Opinions
Sheikh Rashid should be tried in India
By Tarun Vijay
The indecisive mood of Delhi regarding combating terrorist threats in the valley is having a negative effect on the morale of our security forces. There are no clear instructions to the forces regarding flushing out terrorists from the valley in an unambiguous manner. The attacks, heinous and most barbaric one are continuing on the Indian soil, on our own patriotic people. The state is seen as helpless to provide security to people who love and live for the nation. They are still living an uprooted life and there is no time frame when they would be able to get back home. Almost every other day, massive infiltration is reported and if one group of infiltrators if gunned down, it surely means that other two or three have managed to sneak in. Episodes like Hurriyat'sPakistan visit on invalid documents reinforce a notion that a time is not too far when these people will rule the roost hence strengthening of the separatist sentiments and a diminishing hope for the nationalists. Where does this all lead up to?
And what Delhi thinks about Sheikh Rashid Pakistani Information Minister? It certainly was convinced about his direct involvement in running the training camps and as far as Yaseen Malik'stestimony is concerned, more than 1500 youths were trained to kill Indians and damage public property. That'sa clear case of war on state and should be pursued to its logical end.
Sheikh Rashid is a criminal for India who instigated and helped wage a war on Indian state and people. He should be booked for it and tried to be given severest punishment. Indian government should demand Sheikh Rashid'sexpatriation to for this purpose. Let him come here, for a trial he deserves most. If our leaders do not demand that is because none of them has lost his son or daughter in the attacks of Rashid'sgoons? Any government worth the nation'ssalt would have demanded Sheikh'shead. He has unmistakably helped murder and rape of our people. A person'sor a state'scharacter is known by their attitude to their own people. Do they value their worth? When the Chinese embassy was damaged, mistakenly as US claimed, in the war torn Kosovo, Beijing saw to it that US apologizes for it publicly and there were an endless series of demonstrations, protests and condemnation by Chinese government and people till US accepted its mistake and said never again will such a ?mistake? occur.
New Delhi'sindecision demoralising security forces.
And what Washington itself does in such cases? Just recently a senior member of Osama'sal Qaueda was arrested by Pakistan government to please US and possibilities are he would be handed over to US investigative agencies. None in any Islamic country today, any one can dare to plot against US and remain un-spared. A few years before US arrested President of Panama on drug charges and put him behind bars for life and Iraq is still being ?worked out? for crimes no body knows till this day. A nation traumatized and its president facing a trial with a new ?friendly? government being installed who would never try to offend US.
Not that the same attitude should also guide our path. But the message is self esteem is not an expendable commodity. A nation is nor just a conglomeration of a few forests, rivers, structures and a huge crowd of people. It has a soul, a sense of pride and definitely a will to protect it. Peace is a nice concept but the cost to it should also be weighed, as the purpose is to reach a happy situation and not a peace bartering self-esteem and the collective pride of a people. That would be worse than a defeat on the war front, which at least gives an exhilarating sense of fighting till the last breath and achieving martyrdom. So, peace in itself can'tbe the final goal but is an instrument to reach higher and loftier goals and the process has to be valued against the cost involved. Otherwise we could have bought peace by simply giving up the fight in Kargil and saved so many precious lives of our Jawans. But we chose to fight and push the Pakistani infiltrators back at a huge cost to our men and money. If that was a right decision and our demand to bring back Dawood from Pakistan is also a valid one, by the same argument Sheikh Rashid should be brought to India for his nefarious role in subverting peace in India.
Episodes like Hurriyat'sPakistan visit on invalid documents reinforce a notion that a time is not too far when these people will rule the roost hence strengthening of the separatist sentiments.
We have tried Lahore, Agra and Karachi too a little bit and all this has shown the utmost sincerity of purpose on our part. Still infiltration is on, killings un abetted and Hurriyat leaders are taken to Islamabad offending even the most ?decently? and ?disarmingly? government with a piece mission. It simply shows that Paksitan is taking us for granted once more and its time to talk straight.
