NEW DELHI - This week, police across India
claim to have thwarted several attempts by
terrorist outfits, most notably by the
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), to orchestrate attacks.
New Delhi has long held that one litmus
test that neighbor Pakistan has to pass for the
peace process to gain momentum is to control
militant infiltration, which peaks during summer
months when the snow on the mountains between the
countries melts.
The latest LeT arrests do
not augur too well.
Police in Mumbai claim
to have preempted an attempt to strike the ancient
Ellora Caves, a heritage site comprising Hindu,
Jain and Buddhist temples and monasteries. They
seized several AK-
47 assault rifles, 30
kilograms of explosives and 2,000 rounds of
ammunition from three LeT
suspects they arrested.
The thwarted
attack follows a pattern of recent bomb blasts at
a temple in the holy city of Varanasi (30 killed)
and at the Jama Mosque in New Delhi (13 injured)
that are apparently aimed at igniting social
tensions by polarizing society along communal
lines.
These followed the storming of the
Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, bomb
blasts (71 killed) last year in New Delhi, an
attempt to storm the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, and
innumerable strikes in Indian-administered
Kashmir. This month, in one of the worst single
attacks by Islamist militants there, 35 Hindus
were selectively killed because of their supposed
hand in helping the Indian security forces.
Police in Mumbai followed a tip-off by two
LeT members, reportedly from Pakistan and
Bangladesh, arrested in New Delhi, that also
resulted in security forces killing Abu Hamza, the
leader of a LeT breakaway group, on Monday in a
shootout in south Delhi. According to reports, the
two arrested men were planning strikes in the
communally sensitive state of Gujarat, where
Hindu-Muslim riots recently erupted in the city of
Vadodara, over the razing of a religious structure
(dargah) by municipal authorities.
In another major breakthrough this week,
police in Indian-administered Kashmir claim to
have gunned down one of the main conspirators
behind the March 7 Varanasi blasts.
The
killings and arrests throw one of the biggest
challenges to the ongoing India-Pakistan peace
process and have occurred even as Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh contemplates turning the
Siachen Glacier, the highest point of military
crossfire between India and Pakistan, into a
"peace mountain" by withdrawing troops.
Manmohan also plans a visit to Pakistan
this summer and is scheduled to hold talks with
separatist Kashmiri leaders within a few days. The
visit, according to officials, will depend on New
Delhi's assessment on infiltration levels, which
do not sound good.
In the recent past,
there have been clear signs that New Delhi is keen
to move beyond the current parameters of
establishing road and rail links, easing visa
norms, establishing diplomatic missions, playing
cricket and exchanging prisoners to deeper issues
that have continued to hinder relations with
Pakistan, apart from Kashmir.
These
include demilitarizing the Siachen Glacier and
arriving at agreements over Sir Creek (disputed
territory bordering Sindh and Gujarat) and
Baglihar Dam across the Chenab River in Jammu and
Kashmir, on which there are differences in the
design.
Reports suggest that India and
Pakistan are in the final stages of reaching an
agreement on Siachen, the world's highest
battlefield. Islamabad has for long insisted that
India withdraw the more than 4,000 troops
stationed in the inhospitable conditions, with
many soldiers dying because of the weather rather
than because of bullets. New Delhi, it seems, is
also prepared to make concessions on Baglihar and
Sir Creek.
However, the specter of the LeT
cannot be ignored. Known to be violently
anti-Shi'ite, it has a history of orchestrating
attacks in India. Some of the bold attacks include
an attempt to storm the Indian parliament in
December 2001, which triggered a military standoff
with Pakistan and brought the neighbors close to a
fourth war. India also holds the LeT responsible
for killing 37 and injuring more than 80 Hindu
devotees assembled for prayer at the Akshardham
Temple in September 2002 in Gujarat.
Recently, Defense Minister Pranab
Mukherjee claimed that 59 terrorist training camps
were still active in Pakistan. "Pakistan should
demolish the terror infrastructure and send a
strong message to militants that they no longer
enjoy the Pakistani establishment's support.
Al-Qaeda is a threat to India," Mukherjee said.
"It does not matter whether they [militants] are
in the neighborhood or in the region."
The
situation is now delicately poised. The challenge
before the Manmohan Singh government is to ensure
that the latest violence does not result in a
security overdrive, of the kind that has alienated
the people of Kashmir in the past. More than
500,000 Indian troops out of an army of 1.13
million are deployed in Jammu and Kashmir.
Several indications show that people in
the terror-ravaged state want peace and look
forward to earning their livelihoods, especially
through tourism, which has been badly hit by
terrorist violence.
Last year, Kashmiris
braved the fear of bullets and biting cold for an
opportunity to have a say in municipal elections,
the first in 25 years. Assembly elections held in
2002 are widely seen as having been free and fair.
New Delhi is also implementing a US$5 billion
development package for Indian-administered
Kashmir that Manmohan announced in November 2004.
However, New Delhi knows that an enduring
solution in Kashmir is only possible by engaging
Pakistan. While India blames Pakistan as the root
of militancy, New Delhi has been trying to stick
by the principle it has set itself of divesting
terrorism from peace talks, as the only long-term
solution.
The thinking is to encourage
people-to-people interaction that covers
territories and issues beyond Kashmir. While
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf has
talked about self-governance and demilitarizing
Kashmir, the efforts of the Indian establishment
aim to move ahead on other spheres that are not as
tricky and intractable. New Delhi has already
rejected proposals on joint management (with
Pakistan) and demilitarization of
Indian-administered Kashmir.
Recently, for
the first time in more than four decades, a Hindi
movie has been commercially released in Pakistan.
Mughal-e-Azam (an all-time great Bollywood
film) premiered in Lahore, and was followed by a
more recent love story woven around the Taj Mahal.
Indeed, there is a growing constituency
for peace in both the countries. Trade between
India and Pakistan has almost doubled, to cross
the US$1 billion mark this year. A study by the
Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of
India has said that if peace talks between the two
countries held, two-way trade could reach $10
billion within five years.
There is no
doubt that India's patience is being tested, but
it has to see this difficult time through and
stick to its agenda.
Siddharth
Srivastava is a New Delhi-based
journalist.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
about sales, syndication and republishing
.)
