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| March 2010 Issue |
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The Lost Plot
Diplomacy without tangible military muscle is nothing more than appeasement
By Pravin Sawhney |
India’s national security appears most vulnerable at present since 1998, when New Delhi conducted nuclear tests and declared itself a nuclear weapon state, and simultaneously issued the warning to Pakistan to re-consider its aggression in Jammu and Kashmir. If anything, Pakistan has successfully fanned terrorism like hydra-tentacles across India.
While the wounds of 26/11 Mumbai attacks are fresh sans redressal, Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists have done the Poona blasts, and if intelligence reports are credible, more attacks across Indian metropolitan cities are waiting to happen. (Pakistan, since the 26 November 2003 ceasefire on the Line of Control has systematically developed and nurtured local terrorists’ sleeper cells throughout India.) Major Powers including the US have already issued advisories to its citizens to avoid visiting India close to the Commonwealth Games later this year. The situation in J&K is equally grim. Violence levels have gone up; hardened terrorists are once again fighting the Indian Army in pitched tactical battles in rural and semi-urban areas, while stone-throwing is the new strategy to keep the police and paramilitary forces on the back-foot in towns and cities.
Defence minister, A.K. Antony has confirmed that terrorists’ infrastructure (42 camps run by the Pakistan Army) remains intact across the Line of Control; every opportunity to push terrorists across the LC is being availed by the Pakistan Army-ISI combine. |
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