The suicide attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk airport which claimed 44 lives is a wake-up call for Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The terrorism which they only promoted to achieve their selfish motives of expanding Turkey and bringing down Bashar al Assad government in Syria has backfired them now in this form.
The West and Middle East have failed to understand India’s warnings about terrorism since many years. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first speech in United Nations General Assembly categorically said that there is no distinction between good and bad terrorism. Terrorism as a whole needs to be contained by combined efforts by all nations of the world. He reiterated his stand in his recent speech in Senate of United States of America.
USA learnt the lesson after the blast of twin towers in 2001. The very terrorist organizations which it promoted in Afghanistan showed their dirty face through causing this huge disaster on the mankind. Then only the then government of USA led by George W Bush realised that the policy which favoured the Taliban’s flourishing was a misplaced doctrine. They reaped what they had sown. However, it was too late by then. Despite all efforts by USA and other countries of the world to bring stability in Afghanistan, the Afghans live in a totally insecure environment. During interaction with this author, the Afghans have openly cursed USA and Pakistan for bringing chaos and total instability in their lives.
Pakistan is not an exception either. With an aim to make India unstable, it pushed for infiltration of terrorists across the borders. It also helped in giving training for terrorist organizations and even funded them. But they had to witness the bitter fruits of the bad seeds that it had sown in incidents like Peshawar attack on 16th December 2014 which killed more than 148 students of Army Public School to open firing in Bacha Khan University in January 2016. In the first half of the year 2016 alone, there have been nine major terrorist attacks.
Still it seems Pakistan has not learnt lessons. This is evident in incidents, which we are witnessing in India, like attack on Pathankot air base and on bus carrying Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF) in Pampore last week which were conducted by Pakistan backed United Jihad Council, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar e taiba terrorist organizations.
It is good if Pakistan realises its mistake very soon and goes for self correction measures along with addressing the issue of internal instability. At the same time, Turkey needs to join hands with western allies who are waging war against terrorism. The countries need to think beyond their short term goals of overpowering their neighbourhood. All countries should join hands together to establish long lasting peace in the world. If we sow the seeds of peace, then only we will reap the fruits of peace.
– Akshara Damle
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
