Why India can’t expect 'cooperation' from Pakistan on Pahalgam terror attack

The United States has called on Islamabad to cooperate with India to hunt down Pakistan-based terrorists linked to the Pahalgam terror attack. US Vice President JD Vance expressed hope that Pakistan would work together with New Delhi and India’s response to the April 22 massacre in Kashmir would not trigger a “broader regional conflict”.

In an interview on Fox News, Vance, who was on an India visit at the time of the Pahalgam attack, said, “Our hope here is that India responds to this terrorist attack in a way that doesn’t lead to a broader regional conflict.”

“And we hope, frankly, that Pakistan, to the extent that they’re responsible, cooperates with India to make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their territory are hunted down and dealt with," he added.

While the US expects Pakistan to cooperate, here’s why its hope may bear no fruit.

Pakistan denies hand in Pahalgam terror attack

The Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in Kashmir has sparked fresh tensions between India and Pakistan.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police have so far identified three terrorists involved in the carnage, of which two are Pakistani nationals and one a Kashmiri local.

News reports, citing sources in the security establishment, say Hashim Musa – believed to be the mastermind of the Pahalgam attack – is a former soldier of the Pakistan Army’s Para Forces.

While India has blamed Pakistan for the attack, Islamabad denies the charges. The neighbouring country has called for a “neutral” investigation into the terror attack in Kashmir.

Islamabad has a history of denying its involvement in terror attacks against India emanating from its soil.

Pakistan accepts terrorism ‘past’

Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has accepted his country’s ‘past’ concerning extremist groups. Acknowledging Pakistan’s history with extremism, he claimed the nation has suffered as a result and undergone reformation.

Speaking to Sky News, “As far as what the defence minister said, I don’t think it is a secret that Pakistan has a past… As a result, we have suffered, Pakistan has suffered. We have gone through wave after wave of extremism. But as a result of what we suffered, we also learned our lessons. We have gone through internal reforms to address this problem…”

“As far as Pakistan’s history is concerned, it is history and it is not something that we are partaking in today. It is true that it is an unfortunate part of our history,” Bhutto further said.

The Pakistan People’s Party leader was referring to Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif’s statement admitting the country’s history of supporting, training and funding terrorist organisations.

In an interview with Sky News, Asif described it as doing “dirty work” for the West, due to which Pakistan has greatly suffered.

“Well, we have been doing this dirty work for the United States for about three decades, you know, and the West, including Britain,” the defence minister said.

“That was a mistake, and we suffered from that, and that is why you are saying this to me. If we had not joined the war against the Soviet Union and later on the war after 9/11, Pakistan’s track record… was an unimpeachable track record,” he added.

Asif’s remarks came when he was asked about Pakistan’s “long history of backing and supporting and training and funding these terrorist organisations.”

“It is very convenient for… the big powers to blame Pakistan for whatever is happening in this region. When we were fighting the war on their side way back in the 80s against the Soviet Union, all these terrorists of today, they were wining and dining in Washington.

“And then came the 9/11 attacks. Again, the same situation was repeated. I think our governments then made a mistake,” he said, saying that Pakistan was “used as proxies” at the time.

It should not come as a surprise that Pakistan is accepting its role in supporting terrorists. Islamabad has done several flip-flops in the past by first denying and then accepting the presence of extremists on its soil.

U-turn on Kasab

After initially refuting that Mohammed Ajmal Kasab – the only terrorist captured after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks – was a Pakistani national, Islamabad owned up to him.

On January 7, 2009, the Pakistani daily Dawn published a report titled ‘Ajmal’s nationality confirmed’.

“Pakistani authorities, during the course of their own investigations into the Mumbai carnage, have established that the only surviving terrorist Ajmal Kasab is a Pakistani national,” the report read.

The admission came a day after the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the “official agencies” of the Pakistan government were complicit in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. He also accused Islamabad of having “utilised terrorism as an instrument of state policy against India.”

As per The New Indian Express (TNIE) report, the then Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma had urged Pakistan to admit Kasab is its citizen as the “first step”, signalling its intent to cooperate in the probe into the Mumbai terror attacks.

Later in March that year, Kasab, appearing by videolink for the start of his trial, said he was from Faridkot in Pakistan’s Punjab.

In 2018, Pakistan’s former PM Nawaz Sharif publicly acknowledged the presence of active militant organisations in the country. He also questioned “non-state actors” to cross the border and “kill” people in Mumbai.

Without mentioning Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) of Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 terror attacks, and Maulana Masood Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammad, Sharif reportedly said that militant organisations are “active in Pakistan”.

“Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill over 150 people in Mumbai?” he told Dawn.

A 180-degree turn on Kargil War involvement

For years, Pakistan has officially denied its involvement in the 1999 Kargil war . The conflict was triggered when Pakistani forces and armed militants crossed the Line of Control (LoC), infiltrating Indian territory and taking control of key elevated positions in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir.

India launched Operation Vijay to reclaim the occupied territories from the intruders. The Indian armed forces fought in tough terrain, with the war officially ending on July 26, 1999.

Pakistan initially claimed that only “freedom fighters” were involved in the war. However, Pervez Musharraf, who was the Pakistan Army chief during the Kargil War, admitted to the Pakistan Army’s role in the Kargil War in his 2006 book In The Line Of Fire.

Last year, Pakistani Army chief General Asim Munir mentioned the Pakistan Army’s involvement in the Kargil War.

Speaking about Pakistan’s conflicts with India over the years, he said, “Indeed Pakistani nation is a courageous and bold nation, which understands best the importance of independence and how to protect it at any price. Whether the Pak-India wars of 1948, 1965, 1971 and Kargil or Siachen conflict, thousands of martyrs gave sacrifices for the security and honour of the country.”

This was the first time that a serving Pakistani Army chief accepted the military’s role in the Kargil war.

Denying sheltering Osama Bin Laden

Islamabad has maintained that it was not harbouring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before he was killed by US special forces in 2011 in Pakistan’s Abbottabad.

A year after bin Laden’s killing, the then Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani rebuffed claims that he knew the notorious terrorist was living in Abbottabad.

“There is no complicity. I think it’s an intelligence failure from all over the world,” Gilani said in an interview with The Guardian. He also denied that elements within Pakistan’s military could have known bin Laden’s hideout.

He added: “Why should we do that? We have suffered the most.”

With inputs from agencies