TIME TO DESIGNATE ISI AS A GLOBAL TERRORIST GROUP
Former dictator Pervez Musharraf recently said that, in his time, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies used terrorist outfits to carry out bomb blasts in India, and the Jaish-e-mohammad (JEM) was one of them. He knew, but did not stop them. The JEM was working for the Pakistani intelligence then, essentially Inter-services Intelligence (ISI), and does so now, along with other terror outfits such as the Lashkar-e-taiba, which have carried out attacks in India, and the Haqqani Network, which has targeted Afghanistan and the Us-led international forces there. It may even have had a role in the Pulwama attack, either directly by helping it plan or facilitate, or indirectly, by being generally supportive of the JEM and others.
The ISI is the parent terrorist organisation, a mother lode that feeds them, keeps them in business and uses them to disrupt peace initiatives and regional stability. But the time may have come to hold it accountable, designate it as a global terrorist organisation as its proxies, or, at least, name, shame and sanction officials linked to these groups or individuals.
The ISI’S role in terrorism has been a matter of public record for long, affirmed and acknowledged even by Pakistanis such as Musharraf. India, the United States and other countries have known it for longer. At a US congressional hearing in 2011, Admiral Mike Mullen, then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said: “The Haqqani Network (a Pakistan-based wing of the Afghan Taliban proscribed by both the US and the UN) acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s ISI.”
India has repeatedly been the target of such groups. David Headley, the Pakistani-american who confessed his role in the Mumbai massacre, told the American and Indian prosecutors that two ISI officers — Major Ali and Major Iqbal — helped plan the attacks. And when Omar Sheikh — the PakistaniBritish terrorist, who was released with the JEM founder, Masood Azhar, in 1999 in exchange for passengers of the IC-814 flight — was being hunted for kidnapping American journalist
NE EWS OF THE WEEK
MARCH 20: A significant step in India's quest for oil was taken today. PM Mrs Gandhi released the brake to set the 500-ton giant rig in motion, signifying the commencement of the main phase of what oil explorationists call "Operation Leap Frog".