Indian spy agencies-media nexus behind terrorism acts in Pakistan, says paper

Islamabad, Apr.30 : An editorial in a Pakistani daily has claimed that there is a nexus between the Indian media and Indian spy agencies, and that this nexus is behind several acts of terrorism in Pakistan.

According to the editorial in The News, the release of convicted Indian spy Kashmir Singh from a Lahore Jail after 35 years, and his subsequent declaration on reaching India that he was a spy , is a pointer to the existence of this nexus.

It says that Kashmir Singh returned to India under the media glare through an official pardon with the persistent efforts of former Pakistan Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney.

Referring to the Sarabjit Singh case, the editorial says that when he has himself acknowledged in his confession that he was paid by Indian intelligence for every blast that he carried out in Pakistan in 1990-91, where is the need for Islamabad to exhibit leniency.

"He was afforded the opportunity to defend himself in various tiers of the judicial system of Pakistan and his death sentence has been confirmed by country's apex court," the editorial says.

"The highly publicised case of Sarabjit Singh underscores various aspects of the spy games that India plays in the context of its relations with Pakistan and the bipartisan support that is provided to such efforts by the Indian Establishment," it adds.

Few points in this context are noteworthy.

First, the conviction of Sarabjit Singh on terrorism charges convincingly establishes the fact that Indian spy agencies are involved in conducting and sponsoring acts of terrorism in Pakistan while laying out a thick smokescreen of allegations that India is a victim of cross border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

Second, considering that even the political leadership of India has joined the campaign of securing clemency for the convicted spy-terrorist it is amazing how the Indian media, intelligentsia and the establishment have joined hands in spin doctoring the profile of a convicted terrorist into a blundering simpleton who made his entry into Pakistan in the stupor of a drunken haze.

Third, the episode has underlined the intelligence-media nexus that is so effectively employed by Indian establishment to lend weight to its foreign policy goals and conduct of diplomacy.

It concludes that the Indian spy network-media nexus has only one objectivein a world driven by the threat of terrorism -- to project Pakistan as a state sponsoring terrorism.

It says that the case of Sarabjit Singh "provides the smoking gun, if ever one was needed to establish that the Indian spy agencies regularly commit acts of terrorism in Pakistan, directly or through proxy and abetment."

ANI