Terror menace: a joint challenge

TIME is a luxury that neither side has. And yet, in the face of the gathering terror storm that could irrevocably alter the domestic landscape of at least two countries in South Asia, impact directly on a crucial bridge-building exercise between two others and sweep political lightweights who do not have the stomach to face such challenges off the field, the India-Pakistan peace process remains an ungainly behemoth.

Lumbering giants who stumble from one questionable interaction to another, without homing in on the one issue that should fuse them together - tackling the terror machine that is aimed as much at Delhi as it is at Islamabad, tied in willy-nilly to the United States' war on terror - and the other countries within range of the terrorists' pernicious, widening area of influence - Afghanistan, China and Iran. The meeting of India and Pakistani officials last week, the first parley under the aegis of the new joint anti-terror mechanism has been hailed. Not for what it achieved on the day - an exchange of dossiers amid calculated leaks to discredit evidence and apportion blame. But because they met at all, under a device that was conceived as a legitimate cover to resume talks, abruptly broken off after train blasts in India's commercial capital Mumbai were blamed on Pakistan's intelligence agencies. Hailed not for what it is, but for what it could be.

On the day, India submitted a sketch of a man that a Pakistani eye-witness placed on the Samjautha Express hours before the bombs that killed 68 of his countrymen a fortnight ago, and another sketch of a face and body reconstructed after the carnage of Mumbai's commuters last July. The unstated implication - terror attacks emanate from across the border. Pakistan handed over details of what they believe shows Indian complicity in the Balochistan insurgency. The implication? India is actively trying to destabilise Pakistan by fomenting trouble, in league with neighbouring Afghanistan.

In essence then, this first meeting, the precursor to others, followed the prickly, predictable patterns of the recent past. Few remember its earliest avatar during the time of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi when he received details from the Benazir Bhutto administration of the Sikh insurgency. An act that Bhutto was to pay for dearly by an unforgiving state apparatus as India crushed the militancy. As a payback it was allowed to shift gears north to Kashmir.

Indeed, for the new mechanism to be even-handed, marked by healthy give and take, truly instructive on who and what fuels the terror agenda and become more than just a forum to trade accusations, India and Pakistan must reverse over 50 years of entrenched mind-sets that have bred this misguided policy. They must commence with the premise that neither benefits from destabilising the other. It must ensure that both, state and anti-state players, nurtured on outdated precepts that see the other as the primary enemy to be bled slowly in a war of attrition, should no longer influence the levers of power.

So far, there are no examples of this miracle cure-all for South Asia's ills in a neighbourhood of failing states. Hence, the gloom. But there are signs the machismo of the past could be making room for a softer give and take.

Within hours of the Islamabad joint statement, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh swiftly denied his government was involved in the instability in Pakistan's troubled south-west and declared that the peace process was in fact making remarkable progress.

To be taken with a pinch of salt or not, informed sources say his optimism stems from the fact that Pakistan, despite its shrill public posture, privately agreed to investigate the leads provided by Delhi, and has openly given the green signal for further confidence building measures.

With the countries' foreign secretaries set for a two-day meet in Islamabad on March 13-14 to set the tough agenda for the fourth round of bilaterals, there's an added urgency for finessing the message that must go out to sceptics.

Pakistan wants Sir Creek and Siachen settled to show movement on the peace process. India seeks evidence the infrastructure of terror is dismantled before it concedes. The possible moment of truth could come when the anti-terror mechanism sees India bring up the Kashmir nexus.

For the broader region, there is growing concern over terror's many mutations - an East Turkistan Islamic Movement in China's Xinjiang, the Jundullah Al Jihad-Balochistan Liberation Army ranged against Pakistan's forces in Waziristan and Balochistan, the Lashkars who want to weaken India's economy by attacks on its polity, the resurgent Taliban who wreak havoc on the US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan, and the recent phenomenon - hit and runs into Iran's Sistan-Balochistan from Pakistan.

The widening arc of terror is both a test and a challenge. It is only when India and Pakistan tackle the hydra-headed monster jointly that their commitment to the peace process will be transparent to all. Gulf News