That Hafiz is a globally designated terrorist. While I don't completely deny the possibility of RAW supporting BLA, do you see Indian army posing with globally designated terrorists?
Its not like India is doing terrorist activities from Indian soil. You can make your house clean and claim innocence right? How long has this terror funding from Pak army has to go on?
Look I can safely say most Pakistanis are sick of its soil being used as a chessboard for the generals' games. While most support the cause of Kashmiri freedom, they have little sympathy for the likes of Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar.
However Indians are naive to insist Pakistan must simply hand these people over at the behest of a hardline Hindu nationalist government without a quid pro quo. Most Pakistanis are not delusional - we're perfectly aware India has a larger military and more stable economy. India has the advantage in a conventional war. Therefore Pakistan calculated it needs all possible points of leverage and these unsavoury characters are the bargaining chips regardless of how much it isolates us internationally.
I cannot speak for the military leadership. However I find it hard to imagine Pakistan wouldn't seriously consider an Indian offer consisting of:
- An end to all sponsorship of proxy groups in Kashmir and Balochistan.
- A return to the Musharraf-Singh four point agenda on Kashmir involving a) establishing the LOC as the international border but not a
hard border with freedom of movement a la Northern Ireland-Republic of Ireland; b) phased withdrawal of all troops; c) enabling all Kashmiris to attain their full political and economic rights with freedom of religion and no forced demographic change; d) a joint supervision mechanism involving India, Pakistan and Kashmir.
From there relations could gradually improve with greater trading relations and more people-to-people contact.
Loudly declaring an issue is resolved doesn't make it so. Like Trump and Netanyahu who've made unsubstantiated declarations of victory into an artform, Modi's repealing of Article 370 wasn't the end of the Kashmir conflict. Unlike India's other separatist conflicts which are indeed internal matters, Kashmir is internationally defined as a disputed territory and Pakistan remains a party to the conflict.
Pakistanis accept our state has miscalculated on many occasions. However Indians must also accept its mistakes. Of all Prime Ministers since 1947, arguably Modi was the best placed to end the Pakistan-India conflict. It's far easier for Governments of the Right to make peace than Governments of the Left.
He started well inviting Nawaz to his inauguration. However he screwed up massively with his sudden Christmas 2015 visit, designed more for PR than actual diplomacy. A cursory glance at Pakistan's politics would've shown the civilian and military government weren't aligned. Nawaz's relationship with the military was worsening by the day (and was turfed out 18 months later). A few days later Pathankot happened, Modi got slapped by his hardliners and the window of opportunity for dialogue ended for the following decade.
Imagine if Modi Govt actually worked the backchannels over several months, identified mutual red lines and established a framework for negotiations before such a visit. It would've greatly increased the chances for success however remote. But that's the problem with populists - PR takes priority over actual work and unfortunately the conflict has since claimed more lives.