Author: B.Raman
Publication: www.subcontinent.com
Date: March 7, 2001
While the whole world has reacted
with horror and outrage against the action of the Taliban in destroying
the statues of the Buddha and historical sites in Afghanistan associated
with Buddhism, one man has been strangely muted in his reaction - Gen..
Pervez Musharraf, the self-styled Chief Executive of Pakistan, the creator
and the creation of the jehadist organisations of Pakistan and the Taliban
and the benefactor and the beneficiary of Osama bin Laden, the terrorist
wanted for many international terrorist incidents, who was once nurtured
by Gen. Musharraf and used in 1988 to ruthlessly suppress the
Shias of Gilgit.
Instead of taking the lead in condemning
the barbaric acts of the Taliban, reminiscent of the Nazi destruction of
everything associated with the Jewish religion in Germany and of the vandalism
of the Khmer Rouge in Angkor Vat, the site of the historic Hindu temples
in Cambodia, and other places associated with any religion, he has let
his Foreign Minister, Mr.Abdul Sattar, and the Foreign Office spokesmen
deal with the matter.
The Khmer Rouge went berserk in
the name of Marxist purism and the Taliban, the Khmer Rouge of Afghanistan,
has gone berserk in the name of Islamic purism.
One country, which could have stopped
it, is Pakistan and one leader, who could have done so, is Gen.Musharraf
because the so-called Taliban Administration in Afghanistan is run largely
by the retired officers of the Pakistan Government and the Taliban's militia
is largely officered by serving and retired officers of the Pakistani military.
The Taliban's intelligence set-up is run by officers of Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI). But, Gen. Musharraf has chosen
not to do so.
Ever since he seized power on October
12, 1999, a consistent trait exhibited by the Mohajir General is his fear
or reluctance to confront the Islamic fundamentalist and obscurantist elements.
He had never criticised them on any ground; on the contrary, he had supported
and justified their so-called jehad.
Whenever circumstances warranted
any stand or position, which would not be to the liking of the fundamentalist
and obscurantist elements, he has avoided personally giving expression
to that position and, instead, let his Ministers do so and face the resulting
wrath of the religious elements. And often, he has retreated
in the face of the anger of the religious elements and created embarrassment
for his Ministers.
He asked his Foreign Minister to
issue a statement on the possibility of Pakistan signing the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), but when the fundamentalists agitated against his
Foreign Minister, calling him a traitor and an American stooge, the General
did not defend him; instead, he retreated on the CTBT in order to save
his own position.
Similarly, he asked his Interior
Minister, Lt. Gen (retd) Moinuddin Haider, to issue a statement on documentation
of the madrasas and on curbs on their activities, but when the fundamentalists
denounced the Minister as an American agent, he did not defend him; instead,
he ingratiated himself with the fundamentalists by canceling the orders
of his Minister.
Gen. Musharraf promised
to Mr.Bill Clinton, the then US President, last year that he would himself
personally go to Kandahar, the headquarters of Mulla Mohammad Omar, the
Amir of the Taliban and the Pol Pot of Afghanistan, and persuade the Taliban
to deport bin Laden and moderate its activities. He did not
do so; instead, he sent his Interior Minister to Kandahar on an eyewash-visit
without any outcome, which could have been unfavourable to the Taliban.
If he had wanted, Gen.
Musharraf could have got bin Laden nabbed and deported to the US because
bin Laden, who suffers from a kidney ailment, reportedly comes to Peshawar
periodically for dialysis at the local military hospital, but has chosen
not to do so.
The intention of the Taliban Amir
to destroy everything associated with Buddhism would have been known to
the General, before the decision was announced, through the ISI officers
in the Taliban's Intelligence Department, but he chose not to act against
the Taliban. He did not even send an emissary to Kandahar or
seek the intervention of the religious leaders of Pakistan to pressurise
the Taliban to reverse its decision.
Why this consistent reluctance of
the General to act against fundamentalist and obscurantist elements, whether
in Pakistan itself or in Afghanistan? Is it due to cowardice due to their
street power or is it because of a secret complicity with their views and
actions or is it just due to his gratitude to many of these elements, who
helped him win the grace of the late Gen.Zia-ul-Haq and thus rise in his
career? Why his over-sensitivity to the views and perceptions of the Islamic
parties and why his keenness to keep on their right side? Is it because
of an Army within the Army or a Junta within the Junta, consisting of fundamentalist
and hawkish officers, which has been doing the back-seat driving using
him as a façade for promoting the objectives which they have in
common with the Islamic parties and the Taliban?
Mr.Abdul Malik Kasi, the then Minister
for Religious Affairs, told the "Washington Post" on June 22,2000:" The
Government cannot afford to rub the religious groups the wrong way.
