A neighbour proud to sponsor terror

A neighbour proud to sponsor terror

The admission by Pakistan’s federal minister Fawad Chaudhry, made on the floor of Pakistan’s National Assembly, of the Imran Khan government’s involvement in the Pulwama attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans in February 2019 is a major development.

The significance of the statement is not just acknowledgement of Pakistan’s role in the terror strike that killed 40 Indian soldiers, proving beyond doubt that Pakistan is a State sponsor of terror, but also its reinforcement of political leaders across countries openly supporting terror activity.

On Thursday, just hours after a Muslim man beheaded awoman and killed two others in front of a church in Nice, France, the two-time former prime minister of Malaysia, 95-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, tweeted that Muslims have a right to ‘kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past’.

Mahathir subsequently sought to calm tempers by saying that he was not condoning the beheading — there were two in the recent past in France — but criticising Emmanuel Macron’s handling of the situation and comments.

Mahathir’s explanation and that proffered by Chaudhry reveal a dangerous trend, the open support for acts of terror directed against those whose views they disagree with. Both Chaudhry and Mahathir claim to be representatives of democracies, deriving political power from the people, and yet they see nothing wrong in using terror against those they disagree with.

For India, Chaudhry’s admission provides the ‘clinching evidence’ to prove New Delhi’s claim that the Pakistani State is a sponsor of terror. At the same time, India must ensure that the world does not lose sight of the larger problem of which Pakistan and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are not just a part but a driving force as well: States and leaders who think nothing of using terror justified in the name of religion as a tool of statecraft.

And the world, no matter what other challenges it faces, cannot lose sight of threats, to democracy and open societies everywhere, that lurk, often in plain sight and in powerful places.