by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Abhinandan Back, Its Azhar's turn now
Modi Mounts Pressure on Imran to act
India Isolating Pakistan globally
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, March 1
With Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman back in the country, India has launched a three-pronged attack on Pakistan to ensure that Azhar Masood is arrested and prosecuted for terror attacks in India. Since Azhar Masood has already owned up responsibility for the killing of 40 CRPF jawans in Pulwaha in J&K on February 14, Prime Minister Modi has seized this opportunity to force Pakistan to act.
If he persuaded France to move the resolution in UN Security Council to declare Azhar Masood as global terrorist with the support of UK & USA, efforts are on to persuade China not to veto it this time when it comes up in the next 10 working days. India has conveyed to China that it has withstood pressures from even Sangh Parivar to shun Chinese goods and ban Huawei like the USA has done.
It was a feather in Modi's cap that Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) stood firm in inviting India ignoring threat from Pakistan to boycott. Sushma Swaraj won hearts of 47 countries by her passionate speech and informed them India has 18.5 crores Muslim brothers and sisters who are microcosm of the diversity in India. Of course, she urged the OIC to “act together and stand together to combat global terrorism” without naming Pakistan.
India is also working hard with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to bring Pakistan in the ‘grey list’ from June at its next meeting. Pakistan is already on the watch list.
Highly placed sources in the government say that
India is set to reject Pakistan PM Imran Khan's offer for a joint probe into Pulwama attacks. India has conveyed to the world that nothing came out after it allowed Paki investigators to visit Pathankot airbase after the attack. India has made it clear that intelligence dossiers against those responsible for Pulwama and their perpetrators have already been handed over to Pakistan and shared the same with world powers. The Pakistan Minister has already said that Azhar Masood is in Pakistan. Therefore, its for Pakistan to act against him immediately if it wants peace process to begin. In any case, this being the election time, the ruling establishment in India would not lower its guard.
Ends
