Pakistan continues to be fertile for terror groups

Already 21 years have passed since the Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan and yet the latter is not ready to accept its grievous mistakes and adventurism. The honeymoon of Pakistan with terror modules continues and it has no regrets for the blood on its hands. In a shameless "tribute" to the Northern Light Infantry personnel who got killed by the valiant Indians despite heavy odds, Quamar Bajwa hailed his forces for great sacrifice. It is strange that Pakistanis, most of them at least, do not even know what happened in the icy heights of Kargil two decades ago.

Their government and the army remained tight-lipped about the conflict between the two nuclear armed neighbours. Pakistanis did not know about it at least till one of their journalists wrote a book on it. Even India was taken aback initially as is its wont.

It did not expect the heights which were so important for the Indian Army's movement in the crucial border areas would be occupied by the enemy. It thought those perched on top were jihadis as was being made out by the Pakistanis. Only later it came to know that there were jihadis no doubt, but there were also the Pakistani regulars and more in numbers. It was a ploy to divert the world's attention to the so-called Kashmir issue.

The then army chief of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, planned and executed what he thought was a brilliant operation to "bring India to its knees" and liberate Kashmir. A coterie of four generals bypassed the rest of military leadership and the civilian government and launched an assault against India. Of course, predictably, the Indian army braves and its Air Force decimated the Pakistani plans and the world too realised very soon the dangerous game plan of Pakistan. The conflict not only kicked out the occupying army from the heights but also unseated the civilian government barely a few months later. Pakistan forever lost the sympathy of the world if it had any and till date it has not recovered an iota of respect in the eyes of the world. But nothing has changed much in Pakistan despite its failure to harm India in a big way.

Pakistan continues to serve as a safe haven for certain regionally focused terrorist groups and allows groups targeting Afghanistan, including the Afghan Taliban and affiliated Haqqani network, as well as groups targeting India, including LeT and its affiliated front organisations and JeM to operate from its territory, according to the US State Department 2019 Country Report on terrorism released recently.

The report says that Pakistan only took modest steps in 2019 to counter terror financing and to restrain some India-focused militant groups following the Pulwama attack. Thus far, however, Islamabad has yet to take decisive actions against Indian and Afghanistan-focused militants who would undermine their operational capability, the report reiterated. Pakistan's progress on the most difficult aspects of its 2015 National Action Plan to counter terrorism remains unfulfilled – specifically its pledge to dismantle all terrorist organisations without delay and discrimination.