This is an amazing time to be in India. Last week, tensions here heated white hot when Pakistan refused to hold long overdue talks with India about the former’s role in the Mumbai terror attacks. At the same time, the government continued its offensive against communist rebels who have been terrorizing this country for decades; and the Maoists for the first time cried “Uncle.” Shortly after the Indo-Pak talks were on again (albeit with the two countries disagreeing on their content), terror struck.
Indians awoke Sunday morning to read about a major Islamist terror attack in the West Indian city of Pune, and industrial hub of more than five million people, that killed nine and injured scores. Security here went on high alert—something I can testify to having taken a domestic flight here later that day. More importantly, security forces were able to foil two impending attacks; one communist, one Islamist. Then on Monday, terror struck again. Lashkar e Taibe, the Islamic terror group responsible for the Mumbai and other terror attacks here, carried out another operation, this time in the disputed region of Kashmir. Then, later that day, the communists, known here as Naxalites and perhaps desperate after being knocked back on their heels by the governments offensive, attacked an army camp in the state of West Bengal, where I am located at the moment. The last was a particularly gruesome surprise attack while the soldiers were at rest, and which saw several burned alive, many gunned down, and the wounded carted off as hostages.
“Karachi Project": Pakistani intelligence (ISI) has been engaged in a project to train jihadists for attacks in India
Also on Monday, Indian-Pakistan tensions rose again as Indian officials investigating the Pune blasts continued gathering evidence from the scene. They tentatively concluded that while local terrorists, known as Indian Mujahedeen, carried out the attack, they did so with support and direction from elements in Pakistan. At the same time, American terrorist David Headley told his captors that Pakistani intelligence (ISI) has been engaged in a project to train jihadists for attacks in India. Known as the “Karachi Project,” after the city in Pakistan, the ISI would shuttle Indian allies to Pakistan, train them, and return them to India where they were to await further orders.
And the most dramatic events occurred over a period of only two days. But from an American’s point of view, the most amazing—and confounding—thing came from US Senator John Kerry. The Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told The Wall Street Journal “’The right thing is to talk; you lose nothing by talking,’" Sen. Kerry (D., Mass.) said while on a visit to the Indian capital en route to Islamabad. If India finds a Pakistani link to the Pune attack, “’I hope India will have that conversation with Pakistan and, if they have evidence to that effect, that should be the first thing on the table and Pakistan has to deal with it,’” he added.
Kerry completely ignores the fact that the very attitude he counsels is in part responsible for the current rise in tensions and loss of life. There certainly is much to lose in talking as President Obama’s current “engagement” with Iran demonstrates. India has been demanding that Pakistan turn over Mumbai terrorists living in the Islamic Republic and come clean in the role Pakistanis played in those and other terror attacks. Talks, in fact, are all they have been able to get, and they have stood as a substitute for action, leaving the murderers of 166 people free.
John Kerry wants to talk. India is facing terror from jihadists and radical communists
India at this moment is facing terror from jihadists and radical communists; and today an Al Qaeda communiqué warned foreign sports teams that they would face terror attacks should they come to scheduled tournaments in India. Citizens here do not know when or where the next strike will be.
And Kerry says the solution is talks? No doubt representing the views of the Obama administration as well, Kerry is sending a message to the front lines of this war that appeasement is the way. His comments cement impressions that the US favors Pakistan in this conflict (sending it billions in aid) and cannot be relied on as an ally in the war against communists or jihadists. People are taking notice.
