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Pakistan is like some kind of lawless Congo republic that is full of roaming bands of armed rebels and cross-border terrorists causing problems for all of the countries unfortunate enough to be neighbouring them.
From a Pakistani newspaper today:
Jihadis bringing Pakistan in conflict with neighbours
Amir Mir
Monday, March 31, 2014
ISLAMABAD: The rising incidents of cross-border terrorism by some Pakistan-based militant groups not only in Afghanistan and India but also in Iran and China, are increasingly bringing Islamabad into conflict with most of its neighbouring states.
Pakistan’s Tribal Areas are being blamed for harbouring non-state actors by almost all its neighbours, with Delhi, Kabul, Tehran and Beijing expressing concern about the links between global terrorism and sanctuaries located in the lawless regions of the Fata. Pakistan always condemns these acts of terrorism as a matter of policy, saying they are being committed by non-state actors who are also targeting the state of Pakistan. However, the fact remains that the militants groups which are allegedly involved in cross-border terrorism were actually created and nurtured by the Pakistani and the American intelligence establishments to fight out the Soviet occupation forces. The dilemma is that these elements are not only targeting Pakistan’s neighbouring states today but also Pakistan. In short, the monsters created by the CIA and the ISI have turned against their creators.
What is alarming is that these jihadis see no end to their anarchist agenda and have stepped up their efforts to bury Pakistan in conflict with its immediate neighbours. The latest escalation in diplomatic hostilities between Iran and Pakistan was caused by the abduction of five Iranian border guards from Iran’s Sistan Balochistan region, allegedly by a Pakistan-based Sunni militant group called Jaishul Adl or the Army of Justice. Tehran has alleged that the guards had been taken to Pakistan and are being held in the Balochistan province, amid media reports that one of them has already been shot dead. Another militant group allegedly operating from Balochistan which had carried out a number of lethal suicide bombings in Iran and killed dozens of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the past, is Jundallah.
Expressing indignation at Pakistan for its failure to curb these incidents, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli went to the extent of threatening to send the Iranian troops into Pakistan to secure the guards’ release. Following reports that one of the guards has been killed, Iran has closed its borders with Pakistan and all kinds of trade between the two countries will remain suspended for next two weeks. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani telephoned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and demanded serious and swift action to secure the release of the abducted guards. Although Nawaz Sharif said the issue was of utmost importance to his government, the two neighbours appear to be on a collision course that will leave bilateral ties severely strained, courtesy the jihadi elements which are misusing the Pakistani soil.
The other neighbour to complain about terrorists being given sanctuary on Pakistani soil is China which is disturbed about the activities of the Chinese Muslim rebels who want the creation of an independent Islamic state in China, and are allegedly being trained in Pakistani tribal areas and then despatched to Xinjiang province. In July 2012, Beijing publicly claimed for the first time in recent years that those responsible for two bomb blasts in the Kashgar city of the Xinjiang Province in July 2011, which killed 18 people, had been trained in the East Turkistani Islamic Movement’s camps being run by the Chinese Muslim separatists in Waziristan. The Chinese claim was described in diplomatic circles as a clear sign of the growing impatience of Beijing with Islamabad’s failure to control the radical groups operating within its borders.
The Pak-China tensions rose further following the killing of 15 Chinese in a terrorist attack in the Xinjiang region in February, followed by another ugly episode in March when 30 more Chinese people were killed in an incident of mass stabbing at a train station, allegedly carried out by the Chinese Muslim rebels. But despite repeated assurances to Beijing, the Pakistan authorities have simply failed to uproot the jihadi infrastructure of the Chinese rebels from the Waziristan region. In a rare interview, the Waziristan based leader of the Chinese rebels, Abdullah Mansour, has said it was his holy duty to keep fighting against the Chinese.
For its part, Afghanistan blames Pakistan for doing little to crack down on the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who control a considerable parts of the Pak-Afghan border region especially Waziristan. Despite the deployment of over 80,000 Pakistani troops along the Pak-Afghan border to counter al-Qaeda and Taliban militancy, the situation is far from stable in the trouble-stricken tribal region, which is crucial not only to Islamabad, but also to Kabul, Washington and Delhi. Afghanistan thus keeps accusing Pakistan of backing the North Waziristan-based Haqqani militant network as well as the Afghan Taliban to advance its so-called geo-strategic agenda in the region.
