Articles on Pakistan's war on terror.

[Solomon2]

May 19, 2016: Despite growing domestic, and foreign pressure the Pakistani military refuses to stop (or even admit) its support for Islamic terrorists. This is becoming embarrassing for many Pakistanis as a growing list of former Pakistani officials (especially retired diplomats and generals) admit that the Pakistani military has been lying for decades and continues to consider the “secret” program to support Islamic terrorists a perfectly legitimate method of evening up the military imbalance between India and Pakistan. This Pakistani program has been going on since the 1980s and it was back then that India began pressuring Pakistan to shut down the Pakistan based Islamic terror groups that specialized in attacking India. At the time India got no help from the West because Russia had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and was in the midst of a ten year effort to suppress resistance to an Afghan government run by local communists. Pakistan was the front line in aiding the Afghan rebels, who saw their resistance as a religious war against atheist Russian communists. The Cold War was still going on and India, while officially neutral, had long been an ally (and admirer) of Russia and a major export customer for Russian weapons. India still has a powerful Communist Party but after the Cold War ended in 1991 India and Russia began to drift apart and India gained more international support for its efforts to expose and halt the Pakistani use of Islamic terrorists. Two decades of that pressure has convinced many Pakistanis that this secret war tactic had not only failed but was also counter-productive. So far the military leadership, despite growing internal dissent, has refused to come clean and shut down their “good Islamic terrorists” (as opposed to the bad ones who wage war against Pakistan).

Over the last few years civilian Pakistan government have agreed to crack down Islamic terrorists in Pakistan who attack India. But the Pakistani military quietly refuses to cooperate. So there are still over a dozen Islamic terrorist training camps in Pakistani Kashmir to support operations in Kashmir. These Islamic terror groups have a lot of fans inside Pakistan, especially with senior military and intelligence officers. That is why Pakistan based Islamic terrorists continue fighting along the Kashmir border and on the Indian side of the border as well.

In 2016 India offered to share intelligence with Pakistan about anti-Pakistan Islamic terrorists operating inside Pakistan. India revealed that it has a lot of terror related intel that Pakistan does not have. In particular India knew a lot about what ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) was doing in Pakistan and Afghanistan. India also had information about other Islamic terrorists who are not suitably grateful for the decades of support the Pakistani military and intelligence (ISI) have provided. So far the most the Pakistani military will do is trade useful tips. If India provides information that leads to shutting down a dangerous (to Pakistan) Islamic terror operation in Pakistan India gets a similar tidbit about something going down inside India. This is infuriating to the Indians because most of the Islamic terrorist activity inside India is directly or indirectly benefitting from Pakistani support. A growing number of Pakistani military and intelligence officials are noticing that supporting Islamic terrorism is becoming impossible to get away with. But a large minority of Pakistani generals and intel officials believe in radical Islam and the goal of Islam conquering the world. Such beliefs are immune to reality. That attitude, in a country with nuclear weapons, adds to the sense of urgency in making a permanent change in the Pakistani practice of secretly supporting Islamic terrorism.

This change in popular attitudes is another side effect of the Pakistani military operations in North Waziristan. This has been going on since mid-2014 and has allowed the army (and some journalists) to examine a lot of mosques and religious schools (madrasas) that had long been off-limits to the security forces. What was found was ample evidence that many mosques and most madrasas were basically part of an extensive Islamic terrorist infrastructure. The madrasas not only indoctrinated Moslem boys to be Islamic terrorists but took those who agreed to be killers and trained them. Mosques and madrasas were also found to have hidden (at least from public view) rooms for storing weapons, building bombs, training Islamic terrorists and housing veteran (but wanted) Islamic terrorists. In other words, what was found in North Waziristan changed minds among Pakistani officers who were either neutral on Islamic terrorism (at least when it was outside Pakistan) or enthusiastic supporters. There were also a lot of documents captured in these Islamic terrorist hideouts and hundreds of Islamic terrorists were captured and talked. So did many local civilians who had long been silent because the Islamic terrorists executed (or worse) informers. All this evidence said the same thing; the Islamic terrorists were far more powerful and numerous than thought and many of them were willing to destroy Pakistan in an effort to turn the country into a religious dictatorship.

