New Delhi, April 12 (IANS) What could be more ironic — or more unsettling — than a country long accused of harbouring terrorists presenting itself as a venue for peace talks? The contradiction is not just hard to ignore; it is even harder to justify.

It becomes sharper when one considers that the United States — a nation that suffered one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history — now finds itself relying, directly or indirectly, on Pakistan to facilitate pathways to peace. This is the same Pakistan that sheltered Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11, in Abbottabad, within walking distance of a military academy.

There is something deeply jarring about this spectacle — Pakistan stepping into the role of diplomatic host and attempting to recast itself as a credible broker of dialogue and stability. But the fact is that the very tools required to foster trust — consistency and credibility — have rarely been associated with a country whose footprint appears repeatedly in the shadow of global terror.

For a country carved out in 1947 on religious lines, Pakistan’s trajectory has been shaped less by internal consolidation and more by external hostility, particularly towards India. The record is not contested — four wars, decades of cross-border tensions, and a persistent reliance on non-state actors. These are not fragments of a distant past; they continue to define the region’s fragile security even today.

The most recent reminder came on April 22, 2025, in Pahalgam, where terrorists gunned down 25 tourists and a local pony operator in a brutal attack that shocked the world. The outrage was immediate and global, including from the United States.

For decades, Pakistan’s international reputation has been dogged by accusations of deep-state links with extremist groups. These concerns have extended far beyond South Asia. From Afghanistan to incidents in the West, investigative trails have often pointed towards operatives, funding pipelines, or ideological networks with roots in Pakistan. Denials have been routine, but the pattern has been difficult to dismiss.

Nothing illustrates this more starkly than the events of September 11, 2001. Nineteen hijackers carried out coordinated attacks on the United States, bringing down the World Trade Center towers, striking the Pentagon, and crashing a fourth plane in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 lives were lost in an act that reshaped global security.

The investigations that followed raised troubling questions. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of the attacks, was captured in Pakistan — not in a remote hideout, but in an urban setting. Osama Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad only deepened the sense of disbelief over how such figures could remain undetected for so long.

Which makes the present moment all the more puzzling.

Consider Donald Trump’s own record. In 2018, as President, he openly accused Pakistan of “lies and deceit”, questioning the billions of dollars in American aid and alleging that Islamabad had offered safe havens to terrorists while taking US support.

Fast forward to now, and the shift in tone is striking. Trump appears to have rediscovered Pakistan as a partner. He has publicly praised General Asim Munir — even calling him a “favourite Field Marshal” — despite the general’s record of provocative rhetoric rooted in religion and region, including remarks made shortly before the April 2025 Pahalgam attack.

India responded with Operation Sindoor, a calibrated crackdown on terror networks. Trump, however, chose a different framing — claiming credit for easing tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad and even floating the idea of a Nobel Peace Prize for himself. In doing so, he has, in effect, legitimised a state he once described as complicit in terrorism and has positioned it as a broker in a conflict that has put the whole world in peril.

What this moment exposes is not diplomacy, but a collapse of political consistency — particularly in Washington. The same leader who once warned the world about Pakistan’s duplicity now appears willing to overlook it.

The reality, however, remains unchanged. Pakistan has not fundamentally dismantled the infrastructure that has long defined its global reputation. Networks that have destabilised regions and claimed innocent lives continue to cast a long shadow. From sheltering Osama Bin Laden to enabling cross-border terror, the record is neither thin nor ambiguous. But, unfortunately, all this is being conveniently set aside.

And so, we arrive at a troubling paradox — a country with such a history being projected as a facilitator of peace, while the world’s most powerful nation looks the other way, conveniently sidestepping its evil deeds, such as the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, in which American citizens were also killed; the 2019 Pulwama attack; 2001 Indian Parliament attack, or the terrorism in Kashmir where thousands have died and lakhs uprooted.

The message this sends is dangerous. It suggests that accountability is negotiable, that inconvenient histories can be rewritten, and that strategic utility can outweigh sustained patterns of behaviour.

By legitimising Pakistan without demanding irreversible change, the US risks strengthening the very ecosystem it claims to fight, which is the terrorist supporting regimes. Peace, after all, cannot be outsourced to a state that has so often been part of the problem.

(Deepika Bhan can be contacted at deepika.b@ians.in)

–IANS

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