Pakistan-India tensions: SCO may play its role as per charter

On 14th February 2019, a car bomb blast killed over 40 paramilitary troops in the Indian occupied Kashmir. Just hours after, the Indian government and media blamed Pakistan without even carrying out the preliminary investigations. Indian Prime Minister vowed revenge and threatened to launch a war on Pakistan. The Indian media complemented the leadership’s stance and fueled war-hysteria and anti-Pakistan sentiments.

First of all, let’s do a fact check on the Indian allegations. The accused suicide bomber Mr. Dar is a native Kashmiri and was under the custody of the Indian Army since 2017. Another accused, the master-mind named Ghazi Rasheed was given wide coverage on the Indian media, to the surprise of most Pakistanis, Ghazi Rasheed was killed in 2007 in Islamabad. The car used in this incident was a made in India Car, the explosives used were Indian explosives. Furthermore, the incident happened deep inside Indian occupied territory (around 150 KM) from the line of control. There are multi-layered defensive forces and crossing all of that is deemed impossible by military experts. Kashmir is a heavily militarized zone with around 900,000 Indian forces having special powers to detain and prosecute locals.

Unfortunately, India has a habit of blaming and coercing Pakistan for its failures to over-come domestic issues. The ruling party of Modi saw defeat in 5 states and can see an eminent political end of his career. India in past instances has also played the blame-game on Pakistan to undermine Pakistan’s achievements on crucial times. Few are given below:

In Dec 2001 ─ the Indian parliament attack ─ India was supposed to have general elections and the presidential election in 2002, the United Nations General Assembly was in session. It was around this time that an influx of terrorists began on Pakistan's western border following 9/11.

When the Mumbai attack took place, Pakistan’s progress in the war on terror was quite good and at this time too, there were to be general elections in India from February to December.

On Jan 2, 2016, Pathankot happened. The President of the United States' State of the Union address was due. India was to see state elections and there were foreign secretary-level talks scheduled between India and Pakistan. That was scuttled.

The Uri incident happened on Sept 18, 2016, when our prime minister was set to go to the UNGA to deliver a speech.

So these patterns show that whenever India is facing domestic issues or in Pakistan, there is some important event due, some man-made artificial staged action of this sort takes place. In fact, Indian politics is so complicated and full of many complex domestic issues that whenever Government of India fails to resolve a domestic issue, they engineer such incidents to divert public opinion.

Especially this time when the Pulwama Attack happened, there were eight significant events to take place either in Pakistan or involving Pakistan in the period of Feb-March 2019:

•          Saudi Crown Prince's visit and investment conference

•          Discussion on United Nations Security Council terror listing

•          Afghan peace talks

•          European Union discussion on occupied Kashmir

•          Hearing of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav's case at the International Court of Justice

•          Discussion on FATF report

•          Meeting between Pakistan, Indian officials on Kartarpur Corridor developments

•          Pakistan Super League matches to be played in Pakistan

Indian Reaction Condemned

India’s over-reaction was widely condemned by the International community. As India intensified crackdown in the occupied Kashmir, targeting of Kashmiri students in all parts of India, arrest, and abuses of Kashmiris inside Kashmir and other parts of India has increased drastically. India has taken a number of unilateral steps aiming at punishing Pakistan like imposing of duties up to 200% on imports from Pakistan, cancelation of sports activities with Pakistan, reduction of diplomatic relations, refusal of all planned visits of cultural exchange programs and non-issuance of visa to Pakistani Olympians for sports events. India has mobilized 10,000 fresh troops to the Kashmir Valley which would unleash a new wave of state-backed terror in the valley. The mobilization of troops on Pakistani border and many similar offensive postures are detrimental to peace and stability in the region. All such action are immature, unilateral, and the result of India’s own failure on the domestic front. Indian air force violated Line of Control (temporary border) and dropped payload 4-5 KMs inside Pakistani territory. Which is an act of war and violations of UN Charter.

India is trying to impose a war on Pakistan. But Pakistan is observing patience and refrain from escalation into full-scale war. India perceives its supremacy and consider Pakistan’s defeat. While, Pakistan suffered almost four decades due to war and instability in Afghanistan. We were victim of the Afghan War and suffered a lot. We know the actual consequences of war. It should be understood that both, Pakistan and India are nuclear states. If India launched a war on Pakistan, Pakistan may use all possible options to defend itself. This would be a disaster for Pakistan, India and even the whole region. This part of the world is heavily populated and humanity may suffer a big loss.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s reaction was very much logical and rational. Prime Minister of Pakistan, asked the Indian Government to provide actionable-evidence, so that Pakistan may assist India in the investigation. If anyone is found guilty from Pakistan, he will take immediate action. Pakistan offered Indian side for the table to resolve all outstanding issues between the two nuclear states, including Kashmir.

Pakistan and India are members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). SCO may play its role as per SCO Charter to defuse tension between India and Pakistan. China and Russia are very important countries and can influence India to opt for resolution of all issues diplomatically through peaceful dialogue. Hope SCO, proactively approach War-Crazy India and convince them for peace. However, it is our obligation to defend our country and we have the capacity to respond to Indian aggression positively.