GIVE PEACE A CHANCE...

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE…

 

Narayanan Komerath

 

Abstract

 

The fact that global terrorism emanates from Pakistan is well established. This article debunks the notion that “non-state actors” outside the reach of the Pakistani state control global terrorism, using the visible evidence of sustained, pervasive complicity and control by state entities. The role of the Pakistani state is to protect and profit from the terrorist enterprise, rather than to confront it. Foreign aid has gone mostly to benefit the personal interests of the Army leadership, and to strengthen the state in shielding the terrorists against external action. The cognitive dissonance in the reports of Pakistan Army battle deaths at the Afghan frontier is easily resolved when one considers the relationships between the Punjabi-dominated Pakistan government and Army, and the repressed provinces. The concentricity of “Al Qaeda” and the Pakistani state is clear. To eradicate terrorism and bring about peace, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan must be broken into at least five independent provinces, too intent on protecting themselves from each other to be exporting terrorism. The removal of the central government would also enable the world to destroy terrorist strongholds inside the present borders of Pakistan.

 

 

Prelude: “Pakistan Is A Victim”

 

"The state of Pakistan is in no way responsible," Pakistan President Zardari told Larry King[i] "... Even the White House and the American CIA have said that today. The state of Pakistan is, of course, not involved. We're part of the victims, Larry. I'm a victim. The state of Pakistan is a victim."

 

One has to admire the logic of that. No responsible adult could call the Islamic Republic of Pakistan a “responsible” nation. As for Pakistan being a victim of terrorism, consider:

1. In every suicide terrorist attack outside of Israel and Iraq, a Pakistani is the first to die. 

2.  Most terrorist attacks and foiled plots[ii] lead to the arrest of Pakistanis.

3. Pakistanis constitute the majority of those charged or being interrogated for terrorist crimes.

4. The Pakistan passport has become a red flag at immigration checkpoints the world over.

5. The global focus on terrorism has devastated Pakistan’s biggest exports: criminals, hashish[iii],[iv], and counterfeit currency.

 

This article argues that the State of Pakistan should quite properly be the victim of its own terrorism. It must die, for the scourge of global terrorism to end.

Introduction


 

An article published on the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States of America summarized extracts from open-source published reports on the role[i] of Pakistan in terrorist attacks directed against the USA. This showed that nearly every such attack over the previous decade originated, was planned, funded, trained and / or organized in or from Pakistan. Starting with the initial reaction“I would be very interested to read how anyone ascribes most terrorism to just one country”, an eminent South Asia Expert declared after reading it, that “the author suffers from lack of personal knowledge of the Pakistan Army.” Ah! Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

Was he dissing the article?  No, he was explaining kindly that he, being much better-informed about the Pakistan Army than the author, could point to far worse than what said author had pointed out!  As that author, I thank the Almighty that I do not have “more personal knowledge” of the Pakistan Army, and Insh’Allah, may it always stay that way.  Millions of innocents the world over have never had that choice.

 

A year later, I did an update[i] on Pakistan’s contribution to the global terror portfolio, still leaving out their operations in India except those that were “dry runs” for scaled-up operations elsewhere.  I then stopped these updates because the global market dominance was by now clear to all, and “Pakistan is Terror Central”, a catch phrase in 2002, had become as non-newsworthy by 2004 as “Dog Bites Man”[ii].  But we at BRF[iii] have been tracking every reported terror attack since then, and seeing how long it takes before the Pakistan connection becomes evident. Rarely have we had to wait a day.



[i] Komerath, N., “Pakistani Role in Terrorist Attacks Against the USA: An Update”.  Bharat-Rakshak Monitor, Vol. 6(3), Nov.- Dec. 2003. http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/MONITOR/ISSUE6-3/narayanan.html

[ii] Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown seems to understand this by late 2008. See “Brown: Pakistan linked to most UK terror plots”. CNN, Dec. 14, 2008. Excerpt:  “Gordon Brown, who met counterpart Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad, said three quarters of the most serious terrorism cases investigated by British police have links to al Qaeda in Pakistan”

[iii] BRF is the Bharat Rakshak Forum. This forum started as a gathering of enthusiasts to discuss the history of India’s military forces, but expanded since the Kargil War of 1999 into a significant worldwide discussion forum on strategic affairs dealing with the Indian subcontinent. http://www.bharat-rakshak.com



[i] Komerath, N., “Pakistani Role in Terrorist Attacks Against the U.S.A.” Bharat-Rakshak Monitor, Volume 5(2) September-October 2002.


[i] Anon,  “Zardari: ‘Pakistan in No Way Responsible’ for Mumbai Attacks. CNN, December 2, 2008. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/12/02/pakistan.zardari.lkl/index.html

[ii] A very recent example is the arrest of 14 Belgians reportedly of Moroccan descent, accused of plotting a suicide bombing perhaps targeting the leadership of the European Union at an EU summit in Brussels. All had been trained and arrived from camps “on the Afghan-Pakistan border”, a politically correct euphemism for “inside Pakistan”. See Anon, “Belgian police arrest ‘al Qaeda legend’. December 11, 2008. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/12/11/belgium.terror.arrests/index.html

[iii] Anon, “Pakistan Using Drug Trafficking to Finance J&K Ultras”. Rediff.com, May 14, 2001. “"The trafficking was used to finance the Afghan mujahideen and Kashmiri separatists, while part of the proceeds went to top Pakistani bureaucrats and the practice continues," Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported.

 

"In the years of Soviet-United States rivalry, Islamabad could indulge in heroin trade without problems, but with the break-up of the USSR, the situation radically changed," it said.

 

Fearing international isolation, Islamabad "hurriedly invented" the Taleban militia as a cover-up for its narcotics trade, which is also the basis of its prosperity, wrote the daily.

[iv] Anon, “Afghan drugs barons flaunt their wealth and power”. PakTribune, April 9, 2006. http://paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?140142  Excerpt:  “From Baramcha, about two-thirds of the contraband is spirited south towards Karachi or the more secluded Makran coast. Another third moves west by road into Iran. The final destination, after being purified into heroin, is often Britain.”