Pakistan gets its just deserts

Is Pakistan a victim of terrorism, or is it getting its just deserts, a blowback of its own short-sighted policies of encouraging jihadists? Whenever there is a reference to Pakistan and its dubious record in the war on terror, its leaders repeat the same mantra: ‘no country has made as many sacrifices as Pakistan in the war against terror’. On the question of Osama bin Laden’s living in Abbottabad for about five years under the nose of its security forces, ‘it is a failure of the whole world’!

They go back to the time when jihad was launched against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the early Eighties to explain the proliferation of arms and jihadis in Pakistan. What are the facts? Funded by the Saudis and the United States, and armed by the CIA, Pakistan was more than happy to join the game in the early Eighties against the Soviet forces. It was not as if they were exploited by the Saudi Arabia-United States combine to beat the Soviet Union. They were more than willing to participate in the jihad for their own reasons; mainly gain influence in Afghanistan and grab Kashmir through jihad. Pakistan was a player in Afghanistan, encouraging Islamists against the then Afghan government even before the Soviet takeover. Non-acceptance of the Durand Line by the Afghan government, and the latent demand for Pakhtoonistan straddling the Durand Line are the main reasons that any Pakistan government would like to have a government that is sympathetic to them in Kabul. The Soviet takeover of Afghanistan, which made Pakistan a frontline state confronting Soviet power, gave Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan’s dictator of the day, the opportunity to become a frontline player in the US-Saudi strategy to defeat the Soviets and an opportunity to change from the international pariah that he had become for deposing an elected prime minister and then managing to get him hanged.

Pakistani journalists like Amir Mir, academics like ambassador Hussain Haqqani and analysts have now come out with facts and figures of how the ISI controlled the jihad in Afghanistan, and with Zia’s blessings, planned the jihad in Kashmir. While we generally refer to the allegedly rigged elections in Kashmir in 1987 as the watershed that marks the commencement of the JKLF’s armed struggle against India, it is now known that much before that, Zia had planned to promote jihad in Kashmir, and had brought in the Jamaat-e-Islami into the picture to work along with the ISI for this purpose. To have uninterrupted supply of jihadists, and to give an international colour to the jihad in Afghanistan, Saudi-funded madrassas sprang up all across Pakistan to groom youngsters from Pakistan and other Muslim nations into jihadis as part of a deliberate policy. Saudi money to madrassas had started earlier, promoting the Wahhabi brand of Islam, to counter the Iranian funding of the Shias in Pakistan. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had nothing to do with this. This encouraged sectarian feelings among the people, leading to mutual hatred and wanton killings of hundreds of Shias and Sunnis. It now appears that all the sectarian groups were controlled by the intelligence agencies, who even promoted fights between the groups to have a better control over them.

It is indeed a tragedy that thousands of lives have been lost in Pakistan in sectarian killings, terrorist attacks and security forces’ operations against terrorists. But that unfortunately is how this game is finally played out. Pakistan cannot blame anyone else for this. One recalls the taped conversation between General Musharraf, then accompanying Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Beijing during the Kargil War, and his ISI chief, on their iron-clad control over the militants who had been fighting India. Military and intelligence leaders, howsoever brave and clever in their war games, simply do not have the long-term vision that takes nations to a bright and secure future.

However, in the case of Pakistan, the armed forces have failed even in their basic function to protect the nation from thugs. The attack on the General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi in 2009 and the attack on the PNS Mehran Naval Base last month have shown the armed forces in poor light. Murdered journalist, Salim Shahzad’s column in Asia Times Online indicated the infiltration of al-Qaeda in the ranks of the navy, providing the militants with sensitive data about the base. Now, it appears that Islamists are a major threat to the armed forces themselves. If it is the TTP, al-Qaeda and its affiliates like the 313 Brigade that are now targeting Pakistan, very soon the LeT and other so-called ‘good’ militants will join their jihadi colleagues as the war on terror gains further momentum. The US Navy SEALs’ operation to eliminate Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad has questioned the efficacy of the so-called blanket of security of the armed forces over the country. US helicopters were able to penetrate deep into Pakistan, conduct a successful operation at a short distance from an important army base, and go back undetected.

The jihad in Kashmir and the terrorist strikes in other parts of India have taken thousands of lives, Kashmir being the worst sufferer. The stamp of the ISI can clearly be seen on all these wanton killings. The role of the ISI in the 26/11 attack and the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul has been clearly established. What one hears is that the ISI involvement in 26/11 was at a lower level and that the seniors were unaware of it. This is one lame excuse. While tactical level manoeuvres are left to the juniors, attacks like 26/11 or the Indian embassy in Kabul, cannot be called tactical level operations by any stretch of imagination. If such things have actually happened, then the government of Pakistan has to do an internal audit, and take steps to control such groups. The democratically elected government of Pakistan got a golden opportunity to gain control over the military and the ISI after Laden was killed. This has been squandered as seen from the government’s support of the armed forces despite their total failure to secure the nation even against jihadi attacks on sensitive installations like the naval base in Mehran. This is the time for the international community, especially the US and India, to back the civilian government and encourage it to lead Pakistan into a stable, democratic and peaceful country. The time to reform the armed forces in Pakistan, and especially the ISI, is now.

(Radhavinod Raju is a former director general of the National Investigation Agency. E-mail: radhavinodraju@gmail.com)