so you wanna say TTP have no support from india?
and ISRAEL AND INDIA are so innocent? they want Pakistan to flourish? have you heard the ISraeli language against pakistan?
YES THEY want DESTABLIZED Pakistan U KNW Y?
they want NO NEUCLEAR MUSLIM power in the world AND HAVENT you heard that they (Americans) officially planned to destroy Pakistani neuclear capability in 2010 as SO Israel did at some time! they want Pakistan to be in many PARTS.......
Struggles within and beyond
Friday, May 07, 2010
Shafqat Mahmood
The arrest of a Pakistani American in the failed Times Square bombing puts the country in the wrong spotlight again. This follows the conviction of Ajmal Kasab, another Pakistani, by an Indian court for the Mumbai attacks. Both events in succession will add to the perception that this country is a sanctuary for dangerous terrorists.
The conspiracy theorists may go blue in the face arguing that Pakistan is deliberately being targeted. A part of this may be true. Elements in the Indian establishment and some groups in the US would indeed like Pakistan to be labelled a terrorist state. They may also want to defang its military capability by creating an enabling environment for an onslaught on its nuclear programme.
But it will be foolhardy, or deliberately ingenious, not to acknowledge that there are groups in Pakistan that are capable, and have been involved, in terrorist incidents abroad.
The essential question is not that there are dangerous militant groups in this country.
We, who have been the victims of terrorism more than even Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, know this. What should concern us is the allegation by our adversaries that the Pakistani state is complicit in these attacks outside the country.
The evidence is at best flimsy in this regard. There is little doubt that Pakistani security agencies, egged on by the US, created a band of militants to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. It is also true that some groups fighting in Indian-held Kashmir during the nineties received support from the Pakistani state. But this ended in 2003.
Since then there is no evidence of the Pakistan state's involvement in the troubles that the Indian state has in Kashmir. There is certainly no proof of any Pakistani connection to the attack on the Indian parliament or to the Mumbai tragedy. If there were, it would have been advertised to the world by now.
Having said that, it needs to be acknowledged that the intelligence agencies of the two countries have been in the past carrying out a separate war of sorts against each other. It is thus entirely possible that some stray incidents that happened in Pakistan or in India in the last sixty years may have been engineered by RAW or the ISI.
But there has been no smoking gun, no direct evidence of each other's involvement.
If Pakistan-India hostility has generated mutual problems in the past, the involvement of the Pakistani state in terrorism in other parts of the world is nonexistent. Indeed, it is pointless even to defend this because no allegation of this kind was ever made after 9/11 or the train bombings in Britain and Spain.
This fact, however, does not absolve the Pakistani state from the other charge; that it has failed to eliminate militant groups based on its territory. The only answer is that never before has the state and its armed forces been more committed to fight against militant groups as it is today.
The military operations in Swat, Bajaur, Buner, South Waziristan and now Orakzai are testament to this commitment. As, indeed, is the heroism, dedication and spirit of sacrifice of its soldiers.
More officers and men have embraced martyrdom in this battle against militancy than in the many wars against India.
This is a sad but poignant sign of Pakistan's appreciation that this is a battle for its survival. Army chief Gen Kayani has paid an appropriate tribute to the sacrifices made by declaring April 30 as Martyrs Day. The glorious ceremonies that day in all military installations were a testament that the nation recognises this to be a just war.
The way ahead is long and tortuous. It includes two different elements: taking control of the so-called ungoverned areas and identifying and eliminating militant groups in urban centres of the country. This has to be done with a proper analysis of the state's strengths and weaknesses and the abilities of its adversaries.
The international community needs to understand the difficult nature of this struggle and instead of blaming Pakistan or putting undue pressure on it, give it practical support. This mainly includes economic comfort and, to a degree, the wherewithal to wage a counterinsurgency war. Just continuing the mantra of "do more" is unhelpful.
This is particularly true with regard to the pressure being exerted for an outright assault on North Waziristan. The situation there is quite complicated. A number of militant groups have gathered in it, including the so-called Punjabi Taliban and foreign militants.
Among them, not all are hostile to the Pakistani state. In fact, the role of people like Hafiz Gul Bahadur is quite positive, although it seems that his ability to control the activities of outside elements has diminished. This has led to some ambushes on the security forces and the fact that the murder of Khalid Khawaja could not be prevented.
If the military were to launch a full-scale assault on North Waziristan, it would unite all the groups present there and make the task very difficult. Therefore, if it has to be done, the army leadership will, like in the past, have to work hard to create the right environment.
This means a number of things. First, the military will be assessing its own capabilities, given the fact that Swat and other "liberated" areas are being still being consolidated. It would not want to deploy itself too thin. Colin Powell said about the US military that it should only go to war with overwhelming force so that victory is assured.
The same applies to any operation by the Pakistani military. It went into Swat and South Waziristan with the appropriate strength and fully prepared. Not being able to take them was not an option. The same holds true for North Waziristan. Any operation there has to be assured of success.
Among other ungoverned areas, parts of Khyber agency, particularly Tirah Valley, are also becoming a refuge for different terror groups which have been pushed out of other agencies. The military leadership will also have to calculate how much force is required there to challenge them.
To sum up, the battle to reclaim ungoverned areas and give a final blow to militant groups settled there requires careful preparation and right timing. It is something that cannot be hurried because of US political compulsions. Any peremptory move will result in failure, and that will be catastrophic.
To add to other problems, the situation in Balochistan is becoming grimmer by the day. Targeted killings of non-Baloch have gone up and now law enforcement agencies are being openly attacked. The civil administration is helpless, and more a hollow front than a real government. The political leaders seem to be clueless.
These are tough times for Pakistan, but the state and the people are united to face the challenge of militancy. The victory may be late in coming, but it will not be denied.
