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India's preemptive strike
  • india-pakistan
    india-pakistan
"Credible intelligence was received that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country, and the fidayeen jihadis were being trained for this purpose. In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became absolutely necessary". The Indian Foreign Secretary VK Gokhale has issued an official statement on the attack conducted this night by New Delhi in Pakistani territory. "IIn an intelligence led operation in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated. This facility at Balakot was headed by MAULANA YOUSUF AZHAR (alias USTAD GHOURI), the brother-in-law of MASOOD AZHAR, Chief of JeM”. Of course Islamabad provides a different version of the story saying no strike ever happened and claims that the Indian planes were repelled by those from Pakistan who promptly got up in the air. According to Islamabad, there has been no bombing and the Indian operation has completely failed. After the initial denials, however, now admits that the Indian Mig, twelve apparently, not only have crossed the Loc for the first time since 1971 but went 130 miles into Pakistan to reach Balankot, KPK, not far from Abbottabad. India declares that this is not an attack on Pakistan but against the JeM and the jihad training camps. The same camps that, according to Islamabad, do not exist. Maybe. Or rather, they exist depending on the convenience and the day. In the past days days, after the Pulwama attack that killed forty Indian soldiers, Pakistan had asked India 'credible evidences' of the involvement of Jaish-e-Mohammed: forgetting, apparently, that JeM itself had admitted in two videos to be responsible for the attack. A few days later, while the FATF once again debated whether Pakistan should be put on the black list of the countries sponsoring terrorism, Islamabad declared to have banned the Jamaat-u-Dawa and to have taken "administrative control" of the headquarters of JeM in Bahawalpur ". The same headquarters that did not exist until the day before, of course. Defying every sense of the ridicule, two days later the same Minister of Information who had issued the above statement took everything back, claiming that "It is a madrasa. Indian propaganda says it is the headquarters of JeM ". But of course, sense of ridicule is not in the DNA of either the Government or the Islamabad Army. Who not only continue to beat the bass drum of "the best army in the world" despite never having won a war, but continue to issue statements and then take them away without batting an eyelid. Lashar-i-Toiba and affiliates (including JuD), have in fact been banned innumerable times, and so the JeM. Fact is Mohammed Hafiz Saeed continues to be free, the organizations continue to operate and that Masood Azhar, the head of JeM, is under the protection of ISI. In the aftermath of the Mumbai attack, for which Pakistan was given evidence of the involvement of the LeT both from India and the US, Islamabad had done the same thing with Muridke, the headquarters of LeT / JuD: result, Muridke is since then it has been financed with public funds and continues to be the headquarters of Hafiz Saeed. On the other hand for a very long time Pakistan has claimed to have no idea where bin Laden was and not to have any control over the mullah Baradar and the Afghan Taliban. The sense of total impunity of Islamabad arises from the scarecrow, conveniently shaken before the eyes of the West every time the opportunity arises, between two states with nuclear weapons. And from the Afghan situation, of course: the double games with mortal jump carpiato are a constant since the time when Afghanistan was invaded by the US. At the moment, Pakistan is in a dead end: the economy is in pieces, the debt with foreign countries is scary, China holds for the neck Islamabad. Not only that, three quarters of the provinces are protesting against the Government and the Army: Balochistan, in open revolt for years, but also the citizens of Sindh and Gilgit Baltisan and the Pashtun that for a year now have been taking to the streets in thousands. To reassemble the country, and to continue asking for help from the West, nothing better than an enemy at the door. Pulwama's attack was brilliant in terms of strategy and timing: in May India will vote, and Modi wants to be re-elected. The only way to be re-elected, given the wave of popular indignation aroused by Pulwama, was to respond militarily to Pakistan. To which, contrary to what is thought, it is convenient to play the card of Hindu fundamentalism in Delhi. This card allows him to continue fomenting the revolt in Indian Kashmir, playing on the danger for Indian Muslims and relying on the 'theory of two nations' for which Muslims belong by right to Pakistan. That allows them to united the population every time the protests become too strong, because of the 'enemy at the door'. And that allows the Army to go on ruling the country. It is no coincidence, in fact, that every single time in when India and Pakistan started something resembling the beginning of a dialogue, there has been a terrorist or a military attack: Kargil, Mumbai, Uri just to quote randomly. Every time the international community, and Washington in particular, has stopped the hands of India for fear of a potentially unmanageable conflict. This time, it seems, they could not or would not do it, and it is an absolute novelty. The winds of war blow harder than ever but there is the real possibility that this time, to be stopped by the US but also by China and the Saudis, will be Islamabad.
Francesca Marino
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