Pakistan ‘picked up‘ terrorists Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Masood Azhar. Pakistan is under a lot of pressure so they did this to show the world that they took some action. Or so you would think.
The reality is that Pakistan knows the Indian military can execute surgical strikes against terrorist camps in Pakistan and PoK and it’s likely that these militants will be killed in such strikes. By supposedly arresting them, Pakistan is actually protecting them. They will never be handed over to India, the country that they have wronged. After a few months Pakistan will release them and these terrorists will be free to spread hate and recruit more foot soldiers.
India should get the U.S. to charge all these people for the murder of American citizens in Mumbai and extradite them to the U.S. on these charges. America has its flaws, but at least they don’t let terror mongering bastards roam freely in their country. With the evidence that has been gathered, the terrorists should either be executed or spend the rest of their lives behind bars – both of which can be achieved by routing the case through the US justice system.
Update Dec 10, 2008: From the New York Times this morning:
American counterterrorism officials in Washington have struck a skeptical tone, saying that they wanted to see proof that Mr. Lakhvi was actually in custody and that the arrests and raids actually represented a firm commitment by the government to crack down on the groups. The officials spoke before the prime minister’s comments on Wednesday.
“In the past when they’ve promised to move against these guys, they’d pick up one or two of them and then several months later, they’d release them,” said a senior American official who has dealt with Pakistani authorities for several years.
“Based on past patterns, we shouldn’t expect much of this,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the case.