This attitude adjustment also led to Pakistani officials admitting that they had provided sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban since 2002. This has long been common knowledge but until recently no one in the Pakistani government would admit it. This new openness was also facilitated by revelations that most of the civilians in North Waziristan, when allowed to give an honest opinion, said they backed the American use of UAVs to find and kill Islamic terrorist leaders. While this sometimes caused civilian casualties it mainly hurt the Islamic terrorists and civilians quietly approved of this. Some even risked their lives to provide targeting information for these UAV attacks. The same thing happened in Afghanistan, where U.S. officers were often approached by tribal leaders asking for more aerial efforts to find and attack Islamic terrorists.

Afghanistan is becoming increasingly aggressive in demanding that Pakistan end the sanctuary it has provided the Afghan Taliban since 2002. Afghanistan points out that recent security agreements between the two countries obliges Pakistan to shut down all Islamic terrorist sanctuaries. Afghan officials also accuse Pakistan of controlling much of what the Afghan Taliban does, including ordering terror attacks inside Afghanistan. If Pakistan refuses to comply with this request Afghanistan is threatening to take the matter to the UN and other international tribunals. Meanwhile the main Afghan Taliban sanctuary remains in Quetta. This is the capital of Baluchistan and just south of the Taliban homeland in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. Quetta was always off limits to the American UAVs and remains a sanctuary despite constant and increasingly angry calls from the United States and Afghanistan to shut down the sanctuaries. Pakistan has long been dismissive of Afghan protests and either ignores them or dismisses them with denials. The reality is that Pakistan considers Afghanistan a client state. The Afghans are considered a collection of fractious tribes pretending to be a nation. With no access to the sea, most Afghan road connections to ports are with Pakistan. The Afghans resent this and are supporting a Chinese financed effort to upgrade a port in neighboring Iran and extend highways and railroads to the Afghan border. This will replace the dependence on Pakistani roads.

While the 2014 anti-terrorism campaign in Pakistan has reduced Islamic terrorist attacks inside the country (by more than half) there is growing anger at the military using its ability to arrest terrorist suspects anywhere to also pick up and imprison anyone seen as an enemy of the military. Many of those arrested somehow disappear. This practice is not new and has been used for over a decade against Baluchi tribal separatists in the southwest (Baluchistan). Pakistanis are also increasingly hostile towards the local version of the CIA (the ISI, which is controlled by the military). It was the ISI that took the lead in establishing Islamic terrorist sanctuaries inside Pakistan and is now blamed for losing control of these violent groups, as many of them turned against Pakistan and killed thousands of Pakistanis. ISI is also seen as incompetent for not being able to provide any proof that India is supporting any kind of terrorism inside Pakistan. The army continually makes this accusation against India but never provides any proof. The military thought that their 2014 campaign against Islamic terrorists in the northwest would make them popular but it didn’t work out as planned. Still the number of civilians killed by Islamic terrorists was reduced by half in 2014 and by half again in 2015. Those deaths seem to be headed for a similar reduction in 2016. That means civilian victims of Islamic terrorism in Pakistan will have gone from 3,000 a year in 2012 and 2013 to less than 600 for all of 2016. The generals seem have forgotten how long they denied there were any Islamic terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan. Most civilians knew that North Waziristan was just such a sanctuary. So there was no surprise, or gratitude, when the army finally shut down the Islamic terrorists based in North Waziristan...

 

[Irfan Baloch]

