AT a book launch in New Delhi on August 30, the Indian external affairs minister remarked that “the era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over”. Dialogue is the essence of inter-state conduct, particularly between neighbours. To shun dialogue is to shut the doors on diplomacy and open doors for conflict. Since 2016, India has cut off all links with Pakistan and conditioned dialogue with it to an end to the alleged cross-border terrorism from Pakistan. The irony is that it is Pakistan that is suffering from terrorism, including by Indian state operatives who have assassinated 20 Pakistani citizens in 2023 alone. In March 2016, Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian spy and a serving Indian Navy officer, was caught red-handed in Balochistan planning acts of terrorism and sabotage under the fake identity of Hussain Mubarak Patel.
Indian leaders often talk about Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Mohammad without taking into account the fact that both organisations and their leaders are proscribed in Pakistan under Schedule-I of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 (ATA), and the bulk of their leadership is behind bars. India also tries to give references to these organisations in its joint statements with other countries. Yet, no country now raises this matter with Pakistan because they are well aware of the concrete actions Pakistan has taken to fight terrorism and to choke terrorist financing in pursuance of the ATA and the recommendations of FATF and UN Security Council 1373 committee’s monitoring team.