Four recent incidents prompted me to write this open letter. These are: my recent visit to Bulgaria, terrorist attack at URI Army Camp, confrontation between Pakistan civilian and military authorities and terrorist attack at the Pakistan Police Academy.
Last month, I along with my wife visited Bulgaria, a country with a large Muslim population, and the last country we visited in East Europe this time. We were traveling by a car. At the border, we both handed our U.S. Passports to the immigration officer. My wife was cleared in one minute, however, I was told that a clearance had to be obtained from a higher authority. I was surprised as I have visited almost seventy countries and I never had this problem. When I inquired the reason, I was told that as I was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, my name has to be cleared. I told that I have visited many countries and I never had this problem. The Immigration Officer said, “Yes, I see that, almost all fifty pages of your passport are full, however, we have to get clearance for anyone who has any connection with Pakistan.” I had no choice but to wait. After over one hour, I was cleared and allowed to enter Bulgaria. In the past, a couple of times, once while reentering USA and once in another country, I was asked when was the last time I have visited Pakistan, but was not detained. My younger brother’s Passport also indicates Pakistan as his birthplace and he was detained for two hours at Kuwait airport, in a Muslim country. I wonder what happens to those who travel with Pakistani Passports. Interestingly, as per Dawn News, the Chinese government, Pakistan’s best friend, issued instructions to all five star hotels in China not to allow Pakistanis to stay there. Is anyone in Pakistan taking a note of this situation? As I will explain later, the answer is “yes”.
In late September, terrorist attack at URI Army Camp killed eight Jawans. Previously, a similar attack took place at Pathankot Air Base. Both these attacks were facilitated by Pakistani army and ISI. Finally, India had to retaliate; however, at my advice, India also simultaneously started negotiations with Pakistan.
In its 6 October 2016 issue, Dawn News published a story about a meeting between Pakistan’s Civilian and Military leaders which was chaired by Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif and attended by Sartaj Aziz, NSA; Aizaz Chaudhary, Foreign Secretary; and a number of cabinet ministers and others. The military personnel were headed by ISI Director General Rizwan Akhtar. At this meeting, Chaudhary, a soft spoken low-key person, whom I had met during my visit to Pakistan in 2014, bluntly warned Military and ISI that their facilitation of terrorist attacks is isolating Pakistan and hurting its economy. Military and ISI officers were stunned with this blunt message which they never expected. The silence at the meeting increased further when Mr. Chaudhary mentioned that even China has expressed concerns with the involvement of army and ISI with the terrorist activities. After some silence, General Akhtar stated, “If we stop our activities now, India would think that Pakistan has caved in.” This was an implicit admission of the involvement of ISI and Military in the facilitation of the terrorist attacks in India. The Prime Minister’s office denied the story; however, next day, Dawn reaffirmed the story by emphasizing that it had checked the correctness of the meeting’s discussion from a number of persons who participated in the meeting and refused to withdraw the story. After that, the Pakistan government placed Cyril Almeida, the author of the story on “Exit Control List”, i.e. he would not be allowed to leave the country. This was the first time when civilian authorities realised the seriousness of the situation facing Pakistan and had the guts to put it bluntly to the previously unchallenged army and ISI. The more interesting part of the story is that there were dozens of readers’ comments on the Dawn’s 6 October story and one hundred percent appreciated the Civilian’s stand against the army and ISI. Some commentators urged the stopping of cross border terrorism and suggested to forget Kashmir and move forward to have a normal peaceful relationship with India. A couple of days later, an article inDawn acknowledged that the world is not listening to Pakistan’s whining about Kashmir. In other words, Pakistan should move beyond the issue of Kashmir. Continuing his crusade, in November 8 issue of Dawn, Ameida suggested that the new Army Chief should be bold enough to tell “boys” (Pakistani army personnel) to forget about “anti India” attitude.
On 23 October, terrorist attacks at the Police Academy resulted in killing 61 young police officer trainees and injuring hundreds. In Pakistan, almost every day, there are terrorist attacks. Even the school children of army officers, some of whom might have been supporting terrorists, were not spared and dozens of them were killed last year.
So, what is my open letter to Pakistan? It is simple; terrorists have neither religion nor loyalty and Pakistan should stop supporting such activities directly or indirectly. This fact has been realised by the Pakistani civilian government as well as a large majority of Pakistanis. The Pakistan Military and ISI should also realise the reality. Forget about bleeding India in Kashmir, instead stop the bleeding, literally and economically, of Pakistan. Dismantle all the terrorist camps and arrest all of the terrorists, without any exception, you can lay your hands on. A prominent lawmaker belonging to PML-N, the ruling party, questioned, “Why no action is being taken against Hafiz Saeed?” Soon after the surgical strike, Nawaz Sharif stated correctly that military tanks on the farmland cannot remove poverty, however, nor can the cross border terrorism do so either.
Now my open letter to Indian politicians and people. I regularly read Pakistani news papers, including some Urdu papers, and anti India news are infrequent. However, there is hardly any day when Indian newspapers and leaders do not criticise Pakistan. I request all to be not too obsessed with Pakistan and Muslims. India and Hindus are too strong now. Most of Pakistanis and Indian Muslims are generally peaceful people and they realise that there are more pressing problems than Kashmir and Sharia. Young generation wants good and peaceful life. As PM Modi correctly cautioned, the politicians should stop chest thumping and threatening Pakistan as they do not have any authority to take any action nor do such threats scare Pakistan. News media should also stop distorting news about Pakistan and sensationalising issues between India and Pakistan. Let the Indian government handle the situation. Further, all the calls about cancelling sport, entertainment and other exchanges with Pakistan are childish and do not help “nationalism”. No reasonable person will endorse the idea of two fighting neighbours telling their children not to talk and play with each other. In fact such exchanges have resulted in Pakistanis becoming fans of India. Finally, I urge Kashmiri youths to also understand the reality. Their violent actions are not going to be helpful either to them, other Kashmiris and economic situation of Kashmir. In fact, these activities are detrimental to the economic interest of all Kashmiris. They should live peacefully like millions of other young Muslims in Kashmir and all other parts of India do.
In conclusion, I hope my “open letter” will help the easing of tense situation between India and Pakistan and in the improvement of relationship between two countries and Kashmir will become a peaceful paradise again.