It is too early to say whether as a result of the Union home secretary’s discussions with his Pakistani counterpart, Islamabad can now be depended upon to deny training and other facilities to Sikh terrorists. Mr. Somiah has understandably been cautious; he has said that he would wait and see if Pakistan lives up to the spirit of the agreement. But clearly the home secretary’s visit to Lahore has been useful. It gave him an opportunity to confront Pakistani officials with evidence of their complicity with the terrorists in the Indian Punjab which they could not refute. Though the nature of this evidence has not been disclosed, it would appear that the videotapes shown by the Indian delegation to the Pakistanis contained this evidence. It would also appear from Mr. Somiah’s statement that this time the Pakistanis could not controvert this evidence. Which means that it was more conclusive than the evidence which New Delhi had so far provided Islamabad either in face-to-face encounters or through the diplomatic channels. Perhaps it was this evidence which enabled the Prime Minister to say in a public speech last week that India was entitled to cross the border into Pakistan in hot pursuit of terrorists and to smash the training camps there, though it was not proposing to do so. Apparently the home secretary and his team have underscored this message in their talks in Lahore.
It is also a gain that Pakistan has acknowledged the existence of a link between drug smuggling and terrorism in our Punjab. But we should not read too much into this agreement. For the matter concerns us and not the Pakistanis. We can only try to secure their cooperation in the general fight against drug smuggling and they cannot publicly deny us this cooperation because that would bring on their head the wrath of the western world, especially the United States. Indeed, the importance of the link itself should not be exaggerated. The terrorists are linked with smugglers and some of them perhaps function as both. But they are not dependent on that income is almost certain that they receive substantial amounts of money from other sources, including anti-Indian Sikhs abroad. The crux of the matter is Pakistan’s attitude towards the terrorists. New Delhi has to watch it with care.