MillenniumPost
Editorial

No point holding talks

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has written a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked him to resume formal bilateral talks between the two countries. The talks with Pakistan were suspended in the wake of Pakistani militant groups' attack on Indian Army camp in the Uri sector of Jammu & Kashmir in September 2016 in which 17 army men were killed. In response, India carried out a daring surgical strike against Pakistan eleven days after the Uri attack and claimed to have destroyed a terrorist launchpad near the international border killing nearly 50 terrorists who were waiting for an opportunity to enter India. A day before Imran Khan's letter, a BSF man was abducted after a brief spell of firing from across the border in Jammu region. Nine hours after the incident, his body was found only when the matter was taken up at the highest level between the two governments. The body was badly mutilated with the throat slit and a leg cut off. There were burn marks on the back of his body hinting that he was electrocuted. He was shot thrice. The incident unfolded when a group of four BSF men came under fire from across the border when they were clearing overgrown vegetation near the international border. It seems that one bullet had hit the BSF man while others escaped unhurt. The injured BSF man was then abducted by the Pakistani rangers and tortured. Before handing over the body, they shot him twice ensuring that the BSF man was dead. The killing of Indian soldiers in firing from the Pakistani side along the border is almost a routine affair and holding talks with Pakistani leaders at a time when they are not able to rein in their military is useless. After all, who will guarantee that the Pakistani military will comply with the outcome of the bilateral talks.

The need for holding bilateral talks between the two countries is felt more in Pakistan than in India. In response to the Pakistani military's offensive against Indian troops, India has deployed a large number of security forces in Jammu & Kashmir and they have effectively responded to Pakistan's belligerence. It would have been great if the two countries including their militaries had a cordial relationship. But when the Pakistani side responds to India's gesture for love and peace with bullets, India does not have the option to hold talks with them. The only option that India has, after decades of hostility, is to teach Pakistan a lesson that it does not forget. India has been deceived by Pakistan on many occasions, the last being the Kargil intrusion immediately after the famous bus trip to Lahore by Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999. During the two-month-long war, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf kept blaming one another for the incident. As per Sharif's account, the Pakistani Army secretly planned the intrusion in Kargil and executed it without informing the political leadership including the Prime Minister while General Musharraf maintained that Sharif was well informed about the intrusion right from the beginning. Now, one does not know who is speaking the truth and it's none of India's business either. What matters to India is the security of its borders and it was violated. The lesson that the Kargil intrusion teaches us is that Pakistan cannot be trusted; one or the other wings of the government and the military will always be at war with India. After the Kargil war was over, the Pakistani Prime Minister and Foreign Minister were seeking face-saving concessions from India. General Musharraf, who ousted Sharif in a military coup, came over to India for talks and later claimed that he was close to clinching a deal with Vajpayee on the Kashmir issue. As India's stand on Kashmir is consistent and absolutely clear that it is an integral part of the country and there can not be any compromise on the issue, Musharraf's dream of having a deal with India over Kashmir remained a dream.

Pakistan is not only a safe haven for terrorists who are killing people mercilessly in Afghanistan and India's Kashmir but also a failed state where the military controls both the political executive and the judiciary. There is little chance of Pakistan mending its ways and behave. Though the Indian government has indicated that a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries could be held on the sidelines of United Nation's General Assembly in New York later this month, there is little that India can hope to come out of this meeting. Until Pakistan ensures a complete peace along the border with India and stops sponsoring and supporting militants, there is no point in holding talks with the country.

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