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 | Déjà vu: Pakistan modifies US-supply arms Our Correspondent We told you so—this is how India and others skeptical about Pakistan’s designs will react to the news that Pakistan modified the US supplied Harpoon anti-ship missile to strike at land targets. The modification is a violation the US Arms Control Export Act. The test of the modified missile was carried out clandestinely on April 23 this year. Another violation the US Government has accused Pakistan of is the modification of American-made P-3C aircraft for land-attack missions. Typically, Islamabad has denied the accusations; it claimed that it did not improvise the Harpoon but indigenously developed the missile which was tested on April 23. This is a preposterous claim, for the wide world knows that Pakistan does not have the capability to build such state-of-the-art armaments; the only industry it excels in is terror, which it exports with zeal to India. The New York Times, which broke the news, said, “Whatever their origin, the missiles would be a significant new entry into Pakistan’s arsenal against India. They would enable Pakistan’s small navy to strike targets on land, complementing the sizable land-based missile arsenal that Pakistan has developed.” What these tests prove, if any proof was needed, that Pakistan remains obsessed with India, despite the fact that threat to its existence comes not from its east but its unruly northern and north-western regions where the Taliban and al-Qaida are waging a grim war; this war is not just against the ruling elite but against whatever vestiges of modernity are left in the country. It is for this reason that the US has been aiding Pakistan both militarily and economically. The latest expose has justified India’s apprehensions about the conversion of aid to fight jihadis for anti-India purposes. Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna had said, “We have told the US that particularly in case of Pakistan, whatever aid in whatever form has been given to them is invariably directed against India and this has been emphatically registered with the US Government.” Typically, Washington did not heed to New Delhi’s counsel. It is evident that Islamabad’s public relations machine is extremely efficient in the US; it has not only convinced President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but also a large number of Congresspersons who recently cleared a huge package to the failed state. Of late—in the wake of Pakistan’s persistent perfidies—a demand is being made in Washington for certifiable benchmarks before Congresspersons clear the aid to Pakistan. While the Obama Administration has protested against the diversion and conversion of military assistance, India needs to step up its campaign against Pakistan’s belligerence in not only in the US but in other rich countries as well. Posted on : 9/4/2009 Mail this article to your friend |