If a stick is waved before a dog, the dog attacks thestick. If waved before a lion, the lion attacks the man wielding the stick. Do we facetruth about terrorism like dogs or lions? The terrorist is the stick. Pakistan is the handholding the stick. But which head controls the hand? Consider a few questions.
Media perception accords ISI enormous reach. Its activities spread from South Asia andCentral Asia to Chechnya. The ISI chief collaborated with Nawaz Sharif in sackingMusharraf. But he himself could not anticipate the counter coup staged by ISI andMusharraf.
So who really controls ISI?
In 1980, America, China and Pakistan together set up the mujahideen in Afghanistan tofight the Soviets. In 1985, 300 Chinese military officers trained the mujahideen. Chinaallowed Uighur Muslims from Xinjiang province to join them. After the Soviet collapse, theUS lost control. Witness Osama bin Laden. The Pakistanis nervously view the mujahideeninside Pakistan.
So today, does China mainly control the Islamist terrorists?
There is talk about China's problem with Islamist militants in Xinjiang. But nofirst-hand proof of that has ever surfaced. Instead Osama bin Laden repeatedly namesAmerica, Russia and India as his three global enemies. He doesn't name China.
If Islamist fundamentalists were really operating in Xinjiang, wouldn't Laden havealso named China?
In 1998, America fired missiles against Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Two missiles didnot detonate. They found their way into China.
How could the missiles reach China unless there existed a nexus between the Islamistterrorists and China?
Seven Chinese military officers were in Skardu in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir monitoringsupplies to the mujahideen during the Kargil crisis. Chinese armymen crossed into theIndian side of the Line of Control during the crisis. Foreign minister Jaswant Singh toldthe press categorically that Osama bin Laden was involved in the Kargil operation.
So who really masterminded mujahideen operations at Kargil?
Jaswant Singh received first information about the recent hijacking from China. TheChinese claimed that a passenger using a laptop computer informed them.
Is this credible? But if not a passenger, who really informed the Chinese?
The questions can be multiplied. There are no satisfactory answers.
Analysts say that Indians are endangered because they have a soft state. They'rewrong. Indians are endangered because they have soft heads.