May 19, 2016: Despite growing domestic, and foreign pressure the Pakistani military refuses to stop (or even admit) its support for Islamic terrorists. This is becoming embarrassing for many Pakistanis as a growing list of former Pakistani officials (especially retired diplomats and generals) admit that the Pakistani military has been lying for decades and continues to consider the “secret” program to support Islamic terrorists a perfectly legitimate method of evening up the military imbalance between India and Pakistan. This Pakistani program has been going on since the 1980s and it was back then that India began pressuring Pakistan to shut down the Pakistan based Islamic terror groups that specialized in attacking India. At the time India got no help from the West because Russia had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and was in the midst of a ten year effort to suppress resistance to an Afghan government run by local communists. Pakistan was the front line in aiding the Afghan rebels, who saw their resistance as a religious war against atheist Russian communists. The Cold War was still going on and India, while officially neutral, had long been an ally (and admirer) of Russia and a major export customer for Russian weapons. India still has a powerful Communist Party but after the Cold War ended in 1991 India and Russia began to drift apart and India gained more international support for its efforts to expose and halt the Pakistani use of Islamic terrorists. Two decades of that pressure has convinced many Pakistanis that this secret war tactic had not only failed but was also counter-productive. So far the military leadership, despite growing internal dissent, has refused to come clean and shut down their “good Islamic terrorists” (as opposed to the bad ones who wage war against Pakistan).

Over the last few years civilian Pakistan government have agreed to crack down Islamic terrorists in Pakistan who attack India. But the Pakistani military quietly refuses to cooperate. So there are still over a dozen Islamic terrorist training camps in Pakistani Kashmir to support operations in Kashmir. These Islamic terror groups have a lot of fans inside Pakistan, especially with senior military and intelligence officers. That is why Pakistan based Islamic terrorists continue fighting along the Kashmir border and on the Indian side of the border as well.

In 2016 India offered to share intelligence with Pakistan about anti-Pakistan Islamic terrorists operating inside Pakistan. India revealed that it has a lot of terror related intel that Pakistan does not have. In particular India knew a lot about what ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) was doing in Pakistan and Afghanistan. India also had information about other Islamic terrorists who are not suitably grateful for the decades of support the Pakistani military and intelligence (ISI) have provided. So far the most the Pakistani military will do is trade useful tips. If India provides information that leads to shutting down a dangerous (to Pakistan) Islamic terror operation in Pakistan India gets a similar tidbit about something going down inside India. This is infuriating to the Indians because most of the Islamic terrorist activity inside India is directly or indirectly benefitting from Pakistani support. A growing number of Pakistani military and intelligence officials are noticing that supporting Islamic terrorism is becoming impossible to get away with. But a large minority of Pakistani generals and intel officials believe in radical Islam and the goal of Islam conquering the world. Such beliefs are immune to reality. That attitude, in a country with nuclear weapons, adds to the sense of urgency in making a permanent change in the Pakistani practice of secretly supporting Islamic terrorism.

This change in popular attitudes is another side effect of the Pakistani military operations in North Waziristan. This has been going on since mid-2014 and has allowed the army (and some journalists) to examine a lot of mosques and religious schools (madrasas) that had long been off-limits to the security forces. What was found was ample evidence that many mosques and most madrasas were basically part of an extensive Islamic terrorist infrastructure. The madrasas not only indoctrinated Moslem boys to be Islamic terrorists but took those who agreed to be killers and trained them. Mosques and madrasas were also found to have hidden (at least from public view) rooms for storing weapons, building bombs, training Islamic terrorists and housing veteran (but wanted) Islamic terrorists. In other words, what was found in North Waziristan changed minds among Pakistani officers who were either neutral on Islamic terrorism (at least when it was outside Pakistan) or enthusiastic supporters. There were also a lot of documents captured in these Islamic terrorist hideouts and hundreds of Islamic terrorists were captured and talked. So did many local civilians who had long been silent because the Islamic terrorists executed (or worse) informers. All this evidence said the same thing; the Islamic terrorists were far more powerful and numerous than thought and many of them were willing to destroy Pakistan in an effort to turn the country into a religious dictatorship.

This attitude adjustment also led to Pakistani officials admitting that they had provided sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban since 2002. This has long been common knowledge but until recently no one in the Pakistani government would admit it. This new openness was also facilitated by revelations that most of the civilians in North Waziristan, when allowed to give an honest opinion, said they backed the American use of UAVs to find and kill Islamic terrorist leaders. While this sometimes caused civilian casualties it mainly hurt the Islamic terrorists and civilians quietly approved of this. Some even risked their lives to provide targeting information for these UAV attacks. The same thing happened in Afghanistan, where U.S. officers were often approached by tribal leaders asking for more aerial efforts to find and attack Islamic terrorists.

