We have reached such a stage that not a day passes without a suicide bombing in one place or the other in Pakistan. Terrorists, both the Taliban and its associated groups, have proved time and again that no area in the country is beyond their reach. The Army Hqrs. in Rawalpindi came to be targeted twice in a week, the latest being on Monday. Several soldiers, waiting to pick up their salary, were killed.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit last week was greeted with a suicide bombing in Peshawar in which more than 100 people killed. Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and you name any place, all have witnessed terrorist bombs, killing innocent people, children and women.

The State has become helpless. What are our leaders doing? Interior Minister Rehman Malik stated a few days ago that India is supporting Taliban to create mayhem in Pakistan. The cue was taken and the Information Minister as well as Military Spokesman are repeating the line stating that they have found Indian arms, literature etc.

Wait a minute! Isn’t it that Taliban our creation? Aren’t we the ones, along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan till the last moment until the Americans decided to bomb them out in revenge for 9/11 attack by the Al Qaida? Aren’t we the ones who have been making deals with various Taliban groups in North and South Waziristan to buy peace?

Why not we face the truth and take the bull by its horns? What are we achieving by pointing fingers at India or USA or Israel when the problem is home grown. The Govt. may get temporary respite by making gullible people believe in external source of problem, but this will not last long as the Taliban terrorism is not going to go by such denials and blame game.

Our Army has been doing a good job by punishing these trigger happy Taliban extremists in South Waziristan. This should be extended and the whole of the frontier province needs to be cleansed up. This is not to be seen as an act of submitting to the American diktats, but as a matter of upholding the authority of Pakistan State in all the areas under its control. Lest, there will be nothing left of what Pakistan is.

This logically follows that the State should also wipe out growing extremism and terrorism in the heart of the country, in the form of `Punjabi Taliban’. It is a matter of serious concern when the Interior Minister stated that various terrorist groups like the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Jhanvi etc. are joining forces to take on the State apparatus. South Punjab is seriously infected. Terrorists who were involved in attacks on the Army Hqrs. in Rawalpindi and other State institutions in Islamabad and Lahore are from South Punjab and have links to the Taliban. These terrorist groups, whom we have used to bleed India in Kashmir and other cities, appear to have gone out of control. They are coming to attack us and kill our own children and women. Every terrorist act and every terrorist caught in other parts of the world, Europe, US or Africa, are traced back to their linkages to elements in Pakistan.

What is the end result? Pakistan is being branded as an epi- centre of international terrorism. While we are successful in bleeding India, the Kashmir militancy has come to haunt us. The Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and a score of others, who were created to launch mayhem in India, have joined hands with Taliban and Al Qaida to do the same to us. Our economy is on tenterhooks and it came to a stage that we cannot survive without aid doled out by US, Saudi Arabia and other international donors. And when the donors place conditions, our national conscience is hurt.

The belief that the insurgency in Kashmir is bleeding India at a relatively low cost to Pakistan has more to do with conviction than facts. In the past ten years, India has sustained the economic burden of its military operations in Kashmir, and its economy has steadily grown, while the drain on Pakistan’s economy and social capital has been considerable. In any case, given the asymmetry in resources, Pakistan is not in a position to tilt the military balance in its favour through its current Kashmir policy. Nor have the Kashmiris gained from excessive reliance on militancy. On the contrary, that reliance has become more of a liability than an asset in the present international climate.

Beset with innumerable domestic problems, political and economic, let us be realistic that we are not in a position to win over world opinion. India’s preferences carry more weight, given its size, economic resources and geo-strategic potential. In these circumstances, Pakistan’s only promising recourse would seem to be to discard any military option and concentrate on diplomacy, continuing to highlight the Kashmir issue both bilaterally with India and in multilateral forums, such as the United Nations and the OIC, while ending all support to militants operating in Kashmir. If Pakistan were to limit its role to providing moral and political support for indigenous Kashmiri political forces attempting to control their own destiny, and the Kashmiris were to develop their own strategies, they would be in a better position to bargain with the Indian government as well as to acquire greater credibility internationally.

More number of Kashmiris would opt for independent Kashmir if they are given a choice, while rest of the people share opinion either in favour of Pakistan or India. This is the fact of the matter whatever we like to believe in. In these days of globalisation, holding of territory is less relevant than ensuring our national strategic interests. One of our main concerns in Kashmir is water resources, roadways and communications with China and Central Asia etc.

What Pakistan needed to be concentrating is economic progress to give high standard of life to its citizens. This can be best done through good neighbourly relations with China, India, Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia. Through a clever display of diplomacy, it is not very difficult to tie up internationally guaranteed schemes to ensure fair share of river waters and other resources. Kashmir can be settled on the basis of give and take which is already said to have gained some momentum during Musharraf’s regime. This needs to be further carried forward so that a mutually acceptable solution is found in the best interests of Kashmiris, Pakistan and India. Using militancy as a State policy to wrest Kashmir is not going to work and will only end up bleeding Pakistan, as we are already witnessing.

Logic dictates that we both, India and Pakistan, join hands and work together for mutual growth and economic development for welfare of our people. We suspect each other and therefore give way to international players like the US, UK, China and Saudi Arabia to play a mediatory role or support us against India. Do not forget that we, the people of Pakistan and India, are the closest to each other living together for nearly 4000 years. Do we need these foreign countries to mediate between us, and mind you they are not unbiased judges. They have their own geo-strategic interests and they will never allow brotherly relations between our two countries. Earlier we realise this, better we are. Or else, Taliban, Al Qaida and their myriad associated groups devour us sooner or later.