Daily Times

Sir: ISPR has stated that there is ‘no unusual Indian troop movement’. This is welcome news. There was a fear, articulated on the street and in the media, that India would raise troop levels on the border with Pakistan similar to the escalation that took place in 2002. Given the tense situation on the western border with Afghanistan, the last thing the region needs is escalation of tensions between Pakistan and India.

It is well known that terrorists and extremist groups do not want normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan, and have been seeking ways to derail the peace process, on which much progress has been made. To fall victim to old tendencies of blaming each other, India and Pakistan would be taking steps backwards on the road to peace, and instead of improving the security situation in the region, will make it worse. Consider that if Pakistan is forced to redeploy troops to match Indian deployments, there will be a let up in the operations in the tribal areas. This let up will allow these terrorists to regroup and cause more terror in Pakistan, Afghanistan and, yes, India. If these terrorists did indeed come from Pakistan, as India claims, then it is utterly counterproductive to distract Pakistan from its efforts to combat these groups.
The need right now is for cooperation. If it is proved that these terrorists trained in and came from Pakistan, then we need to act and show that we are not soft on these terrorists. And if not, we should still cooperate with India. Let us not forget that these barbarians attacked the Marriott two months ago, claiming over 150 lives, and are conducting suicide bombings against Pakistanis on a daily basis. The enemy facing India and Pakistan is the same, it is about time the media and governments on both sides realised that.
ZUBAIR SHAH
Lahore