Afghanistan is becoming increasingly aggressive in demanding that Pakistan end the sanctuary it has provided the Afghan Taliban since 2002. Afghanistan points out that recent security agreements between the two countries obliges Pakistan to shut down all Islamic terrorist sanctuaries. Afghan officials also accuse Pakistan of controlling much of what the Afghan Taliban does, including ordering terror attacks inside Afghanistan. If Pakistan refuses to comply with this request Afghanistan is threatening to take the matter to the UN and other international tribunals. Meanwhile the main Afghan Taliban sanctuary remains in Quetta. This is the capital of Baluchistan and just south of the Taliban homeland in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. Quetta was always off limits to the American UAVs and remains a sanctuary despite constant and increasingly angry calls from the United States and Afghanistan to shut down the sanctuaries. Pakistan has long been dismissive of Afghan protests and either ignores them or dismisses them with denials. The reality is that Pakistan considers Afghanistan a client state. The Afghans are considered a collection of fractious tribes pretending to be a nation. With no access to the sea, most Afghan road connections to ports are with Pakistan. The Afghans resent this and are supporting a Chinese financed effort to upgrade a port in neighboring Iran and extend highways and railroads to the Afghan border. This will replace the dependence on Pakistani roads.

While the 2014 anti-terrorism campaign in Pakistan has reduced Islamic terrorist attacks inside the country (by more than half) there is growing anger at the military using its ability to arrest terrorist suspects anywhere to also pick up and imprison anyone seen as an enemy of the military. Many of those arrested somehow disappear. This practice is not new and has been used for over a decade against Baluchi tribal separatists in the southwest (Baluchistan). Pakistanis are also increasingly hostile towards the local version of the CIA (the ISI, which is controlled by the military). It was the ISI that took the lead in establishing Islamic terrorist sanctuaries inside Pakistan and is now blamed for losing control of these violent groups, as many of them turned against Pakistan and killed thousands of Pakistanis. ISI is also seen as incompetent for not being able to provide any proof that India is supporting any kind of terrorism inside Pakistan. The army continually makes this accusation against India but never provides any proof. The military thought that their 2014 campaign against Islamic terrorists in the northwest would make them popular but it didn’t work out as planned. Still the number of civilians killed by Islamic terrorists was reduced by half in 2014 and by half again in 2015. Those deaths seem to be headed for a similar reduction in 2016. That means civilian victims of Islamic terrorism in Pakistan will have gone from 3,000 a year in 2012 and 2013 to less than 600 for all of 2016. The generals seem have forgotten how long they denied there were any Islamic terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan. Most civilians knew that North Waziristan was just such a sanctuary. So there was no surprise, or gratitude, when the army finally shut down the Islamic terrorists based in North Waziristan...

the article itself is hilarious and sad at the same time. its such an achievement which is hard to match.

use of religious or non religious proxies and Indo -Pak conflict re Kashmir is not a single and one sided affair as suggested by this article.
Indians brag with pride about their support of BLA and TTP.. Nooristan, Kunar are the base camps of BLA and TTP.

the LeT and JuD support from Pakistan army is a figment of imagination of such writers. it is no more than a political and social nuisance that has become suddenly relevant due to Indian propaganda. no one knew about these guys inside Pakistan but now they welcome the bad publicity. they have been cleared by the Civilian courts at the highest level . naming them for terrorism inside India carries the same value as naming Blair and Bush as responsible for iraqi deaths.


with the arrest of a serving RAW officer in Baluchistan it is clear that Indians have not changed their subversive habits they perfected from East Pakistan insurgency which Modi gladly admitted while addressing the Bangladeshi parliamentarians. the current Indian regime has high level officials openly threatening Pakistan with proxy war of terror and they back it up with their actions by hosting Baloch insurgency leaders and bankrolling the Baloch Samachar Fararri camps from Afghanistan side and hosting one dissident inside India.

As long as this continues, the Indians will continue to receive response in Kind.

