War on Terror
India’s war needs to be taken to Afghanistan
The outcome has implications for all of us
By Manoj Joshi
The moment the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, Pakistan began to use Afghan territory, now held by its surrogates, to establish training camps for the use of the Harkat- ul- Mujahideen, the Lashkar- e- Taiba and other militant groups to target Jammu &Kashmir. It was in 1992, that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the ISI’s favourite jihadi ,sent in a group of militants led by a relative of his, Mohammed Akbar Qureshi aka Akbar Bhai who established themselves in Sopur and were eliminated only after a tough contest with the Border Security Force. Another group sent by Hekmatyar was commanded by Mast Gul who created a sensation of sorts by setting Charare- Sharif ablaze. There were other Afghans like Sajjad Afghani who were also sent by Hekmatyar. Other Afghan mujhaideen groups such as the Hizbe Islami of Yunus Khalis and the Jamiat- e- Islami of Arsalan Khan Rehmani were also involved in the Kashmir attack. The former group was associated with Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, and the latter sent alashkar with Nasrullah Mansur Langaryal into Kashmir. Both Hekmatyar and Haqqani remain active with the Taliban today and are part of a time-tested link with the ISI of Pakistan. As in all modern wars, we face a complex challenge. Neither Afghanistan, nor Afghans are our enemies. Our adversaries are those who seek to control the country, ostensibly to provide themselves “strategic depth” .Given Pakistan’s historic fears of India, this sounds reasonable and defensive. But the facts are that Pakistan has sought this depth to launch a war of aggression not only against India, but other parts of the Muslim world, including Uzbekistan and Tajikstan. The chicanery of the Pakistani establishment in sheltering the Taliban and turning them against the Karzai government in Afghanistan is becoming apparent to the US which spent afortune in trying to ensure that the Pakhtun- dominated Federally Administered Tribal Area were pacified through development works. Instead the area has been lost to people called the Pakistani Taliban who have expanded their hold into North and South Waziristan, the Bajaur agency and Swat and are knocking at the very gates of Peshawar.
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10:17 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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