Author: Hiranmay Karlekar
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 20, 2002
The arrests in Karachi of top Al
Qaeda functionary, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, stated to be the mastermind
of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, and of
Ramzi Binalshibh, his principal aide and the prime suspect in the strikes
case, are significant for their timing. So is the fact that Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf made it a point to issue a statement from New York congratulating
the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for its "excellent work."
The arrests of the two and their
10 associates came when President Musharraf had received a rather cold
reception in the United States for Pakistan's emergence as the new hub
of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism after the Taliban regime's ouster in
Afghanistan. The world now knows that the ISI, Islamic clergy and the fundamentalist
Islamic terrorist organisations like the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Toiba
(LeT) and the Harkat-ul Mujahideen (HuM), which the ISI has created for
perpetrating cross-border terrorism against India, are sheltering leaders
as well as rank-and-file terrorists of the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The role of the Musharraf regime
itself has come to be questioned by Western intelligence agencies and media.
In an article entitled 'Analysis: Al Qaeda's Privileged Sanctuary' in the
Washington Times of June 17, 2002, the distinguished American journalist
Arnaud de Borchgrave wrote, "Is Pakistan taking Afghanistan's place as
the new fulcrum of transnational terrorism? Intelligence sources in Washington,
London, Paris and Rome agree that Al Qaeda's underground network in Pakistan
is functioning with the complicity of the clergy and the intelligence agencies.
President Pervez Musharraf's much publicised crackdown on Islamist extremists
is a dismal failure, according to Western intelligence agencies. Pakistan's
national police sources in Islamabad estimate that some 10,000 Afghan Taliban
cadres and followers and about 5,000 Al Qaeda fighters are now hiding in
Pakistan 'with the full support of the intelligence authorities, as well
as religious and tribal groups', according to one source."
He further wrote, "The latest reports
from Pakistan are ringing alarm bells throughout the Western intelligence
community. Disinform-ation about US intentions is being circulated by 'midlevel'
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency operatives and some field grade
army officers."
The arrests also almost coincided
with President Musharraf receiving a stern warning from US President George
W Bush to curb cross-border terrorism against India and not to unleash
violence to scuttle the elections in Kashmir, which indicated how his stock
had slipped in the US. These were also made when he had come in for sharp
criticism for breaking all canons of propriety by unleashing a venomous
diatribe against India in his address to the 57th session of the United
Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The intensity of the criticism had
subsequently forced him to explain away his intemperate rhetoric by pleading
that he was an army man given to blunt talk and that his speech was the
result of his desperation at India's lack of response to the "initiatives"
he had taken to resolve the Kashmir issue.
The arrests enable President Musharraf
to claim that, contrary to what is being said, he is fully with the US-led
alliance against terrorism. If he has so far been unable to deliver to
Washington's satisfaction, it has only been because of the massive odds
against him in the shape of Islamic fundamentalism, sympathy for the Al
Qaeda and the Taliban, and hatred for the US that is widespread in Pakistan
and deeply entrenched in the armed forces, the intelligence agencies and
the civil administration. He, however, does his best and delivers whenever
he can. Example? The arrests.
Understandably, the arrests have
been projected as not being pre-planned. According to reports, the initial
raid on the Karachi apartment from which these were made involved a small
team of police and security agencies, and reinforcements were summoned
only after it was attacked with a grenade. A three-hour battle, in which
two terrorists were killed and a member of security agency personnel was
injured, preceded the arrests.
There are two problems with this
account. First, the Pakistani authorities, which have provided it, are
by no means above lying. Second, these were reportedly made the night of
September 9-10 and the morning of September 11. Why were these not announced
till September 14? Were the arrests and the announcement both pre-planned
to help President Musharraf?
The arrests should make the Americans
wonder further as to what President Musharraf is really up to! A close
look will show that he wants to keep alive whatever he can of the Al Qaeda,
the Taliban and organisations like the JeM, LeT and HuM, and also keep
the Ameri-cans happy. These organisations comprise trained, thoroughly
indoctrinated and battle-hardened fundamentalist Islamic terrorists whom
he wants to unleash on Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) as soon as US pressure
for not doing so relaxes. And he can hardly be faulted for believing that
it would happen sooner than later. Already, Washington's attention is shifting
from the Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Afghanistan to Iraq.
He also wants to keep these organisations
alive because his value to the US lies in his role in the war against terrorism.
The latter has been a windfall for Pakistan, which was until then close
to becoming regarded as a rogue state. It was ruled by a military dictator
who had usurped power through a coup and was the main prop not only of
the Al Qaeda, which had organised several terrorist attacks on the US including
those on the latter's embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam on August
7, 1998, but also of the Taliban which ruled Afghanistan. Its economy was
tottering and aid from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund,
the US, the European countries and Japan had virtually stopped.
All this changed dramatically after
September 11, 2001. President Musharraf, quick to see the advantages of
supporting the US and the disastrous consequences of opposing it, condemned
the attacks. Gradually, he ceased to be a despised dictator. President
Bush told reporters in August, "My reaction about President Pervez Musharraf
is that he is still tight with us in the war against terrorism, and this
is our priority. However, we will work with our allies to promote democracy."
He became a valued ally. Economic aid again began to be sanctioned and
$ 600 million was granted to boost Pakistan's defence preparedness to support
the war against terror in Afghanistan. The US is also paying to Pakistan
another $ 300 million to meet the war's cost.
President Musharraf perhaps fears
that America's attitude will change once the Al Qaeda and the Taliban are
dealt with-as it did after the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan. Americans
will then again pressure him to restore democracy. In his piece entitled
"In the doghouse" in the anthology Contemporary Essays: On the Abyss (HarperCollins
Publishers India), Tariq Ali quotes a retired Pakistani General as saying
in 1998, "Pakistan was the condom the Americans needed to enter Afghanistan.
We've served our purpose and they think we can just be flushed down the
toilet."
How can Pakistan keep the Al Qaeda
alive without antagonising the US to the point where the latter strikes
against it? By occasionally handing over to it key persons like Khalid
Sheikh Mohammad and Ramzi Binalshibh. It will please the US and also minimise
the chances of the Al Qaeda and the Taliban mounting such massive attacks
on it as would make it turn on Pakistan.