Americans know very well Indian destructive and subversive designs against Pakistan together with Northern alliance regime which consists of thugs, warlords and drug lords (some belonging to Communist regime of Soviet era). but Americans are quiet about it due to the Indian usefulness in containing China.

articles like these keep resurfacing which exhibit hypocrisy and intentional dishonesty on the part of writer to show Indians as victims and Pakistan as evil doers.


@Viper0011. @MastanKhan @Horus @AgNoStiC MuSliM @araz @niaz over to you guys I feel like a broken record here

 

[VCheng]

That is exactly why the fig-leaf called democracy is so important.

Many nations do much of what is described, only that they have governments that control the military, not the other way around. The reverse, true for Pakistan, is what makes it the target for being singled out in this manner.

 

[Solomon2]

the article itself is hilarious and sad at the same time. its such an achievement which is hard to match.

use of religious or non religious proxies and Indo -Pak conflict re Kashmir is not a single and one sided affair as suggested by this article.
Indians brag with pride about their support of BLA and TTP.. Nooristan, Kunar are the base camps of BLA and TTP.

the LeT and JuD support from Pakistan army is a figment of imagination of such writers. it is no more than a political and social nuisance that has become suddenly relevant due to Indian propaganda. no one knew about these guys inside Pakistan but now they welcome the bad publicity. they have been cleared by the Civilian courts at the highest level . naming them for terrorism inside India carries the same value as naming Blair and Bush as responsible for iraqi deaths.


with the arrest of a serving RAW officer in Baluchistan it is clear that Indians have not changed their subversive habits they perfected from East Pakistan insurgency which Modi gladly admitted while addressing the Bangladeshi parliamentarians. the current Indian regime has high level officials openly threatening Pakistan with proxy war of terror and they back it up with their actions by hosting Baloch insurgency leaders and bankrolling the Baloch Samachar Fararri camps from Afghanistan side and hosting one dissident inside India.

As long as this continues, the Indians will continue to receive response in Kind.

Americans know very well Indian destructive and subversive designs against Pakistan together with Northern alliance regime which consists of thugs, warlords and drug lords (some belonging to Communist regime of Soviet era). but Americans are quiet about it due to the Indian usefulness in containing China.

articles like these keep resurfacing which exhibit hypocrisy and intentional dishonesty on the part of writer to show Indians as victims and Pakistan as evil doers.

Why not submit this post to StrategyPage as a response to their article?

 

[Slides]

Why not submit this post to StrategyPage as a response to their article?

Why would anyone do that and give legitimacy to some stupid website?

 

[Irfan Baloch]

Why not submit this post to StrategyPage as a response to their article?

Sir,
your suggestion is noted & followed as well. Just want to highlight the fact that our responses don’t get the readily available approval which is granted to any anti Pakistani article. Criticising Pakistan is fine but most of such work is pure propaganda & smear campain which is a good sell from movies and dramas to talkshows, books and articles.
sadly most of this anti Pakistani material lacks journalistic honesty or how should I word it.. Chooses material selectively to substantiate the blame against Pakistan
I original was surprised to see such poor article chosen by you but then again you are just a messenger and I decided to clarify that our position re India is fully justified due to its own subversive setup in Afghanistan dating back to 1950s.

That is exactly why the fig-leaf called democracy is so important.

Many nations do much of what is described, only that they have governments that control the military, not the other way around. The reverse, true for Pakistan, is what makes it the target for being singled out in this manner.

true that
but then again. national interests in the correct time period allow nations to look the other way or rationalize the actions of such Non-democratic nations too

 

[VCheng]

true that
but then again. national interests in the correct time period allow nations to look the other way or rationalize the actions of such Non-democratic nations too

But Sir, it is always better to hold the keys on one's own reputation in one's own hands rather than handing them to someone else. What Pakistan is accused of in that article is nothing new or unique, but Pakistan's failures to maintain its internal house in order is what exposes it to ridicule.

