Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 21

Pakistan has opened a window for India to launch across-the-border operations to crush terrorism as it itself has gone in for anti-terror operations in Afghanistan.The border, when it comes to launching anti-terror operations, holds no sanctity. Pakistan has proved that in the last few days following the carnage at a Sufi shrine in Sindh.America was the first to do it after 9/11 when it bombarded Afghanistan and landed its forces there to stamp out the Al-Qaida and the Taliban.Now Pakistan has done it. By that standard of anti-terror operations, Pakistan cannot deny India its right to strike at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for terrorists have been using Pakistani soil to attack India. Besides, Pakistani terrorists have been hyper active against India in Afghanistan as well.Pakistan did not hesitate even for a moment to conclude that the terrorists who killed worshippers at the Lal Shabaz Qalandhar shrine in Sindh were from Afghanistan. It went on to ask for 76 terrorists from the Afghanistan government. The Afghan envoy was not summoned to the foreign office but to the General Headquarters of the Pakistan army.The Pakistan army claimed to have killed over 100 terrorists in Afghanistan. It has also warned Kabul that it would repeat the operations as and when Islamabad would suspect that Afghanistan-based terrorists were targeting Pakistani people or establishment.The message was heard loud and clear in Pakistani Senate when on Monday, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told the House: “The Prime Minister had authorised the army to take out terrorists wherever they might be.”There, however, was a dichotomy in his statement when he said: “It had been established beyond doubt that foreign soil had been used to orchestrate the two latest attacks — in Lahore and in Hayatabad.” He recalled Pakistan’s commitment that its soil would not be allowed to be used for terrorism in any country and noted that the time had come to ensure that no other country’s soil was used against Pakistan.Pakistan’s soil has excessively been used by terrorists to target Afghanistan and India. It is an undeniable fact that Pakistan’s soil has given birth to several terrorists, who have been trained to strike the western countries too.Terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad and some sections of the Taliban having links with the Islamic State have been operating under the direct patronage of the Pakistan army.So, for a Pakistani minister to say that “Pakistan’s soil would not be allowed to be used for terrorism in any country” runs into the face of the realities that have traced terror camps in Pakistan, wherefrom terrorists are prepared for “jihad” in J&Kand other parts of India and Afghanistan.India for its own security has the right to strike at terrorist camps wherever they exist, here or across. The sovereignty definition cannot be a one-sided definition. Pakistan itself has shown the door officially. Now, it is time for India to learn the right lessons, this time from the neighbouring country, also troubled by terrorism.It is a universally acknowledged fact that Pakistan is an epicentre of terrorism. The best course for Islamabad, as military experts would suggest, would be to first decimate its home-grown terrorists. The terms “good terrorists” and “bad terrorists” hold no ground. By now this fact should have dawned on Pakistan.