Despite criticism in India, New Delhi’s decision to allow a Pakistani interrogation team to visit Pathankot for gathering evidence on January 2 terrorist attack at the air base has opened up a new window of opportunity for counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries.
To allow a Pakistani team into the air base, when it includes an ISI colonel, is itself an unprecedented decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. And the willingness from Pakistan to allow a similar team from India’s National Investigating Agency (NIA) to visit Pakistan is a huge leap forward.
What transpired between the Pakistani team and the NIA during their discussion in Delhi in the last week has not been made public, but the indications that came after the meeting were quite positive. NIA chief Sharad Kumar told a news conference on April 1 that a team from India would visit Pakistan to follow up the investigation. “We expressed that a team of NIA could be sent to Pakistan for a probe since the conspiracy was hatched in that country. They welcomed the idea and the dates will be worked out later.”
The Pakistani team examined 16 witnesses including the Superintendent of Police Sulwinder Singh and his jeweler friend. It is premature to predict whether the NIA team will be given access to the four suspects arrested in Pakistan. The NIA is specifically interested in questioning Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Muhammad – the group India believes is behind the attack. It may become a bone of contention, but it is clear that New Delhi and Islamabad was not paying attention to the “usual rhetoric” in their countries.
The Congress – and even the Aam Admi Party – are criticizing the Indian government for this cooperation, but ironically, it was the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Congress that began with the idea of a joint mechanism to counter terrorism. At that time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had opposed the move. When former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf met in Havana in September 2006 to lay down a framework for it, the development was interpreted falling into “Pakistan’s trap”. BJP leader Yashwant Sinha condemned the joint statement by Singh and Musharraf as “an unprecedented capitulation of India before Pakistan on the issue of cross-border terrorism.” He added that the “resumption of the foreign secretary-level talks between the two countries in the background of increased violence from Pakistan is not acceptable to us”.
The India-Pakistan composite dialogue had been derailed in July 2006 after the train bombings in Mumbai. The two sides agreed to resume the process in Havana. They “resolved to create a joint institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations.” This marked a new beginning to tackle terrorism as a “collective threat”. It was a bold step to move beyond finger pointing through media and engage directly through an institutional framework.
The first meeting of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism (JATM) was held in March 2007, in the backdrop of the tragic Samjhota Express incident, and defined the parameters of bilateral anti-terror cooperation. This meeting defined the framework of the mechanism and agreed that specific information to be exchanged for “helping investigations on either side related to terrorist acts and prevention of violence and terror acts in the two countries”.
The second JATM meeting was held on October 22, 2007. Although both sides made accusations against each other, there was some movement forward. The third meeting was held in Islamabad on June 28, 2008, in the backdrop of the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The two teams exchanged fresh information about terrorism incidents, including the Samjhotha Express bombing, and reviewed the steps either side had taken based on the information shared in the previous meeting.
But all such initiatives broke down after the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008. Although the Congress is criticizing the inclusion of an ISI officer in the Pakistani investigation team visiting India, its government had invited the director general of ISI for a visit following the Mumbai attacks. The plan did not materialize.
But the recent cooperation between the two countries has set new standards. New Delhi and Islamabad have embarked on a new path of giving concessions to each other – from the Ufa statement which did not include Kashmir, to the recent meeting of Hurriyat leaders with Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit, which did not see any objection from Modi government. This is a positive beginning. The process must continue.
The author is a veteran journalist from Srinagar and the editor in chief of
The Rising Kashmir
To allow a Pakistani team into the air base, when it includes an ISI colonel, is itself an unprecedented decision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. And the willingness from Pakistan to allow a similar team from India’s National Investigating Agency (NIA) to visit Pakistan is a huge leap forward.
What transpired between the Pakistani team and the NIA during their discussion in Delhi in the last week has not been made public, but the indications that came after the meeting were quite positive. NIA chief Sharad Kumar told a news conference on April 1 that a team from India would visit Pakistan to follow up the investigation. “We expressed that a team of NIA could be sent to Pakistan for a probe since the conspiracy was hatched in that country. They welcomed the idea and the dates will be worked out later.”
The Pakistani team examined 16 witnesses including the Superintendent of Police Sulwinder Singh and his jeweler friend. It is premature to predict whether the NIA team will be given access to the four suspects arrested in Pakistan. The NIA is specifically interested in questioning Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Muhammad – the group India believes is behind the attack. It may become a bone of contention, but it is clear that New Delhi and Islamabad was not paying attention to the “usual rhetoric” in their countries.
The Congress – and even the Aam Admi Party – are criticizing the Indian government for this cooperation, but ironically, it was the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Congress that began with the idea of a joint mechanism to counter terrorism. At that time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had opposed the move. When former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf met in Havana in September 2006 to lay down a framework for it, the development was interpreted falling into “Pakistan’s trap”. BJP leader Yashwant Sinha condemned the joint statement by Singh and Musharraf as “an unprecedented capitulation of India before Pakistan on the issue of cross-border terrorism.” He added that the “resumption of the foreign secretary-level talks between the two countries in the background of increased violence from Pakistan is not acceptable to us”.
Congress had invited the ISI chief to visit India after the Mumbai attacks
The India-Pakistan composite dialogue had been derailed in July 2006 after the train bombings in Mumbai. The two sides agreed to resume the process in Havana. They “resolved to create a joint institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations.” This marked a new beginning to tackle terrorism as a “collective threat”. It was a bold step to move beyond finger pointing through media and engage directly through an institutional framework.
The first meeting of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism (JATM) was held in March 2007, in the backdrop of the tragic Samjhota Express incident, and defined the parameters of bilateral anti-terror cooperation. This meeting defined the framework of the mechanism and agreed that specific information to be exchanged for “helping investigations on either side related to terrorist acts and prevention of violence and terror acts in the two countries”.
The second JATM meeting was held on October 22, 2007. Although both sides made accusations against each other, there was some movement forward. The third meeting was held in Islamabad on June 28, 2008, in the backdrop of the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul. The two teams exchanged fresh information about terrorism incidents, including the Samjhotha Express bombing, and reviewed the steps either side had taken based on the information shared in the previous meeting.
But all such initiatives broke down after the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008. Although the Congress is criticizing the inclusion of an ISI officer in the Pakistani investigation team visiting India, its government had invited the director general of ISI for a visit following the Mumbai attacks. The plan did not materialize.
But the recent cooperation between the two countries has set new standards. New Delhi and Islamabad have embarked on a new path of giving concessions to each other – from the Ufa statement which did not include Kashmir, to the recent meeting of Hurriyat leaders with Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit, which did not see any objection from Modi government. This is a positive beginning. The process must continue.
The author is a veteran journalist from Srinagar and the editor in chief of
The Rising Kashmir