Does Pakistani State Really Control FATA, which is under CIA's drones' attack ?

According to Wikipedia -----"Sovereignty is the right to exercise, within a territory, the functions of a state, exclusive of any other state, and subject to no other authority."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereignty
Keeping aforementioned definition in mind, are we really justified to term drones' attacks on terrorists' targets in FATA as a violation of Pakisan's sovereignty ??
Every sane citizen of Pakistan knows very well that writ of Pakistani state has completely been eroded by Taliban and Al-Qaeda Terrorists in FATA, its adjoining areas and in Swat.
So, in my humble opinion Pakistani nation must come out of state of denial and should recognise the mortal threat posed by growing Talibanisation, which is now creeping in settled areas of NWFP, South Punjab, Pushtoon Belt of Baluchistan, and even in cities of interior Sindh !

Analysing drone attacks —Najmuddin A Shaikh

Increasing discontent in Pakistan over the purport of President Obama’s AfPak policy has many elements.

Let’s begin with the reiteration of an old Obama position: “And we will insist that action be taken — one way or another — when we have intelligence about high-level terrorist targets”.

This has been correctly interpreted as meaning that drone attacks in the tribal areas would continue despite Islamabad’s position that they violate Pakistani sovereignty and are counter-productive. Pakistan has consistently argued that the collateral damage makes this war an even harder sell for any government in Pakistan, causes further alienation and increases support for the common enemies of Pakistan and the United States.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s statement at the joint press conference with Richard Holbrooke and Admiral Mike Mullen that Pakistan would neither accept nor offer blank cheques has been widely welcomed as is his assertion that there is a gap between the Pakistani and American positions on the drone attacks and that Pakistan would continue to get the Americans to see the light. Pakistan, it is being said, is now behaving like a self-respecting nation that would not yield to the bullying of a superpower.

And yet, what is the truth about the drone attacks? That such attacks violate Pakistan’s sovereignty is unquestionable. No nation has the right to enter our territory or air space, let alone carry out aerial operations without our permission. But do we control this territory? Do we really know how much collateral damage is caused and how counter-productive it is?

For many months I have read carefully every account that has appeared about the drone attacks in our newspapers. Invariably we are told that the “local Taliban” surround the area of the incident, remove the bodies for burial and take the injured to hospitals of their choice and then let the press know what the collateral damage has been.

Independent corroboration, clearly, is not possible since there is no local authority present, no reporter has access to the area and the local populace is too cowed to offer an account of the incident that differs from what the Taliban have said. We have to fall back on damage assessments offered by the Americans.

We claim that for every innocent civilian killed in these attacks ten new Taliban recruits are created and our effort at dialogue is frustrated. And yet have we asked ourselves the question why among these very people ten new anti-Taliban fighters have not emerged for each of the hundreds perhaps thousands of tribal Maliks and elders that the Taliban and their foreign cohorts have slaughtered even more mercilessly than the drones.

The truth is that the government and our security forces have not been able to reassure the people of the region that they would protect them against the Taliban if they stood up to offer resistance and the local populations, like the people of Swat after an initial period of resistance, have decided that they do not have the means to prevent the small but well-armed Taliban and Al Qaeda groups from exercising control and imposing their reign of terror in the region.

Where army operations have been successful, and Bajaur is a prime example, the collateral damage in terms of displacement of the population has been terribly high. More than half a million people from Bajaur have left their homes and have received little assistance in the settled districts to which they have fled. The army has reached a truce with the Taliban in the area on terms that seem to suggest a Taliban acceptance of the State’s right to impose its writ. But even this has not been enough to convince the Bajaur people to return to their homes; nor, as far as one can tell, has this led to the return of the local administrators and the commencement of development work.

Why did the Bajaur displacement occur?

I think it would be fair to say that the area had to be softened up by ground artillery and aerial bombardment before troops could move in. The collateral damage was high because Pakistan has precious little by way of precision guided munitions in its arsenal and ordinary bombs and shells kill many more than the people they are aimed at. Perhaps as we acquire more sophisticated equipment and training we will be better able to avoid such collateral damage in our bid to reassert the government’s writ.

But how do you, in the meanwhile, avoid a Bajaur situation and still disrupt Taliban and Al Qaeda dominance of the area.

Let us think at least that the drones may be one way of doing so and rather than the current emphasis on protecting Pakistan’s sovereignty the government should be explaining that this is what the drones are seeking to achieve and that we are trying to acquire the know-how and equipment to do this ourselves.

