HVK Archives: ISI yielding to pan-Islamic outfits?
ISI yielding to pan-Islamic outfits? - The Hindu
Vinay Kumar
()
November 28, 1998
Title: ISI yielding to pan-Islamic outfits?
Author: Vinay Kumar
Publication: The Hindu
Date: November 28, 1998
After a decade of sponsoring and guiding terrorism and subversion
in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and elsewhere in India, Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) appears to be gradually
slipping into the hands of the pan-Islamic organisations in
Pakistan which are keen on establishing their puritanical brand
of Islam.
Recent developments in Pakistan point to the fact that pan-
Islamic outfits are slowly increasing their socio-cultural
profile. Officials in North Block point to the recent statement
of the Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, in which he
said the Taliban system was a "model for Pakistan" and attacked
the Opposition for blocking his Shariat Bill in the Upper House
of Parliament.
Mr. Sharif, analysts say, is attempting to co-opt the Islamic
radicals within the country. Key steps have already been taken to
do so. First, the Shariat law. Further, the Sunni fundamentalist
Taliban has been lionised. "Mr. Nawaz Sharif is taking concrete
steps to consolidate his political base," an analyst said.
Sources say Mr. Sharif may have adopted a highly ambitious
political agenda. Buoyed by his impressive successes at the polls
he may be moving to challenge Pakistan's famed "Troika" around
which power revolves. The "Troika", in which the Army as well as
the ISI feature prominently, finds a natural ally in the Islamic
radicals. Chances of success against this powerful combination
depend on de-linking it from its Islamic support base.
Not surprisingly, the first shots against the established
political order have already been fired. Gen. Jehangir Karamat,
has been replaced as Army chief by a man of Mr. Sharif's choice.
An effort to rein in the formidable ISI has been made. For the
first time. Mr. Sharif has appointed his man as the head of the
ISI. The aim behind the Shariat Bill is to deny the entrenched
elements their otherwise natural radical constituency.
This shows that "Talibanisation" of Pakistan has captured Mr.
Sharif's fancy and theology students who now rule Afghanistan are
increasing their influence in Pakistan too. Clearly, Mr. Sharif
has assumed enormous powers and is seeking to establish a new
social order, based on the principles of a medieval system of
justice. These developments indicate that equations of the
erstwhile powerful "Troika" of the President, the Prime Minister
and the Army are in a state of rapid transition.
Warning against takeover of Pakistan by the Islamic militia, the
former Prime Minister, Ms. Benazir Bhutto, said that such groups
have become powerful and were not only playing a role in Kashmir
but also in Afghanistan. "They can turn to Pakistan too. In
Kashmir, we will have to think of a non-insurgent solution. As a
country, we cannot allow a private militia to send Islamic
Mujahideen over to Kashmir. We must pay attention to this.
Otherwise we will become a closed State," she cautioned in an
interview to the Urdu daily Jang over this week-end.
Pakistani agencies are strengthening their anti-India propaganda
through revamping of the Sada-e-Hurriyat, a clandestine radio
channel run by the ISI. Other pan-Islamic, hardline outfits
reportedly engaged in anti- India activities include the Hizbul-
Mujahideen, an outfit created by the Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan,
Lashkar-e-Toiba which has links with Markaz-ul-Dawa-wal-Irshad,
and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen which has links with Jamaat-e- Ulema-e-
Islami and is a renamed version of Harkat-ul-Ansar, declared a
terrorist outfit by the U.S.
In fact, the pan-Islamic agenda of the Taliban movement, nurtured
by the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islami and by the ISI in the Madrassas of
Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, today
threatens several countries. Apart from India, the West Asian
countries, the Central Asian Republics, and even China are
affected by them.
It is this hardline, pan-Islamic approach that spells danger in
the long run for the liberal, tolerant and secular social fabric
of India. If the ISI-sponsored activities concentrate on
explosions, killings, cross- border terrorism and training of
militants and infiltration, the pan- Islamic outfits aim at
subverting the young and impressionable. The BJP regime's
alarmist approach on the ISI issue points to an unimaginative
handling and also tends to diminish the potential and might of
the Indian security agencies and administrative machinery to
tackle the problem.
Latest trends have shown that more ex-servicemen are being pushed
into Kashmir by Pakistan. According to intelligence reports,
about 1,300 foreign mercenaries are still roaming around in Jammu
and Kashmir and seeking to expand their operations to areas such
as Doda in the Jammu region and Chamba in Himachal Pradesh.
The recent massacre of about 35 labourers in Chamba was a grim
reminder of such activities. What seems to be of particular
concern to the agencies here is the rather large presence of
foreign militants in the Valley. Foreign mercenaries are extreme
hardliners and aim to destroy the more tolerant traditions of
Sufism. Burning of the Charar-e-Sharif four years ago was an
attempt to crush such traditions.
Sources have also noted the simmering rift between hardliners and
moderates in the Jamaat-e-Islami in Kashmir over affiliation to
pro-Pakistan insurgent groups. Ghulam Mohammad Butt, Amir-e-
Jamait has come out openly in defence of democratic means to
achieve its objective. Sources here view this as a "good and
positive" development which would work against insurgency in the
Valley.
Yet another significant observation was made by Ms. Benazir
Bhutto last month. She feared that Pakistan could be tipping
towards an Islamic revolution or a military takeover. In an
interview, she said that Pakistan's religious schools or
Madrassas. birthplace of Afghanistan's Taliban movement and anti-
India militants in Kashmir, could nurture an Islamic revolution
in Pakistan itself. She said attempts of Mr. Sharif to introduce
the Shariat law masked a plan to assume more power for himself
and to threaten minority religious and ethnic groups.
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