मुंबई

Although (I hope & wish) Pakistani state may not be directly involved but I am convinced that both Pakistan & US bear the moral responsibility for not just in the recent Mumbai attacks but all the fundamentalist activity going on in Pakistan & Afghanistan. It is simple & straight forward. Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 provoked US reaction. This is where Al-Qaeda was created with financial, military and tactical help from not just US but also from Pakistan and other Arab countries. Combatants coming from all over the world especially Muslim countries to fight the Soviets & who were trained by a combined team of US & Pakistani military experts. They were then called Mujahideen or freedom fighters. Once Soviet Union retreated from Afghanistan in 1989, the US simply washed their hands off the mess they had created in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan as well. They simply left those tens of thousands of highly trained and war hardened fighters on their own instead of de-arming, disbanding and helping them to get back to the normal civilian life. Then came the episodes of US invasions in different Muslim countries including Iraq apart from the Israeli-Palestinian episode as well as Kashmir problem which is going on now for 60 years. In response came the attacks on US facilities, military or otherwise, around the world from the same fighters US forgot about after Soviet retreat of Afghanistan. and were now being labelled as fundamentalists and terrorists. Then came the 9/11 attacks and in the wake the US invasion of Afghanistan and finally Iraq with Guantanamo and Abu-Ghraib quagmire. Again those same Al-Qaeda fighters along with local Afghan fighters commonly known as Talibans whom US so gleefully and conveniently helped arm to fight against the Soviets took up arms against the same US lords of 1980s not just in Afghanistan but on all fronts to counter US, UK & Nato forces. In the meantime, Pakistan, as usual, remained in continued state of political turmoil. Until just before the 9/11 attacks, it tried its best to install the puppet regime in Afghanistan and which took a sudden U-turn and became US partner in the war on terror after these attacks when it became apparent that the perpetrators of the attacks were again Al-Qaeda and that most of its mastermind was hiding in Afghanistan under the auspices of the same regime that Pakistan was trying so hard to install in its own favour. More and more people, especially from the border areas with Afghanistan, turned towards radicalisation and sympathy for the Iraqi and Afghan people who are taking the beat eversince. Pakistan & India, apparently under US pressure and/or auspices, since 2002, have been engaged in the rounds of talks to normalise the bilateral relations so I would not be surprised if Al-Qaeda and it's sympathetic organisations in Pakistan may be involved in derailing this process and, why not, eventually get them to war which would evidently ease the pressure on the fundamentalists fighting Pakistani army in its own tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Pakistan has to really work hard if it really wants get over with this problem and instead of US continually criticising for not doing enough on the war against terror, should instead help it seriously to overcome this explosive situation. India enraged after the Mumbai massacre and rightfully so, will have to think about the all over situation pragmatically. In the subcontinent, religious terrorism is not just Muslim phenomenon. In the recent past India internally has faced religious extremism as well and then there is the big thorny issue of Kashmir which has to be solved mutually if both countries, especially when they are nuclear armed, are to live in peace and harmony for the future generations to come.