This is what our conversations with the Americans on this subject should also focus on. Better intelligence sharing, better equipment for and training of our forces and such better coordination as would put us in the driver’s seat with regard to choice of targets and drone targeting. By this I mean that we should be able to target those who are specifically carrying out operations against Pakistani security forces as also those who are attacking NATO forces in Afghanistan.

There has been a great deal of talk about the expanding drone attacks to Balochistan where the Americans believe the leadership of the Afghan Taliban have found safe haven and from where they are said to plan operations in Afghanistan. Balochistan is not the badlands of the Tribal areas and the highly urbanised areas there cannot be treated as such.

I think this is a redline that the Pakistan government has drawn and which the Americans will not cross. I believe that all this talk has been generated to suggest that the Pakistan authorities need to be more aware of American and Afghan concerns on this account and to use their own means to tackle this problem.

While advising the government one would also like to suggest that its spokespersons must also lead the way in convincing the people that Baitullah Mehsud’s claims notwithstanding his suicide bomber attacks in Pakistan are not just retaliation for drone attacks but part of a wider plan to create the sort of instability which allows obscurantist forces to make a bid for power or cause Pakistan to fall apart. One hopes that that in doing so the government will take account of what has been happening under its nose.

There are disquieting reports about the growing influence of extremist forces in parts of the country that should theoretically have the greatest revulsion towards extremism. In Sindh, where the Sufi interpretation of Islam — love and tolerance — has been dominant there has been graffiti according to press reports in which satellite dishes, cable TV and VCRs are described as “three signs of the approaching doomsday”.

A TV channel was forced to cancel a musical show in Nawabshah after the local court issued a restraining order at the behest of a religious party. More recently, with the approval of the local police, a musical dance event was cancelled in Shahdadkot district again at the instance of a religious party. The PPP, a strongly secular party is in power in Sindh; its ally the MQM is even more determinedly secular and yet this happens.

Why is the police acting in this fashion and why is the government not defending freedom of expression in the courts?Up North it is now almost commonplace to see reports such as the one from Mansehra two days ago about the killing of three female workers of the National Rural Support Programme presumably by militants and presumably because they were like other NGO representatives spreading vulgarity by having males and females working together. No reports have yet surfaced about any arrest in connection with the killing of three people last year when militants stormed the office of an NGO in that area. Is this what we will see coming to the rest of the country?

Our free media makes these facts public and, in the absence of a clearly enunciated and forcefully implemented policy of nipping such ominous trends in the bud, civil society remains largely quiescent. What then should the rest of the world think about the direction in which events are moving in Pakistan and what then is likely to happen? Food for thought!

The writer is a former foreign secretary.

SOURCE: DAILY TIMES, 10th April, 09

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\04\10\story_10-4-2009_pg3_2

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Lahore terror attack: Lashkar-e-Jhangavi and allied sectarian/jihadi groups involved

From a state of denial to accepting ownership?

Ayesha Ijaz Khan writes in The News (6 March 2009):

While Pakistanis are not completely out of line if they have concerns about India's hegemonic designs and regional threats to their existence (in recent months, these threats have amplified. Yet, equally dangerous, if not more so, is the enemy within); regrettable as it is, it would not be unfair to say that extremism has permeated our society and over the past many decades there has been a systematic transfer of power from the secular segments of society to those claiming to pose as Islamists.

There is too much tolerance for religious posers, and precious little for dissent in secular terms. This is exhibited across the board. The biggest culprits of course have been successive governments, willing to make peace deals with those who threaten the very fabric of our legal and value structure, yet unwilling to accommodate political dissent or civil society activism based on globally-accepted human values.

But the trouble is also evident among large segments of our society at large. Those who hide behind the cloak of religiosity are rarely questioned about their motives or their actions. Even ten years ago, before the menace of Talibanization crept upon us so forcefully, a policeman, for instance, was far more likely to fine a clean-shaven driver as opposed to a bearded one.

I find it ridiculous, for example, when some analysts ask what the extremists would gain by targeting the Sri Lankans and thus further isolating Pakistan. What do they gain by burning girls' schools? What do they gain by mutilating dead bodies? What do they gain by attacking concerts? Isn't it just the spread of panic and fear that they are after? Have they been emboldened further by the deal in Swat?

