THIS is with reference to the report “‘Evidence of Indian role in attack on Sarabjit’s killer’” (April 16), which quoted Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi as saying that evidence had pointed towards India’s involvement in the attack on Amir Sarfraz Tamba, who was shot inside his house a day earlier. Tamba was one of the two men who had allegedly attacked Indian spy Sarabjit Singh inside Kot Lakhpat prison in 2013.
The incident had followed a similar pattern of assassinations in the past. One would do well to recall the earlier report “India ‘involved in killings’ on Pakistani soil” (Jan 26), which quoted Foreign Secretary Syrus Sajjad Qazi as saying that Islamabad had credible evidence of links between Indian agents and the assassination of two Pakistani nationals in Sialkot and Rawalakot.
Targeted and serial killings of Pakistani nationals by India have opened a new Pandora’s Box in the country, especially after the assassinations and shootings involving Indian intelligence operatives in Canada and the United States. Though the response by Canada and the US was sufficient enough to make India think twice before taking any further step, the soft and lenient response of Pakistan has encouraged the enemy to do whatever it wants, and it usually does without any fear or apprehension.
It is clear that the killers involved in all three incidents — Rawalakot, Sialkot and Lahore — seem to be our own nationals, working on behalf of
the Indians, in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances, as they have adopted the same modus operandi in all the three killings.
Though in the past, the government in Pakistan used to accuse India of perpetrating terrorist acts in far-flung areas of Balochistan, the recent incidents in developed, urban areas have increased the suspicion over the ability of our law-enforcement agencies to trace and apprehend the killers and expose their and their masters’ designs, which is shocking as well as embarrassing.
It is time for us to revisit and revise our security strategy as this menace unfortunately seems to be growing, and is likely to grow if not checked and stopped effectively and immediately.
Haseeb Ali Quddusi
Lahore
Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2024
