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COVER STORY: INDIA'S RESPONSE
Hopeful, Somewhat
America is finally listening to India But is unlikely
to abandon Pakistan. It is also wary of being embroiled in Kashmir despite
Delhi offering unprecedented support.
By Raj Chengappa and Shishir Gupta
Jaswant Singh, India's
external affairs minister, does have a way with words. The problem was
that till now the US did not pay heed to what he had to say on terrorism.
He knew that this wasn't really the time to tell his American interlocutors,
"I told you so." But Jaswant got the message across when he
talked of "India having already travelled long enough on the gloomy
road in its fight against this scourge", adding that he had warned
the US three years ago hat "terrorism covers a 360 degree azimuth".
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MORTALITY RATE:
Encounters between security personnel and militants have taken a huge
toll of lives |
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The
immediate fallout is that pakistan is likely to lie low on Kashmir
and the Indian army will push to gain the upper hand.
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Now the US is listening keenly and India is showing
a significant latitudinal shift in its response. To understand just how
much India is willing to travel, a wee bit of history is called for. During
the Gulf War in 1990 it was considered a major concession when the then
government agreed to provide refuelling facilities for American aircraft.
Now India has shed all its inhibitions and is offering to "join forces"
with America in its newly declared war against global terrorism. As a
senior official says, "It is unprecedented. The difference is going
to be as much as day versus night."
Jaswant wasn't willing to reveal what kind of
assistance it would offer. But apart from intelligence sharing, it could
involve military support and India could also be a major player in the
international alliance that the US is forging. India has always wanted
the US and the world, as Jaswant says, "not just to address the symptoms
or episodes of terrorism but to strike at the very roots of the system".
In the past the US usually shot from the hip. But now there are indications
that it is working at launching a determined, sustained and decisive battle
against terrorists and states that harbour them. As a US State Department
official says, "Once we are sure who is behind it we will strike
hard and put them permanently out of business."
Already the groundwork between the two countries
for sharing intelligence and analysis to bolster the US investigation
of the terrorist attack has begun. Interrogation reports of the jailed
Sudanese national Abdul Rauf- who the Delhi Police claim belongs to Osama
bin Laden's Al Qaida group and is responsible for planning an attack on
the US Embassy in the capital this year-and profiles of top pan-Islamic
mujahideen have been shared with the US. Indian intelligence agencies
had earlier been exchanging information with their American counterparts
after the Indo-US Joint Working Group on terrorism was set up in 2000.
But the complaint was that the Americans were not willing to give out
too much. That is changing.
Delhi's advocacy for striking at roots of pan-Islamic
jehadis was based on the fact that India figures with the US, UK and Israel
in Al Qaida's hit list. The 700-strong core group of Afghan, Pakistani
and Arab mercenaries is trained to carry out complex terrorist operations
under the tutelage of the Taliban. Intelligence inputs indicate that while
the Al Qaida group has training camps between Kandahar and Jalalabad in
Afghanistan, nurseries for spawning terrorists to undertake strikes in
places from Kashmir to Kosovo to Chechnya exist from Baluchistan in Pakistan
to Khost in Afghanistan. These jehad factories run under the patronage
of bin Laden, and the Taliban is responsible for terrorist strikes from
Mauritania in Africa to the US.
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