Najmuddin Shaikh writes in Daily Times:

But if we want to face reality, we must accept that this was a homegrown attack. If it had foreign financing and perhaps some foreign planning, the finger should point not only towards our eastern border but also to the north of our own country. It is there that those who found shelter now find themselves under pressure, which can best be relieved if their sympathisers in Punjab — and there are plenty of those — can be motivated to create chaos and anarchy in the capital of the country’s largest province.

Najam Sethi writes in Daily Times:

No one will disagree that it was premature on the part of the media to start discussing an “Indian hand” in the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team on March 3. Relying on a CID letter warning the government weeks in advance that the attack would be launched by India’s secret agency RAW, the media took off, bringing in commentators and analysts who were already wedded to the idea from their ideological convictions. But the campaign is coming unstuck even as it unfolds.....

The agencies have been finally forced to look for “local groups”, and that means the vast jihadi network now working for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Because of their old linkages within the state institutions, these groups are able to plant “information” on our security personnel to confuse them and get them to ignore the real culprits. There is an unending stream of reported evidence that the jihadi organisations of Punjab are all aligned with Al Qaeda and have been involved in acts of terrorism planned by it. Yet, all TV discussions avoid naming them, preferring to focus on “foreign hands” that are never finally revealed.

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Lahore Liberty ambush: Defunct outfit involvement revealed
Updated at: 0915 PST, Friday, March 06, 2009

Gunmen carrying their weapons as they leave on foot after the ambush on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore

ISLAMABAD: A defunct religious outfit ambushed the Sri Lankan cricket team and the assailants had come from the tribal areas.

Sources said that the law enforcing agencies have dug out evidences against the attackers, which revealed that the terrorists having links with Afghanistan give rise to this conclusion that Al Qaeda was also indirectly involved in the Libery tragedy.

Sources said that the two vehicles near the Big City Plaza, which were used for Sri lankan team’s ambush had come there early in the morning and no one checked them. Sources said that the terrorists, who has stayed in the Youth Hostel, took part in the action, while the other accomplices had stayed at Kot Lakhpat and Township Area. Secret agencies have found out from the record obtained from cellular phone that the terrorist’ four associates were present around Qaddafi Stadium, who in touch among themselves through mobile phones---one of them stationed near Punjab University new campus, other at Lahore Canal near Qaddafi Stadium, the third one at nearby Boulevard, while the fourth in the Firdaus market area.

Sources claimed that the terrorists kept using the station code for Sri Lankan team van and as soon as the van reached Liberty Chowk, the terrorists told each other that the ‘station’ was about to arrive. According to information, among the 14 terrorists a few belonged to Lahore, while others came from the tribal areas armed with explosives RDX highly inflammable.

Sources said that a breakthrough has been achieved as plausible evidences have been obtained and some crucial arrests could be made in the next one/two days.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=70601

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Investigators see LeT footprints in Lahore attack
By Mubashir Zaidi and Irfan Raza
Friday, 06 Mar, 2009 (Dawn)

ISLAMABAD: Investigators are zeroing in on the footprints of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), according to preliminary investigations by the Joint Investigation Team probing Tuesday’s attack on Sri Lankan cricketers at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk.

Sketchy details of the initial probe suggest that a group of headstrong Lashkar activists, who went underground and remained in hiding in Rawalpindi after the crackdown on Lashkar and Jamaatud Dawa in December, had acted on their own and carried out the attack.

Although officials would not confirm the involvement of Lashkar, they categorically ruled out the possibility of involvement of the Indian spy agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as no evidence has been found so far pointing in their direction.

At least eight people, six policemen among them, were killed after 12 gunmen attacked the bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers to Qadhafi Stadium.

The attack has killed hopes of any international sports events in Pakistan for months, if not years, and seriously damaged Pakistan’s reputation to host any international sporting event, including the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

The prime minister’s adviser on interior, Rehman Malik, refused to comment on the investigations when asked.

‘At this moment I can only say that investigations into the Lahore attack are going in the right direction. We have also involved the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) to determine the identity of the attackers,’ he told Dawn.

Interestingly, officials working at Nadra told Dawn that they had no facility to match the sketches with the database. ‘It is a very expensive technology and we do not have it here. So Nadra cannot do anything in this regard,’ a top official of Nadra said.

But asked specifically about the involvement of Lashkar in the Lahore attack, Mr Malik said he could not reveal anything at the moment. ‘The preliminary report will be finalised by Friday. At this moment I can only say that reports regarding the involvement of LeT are speculation,’ he added.

