US finally wakes up to India's terror

US finally wakes up to India's terror
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA

WASHINGTON, DEC 31: With Washington providing a ``high level'' of cooperation in the resolution of the horrific hijack crisis, India and the United States have come closer on the issue of combating terrorism.

Indian officials acknowledged that Washington played a key role in resolving the crisis, including counseling restraint to the Taliban and using its influence with countries friendly to it. ``There was a high level of cooperation and interaction and much more real time engagement,'' India's ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra said.

Although the US position is also not to negotiate or compromise with terrorists and it supported New Delhi's tough stand, the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the current drama including the ground realities of the plane being taken to a country not inimical to the militants saw Washington backing India's deal-making.

Chandra was in constant touch with key American officials, including the US ambassador on counter terrorism Micheal Sheehan, one of the maininterlocutors during the crisis. Chandra also had three meetings with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Under Secretary Thomas Pickering in a week when most American officials were either on leave or distracted by preparations and fears surrounding the millennium celebrations.

Chandra, whose brother Gary Saxena is the former head of India's espionage agency RAW and who is currently the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, acknowledged that the US helped in ways that could not be publicly disclosed.Indeed, it may have needed a crisis of hijacking proportions to re-familarise the US with India's battle with terrorism.

In the past, Washington has tended to see India's rising terrorism problem largely as a domestic issue related only to the unrest in different parts of the country, especially Kashmir, while discounting the outside forces that sustain the scourge.

``Terrorism is not something that is special to India. It affects most democracies and this episode shows it is necessary to create aninternational climate against it and forge a common front. We are still a long way from it,'' Ambassador Chandra said in a pointed reference to the future agenda.

Ironically, the hijacking episode came only days after Indian and US officials, including ambassador Sheehan, had concluded talks about setting up of a joint task force on terrorism. The crisis is expected to speed up the process.

In fact, Washington began showing its line on the issue even during the crisis by publicly identifying as an affiliate of the Harkat-ul Ansar the cleric Masood Azhar, whose release was demanded by the terrorists.

In its first official reaction to the crisis on Monday, the state department linked the demand for Masood Azhar's release with the previous kidnapping of six western tourists in Kashmir in 1995 by Harkat ul-Ansar ``a group now known as the Harakat ul-Mujahideen and designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization.''

Although the US is still circumspect about discussing Pakistanicomplicity in fomenting terrorism, there is an increasing recognition here that encouraged by certain maverick elements in the ISI, the country has become a fertile ground for terrorism.

In their talks with US interlocutors, Indian officials have now begun to pin down Islamabad's acknowledgement that it provides moral, political and diplomatic support to militancy in Kashmir.

``It is up to legal experts to draw conclusions what this support amounts to,'' Chandra said.

The hijacking has also strengthened India's hand on the Hill where there is strong sympathy for New Delhi over its suffering at the hands of terrorists. In one of the most significant statements, Bill McCollum, a Congressman who heads the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare described the episode as ``state-sponsored terrorism'' without identifying the country involved.

``The United States and the civilised societies of the world must never condone this most inhumane form of terrorism. We, along with ourallies such as India, must together fight terrorism in order to protect the lives of innocent men, women and children around the world,'' McCollum said.Indeed, the guiding force behind the terrorists has been the topic of discussions among interlocutors from both sides. Ambassador Chandra said, ``The hijacking team may have been on the flight but they have a good earth station,'' suggesting that the whole operation had been masterminded elsewhere.

Frank Pallone, another vocal Congressman was more direct, saying Pakistan's support for the separatist movement in Kashmir went ``far deeper'' than the moral and political support it acknowledged.

``I hope this incident will alert the world to the threat India faces from this terrorist movement,'' Pallone said in a statement. ``I believe that Pakistan must be held accountable for contributing to this violence and instability. There should be more pressure brought to bear on Pakistan to be part of the solution, instead of continuing to exacerbate this problem.''