 

[Irfan Baloch]

But Sir, it is always better to hold the keys on one's own reputation in one's own hands rather than handing them to someone else. What Pakistan is accused of in that article is nothing new or unique, but Pakistan's failures to maintain its internal house in order is what exposes it to ridicule.

agreed , but for a start
lets do more against Haqqani network in North Wazirisitan (or whatever is left of it) and seek council with Punjshairis in Kabul and do what it says (e.g. stop restrictions on whoever crosses Pak-Afghan border)

 

[niaz]

May 19, 2016: Despite growing domestic, and foreign pressure the Pakistani military refuses to stop (or even admit) its support for Islamic terrorists. This is becoming embarrassing for many Pakistanis as a growing list of former Pakistani officials (especially retired diplomats and generals) admit that the Pakistani military has been lying for decades and continues to consider the “secret” program to support Islamic terrorists a perfectly legitimate method of evening up the military imbalance between India and Pakistan. This Pakistani program has been going on since the 1980s and it was back then that India began pressuring Pakistan to shut down the Pakistan based Islamic terror groups that specialized in attacking India. At the time India got no help from the West because Russia had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and was in the midst of a ten year effort to suppress resistance to an Afghan government run by local communists. Pakistan was the front line in aiding the Afghan rebels, who saw their resistance as a religious war against atheist Russian communists. The Cold War was still going on and India, while officially neutral, had long been an ally (and admirer) of Russia and a major export customer for Russian weapons. India still has a powerful Communist Party but after the Cold War ended in 1991 India and Russia began to drift apart and India gained more international support for its efforts to expose and halt the Pakistani use of Islamic terrorists. Two decades of that pressure has convinced many Pakistanis that this secret war tactic had not only failed but was also counter-productive. So far the military leadership, despite growing internal dissent, has refused to come clean and shut down their “good Islamic terrorists” (as opposed to the bad ones who wage war against Pakistan).

Over the last few years civilian Pakistan government have agreed to crack down Islamic terrorists in Pakistan who attack India. But the Pakistani military quietly refuses to cooperate. So there are still over a dozen Islamic terrorist training camps in Pakistani Kashmir to support operations in Kashmir. These Islamic terror groups have a lot of fans inside Pakistan, especially with senior military and intelligence officers. That is why Pakistan based Islamic terrorists continue fighting along the Kashmir border and on the Indian side of the border as well.

In 2016 India offered to share intelligence with Pakistan about anti-Pakistan Islamic terrorists operating inside Pakistan. India revealed that it has a lot of terror related intel that Pakistan does not have. In particular India knew a lot about what ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) was doing in Pakistan and Afghanistan. India also had information about other Islamic terrorists who are not suitably grateful for the decades of support the Pakistani military and intelligence (ISI) have provided. So far the most the Pakistani military will do is trade useful tips. If India provides information that leads to shutting down a dangerous (to Pakistan) Islamic terror operation in Pakistan India gets a similar tidbit about something going down inside India. This is infuriating to the Indians because most of the Islamic terrorist activity inside India is directly or indirectly benefitting from Pakistani support. A growing number of Pakistani military and intelligence officials are noticing that supporting Islamic terrorism is becoming impossible to get away with. But a large minority of Pakistani generals and intel officials believe in radical Islam and the goal of Islam conquering the world. Such beliefs are immune to reality. That attitude, in a country with nuclear weapons, adds to the sense of urgency in making a permanent change in the Pakistani practice of secretly supporting Islamic terrorism.

This change in popular attitudes is another side effect of the Pakistani military operations in North Waziristan. This has been going on since mid-2014 and has allowed the army (and some journalists) to examine a lot of mosques and religious schools (madrasas) that had long been off-limits to the security forces. What was found was ample evidence that many mosques and most madrasas were basically part of an extensive Islamic terrorist infrastructure. The madrasas not only indoctrinated Moslem boys to be Islamic terrorists but took those who agreed to be killers and trained them. Mosques and madrasas were also found to have hidden (at least from public view) rooms for storing weapons, building bombs, training Islamic terrorists and housing veteran (but wanted) Islamic terrorists. In other words, what was found in North Waziristan changed minds among Pakistani officers who were either neutral on Islamic terrorism (at least when it was outside Pakistan) or enthusiastic supporters. There were also a lot of documents captured in these Islamic terrorist hideouts and hundreds of Islamic terrorists were captured and talked. So did many local civilians who had long been silent because the Islamic terrorists executed (or worse) informers. All this evidence said the same thing; the Islamic terrorists were far more powerful and numerous than thought and many of them were willing to destroy Pakistan in an effort to turn the country into a religious dictatorship.

