Terrorism in South Asia
“U.S. Finds No Pakistani Link to India Hijacking” (Jan. 26) exposes the hypocrisy of the Clinton administration. That Pakistan is exporting terrorism is well known to everyone. What more evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the Indian Airlines hijacking did the U.S. need; all hijackers were Pakistani nationals. They demanded the release of Pakistani terrorists lodged in Indian jails, and after getting three terrorists released they went to Pakistan.
In my opinion we should not play politics when it comes to terrorism. As a Kashmiri American, I understand the pain as Pakistan-sponsored terrorism has bought death and destruction to the once-peaceful state of Kashmir.
AMRIT NEHRU
Los Angeles
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The U.S. government contention that Pakistan should break off its relationship with the Kashmiri radical group responsible for the recent Indian Airlines hijacking raises the wider question of South Asian governments getting involved secretly in the activities of groups classified as terrorists. India is the main accuser of Pakistan in this respect.
India’s Defense Minister George Fernandes has accused Pakistan of stepping up cross-border terrorism. But Fernandes himself has been a strong supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, another group found on the same State Department list that includes the Kashmiri radical group, Harkat Moujahedeen, accused of the hijacking. The previous government of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee collapsed amid accusations by a Tamil group that Fernandes facilitated Tamil Tigers to smuggle arms for separatist violence in neighboring Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan and Australian newspapers have charged Fernandes with supporting terrorist activities even during recent times.
WALTER JAYAWARDHANA
Los Angeles
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