Later he told reporters in Parliament that al Qaeda could be involved in the attack. He also said so far investigations had not yet found any Indian connection.

He told journalists that the involvement of India’s Raw had not been proved so far. But, he added, the final answer could only be given once the investigations were completed.

Mr Malik claimed that investigators had not found any link between the attackers and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a key Pakistani suspect in the Mumbai attacks and the alleged trainer/handler of the suicide squad that wreaked havoc in India’s commercial hub in November last year.

But he refused to share details with media of the arrests made by the law enforcement agencies so far.

The investigators involved in the probe believe that the attackers got their commando training in the camp of Lashkar’s operational commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi as their modus operandi had similarities with the Mumbai attackers.

Lakhvi was detained by authorities on suspicion of involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks. He was picked up from his camp in Muzaffarabad on Dec 10 last year.

Investigators believed that one of the attackers had assured the chief suspect in Mumbai terror attacks that his followers would take revenge against Pakistani authorities for his arrest and subsequent trial.

The authorities have also approached Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, who is currently under detention at his Johar Town residence in Lahore, to help authorities in tracking down the attackers.

http://www.dawn.net/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/pakistan/investigators+see+let+footprints+in+lahore+attack--sal-up

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Pakistan IDs cricket attackers, security concerns mount

Sketch of four of the terrorists wanted in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 4.

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) — Authorities in Pakistan said they had identified the gunmen who attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team, as international concern mounted Friday over how the security plans failed.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia, home to two officials caught up in Tuesday's deadly attack in the city of Lahore, demanded to know how up to 12 men were able to stage the assault, killing eight and wounding seven players.

Footage of the gunmen's getaway has raised questions about Pakistan's ability to combat Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants, who have carried out scores of attacks here over the last two years and are the main suspects.

"We have identified the people who did the operation," provincial governor Salman Taseer told reporters in Lahore late Thursday.

Police released sketches of four suspects and have brought in around two dozen people for questioning but no leads have been announced.

Taseer said he would comment further after reviewing an interim investigation report due Friday.

The gunmen fired on the Sri Lankan team convoy with automatic weapons, grenades and a rocket launcher as the vehicles travelled to Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium but all the attackers fled without a trace.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which left a total of 19 people injured.

In Australia, Rudd said he was unhappy about the security concerns expressed by Australian cricket officials travelling with the team.

"I am sufficiently concerned about what has been said by the Australians that we need an explanation, and we intend to get one," he told a radio interviewer on Friday.

Simon Taufel, one of the umpires travelling in the convoy with the Sri Lankan team, said his bus had been left unprotected once the assault began.

"You tell me why supposedly 20 armed commandos were in our convoy and when the team bus got going again, we were left on our own? I don't have any answers to these questions," he said.

Pakistan lawmakers have accused the government of a "serious security lapse", highlighting reports that authorities were warned of a possible attack.

The top government official for Lahore conceded Thursday there were gaps in the security provisions made for the Sri Lankan team.

"A terrorist has to succeed only once, whereas security has to be successful all the time. After every incident one gets wiser. You get to know all the gaps and how you should not repeat those gaps," Khusro Pervaiz told AFP.

More than 1,600 people have been killed in attacks over the past 22 months in Pakistan, where Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants have forged a base in the rugged, lawless northwest along the border with Afghanistan.

For decades, Pakistan's ISI military intelligence agency has fostered Islamist militant groups in Kashmir and Afghanistan, and there are suspicions that some ISI elements have links to militants inside the country.

The South Asian country's long history of unsolved political attacks includes the assassination in December 2007 of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Tuesday's attack was also a serious blow for cricket in Pakistan, as the International Cricket Council raised doubts about whether it could still co-host the sport's 2011 World Cup.

New Zealand has indicated a tour of Pakistan set for November will likely be called off.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ik5u048DEW6VCSx2NYIvmnr6TxZQ

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The Times, March 6, 2009

Gunmen who attacked cricketers in Lahore 'had links to al-Qaeda'

Zahid Hussain in Islamabad

Pakistan has identified the gunmen who attacked Sri Lanka's cricket team in Lahore and arrested some key suspects, including the brother of the suspected mastermind, according to several officials.

Most of the two dozen detainees belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), the outlawed militant groups with close links to al-Qaeda, security officials have told The Times.

