T he 1340-page National Investigation Agency (NIA) chargesheet against the accused in the February 14, 2019, Pulwama attack that left 40 CRPF personnel dead is just a synopsis of the expansive and intricate terror network operating from Pakistan.

The charge-sheet, prepared after more than one and a half years of hard work of the investigators has given in-depth details of Pakistan’s involvement in the attack that shook the entire Indian nation while watching the horror unfolding on their TV screens.

The CRPF convoy’s journey was cut off by a suicide bomber trained by terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad under the direct directions of Pakistan-based operators. It was the worst-ever terror attack on the Kashmiri soil since 1990, the zero-calendar year of the beginning of militancy in Kashmir.

Pakistan is wrong in its assumptions and unfairly attributing it to India that some political motives were behind the chargesheet. The NIA investigators have done a thorough job in picking up the pieces of evidence and then putting these together to establish the evidence of Pakistan and its actors in the attack. It is immaterial whether Pakistan accepts it or not, the world knows.

But Pakistan has to answer why it cooperates and facilitates investigations with the US and European countries in terror attacks. Post 9/11, it became quite active in fighting what is now known as war on terror, though of course, for billions of dollars. It cooperated with the UK in the London bombings of July 2005 in which Pakistan-origin family members were involved, and still more it had offered all the background in the case of the failed Times Square car bombing in 2010.

That’s why the chargesheet is a synopsis of the worldwide terror network of Pakistan. It highlights the wires that were pulled by the Pakistani establishment and others in the neighbouring country. It requires a global effort to bring out the depths of the terrorism channels that Pakistan has promoted all across the world. Call it lone wolf attacks or by any other name, Pakistan’s footprints are quite widespread.

Daily Tribune:  31st August, 2020