Pakistan has not learnt any lessons from its near-isolation in the comity of nations in the wake of the Uri terrorist attack in which it gunned down 19 Indian soldiers. After the vehement denials by the Islamabad establishment that the Uri massacre was the handiwork of terrorists trained and armed in Pakistan has come the claim of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba that it was indeed their job. It is such hollow denials which are proved blatantly wrong that have destroyed the credibility of Pakistan and confirmed the impression worldwide that Islamabad is the epicentre of terror in South Asia.
It is indeed preposterous that some men in responsible positions in Pakistan had even been claiming outrageously that the Uri terror attack was an Indian operation done to discredit Pakistan.The Pakistanis have been propounding and the Americans for quite a while swallowing the theory that there are good terrorists and bad terrorists, evidently because it suited them to do so, but Islamabad has been a victim of terror because of its own foolish mistake of encouraging terror on the sly to spite India. The recent terror attack at a police training academy in Quetta, Balochistan which left at least 60 dead and more than 150 injured only confirms the fact that one cannot encourage and fan one kind of terror and remain free from its overall disastrous effects.
Terror outfits like LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed which are today being patronised by the ISI and the Pakistan army against India could turn against the Pakistanis someday just as many others have done so far. Using terrorism as an instrument of state policy can never prove rewarding in the long run. If Pakistan really wants to control terror within the country it must come down hard on terror networks per se regardless of whether they are directed against Pakistan or against India or Afghanistan. If that happens, there is no reason why talks between the two countries cannot resume and trade ties cannot prosper to the benefit of both countries.