Senior police officials said that the men behind Tuesday morning's attack might also have links to other militants fighting in Pakistan's lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

However, it remained unclear last night whether those arrested included the gunmen who killed eight Pakistanis and injured six Sri Lankan players and one British assistant coach in Lahore. Salman Taseer, the Governor of the eastern province of Punjab, said only that the Government had identified the attackers but refused to give details until the investigation was completed.

“We have found a lot of evidence. We have recovered the weapons. We have identified the people who did the operation,” he told a news conference in Lahore.

Police also released sketches of four of the 12 gunmen, and Rehman Malik, the Interior Minister, said that a preliminary investigation report would be released today.

Some Pakistani officials have said that the attack bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group blamed for the attack on Mumbai in November.

But a senior Home Ministry official said that it appeared to be the work of al-Qaeda, which has masterminded previous attacks in Pakistan, including last year's suicide bombing on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad.

He said the investigation showed that Tuesday's attackers were from Punjab and North West Frontier Province, which has become the main battleground between militants and Pakistan's armed forces.

Intelligence sources said that southern Punjab had become the main centre of radical Islamic activities in the country. Despite a ban, groups such as JeM and LeJ had expanded their influence in the area, drawing recruits from among rural poor, they said.

Most of the gunmen involved in the attack on Mumbai in November came from the same region.

JeM has become a virtual extension of al-Qaeda and was blamed for most of the terrorist attacks in Pakistan after the country become an ally in the US-led War on Terror in 2001.

LeJ is an extremist Sunni sectarian group whose members overlap with JeM. It has also been involved in al-Qaeda-led attacks in Pakistan.

Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistan President, voiced criticism of the security arrangements yesterday, saying that the special police guarding the Sri Lankan team should have responded and killed the attackers in less than three seconds.

“That should be the level of training that I expect from an elite force ... we need to improve that standard,” he said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5854505.ece

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Terrorism in Pakistan

State of denial

Mar 5th 2009 | LAHORE
From The Economist

The culprits behind the latest outrage

AFPNot a cricket shot

FOR many foreigners, events in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, on March 3rd confirmed their view of Pakistan as a hotbed of terrorism. A dozen masked gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying Sri Lanka’s national cricket team, killing six policemen and two others, and wounding seven cricketers and a British coach. But for many Pakistani pundits, quick to appear on television, events fitted another familiar pattern: Pakistan as victim of Indian conspiracy.

In January Punjab’s intelligence service had warned the police that India’s spies were planning to attack the Sri Lankan team. Now the pundits claimed the ambush was intended as retaliation for the attack on Mumbai in November in which more than 170 people were killed, to show that Pakistan was a security risk. As evidence, they pointed to the assailants’ escape: Pakistan’s Islamist terrorists, went the argument, make sure to kill themselves as well as their victims. To bolster their case, they cited India’s crowing over its decision not to send its own cricket team, for which Sri Lanka’s was standing in, and its leaders’ complaints, after the attack, about Pakistan’s intact terrorist “infrastructure”.

This far-fetched analysis, and the refusal to accept the reality of Pakistan’s terrorist problem, owes much to the religious-nationalist leanings of many young but influential television presenters. Their opinions were formed by the distorted education they received under General Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan’s dictator from 1977-88. So, despite many occasions when al-Qaeda has claimed attacks in Pakistan, many Pakistanis refuse to believe the group exists, let alone that it is dangerous for their country.

In fact, however, a former high-ranking Pakistani intelligence official has given The Economist a much more plausible explanation for the Lahore attack: that it was the handiwork of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). This sectarian group, which also put New Zealand’s national cricketers to flight in 2002 after it exploded a bomb outside their hotel in Karachi, now works closely with an al-Qaeda/Taliban network in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

It has been blamed for several atrocities, including the bombing last September of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, for which al-Qaeda this week also claimed responsibility, in a message to the Saudi embassy in the capital. According to the intelligence source, the security forces last year caught an LeJ terrorist, who is still in custody. He has confessed to being trained to carry out a suicide mission during a proposed international cricket tournament last year that in fact was shifted elsewhere.

In a society beset by Islamist violence, including some 60 suicide-bomb blasts in each of the past two years, this latest attack was less bloody than many, but nonetheless remarkable. Sri Lanka’s decision to send its revered cricketers to Pakistan, despite fears for their safety, was a brave act of South Asian solidarity from a country with terrorism troubles of its own. Its foreign minister this week visited Pakistan and offered condolences for the deaths of those killed protecting his compatriots.

