New Delhi, July 17
The growing ability of Pakistan to export jihad and jihadis all over the world, not just India, is turning the heat on the Islamic nation from the international community. And there is one man whose head lies most uneasy – that of President Pervez Musharraf who finds himself between the devil and the deep sea, particularly after the July 11 terror mayhem in Mumbai and Srinagar.
Austria, one of the wealthiest countries in the world and a former European Union Chairman, has sought information from Islamabad on 13 Pakistanis that have gone missing in Austria. “Austria Today” in its July 8, 2006, report said Vienna had asked Islamabad for information on 13 “missing” Pakistanis in Austria who the Austrian government suspects have gone underground for committing terrorist acts in the country.
Last week, Mr Tom Koenigs, Special Representative of UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, said in Kabul that Pakistan was involved in the increasing terrorist violence by Taliban in the disturbed land-locked nation.
In St Petersburg, where the world’s eight most developed countries – the US, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Russia and Japan – are meeting in the G-8 summit, the summiteers have expressed their anguish at the July 11 carnage in Mumbai.
President Musharraf’s problems are set to increase further with the approaching deadline of July 31 given by former Pakistan Prime Ministers Mr Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto that they be allowed to their country or else they would begin mass agitations.
Gen Musharraf, who also continues to be the Chief of Army Staff since the bloodless coup of October 12, 1999, finds no takers for his offer of helping in the July 11 terror incidents in India.
The sense of the international diplomatic community here is that it is Gen Musharraf has more stakes in the continuance of the peace process with India than the Indian leadership. Dozens of important confidence building measures (CBMs) are in place between the two countries since February 2004 which neither India nor Pakistan can afford to reverse.
However, the stakes are higher for Gen Musharraf as his unicentric focus on Kashmir has failed to win any concession from New Delhi. On the other hand, several bus and train routes that opened up across the Line of Control and the international border between the two countries in the past two years have made Gen Musharraf vulnerable to criticism at home that he has yielded more rather than extracting any leverage from New Delhi.
This correspondent understands that the Government of India will not take any unilateral decision of reversing the CBMs that are in place, nor would it bury the peace process forever. New Delhi is waiting for a unified, rather than segmented, approach from the international community to put pressure on the government of Pakistan to deliver on its January 6, 2004, promises that it would not allow any part of its territory or territory under its control to foment terrorism against India.
