Some Pakistani editorial writers are introspecting after the Mumbai terror strikes. The News on November 28, observes: “Fingers are already being pointed towards Pakistan. We are accused of exporting terror around the world. This reality is a curse for Pakistan. Whereas we may only be a convenient scapegoat, it is not mere accident that has cast us in this damning role. Already, we are a nation regarded as the most dangerous in the world by some assessors. Foreign missions and agencies have deemed Islamabad too unsafe to station the spouses and children of staff; businessmen hesitate to come to our shores. Sportsmen now rarely visit.” Daily Times, in its editorial, touched upon the possible theory behind the attacks. “Even as India was facing the unfolding saga of Hindu terrorism whose tentacles seem to go into its armed forces, the country has been struck by another terrorist attack in Mumbai. It is significant that the terrorists have targeted British and American visitors too. Ongoing investigations into some terrorist attacks that were alternately blamed on Indian Muslims and Pakistan have shown that they were actually carried out by a Hindu terrorist network. There is no doubt that Pakistan is under attack from the same kind of ‘mujahideen’. The need is to work out cooperative strategies because all states are under threat from the scourge of terrorism. Unfortunately this is made nearly impossible by domestic political oppositions and their desire for point scoring. In India, the Mumbai attacks will give the right wing parties the stick to beat the government with.” Issuing a caveat, The Post cautions that: “The Mumbai attacks will impose fresh strains on the fraught diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan. At this critical moment, India will have to exercise maximum caution to stop the situation from spinning out of control.”
In The News, Farrukh Saleem, attributes the failure of India’s surveillance agencies to their constant glare on Pakistan-based terror outfits : “The Research and Analysis Wing of the cabinet secretariat has failed miserably. So have the Intelligence Bureau, the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Joint Intelligence Committee, the Directorate of Air Intelligence, the Directorate of Navy Intelligence, the Joint Cipher Bureau, the Directorate of Signals Intelligence and the Defence Image Processing and Analysis Centre. All of India’s intelligence agencies have failed and the most critical element in their collective failure is their overwhelming focus on Pakistan-based militant groups. So intense has been this focus that India’s home-grown militant entities have spread like wildfire all through India’s 2,973,190 sq km of land mass. Who’s behind Mumbai attacks? Is it India’s left-wing extremists, separatists or India’s home-grown Jihadi militants?”
Simultaneously, remedial measures are also being suggested for weeding out these outfits from Pakistani soil. Dawn opines: “There is need for confidence building between the two countries. But even a symbolic cut in defence spending on both sides of the border would be a welcome step, for it will herald a move towards addressing the major underlying causes of terrorism: poverty and illiteracy.” Dawn also carried Pakistan Defence Minister Ahmed Mukthar’s remarks that “Pakistan had played no role in terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
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