Lt. Gen.(Rtd.) Shankar Prasad, in a conversation with the newsroompost.com explores the reaction within the Indian Army on the gruesome child massacre by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Peshawar on the December 16.
Responding to a question on where he thought Pakistan failed, Prasad quipped, “Simply because they are nurturing terrorism. What they did for 20 years has hit them hard pushing them back by at least 10 years now.”
He said that for Pakistan, “those groups that they unleash on India to perpetrate terror are good and those who attack them are bad even though they are created, funded and trained by them”, adding, “There is no good or bad Taliban.”
Answering a question on how he thought the Pakistani establishment can send a strong message to the world and its own people, Prasad said, “The Government of Pakistan has to decide once and for all if it actually wants to end terrorism. It will have to demonstrate to the world that it is serious about dismantling the terror network.”
“As a first step, the Government of Pakistan should hand over Hafeez Sayeed and Dawood Ibrahim to the Indian government. Not just the TTP but LeT, Al Qaeda and all other terrorist outfits have to be dealt with iron hands by the government of Pakistan,” he said
Reflecting on Pakistan’s army, Prasad remarked, “Pakistan’s Prime Minister advised the army not to launch offensive in the North Wajiristan region. But the Army chief went ahead. Going by this state of the army, it is difficult to say that there is any hope in a region where there is mass destruction by the army.”
Commenting on lifting the ban on death penalty in Pakistan in an announcement made by Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, Prasad said, “The announcement to lift the ban on death penalty is going to do nothing as long as the government and/or the army keeps sheltering the terror outfits.”
Sympathising and empathizing with the people of Pakistan, Prasad said, “The people of Pakistan are disgusted by the kind of government they have. There is so called democracy which is not democratic.”
He further said that the people of Pakistan must revolt.
On being questioned on the role of Pakistan’s media in the wake of this attack, Prasad reflected that the media in Pakistan needs to be aggressive on incidents of terror not just within its territory but also outside it especially on cases of cross border terrorism.
No comments:
Post a Comment