So why is it impossible for Pakistan’s government to hand over Lashkar ideologue Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed to New Delhi when it did not hesitate to arrest Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and other al-Qaeda men for the Americans?

This difference in intensity and focus while confronting jihadi groups active against the United States in Afghanistan and India are seen as a dichotomy in Pakistan’s policy. It’s this contradiction that provides Pakistan with a strategic edge. A military escalation with India threatens to shift Pakistan’s focus from the war against Taliban, jeopardising US interests in the region. This makes a US intervention to prevent a military confrontation between India and Pakistan a guaranteed fact. But it is impossible for Pakistan’s government to go against militant groups on New Delhi’s behest. Since its creation, the Kashmir dispute has been at the core of Pakistan’s very existence. Unlike Afghanistan, Kashmir has traditionally been a major influence on Pakistan’s domestic as well as foreign policy. Though the Pakistani government launched a crackdown after the Parliament attack, it insisted that this shift did not mean it was abandoning its support to separatists in Kashmir.

Deobandi Taliban vs Salafi Lashkar

The other aspect that influences Pakistan’s policy is to do with ideological and demographic differences between the Taliban and the Lashkar. The Taliban movement in Afghanistan and Pakistan is primarily based on the Deobandi school of thought while the Lashkar is Salafi. Deobandis belong to the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence and follow Imam Abu Hanifa while the Salafis do not follow any particular Imam and consider the Quran and Hadith as their only guide. Apart from the differences in the practice of religion, while Deobandis in Pakistan seek the establishment of an Islamic State in its letter and spirit and even favour a jihad against the establishment, the Salafis do not support rebellion against the government in a Muslim country and rather advocate reform to turn the ruling elite into “Muslims at heart”. This Salafi non-confrontationist approach towards Pakistan’s ruling elite is shaped by the teachings of Imam Ibn-e-Taymiyah—a major influence in the Salafi movement worldwide. This means that Lashkar or its parent organisation, the Markaz-e-Dawa-wal-Irshad, was never a security risk for the Pakistani state.

... contd.