Terror shelter

Terror shelter

Imran Khan admits to Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorists, now he must act.

In surprisingly candid statements, Pakistani PM Imran Khan during his recent visit to Washington admitted that there are still 30,000-40,000 terrorists on Pakistani soil who have fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir. He further blamed previous Pakistani governments for not being in control of the situation and said they did not tell the US about the truth on the ground. It is to Khan’s credit that he has accepted that Pakistan shelters terrorists, including those that have carried out militancy in Kashmir. This contradicts Pakistan’s traditional position that it only provides moral and diplomatic support to Kashmiri militants. India has always maintained that terrorism in Kashmir is sustained from across the line of control.

What prompted such candour on Khan’s part? He may be trying to convince the US that his administration recognises the problem of terror and is willing to deal with it. Note that Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed was taken into protective custody in the run-up to Khan’s US visit. He has also admitted that the armed militias that Pakistan harbours are hurting it. But the proof of the pudding needs to be in the eating. We still have to see if Khan is serious about taking concrete action against terror.

After all, Khan is known in Pakistani political circles as ‘Taliban Khan’ for his past vocal support of Taliban and other extremists. Besides, the real power centre in Pakistan, the military-ISI complex, has long nurtured a strategy of asymmetric warfare against India through terror proxies. Thus, it remains to be seen if Khan and Rawalpindi GHQ are truly in sync on tackling terror or they have come up with a new variant of their ‘good terror, bad terror’ policy. Even as Khan should be given an opportunity to show that he can walk his talk, New Delhi must remain cautious.