By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Former Director General of Information Systems, Indian Army

The Hindi idiom 'Gadhe ko Dho Dho Kar Ghora Nahin Banaya Ja Sakta' (a donkey can't be turned into a horse through repeated washes) fits very aptly to the Pakistani military sponsoring terror. In follow up to the Ufa talks, India had proposed the India-Pakistan NSA level talks on 23-24 August. Pakistan resorted to repeated border violations while taking 22 days to respond to the Indian proposal. Then was the news from Pakistan that Nawaz Sharif was conferring with his army chief as a prelude to the NSA level talks. That the latter uniformed Sharif would have conferred with his ISI chief and protégé like Hafiz Saeed too is obvious. It became apparent that army chief Raheel Sharif wanted Nawaz Sharif to reverse what had been agreed to between India and Pakistan at Ufa in Russia. This was re-confirmation that Pakistan has façade democracy with the army chief controlling the country including the foreign and defence policies.

With new-found confidence because of the China-Pak Economic Corridor and free run in Afghanistan because of US withdrawal, Pakistani military feels no need to cover its action under the subterfuge of "some rogue elements" any more. So as a prelude to the NSA level talks came heavy firing across the border in J&K killing innocent civilians, the Gurdaspur terror attack, increased infiltration and periodic violence in J&K through radical links and Mohammed Javed, Pakistani terrorist caught in Udhampur. J&K. Subjected to lie detector test, Javed admitted he was from Muzaffrabad, was given terrorist training in a batch of 50 and infiltrated into India along with three others. Pakistani response was Javed was not on their population list. When six civilians died in Pakistani shelling, Abdul Basit, Pakistani High Commissioner was summoned but he unashamedly responded that it will have to be seen who is at fault. Pakistan has been undertaking heavy shelling south of Pir Panjal aimed at forcing Muslims in the region to gravitate towards the terrorism in Srinagar Valley. Then was the invite for Hurriyat hardliners to meet the visiting Pakistani NSA at the Pakistani Embassy in New Delhi. The message from Pakistan is clear — they will keep upping the ante in a bid to grab J&K. But then was the bombshell from the India side of the dossier on Dawood Ibrahim hiding in Pakistan with a news channel also speaking to Mehjabeen, Dawood's wife on telephone. Surprising Pakistan did not call sheltering Dawood to established procedure" having hidden Osama and Mullah Omar for years. While India instituted measures that the Hurriyat hardliners do not meet Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan kept saying that this was "established procedure".

The fact is that weak policies of the Congress regime had given Hurriyat hardliners undue prominence. Not only do they represent miniscule population of J&K but are feeding on ISI funds, and breeding radicalism and anti-India sentiments in Kashmir Valley. Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been spewing venom against India on his website. Israel recently passed a law that the offence of stone throwing will be liable to 20 years in prison. It is about time that India puts these ISI protégés in place and cut out their media cover, reducing them to nonentities. Any action by them or instigating by them like waiving of Pakistani and ISIS flags should be dealt with promptly — directly or indirectly. The Ufa understanding on the talks, read out jointly by the two Foreign Secretaries, was very clear: the NSAs were to meet to discuss all issues connected to terrorism. This was the only agenda set for them by the two Prime Ministers. Caught in a tight spot with mounting evidence of sponsoring terror, Pakistan took cover about insisting to meet Hurriyat hardliners, that they wanted to discuss Kashmir and that they had a dossier on India helping insurgencies in Pakistan. The latter insinuation rang hollow with the US telling Pakistan she was two-timing on terror, had produced no evidence of India's involvement in any terrorist activity in Pakistan and that Pakistan should get serious on cracking down on terrorism and radicalization or US financial aid would dry up.

In any case, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj responded that while Sartaj Aziz was taking of some dossier, India had live evidence. As for discussing Kashmir, this was to be discussed at Foreign Secretary level, not at NSA level. Caught in its own web of terror, Pakistan avoided further expose by cancelling the NSA talks. It is unlikely that Pakistan, or rather the Pakistani military can mend its ways. Hardening of the US stance is well on the cards with pullout from Afghanistan, while Ashraf Ghani has already charged Pakistan for two-timing his country. There is every possibility that the Pakistani military will lease out more areas to China, as has been done in case of Gilgit-Baltistan, which in any case is India Territory.