THREE NEIGHBOURS – THREE TOWERING INFERNOS

Three nations. Neighbours. Three turbulent seas with waves lashing against the shores incessantly. Call it terrorist tsunami or by any other name you deem fit. No end in sight. No expectation or hope of tranquility or serenity in the immediate or distant future.

Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Reeling under relentless terrorist attacks, racist violence and in India, the Naxalite menace. I won’t bracket the Naxalite threat with the terrorist threats. Because it has something to do with decades of exploitation of the tribals by vested interests under the respective regimes of India from time to time. When all hopes of a bright future are lost, when even the bottom-line of their patience ebbs away, out of sorrow, anger and frustration, the suppressed lot rise in revolt, take up arms and resort to armed rebellion. Yes, a destructive path they adopt with the indoctrination and injection of revolutionary ideas by the intelligentsia wherever possible in our country. Even our Prime Minister Dr.ManMohan Singh while terming the menace the greatest internal security the country faces at present, he is reluctant to equate the menace with terrorist hydra which has spread its tentacles across the nation. The reason behind his hesitation to equate naxalite menace with terrorist violence has its reasons. Naxalite menace is something to do with the aggravating socio-economic disparities prevailing in our country. Only when this anomaly is rectified naxalite threat is here to subside. Dr.Singh as is known to everyone is a well-known economist, hence his diagnosis of the root of the problem is acceptable to all. But before the situations evolves into such a worse path, his Government should have and could have taken various positive steps to alleviate the miseries of the starving millions, especially the tribals by corporate honchos. Paying lip-service alone won’t do. Adopting newer and ruthless methods of relentless suppression of the Maoists will certainly prove infructious. Because as they have nothing to lose, whatever they had already taken away leaving them penniless, even their dreams having shattered, pitting brother against brother (Salva-Judum) type sinister ploys will breed more violence and massacres. Positive steps in the right direction are the need of the hour, not vendetta. Otherwise more and more Kobal Ghandys and Chattradhar Mahatos will be forced to surface as their saviours.

Our close neighbouring country, Pakistan is also caught in a pathetic and piquant situation with the terrorist attacks by Tehreek-E-Taliban, a violent outfit under HakeeMullah, formerly led by another terrorist, Beitullah Mehsud, who was killed by a drone attack by the American forces at his haven at North-West frontier areas with Pakistan and the pro-Pak terrorist outfits like Lashkar-E-Taiba of the Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Al Saeed, Jaish-E-Muammed of Maulana Mazood Azhar and a number of terror groups under various names disturbing the peace and harmony among Pakistanis and Indians. These terrorists are well-equipped with lethal weapons, sharp-shooters, suicide-bombers ready to finish anyone, target any place, thus capable of wreaking maximum havoc with acute precision. All these outfits created, nurtured and given maximum logistical support by their own rulers to infiltrate across the border to bring about maximum destruction in Jammu&Kashmir and across India. This confession was made by none other than, the President Asif Ali Sardari at the venue of a meeting of retired civil servants of Pakistan about a year ago. Now the prodigies have turned Frankenstein Monsters forcing the creator on the run for cover. Daily, yes daily, suicide attacks occur wherever the plotters aim at killing innocent lives and destruction of properties. These are not the stories of today or tomorrow, but date back to several years. I am reminded of a novel of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “The General In His Labyrinth”.

Though USA has sanctioned $7.5 billion ($1.5 billion a year) as non-military assistance to Pakistan, there is no guarantee that its rulers will be spending the assistance for the intended purpose if our past experiences are any indications. Its army has already rejected the assistance as it is provided with strings attached. That nation has been already branded as the “epicentre of terrorism” by the international community. The fluid situation prevailing in that country more than ever before, is being watched by the world community with deep sorrow and worry as it is a dangerous nuclear weapon State.

The 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre and the subsequent deaths of about three thousand lives created shock and anger in USA, the super power which was brimming with confidence of peace unlike the other countries. George W Bush the then President of USA in a fit of rage and anger vowed to wipe off the last remnants of terrorism from the face of earth by bringing all the terrorists to justice. The very thought of a terrorist strike, that also on WTC, at the heart of USA, NewYork by the Al-Quaida elements was quite unimaginable to him and his fellow citizens. But he or for that matter all of his colleagues conveniently chose to forget a simple truth – the Emperor is naked. USA was the creator of Osama-Bin-Laden, his assist Ayman-Al-Zawahiri, their followers, and by providing immense logistical and financial support to them to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan with the connivance of Taliban. Soviets, the only other super power then and USA’s rival withdrew from the arena in due course and Taliban elements took over the regime and ruthlessly ruled the country and being hard-core conservative elements enacted Shariat laws and implemented outdated and lethal punishments like beheadings, stoning to death, hanging, point-blank shootings all blood-chilling, that also in public. Centuries old statue of Bahmian Buddha, a famous land mark of Afghanistan and also the pride of our world was ruthlessly demolished, all in the name of Islam.

George Bush, true to his vow unleashed a war on terror in Afghanistan and bombarded the safe-havens of Al-Quaida elements believed to have been hiding there- but –Bush is not in power now, after eight years of rule bowed out, but Bin-Laden, Ayman-Al-Zawahari and other Al-Quaida elements are still threatening the world with their Jihad against their enemy countries still conspiring to upset the fragile peace prevailing across the world.

Now it is the turn of Barack Obama a genuine peace-lover, but a fierce opponent of Al-Quaida elements, still continues his battle against them in Afghanistan, still on a hunt for Al-Quaida elements supposed to be embedded in their safe-havens bombarding the frontier areas with Pakistan with the help of NATO forces. In spite of all these Afghanistan is still simmering with suicide bombers on prowl. Literally a boiling cauldron. A suicide bomb attack on Indian Embassy Mission in Kabul occurred the other day, killing a few and wounding many. Obama with the might of Noble Peace crown 2009 on his head must be an embarrassed man now…