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Trump travel ban, other pressures lead Pakistan to rein in Islamist militants
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post
February 4
ISLAMABAD , Pakistan — To U . S . and international officials , Hafiz Mohammad Saeed is a terrorist who orchestrated a bloody urban siege that killed 166 people in India in 2008 . But to his many devout followers in Pakistan , he is a champion of Islamic values and Kashmiri independence from India.
To U. S . and international officials , Shakil Afridi is a courageous man who helped the United States track down and kill Osama bin Laden in 2011 . But to many Pakistanis, he is a traitor who sold his services to a Western adversary of Islam and should remain in prison .
Therein lies the conundrum facing Pakistani officials today as they scramble to forestall punitive actions by the Trump administration — and ease pressure from other foreign partners , including China — without provoking turmoil at home , especially among Muslim militants the state has long coddled as proxies against India .
Suddenly confronted with a U. S . president who has declared war against Islamist extremism and has expressed little interest in the long history of political accommodation and security alliances between Washington and Islamabad , officials here are struggling to find a middle ground that may no longer exist .
The disarray was evident in clashing public statements by two government officials concerning the draconian travel ban imposed by Trump last week on all visitors from seven Muslim- majority countries .
White House aides suggested last week that ban might be expanded to include Pakistan and other countries with terrorist links . On Saturday , Pakistani media outlets quoted a White House spokesman telling the BBC that there are “ no immediate plans” to add Pakistan , Afghanistan or Lebanon , but warning that this could change if the countries stop complying with U . S . requests for information.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria, addressing a news conference Thursday , noted deferentially that “it is every country’ s sovereign right to decide its immigration policy. ” He said Pakistan looks forward to continuing its “long -standing and cooperative relations ” with Washington .
But Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar , speaking at a seminar , declared bluntly that “ no solution from America and the West can be imposed on our region ” and that the West should stop “ blaming Islam ” for the world’ s ills . “ The tendency to label every man with a beard and every woman wearing hijab as a potential terrorist should cease now , ” he added .
In the past week , Pakistan has taken steps to tighten legal nooses around both Saeed and Afridi, confining the firebrand cleric to house arrest and denying travel documents to the imprisoned doctor ’ s family . Taken together , these moves send a double message : The government is serious about reining in a high -profile Islamist militant with a U. S . bounty for his arrest, but it is also serious about keeping an alleged traitor — whom Trump once vowed to set free — behind bars and under wraps .
The crackdown on Saeed and his group , which has been allowed to function freely for the most part , is seen by many here as a hasty conciliatory gesture to the new administration in Washington . But Pakistani officials insist it was the product of long internal deliberation — and further proof of a permanent shift from official tolerance for extremists who once served as Pakistan’ s deniable agents in India and Afghanistan .
“ Pakistan is not merely an aspirant for cooperation with Washington, it is a serious and credible partner, ” Tariq Fatemi , a senior aide to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said in an interview Friday . He said Sharif’ s government , with strong support from the army , is determined to clear the country of all militants . “ We will kill them or drive them out, ” he said. “Any willingness to look the other way is no longer there. ”
Some analysts said that while Pakistan is concerned about the Trump administration expanding its travel ban or cutting off aid , it also faces other sources of pressure to clamp down on extremists . One is China , Pakistan ’ s giant neighbor and major economic partner, which does not want its investments — especially the planned $ 46 billion China - Pakistan Economic Corridor , or CPEC — threatened by violence .
The other is an intergovernmental watchdog agency, the Financial Action Task Force , which monitors money laundering and terrorist financing . The group , which can blacklist countries that don ’ t have enough safeguards in place , has reportedly raised new alarms about “ gray payments , ” or money being funneled as charitable donations to or from militant groups in Pakistan , including Saeed ’ s.