This attitude adjustment also led to Pakistani officials admitting that they had provided sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban since 2002. This has long been common knowledge but until recently no one in the Pakistani government would admit it. This new openness was also facilitated by revelations that most of the civilians in North Waziristan, when allowed to give an honest opinion, said they backed the American use of UAVs to find and kill Islamic terrorist leaders. While this sometimes caused civilian casualties it mainly hurt the Islamic terrorists and civilians quietly approved of this. Some even risked their lives to provide targeting information for these UAV attacks. The same thing happened in Afghanistan, where U.S. officers were often approached by tribal leaders asking for more aerial efforts to find and attack Islamic terrorists.

Afghanistan is becoming increasingly aggressive in demanding that Pakistan end the sanctuary it has provided the Afghan Taliban since 2002. Afghanistan points out that recent security agreements between the two countries obliges Pakistan to shut down all Islamic terrorist sanctuaries. Afghan officials also accuse Pakistan of controlling much of what the Afghan Taliban does, including ordering terror attacks inside Afghanistan. If Pakistan refuses to comply with this request Afghanistan is threatening to take the matter to the UN and other international tribunals. Meanwhile the main Afghan Taliban sanctuary remains in Quetta. This is the capital of Baluchistan and just south of the Taliban homeland in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. Quetta was always off limits to the American UAVs and remains a sanctuary despite constant and increasingly angry calls from the United States and Afghanistan to shut down the sanctuaries. Pakistan has long been dismissive of Afghan protests and either ignores them or dismisses them with denials. The reality is that Pakistan considers Afghanistan a client state. The Afghans are considered a collection of fractious tribes pretending to be a nation. With no access to the sea, most Afghan road connections to ports are with Pakistan. The Afghans resent this and are supporting a Chinese financed effort to upgrade a port in neighboring Iran and extend highways and railroads to the Afghan border. This will replace the dependence on Pakistani roads.

While the 2014 anti-terrorism campaign in Pakistan has reduced Islamic terrorist attacks inside the country (by more than half) there is growing anger at the military using its ability to arrest terrorist suspects anywhere to also pick up and imprison anyone seen as an enemy of the military. Many of those arrested somehow disappear. This practice is not new and has been used for over a decade against Baluchi tribal separatists in the southwest (Baluchistan). Pakistanis are also increasingly hostile towards the local version of the CIA (the ISI, which is controlled by the military). It was the ISI that took the lead in establishing Islamic terrorist sanctuaries inside Pakistan and is now blamed for losing control of these violent groups, as many of them turned against Pakistan and killed thousands of Pakistanis. ISI is also seen as incompetent for not being able to provide any proof that India is supporting any kind of terrorism inside Pakistan. The army continually makes this accusation against India but never provides any proof. The military thought that their 2014 campaign against Islamic terrorists in the northwest would make them popular but it didn’t work out as planned. Still the number of civilians killed by Islamic terrorists was reduced by half in 2014 and by half again in 2015. Those deaths seem to be headed for a similar reduction in 2016. That means civilian victims of Islamic terrorism in Pakistan will have gone from 3,000 a year in 2012 and 2013 to less than 600 for all of 2016. The generals seem have forgotten how long they denied there were any Islamic terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan. Most civilians knew that North Waziristan was just such a sanctuary. So there was no surprise, or gratitude, when the army finally shut down the Islamic terrorists based in North Waziristan...

There may be some truth in it but the International community should also realize that US in particular is the most unreliable ally. Time & again, especially wit the regime change, US policy takes a 180 degree turn with complete disregard of what would happen to her allies. Additionally, as soon as the need for an ally disappears, so does the US support, the people on the ground are left to pick up the pieces and deal with the situation.

US did this with Shah of Iran and twice with Pakistan & Afghanistan. On one hand US is against Islamic extremists but with the other hand supplies arms to the Syrians opposed to Assad regime even though most of the arms end up with the ISIS. After the first Gulf war, US encouraged Iraqi Shias to rise up against Saddan Hussein but backed out from providing any military support.

