As usual US playing double games, will boomerang badly
Blome, the Yank Ambassador to Pakistan has not only visited Muzaffarabad, a major town in illegally occupied territory belonging to India, and probably to rile India a bit more, repeatedly mentioned the occupied Indian territory as ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’. It is the second high-profile visit by a US diplomat to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, after Illhan Omar, US parliamentarian visited the region.
The ambassador chap also has the gumption to tweet “The Quaid-e-Azam Memorial Dak Bungalow symbolizes the cultural and historical richness of Pakistan and was famously visited by Jinnah in 1944. I’m honoured to visit during my first trip to AJK”, his official Twitter handle had tweeted.
By visiting the disputed region, that was forcibly annexed by Pakistan in 1947 through a joint military raid by tribals, Pakistani Army and non-State actors, the US has sent another signal to India that the US will play its cat and mouse games in the region. Well India too and should start playing such games, then USA will not know where to look and hide.
The US has already announced military equipment supply and support of $450 million to Pakistan’s F-16, and for counter-terrorism. The yanks fully well know that these fighters will be used only against India as dine in 2019 soon after its terror groups killed 40 Indian para-military personnel in Pulwama, J&K. In the bargain one American supplied F16 was shot down by a vintage MiG21 of the IAF.
In addition the Pakistani army has been using American supplied helicopter gunships to mount attacks in rural areas of Occupied Baluchistan, against hapless Baloch populations. Two of its helicopters have been reportedly shot down by Baloch freedom fighters of Baloch Liberation Army in the last two months.
The costing up of US to Islamabad will neither serve the interests of America nor of Pakistan. “It’s really for the United States today to reflect on the merits of this relationship and what they get by it. For someone to say I am doing this because it is all counter-terrorism content and so when you are talking of an aircraft like a capability of an F-16 where everybody knows, you know where they are deployed and their use,” brought out Shri S Jaishankar, the Indian Foreign Minister.
India on Friday strongly objected to US ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome’s visit to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir wherein he repeatedly referred to the region as AJK. India’s objections to the visit and meetings in PoK by the US envoy has been conveyed to Washington.
Washington knowsfully well that India in 1994 had passed a resolution saying PoK is part of India and Pakistan must vacate and end its illegal occupation. In July, defence minister Rajnath Singh had made a strong PoK pitch, stating it was a part of India and will continue to do so. Sharda Peeth, which has the ruins of a temple of Hindu goddess Saraswati, also known as Sharda, located close to the Kishen Ganga river in the Neelum Valley. The site located around 150 kilometres from Muzaffarabad holds religious significance for Kashmiri Pandits.
So when India retakes PoK then USA will not know what to do ….will it fight India like it did in Kuwait ?
The US has started going about systematically restoring ties with ally Pakistan, that had once sent Washington and its fearsome military on a wild-goose chase for a decade looking for Osama bin Laden in the wilds of Afghanistan. Laden was finally found sheltering under the nose of the Pakistani army.
The US made it a point to highlight how it has been helping Pakistan in a holistic manner–restoring Pakistani heritages and cultural sites to providing significant humanitarian relief supplies during the 2005 earthquake to lately providing “over $66 million in cash, food, and health assistance” as devastating floods ravage Pakistan. With this humanitarian aid is probably posting a repartee to China over the latter chiding Washington to do more to help Pakistan in its hour of crisis–the floods.
Early last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry had chided the US by saying: “Instead of passing unwarranted criticism against China-Pakistan cooperation, the US side might as well do something real and beneficial for the people of Pakistan”.
Seething with “Anger” the US ambassador’s POK visit is also about balancing India, which has been taking out its own path in regional conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the China-Taiwan crisis.
So it Washington is trying to keep India under check while keeping an eye on the developments in Taliban-run Afghanistan. Meanwhile China is trying its best to make Pakistan serve as the gateway to the strategic Indian Ocean Region through the Gwadar port in Occupied Baluchistan, helping secure trade and energy supplies.
Can Pakistan play both sides any more ? Because the situation is changing as the US and China spar with each other over trade, global influence, Taiwan and critical technology.
