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Author: Imtiaz Gul
Publication: Jang
Date: February 23, 2006
URL: http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/feb2006-daily/23-02-2006/oped/o3.htm
Years of support for jihad and those willing to join it heralded a certain religio-political culture within society as well as the establishment. This has bled Pakistan ever since
As expected, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's three-day visit last week was marked by the usual mutual ceremonial vows of friendship and cooperation. But insiders suggest that most of the official meetings ended on either a bitter or stale note because of the contentious issues raised by both sides.
President Karzai called on Pakistan to intensify its efforts to root out terrorism soon after he arrived in Islamabad on February 15, a point he continued to raise during and after the talks. All that the Afghans want is to intensify the campaign against terrorists -- whether in Afghanistan or Pakistan -- the president told the media.
On February 16, in his address to army officers at the National Defence College in Islamabad, Karzai made a similar appeal to the armed forces: "Preventing progress in Afghanistan is, ladies and gentlemen, exactly preventing progress in Pakistan for very obvious reasons … the stronger, the better, the more prosperous Afghanistan, the stronger, the more prosperous is Pakistan," he said. "Going to the roots of terrorists and bad elements, finding out where they get trained, finding out where they get equipped, and drying out the resources of their financial support is the solution."
The tone and tenor of Karzai's speeches and talks was clear: we are not satisfied, do more to stem the flow of militants across the Durand Line, stop sheltering them and bring them to justice. To underline his point, Karzai and his delegation handed over a list of wanted Taliban officials including their fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who some Afghan officials believe lives in Pakistan. Afghan officials also pointed out that at least 200 schools in Afghanistan had either been torched or had to be closed because of terrorist threats. Defence Minister Rahim Wardak disclosed that his side had given Islamabad a list of wanted miscreants believed to be hiding in Pakistan. He said the list includes those who are leading insurgents in Afghanistan. He refused, however, to say how many people were on the list or who they were.
Wardak claimed that Pakistani authorities had promised to track down and arrest elements extending support to Taliban insurgents, who have lately intensified attacks on Afghan security forces and foreign troops through at least two dozen suicide attacks in different parts of Afghanistan. Most Afghan leaders as well as their American and European supporters believe most of the 37-odd high-ranking wanted Taliban are hiding in Pakistan and that Pakistani security forces might be protecting them.
For their part, officials in Islamabad gave a detailed presentation to Karzai at Aiwan-e-Sadr on the anti-Pakistan activities initiated by RAW through the Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat. The presentation contained evidence on camps being run by the Marri and Bugti tribes, and President Musharraf told his Afghan counterpart that the unrest in Waziristan also stemmed from foreign involvement.
That the visit would be marked by acrimony and complaints was evident from the beginning. Officials in both countries seemed to be at daggers drawn, particularly since the January suicide attack in Kandahar which killed more than two dozen people. Not surprisingly, most Afghan officials blamed it on Pakistan. And within no time anti-Pakistan protests flared up and drew personal appreciation from Hamid Karzai. For him, the organisers of the protests did the right thing.
Then, just three days ahead of Karzai's departure for Islamabad, Afghan police made the startling claim of having seized about 700 home-made bombs hidden in orange crates. They were being smuggled into Afghanistan from Pakistan, an interior ministry spokesman told the media. Wires and fuses were also found among the improvised explosive devices discovered in Kunar province on the border with Pakistan, the interior ministry official said, adding that one person had been arrested. Shortly before this, the same ministry had arrested some 40 Pakistanis, alleging that they had been inciting the public against the government.
Led by Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, most Afghan officials have also been laying the blame for the surge in the insurgency at Pakistan's doorstep, singling out the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for all bad acts. "Pakistan is ... fanning the flames," charged Latfullah Maashal, the chief spokesman of the Afghan interior ministry. "The Pakistanis ... do not want to see a strong, peaceful and prosperous [Afghanistan]." Late last year, Maashal had claimed that the Taliban are being allowed to maintain arms depots, training camps and sanctuaries in the lawless tribal belt on Pakistan's side of the frontier. And in Islamabad too, officials have been sharpening their responses and preparing counter-attacks. On February 13, foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam had vowed that Pakistani leaders would discuss the cross-border attacks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during his visit to Islamabad. A day earlier, a private news agency had also quoted intelligence officials as saying that they had "solid proof" of the Afghanistan-based Indian consulates' involvement in the Balochistan turmoil.
As for the Taliban, whether or not their leaders are being officially protected, the fact remains that their activists and low-ranking officials do use Pakistani mobile phone numbers to post their messages and claims on developments inside Afghanistan. Many of them frequently call up news agencies or journalists of their trust and exchange views. Abdullah Mesood, the South Waziristani Taliban leader, or Mullah Dadullah, the Afghan Taliban leader, also stay in touch with their Pakistani friends through a number of cellular phone connections, which they switch on apparently only when they need to talk to somebody.
But locating all Taliban leaders or their henchmen is a difficult task for several reasons. Firstly, they are mostly on the move and hence difficult to track down. Secondly, tens of thousands of Afghans still live in cities such as Peshawar, Quetta, D I Khan, Kohat and Karachi. In fact several thousand families live in Sialkot, working in the auxiliary industries there. Afghans are also common to farming in Punjab and to the brick kilns, where entire families toil day and night to survive. It is quite easy for leaders and their followers to merge into these Afghan settlements, making them hard to identify. Thirdly, as the Taliban disapprove of filming and photography, most of their leaders have never stood in front of the camera. So even common Afghans, particularly those outside power centres like Kabul and Kandahar, and those living as refugees, would not recognise many of them.
This certainly doesn't condone any alleged connivance, lethargy or neglect within the Pakistani security forces as far as the hunt for al-Qaeda or the Taliban is concerned. Yet such things are not surprising in a state that has been turned soft and porous by the overzealous US and European involvement in the anti-Soviet crusade that they loved to call jihad. Years of support for jihad and those willing to join it heralded a certain religio-political culture within society as well as the establishment. This has bled Pakistan ever since, both domestically and internationally.
The country is now paying a heavy price. Despite its avowed efforts against militants and the arrests of hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, and despite the heavy losses that the armed forces have suffered in the tribal area, nobody trusts this country or its leaders.
President Karzai's sermons in the face of General Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz provided a good glimpse of how others view Pakistan and its leadership. Regardless of the merits or otherwise of Karzai's exhortations on the anti-terror front, Pakistani decision-makers need to stand up to these challenges thrown even by guests from across the border, and proactively work to rectify the country's image.
The writer is a correspondent of Voice of Germany (Deutsche Welle) based in Islamabad
Email: vogul1960@yahoo.com
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