THIS is with reference to the news item ‘US lawmakers ask India to end occupation of Kashmir’ (Aug 22). Since some legislators spoke about a “terrorist infrastructure on Pakistan’s soil,” it is necessary to put this terrorism in perspective.

Pakistan had no terrorists before the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. To win the cold war the US indoctrinated, trained and funded these terrorists. The text books used by them were printed in the University of Nebraska. Hillary Clinton, when Secretary of State, admitted: “The problem we face now, to some extent we have to take the responsibility for having contributed to it…the people we are fighting today, we funded them, 25 years ago”.

Senator Larry Pressler wrote that Presidents Carter and Reagan: “Now needed Pakistan to bolster the resistance fighters trying to oust the Soviets in Afghanistan. These resistance fighters were Islamic fundamentalists, the same we are fighting all over the world today.” (Neighbours in Arms Penguin/Viking, 2017, p.121).

It is way beyond Pakistan to put the genie back into the bottle with millions of Afghan refugees on Pakistani soil for more than four decades. India could not have helped the US win the cold war, because New Delhi had signed a Treaty of Friendship with the USSR. on Aug 10, 1971 valid for 20 years — beyond 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

On Feb 24, 1955, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru went back on his promises for an impartial plebiscite in Kashmir on the ground that Pakistan had become America’s ally.

As far as the current situation in Kashmir is concerned, Prem Shankar Jha has conceded that it has nothing to do with Pakistan ( The Wire, Aug 25, 2017). Today the US is sanctioning Pakistan for having helped her win the cold war while India is being rewarded.

Dr Muhammad Reza Kazimi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2019