For peace Pakistan must arrest Hafiz, Dawood

Images of victims and their kin wailing at the Ghurki Trust Hospital, Lahore were gut wrenching. Especially heartbreaking were images of Captain (Dr) Shumaila Nadeem, a young Pakistan army doctor, her two little daughters and husband killed in the suicide attack at Wagah border on Sunday.

The toll stands at 61 dead and more than 150 injured. I was anchoring when the news came in. We dropped our regular bulletin and stayed with the horror from across the international border.

In India we are all too familiar with this horror. A horror aided, abetted, sponsored and orchestrated from across the border. In the past 20 years I have covered almost all major terror attacks in this country and invariably the thread is traced back to Pakistan. Not just by Indian investigators but now intelligence agencies from across the world keeping a hawk eye on a country that is increasingly being described as "Terror Central" and an international migraine.

So are India and Pakistan both "victims of terror"? And can India and Pakistan cooperate in combating terror? I strongly feel India and Pakistan can cooperate on terror if Pakistan is willing and stops playing a double game. India and Pakistan can cooperate on terror when India’s most wanted terrorist Hafiz Mohammed Saeed is not seen leading the Eid prayers at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. If he is a terror ideologue for India and a spiritual leader, preacher and social worker for Pakistan (and a strategic asset for Pakistan state) then the word cooperation is a farce.

India and Pakistan are both victims of terror but India is a victim of Pakistan sponsored terror. And Pakistan is a victim of its own monsters, some now out of Frankenstein’s control.

And can India and Pakistan combat terror together? Pakistan can make a beginning by arresting Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, Dawood Ibrahim, Maulana Masud Azhar, Syed Salahuddin and other assorted anti-India elements enjoying state patronage in Pakistan.

I was in the Chicago Federal Court room covering the Tahawwur Hussein Rana trial when David Coleman Headley, a Pakistan born American terrorist, rattled off details of how Pakistan ISI officers had facilitated the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. There is a mountain of evidence admissible in any court across the world that indicts Pakistan state and non state actors for the worst terror attack in India, yet the trial drags in Pakistan. So what cooperation on terror are we talking about?

There is enough evidence in public domain to prove Dawood Ibrahim lives in Pakistan. He has well established business interests. Yes, India and Pakistan can cooperate with Islamabad arresting and deporting Dawood Ibrahim and Co.

India and Pakistan can jointly combat terror with Pakistan giving India coordinates of terror training facilities in PoK (India has it anyways but Pakistan can show its goodwill by cooperating), Indian Air Force fighters and special forces would be happy to get rid of those terrorists for Pakistan. If not, then what cooperation are we talking about?

61 Pakistanis died at the Wagah border. The figure of 61 will be added to the list of 4,339 Pakistani people killed in terrorist violence this year. These include 1477 civilians, 468 security force personnel and 2394 terrorists. In all 54,855 Pakistanis have been killed in terrorist violence in the past decade according to South Asia Terrorism portal.

In the past several prime ministers and governments in India chose to turn a blind eye to Pakistan sponsored terror in pursuit of peace (or Nobel prize). This time there is a government with a clear mandate. What chief minister Narendra Modi spoke from the Lalan College in Bhuj, Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed up in New Delhi.

So should there be summit level bilateral talks on the sidelines of SAARC in Kathmandu between India and Pakistan? India must talk to Pakistan if there is a clear agenda, game plan and demonstrable action by Pakistan against India centric terror.

For too long has India fallen into Pakistan’s trap – talk to empower the civilian leadership against the Army, ISI-Jihadi complex. I have for long argued both civilian and military leaderships in Pakistan have been anti-India and unless there is demonstrable action against elements hostile to India in Pakistan, talks will remain just that – talks for the sake of talking.

Peace is possible when both India and Pakistan want peace and for that it is not for India to take the initiative all the time. Let the initiative and demonstrable action against terror come from Pakistan for once.