It was only last week that Afghanistan had accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of staging a recent attack on a five-star hotel in Kabul in which nine people including foreigners were shot dead by militants. Afghanistan usually speaks of unnamed foreign powers when it wants to hint at a suspected Pakistani role in an incident, but the statement by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security pointed its finger directly at Islamabad for the most recent attack. But the Pakistani foreign ministry rejected any responsibility for the gunmen who managed to smuggle pistols past the Serena hotel’s heavy security cordon in Kabul on March 28.
The involvement of Pakistan’s non-state actors in terrorist activities across the border in Afghanistan have indirectly affected its relations with the US, which has failed to nip the evil of al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban in the bud even a decade after the war against terror was launched. Both Afghanistan and the United States, which is withdrawing most of its troops from the country by the end of the year, have long criticised Pakistan for not doing enough to crack down on militants holed up in the mountains straddling the Pak-Afghan order.
As far as the Indo-Pak ties are concerned, the major bone of contention which has also affected the tempo of their composite dialogue, remains the slow-moving trial of the Mumbai attackers who are being tried by an anti terrorism court in Pakistan. While Ajmal Kasab’s trial took four years to conclude and culminated in his hanging on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the 26/11 episode, the trial of the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s chief operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and his accomplices is progressing at a snail’s pace in Pakistan and is not expected to conclude in the near future. The VIP treatment being extended to Lakhvi by the Pakistan establishment can be gauged from the fact that Lakhvi was able to father a child in 2010 despite being behind bars at the high-security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi since his arrest in December 2008.
One is constrained to point out the pertinent fact that despite becoming an ally of the United States in the war against terror a decade ago, Pakistan hasn’t done anything concrete to dismantle the sprawling infrastructure of jihad from its soil. Although over 5,000 security force personnel and over 45,000 civilians have lost their lives in the war against terror in Pakistan, confusion persists on how to tackle the growing threat of terrorism. Many analysts believe that the root cause of Pakistan becoming the centre of gravity of global terrorism lies in the fact that the establishment had been deeply embroiled with many of the jihadi proxies and used to treat them as the civilian face of the Army.
The all-powerful establishment which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its life and which continues to dictate the foreign policy to the government is still accused by the international community of pursuing a policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, mainly because of the fact that it is still not inclined to develop a clear-cut policy against terrorism which is the need of the hour.
From a Pakistani newspaper today:
Jihadis bringing Pakistan in conflict with neighbours
Amir Mir
Monday, March 31, 2014
ISLAMABAD: The rising incidents of cross-border terrorism by some Pakistan-based militant groups not only in Afghanistan and India but also in Iran and China, are increasingly bringing Islamabad into conflict with most of its neighbouring states.
Pakistan’s Tribal Areas are being blamed for harbouring non-state actors by almost all its neighbours, with Delhi, Kabul, Tehran and Beijing expressing concern about the links between global terrorism and sanctuaries located in the lawless regions of the Fata. Pakistan always condemns these acts of terrorism as a matter of policy, saying they are being committed by non-state actors who are also targeting the state of Pakistan. However, the fact remains that the militants groups which are allegedly involved in cross-border terrorism were actually created and nurtured by the Pakistani and the American intelligence establishments to fight out the Soviet occupation forces. The dilemma is that these elements are not only targeting Pakistan’s neighbouring states today but also Pakistan. In short, the monsters created by the CIA and the ISI have turned against their creators.
What is alarming is that these jihadis see no end to their anarchist agenda and have stepped up their efforts to bury Pakistan in conflict with its immediate neighbours. The latest escalation in diplomatic hostilities between Iran and Pakistan was caused by the abduction of five Iranian border guards from Iran’s Sistan Balochistan region, allegedly by a Pakistan-based Sunni militant group called Jaishul Adl or the Army of Justice. Tehran has alleged that the guards had been taken to Pakistan and are being held in the Balochistan province, amid media reports that one of them has already been shot dead. Another militant group allegedly operating from Balochistan which had carried out a number of lethal suicide bombings in Iran and killed dozens of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the past, is Jundallah.
Expressing indignation at Pakistan for its failure to curb these incidents, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli went to the extent of threatening to send the Iranian troops into Pakistan to secure the guards’ release. Following reports that one of the guards has been killed, Iran has closed its borders with Pakistan and all kinds of trade between the two countries will remain suspended for next two weeks. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani telephoned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and demanded serious and swift action to secure the release of the abducted guards. Although Nawaz Sharif said the issue was of utmost importance to his government, the two neighbours appear to be on a collision course that will leave bilateral ties severely strained, courtesy the jihadi elements which are misusing the Pakistani soil.
