India’s diplomatic outreach against Pakistan terror: A crucial step forward
A file image of security forces following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. (Photo: 'X')
On April 22 armed terrorists launched a vicious assault upon innocent tourists at Pahalgam, killing 26 people and injuring many, the deadliest attack in the Kashmir Valley since the 2019 Pulwama strike, when a suicide bomber carried out a devastating explosion that resulted in the death of 40 CRPF personnel. In the Pahalgam case a terror outfit named 'The Resistance Front' has claimed responsibility, but by now it is well known that this Front is a shadow group of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group.
Therefore, it is substantiated once again that, for decades, Pakistan has been indulging in cross-border terrorism by not only harbouring terror groups, but its army and intelligence agency actually training and arming them before sending them into India-occupied Kashmir. For obvious geopolitical reasons, despite such abetment being illegal, the international community has failed to take adequate measures to bring Pakistan to book and render that nation a pariah in the eyes of the world.
It is good that the current dispensation in New Delhi has concluded that enough was enough, and a concerted and varied strategy has to be unleashed in order to expose Pakistani misdeeds once and for all. Such a strategy is complementary to Operation Sindoor, which was a military rejoinder to the Pahalgam attack, and a carefully calibrated offensive designed to eliminate terrorist camps located within Pakistan.
Although the UN has not proved to be an effective forum to address India’s grievances regarding Pakistan’s terror links, India has again placed them before it.
However, this time around India has also sent seven delegations of all-party MPs on an outreach bid to brief foreign governments on the recent India-Pakistan conflict and our nation’s stance on the issue and garner support from individual nations against Pakistan.
Interestingly, it has also taken an initiative to hit Pakistan where it hurts most – deal a critical blow to that nation’s already tottering economy! Confronting as it is an economic crisis due to its overdependence on China, and Islamic nations gradually becoming stingier in doling out aid, Pakistan has approached financing bodies like the IMF and the World Bank to help it out by providing loans.
While India could not stop the IMF’s $1 billion bailout package to Pakistan, it is bent on preventing the far bigger catch, an agreement with the World Bank to give Pakistan a loan of $20 billion in the next 10 years, to be given on issues like combating climate change and private sector development. India is determined to oppose this loan to Pakistan on the ground that the money will be used to buy weapons! India will also approach the global financial crime monitoring body FATF to include Pakistan in its ‘grey list’ so as to degrade its financial credibility before international fiscal bodies.