It was inevitable that Pakistan would step up its attacks on India in the wake of the violent protests in the Kashmir Valley following the encounter in which the terrorist leader Burhan Wani, the “poster boy” of the revived effort to stoke fresh militancy, was killed last week. But the sharp tone of the language officially exchanged between India and Pakistan can leave little doubt that the chill between the two countries will continue in the foreseeable future. Prime Minister Modi pushed his luck last December when he arrived in Lahore to greet Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif on the latter’s birthday.
But the incipient bonhomie was jolted early with the Pakistani assault on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in early January, clearly indicating that Mr Modi had hoped that gestures would do it and had laid no firm basis for moving in the direction of normalising ties with Islamabad. It is clear that the Pakistan military will throw everything into reviving the “Kashmir jihad.” On his return from London following his recent heart surgery, the Pakistan PM — like his foreign office days earlier — called the slain militant a “Kashmiri leader”. Mr Sharif also asked India to fulfil its human rights obligations and commitments under UN Security Council resolutions. India hit back on Monday without naming Mr Sharif and said Pakistani statements showed that the country was using “terrorism as state policy”.
It is noteworthy that the escalating sharpness in tone comes at a time when the Pakistan government and the extremist outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba leader Hafiz Sayeed appear to be operating in tandem on the Kashmir issue, with the latter threatening that Burhan Wani’s death “will strengthen jihad in Kashmir”. Protests in the Valley show few signs of ebbing with the rising toll of those killed in retaliatory firing by the police and the CRPF. Hundreds have been injured, including the security forces.
It is unfortunate that in this extremely volatile situation, even as Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is seeking to make appropriate political statements in a bid to take all concerned on board, irresponsible outfits like the VHP are playing into the hands of the Kashmiri extremists and Pakistani agents provocateur by seeking to paint the recent Kashmir developments in lurid communal colours. If the BJP government at the Centre is not seen to be putting an end to this swiftly, it will find the room for political manoeuvre in Kashmir shrinking further. Ms Mufti is as much on test as the Modi government.
