Sharif caught on wrong foot

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 24

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has concluded that last Sunday’s terror attack on the Army base in north Kashmir’s Uri sector in which 18 soldiers lost their lives and many more injured could be a “reaction” to the situation in Kashmir, an unmistakable reference to the ongoing disturbances in the Valley.

This statement is a self-indictment of Pakistan. In all senses of the word, “reaction” clearly states that the militants “hurt” by the Kashmir situation in which more than 80 lives have been lost had mounted the attacks. Hence, he believes that Pakistan is blameless, and “India, without waiting even for the conclusion of the attack had blamed Pakistan without any evidence.”

First of all, the question is why Nawaz Sharif did not assert this position in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, when he drew an angry imagery of the “Indian brutalities on Kashmiris peacefully protesting for their right to self-determination”. If the “intifada in Kashmir” and the attack are cause and effect, then why did Pakistani premier hide this revelation from the world body. India would have been on the back foot and the listeners would not have ignored his ill-informed bluster.

It could have been a “reaction,” but Nawaz Sharif did not tell that where from the militants originated, but by going by the conventional wisdom, he meant that they were locals and Pakistan had no hand in it. This could be a possibility, but the facts speak otherwise. The reality is that militants, who hurled grenades and showered bullets on the soldiers at the crack of dawn in the hilly Uri area, and their commanders and organisations are headquartered in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Even if the attackers were locals, again the question is who had declared Burhan Wani, a militant commander killed in July 8 encounter, as “martyr” and had observed “black day” on July 20, and who hailed him as a “young leader” of the Valley – the answer is Pakistan. The Islamabad-Rawalpindi were keen to turn the death of Burhan to their advantage and cause disturbances and violent protests in Kashmir at the time when the people were preoccupied with their normal activities, tourists were landing in hordes and the children were in schools.

How could India raise accusing fingers towards Pakistan when the operation was still in progress, Pakistan Prime Minister has asked this question which may sound very valid and in need of convincing answer. There is a template of fidayeen attacks, which are mounted by the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, both headquartered in Pakistan. If they were locals, there are so many Army camps in Kashmir, which could have been targeted. There was no need for the local militants to travel all the way to remote Uri, a border area lying adjacent to the Line of Control where, otherwise, there is no presence of militants. The template of such attacks in Poonch, Mohra, Pampore, Pathankot had all the fingerprints of Pakistan. So, why Pakistan should get edgy about it? It must learn to own its people but then there is a history that it was Nawaz Sharif’s government that had refused to take back Pakistani soldiers’ bodies during the Kargil conflict. Denial is the best weapon with Pakistan, but it doesn’t work all the time.