Indo-Pak deal |
| 2006-09-18 |
| New Delhi, Sept. 18: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf’s decision to put in place an India-Pakistan anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations has outraged and baffled diplomats and security analysts alike.Naive and ill-advised is how they chose to describe the joint statement that has been thrust upon an unsuspecting nation barely a few weeks after the Mumbai serial blasts. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seems to have been smitten with the Stockholm Syndrome ever since the Mumbai blasts of July 11, in which 184 suburban train commuters were killed by suspected members of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation and a member of Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front,” according to Mr B. Raman, a retired additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat. The expression Stockholm Syndrome, which came into vogue in 1973, refers to a psychological condition in which a victim of terrorism, finding himself powerless in the hands of a terrorist, starts empathising with the terrorist. “At a time when a growing number of Western analysts and policy-makers have begun doubting the sincerity of Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and suspecting that he has been playing a double role — openly as a front-line ally in the war against terrorism and covertly as a supporter of Pakistan-based jihadi terrorists — our Prime Minister has sought to play down the extent of Gen Musharraf’s perfidy with regard to jihadi terrorism directed against India from Pakistani territory with the help of organisations such as Lashkar which operate under the control of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence,” Mr Raman has said. Mr G. Parthasarathy, a former high commissioner to Islamabad, wondered how anybody could equate a country like India, which faced the problem of terrorism, with a country like Pakistan, which sponsored terrorism. “[The move] is ill-advised,” he asserted, “Four days ago, in Brussels, Gen Musharraf said that violence by militants will continue till the Kashmir issue is resolved. To pretend that [a change will happen] is naive and misplaced.” India, he reminded, faced a threat from the terrorists trained by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan and it was inconceivable how the ISI or Gen. Musharraf would “cooperate with us.” Asked whether the joint initiative has come about without help from the United States, Mr Parthasarathy said the Americans have been making such suggestions. He nevertheless felt no initiative can deliver positive results until there was “change in the political intention” to stop the use of terrorism. However, there were some like strategic analyst K. Subrahmanyam who supported the decision announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf in Havana. He was of the opinion that once a joint mechanism was in place, India can give Pakistan whatever evidence India has of terrorists operating from Pakistan. “They (Pakistan) have to now answer specific allegations and charges. It’s a step forward. Pakistan has accepted that terrorism is a problem between the two countries. It has accepted that terrorism exists on its soil,” Mr Subrahmanyam said. |
| Posted by:john |
| #2 I always love a headline that includes the phrase "Experts Baffled"... |
| Posted by: Fleash Greaper4919 2006-09-18 22:29 |
| #1 “At a time when a growing number of Western analysts and policy-makers have begun doubting the sincerity of Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and suspecting that he has been playing a double role — openly as a front-line ally in the war against terrorism and covertly as a supporter of Pakistan-based jihadi terrorists — our ________ has sought to play down the extent of Gen Musharraf’s perfidy with regard to jihadi terrorism directed against ________ from Pakistani territory with the help of organisations such as _______ which operate under the control of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence,” Yeah, you can fill in the blanks a lot of ways. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-09-18 19:34 |