Nagrota attack: India must make Pakistan cry

The terror attack in Nagrota calls for a clinical response. Retribution from the Indian Army will follow.

The scale could exceed the surgical strike conducted by special forces after the Uri terror attack. This is necessary but not sufficient.

Parliament must now rapidly pass Rajeev Chandrasekhar's private member's bill to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism.

Other steps - diplomatic, economic and military - will flow from Parliament's declaration of intent.

Operations

Meanwhile, the government must look inwards. Why are our Army camps vulnerable to terror attack after terror attack?

Why did combing operations to flush out the remaining terrorists who struck Nagrota not continue through the night of the attack?

The lack of night vision technology underscores the chronic failure of the defence ministry to equip our forces for counterterrorism operations.

Counterterrorism, ironically, is the principal theme of the Heart of Asia (HoA) conference that begins in Amritsar on December 3.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani are co-hosts of the conference. Forty high-level ministerial delegations from around the world will attend.

The HoA initiative, begun in 2011, is Afghanistan-focused. The HoA is a platform to encourage cooperation on security, economic and political concerns that affect Afghanistan and its neighbours.

Pakistan, as the epicentre of regional terrorism - including its decades-long role in creating and nurturing the Taliban in Afghanistan - will be on the mat in Amritsar following the Nagrota atrocity.

Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's de facto foreign minister, despite Islamabad's pariah status, will be a keen participant in the conference. He has two assets: a thick skin and China.

Pakistan has developed a brazen response to critics of its terror factories: "We too are the victims of terrorism."

It ignores the obvious fact that Pakistan is the victim of home-grown terrorists nurtured over decades.

Like rattlesnakes, some will inevitably turn on their creator. Pakistan's other asset is China. In Amritsar, Beijing can be counted on to provide Islamabad cover with sniper fire.

As it did at the BRICS summit in Goa in October, China will find alibis for Pakistan's terror machine. But Beijing's complicity in jihadi terror is coming under increasing global scrutiny.

The US is a "supporting" member of the HoA process. So are several other Western countries with a security stake in Afghanistan, including NATO member-nations such as Britain and Germany.

China's obstructionist behaviour to defend Pakistan-origin terror finds no sympathisers among them.

Infrastructure

Afghanistan, which along with India has borne the brunt of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, will be keen not to spare Islamabad in Amritsar. President Ghani began his term sympathetic to Pakistan.

After a year in office, he turned a fierce critic. Because it is landlocked and poor, Afghanistan is geostrategically dependent on Pakistan.

The HoA process is designed, at least in principle, to reduce that dependency. India has a crucial role in this.

It already spends billions of dollars in building schools, hospitals, roads and infrastructure in Afghanistan.

The Afghan people are as deeply grateful to India as they are deeply resentful of Pakistan. As one observer said bluntly, "Send a Pakistani military officer alone to any bazaar in Kabul, Kandahar or Herat and he'll be lynched."

For India, the HoA conference on December 3-4 is an opportunity to turn the global spotlight on Pakistan's terror machine.

The beheading of two Indian soldiers in the space of a month underscores the fact that the Pakistani army increasingly behaves like a jihadi army.

It has abandoned all pretence of professional soldiering. India's military response then was strong and swift, forcing the Pakistani DGMO to sue for peace last week by calling the Indian DGMO.

This metaphorical white flag was shown after Indian artillery destroyed Pakistani army posts around Machil where the latest mutilation of an Indian jawan took place.

Consequences

Beyond retaliatory military strikes, PM Modi has warned Islamabad that India will use its legal rights under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) to divert water to Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.

Six hydroelectric power projects in J&K have already been fast-tracked. Together, Punjab and J&K will now get the share of Indus water they are entitled to under the IWT - a legal allocation India has for decades inexplicably not fully used.

The consequences of India using its legal quota of IWT water will not be pleasant for Pakistan's Punjab.

Under the IWT, India has been allocated water which can potentially generate 18,500MW of power compared to the current 3,500MW. This legally allocated water flow can irrigate 13.4 lakh acres.

Today, a mere eight lakh acres are being irrigated. The PM has given the central electricity authority a December 2016 deadline to finalise a techno-economic appraisal of these plans, including completing several hydroelectric projects on the Chenab.

Speaking at a rally in Bathinda, Modi declared last week: "India has the right to Indus water. It flows into Pakistan. Flowing through Pakistan, the water goes into the sea. That water belongs to Indian farmers. We will do whatever we can to give enough water to our farmers."

Sartaj Aziz will receive a formal but cold reception when he arrives in India on December 4.

What will be more chilling is his realisation that Pakistan after Nagrota is about to pay a heavy price for being a state sponsor of terrorism.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

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