That Pakistan has proved unable to provide effective security for the Sri Lankans, despite extraordinary efforts by Lahore’s police in the face of a manifest threat to their lives, is dispiriting. It seems reasonable to suppose that many of Pakistan’s dwindling foreign visitors, of all stripes, will now stay away from the country. At a time of economic duress, partly related to the country’s deepening insecurity, this will have repercussions far beyond cricket.

For many Pakistanis, however, the outcome for the country’s favourite game will be bad enough. It is almost unimaginable that other national sides will want to tour Pakistan in the near future. Pakistan’s ambition to be one of the hosts of the 2011 World Cup is surely in tatters. Though not quite the source of public hysteria that it is in India, cricket is one of Pakistan’s few unifying forces. Moreover, at a time of national shame over the many atrocities committed by Pakistan-reared militants at home and abroad, their cricketers’ performances were an export of which Pakistanis could be genuinely proud.

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13240421

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Terror war comes to Lahore

Reality check Friday, March 06, 2009 Shafqat Mahmood They are destroying everything that made life normal. A game of cricket with a visiting foreign team, gave a message of well being. This made cricket an enemy. The resolve of the Sri Lankans to help Pakistan project an image of peace was heroic. This made them a target. It is about time we understood that the real enemy is within. It may be comforting to blame outsiders; and nothing can be ruled out in the murky world of spy wars. But, this cannot be an excuse to deny that we have a problem. This is not of American origin or Indian design. America began the rot by bankrolling a surrogate army to fight the soviets in Afghanistan. India raised the temperature by letting lose a reign of terror in Kashmir. But, we nurtured and nourished these non state actors as an adjunct to our normal security apparatus. What we did not consider was the cost to the country or the blow back that this will create. The power of the gun is a heady brew. Those using it become accustomed to attention and to intimidation to get their way. They were not going to melt away just because a certain politician or General said that time has come for them to go back to their shops or ploughshares. Even expecting anything like this was fool hardiness. Myths were also created to place these organizations in the mainstream of our national narrative. These are good people who will never fight the Pakistani state, we were told. Their enemy is only India and their theatre of operation the Indian occupied state of Jammu and Kashmir. Also, that they are within our control and will do as they are told. Time has shown these beliefs to be total fabrications. They have never shied from committing acts of terror within the country. From the bombing of French engineers in Karachi to sectarian wars in Punjab and now the attack on the Sri Lankan team, the footprints of these organizations are everywhere. They have reached a level of strength where they have become completely autonomous. There has been serious speculation for some time that the attack on the Indian parliament was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammad. Pakistani intelligence operatives had no clue about it. The Mumbai attack is now recognised to be a Lashkar-e-Taiba event. The government has half accepted this and more is to come. Again, despite some reckless accusations by Indian politicians, Pakistan intelligence agencies had no advance information of it. Even later, it was only the investigation and reportedly confessional statements by some of the accused that lay bare the details of the plan. The legendary Pakistani agencies were clueless. Not being aware of operations by organizations that traditionally worked closely with them is not good for the intelligence agencies. While it creates plausible deniability, it also shows how autonomous these jihadi outfits have become. Spy games are not about mounting operations. Those are rare. Good intelligence is all about information. When available, it can help prevent the bad and encourage the good. No information means being completely out of the loop and having little ability to influence events. This is paralysis and a nightmare for the agency concerned. Ultimately, it reflects a weakness of the state. That seems to be happening in this case. There are reports on Wednesday evening, as I write this, that about five of the accused involved in Sri Lankan firing have been arrested. If these are the real people, it is possible that we may find out their true motive. But, without knowing much, I can predict that these attacks on the bus of the Sri Lankan cricket team had a fair amount to do with the arrest of LeT members and their expected trial in the near future. Horrendous as this tragic attack is in which so many policemen have lost their lives and some Sri Lankan players injured, this should be seen as test of our resolve. If we buckle under and start making appeasing noises, the terrorists would have succeeded. This is a time to keep the pressure on and show that acts of terror will not deter us from trying criminals who use our territory to wage war outside. We should also stop legitimising them by placing their acts in a context of anti-Americanism. This is what some people are doing when analysing events in FATA and Swat. The assumption is that if somehow the Americans would disappear from Afghanistan, all would be well. This is balderdash. American presence in Afghanistan has indeed created a sanctuary for some Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda in the tribal areas but extremist elements in other parts of the country have an agenda of their own. Pamphlets have begun to appear in Lahore markets and other places essentially targeting women. They should be modestly dressed and not shop alone etc. More is likely to come. The seeds of extremism have been sown in all parts of the country. It is now almost a cliché to blame the madressah system for the spread of extremism but like most clichés it has a great deal of truth in it. Particularly in southern Punjab, the impact of the madressahs largely funded by Saudi money is huge. These alternatives of education and nourishment are sucking in thousands among the poor. They otherwise would have no option but to depend on the state school system, which is in an abysmal state. It also does not provide meals. Mundane as this may sound it is not something to be scoffed at. Unless the state is able to compete with these alternatives, the battle for the hearts and minds of the poor is lost. To create the possibility of winning, the state will first have to acknowledge internal terrorism as a serious problem. Despite much mouthing of right words, there is no evidence that a comprehensive holistic plan has been made to fight extremism. This involves, besides better policing, a combination of better services and a much better access to health and education for the poor. In other words, investing serious money into the fight against extremism is essential. It would involve modernising the police force, creating greater capacity among prosecutors and court systems, and, investing in services for the poor. It is this three-pronged strategy that will possibly turn the situation around. This hand wringing and mouthing of pious slogans by the leadership would not get us anywhere. While hopefully someone will pay attention to this, let us pause and say a silent prayer for Pakistani cricket. For many of us, it was not a sport but a passion. A cricket match would be more than a sporting contest. It was a gladiatorial fight and a social event rolled into one. Now for years to come, no one will come here. Another element of our way of life has come to an end. This is not the passing of a torch from one generation to the other. This is a paradigm shift. We are not leaving a better world behind. Email: shafqatmd@gmail.com

