Blame game

During his two days visit to India the US defense secretary James Mattis said that Washington will work with New Dehli to eradicate terrorist safe heavens across the world. He said, “Terror safe heavens will not be tolerated anywhere in the world”. India and the US have resolved to work together to nip this scourge. The statement by Mattis came after a press conference following his meeting with his Indian counterpart, Nirmala Sitharaman.

The US defense secretary oblique reference of blame game is covertly directed against Pakistan. He has in fact repeated the stance taken by the President Donald Trump in a speech to the UN general assembly. The foreign minister Khwaja Asif strongly rebutted the US allegations of terrorist safe heavens in Pakistan. In a speech at the Asia Society Forum, the foreign minister said Pakistan refuses to take the blame for Haqani network and other alleged outfits, reminding the US that these ‘terrorist’ were considered ‘darlings’ of the white house until a few decades ago. The weak diplomacy of Pakistan has given leverage of Pakistan bashing to the India and the US. Merely, reminding the US of its support to the afghan warlords and militant outfits during Soviet Union occupation of Afghanistan will not produce the desired results in the domain of foreign policy. India is exporting terrorism to Pakistan by using Afghan’s soil. FATA has been almost cleared by the Pakistan Army in operation Zarb e Azb and the Government writ has been fully restored. The recent cricket match between UK-11 and Pak-11 in Miramsha confirms it.

The successful completion of operation Zarb e Azb in FATA and the ongoing operation Rad UL Fasad all over the country demonstrate our resolve that Pakistan’s soil cannot be used for cross border terrorism anymore. It is now for the civilian leadership to embark upon a pro-active diplomacy to promote the soft image of the country persistently being tarnished by India, Afghanistan and the US.