Doing it wrong is what US does right

By Ghalib Sultan
ZoneAsia-Pk 

So the Sisyphean manhunt for the perpetrators of 9/11 continues. After a decade of blood letting the chosen white people, United States of Paranoia still needs Patsies it can announce exorbitant bounties for and in the process air out the world’s worst kept secret: even after more than a decade of fighting the wildly ‘successful’ War on Terror they still don’t know what they are doing.

Hafiz Saeed, head of right wing religious group Jamat ud Dawah whose militant faction Lashkar-e-Taiba was accused of master minding the 26/11 Mumbai Attacks in India; woke up on Tuesday to TV channels abuzz with news of how much money he is worth. Ten million dollars offered by the US to anyone who can deliver Saeed dead or alive to the US authorities. This new declaration of love for everything Pakistan was made by US Undersecretary Wendy Sherman in India on Monday as a show of righteous indignation for why Pakistani authorities have all this time failed to convict Saeed and bring him to justice.

This announcement had an effect that the most imbecile of Pakistanis could have predicted: it turned the wanted man into a media darling, sky rocketing his popularity ratings and turning him into everyone’s favorite playmate of the year. After twelve years either the US is still in denial and believes that Pakistanis will gladly rise to the occasion and call their favorite Uncle Sam to deliver the rogue miscreant to or this announcement of head-money serves a different purpose.

This new development takes place the same month Zardari is supposed to travel to India for the first time after 26/11. The timing is unlikely to be fortuitous but the message left shining on the wall reads: ‘we’re with those guys now’.

If Hafiz Saeed was the bone of contention all along, America should have learned that bounty or no bounty the best way to capture wanted men in Pakistan is via stealth operations only. A man like Hafiz Saeed whose organization is purportedly widely buttressed by the infamous ISI itself and hasn’t been convicted in any court in this country, clearly enjoys high level support. This is something Indian analysts came out to discuss as well, shaking heads over the fact that of course announcing a bounty won’t make aspiring Pakistani assassins don ninja suits to capture a man who lives in Johar Town, Lahore and is seen holding large public rallies to discuss the latest ways of dressing mutton aka India.

Saeed argued that the US hasn’t announced the bounty because six US citizens died in the Mumbai Attacks (let’s face it US soldiers who die in action don’t fetch even close to a million dollars) but because he has been holding mass rallies against reopening the NATO Supply Route. This might sound more plausible given the current ferocity with which DPC and other right wing parties have been making threats about not being afraid to ‘spill blood’ if the routes re-open. Furthermore the opposition and government have both refused to own the decision to reopen those routes ending in a stalemate.

And yet turning up its nose at Pakistan and sidling to India just when Pakistan has found a novel way to assert its national sovereignty isn’t going to help matters for the US. If announcement of bounty on a man who roams freely and is not afraid to sneer at the US and challenge it to take him to court, only foments anti US sentiment, then the US possibly cannot hope to aspire towards a future relationship with Pakistan based on ‘mutual  respect and understanding’.

Kashmiris’ inclusion in future talks must: ICG

LAHORE – The International Crisis Group (ICG) in its report on Pak-India relations in the context of Kashmir dispute has observed that even if India and Pakistan appear willing to allow more interaction across the Line of Control (LoC), any Kashmir-based dialogue will fail if they do not allow Kashmiris participation in it.

The latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, titled, ‘Steps Towards Peace: Putting Kashmiris First’, identifies the key political, social and economic needs of Kashmiris that should be addressed on both sides of the divided State.

‘The composite dialogue suspended by India after Mumbai attacks, and which led to a number of steps to normalise relations including Kashmir-specific confidence-building measures, is bound to fail without Kashmiri ownership of the CBMs and control in implementing them. And any gains will easily be reversed whenever India-Pakistan relations take a turn for the worse’, the said NGO believes.

The ICG has urged India to revive the ‘special status’ guaranteed by the Constitution and repeal all the draconian laws.
Replacing military-led counter-insurgency with accountable policing and reviving an economy devastated by violence and conflict would instil greater confidence among Kashmiris, it has further suggested. ‘Since the Mumbai attacks, tensions between the two neighbours have dampened Kashmiris hopes for political liberalisation and economic opportunity,’ says Samina Ahmed, Crisis Group’s South Asia Project Director.

‘This atmosphere of hostility is undermining the progress that had been made in softening the borders that divide the Kashmiri people’.

Despite the recent rise in militancy, clashes between separatists and security personnel and other violence, Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir is not the battlefield it was in the 1990s.
India has pledged to reduce its military presence and has made some overtures to moderate factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

On the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) side of the LOC, the ICG has proposed that Pakistan must prioritise reforms that open political debate to all shades of Kashmiri opinion, stimulate the local economy and end AJK’s over-dependence on the Centre.

While Pakistan’s elected civilian leadership has expressed a desire for improved bilateral relations and for resuming the composite dialogue, it must ensure that Jihadis, still allegedly backed by the military, can no longer disrupt the regional peace. Another Mumbai-like attack would have a devastating impact on bilateral relations and could conceivably bring the nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink of war, it added.

‘Even if India is persuaded to resume the composite dialogue, it is unrealistic to expect a solution to the Kashmir dispute in the near future’, says Robert Templer, Crisis Group’s Asia Programme Director. ‘Both India and Pakistan should focus on creating a favourable environment for cooperation’.