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=165959

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For further information about Lashkar-e-Jhangavi, read:

Book Review: The True Face of Jehadis - By Amir Mir

ISI supported Lashkar-i-Jhangavi and Sipah Sahaba in killing Shias in Pakistan

For a detailed account of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi reign of terror in Pakistan, read:

http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/search/label/Lashkar-e-Jhangavi

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Implications of the Swat deal —Najmuddin A Shaikh

Implications of the Swat deal —Najmuddin A Shaikh

It is a sad but almost foregone conclusion that this agreement will be no more effective than the ones concluded in the past, and that while there will be a welcome albeit temporary respite from the daily bloodletting in Swat, the strife will soon resume

Last week, I recommended that all power centres should adopt a clear direction and give a mandate to the foreign minister for his visit to the United States to review US policy towards Afghanistan. The general belief, which I shared, was that the army was evolving a new strategy in its war against the insurgents in Swat and that this would reverse the ongoing Talibanisation of the area.

What we have instead is an agreement crafted in Peshawar by the provincial government to enforce the ‘Nizam-e Adl’ in Swat.

This is an agreement with Mullah Sufi Muhammad. He may be the founder of the Tehreek-e Nifaz-e Shariat-e Muhammadi, and may have been a potent force in the 1990s. His spectacularly unsuccessful effort to assist the Taliban by taking 10,000 Swat youths to Afghanistan in 2001 and the decimation of this force, however, made him into a spent force. He courted arrest because he would otherwise have been lynched by the grieving parents whose children he led into Afghanistan.

It taxes credibility to suggest that this man will be perceived after his long years of incarceration and his isolation from the current insurgency — led by his estranged son-in-law Fazlullah — as being genuinely representative of the insurgents, or even of the people of Swat, who voted overwhelmingly for secular parties in the last election.

One cannot see Fazlullah — a.k.a. Maulana Radio — and his new patron (or partner) Baitullah Mehsud accepting Sufi Muhammad’s leadership even if the latter’s 300-vehicle convoy is welcomed in Mingora by crowds of war-weary Swatis. Fazlullah, and more importantly Mehsud, have a vision that goes well beyond the narrow confines of Malakand Division or even the tribal areas, and will not accept any restrictions on their ability to use Swati territory for operations elsewhere.

So why did the ANP leaders in Peshawar enter into this agreement?

That there was nostalgia for the swift justice that was available in the days of the Wali of Swat was clear, but it was also clear that the Swatis did not want extremism, and the induction of the Nizam-e Adl under the auspices of the likes of Fazlullah could mean nothing else. Sufi Muhammad has already declared that there is no place for elections in Islam and that he is opposed to democracy.