If we hit them with a stick, they will hit us with a gun."
That is only part of the answer.
The unstated truth is that the triumvirate of Gen. Musharraf,
Lt.Gen, Mohammed Aziz, now one of the two Corps Commanders in Lahore, and
Maj.Gen. (retd) Mahmud Ali Durrani, former ISI station chief
in Washington who co-ordinated the Afghan operations with the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), which had worked as staff officers of Zia, had created the
various jehadi organisations and had them trained through the Special Services
Group (SSG). The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), formerly known
as the Harkat-ul-Ansar, which was declared by the US as an international
terrorist organisation in October, 1997 and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET),
which is proposed to be banned by the British Government under its new
Terrorism Act, were their creations. So is Osama bin Laden,
who too was trained by the SSG before being inducted into Afghanistan and
Gilgit.
It was the very same triumvirate,
which helped Lt.Gen. Nasirullah Babar, Ms.Benazir Bhutto's
Home Minister, to create the Taliban in 1994, have it trained by the SSG,
officered by Pakistani officers and inducted into Afghanistan.
Gen.Musharraf has always looked
upon his Afghan operations which led to the creation of the HUM, the LeT,
bin Laden and the Taliban as the major success story of his career and
thinks that it was such organisations and other Afghan Mujahideen groups
which forced the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan and set
in motion the train of events, which led to the collapse of the Soviet
Union.
Similarly, he feels it was the Taliban,
which enabled Pakistan achieve its long-sought objective of a strategic
depth in Afghanistan and provided him with well-motivated surrogates for
use against India in Jammu & Kashmir.
Gen. Musharraf, who
was twice punished in the Army--once while under training in 1964 and again
later-- for indiscipline and insubordination, might not have risen so far
up in the Army but for the successes of these jehadi organisations and
the Taliban, the credit for which redounded to him.
He now thinks that these organisations
would similarly make Pakistan's proxy war against India another success
story and is not prepared to rein them in, whatever be the barbaric nature
of their activities-- whether it is against innocent civilians in India
or against the innocent Shias of Bamiyan in Afghanistan or against the
Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan and the world.
On July 12, 2000, the Heritage Foundation,
the well-known think tank of Washington DC, had published a paper titled
"DEFUSING TERRORISM AT GROUND ZERO: WHY A NEW U.S. POLICY IS
NEEDED FOR AFGHANISTAN", which described the Taliban as Afghanistan's Khmer
Rouge and brought out clearly Pakistan's paternity of the Taliban in the
following words:
"Islamic networks have long played
a vital role in mobilizing Afghans and implementing Pakistani foreign policy...
Because Afghan nationalism was a threat to Pakistani interests, Pakistan
encouraged the Afghan resistance (to the Soviet troops) to organize along
Islamic rather than nationalist principles. From Pakistan's
perspective, an Islamic Afghan regime installed in Kabul with Pakistani
help would be a natural ally.. The United States historically
has deferred to Pakistan, an important Cold War ally, when crafting its
policy toward Afghanistan. This was sensible during the Soviet
war in Afghanistan because Pakistan was an indispensable front-line ally
that took considerable risks in opposing the Soviet invasion of its neighbor.
Since the Soviet withdrawal, however, Pakistani and American interests
have diverged significantly. Pakistan has sought to put a client
regime in Kabul that will help it tilt the balance of power against India.
It wants a friendly Afghan government that will allow it to use Afghan
territory for strategic depth in the event of war with India.
Furthermore, Pakistan favors a radical pan-Islamic regime in Kabul that
will downplay Pushtun nationalism and help escalate the Muslim separatist
insurgency in Kashmir--driving India out of Kashmir just as Pakistan helped
to drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan.The United States must play hardball
to convince Islamabad to drop its high-risk strategy of using the Taliban
to weaken India and consolidate its influence in Afghanistan."
The paper also said: "The Taliban
benefited from extensive Pakistani logistical and military support.
Pakistan's Interior Ministry mobilized thousands of young Pushtun students
from religious schools and transported them to the front. These
eager zealots, many of whom grew up in teeming refugee camps in Pakistan,
were indoctrinated in the strict fundamentalist Deobandi school of Islam.
Many of their schools were little more than "jihad factories" that prepared
impressionable young men for continuous warfare. The Taliban's
revolutionary ardor and rural roots made them "an Afghan version of the
Khmer Rouge."
One of the recommendations made
by it was that the Taliban should be declared an international terrorist
organisation and Pakistan as a state-sponsor of international terrorism
if it does not end its involvement with the Taliban and co-operate with
the civilised world in getting rid of it. The time for action
not only against the Taliban, but also against Pakistan has come.
The civilised world cannot afford to wait any longer.
