Pakistan and Terrorism: Motivation of the Poet

Was Pakistan complicit in the Massacres of Mumbai last month? India is saying they were, and has presented "evidence" of this to representatives of Germany and the US. If the Indians are correct, this should be acted on swiftly. If they are being paranoid, the Indians are to be forgiven; Pakistan has never been a friend to India. In fact, history shows without ambiguity that Pakistan has always been an enemy of India and of the Indian people. There has been tension - hatred - between India and Pakistan for 41 years. In 1947, Pakistan became a nation when it was split off away from India when its the British colonial rulers drew a line on a map that fateful August 14. Pakistan was created for the sole purpose of giving Muslim Indians a nation of their own, an idea that gained steam in 1930 when poet Allama Iqbal pushed the notion of a separate country for Muslims. The motivation of the poet, and of all those who bought into his idea, was driven by religious intolerance of their non-Muslim fellow Indians. (Imagine a push in the US by a religious group to split New England away as a new nation just for them.) We could go back even farther in history, to the year 711 A.D., when the first Islamist invasion of India occurred. (In the same year, Islamists were invading and conquering Spain; this was hundreds of years before the first Crusades.) Since 1947, India and Pakistan have engaged in three major wars. There has been frequent skirmishing along their borders, too, most notably in Kashmir. But let's stay in the year 2008: Taking full advantage of the international community’s concern over the growing lawlessness in “ terror epicentre” Pakistan, New Delhi on Friday provided more evidence of its neighbour’s complicity in the Mumbai mayhem to the US and Germany. India also asked them to put pressure on Islamabad for dismantling the terror infrastructure on its soil. (Source: India Today Group Online) BE READY FOR NUCLEAR WAR: The head of India’s rightwing Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteers Corps) gave an ominous warning this week. According to Dawn.com, Sangh "warned that a nuclear war with Pakistan could become inevitable if peaceful means fail to rein in terrorism and voiced the chilling prospect of a Third World War breaking out, which he feels may cleanse the world of evil." Pakistan has deep internal problems, India aside. Engaged reluctantly in the War on Terror, with Afghanistan right next door, wild tribal areas that are uncontrollable, and tensions between fundamentalists and an educated, religiously moderate middle class, Pakistan's leaders have plenty of distractions. Nevertheless, Pakistan's ruling class needs to grapple with the fact the hard core militant Islamists who want to destroy India would also like to destroy Pakistan. To the Islamists, borders mean nothing, and the government of Pakistan is hated by the Islamist militants as much as is India. To make anything short of an all out effort to hunt down and destroy them within their own borders is a slow road to national suicide. The fact that Pakistani army’s ties to Islamists is under scrutiny is a good step, but should have happened years ago, with full fledged purges effectively cleaning them out of the military ranks. Pakistan must cooperate firmly and fully with India in moving against groups such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Tabai, if for no other reason than self-preservation. RELATED: RSS chief says India should be ready for nuclear war India, Pak standoff will intensify if no Pakistani is handed over Pak hasn't followed up on any proof: Pranab Pak has to act forcefully: US ‘Clear proof of Pak role in Mumbai blasts UN says Pakistan charity front for terrorist group Indonesia calls for united action to fight terrorism Pakistan's Post-Mumbai Clampdown Targets Islamists Pak detains over 30 JuD men; seals 65 of its offices