Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Gilani’s response

“Gilani’s positive response” and the excellent cartoon (August 4) say it all. Having once nourished Pakistan’s security apparatus and maintained intimate and cordial relations with the ISI, the U.S. must be regretfully realising that the agency it helped to create is an unmanageable ogre today. Clearly, Pakistan’s elected government can be forgiven for its inability to assert control over this evil entity as the recent fiasco has shown.

Then who will dismantle the ISI? Can we foresee a democratic movement of the people of this benighted land arising and assuming such dimensions that the behemoth is reined in?

N. Khosla,

Panchkula

I appreciate Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani for his green signal to those who were pressing in on him on the issue of the ISI. This may be a ponderous and calculated decision for Pakistan. Though we need to be alert to see what the next knock of Pakistan on terrorism will be, it is a ray of hope for the desperate souls of Pakistan and India.

Jeevan James,

Thiruvananthapuram

It is becoming increasingly clear that Pakistan is more under the control of its army than elected representatives. This being so, the ISI poses no ordinary threat to any neighbour. In fact, the formidable nature of such an arrangement cannot be overstated as the Pakistani government has been unable to make a small change of placing the ISI under the control of the Interior Ministry — even for seven hours.

While Mr. Gilani’s positive assurance is welcome, the task ahead is difficult.

Raghu Seshadri,

Chennai

Concrete evidence is emerging of the direct role assigned by the Lashkar-e-Taiba in setting up an encrypted cyber communication facility for helping groups infiltrating across the Line of Control, to Sikandar Azam, son of a senior Pakistani science bureaucrat (August 4), and the subversive activities of the ISI in planning bomb blasts across India are by now proved in every case. It is strange that the U.S. continues to treat Pakistan as its ally no.1 in its “war on terrorism” and Pakistan, as a member of SAARC countries which have met to reiterate their commitment to strengthen the “legal regime against terrorism,” should be talking of the “strongest possible cooperation” in fighting terror.

T.K. Nagabhushana,

Visakhapatnam

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Averting temple stampedes
Unrelenting inflation
A three-horse race in the next election
Corrections and clarifications
Dealing with terror strategies
A Minister maligned and victimised
Gilani’s response
Ahmedabad blasts
SAARC concerns
Temple stampede
Tinderbox coaches
Liberty on two wheels

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu