India needs to get over No Action Talk Only syndrome, will policymakers oblige?

Hafiz Saeed being set free by Pakistan is no surprise. He was, anyway, only under house arrest and provided protection. That does not mean outsiders were not allowed to meet him, he could not confer with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistani military and his coterie of radical rodents: Same as Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who as per Pakistani media, was being given the red carpet by the Pakistan military in prison before he was ‘set free’ on bail.

As Pakistani scholar Ayesha Siddiqa wrote in January after Qamar Javed Bajwa was appointed army chief and superseded his seniors—including Zubair Mahmood Hayat, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee— since November 2016 “even his (Bajwa’s) epaulette weighs heavy. With his limited maneuverability before Islamists, he’ll continue to clean his yard and pet the useful jihadis”.

Incidentally, Zubair recently alleged Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) established a $500 million fund to disrupt the China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC). That allegation was promptly trashed by China to boost Bajwa (the more useful pawn) with the ongoing tussle between Zubair and Bajwa within the Pakistani military.

Najam Sethi writing in Friday Times on 16 March, 2012, said the ISI has walked into GHQ (General Headquarters) and seized control of the armed forces, indicating a critical point in Pakistan’s political history was a harsh reality. That is as stark as Sidiqqa’s reading of Bajwa.

Interlocutors of all hues report progress in Jammu and Kashmir, but has anyone addressed what the young generation is being taught? A Class five textbook of a school—not a madrassa—in the Valley teaches non-Muslims are to be hated. And are madrassas elsewhere in the country preparing youth for jihad? Killing 190 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir this year is good, but 110 of these were foreigners as per Jammu and Kashmir DPG SP Vaid. Meanwhile, 32,000 madrassas in Pakistan are producing a million radicals annually.

It is time to stop being No Action Talk Only and take the hybrid war into enemy territory. That is, if policymakers understand what that means, and more importantly, have the guts to do so.