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| Edited By: |Source: DNA |Updated: Aug 06, 2015, 10:40 AM IST
Former Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director Tariq Khosa’s August 3 column in the Dawn newspaper published from Karachi has caused a flutter in India, and Khosa is trending on the Indian social media. Is all this excitement justified? Does Khosa’s article nail Pakistan’s involvement in the November 26, 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai? To understand the essence of what Khosa has said we need to read the content in the context of the ongoing discourse in the ruling establishments of both countries. It may be argued that the article consists of a typical ex-bureaucrat’s reflections, with a lot of interesting facts, obvious truths and platitudes thrown in.
Khosa says that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani national and that the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were trained at Thatta in Sind. These are not startling revelations in themselves. It needs to be remembered that a trial is currently underway in Pakistan against the alleged conspirators of the November 26 operation, including Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
However, what appears to acquire greater significance is not what Khosa has articulated in the article; rather, what he has left unsaid. Khosa has not shed any light on whether Pakistan’s intelligence agencies were aware of the training of the LeT terrorists at the Thatta camp. Similarly, neither has he said anything about the prevalence of the jihadi groups in Pakistan and how they have managed to survive right under the nose of the security establishment.
Interestingly, Khosa maintains that Pakistan should present concrete evidence to India and nail the establishment for its “botched inquiry” into the Samjhauta Express blasts; and also for extending “alleged covert support” to the insurgency in Balochistan. “They (the Indian side) too have many skeletons in their cupboards. So why fight shy? Let both India and Pakistan admit their mistakes and follies...” writes Khosa.
His intriguing reference to reports of ‘terror financing’, both in Karachi and FATA (Federal Administrated Tribal Areas) by Indian and other foreign agencies, raises several questions. Who are these foreign agencies? Is Khosa hesitating to name the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States even as he has exhibited no such hesitation in naming India?
The fact of the matter is that Khosa’s testimony lands India in a spot. Can India accept only the politically expedient part which is related to the Mumbai terror attack and neglect the other less convenient part of its own involvement in covert operations in the neighbouring country? Does this then not render the veracity of Khosa’s so-called confession both partial and partisan? Khosa is only highlighting Pakistan’s hitherto claims of Indian involvement in terrorism and insurgency inside Pakistan, something which successive governments — then under the UPA and now NDA — have refused to concede.
Recall former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attracting the displeasure of the Congress party by agreeing to discuss Pakistan’s concerns over alleged covert Indian activities in Balochistan in his meeting with his then Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Gilani at Sharm-el-Sheikh, in 2009. Not to mention that the BJP — then in opposition — had grabbed the opportunity to slam the ruling Congress. It is unlikely that the party — now in power at the Centre — is going to change tack.
Khosa is merely stating Pakistan’s official position, which is that the Indian side should own up to its own support for covert terror operations and thereby facilitate Pakistan admitting to its own culpability. Arguably, such rhetoric is a googly lobbed at the Indian side. Clearly, this does not tantamount to a confession that it is being made out to be. India’s security and intelligence sources have never admitted to carrying out covert operations in Pakistan. Indian intelligence sources will now have to pause and think before biting Khosa’s bait.