“ There is a lot of speculation about what Trump might do, but I think we are seeing a confluence of other factors too , ” said Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies . “ The financial issues are the most urgent. The CPEC has injected a lot of hope and optimism into the country, and everyone wants to make sure it succeeds . ”
Some commentators say that to prove it is serious about curbing Islamist extremism , the government must stop sending mixed signals to groups like Saeed ’ s as well as to hard -line sectarian movements, which are often banned but then allowed to regroup under new names . Saeed once headed a militant group , Lashkar -e- Taiba , that was accused by India of staging the Mumbai siege. Now he heads two other groups that claim to be charitable and educational, but are also fiercely anti - India.
Fatemi said that the government also intends to counter extremist ideas with persuasion , registering radical seminaries and “bringing them into the mainstream” through a National Action Plan established by Sharif. “We are going to bring about a major shift in the thinking process of people on the fringes , ” he said .
But that message is not so easy to spread in an impoverished country of 180 million people, about 80 percent of them Sunni Muslims. Today , more than 2 million youths are studying in seminaries, and groups like Saeed ’ s enjoy wide popularity . The cause of Kashmiri oppression has been a national rallying cry for decades , and many Pakistanis have been taught to believe that India , Israel and the United States are mortal enemies of Islam .
Among the few Pakistanis who express hope for sympathy from the Trump administration are the relatives of Afridi , who has been in prison for six years on charges of abetting Islamist militants . His family says it believes the real reason was his role in locating bin Laden, by conducting a medical survey in the city where the al- Qaeda leader was found and killed by U. S . Navy Seals .
This week, relatives and attorneys for Afridi said the government had refused to renew identity documents for his family members and had placed their names on a list of Pakistanis who are banned from leaving the country. In an interview , his younger brother, Jamil Afridi , 55 , said he hoped the Trump administration would come to the doctor’ s aid .
“ My brother did nothing wrong . He was a true American hero who helped the United States eliminate the world’ s most wanted terrorist , ” Afridi said. “I congratulate President Trump and I am optimistic about him , because he said he would help free my brother once he was elected to office . He is a man of action who does what he says. ”
Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report .
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post
February 4
ISLAMABAD , Pakistan — To U . S . and international officials , Hafiz Mohammad Saeed is a terrorist who orchestrated a bloody urban siege that killed 166 people in India in 2008 . But to his many devout followers in Pakistan , he is a champion of Islamic values and Kashmiri independence from India.
To U. S . and international officials , Shakil Afridi is a courageous man who helped the United States track down and kill Osama bin Laden in 2011 . But to many Pakistanis, he is a traitor who sold his services to a Western adversary of Islam and should remain in prison .
Therein lies the conundrum facing Pakistani officials today as they scramble to forestall punitive actions by the Trump administration — and ease pressure from other foreign partners , including China — without provoking turmoil at home , especially among Muslim militants the state has long coddled as proxies against India .
Suddenly confronted with a U. S . president who has declared war against Islamist extremism and has expressed little interest in the long history of political accommodation and security alliances between Washington and Islamabad , officials here are struggling to find a middle ground that may no longer exist .
The disarray was evident in clashing public statements by two government officials concerning the draconian travel ban imposed by Trump last week on all visitors from seven Muslim- majority countries .
White House aides suggested last week that ban might be expanded to include Pakistan and other countries with terrorist links . On Saturday , Pakistani media outlets quoted a White House spokesman telling the BBC that there are “ no immediate plans” to add Pakistan , Afghanistan or Lebanon , but warning that this could change if the countries stop complying with U . S . requests for information.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria, addressing a news conference Thursday , noted deferentially that “it is every country’ s sovereign right to decide its immigration policy. ” He said Pakistan looks forward to continuing its “long -standing and cooperative relations ” with Washington .
But Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar , speaking at a seminar , declared bluntly that “ no solution from America and the West can be imposed on our region ” and that the West should stop “ blaming Islam ” for the world’ s ills . “ The tendency to label every man with a beard and every woman wearing hijab as a potential terrorist should cease now , ” he added .
