India's blame game

India is the largest democracy in the world and is claimed to be the world’s rising economic power after China, with Mumbai a leading international financial city. With a population of more than a billion India has a vast division among its people on the basis of religion, ethnicity, language, culture and territory.

The partition of India, in 1947 and the birth of Pakistan and (new) India also resulted in bloody clashes between Hindu and Muslims.

Externally, India has faced geopolitical and political issues with almost every one of its neighbours - Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. Kashmir is the biggest dispute between India and Pakistan, which has led to three wars between the two countries.

Whatever happened in Mumbai was absolute inhumane. In a 60-hour siege terrorists attacked and hijacked ten sites across India's financial capital leaving at least 160 dead including many foreigners and more than 300 people injured. Yet, this is not the first time. The Indian government and the media are labelling the incident as being India’s “9-11”, in the process forgetting the past communal riots and blasts in India where there were much larger carnages than this.

Some examples:

• in May 1984 there was the siege and clashes with Indian security forces at the Golden Temple where at least 83 Indian army personnel and 493 Sikh extremists were killed;
• some 257 were killed and more than 1,000 injured in 15 co-ordinated bomb attacks in Mumbai on March 12,1993;
• in September 2002, more than 2,000 Muslims were brutally killed and about 1,000 were severely injured in the Gujarat massacre;
• in July 2006 there was an attack on a train in Mumbai which killed more than 200 people and wounded at least 700 people; and
• there have been many clashes between Kashmiri militants and Indian security forces accounting many deaths in Kashmir during the last 60 years.

India has always been surrounded by problems both internally and externally. Time and again we see bloody communal riots in India. Not long ago Christians were targeted and churches were set on fire on the east coast of India - particularly in the states of Orissa, Karnataka and Jharkand. According to the head of a US-based Christian organisation that runs orphanages in the eastern states, extremist Hindu groups who promote the slogan of Hindutva - “to be Indian is to be Hindu” - offered inducements of money, food and alcohol to mobs to kill Christians and to destroy their homes and churches.

Like the other Muslim extremist groups the Taliban and al-Qaida, operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hindu extremists groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are also actively involved in creating violence and terrorism in India. According to reports they are also building suicide squads to attack Muslims and Christians. These groups have strong roots and are supported by heavy weight Indian parties and politicians.

Coming back to recent attacks in Mumbai: in India the law enforcement agencies can make anyone responsible for any crime with the aim of either hiding the facts or avoiding responsibility.

In February 2007, the Sumjhauta Express Train, which runs between India and Pakistan, was attacked with 80 people, mainly Pakistanis, killed. Very quickly Indian sources blamed Pakistan for the attack. After the inquiry it was disclosed that a former Indian army officer, who was the member of a Hindu extremist group, was the master planner behind the attack.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has been going through the worst kinds of terrorist attacks, almost every day, for the last seven years: Pakistan has had the most terrorist incidents in the world in the last seven years. According to the Guinness Book of World Records Pakistan has the highest number of suicide incidents - without going into the history of what are the causes and who are responsible.

There are many terrorists’ groups including al-Qaida and the Taliban operating in Pakistan. Pakistan lost its most world renowned politician, Benazir Bhutto, in a terrorist attack. The entire northern part of the country is currently under siege by the Taliban and other militant groups. Members of Pakistani forces are losing their lives almost every day in the battle against these militants. Therefore, because the name of terrorism has been so much associated with Pakistan, if any act of terror takes place in the region it can easily be linked with Pakistan or with other militant groups operating in Pakistan.

From the Joint Police Commissioner, State Ministers, Foreign Ministers to the Prime Minister, they all pointed their fingers at Pakistan. Indian leadership “summoned” the Pakistan head of state to send the Chief of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan to India. The Indian intelligence and law enforcement agencies claimed that the culprits, along with their heavy ammunition, entered Mumbai by boat from Karachi a week before the attacks. They belonged to Pakistan’s based militant group “Lashkar-e-Taiba” which had already been banned in Pakistan in 2002. India media has also exaggerated the blame game made by Indian politicians and government.

One cannot ignore the possibility of the hand of one or more of these militant groups who are active in Pakistan including the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba. First, even if Indian sources were finding some leads across the border, the Indian government and its politicians should have behaved in a responsible manner in order to keep the peace and stability between the two nations. These are the incidents where the real intentions of governments and politicians can be tested. Second, it should be noted that Lashkar-e-Taiba has already been banned in Pakistan. Pakistani forces are already fighting against members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Taliban, al-Qaida and other extremists groups.

Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mohammed Qureshi was already in India having meetings with Indian counterparts and the head of state on various issues of mutual interest when the Mumbai incident happened. Talking to the media in India, Mr Qureshi very strongly condemned the attacks. Similarly the Pakistani Prime Minster, Yousuf Raza Gilani, and the President, Asif Ali Zardari, also contacted the Indian counterparts, condemned the incidents and offered their full support - including assurance to punish any culprits linked to Pakistan who may be involved.

In his recent interview to the Financial Times, the Pakistani President said that even if the militants were linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think Pakistan was fighting against? He asked whose country it was that was battling al-Qaida and the Taliban militants on its shared border with Afghanistan. President Zardari warned that provocation by these rogues would pose the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

Most of the international powers including UK and USA acknowledged the response of the Pakistani government. They also offered their support to co-operate with the Indian authorities in order to find those responsible.

In this situation, India must avoid the blame game and instead develop long-term relations with its neighbours by resolving all pending issues - especially with Pakistan. Recently, people from different walks of life have started to build-up bilateral relations especially in trade, sports, media and art. Even at state levels both countries were signing agreements for opening more diplomatic channels aimed at building relations in different areas.

India must not sabotage these efforts to build relations by acting antagonistically. Similarly, India has to work at strengthening its homeland security by banning extremist organisations and groups, combating local terrorism and violence, and providing security and justice to the minorities.