Only country that US has consistently supported is Israel and that is because of extremely strong Jewish lobbies in both the political parties.

Ground reality is that there is support for Taliban in the 200 or so kilometre wide Pushtoon belt along the Pak - Afghan border. Haqqani network has never attacked inside Pakistan and there is strong possibility that Haqqani group would remain one of the most influential groups in the Pushtoon areas. Must Pakistan make a long term enemy of Afghan Taliban?

Besides, just as there had to be dialogue between the Vietcong & the US to end Vietnam war. Pakistan cannot afford to completely alienate Haqqani Talibans because at the end of day, a long term peaceful co-existence path would have to be found with Afghanistan and Haqqani group would probably be a powerful party in future Afghanistan.

When it comes to the United States interests, to hell with all the principals of sovereignty & the international law. Look how US invaded island of Grenada & the Panama without even the pretence of going through the United Nations and to this day continues to support Israel’s occupation of Golan Heights.

This is ‘Realpolitik’ in action. United States does it all the time. When it comes to her interests; Pakistan has as much right to play it as any other country.

 

[Solomon2]

Sir,
your suggestion is noted & followed as well. Just want to highlight the fact that our responses don’t get the readily available approval -

SP doesn't vet comments, but you do need to establish a username and password.

 

[Major Sam]

Something happened to Pakistan society during the reign of the bigot Zia & the Afghan Jihad. Regret to admit that war against terrorism in Pakistan & Operation Zarbe Azb would not & cannot succeed in the complete eradication of extremism unless there is a change in the mind-set of the section of the society who actually approve what the Al-quaeda, Taliban & the Dae’sh are doing.

For example I had never heard of the name Osama in Pakistan before OBL came on the scene. Now I personally know of at least two young men (both from Central Punjab) who are called Osama. You also have political leaders of religious parties; who while saying that they disagreed with Taliban’s methods; openly admitted their admiration for the extremists. Imran Khan was nicknamed Taliban Khan for good reason. PML-N also has many leaders with extremist links.

Additionally there are senior columnists such as Ansar Abbasi who devotes his columns to praising things like Sargodha University banning sitting together of boys & girls on the Unversity lawns etc rather than condemning Taliban playing football with beheaded Pak Army soldiers. I am not totally against the segregation of young men & women but does this need column space of the Daily Jang?

By the way Sargodha happens to be my home town, but apparently it is now being turned into a district of Saudi Arabia. Who cares that men & women must work to-gather gathering Phutti (raw cotton) and during the wheat harvest?

The following passage by Qatrina Hussein of Express News describes the realities of Pakistan society.

Quote

The Pakistani print and television industry has singularly failed in crafting a professional approach to covering terrorist events. The sensationalist reportage is often exacerbated by a limited understanding of the nuanced discourse of extremism. News cannot and must not be censored. But the television reportage frequently degenerates into a litany of the state’s failures and the terrorists’ successes, implicit in the first question: was this a security lapse?

But the media needs to start giving equal attention to excellent successes in the field. How many are aware that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bomb Disposal squads, working under extremely hazardous conditions, have defused almost 6,000 bombs from 2009 to 2014?

Clearly, the state and some political and religious parties have clouded the issue, resulting in a confused and frequently self-contradictory narrative. But the media itself seems to be divided. Everyone offers lip service to rejecting terrorism, but right-wing commentators and columnists freely function as apologists, subtly justifying domestic terrorism by linking it to international events and Western policies. In some cases, the right-wing Urdu print and electronic media have even sympathised with terrorists.

Perhaps the area where we have critically failed is in recognising extremism in all its manifestations. Growing extremism in society is directly linked to extremist sympathisers who function as facilitators and financiers of domestic terrorism. Terrorist organisations recruit followers from people who are confused by conflicting narratives presented by the state and the media.

By Quatrina Hosain
The writer is a veteran journalist of 28 years in print and electronic media.

Unquote.

What the heck is with name btw? just bec there name is osama ? seems obsessed journalist.