JK News Today commentary

After the July 26 speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Kargil war memorial in Drass in which he cautioned Pakistan against any misadventure for that would result in a crushing response for the sponsors of terrorism across the border, Pakistan has embarked on a narrative of innocence and started blaming India for making chances of peace in the region bleak. There cannot be anything more fa5ther from truth as Pakistan , its foreign office, and media have joined hands in counting the details how India has been “ obdurate” in not re-opening dialogue with Islamabad .
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that Pakistan was “ trying to stay relevant through terrorism and proxy war,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office took umbrage to the speech and warned “Pakistan stood resolute in its intent and ability to safeguard its sovereignty against any aggression, as exemplified by its robust response to India’s reckless incursion in February 2019” when Indian air force conducted as aerial strike in Balakot in Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

This assertion by Pakistani Foreign office , in which it also accused the Indian leaders of resorting to “ rhetorical statements full of jingoism” , and its reference to Indian aerial strikes in Balakot in February 2019 , in itself is a reflection of the terror campaign that Pakistan has been carrying out in Jammu and Kashmir. The Balakot strikes were conducted in retaliation to the Pulwama error attack, orchestrated by Pakistani terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad at the behest of Pakistani establishment on February 14, 2019 , left 40 CRPF personnel dead. Had there been no terror attack in Pulwama , the aerial strike would not have taken place .

It is a matter of record that the Modi government has changed dynamics of the response to the terror attacks, patronized by Pakistan’s military establishment ever since it took office in 2014 . The change occurred only when Pakistan responded to the Indian peace overtures with terrorism . Does Pakistan need a proof of its acts of terror in response to Modi’s serious and sincere attempts to befriend Pakistan . Within a week after he flew from Kabul to Lahore to meet his counterpart Nawaz Sharif on December 2015 seeking friendly ties, Pakistan’s ISI launched an attack on Pathankot air base on January 2, 2016 .

There is a chronology of terror attacks before and after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in May 2014 . The difference is that Modi did not sleep over on the cross-border terrorism , but took the fight straight into the land from where it originated . He was the first to order the surgical strikes at terrorist camps across the LoC in September 2016 , in response to the terror attack on the sleeping soldiers in Uri army camp a week earlier .

Now what Pakistan is doing is defending the acts of terrorism and trying to deflect attention from its internal woes . The meaning is simple that Pakistan has not learnt any lesson . Modi’s warning to Pakistan meant that it should stop acts of terror to create conditions for resumption of dialogue . That is not a condition per se , it is imperative for good relations , how can terrorism be justified and at the same time accuse India of not responding to peace overtures . Peace with India is in Pakistan’s interest as it would help it addressing its internal problems which have multiplied over the years . At the moment, Pakistan is at a brink , only peace with India can help it to retreat from brink, and for that simple thing it needs to do is to stop cross-border terrorism into J&K.