| War on Terror | |
| 24 Sep 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| Marriott blast message: US must stop raids inside Pak | |
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By Indranil Banerjie
The horror at the burning Marriott Hotel, reflected on the front pages of newspapers worldwide, is a portent of the times to come. Pakistan is at war with itself with no immediate end in sight. The perpetrators of the Marriott Hotel blast believe they are striking back at their enemy: the United States and its supporters, including Pakistan's civilian government led by President Asif Ali Zardari. For, the Marriott is an American symbol hoist in the heart of Pakistan. The proximate cause of this war are US attacks on Islamist terrorist targets within the territory of Pakistan. On one side is the US with its supporters within Pakistan, and on the other, Islamists bent on ridding this region of American presence, power and influence.
The war is vastly complicated by rifts within the anti-Islamist camp. If any event precipitated a crisis it was the attack by US special forces on the village of Angoor Adda in Waziristan bordering Afghanistan on September 4. The raid led to the death of 20 Pakistani tribals, including several women and children. The attack, predictably, drew condemnation within Pakistan and even the country's normally reserved foreign minister termed it "shameful, regrettable and astonishing". Yet, the raids continued. US Predator aircraft, flying round the clock, were firing Hellfire missiles at high-value terrorist targets in Pakistan's lawless frontier areas, killing terrorists and civilians.
American newspapers subsequently reported that US President George Bush had authorised special forces operating in Afghanistan to cross the border to attack targets within Pakistani territory if required. Quoting senior US officials, these reports said that this order contravened the agreement with the Pakistani Army that no cross border raid would take place without the prior approval of the Pakistani government. The reports were confirmed when the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, at a Congressional hearing in Washington, said that US forces in Afghanistan would revise their strategy to target "safe havens" within Pakistan. America's public radio service, NPR, reported that the Bush administration has approved a three-phase plan to capture top Al Qaeda leaders and had authorised military strikes inside Pakistan. The report maintained that this was an "11th-hour effort to hammer Al Qaeda" before the Bush administration left office. The suggestion that the Pakistani Army had approved all this was forcefully contested by its Army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who rejected US claims that the rules of engagement gave Coalition Forces in Afghanistan the right to enter Pakistan. He declared that the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be defended at all costs. "There is no question of any agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border," he declared.
The next day, General Kayani convened a two-day Corps Commanders conference to chalk out a strategy on the US assaults within Pakistani territory. Traditionally, Pakistani Corps Commanders have constituted the real power in the country. They are the men who hold the military reins in their hands. The civilian establishment has always lived in their shadow, sharing power while acknowledging their limits. On the very first day of the conference, the Army top brass came out with a statement saying Pakistani forces would retaliate if any foreign troops violated the territorial sovereignty of Pakistan. This statement was welcomed by virtually everyone in the government, including Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
That US attacks within Pakistan would provoke extreme reaction was predicted by some. Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain Wajid Shamsul Hasan had said the raids against Taliban on Pakistani soil could spark terror attacks in the British capital. The raids will infuriate Muslims in this country and make the streets of London less safe, the Times quoted Mr Hasan as saying. "There are one million Pakistanis in the diaspora here and resentment is mounting. I am being flooded by text messages from community leaders saying we must organise our anger," he said. And it was not just Pakistanis aboard who were in ferment.
A poll undertaken during this period in Pakistan, suggested that 74 per cent Pakistanis were against US action against the Taliban within their country. Majority of tribesmen in Pakistan's border provinces have not taken up arms but if they do then the entire Pakistani Army would be sucked into the conflict. At least one tribe, the Ahmadzai Wazir tribesmen of South Waziristan Agency (SWA), has warned of scrapping the peace accord with the government if aerial strikes by the US forces continue. They say they could rise en mass against the Pakistani Army. This would spell military disaster.
Today, it is no secret that extremist Islamists have grown into a huge force within Pakistan. Earlier, this Islamist crucible was in Afghanistan and some parts of Pakistan. But after the invasion of that country in 2001, virtually all the Islamists flocked to Pakistan, where they found safe haven.
The US raids within Pakistan have enormously helped the Islamist cause. They have become the defenders of Pakistani sovereignty. According to one estimate, Pakistan today is the worst hit by terrorism: Pakistan suffered 28 suicide attacks during the first eight months of 2008, killing over 471 while, during the same period, Iraq suffered 42 such incidents losing 463 lives and Afghanistan experienced 36 attacks where 394 people were killed. More than the figures, it the systemic failure in Pakistan that is the most alarming. Politically, Pakistan is splintered not just along partisan lines but along sectarian and ethnic lines as well. At yet another level, there are fundamental fissures within the country's elite. The chasm between the civilian government and the Pakistani military establishment today is as wide as it could ever be. The Pakistani Army itself is reported to be split on the issue of Islamist terrorism. A section of the Pakistani establishment has always believed that Wahabi Islamists are allies and not enemies of Pakistan. At the same time, the elected governments in the North Western Frontier Province cannot accept bombings and killings of civilians.
There is a growing feeling in Pakistan that peace has been disturbed by the US and not by the Islamists. Given the mood in Pakistan, the majority would rather live with the Islamists than endure US attacks. This is a huge dilemma. For, the Islamists in Pakistan are the vanguard of a larger Islamist army that believes it is at a state of war with the infidels in the West. The Marriott blast is just another milestone in their "glorious struggle".
Indranil Banerjie is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi
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4:25 PM
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