SPY EYES

…….It’s most untrustworthy.

The 50 most-wanted fugitives list proves false

By Brig (Retd) Asif Haroon

Whenever India becomes soft and nice towards Pakistan, the change in demeanor is never without a sinister purpose. Guile, deceit and lies are in its blood. After maintaining a stubborn stance for about 14 months, India all of a sudden expressed its willingness to restart talks in February 2010 and simultaneously launched a deceptive campaign titled ‘Aman ki Asha’ to show its soft face to the world. This change of heart occurred because of US increased pressure and dramatic turn of events in Afghanistan detrimental to Indian interests. India got disturbed when Obama announced pull out date from July 2011 onwards. India got another shock when USA declared its intentions to open dialogue with Taliban and to work for a negotiated political settlement to Afghan imbroglio.

Renewal of warmth in Pak-US relations on account of its leverage in Afghan affairs vexed India. Tehran meeting between leaders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan followed by Istanbul meeting between the three leaders flabbergasted India. When London Conference attended by representatives of over 65 countries approved US plan of reintegration of Taliban, treated Pakistan with newfound respect and cold shouldered India, it panicked Indian leaders. Seeing this as a paradigm shift and not knowing how to stem the downslide, India wore the mask of friendship and stepped up its efforts to normalize relations with Pakistan and agreed to discuss all issues including Kashmir.

While so doing, India kept consolidating its position in Afghanistan and didn’t roll back its huge infrastructure of cross border terrorism installed in Afghanistan against Pakistan. It also didn’t stop constructing dams on Rivers Chenab and Jhelum despite Pakistan’s protests. Indian media and politicians missed no opportunity to embarrass Pakistan and to malign its institutions. India kept increasing its defence budget and building up its military and nuclear strength to disturb the regional balance of power. It kept up the heat on Pakistan over Mumbai attacks and blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba as the chief culprit.

India kept reminding Pakistan to hand over 20 runaway criminals allegedly hiding in Pakistan. The list of 20 most-wanted fugitives was first handed over to Pakistan soon after December 2001 terrorist attack on Indian parliament in Delhi and was again sent after Mumbai incident. Indian leaders felt displeased over improved Pak-US ties from the beginning of 2010 and made frantic efforts to again spoil their relations. It kept poisoning the ears of USA against Pakistan saying that it was the nursery of terrorism and advised Washington not to quit Afghanistan till the roots of terrorism in Pakistan were eliminated.

As the Aman ki Asha preachers were celebrating the apparent thaw in Indo-Pak relations, the incident of 02 May took place which once again rocked Pak-US tenuous relations. Instead of helping Pakistan come out of difficult situation, India exploited it by further instigating USA. It saw it as an opportunity to regain lost ground in Afghanistan, completely marginalize Pakistan as well as nail ISI and lower the image of Pak Army.

India renewed its program of Pakistan bashing by first playing up Osama Bin Laden (OBL) card by saying, ‘see we had been all long saying that Pakistan is the nursery of terrorism and it has now been proven beyond any doubt’. In order to offset the damage done on account of startling revelations that Hindu extremists and Indian military officers were involved in all the terrorist attacks in India between 1993 and 2008 which were lumped on Pakistan, its spin doctors came out with a bizarre story that some Pakistani Army officers are involved in terrorist activities in India.

The list of most-wanted fugitives was expanded from 20 to 50 and names were made public which included five serving Majors of Army. Others were Dawood Ibrahim, described as the 2^ndmost wanted terrorist after OBL, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, Ilyas Kashmiri, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Salahuddin, JKLF head Amanullah, Maualna Azhar of Jaish Muhammad, Lakhbir Singh, Paramjit Singh and several others. They are accused in carrying out 1993 bombings in Mumbai, 2001 Parliament attack in Delhi and Mumbai attacks in 2008 and allegedly hiding in Pakistan. Islamabad was pressed to hand over the fugitives for trial on terror charges. This list was handed over to Pakistan in March but was made public last week as it sought to ratchet up pressure on its neighbor in the wake of death of OBL at the hands of US Navy SEALs who was found living in Abbottabad. Ideas were floated that India could also undertake helicopter assault (s) similar to US Special Forces to get their wanted men.

Within a week of airing of this ridiculous story, India’s Home Minister had to admit that a mistake had been made. This admission was made after one of the terror suspect named in the list Wazhur Qamar was found living in Mumbai. The fabricated list was prepared by Indian Home Ministry in consultation with investigating agencies and included the name of Wazhur Qamar Khan, who was wanted for his alleged role in bombing of trains in Mumbai in 2003. But Wazhur has since been found in living in the outskirt of Mumbai where he is out on bail after being arrested by local police over his alleged role in the blast. Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai giving his interview on the ND TV News channel on 17 May acknowledged the blunder. He stated, ‘The Ministry takes responsibility for mistakenly including the name of Wazhur’. ‘We deeply regret the blunder of including his name in the most wanted list and a probe has been ordered’.

After Wazhur, another most-wanted fugitive Feroz Abdul Khan, supposed to be hiding in Pakistan has been traced in India. He lives in Thane and is currently in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail; allegedly involved in 1993 Mumbai blasts, awaiting trial. Presence of two so-called fugitives in India has put egg on the face of Indian leadership. It so perplexed and mortified that it doesn’t know how to hide its embarrassment. It is sheer incompetence or criminal negligence or speaks of its mala fide intentions.

This is not the first time that its falsehood has been exposed. After every crime it commits, India never owns it up and puts up an innocent face and blames Pakistan. It is for the first time that India hastened to tender an apology after it learnt that Wazhur was present in India. When the second fugitive Feroz was also located in India, it was left with no choice but to shamefacedly withdraw its most-wanted list since sooner than later all other wanted Indians would also be traced inside India. This imperial goof-up has laid bare India’s willful state policy of deceit and lies.

India resorts to lies and deceits as a policy to let down its neighbors but always gets away with its crimes. It had been willfully blaming ISI for 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai, terrorist act on Indian Parliament in 2001, terrorist acts in Malegaon (2006, 2008); Samjhota Train, Dargah in Ajmer Sharif, Mecca mosque in Hyderabad in 2007, Mumbai attacks in 2008 and German Bakery in Pune. Ultimately it was confessed by Hindu RSS leader Aseemanand in January 2011 that most of these terror attacks were carried out by him and Hindu extremist groups in connivance with Indian Army officers to target Indian Muslims. RAW in collusion with Mossad and CIA had made up Mumbai drama to kill investigation officer Hemant Karkare who was all set to unveil the big racket of terrorism of Hindu terrorist groups in cahoots with Indian military officers’, and also to implicate Pakistan by blaming Lashkar-e-Taiba. India needs to apologize to all its neighbors specially Pakistan which it has brutalized with impunity.