Speaking during the 9/11
Memorial Observance at the Pentagon, US President Donald Trump reiterated his
resolve to crack down on terror safe havens. Warning those who shelter
terrorists and use terror as a policy tool, Trump warned that the
"American forces were relentlessly pursuing and destroying the enemies of
all civilized people, like we'd never seen before."
Remembering the horror of the
dark day when multiple terror attacks at the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon
and in Pennsylvania sixteen years ago left 2977 dead and changed America and
the world forever giving it organized, transnational terror organizations,
Trump said that his administration was ensuring that terrorists never again had
a safe haven to launch attacks against America.
Terming the attack on
September 11, 2001 even worse than the attack on Pearl Harbour as it targeted
civilians, Trump reassured American that terrorists have nowhere to hide,
"We are making plain to these savage killers that there is no dark corner
beyond our reach, no sanctuary beyond our grasp, and nowhere to hide anywhere
on this very large Earth."
REMINDER TO PAKISTAN
This is yet another stinging
reminder to nations like Pakistan that harbour terror groups and employ terror
as state policy. Trump has named Pakistan directly, on multiple occasions.
While unveiling his
government's Afghanistan centric South Asia policy last month, he had repeated
his stand about Pakistan as a safe haven for terrorists, had slammed it for
supporting terrorists and had sought to increase India's role in Afghanistan.
Earlier, Modi-Trump Joint
Statement in June called Pakistan a safe haven for terrorists and the term made
its way to the US Country Report on Terrorism in July. Trump's warning to
Pakistan tells how miffed he is with the country. While detailing his South
Asia policy, Trump slammed Pakistan and warned that the US will no longer be
silent about Pakistan's double-dealings. He demanded that Pakistan's attitude
of doublespeak had to change immediately.
Pakistan was still reeling
under the pressure of an increasingly demanding US, the only superpower of the
world and a major aid provider to Pakistan, to crack down on terror networks in
real and tangible terms, when another powerful bloc of countries, the BRICS,
alluded to Pakistan to rein in the terror groups operating from its soil. It
was a double whammy for Pakistan because the censure came from a multilateral
platform which had its all weather ally China as one of founding members
besides India, Russia and Brazil.
The BRICS Declaration, while
directly naming Pakistan based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammed, said, "Recalling the primary leading role and
responsibility of states in preventing and countering terrorism, we stress the
necessity to develop international cooperation, in accordance with the
principles of international law, including that of sovereign equality of states
and non-interference in their internal affairs." The BRICS Summit was held
in the first week of this month in China.
INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON PAK
TERROR
Increasing international
pressure on terror infrastructure in Pakistan has created a sense of panic in
the country's ruling establishment. Though they deny it, their contradicting
responses confirm it. First they rejected the BRICS Declaration. Then
Pakistan's Foreign Minister admitted presence of terror groups terming then an
embarrassment for his country.
While Pakistan's Foreign
Minister was being realist and honest, its army chief chose to preach the world
again when he said that "if Pakistan had not done enough in the war
against terror, then no country in the world had done anything." So it didn't
come as a surprise when Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today
warned the US approach on Pakistan, cutting military aid and sanctioning
Pakistani officials would be counter-productive.
©SantoshChaubey
