Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned an attack on an Indian army convoy in Manipur by ‘militants’ who are reported to have used rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons in the ambush, killing at least 20 personnel. In retaliation the Indian Army conducted a cross-border revenge attack in Myanmar, in which it killed nearly a dozen militants, thought to be involved in the massacre of 18 soldiers. There had been reports earlier that officials from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) were allegedly in touch with the top leadership of the insurgent group.
Our Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar commented on this incident that seems to have remained without any reaction or protest from Myanmar, that India should not mistake Pakistan for Myanmar. Well, that reminds one of the US invasions into Pakistan on May 2, 2011, when a dozen US Navy Seals, with helicopters, entered Pakistan from an airbase in Afghanistan, raided a compound in Abbotabad, killed Osama bin Laden and flew back to Afghanistan, without being intercepted by the Pakistan Border Control. What was that, if not an invasion like the one of India into Myanmar?
Both incidents are ample proof of two things, one, the idea of sovereignty in a growingly globalized world, that in addition is facing the threat of Islamic militant organizations, that anyway who does not recognize national borders is getting increasingly undermined and that is why cross-border military operations will occur. Unless we give sanity some room to restore peace such actions will continue and secondly, people who live in glass houses should not throw stones, otherwise they could expose themselves for being not very bright.
ALI ASHRAF KHAN,
Karachi, June 15.