IN his United Nations’ General Assembly speech, our prime minister said; “The Soviets called them (Afghan mujahideen) terrorists and we called them freedom fighters…and now we were supposed to tell them it is no longer jihad.”

That’s the crux of the problem. India calls Kashmiri freedom fighters ‘terrorists’. It called Bengali insurgents ‘mukti bahini’, freedom fighters’.

Unlike Kashmir, erstwhile East Pakistan was not a disputed state like Jammu and Kashmir. It was an integral part of Pakistan. But, India harboured, nurtured, trained and armed Bengali ‘freedom fighters’ on Indian soil.

In similar vein, Noam Chomsky remains in US-sheltered gallery of Latin American terrorists, extolled as ‘freedom fighters’. The White House welcomed Jalaluddin Haqqani (founding father of formidable Haqqani Taliban) as a guest.

Let India not forget that Kashmir is a disputed state as per UN resolutions and the Simla accord (pacta sunt servanda, treaties are binding). India has withdrawn its special status.

A state that flouts international treaties is called a ‘rogue state’ (Noam Chomsky’s Rogue States). India qualifies as a rogue state and should be classified as such by the UN.

Amjed Jaaved
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2019