After a short pause, the wave of terrorism has hit the city of Lahore again. In an unfortunate bomb blast in the old Anarkali Food Street, 5 innocent citizens lost their lives. This is not the first incident of its kind where the innocent civilians were killed by the callous terrorists. Before it, they have also targeted the polio workers and foreign tourists in the country. Soon after the Lahore blast, A TV channel, courageously, aired the news regarding the reports of alleged involvement of Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies, the RAW and the NDS, in the terrorist activities in Pakistan. In fact, the conspiracies theories about the obnoxious nexus of three intelligence agencies, the RAW, the Mossad and the CIA, formed to destabilise Pakistan are not new. However, it is for the first time that the Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, The Directorate of National Security (NDS) has been openly blamed and alleged by Pakistan.
Theses conspiracies theories have also been substantiated by the evidence collected and claimed by some investigating agencies in Pakistan on various occasions. In fact, the pattern of recent Lahore blast targeting innocent civilians at a public place reminded everyone of the terrorists activities in our country continued during the 80’s and 90’s when we used to blame India’s intelligence agency, the RAW.
The new ‘love affair’ between India and Afghanistan is an open secret in fact; India is the largest regional aid provider to Afghanistan at present. It has played an important role in the reconstruction of the post Taliban Afghanistan. In this regard, India’s major strategy has been to build up transportation links that bypass Pakistan so as to reduce the Afghanistan’s economic dependence on it. Likewise, India also proposed Afghanistan’s membership in the SAARC in 2005. In October 2011, India signed a strategic pact with Afghanistan by which it undertook to train the Afghan security personnel. Together with the US department of Homeland Security, it is also the architect and trainer of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the NDS.
Pakistan has objected and raised its concerns about the numerous Indian consulates being operated across the Afghanistan providing breeding grounds for terrorism inside Pakistan. In this perspective, the possible collusion between the NDS and RAW against Pakistan cannot be ruled out. After being elected as PM, Mr Nawaz Sharif extended an olive branch to India, regrettably, that gesture has not been reciprocated by India; instead, we witnessed a storm of violence hitting many cities.
Now, Pakistan has to formulate a comprehensive anti-terrorism strategy keeping in view the present regional perspective and possible future scenario to be developed after NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014.
MOHSIN RAZA MALIK,
Lahore, July 9.