The ANP did this perhaps because it saw that the army and law enforcement agencies were not going to be able to quell the insurgency. The army would plead that no insurgency could be vanquished without the cooperation of the locals; yet the locals prepared to fight the insurgents felt that they could not get government support.

Local leaders, including ANP and PPP stalwarts, had developed the perception that for some reason or the other, elements of the insurgency were regarded as “untouchables”, protected by powerful patrons, while locals resisting the insurgents received short shrift from the authorities. They were perhaps hoping against hope that the agreement would buy them time to set things right elsewhere.

There is now a second argument that the purpose of the agreement was to drive a wedge between the Swat insurgency and the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan of Baitullah Mehsud. This is based on the pious but implausible belief that the TNSM wants nothing more than the imposition of Sharia in Swat while it is the TTP that has other ambitions.

Both arguments are fallacious. The time bought is time bought for the insurgents. Sufi Muhammad, as shown by his unsuccessful foray into Afghanistan, shares the TTP’s ambition to re-establish Taliban rule in Afghanistan. He may not, but Fazlullah certainly wants, like Mehsud, the rest of Pakistan Islamised.

Furthermore, Sufi Mohammad and Fazlullah do not control all elements involved in the insurgency. If rumours are to be believed, there have been insurgents from Uzbekistan and Punjab that have moved into Swat.

It is a sad but almost foregone conclusion that this agreement will be no more effective than the ones concluded in the past, and that while there will be a welcome albeit temporary respite from the daily bloodletting in Swat, the strife will soon resume with the government in an even worse position than it is now. In the meanwhile, analysts in Pakistan and abroad will be examining with foreboding the fallout elsewhere in Pakistan and the region.

So far the Americans have been cautious in commenting on the agreement, suggesting that this was Pakistan’s internal affair, that it fell within the ambit of Pakistan’s constitution and that they were expecting further information from Pakistan on its implementation. There is no doubt, however, that this has caused concern in the establishment and is not seen as boding well for the region.

The foreign minister’s visit to Washington may take some time to materialise but our chief of army staff will be leaving for the United States on his first official visit as Admiral Mike Mullen’s guest today. He will be the first authoritative interlocutor to whom the American establishment will put questions about the import of this agreement:

Why does it mean for Pakistan’s internal polity; for the situation in the tribal areas; for the policy of denying sanctuary to Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan; and for the efforts toe ensure that Afghanistan is not used by extremists to launch attacks on the West?

His answers hopefully will be along the following lines:

* The agreement is admittedly unique in so far as it seems to have different laws in different parts of the country. But this has a long history; it is not an act of desperation. It has been entered into in good faith and in the belief that Sufi Muhammad will carry weight with the insurgents. The army will, however, continue to maintain a heavy presence in Swat and the training of forces for counterinsurgency will continue in Swat itself. While the army will be in reactive rather than proactive mode, it will make its presence felt whenever necessary.

* One element of the agreement, once peace has been restored, will be that insurgents not from the area will be asked/forced to leave. There will be an expectation on the part of the administration that connections with such clearly anti-Pakistan elements as the TTP will be attenuated if not severed.

* The agreement will ensure that normal administration is restored even while the courts are made more sharia-compliant. Normal administration will mean that in all other respects, there will be no restrictions on citizens that do not apply in other parts of Pakistan. As normalcy returns, there will be growing demands from local business interests to adapt the application of sharia to the requirements of the tourist trade, a major source of employment in Swat.

* If the agreement does not yield these results, proactive military action will be resumed and from then on there will be no “untouchables”. All locals prepared to resist the insurgents will get protection and there will be no more incidents of paramilitary forces not receiving army assistance when they call for it. Specially trained police forces will be inducted and their concerns about the measure of institutional support will be fully addressed.

* The Pakistan Army realises that if the peace deal fails, the army, as much as the politicians, will be engaged in a battle for the survival of Pakistan and this will take priority over the protection of the eastern border. India will realise, or should be persuaded to realise, that Pakistan’s internal problem is part of the larger problem of the region and it is in India’s interest that Pakistan’s armed forces should have no distractions. With the government’s blessings, the size of the force deployed in Swat will be multiplied and will work closely with local politicians and administrators.

* The situation in the tribal areas and the other border areas will continue to see a combination of military, political and economic development measures. We need to highlight the economic development aspect by identifying and undertaking on a priority basis high impact projects that generate employment and provide alternatives for the youth of the area. (Daily Times)

The writer is a former foreign secretary

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