Author: Editorial
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: April 27, 2009
Pakistan is crumbling. The federal and provincial
governments are cowering before the growing threat of the very jehadis they
had most foolishly allowed to grow on their soil. Now, they do not know how
to tame them. The Asif Zardari Government is totally clueless as to how to
handle the grave crisis. The Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalist groups
have challenged the State, forcing it to abdicate in the Swat Valley.
Now, they seek to extend their writ outside
the Swat Valley. In the last couple of days, the Taliban warriors took over
the neighbouring Buner district, set up check-points and barricades, and made
it plain that they were in control, and not the civilian administration owing
allegiance to Islamabad. Armed with assault rifles, rocket launchers and grenades,
Taliban jehadis with their faces covered with black cloth, terrorized ordinary
residents. A weak and ineffectual Zardari Government initially took the path
of least resistance, even as the Taliban knocked on Islamabad's door. A measure
of the Government's cowardice was that it cleared the appointment of a senior
district officer in the Malakand division with the Taliban. The jehadis were
quick to enforce their version of Islam, ordering the closure of barber shops
and prohibiting anyone from playing music of any kind. The harbingers of dark
ages were on the doorstep of Zardari, but he had neither the authority nor
the will to take
urgent steps to halt the descent into complete anarchy.
However, it took the American arm-twisting
to make him realize the gravity of the crisis. From Hillary Clinton to Robert
Gates and Richard Holbrooke, the Obama Administration saw its Af-Pak policy
go up in flames unless it stopped the Taliban madness. President Obama himself
chaired emergency meetings to try and stop the slide of Pakistan into a failed
State. The resulting US threat to stop the flow of billions of dollars in
aid and assistance seemed to have had the desired effect at least for now.
On Friday, the Pak Army had been made to lend its support to the message from
the Zardari Government that the Taliban must withdraw from Buner.
Clinton minced no words in saying that the
advance of the Taliban posed a `mortal threat to the entire international
community. It is not easy to forget that the Pakistani nuclear arsenal of
some 80-odd warheads lies somewhere near Islamabad. One cannot fully contemplate
the horrendous consequences should it fall into the hands of these barbarians
from the dark ages who in the name of Islam are hell-bent to wipe out all
traces of modernity. For now, the Taliban have retreated to the Swat Valley.
But there is no guarantee that they will not come again to threaten the continuance
of Pakistan as a weak and failing State.
The Americans owe it to themselves to keep
Islamabad on a tight leash, in view of their high stakes in Afghanistan.
Of course, India cannot be unconcerned to
the existential troubles of its western neighour. The Army and the civilian
leadership might be tempted to divert attention from their mounting domestic
troubles by provoking a confrontation with this country in the belief that
anti-Indianism is the only glue to hold all centrifugal forces in Pakistan
together. Besides, the safety of the Pak nuclear arsenal is a major concern
for New Delhi as well.
Therefore, India will do well to engage with
the US on the latter's efforts to restore a semblance of internal order in
Pakistan. The break-up of Pakistan does not suit anyone neither the US, nor
India, nor, for that matter, the entire international community.
The international community has a stake in
Pakistan extinguishing the challenge of the Taliban and other jehadis.
