Iran’s missile attack targeting what it claimed were bases of the terrorist group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan’s Balochistan province has further exposed Islamabad as a terrorist hub in the region. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amri-Abdollahian said that “we only targeted the Iranian terrorist group on the soil of Pakistan. We respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan but we don’t allow national security to be compromised or played with”. The foreign minister of Iran implicitly said that Pakistan is sheltering anti-Iran terrorists on its soil. There are reports carried in the various sections of the press across the globe saying that Pakistan has never cooperated with Iran to curb the terror elements operating from its soil. Islamabad always ignored Tehran’s request to take strict action against terrorists of the Jaish al-Adl group. As a result, Iran was forced to go to this extent to defend its borders.
All the countries which are seriously fighting terrorism will agree that, by hosting multiple UN-designated terrorist entities that carry out cross-border attacks on its neighbours, Pakistan is a state sponsor of terror. That Pakistan continues to provide safe havens and sanctuaries to terror organisations gets further confirmed in the wake of Iran’s attack against terrorists on its soil. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) must come into action now, taking serious note of evidence that Iran, India and other neighbours of Pakistan are sharing with the forum to establish that Pakistan is hardly taking any action on terror infrastructure. More seriously, Islamabad has not yet curbed terror funding and financing at the same time, while it always shared with FATF only false evidence of action against terror camps.
As Iran’s strikes vindicated India’s statement that Pakistan continues to provide shelter to terrorists, New Delhi was quick to back Tehran’s missile attack against terror groups on Pakistani soil. India’s reaction to the incident was, therefore, quite appreciable that reflects a far-sighted approach. India used the occasion not only to reaffirm its stand against terrorism but also to send out a clear-cut message that Pakistan is a terrorist hub which should be taken note of by the anti-money laundering and terror financing watchdog known as FATF. India stated that it understood actions that countries take in their self-defence. Backing Iran on its strike on terror camps in Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that while the issue was a bilateral one between Iran and Pakistan, India has an “uncompromising” position on terrorism. “This is a matter between Iran and Pakistan,” the Ministry of External affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement. “Insofar as India is concerned, we have an uncompromising position of zero tolerance towards terrorism. We understand actions that countries take in their self-defence,” he added. India made a perfect use of the occasion to send out a message on its zero-tolerance towards terrorism. It may also be recalled here that India had also carried out surgical strikes against terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) on September 28, 2016. It was in response to an attack by Pakistan-based terrorists on an army base in Kashmir’s Uri on September 18, 2016 in which 19 Indian soldiers were martyred.
Similarly, Indian warplanes again carried out a bombing raid on February 26, 2019 in Balakot Pakistan against a terrorist training camp. Now, India has not only backed Iran but also kept its options open against Pakistan so that in case of any misadventure, New Delhi will not hesitate to carry out another surgical strike. This was also a message the New Delhi sent out to Pakistan. India must ask Iran to share evidence with it that further exposes Pakistan as a terror-sponsor country so that New Delhi’s envoys could raise the issue in a more substantive way at international forums such as FATF and the United Nations Security Council. The US has condemned Iran’s strikes against Pakistan-based terror camps, saying that Iran had violated the sovereign borders of three of its neighbours in just the past couple of days. But Washington needs to be reminded that its State Department once slammed Pakistan for “failing to curb terror funding and training terrorists on its soil”.
In a report, the US once said that Pakistan failed to “uniformly implement US sanctions on terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed”. The US must again refer to this report of its own state department. The international community is aware how Pakistan is trying to mainstream extremists in local politics by allowing Talha Saeed, the son of UN-proscribed terrorist Hafiz Saeed who is also mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, to enter the political fray ahead of general elections of Pakistan this year. Hafiz Saeed’s son is contesting Pakistan elections to be held in February. India has condemned this development warning it could have severe ramifications for regional security.
T. BRAJESH