Musharraf's ouster will boost terror outfits: Indian National Security Advisor

NEW DELHI: Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf's removal would create a political "vacuum" that would give free rein to all the Islamist terrorist outfits which target India, says national security adviser MK Narayanan.

In an interview to the Straits Times , Narayanan said, "It (the impeachment) leaves a big vacuum and we are deeply concerned about this vacuum because it leaves the radical extremist outfits with freedom to do what they like, not merely on the Pak-Afghan border but clearly our side of the border too. Like nature abhors a vacuum, we abhor the political vacuum that exists in Pakistan. It greatly worries us."

Pakistan has just begun an impeachment process against Musharraf, a process he intends to fight tooth and nail. This is polarising further an already polarised polity inside Pakistan. But mostly, it's creating greater space for government agencies like the ISI to strike out on their own even more, something that culminated in the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7, killing Indian diplomats, a first of its kind.

The trail has led surely to the ISI, which planned the operation with the Taliban, a fact that has been corroborated by the US, Afghanistan, India and everybody else that is monitoring the situation there.

Narayanan said, "ISI is behind it, according to whatever information we have. We would expect that the (political leadership of Pakistan) would take some action against it. Either against rogue elements in it, or an ISI operating without control."

India's stand has been corroborated by the NATO commander in Afghanistan over the weekend, who said the ISI assistance has resulted in a 50% increase in terror attacks this year. "There certainly is a level of ISI complicity in the militant areas in Pakistan and organisations such as the Taliban," US General David D McKiernan said in another interview.

"I can't say to what level of leadership that goes to but there are indications of complicity on the part of ISI...to the extent that they are facilitating these militant groups that come out of the tribal areas in Pakistan."

Despite the relative silence on the subject in India, the Kabul blast has also effectively killed the India-Pakistan peace process. The NSA stripped the composite dialogue bare of all pretences. The cold fact today is that there is no effective peace process with Pakistan at all.

Narayanan said, "Up to at least early 2007 it seemed to be working. We do not wish to interrupt that dialogue. But dialogue is only as good as the kind of people who have the capacity to deliver on what they can promise. In any case the resumption of the dialogue at the foreign secretaries level, which took place after the Kabul attack, did not happen in the most propitious of circumstances. It was a rather formal, cold affair. We wish to keep the dialogue on but it depends on if the other side has the capacity to deliver on more than empty words."

The increase in infiltration and firing across the LoC is also a matter of concern in India, said the top official.

Source : Times Of India