J&K too on agenda: Powell

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, OCT. 3. The Bush administration has once again assured India that its global campaign against terrorism will eventually include the goings on in Jammu and Kashmir.

But Washington is extremely reluctant to either completely endorse New Delhi's perceptions or declare rightaway that Pakistan is the "epicentre" of terrorism.

"The events that took place in Kashmir yesterday, that terrible terrorist act, that heinous act that killed innocent civilians and also struck a government facility... It is the kind of terrorism that we are united against," the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, remarked during a media stake out with India's Foreign and Defence Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, on Tuesday.

In a message, Gen. Powell reiterated, "And as the President made it clear... we are going after terrorism in a comprehensive way, not just in the present instance of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, but terrorism as it affects nations around the world, to include the kind of terrorism that affects India." But Gen. Powell would not comment on any specific allegations that Pakistan was behind the terrorists in Afghanistan or Kashmir. "We are going after the Al Qaeda network in its various manifestations and Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants who are in Afghanistan in the first instance. And as I said previously and the President has said repeatedly we are going to be conducting a campaign that goes after terrorism," Gen. Powell remarked.

Even if the Bush administration had all the evidence of Pakistan's terrorist role in Jammu and Kashmir, it is unlikely to rock the boat at this time of its global campaign against terrorism, specifically targeting Osama bin Laden and the Taliban militia in Afghanistan. Washington is simply too keen on keeping a wobbly coalition going, with Pakistan being a critical factor in the current scheme of things.

In fact it was not only Gen. Powell who refrained from getting into specifics on terrorism as it pertained to Pakistan. At the Pentagon, the Defence Secretary, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, was not any different when asked directly whether Pakistan harboured terrorists and provided a safe haven.

"... terrorists are operating in countries because countries are tolerating that and if we are to assure the way of life of free systems such as in our country and in India, the only choice we have is to take the battle to them," Mr. Rumsfeld responded.

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