Uri attack: India confronts Pakistan with evidence, says stop sponsoring terror
It was time for some plain speaking as India’s Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar summoned Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit and conveyed that India has enough evidence to link Pakistani militants with the recent terror attack in Uri that killed 18 Indian soldiers.
The message was direct and sliced through duplicity and denials that have become hallmarks of Pakistan’s response in the aftermath of terror attacks in India, engineered by Pakistan-based militants, in collusion with sections of the state machinery.
The latest terrorist attack in Uri only underlines that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan remains active, India’s external affairs ministry said after the meeting between Mr Jaishankar and the Pakistani envoy in New Delhi on September 21. “We demand that Pakistan lives up to its public commitment to refrain from supporting and sponsoring terrorism against India,” said the statement. This was an unambiguous statement from India, which suggests that India’s security agencies have made a considered assessment that the attack on an Army base in Uri on September 18 was perpetrated by Pakistani militants with support from state actors.
With India providing specific evidence of complicity of Pakistani militants in recent terror attacks in the country, the ball is now in Pakistan’s court. Denials and equivocations simply won’t do, and hyped-up rhetoric, which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is set to unleash at the UNGA tonight, will not deceive anyone. It’s time for Pakistan to act and redeem its honour, in short.
US bill to designate Pakistan as a sponsor of terrorism: Boost for India’s anti-terror drive
India’s strategy of isolating Pakistan in the aftermath of the Uri terror attack has struck a powerful chord in the US. A day after US Secretary of State John Kerry chastised Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and asked him to prevent terrorists from using his country as safe havens, two American legislators introduced a legislation in the US Congress to designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The bill, H.R 6069 or the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act, calls upon the US administration to make a formal assessment on the matter within four months of its passage.
The move to brand Pakistan as a terrorist state is seen as a triumph of Indian diplomacy as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj heads to the US on a concerted drive to corner Pakistan on account of its alleged complicity in the Uri terror attack in north Kashmir, which killed 18 Indian soldiers.
The bill is seen as a huge setback for Mr Sharif as he gears up to make a speech in the UNGA, in which he is expected to highlight India’s alleged human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir.
The US’ admonition of Pakistan underscores Washington’s growing wariness with Islamabad’s systematic duplicity on terrorism, and will bolster India’s drive to isolate Pakistan in the international community.