The other neighbour to complain about terrorists being given sanctuary on Pakistani soil is China which is disturbed about the activities of the Chinese Muslim rebels who want the creation of an independent Islamic state in China, and are allegedly being trained in Pakistani tribal areas and then despatched to Xinjiang province. In July 2012, Beijing publicly claimed for the first time in recent years that those responsible for two bomb blasts in the Kashgar city of the Xinjiang Province in July 2011, which killed 18 people, had been trained in the East Turkistani Islamic Movement’s camps being run by the Chinese Muslim separatists in Waziristan. The Chinese claim was described in diplomatic circles as a clear sign of the growing impatience of Beijing with Islamabad’s failure to control the radical groups operating within its borders.
The Pak-China tensions rose further following the killing of 15 Chinese in a terrorist attack in the Xinjiang region in February, followed by another ugly episode in March when 30 more Chinese people were killed in an incident of mass stabbing at a train station, allegedly carried out by the Chinese Muslim rebels. But despite repeated assurances to Beijing, the Pakistan authorities have simply failed to uproot the jihadi infrastructure of the Chinese rebels from the Waziristan region. In a rare interview, the Waziristan based leader of the Chinese rebels, Abdullah Mansour, has said it was his holy duty to keep fighting against the Chinese.
For its part, Afghanistan blames Pakistan for doing little to crack down on the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who control a considerable parts of the Pak-Afghan border region especially Waziristan. Despite the deployment of over 80,000 Pakistani troops along the Pak-Afghan border to counter al-Qaeda and Taliban militancy, the situation is far from stable in the trouble-stricken tribal region, which is crucial not only to Islamabad, but also to Kabul, Washington and Delhi. Afghanistan thus keeps accusing Pakistan of backing the North Waziristan-based Haqqani militant network as well as the Afghan Taliban to advance its so-called geo-strategic agenda in the region.
It was only last week that Afghanistan had accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of staging a recent attack on a five-star hotel in Kabul in which nine people including foreigners were shot dead by militants. Afghanistan usually speaks of unnamed foreign powers when it wants to hint at a suspected Pakistani role in an incident, but the statement by Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security pointed its finger directly at Islamabad for the most recent attack. But the Pakistani foreign ministry rejected any responsibility for the gunmen who managed to smuggle pistols past the Serena hotel’s heavy security cordon in Kabul on March 28.
The involvement of Pakistan’s non-state actors in terrorist activities across the border in Afghanistan have indirectly affected its relations with the US, which has failed to nip the evil of al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban in the bud even a decade after the war against terror was launched. Both Afghanistan and the United States, which is withdrawing most of its troops from the country by the end of the year, have long criticised Pakistan for not doing enough to crack down on militants holed up in the mountains straddling the Pak-Afghan order.
As far as the Indo-Pak ties are concerned, the major bone of contention which has also affected the tempo of their composite dialogue, remains the slow-moving trial of the Mumbai attackers who are being tried by an anti terrorism court in Pakistan. While Ajmal Kasab’s trial took four years to conclude and culminated in his hanging on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the 26/11 episode, the trial of the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s chief operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and his accomplices is progressing at a snail’s pace in Pakistan and is not expected to conclude in the near future. The VIP treatment being extended to Lakhvi by the Pakistan establishment can be gauged from the fact that Lakhvi was able to father a child in 2010 despite being behind bars at the high-security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi since his arrest in December 2008.
One is constrained to point out the pertinent fact that despite becoming an ally of the United States in the war against terror a decade ago, Pakistan hasn’t done anything concrete to dismantle the sprawling infrastructure of jihad from its soil. Although over 5,000 security force personnel and over 45,000 civilians have lost their lives in the war against terror in Pakistan, confusion persists on how to tackle the growing threat of terrorism. Many analysts believe that the root cause of Pakistan becoming the centre of gravity of global terrorism lies in the fact that the establishment had been deeply embroiled with many of the jihadi proxies and used to treat them as the civilian face of the Army.
The all-powerful establishment which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its life and which continues to dictate the foreign policy to the government is still accused by the international community of pursuing a policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, mainly because of the fact that it is still not inclined to develop a clear-cut policy against terrorism which is the need of the hour.