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2015-08-06 India-Pakistan

[NATION.PK] The most resounding proclamation during the aftermath of the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
School Attack was Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
's announcement in the All Parties Conference (APC) that Pakistain would 'no longer' differentiate between 'good' and 'bad' Taliban. This vow of no discrimination, which candidly acknowledged the state's hitherto duplicity in dealing with its biggest existential threat, thence became the most prominent clause of the ensuing National Action Plan (NAP) that was to target militancy in all shapes and sizes.

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Despite a multitude of decisions running the protracted gamut from bizarre to baffling, it won't be preposterous to suggest that the Pak state is actually showing intent in countering ~~bandidos~~ murderous Moslems being nourished within its realm, despite the bigger fish like Abdul Aziz or Mumtaz Qadri still deemed perfectly safe by hordes of aficionados. As discussed in this space last week, recent Chinese investments and the CPEC have made any form of internal militancy detrimental to Pakistain's sustenance -- something that has been true for at least a couple of decades.

With critics dubbing Operation Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
a one-on-one Dire Revenge game undertaken by the Army, the Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
operation a violent form of the establishment's historic political tussle with civilians and madrassas -- spearheaded by the Lal Masjid
...literally the Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been...
-- being seemingly exempted from the much touted NAP, question marks have continued to loom over Pakistain's intent vis-à-vis religious fanaticism and armed jihad. The 'encounter' of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
(LeJ) founder Malik Ishaq last week, coupled with the Supreme Court's suspension of Asia Bibi's death penalty, seems to have heralded epoch-defining change.

While Chinese influence seems to have played a major role in the ongoing jihadist cleansing, there is one category of mujahideen that appears to have more value than the $46 billion CPEC bid from Beijing. With Pakistain resisting the sectarian Saudi alliance with GCC countries in Yemen, the Pak Taliban becoming the establishment's personal foe, Baloch separatists being dealt with bellicose paranoia and the Afghan Taliban being pushed to Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
's negotiation table, Islamabad seems to be en route to purging the inward and westward looking jihadists -- but can the same be said for those inclining eastwards?

In spite of the two-month deadline set by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in April for Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
(LeT) leader Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi's bail and the conclusion of the Mumbai attack case, the high court hasn't taken any action over the bail's expiry despite over 50 days having gone by. Lakhvi, who was released from Adiala Jail on April 10, has also refused to send his voice samples to India for investigation, with his lawyer claiming that Pak law requires the accused's consent before a voice sample can be taken. What's also interesting to note here is China blocking India's move in the UN, which demanded action against Pakistain for releasing Lakhvi. This, in turn, suggests that Beijing is perfectly fine with eastward looking jihadists as long as they steer clear of the multi-pronged CPEC routes.

Yesterday's arrest of the alleged Pak krazed killer from Indian-held Kashmire, a week after the Gurdaspur attack, will ruffle all kinds of feathers in South Asia, especially after the unceremonious diplomatic Indo-Pak skirmishes of the recent past. According to the inspector general of police, the suspected LeT krazed killer is 'Faisalabad
...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after...
-based' with the Indian media brimming over with the tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
man's quotes about how he went to India "to kill Hindus" and how the whole thing was "fun". Even though the claims of the Indian authorities or media -- just like their Pak counterparts -- shouldn't be treated as the Holy Gospel, there is little doubt about sections of the Pak establishment historically supporting jihad in Kashmire.

Whilst the state seems to be en route to righting its historical wrongs elsewhere -- under Chinese supervision -- Beijing's lack of interest in cross-border militancy towards Pakistain's east, and Kashmire's status as the establishment and government's respective point-scoring goldmine, means that we just might be entering the 'good lashkar, bad lashkar' era. The dawn of a new security and counterterrorism strategy almost as detrimental for Pakistain as the 'Good/Bad Taliban' has proven itself to be.

Even if the 'Faisalabadi' krazed killer's story is complete hogwash, how does the Pak state justify Hafiz Saeed

...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat...
's immunity from law? The man is the proud founder and leader of LeT, which also happens to be formally banned in Pakistain, and openly issues threats against India. That he led Mullah Omar
... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality...
's funeral prayers in absentia last week, even though steps were taken by Kabul to ensure that Afghans don't mourn the Taliban leader's death, shows where Saeed's allegiance lies.

The Peshawar school attack was the tragic culmination of decades' worth of suicidal security policy, with the Pak state assuming that the jihadist monster can be tamed to identify and be limited to specific targets. With relations improving with Kabul and anti-Afghanistan jingoism not being particularly lucrative for vote banks -- or defence budgets -- the establishment seems to have persisted with its last and most treasured batch of strategic assets.

Despite the fact that grandiloquence with regards to Kashmire sells ubiquitously in Pakistain, there are many ways to counter Indian military's human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
abuse without using the 'Islam' or 'jihad' card. The same card that has so grotesquely boomeranged on the state in the shape of the Taliban.

Granted that it's unrealistic for Islamabad to undo quarter of a century's mess in months, and that even in the ideal world Kashmire bound forces of Evil were always going to be at the bottom of the target list, if Islamabad -- or Rawalpindi -- actually believes in clinging on to the Kashmiri mujahideen in the coming years, the whole anti-terror drive will burst without a whimper.

If Islamabad shows a hundredth of the intent in eliminating the eastbound Islamist forces of Evil as it's manifesting against katchi abadi residents in Islamabad or in hanging those on death row without an iota of inhibition, Pakistain's long-term outlook would be a lot more secure, both as a regional player and a sovereign state. As long as there's any discrimination between Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pakistain will hover around square one of the counterterrorism board game. Maybe Beijing will prove to be more foresighted than Islamabad.

Posted by Fred 2015-08-06 00:00|| || Front Page|| [9 views ] Top
File under: Govt of Pakistan

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