Hafiz Saeed walks free with a swagger vowing to support the jihad in Kashmir against India. While India has accused Pakistan of ‘lack of seriousness’, the question is what next?

Rather than introspection, India is certain to redouble its efforts to get Hafiz Saeed incarcerated — this will not help — and to garner world opinion against Pakistan as a state sponsoring terrorism. This will not happen.

India should instead ask itself: will Pakistan supported proxy war abate if Hafiz Saeed is in or out of jail, dead or alive, punished or pardoned? The answer is it would not. India’s problem is not terrorism, let alone international terrorism as New Delhi would have its people believe. It is the Pakistan Army, the fountain-head of terrorism against India.

India has pointlessly elevated the stature of Hafiz Saeed by over-emphasising his reach, capabilities and role. He, or any terrorist, nameless or with a name, can do little without the full backing of the Pakistan Army which provides sanctuary, arms, training, intelligence and fire power to continue bleeding the Indian Army. It does so because India — for political reasons — justifies killing of own troops’ and sagging morale (largely caused by little or no sleep and endless war-like environment) by citing wrong reasons. It is fight against the elusive terrorists that strains troops’ nerves. Since terrorists’ stock would never diminish, the proxy war would continue until the Pakistan Army achieves its objective: resolution of Jammu and Kashmir.


The only way to stop this is either by making peace with the Pakistan Army by the Kashmir resolution or to hit it where it hurts. This will not happen by killing terrorists, but by adopting an offensive posture which should compel the Pakistan Army to review its proxy war.