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Letters: `Export Surplus'
In India, any material called "Export Surplus" would mean a product that met stringent export quality norms, though it seems to mean something different in Pakistan! When Pakistan found that they could never win a war with India, particularly after it lost its Eastern half, they switched to guerrilla war
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n India, any material called "Export Surplus" would mean a product that met stringent export quality norms, though it seems to mean something different in Pakistan!
When Pakistan found that they could never win a war with India, particularly after it lost its Eastern half, they switched to guerrilla war.
Pioneered in Zia Ul Haq's regime, the Pakistani government set up "factories" in the mountainous areas of occupied Kashmir and around Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore, etc to "produce" fully outfitted terrorists exclusively for exports to India. Their exports went like clockwork, first in India's Jammu and Kashmir State and then its other areas.
But then some of these terrorists turned around and blew up Zia himself. Musharraf, who replaced Nawaz after Benazir was dismissed, was principal provocateur the creation of many terrorist outfits to his "credit" during the 1990s.
During Musharraf's presidential regime, the exports to India became more frequent and reached temples, metros like Bangalore, Jaipur, Varanasi and finally the Indian parliament!
But due to his high-handedness at home, terrorist activities picked up sharply domestically. Two unsuccessful attempts to blow up Musharraf's car failed.
Slowly "for export only" production started feeding the whopping domestic and after Lal Masjid, where after a fierce battle, Musharraf broke the rebellion, but it cost him his job. In his last days in office, homemade terrorists succeeded in assassinating Benazir!
Now her husband is in the saddle but is he in command? It is not clear as to who in Pakistan runs the government: its democratically-elected government, its Army or the ISI?
Looking at the recent events, it would seem that a pattern of knee-jerk reaction on militants, followed by compromise of sharia law in the Swat area, followed by another knee-jerk reaction against militants when US government shows its displeasure, again followed by another compromise and so on, but the militants get stronger and stronger with such cyclical fights and truces.
In 2009, all Pakistani terrorists were busy with domestic mayhem. During the last month, almost one bomb went off every day in Pakistan in various areas, including garrison cities like Lahore and Rawalpindi, targeting defense personnel who created them, killing more than 200 innocent Pakistanis plus military and paramilitary personnel.
While Pakistan has been a source of eternal nuisance to India, the hearts of all Indians still weep for its wonderful people who have been getting a grossly raw deal. We pray to God that wiser counsel will prevail bringing harmony between the two essentially similar peoples.
K. B. Kale
Jakarta
