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Pakistan urgently needs 100,000 troops in this vast stretch of mountains to deal with the Afghan Taliban, al-Qaida and now a more deadly Pakistani Taliban. India could heave a sigh of relief with the ISI off its back, and the United States would get its wish in cleansing the area of terrorists. The Pakistani army would also get its wish in dealing a deathblow to terrorists plotting their way into cities. This would also curtail the need for U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan’s frontier areas.

It would be quite a trick if the United States could pull this off. However, the ISI is too clever to let it happen, given its twin objectives of occupying Kashmir and gaining control of Afghanistan.

The ISI was modeled on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency of the 1960s. The CIA trained and equipped anti-Castro, anti-Soviet and pro-U.S. agent provocateurs throughout the world in that decade. Since then the CIA has become more sophisticated, but the ISI is still using that model to keep its pots boiling in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

Terrorists trained by the ISI are training more terrorists, who are appearing all over the Western world and in India. Britain recently arrested 12 alleged terrorists after its intelligence agency found they had faked their identities as Pakistani students. In the last month several attempts were made to infiltrate terrorists into India to disrupt the country’s general elections.

The current situation in Pakistan is of its own making. It has transformed from a stable and prosperous agrarian state to a den of terror in just 20 years. Its leaders threw their support behind the Cold War strategy of defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan and are now paying a heavy price for it – thank to the Americans, who freely distributed too many guns, and the Saudi Arabian money that has converted young minds into fundamentalists, all with ISI help.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf took advantage of the situation to arm the country at the expense of the United States and then double-talked the Americans into believing that he would capture al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden and other Taliban leaders and end their terror activities. Rather, he was helping them all along by creating safe sanctuaries and offering technical help for their activities.

Musharraf did not realize that the Taliban in the frontier provinces was a cancer likely to consume Pakistan. Seven years of his lies came to the world’s notice when a new breed of Taliban leaders in Pakistan assassinated beloved leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. Prior to that they had mounted several attacks in different cities and on security forces but none were as imaginative as blowing up Bhutto’s motorcade.

Only after the deadly attack on Bhutto did the Pakistani civilian leadership become aware of the growing influence of the Taliban and the support provided it by the rogue security agency. To divert people’s attention in Pakistan, a separate attack was planned by the ISI on the Indian port city of Mumbai. To undertake this, the ISI had previously created a separate Punjabi terror outfit, the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The Mumbai attack brought worldwide condemnation of Pakistan and created a threat of war in the subcontinent.

The United States is now very worried that it has been deceived. Dumping the past, President Barack Obama’s administration is examining ways and means to sanitize the Pakistani army of its jihadi strain, including curtailing the ISI’s activities. While such reviews were progressing, a visiting Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in broad daylight in the city of Lahore. The team quickly packed up and left the country.

Intelligent Pakistanis are beginning to comprehend the extent of the terror in their midst. Previously, they had enjoyed news of attacks on India and applauded them. Now, terror has come full circle and is hitting Pakistan itself.

The reason for the Taliban to escalate violence in Pakistani cities is simple: the U.S. drone attacks are making life miserable for them. It is believed that the Taliban have told their ISI interlocutors that attacks on Pakistani cities would continue if the United States did not stop its drone attacks.

Pakistan’s army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was summoned to Washington in February, where he met with a number of Pentagon staff officers and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Michael Mullen. This was followed by visits to Pakistan in March by CIA Director Leon Panetta and Federal Bureau of Investigations Director Robert Mueller.

Two weeks later, Mullen and the U.S. Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke visited Rawalpindi and read out the riot act to the Pakistani army chief. It was a stern warning, but the belligerent Pakistani military leadership did not listen and the ISI chief refused to hold a meeting with them.

Mullen and Holbrooke then arrived in India and held an angry press conference at which they outlined their new policy on Pakistan and asked India for help. The idea floating in U.S. policy circles for the past two months was outlined to a cautious Indian National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was busy electioneering.

India has not reacted to the U.S. proposals on Pakistan. Such decisions can be taken only after the general elections are over in May, and a new and credible government is formed.

However, Pakistan has reacted unfavorably to all U.S. proposals. They want no mention of an Indian role in Afghanistan. Pakistan, however, is in no position to dictate terms, as it needs the US$6 billion in economic and military aid immediately.

Does India have anything to gain from the U.S.-Pakistan-Afghanistan imbroglio? It seems that the United States has suddenly realized India’s importance and is dragging it into the conflict, without any significant compensation. Even if the United States tries to strike a deal with the Pakistani army, it will not relent on India.

If India refuses to play ball, it will find itself back on the U.S. “unimportant” list. A political gift is being asked of India, which is outside the negotiating power of both Holbrooke and Mullen and cannot be achieved without U.S. politicians dealing directly with their Indian counterparts. In exchange for Indian action the United States must offer a lot more. But India must be cautious about terror attacks on its soil irrespective of U.S. or Pakistani promises.

A good question is, why didn’t Obama or U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spend more time with Manmohan Singh at the recent G-20 meeting? What was so pressing in Eastern Europe or Turkey that they gave up the opportunity to discuss Afghanistan with Singh? If the United States seriously wants India’s cooperation, shouldn’t Clinton be heading to New Delhi immediately?

Pakistan is rapidly falling into chaos, thanks to the terror network of its own creation. The United States is stuck in Afghanistan, and no peace is possible without dealing with the terror hideouts in Pakistan. This is possible only if a large number of Pakistani troops are deployed quickly; if Indian help is needed, then the Pakistanis should ask for it.

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(Hari Sud is a retired vice president of C-I-L Inc., a former investment strategies analyst and international relations manager. A graduate of Punjab University and the University of Missouri, he has lived in Canada for the past 34 years. ©Copyright Hari Sud.)