Mumbai Terrorists Targeted India-Pakistan Peace Deal

Writes Tarek Fatah in the Calgary Herald:

While the ISI-PPP tussle for control of the country's intelligence network was going on behind the scenes, on Tuesday, the president of Pakistan, Asif Zardari, threw a bombshell that caught the Pakistan military establishment off guard. Speaking to an Indian TV audience, Zardari announced a strategic shift in Pakistan's nuclear policy. He startled a cheering Indian audience, saying Pakistan had adopted a "no-first-strike" nuclear-war policy. This apparently did not go down well within Pakistan's military establishment that has ruled the country for decades using the "Indian bogey" to starve the nation of much-needed development investment in order to put the huge military machine on a permanent war footing with no war in sight. Immediately, the military commentators denounced Zardari.

Zardari also borrowed a quote from his late wife, who once said there's a "little bit of India in every Pakistani and a little bit of Pakistan" in every Indian. "I do not know whether it is the Indian or the Pakistani in me that is talking to you today," Zardari said.

While most Pakistanis welcomed the new air of peace and friendship, the country's religious right was upset.

Just a month ago, the founder of one of Pakistan's most feared armed Islamist groups had accused Zardari of being too dovish toward India, and criticized him for referring to militants in Indian-held Kashmir as "terrorists." Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),a major militant group fighting in Indian Kashmir, described Zardari's comments as "a clear violation and digression from the consistent policy of Pakistan."Then Wednesday, the so-called "Deccan Mujahedeen" struck against India with the clear aim of triggering a Hindu backlash against the country's minority Muslims, with the obvious danger to Pakistan-India relations.

Most security commentators agree the Deccan Mujahedeen is merely a tag of convenience and that behind this well-planned terror attack lies the secret hands of the LeT. The same LeT that had warned Zardari to desist from warming up to India.

Only time will tell whether these Islamists succeed or whether the good people of India--Hindus and Muslims --can see through this provocation and embrace the hand of friendship extended by Zardari.

In the meantime, Muslims around the world will also have to decide whether to enter the 21st century and distance themselves from the doctrine of armed jihad, or go back to the 12th century and embrace these haters of joy and peace.