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Pakistan military taking control
Bruce Loudon, New Delhi | December 08, 2008
Article from: The Australian
CONCERN grew in India yesterday that the Pakistan army had taken charge of the country's response to the Mumbai terror attacks and effectively staged a coup against the country's nascent democracy.
Fears of a full-scale resumption of power by the army in Islamabad lie behind India's relatively cautious response to the crisis, despite New Delhi's insistence that elements in Pakistan orchestrated the slaughter in Mumbai.
In a dramatic manifestation of the Pakistan army's role in the drama, the civilian Government reneged on its agreement with India to send the chief of the top spy agency, General Shuja Pasha, to New Delhi to help with the investigation. The army countermanded the deal.
And it has been disclosed that the chief of the army, General Ashfaq Kayani, despatched his personal aircraft to New Delhi in the middle of the night to pick up Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was on an official visit to India at the time of the attacks.
Diplomatic sources said Mr Qureshi was told by General Kayani to get back to Islamabad and that the army chief's aircraft was being sent to bring him home.
The army, which has ruled Pakistan for most of its 61 years as an independent nation, revels in confrontations with India.
One analyst in New Delhi wrote yesterday: "It could be that the ultimate aim of this entire exercise (the Mumbai attacks) would be for the military in Pakistan to take power again inthe name of dealing with an India crisis."
Though India does not say so officially, New Delhi is convinced Pakistan's ISI spy agency was aware of the plan for the assault on Mumbai, just as it was aware of the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul last July.
The ISI has longstanding and close ties to the al-Qa'ida-linked Lashkar-e-Toiba organisation believed to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks.
Until late last year, General Kayani, now much favoured by Washington, was the commander of the ISI, and General Pasha is one of his closest confidants.
Analysts believe the Mumbai assault was carried out to provide an opportunity for the army to reassert itself as the ultimate power in Pakistan, and to sideline the elected Government led by President Asif Ali Zardari.
General Kayani is believed to be calling the shots on Islamabad's response to the crisis.
In another assessment of the Mumbai fallout, another leading analyst has underlined the links that exist between al-Qa'ida and Lashkar-e-Toiba.
"LET's close ties with al-Qa'ida seem to be verified by its increasingly anti-Western stance, its radical internationalism and its movement towards a trans-regional jihad," said Rashmi Singh, a fellow at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University in Scotland.
"LET has been identified as not only a critical recruiting link for operatives in Iraq, but also potentially providing training for the execution of terror attacks in Europe," she wrote. "Various LET operatives have also been identified as part of the insurgency in Iraq."
Al-Qa'ida's ideology was, Dr Singh argued, "clearly reflected in the deliberate targeting of American, British and Israeli nationals - a phenomenon never before seen in India".
Bruce Loudon, New Delhi | December 08, 2008
Article from: The Australian
CONCERN grew in India yesterday that the Pakistan army had taken charge of the country's response to the Mumbai terror attacks and effectively staged a coup against the country's nascent democracy.
Fears of a full-scale resumption of power by the army in Islamabad lie behind India's relatively cautious response to the crisis, despite New Delhi's insistence that elements in Pakistan orchestrated the slaughter in Mumbai.
In a dramatic manifestation of the Pakistan army's role in the drama, the civilian Government reneged on its agreement with India to send the chief of the top spy agency, General Shuja Pasha, to New Delhi to help with the investigation. The army countermanded the deal.
And it has been disclosed that the chief of the army, General Ashfaq Kayani, despatched his personal aircraft to New Delhi in the middle of the night to pick up Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was on an official visit to India at the time of the attacks.
Diplomatic sources said Mr Qureshi was told by General Kayani to get back to Islamabad and that the army chief's aircraft was being sent to bring him home.
The army, which has ruled Pakistan for most of its 61 years as an independent nation, revels in confrontations with India.
One analyst in New Delhi wrote yesterday: "It could be that the ultimate aim of this entire exercise (the Mumbai attacks) would be for the military in Pakistan to take power again inthe name of dealing with an India crisis."
Though India does not say so officially, New Delhi is convinced Pakistan's ISI spy agency was aware of the plan for the assault on Mumbai, just as it was aware of the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul last July.
The ISI has longstanding and close ties to the al-Qa'ida-linked Lashkar-e-Toiba organisation believed to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks.
Until late last year, General Kayani, now much favoured by Washington, was the commander of the ISI, and General Pasha is one of his closest confidants.
Analysts believe the Mumbai assault was carried out to provide an opportunity for the army to reassert itself as the ultimate power in Pakistan, and to sideline the elected Government led by President Asif Ali Zardari.
General Kayani is believed to be calling the shots on Islamabad's response to the crisis.
In another assessment of the Mumbai fallout, another leading analyst has underlined the links that exist between al-Qa'ida and Lashkar-e-Toiba.
"LET's close ties with al-Qa'ida seem to be verified by its increasingly anti-Western stance, its radical internationalism and its movement towards a trans-regional jihad," said Rashmi Singh, a fellow at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University in Scotland.
"LET has been identified as not only a critical recruiting link for operatives in Iraq, but also potentially providing training for the execution of terror attacks in Europe," she wrote. "Various LET operatives have also been identified as part of the insurgency in Iraq."
Al-Qa'ida's ideology was, Dr Singh argued, "clearly reflected in the deliberate targeting of American, British and Israeli nationals - a phenomenon never before seen in India".