In the past week , Pakistan has taken steps to tighten legal nooses around both Saeed and Afridi, confining the firebrand cleric to house arrest and denying travel documents to the imprisoned doctor ’ s family . Taken together , these moves send a double message : The government is serious about reining in a high -profile Islamist militant with a U. S . bounty for his arrest, but it is also serious about keeping an alleged traitor — whom Trump once vowed to set free — behind bars and under wraps .
The crackdown on Saeed and his group , which has been allowed to function freely for the most part , is seen by many here as a hasty conciliatory gesture to the new administration in Washington . But Pakistani officials insist it was the product of long internal deliberation — and further proof of a permanent shift from official tolerance for extremists who once served as Pakistan’ s deniable agents in India and Afghanistan .
“ Pakistan is not merely an aspirant for cooperation with Washington, it is a serious and credible partner, ” Tariq Fatemi , a senior aide to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said in an interview Friday . He said Sharif’ s government , with strong support from the army , is determined to clear the country of all militants . “ We will kill them or drive them out, ” he said. “Any willingness to look the other way is no longer there. ”
Some analysts said that while Pakistan is concerned about the Trump administration expanding its travel ban or cutting off aid , it also faces other sources of pressure to clamp down on extremists . One is China , Pakistan ’ s giant neighbor and major economic partner, which does not want its investments — especially the planned $ 46 billion China - Pakistan Economic Corridor , or CPEC — threatened by violence .
The other is an intergovernmental watchdog agency, the Financial Action Task Force , which monitors money laundering and terrorist financing . The group , which can blacklist countries that don ’ t have enough safeguards in place , has reportedly raised new alarms about “ gray payments , ” or money being funneled as charitable donations to or from militant groups in Pakistan , including Saeed ’ s.
“ There is a lot of speculation about what Trump might do, but I think we are seeing a confluence of other factors too , ” said Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies . “ The financial issues are the most urgent. The CPEC has injected a lot of hope and optimism into the country, and everyone wants to make sure it succeeds . ”
Some commentators say that to prove it is serious about curbing Islamist extremism , the government must stop sending mixed signals to groups like Saeed ’ s as well as to hard -line sectarian movements, which are often banned but then allowed to regroup under new names . Saeed once headed a militant group , Lashkar -e- Taiba , that was accused by India of staging the Mumbai siege. Now he heads two other groups that claim to be charitable and educational, but are also fiercely anti - India.
Fatemi said that the government also intends to counter extremist ideas with persuasion , registering radical seminaries and “bringing them into the mainstream” through a National Action Plan established by Sharif. “We are going to bring about a major shift in the thinking process of people on the fringes , ” he said .
But that message is not so easy to spread in an impoverished country of 180 million people, about 80 percent of them Sunni Muslims. Today , more than 2 million youths are studying in seminaries, and groups like Saeed ’ s enjoy wide popularity . The cause of Kashmiri oppression has been a national rallying cry for decades , and many Pakistanis have been taught to believe that India , Israel and the United States are mortal enemies of Islam .
Among the few Pakistanis who express hope for sympathy from the Trump administration are the relatives of Afridi , who has been in prison for six years on charges of abetting Islamist militants . His family says it believes the real reason was his role in locating bin Laden, by conducting a medical survey in the city where the al- Qaeda leader was found and killed by U. S . Navy Seals .
This week, relatives and attorneys for Afridi said the government had refused to renew identity documents for his family members and had placed their names on a list of Pakistanis who are banned from leaving the country. In an interview , his younger brother, Jamil Afridi , 55 , said he hoped the Trump administration would come to the doctor’ s aid .
“ My brother did nothing wrong . He was a true American hero who helped the United States eliminate the world’ s most wanted terrorist , ” Afridi said. “I congratulate President Trump and I am optimistic about him , because he said he would help free my brother once he was elected to office . He is a man of action who does what he says. ”
Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report .
