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India-Pakistan
To ban or not to ban?
2017-01-09
[DAWN] MANY in the West view Pakistain as a safe haven for transnational terrorist organizations, and India is attempting very hard to exploit this global opinion. In reality, however, terrorist violence kills more innocent civilians and security personnel in Pakistain compared to all of Europe in any given year. Regrettably, Western societies ignore the causalities of terrorism inside Pakistain and apply different standards for valuing Pak life.

India has consistently attempted to ban and blacklist the founder of Jaish-e-Mohammad
...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
(JeM) Maulana Masood Azhar
...One of the major players in Pak terrorism. In early 1994, India incarcerated him for his terrorist activities. In 1995, foreign tourists were kidnapped in Jammu and Kashmir. The kidnappers included the release of Masood Azhar among their demands. One of the hostages managed to escape but the rest were eventually killed. In 1999, he was freed by the Indian government in exchange for passengers on hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 that had been diverted to Kandahar. The hijackers were led by Masood Azhar's brother, Ibrahim Athar. Once he was handed over to the hijackers, they fled to Pak territory despite the fact that Islamabad had earlier stated that any of the hijackers would be jugged at the border. The Pak government had also previously indicated that Azhar would be allowed to return home since he did not face any charges there. Shortly after his release, he made a public address to an estimated 10,000 people in Karachi, firing up the rubes against America and India...
through a United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
Security Council sanctions committee. Such efforts have been repeatedly blocked by China which is acting in support of Pakistain as the latter views India’s attempts as politically motivated and intended in the long run to discredit the genuine Kashmiri freedom movement. Indeed, the ban seems to only serve a symbolic purpose. It would mean no more than a global travel ban and an asset freeze; in any case Azhar has been living mostly under protective custody, and JeM is already classified as a terrorist organization -- banned by both Pakistain and the sanctions committee, and subject to a strict UN sanctions regime which Pakistain is presently bound to enforce regardless of Azhar’s status.

Pakistain, however, must keep its eyes on the ball. Today, it is uncontested that terrorism is a very serious internal threat to Pakistain, and geopolitics aside, Pakistain must seriously realise that its national and international obligations for combating terrorism are not mutually exclusive. By implementing its domestic laws on combating terrorism against minority groups, while in concert respecting the fundamental human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
and freedoms of individuals enshrined in the Constitution, Pakistain can automatically comply with virtually all of its counterterrorism international legal obligations.

Even though it might be politically hard to swallow, the government must act against influential leaders of radical organisations engaged in spreading hate and terrorism — and not just against those which it classifies as involved in anti-state activities — by designating them as “proscribed persons” under Article 11EE of the Fourth Schedule of the ATA. This would allow the government to constantly monitor and keep under tight surveillance such proscribed persons and punish any violators who misuse religious institutions to provoke terrorist violence against the most venerable segments of society.
Posted by:Fred

#1  Pakistain must seriously realise that its national and international obligations for combating terrorism are not mutually exclusive.

It's been exclusive since the 1960s.
Posted by: Pappy   2017-01-09 08:41  

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