Pakistan and terror – by Anas Abbas
Cross posted from Anas Abbas’ blog
Attacks reminiscent of DAATA DARBAR and Ahmedi bombings have been a norm in Afghanistan and Pakistani Tribal Areas since the last 20 years.
One must not forget the sufferings of Afghans and Pashtuns in tribal areas due to Pakistan army supported militant groups such as Taliban and Hekmatyaar
Pakistan projects sympathetic image as a victim of terror, even as it is, in fact, the creator of terrorism.
Pakistan boldly holds the Western world to ransom. It garners generous financial aid and military supplies from the US and has successfully projected itself as recourse of last resort in its geographical theatre. It runs circles around international sanctions and bans by nurturing a large number of home-grown terrorist outfits forever changing nomenclature. In addition, it maintains seemingly freelance non-state actors that allow it the fig-leaf of plausible deniability.
And in a masterful demonstration of how to manage chaos, Pakistan keeps its domestic situation in destabilized ferment and flux by stoking sectarian, that is, Sunni versus Shiite violence, and religious tensions between Islamic progressives and fundamentalists, rent-collecting on such issues from the oil-rich Islamic world as well.
For the further bamboozling of the West, Pakistan uses its blow-hot-blow-cold relationship with the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban and its hosting of the Al Qaeda as adroit bargaining chips.
It flaunts its strategic relationship with China with the latter’s tacit support. This enables Pakistan to be muscular about its armed nuclear options and hint menacingly about the possibility of its nuclear weapons falling to the Taliban as well.
Famous terror personalities currently associated with Pakistan are:
Haqqani Network (Unknown Safe Location by ISI)
Hekmatyaar/Bin Laden and Omer (Unknown Safe Location by ISI)
Dawood Ibrahim (Various locations in Karachi and Dubai)
Tiger Memon (Defence Karachi Phase 6)
Masood Azhar (Garrison Town Rawalpindi)
Maulana Fazlullah (Somewhere in Swat or Tribal Areas)
Hafiz Saeed (Murid K)
excellent article. I wonder why politicians like Salmaan Taseer who are shouting themselves hoarse about PML-N’s connections to SSP never criticize General Kayani’s ‘peace deals’ with Haqqani network of north waziristan. After all, the Haqqanis have been as brutal to Afghan civilians (if not more) than Sipah-e-Sahaba has to Pakistani civilians. If we treat ourselves as some kind of master race then we should not expect special treatment or sympathy from anyone else.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?src=me
KABUL, Afghanistan — Six militants armed with suicide bombs stormed the compound of an American contractor working for the United States Agency for International Development in the northern city of Kunduz on Friday, killing four security officers in an assault that left all the attackers dead, according to Afghan officials and the aid contractor.
The security officers killed included one Briton, one German and two Afghans who worked for Edinburgh International, the firm guarding the Kunduz compound of D.A.I., a consulting company that contracts with the American development aid agency to help bolster governance, development and economic growth in other countries.
The Kunduz assault was the latest in a string of Taliban attacks on foreign workers and compounds, especially those doing development work, in what has seemed to be a response to American and NATO forces increasing the pace of their military operations throughout the country.
Overall I like this article, however, perhaps the article gives a clean chit to our Western puppet masters which may be revisited. e.g.,
“Pakistan boldly holds the Western world to ransom. It garners generous financial aid and military supplies from the US and has successfully projected itself as recourse of last resort in its geographical theatre. “
excellent anas .
and rabia you are right , shouting against rana sanuallah is not a solution to end this menace.